TV/Movies Megathread

[garbon]

Katherine Heigel is ridiculous as she says she deplores those parts and won't play them but then always agrees to the money she gets for them.

[CountDeMoney]

I'd bang the quirky romanticism right the fuck out of her and into next week.

[crazy canuck]

I was watching Utopia over the weekend.

I would give it a B+.  Nice lowish budget conspiracy thriller that likes to poke fun at itself every now and then but with a hard hitting dark side.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Man of Steel. Wasn't as bad as I expected.  Little too heavy though. Batman may have pathos. Superman is Superman. 

[viper37]

(Will these two desperate, mismatched souls ever fall for one another? Only 90 minutes of you-almost-saw-me-naked jokes will tell!)

I don't think it's a case where Hollywood lacks originality.  Try to read the stuff your g/f reads, and you'll understand.  From Harlequin to 50 Shades of grey, it's all the same shit and it sells by the millions.  Heck, look at Twilight.  It's Harlequin for teenage girls and they love it.  It's boring&unoriginal, but it sells.  If I were in Hollywood, I'd sur produce the paying stuff too.

[Admiral Yi]

I thought this was amusing.

Needs Samuel L. Jackson and Wesley Snipes.  Otherwise good list.

[Syt]

My favorite Jason Statham scene is from Transporter 2. The facial expression is priceless.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bK8OEapB83A

Also, the psycho chick was insanely hot. 

[CountDeMoney]

I thought this was amusing.

Needs Samuel L. Jackson and Wesley Snipes.  Otherwise good list.

Good points, especially Samuel L.  Has played Jules Winnfield for more than 20 years, even playing him before Pulp Fiction.

[lustindarkness]

Monsters University, as good and funny as "first" one. Made me laugh.

[Ideologue]

I thought this was amusing.

Needs Samuel L. Jackson and Wesley Snipes.  Otherwise good list.

Tom Cruise. How that got missed is a mystery.

[Ideologue]

Interesting 

I'm pretty sure we've already established that Rotten Tomatoes doesn't know shit and is full of hipster wannabe reviewers who follow the pack.

Do I follow the pack.

***

Anyway, I've noticed that Lone Ranger is getting the shit reviewed out of it.  18%.  Yikes.

If it were in the 40s or 50s, I wouldn't be worried, because while Viking is right for the wrong reasons (film critics have idiosyncratic tastes and, beyond that, most reviews are written within a very short timeframe, and therefore without benefit of seeing the consensus or even having the opportunity to email other critics even if the author wanted to, which they usually wouldn't), Viking is still right, and too many pro critics suffer from aesthetic retardation, which is why the best movies so far this year have either been rotten or really marginally fresh (Europa Report is only a bit over the line, at 64%).

But a supermajority does often signify something really wrong.  And I was already a bit worried since I don't like the Pirates movies very much.  Still going to see it at 10:30 however.

[Admiral Yi]

Tom Cruise. How that got missed is a mystery.

Not sure I see it.  He played the exact same character in Days of Guns and Top Thunder, but other than that he's picked a variety of roles.

[Ideologue]

Tom Cruise. How that got missed is a mystery.

Not sure I see it.  He played the exact same character in Days of Guns and Top Thunder, but other than that he's picked a variety of roles.

He's played characters with different jobs, I guess.

He's the same cocky prick with vast innate talent but who has problems with authority and often an inferiority complex, that he overcomes with a combination of determination and accommodation, in almost every movie he's ever been in, from Risky Business to Jerry Maguire to Mission Impossible 1, 2, 3 and Ghost Protocol.

I will conede that there are variations--often the problem with authority is external and completely justified, like in Minority Report, Valkyrie, or Oblivion, and sometimes the inferiority complex is completely justified, like in War of the Worlds, Magnolia, Vanilla Sky, or The Last Samurai, and occasionally he doesn't overcome shit, like in Eyes Wide Shut.  But it's not a broad range of characters.

It's also nothing against Cruise that this is the case.  He's one of my favorite working actors.  But you kinda know what you're getting.

However, there are a few roles that lay outside this categorical statement.  But only two leap to mind: his cameo in Tropic Thunder, and his turn as the villain in Collateral, although arguably Vincent is just the Standard Tom Cruise Character whose new job to be hypercompetent but self-sabotaging at is "contract killer."

[CountDeMoney]

Tom Cruise. How that got missed is a mystery.

Not sure I see it.  He played the exact same character in Days of Guns and Top Thunder, but other than that he's picked a variety of roles.

That's why I wrote "10 years ago" in my post;  he's been rather diverse in his roles the last several years, turning point in his career being Magnolia.

But as far as his characters are concerned, they all followed the same motif:  cocky, surefire guy on top of the world and his game, meets adversity, has crisis of confidence, <insert optional chick here to help with said crisis if necessary>, has to start from scratch, transformation begins, he gets back on top with a greater perspective, fin.

Sure, Top Gun and Days of Thunder are the most obvious, but this formula works with Risky Business, Cocktail, Rain Man, Jerry McGuire, and yes, even A Few Good Men.

[CountDeMoney]

He's the same cocky prick with vast innate talent but who has problems with authority and often an inferiority complex, that he overcomes with a combination of determination and accommodation, in almost every movie he's ever been in, from Risky Business to Jerry Maguire to Mission Impossible 1, 2, 3 and Ghost Protocol.

I preferred my formula.