TV/Movies Megathread

[Ed Anger]

It's a special weird.

[Syt]

Watched the first half hour of The Angel's Share by Ken Loach, a comedy drama about a group of Scottish delinquents doing community service and deciding to steal/sell high priced whisky. Ultimately, it's a story about a young, unemployed guy with a history of violence, trying to start a new life with his girlfriend and baby boy.

I liked it so far, but this being done with local Scottish talent for the most part, the accent was rather thick for me (much thicker than, say, Trainspotting), and I had at times trouble following the dialogue. I think I need subtitles for that. Or ask my Scottish colleague to translate for me.

It reminded me of German director Detlev Buck's early work about social outsiders in his local Holsteinian area (most notably Karniggels).

[Josquius]

Hugo- I'd heard a lot about how good it was but had no idea what it was about. From the title my guesses were rather wrong. Despite people who normally have good taste saying it was good I found it thoroughly meh.

[Martinus]

As a part of my holiday movie catch-up, watched Snowhite and the Huntsman and Beginners.

I was entertained by both. The former was somewhat uneven but it was nonetheless enjoyable and not too cringe-worthy. The latter was a bit too shallow for a psychological drama and a bit too depressing for a rom-com, but I'm glad I've seen it.

[Syt]

On tap today: the traditional watching of Mickey's Christmas Carol and A Walt Disney Christmas. Gotta love Donald's snow battle with his nephews.

[Admiral Yi]

Just watched my first Christmas movie of the year: Die Hard.

[Darth Wagtaros]

On tap today: the traditional watching of Mickey's Christmas Carol and A Walt Disney Christmas. Gotta love Donald's snow battle with his nephews.

Yes, Both are classics.

[Kleves]

Just watched my first Christmas movie of the year: Die Hard.

Best Christmas movie ever. I have it queued up for later tonight.

[Admiral Yi]

Best Christmas movie ever. I have it queued up for later tonight.

"You just got buttfucked on national television!"

"No, the other Johnston."

[Razgovory]

Just watched my first Christmas movie of the year: Die Hard.

Best Christmas movie ever. I have it queued up for later tonight.

Why didn't I think of that?

[Ed Anger]

The Grinch cartoon.

[Kleves]

"You just got buttfucked on national television!"

"No, the other Johnston."

"We're going to need some more FBI guys, I guess."

[dps]

Just watched the Doctor Who Christmas special.  Featuring, as the voice of the Great Intelligence, Sir Ian McKellen!  How did they keep that secret?

[Ideologue]

Lost Horizon (1937).  Frank Capra.  Serious flop in its time (past people are stupid), but it's pretty good; it's been long enough since I've read the novel that I can't tell you if it's better than the book, but it is of similar quality despite the changes.  Really long for a movie of the era, apparently it was originally 3.5 hours (WTF) and the studio required it to be cut down after test audiences walked out or stayed and went into comas.  I'd like to see that cut someday, but it has unfortunately been swallowed by entropy, if not by Capra's deliberate act of destruction; it is, unless a miracle occurs, fucking gone.  Even the reconstructed 2.25 hour cut, the one that enjoyed the initial commercial release, involves a great deal of patchworking--the audio has been fully or nearly fully restored, but about ten to fifteen minutes of footage is gone forever and the scenes for which audio but not images is available have to be implied by production stills. Sad.

Oh, it's about this dude named Conway finding a Himalayan utopia called Shangri-La, and losing Shangri-La because of his human nature to distrust that which must be taken on faith and also his ass of a brother, and, perhaps, finding Shangri-La again.  Good dialogue, good performances.  Not fully seeing where the two million they gave Capra went, but it looks pretty nice.

B+

[Josquius]

The Muppets- Heard it was good. Thoroughly meh.