TV/Movies Megathread

[Eddie Teach]

Good thing, cause I'd probably still be waiting for that review to load on dialup.

[Malthus]

If I hadn't wanted to see the film before, I would now.

THIS IS NOT THE NINETIES.

You gotta admit, you share with that reviewer a fondness for using that particular critique. 

[Savonarola]

Ivan the Terrible Parts I and II

Josef Stalin had Sergei Eisenstein to make a film about Stalin's personal role model, Ivan the Terrible.  The second part captured the essence of Ivan so well that it was banned for 12 years; for some reason the plot about assassination and secret police bothered Stalin.

Eisenstein never really left the silent era; his characters still mime out the action.  Since they can speak it makes their acting hammy and overblown.  The director constantly does extreme close ups of the faces, similar to "Passion of Joan of Arc;" a great technique in the silent era; in the sound era it's an opportunity for you to add your own lines.  The second part is so campy it verges on a Soviet Rocky Horror Picture Show; there's even a song and dance number at the end shot in glorious color (and with an entirely static camera so that the dancers keep disappearing from the frame.)

If this film had been directed by anyone else it would be forgotten, or derided as one of the excesses of Stalinist era cinema.  As it was made by the director of Battleship Potemkin it will live on forever.

[CountDeMoney]

Charlie Sheen as Ghost Rider?  Weird.

But it's so much more than that.

[Queequeg]

Ivan the Terrible Parts I and II

Josef Stalin had Sergei Eisenstein to make a film about Stalin's personal role model, Ivan the Terrible.  The second part captured the essence of Ivan so well that it was banned for 12 years; for some reason the plot about assassination and secret police bothered Stalin.

Eisenstein never really left the silent era; his characters still mime out the action.  Since they can speak it makes their acting hammy and overblown.  The director constantly does extreme close ups of the faces, similar to "Passion of Joan of Arc;" a great technique in the silent era; in the sound era it's an opportunity for you to add your own lines.  The second part is so campy it verges on a Soviet Rocky Horror Picture Show; there's even a song and dance number at the end shot in glorious color (and with an entirely static camera so that the dancers keep disappearing from the frame.)

If this film had been directed by anyone else it would be forgotten, or derided as one of the excesses of Stalinist era cinema.  As it was made by the director of Battleship Potemkin it will live on forever.

Did you watch any of the specials on the Criterion DVD?

[Ideologue]

Woo, Pain & Gain and Gatsby came today.

[Sophie Scholl]

Dredd finally hit netflix on demand, so I gave it a watch.  Well worth the wait.  I do hope they manage to gain enough grassroots support to put out another film or two.

[Jacob]

I hated Kick Ass. I hate young people.

GRADE: F

Aren't you related to several young people? 

[Ideologue]

Dredd finally hit netflix on demand, so I gave it a watch.  Well worth the wait.  I do hope they manage to gain enough grassroots support to put out another film or two.

Indeed.  I did my part and bought the movie a little while back.  It's very, very good.

[Ideologue]

Getaway is at 0% on RT right now.

I expected it to wind up rotten, but even copasetic reviewers are giving it shit.  Worse, it may be entirely justified:

Director Courtney Solomon, he of the campy cult classic Dungeons & Dragons, chops his footage into a potpourri of explosions, squealing tires and disconcerted Hawke eyes, presenting constantly the idea that what we are seeing is cool, but rarely giving us the goods. Some of the car crashes are incredible, but what actually made them crash is left all too often to our imaginations. It looks for all the world like someone figured out all the complex physics and got actual cars to do pretty amazing things, but it also looks like the filmmakers did everything in their power to cut around it. My kingdom for a shot that lasts more than three seconds.

That's a wound to the heart.

I'll see tomorrow, but I am going to be 100% bummed if this is accurate.

[Syt]

campy cult classic Dungeons & Dragons

Nothing cult nor classic about that abortion of a movie.

[Ideologue]

It was thirteen years ago.  He's served his time.

[jimmy olsen]

Ivan the Terrible Parts I and II

Josef Stalin had Sergei Eisenstein to make a film about Stalin's personal role model, Ivan the Terrible.  The second part captured the essence of Ivan so well that it was banned for 12 years; for some reason the plot about assassination and secret police bothered Stalin.

Is it more accurately translated to Awesome, as in the biblical sense? Fearsome and Formidable are also better translations, so I've read.

[Ideologue]

He was like or unto a grozn.

[jimmy olsen]

Getaway is at 0% on RT right now.

I expected it to wind up rotten, but even copasetic reviewers are giving it shit.  Worse, it may be entirely justified:

You are under suspicion