Red Letter Media

[Mola Ram]

I only watch them to be entertained, really, so I might have been retarded in thinking that they would not give such shit takes on all of the movies in their horror roundup. Gay rant incoming.

I watched Oddity based on their rec. It was pretty good.

 

[Meursault's gun]

I watched Oddity based on their rec. It was pretty good.

Did you see it at a cinema? Most of their retarded takes seem to be just them getting overly excited about smaller movies getting an unusually wide release.

Edit: retarded question, realized only after the fact. I do stand by the second half, though.

 

[Shartavius]

To add to the previous point: Mike and Jay are, ironically, "I clapped when I saw it" filmmakers; who fawn over the kinds of scenes they pretend are realizable within the scope of their own meager talents. Mike's and Jay's appreciation is always filtered through some faggoty, existential bootstrap paradox in which they believe they were born too late to be the kinds of filmmakers who specifically inspired and influenced their own sensibilities.

 

[lIllllIiiiiLLLLiiiiIIIIll]

I watched Oddity based on their rec. It was pretty good.

Ok I also just rented Oddity on their suggestion. What about Oddity is good? I feel like I'm watching it wrong. It's slow and it has this Goosebumps vibe when it's not being slow.

I know, I know. I'm the one being stupid. I still have like 12 hours on the rental. I'll try again if someone can pitch it to me such that I understand what to be enjoying about it.

 

[Meursault's gun]

Mike and Jay are, ironically, "I clapped when I saw it" filmmakers

Ironically enough, the entire audience clapped after The Substance ended. I wish I was joking.

 

[frozen_runner]

Also Qualley is ugly

She really isn't. I don't know who her father is, but she's much better-looking than her mother ever was

 

[Meursault's gun]

She really isn't. I don't know who her father is, but she's much better-looking than her mother ever was

Maybe ugly is harsh, but she looks goofy as hell. For that specific role she is objectively miscast, regardless of taste. She is supposed to be this chick that captures the world just with her physicality, meanwhile she is just some chick.

 

[Mola Ram]

Ok I also just rented Oddity on their suggestion. What about Oddity is good? I feel like I'm watching it wrong. It's slow and it has this Goosebumps vibe when it's not being slow.

I know, I know. I'm the one being stupid. I still have like 12 hours on the rental. I'll try again if someone can pitch it to me such that I understand what to be enjoying about it.

I just thought it had an extremely creepy atmosphere (I love a good haunted house or dingy insane asylum, and it had both), good performances, and a few effective jump scares.

I will say that I and everyone I was watching it with figured out fairly early ...

Spoiler: the whole plot, mostly

... that the husband and the creepy orderly murdered the wife, the only question being whether the new girlfriend had been in on it

... but the enjoyment came from watching the plot unfold rather than any shocking twist. It wasn't the greatest horror movie of all time or anything, but it made for an enjoyable evening.

 

[BlueSpark]

Ok I also just rented Oddity on their suggestion. What about Oddity is good? I feel like I'm watching it wrong. It's slow and it has this Goosebumps vibe when it's not being slow.

I know, I know. I'm the one being stupid. I still have like 12 hours on the rental. I'll try again if someone can pitch it to me such that I understand what to be enjoying about it.

Mike and Jay have terrible taste, they're pretentious dimwits. Years ago I watched that Natalie Portman sci-sci film they gave a good review on HitB and I couldn't believe how bad it was, like it was so bad that the transitions between scenes were nonsense and the film felt unfinished. I remember wondering if they even watched the fucking thing, it was genuinely incoherent.

To add to the previous point: Mike and Jay are, ironically, "I clapped when I saw it" filmmakers; who fawn over the kinds of scenes they pretend are realizable within the scope of their own meager talents. Mike's and Jay's appreciation is always filtered through some faggoty, existential bootstrap paradox in which they believe they were born too late to be the kinds of filmmakers who specifically inspired and influenced their own sensibilities.

Something that most of the Red Letter Media fanbase refuses to acknowledge is that the RLM guys are only good entertainment because of their rapport with each other and not because they're particularly intelligent or talented film makers (in fact it's pretty clear that they're lazy and technically inept film makers). They can be, and often are, insufferably smug with no justification for their own sense of superiority given that they're less talented than most of the shitty media creators that they criticize.

 

[Mola Ram]

They can be, and often are, insufferably smug with no justification for their own sense of superiority given that they're less talented than most of the shitty media creators that they criticize.

Geeze, man, you make it sound like they went to film school or something.

I will say that while I still believe they understand the art and craft of film much better than 99% of other YouTube film critics, this does not necessarily translate into the ability to create an artistic or well-crafted film. They also, like many filmmakers who focus more on the filmmaking itself, accord appallingly little importance to story, plot, or setting. An astonishingly well lit, brilliantly shot film of dogshit is still dogshit, and they often lose sight of that.

 

[RSU 1741]

Something that most of the Red Letter Media fanbase refuses to acknowledge is that the RLM guys are only good entertainment because of their rapport with each other and not because they're particularly intelligent or talented film makers

Just remember that outside of American pop movies and indie horror schlock (and forgotten Italian horror movies that no one even in Italy cares about nowadays) their knowledge of proper movies is incredibly limited. Remember that when they saw The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (in 2022) they were moved to tears by the sheer quality of it. I always felt that their knowledge was kind of poor but....

They're the kind of people that will watch endless garbage on streaming sites instead of classics of European or Asian cinema and then complain that they "don't get it" and act surprised when monuments to cinema that weren't American pop culture in the 80ies are amazing movies. They're skilled entertainers and they're quite funny to keep as background noise, and they do have formal schooling in movie making, but.... they're seriously people that believe that Ghostbusters or Gremlins is some kind of marvelous creation of the human mind.

RedLetterMedia are good entertainers. As film critics, they essentially lack credentials, research, or whatever. It's like asking a clown to write an historical essay on theatre.

 

[Mola Ram]

Just remember that outside of American pop movies and indie horror schlock (and forgotten Italian horror movies that no one even in Italy cares about nowadays) their knowledge of proper movies is incredibly limited.

I still remember when their total ignorance of John Ford came to light. Jaw-dropping.

 

[mlanguishi]

I'm surprised they didn't have Strange Darling, but I guess technically that's a 2013 release but most of its theater time was this year. Also maybe that's considered a thriller instead of horror. It's probably one of the better movies I've seen last 6 years, top 3 for sure. And it was from their HITB on it that I knew of it, so that was nice.

 

[Meursault's gun]

I'm surprised they didn't have Strange Darling, but I guess technically that's a 2013 release but most of its theater time was this year. Also maybe that's considered a thriller instead of horror. It's probably one of the better movies I've seen last 6 years, top 3 for sure. And it was from their HITB on it that I knew of it, so that was nice.

2023, but they stated that they will not be ranking movies that they already talked about on half in the bag (which is retarded? why not rank them?).

 

[LifeAlert]

I can't bring myself to watch the horror wrap ups or the Puppet Master videos. They have really taken a nosedive in quality and energy ever since the coof happened. They always give half-hearted praise to all the latest propaganda slop while dancing around the blatantly obvious DEI pandering and they sound so tired and bored. They repeatedly cuck themselves out of edgy humor and no-no words to stay on YouTube's good noodle list. Stale, rambling fence-sitters who are careful not to step on toes in Hollywood or say anything that might offend Clown World so they can get roles in shitty webtoons and indie game shovelware don't make for good entertainers. I think years of watching below-Z list crap have rotted their brains past intellectual ability which is why they can recommend dogshit so easily. If they were still funny and entertaining I wouldn't care about their opinions, but they aren't and their opinions are shit, both likely due to the same "motivators". I still greatly enjoy and laugh at their older videos, for me early-to-mid 2010's HitB was peak RLM, but watching their newer videos is physically exhausting. They aren't worth the runtime.

 

[I'm a Silly]

I can't bring myself to watch the horror wrap ups or the Puppet Master videos. They have really taken a nosedive in quality and energy ever since the coof happened. They always give half-hearted praise to all the latest propaganda slop while dancing around the blatantly obvious DEI pandering and they sound so tired and bored. They repeatedly cuck themselves out of edgy humor and no-no words to stay on YouTube's good noodle list. Stale, rambling fence-sitters who are careful not to step on toes in Hollywood or say anything that might offend Clown World so they can get roles in shitty webtoons and indie game shovelware don't make for good entertainers. I think years of watching below-Z list crap have rotted their brains past intellectual ability which is why they can recommend dogshit so easily. If they were still funny and entertaining I wouldn't care about their opinions, but they aren't and their opinions are shit, both likely due to the same "motivators". I still greatly enjoy and laugh at their older videos, for me early-to-mid 2010's HitB was peak RLM, but watching their newer videos is physically exhausting. They aren't worth the runtime.

In the spirit of easily enjoying the old HITB, a YT user made a nice chronological playlist.

preservetube

 

[Hazel Motes]

Just remember that outside of American pop movies and indie horror schlock (and forgotten Italian horror movies that no one even in Italy cares about nowadays) their knowledge of proper movies is incredibly limited. Remember that when they saw The Good, The Bad and the Ugly (in 2022) they were moved to tears by the sheer quality of it. I always felt that their knowledge was kind of poor but....

They claimed before The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, westerns were just a good guy shooting Indians with no moral complexity and questioning, which even a basic knowledge of film would tell you that is wrong. It is like saying "pre-Blade Runner" noir was a cheesy and light hearted genre. The Searchers was, till recently, on top 10 lists of greatest ever films. It is not obscure. John Ford films are not obscure. The Western is the American fairytale, so many non-westerns are informed by it. Not knowing The Searchers is not knowing (and this even applies to England as my country loved the genre also) modern American history. I am not even discussing other great westerns pre-Leone: The Ox Bow Incident, The Naked Spur, Johnny Guitar, Shane, Red River, High Noon, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, The Big Country, Duel in The Sun. None of those films are VHS only rarities. They are classics that even a mild knowledge of film would make one aware of.

This is wider problem in the Humanities. Literature students know jack shit about important works, never mind bothering to read them. You could study a BA, an MA, and a PhD without even looking at a copy of Milton's Paradise Lost. That's insane. All of English poetry follows from it. You can't understand the history of poetry without it. I see poetry as a good shit test for literature students. Even if, and I understand why, you don't like poetry, not knowing or being aware of certain poems really shows how much you care about the subject (poetry is the peak of any language). It is the same for film. If you don't know the classics, or don't bother with older film, do you really like the artform? Is it really worth your time discussing and thinking about it? Have you ever had a passion? Students don't treat the subjects they study with the rigour you find from a man learning how to plumb, but they should.

 

[Meursault's gun]

This is wider problem in the Humanities. Literature students know jack shit about important works, never mind bothering to read them. You could study a BA, an MA, and a PhD without even looking at a copy of Milton's Paradise Lost. That's insane. All of English poetry follows from it. You can't understand the history of poetry without it. I see poetry as good shit test for literature students. Even if, and I understand why, you don't like poetry, not knowing or being aware of certain poems really shows how much you care about the subject (poetry is the peak of any language). It is the same for film. If you don't know the classics, or don't bother with older film, do you really like the artform? Is it really worth your time discussing and thinking about it? Have you ever had a passion? Students don't treat the subjects they study with the rigour you find from a man learning how to plumb, but they should.

The issue is that Paradise Lost, for example, is not even in curricula, alongside many other greats. In modern-day humanities, pumping you full of the "correct" takes is the goal, rather than providing you with the ability to handle girthy and important texts (or movies), regardless of their "ailments". I am actively seeing people screech over the word "negro" just being in texts from the 19th century. With my two eyes, I saw a student claim that the word should not be read aloud (this did not even happen in America OR the West, even). Shit like this takes away important texts by simple attrition, replacing them with literature that does not tackle difficult or divisive subjects. At that point, you are a student burdened with texts and theory that are entirely foreign and useless to a normal person (queer theory ), and your time is spent trying to hammer that shit into your head just for the sake of a good grade. No wonder students do not know what constitutes a classic. And no wonder they don't take them up in their free time.

 

[I'm a Silly]

Even if, and I understand why, you don't like poetry, not knowing or being aware of certain poems really shows how much you care about the subject (poetry is the peak of any language). It is the same for film.

This is why I was encouraged, as a photography student [iirc], to take a grad-level poetry workshop in college; the interdisciplinary benefits of reading and writing poetry are immense, and knowing how to tease out meaning from poetry is a skill that follows one into seemingly unrelated applications.

 

[Shartavius]

This is why I was encouraged, as a photography student [iirc], to take a grad-level poetry workshop in college; the interdisciplinary benefits of reading and writing poetry are immense, and knowing how to tease out meaning from poetry is a skill that follows one into seemingly unrelated applications.

How did majoring in photography work out?