Fleeting Thoughts: Movie and TV Shows

[Zohar]

Only 3 episodes into Luke Cage Season 2, and can't shake the feeling that they've slowed down all the Caribbean people talking to make them easier to understand.

I'm pretty sure people spoke much more slowly in Black Panther compared to other Marvel movies because of this reason.

[Angua]

Only 3 episodes into Luke Cage Season 2, and can't shake the feeling that they've slowed down all the Caribbean people talking to make them easier to understand.

I'm pretty sure people spoke much more slowly in Black Panther compared to other Marvel movies because of this reason.

Yeah, I remember thinking that at the time too. I think because I get more engrossed in a movie and you can't post while watching one it didn't stick with me because there was so much else to process.

[Raidri]

Only 3 episodes into Luke Cage Season 2, and can't shake the feeling that they've slowed down all the Caribbean people talking to make them easier to understand.

Someone created a thread for Luke Cage, why not post there?

[SecondTalon]

Because the conversation could easily shift to a broader discussion (not long enough to warrant it's own thread) about accents in Film and Television when shot outside their native areas and how they are adjusted so the audience for which the media is presumably being aimed at (or at least the collective group the people making the thing belong to) and how it changes things like how quickly a person speaks, how strong an accent is, and if the actual dialect is preserved or abandoned or some combination thereof.

See also - I'm too lazy to look - the Forum Rule about reporting shit instead of addressing it in thread, specifically Do not post in the thread to tell someone they've broken a rule without reporting it, and preferably, don't post in the thread to tell someone they've broken the rule at all.

Turns out I'm not too lazy. It's #2.

[Raidri]

I didn't mean to report a broken rule or something, it was just an observation (made more funny for me because Angua started the Luke Cage thread ... but it may have been only me).

[Grop]

I am watching Peaky Blinders. Whenever the characters speak of ww1, they say "France" when "the war" would be as explicit (and more straightforward). I don't think that is strange when talking about people who died in France, or things that happened in France, but sentences like "How was he before France?" are a bit weird to me.

I guess I am not used to France being the name of a war or traumatic event.

[Soupspoon]

I am watching Peaky Blinders. Whenever the characters speak of ww1, they say "France" when "the war" would be as explicit (and more straightforward). I don't think that is strange when talking about people who died in France, or things that happened in France, but sentences like "How was he before France?" are a bit weird to me.

I guess I am not used to France being the name of a war or traumatic event.

Well, aside from "World War I" obviously being not really available, until speculation about WW2 came to the fore, it was a war with many fronts around the world and "France" (The Western Front of the European theatre, give or take) was the place that many such men experienced it, who would not have experienced that locale (France) in a civilian context.

People involved in some other part of the war (e.g. at sea) would have had a different frame of reference, but with the Pals Regiments system and very little other option for these people we saw who went over there (and came back) it probably boiled quite nicely down as "the fields of France" (or the muddy quagmires).

And, aside from gradually picking up the 'feeling' of "the war" through repeated use of the euphemism, it's perhaps a softer term to use when discussing all that goes with having through the kind of conditions that caused (for example) Danny "Whizz-Bang"'s problems.


I can't speak for the reliability of the language used, it seems to be trying to be true to the area/era (and a quick look for complaints about that revealed "despite the usual accuracy, this thing in series 4 stands out as somewhat wrong" remarks). I'm also not local (nor quite ancient) enough to have first-hand experience of that particular setting, and work out for myself which liberties are being taken on behalf of the modern audience (or just plain messed up).

[Grop]

In fact, they also happen to say the war sometimes, so I suppose this is also in order to avoid repetitions.

[Angua]

Only 3 episodes into Luke Cage Season 2, and can't shake the feeling that they've slowed down all the Caribbean people talking to make them easier to understand.

I'm pretty sure people spoke much more slowly in Black Panther compared to other Marvel movies because of this reason.

Yeah, I remember thinking that at the time too. I think because I get more engrossed in a movie and you can't post while watching one it didn't stick with me because there was so much else to process.

So, I decided to watch an episode with subtitles on. The subtitles are in English, not Jamaican dialect which is a total shame. They should have just let me filter it, would have been closer than what they've got.

[Soupspoon]

Marty McFly's Fancy Self-Tying Shoes Are Falling Apart And Also For Sale

(I've also worn out shoes made for 2015, but I doubt I could sell them for that much…)

Oh, and Some Doctor Who Stuff SecondTalon Was Too Lazy To Figure Out, Something About 53 Seconds of Leaked Video Or Somesuch. (Which doesn't really deserve to go in the Whom thread.)

- Was that so hard? - ST

[natraj]

why do you have this weird fetish for posting links without actually letting anyone know what you're posting ABOUT?

"Back to the Future shoe sells for nearly $100k" is soupspoon's link above.

[Weeks]

why do you have this weird fetish for posting links without actually letting anyone know what you're posting ABOUT?

lmao

[natraj]

oh nooo i didn't quote it and then st helpful-edited but trust me it was originally SUPER unhelpful

[SecondTalon]

It was something like "Old shoes sell at auction" and the other one was... something like "And then there's this (Which doesn't...."

[Zohar]

A series of fleeting thoughts about recent movies/TV shows I've been watching:

• Insecure is a fantastic show by Issa Rae, she plays a somewhat screwed-up young person in LA trying to deal with being the only black person at her work (and NGO that provides education support to young kids of color) and with her own complicated long-term relationship. This show is great,
  but it's hard for me to watch more than one episode at a time because they're usually a bit heavy. It's also very funny, which you would not necessarily expect. It's on HBO, contains lots of nudity, and season 3 starts in August.
• Jane the Virgin continues to me an amazing and intricate show about complicated people trying to find a place for themselves. Season 5 (possibly the last one) starts next fall I think.
• Crazy Ex-Girlfriend - I just love this show. It is so set on destroying notions of traditional romance, its characters are all so flawed and (mostly)
  well-meaning, it has amazing songs and excellent portrayals of people with mental health issues. Season 4 (the final one) starts in October I believe.
• Ocean's 8 - I just wanted to see a fun, light, heist movie and I got exactly what I wanted. I loved it. I don't remember Ocean's 11 much at all so I don't know how it compares, but this was just a delight to watch, on a night where I needed some extra delight.
• Pose is Ryan Murphy's (Glee, American Horror Story) new show about the 80s ball scene and the AIDS crisis in New York. It is really excellent,
  but also a bit heavy. You should definitely watch Paris is Burning, the excellent documentary about the same time, I believe it's available on Netflix.
  This show is on Amazon and season 1 is ongoing.

[Tyndmyr]

Moviepass basically has become a dumpster fire. Not sure how much it's going to impact theater goers and what kind of films ultimately get made, but the experiment was fun while it lasted.

After running out of money and cards being declined everywhere, they announced that some films, days, etc no showings will be available without warning. Also, they're cutting their customer service, so good luck getting anything fixed.

[JudeMorrigan]

The voice actor who does Pooh in the Christopher Robin movie also voiced Minsc in the Baldur's Gate game. Pooh as miniature giant space bear is now part of my headcannon. Go for the eyes, Pooh! Go for the eyes!

[Yablo]

I was thinking about Leslie Nielsen and how I still make references to Police Squad!, The Naked Gun, and Airplane!, and that made me curious. I checked his IMDB. It looks like he was in 17 movies/television shows whose titles ended in punctuation:

• Ransom!
• Climax!
• Rosie!
• The Man From U.N.C.L.E.
• Bearcats!
• ... And Millions Die!
• The F.B.I.
• Can Ellen Be Saved?
• S.W.A.T.
• Viva Knievel!
• What Really Happened to the Class of '65?
• Vega$
• Airplane!
• Police Squad!
• Cave In!
• Who's the Boss?
• The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!

That has to be a record.

[Soupspoon]

Reading earlier today about actor Sai"d Taghmaoui not sure if he's still down for the villain in the next James Bond (after Danny Boyle left the process) and how "If they go Middle East, it's you. If they go Russian, it's someone else" is how he reports the background conversations he's had, it made me think of the bellwether of the Bond films.

I started to compile a list of enemy groups (and characters) but only got through the first dozen up to '79 (all films!) and starting at that end the film date isn't as good an indicator as the date of the book they were at least mostly based upon, until The Spy Who Loved Me or thereabouts (and of course Casino Royale).


But if they're actually going to be following the current trends, I could see them going "bad Russia" (or at least "bad person who came from Russia, or elsewhere Soviet prior to the traumatic split of the Union) like they haven't really done since Cracker Fitz got promoted to ally and Sharp/Stark turned out to be the bad guy. Because after that it was Big Business for a couple of films North Koreans (but particularly bad NKs, at that) then from the second Casino Royale was basically Criminal Business (French), Business (Haiti/Bolivia), Revenge (homegrown with oriental aspects) and the ubiquitous background sinister organisation (multinational).

Spoiler:

Though obviously there's a difference between the locale of the enemy 'gang', the nationality of the Villainy-personified (main bad guy) and that of Head Henchman (hands-on antagonist). Though in the early years there was a tendency to go Germanic (or Sino-Germanic, or Polish-German-Greek) where it wasn't actual Russian/Baltic or (in the case of Grant) anti-British Irish. With a smattering of (presumed) French/Italian types but then they're villains and aren't acting for their countries of origin (not even all the Rusdians), etc.

(Diamonds Are Forever brought in the hench-American duo. Live And Let Die was Caribbean jaunt, just as the book had been but maybe even more Blaxpoitationy.)

Sorry, don't mind me. It's just been rolling through my head since I read that article. Fleeting thoughts, indeed.

[Soupspoon]

Different fleeting thoughts, much more fleeting:

Definitely reminds me of The Wizard Of Oz…

[Zohar]

I saw A Simple Favor last night and had a really great time. It's an odd funny mystery thriller. If you liked Gone Girl, you would probably like this.

[Angua]

I saw A Simple Favor last night and had a really great time. It's an odd funny mystery thriller. If you liked Gone Girl, you would probably like this.

We went to watch it over the weekend and enjoyed it.

[cephalopod9]

I've been thinking a lot about a parallel dimension where Sam Raimi has a complicated, important sounding name, and Darren Aronofksy's name is three syllables. Prestige in film making is so weird.
Aronofsky also does "feel smart" topics like the struggles of addiction, and math he doesn't understand, instead of low-brow stuff like zombie demons.

So basically, the only difference between Drag Me to Hell and Black Swan is that the former had better practical effects.

[cephalopod9]

I've been thinking a lot about a parallel dimension where Sam Raimi has a complicated, important sounding name, and Darren Aronofksy's name is three syllables. Prestige in film making is so weird.
Aronofsky also does "feel smart" topics like the struggles of addiction, and math he doesn't understand, instead of low-brow stuff like zombie demons.

So basically, the only difference between Drag Me to Hell and Black Swan is that the former had better practical effects.

[Zohar]

Apparently people like Searching a lot. I was going to dismiss the movie because it seems so gimmicky but now I'm considering going to see it.

[cephalopod9]

it seems so gimmicky

I think "gimmick" is one of those charged words that only applies to what other people do. I don't think anyone's like "here's my gimmick", or even "I really liked that one gimmick". Sound and color used to be gimmicky.


I had an earth shaking realization,

Homer and Marge Simpson are Millennials now.
or at the very latest, will be in the next 3 years.

The show's been on so long, and their ages have only shifted slightly, so their years of birth have gone from early '50's, boomer generation, to mid '80's, millennial. Bart started off as a Gen-X'er , and has been out of the millennial range for almost a decade.

[Zohar]

it seems so gimmicky

I think "gimmick" is one of those charged words that only applies to what other people do. I don't think anyone's like "here's my gimmick", or even "I really liked that one gimmick". Sound and color used to be gimmicky.

That's a fair criticism of the word! I meant to say, it seems like the movie tries to lift itself by using this method of photography. Which I'm sure it does, but the reviews say it still has a lot of merit.

[Tyndmyr]

Venom's surprisingly good. Was expecting a dark and angsty entry, sort of adjacent to X-men: Apocalypse. It was pleasantly surprising instead, with bits of humor and a generally decent sense of pacing.

I guess we got yet another marvel-verse superior to DC's average quality now. That's what, three?

[sardia]

Venom's surprisingly good. Was expecting a dark and angsty entry, sort of adjacent to X-men: Apocalypse. It was pleasantly surprising instead, with bits of humor and a generally decent sense of pacing.

I guess we got yet another marvel-verse superior to DC's average quality now. That's what, three?

I rather wait for the Blu Ray.i heard there's a lot of extra scenes that would help The movie.

[rmsgrey]

Venom's surprisingly good. Was expecting a dark and angsty entry, sort of adjacent to X-men: Apocalypse. It was pleasantly surprising instead, with bits of humor and a generally decent sense of pacing.

I guess we got yet another marvel-verse superior to DC's average quality now. That's what, three?

The general view of Venom seems to be that it's a badly made movie with significant redeeming features (mostly Tom Hardy's performances) which critics hate, but anyone interested enough to go see despite the critics finds enough to enjoy.

[Tyndmyr]

It's an enjoyable movie, but yeah, definitely not the sort of movie that ends up being critically acclaimed. The villain is fairly flat, but this is largely unimportant(like, say, the first GotG level). Hardy's great, and sure, some of the stuff is a bit ridiculous, but honestly, so are the comics. I'd rather a funny, over the top performance than one that attempts to be overly realistic.

[TV4Fun]

In my universe, there are 10 seasons of Firefly, and only the first one is actually worth watching. The rest is horribly, embarrassingly bad. Each season had 15 episodes (counting season 1's "Serenity" as two), and if there were cliffhanger endings, they were completely forgotten about by the next season. Also, any attempt at an overarching story was abandoned after the first season, in favor of being completely episodic, as they still couldn't rely on Fox to air their episodes in order, or indeed at all. Nathan Fillion walked out in disgust after the third season, so Malcolm Reynolds was replaced with a hot woman in a revealing outfit. After the fourth season, it was cancelled by Fox and went on a year and a half long hiatus before being picked up by the Sci Fi Channel, who drastically cut the show's budget, fired Joss Whedon, and insisted that the show abandon any further attempts at character development and focus more on explosions and women in bikinis. It got two more seasons before being jettisoned by the Sci Fi Channel as part of their rebranding as SyFy as they wanted to focus more on Paranormal reality TV shows. Two years later it was picked up by ABC Family, who retooled the show as a goofy domestic sitcom starring Zoe and Wash, with other characters as their wacky neighbors after they all decided to abandon the nomadic life and find a planet to settle on. That actually got three seasons before the show was sold to Cinemax, who upped the budget, put them back into space, and added lots of nudity and sex, as well as killing off most of the main cast, so the only one to actually make it to the last episode alive was River, who at this point was a battle-scarred war veteran who had to take over as captain of Serenity as she and her new crew faced off against a massive Alliance fleet, ending the season on a massive cliffhanger. Fans are somewhat mixed on this last season, with some appreciating the return to space and more dramatic feel, but saying it just doesn't "feel" like the early seasons, while others consider the whole thing to be the ultimate betrayal of Whedon's original vision. The cliffhanger was never resolved as Cinemax cancelled the series, and while various petitions have circulated trying to revive the show, they have thus far not met with any success.

[rmsgrey]

Hey, it was mid-Season 2 that Andromeda started its decline (by firing the mainliner). And it never jumped channels; just sharks. Otherwise it sounds a lot like your fable of executive meddling gone mad.

[Flumble]

Is Mal's replacement at least played by Sigourney Weaver? Maybe she doesn't fit "hot woman" by the time Firefly got its 4th season, but I'd love to see a TV series pull off a bikini episode with 65yo women playing beach explodeball. And of course the alien of the week in that episode will be a tentacle monster emerging from the water. And after most of the crew fails to communicate with or defeat the alien, in the end Inara feels in her heart that it has serious relationship issues and saves the day through counseling. Because our main cast are caricatures after season 2, right? (Also River must have another panic attack because of the monster's huge emotional field or something, otherwise she could've solved the problem before it even emerged.)

Hey, it was mid-Season 2 that Andromeda started its decline (by firing the mainliner). And it never jumped channels; just sharks. Otherwise it sounds a lot like your fable of executive meddling gone mad.

It's a good thing I only ever saw the first two seasons of Andromeda. Glossing over the season descriptions it is awfully similar to TV4Fun's nightmare.
Then again, it does seem to have a couple of good (background/revelation) stories in the 4th and 5th seasons, so would you recommend binging the series anyway?

[TV4Fun]

Is Mal's replacement at least played by Sigourney Weaver? Maybe she doesn't fit "hot woman" by the time Firefly got its 4th season, but I'd love to see a TV series pull off a bikini episode with 65yo women playing beach explodeball.

No, Sigourney Weaver can act. The lady they got, well I don't know for sure if she was an adult film actress before coming to Firefly, but it wouldn't surprise me.

[Zohar]

I just wanted to change the thread title back.

[Weeks]

I just wanted to change the thread title back.

Thank you so much for your help.

[rmsgrey]

Hey, it was mid-Season 2 that Andromeda started its decline (by firing the mainliner). And it never jumped channels; just sharks. Otherwise it sounds a lot like your fable of executive meddling gone mad.

It's a good thing I only ever saw the first two seasons of Andromeda. Glossing over the season descriptions it is awfully similar to TV4Fun's nightmare.
Then again, it does seem to have a couple of good (background/revelation) stories in the 4th and 5th seasons, so would you recommend binging the series anyway?

Bingeing the series is probably the worst option - makes it too easy to notice things like the background crew being there one episode; gone the next.

There are some interesting ideas in there, as well as some complete dreck, so watching it all is not without some value - but how much is going to be up to you to decide.

And then there's this: http://www.cyberspace5.net/agentrichard07/coda.htm Robert Hewitt Wolfe's own take on what the planned future of the show was before he got fired.

[cephalopod9]

Netflix has a ten episode series, Haunting of Hill House, which i semi-binged* and it's medium okay. It's supposed to be based on the Shirley Jackson novel, which I want but haven't got yet but I can already tell this is not a good adaptation of the writing.
The same year the original novel was published there was a, as far as I can tell, completely unrelated Vincent Price movie that's just ridiculous enough to get a RiffTrax that I also watched called House on Haunted Hill**.

I bring this up mostly just to say
House Haunt Hill Hook Car Door.

because that has been going through my brain and I can't imagine an audience for that.

Horror is a weird genre.

Hey, it was mid-Season 2 that Andromeda started its decline (by firing the mainliner). And it never jumped channels; just sharks. Otherwise it sounds a lot like your fable of executive meddling gone mad.

It's a good thing I only ever saw the first two seasons of Andromeda. Glossing over the season descriptions it is awfully similar to TV4Fun's nightmare.
Then again, it does seem to have a couple of good (background/revelation) stories in the 4th and 5th seasons, so would you recommend binging the series anyway?

I watched Firefly around 2006, and I don't remember seeing anything of Andromeda before the last year or two seeing bits of it on the Spanish language channel I sometimes watch Xena Warrior Princess on, and I would not have guessed they were tv shows both being made and broadcast in 2002.

It's weird how stuff ages.
like, why does every Gerard Butler movie since 2009 look like a second tier block buster from the mid 90's?

*I think it takes at least be 3 episodes in a row to count as a show "binge", one or two episodes a night is like a 'mini-series special event' type viewing.
**they make a jarring number of joke/references to famous people who unfortunately died in the 7 years since they filmed this.

[Soupspoon]

like, why does every Gerard Butler movie since 2009 look like a second tier block buster from the mid 90's?

They! Are! Spartan?!?

(I had to check. I've only seen one post-300 film with him in, and that was the 300 sequel. Though I've seen four (maybe five) of his pre-300 films, it seems. Without previously linking any of them to any of the others.)