Messages

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

« on: April 24, 2024, 08:29:01 pm »

Getting caught up on Invincible, and while I like the show a lot, I can't help but feel nearly all of the plot points don't get enough screen time devoted to them. Plot points that feel like they're supposed to be thrilling or devastating just kind of float by because the characters only get a couple of lines leading up to them.

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

« on: April 21, 2024, 04:20:30 pm »

Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom - You know what is always a surefire addition to a franchise? A baby.  Foolproof I tells ya.

Freelance - Maybe the first movie I've seen that understands just how hot Alison Brie is, but it also totally fails to realize how funny she is capable of being. The rest of the movie rests on Cena's buff shoulders.

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

« on: April 13, 2024, 07:18:16 am »

Fallout - This really feels like an adaptation of a video game in a way that I don’t know anything else has achieved? There are health packs, weird power-ups, loot, side-quests, and the best part? It’s not ashamed of that fact.

The tone isn’t quite right. It’s like a 65%-35% drama comedy, when it should be closer to 55-45, though the balance does get a little better as the show goes on, and there's a few too many slow motion montages set to 50s hits early on.  Overall, though, I had a really good time with it!

I really liked the fifth season of Fargo, but there a few too many character threads that didn't really amount to anything. Was also not a fan of the more overt supernatural overtones.  Juno Temple as Dot is one of the best leads in the whole series, though.

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

« on: April 06, 2024, 09:15:31 pm »

Monkey Man - Hugely ambitious directorial debut from Dev Patel. It looks and sounds incredible, and it puts a nice spin on a pretty well-worn revenge trope. Though he uses the shaky cam well in both a thematic and technical sense I think he leans on it a bit too much, which is probably my biggest issue.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - It's wild how great this franchise is, even with the original sequel being a blatant cash grab and Burton's misfire in 2001.  I don't know that any other series comes close to this level of consistency.

Lightyear - Held hostage by its own premise, and further hamstrung by rather simplistic moralizing. Outside of those two (pretty big) issues it's a pretty fun entry level sci-fi romp. Sox is adorable and the voice cast is pretty solid.

War for the Planet of the Apes - Weakest of the new trilogy, mostly due being a bit more on the nose and not as finely paced as the previous two films, but it is still a damned good flick.

@zola - Totally wild and very funny based on a true story crime caper.  Really incredible performances from Colman Domingo and Riley Keough.

Kajillionaire - I kinda loved almost everything about this. Including how much it made me hate Old Dolio's parents for what they did to her.

Holes - Has the same problem that so many of these coming of age adventure films of the era, the kid story is mostly ok, but is completely outshined but what is going on with the adults. It also feels kind of amateurishly put together, which is weird from the director of The Fugitive.

Three Amigos! - Filled with big comedic swings, and when they connect it works, but when they don't it's kinda boring.  Based on hit rate El Guapo is funniest part of this movie.

Death Becomes Her - Not seen this in ages, and it's aged pretty well.  Still some good laughs throughout.

Abigail - It's a bit too long and the exposition isn't handled super well, but it's fun, the cast is good, and there's great gore.  I'll take it.

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

« on: April 03, 2024, 11:48:49 am »

Major League - There are definitely problems with this movie, many of which have only gotten worse with age, but the biggest issue for me is that what is supposed to be the "heart" of the film is mostly just Tom Berenger stalking Rene Russo.

Rolling Thunder - In the hands of a slightly better director I think this would be a stone-cold classic. William Devane is flat-out fantastic, and once it really gets going its pretty great, but it meanders a bit in the second act and doesn't do quite enough to get you invested in anything other than Devane.

Speed - I forgot just how transfixing this movie is.  Totally at the top of its genre.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Even better than I remembered.  It knows the premise is silly and manages to balance the outlandish with just enough realism for everything to feel completely plausible. Top 3 in the franchise.

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

« on: April 02, 2024, 08:31:49 pm »

Planet of the Apes (2001) - Is it good? Nope. Is it impressive?  Very much so.

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

« on: March 30, 2024, 03:42:37 pm »

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - Liked this way more than I thought I would, especially since the MonsterVerse has been running on diminishing returns since its debut in 2014's Godzilla.  Does a much better job of balancing Kong and Godzilla through the whole picture than GvK did, and, unlike that film, it has a strong emotional throughline.

I still stand by what I said in 2019, however.  Introducing (and killing) King Ghidorah in Godzilla's second appearance was a terrible decision because now you're building up to what... just another giant ape?  Pleasantly surprised by the return of another Titan, though!

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

« on: March 29, 2024, 01:38:56 pm »

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World - Hadn't seen this in a few years.  Still maybe the most kinetic movie ever made.

The Terminator - Just an absolutely perfect sci-fi premise that gets to the action and skips the all tech jargon because it "doesn't know tech stuff."  James Cameron is unimpeachable in just his softmore outing.

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

« on: March 28, 2024, 09:34:04 pm »

The Producers - It brings me no joy to report that this didn't really work for me. I found Zero Mostel in particular to be grating rather than funny. The concept does nearly all the heavy lifting here, at least until play actually starts.

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

« on: March 11, 2024, 09:02:39 pm »

U.S. Marshals - It's obvious in the first 60 seconds that this quasi-sequel is inferior to the sublime The Fugitive.  It's bigger, broader, dumber, twistier, and more bombastic, but it's not necessarily a bad movie.  In fact, it's watchable as hell.  The setpieces all work, and the performances are mostly solid.  One of those flicks where the biggest crime is not being the predecessor.

Night Game - I don't know if I've ever seen a movie that was less than the sum of its parts than this. Cool conceit, fun cast, killer soundtrack, but just completely asleep at the wheel.

Dune: Part Two - I've seen this twice now, and my biggest issue is that there isn't more of it.

McCabe & Mrs. Miller - Totally delightful when it plays to Altman's strengths, like dialogue and character work (especially in the first act).  While the climax is quite revisionist for the era it is easily the weakest part of the film as it mostly does away with those aspects.

Point Blank - Way more experimental than I was expecting, but that was mostly frontloaded. It gets more straightforward as the story goes on, and it makes the pacing feel a little funky. Obviously the inspiration for a lot of crime thrillers that came after.

Love Lies Bleeding - A gorgeous, raw, seductive, and brutal film. All of the performances are top notch, and there's an amazing attention to the grit and grime of the details. And that pitch perfect soundtrack!

However, I dont know that the reveal in the climax works. I get it on a metaphorical level, and the movie was obviously foreshadowing it pretty hard, but it just didn't really land for me.

Troll (2022) - This is unfortunately really flat.  It takes itself to seriously to have fun with the premise, which is really unfortunate, because if it leaned harder into the camp it could be a good time.

Road House (2024) - This is fine. Not trying to be the original, which is good, but it also makes it have little lack of personality.

Slither - There's a lot to love here, but it's got some pacing issues, it has a little trouble balancing tone, and Fillon's character is just 'Well that happened' personified. Those are overall minor things that just stop a really good flick from being a great one.

Wonka - What were they trying to accomplish giving Willy Wonka such a depressing motivation?  I dont see a world where this sad sack Wonka becomes Gene Wilder, at least not from this pretty mediocre Timothee performance.  I just really wish they used all the obvious creativity of everyone involved to make something original.

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire - Better than Afterlife by virtue of the fact it feels like an actual sequel and not solely a hollow nostalgia mine - though it does have intermittent doses of that. It's definitely got problems, most notably the overabundance of characters and plotlines, but I had fun just watching a ghost busting mystery unravel.

Starman - It's might be Carpenter's most family friendly film, but it's filled with such beautiful and mature themes you'd be forgiven if you don't think of it as such.  Bridges gives a terrific showy performance, but Karen Allen's soulful and melancholic Jenny Hayden is just stunning.

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Video Game Database Discussion / Re: Error Listings and rejected edits 2024

« on: March 07, 2024, 07:46:59 am »

Other than looking like crap, it also doesn't specify the difference between the subtitle and edition. So can we stop with re-editing listings this way?

This change was due to a community poll: https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,11879.0.html
You are free to request a re-vote by posting here: https://vgcollect.com/forum/index.php/topic,8361.0.html

Since the vote winner was by a large margin, a re-vote may not reproduce different results.

Maybe it's just early in the morning, but I don't see anywhere in that poll that says we would move to use colons?  It's all about dashes and descriptors.

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General / Re: What are you playing?

« on: March 06, 2024, 10:57:18 am »

I finished Act 2 of Baldur's Gate 3 last night after about 85 hours.  This game deserves all of the accolades that have been heaped on it.  I'm aiming for a kind of Neutral Good / pragmatic scoundrel playthrough, and it's working out pretty well so far.  I love it, but hate that it is eating up so much of my time.  There's still so many other games I need to get to.

I've found myself caught in the middle of watching a let's play for Baldur's Gate 3 and am having a good time experiencing the game that way, although I've only gotten through Act 1. I don't game on PC and have been waiting for the console physical release, so I'm sure I'll play it myself one of these days, hopefully sooner than later. In late 2022, I started playing Dungeons and Dragons for the first time albeit without much regularity, so both games are helping me understand another.

Setting out to play these long games is something I've found myself mostly avoiding for the same reason you're saying, that it limits the amount of total games I'm able to play. I've sidelined many RPGs that are part of my collection because of it, unfortunately.

The one Let's Play I've been watching is actually taking more time to get through than I am, so I'm managing to stay ahead of them, so I get to see a few differing outcomes and my own choices.  It's pretty nice.  I used to play D&D with friends, but that group sort of fell apart, but I also played other similar CRPGs, as well as the old D&D Icewind Dale titles, so it's kinda feeling like coming home in some ways.

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General / Re: What are you playing?

« on: March 05, 2024, 02:13:34 pm »

I finished Act 2 of Baldur's Gate 3 last night after about 85 hours.  This game deserves all of the accolades that have been heaped on it.  I'm aiming for a kind of Neutral Good / pragmatic scoundrel playthrough, and it's working out pretty well so far.  I love it, but hate that it is eating up so much of my time.  There's still so many other games I need to get to.

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

« on: March 04, 2024, 08:23:03 pm »

Kung Fu Panda 2 - A hair better than the first, I think.

Queenpins - Really great cast, but the script isn't super strong and it gets a little too outlandish and silly in spots in the back half. Fun enough all around.

The Legend of Tarzan - Yes, it is bad, and yes, it has terrible visual effects, but it's also strangely watchable?

Poor Things - Technically and aesthetically astounding, with everyone turning in stellar performances, but the script, while wildly hilarious, is super on-the-nose on not quite as clever as it thinks it is.

Brotherhood of the Wolf - Terrific action and beautiful landscapes alongside some pretty rough CGI.  There's like 30 different genres at work here, and they are each executed pretty well. They just don't always gel together, and there's not quite enough going on plotwise to fill the 2.5 hour runtime.

Caddyshack - As a kind of parody it played everything far more straightforward than I expected.  Way more of the humor actually comes from silly (usually dirty) puns or is dialogue driven than I expected.  Maybe my favorite Chevy Chase performance.

The Truman Show - One of those rare films that was acclaimed in its time and is even more widely acclaimed today. Just astonishing on a production standpoint. A complete masterclass on environmental storytelling in the first act. I would love to have gotten a little more on the crew's side because it's just so damned fascinating. Peerless filmmaking.

The Last Voyage of the Demeter - A good concept and impressive production can only get you so far when you're a 2 hour movie that should have been 90 minutes. The whole thing just feels stretched thin.

The Fugitive - I just watched this about 6 months ago, but We Hate Movies just did an episode on it and that was all the reason I needed to buy a physical copy to watch it again.

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Modern Video Games / Re: Nintendo Switch 2

« on: March 02, 2024, 09:46:30 am »

As stated, I think 2024 will be the year we get to see the Switch 2, or whatever Nintendo calls it. I do think it'll be similar to the current Switch in terms of its hybrid handheld/console setup, however it'll have the added bonus of a 4k screen and games made to play in 4k too.

I think even a 4K screen is being optimistic Let alone games made to be played in 4K. I highly doubt it considering Nintendo's being low on them specs since Wii era.

Nintendo has always gone low end for specs.  That's their whole thing and how they cornered the handheld market.