Red Letter Media

[L50LasPak]

You know I had a friend who was seriously a huge fan of red letter media. Wouldnt shut up about it. Tried to get me into it, but it really wasn't my thing. They are a niche I had filled already I guess? I'm not sure, I just cant seem to enjoy them.

As much as I loved the Plinkett reviews when I was a little shit teenager I never enjoyed their other stuff.

Until I started drinking.

Take care buddy.

 

[KrewlKween]

Man they seemed so checked out of this review and I can't say I blame them. I left the theater with a big dose of "meh". Like this saga was for nothing, I felt nothing going in and felt nothing coming out. Aside for a lot of the questions that remain unanswered. That's really the only meat on the bones to discuss with this movie because everything moved too fast and nothing was explored. Way too much hand waving and "I just had a feeling". I'm glad Mike picked up on Palpy possibly being a clone. I argued the same point with a friend who completely missed the clone snoke thing. I don't necessarily believe that's what happened and that's why Palpy survived but it's a neat point to explore. Apparently the EU was filled with his clones so it makes sense.

Speaking of autism examples, I think he spent waaaaaay to long over analyzing the use of the word conjuring in the ROS. I just thought it was some flowery way of saying "construct" and left it at that. Same with that clone thing. It's just bad writing.

I think it's because Mike doesn't like the idea of too much magic in his sci fi. That and the fact that magic in this case is in fact covering for lazy writing. Can't explain it? Don't want to explain it? SPACE MAGIC! Where the destroyers come from can really only be explained by magic and "conjuring" unless you believe there was an entire civilization underground building and staffing these things for 30 years and absolutely no one knew about it.

So much of this movie doesn't make sense if you try to approach it with any rational thought or want for everything to be explained. Like the tower Rich mentioned. I came out of the theater with the same hot take. Why is there always one magical point of weakness in all these battles that the rebels just happen to know about? Hence Mike's comment about being low IQ if you liked this movie. It requires way too much brain turning off to fully enjoy and endorse for a normal person.

 

[L50LasPak]

Mike is just expressing the standard opinion of DS9 prior to 2005. It wasn't until this last decade or so that DS9's reputation changed from the worst Star Trek show to being in running for the best.

You are one evil, mean fucking bitch, but
Might have a point on this one.

Though my Dad collected old TV Guides because my family was is insane and as I recall (distantly) the show got pretty good ratings.

Then again so did Voyager.

 

[ZMOT]

cerebral

it really was more for the point of comparison, hence the quotation marks, not as a description or review of TMP (it would probably fill it's own thread which would end with people shitting on each other back and forth instead of simply agree to disagree, so I tried to avoid it).
as for the word itself, I wouldn't say that makes you better or have "better taste" etc, just that a "cerebral" movie veers into a certain direction, opposite to the MCU and current year media in general.

I almost never watch Re:View anymore. It's either Josh and Jay talking about degenerate sex movies or just some movie they want to jerk off, and every time they bring it up most of their points and info is just so wrong that you're better off just listening to the commentary track (The Warriors).

I mostly watch re:view, because I prefer the format. but even then only mike and rich (or guest) with stuff they care about (and avoid jay whenever I can, the more videos I watch the more hit or miss he becomes). the independence day review I watched out of boredom was fucking atrocious with jay not even watching the movie recently (or be so ADHD he forgot it) and mike doing a "food critic at mcdonalds" impression. fast food exists for a reason. it's produced this way for a reason. there's nothing wrong with liking fast food.
that episode really gave some shitty "ANIMALS CAN'T TALK" cinemasins vibe.

 

[L50LasPak]

it really was more for the point of comparison, hence the quotation marks, not as a description or review of TMP (it would probably fill it's own thread which would end with people shitting on each other back and forth instead of simply agree to disagree, so I tried to avoid it).
as for the word itself, I wouldn't say that makes you better or have "better taste" etc, just that a "cerebral" movie veers into a certain direction, opposite to the MCU and current year media in general.

I know, but that word has been flying around since The Cage and it activated my autism.

While we're still on Star Trek, the "too cerebral" thing might even be a myth Gene made up because he was salty over them not taking the pilot for other reasons. Such as: casting his fucking mistress as a main character.

This theory is not that far out. He infamously made up the story that he created the character of Chekov to have a Russian on the bridge after reading a Pravda article saying "You have all these races and cultures shown but where's the Russian guy?" Which is bullshit because fans have tried to dig the article up and found that not only does no such article exist because the USSR gave zero fucks about Star Trek, but also other writers on the show have stepped in to say that's definitely not how things went down.

Oh well. We got Captain Kirk in exchange for the word "cerebral" being ruined forever. I'll take that deal.

 

[Absolutego]

Mike is just expressing the standard opinion of DS9 prior to 2005. It wasn't until this last decade or so that DS9's reputation changed from the worst Star Trek show to being in running for the best.

Building off of this, a lot of contemporary Star Trek fans didn't like DS9 challenging the ideals of the Federation and adding a lot of human drama/violence to the universe. Rich often reflects this attitude when he's talking about Discovery not exploring interesting worlds or ideas instead of endless conflict (now, DS9 did it way better than Discovery did and had plenty of episodes exploring interesting worlds/ideas, but it wasn't the center of the show like TNG and TOS). Turns out, though, that television in general went in the direction of long-form drama like DS9, so compared to the other series it's aged the best.

Also DS9 had an abysmal first season. Worse even than TNG. At least TNG's first season wasn't filled with leftover scripts from the previous series completely at odds with what the show was trying to do.

 

[L50LasPak]

Turns out, though, that television in general went in the direction of long-form drama like DS9, so compared to the other series it's aged the best.

Before I get into anytihng else I'd like to say that not only did DS9 have a horrible first season, but basically the first four seasons were so fucking bad that the writers had to perform emergency surgery on the show and create Way of the Warrior as nearly a flat-out relaunch because it was just that bad. Now, Way of the Warrior is fucking awesome with excellent character scenes, the return and reinvention of Worf from a joke character to arguably a character as great as Spock or Data, a great reinvention of the up-until-then Space Viking Klingons turning them into Space Mongols, a great score and absolutely one of the most ridiculous space battles I've ever seen (five thousand Photon Torpedoes), but up until that point, three seasons in, the show pretty much sucked except for a good scene here or there.

The first season opening's first five minutes was where they blew their entire load initially. And even that has only aged well because it resembles a certain disaster where some Jihadis managed to fly two airplanes into two particularly large buildings. That happened quite a few years later, so more of a lucky guess than anything else.

But its worth pointing out that Mike recently stated he wants something more like TNG, where you have one episode where they go to a place and do something. Or you just make a fucking movie. But something self-contained and I agree completely. TOS is still my favorite, and its because Mike is completely accurate. You can pull up any episode of TOS, even the absolute shitfuck terrible ones, and know that in the next 50ish minutes you will have one complete experience with no further obligations and that the only unanswered questions are intentional ones the writers left in for the audience to ponder quietly.

No cliffhangers, no arcs, just that one brief experience.

And I am in Mike's boat too. I find myself watching more short films, TOS and Rod Serling's Twilight Zone more than anything else because I just don't want to deal with long arcs anymore. Even movies have this fucking problem because they're all four hours long now!

 

[Dom Cruise]

It probably also helps that he’s got some experience acting as well as directing (Chef is fucking great if you haven’t seen it), isn’t overtly tempermental (Ruin and KK) or a hack (Abrams), and is involved in SW beyond managerial shit (he voices a recurring Mandolorian in the animated shows and the guy with the minigun blaster in the Mandolorian).

I've been meaning to watch Chef.

I watched Jon Favreau's directorial debut Made recently from 2001 (I may have mentioned it in this exact thread) and at first I didn't think the movie was great, it seemed like a fairly standard "funny criminals" movie of the post Tarantino vein, albeit it was a great snapshot of the year 2000 in which it was filmed, which was interesting.

But then it totally caught me off guard with a very touching ending, I was very pleasantly surprised.

So yeah, he knows what he's doing.

 

[FernandoPooTragedy]

You are one evil, mean fucking bitch, but
Might have a point on this one.

Though my Dad collected old TV Guides because my family was is insane and as I recall (distantly) the show got pretty good ratings.

Then again so did Voyager.

I always heard Voyager was failing horribly, and that's why they brought in 7 of 9.

DS9 is my favorite Trek and the fact that Mike openly praises the milquetoast diarrhea that is Voyager while hating on DS9 makes it so hard for me to take his opinions on Trek seriously.

Like, if you don't like DS9, fine. But separate the objective from the subjective here.

I'm introducing my S/O to DS9 rn and we're having so much fun going through it. It holds up better than any show has a right to.

Voyager is just the worst thing. Worse than V. Worse than Enterprise. I haven't bothered with STD since fuck modern Trek but I can't imagine it's worse than a single frame of Neelix.

I tend to agree with them a lot on Star Wars, especially Rich. Except for Solo, which I don't care for, though that may be because I'm allergic to Emilia Clarke.

They were definitely checked out for this, and I don't blame them. Damn, has Disney managed to suck all enthusiasm out of this franchise. I'm even dragging my feet on Mandalorian.

Anyone know if they've covered other major sci-fi classics? I'm trying to think of any time they've discussed something like Logan's Run, Forbidden Planet, the Day the Earth Stood Still, or 2001 at length. Aside from franchise stuff and Blade Runner, I can't think of much sci-fi they've covered outside of Trek and SW.

 

[Flexo]

Also DS9 had an abysmal first season. Worse even than TNG. At least TNG's first season wasn't filled with leftover scripts from the previous series completely at odds with what the show was trying to do.

Was going to rate you agree until this. Not only is TNG s1 just awful, but plenty of the scripts were retreads. Heck the first episode after the premiere was a "sequel" to a TOS episode.

 

[L50LasPak]

DS9 is my favorite Trek and the fact that Mike openly praises the milquetoast diarrhea that is Voyager while hating on DS9 makes it so hard for me to take his opinions on Trek seriously.

I understand this opinion but I think you're letting the hate for Voyager overwhelm you a little too much more than your love for DS9 here.

Voyager is quite insidious. You watch enough of it; you begin to like it. For someone like Mike I'm not surprised he likes Voyager more, because it does have that format down. Each episode is just that. One episode. SFDebris says Reset Button. But. DS9 Like I mentioned above in way too many words has arcs that go on and on.

Also Mike once complained that the DS9 spacebattles sucked and were just too insane. Which, beyond that fucking cool one in Way of the Warrior, I'm very inclined to agree with because they could just never top that battle no matter how hard they tried. And boy, did they fucking try.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Mike, Jay and Rich aren't perfect, I've had plenty of disagreements with their opinions.

For Mike and this goes all the way back to maybe only their second or third Half In The Bag, the Sucker Punch review, which I thought he was way too dismissive in a really ugly, nasty way about the movie, like I just didn't get why the movie pissed him off so much.

For Jay it's Blade Runner, I'm totally surprised he doesn't like the original Blade Runner and also mostly recently in the Joker review he seemed so begrudgingly complimentary towards the movie, all due to the fact that it was directed by the guy who directed the Hangover movies and he came off as pretty smug and elitist.

And for Rich, frankly, his gaming opinions are garbage and I'm glad they retired Pre:Rec, he's the typical cynical "every new game sucks" type of gamer, so cynical I wondered why he was even bothering reviewing new games and sure enough, they called it quits.

But hey, that's ok, I still love them, nobody's opinions are going to be 100% the same as yours at all times.

 

[ditto]

recently in the Joker review he seemed so begrudgingly complimentary towards the movie, all due to the fact that it was directed by the guy who directed the Hangover movies and he came off as pretty smug and elitist.

Calling it something like "babby's first Taxi Driver" and praising it for being in the category of movies that he'd like to see more of, instead of complimenting the movie directly. At least they were spot-on about the "incel" fear mongering.

 

[deeman]

Phew. was about to ask if i could rename this thread to "The Star Trek thread"... any news on a new BoTW? I don't follow Twitler.

 

[L50LasPak]

For Mike and this goes all the way back to maybe only their second or third Half In The Bag, the Sucker Punch review, which I thought he was way too dismissive in a really ugly, nasty way about the movie, like I just didn't get why the movie pissed him off so much.

Damn son, that's an old grudge to have-

And for Rich, frankly, his gaming opinions are garbage and I'm glad they retired Pre:Rec, he's the typical cynical "every new game sucks" type of gamer, so cynical I wondered why he was even bothering reviewing new games and sure enough, they called it quits.

Jesus. Pre:Rec is slightly older than my drinking problem. Not getting in your way in the future I guess. Is this the part where we all turn on RLM because I've had a really positive post planned and all and been thinkin' about it and stuff but kept getting distracted by other stuff but is this it? Is this the melee where the exceptional individuals all turn on the exceptionals? Because I can't miss a good melee.

 

[Stab You in the Back]

And for Rich, frankly, his gaming opinions are garbage and I'm glad they retired Pre:Rec, he's the typical cynical "every new game sucks" type of gamer, so cynical I wondered why he was even bothering reviewing new games and sure enough, they called it quits.

To be fair, Rich did like a lot of exceptional games, like Bloodborne, Breath of the Wild and Friday the 13th. He was just unimpressed with the ten billion Assassin's Creed clones that are released every year and the indie shit Jack constantly shoved down his throat. I can't blame him for that because Jack had the shittiest taste in games.

 

[L50LasPak]

To be fair, Rich did like a lot of exceptional games, like Bloodborne, Breath of the Wild and Friday the 13th. He was just unimpressed with the ten billion Assassin's Creed clones that are released every year and the indie shit Jack constantly shoved down his throat. I can't blame him for that because Jack had the shittiest taste in games.

The last new game I played was Dishonored because my system is old. Am I replacing Rich Evans?

 

[Bungus Scrungus]

I kind of never took Pre:Rec seriously after they said the Genesis Sonic games were always overrated, due to things they got wrong, like; "the levels aren't designed around your speed", which, they are. They just never decided that pressing down while running down a slope would be a good idea. They played it like Mario, and of course it wasn't like Mario.

 

[Dom Cruise]

Damn son, that's an old grudge to have-



Jesus. Pre:Rec is slightly older than my drinking problem. Not getting in your way in the future I guess. Is this the part where we all turn on RLM because I've had a really positive post planned and all and been thnkin' about it and stuff but kept getting distracted by other stuff but is this it? Is this the melee where the exceptional individuals all turn on the exceptionals? Because I can't miss a melee.

Don't misunderstand me, you have no idea how much I love these guys and how much their videos mean to me.

I'm just stating a few times I disagreed with their opinions, but it's not that big of a deal, I can forgive them.

Although I will admit I really am glad they retired Pre:Rec as that was making me dislike Rich a bit, I really did wonder why he was even bothering and wasting everyone's time since he hated modern video games so much, but the fact that he did decide to stop wasting everyone's time earned back whatever respect he had lost from me on it.

He's free to feel however he wants about games, just don't waste everyone's times with videos where almost every single one of them is you saying you don't like the game, there's no point in that.

To be fair though, one of Rich's favorite games is Dead Rising, right? That's one of my all time favorite games too, so at least we have that in common.

To be fair, Rich did like a lot of exceptional games, like Bloodborne, Breath of the Wild and Friday the 13th. He was just unimpressed with the ten billion Assassin's Creed clones that are released every year and the indie shit Jack constantly shoved down his throat. I can't blame him for that because Jack had the shittiest taste in games.

Yeah, once in a blue moon, but it seemed like the vast majority of games they reviewed they were dismissive of at best if not outright hostile to at worst.

I kind of never took Pre:Rec seriously after they said the Genesis Sonic games were always overrated, due to things they got wrong, like; "the levels aren't designed around your speed", which, they are. They just never decided that pressing down while running down a slope would be a good idea. They played it like Mario, and of course it wasn't like Mario.

The worst moment for me was their Quantum Break review, which I haven't even played, maybe it isn't great, but the way Rich so callously dismissed the game as "you pop up and go boom boom!", think of all the hard work the developers put into the game, said developers being Remedy who have made great games in the past and he acts like it's a piece of dogshit on the sole of his shoe, it came off as way, way too mean spirited, even frankly kind of disgusting.

But let's not dwell on the negative though, all is forgiven.

 

[Mola Ram]

it came off as way, way too mean spirited, even frankly kind of disgusting.

Rich is Mike's bitch. Who's lower than Mike's bitch? Video game developers, I guess. Shit rolls downhill, my friend.