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GrahamS.

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Posts posted by GrahamS.

  3. Posted

    11 hours ago, DannytheWall said:

      Absolutely agree. In retrospect, the best word to describe any industry, especially Hollywood, would be "floundering." 

    The bigger problem, however, is the movie is too obtuse to the point of turning people off. You'd need excitement and buzz for a true tentpole feature, and Tenet just doesn't engender that. 
    Crossreference it with Inception, which could be argued as having a similarly obstuse plot point, lingering questions to the viewer, etc. On the face of it, though, it's "simpler." Like the old tenet (ahem, sorry) about writing science fiction-- "you get one thing." Inception's one thing is--  you can travel through layers of dreams. In Tenet, you start with one thing-- traveling "invertedly"/backwards through time, but then there's another thing with a war in the future, then another thing with arms dealers and artefacts, then another with who's leading the organization...  What happened to saving something for a sequel ?  The risk of trying to be so twisty is that your audience will turn around, then walk away

    I’ll also argue that Inception-to me, at least—had a a melancholy, character driven center that was a successful thematic link to Memento. I know some people felt Inception was too schematically written, but I felt the performances really filled in what was needed emotionally.

    Tenet didn’t feel like it was character-driven at all and as a result just felt really empty. As a result, Nolan could have blown up ten 747s and I would not have cared. 

    Bottom-line, I feel like Nolan’s recent films (barring Dunkirk) have done a 180 from his older work. He used to have a clear eye for where his characters were but not be great at shooting action/spectacle. Now he’s great at shooting action:/spectacle but has lost sight of his characters.

    • Like 1

  4. Posted

    2 hours ago, GrahamS. said:

    Off-topic:RE: moving to Discord—how exactly is that going to work? I’ve looked at it and was pretty overwhelmed, If I’m being honest. No offense meant to the people who’ve worked on it, but it seems like huge numbers of people commenting in a variety of ways within several specific-yet-generalized categories (chat under HDTGM, for example, seems like it will be difficult to follow if you want to talk about specific movies/episodes because there’s so much going on). Maybe it’s because I’m 46, but I’m a little bummed that it feels so..complicated. and I’m concerned that the close-knit feel of the forum will get lost in the internet vacuum. That concern may be totally unfounded, but I’m basing it off my initial reaction to Discord.

     But I’m not against change, so I guess I’ll see. 🙂🤔

    I accidentally liked my own post so I gave myself a hedgehog.

    • Haha 1

  5. Posted

    8 minutes ago, AlmostAGhost said:

    It is something we the mods are constantly discussing, and will be flexible and take any suggestions into account.

    We are going to use a few focused channels, especially for 'current' episodes. Every two weeks, we'll sort of 'clear it' in a way. If you want to talk about older movies/episodes, there's other channels for that to happen. People don't post Corrections & Omissions for old episodes anyway, so I don't anticipate too much cross-talk there. And really how often to people bump up really old threads here? We all stay fairly well-focused on the most recent eps.

    We'll have to see how the chatting develops though (and also consider how it is useful for Paul and crew) and be willing to adjust on the fly. 

    I've been in some big Discords and discussions happen all the time and quicker. My biggest worry is it may be a little harder to write longer thought-out posts for Corrections & Omissions but we're confident it will end up there as we all get used to it. We are doing our best to set it all up like a forum, so to make the transition easier.

    Also, the big Discords I'm in have much more close-knit connections. We can chat a little more than we do here. Like, I don't know where almost any of you live, yet I chat with all of you all the time. We can converse now in Discord! That said, this is a pretty much purely a HDTGM Discord. I don't anticipate it being as broad as other groups, like Paul's own Discord.

    Ok, I think that’s the Discord that I saw because he sent it out via text or something, and is what I was basing my reaction upon.

  6. Posted · Edited by GrahamS.
    Edited for clarification

    Off-topic:RE: moving to Discord—how exactly is that going to work? I’ve looked at it and was pretty overwhelmed, If I’m being honest. No offense meant to the people who’ve worked on it, but it seems like huge numbers of people commenting in a variety of ways within several specific-yet-generalized categories (chat under HDTGM, for example, seems like it will be difficult to follow if you want to talk about specific movies/episodes because there’s so much going on). Maybe it’s because I’m 46, but I’m a little bummed that it feels so..complicated. and I’m concerned that the close-knit feel of the forum will get lost in the internet vacuum. That concern may be totally unfounded, but I’m basing it off my initial reaction to Discord.

     But I’m not against change, so I guess I’ll see. 🙂🤔

    • Like 3
    • Hedgehog 1

  7. Posted

    I’ve gotta bump this bonkers piece of shit because—spoiler alert—it’s the only film I know of that turns its ordinary heroine into a superhuman ass-kicker and then—in the climax—a USB drive. I will bump this movie until there’s a solid reason given not to do it. It is one of the most insane mainstream movies—that thinks it’s profound!—that I have seen.

  8. Posted

    1 hour ago, RyanSz said:

    Besson is weird in that his movies are either over the top action/sci-fi or artsy/serious films that you know he thinks he'll win an Oscar for, with a perfect example of going from The Fifth Element to The Messenger: The Story of Joan of Arc. I mean I'm going through his filmography right now and there are a slew of films that would be perfect for the show from From Paris With Love to Lucy to Taken 3. Hell another subgenre for him is how he redoes the same plot in different movies as Colombiana and to a greater extent Anna (another prime choice for the show) are copies of La Femme Nikita.

    I can’t believe they haven’t done Lucy yet. That may perversely be one of my favorites of his because it’s so completely batshit. It’s gotta be near the top 10 on the the list of films that think they’re profound but are actually spouting gibberish. In fact, I may have to bump that one of it’s on here. I want them to do a bigger-scale WTF movie on the show.

  9. Posted

    I know people love to hate on Tarantino’s brand of auteurism, but I could never really get into Besson’s. Most of his films really feel like a mix of self-aware hipness, pretentiousness (if that’s a word), and bonkers, empty plotting. There are a few I find passably entertaining (The Fifth Element is a film solely created as a stoner spectacle, in my opinion, and I did genuinely like the District B13 films, but I don’t think he directed those), but by and large his movies feel like they’ve been made by an “edgy” poser. They look cool and that’s it. Give me some old-school Walter Hill movies or—if you’re going with arty pulp— some Jean-Pierre Melville films, please.

  10. Posted

    11 hours ago, RyanSz said:

    I enjoyed it when  I saw it Labor Day weekend despite there being a lot of plot holes in regards to the mechanics of the inversion of time, which I assume was a studio addition of the line about "don't think about it just move by instinct and you're good." Nolan again shows he's the master of set pieces in movies because the big action sections were fantastic, especially the final act which I'm wondering how they did it given Nolan's preference for practical effects. After I got done I knew it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea with the attempts to come off as heady while simplistic. There's always going to be logic/continuity issues in time loop/multiple plane films because they never seem to follow their own rules in order to try and be approachable to as big an audience as possible. They tried to instill an idea that the future is not set and can change but at the same time work so hard at keeping it the same when they are inverted and go back to normal, so the reveal at the end of who created the Tenet organization shows along with everything preceding that reveal shows time is set within this universe which kinda removes the tension of the villains plot. It's not my favorite Nolan film but it isn't my least as well.

    You followed it better than I did. Honestly, I started fast-forwarding it to the action sequences after 45 minutes just to get through it, so I didn’t grab the plot’s nuances.

    what’s your least favorite Nolan? My previous one was Interstellar. Since the hook of his movies are often based around their rewatchability and close study, these two are the ones I found I had no desire to rewatch.

  11. Posted

    I rented Tenet last week wanting to like it and ended up disappointed. It’s just... dull (at least to me). The dialogue is so full of exposition that it’s almost impossible to follow, the character development seems inconsequential (despite the effort of the actors who try to inject personality into the dialogue), the action sequences are cool but surprisingly sparse for a 2 1/2 hour thriller. It feels like Inception redux in terms of spectacle except with any attempt of characterization stripped away (I love Inception, BTW, but know that some people felt that it was too exposition driven. Tenet is a good compare-and contrast in that tespect).

    I am a Christopher Nolan fan overall, but this is my least favorite Nolan film. I’m glad I didn’t see it in the theater because I would have been risking my life to be bored.

    Does anyone agree/disagree? I’m curious to hear what other people think since this movie was so heavily hyped.

  12. Posted

    4 minutes ago, Cameron H. said:

    But seriously, I had a massive migraine yesterday and couldn't start watching this until last night. I just finished it. Honestly, I'm not too sure what to think of it. Let's see if I can work it out.

    My prevailing feeling is one of nausea. Like, the whole thing is gross. Not just with the sexism and racism, but just everything about it turned my stomach. However, I think this was absolutely the type of visceral reaction they were hoping for, so, like Mission Accomplished?

    It felt very student art filmy. Very punk rocky. very John Waters-y. But, without the deftness of any of those things, and kind of fails at everything it is trying to do. Like, if I look at it at a Comedy, I don't think it's very funny. If I look at it as a Musical, *most* of the numbers are intentionally terrible. It also misses me as an Art Film as it seems to lack a point beyond lets be as offensive as we can be. I mean, there's a word for people like that, and it's "asshole." So...the movie is kind of a big asshole.

    Again, I feel like that was very much the intention of the film, so I guess it succeeds. In a weird way, I'm glad I saw it. It's definitely not something I would have ever picked for myself, I hadn't even heard of it before, and that's what I like about Musical Mondays. It forces me to go outside of my comfort zone. That being said, I would neve want to watch this ever again. It is pretty fucking distasteful -- lol.  

    I had trouble finding this to watch it and now reading your reaction, I’m glad I had those troubles. I MAY still watch it if I can find it for free, but I won’t pay for it.

  14. Posted

    21 hours ago, RyanSz said:

    So the game I'm playing now is Cyberpunk 2077 and holy shit if it isn't a direct sequel to Johnny Mnemonic.  Keanu's character is essentially what Johnny would have become after the movie and there are characters that are addicted to upgrades or see them as a religious venture like Dolph Lundgren's character, plus a version of the Ice-T anarchist group live out in the barren wastelands surrounding the city. The game even has the laser whip as an optional weapon!

    I’m playing it now as well. Bugs haven’t been too bad so far. Just got to the Keanu section. I’m enjoying it!

  15. Posted

    5 hours ago, Cameron H. said:

    I’m just saying there should have been rules. Something to establish what he can or can’t do. Like, a wish cannot be used to directly harm someone, or the Amazonian armor protects her. We’re just supposed to believe this person with powers unto a God, never worked out a complication.

    I also didn’t understand why he took so ling to heal himself. As soon as my health started to waiver, that’s the first thing I would have done. Or, after he hurt his son’s feelings, why not make it so his son forgot what he said? He should have a surplus of wish dollars and he spends it on making... traffic light?

    I dunno, I agree, they should have set some rules and set some stakes, but ANY movie where the ultimate baddy comes down to an intangible thing like wishes is going to have a shitload of problems. 

  16. Posted

    6 hours ago, RyanSz said:

    Just a bit of warning in that it really does not hold your hand in regards to how you solve cases or where you go in the world as while you can set waypoints on your map, you will continually refer to it to find where the hell you are going. Plus some of the clue and reference searches can be a bit tedious if going through city archives and records and cross-referencing things isn't your cup of tea. I had no problem with it but being a librarian that was kind of already par for the course for me.

    As long as the stuff you’re looking up is interesting, I’m in. If it’s just busywork to fill time (which I thought the paperwork in Control was—they really could have made the reports more interesting than they were), not so much.

  17. Posted

    1 hour ago, Cameron H. said:

    I couldn’t understand why Lord didn’t use his power to cause WW to just...cease to exist or something. 

    He doesn’t seem to hate anyone.  I don’t think he even wants to get rid of Wonder Woman. For a villain, he just seems to want to snort up wishes like lines of coke and damn the consequences. And somehow the wishes are killing him???

    i liked the first movie but I thought WW84 was a huge mess. And I do agree with Sycasey, I also wondered what she was up to for the past half century or so. It certainly seems like WWII, Korea and Vietnam made 0% impact compared to the heartbreak that was Steve.

    It should definitely be a HDTGM movie, but I doubt they’ll do it.

    • Like 1

  18. Posted

    22 hours ago, RyanSz said:

    So finished watching She Dies Tomorrow and boy was that a misfire. It's definitely not the worst artsy horror film I've seen, that still belongs to Kuso and Be My Cat: a Film For Anne, but it definitely pushes the Mumble-horror notch up to ten. What was worse was that it's a fairly interesting idea of basically Inception where the planted idea is your death, but it doesn't do much with it to make it worthwhile.

    It’s an intriguing idea, it just doesn’t really go anyplace. I watched it this summer and can’t remember how it ended, although I might have watched it in an altered state, so I won’t blame the film entirely for that😁.

    Also, I watched it really close to watching Relic, which I did like but was another slow-moving art house horror film (but it is more traditionally satisfying than She Dies Tomorrow). I think watching two slow-moving art house movies in a row was a mistake and probably not entirely fair to She Dies Tomorrow.

  19. Posted

    23 hours ago, AlmostAGhost said:

    I love Deep Sea Diver, I have all their vinyl and their early EP on cd. There's some great songs and I love her voice. I met Jessica a time or two years back when she was touring with Beck. She was very nice and it's been a blast to follow her band from early on. Back in around 2009 or 2010, they did this one show in Hermosa Beach I went to, which was crazy because it's not a place bands play and it was right near where I lived at the time. Turned out it was a charity benefit in the local auditorium and not many people were there and I watched them jam out up close too. :)

     

    Awesome! I’m more of a friend of Peter’s  and an acquaintance of Jessica’s, but Peter works at the coffee shop that’s close to my apartment andI saw them both frequently (pre-COVID, of course). They’ve worked really hard on their new album and have worked really hard trying to be successful. I hope their new album helps them—it’s really good.

    • Like 1

  20. Posted

    23 hours ago, RyanSz said:

    Loved Color Out of Space as well and was utterly suprised by how decent Underwater was. Also ended up really enjoying Sonic the Hedgehog and wondered why we can't have more of THAT Jim Carrey these days, as well as The Hunt which ended up being a pretty good action flick. If you've been playing as many games as I have and are on a Lovecraft kick, definitely check out The Sinking City which is set in the world and works of HP Lovecraft and goes about breaking down how kind of fucked up he was as a real person with his beliefs.

    RE: The Sinking City: glad to hear it! So many bad/underwhelming Lovecraft games. I’ve been curious about that one for awhile. Got a PS4 for Christmas (skipped the PS5 hype because fuck scammers) and I’ll add that to the list of the many game I’ve yet to play.

  21. Posted

    On 1/2/2021 at 12:10 PM, Elektra Boogaloo said:

    https://www.instagram.com/tv/CJjd882JBIo/?igshid=vs2gucut3yl9

    for NYE, Paul and Jason discussed WW84 with a baffled Natasha Leggero and Rob Hubbel. I have a lot to say about this film. I both loved it and hated it. Because everyone was great but it made no sense and kept taking me out of the movie. I kept wanting to tweak things myself or give notes. 

    Seems like we may get a HDTGM about it? 

    Also, I have a question. I haven’t seen the first WW in awhile but isn’t there a scene where she tells Steve she doesn’t have a dad? (That the movie is adhering to the original origin story for her where her mother made her out of clay?) But then in this movie she mentions her dad hiding Themiscyra and I was like, wait is it also in the new timeline where Zeus is her dad????

    Help a nerd out.

     

    I just watched WW84 with my Mom last night. I agree, everyone did the best they could (and I like the first one) but somewhere around the Middle East section, both of us just started laughing at the movie. It felt like they were throwing every idea that they could against the wall with nothing (like WWI) to ground it in a sense of reality. That fucking President—is that supposed to be Ronald Reagan???—threw me for a loop. I also thought the fact that Kristen Wiig didn’t burst into song ala Jennifer Hudson was a wasted opportunity.

    The main thing that bothered me was...where was Pedro Pascal’s kids’ mom? He’s a terrible father, but she’s just non-existent or is perpetually out with her boyfriend? This kid is wandering streets packed With rioters with no parental supervision. Someone call child protective services already.

  22. Posted

    Honestly, in terms of top ten for movies, not a lot stuck with me this year. Perhaps because everything I saw was on the small screen and all of the “great” stuff got so much critical hype that it felt a little flat (or I’ve missed it). Here are the ones I did like:

    Extra Ordinary, Color Out of Space, The Invisible Man, Shirley, Small Axe Mangrove and Lovers Rock (haven’t seen the rest of that series yet), Palm Springs, An American Pickle, American Utopia, The Assistant (although it’s so documentary-like and dry—it reminded me of when I interned at a small production company in college—that it’s hard to recommend to people who aren’t intensely fascinated by the subject matter). I know there are more, but I can’t think of them right now.

    Film that was most praised that I was underwhelmed by: She Dies Tomorrow (I think I’m getting burnt out on the art-house horror trend . Didn’t hate it but it just didn’t leave much of an impression).

    Film that was critically trashed that I was legitimately surprised how much I enjoyed: Underwater. It’s no masterpiece, but for an Alien knockoff, I liked it a helluva lot more thanPrometheus or Alien:Covenant. 
     

    Top TV: Big Mouth, Good Lord Bird, The Queen’s Gambit, The Flight Attendant, Schitt’s Creek, Lovecraft Country (it was hit-or-miss, but overall I liked it), Search Party. There are more, but that’s what I remember.

    TV that was less than the sum of its parts: Devs. And the third season of Westworld sucked.

    I spent a lot of 2020 playing  more videogames than I can count.

    There was a lot of music I liked this year, but RTJ4 and Fetch the Bolt Cutters were by far what I listened to the most.

    Finally, I will sincerely promote the latest album from Deep Sea Diver called Impossible Weight. They’re an up-and-coming Seattle band and —full disclosure—friends of mine. They were recently profiled on Rick Rubin and Malcolm Gladwell’s podcast and their album has a 79 on Metacritic. 

    • Like 1
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