Ah, sometimes it's good to go back to the classics...

 

🤣

Trailer 2? Feels like this is the 3rd.

Also, for further random interest:

 

I'll agree. His run style/scenes is one of his biggest action "trademarks" by this point. Although in his earlier days, another one who was somewhat close was Mel Gibson,  but his arm motion was a bit more expansive/wilder (Gallipoli, Lethal Weapon, others).

 

Moonfall

Im pretty sure I suffered a TBI watching this. Ooof.

Bullet Train

Now this is my kinda action/comedy jam!

I also watched Bullet Train and it was thoroughly enjoyable goofy action schlock. My kind of movie.

I later watched the Nic Cage Massive Talent movie, which was decidedly less fun than Bullet Train, but still a decent enough watch with some moments that got me to chuckle.

Lastly, I watched The Gray Man which was about as bog standard a Bourne Identity clone as possible. Not bad, per se, but utterly forgettable.

On 12/28/2022 at 12:38 PM, LadyCrimson said:

I'll agree. His run style/scenes is one of his biggest action "trademarks" by this point. Although in his earlier days, another one who was somewhat close was Mel Gibson,  but his arm motion was a bit more expansive/wilder (Gallipoli, Lethal Weapon, others).

one quibble:

is tough to explain the gulf between a 11.5 100m and 14.6. am not sure what jackie joyner kersee based her 11.5 estimate 'pon and obvious her expertise eclipses ours by a huge amount, but the 14.6 is for a run which don't even account for needing to come up out of starting blocks from 0kph. we finished a woeful #16 overall at state finals with a 11.19 and our bestest not wind-aided time were a flat 11. 14.6 is kinda pokey. is very pokey in fact.

look at it another way, while is hardly 100% accurate, an 11.5 100 metre time would, based on those espn science bits they do during the nfl draft to explain just how amazing is a few o' the athletes, would translate to something like a 4.75 40.  14.6 translates to approx 6.09... and again, that number were based on his full-tilt speed and doesn't include coming outta blocks from a dead stop start.

rich eisen does a 40y run every year to raise money for st. jude children's hospital. check out the numbers if you are curious how x-football players and rando ceo o' major corporations who ponied up big donations for a chance to run with rod woodson and cris carter compare.  btw, in 2022 rich eisen wearing a suit, tie and cleats on grass ran a 6.16.

point is, 14.6 100m sounds impressive only because most people have no idea what that means. the reality is tom cruise is actual running far slower than he appears to be traveling, which is fine, 'cause he is freaking acting. the genuine impressive takeaway is that as tortoise-like is the speed o' sexagenarian tom cruise, he looks fantastic and fast, which is his freaking job. have never seen somebody so slow look so fast and we never woulda' guessed you could act fast. 

HA! Good Fun!

Edited December 30, 20223 yr by Gromnir

Rewatched Back to the Future trilogy with my nephew. I had explained to him how timelines could work when watching the first one and he found some plot holes later, like old Biff going back in time to give himself the sports manual and coming back to the future with no changes. I couldn't give him a decent explanation. Don't think there is one.

What do you get when you combine Indonesian mysticism and a Terminator knockoff? 

Just now, Keyrock said:

What do you get when you combine Indonesian mysticism and a Terminator knockoff? 

Either a steaming pile of **** or something truly great.

4 minutes ago, Space KP, Baby said:

Either a steaming pile of **** or something truly great.

It's Lady Terminator (1988) and it's a pretty good terrible movie. I'd write more about it but this forum software is awful. I have a whole 3 paragraph writeup of it that I can't post because reasons.

Edited January 2, 20233 yr by Keyrock

Remove any quotation marks and parantheses, that does the trick. Usually. It also bugs out when you quote text someone else already posted in spite of it having been posted, so it's not a really clear cut and always working approach, but it gets most stuff posted.

I won't bother trying to post my indepth review of Lady Terminator any more. I'll just write that it's The Terminator: Indonesian Mysticism Edition and that there's a vagina snake. If that doesn't convince people to watch it, I don't know what will.

Avatar.

Way too long, with a pretty damn average script - but the stunning visuals makes it worth it.

Glass Onion

Not as good as the first one, and I didn't like how the destruction of Mona Lisa is shown as triumphant moment.

4 hours ago, Maedhros said:

Avatar.

Way too long, with a pretty damn average script - but the stunning visuals makes it worth it.

We were going to go see it yesterday because we had the day off but we decided to wait until it goes to streaming once we saw the runtime.

On 12/26/2022 at 4:40 AM, Sarex said:

That one was such a letdown. As you say it's stunning, but lack the meat underneath.

 

On 12/26/2022 at 9:51 AM, Space KP, Baby said:

While that's true, I don't think there is too much they could have done with it for a feature. Just using the poem gives enough for maybe an hour episode in anthology show.

Man, did we watch the same film?  It was pretty brimming with meaning and symbolism, IMO - just like versions of the story itself.

For my part I watched THE ASSASSINATION BUREAU, LTD.

Advertised as a comedy, while it is amusing because it keeps things light, its more of a straight adventure, really.  I liked it, but its easy to tell from the trailer that they couldn't figure out how to market it.

7 minutes ago, Amentep said:

Man, did we watch the same film?

No.

7 minutes ago, Amentep said:

It was pretty brimming with meaning and symbolism, IMO - just like versions of the story itself.

I can agree with that, but I tend to respond less to symbolism than I do emotion and feeling. For me at least it came up a bit short here, for reasons I would struggle to articulate. Though visually it gave me a ton to chew on for quite a while.

1 hour ago, Amentep said:

Man, did we watch the same film?  It was pretty brimming with meaning and symbolism, IMO - just like versions of the story itself.

I'm not smart enough for symbolism. Much like KP I go more for emotions and relationships.

I'm not smrt either.  But I've read a good bit (not nearly enough) about symbolism in Arthurian stories, so I guess I just connected more to it.  It was probably my favorite film of 2021.

Bought A24's limited edition release of Green Knight to get the director's short film "Oak Thorn & The Old Rose Of Love", an adaption of another Arthurian tale and a good companion for TGK, IMO.

The adaption 

Spoiler

is of the tales regarding Merlin's entrapment by Nimue.  Good performances from Jackie Earl Haley and Sylvia Hoeks (necessary given its a 2 person short)

 

2 minutes ago, Amentep said:

I'm not smrt either.  But I've read a good bit (not nearly enough) about symbolism in Arthurian stories, so I guess I just connected more to it.  It was probably my favorite film of 2021.

I'm on the opposite side of things there, one of the reasons I disliked the latter Witcher books is the whole Arthurian dive the story took. Then again I never actually read something that is close to the original story so I can't say if I would like the original myth or not.

18 minutes ago, Sarex said:

I'm not smart enough for symbolism.

 

11 minutes ago, Amentep said:

I'm not smrt either.

Stop posting so much signature bait.

I too am something of a dumbass and I haven't read much Arthurian legends so I wouldn't pick up on that. Visually I loved the film and can't praise that enough, that alone really elevates it. But in some ways that adds to the disappointment for me, if it had looked average or bad I'd just write it off, but looking and sounding as good as it did with very good performances yet still missing the mark for me is disappointing.

Had too much time at work so watched Today You Die.  Worth it to hear someone say, with a straight face - "Walks like a black man, breathes like a killer"

4 hours ago, Sarex said:

I'm not smart enough for symbolism. Much like KP I go more for emotions and relationships.

symbolism is not mutual exclusive from evocative aspects o' story telling, which is precise why emotions and relationships is not elements o' fiction but is hopeful consequences o' skillful used theme, plot, setting, symbolism character, etc. symbolism, when recognized, should amplify an essential quality o' the narrative. 

sir gawain and the green knight is a bit more character driven than other early english writings, so it actual has more potential modern appeal than other stories written contemporaneous. nevertheless, it does eschew many modern conventions which attempt to focus on the reader empathizing with characters. the green knight movie is a better than fair adaption o' sir gawain and we found the emotional impact impressive. unlike modern stories, sir gawain don't use character backgrounds and motivations to make the characters relatable. these is s'posed to be larger than life events and personages who perhaps only exist in myth. were not necessarily s'posed to be relatable. is in part the symbolism which brings the story down to a more manageable level for audiences who ain't characters outta myth, though the movie does do a much better job o' humanizing and we already noted sir gawain were much better in that regard than most contemporaneous tales. 

a few light taps upon the pane made him turn to the window. It had begun to snow again. he watched sleepily the flakes, silver and dark, falling obliquely against the lamplight. the time had come for him to set out on his journey westward. yes, the newspapers were right: snow was general all over Ireland. it was falling on every part of the dark central plain, on the treeless hills, falling softly upon the bog of allen and, farther westward, softly falling into the dark mutinous shannon waves. it was falling, too, upon every part of the lonely churchyard on the hill where michael furey lay buried. it lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns. his soul swooned slowly as he heard the snow falling faintly through the universe and faintly falling, like the descent of their last end, upon all the living and the dead.

you may read joyce w/o recognizing the symbolism positive radiating from every paragraph, but when you see the layers o' theme, setting, and symbolism synergizing, you may appreciate a story like the dead on a different and arguable more profound level. minor characters, through symbolism, gain emotional depth otherwise missed.

a crpg example, though not specific symbolism, is the use o' macbeth in bg2. irenicus, particular with david warner reading, is ez to appreciate as little more than the typical mage gone mad with power. once you see all the repeated allusion to macbeth, it becomes extended metaphor fodder and then even minor characters such as kalah who is providing foreshadowing for the entire bg2 narrative and also contributing to the macbeth elements, achieves a new depth and possible a new level o' appreciation when such linkages is recognized. viewed insular, kalah is a throw-away character who contributes little to the bg2 narrative and whose name is almost instant forgotten.  the thing is, from a storytelling perspective, kalah is much greater than his seeming limited contribution to the bg2 story and his passing is far more evocative when is seen as part o' something much greater than typical low-level side-quest fodder. 

writers such as the aforementioned joyce all too often become so obscure with their symbolism and themes and is so invested in creating manufactured depth they forget to make a story compelling for an audience other than the author themself and perhaps a handful o' literary scholars with multiple PhDs. is crap writing from our pov if it only works for a handful. symbolism and other elements may contribute to story telling even if they ain't consciously recognized, and am thinking such is the case for green knight, but when the author's goal is to astound a limited audience with his/her deftness and cleverness as 'posed to reaching a broader audience on an emotional level, then am thinking the work has become self indulgent as 'posed to art. nevertheless, each reader or viewer o' story is gonna have a different threshold for what is author fail and we cannot say any specific audience is wrong, even so, am personal seeing the symbolism o' sir gawain and the green knight, which were translated incomplete but well in the recent movie, were adding to the storytelling and made the film more evocative. 

regardless, symbolism is not s'posed to be separate from emotional appeal. nobody would give a mouse fart for virginia woolf (edit: butchered the spelling virginia's name) if symbolism were divorced from evocative.

HA! Good Fun!

Edited January 4, 20233 yr by Gromnir