TV/Movies Megathread

[11B4V]

Looking for some other brit procedural after watching River. Is Broadchurch good?

Line of Duty.

How episodic is it?

[Sheilbh]

Looking for some other brit procedural after watching River. Is Broadchurch good?

Line of Duty.

How episodic is it?

Not at all.

Though I did watch series two first which was excellent, but it's really worth watching the first series first

[11B4V]

Looking for some other brit procedural after watching River. Is Broadchurch good?

Line of Duty.

How episodic is it?

Not at all.

Though I did watch series two first which was excellent, but it's really worth watching the first series first

So it's a continuous serial story, not like the law and order shows?

[Sheilbh]

Yep. It's about an anti-corruption unit and each series tells its own story. So you can watch the first series or the second series on their own (not the third).

But there are common characters and an underlying story that goes through all three.

One of the best TV shows I've seen recently. It's consistently good. The acting and writing is incredible, normally the big, most gripping bits are the interview scenes when its just a few of the actors in a room.

[Admiral Yi]

Not Eddie redmayne's I hope?

Just saw that one too.

[Admiral Yi]

Not a very good movie, The Danish Girl.

[Savonarola]

I was in Detroit the past weekend and saw the 90 Second Newbery Film Festival; where children make 90 second films that tell a Newbery Award winning story.  Most of the films that I saw can be told here.  They range from a straightforward (if slyly sarcastic) retelling of "A Wrinkle In Time" to "Ramona and her Father" retold as a James Bond story, to "Frog and Toad" redone as a French Ye Ye pop video to"Mr. Poppers Penguins" filled with murderous, bloodthirsty penguins.

Some of earlier Newbery winners are obviously from a different time.  There's one called "Millions of Cats" (done in Minecraft in the festival) about a couple who wants a cat.  The husband brings home hundreds and thousands of millions of cats.  They let the cats decide which is the fairest, and it turns into a bloodbath in which only one cat survives.

That though still doesn't beat 1922's winner "The Olde Tobacco Shoppe: A True Account of What Befell A Little Boy in Search of Adventure."  In which our protagonist, a young boy, is told to watch the tobacco shop while his uncle is out.  His uncle tells him he mustn't touch the "Magic tobacco" he keeps in a the statue of a Chinese man.  The boy, of course, smokes the "Magic tobacco" and ends up on a ship in the Spanish Main where he's accosted by pirates.  As it turns out it was all a dream brought about by "Magic tobacco."

[Ideologue]

I blame Ideologue.  Not him personally, but what he represents (i.e. the tron remake is not only acceptable, but great cinema).  We need to get back to the 70s and drive that whole mentality out, and the CGI horse it came in on.

Christ, you are an old person, aren't you?  At least CDM has the excuse of his life going incredibly wrong.  I mean, just look at his post.  Dude clearly does not even own a watch anymore.  90 minutes max?  Name me the last blockbuster that was 90 minutes and not named Gravity and I'll give you a fucking cookie.  Hell, find one under 120 and you'll still get a hug.

Anyway, I have not been tremendously interested in a remake of Ben-Hur, which is one of my favorite movies of the 50s.  (Also, your "I miss the 70s, movies should be about people talking in brown wood-paneled rooms about issues and feelings" attitude is a pretty straitjacketed way to approach a pretty diverse artform.  Are you sure you wouldn't prefer novels?)

[Valmy]

What is wrong with wood-paneled rooms?

[Sheilbh]

Christ, you are an old person, aren't you?  At least CDM has the excuse of his life going incredibly wrong.  I mean, just look at his post.  Dude clearly does not even own a watch anymore.  90 minutes max?  Name me the last blockbuster that was 90 minutes and not named Gravity and I'll give you a fucking cookie.  Hell, find one under 120 and you'll still get a hug.

The length of modern blockbusters is their biggest sin. A few, very few, deserve it. Most are bloated.

Edit: Also, feel you've not posted in a while - welcome

[Valmy]

It is all Peter Jackson's fault isn't it? He showed that audiences love bloated films.

[celedhring]

Finished binging the first season of Broadburch. I was hooked throughout but I thought the resolution was a bit weak.[spoiler] I mean, the killer gives himself up out of guilt, which could've happened in episode 1. That makes the police work feel a bit pointless since they never get near the real killer on their own.[/spoiler]. It's not really a big indictment of the series because the police work is still the main catalyst which uncovers the town's little secrets that simmer under its peaceful surface, and the human drama is certainly interesting.

I suppose there's some additional wrinkles to be revealed in season 2.

[celedhring]

It is all Peter Jackson's fault isn't it? He showed that audiences love bloated films.

I think it's been happening for a long time, to be honest. All Star Wars films, Superman, Jaws, Titanic... - to name a few historic blockbusters - have running times comfortably above 2 hours.

But yeah, Hollywood should learn when a film just doesn't have enough about it to be turned into an EPIC SWEEPING BLOCKBUSTER.  The new Spider-Man films were particularly painful on that regard.

[The Larch]

It is all Peter Jackson's fault isn't it? He showed that audiences love bloated films.

I think it's been happening for a long time, to be honest. All Star Wars films, Superman, Jaws, Titanic... - to name a few historic blockbusters - have running times comfortably above 2 hours.

But yeah, Hollywood should learn when a film just doesn't have enough about it to be turned into an EPIC SWEEPING BLOCKBUSTER.  The new Spider-Man films were particularly painful on that regard.

Don't forget the trilogies and the cinematic universes.  That's also Peter Jackson's fault. 

[Sheilbh]

Finished binging the first season of Broadburch. I was hooked throughout but I thought the resolution was a bit weak.[spoiler] I mean, the killer gives himself up out of guilt, which could've happened in episode 1. That makes the police work feel a bit pointless since they never get near the real killer on their own.[/spoiler]. It's not really a big indictment of the series because the police work is still the main catalyst which uncovers the town's little secrets that simmer under its peaceful surface, and the human drama is certainly interesting.

I suppose there's some additional wrinkles to be revealed in season 2.

Second series is a lot less good