TV/Movies Megathread

[garbon]

Fantastic Four isn't a rights issue.  It's Marvel Studios starting to bring the big-name properties that the sold to Fox to stave off bankruptcy into their cinematic universe.  Because most of their production after Endgame has been such a disaster, they're hoping that they can use this as a launching point to try and restore the brand with characters that people know.  Of course, the Fantastic Four aren't exactly top-tier superheroes these days, and really haven't been since the Seventies, but they do have a certain nostalgic weight. 

The big gun is going to be when they start rolling out the X-Men.

As a kid in the 90s, the Fantastic Four were right up there with X-Men and Spiderman as they all had cartoons that aired near one another.

Having a cartoon doesn't mean that they were as big as the X-Men or Spiderman.  Their comics sold significantly less, and their cartoon got 26 episodes, which is a single production run.  They were definitely second-rate at the time.

I should have clarified I don't think they were as significant as those latter two but as a child in the 90s they looked equally large. TV watching as a child was also very different as I don't think I ever watched a whole show through but just saw them endlessly at random times in syndication.

On a different note, I wonder how many people have been exposed to X-Men and Spiderman primarily through comics. That would count me out as my family never spent much money on those.

[garbon]

Actually I think my main marvel knowledge came from these that my grandfather collected and gave us.

Mostly the 1990 version

https://marvel.fandom.com/wiki/Marvel_Universe_Cards

[mongers]

So 'Yellowstone', based on my 1st 30mins viewing it's like an updated version of Dallas with more cattle, guns and state politics?

Am I near the mark or is it worth continuing to watch?

[frunk]

This is everything I know about the show:

[viper37]

So 'Yellowstone', based on my 1st 30mins viewing it's like an updated version of Dallas with more cattle, guns and state politics?

Am I near the mark or is it worth continuing to watch?

You miss the titties too.

Or maybe we got the censored version of Dalles over here...

I can't tell you if it's worth continuing to watch, all I can tell you is that is not for me.

[Grey Fox]

So 'Yellowstone', based on my 1st 30mins viewing it's like an updated version of Dallas with more cattle, guns and state politics?

Am I near the mark or is it worth continuing to watch?

Yes, I think it's a fabulous window into what the Trump loving America sees it self has.

[Admiral Yi]

Agree with Renard.  It's valuable as a socio-political artifact.

[Eddie Teach]

So 'Yellowstone', based on my 1st 30mins viewing it's like an updated version of Dallas with more cattle, guns and state politics?

Am I near the mark or is it worth continuing to watch?

Yes, I think it's a fabulous window into what the Trump loving America sees it self has.

.

Are they the ones making the show?

[garbon]

On Rotten Tomatoes it looks like audience love all seasons but season 5 while critics loved all seasons but season 1.

[Grey Fox]

So 'Yellowstone', based on my 1st 30mins viewing it's like an updated version of Dallas with more cattle, guns and state politics?

Am I near the mark or is it worth continuing to watch?

Yes, I think it's a fabulous window into what the Trump loving America sees it self has.

.

Are they the ones making the show?

I don't know. It doesn't matter. Good show runners & writers will adapt the tones of the show to it's fan base.

[The Minsky Moment]

Yellowstone is fine, it's trash TV but it's fun.

I'm sure Trumpy people read their worldview into the show but it's a very selective reading of a narrative that identifies with a nostalgia tinged small "c" conservatism.  The main character does enter politics, and his agenda is the 180-degree opposite of "drill baby drill".

[mongers]

A 1980s BBC documentary series about the training for the Mountain and Arctic Warfare Cadre of the Royal Marines, Worth a viewing;

BBC Iplayer

Have tremendous respect for these guys.

[Sheilbh]

Yellowstone is fine, it's trash TV but it's fun.

I'm sure Trumpy people read their worldview into the show but it's a very selective reading of a narrative that identifies with a nostalgia tinged small "c" conservatism.  The main character does enter politics, and his agenda is the 180-degree opposite of "drill baby drill".

I'll watch it.

It sounds a little like Friday Night Lights, which (apart from the writers' strike afflicted season 2) I think is a masterpiece. It is maybe a little trash and just a fancy soap - but I genuinely think it's up there with the best of golden age TV

[celedhring]

So, I took my mom to watch the Maria Callas movie, which is a very mom movie. It chronicles the last week of the life of Maria Callas, played by Angelina Jolie. She wanders through Paris with her brain drenched in opioids, talking to characters real and imaginary while she reflects on her life.

Like the other movies in the trilogy that preceded it (Jackie and Spencer) the film looks gorgeous, but it really fails at portraying anything particularly insightful of its main character either as a person or as an icon. Jolie delivers an actually pretty good performance (might be one of her best, tbf), but she is saddled with pretentious dialogue throughout. The best part of the film was the relationship with her servants, which is the only time the script allows her to be more human.

In some weird way the movie feels a lot like an Euro 1970s new wave movie - with all the the lampshading of narrative artifice, collage techniques and the dreamlike approach of mixing fantasy and reality. I don't know if that's intended as part of the recreation - but I give it props for trying a different approach to the biopic. That and the fact that Jolie is really good in it made the movie watchable.

[Neil]

So I watched a bit of 'Foundation'.  It's actually got some interesting ideas in it, but I really wish they hadn't used the Foundation name on their project.  Yes, maybe actually adapting the books is commercially impossible, but it's pretty jarring seeing Salvor 'Violence is the last refuge of the incompetent' Hardin running and gunning as a generic Action Girl.