Idle Thumbs 170: Esophagus Sarcophagus

[Jake]

Idle Thumbs 170:

Esophagus Sarcophagus

A weekend of non-stop sci-fi movies accidentally begets an episode filled with the first person corridors of today and yesterday, and the gross things they're made of. Plus: Chris encounters the Necrodancer and Jake plays PC games from his couch for the first time.

Things Discussed: Xibalba, Doom, Toxikk, Unreal Tournament (2014), Crypt of the Necrodancer, Steam Home Streaming, Alien Quadrilogy

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[tegan]

Things Discussed: Alien Quadrilogy

 

Yeeeesssssss.

 

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

[syntheticgerbil]

I feel like I'm the only one who really enjoys Alien 3. Maybe I'm biased because I am a Fincher fanboy, but I suppose the director himself disowns it as one of "his."The only thing that bugs me is the doctor's early demise, otherwise everything feels so creepy and I love the sets. Although, the only CG scene in Alien 3 is when the alien shatters. When it's crawling, it's all green screen. If I recall, at the time they could not afford digital effects or did not have enough time and so everything was done practically. However it's terrible green screen as you can see all the green reflection on the alien as it's superimposed on a set composed of reds and browns and it sticks out horribly, most likely more than bad CG would have

 

I think Aliens is absolute shit and I try really hard not to ever say that because people generally start seething if they hear you say that. It looks cheap, both the playmobile car and the rubbery mass produced aliens, everything is a terrible one liner, and there's no suspense or really any stakes to be had because of such poor character development. It's almost like the movie was created solely to sell toys even though that probably evolved naturally. This is typical of James Cameron though and it wasn't until recently that I decided to watch the Terminator movies again did I realize how poorly written they were and how bad the dialogue was (again all one liner cliches). I guess that stuff doesn't matter as a kid. I had to stop in the middle of Terminator 2 I was cringing so much. I went on to watch the whole of Sarah Connor Chronicles which was surprisingly decent to great, considering all of the bad time travel logic they had to work with.

 

I don't even know what to think of Alien Resurrection. I think it mostly suffers from Joss Whedon's typical awful writing (my opinion, don't be mad! I just cringe so hard when I hear stuff like, "He's been sucking down too much homebrew.") but Jeunet didn't seem to know what he was doing and completely dropped the ball. There's maybe some parts I liked but I can't seem to remember them. I know he was hired because of how great City of Lost Children looked and that would have hopefully spilled over into another Alien, but the movie looks so sterile and does not feel like the anything else director the director has done before and since. It probably shouldn't have been made. It's really bizarre to me because all of the other Jeanne Pierre Jeunet films rank incredibly highly to me, being very tightly filmed and edited as well as incredibly imaginative. Delicatessen, Amelie, City of Lost Children, A Very Long Engagement, and Micmacs are all so so good.

 

Okay I still have to listen to the rest. Oops.

[tegan]

Oh man, Danielle, you need to watch the Assembly Cut of Alien 3. It drastically improves that movie. Go for the version in the Alien Anthology Blu-Ray, since that one has new ADR dialogue while the Alien Quadrilogy DVD doesn't.

 

I bought that set as a birthday gift for myself last year and absolutely love it.

[Golden Calf]

I recently watched The Passenger, from 1975. The contrast between Jack Nicholson and today's Hollywood lead was striking, to say the least:

 

 

I absolutely loved the Swedish version of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo movies because of how non-Hollywood all the actors looked. I think they're far superior to the American version (for a few other reasons also, but the casting really struck me while I was watching them). Also, how the fuck did they think "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" was a better title than the original "Men Who Hate Women"?

[syntheticgerbil]

It's funny because it's said somewhere in the commentary for the U.S. version of Girl With the Dragon Tattoo that Daniel Craig was told to gain weight as the role required him to be pudgy, but I couldn't tell even when told I was supposed to be looking for it. I guess he doesn't have defined abs so he's pudgy?

[singlespace]

[thainatos]

Alien 3 has long been my favorite and its nice to finally hear someone not talk about it disparagingly. As mentioned above, the Assembly Cut is the best version and probably one of my top 5 favorite films. Pete Postlethwaite rules.

[mikemariano]

Opinions.

 

LOL

[syntheticgerbil]

[Merus]

I absolutely loved the Swedish version of the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo movies because of how non-Hollywood all the actors looked. I think they're far superior to the American version (for a few other reasons also, but the casting really struck me while I was watching them). Also, how the fuck did they think "The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo" was a better title than the original "Men Who Hate Women"?

 

The Swedish version's script is garbage, though. I know one of the reasons we didn't get any more American Millenium movies was because they couldn't fix the second book so it'd work onscreen (and the second book has some pacing problems that the miniseries only highlights).

 

Blame the original translation for the titles - I guess they figured America isn't as progressive as Sweden (correct) so they'd likely blanche at a book that straight-up said it was about misogyny in the title.

[tegan]

It's almost like the movie was created solely to sell toys

 

Tegan's Alien Phun Phacts: the xenomorph figurine from the original Alien movie was the first-ever toy to be based on an R-rated film and suffered a lot of controversy because of it. There was originally a planned Saturday morning cartoon spin off of Aliens called "Operation: Aliens" that was never aired, though a toyline was produced and production stills have been made public. The show was meant as an elaborate way to advertise the R-rated Alien 3 to children, because that's just what you did back then, I guess.

 

I've never seen the Rambo cartoon, but I alway figured it would be like GI Joe with more Columbian Neckties.

[tegan]

Serious note: did Danielle actually get a bunch of hatemail, or was that just a joke? Because sadly, I'd believe it.

[syntheticgerbil]

I've never seen the Rambo cartoon, but I alway figured it would be like GI Joe with more Columbian Neckties.

Finding out what the Toxic Crusader really was later in life was super shocking to me.

[Brannigan]

The only thing I remember from the rambo cartoon was that he turned into rambo when he put on the red bandana.

[Chris]

Serious note: did Danielle actually get a bunch of hatemail, or was that just a joke? Because sadly, I'd believe it.

I can't remember what from the cast this is referencing, but certainly there's been no Danielle-related hate mail sent to Idle Thumbs.

[tegan]

Hooray! OuO

[jimtwo]

sighs

 

http://averyjallard.christmas

[tegan]

sighs

 

http://averyjallard.christmas

 

 

YESSSSS!

 

 

...now register http://howbobbykotickstole.christmas

[Bjorn]

The epic serial killer novel 'cast titles continue with On Blade and Esophagus Sarcophagus.

[Gormongous]

The epic serial killer novel 'cast titles continue with On Blade and Esophagus Sarcophagus.

 

I'll give you "Esophagus Sarcophagus," but "On Blade" is clearly a reference to De Lamina, the third-century Gallo-Roman treatise by Frontillian on metalworking.

[Golden Calf]

The Swedish version's script is garbage, though. I know one of the reasons we didn't get any more American Millenium movies was because they couldn't fix the second book so it'd work onscreen (and the second book has some pacing problems that the miniseries only highlights).

 

really? I remember liking them all a lot..... Caveat: je suis imbécile.

 

 

Also btw, Xibalba is the underworld of a branch of Mayan mythology, which I know only because it featured heavily in Aronofsky's The Fountain. The between-level text in the game obliquely referenced it, but it seemed entirely divorced from the gameplay, and so vague as to be easily ignored.

[tegan]

Regarding the emails this week, I have two thoughts:

 

1) I did a complete 180 on the Minecraft LARPing guy. "Really? LARPing? Don't you mean 'playing pretend'? You don't have to apply your nerd shit to oh wait no yeah that is definitely LARPing."

2) 13 year olds listen to this podcast? That's surprising/neat.

 

Horsebag.

[Ben X]

I never knew the word "reticle" existed as an alternative to "reticule" until this week's episode!

[N1njaSquirrel]

I was expecting someone to crack an idlethumbs.blade joke in the opening ad. Good cast so far!