Movie/TV recommendations

[elmuerte]

Man this sucks. He is one of my favorite actors.

[Ben X]

Oh man, that's sad. I watched him quite recently in World's Greatest Dad, which he was very good in. He was halfway to a Bill Murrennaissance.

 

Speaking of pointless characters in GoG, I agree that Thanos would have worked better as an invisible presence with a couple of mentions so his legend is built up in the background, plus they should have got rid of Djimon Hounsou's character and given all his business to Karen Gillan's character, and as much as I like seeing Christopher Fairbank it probably would have made sense to amalgamate his fence character with Benicio Del Toro's collector.

[Twig]

We got to talking about TMNT in the IDLE THUMBS IRC CHANNEL COME JOIN US ONE AND ALL and I accidentally started watching this again.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT8TgMzPsCU

 

SO GOOD.

[melmer]

She just rode the shark

Lara croft cradle of life

That's the most ridiculous shit I've seen in my life

[Codicier]

After a evening full of hearing and reading about people being generally pretty horrible to each other Raising Arizona has cheered me up immensely.

I don't have much to say atm apart from I recommend it to anyone who wants a little bit of lighthearted optimism in their day without feeling they have to dumb down to much, I'm not sure exactly how the coens made such a smart physical comedy, but I sure am glad they did.

Bonus yodelling

[ariskany_evan]

Watched The One I Love last night.  I think I was in a particularly receptive mood, but still, I loved it.  I don't recommend reading anything about this movie before watching it, as the more of a surprise it can be the better.  I'd post the trailer, but I just think you should watch it.

 

http://www.amazon.com/One-Love-Watch-Before-Theaters/dp/B00MB6KDHG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408721986&sr=8-1&keywords=the+one+i+love

[JonCole]

Hm, I searched the topic and found no talk of a recent show I've been obsessed with, Continuum. It's a Syfy show, so it has a cast of actors you're sure to recognize if you're a fan of shows like Stargate or Battlestar Galactica. Basically, it depicts a future where corporations have basically taken over the world. Not an uncommon dystopian future, but Continuum starts off with a group of anti-corporation terrorists using a time travel device to come back to the present and try to undermine corporations before they get to be the big monolithic threats you can easily imagine. In their plot, they accidentally bring back a police officer working for the corporations who is the protagonist of the series.

 

Anyways, without getting much farther into it I'll just tell you the best stuff -

1. Female protagonist who isn't affected by a love interest.
2. Very cool special effects/technology that errs on the side of science rather than fantasy.
3. Really solid time travel exploration. I can't say this enough. It firmly takes a side on which popular time travel theory it adopts and then fully explores the implications of that theory. And I mean fully.
4. Season 1 is more or less boilerplate crime drama plus sci-fi elements. Each successive season expands the scope of the series in a more sci-fi direction necessitated by the development of the plot.
5. Morality stuff doesn't seem ridiculously contrived.

Anyways, seasons 1-3 are on Netflix. It hasn't been announced whether it'll be renewed for season 4 or cancelled.

[brkl]

If the first episode seemed clunky to me and unappealing because of that, should I give it another shot?

[JonCole]

Assuming you're talking about Continuum, because of what exactly? The dystopian future stuff? It really just serves as a backdrop for the series. There are maybe one or two episodes per season that focus on it, but more as a way to properly contextualize the way that the primary, current-day plot is progressing.

 

If "that" is something else, let me know.

[brkl]

Nah, more about general low-budget Syfy clunkiness. I can't really remember since it was a while ago.

[JonCole]

I think there's still some element of that, it comes with the territory for a network that budgets everything the same with the same relative scope. That said, when I first started watching it I wasn't aware it was a Syfy show and I only became suspicious that it was when I noticed the familiar actors I was familiar with. It is definitely network quality. Plus, it does some smart things writing-wise that make it feel a little less clunky - for instance, the story actually takes place in Vancouver so it doesn't feel inherently, ever so tangibly silly in the way that other shows do when they say it's taking place in Chicago or New York but have no landmarks, no comparable traffic, no blatantly high crime areas, etc.

[toblix]

If you're only going to watch on Argentine crime thriller this year, make it The Secret in Their Eyes, an exciting, good-looking murder mystery filled with handsome Argentinians and a sweet chase scene.

[Twig]

I've been catching up on Haven, one of those SYFY TELEVISION SERIESes, and I'm nearing the end of season four. Considering dropping it.

 

Does anyone watch it? I liked it more in the first couple seasons but now not so much. There's a whole 26 episodes guaranteed after I finish this season (for some reason the next season, five, is twice as long as season four?? AMERICAN TELEVISION), and then possibly more after that if it continues being popular enough.

[JonCole]

I'm still liking Haven, but it definitely has dragged in the last season. I dunno, this far in I feel like it'd be dumb to drop it. I'm fully caught up and it seems like they've left it at a point where they'll have a lot of momentum stored for next season to take off. The producers have said that they'll be shooting in a fashion where they could end it with the last episode of the season if it's not renewed, to the point where they'll actually be shooting additional/alternate scenes for that potential end. That's encouraging to me, as someone who's invested 40-some hours into already.

[Twig]

I know, that's the problem I always have when deciding whether or not to continue watching something. So much time wasted! I suppose I might as well finish this season - I'm real close.

 

Also I've grown to hate Nathan with his almost-whisper voice. Grrr. Better now that he's finally

decided not to kill himself.

 

Duke is great though.

[JonCole]

I know, that's the problem I always have when deciding whether or not to continue watching something. So much time wasted! I suppose I might as well finish this season - I'm real close.

 

Also I've grown to hate Nathan with his almost-whisper voice. Grrr. Better now that he's finally

decided not to kill himself.

 

Duke is great though.

 

Re: Nathan

 

He's really a victim of a thing that happens in shows when all the sexual tension is "resolved" by the two characters getting in a relationship. It can get annoying when two characters are so clearly in love with each other forever, but so many shows I've watched have gotten noticeably worse once they actually stop messing around and actually get together.

[Twig]

Yeah I think the show would be a million times better if they were just really good friends.

[SecretAsianMan]

I know pretty much nothing about Haven except for one thing: the lead character is played by Emily Rose, who also did the voice and mocap for Elena from the Uncharted games.  I think she would also be a good fit for an Uncharted movie.

[JonCole]

Emily Rose is super good in Haven! Her charming performance as Elena was the reason I started watching it and she's definitely just as captivating in the show. Honestly, I kinda hope Haven wraps up in S5 so she'll be free to be to do something else (assuming she can get a lead/recurring role in another series).

[lizzyinthesky]

Dark Dungeons is the shit. $5 well spent for a DRM free HD download of a sweet movie adaptation of bad Christian anti-d&d comics It is played straight for the most part with a few dialogue references (something about attacking gazebos at one point, for example), but with really hammy performances all around.

[Ben X]

Re. Continuum, I think I watched about 6 episodes or so, and thought that they were doing clever overarching stuff with it, but episode to episode it was pretty wonky.

[Bjorn]

Dark Dungeons is the shit. $5 well spent for a DRM free HD download of a sweet movie adaptation of bad Christian anti-d&d comics It is played straight for the most part with a few dialogue references (something about attacking gazebos at one point, for example), but with really hammy performances all around.

 

This is not a thing I knew existed.  Next movie night selection made.

[Moosferatu]

In my periodic poll to see what British comedians I enjoy are up to, I noticed that Matt Berry has been in two shows I haven't seen, Toast of London and House of Fools.  Has anyone watched them?  Are either of them worth tracking down?

[Denial]

Toast of London was... not a great use of Matt Berry's talents, I think. But I did bail on it after the first two episodes, so it may have picked up.

[jmbossy]

Short Term 12

 

If you haven't heard of this movie up until now, I would recommend you go in blind and give it a chance.

If you need convincing/context before you spend any money, the film's synopsis is hidden below.

 

If you clicked this it is because you don't trust me. That hurts. Here's the synopsis. 
A 20-something supervising staff member of a residential treatment facility for at risk teens navigates the troubled waters of that world alongside her co-worker and longtime boyfriend.