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1
The Flood / Chainsaw Man good
« on: January 02, 2023, 02:49:48 AM »
yep

2
Gaming / i set a world record (kinda)
« on: July 12, 2022, 05:19:48 PM »
https://cyberscore.me.uk/chart/51936



Pokémon Snap recently dropped on the NSO N64 app, so I've been playing that a bunch lately. Featured in the game is my favorite Pokémon, Porygon, so I thought it would be fun to try taking the highest possible scoring photo of one (or, in this case, two).

Pictured above is my best effort: a 5710 point photo earned after hours and hours of grinding. After looking up what the world record is, though, I discovered that a Japanese player was able to snap a photo worth 5790 points, 10 points off the theoretical maximum. In other words, to beat this guy, I would need to take a flawless photo. Maximum points in every category—a feat which may or may not even be possible, given that nobody has been able to do it for the 20+ years the game has been out.

At that point, I figured the dream was done—I already invested so much time into getting one photo over 5700 points, and I still had 80 points to go before I could even tie the world record. Seemed like a hopeless waste of time.

Then, it hit me—these scores are only valid for the original N64 version of the game. It turns out that there's actually a separate leaderboard for the Wii, Wii U, and Switch ROMs of the game (and the reason for this is because these versions of the game utilize a different scoring algorithm than the N64 original).

Upon realizing this, I immediately checked the other leaderboard, and lo and behold—it turns out that I do have the highest scoring Porygon photo—but only for this version of the game. And by 60 points. I figured, you know what? I'LL TAKE IT. I have a world record. It may be the lamest world record of all time, but it's M I N E

3
The Flood / what do you call it when you steal an atheist's tea?
« on: February 26, 2021, 02:13:28 PM »
a heist

4
The Flood / We did it
« on: February 25, 2021, 01:29:02 AM »

5
The Flood / holy fuck, he actually said it
« on: February 14, 2021, 11:51:09 AM »
YouTube

wait for it

6
The Flood / alex trebek's final jeopardy episode airs tomorrow night
« on: January 07, 2021, 01:39:57 PM »
who's gonna catch that?

post jeopardy moments

YouTube

7
The Flood / Social intelligence test
« on: October 29, 2020, 12:51:36 PM »
http://socialintelligence.labinthewild.org/mite/

31 out of 36

looks like i'm not autistic after all

8
Gaming / The original Fire Emblem is finally getting a localization
« on: October 22, 2020, 12:09:38 PM »
........................available for a limited time

YouTube

Unfortunately, this seems to be a recurring strategy for Nintendo as of late, and it's really pissing me off.

Recently, to celebrate Mario's 35th anniversary, Nintendo dropped Super Mario 3D All-Stars, a collection of three remastered 3D Mario games (64, Sunshine, and Galaxy) as well as Super Mario Bros. 35, a free-to-play (as long as you're subscribed to NSO) version of the original Super Mario Bros. that's been retooled into a competitive multiplayer battle royale, similar to Tetris 99, where 35 concurrent players try to outlast each other in the classic game. However, due to this apparent new marketing strategy that Nintendo has begun to employ for any sort of rerelease of their retro back catalogue, these games will only be available until the end of March next year.

In other words, you have until April 2021 to purchase 3D All-Stars for your personal collection until you won't find it in stores anymore. As for Mario 35, because this game is exclusively digital, the game will simply poof out of existence, so that nobody will get to play it anymore. This is fucking AIDS for obvious reasons, and the trend does seem to be continuing for this Fire Emblem localization, coming out on December 4.

To be positive for a sec, the fact that they're localizing this game at all is pretty damn cool for a retro gamer such as myself, and for someone who's never really cared about the Mother series, you could actually say that this game is like my Mother 3. It's that exciting for me, because I've been waiting SO LONG to play the original Fire Emblem game in a language that I can understand. I just kind of hate knowing that I'll inevitably be forced to challenge my own principles with this one, because my inevitable purchase of this localization will inevitably feed into this new anti-consumer practice that Nintendo has adopted for their retro games. Kinda makes me sick, and sours what is otherwise fairly exciting news for Fire Emblem fans and fans of old-ass games alike.

9
The Flood / Take this
« on: October 10, 2020, 12:19:44 AM »

10
it's times like these when i wonder if i really should get out of this place

11
YouTube

i thought this was just delightful

12
The Flood / i may have discovered the root of all my problems
« on: July 27, 2020, 03:13:59 PM »
the fact that we all have to share the same planet

if we didn't, i would be the happiest and most laidback person ever

oh, you watch kill la kill and voted for trump? that's cool man, you do that

in the meantime, i'll be over here on this other planet where people don't do stupid shit like that

13
The Flood / realization
« on: July 22, 2020, 11:24:11 PM »
if in 2014, weebs had just said "anime is good; we just have extremely terrible taste," 90% of the conflict in this website would've been averted

14
Gaming / 2020 midpoint recap
« on: July 01, 2020, 05:28:00 PM »
Earlier last year, and against my better judgment, I decided I was gonna try to make an effort to play more modern games. If only for this year alone, I wanted to pick up at least one new game for every month of 2020—but then, of course, a world-stopping monkey wrench known as COVID-19 was thrown into every industry known to man, with video games being no exception. There have been a great deal of delays and push-backs aplenty over the past six months, and there doesn't seem to be an end in sight, leaving a relative dearth of overhyped and overproduced bullshit for us to consume. Whether that's ultimately good or bad is up to you, but that's just kinda the state of things right now.

Nonetheless, I still wanted to follow through with my plan, even if it meant buying some bum-ass indie game on Steam, because nothing else came out that month. So, here's everything that's been on my radar:



January

☐ Journey to the Savage Planet
☐ Yakuza: Like a Dragon (Japan only)
☐ Hypercharge: Unboxed
☐ Puzzle & Dragons Gold
☐ Romance of the Three Kingdoms XIV
☐ The Walking Dead: Saints and Sinners
☐ Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot
☐ Kandagawa Jet Girls (Japan only)
☐ AO Tennis 2

Basically nothing came out this month, which, for January, isn't out of the ordinary. I was initially somewhat interested in the new Yakuza, but it won't be coming stateside until later this year, and I haven't even played any of the others anyway. On top of that, I guess it's going to be an RPG, which seems to be a major departure from the rest of the series—so I'll have to pass on it, unfortunately.

That doesn't really leave very much, though. The only thing here that has me mildly interested (at best) is Journey to the Savage Planet, which looks kinda decent, but it also just looks like a bootleg Ratchet & Clank game to me, so I'm hesitant to drop $29.99 on it. I'll see if I can't get it on sale, or something.

YouTube



February

☑ Dreams
☐ Granblue Fantasy Versus
☐ Vitamin Connection
☐ Boris and the Dark Survival
☐ Katana Kami: A Way of the Samurai Story
☐ Persona 5 Scramble (Japan only)
☐ Death end re;Quest 2 (Japan only)
☐ Zombie Army 4: Dead War
☐ Hatsune Miku: Project DIVA Mega Mix
☐ Space Channel 5 VR: Kinda Funky News Flash!
☐ Dota Underlords
☐ One-Punch Man: A Hero Nobody Knows
☐ The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Tactics
☐ Monster Energy Supercross 3

To think that if Dreams never came out, I'd be stuck playing some weebshit fighting game instead. Long story short—Media Molecule did it again this year, having dropped what is almost assuredly going to end up being my GotY, although it's certainly debatable as to whether such a release should even count. Nonetheless, playing Dreams is the most consistently mind-blowing virtual experience I've had in the past ten years.

Dreams isn't just a sandbox game, or a simple creative tool—it's a straight-up game engine, but streamlined to be as welcoming and as user-friendly as possible. You can make anything with it; the degree of creative freedom that you're granted is seriously un-fucking-paralleled, and truly something to behold. As much I'd love to prattle off a list of things that I've seen created in Dreams, it would be futile, because the list of things that I haven't seen would be significantly shorter. The possibilities truly are endless with this one, and to top it all off, it's only $39.99. How can you beat that? An absolute and emphatic must-have for any PlayStation owner.

YouTube



March

☑ Animal Crossing: New Horizons
☐ Ori and the Will of the Wisps
☐ Half-Life: Alyx
☐ Nioh 2
☐ Doom Eternal
☐ Good Job!
☐ Biped
☐ Murder by Numbers
☐ Twin Breaker: A Sacred Symbols Adventure
☐ Bleeding Edge
☐ Cooking Mama: Cookstar
☐ Pokémon Mystery Dungeon: Rescue Team DX
☐ Panzer Dragoon: Remake
☐ Black Mesa
☐ My Hero: One's Justice 2
☐ One Piece: Pirate Warriors 4
☐ MLB The Show 20
☐ R.B.I. Baseball 20

Probably the strongest month of the year in terms of options. I'm definitely interested in the new Ori game, but I still need to play Blind Forest. I love Half-Life, but I don't have a VR device (nor a PC powerful enough) to handle Alyx, so I'll keep my fingers crossed for a PSVR release. I also haven't played Nioh, so I'd rather hold off on the sequel, and I've never really given a shit about Doom, so Eternal was kind of off the table for me.

That pretty much leaves Animal Crossing: New Horizons—which is just as well, because as several others have pointed out, this game could not have come out at a better time. After putting up with the ongoing turmoil in the outside world, day in and day out, some of us really needed a relaxing game where all you do is hang out in a cute little village with your cute little animal friends. It's not a game for everybody—and indeed, it's yet another one of those games that challenges the definition of "game" itself—but regardless, with 13 million units sold in six weeks, it seems plain enough that AC was exactly what a lot of people needed in their lives.

YouTube



April

☑ Telling Lies
☐ XCOM: Chimera Squad
☐ Streets of Rage 4
☐ Moving Out
☐ Legends of Runeterra
☐ Predator: Hunting Grounds
☐ Final Fantasy VII Remake
☐ Resident Evil 3
☐ Trials of Mana
☐ SnowRunner
☐ Gears Tactics
☐ Picross S4
☐ Bokuhime Project (Japan only)
☐ MotoGP 20

If you're anything like me, and you don't really give a shit about remakes, then this month was even weaker than January for you, especially if you don't care about XCOM. Streets of Rage is a classic series, and all, but I don't necessarily need a fourth one. That leaves Telling Lies—a live action game where you try to solve a mystery by listening in on Skype calls between four people, and piece together whatever bits of information you can scrounge up, which is an admittedly neat concept, but I'm not sure how much I'd be willing to spend on that.

If you do care about remakes, then this was a pretty good year. Final Fantasy VII Remake dropped, which is kind of a big deal, as well as Resident Evil 3—both of which seem to have been very well-received. I'm interested in picking up the former, but only after I play the original Final Fantasy VII—which, in turn, I will only play once I've beaten I-VI, because I want to be the first American to ever play the Final Fantasy games in sequential order. That's gonna take a very long time, though... so, maybe I'll have to settle for Telling Lies.

YouTube



May

☑ Wildfire
☐ Crucible
☐ The Persistence
☐ Maneater
☐ Minecraft Dungeons
☐ Deep Rock Galactic
☐ Cannibal Cuisine
☐ Synaptic Drive
☐ Umihara Kawase BaZooKa!! (Japan only)
☐ The Elder Scrolls: Blades
☐ Golf With Your Friends
☐ Super Mega Baseball 3

Slim pickings this month once again. Both my initial pick and my back-up pick—The Last of Us Part II and Ninjala—were pushed back from this month, which pretty much left nothing else to look forward to. Maneater looks kinda funny, I guess, but not something I'd spend real money on. Crucible is appealing strictly on the basis that it's free to play, but beyond that, it looks like a generic piece of shit. The Persistence is mildly interesting, but also not really.

So, the game I'm currently waiting to go on sale for is Wildfire. $14.99 seems a bit steep for a game like this, but it does look like the best option available.

YouTube



June

☑ The Last of Us Part II
☐ Death Come True
☐ Liberated
☑ Ninjala
☐ Valorant
☐ Disintigration
☐ Desperados III
☐ Brigandine: The Legend of Runersia
☐ Pokémon Café Mix
☑ Jump Rope Challenge
☐ Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road
☐ SpongeBob SquarePants: Battle for Bikini Bottom – Rehydrated

I've had my sights set to three games in June—The Last of Us Part II for obvious reasons, but also two lesser-known games: Death Come True and Liberated. The former is another live action game, this one being Japanese and created by some of the people behind Danganronpa and Zero Escape. It's a choose-your-own adventure where you wake up with a dead body in your apartment, but with no memory of how it got there. The police arrive shortly thereafter, leaving you to think fast and Heavy Rain your way out of the situation. It looks pretty cool, if you ask me.

Liberated, on the other hand, is an action game with graphics made to look exactly like you're reading a comic book. I'm a sucker for cool gimmicks like this, so I'll probably pick this one up down the line. The Last of Us Part II took precedence, though, of course. Despite the controversy surrounding it, I've been thoroughly enjoying myself so far, and I guess you could say I'm still waiting to understand why people are so upset about it.

YouTube



That's pretty much it, I think. July's not looking spectacular right now, but I'll probably end up choosing Ghost of Tsushima if nothing else.

Just for fun, I made a tier list for sorting out all the games you're interested in playing, and I included everything that isn't a port, remaster, update, expansion, collection, or anything that's not a new and original title, or a full-fledged remake. I couldn't be bothered to add sports games like MLB: The Show 20, so I apologize that those are missing, and Battle for Bikini Bottom: Rehydrated is included because it was advertised as a full remake, even though it turned out to just be more of a remaster.

Here's mine

So, what have you been playing?

15
The Flood / speaking as a vegan
« on: June 24, 2020, 08:31:07 AM »
KILL ALL MOSQUITOS






AALLLLLLLL OF THEEEEEEEMMMMMMMMMM

16
Gaming / itch.io's Bundle for Racial Justice and Equality
« on: June 12, 2020, 06:11:06 PM »
https://itch.io/b/520/bundle-for-racial-justice-and-equality

1600+ indie games, including some heavy-hitters like Celeste and Night in the Woods, for just $5, with half the proceeds going towards the NAACP Legal Defense, and the other half going towards the Educational Fund and Community Bail Fund. Three days remaining.

Yeah, most of these are flat-out garbage, but who cares, it's for a good cause.

17
YouTube

18
Gaming / EVO Online 2020 - Cancelled.
« on: May 20, 2020, 03:07:46 PM »
YouTube

Shortly after the COVID-based cancellation of EVO, which is basically the Superbowl of fighting games, it was announced that an online iteration of the tournament would be held over the course of July—but only for a select few games—none of which were featured in the original lineup, which consisted of Street Fighter V: Champion Edition, Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, Tekken 7, Dragon Ball FighterZ, Soulcalibur VI, Samurai Shodown, Granblue Fantasy Versus, and Under Night In-Birth Exe:Late[cl-r].

These games will not have proper tournaments held for them; instead, they'll have "special exhibitions and content" (although, I'm not exactly sure what that entails)—with the notable exception of Smash, which will conspicuously not be featured at the event in any form whatsoever. This is probably because the game's netplay sucks giant donkey dick.

Of the four chosen titles for their online tournaments, quality of netplay seems to have been the common denominator:

- Mortal Kombat 11: Aftermath
- Killer Instinct (2013)
- Them's Fightin' Herds
- Skullgirls: 2nd Encore

Unfortunately, I'm not a big fan of these games. While I do love Killer Instinct, and I have the SNES port of the original game to credit for getting me into the genre in the first place, I don't have an Xbox One or a strong enough PC to run the latest title. I've never taken Mortal Kombat seriously as a competitive fighter, and Them's Fightin' Herds is literally just that one brony fighter rebuilt into its own IP, so... No thanks.

That leaves Skullgirls—a game that ALL of my fighting game friends say is incredible, and that I'd really enjoy it from a pure gameplay standpoint, but at the same time, if you know anything about me at all, you already know what my biggest problem with the game is. I did just buy it, though, because it was on sale, and because I'm miraculously able to run it on my shitty-ass laptop—but I haven't tried it yet, and I don't really know if I actually want to just yet.

19
The Flood / Sure, Carmen
« on: May 19, 2020, 12:33:51 PM »
No.

go right ahead

no problemo

20
The Flood / Loaf stopped posting
« on: May 15, 2020, 03:29:17 AM »
good job fedorekd

21
The Flood / who's job is it to place "out of order" signs on things
« on: May 12, 2020, 05:28:28 PM »
is it someone's job to do that, like a janitor or something?

or are they just placed by some random good samaritan? if so, do you need somebody's permission first?

i've never seen somebody actually place one before, and i've always wondered

22
Gaming / Ranking every TGA Game of the Year nominee
« on: May 07, 2020, 07:50:19 PM »
Had a somewhat fun idea for a tier list:
https://tiermaker.com/create/tga-game-of-the-year-nominees-11379

Here, you can rank all the games that were nominated for GotY over the past decade by The Game Awards (or their previous incarnation, the Spike Video Game Awards).

Note the hardcore Western bias, and the emphasis placed on the most mind-numbingly commercial crap imaginable. The terrible selection of games should make this all the more interesting, I think. If the tiers don't work for you, you can relabel them to whatever you need them to be. Most of you should probably add a "haven't played" tier, for example.

I'm personally not qualified to make my own list yet, because I haven't played 90% of this bullshit, but I know most of you guys have, so I'll leave it up to you. Instead, I decided to relabel the tiers and rank them in terms of how interested I am in playing them.



If I had to pick a personal GotD from these fifty-two, I'd have to say BotW (it's actually Dark Souls, though).

Oh, and if you're wondering about "RTHST," that's supposed to be Hearthstone, but it wouldn't fit because it doesn't have any packaging artwork. Journey and PUBG are cut off for similar reasons. Sorry about that.

23
Gaming / Death Stranding
« on: April 22, 2020, 09:34:52 AM »
sooooooo did anyone end up playing this? the resident kojima fanboy is out of the building, so it hasn't really been posted about

i beat it two months ago and thought about posting a review, but i decided it wasn't worth it

anyway, i absolutely loved it—8/10—but i feel like most of you wouldn't like it

24
The Flood / i just had an epiphany
« on: April 17, 2020, 09:15:14 PM »
The Fairly OddParents was actually a really bad show

like, actually terrible

it was the ultimate "watch it when it's on" show for me as a kid, and i still kinda liked it because i was dumb i guess? but thinking back to it, that was probably the stupidest and most obnoxious show of all time

first of all, have you actually listened to the voice acting in this show? everyone talks like a cat getting fucked—especially cosmo and wanda—and it's the most grating shit ever

the premise itself has always just kinda been dogshit—why doesn't timmy just wish for the solution to every episode? even if his wish is prohibited by DA RULES or whatever the fuck, that certainly wouldn't happen every single time, right? and even then, why can't he just think of a workaround

like, i get that part of timmy's character is that he's an idiot, which is why he fails all of his classes, which i always thought was a weird character trait anyway—is that supposed to be relatable, or something?

like, he's supposed to be an "average" kid, right? that's what they say in the theme song, but i'm pretty sure the average kid doesn't get straight Fs on his report card, and i think it's probably irresponsible for a show aimed at kids to say that flunking all your classes is somehow normal

i remember there was this whole episode where timmy gets fed up with being a stupid idiot, so he wishes that he was as smart as AJ—which works out okay for him at first, except for the fact that it's against DA RULES to exploit wishes to win competitions

so when he enters this quiz bowl or trivia contest or whatever to compete with AJ, he's not smart anymore, so he loses, and he gets all sad or whatever—i don't remember exactly how it goes down

but there's this moment at the end where AJ's trying to make him feel better by saying something like "don't feel bad, everyone has their own special talents" yadda yadda

and timmy's like "yeah you're right, you're good at math, and i'm good at uh... uh..."

but he can't come up with anything, so AJ blurts out, "...playing video games!"

it's like, WOW, so he's literally good at NOTHING, thanks AJ, this totally isn't the most depressing shit in the world

that's your main character who every millennial child in america is projecting themselves onto right now—a talentless fucking loser who gets everything he wants, but still causes all of his own problems

i wonder how many seeds of self-hatred were sown within the minds of children as a result of this show

it doesn't even end there—do you remember that fucked up episode where timmy wishes he never existed, and it turns out that everyone would be better off without him? obviously, it's a parody/reversal of It's a Wonderful Life, and the whole point is that timmy ends up aspiring to become a better person in the end, which would be an okay message for adults i guess, but HOLY SHIT, that is such a godawful message to send to children

especially when a lot of the things that ended up changing had nothing to do with timmy at all—like elmer not having his boil, or AJ having an afro, or chester not being poor—"everything is your fault, and your very existence ruins everything, you should never have been born"

jesus, what a stupid fucking mean-spirited show

it doesn't even have any good memes—and why do you think spongebob does? probably because it was a genuinely good show, and one that people have fond memories of

nobody seems to remember or give a shit about this show, and for good reason—it just kinda hit me just now, though

25
"maybe abortion sends the child back into the ether, where they have a chance of being born in a world that doesn't suck instead"

not something i actually believe, of course, but maybe this logic is more persuasive to idiots

what do you guys think? i've never tried emotional appeals before

26
The Flood / i have an idea for a new multimedia discussion forum
« on: April 01, 2020, 06:34:12 PM »
the first two rules are going to be

1. anyone who says "that's just your opinion" after somebody states an opinion will be instantly and permanently banned
2. anyone who says "that's just my opinion" after stating an opinion will be temporarily banned after one warning

there will be no other rules

sound good? yes

27
The Flood / bojack horseman is pretty cool
« on: March 15, 2020, 10:09:23 AM »
i wonder what sobering realities will be explored in the next epis--

>it's a todd episode

never mind, fuck this show

28
The Flood / Parasite won best picture, woo yay
« on: January 13, 2020, 11:27:51 AM »
The Oscar nominations were just announced, I'm gonna try watching all of them this time. For every film I see, I'll update the thread with my thoughts on it, especially with respect to what it was nominated for.



Films nominated for a "big five" award (either best picture, director, actor, actress, and/or screenplay):

☐ Ford v Ferrari
☑ The Irishman
☐ Jojo Rabbit
☑ Joker
☑ Little Women
☑ Marriage Story
☑ 1917
☑ Once Upon a Time in Hollywood
☑ Parasite
☐ Pain and Glory
☑ The Two Popes
☐ Harriet
☐ Bombshell
☐ Judy
☑ Knives Out

Films nominated for other shit:

☐ A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood
☐ Richard Jewell
☐ How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World
☑ I Lost My Body
☑ Klaus
☐ Missing Link
☑ Toy Story 4
☐ Les Misérables
☐ Honeyland
☐ Corpus Christi
☑ American Factory
☐ The Cave
☑ The Edge of Democracy
☑ For Sama
☑ In the Absence
☐ Learning to Skateboard in a Warzone (If You're a Girl)
☑ Life Overtakes Me
☐ St. Louis Superman
☐ Walk Run Cha-Cha
☐ Brotherhood
☐ Nefta Football Club
☐ The Neighbor's Window
☐ Saria
☐ A Sister
☐ Dcera (Daughter)
☑ Hair Love
☐ Kitbull
☐ Memorable
☐ Sister
☑ Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
☑ Rocketman
☐ Breakthrough
☐ Frozen II
☐ Ad Astra
☐ The Lighthouse
☐ Maleficent: Mistress of Evil
☑ Avengers: Endgame
☑ The Lion King

Looks like I have a lot of work to do.



Here, I'll just briefly go over the few films I've already seen:

The Irishman

Unsurprisingly, this was a great movie. Martin Scorsese is my 2nd favorite director, and I'm almost always pleased with his output. While it does tread around some familiar gangster movie territory, its deliberate pace and slow-burning approach to its storytelling helps it stand out—not to mention its epic 3h30m runtime. It's probably Scorsese's most grounded and mature film, too. Like, if you're under the age of 20, you'll probably find this movie boring as fuck. I think it requires a lot of perspective to fully appreciate, which is to say that I probably don't even fully appreciate it myself. I mean, we're essentially dealing with the affairs of a bunch of very old men from a bygone era, so there's layers to how disconnected I am from this kind of story, being a young person who doesn't know what it's like to feel overcome by my own waning mortality. I can only imagine what it's like, and for what it's worth, it's palpable and scary, and the film explores these emotions beautifully.

Even putting its themes aside, it's still such a treat to see legendary actors like De Niro, Pacino, and even Pesci come out of the woodwork to give it their all for (perhaps) the last time in their careers, if not their lives. As far as general entertainment value, I wouldn't necessarily put this film on the level of Goodfellas, Casino, or even The Wolf of Wall Street, but it's still a remarkable achievement, and I wouldn't complain if it won almost any of the awards it was nominated for... except for visual effects, I guess. They weren't the best. The de-aging effects are impressive, but you can still tell how old the actors really are by their movements, and Robert De Niro's contact lenses were so unnaturally bright-looking at times that it was honestly a little distracting.

Joe Pesci, though. Give that man an Oscar. We're never gonna see him again after this.

Overall, I'd give this an 8/10. For perspective, I'd probably give Casino a 9/10, and Goodfellas a 10/10.

Joker

This movie was cool, but I don't know if I'd consider it to be "best picture" material. Joaquin Phoenix could definitely walk away with an Oscar for his performance, and I'd be happy about that, but there's not much else about this movie that stood out to me as anything worth celebrating. It has a really cool tone and look to it, I suppose. The distinctly gritty aesthetic was more tasteful than Zack Snyder's idea of grit, and the quick outbursts of intense violence broken up between softer and quieter moments of introspection were pretty refreshing to see in a comic book movie.

Ultimately, my biggest problem with the film is that it's basically just Taxi Driver combined with The King of Comedy. That isn't a problem in and of itself—inspiration breeds creativity, and Scorsese is a wonderful director to take inspiration from—but instead of using these two films as a springboard for new ideas, I can't help but feel like they've been used a crutch to actively avoid needing any new ideas. Much of the film's entertainment value, as a result, is carried by Joaquin and his fantastic performance.

This movie is a 7/10 for me, which feels a bit generous, but 6/10 feels too harsh, so I'll just go for a 7/10. It's an impressive job and a likable effort coming from the guy who directed the Hangover movies, which I despise.

Marriage Story

If you have Netflix, and you're into some heavily emotional and dialogue-driven dramas, I highly recommend that you check this one out. The title is ironic; it's actually more of a divorce story, and it's a fairly captivating one at that. Adam Driver and Scarjo give two utterly fantastic performances—some would even say the best of the year, which I can't corroborate yet, because I haven't seen that many 2019 movies. What I will say is that they're the two best performances I've seen in years—at least, for this type of movie.

The screenplay is incredible. Both parties are equally sympathetic, with their respective sides of the story being given equal consideration and weight. You may find yourself siding with one of the two characters in the end, but you won't find yourself rooting against the other at any point. On top of this compelling narrative, we're provided with this remarkably poignant commentary on the state of marriage in the US, and how soul-crushing, bureaucratic, and Kafkaesque the divorce procedure can be—and, without spoiling anything, there does naturally come a point where it all explodes, and I have to say that it's probably my favorite singular scene from the few movies I've watched so far. You'll know it when you see it.

This is not the kind of film I normally watch, but here I am, giving it a strong review and recommendation. This is an 8/10, go watch it if you're interested.

Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker

Despite the fact that I'm the only person in the universe who truly understands Star Wars, I really honestly couldn't give a fuck less about it at this point. The thought of giving a Star Wars movie any kind of praise from an artistic standpoint is kind of laughable to me, because it's always been nothing more than a silly cartoon, but this movie is only nominated for its score and visual effects anyway, so whatever I guess.

This movie was pretty stupid, but entertainingly so. JJ Abrams played it safe as we all expected him to, which was boring, but every time there was a stupid twist (and there were like, five of them), I had a big smile on my face, like, "Sure! Let's go with that!" and that was my takeaway. I guess I would've preferred a more serious attempt at a movie, like The Last Jedi, but I have real movies for that.

That said, the visual effects were typical Star Wars fare, and John Williams kinda phoned it in, like he has been doing for this entire trilogy. I fucking love John Williams, but he has enough Oscars at this point, and I really don't think he put in the effort to deserve another one.

I give this movie a 6/10 for what it is, although it probably deserves a bit lower. I'll never see it again to find out. My feelings on the franchise as a whole are ultimately negative, no thanks to the fans who wouldn't let me enjoy my prequels in peace until Disney showed up, but I think the new trilogy is still my favorite of the three trilogies (which isn't really saying a lot).

Avengers: Endgame

This movie was fun... at times, but it wasn't nearly as fun as Infinity War. It was kind of a dizzying mess, in fact, which lost it a lot of points for me, but it's only nominated for visual effects, which is a category I couldn't really care less about. I like it when visual effects are used to make a movie look stylish and distinctive, and not necessarily photorealistic. I'm not impressed by photorealism anymore, and I don't think I ever really was.

In general, superhero movies are about in the same realm as Star Wars for me, unless they're going for a more adult approach, and there haven't really been any Marvel movies made for adults yet (Deadpool doesn't count, because Deadpool is for manchildren, and Logan is at the tail-end of a long-running series of films I don't give a fuck about).

I don't really know what to rate this movie. Probably a 6/10? It did the bare minimum for me, as far as I'm concerned, and that's to just keep me from being completely bored, but it was also kind of annoying at times, especially with how they turned Thor into a fat drunk, except they won't put any fat on Chris Hemsworth's beautiful face, because we can't allow people to think he's unattractive now or something. It was cool that they embraced the stupidity of their time travel system, I guess, but it also made Thanos as boring as he was in all of his previous cameos. It's just such a weird, weird mixed bag of a movie, and it's impossible to watch unless you've seen 500 other movies. The fact that I was able to myself makes me feel kinda gross. I guess by rating it a 6/10, I get to keep my personal bias in check.

All right, that's it for now I guess. I gotta see more shit. The Two Popes, I Lost My Body, Klaus, American Factory, The Edge of Democracy, Life Overtakes Me, and Brotherhood are all on Netflix, so I guess I'll start with those.

29
The Flood / Who was it that argued with me over whether water is wet
« on: December 28, 2019, 11:23:56 AM »
because i want you to know that you're still retarded

30
The Flood / >tfw your favorite music doesn't know grammar
« on: December 17, 2019, 10:29:47 PM »
>infinity stretches unlimitlessly

c'mon siouxsie you're better than this

it's such a pretty song too, and that first line almost fucks the whole thing

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