TV/Movies Megathread

[Duque de Bragança]

The Punisher (1989)

The Mafia killed Dolph Lundgren's children!  Dolph, in retaliation, kills all members of the Mafia!  Roll credits!

Okay, there is some plot in there about the Yakuza kidnapping children, and Louis Gossett Jr. wanting to help Dolph, but for the most part this is an orgy of blood straight out of 80s America.  The budget is low, the acting is wooden (except for Gossett seems to be under the mistaken impression that he's in a real movie), the suits are Polo (or a reasonable knock off of such), the haircuts are yuppie and the Japanese are taking over everything.  There are explosion, there are ninjas and everyone is armed to the teeth with automatic weapons.  It might be the most 80s of 80s action movies.

To be fair the martial arts are remarkably good for a western film from that period.

Your best movie review for a post-1930 film? 

As far as '80s Action movies go (say Death Wish 3) this one is pretty nuanced about vengeance and its consequences (power void), cf. the potentially disturbing scene with the [spoiler] mafioso's kid possible future vengeance[/spoiler].

'80s America, but shot in Australia, with some impressive stuntman work (Mad Max school I guess).
Violence is also more graphic than usual for the era, specially now that the uncut version has resurfaced in Germany on blu-ray, from an uncut 35 mm French print, no longer betamax-sourced 

One of my favorite B-movies of the era, as a matter of fact. Pre-CGI era helps as well, despite the low budget. Dolph convingly looking like shit, in a good way. Living in the sewers does not help anyways.
Great one-liners as well, as per 80's Action rules.

Interesting tongue in cheek review, invoking Buñuel (!) though biased as times. 

Noveldy Death  (...)At this moment the movie took on a surreal quality. I thought I was watching a Bunuel flick. (...)

http://www.ruthlessreviews.com/1324/the-punisher/

It's obviously not an atmospheric neo-noir thriller with Dolph, that would be the undervalued Silent Trigger (1996), with less action, but still from Dolph's best period I'd say.
Try I come in Peace/Dark Angel if you want more B-movie goodness from Dolph, along with some humor.

[Syt]

Watched the first two episodes of The Midnight Gospel on Netflix. It takes excerpts from episodes of The Duncan Trussell Family Hour podcast and sets them against surreal apocalyptic animations in a psychedelic 70s style. Episode one was about drugs and psychedelics (with Drew Pinski), episode two about the acceptance of death (with Anne Lamott).

[The Brain]

Ouija. High school kids play with an Ouija board, but not all toys are to be played with. Totally OK for the genre. The chicks are hot.

[Josquius]

The lupin series on netflix is surprisingly short but proved good.
I wonder if there really is a town somewhere in France full of people in top hats.

[The Brain]

The Vvitch (sic). New England settler in funny hat times gets exiled by the other pilgrims for being too annoyingly Christian, and the misfortunes that beset the family at their new farmstead cannot be entirely natural. Pretty good, I liked it. Good acting. Not a feelgood movie, you get a sense of [spoiler]the isolation, religious fever, and pressure of the fight for survival[/spoiler].

[viper37]

You're on a roll for horror movies lately?

[Admiral Yi]

The lupin series on netflix is surprisingly short but proved good.
I wonder if there really is a town somewhere in France full of people in top hats.

BUSTED!!!

How can a whole show be a series then one season of the show also be a series?

[The Brain]

You're on a roll for horror movies lately?

Yeah, I often end up there when browsing Netflix etc. Not sure why, I guess it's the fantastic elements. Also many of them are around 90 mins, which I strongly prefer over longer movies. Sitting down for a 2h30min movie is such a commitment.

[Josquius]

The lupin series on netflix is surprisingly short but proved good.
I wonder if there really is a town somewhere in France full of people in top hats.

BUSTED!!!

How can a whole show be a series then one season of the show also be a series?

Eh?

How can a burger be a lump of meat and also the whole sandwich.
How can lord of the rings be a book and contain books.
English be like that.

[Admiral Yi]

Eh?

How can a burger be a lump of meat and also the whole sandwich.
How can lord of the rings be a book and contain books.
English be like that.

A lump of meat is not a burger.  It's a patty.  Cooking and bun make it a burger.
The Lord of the Rings has three volumes.

[Sheilbh]

A lump of meat is not a burger.  It's a patty.  Cooking and bun make it a burger.

Here burger or patty works.

The Lord of the Rings has three volumes.

And six books

What about the Bible?

[Admiral Yi]

Here burger or patty works.

The same place where a series has many series.

And six books

What about the Bible?

OK.  Exception that proves the rule.

[mongers]

Is 'La Revolution' worth preserving with?

Based on the first episode I'm not sure, but the cinematography was good and [Brain] there were some magnificent horses in it. [/Brain]

[Sheilbh]

The same place where a series has many series.

You can't be going round looking for logic in English.

OK.  Exception that proves the rule.

That's just an example of how things shift - 300 years ago that phrase made sense. "Prove" meant to test - like a proof or proof-reading, now "prove" means something different. But we still have the phrase. This is the same just instead of years it's miles.

Just watched the first episode of It's A Sin, which was excellent.

I think Russell T Davies is the best TV writer in the UK - especially on the LGBT dramas he's allowed to do every five years. He also has a special place in the hearts of a lot of gays my age who remember watching Queer as Folk in our bedrooms with the volume at about 5%.

Queer as Folk was on TV 21 years ago and it was a deliberately joyous take on being gay and the gay community. There was no reference of AIDS, barely any homophobia - there were plenty of shows and movies that had, worthily, explored the darker side. Davies wanted to show the fun. But Davies has now done a show in the 80s - he did a great piece in the Guardian about this:
https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2021/jan/03/russell-t-davies-i-looked-away-for-years-finally-i-have-put-aids-at-the-centre-of-a-drama

And as with everything I've ever seen that Davies has written - Queer as Folk, Cucumber, A Very English Scandal, The Second Coming, even Dr Who - it is so good at creating fully-formed human characters in about 5 minutes of screentime. Based on the other shows he's done, because the characters are so real there'll be a lot of humour and fun, which will make the pain all the deeper.

[Admiral Yi]

That's just an example of how things shift - 300 years ago that phrase made sense.

We're not talking about meanings changing, we're talking about components of things having the same name as the thing.  The components of a meal aren't called meals, they're called courses.  The components of a regiment aren't called regiments (well, there's another where the British fuck things up), they're called battalions.  So on and so forth.

On a huge tangent, do you know what the word "remove" means in the context of British meals?  In Aubrey/Maturin he talks about a meal made up of several courses *and* several "removes," as if they're separate things.

On another tangent, drawing on your otherwise useless knowledge of Olde Englishe, why is "pease," as in pease puddinig, spelled the way it is?  You still call the vegetable a pea, right?  And two of them are peas, right?