TV/Movies Megathread

[crazy canuck]

Footloose

[The Minsky Moment]

Are blood sucking vampires dicks?
Then the Lost Boys

[Admiral Yi]

Are blood sucking vampires dicks?
Then the Lost Boys

Yeah, my roomie mentioned slasher movies, which also seems to fit.

[Barrister]

Celery, got a totally random question for you.  Any college movies where the townies are the BAD guys?

Specifically college movies?

There's movies like "Deliverance", or maybe Texas Chainsaw Massacre, where the city folk run into the crazy hillbillies.    But not really "college/high school".  But I think there is definitely a "scary hillbilly" sub-genre, though not limited to college-aged protagonists.

I saw Lost Boys mentioned.  That's more "people move to a new town", not really a townie/city split.  Our protagonists make friends in their new town who help fight the vampires.  You could consider The Karate Kid the same way - new kid in town, makes both friends and enemies.

There's always the ur-college movie.  Animal House.  Townies are the black guys at the black bar (where Otis Day and the Knights are playing), or the supermarket cashier plus her father.  Although our protagonists run away from the black bar it's not clear the black guys did anything past "may we dance with your dates", and while the dad (in a pretty minor role) didn't like the fraternity boys, one of them did molest his young daughter (it was the 70s, times were different).  Really it's always a fascinating movie because while our protagonists are portrayed as the good guys, when you think about it they really weren't.

The Social Network?  Never seen it, but the main (college-aged) characters are the bad guys, so presumably every else is more "good"?

That's the best I can do. 

[Syt]

So watched two movies this week, accidentally making it a fairly fitting double feature:

D&D: Honor Among Thieves
Star Trek: Section 31

Both are action films with an often lighter tone in which a group of misfits with different abilities have to learn to work together to defeat the BIG BAD, and both are based on established properties.

Now, I will say that I didn't hate either movie, but one was far more enjoyable than the other - spoiler: it's D&D:HaT.

To keep it short - D&D seemed to be made by people who (generally) liked the property (D&D, Faerûn), and with a cast that seemed to have fun. It was cheesy, yes, but it dove head first into the world, with fairly limited spoken exposition, but it also had heart, gave its main characters arcs to overcome their self doubt and generally was a rollercoaster ride. Don't think too much, enjoy it while it lasts.

Section 31 made very limited use of the setting, had limited character arcs, and while I generally enjoyed the characters didn't send them on much of a journey (except Garrett, but also only in the end). Actually, I think you could rewrite it with minimal effort to fit into Farscape or Star Wars or possibly even Stargate. I get that they wanted to make it more palatable to non-Trek fans, but I doubt it would turn new fans to the franchise, while not being "Trek" enough for many existing fans. I don't think all Trek must be the same forever and always, but while it was a decent 95 minutes if you're into this kind of action flick, I know which of the two I would pick for a re-watch right away.

(Though I found S31 entertaining enough, still.)

[HVC]

Against my better judgement I watched section 31 too. Mainly because I was bored and insomnia it wasn't good, but wasn't bad enough to turn off. I agree it didn't feel trek-y. Actually, it reminded me a lot of solo. Being tied to another franchise made it worse because it feels off to the rest of the universe. Both films would have been better as stand offs. 

*edit* Also, Neil, if you're feeling trek blues don't watch this movie

[Syt]

I will say for S31 that the actors at least were fine, mostly, it wasn't their fault the film isn't better.

[HVC]

Yeah, the actors themselves weren't at fault for the most part, they did what they could with what they had.

[HVC]

And IGN actually gave a bad rating. Didn't know they gave bad ratings

[Syt]

Trek Culture summarized it well - you can tell this was meant to be a series that got condensed. Probably excising character moments, less clunky exposition, and generally more room to breathe for the story.

[garbon]

Emilia Pérez

Well that was a thing...

[celedhring]

Emilia Pérez

Well that was a thing...

I like the movie because I always love full-throttle wacky "no way they are going for this" stuff - but it baffles me it's the Oscar frontrunner 

[garbon]

Emilia Pérez

Well that was a thing...

I like the movie because I always love full-throttle wacky "no way they are going for this" stuff - but it baffles me it's the Oscar frontrunner 

Fits a niche/anti-Trumpian?

As an everyday viewer it was a mess. Dull plot that seems to avoid any interesting topics it could have looked at (e.g. her relationship to her family post transition), bizarre character motivations (what was Zoe Saldana's character doing?), and terrible music ("from penis to vaginaaa" /I was actually startled at the fundraiser scene as had been some time since they had assaulted us with music).

[Barrister]

Wound up going with the whole family to see Sonic 3.

I'm really not familiar with the whole SCU - Sonic Cinematic Universe - but I did see Sonic 1 once upon a time.  Actually we did watch Sonic 1 afterwards with supper, which at least helped inform a couple of the jokes.

But really - very little made sense in this movie.  All of the characters decisions seemed motivated purely to move the plot forward, not that it would make sense for that character (even given the limited character traits anyone had in this video-game-derived movie).

Jim Carrey - I read somewhere he likes making these movies, despite being otherwise retired, because his kids liked them?  So fair enough.  But really - it seems like he's still trying to do the broad over-acting / physical comedy stuff from the 90s despite being 30 years later.  I didn't find it engaging.



The one thing I found "interesting" - we were in some kind of special theatre, where the two side walls would also have scenes projected on them.  So for whatever scene you were looking at, you could see what was happening to the sides as well.

It reminded me as a kid, of going to Expo 86 in Vancouver.  They had some theatre that displayed a movie in 360 degrees.  The screen surrounded you on all sides.

The thing was - all the "action" happened in one direction.  At Expo it was a short-ish film http://reelingback.com/articles/surrounding_an_audience

so you just stood, but everyone faced towards the action.  I can actually remember turning around to look at the other angles - but it was all just background scenery.

Same thing with whatever this was for Sonic 3.  Yes you could look to the sides.  Yes you might see a charcter's arm extend off to the side, or whatever.  But all the main parts were on the main screen, and the side walls added nothing to the experience.

[celedhring]

Wound up going with the whole family to see Sonic 3.
The one thing I found "interesting" - we were in some kind of special theatre, where the two side walls would also have scenes projected on them.  So for whatever scene you were looking at, you could see what was happening to the sides as well.

It reminded me as a kid, of going to Expo 86 in Vancouver.  They had some theatre that displayed a movie in 360 degrees.  The screen surrounded you on all sides.

The thing was - all the "action" happened in one direction.  At Expo it was a short-ish film http://reelingback.com/articles/surrounding_an_audience

so you just stood, but everyone faced towards the action.  I can actually remember turning around to look at the other angles - but it was all just background scenery.

Same thing with whatever this was for Sonic 3.  Yes you could look to the sides.  Yes you might see a charcter's arm extend off to the side, or whatever.  But all the main parts were on the main screen, and the side walls added nothing to the experience.

Yeah, one of the screens at the local multiplex has this gimmick too - although I have yet to see a movie in it.

It probably makes very little sense to actually use those two side screens too much for a regular movie, because it will be mostly released in regular theaters.