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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: Today at 08:56:22 pm »

Predators - A concept this good shouldn't be this boring, and the twist just doesn't really work.  It's not awful, but the script is poor, and the action is pretty anemic.

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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: July 23, 2024, 09:09:22 pm »

Rocketman - It gets big props for the fun and flamboyant musical sequences and Taron Edgerton's performance is killer, but aside from those two things it is still just another musical biopic.  A kind of flatly directed one at that.

Critters - It's not like poorly made or anything, but the script isn't all that good and it doesn't lean into the right aspects of its concept.  It's got its charms and does a lot with what few resources they had.

Before Sunrise - This a wonderful watch, but I can't help but feel that it's a tad overwritten - almost like a stage play.  Hawke doesn't seem 100% at home in his skin, here.  He's not bad by any stretch of the imagination, but there are moments where his youth and inexperience shine through.  Delpy is flawless, though.

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Off Topic / Re: What TV/Netflix show are you currently watching? (Megathread)

« on: July 20, 2024, 04:10:05 pm »

I Love That For You - A single season series from Vanessa Bayer on Showtime.  I really like cast, and there are some great jokes and bits, but it leans a bit too much into cringe comedy for me.  The editing is also kind of weirdly bad for a big-ish show like this.  Molly Shannon and Jennifer Lewis are great on it, though.

Under the Banner of Heaven - Starts really strong, but quickly gets repetitive and struggles with pacing.  This should not have been told as flashbacks during the investigation but instead as a slow revelation of how messed up things got.  By leading off with crime it just becomes a series of "Yeah, I get it they were bad," because you know the ending.

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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: July 17, 2024, 09:29:06 pm »

White Sands - It's got a killer cast and the vibes are pretty decent, but this just a flat, uneventful, not at all tense crime caper.

Bad Boys: Ride or Die - It's definitely fun, but it leans to much into the the silly Marcus stuff when it should have done more with the themes of redemption and family / legacy.  It's got a cool visual style, and the action is kinetic, even if the choreography is kinda meh.

Kung Fu Killer - The concept is strong and the action sequences are all very good, but the script is dumb as hell and it looks incredibly cheap.

Poseidon - Terrible script with absolutely no real characters, just meat to feed the grinder.  It is however, mean as hell for a PG-13 movie, has some killer setpieces, and is a breezy 90ish minutes.

Twisters - Sorry, I just cannot jive how catastrophically stupid this script is with how over melodramatic and deadly seriously it takes everything.  Sure, Glen is great and the setpieces are fine, but I spent more time laughing at it than with it.

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General / Re: July 2024 - Recently Added to Collection/Recently Purchased New

« on: July 17, 2024, 09:26:43 am »

Groupon of all places was having a deal on Switch games so I picked up

Super Mario Bros. Wonder
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door

Also, I got a set of Donkey Konga bongos at a yard sale.

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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: July 13, 2024, 09:12:19 pm »

Ninja III: The Domination - A new 80s camp favorite.  This movie hates cops and knows how to milk a shoestring budget. I wish it was bit more explicitly violent, and the lead actress's performance was a little more lively it'd be flat out great.

The Beekeeper - I can't tell how self-aware this is, but that's why it's actually so good.

Passenger 57 - Very sturdy low budget actioner anchored by a very game Wesley Snipes. Fun quips, ok action, killer pacing. Worth checking out.

Longlegs - I didn't really connect with this beyond one or two sequences.  I'm glad it seems to be working for people, but I found it almost devoid of atmosphere and tension.  Lambs or Zodiac it is not.

Twister - Fun disaster movie effects, and the pace moves at a clip.  Can't ask for much more than that.

The Fugitive - One of the most rewatchable movies of all time.

Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 1 - There's a lot to love here, but it has maybe one too many story threads going and the writing stumbles in a couple of places and those things keep it in the pretty good range, instead of the really great range.  I'm definitely game for the next chapter.

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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: July 06, 2024, 03:51:19 pm »

Grumpier Old Men - A comedy sequel up and down. Rehashed jokes, rehashed plots, a new character, regression of character development.  Not quite as good as the previous.

Singin' in the Rain - I don't think I've seen this in over 20 years.  I loved it back then, and I still love it today.  Funnier and more self-aware than I remembered.  Just a magnificent picture.

Maxxxine - This was amping up to be my favorite of the trilogy (flaws and all), but it comes dangerously close to falling apart completely in the last act.

Volcano - I watched this a bunch in the late 90s... well the first half, anyway.  It's big loud, cheesy, and kinda fun. The biggest problem is that it peaks way too early. Stick that John Carroll Lynch scene 20-30 minutes later and this is better movie for it.

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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: July 01, 2024, 08:36:43 am »

I feel strongly that A Quiet Place didn't need a sequel, especially considering it was written as such. The debut entry is good, but the sequel entry was far from it, in my opinion. I'm sure at some point I'll get around to watching A Quiet Place: Day One, but I wouldn't even consider it to be on my watch list backlog.

I agree, it didn't need a sequel whatsoever, but the sequel they did make was still good, like the original would be a 9, and the sequel would be a 7 or 8, which is still solid.  More often than not these type of movies get sequels that are so much worse, like Monsters from 2010, where it's just a solid, interesting, single story, but they made a sequel to capitalize on the success of the original, and ultimately failed.  I view 28 Days Later in a similar way to a Quiet Place currently, where you get this great single movie that didn't need a sequel, but it had a decent enough sequel, though it could certainly not do it right for the upcoming movie, but hopefully it's a situation where it turns out well.

This is my opinion as well.  It would have been perfectly fine to leave it at just the first film, but it's not like they've embarrassed themselves with the sequels.

Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F - A real throwback to the 80s in the best ways.  Terrific soundtrack and decent action.  Biggest issues are that it's way too long, the dialogue is too on the nose, and it's totally unable to effectively present the thematic depth it's aiming for.

Season of the Witch - This is pretty terrible.  A couple of OK fight scenes and decent make-up effects are about the only things it has going for it.

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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: June 30, 2024, 04:38:19 pm »

A Quiet Place: Day One - The concept of A Quiet Place remains a strong elevator pitch that continues to erode logistically the longer the franchise runs and the larger the setting.  Fortunately this entry boasts some great setpieces coupled with really strong performances to counterbalance those issues.  Probably the weakest of the three films, but it is still pretty solid.

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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: June 29, 2024, 03:21:49 pm »

jackass: the movie - It's not just about the pranks themselves, it's also about the execution. And no one is better at it than these idiots.

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Off Topic / Re: What TV/Netflix show are you currently watching? (Megathread)

« on: June 26, 2024, 08:17:06 am »

Ren Faire on Max is another over-produced overlong documentary .  It's not bad, and the subject matter is interesting, but it feels more like a reality show than a documentary.   Too many of these series trying to chase the high of Tiger King.

Went back to Ally McBeal after about a year and a half break.  Season 3 takes a lot of big swings, but it is only about a 50% hit rate.  It's odd how character motivations and attitudes sometime turn on a dime, despite the fact that it is over 20 episodes a season.  Certain things that would have been wildly progressive in 99 feel quaint or sometimes even insulting today.  All that said, I still laughed a fair amount and there are a couple of really great performances in the show, notably Lucy Liu and Peter MacNicol.

Third season of The Bear is still generally really great TV, even if it does get lost a bit in its own mystique a couple of times.  Jamie Lee Curtis is doing career best work here.

The new season of Star Trek: Prodigy follows the same trajectory as the first.  A little bit of a rough start that slowly morphs into a fun and rousing story that doesn't forget what it means to be Star Trek.  It also does a great job at situating itself into the larger Trek universe, and gives really good context to several things that occur in Picard.

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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: June 22, 2024, 03:25:05 pm »

The Creator - The only other director that understands how to structure and scale VFX at this level is James Cameron. It's a shame the story is a mush of basic sci-fi ideas and on the nose commentary with a pretty bland motivation for the lead character.

A Million Ways to Die in the West - Just like The Orville, it is at its best when it is just being a comedic take on a traditional western and totally servicablewhen playing it straight. It's at the weakest when being too self-aware and Seth MacFarlane keeps winking at the camera. If you're going to comment on the racism of the era, you cont be this lazy about it.  Not quite enough plot or jokes to be nearly 2 hours, though.  Its not bad, but tight 90 would have really put it over the top.  I laughed at more of the jokes than I didn't, Charlize Theron gives a genuinely good performance, and the comedic chemistry between Giovanni Ribisi and Sarah Silverman was great.

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Off Topic / Re: What Was The Last Movie/Anime You Watched?

« on: June 19, 2024, 06:44:02 pm »

Darkman - A singular maximalist vision that only Sam Raimi could have made. It feels like a parody of something that doesn't exist.

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Modern Video Games / Re: Nintendo Direct 6.18.2024 thoughts?

« on: June 19, 2024, 10:46:47 am »

I love that we are getting a Zelda title where we can play as the titular character, and I love that the playstyle is a drastically different than playing as Link.  The thing that doesn't have me sold is the art style, and that's just more because it feels like Nintendo chickening out a bit and hedging their bets by making it a "side game" and not one of the big budget mainline ones.

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Classic Video Games / Re: Need help for complete 3ds pal List (deleted because mods say they dont excist)

« on: June 19, 2024, 10:42:11 am »

To be clear, television standards (like PAL) are used by televisions and devices that connect to televisions like video game consoles.
Handheld systems do not use a television standard, which is why there are no PAL 3DS games, because there are no PAL (or NTSC) 3DS systems.
All 3DS systems have a native refresh rate of 60 Hz, no matter what country they were released in.

Yes this is all true but the games released in that region have different clear cases and  artwork (at least the few I have come across)so I think this is the reason wowgek7 wants to classify them separately.I’m not sure if any of this affects the price or rarity of said games but they are different.

They still aren't PAL games, though.  They are European releases.  The full list that snyderec3 even classifies them in that manner.