Ah I see, I misunderstood how you were applying the terms. My bad. I suppose I don’t typically talk about consoles or games independently of the experience that they offer, so whether it’s a new product with a vintage inspiration, or something vintage all the way through, I’d think of both products as retro, because, to me, they are both offering an experience reminiscent of an earlier era. I understand that’s an incredibly subjective experience though, and your take is probably more factually correct.

Okay, I’ll bite.

My brother and I routinely dig out our old N64 when we go home for the holidays and enjoy an afternoon of retro gaming. In your opinion, I am using this incorrectly, because I’m actually vintage gaming, since I am using original hardware and software to do it (if I understand your assertion correctly).

But, our specific purpose in using that original hardware is to, as you say, “[relate] to the past, past times, or the way things were”. We engage in this ritual as an homage to when we were kids and getting a new game for Christmas was one of the highlights of the first quarter of the year. So, I argue our use case meets your definition of retro as well vintage, and that you’ve invented a false binary where none actually exists.

In broad terms, sure, but we’re talking about the business of theatrical exhibition here, which over the past several years has had a real rough go of it. In some ways, this is because the industry is addicted to shooting itself in the kneecaps at ever opportunity, and in some ways because COVID accelerated the trend of people waiting for VOD rather than seeing something in the theater. So, a movie smashing box office records in today’s environment is still newsworthy.

The post is not literal. Marie Antoinette’s gender has nothing to do with her position in pop culture as the poster child of the casual detachment from reality that wealth brings (i.e. “Let them eat cake”). Given that this situation is over the expiration of food benefits, THAT is why Trump is being compared to Antoinette (and also why the comparison point is her, and not King Louis, for example).

To mollify you, yes, I’m sure that a minor element of the “joke” here is that Trump is wearing a dress, but hewing in on that over the clear historical allegory is comically missing the point.

If a man cut off the penis of his lover and threw it from the window of a moving taxi, and I posted the “they’re the same picture” meme of his mugshot and a photo of Lorena Bobbitt (look her up if this reference is making no sense to you), would that be transphobic for equating a male and female? I don’t think so, because the point of the comparison is their actions, not their undercarriages, same as it is in the OP’s meme.

That’s fair. For me, those first Bond movies are like a travelogue. Not only to a different place, but also a different time. So, I forgive the parts of From Russia with Love (for example) that drag, because I can still luxuriate in seeing Venice at that time. With Thunderball, the big “destination” is the Bahamas if I remember correctly. Coming so soon after Dr. No’s Jamaica set stuff, and the focus on filming the sea floor more than the scenery, just leaves me underwhelmed ultimately.

I’d be curious where you rack and stack it later.

Idk man, Tron is a weird franchise. For one, I dispute your assertion that the consensus is the movie is bad. By and large, the takes I have come across boil down to, “It’s okay…but why is it here?”.

Review aggregators (while not the be-all-end-all of a movie’s reception, hence Bridges’ quote in the article) suggest the critics are about evenly split and audiences are generally higher on it. At worst, the response is mixed.

The reason I bring this up is because, if your comment had a mishap with the Internet Wayback Machine and was sent back in time 15 years, I wouldn’t blink an eye at “Ares”. I’d have just automatically subbed in “Legacy”, cause there’s no way I would have guessed the Disney was going to make the same mistake a third time when it comes to Tron.

Hoo boy, I generally enjoy early Bond, but I feel like you’re being too kind to Thunderball. As I understand it, the underwater photography was pretty astonishing at the time, and it certainly feels like the movie was structured around the idea of SCUBA being the new hotness. Unfortunately, now that those concepts are relatively quotidian, you’re left with a slow, clunky movie whose big action sequences are (by nature of being filmed underwater) slow and clunky.

Whenever I get the urge to go back and watch the early Bonds, Thunderball is always one I skip.

My God, I long to experience a fraction of your appetite for film. Call it poorly managed ADHD (I usually do) or whatever else you like, but I cap out at like 3 movies a week, maybe even less if one is particularly challenging.

Now, I like Constantine just fine, or at least I remember liking it, though I acknowledge that that could be a case of the last sequence of that movie being so awesome it forgives a lot of the sins of the first hour and change. I’m a sucker for interesting character actors doing interesting work, and the Swinton/Stormare combo at the end is so choice.

With that being said, what do you do with a Constantine movie now, especially if you want to cast Keanu again? Like, the safe thing to do would be a reboot I would think. The 2005 movie isn’t exactly a totem of pop culture, even if it’s rep has improved since release, and it’s not like it was a particularly faithful adaptation of the source material.

I can just see a studio exec sweating in their office trying to decide between the “legasequel to an IP which still has a few dregs of pop culture recognition” or the “franchise reboot which promises to ‘get the adaptation right this time’” buttons.

The on-set intimacy coordinator gave me the go ahead! They said, in fact, “squish that spider or so help me you’re going to NEED a paid professional to conduct intimacy in this bedroom”.

Friendly cuddles without consent? That’s assault, brother!

Ive been growing my hair on t over the past year and half and every time I go back into the salon, I show my gal a series of images from a different Kurt Russell film. It’s been working out pretty well for me this far, next up is getting the beard to match…

JACK: “I’m beginning to feel like a little bit of an outsider here…”

ALL: “You are!”

The director’s previous film, Leon: The Professional, features a 12 year old Natalie Portman falling in with an adult hitman who seems to be developmentally stunted in some ways. Over the course of the movie, Portman’s character “falls in love” with Leon. To the movie’s credit, this is clearly not reciprocated, but it still features a scene where Portman puts on lingerie (over her clothes) and does an impression of Marilyn Monroe’s famously horny “Happy Birthday, Mr. President” routine.

Put that right next to The Fifth Element, which features a savvy adult male who becomes the guardian of a woman who is physically an adult but mentally a child, and you’ve got a kind of gross pattern. Still though, I’d argue all of this, on its own, is easily defensible as artistic expression.

Where things get suspect is when you factor in the director’s personal life during the making of these films, as he started “dating” a 15 year old (who he met 3 years prior) before writing Leon. He was 32 at the time. They married after she became pregnant at 16.

Also, that “child-like” performance Mila Jovovich gives in The Fifth Element? Well it’s important to note that the director wound up getting divorced from his child bride because of the affair he was having with Jovovich. At least she was 18 at the time, but, still, when placed into context, yuck.

I mean,isn’t that what a foreclosure sale is?

I’m honestly asking. The world of corporate raiding is a foreign and distasteful place to my arts and sciences brain. The world of home buying is also foreign to my arts and sciences brain, but that’s cause I leaned more into arts than sciences.

That being said, you put up 20 grand of your money for a down payment. The bank loans you 200k. You fail to make your payments. Bank forecloses and sells off the property to cover the remaining debt, or at least claw back whatever they can get from it. Would that be so different than what’s likely to happen if EA fails to pay JP Morgan back? Is it the liability of Kushner et al vs the liability of a homeowner that is the primary difference?

Here’s hoping they let Irons go full ham. Love him in full villain mode.

Some criticized Warner Bros. for the move, saying the studio was throwing away money by not holding on the rights in perpetuity. Other articles took a more alarmist tone, saying that the move, while not the first, could destabilize the entire film industry by emboldening directors and creating an environment where studios own nothing.

Article speculates that the cancellation of Contraband, an Xbox exclusive announced in 2021, is likely the chief driver behind the layoffs. So, indirectly, Microsoft, I guess?

It’s not a dumb idea, it’s almost certainly what’s occurring, with the caveat that I don’t think they actually want to shut the government down. Whenever you hear about an impending government shutdown, it is always a game of political chicken, trying to find out who will cave first, while simultaneously trying to preemptively sell the public that it’s the other party’s fault. Look at the messaging from the white House and congressional majority leadership. It’s all “oooh the Democrats aren’t willing to pass our super clean funding bill to keep the government open, they are unserious and willing to hold the American people hostage in order to continue mutilating babies”. Meanwhile, Democrats state (accurately) that Republicans need Democrat votes to pass anything, therefore it is incumbent upon them to negotiate in good faith.

There’s nothing more antithetical to Trumpism than good faith negotiation and compromise, so he’s doing everything in his power to avoid that, lest it appear like he had to cave to Schumer, to include cancelling the meeting they had scheduled last week in favor of doing the meeting today, at the 11th hour, to further pressure the Dems into capitulating.

Now, it’s important to note that, for all of the political brinkmanship on display, shutting down the government is, historically, far more damaging for the majority party than the minority, though the public tends to take a dim view of everyone involved in this sort of situation. Therefore, Dems have reason to stand fast and Republicans have an incentive to make concessions. This is in addition to the fact that Schumer got a lot of flak for instructing Dems to fund the government back in the spring, so he’s also likely motivated to feign some backbone in this particular tete a tete.

I consider the occupation of certain cities to be mostly unrelated to the funding fight. In fact, it would have behooved Trump to not antagonize Dems leading up to this for the aforementioned reasons. With that being said, Trump doesn’t do things according to what makes political sense, and, to your point, I can see a scenario where Trump is the only person at the negotiation table today who is totally ambivalent about whether a deal is struck or not. A local (Republican) representative was quoted with a statement to the effect of, “I’m not sure if the Dems have considered the fact that the Presidency is granted additional powers in the event of a budget related shutdown, maybe they should think about that”.

So, you’ve got Dems at the table who are motivated to follow through with a shutdown unless they get certain carve outs. You’ve got congressional Reps at the table who are aware that the American public has historically always blamed the party in power when a shutdown occurs, and are thus motivated to make concessions, but quietly. And then you’ve got Trump et al, who gain additional emergency powers in the event of a shutdown, further diminishing the legitimacy of the other branches of government and increasing the consolidation of power within the executive branch. However, if the government doesn’t shut down, Trump will likely spin this as yet another example of his brilliant negotiating ability (see also the Gaza peace plan released this week), even if there’s a snowballs chance in hell that any concession appears in further funding bills the next time this occurs.

Idk if any of that holds any water in the face of evidence, but it’s compelling speculation.