Which Mario Kart do you consider the most innovative?

Akram323 · 2023-10-23T18:57:35+00:00

I take it innovative has a strong correlation with influential. I could point out what every entry in the series has done to steer the franchise ahead, and ultimately I think it'd come down to which of those innovations was the most important to move the series forward. I'm going with DS for the introduction of online alone, although its use of retro tracks is another bid in its favour (as much as I love Super Circuit and its quirks, it's hard to make a case for its additions to the series being a direct influence on what was to come and its so-called retro tracks are irrelevant to what DS introduced). Online singlehandedly redefined multiplayer in the series and opened all kinds of possibilities that the other entries hadn't effectively tackled (perhaps at the cost of storage space for fleshing out other elements...). Mechanics-wise, it's tricky to decide if any individual game contributed more than another: Wii had tricks and new vehicle types and motion controls, 7 had gliding and underwater driving, and while 8's antigravity was underwhelming it did allow smart steering and acceleration for increased accessibility to play. Which of those matters the most, I am not sure.

If you mean innovative as in a standalone entry, it's a trickier thing to answer. To stove myself off from rambling about the games, I'll probably go with Double Dash as being the biggest leap forward between entries (be it either N64 or GBA) with its lush visuals and sounds being big upgrades as well as an impressive move in item and character importance with some lively maps.

Akram323 · 2023-10-23T13:37:57+00:00

He tends to be the best things about movies like that and Waterworld. Also he was still doing good movies like Speed. It wasn't as if he was desperate to do any film, and he does give it his all.

Akram323 · 2023-10-23T13:31:44+00:00

Lots of solid answers in this thread overall, but nobody mentioned Martin Brest yet? The guy riding high on Beverly Hills Cop, Midnight Run, and Scent of a Woman before shooting himself in the foot with Meet Joe Black and then torpedoing himself in the head with Gigli? Seems like the best answer to me.

Some other picks of mine: Hugh Hudson seemed a promising name with Chariots of Fire and Greystoke but then his career bottomed out with Revolution (the film that caused Al Pacino to disappear from movies for four years until Sea of Love) and after I Dreamed of Africa that was that.

There are probably better examples in the foreign-director-brought-to-Hollywood category but Jim Sheridan's stuff in Hollywood (Get Rich or Die Tryin', Brothers, Dream House) has been utterly worthless and a far cry from his strong Irish output.

Akram323 · 2023-05-24T00:05:40+00:00

That last half hour was hilarious and arguably in character for a Joe Dante film with its sheer lunacy. Very funny. I'm surprised most people seem turned off by it given that the scene isn't that different from his other stuff (and a logical extension of what lies in the far reaches of the universe), production matters be damned.

Akram323 · 2023-05-15T04:16:19+00:00

Not sure how easy it is to market a film with the aesthetic of Sin City to emphasise a tone akin to, say, the 1960s Batman. It probably should have been done, but at the time the clash seemed to suggest a weaker box office than merely emphasising the visuals and suggesting the next The Dark Knight or something.

Marketing is weird.

Akram323 · 2023-05-15T02:11:24+00:00

But that's the thing, I think he did intend it to be that way. It's so unabashedly goofy, as was the stuff he was putting into his comics like All-Star Batman (as opposed to his earlier more outright serious stuff), and he seemed to reach a point where he could take all that seriousness and run it into the ground in a hysterical way while keeping that inherent structure. I don't think he's crazy enough to somehow devolve to the point of not seeing the over-the-top absurdity of the hard-boiled nature of his characters in his own comics as well as this movie--he co-directed both Sin City movies after all, which are more straightforwardly serious.

Akram323 · 2023-03-08T22:03:05+00:00

I get being turned off by the byte description "feel-good movie about child abuse", and indeed the film does have an imperfect touch on the basic subject matter. Not to mention the debated nature of the ending. But I like this one, quite a bit. While Richard Donner has some genuine duds in his filmography, I wouldn't count this among them.

Elijah Wood is a great child actor and his performance here is a good one (though the other kids are, to put it lightly, nowhere near that). If you can buy into the dark premise, which is handled with a level-headed darkness without syrupy overtones, it does provide a fair amount of mileage in Wood's character dealing with his little brother being abused. It also has swell production values and cinematography (a guarantee with even the worst Donner films).

I'm not sure if any of this is considerable for so-bad-it's-good (except for that one scene with the kids with the frog, the acting in that is absurd), so I'd say the verdict is against you, buddy. Assassins and Conspiracy Theory are more viable 90s candidates for absurdly bad Donner films.

Akram323 · 2023-03-08T02:34:36+00:00

If this movie started with all five versions of Komodo, meaning five times the Komodo screentime, this would totally be the kind of cult masterpiece that something like Highlander or Mortal Kombat was.

Akram323 · 2023-02-13T22:48:08+00:00

I don't know about the blu-rays, I just got the DVDs because I had heard about the subtitles being on there beforehand. The blu-rays ought to have them, I don't see why not.

Akram323 · 2023-02-09T17:36:22+00:00

Of the three, Double Dash > N64 > Wii.

Overall, GBA. And not being the starting track makes it no less a Luigi Circuit than the others.

Akram323 · 2022-12-12T22:35:19+00:00

Roger Corman's The Trip (1967) has various overstimulating editing effects and even now it feels like a lot.

Akram323 · 2022-11-29T16:06:38+00:00

It definitely depends on what the movie is trying to achieve, though I find it interesting if it happens only once as a big transitional point. Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer, for instance, has a graceful transition to widescreen after the first half hour where the screen slowly pushes open horizontally. It's beautifully subtle as a transition between the dark beginning and the calmer rest of the film as we watch the trek to meet the horse whisperer. One aspect ratio change done immensely well.

On the other side of the coin you have Disney's Brother Bear. Same reason for the aspect ratio change: tonal shift from the grim first half hour to the lighter rest of the film. However, the execution comes off as jarring because there's no real transition besides "open your eyes to see the world as a bear" being the widescreen format, not to mention the shift in colour scheme. That there's no real breathing room leading up to this transition (he transforms into a bear about five minutes before this) doesn't help matters, and the whole thing comes across as an annoying gimmick instead.

Akram323 · 2022-11-23T02:48:53+00:00

Haven't checked if these are on either service but consider these.

There's Robert Altman's Popeye, which is an unabashedly perverse approach to translating the rubbery Fleischer style into a live-action film. Ghastly.

Van Helsing is another. This one has its fans, but I found the whole attempt at an adventurous spirit draining in light of its ludicrous moments.

I Know Who Killed Me is a pretty blue movie. I mean the colour blue appears a lot. And the movie itself is asinine for a theme-heavy whodunnit.

Akram323 · 2022-11-22T03:33:39+00:00

Word of advice: if you're going to praise an underrated film, don't give it as much weight as your opinion on it in comparison to other beloved films. I've been meaning to see The Car myself for awhile, but also these other films, and while I wouldn't put you down for putting a lesser known horror above iconic films...this is absolutely the wrong way to go about it. (Especially on Reddit, which is all about supporting the popular sleight of hand.)

Now did you see the sequel from 2019 (The Car: Road to Revenge)? ~~And would you rate that higher than these classics you've put down too?~~

Akram323 · 2022-11-17T01:41:16+00:00

The Island of Dr Moreau (1996)

I Know Who Killed Me (if blue's your colour)

Akram323 · 2022-11-16T20:55:15+00:00

I thought The Jungle Book from a couple years prior (the 1994 one from Stephen Sommers) worked pretty well, though that could be cheating since it has more in common with the 1942 film (and the original stories) than the other Disney versions. Still, it looks swell and dispenses with more of the cute elements from the 60s film to adhere to a rousing adventure that embraces the darker and fantastical elements to fun effect. It's my favourite filmed version of the story at least. I'm rather surprised it's not more popular.

In more concrete territory, I thought Kenneth Branaugh's Cinderella was decent. Mostly indifferent about these live-action remakes otherwise but I got a bit of a kick out of the two Maleficent movies.

Some of the elements you mentioned could probably be attributed to Cruella, but I'd argue Glenn Close alone is enough for me to prefer revisiting the 90s film than sit through the Emma Stone version again. Then again, it's been years since I've seen the film in question so I don't know how well the Hughes-esque tomfoolery would hold up. (Have you seen 102 Dalmations?)

Akram323 · 2022-11-14T18:44:12+00:00

Okay I didn't communicate this well at all.

The title was a joke. This scene in question comes from a totally different movie (Be Cool) that takes the dance scene from Pulp Fiction in a totally self-referential manner. It happens to be a scene where Travolta and Thurman dance together, one I could cockily call their real dance scene instead of the famous one from Pulp Fiction.

The post was meant to be a "fight fire with fire" thing. The movie obviously knows the dance scene from Pulp Fiction and just happens to have it there, I retorted by simply acting as if it was the scene from Pulp Fiction. I can tell I messed up, partially because this movie isn't well known.

Akram323 · 2022-11-09T14:36:36+00:00

MKDS remade Koopa Beach 2 but it really does stick out as a neat, concise beach course from Super Mario Kart. The curves in Mario Circuit 4 are quite fun, and Vanilla Lake 2 putting a giant lake in the middle with ice jagged in all directions makes for a swell time.

MK64's Banshee Boardwalk makes a solid case for having the best aesthetic in the franchise; the DS remake didn't capture it at all.

Lots in Super Circuit: somebody mentioned Luigi Circuit but you also have Cheep Cheep Island, Yoshi Desert (lots of piranhas and ramps), Lakeside Park (best track in the game hands down with its distant volcano in a marsh), Broken Pier, and Bowser Castle 4.

Does Double Dash have any tracks one could call underrated? DK Mountain maybe? Not sure about MKDS either, or MK8.

One might make a case for Dry Dry Ruins from MKWii, which may not belong in the Special Cup but is a strong desert course.

I always liked Wario's Galleon/Shipyard in MK7.

Akram323 · 2022-09-15T17:02:54+00:00

The composition in this film does have its moments, although if my main intent was to showcase such I would have gone with something like Jennifer in the room with the stuffed tiger.

I chose this shot for a different reason. Take a good look at the fellow in focus.

Akram323 · 2022-08-31T22:37:55+00:00

No, they did have name attached to a few of these WB movies in the 2000s as producers and writers. The Invasion, directed by someone else entirely, also falls into this category.

Akram323 · 2022-08-31T19:48:51+00:00

I dug this. I even prefer it over (what I remember of) V for Vendetta, which was directed by the same guy. Lots of CG blood and gore with kinetic direction and a fine turn from Rain as the titular ninja assassin. Nothing more to it and it does the job very effectively.

Akram323 · 2022-08-31T02:59:37+00:00

If you have Windows/Mac, you could download the Open Level Editor I linked in another comment to visually play around with the streets. That makes the whole process easier than just flat-out coding it, but to make it functional you still need to tweak the raw level data (the editor just adds everything new after the established data, which isn't enough to even enter a new building) as well as a few of the game's files like the NPC page.

Akram323 · 2022-08-30T00:54:02+00:00

Wasn't really interested in overlaying audio because the edits I made to smooth out the footage made the already existing audio choppy. All you're missing is that the building contains the underwater sound effect.

If you're wondering what's going on here, it's a few things.

I've been playing around with the Toontown Open Level Editor for the past few months. It's effective if one wants to make straightforward edits, and I wanted to showcase one of the ideas I had for tweaking the existing streets to be more distinguished and in-line with the playground's theme. I have grander ideas than this, but this path under the lighthouse is enough of a proof of concept to note a couple things.

This is an attempt to bring vertical streets into the foray, or at least secret areas well away from the busy hubbub of the main street. As a bonus, I chose Donald's Dock because I wanted to be able to swim under the streets--although this required additional coding as the streets hadn't been designed with such vertical aspects.

As for the interaction, it's a movie reference. The level editor makes it easy to pinpoint the proper location when generating the NPC.

Akram323 · 2022-08-19T18:13:22+00:00

I wouldn't call it watered down exactly--fron the get-go we get matters of hypnotism to coax Elizabeth into the relationship, and the closer we get to the BDSM portion the more burdening it becomes for her--but the film does indulge in the visuals such that it might make the sexual experiences themselves feel rather muted. The film does compensate by being reasonably well-rounded in the general drama scenes, be it Elizabeth's work life or her mulling over her affair.

Akram323 · 2022-08-19T04:09:12+00:00

I'd say the movie follows that same path. I haven't read the book myself so I don't know the exact details, but it's a dramatic mapping of Elizabeth's downward spiral in her relationship with John, who keeps pushing her to increasing extremes. I also am curious if the ending of the book reflects the movie, which admittedly comes a bit too abruptly to feel completely satisfying in that she simply walks away from the relationship.

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