Oh I’m not saying there isn’t skill involved. There’s obviously artistic skill involved.
But there’s already awards for that kind of thing. It’s a completely different skill set completely removed from the collaborative nature of film-making and film special effects.
One person sitting behind a computer, no matter how skilled, isn’t the same as a team working in tandem to create something awe inspiring.
Checks and balances.
I know that it’s an unpopular opinion, but I firmly believe that we were at least marginally safer when the USSR was still a superpower acting as a check on American fuckery.
Once the USSR fell, US went masks off on the international stage because they had no reason to pretend to be the good guys anymore.
They convinced all their allies to disarm themselves, and then went full “nice country here…shame if something happened to it” the moment they were the only big dog left.
The world can’t re-arm itself fast enough as far as I’m concerned.
CGI shouldn’t win cinematography or even special effects awards.
Both of those things used to be collaborative skills. Multiple people working together to make a great composition on the screen. (director, cinematographer, set designer, costumer, prop-maker, foley artist, actor, etc…)
A great shot in CGI requires a computer and rendering time. It’s not the same.
If you can do everything with a computer, than none of your special effects are special by definition.
Oh…You’ve got spiderman framed above buildings high in the sky in Into the Spider Verse? Great…cool shot…but took nothing to actually create it.
If you tell me that to get that shot you had professional stunt people doing wire work, a complex camera rig, two helicopters and high-speed camera? THAT is the special in special effect.
Made it in a computer? It’s meaningless.
“Silent Majority”
It’s always their go-to when pressed on when they’re called out.
They can’t grasp the idea that their beliefs are really that unpopular so they cling to an idea of a “silent majority” that agrees with them but is either too censored or too bullied to speak up for what they think is the truth.
Sorry buddy, there is no such thing as a “silent majority” quietly agreeing with you but afraid to speak up, you and your illiterate buddies are just assholes and your opinions are shit.
That all actually started after World War 1, to be honest.
It was during the first world war that all of the European powers spent literally all their money fighting each other, with both sides then reaching out to the United States for loans to continue fighting each other, which America was of course happy to oblige.
The repayment of those loans constituted the largest transfer of wealth in human history from Europe to the Americas, setting the stage for the American war machine to be completed prior to world war two.
Kathryn Bigelow’s most under-rated film is almost upon us…just 30 years later than we thought.
Also…if you haven’t seen that movie…go watch it. It’s low-key one of her best.
If its coming out of the Trump Admins mouths, its a lie…
I forgot about Continuum. I’d definitely recommend it. Though I wouldn’t put it high on my list or anything.
Main actress was good, but not great. And the rest of the cast was a who’s who of Vancouver working actors who jumped in via the Stargate.
It was enjoyable shlock, but I wouldn’t put it up there with the other mid-2000’s/2010’s stuff coming from Vancouver like the Stargate series of shows, or the CW shows that were all filming there at the time (Flash, Arrow, etc…). Vancouver was a hub of mid-budget sci-fi back then. Might still be, I don’t know. I don’t know anyone in the industry there anymore since breaking up with my ex.
BSG remake is a must watch for anyone, even those who don’t like “sci fi”
Band of Brothers is a must watch, even for those who don’t like “war”
Black Sails started amazing, dragged a bit in the middle, but well worth it for the final speech by Flint at the end.
The Americans is a show that has tragically never gotten the love that it deserves and is well worth your time.
Angel is better than Buffy in every conceivable way basically beginning in the second season and I’ll always point it out to people who won’t give it a chance because they don’t like Buffy. (I don’t like Buffy…but Angel was darker, more mature, less teeny bopper. And frankly funnier)
Edited to add:
Boardwalk Empire, the forgotten red-headed stepchild of HBO’s prestige lineup. I loved it but for some reason it’s completely dismissed and barely remembered.
12 Monkeys. Someone else mentioned it below and reminded me that I need to do a rewatch. I loved it. But in the later seasons was to distracted by other stuff to finish it.
Unless I’m mistaken, I’m pretty sure Iran is trying to very carefully target only US infrastructure in those countries (air bases, embassies, consulates, etc…)
It’s a dangerous line to try to tread, but it sends a message that I think they desperately need to send. “We’re not against you, just against the assholes using your land as launching points.”
Frankly I’d do the same thing.
I’m more interested in seeing what happens with the second part of his threat, that he’ll “use those bases whether spain likes it or not”.
I believe that’s called an incursion on foreign soil.
And I’d be willing to bet it’s the same damn people.
Executive Orders in the U.S. political system
I’m Canada we have the “Notwithstanding clause” which can serve a similar function; allowing a premier to unilaterally decide something without the approval of parliament.
Neither should be allowed to exist.
Also remove the entire idea of some countries having “veto” power in NATO and UN matters.
In Belle and Sebastian’s "Me and the Major’ my brain will simply not hear anything except
“Me and the midget don’t see eye to eye”
Which I find funny on a couple of different levels.
Voting requires citizenship. But citizenship itself should require more than just existing.
If we look back to Greek and Roman democracy, it was true that every citizen got a vote. But the people who were citizens was much more stringent.
The basic idea of the ars liberalis or Liberal Arts translates literally as “The work of freedom”. Exercising your right to partake in a democracy required that a person be knowledgable about history, civics, rhetoric, politics, philosophy. Without that knowledge, you were not allowed a vote in how things are run.
Essentially, you had to know what you were voting on.
Unfortunately, that meant that in essence only the rich landowners could be citizens because they were the only ones with the time and money to get educated while the underclasses were too busy working to suvive.
But in the modern age, where public schooling is a thing, we should be able to figure out a way to make such a thing work. Nowadays, the only thing keeping people ignorant is choice. And if you make the choice to be ignorant, you should forfeit your right to have a say in the governing of your nation.
I mean…I wouldn’t go that far.
I’d limit it at least to people who don’t hug the curb when making a right hand turn thus keeping anyone who’s going straight through from being able to fit in beside them at the stop light.
Eugenics isn’t survival of the fittest though. It’s one group arbitrarily deciding whether another group deserves a chance to live.
I get what you’re trying to say about “suvival of the fittest” but you’re butchering the most basic understanding of that phrase. Survival of the fittest isn’t a choice made by someone or a group of people.
The Habsburgs have entered the chat…
Precisely.
Part of the awe of watching movies (The so-called movie magic) is that at the same time as you’re in awe of the film, there’s a part of you in awe of how much collaborative work it took to create that stunt/effect/miniature, etc…
There’s no magic anymore when one can just do the same thing in Blender at home if they had enough time to learn.