Billiards in Movies / TV

December 20, 2017 9:00 PM

This blog reviews billiards in all aspects on movies and tv, with lots of historical info as a bonus.
posted by MovableBookLady (15 comments total)

...oh, and that's a bad miss.

Time was, of course, you wouldn't even consider making a Metafilter post until you were at least half drunk, and I like to think that the sport has lost a little something for the... well, they call it "attention to detail", don't they, that the current generation seems to favor. I remember a time when it didn't matter how you spelled a word, because anybody reading the post would have had at least six or seven drinks to soften them up before even so much as thinking about the game. You were lucky, really, if anybody could read, by the time they were writing a post, in the bar, on the back of so many cocktail napkins.

But MovableBookLady has made a lovely find, here, a blog that has inspired me to actually take an interest in the depiction of billiard sports in media that goes beyond having consumed entirely too many Mitchell and Webb snooker commentary sketches. Cheers!
posted by Sequence at 10:36 PM on December 20, 2017 [7 favorites]

This is like a dream blog. Some people talk about starting a blog about [insert solitary interest], and some people actually do it. I do like the historical aspect, but the most peeviest thing I have about filmed billiards is how bridges are allowed to be depicted, and I wish this came up. I know it's like expecting Geoffrey Rush to hit all the notes as Glenn Gould, but still. Visual pollution.
posted by rhizome at 11:53 PM on December 20, 2017

Actually, I don't see any instances of the game billiards on there. It's all about snooker, AKA pool. Sometimes known as pocket billiards. I don't know if billiards has had much of a presence in films. Maybe a Bond movie?
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:02 AM on December 21, 2017

"..snooker, AKA pool"

Um.. snooker has ten red and six different coloured balls; pool (with numbered balls) is AKA 8-ball in the States and billiards is played with only 3 balls. There seems to be some free interplay of the names of these games by the blog authors.
posted by peacay at 4:18 AM on December 21, 2017 [2 favorites]

Went to ensure they had reviewed the best "pool-themed" TV episode evar, and was left happy.
posted by jkaczor at 6:25 AM on December 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

Terminology aside It seems pretty comprehensive (ie all the things I could think of are there) and the couple of reviews I read were pretty good too.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 6:40 AM on December 21, 2017

This is, as we used to say on the internet, what the internet is for. Great find.
posted by cortex at 7:30 AM on December 21, 2017

How does it have a Small Wonder episode and not the first season episode of Frasier where Daphne is a pool shark?

(Yes I did just rewatch Frasier because of that MeFi post a few weeks ago, how did you know?)

And now I want to watch that Community ep again for Jeff in his chones.
posted by elsietheeel at 7:40 AM on December 21, 2017

...and not the first season episode of Frasier where Daphne is a pool shark?

Just a matter of time, one hopes, but for now we can be thankful for Frasier-centric blogs filling in the gap.
posted by cortex at 7:57 AM on December 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

The joke is somewhat lost when they remove the original post about there being a minor misspelling in the link text. (Which I was really not peevish about or anything, just, you know, it was amusing.) I seriously was delighted to find that there is apparently at least one anime OVA on the list. Because apparently what I need is to spend Christmas weekend trying to track down something called Death Billiards.
posted by Sequence at 9:05 AM on December 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

I was not amused at making that typo; I blame it on my bifocals. I appreciate some mod fixing it for me. Anyhoo, I've been a pool player since my teen years, and have a treasured signed stick, and met Willie Mosconi once. My favorite pool movie is The Baltimore Bullet with James Coburn, mostly because James Coburn. Glad y'all liked this.
posted by MovableBookLady at 12:29 PM on December 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

I'd def recommend The Rack Pack telling the true story of the rivalry between Hurricane Higgins and Steve Davis. It's still on the BBC's Iplayer... think I'll rewatch it again sometime over Christmas.
posted by fearfulsymmetry at 12:52 PM on December 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

Um.. snooker has ten red and six different coloured balls; pool (with numbered balls) is AKA 8-ball in the States and billiards is played with only 3 balls. There seems to be some free interplay of the names of these games by the blog authors.
15 Reds and 6 colours plus the cue ball.
If you are going to coreect somebody, do it correctly???
posted by Burn_IT at 1:52 PM on December 21, 2017

Burn_IT, you are coreect - it's 15 reds in snooker. Thank you for coreecting me. It's only through the kind and gentle benevolence of fellow mefite coreecters that I can improve my ignorance and progress to share more coreect comments every time.
posted by peacay at 7:08 PM on December 21, 2017 [1 favorite]

My ignorance is also improved.

MetaFilter: Better ignorance through commenting
posted by Kirth Gerson at 5:39 AM on December 22, 2017 [1 favorite]