Cameron H.

(FORUM FAUX PAS: I haven't had a chance to listen to the episode yet, but since y’all are talking about the poster already...Anyway, I apologize if anything I'm about to say was covered in the episode.) Something I found bizarre about the movie poster is the need for Wills to be carrying TWO guns! He's got one in his hand and one holstered at his belt. I suspect the original image the gun was in his belt and the artist was told to make the gun more "obvious," and then forgot to fix the original image. As it stands - I don't know - it just seems sort of...excessive. Yes, he carries a gun in the movie, but it's not like he's "the gun guy" or anything. Also, was anyone else as dumbfounded as me that when they were in the strip club and the kidnappers told WIlls to "drop his weapon," instead of actually dropping it on the ground they allow him to just re-holster it? What the fuck? When you have your opponent dead to rights, maybe you don't let them remain armed... Was anyone in this movie not a Grade-A fuck-up?

I also recognized Aretha Franklin’s “Freeway of Love.” I think everything else was just clown music, though...

In other news, I'm not finding very many things to talk about vis-à-vis Second Sight. I'm only about halfway through and I find it to be neither good nor bad. It just sort of...exists.

I don’t think these are new, but on the same token... Also, my parents OWNED this record... (I wonder if they still have it...)

Can you imagine it in IMAX? It would be sensory overload.

For real. I saw exactly one movie in the theater this year: The Lego Batman Movie.

It’s not the merchandising that I find to be a problem, it’s that there’s no respite from it. And with a constant stream of movies, it’s only going to get worse. Like both Fister and Taylor, I also don’t have cable so I couldn’t tell you how often the commercials run, but I can tell you that I will see at least one porg and one lightsaber today *somewhere*

Exactly. There's always been an insane marketing push for Star Wars, but since they were fewer and farther between, it didn't seem so bad. Now it feels like a constant stream. Everywhere I go people are talking about it, debating it, calling each other nerds (or worse) over it. It feels like it's the only thing going on in the world. Shit, I haven't even seen the fucking thing and here I am talking about it! lol Also, like Taylor Anne said, I don't really care about Marvel as much. I've never heard anyone try to make to make that comparison until now. I'm just saying it feels like the McDonaldsification of Star Wars. As they've always been, the movies will be fine (if you're hungry enough), but I'm not sure if they will ever be "special" in the way they were. And even if one does manage to do something different, will we even be able to notice at that point? Will we even care?

Oh, trust me. I'm with you. For me, I find them fun and I enjoy them, but they're not necessarily "good" movies - they never were. But whereas you see promise for good and bad (which of course there will be), I'm just getting bored of it entirely. I'd rather see more movies (as crappy as they are) like Valerian and Jupiter Ascending get made than March of the Porgs or Hard Ticket to Hoth.

I think it's more how it feels endless now. It used to be special. You had to wait more than a decade for a new Trilogy (and three years between installments). I think the proliferation of movies has diluted the brand. Like Taylor said, I think the announcement of the new Rian Johnson trilogy is what broke me. It's not that I don't think future movies won't be good, it's more that they've lost their shine. I also fear for anyone trying to make a Sci-fi movie that's *not* a Star Wars tie-in. We've been given the keys to the candy shop...and we're going to get sick.

I think he means the “No, I am your father” bit. It’s so ingrained in pop culture that it’s become a cliche, but I’m sure it was divisive at the time. Was he lying? If he’s telling the truth, why was Obi-Wan lying? I like it. I hate it. Given the ability to connect and argue with people over social media, I think that scene might have had the potential to “break the Internet.”

You mean people don’t want all mystery stripped away? I 100% agree with you. The stories that seem to stick are the ones that introduce you to a new universe, but don’t necessarily fill in all the gaps. When the Harry Potter books were coming out, my favorite part was the speculation between books. Of course the down side to all of this is that is you end up writing the “perfect” story in your head. Consequently, it took me awhile to accept Deathly Hallows for what it was. I’m sure that’s what’s happening with TLJ. I refuse to believe it’s as good or bad as everyone is saying. I think that with time and distance people will end up falling somewhere in the middle.

Truth be told: I think I’m alread starting to feel Star Wars fatigue

What I find fascinating (as someone who won't be seeing the movie until it's streaming), is that no one seems to be allowed to have an apathetic feeling regarding The Last Jedi. Either you love it (and don't recognize "Art" when they see it) or they hate it (and everyone else is being blind its many significant flaws). I feel like, once I've seen it, I feel much the way I felt when I first say TFA - that is to say, disappointed at first, but grow to like it for what it is. I just think it's weird that there's (apparently) no middle ground.

And “Nightmare on My Street” at number one.

That performance...oh, lord. Although I thought the kids’ dismissive attitude afterward was much more realistic than the kids coming in off the street in the first one. What annoyed me is that this movie didn’t really make much of an attempt to make the music, I don’t know, clever? In the first one, they rearrange traditional songs and change lyrics to suit the subject matter (e.g. “My Guy” becomes “My God”) In this one, it was basically just nuns and kids doing straight covers. I guess “Ode to Joy” was kind of their “Salve Ragina,” but Ragina was the *first* song in Sister Act, not the last.

First of all: braaaaaag! Secondly, the way she kept peeping in on them after she quit, I mentally started referring to her as the choir’s own personal gargoyle.

Was anyone else having issues trying to figure out Lauren Hill's mother's motivations and rationale? She says she wants Hill to focus on school and get good grades, but how is having her drop out doing her any good? By dropping it, at best she can hope for an Incomplete which is probably going to fuck up her GPA just as bad as getting an "F." I mean, the whole reason she was in Music class in the first place - at least as far as we know at first - was to get an easy "A." Isn't having her dropping the class counterproductive? Also, her mom seems to have a real issue with the class becoming a choir, but Hill didn't just join some extracurricular activity. Dolores made the unilateral decision to make them a choir. For Hill to do well in school, she HAS to stay in that class! Or, if her mother really is that opposed to it, she could go to Father Maurice - state her case - and hope he'll allow for a mid-semester (quarter?) transfer I get she wanted her to focus on something other than singing, but she is intentionally sabotaging her daughter's academic career. It makes no sense.

Another thing that bothered me about this movie is what about the rest of the school? Granted, Delores was brought in to teach the Music class, but it's obvious that the issues that school is facing run much deeper than just one music class (btw - is that her only class? Are there not other music classes?). So at the end everyone is happy because everything is "fixed," but nothing Delores did will fix anything beyond that handful of students. For example, she didn't teach Mary Patrick to be a better Sex Ed teacher or keeping the students in Father Thomas' class from falling into a coma during his lectures. It also bothered me that at one point Father Maurice tells Mother Superior that Delores has been "disruptive," but she's literally done nothing disruptive at all! Her students are - and always have been - the problem. It's not like in the first one where she's a real wrench in the gears. In this movie she is nothing but cooperative and helpful from the jump. Unless you count not wanting to eat Father Wolfgang's pornographic bratwurst as "disruptive."

I loved when Sister Mary Roberts was pointing out Father Maurice and "Crispy" to Delores and says something like "well the old one is..." and then it the movie cuts to two gray-haired, old men.

I would support this choice if they hadn't already done B&R - which is way worse in my opinion. I don't know if there's much to be gained by going backward in a franchise. It feels like it would be pretty much the same discussion, except the crazy things that were in B&R, would be more diluted here.

And speaking of the nerd..! What's his deal anyway? Like, why is he taking a "bird" course? Based on his character type, that doesn't seem like something that would interest him. He never even shows a particular aptitude or interest in music. There's not a line about him needing it to cope with stress or how much music means to him. He's just kind of there to fill a stereotype. What's even weirder is how deep he appears to be in their inner circle. At school they tease him for being a nerd and a brown-noser, yet they're still hanging out with him after school. I just don't get that.

So...is Sister Mary Patrick, like, the FULL TIME Sex Ed teacher? I would have thought she was the Health teacher, but it seems like sex is the only topic she teaches. Is it a semester long course? That seems ridiculous. Also, at one point, the nerd character says they are going to do something “quickly and expeditiously.” While I get that they want that character to be a bit verbose, you’d think he’d be smart enough to realize he’s being redundant.

Wow. I did it. 557 movies. Which is an ass ton of movies. Unfortunately, though, I still didn't hit two of my benchmarks. I only ended up watching 358 "new" movies, so I fell 7 short for one new movie for every day. That also only put me at 64% new movies watched. However, I did enjoy the experiment - especially as I used it as an opportunity to watch a bunch of classics I'd never seen. Even going through this list now brings back a lot of fun memories and conversations I've had. I think I'm addicted to this now, and I will definitely be giving it another go in 2018 - albeit at a much more leisurely pace :)/> My biggest joy this year was discovering the "Before..." series. My biggest disappointment was probably watching MASH for the first time. My favorite documentary was I Am Big Bird: The Caroll Spinney Story. For anyone interested, here's the complete list: https://letterboxd.com/cameronh/list/dlm-challenge-2017/