ysbreker

Movie/TV recommendations

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Dammit, that was my fault. I was posting from my phone and it was too much of a hassle to go back and check I'd remembered your opinion correctly. I think I'm one :tup: more enthusiastic about it than you, though.

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I think I'm one :tup: more enthusiastic about it than you, though.

Then we must fight. To the death.

I did enjoy it a great deal, but the lack of realism made it too light-weight for me (a tablet you've just swallowed taking effect in 3 minutes? Hmph.). Plus the mass of flaws in the whole premise (more IQ = more happy/less IQ = you become ugly/the way characters behaved/the weird withdrawal laws/the fact that Mr. Super IQ forgot to pay his deadly loan shark the minute he got paid/the fact that the loan shark wasn't interested in his money, and turned up alone to collect/the fact that the loan shark was still dumb after the pill, etc.) all took me out of the story.

Plus the ending was a none-ending (and I like none-endings -- I loved A Serious Man, for example).

Still, it had a great deal of ingenuity, spunk and flair. And I did enjoy it while I was watching it... I just wouldn't watch it again.

I'd give it 3 1/2 out of 5.

I thought Source Code was better (did you see that?).

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I saw an animated movie called 5 Centimeters Per Second today. I enjoyed it, despite the fact I generally feel uneasy around anime and have seen little, enjoyed less.

This was, much like Miyazaki's movies, an exception. The first stand-out thing is the incredible art direction, done in a distinct visual style developed by director Makoto Shinkai. If you want to see how truly breathtaking backgrounds can be, this is your go-to movie. Every frame is brilliant and deserves to be hung on a wall or studied by other artists, good as it is in choice of colour and angle. The characters are not exceptional (pretty standard anime characters, really), though Shinkai uses this to his advantage as he indicates how they change throughout the story.

A stand-out for thing for me was how it mixed "realistic" takes on drawings with down-played or exaggerated art. It creates a fresh, inspiring take on art. Quite remarkable, actually.

The story is a little loose, but is essentially a Haruki Murakami-inspired take on innocent, naive love - or, more accurately, it uses love as a lens to explore how, just by living, little pieces of exhaustion and tiredness begin to accumulate.

Anyways, it's worth watching. Not everyone will like the movie or the story, though I did, but I guarantee you will, at least, admire the art and the colours.

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Patters doesn't know if he's watched The Princess Bride, and doesn't know any of the quotable bits. Everyone mock and berate him! (Alternatively, convince him to fix such an oversight.)

Also, Spartacus, both the original series and the spin-off, quite good.

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Spartacus has been a guilty pleasure. It's exploitation (totally ridiculous amounts of sex and violence), but the plots are really good. Very Shakespearian, brutal and manages to keep you on your toes. Well, me in any case, which may not be such an accomplishment.

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Spartacus has been a guilty pleasure. It's exploitation (totally ridiculous amounts of sex and violence), but the plots are really good. Very Shakespearian, brutal and manages to keep you on your toes. Well, me in any case, which may not be such an accomplishment.

I've heard very good things about that series. I plan on checking it out at some point.

Patters doesn't know if he's watched The Princess Bride, and doesn't know any of the quotable bits. Everyone mock and berate him! (Alternatively, convince him to fix such an oversight.)

!!!!!

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Patters doesn't know if he's watched The Princess Bride, and doesn't know any of the quotable bits. Everyone mock and berate him! (Alternatively, convince him to fix such an oversight.)

Honestly? Meh. It's good, don't get me wrong. I don't know if I'd consider it essential though.

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So BSG update, after seeing the first season and four or so episodes into the second;

Adama has just woken up and asked WHAT THE FRICK HAVE YOU DONE TO MY VELVET-HAMMERED AUTOCRATIC DICTATORSHIP OVER A WHINY CARTOONY QUASIGOVERNMENT?!

. At best the show is an unwanted bastard child of Twin Peaks and Star Trek. At worst it is an even less desirable bastard child of CSI and Touched by an Angel.

The second season so far leaves a lot to be desired. Every single plot so far has been way drawn out and kindof unnecessary. Every time there is a new cocky guy in the party, you know he is there to be offed. Every single person refers to the cylons as "toasters", sometimes many times in the same dialogue. It is such a cheap and—considering no one ever eats anything but noodles—somewhat suspect description. It's as if they fired the good writers after the first season wrapped up and outsourced the writing duties to some fan outlet.

The second season also made a complete mockery of the somewhat reasonable idea from the pilot about not networking up the computers on BSG; as soon as they networked up just a few computers to do some computation faster, they were miraculously susceptible to being penetrated and hacked to shit by the cylons, the ship loses all communication and power. Argh. I was willing to give them a pass for the time they enhanced the reflection in a grainy surveillance vid (which took twelve hours or somesuch and could've passed for satire) but this was far more hamfisted technononsense. They should just wheel out the Gibson and hack into the cylon mainframe by guessing their sysadmin's password (probably "god").

So, I hope the show gets it shit together soon. I am tolerating the religious subplots rather well so far, though they are getting a little threadbare.

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Spartacus was good fun, but at the end of the series it loses something. Not sure what it is, I just found myself getting bored with it. Maybe they relied on the sex and violence too much to carry the series after the story threads starting tying themselves up.

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So BSG update, after seeing the first season and four or so episodes into the second;

Adama has just woken up and asked WHAT THE FRICK HAVE YOU DONE TO MY VELVET-HAMMERED AUTOCRATIC DICTATORSHIP OVER A WHINY CARTOONY QUASIGOVERNMENT?!

. At best the show is an unwanted bastard child of Twin Peaks and Star Trek. At worst it is an even less desirable bastard child of CSI and Touched by an Angel.

The second season so far leaves a lot to be desired. Every single plot so far has been way drawn out and kindof unnecessary. Every time there is a new cocky guy in the party, you know he is there to be offed. Every single person refers to the cylons as "toasters", sometimes many times in the same dialogue. It is such a cheap and—considering no one ever eats anything but noodles—somewhat suspect description. It's as if they fired the good writers after the first season wrapped up and outsourced the writing duties to some fan outlet.

The second season also made a complete mockery of the somewhat reasonable idea from the pilot about not networking up the computers on BSG; as soon as they networked up just a few computers to do some computation faster, they were miraculously susceptible to being penetrated and hacked to shit by the cylons, the ship loses all communication and power. Argh. I was willing to give them a pass for the time they enhanced the reflection in a grainy surveillance vid (which took twelve hours or somesuch and could've passed for satire) but this was far more hamfisted technononsense. They should just wheel out the Gibson and hack into the cylon mainframe by guessing their sysadmin's password (probably "god").

So, I hope the show gets it shit together soon. I am tolerating the religious subplots rather well so far, though they are getting a little threadbare.

If the religious aspects annoy you, I'd suggest you stop watching now

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The second season also made a complete mockery of the somewhat reasonable idea from the pilot about not networking up the computers on BSG; as soon as they networked up just a few computers to do some computation faster, they were miraculously susceptible to being penetrated and hacked to shit by the cylons, the ship loses all communication and power. Argh. I was willing to give them a pass for the time they enhanced the reflection in a grainy surveillance vid (which took twelve hours or somesuch and could've passed for satire) but this was far more hamfisted technononsense. They should just wheel out the Gibson and hack into the cylon mainframe by guessing their sysadmin's password (probably "god").

I'd drop all hopes of "realism" when it comes to the computer tech. It wasn't written by a bunch of Microsoft MVPs, it was written by a bunch of military history buffs. Also, if it's any help, they're not using Earth tech here. Who knows what their machines or the Cylon machines are capable of. On the plus side, I'm pretty sure they're done with the tech stuff. It's never a major plot point that I can remember, other than the things you've mentioned (which just sets up the feeling that the Cylons are always waiting to pounce).

That said. Keep it up, I'm interested to hear how you get on. I remember being frustrated with Season 2 myself. It seemed to get a bit cookie-cutter, and I was antsy for "macro" events to start progressing, instead of "micro" day-to-day gubbins, that had no greater bearing on things.

Still, I think the characters and the way they behave in a military sense is remains pretty cool. And the political stuff is quite interesting. It's nice that there's actual protocols, and the ship's Captain isn't going off on dangerous missions every two seconds (a la Star Trek).

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Spartacus was good fun, but at the end of the series it loses something. Not sure what it is, I just found myself getting bored with it. Maybe they relied on the sex and violence too much to carry the series after the story threads starting tying themselves up.

Just finished the thing entire last night and this morning, and this is pretty much how I feel. The series starts off kind of "bleh" as if they're not sure where they want to go with things, rockets into 5th gear for most of it and then kind of runs out of steam by the end. I'd still recommend it, though!

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If the religious aspects annoy you, I'd suggest you stop watching now

I am hoping they do something good with them.

I like the idea of religious robots. I like Gaius's conversion/insanity. A messianic president makes me apprehensive, tho.

I almost wished she hadn't so cavalierly and naïvely walked into fulfilling prophecies. I wish the narrator were untrustworthy so that I could relish in it potentially being a masterful act of demagoguery—as it is, I am afraid it may not deliver. It is flirting with stock video game conceits.

The whole thing also suffers a bit from the Planet of the Apes effect. They want there to be these metaphors and stand-ins for modern civil society—but at the end of the day they are a handful of apes living in mud huts, and the notion that they have an advanced society with a scientist class and young people who protest against war ends up noticeably bizarre.

So in that same way, BSG has a civil government that insists on being bickery and whining about pointless shit while UNDER ATTACK FROM A SERIOUS FUCKING THREAT THAT WILL DESTROY ALL CIVILIZATION. Even a socialist anarchist such as myself would see it fit to impose martial law and draft everyone to help with the war effort. Whatever the skill set, everyone gets to be a contractor for the common good, to hell with the civil economy for the time being.

The show hasn't yet overstayed its welcome. I'll keep you posted.

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the ship's Captain...going off on dangerous missions every two seconds.

Sounds like a piss-poor captain.

Edited by bbX1138

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If the religious aspects annoy you, I'd suggest you stop watching now

No kidding. I loved the first two seasons (with some exceptions in the second), but the third season was just god-awful. Not that the overdose of mystic bullshit was the season's only issue.

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No kidding. I loved the first two seasons (with some exceptions in the second), but the third season was just god-awful. Not that the overdose of mystic bullshit was the season's only issue.

The problem with the third season is that the network wanted the episodes to be self contained stories, to allow for the show to be more accessible to newbies.

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Was he piss-poor, or was he awesome?

kirk5.jpg

Fuckin' this. Star Trek may be Super-Camp Sci-fi, but damn if it isn't good.

03E68F6599Q

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spartacus was a strange series for me. the first two episodes were absolutely abysmal, but after that, it got so good that I became a huge fan. The violence, the sex, the speeches, everything the previous poster mentioned make it a huge guilty pleasure, and the prequel is fantastic as well. Can't wait for the next season

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The problem with the third season is that the network wanted the episodes to be self contained stories, to allow for the show to be more accessible to newbies.

The second half of Season 2 was the same ("Scar" -- I hated that episode). The network finally gave up in Season 4, apparently, and let them go back to telling a larger story. Saying that, I LOVED New Caprica.

Shame it was all over so quickly.

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