TV/Movies Megathread

[Admiral Yi]

Just rewatched My Big Fat Greek wedding and found it sweeter than I remembered.

[Josephus]

Peeping Tom (1960). Not what you might think. No naked co-eds being looked at from open windows.
Instead we get a film buff who likes to film women at their most frightened moment, ie. the moment of their death. He then watches the films at home. This film was mostly panned by critics at the time, pretty much ending the director's career,  but Martin Scorcese revived the film in the eighties, I think, and it has since had new life. The British Film Institute named it in their top 100 British films of all time.
It really is ahead of its time, a precursor, perhaps to the slasher genre. It's in black and white but the cinematography and direction are second to none. The opening scene has the main character filming as he murders a prostitute, and the whole sequence is scene through the viewpoint of a camera hidden in his jacket.
Well worth it.

[Syt]

Finally watched The Hunt For Red October. 

It's a good film.

[celedhring]

So, I'm watching Mrs Davies - and enjoying it - but there's this episode where they supposedly travel to Rome. The episode is shot in Barcelona, which very much can't pass as Rome if you have any sense of Rome as a city, and one of the key plotpoints is that the protagonist has to acquire what they call a "King's cake" in a local bakery - which is revealed to be a Spanish roscón de reyes, very much NOT an Italian thing.

I hate when yank shows do this kind of thing -- "I don't know... it's Europe! Look... European stuff!·" 

[Syt]

Patriot Games (1992).

After Red October, this one is quite "meh." More your typical revenge story with a bit of topical (for the day) spy stuff mixed in, and a bit of globe trotting (UK, North Africa, Maryland). Still, it has a not yet old Harrison Ford being his grumpy self, and evil Sean Bean chewing scenery and - unsurprisingly - dying.

[mongers]

Patriot Games (1992).

After Red October, this one is quite "meh." More your typical revenge story with a bit of topical (for the day) spy stuff mixed in, and a bit of globe trotting (UK, North Africa, Maryland). Still, it has a not yet old Harrison Ford being his grumpy self, and evil Sean Bean chewing scenery and - unsurprisingly - dying.

Is that the one that starts with HF saving some English royal in a taxi, shot outsite Greenwich college/hospital, which is standing in for central London?

[mongers]

Rewatching 'Wolf Hall' in preperation for the new series that starts tonight; forgotten how excellent it was, especially, but not limited to the lighting and the locations.

Also most of the acting and script was pretty good.

[Syt]

Patriot Games (1992).

After Red October, this one is quite "meh." More your typical revenge story with a bit of topical (for the day) spy stuff mixed in, and a bit of globe trotting (UK, North Africa, Maryland). Still, it has a not yet old Harrison Ford being his grumpy self, and evil Sean Bean chewing scenery and - unsurprisingly - dying.

Is that the one that starts with HF saving some English royal in a taxi, shot outsite Greenwich college/hospital, which is standing in for central London?

That's the one.

[Sheilbh]

For reasons I can't fully explain, I put on Ring at 2230 this evening. So now I just have to reconcile myself to never sleeping again

[Syt]

Thirteen Days
Still a great movie, if maybe leaning a bit too hard into the military as trigger happy warmongers angle. Bruce Greenwood and Steven Culp are great as JFK and RFK. Though still not sure why Costner insisted on trying to put on a Boston accent.

All The Way
Bryan Cranston reprising his role as Lyndon B Johnson that he played on Broadway. The make up and performance is uncanny. While some actors portray famous characters as a way of invoking them but putting their own interpretation on them, Cranston - to me at least - disappears and delivers more of an impersonation. Bradley Whitford's makeup as Hubert Humphrey is similarly uncanny. And Stephen Root delivers a surprisingly good J Edgar Hoover (why is he so good at playing slimy asshole characters ). Not to mention Anthony Mackie as Martin Luther King. Great performances, but it seems to lack an emotional core, playing more like a documentary.

Though it did make me dig up again this lovely clip from the LBJ tapes, in which he orders pants. If you want to hear LBJ talk about his nuts and bunghole while also belching mid-sentence, treat yourself.

[Duque de Bragança]

Peeping Tom (1960). Not what you might think. No naked co-eds being looked at from open windows.
Instead we get a film buff who likes to film women at their most frightened moment, ie. the moment of their death. He then watches the films at home. This film was mostly panned by critics at the time, pretty much ending the director's career,  but Martin Scorcese revived the film in the eighties, I think, and it has since had new life. The British Film Institute named it in their top 100 British films of all time.
It really is ahead of its time, a precursor, perhaps to the slasher genre. It's in black and white but the cinematography and direction are second to none. The opening scene has the main character filming as he murders a prostitute, and the whole sequence is scene through the viewpoint of a camera hidden in his jacket.
Well worth it.

Most influential as a movie, as a matter of fact. First slasher indeed.

[celedhring]

I've always found interesting that the same year Psycho made so much bank while Peeping Tom destroyed Powell's career. Hitchcock struck the right balance (for the time) between titillation and creepiness. Possibly cultural differences between the UK and the US, too, regarding this kind of material (I'm speculating here).

[Gups]

Rewatching 'Wolf Hall' in preperation for the new series that starts tonight; forgotten how excellent it was, especially, but not limited to the lighting and the locations.

Also most of the acting and script was pretty good.

First episode of the new one was superb.

[Sheilbh]

I've always found interesting that the same year Psycho made so much bank while Peeping Tom destroyed Powell's career. Hitchcock struck the right balance (for the time) between titillation and creepiness. Possibly cultural differences between the UK and the US, too, regarding this kind of material (I'm speculating here).

Yeah I think the reaction to Peeping Tom cause Hitchcock to cancel press screenings which may also be part of it. Psycho became a hit and was then reviewed, Peeping Tom was destroyed by the critics before anyone had a chance to see it (and often on very morally outraged grounds).

Although I do find them very different. I'm talking myself into a re-watch but from memory I found Peeping Tom vastly more creepy and unsettling - and I'm not sure why. It's definitely helped by not having the last ten minutes of Psycho where the analyst explains it all, but I think even through the film it puts you more on edge.

[celedhring]

I've always found interesting that the same year Psycho made so much bank while Peeping Tom destroyed Powell's career. Hitchcock struck the right balance (for the time) between titillation and creepiness. Possibly cultural differences between the UK and the US, too, regarding this kind of material (I'm speculating here).

Yeah I think the reaction to Peeping Tom cause Hitchcock to cancel press screenings which may also be part of it. Psycho became a hit and was then reviewed, Peeping Tom was destroyed by the critics before anyone had a chance to see it (and often on very morally outraged grounds).

Although I do find them very different. I'm talking myself into a re-watch but from memory I found Peeping Tom vastly more creepy and unsettling - and I'm not sure why. It's definitely helped by not having the last ten minutes of Psycho where the analyst explains it all, but I think even through the film it puts you more on edge.

Color vs B/W - I think if Psycho had been a color film it would have gone over much like Peeping Tom. Also I recall Peeping Tom (I'm speaking a bit from memory here, it's been a while) using more grotesque imagery, plus the use of PoV.