It's probably the best live action Joker-Harley Quinn type of story yet, that focuses on female empowerment, minus the love part, and of course not literally about Joker and Harley Quinn.

marcorossi wrote:
EDIT: ok “demented” works in english too, I didn't think about it.

Yup. Since English borrows from Latin haha!

—————-

Solo Levelling is a surprisingly good anime. It's a lot more violent than I normally go for but it's not just violence and horror for its own sake like most anime with those themes.

-Story:
It's reverse Isekai… instead of being transported to a new world, monsters come to earth and people gain game like powers to defeat them. Your ranks are fixed though and unchangeable- EXCEPT for this one guy who has an extremely low rank. Due to a lucky/horrific event he gains the ability to level up. It's not straight forward though and it involves a lot of struggle and damage.

To be fair, Homelander is the kind of villain you love to hate. And most obviously adore him in an ironical sense, while many probably just meme about him because they'd also be ready to elect a complete moron as a president just to piss off the left. And such things. And sure, the new season of The Boys consciously plays with the riots and mocks Qanon and those kind of things. But I fail to see how or when was The Boys ever subtle? It's been about all the nasties of XXIst century american society, consumerism, capitalism, optics, bigotry, etc from the start and it was overly disgusting and gory from the start. I don't remember a single instance of it pulling punches. Did people really just realize it's not pro-right wing or pro-conservative? ‘cause some did attempt to review bomb it and I’m not sure how the show could've made it any clearer that an all-powerful psychopath terrorizing and killing people left and right while being hailed as a hero - is kind of the villain. And that he's not very liberal.

The very name Homelander was a HUGE hint right off. Home land= father land. Was not subtle at all. In fact this new season has even gotten surreal, even pythonesque with several serious happenings that are tributes to Monty Python skits. The ridiculous bloody slaughter at the ice show with chance encounters with sharp skates cutting off limbs is a tribute to the Sam Pekinpah skit and the flying killer sheep? Combo tribute to the killer rabbit and the sheep flying and nesting in trees. It's gone into black humor and very dark satire. So of course I'm loving it.

Nothing subtle. But then many conservatives practice cognitive dissonance and tunnel vision daily so they picked and chose what they wanted to be true and just ignored the rest. Kind of like how Young Earth Creationists can totally ignore all of geology, biology, cosmology and ancient history to cling to Noah's flood. These minds don't recognize reality. Any number of great books on how Americans went off into Fantasyland. In fact that's one of the titles.

The Boys has always been too disturbing and violent for me :(

I only watched it because I liked Anthony Star in Outrageous Fortune- That's a New Zealand comedy drama that made him a star. It's pretty good, He plays twins. My ex got me into that XD
The Theme song is cool ^_^

But The Boys was so…. ugh. I HATE deconstructive superhero crap.
Homelander is Captain America plus Superman turned evil. The idea is not even a little bit clever though because he'd basically just be a run off the mill villain in any normal superhero story. Nothing clever of smartly satirical there.

He's a peak narcissist with ultimate power. It's amusing to see how the dynamics shift, because no matter how much you hate a character for being morally shady af, as soon as Homelander enters the room you just feel sorry for the guy / gal. He's the personification of Vader's death grip and all he needs is just the tiniest excuse to make everyone around him miserable. And he's literally a product of his environment and corporate giants been doing the best to keep their fingers on his button, because as soon as they let go, everything could go up in flames. It's kind of genius how they managed to give him so much charisma and also make him one of the most fucked up characters ever created, with some inner struggles, but you know, not as much that you would legit think he's gonna change. What sets him apart from most villains is that they always have some evil goal to achieve. He's already there. He's a spoiled, bored child who has everything and is not satisfied. That's what's really scary about him.

Trying to get into The Acolyte, good action opening, then things slow a little. Sounds familiar.

Man, no wonder no one likes the Jedi, they swagger around the galaxy full of their own self-importance, acting like self-appointed cops. Although 1 out of every 100 seems to be just about humble enough to relate with if you try really hard.

Hold up, never mind the facts or what you want, the Jedi council has called a meeting to discuss this and will inform you of their decision.

Star Wars just gets worse and worse hahaha!
The curse of pop modern culture: Things MUST change and be replaced by new, different versions because keeping them current is the only way to continue to make money out of them.

————–

I finally watched Poor Things.
It is a tedious attempt at a surreal art film with a bit of comedy in there.
Really, it's like a very poor attempt at trying to do something like a comic by https://www.theduckwebcomics.com/user/hansrickheit/
Compared to the creators of that film, Hansrickheit is a god that they should worship.
Also generous slatherings of Terry Gilliam.

The story:
A demented scientist with a face like a testicle creates a Frankenstein's monster from a suicide victim and her child, but putting the baby's brain in the mother's head and restores her to life.
As a grown woman with the mind of a baby she's raised by the the testicle faced scientist and learned about the world in a very technical and dispassionate way.
As she “grows up” she learns about sex and that becomes a big part of her life.
Her perspective on the world is influenced strongly by testicle-face so she thinks about everything in a scientific way.
The humour is based on the fish out of water thing of her looking at the world with a cold, scientific, yet innocent and inexperienced eye.
The world it's set in is an alternate, cartoonish 1890 where people swear in a modern way and there are electric cable cars in most cities.

It is a little entertaining, there's a little bit of nudity with emma Stone looking like she has the body of an 18 year old, the costumes are pretty good… Mostly it's a bit tedious.

dpat57 wrote:
Trying to get into The Acolyte, good action opening, then things slow a little. Sounds familiar.

Man, no wonder no one likes the Jedi, they swagger around the galaxy full of their own self-importance, acting like self-appointed cops. Although 1 out of every 100 seems to be just about humble enough to relate with if you try really hard.

Hold up, never mind the facts or what you want, the Jedi council has called a meeting to discuss this and will inform you of their decision.

The acolyte is half pretty decent and half kinda crap. Still it's better than the last couple of movies.

Watched “Pluto” on Netflix.

The anime is based on the comic by Naoki Urasawa, that in turn is a remake of a story arc of Astroboy by Osamu Tezuka.

The anime is very, very good and manages to keep a lot of suspance and tension from the beginning to the end.
There are a few plot holes that I found a bit annoying, but they are more than balanced by the general “mood” of the story.

The story is reasonably adult in themes, and the drawing style is modern, but the setting and the design of the robots is based on Tezuka's, so this creates a sort of “retrofuturistic” feeling.

marcorossi wrote:
“retrofuturistic”

OMG ray-punk and Atompunk XD

The very best version of this retro style I've seen was something that went the other way: The visual style was only slightly retro but the story, the plotting, themes and character style was fully retro.

That worked so, so much better, I was shocked. The only dud point from me was the treatment of the female characters- still seen as side characters, victims. Motivation for he males and reflection characters rather than full humans like the males. Everyone should be full humans, no matter if it's retro or not.

I wish I could remember the title… It had lots of twists but featured a wealthy child who was a famous detective, his rival, a girl who was a clone, an evil scientist, a robot assassin, destructive rayguns, a submarine and a train that's mysteriously teleported…
Lots of mystery.

Ozoneocean wrote:

marcorossi wrote:
“retrofuturistic”

OMG ray-punk and Atompunk XD

The very best version of this retro style I've seen was something that went the other way: The visual style was only slightly retro but the story, the plotting, themes and character style was fully retro.

That worked so, so much better, I was shocked. The only dud point from me was the treatment of the female characters- still seen as side characters, victims. Motivation for he males and reflection characters rather than full humans like the males. Everyone should be full humans, no matter if it's retro or not.

I wish I could remember the title… It had lots of twists but featured a wealthy child who was a famous detective, his rival, a girl who was a clone, an evil scientist, a robot assassin, destructive rayguns, a submarine and a train that's mysteriously teleported…
Lots of mystery.

Did it get a bit creepy between George Clooney and the tween robot girl? 'cause that sounds a bit like Tomorrowland.

Ozoneocean wrote:
OMG ray-punk and Atompunk XD

It certainly is Atompunk because one of the main charachters is called Atom.

Pluto also has this defect that all important and well rounded characters are males, there are only two female supporting characters (female robots) VS 10 main characters (male robots). 7 of the 10 male robots are supposed to be the most advanced robots of the planet, one of the two female robots basically has ESP powers but nobody sees her as one of the most advanced robots.

This probably is because the original story was written around 1960, when most comics were targeted exclusively to male kids.

I'll look out for Pluto.

————

I thinking about dropping Amazon Prime now they're forcing ads on you. The only reason I still have it right now is that I'm getting back into NCIS which is on there.

NCIS (the first season at least) wasn't as good as I remember it but Abby is a unique and interesting character. I wish the show was mainly about her.

I saw it had Collumbo too. But a few minutes into the episode I realised the hairstyles were wrong and the cars were too new… So I checked again and saw it was from 1989… It was the NEW Collumbo >:[
Peter Falk wasn't even in it till 25 minutes in. It was so dull I fell asleep in the middle of it.
The episode was based on a dramatised version of “psychics” trying to fool the American defence department to hire them for intelligence purposes and the way they're uncovered…

Interestingly it was based on a true story, that of “the Amazing Randy” and the way he debunked them as frauds, there was even a small post of Randy's in the workshop of the magician based on him. That was cool.
But they changed the story around so that the skeptic was in on it… and other details, but the true story aspect was good.

It didn't have to be an hour and a half long. I'd rather watch the original series.

Yeah I dropped Prime video because of the ads. They already jacked the price so I wasn't interested in paying extra to remove ads.

Just binged season 2 of star trek prodigy, which is easily the best season of Trek since it was brought back.

I've been indulging in Heroes, last time I saw it was when it first came out so I was a little girl and simply didn't remember anything except “Save the Cheerleader, Save the world.”
I was surprised to see a handful of small similarities between my comic and the show. Thankfully that was it. I hope. I'm still in the first season lol

Genejoke wrote:
Yeah I dropped Prime video because of the ads. They already jacked the price so I wasn't interested in paying extra to remove ads.

I was jusssst about to cancel it, even WITH my watching of NCIS, but they HAVE ADDED THE ORIGINAL MAGNUM PI!!!! O_O
I will binngeeeeee! OMG <3 <3 <3

Up to the 3rd season of NCIS. The character Denoso is such a dumb sexist bully… it's literally actions that would get any real person fired without benefits from their government job. It's meant to be charming and funny, but it's just offensive. This was 2003-2005 so far and that behaviour wasn't normal back then.

damehelsing wrote:
I've been indulging in Heroes

I never saw it but back in the day that was part of a whole trope of shows about ordinary people getting superpowers XD
I think it started the trope! - Which is still going on… Extraordinary is the latest version of it, it's pretty good, very funny and modern.

damehelsing wrote:
I've been indulging in Heroes

I never saw it but back in the day that was part of a whole trope of shows about ordinary people getting superpowers XD
I think it started the trope! - Which is still going on… Extraordinary is the latest version of it, it's pretty good, very funny and modern.

Pretty much! Heroes was the big thing back then! Superheroes especially.
I'll have to check out Extraordinary! Seems like it's on Disney+ so I might be able to watch it??

I've also been keeping up with The Boys - I gotta say, it's so interesting to see a take where the superpowered beings are basically evil and selfish.

damehelsing wrote:

Pretty much! Heroes was the big thing back then! Superheroes especially.
I'll have to check out Extraordinary! Seems like it's on Disney+ so I might be able to watch it??

I've also been keeping up with The Boys - I gotta say, it's so interesting to see a take where the superpowered beings are basically evil and selfish.

Yup, Disney+ There are some good characters there and clever takes on the superpower concept.

——

Magnum PI was a bust :(
Google told me Amazon had the original series and even linked all the episodes and everything but it just takes me to the stupid modern reboot :( :(
It's probably on the US version which is blocked here in Australia so the links take me to the only version the Aussie Prime has.
So I watched NCIS instead and ironically they mentioned the original Magnum Pi in that episode haha!

Our Australian friends may not know about the American cult series Unsolved Mysteries. A show that featured an intense emotionless performance from Robert Stack, eerie reenactments with some actors who became very famous, and of course the best theme song ever.

Well, I discovered that Unsolved Mysteries made 4 TV movies during the 90s. It's not really true crime, but not fictional either. They are biased, word of mouth, accounts of real cases from the show. You will see Dwight “Howling Mad Murdoch” Schultz post-Star Trek and a young Hilary “I'm a Girl ya know” Swank.

Basically, if you like the short vignettes from Unsolved Mystery, these are feature-length versions.

sleeping_gorilla wrote:
Our Australian friends may not know about the American cult series Unsolved Mysteries.

Oh no we got those :(
We had our own stupid Aussie version, then there was that Jonathan Frakes version too.
They seemed to start off the idea bay basing them on truth but quickly all became just riffs on silly urban myths or some writer's dumb idea of an attempt at a short horror thriller script.

I think moist people here found them universally silly and lame after while when they worked out none of it was true. XD

I didn't know about the movies.

———–

The Aussie version was called “The Extraordinary”, hosted by Warick Moss with a ridiculous voice. It was actually syndicated in the USA with Corben Bernsen as the host haha!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sasEQ5UDBfc

There actually were a few “Unsolved Mysteries” that were solved. Like actual researchers like Joe Nickell went and found the actual answers. At least one cold case came into the spot light because of Unsolved Mysteries and further investigation turned up answers so the original series wasn't a total loss. And it gave Robert Stack something to do when he wasn't doing Airplane movies.

Then there was that Jonathan Frakes version too.
They seemed to start off the idea by basing them on truth but quickly all became just riffs on silly urban myths or some writer's dumb idea of an attempt at a short horror-thriller script.

Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction. They would do 4 stories, 2-3 were true accounts. while the 4th was some writer's dumb idea of an attempt at a short horror-thriller script.

Unsolved Mysteries were mostly missing person cases. It was one of the early true crime shows with a hotline, leading to more than 250 cases being solved.

—

My main motivation for seeing “Longlegs” was Maika Monroe. Had I realized this movie was directed by Oz Perkins I would have given it a pass. His past movies all feel half-finished, with interesting concepts that have no follow-up. He is a cinematographer who puts together some beautiful shots, but he's not a writer or a director.

This has been compared to “Hereditary” and I agree. I like the idea of a killer who believes they are one of the Beasts of Endtimes. But everything you need to know happens in the first 30 seconds, and the rest of the movie meanders aimlessly, with characters and ideas fading in and out. Just like Hereditary, Longlegs is missing an entire act that would make it coherent.

I love Beyond Belief so much, the shorts are like goosebumps for adults and the best part is how Frakes just DOESN'T ELEBORATE on the “true stories” and so there's a lot of like “What? Okay, how was that one true? The fuck you mean the story about a ghost fireman gave his great grand daughter twenty bucks to get a pizza was true!?” It's so great. xD I watched it completely uncritically as a kid when it was airing but as an adult its some of the silliest funniest shit just trying to guess which ones they'll say are true.

I've been watching 2 or 3 episodes of Cowboy Bebop on Netflix every day this past week, I'd seen it in the lists for years but the title was so stupid I never really looked. But I saw a few gifs and pics on Imgur that caught my attention (*cough cough* Faye Valentine) so I took a chance, and the series is pretty fun, it's the kind of Sci-Fi I like, and write.

Emma_Xross wrote:
the best part is how Frakes just DOESN'T ELEBORATE on the “true stories” and so there's a lot of like “What? Okay, how was that one true? The fuck you mean the story about a ghost fireman gave his great grand daughter twenty bucks to get a pizza was true!?”

HAHAHA, yeah it was pretty weird XD

dpat57 wrote:
I've been watching 2 or 3 episodes of Cowboy Bebop on Netflix every day this past week

It's solidly good. Even the movie is good. I haven't seen the live action version though.
I watched the animated version back in the early 2000s at the art studio I rented, this girl joined the studio and bought along her cool pirated anime and we had watch parties of Cowboy Beebop and Trigun.

——————–

Kaiju number 8 was really good. It'll probably turn crap if they do another season though I think because this first 12 episodes were great but they were set up simply as a great big long intro to the whole concept rather that a real completed story which means that after THIS the whole story will expand and introduce a lot of new concepts rather than continuing with the same vibe.

Ok, the story of Kaiju number 8 with some spoilers:
The world has been plagued by periodic monster invasions so much so that they now have specialised cleanup crews. Our protagonist is a guy in his 30s and a member of such a crew. He wasn't to fight kaiju like his childhood friend but he can never pass the requirements to join the defence forces and this is the last year he can try or he'll be too old.
While recovering from a Kaiju attack in hospital he's infected by a kaiju bug and becomes a humanoid kaiju which gives him special powers.

When it comes time to do the test for membership of the defence forces we the audience expect him to secretly use his Kaiju powers to help him pass… He doesn't. And this is the theme in the entire season. He never uses his powers to his advantage secretly. If he DOES use his powers it's only to help people and prevent disaster and then ascribes the feat to another person so they can take all the credit.
It's very frustrating in that regard haha!

Ozoneocean wrote:

Kaiju number 8 was really good. It'll probably turn crap if they do another season though I think because this first 12 episodes were great but they were set up simply as a great big long intro to the whole concept rather that a real completed story which means that after THIS the whole story will expand and introduce a lot of new concepts rather than continuing with the same vibe.

I’ve been reading the manga basically since it started and the vibes are pretty consistent to me? Like not to spoil anything but the main crux of combat is pretty consistently a mix of implementing different combat techniques and raising unleashed combat power but it’s pretty fast and loose with the details? I’d say it’s more rule of cool than anything for most fights.

Emma_Xross wrote:
I’ve been reading the manga basically since it started and the vibes are pretty consistent to me? Like not to spoil anything but the main crux of combat is pretty consistently a mix of implementing different combat techniques and raising unleashed combat power but it’s pretty fast and loose with the details? I’d say it’s more rule of cool than anything for most fights.

Have you seen the anime too? Sometimes the animes do things a little off XD
But I hope for the best and go with what you say about the manga.

What has me worried is that all we've seen till now is an intro to the rookie squad. But NOW there's a new pro squad with the possibility of the rookie squad being broken up and split up amongst the pros (so new characters), the director has a fully defined roll suddenly, the bastard mushroom headed kiaju 9 has new secret plans and infiltrations underway… all that sort of stuff XD

Ozoneocean wrote:

Emma_Xross wrote:
I’ve been reading the manga basically since it started and the vibes are pretty consistent to me? Like not to spoil anything but the main crux of combat is pretty consistently a mix of implementing different combat techniques and raising unleashed combat power but it’s pretty fast and loose with the details? I’d say it’s more rule of cool than anything for most fights.

Have you seen the anime too? Sometimes the animes do things a little off XD
But I hope for the best and go with what you say about the manga.

What has me worried is that all we've seen till now is an intro to the rookie squad. But NOW there's a new pro squad with the possibility of the rookie squad being broken up and split up amongst the pros (so new characters), the director has a fully defined roll suddenly, the bastard mushroom headed kiaju 9 has new secret plans and infiltrations underway… all that sort of stuff XD

I'm like two episodes away from the Finale? It's honestly pretty faithful. Though I think its kinda funny the intensity the opening gives off, not that the series doesn't have tense fights, it's just also very goofy and shoneny. (Gotta say I love the score and it's allusions to Godzilla's tracks whenever the kaiju fights get underway)

I don't wanna hit you with any spoilers but I don't think it gets too bad on the new squad front? I dunno the cast doesn't really balloon out too much or go to far away, the main thing is just what happens to Kafka, but Idk ymmv! It's not like a Bleach Captains situation or something.

About a month ago we found out that my mom has stage 3 lung cancer and the last month has been hell. She is all I have. She is getting ready to do radiation and chemo therapy on August 1st. Her and I have been watching all the seasons of “LOST” on netflix and she really likes the show and it has helped us pass the time. I really enjoyed the first 3 seasons the most and we are finishing up season 5 right now.