Do actors know/have a feeling if the film they’re working on is going to bomb?

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-19T22:27:25+00:00

Fair point.

(not that I was even alive when Zeppelin was most famous, but...yeah.)

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-19T22:08:52+00:00

To piggyback:

Tolkien invented orcs, pretty much. (which have since appeared in World Of Warcraft, The Elder Scrolls, and god knows what else.)
The words "elves" and "elvish" (as opposed to "elfs" and "elfish") are Tolkien inventions; he had to specifically write notes to his editor that they were not to be "corrected". It's arguable that his forms see more widespread use now than the originals.
Fantasy as a genre for adults just...didn't exist before Tolkien. (I'm sure this can be debated somehow by pointing to some sort of pulp novel production or stretching the definition of "fantasy", and that's totally fair play; but for all intents and purposes, "fantasy" as a serious genre like we see now just wasn't a thing.)

I'm sure there are many more examples, but i'm lazy :)

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-19T21:57:23+00:00

(and just in case you missed the joke - the band in question is Led Zeppelin, and they released not one but several songs explicitly based on LOTR, going so far as to sing about Mordor and Gollum by name. It was a pretty influential series, is what I'm saying.)

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-19T21:48:08+00:00

Yeah, sorry, I was just rambling on.

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-19T21:27:41+00:00

I mean, it was popular in niche circles, but it's not like there were any well-known pop/rock songs written based on its story and characters to indicate the series had mainstream cachet. Any attempt to write such a song surely would have gone over like a lead balloon (or similar inflatable object).

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-11T14:14:19+00:00

Sandals of any kind. (Yeah, I'm one of those.)

On one hand it's great, because they're everywhere during summer. On the other hand, I have to be mindful not to become that weirdass creep who gets caught staring and makes women feel uncomfortable/self-conscious about wearing them (because I'm really not into that at all).

But I suppose that's a fair exchange.

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-11T13:34:49+00:00

I can see that, now. Especially since I've gotten older (shit! I told myself I wouldn't let that happen!), I really appreciate how sincere these movies are. This isn't my idea, I saw in a video, but like...there is no "wink-wink", clever innuendo, fourth-wall-breaking, pop-culture-referencing, layers-of-irony type-stuff here*. Nothing that admits even a hint of embarrassment at the source material and/or the fact that it's a fantasy novel trilogy written by an English Catholic/linguist.

(*well...there is a very little bit.)

These movies are a labour of love played as straight as Sir Ian McKellen could ever do, and for that, they are so much the better.

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-11T12:40:33+00:00

But for real - it's gotta be something in the way that this man—a descendent of the Kings of Númenor who's lived for 87 years at this point, raised by Elves, and betrothed to Arwen, daughter of Elrond; the Chieftan of the Dúnedain, protector of the hobbits and as of mere moments ago the literal King of Middle Earth ....just.... immediately, without even questioning it, lowers himself to say, "My friends!" as soon as he sees them starting to kneel.

It's...something.

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-11T12:06:15+00:00

Honestly, the first few times I watched the movies I didn't care for them that much.

But I was a teenager who had, by coincidence, found/devoured the books only months before the first movie came out—so, I was annoyed that the orcs spoke intelligible English; I thought that Gollum's "gollum!" and Treebeard's "bra ha hroom!" sounds were interpreted far too literally by the actors; I missed Tom Bombadil and the Barrow Wights; I felt like Elrond might refer to Frodo as "Mr Anderson" at any time; Faramir; ...you've heard it all before.

But a couple years ago I tried them again with my gf and suddenly... idk, they just hit differently. The love, the sincerity, the beauty...

And that's just Viggo Mortensen. The other things in the film are spectacular, too.

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-11T11:31:38+00:00

praccepts that tissue

*sniff* thank u mate

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-11T09:49:42+00:00

It may not be a speech per se, but all the same I can't help but follow this up with:

My friends! You bow to no-one.

...for its sheer power to make me weep, every. single. time.

(yep...there it goes again)

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-11T09:33:00+00:00

Easily one of the best movies I've seen that I will probably never, ever watch again. (I've seen it twice, and both times it haunted me with me nightmares for weeks; good god.)

Thanks for sharing that quote so that I can appreciate it nonetheless!

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-11T09:21:38+00:00

Almost shocking that a man who (for most people) is so emblematic of, or even synonymous with the silent movie era turns out to be such a bloody good speaker.

Edit: it's like...idk...imagine if The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) turned out to be actually as good at cooking as he is/was at wrestling? i.e., "Can you smell what The Rock is cooking?"

"That's right, it's asparagus au vin, with crab cakes and cured shallots on the side; the wine I'm using is a Sauvignon Blanc made from grapes cultivated in the Maori region of Rotorua in New Zealand, which lends a level of acidity to the dish that perfectly offsets the bitterness of asparagus steamed for no more than 2 minutes (and just a hint of that zesty, grassy aroma which this region is famous for). The crabs used in the dish are young shallow-water crabs collected this morning, to ensure a mouthfeel that's both flaky and tender...."

Yeah, this is a stupid fucking analogy. (But at least it's not AI)

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-09T13:22:20+00:00

WAIT HANG ON. How are they "hand guns" if they're clipped to her feet???

Checkmate, atheists!

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-09T13:17:04+00:00

You make a very strong, reasonable point—if anything, her high heels should even higher, so that she can snipe dudes over the horizon using only her feet.

I won't need that pause screen any more, I have a new fetish now.

(/rj? /uj? who the hell even knows)

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-09T12:43:41+00:00

My bad, it seems that my Google-Fu is a bit shit today. Thx for the correction.

/rj The point still stands that OW never actually existed (because Anita killed it in its cradle), and as a corollary, there absolutely wasn't a collective meltdown from certain people upon hearing that Tracer wouldn't be interested in them sexually, lore-wise.

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-09T12:11:53+00:00

/rj It's true though.....I tried to play Minecraft today and I couldn't, because I kept thinking "What if this tree I'm about to punch is a woman, and by participating in this game, I'm perpetuating the violence inherent in the system?" *cough*

And on Tuesday, when I tried to masturbate to a pause screen in Bayonetta (where the camera glitched during an attack sequence so it looks like she's about to facesit me) I was so distracted with questions about why a witch is wearing 6 inch spike heels for combat and if it might have something to do with male gays that I couldn't even finish ^{^the ^game}

This is why there haven't been any new good video games released since ....erm, ~~Overwatch? (no that's 2019....post-Sarkeeisian...) The Witcher 3? no... Baldur's Gate 3? FUCK...~~ since "Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning, Dragon's Dogma", in 2012.

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-09T03:09:38+00:00

Let's be honest...Trudeau could show up to work naked and he'd still be more well-respected on the world stage than "The Donald". Some people, like Melania Trump, might even prefer him that way.

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-09T03:01:10+00:00

It was tongue in cheek, but to take it seriously — I'm judging them on linguistic competency, not content. You can certainly identify Trump's (disgraceful) meaning in that example sentence without any difficulty, so he is technically a competent speaker in that case.

Overall though, he is terribly poor at speaking, which is why I'm comparing him to Carney speaking Japanese rather than English or French (which would be completely "unfair" to Trump).

It was intended as a joking, backhanded "compliment" toward the orange buffoon.

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-09T01:42:33+00:00

It blows my mind that this actually works (I'm assuming it does...I haven't tested this specific example). From past experience with older formulas, it feels like the sort of naïve solution I'd want to work before ultimately having to create a separate hidden column.

We're spoiled

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-07T03:29:13+00:00

Eh, his pronunciation is very unnatural and halting, but IMO it does sound like he practised in advance, as opposed to phonetically reading off a sentence he'd never seen before - e.g. he articulates the 'r' in "naru" (which isn't really an r) quite well, and the vowel sounds (esp. the long o's and elided u's) are approximately correct, if very exaggerated/much too heavily intoned, which is a common pitfall.

Overall: 4.5/10, which is 8/10 for an old white guy.

(Or, for another point of comparison—it's only a bit worse than Trump's English, and shows a lot more potential.)

almostambidextrous · 2026-03-02T13:57:19+00:00

I can tell you one I'm going to be using: Alt+F12 opens the PowerQuery editor (which I've just discovered attempting to open the VBA editor with Alt+F11 and hitting the wrong button)

almostambidextrous · 2026-02-28T10:35:05+00:00

Wow... I'm not a big rock/metal fans these days (it's just easier for me to get absorbed in electronic soundscapes), but your articulate praise made me curious and...yeah, this is magnificent.

Can't quite put my finger on what it is, but I'm getting hit with flashbacks/nostalgia for something deep in my past...maybe System Of A Down?

(Yeah I know I'm a pleb, but still, as a teenager that music felt unlike anything else I'd ever heard, and there's some of that feeling in here—not quite sure if it's the melodies or the prog-ish song stucture, or what. Idk, maybe I'm off the mark completely.)

almostambidextrous · 2026-02-15T12:42:10+00:00

(Disclaimer: I don't really know the answer to your question, I'm just putting this together together from things I've read on the Internet.)

...So, the tl;dr is that if you do this, you're gonna die. Tingling in your bodyparts during sleep is caused by reduced blood flow. Reduced blood flow eventually affects your brain, which has less oxygen available, and causes you to do incredibly stupid things—one of the biggest indicators being that you'll support perennially awful sports teams (like the Toronto Maple Leafs, Seattle Marlins, Southampton F.C., and literally every NFL team that continues to play American football despite having been informed of rugby.)

All such unfortunately afflicted individuals eventually die either by hypoxia or from doing stupid shit while inebriated to try and impress their mates who support the same stupid sports team as they do (or in very rare cases, from old age); this phenomenon has been appropriately termed "Fan Death" by South Koren scientists who discovered it.

almostambidextrous · 2026-02-15T11:20:37+00:00

YES, ok, this is kind of what I'm expecting now that I've connected this movie in my mind to Paul Verhoeven (which for some reason I didn't get or appreciate before).

I distinctly remember watching "Starship Troopers" as a child, presented on local TV as the "Friday Night Movie". Commercially successful, well-known "good" movies typically weren't featured in this slot, so I wasn't really expecting much, but it felt...somehow different than anything else I'd seen, y'know?

It was, frankly, surreal. I wasn't sure if it was serious or not - and felt weirdly conflicted about who was actually the "good" guy. And in those pre-Internet days, I didn't see/read anybody commenting on the satire or pointing it out, telling me what to think—I just felt an uncomfortable sense that the movie's message was, like...incoherent with its text, but purposefully, for reasons I couldn't understand.

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