TV/Movies Megathread

[Eddie Teach]

I don't know that Day-Lewis sounded all that "American" in those roles. And most Americans doing Brit accents sound plausible enough to me. It's a matter of perspective. /shrug

[Admiral Yi]

Anyone have a good example of a Yank impersonating a Brit?

I thought Johnny Depp was pretty good in Sweeney Todd and Blackbeard.  Robert Downey jr. in Sherlock.  Paltrow in Shakespeare in Love.  Whatshisface did surprisingly well in Shakespeare in Love.

[Razgovory]

Lewis was doing a sort of antiquated Yankee accent in Gangs of New York.  It's not really recognized much anymore.  I'm told you can still hear in some places in Vermont and New Hampshire.

[Darth Wagtaros]

Anyone seen the trailer on "Prometheus"?

Yeah.

[Josquius]

I've just noticed they made a new this is England. Yey. Nice Xmas present.

And the trailer for Jack the Giant Killer looks very un Jack the Giant Killery and more dark Jack and the Beanstalk.
I'm upset they're making it, I was writing a story heavily featuring gians and now folk will think that made me do it.

[Eddie Teach]

Ah, the annual culling of the Netflix queue. I've got 16 movies in my instant queue going offline Jan. 1. 

[mongers]

How do you Pomegranates feel about Thatcher being played by a Yank?

Why would I be bothered about an American playing an alien. 

[mongers]

'Cowboys vs Aliens' OK, but it was hard not to guess it originated in a comic, the characters were rather two dimensional.

[Ideologue]

Invasion Earth: The Aliens Are Here.  A collection of clips and trailers from 50s sci-fi films wrapped into an absurdist, comedic, somewhat incoherent parody of such films, involving a gang of inept aliens taking over a small town theater, with the goal of pod-peoplizing the masses lulled into coma by the flashing images on the screen, only to be foiled by the vigilance of some local kids.

I hadn't watched it since I was a kid, and I'm sure I'd have ran my pirated VHS of it ragged but for the fact I lost it.  But my dad found it a few months ago, it still worked, and he transferred it to DVD.  It sounds stupid, and it is, yet it holds a lot of nostalgia for me.  But, you know, even without that factor, I think I would've had a lot of fun watching it, because it has a lot of cheesy laughs, and lot of clips of cool B-movies--even today, I'm still scratching my head over where some of those clips were from (unfortunately, the credits are clipped off the recording, because clearly proper attribution of work wasn't important to me when I was eight ).  Also, it has a badass theme song.

It's one of those movies that seems almost lost to the collective memory--not a single clip is on Youtube; a solitary mean-spirited review posted by some retard who thought it was the BBC show Invasion Earth, because he evidently can't read, is up on IMDB.  But it won't be totally forgotten, as long as I have it.

[Ideologue]

The Colossus of New York.  A scientist dude dies, and his scientist dad and scientist brother build him a robot body and put his intact brain in it.  His scientist brother tries to fuck his widow, and gets what's coming to him, namely cyborg death, and afterward the cyborg guy goes crazy and attacks the United Nations because "he has no soul," his dad played God, etc.

Decent flick, even if it's pretty preposterous.  It really highlights how far we've come in that no reasonable person today believes that a brain in a new body would be "soulless" or that "without [that] soul, only monstrousness remains."  Conceded, however, that one may imagine that the lack of sensory input from skin and the absence of a dick would probably fuck a guy's mind up, and lead to much the same results: dead MRFs at the U.N.  But that's really more of an engineering problem.

[Ed Anger]

Invasion Earth: The Aliens Are Here.  A collection of clips and trailers from 50s sci-fi films wrapped into an absurdist, comedic, somewhat incoherent parody of such films,

I remember that. Used to see it on HBO at 11am when I was "sick" from school.

[CountDeMoney]

Finally, FINALLY, caught up with the last 3 episodes of The Walking Dead.

Holy shit.

[Josephus]

Great ending, eh?

[CountDeMoney]

Great ending, eh?

Yeah, that woke me the fuck up.

I can appreciate Rick's attempts at maintaining his humanity in the "new world" and trying to do the right thing with Hershel, but he's going to have to make Hershel account for that.  All this time, fuck.
And Shane's going to have to be dealt with, more sooner than later.  That guy's grenade is already cooked.

Fucking February's gonna be a mess.

[Ideologue]

The Giant Claw.  A "bird the size of a battleship" comes to Earth from an undiscovered location, eats planes because of their meaty centers, and eventually tries to make a nest.  It is invulnerable to all attempts at harm due to fake make-up science, but its one weakness is even faker, more made-uppier science.  This the weakest aspect of the film.  There's no real need to impose technobabble on a giant monster film.  Rockets don't hurt it?  Fine, I don't really need to know why, especially if the explanation involves an "antimatter energy shield," and especially especially if the solution involves "mesic atoms."  (And yet those are real things, and they are described accurately enough.  I don't understand how their interaction with fucking antimatter is more special than, say, oxygen, but how about that?)

Other than that, it's very good.  Cute dialogue and performances by everyone involved, particularly the two leads, special effects that are not exactly great but more than serviceable (with the minor exception of aircraft in the same shot as the bird, which are very obviously toys on strings).  The monster looks like Sloth from the goonies if he grew wings.

The obvious comparison is to Rodan.  I suppose Rodan is probably better--Rodan was in color even though it was a year earlier, the monster is cooler and more iconic, not to mention more sensible in general.  However, many aspects of the Giant Claw--particularly one romantic scene which involves the stagiest, most inhuman, yet hilariously adorable dialogue ever written--are more entertaining.

There's a bunch of these old B-movies on Youtube.  A fine public service.  God bless the Internet.