TV/Movies Megathread

[viper37]

Black Sails, season 2.
Nothing says I love you better than the head of your sworn ennemy on a pike.

I'd say it's miles ahead of season 1 in terms of quality.  Except the silly gay stuff they felt compelled to add.

Agreed on both counts.  The gay angle definitely felt forced and didn't line up with the prior storyline.  If they had some type of build up or legitimate backstory to it, it might have made sense.  I almost gave up on the show after the first 3 episodes of the first season which were so decidedly... mediocre at best.  It has definitely picked up steam though.

did you watch that other pirate show, Crossbones?  Is it any good?

[Ideologue]

Last Sunday I drove 45 minutes down to the wider-ranging artsy cinema and built a double-feature out of "Maps To The Stars" and "Mr. Turner."  Today, I saw "Whiplash" in the smallest theater of the local independent miniplex. 

"Mr. Turner" should be placed alongside many others under the "Good" heading in the ultimate evaluation of Mike Leigh's oeuvre, clearly separate from the "Great."  That said, it was a pleasure to watch, in its evocation of the period and in watching the cinematography open up a lot more than in most of his films.  But it was truly as plotless as a biopic can get, and its plotlessness sapped some vitality from the picture and left the main character a bit underdeveloped (rather perversely for what's ostensibly a biopic).

I liked "Maps To The Stars" quite a bit.  It's a scary movie but also a funny one; I laughed several times.  The dialogue as a whole was unapologetically over-the-top, but I thought it hit the mark more often than not.  Some of the narrative choices, especially the presentation of the whole ghost trope, were pretty questionable; I think the ultimate effect was to make "Maps" something of a campy film beyond its knowing campiness.  I didn't experience it as a particularly cutting satire of the entertainment industry, but Cronenberg definitely makes effective use of Hollywood as the setting for a venture into the dark excesses of human behavior.

"Whiplash" was pretty crappy, somewhat to my surprise..  If I wanted to watch a Buddy Rich instructional video, I would have.  If I wanted to watch footage of a bald man obscenely berating and emotionally abusing young men under his authority, I'd have watched the first half of "Full Metal Jacket."  This movie takes subpar renditions of those two ingredients and mixes them into a very conventional plot with thinly-sketched characters, photographed irritatingly when noticeably.  The hero apparently lacks any psychological depth -- his motivations, which are supposed to drive this extreme personal journey of violent emotions,remain opaque to the bitter end.  It's got to be bad news for any movie when Paul Reiser's the one who ends up giving the standout performance...

Pity you didn't like Whiplash.

I want to see Mr. Turner a lot less now, though, since that's what I hate about biopics.  Maps to the Stars I'm moderately excited about, even though Cronenberg's best lies thirty years in the past.

[celedhring]

A History of Violence was only 10 years ago 

[Grey Fox]

I don't know if it has been mentioned yet, probably since it was announced a few weeks ago, but Amazon picked up The Man in the High Castle.

Excellent news.

[Sophie Scholl]

did you watch that other pirate show, Crossbones?  Is it any good?

No.  It didn't look overly great and it was on NBC if memory serves, so I figured if it was actually good, it would just get the ax anyway.  Bastards.

[Admiral Yi]

A question came to me from watching American Sniper: if a guy is going to end up just doing a plain vanilla sniper job, why waste all that SEAL training on him? 

[celedhring]

Had forgotten how great the incidental music in Entourage is.

[FunkMonk]

I don't know if it has been mentioned yet, probably since it was announced a few weeks ago, but Amazon picked up The Man in the High Castle.

Nice. I really enjoyed the pilot. Captivating.

[11B4V]

Black Sails, season 2.
Nothing says I love you better than the head of your sworn ennemy on a pike.

I'd say it's miles ahead of season 1 in terms of quality.  Except the silly gay stuff they felt compelled to add.

Agreed on both counts.  The gay angle definitely felt forced and didn't line up with the prior storyline.  If they had some type of build up or legitimate backstory to it, it might have made sense.  I almost gave up on the show after the first 3 episodes of the first season which were so decidedly... mediocre at best.  It has definitely picked up steam though.

Sorry fellas, but you just can't have pirates without the gay.  Figured you would have seen it coming in frilly blouses and puffy shirts a mile away.

Rear Admiral


















































Butt Pirate

[viper37]

did you watch that other pirate show, Crossbones?  Is it any good?

it was on NBC if memory serves, so I figured if it was actually good, it would just get the ax anyway.  Bastards.

to their defense, Hannibal will begin season 3 this June

[Syt]

I need to watch those again.

[Admiral Yi]

Watched The French Connection again last night.  Still gotta say I don't get the love.

[Eddie Teach]

Heisenberg wore it better.

[celedhring]

Watched The French Connection again last night.  Still gotta say I don't get the love.

I just love all those drawn-out, dialogue-less, surveillance and chase scenes. But it is an acquired taste, I guess.

[CountDeMoney]

Trying to find the dope in the Lincoln is great.