TV/Movies Megathread

[Josquius]

Walking Dead- One thing I've been wondering about with zombies lately...since when have their heads had the subsistence of jelly? Back in the day it used to be that you had to destroy their brain, and human skulls are pretty strong. These days the slightest whack to the head can to do it.
I suppose with them being rotting corpses some mushyness makes sense but given the rest of their body seems OK...

[Grey Fox]

Walking Dead- One thing I've been wondering about with zombies lately...since when have their heads had the subsistence of jelly? Back in the day it used to be that you had to destroy their brain, and human skulls are pretty strong. These days the slightest whack to the head can to do it.
I suppose with them being rotting corpses some mushyness makes sense but given the rest of their body seems OK...

Do you mean in the Walking Dead tv show or in the zombie mythos at large?

[Berkut]

The more I *think* about True Detective, the more I think it is not just good TV, but really outstanding TV.

[Savonarola]

Keaton Plus

This was a collection of Buster Keaton rarities; including a few of his sound shorts for Educational Films in the 1930s, later television appearances and a couple commercials.  The real stand out is Hard Luck, a short from 1921.  The ending of the film was lost for a long time, but it's intact in this collection.  (Buster said it was the biggest laugh he ever got.  He goes off a high dive, but misses the pool and makes a hole in the concrete.  Then "Fifteen years later" he emerges dressed in Chinese clothes with a Chinese wife and children.)

There's also television introductions to special viewings of his films hosted by Orson Welles, Gloria Swanson and Lilian Gish.  Gloria her introduction by saying "Before television and before sound there was a magical world of entertainment..." and so on.   I thought it would have been better if she had started with "Before the pictures got small..."

Lilian Gish introduced College, in which there was a blackface gag (Buster puts on blackface in order to get a job at a restaurant.)  Lilian explains that this wasn't intentionally mean spirited; that in early film they made fun of all ethnicities.  There is some truth to that, but maybe they should have found someone else besides the star of "Birth of a Nation" to deliver that message. 

In any event this is a collection for Keaton fanatics only; everyone else is better off watching his silent films.

[Admiral Yi]

Heard an interview on NPR with the author of "Five Came Back," a book about five Hollywood directors who worked for the War Information Office during WWII.

Figure that might interest some of youse guys.

[Ideologue]

Keaton Plus

Lilian Gish introduced College, in which there was a blackface gag (Buster puts on blackface in order to get a job at a restaurant.)  Lilian explains that this wasn't intentionally mean spirited; that in early film they made fun of all ethnicities.  There is some truth to that, but maybe they should have found someone else besides the star of "Birth of a Nation" to deliver that message. 

See, the nice thing about College is that it's in-universe blackface, and the actual black people try to kill him with a cleaver.  It's not jut not offensive, it's pretty great.

That said, I'm pretty happy Africa didn't wake up while I was watching that particular Buster Keaton classic.  My explanation may not fly with actual black people.  Garbon, please advise.

[garbon]

[Ideologue]

[Ed Anger]

I still like you.

[Capetan Mihali]

I'm watching "The Act of Killing," which is amazing in its own right, but I've just come upon a scene where one of the paramilitary gangsters has a "Big Mouth Billy Bass" as a display piece...   I remember when my mom's stepdad got one to his immense amusement.  Oh, and the scene has "Billy" doing Bobby McFerrin's "Don't Worry Be Happy," subtitled as singing "an English reggae song."

[garbon]

One's own piece of Americana.

[garbon]

Actually I'm willing to follow the model laid out in Rent A Negro. For a modest fee, I'll answer you a few questions.

[Malthus]

Actually I'm willing to follow the model laid out in Rent A Negro. For a modest fee, I'll answer you a few questions.

Is there a refund if the rented negro doesn't perform to one's satisfaction? 

[frunk]

Boondock Saints - Seriously crappy movie but Willem Dafoe is absolutely hilarious in it.

[garbon]

Boondock Saints - Seriously crappy movie but Willem Dafoe is absolutely hilarious in it.

Agreed.