TV/Movies Megathread

[CountDeMoney]

I believe Robert Shaw was completely blitzed during the entire production time.

If Terry Bradshaw really did get ventilated by a thousand points of light, Fox NFL broadcasts would be a better place today.  Alas, it was not to be.

[Sheilbh]

I still can't believe Black Sunday isn't available on Netflix.  It's not just famous--I know the basic plot outline even though I've never seen it--but, FFS, it's a story about a crazy guy who crashes a blimp into the Superbowl.  It's a real American fable.

That's the first Robert Harris novel too, yeah?

[CountDeMoney]

That's the first Robert Harris novel too, yeah?

No, his brother Thomas.   

[Sheilbh]

That's the first Robert Harris novel too, yeah?

No, his brother Thomas.   

Hack brother

[Ideologue]

Sheilbh I'm using your pull quote now.   Edit: I also figured out how to use footnotes.  I am: computer scientist.

12 Years a Slave (2013).

What I do hope that people will glean from this picture is that I've been right all along about the South, my unbeloved home.  I doubt they will.  But it is possible, finally, that people will understand me when I say that John Brown was an American hero, that Sherman was justified and didn't go far enough, that if the Union had had airpower it would have been not just acceptable but awesome to have lit up every city in the South like a continental Christmas tree with white phosphorous, traitor soldiers should have been executed en masse, and, after the end of the Civil War, the occupation force should have been like the NKVD on the kulaks and sent half the white population to reeducation camps and a not inconsiderable number to the other kind.

On a final note, I'd like to express what may seem like an odd, perhaps even crass opinion.  I'll frame it in the form of a question: is 12 Years a conventionally entertaining film?

I wish John Brown had nuclear weapons

A+

[CountDeMoney]

I wish John Brown had nuclear weapons

Amen, brother.

[jimmy olsen]

Speaking of the Last Airbender, Man at Arms made Sokka's space sword!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DITY1WzbLj8#t=387

[Malthus]

As much as people like other episodes like The Blue Spirit or Zuko Alone. The Southern Raiders and The Puppetmaster are my two favorites. They confront the issues that Aang avoids Deus Ex Machina each season finale. In reality shit like this happens and you can't be pure of intent, pure of action and simultaneously successful. In those two episodes everybody loses and growth happens because they know they lost. Another personal highlight for me is Lake Laogai. Ju Lee freaks me out. Then again, I had a Ju Lee style minder when I was in china in 1989 and it felt a bit like reading 1984 and feeling de-ja-vou.

Heh, I was in China in 1989, too.  I was with a cultural exchange - on pure nepotism (I was the best friend of the son of the chair of fine arts at OCA). We had a whole legion of Ju Lees sheparding our group around. I was giggling throughout that episode ...

[Malthus]

Speaking of the Last Airbender, Man at Arms made Sokka's space sword!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DITY1WzbLj8#t=387

One thing I thought slighly amusing was that in the cartoon, they show him *casting* his space sword. Oops. 

[The Brain]

Giggling throughout Tiananmen Square is classy.

[11B4V]

Caught It Might Get Loud : B

[Neil]

Nixon.

So is Oliver Stone just completely fucking talentless?  I have no idea how the fuck you make a boring movie out of the life of Richard Nixon.  The paranoia alone should make it fucking easy.

It's not paranoia when everyone really is out to get you.

[Berkut]

My sons othodontist rents out a theater once a year and treats all his patients to a first run movie. This seems like a nice gesture, good deal, until you remember how much braces cost.

Anyway, this year it was Catching Fire, the second of the Hunger Games trilogy. We all went.

Spoilers from here out.

I thought the movie overall was very good, and actually an improvement over the first movie, which I thought was good.

This had a much more mature theme, and I thought they did a very good job of portraying some much more serious stories than just "Cool, we are all in a game where we are trying to kill each other!".

However, there were a couple places where I thought they could have delivered a much more concentrated punch to the story:

1. They never explain the significance of the "careers" and why they were aligned against the other players. I suspect this is one of those things that got accidentally left on the editing room floor.
2. There is this great plot device going on in the story. Katnis wants to save Peta. Peta wants to save Katnis. They are both going into the game with the intention that the other live through it. This is interesting. But not nearly as interesting as the realization that a bunch of the other players in the game are all playing to protect Katnis and Peta as well, and they don't realize that. They are willing to die to keep those two alive as part of the plot to trigger the rebellion. That is, to me, a really pretty cool story, and I don't think they deliver it very well at all - it is almost like an afterthought. This sacrifice that other are willing to make is pretty profound, and I don't think they do a very good job of calling it out.
3. This isn't really a problem with the movie, just an observation. But essentially the main character of the movie has nothing to do with the actual progression of the plot. She isn't driving anything - everything that happens is a result of choices and decisions that other people are making or have made - she is pretty much just along for the ride.

But still, it was a pretty good movie. I would certainly recommend it.

I would love to see a Hunger Games series written with the exact same story, but intended for an adult, instead  of teen, audience.

[Ed Anger]

Did you EAT FRESH afterwards?

[CountDeMoney]

I'd eat Jennifer Lawrence.