TV/Movies Megathread

[CountDeMoney]

That was a pretty nifty movie, actually.  More Tarantinoish than it needed to be, but James Spader made a cool psychopath.

[Ideologue]

Immortals.  This movie is turdy, although there are a few parts that are neat, especially the next to last shot featuring (spoiler for bad film) the war in heaven, which does in fact look really mind-blowingly awesome--but it is the definition of too little too late.  It's dire as an adaptation of Greek mythological source material, most confusingly when the villain is named Hyperion, and the plot is his desire to release the Titans, which is sort of like an Easter film about a guy named Jesus who's looking for the Holy Grail.  Also, personally, I got the point that Hyperion is evil by the time he executed the third subordinate who has brought him bad news; I don't think I needed to see the fourth through billionth.  Ultimately, the movie commits the ultimate sin of being really boring, both narratively (it's like a less clever 300) and cinematically (FILMED IN BROWNOVISION).  C

Also Thor again.  Can you believe Africa said Immortals was better?  Branagh doing visually amazing Shakespearean tragedy with superheroes vs. the guy that made The Cell greasing up half-naked beefcake for a less interesting version of Hercules Versus the Moon Men--TOUGH CALL.

[CountDeMoney]

most confusingly when the villain is named Hyperion,

Sounds like a Fortune 500 M&A specialist for some mega-corporation.  Hyperion: Bringing The Future Now.  I can even see the corporate branding logo.

vs. the guy that made The Cell

Anything with Jennifer Lopez in a collar is Golden Globe material right there.

[Ideologue]

http://youtu.be/KVu3gS7iJu4

Newest trailer for Man of Steel.

Outrageous, Jonathon Kent would never say that! 

Why, do you know him personally?

I like the idea of a Superman movie dealing with the fundamental, but usually-unstated, premise of the Superman comics: he chooses who lives and who dies as to whether it suits his convenience, whim, or morality to save them.

Prediction: one of the best movies of the year, one of the best superhero movies ever.

That said, it would also be nice to see a Superman movie principally about Superman punching Brainiac or Mongul.  Now that the technology is here to put that on screen, a big action movie devoid of God metaphors or even thematic weight would actually be pretty delightful.

Also, Kleves; thanks for the Pacific Rim trailer.  Looks like Evangelion, but made for an American audience, so that it won't be creepy and gross.  I'm looking forward to it.  Should be a nice taste of what they can do with giant monsters till Godzilla arrives in 2014.

[Ideologue]

most confusingly when the villain is named Hyperion,

Sounds like a Fortune 500 M&A specialist for some mega-corporation.  Hyperion: Bringing The Future Now.  I can even see the corporate branding logo.

vs. the guy that made The Cell

Anything with Jennifer Lopez in a collar is Golden Globe material right there.

Fair enough.  Although at least that movie had colors in it.

[The Brain]

Which had Sean Penn in it.

[Sheilbh]

Garth Marenghi's Darkplace. The entire series. Amusing, and the 80s ruled.

Brilliant show.

You may also enjoy Nathan Barley.

[Malthus]

It probably is a lot better than the Soviet version, though.

OMG I'd love to see that! 

[Josquius]

You Only Live Twice= Bond+60s+Japan = Win

[Admiral Yi]

Just watched Tinker Tailor.  Creditable, but I gotta ask what the point was of making so many cosmetic changes to the book.  Why Istanbul instead of Hong Kong?  Why Hungary instead of Czechoslovakia?  And why the hell did they make Peter Guillaume gay?

[Jacob]

Watched Sherlock Holmes and Avengers recently. Both of them were entertaining enough on the trans-pacific flight... the biggest annoyance was that they turned of the films when there were still 5-10 minutes left of Sherlock Holmes. I wonder if they catch they unravel the plot and catch the bad guy in the end? I rate both of them as good solid entertainment. Avengers, by the way, was the first superhero film I've watched except maybe one of the Batman films back in the day. If they're all that decent, I might watch more. Thor offended my Scandinavian-mythologist-curmudgeon sensibilities much less than I expected.

On the same set of flights I also watched a Japanese film about a couple who move to Hokkaido to open a little bed & breakfast/ cafe and make people happy by making them food. Pretty landscapes, incredibly slow pacing (holy fuck was it slow), and missing a couple of key points like why the woman part of the couple was depressed to begin with. I did feel it gave me a better understanding of my one Japanese hippie friend who's gone off the deep end about crystals and pure water and whatever else.

As well, I watched a Korean romantic comedy with many different characters. Plot structure wise it was a bit like Pulp Fiction. It had some gangsters too, but no killing and so on, so it wasn't really like Tarantino. The main thing that got the plot going was the hot ex-girlfriend who, it turns out, is a total gold digger who lies and tries to abscond with peoples' money all the time. There's a couple of clever twists here and there and everything works out in the end.

Finally (or maybe secondly, I forget the order), I watched a Taiwanese film about an up-and-coming singer who loses her voice and hides out from everyone in some corner of Taipei. There she meets a young man with no parents who's just super nice. They sort of fall in love, but they're pulled in different directions in the wistful way of Taiwanese and Hong Kong films.

Next film I'll watch is likely the Hobbit. I expect I'll enjoy it immensely.

[Admiral Yi]

Not all superhero movies are good.  There are some real lemons out there.

[Ideologue]

Thor offended my Scandinavian-mythologist-curmudgeon sensibilities much less than I expected.

Yeah, Stan Lee and Jack Kirby changed a lot around when they invented the character and the setting back in the 60s, and subsequent creators really took it in weird directions (there is an alien Thor, for example, who looks like an orange horse; he's actually pretty rad).

The most fundamental change, of course, is Loki as Thor's adoptive brother instead of Odin's blood brother.  This used to bug me, but I've come to realize that this is kind of a stroke of genius, since the comic wasn't called Odin.  The redefined relationships work beautifully in the movie Thor.  If you only watch one of the other Marvel movies leading up to Avengers, watch that one.

Speaking of Chinese movies (Hong Kongese in this case), I think you'd get a kick out of Wong Kar-wai's 2054.  The plot's weird and one part takes place in a fictionalized version of that year as imagined by the main character, a writer.  Much of the rest takes place in a hotel room by that number.  There's romance and longing and Asian ladies and such.  I liked it.  Haven't seen the rest of Wong's stuff, but one of these days I'll get around to it.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Immortals.  This movie is turdy, although there are a few parts that are neat, especially the next to last shot featuring (spoiler for bad film) the war in heaven, which does in fact look really mind-blowingly awesome--but it is the definition of too little too late.  It's dire as an adaptation of Greek mythological source material, most confusingly when the villain is named Hyperion, and the plot is his desire to release the Titans, which is sort of like an Easter film about a guy named Jesus who's looking for the Holy Grail.  Also, personally, I got the point that Hyperion is evil by the time he executed the third subordinate who has brought him bad news; I don't think I needed to see the fourth through billionth.  Ultimately, the movie commits the ultimate sin of being really boring, both narratively (it's like a less clever 300) and cinematically (FILMED IN BROWNOVISION).  C

Also Thor again.  Can you believe Africa said Immortals was better?  Branagh doing visually amazing Shakespearean tragedy with superheroes vs. the guy that made The Cell greasing up half-naked beefcake for a less interesting version of Hercules Versus the Moon Men--TOUGH CALL.

Yeah, saw it on Netflix.  What a pile of crap.  Made the Clash of the Titans remake look like high cinema.

[garbon]

Speaking of Chinese movies (Hong Kongese in this case), I think you'd get a kick out of Wong Kar-wai's 2054.  The plot's weird and one part takes place in a fictionalized version of that year as imagined by the main character, a writer.  Much of the rest takes place in a hotel room by that number.  There's romance and longing and Asian ladies and such.  I liked it.  Haven't seen the rest of Wong's stuff, but one of these days I'll get around to it.

I think you mean 2046. I saw that and from what I remember I kinda liked it. Especially: