jadegl

My husband and I have so many things we want to watch (TV, Movies) that we have to have a system for randomizing selection or else we end up pretty much not watching anything, or spending way too much time trying to pick what to watch next. Last time we decided to select five movies with this criteria -

1. I picked a letter of the alphabet (C was my choice)
2. My husband picked an actor with a last name that started with that letter (Nicolas Cage)
3. I had to pick 5 movies to watch with that actor

So our most recent selection of movies were -

• Con Air
• Drive Angry
• The Sorcerer's Apprentice
• Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
• Mandy

And ho-leeeeeeee sheeeee-it what a bonkers selection of movies that ended up being. I knew what to expect with Mandy, since I had already seen Beyond the Black Rainbow, but the real WTF was Bad Lieutenant. I don't know what I expected but that movie was just so weird. Imaginary iguanas, break dancing ghosts, SO MANY DRUGS, an unexpected (by me) appearance by Val Kilmer... Just off the wall. So if I was ranking them best to worst, it would probably go - Mandy, Con Air, Bad Lieutenant, Drive Angry, The Sorcerer's Apprentice. Although, Drive Angry was kind of okay in a bootleg Ghost Rider kind of way. If you watch any of these, Mandy is probably the best but most divisive, imo. Con Air is pretty interesting, although I think it isn't as good as I was led to believe by the internet. Sorcerer's Apprentice is just off brand Harry Potter with worse characters and world building, though Cage is fun in it. Bad Lieutenant is BONKERS so worth seeing for that at least. Drive Angry better than I expected, since I kind of expected a trash fire. It far exceeded those expectations.

My husband and I also just watched (I had to pick movies on our shelf that had blue spines)-

• Basic Instinct - a worse version of Body Heat, but certainly not bad and I was always entertained
• The Fog - not the best John Carpenter movie I've ever seen, but had some cool moments. Honestly, the Garfield Halloween special does pirate ghosts better :/
• How to Deal - horrible horrible HORRIBLE Mandy Moore teen drama comedy (?) which was boring, incoherent, visually bland and literally filled from beginning to end with overused tropes and cliches. May be the worst film I have ever seen. I am not exaggerating. No redeeming qualities. DO NOT WATCH.

I skipped ratings since I kind of just go on a recommend/do not recommend scale at this point. Of everything I listed, I would recommend watching Mandy, Basic Instinct, Con Air and Bad Lieutenant. Anything else you can skip and not feel bad about it.

Almost every Grand Theft Auto game post III. I don't mind the walking talking gun shooting stuff, but when I get to the inevitable driving missions (usually they have at least one in what you would consider the prologue) I drop the game like it has suddenly become coated in Ebola-infused spiders. The driving in these games is just not my bag, and I always end up doing so poorly that I either don't/can't complete the mission, or I get through it and am so annoyed that I drop the game permanently. The only reason why I kept playing GTA III was the cheat codes. I got maybe a 3rd of the way through that game and I decided to just mess around with cheat codes for the rest of my time playing.

Another series I bounced off of (so far) was Dark Souls. I played on PC and managed to get to Sen's Fortress and I literally can't get past the first room. I could just sit there and try to "get good" by playing over and over again but life is short and I decided to try play other games instead. But I'm not mad at the game or anything, I just realized that I got to a point where my skill ceiling may be as high as it will go. And that's okay. I am better at other types of games so I will play those for the time being instead.

Thinking this over, I think I just have issues with some 3rd person games. I can play hard FPS games and have an okay time with other 3rd person games (Saints Row The Third, Gears of War) but some are just not my thing. And at 36 with a full time job, I kind of just want to play things that I enjoy and can get through at this point.

The Dead Zone

I absolutely love this book. It’s not really talked about much in comparison to his other early works, but it’s the one that has stuck with me the most.

And any of his short story collections are bangers, especially Night Shift imo.

I just wanted to come in and say that Bobby Roode is now known as Robert Roode. He also has a marvelous mustache.

Also he's a heel now and that makes me feel like a whole human being. Because he's the best heel and him trying to be a face is like a frog trying to grow wings and fly.

Now you can all return to your normal banter. :D

I feel you. I pretty much quite Bioware too, and it's a bummer.

The thing about Bioware is that I used to not be so wary of their games. I have played and enjoyed KOTOR, Mass Effect 1-3, Dragon Age Origins, Dragon Age Origins: Awakening, Dragon Age 2 and Dragon Age: Inquisition. I kind of got a bit worried for future games while playing DA: I because it seemed like an RPG with very MMO-like missions. A lot of stuff that didn’t really matter filling out a large world that was pretty empty. But I really liked the story and characters, so I preordered Mass Effect: Andromeda. But I was suspicious. I really should have known better, but Mass Effect is one of my favorite all time series.

Lo and behold that game was a dumpster fire upon release. Buggy beyond belief for a AAA game, the UI was a chore to navigate (even compared to the first game) and the crafting was dumb. I literally found one weapon for my play style and that was all I used because it was so good. Whats the point of a crafting system where when you get to certain weapon, everything else is trash? The story was also far less interesting than prior games, but it still kept me playing for a while. The best thing about the game was the combat, but I never went to Bioware games for the combat. I went for story, characters and how everything came together to keep me emotionally invested. This game did none of those things, really. It was simply okay, and that was a bad thing for me. I was expecting awesome. My hopes were too high and my expectations were not properly calibrated.

So, I waited on Anthem. It never looked like something I wanted to play when I was already playing stuff like Destiny and The Division. I have enough looter shooters that are more than competent, I want RPGs with fiddly bits and characters I care about and epic stories. All of the materials released prior to the game coming out didn’t hint at any of that, not really. No preorder, I would wait and see.

I did try the Anthem demo and I didn’t really dig it. The combat was cool and the flying was a standout, but the missions seemed very simplistic. I figured that that was just the demo and waited to see what people were saying once the full game came out.

Now I see all the reviews and I have watched a lot of streamers to see if anything really jumps our at me. It's a pretty game, fun combat, but it's nothing to get me super excited unfortunately. Right now I am playing through Far Cry: New Dawn completely co-op with my husband and we're having a great time, so I'm not actively looking for a new shooter. I may pick up Anthem if it gets more content, but I'm not in a rush. I fear for Bioware's future, though. I figure they need a hit and this doesn't look like it's sparking much excitement. :/

I really enjoyed the way the story unfolded in Her Story. It was so good at making you feel like a genius when you would find a word that unlocked a bunch of new videos. The story was out of order and depended on what you looked up, but the way it came together for me really worked as a player.

In a somewhat similar way, I also got really drawn into the story of Emily is Away when I played that. That story was more straight forward but the way they told it was unique and something I hadn't seen before.

I usually have mine either flavored with cream and sugar or plain brew with cream and sugar. It looks like a few shades darker than eggshell paint when I am done with it. I also love iced coffee. I just started doing coconut flavoring with cream and sugar and it is pretty awesome.

At a local gelato place they do a scoop of any flavor of their gelato with either hot cocoa or espresso poured over top. It is AMAZING. I did espresso with eggnog gelato and I damn near had an out of body experience.

I always think of Arcanum: Of Steamworks & Magick Obscura when people ask about video game music. Of course, I never see anyone else bring it up, so that makes me think that it is a bit obscure or underappreciated.

All of the pieces are memorable, but the main title piece is just phenomenal.

I also really love the music in Amnesia: A Machine for Pigs. It's either hauntingly beautiful or horribly discordant but it really elevates the game from mildly scary walking simulator (I hate the term but it fits in this case) to often scary horror experience. My picks for music are These Hands are Bleeding, Mors Praematura, and Dieses Herz, but it's all good.

Oh, and all of this music is on Spotify so it's easy to find and listen to. :D

The first 4K movie I watched at home was The Great Wall and while that movie isn't great story-wise (haha) it looked freakin' phenomenal in 4K. Lush colors, lots of action, just really amazing visually.

Obviously, stuff like Blade Runner and Blade Runner 2049 look great as well.

Incredibles 2 looked fantastic as well. I normally don't spend extra on animated films between blu ray or 4k, but we got the steelbook and the movie just was stunning, imo.

For TV, Westworld looks gorgeous in 4K.

For films where I wasn't impressed, or couldn't really sense a big difference like the other films I've mentioned, I would say that The Fate of the Furious and Hurricane Heist were both unimpressive. Maybe it was just the content of the movie, or the director's and cinematographer's style, but nothing in those screamed "so much better in 4K to me" when I was watching them.

Unfortunately, this thread has gone off the rails. We've tried to keep it on track, but when unrelated youtube videos start getting posted and you can barely tell what the original topic was, it's time to lock it down.