Birds of Prey (and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn)

[Drunk Monk]

That was fantabulous fun. Sure, sure, dm has a major crush on Margot and favors DC over the MCU because DC is just more iconic and because dm was raised on Adam West (really it's just to oppose our DOOMCU fanboy Greg). But DC is doing something novel with this and Joker - getting solid actors behind the roles.  It's not as groundbreaking in terms of drama as Joker, not worthy of an Oscar nom, but it does cover some new ground.  It's humorous, akin to Deadpool without excessive self-referential breaking-the-4th-wall jokes (there are some). I giggled several times. It's got a style and a rhythm, decent pacing, and a lot of womance, especially by the end.

 Margot delivers.  She vamps it up to the max but still manages to display her serious acting chops.  The color schemes are eye-popping, reminiscent of those campy West Batmans, just missing the biff! boff! bam! starbursts (I truly think that might have added to this). The soundtrack is female-strong - Heart, Jett, Benatar, plus the new rising divas of Sofi Tukker and K.Flay.  It's a creation story, but Harley is established and the rest coattail on her madness (which is NOT Stockholm syndrome - that's when kidnapped fall for their kidnappers like Theon Greyjoy succumbing to Ramsay Snow in GoT - what Harley suffers from is Folie Deux which is more like Sancho Panza believing Don Quixote's schizo vision).  It's R because of the F bombs, which are plentiful, but the ultravi isn't too graphic.  The fight choreo is satisfactory and fun in that Harley making mayhem way - I was particularly taken by the bat battle in the evidence room which goes off the rails in more ways than one.  The finale fight in the funhouse is ... fantabulous. No sword fights but Harley is another hammer girl. DOOM recommended.  

Note to self - wushu sledgehammer

[Drunk Monk]

Also worthy of note - they gave us little Harley hammer pins at the screener.  That doesn't happen often.  It's cute and I'll probably send it to Tara as she was a fan of Harley, so much so we went as two of the Suicide Squad for BOO! that year (http://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFor...9#pid24029)

[Greg]

DM drank deep of the DC Kool-Aid and got that glowing review all for the price of a piece gimcrack.

Boy, was this dumb. Kidder's weird accent grated after awhile. Her whole persona was a mess. Yes, it was bright and colorful. The Queen started to say Biff and Boom during the fight scenes because they weren't up on the screen. 

It seemed a lot like they had big set pieces they needed to tie together with crappy story scenes. And it may be just me but Gotham sure seemed liked Los Angeles in this one. Especially the chase scenes down Santee Alley and the fruit/produce district.

So, you're a super bad-ass villain and you break into the precinct with a really cool gun that has to be reloaded after every shot and you have a bandolier that shows you only have seven shots. But the cops never think to pull out their own guns or even just wait until she is out of ammunition which they can clearly see by the bandolier. The Queen asked why you would need to do a cartwheel to kick somebody in the head.

So, you just kicked ass against a dozen bad ass villains, all big and brawny. But when you go up against Rosie Perez, it's just a cat fight of hair pulling that goes on forever because HQ can't really put Rosie away.

So, your an army of bad guys going into the fun house to take down the Birds of Prey and none of you think to bring a few guns? You did remember to put on the cool masks and you brought clubs, but not a single gun for the entire battle.

But Greg it's just a cartoon movie hearkening back to our beloved Batman TV show.  It's an homage to that. Except for all graphic violence and blood letting. They do cut people's faces off, right?

[Dr. Ivor Yeti]

I really enjoyed this movie. Stylish and funny. Girls night out, but with ultra-vi. Really, what’s not to like?

[Drunk Monk]

It's a comic book movie.  Comic book movies are dumb.  What's not to love?  

Such an MCU fanboy hatin on all things DCEU. You just miss Capt. America ass. 

I'm with tQ - if they added the biff baff boom starbursts, I would've luved this even more. 

I can hardly wait for the next Harley flick.

[Greg]

Season 3

[Drunk Monk]

Tara keeps telling me I should tune into this series. She says it’s hysterical. I do love the DC animated stuff.

[Greg]

Lots of good buzz about animated HQ.

[Greg]

I watched the Valentine episode of Season 4 of the animated Harley Quinn TV show mostly to see what all the fuss was about. The fuss was warranted. I don't know when was the last time I saw a show that raunchy. (Do we still use raunchy) So much animated sex in this show. If all the nudity wasn't so tastefully hidden, this show might have received an x-rating. So much sexy time. The plot is Poison Ivy releases so many pheromones into the air the whole town goes on an extended orgy especially Bane who swells up to Kaiju size.

It was kind of fun. There were some funny bits. I probably won't be back until the next big extravaganza that makes into the general consciousness.

You can find it on HBO Max. No, I"m not moving this thread.

[Greg]

I forgot to add. One of the best things about the episodes was Brett Goldstein playing himself. He was doing a public performance of reading Byron while stroking his hairy chest. You might know Bret as Roy-Fucking-Kent from Ted Lasso.