TV/Movies Megathread

[katmai]

 

Finally got a chance to watch Cloverfield (2007).  A vomit-inducing journey into the lifestyles of the rich and garbonesque

but if you have no inner ear function it's a total B+

[Ideologue]

True.  Garbon would probably not attempt to save anybody.

[Razgovory]

I liked this season of Venture Bros. but I think that given the production time there could have been 4 more episodes.

Yeah.  It's clear that it got cut in half, or that they didn't have space, or something.  I mean, it's always an enjoyable program, but it's easily the weakest season, at least, so far.

Why it takes so long to get there and why it's over so quickly are questions that really need to be leveled at CN, if not Publick and Hammer themselves.  Is it a popularity thing?  A cost/benefit thing?  Certainly two years between tiny seasons is no way to make the show more popular or give up a higher ROI.

From what I read the staff for the Venture brothers works on other programs as well.  So I'm guessing it's a time and money thing.  They haven't even started writing the next season. Still having only six episodes made in a two year span is lame.  Hell, it might have been better just to have the last season's finale be the ending of the show.

[jimmy olsen]

Finally got a chance to watch Cloverfield (2007).  A vomit-inducing journey into the lifestyles of the rich and garbonesque that takes a little too long to get going, and ends five minutes too late (just die in the helicopter crash already, it's not like the actual ending is any less ambiguous).  Nevertheless, it's 100% more of a kaiju film than Pacific Rim.  Only issue is that it's about 75% as watchable.  I had to turn it off in the middle, take a nap, and finish up later.  Still a little sick.  I liked the concept far more than what I actually saw.  C, but if you have no inner ear function it's a total B+

I think it's you who's the one without a functioning inner ear if you get sick so easily from watching a movie.

[Ideologue]

Finally got a chance to watch Cloverfield (2007).  A vomit-inducing journey into the lifestyles of the rich and garbonesque that takes a little too long to get going, and ends five minutes too late (just die in the helicopter crash already, it's not like the actual ending is any less ambiguous).  Nevertheless, it's 100% more of a kaiju film than Pacific Rim.  Only issue is that it's about 75% as watchable.  I had to turn it off in the middle, take a nap, and finish up later.  Still a little sick.  I liked the concept far more than what I actually saw.  C, but if you have no inner ear function it's a total B+

I think it's you who's the one without a functioning inner ear if you get sick so easily from watching a movie.

Well, either way.  The point is, it's pretty good if the worst aspects of found footage movies don't bother you.

I used to give FF movies a total pass.  But they need not be that way.  I've seen FF/POV movies that don't make me sick, like the middle two Paranormals, Europa Report, Maniac, and lots and lots of porn.

But since that does seem to be more of a personal frailty of mine, whatever, two grades.

[Ideologue]

I liked this season of Venture Bros. but I think that given the production time there could have been 4 more episodes.

Yeah.  It's clear that it got cut in half, or that they didn't have space, or something.  I mean, it's always an enjoyable program, but it's easily the weakest season, at least, so far.

Why it takes so long to get there and why it's over so quickly are questions that really need to be leveled at CN, if not Publick and Hammer themselves.  Is it a popularity thing?  A cost/benefit thing?  Certainly two years between tiny seasons is no way to make the show more popular or give up a higher ROI.

From what I read the staff for the Venture brothers works on other programs as well.  So I'm guessing it's a time and money thing.  They haven't even started writing the next season. Still having only six episodes made in a two year span is lame.  Hell, it might have been better just to have the last season's finale be the ending of the show.

I don't wanna go that far, even if S4's finale was also written to be a good series finale.  I want to see more VB, and there's still a lot they can do.  For example, it looked like this was going to be Dean's season early on, for example--there's still a lot of room to stop being lame there--and the Investors are a potentially interesting "new" villainous force.

And that's needed.  One thing I've noticed is that the show goes on its mutually incompatible requirements to both be genuinely thrilling and to undercut its characters as total failures keep getting in each other's way.  Like, remember when Phantom Limb and the Guild were the harder counterpoints to the buffoonery of the Monarch?

[Ideologue]

For once, Netflix Instant Watch is not total garbage and had a movie I specifically wanted to see.  In this instance, I wanted to catch up with 2011 with Refn's Drive before I watched Only God Forgives, which MB reminded me exists and whose bad reviews still make it sound fucking radical.

B+ for Drive, btw.  I loved the 70s pacing without the 70s lack of content, the couple of neat car chases, Gosling's quiet performance, Mulligan's extravagant hotness, Brooks' portrayal against type, most of the music despite some questionable choices, and the ultra violence.  But to quote The Lone Ranger, what's with the mask?

[Neil]

To avoid identification?  Otherwise, criminals will target your family.

[Ideologue]

They knew, though.  At that point, Albert Brooks had already cut Bryan Cranston just so he could feel, and they knew about Mulligan and her kid all along.

Beyond that, no one saw him except for the two guys he murdered with his car.

[Ideologue]

The bad reviews were right.

Only God Forgives (2013)

As a revenge plot with a milquetoast avenger, Only God Forgives is a lot like an arthouse Lone Ranger, replacing all the parts where Armie Hammer whined and wheedled about due process with long takes of Ryan Gosling sitting there with a hooker, defiantly not masturbating.

Cool hero antagonist though.  He's pretty entertaining as a lawless torturer cop.

C+

Longer version: Guy killed me, Mal

[CountDeMoney]

Hey Ide, if you haven't caught it, I highly recommend a viewing of the superlative 1982 Australian WW2 flick, Attack Force Z.

Mel Gibson! Sam Neill! Commandos with unlimited ammunition! Sympathetic locals! Meanie Japs!

[Josquius]

I get motion sickness pretty easily but I really couldn't see the fuss with Cloverfield. It was no problem for me, and a decent film

[katmai]

Bad reviews were right and he gives it a C+?!?!?

[Ed Anger]

Rex Reed does it better.

[Ideologue]

Hey Ide, if you haven't caught it, I highly recommend a viewing of the superlative 1982 Australian WW2 flick, Attack Force Z.

Mel Gibson! Sam Neill! Commandos with unlimited ammunition! Sympathetic locals! Meanie Japs!

You had me at Sam Neill.