Perryapsis's recent activity
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Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
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Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
Perryapsis Link ParentI haven't. It looks like the blu-ray is cheap. I'll consider it after my wallet recovers from the Criterion sale.I haven't. It looks like the blu-ray is cheap. I'll consider it after my wallet recovers from the Criterion sale.
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Comment on What is your 'Subway Take'? in ~talk
Perryapsis Link ParentI hope that meets the theme of the thread. It could have other indirect effects too. E.g. you could formalize the informal tolerances for speed limit enforcement. If you're in a 5 zone, then as...ludicrous but is presented well enough that it seems appealing.
I hope that meets the theme of the thread.
It could have other indirect effects too. E.g. you could formalize the informal tolerances for speed limit enforcement. If you're in a 5 zone, then as long as your speedometer says 5-point-something, you're probably fine. Once you hit a full unit over the limit, then you're much more likely to get a ticket.
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Comment on What is your 'Subway Take'? in ~talk
Perryapsis Link ParentMy point is that if a metric purist balks at the unit "furlongs per minute," then centimach is going to give you basically the same number for any given speed.My point is that if a metric purist balks at the unit "furlongs per minute," then centimach is going to give you basically the same number for any given speed.
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Comment on What is your 'Subway Take'? in ~talk
Perryapsis LinkIn the spirit of half-baked takes, I think that furlongs per minute is an intuitive 1-10 scale for automobile speed. This is 7.5 miles per hour (exactly, no rounding), or approximately 12 km/h....In the spirit of half-baked takes, I think that furlongs per minute is an intuitive 1-10 scale for automobile speed. This is 7.5 miles per hour (exactly, no rounding), or approximately 12 km/h. Metric purists could use centimach instead, which is very close; millimach would also be acceptable for a 1-100 scale and rolls off the tongue better.
Fur/min MPH KM/H Common Use 1 7.5 12.1 Parking lots 2 15 24.1 Alleys and similar tight spaces 3 22.5 36.2 School zones, areas with lots of non-car traffic 4 30 48.3 Residential roads 5 37.5 60.4 Service roads, collector streets 6 45 72.4 Arterial roads 7 52.5 84.5 Gravel roads, urban freeways 8 60 96.6 Minor highways 9 67.5 108.6 Major highways 10 75 120.7 Interstates, motorways 11 82.5 132.8 Too fast for most public roads, maybe the fastest highways 100 750 1207 Approximate speed of sound -
Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
Perryapsis Link ParentI get what you're saying about OBAA, and maybe I'm just bad at interpreting cinema. The protagonists are portrayed realistically as complex people, but that didn't particularly make me like the...I get what you're saying about OBAA, and maybe I'm just bad at interpreting cinema. The protagonists are portrayed realistically as complex people, but that didn't particularly make me like the characters (except DiCaprio a little bit). Then their juxtaposition with the ridiculous villains is part of what took me out of it. I get what they were trying to do with the characters, but it didn't "work" as a cohesive whole for me.
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Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
Perryapsis LinkThe Criterion Collection is having it's every-six-months 24-hour half-off sale tomorrow! I'm looking to improve my stock of movies from the 40s and 50s. Is anyone else excited?The Criterion Collection is having it's every-six-months 24-hour half-off sale tomorrow! I'm looking to improve my stock of movies from the 40s and 50s. Is anyone else excited?
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Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
Perryapsis (edited )LinkDoes anyone want to talk about: Spider Man 3 (2007): ★★☆ I see why this is generally rated lower than the first two Raimi Spider Man movies, but I still enjoyed it. By the third movie in the...Does anyone want to talk about:
Spider Man 3 (2007): ★★☆
I see why this is generally rated lower than the first two Raimi Spider Man movies, but I still enjoyed it. By the third movie in the trilogy, the novelty had worn off a bit, and the new things they tried to keep it fresh don't quite work as well. It also doesn't tie up all the loose ends and plot threads. This makes sense for a comic book where there are regular new episodes, but it's a bit disappointing to end a movie series that way. Maybe they were planning to make more movie(s) in the series, but stopped for some reason?
Juno (2007): ★★☆
I had heard of of this movie through quotes and references, but didn't actually know what it was about. So I read the premise and went "Meh, interesting enough." I've finally watched enough movies to start catching certain twists before they happen in movies I haven't seen before. So I'm kinda proud of immediately knowing that a certain character was lying by omission about something that was revealed as a twist later. Woo hoo media literacy/genre savvy!
I noticed that the movie is apparently set in 2008 despite being filmed and released in 2007. First, there's a calendar in the background where the dates correspond to weekdays for 2008, but that could have been a mistake. But later on, there's a custom-built prop (not saying what for spoiler reasons) literally dated 2008. Does anyone happen to know the story here? Did they originally plan to release the movie later?
It does show its age in certain ways, e.g. outdated slang. It was kinda funny to see JK Simmons play a calm and supportive dad in this movie after watching him as the crass newspaper manager for three Spider Man movies in a row right before this.
One Battle After Another (2025): ★☆☆
This is what all the fuss is about?
I'm afraid that people will assume all the wrong reasons when I criticize this movie because much of its discussion elsewhere is about its political themes, so I'm not sure if I should even try to voice my non-political disappointments. I'm not the most articulate person in the first place, so I really don't want to become a lightning rod for arguments about the movie, but I do want to talk about it if possible. Please remember that my score isn't strictly a measure of how good the movie is, but how much I enjoyed watching it. Maybe my experience would have been better if reviews and its Letterboxd/IMDB/Metacritic/Rotten Tomatoes scores weren't so high and set the wrong expections. But all that said, I'm pretty disappointed.
First, the theater experience was bad bordering on ridiculous. When I walked up to the ticket booth three minutes before the posted start time, only one other seat was reserved. By the time the movie started at least, there were maybe eight or ten of us in the theater. One couple sat right behind me in the next row (fair enough, centered with the screen). They took care to whisper to one another, but didn't seem to notice that their snacks were in the noisest bags possible. During the second-to-last trailer, another single person came in and sat right next to me despite the entire rest of the row being available. This person took their phone out frequently during the movie. Finally, the movie didn't start until 24 minutes past the posted time. My local theater typically keeps it to 15 minutes, which isn't so terrible. 60% more trailers were not a welcome surprise before a long movie.
So the theater had an off day and lost a star from me, but surely the movie was going to be good, right? Uhh... I didn't really enjoy that very much either.
Spoilers in elaboration
The antagonists felt cartoonishly exaggerated to the point of breaking my suspension of disbelief. I had the same issue with a character in The Long Walk. It felt like watching a Looney Tunes character in an otherwise-serious movie. That ruined it for me because it kills the tension of the action/thriller scenes. A big part of the reason the runtime is so long is because it lets suspenseful sequences simmer for a while, but it's just boring when your villian feels like Wile E Coyote and Marvin the Martian. During the long scenes meant to be tense, I was just waiting for the next shoe to drop because I didn't feel any sense of risk or stakes.
I also never particularly liked the protagonists either. Willa is disrespectful to Bob (beyond just throwing his snark back at him) and breaks his rules about bringing her friends to their house and having a cell phone. It's totally reasonable and believable for a teenager, but it doesn't make me like her character. Bob means well, but paranaoia and drug issues are not endearing traits. When push comes to shove, he does do the right things to the best of his ability. He is the best of the protagonists. Perfida is either irresponsible or actively misanthropic to everyone until she gets captured by the army, at which point she cracks under the pressure. Again, totally understandable, but it doesn't make me like her character. So the ending being a heartfelt letter from her didn't tug at my heart strings. She totally could have changed and become a better person by the end of the movie! But since we don't see that happen at all, it falls flat.
The movie is also long enough that I had to miss two minutes to run to the bathroom. I left right after Leo gets the gun and yells "Viva la Revolucion!" and came back as he was running on the roof. The immediate scene when I left seemed to just be an action sequence with the army searching and closing in on Leo, which makes sense based on what happened on the roof, but maybe I got unlucky and missed some important dialogue or plot development.
But if those things don't bother you, I can see how other people can enjoy the movie. I still don't quite see how it was top-20-something with all-time greats on Letterboxd for a while. It has since dropped to 80-something, but I still didn't enjoy it nearly as much as other movies near it on their list.
Cleopatra (1963): ★⯪☆
My internet went down and the company didn't fix it for three days, so I decided it was a good time to knock this 4-hour movie out of my backlog. I was mostly interested in the first place because of its historically-disastrous production. It may as well be two separate movies instead of one long one with an intermission similar to Kill Bill. It's interesting to see the huge scale of some of the establishing shots knowing that they had an actual crowd of hundreds extras on a set (and you can tell where the set ends and a matte painting begins). Today, they would just use green screen for most of it, but back then they did it for real. The movie itself was just okay, but it sated my curiosity about "this is that movie that had all those problems while filming."
Zootopia (2016): ★★☆
I watched this to see if I'd be interested at all in the upcoming sequel. My secondhand disc had some scratches and skipped over about 90 seconds of one scene. The themes are delivered a bit hamfistedly at times, but it's a kids movie, so whatever. The references to The Godfather by Mr. Big were funny. This was entertaining enough that I'll consider watching the sequel unless the reviews are bad. I'll watch the trailer for the new one again once my internet is finally fixed since I'll recognize the returning characters now.
Blazing Saddles (1974): ★★☆
I has been without internet for almost 3 full days at this point and was really frustrated with the internet company, so I picked a comedy. I think this is worth contrasting with my criticism of One Battle After Another. This also has the cartoonishly absurd antagonists, but since the whole thing is a farce, it just works and doesn't ruin the experience. I was aware that this was "a movie that you couldn't make today," and it lives up to that reputation. The language and sexual content was significantly stronger than I was expecting from a movie made in 1974. And by the time it ended, I only had to wait on hold for another 45 minutes before I could get through to a real customer support person at the internet company! /s
Spirited Away (2001): ★★⯪ (re-watch)
My theater was showing this as a part of its Ghibli series over the summer and fall. This didn't quite have the same magic as the first time I watched it, but it was still thoroughly enjoyable. I noticed a lot more of the characters' visual designs this time, like e.g. Chihiro having pencil-thin limbs. I also came away with a different impression about a couple characters, but I won't go into detail to avoid spoilers. This reminds me that I need to finally get around to watching Princess Mononoke for the first time.
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Comment on I am angry at Google and wanted to share (rant) in ~tech
Perryapsis Link ParentThis is frustrating for me, too. It's one thing is a website doesn't want to serve users using a VPN, but it's mildly insulting to be lied to about it.This is frustrating for me, too. It's one thing is a website doesn't want to serve users using a VPN, but it's mildly insulting to be lied to about it.
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Comment on Way past its prime: how did Amazon get so rubbish? in ~tech
Perryapsis Link ParentI've seen the opposite as a non-member. "You've paid $40 in shipping over the past year. Subscribe to Prime for [way more than $40 per year] to get free shipping!"I've seen the opposite as a non-member. "You've paid $40 in shipping over the past year. Subscribe to Prime for [way more than $40 per year] to get free shipping!"
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Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
Perryapsis LinkDoes anyone want to talk about any of the following? Charade (1963): ★★⯪ To paraphrase the third review on Letterboxd, it's the most Hitchcock movie not made by Hitchcock. I called a couple of...Does anyone want to talk about any of the following?
Charade (1963): ★★⯪
To paraphrase the third review on Letterboxd, it's the most Hitchcock movie not made by Hitchcock. I called a couple of important twists before they were revealed, but this movie has so many twists that everyone's sure to catch at least one.
Spider Man (2002): ★★☆
My theater is showing the three Raimi Spider Man movies. I had heard of the movies before, but didn't really know what to expect. Enjoyed it.
Spider Man 2 (2004): ★★☆
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I see that reviews for the final movie are a bit worse, but I'll still go and see it later this week. I assume that it didn't stick the landing on the trilogy-long character arcs, but I haven't read too much in order to avoid spoilers.
The Girl Who Leapt Through Time (2006): ★★☆
I could have watched the Spider Man movies on consecutive nights, but then I would've missed the chance to see this one. I saw the trailer at a Ghibli movie and thought the premise was interesting. I enjoyed it well enough, but it felt a bit tonally mixed. It flip-flops between serious and lighthearted scenes. Instead of making a balanced movie, it felt like it maybe it didn't quite know what it wanted to be. Still worth watching.
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Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
Perryapsis Link ParentI kinda just feel like I don't have enough ability to discern more than three levels: ★☆☆ - I wish I had watched something else instead ★★☆ - Worth watching ★★★ - Awesome, gets priority to rewatch...First time I've ever seen a three-star rating system!
I kinda just feel like I don't have enough ability to discern more than three levels:
★☆☆ - I wish I had watched something else instead
★★☆ - Worth watching
★★★ - Awesome, gets priority to rewatch
I use the half-stars when I can't really decide how I feel one way or the other, not as a designed in-between rating.
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Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
Perryapsis Link ParentSpoilers I agree. Show-don't-tell is supposed to be a good rule for storytelling, but I needed my hand held a bit more for Howl's Moving Castle. Maybe part of it is Japanese cultural differences...Spoilers
I agree. Show-don't-tell is supposed to be a good rule for storytelling, but I needed my hand held a bit more for Howl's Moving Castle. Maybe part of it is Japanese cultural differences that I don't watch enough anime to understand.
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Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
Perryapsis Link ParentLetterboxd uses the ½ glyph instead of a half-star, but I've never liked how that looks.Letterboxd uses the ½ glyph instead of a half-star, but I've never liked how that looks.
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Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
Perryapsis Link ParentYes, it should be unicode 2BEA for a half-star. I've never liked Letterboxd's convention of using the ½ character for a half-star, but maybe the actual half-star character is too obscure.Yes, it should be unicode 2BEA for a half-star. I've never liked Letterboxd's convention of using the ½ character for a half-star, but maybe the actual half-star character is too obscure.
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Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
Perryapsis Link ParentSpoilers I never figured out how the magic works or its rules. This left me confused at times, keying on things that ended up not mattering and expecting those things to be relevant later. For...Spoilers
I never figured out how the magic works or its rules. This left me confused at times, keying on things that ended up not mattering and expecting those things to be relevant later. For example, the witch at the beginning says that "The best part of this spell is that you can't tell anyone about it." I expected that to be a much bigger deal than it was or lead to a reveal later on. Because I was paying attention to that, I didn't notice actual important things or understand their importance.
My score is a measure of my experience watching the movie, not necessarily critiquing its quality. I think I would definitely benefit from a rewatch in the future where I just let myself go with the flow. But I walked out of the theater feeling stupid for having trouble keeping up with a kids' movie.
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Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
Perryapsis LinkI feel like I should mention that my star system reflects how much I enjoyed watching the movie, not a measure of how good it is. With that said, does anyone want to talk about: The Long Walk... -
Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
Perryapsis Link ParentVery minor spoilers about the story structure The same facts are able to logically lead to any of the three endings. So the clues are the same and everything plays out the same until the very end....Very minor spoilers about the story structure
The same facts are able to logically lead to any of the three endings. So the clues are the same and everything plays out the same until the very end. Only the final scene where the characters talk it over and figure out what happened is changed from one version to the next.
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Comment on Midweek Movie Free Talk in ~movies
Perryapsis LinkToy Story (1995): ★★⯪ It was good as a kid, and I can confirm it's still good as an adult. Took the chance to see it on the big screen. The Sound of Music (1965): ★★★ I had seen a long time ago as...Toy Story (1995): ★★⯪
It was good as a kid, and I can confirm it's still good as an adult. Took the chance to see it on the big screen.
The Sound of Music (1965): ★★★
I had seen a long time ago as a kid, but now I got a chance to watch it in a theater as an adult. I was surprised that I knew most of the songs ("knew" as in recognized them immediately as they started, not remembering the words), even though I didn't remember any of the story at all. I can see why it won Best Picture in 1965.
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Comment on Reddit announces new limits on moderating large subreddits and for moderators to remove content sitewide in ~tech
Perryapsis Link ParentEspecially in politically-charged subreddits, someone might fear retaliation for removing something with a comment that shows their name. But you could allow report reasons like !remove...Especially in politically-charged subreddits, someone might fear retaliation for removing something with a comment that shows their name. But you could allow report reasons like
!remove 5afc-90dd-6a01-159cwhere you assign (or revoke) GUIDs to each trusted user and set automod to handle such reports.
I, uh... probably spent more than I needed to (and explain it away as something that only happens twice a year), but I ordered:
City Lights (1931)
The Lady Eve (1941)
Brief Encounter (1945)
A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
Black Narcissus (1947)
The Heiress (1949)
The Asphalt Jungle (1950)
Kiss Me Deadly (1955)
The Cranes Are Flying (1957)
Taste of Cherry (1997)
The package arrives on Monday.