TV/Movies Megathread

[The Brain]

Is Kiefer in blackface?

[jimmy olsen]

The Lost Boys of Sudan (2003)
.All the Sudanese seemed to develop a prejudice against African-Americans immediately; yet complained about experiencing racism. 

In what way?

[jimmy olsen]

CREED

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv554B7YHk4&feature=player_embedded

Looks interesting.

[celedhring]

Looks odd. The trailer makes the movie look gritty and realistic - and I mean that in a good way - yet Apollo Creed was a larger than life character with a larger than life movie death. Rocky IV and this movie seem to exist in two completely different worlds.

[Syt]

Apollo Creed was a larger than life character with a larger than life movie death

I know not of what you speak.

[Syt]

I need to go watch Action Jackson and Predator again.

[Archy]

A goodly chunk of Roman Polanski: Odd Man Out.

Learned a few things I hadn't known before.

The girl was really, really young.  She wasn't mature for her age, she was a little kid.

Swiss German sounds nothing at all like German German.  I thought they were speaking Dutch.

Mercedes makes a minivan.

Unfortunately for us standard German is easier to understand to us, than the Swiss vernacular.

[Josquius]

CREED

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv554B7YHk4&feature=player_embedded

Looks interesting.

I still haven't seen rocky balboa. Laboured through the last of the original ones.

A question stands out to me.... Why is Apollo creed's kid living in the ghetto?
Creed was loaded

[viper37]

A question stands out to me.... Why is Apollo creed's kid living in the ghetto?
Creed was loaded

it doesn't make for a good story when the son of a rich boxer studies with the best trainers available worldwide and crush all opposition to the top.

[jimmy olsen]

CREED

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uv554B7YHk4&feature=player_embedded

Looks interesting.

I still haven't seen rocky balboa. Laboured through the last of the original ones.

A question stands out to me.... Why is Apollo creed's kid living in the ghetto?
Creed was loaded

Lawyers took it.

[jimmy olsen]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBI3IFPqjVs

Wow, that looks incredible!

I'm surprised they're using the original pronunciation.

[Syt]

http://deadline.com/2015/07/ben-affleck-geoff-johns-batman-dc-entertainment-warner-bros-comic-con-1201472921/

Ben Affleck To Team With DC's Geoff Johns On Stand-Alone 'Batman' Film: Comic Con

EXCLUSIVE: Here's one for the Comic-Con crowd to gnaw on. I'm told that Ben Affleck is teaming up with Geoff Johns to co-write a stand-alone Batman movie that Affleck will direct and star in after he completes his longstanding plan to helm his scripted adaptation of the Dennis Lehane novel Live By Night. Johns has about as much comic cred as anybody around. He's DC Comics' chief creative officer and has written some of its best remembered comic book series including Green Lantern, Aquaman, Batman, Justice League, The Flash and Superman. He also has written TV series superhero transfers Smallville, Arrow and The Flash, as well as the Supergirl project with Greg Berlanti for CBS.

My studio sources tell me that Affleck and Johns are well in synch and have more than found their rhythm. In fact, they are likely to turn in a script before the end of the summer, prior to Affleck going off to direct Live By Night in November. Affleck postponed that pic to star in Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice. The Batman movie would shoot after he finishes Live By Night, and the plot would reflect the Batman character that emerges after Batman V Superman and Justice League, the latter of which comes out November 17, 2017. DC and Warner Bros have set a long list of superhero movies that take the Marvel formula of interspersing characters from one film to the next, so it's unclear when Affleck's Batfilm will be slotted.

Meanwhile, elsewhere ....

http://www.geek.com/rant/the-best-idea-for-warner-bros-kill-the-dc-cinematic-universe-1627367/

The best idea for Warner Bros: Kill the DC cinematic universe

Guess who's excited about seeing Ant-Man? Lots of people. guess who's excited about Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice? Not many. This is a fundamental problem for Warner Bros. and its Sisyphean attempt to develop a DC cinematic universe as broad and expansive as the Marvel one. They're trying to make a whole series of movies and can't get people as hyped about Batman and Superman fighting each other as they are about Hank Pym, a character who for years was a punchline for distasteful comic book jokes.

Warner Bros. seems to have the same myopia about Man of Steel that Square Enix had about Final Fantasy 13. It won't recognize or explore why fans hated it, and they're using that movie as the first real starting point for its cinematic universe. WB is trying to build a world on a foundation of a Superman who was raised by a man who told him not to save schoolchildren trapped in a bus and then sacrificed himself to a tornado for no reason. And this is the crux of the best idea WB can possibly follow:

Start over, start with Justice League. Stop trying to ape Marvel's pattern for developing a cinematic universe and jump straight into a Justice League movie. New cast, new director, new script, nothing from Zack Snyder. Who would probably be a fantastic cinematographer for the movie, but he's shown that when he doesn't have exact comic book panels to frame, he can't put a coherent film together. Just get a rolling start into the biggest superheroes on the planet meeting each other and fighting a threat to the world, and more than anything, stay true to the characters.

Yes, Marvel set up Avengers with Iron Man and Captain America and Thor. That worked really well, because Iron Man and Captain America were such strong and faithful depictions of the characters that they got everyone hooked for the MCU, enough that people remained excited about Avengers even through Thor's mediocrity.

Iron Man didn't lead off with the Mandarin (and lots of people were disappointed that he wasn't a magic-ring-wearing Chinese person in Iron Man 3), but it embraced the idea that Tony Stark is an arrogant, self-absorbed smartass who finds direction and morality after everything comes crashing down around him and he sees what his own weapons have wrought. It looked at the idea of a genius with shrapnel in his chest building a generator more powerful than anything else in the world, and it made the idea work well enough that it created one of the driving forces of the MCU. Captain America went straight into Silver Age appreciation, and while Hydra was made kind-of-separate from the Nazis, it still had a good man in red, white, and blue fighting for the freaking Cosmic Cube against an evil man with a red skull for a face. And, once again, it took the character of Earth-616 Steve Rogers to heart as a scrawny idealist who would give all not simply for his country, but for what is right.

Man of Steel botched Superman super-hard, and building a DC cinematic universe on that is a mistake I'm amazed Warner Bros. still hasn't realized it's making. Yes, it's a more realistic Superman, b that's the problem. Superman is a paragon raised by freaking saints in middle America to uphold goodness and protect the weak. Clark Kent growing up under paranoia for what he was rather than hopefulness and idealism for what he could one day do is not Superman. Jonathan Kent teaching Clark to protect his identity as if it was more important than the lives of others is not Pa Kent. The massive collateral damage in the battle for Metropolis was a symptom of the problem with the character, not the problem itself. The Superman in Man of Steel wasn't raised to protect truth, justice, and the American way. He wasn't raised to save lives. That's not a Superman you can build a Justice League on.

Batman hasn't been introduced yet,  but he doesn't have to be. He's Batman. His parents are dead, he's rich, he's a genius, he's one of the world's best martial artists, and he has more psychological issues than Deadpool. We've seen that story before.

Warner Bros. should stop trying to do what Marvel (and the Dini-led DC animated universe, for that matter) did structurally and assume it will all work out. As long as it ignores what both Marvel and Dini did in terms of respecting the source material, Batman v. Superman will flop (at least critically), Justice League will flop, and Aquaman and Wonder Woman will super-flop. It's a cinematic universe not built on love for the comics, but on the assumption that if you go through the motions, you can have the same success as Marvel.

Warner Bros. should start from scratch with a Justice League movie. Assume that everyone knows Batman and Superman's origins, because everyone knows Batman and Superman's origins. Give five minutes tops to the Flash, Wonder Woman, and Aquaman to give us an idea of how they are and to create a sense of these great powers, both well-known and not, coming together to fight something big. Go straight into Justice League and break off future movies based on that.

I even have the best idea for the villain in a Justice League movie. Don't reach into Superman's rogues gallery, don't reach into Batman's rogues gallery, and don't combine them. Don't make a Legion of Doom or another mishmash of a ton of villains, either, because the story will be too cluttered. The world-threatening villain I see for Justice League is simple, embraces the comics, and can be cast perfectly.

Ian McShane as Vandal Savage. An immortal man whose knowledge and durability put Ra's al Ghul to shame, and whose plans have varied from simply becoming a dictator to running a doomsday cult to rewriting history itself. He's also IGN's 36th greatest comic book villain of all time. And Ian McShane has the gravitas, sinister presence, and stature to play him. Also, he basically looks like Vandal Savage.

Vandal Savage can be introduced in the first few minutes of the movie without needing to establish any of the heroes. Prehistoric times. Meteor hits. Caveman sees meteor glow. Cut to him through the ages becoming an immortal mastermind. Done. It's maybe five costume changes and no dialog, and you have a villain who can work into any world-threatening plot you want and who doesn't depend on the Justice League to exist.

Warner Bros. hasn't earned its cinematic universe, and starting with Man of Steel is one of the worst mistakes it can do in making it. With the MCU planned out through the end of the next Clinton/Bush/Sanders administration, it's understandable that Warner Bros. wants DC to get on the same ground. It can't in the same way, but the fact that Batman and Superman have been around for decades longer and everyone in the world knows them means they can just jump into a Justice League movie with a minimum of time dedicated to set-up. All of the origins could be incorporated into the credits with no dialog (this is what Snyder would be best at; a Justice League version of the opening credits for Watchmen). Show Vandal Savage, establish in a few shots of Clark Kent at his desk, Bruce Wayne in his mansion, Barry Allen/Wally West in his lab, Arthur on his throne, and Diana Troy on her island, and you can go straight into having these titans collide and save the world over two hours of mostly action and banter between characters who, like the audience, already know that the other characters exist.

Like the origins, the characterizations can be assumed and not established outside of banter. Stay close to the archetypes of the superheroes, and it works. No one besides Batman (and maybe Martian Manhunter) should be brooding and gloomy. Superman is optimistic and idealistic. The Flash is quick-witted and grounded in humanity. Green Lantern is a space law enforcement officer. Wonder Woman is a capable, defensive, and a figurative fish out of water. Aquaman is arrogant, regal, and a literal fish out of water. Write the characters to fit what they should be, and what they've been established as across tons of media. Don't go for realistic or edgy. Just make them the heroes they've been for decades.

Starting the DC cinematic universe with a team instead of a few big-name superheroes hasn't really been done before, but before the MCU (and, if you count cartoons, the DCAU) the other method wasn't really done before, either. Marvel succeeded by taking a risk, planning out an arc of multiple movies, and building from there, all while staying faithful to the comics on which the films are based. Warner Bros. hasn't, and it's not starting out well. Jumping into a Justice League movie and letting everything flow naturally from there would get all of the problematic origin issues out of the way and leave room for however Warner Bros. wants to develop the universe in scope and tone. It would be a blank slate with the big-name heroes set, none of the villains truly established besides one uniquely suited for the Justice League, and tons of room to work on whatever projects could come after.

That's the best idea Warner Bros. could follow right now for its DC cinematic universe. They can have it for free.

[jimmy olsen]

Bah, I liked Man of Steel.

[Iormlund]

It was no less silly than any other Superman movie. Which isn't saying much. The character itself sucks.

[celedhring]

It was no less silly than any other Zack Snyder movie. Which isn't saying much. The director itself sucks.