TV/Movies Megathread

[celedhring]

Started watching 2 but didn't finish it. I felt there was nowhere to after season 1, and what I saw didn't change that opinion. Can't blame them for taking the presumably gigantic bags of cash that Netflix will have thrown at them for doing more of it.

[Savonarola]

To Be or not To Be (1942)

The film is set in Poland during the invasion.  Joseph Tura (Jack Benny) leads a group of actors who put on Hamlet.  His wife, Maria Tura (Carole Lombard (in her final film)), has a young aviator (Robert Stack) her during Benny's "To Be" monologue.  The aviator escapes to Britain and is part of the Polish Fighter Group.  MI5 introduces his fighter group to an agent who will be returning to Poland.  Stack belatedly realizes the agent is an imposter, returns to Poland and has Benny's troupe assist intercept the agent by dressing up as Nazis.  The scenario gets bigger and screwier until Benny impersonates the Fuhrer himself.

Comedy is tragedy plus time.  Today this film is regarded as a classic screwball comedy, at the time it was controversial.  Exchanges like:

Joseph Tura: [disguised as Professor Siletsky - speaking about Maria Tura] Her husband is that great, great Polish actor, Josef Tura. You've probably heard of him.
Colonel Ehrhardt: Oh, yes. As a matter of fact I saw him on the stage when I was in Warsaw once before the war.
Joseph Tura: Really?
Colonel Ehrhardt: What he did to Shakespeare we are now doing to Poland.

Were seen as insensitive.  Even Jack Benny's father stormed out of the theater when he saw Benny in a Nazi uniform (Jack had to convince his father that it was satire.) 

[The Minsky Moment]

Remade by Mel Brooks years later, very close to original although some changes in names and he added an openly gay character.  I think the original stands up and wasn't crying for a remake; I suspect Mel Brooks just really liked it and wanted to bring it back to public attention and add his schtick over Benny's part.

[Savonarola]

Remade by Mel Brooks years later, very close to original although some changes in names and he added an openly gay character.  I think the original stands up and wasn't crying for a remake; I suspect Mel Brooks just really liked it and wanted to bring it back to public attention and add his schtick over Benny's part.

I hadn't heard of that.  I'm surprised Brooks would remake an Ernst Lubitsch film, for all his talent I don't think he has the Lubitsch Touch.

[Savonarola]

The Hop Pickers (Staci na Chmelu) (1964)

The hop harvest is in and the flower of Czechoslovakian youth have answered the call!  Free spirited Hanka (you can tell she's free spirited because she wears a hat) finds herself in a love triangle.  On the one hand there's Filip, a rebellious, brooding young man who bucks communal living by living in the attic rather than sleeping on the floor in the communal dorms and who reads Seneca (which, the film establishes, was not a member of the Communist Party.)  On the other hand there's Honza, the golden boy who can pick 20 boxes of hops per day (and is rewarded for this by given the privilege of going crayfishing.)  Which will she pick?

The story is a musical and definitely an Eastern Bloc take on the genre.  The singing and dancing isn't bad at all.  With the wisdom of hindsight you can sort of imagine this as a precursor to the Prague Spring as it (sort of) celebrates youthful rebellion (that is reading Seneca or wearing a hat) and seems to questions some of the wisdom of the Communist Party.

[HVC]

So many people are canceling their Disney plus subscription over the Kimmel incident that the cancelation page is crashing.

[crazy canuck]

I did my part

[Syt]

I was thinking of putting it into the YouTube thread, but I think it fits better here since it's by all means a TV show.

Following Jesse Cox's react about the first episode, I watched all 6 (so far) episodes of The Amazing Digital Circus.

It's a trip. The show is inspired by I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream, but also has allusions to Spirited Away, or the Star Trek Voyager episode "The Thaw" (the one with the evil clown), etc. All that in stylings that run from 60s to 90s.

It's set in a virtual game world run by(?) Caine, and six characters trapped in the simulation.

It has a manic energy not unlike Animaniacs or Sam & Max or Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, but also introspection about what it means to be stuck in this mad world. It does the trope of colorful mad "fun" world with creepy/horrifying undertones quite well. But it also strikes a wholesome tone in between? All that with allusions to online/MMO logic.

Episode 1 is mostly setup, and Episode 2 was IMO the weakest (illustrating the "adventures" that Caine runs for the characters), but 3-4 have been quite excellent IMO.

The playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHovnlOusNLgvAbnxluXCVB3KLj8e4QB-

[celedhring]

Watched Eddington, that came out here this week. Feel this movie would have been much more notorious (for good and bad) if it came out in the US right now instead of earlier in the summer, given there's large amounts of political and political-adjacent violence in it. There's even an arc about a young boy that cosplays as SJW to score pussy that in the end is converted into a conservative influencer reminiscent of Kirk.

Anyway, the movie has been controversial for ridiculing the whole reaction to Floyd's death and trying to play "both sides". I feel it's fine, as a progressive I wasn't particularly bothered by it - but I'm no American. And it's not like "the other side" gets a particularly flattering portrayal anyway (although Phoenix's character is the only one in the movie that gets afforded some empathy). Anyway, the movie's whole discourse is that political polarization is essentially stoked by the economic elite (here represented by a vaporous tech company that wants to build a data center in the town) in order to debilitate the community and make it more vulnerable to their predation.

The movie showcases both Ari Aster's strengths and weaknesses. It is masterfully shot and has an increasingly asfixiating atmosphere built with little effectism. It is also extremely self-indulgent (although fortunately much less so than Beau is Afraid!) and less smart than it thinks it is. Still, very worth checking out.

[Darth Wagtaros]

I was thinking of putting it into the YouTube thread, but I think it fits better here since it's by all means a TV show.

Following Jesse Cox's react about the first episode, I watched all 6 (so far) episodes of The Amazing Digital Circus.

It's a trip. The show is inspired by I Have No Mouth But I Must Scream, but also has allusions to Spirited Away, or the Star Trek Voyager episode "The Thaw" (the one with the evil clown), etc. All that in stylings that run from 60s to 90s.

It's set in a virtual game world run by(?) Caine, and six characters trapped in the simulation.

It has a manic energy not unlike Animaniacs or Sam & Max or Aaahh!!! Real Monsters, but also introspection about what it means to be stuck in this mad world. It does the trope of colorful mad "fun" world with creepy/horrifying undertones quite well. But it also strikes a wholesome tone in between? All that with allusions to online/MMO logic.

Episode 1 is mostly setup, and Episode 2 was IMO the weakest (illustrating the "adventures" that Caine runs for the characters), but 3-4 have been quite excellent IMO.

The playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLHovnlOusNLgvAbnxluXCVB3KLj8e4QB-

I Have No MOuth and I Must Scream, Animaniacs, ST Voyager (a non bland episode) and Sam and Max. That is quite a mix.

[mongers]

Started watching 'Conan the Barbarian' couldn't remember much from the first viewing, decades ago; after 10 mins thought to myself 'this is a bit odd'.



My worst fears confirmed 20 mins in when the adult Conan is revealed; they remade it.       

Why?

[Darth Wagtaros]

Started watching 'Conan the Barbarian' couldn't remember much from the first viewing, decades ago; after 10 mins thought to myself 'this is a bit odd'.



My worst fears confirmed 20 mins in when the adult Conan is revealed; they remade it.       

Why?

You should try Conan the Librarian.

I don't know what remake you are talking about?

[Josquius]

I seem to vaguely remember that was done. Jason Mamoa I think?
Never seen it.

[Syt]

I thought Jason Momoa made for a good Conan. Unfortunately, after a decent intro the whole movie seemed to go down the drain.

I only recently realized that Milius borrowed from Eisenstein for his Conan movie.

[Duque de Bragança]

I thought Jason Momoa made for a good Conan. Unfortunately, after a decent intro the whole movie seemed to go down the drain.

I only recently realized that Milius borrowed from Eisenstein for his Conan movie.

Alexander Nevsky has been quite liberally pillaged over the years. 
My favourite part is in Battle beyond the Stars, itself a sci-fi remake of the [/b]Seven Samurai[/b], where a Prokofiev pattern is borrowed without crediting him i.e the Hunter in James Horner's score.

P-S: Seven Samurai has been remade twice with statuesque Sybil Danning, the other one being the the Seven Magnificent Gladiators, produced by no less than Cannon as in Menahem Golan and Yoram Globus.