ysbreker

Movie/TV recommendations

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Cool. Seems like only the Carpenter one is on YT, but I enjoyed it. It seems that Rodriguez might need to stick to charismatic directors, though, as he has a pretty laid-back interviewing style. Maybe he was idolstruck...

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CHAPPIE!

It's first-class (almost) entertainment. Visually stunning, exciting and has enough twists to keep it just unpredictable enough for me to be entertained. Both of those trailers had it wrong in some way. It's not a very deep movie, but occasionally does make you think about what would happen if this premise were true. It explores the subject matter enough to not be totally superficial, but at the same time doesn't go into anything too deeply, so it's still pretty lightweight. I like how Die Antwoord was handled here, mostly - they pretty much seemed to play themselves and their Zef sensibility was consistent throughout the movie. The question I had, "Can a robot be Zef?" was answere with "fuck yeah!" But on the other hand, I didn't like how Yo-Landi was turned into a stay-at-home-gangsta-mom for a robot. Women lacked agency in the film, including Sigourney Weaver as the corporation boss being there just to authorize a crazy idiot plan of a macho military guy who she had been rather dismissive about before. The other flaws are more spoileric:

the way said plan is carried out without any supervision. I guarantee you that in a corporation people would be watching the action even just out of curiosity, not letting the previously-shunned macho carry out his perverse fantasies unchecked. The third flaw was inventing a mystical "sentience" that developed in the robot, that "isn't data". Wtf is it then? After thinking some more I figured it could have been meant to be some hard/soft combo that isn't directly queriable from software although it is modified as the AI develops. But I guess it was just meant to be a mystical "soul".

I don't remember what I thought of as the fourth flaw exactly, but probably it's the lack of depth in portraying most things. I'm beginning to think that Blomkamp would do much better to leave more of the writing to someone who is more nuanced, and focus more on the visual and the overall direction. I don't actually know who did how much writing and screenplay on this, but it would be helped by another perspective.

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So I finally got around to watching Big Hero 6. Spoilers for the compulsory post-credit sequence:

I have been saying for years that the eventual logical endpoint for Stan Lee's increasingly gratuitous cameos in the Marvel cinematic universe would be to make a Marvel movie where he was a superhero himself, and it finally fucking happened.

 

I probably have actual thoughts about the movie, but that little two minute sequence destroyed them.

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Tina Fey is producing a new show on Netflix called Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. It's tone is really close to 30 Rock, and it's just about as funny.
 
Then
 

it's revealed that Jane Krakowski's character is a Native American trying to pass as white. Ugh. As you might imagine, it's not handled with a particular amount of nuance or grace. There's literally a "use every part of the buffalo" joke.

 

Still really funny show, but that unfortunate choice bums me out.

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I watched the newest season of House of Cards over the weekend.  That show continues to be really good even though in general I dislike politics and movies/shows themed around such things.  I also really enjoyed that they didn't attempt to hide Monument Valley and The Stanley Parable at all (although The Stanley Parable isn't named out loud).  You can clearly tell that they're the actual games with the actual audio and not some generic public domain video game noises (for example you can hear the narrator in The Stanley Parable).

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The funny thing is Sony apparently has stake in funding the show and besides the Vita and PS4, they never mention or show any actual Sony games. It would be pretty hilarious for Frank Underwoood to ask people about Nathan Drake.

 

Apparently Monument Valley was not a product placement and the creators were surprised.

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The funny thing is Sony apparently has stake in funding the show and besides the Vita and PS4, they never mention or show any actual Sony games. It would be pretty hilarious for Frank Underwoood to ask people about Nathan Drake.

 

Actually, he plays both God of War Ascension and Killzone 3.

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Did he play those before Season 3? I must have missed it if so. I also haven't gotten past the first episode of Season 3 yet, so oops.

 

But yeah that would make more sense.

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Did he play those before Season 3? I must have missed it if so.

 

Yup, God of War in season two and Killzone in the very first episode of the show - presumably to establish gaming as part of his character.

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Tina Fey is producing a new show on Netflix called Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. It's tone is really close to 30 Rock, and it's just about as funny.

 

Then

 

it's revealed that Jane Krakowski's character is a Native American trying to pass as white. Ugh. As you might imagine, it's not handled with a particular amount of nuance or grace. There's literally a "use every part of the buffalo" joke.

 

Still really funny show, but that unfortunate choice bums me out.

 

Watched the pilot over the weekend and felt great ambivalence.  Some really funny moments, but everything was way too clearly telegraphed.  The editing felt breakneck, like they were running like crazy to set up the world/premise.  Shouldn't the joy of being on Netflix mean that they can make episodes of varying lengths?  Hopeful things will settle down for future episodes.  Bummer re: your spoiler.  Curious to see it for myself.

 

Finished up Parks and Rec last night.  Such a bummer of a season.  Felt like fan fiction.  The show became way too much about the characters self-congratulating each other.  It was so much more fun in the earlier seasons when everyone was fallible!  Leslie used to tread the line between genius do-gooder and crazy, zany.  Ah well.  Super sad about the writer/exec producer of the show passing, Harris Whittles.  Loved that guy's podcast appearances and saw him do stand-up once.

 

Kroll Show and Broad City are still fantastic this season.  Look forward to those two every single week.

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I also was underwhelmed by Kimmy Schmidt. I've only watched the first episode so far, but it didn't really make me laugh at all. The jokes felt way too obvious/dated. Do they keep that autotune the news thing as the theme song? Yeesh.

 

I'm still loving the hell out of Brooklyn Nine Nine though. Everyone should watch that.

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I saw the first three episodes of Kimmy, and while it improves from the pilot, the pilot is a good representation of the show as a whole. So if you aren't sold you might want to move on.

 

Personally I thought it was really funny. It was nice to get that nice 30 Rock mix of speed and light surreality again.

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Finished up Parks and Rec last night.  Such a bummer of a season.  Felt like fan fiction.  The show became way too much about the characters self-congratulating each other.  It was so much more fun in the earlier seasons when everyone was fallible!  Leslie used to tread the line between genius do-gooder and crazy, zany. 

Yes, exactly! I don't know what I was expecting, but it wasn't THAT. It just felt incredibly uninspired and I had watched like 6 episodes in a row where everyone says goodbye in some way, reflects on the time spent over the years, and then has some loose end tied up. I guess there's worse ways to end shows, but it was utterly boring.

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 The editing felt breakneck, like they were running like crazy to set up the world/premise.  Shouldn't the joy of being on Netflix mean that they can make episodes of varying lengths?  

 

The show was originally made for NBC, who didn't know what to do with it and thus it ended up on Netflix, which might explain why it is a very standard sitcom length.

 

I really like it. I think it's fantastic, actually. And the length makes them very easily digestable.

 

Patrick R, about the episode 3 spoiler

not to say it probably isn't offensive, but I never felt like anyone but Jane Krakowski's character was the butt of the joke. Even the 'whole buffalo' joke was to show how Jane's character was just stupid. I just hope they don't use it too much to make her a stand-in minority when.. well, she isn't. But then, if they don't use it at all it'd just be a pointless flashback.

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I'm still loving the hell out of Brooklyn Nine Nine though. Everyone should watch that.

 

I tried the first few eps and didn't really get into it. I think the main problem was that it's (at least for those opening eps) a large ensemble full of barely-drawn, interchangeable characters. I feel like it should have started just focusing on Samberg and Braugher and gradually expanding out. It feels like a similar problem to Futurama where characters like Amy and Hermes were essentially placeholders with the hope that at some point they would gain depth and running jokes of their own.

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I actually felt a similar way about the last season of Arrested Development as some of you appear to about Parks & Rec's. I watched a few episodes of it and really felt like all the magic had gone out of the show. I didn't even end up finishing it, despite having watched and enjoyed the entire rest of the series.

 

I'm sort of posting this in the hopes that someone actually has the opposite opinion, and I'll be persuaded to pick it back up, if only for the resolution.

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So I saw Citizenfour. It's really interesting, in that it's a story that the filmmaker had exclusive, inside access to as it happened and that really shapes how it comes across. It almost feels like a found-footage movie, which is a weird, disorienting effect when it's intercut with long, steady establishing shots, testimony, and text on screen. It is literally about what was happening in the room as Edward Snowden was handing over one of the biggest stories of the decade and its aftermath. It reminds you of exactly what was important about Snowden's revelations: the idea that this is being collected to protect against terrorism is a crock of shit, because what it was actually used for was advancing American corporate agendas and suppressing dissent.

 

One of the people giving testimony at the EU hearings declares that what we, or rather Americans used to call liberty, we now mostly refer to as privacy. If privacy is dead, then it follows that liberty is dead.

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I tried the first few eps and didn't really get into it. I think the main problem was that it's (at least for those opening eps) a large ensemble full of barely-drawn, interchangeable characters. I feel like it should have started just focusing on Samberg and Braugher and gradually expanding out. It feels like a similar problem to Futurama where characters like Amy and Hermes were essentially placeholders with the hope that at some point they would gain depth and running jokes of their own.

 

This is absolutely not the case as the show progresses. Brooklyn Nine-Nine does as good a job as any sitcom of making each of its characters unique and interesting.

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I saw the first three episodes of Kimmy, and while it improves from the pilot, the pilot is a good representation of the show as a whole. So if you aren't sold you might want to move on.

 

Personally I thought it was really funny. It was nice to get that nice 30 Rock mix of speed and light surreality again.

 

I'm a little over halfway through the season and yeah I agree. It's got its share of jokes/scenes that miss the mark, but plenty more that work, and I enjoy most of the characters, esp Titus Andromedon (best name). If you're a 30 Rock fan I think it's worth watching. And I do agree that it's weird they still cut all the episodes to 23 minutes...there are a few plot arcs that felt rushed. You are on Netflix...be free!

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This is absolutely not the case as the show progresses. Brooklyn Nine-Nine does as good a job as any sitcom of making each of its characters unique and interesting.

 

Oh, cool, maybe I'll skip forward a bit...

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Oh, cool, maybe I'll skip forward a bit...

 

I recommend going through the whole thing to get the sense of arcs, but if you have to skip ahead, Episode 16, "The Party" is the funniest episode of the season.

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This is absolutely not the case as the show progresses. Brooklyn Nine-Nine does as good a job as any sitcom of making each of its characters unique and interesting.

I think he does have a point on it feeling a little light, but I definitely feel like the characters are unique, I just usually don't care about them so the more emotional side of the show doesn't play out as well as I'd like.

 

But Brooklyn Nine-Nine is a ton of fun either way and it's my first thing to watch when I have the new episodes on Hulu every week. Everyone nails the humor pretty well.

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I really liked Brooklyn Nine Nine, it grabbed me from the beginning but you are absolutely right that the peripheral characters don't come into their own until later (except for Chelsea Peretti who is awesome despite limted screen time). My almost favourites are the two older cops who are useless at their jobs.
 
I really liked The Unbreakable Kimmy Schimdt, having not liked 30 Rock at all I find the lead actress delivers Tina Fayisms better than Tina Fey ever did.

 

But if you thought the Native American bit was cringeworthy then the representation of the Vietnamese character later on is really awkward too and there were a couple of moments I really winced at. Even though the pay-off is almost worth it.

 

Titus is great and their crazy landlady is also spot on - there is one scene at a Korean funeral that had me in stitches.

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