paintings by hitler

I don't want to limit this to just movies but I didn't want to make a whole topic for it either so this goes for movies and TV (although TV might be harder to find)--can you guys recommend me some old sci-fi stuff?  I'm talking preferably black and white, maybe some early color but roughly around the 50s (doesn't have to be but that is the kind of thing I'm going for).  I'm not sure if I want something as far back as say the 30s but it depends on if it's REALLY GOOD I suppose.  I am planning on watching Forbidden Planet sometime soon, but other than that I don't really know many other similar films so I need help.  For quite a while now I've wanted to watch Buck Rogers but I can't find it anywhere and it's probably not available, but basically that's the sort of thing I want.  I am just hella interested in sci-fi from pre-real space exploration times.  The more laser guns the better.

don't know if this is of significance to most people though, as most people aren't going to watch f for fake and FURIOUSLY MASTURBATE like i unashamedly do.

I'm glad you talked about this movie a while back because I saw it on netflix yesterday and watched it.  It was such a FILM'S film that I'm surprised that I had to hear about it on Salt World and not from, you know, one of my professors.  But it was incredible.  Probably more worthwhile for film makers/students/theorists/whatever than for anybody else, although that's not to say that nobody else could appreciate it.   

Watching Wicker Man. The only thing scary about this movie is Cage's acting.

eeeeeeeeeeeexcatlyyy!!

I am just hella interested in sci-fi from pre-real space exploration times.

I don't know any but on this note I am sorely tempted to start watching old eps of the original Star Trek series. I watched part of one on youtube recently and not only was there a fantastic title sequence (complete with insane telstar-ish theme tune!), the colours were great and gaudy and the spaceship sections were soundtracked by humming electonic noises and boowoop-boowoop-boowoop sounds. The plot of the episode I picked seemed to revolve around a mysterious voice shouting "I AM ZARGON" (actual quote) which made everyone shoot meaningful looks at one another. I feel like deliberately watching the show would be crossing a line of some kind and also giving into kitsch nostalgia etc but maaaan. Also wasn't the original point that the federation were basically utopian space communists or something. There is definitely a sense of crazed excitement and optimism that I liked about it I think! to seek out strange new forms...

I used to watch the original Star Trek when it was on TV Land.  It was interesting and I love the uh AGE of the video quality??? That is a weird thing to say but like you said the colors were great and gaudy and I think that is the same sort of thing I mean.  The only episode I distinctly remember is the one with a whole planet of nazis but idk it was enjoyable but a little forgettable?  That's probably just me though.

I watched The Fighter and I liked it a lot. I liked that they didn't focus completley on the underdog aspect like a lot of boxing movies and focused more on the family issues of Mark Wahlberg. Christian Bale was also pretty damn good which is refreshing after seeing him in kind of uninspired roles lately (like Batman and Terminator 4.)

Yeah, Star Trek would probably be kind of tedious to actually watch except in passing :/ i'm glad that i wasn't the only person who loved the video quality more than the show itself though!
 
Speaking of video quality I just watched the first two episodes of Mad Men and found them uh pretty unsettling I guess?? I was admittedly sorta prepared to dislike any sense of luxuriating in 60s nostalgia (goes back to watching original star trek yes) or vicariously-experienced Alpha Male garbage but what really threw me was what the show way supposedly 'really' about, in terms of all that stuff about alienation, dissatisfaction with "having it all", american dream, cold war nuclear paranoia etc. Because I think the real nostalgia was in the way it handled these concepts, the way it seemed to be aesthetically enjoying the existential malaise stuff on pretty much the same level as it did the cigarette smoke and suits etc. Like it was nostalgic over an image of 60s alienation which involved a lot of brooding and looking at the ceiling while ruminatively lighting cigarette etc. I kept thinking wait why is this being made today? I don't think it's really because of immediate relevance in terms of power of media and so on so much as a kind of fantasy of discontent, like nostalgically remembering how heartbroken you were when whatshisname broke up with you in high school. I don't know how to put it really but it's like there was some stuff about THE BOMB and uh I don't think it was meant to speak to anything going on today as to let us buy into a kind of time-honoured ""iconic"" form of angst and discontent. I dunno. I'm not writing it completely but this all seemed very jarring to me!

coincidentally i just started re-watching mad men because there isn't anything new on tv i want to see right now. i've watched the first 3 episodes and some of the writing is a lot clunkier than I remember but the show has a kind of neutral stance to a lot of what it presents and I haven't figured out for sure exactly what it's trying to say if anything. I think Mad Men is a pretty good show, although the fourth season was really shaky sometimes, and again with the audience stuff: it's tempting, but don't write it off because a bunch of pigheaded business students watch it to copy the way don draper drinks his whiskey. there's no denying the show loves the nostalgia/aesthetics of the period but it hates it just as much. since it leaves a lot unsaid there's more room than most shows to see what you want to see. i don't mean that in a good or bad way.

Watching Wicker Man. The only thing scary about this movie is Cage's acting.

Yeah I just watched it last night. I'm convinced that Cage = Keanu. Seriously.  The movie had me interested midway through, but then I figured out its twist ending and overall it felt maddening to have so many elements that were pointless. I'm actually wondering whether the version I watched was cut or something because Leelee Sobieski's character showed up only twice for a total of less than 3 minutes of footage, and I went to IMDB to see what people were saying about it and there was apparently a whole plot point of Cage's character being a virgin... which wasn't made clear in the film I watched.

EDIT: OH!! Apparently there's an earlier version of the film.. That explains it. It must be a whole lot better than the terrible film I watched.

watched the room

i think i am suffering a cerebral hemorrhage

wait did you guys actually like paranormal activity 2 or are you joking

I feel like I only come in here to put down other people's taste in movies

The last film I watched was "Videodrome" and it was pretty fucking great / definitely the best film I've seen in a while. There's a kind of nervy energy that comes from abandoning all recieved opinion about the character-driven ~proper drama~ which films are apparantly supposed to concentrate on (will james woods overcome his insecurities in time for the third act finale??? will dr. o'blivion ever walk again??) in favour of an actual engagement with ideas that still manages to avoid pretentious reflective cliches of long takes of people staring into horizon etc. Here all the ideas are expressed in terms of ridiculously pulpy and disreputable scifi and it rules. The film of ideas!! thomas mann fingers lip piercing approvingly before grinding down entire side of the magic mountain etc. The second half isn't as good since it sorta turns into a more generic thriller thing but it's still the only film I've seen that talks about media without being incredibly stupid or smug so there's that too.