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[MrRoboto75]

So, what's the general consensus on Ready Player One, here?   

Its basically that gif of captain america going "I understood that reference!"

[Reelya]

I actually might read the book one day just to better critique the thing.

I have a suspicion that the references are less "show X from the 80s was really cool" and more "i know all the production details from show X from the 80s, and thus I am cool for knowing it".

I mean, he's big-noting himself because he saw every last episode of specific shows which are, objectively, complete shit. He's not claiming the show is good, he's claiming kudos for having sat through a boxed set of the load of crap.

I'd be more impressed if someone managed to sit through every episode of Murder She Wrote, rather than The A Team, to be honest. That would be more of a marathon at the very least. But that show's not on the list for Ready Player One, because it's specifically a list of what 12 year boys olds liked circa 1983. It's specifically just shows that he liked, and many critiques have pointed out the vast amount of less well known 80s series that never warrant mention in Ready Player One basically because they didn't air on TV when and where Ernest Cline grew up. So any geeky British series that aired in the 80s basically aren't on the big list of 80s trivia that's popular in the year 2044 or whenever this thing is set, basically because Cline never saw them. So you're not going to get cool 2000AD references or anything in Ready Player One, because British underground sci-fi comics just aren't/weren't on his radar: everyone in the future is obsessed with low budget prime time American network TV from the mid 1980s that were aimed at 12 year old boys.

[Yoink]

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.

Yeah, exactly. Of course, I haven't watched the whole thing yet and it could absolutely stretch my suspension of disbelief (or my patience) too far by the end, but like I said before it's entertaining enough if you just switch off your mind as you watch.   
Obviously quite a lot of it is goofy as all hell if you think about it even for a second and some of the characters are absolute twerps, but come on, the basic premise is kind of exciting. Who wouldn't get hyped for an improbable, all-consuming, ultra-immersive, permadeath MMO with seemingly endless customisation and the world's entire populace wired in even as the world around them gives its last gasp? Obviously you don't want to dwell on the particulars, but as an idle daydream fit for the "games you wish existed" thread it is quite entertaining.   


That book does sound absolutely undoubtedly freakin' terrible, though. Reminds me of when I watched and enjoyed the first Hunger Games movie, then went and read the piss-poor novel it was based on. I mean, it's probably not nearly on the same level as Ready Player One, but I kinda hated it.   
I feel like I had a further point to try and make here, but I seem to have forgotten it. I'm pretty sleep-deprived right now, gimme a break.   
Perhaps that same sleep-deprivation has made me more susceptible to enjoying dumb movies? Possibly. I'd still gouge my eyes out rather than watch that Extraction thing that came out recently, so my value judgements are still at least somewhat intact.   

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)

I don't know what either of those acronyms mean. I suppose I could look for books titled Epic from 2007 and hope there's only one, but what is RP1 anyway? And SA:O? I'm assuming you don't mean the sacred Biscuit of Sao. ...Sword Art Online? That's literally the only title that springs to mind with those initials. Not sure how relevant it is, though.   

[Reelya]

I think RP1 just means Ready Player One.

SAO is Sword Art Online, a japanese novel series about being stuck in an MMO. To give an idea of the type of series Sword Art Online is, on the largest anime tracker site, the cartoon adaptation is rated #3 for the most watched series but only #2283 in terms of actual user ratings: so almost everyone has watched it but people who have watched it agree that 2000+ other anime series are better: you could call it Pleb Art Online and people would know what you're talking about. (in the top 20 most-watched anime series it's clearly the lowest rated show, until you get to #20, which has worse ratings still. Except that just happens to be Sword Art Online 2).

Luckily, an American lot bought the rights and plans to make a live action TV series: they don't care that it's complete drivel as long as people tune in to see what they do with the trainwreck.

[Yoink]

Oof. I really am half-asleep, missing that first one.   

By "japanese novel series", is it inspired by stuff like Phantasy Star Online and packed with manga/anime storytelling sensibilities, or is it more like the surreal, indefinable goodness written by badasses like Haruki Murakami whom I generally associate with Japanese fiction?   
I feel like I've never paid attention to Sword Art Online because I saw (not watched, saw, on Netflix or whatever) the anime long before I'd heard of the novels.   

[Reelya]

I wouldn't specifically recommend either version of SAO. SAO really kicked off a deluge of crappy clones too, most of the genre known as isekai. A lot of them aren't even worth checking out as much as SAO however, but a few a far better.

Really, this stuff is exactly the Japanese equivalent of Ready Player One type material. These isekai ones are usually about some nerd otaku guy who gets transported to a fantasy world which usually works similar to MMO logic, or is an actually VR MMO, and their nerd knowledge makes them overpowered heroes with women flocking to them.

[IronyOwl]

so almost everyone has watched it but people who have watched it agree that 2000+ other anime series are better: you could call it Pleb Art Online and people would know what you're talking about.

This phrasing makes me giggle.

Really, this stuff is exactly the Japanese equivalent of Ready Player One type material. These isekai ones are usually about some nerd otaku guy who gets transported to a fantasy world which usually works similar to MMO logic, or is an actually VR MMO, and their nerd knowledge makes them overpowered heroes with women flocking to them.

In my very limited experience, isekai protagonists are usually overpowered because they have some kind of magical superpower rather than unique knowledge. Even in SAO (the anime) the dude is overpowered because he's good at MMOs in general rather than possessing super specific nerd knowledge, and his superpower is a combination of weird fiat and reaction time.

[Reelya]

The point was that it's often specific knowledge that the target audience can be expected to have. The SAO guy is an MMO nerd, becomes MMO legend in an MMO world. No Game No Life, the guy is a game wiz, goes to a world where all politics is games, becomes an emperor. Generally, the number of those series where the hero is an otaku and his specific otakuness is relevant is astronomical, and can be passed of as them being "genre savvy" as if it's good writing/subversive. Well it's been done so many times now that it's definitely not subversive.
 
Whether or not they get a magical always-win button at the start is rather incidental, and is in fact just a shortcut because then you don't have to come up with any actual ideas.

[Egan_BW]

(Hold on, why have I not PTW this thread already)

[IronyOwl]

(Hold on, why have I not PTW this thread already)

You hate hearing me talk about terrible movies.

SPEAKING OF

The Stuff (1985) is one of those vaunted horror movies listed as comedy (on the site I watched it, at least) probably against the intentions of its creators. It's one of those low power pod people type deals, where mostly normal people run around doing mostly normal things trying to uncover a world-threatening conspiracy powered by mostly normal alien puppets. Only this time the puppeteers are ice cream, and the hero is a sleazebag corporate saboteur hired by rival candy companies to uncover the secrets of their competitor's amazing ice cream product. Pretty genre standard otherwise.

[Egan_BW]

You can't tell me what I do or don't like, moth!

[Jopax]

Got around to seeing a movie, can't remember the last time I actually sat down and watched one like this. For some reason I decided to watch Overlord, not sure why I remembered it was a thing. Pretty enjoyable tbh, you could've easily called it Wolfenstein and it would easily be the best videogame movie to date. It's not the best movie ever but it knows what it is and it does that pretty competently.

Definite recommendation if you like quality schlock.

[Iduno]

I found the trailer!

[Yoink]

Was re-watching The Nice Guys last night, with my mother, since it's been probably a year or two since we watched it and I guess it's just easier to pick something you know is entertaining rather than taking a gamble and trying to find something new on Netflix.   

I really, really like this movie. I think the first time I saw it I got kinda hung up on a couple of the later action scenes, plus I read a whole heap of negativity about it online which I think may have got to me, and on top of that my mother was of the opinion that it wasn't very believable as being set in the '70s (though it's more likely she just didn't notice how weird it was that everyone was wearing flares and using pay phones, haha), but me, myself, I love this damn movie.   

The earlier fight scenes are fantastic, the interplay between the three main characters is brilliant, and it kinda feels to me like some tabletop RPG turned into a movie, with the disparate bunch of characters thrown reluctantly together for different reasons and gradually finding a common cause and friendship amongst all the violence and hijinks. Also, one of them in particular tends to roll a lot of crit fails, hahaha...   

Pretty sure one of the goofy action scenes is still to come, but I watched one of them last night and found it a lot more tolerable than I did the first time. Entertaining, even! Of course, the earlier ones were still great and I think I realised that more than I did the first time around. Possibly because just the other night we were watching something with the kind of cringily over-the-top fight scenes that they try so hard to make exciting but it just makes me groan and roll my eyes.   
This has some truly great ones, understated but brutal. Almost as good (without being quite so horrific) as that one movie I remember seeing but have never managed to find again where the guy turns on a stove burner underneath his oversized opponent to give himself an edge.   

This one, the fight scenes are pretty gnarly but not quite so likely to give you nightmares, haha.   
I think I love this movie.    

[delphonso]

Anybody have recommendations on comedies adjacent to Baby Mama? It's not my normal cup of tea and is a bit low brow for Tina Fey's usual stuff, but my wife loved it.

I found the trailer!

Very hyped for this.