What are y'all watching this weekend?

BREAKING BAD!!!

We can agree that Breaking Bad is amazing.

@Takaa and Leaves

Breaking Bad brings people together. It’s truly beautiful.

I haven’t seen it. (yet?)..

However the title reminds me of Breaking Wind…. (sorry, bad word association, I’m sure it’s a very good show and I have to get over my self-amusing word association habits)…

Oh yes, I’m loving this thread. First, there has never been enough scorn heaped on Cage, and this thread is doing its part to make up the deficit.

Second, I read a review today that laid out why I never want to watch Prometheus. So, bad mouth this one to abandon.

And third, this thread plugs 9 Songs. So, yup, it’s a great thread.

Just finished the last five episodes of S4 of Breaking Bad. This show is better than most movies.

Okay, some problems with the script of Prometheus. Spoilers, natch:

- Rapace’s character is the lead, but her arc goes nowhere. Furthermore, she’s an anthropologist, but at times the script has her acting like a surgeon and a physicist.

- The Captain and his pilots—they all agree happily to sacrifice themselves at the end with no discussion, and nothing happening in the film prior to give them any motivation whatsoever. Very cartoonish.

- David—after an interesting introduction he’s given little to do and what he does, his actions are given little motivation by the script.

- The two guys who die first—the Scot is the most cliched character in the film, which is saying a lot, and the biologist is a freaking idiot—first he abandons the rest of the team because he’s scared (when nothing has really happened), then he inexplicably tries to pet the tentacle alien as if he has no fear in the world. This is lazy.

- All of the hologram stuff on the derelict spaceship—what the hell was that? Never explained. It’s horrible exposition.

- Theron’s character—she fucks the Captain. What exactly does this do for the story? Setting aside that her character is completely one-note (as are they all), why is this in there? Stupid.

- The third act—rather than offering anything close to an interesting payoff to the mystery the film sets up (who are the Space Jockeys and why, after creating Mankind, are they attempting to destroy it?), the film becomes a lame chase fest, culminating in a bad CGI monster ending that is tantamount to fan wank.

- Why did David poison Rapace’s husband and what exactly was happening to him? Not even close to being explained.

- The themes—Faith: this is mentioned but it goes nowhere. The only mention of the fact that the Christian origin story has been debunked is a throwaway line. Prometheus myth: The way the film ends this doesn’t even really apply. Dumb.

- Rapace’s abortion—actually, this was the only scene that I liked, but shortly afterward she’s running and jumping around like an action hero, and no one who’s recently had an emergency C-section could attempt this at all.

- The aliens: There are three different types in the film (four if you count the final Xenomorph) and there is no explanation for why they are different. Lame.

- Weyland —Not script related, but my god, that was some bad makeup. Why didn’t they just hire an older actor?

I really wanted to like this film, and I’m about to rewatch Alien, but the script was one of the worst I’ve seen out of a major Hollywood tentpole film since the rumored fourth Indy film (I still don’t believe it was ever made).

Yes, House, that’s the way to do it. So the only thing we are missing here is the argument for how the total suckiness of Prometheus somehow makes Alien even more awesome.

Additional thought from another site that I agree with:

“I’m all for mystery and subtlety, but failing to establish any kind of narrative logic is mistaking lazy and pretentious for cool and mysterious. It’s sort of hinted that the vases start leaking because the presence of humans has disrupted the atmosphere in the ‘head room’, but the vases in the cargo hold don’t leak. The black goo at the very beginning clearly contains Engineer DNA, as ours ends up matching theirs, and the goo that David spikes Holloway’s drink with seems to be doing the same, as he seems to be turning into an Engineer, although it’s never made clear, and that doesn’t make any sense with the squid baby he impregnates Shaw with. But then the goo in the ‘head room’ makes the giant arm-breaking worms (presumably from the normal worms we see before that?) and turns Fifield into a deranged monster (unless he’s turning into an Engineer too?) and just keeps leaking, without explanation. Then Elba just announces that this is a weapons research facility, and David tells us that they’re going to destroy life on earth for no reason, just as the final Engineer tries to kill everyone for no reason. And there’s a mural of an Alien on the wall of the ‘head room’ even though the final shot seems to imply that we’re several steps of evolution away from the xenomorph we know and love. There is so much else that makes no sense or outright defies logic, but my head’s starting to hurt so I’ll stop, other than to say if there’s a bigger disappointment this year I’ll be surprised. Not a worse film, because there’ll no doubt be many of them, but a bigger waste of talent, budget and setting.”

—Will Hill

@House of Leaves
My thoughts, on your thoughts, if I may.

“- Weyland —Not script related, but my god, that was some bad makeup. Why didn’t they just hire an older actor?”

Would you have liked Gary Busey as Weyland? I really liked his character, study the shame on his face when Theron touches his hand.

“- Theron’s character—she fucks the Captain. What exactly does this do for the story? Setting aside that her character is completely one-note (as are they all), why is this in there? Stupid.”

Come on, everyone deserves some X Mas sex, especially Idris Elba.

“- The themes—Faith: this is mentioned but it goes nowhere. The only mention of the fact that the Christian origin story has been debunked is a throwaway line. Prometheus myth: The way the film ends this doesn’t even really apply. Dumb.”

If you ask me, no filmmaker is in any position to raise questions about faith and religion and give answers. I like how Scott didn’t answer any of the questions he raised.

“- The third act—rather than offering anything close to an interesting payoff to the mystery the film sets up (who are the Space Jockeys and why, after creating Mankind, are they attempting to destroy it?), the film becomes a lame chase fest, culminating in a bad CGI monster ending that is tantamount to fan wank.”

That was the only part that gave Alien fans a handy. The rest of the film avoided that, which I liked. I can’t argue with any of your points here, but I loved all that chase and chaotic shit.

“- Rapace’s abortion—actually, this was the only scene that I liked, but shortly afterward she’s running and jumping around like an action hero, and no one who’s recently had an emergency C-section could attempt this at all.”

Yes, lol, completely implausible, but I let it go. But when she does give herself the C Section I was terrified she wouldn’t make it. I wasn’t frightened because it was messed up, but because I wanted her to live.

“- The two guys who die first—the Scot is the most cliched character in the film, which is saying a lot, and the biologist is a freaking idiot—first he abandons the rest of the team because he’s scared (when nothing has really happened), then he inexplicably tries to pet the tentacle alien as if he has no fear in the world. This is lazy.”

Not sure I can defend the Scot or Pearce’s character, but I thought it lead up to the most satisfying kill I’ve seen in ages.

“- Why did David poison Rapace’s husband and what exactly was happening to him? Not even close to being explained.”

David felt no anger towards Rapace’s husband, he just wanted to see what the poison would do. In the beginning of the film, when the Titan drank a larger amount of the same poison (I think) he fell apart almost immediately. The smaller dose caused her husband to fall apart slowly.

“- All of the hologram stuff on the derelict spaceship—what the hell was that? Never explained. It’s horrible exposition.”

Cheese, yeah, but I found it creepy how David was watching it constantly.

“- The Captain and his pilots—they all agree happily to sacrifice themselves at the end with no discussion, and nothing happening in the film prior to give them any motivation whatsoever. Very cartoonish.”

I’m with you on this. In the theater, I kept thinking “what the fuck is this?”, but it lead up to one of the best explosions I’ve ever seen in a movie. I think this is a genuine fault of the film’s, but if the world was going to be destroyed I probably would have done the same.

And I’m glad you’re liking Breaking Bad. That show is better than half the movies I’ve watched.

Hopefully seeing Todd Solondz’s “Dark Horse” and Lynn Shelton’s “Your Sister’s Sister” tomorrow

And then Saturday I’m going to BAMcinemaFEST 2012 for Ry Russo-Young’s “Nobody Walks” starring John Krasinski, Olivia Thirlby and India Ennenga and Rick Alverson’s “The Comedy” starring Tim Heidecker, Kate Lyn Sheil and LCD Soundsystem frontman James Murphy

Sunday I’m going to see “Crazy and Thief”, the new film by Cory McAbee!

I hope to watch L’Homme blesse over the weekend, and tonight I am going to see ‘A Royal Affair’.

It’s between Certified Copy, RotPot Apes, My Week With Marilyn, Tinker TSS, finishing Vertigo for the umpteenth time, finishing The Ladykillers (original), The Captain’s Paradise, or choosing from a ton of things from my Netflix Instant queue that I will probably never watch.

This weekend is a big one for me. I plan to see Moonrise Kingdom and Beasts of the Southern Wild all in one day, but not before watching Safety Not Guaranteed at some point before this weekend. A handful of movies will be in between, but I haven’t figured out those yet…

Thanks for the bump, Dude.

Plans for the week: The Ascent, something from the Eclipse series, A Tout de Suite.

Plans for the weekend: The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp, something at the theater, and an Alice Guy-Blanche short.

Seeing Yellow Submarine at art theater

may rewatch To Rome With Love (if able)

Seein Once Upon a Time in Anatolia finally, in a cinema. Then might finally watch Chungking Express, or start my Wes Anderson odyssey with Bottle Rocket.

Rewatching Mouchette within the next couple days, then either Tomorrow We Move or La Captive for the weekend [most likely.]

Breaking the Waves, Deconstructing Harry, and Downton Abbey.

Noite Vazia, Days of Heaven, This is england 88, and The Amazing Spider-Man (if MUBI’s wall convince me)