TV/Movies Megathread

[Darth Wagtaros]

Taken 2- It doesn't have the driving intesity of the first but it is a fantastic film nonetheless. And hurray for the obvious sequel setup. Doubt the Turks approve of it though; seems to have been a lot of plot cut out, explaining the corrupt cops, what happens at the embassy, etc...

Dredd- Interesting take on a comic book film. It doesn't attempt to reinvent the wheel or tell a story that in the comics took years. It just tells a simple one off Dredd story. Which is nice. Its kinda decent. I do really like its vision of the future. Most sci-fi films take one of two approaches; one, they're super cheap and just have everything happening in modern cities dirtied up a bit, or two, everything is futuristic, entire cities replaced with super high buildings except for a few famous landmarks which stand amidst the future-buildings looking silly. When Dredd is outside though you see a pretty nice and believable mix of modern buildings and future buildings.
One flaw with this film- too much bullet time and long drawn out and pointless special effects shots which I guess were designed to wow an audience in 3d.

Frankenweenie- Crap. Dead dogs are not the stuff of comedy. Brought on a depressive spell in me where I thought too much on a stupid mistake I made around the time my old doggy died. For some weird reason.

Thatcher- Pretty lame as a film but it is better than I feared. I thought it may put her in a positive light but it generally doesn't, even highlights that the Falklands war was her fault. The guy announcing it on TV before hand was funny "Next is Meryl Streep in Thatcher. The following film may not be suitable for miners"

Who's left to be taken? The family pet?

Did miners play a part in the Falklands?

[garbon]

Also, I question your hate dynamic as well. Apart from what the viewer brought to the movie, there wasn't actually much in Basterds to actually make the viewer hate the Nazis. [spoiler]Apart from the early scene at the farmhouse, we don't actually see the Nazis acting particularly evil and in fact Christoph Waltz plays some comic relief.  The German sniper is also mostly sympathetic until he lashes out near his death.[/spoiler]

I dunno about your last point. In both cases the actors were "playing nice" with their intended victims purely to toy with them.

The sniper seemed to me mostly a creepy "Nice Guy" - he was *acting* "nice" purely because he wanted to get laid, would not take her lack of interest as a "no", and was feeling full of self-righteous entitlement to get sex because of it (as we see at the end). Women tend to hate these "nice guys" as much as outward pigs.

I don't think either truly rose to Marti's rule that we should hate and be angry at them throughout the movie.

[Sheilbh]

I mean, by modern day standards, pretty much everyone who lived in this era and was involved in at least one siege was a war criminal, but Saladin's portrayal as a noble warrior is not a modern invention and was actually quite common during this era, even among Christians (Richard, who was also considered the paragon of chivalry by his contemporaries, had a very high opinion of him, for example).

Yep. He's with the virtuous pagans in Limbo in Dante, which is pretty impressive.

Falklands was her fault? In what way? That she didn't hand it over to the Argies? I guess that's true.

The RN used to have some small ships that were kept in the South Atlantic. During IMF cuts in the 70s the MoD proposed cutting them and Jim Callaghan said no because the Argies would misinterpret. Thatcher cut them, the Argies did misinterpret it as a weakening of British commitment to the Falklands and invaded.

Also, is she really still hated?

In some places, and with some people. This is actually a more or less accurate representation of likely responses to her death:

[Ed Anger]

The purple wedge will be the Daily Mail.

[Josephus]

there should be another pie slice. "People tweeting...'I thought she died in the '90s'"

[Tonitrus]

And red will be from the Guardian, yellow from the Daily Telegraph, green from the Times...and those from the Sun won't care because she didn't have big tits? 

[Scipio]

Ide, haven't you seen Dances with Mooselimbs before?

[Admiral Yi]

The RN used to have some small ships that were kept in the South Atlantic. During IMF cuts in the 70s the MoD proposed cutting them and Jim Callaghan said no because the Argies would misinterpret. Thatcher cut them, the Argies did misinterpret it as a weakening of British commitment to the Falklands and invaded.

Which is a looooong way away from "the Falklands war was her fault."

[Sheilbh]

Which is a looooong way away from "the Falklands war was her fault."

Not really. There's a strong argument that if the RN hadn't been removed from the area there wouldn't have been a war.

Of course that's not sufficient - the Argentines invaded and her response during the war was very good.

[Ideologue]

Falklands was her fault? In what way? That she didn't hand it over to the Argies? I guess that's true.

Also, is she really still hated? Is a healthy economy really that insulting to Brits?

Every Briton that died to retake the Falklands was her fault, because the UK had Polaris, and the Argentines did not.

[Ideologue]

That's be great Marti except a lot doesn't fit many Tarantino flicks particularly the protagonist being likely to die. We're told in many of his films to view the protagonist as good. Particularly in his last two where the bad guys are universal archetypes of villainy (Nazis and slave owners).

You're right in pointing out that the films are driven by revenge, however, the modifier is basically moot as we're not asked to critically assess the protagonists's actions nor do we have to worry much about them failing at their tasks.

Well, we really kind of are in Basterds, which I felt was both a strength and a weakness of that movie, smacking of Tarantino wanting to have his cake and eat it too.  But in any event, both the Basterds (as butchers) and Shosanna (albeit only obviously in the part where she threatens to kill a supposed collaborators' family) inhabit a morally gray territory even without looking for any subtext.

But they are not anti-heroes.  The last anti-hero in a Tarantino movie was Beatrix Kiddo--she's a monster, too, and not really ever redeemed, unless just "having a daughter" redeems you, which it doesn't, though maybe we're supposed to think it does.  Kim, Zoe, and Abernathy from Death Proof are classic reactive heroes.

And Django is, as you say, very much good against evil.  I like to think I've made a pretty lucid case that Django is not, until very late in the film, even seeking revenge.  (Well, maybe with the three brothers, which gets wrapped up at about the sixty minute mark.)

Yep. He's with the virtuous pagans in Limbo in Dante, which is pretty impressive.

Yeah, and Brutus and Cassius are chilling out with Judas (lol get it) for all eternity, because killing Julius Caesar is EXACTLY THE SAME AS KILLING JESUS.  I'm not sure Dante had a completely consistent scheme in the Inferno, other than, "Oh, he's famous, and did [X] that falls into this general category of action."  But then it's been a while since I've read it.

[Ideologue]

Also, I question your hate dynamic as well. Apart from what the viewer brought to the movie, there wasn't actually much in Basterds to actually make the viewer hate the Nazis. [spoiler]Apart from the early scene at the farmhouse, we don't actually see the Nazis acting particularly evil and in fact Christoph Waltz plays some comic relief.  The German sniper is also mostly sympathetic until he lashes out near his death.[/spoiler]

I dunno about your last point. In both cases the actors were "playing nice" with their intended victims purely to toy with them.

The sniper seemed to me mostly a creepy "Nice Guy" - he was *acting* "nice" purely because he wanted to get laid, would not take her lack of interest as a "no", and was feeling full of self-righteous entitlement to get sex because of it (as we see at the end). Women tend to hate these "nice guys" as much as outward pigs.

I still think it would have been better if he'd just been nice.  One does get the impression that he isn't totally faking his unease at all the Americans he killed.  But, nope, quasi-rapist.

[CountDeMoney]

Yep. He's with the virtuous pagans in Limbo in Dante, which is pretty impressive.

Yeah, and Brutus and Cassius are chilling out with Judas (lol get it) for all eternity, because killing Julius Caesar is EXACTLY THE SAME AS KILLING JESUS.  I'm not sure Dante had a completely consistent scheme in the Inferno, other than, "Oh, he's famous, and did [X] that falls into this general category of action."  But then it's been a while since I've read it.

Like so many of the Italian politicians and figures that find themselves in various circles, there's are very political reasons specific to Dante as to why they're where they are with Judas. 
But I'd suspect you would figure that one out, considering how you realize that Dante's only consistent scheme for the Inferno are his political and personal inclinations.

[garbon]

Learn to use quotes?

[CountDeMoney]

Learn to use quotes?

No.