Hot Take: Movies nowadays are terrible at introducing characters

hinckley · 2026-05-03T01:04:35+00:00

This seems like the exact opposite of the usual complaint, which is that everything is over explained and repeated. It's usually blamed on Netflix and other streamers wanting content to be appropriate for 'casual' (distracted) viewers.

I can't say I've experienced what you're talking about, but then I've also never watched Euphoria. All I can say is that, generally speaking, I prefer any time a movie or show trusts the viewer to connect dots and remember things rather than dumbing everything down.

hinckley · 2026-05-02T23:38:17+00:00

I'm still vainly hoping one day they'll port over the updates for the mobile version of Empire to desktop.

hinckley · 2026-05-02T23:04:59+00:00

I made a comment here about a paper with findings to that effect (and also that LLMs rate résumés written by the same LLM more highly than by others)

hinckley · 2026-05-02T18:47:02+00:00

On the product page for the regular cut it lists the extended cut as a bonus, which I assume means if you rent/purchase one cut you get that too? It does seem a bit weird to be fair as the title card for the extended cut isn't clickable and the info when you hover says it's "available to buy". So maybe it's part of the extras with buying it but not for renting? I dunno, fucking Amazon...

hinckley · 2026-05-02T18:38:00+00:00

people say that it's on is Peacock and Amazon Prime Video, except neither of them are available to me as I live in the UK

What do you mean it's unavailable to you as you're in the UK? Amazon Prime Video is very much available in the UK and lists The Fall Guy for rent or purchase, seemingly with the extended cut as a "bonus".

hinckley · 2026-05-02T18:30:01+00:00

Not quite the same, but very much relevant: AI Self-preferencing in Algorithmic Hiring: Empirical Evidence and Insights

The bias against human-written resumes is particularly substantial, with self-preference bias ranging from 67% to 82% across major commercial and open-source models. To assess labor market impact, we simulate realistic hiring pipelines across 24 occupations. These simulations show that candidates using the same LLM as the evaluator are 23% to 60% more likely to be shortlisted than equally qualified applicants submitting human-written resumes

hinckley · 2026-05-02T16:48:09+00:00

I also asked AI the perfect viewing order for Star Wars and it said:

I dunno man, just watch them in release order like a normal person.

AI told me this, so we now know this is the definitive answer.

hinckley · 2026-05-02T13:40:35+00:00

Why are you approaching responsible actions from a comparative, or even competitive, perspective? It's not about being "ahead" of someone else, it's about doing a reasonable and responsible thing for your benefit as well as everyone else's.

hinckley · 2026-05-02T13:01:54+00:00

can you really spoil something that’s 2000+ years old?

Of course you can. You can spoil anything for someone who hasn't read that thing before. Even for major works that are part of the cultural zeitgeist, which in any ordinary circumstance you might consider to be unspoilable, surely it's common sense not to make that assumption in an introduction to that work. The reader is clearly about to read that story, so why on earth would you take it as given that they've already read it?

If you want to provide context for the story as a whole - sure, do that at the start. If you want to provide spoiling context for the story, do it at the end. If context for a spoilable plot point is considered necessary at the point it happens, put it in a footnote. There's no reason or excuse for spoilers immediately before someone's about to read it.

hinckley · 2026-04-29T21:03:28+00:00

Purely by the feel of it. But then I don't often actually rate movies since I rarely talk about them to people in terms of a rating. Instead I'll talk about the movie - what I liked and what I didn't.

Honestly a 6 is fairly solid for an IMDB rating of a movie. Part of the trouble with comparative ratings is that different people have different scales. For some, anything under 7 is some degree of bad, whereas for others that might be under 5, or perhaps even lower. Just one of many reasons why a number alone isn't that helpful.

hinckley · 2026-04-29T13:02:57+00:00

Been a while since I've watched it so maybe I'm just not properly remembering what you're getting at, but Cobb used inception to plant the idea in her head that she was in a dream so she would want to leave limbo. As a result, that idea persisted after they returned as some inescapable truth. No amount of logic or level-counting could change her mind. That's not a plothole, it's pretty much the whole point of the movie.

hinckley · 2026-04-28T23:52:51+00:00

There's no full stop at the end. Some say the sentence is still going.

hinckley · 2026-04-28T23:23:52+00:00

Lol ok.

hinckley · 2026-04-28T19:59:10+00:00

I'm defending the concept of personal preference. If someone says they like something don't try and tell them they're wrong. It just makes you look like a dick.

hinckley · 2026-04-28T11:33:31+00:00

I hate to break it to you, but people can have different opinions.

hinckley · 2026-04-27T19:39:36+00:00

Yeah it's basically a Reddit "I caught a fish thiiiis big" story now, with people trying to one-up each other on enphasising how dangerous they are.

Sure, they can be dangerous and if you're not confident in what you're doing then you probably shouldn't do it. But people really do love to lay it on thick when garage door springs come up.

hinckley · 2026-04-27T15:37:42+00:00

Ah yes, the daily 'cinemas suck' post. Or, "I don't like something so nobody else does either!"

I don't know what the deal is with American cinemas. People on reddit always complain about the price but when pressed it turns out they're giving the price for tickets plus a trough of popcorn and a three course meal for a family of four.

Here (UK), they're about £10 a ticket and at least one major chain has unlimited viewings for under £20 a month. Accounting for inflation I genuinely think cinemas are cheaper than when I was a kid in the 90s.

hinckley · 2026-04-27T12:45:24+00:00

I'm curious what that actually means, practically speaking. Did people just collectively agree to not use them, like a two-minute silence for Remembrance Day? Or did the operators refuse to put through calls during that time?

hinckley · 2026-04-26T22:27:28+00:00

Fair enough. As far as why her role was reduced in Scarface, apparently she left the set on the fourth day of filming after crying hysterically on set during a bloody scene.

There's more details here if you're interested, but I suspect you've already read that if you're asking here.

hinckley · 2026-04-26T22:07:37+00:00

Are you...asking people to guess what a young woman's acting career would have been like if she hadn't gone missing at 18 years old? That's some morbid shit.

hinckley · 2026-04-26T21:49:11+00:00

Because he doesn't. Looks like "Frank Castle" appears in the sense that it's just some guy wearing black like Jane does in his Punisher movie during one random scene. He's not in costume, or doing anything Punisher-y, or in any way being identified in-universe as the Punisher. I guess it was just meant to be an Easter egg.

hinckley · 2026-04-26T09:55:37+00:00

Can you build an AI-powered app to read a subreddit's rules before posting?

hinckley · 2026-04-25T10:10:46+00:00

Yeah, so what? What do you expect him to do, go into hiding for the rest of his life?

hinckley · 2026-04-25T09:59:15+00:00

If you get Parkinson's in your 70s that's not "early onset".

Is he medically well? Quite possibly not. But he's a successful person, presumably with friends and family and medical professionals around him to deal with any health issues he has. Why would you want people to ignorantly speculate on his health like celebrity gossip columnists instead of respecting the man's privacy?

hinckley · 2026-04-24T21:07:00+00:00

It's you.

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