TV/Movies Megathread

[CountDeMoney]

Yes, that was certainly a plot dynamic I wasn't expecting.

And, while I am a diehard Rickocrat, Michonne is one of my fave-rave TV baddasses ever.  [spoiler]She had no compunction whatsoever doing the deed in front of the man himself.  I LOL'd heartily.[/spoiler]

[HVC]

Strong crazy woman and you're in love? You're like the real life male version of blondy

[spoiler]although from the preview it looks like at least merle survives. and that rick may or may not tap 17 year old booty[/spoiler]

[garbon]

Now what gives, Seedy?

[katmai]

Now what gives, Seedy?

No shit, ass!

[Ideologue]

Scip, I've got some sassback; I had been waiting until I was 1)less busy at work and 2)had fully formed my opinion of Skyfall, which is very good but is also very, perhaps even moreso, problematic.  Neither of those things has happened yet, so let's just say, three acts?  Three acts?  I bet the script was written on paper and in what we would now describe as Courier too.  WTF?  Even if From Russia is the most structurally sound Bond film (which I do not agree with), all that shows is that conventional structure is not very important.  I also don't see it as much of a character study.  I just watched There Will Be Blood.  That's a character study.  The only four things There Will Be Blood and From Russia With Love have in common is that they are predominantly but not entirely in the English language, they were loosely adapted from novels, trains make for the setting of key scenes, and they were exhibited in cinemas.  What did I learn about James Bond's character in From Russia that I didn't in Dr. No or Goldfinger?  I guess that he doesn't like it when women fight to the death because this would prevent them from sexually pleasuring him simultaneously?  Well, I did not find that a revelation.  

Anyway, I didn't dislike From Russia, I just don't see what you see in it.  I'm glad you do like it as much as you do--honestly--but I do prefer my Bond films with true supervillainy, indeed, the more cartoonish the better.  The closer they hew to reality the likelier they are, as in From Russia, to cock it up.  Sure, Bond is not doing fantastic spy work in, for example, Moonraker, either, but that movie has Jaws, lasers, a killer virus, and a space station.  From Russia with love has a speedboat chase.  And Moonraker has that, too.  Two of them, actually.  Which is that film's only flaw.

***

There Will Be Blood (2007).  Despite being very fond of Paul Thomas Anderson, I'd neglected to watch this back then and only just got around to it.  Holy crap, are all those people who said Anderson got robbed by the Coen Brothers at the Oscars full of shit.  I rewatched No Country For Old Men a few days ago and this really is not nearly as good.

I think I want to see it again before I really form an opinion of it.  I wanted to love it and I only liked it, but I can't help but feeling that I was unfairly expecting something the movie wasn't trying to sell me, namely Bill the Butcher as an oil man.  That said, the best parts are Bill the Butcher as an oil man.  I can't tell whether I'm being uncharitable to say that there is a character vacuum in the film--that is, when Day-Lewis' Plainview is not permitted to spill his megalomaniacal guts all over the screen, there isn't anyone else to latch onto.

I mean, I bought the darned thing, because the disc was only five bucks more than the online rental and the online rental came with it, and I was getting Boogie Nights and Magnolia anyway (no Blu Ray for Punch Drunk Love, do you believe that shit?--nor Hard Eight, I think that DVD is even out of print), so I will have the opportunity to watch it again.    We'll see.  (But it's definitely lesser than No Country For Old Men.  I dreamed I watched a frustrating Paul Thomas Anderson movie.  Then I woke up. ) I

***

I watch TV shows sometimes!  American Horror Story.  I was kinda shanghaied into this by Africa, but we wound up watching the whole first season straight through.  It's gloriously over-the-top, and as you know I like over-the-top, arguably to the extent of camp, and this is pretty definitely that.  It takes the haunted house story to its ridiculous but logical conclusion: don't those people the ghosts first drive mad and then destroy just become fucked-up ghosts too?  YES THEY DO.  [spoiler]Then it becomes Beetlejuice: The Live Action Show.[/spoiler].  Anyway, A.

[Syt]

There Will Be Blood (2007).  Despite being very fond of Paul Thomas Anderson, I'd neglected to watch this back then and only just got around to it.  Holy crap, are all those people who said Anderson got robbed by the Coen Brothers at the Oscars full of shit.  I rewatched No Country For Old Men a few days ago and this really is not nearly as good.

You should read "OIL!", the book it's EXTREMELY loosely based on. It's a farce about class struggle between workers and capitalists in 1920s U.S.A. You should love it.

[Josquius]

Walking Dead-



I was so expecting the black guy to bite it. Shame they went for such a cliche. But then it would also be skilly if they killed tonnes of the Governor's people and lost none of their own.
Wonder what made the cool black lady act like such a freaking moron. Surely she's seen kiddy zombies before. And why try to strangle the governor instead of just cut him?
Unexpected the new group showed up at the prison at this very moment. I thought it was a future scene and they were going to flash back to show how the prison got that way.
The mystery of why the governor and his people are such dicks continues without answer yet. hmm....
Absolutely hate this mid-series break that a lot of shows do these days.

[Viking]

[spoiler]We needed that new group, we now have Tyreese![/spoiler]

[Viking]

Dexter: So... Dexter [spoiler]spares the firebug because they both do what they do because of something bad that happened to them as kids.[/spoiler] Then later, Dexter [spoiler]kills blondie's dad because he was going to expose her[/spoiler]. This makes me wonder if blondie is going [spoiler]to try and kill Deborah because she is determined to expose her[/spoiler] and blondie will argue that [spoiler]she's just going to kill Deborah for the same reason Dexter killed her dad.[/spoiler] Apparently this makes perfect moral sense to me... but given that this is TV I expect that [spoiler]blondie will end up back on Dexters operating slab with Deborah watching and realizing that only by murdering blondie is Dexter safe, because she will blab and/or kill Deborah if left alive.[/spoiler]

That's just my two cents.

[CountDeMoney]

Now what gives, Seedy?

What's your damage, sunshine?  I didn't spoil nuffin'. 

[CountDeMoney]

Strong crazy woman and you're in love? You're like the real life male version of blondy

[spoiler]although from the preview it looks like at least merle survives. and that rick may or may not tap 17 year old booty[/spoiler]

  Don't gimme that.  You're in the Zombie Apocalypse, that's exactly the kind of chick you want on the Soul Train with you.

[spoiler]And good for Rick.  Bet he's gonna have to fight his son over it, too.  Poor Carl.  Puberty in the Zombie Apocalypse is a bitch.[/spoiler]

[dps]

I thought the quality, or lack thereof, had nothing to do with box office bomb.  Wasnt it just that nobody knew who or what John Carter was?   

I don't think that it was marketed very well.  The title itself didn't help either--it needed to be titled "John Carter of Mars" or "Edgar Rice Burrough's John Carter" or something like that.  I'm pretty familiar with Burroughs, but just tell me that there's a movie out called "John Carter" and I might not make the connection.

[Ed Anger]

Looker from 1981. A rather pedestrian movie, but it predicts the future pretty well. Also, HOT CHICKS.

on a scale from -99 to 5, I give it a zero.

[HVC]

Strong crazy woman and you're in love? You're like the real life male version of blondy

[spoiler]although from the preview it looks like at least merle survives. and that rick may or may not tap 17 year old booty[/spoiler]

  Don't gimme that.  You're in the Zombie Apocalypse, that's exactly the kind of chick you want on the Soul Train with you.

[spoiler]And good for Rick.  Bet he's gonna have to fight his son over it, too.  Poor Carl.  Puberty in the Zombie Apocalypse is a bitch.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]shes gonna fall for the new teen and Carl is gonna kill him. Betcha. [/spoiler]

[CountDeMoney]

Looker from 1981. A rather pedestrian movie, but it predicts the future pretty well. Also, HOT CHICKS.

on a scale from -99 to 5, I give it a zero.

I'm not even going to bother telling you how much I whacked off to that during Pubertylooza '82.