Movies (recently seen)

[Dragavan]

All you missed was the confusing flash forward (which you didn't know was a flash forward yet) that paid off when you saw the same scene set up later in the movie... It then jumped right into the crazy confusing dream, so you pretty much got the same experience that we all got on that part... Loved the movie.

[Usoki]

I do have a soft spot for games where you can see the enemies. When I'm focused in on the dungeon, I tend to run from anything that takes more than two rounds to beat. Especially if the encounter rate is ridiculous. I'm playing through Breath of Fire II, and certain dungeons are driving me insane.

Well, Ryan, you might actually like Earthbound, if you're more patient and methodical than I. My biggest complaint is the menu system. It's a talk/look/use system with a ton of quirks. You talk to phones, but use ATMs. Key items can't be dropped, even if they're one time use, so you have to pay to store them. The game does a poor job of telling you where to go, and the item system is downright terrible. Overall, there's a lot of redundancy with no present storyline to save it. There's the big "go fetch these" quest, with smaller "here's my trouble" quests in between... with no real bridge. You just do the small stuff until the big picture magically falls into place.

How have you never played "Link to the Past"? It's arguably the best Zelda game out there. I... seriously, finish Chrono Trigger and play THAT next.

Inception Minor Spoiler Risk:
Honestly, missing that first four minutes didn't confuse you much- the movie just starts with a crazy-ass 'dream', for a few moments, but then shifts into a different crazy-ass dream. There was no need to start the movie with that limbo scene, although it did allow for the second scene to be carried- they didn't have to show him rescuing him. Still, I don't often see movies, and I was really surprised by how much I enjoyed this one. I was expecting multiple, subtly related heists, not one big, complicated one... but, ehh, it was rather amusing. I enjoyed it, and I might even want to watch it again some day. I've also decided that the top falls at the end of the movie- it's far too depressing otherwise.

[Ryan_DuBois]

I played a little bit of "Earthbound", and it seemed okay, but the biggest draw for me in turn-based RPGs is the storyline, followed by the characters. If you say "Earthbound" doesn't excel in those areas, then I'll probably just take your word for it, and skip it.

I actually agree with a lot of what Dragavan was saying about turn-based video games -- the fights are generally boring and repetitive as hell. Sometimes they can be fun when you get new weapons to try out on your party, but that's only like 1 - 2% of your battles.

Apart from just having a good story, Final Fantasy usually has great graphics and music (even though these two things are usually irrelevent to me in video games, I think they're almost integral to turn-based RPGs), that probably helps with all the sweet nostalgia I get from it.

For "Zelda"... I've already got it planned as my next game, and I goofed off in the beginning of it already. It seems a little odd, but oh well. I'll post about it when I'm done.

Hopefully it will be on to StarCraft 2 in like a month a so.

(And I hope your still playing, Chubby, because [oddly enough] I'm looking forward to a serious challenege on PvP. The way all my friends are talking, this game is better than Heaven.)

(And make sure to save some meth, so I can play you at your best.)

[EDIT]

Ya, I figured it wasn't too important (the first four minutes). I even thought the movie was easy to follow, after the first dream sequences ended. There's a few minor details I'm still unsure about, but I think that's mostly because I'm about deaf from listening to records and can't pick up all of the exact dialgue.

[Usoki]

The beginning of Earthbound seems awesome, I'll admit, but once you leave the area around your house, it quickly goes downhill.

I'm curious what you found odd about the beginning of Zelda. Oh, and you should totally wait for your uncle to return.

Surprisingly, I'm not usually bothered by turn-based fights, unless they happen too frequently. Every now and then there'll be a boss fight with too much health and not enough threat, but... I dunno. Given my numerous quirks and expectations about video games, I'm surprised they don't bother me more than they do.


[spoiler watch]
Parts of that movie still weird me out. I have to admit, after hearing him mention that they'd missed the first jolt, I just looked at my watch. It was fairly suspenseful, I guess... but with that much time left in the movie, it loses impact. I mean, seriously... after that, I just kept envisioning a tacky little video game-esque timer on the side of the screen: a white van slowly ticking down the remaining time until the second jolt.

[ChubbyTeletubby]

Ryan,

Starcraft has actually helped me in my actual life. These are actual happenings.

1. Isn't this a movie thread?

2. Starcraft has actually focused my mind. I wake up in the morning and I'm like, 'fuck Jesus, what would Raynor do?'

Literally. I have been focusing my thoughts and managing my micro/macro RL problems as if I was tackling a Starcraft battle. It sounds fucking silly but its true. It really is.

It's been working. I've like...had a zen moment. WITHOUT DRUGS! I'm in the zone. I'm just...in the zone. Well, there's been some weed involved. And beer. Sorta. I usually just save my epic close-calls and replay them later while I kick back and eat popcorn.

The replay option is so awesome I cant put it into words. The new battle.net breaks down EVERYTHING. You can analyze your mistakes, learn from your opponent, and move on.

The online pvp isnt that hard, folks. You just gotta get the rythm and go with flow. Action with reaction. Scout. Anticipate. Educated guesses. Allies who know a wide variety of rushes and counter rushes. It all starts to become cookie-cutter. Until some NEW rush becomes trendy. Some new cheese. Its great. Its all so balanced. Its amazing.

Games like Starcraft i think are actually healthy for the brain. Video games in general get a bad rap but honestly I think they help neurons connect and communicate and when balanced with excercise and diet can end up being a good thing. It's better than just vegging out watching TV. At least you are DOING something.

Then again, they can become as addictive as heroin and make RL pale in comparison. That's why ive ALWAYS avoided world of warcraft. I wont touch it. Ever.

3. What were we talking about?

4. Battle.net demands allies on the same page as you. I have a handful of friends Ive made in the last week. We can read each others thoughts. We dont have to talk. We can see what the other is doing and go from there.

We are on our way to the diamond league. We really are. Everyday we get better. I have gotten to the point to where the first five to ten minutes of the gameplay are second nature to me. The game is decided within the first ten minutes. That simple.

Its such a great RTS.

Id love to play online with one of you cats. We'd have a blast.

My online handle is 'Defacto'. My bud dkilla is the 'bad cop'. I start each game with a 'glhf' and he starts with a 'DIE'

Our ratio is still 50/50 though. God dammit.

We will win 5 2v2 games in a row and then loose 4 in a row. Its uncanny.

The new battle.net is great. Its actually FUCKED in a lot of ways, but still great. Its fucked in a LOT of ways. But the balance is there. The way its set up you get placed with people in your general skill set so when you suck balls at the game like all of you ball-sucking RTSers are you get matched with similar ball-suckers at your same ball-sucking level.

Its great for ball-suckers and those getting their balls sucked alike.

I tried the campaign today and its fucking sick. Just great. Clever, fun (funny), and it allows me to polish my micro skills.

Macro I got down pat. Micro I need work - hotkeys, ect. Ive been learnign exponentially. But so has everyone else. The first day on battle.net everyone was like in a daze. A week out and its starting to get fucking HARD.

Its cool because you unlock achievments and your get rewards like different avatars. Everything is EARNED.

I dunno. Im gonna go see Inception on Saturday, catch a mat

I'll bring this thread back on topic.

[Dragavan]

1. Isn't this a movie thread?

I've been wondering that myself... They should have started a video game talk thread, but at least there is posting going here on at all.

I'll bring this thread back on topic.

I wait with baited breath.


and while talking about the lack of movies... where's the reviews of Human Centipede in this thread? Hasn't anyone here seen it? I mean, with this crowd I expected that to happen right away... and I am sure not interested in actually seeing it... Daniel Tosh's spoiler alert review of it reminded me that It hasn't been reviewed here AND that I really don't want to see it.

[Ryan_DuBois]

I've tried to pick it up several times, but I don't think it's something that your typical Family Video carries. My brother said he's going to see if he can get it at any of the local movie stores in Grand Rapids.

I recently rented "Death Proof" and "True Romance". Both were okay, but I thought "Death Proof" was quite a bit better. Bonnie and Clyde style movies don't really work for me. I still think "Kill Bill" was (insert hard-to-spell name here) at his best, though.

Chubby,

Your posts, along with my friends' repeated praise have awoken a fire inside me to master this RTS. My current pastime game is that flash shooter called Stick Arena, but it's gotten boring lately since after years of playing in my spare time, I've probably become one of the top 50 players on there. With SC2, or even SC, you can play for years and not even scratch the surface of true skill.

I'll get it, I'm just not sure when... Actually two friends have offered me their trial disks, so if I get one of them, I'll hit you up and you can pwn me for a couple hours.

[End Master]

I'm just going to go ahead and buy Human Centipede, unfortunately it won't be released until October 5.

I thought Death Proof was probably Tarantino's worst movie, not that it was completely terrible, but it comes off as a bit boring in places and I didn't particularly like any of the characters in it. I liked the Planet Terror half of the Grindhouse movie better. Hell, I liked the fake trailers better than Death Proof and it still sucks that they haven't released Grindhouse as a complete movie on DVD instead of selling both of the movies separately (and eliminating the cool fake trailers!)

I liked Kill Bill (the whole thing), but I don't think it was his best stuff. I'm sort of glad he didn't end up directing True Romance though, I don't think it would be my favorite if he had.

Saw Predators a few weeks ago, sort of. That was a lot better than I thought it would be as well. The only problem was a bad thunderstorm occurred and all the power in the theater went out and they couldn't get it back on so I never got to finish the movie (Pretty sure we saw most of it though) We ended up getting free passes which we later used to see Inception.

They also showed the trailer of Machete (one of the "fake" movies from Grindhouse) which they actually made into a full length movie. I definitely have to see that one.

More Spoiler Stuff
As for Inception I figured the top kept spinning and that he (and Saito) didn't get out of Limbo. Though since DeCaprio defeated his guilt/ex-wife he at least wouldn't be "living" in a nightmare.

[Ryan_DuBois]

The reason I ended up liking "Death Proof" was for the car scenes (and Kurt Russell [it IS him, right?] did a good job playing his character just right; charismatic, but still somehow creepy). Still, the dialogue in Tarantino's movies is one of my favorite things, and neither of these two really had it for me.

[End Master]

Yeah Kurt Russel's Stuntman Mike was alright, but since I usually like the villains anyway, I wasn't really counting him. I found just about all his victims or potential victims really annoying though so I was sort of hoping he'd kill all of them.

Odd that you didn't like the dialogue in both movies though since I thought the dialogue in True Romance was similar to that of Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction.

I thought Death Proof's dialogue was pretty Tarantinoesque as well, it was just that his characters seemed to be discussing things I didn't particularly find interesting that time around and they were doing way too much of it.

[Ryan_DuBois]

I thought Death Proof's dialogue was pretty Tarantinoesque as well, it was just that his characters seemed to be discussing things I didn't particularly find interesting that time around and they were doing way too much of it.

Yeah, that's exactly it; the style elements were the same, but the conversations themselves were not really insightful, interesting, or funny (some of them were okay, but I think "Kill Bill", "Reservoir Dogs", "Pulp Fiction", and "Inglourious Basterds" all had better dialogue).

With "True Romance" I don't even think the style seemed all that similar, though (except, perhaps, for the "nigger scene" involving Christopher Walken). They were okay films, but they are my two least favorites from Tarantino.

[End Master]

Did you see Jackie Brown yet? That one gets a lot of hate even by people who usually like his movies, but I thought it was underrated. I think people were expecting another Pulp Fiction and it just had the misfortune of coming out after that one.

[Ryan_DuBois]

Nope, I thought I'd finally seen all of his movies; I'll have to check it out.



I think "Pulp Fiction" is probably most peoples' favorite out of his films, but for me it's only like fourth on the list (I liked the "Kill Bill"s and "Inglourious Basterds" better), so I might like this one. I still like "Pulp Fiction" a lot, though.

[EDIT]

I saw "Changeling" (by Clint Eastwood) last night, and thought it was probably just as good (if not better) than "Gran Torino". The whole thing is pretty frustrating, but I guess that's just a mark of how well it gets you to hate some of the characters.

[Ryan_DuBois]

Saw "Memento" and "Almost Famous" (a perfect pair, right?). I liked them both in different ways. "Almost Famous" is one you can enjoy with a likable main character, while "Memento" is more of a puzzle that you admire while trying to work it out (there's a few details I'm still confused on, so I'm paying Wikipedia a visit).

I'd put them both in the 8 - 9 range.

Of course, these movies are so old that you've all probably seen them, anyway.

[End Master]

Saw Piranha 3D.

Cool for what it was which was basically a lot of naked chicks and a lot of people getting gruesomely eaten alive by prehistoric piranhas. Pretty over the top. I fully expect them to gain the ability to fly again when the 4th comes out.