T3551ER

Dope. TY!

Never seen Nausicaa, but it always seems to circle my "to watch" list. Is it something that holds up? (I'm guessing so because, and I'm ashamed to say this, I only recently watched Mononoke and it was amazeballs)

This is, like, the cover to the movie "Time Trap" which utterly oversells this thing when, actually, this is more the actual feel of the movie: That's right. Moody teens and college kids in peril, with color grading that's reminiscent of SyFy flicks of yore. I actually read a review of this that said it felt of that era of films/tv, but in the best way possible. I totally agree. It's got some cheese and limited capacity when it comes to visual effects and caliber of acting - but it kinda knows that and leans in to it a bit. It also does a great job of moving things along - there is little wasted space and interesting ideas are introduced at a regular pace. Typically movies like this have one basic McGuffin you spend the whole movie "discovering", but this one does an admirable job of introducing some natural extensions and evolutions of that central plot device rather than just sort of churning it's way around the same idea that you as the viewer figured out in the first five minutes. At an hour and a half, it's also the perfect length for this sort of thing. It entertains, tugs at a few heartstrings, introduces some trippy shit, and also ends on a happy note. It's the sort of thing that you feel a little bad for liking so much, but also secretly hope they make into a series so you can follow what happens next. Pretty fun sci-fi, like a slightly long episode of the Twilight Zone that I wish I could rail on, but, honestly, just enjoyed it.

Speaking of badass animated / !animated adjacent things

Les Claypool v Squarepusher bass-off. Just, like, 45 minutes of mind melting bass solos. Brain on drums. Random vocals by Tom Waits.

Ok, so, is this like... bad like it's just terrible. Or is it, like, really bad, but if you were kind of hazy on a Sunday afternoon and it came on the TV you'd let it wash across your eyeballs and be like "it's not the worst thing I've seen" bad?

Dope. DMC is definitely one of those you like or don't, glad you bailed once you realized not for you. Last Guardian is sort of a melding of SOTC and Ico in some ways.. but hews closer to SOTC (imop). Curious to see what you think. Those others ones on my "to do" list.. eventually. It's a pretty great service IMOP b/c .. like, with limited time to game, there's usually always something on there that I'm going to enjoy playing. Have fun friend!

Stray is fantastic. Also, since you have it now, some gems on there: Returnal - bullet hell but it's sort of like wandering through your subconscious/Prometheus. Gorgeous. Hard to recommend buying b/c it's so weird (and tough), but totally worth it as free Spider Man Miles Morales - fantastic. Great open world, but also great story, and it's relatively short. I hate open world games that take 200 fucking hours to beat. Who got time? This is straight to the point but also tons of actiony fun. Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition or whatever tF it's called. One of my fave action/slashers ever. I paid full price, would pay again. No brainer it it's free. Ghost of Tsushima - Only game in recent memory I find myself just stopping and... like, just looking at it. Hidden Gems: Gravity Rush and Gravity Rush 2 - Fun, quirky games. I'm 99% sure that The Last Guardian is on PS+ now. I bought it ages ago because OMG love love Ico and Shadow of the Collosus, etc. It's fantastic.

Cruisin FTW and flol @ ur search terms too @Squeewell that's crap. Wonder if it's bc it's a little indie piece, so weird when these things aren't available cross regionally.

Nice! Lmk what you think. It's def "mid tier" FF, but does what it does well/gets in/out without overstating it's welcome.

I'm (weirdly) rooting for this one. From everything I've read it sounds like the sort of film that doesn't get made all that often these days - i.e., a lighthearted fantasy adventure/comedy that has heart but also doesn't take itself too seriously. Seems like everything these is either ultra-intense CGI overload or utterly vapid drivel. *reminds self to re-watch Princess Bride soon*

Been sorta low these last coupla weeks so sinking into my "comfort zone" genre of movies: Found Footage Horror. REC - It took me ages to watch this, partly because I'd already watched Quarantine (the US remake) and partly because of subtitles which . . . doesn't necessarily bother me, but I have to be up for it. Kind of glad I waited because, even though this is over a decade old, it's easily one of my top FF Horror Movies ever. Annoying (if perky) late night news reported joins a firefighter crew as they respond to a call in an apartment building for a health issue, things escalate quickly as the building becomes suddenly quarantined and ... well, not going to spoil if for you if you haven't seen it, but the endgame was a bit surprising. What makes this film brilliant is that it somehow is expertly directed while still feeling utterly natural. It's a huge feat in a genre that often eschews comprehensibility for the chaos of shaky camera to communicate "genuineness." A taut thriller where almost no shot is wasted, each choice narratively and directorially contributing to a film that funnels down to gnarly conclusion (the ending being the only thing that is, maybe, a little bit of a let down. But only maybe, because it's just really hard to stick any landing in a horror film). Not a 10/10 film because it's got a few things to quibble about, but easily a 10/10 found footage horror film. One of the best I've ever seen. REC2 - So, how do you follow-up a masterpiece like Rec? You go Aliens on it. That's not a new observation, a lot of people have made the comparison, and it's an apt one. Essentially starting out right after the events of REC, a group of soldiers are sent into the building. Multi-cameras replace the one singular camera in Rec, the pace is more action-y, and, overall, it's a worthy sequel. There is a weird narrative decision halfway through to Regardless, this remains another tight thriller, with some new tricks thrown in to the mix that show a director/editor willing to learn new things in the face of their craft. This one isn't as tight as the first, and there are some real kinda eye roll horror movie decisions made at certain points, but they're forgivable because.. hey man, this is just a FF horror flick. It's not Scorsese (and it's not trying to be). It's great for what it is. Mister Creep - If REC is a 10/10, and REC2 is more like a 9/10 then this one is. .. Ok, there are tiers of FF horror. Some are these pretty well made affairs (I'd put As Above So Below in there or The Taking of Deborah Logan). Some of them are legitimately someone's art school project and cost literally 75$ to make. Then there are some that lie somewhere in between, where it's clear that it's some indie filmmaker who has maybe a budget, but not much of one, and whose actors are all college drama school friends who need the work. This one falls into that latter category, and judged on that pool of films, is exceptionally well done. The premise: 4 college kids (but, older college kids, who are back in school because the gig economy essentially sucks) are finishing their final film project. One of them is obsessed with serial killers, and claims to have found an urban legend of a serial killer with over 200 confirmed kills, whose existence was swept under the rug b/c, hey, it's bad for tourism n shit. There is a rumored broadcast that still is being sent over the airways (which gives the director an excuse to introduce younger audiences to rabbit ear antennas) seeming to suggest the killer is somehow still broadcasting, even though he was given lethal injection. Kids follow the clues blah blah weird shit starts to happen blah blah. What's great here is multifactorial: The film switches between an interview with the serial killer (legitimately well acted/unnerving/interesting), his broadcasts (very weird, psychedelia sort of things), and film from the kids investigating. This allows the director to present a few different types of media, and each one is competently carried off. Nothing amazeballs, but just having one style competently done in these films is unusual, much less three. The whole things clocks in at just over an hour between credits. I.e., it doesn't fuck around like a lot of these movies tend to do. Yes, maybe I'd like a little more time with these characters, but I'd easily sacrifice that for something like this where I can get in/out in a short evening session. It's nice the director understands the audience here - we don't come to these mid-tier FF horror films for a buffet of runtime, we just want something concise and competently done. So, for what it is, 9.5/10. Totally worth the 5 bucks I spent because, not only did I enjoy it, I know the money will go to some dude who actually might need it/use it to continue to hone his craft.

Yeah, whoa. I mean... I know death comes when it comes, but this seemed ultra unexpected (like, dude was only 60, seemed like he was in great shape, etc.). Was just reading an interview w/ him re: John Wick 4, wtf.

fascinating. Out of curiosity, are you taking single frames and running them through AI and stitching together, or is there some front-end where you are loading in a full videos and having it generate videos out back?

Hahaha. WTF. Hack/slash w/ 3rd person gunplay made, in part, by some of the team behind DOA and Ninja Gaiden I and II (Itagaki era, though no Itagaki involvement here). This has been on my radar for a while now, most anticipated game this year (for me). It's an intentional clusterfuck. Billed as a throwback to PS2 era it is a total kitchen sink of wtf. Ridiculously bad voice acting with PS2 era cutscenes that give way, suddenly, to deeply gorgeous anime segments that bely an emotional depth (sometimes) that tonally smash-cut into a lewd and crass "guy with 4 balls" joke. A rhythm minigame where you eat Ramen. A ps2 era graphic police station hub where you can play a claw game that, I swear, only seems to work when you press the button to kick the machine. You use the Konami code to unlock the easy difficulty (which forces your character to wear cute cat ears because, in the words of the developer, you're playing in "pussy mode.") Deadly Premonition has been getting thrown around as a comparator for some of the feeling of "charming jankiness" but this is realllly out there. I haven't even gotten to the gameplay. Reviews have been savaging this, with the weirdest I've seen being IGN"s heavy coverage and "final preview" in particular lauding the scrappy charm of the game but the final review totally trashing it and giving it a "4." I played this for about 1/2 hr on day one and turned it off, utterly disappointed. I'm a HUGE NG Black / NGII fan and felt totally let down. Combat was stiff. Gunplay felt wonky. I made myself a salad. I watched a few episodes of Sealab 2021. I decided to turn it back on for 15 minutes before going to be. Ended up spending the next hour totally engrossed. It's a tough as nails, bust your balls hard game. Lots of enemy repetition (wave after wave). Your have a very limited skill tree which seemed like it was going to make combat extremely boring. It's not. It's more that the game needs to be approached in a very specific way, and once you realize that, it totally opens up, and each skill opens up new, specific opportunities that change the way you play. You open up an extended dash and, aha, it's a roll that allows you to change direction and get behind enemies / create space. You open up skill that allows you to perform finishers (basically, NGII's Obliteration Technique) on de-limbed enemies, and suddenly 1/5 encounters becomes instant kills. You open up a post-parry strike that often de-limbs and you've got another tool in your belt to combine with the finishers. It really follows an old school combat approach, where different enemy types/scenarios are vulnerable to different things. In some ways, I guess there's a whole new set of games coming up that are kind of like this - your Sekiro's, Nioh's, etc. - but this (for me) is waaaaay more fun. I'm only at the end of level 2/5 and repeatedly getting slaughtered (because even grunts can put a hurting on your if you lose focus) but I'm rarely frustrated. It's, honestly, just too much fun. I think what tickles my brain with something like this more than something like a FromSoftware title is there is room for creativity, and an immediacy that I just don't get from modern games. Part of that is the ultraviolence, part of it is just the feel of it. Ultimately, an extremely, extremely niche product. However, I'm apparently that niche, as this will likely be my GOTY.

Lol no ur good man. Also, just to be clear, wasn't trying to call u out or anything. Just ended up looking her up cause I wondered if she was in anything else and was reassured that Hollywood isn't successfully deaging 20 yos to appear 10 ? Started rewatching Fucking fantastic as ever.

Apparently I'm mining the shit out of this thread these days. Watched this over the last week. Somehow totally missed this in the 90s (how?). Loved it. Some stilted acting in places, but overall just a brilliant film that felt both of its time but also a bit timeless. Some of the directorial stuff is pretty incredible, particularly the first person stuff that is carried off flawlessly. It has gritty realness too it that lots of modern films seem to lack. I'm some ways, and this may be a bit weird, it feels like almost a proto-Gasper Noe film. I guess some people hated it when it came out for being either too violent or not committing to the violence enough. I thought it was great to have a lurid, dirty, seedy film like this end on a note of hope and love but I'm also a 17 yo girl in my heart so *shrugs* 10 afx raves / 10 Juliet Lewis boobies

Agree on all of this. Station Eleven wrecked me in the best way possible. Particularly last couple of episodes chriiiiiist. I looked it up and the girl who played young Kristen was born in 2008 - if the series aired in 2021-22 (and was probably filmed in 2019 or 20 maybe?) she was probably only 11 or maybe 12? And, agreed, phenomenal actor in a cast full of phenomenal actors.

This is fascinating - probably the first time I've heard someone voice this as a barrier to use (not saying it's not been said, just first time I've personally heard it articulated). It's particularly interesting b/c the promise of VR is sort of dislocating to fantastical spaces - but now that you say it, I wonder if I have a similar mental block. Like, after a long day of work when I just want to kind of unwind, maybe these experiences are too intense/asking too much. I will say that this thread has renewed my interest a bit - I never tried Tea for God (downloaded it, never got around to it) and that VR Chat thing looks bonkers. It's funny, being a parent now, I'm a little stoked b/c some day in the future my daughter will be like "dad, can we get the MetaQuest 5?" and I'll be like "fuck yes we can" and I imagine it'll be mindblowing because I'll have skipped liked at least 2 generations of iterations/improvements/etc.

Ok, so this is coming from a guy who did a startup when the Oculus DK2 came out for VR education (me and a buddy went around to school's and did educational VR experiences with our DK2's and massive, massive PC's - it never went anywhere mostly d/t big ideas but little business acumen, sloth, etc.): I feel the exact same way. The first few experiences with it are mind blowing - it gives you a peek into a completely new paradigm, and the Quest 2 does what is does extremely well (competent VR in a standalone fashion). Tilt brush lets you paint in 3d which is something that is just inimitable in any other context. But. but. Mine sits in a box in the 2nd bedroom, and has been there for about a year. I enjoyed what I played immensely (the Vader series was great, multi-brush/tilt brush amazing, virtual virtual reality bonkers good), but I never seem to make the decision to dig it out of the box any use it any more. I think it's just that even though the barrier to entry is extremely low - take it out of the box, turn it on, and clear away some clutter from the other room - it's still somehow big enough that I default to traditional gaming, movies, or music making. when I have 30 minutes to spend on these things, even 5 minutes of setup and breakdown seems like forever. Plus, as good as it is, the headset still gives me a bit of a headache / is uncomfortable after about 5-10 minutes. And, frankly, they need to solve the locomotion issue. The vestibular disconnect doesn't necessarily give me VR sickness (on occasion it does) but there is something that feels like it's missing when it comes to the locomotion aspect. Dunno what's going to fix that - treadmill, short electric pulses on your legs to provide the sense of movement, whatever. I'm still a huge advocate/believer in the tech - but, and only if the market is willing to continue to support it, we are probably 5-10 years from VR tech I will, like, day 1 buy and enjoy. That product will have to be slim, lightweight, with good passthrough, haptic feedback, and the locomotion problem solved. If that happens? I'll be first in line... but it's gonna take a whiiiile (if it happens at all).

I watched this as a kid and looooooved it. Had no idea it was a Michael Mann film - will have to see if I can jump on this in the next couple of weeks (seems like the perfect throw-back/late night movie to chill out to). Thnx for the heads up!

Yes! So many fond memories, sounds like @ambermonkhas em too. Played some more last night, finally got my controller settings tweaked, started killing it. So much fun, but really a dearth of players. If anyone here has a switch and wants to game hit me up: SW-5691-5848-1592

Played all weekend on the Switch. There is no updated texture. There is no updated controls. You have to (if you don't have a N64 controller) go into the console settings to switch the buttons/layout to work properly. The framerate dips exactly as it did in the original when there are 4 people throwing proximity mines and everything is blowing up. There is no voice chat. You have to find people via friend codes because there is no lobby/matchmaking. It is fucking fantastic. The audience for this shit is going to be so niche because unless you are an OG player and are willing to push past the barriers to entry (specifically, the controller remapping, having to work around the fact that there is no lobby/matchmaking nor any chat feature), you will hate this. It probably doesn't help that Graslu007, the current Goldeneye World Champion and true guru of all things Goldeneye is shitting on this because it's not as good as emulators already available on PC (I'm not going to argue that point). For those willing to push past what are, yes, some annoyances, what awaits you are a replication of the feeling you got when you sat in a smoky dorm room, playing this shit until your eyeballs bled and the nighttime sky turned into day. I can not describe how awesome it was to slip back into this shit and, although this is weird, the fact that it janks and jerks the way the actual original game did has made the experience all the more pleasurable. Do I want the Xbox remaster that was in works? Of course. But this is truly a wonderful gift. Some additional caveats: I played exclusively w/ east coasters as I know cross region play is fucked. I experienced probably 6-7 slowdowns in 4-5 hours of play. that's it. I lost a lot because still was fucking w/ controls have to re-memorize the maps, etc. but it was NEVER due to netplay. People who didn't play back in the day don't realize that 007 is a head game - yes, you have to be precise with your strikes, but it's as much about playing the high-speed chess game that is Goldeneye. Knowing where your opponent is, knowing exactly what their health is looking like, using the diagonal strafe to increase speed to close the distance between you and the power weapons (and knowing at a glance / calculating how far away your opponent is) is a completely lost art in the era of modern gaming.

Ty for posting this (and all the other folks who chimed in about this one). Started watching it a couple of nights ago (apparently the whole movie - and I'm pretty sure it's actually the remastered version but a little difficult to tell b/c even the remaster is only 1080P) is on YouTube: I'm sort of continuously blown away by both the cinematography and the direction. There are some shots here that I ... like, this MF was doing shit back in 1975 that people today wouldn't/couldn't/don't do. I'm only about a third through and there have been at least 3 sequences that just defy logic. Dude was a master, utterly incredible stuff. Looking forward to finishing this off when I have time.

I'm with you. In some ways the end is sort of that "it's the mystery that endures" thing. Although ofc I want more, it's probably better that my mind sits on precipice and wonders what's past the top of the stairs than actually knows. But, lol, ofc I still want to see it, even though I know it probably wouldn't match my imagination. Also, agreed - it's pm a perfectly self-contained game with a perfect ending. I'm more than happy with it as it is.