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Topics - brekclub85

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Silver Screen / Genres and tv/movies.

« on: September 12, 2011, 08:42:41 PM »

Do you think there any genres of work (comedies, horror, action, adventure, drama, etc....) that you feel either work better when they're tv shows or when they're movies?

For me, personally, the genre of mystery works better in tv shows. Maybe call it shallow, but I like the episodic nature of mystery shows and I'd rather have a new whodunnit/howdunnit every week as opposed to just one mystery.

Though, I won't deny that my favorite horror movie series, Scream, is all whodunnits, but they don't really have big deductions, just reveals.

What about you guys?

Random Role Play / The Wildcat Cafe

« on: August 07, 2011, 09:18:08 PM »

Out in the desert, for the longest time that anyone could remember, there had been a restaurant. And it wasn;t a typical burger joint or pizza place. No, this restaurant was built on the inside of a mountain. Some say the owner dug the space used himself using only a mere spoon.

Nevertheless, this restaurant was one-of-a-kind, and not part of a franchise. It was the Wildcat Cafe, and the owner was a big feline chef by the same name. Now, the reason this cafe was around for so long was because people thought the owner was immortal....and how right they were.

Now, any customer who came to Wildcat's were greeted by the master chef and owner himself personally. Mainly because he needed to examine everyone who came in. You see, people coming to the restaurant were either valued customers..........or valued resources. Lots of customers knew you would either enjoy a meal or become one, depending on if he deemed you strong or weak.

"Morning Mr. Wildcat!" Dongwa, a young persian cat smiled to his boss, coming into work that day. "What am I assigned for today?"

Role Play Discussion / Toon world spinoff: The Wildcat Cafe

« on: August 04, 2011, 11:26:54 PM »

A brief video of the setting.

In an idea I thought of for a spinoff of nick's toonworld rp, this would focus on the Wildcat Cafe, a restaurant built in the mountains that has a rather....unusual main ingredient in every dish

Besides Wildcat himself, chars can in this can be from anything, and they can be either employees, customers, or future dishes....

For plot lines, we can focus on the employee's various jobs, their friendships, Wildcat's crazy antics, and perhaps dealing with a rival restaurant that wants to bring them out of business.

In other words, the story can go in any direction!

Anyone interested?

Computer and Electronics / A question about posting links

« on: July 17, 2011, 09:42:18 PM »

One thing I've admittedly have yet to figure out is when one posts a link, for example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_EC2tmFVNNE (The trailer for the last HP movie that came out), I could only post the link by copying/pasting from the taskbar.

But I've noticed how one can post a link without posting the specific website address,

for example, I want to know, using the random link I decided on, how could I post the link as, let's say, "Harry Potter trailer" without the http and all that stuff?

Silver Screen / Deathly Hallows Part 2

« on: July 15, 2011, 01:19:33 PM »

Saw the 3d midnight screening last night, and I LOVED it! The film was a very fond farewell to the Harry Potter franchise. The action scenes were very intense, the emotional parts were very well acted, and the occasional moments of humor got laughs out of my crowd.

This was by far the most crowded a theater I ever been in has been, and for good reason. The film was phenomenal, and at the end, we were all applauding.

Animation / Sagwa and some mice....

« on: July 12, 2011, 12:38:55 AM »

Sagwa learns that when you have mice on the menu, it's considered rude to pick them off in front of all the other mice.

Caption away!

Role Play Discussion / Madagascar rp?

« on: July 08, 2011, 02:30:04 PM »

I thought of making an rp based off the Madagascar movies, so now I'm seeing if anyone's interested:

Basically, the story would be set after Madagascar 2, with the original group (plus any chars or OCs they met on their journey) trying to make it back to NYC.

Characters:

Alex-
Marty-
Gloria-
Melman-
King Julien-
Maurice-
Mort-
Moto Moto-
Skipper-
Kowalski-
Private-
Rico-

OCs are encouraged, anyone interested?

Gamers Zone / The Playstation Vita

« on: July 07, 2011, 08:51:11 PM »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PlayStation_Vita

Having gotten into the PSP recently, I think the Vita looks rather interesting. Based on the page for games announced for the console (and the games after all are what's important), I'm rather looking forward to:

Wipeout 2048, Modnation Racers (If it's an different version than the current PSP one), and the next Ridge Racer.

Anyone else excited?

Silver Screen / El Arca

« on: July 06, 2011, 08:38:12 PM »

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Arca

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlOaKmZV2Ck (A link to the movie on youtube. There's another upload available, but the audio is way off on the other version).

I found this movie a while ago on youtube, and I kinda liked it. It was rather funny, and I liked the animal characters.

Although, I probably should tell you guys that although there's no official rating given the movie is definitely PG-13 in content. (The movie's appeal to the furry fandom should become quickly apparent...)

Also, despite being based on a religious story, the movie definitely doesn't have a religious agenda, if that might've been a potential detraction point.

What do you guys think of it?

Silver Screen / Transformers 3

« on: June 29, 2011, 10:24:06 PM »

Today I saw Transformers 3 with one of my friends, and, after thinking about it for a bit, here's my honest opinion.

Going into this movie, I knew to judge it on a "mindless fun" level, and even that, I had problems with the movie. No, I'm not going to play the "dumb" card, I wouldn't judge this movie based on that aspect, but, in my personal opinion...the movie's main problem was that, IMO it was dull.

"But how can it be dull? It's about giant robots fighting each other!" Watching this movie, having a watch on me, I realized just how little of the movie was the aforementioned fighting robots. All the mayhem and chaos you see in the trailers doesn't really occur till the last 45 or so minutes of this 2.5 hour movie. And even during that final act, most of the action is humans fighting the decepticons, not robot vs. robot.

The biggest sin the Transformers trilogy had is that it never was truly focused on the robots. The character of Sam gets the majority of the screentime, and honestly, despite Optimus delivering the final blow in the end, you could never call Prime the main character of this. And, for the most part, I didn't care for the human characters in this, except for the one who turns out to be evil....

As I said before, I did like the final act. The "collapsing tilted skyscraper" bit was IMO awesome. But prior to the ending, there isn't an action scene that goes on long enough to really be considered an action scene.

As for the fight scenes themselves...they were over too easy, IMO. All 3 of the main villains goes down with 1 successful attack by the heroes. Once the good guys got the advantage in a fight scene, it was pretty much over. I felt the ending lost tension as it went on, but it never became really bad.

Now, like I said prior, the main problem I had with these movies is that they really aren't about "giant robots fighting each other". In fact, I'd have to say that the human characters were arguably more important then the transformer chars, at least the autobots. The Transformers are supporting characters in the series named after them...

To be fair, it could be part budgetary issues. Even with the around 200 Million dollar budget, maybe having more frequent fight scenes would have brought the budget up to astronomical levels that they thought they weren't likely to earn back in the box office. Who knows.

So, in conclusion, I judged this movie on a "mindless fun" scale, like I said. But nevertheless, because it takes a while for the action to really get going, and how relatively little (and even then, how quickly it went by) of the expected "giant robots fighting each other", I personally found it dull.

Out of 10, I'll give it a 5-5.5. Nothing terrible, but nothing I'd really watch again unless a friend was playing at their house.

And one last note: If you liked/loved this movie, I'm fine with that, and I'm not going to criticize you.

Silver Screen / The "mindless fun" defense.

« on: June 28, 2011, 02:45:10 PM »

This being summer, the season of blockbusters, there's something I've noticed happen every year in regards to movies (and it will keep happening) is that summer blockbusters, and often just action movies in general, any criticism of those movies is met with something along the lines of "it's not supposed to be Oscar winning material, you're just a snob, it's supposed to be just simple fun."

After I while I thought about remarks, and I began to think "Does being a big blockbuster/action movie give you an automatic "Get of of criticism free" card?"

NOTE IN ADVANCE: This is not calling people who use this defense dumb, or even criticizing the movies they use this defense on.

I mean, whenever we go into something we want to see/play/read, shouldn't we all have some kind of minimum of how good we want it to be? Should we actually be going into action movies with an extremely low bar set for an expectation?

Yes, I know that each genre of movies, games, and the like can't be critiqued in the same way. For the action/horror movies I like (or more generally the ones I went to see), I don't create my opinion using the same standards I would to judge a more serious/dramatic movie. I don't expect the characters in an action/horror movie to be extremely deep, however, I DO expect the characters to be likeable, and from an audience perspective, I want to be able to know what they're like, even if they don't change much.

Action and horror (arguably the two most criticized genres of movies) have their own merits by which they can be judged. However, I don't consider these types of films to be critic proof. Far from it. With action movies, I ask myself, "Was the action good?" As previously mentioned, though I don't expect the characters to be deep, I at least expect them to be distinguishable from each other, with separate personalities. Same with horror, if the movie's main selling point was the death scenes, I ask myself "were the death scenes good?"

But that's not to say one can't mix action/horror with an entirely serious plot. Inception is a good example. It managed to be a very smart film, yet still be filled with action scenes. I'm not saying "this is the standard all action movies should follow", but I'm just saying that this proofs that you can do a completely serious/ smart action or horror movie, and it can still work.

Now, going back to my problem with people using the "mindless fun" defense, I'll use a personal example: Final Destination 4. By this point, I would no longer defend the series on a plot level, I was well aware by this point, all they could really do with the series was make up creative kill scenes. I went into the movie fully expecting a "simple mindless fun" horror movie, but I ended up disappointed by it.

Not because I felt the film didn't live up to "Oscar caliber" standards, but because the film failed by my standards for a fun gorefest of a slasher movie. The kill scenes, by FD's standards, were weak except for 2 exceptions. Also, I felt we got to know nothing about the characters, so, even though they weren't well developed (which I wasn't expecting), they could be switched around for the most part and the movie wouldn't be any different.

So, what do you guys feel? I don't believe that being escapist entertainment gets you a free "Get out of criticism" card, it just means there are a different set of standards by which it can be judged.

Animation / Flying hero Sheegwa

« on: June 18, 2011, 10:23:07 PM »

Caption away! (In case you're wondering, this pic comes from a fantasy sequence when Sagwa and Dongwa are telling her a story)

Rejected story idea: The cat who could fly.

Silver Screen / A new Muppet movie

« on: June 18, 2011, 04:22:21 PM »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWJ2S4vpKoU

Besides Fraggle Rock, I'm a die-hard Muppet fan in general, and I was excited to learn there's another theatrically-released movie coming this fall. The jokes look good, and it seems they're bringing back practically all the original Muppet characters.

PS: Be sure to look up the parody trailers that were released before this one. They're a riot!

General Land Before Time / Could the sequels have been made darker?

« on: June 18, 2011, 03:58:13 PM »

Though I do like the LBT sequels, I can sort of understand the critique that they weren't as serious/dark as the original LBT.

Like the topic title says, do you think any of the sequels could have been with the same more serious tone that the first one had while still keeping the same basic plotlines?

IMO, The Mysterious Island I think could have been as serious as the first 1 with a few tweaks. The first portion or so of the movie works just fine, with the valley losing all of the green food, and the dinosaurs having to go into the Mysterious Beyond.

Now for the portion of the movie occurring on the island, had they perhaps given more focus on Chomper, and maybe go more into his mind, and imply that him choosing to not try to eat his friends wasn't such an easy choice and that he might be conflicted between his friendships and his instincts could have been an interesting conflict.

Do you guys have any thoughts on this?

Silver Screen / Favorite movie of 2011 (so far)

« on: June 12, 2011, 08:18:42 PM »

Nearing the end of June means we're approaching the halfway mark of 2011, so, out of what has been released so far, what's your fav film of 2011?

For me, my current favorite of the year is Scream 4. Honestly, the film did not let me down. It was one of the funnest slasher (and imo films overall) movies I have seen for a while, and the mystery was good.

I liked how modern they made the killer's motive, and the film's great subversion of the concept of "the new generation."

What about you guys?

Animation / Kovu and Zira

« on: June 08, 2011, 06:31:28 PM »

Kovu turns to his mother for therapy, it isn't working....

Gamers Zone / The "Wii" series

« on: June 07, 2011, 09:32:44 PM »

For you Wii owners out there, what do you think of the series of games named after the console featuring just the Miis?

Currently, there is Wii Sports, Play, Fit, Music, Sports Resort, Fit Plus, Party, and coming soon: Play Motion.

The original Wii Sports-imo though it is kind of the defining game for the Wii, it's no personal favorite of mine. However, the bowling will always remain a classic.

Sports Resort-Loved it. I liked the setting, which I explored a lot in the flying minigame. The expanded variety of sports really put this over the top, though it actually isn't my fav of the series, TBH.

Play-rather weak, I didn't really get into the mini games this one offered.

Fit-Rather enjoyable, and it does provide a workout. I worked my butt off on the balancing, soccer, and hula hoop games. I broke a sweat constantly.

Music-Don't play many music games myself, so I didn't go for this one.

Party-IMO the best of the bunch. It managed to be a good Nintendo party game without any Mario elements. I liked the variety of ways to play the "main game", with World Tour actually being my favorite mode, though it seems a lot of reviewers didn't seem too fond of this one.

Though I didn't care much for Wii Play, the upcoming sequel, Wii Play: Motion actually looks good IMO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=el98ccQBIj4

(Though not said in that trailer, based on a US ad for the game, I really wonder what is going to make the game get an E10+ rating. :blink:

Role Play Discussion / Idea: Scream 5

« on: June 07, 2011, 12:28:15 AM »

Since my previous "Final Destination" rp got a fair number of you interested, I thought I'd try another rp based off another horror franchise I like: Scream.

Now, it will take this rp some time before we can really start it, mainly for one reason: Setting is everything, and we can't really have a cast of characters without a setting in mind.

Possible places I considered: A major US city like Chicago or New York, or maybe a big mode of travel, like a cruise ship. Wherever we decide, the rp will be set after the events of Scream 4.

Other rules: To be able to have a realisitc number of chars like the movies, including canon and OCs, we really shouldn't have more than 20 characters total. Also, once we decide on a setting, we should, for the most of the OCs, give them a connection instead of making them all strangers (like a group of friends, business partners, etc...)

Also, once we set up a cast. I'll PM the individuals (or have them PM me) about who I (or they want) to be the killer, and I won't release that information to anyone who's not playing the killer(s). So, I'm hoping to get about at least 5 people including myself involved in this.

Anyways, for canon chars-if anyone wants to take them: (And going by only the ones still alive):

Sidney Prescott-
Sheriff Dewey Riley-
Gale Weathers-Riley-
Joel Jones (former cameraman for Gale, survivor of Scream 2)
Detective Mark Kincaid (LAPD officer, survivor of Scream 3)-
Deputy Judy Hicks (Woodsboro police officer, survivor of Scream 4)-

Anyone interested?

The Fridge / I graduated yesterday!

« on: June 05, 2011, 01:34:17 PM »

As of yesterday, I am official finished with High School!!

I received my diploma, and there was an all night lock-down in the school party for the Seniors afterwards, which I intended and had a great time.

Time for college, baby!

The Written Word / A Rock-a-Doodle fanfic

« on: May 29, 2011, 10:30:29 PM »

Since I've seen only a few fanfics for RAD, I figured I'd make one. Since a major complaint the movie got was that it wasn't dark enough, I figured I'd give a dark little twist on the ending....heh heh

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/7033276/1/The_Owls_Picnic

(There's chapter 1, I have two more chapters planned.)