TV/Movies Megathread

[Josephus]

So, Turn, any good?

[Eddie Teach]

It's watchable.

[Queequeg]

Also started watching The Americans.

There are just not enough programs with Cap Weinberger nowadays

It's great.  Did you watch the second season of Hannibal yet?

[Savonarola]

I saw the first disc of a collection from Kino called Avant-Garde: Experimental Cinema: 1922-1954: Vol. 3.  It features a number of short experimental films; some good, some too wretched for words.  On this disc was:

Danse Macabre (1922) a little surrealistic ballet set to Saint-Saens tone poem.

Rien Que Les Heures (1926) which is like "Man with a Movie Camera," set in Paris.  It consciously follows the poor.  The film wanders, and doesn't have the drive that makes ‎Dziga Vertov masterpiece work.  The director, Alberto Cavalcanti, would go on to have a distinguished career in British film.

The Tell-Tale Heart (1928) an expressionist take on Poe's tale.  This one is heavily influenced by Caligari, despite it's much later date.  Even so it's one of the best films on the disc.

Tarantella (1940)  Edwin Gerschefski's piece set to abstract animation.  This one works because it's short, long pieces of abstract animation are usually boring.

Tomatos Another Day (1930) an excellent satire on the early days of sound film.  This one features garbled lines, characters telling what they do as they do it a-n-d s-p-e-a-k-i-n-g v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y.  All very common in early sound pictures.

The Uncomfortable Man (1948)  This one is completely silent, with no score at all, despite the late date.  It's sort of a cross between street scenes and an office love triangle.  It's more strange than anything.

The Petrified Dog (1948)  This is an awful film, featuring mostly an ugly child making faces and an "Artist" standing before a picture frame with nothing in it so that he's "Painting" the scenery behind him.  This goes on for twenty minutes.

The Lead Shoes (1949)  This film combines the worst aspects of avant garde film making with those of avant garde jazz.  Thrill while watching a man in a dress play hopscotch in a heavily distorted lens all while a woman shrieks!

Four in the Afternoon (1951)  James Broughton set some of his children's poems to film.  The four poems are put in an order so that the structure resembles a symphony.  Occasionally avant-garde film does pay off.  This film is excellent; but there was some rough sledding to get there.

[Queequeg]

I think my sexual ideal might be Meg Tilly in The Big Chill. 

[CountDeMoney]

I think my sexual ideal might be Meg Tilly in The Big Chill.

Gross, and gross.  Here, you dropped your woman skin face mask.

[Admiral Yi]

I'm with you Squeelus.  Not the ideal, but pretty yummy.

[CountDeMoney]

Yeah, she fits the Yi mold.  Girl Next Door meets Local Hipster Coffee Shop meet Lisa Loeb type, sans glasses.

[Admiral Yi]

Just watched about half of Django.  Really disappointed. 

[viper37]

Just watched about half of Django.  Really disappointed. 

Finally.  Someone with a little bit of sanity left in him.

[Ideologue]

Yi doesn't care about black people.

[Ideologue]

Maleficent (2014).   Despite a powerfully good first act, Maleficent ultimately collapses into a gutless retcon that possesses little of Sleeping Beauty's native charm, elevated to watchability solely by the presence of Angelina Jolie in the titular role.  It's kind of terrible.

Why does the black bird gotta be the slave?

C

Remember John Carter?  John Carter was rad.  These past two summers, Disney's live action offerings have been pretty crummy.  At least Maleficent has the decency to be 97 minutes rather than 150, or whatever the ungodly, unjustifiable running time was for The Lone Ranger.

[The Brain]

Just watched about half of Django.  Really disappointed.

What were your expectations?

[Admiral Yi]

What were your expectations?

I was expecting something on the order of Basterds.  Not a great flick, but with entertaining moments.

[celedhring]

I didn't care much for Django either. It has some strong moments, but it's unjustifiably long and self-indulgent - like all Tarantino fare as of late.