Patrick R

I don't think my reaction is as visceral as yours, but I think ET's ugliness is a big part of why the movie works. If ET had been cuddly like an Ewok or something, it'd be unbearably cloying. He needs to be scary before he's cute.

Bill & Ted and Back to the Future aren't kids movies! ET is the actual Objective Best Kid's Movie because it's Spielberg at his height, it has amazingly naturalistic kids performances, it captures a lot of honest things about children and empathy, and if you are a kid and don't care about any of that stuff it's about finding a gross but lovable alien friend and hiding it from your mom. People can like what they like for whatever reason they like it, but I never ever trust people's opinions on movies they watched a lot as kids*. I have been burned so many times. It's why I haven't seen Willow or Labyrinth or Dark Crystal. Sometimes I get it wrong: I just saw A Christmas Story for the first time in December and it's really really good. I suspect Princess Bride is also probably good but I'm super suspicious. *Also, parents of kids who have to watch the same children's films over and over again, and try to tell me every Dreamworks movie is "actually pretty good". No! Stockholm syndrome!

There is zero point in watching Goonies as an adult if you didn't see it as a kid.

I beat Super Metroid! And it only took a little cheating! First half I had no problem but the second half I leaned on a walk-through pretty heavily. And for Ridley, after 12 failures I cheated and used slow motion.

And I bet it's going to disproportionately affect certain groups of US citizens!

Ty Segall is old news but this song has been DESTROYING me for the past 3 days. Aggressive garage rock masterpiece.

Actually, given that most SWAT raids are about drug enforcement, are over-zealously employed and they often end up killing innocent people, I'd be cool with SWAT teams responding a little less enthusiastically in all situations.

I get where you're coming from, tberton, but I think in Alien, Ripley is not an action role. She does not fight, she does not participate in action scenes. It's a strong and interesting female role, but it's Aliens where Ripley became a female action hero. Aliens is also about survival, but Ripley's actions are much more proactive in that and involve things one associates with "action roles" like firing weapons, stunts, defeating the big bad, etc. Same as Katniss in Hunger Games. Also, I think the fact that Jennifer Lawrence was nominated for an Oscar in 2010 and wasn't a selling point in the marketing for X-Men: First Class proves that neither were her breakthrough, but that is operating more on my definition of breakthrough than yours. Also also, as has been mentioned, we're all dealing with a lot of subjectives.

In the case of Jennifer Lawrence I mean "actress who became A-List who broke through in a starring action movie role".

I brought this up on Facebook and Asian actresses were mentioned, which I can't argue with because I don't really know that world of celebrity. But I believe it. Cameron Diaz's breakthrough was There's Something About Mary. Uma's was Pulp Fiction. Linda Hamilton wasn't A-list (and never did have a proper career as an action star which sucks because she was badass and had amazing arms) Jovovich wasn't A-List. Kate Beckinsale, I feel like I never got a handle on her career, the only movie of hers I've seen was The Aviator and it was a tiny part. BUT looking over her career, she fits the bill better than most. She was the lead of her own series of sucessful action/sci-fi movies, she was the female lead in Click which was a massive hit, She was the second billed in Van Helsing which was a huge summer movie, she was first billed in Vacancy OVER Luke Wilson. Not quite the same level as Oscar-nominated media darling Jennifer Lawrence, but the closest Hollywood actress I've seen named yet.

That's true, but I don't know if I'd qualify Michele Rodriguez as A-List. She pretty much only ever plays supporting roles, and rarely in high profile Hollywood fare.

Is Jennifer Lawrence the first A-List actress whose break-though role was as an action star? One of my friends said Sigourney Weaver, but I think it depends on whether you think she broke through on Alien or Aliens (I think it's the former) and whether you think that was an "starring action role" (I don't). (Obviously "starring action role" is subjective, but basically what I mean is Jennifer Lawrence broke through roughly the same way Bruce Willis did.)

I think "brutal" is the operative word for The Raid films. John Wick feels different, more balletic, more elegantly choreographed. Both have their place, but I prefer John Wick. After a while I grew numb to the Raid's endless brutality, even if the fights are all really impressive.

Mostly makes me think of bipolar disorder. Both the initial video he took and the edited follow-up feel like the results of manic episodes.

STALEMATE.

I couldn't do Excel, which is why I was looking for a program. I'd always get home and forget to update it.

All the recommendations of Mint have overwhelmed my illogical fear of linking my account information to my phone. Thanks!

Also, Bridesmaids is not like the Hangover.

John Wick is a good solid action movie that doesn't insult your intelligence. Bit long, but the action scenes are really well shot.

I imagine when your continuity and world-building is as convoluted and ridiculous as Mario's, what you chose to keep and throw out can get pretty arbitrary.

Not all the way through, so apologies if you mention this but Super Mario World has that one or a couple little text boxes before you can go to the first stage. No spoken words, but I'd say it's about the equivalent of the letter Peach sends at the start of 64. EDIT: Ok, I guess that's less of a cut-scene because it's more like some kind of narrator talking to the kid playing the game.

This sounds pretty cool! It's about a 5 hour Megabus ride from Chicago, so it's very doable. I will have to look into it!

So I'm writing and recording a new album of music, and I thought it might be interesting to have a development blog. I've enjoyed reading about minutae and problem solving on so many video game dev blogs, but I've never seen one done for an album. So on my blog I'm keeping it updated with literally all progress I make. That includes demos, random ideas, even just tossed off lyrics. It's the first album I'm writing with a band in mind (as opposed to all my previous albums, which were lo-fi one take anti-folk songs) so it's a new experience for me. The blog is here: https://patricksnewalbum.wordpress.com/ I just wrote a lengthy post where I pretty much just transcribed my thoughts during a three hour songwriting session.

Gone Baby Gone is good, but Gone Girl was directed by David Fincher, not Ben Affleck.

Playing through it for the first time, inspired by this thread. Best Moment So Far: that first loop back to the spaceship after you get the powerbombs and you're revisiting the first area, except you're totally powered up and badass so the music is no longer scary because what do you have to fear of these puny little creatures? Worst Moment So Far: Dying shortly after that and losing about 30 minutes of progress.