Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Iduno]

It's been 10 years since Inception, so it's time to recognize that it was better the first time, when it was called Beautiful Dreamer.

[Il Palazzo]

I watched First Reformed, and I'm not sure I understood what it was trying to do. Admittedly, the watching was done under the influence, and without paying as much attention as it probably deserved. I think it was pulling off a more down-to-earth Last Night? That the essential human experience is to find solace in each other's arms even though the world is going to shit.
I don't know. Any thoughts?

I'm glad it ended where it did - as we get a bit of both, and the satisfaction of his vindication.

Yeah, same here. I think I'd admire it a bit more if it were just about the mental illness. But I'm pretty sure I'd then never want to rewatch it again. Something for the mind, something for the heart - seems like a good recipe.

[delphonso]

I shared some 2011 movies with my wife.

Bridesmaids holds up, if you haven't watched it since then.

50/50 I think didn't get enough attention - it's a good balance between light-heartedness and emotional drama.

[Reelya]

Paul Feig can die in a fire however.

[delphonso]

Why's that?

[scriver]

Who's that?

[George_Chickens]

What's that?

[King Zultan]

Where's that?

[Yoink]

How's that?   

[Yoink]

So, what's the general consensus on Ready Player One, here?   
It got added to Netflix lately and for some reason my brain pinged it as controversial. I'm sure I've heard some rather strong opinions of it, probably negative ones, but I can only find like one actual instance of that (in this very thread, actually). Obviously it seems pretty ridiculous from the standpoint of a modern nerd, but from what little I've watched so far it seems entertaining enough.   
Just ride the wave of rule-of-cool and pretend it all makes sense.   
The architecture is maybe a bit of a stretch, but y'know, it's only there as a backdrop to remind you how much the future sucks.   


The guy

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

blowing his family's house fund on expensive buffs for the game is pretty brilliant. If it was loot boxes he was addicted to it'd really hit close to home.   

Also, "you couldn't beat them in a bootsuit, you noob." *SMACK* was hilarious.   

   

[Reelya]

I think the general dislike is related to the source material. The idea then got adapted by a big name producer, but he most likely left out literally huge chunks of absolute crap. Like, the author has the character's internal voice talking for pages and pages about how much he knows about 80s TV shows and stuff. Really, the main character is compete mary sue author's self insert who's a huge 80s TV nerd and in the book, it's in the future where suddenly being an 80s TV nerd is the key to becoming the most powerful man on Earth or some shit. Specifically it's a story about the author Ernest Cline becoming the most powerful man on Earth because knowing the specific trivia known by Ernest Cline has against all reason become the most valuable thing on Earth. It's not really a love letter to those geeky things, it's a power fantasy about a very specific trivia nerd becoming godlike because suddenly everyone values the exact specific trivia he's into.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9969571-ready-player-one

I should preface the rest of this review by stating that I am, and have always been, a geek at heart. I am as much a byproduct of the 1980s as anyone. I've been a lifelong gamer, a pop culture obsessive, and I once thought I'd married, for real, Princess Peach.

Ready Player One has been hailed by its author, Ernest Cline, as a love letter to anyone who "grew up geek," a sentiment that has been confirmed by every review, in every publication, all over the world. And yet, the Ready Player One that I read was less a love letter to geeks than it was a pat on the back to an 18-year-old Cline, a Stephanie-Meyer-eclipsing Mary Sue that attempts to justify the behavior of an overweight, socially awkward, virginal nerd.

I'm not being mean. It's literally what it is.

One term has appeared more than once in different reviews of the book I've read, and that's "name dropping". It's not so much references he just literally spends page after page listing shit and you're meant to go "omg i've heard of that shit".
https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/14863741-ready-player-one?page=9

“I watched every episode of The Greatest American Hero, Airwolf, The A-Team, Knight Rider, Misfits of Science, and The Muppet Show.”

Is literally a quote from this piece of shit book, and it's apparently embedded in an author's voice monologue that goes on for like 6 pages just listing shit he knows about. Mentioning the name of things isn't really a "reference". He just spends page after page listing titles of things to show he knows more about them than you do; that's not paying respect to any of those individual series.

I have no time for this series, couldn't be bothered with it.

“The collected knowledge, art, and amusements of all human civilization were there, waiting for me. But gaining access to all of that information turned out to be something of a mixed blessing. Because that was when I found out the truth.”

Oh right, but he spends all his time watching The A Team, and the engineer of modern society was also somehow obsessed with shit like The A Team too.

[George_Chickens]

The book is terrible. The film is terribly boring. If I were you, I wouldn't waste my time. It's not a "so bad it's good" deal, if that's what you are looking for.

[scriver]

I wouldn't say it was that boring. It's dumbish, but I think I enjoyed it alright while I saw it. It's just not a memorable movie in any way.

[delphonso]

The tone of "do you remember this?" without commentary or examination was exhausting to me. Worse, the villain of the film is doing that (the scene with the nerds feeding trivia to the big bad through an ear piece). This sadly perfectly sums up the movie and is ignorant of the self-commentary.

Other than that, the basic premise is dumb. He gets the first key by driving backwards on a race track - something no one has done is seemingly years? Come on. Play any racing game and you'll do that out of boredom soon enough.

Visually, if you like CGI, it's an adventure, and that shouldn't be ignored. This movie made bank in China for that reason alone. I didn't see it in cinemas but I can understand being impressed, and why tweens seemed to like it.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Besides, there is a much better, similar, book written in 2007 called Epic which is RP1 but much better (though you could argue its more similar to SA:O)