TV/Movies Megathread

[Valmy]

But yeah, it seems like US TV is simply incapable of making a balanced series based on US history. 

TV typically has a hard time with anything where there are not clear good guys and bad guys.  You will probably never see a Stalingrad mini-series on AMC.

[Savonarola]

Maybe the fleabag hotels were more lax about Chaplin hosting underage women? 

Heh, the first leading lady of The Gold Rush, Lita Grey, was the second of Chaplin's under-aged brides.  (After she became pregnant Chaplin replaced her with Georgia Hale, whom he also had an affair with.)  Grey had first worked with Chaplin in "The Kid" four years earlier when she was 12.  She plays an angel that the Tramp lustily chases after in the dream sequence.  Today that scene is disturbing, especially with what we know about Chaplin.  I guess it was okay at the time, though...

[Queequeg]

Anyone else watching Turn?  Is it truly that necessary to make the British evil that you play the "good" slave owner versus the "evil" liberator?  Way to make free and loose with the facts to pull the homer crowd.  It gets more slanted each week.  Ugh.

Great user name/post combo. 

But yeah, it seems like US TV is simply incapable of making a balanced series based on US history. 

Deadwood?

Anyone else watching Silicon Valley?  Might end up being favorite new show of 2014.

[CountDeMoney]

You will probably never see a Stalingrad mini-series on AMC.

The Walking Red, nyuk, nyuk.

[Valmy]

Deadwood?

And there is 'John Adams' but HBO is special and normal US TV rules do not apply to them.

[Liep]

Veep was truely upsetting and hilarious this episode.

[Zanza]

Just watched the most recent episode of Game of Thrones and one scene where Jon kills someone looked like a reference to Terminator 2.

[Viking]

Just watched the most recent episode of Game of Thrones and one scene where Jon kills someone looked like a reference to Terminator 2.

It's more of a reference to AFFC Chapter 37, Brienne at the Crossroads inn and the TV version of ACOK Chapter 67, Tyrion on the Bridge of Ships.

[Eddie Teach]

Anyone else watching Turn?  Is it truly that necessary to make the British evil that you play the "good" slave owner versus the "evil" liberator?  Way to make free and loose with the facts to pull the homer crowd.  It gets more slanted each week.  Ugh.

Great user name/post combo. 

But yeah, it seems like US TV is simply incapable of making a balanced series based on US history. 

Deadwood?

Anyone else watching Silicon Valley?  Might end up being favorite new show of 2014.

I like it, though it'll be a sad, sad year if a dramedy takes first prize. Lower ceiling and all.

[garbon]

Veep was truely upsetting and hilarious this episode.

Truly upsetting?

Fun episode though, I agree.

[Liep]

Veep was truely upsetting and hilarious this episode.

Truly upsetting?

Fun episode though, I agree.

In an awkward sort of way.

[Savonarola]

I saw a collection of Hal Roach rarities.  For most of the 1920s Harold Lloyd and Charley Chase were Roach's only A-list stars.  This collection had one of Lloyd's "Lonesome Luke" comedies and some fragments from the early glasses character.  Lonesome Luke was a tramp knock-off, but Lloyd was able to use his considerable athletic talents to give him some differentiation.  In the one I saw "Luke joins the Navy" Lloyd shimmies up and down riggings, precipitously, to comic effect.  The early glasses character actually owes a great deal to the tramp as well; the world-beating all-American boy for whom no obstacle is of any concern would develop over time.

Most of the Lonesome Luke and early glasses shorts have been lost.  There was a fire in Lloyd's vault and he saved the later films first.

The collection also had some B-list stars from Roach studios, including Snub Pollard and Lloyd's brother Gaylord Lloyd.  Snub was usually a co-star in Harold Lloyd's films; he's funny but not really charismatic enough to pull off the lead like the A-list stars.  Gaylord Lloyd wasn't funny, and only starred in a couple films; though he did sometimes work as his brother's double.

[Ideologue]

I need to watch some more Harold Lloyd.  Hulu's got a bunch of 'em...

Reviewed irst two Spider-Man films.

The amazing web of the spectacular Spider-Man unlimited, part I: "Do with what you need to with her, and broom her fast!"

A

The amazing web of the spectacular Spider-Man unlimited, part II: Not the superior Spider-Man

B+

I'm pretty proud of the title on the Spider-Man 2 review, incidentally, although you'd only get it if you have read Spider-Man's comics or followed them in the past couple of years.  I've never actually read any of the books where Doc Ock possesses Peter Parker's body, but instead of villainy he tries to do good.  They're supposed to be pretty decent and, as you'd expect, rather funny.

[Savonarola]

I need to watch some more Harold Lloyd.  Hulu's got a bunch of 'em...

I prefer his silent films, but his 30s era talkies are well worth seeing.  They struggled at the box office at the time because audiences couldn't identify with the glasses character in Depression era America.  His "Comeback" film, The Sin of Harold Diddlebock is largely worth seeing for this suit:



Otherwise it's hit or miss.

[Ideologue]

I did not foresee Hannibal going in this direction. Jesus.

Now that I've seen it, me neither.

I liked everything but jumping the gun on Mason Verger's special brand of pig feed.  Even the guy playing Mason Verger's impression of Gary Oldman (or his impression of Gary Oldman's impression of Jimmy Stewart ).

The Sin of Harold Diddlebock is largely worth seeing for this suit:

Speaking of Hannibal Lecter...