TV/Movies Megathread

[Eddie Teach]

Revisited 2001. Such a beautiful and confounding movie.

[lustindarkness]

Watched Star Wars the Force Awakens again, third time is just as good as the first time.

[Barrister]

Watched Star Wars the Force Awakens again, third time is just as good as the first time.

Movie is out on Blu-Ray in 2 days.  Totally buying it, and getting the younger two (who I didn't take to the theatre) to watch it.

[celedhring]

Can't wait for the BR myself, and I wasn't that much in love with the film. But heck, it's Star Wars 

[garbon]

[Norgy]

Can't wait for the BR myself, and I wasn't that much in love with the film. But heck, it's Star Wars 

I watched it recently.
Maybe I am getting old, but the tried and tested recipe just didn't work for me. It's better than the prequels, but basically the original Star Wars redone.

[celedhring]

Can't wait for the BR myself, and I wasn't that much in love with the film. But heck, it's Star Wars 

I watched it recently.
Maybe I am getting old, but the tried and tested recipe just didn't work for me. It's better than the prequels, but basically the original Star Wars redone.

That's pretty much it. It took the easy way out and didn't add anything new. But it's decent enough and it feels like Star Wars.

I wish the prequels had this basic level of competence to them.

[Norgy]

I cried my eyes out over last night's "Shameless" episode.
It kind of sticks with me.

[Grey Fox]

Watched Paper Towns. I am in love with Cara Delevingne.

[celedhring]

Those brows really turn me off. She's pretty otherwise.

[viper37]

Those brows really turn me off. She's pretty otherwise.

it grows on you

[KRonn]

Watched Paper Towns. I am in love with Cara Delevingne.

I liked this movie, cool story and ending, though I was expecting a different ending.   [spoiler] I was expecting that he'd find her and she was having some kind of issue but would return with him. But it was actually a better ending, somewhat more thought provoking, with her desire to go off on her own. [/spoiler]

[Grey Fox]

Watched Paper Towns. I am in love with Cara Delevingne.

I liked this movie, cool story and ending, though I was expecting a different ending.   [spoiler] I was expecting that he'd find her and she was having some kind of issue but would return with him. But it was actually a better ending, somewhat more thought provoking, with her desire to go off on her own. [/spoiler]

[spoiler]His desire actually, she invites him to come with after the kiss[/spoiler]

[celedhring]

Rewatched JFK, which used to be one of my favorite films back in the 90s. The whole conspiracy theory angle hasn't aged well, particularly in this day and age of History Channel and the Internet were stuff like that is plucked down from anywhere, but damn is the film still excellently edited.

The frantic pace (despite it being a 3,5 hour film), the variety of sources, the flashbacks-within-flashbacks-within flashbacks, the use of not only video but sound and music... it's pure editing porn. And that's from an era without digital editing. Yes, it's manipulative and slightly cheesy, but few have been better at it IMHO.

[Savonarola]

The Look of Silence (2015)

This documentary covers the Indonesian Killings of 1965.  One man, whose brother was killed in the massacre, goes to confront the killers.  This is portrayed as dangerous, since the the men who carried out the massacre are still in power; but actually the killers are more than willing to share their stories, even seeming to boast about their misdeeds.

It's rare that I can't make it through a movie, but this one was simply so dull that I eventually gave up.  That was surprising given its subject matter.  The problem is the film is shot in the cinéma vérité style and consists mostly of people staring off into space.  (One of the first shots is of a naked 103 year old man staring off; that's a great deal more vérité  than I need in my cinéma.)  It's a film about an important subject (and one that I think is poorly understood); but that doesn't make it a good film

Did you see the predecessor film, The Act of Killing?  It covers the same topic (US-backed Indonesian anti-Communist torturers and murders boasting about their crimes) but actually gives them some budget to reenact their crimes in Hollywood style.  It gets surreal, but after all, they started out as gangsters controlling the Hollywood movie-ticket racket and so disliked the Communist government's ban on American movies.  That film I really liked, but have been reluctant to see this one that treads the same ground.

I did watch The Act of Killing; thanks for the recommendation Milhali and Celedhring.  That was really interesting (as well as funny and deeply disturbing.)  What struck me about the film is how many of the characters expressed remorse; that's quite different than Shoah or the Eichmann biographies I read.  I think that, in part, may be because there was no Wanassee Conference in Indonesia; the gangsters were making it up themselves as they went along rather than following a plan.  Also because the gangsters personally tortured and killed their victims, while the former Nazis interviewed in Shoah (and Eichmann) were just cogs in the process.  They never personally killed anyone.