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Messages - Cartagia

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1
Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?
« on: May 14, 2026, 08:51:19 pm »
Sanctified - Punches well above its weight in both score and cinematography for being such a low budget western. Also a prime example of a faith-based film that doesn't have a terrible (and cloying or saccharine) screenplay.

Dr. Strangelove - Ostensibly a first watch, since all I really remembered from a single viewing 25-30 years ago is Pickens on the bomb and "You can't fight in here! This is the war room!" (Which, to be fair, is one of the greatest lines ever written.)

It's almost impossible to tell that Sellers' three characters are the same actor, but it's George C. Scott that steals the show for me. "He'll see the big board!" is an all-time line reading.

Ripper's rants also sound an awful lot like RFK, Jr. these days.

Tropic Thunder - First revisit since theaters. My opinion is largely unchanged. Lots of people could have played Ben Stiller's role, but only Ben Stiller could have written and directed it. Terrific high-concept comedy with some brilliant performances, but it plays the really over the top stuff just a couple too many times. It's almost on a schedule. Every 15 minutes something so stupid happens it should stop the movie dead, but they've been keeping thing just silly enough so it doesn't feel that out of place.

The Dam Busters - Not exactly a thrilling film, but it is an interesting and engaging one. Similar to Oppenheimer if that movie were only about the development of the bomb. A solid pen and paper thriller until it becomes a sturdy airforce flick.

Obsession - YouTuber to feature horror filmmaker pipeline remains strong. I've been a fan of Curry Barker's comedy skits for a few years at this point, but only recently started to delve into his horror work, and this guy has what it takes. Powerhouse performance from Inde Navarrette that will worm its way under your skin and stay there for days.

Superbad - Holds up! The outdated language gets a pass because of the accuracy, and the movie makes it a point of the climax that their plan is ill-advised, shitty, and, most importantly, doesn't work.

Raymond & Ray - I bet this really cooks as a stage play. As a movie it is kind of flat and not particularly interesting, but the performances are solid across the board.

2
eBay has rejected the offer, calling it "not credible nor attractive."  And most outlets are referring to it as "unsolicited," so unless GameStop really steps it up this ain't happening.

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General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
« on: May 11, 2026, 07:10:57 pm »
Assassin's Creed Mirage is such a tepid entry in the franchise. I think it gets a lot of undue praise for 'getting back to basics.'  It strips away all the RPG elements and shrinks the map to be far more manageable, but that doesnt make up for the flaws.  Bland story, forgettable characters, stiff controls.

4
I'm mostly just amazed that Gamestop has that money. Are they that big in the USA? Here in Germany they attempted to take over but never were able to compete with online shops like okaysoft and the local shops people prefered. It reminded me of the monumental failure of Walmart trying to taking over and losing billions. Gamestop pretty much ceased to exist here last year.
If Ebay gets eaten by them, i don't worry. Here in Germany, kleinanzeigen, which was once part of ebay, is now a separate entity and better anyway.

That was my 1st though, where the heck do they get 56 billion from? I don't think they are doing well here, my city went from maybe 10 gamestops to like 3? All the ones anywhere near me just disappeared last fall. IDK I haven't used ebay since like 2002 or so, so it wouldn't effect me either way.

GameStop is basically the prime example of a company that is doing terrible in the business space but is being propped up investors.  It was pretty much saved from bankruptcy because a bunch of guys on Reddit thought it would be funny to do a run on their stock to drive up the valuation, and it's been precariously balanced on that ever since.

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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?
« on: May 08, 2026, 08:21:33 am »
eXistenZ - Got a lot of that really gnarly Cronenberg-ian imagery and distortion of reality, but there's way too many plot twists in the back half for the narrative to really hit like it could. A lot of great actors here, but none of them at their best.

Silent Running - Love the chunky 1970s futurism, Bruce Dern, and the overall message. It is a bit heavy-handed, though, and while I like the idea of hippie botanist Dern hanging out with 3 robots on an empty spaceship, I don't think it does quite enough to make it fully engaging during those parts.

6
Switch 2 price increases announced last night.  Starting Sept. 1.

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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?
« on: May 03, 2026, 07:04:58 pm »
Extreme Prejudice - Justified by way of cocaine fueled 80s machismo. Great cast, loads of squibs, and just an all around good time.

Zootopia 2 - Rehashes the themes of the first, but with enough of a twist to still feel pretty fresh. The meta jokes almost all made me chuckle, but it does lean on them a little too much. All-in-all a solid Disney sequel.

Iron Angels - Super brutal with tons of squibs, gunfire, torture, and henchmen deaths. The kind of discovery that makes me so happy that a lot of lesser known and forgotten Hong Kong features are getting attention from boutique physical media labels.

Iron Angels 2 - A little lighter on the action, but with a far more coherent story. Also arguably not even a 'girls with guns' film, since it spends a lot of time with the male Angel and his bros.

Bottoms - Liked it even more this time. Love how it juxtaposes pretty drastic realism against complete absurdity.

3:10 to Yuma - Thought it was fine in 07 and thought it was close to great today. Ben Foster is an absolute menace.

Iron Angels 3 - Worst of these by a huge margin. Gunfight choreography is abysmal, plot is non-existent, and Moon isn't even involved in the final action sequence - which also has a laughable hero entrance / reveal.

It's not all bad, though. A badass evil white lady is the main villain, the body count is huge, and there's an incredible kickboxing interlude in the middle of the film that might be the best fight in the whole franchise.

Infernal Affairs - Infernal Affairs vs. The Departed is maybe the prime example of style and execution being the key differentiating factors when comparing an original to the remake. The plot is exactly the same, but the movies couldn't feel more different, and they were only made 4 years apart. I still personally prefer The Departed for how much a focus it puts on developing the personalities of all the characters, but Infernal Affairs is still a perfectly paced breakneck thriller.

8
Invincible Season 4 - I hate that this show keeps on being so enjoyable with its story and characters while having very underwhelming animation.  The quality animation came out so briefly and they've taken so many shortcuts.  Like this show should be so big, but the art is so stiff, so not what it could be.  And it's not even just comparing to high quality anime we get on the regular, but there's western animation that is far above this.  Castlevania was doing crazy stuff and I've seen people bring up stuff from television years ago like the 90's/00's Batman/Superman/Justice League show that had better art and more impactful animation, but a massively high budget show like Invincible in 2026, with it's 8 episodes (Long episodes or not) just can't do it? And the show has degraded in quality, I remember Season 1 being better, but it's like they streamlined things since then and it's just lead to lesser quality, which is just very frustrating.

I still really like this show, I'm looking forward to the couple seasons left, I'm glad it's around, I just wish the animation and art could match up to the rest of the shows quality.

I'm on episode 5, and this is pretty much where I'm at.  I really like the show and the way it handles comic book tropes, but sometimes it feels really flat.

Jury Duty Presents: Company Retreat - Bigger and more outlandish than Jury Duty in a way that makes the first season look quaint and simple.  The whole premise is so much more complicated this time around, which lets them get away with being a bit wilder and more outlandish, but that also kind of makes it feel like subtraction via addition.  Sure there's more, but what made the first season so good was how small and quiet and believable everything was.  Still a terrific series, and I hope to see more.

Season 2 of The Pitt kind of does the reverse.  It's still anxiety inducing and incredible, but there's no huge 'thing' that happens this season to rival the first season, making it feel a more subdued.  Which isn't necessarily a bad thing, it is just a different overall fell.  And when you are the best how on TV by this wide of a margin, you can do that.

Finished Invincible.   Thoughts remain pretty much the same.

Season 3 of Shrinking is the weakest.  Still a superb show, with amazing performances across the board (Harrison Ford doing some of the best work of his career).  This season just felt a bit too much like a traditional sitcom, and kinda dropped the ball with one of the more serious storylines.

Pluribus is super interesting, but I felt like the pilot was the best episode.  It was really cool seeing Vince Gilligan flex the showrunner skills he got from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul for a story that felt like he could have written during his time on The X-Files.

First season of 911: Nashville is absolute trash.  I love it.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters continues to be fine.

Broken Trail is a pretty good basic cable Western mini-series with Robert Duvall.  Close to being great, with almost all the flaws being related to the fact it is a mini-series instead of a movie. Why hire Walter Hill if you aren't going to go all in on the dirty realism? A movie would have given him that freedom. It is incredibly well paced for 3 hours, but there's not quite enough depth to the story to fill out that much runtime. Production value isn't as high as a feature film would be. It's Lonesome Dove-Lite, but thankfully Lonesome Dove is incredible, so that's hardly a bad thing.

Margo's Got Money Troubles is another Apple TV show.  And it is also pretty great.  Killer cast. Funny and heart-wrenching.

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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?
« on: April 24, 2026, 01:56:12 pm »
The Shadow Riders - Very well-crafted for an early 80s made-for-TV joint. Pretty good cast, sturdy L'Amour plot (though nothing special). Music doesn't really fit the production.

The Housemaid - Campy trash but entertaining campy trash.

Strange Darling - Just an absolute showcase of killer performances from Willa Fitzgerald and Kyle Gallner. Really loved the dynamic between them. Looks absolutely phenomenal, with really striking lighting.

Return of the Street Fighter - Fights are good, plot is non-existent, missing some of the brutality that made the first stand out. It's totally fine.

Wicked: For Good - Look, I know the first half wasn't perfect, but I still really like it... what happened? The second half of the play isn't as strong, either, but they really dropped the ball across the board here.

Dead Heat - The overall concept is a lot of fun, and it wants to play everything fast and loose, but the humor is super hit or miss. Might have been better played completely straight.

10
General / Re: 52 Games Challenge 2026!!!
« on: April 18, 2026, 02:19:41 pm »
Still chugging at the series with Mega Man X4.  Looks great, with some really cool boss designs.  Overall it felt much easier than other titles.  Theres a little bit of a difficulty spike at the end, but nothing outlandish.  The first game in the series with voice acting and it is absoultely terrible, which has its own flavor of charm.

11
Got a Switch 2 and the remastered Mario Galaxy set.

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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?
« on: April 13, 2026, 08:52:34 pm »
The Tin Star - Basically an excellent two-hander between Henry Fonda and Anthony Perkins that looks phenomenal. A character stumbles into the camera after a shootout in way that made sit up and say, "Oh that was so cool!"

13
Second season of For All Mankind is great.  Felt like a step up from the first (which I did really like) in pretty much every conceivable way.  Terrific show.

Third season of For All Mankind would be the best so far if not for two storylines that involve the children of characters from seasons 1+2.  They ultimately end up in some very interesting places, but getting there is rough.  Everything it sets up for season 4 is pretty great, but some of the end feels a bit rushed.

And the fourth season of For All Mankind done.  Still pretty great, but they seem to be moving away from the harder speculative sci-fi and more towards a harder focus on the socio-political commentary.  Not necessarily a bad thing, just a shift in the overall focus of the show.

Second season of Paradise starts of really strong, but I really started losing interest and noticing just how melodramatic everything is in the back half.  It wants to move beyond the initial elevator pitch, and I don't know that it is really working for me.  Still an entertaining watch, but not really all that great.

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General / Re: Do you still prefer physical games or digital?
« on: April 04, 2026, 09:20:08 pm »
Picked up a copy of Assassin's Creed Mirage for PS5.

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General / Re: Do you still prefer physical games or digital?
« on: March 31, 2026, 06:29:14 pm »
I'll always support physical, but I'm also a PC gamer and PC has been digital only for many years now, so I do both. I reserve physical to consoles these days, which I have a PS5 and I still have my Switch games even though I don't have a Switch at the moment.

Same here.  Physical for anything console related (unless the price is too good to pass up), but I also love my Steam Deck, and there's no actual option there.

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