TV/Movies Megathread

[Josephus]

Speaking of the Coen Brothers, I saw Unbroken just now. (yes, they are listed in the screenwriters credits).

it was pretty good, if a bit too long...had a bit of everything...part Chariots of Fire, part Jaws, part Bridge on the River Kwai, part Passion of the Christ

[Ideologue]

Might be a new King Kong vs. Godzilla movie coming. I'm not entirely sure how to feel about that. Ide, thoughts?

Could be fun--it's giant monsters fighting, and historically it's been kind of hard to fuck that up.  On the other hand, for my money one of the bigger instances of fucked-up kaiju films is the original 1960 King Kong vs. Godzilla, particularly the American version that cuts out the salaryman comedy and that great opening Universal Pictures logo joke.

Anyway, I thought they were bringing more Toho monsters back.  That's what I (and, I expect, everybody else) really want to see.

[Queequeg]

Isn't Godzllla many, many, many, many times the size of King Kong?

[Ideologue]

Oh, the match is ridiculous.

[Liep]

Avengers: Age of Ultron.

Ridiculous. James Spader delivered some good lines. 4/10.

[mongers]

Started watching some of James Burke's 'Connections' - a modern documentary might deal with two or three concepts, repeating them a few times, Burke brings up 20-30 ideas or stories each episode, never once repeating the content, all at a breathless speed with plenty of humour, verbal as well as visual - Brilliant.

[Josquius]

Attack on Titan/shingeki no kyoujin   -   The fanboy rage has been great with this one since months before it was even released. It has been quite funny really.
Some of the changes they made are interesting.
The whole thing being moved to a post apocalyptic Japan rather than a fantasy Europe...that actually seems to have been the original plan of the comic author. And it does let them do it on a much lower budget and helps them avoid telling exactly the same story- the fanboys evidently haven't seen another anime movie adaption, different versions of the same base idea is pretty common in such media.
Levi being replaced with another guy makes sense considering the angle they're taking.

I came in open minded. Excited even. Some of the trailers did look good. Just give me zip line action and
I'm happy.
The trouble with the film though... Not much really happens. It's the first of a two parter. And.. It's not like they even do much backstory in here. They just.... Talk and have romances and.... Yeah...

Some of the changes made to the titans too sit uneasy with me. I hope a comment made towards the end was just a character with a wrong theory and not an actual explanation....

The titan battles actually work on the positive side though. They look fake of course. But in a fun power rangersy/kaiju way.

[Admiral Yi]

Caught a little bit of Miss America and was pretty disappointed with the offerings.

[celedhring]

Saw Django Unchained again last night. It more or lest confirmed my first opinion; it's brilliant in places, but way too long.

[garbon]

Saw Django Unchained again last night. It more or lest confirmed my first opinion; it's brilliant in places, but way too long.

Oh god yes. [spoiler]And while essential for Tarantino, I was done before the revenge plot ever got started.[/spoiler]

[jimmy olsen]

Might be a new King Kong vs. Godzilla movie coming. I'm not entirely sure how to feel about that. Ide, thoughts?

Hate the idea with the firey passion of a thousand exploding suns.

[Eddie Teach]

Both characters should be played by costumed actors.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Both characters should be played by costumed actors.

Or a trained gorilla and a komodo dragon.

[Ideologue]

City Lights (1931).  Rather funny and the ending is just so sweet it made me cry.  8/10.

[Savonarola]

NY77 The Coolest Year in Hell (2007)

This documentary covers 1977 in New York City; the year of the blackout, the Summer of Sam and the time when New York City was facing financial hardships all at once.  This was also a time of hedonism, with Studio 54 and Plato's Retreat in full force.  It was also a time of creativity as disco reached the mainstream, the bands at CBGB were coming into their own and hip hop was developing.

They interviewed a number of people from the various scenes.  The most entertaining were DJ Disco Wiz and Grandmaster Caz who explained how they used to get power from jacking into the base of street lights and run a series of six foot extension cords to their equipment.  They told about the time they challenged Afrika Bambaataa to a DJ battle; that didn't go so well for them.  Grandmaster Caz told about how he had DJ Disco Wiz protect their equipment during the blackout while he went and looted a mixer.  In those days you had to have all your own equipment to be a DJ.  They said that before the blackout there had been only a handful of DJ crews in New York; afterwards there were hundreds.

The other great part was when Randy Jones (the cowboy from The Village People) claimed to have smoked pot with Lilian Carter at Studio 54.

Most of the people interviewed were young in 1977, so many of them lamented the passing of decaying, decrepit New York for the city it has since become.  In fifteen years I'll probably be telling people what a great place Detroit was in the 1990s.

I had written the last lines in jest, but on my last trip to Detroit I found that midtown was now filled with the worst excesses of bourgeoisie America; all yoga parlors, sustainable development complexes and Whole Foods.  Downtown was almost entirely empty five years ago; today it's over spilling with chain restaurants.  My first thought was "My God, we need to bring back Kwame."

You can't go back home.