TV/Movies Megathread

[CountDeMoney]

I think if my cat had a voice, it would be that of a Latina gangbanger from LA.

[celedhring]

Wonder if this will manage to be worse than Cats and Dogs.

[Ed Anger]

Waterloo was pretty rad.

I should have burned Berlin when I had the chance.

[Ideologue]

Just came back from Nightcrawler--and see?  You can make a flm about human evil featuring a terrifyingly evil villain protagonist that is not, also, a miserablist piece of shit.

[lustindarkness]

TWD, what a weird episode.

[Tonitrus]

TWD, what a weird episode.

Looks like [spoiler]They're going into split-off character, branching story lines again.  Not sure if I care for that.

But my guess...if they don't just jump into a "Daryl did all this stuff at the hospital and comes back with only Beth or Carol still alive", then my guess is Daryl comes back with the black kid, cavalry goes into Atlanta and messes things up.

For the next episode...someone has to die for Abraham going to his knees like that.  Probably either Tara or Rosita. [/spoiler]

[Ideologue]

Stuff from the vacation and three from today, which is weird.

2014 releases:

Fury  Fury is orchestrated misery.  D+

Enemy  In the face of Denis Villeneuve's new piece of artcrap, Prisoners suddenly looks far less insipid.  C

Nightcrawler A horrifying portrait of success—and that is, every syllable, an intentional double entendre.  A+

Crossover with another blogger, I did some old slasher movies, and it was fun:

My Bloody Valentine (1981).  A

Pieces (1983).  B

The Burning (1981).  B+

Other stuff:

Interview with the Vampire (1992).  Maybe not the best flamesuit acting of all time, but very possibly the most.  Tom Cruise's high camp mode is delightful and wish he'd have done this more often; that gonzo ending is what really sells the film as great.  Kirsten Dunst is endlessly impressive as a child actor in a deliriously creepy role, though one of creepiest things about it in 2014 is that it looks like the adult Kirsten Dunst's head was nailed to a child's body, adding a whole other layer of wrongness to it. A

Night of the Hunter (1953).  I loved loved loved the look of this movie, but the single-line review of the story is, "Wait, you had a phone the whole time?"  I also really didn't like its message about how children can weather anything, which is fundamentally untrue, and those kids are going to be fucked up beyond repair forever.  Maybe it was being ironic, but I didn't see it.  B+

Friday the 13th (1980).  Take that, you dumb horny teens.  B

Terror Train (1981).  Jamie Lee Curtis-led Canucklehead slasher, although curiously bloodless and much more of a 1950s-style thriller.  Great cinematic exercise, though the twist is meaningless.  B+

My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009).  Total fucking garbage that shits all over the face of the original.  D+

Prom Night (1981).  Jamie Lee Curtis-led Canucklehead slasher, bloodier and more pro forma than Terror Train, but worse.  Pretty mediocre overall, except for the five minutes of Curtis dancing disco and the head that tumbles out onto a catwalk.  C+

Black Christmas (1974).  The real genesis of the modern slasher film, not the inferior Halloween.  Sorority girls are terrorized by CDM.  Police procedural elements mix with horror movie tropes, and it's pretty damned good.  A young Margot Kidder sighted and ogled.  Olivia Hussey is the Final Girl.  Features a great, depressing twist and the line, delivered by Ms. Kidder: "Darling, you can't rape a townie."  B+

[crazy canuck]

TWD, what a weird episode.

Looks like [spoiler]They're going into split-off character, branching story lines again.  Not sure if I care for that.

But my guess...if they don't just jump into a "Daryl did all this stuff at the hospital and comes back with only Beth or Carol still alive", then my guess is Daryl comes back with the black kid, cavalry goes into Atlanta and messes things up.

For the next episode...someone has to die for Abraham going to his knees like that.  Probably either Tara or Rosita. [/spoiler]

[spoiler]I think you are right about the cavalry riding into Atlanta to rescue Beth and Carol but my guess is Carol messes them up from the inside along with Beth and they both meet their "rescuers" on the way out.[/spoiler]

[Baron von Schtinkenbutt]

Is Battle:LA enjoyable as a popcorn flick? It got awful reviews but surely you can't fuck up aliens destroying LA that badly.

It won't make you want to gouge your eyes out.

I thought it was pretty good. 

As did I.  Apparently the Marines were heavily involved in making the movie, so the actions on the on-screen Marines are much more realistic than in most of these movies and it kinda feels like a recruiting spot for the Marines at times.

[Ideologue]

Oh yeah, I also watched The Wicker Man 74 (A) and The Haunting (B+, A+ cinematography, but Marty Scorsese? Turns out he's a puss).

[Josquius]

TWD, what a weird episode.

[spoiler]Yeah. The villains aren't really all that villainy (except the apparently good doctor). Which is a nice change.[/spoiler]

[Josephus]

He's [spoiler]apparently not that good. He killed someone to further himself.[/spoiler]

[crazy canuck]

TWD, what a weird episode.

[spoiler]Yeah. The villains aren't really all that villainy (except the apparently good doctor). Which is a nice change.[/spoiler]

[spoiler]
They are running an indentured servant dystopia where the good doctor arranges for another doctor to be killed so he cant be replaced.  [/spoiler]

[Berkut]

I've been watching Mad Men on Netflix, finally got it to "click". Up to the start of season 5 now.

It really is excellent.

But there is one problem I have - the premise pretty much relies on the idea that Don Draper is just so damn irresistable that no women can really say no to him, which you have to take as some kind of matter of faith, since on it's face it really doesn't make any sense.

Any female with half a brain should be able to see that he is a total waste of time. I can see that some would fall for him, but every single one, no matter what?

It gets kind of silly after a while.

[Eddie Teach]

Easier to buy than the same claim by 11B.