I feel like my regular rotation is slight in comparison to what other folks are posting, but podcasts are an unwinding kind of activity for me, so I don’t really want to be inundated with current events or heavy topics. Accordingly, here’s a bunch of “Arts and Culture” type recommendations.

Bandsplain: Yasi Salek explores bands’ discographies, usually with a guest who is a self-described super fan of the band being discussed. I think it’s a Spotify exclusive, which is a bummer, but they leverage that to actually play relevant songs at certain points in the cast. A good way to remove blindspots in your catalog, or to achieve a greater understanding of artists’ holistic output, rather than just the hits.

Blank Check: A podcast about filmographies. Each “season” covers a different director, and the hosts examine their career chronologically. Fun, and it encourages me to finally tackle movie blindspots. They are doing the first half of Spielberg’s career at the moment, most recently discussing 1987’s Empire of the Sun.

Eye of the Duck: A podcast about movie genres / vibes. Each “season” is a different kind of film, and the hosts select emblematic examples to examine in chronological order, with a mind towards how the genre evolved over time. Examples of past topics include Alien Invasion, 80s Dark Fantasy, Space Movies, and so on. They are typically a little more “film school brain” than most amateur podcasts, which I appreciate, but may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Three Moves Ahead: Weekly video game podcast, with a heavy emphasis on strategy games. I’m not a regular listener, but I will often check to see if they’ve done an episode on a particular game that I’m playing.

Every F’n FF: Three folks (who I think are involved in the speed running scene) on a quest to complete every Final Fantasy game. This coincided with a replay of FFX that I embarked upon. Sadly I think X-2 may have broke them, as they’ve not uploaded since last October, but it does look like they completed 1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 13, and Dirge of Cerberus.

I watched the older animated one (Invasion) a few months ago, and my experience tracks with you. Brain bug is taking over a Federation ship and trying to crash into Earth for conquest purposes (sort of an Alen: Resurrection thing going on there). It’s up to Rico, Carmen, and (maybe) Carl to stop the ship before it arrives. It’s 90 minutes of mid-2010s videogame cutscene, and is a fun bit of frivolous nothing, if that’s what you want.

The latter animated movie (Traitor of Mars) brings back Casper van Dien (and Dina Meyer, which is interesting depending on if this is a sequel or a prequel), but I’ve not seen that one yet.

I don’t believe Heinlein ever wrote a sequel to Starship Troopers, though certainly the “military science fiction” genre owes a lot to that book.

Ed Neumeier (who wrote Robocop and the 97 movie) however, wrote and directed the 2 live action film sequels. The second is, from memory, God awful and not worth a watch. The third is ALSO God awful as I recall, but it has the advantage of going pretty big with its ideas, so there’s a bit of zany fun to be had. Plus, despite it being one of the defining features of the book, it’s also the first time (I think) power armor makes an appearance in the film franchise. Casper van Dien’s star had fallen sufficiently by that point too, so he also reprises his role as Rico, which is another point in its favor.

There also a handful of computer animated movies and a TV series that I believe originated in Japan. They are about on par, quality wise, with the CGI Resident Evil movies. Depending on your tastes, that could either be a mild endorsement or a resounding condemnation.

Man, I literally wound up listening to that entire playlist last night after I posted the comment. I’ve only seen the film once, probably a decade or more in the past at this point, so I really only had the overall impression of the score in my head. It’s even better than I remember it.

Also, I put together that Nyman also composed the score to Gattaca, which is another very stirring soundtrack. I can hear elements it in the more traditional portions of Ravenous.

I watched the Scott Adkins film Accident Man this week. It’s a film for a particular audience, one pre-disposed to enjoy direct-to-video action/martial arts schlock. On that level, it’s fairly successful, though limitations of budget and time are apparent in the fight choreo. I’d guess about 10% of the blows are mistimed, or aimed obviously wide. Furthermore, as a showcase for stunt performers, they wisely avoid overly editing the fight sequences, but (presumably in an effort to inject “intensity” without utilizing editing) the camerawork strays occasionally into unmotivated shaky cam territory. It isn’t hugely distracting outside of a couple beats though, and, without rapid fire cutting, the action remains mostly legible.

Speaking of stunt performers, the cast is the obvious selling point of the film. Adkins, Michael Jai White, Ray Park, Amy Johnston, and Ray Stevenson are probably the biggest draws for the film’s intended audience, and they certainly deliver. While anyone who has seen Black Dynamite knows that Michael Jai White has excellent comedic instincts in addition to his physical prowess, I was pleasantly surprised by Ray Park, who I found to be quite funny as White’s partner in crime. Stevenson provides some of his trademark intensity and gravitas, and a handful of other trusty character actors fill out the cast list. Comparatively speaking, Johnston draws the short straw, as her katana-wielding honey pot assassin suffers the most from the movie’s early 90s, deliberately edgy, independent comics origins.

With all that being said, the experience is sort of spoiled by the narrative tying the fights together. Adkins is an amoral assassin who views his targets not as people, but as deposits into his bank account. He is misanthropic to the extreme, and it’s a testament to Adkins’ charisma that I continued to watch after he justifies brutalizing a group of bar patrons (who, to be fair, are depicted as harassing a woman) as necessary to diffuse his “PMT - Post Murder Tension”. Tempting though it is to blame Stu Small and Adkins (who debuts as a screenwriter here), as I mentioned, the movie is an adaptation of an early 90s comic by Pat Mills. Mills is most famous for his involvement with the early Judge Dredd stories, so I’m inclined to believe that there’s an element of satire in just how edgy everybody is. Much of Adkins’ narration appears to be quoted directly from the comics, based on what I was able to find online, so I’d guess that much of what I’m about to criticize the film for is present in the source material and not a reflection of either writer.

The crux of the movie’s plot is Adkins’ ex-girlfriend (who, after leaving him, began a relationship with another woman) winds up dead, and Adkins sets out to uncover what happened. It’s established that Adkins has hang ups about the relationship’s end, because she was the only thing in his life that made him feel something. Despite this, it’s clear from everyone that he interacts with that she wanted nothing to do with him after they split, and the brief glimpses we get in flashbacks show him to have been utterly uninterested in her as a person, rather than a sex object. Additionally, Adkins discovers that Beth was pregnant with his child at the time of her murder (and that Beth and her new girlfriend, Charlie, intended to raise the child as their own), which he immediately gloms onto in exactly the sort of toxic, possessive masculinity that you might expect from the shittiest kinds of men. To the movie’s credit, there are a number of scenes in which Adkins’ personal “stake” in the plot is criticized by the less sociopathic characters. Unfortunately, it doesn’t fully commit to the bit, and there’s a third act pep talk from Charlie to Adkins that feels ridiculously unearned given their history. Additionally, it doesn’t sit right with me that Adkins is continuing to use misogynistic language pretty liberally during the final fight, when he’s supposed to have experienced some character development on that front.

Also, as a minor annoyance, despite the film’s title and his assassination gimmick being based around making his hits look like accidents, we really only see that twice, very early in the film. That’s kind of a bummer.

All things being equal though, the movie mostly delivered on the promise of its cast, and the narrative issues I have with it aren’t so glaring that I couldn’t be bothered to watch the interstitial scenes in between showdowns. 3/5 stars.

Well, consider me sold. Messy, but entertaining is exactly what I’d hope for from the sequels. Thanks for taking the time to reply!

I can’t answer what my favorite is per se, but two of the most memorable scores I can think of are for Swiss Army Man and Ravenous.

I believe Daniels tapped the band Manchester Orchestra to do the music for Swiss Army Man. For whatever reason, they chose to have Paul Dano and Daniel Radcliffe sing on the soundtrack and the lyrics are usually just narrating what is happening on screen. case in point. It’s a lot of fun.

Equally avant-garde, but substantially more “challenging”, shall we say, the score for Ravenous is very striking and idiosyncratic, as befitting the film it’s accompanying. Also written by a popular musician, in part at any rate. Michael Nyman, the second composer, said Damon Albarn (of Blur and, later, The Gorillaz) wrote about 60% of the tracks and he composed the remainder. Several of the tracks were performed by people who had never played their assigned instruments before in their lives, to create a deliberately off-putting soundscape. Others are traditional period marching songs befitting the frontier America setting. Some are based around electronic loops and samples. And others are very traditional, pleasant (if ominous) orchestra pieces. It’s really a wild listen. Check it out for yourself.

My local symphony regularly screens movies while playing all of the score, and I would LOVE if they would do Conan. Sadly, I think it’s unlikely, but I can dream! As far as I’m concerned, it is the Platonic ideal of an epic fantasy score.

Are the Re-Animator sequels worth a watch? I love the OG, but I’ve always assumed any sequels would lack its charm.

I don’t disagree about Top Gun 2 in the holistic, “how was the movie?” sense. Well maybe not about it being as rewatchable as Schindler’s List, that’s a touch hyperbolic. However, as I said, I thought the cinematography, editing, VFX, and sound design of the flight sequences was suitably thrilling, even if the narrative elements were “whatever” at best.

From what they showed of the race sequences, it seems like they are employing a similar ethos, and I’m hopeful that, without the appeal to nostalgia that permeated the entirety of Top Gun 2, they might put a little more effort into the narrative surrounding the action set pieces. Granted, that’s unlikely, but it’s not really a deal breaker for me, cause the boilerplate underdog sports story still slaps for me if it’s done competently. Sort of like how so many crime thrillers wind up treading similar rags to riches to ruin plots, but folks keep making them.

I can understand your trepidation though. I admit I’m granting it a lot of grace, simply because I expect it to be a 6/10 movie, with 9/10 action set pieces. As Calvin and Hobbes taught me back in the day, if you keep your expectations low, they are that much easier to exceed.

Idk if you’re seriously asking, but, as someone who doesn’t even have a casual interest in motorsports, I’ll answer:

1. I like Brad Pitt
2. I like the archetypical structure of sports movies
3. The director did the new Top Gun, and I thought that the plane action in that was well-done, so I imagine the driving portions here will be equally thrilling.

Like, yeah it’s a niche sport, but look at Moneyball, another highly specific sports movie starring Brad Pitt. Hell, that movie is as much about statistics and sports finance as it is about baseball, and I still think it’s the best “sports” movie of the past 25 years. And I have even LESS interest in baseball than I do Formula 1.

There is a distinct lack of “If You Must” on this track list and I gotta say, that smells pretty FUNKAAAAY…

This video series sounds like it might be up your alley. Guy documents his attempts to simulate a goblin society and ecosystem.

He sucks, but it was such a good set-up for a shitty Dice Man style joke, I couldn’t resist.

An emotional box? Enough about my wife!

OH!

Hopefully someone with better info than me will chime in (my algorithm occasionally coughs up LOTRO vids, but I haven’t played seriously in some time). I believe that there are two stated reasons for the situation, both relating to the age of the game. The first is that the remaining player base is not big enough to support the number of servers currently offered, and so consolidation will help the game feel more alive at any given moment. The second reason is that the legacy servers are 32 bit, and they want to modernize to a 64 bit architecture. So, two birds, one (standing) stone.

To your parenthetical, is that not what the Producers Guild of America is?

You are thinking of a different vampire game. Vampire Survivors has no elements of metroidvania in its design that I can think of.

I’m glad you enjoyed the book, and I hope it led to further reading. It comes with a list of caveats a mile long from other historians and anthropologists. Engaging, yes, but I would dispute it meets the “accuracy” criterion OP laid out.

For those unaware, Diamond’s book attempts to explain the disparity of power and wealth between European cultures and the rest of the world. Thankfully, he explicitly rejects any argument based upon inherent white supremacy, so that’s good. Since that old chestnut is off limits, though, he has to find a different paradigm to explain the disparity. To that end, he argued that the environmental factors of the European continent made it so any other outcome was practically impossible. The handful of geographical advantages afforded to those early civilizations compounded upon themselves time and time again, inevitably resulting in European hegemony.

On its face, it’s an argument that makes some degree of sense, especially if your world history education is already predisposed to a Eurocentric view. Due to the book’s success, it has been the subject of a lot of rebuttals and counter-arguments from other scholars. It’s worth perusing some of that scholarship if you found Diamond’s arguments interesting or compelling.

Oof, I’m glad you saw humor in the latter day Moore installments, but I avoid that era of Bond because my interpretation was that noone was in on the joke. If there was any sort of realization that Moore was too old for the role behind the scenes, they didn’t let on with the choices they were making in front of the camera (and I think it’s pretty well acknowledged that Moore, at least, felt like he had aged out of the character towards the end of his run). Idk if a bigger wink would have helped necessarily (that era of Bond already strays dangerously close to self-parody), but no-selling it didn’t work for me either.