tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post247786358078629839..comments2023-10-14T03:58:59.333-06:00Comments on The Tao of D&D: Ring & RunAlexis Smolenskhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comBlogger7125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-88919860777812311312015-01-30T17:25:02.566-07:002015-01-30T17:25:02.566-07:00Your comment about the top imdb films really made ...Your comment about the top imdb films really made me think about something, and I came to the conclusion that trying to rate anything on a linear scale is really stupid and trying to crowd source that score is utterly ludicrous.<br /><br />Ozymandious, you don't work with me do you at Ordnance Survey? Because that is exactly what our cartographers have to deal with, while simultaneously experimenting with folding screens and automated drone 3d surveyors.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00640140513753627174noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-77868313944619960822015-01-30T13:53:30.446-07:002015-01-30T13:53:30.446-07:00I'm continuously amazed at the reluctance to a...I'm continuously amazed at the reluctance to accept progress. My current employer uses a manufacturing program designed in the '80s. They've never upgraded, despite several attempts over the past two decades, and they continue to waste time and resources managing a system that no longer fulfills their needs. Amazingly, everyone knows it, but the company as a whole has made no real effort at addressing the issue. This is 2015 and I work with a program designed using DOS. What the fuck?<br /><br />I feel the same incredulity at hearing that the film industry has its head in the sand, as it were.Ozymandiashttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01065642299277380465noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-90286169061787063302015-01-30T12:12:08.793-07:002015-01-30T12:12:08.793-07:00Idiot Ball examples.<a href="http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/IdiotBall" rel="nofollow">Idiot Ball examples</a>.Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-57356954831116225732015-01-30T12:07:42.912-07:002015-01-30T12:07:42.912-07:00I may have to start using the phrase "carryin...I may have to start using the phrase "carrying the idiot ball" now, thank you.<br /><br />Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15657793356913767894noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-76381357519182446332015-01-30T11:24:55.396-07:002015-01-30T11:24:55.396-07:00The thing about films . . . so few people really u...The thing about films . . . so few people really understand what is going on. As a WRITER, I have certain expectations and standards based on my experience putting together stories and plots, so that when I see a writer using a lazy trick or a character deliberately carrying around an idiot ball for half the film - because the writer can't think of a better motivation than, "The character is too stupid to ask the question, 'what's going on?', then I hate the film.<br /><br />As well, I am not particularly concerned with the base premise of a film. The "10% of a brain's capacity" argument did not in the least disturb me about LUCY. It continues to amaze me that persons can blithely accept non-real premises that support some films but not others. This is not criticism. This is prejudice.<br /><br />Recently I saw the EDGE OF TOMORROW, which surprised me. Again, the premise is entirely incidental and does not affect my appreciation of the film. Earlier in 2014, I very much appreciated THE WINTER SOLDIER; it was a good, solid story, expressive, characters I could like and I enjoyed the interaction. It is an excellent example of a non-origin story superhero movie.<br /><br />GRAVITY was excellent. I've heard Neil deGrasse Tyson's protests, convincing me the man should shut the fuck up and stick with talking to elementary school children. The biggest surprise in the last year for me was THE SECRET LIFE OF WALTER MITTY - a film I swore not to watch since who could remake the hilarious original with Danny Kaye. I was pressured into it and very pleased to find it was NOT a remake.Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-56348684602457664262015-01-30T11:12:53.174-07:002015-01-30T11:12:53.174-07:00Doug, I like movies that are consistent throughout...Doug, I like movies that are consistent throughout, where the dialogue is believable and not fringed with obvious exposition, where the plot seems to develop casually, where excessive effort is not spent to highlight some slice of life I'd rather be actually living and where people change their minds. I like stories where someone learns something.<br /><br />I like humour when it is not based on sight-gags or breaking cultural norms (since nothing about me is either normal or abnormal, I don't find anything unusual, strange or funny about feces). I particularly like humour based on dialogue. My favorite comedy is the 1973 film, What's Up Doc, which is 90% brilliant dialogue (when I was young I loved the sight gags at the end but now they're so-so).<br /><br />I hate toxic masculinity in films. I cannot express how much I hate Scorsese or how much I view people who like it as infant males desperately defending their genitalia. I do like it when toxic masculinity gets kicked in the genitals, even when the 'boys' totally miss the point. I equally hate films with endlessly long expressive themes that make something that any moron ought to already be aware of, so I am not a fan of Truffaut, Godard, Fellini or Polanski. I think that the clumsy stylings of both Kubrick and Hitchcock are INCREDIBLY over-rated, but there are films I enjoy by both.<br /><br />I don't like sappy films, films that trumpet family values, films that preach Americana or any other nationality, films that turn villains into heroes, films that justify genius as a psychological disease, films that inflate unremarkable people into Heroes who were unrecognized in their day, films that choose to follow some nobody vaguely connected to a famous person or films that try to tranform a minor moment in history into something that CHANGED THE WORLD.<br /><br />I like straight-forward, exciting, mythical stories about heroes, both male and female. I like women heroes and I like women villains. I like it when bad people are allowed to be very, very bad, but I hate it when bad people are portrayed in a film in order to gain my sympathy. I don't want to feel bad for bad people; I just want to enjoy them being bad.<br /><br />But, as I say, I hate it when all that badness is based on being a brute. Nothing interests me about brutes. I prefer villains based upon indifference and pragmatism.<br /><br />I think that 96% of all the films every produced are failures. Of these, about 1 in 10 is watchable. 4% of films are worth watching more than once. Less than 1% can be called 'good.'<br /><br />I give all these qualifiers because the films I like fit into every category. I like some gangster films. I like some westerns. I like some war films. I like some romances. I like some musicals. I like some documentaries. I don't care what KIND of movie it is. I care whether or not it is good.Alexis Smolenskhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10539170107563075967noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3871409676946408069.post-65498717435132087442015-01-30T10:36:34.992-07:002015-01-30T10:36:34.992-07:00Alexis, if it's not too much trouble, would yo...Alexis, if it's not too much trouble, would you share a movie or two that is good (by your standards)? I discovered I agreed with your take on Star Wars, although I couldn't put my finger on it at the time. <br /><br />Thanks for the insight into that industry. <br /><br />Doughttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15657793356913767894noreply@blogger.com