TV/Movies Megathread

[Liep]

Saw 12 angry men again, still the best movie I've ever seen.

[dps]

Just watched the 3rd episode of the new year of Doctor Who.  A much better episode, actually, than the two-parter that opened the season.  The 2-parter had a great set-up and great atmosphere, but felt rushed, especially the 2nd part.

The end of the 3rd episode had a whiff of being a backdoor pilot for a possible spinoff. 

[Norgy]

Finished The Battle of Algiers last night.  Very enjoyable and I can see why it influenced a lot of films that came after it.  Now I'm watching some of the interviews and documentaries included in the Criterion version.

Very good movie.

I started watching the BBC series Exile. The beginning was fitting, since it was confusing and Alzheimer's plays an important part in the plot. 

[Scipio]

Watched The Black Death with Sean Bean and some other actors I've never heard of.  Was decent...ish, but missing something.  The pacing was also a bit off and the characterization fairly weak.  6 intentional plaguings out of 10.

Better than The Seventh Seal?

No.

Better than Flesh+Blood?

What isn't?

[Eddie Teach]

The Next Three Days. Very taut thriller. Much better than Crash.

[Slargos]

Drive Angry

Deliciously exaggerated. William Fitchner is a riot, and the scene with the Hydrogen truck is... priceless..

[BuddhaRhubarb]

A Somewhat Gentle Man. Norwegian hilarity with Stellan Skarsgard(sp?) as a big lunk fresh from a 12 year bit who is trying to turn his life around, but like a sad quiet mopey Al Pacino, he gets dragged back in to a bizarre world of basement dwelling, sad sad sex with old ladies and obligations he never knew he had. In the end he figures some shit out. Totes awesome flick. Lapp Arms merchants ? :lulz:

great stuff

8.5 come hither looks from horse faced grannies outta 10

[Slargos]

A Somewhat Gentle Man. Norwegian hilarity with Stellan Skarsgård(sp?) as a big lunk fresh from a 12 year bit who is trying to turn his life around, but like a sad quiet mopey Al Pacino, he gets dragged back in to a bizarre world of basement dwelling, sad sad sex with old ladies and obligations he never knew he had. In the end he figures some shit out. Totes awesome flick. Lapp Arms merchants ? :lulz:

great stuff

8.5 come hither looks from horse faced grannies outta 10

FYP.

[Scipio]

Scandi indie movies rock.  Been catching a lot of them lately.

[Ed Anger]

Paul Blart- Mall Cop. This film gave me ass cancer.

[viper37]

?
does that mean it was excellent? or it was awful?

[viper37]

Finally saw the Millenium trilogy.  Quite good.  Had to watch it dubbed in French, I hate the subtitles, and I have trouble understanding languages other than French&English
Still, it was nice for a low budget movie.  Not as good as I expected, but it's a very decent drama.

There seems to be some kind of Swedish movie invasion lately.  Let me in, Millenium, Arn and others I haven't seen maybe.
It's surprising coming from Slargosland.

So, anything else (movie wise) this country does good?  Anything that reached North America, I mean.

[Norgy]

Try Danish movies too. If you haven't already, that is. The Pusher trilogy, In China They Eat Dogs and basically anything without Lars von Trier but with Kim Bodnia is good. I really, really, really loathe von Trier's movies after Riget.

From the past couple of decades, I can mention several Swedish movies that have been good or better.

A quick general guide to Scandinavian/Nordic movies:

Finnish - usually very depressing and low-key. The Finns are moody people living in saunas and they drink and brood. Their movies reflect this, even the war movies.

Icelandic - Not seen enough of them to make a sound judgment.

Swedish - Quite often extreme quality, both in drama and comedy, and in the past couple of decades, mysteries have become a Swedish speciality. Very good actors and direction, and usually quality production. However, more high brow and serious than Danish film in general.

Danish - Quality and humour, quite often. Unlike Finns and Norwegian, the Danes are colourful and entertaining and are great at the indie low-budget action movies.

Norwegian - Mainly suffering under a lack of a broad specter of actors. More often than not, foreign actors are imported for big parts, and most good movies come from low-budget buddy collaborations that finally are realised. Norwegians love nature, and you can't have a movie without at least a fjord or some midnight sun.

[katmai]

Is this a trick post? Everyone knows Scandinavia has been resting on it laurels since that hack from Sweden hit it big.

[Slargos]

I think that's a pretty good run-down.

Norway suffers from, in the movie business as everywhere else, formulaic thinking. You need to have a committe sit-down for 3 months before you can decide HOW to go about fixing a collapsed tunnel while 10 000 cars per day have to be routed onto local roads that are decades behind schedule on maintenance and repair. This does not make for efficiency in anything, especially when the final conclusion is generally the wrong one.

An ornery people, the Norwegians.

I liked Dead Snow but I can't think of a single other Norwegian production that I actually enjoyed.