TV/Movies Megathread

[Eddie Teach]

Aye. Also, wearing a ponytail instead of a tiny mustache made him seem more sensitive.

[Ideologue]

Now, Bob le Flambeur isn't, and that's been sitting in my house for maybe... 70 days?  What's worse is that I know they don't have a lot of copies of it, so I'm probably dicking some French movie enthusiast out of his disc.

Now that's some interesting French noir by Melville. Seminal work I'd say. 

I tried to watch Le Samourai once, but the disc was broken.

I did watch Bob le Flambeur.  The credits go something like "Un film de MELVILLE," which surely isn't pretentious at all.   Also, famous pulp author/public embarrassment August le Breton (Rififi) helped write the dialogue.  But the dialogue really isn't that great, which means that it's quite likely it was Jules Dassin and Renee Wheeler who made Rififi crackle.

On the plus side, it is mildly less misogynistic than Rififi, in that it doesn't involve the torture of a woman in the first ten minutes of the film nor a musical number, by a woman, celebrating their abuse.  Indeed, the hero, Bob, upbraids a pimp for his behavior.  So that was nice.

But even so, guess what?  It's another French heist film [spoiler]with no heist.[/spoiler]  Instead, like Hands Off the Loot, it's another endless hangout movie set in Montmartre featuring an aging hood and his buddies and his enemies and their women, who are more-or-less personality-free prostitutes by any other name.  [spoiler]Then here's an all-too-long anticlimax that isn't handled as deftly as it could have been.[/spoiler]  But, sure, I liked it okay.

I liked Asphalt Jungle and League of Gentlemen and Topkapi and Cruel Gun Story and maybe even Grand Slam better, though.  (Grand Slam has the misfortune of going terribly off the rails in its twist ending.)  As for The Killing and Rififi--shit, it's unnecessary to even compare 'em.

B

[Zanza]

Has anybody watched "Marco Polo" on Netflix yet?

[Ideologue]

I think MIM has, but you can never believe everything you read.

[MadImmortalMan]

After three episodes of MP:

-The guy playing Kublai is really good. I think he's the best part of it so far.

-There is still tons of nudity and sex in the Hall of the Five Desires. Is this supposed to be taking place in Xanadu? They're all harem girls and it sorta makes sense actually. Kublai's brother is portrayed ruling Karakorum, while Xanadu was supposed to be...where? Karakorum or Orkhon Valley? It looks like they might be placing it in the Imperial City which seems an anachronism. (There are a few of those peppered in, but not too bad.)

-People comparing this to GoT. It's nothing like it.

-It's more like one of those Chinese kung fu movies. Crouching Tiger or Ang Lee. But with no wires. I'm not sure it makes sense to have all the martial arts in this context. The choreography is very good though.

-I'm not sure any of the Song characters aren't completely made up. Though I assume the Prime Minister guy is supposed to be Lu Xiufu but that's a guess based on the fact that he lives with the dead Emperor's kids. Edit: My guess was wrong. He is stated to be Jia Sidao.

[celedhring]

Wreck-it Ralph. Seems it tries to be Toy Story but with videogames, but everything it's too on the nose and not too well written. Best part are the cameos of actual videogame characters.

[Ideologue]

I thought it could've been a really fun movie, if it had just taken place in the Sugar Rush world, with Ralph perhaps a former racer, and they did away with the tacky, aesthetically-anarchic videogame concept entirely.  And, yeah, the attempt to be Toy Story is, like, horridly obvious.

As it stood it was basically ok.  It is fitfully pretty.

[lustindarkness]

Interstellar.Mind.Blown.

[Ideologue]

Babadook was... weird.

[CountDeMoney]

Babadook was... weird.

Good weird or bad weird?

I'm not going to see it, I have enough sleep disorders as it is.

[Ideologue]

In good and bad ways.

It would cure anyone of ever regretting not having a child, that's for damned sure.

[Ideologue]

Overall, it was at least a very good movie though.

[Martinus]

Really enjoying Flash, Arrow and Gotham.

It seems our generation lost Occupy Wallstreet, Hope & Change, and the Arab Spring, so we are now exorcising the frustration vicariously through vigilante shows. 

[Eddie Teach]

I don't see a connection between the Arab Spring and the target audience of these shows. 

[Ideologue]

"Our"?