TV/Movies Megathread

[garbon]

All it does it tell me not to put up signs.

Yeah don't be naive about human nature - particularly when society is/has collapsed.

[Savonarola]

P.S., I read about the ending to Pandora's Box.  Wikipedia is fucking with me, right?

No, no it is not.  That's (more or less) the ending of the play (and opera) as well.  Pabst uses his medium well and has cross cuts between a dead Lulu, a furtive Jack, Alwa in a parade and Schigolch drooling over a Christmas pudding.  It's a twisted ending to a twisted film.

[Ideologue]

Well, I guess it's no worse than the part in Network where the naked SLA stand-ins kill Howard Beale.

[Ideologue]

Man, Dial M For Murder is such a great movie.

[Ideologue]

The Third Man (1949).  Roger Ebert asked, "Has there ever been a film where the music more perfectly suited the action than in Carol Reed's 'The Third Man'?"  The answer, of course, is "all of them."  Yes, The Third Man is replete with what may be the most inappropriate, poorly sound-edited, and even inherently ugliest score in cinematic history.  Nonetheless (and despite an overreliance on dutch angles for absolutely ordinary scenes which do fit into the atmosphere but get a little silly, and a certain repetitious nature to its plotting when it should be moving ever faster), The Third Man is, as they say, pretty excellent, boasting great performances, a fantastically effective exploitation of Vienna's post-war suffering, and a lovely mystery that I solved, or would have solved, if I hadn't already known, but which is perfect and satisfying all the same.  It also features the 1940s most advanced special effect illusion, with whole shots where it almost appears that Orson Welles is running.  B+

[celedhring]

The Third Man is replete with what may be the most inappropriate, poorly sound-edited, and even inherently ugliest score in cinematic history.

You do that on purpose, right?

The score is one of the greatest parts of the film. You can't do post World-War Vienna with your typical orchestrated thriller music from the 1930s or 40s. There's been a war in there, half the sets you're shooting are ruined buildings. Nothing like street music to evoke the feeling of the streets of the city, and give the story that feeling of reality despite it being a noir that uses a lot of the noir cliches. Using that music is a stroke of genius by Reed.

[CountDeMoney]

Nonetheless (and despite an overreliance on dutch angles for absolutely ordinary scenes which do fit into the atmosphere but get a little silly, and a certain repetitious nature to its plotting when it should be moving ever faster), The Third Man is, as they say, pretty excellent, boasting great performances, a fantastically effective exploitation of Vienna's post-war suffering, and a lovely mystery that I solved, or would have solved, if I hadn't already known, but which is perfect and satisfying all the same. B+

Stop, using, so, many, fucking, commas, all, the, time, god, dammit.

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Aside from all sorts of ZOMG THAT CANT HAPPEN IN ZERO G physics shit that probably freaked out NASA pencilnecks, I thought the final device for George Clooney's character was done very well.

I don't remember anything particularly glaring that was wrong with the movie.

[CountDeMoney]

Thank you, Mr. NASA pencilneck. 

[Malthus]

Aside from all sorts of ZOMG THAT CANT HAPPEN IN ZERO G physics shit that probably freaked out NASA pencilnecks, I thought the final device for George Clooney's character was done very well.

I don't remember anything particularly glaring that was wrong with the movie.

The heroics about the Clooney character dangling from a wire and letting go. It wasn't obvious why that was necessary. There would not be much actual pull, unless there is some force acting on Clooney I'm not aware of.

[Admiral Yi]

I don't remember anything particularly glaring that was wrong with the movie.

When Sandra Bullock is dangling from the wires.  What force is pulling her away?

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

I don't remember that scene in detail.  I will need to re-watch the movie.

[Viking]

I don't remember anything particularly glaring that was wrong with the movie.

When Sandra Bullock is dangling from the wires.  What force is pulling her away?

Plot convenience.

[Ideologue]

The Third Man is replete with what may be the most inappropriate, poorly sound-edited, and even inherently ugliest score in cinematic history.

You do that on purpose, right?

The score is one of the greatest parts of the film. You can't do post World-War Vienna with your typical orchestrated thriller music from the 1930s or 40s. There's been a war in there, half the sets you're shooting are ruined buildings. Nothing like street music to evoke the feeling of the streets of the city, and give the story that feeling of reality despite it being a noir that uses a lot of the noir cliches. Using that music is a stroke of genius by Reed.

If it had been used more sparingly, it might have been enjoyable.  Instead, it's used for everything and it's horrible.  Coming to Vienna?  Zither music.  Your best friend's funeral?  Zither music.  Sad the woman you love doesn't care about you?  Zither music.  Gunfight in a sewer?  Zither music.  Crippled children?  Zither music.

[Malthus]

I don't remember anything particularly glaring that was wrong with the movie.

When Sandra Bullock is dangling from the wires.  What force is pulling her away?

Plot convenience.

When the Sandra Bullock character landed in the water at the end, I half-expected her to be chased ashore by a hungry shark (and then mugged on the beach).