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sycasey

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About sycasey

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  • Birthday 08/18/1980

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  1. sycasey

    Episode 147 - Gamer: LIVE!

    But then again, the Suicide Squad trailers made it look like it might be fun and irreverent like Guardians of the Galaxy. Not so much. Suicide Squad, though, seemed like it was clearly intended to be something else at first and then someone decided on a late course correction. Here's hoping Wonder Woman is a more cohesive thing.
  2. sycasey

    Episode 147 - Gamer: LIVE!

    Giving me a Captain America feel (not a bad thing).
  3. sycasey

    Episode 147 - Gamer: LIVE!

    Probably you can't comment to a strict first-person perspective for the whole movie, but for action scenes you certainly can, or at least for significant chunks of them. Maybe the best example of how to use a fixed-perspective camera to enhance action scenes comes from Alfonso Cuaron, in movies that aren't really even trying to evoke video games (Children of Men, Gravity).
  4. sycasey

    Episode 147 - Gamer: LIVE!

    Very true. The thing that disappointed me about the filmmaking style is this: The most obvious inspiration for this film is video games, and specifically first-person shooter games (Doom, Halo, Call of Duty, etc.). But the style of this film doesn't evoke those at all! Rather than committing as much as possible to a fixed perspective, which would call for a lot of single long takes, it's all chopped up in the editing, throwing action shots at you willy-nilly. There are virtually no shots taken from the perspective of Gerard Butler's character. The movie doesn't even come close to replicating the experience of playing that kind of game, which makes you wonder what the heck the point was supposed to be.
  5. sycasey

    Episode 147 - Gamer: LIVE!

    Took me a while to finish the podcast, but getting back to the movie at hand . . . There are a lot of theories being passed around here, trying to make sense of the world that Gamer presents to us. Most of these attempts at making sense have failed. You all are right: this movie doesn't make sense. It doesn't make sense that Michael C. Hall's character would spend so much time and energy to choreograph a dance sequence that accomplishes nothing. It doesn't make sense that Gerard Butler and other people are seemingly able to walk into and out of the gaming area without being presented with any obstacles. None of the setup of this "video game with live humans" seems to track at all with the real world as we know it. Even scenes supposedly taking place outside of the "Society" and "Slayers" games seem nearly indistinguishable from those taking place inside of them. Lazy or incompetent filmmaking? Maybe. But what if there is another answer? I posit to you: maybe we never left the game. Everything in the movie is still part of the game. Who is controlling it? We'll never know. We never took the red pill. We're still in the Matrix. The audience will never know what is real. And so Neveldine & Taylor have delivered a commentary on modern society, implicating all of us in this deadly game. Boom. Mind blown.
  6. sycasey

    Hey everyone

    Yes, this is the thing I'll really miss if The Canon doesn't come back. I haven't found another show that covers this wide a breadth of film history, with the kind of in-depth analysis the two critics gave. Most other film podcasts tend to stick with a narrower band (just new releases, or just horror flicks, or just older films).
  7. sycasey

    Episode 146 - Dreamcatcher

    It's definitely the haircut that does it. His normal look is to have it either swept up and back or spiked: When it's matted down he just looks like a serial killer:
  8. sycasey

    Episode 146 - Dreamcatcher

    Even beyond this, the whole idea of "anyone can die at any time!" doesn't square with the theme the author is seemingly trying to deliver, which is that this group of guys were brought together and given powers because there is something they were "meant" to do. There is a strong theme of destiny here, which indicates that the deaths (if they happen) should be purposeful and not random. So when at least half the group winds up having a "destiny" of doing fuck-all to help defeat the alien menace, the audience might feel a little cheated and wonder why we wasted so much time with these characters.
  9. sycasey

    Episode 146 - Dreamcatcher

    I also enjoyed the fact that Duddits decided to dress himself in full Boston Red Sox regalia in going off to defeat Mr. Grey. I have to assume this was something Donnie Walhberg insisted on doing, perhaps as a kind of good luck charm for his favorite baseball team. When the Red Sox finally broke their curse and won the World Series the following year, I'd like to imagine that Donnie raised his fists and let out a hearty "I Duddits!"
  10. sycasey

    Episode 146 - Dreamcatcher

    So here is the biggest thing that bugs me about this movie: By the end it's alluded to (maybe even outright stated) that the whole point of the "dreamcatcher" metaphor was that Duddits had brought these boys together and given them powers, so that they could eventually save the world. The five of them bonded together were like the dreamcatcher that hung in their cabin, able to capture the nightmare presented by Mr. Grey. Here's my question: WERE they, though? How useful were any of these four other guys? Jason Lee dies before he uses any of his powers to stop the monster, so he's useless. Timothy Olyphant only uses his power to point Mr. Grey to the reservoir, and then he's also killed, so that's not much help either. Damian Lewis' contribution is to get possessed by Mr. Grey and provide him with a convenient vehicle for escaping the forest, which means everyone probably would have been better off without him ever coming into contact with the aliens. Sure, he is able to hide out in his "mind palace" and avoid death, but in the end did that actually stop Mr. Grey from doing anything? Doesn't seem like it. Thomas Jane does more to help the cause than anyone else, since he uses his telepathic connection to find Duddits and bring him to Grey's location . . .and even he doesn't do THAT much work, because Tom Sizemore does all the driving, and then Duddits does the actual dirty work! Duddits, next time cut out the middlemen, call a cab, and just go kill the bad guy yourself. As a bonus, you'd have spared your buddies their untimely deaths and/or crippling injuries.
  11. sycasey

    Hey everyone

    Thanks for the words, Amy. While I sincerely hope that you can find another partner to continue the podcast with (it's a great, unique format and I don't think there's anything else out there that can match it), I understand if you can't. Best wishes to both you and Devin.
  12. sycasey

    Future of the Show?

    How the accused responds is a big part of this. Devin didn't put up a fight, just resigned from his positions and that was that. It's harder to feel much glee at the man's fall when he just steps down and accepts it. At some point (it's probably too soon right now) I'd like to read or hear Devin's thoughts on this whole thing. NOT because I want to diminish the victim's story, but because I'm curious and looking to understand it on all sides: Does he really not remember the incident? Does he believe it anyway because he knows he's gotten up to bad behavior before? Was he trying to better himself or had this kind of thing continued to the present day? Was his public dedication to feminist issues a way of compensating?
  13. sycasey

    Future of the Show?

    I was in the middle of listening to it as I learned about the sexual assault allegation. It was surreal.
  14. sycasey

    Future of the Show?

    I think that was pretty much the whole reason. He sometimes remarked that the people who were most annoying to him on "Film Twitter" typically had Letterboxd accounts (which at this point -- for a film buff -- is basically like having a Facebook account, but I'm not sure he knew that). It's a bit like his reasoning for disliking anime . . . because people with anime avatars tended to be annoying on Twitter. Yeah, I didn't get it either.
  15. sycasey

    Future of the Show?

    Letterboxd! http://letterboxd.com/sycasey/
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