TV/Movies Megathread

[garbon]

[spoiler]I believe they have said we will see Beth this season.[/spoiler]

[CountDeMoney]

[spoiler]I believe they have said we will see Beth this season.[/spoiler]

Hopefully in one piece, and relatively undamaged.  Relatively.

[celedhring]

Maleficent. Not as bad as I expected, actually. Easily better than all those other awful "epic" remakes of fairy tale classics (Oz, Snowwhite and the Huntsman, Alice in Wonderland) - which admittedly isn't saying much. Jolie is entertaining and her character's pathos is engaging; and the movie isn't too long so it doesn't get the chance of becoming too annoying. [spoiler]The whole "true love" twist reminded me of Frozen, though.[/spoiler]

Still, if she isn't supposed to be evil by nature, why name her "Maleficent"? 

[Ideologue]

'Prometheus' worth a viewing ? 

yes

Only to see how shitty it really is.  Because everybody has to rubberneck at the fatal head-on collision.

So does Prometheus get so much hate because people had such lofty expectations for it? Overall I found it just meh - completely forgettable, but not worthy of such contempt as say The Counselor deserves.

1)Its got an idiotic plot (its got an idiotic, as well, but we usually let this slide), yet is not fun enough to justify its idiocy
and
2)Its themes are garbled at best, offensive at worst, pushing faith in some kind of higher power even if the higher power is a grotesque demiurge.

It's mainly (1) tho.

The Counselor, by contrast, is wicked awesome, proffers equally interesting violence, and is thematically sound (death and loss and unavoidable, and if the choices that led to them were not meaningless before, they certainly are now).

[Ideologue]

Maleficent. Not as bad as I expected, actually. Easily better than all those other awful "epic" remakes of fairy tale classics (Oz, Snowwhite and the Huntsman, Alice in Wonderland) - which admittedly isn't saying much. Jolie is entertaining and her character's pathos is engaging; and the movie isn't too long so it doesn't get the chance of becoming too annoying. [spoiler]The whole "true love" twist reminded me of Frozen, though.[/spoiler]

Still, if she isn't supposed to be evil by nature, why name her "Maleficent"? 

I said it then just as well I'd say it now: "Because branding is, still, a thing that exists."

Oh, Cel.

[garbon]

Yes I was calling you out as I know you like that lame ass film.

[Josquius]

All caught up with Walking Dead:  [spoiler]I knew Terminus was a bad idea; besides, that's what the post-apocalypse looks like when IT takes over.  I hope Rick kills them all.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]As a viewer, I sort of felt insulted by the whole Terminus thing. Yes, we know these people are desperate at this point but really, they've no other options to walk into what they have to know is a trap?[/spoiler]

[spoiler]I'm with you to an extent, but also...I think it kind of shows how much they've come to care about and rely on each other. Not just the clearly visible stuff with Glen and his missus but even just the regular group caring about the other members. They know it is a probably a trap but it is the only clear marker of somewhere to go and they know everyone else will go there too. Its the best chance of regrouping- albeit with underestimating just how much of a trap it was[/spoiler]

[celedhring]

In my defense, I will say that I was visiting my parents and mom is a huge Disney fan, so I had to be a good son and watch it.

I was amused by how all men in Maleficent are either evil or idiots; but I guess it balances out all male flicks where women are either evil or idiots.

[Ideologue]

Yes I was calling you out as I know you like that lame ass film.

The only thing worse than being talked about etc.

In my defense, I will say that I was visiting my parents and mom is a huge Disney fan, so I had to be a good son and watch it.

I don't think I'd want to watch Maleficent with my mom, to be honest.

[celedhring]

I'm going to watch Days of Future Past now, to atone.

Gonna pick up The Edge of Tomorrow later this week now that's out in BR. I missed a lot of blockbusters this summer, and I need to catch up.

[Ideologue]

I'm going to watch Days of Future Past now, to atone.

Yeah!  It's pretty radical.

Anyway, seriously:

Obviously, the biggest reason Maleficent sucks is the abandonment of Eyvind Earle's mangificent design; the second-biggest is that Maleficent is rendered [spoiler]100% heroic, not even darkly heroic, in the end (and we're just supposed to believe in the possibility of redemption--the key comparison here is to Return of the Jedi, which only asks that you believe Luke forgives Vader, not that you forgive him yourself).[/spoiler]

But you hit right on the biggest reason why it sucks, generally, that Maleficent sucks: because it is the rape-revenge movie you can watch with your mom.  That could've been important.

[celedhring]

Yeah well, it isn't the most insightful character piece; Jolie and the princess chat and watch some color shit flying on a lake and suddenly they are BFFs and she's good again, but at least the film tries to have a character at its center.

[garbon]

So I've mixed feelings on this. I remember reading this book as a child and have fond memories - so it'd be cool to see in another format but then...it is Dunham.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/rachelzarrell/lena-dunhams-next-project-is-adapting-a-ya-book

[CountDeMoney]

So I've mixed feelings on this. I remember reading this book as a child and have fond memories - so it'd be cool to see in another format but then...it is Dunham.

She's not qualified.

[Savonarola]

Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004)

I liked it more upon rewatching it, than I did when I first saw it in the theaters.  I remember the marketing campaign where Uma Thurman said she was going to take it "Over the top," and so I was expecting something that even topped the Battle at the House of Blue Leaves.  This film doesn't have that, of course, it's much less of an action packed extravaganza than the first one.  It does, however, develop the characters and provides a great deal more back story.  It lacks the excitement of the first, but it's still a good movie.

I do love the Cruel Tutelage of Pai Mei.  That looks like it came straight out of Saturday Afternoon Kung-Fu theater on your local UHF station (except everyone is subtitled instead of dubbed.)