TV/Movies Megathread

[Savonarola]

Safety Last! (1923).  A zany comedy about a young man trying to make his way and earn the respect of the woman he loves amidst the harsh conditions of late-stage capitalism takes a dark turn when Harold Lloyd attempts, as part of a publicity stunt to increase his character's department store's business, to climb a fifteen story building.  They dealt with tragedy differently in those days.  Needless to say, this was his last film.

B+

IIRC Harold Lloyd's stunt double wanted to climb the building without a safety harness; he was some sort of daredevil.  Lloyd refused to let him after his double sprained his leg attempting a similar stunt.  If you watch him climb the building he only moves one leg.

[Savonarola]

Plan 9 From Outer Space

  Isn't Plan 9 a little, shall we say, mainstream for your tastes?

Not as far as I know

8:10-10:00 on this clip reminded me of Languish:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlpAIxOoQ0k

Eros first gives a rambling, incoherent explanation of the solaranite bomb.

Lieutenant John Harper: He's mad.
Tanna: Mad? Is it mad that you destroy other people to save yourselves? You have done this. Is it mad that one country must destroy another to save themselves? You have also done this. How then is it "mad" that one planet must destroy another who threatens the very existence-...
Eros: [shoves her roughly aside] That's enough.
[to the humans]
Eros: In my land, women are for advancing the race, not for fighting man's battles.

[Barrister]

Plan 9 From Outer Space

  Isn't Plan 9 a little, shall we say, mainstream for your tastes?

Not as far as I know

Well it is perhaps the first movie you've reviewed that I've actually heard of / seen before.

[Savonarola]

Well it is perhaps the first movie you've reviewed that I've actually heard of / seen before.

Okay, fair enough.

[Josephus]

Saw this and immediatley thought of Langusih. It's about pron, but it's sort of SFW...it's mostly pron as explained by vegetables.

http://www.egotastic.com/2013/07/the-difference-between-porn-real-sex-explained-with-food/

[The Larch]

If you watch opera for the plot then you have missed the point.

It's Ide, he can miss points in his sleep.

[The Larch]

Has anybody over here seen The Butler? What's your take on the caracterizations of the different presidents?

[Eddie Teach]

Brooklyn Nine Nine's been growing on me. 

[Ed Anger]

Plan 9 From Outer Space

  Isn't Plan 9 a little, shall we say, mainstream for your tastes?

Not as far as I know

8:10-10:00 on this clip reminded me of Languish:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlpAIxOoQ0k

Eros first gives a rambling, incoherent explanation of the solaranite bomb.

Lieutenant John Harper: He's mad.
Tanna: Mad? Is it mad that you destroy other people to save yourselves? You have done this. Is it mad that one country must destroy another to save themselves? You have also done this. How then is it "mad" that one planet must destroy another who threatens the very existence-...
Eros: [shoves her roughly aside] That's enough.
[to the humans]
Eros: In my land, women are for advancing the race, not for fighting man's battles.

[Ideologue]

But whether, as Sav says, I should see these like operas is I think missing the point.  Operas have stories too.  That's why the Ring Cycle loses me when they move from the mythic realm of gods and incest to East Bumfuck, Lotharingen.

If you watch opera for the plot then you have missed the point.

Così fan tutte

While I agree with the central point that Mozart is attempting to make with this supposedly comical opera, that is that all women are whores and can never aspire to be anything else, the premise used is simply too fantastic to merit any serious consideration.  Mozart cannot really expect us, the audience, to believe that Fiordiligi and Dorabella are so incredibly stupid, that they do not display the slightest amount of suspicion when their fuck buddies are called off to war and two Albanian soldiers who are the spitting images to their fuck buddies, but with mustaches, simply show up and immediately try to bed them.  Even if we do accept the premise that the women are as horny as alley cats and as dumb as a bag full of hammers it still stretches any amount of credibility that they don't at least worry that Albanians would be chock full of venereal diseases.

I did, however, find the character of the philosopher Don Alfonso one of the most remarkably well thought out characters in the history of opera, in that his teaching, as he openly admits in song, will lead Guglielmo and Ferrando to unhappiness.  It is perhaps the only time in opera that it is fully acknowledged that the study of the humanities can lead only to misery.

D+

OK, operas obviously have alternative value, namely the music, and that is the draw (though I don't see why they can't have proper plots, but I'm not an opera guy; you'd have to talk to my dad).  I still think the comparison is inapt in a lot of ways--a silent film is still ordinarily going to be a narrative vehicle proper, and any silent film's plot can be criticized with as much vigor as any talkie.  Take Thief of Bagdad; it sort of stops having a particularly engaging story about halfway through, but makes up for it with a lot of cool stuff to look at.  The problem with The Man Who Laughs is that it tries to overcome its believability issues by putting its sympathetic lead through an emotional wringer, which is a lot more difficult, because its trying to build real emotion on a heavily contrived foundation.  It also drags, which makes contrivances stand out all the more.  And Metropolis' plot is clearly central to the entire enterprise.

Plot holes are not of a paramount concern, though; I watched The Phantom of the Opera again today, and it is full of plot holes (which may or may not be owed to the source novel, but they're certainly in all the film versions I've seen, most egregiously the idea that anyone would be interested in an opera in Paris after twenty people got mashed to death under a chandelier by a mass murderer who's still on the loose), but you don't see me complaining too much about that.  Why?  Because it is paced so that something cool always happening, obscuring anything offensively silly which occurs.  Which is not too much to demand from any movie.

P.S. Yes, Criswell is a blast.

[Ideologue]

Saw this and immediatley thought of Langusih. It's about pron, but it's sort of SFW...it's mostly pron as explained by vegetables.

http://www.egotastic.com/2013/07/the-difference-between-porn-real-sex-explained-with-food/

Insidious anti-facial propaganda.

[Josquius]

Man of Steel - It's a pretty cool film. Certainly shits all over the travesty that was Returns. And its version of Krypton is awesome.
Though...it has a weird continuity. Superman doesn't actually do any Supermanning before Zod shows up, it seems just odd. There should have been a few minor adventures first at the least. Also Zod as a first enemy when he is such a tough one; the entire point of him is he is Superman but with colleagues and bad morals. Quite an odd starter which makes anything to come a bit of an anti-climax (none of this modern fangled Doomsday et al malarky, thanks)

[Ideologue]

Man of Steel - It's a pretty cool film. Certainly shits all over the travesty that was Returns. And its version of Krypton is awesome.
Though...it has a weird continuity. Superman doesn't actually do any Supermanning before Zod shows up, it seems just odd. There should have been a few minor adventures first at the least. Also Zod as a first enemy when he is such a tough one; the entire point of him is he is Superman but with colleagues and bad morals. Quite an odd starter which makes anything to come a bit of an anti-climax (none of this modern fangled Doomsday et al malarky, thanks)

It is.  You're horrible.  Wrong.  So?  Maybe.  It's fitting enough.  Why?; Lex Luthor is Superman's greatest foe.

[Ideologue]

The Wizard of Oz (1939).  A beautiful film that reminds us that we must never take our friends and family for granted, for death and pain may come at any moment.  The Wizard of Oz was made in a time when Americans had not yet become a race of effete weaklings, and knew that evil, whether it be a wicked witch or Nazism, understands only violence and must be conquered with righteous violence.  We knew this instinctively, and once our belief in civilization was so strong that even our little girls could crush and melt their enemies without a hint of regret or remorse, just as in their millions our young women would do during the war to come, serving as the labor that built our command of the air and, ultimately, permitted the delivery of the atom bomb, killing thousands quickly to save millions from the long death of fascism and militarism.

I also really enjoyed how colorful it was, the special effects on the funnel cloud, and the songs.  And it's really funny!

A

[Josquius]

It is.  You're horrible.  Wrong.  So?  Maybe.  It's fitting enough.  Why?; Lex Luthor is Superman's greatest foe.

Due to persistance and not being beatable with brute force. Not physical abilities.

Any proper Superman continuity needs Zod to show up once Superman is established and secure in his ability to beat down anything the Earth can throw at him.