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Dracula (English) (1931)
Dracula (English) (1931)
1931 | Horror
7
7.8 (24 Ratings)
Movie Rating
The first official screen version of Dracula has a reputation for being sluggish and stagey that is not entirely undeserved; we should bear in mind it was adapted from a play and released at a time when some cinemas were still not wired for sound (a silent version with intertitles was produced from the same footage). Nevertheless this is in many ways the version of the story that nearly all the others have been made in response to, whether they are riffing on it or reacting against it.

It's slow, and camp, and there are some interesting performance styles on display, but every now and then a moment slips through which is genuinely interesting, and which you can tell has inspired some of the movies that followed. Virtually no actual blood or visual horror, of course, but then it's not in and of itself actually scary. It is, however, the template and raw material from which most other Dracula movies (and many other vampire movies) have been drawn, and worth watching just for that reason.
  
Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001)
Thirteen Conversations About One Thing (2001)
2001 | Comedy, Drama, International
π˜›π˜©π˜ͺ𝘳𝘡𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘊𝘰𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘒𝘡π˜ͺ𝘰𝘯𝘴 𝘈𝘣𝘰𝘢𝘡 π˜•π˜°π˜΅π˜©π˜ͺ𝘯𝘨. Boo-fucking-hoo, sad sad sad. Total bullshit, another turn-of-the-millennium π˜”π˜’π˜¨π˜―π˜°π˜­π˜ͺ𝘒 wannabe where a bunch of junk characters spout faux-philosophical anecdotes about No Actual Thing for what feels like literal ages. Starts off with some minor intrigue but no sooner I couldn't stand it - what with it's downright laughably corny music and sterile-as-can-be cinematography *on top of* this aggressively cringe dialogue delivered by such nonentities. Feels like one of those fake AI bots from Twitter being fed every somber hyperlink film and spatting out its jumbled tropes. I'm not going to say this doesn't have intriguing ideas, they just go nowhere and most of these stories just... don't even finish? Young Rob McElhenney in a bit part outacts the entire cast of unenthusiastic performances from A-listers (other than McConaughey who just feels right in and around any courtroom setting, but even then they give him next to no breathing room). Still in disbelief with how boring they decided to play this.
  
Wizard, A True Star by Todd Rundgren
Wizard, A True Star by Todd Rundgren
1973 | Rock
(0 Ratings)
Album Favorite

"One of the best blue-eyed soul voices ever. Famously he didn't do drugs in the '60s and made up for it in the '70s. My girlfriend gave me a book about how he recorded each album, it's incredibly detailed. For this record, he got a studio together in New York and got a load of musicians together to make the record. At no point did he play any of the session players any vocals – they heard bits of music but they had no clear picture of what the actual song would be like. He had a total vision and he didn't want to deviate from that with anyone else's opinion. People talk about records that go from jazz to prog to psych to vaudeville in one track and that's Todd. A proper studio head who could write hooks and songs in an almost Brill Building way. My favourite story about Todd is that he lives in Hawaii and one side of his house doesn't have a wall. He said about it, "Lots of things come in. Animals, super-fans, stalkers, the weather."

Source
  
The Producers (1967)
The Producers (1967)
1967 | Classics, Comedy
Relentless knockabout bad-taste farce from Mel Brooks. A corrupt theatrical producer and his accountant embark upon a scheme to fraudulently make a fortune by mounting the worst play in history. Promising idea, and the brilliantly-staged opening number from Springtime for Hitler (all dancing SS officers and goose-stepping showgirls) is inspired, but the rest of the film struggles to meet the same standards.

The movie feels like a frenetic mixture of old-fashioned vaudeville and scatter-gun satire; there was probably something curiously dated about it even fifty-odd years ago. While it does acknowledge the counter-culture of the 60s (there's a hippy beatnik character, amongst other things), it doesn't feel like it was made by or for a young audience. Viewers nowadays may not be troubled by deliberately provocative jokes about Hitler or over-sexed pensioners, but jokes about dumb blondes in bikinis and camp transvestites feel a bit uncomfortable. Passes the time amiably, and worth watching just to see Springtime for Hitler in context, but I'd struggle to call it an actual classic.
  
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Awix (3310 KP) rated Ready or Not (2019) in Movies

Oct 3, 2019 (Updated Oct 3, 2019)  
Ready or Not (2019)
Ready or Not (2019)
2019 | Comedy, Horror, Mystery
Knockabout horror comedy film probably deserves more credit for being reasonably successful at both genres. A young woman (Samara Weaving, who appears to be some kind of genetically-engineered hybrid of Emma Stone and Margot Robbie) marries into an extremely wealthy family and is told that, as part of a family tradition, she has to play hide and seek with them. Mildly amused by their funny little ways, she trips off to find a place to hide; unbeknownst to her, her new father-in-law starts handing out axes, crossbows and shotguns to the assembled brood.

It's a brilliant moment, and it's just a shame the publicity for the film spoils it; certainly most of the rest of the script is concerned with coming up with a back-story to justify it and a pay-off that isn't totally overshadowed by it. It just about manages it, though the film is more successful when it comes to delivering laughs than actual scares (it is pretty gory though). Good fun, anyway.
  
Doki Doki Literature Club
Doki Doki Literature Club
2017 | Role-Playing, Simulation
Atmosphere (1 more)
Art
Not a lot of actual gameplay (0 more)
Unsettling and Entertaining
I am not a fan of dating sims. I would not have played this one if I had not heard a podcast on horror tabletop gaming say to play this game. They gave no details whatsoever, except that the game was free. No harm in trying it when it's free!

There is very little actual gameplay, as with most dating sims. A lot of just reading and clicking on dialogue choices. The game has all the stereotypical dating sim personalities and events to work through: culture fest, clubs, making friends, getting to know people. It takes a bit, but eventually, small things start to seem out of place or odd.

Once you start to notice the weird things, though, the roller coaster ride begins.

The game takes you on an unsettling, sometimes disturbing, trip that crosses into meta-gaming and breaks the fourth wall in some unique ways.

The art is solid. The dialogue and writing are excellent. Some parts of the game remind me of some of the older meta-gaming efforts out there in the late 90s, early 2000s.

Even though there are not a lot of choices to make in the game, not a lot of gaming, it is still worth the effort to watch the show and be part of the game itself. This game sucks the player in and adds you to its dossier. Guys and girls alike will get a thrill out of it if they stick through to the end. And trust me when I say that when you think you are at the end, just keep playing. Don't turn the game off for a second. Keep playing. And when you think you are at the end again, keep playing. And when you think you are at the end again, keep playing.
  
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    StatAPult GAA

    Sports and Health & Fitness

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