Lurker > LinkMarioSamus

I was also wondering why Republicans seem so worried that without Presidential immunity a former POTUS could be politically persecuted by a rival after losing to them...then I remember Republicans don't really seem to have a clue what constitutes a crime to begin with. More reason to deny them office ever again. I can't believe they're acting so surprised over Trump getting tripped up like this.

See AI-generated MLK voice, all I need to know.

Also is it just me or do right-wing conspiracy theories get dumber and dumber? It's unbelievably jarring to hear about Republicans decrying the way the justice system is used against them after months of watching Trump get his criminal trials delayed. And yet I see YouTube comments about the "authoritarian" government using the law to get rid of its political rivals. Sure.

The worst part is because I don't follow politics especially closely I get caught up in these frames of mind until I step back and realize it's all a load of crap. Republicans aren't even a cult anymore - they're a mob now. Why do you think they talk about "Presidents going after their political opponents" as an excuse to grant presidential immunity? Especially rich when they complain about Trump being convicted while "violent criminals are still on the streets" or something, like they have such a one-dimensional view of the world.

Trump really is his own worst enemy. In 2016 you couldn't talk smack about him without seeming like you were stooping to his level. From 2020 onwards he has been in a protracted nervous breakdown and that's no longer really true.

LightningStrikes posted...

A lot of people did! Still one of the best Star Wars movies.

It really jars me when people act like saying TLJ is good is an unpopular opinion, since most of the YouTubers I follow liked the movie. That being said, most of them are just kind of general movie reviewers (think Nostalgia Critic) whose tastes are comparatively more likely to fall in line with those of professional critics since they watch basically every high-profile new release, but the A Cinemascore for both the first two movies in the sequel trilogy indicates that at the very least opening-day audiences responded very positively towards them, to say nothing of the box office. What I get is if you went to see those movies because you recognized the Star Wars brand name, you were probably going to like them if not love them, and since the movies don't give me any impression they were made or marketed any differently they should be assessed primarily that way.

Bitto posted...

are you sure you're not LMS

I don't like Rose or Holdo but I still like them more than basically everyone introduced in the prequel trilogy. At least I REMEMBER the former.

I was thinking of making a topic with this poll! Anyway I voted JW even though I have not seen Dominion.

Someone will bring in a sports almanac from the future, use it to become filthy rich, and then keep Trump in power.

It shows a 52% chance of Biden winning to me. Also keep in mind that Trump announced his candidacy for POTUS well ahead of time specifically with the aim of politicizing his criminal trials, so of course his supporters will be more likely to express solidarity with him.

Still think Trump is toast. Watch the Republicans nominate him again next election in that case, when Trump is 82.

Obellisk posted...

I haven't been paying attention to this gun case.

Did Hunter try to murder someone? Or did he just have a secret gun?

Something about Hunter lying about not being a drug addict on a form, though it's chump change compared to Trump's legal problems.

Wanglicious posted...

Cosby and Weinstein were both cases where the judge and trial was prejudiced too much against them. in the case of Cosby, he was uniquely situated where the prosecutor fucked up and it was the only case that could be brought against him. Weinstein meanwhile, still in jail because he was previously convicted by state courts.

and the only piece of shit bigger than amber heard in that case is the one she left in the bed. the only injustice there was 1, no criminal charges filed against her, and 2, depp needing to technically pay anything, even if she paid a ton more.

Weinstein still has to serve his California sentence either way, yes. However, his 2020 rape conviction was historic nonetheless and it felt like a kick in the face to many for it to be reversed. And yet there was less virulent reactions towards the law then compared to Trump getting convicted, because that makes sense.

The worst part about the whole Trump conviction thing is I get the feeling faith in the law isn't very high even among Democrats, what with Roe v. Wade being overturned, Bill Cosby's and Harvey Weinstein's rape convictions being overturned, and Amber Heard being successfully sued for defamation by her own abuser.

Cry me a river if I don't care about Trump's new legal problems. If anything it seems like he's getting treated like a king.

Am I the only one who feels as if Biden is basically an afterthought in this election and that's it's basically all about Trump? Hmmm, not like 2020 at all or anything.

Guess Biden's good at flying under the radar or something.

In other words, the Republican Party is a cult.

Also realizing I can think of only two instances of "leftists" jumping to conclusions about something and many more of the right doing so, at least within the past decade. The two in question being people calling James Rolfe a misogynist in 2016 when he made a video explaining that he did not want to see the Ghostbusters reboot, and people calling Chuggaaconroy a rapist or pedophile after his misconduct allegations earlier this year. And even then the right was quick to jump to conclusions about cancel culture in both cases.

Personally I thought even before the pandemic that he was as bad as I thought he'd be if not worse, although part of me still kind of thinks Bush was a worse POTUS overall. Trump's supporters get on my nerves a lot more than the man himself does, which is saying something. The 2016 election also seems like even more of a damn lie considering they were trying to slam Hillary Clinton as a criminal and now the exact same people don't think being a criminal is a particularly bad quality for a POTUS.

I also just realized that Trump's initial impeachment being over him trying to work with Ukraine's government to dig up dirt on Hunter Biden in late 2019 and the GOP's apparent continued attempts to impeach Joe Biden basically mean people who insinuate that Republicans don't use the law to go after their political opponents are even more full of crap than I imagined. Along with Hunter himself being on trial now, albeit not for political matters.

Dancedreamer posted...

I'm always willing to forgive people as long as they change.

Voting Trump in 2016 is still pretty awful. But not unforgivable if they didn't vote for him in 2020 or don't plan on voting him in 2024. I don't think there's a good reason to have voted him in 2016. You could have voted third party. But I'm willing to let that pass if they've stopped voting for him and won't vote for him ever again.

Lots of people genuinely wanted him as POTUS, whether it was because they understood his position best, they flat-out agreed with him, or they didn't want Hillary Clinton to be POTUS. Obviously that last one is no longer a concern, hence why I say I have no proof that Trump can beat another white man in a national election.

Now I'm thinking Biden gets 76 million votes to Trump's 65 million.

most_games_r_ok posted...

Is C- the lowest it goes. Those last 3 movies be anywhere in C tier is a joke

Again, Cinemascores tend to skew higher. The founder said something along the lines of A's generally being good, B's generally being shaky, and C's generally being bad. Also keep in mind this is polling opening day audiences who would be most likely to rate a movie positively.

Forceful_Dragon posted...

Well yeah, that's why he said "better" and not "good". I don't think anyone here thinks Biden's response re: isreal has been good. It's just objectively less awful than it would have been if trump was still president.

In fairness Israel is one of America's closest allies. Biden doesn't want to just throw away that alliance so easily, especially since it would likely lead to further destabilization of that region...though I'm now hearing Israel's PM just wants full genocide on Gaza so hopefully Biden sees the light soon.

Thorn posted...

We all knew Clarence Thomas is corrupt af but this image puts it in even better perspective. Bar graph of all gifts received by the Justices over the past 20 years.

And the "Undisclosed, but later found out" bit is nearly half of Thomas's bar already and god knows what else hasn't been disclosed.

https://www.threads.net/@marmels/post/C74aN30JNKE

Tbf a third of the Supreme Court was appointed by someone who's now a convicted felon. And yet somehow such an occasion isn't nearly as big a deal as you'd think.

Yeah Cinemascores tend to skew higher, ESPECIALLY for tentpole releases. WW84 might have also been helped by its apparent optimistic/uplifting nature and the fact that few actually saw it in theaters.

Felt like gathering this all in one place, just for the heck of it. For those not in the know, Cinemascore is a firm polling opening-day audiences.

A+
Black Panther
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse
Avengers: Endgame
Spider-Man: No Way Home

A
Avengers: Age of Ultron
Ant-Man
Deadpool
Captain America: Civil War
Doctor Strange
Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2
Wonder Woman
Spider-Man: Homecoming
Thor: Ragnarok
Avengers: Infinity War
Deadpool 2
Captain Marvel
Shazam!
Spider-Man: Far From Home
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-verse
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem

A-
X-Men: Apocalypse
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows
The LEGO Batman Movie
Logan
Ant-Man and the Wasp
Aquaman
Black Widow
The Batman
DC League of Super Pets

B+
Suicide Squad
Kingsman: The Golden Circle
Justice League
Teen Titans Go! To The Movies
Venom
Joker
Birds of Prey
Wonder Woman 1984
The Suicide Squad
Venom: Let There Be Carnage
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness
Thor: Love & Thunder
Shazam!: Fury of the Gods
Blue Beetle

B
Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice
Men in Black: International
Bloodshot
Eternals
Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania
The Flash
The Marvels
Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

B-
Dark Phoenix
The Kitchen

C+
Morbius
Madame Web

C-
Fantastic Four

Seeing comments on MSN news articles along the lines of "anyone who isn't brainwashed knows this trial is a farce" and "this destroys any faith in America's institutions". I expected to see people making excuses akin to all Presidents/politicians being criminals or crooks and Trump just getting caught, but what the heck is this? The worst part is I'm not even opposed to questioning institutions in the first place, but wow.

All of the idiotic Republican conspiracy theories about Trump's conviction (not sure if I should name them) also make it clear to me that people are just way too quick to jump to conclusions nowadays. I've noticed it happen repeatedly on the Internet and it's really sad to see it playing out on a grand scale twice with Trump considering both the 2020 election and his conviction now. I do understand why Republicans jump to conclusions in some instances (e.g. Trump would have won the 2020 election if votes had stopped being counted by the end of election day, the conviction happening when he's the party's presumptive nomination for presidential candidate), but it's still sad beyond belief.

I swear every time I think of anything I don't like about Republicans it never takes me long to remember Democrats aren't above the same dumb stuff. It goes the other way around too however. It feels to me like Democrats have a tendency to descend into arguing which gives gung-ho Republicans the chance to sneak up on them the way they did Trump in the 2016 election, but then it also seems to me like the only thing actually uniting Republicans is the notion that Democrats are evil and then they keep arguing which allows Democrats to sneak up on them the way Biden did in 2020.

Neither party really seems to work any differently. I also genuinely tend to have the same problems with both progressives and anti-progressives.

That's fine. The worst part is I'm typically of the "people get offended too easily" mindset, and over the past few years I've realized that people who are the most vocal about that tend to be the worst offenders there! Speaking of which, two things I have to say about Trump:

-He comes off to me as more of a sociopath than a bigot, not that that's any better! Just less someone intentionally racist and/or misogynistic and more someone who cares about no one but himself and will aim for the lowest insult without caring how it makes anyone feel. At least his supposed racist and sexist views didn't seem to influence his actual actions as POTUS much, though this is damning with faint praise.

-I can't help but have a nice chuckle at people who think "Republicans don't use the law to persecute their political opponents", even though Trump DID try to persecute Hillary Clinton after the election and couldn't find any way to criminally charge her. This also makes Republicans' definition of "criminal" interesting. I'll admit, I knew there would be Trump apologists who act like every POTUS or politician is a criminal and Trump just got caught, but the reality is so much worse than that!

LS, I know this doesn't relate completely to politics but I really don't like the one time you acted as if I'm endorsing far-right views just by mentioning certain YouTube content creators who are popular and referenced across the Internet. I understand where you were coming from and why this board in particular doesn't want to hear those names but that really crossed a line I feel.

Seanchan posted...

Not all of them, and this certainly much more the Party than the R voters, but some of those politicians are certainly evil in the "mean to cause harm" sense.

Republicans just generally come off as more gung-ho to me, which tends to manifest itself as this sort of recklessness. By contrast Democrats seem plagued by indecision, so they're not as evil but also not really any less stupid.

I've never been particularly worried about Biden's re-election chances even though there is definitely reason to be. We've seen an incumbent Democrat brave first-term controversies twice to win re-election because of the Republican Party's idiocy, so why should this be any different? I guess because Bob Dole and Sarah Palin weren't cult leaders? Even then, it's not like we haven't been through this song and dance where someone who appears to be leading in most of the polls despite being under criminal investigation ultimately loses. Also still no proof Trump is capable of winning a Presidential election against another white guy.

Maybe it's because I don't really follow politics but my view of Biden hasn't really changed since 2020, although it does seem he's way more energized when speaking out against Trump and MAGA. Biden is definitely old-fashioned, but I still think we could use that. He's like a real-life Captain America or something...and that makes me even more sad realizing that Americans are effectively voting for mascots and not leaders. Everything I can think of that I loathe about the Republican Party feels like something the Democratic Party is far from above.

Oh and yeah I am very disheartened by people claiming that Trump being convicted for a state crime is somehow evidence that the government is trying to silence political opposition. Right as the POTUS's son is under trial too no less. Also interesting how Trump being convicted is apparently a sign the law is crooked, even moreso than Bill Cosby's and Harvey Weinstein's rape convictions being overturned or Amber Heard being successfully sued for defamation by her own abuser.

The worst part is this is another Captain Marvel case where there's nothing feminist about the movie that wouldn't have been considered old hat even two decades before its release. Not to mention that there is not a single male character in the movie who has bad things happen to them solely because of their gender.

This isn't even really a girl power movie for that matter, considering the main Barbie spends most of it breaking down at realizing what's wrong with the real world and then how Ken turns her own world into his shallow view of "patriarchy". Definitely doesn't help that we don't even really see the effects of Ken's patriarchy on Barbieland so it's a case of Nothing is Scarier at best. Not even a terribly deep movie either, but I feel like it clearly puts humor above social commentary and on that level it worked for me even though I didn't find it to be a hoot or anything. There's still room for a sequel to delve deeper anyways.

I really liked it but I wouldn't consider it a masterpiece, more just a very fun movie. HOWEVER, I don't really feel any differently about things like the Avengers movies and tbh I think I liked Barbie more than any of those (admittedly not by much over the first one and the last two). I was always glad this movie was such a huge hit and I liked it more than I thought I would. It disheartens me a little that some of the usual suspects on YouTube slammed it as another misandrist piece when it didn't come off that way at all to me (even spoke to me a little despite being a guy), but it also delights me that their opinions didn't matter one iota.

In fairness I'm not sure Trump's criminal conviction actually changes much precisely because a lot of voters would already be turned away just by the sheer fact he was under trial to begin with. At least considering what happened to Hillary Clinton in 2016.

What I don't entirely get is how Republicans are much more enthusiastic about Trump than Democrats are about Biden given the latter doing much better in the Democratic primaries vs. the former in the Republican primaries. The only reason that makes sense to me is that Biden got so many apathy votes just for being the incumbent, which is good for his election chances given Biden has that advantage there to but reflects so poorly on the Democratic Party it's not even funny. I genuinely think both parties are in a terrible position and regardless of the election result America is in deep trouble going forward. Obviously the Republican Party is more evil, but I don't even necessarily think that's intentional.

I saw the movie for the first time earlier this month and thought it was decent. HOWEVER, I'm not surprised the reviews were mixed since you'd probably be completely lost if you didn't know much about Mario going on. Fortunately that was not true for most it seems!

The plot was thin, but the actors did well enough, the characters were introduced well enough, and the movie was respectful enough of the source material (references felt more organic than shoehorned in) that it still worked overall. Chris Pratt has definitely won me back over between this and Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3. He's basically Hollywood's current quintessential everyman.

HOWEVER, I can't help but remember a time when Chris Pratt was compared favorably to the likes of Jai Courtney and Sam Worthington. Almost seems like he's now just as likely to be lumped in with them than not.

...same corporate roof. Dangit Disney.

I'll straight up admit a big reason why I liked the first one is because it wasn't (at least nominally anyways) a remake or sequel.

On the flip side, it's not like there haven't been plenty of other big movies that became smash hits (and even were critically acclaimed in many instances) that didn't become largely forgotten and/or become frequently mocked/trashed since. I'll not name names for now because people probably know examples.

Also on the topic of James Cameron (since he co-wrote and co-produced it), I saw "Alita: Battle Angel" for the first time this past week on the recommendation of my brother. If you want to know what I thought of it, feel free to ask.

Anecdotal at best but I feel like you rarely see people going around talking about how good the Avatar movies are and yet they make bank. Not entirely unreasonable but downright surreal in today's geek movie landscape. Like, most of the YouTubers I primarily follow for film-related commentary didn't like The Way of Water but they did like The Flash and the new Indiana Jones movie. Yet look which one was a smash hit and which two were big bombs.

Liked the first one a lot but haven't seen the second. In fairness James Cameron is my favorite filmmaker.

For those not in the know, he also mentored filmmakers like Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, Ron Howard, Joe Dante, Jonathan Demme, and John Sayles.

20th Century Fox Widescreen Series (VHS Capture) - YouTube

I also evidently don't know how to embed YouTube links.

It feels to me like this movie isn't as hated as Crystal Skull, but people who do hate it hate it more. And many of those either didn't dislike Crystal Skull or didn't think it was bad enough to deserve this kind of course correction. Not to mention said course correction was remarked on as hewing close to the Star Wars sequel trilogy of all things.

That said, the anti-feminist pre-release backlash towards Phoebe Waller-Bridge's character is idiotic beyond belief.

For the record I have not, more curious than anything. I showed my brother Raiders of the Lost Ark last year as an excuse to revisit one of my favorite movies and it turned me off from the idea of watching an Indiana Jones movie not directed by Spielberg.

tcaz2 posted...

Yeah. He messed up for sure but it was no where near as bad as some things like this get. There was no actual physical component, no threats, just a dude overstepping his boundaries while talking to women online about a fetish. It was repeated and not okay to happen, but when it was brought out he genuinely seems like he's gone about getting help and apologizing and explaining his pov pretty correctly.

It's pretty clear it was just him screwing up and that there was no malicious intent, to me. Things happen, people make mistakes when dealing with the opposite sex (or whatever gender they're into). If he learns from it, doesn't do it again, and becomes a better person then I at least absolutely forgive him.

The tldr is Chugga creeped out several women by going too far with foot/shoe fetish roleplay and didn't realize they weren't into it. They cut ties with him and it eventually got out on social media, causing a big controversy.

Various bits of evidence and he said/she said things came out and caused a war online etc.

Yeah even before his response I did not think what he did deserved to tarnish him completely. I'm honestly upset at how this all played out, although I got even more upset when I found a YouTube video deeming both Lady Emily AND MasaeAnela liars and someone questioning why Chugga was asking people not to harass YouTubers who tried to take him down...because that's totally how it works.

I don't personally particularly need The Runaway Guys to keep making new Let's Plays but the fact this stupid thing potentially ended them forever sucks. That being said, Chugga also apparently hadn't even begun work on his next Let's Play due to feeling stress from a number of unrelated issues even before the misconduct allegations broke out, which is why he checked into rehab in the first place. Even if he does return to the YouTube community, he'll have to second guess everything he says (considering his tendency to say inappropriate and/or dirty crap in his video content, ESPECIALLY in TRG - see "Should we do Daisy on hard?" for instance - got him into this mess in the first place) and I don't know if he wants that. Poor guy.

Big name Let's Player, active since 2008. Also member of The Runaway Guys alongside ProtonJon and NintendoCapriSun.

Mega_Mana posted...

Though The Shining towards the top of people's lists feels kind of default judging against the rest of the list, I dare anyone who listed it as #1 to watch it again in a theatre or without any distractions (book/phone/Shining as background) and see how it holds up to you. The movie is a slog.

One of my most disappointing theatre experiences was going to watch a special showing on the big screen. I'd seen it plenty of times before, loved the book and Room 237 and had some Nostalgia Critic-induced praise for the miniseries, and was going to see it with another horror-King friend. So while The Shining has so many great moments and memorable scenes... it feels like a four or five hour slog when you're just sitting there waiting for anything at all to actually happen. It is a slow, boring movie. I am so glad it didn't take top spot and The Thing did.

It's still a great piece of cinema! I've enjoyed it again since, at home--when I can do other things during 80% of the runtime. But I completely understand it getting blasted with terrible reviews for its theatrical run. It's insane to me how opposite The Shining is to a lot of other movies where Big Screen > Small Screen.

i should straight up admit my partiality towards Kubrick. Part of me also feels like I'm generally not particularly into ghost fiction, and I view The Shining and Poltergeist more as spins on haunted house horror while Ghostbusters is more like a high-concept SNL comedy. And even then, the only good Ghostbusters movie is the first one.

Yeah maybe that's not a good description, but they have a more idealistic view than Burton's. I suck at wording evidently. I did say BY COMPARISON though.

I don't know, the movies don't come off as "grimdark" or "joyless" as people make them out to be. I was just thinking about why my favorite comic book movie is The Dark Knight even though I typically prefer more lighthearted superhero movies.

Am I the only one who feels like in hindsight the Nolan Batman movies were like the opposite of Burton's in a way? The latter present an over-the-top grotesque atmosphere but have somber and gloomy plots, while the former look like gritty crime dramas but have more optimistic and uplifting plots about the triumph of good over evil by comparison.

I personally thought Shelley Duvall was at least as good as Nicholson in The Shining if not better. At the very least, I doubt I'd react any differently.

That also makes me want to ask who else here has seen the 2000 horror movie What Lies Beneath. Some endorse it as a more faithful adaptation of The Shining than the Kubrick movie for reasons like Michelle Pfeiffer resembling the book's description of Wendy better and Harrison Ford having been considered to play Jack in the Kubrick movie. I personally thought it didn't work because the first act or so was pointless, but the two leads' performances and Zemeckis's direction helped save face somewhat. I saw the movie because I was bored, it's on Disney+ where I live (20th Century Fox was the international distributor), and Harrison Ford is my favorite actor. I will also admit I enjoyed admiring his abs.

At least The Shining doesn't (couldn't tell you exactly why) feel like stuff happens for no rhyme or reason the way Event Horizon did. To me at least.

I do respect Event Horizon's cult following, but not the movie itself.

I feel like I'd rank The Shining above but The Thing is more my kind of movie? However, like I said earlier I needed to watch The Shining twice to get into it and The Thing three times. The latter at least, feels like a movie that gets better with age.

Also huh we like snowy horror lol.