TV/Movies Megathread

[Viking]

Trainspotting. Watched it in "English" for the first time. Not nearly as bad as I feared it might be.

subtitles?

when I read the book I had to read it "out loud" in my head. Otherwise it was unintelligible.

[Syt]

No, I was fine without subtitles.

I had trouble reading Scott's "Rob Roy", though, and also had, as you, to read it "loud" in my head.

[CountDeMoney]

Have Salt on while I'm doing some housecleaning. What a nifty chase flick.

I will admit, I did approve of the nuclear attack options. 

[Eddie Teach]

Snow White and the Huntsman- Nice effects but so freaking obvious what was going to happen all the way through. Thoroughly meh. The only people who liked it were the gay guy, the otaku and the trendy girl with a strange like for Kirsten Stewart. No, not the start of a joke.

Aren't all of you otaku? 

[jimmy olsen]

Amazing Spider-Man. A shitty, unnecessary movie. Had I been making the film, I would have tried to avoid making Peter Parker an utterly unlikeable cunt; the filmmakers here went a different direction.

Blame Stan Lee then, because this Peter Parker was more like the one in the comics than Toby Maguire's was.

[Jaron]

Toby Maguires Spiderman was an unlikeable pussy bitch.

[Ideologue]

Snow White and the Huntsman- Nice effects but so freaking obvious what was going to happen all the way through. Thoroughly meh. The only people who liked it were the gay guy, the otaku and the trendy girl with a strange like for Kirsten Stewart. No, not the start of a joke.

I rather liked it.

They really missed a great opportunity for both set-up and for a training montage/Oldboy homage sequence in the first act, though.  Like, the part where she hits Ravenna's brother with a nail she had outside her window?  If I'd been directing, I'd have shown the nail first, then her growing older, and her arms longer and longer, till the day she could finally reach it.  I mean, it's implied, but that's the difference between a relating an event and telling a story.

Also, I'd have shot the death of Ravenna differently, from an angle that hid the knife wound till she turned.  Cliche, sure, but cliched for a reason.

More than anything, I really enjoyed Charlize Theron's overacting, which really made the film worthwhile.  Also, the bit with her walking into the fire, healing while she was still burning, and talking about how bitchin' her power was, was pretty great.

I give it a B.

[Ideologue]

Toby Maguires Spiderman was an unlikeable pussy bitch.

Tobey Maguire was always fine, and his performance was the shit in 3.  I don't know why everyone could not realize that was a comedy sequence first, a great one at that, and a plot point second.  Personally, I blame our educational system.

Tangentially, Topher Graas was also very good as Eddie Brock.

And they did a bit better in making Venom's grudge personal than the comics did (it was wholly delusional in the comics, iirc, whereas Parker really did fuck up Brock's life in the film).

Shame that movie had too many moving parts to have any of them work truly effectively, and it had many stupid turns--the meteor bringing the black suit to Earth (in front of Peter Parker) was capital-R Retarded, especially given that Oscorp was a bioweapons manufacturer and thus there was no need for the writers to turn to nonsense bullshit to get Venom into play--but given all its disadvantages, it was okay.

Thus concludes my bimonthly defense of Spider-Man 3, a.k.a. Why Are People Such Fucking Bandwagoners?

[Josquius]

Aren't all of you otaku? 

No. Most jet programme folks are pretty well adjusted people, they filter out most of the basement dwellers (some do slip through...). There aren't even that many geeky types amongst us.
Plus it was a half Japanese crowd I went with.

[The Brain]

The Trip. I liked it.

Fun fact: the DVD was a Sweden/Norway/Finland release. The recommended minimum age in Sweden was 0 (since there is nothing disturbing in the movie). In Norway it was 15. 1-1-1-1-1-15. Oh Norwegians, you are hilariously retarded. Was it the very mild and brief comments about gay sex? Was it the off-camera extramarital straight sex? Whatever it was dey be trippin.

[Ideologue]

Aren't all of you otaku? 

No. Most jet programme folks are pretty well adjusted people, they filter out most of the basement dwellers (some do slip through...).

How do they do that?  Interviewer: "Don't you think Death Note went downhill after they replaced L with Mello?"  Lettow: "Well, the main driver of the story was gone, but thematically it still held just as much weight and they did a lot with--aw, SHIT."

[Josquius]

The general concensus is they have a major filter on mentioning the a word (anime) anywhere in your application.
Unless you studied animation or have some other valid reason for actually being interested in it.
And of course generally showing a history of functioning in society throughout your life prior to applying.
Then when it comes to the interview they can usually gauge pretty well if someone is an anti-social fucktard. Pretty standard stuff.

[Ideologue]

Unless you studied animation or have some other valid reason for actually being interested in it.

Does "valid reason" mean "pecuniary interest"?  That's like not wanting to date a slut but being fine with dating a prostitute.

The problem with a lot of anime fans is that is, like, all they're interested in.  Take Lettow (please!).  I'm pretty sure I've never heard him mention any other kind of entertainment at all, except maybe some shit he pretends to like as part of his poserdom.  I like to think Neil or I are more typical; i.e., people who don't fuck pillows, have a wide range of interests, and call a cartoon a cartoon.

[Josquius]

Does "valid reason" mean "pecuniary interest"?  That's like not wanting to date a slut but being fine with dating a prostitute.

Could be. Or an academic interest at least. Something deeper than "OMG I've seen every episode of 'Magical Girl Ichigo Power Panic' a zillion times". Some way in which your interest in anime can be potentially advantageous for Japan in the future.

And yeah, that is indeed a big problem with anime fans. One girl here is absolutely obsessed with one particular anime, she just lives and breaths it.
I'd never call myself an anime fan (though I do rather like several animes) as to me it does just carry connotations of those people who have an unhealthy obsession with the stuff.

As I've said before the Japanese attitude to anime is comparable to the western attitude to Star Trek. Sure, a lot of people have watched it before, lots of people rather like it,  its not really something you discuss in polite company though.

[Ed Anger]

More than anything, I really enjoyed Charlize Theron's overacting, which really made the film worthwhile.  Also, the bit with her walking into the fire, healing while she was still burning, and talking about how bitchin' her power was, was pretty great.

Charlton Heston couldn't have overacted better.