Also, keep in mind, Transformers 4 is likely to open to over 100 million DOMESTIC this weekend (and probably 300 international), despite 3 prior movies that are widely considered to be terrible. Star Wars will have no trouble breaking a billion.

Ya, frankly I think this stuff is insidious garbage polluting pop-culture. I hate their philosophy, I hate this approach to poking at movies, I hate that they're extremely popular to the point that people take them seriously (and they do, I've met many people who point to these videos as some kind of legitimate criticism).

Even beyond that, it's blatant click-bait bullshit, taking the most popular thing of the moment and making a dumb youtube video about it that contributes nothing of value, except that it generates millions of clicks and thousands in ad revenue. It's beyond cynical.

I guess I'm the opposite of Dorkman, I want to see filmmakers bringing their vision and technique to the party, I want stylization, I want personality. Just because more recently, people like Zac Snyder who have no idea how to use slow-motion properly have driven it into the ground, doesn't mean it's a bad or ugly technique inherently (just like any other technique, they're just tools to tell a story and build emotional engagement).

There's a reason Neil Marshal's 2 episodes feel like they have a pulse and energy to them, and it's not just because they happen to be battle episodes. He understands how to move the camera to build moments, and he also seems to be one of the only directors on the show who can film a sword-fight coherently.

I dunno, I love the show and I get why they've chosen this matter-of-fact stylistic approach (easier on the budget, try to ground the fantasy elements), but on the other hand, I can't help but wish I could see a guy like De Palma tackle the Red Wedding and dramatize the shit out of it.

Again, I'm more critical of it on this point than I'd normally be because True Detective and Fargo have raised the bar for TV direction in my opinion.

Perhaps as their budgets continue to increase they'll be freer to take more chances and be more dynamic with it going forward. The closing shot this season was certainly fantastic.

Ya it's their most watched show of all time domestically, and that's not even getting into the fact that it's INCREDIBLY popular overseas and brings in lots of money that way.

There's no way this thing gets less than 7 seasons at a minimum.

The real fun part is that starting next season we're really into uncharted territory for many of the storylines, so book-readers finally get to just enjoy watching the show and being surprised.

Still think they dropped the ball by having the Stannis arrival in this episode instead of episode 9. I always pictured it as a "Gandalf saves Helms Deep in the last inning" moment. The way it ends up playing out in this finale, it's almost a non-event, instead of the "fuck yeah Stannis" moment it should be.

Rest of the episode was great though. I haven't seen a classic 60s-style stop-motion-looking skeleton fight like that since Army of Darkness.

Prisoners was a movie that ultimately kinda pissed me off. It's well directed, well acted, the cinematography is amazing, but it also feels incredibly calculated, hollow, and shallow. I think there's HUGE leaps of logic throughout that they use to try to give you a surprising ending. It also feels pointless, like I don't really detect much of a central theme or opinion or anything. It's like it wants to pretend it's an epic David Fincher-style crime movie like Seven or Zodiac (especially given it's almost 3 hours long), but it's just going through the motions and doesn't actually have a point of view or solid story to tell.

Very easy:
Charles Bronson - Mr Majestyk, Once Upon a Time in the West, Red Sun, The Mechanic, Violent City, Hard Times, Death Wish

The man is a legend with far too many to list, and never phoned in a performance, even when Cannon films started putting him in terrible movies in the late 80s.

First Class is like half of a fantastic movie, and then half of a lame teen movie. Any time it's Magneto or Xavier doing stuff, it's fantastic, but then all the side-mutants it introduces really suck, and Jennifer Lawrence is AWFUL. I think she's a terrible Mystique, and the writing of the character does her no favors.

Still, you get great moments like Magneto lifting the submarine. Probably my favorite beat from any of these movies.

I think the real version will be amazing though, I was really digging how it sounded on your making of materials

I think you should commit and only post on the forums in pen from now on.

Also, this would never work for me, as I have the penmanship of a kindergartner (seriously, my driver's license signature looks like a 5 year old drew it)

Teague, did Eternal Sunshine work for you? Wondering as Her covers a lot of the same territory (in a superior and more interesting way in my opinion)