I updated my Single Player Tarkov install for the first time in years and have been playing around in that space. I know, I know, Russia bad, Battlestate Games bad, etc. but I bought the game back in 2020 and I can’t unspend that cash.

I’m so thankful this project exists, as nothing I’ve come across scratches the itch like Tarkov, but SPT removes a huge swath of the problems with playing that game. Like the other players, for instance lol. Plus, being able to tweak various settings (like inventory space and stack sizes for items etc) to make the experience slightly less hostile is a godsend as well.

Plus, it’s kind of an interesting example of the same game having two different development paths. Like I said, I’ve been out for a couple of years, so this may not be 100% accurate, but my understanding is the Tarkov’s 1.0 release is not compatible with SPT. Therefore, SPT runs off an old, pre-release version of Tarkov. However, amazing individuals have continued to develop the SPT client with all sorts of patches and updates. Some are just incorporations of fixes that the base game has added since release, but others seem tuned to SPT in particular. Like I said, I’m just incredibly thankful for this projects’ existence and the work people have done to maintain it.

You have a 5 gallon jug and a 3 gallon jug and an unlimited supply of water, now Simon Says fill one of the jugs with exactly 4 gallons of water or I’ll blow up a school.

I caught The Dog Stars this weekend. It was…fine, I guess. I know nothing about the book, so maybe my issues stem from the source material, but the film seemed like it was being pulled in two opposed thematic directions. Like, 80% of the runtime, it’s a snoozy little exercise in navel-gazing about what being “civilized” means in the context of the post-apocalypse. I’m paraphrasing, but that seems to be the core question the characters are grappling with. However, because it’s a big budget Ridley Scott production, there’s several action sequences with the spare parts of a Mad Max movie, and one sequence in particular which feels like the production took a pit stop in the world of Fallout for a scene. Tonally, these things are at odds with the rest of the movie. However, they’re also the only parts which had any juice. The rest of the movie was just kind of dull and predictable. Pretty aerial photography though. Scott still has a knack for widescreen spectacle. 3/5, but I admit that’s probably overly generous.

Not in my recollection of the movie, though it doesn’t surprise me to hear that. They certainly go over the facts in close, illustrative detail, such that you can picture your mind’s eye that apartment and street. Arguably that’s the picture’s core gimmick lol. I wonder if they ever do a more straight reenactment in a different version? I know there are a couple.

I won’t try to convince anyone that it’s “good”, but I caught a re-run of the original V movie and series in the 2000s (probably around the time the Sci-Fi channel revived it) and I quite liked it.

From memory, there are exactly two scenes which take place outside the deliberation chamber, one at the beginning of the movie showing the last moments of the trial before the jury retires (and, crucially, it shows you the face of the defendemt). The other scene is at the very end, on the steps of the courthouse as the jurors depart. There’s a brief instance of dialog between Fonda and the old man juror.

Still, hardly seems fair to hold these instances against calling the movie a one location picture.

Oooo good pull. I’ve been idly considering this question at work this morning and I haven’t yet come up with anything, but this seems to fit the bill.

It’s kind of funny that the horror franchise I associate most with chainsaws is the Evil Dead series, and not the franchise named after the implement itself lol

Wasn’t Beni buried alive under Hamunaptra at the end of the first movie? With flesh-eating scarabs closing in around him as the lights went out? I suppose anything’s possible in lega-sequel land, but seems odd to bring him back.

Love me some O’Conner though, so I can’t be that upset.

All good. Its even more of an odd cameo given he WASN’T an unknown at the time.

Yeah, Statham had several roles of various sizes under his belt by the time Collateral was coming out. The Transporter came out in 2002, so he had already been the face of an action franchise by that point, not to mention his prior work with Ritchie.

I mean, there’s a pretty critical casting of minor illusion that he’s responsible for. And, it was pointed out to me, that the various instances of him cajoling the party along, especially when the flashier members are having doubts, is basically Bardic Inspiration. Which I think is a neat way of handling it.

I can only offer my own opinion and admit that my preferences lean towards maximalist entertainment in any case; but, when the scope just kept escalating, I was along for the ride. The reveal of who techbro douche’s mother is made me laugh out loud, alone in my house. I was caught completely off guard. I expected the movie to be lean and mean, budget allowing for one or two major set pieces per act, but it seemed eager to outdo itself at every turn. It wasn’t going to let a little something like “logic” slow it down. Once I realized that the writer was Kurt Wimmer, it all started to click. He’s the writer-director behind the 2002 Christian Bale gunkata shoot-em-up Equilibrium and 2006’s Ultraviolet. Both of which I think are inarguable as high-concept camp. Whether you think they’re good, on the other hand, is going to be far more subjective haha.

Ah! That explains not seeing it, thank you for sharing!

Link? I just looked through their recent vids, but I didn’t seen anything that mentioned either Statham or Die Hard, but I’m curious to hear what they have to say.

Considering the glut of post-Die Hard movies which were variations of “Die Hard on a BLANK” (bus=Speed, plane=Air Force One, etc.), literalizing that concept as a visual gag is the exact sort of “this might be so stupid it’s actually clever” high-concept camp that I LIVE for from Statham. See also: The Beekeeper.

I’ve been absently working my way through BTAS over the past couple months and I have what I think may be a pretty hot take, so bear with me. While all of the praise that gets heaped on BTAS for its mature and sober storytelling in its best episodes (such as Heart of Ice or Feat of Clay), while absolutely a cut far and above typical “Saturday Morning Cartoon” fare of its day, is still ultimately hampered by the expectations of its format.

Put another way, BTAS is absolutely a groundbreaking work of Western animation and deserves most of the laurels it gets, but we mustn’t miss the forest for the tree here. As good as it is when it’s at its best, BTAS remains a childen’s cartoon. Taking the basic treatment of BTAS’ Clayface origin, but recontextualizing it in a different, somewhat less constrained, medium could absolutely result in a novel perspective.

That being said, super powered origin story is ALSO potentially a very formulaic medium, so it’s incumbent upon the filmmakers to still do something interesting, but I think the potential is there.

Could be bias I suppose, but this one has a proven track record in my experience. Not only was it my introduction to Herzog, but I’ve had very good success getting other people on board with his particular documentarian style.

Excited for once a decade reminder that Cruise is, in fact, capable of playing something other than his star persona when he chooses to do so.

Saw it last night and I think it’s sitting just below the Evil Dead remake for me in a ranking of the three newer films, but that comes with a pretty tremendous caveat regarding the central thematic conceit they chose to underpin the story. That, and I’m against any pet murder, so two pretty big caveats, which makes weird that I otherwise pretty much had a ball.

Fair play, mission accomplished. Truth be told no run of mine has gotten to the point where my characters have the chance to be amoral. More characters than I care to admit have perished before even finding the first dungeon.