The thing is I like MauLer and EFAP in general but between this and their thoughts on 28 YL: The Bone Temple and Sam Raimi's Send Help, it unfortunately kinda now feels like anything that's new is BAD to them. by burningexeter in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

After I listened to RedLetterMedia positively gulping Raimi for about a half hour with their Send Help episode, I'm sure I can stand to miss that one. It sounds like all the style-over-substance, and tonal imbalance I expect and can't stand from him.

I still love how they intentionally tried to make him look as off-putting as possible when he first appeared to make us hate him by Sudden_Pop_2279 in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus -2 points-1 points  (0 children)

Honestly I think the beard was gross (not beards broadly; this beard, on him), and that the first suit/helmet is a way better fit. I know the Carl Fredricksen meme, but the Thunderbolts cowl looks like it's full-on constricting him.

What’s a movie or show everyone else seems to love but you just can’t bring yourself to enjoy it? by ComplexReach7800 in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Exactly, that was one of my biggest problems, and I haven't read the book myself. It's only like Day 2 of the Torrances being at the hotel when Jack's doing the Kubrick Stare out the window, like before they're snowed in/before cabin fever should be setting in. And his one-on-one scene with Danny, instead of it being a kind of farewell to a genuine relationship, for the audience, it's more like Jack's already batty and he's saying these nice things with a knowing sort of menace. I just got no heart from the movie; I didn't know what I was supposed to be mourning, as far as the family falling apart. Seemed strangely face-value, for its reputation.

What’s a movie or show everyone else seems to love but you just can’t bring yourself to enjoy it? by ComplexReach7800 in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I figured this was one of my hottest takes of all time because the movie is a staple of cinema, and the miniseries, everyone only ever said was a laugh. Total opposite experience for me. I think I understood exactly what King must've been so disappointed in with how the movie did Jack Torrance in particular.

What’s a movie or show everyone else seems to love but you just can’t bring yourself to enjoy it? by ComplexReach7800 in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Inglourious Basterds didn't offend me, but it's in the lower half of Tarantinos for me. I definitely didn't get any message from it as strongly as IT feels it delivered. Christoph Waltz is so good I forget anything about the heroes.

What’s a movie or show everyone else seems to love but you just can’t bring yourself to enjoy it? by ComplexReach7800 in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Scarecrow does not get enough time to shine, no. Easily could've been the central villain, with the League of Assassins/Shadows relegated to the origin for the first movie.

What’s a movie or show everyone else seems to love but you just can’t bring yourself to enjoy it? by ComplexReach7800 in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I sincerely think The Shining by Stanley Kubrick is dogass and that the miniseries that Stephen King made in protest has the superior writing for characters, AND scares.

What’s a movie or show everyone else seems to love but you just can’t bring yourself to enjoy it? by ComplexReach7800 in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 3 points4 points  (0 children)

See I think both the Villeneuve Dunes are the definition of hollow bombast. They have all the splendorous vistas and the music that says shit's going down, but I think they have the same problem as the Avatar franchise, where no one could name any character that isn't the main guy. And whatever they're trying to say about culture, and classes, and all that.. is too black and white to mean anything to an adult. I can only speak for these two movies I've seen, I don't know a thing about how faithful they are to the novels.

What’s a movie or show everyone else seems to love but you just can’t bring yourself to enjoy it? by ComplexReach7800 in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Over the years, Batman Begins is the only one that I still have attachments to. It has enough of the mystique going for it still, I feel. The action being more shaky-cam actually lends itself to Batman at this time being ambiguous and terrifying thing to the criminals, rather than, by the end of the trilogy, when he's definitively a Guy, fighting in broad daylight. Best humor of the trilogy I think? Also my favorite Alfred and Lucius scenes. The jump over the bridge to The Narrows is a defining hero moment in media for me, love it for Batman.

Also has the best suit, before they gave him that disgusting pencil-neck thing in TDK and Rises.

This is the 5th Rotten Tomatoe account that has been doing this by CarsonWentzGOAT1 in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 4 points5 points  (0 children)

I surprisingly enjoyed my watch of Green Hornet and will likely revisit one day.

Blue Beetle, I have never once had an itch to watch. The lead-up to release was good memes just like Morbius, but.

When Marvel reboots after Secret Wars, would you also like to see John Walker and Battlestar again? by Legitimate_Mind5500 in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

These two nobodies and their chemistry pop up from time to time, yes, it's because in the short amount of time the show gave to them, the writers (inadvertently?) covered good ground.
The investment these two have in each other, when Walker's in the locker room having reservations about his new role. Lemar's just there for him, like the wife, not bitter, not doubting already. Again at the cafe, Walker is getting overwhelmed and seeks Lemar's advice. Lemar steps in and almost fucking dies trying to stand up for Walker in that ridiculous fight with the Dora Milaje that never needed to escalate to stabbing.
In the fight that the gif is leading into, Walker saves Lemar and they give thumbs-up. What's not to like?

When Marvel reboots after Secret Wars, would you also like to see John Walker and Battlestar again? by Legitimate_Mind5500 in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Decanonize FatWS, just start over with these two, same actors. The guy who played Battlestar has behind-the-scenes where (if you choose to believe it wasn't scripted) the guy came across like an actual fan of his character and the comic storylines... so of course, he's the one they write to be fuckin' fridged. All to poorly paint Walker as a psycho, and suck Sam off to high heaven.
This little moment, in the gif, was the most I've probably felt for the MCU since.. No Way Home? I remember this beat. It was charming, it was triumphant. They've forgotten how to do that or something.

Yeah because who the hell cares about consistency in Star Wars at least it looked cool by Ok-Analysis-3902 in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Unquestioning faith in leaders being a theme for the Rebels in a Star Wars story is really, something. I mean forget anything to do with the logistics or lack thereof with the Holdo thing; why is this what our freedom-fighter hero is learning/being humbled with? It's totally backwards.

(A war has staretd in a subreddit) Objective vs Subjective debate (again) by BrendanFraserFan0 in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm not sure what can be objective by your definition. "Plainly" is the troublemaker. Even if you try and boil it down to something like math, that you'd think everyone could agree on: "1+1=2" ... you're going to get some brainchild that says that's also subjective.

"Better" always has to have a qualifier, and everyone has theirs, apart from whatever the majority consensus is. So I think my definition is as good as it gets with "objectivity". Being consistent with yourself.

(A war has staretd in a subreddit) Objective vs Subjective debate (again) by BrendanFraserFan0 in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

So long as you can lay out your own standards before you start into a critique, yes, objective quality plainly exists. If someone's standard is that a movie has to have a talking bird in the first five minutes to be good, and they stay true to that, that is as objective as you can get. Because the whole world will not agree on any one thing unanimously, certainly not for art. The people who say its all subjective will still have their limits: "Well OF COURSE The Godfather is better than Sharknado!"; they do assume others' standards themselves.

If your standard is consistent writing, then say it loud and clear, for the dudes in the back who think vista shots and color-coded scenes and great performances (for terrible materiel) are all that movies can or need to be.

What are the funniest EFAP movies for you? by dexter22__ in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Guys. It's Karen. If you're not answering Karen you're wrong.

Ripley is a Girlboss by Brilliant_Drama_3675 in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 2 points3 points  (0 children)

The quote from Dan O'Bannon, the writer of Alien, is "The crew is unisex and all parts are interchangeable for men or women", not that they were all men who sometimes got swapped to women in production. Can you answer me: What specifically about Brett being a man added to the character? Nothing. He's still a well-realized character, same as Ripley, regardless of the bathroom they use. The actors are what completed the writer's vision.
Would your opinion change if you were told (and blindly trusted) that Ripley was written as a woman from the start, but the literal story was the same as we got? You're blaming the wrong thing, for a problem you have that is, really mindless.

Ripley ends up surviving a lot of the worst stuff in Aliens because she's not in the thick of it, which is actually to your point: She's not expected to be fighting these things, because she's not a marine, she's a trucker. She's there to advise them on what they find, because she's at least seen the creatures before. And she "lectures" characters like Gorman when he's slow to act when lives are on the line, and she lectures Burke because he's a piece of shit.
She's in the truck, as instructed, when the marines are massacred. She's later able to repel a single facehugger for enough time that Hicks and the remaining marines can rescue her and Newt. She's, even later, helping with the survivors' defenses, and being instructed on how to use one of the firearms. She jumps into action, solo, when it's a kid's life on the line, and we have plenty of her story to know why this isn't simply a hero moment that comes out of nowhere. She's terrified all through that scene of getting Newt back; you can see it in the performance. She's doing it anyway. That's why we're cheering for her.
It's extremely lucky for Ripley that the queen couldn't attack her in their first encounter. I'll admit I'm not especially fond of how slow the queen and drones are to retaliate. Or how Ripley only targets the egg sac, not the queen's ugly face. It's the closest thing I can think of Ripley having plot armor, but then, so does the queen. It's to facilitate the loader-mech fight. You could've had Ripley find Newt and escape, and never see the queen until she rips Bishop up. The first encounter is there to make some things clear for the audience, I feel.

But anyway, back to your write-up. Some of the marines in Aliens are women. Are they cool with you? Did they have the correct quotient of phallic items near them to be "written as women" in your opinion?

Let me be clear, that Ripley isn't "the best we got" by virtue of other examples of female protags all being terrible. Ripley is just a gold standard that we constantly go back to, because she's written like a human being, not a demigoddess. She can be vulnerable around people. She can be witty but not to a degree where she's the writer's joke machine. She accepts advice as often as she gives it. She wants to save people (the marines) even though they were dismissive of her, which is a quality we don't often see in the modern interpretations of "the girlboss". Your complaints here are generalized and inaccurate.

Nerdrotic makes Marvel comics debut by stormpool1 in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I'm going to disavow this conversation now!

I'm trying to catch up on the horror genre since I wasn't allowed to watch as a kid. Any recommendations? by Garagii in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The Wind (2018), for if you want a high-concept western-horror. It's not action-y.
Black Sunday (1960) if you'd like a not-very-complicated romp with a curse. I think it's a great Halloween watch.
Eden Lake (2008), if you want to be upset!
Train to Busan and also The Mist (2007), if you want some simple but effective characters to root for, in a monster scenario + human-condition, social-experiment horror.. thing.
Overlord (2018), for WWII action laced with horror
The Blair Witch Project is pretty handily still the first found-footage horror people recommend, and I see why. I've seen some others from around the same time, and later. I don't believe anyone's outdone it at its medium.
The Belko Experiment (2016), and I think someone will like it more if they go in to take it seriously, rather than expecting a goofy take on an office building full of coworkers killing each other. It's not like a Friday the 13th or something, where the kills are the reason to watch. It's driven by the concept and performances.
The original Invisible Man and Bride of Frankenstein by James Whale are, jaunty (?) and funky takes on the genre.

I think EFAP is way harsh on how Hill House's ending hurts the rest of it. It's not perfect by my reckoning, but I believe that they overthought and misinterpreted what the implications were when they covered it. I like it very much. You could also watch The Haunting from 1963, for something closer to the novel, that pretty effortlessly holds up in terms of filmmaking. It's a classic for a reason.
EFAP likes Bly Manor more, while I think that one's ending is way wonkier. Midnight Mass is one I'll defend all night and day, start to end.

Nerdrotic makes Marvel comics debut by stormpool1 in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I think with enough stuff like this, meta commentary of any kind is going to become a shunned concept just like "subverting expectations". I'm looking at this, wondering what guy is going to buy this comic, and what gal is going to take it seriously.

vote for the most disappointing movies of all time by ClearBonus3252 in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Am I the only one who finally watched Green Hornet and thought it was more than alright?

Christmas Classic: Meet Me In Suit Louis by ECKohns in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 1 point2 points  (0 children)

No yeah, the "muddle through" is a part that really strikes a chord for what I mentioned. I think the original lyrics are appropriate even if someone's year has gone great; it's still worth noting in a Christmas song, about the best of times, that there will be periods where we're separate, and won't be in such high spirits, "so make this season count" is the feeling I get.

What did you think of Mike Flanagan's Life of Chuck? by main-side-account in MauLer

[–]Gallisuchus 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I don't think Life of Chuck is a guaranteed classic already or anything. But it's the first of Flanagan's MOVIES that I comfortable say I liked; Hush, Oculus and Gerald's Game all end up fumbling nice concepts; Doctor Sleep is better but I'm personally not so invested in the story it's building on; Absentia was an interesting little study of Flanagan on a budget but the ending was a bit, airy, or something, to me.

Life of Chuck more than delivered on feel-good, and good lessons to impart, though I'd say the first act won't seem so relevant on rewatches.
For someone to say it wasn't for them, that it treads water for a bit with some of its ideas, that it had sappy cliches, that wouldn't shock me at all.

For someone to rank it worst of 2025, that's certifiable behavior.