TV/Movies Megathread

[Neil]

So, after the fifth Harry Potter movie and so far enjoying each one more than the last.

Although, I wonder if anyone commented that we have seen old gay wizards protecting young boyish heroes who happen to have special connection to a great villain who commands wraiths in long billowy robes in another series already?

Christ, Daniel Radcliffe and Elijah Wood even look alike.

Gandalf wasn't gay.

[Queequeg]

I also recommend 13 Assassins

I enjoyed this as much as any movie in the past 5 years.

[Eddie Teach]

So, after the fifth Harry Potter movie and so far enjoying each one more than the last.

Although, I wonder if anyone commented that we have seen old gay wizards protecting young boyish heroes who happen to have special connection to a great villain who commands wraiths in long billowy robes in another series already?

Christ, Daniel Radcliffe and Elijah Wood even look alike.

Gandalf wasn't gay.

Marty's apparently unfamiliar with the concept of "acting".

[garbon]

I forgot to post that I saw Django Unchained.

It was alright to pretty good though it was in serious need of an editor. Christoph Waltz and Leo were great. Tarantino should be pretty embarrassed though about the scene that he has a speaking part in. That was dreadful and completely unnecessary.

[Ideologue]

I forgot to post that I saw Django Unchained.

It was alright to pretty good though it was in serious need of an editor.

WELL WHY DON'T YOU GO DIG HER UP MY GOD.



I thought it was extremely brisk.

I also have no idea why Tarantino was Australian.  I guess there can be Australians in the South in 1858, but unless it's a reference to something I don't get, it's a weird choice.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Best Exotic Marigold HOtel.  Pretty good.

[CountDeMoney]

It was alright to pretty good though it was in serious need of an editor. Christoph Waltz and Leo were great. Tarantino should be pretty embarrassed though about the scene that he has a speaking part in. That was dreadful and completely unnecessary.

I haven't seen it yet, but that statement could qualify for a couple Tarantino movies.

[CountDeMoney]

FFS, another Texas Chainsaw movie?

[Ed Anger]

FFS, another Texas Chainsaw movie?

Yup. In headache inducing 3D too.

[Kleves]

I recently saw Django and Les Miserables.

Django was unfortunately mediocre. It was fairly compelling for about 2/3 of the film (and had a couple of excellent scenes, as all Tarantino movies do) but went of the rails near the end. [spoiler]Specifically, when by far the two most interesting characters in the film are killed off. The rest of the movie is pretty much Foxx putting on sunglasses at night and killing dozens of overseers while rap music plays. [/spoiler]

I liked Les Mis, though the revolutionaries really come off as a bunch of twats (especially Marius). I suppose that's probably historically accurate.

[Ideologue]

Cosmopolis (2012).  Mitt Romney gets half a haircut while having obtuse conversations.  Not my favorite Cronenberg film, but it was a better Occupy movie than, say, Dark Knight Rises.  One unalloyed compliment: Robert Pattinson is pretty Goddamned great in it, and it's good to finally see him put his off-putting, affectless Edward Cullenness to good use.  Unfortunately, while there's much to like and I can ambivalently recommend Cosmopolis, the rest of this review will be critical.

Already the weirdest good movie I've seen this year (thereby discounting Beyond the Black Rainbow), it really gets even weirder about two thirds through, and not for the better, when Pattinson undertakes an action which, although designed to show his impulsiveness and crazy rich sociopath morality, still seemed a little out of left field, even for his character here. After this point, the already tenuous narrative logic disappears, and the heretofore interesting character study gets lost too.  Dialogue, already very unnaturalistic, becomes bad poetry, and motivations, even ascribed motivations, vanish into the air, so at the end all we have is an abstract art installation rather than a proper movie.  Some people like this, but I'm not too fond of them if they don't rise above the impulse to wax bullshit.  When they manage to resist this temptation, I love them and hold them above almost all else--see Linklater's Waking Life (which also had a more cohesive plot, such as it was).  Sadly, Cronenberg's script gives up that struggle a seventy minutes in.

Naturally, with Cronenberg going for this kind of storytelling or lack of storytelling as the case actually is, the movie stalls out through most of the last third.  However, and none to soon, the climax gets it moving again when Roddy Piper and Keith David bust into Pattinson's limo, destroy his jamming device, and reveal his true nature to the world.

Well, OK, maybe that part didn't happen.  But rest assured it'd be a vast improvement.

Sigh.  Clearly a movie aimed right at my heart, I regret to report that it disappoints. B

The Gauntlet (1977).  Man, they shoot the shit out of that bus! B

[jimmy olsen]

OZ the Great and Powerful looks amazing!

[Ideologue]

OZ the Great and Powerful looks amazing!

Only the names Sam Raimi and James Franco attached to it mean anything to me.  The movie itself looks like another bucket of computer puke rendered in CG.  Could still be good.  Why is Mila Kunis dressed like Carmen Sandiego?

[Jaron]

I do not like Jamie Foxx.

[garbon]

Django was unfortunately mediocre. It was fairly compelling for about 2/3 of the film (and had a couple of excellent scenes, as all Tarantino movies do) but went of the rails near the end. [spoiler]Specifically, when by far the two most interesting characters in the film are killed off. The rest of the movie is pretty much Foxx putting on sunglasses at night and killing dozens of overseers while rap music plays. [/spoiler]

I'd agree with that. [spoiler]I didn't really understand why the final gun battle was split up by the hanging upside down and Australian scenes. Given by then we knew how the movie would end, I didn't see why it was necessary to prolong the conclusion.[/spoiler]