TV/Movies Megathread

[viper37]

Canuckiweenie.

Quebekweenie if you please

[viper37]

petulant douchebag, maybe, atheist certainly, but certainly not Euroweenie!

they constantly talk of God, playing God, etc in the 1st movie

"Jurassic Park" is an exploitation film with big lizard puppets a variation of the Frankenstein story, which is similar to Greek tragedy (Shelly's book is subtitled "The Modern Prometheus.")  "Playing God," is a common reference in this sort of story and refers to the hero's fatal flaw (or hamartia), hubris, rather than a reference to faith.  The twist in "Jurassic Park" (being a Hollywood movie) is that the protagonists are innocents, it's the antihero's hubris that creates the monster.  In the book the dinosaurs are the righteous avengers (or nemeses); they eat the business owner.  The movie doesn't even do that, which, in my opinion, is why it's an more an exploitation film than a Frankenstein story.

I'll admit my memory of the book is a little fuzzy, and I'll take your word for it that constant references to God in Hollywood movies do not refer to theism but something else.

[viper37]

Baby Driver - the story has been done a million times (criminal wants to go straight after meeting a nice girl, his partners won't let him quit), and Wright surprisingly fails to put a new spin on it. The car chase scenes are good, but overedited. There was lots of moments where I was almost screaming "just let me see this cool shit you're doing with the car dammit". The leads are bland, but the villains (Spacey, Foxx, and Hamm) are entertaining to watch. Great soundtrack. The film is ok, I guess, but as a fan of a lot of Wright's work I was kinda expecting more.

an unorigianal movie getting 97% positive critic on Rotten Tomatoes?  My, my, it's like business as usual

[Admiral Yi]

Dirty Weekend.  A puffy looking Matthew Broderick gets stranded in Albuquerque on a business trip and tries to track down the person he had sex with the last time he was there to see if it was a man or a woman.  This might have been edgy in the 80s.  Now it just looks like a fading movie star matched up with a New Mexico film credit.

Spoiler! [spoiler]He had sex with a brother and sister before!  And again this time![/spoiler]

[Valmy]

Where, exactly, are you getting the whole "Faith" and "loyal to God" angles from? 
Are you that snotty of a petulant douchebag Euroweenie atheist that you're actually seeing something that isn't there? Oh, wait;  yeah, you are.

petulant douchebag, maybe, atheist certainly, but certainly not Euroweenie!

they constantly talk of God, playing God, etc in the 1st movie

Yeah but those are clearly cultural uses of the word not literal ones. They talk about chaos theory and 'nature finds a way' and so forth as well. 'Playing god' is a cultural reference to playing with forces beyond your understanding or control rather than a reference to the Christian God. I mean in traditionally Catholic Quebec don't you have lots of this kind of thing? Religious words in every day speech that do not actually reference religion? I guess everytime somebody in Quebec says 'tabarnak' they are discussing the spiritual nature of the Eucharist?

I'll admit my memory of the book is a little fuzzy, and I'll take your word for it that constant references to God in Hollywood movies do not refer to theism but something else.

I don't think they do this much today. Back in the 1990s Hollywood movies were still made for American audiences who were expected to understand those sorts of things. Now big budget films are more geared to the international audience.

[viper37]

I guess everytime somebody in Quebec says 'tabarnak' they are discussing the spiritual nature of the Eucharist?

We are a very traditional people.   

But swearing is different than making constant allusion to God in every political speech and movie, imho.

I don't think they do this much today. Back in the 1990s Hollywood movies were still made for American audiences who were expected to understand those sorts of things. Now big budget films are more geared to the international audience.

Hmm, that Alien Sequel was filled with religious overtones, like the only survivor of the whole ordeal is the theist one with a little cross around her neck.

[Valmy]

But swearing is different than making constant allusion to God in every political speech and movie, imho.

It is a cultural shorthand, just like your swearing.

Hmm, that Alien Sequel was filled with religious overtones, like the only survivor of the whole ordeal is the theist one with a little cross around her neck.

I thought Alien went through this stupid shit about how extra-terrestrials designed humans or something? Hardly Adam and Eve. But what do I know? I heard they were shit so I haven't seen any of them. But since you claim that every single movie literally references the Christian God I expect many more examples to follow

But one I know for sure know does not is Jurassic Park.

[CountDeMoney]

Viper takes his atheism seriously.  Metaphor? Ha!

[Malthus]

Baby Driver - the story has been done a million times (criminal wants to go straight after meeting a nice girl, his partners won't let him quit), and Wright surprisingly fails to put a new spin on it. The car chase scenes are good, but overedited. There was lots of moments where I was almost screaming "just let me see this cool shit you're doing with the car dammit". The leads are bland, but the villains (Spacey, Foxx, and Hamm) are entertaining to watch. Great soundtrack. The film is ok, I guess, but as a fan of a lot of Wright's work I was kinda expecting more.

an unorigianal movie getting 97% positive critic on Rotten Tomatoes?  My, my, it's like business as usual

Points out a problem with Rotten Tomatoes - "this film is ok I guess" would probably count as a positive review. 

Interesting movies tend to score lower, because while some critics will love them, others will hate whatever made them interesting. Re-treads that are "okay" will often tend to do better - a mediocre positive score is still a positive.

[Eddie Teach]

But swearing is different than making constant allusion to God in every political speech and movie, imho.

It is a cultural shorthand, just like your swearing.

Hmm, that Alien Sequel was filled with religious overtones, like the only survivor of the whole ordeal is the theist one with a little cross around her neck.

I thought Alien went through this stupid shit about how extra-terrestrials designed humans or something? Hardly Adam and Eve. But what do I know? I heard they were shit so I haven't seen any of them. But since you claim that every single movie literally references the Christian God I expect many more examples to follow

But one I know for sure know does not is Jurassic Park.

Nobody says the first two Alien movies were shit.

[Valmy]

Nobody says the first two Alien movies were shit.

Ah I thought he was talking about the more recent ones since I was saying how earlier movies were different in this respect.

[viper37]

I thought Alien went through this stupid shit about how extra-terrestrials designed humans or something? Hardly Adam and Eve. But what do I know? I heard they were shit so I haven't seen any of them. But since you claim that every single movie literally references the Christian God I expect many more examples to follow

But one I know for sure know does not is Jurassic Park.

Prometheus.  Intelligent design and all.  The only girl who believes is God is the only one surviving.
Spiderman, #2, I think (the old ones, pre-re-reboot), with the Gobling serving as demon for sinners.
Revolution (tv series).  That was a constant, a question of Faith, even when proven otherwise.
The obvious religious movies, of course, the ones we always see on Easter and their numerous remakes, but that's expected, so I wouldn't count them (Ben Hur and The 10 commandements)
The Matrix trilogy, kinda obvious at the very end if you didn't guessed it by the 2nd.

[Eddie Teach]

You know you're stretching when you have to bring up Revolution to support your point about American cinema.

[CountDeMoney]

When you're arguing Spiderman 2 as theological metaphor, you've officially gone off the rails, man.  Talk about hang ups with religion.


ITS OBVIOUS THAT DANNY GLOVER REPRESENTS THEODOR OF MOPSUESTIA'S CHRISTOLOGICAL POSITION IN THE LETHAL WEAPON FRANCHISE

[celedhring]

Finally caught up on Logan. Liked it quite a bit. Depressing, but not in that hokey brooding BvS way, it manages to convey genuine emotion in places. I'm actually quite surprised that they gave Mangold such a free reign to make such a non-comic booky comic book movie.