TV/Movies Megathread

[Syt]

LEGO Movie. That was awesome.

Much better (and much more hilarious) than a toy movie cash in has any right to be.

[Ideologue]

Foodfight! (2012)



I'm not even sure where to begin here.  This is supposed to be a children's cartoon along the lines of "Toy Story."  After you leave the supermarket your favorite brand icons come to life and hang out.  Consumer advocates got all bent out of shape at the extreme level of product placement in this film; but honestly that's about the least psychologically damaging part of the film.  The computer animation is crude, incompetently rendered, and often takes on a nightmare like quality.  There's simulated inter-species sex and tons of double-entendres.  The film features not one, but two characters who are every bit as irritating and over-the-top as Jar Jar Binks.  There's a lot of violence, on screen deaths and Nazi overtones.

There are a number of homages and spoofs of better movies in this film; (largely because there aren't worse movies).  That might be clever in a somewhat better film; but in this film it's more like a cinematic blow to the solar plexus of "Casablanca" and "Singing in the Rain."

I'd heard tell of this one.  You're weird, Sav.  "If you watch just one movie made in your lifetime..."

[Admiral Yi]

Watched most of Blue Jasmine last night.  Kate Blanchett's high powered Manhattan marriage falls to shit, she goes nuts, and camps out on her sister's sofa in San Fran.  The sister is played by that funny looking/cute chick from The Ladies of Dagenham.

I was thinking the whole time how much the dialogue reminded me of Woody Allen movies, and lo and behold, it's a Woody Allen movie.

[Eddie Teach]

Insidious. It was alright.

[Josephus]

Watched most of Blue Jasmine last night.  Kate Blanchett's high powered Manhattan marriage falls to shit, she goes nuts, and camps out on her sister's sofa in San Fran.  The sister is played by that funny looking/cute chick from The Ladies of Dagenham.

I was thinking the whole time how much the dialogue reminded me of Woody Allen movies, and lo and behold, it's a Woody Allen movie.

[celedhring]

Okay, Penny Dreadful is definitely dreadful. (sorry, couldn't resist  )

The only thing vaguely resembling a plot thread - the search for Malcolm's girl - barely gets advanced every week, and instead the show just meanders into semi-random gruesome/sleazy/dark vignettes. Now, this sort of ties with the source material, but it has grown really stale and I'm finding it a chore to just watch the last two eps.

[Savonarola]

I'd heard tell of this one.  You're weird, Sav.  "If you watch just one movie made in your lifetime..."

I feel this movie more than justifies my decision to stick with the silent era.   

You might get some mileage out of this in an Ide review.  The corporate capitalist message is blatant and appalling (going so far as to equate generic store brands with National Socialism.)  Still the movie is so awful that I can't recommend it.  I like a lot of B movies, but this is all but unwatchable.

[Scipio]

Curse of the Dragon Slayer.

I tried really hard to hate this movie, but, frankly, aside from the cheesiness of the effects, I really liked it. Not laden with faux-Euro high-fantasy accents, solid LotR-style makeup, believable if cheesy character arcs, and ultimately a fun film. No bikini chainmail, no obviously stupid actions by the heroes. A solid B-movie. Good action set-pieces, but it really demonstrates how effective hyper-kinetic cutting is in damaging our expectations of action sequences.

[celedhring]

I'm planning a "great chase scenes" sort of theme for films to watch in the following weeks. This is what I'm including so far:

- The French Connection
- Bullitt
- Duel
- The Italian Job (old one)
- The Driver (one of my favorite flicks)
- The Seven-Ups (if I can locate the DVD)
- The Blues Brothers
- To Live and Die in LA
- Ronin

Any suggestions? Most of the stuff I came up with is from the 70s, and it's all films I have already seen, there's probably some good stuff out there that I don't know.  I haven't seen a single of the Fast and Furious films, for example, but I don't know if the films are too shit even if the car scenes might be good. I also have not seen stuff like all those redneck-themed stunt driving films from the 70s.

[Admiral Yi]

Mad Max, Road Warrior, the Bourne movies.

[Syt]

Gone in 60 Seconds (the original, not remake), Vanishing Point and for something more lighthearted: Smokey and the Bandit (and maybe Cannonball Run).

[Syt]

I presume you've seen the Taxi movies?

Transporter movies if you don't mind silly action schlock.

[Ed Anger]

Not really a chase movie, but Death Race 2000 is a hoot.

[Syt]

Oh, and Duel, obviously.

[Admiral Yi]

Oh, and Duel, obviously.

Good one.  And while you're at it, Bullit and The French Connection.