TV/Movies Megathread

[Razgovory]

I guess I'll watch it.  I don't have anything else to do.

[grumbler]

Btw, great interview with Martin in the NYT.

Paywalled.  Any money quotes?

[crazy canuck]

I can gift the article

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/21/arts/television/george-rr-martin-house-of-the-dragon.html?unlocked_article_code=AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACEIPuomT1JKd6J17Vw1cRCfTTMQmqxCdw_PIxftm3iWka3DFDmwbiO0PH5PH50rJaLRifNo02XOUSdhbP7JqXuY3y-ZFI01rDgmvv4CJ3ZMLZjk1pMe_RGo52JSLXaw99XWiSFiFH9pF5e_1uQOaYn_3COeZiSd_cBBnoJs0cQ6o22gJxqiVDuJw2tdh1PomD4QrTDxUYSXbtvDsCR9uKZ7ROEGnnwo8U-pcWTHZnMfNqO5TNVUPVi-VCS938m0-69hDOdIIP62ZLhUoeMv2g7h5GXU_Zc7yRMV3H96I4u0s5b3dqhWMy960z-E2FMhWv7DHu2W7MTU_WZbgMv_wVTxZ1c6zHCT8gXI&smid=url-share


I thought it was a good first episode setting the scene.

[grumbler]

I've never understood the magic of casting, but it is clear that the GoT shows have it, and the Wheel of Time shows do not.

[grumbler]

I can gift the article
...
I thought it was a good first episode setting the scene.

Thanks.  Much appreciate it.

[celedhring]

I've never understood the magic of casting, but it is clear that the GoT shows have it, and the Wheel of Time shows do not.

Yeah just watched the first episode and everybody is just so convincing. I think the writing helps, too. It's still a cut (or two or three) above Wheel of Time and The Witcher. All in all, GoT remains the only medieval fantasy show that doesn't make me think "actors in costumes" and so far House of the Dragons succeeds in this, too.

[crazy canuck]

After watching Matt Smith as the Doctor, I had my doubts that he would play a convincing tough guy/villian, but boy did he nail it.

[Sheilbh]

After watching Matt Smith as the Doctor, I had my doubts that he would play a convincing tough guy/villian, but boy did he nail it.

Really enjoyed him in Last Night in Soho too (which I liked a lot - but had mixed reviews).

[HVC]

He was good in the crown too. Good first episode.

[Sheilbh]

Chinese censors alter ending of Minions: The Rise of Gru film
Viewers mock addendum explaining Gru's family values and arrest of thief Wild Knuckles
Reuters in Shanghai
Mon 22 Aug 2022 14.34 BST

Censors in China have changed the ending of the animated film Minions: The Rise of Gru for its domestic release, according to viewers in the country, in yet another example of China altering a popular Hollywood film.

According to posts and screenshots of the film, shared on Weibo, a platform similar to Twitter, there is an addendum by censors showing that Wild Knuckles, a main character in the heist film, was caught by police and served 20 years in jail.

It also states Gru, a co-conspirator of Wild Knuckles, "returned to his family" and "his biggest accomplishment is being the father to his three girls".

In the international version, the film ends with Gru and Wild Knuckles riding off together after the latter faked his own death to evade capture.

Numerous online commentators mocked the edits, saying they resembled a PowerPoint presentation.

DuSir, a film review publisher with 14.4 million followers on Weibo, noted that the Chinese version ran one minute longer than the international one, and questioned why the extra time was needed.

"It's only us who need special guidance and care for fear that a cartoon will 'corrupt' us," DuSir wrote.

Huaxia Film Distribution and China Film Co, the film's distributors in China, did not respond to a request for comment.

China has placed a limit on the number of overseas films that can be shown in domestic cinemas. Many Hollywood films that screen in the country have certain scenes omitted or altered.

This year, Chinese viewers of the 1999 film Fight Club noticed that the original ending, in which the protagonist and his alter ego blow up some skyscrapers, was not in the version shown on the domestic streaming site Tencent Video.

Instead, an on-screen script said police "rapidly figured out the whole plan and arrested all criminals, successfully preventing the bomb from exploding".

The changes were widely mocked and even elicited responses from the film's director and the author of the novel on which it was based. Tencent later restored the original ending.

[The Larch]

I was going to post the same article. 

I wonder if Chinese censors really think that these cheap add-ons are effective.

[HVC]

These stories always remind me of the friends episode where Phoebe realizes her mom changed all the sad ending in kids movies to happy endings.

[Sheilbh]

These stories always remind me of the friends episode where Phoebe realizes her mom changed all the sad ending in kids movies to happy endings.

Or from David Mack:

[celedhring]

I was going to post the same article. 

I wonder if Chinese censors really think that these cheap add-ons are effective.

On the China thread I talked how I got the same thing to happen in one of my shows. They made us put a caption at the end making it clear all the bad guys had been caught and sent to prison (one of them fools the cops and escapes in the original version).

[Josephus]

I've never understood the magic of casting, but it is clear that the GoT shows have it, and the Wheel of Time shows do not.

Yeah just watched the first episode and everybody is just so convincing. I think the writing helps, too. It's still a cut (or two or three) above Wheel of Time and The Witcher. All in all, GoT remains the only medieval fantasy show that doesn't make me think "actors in costumes" and so far House of the Dragons succeeds in this, too.

I'm just offended they're not using real albinos.