TV/Movies Megathread

[Ideologue]

Anyway, John Carpenter's become one of my favorite directors recently, as I've gone on a major kick to watch all his movies.

They Live (1988).  Rowdy Roddy Piper and Keith David fight the Republican Party and look cool doing it.  A+

In the Mouth of Madness (1994).  Sam Neill is always a pleasure, but never moreso than in this creepy mindfuck of a film.  I think this may be my favorite of Carpenter's, excluding perhaps The Thing.  Reality isn't what it used to be.  A+

Village of the Damned (1995).  I used to like this more, but since I've seen the original, it's fallen in my estimation.  It's still good, and Mark Hamill getting work is worth a letter grade all by itself, but unlike The Thing, what does this really add?  Instead of taking the underlying idea and running in a radically different direction, it's basically the exact same movie.  I guess it has more shady government people, and mentions abortion as an option which the 50s film never does, for obvious reasons.  Still, the idea that alien rape babies would be permitted to grow up largely unsupervised and unseparated is still as preposterous today as it was almost 60 years ago, and Carpenter doesn't do much to allay the feeling that the premise is flawed.  C+

[Eddie Teach]

The Dictator. Hilarious.

[katmai]

New season of Treme.

[Duque de Bragança]

I've recently grown rather fond of the Cinema Snob and his reviews of old exploitation/porn/splatter movies. I think he's my favorite reviewer on theTGWTG website.

He reviewed Ninja Terminator. He's a good man.
Didn't know there were 2 Turkish E.T movies. Badi was bad enough on his own.

[katmai]

Oh ffs Hollywood...

Universal Pictures is setting Len Wiseman to direct The Mummy, the reboot of a franchise whose most recent incarnation grossed $1.25 billion over three films

[jimmy olsen]

Watched good ol' Aliens blu ray last night.

Hadn't watched the movie in a year or two, so it was good to see it again. For a 25 year old special effects movie it holds extremely well. The military tech still looks plausible for the most part, and then "futuristic" stuff like helmet cameras or remote controlled weapon platforms have become pretty standard by now

The pacing (director's cut) is near perfect without a boring bit and the action is excellent and compelling.

It's easiest one of the best action flicks ever made.

Aliens is the only movie to give me nightmares. It scared the living shit out of me. I freaked out about facehuggers for a full decade after the movie.

I watched it when I was 8. Holy shit was that a bad idea.

[Neil]

As budgets increase, the ability of Hollywood to take a risk on something diminishes.

[Josquius]

Stranger Than Fiction- Well that was weird. I was expecting a lot more of a comedy than what there was. Nothing much was explained or anytthing. It was just..I don't know what it was.

[Ideologue]

Mission to Mars (1996).  It's our good fortune to find this great de Palma film on the YouTube.  For the beautiful shots (including one of my all time favorites, the quasi-famous tracking shot in the artificial gravity ring of the Mars rescue ship) and almost entirely well-done sequences, not to mention the wonderful characters and the performances that give them life, I'd give the movie an A+.  But then there's the part where they indicate that aliens seeded life on Earth--and that humans are the deliberate result of their endeavor.  I suppose I could rationalize that and pretend the intent was that they seeded life, hoped for something intelligent to arise, and kept tabs on it from Mars when it did, but I'm pretty sure it wasn't, and I'm just fucking sick of this scientifically retarded trope.  Still, if you were trapped in a room and had to watch either this or Prometheus to get out, at least this movie has a good story to go along with its unsupported hypotheses and brilliant compositions. A

[katmai]

Mission to Mars an A?

Lay off the drugs Ide.

[Tamas]

Mission to Mars an A?

Lay off the drugs Ide.

Val Kilmer automatically decreases it a grade, for starters.

[Eddie Teach]

Willow gets an A anyway.

[CountDeMoney]

Oh ffs Hollywood...

Universal Pictures is setting Len Wiseman to direct The Mummy, the reboot of a franchise whose most recent incarnation grossed $1.25 billion over three films

Reboots of reboots.  Super.

[garbon]

Mission to Mars an A?

Lay off the drugs Ide.

It's pretty clear that Ide has no chops as a movie reviewer.

[Josephus]

No thoughts on Revolution ep.2.?

Thought it strange that a random bounty hunter knew where a random person (Nora) was being kept prisoner, especially considering she hadn't been part of the chain gang for long.

NON SURPRISE of the week.[spoiler]mother is still alive. Knew that when they cast a well known TV actress for the role[/spoiler]