Ben X

But I told you not to! I've written a short script if you'd like to film it, it's about someone who doesn't listen to the advice of his incredibly intelligent friend and ends up not getting something done as quickly as he might have otherwise.

I had the feeling that might be soon, if it's what I'm thinking of. My vague recollection is that all the black people turn out to actually be arseholes and their subjugation is therefore portrayed as justified, or something... I will definitely push through for a while longer!

A couple of boring endorsements: 1) If you don't have room for a proper toilet roll dispenser on your wall, getting a toilet roll holder that hinges at the top to double up as a dispenser is so much nicer than keeping your current roll on the cistern, or trying to balance it on the bath edge. 2) The Air Ram vacuum cleaner is hella expensive, but if you can afford it (or have a generous family member who can), it's a really slick, lightweight, cordless vacuum. It's got a light at the front, it's super-easy to empty and it's really maneuverable. This has made cleaning our flat ten times easier, especially the rugs that collect their own weight in long hairs and cling onto them for dear life. (Other lightweight, cordless, well-designed vacuum cleaners may be available.)

If I remember correctly, the Fringe score was never credited solely to Michael Giacchino, it was always him and another guy (could have been Tilton from the start, can't remember). I do know that JJ Abrams wrote the theme music, as he did with Alias and Lost, such as it was (he also whipped up Lost's minimal title sequence on his laptop) Speaking of theme tunes, I can't believe you almost forget to name Magnum P.I.'s, @Jake! Once they got rid of that duff initial one and repurposed some incidental score into an all-time classic, that is. And speaking of that show, I hope you keep watching it. It gets ever better as it goes on, and has a great cumulative effect where running jokes and references back to old episodes start to layer on top of each other. Dan and Ben's love for Magnum P.I. in BTDT and TGP is very much based on real life! I even have the Magnum theme tune on my gym playlist, and I'm pretty sure I burn double the calories every time it comes on. Regarding Chris and Nick's reason for their aversion to Black Mirror - overload of hot-takes on the internet - this is a recent phenomenon I find bewildering and frustrating. Bewildering because I never seem to get exposed to stuff like this - I've only ever seen one brony going on about MLP:FIM, and that was within the last month; I'm only vaguely aware that steamed hams is a thing; I've never come into contact with awful Rick And Morty fans. I guess I don't go on the right parts of the internet for that stuff. And frustrating because when I like something, I want more people to talk with about how good it is, so for them to be avoiding because of an annoying small subsection of the fan community (I'm right here not screaming at McDonalds employees or spouting hot-takes!) sucks. So I hope @Chris and @Nick Breckon both watch at least a little Black Mirror (I'd recommend The Entire History Of You as a good starting point, as a few people here bounced off the first episode though I loved it, and the second isn't as representative of the series' tone). And now, Han Solo P.I.: And a comparison vid to show off the full ingenuity:

Well, after 3 seasons with nearly no duff episodes (in my opinion!), the fourth one has been a bit of a letdown. They put the big action-y 90 minute one up front this time, and it is so much better than the previous one ( the one with the bees, not that it's a high bar to clear). It re-used some ideas from previous episodes and it got a little cheesy in places, but overall very fun and full of fantastic performances, attention to detail etc. Basically, as long as you're happy with Black Mirror going for different styles of episode, it's a good one. 2, 3 and 4 are all okaaay. They also feel like repeats of previous episodes, but don't have the fun charm of the first episode to get away with it. The fifth episode was awesome. A straight-up thriller, really lean and terrifying. It would fit in well as part of the Terminator franchise (and easily be the second best thing in it). I haven't watched the final episode yet; it's another long one and I hear good things... EDIT: Last episode was really good! Very fun and some cool ideas. They really need to retire the concept, but at least they did some fun stuff with it here. And the idea of doing an along with all the gave it a really cheeky vibe.

Yeah, I think the creative director was/is pro-gator (which I'm guessing is the embarrassing bit you're referring to). I don't think you should feel too ashamed of forgetting to research the creative team behind one purchase, though. You can't be 100% on the ball at all times with this stuff. I don't know what one can do after the fact in this situation once refunding is no longer an option, though. Donate to a charity that would piss gators off and tweet about it with the game hashtagged? (Incidentally, most of the I Had A Random thought About Movies thread is talking about the same issues when watching movies, starting here. Interesting that both industries have had a cataclysmic event in the last few years which have outed a lot of members as being arseholes in one way or another.)

I played a little more of this today, and I am getting really bored of it. Once you get used to the level of production values, you're left with the gameplay and storytelling, both of which are pretty damn sluggish. I just played through a fight where I'm supposed to be using the ziplines and Elizabeth's tears, but the layout was a mess and combined with how difficult it is to locate enemies and the imprecise shooting, it really fell flat. I'm starting to wonder if I need to increase the FOV, because it feels pretty boxed in at times. That might help with locating stuff. I've never bothered touching it in other games. [EDIT: I've now put the slider up to full.] I've just got to Finkton Docks and apparently I'm only a third of the way through the game. I'm not sure how much more of this I can be bothered with. I might try to just run through it as quickly as possible without taking detours or looking for coins and the like, and see if I can enjoy it that way.

It's a commentary on how their lives are stuck in destructive circles. This is the thesis of the movie, John Wayne even says it at the end.

Heh, fair enough. Thanks for the response, everyone!

Ha ha, I was about to ask, "Who?!"

Sorry, I mispoke; I wasn't inferring that from your quotes. I meant to agree with them and say that I personally would expand them out...

I wasn't joking as such. I was saying that 'Pyrrhic victory' is not a synonym for failure. And the fact that there is no such thing as a Pyrrhic failure was part of my point - a Pyrrhic victory is a victory otherwise the phrase has no meaning.

Just to reiterate, not my reasoning! So that's good to hear, I will continue to follow this modern trend Not sure if I'm understanding your point, but in French, 'petite' would be pronounced 'pet-eat' because of the 'e' on the end (as opposed to 'petit').

Nick endorsing the Strider speedrun on the IIT cast reminded me to catch up on this. I just watched the Jedi Knight Academy and Opposing Force runs amongst others, and I think the quotes above could be expanded out to "I wish the runners, commentators, donators and viewers would stop trying to be funny." Apart from that, some very cool speedruns!

I was told the other day that when you say something is your forte, that's pronounced like 'fort'. But if you're saying music should be played forte, that should be pronounced 'fort-ay', because while both words come from the same latin root, the former comes to us via French while the latter comes via Italian. Would people agree with this? Hoping it's wrong so I can keep pronouncing them both fort-ay!

No, they're victories. That's why they're pyrrhic victories and not pyrrhic failures.

Agreed on Cloverfield Paradox (terrible) and The Good Place (fantastic).

It gets even trickier when something like the Elisha Dushku thing happens - she recently claimed that she was sexually assaulted during the production of True Lies by the stunt coordinator. How do you vote against someone in that role with your wallet?

As I understand it, the 'death of the author' critical theory is about separating authorial intent from the audience reading - i.e. it doesn't matter if that's not what the author intended, even if they've said so explicitly, it's how I read it and that's just as valid. Perhaps it also covers separating the author as a person from their work, though.

I got the impression from the special features that the dialogue was mostly improvised, which came up with a lot of misses. Also the structure isn't great because the first half of the movie is two groups separately discovering something that the audience knows from the start. I enjoyed the second half a lot more, when it started moving the plot forward and doing stuff I wasn't expecting. EDIT: in fact, here's what I wrote at the time:

Why aye, etc.

Wooo, Newcastle hardcore!

I haven't really been up on the music scene since 2002, but a couple of bands I've found out about via the internet recently are Skating Polly and Babymetal. SP is a two-piece indie rock group made up of two sisters who started when they were about 12. Even their early stuff is really good, even if it hews very close to existing bands' sounds, and they're always changing up their style. I recommend binging them on YouTube. Here's one of their more recent, Veruca Salt-y tracks: Babymetal are a hilarious J-pop band who chuck a load of heavy metal or hip-hop into their songs. This one is amazing:

It's been almost two decades since I saw them, but I remember Beat Takeshi's films Sonatine and Hana-Bi being great.

I would never do something like this, it goes against all my principles. I mean, a camrip? Yuck!