Before this thread, I would have thought absolutely everyone knew that. So yeah, not a dumb poll.

Hell, I've had people come to the astronomy center I used to work at from the village nearby, telling us they had witnessed UFOs. Turned out it was the french Air Force practising for Bastille Day's parade. Can't imagine what a rocket launch would do to these people.

Things are apparently okay so far:

Matthew's eye wall passed Cape Canaveral a bit more offshore than expected, which considerably lessened damage concerns.

Holy altitude, Batman!

Didn't know Britain was allowed to have such lovely weather.

Wow, I'd completely forgotten this thread even existed.

I spent two weeks in the Alps this summer, hiking and taking pictures along the way. Here's a first work, more should come.

Vapes: from the trailers and overall advertisement, I wouldn't have paid one cent for this Ben-Hur remake. Guess the blockbuster world still has some tricks up its sleeves?

--

I've been using this at-folks'-home-not-doing-a-darn-thing week to catch up on my infinite list of films I need to see.

Bronson

Wow. Lighter on the artsy side of things than later Refn's work, it gives all the room in the world for Tom Hardy to show us the absolute madness of Britain's most notorious prisoner. The film doesn't comment, it just shows, and lets you decide for yourself what to think of Charlie Bronson. Myself? I'm not sure. Hell, I haven't got a clue. But this film is great. The constant contrast between the lightness in music and style (with frequent cuts to a theatrical setting inside Bronson's mind where he addresses an imaginary audience, often disguised in ways that would outshine even Peter Gabriel during his Genesis era) and the unfathomable violence of the character had me laugh at times, and uneasy at others. A bit of both most of the time.

--

Groundhog Day

Lovely. Instant Christmas movie that surprised me by going into darker territories at times.

--

Escape from New York

Great atmosphere, but in the end, I found the whole thing a bit boring. Don't get me wrong, I can enjoy films where nothing much seems to go on, but it didn't work with this one for me. I think I expected something different, something along the same lines as Big Trouble in Little China. But this one is more serious - not a bad thing in itself, but although Kurt Russell's Snake Plissken is badass, he felt underused to me, and the movie just doesn't give me enough.

--

Galaxy Quest

Such fun times. A scifi spoof with clever undertones that has a very effective humour and great cast chemistry. There's a bitter Alan Rickman, a too charismatic to be true Tim Allen, a Sigourney Weaver who desperately tries to find an use for herself other than the boobtastic female co-star, a Tony Shalhoub just happy for whatever's going on, a cowardly Sam Rockwell great as a channel for space opera trope reversals. It helped me get over H2G2's failure as a movie.

--

Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb

Yeah, I'm that late on classics. Kubrick's dark satire on the nuclear balance of terror is a continuous display of incredible performances (with a special shout-out to Peter Sellers doing three different main characters) shot with masterful cinematography. The writing makes you laugh out loud at times, but leaves you uncomfortable; after all, most of the film is only a slight exaggeration of the reality. It especially resonated with me as I'm currently reading works from Hubert Reeves, a Canadian astrophysicist who between explanations on how the universe was formed reminds us of the incredible dangers of annihilation mankind has gone through and still is today.

--

Top Gun

I put off watching this one for a long time because I was expecting an overly cheesy pro-military fuck-yeah-America flick. It fared better than this, although never straying far from it. Despite not being Aaron Sorkinesque, the dialogues do their job as well as the actors.
What hurts the movie the most, to me, is the music. Sure, the 80s distorted guitar solos are cool and give the movie nostalgia features, but the more serious scenes get their vibes completely destroyed by the darker side of 80s music filled with chorus-and-reverb-cranked-to-110% guitar chords. The camaraderie between Cruise's Maverick and Edwards' Goose is transformed into homoerotic awkwardness, and the romantic scenes feel much cheesier than they ought to.
Still, fantastically shot aerial combats. Inside of these 80s Navy fun times, there's actually an interesting arc for Tom Cruise's character that managed to keep me involved.

Wikipedia may have the answer you're looking for:

Inside Llewyn Davis doesn't do that, because it's singers singing in their real world. I haven't seen O Brother, Where Art Thou? yet, but from what I've seen I'd say it does a bit of both, so it's somewhere in between. Moulin Rouge! has a setting that justifies music, yet it's definitely a musical.

I disagree. Playing in a car or bus is pretty much normal for a musician, whether he's practicing or using the atmosphere of the moment. When he plays for his dad, he's trying to communciate with him. He's not playing for the viewer (as if he were aware of their existence). He's doing stuff that makes sense in the real world.

I'd say this awareness of a viewer that's not a part of their world is what draws the line between a musical and a film that contains music.

Hope this brings you some answers.

The "class" you're referring to being 3 guys only, other films are coming

Xavier Delorme, aka the #1 french stormchaser, just released a series of slow-mo captures of lightning (7000fps with a Phantom camera). It perfectly shows the whole process of a lightning strike.

I'm gonna need a "Goddammit, Writhyn" reaction picture.