TV/Movies Megathread

[CountDeMoney]

My wife and I were watching Beauty and the Beast (TV 1987) when she started bitching about an ADA (who is the daughter of a Manhattan corporate lawyer) being able to attend an art show, and wearing makeup, and how many female CEOs of Fortune 500 companies wear makeup, and apparently, it's 2. I remarked, "Why the fuck should I care?" thinking that in 1987, EXACTLY ONE WOMAN WAS THE CEO OF A FORTUNE 500 COMPANY, and Katharine Graham DAMN SURE WORE FUCKING MAKEUP.

LOL.

[Josephus]

7 psychopaths.

Better than i thought. Real throwback to the late 80s/early 90s violent stuff.

[Neil]

I saw the first premiere of Dracula.  I'd say it could be interesting.  It's well acted for now, decent script&plot, but let's see where it goes before passing final judgement.  So far, the motivations of Dracula are clear: revenge.  His wife was burnt for heresy by a secret order who still exists today.  Aside that, some other group involved in tracking & covering up vampires and other supernatural elements.  I have good hopes for this show

Oh, it's on NBC, wich makes it their 3rd good show in less than a year... What's happening, new management?

If I accept your premise that Dracula is good, and Hannibal is the other good show, then what is the third one?

[Eddie Teach]

The Blacklist has kept me watching through 5 episodes, which is definitely better than average for network television. I wouldn't call it "good" though.

[Ideologue]

The Birds (1963).  Tippi Hedren must endure the horrifying ordeal of wearing the same clothes like four days in a row.  Gross.  Also, she's trapped in a town completely devoid of even one shotgun that is being attacked by birds.  It's fine, I suppose.  The bird effects, while dated and not especially threatening most of the time, aren't as terrible as I remembered, and I found myself more put out by the rear projection used for the incredibly banal purpose of putting a woman on a motorboat.

However, the "gore" effects, if they even deserve the name, are--with one exception (you know what it is)--so much worse than anything I might have recalled or imagined.  If it's not ketchup smeared on faces, arms, and sleeves, then it looks exactly like it; you could create better gore in ten minutes in your kitchen for $20.  Is this an artifact of the time or of expecting the audience to be unconcerned with verisimilitude?  Hard to say, but it's the one Hitchcock movie I've seen so far that could genuinely stand a remake due to technological progress and today's greater emphasis on spectacle.  Oh, wait, they sort of did that, and it was called the Happening.  Nevermind.

B

Shadow of a Doubt (1943).  The good guy from the following year's Gaslight is the bad guy in this, the very similar, less perfectly-conceived, less-iconic, yet ultimately superior picture about a family member who is a manipulative monster and the female protagonist who is subject to his lies.

Roger Ebert spoiled the shit out this movie in his review when he revealed that Uncle Charlie is not just a villain but the [redacted], as I feel this was intended as a surprise, but he wrote it sixty years after the movie came out and it was read seventy years afterwards, so I guess I can't blame him and I might as well spoil it too below.  I also think he was a little hard on the cops, especially the main cop with the Eraserhead hair, who are indeed objectively terrible at their jobs, but have their reasons.

There is a short monologue that concludes with an actor in close-up turning to stare directly into the camera that is simply fantastic.  He asks, with a sneer, "Are they?"  Surprisingly, his niece, who has by now slowly pieced together the evil that is afoot, does not reply, "No, I guess you're right, Uncle Charlie.  Old rich women are subhuman and I will continue to wear this ring you pried off a corpse's hand," and they do not go on to enjoy the rest of his visit together.  Now that would've been a twist.

There are stairs like a motherfucker in this film.  Teresa Wright was a very lovely young woman, as well.  Brunette.

B+

Also, for all your escape plans, Escape Plan (2013): A prison movie: now only .17% references to sexual assault by volume!

B+

[Queequeg]

Jesus Fuck Ide. Fuck.

[Neil]

I think your failure to praise The Birds enough has offended Spellus' hipster sentiment.

[Ideologue]

You know it's because I gave Escape Plan a B+ too.  OH MY GOD HE LIKES SILLY ESCAPIST CINEMA which is a bizarre thing to be complaining about when you're also upset that someone didn't respond enormously well to a movie about killer seagulls.

I was impressed by the number of birds they got to sit on things, though.

[Ed Anger]

I liked The Money Pit.

[Ideologue]

I liked The Money Pit.

Tom Hanks.

[Eddie Teach]

Jesus Fuck Ide. Fuck.

Sacrilege!

[CountDeMoney]

I liked The Money Pit.

Yeah, that was a pretty funny movie.

I do appreciate early Tom Hanks, before he became an artiste.  And when Shelley Long was indeed fuckable.

[Tonitrus]

I think "The Man with One Red Shoe" is my favorite early Hanks film.

[CountDeMoney]

I think "The Man with One Red Shoe" is my favorite early Hanks film.

Yeah, that movie was pretty hilarious on a number of levels.  Belushi was great in it.   OH COME ON

[Ed Anger]

I liked The Money Pit.

Yeah, that was a pretty funny movie.

I do appreciate early Tom Hanks, before he became an artiste.  And when Shelley Long was indeed fuckable.

You was supposed to hear that in peter griffin's voice.

http://youtu.be/BAR-GxoFwBI