TV/Movies Megathread

[grumbler]

Studios don't care nearly as much about quality as about box office returns.  So even if your view on the quality of those movies was shared by the overwhelming majority of both moviegoers and studio executives, the money they brought in would pretty much mean the studios would be willing to let Cameroon spend big chunks of their money.

I specifically mentioned respect, not chasing the bottom dollar.

[garbon]

Yeah, Titans is quite decent when they don't dwell too much on Robin - which sadly they do quite a bit... I love when they embrace 1980s DC bizarre (the nuclear family, the Doom Patrol).

Helps that Rachel is a rather likeable lead, despite being a teenager. 

Starfire's sex worker attire puzzles me a bit though...

With episode 11[spoiler], they couldn't help themselves and had to waste a whole episode on a fictional occurrence in Grayson's mind. I'd post a the bleeding smiley but it'd give away what I've written in spoilers.[/spoiler]

[Savonarola]

I saw a BBC production of Die Walküre; which had no costuming and only minimal acting.  While I prefer the full costuming and acting (as the version of Das Rheingold I saw had); it was the only Die Walküre I could find online with subtitles.  The story is that Siegmund is being hunted by men, and he takes refuge in the house of Hunding.  Hunding is out, but his wife, Sieglinde offers him refuge and some mead.  Sieglinde turns out to be Siegmund's long lost twin sister.  So they decide that Siegmund will kill Hunding and then they'll get hitched and... eeeww 

Then the scene switches to Valhalla; where Wotan has decreed that Siegmund will win victory against Hunding.  He's confronted by Fricka who insists that Hunding win.  Wotan protests for he needs a hero who hasn't been helped by him and would defy the law of the gods so that hero can obtain the Ring of the Nibelung and therefore stop the end of the world.  Fricka demonstrates that Wotan has, in fact, not only helped Siegmund, but set up the whole scenario and it slowly dawns on the audience that Wotan is, at heart, a fan fiction author who is into twincest.   

This one has probably Wagner's best known pieces from the cycle, "Magic Fire Music" and "Ride of the Valkyrie" "Kill the Wabbit".  The main theme from the latter is the Valkyrie leitmotif; he mixes that with the general "Triumph" motif (used throughout the cycle) at the overture to the second act to a cool effect.  ("Ride of the Valkyrie" "Kill the Wabbit" is the overture to the third act; no matter how many times I've heard it, that is still amazing.)

The subtitles read "Wotan" and "Wolsung," but "Valkyrie."  I thought that was amusing.

[KRonn]

I also hope the next Terminator movie is done well and makes money, as I like that series and have liked all the films so far.

I liked both of the Terminator movies* as well, but think rebooting them is a waste of time.

*There have only been two, just as there have only been two Alien movies and one Matrix Movie

My favorites of those type movies are Predators series and Terminator. Another Predator spin off is in the works along with the Terminator movie. I think they have to find some way to make the additional movies feel fresh, else yeah, they risk making them sub par.

Star Trek seems to do well with the new movies, as does Star Wars but not all of the movies are received well. Still favorite series for me and I'm glad the studios continue with the movies.

[The Minsky Moment]

I saw a BBC production of Die Walküre; which had no costuming and only minimal acting.  While I prefer the full costuming and acting (as the version of Das Rheingold I saw had); it was the only Die Walküre I could find online with subtitles.

Saw the whole cycle at the Met in the late 90s, very traditional sets and costumes.

[Maladict]

Looks like new Van Gogh movie is worth watching. Willem Dafoe at his career best, going by the reviews.

[Savonarola]

20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)

There's this bunch of fishermen off the coast of Sicily, when BOOM this rocket ship falls in the sea; and the fishermen are all like "Hey rocket ship, you're scaring all the fish away," and go home, except this one guy.  Now he goes up to the rocket ship and says "Hey there paesani, you okay in there?" but the paesani in the ship, they don't answer.  Why don't they answer?  I'll tell you why, they don't answer cause they're knocked out.  So he goes in there and rescues them and the rocket ship sinks.  So they go take the guys to the doctor, but this is Sicily in the 50s so the doctor he's delivering a baby.  That's all he has time to do.  Women are going into labor around the clock.  You got a fever, you got shot, you fall from the sky in a rocket ship; that's too bad, the doctor, he has babies to deliver.  But the spacemen, they're in luck there's an American doctor on holiday in town.  Only he's not a real doctor, he's a zoologist and the space men they don't need to go to a zoo, they need to go to a hospital.  But it's okay, the doctor, he's got this nubile daughter.  How nubile, you ask?  I'll tell you how nubile.  They made the champagne glasses to look like Marie Antoinette; well God, He made the meloni to look like her.  Well the nubile daughter she's a real doctor.  She manages to save one of them, Major Tom, but Major Tom, he's all grouchy; and I'm thinking "Hey paesano, are you a castrato?  Look at those Gonzagas."  Well he doesn't look at the Gonzagas and he's all worried about this alien he brought back from Venus where he went in his rocket ship.  Meanwhile a little boy finds the alien and sells it to the zoologist and he and his nubile daughter drive up to Rome.  There's a General from the American Army and he and Major Tom start looking for the alien; they're offering a million Lira reward.  Now that's some dough.  I could get my suit pressed for that sort of money and still have enough left over for laundry.  But these americani, they're all millionaires, they don't think twice about throwing around money like that.  So the little boy tells the General and Major Tom that he sold the alien to the zoologist and they try to catch up with them.  Meanwhile the alien has gotten big.  How big?  You know the size of Berlusconi's ego?  Well it's even bigger than that.  It busts out of the cage the zoologist had him in and all hell is breaking loose when the army shows up and ZOT they knock the alien out with electricity.  Cause everyone knows electricity knocks out monsters from Venus.  Major Tom then sweet talks the doctor a little and she's getting herself into a swoon as they take the alien to the big zoo in Rome.  But the alien, he busts out and all hell is braking loose in Rome.  Major Tom wants to get some electricity to bring the alien down again; so the General tells him, okay this is what we'll do, first we go to city hall and fill out forms in triplicate to get the electricity turned on and then we wait three months for them to turn it on; and Major Tom, he's like, I don't have time to fill out forms in triplicate, I've got this ragazza and she's stacked like a card sharp's deck.  So the General he says, okay what we'll do instead is use hand grenades, so they get the hand grenades and BUDDA-BOOM-BUDDA-BING they bring the monster down.

The film was originally supposed to take place in Chicago, but Ray Harryhausen had always wanted to vacation in Italy, so he changed the location.  Unfortunately everyone in Italy talks like Chico Marx.  The Claymation scenes are well done, especially the fight between the alien and the elephant at the Rome Zoo.

[Josephus]

Best review ever.

[Tonitrus]

I also hope the next Terminator movie is done well and makes money, as I like that series and have liked all the films so far.

I liked both of the Terminator movies* as well, but think rebooting them is a waste of time.

*There have only been two, just as there have only been two Alien movies and one Matrix Movie

My favorites of those type movies are Predators series and Terminator. Another Predator spin off is in the works along with the Terminator movie. I think they have to find some way to make the additional movies feel fresh, else yeah, they risk making them sub par.

Star Trek seems to do well with the new movies, as does Star Wars but not all of the movies are received well. Still favorite series for me and I'm glad the studios continue with the movies.

Looking more at the Terminator "reboot", it really seems more of a post-T2 rollback:
https://comicbook.com/movies/2018/04/22/terminator-reboot-james-cameron-different-from-original/

The production, an overhaul of the convoluted time-hopping sci-fi series, will reunite stars Arnold Schwarzenegger and Linda Hamilton in their original roles.

Terminator 2019, yet to announce its official title or plot details, is expected to continue on from T2.

[mongers]

20 Million Miles to Earth (1957)

There's this bunch of fishermen off the coast of Sicily, when BOOM this rocket ship falls in the sea; and the fishermen are all like "Hey rocket ship, you're scaring all the fish away," and go home, except this one guy.  Now he goes up to the rocket ship and says "Hey there paesani, you okay in there?" but the paesani in the ship, they don't answer.  Why don't they answer?  I'll tell you why, they don't answer cause they're knocked out.  So he goes in there and rescues them and the rocket ship sinks.  So they go take the guys to the doctor, but this is Sicily in the 50s so the doctor he's delivering a baby.  That's all he has time to do.  Women are going into labor around the clock.  You got a fever, you got shot, you fall from the sky in a rocket ship; that's too bad, the doctor, he has babies to deliver.  But the spacemen, they're in luck there's an American doctor on holiday in town.  Only he's not a real doctor, he's a zoologist and the space men they don't need to go to a zoo, they need to go to a hospital.  But it's okay, the doctor, he's got this nubile daughter.  How nubile, you ask?  I'll tell you how nubile.  They made the champagne glasses to look like Marie Antoinette; well God, He made the meloni to look like her.  Well the nubile daughter she's a real doctor.  She manages to save one of them, Major Tom, but Major Tom, he's all grouchy; and I'm thinking "Hey paesano, are you a castrato?  Look at those Gonzagas."  Well he doesn't look at the Gonzagas and he's all worried about this alien he brought back from Venus where he went in his rocket ship.  Meanwhile a little boy finds the alien and sells it to the zoologist and he and his nubile daughter drive up to Rome.  There's a General from the American Army and he and Major Tom start looking for the alien; they're offering a million Lira reward.  Now that's some dough.  I could get my suit pressed for that sort of money and still have enough left over for laundry.  But these americani, they're all millionaires, they don't think twice about throwing around money like that.  So the little boy tells the General and Major Tom that he sold the alien to the zoologist and they try to catch up with them.  Meanwhile the alien has gotten big.  How big?  You know the size of Berlusconi's ego?  Well it's even bigger than that.  It busts out of the cage the zoologist had him in and all hell is breaking loose when the army shows up and ZOT they knock the alien out with electricity.  Cause everyone knows electricity knocks out monsters from Venus.  Major Tom then sweet talks the doctor a little and she's getting herself into a swoon as they take the alien to the big zoo in Rome.  But the alien, he busts out and all hell is braking loose in Rome.  Major Tom wants to get some electricity to bring the alien down again; so the General tells him, okay this is what we'll do, first we go to city hall and fill out forms in triplicate to get the electricity turned on and then we wait three months for them to turn it on; and Major Tom, he's like, I don't have time to fill out forms in triplicate, I've got this ragazza and she's stacked like a card sharp's deck.  So the General he says, okay what we'll do instead is use hand grenades, so they get the hand grenades and BUDDA-BOOM-BUDDA-BING they bring the monster down.

The film was originally supposed to take place in Chicago, but Ray Harryhausen had always wanted to vacation in Italy, so he changed the location.  Unfortunately everyone in Italy talks like Chico Marx.  The Claymation scenes are well done, especially the fight between the alien and the elephant at the Rome Zoo.

So that scene was reproduced in the Valley of the Gwangi.

[Savonarola]

Best review ever.

Thanks 

[Savonarola]

So that scene was reproduced in the Valley of the Gwangi.

Yes, it is very similar to the fight between the elephant and the allosaurus in The Valley of Gwangi.  While I preferred 20 Million Miles to Earth; Harryhausen's technique had improved by The Valley of Gwangi, and I think that fight scene is better.

[Savonarola]

I saw a BBC production of Die Walküre; which had no costuming and only minimal acting.  While I prefer the full costuming and acting (as the version of Das Rheingold I saw had); it was the only Die Walküre I could find online with subtitles.

Saw the whole cycle at the Met in the late 90s, very traditional sets and costumes.

I think that would be the best way to see it (short of Bayreuth.)   

I see the Met has been pushing it's brand of late.  They now offer their own Streaming Service.

[Duque de Bragança]

Best review ever.

Very good indeed but not sure if I wanted the same treatment for Jason and the Argonauts. 

[celedhring]

I saw a BBC production of Die Walküre; which had no costuming and only minimal acting.  While I prefer the full costuming and acting (as the version of Das Rheingold I saw had); it was the only Die Walküre I could find online with subtitles.

Saw the whole cycle at the Met in the late 90s, very traditional sets and costumes.

I think I saw the same production in a revival when I lived in NY. It is indeed a very good one. The guy playing Wotan (James Morris) was really good. He also was physically imposing which was great for the role. Might be my favorite Wotan.