Jake

Idle Thumbs 170: Esophagus Sarcophagus

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This is a little off-topic, when people discuss how great films like Alien or The Thing are, I'm always intrigued, but also a little bit saddened, because I don't enjoy horror films at all and can barely watch them. Especially if they are science-fiction horror, because I very much enjoy science-fiction in general. It's the same with scary media of any kind, really. Games, for example, I feel like I missed out on many of what are conisdered classic games because they scared me too much. Even ones that usually, as far as I can tell, aren't considered to be among the scariest ones as BioShock. Of course, I'm lacking a reference because being freaked out by BioShock, I never even bothered trying something like Silent Hill.

But then Jake said "greebled" and made me happy again. Until he apologized for saying it.

Also, I wish people said "tetralogy" instead of "quadrilogy".

 

At first this saddened me as well, however there is such a wealth of content out there that is both great and not horror-themed that I honestly don't think you're missing out on much, especially when you consider the influence of personal preference. Some people just don't like critically-acclaimed games/movies because they just don't resonate with them.

 

I'm not sure if that makes complete sense (kind of rambling thoughts here), but if I could try and make an analogy to it: I suspect it's similar to me being disappointed that I don't enjoy Starcraft as much as I think I would if I had a thing for RTS games. The things I don't like about RTS games are the things that make Starcraft great, and the things people do not enjoy about horror games/movies is often what makes them critically acclaimed. Their portrayal of that mood is masterful, but if you don't enjoy that mood, they're just not something you'd agree with the crticial opinion of even if you did manage to play them.

 

Ditto for Flight Sims. Or caviar.

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For more people interested in the crazy transformations that male action-movie actors are now going through, Men's Journal ran an article on it a couple months ago that I thought was pretty interesting (albeit a bit lengthy and paginated):

 

http://www.mensjournal.com/magazine/building-a-bigger-action-hero-20140418

 

That's a pretty interesting article. Imagining an actor quickly blasting out dozens of push-ups then yelling "Take the picture now! Take it now!" is surreal.

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That's a pretty interesting article. Imagining an actor quickly blasting out dozens of push-ups then yelling "Take the picture now! Take it now!" is surreal.

That's nothing: http://grantland.com/features/a-scenes-look-mr-olympia-phil-heath-2012-title-defense/

 

The trick at this crucial juncture is to keep his body full and round on the right carbs and protein while siphoning the remaining fluid from between his skin and muscle tissue. Carbs require water to be assimilated, and because he’s not drinking any, that required water gets pulled from beneath his skin, creating the dry see-through aesthetic you see onstage. 

...

“We’re trying to get that Saran-wrapped look. On the cover of magazines, that look isn’t weeks of looking like that. You can only look like that for one day, and you’re trying to peak during that one hour of competition tomorrow night.”

If Heath peaks too soon or too late, there’s no recovering from that, and he has lost the title. Every minute detail of his diet must be monitored to make sure he peaks at maximum roundness and hardness during that single hour onstage Friday. 

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I'm aware of what it takes for bodybuilding and what not, but it's fascinating that Hollywood has essentially adopted the same techniques, training regiments, and nutrition. The article talks about peak conditioning, cutting, and the professional trainers that get the actors into the crazy shape that we expect comic book superheroes and more to have.

 

It's not just the push-ups and what not, I just thought that was funny, studios integrate the shooting schedules and training plans very early on so that they can have actors at their absolute most cut for the scenes where it will show the most. They'll rotate off carbs, load up on short cardio, and dehydrate just like body builders. The article discusses how some of the first questions specialists will ask is when will their actors be shooting topless and sex scenes. It's an interesting article.

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Jake, in the episode you were hoping that Crypt of the Necrodancer would test you on your rhythm at the beginning of the game, jokingly. Did you ever play any of the Rhythm Heaven games?

? And are also
?

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But then Jake said "greebled" and made me happy again. Until he apologized for saying it.

Also, I wish people said "tetralogy" instead of "quadrilogy".

 

If you're lucky, maybe Jake will show up here and apologizing for apologizing.

 

And yeah, it's funny how Latin numerical prefixes always trump Greek numerical prefixes. The box set refuses to take a stand, calling itself the Alien Anthology.

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I'm aware of what it takes for bodybuilding and what not, but it's fascinating that Hollywood has essentially adopted the same techniques, training regiments, and nutrition. The article talks about peak conditioning, cutting, and the professional trainers that get the actors into the crazy shape that we expect comic book superheroes and more to have.

 

It's not just the push-ups and what not, I just thought that was funny, studios integrate the shooting schedules and training plans very early on so that they can have actors at their absolute most cut for the scenes where it will show the most. They'll rotate off carbs, load up on short cardio, and dehydrate just like body builders. The article discusses how some of the first questions specialists will ask is when will their actors be shooting topless and sex scenes. It's an interesting article.

 

"Well, no water for me today. Guess that means it's sex-scene day."

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Wouldn't Alien be a pentology now? 

 

Of course, I really want to live in a world where Prometheus isn't part of the Alien world, but now every time the rest of the movies comes up, it seems inevitable that Prometheus at least gets a brief mention.  Maybe in a few more years people will forget about it. 

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Wouldn't Alien be a pentology now? 

 

Of course, I really want to live in a world where Prometheus isn't part of the Alien world, but now every time the rest of the movies comes up, it seems inevitable that Prometheus at least gets a brief mention.  Maybe in a few more years people will forget about it. 

 

I kind of hate the status of Prometheus in the Alien canon. Ridley Scott and company were so insistent that it's not a part of the universe, but gladly cashed in on the fact that it obviously is.

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"Well, no water for me today. Guess that means it's sex-scene day."

 

Hilariously, and disturbingly, accurate:

 

"You have no idea what goes into the lead up to a scene like that. It was a year ago  I know that exactly because it was May 21. I stopped drinking water for 24 hours, I pumped up on set for about an hour before shooting. And fell asleep by 2 o'clock."

Hugh Jackman talking about The Wolverine

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That dehydrating thing of bodybuilders always disturbed me.

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I kind of hate the status of Prometheus in the Alien canon. Ridley Scott and company were so insistent that it's not a part of the universe, but gladly cashed in on the fact that it obviously is.

http://grantland.com/features/prometheus-ridley-scott-blockbuster-alien-franchise/

For all its faults, I can't hate Prometheus. I actually kind of enjoy it. The first 45 minutes especially, when it's all tense setup and beautifully shot scenes.

 

I know enough people with positive views that I should watch it again.  But when I saw it at the theater, I walked out seething mad.  Not with like Alien-nerd rage, but just mad that it was such a mess.  But someday I should watch it again with much lower expectations.  I know that my reaction to a movie in a theater can be significantly different than watching the same movie at home (or just watching it in a different mood).  There are a few movies I hated on first viewing, that years later I rewatched and quite enjoyed.  Oddly enough, the Aliens-derivative Pitch Black is one of those. 

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My initial reaction after walking out of the theater was a lot harsher as well. Like Gormongous said, Prometheus really suffers from the "have their cake and eat it too" attitude of making an Alien prequel without directly calling the film a prequel. I assume Ridley Scott wanted to avoid all of the baggage that comes along with the word prequel, but ended up exacerbating the baggage that inevitably comes with rebooting a beloved nerd franchise. I rewatched the movie maybe a year after it came out and found that my reaction to it was much more positive. I'm hoping for a similar experience with Alien 3 (I tried to watch it two years ago and actually turned off the movie halfway through because I was so baffled by what I was seeing.

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Alien 3 is a beautiful but tonally (and even visually, towards the end) incoherent movie. "Director's Cut" is the way to go, but none of it is great. Still think it has the greatest opening of the series, though Aliens fanboys hate that 

 

that they killed Newt and Hicks.

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Also, I wish people said "tetralogy" instead of "quadrilogy".

I said "Quadrilogy" because the Alien movies were boxed in a set that was called the Alien Quadrilogy, which was where I first heard that ridiculous term. I wasn't using it genuinely.

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I said "Quadrilogy" because the Alien movies were boxed in a set that was called the Alien Quadrilogy, which was where I first heard that ridiculous term. I wasn't using it genuinely.

 

The Blu-Ray set is called the Alien Anthology, which is slightly saddening.

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I don't think my opinion on Prometheus will improve because the characters were too stupid to care about. I doubt that'll change on a rewatch.

 

I wonder what the relationship is between expecting actors to look in their 'peak' and the increase in sedentary work and obesity in the West. I'd be fascinated if the large increase in people who have no idea what physical fitness looks like influences how movies try and show 'this is a man who is extremely fit'.

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I said "Quadrilogy" because the Alien movies were boxed in a set that was called the Alien Quadrilogy, which was where I first heard that ridiculous term. I wasn't using it genuinely.

 

I know. I didn't mean to call you out specifically.

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So I switched to listening on soundcloud instead of the dog shit iTunes podcast app and I had a much better listening experience, everything just worked 10 times faster, I didn't get a pop up asking me if I wanted to use 3G data and I didn't get sent back to the app home page when I canceled said pop up grrrrrrr, the audio even sounded better? Might be my imagination. it's a shame that I lose the little 15sec back/forward buttons off the lock screen. But overall better, kudos to whoever suggested soundcloud

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Yeeeesssssss.

 

Wait, when did it become "things" instead of "games"?

Sounds like the podcast might be getting a bit off blade.

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Things shows up instead of Games whenever there's notable non-game content in the list. I think it first showed up in the first GDC episodes but I'm not sure.

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Sounds like the podcast might be getting a bit off blade.

Blades discussed: Original Xbox 360 interface, Marvel Film Trilogy, Gillette products, Finn's plant sword.

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