Movie/TV recommendations

[Kolzig]

Saw Rango during saturday. Sweet movie, didn't know that Industrial Light & Magic can still create good stuff.

The Spirit of the West was my favourite scene.

Never really realized before how much Timothy Olyphant sounds like Clint.

What annoyed me a lot was that though the theater was packed with only about 15-20 people, ten of those were kids.

[JonCole]

Saw Rango during saturday. Sweet movie, didn't know that Industrial Light & Magic can still create good stuff.

The Spirit of the West was my favourite scene.

Never really realized before how much Timothy Olyphant sounds like Clint.

What annoyed me a lot was that though the theater was packed with only about 15-20 people, ten of those were kids.

This was my exact response/experience.

[elmuerte]

Just finished the first season of Community, and this is definitely one of the best comedy shows ever made. It starts of okay, becomes very good after a couple of episodes, and, like Hermie observed, towards the end of the season it's just ridiculously great. The paintball episode was so good that I laughed.

loving this stuff

[Kolzig]

To add something about Rango, the beginning was awesome. I especially loved the bit where they had the cameo from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Hunter S. Thompson said something, but I'm not sure was it Johnny Depp acting again as Hunter.

[Roderick]

When I went the second time I still couldn't tell! My guess is no though, they might have put in this joke only during the animation process, when the voices had already been recorded and Depp might have been unavailable? I don't know. Hollywood works weird sometimes. Suffice it to say it's a great gag.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Everything leading up to that bit was sublime, if you ask me. Just so weird, and yet profound. Loved it.

I think Roger Deakins is probably some what responsible for just how utterly beautiful it looks.

I wish the awesome beginning continued to the end of the film, but by the end the deeper "who am I?" thread got lost, if you ask me.

Also, what's with white desert sequences in Gore Verbinski's movies? Wasn't that the same sequence in Pirates 3?

[Ben X]

I'm going to guess "yes", as they probably put it in early enough for Depp to voice it, and presumably he'd want to.

[Roderick]

A bit of digging yielded this: http://herocomplex.latimes.com/2011/03/15/johnny-depp-still-gonzo-for-hunter-s-thompson-hes-part-of-me/

Depp DID do the Raoul Duke / Hunter S. Thompson voice. Which to me sounded nothing like the Duke from Fear & Loathing, but since there's only the one exclamation it might take repeated viewings to appreciate (I'm liable to visit Rango in theatres a third time, I liked it a lot).

The Who Am I plotline was very awesome, but got a little snowed under at the end, as did the whole 'he's gonna die' thread. I guess they had to make some concessions toward making a movie at least partially child-friendly. Honestly, I'm already super pleased that the movie strikes the Fear & Loathing / Once Upon A Time tone throughout roughly half of it. It's a great thing.

[twmac]

Just watched 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'. Had some nice moments and was generally grttier than a lot of 'whodunits' but otherwise this film was pretty lame and ridiculous.

The main fantasy of guy who sticks to his guns-gets-the-girl-and/or-the-status reminded me of the worst moments of Boondock Saints as in it felt like the author was trying to justify his beliefs. The reasoning behind all of the clues was pure drivel that even Agatha Christie would have had a hard time putting into a novel and the ending was one of the worst of I've ever seen, it out and out makes no sense at all. It plays out like the worst of its American peers. No disrespect but it seemed to be that this got a lot more praise because it was Swedish and therefore all the indie scenesters could justify liking this hokum because 'it was foreign'.

I also don't know how they managed to spin it out into 2 more sequels as there are literally no plot threads left.

[Ben X]

Just watched 'The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo'. Had some nice moments and was generally grttier than a lot of 'whodunits' but otherwise this film was pretty lame and ridiculous.

The main fantasy of guy who sticks to his guns-gets-the-girl-and/or-the-status reminded me of the worst moments of Boondock Saints as in it felt like the author was trying to justify his beliefs. The reasoning behind all of the clues was pure drivel that even Agatha Christie would have had a hard time putting into a novel and the ending was one of the worst of I've ever seen, it out and out makes no sense at all. It plays out like the worst of its American peers. No disrespect but it seemed to be that this got a lot more praise because it was Swedish and therefore all the indie scenesters could justify liking this hokum because 'it was foreign'.

I also don't know how they managed to spin it out into 2 more sequels as there are literally no plot threads left.

The book is dreadful too. Apparently the stuff with the girl's guardian is pure set-up for the next book (which makes sense as it goes on for ages with no relevance or pay-off), don't know if that's in the film.

[twmac]

Hmm, yeah they had some stuff about the guardian. I thought it was meant as some fucked up 'oh, all she needs is a man who doesn't want to beat her and rape her so that she can get over her sapphic desires' subtext that made me feel physically ill.

So they bring back the guardian... Man, not sure I could handle another film like that.

[ThunderPeel2001]

Spoilers guys! I'm looking forward to reading these books and watching the films!

[Thyroid]

No, they mentioned it. I thought you knew. They linked to it when they released Torment.

[ThunderPeel2001]

No, they mentioned it. I thought you knew. They linked to it when they released Torment.

Huh. I did not know that. Well they emailed me asking for permission to use the guide on their site, in return for some "compensation". I said, "ok", but then they dragged their feet, so I left it. I think the original idea was to host these guides for their old games. (A pretty dumb idea, if you ask me, as they would only get inundated with complaints if one of the patch authors accidentally fucked something up -- presumably they realised this and went with a link?)

Edit: Well fuck me. They just went and did without telling me or making good on the compensation they promised. Nice.

http://www.gog.com/en/news/mod_spotlight_planescape_torment_mods_guide/

[JonCole]

Huh. I did not know that. Well they emailed me asking for permission to use the guide on their site, in return for some "compensation". I said, "ok", but then they dragged their feet, so I left it. I think the original idea was to host these guides for their old games. (A pretty dumb idea, if you ask me, as they would only get inundated with complaints if one of the patch authors accidentally fucked something up -- presumably they realised this and went with a link?)

Edit: Well fuck me. They just went and did without telling me or making good on the compensation they promised. Nice.

http://www.gog.com/en/news/mod_spotlight_planescape_torment_mods_guide/

So wait, they just jacked all of your copy and only linked your blog in the context of you answering questions rather than them? That's fucked up.

[brkl]

The main fantasy of guy who sticks to his guns-gets-the-girl-and/or-the-status reminded me of the worst moments of Boondock Saints as in it felt like the author was trying to justify his beliefs.

I don't get this. There's never a proper relationship between the two characters (the man is obviously smitten, but the girl pretty much uses him for sex a few times). You're not going to see the next two movies (the first one is superior anyway), so I can tell you they barely meet and it never gets sexual again. You need to wait until the end of the third movie for a very slight softening of the girl's character.

I started reading the book and hated it. Later I saw the movies and really enjoyed the first one. It has his faults of course. The latter two movies aren't quite as good, especially the second one.

[brkl]

Edit: Well fuck me. They just went and did without telling me or making good on the compensation they promised. Nice.

http://www.gog.com/en/news/mod_spotlight_planescape_torment_mods_guide/

They also link to you for troubleshooting, so enjoy that!

[ThunderPeel2001]

So wait, they just jacked all of your copy and only linked your blog in the context of you answering questions rather than them? That's fucked up.

They also link to you for troubleshooting, so enjoy that!

Yes

Emails have been dispatched. I'll see what they say.

[ThunderPeel2001]

That was quick! They've changed the introduction to explain that the article was written by me, and taken from my blog (with a link)

Plus, I get a few free games (Anybody got any recommendations? I already own The Last Express and Psychonauts.)

Nice to see them deal with this so quickly, I was expecting to be ignored. Hurrah.

Edited March 29, 2011 by ThunderPeel2001

[toblix]

Good to hear! I'm betting they're not interested in another internet thing where everybody is angry at them for being stupid.

[pabosher]

That was quick! They've changed the introduction to explain that the article was written by me, and taken from my blog (with a link)

Plus, I get a few free games (Anybody got any recommendations? I already own The Last Express and Psychonauts.)

Nice to see them deal with this so quickly, I was expecting to be ignored. Hurrah.

The Longest Journey is a pretty sweet Point n Click adventure.

[Gwardinen]

Plus, I get a few free games (Anybody got any recommendations? I already own The Last Express and Psychonauts.)

Sacrifice is one of my favourite games ever.

[Kolzig]

Another World is a must, the collector's edition is cool.

Also Outcast is pretty

[ThunderPeel2001]

Another World is a must, the collector's edition is cool.

Also Outcast is pretty

Oh yes. I already have that, actually. It's very good.

I was thinking along the lines of Baldur's Gate... I've never played anything from that series?

[Thyroid]

I hear that they're both good, but the first's aged a bit. The sequel remains a point of comparison for all Bioware games afterwards. My friend's been talking about Heroes of Might and Magic IV all day, and it sounds good. I hear Broken Sword, Serious Sam, Icewind Dale and Temple of Elemental Evil are all good too.

Edit: also I think this should be in a different thread.