I’ve recently played Resident Evil 6 for the 1st time after playing Resident Evil 4 (an absolute masterpiece) & Resident 5 (a pretty good game). I was already aware of the hate this game got over the years. But after experiencing it, it’s only bad in an artificial way. Like yeah, it’s nothing like the classic games and it’s too much in the action category.
Otherwise, as someone who loves action games, it’s a pretty fun game. Especially in Mercenaries Mode, where it’s fun to mow down body-horror themed enemies. As a Resident Evil game, it’s pretty bad. But…as an action third person shooter with splatter punks, it’s quite well executed
(2002) Time Machine with Guy Pierce and Jeremy Irons
Wasn’t a big hit when it came out and it’ll never be as iconic as the George Pal Time Machine from the 60’s. But the 2003 adaptation has the coolest looking time machine to come around in a while (at the time it was the most expensive prop ever built, might still be but I’m not sure.)
Critics shit on it for not having the cataclysmic event that destroys humanity be global warming. While I’m all for talking about global warming I can kind of understand why they didn’t use that and why they didn’t reuse the 60’s disaster of nuclear war.
spoiler
In the 2002 film humans destroy the moon while nuking underground living spaces to build a low gravity retirement community for the elderly.
But to be fair to the writers their choice to destroying humanity was original, kind of a tongue-in-cheek joke about the elderly crisis we’re currently entering into and the plan is in fact an idea that has been discussed before.
Aside from that the film is pretty solid. In the book by HG Wells and the 60’s film the Time Traveller (doesn’t even have a name) has zero motivation aside from achieving a new scientific advancement. Thats cool and all but modern audiences, having had several successful time travel stories since Wells time, do need a better eureka moment than that. The 2002 film provides a good and believable motivation.
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His girlfriend is killed while he proposes to her. His first time traveling event is going back in time to save her, only to have fate killed her in some other cruel way. So instead of repeating the event he goes forward in hopes someone in the future will figure out how he can change the past.
The film also features a believable super-distant future where the human species splits, just like in the original stories. Samantha Mumba is a member of the tribe of humans that live above ground and are technologically ignorant, thought not exactly like the child-like race we see in the 60’s version. They do maintain that there are no old people and why that is.
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Morlocks are eating them up before they get old and the meat gets all tough and stringy.
Samantha Mumba did a great job in her role and while I don’t normally discuss a persons race the fact her father was Zambian and her mother Irish did kind of lean into what a future race of people could look like. She has a distinct look which played to the role.
Orlando Jones makes a couple appearances as a sort of AI librarian. It’s nice to see him in the odd movie role.
Jeremy Irons is the head morlock, the race of humans that stayed underground, and doesn’t disappoint, although his character is more of a cameo.
spoiler
He is the one who eventually explains that the issue with changing the past is a temporal paradox since Guy Pierce wouldn’t have built the machine if his lover hadn’t die, thus she must die because without the machine he couldn’t have went back to save her. Then to save his new future girlfriend the 2 fight to the death and he uses the time machine to sort of blow up all the other morlocks.
The film also had a good soundtrack and special effects that features the classic “years passing in seconds” stuff that was iconic from the 60’s film.
But ultimately the film is mostly forgotten to audiences.
This is one of my favorite popcorn flicks. The first half of the movie is amazing (up to the part where the moon gets destroyed), but I feel like they could have done more to make the second half more entertaining. I don’t know what, but it feels like it’s missing something. I also like how the film predicted the concept of LLMs and giving them an avatar, even though they predicted it happening about decade too soon IIRC.
The core problem is the source material is also boring. Aside from the motivation issues and the fact Wells never even bothers to name the Time Traveller, the whole plot is a bit slow. Sure, the morlocks eating people is creepy but it never manages to get to the horror level like how Jurassic Park or Jaws was able to achieve. You never really felt like they were going to sneak up behind you and slash you or tear you limb from limb.
The changes they made to the story helped: named the character, moved him to New York instead of London, gave him a deep motivation, even the morlocks had a more organized system that was more believable (hunted the Eloi and were controlled telepathically by Jeremy Irons.)
Maybe having more Irons in it would’ve helped but with the plot elements they had to work with it would’ve been tricky. The good thing is they didn’t drag it out, 90 minutes is the proper length. Nowadays they’d try to make it 2 1/2 and it’d be bogged down.
I still like watching the time traveling sequence.
That and the machine itself are the real star of the film. I came across some behind the scenes of the build years ago and it was impressive. The wood deck is all steel painted to look like wood. Since the spinning bits weighed a ton, acrylic and brass, they had to have it be secure. Even the geared computer (forget what it’s called… a baggage computer?) worked. Really impressive prop that doesn’t get enough love. Makes the Pal time machine look like a joke.
I was a young man when this came out and I certainly remember Samantha Mumba’s performance.
Yeah she was fun. Shame she didn’t do more stuff. I’d probably blow up my time machine and live with her instead of going back too.
Definitely!
Big Bang Theory. I don’t think I would enjoy it on a rewatch but watching that show became a ritual for me and my family.
It is not a piece of art, but I always had fun watching it, stereotypes or not.
David Lynch’s Dune. I understood the hate it got. It is a horribly difficult book to put on film. I thought the style and feel of it was great and so over the top at times. I read the book so I knew what was going on but I understood the criticisms. Sting in a speedo though, wtf? lol
Edit: Almost forgot, a great lineup of actors too.
Best Dune movie ever and I’ll die on that hill. Never read the books and I had no problem following it.
I’ll join you on that hill.
“I did not say this. I am not here.” Goes so damn hard. Too bad only the guild decided to act in that scene.
I loved that scene. So otherworldly. The guild gave that machinations behind the scenes combined with alien feel. The imperial look is like a combination of the Shah of Iran mixed with 1600s royal Spain mixed with WW1 royal navy.
The hallucinatory scenes on Giedi Prime horrified and fascinated me (I was way too young when I watched it).
Kraven the Hunter. I was entertained by it and it was beautifully filmed.
Reversed but I think french is a horrible sounding language and the only reason people think it’s sexy or romantic is because popular culture tells them it is. It sounds like a coughing fit. Likewise I think german sounds cute, and again I think most people don’t because popular culture tells them german sounds like an angry man yelling. “Hallo, viele dank, bitteschön” it’s always so light and cautious.
The only exception is somebody moaning “oui” and “ja” respectively.Sucker Punch
The internet has been shitting on it for years. I don’t even remember why. Maybe something along the lines of sexualizing female hero figures. I think a lot of people don’t like Zack Snyder. I don’t care. It’s stylish as hell, looks awesome, has fantastic action sequences, and a killer soundtrack. And it has a whole inception vibe. I love watching it.
Sucker Punch
This was a movie that was like “hey! wouldn’t it be awesome if there was a world where the nazis brought back dinosaurs to fight with- Wait! wouldn’t it be cool if there was like, a world where space travel was affordable and we had a moonbase an-wait! wouldn’t it be cool if there was a world where-”
And each time I’d be like “hey, there will be cool lore and world-building I’d love to see aaaand they already shifted into a different thing.” That movie pissed me off so much. Shoulda just been either a softcore porn, or leaned more heavily into the idea of a real-life “Heavy Metal” remake.
Man, this movie is such a trip! Definitely not great, but I don’t think it’s that bad.
I love that movie and I think it is a lot better than most give it credit for. Snyder is either overhyped or over shat on in most cases depending on whho you talk to. But sucker punch is pretty good no matter what.
Can’t think of anything on top of my head, so instead I’ll ask: What makes you say that Resident Evil 4 is a “masterpiece”? For me it completely ruined the series. It went from survival horror to action shooter when RE4 was released, and every game since has been an iteration of that.
To me that’s not Resident Evil. The fun of these games comes from the horror of not knowing what’s lurking behind the next corner, and the fact that even one zombie can ruin your night. RE4 removed all of that by placing the camera behind the player, and then turning zombies into cannon fodder that swarm you by the masses. That’s not Resident Evil for me, and for that reason I consider RE:0 to be the last good game in the series. (Not including the remakes of course; I’m only counting new entries.)
The thing is, your opinion is the majority. I’m the odd one out here, and I can’t for the life of me figure out why. One theory I’ve been told is that for a lot of people, RE4 was their first Resident Evil game, in which case I can understand liking it if you never knew how good the old games were. I also understand that the tank controls can be off-putting, but that can be bypassed by mapping forward to a button other than up, that way you can move and turn at the same time (also the remakes give you an option to turn off the tank controls). So I really can’t think of any other reasons why one might prefer RE4 to past titles.
I feel you. My first game was Resident Evil 2 on my N64. I LOVED that game as a kid, and then I moved on to all the other ones. I think Code: Veronica is my favorite though. RE4 absolutely ruined the series. The enemies using weapons and having complex thoughts was just such a departure from the original BOW enemies. I still played all the rest, and enjoyed them, but I had to kind of pretend it wasn’t Resident Evil.
On a separate note, why the hell can’t they make ONE FUCKING MOVIE that is even in the same ballpark as the games?? I have yet to see the most recent one, but I already know it can’t be set in the same timeline as the early games, based on the weird enemies that clearly aren’t from the T-virus.
“what makes you say that Resident Evil 4 is ‘masterpiece’”
Mainly the gameplay. Ya, it feels dated, but it also feels intentionally as it makes you think strategically about your approach. It also allows a variety of gameplay styles
As for why the statement I made is a unpopular opinion, is because people praise RE4 (rightfully so), but are mixed on how action heavy 5 & 6 are. I’m just someone who likes action and dislikes horror (the opposite of most RE fans)
Well like I said, my problem isn’t that it’s dated, but instead that they modernized it too much by turning it into an action game with puzzle elements, rather than a puzzle game with suspenseful elements.
It seems to me that you like RE4 for all the reasons why I hate it. So is it safe to say that I was right when I guessed that RE4 was probably your first Resident Evil game? I think my opinion is so much different because I started off with the original.
I’ve shown the video game Antichamber to about a half dozen people and watched them bounce right off it.
You know how sometimes snobs of any particular thing tend to start liking things a general audience hates? Like, I’ve seen movie buffs express a love of stuff like Street Trash, or whiskey snobs really like whiskey that tastes like smoke, leather and iodine. I think you’ve got to be like that with video games to like Antichamber.
Antichamber is a non-euclidean 3D first person puzzle platformer. It’s set in an abstract series of stark black and white corridors that in many cases don’t make sense. It’s a strange place that doesn’t behave like the real world, it is internally consistent, but you’ll encounter all kinds of weird shit like falling a long distance only to wind up above where you started, multiple paths leading through the same doorway, things appearing and disappearing, mazes that aren’t physically possible…and somehow it makes all the bizarre little puzzles you find yourself in parables for living a human life.
I can’t fault anyone for not getting it. It’s arthouse bullshit. I’ve shaken my head mouthing “what the fuck are you doing” to modern artists, I recognize this as arthouse bullshit, but it’s arthouse bullshit that I at least partially understand.
The game reminded me so much of exploring museum in all the right ways where you weren’t sure what was to come, but it was all loosely connected. The arty elements complemented this mystery and feeling like you were in some sort of other reality, which is honestly appreciated (not Backrooms vibes of unwelcoming). My only regret was having to use solutions a couple of times.
I’m glad you picked this niche game to talk about. I still think about it sometimes despite it being over a decade old. You’ve inspired me to pick it up again all these years later.
It’s a solo project I think? So in some cases yeah it has the feeling of a children’s science museum? What’s over here? What does this do? OOOOOOH! In one case there’s a room full of what I’m pretty sure was the test assets the developer used to learn how to create the shenanigans the game is made of.
For me, it’s at it’s best when it presents the player with something unfamiliar, like the layout that doesn’t spatially make sense, it has strange abstract things in it, like the hallway full of balls you have to walk slowly through. You’re unfamiliar with how this place works, you then learn, and it offers a checkpoint that relates that to some aspect of life. Then you get a cube gun and it’s a video game again.
I watched a couple friends make their way through that one together. I’d never play it on my own, but I rarely play games anyway. I’m very much a voyeur with them and had a blast watching/listening. The friend helping was yelling things like “do the jiggle jump” and shit
Mando and Grogu, and for that matter Skeleton Crew. Just mindless fun. Dude, it’s Star Wars, not fuggin’ Shakespeare.
Dragon Age: Veilguard. Was it MCU-ified? Sure. Still enjoyed it quite a bit. More than Inquisition, actually.
I preferred Inquisition, especially in terms of the stories and challenges of the characters, and especially their use of LGBT storylines.
In Inquisition, Krem is trans. Is that an issue? No, it’s just part of their character. Is that even the most focused on thing about Krem? Absolutely not, Krem is a badass, that’s the focus on Krem.
Dorian is gay. Is that a problem? Yes, but not specifically for some particularly homophobic reason, it’s mostly about his role and the pressure to marry his betrothed and generally come back to Tevinter and their ways, which Dorian has been fairly steadily against (not just the pressure to not be gay). It wasn’t a simple “I’m gay and want my parents to accept who I am” story.
Then there’s Veilguard. Where we have a drawn-out thing about how Taash is non-binary, and for some reason that is a huge problem for their mother, even though the Qun have been accepting of trans people the whole time (but supposedly get their loincloths in a wad about non-binary? Come on). And that becomes their, like… whole deal. They’re even bisexual, which is treated as a non-issue (thankfully). And they’re the big dragon-slayer person, who rarely offers anything in terms of killing dragons. It seems like Taash’s entire existence in the game is for a ham-fisted egg story, and it just gets tedious, frankly.
Every other character has interesting storyline and interesting interplay. Taash gets… one story, and a beat-you-over-the-head allegory in terms of accepting her Qun parts or her Rivian parts, with the painfully obvious answer of “both.” Basically, we are too far along to have the cardboard cut-out non-binary character in a story and calling it representation.
Gameplay-wise, I missed the tactical system for fighting from Inquisition, though once I got the hang of the ability system of Veilguard it was an okay replacement. Definitely more fluid.
Hogwarts Legacy. It was surprisingly good!
The Emoji Movie. I get it, the trailers looked awful. It had ‘shallow crap’ written all over it. But my kids loved it, and honestly, it was a perfectly fine movie. Better than a bunch of other animated movies I’ve had to sit through.
Yes but how do you write a plot around emoji? Are they literally the emoji in your phone becoming sentient, or did the scriptwriters come up with a whole alternative universe that they exist in or something? I’m mildly intrigued but don’t care enough to look up a summary.
It was about being more than just what you are expected to be. Every other emoji stayed what they were, he was able to change. That’s… it.
I liked Dune and Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Grogu both well enough.
People dislike Dune?
Yes. I find the pacing is bad, it hardly bothers with the politics at all which is the entire point of why things happen in the story. It rearranges things so actors like Momoa pointlessly get extra screen time. I think Chalamet is flat and has zero range acting exactly the same as everything else he’s done and Zendaya does nothing except scowl and glare throughout the production. It’s mid acting, aimless writing, spectacular scenery, all at the expense of the actual story.
I did only see the first one, so I have no way of knowing how I would feel about the rest. I liked the one I saw
I was fine with Waterworld.
Especially back in the day. It was a major action movie event.
I kind of feel the same way about Cutthroat Island. It was a massive failure, but the production value was great and I thought it was a fun action flick.
Side Note: Waterworld is one of the few movies I recommend NOT watching the extended cut. The scenes are very low quality and feel like a TV production compared to the rest of the theatrical cut scenes.
Iirc most of the press was just “this cost waaaaay too much to make” rather than “its a bad movie”
Thanks for reminding me I still need to actually watch it, though. And ive got a few hours to kill.
Just watched it for the second time last month educating the youth of today. Deserves a sequel more than Moana did.
I was recently shown this hilarious Simpsons skit, but someone had to explain it to me haha.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qause0z-9tM
Context
The arcade game is desperately trying to make back the movie’s budget, so it’s an extortionate quarter-muncher. Lol
And The Postman.
But I tend to like post-apocalyptic movies anyway.
I’ve always liked the Postman. With the exception of
spoiler
The scene at the end where society is totally back to normal in a totally unrealistic amount of time and they’re unveiling a statue of him. They should have just skipped that and had it end with him riding by the kid and grabbing the envelope.
The idea of The Postman was really neat. I remember it was a very slow paced epic though. A lot of Costner movies are kinda…contemplative that way. Kinda chill I guess? Haha his Robin Hood was like that too.
The Stunt show at Universal Studios was really cool tho
Waterworld, Sahara, and John Carter are all amazing movies that BOMBED… but by what metric? Tons of money in production and/or inept expensive marketing and it didn’t make it back.
That’s all. It wasn’t a “market success.” But I’m glad they’re a part of culture.
Sahara is the Uncharted movie we deserved. I wish we got more Clive Cussler movies. One of my favorite films.
John Carter is the reason I will never properly pronounce “Virginia” again.
Waterworld’s stunt show is incredible and the world building was awesome.
Yes, which reminds me of another hated movie I love: The Cable Guy aka Cabo Goobla:
“Dry land is not a myth. I’ve seen it.” Kevin Costner. Waterworld. I don’t know what the big fuss is about. I saw that movie nine times. It rules!
- Chip Douglas
So much so that I’m always surprised when they get the quote wrong in Waterworld itself! 😅
I watched that movie when I was a kid and genuinely liked it. (I do still have really broad taste, the question can be answered for me with “most media, apparently”)
It has a special place in my heart as one of a few dozen vhs we had that I could watch with no restrictions. (One of the banned movies was A clear and Present Danger, and I still don’t know why because I can’t stay awake through it because its boring. Another was Pulp Fiction. Maybe the first was a ruse!)
Is it a good movie? Idk. But smeat is still funny to me in ways that probably would have hit the same if I’d watched it today for the first time, so…
It’s mad max on the water, what’s not to love? Now postman on the other hand…
Hey now, I actually liked Postman.
Different entertainment genre, but Nickelback.
Although I’m reasonably certain that 99% of people who hate on NB would sing along if it came on the radio.
I can’t bring myself to hate Nickelback because they gave us one of the greatest meme templates in meme history.
I have a friend, whom I typically respect, who surprised me with that hot take one day. He had similar things to say about Creed and Taylor Swift.
Hes also been known to cheat at DnD, though. I love the guy but…
How do you even cheat at that game?
He fudged die rolls. Claimed he hit or rolled a crit waaaaaay more often than statistically likely. I 100% saw him roll low and claim a hit anyway multiple times.
This makes D&D very unfun. You don’t win DnD. You enjoy DnD with friends.
Yeah, as the DM i was very much tempted to call him on it a few times, but i figured it would do more harm than good. So I tried to get creative, which mostly worked.
You’re a good DM
Aww thanks <3
We’re all here to have fun after all.
The big problem, at least to me, is that they were massively overplayed on the radio and I grew tired of hearing the same song over and over again.
Now hearing them again after a long break, I can recognize that they made some decent - not great, but still decent songs.
That’s how I feel about Adele. Rolling in the Deep might even be objectively good but it GRATES on me because you’d hear it EVERYWHERE. ALL THE TIME.
I think a lot of decent artists are foisted upon the public so forcefully they become loathed.
For me it’s sweet child o mine. It’s a classic song, but I’ve heard and played it myself so many times that I can’t stand it anymore. I always skip it when I can
We sing along because it was forced on us 😭 a few songs are ok I guess, they’re like the junk food of music, small doses.
Nickelback, Daughtry, i don’t get what the hate tbh.
I don’t mind their one song. But that’s the thing, they only have one song. (They all sound the same.)
Well, not really. For example, my favourite Nickelback song, Sister Sin, is rather different from This Afternoon, or For the River, or Just to Get High, or many others. But they definitely do have a number which are rather similar to others of theirs - but then, I honestly have never listened to a band which didn’t have some that sounded a bit similar to others? Like, most Ed Sheeran songs are Ed Sheeran songs, most Sleep Token songs are Sleep Token songs…
That said, Chad Kroegar’s voice is so distinctive that it makes everything they do sound instantly Nickelback.
But that’s the thing, they only have one song. (They all sound the same.)
Mumford & Sons, Hootie & the Blowfish, and Live all say “Hi!” and want to know if they can join the party.
It’s the ultimate “pop” rock. It really works for a lot of people but anyone who doesn’t like formulaic music designed with the broadest appeal will absolutely dislike it.
I am not ashamed to admit that I have their first album, and it’s a solid one with quite a few solid tracks on it. However, I always hated that song, which by far became the most popular one.
I don’t know much about their later stuff, though.
