Movie/TV recommendations

[tegan]

Also note that only the original Famicom with the built-in controllers with their stupid 3-foot cables had a mic at all. The redesigned model (the one that the redesigned NES is based on) had no controller, instead requiring that you entered a button combination to simulate microphone input. True to form, Takeshi's Challenge had a completely different button combination that no other Famicom game used.

[brkl]

I finally saw Star Trek Into Darkness a few days ago and holy crap it was bad. It's incredible now how major blockbusters can put any kind of crazy incomprehensible bullshit on screen without anyone batting an eye, while ten years ago Star Trek Nemesis, for example, was mocked to oblivion for far lesser crimes against logic and common sense. Not that Nemesis is a good movie (although it had awesome Tom Hardy scenes), but this one isn't any better. Badly directer, cast, written and acted. Bad.

Didn't like it.

[melmer]

Oh I quite liked it I'm a doctor not a torpedo technician LOL

Actually wait now that I think about it :/ the film didn't make a lick of sense, didn't stop me from enjoying though, whiskey helped

I couldn't help but feel that this Star Trek universe should be a high budget tv series

[TychoCelchuuu]

Yeah it was pretty stupid. The movie couldn't go 10 minutes without a brutal fistfight or some other kind of fight, it came up with the flimsiest possible excuse to give its token not Uhura female character a reason to strip down to her underwear, Uhura herself spent most of the movie whining until she turned into a strong female character right at the end, and:

It was just a rehash of The Wrath of Khan right down to someone dying in the reactor at the end.

[elmuerte]

Well... it's a JJ movie

[toblix]

Yeah, the Alice Eve underwear scene was weird – it's obviously pandering, but I'd love to hear how that scene made its way into the script and how it remained there, how she felt about it, etc. Filming a modern movie scene is complicated and requires lots of people, right? How did they talk about the scene? I have so many questions.

[Twig]

Movie was great, though it definitely had its dumb moments. Would Watch Again.

[Frenetic Pony]

Speaking of Into Darkness, I wrote to Abrams about the screenplay: http://intodarknessscript.blogspot.com/

 

Delivered via twitter to Bad Robot, why yes the blog does have 11 views not my own! It's quite long, but leave it to paraphrase as "your script sucked." Obviously JJ read it, and the news that writers Orci, Kurtzman, and Lindelof aren't writing the third Trek is entirely down to me, and if Paramount doesn't offer me my due royalties I'm prepared to sue. You hear that Paramount!

 

Though seriously, if you read it my review I think you'll at least see just how bad Into Darkness is as a screenplay.

[Gormongous]

Speaking of Into Darkness, I wrote to Abrams about the screenplay: http://intodarknessscript.blogspot.com/

 

Delivered via twitter to Bad Robot, why yes the blog does have 11 views not my own! It's quite long, but leave it to paraphrase as "your script sucked." Obviously JJ read it, and the news that writers Orci, Kurtzman, and Lindelof aren't writing the third Trek is entirely down to me, and if Paramount doesn't offer me my due royalties I'm prepared to sue. You hear that Paramount!

 

Though seriously, if you read it my review I think you'll at least see just how bad Into Darkness is as a screenplay.

 

Yeah, you summed up pretty much all my thoughts on the movie. The huge, unavoidable problem with Lindelof and co. is that they have a great nose for dramatic setups but zero interest in following them through. I've long since given up trying to figure out if there's zero ability there too. Either way, it's to the point where actual plot beats are ridiculously obvious and clumsy, if not outright told to the audience through the most diaphanous of fourth walls, because those beats are the only moments where the script isn't winking at us knowingly while the music swells in our hearts. Case in point: McCoy going, "I'll be right there, Jim! I'm just injecting this dead animal with some blood to see what happens. Maybe it'll pay off later! Science!"

[TychoCelchuuu]

Yeah, the Alice Eve underwear scene was weird – it's obviously pandering, but I'd love to hear how that scene made its way into the script and how it remained there, how she felt about it, etc. Filming a modern movie scene is complicated and requires lots of people, right? How did they talk about the scene? I have so many questions.

This might be my boundless cynicism showing but I feel like our society is such that a woman in a sci-fi film or TV show isn't going to ask a lot of questions when it comes time to film the scene where she's in her underwear for some reason. Star Trek: Enterprise had that Vulcan first officer lady strip down at least a couple times in the decontamination chamber, plus they made her rub massage oil all over herself or whatever. Some films actually say something with their "look at our hot lady" scene (I'm thinking of Ripley in her underwear in Alien or the co-ed nudity in Starship Troopers) or they avoid it altogether (Terminator 2) but generally if there's not unnecessary titillation then we're dealing with an exception, not a rule.

[brkl]

You forgot the scene where the Enterprise's engines fail and it drops towards Earth from orbit like a penny dropped from two feet. Let's hope the Moon's warp core keeps chugging along.

[Argobot]

This might be my boundless cynicism showing but I feel like our society is such that a woman in a sci-fi film or TV show isn't going to ask a lot of questions when it comes time to film the scene where she's in her underwear for some reason. Star Trek: Enterprise had that Vulcan first officer lady strip down at least a couple times in the decontamination chamber, plus they made her rub massage oil all over herself or whatever. Some films actually say something with their "look at our hot lady" scene (I'm thinking of Ripley in her underwear in Alien or the co-ed nudity in Starship Troopers) or they avoid it altogether (Terminator 2) but generally if there's not unnecessary titillation then we're dealing with an exception, not a rule.

 

Right after the movie came out, this scene was getting a lot of attention in the press. This was Lindelof's initial response to criticism/questions:

 

Why is Alice Eve in her underwear, gratuitously and unnecessarily, without any real effort made as to why in God's name she would undress in that circumstance? Well there's a very good answer for that. But I'm not telling you what it is. Because... uh... MYSTERY?

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1707650/star-trek-into-darkness-spoiler-special-burning-questions-answered.jhtml

 

Another interview I remember reading justified that scene because Saldana was in her underwear during the first one, so the new girl has to be in her underwear in the second.

 

I never had a strong desire to see the second movie, but I enjoyed the first one well enough and would have seen this one too, but the tone deaf use of female actresses in this movies really made me not want to see it.

[Roderick]

I'm going to pull a gross move and plug the little review of Star Trek Into Darkness that I wrote after seeing it: http://www.filmadeus.com/2013/06/star-trek-into-darkness-jj-abrams-2013.html. It echoes much of the sentiment of this topic because even without the weird plot holes and gratuitous female objectification, it just wasn't a very good movie.

Bonus material: scroll down to see a custom reply to the review by Ronimo's Joost van Dongen! That's real star power, you can't buy that.

[Max Ernst]

Couldn't disagree with anyone more about Orange is the New Black. This is a show that feels like a comedy, but doesn't have any laughs. The way the characters interact, with their over the top performances and the confinements of stereotypes, makes it feel like the show is a comedy, but there aren't many jokes. The tone of the show squashes any actual emotional impact, and the show gets very silly very quickly (that dumb chicken episode). The writing can be very silly, even during its most dramatic moments. The show wants you to invest in the horrors of prison and laugh at its little jokes, but these two concepts constantly trip all over themselves.

 

I like that it is a take down of white privilege, and that transgender issues are properly addressed, but I feel the show is so hammy that it fails to hit many of its marks. There will always be the buzz of "the unspoken prison rules that are broken at peril", but once the protagonist settles in this appeal fades away. The lead actor is strong, as is Crazy-eyes-pseudo-ODB,  but there are some awful, over-the-top performances here. The character of Red is the biggest offender. 

Also, what a waste of Lauren Lapkus. 

[Max Ernst]

Also, Enlightened was good and I miss it terribly. 

[Argobot]

Any scene with Red in Orange is the New Black is fantastically funny.

 

[Max Ernst]

The whole chicken thing reminds me of something Stephen Colbert said about his time at Second City, where he was taught that sometimes "scenes feel like a joke, act like there is a joke, and suggest that there is a joke being made, but there isn't actually anything funny". I watched a lot of episodes, because the show was compelling and I needed to binge on something, but this was far from the top-tier television that I was hyped for. 

 

To balance the negativity, I finally came round to watching VEEP. That is some seriously funny stuff. Matt Walsh is a national treasure. We just need Ian Roberts and Matt Besser to get their due for true UCB domination and the world will be sound place.

[Argobot]

Fair enough. And I agree, Veep is an amazing show that really deserves more attention than it's been getting.

 

Veep, ONTB, and Enlightened are the much needed response to the overwhelming number of TV shows with a middle-aged, white, male antihero.

[Max Ernst]

Julia Louis-Dreyfus slays every line. Seriously, not one line is wasted, flubbed, or buried in the set-up. No one veers between intensity and exhaustion like her. Considering how affable her Seinfeld persona was, it is great to see her range. 

 

And yes, it is nice to see the Draper-McNulty-Soprano trifecta slowly erode away. We have some ways yet, for sure, but this is a nice start.

[Patrick R]

Veep is full of white male anti-heroes. 

 

[Max Ernst]

Lets post terrifying moments from childhood movies that permanently damaged us:

 

[Twig]

[shammack]

[osmosisch]

Lets post terrifying moments from childhood movies that permanently damaged us:

http://youtu.be/xBxfOvx7QmU?t=1h34m14s

 

Embed to a specific moment doesn't seem to work with the media tags?

[Patrick R]

 

Worthless and the Boo Box would probably also be mine.