Other movie I recently saw: Nightcrawler

[Dr_Liszt]

And I have to say again, Syntax and DA are correct. This is actually a good movie and Jake Gyllenhaal does play a psychopath son of a whore really well. Definitively the best performance I've seen for this year. So yes, listen to them, it's good. Watch it! ALL THE OSCARS FOR JAKE.

[BruceSmith78]

Jake wasn't nominated, so none of the Oscars for Jake. I was very close to watching this today, but laziness got the better of me.

[Dr_Liszt]

Well the Oscars are lame anyway!

Look at how many nominations they gave to Boyhood. Really? Just because they used the same actors for 12 years? Really? REAALLY?

[BruceSmith78]

Boyhood was revolutionary in the way it was filmed, but the actors they picked as kids turned out to be pretty piss poor actors. Also, nothing really happened for three hours.

[sikax]

*Syntax seal of approval*

[BruceSmith78]

Watched this today, so I can be one of the cool people now. It was good.

[Gendo]

So want to see this. But I'm not gonna pay what a recent DVD release costs. Will be keeping my eye out for a sale.

[Gendo]

Speaking of Jake though, I just saw Jarhead. Very good.

[BruceSmith78]

So want to see this. But I'm not gonna pay what a recent DVD release costs. Will be keeping my eye out for a sale.

I saw it at the dollar theater. Four bucks total for my wife and I. Money well spent.

[sikax]

Watched this today, so I can be one of the cool people now. It was good.

Welcome.

[thesalmonofdoubt]

watched this last weekend - was a bit worried it wouldn't live up to the hype or be too much like what I was expecting.

Executive summary: It lived up to the hype, Jakes proved himself an amazingly versatile actor over the years and it's pretty extraordinary how left of field this performance was for what you would expect of him. The entire thing felt genuine, kinda unsettlingly creepy and understated. The whole weight loss thing he went thru for the role worked enormously well towards moving him away from "pretty boy plays it rough" and gave his face and unsettling moral/physical hunger.

I'd give this a solid 8.5

In other news - finally downloaded the first season of "The walking dead" ..like five years behind everyone else in the world but - moving fast.
Watched the first two episodes so far and - really like it altho I would have just shot that chap they left handcuffed to the railings given he was a total douche wad and you don't need that sort of instability in that sort of situation - I have a feeling he's gonna come back as the series villain and they'll be regretting not putting him down after that.

Also - do we ever find out how much time has elapsed between the Cop going into his coma and the world going to shit - cos his partner hooked up with his wife pretty darn quick

[Dr_Liszt]

It was like 3 months. Trust me, Lori only gets worse as the series progresses.

But you know, it's kind of sexist since from her point of view, Rick is dead, so basically she is free to do whatever she wants. So any complain about calling her a skank for that is just pure misogyny.

But of course on season 2 all the female characters are so ill written it's painful to watch and it has earned her a lot of hate.

[thesalmonofdoubt]

was like 3 months. Trust me, Lori only gets worse as the series progresses.

But you know, it's kind of sexist since from her point of view, Rick is dead, so basically she is free to do whatever she wants. So any complain about calling her a skank for that is just pure misogyny.

I got the impression it was much quicker than that but wasn't at all sure - do they actually ever address this?

And really? - I don't think its sexist at all - Whether it was a man or a women, you're married and you think you're husband/wife has just died, just that would usually kill my horn for a bit - on top of that, she has a kid and the worlds gone to hell so, I think my focus would be pretty much dealing with all that. I wouldn't call her a "skank" .. and didn't.. But in terms of the best friend and the Wife, it makes both Characters far more unlikeable.

I mean - it's a TV series and all that but anyone who jumps from one serious relationship straight into another - especially when there are kids involved rings all sorts of alarm bells for me. The sex of the individual doesn't make an iota of difference

[Dr_Liszt]

was like 3 months. Trust me, Lori only gets worse as the series progresses.

But you know, it's kind of sexist since from her point of view, Rick is dead, so basically she is free to do whatever she wants. So any complain about calling her a skank for that is just pure misogyny.

I got the impression it was much quicker than that but wasn't at all sure - do they actually ever address this?

And really? - I don't think its sexist at all - Whether it was a man or a women, you're married and you think you're husband/wife has just died, just that would usually kill my horn for a bit - on top of that, she has a kid and the worlds gone to hell so, I think my focus would be pretty much dealing with all that. I wouldn't call her a "skank" .. and didn't.. But in terms of the best friend and the Wife, it makes both Characters far more unlikeable.

I mean - it's a TV series and all that but anyone who jumps from one serious relationship straight into another - especially when there are kids involved rings all sorts of alarm bells for me. The sex of the individual doesn't make an iota of difference

yeah... but this is mostly the fault of the writers. Lori competes with Joffrey on the hatred level.

[thesalmonofdoubt]

What do you mean its mostly the fault of the writers?? - So far I am only up to Episode 3 - Hubby is back and she's just told us that the best friend told her that the hubby was dead.. and best mate has just beaten the pooh out of the wife beatin red-neck dude.

Looking forward to seeing her narrative rival Joffrey - who has gotta be the most unlikeable character ever written in the history of writing unlikeable people

[Derived Absurdity]

Yeah, but what makes Lori worse than Joffrey I think is that Joffrey as a character is at the very least exciting. He's dynamic. He's a pretty good villain because he has a compelling on-screen presence and whenever he appears you can be sure some crazy shit is about to go down.

Not so with Lori. As a character she's just a black hole of suck. There is no positive adjective that can be ascribed to her. She's a horrible person - just constantly manipulative and conniving, and not in an entertaining way either. She's horrifically stupid, every single decision she makes is dumb and usually gets people into trouble. Every time she fucks up she lashes out at someone else and never takes any responsibility for anything she does. She's a horrible mother because she can't keep track of her kid. Her sole function is to bring boring pointless melodrama to the show and stall the plot for several episodes at a time. She's just the worst.

And this is how it is with pretty much every single female character on the show. It's honestly the most misogynistic show I've ever seen, in that every single female character just... sucks. A lot. With the possible exception of Carol. Not to put you off on it or anything, but... you know. A warning. (To be fair I hear it's been getting better recently, but I stopped watching it about a year ago.)

[CashRules]

The second season of the Walking Dead sucks but you have to watch it in order to know what's going on. It starts slowly picking up with the third season but there are always too many filler episodes. This is really a show that should be cut down to about eight or ten episodes a season. Since they have an original source to draw from, the comic books, they have to be careful not to overtake the source material with their storylines. Lori is a horrible character but she's nowhere near as bad as Andrea. The writers completely butchered Andrea's character from the comics. TV Andrea literally never makes a decision that isn't horrible. Also, the actress only has two facial expressions: 1) Angry, and 2) I'm not really angry but this is the only other face I know how to make and it's probably horribly inappropriate for this particular scene.

[BruceSmith78]

I always thought Andrea was shitty. Lori didn't bother me so much until about halfway through season two.

[thesalmonofdoubt]

And this is how it is with pretty much every single female character on the show. It's honestly the most misogynistic show I've ever seen

lol - well, I guess its early days for me so I couldn't possibly meaningfully comment on how well the characters are drawn but, my initial impression is that very few are all that likeable so far and they've employed a number of stereotypes pretty much right out of the box from a n!gger hating southern redneck and his unhinged gun mad brother, the other white trash wife beat'n garbage and his submissive wife, a "I used to drive a Mercedes and now I'm beating cloths on a rock uptown gal and the "wait for my mate to go into a coma so I can fuck his wife" best friend.
The Asian kid is every single teenage cliché .. and it goes on.
I'll keep watching and figured that the apparent shallowness of the entire cast of characters was simply a symptom of it being early days and nothing much has been fleshed out yet.

[Derived Absurdity]

Oh yeah, none of the characters are really all that dimensional or well-developed, including the male ones. But it just seemed to my eyes that the female ones had it particularly hard.

And they don't really flesh out very much as it goes on, or if they do they do it in repetitive and unimaginative ways. Rick just spends every season struggling with his humanity over and over again. Shane actually regresses. And for every character that does develop somewhat, the show brings on new ones that are one-dimensional and just conform to ridiculous archetypes all over again. One is basically a mix of the Angry Black Woman and some kind of badass Zulu warrior who does absolutely nothing except kill zombies with her badass sword and scowl at everyone. It takes like two seasons for her to get any depth at all. Another is the Wise Grandpa who acts as the series' moral center and yet who is still portrayed as naive just to add conflict. There's also the Handsome Charming Psychopath who exists for no reason other than to fuck everything up for everyone and be crazy. The writers half-heartedly try to give him some depth but it fails.

Like I said I heard it gets a bit better this season but any show that waits five seasons to get good is not worth watching IMO. Sorry to dissuade you or whatever but really, we currently live in the golden age of television with amazing shows everywhere all the time and it's really not a good idea IMO to waste time on crap when you could be watching Hannibal.