TV/Movies Megathread

[Ed Anger]

Sons of Liberty.

I have learned a thing or two about the American Revolution, it's beginning.  Namely that in Boston, be it July or December, you were the exact same clothes and there's totally no snow at allin that last month.  Andthey have some nice, very well maintained forests too.  You'd swear someone used modern equipment&techniques to clean cut the forest between Boston and Lexington.  Probably so you could easily spot the Red Coats marching through the woods.
Also, Sam Adams was a gang leader intent on making a profit by smuggling things with John Hancock which pushed the both of them toward revolution when the governor stopped accepting bribes.

Ah, yes, Gage.  Just as he was historically.  In Trois-Rivières and Quebec city.

So, all in all, 5% truth, 95% fiction from what I gather.

I enjoyed Ninja Sam Adams.

[LaCroix]

cc was right. TD is so bad this season it's funny.

[Admiral Yi]

Watched some more of Fury, the town surrender and the not rape scenes.  Better than that silliness at the end.  Why is it so hard to make a war movie in which the bad guys don't fight like retards?

[celedhring]

Watched some more of Fury, the town surrender and the not rape scenes.  Better than that silliness at the end.  Why is it so hard to make a war movie in which the bad guys don't fight like retards?

Because they would kill the good guys, then.

[Berkut]

Watched some more of Fury, the town surrender and the not rape scenes.  Better than that silliness at the end.  Why is it so hard to make a war movie in which the bad guys don't fight like retards?

Because the hero has to be just one guy (or just a few at most), and hence capable of taking out hordes of the bad guys, so perforce they have to be idiots.

[Malthus]

The odd part is that the (absurd) final battle at the end of Fury was allegedly based on a real incident, that sounds almost as absurd: a guy more or less single-handedly mowing down dozens of Nazi mooks from his knocked-out armoured vehicle with its .50 cal.

The Germans scored a direct hit on an M10 tank destroyer, setting it alight, forcing the crew to abandon it.[66] Murphy ordered his men to retreat to positions in the woods, remaining alone at his post shooting his M1 carbine and directing artillery fire via his field telephone while the Germans aimed fire directly at his position.[67] Murphy mounted the abandoned, burning tank destroyer and began firing its .50 caliber machine gun at the advancing Germans, killing a squad crawling through a ditch towards him.[68] For an hour, Murphy stood on the tank destroyer returning German fire from foot soldiers and advancing tanks, killing or wounding 50 Germans. He sustained a leg wound during his stand, and stopped only after he ran out of ammunition.[66] Murphy rejoined his men, disregarding his own wound, and led them back to repel the Germans. He insisted on remaining with his men while his wounds were treated.[66] For his actions that day he was awarded the Medal of Honor.[69] The 3rd Infantry Division was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for its actions at the Colmar Pocket, giving Murphy a Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster for the emblem. [70]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Murphy#European_Theater

[KRonn]

Watched some more of Fury, the town surrender and the not rape scenes.  Better than that silliness at the end.  Why is it so hard to make a war movie in which the bad guys don't fight like retards?

I saw Fury and was just disappointed with it. Over done with the fighting at the end, and also other stuff, like killing the German prisoner, trying to force the new guy to do it, just seemed so unlikely with all the soldiers, NCOs and officers that had to be among large group gatherer around. They could have done well with a movie about US tankers but this didn't do that, IMO. It was more about the cynical group of tankers, and I get that they'd been through a lot of combat and had become callous and such, but the movie focused too much on that.

[Ideologue]

If you're going to base a movie on Audie Murphy, it's probably got to be about Audie Murphy, tho.

Anyway, the important thing is that if you didn't like Fury, Berkut thinks you're an idiot.

[Razgovory]

Watched some more of Fury, the town surrender and the not rape scenes.  Better than that silliness at the end.  Why is it so hard to make a war movie in which the bad guys don't fight like retards?

The bigger question is why are the good guys fighting like retards.  They have a tank that has thrown a track.  It still has a cannon and turret that can move.  Why wait till the Germans get right next to it before opening fire? They have a clear line of sight for several hundred yards after they come over the the ridge.  You can wait till some of them are in sight and open up with the big gun.  They would have to fall back and either go around or bring up something that can destroy the tank at range.  Either way, the Germans are delayed.  Toward the end the war the SS did would often make stupid charges right into the teeth of Allied forces.  Those guys always had more balls than brains, and the ability to train soldiers was severely curtailed near the end of the war.  The dumb fuckers might actually try to bayonet charge a tank.

[Queequeg]

The odd part is that the (absurd) final battle at the end of Fury was allegedly based on a real incident, that sounds almost as absurd: a guy more or less single-handedly mowing down dozens of Nazi mooks from his knocked-out armoured vehicle with its .50 cal.

The Germans scored a direct hit on an M10 tank destroyer, setting it alight, forcing the crew to abandon it.[66] Murphy ordered his men to retreat to positions in the woods, remaining alone at his post shooting his M1 carbine and directing artillery fire via his field telephone while the Germans aimed fire directly at his position.[67] Murphy mounted the abandoned, burning tank destroyer and began firing its .50 caliber machine gun at the advancing Germans, killing a squad crawling through a ditch towards him.[68] For an hour, Murphy stood on the tank destroyer returning German fire from foot soldiers and advancing tanks, killing or wounding 50 Germans. He sustained a leg wound during his stand, and stopped only after he ran out of ammunition.[66] Murphy rejoined his men, disregarding his own wound, and led them back to repel the Germans. He insisted on remaining with his men while his wounds were treated.[66] For his actions that day he was awarded the Medal of Honor.[69] The 3rd Infantry Division was awarded the Presidential Unit Citation for its actions at the Colmar Pocket, giving Murphy a Bronze Oak Leaf Cluster for the emblem. [70]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audie_Murphy#European_Theater

Yeah, but Audie Murphy was a freak.  He's the GI Achilles. 

[Berkut]

I've heard that a lot of what Murphy did he didn't actually do on his own - IE, yes, some 50 Germans were killed or wounded, but it wasn't just him doing that, but he was given much of the credit because it made the story a bit more "heroic". But what was truly the heroic thing he did was to stand and fight which inspired others to stand and fight with him.

Not that standing on a burning M10 shooting a fifty cal isn't pretty damn heroic already.

[Savonarola]

Dark and Stormy Night (2009)

This is a spoof of 1930 "Old Dark House" pictures.  This has it all, the will to be read at midnight, a pair of fast talking rival reporters, a spiritualist, an English lord, hidden passages, a passed over heir, a stranger stranded in the night, servants who are up to something and a gorilla.  Bodies start piling up, but who is the killer?

This is a great deal of fun.  The people who made this obviously knew their 30s movies well, and follow the sort of zany logic of this sort of film.  The dialog comes as fast and as funny as any screwball comedy as well.  A must see for fans of films from the era.

[Razgovory]

I've heard that a lot of what Murphy did he didn't actually do on his own - IE, yes, some 50 Germans were killed or wounded, but it wasn't just him doing that, but he was given much of the credit because it made the story a bit more "heroic". But what was truly the heroic thing he did was to stand and fight which inspired others to stand and fight with him.

Not that standing on a burning M10 shooting a fifty cal isn't pretty damn heroic already.

Well, part of it he did alone (because he ordered his men to retreat and was going to covering their escape), and other parts he did with the unit.  His actions were heroic but also suicidal.  He came back pretty screwed up.

[FunkMonk]

Fury was actually really good and Shia LaBeouf was excellent.

[Norgy]

ISIS/DAESH better look out, 'cause Rambo's coming for them. Stallone's teams are already 'scouting their strongholds'. Apparently.