TV/Movies Megathread

[Syt]

Apparently a Django series is coming:

[Josquius]

The trailer is naff. But colour me interested.

[celedhring]

So it's based on the original movie rather than the Tarantino version? Might still be good, but meh.

[Syt]

Having finished It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia (new season starts filming this winter, apparently?), I've started Veep. Two episodes into season 2. It's decent, though it's neither Yes, Minister nor The Office exactly.

Ep. 2 in S.2, at the pork roast has a guy talking about pig rearing: "They can't raise pigs without excrement, ma'am. It just can't be done. They defecate, and they defecate with speed and volume."

And I thought a) what a pleasant voice this random guy has and b) also sounds a bit familiar.

Turns out it's Wes Johnson who you may remember as one of the regular voice actors on Elder Scrolls, including Sheogorath/Lucien Lechance/Gray Fox/Jauffre/Arena Announcer and dozens other NPCs (including the guards) in Oblivion, Emperor Titus Meade/Sheogorath/Hemaeus Mora in Skyrim, etc.

[grumbler]

He's a decent voice actor, because I didn't realize that all of those roles were voiced by the same guy.

[Sheilbh]

New Adam Curtis project on the BBC in a couple of weeks Apparently "Russia 1985-1999 TraumaZone: What It Felt Like to Live Through the Collapse of Communism and Democracy" - with this image in the press release:


Still don't know if there'll be any archive footage to match the Taliban on pedalos but here's hoping.

[FunkMonk]

New Adam Curtis project on the BBC in a couple of weeks Apparently "Russia 1985-1999 TraumaZone: What It Felt Like to Live Through the Collapse of Communism and Democracy" - with this image in the press release:


Still don't know if there'll be any archive footage to match the Taliban on pedalos but here's hoping.

My body is ready for maximum "But it was an illusion, and in fact Communism was dead all along" with women in ballroom gowns dancing in the moonlight to some old Soviet dirge.

Edit: I wrote the above "women in ballroom gowns" without noticing the women in ballroom gowns in the picture  Adam Curtis man

[Valmy]

My favorite voice from Russia (well...now from Georgia as of February 2022) identified October 1993 as the time it all went wrong and Russia was doomed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9af3KH-k8yc

I thought it was interesting. Might be good to watch before you see the ballroom gown thing 

[crazy canuck]

Yeah Dahomey was a slave economy with a military whose biggest job was to capture people to sell to Euros which was the main source of the kingdom's wealth.

That seems like a pretty dark thing to explore so I can see why they would prefer to focus on the more romantic aspects. But if they did leave that out how is that "no sugar coating the slave trade"?

They didn't leave it out.  The fact they engaged in the activity was a plot point.

[crazy canuck]

Yeah Dahomey was a slave economy with a military whose biggest job was to capture people to sell to Euros which was the main source of the kingdom's wealth.

That seems like a pretty dark thing to explore so I can see why they would prefer to focus on the more romantic aspects. But if they did leave that out how is that "no sugar coating the slave trade"?

An African kingdom is depicted as a willing participant in the slave trade and fighting white people who tell them it's really bad to enslave other human beings and they shouldn't be doing it.

You do not understand why this creates some modicum amount of controversy online?

What are you on about.  In the movie everyone is engaged in the slave trade, including the whites

[Barrister]

My favorite voice from Russia (well...now from Georgia as of February 2022) identified October 1993 as the time it all went wrong and Russia was doomed https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9af3KH-k8yc

I thought it was interesting. Might be good to watch before you see the ballroom gown thing 

I also watch this dude's videos from time to time.

He actually reminds me of JJ a little bit.  Wonder if he's also gay.

I also don't think he's representative of most Russians.

[Valmy]

Yeah Dahomey was a slave economy with a military whose biggest job was to capture people to sell to Euros which was the main source of the kingdom's wealth.

That seems like a pretty dark thing to explore so I can see why they would prefer to focus on the more romantic aspects. But if they did leave that out how is that "no sugar coating the slave trade"?

They didn't leave it out.  The fact they engaged in the activity was a plot point.

Awesome! Glad to hear that. I seem to barely have time for anything these days but I will try to check this film out at some point.

[Valmy]

I also don't think he's representative of most Russians.

He only speaks for himself, for sure. But I mean who is? I at least take comfort he is from some random provincial city so not some Moscow or St Petersburg insular type guy.

[Savonarola]

RRR (2022)

(The film is originally in Telugu.  For dubs the film makers encouraged people to say what "RRR" might stand for in their language.  "Rise, Roar, Revolt" was the winner in English; but I think "Mork from Ork Laughs" would have been better.)

I'm a fan of the epic genre; so I was looking forward to this when I heard that the first major release Telugu language film was going to be an epic.  I was expecting something like "Red Cliff" or "Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon"; something both universal and distinct to creating culture.  This was... not what I expected.

It is certainly recognizable to westerners: it's filled with e-e-evil British people doing e-e-evil British things like those fine Mel Gibson movies from a couple of decades ago; at one point in the film one of our intrepid heroes attaches hand grenades to his arrows, much the way the ol' Duke boys used to with dynamite; at another the e-e-evil Viceroy shoots at a car causing it to flip over and burst into flames without anyone being injured much as would happen on the A-Team at least once an episode.  At the same time it is distinctly Indian: as there's a dance off in the middle of the film; the background music is a chorus that, among other things, sings the praises of Rama; and it ends with a hyper-patriotic song and dance number.

The film is very loosely based on Indian revolutionaries  Alluri Sitarama Raju and Komaram Bheem.  In this film their love of India pushes them well beyond the abilities of ordinary humans; to the point that they can be shot by a cannon and suffer no ill effects.  The film is filled with at least a dozen over-the-top scenes.  In my opinion, the greatest comes about half way through in which Bheem has released a dozen or so tigers in the Vice-Roy's palace in order to create a distraction.  Raju, who had just been on death's door having been bitten by a cobra, follows in hot pursuit (literally) in a carriage which is on fire.  (How he even got the carriage isn't explained by the film, much less why it's on fire.)  He leaps down ready to kick ass when a tiger pounces on him, and Raju punches out the tiger with just one punch.  (Re-reading that, it would have been even more impressive had he boxed the tiger for a couple rounds and won on a TKO, but this was still pretty impressive.)

[viper37]

The 25 most patriotic films of all time

Nice list, some cheesy movies in there.