Movie/TV recommendations

[Scrobbs]

Watched the first three episodes of 'Fringe' yesterday. the first one drags on a bit, and the characters grate for a while...but in the last 1/4 hour it opened up all sorts of avenues and got really exciting. You feel like you can't trust anyone...

It's done by JJ Abrams, so as I thought 'Lost' sucked, I thought I wouldn't like it, but it's good fun - i.e. things actually happen.

[toblix]

I love Lost, and to me Fringe feels like it's going nowhere slowly. I still watch it, in hope of it becoming super awesome, but it's like the later X-files episodes: something scary happens and then drama and office intrigue for forty minutes.

[brkl]

I really liked the first episode, but the rest have merely been entertaining enough to keep me watching. I guess enough time has passed that company execs feel a new X-Files will sell.

[Wrestlevania]

Yeah, I agree. But if you're massive fan of the first one (like all the people I went to see it with), then it's pretty rewarding. Agree that it's mostly an epilogue, though.

Ah, but you're implying we didn't like the original. Which isn't true.

I thought Casino Royale was the best bond film I'd seen a very long time. And an excellent movie in its own right anyway.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Ah, but you're implying we didn't like the original. Which isn't true.

Nah, I didn't mean that at all. I just meant that the people I saw it with are MASSIVE Bond fanatics -- and it's easy to go swept up in their enthusiasm.

Edited November 4, 2008 by ThunderPeel2001

[Roderick]

I just came back from Quantum of Solace (and what the hell, I went in a black suit just for the heck of it) and what's remarkable is that the whole movie is just more build-up towards the now-inevitable sequel in what hopefully remains a trilogy. It's all building, building, building at a grand climax in which Bond will probably simultaneously blow up all Quantum headquarters on the globe.

That said, I enjoyed almost every second of it. Especially the first half is delightful, with a few very strong scenes. The opening chase is intense and thrilling, because it takes with it the weight of Casino Royale's ending. Granted, if you only saw that one once, you won't get the same out of it. The first half also succeeds brilliantly in stacking the odds against Bond. You really feel like him and MI6 are outclassed and outnumbered, with enemies everywhere. There's a fantastic moment in the operahouse when Bond pulls away the curtain from Quantum. After that, in the second half, it all derails and the movie only focusses on the main villain, Greene, and his unlikely scheme. What's quite clear is that it's all been build-up for the next movie. That worked for Casino Royale and its sequel, but much less so for this one and the next.

Still, there's much to love. M having a huge role, for instance. But I hope the next movie dares to defy the conventions again. Let Bond fail to get the girl, for instance!

[Wrestlevania]

Finished watching Generation Kill last night--very good series, well worth your time. And, incidentally, by the same writing team as The Wire. :tup:

Started watching Charlie Brooker's Dead Set this lunchtime, as I missed it when it was on telly last week. I'm stunned; for a TV serial on a non-mainstream channel, the production quality is brilliant.

The whole "TV's prime audience are zombies" premise is as deliberate as it is obvious. But it doesn't feel patronizing to me--not in the first episode anyway. And make no mistake: Brooker intimately knows his source material, which makes Dead Set feel just like any notable modern zombie flick I can think of. More than that, it feels considerably superior to Romero's pathetic Diary of the Dead already.

Very much looking forward to watching the rest of the series, although I'm a little disappointed that the remaining 4 parts are only half the length of the first installment.

[brkl]

I got to see The Fall a few days ago and it's really pretty, imaginative, spectacular and full of heart. See it. It has Blue Skies.

BTW, the guy who portrays Roy in The Fall is also in a show called Pushing Daisies, which I really like. The show looks really, really Disney sugar coated, but is a bit deeper and darker than it looks like on the surface. Not too dark, though. It also has Blue Skies.

[Roderick]

I'm watching Pushing Daisies too, and the 'Disney sugar coating' is highly ironic since it deals with making dead folk alive again and insane murder cases. Think more 'Amelie' than 'Singing in the rain'.

I'm totally enjoying it by the way. I frequently laugh out loud at the well-produced craziness.

[Nachimir]

I absolutely love Pushing Daisies

It is both slickly produced and offbeat, with just the right amount of silliness too.

The Fall was also spectacular, giving me a lot of "whoah" moments where there was something particularly stunning and I remembered it has no CGI.

[toblix]

The Fall is the most beautiful film I've ever seen, and reason alone to purchase a HD display to watch it on. Every single fucking frame is like the world's most awesome photograph. And the little girl is awesome.

[LOPcagney]

My anticipation for The Fall has been growing ever since it was first mentioned on this thread. My first chance to watch it on a real television is over Thanksgiving break and I'm counting the days. His other movie, The Cell, looks visually interesting as well, although it's not supposed to be as good.

I've seen and can recommend Mulholland Drive: It's just fucked up. Absolutely weird, though it left me oddly dissatisfied. David Lynch does a good job of keeping you in a state of gripping terror the whole time

I've also been watching Dexter. I'm on the third or fourth episode of season 3 now, and it's great. Some of the plot-lines are a little melodramatic, but the last 5 episodes of Season 2 were some of the most intense hours of television I've ever watched. Definitely good stuff, but...

Dokes dies! I was really upset. I love how just when you (I?) start to like him, he dies, although I guess at that point it was the only way for the show to continue. I just wish he'd revealed his identity somehow. I wanted to see how Rita would have dealt with it.

[Wrestlevania]

[Ben]

It's not new but seeing as I've just purchased the blu-ray set i'm preparing to watch Band of Brothers again. A great series that is often genuinely shocking and touching in equal measure.

[Nachimir]

Pretty much in agreement with Rodi on Quantum of Solace. I'm not a huge fan of Bond because it tends to be so shallow, but this and Casino Royale are both action flicks that are a little bit more experimental and give the characters a tad more depth.

The latter half of the plot did veer back to typical James Bond thematic melodrama/campness, which is smacks of jonesing for the visual potential of the cold war.

The opera scene was good, and I liked that

Camille had a cause but wasn't seduced

In turn, I thought the film acknowledged Bond's shallowness while keeping him entertaining. I'm still kind of mystified as to why Fields was dressed up as a strippergram though.

I just came back from Quantum of Solace (and what the hell, I went in a black suit just for the heck of it) and what's remarkable is that the whole movie is just more build-up towards the now-inevitable sequel in what hopefully remains a trilogy. It's all building, building, building at a grand climax in which Bond will probably simultaneously blow up all Quantum headquarters on the globe.

That said, I enjoyed almost every second of it. Especially the first half is delightful, with a few very strong scenes. The opening chase is intense and thrilling, because it takes with it the weight of Casino Royale's ending. Granted, if you only saw that one once, you won't get the same out of it. The first half also succeeds brilliantly in stacking the odds against Bond. You really feel like him and MI6 are outclassed and outnumbered, with enemies everywhere. There's a fantastic moment in the operahouse when Bond pulls away the curtain from Quantum. After that, in the second half, it all derails and the movie only focusses on the main villain, Greene, and his unlikely scheme. What's quite clear is that it's all been build-up for the next movie. That worked for Casino Royale and its sequel, but much less so for this one and the next.

Still, there's much to love. M having a huge role, for instance. But I hope the next movie dares to defy the conventions again. Let Bond fail to get the girl, for instance!

Edited November 15, 2008 by Nachimir

[SignorSuperdouche]

If I might weigh in on Quantum of Solace ever so briefly, I thought it was a lot of fun and pretty much agree with what Nachimir, and I suppose by extension Rodi, said.

To add to that though I'd say I thought the whole thing felt rather rushed and sloppy. The action sequences had little to no build up, they just sort of start out of nowhere then. just as sharply, they stop and cut away to something completely different. I found this all rather jarring, like there were two films that have been cut together.

I would also suggest that people avoid seeing this in the cinema, or at least time it so that they skip all of the adverts. There are several ads for the James Bond™ watch and the James Bond™ phone etc that run before the film. This is fine but for the fact that they all show different clips from the film which, and this is the annoying part, show the climaxes from many of the action sequences. This sucked my enjoyment out the action because you not only know that Bond will win the fight, you now exactly how he does it before the film even starts.

[Wrestlevania]

I agree with the "sloppiness" criticism; I think the lowest point of the film in this regard was that:

--somehow, scrawny 10-stone weakling civvy Greene was able to beat the crap out of Bond during that trashy exploding hotel scene. I thought early Bond was supposed to be some barely leashed SAS pitbull at the start of his career..?

Complete tosh and a total anti-climax; that's definitely the point I decided, "no, this is arse."

[Jake]

Quantum of Solace exceeded my expectations by a lot. The editing duding the action sequences were sometimes cut too fast (like the second Borne movie), but they were extremely well choreographed and paced in my opinion (again, like the second Borne movie... only a bit more skillfully than that.).

Much like Casino Royale, I was disappointed that they ended the movie in a completely ridiculous situation which sort of pissed on the earlier parts of the film (last time it was a building in Venice which was exploding while falling apart and sinking into a canal, and this time we get a hotel which was for some reason constructed entirely out of explosions), but I thought in general that it delivered more than what I ever hoped to get out of a modern Bond movie.

Before Casino Royale, I don't think there was a good Bond movie made in my lifetime, and I'm enjoying the reversal of that trend. Obviously, compared to Casino Royale, Quantum of Solace isn't nearly as solid as a "film" or whatever, but it was a more competently put together action/espionage movie than most any that have been made in a long long while (short Casino Royale and the better parts of the Borne films probably).

What does need to fuck right off though is the theme music. Really, really uninspiring R&B to the point that it grates on me. Fast forward rules.

What would you prefer? It seemed like a pretty inspired choice to me They use the original Tom Waits recording of the song in season two, so maybe that will be more to your liking.

[n0wak]

I just watched the first 8 episodes of 30 Rock on the weekend. I think I have a new TV obsession for the next few weeks

[toblix]

Yeah, 30 Rock is brilliant.

[Ben X]

Another title sequence crime is to redo the theme tune a few seasons in. Mike Post's amazing Quantum Leap theme got pissed on from the fifth season, and Third Rock From the Sun's idiosyncratic theme got a horribly overworked live reworking at some point.

[brkl]

Oh, you bastards. Oh, you rotten bastards. This is so not the time to get hooked on The Wire.

But what's done is done.

[DanJW]

Well, BBC's remake of Survivors is a big 'ole disappointment.

I'm getting pretty fed up with BBC drama. It's like they have decided that Eastenders is the pinacle of drama and that everything should resemble it in style and utter mundanity. The only decent stuff on BBc these days is some of the documentaries and the ocasional comedy (watch Outnumbered!)

In Survivors nothing much happens. Ok yeah we have all the usual post-apocalyptic stuff, as they go down the checklist: empty streets from 28 Days Later - check; overprotective folks with guns - check; the dangerous badass guy who is an asset because of his will to survive - check; Conspiracy responsible for it all -check; growing your own veg - check. The list goes on, none of it at all original.

That would be fine if the style and script had something to say, or at least made a bit of an impact. But as I said, they are so very very BBC. It always stays in utterly safe territory. If someone could get shot - they won't. If we might see a truly disturbing tablaux of corspes - we won't (they are always very tastefully arranged). If someone is in danger of having their world view changed by the destruction of society - they will remember which archetype they are and pull themselves together.

And don't even get me started on the techno-babble. Apparently everyone died of lupus.

[Wrestlevania]

I missed the initial airing of the first episode of Survivors and downloaded it on iPlayer to watch at lunchtime last week. It was so slack-jawed and hackneyed, however, I couldn't get past the first half; it's about as terrifying as narcolepsy.

The casting is piss-poor, which is further emphasised by the beguilingly predictable story and lame, cheap script. In short: complete dross.

In (hopefully) happier news, I've finally got season 1 of Mad Men queued up and ready to start this lunch time! Been looking forward to seeing this since Thumbs alerted me to it last year.

[Roderick]

I had a taste for something lighthearted a few days ago, but instead I watched Citizen Kane. When I first watched that movie, I thought it was a bit boring. Now, years later, I was fascinated throughout. Afterwards I immediately watched the 2 hour documentary about the making of, deep into the night. Good stuff.