Bartimaeus

I should re-watch Coraline sometime. It seems like something I should enjoy, but it did not click for me at all when I did watch it a few years ago.

1. Methinks the Packers need to learn how to play football for more than exactly one half if they're gonna wanna hang with the other contenders. 2. I was the only one that picked the Cowboys in my pickem group, and I have no idea why. Rams have looked so bad while Cowboys have been alarmingly good without Dak.

Nah, it's perfectly fine, especially if you use spoiler tags; I looked at them earlier today and I already don't remember what was in them, . I'm pretty good at preventing stuff from being committed to memory if I don't want it to be.

You have my attention. Though I guess I should ask: is it terrible? I don't think I can even start to think about watching the show until all of it is out. That at least means I'll forget whatever spoilers I read by then, at least.

Watcher (2022). Mike of RLM loved this one a couple of months ago and it sounded like it was up my alley, so I waited until I forgot what it was about before I watched it. It's a really simple and straightforward kind of film that is pretty much exactly what it presents itself as, which is our main character moving to a different country (Romania) where she doesn't know the language or anybody besides her husband, and she feels as though she is being persistently watched by someone most any time of day and wherever she goes. Even though it's a fairly simple concept, it's a very tense and pretty film that makes good use of its foreign location to help isolate the main character, and I really rather enjoyed it. Other reviews mention it being too slow and not crazy enough, but that was O.K. with me: if you do "forced into being uncomfortable and vulnerable" well enough, I think you have a good film for this concept.

I officially, and humbly, retract my previous statement of the two western divisions sending 6 playoff teams. I don't know if even three are going to make it at this point.

Haven't seen The Counselor, but from what I read, probably? Bigly spoilers about Martyrs:

Biden pardons thousands of people convicted with marijuana charges...but possibly more importantly, if anything comes of it:

The closest comparison I have is Martyrs (2008), which is...there's literally nothing to feel good about with that film: The Skin I Live In was rainbows and lollipops in comparison, so I was happy it didn't go quite that dark. I probably wouldn't want to watch it again either, but I guess my overall impression is...positive.

The Skin I Live In (2011). A sci-fi thriller starring Antonio Banderas and Elena Anaya about...the listed premise doesn't really actually do the film's concept any justice, but at the same time, you can't actually say much about it without revealing too much. Kind of had the full range of a movie-going experience for me: there were stretches of the film I really enjoyed, some stretches that I did not at all, felt creeped/grossed out at times, laughed because a few things didn't quite work for me like they should've...and even got a little emotional at the end because I really felt for a character. Weird experience being so all over the place.

Alita: Battle Angel (2019). For some reason, they mistakenly call her Alita instead of Gally. Well, it's a bit of an ugly and pedestrian affair: they jammed some new details in (which may come from later in the manga?) and yanked others out, but it more or less followed and ended with the incomplete two episode OVA...albeit I feel like they really missed the mark on setting the tone and atmosphere that the OVA did, on top of the characterization somehow being weaker. It's over twice as long as the OVA, yet feels like it really rushed through its story beats in favor of a lot of action scenes. Uh...I don't know why I watched this: I'm sorry. Whatever they did to "animate" Gally makes her look like a 3D cartoon character in a real world space - most other people look and move around like...well, people, and then you have this Shrek-looking lady awkwardly lumbering around right beside them; who thought this was a good idea? More generally, the first few minutes or so of this film made me realize I hadn't watched a big dumb CGI Hollywood blockbuster film in a while, and I'd kind of forgotten how they work: it was honestly a bit of a culture shock. Surely this isn't how the film is going to look and operate? Well...yes, yes it is. Right, now who wants to help me stick James Cameron into a blender?

Like every 3 months or so, I am faced with an announcement like this from a site I use: To which my reply, of course, is: "Screw you, I ain't watching any of that garbage...and while we're at it, screw all you people on here that will: we are not the same kind of people, I'm only on here to find old crap, while you lot are the rotten poison ruining the medium." ...I guess I have some internalized anger towards the people who make the anime industry what it is today, .

Yeah, I didn't love either of them, but they were pretty good quality, particularly for '87, and it would've been nice to see more and different concepts a la a real anthology series. Oh well.

It does appear that way. Out with the old, in with the new! Cue Dak Prescott coming back and losing a couple of games and the Cowboys fanbase collapsing in on itself.

I would pretty happily settle for everyone, male or female, keeping their underwear, pants, shirts, socks, shoes, gloves, cloaks, ski-masks, straw hats, and Chinese dragon costumes on. Weekly release, I presume?

How are you feeling about your week six meeting with the undefeated Eagles?

Some of those clips from the Intel presentation were...Konami-esque. You do not want to be like Konami. Alternatively, you should ideally always be like Konami.

I tried that crafting system probably like twice before I said that I was literally never, ever going to craft anything. I kept to my word...of course, I also quit the game when I got to like level 30 and stopped trying to play MMOs thereafter, .

If it was a joke, it made me burst out laughing; if it wasn't a joke, well...it still made me laugh. RIP their dev group, still need to play through that game.

To be honest, within the first half of the film, I found the gore to be more interesting than anything else that happened. I was quite certain that I was going to despise the film overall by that point and was heavily debating just turning it off, and while I can't say that I'm glad that I persevered, doing so did at least improve my disposition towards the film. The Seventh Seal very much looks and sounds like a film that I would hate on multiple levels...but then again, I very much enjoyed The Tragedy of Man (2011) and that doesn't sound very dissimilar in premise. But then again again, animation is a different medium that can play by very different rules at times... I don't know, it has six different sub-sections and contains quotes from critics calling out other critics for their apparently terrible readings of the film, presumably with follow-ups by other critics doing the same to them. There doesn't seem to be any kind of consensus on what exactly the film was about or was trying to convey, just a whole bunch of different ideas that are possible or seemed like they were intended. There are suggestions that Persona is actually an "impressionist vampire film". Which...I mean, I guess I can't disagree with because of how open-ended the film is, but that's certainly not where my lame brain was going with it. Meanwhile, the director says that while he had specific ideas in mind when he made it, he's not going to tell anybody what they were and instead welcomes any and all interpretations because that's more meaningful than him forcing any particular view. Which is probably the correct way to handle it, but still not the most helpful.

Persona (1966). A lot of the time, I pick out movies that that seem interesting to me that I don't actually try until months or years later, by which time I have no idea what originally made me interested in them or what their premise was, and I just start it blindly. This can be great because I don't have much of an idea of what to expect and therefore not much in the way of pre-conceived notions, which I think is often very valuable in movie-going experiences when you're not simply watching more of what you normally watch...other times, this is not so great because I don't have any context for what I'm seeing when it seems like having it would be very helpful. Within the first few minutes of this film starting, I saw at least a few different things that I can remember now that told me I was probably going to be in for a bad time: 1. A hand very graphically having a nail hammered through it. 2. A mutilated and decapitated lamb's head being drained of its blood. 3. What looked to be major organs being ripped out of some kind of creature. Suffice to say, it was not the most comfortable first five minutes of a film that I've seen. I have not seen a picture directed by Ingmar Bergman before, but that's certainly a way to be introduced to a filmmaker. Anyways, the movie is about a young nurse who has been charged with caring for an actress who's been thrown into the loonie bin - on account of having suddenly lost it and gone full antipathy and mute. As for me...well, I don't do plays, and this largely feels like a play. The kind of play where everyone kind of sounds and acts like aliens from another planet in that sort of unnaturally stilted way. That said...it started taking a turn about halfway through that made it a little more interesting and engaging for me, so at least it had that; better to end on a (relative) high note and with something to think about. Still, not really my cup of tea. (e): I see that the "themes and interpretations" section on Wikipedia is a bit of a hoot.

She'll make a fantastic Supreme Court justice once our president is back in office come 2024, .

Why Twilight Q? You a Twilight Zone fan or something?

I have Beyond the Infinite Two Minutes bookmarked, but like you, my watchlist is...crushingly expansive. I will take, uh, the other one, under consideration...I read the premise, and it actually sounds more interesting than the title would suggest, so who knows.

I did actually have you precisely in mind when I wrote that, yes.