TV/Movies Megathread

[Sophie Scholl]

Give it an episode or two. It might surprise you.

How much T&A?  Which network?

A decent amount without being too gratuitous. It is on MAX and Netflix.

[Admiral Yi]

A decent amount without being too gratuitous. It is on MAX and Netflix.

Thanks.  Will consider.

[viper37]

Kung Fu as originally pitched by Bruce Lee with modern violence plus a dash modern t&a. Really good fighting, good acting, gorgeous women, criminals, cops, and all as part of a lush period piece set in 1870's San Francisco.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J0QMqpHXYeM&ab_channel=RottenTomatoesTV

Oof.  Maybe not my cup of tea.  I'm getting bored as sand with fight scenes.

Please, do consider:

[Norgy]

Jesus, I am slow. I only now noticed that Gareth from the UK "The Office" is the warg trying to get rid of Jon Snow in GoT.

 

[grumbler]

lawyer examines realism of my counsin Vinny

Pretty good, he does not like the suit

Did you check the date on that one?  We discussed it five years ago! 

[celedhring]

I'm currently going on binge of Samurai movies (just because). Re-watched all the Kurosawa ones, now going to start with the 1950s samurai triloy depicting the life of Musashi Miyamoto.

[Josquius]

Watching the boys....
And yeah. It's a ok show. But it's just struck me it's sad that it should be so much more.
The bit that prompted this - "batman" invites "spiderman" into the bat cave... And it's a kinky sex dungeon..
Just... Sigh.
It always is.
I like the idea of superheroes but corporate and corrupted. But so many of them are perverts. It's funny the first time, but when it's every single one...
I remember the first series dabbled heavily in a direction I liked. The sheer nightmare of sociopathic superman hunting for regular humans.
The whole starting plot point of a train accidentally splattering hueys girlfriend - also great.
I get that after a few series they had to do character development which weakened the horror. But still. It's a sad loss.
And that instead they just seem to be going for maximum edge...

[crazy canuck]

I just finished season 1 and loved it.  Sorry to hear it goes downhill

[viper37]

lawyer examines realism of my counsin Vinny

Pretty good, he does not like the suit

Did you check the date on that one?  We discussed it five years ago! 

Sorry, didn't remember.

[Savonarola]

Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989)

This is the second of the Heisei era Godzilla films, (after Godzilla Returns.)  At first I thought it looked like an American monster movie from the 50s; with a similar set of characters re-envisioned as Japanese.  In many American films of the era you have the older male scientist, a young lady who is somehow a daughter figure to the scientist and a macho hombre who falls in love with the daughter figure.  In this movie the scientist is now Wacky Japanese Scientist; the Macho Hombre is Hotshot Japanese Military Commander and the young lady is Spooky Psychic Japanese girl.  As I went on I realized this was all wrong, the muted love story is between a woman who runs the Psychic Institute of Japan (I'll call her Dr. Venkmanasu) and a different scientist (Other Japanese Scientist), who is certainly nowhere near as cool as Hotshot Japanese Military Commander.  There's no real relationship between the three main characters.

In the story, Godzilla had fallen into a volcano at the end of Godzilla Returns.  The fictitious, but real sounding, country of Saradia wants to merge Godzilla's cells with plant cells and create a bountiful abundance in their desert oil sheikdom.  Wacky Japanese scientist agrees to help them, but the lab is bombed and his daughter dies.  Five years later he is working at the Psychic Institute of Japan.

Meanwhile at the ESP Institute of Japan, Spooky Psychic Japanese Girl is using her ESP powers to communicate with plants (and you thought your government wasted money on frivolities.)  Other Japanese Scientist first tries to recruit Wacky Japanese Scientist to work on anti-nuclear bacteria, but he refuses.  He also tries to recruit Dr. Venkmanasu, to join him; but they have some sort of history and she doesn't seem interested (or is she?)

Then everyone starts dreaming about Godzilla, and there's an evil biotech company who is trying to steal Godzilla cells; somehow this all works together and causes Godzilla to rise again from the sea.  Wacky Japanese Scientist agrees to work with the plant/Godzilla cells to... actually I'm not sure what the point of that was supposed to be.  It was supposed to stop Godzilla somehow, but I really don't know what the plan was.  In any event the evil corporation's break into the Godzilla-plant lab but accidentally unleash Wacky Japanese Scientist Plant/Godzilla hybrid.  This shows up in the bay and Wacky Japanese Scientist reveals that he infused cells of his dead daughter into the Godzilla/Plant hybrid creating a Human/Godzilla/Plant hybrid with a soul: Biollante!  (The Wacky Japanese Scientist of this film, in my opinion, sets the bar for wacky Japanese scientists.  There is probably an anime with an even more outlandish, reckless and nonsensical experiment, but it would have to really be something off the wall.)

Meanwhile the Japanese Navy is fighting against Godzilla and doing about as well as they usually do.  Hotshot Japanese Military Commander has a hot new weapon, an aircraft with a reflecting diamond mirror which can reflect Godzilla's radioactive breath.  This seems to be working at first, but, as in most Godzilla films, just when it looks like the Japanese are finally going to catch a break, the weapon malfunctions.  Godzilla then fights Biollante, and defeats her after a prolonged battle.  Having suffered wounds, Godzilla looks like he's going to head for a nuclear reactor.  Spooky Psychic Japanese Girl uses her psychic power to persuade Godzilla to head to Osaka instead.  (Yes, I realize that defies any amount of common sense, but this is a Godzilla movie and Godzilla must destroy a city.)

Chaos ensues as Osaka performs it's emergency Godzilla procedures.  The military has developed anti-nuclear bacteria rockets, but even that proves ineffective.  They realize they must raise Godzilla's temperature in order to get the bacteria to work, so they seed clouds and smite Godzilla with lightning, then the refurbished plane with the diamond mirror reappears, and a shower of spores falls which turn into Biollante.  This finally drives Godzilla back to the sea, and Biollante back into the air.

The message that you're supposed to get from the film is spelled out by Wacky Japanese Scientist at the end "Godzilla and Biollante aren't monster, we, the ones who created them are,"  but my take away was that "Careers in science are awesome!" We should use this as a recruiting video for STEM careers; if you don't think creating a Godzilla/Plant/Human hybrid sounds like fun then the sciences probably aren't for you.

 

[viper37]

Vought Rising announced!

Spin-off to The Boys, starring Jensen Ackles and Aya Cash!  I'm impressed, I want to see this!

[Admiral Yi]

Started on Phantom Menace.  My God this movie is a trainwreck.  Just cut every Jar Jar scene and it automatically becomes a mediocre movie.

[celedhring]

Started on Phantom Menace.  My God this movie is a trainwreck.  Just cut every Jar Jar scene and it automatically becomes a mediocre movie.

It also becomes a 30 minute movie. He's like every-fucking-where.

[Josquius]

Doesn't the Phantom Edit do that?
Sure I've heard of such a thing before.
I'd love to know the truth of just what they were thinking with jar jar and other idiocy in that film.
Always surprises me though that a lot of kids born in the 90s or later see the prequels as the main star wars films and... Often like them?

[HVC]

Started on Phantom Menace.  My God this movie is a trainwreck.  Just cut every Jar Jar scene and it automatically becomes a mediocre movie.

It also becomes a 30 minute movie. He's like every-fucking-where.

And yet still better then the sequels.