Text
#movies#polls#be kind rewind#be kind rewind 2008#be kind rewind movie#2000s movies#michel gondry#jack black#yasiin bey#danny glover#mia farrow#requested#have you seen this movie poll
102 notes
·
View notes
Text
Be Kind Rewind (Michel Gondry, 2008).
#be kind rewind (2008)#be kind rewind#michel gondry#jack black#mos def#yasiin bey#melonie diaz#ellen kuras#jeff buchanan#dan leigh#james donahue#ron von blomberg#rahel afiley#kishu chand
72 notes
·
View notes
Text
Bismillah al rahman al rahim…
Happy Born Yasiin Bey @yasiinbey
Born December 11, 1973 in Bedford-Stuyvesant Brooklyn, Yasiin Bey is a renown MC.
Yasiin has been making hip-hop music since 1994, and first gained national attention in 1998 with the release of Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star, and his subsequent solo album, Black on Both Sides, in 1999.
Throughout his career, Bey has balanced music with acting, appearing in films such as Bamboozled (2000), Brown Sugar (2002), The Italian Job (2003), Something The Lord Made (2004), The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005), 16 Blocks (2006), and Be Kind Rewind (2008) among others.
“This is business, no faces just lines and statistics… From your phone, your zip code, to SSI digits… The system break man, child and women into figures, two columns for who is and who ain’t niggas… Numbers is hard and real and they never have feelings, but you push too hard, even numbers got limits… Why did one straw break the camel’s back? Here’s the secret, the million other straws underneath it, it’s all mathematics.”
CARTER™️ Magazine
#carter magazine#carter#historyandhiphop365#wherehistoryandhiphopmeet#history#cartermagazine#today in history#staywoke#blackhistory#blackhistorymonth#yasiin bey
26 notes
·
View notes
Text
Actors in Blackface
I was recently reminded that Marvel Studio’s favorite Robert Downey Jr was even nominated for an Oscar for performing in Blackface for “Tropic Thunder” (2008).
White actors in Blackface (dark or black makeup, sometimes with exaggerated lips) was pretty common in the so-called “Golden Age” of Hollywood. Singer Al Jolson even built his entire career in Blackface.
I am not African American so I can’t speak to how offensive Blackface is (but in the modern era, it’s seem pretty offensive).
I’m Mexican American and growing up I hated when I saw non-Hispanic actors portray Mexicans in movies or TV. Almost always they played the characters as lazy, or drunks, and often the bad guy. In particular I hated Eli Wallach (who is Polish) for his portrayal in “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”.
Fred Astaire, in Swing Time (1936) and in Easter Parade (1948)
Dan Aykroyd, in Trading Places (1983
Jack Black, in Be Kind Rewind (2008
Bugs Bunny, 1942 cartoon Fresh Hare
Bing Crosby, in Dream House (1932)
Ted Danson, a 1993 Friars Club roast of his Whoopi Goldberg
Robert Downey Jr. in the 2008 film Tropic Thunder
Jimmy Fallon, impersonating Chris Rock on Saturday Night Live
Judy Garland in Babes in Arms
Al Jolson
Jane Krakowski twice on 30 Rock
Shirley Temple in The Littlest Rebel
#blackface#robert downey jr#tropic Thunder#the good the bad the ugly#Fred Astaire#bing crosby#jimmy fallon#Judy garland#offensive#shirley temple
19 notes
·
View notes
Text
2024 Belated Updated Movie Masterlist
every year, i repost my movie watchlist here and set a new goal for movie watching. it is september now and i only just realized that i never did that for 2024!
instead, i tried to chip away at the 2023 reviews i was behind on first, got absolutely swamped by life (which i promise i'm still working on telling you all about) and never kicked off 2024 officially, even as i have been watching movies and keeping track of them to review here.
so, no time like almost-october, right? better than letting all of 2024 be absorbed into a black hole. and i didn't have a goal for this year, since i completely forgot to even kick off the year with a fresh masterpost, but the upside of that is that i don't have to feel bad about never coming close to my aspirational ideals.
also! i finally gave in and created a letterboxd account, though i'm still working on setting things up over there--and i'm going to keep writing my reviews over here anyway, because this is still my online home.
if anybody wants to read my most recent year in review, last year’s list is here, with movies i watched linked to their reviews (and more reviews to come). for 2024 though, behold, my constantly-growing movie list (split in half because tumblr's mad at how many i want to see):
4th man out (2015) 12 years a slave (2013) a family man (2016) a room with a view (1985) a simple favor (2018) a single man (2009) a wrinkle in time (2018) abigail (2024) about time (2013) admission (2013) after yang (2021) always be my maybe (2019) american fiction (2023) american gangster (2007) ammonite (2020) amsterdam (2022) an education (2009) anything’s possible (2022) aquaman (2018) are you there god? it’s me margaret (2023) argylle (2024) arrival (2016) atonement (2007) august: osage county (2013) babylon (2023) bad education (2019) be kind rewind (2008) bedazzled (2000) beetlejuice (1988) beetlejuice beetlejuice (2024) begin again (2013) between the temples (2024) big eyes (2014) billy elliot (2000) blockers (2018) bohemian rhapsody (2018) bowfinger (1999) boy erased (2018) breaking (2022) brideshead revisited (2008) bright young things (2003) burn burn burn (2015) cairo time (2009) call jane (2022) can you ever forgive me? (2018) catherine called birdy (2022) chef (2014) clemency (2019) coco (2017) cold copy (2023) colette (2018) crazy rich asians (2018) creed (2015) creed 2 (2018) creed 3 (2023) crimson peak (2015) crouching tiger, hidden dragon (2000) crush (2022) cuckoo (2024) cyrano (2021) dazed and confused (1993) demolition man (1993) devil’s knot (2013) didi (2024) die hard 2 (1990) die hard with a vengeance (1995) dog day afternoon (1975) drive-away dolls (2024) dual (2022) earth girls are easy (1988) effie gray (2014) ella mckay (?) eurovision song contest: the story of fire saga (2020) fast color (2018) fear street part one: 1994 (2021) fear street part two: 1978 (2021) fear street part three: 1666 (2021) fighting with my family (2019) fly me to the moon (2024) fright night (2011) furiosa: a mad max saga (2024) galaxy quest (1999) girls trip (2017) glass onion: a knives out mystery (2022) gone girl (2014) good luck to you, leo grande (2022) goodbye christopher robin (2017) gosford park (2001) gunpowder milkshake (2021) happy death day (2017) happy death day 2u (2019) happy texas (1999) her smell (2018) his three daughters (2023) hit man (2023) holes (2003) honk for jesus. save your soul. (2022) honor society (2022) how to talk to girls at parties (2017) how to train your dragon (2010) hysteria (2011) i am not your negro (2017) i don’t feel at home in this world anymore (2017) i saw the tv glow (2024) i, tonya (2017) if (2024) if beale street could talk (2018) inception (2010) infinitely polar bear (2014) jackie (2016) jane got a gun (2015) janet planet (2024) jennifer's body (2009) joyful noise (2012) judas and the black messiah (2021) judy blume forever (2023) junebug (2005) jupiter ascending (2015) just mercy (2019) kajillionaire (2020) keeping mum (2005) killers of the flower moon (2023) knife fight (2012) kubo and the two strings (2016) laggies (2014) last holiday (2006) late night (2019) lemonade mouth (2011) little (2019) live free or die hard (2007) logan lucky (2017) longlegs (2024) love, simon (2018) magic mike xxl (2015) magic mike: last dance (2023) mansfield park (1999) marmalade (2024) mars attacks! (1996) mary queen of scots (2018) master (2022) master gardener (2022) maxxxine (2024) may december (2024) me and earl and the dying girl (2015) meet the robinsons (2007) megamind (2010) memento (2000) men in black international (2019) mermaids (1990) midsommar (2019) migration (2023) miss pettigrew lives for a day (2008) miss sloane (2016) missing (2023) monkey business (1952) moonlight (2016) moonrise kingdom (2012) moonshot (2022) mother couch (2023) mothers instinct (2024) moving on (2022) mr. magorium’s wonder emporium (2007) mr. mom (1983) much ado about nothing (2011) muriel’s wedding (1994) musica (2024)
nancy drew and the hidden staircase (2019) nanny mcphee (2005) nanny mcphee returns (2010) national anthem (2024) never let me go (2010) newsies (1992) night shift (2023) no time to die (2021) nope (2022) northanger abbey (2007) not okay (2022) obvious child (2014) omni loop (2024) on the come up (2022) oppenheimer (2023) other people (2016) pacific rim (2013) palm springs (2020) parallel (2024) parasite (2019) paris is burning (1990) passing (2021) penelope (2006) pete’s dragon (2016) pirate radio (2009) please stand by (2017) polite society (2023) pride (2014) pride and prejudice and zombies (2016) professor marston and the wonder women (2016) renfield (2023) return to oz (1985) rise of the guardians (2012) rita moreno: just a girl who decided to go for it (2021) rocketman (2019) roll bounce (2005) rosaline (2022) saving face (2004) say anything (1989) scoop (2024) scream (2022) scream 6 (2023) see how they run (2022) seeking a friend for the end of the world (2012) she said (2022) shirley (2024) shoplifters (2018) short term 12 (2013) sing street (2016) skincare (2024) sleeping with other people (2015) someone great (2019) somewhere quiet (2023) sorry to bother you (2018) soul (2020) spider-ham: caught in a ham (2019) spider-man: across the spiderverse (2023) spider-man: far from home (2019) spider-man: homecoming (2017) spider-man: into the spiderverse (2018) spider-man: no way home (2021) spin me round (2022) spotlight (2015) spy kids (2001) stage fright (2014) step up (2006) talk to me (2022) teeth (2007) the 355 (2022) the age of innocence (1993) the american society of magical negroes (2024) the anniversary party (2001) the batman (2022) the best exotic marigold hotel (2012) the bikeriders (2023) the book of clarence (2023) the breadwinner (2017) the burial (2023) the children act (2017) the craft: legacy (2020) the disaster artist (2017) the divine order (2017) the emperor’s new groove (2000) the eyes of tammy faye (2021) the fall (2006) the fallout (2021) the fighting temptations (2003) the five year engagement (2012) the gentlemen (2019) the godfather (1972) the godfather part 2 (1974) the godfather part 3 (1990) the great gatsby (2013) the great lillian hall (2024) the hunchback of notre dame (1996) the hunt (2020) the iron lady (2011) the kill room (2023) the legend of tarzan (2016) the lost city (2022) the master (2012) the matrix resurrections (2021) the monuments men (2014) the notebook (2004) the old guard (2020) the outfit (2022) the photograph (2020) the prestige (2006) the prince of egypt (1998) the prom (2020) the queen (2006) the royal hotel (2023) the second best exotic marigold hotel (2016) the secret garden (2020) the skeleton twins (2014) the spy who dumped me (2018) the suicide squad (2021) the thicket (2024) the trial of the chicago 7 (2020) the truman show (1998) the unbearable weight of massive talent (2022) the united states vs. billie holiday (2021) the velocipastor (2018) the way he looks (2014) the woman king (2022) the wonder (2022) their finest (2016) thelma (2024) this means war (2012) tootsie (1982) treasure planet (2002) troop zero (2019) turtles all the way down (2024) twisters (2024) two lovers and a bear (2016) uglies (2024) upgraded (2024) us (2019) v for vendetta (2005) valley girl (2020) velvet goldmine (1998) venom (2018) venom: let there be carnage (2021) venom: the last dance (2024) victoria & abdul (2017) violent night (2022) walk the line (2005) wet hot american summer (2001) what happens later (2023) what we do in the shadows (2014) where’d you go, bernadette (2019) widows (2018) wild target (2010) winner (2024) women talking (2022) yesterday (2019) young adult (2011) zombieland: double tap (2019)
#thanks to#letterboxd#i know for the first time that my movie list is currently 326 films long#which is definitely insane but also neat to know#(also because it's so easy to use i was able to make a secondary list for horror/thrillers i want to see in october#so that was cool)#movies of 2024
5 notes
·
View notes
Text
Yes, I've watched this full miniseries 37 times.
Script below the break
Hello and welcome back to The Rewatch Rewind! My name is Jane, and this is the podcast where I count down my top 40 most frequently rewatched movies in a 20-year period. Today I will be talking about number two on my list: BBC and A&E’s 1995 mini-series Pride and Prejudice, directed by Simon Langton, written by Andrew Davies, based on the novel by Jane Austen, and starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth.
Mr. and Mrs. Bennet (Benjamin Whitrow and Alison Steadman) have five daughters: beautiful and kind Jane (Susannah Harker), witty and strong-willed Elizabeth (Jennifer Ehle), homely and puritanical Mary (Lucy Briers), well-meaning but naïve Kitty (Polly Maberly), and frivolous and spoiled Lydia (Julia Sawalha). Because there are no Bennet sons, Mr. Bennet’s estate is entailed upon his cousin Mr. Collins (David Bamber), and the daughters are aware that at least one of them must marry well to provide for the rest of the family after their father’s death. When wealthy and friendly Mr. Bingley (Crispin Bonham-Carter) moves into the neighborhood, he and Jane quickly hit it off, and the Bennets’ problems seem to be over. However, Mr. Bingley’s sisters, Caroline (Anna Chancellor) and Louisa (Lucy Robinson), along with his unpleasant, proud friend Mr. Darcy (Colin Firth) have strong objections to the Bennet family, who strike them as undignified gold-diggers, even though Mr. Darcy unwillingly finds himself strangely drawn to Elizabeth.
Okay so yes, this is technically a TV show rather than a movie, but even though it’s over five hours long, I still tend to watch it as a movie, and it felt right to count it as such, although when I first wrote it down in my movie notebook, I never anticipated that it would become my second most-frequently-rewatched. I remember that my parents were really into it, and at some point when it was on TV after we finally got a VCR, they had taped it. I tried to watch it with them a few times when I was younger, but I found the flowery language difficult to understand, and I typically fell asleep in the middle without knowing what was going on. The first time I watched it and actually paid attention was in 2005, and the main thing I remember was that my dad assumed I knew the story by then and kept making spoilery comments. I don’t think I fully appreciated it at that point, but I definitely enjoyed it more than I thought I was going to. I ended up watching it twice in that year and then five times in 2006, which is when it became one of my favorite stories. I read the book and watched a few other adaptations that year. In 2007 I only watched this series once, but that was also the year that my family ended up getting two male puppies, and after much deliberation about what to name them, we determined that Bingley and Darcy were the best names that went together and represented something we all enjoyed. After that, I watched it three times in 2008, once in 2009, twice in 2010, four times in 2011, twice in 2012, twice in 2013, four times in 2014, once in 2015, once in 2016, twice in 2017, once in 2018, three times in 2020, once in 2021, and twice in 2022. I don’t remember exactly when, but somehow between my siblings, my parents, and I, we ended up with three copies of this on DVD in addition to the taped one. I should also mention that I only counted it when I watched the whole thing from start to finish within a few days, so I’ve watched it like that 37 times, but I’ve definitely seen pieces of it way more than that. I keep waiting to get tired of watching it, but every time I put it on, it remains delightfully enjoyable.
I know that Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is one of the most beloved stories in the English-speaking world, and probably beyond – although the number of people confused by my dogs’ names taught me that not everyone is particularly familiar with it – and that it has been adapted and retold dozens of times, and that fans of the story have very strong opinions about which is the “best” adaptation. The loudest debate is between this version and the 2005 film directed by Joe Wright and starring Keira Knightley and Matthew Macfadyen. The first time I watched that version was in 2006, in the midst of my mania for the 1995 version, and I thought it was terrible. I knew it had to be shorter for the feature film format, but they cut out so many of my favorite parts! It wasn’t until I rewatched the 2005 version in 2016 that I understood that the people who prefer that version love this story for very different reasons from me. If you’re mostly invested in the Elizabeth/Darcy romance, that’s the version for you. It’s all about the tension and chemistry between those two characters, and everyone else is kind of stuck in as an afterthought. But even though the Bennet daughters’ need to get married is central to the plot, I had never considered the main appeal of this story to be its romance. To 2023 me and you the listener, who know that I’m aromantic, that isn’t very surprising, but at the time it kind of blew my mind to learn that so many fans of the story are there for that slow burn. Even in 2012 to 2013, when The Lizzie Bennet Diaries was coming out, I figured the reason people were so obsessed with Darcy was because not seeing him until episode 60 added to his mystique. At the end of that show, I was way more concerned about Lydia’s story than Lizzie’s, and while I enjoyed seeing Lizzie and Darcy finally get together, it was more of a “yay, things are happy now” relief than squeeing over the adorable romance. Anyway, while I used to be one of those obnoxiously pretentious fans who maintained that the 1995 adaptation was way better than the 2005 one, now I’m more of the opinion that they’re both good, just different, and just because I prefer one over the other doesn’t actually make it better. So if you’re listening to this and are a huge fan of the 2005 version, or any other adaptation, know that I’m not trying to tell you you’re wrong. Ultimately, Pride and Prejudice is a great story with many layers, and I think it’s awesome that there have been so many different versions that emphasize different aspects.
Despite the fact that this version is quite long (although not nearly as long as the Lizzie Bennet Diaries), I personally love the pacing. The events of the story take place over about a year, and these six 55-minute episodes take their time bringing us through that year with the characters. Watching it now, I don’t understand how I ever fell asleep with it on as a child, because I am thoroughly engaged the whole way through. Sometimes I intend to only watch an episode or two at a time, but I end up sitting through the whole thing because I cannot tear myself away. These characters are just so fascinating, and the cast brings them to life so convincingly. In general, I try to separate actors from characters, but I will always associate this cast with this show. Part of that is because of how many times I’ve watched this, and another part is because most of these actors haven’t been in very many American films – with the major exception, of course, of Colin Firth, whose Hollywood career skyrocketed after the success of this series – so I haven’t seen them in many other things. But the main reason is because they all embody their characters so perfectly in this series that it’s hard to see them as actors. Every cast member fully committed to their character in a way that somehow makes them feel simultaneously larger than life and grounded in reality. Alison Steadman’s Mrs. Bennet in particular is over the top and ridiculous but manages to just barely remain believable. While the five Bennet sisters on the surface can be summarized by archetypes, they’re much deeper than they first appear, and I love the ways that both the writing and the performances gradually bring that out. Crispin Bonham-Carter perfectly embodies the puppy-dog friendliness and gullibility of Bingley, and Colin Firth nails Darcy’s transformation after Elizabeth calls him out. Benjamin Whitrow makes Mr. Bennet so likable that it took me a while to understand that part of the family’s plight is his fault. That kind of complexity is one of the major things that makes this movie so rewatchable. There are so many layers to every storyline and every character that you can’t possibly uncover them all in just a few views. There’s also a lot going on in the background – like, Mary doesn’t get very many lines, but I love watching her light up whenever Mr. Collins is around. The show is edited in such a way that the audience can see what every relevant character is thinking at all times, so that even when it’s difficult to understand the fancy dialogue, we still get what’s happening based on the characters’ reactions.
This adaptation receives a lot of praise for its faithfulness to the novel, but while it does follow the book quite closely, I don’t think it gets enough credit for the changes and additions it made that were still in the spirit of the original story. There is some dialogue that was taken word for word from the book, but Jane Austen tended to summarize conversations rather than transcribing them, so quite a bit of new dialogue needed to be added, and I personally find it difficult to tell where Jane Austen ends and Andrew Davies takes over. Austen didn’t write scenes that only featured male characters, claiming that she had no way of knowing how men spoke or behaved when there were no women present, but this show opens with a scene between Bingley and Darcy and focuses a bit more on their friendship than the book does. The change in this version that gets the most attention is when Darcy unexpectedly happens upon Elizabeth after having taken a swim in a lake on his property at Pemberley. I always just saw this as a silly way to add to the awkwardness of the situation, with Darcy trying to remain dignified in soaking, casual clothes, and it surprised me to learn that a lot of people love that scene because Colin Firth apparently looks very sexy in his wet shirt. The change that I personally find most interesting is in the letter that Darcy writes explaining himself to Elizabeth after she turns down his first proposal. In the book, he starts with the allegations about breaking up Jane and Bingley and then moves on to the more serious stuff about how Wickham (played by Adrian Lukis, who told Elizabeth that Darcy ruined his life) had tried to seduce Darcy’s younger sister. In this version, the letter starts with the Wickham stuff and ends with the Bingley stuff because we’re initially watching Darcy and flashbacks of his memories, and then halfway through revealing the letter to the audience, we see Darcy give it to Elizabeth, and then we see her reactions to reading his thoughts about her sister and the rest of her family, along with flashbacks of her memories. Darcy is rather arrogant when he talks about separating Bingley from Jane, so I feel like it makes a little more sense for him to start with that when he’s upset by Elizabeth’s rejection and then move on to the darker Wickham drama, but I really like the way this version shows their reactions to the part of the letter that’s most painful to each of them. And before he writes the letter, we see Darcy dwelling on Elizabeth’s words, and he reacts to what she said about Wickham by saying aloud to himself, “At least in that I may defend myself,” implying that the Wickham story is what prompted him to write the letter in the first place, explaining why he starts with that this time. So it’s true to the original without being constrained by the original, and I think that’s what makes it work so well as an adaptation.
As I said before, many people think of Pride and Prejudice as primarily a romantic story, and like, they’re not wrong, but there’s so much more to it than that. There’s a lot of focus on familial relationships, especially between the two eldest daughters, Jane and Elizabeth, which I’ve always appreciated for its similarities to my relationship with my sister. It’s also worth noting that in this society, women in the Bennets’ station could not get a job, so they basically had two options: marry well, or depend on a male relative. Marriage was essentially a business arrangement, not necessarily a romantic one. In the first episode, Jane and Elizabeth have a conversation about their situation in which Elizabeth says that because Jane is the prettiest and sweetest of the sisters, she will need to be the one to marry very well, and Jane responds with, “But Lizzy, I would wish… I should so much like… to marry for love.” And then she makes this amazing face like she can hardly believe how unreasonable she’s being. Elizabeth assures her, “And so you shall, I’m sure. Only take care you fall in love with a man of good fortune.” But when Jane asks Elizabeth how she feels about marriage, she asserts, “I am determined that nothing but the very deepest love will induce me into matrimony. So, I shall end an old maid and teach your ten children to embroider cushions and play their instruments very ill!” And they laugh. But Elizabeth is completely serious, at least about the first part, as she demonstrates when she turns down two very lucrative marriage proposals that most sensible women in her position would have eagerly accepted. Both men – Mr. Collins and Mr. Darcy – think they are doing her a great favor in offering their hand and are shocked by her refusal. Mr. Collins is a bit of a doofus, but he is also going to inherit her father’s house, and it would therefore be the honorable thing for him to marry one of the Bennet daughters so they could at least continue to live there after Mr. Bennet’s death. But Elizabeth knew he would make her miserable and was unwilling to put up with him merely for security. One could say she slapped amatonormativity in the face, and we love to see it. But interestingly, when Mr. Collins does get married, it’s to the very aro-coded Charlotte Lucas (played by Lucy Scott). Her good friend Elizabeth is utterly shocked that anyone, let alone someone she cares about, would agree to marry Mr. Collins. But Charlotte literally tells Lizzy, “I’m not romantic, you know. I never was.” Aromantic queen. And when Elizabeth vents to Jane about this, Jane has the great line, “You do not make allowances for differences of situation and temper.” Jane is the ally we all need. Later, when Elizabeth visits the Collinses, Charlotte makes it clear that she kind of just does her own thing and barely sees her husband, and Elizabeth feels bad for her friend, but honestly, Charlotte’s life doesn’t sound so bad to me. She has security, and her husband mostly leaves her alone. Things didn’t get much better for an introverted aroace woman in that society. Although part of me does still wish that Mary had ended up with Collins, since she also seems like an introvert on the aroace spectrum, but she actually likes him.
Elizabeth is the opposite of aroace, but the way she refuses to listen when society tells her she’s supposed to marry for money feels kind of similar to modern aroace people refusing to listen when society tells us we’re supposed to fall in romantic, sexual love. One of the things I appreciate most about this story is how it demonstrates that everyone and every relationship is different. Jane and Bingley immediately fall for each other and are perfectly compatible, but because they place so much trust in the people around them, it takes a while for them to officially get together. And I don’t just mean the way Bingley’s sisters and Darcy pulled him away – Elizabeth kept reassuring Jane that it was obvious how she felt about Bingley because it was obvious to her, and neither of them realized that a stranger would just see Jane’s kindness to Bingley as treating him like she treats everyone else. Elizabeth and Darcy are just as well suited for each other as Jane and Bingley are, but they both have some major growing to do – they need to overcome their pride and prejudice, if you will – before they can be together. And then there’s Lydia and Wickham, whose relationship is based mainly on lust. Neither of them seems to have learned anything between the beginning and end of their story, and it’s hard to imagine them being happy together. I used to think of Lydia as a spoiled brat who got what she deserved, but now I feel really bad for her. She was a 15-year-old child who was preyed upon by a grown man, and the best-case scenario was for her to marry him. Her plight demonstrates just how awful the societal rules regarding sex were for women, although the story barely seems aware of it. Her elopement is used as a plot device for Darcy to redeem himself, and the focus is all on how her sisters’ chances of good marriages have been damaged. It’s kind of odd that so many social norms are condemned in this story, and yet Lydia is portrayed as deserving of life-long punishment for daring to break one rule. Jane Austen was progressive, but not that progressive. So that’s the one part of this that bothers me. If you too want justice for Lydia, I highly recommend The Lizzie Bennet Diaries on YouTube, which does an excellent job of humanizing and redeeming her.
Anyway, back to this version, I love that it includes another couple that many adaptations leave out – Mr. and Mrs. Hurst. Mrs. Hurst is Mr. Bingley’s sister Louisa, who, along with their sister Caroline, loves to make fun of and criticize the Bennets. Caroline is partly motivated in her criticism by jealousy, since she has her eye on Darcy and can tell that he’s interested in Elizabeth. But Louisa seems to be motivated by pure snobbery. Which is kind of hilarious because her husband is basically a loser. He doesn’t seem to have an estate or anything, since they’re always staying with her brother, and all he does is drink, hunt, play cards, and sleep. It’s just like, girl, you have no room to criticize anyone’s situation or decisions when you’re stuck with that guy. This just further helps demonstrate that nobody fits society’s ideal, so maybe we should all just live and let live. The characters who remain proud and prejudiced at the end of the story are mostly bitter and unhappy, while those who have learned to look at things from other people’s perspectives are the happiest. And I really like that message.
And aside from the fascinating social commentary, this series is a delightfully fun watch, full of great moments that I will never tire of revisiting. I love, or at least am intrigued by, all the characters, from the leads to the most obscure side characters. She’s barely in it, but one of my favorites is Mrs. Bennet’s sister, Mrs. Phillips, played by Lynn Farleigh. Between her interactions with Mr. Collins, who accidentally insults her and then frustrates her as a whist partner, and the way she consoles Mrs. Bennet after Lydia runs off with Wickham, her lines are some of my favorites to quote. And of course, there’s Lady Catherine de Bourgh, Mr. Collins’s benefactor and Mr. Darcy’s aunt, played by Barbara Leigh-Hunt, who is so impressed with herself that she can’t tell that she’s almost as ridiculous as Mrs. Bennet. I love Sir William Lucas’s “Capital, capital!” and Maria Lucas’s commitment to making haste. Even the characters I don’t like as people are interesting to watch. Wickham is the worst, but I’m almost impressed by his gall. Like, the fact that he can face the Bennets after seducing Lydia as if he’s done nothing wrong is astounding. That man truly has no shame.
While I enjoy pretty much every moment of this series, I have to say that my favorite episode is the fifth one. It really doesn’t seem like it should be, since that’s when the whole Wickham/Lydia stuff is going on and everybody is super stressed, but it has so many of my favorite moments. Like when Elizabeth is playing the pianoforte at Pemberley and a random servant feels the need to stand right in front of her, bow to no one in particular, and then walk offscreen. I don’t know who that bowing servant is or why he does that but I love him. And then there’s the part when Elizabeth returns home with her aunt and uncle, and her cousins are so excited to see their parents again that one of them tries to do a cartwheel and ends up just falling over. And in another wonderful deviation from the novel, Mr. Collins decides to visit the Bennets, ostensibly to console them, but really to gloat that their problems aren’t his problems because he didn’t marry one of them. In the book, he does this by writing a letter, but it’s way funnier to have him visit them, and get to see Mary be impressed with him again. But the best part of that scene is that when Kitty sees his carriage coming, she declares, “I’m not going to sit with him for anyone!” and runs off to hide in the yard. Later, when he’s talking to the other sisters, we can see Kitty peering through the window to see if he’s still there, and it makes me laugh every time.
This show is so good that I would still love watching and quoting it anyway, but I do think my enjoyment has been at least somewhat enhanced by having dogs named after two of the characters. The names really suited them, too – dog Darcy was standoffish toward strangers, but with the people he liked he could be very cuddly, whereas Bingley would pretty much follow anyone around to see what they were up to. Bingley absolutely loved to play fetch, while Darcy would just stare at him like, “What is wrong with you?” in the perfect dog version of how their namesakes felt about dancing. Sadly, Darcy got cancer and died in 2020. Bingley is still hanging in there, although at 16 years old he’s definitely declining, and his fetching days are long behind him. There are a lot of differences between me and Jane Bennet, as she is clearly not aroace, but since we share the same first name and are both the eldest sibling, I’ve always felt a kinship to her, and it makes me happy that presumably we each got to watch our own Mr. Bingley grow old. I think after he inevitably passes, watching this series will probably feel bittersweet for a while, although I don’t think that will make me love it any less. I anticipate continuing to watch it at least once a year on the 26th of November, in honor of the Netherfield Ball, while fondly reminiscing about fetching with Bingley and snuggling with Darcy.
I could go on and on about this movie for hours, but ultimately, what it all boils down to is I love the 1995 Pride and Prejudice because it is an excellent story told extraordinarily well, about characters who are exactly as ridiculous and flawed as real people. So if you’ve thought about watching this version but have been turned off by the length, I highly recommend giving it a chance anyway. Yes it’s almost six hours long, but it’s a thoroughly enjoyable way to spend almost six hours. I was suffering from depression when I first got into this series, and it was one of the few things that made me feel good about life. And if I had not already been in love with this version, I probably wouldn’t have watched The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, and therefore might never have gotten into Shipwrecked Comedy, and that would be very sad. So I have a lot to thank this miniseries for.
Thank you for listening to me discuss another of my most frequently rewatched movies. It’s a little hard for even me to believe that I’ve rewatched Pride and Prejudice more than any other movie besides one in the last 20 years, but I think it really is my second favorite movie, so it’s fitting that it ended up here. Now I only have one movie left, and it’s number one by a lot, with 51 views compared to P&P’s 37. So stay tuned for what is clearly my favorite film. And now, for the last time, as always, I will leave you with a quote from that next movie: “My, she was yare.”
11 notes
·
View notes
Text
— ☆ you can call me . . . Soleil / Hazard / Rewind!
☆ 23 years old. it & he pronouns only.
☆ xenogender effeminate T4T gay thing.
☆ white, norwegian, bilingual.
☆ physically disabled, neurodivergent, and autistic.
— ☆ welcome to my disability-focused sideblog, made by your local hypermobile rivethead latex-slugthing!
I'm an ambulatory wheelchair user. I am on full disability benefit, and have been since I turned 18.
due to the nature of this blog, I'm comfortable sharing certain health issues, since I'll occasionally talk about them & it recontextualizes my posts in a way I feel is important. yes, these are all either professionally diagnosed or acknowledged, though I am pro informed self-dx.
— hypermobile ehlers-danlos syndrome.
— severe bilateral nasal valve collapse with a deviated septum, inferior turbinate hypertrophy, and chronic rhinitis with chronic sinus headaches.
— non-allergic asthma.
— multiple kinds of chronic dermatitis.
— myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome.
— fibromyalgia.
— avoidant personality disorder, autism, dyscalculia, & ocd.
— light sensitivity & myopia (nearsightedness).
I will be getting surgery for the severe structural issues with my nose sometime in 2025, despite my anxiety regarding it all. I plan to document my experiences with this eventually, but I am a little shy!
as for other major surgeries important to me, I had a problematic femur osteochondroma removed in 2017. I also had an inguinal hernia repair done in around 2007-2008.
you may see me space out my punctuation in my posts. this is not a typing quirk; this is to make my posts a little more accessible to those with difficulty following sentences.
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
The Living Dead., Be Kind Rewind/dir. Gondry/2008.
2 notes
·
View notes
Text
Jack Black pogging from Be Kind Rewind 2008
#sorry i know its not my usual content but people need to see this#i just finishe be kind rewind#its so good#should i make my music sideblog an overall media that i liked review thingy???#that seems cool#cuz im watching a lot of movies recently and like#i want to talk about them#and my main is like#my art and reblog dump#fuuuck#no one will read this shit#if youre reading this plz give feedback#idunno what to do
15 notes
·
View notes
Text
A Review of Prince of Persia (2008)
What injury have I done to you, Ubisoft?
Ha, ha, let’s all laugh because the developers named a donkey after Farah. Some of you might find this joke offensive, but to me it’s genuinely hilarious. It’s precisely this kind of playful self-awareness which allows the reboot to re-examine the franchise in a new light. The scene where the Prince first bumps into Elika might have been snatched from a high school drama, but that’s where the tropes end. Elika is no damsel in distress and while you’re still playing as the Prince, you’re very much the sidekick in this adventure. But I’m getting ahead of myself.
2008’s Prince of Persia is the self-titled reboot of the series. Much like Sands of Time, it introduces a new set of characters and a new world for them to explore. Also much like SoT, it re-envisions the franchise’s gameplay mechanics. It’s a bold and innovative experience, further propelled by its fresh ideas and beautiful presentation. It’s a game for whose sequel I’d swallow my disdain, get down on my knees before Ubisoft’s worst vile and beg. It’s also a game that’s not perfect by any account.
There is a very clear vision towards which the reboot was striving for. After Warrior Within came out, the series made itself a reputation for catering only to h a r d c o r e gamers. Instead of pushing the franchise in that direction, the developers decided to switch course. The reboot is a game you’re meant to play laid back on your couch, without a single worry in the world.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with this in itself. There’s no rule which says games need to be challenging. There’s no evidence which implies that more challenging games are better than less challenging ones. And the developers certainly didn’t make any lifetime commitment to keep churning out WW clones.
What ultimately degrades this game’s quality is not the fact that it’s as easy as dipping your toes in the sand and taking a sip of a piña colada. No, as with most games it’s tied to the design decisions and how they were implemented. In this case, it’s how the existing mechanics were modified to achieve a more lenient experience.
I can already feel most of you jumping out of your seats and raising your hand. No, I’m not talking about how Elika saves you from death. Sorry to disappoint. I’m actually quite in favor of this mechanic. The Prince of Persia series has always been based around trial and error. These games don’t expect you to nail everything on the first go and they’re designed with that in mind.
In the SoT trilogy, you were given the ability to rewind time. When you made a mistake, you could rewind back to a moment before that mistake was initiated. This commodity was limited, so once you run out of sands, your next mistake would be fatal. The developers were fully aware of how the previous games worked, so they decided to mask the rewind mechanic as something else that makes sense within the new universe. That is to say, with Elika.
Make no mistake, being rescued by Elika is no different than rewinding time. Both mechanics avoid the game over screen and give you an instant chance to try again. The only difference is that the rewind mechanic has a limit to its graciousness, while Elika does not. You might object that it’s precisely this difference which makes the reboot such a crime, but I’d have to disagree. Forcing you to see a game over screen, making you reload and repeat the parts you’ve previously beaten is not what constitutes as challenge. Challenge is when obstacles are hard to overcome. The reboot just lets players make another attempt a little bit quicker than its predecessors. Now as for the challenges themselves…
Props to my girl Elika for hurling this man around the entire game.
Let’s start dissecting this game with the platforming. Playing the reboot right after beating the other PoP titles is weird. I do not recommend it, especially not if you’re coming out of Forgotten Sands. FoS’ platforming made me manage up to 5 different buttons at a time in order to complete sets of tight and gripping challenges. Compared to that, the reboot’s platforming feels like it’s missing something from the equation.
It’s not just that the control scheme is different, it’s that significantly less input is required from the player. The jump button became a placebo for everything. It’s used to perform most of the actions, with some occasional inputs from the dedicated gauntlet and Elika buttons. Of those two I largely prefer the latter, as being pulled up by Elika somewhat mimics that dipping feeling you get on a roller coaster.
Even those few button prompts are scarcely needed. It took me ages to accept that some of the game’s stunts are performed on auto-pilot. Running along the ceiling is such a ridiculously powerful move I can’t believe it doesn’t require more input from the player. Sometimes I would accidentally press the jump button when the Prince was about to pull himself up a wall, because that animation looks like it’s begging for another prompt. Alas, that just sends you flying in the opposite direction. Later I thought my mind was blown when I realized you don’t need to hold down the jump button while wall running. Little did I know that you don’t even need to keep tilting the stick.
I got into the flow of things eventually, but while I understand how these design decisions play into the couch potato mindset, I can’t say I’m particularly fond of the simplified control scheme. Elika is already here to save me from the shame of ever seeing a game over screen, so why not use her to add a little bit of oomph to the platforming? I didn’t feel relived because there were less buttons to press, I felt robbed. My fingers were yearning for more engagement, but the game just told me to relax and crack a beer.
Well, I might just do that, game! Though my beer would go down a lot easier if the platforming was as immaculate as the game thought it was. The mistake you’ll most often make is jumping towards a wall at the wrong angle. If your aiming is a bit off, the Prince will initiate a wall run bellow the necessary height, making him miss his target and fall down the cliff side.
The game’s also not the greatest when it comes to registering inputs. This is a lot more prominent in combat, but more on that later. It’s less of an eyesore during platforming, but can get on your nerves eventually. So for example, the game sometimes won’t respond to the jump button when you’re trying to hop from one pole to another. Also if you start sliding down a vine, the Prince will stop himself just before he reaches the end of the shrubbery. There’s an annoying pause before the game registers another input to drop down.
Our Persian boy began his career by hopping over pits, but look how far he's gotten.
Although I nag, these instances are cracks on a seemingly perfect cake. Saying a PoP game has great animations is as novel as claiming that water is wet, but I’d like to point it out none the less. Each time platforming rubbed me the wrong way, there were ten other occasions where the game made it up to me. Generally, movement is as smooth as butter and there are a dozen of little details sprinkled in for the keen-eyed. My personal favorite touch is how there are two variations for the mundane act of pulling yourself up a ledge. If you release all buttons before grabbing onto one, the Prince will just keep hanging. However if you keep tilting up the stick, the Prince will quickly scramble on top without loosing momentum.
There is one more aspect that further enriches the platforming and it’s completely unique to the reboot. It’s hard to notice at first, but the levels have a sort of curvature to them. Many of the traversal mechanics are designed with this in mind. To initiate a wall run you have to jump towards it at a 45 degree angle, so to make bouncing off and landing convenient ledges are hexagonally shaped. Brass rings are often placed at corners of buildings, letting the Prince smoothly switch from one side to the other. The green plates let you spiral along the insides and outsides of towers. Polls are stringed circularly, pillars are skewed and you can prolong your wall run by jumping towards a perpendicular wall. All of this gives the reboot a significant amount of depth which makes the platforming in the SoT trilogy feel almost 2-dimensional.
What makes the platforming even more satisfying in the long run is that it’s a vehicle for some unscrupulous eye candy. Yes, this game is drop-dead gorgeous. Serious game critics don’t get hung up on a game’s graphics, but I just started drinking midway through a review, so who the hell cares any more? The reboot is the best looking PoP game by far. Scratch that, it’s one of the most beautiful games I’ve ever played, period. The presentation is so distinct, it’s instantly recognizable even to people who’ve never been near a PoP game before. Not to mention that it still looks amazing more than 10 years after it originally came out.
It’s hard to put into words why this game feels so mesmerizing. The story is set in a desert which bears marks of the Middle East, but most of this world feels new and fresh and alien. You’ll encounter citadels garnished by windmills, balloon held plateaus, golden domes emerging from the clouds and a ruined city surrounded by water lilies. I personally love the bottom-less hallway which connects the Spire of Dreams to the Coronation Hall. There’s something magical about how the sun shines through the stained-glass windows to cast light on rows of desecrated pillars.
The game’s atmosphere wouldn’t be nearly as alluring if it weren’t for the soundtrack. And, oh, what a soundtrack it is! Stuart Chatwood, you dastardly man, how dare you do this to me again? Chatwood’s work on other PoP titles is nothing short of iconic, but he really outdid himself with the reboot. The title track alone will send shivers down your spine, not to mention the rest of the OST which is packed with memorable numbers from start to finish.
This place is due for renovation, but it still looks amazing.
While the mystical feeling emanating from the world closely resembles the one found in Sands of Time, the reboot’s non-linear level design actually hearkens back to Warrior Within. You can explore the world and tackle its challenges in any order you like, limited only by the traversal powers you’ve acquired so far. Even though each area of the map is a simple node with no more than 3 exits, the levels’ unique layout tricks you into thinking that the world is a lot more intricate than it actually is. The game lets you mark way-points and teleport between fertile grounds, but I found it a lot more satisfying to explore without the assistance of the map.
The world is split into 4 areas, each one with 6 fertile grounds. What makes the overall number even more impressive is the distinctiveness at display. While all fertile grounds within an area share the same theme, each one has some sort of trick up their sleeve, making the act of reaching the top that more exciting. The standouts would be the perplexity of the Machinery Grounds, the intense swirl inside the Royal Spire and that insane run along the arches of the Queen’s Tower.
What’s sad about this world, despite how dazzling it looks, is that it’s completely barren. Once you’ve reached a fertile ground and beaten its boss, there’s barely anything left to do. The emptiness of the world will feel eerily familiar to anyone who’s played the first Assassin’s Creed, and it’s no wonder considering these games came out at a similar time. These were still Ubisoft’s early attempts at open-world games and they hadn’t yet figured out how to populate their worlds with content. Though, to be honest, I don’t think they ever did.
They try to keep you busy by making you collect light seeds which are spread throughout the world. And I mean, making environments more interesting by gathering collectibles, like seriously? The light seeds unlock abilities which are necessary to complete the game, but you’ll need significantly less than the maximum amount to progress. The designers don’t want you and don’t need you to spend hours upon hours finding that last light seed in an area. Collecting them is supposed to be spontaneous and something you do along the way. However my OCD would like to have a word with you. If there’s a box to be ticked inside the game, you know full well some us are going to pursue it, be it optional or not. And don’t even get me started on tying achievements to this nonsense.
Stop to take in the view.
Despite the lack of content, the designers did a surprisingly good job of adapting the difficulty curve to match the non-linear level design. E.g. after beating the Alchemist, the poisonous clouds which you first encounter in the Vale start appearing in other areas as well. The same goes for that annoying swarm which follows you around in the Concubine’s levels.
While non-linearity might have paired itself nicely with the progression, it certainly took a toll on the story. The relationship between the Prince and Elika cannot evolve in response to the current circumstances if the game doesn’t know in what order you’ll tackle its challenges. Sections with the Concubine explore our protagonists’ motivations and those with the Warrior question the lack of Ormazd’s divine intervention, but none of those dilemmas actually affect the plot or the characters.
Despite that, these two are one of the most fleshed out and likeable duos I’ve encountered in any game. You know exactly how things are going to play out the first time you see them interact. Elika is trying to manage the greatest crisis of her life while the Prince is wondering if there’s gold to be looted in the temple. It’s a textbook trope - she is responsible and compassionate while he is an unscrupulous opportunist, but it works perfectly.
What emphasizes their relationship even more is the insane amount of conversations they have throughout the game. They speak a fair bit during cut-scenes, but the bulk of their interactions come from optional dialogue. You can press a designated button and the Prince and Elika will discuss pressing matters or whatever crosses their minds. The dialogue options are refreshed each time you visit a new fertile ground. Other than dripping bits and pieces of exposition, these conversations go a long way to establish our protagonists’ relationship. Their chemistry evolves slowly over time and, by the end of the game, you really get the impressions that they grew close during this whole ordeal.
Besides the dialogue, their dynamic is further enhanced by the animations. Elika is the best video game sidekicks you could hope for. She’ll run along after the Prince and each time she catches up to him, they’ll interact in some small way. The Prince will extend his hand to her on ledges, he’ll sometimes catch her after a drop and, possibly the cutest thing ever, they’ll do a little twirl each time they switch places on a beam. They occasionally exchange sly remarks, like when the Prince is carrying Elika over a stretch vines or when she saves him from a fatal fall. It makes Elika feel like a living breathing being who’s there with you in every moment and not some poorly scripted drone.
Do the twirl!
And now we’ve come to the part of the game I’d like to avoid the most. God, the combat! The fights in the reboot are strictly one-on-one affairs. You’ll engage only one enemy at a time in dedicated arenas, turning each encounter into a boss battle. The game wants you to perceive the fights as duels, a dynamic exchange of blows, with the way it encourages you to parry and how the Prince postures himself sword up and gauntlet ready to strike. Sounds good in theory, right?
Well, the problems start off with the way the Prince moves. He is terribly slow and dodging doesn’t make him much faster. Things would be delightful if this were the only aspect of the Prince’s life which needed fast-forwarding. Alas, the time it takes the Prince to register an input and act upon it makes a sloth seem like a speed runner. It can take almost up to 2 seconds for him to lower his guard and perform the requested action. In that time, enemies are able to change their stance, walk up to you and smack you in the face. Before you ask, I don’t think any of this is tied to performance issues. To my perception the game was running just fine, yet most of the Prince’s combat animations had this annoying wind-up which might suggest he got caught having a nap.
Usually, you’ve got an enemy by the jewels once you’ve initiated a combo, but getting there is an uphill battle. Your reflexes might be sharp as a knife, but they won’t mean much since the Prince can’t keep up. Enemies will often land a hit before you’ve had the chance to sneeze, rendering your plans useless. To make matters even worse, they constantly parry your attacks and turn the tide against you, making the few times you do manage to go on the offensive ineffective.
The combat becomes bearable once you’ve realized that attacking is a viable option only when enemies take pity and give you enough downtime to act. For the most part, you’ll be missing opportunities and holding off against a barrage of the enemy’s own attacks. Parrying should solve these problems on paper, but it’s not very reliable when the Prince tries to use it. Enemies are lightning fast and barely telegraph their moves. I landed most parries when I was reacting in anticipation of an attack and not in response to one. You can end a lot of the encounters early by pushing enemies off cliffs, which is a bliss, especially for generic mini bosses which are even more aggressive than their big counterparts.
Oh, wait, did I mention the quick time events? Please repeat after me, kids. Quick time events are baaad. This game utilizes not just the regular type, where you have to press a button fast enough, but also the accursed kind which asks you to smash a button repeatedly. I had to readjust my hands on the gamepad each time one of these came up because my thumb couldn't keep up with the required pace. I love that you have to block immediately after a quick time event ends because enemies don’t waste any time kicking you in the face.
I hate this guy so much.
Thankfully, the combo system is an interesting experiment. It boils down to four buttons, and when you open up the combo list, you’ll see that they amount to a fair number of combinations. However I don’t think you’re meant to memorize them. Instead, the combo system leans heavily on improvisation.
Once you’ve initiated a certain attack, you’ll often be able to guess which action can be performed next. Is Elika suddenly in view? Launch her at the enemy. Is the enemy standing still in one place? Hoist them up with the gauntlet. Is the Prince standing by with his sword? Smack the bastard before they get a chance to blink. It’s much more fun than memorizing a combo list and makes you feel like the originator of your own cocktail.
You’ll fight each of the 4 bosses ones per fertile ground and the game does a decent job of not letting it get repetitive. No matter in what order you tackle the areas, after beating a boss the next time you see them they’ll upgrade their repertoire. These changes will be reflected not just on the main bosses, but also on the generic enemies you fight along the way. So the Hunter will spit on you (ew!), permanently unlocking this option for all other foes. Similarly, enemies will start utilizing different power stances which you’ll have to counter with specific attacks.
The boss which is the most varied is the Warrior, but he is sadly the most rotten apple from the bunch. Each time you fight him, you’re supposed to drive him to a specific spot in the arena, but getting him where you want and baiting a suitable attack is slow and painful. At least the other 3 bosses provide a decent amount of back and forth with minor differences.
I guess it’s worth mentioning that the tutorials are horrendous. They smother you with instructions right out of the gate, trying to make you memorize each combo, like that even matters. The game insistently keeps pausing to tell you what to do and even repeats the tips it already gave you. I turned the tutorials off pretty early on and had much more fun figuring things out on my own. There aren’t that many buttons when you think about it and, due to Elika, making fatal mistakes is cheap.
Well, hello there.
You know what? After a few drinks this game starts to make perfect sense. I trudged back and forth so many times collecting light seeds that the world became like my backyard. See that plateau over there? That’s where I discovered some hidden light seeds by sliding down an edge, grabbing onto a brass ring, waltzing along the ceiling and then dropping down to a beam. And that fertile ground with a killer view? That’s where the Prince and Elika played I spy with my little eye.
Oh, and that’s where I fought the Alchemist that one time. The Alchemist, what a lad! We’d start each fight with a little bit of foreplay. He’d belittle my attempts to stop Ahriman and hint at his machinations, but would always get pushed down a cliff less than a third into his health bar.
And why did I ever complain about video game characters whose armor had cleavage? Damn, girls, does the Prince look fine or what? I guess the developers were on to something when they invented the metal thong. Please, don’t let my lack of sophistication hold you back any more.
Ah, and that ending! It’s as bittersweet as this game’s fate. There's something poignant about how the game makes you undo everything you've worked for without a single word. It doesn't shower you with lengthy cut-scenes or sad violins. Instead, it trusts that you'll understand the full gravity of its message. The silence to Elika's final "Why?" speaks much more than any piece of dialogue ever could.
Despite its many flaws, the reboot is a triumph on multiple fronts. It’s one of the purest visions in gaming, a unique experience which offers so much and teases even more. Yet Ubisoft cut it down in its roots, completely oblivious to the fact that they were on to something new. It hurts when creative minds are hampered by financial reports and even more when you consider that the developers had a whole trilogy in mind. The promised sequel will probably never see the light of day and Ubisoft doesn’t even care enough to make the Epilogue available on modern platforms.
Play the soundtrack and let me wallow in my heartache.
3 notes
·
View notes
Text
My 100 best movies of all time
As a start, this is a top 100 I made back in 2018.
To make things tasty, the first rule I followed was "no more than one movie per director". The second one was "don't get mad trying to order that top 100, just write it down".
I told myself a lot of lies about the fact that this top could change any day but I'm too lazy to make a new one every day. So here I am, stuck with this one :)
BEST MOVIES OF ALL TIME ACCORDING TO ME (with no particular order)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955, Robert Aldrich)
The Professionals (1966, Richard Brooks)
Indagine su un cittadino al di sopra di ogni sospetto (1970, Elio Petri)
Queimada (1969, Gillo Pontecorvo)
C'eravamo tanto amati (1974, Ettore Scola)
Reservoir dogs (1992, Quentin Tarantino)
The Killing (1956, Stanley Kubrick)
Notorious (1946, Alfred Hitchcock)
The Asphalt Jungle (1950, John Huston)
Les enfants du paradis (1946, Marcel Carné)
Kiss Me Stupid (1964, Billy Wilder)
Sullivan's Travels (1941, Preston Sturges)
The Shop Around The Corner (1940, Ernst Lubitsch)
Rio Bravo (1959, Howard Hawks)
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance (1962, John Ford)
The Conversation (1974, Francis Ford Coppola)
Le trou (1960, Jacques Becker)
Dead Poets Society (1989, Peter Weir)
Le salaire de la peur (1953, Henri-Georges Clouzot)
Judex (1963, Georges Franju)
The Departed (2006, Martin Scorsese)
The Prestige (2006, Christopher Nolan)
Unbreakable (M. Night Shyamalan)
Le cercle rouge (1970, Jean-Pierre Melville)
Il buono, il brutto, il cattivo (1966, Sergio Leone)
Curse of the Demon (1957, Jacques Tourneur)
Singin' In The Rain (1952, Stanley Donnen - Gene Kelly)
Hero (1992, Stephen Frears)
It's a Wonderful Life (1946, Frank Capra)
All About Eve (1950, Joseph L. Mankiewicz)
Das indische Grabmal (1959, Fritz Lang)
Le voleur (1967, Louis Malle)
Born Yesterday (1950, George Cukor)
Ben-Hur (1959, William Wyler)
Seven Samurai (1954, Akira Kurosawa)
Ginger e Fred (1986, Federico Fellini)
Small Time Crooks (2000, Woody Allen)
Barton Fink (1991, Joel and Ethan Coen)
Batman returns (1992, Tim Burton)
I due superpiedi quasi piatti (1977, Enzo Barboni)
The Goonies (1985, Richard Donner)
Carlito's Way (1993, Brian De Palma)
French Connection (1971, William Friedkin)
The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957, Jack Arnold)
Gremlins 2 (1990, Joe Dante)
The Bad and the Beautiful (1952, Vincente Minnelli)
Warlock (1959, Edward Dmytryk)
The Unknown (1927, Tod Browning)
Johnny Got His Gun (1971, Dalton Trumbo)
El ángel exterminador (1962, Luis Buñuel)
Le grand blond avec une chaussure noire (1972, Yves Robert)
Down by Law (1986, Jim Jarmusch)
Jurassic Park (1993, Steven Spielberg)
Ladri di biciclette (1948, Vittorio De Sica)
Man without a Star (1955, King Vidor)
Peter Ibbetson (1935, Henry Hathaway)
City Lights (1931, Charlie Chaplin)
Il mio nome è Nessuno (1973, Tonino Valerii)
Excalibur (1981, John Boorman)
Dance of the Vampires (1967, Roman Polanski)
Au hasard Balthazar (1966, Robert Bresson)
Be Kind Rewind (2008, Michel Gondry)
The Fly (1986, David Cronenberg)
Mononoke hime (1997, Hayao Miyazaki)
Les Douze Travaux d'Asterix (1976, René Goscinny - Albert Uderzo)
Touch Of Evil (1958, Orson Welles)
Star Wars (1977, George Lucas)
The Empire Strikes Back (1980, Irvin Kershner)
Groundhog Day (1993, Harold Ramis)
The Front (1976, Martin Ritt)
Big (1988, Penny Marshall)
El secreto de sus ojos (2009, Juan José Campanella)
Amores perros (2000, Alejandro González Iñárritu)
El espinazo del diablo (2001, Guillermo del Toro)
The Man in the White Suit (1951, Alexander Mackendrick)
Village of the Damned (1960, Wolf Rilla)
The Thing (1982, John Carpenter)
Ms. 45 (1981, Abel Ferrara)
The Gunfighter (1951, Henry King)
Copland (1997, James Mangold)
Terminator 2 (1991, James Cameron)
Starship Troopers (1997, Paul Verhoeven)
Le Schpountz (1938, Marcel Pagnol)
12 Monkeys (1995, Terry Gilliam)
Man on the Moon (1999, Milos Forman)
Imitation of Life (1959, Douglas Sirk)
The Most Dangerous Game (1932, Ernest B. Schoedsack and Irving Pichel)
A Perfect World (1993, Clint Eastwood)
Dances with Wolves (1990, Kevin Costner)
Gentleman Jim (1942, Raoul Walsh)
Good Will Hunting (1997, Gus Van Sant)
Elephant Man (1980, David Lynch)
Casablanca (1942, Michael Curtiz)
The Man with the Golden Arm (1955, Otto Preminger)
The Killers (1946, Robert Siodmak)
Punch-Drunk Love (2002, Paul Thomas Anderson)
L'Atalante (1934, Jean Vigo)
La classe américaine (1993, Michel Hazanavicius and Dominique Mézerette)
Back to the Future (1985, Robert Zemeckis)
Un singe en hiver (1962, Henri Verneuil)
2 notes
·
View notes
Photo
Bismillah al rahman al rahim… Happy Born Yasiin Bey @yasiinbeyy Born December 11, 1973 in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant neighborhood, Yasiin Bey is a renown MC. He has been making hip-hop music since 1994, and first gained national attention in 1998 with the release of Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star, and his subsequent solo album, Black on Both Sides, in 1999. Throughout his career, Bey has balanced music with acting, appearing in films such as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy (2005), 16 Blocks (2006), Be Kind Rewind (2008), and Bamboozled (2000), among others. “This is business, no faces just lines and statistics… From your phone, your zip code, to SSI digits… The system break man, child and women into figures, two columns for who is and who ain't niggas… Numbers is hard and real and they never have feelings, but you push too hard, even numbers got limits… Why did one straw break the camel's back? Here's the secret, the million other straws underneath it, it's all mathematics.” CARTER™️ Magazine carter-mag.com #wherehistoryandhiphopmeet #historyandhiphop365 #staywoke #carter #yasiinbey #blackhistorymonth #blackhistory #history #mosdefandtalibkweliareblackstar #blackonbothsides #blacktwitter https://www.instagram.com/p/CmBX8MkOYTP/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=
#wherehistoryandhiphopmeet#historyandhiphop365#staywoke#carter#yasiinbey#blackhistorymonth#blackhistory#history#mosdefandtalibkweliareblackstar#blackonbothsides#blacktwitter
19 notes
·
View notes
Text
I'm on my lunch "break" trying to make it through another afternoon when the local rag catches my severely underpaid eye. Turns out the corporate behemoth that represented my first faltering steps into theworkaday world after securing an Associate's in Dante's Semantics is currently a flaming shit-tornado of red ink and shuttered retailers. Now, I'm not usually one to revel in economic failure, but this particular scenario brought a distinctly smug smirk to my perpetually bemused face. Why? I'll tell you why.
Rewind to 2008. I'm 18, freshly molded by the indoctrination farm we call "higher education," and grinding it out behind the deli counter for crumbs. My direct superior is this human-sized naked mole rat whose very existence seems to mock the concepts of joy and intellectual curiosity. She's been at this soul-eroding gig for a quarter-century, a factoid she wears like a tarnished badge of poor life choices. The staff don't mind her, but I absolutely despise her and with good reason.
On one particularly regrettable afternoon, two dudes rolled up to my station sharing casual intimacy and domestic bliss generally afforded to the straight world. No big whoop to me because love is love, as the youngs are fond of saying. But not for Helga, the Hun. She straight-up announced her refusal to serve those "kinds of people" because homosexuality violated her archaic belief system. Just like that her moral objection transformed into open discrimination.
So I did what any quasi-intelligent 18-year-old would do: I ratted her bigoted ass out. But the manager, a tall, imposing black woman, hit me with a hairball of back-asswards logic. Since Olfactorily Challenged Olga had been disgracing that establishment for longer than I had, I'd be the one catching a pink slip if I kept whinging.
When I suggested she envision that scenario with the colors reversed, she labeled me a racist which was ridiculously off-base. I may have emerged from an albino armpit of rural America, but I'm no cross-burning redneck yahoo. I just figured if discrimination is unethical for one group, it's unethical for all groups. Wild concept, I know.
Anyway, I brought my troubles to the ineffectual worker's union. Those conflict-avoidant losers essentially told me to get bent. Most of my co-workers were similarly unhelpful, unmotivated clods just keen on collecting their Ho-Ho funds. Except x, the chronically stoned smoothbrain who couldn't have cared less since he wasn't part of the demographic being victimized.
Eventually, the manager got word of my irksome advocacy and promised to squash me like a remorseful roach. I could've stuck around to be slowly drained of hope and self-respect, but screw that noise. I cut bait and moved on to an equally joyless fast-food post. It was a lateral career move at best.
But I'm still savoring this glorious collapse of the outdated, actively discriminatory company that kicks off my craptastic professional journey. They cultivated an environment of open hostility and injustice, so I hope their vacant hovels serve as a lingering monument to moral bankruptcy. Let their struggle inspire others to finally evolve past their ignorant prejudices or just go hungry, I don't care. Those intolerant dipsticks have been on the wrong side of history for far too long.
0 notes
Note
Not sure if this is the kind of thing you were talking about but I have the entire flip sequence starting around 2:05 (I couldn't find a decent quality clip of just the flips sorry) memorized bc in 5th grade my best friend and I used to spend hours rewinding the 3D concert movie DVD watching it over and over to try and learn how to do it ourselves. We never really succeeded and also both got injured doing this at some point but to this day I see the whole routine in my head EVERY time I hear this song or see any mention of the movie lmao https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIyH0As3AR0
THE FLIPS WERE INCREDIBLE
STILL ARE
The concert movie is so good
2008 Joe will forever turn me into that 11yr old again
youtube
0 notes
Text
2023 Movie Journey: Masterlist
if you’ve known me for any time at all, you should know by now that i will not watch very many movies this year. i’ll aspire to, i’ll think it’s a good idea, but it’s just not that likely to happen. however, that shouldn’t stop me from the fun of trying!
my goal was to average one movie a week so by year’s end i’d have seen more than 50. that didn’t come close to happening, but i’ll keep reviewing them here and check them off my watchlist as i go. (this list just keeps getting longer but i enjoyed updating it for 2023.)
last year’s list is here, with every movie i reviewed linked now, in case anybody wants to read those and hasn’t before.
4th man out (2015)
12 years a slave (2013)
80 for brady (2023)
a family man (2016)
a haunting in venice (2023)
a man called otto (2023)
a room with a view (1985)
a simple favor (2018)
a single man (2009)
a wrinkle in time (2018)
about time (2013)
admission (2013)
after yang (2021)
all the bright places (2020)
always be my maybe (2019)
american fiction (2023)
american gangster (2007)
ammonite (2020)
amsterdam (2022)
an education (2009)
ant man (2015)
ant man and the wasp (2018)
ant man and the wasp: quantumania (2023)
anyone but you (2023)
anything’s possible (2022)
aquaman (2018)
are you there god? it’s me margaret (2023)
arrival (2016)
atonement (2007)
august: osage county (2013)
babylon (2023)
bad education (2019)
barbie (2023)
be kind rewind (2008)
bedazzled (2000)
begin again (2013)
big eyes (2014)
billy elliot (2000)
blockers (2018)
bohemian rhapsody (2018)
bowfinger (1999)
boy erased (2018)
breaking (2022)
brideshead revisited (2008)
bright young things (2003)
burn burn burn (2015)
cairo time (2009)
call jane (2022)
can you ever forgive me? (2018)
catherine called birdy (2022)
chef (2014)
clemency (2019)
coco (2017)
colette (2018)
crazy rich asians (2018)
creed (2015)
creed 2 (2018)
creed 3 (2023)
crouching tiger, hidden dragon (2000)
crush (2022)
cyrano (2021)
damsel (2023)
daughter of the bride (2023)
dazed and confused (1993)
demolition man (1993)
devil’s knot (2013)
die hard 2 (1990)
die hard with a vengeance (1995)
dog day afternoon (1975)
dual (2022)
earth girls are easy (1988)
effie gray (2014)
ella mckay (?)
elvis (2022)
eurovision song contest: the story of fire saga (2020)
fast color (2018)
fighting with my family (2019)
fright night (2011)
galaxy quest (1999)
girls trip (2017)
glass onion: a knives out mystery (2022)
gone girl (2014)
good luck to you, leo grande (2022)
goodbye christopher robin (2017)
gosford park (2001)
gunpowder milkshake (2021)
happy death day (2017)
happy death day 2u (2019)
happy texas (1999)
heart of stone (2023)
her smell (2018)
holes (2003)
honk for jesus. save your soul. (2022)
honor society (2022)
how to talk to girls at parties (2017)
how to train your dragon (2010)
hysteria (2011)
i am not your negro (2017)
i don’t feel at home in this world anymore (2017)
i, tonya (2017)
if beale street could talk (2018)
inception (2010)
indiana jones and the dial of destiny (2023)
infinitely polar bear (2014)
jackie (2016)
jane got a gun (2015)
joyful noise (2012)
judas and the black messiah (2021)
judy blume forever (2023)
junebug (2005)
jupiter ascending (2015)
just mercy (2019)
kajillionaire (2020)
keeping mum (2005)
knife fight (2012)
kubo and the two strings (2016)
laggies (2014)
last holiday (2006)
late night (2019)
legally blonde (2001)
lemonade mouth (2011)
little (2019)
live free or die hard (2007)
logan lucky (2017)
love, simon (2018)
m3gan (2022)
ma rainey’s black bottom (2020)
magic mike xxl (2015)
magic mike: last dance (2023)
mansfield park (1999)
mars attacks! (1996)
mary queen of scots (2018)
master (2022)
master gardener (2022)
me and earl and the dying girl (2015)
meet the robinsons (2007)
megamind (2010)
memento (2000)
men in black international (2019)
mermaids (1990)
midsommar (2019)
migration (2023)
miss pettigrew lives for a day (2008)
miss sloane (2016)
missing (2023)
monkey business (1952)
monuments men (2014)
moonlight (2016)
moonrise kingdom (2012)
moonshot (2022)
moving on (2022)
mr. magorium’s wonder emporium (2007)
mr. mom (1983)
much ado about nothing (2011)
muriel’s wedding (1994)
nancy drew and the hidden staircase (2019)
nanny mcphee (2005)
nanny mcphee returns (2010)
never let me go (2010)
newsies (1992)
no time to die (2021)
nope (2022)
northanger abbey (2007)
not okay (2022)
obvious child (2014)
on the come up (2022)
oppenheimer (2023)
other people (2016)
overboard (2018)
pacific rim (2013)
palm springs (2020)
parasite (2019)
paris is burning (1990)
passing (2021)
penelope (2007)
pete’s dragon (2016)
pirate radio (2009)
please stand by (2017)
polite society (2023)
pride (2014)
pride and prejudice and zombies (2016)
professor marston and the wonder women (2016)
return to oz (1985)
rise of the guardians (2012)
rita moreno: just a girl who decided to go for it (2021)
rocketman (2019)
roll bounce (2005)
rosaline (2022)
saving face (2004)
say anything (1989)
scream (2022)
scream 6 (2023)
see how they run (2022)
seeking a friend for the end of the world (2012)
she said (2022)
shoplifters (2018)
short term 12 (2013)
sing street (2016)
sleeping with other people (2015)
someone great (2019)
sorry to bother you (2018)
soul (2020)
spiderman: far from home (2019)
spiderman: homecoming (2017)
spiderman: into the spiderverse (2018)
spiderman: no way home (2021)
spin me round (2022)
spotlight (2015)
spy kids (2001)
stage fright (2014)
step up (2006)
talk to me (2023)
teeth (2007)
the 355 (2022)
the age of innocence (1993)
the anniversary party (2001)
the batman (2022)
the best exotic marigold hotel (2012)
the breadwinner (2017)
the children act (2017)
the color purple (2023)
the craft: legacy (2020)
the disaster artist (2017)
the divine order (2017)
the emperor’s new groove (2000)
the eyes of tammy faye (2021)
the fall (2006)
the fallout (2022)
the fighting temptations (2003)
the five year engagement (2012)
the gentlemen (2020)
the godfather (1972)
the godfather part 2 (1974)
the godfather part 3 (1990)
the great gatsby (2013)
the hunchback of notre dame (1996)
the hunger games: the ballad of songbirds and snakes (2023)
the hunt (2020)
the iron lady (2011)
the kill room (2023)
the legend of tarzan (2016)
the little mermaid (2023)
the lost city (2022)
the marvels (2023)
the master (2012)
the matrix resurrections (2021)
the menu (2022)
the notebook (2004)
the old guard (2020)
the outfit (2022)
the photograph (2020)
the prestige (2006)
the prince of egypt (1998)
the prom (2020)
the queen (2006)
the royal hotel (2023)
the second best exotic marigold hotel (2016)
the secret garden (2020)
the skeleton twins (2014)
the spy who dumped me (2018)
the suicide squad (2021)
the super mario bros. movie (2023)
the trial of the chicago 7 (2020)
the truman show (1998)
the unbearable weight of massive talent (2022)
the united states vs. billie holiday (2021)
the velocipastor (2018)
the way he looks (2014)
the woman king (2022)
the wonder (2022)
their finest (2016)
this means war (2012)
tootsie (1982)
treasure planet (2002)
troop zero (2019)
two lovers and a bear (2016)
us (2019)
valley girl (2020)
velvet goldmine (1998)
violent night (2022)
venom (2018)
venom: let there be carnage (2021)
victoria & abdul (2017)
walk the line (2005)
wet hot american summer (2001)
what happens later (2023)
what we do in the shadows (2014)
where’d you go, bernadette (2019)
widows (2018)
wild target (2010)
wish (2023)
women talking (2022)
wonka (2023)
yesterday (2019)
young adult (2011)
zombieland: double tap (2019)
2 notes
·
View notes