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Cameron H.

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Posts posted by Cameron H.

  6. Posted

    Now I believe somebody may have already mentioned this, sorry for repeating, but as this is the biggest plot hole in the movie to me so it bares mentioning again.

     

    When Ramirez and MacLeod are being sentenced they are told that once there is one left alive they will have the choice to either stay in the future, become mortal, grow old and die or they could return to the past with their freedom and faith restored and live on as an immortal. MacLeod is clearly an old man, and has been aging and presumably dying since he defeated the Kurgan and becoming the one. 39 years later they decide to look in on him and say "He has still yet to decide" but isn't his decision obvious? He clearly decided to grow old and die because that's what he was doing. Did they think he was going to pull a fast one and on his deathbed magically repent and be whisked away back to the past? When he became the one, was he suppose to shout "I decided to grow old and die" like Michael Scott declaring bankruptcy and hope they were watching him at that moment? They left him no way to get in contact with them so how was he suppose to notify them of his decision? Why did they wait 39 years to get his decision? Then when Katana calls for the Porcupine twins and tells them to find him in the future they say "You said he was mortal and would never return." See they get it! Katana gets it too. So why not just send them to the future and bring them back and say "Oh, yea he decided to stay there." Why is this an issue? Also, Katana clearly hates MacLeod and wishes him dead, so why task him with the job in the first place? And for that matter Katana knows he's going to die so why bother having the porcupine twins murder him when he could wait another few years.

     

    What's crazy about all of this is that Katana is willing to execute them right away and they tell him he can't. Fast forward a few hundred years and they're like, "Shit, he may choose to come back. We should probably kill him." I imagine it took Katana a great deal of self-restraint to not say, "That's what I've been saying!"

     

    Also, their rules of exile have a very Gamer-esque flaw. Basically, all these Immortal political prisoners are exiled to another time/planet/plane of existence where they are left to accumulate power by killing one another, but doesn't this means that only the most powerful Immortal--with the most experience murdering people--will be allowed to return to their time/planet/plane of existence? I mean, I get that's why they're concerned, but those were the rules they set up--which are really stupid.

     

    Finally, who cares if he DOES choose to return, you've mastered fucking time travel! If it looks like he's going to make that choice, just send some guys back--I don't know--a few days, weeks, months, whatever before he makes that decision. Jesus! Time travel is wasted on the chronically dumb.

    • Like 4

  7. Posted

    So, at the very end of the movie, MacLeod decapitates Katana by the Shield Generator--thus ushering forth The Quickening. And, as lightning and other nonsense swirls around MacLeod, we hear Ramirez's voice say, "It'll take the power of you both to destroy the Shield." Wait a second, was that their PLAN?* That seems crazy specific.

     

    So I guess if Ramirez had lived, he and MacLeod would have had to fight to the death to generate the same amount of energy? But since Ramirez dies on the way, they just have to hope that Katana follows them (preferably alone) to the roof of the Shield generator? What were they going to do had Katana chosen not to follow?

     

    Maybe next time they should consider bringing some explosives or something...I just feel like their Plan A was leaving way too much to chance

     

    *Or, at least it's Ramirez's plan. Since MacLeod has to be reminded from beyond the grave, apparently he didn't have a clue. I guess Ramirez just assumed that while MacLeod was glowering at the Shield and shaking his fists, he could sneak up and decapitate him from behind--thereby taking all the glory for himself. I mean, considering all MacLeod had to do to resurrect his friend was call his name ONE TIME over the course of 500 years, I can't say I really blame Ramirez for being a little bitter.

    • Like 3

  8. Posted

    This movie is so insane to pick just one or two crazy things near impossible. So quickly here are three things that stand out to me that nobody has brought up yet.

     

    1. Was the angry lady in the bar not alive 25 years prior when the solar radiation was killing all the people? She's so angry at MacLeod for sending them into this perpetual red sky world which I guess led the world into chaos, but what was the alternative? For them not to build a shield, the ozone layer to disappear and everybody die horribly? Given the option between long painful death and red skied dystopia you think she'd pick the latter but I guess not.[it

     

    Would it surprise you to learn that she's only 17?

     

    3. So the location of this point that is "above the shield" is 33 degrees 26 minutes north. Even if we give them the benefit of the doubt and say they're not in America and that they are in some other country with mountains on the 33rd parallel they are still no where near the highest points on on earth.

     

    Not only that, but airplanes still exist! And, according to the quick Google search "average plane altitude," planes are usually assigned a cruising altitude of 39,000 ft--higher for longer flights (which I assume would include a transatlantic flight from Scotland to New York) In other words, the average altitude for flight is 10,000ft higher than Mt Everest--which is still considered to be the tallest mountain in the world. So either all the mountains in the world suddenly had a massive growth spurt or people should be flying over the Shield all the damn time...

    • Like 2

  9. Posted

    Here's one that might just be for the Highlander nerds out there since it gets a little bit into the first movie....

     

    At the beginning of this movie, back in the past/Zeist, Connery's character is asked, "Will you lead us Ramirez?" What's significant about this question is that that means that "Juan Sanchez Villa-Lobos Ramirez" isn't just some assumed name he picks up during his exile, but that it is his actual name. Similarly, this implies that "MacLeod" is Conner's real name. But, in the first movie, he's apart of the clan MacLeod. And, according to IMDb, in the first movie there is an Angus, Dougal, and Kate MacLeod (I think they are supposed to be his father, brother, and sister respectively).

     

    So...what's going on there? How did his family pick up a new member without anyone noticing?

    • Like 1

  10. Posted

    Okay, here's something straight up crazy and I can't believe that it hasn't been brought up already. When the eco-terrorist makes her way into MacLeod's Museum of Mementos the first thing she sees is a picture of him with a bunch of guys in old-timey football uniforms. Then, and this is insane, in voice over, we hear MacLeod barking out a play. Specifically, he says, "On three...Break! Red 36, Blue 21! Hike! Hike! Hike!"

     

    How in the holy fuck is she hearing his memories?

     

    (This all happens at 1:06:51.)

    • Like 5

  11. Posted

    First of all, I'm absolutely thrilled that, in the Hellish nightmare that is 2024, attendance to the theater appears to have gone up. Both the opera and Hamlet seemed to be packed! It's nice to know that although the rest of the world is a flaming mess, people still want to get some goddamn culture.

     

    Anyway...

     

    When Macleod was driving home from the opera and was watching the news, did anyone else think the breaking news was absolutely ridiculous?

     

    For the night's top story, the anchor reports that, "Today's satellite readings from above the shield confirm that highly dangerous levels of ultraviolet radiation continue to bombard the planet in the absence of the ozone layer. But here below the shield, we are protected and safe."

     

    Um...yeah, guy, we know! That's pretty much been the situation, unchanged, for the past twenty-five years! We don't need a nightly freaking reminder!

    • Like 4

  13. Posted

    While I get this movie is insane, I honestly think the moment it truly lost me to its madness was when MacLeod and his associate where communicating to each other on the see-through monitor, they capitalized the first letter of EVERY SINGLE WORD! They even capitalized articles and short prepositions! I mean, what the fuck? Who does that? So either this guy has a word processor that is defaulted to capitalize everything or these two chuckledicks need to take it easy on that 'Shift' key--especially on a surreptitious communique.

    • Like 2

  15. Posted

    Great episode! Loved every minute of it!

     

    When Katana first materializes in the future he harasses a man with some kind of weird Oculus Rift set up and says, "This sure doesn't look like Kansas, does it?" Obviously, this is a reference to The Wizard of Oz, but how would Katana know that movie at all, let alone well enough to paraphrase it? Like, when he isn't using the "Future Vision" television-hologram-thingy to peep in on MacLeod is he using it to pop over to AMC to watch classic MGM Musicals?

     

    Also, while I'm on the topic of "Future Vision" television-hologram-thingy, the Porcupine Brothers argue against going to the future to kill MacLeod because, "He's an old man. He'll be dead in a couple of weeks." Of course, they are shot down and sent to the future anyway, but how about this for an idea bad guys: Why not, just for shits and giggles, instead of complicating matters and risking MacLeod getting his power and Immortality back, fast forward your Computer of Scrying a couple of weeks? You know, just to see what he chooses...

     

    Also, by sending the two men to the future to kill MacLeod, and since it has been well established that "there can only be one," after the've killed MacLeod, would the Porcupine Brothers then have to kill one another? I'm just saying, with good Insane Bird-Porcupine henchmen so hard to come by, this plan seems like a flagrant waste of resources.

    • Like 2

  16. Posted

    But the most important change in the two versions is the line that Sean Connery says to his female co-passenger. "In fact it's well known that the dark-haired ladies *whispers*...". In the theatrical AND 2004 versions this is omitted, but in the original Renegade it's crystal clear that he continues "...like to sit on men's faces". SAY WHAT???? That's right motherfucker, my main man Ramirez is laying down the law: You will sit on my face and I will eat out whatever it is sitting on my face which I care not to identify!

     

     

    Wait a minute! That was in the version I watched (I remember because ever since I heard him deliver that line I can't seem to get clean). Does this mean I still somehow managed to watch the wrong version even after asking around?

     

    God, I hate this movie! Even finding the right version of it is a fucking three-toed tango of insanity.

    • Like 6

  19. Posted

     

     

    Don't mean this as a weird brag, but it kinda blows my mind for someone to say they tried CBB after hearing HDTGM first. Back in my day Comedy Death Ray was practically the only game in town. I remember when HDTGM was knee high to a bird's eye, etc.

     

    And I don't mean to brag, but I actually discovered HDTGM through The Cracked Podcast--before they were a part of Earwolf, that is.

     

     

    I don't think we're using that word right...

     

    • Like 2

  21. Posted

    I felt like, not only were they capitulating to the dissenters...

     

    This decision wasn't capitulation to dissenters.

     

    Paul, I really hope I didn't come off as too hawkish. I only meant, at the time, that it felt like that, not that it was like that. I apologize if my choice of words were at all inflammatory.

     

    The bottom line is that I support you guys whatever your decision :)

     

    We cool?

    • Like 3

  22. Posted

    I would love it, if all content providers put everything behind the paywall (like Financial Times and The Times of London. They have no free trial subscriptions, no 10 free articles a month.) This culture of free content is ruinous. I have seen sites that I frequented shut down or reduced/changed its contents. Sites like Videogum, Television Without Pity, The Toast and A.V. Club (all of them have hundreds of extremely active commenters). The number of magazines and newspapers keep shrinking. And taking their place are things that are crap and fake.

     

    I have worked in customer service my entire life. Customers aren't always right. And we don't try to retain every customers. There are good customers and there are bad ones. Bad customers are high-maintenance and keeping them are costly. So shoppers who throw stuff at cashiers are banned from grocery stores, abusive callers are hung up on mid-rants, chronic no-shows are dismissed from clinics. We would rather spend the time, effort, and money on being extra nice to the good customers.

     

    I like and respect Paul a great deal but I wish he had handled this differently.

     

    1) Whatever he thinks of the paywall, I think he would agree that the time and effort he, June, Jason, the guests, the engineers, the interns and other staff put into the podcast is worth $5 a month. Stand by that.

     

    2) He is fostering poor fan behavior and entitlement. This solution to the paywall is a messy one (to whoever responsible for keeping track of which ep is going behind the paywall and when, I hope you are compensated for the extra work. Or maybe not. If the talent don't deserve $5 a month why should you--faceless drone--be compensated. You are lucky to have this job--paid or unpaid--for the connections and exposure.) and will generate more complaints in the future. He might have stopped a one-and-done tsunami, but he will have a long future of drips and drabs of complaints to contend with.

     

    3) Paul has a big voice in the comedy world. He should come out stronger for paid content to help out those with lower profile. People look to the top for how to act. I'm seeing many comments pointing to Paul when they argued for free content.

     

    The $5 a month. Like I've said earlier, I have always worked in customer service. And I'm now a 40-year-old undergrad studying math full-time. My financial situation has always vacillated between tight and desperate. I own 1 pair of sneakers and 1 pair of rain boots. I have worn the same set of clothes from Wal-Mart and Old Navy for 4 years. I get a haircut once a year. I look like a bag lady. I also have a serious medical condition that requires the care of expensive specialists and expensive medications. I can't afford health insurance. I'm not taking the amount of medication I need and am rationing it. I won't be able to scrape together the hundreds of dollars a month for healthcare, but I can scrape together $5. I eBay stuff, I take part in surveys, I become a human guinea pig.

     

    We all have sob stories. Because life is hard. Life is uncomfortable. Life is not fair (when people talk about fairness outside of discussions of systemic injustices like sexism and racism, it sounds like a child whining.). And still, the world owes us nothing. Certainly not podcasts.

     

     

    While I stand by the thanks I wrote earlier, I don't disagree with you. In fact, my first reaction upon hearing today's message was, "That's BS!" I felt like, not only were they capitulating to the dissenters, but they were kind of throwing their peers and co-workers under the bus by saying, "Don't subscribe. Just wait and download them when you can." I mean, I believe that's all well and good for three well-to-do, successful (outside of just this podcast) actor/ comedians, but what about the engineers, human resource staff, custodians, etc? I'm thinking, doesn't part of the revenue that your podcast brings in go to pay their salary? This is why I signed up for Howl on Day 1. As one of, if not the, most popular podcasts on the network (at least according to the iTunes ratings I've seen), don't they have a responsibility to add value to the Howl service?

     

    It also felt like he was treading a fine very line between loyalty to the company and maintaining fan support. Still, I think they sincerely have their fans' interests at heart and that that is first and foremost in their mind. I can't help but respect them for that.

     

    Ultimately, I think their decision is actually the very best. Although keeping the majority of their catalog behind the paywall would add value to the Howl service, this same popularity kind of makes it more important that they keep many of their episodes free. This way, HDTGM becomes the vanguard for Earwolf/Howl. I mean, I would never have tried CBB, Spont, IWTT, or any of the other shows on Earwolf if it wasn't for HDTGM first. Likewise, by leaving a greater number of episodes outside the paywall, new listeners (once indoctrinated into the ways of HDTGM) might be enticed to listen to other shows on Earwolf.

     

    Of course, all of this is a totally unscientific and unresearched-lol. It just helped me wrap my head around the decision a little better.

     

    Regardless, even if they decided to make their entire catalog free forever, and even though I am not currently listening to any other Earwolf shows, I still think Howl is worthwhile.

     

    The one thing I could truly use less of though, is people complaining after Paul has already come forward and offered this extremely generous solution. Right now, I am so over hearing people continue to complain even after their side has essentially won. I hear enough of that in my day-to-day.

    • Like 7

  23. Posted

     

    As I stated in the Earwolf newsletter today, this was scheduling related. Hannibal wanted to be able put out a podcast whenever he had time to, and our ad team needs for shows to put out episodes on a consistent schedule. Simple as that. Amicable split.

     

    Sorry. Not in the mood for conspiracy theories today.

     

    I had your back. Sorry I didn't get to it fast enough :)

     

    top-gun-high-five-580-100538112-large.gif

     

    But would you like to comment on whether or not Mr. Aukerman is, in fact, a lizard person?

    • Like 4

  24. Posted

    https://twitter.com/...664179527385090

     

    Anyone think this was paywall related?

     

    Considering his podcast started well after Howl was created (so there must have been some discussion of the future paywall when he signed with Earwolf) and his podcast hasn't even gotten to 6 months of backlogged episodes (i.e. none would even be going behind it), No. I think it's exactly what they said it was. He's too busy to for a committed schedule. Going independent allows him to release episodes at his leisure.

     

    Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

    • Like 2
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