TV/Movies Megathread

[katmai]

When?

[CountDeMoney]

When?

   

[Tonitrus]

When?

   

I've always thought that when he got to that age, he wanted to look/sound like Jack Nicholson. 

[CountDeMoney]

When?

   

I've always thought that when he got to that age, he wanted to look/sound like Jack Nicholson. 

And who doesn't?

[Octavian]

When?

   

I've always thought that when he got to that age, he wanted to look/sound like Jack Nicholson. 

And who doesn't?

Martinus!

He want to look and sound like Ian Mckellen but in reality wil probably look like Marlon Brando.

[Sheilbh]

He want to look and sound like Ian Mckellen but in reality wil probably look like Marlon Brando.

Not fat Brando!

[Darth Wagtaros]

Snow White and the Huntsman.  The evil Queen had some acting experience. That Twilight chick though, hard to tell when she was being sad, earnest, scared, or just constipated.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Castaway on the Moon.  I was willing to sit through until the star started taking a crap on screen. 

[Josquius]

I think that was the last in the series of Mad Men?- Dom is a dick. (hey wait...double meaning!)

[Ideologue]

The part where I talk about a show only I watch:

Red vs. Blue is continuing its post-Season 8, aka the last good season, tradition of bifurcating its story into flashbacks about unending, uninvolving Freelancer-centric action scenes, on the one hand, and the stuff normal people actually care about, on the other.

It's not so much that it's bad, it's just that it fucks up the actual RvB story; since each season is only about 2 hours long in total, nothing can happen when you add in an hour of CGI Spartans beating the shit out of nameless, faceless people.  And no matter how impressive that hour's worth of beating the shit out of people is--and it is impressive, especially given that it's a webseries, albeit perhaps the Internet's preeminent webseries--when it's done at such a ridiculous density it merely numbs one to joy.

Compare any or all of the action scenes in Season 9 with the final battle between the gang and the Meta in Season 8.  Do you see the difference?  That difference is called "dramatic tension."  That's why the latter is awesome, and why most of the former belong on demo reels.

So it's not like I hate the Freelancers; when they're integrated into the RvB cast, they're fine.  Seasons 6-8 balanced action and quasi-serious SF worldbuilding with the show's customary humor and, surprisingly, a great deal of real character growth and change, to truly outstanding effect.

Season 9, however, emphatically did not; it halved the screentime of the characters we know--indeed, technically speaking, they're only in it for about two minutes--while providing cyphers doing their cypher work in their stead.  Beyond content, from a structural standpoint, it was terrible; although better in one viewing, it was still narratively fucked up.  So far Season 10 is continuing down that same road, with a second episode that doesn't have the RvB crew in it whatsoever, instead indulging in another endless Freelancer flashback sequence that probably doesn't matter, does little to elucidate, and no longer has much capacity to stimulate.

But hope springs eternal.  It's not like the RvB parts that are begrudgingly doled out like so many food stamps under Mitt Romney's dictatorship aren't still good.  It's not like it Season 10 will be awful, just it'll be another mess (and a successful mess, according to their metrics, which means they won't learn).

I guess what I'm trying to say is, if they love the Freelancers so much, why don't they make a fucking Freelancer show?  I don't begrudge that story's existence, or their desire to tell it.  Hell, as much shit as I talk, I'd even watch it.  Hell squared, it'd actually be better in its own right, if it weren't being interrupted by half of an RvB show all the time.  I just want what they had in Seasons 6-8 back, namely, a good structure.

I suppose it's possible that at some point in the far distant future the past, Freelancer sequences and the present, good sequences will form a cohesive narrative.  It's just taxing to watch that possibility ebb and flow in real time.

P.S.: The "Falling Toward the Sky" part in Season 9 is still pretty damned boss.

[Eddie Teach]

I think that was the last in the series of Mad Men?- Dom is a dick. (hey wait...double meaning!)

Not unless you're a week ahead of us.

I loved the bit where the Jaguar wouldn't start.

[Josephus]

I think that was the last in the series of Mad Men?- Dom is a dick. (hey wait...double meaning!)

Think there's one more?

[CountDeMoney]

I think that was the last in the series of Mad Men?- Dom is a dick. (hey wait...double meaning!)

Think there's one more?

Yeah, one more episode of Mad Men, two more for The Killing, IIRC.

[Josephus]

...and then Breaking Bad back in July. I think there's also going to be a preview to Walking Dead.

[viper37]

Starbuck being remade in the US, with Vince Vaughn as a star.  It should work
http://blogs.montrealgazette.com/2012/05/08/vince-vaughn-vying-to-star-in-starbuck-remake/

I saw the original last week-end.  Overall, a funny movie, despite weaker moments.