WHAT YOU WATCHED THIS WEEK

[dnwilliams]

the abundant food and alcohol made me suspicious
 

Sounds like my Fast & Furious screening.

[dalmatianjaws]

Just finished the Noxon interview (*crush*) and waiting for Gillspie interview. My last question was cut off because of time dammit!

[Sheridan Passell]

I feel nervous and I'm on the other side of the world.

[dalmatianjaws]

Both went well, though time time FLEW with Gillespie cause I got him talking about how he accomplished an intricate shot and that took SEVEN minutes, haha. The rep gates us an extra three minutes though so I got more questions in. Overall an AWESOME experience.

[Sheridan Passell]

That's great. Really pleased it went well and you had a good time.

[T.ROSS]

Watched Captain America Thursday at midnight. It was a lot better than I expected! these new Marvel flicks are awesome! At the end credits they had The Avengers trailer. Looked awesome!

[dalmatianjaws]

Cowboys & Aliens - GREAT popcorn flick! Smart, fun, and VERY well directed. Harrison Ford is ALIVE in this movie, what a great character. Amazing acting all around.

[dalmatianjaws]

Just hopped online to check reviews.

Utter. Morons.
http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/cowboys_and_aliens/

[Sheridan Passell]

Lot of folks complaining the aliens are too generic. Hope it's good.

[dalmatianjaws]

The spaceships are stunning, the creatures themselves are alright, maybe a bit generic, but they have this weird "little midget hands popping out of the chest" thing that's like a skeevy version of the Alien mouth within a mouth. All in all, they don't re-define alien design like the first Alien did, but they don't need to. It certainly doesn't ruin the movie. Trust me, it's a balls to the wall western with a fun sci fi twist, there's nothing to hate and a whole lot to love. Most folks complaints in reviews are that it doesn't live up to the insanity of the title, which will bite them in the end. The movie takes itself seriously (in a good way) but the title sounds like shlock.

[David Hawk]

From people i know who have seen it they reckon its better than the first Iron Man movie, which means I'll be buying my ticket for sure. Craig looks badass and Ford looks like he's enjoying making movies again, how could that ever be a bad combination?

[Sheridan Passell]

Inside Job - Documentary that won the Oscar and the Jury Prize at Cannes about what caused the global financial meltdown. You're left at the end feeling very miserable about the future, because it's perfectly clear that the corrupt side of Wall St has a stranglehold on government, and on everything that's important right down to the type of economics that's taught in ivy league colleges. And it's all now too late to reverse it, they're embedded in the halls of power like a parasite.

[dalmatianjaws]

Had the same reaction. Rent the movie Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. It's about the Enron scandal which broke in the shadow of 9-11 so it's grossly overlooked, but it's a microcosm of what was to come. At one point they held California's energy for ransom (literally, they shut down power plants to jack up prices). It was during the summer and there were rolling blackouts (I remember this cause I was in college in California) and old folks were dying from lack of AC. They actually have phone records of the  Enron guys WATCHING the news of old people being carted away on ambulances and making jokes about it. It's utterly terrifying. It's also a MUCH better documentary in terms of standalone filmmaking. I don't remember if it was Enron or Inside Job that actually talks about the psychological phenomenon that allows for that sort of behavior, to do evil things if ordered by someone you see as an authority figure. Chilling.

[Sheridan Passell]

I need to check out the Enron doc.

Just watched another great one - Collapse. It's basically one guy explaining how we've used most of the world's oil, but that modern society depends entirely on it. Oil is not just fuel, but a key ingredient of the machines that use the fuel. Alternative energy sources are not working, and there's no sign they're going to. Look at this graph of the world's population:



People don't realise what a population explosion there has been in the last 150 years.

Here's the world's population by country:
1     China    1,339,724,852
2     India    1,210,193,422
3     UStates    311,901,000
4     Indonesia    237,556,363
5     Brazil    190,732,694
6     Pakistan    176,835,000
7     Nigeria    158,423,000
8     Bangladesh    151,030,000
9     Russia    142,905,200
10     Japan    127,950,000

China and India have recently become/are becoming developed, which means they now want oil too. Which means world consumption and demand is starting to increase ridiculously. We'd already used half the oil in 100 years, before you add this in.

Roger Ebert sums it up perfectly - http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091209/REVIEWS/912099993

So oil is going to run out and the results for modern society, which was largely built off the back of it, are going to be catastrophic. It's going to happen in our lifetime, countries are already taking over oil-rich countries, and dramatically rising domestic prices are already there.

[dnwilliams]

Super 8 was very cool, I loved it really, but the kids story and the alien story could've been more connected.

X-Men: First Class was really enjoyable, in spite of the near-infinite gripes I have about it.

The Squid & The Whale was cool, Jesse Jesse Eisenberg is the new Dustin Hoffman.

[dalmatianjaws]

Mad Men Season 3 - brilliant, best season yet, AWESOME finale.

Mad Men Season 4 -  one episode in and so far VERY disappointed.

[dnwilliams]

I remember liking it, but then I love Mad Men to death. Loved the scene where they played this track:



Perfect scene. The Chrysanthemum and the Sword is a great episode IIRC.

Saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes, it's way better than it has any right to be.

[T.ROSS]

I need to check out Mad Men.  I hear good things.  I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes, it was awesome!  I also saw Final Destination 5, which was the fucking shit!  The franchise totally redeemed themselves with this addition!  You won't be let down!  I also saw 30 minutes or Less, it was ok.

[Sheridan Passell]

What was wrong with 30 Minutes Or Less T.Ross? What made Final Destination 5 better than the previous two?

[dalmatianjaws]

Dnwilliams what's IIRC?


"Did you get pears? Did you get pears? Did you get pears?"
"We'll discuss it inside."

It's amazing how the show can go from being just alright (didn't like the first few eps of season 4) to utterly brilliant in two seemingly inane lines of dialog. Brilliant.