TV/Movies Megathread

[Syt]

That's a very good point. I'd add that Diane also sees through the absurdity most of the time. Which makes it fitting that the show is essentially chronicling their relationship, from when they first meet in Ep. 1 to their final parting scene in the end.

That's true.  Not being the asshole that Bojack is, she tends not to make it an issue as much though.

Yes, but she's also struggling a lot harder to come to terms with it - she tries to make a difference, but as so many before (and probably after) her she goes from the idealistic "save the world" kind of person to one who has acquiesced to/grudgingly accepted the world she lives in.

[Darth Wagtaros]

That's a very good point. I'd add that Diane also sees through the absurdity most of the time. Which makes it fitting that the show is essentially chronicling their relationship, from when they first meet in Ep. 1 to their final parting scene in the end.

That's true.  Not being the asshole that Bojack is, she tends not to make it an issue as much though.

Yes, but she's also struggling a lot harder to come to terms with it - she tries to make a difference, but as so many before (and probably after) her she goes from the idealistic "save the world" kind of person to one who has acquiesced to/grudgingly accepted the world she lives in.

For a sec I thought you were talking about Sam and Diane from Cheers.

[Josquius]

The French Dispatch - Fuck this is pretentious peak wes anderson absolutely. Nice camera work
Some funny moments. But quite the incoherent disconnected mess overall.

[Sheilbh]

Sure you've all seen it but it turns out Zelensky is the voice of Paddington in Ukraine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vlb4z9ge5E

[viper37]

Ben Hur (2016)

As far as remake goes, this one is better than the Last Days of Pompei remake.

A quick look at the cast & director tells you the studio intended to make a quick cash grab with an underpaid cast & director.

So... where do we begin...

Ah, admission.  Yes, Duke, I sometimes watch very bad movie.

The first hour of the movie isn't so bad. Actually, it's better than the 1956 remake with Charlton Heston.  No gay romance subplot, for one, but also, you get to better understand Messalah's motivations: he's an outsider to the Jews.  He's never seen as one of them by the matriarch, despite being Judah's adopted brother, but in the Legion, he finds his true purpose in life.

[spoiler]
In this version, contrary to the book and movies, a real attempt is made on the Pilas' head by a rebel hiding in Judah's home[/spoiler]

Once the attempt on the life on the governor is made and Messalah "betrays" his adopted brother, the movie turns from bad to worst.  The only redeeming point would be the chariot race itself, which is greatly done, with just a little bit of CGI in the background.

I think the director is better at directing technical scenes and stunts than driving his actors to express themselves in their scenes.

It often seems like the actors are reciting their lines by heart, with barely no emotions felt.

And doesn't get to be Charlton Heston who wants to be, unfortunately.

Inexperienced cast, for the most part, inexperienced director, and it became a mess.  A soulless movie.

But hey, people keep complaining that Hollywood is all about super heroes nowadays, so Hollywood obliges!

2.5*/5 and I'm generous.

[Josquius]

Sure you've all seen it but it turns out Zelensky is the voice of Paddington in Ukraine
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-vlb4z9ge5E

If there was any doubt Russia was in the wrong this confirms it.
Who the hell attacks Paddington?

[Syt]

Following BoJack Horseman I was unsure what to watch next because it left an impression that's kinda hard to follow up on. But in the meantime Rick & Morty S5 came to Netflix, so this works as a palate cleanser.

Th season is a bit uneven, started pretty good, but then dropped a fair bit. Just watched the Thanksgiving episode, though, which I thought was awesome. Sure, it doesn't tackle deep concepts or anything, but it was IMHO a lovely parody of 90s/00s action flicks in which the bad-ass president is the action hero. And with Keith David as president (and Timothy Olyphant as red-blooded, southern, all-american marine) this works pretty well. Lovely references, though they tried maybe a bit too hard with the references in the FDR Spider scene. As mindless action parody it was good fun.

[celedhring]

I loved the clones episode. Yeah, season 5 isn't the greatest, but it's still got some very fun stuff.

[Josquius]

Speaking of Bojack. I've been watching Murderville. Stars guy who voiced Bojack.
It's very good. Silly and funny. Basically each week a different celebrity has to improv through a (simple) murder mystery.
Sharon Stone is still alive. And is wonderful.

[Sheilbh]

I am not unintrigued

Aline review – think twice before you watch this scary Céline Dion biopic
Valérie Lemercier directs and plays both old and young versions of the Canadian singer in a bizarre film that digitally superimposes her face on to the head of a young girl
Peter Bradshaw
@PeterBradshaw1
Tue 1 Mar 2022 16.00 GMT

Here is an utterly bizarre fictionalised biopic of Canadian singing star Céline Dion, whose opening scenes will have audiences screaming and running out of the cinemas the way they were mythically supposed to have done at the Lumière brothers' first silent movie about the arriving train. Even now, I still can't believe I have seen it.

Valérie Lemercier (from Claire Denis's Vendredi Soir) directs and stars, playing Aline Dieu – a made-up version of Dion – the youngest of 14 children in Quebec, all the kids kept in line by their formidable working-class mum Sylvette (Danielle Fichaud). Young Aline shows precocious singing talent and her parents send a demo tape to ageing record producer Guy-Claude Kamar (Sylvain Marcel), a version of the real-life René Angélil, who is to become her manager, husband and soulmate as Aline begins her ascent to mega-selling glory, culminating in the Titanic theme My Heart Will Go On and legendary Vegas residencies.

Now ... you may be wondering: which actor plays Aline as a child? The answer, horrifyingly, is Valérie Lemercier herself! Her face is digitally superimposed on to the body of a girl between 10 and 12, a face first glimpsed impishly peering over the edge of a stage. Why? Why in the name of all that is holy do that? For a terrifying instant, this looks like a biopic of Jimmy Krankie, or a horror film. Lemercier's weirdly grinning, gurning face superimposed on the child's head creates an unnatural chill that the film fails to shrug off, even after Aline as an adult is supposed to be glammed up with her teeth fixed. It does at least create a point of interest in what is otherwise a desperately bland TV-style film. But that opening section is the scariest thing since The Omen.

Aline is released on 2 March in cinemas.

[Duque de Bragança]

That review makes it better than it is, really.

[Duque de Bragança]

Ben Hur (2016)
Ah, admission.  Yes, Duke, I sometimes watch very bad movie.

Sans blague ? 

A soulless movie.

I am taking your word for it.

But hey, people keep complaining that Hollywood is all about super heroes nowadays, so Hollywood obliges!

2.5*/5 and I'm generous.

People have been complaining about useless remakes for even longer.

Rewatched Sorcerer the other day in arthouse, formerly a grindhouse.
Still great (the movie though the cinema is decent as well).
Adapted from the Wages of Fear book so you could see it as a remake. I just don't see new adaptations of books as remakes though (how many remakes of the Three Musketeers? The Milla Jovovich one does not count.

[Savonarola]

I've been watching Las muñecas de la mafia, which is a touching story of five busty young ladies with flawless skin and the hardships they face due to their ties to drug trafickers/traficking (this may be the most Colombian Telenovela ever.)  In any event I learned that "Curiosity killed the cat" is also a proverb in Spanish (La curiosidad mató al gato.)  The phrase seems to come from English (in which it is alliterative - which is our native poetry form); but it rhymes in Spanish.

[viper37]

five busty young ladies with flawless skin

someday, I'll have to visit this country... 

[Syt]

Started The Boys. Karl Urban with his English accent sounds to me a lot like the streamer Strippin (people here might also know him as Dodger's husband ).