Chris B

33 minutes ago, Bellenda Carlisle said:

I'm not trying to be inflammatory but this was my worst film of the year. I can in no way whatsoever see what the fuss is about. Just not for me at all. The only thing i can say for it is I thought the actor playing her lawyer friend guy had good screen presence and I'd like to see him in a film that wasn't boring as fuck. That 50 cent cover was louder and more annoying than if you played every scene of trolls 3 at the same time.

If anything, that makes me like it more. It's not going to work for everyone, and that's fine - and strong opinions are always good. The pacing, etc, is absolutely going to put some people off, and I get that - the lead performance is also so restrained as to be difficult at times. But, for me, there was so much interesting ambiguity and emotional reality in there that it blew me away. 

Anatomy of a Fall (cinema)

This was fantastic, but not anything like I'd expected. The set-up is an unhappy marriage, and the husband is found dead. And it looked like it was going to be a twisty-turny kind of thriller and it sort of is and sort of isn't. Brilliant central performances, and well worth the awards its been getting.

Die Hard (cinema)

Some awkward bits (all the sympathy for the cop who... shot a kid with a toy gun), but it's a testament to how good it is that it's still brilliant. Rickman is obviously great, but it's probably Willis's best, most likeable performance too. It's just so smart throughout - I love the bit where Hans figures out the whole thing with the pictures, and you see him clock it earlier without knowing what it means. As well as McClane's sudden '...what were you doing upstairs, Hans?' bit - both of which feel natural, but they both get there pretty much before the audience does. 

Godzilla Minus One (preview at BFI Imax)

Fucking hell. This was so good. I adore the original movie, which is so much more serious and heavy than you think it would be (which, considering it's a post-war, post-bomb movie, makes sense). I also loved Shin Godzilla, which was sly and funny. This one, though, is more crowd-pleasing than either, but still has plenty of emotional complications going on. It's set in the late 40s, and it's absolutely specifically post-war, with a lead who feels he should have died in the war. It absolutely nails it. 

19 hours ago, JNLister said:

What if the role had always been played by females: https://scifind.com/the-other-11-doctors/

Written by an old friend of mine - Al's awesome, and was a big wrestling fan back in the day too.

Someone made the point on twitter that one major factor isn't just that Okada is married - his wife is actually a well-known actress, and possibly more famous than he is. So his work isn't necessarily the thing to move state-side for. 

To be fair, this doesn't rule out AEW, but it may rule out WWE. If I were to put bets on, I'd probably bet on him staying in NJPW though.

This was something that made me think about just how good MacGowan's lyrics were (although some people will hate this) - this charity spoken word cover from 2000 hit the Irish Top 10 over Christmas. And despite being such famous lyrics, they convince well as actual spoken dialogue. You really can't do this (at least not this well) with many songs.

A reminder that MacGowan didn't mince his words when it came to dealing with twats.

Saw MacGowan in Dublin, two nights before Christmas in 08, and Sinead O'Connor was the surprise guest they brought on to do Fairytale of New York with him. The first time they'd appeared in public together since she called the police on him for his heroin use. Absolutely amazing moment and genuinely gutting to have lost both of them this year.

MacGowan, at times, sounded like a drunk walking down the street singing to himself - but he sounded like the best drunk in the world at doing that.

8 minutes ago, Carbomb said:

Who the hell is that? At this point, I'd imagine even his dog would rather play fetch by itself.

David's talking about Copeland there, not Punk.

23 hours ago, DavidB6937 said:

I've always had a soft spot for the first one. I think just the magic of everything for the first time holds something special for me. But yeah the amount of stuff that goes on in the second one is ridiculous really. Always annoys me that the third was the one that won the awards because it definitely isn't the best one. Always felt like a "shit we better recognise them now as its all over" moment.

Recently, I've begun to think about this differently, after seeing so many series/franchises flunk the landing. Until it's actually done, it's all just promise, no matter how good it is. Fellowship is a great first part rather than a great story. Two Towers is setting up the conclusion.

Sure, they're great on their own, and I do get that argument. But without a conclusion, they also have an easier job in some ways than something that has a full beginning, middle and end. 

I think it was entirely justified to wait and see how the trilogy panned out before the awards came out. While ROTK is the weakest of the three, by some way, it was satisfying enough that it delivered on the promise the first two made.

On 11/25/2023 at 10:59 AM, BomberPat said:

Kayfabe: A Mostly True History of Professional Wrestling is now available to order in paperback as well as eBook! Prime members ordering now should expect delivery on Monday 27th November!

 

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CNYKBY9V/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?crid=2PY8HMSKPM3I7&keywords=kayfabe&qid=1700909048&sprefix=kayfabe%2Caps%2C97&sr=8-1

 

Bought and looking forward to reading.

I think you can find it in Morrisons and Sainsburys, if you look at the World Food's sections.

1 minute ago, Chest Rockwell said:

I'm no expert like you pretty sure that's not what buses looked like in 2003.. 😄

Not what they looked like in 2013 either. We had the bendy buses then, which I actually liked. They were supposedly brought in because they looked a bit like trams, but they had so much more space for chairs, bags, buggies, etc.

I really like infrastructure stuff - I love finding out little bits and pieces about how things were planned out and the history of what was there before. This goes double for TFL stuff. I'm a bit of a Tube obsessive as a result. For my last birthday, my partner took me to a tour of the derelict Aldwych tube station, which was pretty amazing. We've also been to the museum depot in Acton, which had the following gem:

See the bus in the middle? That's a 29 Bus from a century ago, going from Charing Cross to Alderman's Hill through Wood Green, Finsbury Park and Camden. And, while it terminates at Wood Green now, that's still the 29 bus route. I use it. Blew my mind.

I'm also really into the design side of things, and one of my favourite books is this Kickstarter reissue of the original British Rail corporate identity manual style guide. It's an absolute brick of a thing and genuinely beautiful.

With infrastructure and design stuff, it's all about the work, creativity and talent that's gone into stuff that we take for granted. And when you think about someone actually making it, it's brilliant.

10 minutes ago, RedRooster said:

That's a lovely thing to read, thanks Chris. For what it's worth, I think you're one of the best posters on the board in both on and off topic scenarios. Even when I disagree with you, you come across as such a lovely person I actually end up feeling bad for not feeling the same way as you, even though that's the whole point of a discussion forum! You're an all round standout person, on a board full of them. 

I'll definitely do the Steam sale - there are some brilliant pick-ups on there. 

As long as you feel bad, that's all the thanks I need.

Just acknowledging how awesome @RedRooster is at these kind of recommendations and reviews. I'll be buying some of these as a result, and genuinely hoping you do the Steam sale too, because I'm Steam-Decking it and picking up on stuff I've never played in my 15+ years in gaming wilderness.

11 minutes ago, tiger_rick said:

Wagon Wheels are the same size they've always been, our foreskins have just got smaller.

Larger, surely? The point is that now, I can some people could easily fit four or five of the current-size ones in there.

Hangman/Swerve was a work of art. As wrestling, as story, as believability, as performance, as shock value, as imagery. That was astonishing.

Small point, but one thing that made an enormous difference to a lot of other death matches (and Mox has been bad for this at times) - having weapons that are set up and used for one moment, and then get ignored. With this, the staple gun and barbed wire chair, the lengths of barbed wire - they kept going back to them when they were nearby, because of course you would.

But yeah, that was an absolute 'couldn't-take-your-eyes-off' piece of art, and the extremity was an important part of that.

On 11/13/2023 at 2:38 PM, DavidB6937 said:

The thing is - it's not all like that. Granted, some of it is and that's a challenge. But the fact that it's perceived to be like that by people is a problem in itself. If there's that thought of 'oh I haven't seen Ms Marvel so I won't bother with this' then it's definitely an issue, even if the film is pretty open to anyone sitting down in front of it and watching it.

Definitely that from my side. I know who Ms Marvel is (loved the comics), but I feel out of the loop on this one. I watched Wandavision (and pretty much stopped watching any of the series there), so I get how Monica became Photon (if she's called that), but now she's connected with Ms Marvel and so is Captain Marvel? I'm assuming there's been set-up that I've missed.

If it was Captain Marvel II or similar, I'd have been there like a shot. But it feels like I don't know who the MCU version of Ms Marvel is, and she's now suddenly involved in interplanetary stuff. And I also don't have much interest in finding out, because I assume I'm behind.

Blimey, Sleeping Dogs is great, isn't it? I know it won't be a surprise to anyone that's played it, but damn. In terms of just picking up and playing, it was really intuitive and fun. I blasted through it. Probably enjoyed it more than GTA IV, which I wasn't expecting. Shame the DLC was rubbish, but what can you do? Also a shame it never got picked up more as a franchise.

I'm just glad everyone has forgotten Louise Mensch exists, so my secret shame can go undetected.

8 minutes ago, Steve Justice said:

I just think the whole 'let's not really explain what's going on' shtick has been done to death now. Having an interesting end entertaining answer is much more enjoyable imo. 

It was a great idea, well executed in the first 2/3's of the film, went a bit Black Mirror and that was it. Like Sphinx said, it's like they didn't know how to end it. Such a shame, because Cage was really really good. 

I meant more stuff like specific actions people take or don't tell others about. It didn't hit you over the head with 'this happened, then this happened' - it assumed you'd keep up with it.

Also, on the explanation stuff - I don't know that I agree. The point of the film was what was happening to that character and how he responded. That was the story. The wider story or the explanation behind it, not so much. 

It's like, I don't think The Birds would be massively improved with an explanation. And I don't think anybody thinks Star Wars was improved by them explaining how The Force works.

I'm not saying explanations are bad, but it depends on the story. I think there's a difference between paying a story off (which they do here, with the ending and the focus on his relationships), and explaining a set-up. It wasn't a mystery story about why this was happening. It was a story about it happening and what that meant for the main character.

I absolutely loved Dream Scenario. It was, in some ways, everything I wanted from The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent - absolute weirdness.

I was fine with the ending as well - while I'd have enjoyed them to continue escalating, I liked where they went, even if there was a bit of a misfire. I also liked the ambiguity of some things, and how some other things didn't get dealt with on-screen. Also, it might be the best Nicolas Cage performance ever - he was fantastic in this.

20 minutes ago, Snitsky's back acne said:

Yeah but we all know Vince won't sell anything . 

We literally just learned the exact opposite.

41 minutes ago, waters44 said:

Cool! I forgot that Dan Houser had left Rockstar and his brother was running it now. 

I think that was actually taken when Finn visited the Coronation St set, rather than him being a fan.