TV/Movies Megathread

[mongers]

Loved the new 'Sherlock Holmes'.   

[Darth Wagtaros]

Watching Battle Beyond the Stars. Bitchin.

[Ideologue]

Inspired by Ide, I watched The Giant Behemoth from 1959. Not to be confused with the tiny behemoth, I guess. In the film, American nuclear testing in the Pacific has caused a radioactive giant marine brontosaurus(!) to attack... London. Suckers. Pretty standard monster movie fare, save for the sometimes graphic depiction of radiation poisoning. I was, however, annoyed by the stupidity of the way the creature is killed. The creature cannot be bombed, because that would spread cause an explosion and spread radiation all over London. Ok, I guess. So the scientists come up with the idea of inserting radium into the creature to sped it's decay; the radium must remain inside the creature, or it won't work. The use of an anti-tank shell is discussed, but discarded, because it "might miss." I imagine British anti-tank gunners could hit a slow-moving 200-foot dinosaur, but whatever, they know their capabilities better than I. So it's decided that the right way to insert the radium into the creature is via a torpedo that explodes on contact. What's more, this torpedo will be aimed by a visiting American scientist in a midget submarine using an oscilloscope to aim. Of course, he hits the creature in the mouth on his first shot. Saved your asses again, Brits. Overall, less fun than a Japanese Godzilla movie, but more fun than an American Godzilla movie.

Sounds groovy.  Might watch it.

And in other news:

The Man From Planet X:  A rogue planet comes into our solar system and makes a close pass at Earth.  Instead of eradicating all life as we know it, all that happens is a really wussy alien manages to make the trip from Planet X to some Scottish moor, where an aged astronomer, his hot daughter, a newspaper reporter, and an amoral scientific assistant have been observing the apocalypse vague off-screen inconvenience.  They make contact with the puss from Planet X, the amoral one beats him up in order to learn his secrets, but then accidentally lets him loose, whereupon he uses his technology to make an unbeatable army of slaves hypnotize about eight random townsfolk and some of the principal cast.  It doesn't work out because the British Army comes and blows him up real good.  Pretty lousy flick.

Kronos: An alien energy collection device arrives on Earth, making landfall in Mexico.  It is a blocky, gunmetal affair, evidently designed by a race that had never discovered the wheel, insofar as it travels on pneumatic cylinders.  Meanwhile, an alien incubus seizes mental control over the director of Labcentral (a science factory of some sort; typical of the time, I gather) and uses his position to amass intelligence on Earth's energy resources, especially our precious atom weapons.  The collection device is dubbed Kronos by our squareheaded hero, also an employee of Labcentral--because God knows when I see this:



I immediately think of this:



The resemblance is clearly unmistakeable.

Anyway, Kronos first attacks an electrical generation plant, absorbing its energy, before heading north.  It takes an H-bomb on the nose and just sucks up the juice.  Dr. Squarehead, after rooting out the alien commie in Labcentral's midst, devises some kind of technobabble involving "Omega Particles" that will cause Kronos to turn its hunger upon itself.  This works.

I assume a young Brannon Braga watched this when it played as the late late movie in the mid-1970s, because this is basically an episode of Star Trek Voyager.  Thus, some parts are ok, but it mostly kind of sucks.  I think Jerry Siegel and Curt Swan may have been inspired by Kronos' look, however, when they created Computo in their Legion of Super-Heroes stories.  Computo, however, had fucking wheels and was just way cooler in general.

Oh, but it has one outstanding line.  After it marauds across Sonora for a few days, clearly getting close enough to civilization to attack an electrical generator, someone says it may next turn to a "populated area." Lo siento, Carlos!

Attack of the Puppet People: while the other two were disappointing, John Agar has proven himself something of a seal of quality.  (Yeah, yeah, I've seen Mole People. )  Directed by Burt I. Gordon, this flick may be his best.  A genuinely creepy dollmaker has somehow invented a shrinking machine and suspended animation gas (roll with it?), both of which he uses upon people when it becomes clear that their lives are taking them to other places.  His motivation, you see, is to never be left alone--as is explained, in a pretty adroit piece of backstory, that his wife had done many years ago.  So he's amassed a collection of doll-sized people, that he can revive and put back to sleep at his leisure.  In a glass case in his front office--proudly displayed to customers!--stand the shrunken, immobile bodies of his captives: all former secretaries, a U.S. Marine for some reason, his mailman, and John Agar.

It's about thirty minutes before anyone's actually shrunk on-screen.  And there's a neat foreshadowy moment when Agar and his girlfriend are watching a contemporary Gordon film, The Amazing Colossal Man--it's interesting enough in itself, but Gordon made sure to close the clip from that film with Glenn Manning's line "I'm not growing! You're shrinking!"  I thought that was pretty clever.

Well, Agar and Mrs. Agar get shrunk and they meet the other shrunken prisoners.  The first moments of the meeting are actually somewhat scary: how they've become accustomed to their captivity, and how readily they scrape and bow before their captor.  Then it's pretty much just them capering about trying to free themselves for the next hour, but 1)for the 1950s, the visual effects and giant-sized sets are really fucking good and 2)the tension never evaporates.

Ultimately, they get free.  But you knew that would happen.  The last shot is a pan across the dollmaker's room as he begs his regular-sized captives not to leave him alone.  Burt, you get an A.

The only thing that bugged me is something that shouldn't--basically, they should all freeze to death from being so tiny.  But assuming the dollmaker solved this problem, there's one part with an open window, and they try to fly a paper airplane with a note out of it--it's a pretty lousy plan, if understandable because they're desperate--but couldn't they just jump?  They should have a really low terminal velocity, right?

[garbon]

Great ending, eh?

Yeah, that woke me the fuck up.

I can appreciate Rick's attempts at maintaining his humanity in the "new world" and trying to do the right thing with Hershel, but he's going to have to make Hershel account for that.  All this time, fuck.
And Shane's going to have to be dealt with, more sooner than later.  That guy's grenade is already cooked.

Fucking February's gonna be a mess.

Just finished up the last 3 myself.

Well it is good they had that ending...as before that I was kind of rooting that our gang gets killed off.  They spent most of the time acting like they were completely cut off from the rest of the world. Hell they aren't even that far from the highway.

They are making Shane out to be a completely unsympathetic character but as of late he seems to be the only one with a semblance of a backbone.

[CountDeMoney]

They are making Shane out to be a completely unsympathetic character but as of late he seems to be the only one with a semblance of a backbone.

Yeah, but he's got two of the worst traits one could have in this sort of situation:  an unapologetic sense of survival to the point of murder, and he covets a woman.  Danger, Will Robinson, Danger.

[garbon]

They are making Shane out to be a completely unsympathetic character but as of late he seems to be the only one with a semblance of a backbone.

Yeah, but he's got two of the worst traits one could have in this sort of situation:  an unapologetic sense of survival to the point of murder, and he covets a woman.  Danger, Will Robinson, Danger.

Oh I agree he's awful - however based on how the crew has been acting, I'd be crazy too. Maybe they could have had a scene where they hold hands with the zombies and listen to Enya.

[CountDeMoney]

They are making Shane out to be a completely unsympathetic character but as of late he seems to be the only one with a semblance of a backbone.

Yeah, but he's got two of the worst traits one could have in this sort of situation:  an unapologetic sense of survival to the point of murder, and he covets a woman.  Danger, Will Robinson, Danger.

Oh I agree he's awful - however based on how the crew has been acting, I'd be crazy too. Maybe they could have had a scene where they hold hands with the zombies and listen to Enya.

I agree totally, he's the only one with a certain amount of sense since they found the farm.  But, on the topic of the "real world" and the "new reality", everybody else is simply trying to hold on to their humanity.  Dale summed it up completely when Shane caught him trying to bury the guns.

Can't say I don't feel sympathetic towards Shane's POV, though.  But he's not making it easy.  Then again, would any of us acted any differently during the Otis Incident?  Be honest.

[LaCroix]

is season two worth watching? i thought the first was decent, but nothing special. i know about the missing little girl subplot (main plot?!  ). i hate that sort of plot-line more than anything; it forever turned me off of sons of anarchy back in whatever season the kidnapped baby happened

[garbon]

They are making Shane out to be a completely unsympathetic character but as of late he seems to be the only one with a semblance of a backbone.

Yeah, but he's got two of the worst traits one could have in this sort of situation:  an unapologetic sense of survival to the point of murder, and he covets a woman.  Danger, Will Robinson, Danger.

Oh I agree he's awful - however based on how the crew has been acting, I'd be crazy too. Maybe they could have had a scene where they hold hands with the zombies and listen to Enya.

I agree totally, he's the only one with a certain amount of sense since they found the farm.  But, on the topic of the "real world" and the "new reality", everybody else is simply trying to hold on to their humanity.  Dale summed it up completely when Shane caught him trying to bury the guns.

Can't say I don't feel sympathetic towards Shane's POV, though.  But he's not making it easy.  Then again, would any of us acted any differently during the Otis Incident?  Be honest.

Agreed all around except that with all they have been through - I couldn't see them buying for a minute the comparison of the dead to the mentally ill. I also thought Herschel was an idiot to deal with the group so brusquely. Couldn't he see he only had power as long as the group was willing to be polite?

[CountDeMoney]

is season two worth watching? i thought the first was decent, but nothing special. i know about the missing little girl subplot (main plot?!  ). i hate that sort of plot-line more than anything; it forever turned me off of sons of anarchy back in whatever season the kidnapped baby happened

I think it's worth it.  But if you're looking for wall-to-wall action, you'll be disappointed.  It's character-driven survivor politics, not an action flick.

[garbon]

is season two worth watching? i thought the first was decent, but nothing special. i know about the missing little girl subplot (main plot?!  ). i hate that sort of plot-line more than anything; it forever turned me off of sons of anarchy back in whatever season the kidnapped baby happened

I'd tend toward skipping this season. Pretty dull and forgettable.

[garbon]

is season two worth watching? i thought the first was decent, but nothing special. i know about the missing little girl subplot (main plot?!  ). i hate that sort of plot-line more than anything; it forever turned me off of sons of anarchy back in whatever season the kidnapped baby happened

I think it's worth it.  But if you're looking for wall-to-wall action, you'll be disappointed.  It's character-driven survivor politics, not an action flick.

I think they faced tougher dilemmas in the 1st season - the Otis bit apart. Debating abortion is dull.

[LaCroix]

maybe i'll check it out. part time employment sucks when you've only one shift in two weeks time, six altogether in the month

[CountDeMoney]

Agreed all around except that with all they have been through - I couldn't see them buying for a minute the comparison of the dead to the mentally ill. I also thought Herschel was an idiot to deal with the group so brusquely. Couldn't he see he only had power as long as the group was willing to be polite?

I can't say I wouldn't have shot Herschel in the face and taken over his shit.  But that's not what civilized people do.

I don't understand how they didn't tell him how they've been to the CDC, they talked to The Last Scientist.  But Herschel's position is understandable, if unconvincing;  people deal with tragedy and crisis differently.  In Hershel's case, God-fearing Man + Unplugged From Reality = They're Just Not In Their Right Minds.  Like Hershel's daughter said, they're not undead.  They're "Mom" and "Steve".

I also think Rick has an issue with guilt and a sense of indebtedness.  Having a wife and kid clouds his judgement.  Or does it?

[Josquius]

Agreed all around except that with all they have been through - I couldn't see them buying for a minute the comparison of the dead to the mentally ill. I also thought Herschel was an idiot to deal with the group so brusquely. Couldn't he see he only had power as long as the group was willing to be polite?

I dunno, I think the whole seeing he only had power as long as the others were nice thing fit in very well with his view of the infected. Even despite all evidence to the contrary he still had his mind set in the nice safe normal world where there are rules, ill people are treated, etc...