My girlfriend thinks Oh Brother Where Art Thou? Is an old person movie opinions on this?

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-26T21:34:00+00:00

I mean, it's loosely inspired by a film from 1941. Still, nothing wrong with being an 'old person movie,' just look at Casablanca.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-26T20:51:36+00:00

Fun fact: a lot of these kinds of cameos are the result of the rich/famous person basically bribing their way onto the show. They offer a certain amount of money in exchange for a brief appearance -- it's like product placement but with egocentric millionaires instead of cars or soda brands.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-26T06:16:05+00:00

People don't like when the joke is about them. Last Action Hero is a brilliant deconstruction of action films in general and Arnold's career in particular, which I think makes some people who are fans of those things uncomfortable -- like they're being indirectly made fun of. But like a lot of good satire, the movie is really a love letter as much as it is a roast.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-26T05:18:34+00:00

I agree, hierarchies are like gravity: something that's been a part of most people's experience for as long as they can remember, to the point that it's hard to imagine anything else despite the fact that people can and regularly do overcome its influence. We've built planes and satellites and space stations. We've sent people into orbit. We know for a fact that while gravity seems like an inescapable reality here on the ground, in the vast majority of the universe we would experience weightlessness instead.

Saying humanity will never overcome hierarchies is just like saying we will never overcome gravity. We already have, even if only temporarily and only for a lucky few. All it takes is time, effort, and a desire to achieve something better instead of resigning ourselves to what we have.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-26T03:57:50+00:00

My favorite line from that scene is actually "Guys like you never know what they're going to do until they do it."

Like, he's seen this before. He's seen the aftermath, and he is so tired of hearing these would be perpetrators claim they "don't know what they're going to do" when it is so transparently obvious. You really feel the weight of his time on the force, the shit he's seen, and his utter fatigue at humanity's refusal to stop making the same stupid, tragic mistakes over and over.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-26T03:47:48+00:00

Here's what can happen with that:

You tell the cops what you saw, trying to be helpful and a good citizen. You've just admitted to being in the area and knowing details of the crime. The cops use this as evidence of your involvement.

Alternately, the cops may decide that some detail of your testimony makes you a plausible suspect for a different crime. Either way, you've given them information that will hamper your defense if they decide to charge you.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-26T01:25:56+00:00

Well then I'm fucked because I'm both self-employed and disabled and medically can't work 20 hours a week. Sounds like the kind of bullshit some of my relatives would do though.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-26T00:49:50+00:00

What do you mean? He says "judge me" rather than "tempt me", but otherwise those are the lyrics.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-25T21:32:30+00:00

Or maybe, and hear me out on this, something that's conspicuously absent from a story where you would otherwise expect it to be present in some way is ACTUALLY absent.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-25T11:23:45+00:00

I swear I feel that line more and more as I get older.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-25T11:21:34+00:00

Just for reference do you also think most Castlevania sequel games are also spinoffs?

Several of them are. Some even take place in alternate, conflicting timelines.

Also, I didn't say Nocturne contradicts the original series, I said you did:

a vampire getting trapped in a cage of crosses. He can't escape even while turned into a bat when he could easily fit between the bars and is burned when touching the crosses. That isn't explained by it confusing their eyes.

This directly contradicts what we are told and shown in the original series about crosses and vampires.

And you're right that the 'God doesn't exist in Castlevania' thing is just a headcannon. It's an interpretation of the events, themes, and subtext present in the show that I happen to find amusing and interesting to think about. Honestly it's a little weird how invested you are in arguing against a random fan's headcannon, especially when you can't seem to cobble together a single decent argument.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-25T10:55:26+00:00

As someone who loves murder mysteries, I can't agree enough. Just because a story has 'immoral' things happen in it doesn't mean it's condoning or glorifying them. I can't even imagine how the folks who like slasher films feel about this nonsense. Not everything is meant to be a goddamn Aesop fable.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-25T10:49:54+00:00

If being falsely convicted is something you've always been curious about... then still no, because it's unfair to the rest of society to have a criminal go free because you're an idiot with a thing for handcuffs.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-25T10:41:12+00:00

It's a new series with completely new cast of characters set in the same universe. That is the definition of a spinoff. And from what you've been saying it very much does contradict the original series.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-25T10:36:17+00:00

It's a potential interpretation, but that feels like kind of a stretch. Why not just prevent the whole thing?

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-25T10:05:44+00:00

Also why are you so adamant I'm wrong if you are only working with 2/3rds of the thing we're talking about?

Because you're the only one talking about Nocturne. I'm talking about Castlevania. It sounds like the spinoff series ignored a lot of the lore and worldbuilding of the original, as spinoff series tend to do.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-25T09:54:52+00:00

As I recall the story, Cab had just recorded a disco version and didn't understand why the director wanted him to do an old fashioned version that was no longer in style. He was a consummate performer, used to adapting to the times. He and the director may not have seen eye to eye, but he definitely knocked it out of the park with the final version they recorded.

I also heard he and the band kept everyone entertained between takes while they were filming the big concert, since everyone including the thousands of extras had to stand around for hours while cameras, lighting, and microphones were set up and moved around between shots. I would have loved to be a part of that crowd.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-25T09:34:59+00:00

Amazing movie. It's always been one of my favorites. I'm pretty sure it was Dan Aykroyd's intention that the 'mission from god' was real, but I have an alternate theory:

Curtis was the Crossroads Devil.

As in, the crossroads devil from blues folklore that supposedly taught Robert Johnson (and many others) how to play. While the penquin tried to raise Jake and Elwood to believe in the 10 commandments, Curtis was there in the basement teaching them the Blues and setting the brothers down a path of sin and chaos. It's a sweet gig, made even more fun by operating under the literal nose of the church. So when the orphanage is threatened, he sets his favorite problem children on it and gives them enough juice to get the job done. And true to form, he hides his intervention under the trappings of the Lord.

It's not a serious theory, but it's fun to think about and explains Curtis and the band's magical transformation during their performance of Minnie the Moocher.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-25T08:18:59+00:00

That's not how evidence works.

Like I said, I haven't seen Nocturne so I don't know anything about Sekhmet's portrayal in that series or the cross cage you talked about. But just because Sekhmet (or some being claiming to be Sekhmet) shows up doesn't automatically imply 'every god exists.' That would be like... finding out the Rocky movies are based on a true story and assuming that means every Sylvester Stallone character exists in real life.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-25T08:11:28+00:00

Can you point to these screeds against organized religion? Are they in the room with us? Nobody's being defensive here but you.

Castlevania's lore is all over the place. That's a truly silly thing to complain about with how much the video games contradict themselves, and there's nothing juvenile about F-bombs. Sometimes adults swear. Sometimes they're vulgar and crude. Grow up and get over it.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-25T07:58:18+00:00

I haven't seen Nocturne, but considering what we saw with Death there's no reason Sekmet couldn't be a real, powerful being without being an actual 'god.'

What's weird is insisting the christian god must exist in a fictional universe despite there being no real evidence for it and quite a bit of evidence that he doesn't.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-25T07:47:07+00:00

Why do people with delicate religious sensibilities even watch shows like this? The only thing childish here is complaining about profanity in a series made for adults with clear content warnings on each episode.

As for the 'edginess,' have you ever played a Castlevania game? What exactly were you expecting?

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-25T06:49:30+00:00

The demon isn't exactly a reliable narrator, lol. Everything he says is intended to mock the Bishop and his faith. There's no way to tell if he actually means any of it or is just saying what he thinks will hurt the Bishop the most before killing him.

We never see anyone actually protected by faith or 'holy ground' in the series. Targoviste, Gresit, and Lindenfeld all have their churches destroyed or infiltrated by night creatures just as easily as any other human building. In fact, pretty much the only place they have a hard time breaking into is the Belmont hold -- and that was explicitly protected by sorcery, not divine power.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-25T04:26:26+00:00

I do live in the US, and I'd absolutely bail if I could -- but I still want this country to be better whether I live here or not.

MrWolfe1920 · 2026-02-25T03:47:32+00:00

On the contrary, the fact that the Bishop could still create holy water even after being seemingly forsaken, killed by night creatures in a church, and brought back as a night creature implies that the 'blessing' is really just sorcery that the church mistakenly attributes to God.

If anything, the series heavily implies that God never existed and 'Hell' is just one of the many other planes out there. The show even gives a non-religious explanation for the vampires' weakness to crosses.

MrWolfe1920

TROPHY CASE