TV/Movies Megathread

[CountDeMoney]

I think Westmoreland has a good point btw when he says that the public probably would have lost the appetite for WW2, too, if there had been daily uncensored TV coverage of Anzio, Okinawa or Guadalcanal.

Well, there was a substantial amount of war fatigue by late '43 and '44, even without it.

My Vietnam history was growing up with the TV show Tour of Duty and a monthly print magazine that piggy backed on the popularity of the show and movies like Platoon or Full Metal Jacket and ran for 2 years or so covering the conflict.

For a long while, right up until about Platoon, Vietnam was a conflict that you didn't really didn't about:  nobody could talk about it within a polite context, either from the left or the right, or even want to talk about it.  Didn't really become hyperbole until it was starting to show up in mass media for the Gen Xers.

[Ideologue]

But to me, a sequel always sucks when it pisses on the ending of the previous film.

You mean, like Star Trek Eye Eye Eye: The Search for Spock?

The best Star Trek film?  I doubt he can mean that.

[Darth Wagtaros]

But to me, a sequel always sucks when it pisses on the ending of the previous film.

You mean, like Star Trek Eye Eye Eye: The Search for Spock?

The best Star Trek film?  I doubt he can mean that.

Only a monster would mean that.

[CountDeMoney]

Spike's running the Star Wars flicks.  The original trilogy "Special Editions".

OK, so some of the explosions look good...but I mean, why the other changes?  When Vader is leaving Cloud City, what was wrong with the original "Bring me my shuttle"?  It was terse, direct and conveyed a sense of his disappointment, displeasure and all-around pissed-offedness.  Why the not so subtle change to "Alert my Star Destroyer to prepare for my arrival"...WTF was the point of THAT?  And destroying the pacing of the Falcon's escape with cut scenes from the beginning of ROTJ? C'MON ON MAN

Fuck Lucas is such a fucking fucktard fuck.

Thank Christ I have the original movies on VHS from the CBS/FOX video releases from the '80s.

[Razgovory]

One of the Cinemax channels is doing an Alien marathon;  just wrapped up Alien 3;  still don't know why it gets no love--other than fanbois hate the ending--but it's a very cool flick.

If I were a black man, I'd want to be Charles S. Dutton.

It's a good movie on its own, but slaughtering Newt and Hicks wasn't cool.

Not to mention Bishop. 

If they had left those 3 characters and Ripley out of it, and just gone with an alien attacking a prison colony, it would have been an OK, if derivative SF/horror film.  But to me, a sequel always sucks when it pisses on the ending of the previous film.

I think a better plot might be been to follow Corporal Hicks instead of Ripley.  I'd play up the war angle and make it kind of like Apocalypse Now as humans fight the Aliens.  In a sense, Apocalypse Now is a horror movie.  As the soldiers move up the river things get weirder and weirder and war is picking them off.  As it was the third movie would have been okay had it not killed two of the heroes of the second movie.  That's sort of a kick in balls right out the door.

[Razgovory]

I think Westmoreland has a good point btw when he says that the public probably would have lost the appetite for WW2, too, if there had been daily uncensored TV coverage of Anzio, Okinawa or Guadalcanal.

Well, there was a substantial amount of war fatigue by late '43 and '44, even without it.

My Vietnam history was growing up with the TV show Tour of Duty and a monthly print magazine that piggy backed on the popularity of the show and movies like Platoon or Full Metal Jacket and ran for 2 years or so covering the conflict.

For a long while, right up until about Platoon, Vietnam was a conflict that you didn't really didn't about:  nobody could talk about it within a polite context, either from the left or the right, or even want to talk about it.  Didn't really become hyperbole until it was starting to show up in mass media for the Gen Xers.

Yeah, Tarawa is good example.  People weren't mad because there were casualties in Vietnam or that we could see them, they were pissed because weren't winning.  In WWII you could look at the maps that came out in the newspaper.  US forces were making progress.  It wasn't clear the US was making progress in Vietnam.  We only had the military's word, and after Tet nobody trusted the military.  It's not like this was the first time either.  In the American Civil war the war was deeply unpopular when the Army of the Potomac kept failing to win battles.  In a Republic people are willing to expend blood and treasure, but they expect results.

[Josephus]

Oh...speaking of Star Wars, I fast-forwarded through the XXX parody thing. Meh....not so good. The bit with Leia, Han and Luke was Ok.

[Neil]

When Vader is leaving Cloud City, what was wrong with the original "Bring me my shuttle"?  It was terse, direct and conveyed a sense of his disappointment, displeasure and all-around pissed-offedness.  Why the not so subtle change to "Alert my Star Destroyer to prepare for my arrival"...WTF was the point of THAT?

This is the deepest truth that has ever been spoken here.  I've been saying this for years, to anyone who will listen.  I have a sandwich board and a bell.  I'm like Kareem Abdul Jabbar on 'The Stand'.

[mongers]

It should be interesting to watch. The series was made less than a decade after the war, so it's also an interesting insight into minds of the decision makers relatively shortly thereafter, even though now a lot more facts will be public. (Similar to the BBC World at War series as, though probably outdated in some respects, has the advantage of still having many eye witnesses in front of the camera.)

I think Westmoreland has a good point btw when he says that the public probably would have lost the appetite for WW2, too, if there had been daily uncensored TV coverage of Anzio, Okinawa or Guadalcanal.

My Vietnam history was growing up with the TV show Tour of Duty and a monthly print magazine that piggy backed on the popularity of the show and movies like Platoon or Full Metal Jacket and ran for 2 years or so covering the conflict.

As a small kid, I remember watching the nightly news about Vietnam as it happened; I grew up with it, I was 11-12 when Saigon fell.

[Syt]

Oh...speaking of Star Wars, I fast-forwarded through the XXX parody thing. Meh....not so good. The bit with Leia, Han and Luke was Ok.

I thought some of the non-sex scenes were pretty amusing.

Ben: "Your father was the best starpilot in the galaxy."
Luke: "My uncle says he was a psychotic whiner!"
Ben: "And the best starpilot in the galaxy."

Luke: "How did my father die?"
Ben: "He was killed by Darth Vader who was a pupil of mine until I cut his arms and legs off and left him to burn to death in lava ..."
Luke: "I want to go home now."

[Syt]

Trailer for Sons of Norway

(Contains frontal nudity)

[Kleves]

Finally saw Prometheus. It is the kind of movie that, I'd wager, makes a much better impression in the theatre than it would at home.

SPOILERS:

Aside from what Ide and others pointed out earlier, why does the robot poison douchebag husband? Also, it would have been better had science-chick died at the end.

[Josephus]

Finally got around to watching Midnight in Paris. I guess when you watch something with high expectations you're bound to be disappointed. I thought it was OK. Nothing great. Did like Brody as Dali.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Watching The Music Man, Matt Broderick version.  I like the original better, though this isn't bad.

[11B4V]

Trailer for Sons of Norway

(Contains frontal nudity)

That looks fucking funny as hell. I wonder how much the sub titles would take away from it though.

Fucking bananas