TV/Movies Megathread

[Syt]

We had most shows referenced by Simpsons or Family Guy, and I think almost all major 80s/90s shows made it over here, and I still grew up on a diet of 60s/70s re-runs.

[The Brain]

We did have Hart to Hart though.

[Eddie Teach]

Saw the first segment of the Gold Fever docudrama on Discovery. Fascinating stuff.

[Josephus]

She is 16 1/2!

Not that I'm counting.

Well I'd rather they filmed it with 18 year olds and gave us back the original opening sequence.!

[jimmy olsen]

What's the original opening sequence?

[The Brain]

What Europe needs:

http://youtu.be/UPE2ySTIGRM

Bestest show ever. And referenced by the Simpsons too.

It appears to rule. Why wasn't this on in Sweden? Was it because of the Cold War?

[Eddie Teach]

What's the original opening sequence?

Some of the other girls hazing Carrie in the locker room.

[viper37]

What Europe needs:

http://youtu.be/UPE2ySTIGRM

Bestest show ever. And referenced by the Simpsons too.

Dukes of Hazzard was way better.  Roscoe P. Coltrane was America's best sheriff, for sure.

[CountDeMoney]

What Europe needs:

http://youtu.be/UPE2ySTIGRM

Bestest show ever. And referenced by the Simpsons too.

All those beautiful Plymouth Furys, lost...like tears in the rain.

[dps]

What's the original opening sequence?

Some of the other girls hazing Carrie in the locker room.

Which raises the question of what the opening sequence is in the remake.

[Sheilbh]

Some decent review of the remake, which is surprising

[Sheilbh]

Dredd. Very good. It pulls off the trick of making slightly schlocky violence grimly funny rather than camply funny.

Also I love a blockbuster-ish film that is around an hour and a half long and isn't mostly backstory or about 'origins'. This should be the norm again

My one major quibble is the soundtrack. Tedious atmospheric industrial, which is now as rare as Inception massed brass. I think films aren't using soundtracks very well at the minute. What worked is now a bit tedious and samey.

Edit: Also the slo-mo bits reminded me of The Fountain, but worth watching.

[Syt]

Also I love a blockbuster-ish film that is around an hour and a half long and isn't mostly backstory or about 'origins'. This should be the norm again

I hear you.

It's a bane of superhero movies. Which becomes a bit boring when a series is rebooted and they re-tread familiar ground.

I also hate long expositions about the world's setting - just throw the viewer in there; if you can convey that info by showing, not telling, they can figure shit out by themselves.

[Sheilbh]

Also just saw the trailer for 12 Years A Slave. It looks outstanding.

Hunger's one of the best films I've seen and Shame was interesting, though not as great.

Edit: The trailer:
http://trailers.apple.com/trailers/fox_searchlight/12yearsaslave/

[Sheilbh]

I also hate long expositions about the world's setting - just throw the viewer in there; if you can convey that info by showing, not telling, they can figure shit out by themselves.

Yep.

But I enjoyed it in the Hobbit.

I'm not a Tolkien fan. I read the Hobbit when I was a kid and liked it but never got on with Lord of the Rings (though I'm reading and enjoying it now. What I really like in the books is that because there's a substantial world behind the story he's telling the omissions and lack of background don't seem like gaps. If anything they convince you more of the world your in.

But I think that's probably because he wrote so many other things that sort-of provided the myths and history of his world. So if you're interested and patient you can go and fill those omissions in. I don't think the films would have that chance because (from what I understand) only the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings are really readable, adaptable books. So it's nice for someone like me to be given that sense of the world and to fill the holes. It's nice to have it explained why Gandalf fucks off all the time, for example, or why he wants to help the dwarves.

But I think lots of films with far less substantial worlds behind them linger on setting a little too long - I think it would've been a really easy temptation for Dredd. Maybe they can do a bit more if they get to make a sequel, which I hope they will, but for now I'm really like the self-contained story in the self-contained mega-block that is ultimately over a drugs bust.

It's a bane of superhero movies. Which becomes a bit boring when a series is rebooted and they re-tread familiar ground.

Yeah. They're really vulnerable. Some of it's useful - I haven't heard of most of the characters in the whole Avengers set-up so I quite appreciate a bit of context and the stand-alone movies, providing they're good. But I think even non-superhero films seem to spend a lot of time doing flashbacks and looking for motivation and where have the character come from. If they remade Silence of the Lambs they'd have lingeringly cut back to Clarice in West Virginia (I think). I think there's maybe a superhero-isation of other films, as if every hero or antagonist needs a big back story and as if we need to know.