TV/Movies Megathread

[Maladict]

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!·" 

Just as a flip side - I remember watching the movie Angels & Demons, staring Tom Hanks and based on the Dan Brown book.

It is not a very good movie.

But it was set in Rome, filmed in Rome, and its very Roman-ness just shone through, so it was enjoyable in a travelogue sort of way.

Terrible movie, terrible book. Watch The Great Beauty if you're looking for an ode to Rome.

So I literally said "It is not a very good movie".

But it is still a Ron Howard movie starring Tom Hanks.  It's very competently made, and Hanks is always watchable.  But yes the story is stupid.  Enjoy it for being a movie all about Rome and it's history.

I was agreeing with you 

[Tonitrus]

Finally watched The Hunt For Red October. 

It's a good film.

HFRO was a good movie and the best Clancy adaptation. 

Detailed and realistic cinematic treatment that had tragic consequences in real life, as a panicked Soviet high command dismissed all Scotsmen from the Soviet Navy.

And in a great but of unintentionality...Sean Connery kills Putin (the name of the political officer) early in the film. 

[grumbler]

Also, not having read any Clancy books (not really into spy thrillers and such) - how much of the silliness was intentional?

Clancy took himself very seriously.

Here's an interesting tidbit about him that isn't well-known:  when he wrote Red Storm Rising, he included the idea that the Soviets would keep their SSBNs in an Artic "bastion" to free up more SSNs for the attack on the Atlantic Sea Lines of Communication.  This was not at all what our intelligence was predicting.  I was a team leader in the 1987 Strategic ASW review (basically, a big annual paper wargame looking at USN needs in Antisubmarine Warfare five, ten, and twenty years into the future) and we originally didn't have the Soviets using that strategy. 

Admiral Bobby Inman, by then retired, had preached for several years as head of the NSA and then CIA that the Soviet use of such a strategy would greatly alter USN ASW needs, but the CNO's office (that ran the study) had never tasked us to look at it.  The came Red Storm Rising, proposing exactly what Inman thought was the most dangerous Soviet strategy, and, since everyone in the business read it, the CNO's office was forced to add it to the study.  The result showed a massive capability gap in the speed with which the USN could attrite the Soviet sub threat, and that led directly to the greatly accelerated plan to replace older SSNs with the $3 billion-per-copy Seawolf and then Virginia class submarines.

My boss was convinced that Inman set Clancy up to send exactly the message he had been preaching inside the Navy. It was a rather peculiar coincidence, if it wasn't deliberate.

[celedhring]

Also, not having read any Clancy books (not really into spy thrillers and such) - how much of the silliness was intentional?

Clancy took himself very seriously.

Here's an interesting tidbit about him that isn't well-known:  when he wrote Red Storm Rising, he included the idea that the Soviets would keep their SSBNs in an Artic "bastion" to free up more SSNs for the attack on the Atlantic Sea Lines of Communication.  This was not at all what our intelligence was predicting.  I was a team leader in the 1987 Strategic ASW review (basically, a big annual paper wargame looking at USN needs in Antisubmarine Warfare five, ten, and twenty years into the future) and we originally didn't have the Soviets using that strategy. 

Admiral Bobby Inman, by then retired, had preached for several years as head of the NSA and then CIA that the Soviet use of such a strategy would greatly alter USN ASW needs, but the CNO's office (that ran the study) had never tasked us to look at it.  The came Red Storm Rising, proposing exactly what Inman thought was the most dangerous Soviet strategy, and, since everyone in the business read it, the CNO's office was forced to add it to the study.  The result showed a massive capability gap in the speed with which the USN could attrite the Soviet sub threat, and that led directly to the greatly accelerated plan to replace older SSNs with the $3 billion-per-copy Seawolf and then Virginia class submarines.

My boss was convinced that Inman set Clancy up to send exactly the message he had been preaching inside the Navy. It was a rather peculiar coincidence, if it wasn't deliberate.

I love when you share this kind of stories. Thanks.

Just catching up with Fall of the House of Usher throughout Halloween. It's quite trashy, which is not without its fun, but overall I'm finding it to be among the weakest Flanagan efforts.

[Syt]

I love when you share this kind of stories. Thanks.

Same, thank you for sharing!

[Norgy]

I really liked the first few seasons of "The Walking Dead". These sequels they have made, I could probably not be more underwhelmed after a few episodes of each one.

Even Darryl Dixon is not interesting anymore. And how the fuck did he get himself to France?

[Josquius]

I really liked the first few seasons of "The Walking Dead". These sequels they have made, I could probably not be more underwhelmed after a few episodes of each one.

Even Darryl Dixon is not interesting anymore. And how the fuck did he get himself to France?

I lost it all with the Neegan flash forward.
That sounds just bizarre. I guess France is where the show was still doing well?

[Maladict]

I love when you share this kind of stories. Thanks.

Same, thank you for sharing!

[Josephus]

I really liked the first few seasons of "The Walking Dead". These sequels they have made, I could probably not be more underwhelmed after a few episodes of each one.

Even Darryl Dixon is not interesting anymore. And how the fuck did he get himself to France?

A boat. Carol took a plane with a stop over in Greenland.

[Norgy]

Yeah, with 20 years of walking undead, I am sure there was plenty of fuel just sitting around.

[Sheilbh]

Just catching up with Fall of the House of Usher throughout Halloween. It's quite trashy, which is not without its fun, but overall I'm finding it to be among the weakest Flanagan efforts.

Agree - loved Hill House especially. But House of Usher was, I felt, the weakest of the bunch.

[garbon]

Just catching up with Fall of the House of Usher throughout Halloween. It's quite trashy, which is not without its fun, but overall I'm finding it to be among the weakest Flanagan efforts.

Agree - loved Hill House especially. But House of Usher was, I felt, the weakest of the bunch.

I thought Midnight Club was the worst, I gave up.

Actually I started and never finished basically all of them. Only completed Bly Manor and I think that's because I like T'Nia Miller.

[Sheilbh]

I liked Bly Manor and Hill House - also Midnight Mass.

Didn't know Midnight Club was him to be honest. I don't think I've watched it or it doesn't stick in my mind.

[celedhring]

Haven't watched Midnight Club either, but I liked the other ones - Hill House in particular. Also, I enjoyed Doctor Sleep more than I probably should have. 

[Savonarola]

The Maltese Falcon (1941)

This is the third version of The Maltese Falcon made.  The first, in 1931, was competently made, but wasn't really memorable.  (Strangely Bebe Daniels, Harold Lloyd's leading lady and ex-fiancee, is the femme fatale.)  The second "Satan Made A Lady" (1936) was more lighthearted and comic than either the 1931 or 1941 versions; it has Bette Davis in the Mary Astor role, but it isn't very good.  The 1941 version is the masterpiece.  You couldn't ask for a better cast, snappier dialog or better cinematography.  Had Bogart not been been Rick Blaine a year later he would forever have been Sam Spade.