
Contentious C
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Posts posted by Contentious C
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Yeah, this is the only movie they've done since, Hell, Infinity War for me that recaptures the right vibe.
It's mostly predictable, but I think your level of appreciation for this is going to hinge on two things: 1) Do you want to see something done Avengers-style? Box checked. 2) Can you feel what the characters are experiencing, particularly when they have to fight for each other? This movie is pretty much carried by Florence Pugh (smart choice, she's the best actor) and Lewis Pullman, who is way better as The Sentry than I could have hoped for. I think if there's a weakness, it's that it feels like Ghost and to a lesser extent US Agent are tacked on just to have the Sarcastic Badass and the Mediocre White Guy to round out the team of Emotional Anchor/Heavy Hitter/Leader/Loveable Goofball.
The post-credits scene makes me think *EXACTLY* two things and two things only, and if I'm wrong about either of them, then Marvel has less than no balls:
Spoiler- That the FF show up in this universe (presumably 616) makes me think that they come here *because* Galactus eats their Earth and they're the only ones who have the capacity to flee (though technically this FF group may not be strictly the same ones we're going to see in First Steps).
- Or so they think. Doomsday kicks off because Dr. Doom *also* manages to escape, sees what Reed is doing, and piggybacks it. As ever, Everything Everywhere Is Reed Richard's Fault.
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Should we call it Belichicking now, instead of Streisanding?
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Hahahahahahah, FUCK THE LAKERS
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GS is losing tonight but 100% winning this series in 6. The bench scrapped its way back into this, and seeing more fight out of rec-league MVP Pat Spencer is going to light a fire under the starters.
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3 hours ago, Zimbra said:
https://bsky.app/profile/keerthikau.bsky.social/post/3lo2pikxcpc22
Firing Doc Rivers is not enough for me; I want that man shot into the sun
Why you trying to make the sun fail, broh?
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Yeesh.
Meanwhile, Thibs is out here committing coaching malpractice by not having someone foul on purpose to get Hart and Brunson back in the game.
Then again, I suppose I should be thanking him for the extra rest Jrue Holiday's hamstring will get.
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Yeah.
The Duchess - Middle-of-the-road for Keira Knightley's "period" period: a damn sight better than Anna Karenina but not to the level of P&P and certainly not Colette, which might be her best movie aside from Never Let Me Go. There are a few scenes with some staying power, but mostly it's one of those films that makes you wonder where they stash all the crap needed to decorate these things. Guess they'll keep making British stuff like this in perpetuity just to pay the overhead on all the museums. Peggy Carter and Howard Stark are here, too, but they do not fondue.
Boys on the Side - I'd seen chunks of this over the years due to it being another heavily-edited, high-rotation TBS movie, but never the full thing. Whoopi Goldberg is supposed to...be a singer in this? And then she sings fucking JANIS JOPLIN, not known as the hardest-to-perform stuff in the world, and it's completely mediocre??? That's how you START? Eck.
I'm also not sure a movie qualifies as 'feminist' just because the three leads are women and the Indigo Girls play a set. Not with a production crew that's still men calling all the shots, not with the ridiculous amount of violence against women that's simply brushed off in the pivotal early scene, not with wisecracks about wanting to fuck preteens. Do better (thankfully, we have. Sort of). Some of the lighting and cinematography is nice, though.
The Amateur (1981) - This was on Hulu, not TUBI, as it turns out. It's...eh. If you've seen post-70s/post-Pakula pot-boilers, you've seen things just like this. It's not anything special, though the computer involvement is at least a little interesting considering the era. Not entirely sure why this warranted a remake, except they thought they could do some wackier stunts or something. Pretty skippable. Not necessarily an actively bad movie, but just assembled from stuff that's rote and not the least bit original.
On the Waterfront - Hoo boy, I watched this, oh, probably 20 years ago? Maybe more? Back when I had precious little appreciation for the craft of movie-making or the failures in craft that sometimes lead to films getting made. What do I mean by that? Well, Elia Kazan can go fuck himself if he thought he was half the victim Terry Malloy was. That isn't just "Death of the Author", it's "Zombification of the Author."
The performances are, in fact, great, but considering what some of them have to work with - poor Eva Marie Saint playing a role written as the flimsiest possible cardboard cutout dame, for example - it's practically a miracle the film hangs together at all. And oof, that brassy fucking score is awful. *That* was Leonard Bernstein? Really? All that "Do ya get it? It's supposed to be tense now! Because the music's loud! Get it?!?" nonsense? Yeesh. When I watched this in my 20s, though, there was plenty I missed (like the pigeons & hawks symbolism), so it was worth the revisit anyway. But as much as this moved acting away from the older style and towards naturalism, it reminds me that the production and direction wasn't there yet, and those feel at odds with each other nowadays.
How to Train Your Dragon - Hey, man, I was rocking the Hiccup style a good 15 years before it was cool! That said, it's a good thing I didn't see this when it came out, because I got my now-dearly-departed cat about a year later, and I totally would have named him "Night Furry" since he looked like, and behaved like, Toothless so much. Who knows if "Night Furry" is an improvement or not over "Mister Jerkface". Yes, that was my cat's name. And anyway, yes, I am now a Hell of a lot more interested in seeing the live-action version of this, because this probably should have been on my 2010s list, or certainly deserving of a viewing at the time. I don't think this is the best non-Pixar from the decade - I think Kubo still takes that pretty cleanly - but it's better than a lot of Pixars by a wide margin.
Companion - Honey, we already have Ex Machina at home! And we did a version of this in the 90s with Bruce Greenwood, so why'd you steal so much from that and then pretend it never happened?? Always amazed at how things like this can get some level of cultural grip on people and yet, yeah, it's lifted from about a dozen other things. But hey, I'm not going to 100% object to movies that want to make this many jokes about Tesla owners. I do think Sophie Thatcher - unlike Ayo Edebiri - should really get her front teeth fixed, though, because she's beautiful to the point that that stuff is distracting. Oh, you expected me to talk about the movie? No, no, no, go watch those other things where they got all their ideas.
The Way of the Gun - Having just rewatched From Dusk Till Dawn and having been reminded I don't care for that, this was, to say the least, a welcome bit of grim, ugly, violent, twisty stuff. The Anti-Tarantino, and one I can appreciate. I don't always dig del Toro as an actor the way some do - not a huge fan of Sicario or Traffic for instance, though the latter is probably due for a rewatch - but here he just gets morsel after morsel of great dialogue and drills every one of them out of the park. Phillippe is probably as well-cast here as he was for anything, where you realize the only reason he's narrating and the only reason he's presented as an anti-hero is so his prettiness is constantly thrown into contrast with how shitty all the events are. Just grimy and consequence-laden and heavy like the better Peckinpahs, not so much the misogynist Peckinpahs (though this isn't exactly lacking in its own awful treatment of women). A low-end entry on a Top 100 of the 2000s list, I'd think.
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And probably removing the playoffs from their future.
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The DMB song is creepy enough you could think Cronenberg or Ballard wrote it.
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Seasons change, champions are crowned, and Draymond Green gets ejected from a pivotal playoff game (probably). About to find out!!
Man, they kinda wussed out on that.
Also, ridiculous spellings of "Sengun" by closed captioning:
Qingjun
Schengen
Shangjun
Shane Goon (hooked on phonics ftw!)
Janghoon
SHOTGUN~~~
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Well, this series is ending ugly.
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12 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:
And Eastern Promises is probably the best mob movie that came out after, what, Casino? I can't think of another one as good.
A History of Violence? Oh, right, who directed that...
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Well, Lillard's done and probably for next year, too. It was kind of easy to tell it was coming if you saw it at the time - no contact, didn't and *couldn't* stand up on his own. Sucks to be Giannis; good thing he got the ring he got.
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Has anyone watched Lazarus? I saw it was a Shinichiro Watanabe joint, so I know the style to expect, and the blurb seemed compelling.
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Redick left the same 5 in for the entire second half. That shit is going to get quintuple-guessed.
Oh, and, Hahahahahahah FUCK THE Lakers!
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They missed at least one out of bounds call where Hart touched it last, too. But no challenges.
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Yeah, I had a sensor issue on my previous car that made it fail emissions tests, so I had no choice but to fix it. Not as drastic as your fix, but it was $350 vs. the 60 I actually paid. And the repair was easier than most computer builds I've done. YouTube everything for an answer first is my approach.
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Brunson comes back and the Knicks tie it. Pretty great close.
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Brunson got injured (same ankle) again. Detroit has to make this count while they can. Beasley has hit a couple of big shots. But these playoffs are shaping up to say the most important ability is availability.
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I don't watch this stuff anymore, but I heard the commercial bumpers enough times during NBA games that I recognized the Elton John reference, and didn't think it was anything but filler. But I just caught the intro, and actually using that song almost makes me want to watch.
Almost.
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Literally the closest winning basket ever, maybe the closest one possible.
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5 minutes ago, Cobra Commander said:
NFL GMs are probably a tad overvalued compared to the coaching/development, but in the case of Cleveland, I can buy the concept that a certain chunk of their problems involve really stupid people running the team
Maybe it secretly really is Kevin Costner.
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Also, hahahaha, FUCK the Lakers.
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Dort was very clearly slipping. If that's your idea of 'evidence', I know some folks who'd probably like to retain your services.
Jaden McDaniels is turning into an interesting player. Helps to have Ant out there to pull defenders away, but putting up 30 while guarding Luka all night is not nothing.
Shine On - Musicians RIP Thread
in MUSIC
Posted
Jill Sobule evidently died in a house fire; 66. Sucks.