TV/Movies Megathread

[Josquius]

Moonrise Kingdom- Thinks way too highly of itself. Some amusing moments but overal meh.

[Tonitrus]

CBS's "Sunday Morning".

I've always enjoyed this news magazine show (my favorite just ahead of 60 Minutes), even as a teenager.  Sometimes I think I must have always had the soul of a really old person.

[Ed Anger]

I enjoy the show nowadays. 

[CountDeMoney]

I enjoy the show nowadays. 

It's a maturity thing.  "Sunday Morning" used to drive me batshit crazy as a kid.   BORINGER THAN 60 MINUTES MAN  WITH A STUPID SUN INSTEAD OF A STOPWATCH

Now, it's nice and pleasant with a cup of coffee.  It's like the weekend is giving you a nice scalp massage.

[Tonitrus]

I enjoy the show nowadays. 

It's a maturity thing.  "Sunday Morning" used to drive me batshit crazy as a kid.   BORINGER THAN 60 MINUTES MAN  WITH A STUPID SUN INSTEAD OF A STOPWATCH

Now, it's nice and pleasant with a cup of coffee.  It's like the weekend is giving you a nice scalp massage.

And then you watch a Ravens game... 

[CountDeMoney]

Yes.  The scalp getting knotted the fuck back up real quick.

[Liep]

Star Wars V or coverage of the American election? Easy the choice is.

[The Larch]

Moonrise Kingdom- Thinks way too highly of itself. Some amusing moments but overal meh.

You're a lost cause.

[Ideologue]

Moonrise Kingdom- Thinks way too highly of itself. Some amusing moments but overal meh.

Sigh.

Anyway, is Batman Returns the best Batman movie?  These days you can't talk about the Burton films in a vacuum, so I won't try.  What struck me upon seeing this buried classic for the first time in over a decade is that the Dark Knight Rises, with tweaks, is about 70% badly cloned from Batman Returns, and at one and a half times as long and ten times as pretentious, fails to be half as entertaining.  Seriously: 1)guy with an army that lives in the sewers (Penguin here, Bane there); 2)a completely bogus bid for respectability (dark horse mayoral candidate here, revolutionary Fauxccupy hero there); 3)Catwoman played as broadly as humanly possible as a feminist subversive (Pfeiffer here, Hathaway there); 4)lawful evil force what tries to co-opt chaotic evil force and predictably fails (Shreck and Penguin here, Daggett and Bane there); 5)a public set against Batman, until it's not (Batman framed by the Penguin here, a holdover from the dumb ending of Dark Knight there; and 6)all story movement lubricated by copious amounts of total bullshit (too numerous to specify in each).

I guess the difference is, as bugnuts crazy as it is, Batman Returns manages to still retain believable character motivations and chains of causation that hold up to at least a little scrutiny.  I wish Tim Burton had gotten to make three Batman movies (producing Forever notwithstanding, nor Forever being reasonably good without his direction).  See, Burton's weren't plagued by whatever issue Nolan had with providing a third act that wasn't crap.  Nor do they harbor such a haughty self-importance (not just code for being overly long, although clearly Nolan believed he was giving us our generation's Das Boot and Lawrence of Arabia).  They're also arguably better shot, and feature a non-crybaby Batman.  And most damningly, the Nolanbat films always start out with more potential, and better foundations, but by the end he's done far less in more time than Burton did with less, and perhaps less interesting, material.

Bane should be more interesting than the Penguin--shouldn't he?  But you watch the movies that you have, not the ones you wish they'd made.  A

[Ideologue]

Is the little kid from the first one the dad? Well, if he went into acting, he clearly could use the work. 

No.  That guy, Daniel Stern was.

He was great in C.H.U.D.

[CountDeMoney]

Anyway, is Batman Returns the best Batman movie?  These days you can't talk about the Burton films in a vacuum, so I won't try.  What struck me upon seeing this buried classic for the first time in over a decade is that the Dark Knight Rises, with tweaks, is about 70% badly cloned from Batman Returns, and at one and a half times as long and ten times as pretentious, fails to be half as entertaining.  Seriously: 1)guy with an army that lives in the sewers (Penguin here, Bane there); 2)a completely bogus bid for respectability (dark horse mayoral candidate here, revolutionary Fauxccupy hero there); 3)Catwoman played as broadly as humanly possible as a feminist subversive (Pfeiffer here, Hathaway there); 4)lawful evil force what tries to co-opt chaotic evil force and predictably fails (Shreck and Penguin here, Daggett and Bane there); 5)a public set against Batman, until it's not (Batman framed by the Penguin here, a holdover from the dumb ending of Dark Knight there; and 6)all story movement lubricated by copious amounts of total bullshit (too numerous to specify in each).

I guess the difference is, as bugnuts crazy as it is, Batman Returns manages to still retain believable character motivations and chains of causation that hold up to at least a little scrutiny.  I wish Tim Burton had gotten to make three Batman movies (producing Forever notwithstanding, nor Forever being reasonably good without his direction).  See, Burton's weren't plagued by whatever issue Nolan had with providing a third act that wasn't crap.  Nor do they harbor such a haughty self-importance (not just code for being overly long, although clearly Nolan believed he was giving us our generation's Das Boot and Lawrence of Arabia).  They're also arguably better shot, and feature a non-crybaby Batman.  And most damningly, the Nolanbat films always start out with more potential, and better foundations, but by the end he's done far less in more time than Burton did with less, and perhaps less interesting, material.

Bane should be more interesting than the Penguin--shouldn't he?  But you watch the movies that you have, not the ones you wish they'd made.  A

Dude, you're supposed to eat that big bowl of cheese, not freebase it.

[Ed Anger]

Last night during the insomnia attack, I was watching short films of women getting enemas. Not my bag baby.

[Viking]

Ide


I said this about Nolan some time ago.

rewatching all of Nolan's batman. TBH, it is disorganized unfocussed overly dense and in each case has a nasty case of filmus interruptus half way through in each case.

He tries to cram two movies into each one and then spends most of the time advancing the plot of neither.

I'm gonna make myself unpopular but they were crap. I'm not sure how serious and dark you can be when you have a hero in tights.

Now we are two, time to build a bandwagon.

[Neil]

Bane should be more interesting than the Penguin--shouldn't he?

Should he?  They're both pretty generic.  At least the Penguin has a history of capers and some time in the grey area.  Bane was just a smart guy that they gave some steroids who had a plan for breaking the Batman.  Then he was defeated and became a second-rater.  And then, when it looked like he might actually become something more in the Secret Six book, DC decided to torpedo their entire comics line.

[Kleves]

Now we are two, time to build a bandwagon.

Ide and Viking: united against good taste.