TV/Movies Megathread

[Admiral Yi]

Most of those shows are what I grew up watching in the 70s.  Armed Forces Television didn't have a big budget and basically aired what they got for free.

[Syt]

the SLASH film festival is starting this weekend in Vienna. It's mostly focused on horror movies, showcasing current releases, but also classics (e.g. this year has cult classics like Scanners, Freaks, or the restored Deodato classic Jungle Holocaust, along with many animal themed movies Kingdom of the Spiders, Arachnophobia, Frogs, Ticks, etc.), but this entry caught me off guard.



The horror! 

[Syt]

I see Gartenbau is also doing a Christopher Nolan retrospective screening all his movies analogue (i.e. from "real" film reels). Didn't know he was still shooting on good ol' celluloid.

[Duque de Bragança]

I see Gartenbau is also doing a Christopher Nolan retrospective screening all his movies analogue (i.e. from "real" film reels). Didn't know he was still shooting on good ol' celluloid.

He even shoots on 70 mm, top of the top of good o'l celluloid. Not all cinemas will show the 70 mm versions, of course. 

[Syt]

I see Gartenbau is also doing a Christopher Nolan retrospective screening all his movies analogue (i.e. from "real" film reels). Didn't know he was still shooting on good ol' celluloid.

He even shoots on 70 mm, top of the top of good o'l celluloid. Not all cinemas will show the 70 mm versions, of course. 

I'm thinking of going to the Dunkirk 70mm screening, tbh. 
https://www.gartenbaukino.at/programm/programmuebersicht/dunkirk/

They're also screening his 70mm version of 2001: https://www.gartenbaukino.at/programm/programmuebersicht/2001-a-space-odyssey/

[Duque de Bragança]

Two very good choices, I'd say. Go for it!

I Love to catch a 70 mm screening of 2001 at the Cinémathèque. It was not Nolan's version however, a Cinémathèque print.

[Josquius]

Good Omens 2. It's good. Patchy and very definitely after the main event in vibes but good anyway.
One complaint I have.

Spoilers.

And at risk of sounding a raging homophobe.

But this gaysexualism has gone too far!

You never seem to be see good pairings of people who are just platonic super good friends anymore. The bromance is dead.
Same as with Our Flag Means Death, sure a romance is a valid way to go, but the really freakishly great friends with nothing romantic going on thing could be cool too.
In our modern age guys struggle a lot with friendships and such so I do think it's something we could do with more of in the media.

[Darth Wagtaros]

ALl the romances in the second season of Good Omens seemed forced and out of place.  The one between the two leads was unnecessary. 

[Savonarola]

The Ghost Goes West (1935)

Robert Donat plays a Scottish nobleman who is more interested in girls than in fighting.  For his cowardice in some sort of feud he's doomed to haunt his ancestral castle until he can erase the insult his father endured.  Two hundred years later a wealthy American businessman buys the castle and has it rebuilt in Florida; haunting and hilarity ensues.

This is the first of René Clair's American films; and nowhere near as good as his earlier French films.  In part this is probably because of Clair's limited grasp of English and in part because the producer Alexander Korda interfered in the work, going so far as to reshoot some of Clair's scenes.  There's still some great moments in this, the scene where the ghosts immigration/emigration is denounced both in Congress and Parliament is quite clever and Eugene Pallette's brash and boisterous American millionaire (running around in a kilt) is a delight.

[Darth Wagtaros]

The ending of The Good Place was perfect.

Reservation Dogs' was on the same level.

[Barrister]

The ending of The Good Place was perfect.

Reservation Dogs' was on the same level.

I will never stop talking about how good The Good Place was, in particular its ending.

Sell me on Reservation Dogs.  I see Taika Waititi is showrunner, which is a good start.

[Darth Wagtaros]

I wasn't sure going in, I heard good things, and Taika Waititi was involved, but it didn't seem like my jam.

The 'uncomfortable' black comedy stuff isn't for me. I could never watch Bojak Horseman for example. Reservation Dogs though had some genuinely funny stuff and some good drama.  I enjoyed the vignettes with the older people as much as the titular Reservation Dogs.  My exposure to life on reservations didn't go much beyond, "it must suck ass", so the community and folk on the show were an interesting look.

[Duque de Bragança]

The Iron Prefect (Il Prefetto di Ferro) Pasquale Squitieri (1977)

Giulano Gemma, of spaghetti western fame, plays this time a character on the good side of law. The rule of law of Fascist law?

In 1925, Prefect Cesare Mori is sent by Mussolini to Palermo with special powers to fight the Mafia. Mori is not a Fascist, having fought against the ras Arpinati in the early twenties.

Will the Mafia be defeated?



SPOILERS

Totally?
If so, who will benefit the most? Yes, the ending gives another perspective. The nerds will want to compare the "Roman salutes" at the end. 

/SPOILERS


It's more of a period piece than action movie though some scenes might evoke a western spaghetti or possibly poliziotteschi for the themes, with the fight against "brigandage" by the Carabinieri.

Claudia Cardinale is the most famous name in the movie, playing a poor Sicilian peasant, initially hostile to Mori e.g Piemontese! = enemy of Sicilians (bad memories of post-Risorgimento North-oriented unification). I almost forgot Francisco Rabal as bandit leader.
The movie seems to play down Mori's pro-fascist leanings, according to the supplements on the blu-ray disc but is not too far from the truth. One scene evokes the welcome given to Mussolini by a local Mafioso baron, who in turn inspired the Duce to take a strong stance against Cosa Nostra.

Cinema-wise, the 2K blu-ray transfer (by Radiance Fims a nice British boutique Label)  was good (70's Italian film stock expectations), it's post-sync'ed, even in Italian, with Sicilian accents heavy at times (I get the gist of standard Italian).  as 99% of movies of that era, so be warned Brain. Morricone soundtrack, by the way (adapted folk songs). I did not check the English track but there are English subtitles.

[Savonarola]

Scratch (2001)

A documentary about hip hop DJing stretching from the origins to the then current turntablism.  There were some interesting points; I learned that Mix Master Mike got his nickname because he couldn't afford a turntable, so he put his beats on mix tapes.  I also learned that originally the DJs were the instrumentalists at house/block parties and the person introducing him and talking between songs was the MC; so eventually MCs became rappers.

At the time the movie was released, turntables were outselling guitars and drum kits.  I went to the Detroit Electronic Music Festival around that time and everyone was rocking the turntable.  I went about a dozen years later and everyone was rocking the Mac laptop; it wasn't the same.  (I went that time to see Afrika Bambaataa, at least he still had a turntable.)

Around that time, (in Metro Detroit at least,) music shops were mostly selling microphones and peripherals (since every last white suburban kid thought he was going to be the next Eminem ()); and guitars could be gotten at a discount.  Does anyone know what the hot musical instrument/device is now?

[viper37]

the SLASH film festival is starting this weekend in Vienna. It's mostly focused on horror movies, showcasing current releases, but also classics (e.g. this year has cult classics like Scanners, Freaks, or the restored Deodato classic Jungle Holocaust, along with many animal themed movies Kingdom of the Spiders, Arachnophobia, Frogs, Ticks, etc.), but this entry caught me off guard.



The horror! 

The orca is about the eat that little boy!



Somebody got confused in their Orca movies![/url]