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Messages - JamesC

#1
Off Topic / Re: RIPs
15 November, 2020, 10:24:33 AM
Des O'connor, aged 88.
#3
Film & TV / Re: Last movie watched...
02 November, 2020, 09:52:24 AM
The Witch

I thought this was really fantastic. So creepy and atmospheric. The horror came as much from the religious dogma of the family - and their helplessness in the face of a failed harvest - as it did from the supernatural goings on.

I have the director's second film The Lighthouse lined up ready to watch.
#4
Film & TV / Re: Last movie watched...
16 October, 2020, 10:54:51 AM
I do think Carpenter is an interesting creator and there's always lots to like, even in the films which I think don't really work.
They Live, in particular, is so close to being an excellently weird action thriller, it just has this really long, quite dour first act with an actor who just can't bring enough to the performance. Then te finale doesn't quite hit the spot in terms of action.
It's a great idea though and I'd love to see a remake (hopefully a bit tighter). To be honest, I think the material is a bit out of Carpenter's wheelhouse. Verehoven would have been a good shout for it.
#5
Film & TV / Re: Last movie watched...
16 October, 2020, 10:47:54 AM
Quote from: repoman on 16 October, 2020, 10:37:24 AM
Quote from: JamesC on 16 October, 2020, 08:03:53 AM
Big Trouble is overlong and bloated.



Sorry, it just bores the tits off me.
#6
Film & TV / Re: Last movie watched...
16 October, 2020, 08:03:53 AM
The Thing is great and I have a soft spot for Vampires. Escape and Precinct are both excellent and I still think Halloween holds up.
Some of the others though...
Big Trouble is overlong and bloated.
Prince of Darkness is just boring.
They Live is overlong, boring and has the least charismatic lead I've ever seen.
#7
Games / Re: Heroquest UK release.
10 October, 2020, 10:27:52 AM
I don't like the new artwork much, but other than that it looks to be of decent quality. I'm happy to stick to my old set though.
#8
Quote from: Tjm86 on 09 October, 2020, 04:39:15 PM
Quote from: Professor Bear on 09 October, 2020, 03:36:03 PM
A female creator I was following suddenly started saying it wasn't cool to send her rape threats or say that you hope the breast cancer kills her. 

As for Jim Davidson, I'm not sure he has ever been anything other than "outdated, s**** and as such largely ignored" ... Granted he's had a big following amongst certain sections of the army but considering that the intellectual calibre of those sections is slightly smaller than that of their weaponry that really isn't saying much.

It might be worth noting that Jim Davidson won New Faces - the Britain's Got Talent of its day - with an act about his black mate, 'Chalky'. He was absolutely 100% mainstream in the late 70s/early 80s. Even in the 90s he was presenting Big Break and The Generation Game as one of the BBCs highest paid stars. This translated to bums-on-seats at his annual season-long residency at the theatre in Great Yarmouth. His live show was famously racist and sexist (and he had a reputation for being very 'hands on' with the dancers, and as being a surly drunk in the bar after the show). You couldn't help but feel that the BBC (and by extension, the establishment) was endorsing him.
#9
Film & TV / Re: All-time classic films of recent years
30 September, 2020, 10:50:07 PM
Well MJ was in Space Jam and Becks leant his name to Bend it like Beckham but neither were as good as Pele's Escape to Victory.
#10
Film & TV / Re: All-time classic films of recent years
30 September, 2020, 08:30:29 PM
Just thought of another modern classic. I mean, it's twenty years old but it still feels modern to me.
The Blair Witch Project.
#11
Film & TV / Re: All-time classic films of recent years
30 September, 2020, 06:37:07 PM
I think there's plenty of animated stuff that counts as classic. Toy Story and the like.
There are certainly British films which are culturally resonant, such as Love Actually, The Full Monty, Trainspotting.

Also, and it might just be my group of friends, but potentially dangerous situations are often described as being like Final Destination (and it almost always gets mentioned at airports and on motorways).

Similarly, layered and complex situations or anecdotes are often described as being like Inception (that's one I've heard used in interviews too).
#12
Off Topic / Re: Working From Home
25 September, 2020, 01:07:29 PM
I've been working from home on and off and I love it.
I love being at home and having the freedom to work as the load demands. If it's a quiet afternoon I don't feel at all guilty about putting a film on. I'll probably stop it halfway through to make a cuppa and check on the work laptop as the kettle boils. Obviously, if there's something that needs doing straight away I'll get on it. Otherwise I'll come back to it later.
I have occasionally worked into the evening or later than I usually would. I don't mind that though. I'm already at home, so working at 1930 doesn't seem so bad when I could have been working in the office until 1800 and not been home until 1930 anyway.
I'd love this work style to continue but, as I work in the events industry, it's unlikely. At the moment it's a rolling wave of cancellations and rebooking at a later date. Or sorting out safe working practices for social distancing. When the events actually start happening with any regularity my home working will decrease accordingly.
It's convinced me that it can work though - and even in a normal month I'll have days which are predominantly spent on emailing and admin, which I'll probably still do from home.
#13
Games / Re: Last game played...
25 September, 2020, 12:04:35 PM
I've just started playing Metroid Fusion for the first time. I'm playing it through the GameBoy Player on my lovely old Philips CRT TV. When I turned it on it absolutely blew me away. The presentation is beautiful and it looks and sounds incredible on the big telly.
Surprisingly, I'd never even seen this game running before. I'm a fan of Super Metroid and enjoyed the first Metroid Prime but other than that the series has remained on the periphery for me for some reason.
I really love the way they've designed this one for the handheld - making it playable in short chunks and relying less on (sometimes quite time-consuming)exploration. I'm not too far into it but I'm enjoying it so much that I've ordered a copy of Zero Mission as a follow up.
#14
Games / Re: PlayStation 5 / Xbox Series X mega-thread!
21 September, 2020, 09:30:40 PM
That makes sense. Well I hope you get some fun out of it anyway.
#15
Games / Re: PlayStation 5 / Xbox Series X mega-thread!
21 September, 2020, 02:19:24 PM
Quote from: repoman on 21 September, 2020, 12:06:38 PM
I've preordered but I'm not happy about it.

The PS5 is the first system that I'm going to get on day one (although pre-ordering from Scan means it'll likely be days 2-5).  And yet it's the least excited I've ever been about a console.

I can't see anything it does that is unique or special.  The games announced are all pretty predictable or are cross-gen with PS4.  There's no PS1-3 backwards compatibility either. 

Xbox have better ideas but they just aren't there with the games.

Why pre-order then? Not a dig I just don't get it. If you're not bothered about the launch games why not wait for the library to build up a bit?

I certainly won't be pre-ordering. I'm more into the retro stuff anyway but this generation launch does feel the most underwhelming yet.