I’ve got a massive soft spot for Toto. And honestly, Lukather is one of my absolute favorite guitarists, even if he isn't quite hitting that "all-time greatest" tier. I actually caught this interview with him just yesterday:
fadedwalker18 said:The aliens didn't actually want to initiate contact. It was just some billionaire trying to win over Eleanor because someone cooked up a detailed blueprint for traveling through... space (?). He basically needed someone with "faith" to pull off his little scheme.
So, the theory is that this documentation was Allegedly sent by an alien intelligence just to get people to reach out. But that "travel machine" in the movie? That’s pure human ingenuity. Both the concept itself and the actual construction of the machine (via wormhole)...
I haven't seen the movie in a while—so I might be fuzzy on the details regarding your reply—but the point is they're looking for contact with aliens without any actual help from them.
The aliens sent the instructions for building the machine using the "universal language" of mathematics. The guy played by James Woods is the one standing before the commission claiming the whole thing was just some elaborate prank by the billionaire Hadden. But at the very end, during the video call, Angela Bassett points out a weird detail: they recorded 18 or 19 hours of "data," even though the whole thing seemed to last maybe 20 minutes.
I don't know what the book is like, but the movie sneaks theism in through the back door. That part where the alien appears looking like Ellijin's father is handled beautifully, but then they totally mess it up once he claims they didn't build the machine, that they have no idea who did, and that they just establish contact every few thousand years. I mean, there's zero reason for him not to answer her questions; instead, he just coddles her like a toddler, telling her she'll learn more when she grows up. I can't tell if this is just classic Hollywood nonsense or if the book does the same thing.
You also have to consider that the film was directed by a "liberal conservative" like Robert Zemeckis, who previously directed the "America fuck yeah" caricature Forrest Gump, much like how the Back to the Future trilogy felt like a celebration of Reaganism and the "American Century." Contact isn't even that; it's more like aimless agnosticism. The idea that Ellie wouldn't get the position of humanity's ambassador just because she isn't a believer feels so stupid. If all this is actually how it plays out in Sagan's book, then you can't blame a mediocre Hollywood adaptation.
Maybe it’s not one of the absolute worst, but it’s definitely the dumbest. It feels like someone sat down to brainstorm this while binge-watching Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, using a Shredder module as their big inspiration. Like they took some fictional "unobtainium" from a sci-fi flick and used it to let them dive into depths where the heat and pressure should realistically crush them instantly. They’ve even got an external camera that somehow survives the abyss, plus full-on EVA suits. Honestly, I wouldn't complain if this was some low-budget B-movie from the 1950s, but trying to pass this off as serious cinema in the 21st century? That's just pathetic.
The movie is alright, I guess, but what’s the deal with this Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart guy acting like a total bratty child throughout the whole thing? What does he actually have to do with the real person? When this came out, some big-shot music historian trashed it publicly, calling it complete garbage. Honestly, if you look at his private letters, there isn't a single shred of evidence that he was anything like the caricature Milton Forman cooked up. He definitely went way overboard with those "artistic liberties."
Look, I know the hardcore fans drag this one through the mud as one of the worst entries in the franchise, but personally? It’s my favorite. A total guilty pleasure. This time around, we get our very own male screaming queen. Since Krueger takes control of a body to enter the real world, things get weird. That scene where he crashes the party like some uninvited guest totally flies in the face of how Wes Craven originally envisioned the character. After a brief, intimate moment with Lisa, Jesse—our resident scream king—bolts to his buddy Ron's room. Honestly, the whole movie is practically dripping with homoerotic subtext. 🤣
I think there was even a documentary released about a year ago looking at that specific installment and the supposed homophobia that supposedly tanked the lead actor's career. He’s actually gay. In the doc, you see him finally making peace with the director.
slyfox43 said:It’s a conflict where Russia is watching thousands of pieces of barely modernized hardware vanish, struggling to find the foreign components necessary to patch up whatever aging stock they have left, and bleeding out as they try to prop up a currency just enough to save face domestically—even though it’s effectively useless. Factories are shuttering and foreign investment is fleeing, all while a third of their GDP rests entirely on the sale of those very resources they are losing control over.
In short: it is exactly the kind of war you are pretending this isn't.
A "free thinker" fueled by nothing but Russian pixie dust... clearly.
Russia is actually one of those rare countries that exports more than it imports, and this whole mantra about them being solely dependent on raw material exports is honestly a joke. Sure, sanctions hit them. They made it hard to get the tech components needed for their industry, but nothing that would actually shake them to the core. Americans have kept Cuba under an economic blockade for sixty years, and you don't see people starving there, do you? Cubans even managed to develop their own vaccine while the European Union couldn't even figure out how to make masks. As for factories closing—where exactly do you live that makes you think what's happening in the EU is some distant reality? Factories are shuttering in Germany right now; workers are getting laid off or sent back to "short-time" work like during the pandemic (which, by the way, hasn't really ended). But this time, it's not because of a virus. Like I said, Russians are used to sanctions; they play the long game. They aren't living hand-to-mouth like we are, where our biggest tragedy yesterday was an Amazon package arriving late.
We're living in a version of the EU where the German Chancellor is openly calling for everyone to "freeze ourselves in protest against Putin." Newsflash: he and the rest of these sanction-obsessed elites aren't actually going to freeze or shop in half-empty grocery stores. It’s not just gas and oil we’re talking about; it’s grain and fertilizer that the EU mostly imported from Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. This level of shortsightedness from Western political elites is just unprecedented.
wiredseal7 said:I won't call this specific case a robbery, but in other instances, it definitely is—freezing central bank reserves just to tank the Ruble is straight-up theft from the Russian people.
As for the UK being late to the party regarding Mexico, it’s either a) pure selectivity, since they don't touch anyone who supports the "regime," or b) they're just looking to protect their own cash.
Sanctions carry the weight of law and involve institutional consequences.
Not that it's any of your business.
Sure, they have the weight of law, but they're the opposite of law—laws are supposed to be general rules for everyone, not a list of specific names and surnames.
The names on that list weren't picked by a judge; they were picked by some government bureaucrat playing politics. It’s an indictment and a sentence without a courtroom.
Compare that to freezing assets due to criminal activity in a court of law—that isn't meant to be political, at least it shouldn't be, since it's actually based on evidence.
A $300 billion heist? That’s unheard of. I mean, the Americans actually paid out the reserves of Nazi Germany. First, they went after the Iranians, though they ended up returning their money back in 2012. Then there was the whole mess with Venezuelan gold being snatched from the Federal Reserve, naturally on orders from Washington. Now, look at the Afghan reserves—money that’s desperately needed just to stop one of the worst humanitarian disasters happening right now. But none of that compares to what they did to the Russians. All those shady moves are already starting to boomerang. The European Union can't function without Russian gas, and it finally happened: it’s time to pay up in rubles or start shivering by your own fireplace, folks. The EU is hitting closed doors everywhere. They got brushed off by Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, and the Americans shut down Venezuela. Europe doesn't need Russia because they have plenty of buyers in East and South Asia. But the EU? Without Russian gas and raw materials, they’re economically dead in the water. If de Gaulle and Willy Brandt crawled out of their graves and saw the idiots running the EU today, they’d go right back under.
Meanwhile, the Western media is still busy celebrating, predicting the total collapse of the Russian economy and their military campaign in Ukraine—which is supposedly just a matter of days away. They keep publishing these heroic fairy tales about Ukrainian supermen smashing through 1,000 Russians every single day. We'll see how much of that holds up next winter. And here’s the kicker: despite everything, Russia is still pumping gas into the EU and through Ukraine without interruption. What kind of war is this, where you keep supplying your enemy with the very resources they use to resist you? 😁
While the Americans are busy looting other nations—because, as you put it, this isn't just an attack on Putin or his inner circle, but on the Russian people themselves—the Russians are still honoring every single contract, delivering exactly what was agreed upon and paid for. In the world of diplomacy, you can't get anywhere without negotiations and deals. But personally? After seeing this, I wouldn't shake hands with an American president again, even if Kennedy himself rose from the grave.
Honestly, I’d rather sit through a longplay of old games on YouTube than watch any of these movies. You can absolutely translate a game's story and atmosphere into a movie or a limited series format, but instead, they opted for mindless shooting sprees—you know, those Milla Jovovich flicks—and we ended up with this mess.
There might actually be a reason why the movie looks so cheap and amateurish. It turns out the production house is the same one behind the Milla Jovovich movies: Constantin Film. My theory? Production companies occasionally churn out a movie "on the fly" just to keep their rights from expiring. The last Resident Evil film came out back in 2016, so it's totally possible they rushed this one out just to secure the rights for a better reboot. If that’s the case, maybe the production quality will improve next time, but I highly doubt we'll get actual storytelling, decent acting, or atmosphere. We'll probably just get more senseless gunfights.
I read somewhere that Capcom regrets selling the rights to Constantin Film, which goes all the way back to 1998.
Romero put together the trailer for RE2. Brad Renfro is playing Leon, who was actually a pretty big deal in those 90s flicks.
Honestly? This looks like total garbage already. I’ve never even heard of this director before, and from what I can see, his whole vibe is just straight-up trash cinema. To top it off, the lead actors feel like washed-up nobodies who don't even come close to looking like the characters from the game.
Stompato was definitely a thing, and he was totally seeing Ian Turner.
Yeah, and Lanina's kid actually ended up killing him.
Anyway, I read The Quartet in order, and honestly, after finishing Big Nowhere, a bunch of the characters and setups in L.A. Confidential felt... well, kind of stale. Like leftovers. For instance, Jack Vincennes is basically just a watered-down version of Danny Upshaw from BN—that closeted deputy who is hands down my favorite Ellroy character ever. Remember what he said before heading out on that undercover op? "A blunt instrument to smash my nightmares." And that's exactly how he got taken out 😢
on point, 👍 credit to the screenwriters for pulling a genuine masterpiece out of all that chaos for the movie.
The Big Nowhere is easily the best and darkest one in the quartet. Danny Upshaw might be the most likable character in Ellroy's novels because there's no clear line between good and evil with him. Everyone is rotten, and Upshaw probably comes closest to any idea of a "good guy." I’d agree with the remark that everything following it felt like "reheated food." The main players in L.A. Confidential often remind you of those in The Big Nowhere. Edmund Exley is just a more ruthless opportunist than Bud Considine, while Jack Vincennes leans closer to Buzz Meeks. You don't see anyone like Upshaw again in the series. Actually, Ellroy likely pulled that whole vibe from William Friedkin's film Cruising.
The L.A. Confidential book goes one step further with all that depravity in and around Hollywood, ranging from hardcore porn to incest and murder. It feels like Ellroy was trying to outdo himself by showing the shocking reality behind that supposedly "respectable" 1950s facade. Even with the more complex plot, I personally think L.A. Confidential lacks the psychological depth of the previous novel.
The movie is great, but it's a drastically slimmed-down, family-friendly version of the book. Even back then, Ellroy's novels were a nightmare to adapt, let alone today with all this cancel culture hysteria. I can't imagine anyone daring to translate those dialogues filled with racist, sexist, and homophobic slurs nowadays.
Watched it last year. Honestly? A total disaster. It takes a character like Hannibal Lecter—someone enigmatic, charming, and always three steps ahead—and turns him into just another mediocre, run-of-the-mill psychopath. To make matters worse, the guy who wrote the script is the same one who penned the books. 🤦
The book is clearly in a different league, but it’s still not my absolute favorite in the Los Angeles quartet. That title belongs to The Big Nowhere.
L.A. Confidential is a bit of a tangled mess, honestly. It’s a lot to track, especially since the story spans about nine years. The movie only touches on one tiny slice of the plot, and frankly, it doesn't do it justice. Still, it's worth a watch, even if—aside from maybe Cromwell—none of the actors really managed to capture the soul of the characters from the book.
Here we go again with the constant Lynch talk... 🙄
Dennis Martin6 already brought up that brilliant Chilean director Raoul Ruiz and his flick City of Pirates. I mean, Alejandro Jodorowsky should be common knowledge by now, and don't even get me started on Luis Bunuel.
Now, they might not be pure surrealism, but the films by American director Andrzej Zulawski definitely have that surrealist edge. Take Possession or The Devil, for instance. I’d probably slot them more into the horror category, but back in the day, Americans used to weave in those surreal elements all the time, much like the Czechs did. Personally, one of my favorite surrealist pieces from that era has to be The Hourglass Sanatorium by Wojciech Has.
Svankmajer was already mentioned. The guy is an undisputed master of his craft.
As for the animated film Fantastic Planet, it isn't strictly surrealism, but you really should see it. I’d say Chronopolis by Piotr Kamler fits the surrealist label better, but hey, people will argue about that until they're blue in the face.
I first caught Eraserhead in a theater about 15 years ago. When I finally sat down to watch it again on TV, I have to admit, it just felt... hollow. Uninteresting. Honestly, if I ever give it another spin, I think it might actually come off as a comedy. Look, it’s a solid movie, don't get me wrong, but calling it a masterpiece? That feels like a bit of a stretch.
Samuel Scott54 said:I guess his films from the 50s, 60s, and even his 70s aren't quite my favorites, even if those are definitely his most famous works.
I can get behind that. It feels wrong how people gloss over his work from when he was living in exile in Mexico. Honestly, though, he put out a few things during that stretch that just don't fit his usual vibe—looking at his whole body of work, I mean. He did Forgotten (Los Olvidados) and Angel of Destruction, which, personally, I’d put right up there with his absolute best. At the end of the day, you have to admit: compared to the other heavy hitters, the quality of his films stayed top-tier right until his very last one.