Movies and TV Shows That are Great

[Bazza]

Cheers Oldie

[Michael Hopcroft]

Blackadder Goes Forth (1989)

 

The four seasons of Blackadder are all very funny, but this final installment deserves special attention. Set on the Western Front in 1917, it tells the story of an infantry officer who is cursed to be the only sane man in the whole friggin' world. Unlike almost everyone around him, Captain Blackadder does not want to die. He sees the war as pointless, the cause he is fighting for vacuous, and his superiors utterly mad. Rowan Atkinson's comic gift is on full display, ut there is a sort of tragic grade to Blackadder. remarkably, in the final episode, when his efforts to avoid the "big push" fail, Blackadder does his "duty" in a beautifully tragic sequence that shows that, despite his efforts to survive the war, he is no coward. He knows the charge is suicide, yet goes anyway. Whether it is a moment of redemption or supreme folly is left to the viewer to decide.

[Spence]

2 hours ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

Blackadder Goes Forth (1989)

 

The four seasons of Blackadder are all very funny, but this final installment deserves special attention. Set on the Western Front in 1917, it tells the story of an infantry officer who is cursed to be the only sane man in the whole friggin' world. Unlike almost everyone around him, Captain Blackadder does not want to die. He sees the war as pointless, the cause he is fighting for vacuous, and his superiors utterly mad. Rowan Atkinson's comic gift is on full display, ut there is a sort of tragic grade to Blackadder. remarkably, in the final episode, when his efforts to avoid the "big push" fail, Blackadder does his "duty" in a beautifully tragic sequence that shows that, despite his efforts to survive the war, he is no coward. He knows the charge is suicide, yet goes anyway. Whether it is a moment of redemption or supreme folly is left to the viewer to decide.

 

I have the complete Black Adder on DVD from years ago. 

One of the truly underrated series out there. 

[death tribble]

The Odessa File

Another film based on a Frederick Forsyth novel this deals with a 1960s German journalist looking for the commandant of a concentration camp after the discovery of a diary left behind by a suicide victim. He finds out that the commandant has been helped by an association of ex-SS members called ODESSA. Jon Voight is the journalist and Maximilliam Schell is the man he is searching for. Mary Tamm plays Voight's girlfriend. Throw in the fact that ODESSA existed s 

[death tribble]

The X-Files Fight the Future

 

The first film from the TV show. This brings in the regular cast and adds Martin Landau and Armin Mueller Stahl. It adds to the mythology and ties up a loose end i.e. what the bees are for.

Mulder and Scully are off the X-Files and are investigating a bomb threat when the building is blown up. Hidden in the wreckage are four bodies that do not belong and when Mulder and Scully investigate they discover a lot more going on.

This has some great interaction between Scully and Mulder including a joke on the roof of a building and the infamous almost kiss. But it also shows Scully acting with authority as an agent demanding a building be cleared.

Mulder gets to see aliens and an alien spaceship and another of the cabal that the two have been fighting dies as does the mole they have been worked for.

Another highlight is Scully describing her symptoms as the bee sting takes effect.

If you like the series then you'll love the film.

 

Look I know what a lot of you will say but the movie does stand up to repeated watchings. You do not need to see the series to follow the film but it helps.

[csyphrett]

12 hours ago, death tribble said:

The X-Files Fight the Future

 

The first film from the TV show. This brings in the regular cast and adds Martin Landau and Armin Mueller Stahl. It adds to the mythology and ties up a loose end i.e. what the bees are for.

Mulder and Scully are off the X-Files and are investigating a bomb threat when the building is blown up. Hidden in the wreckage are four bodies that do not belong and when Mulder and Scully investigate they discover a lot more going on.

This has some great interaction between Scully and Mulder including a joke on the roof of a building and the infamous almost kiss. But it also shows Scully acting with authority as an agent demanding a building be cleared.

Mulder gets to see aliens and an alien spaceship and another of the cabal that the two have been fighting dies as does the mole they have been worked for.

Another highlight is Scully describing her symptoms as the bee sting takes effect.

If you like the series then you'll love the film.

 

Look I know what a lot of you will say but the movie does stand up to repeated watchings. You do not need to see the series to follow the film but it helps.

I liked it.

CES

[Matt the Bruins]

Plus Martin Landau teaches us about FEMA, info that's very timely these days!

[death tribble]

My point is that I am a big Gillian Anderson fan so I should have put it in by now.

[Pariah]

Who?

[L. Marcus]

Some red-head dame.

[mattingly]

This clip is possibly my favorite character introduction.

 

 

[Spence]

16 minutes ago, mattingly said:

This clip is possibly my favorite character introduction.

 

 

 

From the ancient TV era of good writing. 

Something long faded from our world

[sinanju]

3 hours ago, mattingly said:

This clip is possibly my favorite character introduction.

 

 

 

Yeah, if it's not my favorite, it's in the top three.

[Tjack]

3 hours ago, mattingly said:

This clip is possibly my favorite character introduction.

 

 

    This same actor played Rorschach in Watchmen and Kelly Leak in the original Bad News Bears.    Among many other roles.

[Lord Liaden]

Jackie Earle Haley, a most talented and versatile actor. His Guerrero character on the TV series version of Human Target was one big reason why I liked it so much and regretted its cancellation. Guerrero was very smart, with a dark, sarcastic sense of humor, but could be stone-cold ruthless, and treacherous when it was to his advantage. Yet he had his own code of honor and loyalty to the lead character, Christopher Chance, which made him oddly sympathetic.

[unclevlad]

Since my usual viewing options are...slightly curtailed at the moment...Prime Video.

 

Hmm.  Look round...hmmm.

 

Oh yeah.  The Boys.  Sure.

 

Oh...my.  Supers gone SOOOO bad.  Seriously dystopian.  

[Lord Liaden]

I've heard a number of people praise The Boys for being a more "realistic" take on superheroes. As though realism in a fantasy automatically makes it better.

 

But I'm gratified that the analogues to our favorite superheroes in this series clearly are analogues, and not evil alternate versions of the originals. I was getting really sick of icons of selfless heroism being repeatedly portrayed as monsters or victims.

[unclevlad]

Yeah...combine the popularity of supers with profit, and things get ugly.  It's what you get when

 

Power corrupts;  absolute power corrupts absolutely

 

meets

 

The love of money is the root of all evil.

 

Been reading a LOT of supers the last several years...this is taking things further than anything I can think of offhand, but not, I'd say, unbelievably so.  If you're a cynic anyway.

2 episodes this evening...probably continue that.  

[Michael Hopcroft]

The Pink Panther (1963)

 

Yes, Peter Sellers is genius in the series. Audiences already knew his vocal versatility from The Goon Show, but Inspector Clouseau gave him a chance to show a mastery of physical comedy as well. He almost takes over the film. Yes the non-Clouseau parts hold up well to.

 

Clouseau is hunting an international jewel thief known as the Phantom, played by the ever-suave David Niven. What he doesn't know (among other things) is that his wife is the Phantom's accomplice and lover.  But he knows enough to track the Phantom to Switzerland, where he is casing a bored heiress whose kingdom in South Asia had recently fallen to revolution to see if he can rob her. She is the one who has the Pink Panther of the title, a large and brilliant but flawed diamond, and she wouldn;t mind putting it at risk in an effort to get some adventure into her life. Complicating maters, the Phantom's American nephew (Robert Wagner) shows up, muddies the waters, and decides he's going to go into the family business of theivery.

 

The only Clouseau film that holds a candle to this is the sublime A Shot in the Dark. Blake Edwards and Peter Sellers had a serious falling out during shooting (Sellers had a severe and untreated mental illness, which made him a terror to be around and to be close to, and Edwards didn't have time for it) and the director vowed he would never work with Sellers again. Eventually they reconciled somewhat (to the point they could work with each other) and Sellers would make three more Pink Panther films before his death -- which placed more emphasis on Sellers' living sight-gag potential and less on story.

[Michael Hopcroft]

54 minutes ago, Lord Liaden said:

I've heard a number of people praise The Boys for being a more "realistic" take on superheroes. As though realism in a fantasy automatically makes it better.

 

 

There are a lot of evil-supers things going around these days. Like Brightburn, the origin story of an evil Superman.

 

Watchmen was its creators' intent to thoroughly debunk the superhero myth and show that superheroes are just like us -- and we are untrustworthy a-holes who, if given great power, will become greatly corrupted. I had little patience ofr the first film, but the parts of the graphic novel I've read are brilliant.

[slikmar]

13 hours ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

There are a lot of evil-supers things going around these days. Like Brightburn, the origin story of an evil Superman.

 

Watchmen was its creators' intent to thoroughly debunk the superhero myth and show that superheroes are just like us -- and we are untrustworthy a-holes who, if given great power, will become greatly corrupted. I had little patience ofr the first film, but the parts of the graphic novel I've read are brilliant.

Part of what made Watchmen so great was that he did a good job of showing that yes, they are just like us, which means there are also those who just wanted to do good, like Owlman.

Takes me back to first season of Heroes and one of the breakout people was Jiro because people LOVED that he just wanted to be a superhero - shades of The Turtle from the Wildcard books.

[Hermit]

49 minutes ago, slikmar said:

Part of what made Watchmen so great was that he did a good job of showing that yes, they are just like us, which means there are also those who just wanted to do good, like Owlman.

Takes me back to first season of Heroes and one of the breakout people was Jiro because people LOVED that he just wanted to be a superhero - shades of The Turtle from the Wildcard books.

 

"Yatta!"

 

Loved that guy.

[Lord Liaden]

Alan Moore's Watchmen series was a thoughtful, and perhaps necessary, deconstruction of the superhero genre. What bothered me about it was that, while Moore was clear and vivid in his depiction of the negative motivations for someone putting on a cape and mask, he didn't demonstrate a comparable understanding of the positive motivations. Even the character he held up as the noblest of the masked heroes -- the first Owlman -- never described his thinking past, "I knew this was what I wanted to do." Promoting justice, protecting the weak, self-sacrifice for the greater good, inspiring others... Moore didn't pay any attention to any of that. Maybe that was deliberate, but I felt it skewed too far to the cynical. Mind you, comics in general were trending that way in those days.

[unclevlad]

23 hours ago, Michael Hopcroft said:

There are a lot of evil-supers things going around these days. Like Brightburn, the origin story of an evil Superman.

 

Watchmen was its creators' intent to thoroughly debunk the superhero myth and show that superheroes are just like us -- and we are untrustworthy a-holes who, if given great power, will become greatly corrupted. I had little patience ofr the first film, but the parts of the graphic novel I've read are brilliant.

 

I believe I've read most, if not all, of the Watchmen graphic novel(s?).  And yeah, I was actually going...well, after I finish The Boys (which'll be Wed night)....oh, there's Watchmen.  But I've heard much the same...the film wasn't up to the novels.

Wild Cards...now that's dating yourself.   Liked the first....heck, I can't recall exactly.  Several.  But it went off the deep end after a while, I thought.  Or maybe got too black for me back then.

WOW!!!  Now here's a tidbit I didn't know, from Wikipedia...

Quote

British writer Neil Gaiman met with Martin in 1987 and pitched a Wild Cards story about a character who lives in a world of dreams. Martin declined due to Gaiman's lack of prior credits at the time. Gaiman went on to publish his story as The Sandman.[

 

 

[slikmar]

Ok, only because it might fit into this thread due to how good its been, but would Supernatural have to qualify as the greatest surprisingly successful show ever on tv. And if it hadn't been on WB, probably would not have survived 1 season. 15 seasons and now a new Anime series. Makes me mad I never watched it. Maybe only thing close would have been Stargate.