TV/Movies Megathread

[Josephus]

My entirely unpopular opinion is that all 9 movies are bad. Each in their own different way.

Well they are. But they're also highly enjoyable too. Well, the first three anyway.

[Duque de Bragança]

Honestly I don't get the hate crystal skull gets. It was a fun silly film. As Indy should be.
Never going to many anyone's favourite film lists but perfectly fine for what it was

It was indeed perfectly fine for a rape of childhood movie à la Episode I and/or a CGI crapfest.

It was infinitely better than the star wars prequels

0 x infinity = 0 

[Syt]

Completely caught up on Red Dwarf now. S1-6 remain the "golden era." S7+8 are a serious dip in quality (though I didn't hate re-watching them), "Back to Earth" is "meh." S10 is an improvement, and I actually quite enjoyed S11+12, though I felt it covered a lot of familiar ground (and I still enjoyed the fan service in S12, like bringing back Lister's nemesis, or the flashbacks to the series start. "The Promised Land" was ok. Not great, but enjoyable enough.

[viper37]

25 years ago, this gem came out:

Never in the history of cinema had such an over the top silly action movie been released.  It paved the way for other overt the top silly action movies to be released.

All hail the King of explosion, Michael Bay!

[Sheilbh]

Also a reminder of when commentary tracks on DVDs were kind of fun rather than as controlled as they are now:

Especially with the old films where you'd get, say, Edward Woodward in, give him a drink and let him reminisce about making The Wicker Man. Wonderful

[viper37]

Also a reminder of when commentary tracks on DVDs were kind of fun rather than as controlled as they are now:

Especially with the old films where you'd get, say, Edward Woodward in, give him a drink and let him reminisce about making The Wicker Man. Wonderful

Just shut the fuck up!

In real life, the astronauts would have been given a rush training on how to operate the drill and the oil drillers would have been on the ground directing the astronauts on how to operate the equipment.  Assuming the plan was a sound one.  Which I think has been proven to not be one.

[Josquius]

I wonder which one was the one that took things too far and killed it.

Are commentaries much of a thing these days what with the move to streaming and then not really being seen there?

[Duque de Bragança]

Commentaries are still a major bonus feature, and a selling point for cinephiles/ video collectors.

[Savonarola]

I wonder which one was the one that took things too far and killed it.

Are commentaries much of a thing these days what with the move to streaming and then not really being seen there?

Probably not for most viewers, but Armageddon is a Criterion Collection release (no, that's not a joke), all their movies come loaded with special features and commentaries (and the Criterion Channel has that content as part of their streaming service.) 

[Sheilbh]

With the Oppenheimer and Barbie joint release, I did not expect Barbie to be the one to provoke international anger. Yet here we are - it's been banned in Vietnam as, apparently, for some reason it includes a map with the nine dash line
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/jul/03/vietnam-bans-barbie-film-over-disputed-map-of-chinas-south-china-sea-claims

[HVC]

China gives Hollywood more money. From their point of view it'd  better to pander to china.

[Sheilbh]

China gives Hollywood more money. From their point of view it'd  better to pander to china.

Although only a bit (and it feels very unlikely Barbie would have got clearance anyway) - I recently listened to something on this recently and it's not really true anymore.

Until the mid-2010s apparently there were about 75-100 Hollywood films being allowed into China but it's now about 20 and falling - and even they don't necessarily do well. It was really interesting hearing about the factors. But they basically said that in the 2010s China was a big part of the strategy for Hollywood blockbusters and included on budgeting for planned revenue etc, but that it's now got so restricted and unpredictable on which films are picked up that they basically just don't include it any more. It's basically treated as free money if your film is allowed to release in China and does well

Also China has made it absolutely clear that they have no intention of allowing any Western streamers in, which is why Netflix is chockful of Taiwanese content.

[Josquius]

I believe Simu Liu is banned in China and he is in Barbie.

Would be nice if they go and admit they made a mistake in picking a controversial prop unawares and will fix it posthaste... perhaps they can blackmail China for a release or they'll do this :p

[HVC]

I just figured they'd throw in little tidbits like this to help it get through to Chinese audiences. If it does, score. Even at lower numbers it's still a lot more then they'd get from Vietnam. Calculated risk since even without getting into China losing Vietnam won't nudge the needle back.

But then again could just be an oversight. Googled a map and this is the first one that came up

[Sheilbh]

Yeah and I imagine it's probably so they as a studio don't get blacklisted in China.

I suppose I'm just a bit surprised how often films have to show maps of the South China Sea