So true, Prometheus did a lot of the hard stuff right and then really made a mess of pretty basic things like dialogue and believable character motivations. Instead of tightening that stuff up in the sequel he just completely dumbed down the entire franchise again in Covenant to the extent that it is once again a complete waste of time (see Romulus).

I think that’s a good observation. I always felt like Holy Grail went downhill quite significantly after the first hour or so. Up until that point the narrative is fairly straightforward and the humour is consistent, but then they get to the animated montage time skip bit and everything after gets a bit boring. Most of the cast exits the film abruptly, the sets all look the same, and the ending undermines everything that happened up until that point. Which I guess is the joke, but The Life of Brian found a much better balance between satirical and absurdist humour and telling a cohesive story beginning to end.

Spotube’s Android client had a lot of performance issues last time I tried it (which was a while ago, to be fair) and seemed to be pulling everything from YouTube Music despite the name. I think RiMusic and InnerTune are a lot better, personally. InnerTune if you want a simpler, more traditional UI, RiMusic if you don’t mind something a bit more convoluted but also fun and different. RiMusic has some more traditional UI options now as well but I like the older one with the menu on the side - it feels like an app on an early smartphone, back when everything was weird and fun.

DVDs look absolutely awful, I’m not really sure why there is this lingering hope or expectation that they should stick around. As the article states at the end, newer forms of physical media are still selling at similar or improved rates:

Toward the bottom of its report, DEG notes that sales from physical 4K UHD catalog releases held steady since 2023, while spending on titles released with “premium steelbook packaging” grew in 2024. No specific percentages or dollar totals were included, but it leaves a small glimmer of hope for the holdouts who still champion physical media in an increasingly digital and subscription-based world.

I think there is also an element of inaccessibility when it comes to lower budget films. Local cinemas are often dominated by long runs of the big budget action films, which can make it difficult for audiences to watch anything else. Given how badly the cinema industry is struggling, it would be in their best interests to create space for a greater variety of films or organise special “one night only” screening events. My local cinema takes part in a lot of film festivals and also runs a classic film club and special re-screenings of older films - these events always seem to attract significantly larger crowds and bring in a lot of extra revenue for them.

Too late, that entire IP has been dead to me for years.

I’m not sure if you’re familiar with the AI upscales mentioned, but AI did a lot more than just “making it a larger resolution”. It fundamentally altered and degraded certain visual aspects of the films.

I might check it out then, thanks!

I’ve got to stop putting off High and Low.

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It’s my favourite also! In my final year of high school I wrote a comparative essay on it and Dune (the novel), so I watched it repeatedly throughout the year to work out how I was going to approach the essay. I must have watched it over 20 times throughout my life and it’s reached that rare point where my familiarity with it somehow enhances everything about it, making it even better than it was the first time I saw it. It’s the film I compare all other films to - whenever I see something great I think “okay but was this as good as Nausicaa (the perfect 10/10 film)?”.

Sorry, I meant I watched the first one. Not really interested in watching the second to get to the third (assuming they are connected).

It’s more conventional than those films, I guess because it’s a more direct adaptation of an existing story. I think whether you prefer it probably has some connection to how much you enjoy his direction. He seems to have more free reign when he is directing for something he has written himself, which leads to more experimentation. For the record, I agree with you - there were elements of Nosferatu that were outstanding but as a whole those other films you mentioned are superior.

I guess I am in the minority but I still fail to see why anyone would be excited for a sequel to the original. I watched it and it was fine but there were no unanswered questions or character threads that needed more development on screen. The monster gimmick worked well once but got old quite quickly. It amazes me that this ever became a series in the first place. It seemed like a perfect example of a solid, one-off science fiction/horror film.

This is more a reflection of your food standards than the quality of the films. McDonald’s is, and always has been, dogshit.

I don’t think anyone around me has ever been excited for them. Maybe there was interest around the time of the first two Avengers films, but it’s so long ago now that I can’t remember. The first one was the only time I ever watched one of these films in the cinema and whilst it was somewhat enjoyable as far as superhero films go, I had absolutely no desire to pay to see another one. They are so blatantly cookie cutter to me I’m not really sure how people can remain excited for them over such a long period of time.

Yeah, wasn’t the Rogue One trailer an example of this? I recall there was a scene where the main character comes face to face with an airborne tie fighter - the entire sequence was absent from the film. According to the director, the scene had no connection to the story and never had any chance of making it into the film. It was just a visual idea the marketing team really liked.

Interesting, maybe I’ll read that before re-watching the film. Thanks for the recommendation!

I’d like to watch this and Annihilation again. I’ve only seen each of them once, both around the same time, and my memories of them are pretty fuzzy at this stage.

I saw Final Destination 3 as a teenager. A dad had to accompany our group of teenage boys to see the film because some were under the age limit. It’s always memorable for that reason lol

Only very basic Korean, in addition to my native English. I have studied four languages (Mandarin Chinese, Italian, German and Spanish) but I’ve forgotten pretty much all of it because I haven’t been able to use it in the real world like I can with Korean. I don’t think I’ll ever bother with learning another language. Getting my Korean up to a proper conversational level would be a big achievement so I’ll aim for that instead.