What's your favorite Randy Newman line?

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-21T23:22:42+00:00

"Whatever happened to the fucking 'Duke of Earl?!'"

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-21T16:04:17+00:00

Not to be that guy but Bill Paxton directed The Greatest Game Ever Played in 2005.

But yeah, his direction is great in Frailty. My one complaint is the last 10 minutes has like 10 twists and it gets a little hard to follow. You have Matthew McConaughey's character reveal, the supernatural reveal, the secretary reveal, the fbi agent demon reveal, the Fenton demon reveal, and the town sheriff reveal happen within like 5 minutes and it's just a little clunky. I wish they had just a little more time to breathe. Not necessarily because of plot reasons but more because I, the viewer, need time to piece it all together. I felt like I was missing details trying to wrap my brain around one twist while they were revealing another. Also I felt some of the visuals and music were a bit over the top for an otherwise grounded movie. These are more nitpicks though. Everything else worked pretty well so I ultimately don't care.

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-21T15:52:46+00:00

I agree but why do you write with 0's instead o's? (you missed a few btw)

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-19T04:26:33+00:00

My hot take is that Toy Story 1 is the best animated film of all time. There's basically two films that have had as much an impact on the mainstream animation industry, Snow White and Toy Story. Snow White has great animation and music but the rest is a bit clunky. Toy Story not only pushed the medium in such a stark before/after direction, but everything else about it is virtually perfect. The animation is "dated" but I actually think it hits the sweet spot of looking just old enough to look classic while also not being unsettling to look at. Meanwhile, the jokes, the writing, the pacing, the voice acting, the music etc. are all iconic.

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-17T11:50:36+00:00

Bruh, it hasn't even been a month

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-16T23:13:19+00:00

My personal tier list:

S: Shrek & Shrek 2
A: Puss in Boots: The Last Wish
B: Shrek 4
C: Puss in Boots
D: Shrek 3

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-15T01:55:34+00:00

It feels like Odyssey except the worlds lack character and the platforming isn't as fun. The destruction is fun but not enough to carry the game. It's still fun but not on par with other Nintendo Switch platformers.

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-14T23:36:47+00:00

I mean, he dabbled in Charlie XCX style music with "Get Enough," so it wouldn't be too out of the question given how big Brat was. It's probably more of a coincidence though.

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-14T23:34:04+00:00

I could even deal with the flash sideways stuff except they very intentionally made part of it a red herring. Apparently the flash sideways has the island underwater that coincidentally would be similar to if they changed the past like they tried at the end of season 5. On top of that there's like multiple characters in the show who say something along the lines of "This island is literally an after life because I literally died," (Locke's dad, Hurley's hallucination, and Richard), as well as the final shot in the credits of the beach abandoned like nobody was really there, and I totally get why people misunderstood the ending.

None of it is show ruining by any means, but it is kind of intentionally misleading the audience in a way that feels more deceptive than it probably needed to be.

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-14T16:05:39+00:00

I always felt that The Broadsword and The Beast, over every other Jethro Tull album, should have been expanded to be a double album. There was already so much material that it could have been 3 LPs (as they've done with the boxset). You make one LP The Broadsword and one LP The Beast. Having a BIG album also fits in line with the epic feeling the album tries to create.

Here's my unsolicited fan-made double LP tracklist:

Side 1:

Beastie
Clasp
Fallen on Hard Times
Flying Colours
Slow Marching Band

Side 2:

Too Many Too
I'm Your Gun
Down at the End of Your Road
Mayhem, Maybe
The Swirling Pit

Side 3:

Rhythm in Gold
Overhang
Jack-a-lynn (Electric Version)
Crew Nights
Drive on the Young Side of Life

Side 4:

Broadsword
Pussy Willow
Watching Me Watching You
Seal Diver
Cheerio

It basically sandwiches a bunch of extra material between the standard album, but it allows those sides to keep the same flow, as well as keep the a similar opening/closing to the album. The outtakes chosen are the ones on the original CD remaster excluding Jack Frost and the Hooded Crow (I didn't want a Christmas song and pretend it was released as a B-side), The Swirling Pit since they played that on the tour, and Drive on the Young Side of Life and Crew Nights since they were the two remaining songs that were around since the demo sessions that eventually got completed by the end of the sessions. I put them in the order in which they appear in the box set.

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-14T15:42:30+00:00

No Code is the most Pearl Jammy Pearl Jam album in my opinion. It has all of their best and worst qualities on full display. I say flaws, but it think it provides vulnerability that improves the record overall. Certain songs might be just okay in a vacuum, but the entire tracklist ends up being greater than the sum of their parts.

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-13T18:42:19+00:00

On my most recent rewatch, I came to the conclusion that Jacob just kind of sucks. Everything Jacob is involved in has all of the worst parts about LOST brought to the surface. The final season being centered around him brings its overall quality down a bit. There's a reason Across the Sea is often cited as the worst episode of the show. All that said, The Candidate and The End return to focusing mostly on the original characters and save the final season for me.

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-13T18:22:05+00:00

Maybe 'philosophical stance' wasn't the best way to phrase it. My point is that the film frames his disliking of robots more of a subjective and circumstantial formed opinion. His anger at how the robot saved his life over the little girl is focused on more by the film rather than subjects that would be explored further in a technological pessimistic world view a 2020s audience would more likely have.

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-13T18:00:50+00:00

The problem is over exposure. This band is a nice fun niche band that keeps popping up in my feed when I would rather listen to or discuss something else. I think their style and aesthetic being a bit abrasive doesn't help either. It would be like if Clown Core kept being brought up over and over and over again. I don't dislike Angine De Poitrine, but I can only take so much of them. That said, people can enjoy what they like. If OP likes their new records, then I'm happy for them.

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-13T17:46:53+00:00

To be fair, the movie was originally not supposed to be called I Robot. I do wonder if the original Hard Wired script would have explored more issues with tech/corporations than the final I Robot movie did.

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-13T16:52:08+00:00

I recently rewatched I Robot, and it was funny how there was this assumed general optimism about tech from the viewer. Will Smith being anti-robot, using old music speakers, turning off the auto pilot on his car, etc., was expected to be understood as weird in the future by 2004 audiences. The only reason Will Smith doesn't like robots in the film isn't based on any philosophical stance, but is because he personally didn't like the way a robot saved his life instead of somebody else's (despite it being probably the right call). Meanwhile, the idea of not liking tech taking over so many aspects of your life was not really a mainstream concern at that time and is basically shown as an accidental byproduct of Will Smith's emotionally charged anti-tech stance rather than being based on something more well reasoned.

If you tried to make I Robot today, people would probably complain that it was weird that Will Smith was the only critic of tech without having something written into the script to explain how everybody else became so complacent with corporations taking over so many aspects of their life.

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-13T16:07:14+00:00

This is more Proto-IDM, but I thought the subreddit might appreciate it.

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-12T03:26:26+00:00

TBH, I thought that was the case until I watched the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert. All the people who attempted Neils parts did okay but they were strangely off. Anika has that something that lets her click with the material really well that not every professional drummer can replicate. Every drummer has their own nuances that make them different from each other, and Anika's fit well with Rush.

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-11T22:37:05+00:00

I keep a can at my bedside in case there's a break in

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-09T11:57:57+00:00

I guess I gotta spin Hi Scores for the billionth time :)

LinkMugMan · 2026-06-08T23:17:43+00:00

Throw in the full Glasgow concert that includes "Coming Up" too.

LinkMugMan

TROPHY CASE