TV/Movies Megathread

[CountDeMoney]

So I'm watching Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  Who the fuck OK'd this at the studio?

[katmai]

So I'm watching Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  Who the fuck OK'd this at the studio?

timmaytards.

[11B4V]

So I'm watching Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  Who the fuck OK'd this at the studio?

Braver man than I. I wont even touch that one.

[Eddie Teach]

It was going downhill ever since Jim and Pam got together and getting sillier with each season. Steve Carrell leaving was the final kicker. I like Ed Helms a lot, but he can't carry the show like that.

Rainn Wilson was much funnier than Helms.

And yeah, the final two seasons were considerably weaker than the rest.

[CountDeMoney]

So I'm watching Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  Who the fuck OK'd this at the studio?

Braver man than I. I wont even touch that one.

No shit. Don't.

There is a true difference between silly fun (300, the Kill Bills) and stupid fun (Will Ferrell movies, the Farrelly Brothers), and just silly and stupid.

[11B4V]

It was going downhill ever since Jim and Pam got together and getting sillier with each season. Steve Carrell leaving was the final kicker. I like Ed Helms a lot, but he can't carry the show like that.

Rainn Wilson was much funnier than Helms.

And yeah, the final two seasons were considerably weaker than the rest.

You look very exotic. Was your dad a GI?

One of my favorite lines from that show. 

[CountDeMoney]

And yeah, the final two seasons were considerably weaker than the rest.

The Office has been dying for a long time, but Parks and Recreation overtook it the moment it started.

[CountDeMoney]

So I'm watching Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter.  Who the fuck OK'd this at the studio?

timmaytards.

I eagerly await the treatment for Jimmy Carter, Master of Apathy.

[Eddie Teach]

Nah, Parks and Rec took a while to hit its stride. First season had a lot of "will they, won't they" with that creepy-looking Mark guy.

[Syt]

It was going downhill ever since Jim and Pam got together and getting sillier with each season. Steve Carrell leaving was the final kicker. I like Ed Helms a lot, but he can't carry the show like that.

Rainn Wilson was much funnier than Helms.

Nah, I found the Schrute character to become rather unfunny after a while. His on-and-off affair with Angela made matters worse. James Spader was pretty fun in Season 8, though.

[CountDeMoney]

Contagion.  Icky pooh.

If Mother Nature decides to right the balance, that's how it's going to go.  A bug.

[Ideologue]

I'll be looking forward to this
Mad Max: Fury Road
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1392190/

The Road Warrior still has a 100% on RT and

Mad Max a 95%

Radical.  The trilogy's out on the Blu Ray in a few weeks; a bit overpriced, but I'll be picking that up.

***

Tron: Legacy (2010).  WOW.  This is a movie with no real intellectual ambition; emotional ambitions that it mishandles awkwardly as often as it succeeds with them; and aesthetic ambitions so majestically fulfilled that its failures to be intelligent or moving, when it really should have been, are nearly meaningless in comparison.

Of course it's theoretically a disappointment that Tron: Legacy is not much more sophisticated in its ideas than its predecessor, rapidly betraying some early signs that it might be.  But was it even likely that the science fantasy, with the emphasis on fantasy, that drove the first Tron would be replaced here with hard SF and a fistfull of new and exciting ideas?  Indeed, we should be pleased that it has as much to offer the mind as it does, which is to say anything at all.  And it has a little bit; it certainly has enough for what it wishes to do (though the absence of the visual of a Master Control-type mega-being is perhaps a missed opportunity).  But you can't really call Tron: Legacy stupid, because the categories of "stupid" and "smart" do not readily apply to this kind of experience.  Is a sunrise stupid?  Is a gangbang smart?

There is not a lack of heart here either, and it keeps the audiovisual explosion from simply numbing rather than exciting.  The movie is often very funny and never fails to entertain.  Garrett Hedlund (Sam Flynn) grows on you despite an initial lack of charisma, Olivia Wilde (Cora) is a)hot and b)believable as a game-changing program, Michael Sheen (Zeus) is a delight as always, Bruce Boxleitner (Bradley, and once Tron) is Bruce Boxleitner (Captain Sheridan), and Jeff Bridges steals everything, excellent in his dual roles as Kevin Flynn and CLU, and the choice to play the old Flyyn as the Dude (as has been noted so often by others, but is worth noting again) is inspired and true to the path the character he played a quarter century ago was on.  Just as importantly, the script handles the strange and strained relationships between Kevin Flynn and his biological and technological children rather well.  But it has to be acknowledged: we can be reasonably upset (if spoilers are necessary for a three year old movie) [spoiler]that both Tron's reveal and Tron's redemption are almost insultingly perfunctory given that Tron's corruption, foreshadowed so well, should be immensely important when the elder Flynn discovers it and his concern for his old friend should form part of the structure of the third act conflict, and it doesn't. This, alone, impacted by enjoyment.  Tron's legacy appears to be that no one cares about him.  Yes, I was waiting for old Bridges' big scene with a CGI-smoothed Bruce Boxleitner; why was that so hard to give me?[/spoiler]

So, to be sure, the film has a problem or two.  But who could care?  Perhaps the blind or the deaf.  For the sighted and the hearing, Tron: Legacy is a miracle of digital creation.  That it is not perfect in every arena is not the point.  Perfection, as at one point the elder Flynn tries to impart upon his artificially intelligent doppelganger, is impossible.  I watched Tron: Legacy and something like it was right in front of my face for two hours and five minutes.  A

Joe Kosinski, who directed Tron: Legacy as his first feature (!) and Oblivion as his second, is shaping up to be to throwback sci-fi spectacle what Duncan Jones (Moon, Source Code) is to throwback sci-fi drama.  Their careers have even followed the same path so far, to an extent--first films so good they make me want to cum on the screen, with really entertaining but not-as-good and commercially-disappointing sophomore efforts, although Oblivion not to the same extent as Source Code.  If we could somehow combine the two, we'd have the ultimate SF moviemaker.  In any event, Kosinski's definitely a name I'll be looking out for in the future.

[Eddie Teach]

Gave Gattaca another viewing. Neat little flick. I bet Ide has already made an Ethan Hawke = Superman joke, so I'll refrain.

[Ideologue]

Gave Gattaca another viewing. Neat little flick. I bet Ide has already made an Ethan Hawke = Superman joke, so I'll refrain.

Ethan Hawke is one of the greats, yes, and the downward trajectory of his career is baffling and saddening, though it does mean that Sinister could exist.  He'll also be in that stupid-as-shit-looking movie about a crime holiday, I forget its name.  So I'll be seeing it.

I most likely won't be seeing Before Midnight because while I'm sure it's perfectly good, I 1)don't believe it's coming out around here and 2)haven't seen the other two, and those don't exactly get me hard either.  Maybe one of these days I'll watch 'em in a marathon.

The descent of Andrew Niccol is also disheartening.  In Time I rather didn't like, and I understand The Host was wretched.

It's all a Goddamned shame.

[Eddie Teach]

Ok now I have to explain the joke. It's because he's unrecognizable when he takes his glasses off, not because of any superhuman ability.