aphoenix's recent activity
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Comment on What's the oldest piece of clothing you own and still wear? in ~life.style
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Comment on Taskmaster Season 22, Episode 1 - 'In my mind there’s a river.' | Full episode in ~tv
aphoenix Link ParentHer dynamic with Paul Williams was pretty funny, so I'm excited to see how she reprises that with Tom Cashman.Her dynamic with Paul Williams was pretty funny, so I'm excited to see how she reprises that with Tom Cashman.
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Comment on Brad Pitt returning for ‘World War Z’ sequel at Paramount with Edward Berger to direct in ~movies
aphoenix Link ParentThe main issue is that it's not really an adaptation of the book. The book is "An Oral History of the Zombie War" and is an anthology of stories; the movie is an action thriller zombie movie with...The main issue is that it's not really an adaptation of the book. The book is "An Oral History of the Zombie War" and is an anthology of stories; the movie is an action thriller zombie movie with a single character throughline. The book zombies are your typical plodding abominations, and the movie version are more like victims of the rage virus in the 28 Days franchise. Ultimately, the secret they learn to defeat the zombies isn't from the book at all. The only thing they really share are the locations, but they're all visited by Pitt in the movie, whereas in the book they feature different people.
In some ways, it actually reminds me a bit of The Lawnmower Man which I actually wrote about the other day, hating on it for the same reason though I don't have quite the same negative association with World War Z. I think it's because I knew that it was only tangentially related going in.
Overall as a zombie movie it's actually not bad. It's better than a lot of the Resident Evil movies, for example, but not really on the same level as something like Dawn of the Dead. I'd give it 3 stars of 5.
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Comment on Taskmaster Season 22, Episode 1 - 'In my mind there’s a river.' | Full episode in ~tv
aphoenix Link ParentGreat point, I'd forgotten about those. I also just checked New Years treats and double checked that nobody had been on those had gone on to a full series or alternate series.Great point, I'd forgotten about those. I also just checked New Years treats and double checked that nobody had been on those had gone on to a full series or alternate series.
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Comment on Taskmaster Season 22, Episode 1 - 'In my mind there’s a river.' | Full episode in ~tv
aphoenix (edited )Link ParentI believe she is the first to officially compete twice, yes. Urzila from NZ2 is going to be on the next season of TM Australia as well. There have been incidents where previous contestants...I believe she is the first to officially compete twice, yes. Urzila from NZ2 is going to be on the next season of TM Australia as well.
There have been incidents where previous contestants returned to fill in for contestants in the studio when a contestant was unwell, but that's not quite the same obviously.
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Comment on What are the genuinely worst films of all time? in ~movies
aphoenix Link ParentI don't remember disliking the movie as a movie per se, so it could very well be an acceptable one. I got pretty caught up with why it was called The Lawnmower Man and why it wasn't an absurdist...I don't remember disliking the movie as a movie per se, so it could very well be an acceptable one. I got pretty caught up with why it was called The Lawnmower Man and why it wasn't an absurdist horror with a guy who ate all the grass while naked and then killed the homeowner. I think it was the first time I got mad about how movies were advertised, or advertisements in general, and that stuck with me.
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Comment on What are the genuinely worst films of all time? in ~movies
aphoenix Link ParentActually, I don't think that's the movie I was really thinking of when I wrote this out, based on a my just now IMDB lookup of that movie; I definitely wasn't thinking of Jack Black and Gwyneth...Actually, I don't think that's the movie I was really thinking of when I wrote this out, based on a my just now IMDB lookup of that movie; I definitely wasn't thinking of Jack Black and Gwyneth Paltrow when I wrote it down. But I don't remember exactly what I was thinking either.
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Comment on Taskmaster Season 22, Episode 1 - 'In my mind there’s a river.' | Full episode in ~tv
aphoenix LinkTastkmaster NZ Season 7 has just started, and it's already shaping up to be a pretty good one. I find with NZ that I usually know either less than half of the contestants, but this season I was at...Tastkmaster NZ Season 7 has just started, and it's already shaping up to be a pretty good one. I find with NZ that I usually know either less than half of the contestants, but this season I was at least somewhat familiar with all of the contestants, mostly thanks to Guy Montgomery's Guy Mont-Spelling-Bee. Also Morgana O'Reilly is on White Lotus, and Rose Matafeo was famously on TM UK and was the Taskmaster on TM JR. If you can find it to watch it, I think this will be one of the better seasons of english speaking TM.
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Comment on What are the genuinely worst films of all time? in ~movies
aphoenix Link ParentI guess "so bad it's good" is a personal thing, and we're on opposite sides for Troll 2 and also Masters of the Universe, which I still enjoy, but mostly in a very nostalgic way. I never watched...I guess "so bad it's good" is a personal thing, and we're on opposite sides for Troll 2 and also Masters of the Universe, which I still enjoy, but mostly in a very nostalgic way.
I never watched the second Lawnmower Man, but I had the (fairly standard) visceral hate reaction to the first one. I still can't believe that they marketed it as "Stephen King's Lawnmower Man" for quite a while, and I had just gotten into King and his short stories when it was coming out so I was expecting something weird, and we got whatever that movie was supposed to be.
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Comment on What are the genuinely worst films of all time? in ~movies
aphoenix (edited )LinkThe Garbage Pail Kids Movie (1987) is garbage nonsense, unfortunately. It's based on an 80s toy, and it should be nostalgic for people of my demographic, but even when I tried to watch it almost...The Garbage Pail Kids Movie (1987) is garbage nonsense, unfortunately. It's based on an 80s toy, and it should be nostalgic for people of my demographic, but even when I tried to watch it almost 40 years ago I couldn't really get through it. It's not "so bad it's good" either, it's just terrible writing and utter nonsense.
Troll 2 (1990) is maybe worse. It makes less sense, has worse acting, and is meta-nonsensical, since it's not a sequel and doesn't feature any trolls. Some people do hold this to be "so bad it's good", but I find that pretty questionable; there are lots of schlocky B movies that I love, and this one is bad.
North (1994) is probably less bad, but it's one that hurts more, because it's made by a filmmaker that I love. Rob Reiner made some of my favourite movies, and there are things that I say and things that I believe because of the effect that his movies have had on my life. And he made North, which is definitely in the top 10 worst movies I have ever seen. I don't always agree with Ebert, but his review on North is spot on.
Battlefield Earth (2000) is L. Ron Hubbard Scientology apologia crap, but it's also poorly made. I haven't watched it in 20 years, but I remember feeling like the whole thing was dutch angles and cross wipes. The story was nonsense and the acting was worse; everything about this movie is garbage.
There are a few that I haven't seen, but that I know have a reputation for being absolutely terrible. Gigli, Catwoman,
Shallow Hal, a number of things like Date Movie, Movie 43, Remember the Spartans. I can't really say that these are bad because I haven't seen them, but I think they're pretty universally looked down on.Edit: I crossed out Shallow Hal above because it's not the movie I was thinking of when I was writing it out, but I no longer remember what I was actually thinking of.
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Comment on BlizzCon discussion thread in ~games
aphoenix Link ParentNothing really momentous happened, it was just a "death by a thousand cuts" sort of thing. Reddit get worse and worse, I had less and less time for community stuff. Then WoW: Shadowlands finished...Nothing really momentous happened, it was just a "death by a thousand cuts" sort of thing. Reddit get worse and worse, I had less and less time for community stuff. Then WoW: Shadowlands finished up and I realized that I wasn't enjoying WoW much at all, and I stopped playing. I gave up other Blizzard games as well because of various things the company was doing that I didn't agree with. I got really into exploring my backlog and realized that instead of spending the bulk of my time on one game, I could play 5 or 6 different games every week.
Sometimes I get a slight nostalgic itch for raiding, but it usually passes pretty quickly. Same for HotS, which is my favourite MOBA of all time. I don't think they'll get me back though.
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Comment on I'm addicted to Slay the Spire and am looking for a new game in ~games
aphoenix (edited )LinkThese are the deckbuilders that I have enjoyed. I can only evaluate based on your first 4 criteria; I don't typically play with a controller. Aces and Adventures (currently 90% off!) - for...These are the deckbuilders that I have enjoyed. I can only evaluate based on your first 4 criteria; I don't typically play with a controller.
Aces and Adventures (currently 90% off!) - for $2.59CAD this is well worth it. It's not as good as STS, but it's a decent poker-based deckbuilder that is pretty cool. There are several classes and each class has different abilities, so it has good replay value.
Monster Train and MT2 are great. You stack monsters on a train, holding off the hordes of monsters. Good difficulty scaling, lots of replayability.
Guild of Dungeoneering - it has been a while since I played this, but I did put in 25 hours or so when I was playing it. It did not grab me like any of the ones above, but it is cute, has cool cartoonish art, and IIRC had what felt like really natural deckbuilding and progression. It has a demo.
Beneath Oresa - I wrote about it a while ago, and said this:
It's a pretty good roguelike deckbuilder in the spirit of Slay the Spire or Monster Train. I'm digging it quite a bit - the gameplay and animations are in a comic book-y style that I really like, and they're clean and smooth. There are two zones - near and far - and enemies are either close or far away, and there are a lot of mechanics in the cards that rely on this. Each of the three character types has something unique going for it, and each of the individual characters within a type give you a bit more control over how you approach the playstyle for that type.
I eventually found it to be not quite as good as STS or Monster Train (but what is?) but found it very enjoyable overall. I'd put it above Aces and Adventures or Guild of Dungeoneering.
Dicefolk is the game that I'm currently using to scratch this itch. It is not bad but it's not as good as others that you have mentioned. I feel like it's a step down from Dicey Dungeons, which you mentioned having enjoyed. The art style is cartoonish in a way that doesn't gel for me (which seems silly when I suggested Guild of Dungeoneering for being cute and cartoonish, but here we are), but the overall gameplay is fairly solid. I've unlocked each of the characters and have been doing the trail runs (similar to Ascensions in STS) and it can be fairly challenging. I feel like it is more random than some of the other games here, and it has less overall deckbuilding; it is a dice game. I think it has a demo as well, so it might be worth checking out.
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Comment on BlizzCon discussion thread in ~games
aphoenix LinkHeroes of the Storm is getting a Xal'Atath, the first new character for the first time in six years, which is pretty cool. Xal'Atath is from WoW. I have a personal musing: in 2019 I went to...Heroes of the Storm is getting a Xal'Atath, the first new character for the first time in six years, which is pretty cool. Xal'Atath is from WoW.
I have a personal musing: in 2019 I went to BlizzCon, and I was fairly involved in various Blizzard communities around the internet for a lot of years. This year, I didn't even know that BlizzCon was happening. This isn't a slight on BlizzCon or anything, but more just an observation about how things can change in a few years time; I've changed from someone who was spoiling BlizzCon news live to someone who barely cares about it in seven years.
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Comment on A24 boards SCP Foundation movie from Spooky Pictures and Image Nation, sets 2027 release in ~movies
aphoenix Link ParentI don't think that it has been made public from the studio, but what I have managed to glean from various online sources is that the movie is likely to also be released with the same license,...I don't think that it has been made public from the studio, but what I have managed to glean from various online sources is that the movie is likely to also be released with the same license, which means that they are banking on it doing well commercially. As a studio, they have not been as litigious as other studios have been, but just earlier this summer they did do some automatic copyright claims, so this would be an interesting direction for them to go. If they do manage to make a commercially successful CC-SA movie, that would be pretty amazing.
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Comment on Taskmaster Season 22, Episode 1 - 'In my mind there’s a river.' | Full episode in ~tv
aphoenix Link ParentI hope I wasn't taken to be the "pro" stance for Ayoade; there are probably people who are fans of him that would actually mount some kind of defense for him. As it is, this is likely to be my...I hope I wasn't taken to be the "pro" stance for Ayoade; there are probably people who are fans of him that would actually mount some kind of defense for him. As it is, this is likely to be my least favorite series of the show and that's going to be mostly due to his involvement.
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Comment on Taskmaster Season 22, Episode 1 - 'In my mind there’s a river.' | Full episode in ~tv
aphoenix (edited )Link ParentI agree with your overall point, though I disagree that the other points I raised were meaningless. Also I did slightly change some wording in my post to specify that I don't consider Ayoade to be...I agree with your overall point, though I disagree that the other points I raised were meaningless. Also I did slightly change some wording in my post to specify that I don't consider Ayoade to be an LGBTQ+ ally (changed "I prefer my celebrity allies to be staunch and vocal" to "I prefer my celebrities to be staunch and vocal allies" which is what I meant but not what I originally wrote) since he hasn't actually done much in the way of allyship. My points in defence were mostly to provide both sides to @cfabbro since I originally started out in the post by saying that I had reservations about Ayoade as a contestant and only provided one side of the situation.
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Comment on Taskmaster Season 22, Episode 1 - 'In my mind there’s a river.' | Full episode in ~tv
aphoenix Link ParentI think preferences per series are pretty personal, so I understand not liking one over the other. I really like the NZ version, but I think that there are a few things that do make it a bit...I think preferences per series are pretty personal, so I understand not liking one over the other. I really like the NZ version, but I think that there are a few things that do make it a bit different, especially with regards to the Taskmaster himself. Jeremy Wells definitely plays the straight man, setting up jokes for the contestants who I think are a bit wackier than in some of the other versions.. Jeremy and Paul also have a different dynamic, because they don't really do a lot of the Taskmaster looking down on the assistant bit; it's more like a headmaster and his beloved head boy at a school. Another issue is that they actually have an additional ad break in the NZ version, so the overall episode is just a bit shorter, and I think that most of the time the thing that gets chopped out of the edit is some of the back and forth with the taskmaster and contestants, so if that's the thing that sparks joy, it's just a bit briefer.
Overall I think the NZ version is even more of a departure from the UK formula than the AU version, but I like it better, and I'm really looking forward to the next season of NZ where Rose Matafeo is one of the contestants.
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Comment on Taskmaster Season 22, Episode 1 - 'In my mind there’s a river.' | Full episode in ~tv
aphoenix (edited )Link ParentThat's slightly difficult to answer because Ayoade tends to be very private, so whatever perception of friendships that we have tend to be via the lens of panel shows he has been on, or stories...That's slightly difficult to answer because Ayoade tends to be very private, so whatever perception of friendships that we have tend to be via the lens of panel shows he has been on, or stories told by other people on talk shows or panel shows. So for example, he has worked with Suzy Eddie Izzard (side note: I did look up and watch a video on how Suzy wants to be credited, and as far as I can tell, that's the proper way) in Travel man, where they travelled and spent time quite closely with each other for 48 hours in Ljubljana, but that's a professional association.
This is also made slightly more difficult by the fact that I don't particularly want to be posting things in defence of Ayoade, since I prefer my celebrities to be staunch and vocal allies. I would say that if we were playing Wavelength and the scale was problematic celebrity to non-problematic celebrity, he'd be almost right in the middle.
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Comment on Taskmaster Season 22, Episode 1 - 'In my mind there’s a river.' | Full episode in ~tv
aphoenix Link ParentI should maybe temper that with some more direct references to what Ayoade has said, because he is very precise in his language. He called Linehan's book "an extraordinary and chilling portrayal...I should maybe temper that with some more direct references to what Ayoade has said, because he is very precise in his language. He called Linehan's book "an extraordinary and chilling portrayal of cancel culture" which is as far as I know true. Linehan is a good writer, and he wrote about his experience with cancel culture; I can only imagine that what he wrote was good and likely chilling. Ayoade also said the book was "brilliant account of the evolution of a comedy writer" and again, that's likely true. Ayoade also said that Linehan is "a man of great principle" which again is a very precise thing to say, because it is again inarguably true; Linehan stood on his (shitty) principles, and has mostly lost his livelihood for it.
This is not a real defence of Richard Ayoade, but I'm just saying that I have certainly seen people argue that Ayoade himself has not said anything transphobic, and he hasn't actually said anything to indicate that he supports Linehan's positions. I've also seen it argued that he gave these very precise quotes to help out the man who gave Ayoade the start of his very successful career, so it is understandable to want to pay some of that back.
I think that it's important to note that Ayoade generally doesn't publicly associate with Linehan, but does publicly associate with noted staunch LGBTQ+ allies like Greg Davies and Alex Horne (and others). All that is just to say that it's a weird old world and when we're doing the calculus on which celebrities to support with our time and attention, Ayoade is not as problematic as a lot of other people. As far as I can tell, he's not advocating for anything bad, he's just not quite done with a person that was his friend for years, and while that can be problematic, it can also be commendable in some situations (IMO: not commendable here, because giving money to Linehan in any ways is morally repugnant).
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Comment on Taskmaster Season 22, Episode 1 - 'In my mind there’s a river.' | Full episode in ~tv
aphoenix LinkThis was a great episode, though I still have some reservations about Richard Ayoade as a contestant, even besides the obvious problem of his friendship with noted anti-trans persona Graham...This was a great episode, though I still have some reservations about Richard Ayoade as a contestant, even besides the obvious problem of his friendship with noted anti-trans persona Graham Linehan. I think Ayoade is too anti-authoritarian to hosts whenever he is on a show (ie. Big Fat Quiz or the like) and too close to Greg Davies. That can really work - Rhod Gilbert was a great contestant - but I feel like the rest of the cast doesn't have a James Acaster-esque person to call Ayoade out on his bullshit, and Greg's going to allow it.
Aside: I have also really enjoyed the Contestant's Ultimate Episode series. I had saved Tom Cashman's ultimate episode up for a while and watched it the other day. In the course of watching his (great) ultimate episode, I learned there was a whole series of Taskmaster AU that I had not actually watched, and actually there were 2, because I knew I hadn't watched Series 5. But I learned about Series 3 with Aaron Chen, Concetta Caristo, Mel Buttle, Peter Helliar and Rhys Nicholson, and I have watched one episode of it, and I'm already super impressed with the cast. If anyone is on the fence about watching any of the other TM franchises, I really enjoy both the AU and NZ versions.
I have a dress shirt that I bought in 1997 that I still wear occasionally, though my preference now is generally for French cuffs instead. If I'm wearing just regular cuffs, I sometimes choose to wear it.
I still have the shirt I wore on my first date with my wife, and it is in good condition. It's a nice short sleeved button up that is now wildly out of style. Heck it probably always has been. I bought it just as I stated university in 98.
I have a kilt from 1997 that I will wear again goddamnit I just have to lose a few more pounds...
My good leather coat is the same one I have been wearing since I bought it in 1998.
Everything else I wear is from this millennium.