dr duca said:The only issue with Dustin Hoffman is that he plays this little high-strung guy in pretty much everything else. And honestly, those characters all bleed together. It’s like he’s playing that same one specific lawyer from some obscure jury trial in every single movie. I'm just not a fan of Dustin. He doesn't really seem to have that transformative range...
What was that saying again—one man's trash is another man's treasure?
Personally, I actually find that exact brand of twitchy, nervous energy that Dustin brings to his roles to be his best quality, and it's really what makes his characters work for me.
An accident is only an accident when you’re looking back at it from the future; when you’re actually in the middle of it, you don't stop to think about whether you're living through some peak era of perfection... I can't recall anyone ever standing up and shouting, "Oh my god, look at us, we are living in the absolute golden age of existence! This is insane!"
It’s more like how people used to talk about things—you know, like how they'd reminisce about Woodstock and go, "Man, that was such a wild time... those were the days..."😁
If you’re ever stuck choosing between a terrible book and a terrible movie, just take the film—it’s shorter, which is really the only silver lining when everything else is going downhill.
I find this whole thing hilarious—you all sound like total old fogies... Man, kids today, right?!! The way they get judged for everything they listen to in the IIIIIII era... Every ten or twenty years, some group of people starts acting shocked by whatever the "youth of today" chooses to blast through their headphones.
Look, I am nowhere near (and I mean veeeeery far from) being a fan of country music (ugh, please), but doesn't it seem perfectly logical that teenagers are naturally drawn to the exact stuff their parents find revolting? I can easily picture some 14-year-old kid whose dad used to go hard on the New Wave scene back in the 80s—maybe he was even deployed in the Gulf War—just absolutely losing his mind because his parents are blasting cheesy country hits in the living room, driving the whole house crazy.
It actually reminds me of a friend's daughter—her parents are total traditionalists, always in suits and ties, very buttoned-up. She’s an incredibly bright, sweet girl, but she’s out there rocking this... well, let's just call it a "rebellious, edgy" style, if you catch my drift... And sure, maybe the older generation is being difficult, but isn't that exactly the point?
Larry Cruz51 said:I don't know, I sort of perceive Mel the same way I’d perceive a sea cucumber. Or maybe a clam. Is he an actor? Or a director? Something like that.
What could possibly be wrong with clams—especially when they're prepared in a garlic white wine sauce!? Then you just take some crusty sourdough, soak it up in that broth, and lick your fingers clean...
I actually thought Mel was pretty likable until I caught him speaking in that intensely conservative, ultra-religious tone... honestly, it gave me the chills.
It feels like this one young actor is suddenly everywhere you look... He’s doing less work on The Lord of the Rings and Pirates of the Caribbean lately, and instead, he seems focused on Troy. What’s the consensus here? Is it actually the same level of talent, or is it just all flash and no substance?
I mean, sure, romance is totally played out at this point... what are they actually going to give us? If there’s any shred of romance left, it better be wrapped up in some cynical, ironic package just so we don't end up with that nauseatingly sweet aftertaste in our mouths. Because let's face it, we all prefer a little bitterness anyway. The real question is whether the gore is still fresh. As long as the brains and guts are splattering across the big screen, we aren't left with any lingering sweetness to deal with.
Christina Ricci is a pretty big name around here—she really hit the mainstream thanks to her role in the Addams Family Wait, didn't she play a lesbian in Monster recently? I can't for the life of me remember the name of her co-star (though everyone knows she gained about 65 pounds for the part before dropping it all off later), but did she snag an Oscar for it? Sometimes I get this nagging feeling, even though I haven't actually sat down to watch the movie, that she might have been nominated just because of that whole transformation from beauty to beast and back again.
Rebecca Taylor57 said:I think you’re talking about that book "Battle of Gettysburg," the one by Mark Twain... it was the sequel to "The early bird catches the worm"... man, I remember that being required reading back in grade school... honestly, those were such wonderful kids' books.
I actually put in a little effort to dig through my memory (and squint at a dusty old cover) to find the title: "My Golden Valley" by Gold Kolaric-Kisur. There's also "Golden Danishes" by Jagoda Truhelka.🙂
Adam Wright56 said:Yeah, well... that sketch with Robin Williams. 🙏
I can't quite wrap my head around it at this exact moment, but did Robin ever actually host the Oscars??
Those two🙏 🙏 wouldn't have dared to pull something like that on Williams—he’s just too wild and unpredictable for those kinds of high-stakes ceremonies. Billy knows where the line is, whereas Williams tends to get caught up in the momentum and might end up taking a cheap shot at the old guard sitting in the front row. By the way, one of my favorite things back in the day was watching him and Billy alongside Whoopi—the three of them spent years hosting Comic Relief for the homeless🙏 🙏 🙏 (which was how they raised all that money for them)
I can’t stop thinking about that one scene where you see a Mexican sitting there in the dark, hunched over his laptop inside some old stone house, scrolling through Index and just muttering "I'm dreaming"...
A killer live band can absolutely work wonders, though honestly, a great DJ can pull off some pretty magic too. I remember going to this big outdoor wedding bash last summer where the band was just straight-up abysmal—even though they came highly recommended by everyone—and you could practically feel the mood tanking as the night went on; it totally killed the vibe. Then there was my cousin’s wedding, where the guy they hired to DJ was clearly just some kid who had no clue what he was doing; the actual pro who was supposed to handle the set ended up in the hospital, so we were stuck with a disaster instead. At the end of the day, the most important thing is that you actually hear them perform beforehand if you can, whether it's a band or a DJ, so you know exactly what kind of set you're getting. You really want to avoid those awkward surprises, like at my cousin's place, where the guy started blasting rap music when nobody asked for it, which basically cleared the dance floor instantly and he just refused to change his tune.
Look, I’m not trying to go to bat for Austin Chavez76 here, but I really have to point out that the way things operate in the US is fundamentally different from how they work back home. The prenatal booklets you get here don't look anything like the ones we had, and it's entirely plausible that they actually list how certain STIs can increase the risk of miscarriage. Doctors here seem to have an antibiotic for absolutely everything under the sun, and there’s just no universe where a GP is going to sit you down and suggest something as simple as rinsing with chamomile or eating more yogurt to help your situation. Personally, if I were dealing with a UTI, I’d much rather lean on cranberry tea than jump straight to antibiotics, but unlike my experiences with doctors back home, not a single primary care physician in this country would even dream of suggesting that as a viable option. It’s all just based on my own run-ins with the medical system here.