TV/Movies Megathread

[The Larch]

Btw, just read an interview with one of the actors from Andor, the upcoming Star Wars show, and he tells of the, frankly, extremely ridiculous length that the show's production tried to keep secrecy around it. He speaks about the following:

- When casting, they weren't told they were doing so for a Star Wars show, using instead a made up code name for a show described only as "military drama". They were only told it was a Star Wars show when given the role.
- When shooting, they were never given full scripts, only partial ones with the scenes involving their characters, with the context for the scenes only explained to the actors right before shooting them.
- At the shooting, instead of employing "Andor" as the name of the show, they kept using the fake code name employed for the casting all along for all production materials.
- Actors' dressing rooms weren't labelled with the actors real names, but with fake ones, and during their route from the dressing rooms to the set actors would be covered by big dark blankets in order to prevent paparazzi pictures from being taken.

I don't know how much of that stuff is standard precautions for big productions and how much is Disney paranoia, but it seems to me that they seriously overrate the interest for that particular show.

A lot of this is pretty standard for shows intent on keeping secrecy (some of them, like not revealing details of the show during auditions, are very standard regardless of that). The only silly part of it is covering people with blankets and stuff. Everything else I've seen it done before - heck I've worked in shows that have done some of them.

Ok, so the secrecy paranoia is an industry-wide issue, then. 

Well, spoilers can certainly kill some shows in the age of Internet. For example I worked in a whodunit and everybody was terrified about the identity of the killer getting leaked. I think only actors involved in the scenes where it was revealed knew it (outside of the creative/production team). And it's not that it was a major show or anything, but it had some Internet following.

Well, then again I think that the producers or whoever makes that decision severely overrate the interest or hype that some of those shows create.

[viper37]

Live action little mermaid is going to suck like the other disney live action remakes. The racists don't have to pin it on race.

Mulan was ok, my nieces liked it.

[frunk]

Just finished up The Mighty Boosh.  It felt like a softer, bigger budget The Young Ones with Neil and Mike in the lead instead of Vyvyan and Rick.

I enjoyed it.

[Josephus]

Saw a movie from 1968 called Marooned that was pretty good. Three astronauts get caught in space after their ship won't fire up after spending 5 months on a space station. NASA plans a rescue. Special effects are pretty good for the time, and it's not as predictable as modern day movies, keeps you guessing till the end.

[Gups]

I've avoided House of the Dragon but I just watched these 4 episodes and wow, and it's really really good.

Surprised that you and others think that. Average IMO. Some good acting. Some pretty poor acting. Storyline seems a bit random and not very interesting. Dialogue OK but nothing like as good as early GoT with no humour. It's fine and I'll probably watch to the end but I hope it improves.   

[FunkMonk]

I've avoided House of the Dragon but I just watched these 4 episodes and wow, and it's really really good.

Surprised that you and others think that. Average IMO. Some good acting. Some pretty poor acting. Storyline seems a bit random and not very interesting. Dialogue OK but nothing like as good as early GoT with no humour. It's fine and I'll probably watch to the end but I hope it improves.   

I think early GoT is a level above this, I agree. This show also doesn't have someone as charismatic as Tyrion in the cast. He and Tywin really raised the bar for me in the early seasons of GoT.

I've not read the book Dragon is based on though.

House of the Dragon benefits a lot from me having had such low expectations  But I do agree with Celed that it is easily the best of fantasy TV show for the last few years.

[Valmy]

The book the show is based on is a fake history book written by a fictional character so not really a novel with dialogue and such.

[The Larch]

The book the show is based on is a fake history book written by a fictional character so not really a novel with dialogue and such.

The book it's based on is, IMO, dreadful. It's dry and boring as only a fake history book can be. That they've managed to turn that into something watchable is already an accomplishment.

The show is good. Not great, but good. It pales in comparison with the original GoT, as it lacks the strong characters and actors as charismatic as Peter Dinklage, but it's very watchable, although every episode takes a bit to get in the proper setting until you realize how big the time jump from the previous one has been. Btw, it seems that soon it'll take a pretty large one, and definitely move on from younger characters, as the older versions of the main characters are already expected for the 6th episode, so maybe the next one will be the last time we see the younger versions.

[HVC]

I liked the book 


Dunk and egg might have been good, but I don't think there's enough consistant characters. Plus a lot on the shoulders of a young actor.

[The Larch]

I liked the book 

I found it almost unreadable. 

Dunk and egg might have been good, but I don't think there's enough consistant characters. Plus a lot on the shoulders of a young actor.

I would have loved some kind of Dunk & Egg show, the format lends itself pretty well to do smaller stories, like maybe mini-seasons of 5 episodes or so for each of the books, but unless they shot a lot of it in a row they'd eventually run into issues with how fast the actor playing Egg would grow, andn there are only 3 official stories of them, right?

[HVC]

Yup three books. Egg eventually grows up to be a bit crazy and burning half of his family alive by mistake (plus Dunk).Although that last part isn't in the Dunk and egg stories

[The Larch]

Yup three books. Egg eventually grows up to be a bit crazy and burning half of his family alive by mistake (plus Dunk).Although that last part isn't in the Dunk and egg stories

Yeah, how the character goes from the happy-go-lucky kid of the short stories to the one that ends up doing the Harrenhall stunt is something that I guess that Martin would like to eventually tell. AFAIK he didn't want the Dunk & Egg stories to be taken to TV becacuse he's still writing them and has plans for several more, but I fear this might end up being yet another unfinished side project for him.

[viper37]

Anyone knows of a site where you can buy Asian movies in digital format?  An acquaintance of mine is looking for a specific kung fu movie and it's difficult to find.

[HVC]

Anyone knows of a site where you can buy Asian movies in digital format?  An acquaintance of mine is looking for a specific kung fu movie and it's difficult to find.

I don't know a place where you can buy, but I know a place you can stream 

[viper37]

Anyone knows of a site where you can buy Asian movies in digital format?  An acquaintance of mine is looking for a specific kung fu movie and it's difficult to find.

I don't know a place where you can buy, but I know a place you can stream 

yeah, he specfically asked buying.

shoot by PM anyway.  Subtitles required for Mandarin, not Japanese movies.