Movie/TV recommendations

[Erkki]

Speaking of making of Mad Max, and movies in general, where do you guys more knowledgeable about the making-of stuff get your info? I haven't been a big movie buff historically, but now that I have a big screen at home, I'm kind of turning towards being one a bit, and Mad Max: Fury Road has certainly rekindled my interest in seeing how the stuff is made (in general, but especially this and the previous Mad Maxes). Are there any good forums or blogs I should read?

[Patrick R]

Commentary tracks are my favorite things.

[syntheticgerbil]

How can Mary Sue be so small minded?!

[Gormongous]

How can Mary Sue be so small minded?!

 

I mean, it's (at least) the second time that the show's runners have (blatantly) changed the plot from the books to add more rape (or to keep the rape from chapters otherwise cut). I don't blame them, but then again I'm reacting to the same thing as they are.

[BigJKO]

How can Mary Sue be so small minded?!

 

I can't tell if you're joking?

[N1njaSquirrel]

Rejoice! Bojack Hoseman season 2 has been confirmed!

 

I guess this is going to be about the centurian film he's always wanted to do? I loved the ending of the first season. It was such a downer. there was no happy ending for bojack, and I really liked that

[BigJKO]

Saw Tomorrowland yesterday. It was alright. Some really great action scenes (Brad Bird excels at those) but it felt too long.

 

Clooney's flashbacks as a kid felt waaay too long. It also sort of steals a bit of the wow-factor from when Casey eventually sees it through the holo-video-pin-vitation, having already seen Tomorrowland with Clooney. But mainly, with all of that Clooney backstory they never actually present any kind of threat/villain in the first half of the film. Eventually the robots are introduced and all the scenes with girl-robo and the rest of the killer robos are ace! Anyway, with so much backstory being explained for Clooney's character (most of which could've probably been dropped) it was weird they never touched upon WHY there are killer robots running around earth causing mayhem? Laurie's master plan was to just wait until Earth denizens sort themselves out or die eventually. He didn't seem like the kind of cackling villain who goes around ordering killer robots to go kill anyone who interferes with his plan. Sure, he was deluded and even more elitist than the actual concept of Tomorrowland, but it just seemed like everything was out to kill when it made little sense. I liked the film, though, mostly from when Casey's story starts and up to them actually go to Tomorrowland.

[Cordeos]

I started watching Halt and Catch Fire last weekend, I finished 3 or 4 episodes. Does it get better or is it pretty much lame drama tropes with a 80s computer theme?

[Brett E]

I watched Way We Go on Netflix last, thought it was pretty good. I'm not so good at critical analysis so I'll just say it seems like a comedy for grown ups, which is quite rare.

[Polish Hill]

I'm undoubtedly oversimplifying things here but when the show runners don't even discuss that final scene in the behind the scenes it felt like a confession they had made a misstep.

[Gwardinen]

My favorite (I assume) practical effects show was also the most ostentatiously CG one

 

When the Doof Wagon eats it, the speakers fall off and tumble onto the ground in a very real physical objects and non-bombastic way. They just sort of thud down and bounce maybe once or twice instead of flying all over the place explosion style.

That's followed by the 3D steering wheel eating the camera.

 

This was definitely the moment in the film when I came around to Patrick R's thinking that the CG ruined the stunts. MOST of them were still very good but that one in particular was just egregiously terrible in terms of CGI additions, and it ruined the emotional impact of the character's sacrifice because I was thrown completely out of my suspension of disbelief.

[Twig]

I saw Ex Machina and it was good. Not as good as Mad Max Fury Road though! That movie was perfect.

 

Anyway that's two good movies in as many weeks. Go me! Time to see Avengers 2 this weekend and be disappointed it's not Mad Max.

[syntheticgerbil]

Did anyone ever see that old movie The Cure from 1995?

 

I was thinking of it a few weeks ago since I remember liking it as a kid despite how sad it was and damn it's still a pretty good watch.

[Ben X]

Well, I thought I'd be safe catching up on this thread now that I've seen the latest episode, but as JonCole is now spoiling episodes that haven't even aired yet, I guess I'd better stay out of this thread until season 7 has finished.

[syntheticgerbil]

Oh man, I don't know if anyone here was been watching Battle Creek, but I'm liking it more and more as I download more episodes. What can I say, I CAN watch it Sundays on antennae TV on CBS, but then I have to be on a schedule. CBS should really consider putting its free shows up on Hulu like everyone else so I wouldn't have to track these down.

 

Really kind of annoyed it was cancelled now even though the writing was on the wall from the second I saw the pilot, which was kind of bad. The first episode was pretty goofy and felt like it was stuck in the mid 90s, but as it goes on I'm definitely seeing more David Shore in it than the Vince Gilligan written pilot. Dishonestly marketing the show as if it were something truly from the creator of Breaking Bad didn't help it at all. It's not that kind of show, even though it does have the right amount of humor seen in earlier Breaking Bad before the show become a boring slow talk fest.

 

Also I don't feel like CBS gave it a chance to get out of the awkward phase of season 1 before cancelling it. Almost no show is very good in the first season.

 

But yeah, it is unfortunately such a relic of an older style of TV with some modern updates. It's not EXTREME and SHOCKING like every show has to be now and it doesn't have constant, distracting blaring music and camera cuts to indicate that THIS IS EXCITING like Bruckheimer procedurals Also it's fucking funny when they employ that bullshit on garbage reality TV like Bruckheimer's Amazing Race. I had to leave the room when my wife used to watch that show because I would get so annoyed at all this constant dramatic music when nothing dramatic was happening on screen 75% of the time.

 

It's a lot like Due South, if anyone ever watched that, which was very enjoyable in it's own right. Also David Shore wrote many of the episodes early on in Due South. Also the guy who plays Vecchio appears in an episode as a drug dealer. Took him five seasons to make an appearance on House even though House made an Inuit joke episodes into season 1.

[JonCole]

Well, I thought I'd be safe catching up on this thread now that I've seen the latest episode, but as JonCole is now spoiling episodes that haven't even aired yet, I guess I'd better stay out of this thread until season 7 has finished.

 

I'd be really curious to know what you considered a spoiler in what I said. With the divergent path of the show from the books, literally anything at this point is speculation and if I implied any knowledge of future events of the show I'd hope it'd be taken as conjecture and not spoiler. Nonetheless, apologies if you feel I ruined anything for you. It really was not my intention in the least.

[elmuerte]

I just came back from seeing Mad Max in 3D with Dolby Atmos in the new cinema near me. I really don't care for 3D, especially not in high speed action sequences. It feel like playing a game at 20fps. And the whole Atmos thingy, the demo movie and logo movie sounded really awesome. But in the movie I did not feel like it made much difference. In case you don't know, Atmos allows 128 audio streams and 64 speakers in all directions. And it's also a surcharge on the movie ticket. 3D surcharge and atmos surcharge. Watching movies in the cinema is expensive. Luckily, it was a late and rather empty showing (only 30 people I think).

As for the movie itself, it was actually kind of really awesome. It was everything I hoped for.

[Erkki]

I also saw it in Atmos yesterday. They had turned down the dialogue channel a lot compared to the other two times I saw it (in normal 3D, no Atmos). I was also either sitting in a bad place (second row, too far to the side in a relatively small room (is there a more specific word for the room where people are seated in cinemas?) or my glasses were defective, or both, but the 3D was way broken (seeing double often). It was an awful experience compared to the perfection that was going on in the screen in the other cinema. I also felt the Atmos sound didn't add much, but at least they hadn't turned the volume way high this time, like they do with most films. I'm starting to really dislike this particular cinema... although they are the only one with IMAX here. Also why the fuck not show Mad Max in IMAX?

 

I would really like to see Mad Max in 2D as well, but maybe I'll have to wait for the Blu-Ray because all cinemas in Tallinn are showing it in 3D only.

[Reyturner]

Man do I wish any theater near me offered assigned seating without 3D. Beyond the annoyance of having to wear two pairs of glasses, my 3D experience is fifteen minutes of annoying flickering and then I stop even noticing it :\

[jennegatron]

My eyeballs are too broken to let me watch 3D movies (or use the 3D on my 3DS.) It's just real blurry for me whenever anything comes toward the audience, so I actually really hate going to 3D movies.

[BusbyBerkeley]

Caught Fury Road today! It was good, and cool! I liked how it was pretty rad women characters and felt like a feminist blockbuster that kicked all kinds of ass! 

[Ben X]

I'd be really curious to know what you considered a spoiler in what I said. With the divergent path of the show from the books, literally anything at this point is speculation and if I implied any knowledge of future events of the show I'd hope it'd be taken as conjecture and not spoiler. Nonetheless, apologies if you feel I ruined anything for you. It really was not my intention in the least.

 

Thanks for the apology. It was a) the bit about the Next TIme On, which I always avoid watching because why the fuck would anyone watch those, and sunglasses) yeah, the conjecture, which will likely turn out right and therefore retroactively become a spoiler. Basically, if you had tagged those bits as "re. the next episode and my conjecture" rather than "re episode 6", I wouldn't have read them.

[twmac]

Rewatched Mad Max and Mad Max : The Road Warrior in preparation for Fury Road this weekend.

 

Mad Max basically gave me flashbacks to being a kid being utterly traumatised (there are a couple of moments in that film that will haunt me forever - the baby shoe and the bouncing ball for example). It is actually a really solid film and I think it might be my favourite. Also, those piercing blues from Mel Gibson; it was obvious he was going to be a film star.

 

Road Warrior has not aged as well as Mad Max but was still a pretty solid romp. The thing I liked the most that I never appreciated when I watched it previously is how well characterised each personality is, even with very little screen time.

[brkl]

Beyond Thunderdome is on Netflix. It's very dull. I saw the first one about half a year ago in a drunken stupor and still really liked it. I should see Road Warrior again, but I always liked the first film most.

[Merus]

Beyond Thunderdome is notable because I think it's got the best example of a post-apocalyptic patois I think I've seen. The airplane kids sound really weird, but they're mostly understandable, and their language and mythology have subtext that the audience can pick up, but not so easily that it sounds stupid. (It helps that they're kids, and there are aspects of their mythology that they openly admit has a meaning they don't understand.)

 

Like, it's not a good film, and it was clear Miller needed to move on from Mad Max by this movie, but it has its moments.