TV/Movies Megathread

[Admiral Yi]

Well shit, for some reason Netflix started me off on S6E7. 

[Habbaku]

 

[Barrister]

Episode 1, Season 1.

Otherwise, you may be watching the British original.

The British original was pretty bad-ass.

[Savonarola]

The first Marvel Comic property to have a theatrical release was the 40s era Captain America serial (at the time Marvel was called "Timely Comics").  It would be over 40 years until the second release, and the first feature length:

Howard the Duck (1986)

While clearly misunderstood at the time, this film was a trailblazing effort in inter-species romance cinema which would ultimately cumulate in the Oscar win for that fish-sex movie a few years ago.  George Lucas is truly a pioneer.



While not the worst film ever to come out of Lucasfilm, (now that's damning with faint praise), this one is out there.  It has a large budget and a talented cast (Lea Thompson, Jeffery Jones and a pre-Bull Durham Tim Robbins); but none of them seem to know how to act with the duck puppet.  The duck puppet is limited and ugly, so that's not such a surprise.  The movie has the zany ensemble cast (girl punk rockers, hillbillies, sinister scientists) and incoherent plot that would be the staple of many 80s B movies (which would go on to become fodder for MST3K.)  That's not good, but where the movie really fails is in it's attempts at humor.  There's an enormous chase scene that feels ripped off from Blues Brothers, but where the movie really fails is the duck puns.  There's only so many duck puns you should be allowed to use, and that congress didn't actually make a law concerning this obvious menace to society, in my view, is one of the major failures of Ronald Reagan era America.

[The Brain]

There's an enormous chase scene that feels ripped off from Blues Brothers, but where the movie really fails is the duck puns.  There's only so many duck puns you should be allowed to use, and that congress didn't actually make a law concerning this obvious menace to society, in my view, is one of the major failures of Ronald Reagan era America.

I'm not touching this.

[Tonitrus]

Midnight Diner on Netflix.

A cute, low-key Japanese series.  Worth watching.

[Josquius]

Midnight diner... I dunno. It just doesn't sit well with me. It's too much in the style of typical cheesy Japanese TV for elderly people, despite the more adult plots. The low keyness of it... Brings up negative nostalgia.


Saw first episode of the Great. It is rather good.
Seems quite a growing trend in very recent years for race blind casting in vaguely historic pieces. I can taste the delicious racist rage.

[Admiral Yi]

Man, House of Cards sure is a heck of a lot better when you start at the beginning.

[garbon]

Watched Pixar's Soul last night with the kids.

It was a good movie.  For a movie without any fights or action the kids even agreed it was a good movie.  The visuals on the extra-dimensional Jerrys / Terry were really quite cool.  Music was good, it was funny - all the stuff you'd expect from Pixar.


I dunno though - it feels like it wasn't a great movie.  For a movie about "finding your spark"... only to reveal that there's no such thing feels a little hollow.  And for a movie about the afterlife it can't help but make "The Great Beyond" just feel pretty scary - doubly so when Joe's big reward at the end is a second chance on earth.

While I really liked it, I wonder if that's one of its big failings. Not that afterlife (and conceptions of it) shouldn't be scary but that Joe's perception of it never changes. To have truly developed as a character he should have gone from his initial fears of the great beyond to an acceptance about the impermanence of life on Earth and accepted it was his time to move on. Instead, for his efforts, he is given another chance at life on Earth, even though that's just delaying the inevitable. Nothing seems to suggest that if he lives a more succesful life on Earth that he'll be anymore will to go into the great beyond and the end of his life.

[Tonitrus]

Midnight diner... I dunno. It just doesn't sit well with me. It's too much in the style of typical cheesy Japanese TV for elderly people, despite the more adult plots. The low keyness of it... Brings up negative nostalgia.

Perhaps still exotic enough for me though. 

It is indeed cheesy, but I think so in a good way.  I find it pleasant.

[Barrister]

While I really liked it, I wonder if that's one of its big failings. Not that afterlife (and conceptions of it) shouldn't be scary but that Joe's perception of it never changes. To have truly developed as a character he should have gone from his initial fears of the great beyond to an acceptance about the impermanence of life on Earth and accepted it was his time to move on. Instead, for his efforts, he is given another chance at life on Earth, even though that's just delaying the inevitable. Nothing seems to suggest that if he lives a more succesful life on Earth that he'll be anymore will to go into the great beyond and the end of his life.

Well put, and covers what I was thinking.

I mean I guess the idea was that Joe by giving up his pass to 22 was showing he was ready to move on, but then they wimp out and let him go back to earth too.

[celedhring]

They did have an ending where he stayed in the afterlife, and I read they tested the different versions with audiences - which were always going to prefer the one where he goes back to Earth.

[garbon]

They did have an ending where he stayed in the afterlife, and I read they tested the different versions with audiences - which were always going to prefer the one where he goes back to Earth.

Yeah seems a cop out to test those head to head.

[crazy canuck]

I guess you guys are too young to remember Heaven Can Wait

[HVC]

the definitive heaven and redemption movie is obviously all dogs go to heaven