Victoria Alonso Confirmed Fired; and a Review of Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves

Variety confirms what everyone already knew. Victoria Alonso did not just decided to leave Marvel on a Friday without any warning and without any new job lined up.

She was fired.

The veteran Marvel Studios executive and producer of the nominated film "Argentina, 1985" was stopped on the red carpet, posing for photographers assigned to capture top executives on Hollywood's big night. But something shocked her.

"Look at this! Two women!" Alonso said of the female photographers hired for the gig (as in most corners of Hollywood, women are outnumbered by men on the photo line). Emotional, Alonso insisted the pair put down their cameras and pose for a photo with her in front of a giant Oscar statuette. As they all smiled, she told them, "We've worked so hard to get here and we're not going anywhere."

Eight days later, she was fired as Marvel's president of physical production, post-production, VFX and animation, three individuals familiar with the matter told Variety.

...

While the cause of Alonso's termination is unclear, the sources said, the decision was made by a consortium including human resources, Disney's legal department and multiple executives including Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman (to whom all of Marvel Studios reports). Alonso's longtime boss and Marvel chief creative officer Kevin Feige felt mired in an impossible situation and, ultimately, did not intervene, one source added. Alonso was blindsided, another insider added.

A representative for Alonso declined to provide comment for this story. Marvel Studios had no comment.

The article flacks for Alonso by noting it was Disney's top executives who ordered Marvel to flood the zone with crap, just to have "content" of dubious value on Disney+.

...

That breakneck distribution schedule, a product of the pandemic and the need to constantly feed Disney+, was not of Alonso's making. Marvel was far from the only studio tasked with delivering feature-level content for a newly launched streaming service. But it was Alonso's job to get each of those titles through Marvel's gargantuan post-production process. By the summer of 2022, cracks began to show in the company's seemingly impervious armor.

Starting on Reddit, followed by a series of stories published across the internet, visual effects artists began to loudly complain about Marvel's demanding post-production schedules. Complaints ranged from unrelenting overtime to chronic understaffing to the inability to avoid delivering substandard work due to constantly changing deadlines. Some singled out Alonso as a "kingmaker" who would blacklist artists who have "pissed her off in any way."

One visual effects artist recently told Variety that the biggest issue for them was Marvel's inability to provide clear guidelines.

"The show I was on really struggled because it was an established character whose powers they were reconceiving for the MCU," the artist said on the condition of anonymity. Most complaints, they said, came down to one refrain: "Marvel doesn't figure shit out beforehand."

...

[T]the drumbeat that Something Is Rotten in the State of Marvel Studios only grew louder with the release of "Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania," a film that finished shooting over a year before it was due in theaters and still weathered repeated criticism for "generic" visual effects that looked like "CGI glop" and were "very flat and cruddy-looking." Even more critical: The movie has grossed $463 million globally to date, the worst performance of the "Ant-Man" franchise and a figure that means that it will struggle to break even in its theatrical window.

Regarding Dungeons and Dragons, I got an exclusive offer to see this movie early. By "Exclusive Offer," I mean Amazon offered tickets to an advance screening to anyone with Prime. I thought "What the heck, I can get a post out of it," and bought a ticket.

The movie opens up for common plebeians like yourselves on March 31.

There are some background reasons to not see this movie, and I don't ever want to recommend a Corporate Enemy-Comms Product without warning people.

But I'll deal with that stuff after the actual review. And this will be a long one.

On the merits of just the actual movie -- putting aside the background stuff -- it's a recommend. I'd almost say an enthusiastic recommend.

If you liked the tone of the trailer, or the Speak with Dead clip, then you will like the movie, as the movie maintains that level of humor throughout.

One of the first scenes, featuring Chris Pine trying to convince a board of pardons to release him from Fantasy Mega-Prison, is laugh-out-loud and puts you in a receptive mood for what comes later.

It's an extremely goofy movie. The Tolkein movies attempted to portray a realistic world-- there is magic and there are fairy-tale races like Elves and Dwarves, but the books and movies are present all this in a plausible enough way that it feels real-ish.

That's not Dungeons & Dragons. The game is anything-goes, kitchen-sink homage -- or rip-off -- of Conan stories, John Carter Barsoom stories, Tolkein's mythology (the Tolkein estate threatened legal action), science fiction, Kung Fu movies, and whatever else interested the game's players in the 1970s, whether it fit in or was plausible or not. The movie apes the game's "It's just a game, don't think about it much" ethos and presents a world which is, essentially, the modern world with modern technology and modern modes of thinking and speaking, but the buildings are made of stone and roofs are made of sod or thatch so you know you're in "the mythic past."

Shakespeare's plays are sometimes done in modern dress, so they're ancient, medieval, or Renaissance stories but in modern day clothes. This is the opposite -- it's a thoroughly modern world, except people dress up like they're going to a Ren Faire (with a loose dress code that permits anachronisms). In one heist, each member of the team has magic "sending stones" allowing them to talk and hear their other team members at a distance. In other words, they're cell phones except they're rocks, and the team members just hold the rocks up to their faces and talk like they're teenagers at the mall.

"Sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic," and likewise, sufficiently plentiful magic is indistinguishable from technology.

At no point will you feel "transported to another world."

It's all very dumb and dopey but it's also good-natured. It's eager to please, and that's a rare thing nowadays. And, as one review said, "Chris Pine is the most Chris Pine in this movie than in any Chris Pine movie in recent memory." He's great, and I think that this kind of performance will make him a lot of money going forward. He's in Steve Trevor mode here, only sillier.

True to the spirit of the game, the movie rips off everything and just paints it with a light coating of "Dungeons and Dragons IP." The plot is lifted right from Guardians of the Galaxy -- a team of misfits and losers is assembled by a charismatic-but-flawed hero who still grieves the death of someone he loved. The movie even steals the "We're all losers, we've all lost" speech that Chris Pratt gives in that movie, and at about the same time in the film's running length. For a second they disguise it by having Chris Pine talk about being "failures" rather than "losers," but then nope, he starts talking about losing everything, just like Starlord did.

Oh, and it takes even more from Guardians of the Galaxy, introducing a warrior who does not understand idioms or irony. And there's a... special surprise I won't reveal connecting it still closer to Guardians of the Galaxy.

The goofy, half-winking tone and the colorful, completely-unconvincing sets and backgrounds are lifted right from Thor: Ragnarok. Including using Led Zeppelin in the trailer. I think Ragnarok used "The Immigrant Song," this uses "Whole Lotta Love."

Much like Thor: Ragnarok, this movie is just a comedy containing some action. It's not an action-comedy, just a comedy with some fighting. The comedy is too silly for there to be much concern about the effects of violence on a human's body.
The action is fun and it's all fast-paced, but you're not going to feel much in the way of suspense or thrills.

There's a magic implement that duplicates a beloved piece of technology from a beloved video game. It's a straight rip-off.

Just everything in this is pretty much stolen from something else, and it doesn't really matter, because Chris Pine is so funny in the lead as the Jim Rockford-style guy who gets by on charm and tries to avoid fighting. He's not a coward, exactly, he just knows his talents lay somewhere other than getting hit in the face.

Hugh Grant is also very funny, and at his Hugh-Grantiest, as the sleazy but charming conman "Forge." As in a superhero movie, he's Chris Pine's dark reflection. Chris Pine's character fell to thieving due to a moral lapse; Hugh Grant's character had no morals at all to lapse. One part of his character is wondering, and hoping, that somewhere inside of him is a good man. Spoiler: There's really not.

If you actually have played D&D, there's just reference upon reference and fan service upon fan service.

The movie name-drops or features a lot of stuff from the rulebooks -- particular spells, particular major personages -- and a lot of names from the Forgotten Realm settings, including all the places they made videogames about. It features a lot of the D&D "intellectual property" monsters, the weird gamey monsters the game made up (or from A.E. Van Vogt), rather than creatures from folklore or fantasy lore.

The movie takes the sensible position that you've already seen the Lord of the Rings movies, and there's no way this movie is going to beat Lord of the Rings, so they're not going to go classic, they're going to go weird.

The typical fantasy races of elves, dwarves, and halflings are only present in the background. One of the main characters is a half-elf; and he's half-black, so, twist. (His lineage is black on the human side.)

The main characters are not the typical Thief, Fighter, Cleric, Magic-User, but Bard, Barbarian, Druid, and Sorcerer. Yeah for non-players it's pretty much just Thief, Fighter, Cleric, and Magic-User, but they're leaning into the stuff that makes D&D Legally Distinct from Tolkein.

The reference I got the most excited about comes near the end of Act 2. The heroes are forced to fight for their lives, and we quickly see another two groups of heroes in a similar position. One of those two groups will be highly recognizable to anyone who grew up geek in the 80s.

But you have to be sharp eyed, because they're shown very quickly. Spoiler-- don't click on this if you want to be surprised during the movie. But if you're curious, here is that other group of adventurers.

I mean, it's exact. (I never even watched that, but I've seen their likenesses.)

Given that that group was a big D&D inside joke, I'm wondering who the other group was. One of them was a dwarf. Maybe they're characters from the D&D videogames? I dunno, I never played those.

Anyway, a surprisingly fun and even competent movie. It succeeds at doing the things it sets out to do.

I would recommend it...

except for all the reasons I would hold back that recommendation:

Hasbro, the corporation that owns Dungeons and Dragons and is getting a fee for this movie and counting on this movie to expand the brand, is woke and leftwing. Hasbro even gets a production credit through E-One entertainment, which is a Hasbro company.

They're making money off it, and they don't deserve to. Over the past five or seven years they've embraced every single woke demand that lunatic activists on Twitter have demanded of them, including filling their quasi-Medieval game with gay and transgender characters, including specifications as to their preferred pronouns.

Woke Twitter activists told them that "orcs shouldn't be evil, no race is evil, to even suggest that is racist!" so now all the traditional enemy races in the game aren't evil, but range from good to neutral to evil, and are really just misunderstood and maybe victimized by evil humans and their human-like kin.

Twitter activists also told them to get rid of racial adjustments -- like, that halflings take a -2 to strength because they're the size of children -- so now every race can do everything, and halflings can be as strong as Conan, because it would be racist to suggest that some fantasy races have any traits that differentiate them from any other race.

Crap like that. And if you complain about it, well, you're a troglodyte. But don't worry, troglodytes aren't evil any more, and they're also not stupid. Don't make any assumptions about troglodytes, Bigot.

#DoBetter, bigot. #DoBetter.

Another reason you might not want to patronize Hasbro is that, despite posing as progressive leftwingers who really care about social justice, Get This, Hasbro are actually a greedy soulless corporation filled with virtue-signalling shit-libs who want to shake the public down for every red cent in their pockets.

I know, unbelievable, right?

They just tried to screw a large section of their player base because they felt that the game was "undermonetized," and were bothered that once you bought the rulebooks you just owned them and were no longer sending money to Hasbro.

They are trying to create a recurring-payment model for the game, where you keep paying them every month -- for a "virtual tabletop" service -- as some videogames do.

They also attempted to claw back their "Open Game License," which allows third parties to make adventures and rules supplements for the game without worrying about being sued for doing so. The OGL itself says that it's irrevocable; but Hasbro decided, well, we'll revoke it anyway, and replace it with a new OGL that gives us a cut out of sales for projects that make a lot of money. They saw people making a lot of money on Kickstarter for new adventures or monster books, and decided they would like some money now, please and thank you.

They also gave themselves the right to cancel anyone's project, if they, in their corporate wisdom, decided your project was bad for the image they were projecting. If you wrote a supplement in which there were no "preferred pronouns," maybe they'd send you a cease-and-desist. Who knows. Their power to terminate was without limits.

They also wrote up a new term in their open license which said that they could steal any content you yourself wrote. If you created a new type of giant, the new license gave them the right to just take it and add it to their own products without compensation. Now this last one was probably just put in for the same reasons movie studios make you sign a disclaimer saying you have no rights to sue them if they steal your script. They don't really want to steal your script (usually); but they don't want to be sued if they produce a script which has some similarities to yours. So they just make you sign over any right you have to sue for plagiarism.

I think the "we can steal your stuff" thing is just to avoid legal hassles if they independently came up with new giant like the new giant you made up. They want to just say, "you can't sue, we already own it, check the license."

But still.

By the way, in case you're thinking "They own the game, they can set whatever restrictions in their license that they like," well, the first OGL stated that it could not be replaced by a more restrictive one, because any user could opt into the terms of the first, very generous OGL. They said they could not do what they were now trying to do, to force you into an ungenerous license.

Also bear in mind, what can they sue for, exactly? It's established law that you can't sue for game rules, just the particularized expression of those game rules. You can't plagiarize their actual writing -- but you can steal game concepts and mechanics and the law says that's not stealing.

The OGL basically said that they wouldn't sue people for just using their rules to create compatible products, but in fact, this is barely even a concession: They probably couldn't sue for just making a compatible product. Or, they could sue, but they probably wouldn't win. The main legal threat here was just to file a suit which they couldn't win, but which would cost you money to fight.

D&D players rebelled against this corporate crap and began abandoning the game for alternatives and, in fact, threatening to boycott the Dungeons and Dragons movie itself, which really seemed to alarm Hasbro. Or it alarmed the studio, maybe, who then put the squeeze on Hasbro to stop f***ing everything up.

Hasbro did retract their plans to change the license, so everything is, allegedly, better now.

But they only relented under duress. When they thought they could just roll right over people, they were prepared to do just that.

I don't know. It leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

Finally, in one of the worst own-goals I've ever seen from a team of Hollywood creatives, the directors decided to announce that their favorite part of the movie is how they "emasculate" the male leads.

'Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves' Directors Admit To "Emasculating" Film's Male Leads, Claims This Was Done "Not For Woke Reasons" But "Because It's Funny And Fun And Fresh"

Spencer Baculi
March 7, 2023

In this climate, with the male audience just sick to death of constant attacks from woke Hollywood, they announce that the main selling point of their movie is emasculating male characters?

Doing their part to continue one of the most uninspired entertainment in recent years, the directing duo of Johnathan Goldstein and Jon Daley have admitted their their upcoming Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves emasculates its male leads -- though they claim this was not done for "woke reasons", but because they thought the idea was "funny and fun and fresh".

Goldstein and Daley, perhaps best known as the screenwriters behind the titular web-slinger's first official MCU outing in Spider-Man: Homecoming, revealed their less-than-flattering approach to their film's male character during a recent interview with Variety's Adam B. Vary.

Following brief discussions regarding their own personal histories with the original game and their ostensibly-respectful-but-ultimately-cynical feelings towards working with established IPs, the pair were eventually met with an observation from Vary that "the lead female characters -- Michelle Rodriguez's Holga and Sophia Lillis' Doric -- are at the forefront of the action scenes, and the men are often hanging back."
Sophia Lillis plays Doric in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves from Paramount Pictures and eOne.

"That was not an attempt at wokeness on our part," defended Goldstein in turn.

"Swear to God, it wasn't," Daley backed up his creative partner. "We liked that Holga is the bruiser that does the dirty work for Edgin, and he doesn't like to get his hands dirty. We also love emasculating leading men. "

"Just because it's funny and fun and fresh," said the former Bones star. "It was the dynamic we had with Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman's characters in [our previous co-directorial outing] Game Night."

Emasculating male characters is not "funny," and it's certainly not "fresh;" it's done in almost every single movie directed at a majority-male audience nowadays.

But here's why this is an own-goal: They don't really emasculate the male characters. They're accusing their movie of a woke provocation that it's actually not guilty of.

As I mentioned, the Chris Pine character is like Jim Rockford. Or Brett Maverick. Or the sheriff in Support Your Local Sheriff. Or any James Garner role not set in World War II. He's the charming guy who doesn't want to fight. He can fight -- a little -- but he'd prefer accomplishing things by wit or charisma.

This doesn't make him "emasculated." Yes, the Holga the Barbarian character played by Michelle Rodriguez is incredibly strong and gifted at fighting. I mean, she's a 120 pound woman in a male-targeted action movie; of course she can take out 220 pound stuntmen with ease. How could it be otherwise? Everyone knows how much more physically gifted women are then men, as all the women now losing to men in athletic competitions prove.

But that's just a stupid current year trope. I didn't really see this as "emasculating" him. He was the brains, she was the brawn. Both had their specialty. I'd say he was "emasculating" him if she disrespected him, talked down to him, insulted him, or if she proved that Girls Are Just Better Than Boys by also being better at his specialty, planning and leading, than he is.

But none of that happened. They're platonic best friends. They both respect what the other brings to the table. And Pine's character, while not really good at fighting except for what the game would call "sneak attacks," is actually good at planning. He's not shown as some buffoon. He's not an ineffectual man who has to be saved by smarter, more capable women.

All of his plans either work, or almost work, and fail just because you can't plan for every unexpected event. He's competent, in his particular niche.

The other male character who gets "emasculated" is the half-elven sorcerer who "has no confidence." The girl he likes, the Druid, doesn't like him back because he lacks confidence, and his lack of confidence makes him incompetent at magic.

Guess what his character arc is. I mean, is it "emasculating" to go through a character arc?

Anyway, it is true that the girls are the main combat strength of the group throughout most of the movie -- the Druid girl beats up things not in her human form, by shapeshifting into big dangerous animals -- but, despite this, it kinda made sense in context. It didn't feel that woke.

At least, not by current year standards.

Like I said, if Chris Pine's character were put down a lot and if his plans kept failing -- if he was just another worthless man (spit) that women don't need like fish don't need bicycles -- I'd say that's emasculating.

But he's not. He's the star of the movie and critical for the team's success.

Yes, the Druid does question his plan-making abilities:

But she just met him. She doesn't know that he's got a 16 Intelligence. (And a Wisdom of 8.)

It's just bizarre that the directors attempted to paint a movie which isn't really that bad as far as male characters as the typical woke piece-of-sh**.

So I don't know what the hell to tell you. On one hand, I had a great time watching it, and chuckled throughout.

On the other hand, Hasbro is a woke asshole corporation and the directors of the movie are selling it as woke.

Now here's a bit of wokeness you probably won't even notice:

The bad guy organization in this is called "The Red Wizards of Thay." They being a country.

But remember what I said? That lunatic Twitter activists have demanded that no race be evil?

Well, they couldn't let you think that all Thayans are bad so halfway through the movie they add a new character who is morally pure and upright Paladin, who is good at everything (better than the main characters, in fact) and who is Thayan.

Just so you don't think that all members of this fantasy country are bad.

It's weird, he's not a member of the main four characters, but shows up for an extended sequence in which he almost becomes the star, and then, once you learn your lesson (along with Chris Pine's character) not to hate all members of this fictitious country Thay, he just peaces out and is out of the movie.

The actor also appears to be Middle Eastern and speaks with a pseud-Arabic accent.

Are we being lectured about Islamophobia in a movie that takes place in another universe?

It's not a bad part of the movie, but it's... weird. What other movie introduces what seems like a Main Character Hero halfway through and then has him leave just before the climax?

Just to teach you not to be bigots towards Thay. Hashtag #ThayDidNothingWrong.

So you tell me. What the heck recommendation am I supposed to give?

The movie isn't really woke, but the corporation and the directors behind it are.

Feel free to use this as your own movie/tv/book recommendations thread.

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 This is about comic books, right?

Posted by: Just Wondering at March 24, 2023 04:12 PM (DhOHl)

2 not sponge

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:12 PM (LvTSG)

3 FIRST!!!!!

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at March 24, 2023 04:13 PM (Zz0t1)

4 Here for the firing.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at March 24, 2023 04:13 PM (Q4IgG)

5 The trailers looked amusing.

I'll probably add it to my Netflix DVD queue and see it in something like 4 years.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:13 PM (LvTSG)

6 Holy crap. An Ace movie review.

Been a long time.

TL;DR.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at March 24, 2023 04:13 PM (Zz0t1)

7 Sock removal, before I pull a Sponge.

Posted by: Jordan61 at March 24, 2023 04:14 PM (DRSnL)

8 Alonso was blindsided, another insider added.
____________

When a consortium including human resources, Disney's legal department and multiple executives including Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman are meeting after your last steaming turd of a film craters, how can you be blindsided?

Oh, that's right. You're entitled.

Posted by: Adirondack Patriot at March 24, 2023 04:14 PM (lf83v)

9 "While the cause of Alonso's termination is unclear, the sources said..."

Disney Accounting, on the other hand, said the reason was perfectly clear. I believe the operative phrase was, "We're losing our asses here and this idiot is handing us chaps!"

Posted by: AnonyBotymousDrivel Remembers Babbitt and Perna at March 24, 2023 04:15 PM (aXxgO)

10 Maybe can get on at Knott's Berry Farm?

Posted by: Diogenes at March 24, 2023 04:15 PM (anj39)

11 Well, off to see if I can get these damn catalysts in the Expy without leaking........

Such a bigger pain in the ass than I expected.....

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at March 24, 2023 04:15 PM (Zz0t1)

12 "Victoria Alonso"

She was great in "The Running Man" and "Colors."

Posted by: Let gp Sink In at March 24, 2023 04:15 PM (MvF+J)

13 8 When a consortium including human resources, Disney's legal department and multiple executives including Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman are meeting after your last steaming turd of a film craters, how can you be blindsided?

Oh, that's right. You're entitled.
Posted by: Adirondack Patriot at March 24, 2023 04:14 PM (lf83v)

=======

Meh. It's language designed to make her sound like a victim because if there's one thing we all know it's that rich women of European heritage are the most oppressed people on the whole planet.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:15 PM (LvTSG)

14 Sock removal, before I pull a Sponge.
Posted by: Jordan61 at March 24, 2023 04:14 PM (DRSnL)


I serve as a lesson to you all.....Don't be that guy.

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at March 24, 2023 04:16 PM (Zz0t1)

15 9 "While the cause of Alonso's termination is unclear, the sources said..."

Disney Accounting, on the other hand, said the reason was perfectly clear. I believe the operative phrase was, "We're losing our asses here and this idiot is handing us chaps!"
Posted by: AnonyBotymousDrivel Remembers Babbitt and Perna at March 24, 2023 04:15 PM (aXxgO)

=========

I'm still waiting for Paul to come back and insist that Disney is doing great.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:16 PM (LvTSG)

16 14 I serve as a lesson to you all.....Don't be that guy.
Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at March 24, 2023 04:16 PM (Zz0t1)

======

This reminds me of a Queensryche song...

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:17 PM (LvTSG)

17 Someone offered me to watch it I would go for it

Posted by: Skip at March 24, 2023 04:17 PM (xhxe8)

18 Variety confirms what everyone already knew. Victoria Alonso did not just decided to leave Marvel on a Friday without any warning and without any new job lined up.
++++
Any executive who leaves suddenly without a new gig lined up was fired. There are some rare exceptions (like quitting in disgust), but it's almost always a firing.

And executives often get gentle firings. They're rapid and take effect immediately, but there are usually sweeteners like stock or non-cancellation of granted shares that haven't yet vested.

I had a VP who send a terse resignation letter on a Friday, effective immediately. But he wasn't "fired," you see. He "resigned." Those sweeteners are to make sure this happens. Firing VPs and above - outside of a massive management purge in a huge layoff - often looks really bad for the company. They take you into a conference room and say, "you're out of here. If you resign and do it now, you get X. If you make us fire you, we will - but you get nothing." Thus the fast-tracked "resignations."

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at March 24, 2023 04:17 PM (t0OGg)

19 "I don't ever want to recommend a Corporate Enemy-Comms Product"

Doesn't matter as long as you don't pay for it. Enjoy without regrets.

Posted by: Let gp Sink In at March 24, 2023 04:17 PM (MvF+J)

20
======

This reminds me of a Queensryche song...
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:17 PM (LvTSG)


"And the candle burns a hole in the floor......"

Posted by: Sponge - F*ck Joe Biden at March 24, 2023 04:17 PM (Zz0t1)

21 Feel free to use this as your own movie/tv/book recommendations thread.

Thanks ace but I got nothin'. Hope to see ya'll later this evening.

Posted by: Notorious BFD at March 24, 2023 04:18 PM (Xrfse)

22 "While the cause of Alonso's termination is unclear, the sources said..."
___________

I'll file this next to "The Mystery of Why No One Watches Women's Soccer and the WNBA".

Posted by: Adirondack Patriot at March 24, 2023 04:18 PM (lf83v)

23 Eventually, investors are going to get tired of even the most special snowflake losing their money.

Posted by: huerfano at March 24, 2023 04:19 PM (dTFZY)

24 That breakneck distribution schedule, a product of the pandemic and the need to constantly feed Disney+, was not of Alonso's making. Marvel was far from the only studio tasked with delivering feature-level content for a newly launched streaming service. But it was Alonso's job to get each of those titles through Marvel's gargantuan post-production process. By the summer of 2022, cracks began to show in the company's seemingly impervious armor.
++++
Probably true. All the streamers did - and do - this, and it is disastrous. Too much content of too low quality. Keeping up with it becomes a chore, not a treat.

But the quality streaming product probably wasn't the reason she was fired. If it were, then she wouldn't be the only major executive out at big-name streamers. She was also responsible for far more.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at March 24, 2023 04:19 PM (t0OGg)

25 I guess I wrote that confusingly: I had to pay for it. It wasn't free. Just an offer to buy tickets 18 days pre-release.

Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 04:19 PM (iHBZj)

26 "'Look at this! Two women!' Alonso said of the female photographers hired..."

Not very LGBTQ+ssy is it. How does she know they're women? I mean, who's to say? Alphabet People should be mightily ticked off about her violent insinuation.

Posted by: AnonyBotymousDrivel Remembers Babbitt and Perna at March 24, 2023 04:19 PM (aXxgO)

27 25 I guess I wrote that confusingly: I had to pay for it. It wasn't free. Just an offer to buy tickets 18 days pre-release.
Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 04:19 PM (iHBZj)

========

Ace has been bought by Hollywood!

Confirmed!

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:20 PM (LvTSG)

28 twitter is saying the military may arrest desantis for force feeding gitmo assholes

Posted by: x at March 24, 2023 04:20 PM (ZBPE2)

29 "I guess I wrote that confusingly: I had to pay for it."

I didn't mean you, Ace. I meant everybody. Don't pay for crap that's free.

Posted by: Let gp Sink In at March 24, 2023 04:20 PM (MvF+J)

30 Much like Thor: Ragnarok, this movie is just a comedy containing some action. It's not an action-comedy, just a comedy with some fighting. The comedy is too silly for there to be much concern about the effects of violence on a human's body.
The action is fun and it's all fast-paced, but you're not going to feel much in the way of suspense or thrills.
++++
So it sounds like it would be a fair summary to say, "it's a generic movie, largely indistinguishable from other generic movies of the same type. The IP it leans on is irrelevant because the movie is itself generic."

Is that a fair read?

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at March 24, 2023 04:20 PM (t0OGg)

31 twitter is saying the military may arrest desantis for force feeding gitmo assholes

Posted by: x at March 24, 2023 04:20 PM

Twitter is even stupider than people and that's very stupid.

Posted by: huerfano at March 24, 2023 04:21 PM (dTFZY)

32 Speaking of Dungeons and Dragons, this youtube series with Trump, Obama and Biden playing are pretty funny.

https://tinyurl.com/29khr7f6

Posted by: ryukyu at March 24, 2023 04:21 PM (4n6fw)

33 They just tried to screw a large section of their player base because they felt that the game was "undermonetized," and were bothered that once you bought the rulebooks you just owned them and were no longer sending money to Hasbro.
++++
They learned at our knee, but lament that they don't have a captive market caught behind a lobster trap.

Posted by: The Textbook Market at March 24, 2023 04:21 PM (t0OGg)

34 Chris Pine, like Michael Biehn, should have been a bigger actor.

He's good in pretty much everything he's in, no homo here, he's easy on the eyes, and he can actually act, he can sing and he can dance.

He's a modern day James Cagney except without the regard.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at March 24, 2023 04:22 PM (n/8Ck)

35 "Hugh Grant is also very funny, and at his Hugh-Grantiest, as the sleazy but charming conman"

I didn't think they came sleazier or Grantier than Bridget Jones's Diary, but fair enough. I'm quite entertained with a variety of manga and video games- including Pathfinder- so I have no need to reward Hasbro's terminal convergence. I might watch this movie on an airline flight or the high seas.

But I don't look down on people for entertainment. It'd be nice if people rejected Hollywood and went back to the classics, but every corporation from banks to AAA gaming is pumped full of oligarch money. They're not going to collapse, even without an audience. The legitimacy of Wall Street is predicated on controlling the culture.

Posted by: trev006 at March 24, 2023 04:22 PM (DTm0P)

36 twitter is saying the military may arrest desantis for force feeding gitmo assholes
Posted by: x


How does that work? Gitmo ins on Cuba and run by the military. DeSantis is governor of Florida.

Posted by: rickb223 at March 24, 2023 04:22 PM (GIBR7)

37 twitter is saying the military may arrest desantis for force feeding gitmo assholes
_________

Smells like bullshit from Carol Rosenberg of the Miami Herald, the propagandist permanently assigned to GTMO who is deathly allergic to the truth.

Posted by: Adirondack Patriot at March 24, 2023 04:22 PM (lf83v)

38 >>So it sounds like it would be a fair summary to say, "it's a generic movie, largely indistinguishable from other generic movies of the same type. The IP it leans on is irrelevant because the movie is itself generic."

Sort of but it actually is funny and fun. I mean, marvel movies are generic and not-fun and not funny.

Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 04:22 PM (iHBZj)

39 Never heard of this bint, but she looks like your typically useless "girl-power" scrunt.

Posted by: Angzarr the Cromulent at March 24, 2023 04:22 PM (XMwZJ)

40 The studio "breaking even" is not a win because it makes the money people nervous and hampers new projects, she was fired for being an ideologue and a fuck up.

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 04:23 PM (Lzpvj)

41 >>>Chris Pine, like Michael Biehn, should have been a bigger actor.


i think this is actually going to put him back up in the A-tier. This is really his metier, this type of role. He was also the best thing in Wonder Woman. Well, tied for best.

Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 04:23 PM (iHBZj)

42 Great stuff!

Posted by: MAC V SOG at March 24, 2023 04:24 PM (P4Pk9)

43 Victrola Alonzo was fired? Oh No! Anyway...

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at March 24, 2023 04:24 PM (PiwSw)

44 Look, I don't care if a woman is portrayed unrealistically in a fantasy movie, as long as its consistent, effective, and well done. Its FANTASY, there are druids shape shifting and wizards casting spells. I can live with the 120 pound cutie slaughtering 250 pound muscle man orcs. Just be in character and keep it consistent for the setting.

What I don't like is not taking fantasy seriously, or at least mocking it and taking a dump on beloved tropes and ideas. I don't want modern attitudes and modern tropes. I want it to lean into the genre as if its true and treat it with a sort of loving respect. This is why I did not like the Discworld stuff: stop making fun of what I love.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 04:24 PM (0hOvj)

45 40 The studio "breaking even" is not a win because it makes the money people nervous and hampers new projects, she was fired for being an ideologue and a fuck up.
Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 04:23 PM (Lzpvj)

========

"What's the return on investment?"

"Nothing."

Say that in any business situation and see what happens. Throw in the fact that a Marvel movie is a half billion dollar investment, at least.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:24 PM (LvTSG)

46 But here's why this is an own-goal: They don't really emasculate the male characters. They're accusing their movie of a woke provocation that it's actually not guilty of.
++++
Producer 1: Is it woke enough?
Consultant: Not really. You have physical girl power, but the men aren't totally useless, cucked-out, tucked-under simps. They sometimes fail, but they aren't humiliated at every moment.
Producer 1: How can we fix it?
Consultant: I think it will take a significant rewrite and a lot of reshoots.
Producer 2: No chance. We can't afford it. We need another way.
Producer 3: What if we just say we did it, and let the internet hate train take care of it for us?
Consultant: That could work.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at March 24, 2023 04:25 PM (t0OGg)

47 Speaking of Dungeons and Dragons, this youtube series with Trump, Obama and Biden playing are pretty funny.

https://tinyurl.com/29khr7f6
Posted by: ryukyu at March 24, 2023 04:21 PM (4n6fw)

Everyone and their dog is making these. I have to admit, if they ran AI Trump in the 2024 primary he might actually be a decent option.

Posted by: trev006 at March 24, 2023 04:25 PM (DTm0P)

48 Victor Alfonso did nothing wrong.

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at March 24, 2023 04:25 PM (qmOv7)

49 When corporations hired these socialists/anti-capitalists, why are they surprised when they don't make any money for them?

Seriously.

Posted by: Adirondack Patriot at March 24, 2023 04:25 PM (lf83v)

50 Just everything in this is pretty much stolen from something else, and it doesn't really matter, because Chris Pine is so funny in the lead as the Jim Rockford-style guy who gets by on charm and tries to avoid fighting. He's not a coward, exactly, he just knows his talents lay somewhere other than getting hit in the face.

***
Rockford, yes, and even earlier -- Jim Garner's Bret Maverick western character. JG really made that sort of character his own. Ace's comment above makes me want to see the movie!

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 24, 2023 04:26 PM (J2vNu)

51 I guess I wrote that confusingly: I had to pay for it. It wasn't free. Just an offer to buy tickets 18 days pre-release.

Did you get popcorn and some sort of sody pop?

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 04:26 PM (0hOvj)

52 49 When corporations hired these socialists/anti-capitalists, why are they surprised when they don't make any money for them?

Seriously.
Posted by: Adirondack Patriot at March 24, 2023 04:25 PM (lf83v)

========

0% interest rates warped a lot of corporate thinking for a long time.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:26 PM (LvTSG)

53 So you tell me. What the heck recommendation am I supposed to give?

The movie isn't really woke, but the corporation and the directors behind it are.
++++
Based on my cursory reading of this long review, it also sounds unimpressive and not really dependent on or relevant to the source material. So it would be "watch a run-of-the-mill "action" "comedy" of the typical contemporary type," which has little to recommend it unless you're looking for a couple hours' worth of decompression and aren't invested in the source material.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at March 24, 2023 04:26 PM (t0OGg)

54 "The bad guy organization in this is called "The Red Wizards of Thay." They being a country.

But remember what I said? That lunatic Twitter activists have demanded that no race be evil?

Well, they couldn't let you think that all Thayans are bad so halfway through the movie they add a new character who is morally pure and upright Paladin, who is good at everything (better than the main characters, in fact) and who is Thayan.

Just so you don't think that all members of this fantasy country are bad.

It's weird, he's not a member of the main four characters, but shows up for an extended sequence in which he almost becomes the star, and then, once you learn your lesson (along with Chris Pine's character) not to hate all members of this fictitious country Thay, he just peaces out and is out of the movie.

The actor also appears to be Middle Eastern and speaks with a pseud-Arabic accent."

Afaik Thay is presently ruled by a lich and a land overrun with undead. It was evil before that as well though.

Pseudo-Arabic sounds like Mulhorand, which is their LG neighbor and an Egypt rip-off. Thay has mandatory Bane worship so they shouldn't have good paladins either.

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy - The Republic is already dead! at March 24, 2023 04:26 PM (eYoxG)

55 I'll be seeing Dungeons and Dragons, Mario, and I've seen Shazam 2.

I can handle moments where they make the sop - which is Shazam 2. A 100% non-woke movie with Shazam as the lead and hero, which has to mention a gay moment b/c there is a full 90 minute teen male/female romance. And the gay moment is with the pudgy, ugly, male teen. I can handle that. Kids, don't be the ugly fat one, so you feel the need to have a gay moment - the end.

Posted by: Nova Local at March 24, 2023 04:26 PM (exHjb)

56 "Just because it's funny and fun and fresh," said the former Bones star. "It was the dynamic we had with Rachel McAdams and Jason Bateman's characters in [our previous co-directorial outing] Game Night."

Fresh...you keep using this word but I do not think you know what it means.

Especially when the second part of your quote completely undermines it.

Posted by: The Central Scrutinizer at March 24, 2023 04:26 PM (KbCG3)

57 ace: "This is really his metier..."

AoSHQ: Come for the math; stay for the French.

Posted by: AnonyBotymousDrivel Remembers Babbitt and Perna at March 24, 2023 04:26 PM (aXxgO)

58 This reminds me that I still haven't finished watching the execrable, shoddy, imbecilic Babylon.

What are the chances the last half-hour saves it?

Posted by: spindrift at March 24, 2023 04:26 PM (h5TKJ)

59 @41

>>i think this is actually going to put him back up in the A-tier. This is really his metier, this type of role. He was also the best thing in Wonder Woman. Well, tied for best.

Lets hope, in any other generation of actors, he would have been a top star but since he's had the misfortune of coming of age in the garbage twilight of Hollywood, he's been overlooked.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at March 24, 2023 04:26 PM (n/8Ck)

60 Fired, like from a cannon?

Posted by: Roy at March 24, 2023 04:27 PM (rqgpJ)

61 This is why I did not like the Discworld stuff: stop making fun of what I love.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 04:24 PM (0hOvj)

Even Pratchett poked fun at ALL the tropes for most of his books. The difference between that and modern Discworld adaptations is that the latter are both mean-spirited and incompetent.

Posted by: trev006 at March 24, 2023 04:27 PM (DTm0P)

62 >>>AoSHQ: Come for the math; stay for the French.

well it's the english metier, meaning specialty. the french metier just means "job."

Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 04:27 PM (iHBZj)

63 39 Posted by: Angzarr the Cromulent at March 24, 2023 04:22 PM (XMwZJ)

Fifty years from now when I am successfully dead, they will still be pretending the Woketard 6750 is "fresh and new."

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 04:27 PM (Lzpvj)

64 Man, the cartoon business is cut throat

Posted by: DB - heating the atmosphere at March 24, 2023 04:27 PM (geLO8)

65 The studio "breaking even" is not a win because it makes the money people nervous and hampers new projects, she was fired for being an ideologue and a fuck up.

Most of the projects that were released after she was promoted into a new quality control position were either low earners or lost money. She was supposed to be in charge of the CGI and so on, and ever since she was put into the position the CGI started to be kinda weak, at best.

Plus she called out her boss, resulting in a gigantic cost for Disney and loss of their special Disney arrangement. That does not go over well with your boss.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 04:28 PM (0hOvj)

66 You know who I want to see fired from a cannon ??

Posted by: runner at March 24, 2023 04:28 PM (kFEbY)

67 I saw Dungeons & Dragons last Sunday and I echo pretty much what Ace said. It's a highly entertaining movie and one of the least woke big budget productions out of Hollywood in recent years. It's a shame the directors foolishly used the term "emasculated" to defend Pine's character because it's giving a lot of people the wrong impression.

If you want less of the garbage we're getting from Disney, please go see this next weekend when it opens. The only way to send a message to Hollywood is to boost the quality films and avoid the terrible ones.

Posted by: AdamInHTownTX at March 24, 2023 04:28 PM (P1qoW)

68 38 >>So it sounds like it would be a fair summary to say, "it's a generic movie, largely indistinguishable from other generic movies of the same type. The IP it leans on is irrelevant because the movie is itself generic."

Sort of but it actually is funny and fun. I mean, marvel movies are generic and not-fun and not funny.
Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 04:22 PM (iHBZj)

It is refreshing to watch a comedy made in the last 10 years that's actually funny. That's why I'll be at D&D - for Chris Pine's acting and humor b/c all the trailers have him in hilarious scenes...

PS - There is a Shazam 2 scene with Helen Mirren that is the funniest scene I've seen in a decade. If you've seen the movie and remember the "letter" scene...

Posted by: Nova Local at March 24, 2023 04:28 PM (exHjb)

69 Pseudo-Arabic sounds like Mulhorand, which is their LG neighbor and an Egypt rip-off. Thay has mandatory Bane worship so they shouldn't have good paladins either.
Posted by: Red Turban Someguy - The Republic is already dead! at March 24, 2023 04:26 PM (eYoxG)

Paladins fighting against evil governments should be celebrated, if not encouraged.

Posted by: trev006 at March 24, 2023 04:28 PM (DTm0P)

70 You know who I want to see fired from a cannon ??
Posted by: runner at March 24, 2023 04:28 PM (kFEbY)
++++
Me?

Posted by: Rob Reiner, cannon-ball shaped at March 24, 2023 04:29 PM (t0OGg)

71 >>>Afaik Thay is presently ruled by a lich and a land overrun with undead. It was evil before that as well though.

it is in the movie too

Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 04:29 PM (iHBZj)

72 Well, the state of Washington took a long step today towards joining California and Oregon in economic stagnation.

To the fury of Leftists, the Washington state constitution bans income taxes. So, the legislature passed a 7% capital gains tax, and the Washington state supreme court today, in a ruling worthy of John Roberts, decided that capital gains aren't income, and that the capital gains tax was therefore legal.

But don't worry - the tax only kicks in if you have more than $250,000 in capital gains in a year. For now.

Washington has always been the outlier - a blue state without a state income tax. Noncoincidentally, the Seattle region has been one of the great entrepreneurial areas of the world - Starbucks, Amazon, Microsoft, McCaw Communications, and many other companies were founded there.

It is striking that Portland, with a culture almost identical to Seattle, has birthed very few major companies - Nike, Columbia Sportswear, and, and, and... (The 9% Oregon state income tax has something to do with that.)

Posted by: Future Droolin' Joe Biden! at March 24, 2023 04:29 PM (2tUFv)

73 Do studios customarily receive half the gross?

Posted by: Goatweed at March 24, 2023 04:29 PM (0Q/6W)

74 41 Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 04:23 PM (iHBZj)

I legitimately was moved by Steve Trevor's sacrifice in WW.

"We should have more time" is the challenge we all face.

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 04:30 PM (Lzpvj)

75 You know who I want to see fired from a cannon ??
____________

For those about to rock, we salute you.

Fire.

Posted by: AC/DC at March 24, 2023 04:30 PM (lf83v)

76 Sort of but it actually is funny and fun. I mean, marvel movies are generic and not-fun and not funny.
Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 04:22 PM (iHBZj)
++++
Cool. It does make me wonder why they didn't just make a generic, fun, funny fantasy movie instead of leaning on an IP it generally ignores, though. It probably would have been cheaper to do it that way. Will the D&D name really put butts in seats?

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at March 24, 2023 04:30 PM (t0OGg)

77 And yes, Hasbro has been acting like A-Holes and paying the price for it. People are largely not moving over to the new edition of D&D. And that... hurts because my main earning is from role playing supplements and books. Not that I earn much, but still.

D&D cratering hurts EVERYONE who does Role Playing stuff. One of the most soul destroying things I have experienced in the last couple years was going into a gaming shop and finding out that the RPG stuff was tucked off into a corner, with most of the shop board games and card games. I almost wept.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 04:30 PM (0hOvj)

78 Related weird movie business thing:

Nancy Meyer, the director of movies like What Women Want, is readying to make a new movie, another romantic comedy. She was working with Netflix to fund it. They walked away. Why?

She wanted $150,000,000. They wouldn't put forward more than $130,000,000.

WB is now in talks to take up the project at $150,000,000.

That's honestly Marvel movie territory, and the romantic comedy is struggling as a genre at the box office. It's just further evidence that movie executives have literally no idea what will sell and what won't.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:30 PM (LvTSG)

79 Accepting your recommendation at face value, everything you like about the movie more or less turns me off. Kind of like reading a positive Roger Ebert review, where I understood exactly what he was saying and why he liked a movie, and nonetheless knew it wasn't for me in any way, shape, or form.

Unpopular opinion, maybe, but I don't think Chris Pine is all that fun to watch. In anything.

I'm a D&D guy. Still play when I get the opportunity (which has not been often lately -- in years really). But And by D&D, I mean the old-school variety from the late 70s and early 80s. Contemporary WoTC does nada for me, quite apart from the journey into wokeness over the last 20 years or so, which has no metatasized.

But I also kinda hate nerd culture in general. I like to play role-playing games. I'm not interested in D&D as a lifestyle brand. I don't want D&D movies or toothpaste.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls - an election is simply a festival for the majority at March 24, 2023 04:30 PM (ppBhU)

80 I'm sort of intrigued that Disco Elysium is apparently going to be made into a series.

I wonder who they are going to get to portray Harry Dubois's Limbic System and Reptilian brain?

Posted by: Thomas Bender at March 24, 2023 04:31 PM (n/8Ck)

81 I see Ace mentioned Bret Maverick in the latter part of his review. No, I wouldn't say that the character Pine plays, as Ace describes him, is emasculated. I'd call him smart to avoid getting hit in the face, and at the same time achieve his goals.

Posted by: Wolfus Aurelius, Dreaming of Elsewhere at March 24, 2023 04:31 PM (J2vNu)

82 77 Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 04:30 PM (0hOvj)

Who wants to play an RPG where 1/5th of the words are a IP enforced struggle session?

The OSR guys will keep the genre on life support for another 20 years or so.

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 04:31 PM (Lzpvj)

83 And I just cancelled my free month of Prime. Darn.

Posted by: fd at March 24, 2023 04:32 PM (iayUP)

84 I don't get how women like Chris Pine. In Wonder Woman he looked like he'd had the worst acne in history as a kid and dug it out with a grapefruit spoon.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 04:32 PM (0hOvj)

85 I watched the trailer. I love it. My kind of movie.
Does Chris Pine take his shirt off?

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 24, 2023 04:32 PM (Y+l9t)

86 I never even watched that, but I've seen their likenesses

oh I watched THE HELL out of that!!!

thanks ace!!! I guess I'll finally go back to an actual theater!

Posted by: BlackOrchid at March 24, 2023 04:32 PM (w0NJk)

87 He was also the best thing in Wonder Woman. Well, tied for best.
Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 04:23 PM (iHBZj)

ACE MEANS GAL GADOT IN A BUSTIER WAS ALSO PRETTY NICE TO WATCH.

Posted by: BEN ROETHLISBERGER at March 24, 2023 04:32 PM (h5TKJ)

88 I'm looking up this paladin guy and apparently he's super old and lived through the Thayan civil war(which is like 100 years before this movie).

That makes a fair deal more sense than present Thay. Being Good-aligned and worshipping Good-aligned deities would have been rare in pre civil war Thay(with neutral being fairly common and evil decently common) but post-Civil War the country is pretty radically changed.

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy - The Republic is already dead! at March 24, 2023 04:32 PM (eYoxG)

89
Xhe resigned to spend more time with xhir xmbly.

Posted by: Frankly at March 24, 2023 04:32 PM (ahZpG)

90 73 Do studios customarily receive half the gross?
Posted by: Goatweed at March 24, 2023 04:29 PM (0Q/6W)

========

The contracts with the theaters vary studio by studio and movie by movie. They generally front load in favor of the studio with later weeks going more towards the theaters.

This tends to average out across all movies and the entire running time of theatrical showings to be about 60% to the studio.

So, when a Marvel movie makes $500 million, Disney is probably making about $300 million from it while the other $200 million is going to theaters. The Marvel movie situation might be more amenable to Disney than normal, though.

60% is generally the accepted estimate, though.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:33 PM (LvTSG)

91 That's honestly Marvel movie territory, and the romantic comedy is struggling as a genre at the box office. It's just further evidence that movie executives have literally no idea what will sell and what won't.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:30 PM (LvTSG)
++++
It's an astonishing budget demand. Rom-coms are supposed to be cheap, aren't they? You shell out some big money for the "right" rom-com stars of the age (like Sandra Bullock or Hugh Grant, from back when rom-coms were relevant) and then slap a movie together that's well put-together but not too expensive otherwise.

Isn't a rom-com that costs as much as a tentpole sort of defeating the purpose?

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at March 24, 2023 04:33 PM (t0OGg)

92 When I see Gal Gadot, I know what King David saw in Bathsheba.

Posted by: Adirondack Patriot at March 24, 2023 04:33 PM (lf83v)

93 "The actor also appears to be Middle Eastern and speaks with a pseud-Arabic accent."

The Thayvian wizard that is potential party member in the Baldur's Gate games has a rather pronounced accent. So it might not be an Islamophobia thing.

He's also evil. And accidentally turns himself into a hot chick in the second game. It's hilarious.

Posted by: junior at March 24, 2023 04:33 PM (a4BXQ)

94 I would enjoy seeing Kathleen Kennedy fired. From a cannon if logistically feasible....

Posted by: runner at March 24, 2023 04:33 PM (kFEbY)

95 You guys are a bunch of nerds.

Posted by: sniffybigtoe at March 24, 2023 04:33 PM (UuD2k)

96 I can handle moments where they make the sop - which is Shazam 2. A 100% non-woke movie with Shazam as the lead and hero, which has to mention a gay moment b/c there is a full 90 minute teen male/female romance. And the gay moment is with the pudgy, ugly, male teen. I can handle that. Kids, don't be the ugly fat one, so you feel the need to have a gay moment - the end.


lol nova local - that sounds about right! glad to hear Shazam 2 is ok

I def will be seeing Mario Bros. idc if it's bad. BUT I'd rather not say "oh I finally went back to the theater for Mario" so D&D is slightly better? heh not really

Posted by: BlackOrchid at March 24, 2023 04:34 PM (w0NJk)

97 But I also kinda hate nerd culture in general. I like to play role-playing games. I'm not interested in D&D as a lifestyle brand. I don't want D&D movies or toothpaste.

I liked it better when dorks like me were mocked by the culture, not like now where the jock wears a shirt with a d20 on it but never played a game in his life.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 04:34 PM (0hOvj)

98 84 I don't get how women like Chris Pine. In Wonder Woman he looked like he'd had the worst acne in history as a kid and dug it out with a grapefruit spoon.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 04:32 PM (0hOvj)

Muscular, charming, masculine, tanned, blond, kind, heroic...I'm trying to see any downside here...

Posted by: Nova Local at March 24, 2023 04:34 PM (exHjb)

99 Who is this Ramaswamy guy, and why is he saying these eminently sensible things?

"I will not apologize for leading an American revival. I will end affirmative action. I will totally dismantle climate religion. I will use our military to secure our borders from the drug cartels and end the fentanyl crisis."

How does he expect to get any votes in ClownWorld talking that way? This might be an op.

Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 04:34 PM (MvF+J)

100 >>>Unpopular opinion, maybe, but I don't think Chris Pine is all that fun to watch. In anything.


well I'm not a big fan of his. I generally haven't liked him. he was great in Bottle Shock 20 years ago and great in Wonder Woman. In between he was in a lot of forgettable movies where he didn't do anything to liven the material up.

That's why I'm emphasizing that this particular role is what he should be doing. He's good at THIS, and should focus on this type of movie.

Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 04:34 PM (iHBZj)

101 Feel free to use this as your own movie/tv/book recommendations thread.

I heartily recommend any newspaper owned by USA Today but only if you want to have a lower IQ, be less informed, and be reassured you look great in a speedo.

Actual USA Today Factoid from the misty past: number two pencils are number one with Americans.

Posted by: Lost in Space at March 24, 2023 04:35 PM (9e/0I)

102 99 Who is this Ramaswamy guy, and why is he saying these eminently sensible things?


Vivek is too good to be true

ergo, he's suss to me

Posted by: BlackOrchid at March 24, 2023 04:35 PM (w0NJk)

103 I was laughing my ass off at that D&D with Trump, Obamunist, and Shit-for-Brains.

Posted by: Angzarr the Cromulent at March 24, 2023 04:35 PM (XMwZJ)

104 Will the D&D name really put butts in seats?
Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at March 24, 2023 04:30 PM (t0OGg)

Other way around: the seats might be tempted to look into D&D. DC Comics, and lately CDPR, have been using licensed entertainment to pull people towards their product. Unfortunately, most DC comic book writers are either hyper woke or total sex pests, so their comic division is doing incredibly badly. But Edgerunners pulled a lot of people back into the Cyberpunk 2077 universe.

Posted by: trev006 at March 24, 2023 04:36 PM (DTm0P)

105 >>>lol nova local - that sounds about right! glad to hear Shazam 2 is ok

i hear everyone saying Shazam 2 is pretty good, or at least better than anything marvel is putting out (which is a low bar to get over, admittedly)

Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 04:36 PM (iHBZj)

106 101 Feel free to use this as your own movie/tv/book recommendations thread.


I'm going to recommend Skinamarink no I'm serious!

actually best watched in a dark room by yourself with headphones - on a laptop or iPad

Posted by: BlackOrchid at March 24, 2023 04:36 PM (w0NJk)

107 "I heartily recommend any newspaper owned by USA Today but only if you want to have a lower IQ, be less informed, and be reassured you look great in a speedo."

Do they have Parade Magazine on Sundays? That's my go-to.

Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 04:36 PM (MvF+J)

108 Do studios customarily receive half the gross?

Generally, the longer a movie is in the theater, the more the theater gets. First week, theater gets very little and has to survive on ridiculously overpriced popcorn and snacks. Next week, they get a little more, and so on.

I don't know how true this is any longer, though, because this info is from like 20 years ago when my buddy ran a theater.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 04:36 PM (0hOvj)

109 Chris Pine was also good in Star Trek.

I don't know who that lady is in the trailer but she sounds like she just sucked on a helium balloon.

Posted by: DJ at March 24, 2023 04:36 PM (H5y4s)

110 91 Isn't a rom-com that costs as much as a tentpole sort of defeating the purpose?
Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at March 24, 2023 04:33 PM (t0OGg)

=========

Since I'm deep in Lubitsch territory, and he helped really found what the romantic comedy was in the sound era in Hollywood, I'll use him as an example.

His movies were also expensive. Like von Stroheim, he tended to overspend, making The Merry Widow into something like a $1.3 million movie (for 1934, that was a very large budget). It did not make enough money (it's absolutely delightful and one of his very best movies, though).

At the same time, in the mid-2000s, things like Sweet Home Alabama was making 9 figures at the box office, and that was something like $30 million to produce, most going to Reese Witherspoon.

I think the romantic comedy has a strong potential upside, but you have to keep costs low. It's like the horror genre. Just because some shitty little thing can make $60 million that doesn't mean you start making them all at $60 million hoping to make more.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:37 PM (LvTSG)

111 Chris Pine was great in Into The Woods as Cindarella's Prince.

Really good musical, if that's your thing.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at March 24, 2023 04:37 PM (n/8Ck)

112
I remarked yesterday that one more reason the "mega superhero" movies are failing is because No One gives a shit anymore about "saving the planet" from space aliens/ mega supervillains.

Would You Care?
I wouldn't.

And it's stupid. What's more stupid is a movie about a group of Jerkoffs in stupid costumes "saving the Universe."

Posted by: Soothsayer, the HQ's Most Respected Commenter at March 24, 2023 04:37 PM (QI+/m)

113 109 Posted by: DJ at March 24, 2023 04:36 PM (H5y4s)

She's the person who can bench press a mastodon right?

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 04:37 PM (Lzpvj)

114 Other way around: the seats might be tempted to look into D&D. DC Comics, and lately CDPR, have been using licensed entertainment to pull people towards their product. Unfortunately, most DC comic book writers are either hyper woke or total sex pests, so their comic division is doing incredibly badly. But Edgerunners pulled a lot of people back into the Cyberpunk 2077 universe.
Posted by: trev006 at March 24, 2023 04:36 PM (DTm0P)
++++
Ah, I see. So they want to move games by getting viewers.

I wonder how much of that is motivated by pissing off the people who play the games by moving to rent-extraction through their subscription model.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at March 24, 2023 04:37 PM (t0OGg)

115 No different than having to read Democrats Propaganda Ministry crap and reporting what bulk shit they ate preaching

Posted by: Skip at March 24, 2023 04:38 PM (xhxe8)

116 103 I was laughing my ass off at that D&D with Trump, Obamunist, and Shit-for-Brains.
Posted by: Angzarr the Cromulent at March 24, 2023 04:35 PM (XMwZJ)

I did, too...especially when they doubled down after saving themselves...that's my role playing group half the time (we had to stop a player who almost got us killed from doing the same thing the very next game)...

Posted by: Nova Local at March 24, 2023 04:38 PM (exHjb)

117 Muscular, charming, masculine, tanned, blond, kind, heroic..

The skin tone of an asteroid. Seriously he looks harsh. But I'm a dude so what do I know?

The word I have about Shazam 2 is that its dumb fun, but unoffensive. I mean isn't that what people have been asking for in movies? It deserves to do better.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 04:38 PM (0hOvj)

118 Movie review Ace is awesome …

Posted by: Adriane the Seriously Good Writing Appreciative Critic . . . at March 24, 2023 04:38 PM (jonTH)

119 117 The word I have about Shazam 2 is that its dumb fun, but unoffensive. I mean isn't that what people have been asking for in movies? It deserves to do better.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 04:38 PM (0hOvj)

========

It's not like people actually go see movies like Master and Commander in theaters.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:39 PM (LvTSG)

120 I'm sort of intrigued that Disco Elysium is apparently going to be made into a series.

I wonder who they are going to get to portray Harry Dubois's Limbic System and Reptilian brain?
Posted by: Thomas Bender at March 24, 2023 04:31 PM (n/8Ck)

I think at least half the appeal of Disco Elysium was the sheer variety you could put into it. Don't get me wrong, Television Harry could be an amazing character, as would most of the cast, but it's not the same as picking the "noble but doomed" communist, or the "icky fascist."

Actually, the writers are so obviously trying to boo the player for picking right wing nationalism that it says more about them.

Posted by: trev006 at March 24, 2023 04:39 PM (DTm0P)

121 That's why I'm emphasizing that this particular role is what he should be doing. He's good at THIS, and should focus on this type of movie.

=-==--==

I prefer Crisp Ine.

angie tribeca joke.

anyway, he's sort of an artsy actor guy, right? he'll do a romcom and an action movie...did you see his cameo in Limo Driver? but he's like an artist, man

Posted by: sockamster, gator at March 24, 2023 04:39 PM (MLrvz)

122 The word I have about Shazam 2 is that its dumb fun, but unoffensive. I mean isn't that what people have been asking for in movies? It deserves to do better.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 04:38 PM (0hOvj)

The Horde should see it, even if only for $5 Tuesday prices. It really is good, and Shazam really is the hero. So, unlike 2022 and 2023 Marvel named movies.

Posted by: Nova Local at March 24, 2023 04:40 PM (exHjb)

123 "Feel free to use this as your own movie/tv/book recommendations thread."

Thumbs up for "Yellowstone." It's as entertaining as any recent movie I can think of.

Repeat recommendation for "Sacrificing Liberty," a superb documentary, free here:
youtube.com/watch?v=7a63RYta1cc

Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 04:40 PM (MvF+J)

124 And it's stupid. What's more stupid is a movie about a group of Jerkoffs in stupid costumes "saving the Universe."

Continuing to make movies about them after they've told the story where they save the universe?

Posted by: Blanco Basura - Z28.310 at March 24, 2023 04:40 PM (Bd6X8)

125 I wanted to throw Ace 18 bucks to cover the ticket cost but PayPal insists I create another account to pay and the hell with that.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 04:40 PM (0hOvj)

126 I'm surprised they haven't corrupted Monopoly yet.

also,

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell is “alive and well,” telling his colleagues Tuesday by phone that he is “eager” to get back to work after suffering a concussion and breaking a rib in a fall.

Get fucked you old scab.

Posted by: Maj. Healey at March 24, 2023 04:40 PM (DMyTF)

127 >>> I don't get how women like Chris Pine.

I can't speak for all of us but to me he has is cute and charming, not taking himself too seriously. Very attractive.

Posted by: DJ at March 24, 2023 04:41 PM (H5y4s)

128 so...the barbarian is a hispanic woman?

wow. just wow. do better.

srs tho, the "hispanic tough girl" trope has been around at least since Aliens.

speaking of which, if you're still doing your homework and watching The Madoloirans, there's a brave and stunning person of questionable gender who is bragging shit replaced "transphobe" Gina. IDK how I feel about that.

Posted by: sockamster, gator at March 24, 2023 04:41 PM (MLrvz)

129 I think the romantic comedy has a strong potential upside, but you have to keep costs low. It's like the horror genre. Just because some shitty little thing can make $60 million that doesn't mean you start making them all at $60 million hoping to make more.
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:37 PM (LvTSG)
++++
Right. The expensive rom-com is the exception.

And actual rom-coms would probably put butts in seats. They always have. Not some woke thing about two lesbians, or the love of two trans men, or a Strong Empowered Woman who has to "fix" some normal dude and transform him into a cuck, or whatever other "Revised For Contemporary Audiences" crap some woketard dreams up. Just a run-of-the-mill romantic comedy.

Attractive, reasonably-talented actors. A cute story. Some relatable and not too important conflict. A brief break-up due to that conflict. A contrived resolution. Getting back together. Ending happily ever after with a wedding (realized or implied).

The formula will still work and probably work extremely well, if the ideological morons running studies and writing rooms can keep themselves in check.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at March 24, 2023 04:41 PM (t0OGg)

130 99 Who is this Ramaswamy guy, and why is he saying these eminently sensible things?

Too sensible. Deep State trap IMO.

Posted by: Maj. Healey at March 24, 2023 04:41 PM (DMyTF)

131 I think the public is ripe for a fantasy movie. I am sick to death movies designed to teach a lesson. This looks to be in the same category as the first Guardians of the Galaxy movie which had a great sound track and (sigh) Chris Pratt. He doesn't even have to take his shirt off.
I mean why did people flock to Indiana Jones? Hint. It was not to see the female lead. Both sexes like to see manly men acting manly.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 24, 2023 04:41 PM (Y+l9t)

132 I wonder how much of that is motivated by pissing off the people who play the games by moving to rent-extraction through their subscription model.
Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at March 24, 2023 04:37 PM (t0OGg)

Quite a bit. The problem, of course, is that their subscription model is so obviously predatory it turns off all but the most fanatic RPG types. And it's never been easier to put out competing product- well, at least if you're Alexander Macris.

Posted by: trev006 at March 24, 2023 04:41 PM (DTm0P)

133 127 I can't speak for all of us but to me he has is cute and charming, not taking himself too seriously. Very attractive.
Posted by: DJ at March 24, 2023 04:41 PM (H5y4s)

=======

Meh. He's no Steve Buscemi.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:41 PM (LvTSG)

134 Chris Pine? "Hell or High Water," an ass-kicking good movie.

Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 04:42 PM (MvF+J)

135 I… uh, just got here… and don’t know what any of all this is about. Kick dirt, go sit in the corner, wait until AoS short attention span kicks in for the Horde.

Posted by: tubal at March 24, 2023 04:42 PM (PCK5/)

136 Karen Gillan in her underwear would probably go see this movie with her boyfriend if he asked:
https://is.gd/cK6bRj

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at March 24, 2023 04:42 PM (t0OGg)

137
Stargate SG-1 "saved Earth" so many times, they even mentioned their record in an episode. That's when I realized it was a dumb TV show for Dumb People.

Posted by: Soothsayer, the HQ's Most Respected Commenter at March 24, 2023 04:43 PM (QI+/m)

138 btw I know it's not new but House of the Dragon was surprisingly great

I kind of ship Matt Smith so that was probably a big part of it but all the actors were really good even the kids

Posted by: BlackOrchid at March 24, 2023 04:43 PM (w0NJk)

139 The formula will still work and probably work extremely well, if the ideological morons running studies and writing rooms can keep themselves in check.
Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at March 24, 2023 04:41 PM (t0OGg)

Yeah, and your audience is automatically doubled. You get the chicks that like that dumb stuff and the poor schlep they make go with them.

Posted by: sniffybigtoe at March 24, 2023 04:43 PM (UuD2k)

140 I enjoy these posts, ace. I hope you'll keep them up. I'm I'm kinda not into politics much these days so this is a fun diversion.

Thank you.

Posted by: Max Power at March 24, 2023 04:43 PM (q177U)

141 Speaking of Rom-Coms, I remember laughing my ass off when I learned that the Chinese rom-com "The Exfile 3: The Return of the Exes" crushed "The Last Jedi" in the Chinese market.

Posted by: Thrawn at March 24, 2023 04:43 PM (Rl7KJ)

142 If I had a couple billion dollars laying around I'd do a Fafhrd & Gray Mouser series. It would do really well, I mean how can you not love two roguish but generally kindly types sneaking and fooling and stealing and seducing and fighting and having a good time?

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 04:43 PM (0hOvj)

143 @120

>>Actually, the writers are so obviously trying to boo the player for picking right wing nationalism that it says more about them.

The game is wild in the breath of topics it touches on, politics, race, class all viewed through a broken down detective.

It could either be another Babylon 5 or it could be Picard.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at March 24, 2023 04:43 PM (n/8Ck)

144 >>>134 Chris Pine? "Hell or High Water," an ass-kicking good movie.

i should definitely watch that. People have recommended it for years.

Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 04:44 PM (iHBZj)

145 Yeah, and your audience is automatically doubled. You get the chicks that like that dumb stuff and the poor schlep they make go with them.
Posted by: sniffybigtoe at March 24, 2023 04:43 PM (UuD2k)
++++
There's a reason that the romantic comedy genre is one of the oldest. It always works.

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at March 24, 2023 04:44 PM (t0OGg)

146 you know, ace's review is interesting and tempting because it seems that D&D did this one weird trick "actually write a movie" instead of "bullshit around your weirdo feminism hangups like Scooby Doo or your weird cuck fetish like He-Man"

-so there's humor? that's better than Loki and Bobba Fett.

so, if there's actual fun writing, then I'll see it. at home.

Posted by: sockamster, gator at March 24, 2023 04:44 PM (MLrvz)

147 136 Karen Gillan in her underwear would probably go see this movie with her boyfriend if he asked:
https://is.gd/cK6bRj

////

hi, nebula...

Posted by: sockamster, gator at March 24, 2023 04:45 PM (MLrvz)

148 If I had a couple billion dollars laying around I'd do a Fafhrd & Gray Mouser series.

You want to know what I'd do with a couple billion dollars, man?

Posted by: Lawrence at March 24, 2023 04:45 PM (h5TKJ)

149 The word I have about Shazam 2 is that its dumb fun, but unoffensive. I mean isn't that what people have been asking for in movies? It deserves to do better.

The first Shazam was the only decent modern DC movie I've seen. If I actually saw movies in theaters I'd definitely go see 2.

Posted by: Ian S. at March 24, 2023 04:45 PM (ZGrMX)

150 136 Karen Gillan in her underwear would probably go see this movie with her boyfriend if he asked:
https://is.gd/cK6bRj
Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!)
Gorgeous. No way she is 35 in that photo.

Posted by: Maj. Healey at March 24, 2023 04:45 PM (DMyTF)

151 Speaking of Rom-Coms, I remember laughing my ass off when I learned that the Chinese rom-com "The Exfile 3: The Return of the Exes" crushed "The Last Jedi" in the Chinese market.
Posted by: Thrawn

Wouldn't that be a Rom-Chi-Com?

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at March 24, 2023 04:45 PM (qmOv7)

152 Reading this paladin's story arc in the movie, it doesn't make any sense. The paladin is as ace notes, there to tell people that not all Thayans are bad. But at this point in time, the not-bad Thayans are pretty much all dead or undead(in which case being originally good does nothing as they're under a necromancer's control). His being good was only really justified by him being from an entirely different era, so he doesn't make a good counterexample.

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy - The Republic is already dead! at March 24, 2023 04:46 PM (eYoxG)

153 Ima gonna have to come back and read is tomorrow. Too many old fashions at this point to read. Though trailer looked good enough.

Posted by: Turn two at March 24, 2023 04:46 PM (JfxgE)

154 122 The word I have about Shazam 2 is that its dumb fun, but unoffensive. I mean isn't that what people have been asking for in movies? It deserves to do better.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 04:38 PM (0hOvj)

//////////

here's my thing about shazam one and at least thor love and thuder. spoiler.

the hero needs to multiply himself to win. it seems like a cop out and, hey, why don't you do this all the time. like harry potter's time turner.

Posted by: sockamster, gator at March 24, 2023 04:46 PM (MLrvz)

155 The problem, of course, is that their subscription model is so obviously predatory it turns off all but the most fanatic RPG types.

It will fail. They've tried subscription model stuff before in the 4E era, and it was a stumbling block then too.

You're average D&D player comes in two varieties: (1) those who DM reguarly. These guys tend to has big collections and spend money on the hobby. (2) Players, who make up the majority. They are notorious skinflints and seldom will have any but the books they need at this very moment, and then often used or loaned copies. Tabletop RPGing historically has been a pretty cheap hobby. D&D players are not going to be buying online subscriptions or acquiescing in a Magic: The Addiction business model. They don't have to; there's a lot of good fantasy RPG options out there right now.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls - an election is simply a festival for the majority at March 24, 2023 04:46 PM (ppBhU)

156 139 Yeah, and your audience is automatically doubled. You get the chicks that like that dumb stuff and the poor schlep they make go with them.
Posted by: sniffybigtoe at March 24, 2023 04:43 PM (UuD2k)

=======

Let me talk a bit more about Lubitsch.

He really did make romantic comedies, and I have enjoyed his films, especially the sound films made before the Hays Office started really exerting itself, because they are genuinely funny. Mostly anchored by the charismatic af Maurice Chevalier, the jokes are consistently really, really funny while the movie keeps up with the genre (Lubitsch was playing on the conventions of operettas, not romantic comedies) with a bit of a wink. It balanced a very delicate line between earnestness and winking at the audience while being mildly naughty.

Seriously, I haven't had this much fun watching movies in a while. Nothing made today matches it for just pure fun. It doesn't seem like a terribly hard mixture to achieve (Wilder got pretty close to it more than once), but no one even seems to try anymore.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:46 PM (LvTSG)

157 One of the sadder things I inherited from Joel was 3 vouchers for $15 at the local Regal theaters. I just have a tough time getting out to do stuff

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 04:46 PM (0hOvj)

158 Oh yeah, Led Zeppelin. Fresh as a daisy, kids.

Posted by: Hokey Pokey at March 24, 2023 04:47 PM (glGDV)

159 Gorgeous. No way she is 35 in that photo.

///

then there's the shit nebula GotGIII poster image where they made her a man, baby.

shudders

Posted by: sockamster, gator at March 24, 2023 04:47 PM (MLrvz)

160 Emergency personnel have responded after a package with suspicious white powder was delivered to the mail room for the New York City building housing the Manhattan District Attorney's office, according to police.

.. probably the droppings from the donuts that were intercepted in the mailroom

Posted by: Neo at March 24, 2023 04:47 PM (RovqD)

161 Emergency personnel have responded after a package with suspicious white powder was delivered to the mail room for the New York City building housing the Manhattan District Attorney's office, according to police.

////

fedsurrection 3.0?

Posted by: sockamster, gator at March 24, 2023 04:48 PM (MLrvz)

162 Why is it never purple powder or blue powder? That could be bad shit too.

Posted by: sniffybigtoe at March 24, 2023 04:48 PM (UuD2k)

163 "Emergency personnel have responded after a package with suspicious white powder was delivered"

Jessie Smollett did that, and paid no penalty for it that I am aware of.

Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 04:48 PM (MvF+J)

164 Jussie, whatever.

Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 04:49 PM (MvF+J)

165 @160

>>probably the droppings from the donuts that were intercepted in the mailroom
Posted by: Neo at March 24, 2023 04:47 PM (RovqD)

Out: Banana In The Tail Pipe Trick.

In: White Powder In The Envelope Trick.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at March 24, 2023 04:49 PM (n/8Ck)

166 You've got Amazon Prime? How much are they paying you for this gig?

Posted by: JackStraw at March 24, 2023 04:49 PM (ZLI7S)

167 Never understood the attraction of rom coms. Completely predictable. The only story is two people finally getting together. Usually a bunch of misunderstandings because they don't "communicate" the way women think they should.
Personally, I've always been into bad boys so just do not understand the genre.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 24, 2023 04:49 PM (Y+l9t)

168 @ace: Re: Let's Get Small

I seem to remember his "we're having some fun" tune mentioning the Boarding House in SF:

We're having some fun
Here at the fabulous Boarding House
In San Francisco in California
We've got music and laughter and a wonderful time
Here at the Boarding House

Mandela Effect? I no longer have the album, so I can't prove or disprove.

Posted by: Simon Jester at March 24, 2023 04:49 PM (BSu3l)

169 "You've got Amazon Prime? How much are they paying you for this gig?"

Prolly not enough to buy a year of Amazon Prime.

Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 04:50 PM (MvF+J)

170 149 Posted by: Ian S. at March 24, 2023 04:45 PM (ZGrMX)

I enjoyed Shazam, I prefer movies at home these days because of the quality of my screen.

I will be buying Shazam 2 and making popcorn.

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 04:50 PM (Lzpvj)

171 Personally, I've always been into bad boys so just do not understand the genre.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 24, 2023 04:49 PM (Y+l9t)

I'm so bad, I don't even know what a genre is.

Posted by: sniffybigtoe at March 24, 2023 04:50 PM (UuD2k)

172 White males at Didley didn't position Alonso for success. It is the only answer.

Posted by: Joe Biden at March 24, 2023 04:50 PM (17s+e)

173 We can haz GAINZZZ Thread?

Posted by: Cat Commentators of AoSHQ at March 24, 2023 04:50 PM (a3Q+t)

174 Unicorn Wars:

Fascistic teddy bears train a bunch of expendables to go into the Magical Forest to find a company that has been doubtless slaughtered by the unicorns they've been at war with forever.

Cute animation. Lots of gore. Spanish. Weirdos. From the maker of "Birdboy".

Posted by: moviegique at March 24, 2023 04:51 PM (asXVI)

175 173 We can haz GAINZZZ Thread?
Posted by: Cat Commentators of AoSHQ at March 24, 2023 04:50 PM (a3Q+t)

========

I need to know how Leon is getting larger.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:51 PM (LvTSG)

176 Afternoon.

While the cause of Alonso's termination is unclear, the sources said, the decision was made by a consortium including human resources, Disney's legal department and multiple executives including Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman (to whom all of Marvel Studios reports).

Okay, what kind of deep shit do you have to be in to get nearly every single one of your superiors *and* legal involved in your firing?

*Cue wild pie in the sky speculation*

We know she went hardcore lefty, advocating extremist L'GiBiTy shit and attacking Desantis. That kind of behavior is usually done to mask serious misbehavior. She's a lesbian. Anyone wanna bet she was playing grabass with some hot, busty and not particularly willing thang?

Posted by: Robert at March 24, 2023 04:51 PM (1Yy3c)

177 My daughter saw "Paint" with Owen Wilson the other night. The local theater has this thing on Mondays called "Mystery Night": pay $5 and see a movie that hasn't been released yet. Twist is that you don't know what the movie will be until it comes on the screen.
Anyway, she sorta recommends Paint. Wilson plays a Bob Ross-like painter who loses his PBS gig to a younger rival. Funny but wierdly paced. She says Owen Wilson plays Owen Wilson playing Bob Ross.

Posted by: J. Frank Parnell at March 24, 2023 04:51 PM (t4BDZ)

178 171 Personally, I've always been into bad boys so just do not understand the genre.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 24, 2023 04:49 PM (Y+l9t)

I'm so bad, I don't even know what a genre is.
Posted by: sniffybigtoe at March 24, 2023 04:50 PM (UuD2k)

It is genders ugly sister.

Posted by: tubal at March 24, 2023 04:51 PM (PCK5/)

179 167 Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 24, 2023 04:49 PM (Y+l9t)

Most romcoms are female wish fulfillment pictures. I think the last one I really enjoyed was He Said/She Said.

https://youtu.be/MC2MLmGhc1M

Kevin Bacon=Ballistic Magnet

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 04:51 PM (Lzpvj)

180 here's my thing about shazam one and at least thor love and thuder. spoiler.

the hero needs to multiply himself to win. it seems like a cop out and, hey, why don't you do this all the time. like harry potter's time turner.
Posted by: sockamster, gator at March 24, 2023 04:46 PM (MLrvz)

If that bothered you in Shazam 1, you'll REALLY love the ending and 2nd act of Shazam 2...

Posted by: Nova Local at March 24, 2023 04:51 PM (exHjb)

181 I thought D&D was for guys who could get laid in a woman's prison.

Posted by: Archer at March 24, 2023 04:52 PM (gmo/4)

182 That whole “you can’t have completely different creatures have different abilities by default because that’s racist” is just another example of how incredibly racist the woke crowd is. It’s accepting the racist belief that some human races are superior and inferior.

D&D races really are vastly different just as cats really are different from dogs and bears really are different than lions.

It’s just like all the left’s talk about how planning ahead, critical thinking, recognizing cause and effect, valuing family, and time management are “white culture”. It’s just incredibly, horribly racist.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at March 24, 2023 04:52 PM (EXyHK)

183 "66 You know who I want to see fired from a cannon ??"

How long of a list are we allowed??? *no smiley*

Posted by: Katfish at March 24, 2023 04:52 PM (+Z2md)

184 176 Afternoon.

While the cause of Alonso's termination is unclear, the sources said, the decision was made by a consortium including human resources, Disney's legal department and multiple executives including Disney Entertainment co-chairman Alan Bergman (to whom all of Marvel Studios reports).

Okay, what kind of deep shit do you have to be in to get nearly every single one of your superiors *and* legal involved in your firing?

*Cue wild pie in the sky speculation*

We know she went hardcore lefty, advocating extremist L'GiBiTy shit and attacking Desantis. That kind of behavior is usually done to mask serious misbehavior. She's a lesbian. Anyone wanna bet she was playing grabass with some hot, busty and not particularly willing thang?
Posted by: Robert at March 24, 2023 04:51 PM (1Yy3c)

Simple. This is what it takes to cover your ass while firing an underperforming employee of a certain protected class.

Posted by: The Central Scrutinizer at March 24, 2023 04:52 PM (KbCG3)

185 176 Posted by: Robert at March 24, 2023 04:51 PM (1Yy3c)

That would have gotten her promoted.

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 04:52 PM (Lzpvj)

186 Chris Pine? "Hell or High Water," an ass-kicking good movie.
Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 04:42 PM (MvF+J)

Great flick. Ben Foster is an underrated actor. He can be intense as fuck.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Lookin' for me wooden leg at March 24, 2023 04:52 PM (xPJvm)

187 Personally, I've always been into bad boys so just do not understand the genre.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 24, 2023 04:49 PM

Wanna ride on my chopper?

Posted by: Rob Reiner at March 24, 2023 04:53 PM (a3Q+t)

188 O/T, but I found it funny: a guide to operating a fixing a Trabant:

1. The natural state of the Trabant is broken. A trabant should be fixed only when it is 100% unusable and only to the point of barely working.
2. Wipers, lights, exhaust, electric starter are all capitalist inventions not necessary to a real comrade! A real Trabant man knows how to push start a Trabant and jump into it while it is moving.
3. You only fix the Trabant with your friends, whilst drinking heavily! This is part of the reason for owning a Trabant!
4. The ONLY adequate spare parts used for a Trabant are well aged parts off an other Trabant!
5. The proper way to make Trabant gaskets is with a pair of scissors out of cardboard or aluminum.
6. All things on the trabant can be held together with steel wire (including wheels if they decide to fall off).
7. Premix must always be made by eye, never by any form of measurement. If you can see the car behind you, you need more oil!

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at March 24, 2023 04:53 PM (t0OGg)

189 You ask for a non-woke macho super hero franchise that makes money?

I give you the John Wick movies.

John Wick is pretty much a super hero. He is indestructible, never misses his shots, and can kill his enemies with pistols, rifles, knives, swords, his fists, and No. 2 pencils. He always wears a suit and tie. He does not have a soft, feminine side that makes him conflicted about his uncountable killings or make him think about changing gender.

But Hollywood continues to make half-baked, outrageously expensive movies with super heroes in crazy skin-tight costumes who are all super-woke in one way or another.

Posted by: Gref at March 24, 2023 04:53 PM (AMIL/)

190 181 Posted by: Archer at March 24, 2023 04:52 PM (gmo/4)

Eh I got laid outside of prison....hell I even convinced multiple women they were gamers.

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 04:53 PM (Lzpvj)

191 186 Chris Pine? "Hell or High Water," an ass-kicking good movie.
Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 04:42 PM (MvF+J)

Great flick. Ben Foster is an underrated actor. He can be intense as fuck.
Posted by: Pug Mahon, Lookin' for me wooden leg at March 24, 2023 04:52 PM (xPJvm)

Foster made that movie superior.

Posted by: tubal at March 24, 2023 04:54 PM (PCK5/)

192 So wait for it to be a free offering on Prime, or on basic cable. Got it.

Posted by: I always liked James Garner at March 24, 2023 04:54 PM (7SwcR)

193 @ace: Re: Let's Get Small

I seem to remember his "we're having some fun" tune mentioning the Boarding House in SF:

We're having some fun
Here at the fabulous Boarding House
In San Francisco in California
We've got music and laughter and a wonderful time
Here at the Boarding House

Mandela Effect? I no longer have the album, so I can't prove or disprove.


It was recorded at The Boarding House in SF. Was probably at least mentioned on the album.

Posted by: Blanco Basura - Z28.310 at March 24, 2023 04:54 PM (Bd6X8)

194 How could the Tolkien estate threaten legal action against this when they allowed the Amazon abomination to happen? Lawdy, the Hobbit movies were bad enough.

Posted by: McLurkerson at March 24, 2023 04:54 PM (wNDOJ)

195 It will fail. They've tried subscription model stuff before in the 4E era, and it was a stumbling block then too.

You're average D&D player comes in two varieties: (1) those who DM reguarly. These guys tend to has big collections and spend money on the hobby. (2) Players, who make up the majority. They are notorious skinflints and seldom will have any but the books they need at this very moment, and then often used or loaned copies. Tabletop RPGing historically has been a pretty cheap hobby. D&D players are not going to be buying online subscriptions or acquiescing in a Magic: The Addiction business model. They don't have to; there's a lot of good fantasy RPG options out there right now.
Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls - an election is simply a festival for the majority at March 24, 2023 04:46 PM (ppBhU)

And the subscriptions are the worst part. If you don't OWN the product, why would you consider partaking, even for a month? It's like the people managing Hasbro don't know how actual D&D players behave.

Posted by: trev006 at March 24, 2023 04:54 PM (DTm0P)

196 1960's "Una Vita Dificile" is making the rounds in the theaters around here.

Great movie. VERY Italian. Beautiful leading lady. Sleazy leading man. I mean, he's actually very principled in the movie, which is why his "vita" is "dificile", but he's =also= sleazy and stubborn.

Posted by: moviegique at March 24, 2023 04:54 PM (asXVI)

197 167 I just scrolled thru the list of top 75 rom-coms. I don't see any I'd want to rewatch, or recommend, more than the rom-tragedy "Blue Valentine." That probably does not help.

Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 04:55 PM (MvF+J)

198 196 1960's "Una Vita Dificile" is making the rounds in the theaters around here.

Great movie. VERY Italian. Beautiful leading lady. Sleazy leading man. I mean, he's actually very principled in the movie, which is why his "vita" is "dificile", but he's =also= sleazy and stubborn.
Posted by: moviegique at March 24, 2023 04:54 PM (asXVI)

=======

Old movies are old and bad. Ugh. So gross. They didn't even realize that the real world was in color.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:55 PM (LvTSG)

199 >>That kind of behavior is usually done to mask serious misbehavior. She's a lesbian. Anyone wanna bet she was playing grabass with some hot, busty and not particularly willing thang?


She tried to play grabass with me, but joke's on her - I don't have an ass!

Posted by: Brie Larson at March 24, 2023 04:55 PM (t4BDZ)

200 oh, look Taylor Sheridan also did Hell or Highwater.

there's been accusations he's a modern iteration of hicklib machoisms...but he's actually good.

in fact, it's fucking unfair. Consider this: he spent 20 years in hollywood being generic handsome man who never got any roles.

then one day, he writes a script and realizes, "I am a handsome man who can write $$$ scripts" and now he owns the 4-6 Ranch in Texas.

Posted by: sockamster, gator at March 24, 2023 04:55 PM (MLrvz)

201 189 Posted by: Gref at March 24, 2023 04:53 PM (AMIL/)

They are addicted to the SFX world class heroics bullshit when what sells the best bang for the buck and puts more asses in the seat per dollar spent is usually the street level/anti hero genre.

Batman saves a city, JUSTICE LEAGUE Batman somehow saves the whole planet.

Anyway you can make the argument the most realistic gritty superhero movies made were the more serious Death Wish flicks 1 and 2.

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 04:55 PM (Lzpvj)

202 197 167 I just scrolled thru the list of top 75 rom-coms. I don't see any I'd want to rewatch, or recommend, more than the rom-tragedy "Blue Valentine." That probably does not help.
Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 04:55 PM (MvF+J)

My favorite is Blue Velvet.

Posted by: tubal at March 24, 2023 04:55 PM (PCK5/)

203 And the subscriptions are the worst part. If you don't OWN the product, why would you consider partaking, even for a month? It's like the people managing Hasbro don't know how actual D&D players behave.
Posted by: trev006 at March 24, 2023 04:54 PM (DTm0P)

Most of my D&D experience involved reading the books on the shitter.

Posted by: sniffybigtoe at March 24, 2023 04:55 PM (UuD2k)

204 Simple. This is what it takes to cover your ass while firing an underperforming employee of a certain protected class.


CORRECT

that immediately sprung to my mind - that's no new but the widening variety of "protected classes" requiring such treatment is new

Posted by: BlackOrchid at March 24, 2023 04:56 PM (w0NJk)

205 According to reviews, John Wick 4 is the most John Wick movie ever and is the closest, in a good way, that a movie has ever been to recreating a video game/super-hero feel to it.

Donnie Yen's performance is getting extra special shout outs.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at March 24, 2023 04:56 PM (n/8Ck)

206 202 197 167 I just scrolled thru the list of top 75 rom-coms. I don't see any I'd want to rewatch, or recommend, more than the rom-tragedy "Blue Valentine." That probably does not help.
Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 04:55 PM (MvF+J)

My favorite is Blue Velvet.
Posted by: tubal at March 24, 2023 04:55 PM (PCK5/)

========

Anti-Christ.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:56 PM (LvTSG)

207 Wanna ride on my chopper?
Posted by: Rob Reiner

Seriously? You're socking Rob Reiner to my post?

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 24, 2023 04:56 PM (Y+l9t)

208 *sigh* sounds like a movie about an IP about which the writers know next to nothing.

Hasbro OWNS the Red Wizards of Thay. It takes no effort at all for the writers to find out the history and culture of this part of the Forgotten Realms. Thay is a realm of slavers and evil wizards. That doesn't make ALL Thayans evil any more than ALL Iranians or North Koreans are evil.

/soapbox

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at March 24, 2023 04:56 PM (YIVH2)

209 >>>I seem to remember his "we're having some fun" tune mentioning the Boarding House in SF:

We're having some fun
Here at the fabulous Boarding House
In San Francisco in California
We've got music and laughter and a wonderful time
Here at the Boarding House

...

oh right, he wasn't at the Troubador in Let's Get Small, he was at the Boarding House!

Darnit! That's why it's not like the album!

I know he's mentioned being at the Troubador on other albums.

Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 04:56 PM (iHBZj)

210 @154 the hero needs to multiply himself to win.

----

Doesn't really work like that in Love and Thunder. Sure, there are two Thors. But in the end it doesn't matter. They don't beat the bad guy.

Posted by: junior at March 24, 2023 04:57 PM (a4BXQ)

211 191 Posted by: tubal at March 24, 2023 04:54 PM (PCK5/)

Eh I am in the other camp, the Texas Rangers carried the film dramatically.

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 04:57 PM (Lzpvj)

212 "Great flick. Ben Foster is an underrated actor. He can be intense as fuck."

In the dictionary, next to the word "intense," there's his picture.

"Hostage" and "Alpha Dog" for scary Ben Foster.

Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 04:57 PM (MvF+J)

213 >> O/T, but I found it funny: a guide to operating a fixing a Trabant:

I always loved the way Douglas Adams described Kate Schecter's car in The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul.

Posted by: garrett at March 24, 2023 04:57 PM (Kn2s+)

214 I rewatched John Wick 3 after reading that review of John Wick 4. I was entertained.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 24, 2023 04:58 PM (Y+l9t)

215 I have an exclusive offer. You all can look at this outstanding comment for free.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at March 24, 2023 04:58 PM (oINRc)

216 On the merits of just the actual movie -- putting aside the background stuff -- it's a recommend.

********

Wait. Then what are we supposed to shake our tiny fists impotently and argle-bargle over?

Posted by: Muldoon at March 24, 2023 04:58 PM (ykeLU)

217 215 I have an exclusive offer. You all can look at this outstanding comment for free.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at March 24, 2023 04:58 PM (oINRc)

========

*preps credit card information*

Do you need my social security number, too?

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:58 PM (LvTSG)

218 211 191 Posted by: tubal at March 24, 2023 04:54 PM (PCK5/)

Eh I am in the other camp, the Texas Rangers carried the film dramatically.
Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 04:57 PM (Lzpvj)

Don’t leave out the old waitress and the old guy bank customer…

Posted by: tubal at March 24, 2023 04:58 PM (PCK5/)

219 I was going to maybe take my kids to see D&D, looks like I'll plan on going. Essentially everything in modern media is left-wing, I've just decided to only boycott the worst of the worst and enjoy something resembling a normal life.

Side not, did anyone else grow up around the "Dungeons and Dragons is Satanic!!" era? This was a strong thing in Evangelical circles as a kid in the 80's. It really is pretty silly that this was a thing. It's basically about as "evil" as reading Lord of the Rings.

Posted by: Blago at March 24, 2023 04:59 PM (VFI3O)

220 The inner workings of my scrotum are nice and warm having no idea who any of these people are or any of their "products".

Ahhhhh...comfy.

Posted by: Hairyback Guy at March 24, 2023 04:59 PM (R/m4+)

221 How could the Tolkien estate threaten legal action against this when they allowed the Amazon abomination to happen? Lawdy, the Hobbit movies were bad enough.
Posted by: McLurkerson at March 24, 2023 04:54 PM (wNDOJ)
----
This was a long, long time ago, in the beforetimes. The earliest editions of Dungeons & Dragons had "hobbits,"
not halflings. The Tolkien estate "persuaded" TSR to change them to halflings in future printings and editions going forward.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at March 24, 2023 04:59 PM (YIVH2)

222 Modern rom-coms are not classic rom-coms.

Post Nora Ephron, they became chick flicks.

Prior to that, though, they were just general crowd pleasers. The last one that leaps to mind in that mold is the James Garner/Sally Field 1985 "Murphy's Romance".

But Doris Day (with Garner or Hudson or anyone), or Tracy/Hepburn, or Cary Grant/Jimmy Stewart/Gary Cooper with Jean Arthur or Rita Hayworth or Merle Oberon...? Something for everyone.

Posted by: moviegique at March 24, 2023 04:59 PM (asXVI)

223 I always loved the way Douglas Adams described Kate Schecter's car in The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul.
Posted by: garrett at March 24, 2023 04:57 PM (Kn2s+)
++++
Heh. That was an entertaining book. Extremely, well, British. As my mother put it once, "the British have a very high tolerance for eccentricity." That sort of describes that book - and Dirk Gentley's Holistic Detective Agency - to a "T."

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at March 24, 2023 04:59 PM (t0OGg)

224 142 If I had a couple billion dollars laying around I'd do a Fafhrd & Gray Mouser series. It would do really well, I mean how can you not love two roguish but generally kindly types sneaking and fooling and stealing and seducing and fighting and having a good time?
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 04:43 PM (0hOvj)

It'd be awesome. Director?

For me, I'd hire Mel Gibson to do Njal's Saga.

Black Company would make a decade long best ever expensive cable series. But idk who could direct that.

Posted by: Thesokorus at March 24, 2023 04:59 PM (1ais2)

225 Doesn't really work like that in Love and Thunder. Sure, there are two Thors. But in the end it doesn't matter. They don't beat the bad guy.

///

ah, interesting point. the bad guy had to learn a very valuable lesson about, uh, foregiveness, but the kid thors?

Posted by: sockamster, gator at March 24, 2023 04:59 PM (MLrvz)

226 Aside from the Current Year crowd and blue hair Tumblrinas, I doubt anyone who plays D&D or anything connected to it, especially the old school crowd, is going to spend money on this. Hasbro has completely shit the bed with regard to both D&D and Magic the Gathering. They understand it but I don't think they understand how much.

Maybe I missed a memo some years back but when did D&D games turn into some sort of live-action Mel Brooks movie? Every time I see a clip from Critical Role it's just a bunch of people who look like they're working on their open mic night stuff.

I know one thing I can't get enough of in my fantasy genre is the constant intrusion of real world references and humor.

Posted by: Azathoth at March 24, 2023 04:59 PM (wb1YC)

227 222 But Doris Day (with Garner or Hudson or anyone), or Tracy/Hepburn, or Cary Grant/Jimmy Stewart/Gary Cooper with Jean Arthur or Rita Hayworth or Merle Oberon...? Something for everyone.
Posted by: moviegique at March 24, 2023 04:59 PM (asXVI)

======

Chevalier/MacDonald.

Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 05:00 PM (LvTSG)

228 214 I rewatched John Wick 3 after reading that review of John Wick 4. I was entertained.
Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 24, 2023 04:58 PM (Y+l9t)

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTA.... oh, I guess you are. Apologies.

Posted by: Maximus at March 24, 2023 05:00 PM (II3Gr)

229 >>>I always loved the way Douglas Adams described Kate Schecter's car in The Long Dark Tea Time of the Soul.

i didn't like that at the time, is it better than I remember?

Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 05:00 PM (iHBZj)

230 Ace! fix your donate button! One line sends us back 2004 and the paypal link doesn't recognize dollars anymore

use JJ's STRIKE service

Posted by: DanMan at March 24, 2023 05:00 PM (DB6tu)

231 The national director for LEXIT (Latino-Exit) is an FBI informant.

https://bit.ly/42H4BM0

LEXIT is purportedly a conservative group and is supposed to be founded on the idea of helping Latinos exit the left's plantation and moving toward conservatism.

Given that the FBI are now wholly owned by the left, it doesn't really surprise me they would want to infiltrate any political group encouraging minorities to ditch the left.

Posted by: bonhomme at March 24, 2023 05:00 PM (V1QHJ)

232 D&D races really are vastly different just as cats really are different from dogs and bears really are different than lions.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at March 24, 2023 04:52 PM (EXyHK)

Shadowrun and D&D have the exact same problem. They're mostly staffed with people petrified at the implication that orcs and humans won't have the same IQ mean. If you asked the average orc what they thought of that, they'd laugh in your face. "Oh no, I won't be going to Wizard Harvard."

And because the vast majority of D&D writers are comfortable urbanites, they'd never consider for a second that Strength isn't merely an acceptable attribute for rulers in a fantasy world, it's arguably an optimal one. Yes, you should have advisors with intelligence and wisdom, but at the end of the day some quarterback with people skills is likely to be king.

Why yes, I do believe in paladin supremacy.

Posted by: trev006 at March 24, 2023 05:00 PM (DTm0P)

233 218 Posted by: tubal at March 24, 2023 04:58 PM (PCK5/)

Chris Pine was Johnny One Note in the film, and Ben Foster was his usual underappreciated self there was a LOT of good acting in the film from the standpoint that if I squinted really hard it looked a LOT like central texas.

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 05:00 PM (Lzpvj)

234 On the other hand, Hasbro is a woke asshole corporation

*******

Oh.

*shakes tiny fists impotently*
Argle-de-bargle!!!

Posted by: Muldoon at March 24, 2023 05:00 PM (ykeLU)

235
VIDMAX VIRAL
Nothing Like Getting Your Butt Kicked By A 92 Year Old Man!

https://tinyurl.com/3vkwcjhz

Posted by: DB - heating the atmosphere at March 24, 2023 05:01 PM (geLO8)

236 208 *sigh* sounds like a movie about an IP about which the writers know next to nothing.

Hasbro OWNS the Red Wizards of Thay. It takes no effort at all for the writers to find out the history and culture of this part of the Forgotten Realms. Thay is a realm of slavers and evil wizards. That doesn't make ALL Thayans evil any more than ALL Iranians or North Koreans are evil.

/soapbox
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at March 24, 2023 04:56 PM (YIVH2)

That was true before. But then nearly everyone was killed and turned to undead except for primarily the lich who did all of that. There was a time when your average denizen of Thay was mostly kind of normal (ie neutral). Now your average denizen of Thay is a zombie.

They had a character who lived in Thay from 100 years prior (and who directly experienced that lich taking over) come to show how not all Thayans are evil, when this is primarily actually the case now.

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy - The Republic is already dead! at March 24, 2023 05:01 PM (eYoxG)

237 Is there any entity the FBI hasn't infiltrated?

Posted by: Martini Farmer at March 24, 2023 05:01 PM (Q4IgG)

238 Am I the only one here that hated John Wick?

There was a couple of good ideas that needed elaboration, and maybe they do in the sequels, but I was bored to tears. I wished for a different movie. Like maybe a movie where the puppy helps John Wick learn to love again after losing his wife. And so he meets another woman. With big 'uns. And then they screw wildly.

Posted by: Robert at March 24, 2023 05:01 PM (1Yy3c)

239 *except for primarily the allies of the lich who did all that

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy - The Republic is already dead! at March 24, 2023 05:01 PM (eYoxG)

240 i didn't like that at the time, is it better than I remember?
Posted by: ace

////

is anti-douglas adamsing allowed here?

Posted by: sockamster, gator at March 24, 2023 05:01 PM (MLrvz)

241 I just created a new Dungeons & Dragons character - see below.

Class: Leftist Druid
Race: Half-Orc/Half-Furry
Background: Acolyte
Pronouns: Xe, Xem, Xyr
Alignment: Lawful Evil

ABILITIES
Strength: 3 (muscles); 24 (breath)
Dexterity: 23 (lying)
Constitution: 5; -3 when wearing COVID mask
Intelligence: 2
Wisdom: -69
Charisma: 3; +9 when in drag

Posted by: Bamanarama at March 24, 2023 05:01 PM (uH1aC)

242 On the other hand, Hasbro is a woke asshole corporation.

-------------------------------------

My asshole is usually sleeping, but sometimes it snores. Okay, a lot of times.

Posted by: sniffybigtoe at March 24, 2023 05:02 PM (UuD2k)

243 literal violence, ace.

(I didn't like Salmon of Doubt, now it can be said)

Posted by: sockamster, gator at March 24, 2023 05:02 PM (MLrvz)

244 *preps credit card information*

Do you need my social security number, too?
Posted by: TheJamesMadison, being witty and sophisticated with Ernst Lubitsch at March 24, 2023 04:58 PM

Nah, we're good, we have your password C0v3n3nt!

Posted by: Nigerian Prince at March 24, 2023 05:02 PM (a3Q+t)

245 This news also further reinforces the idea the FBI consider Christian conservatives an enemy group that must be infiltrated and surveilled.

Posted by: bonhomme at March 24, 2023 05:02 PM (V1QHJ)

246 Given that the FBI are now wholly owned by the left, it doesn't really surprise me they would want to infiltrate any political group encouraging minorities to ditch the left.
Posted by: bonhomme at March 24, 2023 05:00 PM (V1QHJ)
++++
Tyranny is freedom, comrade!

Posted by: Joe Mannix (Not a cop!) at March 24, 2023 05:02 PM (t0OGg)

247 ||Donnie Yen's performance is getting extra special shout outs.

The Fat Dragon!

Posted by: moviegique at March 24, 2023 05:02 PM (asXVI)

248 Oh -- I think Let's Get Small at the end, in his "Blue Spot/Excuse Me" ending, I think he says he doesn't care if the theater staff are incompetent or on drugs at a place like the Troubador, but at a nice place like the Boarding House, he expects better.

Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 05:02 PM (iHBZj)

249 Have not plowed through the epic review yet (once I do, is that a bonus to Knowledge Local or Dungeoneering?), but thanks for putting it out there, as Pooky and I are considering watching it at a matinee when it comes out.

Posted by: pookysgirl, currently a kitsune winter witch at March 24, 2023 05:02 PM (dtlDP)

250 233 218 Posted by: tubal at March 24, 2023 04:58 PM (PCK5/)

Chris Pine was Johnny One Note in the film, and Ben Foster was his usual underappreciated self there was a LOT of good acting in the film from the standpoint that if I squinted really hard it looked a LOT like central texas.
Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 05:00 PM (Lzpvj)

Yep. Two lines I’ll never forget… What don’t you want, and… Yer damned right I got a gun..l

Posted by: tubal at March 24, 2023 05:02 PM (PCK5/)

251 Never understood the attraction of rom coms. Completely predictable. The only story is two people finally getting together. Usually a bunch of misunderstandings

Romance as a genre cannot support more than a short story on its own. Boy meets girl, they fall in love, curtains. Its about as exciting as watching someone shop for dirt.

So you have to mix in complications or some other story to actually give it some depth and excitement. Usually the complications are incredibly stupid and contrived like "I over heard him telling another girl (his mom) he loved her!" Good romantic movies have enough other stuff to prop up the kind of dull romance story. Bad ones are just a series of unbelievably stupid complications.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 05:03 PM (0hOvj)

252 did anyone else grow up around the "Dungeons and Dragons is Satanic!!" era?

Yes; there was even a small article about the dangers of D&D in the newspaper. I and a friend, of course, wrote a letter to the editor to counter it that probably only fueled their fears. We signed it with our character names.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at March 24, 2023 05:03 PM (EXyHK)

253 238 Posted by: Robert at March 24, 2023 05:01 PM (1Yy3c)

John Wick was a good film, I am less impressed with each new one.

The best John Wick film is "Nobody."

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 05:03 PM (Lzpvj)

254 The national director for LEXIT (Latino-Exit) is an FBI informant.

https://bit.ly/42H4BM0

LEXIT is purportedly a conservative group and is supposed to be founded on the idea of helping Latinos exit the left's plantation and moving toward conservatism.

Given that the FBI are now wholly owned by the left, it doesn't really surprise me they would want to infiltrate any political group encouraging minorities to ditch the left.
Posted by: bonhomme

The blue windbreaker under the poncho should have given it away.

Posted by: Prince Ludwig the Deplorable at March 24, 2023 05:03 PM (qmOv7)

255 Joe just whispered at the fucking Canadians.

Posted by: Dr. Bone at March 24, 2023 05:03 PM (Jg7EG)

256 >>>
(I didn't like Salmon of Doubt, now it can be said)

I didn't like books 4 and 5 of the Hitchhiker's series. They were depressive and unfunny. It's like he was going through a divorce at the time or something.

Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 05:03 PM (iHBZj)

257 > Is there any entity the FBI hasn't infiltrated?

AntiFa, Jane's Revenge, Ruth Sent Us, John Brown Gun Club, etc.

Posted by: bonhomme at March 24, 2023 05:03 PM (V1QHJ)

258 @206
Donnie Yen's performance is getting extra special shout outs.

----

Too bad he's a member of the CCP, and has appeared in public with Chairman Xi.

Posted by: junior at March 24, 2023 05:04 PM (a4BXQ)

259 Very impressed with what I've seen of Taylor Sheridan. I like realistic dialogue. He writes it with a megawatt laser beam.

Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 05:04 PM (MvF+J)

260 >>i didn't like that at the time, is it better than I remember?


Yes. And No. Guy set himself a high bar early on and the Gently Novels couldn't really live up to anyone's expectations, imo.

If you read it mostly for his specific talents, it's great. Some amazingly well written scenes.

Posted by: garrett at March 24, 2023 05:04 PM (Kn2s+)

261 "Chris Pine is the most Chris Pine in this movie than in any Chris Pine movie in recent memory."

He also plays the lute.

Posted by: EFG at March 24, 2023 05:04 PM (Ae67h)

262 That was true before. But then nearly everyone was killed and turned to undead except for primarily the lich who did all of that. There was a time when your average denizen of Thay was mostly kind of normal (ie neutral). Now your average denizen of Thay is a zombie.

They had a character who lived in Thay from 100 years prior (and who directly experienced that lich taking over) come to show how not all Thayans are evil, when this is primarily actually the case now.
Posted by: Red Turban Someguy - The Republic is already dead! at March 24, 2023 05:01 PM (eYoxG)
---
I guess I'm not up to speed on recent Thayan history, but that does ring a bell. Szass Tam (an evil lich) turned the country into a Necropolis or something, didn't he? So then yes, a "good" character in modern Thay would be a rarity.

Of course, Ravenloft, where everything is supposedly "evil," has lots of good characters. Most characters don't even realize they are in a gothic horror story and are just average people, with all that entails.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at March 24, 2023 05:04 PM (YIVH2)

263 > The best John Wick film is "Nobody."

Nobody reminded me too much of Fight Club, which was a commie wank-fest.

Posted by: bonhomme at March 24, 2023 05:04 PM (V1QHJ)

264 256 >>>
(I didn't like Salmon of Doubt, now it can be said)

I didn't like books 4 and 5 of the Hitchhiker's series. They were depressive and unfunny. It's like he was going through a divorce at the time or something.
Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 05:03 PM (iHBZj)


Sort of like Remains of the Day, then??

Posted by: tubal at March 24, 2023 05:04 PM (PCK5/)

265 Why yes, I do believe in paladin supremacy.

“Detect Evil” at will is a useful skill for a ruler to have.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at March 24, 2023 05:04 PM (EXyHK)

266 Tom Hanks in Mazes & Monsters!

BeVARE!

Posted by: moviegique at March 24, 2023 05:05 PM (asXVI)

267 @247

>>The Fat Dragon!

Peak Donnie Yen is IP Man.

He was one of the best things in Rogue One though.

Posted by: Thomas Bender at March 24, 2023 05:05 PM (n/8Ck)

268 If "Annie Hall" is a rom-com, then yes, that's an excellent rom-com.

Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 05:05 PM (MvF+J)

269 263 Posted by: bonhomme at March 24, 2023 05:04 PM (V1QHJ)

I liked the laconic clean up man as a trope.

"I'm an auditor the last person anyone wants to see."

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 05:05 PM (Lzpvj)

270 >>>230 Ace! fix your donate button! One line sends us back 2004 and the paypal link doesn't recognize dollars anymore

okay I will.

Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 05:05 PM (iHBZj)

271 Hugh Grant seems to be going through a resurgence as the "charming, evil but maybe not too evil guy".

He's plays what sounds like a similar role in Guy Richie's latest "Operation Fortune", which is a terrific action comedy.

Grant is very good in that, and good at conveying the
bad guy but just how bad is he?" when it's time to turn the cards over, so to speak.

"Operation Fortune" is a great time at the movies. And contains little to no "woke". Basically, it's a James Bond/Mission Impossible/ 60s caper movie mash-up with Jason Stathum as the lead. It just wants to entertain you.

Honestly, I don't know why it's not doing better at the theaters.

Posted by: naturalfake at March 24, 2023 05:05 PM (L1tQx)

272 I tried watching Babylon this week. I managed to make it 90 minutes before I gave up. What a piece of shit.

Posted by: Mark1971 at March 24, 2023 05:06 PM (xPl2J)

273 >>>Tom Hanks in Mazes & Monsters!
BeVARE!

A very important film. I think it's on Tubi now, or was recently.

Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 05:06 PM (iHBZj)

274 Does it really surprise anyone that the Left doesn't understand a fantasy world any better than they do the real one?

Posted by: Azathoth at March 24, 2023 05:06 PM (wb1YC)

275 You are in a maze of twisty passages, all different.

Posted by: Duncanthrax at March 24, 2023 05:06 PM (a3Q+t)

276 This was a long, long time ago, in the beforetimes. The earliest editions of Dungeons & Dragons had "hobbits,"
not halflings. The Tolkien estate "persuaded" TSR to change them to halflings in future printings and editions going forward.

The original Deities & Demigods had IP they didn't get permission for as well (Elric's world and Fafhrd & Gray Mouser's world) but the published anyway. They were sued into taking those sections out. There were some really cool monsters in those sections though, and I used them.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 05:06 PM (0hOvj)

277 Chris Makepeace was in it too. Kind of the star.

Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 05:06 PM (iHBZj)

278 If I was going to do a rom com, I would base it on J.D. Robb's futuristic post war New York detective series. There is actually a murder to solve and terrific colorful characters with fascinating back stories. High tech mixed with gritty New York.

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 24, 2023 05:06 PM (Y+l9t)

279 "Fight Club, which was a commie wank-fest."

Did not know that. Can you put me some f'n knowledge?

Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 05:06 PM (MvF+J)

280 271 Posted by: naturalfake at March 24, 2023 05:05 PM (L1tQx)

As seen in "The Man From Uncle" Ritchie is a good semi-woke at worst force in film.

You might try out "The Gentlemen."

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 05:07 PM (Lzpvj)

281 >>>
The original Deities & Demigods had IP they didn't get permission for as well (Elric's world and Fafhrd & Gray Mouser's world) but the published anyway. They were sued into taking those sections out.

that's not accurate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Auk-Sd4ZlI

Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 05:07 PM (iHBZj)

282 "books 4 and 5 of" a trilogy, eh?

you know what's funny though is reading LU&E and not knowing what crikkit is.

Posted by: sockamster, gator at March 24, 2023 05:07 PM (MLrvz)

283 Strength: 3 (muscles); 24 (breath)

Now we know who the Dorcus socker is.

Posted by: Bosk at March 24, 2023 05:07 PM (ZVuYy)

284 > did anyone else grow up around the "Dungeons and Dragons is Satanic!!" era?

I was kind of at the tail end of that. I remember being told that D&D v1 could be scaled up and that weak minded people could take it all too seriously and too far. I also remember being told that some people had in fact taken things too far and done murder.

Posted by: bonhomme at March 24, 2023 05:08 PM (V1QHJ)

285 I had to pay for it. It wasn't free.

Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 04:19 PM (iHBZj)

I nominate this for Least Surprising Comment of 2023

Posted by: ... at March 24, 2023 05:08 PM (BXxcV)

286 205 According to reviews, John Wick 4 is the most John Wick movie ever and is the closest, in a good way, that a movie has ever been to recreating a video game/super-hero feel to it.

Donnie Yen's performance is getting extra special shout outs.
Posted by: Thomas Bender at March 24, 2023 04:56 PM (n/8Ck)


I saw JW Chapter 4 yesterday. I enjoyed it. The action/mayhem is near-continuous from start to finish. I felt exhausted in my comfy chair after a 20 minute running battle with a variety of weapons. The plot continues the main story from the previous movies but adds some clever new twists. Donnie Yen was terrific. I think all fans of the first three JW movies will hugely enjoy this one.

I will give you one small but important revelation: Do not leave when the credits start. Watch to the end of the credits.

Posted by: Gref at March 24, 2023 05:08 PM (AMIL/)

287 How about James Garner in 36 Hours?

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at March 24, 2023 05:08 PM (63Dwl)

288 279 Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 05:06 PM (MvF+J)

Anti-capitalist at a minimum.

Of course given where the author is from should that shock?

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 05:08 PM (Lzpvj)

289 The D&D:HAT clip was painful to watch how a were can transform while clothes just go somewhere and oh yeah the horse is like going "this is perfectly normal."

The trope with lycantopes is their clothes get trashed from the transformation. Unless of course the character, like in Rising of the Shield Hero, has somehow acquired clothes with magical properties.

From a beastiary POV no horse in their right mind is going to let a creature that reeks of being "Predator" casually jump astride them.

Nit picky? Probably so but it was such a bad scene.

Posted by: Anna Puma at March 24, 2023 05:08 PM (Zqiq5)

290 I kinda feel the same about Gently that I do Sherlock Holmes.


All in all, the character is much better than any of the actual stories.

Posted by: garrett at March 24, 2023 05:08 PM (Kn2s+)

291 did anyone else grow up around the "Dungeons and Dragons is Satanic!!" era?

I started playing in 1980 not long after AD&D first came out. Local game shop (Stuff and Nonsense) had a Saturday night training game they'd run and my brother Joel took me there, awakening a hobby that has consumed me ever since.

Yeah I remember all that. I almost was excommunicated from my church by a demented youth pastor for playing RPGs. Seriously, it almost happened because they didn't know the guy was clinically insane and knew nothing about the game.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 05:09 PM (0hOvj)

292 Nobody was kind of fun I thought

great music!

Posted by: BlackOrchid at March 24, 2023 05:09 PM (w0NJk)

293 Ha! ace is a NERD!!!

Posted by: blaster at March 24, 2023 05:09 PM (pwExq)

294 Pine was great in Smokin' Aces.

Posted by: JackStraw at March 24, 2023 05:09 PM (ZLI7S)

295 CRT, shopping for dirt can be interesting.....

Posted by: Sharon(willow's apprentice) at March 24, 2023 05:09 PM (Y+l9t)

296 Thay is a big place, run by a lich. Yes all of the leadership is eeeeeviiiiilllllll. But like any asshole country *not everyone is on board*. So a good Thayan makes *some* sense. Except for Szass Tam (the actual undead leader of Thay) hates the living, and really really hates betrayal. So our plucky Paladin would become Thay's public enemy number 1 for a betrayal that places national interests at risk. So probably a plot point that's realistic but grossly under executed. (Thayan's betraying Thay was a plot point in the Tyranny of the Dragons campaign, but the betrayers were also evil carrying out a different evil plan to get rid of Szass, Szass responded as you think he might.)

Posted by: mikethemoose at March 24, 2023 05:09 PM (AmpGx)

297
did anyone else grow up around the "Dungeons and Dragons is Satanic!!" era?

And Ouija boards?

Posted by: Bertram Cabot, Jr. at March 24, 2023 05:09 PM (63Dwl)

298 I guess I'm not up to speed on recent Thayan history, but that does ring a bell. Szass Tam (an evil lich) turned the country into a Necropolis or something, didn't he? So then yes, a "good" character in modern Thay would be a rarity.

Of course, Ravenloft, where everything is supposedly "evil," has lots of good characters. Most characters don't even realize they are in a gothic horror story and are just average people, with all that entails.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at March 24, 2023 05:04 PM (YIVH2)

The writers for the paladin realized that it didn't make sense for a Good paladin to come from modern Thay so they even wrote him to be over 100 years old, from the pre-civil war era. But this makes the immediate distrust from other characters perfectly rational, if anything it's weird he's identifying himself as Thayan to other people when he knows it'll cause misunderstandings. Normal Thayans outside of Thay would be almost entirely Red Wizards and their minions.

Posted by: Red Turban Someguy - The Republic is already dead! at March 24, 2023 05:09 PM (eYoxG)

299 291

Yeah I remember all that. I almost was excommunicated from my church by a demented youth pastor for playing RPGs. Seriously, it almost happened because they didn't know the guy was clinically insane and knew nothing about the game.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 05:09 PM (0hOvj)

Dost thou shitteth me???

Posted by: tubal at March 24, 2023 05:10 PM (PCK5/)

300 I saw JW Chapter 4 yesterday. I enjoyed it. The action/mayhem is near-continuous from start to finish

///

here's a problem I have, like with Expendables. These non-stop action movies become basically zombie movies. like how many motherfuckers can you kill before the bad guys have the dramatic tension of storm troopers? can't hit shit, die easy, infinite supply.

Posted by: sockamster, gator at March 24, 2023 05:10 PM (MLrvz)

301 Considering half of all marriages end in divorce why hasn't anyone pioneered the "divorce-com"?

Imagine a comedy about a contentious divorce. Not a black comedy like War Of The Roses. Like a real knee slapper.

Surely people reach a point in their lives where they can laugh at such things. "You wouldn't believe the arguments we had over who would get the toaster!"

Posted by: Robert at March 24, 2023 05:10 PM (1Yy3c)

302 The D&D:HAT clip was painful to watch how a were can transform while clothes just go somewhere

Its magic, dude. Its not like this is supposed to be the real world. A druid transforms into an Owlbear, and the thing you're most concerned about is their clothes coming back?

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 05:10 PM (0hOvj)

303 That is spelled Krikkit. As for the English game, not even Deep Thought knows the rules.

Posted by: Anna Puma at March 24, 2023 05:10 PM (Zqiq5)

304 Well, it is obviously not a classic like Run Lola Run.

Posted by: Archer at March 24, 2023 05:11 PM (gmo/4)

305 Hey I said I was being nit picky and I offered an example of how to deal with it.

*shrugs*

Posted by: Anna Puma at March 24, 2023 05:11 PM (Zqiq5)

306 281 Posted by: ace the Muxe Gender at March 24, 2023 05:07 PM (iHBZj)

The main point of contention as I understood it was just the normal "editorial direction" thing more than lawsuits.

https://tinyurl.com/James-Ward-on-DDG

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 05:12 PM (Lzpvj)

307 The original Deities & Demigods had IP they didn't get permission for as well (Elric's world and Fafhrd & Gray Mouser's world) but the published anyway. They were sued into taking those sections out.
---
that's not accurate

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Auk-Sd4ZlI
---
Accurate or not, I have two copies of the original.

---
The trope with lycantopes is their clothes get trashed from the transformation
---
In Spider Robinson's Callahan series, a werebadger empties its bladder on changing from human because...tiny bladder.

Posted by: moviegique at March 24, 2023 05:12 PM (asXVI)

308 288 I know I'll watch it again someday, and I'll keep that in mind, look for it.

Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 05:12 PM (MvF+J)

309 All in all, the character is much better than any of the actual stories.

You are very fat and stupid and persistently wear a ridiculous hat which you should be ashamed of.

Posted by: Stephen Price Blair at March 24, 2023 05:13 PM (EXyHK)

310 >>That is spelled Krikkit. As for the English game, not even Deep Thought knows the rules.

Any game where the term Wicked Googly is used can't be all bad.

Posted by: JackStraw at March 24, 2023 05:13 PM (ZLI7S)

311 Nood.

Posted by: Robert at March 24, 2023 05:13 PM (1Yy3c)

312 Dost thou shitteth me???

No feces.

The church split, because there was a really crazy faction that was terrified we were all going heretical by not opposing some of the dumber denominational stuff HARD ENOUGH, and they all stomped off in a huff to form a new church with crazy youth pastor as the leader. The ones who stayed behind offered to give the new church financial aid and support because hey! New church!

They were roundly rejected because WE ARE ALL HERETICS WHO MUST BURN. Last I heard of the youth pastor, he was hiding in a hole dug in the ground from Y2k and these days the new church has almost none of those really extreme people left in it, and they don't talk about those days or that pastor any more.

But if the split had not happened? I would have been called before the church council to explain my playing a game.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 05:13 PM (0hOvj)

313 > Did not know that. Can you put me some f'n knowledge?

"We are the middle children of history, raised by television to believe that someday we'll be millionaires and movie stars and rock stars, but we won't. And we're just learning this fact. So don't fuck with us. We are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world. We are the ones who have been ignored. But we will not be ignored anymore. We are going to fight our way out of this. We're going to break the chains of modern slavery."

Then as part of their plan to tear down the capitalist system, they destroy several bank buildings as part of their plan to create chaos and rebuild society according to their ideals.

Commie wank fest.

Posted by: bonhomme at March 24, 2023 05:14 PM (V1QHJ)

314 Wow. The Nerdiness... The Nerdiness...

I once was given tickets to the PeeWee's Big Adventure world preview. Never heard of him, and didn't get it for the first 45 minutes or so. Then I realized it was a cartoon and found it very funny.

Posted by: Regular joe at March 24, 2023 05:14 PM (nnp+f)

315 >>You are very fat and stupid and persistently wear a ridiculous hat which you should be ashamed of.


This made me laugh.

Posted by: garrett at March 24, 2023 05:14 PM (Kn2s+)

316 The trope with lycantopes is their clothes get trashed from the transformation

She's not a lycanthrope. She's a druid which can change into different forms of various animal and animal-adjacent monsters magically.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 05:14 PM (0hOvj)

317 Nood, ah said NOOD!!!!!

Posted by: Robert at March 24, 2023 05:14 PM (1Yy3c)

318 Yeah I remember all that. I almost was excommunicated from my church by a demented youth pastor for playing RPGs. Seriously, it almost happened because they didn't know the guy was clinically insane and knew nothing about the game.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor
___

I hate to pile on against my own "tribe", but it was a dumb battle and I think social conservatives lost a lot of credibility in those years basically saying all kinds of silliness was Satanic or of the occult.

It just looks like to me a few religious leaders could have actually looked into it (being how it was such an important issue facing the youth of America) and seen it was basically a board game with some Tolkien fantasy elements and that it was harmless.

Posted by: Blago at March 24, 2023 05:14 PM (VFI3O)

319 The trope with lycantopes is their clothes get trashed from the transformation

Wolfcop captures this best. The scene at the urinal.

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls - an election is simply a festival for the majority at March 24, 2023 05:15 PM (ppBhU)

320 ||why hasn't anyone pioneered the "divorce-com"?

It was a sub-genre in the '70s, for sure. Probably pioneered by the Italians with 1961's "Divorce Italian Style".

The thing is, it's depressing, so divorce-coms usually just end up post-romcoms after the main romcom ends.

Posted by: moviegique at March 24, 2023 05:15 PM (asXVI)

321 I hate to pile on against my own "tribe", but it was a dumb battle and I think social conservatives lost a lot of credibility in those years basically saying all kinds of silliness was Satanic or of the occult.

I agree. I got their fears, but they were based on ignorance and a misunderstanding of what was going on.

Although the satanic cult/daycare thing was probably closer to the truth than not.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 05:16 PM (0hOvj)

322 Classic romcoms.

"It Happened One Night:" well, you have to say you really liked it, or they'll yank your movie-buff-club membership card. OK, but not on my list of rewatches.

"Bringing Up Baby:" you have to be f'n kidding me. Just not funny.

Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 05:16 PM (MvF+J)

323 300 I saw JW Chapter 4 yesterday. I enjoyed it. The action/mayhem is near-continuous from start to finish

///

here's a problem I have, like with Expendables. These non-stop action movies become basically zombie movies. like how many motherfuckers can you kill before the bad guys have the dramatic tension of storm troopers? can't hit shit, die easy, infinite supply.
Posted by: sockamster, gator at March 24, 2023 05:10 PM (MLrvz)


That is a problem. Also, the audience began groaning towards the end of the movie when JW was again hit by cars or fell 15 feet onto a concrete surface but quickly sprung-up and resumed his battle. This is why I've come to consider John to be a super hero. I have been able to suspend most of my disbelief watching the JW movies.

Posted by: Gref at March 24, 2023 05:17 PM (AMIL/)

324 || Commie wank fest.

You could view it as anti-capitalist or you could view it as anti-corporate/anti-consumerism. Anti-system, if you like.

Certainly =today's= communists don't care for it. But nothing is more faddish than revoltuion.

Posted by: moviegique at March 24, 2023 05:17 PM (asXVI)

325 If the 'Thin Man' movies are rom-coms, then yes, they are mostly good.

Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 05:17 PM (MvF+J)

326 In 1970 & 1971 we had Luftwaffe and PanzerBlitz board wargames. Two player operational wargames.


You had D&D? No wonder the culture has gone to pot.

Posted by: Archer at March 24, 2023 05:18 PM (gmo/4)

327 326 Posted by: Archer at March 24, 2023 05:18 PM (gmo/4)

We also had Twilight 2000.....

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 05:18 PM (Lzpvj)

328 "Anti-system, if you like."

That's how I saw it. An anarchistic howl. It didn't feel like they were trying to convince me that that's a good thing or something to emulate.

Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 05:18 PM (MvF+J)

329 You could view it as anti-capitalist or you could view it as anti-corporate/anti-consumerism. Anti-system, if you like.

Yeah that is how I took the film too. I knew they meant it as anti-capitalism but with the corruption of megacorps and the treatment of the little guy, you can read it very different through modern eyes,

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at March 24, 2023 05:20 PM (0hOvj)

330 || That's how I saw it. An anarchistic howl. It didn't feel like they were trying to convince me that that's a good thing or something to emulate.

Yeah, this always cracks me up when people complain about it: At no point, even when Tyler is saying something true (and he says a lot of true things), do I think "Hey, I wanna be like this guy."

The whole thing is literal insanity.

I think for some it's just an easy way to troll others.

Posted by: moviegique at March 24, 2023 05:21 PM (asXVI)

331 If you want balls-out laborite commie propaganda, it's "The Grapes of Wrath," but it's still a great movie, nonetheless.

Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 05:21 PM (MvF+J)

332

Actually, Disney is doing a pretty good job!

And, I would welcome to opportunity to receive the love of Mickey Mouse and Goofy simultaneously.

Posted by: Paul at March 24, 2023 05:22 PM (OVGnc)

333 If you want straight-up bolshevik commie propaganda, old Russian movies like "Strike!" deliver in spades, but they are still excellent movies, and I promise everybody that watching them won't turn you into a commie. Watching "Triumph of the Will" will not turn you into a Nazi either.

Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 05:24 PM (MvF+J)

334 331 Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 05:21 PM (MvF+J)

eh the literary Grapes of Wrath was many things but a love letter to command economies it was not.

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 05:24 PM (Lzpvj)

335 Bonhomme asked, "did anyone else grow up around the "Dungeons and Dragons is Satanic!! era?"

Yes, I remember that D&D stuff being part of the Tipper Gore crusade against "Satanic" music. Us kids, of course, thought that Tipper was a nag and a nutcase. We listed to punk rock, heavy metal, and played D&D into the wee hours of the night.

Strangely enough - cough, cough! - Tipper and her husband became leftists and eventually went another witch hunt, this time against Global Warming.

I've argued that us Gen Xers are best equipped to fully appreciate the evils of Cultural Marxism. On the one hand, we always rebelled against authority, so "family values" were not something we simply took for granted. On the other hand, we got to experience firsthand the consequences of the 1970s divorce culture and licentiousness. Therefore, we grew to appreciate traditional values on their own merits.

Posted by: Bamanarama at March 24, 2023 05:28 PM (uH1aC)

336 " "did anyone else grow up around the "Dungeons and Dragons is Satanic!! era?""

I attended a Pentecostal service back then, just to see an invited presentation on satanic culture. They had a point.

Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 05:31 PM (MvF+J)

337 336 Posted by: Make Mine gp! at March 24, 2023 05:31 PM (MvF+J)

The actual satanists, and yes there were actual satanists where I lived were not playing D ampersand D they were sacrificing goats on Mud Run.

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 05:34 PM (Lzpvj)

338 Posted by: Bamanarama at March 24, 2023 05:28 PM (uH1aC)

100% to poast

The mainstream Tipper tier stuff was like the flat-earth stuff now. Tarring real info as crazy.

I alwqys figured the "G*d hates fags!" guy was a Clinton operation.

Posted by: Thesokorus at March 24, 2023 05:36 PM (1ais2)

339 No Squad Leader love?

Posted by: Thesokorus at March 24, 2023 05:37 PM (1ais2)

340 338 Posted by: Thesokorus at March 24, 2023 05:36 PM (1ais2)

You figured correctly.

Fred Phelps was a democrat.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred_Phelps

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 05:38 PM (Lzpvj)

341 When i go to another universe i don't want to bring baggage from this universe. Also dam it, if you are one aliens and you just happen to speak English, I'll shoot you with a gay zap gun.

Posted by: humphreyrobot at March 24, 2023 05:47 PM (yG575)

342 Maybe you could just by the Rockford Files on DVD ($30) if you want to watch a Jim Rockford character.

BTW, typically Rockford can’t be beat one on one and many times is able to take on two and win because he doesn’t fight fair, but yeah, he’d rather not fight at all.

Posted by: MAGA_Ken at March 24, 2023 05:58 PM (6U3uy)

343 Sounds like this movie has about as much to do with the D&D that I grew up with as Rings of Power had to do with the Lord of the Rings.

Posted by: Oldstoke at March 24, 2023 06:14 PM (z7sfH)

344 Hasbro's new D&D flick? I'll wait for it to be free on YouTube.

Posted by: setnaffa at March 24, 2023 06:55 PM (BdSXF)

345 I haven't posted in years but I can't miss a chance to flex some nerdery on Ace.

The paladin character is a jab at the "DM NPC" who comes in, does everything better than the players, and then just leaves... instead of just finishing the job and solving the players' problem which would be the obvious, logical thing to do since he is way more powerful.

But he can't because...well that would ruin the game.

Posted by: benjamin at March 24, 2023 07:58 PM (MNOnb)

346 So, Admiral Canaris and Rommel are the good guys, redeeming Thay Germans?
Hard Pass on D&D. Done with Marvel and fantasy movies.
Pretty much watching oldies, Bollywood and S Korean at this point.

Posted by: jimmymcnulty at March 24, 2023 09:06 PM (BJgzI)

347 346 Posted by: jimmymcnulty at March 24, 2023 09:06 PM (BJgzI)

https://youtu.be/SgMtaQkXmd8

mandrake the magician (1939)

Posted by: sven at March 24, 2023 10:27 PM (Lzpvj)

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