TV/Movies Megathread

[Josephus]

Not to meta-thread, but I saw Alien³ yesterday, the extended version. I probably havent' seen this film in around 10 years. You know, I think it gets a bad rap. No, it doesn't stand up to its two predecessors, but it's not a bad film. They had to make it different than the first two--and what better way than the "we have no weapons" premise. It had the usual suspense and running around in duct works and stuff. It's watchable.

[Neil]

Not to meta-thread, but I saw Alien³ yesterday, the extended version. I probably havent' seen this film in around 10 years. You know, I think it gets a bad rap. No, it doesn't stand up to its two predecessors, but it's not a bad film. They had to make it different than the first two--and what better way than the "we have no weapons" premise. It had the usual suspense and running around in duct works and stuff. It's watchable.

I think it would be a better film if it wasn't about the characters that survived Aliens.

[dps]

Not to meta-thread, but I saw Alien³ yesterday, the extended version. I probably havent' seen this film in around 10 years. You know, I think it gets a bad rap. No, it doesn't stand up to its two predecessors, but it's not a bad film. They had to make it different than the first two--and what better way than the "we have no weapons" premise. It had the usual suspense and running around in duct works and stuff. It's watchable.

I think it would be a better film if it wasn't about the characters that survived Aliens.

That's certainly where a lot of the dislike for the film comes from.

[Admiral Yi]

Not to meta-thread, but I saw Alien³ yesterday, the extended version. I probably havent' seen this film in around 10 years. You know, I think it gets a bad rap. No, it doesn't stand up to its two predecessors, but it's not a bad film. They had to make it different than the first two--and what better way than the "we have no weapons" premise. It had the usual suspense and running around in duct works and stuff. It's watchable.

They had a no weapons premise in 1.  The premise of 3 was fearsome beast meets Lord of the Flies.

[11B4V]

So... anyone else still watching Arrow?  I'm loving it.  It's also amusing to see actors from other shows I watch/have watched pop up (Once Upon a Time and Spartacus).

May have to check it out. My main watch is the slimy lawyer show.

[Neil]

My wife seems to be enjoying Arrow.  I'm certainly enjoying filling her in on the backgrounds of all the characters.  Or at least what the backgrounds were before DC devalued their brand and ruined sixty years of work by some of the greats.

[Queequeg]

Mama.

I really liked it.  Went in expecting something like J-Horror, but it's actually a lot closer to Coraline or The Devil's Backbone.  Less about straight-up scares than setting up a dark fantasy universe.  Actually really reminded me of Coraline.  Which is a huge note in it's favor, that was one of my favorite films from the last few years.

Sheilbh, I think you can say that Spanish "horror" movies-at least insofar as del Toro has anything to say about it-tend to be far more interested in dread and spectacle than straight-up scares one would expect from The Ring or Texas Chainsaw Massacre.  Dread replaces outright shock, and fantasy or historical elements are usually key.


Spoilers......[spoiler]what exactly *was* Mama?  I really loved the dream sequence, but it seemed to be a half-forgotten memory of a deranged being that stopped being human around the birth of my great-great-great grandparents.  The picture made her look like a Faire with down syndrome.  I get the impression that she was never totally human to begin with.  A part of me wishes there was more back story, actually, though the film is admirably tight in it's narrative right now.  [/spoiler]

[jimmy olsen]

Spellus, while I don't care about this movie in particular, in the future use [spoiler]spoiler tags![/spoiler]

[Viking]

My wife seems to be enjoying Arrow.  I'm certainly enjoying filling her in on the backgrounds of all the characters.  Or at least what the backgrounds were before DC devalued their brand and ruined sixty years of work by some of the greats.

I like it as well and tell anybody who asks for show suggestions to watch it. To be honest I'm actually glad that teenbopper CW is making it. They will be making a Wonder Woman show as well. Like with Smallville they tone down the super-powers and the 4 colour tone of superheroes and in that they remove much of the need for suspension of disbelief and expensive action scenes and special effects while keeping it believable. They also keeps the shows "girl friendly" by constantly putting the "hero" back into family drama and other relationships. It's a combination of super heroes and soaps which is neccessary for a tv show to survive. The more I think about that the more I realize how important this is to the source material as well. The X-Men is in part a teen soap, just look at the wolverine, cyclops and jean grey love triangle and kitty pryde crushing on colossus and others at some point. Batman is a family drama and the best storylines (imho) have been family related (red hood and battle for the cowl among them), the two latest (night of the owls and the as yet unfinished death of the family) are very much bat family stories. It should come as no surprise that both Mary Jane Watson and Lois Lane went from fascinating desireable women to bit part characters after they married and got their happily every after and both spiderman and superman as characters suffered.

I just think that super hero movies have focused on the grand battle when what made characters interesting and the book worth reading were the relationships (look up Faulkners Nobel Acceptance speech).

I like Arrow. I like how it tells parallell stories (the back-story, the returning from the dead story, the villain of the week, the big bad villain and the future fall of [spoiler]speedy[/spoiler]) and this works in tv. Every character and actor gets some screentime there is something for the kid, the grown up kid, the girlfriend and the mom and dad in it. It might not be a thing for purists but it does fit into the grand tradition of shows like the 60s batman and lou ferringano's hulk show in being watchable by many as well as well made.

[Josquius]

I loved Smallville back in the day. The first few series were great. It got really lame with the phantom zone stuff and beyond though, I just lost interest.

[Ideologue]

Ide, out of curiosity, what is in your mind the "Spanish type of horror"? Creepy kids? Dark houses?

Well, that was mainly a throaway joke about del Toro (who produced Mama, and directed Pan's Labyrinth), and The Orphanage, which are similar movies.  STILL, if I had to defend it--I don't know if what I've observed is particularly Spanish, but it does have a bit of atypicality to it--a focus on children as characters, children's views of the world, and childhood fears (here, being taken from one's parents, even if that parent is a CGI ghost).  Also, less interest in serious gore (Mama's PG-13, I think maybe the Orphanage was?) than in creating an atmosphere of dread, and presenting upsetting imagery that totally counts as body horror, but not in the anatomical, goopy Cronenbergian vein (I could point to a few dozen frames of this movie that sort of made me want to cry ).

Anyway, yeah, like Shaun said.

Did you watch The Others? It can be considered to be the film which started this trend.

Unsure.  I think I caught it at some point, but if I did, it was a while back.

Btw, CGI ghost? I checked Mama on wiki and I found that the "Mama" character is played by the same guy I mentioned before that was on the Rec movies.

Actually, you're right--apparently, they used a lot of practical effects (though I'm pretty sure fewer than the all but "one or two shots" I've read--but if not, then, pretty ingenious).  Still, I don't think Javier Botet can really fly.

***

I just finished watching the Dark Knight trilogy again.  I think I've underrated these a bit.

I think what's helped is that I went in this time solely to enjoy entertaining Batman adventures, instead of to catalogue all the potential squandered, or get annoyed by bad story logic and laughable science, or search for the political message beneath all political imagery that isn't there.  That is to say, I went in with a better attitude.  Ultimately they are fun films, despite (or because of) their grimdark dourness (and in fairness, they don't lack a sense of humor).

Each one has raised about .5 points in my estimation, so Begins is a B, Rises a B+, and Dark Knight is, I accept, a kind of great action movie, with a (low) A.

Sure, Begins still has a dumb and needlessly complex climax involving the fictional effects of microwaves, and a disappointingly parochial Ra's al-Ghul, but it's still a good pulp hero yarn; sure, at least half of the Joker's plans are totally unworkable in reality and kind of fucking retarded to even conceptualize, but so are the plans in a lot of otherwise fine action movies; and Bane would have been a much better villain if he actually practiced his preaching and the movie really was about revolution, but he does break Batman's spine.

Maybe one day we'll have a truly excellent Batman movie.  But until then, we get the Batman movies we deserve, not the Batman movies we need.  Or whatever that nonsense was.

P.S. Man of Steel's gonna be better than all three put together.  I can feel it in my boner.

[Eddie Teach]

P.S. Man of Steel's gonna be better than all three put together.  I can feel it in my boner.

I'll be pleasantly surprised if it's better than Superman.

[Josephus]

So I went to see Life of Pi finally. I enjoyed it. I loved the book as well. Incidentally this was the first movie I saw in 3D. I liked the "natural" 3d, the illusion of depth that was throughout the film. It worked really well, for instance, in the opening zoo scene with the animals. But I can see the criticism of it as well. The stuff with the animated humming birds coming out of the screen don't add much to the whole process...merely effects for effects sake.
Anyways, great film.

[Ideologue]

The new Futuramas are now on the Instant Watch.  Woot.

[CountDeMoney]

WALKING DEAD SEASON PREMIERE IN LESS THAN 2 MINUTES PEOPLE.