Just Watched

[Psychotime]

I caught a few minutes of Gravity Falls (I keep being told that it's really good, along with Motor City), and the boy is voiced by a grown man, and it sounds like his vocal cords finished puberty before the rest of his body did. It's weird.


That new Ninja Turtles debuted today, and it's ok. I didn't like the visual style, but upon seeing it in action, it grew on me.

I have no idea how the mutagen is supposed to work in this one. At first I thought it was 80's cartoon rules, because Hamato Yoshi and Splinter are the same person in this one. But then an original mutant pops up and it looks like the mutagen just works randomly.

EDIT: Seeing it again, I guess it's 80's rules. With their new character they just didn't make it obvious as to why he turned into a giant weed, but if you look for it, you see it.

I find it interesting how they have the Utroms as part of the first story arc, but this time they're bad guys and are some kind of collective called the Krang. That's ok. You're always going to have to address the Krang thing somehow.

Why the hell did they de-age April? They made her a teenager now. Why?

Little nitpick. They seriously couldn't have been eating algae and worms for 15 years down there. It's just a set up to have them love pizza so much (so they're bringing that quirk back! I smell tie ins!), but it makes no sense, especially when in this version, Splinter used to be a human.

[Psychotime]

Alien. It was ok. It'd be alot better if I didn't know the important stuff beforehand, or played a game like Dead Space, which uses references from it wholesale. Kinda like how the Exorcist isn't as good thanks to pop culture ruining most of the memorable scenes.

How'd the monster get on the escape ship? Yeah, it's cool to give a little suspense in the final moments (It was kinda funny watching him sleep like that), but seriously, how did he get there? And how did he KNOW that he needed to escape? Apparently he knew the self destruct sequence was activated?

EDIT:...Actually he must have just hated all those alarms blaring and decided to go somewhere quiet. He WAS taking a nap, after all. Problem solved. It's not a stretch of any kind.

And here's something I NEVER understood about the Alien species, but I needed to watch one of the movies before I said this: What's the point of the facehuggers? Seriously, what are they? They stick to a host and make them pregnant with the actual Alien, then die? I never understood that. Just because it's a scary and original idea doesn't mean that it can't make sense.

Are there real animal species that work that way or something? I'm not talking about the parasite bit. I'm talking about how these creatures reproduce by eggs that hatch a proxy monster that then attacks you and injects your face with the actual baby monster before dying, which apparently grows like a weed. What kind of sense does that make?

The queen lays eggs, but those eggs hatch a proxy that then creates the actual child? Huh?

How does the baby Alien grow up so damn fast? Because the movie's two hours?

[tobbA]

And here's something I NEVER understood about the Alien species, but I needed to watch one of the movies before I said this: What's the point of the facehuggers? Seriously, what are they? They stick to a host and make them pregnant with the actual Alien, then dies? I never understood that. Just because it's a scary and original idea doesn't mean that it can't make sense.

Well... I'm not going to say it makes sense, becuase I'm not sure if anybody really thought that deeply about it. But I can imagine that the aliens are somehow a single-gender species. They need to mix with the DNA of another species in order to reproduce. After all, the creatures take on different characteristics based on their hosts. This is also how they're able to survive on the planet which they're used on. The "queen" is not a queen per se. Simply an egg laying male. (Or perhaps they're all female.) So the face huggers are simply the vessel for doing that.

[Velocity Kendall]

ha you think thats incredible? Check out the life cycle of echinoderms.... they can reproduce sexually or by parthenogenesis but the kicker is

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echinoderm#Reproduction

the 5sided adult does not mature from the bilaterally symmetric larva, but grows within it like a parasite... which its theorised is exactly what it was, long long ago.

Also check the history of DNA; response to parasitic replicators has resulted in many of the features of life we take for granted (or at least dream about a lot) like sex...

And aaaalso check out where mitochondria, the modular powerplants that power our big complex cells came from.. once, theyre were independent organisms that invaded and set up home...

etc..

"What's the point of the facehuggers?"

To play upon body-horror and rape and strangling fears? I thought that was obvious. The lifecycle of the aliens was made up piecemeal; James Cameron invented the queen; check the deleted scene where Ripley kills Dallas...
(James Cameron doesnt do what James Cameron does for James Cameron)

I just watched Screamers and Robocop 2, on a Peter Weller tip. Both awesome.

[Psychotime]

To play upon body-horror and rape and strangling fears? I thought that was obvious.

I know horror movies can stretch things for the sake of making them scarier, but everyone has their limits for what can be stretched and for how much.

Indestructible serial killers, I get. Lycanthropes with super strength, I get. I can buy these.

I can get a creature laying it's eggs in your stomach that feed off you from the inside out. That happens in real life, and it IS scary.

The part that confounds me is that it's through a proxy that dies immediately afterward.

If it was just the queen going around getting people pregnant with baby aliens, then it'd make more sense.

Seriously, I have an easier time buying the acidic blood.

[Velocity Kendall]

What about drone males in eusocial insect colonies that are born, mate and immediately die? The point is it beautifully plays on our fears of invasion of our bodies against our will.
Alien is a haunted house movie. The derelict is the spooky house, the face hugger is the evil spectre that invades the hapless teenager.

You can buy people turning into superstrong werewolves and back to humans but not an alien with a novel life cycle? Come on.
Surely its much more improbable an alien could interact with a human based on totally different biology as part of its reproduction at all. We all forgive Alien that because its such a sweet, perfectly paced movie.

I suspect given how plotless Prometheus was youre trying to pick similar holes in Alien, but it really is a tighter item. The alien is horrifying, both novel and shockingly familar, and the crew all act logically, which makes their demise all the scarier.

[Velocity Kendall]

Speaking of Prometheus, check this shit out

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Erbvl...tailpage#t=97s

[Psychotime]

I never saw Prometheus.

And no, it's not the movie I have a problem with (yeah, unlike most slashers, none of the victims are idiots), it's just that one concept that bugs me. And it always has bugged me about the character(s), I just needed to make sure to watch one of the movies in full before finally talking about it, because until then I only ever saw bits and pieces.

Off the top of my head, Roger Ebert couldn't get into Benjamin Button simply because of the concept. As I said before, everyone has their limits. It's perfectly fine that most other people can buy the concept.

[Velocity Kendall]

Youve never seen Aliens??? What did you do as a kid? We had it on a VHS tape that literally snapped after the 84th showing..

I thought that Benjamin Button was boring as. Best movie Ive seen in ages; Tree of Life. Fookin amazing.

[Psychotime]

Only bits and pieces. I can certainly say I've seen Robocop, Terminator, and Predator as a kid (as well as the sequels), but I barely remember anything about them because of how long ago it was.

There are TONS of movies like this for me. That's what the list is for.

Anyway, currently watching Dillinger, and I can't look at Elisha Cook without thinking of House on Haunted Hill. For some reason I link his face with that movie and that movie only. Anyway, the movie is nothing special. Your usual post-Hays Code crime movie with a paranoid murderous villain protagonist with no human qualities at all, who murders a kindly old couple at the drop of a hat. The ending is SO anticlimactic! It needed an epilogue or something.

They showed a little bit of Dillinger getting a laugh from a Mickey Mouse cartoon before he dies, but not being a Disney fan, I don't recognize it.

Forgot to mention that I saw the Roger Corman version of Little Shop of Horrors a little while ago, which has no singing at all, which is wierd. It's funny seeing still-not-famous-yet Jack Nicholson play the masochist in this one. If there's someone who can easily look like a pervert/serial killer/whatever, it's Jack Nicholson.

[Velocity Kendall]

Aliens is one of the most beautifully paced, written and designed thrillers ever. But then Im an obsessive nerd for Alien and Aliens so I would say that!

Im watching Sphere. It got terrible reviews, but I think its a perfectly decent movie.

[JDSart]

Alien 3 was a damn shame because i truly believe that after Aliens there was one more good or at least decently entertaining sequel to be done before overkill and they sure blew that chance. From then on its a franchise build solely on the fact that the xenomorph looks cool as fuck, and theres no arguing there i guess, it does look cool to this day

[tobbA]

I recently watched the first episode of Arrow (which is cool speak for Green Arrow). I wasn't very impressed... Too much soap opera for my tastes. And when the villains couldn't even hit the guy with an assault rifle at close range I realized it wasn't gonna be very interesting to watch. The cool thing about Batman is that he's near invincible in a fist fight, but when he's up against firearms he has to act smart. This guy just rushes into a room full of fully armed bad guys with a bow and arrows, and somehow hopes that they'll be too dumb to hit him. (And sure, it's movie logic, but considering the reviews this show's been getting I was hoping for a bit more than that.)

[Psychotime]

I'm still surprised a C-Lister like Green Arrow actually got a series.



Was that Deathstroke's mask in the trailer? On 3:22.

[Psychotime]

Just watched Fight Club. Not bad at all. Thankfully, this ISN'T a movie where the twists get spoiled by pop culture (the only thing you ever hear about the movie is just one line of dialogue), so that means that I could actually experience it pretty much the way it was intended.

I can't say I'll ever bother watching it again, but as I said, not bad at all. I don't particularly give a damn about the "messages" the movie supposedly has (sounded like pure hogwash to me), but it sure made it feel like something that appealed to a sizable 90's audience. It's good to be able to watch an old movie and be interested and unsure as to where and how the story will end up. And that's usually rare when your average person knows the movie by name.

Oh, I could SWEAR I saw Tyler's dilapidated house in a different movie. Maybe in one of the Child's Play movies? I'm not sure.

EDIT: Eh. Supposedly it was built for the movie and torn down immediately afterward. It was on 240 N Neptune Ave, Wilmington, CA but now an empty lot.

( Click to show/hide )

One thing I find strange is that the supposed "messages" people see in the movie are all spouted by a TERRORIST CULT LEADER. If you ask me, that automatically negates any inkling that this is stuff the STORY is trying to say about society and CONSUMERISM (oooh!) and dead-beat dads, which already sounds hackneyed to begin with.

[Psychotime]

Little Caesar (1931)

Better than Dillinger, for sure. What it had going for it was the fact that it actually had something to the characters (and there's more than just one that matters).

My only problem is that the plot moves too fast. It would have been better if it were longer than 70 minutes.

And it had a MUCH BETTER way of ending the movie than Dillinger. His pride does himself in, and after falling over from the gunshot wounds (Why is the only character to use a Tommy Gun in this MOBSTER film the cop?) and we notice that the billboard he hid behind was advertising Joe and Olga's act, showing that the two have earned success over the period of time Caesar was in hiding. It's fitting.

Now I know that Dillinger was required to follow the actual facts about his death, but an epilogue or SOMETHING would have sufficed. They could have shown what happened to the lady in red; she WAS the one to set him up, after all.

[Arshes Nei]

Just watched The Grey....

Those wolves are serious business and mother nature sure is a bitch.

[JDSart]

I finally watched The Avengers.

Well, i can´t say i liked it but i also can´t say that it´s bad, because honestly, it delivers pretty well on everything it is supposed to. Its supposed to be full of action , one liners and fan service.

Some of the fighting scenes look like must have taken some serious effort to do, and just looking at the concept art alone would have been entertaining enough for me.

I think i could have enyojed it more with Spiderman in it, he´s the only marvel character i have ever cared a bit about. For me its just okay, i didn´t despise it but its not my thing and i wouldn´t care to watch it a second time, i´ll likely just forget it very quickly but at least people can stop anoying me to watch the damn thing.

[dpaint]

Just watched all of season 2 of Walking Dead. I liked it different than season 1 for sure. It will be interesting to see what happens to the show without Darabont in any position creatively. I don't have high hopes after reading about how AMC operates. And frankly IMO Kirkman as EP and writer can't hold a candle to Darabont

[Velocity Kendall]

Yeah it was interesting how Fight Club was about a charismatic criminal manipulating dispossessed young men to blow up some financial towers
It was fucking awesome if you were a 17 year old guy who liked fighting and had a shit job in 1999 though, i can tell you that.

[Psychotime]

It was fucking awesome if you were a 17 year old guy who liked fighting and had a shit job in 1999 though, i can tell you that.

Yeah, it's easy to see who it's supposed to appeal to.

Halfway through A Clockwork Orange right at Alex's trial (I think, I thought he was already convinced for murder? No wait, there was a priest yapping about stuff in the scene, it's something else) where some random old dude is making kissy faces at him.

I don't like it, but I'll finish it later, probably tomorrow. I really doubt my opinion will change, but I'll just concede that I'm not one of the people who "gets" it.

[Kolbenito]

Thought I'd check out Gordon Ramsay's Kitchen Nightmares. Ramsay goes around Britain trying to whip local restaurants into shape in a week's time.

And yes, there is lots of verbal abuse. Can't have Gordon without verbal abuse.

That Mitchell and Webb look did a good spoof about Kitchen Nightmares.


Watched what they had of that show on Netflix, was pretty funny.

I have this strong suspicion that the only shows that has Gordon Ramsay that give you the "real" gordon is the F Word and Boiling Point. I guess it is possible that he really does make a habit of tearing people down then giving them a shoulder to cry on, but something tells me that is for the feel good factor in those shows. He definitely appears to switch modes when he's running a kitchen.

[tobbA]

Watched Female Prisoner Scorpion. I wasn't expecting so many... boobs. But it was a pretty cool movie non the less. And Meiko Kaji is stunning.

[Velocity Kendall]

Man the english dub of Evangelion hurts my face. The Japanese actors are really good, but the English dub is like the acting in the Pokemon TV show

[Kolbenito]

Just watched this 5 part lecture on Classical Life Drawing. All of the speakers had something to say that resonated with me, even if it was a bit academic in spots.

[NSFW]

[Psychotime]

Ok, finished A Clockwork Orange.

It was just boring. Maybe it's because I might have watched the uncut version, but there are way too many scenes that drag on for way too long and just waste time.

Honestly the entire movie felt like waste of time.

So, no. I still didn't like it.

[Velocity Kendall]

Ok, finished A Clockwork Orange.

It was just boring. Maybe it's because I might have watched the uncut version, but there are way too many scenes that drag on for way too long and just waste time.

Honestly the entire movie felt like waste of time.

So, no. I still didn't like it.

i dunno, droogs today..

[Psychotime]

Just watched The Public Enemy (1931). One of the better gangster movies back then.

This is one of the movies that led to the creation of the Hays Code, and I can see the parts that must have been shocking to audiences in the 30's. Not just the infamous grapefruit scene. There's also a bit near the end where the main character essentially gets date raped by a woman (of course it's not considered such), and I won't spoil the ending, but it was surprisingly dark.

I was VERY surprised they got away with that kind of ending in the 30's.

What this one had going for it was that there was more character to it. It goes through time from the main character's childhood up to show how he started off, and there was conflict within the main character's family.

Better than Little Caesar. Man, I seem to be choosing a good order to go about these old gangster films. It really makes Dillinger worse and worse each time, because that movie came out in the 40's and was based on a true story, and yet it's weak compared to the stuff from 10 years prior.

The only thing I can complain about is how exactly does Tom's brother know Paddy, and WHY? Honestly, I'll let it fly, because it was to set up the ending.

Yeah, I liked this one.

Bah, I have to at least give it spoiler tags.

( Click to show/hide )

Name another movie in the 1930's that ends with a worried family getting a phone call that a missing loved one was found and that they're bringing him over, only to see that they left a wrapped up corpse on the front porch that falls face first on the floor once the family opens the door.

[Arshes Nei]

Just watched all of season 2 of Walking Dead. I liked it different than season 1 for sure. It will be interesting to see what happens to the show without Darabont in any position creatively. I don't have high hopes after reading about how AMC operates. And frankly IMO Kirkman as EP and writer can't hold a candle to Darabont

Season 3 seems to be learning from its problems in season 2. You can watch the season premiere for free on AMC for a limited time http://www.amctv.com/the-walking-dea...e-walking-dead

My current guilty pleasure is Once Upon A Time. It gets a C to B minus grade. It is a bit hokey due to family, and they could get more in their budget for special effects, but I do like the female characters, that aren't their old school sexist stereotypes because of the time fairy tales were told of course. It is kinda like Lost with Fairy tales. Of course the people who worked on Lost worked on this show.

[Star Eater]

I finished watching The Room its the best movie ever and if you don't like it then F U!