#especially not high budget studio releases

[antisolanum]

Nobody appreciates the movie In Time enough

[clemmenthyme]

I think we, as a consumer, really *do* need to keep stressing the birth of a new standard for video games. Not in the sense that every game needs to be BG3, but that games should be *interactive* and *completed* upon release.

I think its, quite frankly, absurd that video game companies like Ubisoft and Blizzard are getting away with releasing half-baked games that are priced absurdly high on their own... and have the *audacity* to have thousands of in-game purchases.

Ubisoft had a bigger team and budget for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, and yet the game is not even *half* as interactable and I managed to play it *twice* without getting even remotely attached to any and all characters outside of my Ikran.

I completely understand not imposing an impossible standard onto small indie developers, but the fact that big companies with more resources than Larian is going around spewing some "this game is an amazing anomaly pls don't expect us to be better we like money" crap on the internet makes me *boil*... ESPECIALLY because Larian Studios has struggled SO MUCH to get to where they are. Yes, they had a following. Yes, they had some pretty good funds. Yes, they had a VERY good base (D&D)... but they were a struggling company. As in, they had opened up GoFundMe's to make their games in the past. They WORKED for everything they have now, and they put so much effort and love into Baldur's Gate 3. To have the game reduced to an "impossible standard" and an "anomaly" is VERY insulting to the hard work they put in.

They cared for the people who'd be playing their game, and it shows. And we, as people and as the consumers, ought to tell companies they need to value us as much as Larian does.

[thefirsthogokage]

The Fucking AMPT(P) and Studios, Man

[Image ID: The above tweet thread by Amy Thurlow (@athurlow) from August 23rd, 2023 reads in its entirety:

This proposal (that very much shouldn’t have been released under media blackout) is wild to me for so many reasons. Here’s why it is a giant nothing burger of an offer. 🧵

[this tweet includes an image of part of the proposal that reads:

Required Employment in the Writers' Room

Oh High Budget SVOD and pay television series or serials, the Showrunner may select at least two writers to be employed (together with the Showrunner) for a period of at least twenty (20) consecutive weeks in the writer's room, but not to exceed the duration of the writer's room.]

The Showrunner “may select” aka it is the Showrunner’s choice. This may seem like an out for SRs that don’t want to be “forced” to hire but really it’s a loophole. The studio can just suggest that if the SR makes this “choice” will pay for it some other way.

Maybe that means the studio tells them “we’d really rather you not” or “actually we don’t do that here” — there are a million ways that passing this off on the Showrunner is a way of hiding how little power many Showrunners have — especially if they’re new.

If a SR does manage to hire these two lucky lads for 20 weeks they are not to exceed the duration of the writers room. 🤔 So, if a room is 10 weeks they can’t stay for 20 and be involved in production and post. So they’re just hired for the TIME THEY WOULD ALREADY BE HIRED FOR.

And only for 2 of them when a standard room is no less than 10. But wait, there’s more: this only applies to High Budget SVOD, pay tv and serials — meaning maybe 10% of television that’s made.

The spin is going to be “we gave them minimum staffing” but this proposal is maybe worse than the current system because it codifies the 2 person room as being the Showrunner’s “choice”.

It does nothing to address the broad issues of 4 writers doing the work of 10 and those lucky 4 people not being able to pay their rent bc they have to make 8 weeks of employment with a 25% rep tax last 52+ weeks.

/End ID]

[Image ID: The above is a tweet from David Slack (@slack2thefuture) quote-tweeting Amy's "The spin is going to be..." Tweet. Also from August 23rd, 2023. It reads:

It’s also worth noting that unless the term “showrunner” is rigorously defined as a writer in our MBA — which it presently isn’t — there’s nothing to stop the studios from saying, “You’re just the head writer. Exec X is the showrunner now and they select zero writers.”

/End ID]

[Image ID: the above Image is Jose Molina's (@JoseMolinaTV) August 24th, 2023 Quote Tweet of David's tweet that reads:

Happened to me a couple of years ago on an animated show. I had all the responsibilities of a showrunner, but my producers had final call on all things -- like when they took scripts I'd assigned to writers of color and gave them to white guys who weren't even in the room.

/End ID]

[alexissara]

Alexis Sara's Top 10 Most Anticipated Games Of 2024

We're about to enter 2024 and with that we have all the lists, lists I am not immune to making because I slowly build them up all year. Last year I played a fuck load of games and so this year I wanted to talk about 10 games I think look really fucking cool that are coming out in the next year or two. Some of these games are likely to release in 2025 instead but it'll be fun to see if they remain on the list next year then. I mostly just wanted to spotlight some art that looks cool to me outside of the context of a Sapphic Games Guide or a Review and maybe get others on the hype train with me. This list is not in order and just 10 games I think look like they could have an impact on me, I may not even buy every game on this list but there the 10 that look like I am most likely to check out.

Gales Of Nayeli

So this is one of two games on the list I've already purchased. I backed the kickstarter of the game a while back and I thought "it looks alright and when I asked if there was gonna be any sapphic content the creator told me in depth what content he had already made so sure I'll back it. What was more if a thank you for being so kind and responsive so fast has turned into my most hype game of the year. Blindcoco and me have become friends over time so I am biased but I was actually sold on the game before me and him became buddy buddy when I played the demo and saw the amazing work that went into it. Then the extremally positive response from him and the community towards my desire to focus in on women and sapphic women only added to my excitement for the game.

The game genuinely seems to be raising the bar for SRPGs and really feels like it is a step above Fire Emblem and not an emulation of Fire Emblem. I loved the demo and the concepts in the game so much it inspired me to start working on my own SRPG studios game knowing what is possible at the high end of investment in the system can really be something special and really cool. I love that there is a focus on trying to cast voice actors who match ethnicity to the diverse cast, I love that there is a wide range of diversity in the revealed cast, I love the amount of queer women I am aware of in the game, I love the animations and sprite work, I love the gameplay, I am really really excited about this game and I think this game has a high shot at being one of my favorite games.

Fields Of Mistria 

I make fun of farming sims a little on my lists and stuff but only because I actually love farming sims especially in concept. This game probably has my favorite art style of the whole lot of games today. It's lovely 90s anime style sprite work is just AHHHHHHHHHH so good. I do in fact want to kiss the women in this game very badly and I would enjoy playing the game for the sake of dating them alone.

Rune Factory: Dragon

Let's bang out the second farming sim while we're at it. We don't know a bunch about this game but it really just has to do two things for me to be into it. One, let you be gay like the newest RF and Story of Season games already let you do and Two, keep up the art direction and bam, I'm in. My biggest problem with the last Rune Factory game was that the art style made every woman look like a 12 year old and not in the like chibi story of seasons way like they just looked like they were kids. This however, has a much better set of art direction and it makes me think there might actually be women I'd want to gay marry.

Mahou Senshi Cosplay Club

I really love Behold's previous game Chroma Squad but when I got this demo I had no idea they were the Chroma Squad people. The mix of dress up and RPG gameplay is a dream come true kind of game and the outfit customization is leagues beyond a game like Fashion Dreamer despite likely being made on a much smaller budget. The PSX style graphics actually work here with them evoking nostalgic graphics while also not actually being restrained by a Playstation One's issues. I just really loved the process of making the outfit and character in this game and honestly that alone is a potential game seller. The gameplay element was solid and I really want to play more of this.

Beastieball 

BeastieBall seems to be a really fun take on the Monster Taming genre. Having the monster friends play a sport and naturally be inclined to play the sport makes for a very cute and wholesome premise to which you become more a coach than an owner to these little cuties. It's a pretty simple concept in the demo but it's promising and cute and I do like that the monsters you collect build relationships with each other, I think that is something really special and neat and something I'd like to see more monster tamers do.

Love In A Bottle

 There is a lot of nice looking visual novels coming out but Love In A Bottle is dating sim that is really capturing my eye. You play as a demon girl, bam okay I am sold. You date other monster girls okay I'm sold. And it's got more then the basic one outfit you expect from a standard visual novel dating sim type deal for characters that is yet another sold factor. It seems really cute, seems fun and I hope I can smooch all the women at once.

Fantasy Life I

While I said we were done with farming sims, I didn't say we were done with sims as we have Level-5's Life Sim, Fantasy Life. I won't be buying the game if I can't be gay in it but I really loved the first Fantasy Life on the 3DS and I think if it can keep up the charm and fun of the original game and add a homosexual seasoning on top it'll be a perfect cute and fun time. I love the wide array of jobs and how these all build into each other, it's a very one of a kind experience and really fun.

Princess Peach Showtime 

This is the true triple A game of the list and the only one that has captivated me in all the shows of all the consoles and developers I've seen of late. Peach is barbie now and I am here for it, let her have a million jobs and have a game based around her doing these different roles and being an icon in each of them, sounds good, I'm in, it's a really cute and fun concept. It looks really fun and the art style looks great.

Our Life Now and Forever 

There is no other games like the Our Life games and getting to be sapphic in this one means I finally get to go ahead and experience the series I have been curious about for a while now. This game will let you be polyamarous which is the only game on this list I can say for sure will allow you to do that and that alone is something that would keep me engaged. However, getting to grow up with characters, change your pronouns, your name, anything about yourself as you do and having the characters change with you is amazing. I love the concept of this game and the wild reactivity the games demo has always provided just to a simple thing like me choosing to be trans in the childhood phase is amazing, it is truly such a considered and thoughtful game with such masterful crafting that the act one demo alone is probably worth money. So I did back this one on kickstarter as well so this is my other pick up.

Unlike other games on this list I am fairly confident this is a 2025 game and not a 2024 game but I want to talk about it now because people on the Patreon will be getting to play updated versions of the game over the course of the year akin to early access. I think the game is for sure worth a look.

Izrand Allure

After playing the previous game in the series I am totally sold on wanting to experience Izrand Allure. Luxaren Allure was a really special experience I had this year finally checking out the game after I think years of putting it off and beating it I really want to play this follow up. This game seems far more in depth and far more artistically masterful then Luxaren as well so I really want to see everything this game has to offer. I love a good job system and this game boasts one. I really want to see this lesbian RPG and I hope I get a chance to play it very soon but obviously Unity the dev should take her time to make it. Regardless, I am just gushing every time I see the game and I think this has potential to be a massive game of the year type hit for me.

If you enjoyed this post, I got a lot more end of the year lists coming up when it's actually next year so I can tell people what I enjoyed in December. You can also support me in making cool queer art by checking out my Patreon and Ko-fi.

[alpaca-clouds]

Media in a Solarpunk world

Yeah, there is a reason I spoke about Indie games yesterday. Because I want to speak about this one thing that I have never ever seen discussed within the solarpunk sphere.

If we established a Solarpunk world, how would it change our media landscape?

Confused? Well, let me break it down.

Solarpunk is only possible without capitalism. It is simply as it is. We will not established the "sustainable living" under capitalism. We can now discuss on whether to go socialism or communism, but... yeah. No more capitalism.

But here is where the media comes in: Most media we consume right now is released through big coorporate media outlets. This is especially true for stuff like games and movies. AAA games and blockbuster movies with their budgets of hundreds of millions and teams of thousands working behind them getting distributed through other big companies at times making billions of dollars... Even most books or comics or audiobooks or even podcasts get published and distributed through companies being valued in the hundreds of millions at least. Because the attention economy is set up in the way that you have no chance if you do not have your books on amazon and your podcasts not on spotify or itunes.

And without capitalism all of that will fall away.

This will be of course most noticable with movies and games. Again, the most popular of those will have hundreds of millions in budget and are dependent on the crunch work of thousands of people on every way of the step. And of course there is this big studio system right now deciding on what gets created.

But without capitalism... You will probably not motivate thousands of people to crunch the hell out of something. Hundreds of people? Sure. Thousands? No. Not even without the crunch. Because the current system of creating this media is not sustainable. Not from a human perspective - and not from an environmental perspective.

What I am saying is... There will probably no longer be high fidelity blockbusters or the kind of huge TV productions we have seen since Game of Thrones.

And I am here to tell you... that is actually a good thing.

See, in the gaming sphere we actually see it already. There are Indie Games that are at times created on a shoestring budget of a couple of thousand dollars. And because we have some great platforms to distribute them easily with steam and itch.io, people will actually see those games and play them. Might actually end up prefering them to the big ass million dollar games.

Now, the system is not perfect, given that yes, with the exception of itch.io the shops behind it all still run under capitalism. But if you compare it to stuff like movies... It is actually already fairly democratized.

Which is also something that I would then love to see for movies. An easy way to just access indie movies. Be it the "exactly one million dollar indie movies", which are still the majority given that making movies is expensive, or actually those project done by students in their freetime.

Big cities might actually already have their "indie movie festivals" right now. But it is something I want to see more off. With a higher appreciation for movies that do not get a theatrical release, because physical big screens are limited, even if we start democratizing them. (I will talk tomorrow about what it means to democratize media.)

The internet in the end will be a big part of a solarpunk world, because it actually allows us to not only participate in society, but also will give us access to both knowledge and media.

And yes, in a smaller degree this will also impact the other forms of media. Already it is pretty possible to self-publish books or comics, but usually you will often barely get back the investment, let alone being paid for the work that went into the creation of the book from your own end.

Because chances are, that you just will not reach too many people with it. Because the big publishers will usually easily outmarket you, because they have a marketing budget that you will simply lack.

But without those central publishers existing - and work in general being differently compensated than under the capitalist system... It should be easier. Fairer. Allowing for more different ideas, for more different voices to be heard through media.

Yeah, there probably will no longer be much in terms of high fidelity special effects, because there will no longer be hundreds or thousands of SFX guys slaving away for this one big movie. But... That is okay.

Like, I will rather have a movie with a great story, than amazing big explosions, don't you agree?

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

chiaki, thoughts on concord?

Okay, now this is a real tragedy, because Concord is symbolic of just how difficult it is to be a gamer in this day and age.

2024 has been a year full of disappointments. Most recently, the $15 million budgeted Borderlands movie made only $18.5 million at the box office. Considering that doesn't even pay for the marketing expenses, it's a catastrophe.

Undoubtedly, it's a bad film, but in the realm of video games, we currently have a failure named "Concord." And it's surprising to me that people even remember this game, despite it's recency.

Now, for the record, what I'm about to say is something that makes me genuinely sad. Like...ACTUALLY really sad. So...bear with me.

For those who are unaware, Concord was a generic hero shooter that was released less than 30 days ago, similar to Overwatch or Valorant. Except it had a five-times slower pace, it combined all the worst aspects of earlier hero shooters. The game's movement was really slow; it felt like you're playing on a treadmill. The gameplay was excruciatingly slow and annoying; it seemed as though you're trapped in a slow-motion Zack Snyder movie.

The game was really generic, but it was neither terrible nor unplayable. But at the same time it wasn't really unique, and if someone enjoys this genre of game, there are at least fifty more that are superior. The fact that Concord costed $40 rather than being free to play, like the majority of other multiplayer shooters, is what made it especially foolish. It was destined to fail from the beginning, and today it only managed to launch with a little over 650 users on Steam.

To put that in context, more people played some of the worst failures in gaming history when they first launched. Redfall and even Babylon's Fall, which was such a failure that it was removed from Steam, had more players than Concord had. Compared to Lord of the Rings: Gollum, another huge failure that forced its studio to close, Concord had only a little bit more players.

Now, you must have noticed by now that I've been talking about this game in the past tense, and there's a reason for that. Concord was such a massive failure, that the servers were shut down two weeks after its launch, with all sold copies being refunded. That is a HUGE FAIL.

Concord was a big-budget game that must have cost millions to produce, but nobody wanted to play it. Although I don't personally have strong feelings on the matter, I do find it puzzling how these games are approved in the first place. Everyone sighed in agreement when they saw the first trailer, which made it obvious that this was another hero shooter in an already crowded industry. It's difficult to determine who this game is intended for, especially considering that even fans of hero shooters won't rush into a $40 game when there are more enjoyable free options, like Fortnite, or Overwatch 2.

It's unbelievable that this disaster was released considering how predictable it was. Even then, it didn't make sense to invest in a game that is sure to fail, even if it appeared to be a desperate attempt to recover part of the production costs. It's unfortunate since I have no doubt that brilliant developers worked on this out of necessity rather than choice. Seemingly, they attempted to make another hero shooter, believing it would be a simple victory, but they didn't realize that no one wants to see more of them, especially not for forty bucks.

I HATE being negative. I hate being negative more than I hate anything else in the world. But this is a flop that's hard not to laugh at, which is why I wanted to talk about it. I don't see why anyone would pay such a high price for this when there are better free options available, despite the fact that it has largely great reviews.

Considering how poorly Concord performed, especially for a high-budget game, is astounding. The majority of games, including the most popular ones, never start with fewer than a thousand players. I felt compelled to address this as it's uncommon for a game to fail so miserably.

[thenebuleuse]

Thoughts (since I don't write on Tumblr often

I've been following Jeff's career since like...mid-Kinnporsche airing, I don't remember exactly when but like he had the first 3 songs from his new chapter phase. And honestly, I'm really proud of the guy, like from the cutesy songs he started with to working on a well-defined style and universe, to his now international stardom...Congrats!!

I'm also wondering about the album since he said there was 12 songs, (and we're missing single 9) and Stranger might be released inside the album but there's at least 1-2 new songs. He basically gave himself the opportunity to promote for a long-ass time with all these MVs (and thanks the sponsorships+the money he made for this clip budget) but that also means very little new songs. Like for album 2, is it going to be a mini-album? Or a normal-sized one? Is he going to go the one MV one song way again?

I don't know how thaï music industry works but it's going to be interesting. I hope there's Covid precautions in place at his concerts because I would hate for him to have his career shortened that way. Like fans, please wear masks. I wanna hear the high notes, and he's basically set himself up by having one high note per song (no, you don't need it Jeff) and that makes it hard to not to have public, embarassing false notes (is it how you say it in English? I'm French btw)

The studio posting in advance the Cartier Paris event schedule is funny, I've visited the museum and it's absolutely a visit during opening hours on a normal opening day. They probably privatized it with lots of money, but if they don't it's gonna be funny to see random art students going "who's that guy/why is there so many celebs??"(Paris museums are either closed on Monday or Tuesday, depending if they're state museums or city museums)

He's made quite a lot of connections last year, going from the first partnerships (the cat food one was mandatory) to high-end partnerships with luxury brands. I would love to know what made him choose these ones and reject the others but we will never know what has he been offered.

Also, Chuang! Except for one of the mentors I didn't know, it feels weird to see people I've seen being rookies listening to seniors becoming the judges of today, when the judges used to be people who weren't known celebrities to the idol fan watcher. Now my idols are another idol's idol! Like I'm going to watch a show (on and off because I'm busy) because of the judges and not the contestants! In terms of the competition, I wonder how they're going to be promoted, especially since it's a girl group. Like, when Produce/Chuang was created, it looked unrealistic, and here we are! I think the girls version of the show tends to be the first, and idol girls seem less "guaranted success" than the nth boygroup. Idk about thai music industry again, so idk how idols survive, because the only idol girls I kow in Thaïland are Sizzy from GMM..We'll see, but I hope the show fulfills its role of career launcher without scandals or evil editing.

Back to the actual topic, seeing the Jeff pyjama pic for the show's filming is making me wonder if he's going to be styled in Valention the whole time. If it's the case, we could literaly have a guessing party before the episode teasers, though he's a wild card since he picks women's clothes too. Please show, make him wear a skirt! A pantaskirt?

Also, his haircut, an actual discussion topic (but kpop idols announce comebacks by hair colour, so why not?) is making him look like he's somewhere between 18-22. Like it's only when he styles it back that it doesn't give him too much of a baby face. For his movie, I think they're filming backwards or not in order in terms of time period, because I don't think they're going to do bald cap if he needs to have no hair. We might get short military-like (I hope he doesn't keep it, I love the long hair). But also, is it me or he's started working out the Dorito back way? Like, he's got more arm and shoulder muscles than without workout, but last singing appearance he really looked "guy who works out to have a triangular back" and that may be movie-related as well? Again and again, idk.

I don't really write about stuff a lot, the thoughts often stay in my head, but yeah, here they are!

For his next career moves, I'm mostly curious about how much space he's going to give to acting or being in reality shows, since he's a singer first. I think Wuju is going to be his last work with Barcode as a partner, but I'm curious about where he's going to be casted if he does series again, like he has more options than just the BOC productions (unlike Barcode) and he may become a "pass-around, no fixed ship actor. But we're making plans on a comet now, and I really should go back to working, so bye for now!

[kylesvariouslistsandstuff]

Well this came as kind of a surprise to me. The live-action/CG hybrid picture IF - from writer-director-star John Krasinski - scored $35m (estimate) on its opening weekend...

For context, this is an original family film not based on any pre-existing source material... And a largely live-action one at that...

This beats out the post-outbreak likes of... ENCANTO ($27m) and ELEMENTAL ($29m), in addition to non-sequel PG pictures that also happen to be based on something, such as THE BAD GUYS ($23m) and MUTANT MAYHEM ($28m). That's also just great for a live-action family film... Those have been kinda rare over the last 10 or so years. You have your occasional LYLE LYLE CROCODILES, but it's not like the '90s and '00s where they were seemingly everywhere as much as the animated ones were.

What went right here? I couldn't tell ya, I wasn't sure how this thing was going to do. It must've just hit right for audiences at the right time, especially after blah pre-sales. While it has a bit of a hurdle to leap (its $110m+ budget), this indicates - along with an A CinemaScore - that this one's gonna be leggy. Despite GARFIELD, despite INSIDE OUT 2, etc. Maybe families were just starved for some something to see together for a while, as KUNG FU PANDA 4 came out in early March... Tie that to the premise and the celebrity cast, yeah... Uhhhh... Possible breakout here?

I've long been writing on here about how animated family films play a much different game at the box office, post-outbreak. Families tight on money are choosier, and for a more original picture or something adapted from untried source material, the odds of opening big just aren't that high anymore. They have to leg it out. ELEMENTAL had to do it, so did MIGRATION, THE BAD GUYS, etc.

IF must've had some kind of pull. I mean what do I know? I'm not the general public, I thought the picture just looked kinda there. A typical live-action kids' movie with cute CG creatures in it. That somehow out-opened "funny duck movie from the Minions/Mario studio", "Pixar's people-as-the-elements movie", and so many other not-sequel animated movies released in the recent years. I wonder if being a live-action movie?

I'd love to see those kinds of animated movies open a little bigger again, like they did during the '10s. When a new DreamWorks or Blue Sky could feasibly hit $40-45m with ease. A massive budget film like ELIO would sure need it.

Anyways, I wonder how it fares next weekend against THE GARFIELD MOVIE. My cinema held a special advance screening of it earlier today, and the auditorium was JAM-PACKED. Right down to the front row. I had predicted this one would open pretty well, but who knows... It might really break out. After all, it *is* Garfield. It may just win next weekend, even if FURIOSA is thought to be the one. Reminds me of when BIG HERO 6 opened the same weekend as INTERSTELLAR in fall 2014... Who would win? Nolan with a space epic and fresh off of his blockbuster DARK KNIGHT trilogy? Or the Disney animated Marvel movie with the marshmallow robot? BIG HERO 6 won by a few millions, won domestically, while Nolan soared worldwide.

Maybe that repeats for THE GARFIELD MOVIE and FURIOSA? After all, the latter is an adult sci-fi/action movie. MAD MAX: FURY ROAD opened - unadjusted - with $45m back in 2015. I reckon this equals that, at least. We've been starved for a movie set in the wasteland, so a 9 year wait could really help that open pretty big. I won't call this the next Barbenheimer, the Garfuriosa, as it's not uncommon to open these kinds of pictures next to each other. Like how DreamWorks opened TROLLS on the same day as DOCTOR STRANGE, both did pretty well. Or FERDINAND opening the same day as STAR WARS: THE LAST JEDI. Barbenheimer was its own unique situation for sure, given the subject matter of both films, given that OPPENHEIMER was a three-hour biopic... We're talking about a 5th movie in a decades-old sci-fi/post-apocalyptic franchise vs. a comic strip movie.

Anyways, summer movie season is probably here. Ready to watch how GARFIELD, INSIDE OUT 2, DESPICABLE ME 4, and the like all do.

[denimbex1986]

'LONG before Cillian Murphy there was Sam Waterston, and long before Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer there was Peter Goodchild’s Oppenheimer (BBC4, Friday), which is being reshown for the first time in decades.

Goodchild, who was interviewed by Variety last month to coincide with the film’s release, started his BBC producing career in radio drama and later moved to television with the science documentary series Horizon.

When Horizon diversified into science docudramas in the 1970s, Goodchild, who holds a chemistry degree, got to combine his two interests in a successful series about Marie Curie.

It was his idea to make a seven-part miniseries about J Robert Oppenheimer, the father of the atomic bomb, played by Waterston. First shown on BBC2 in 1980, Oppenheimer was a big hit with viewers and critics, winning three Bafta awards. It also garnered Emmy and Golden Globe nominations after it was shown on PBS in the United States.

The budget of £1.5m (about €7.5m today) – 90pc of it coming from the BBC, the rest from WGBH Boston – might seem like a grain of New Mexico sand compared with the £100m price tag of Nolan’s Imax epic.

Back then, however, it was a huge spend for a British drama.

A huge physical production, too, with scrupulous attention to detail. For maximum authenticity, Goodchild, now 83, told Variety, the Manhattan Project’s Los Alamos Laboratory was recreated on a purpose-built set in Colorado Springs, complete with water tower and replica bomb.

The supporting cast was made up almost entirely of American actors based in Britain.

Two notable exceptions were future Poirot star David Suchet as the excitable, voluble Hungarian physicist Edward Teller and Edward Hardwicke (Dr Watson to Jeremy Brett’s Sherlock Holmes) as his Italian colleague Enrico Fermi.

Viewers who have grown used to watching even modestly budgeted dramas shot on HD video that mimics celluloid film may find the switch from Oppenheimer’s interior scenes, which were mostly shot on videotape in a studio in the UK, to the ones shot on film in America a little jarring at first.

But the story is so engrossing you cease to be aware of the contrast after a while.

What’s remarkable is how well Oppenheimer, which was written by Peter Prince and directed by Barry Davis, holds up 43 years later.

There’s none of the slowness or staginess you sometimes see in dramas from the period. Friday’s opening two episodes positively zipped by.

They spanned the years 1938, when Oppenheimer was at the University of Berkley, to 1942, when Lieutenant General Leslie Groves (Manning Redwood), ignoring warnings about Oppenheimer’s long associations with active communists and championing of left-wing causes, put him in charge of the Manhattan Project, which was to be housed in a high-security facility in Los Alamos.

Waterston, just four years ahead of his best actor Oscar nomination for playing Siydney Schanberg in The Killing Fields, is fantastic as Oppenheimer.

You can see why the BBC was prepared to pay him well above the normal rate for appearing in one of its dramas and to put him up in a luxury hotel during filming.

He conveys Oppenheimer’s charisma, intelligence, brilliance and charm, especially to women.

But we also see his ruthlessness and arrogance.

When we meet him, he’s romantically involved with psychiatrist and communist Jean Tatlock (Kate Harper), who suffered from clinical depression (she died by suicide in 1944), yet thinks nothing of casting her aside when he sets eyes on his future wife Kitty Puening (Jana Shelden), who at that time is married to someone else.

They tumble into an affair. In one particularly cruel moment, he humiliates Jean by turning up at a dinner party at her home with Kitty on his arm.

Even at this stage, the seeds of Oppenheimer’s downfall are being sown. Naively unconcerned about the dangers of having communist friends, he doesn’t realise he’s already under FBI surveillance.

A terrific drama from a far more creative age of TV.'

[elendsessor]

i got this little reply for my cgi jack frost appreciation gifset and god i need excuses to talk about the devil summoner tv show because it’s actually fucking insane. so @blazescompendium i must thank you because i have some reason to talk about my videya gayme hyperfixations yay.

now i haven’t seen all of it, since i haven’t been able to find all the episodes (let alone translated), but if you want an interesting piece of megaten history and/or are in the mood for an old campy tv drama this is. certainly a show. it is slow bc drama and there’s a lot of not great acting but it has its moments. a warning that the show is nsfw. there’s a ton of fetish scenes (i’m not joking and it’s really uncomfortable i’m not a fan) but it’s kinda funny to think about since megaten is pretty tame for the most part when it comes to suggestive stuff. there’s also some gore in there. some translated episodes are included in this playlist but not all. there’s also no dvd release—it’s only on vhs, so if you’re looking for high quality clips you won’t get them.

(ps i can’t find any way to watch the full show currently but i will probably update this post if i find some way or someone provides a link to all episodes.)

marsh made a quick but great video about it so if you want a basic rundown of what the show’s all about i recommend it.

-actually the cgi was worked on by tsuburaya entertainment, a special effects studio WHO WORKED ON THE OF ULTRAMAN AND SUBSEQUENT SEQUEL SERIES. they still do ultraman stuff too which is amazing to me.

-and no the cgi isn’t the best. the show is noticeably low budget and the cgi especially reflects that. it’s incredibly slow and if you’re looking for a lot of demon appearances i’m sorry you won’t get many. the gump doesn’t show up until episode 5 anyways and don’t think you’ll see it get used. most of the show is just talking.

no translation for this episode that i can find but i’m 99% sure this is the first episode jack frost shows up in. it’s byotiful.

-while it follows the plot of the game for the most part, it diverts in a lot of ways. lore surrounding the kuzunoha isn’t explored much, and it’s kinda a prequel in some ways??? but also not really???? the second season is apparently way different.

-you get to see this shot in the first episode

-most of the show is kyouji doing nothing and aside from the crap cgi that’s the best part. seeing him be more of an asshole. just skip to those scenes since they’re funny.

literally the only things that are entertaining unless you’re into slow burn drama are the absurd parts but those bits are so amazing it’s kinda worth it. unfortunately that does include the nsfw which yeah. watch the first episode and you’ll figure out if you’re gonna like it or not. also cozy and kaneko make appearances in the first episode as well so the show has their stamp of approval. kaneko has stated his favorite branch of megaten is devil summoner (which same here ngl) and if you know about how he used to be pretty into night life stuff that somehow explains a lot of how the crazier parts of the show turned out. the writers have a lot of explaining to do.

[randomvarious]

Today's compilation:

Rock Rolls On: Greatest Rock 'n' Roll Hits of the '50s 1984 Rock & Roll / Doo Wop / R&B

Two things you really gotta love about this double-LP release: first, the album art. I mean, who can resist this totally 80s aesthetic here, with all these bright, fluorescent colors placed onto a square-tiled background like this? Certainly not me. And second, you have to appreciate the whole budget nature that went into producing this thing too, because this really isn't your run-of-the-mill 50s oldies comp at all.

See, what this thing actually is, is a compilation that was put out by a label called Pair Records that happens to pull its selections from two other already existing compilations that were released in the 70s. You can't tell from the photo that was taken of the album art here, but if the photographer had zoomed out just a little bit more, they would've captured the disclaimer at the bottom of the front cover that says that all of the songs on the 2nd LP in this set are actually from a rockumentary soundtrack called Let the Good Times Roll, which featured a bunch of live recordings that were taken from two separate 1973 concerts during a rock & roll revival tour that included a whole bunch of 1950s and 60s staples on its billing. That soundtrack was put out on a label called Bell Records, which is owned by Arista.

And the only reason why I know all of this is because I bought this damn release myself and currently have it sitting right in front of me. I came across it on Discogs and saw some *very* strange track lengths—a Bo Diddley song with a runtime of over five minutes?!?—and decided to find out if they were correct. And it turns out that they certainly were.

However, what's not indicated at all on this release is where all of the tracks on the first LP come from. Now, these ones are all studio recordings, so whoever compiled this particular record could just say that they came up with all of these selections themselves; except for the fact that *all* of these songs also appear on another Bell comp from 1972 called You Must Remember These Volume I. So, given that the second LP is also comprised entirely of songs from a 70s Bell release, it would stand to reason that this first LP would be too, even though nothing on the release itself points to that fact.

But does any of this information actually matter, though? No, not really. Of course, at the end of the day, what really matters most is not so much the trivial provenance of these songs, but whether or not they themselves are actually good. And they are; they are *very good.*

The first LP serves up a bunch of spectacular doo wop tunes, leading with a stone-cold classic in Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs' "Stay," a 1960 chart-topper (hey, waitaseckin! Isn't this a 50s comp?! 🤔🤷‍♂️) that features some sudden and glorious falsetto on its chorus that comes courtesy of vocalist Henry Gaston. Then, following that one is a pretty immaculate remainder as well, but two especially sweet dollops are The Channels' "The Closer You Are," which never charted nationally(!), but was a big regional hit in 1956, and The Silhouettes' "Get a Job," which was another national chart-topper in '57. These two songs, to me, represent some of the absolute cream of the all-time vocal doo wop crop. Just powerful, totally electric songs, with vocalists who, together, make up a dynamic range, from low to mid to high. "The Closer You Are" sports both a weaving falsetto and an intermittent onomatopoeically bonging bassline, and "Get a Job" deploys some really catchy doo wop scatting, a fantastic sax solo, and a distinct, watery lead vocal from Bill Horton too. Terrific, deeply satisfying, and very lively doo wop fare in both of those unmissable tunes.

And speaking of lively, the second LP, which, again, only has live recordings on it, really brings it too. But the lone performer who stands out among the rest on this particular record is the one and only Little Richard. Two of his biggest hits in "Lucille" and "Good Golly Miss Molly" get lined up back-to-back here and they're both so irresistibly energetic. A pair of excellent performances that feature his signature "woo"s, as well as his passionate rasp and gravel. It's one thing to hear him do it in studio, but it's really a whole 'nother thing to hear it done live, with a very wanting, appreciative crowd and a full backing band to match all that both he and that crowd happen to give. Lots of infectious reciprocation going around in both of those songs that ends up generating a great and unforgettable atmosphere.

What's unfortunate for you, though, is that I can't actually find *any* of these live recordings on YouTube! 😧 I mean, go figure, right? A seemingly unassuming budget comp of 50s hits from the 80s actually has a bunch of tunes on it that can now be considered rare by today's standards? Funny how that works, eh?

So, yes, this is a cheap and completely unoriginal release of 50s songs that appears to pull all of its material from two other places. But more importantly, because of the music that's on it, it really still is a phenomenal double-LP set, and very surprisingly, it has a slew of tunes on it that you actually can't easily find these days. You'd think that all commercially released live recordings of such rock & roll luminaries as Bill Haley and His Comets, Little Richard, and Bo Diddley would be on YouTube already, but apparently not!

Feel free to message me if you're interested in hearing them, though!

Highlights:

Maurice Williams & The Zodiacs - "Stay" The Turbans - "When You Dance" The Nutmegs - "Story Untold" The Channels - "The Closer You Are" The Silhouettes - "Get a Job" Lee Allen & His Band - "Walkin' With Mr. Lee" The Five Satins - "In the Still of the Night" Bill Haley And His Comets - "Rock Around the Clock" Little Richard - "Lucille" Little Richard - "Good Golly Miss Molly" Bo Diddley - "Hey Hey Hey"

[featuringdantefromnocturne]

they backtracked it already and are letting the director shop it around to other studios because of the MASSIVE backlash and how reportedly MULTIPLE directors and actors cancelled meetings with warner bros but the Problem with this is multifold

directors, producers and actors are frequently away from homes and families for weeks, if not months, like how this particular director spent MONTHS in London to cut costs at the behest of the people that cancelled the film he spent 3 years on

it was produced by James Gunn. James Gunn is the new co head of DC Films. if the fucking guy they're entrusting their new cinematic universe with and an actor as popular and on the rise as John Cena (in the film too) aren't safe, who the hell is?

the narrative to the other two films that got shelved, Batgirl and Scoob! Holiday Haunt was that neither film was very good. (believable, actually cause Batgirl was in development hell for well over a decade and Scoob! was ass) and also were intended for streaming services, which Zaslav claims he's pivoting away from. Coyote Vs Acme though? it was intended for cinematic release and was completely ready to go.

people tend to cry foul that a film that came in within budget, passed every milestone, test screened in the 90s (out of 100, like Argo and other award winning and box office successful movies) can just get snapped away like that. especially with how the flash's budget ballooned and they didn't just cancel that! the filmmakers did everything right but still got told "nuh uh" (before people got Mad with WB and made them go "Oh SHIT")

genuinely incredible how terrible david zaslav is at his job, because that man's pissed off the unions, practically the entire animation industry, STEVEN SPIELBERG, MARTIN SCORCESE, PAUL THOMAS ANDERSON, multiple other high profile stars and producers, his own damn shareholders

Like to charge reblog to cast

Count your fucking days Devil

[dhruvanand07]

Why Are There So Few Next-Gen Games? Analyzing the Slow Rollout of New-Gen Titles in 2024

The anticipation for next-generation games has been high ever since the release of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X in late 2020. These consoles promised a revolution in gaming, with faster load times, breathtaking graphics, and new immersive experiences. Yet here we are in 2024, and the next-gen games library still feels a bit lacking. Why are there so few next-gen titles despite the potential these consoles offer? Let’s explore the main reasons behind the limited number of truly next-gen games and how industry trends are shaping the scene.

1. Extended Cross-Gen Period

One of the primary reasons for the lack of next-gen exclusives is the prolonged cross-generational period. In previous console generations, studios would quickly shift focus to the new platforms, leaving behind older consoles. But with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One selling over 100 million and 50 million units respectively, these platforms have enormous install bases that are hard to ignore. Game developers, who invest millions into production, want to reach as broad an audience as possible. Thus, they’ve opted to release games that are compatible with both old and new-gen consoles. However, this compromise means that next-gen hardware is underutilized, as studios have to work within the limitations of the older systems to avoid alienating those users.

2. Longer Development Cycles

Modern video games are becoming increasingly complex, with graphics, physics, and narrative depth that can rival major motion pictures. Consequently, development cycles have become much longer. Where a high-budget game once took 2-3 years to develop, many titles now require upwards of 5 years, especially when they’re pushing technological boundaries. Games that began development at the start of the new-gen console cycle are still in the pipeline, meaning we’re likely to see many more titles utilizing full next-gen capabilities in the coming years. The ambitious visuals and gameplay of upcoming games like Elder Scrolls VI and Grand Theft Auto VI are perfect examples of this trend. But as studios aim higher, development times inevitably grow.

3. Hardware Supply Chain Issues

The COVID-19 pandemic led to significant disruptions in the global supply chain, with semiconductor shortages affecting production across multiple sectors, including gaming consoles. This issue has directly impacted the availability of PS5 and Xbox Series X consoles. Even now, in 2024, it's difficult for some gamers to get their hands on a new console. Limited console availability means a smaller audience, making developers hesitant to create next-gen exclusives that only a small fraction of gamers can play.

4. Financial Pressures and Rising Costs

The cost of developing AAA games has surged. Large-scale next-gen games with high production values and vast open worlds can cost hundreds of millions of dollars to develop, requiring years of work by teams of hundreds of developers. In response to this financial burden, developers have been conservative about creating exclusive next-gen titles that limit the potential player base. Cross-gen releases are simply safer from a financial perspective. This is especially relevant in an industry where even one flop can threaten the survival of a studio.

5. Growing Popularity of Game Streaming and Subscription Services

Subscription services like Xbox Game Pass and PlayStation Plus have changed the gaming landscape, pushing the industry toward a “play anywhere, anytime” model. This trend incentivizes studios to release games that work across multiple platforms, including mobile, PC, and older consoles. While next-gen consoles support these subscription services, a majority of their titles are not “next-gen exclusives.” Instead, developers aim for broader compatibility to maximize reach, often sacrificing next-gen features.

6. Rise of Indie and Retro Games

Interestingly, indie developers and retro games have gained immense popularity over the last few years, partly due to the accessibility of game development tools and platforms. Indie games often prioritize creative storytelling and unique art styles over cutting-edge graphics and technology, which allows them to reach audiences across generations of consoles. Games like Hades and Stardew Valley prove that impressive experiences don’t necessarily require next-gen hardware. As a result, many players are happy to engage with these games, decreasing the demand for full-blown next-gen titles.

7. Focus on Live Services and Free-to-Play Models

Games-as-a-service (GaaS) titles and free-to-play games are becoming increasingly popular, with many studios opting to update existing games rather than release new ones. Titles like Fortnite, Apex Legends, and Call of Duty: Warzone remain highly relevant, drawing millions of players even years after their initial release. The focus on providing continuous updates to these games shifts attention and resources away from creating new, exclusive next-gen games.

[nsfwhiphop]

Part 5 - Incoming Text for Jennifer Garner (@jennifer.garner): “An Idea Worth 300 Million Dollars”

Question:

Could you provide detailed information about the 2001 film Heist? Specifically, I'd like to know about the cast, producers, movie studio, budget, box office performance, plot summary, and any other interesting facts or trivia.

Here is the Wikipedia link for the movie Heist (2001):

Heist (2001 film) - Wikipedia (click on the blue link)

Here is the link to David Mamet’s Wikipedia page: David Mamet. (click on the blue link)

ChatGPT Answer:

Certainly! Here’s a detailed look at Heist (2001), covering its cast, crew, production details, and more.

Movie Title: Heist

Release Date: November 9, 2001

Genre: Crime, Thriller

Director and Screenwriter

Director: David Mamet

Screenwriter: David Mamet

David Mamet, a renowned playwright and filmmaker, wrote and directed Heist. Known for his distinct writing style, especially in dialogue and plot complexity, Mamet’s influence is prominent throughout the film.

Main Cast

Gene Hackman as Joe Moore

An experienced and skilled thief planning to retire after one last job.

Delroy Lindo as Bobby Blane

Joe's loyal partner who assists him in the heist.

Rebecca Pidgeon as Fran Moore

Joe’s wife, who plays a significant role in the heist plot.

Danny DeVito as Mickey Bergman

A criminal financier who pressures Joe into taking on one last job.

Sam Rockwell as Jimmy Silk

Mickey’s nephew, whose involvement adds tension to the heist plan.

Ricky Jay as Don 'Pinky' Pincus

Another trusted member of Joe’s team and a longtime associate.

Production Team

Producer: Art Linson

Executive Producers: Elie Samaha, Andrew Stevens, Michael Zimbrich

Cinematography: Robert Elswit

Elswit’s work enhances the film’s gritty, tense atmosphere, making the most of its urban settings.

Editor: Barbara Tulliver

Music: Theodore Shapiro

Production Details

Studio: Franchise Pictures

Distributor: Warner Bros. Pictures

Filming Locations: Primarily in Montreal, Canada, with additional scenes shot in Boston, Massachusetts.

Budget and Box Office

Budget: Estimated at $39 million.

Box Office Gross: Approximately $28.5 million worldwide.

Heist did not perform as well as anticipated at the box office. While it did not recoup its budget through ticket sales, it found a cult following among fans of heist films and David Mamet’s work.

Plot Summary

Heist follows Joe Moore (Gene Hackman), a veteran thief looking to retire. When his face is accidentally caught on camera during a job, he decides it’s time to quit the criminal life. However, his crime boss, Mickey Bergman (Danny DeVito), insists that Joe complete one last job—a high-stakes gold heist. Joe reluctantly agrees, but tension grows within the team, particularly with the addition of Mickey’s volatile nephew, Jimmy Silk (Sam Rockwell). With each character’s loyalty in question, the heist takes on a complex, suspenseful turn filled with betrayals and double-crosses.

Reception

Heist received mostly positive reviews from critics, especially for its intricate plot and Mamet’s dialogue. Gene Hackman’s performance was widely praised, and Mamet’s screenplay was noted for its cleverness and twists. While audiences appreciated the film’s intelligent storytelling, it appealed particularly to fans of crime thrillers and Mamet’s unique style.

Rotten Tomatoes Score: 66% (Critics), 56% (Audience)

Metacritic Score: 66/100

Trivia and Interesting Facts

David Mamet’s Signature Dialogue: Known for his unique approach to dialogue, Mamet’s writing style is full of sharp, fast-paced exchanges that make the film particularly engaging.

Gene Hackman and Mamet: Hackman was cast at Mamet's insistence, and his portrayal of Joe Moore is considered one of the highlights of his later career.

Mamet’s Ensemble Cast: David Mamet often works with a recurring ensemble cast, including Ricky Jay and Rebecca Pidgeon (who is also Mamet's wife).

Ricky Jay’s Background in Magic: Ricky Jay, who plays Pinky, was also a magician and used his expertise to contribute to some of the "sleight of hand" aspects of the heist.

Heist stands out as a solid entry in the crime thriller genre, with David Mamet’s distinctive touch elevating its intricate plot and character dynamics. Despite its underperformance at the box office, it remains a notable film for fans of heist stories and those interested in the psychological interplay within a criminal team.

[dankusner]

Juror #2

‘Juror #2’ review:

In Clint Eastwood’s intriguing courtroom drama, a possible guilty verdict comes with extra guilt

In its defiantly plainspoken way, director Clint Eastwood’s “Juror #2” is full of surprises, and even the ones heavy with contrivance and coincidence-based plotting settle into the overall and rather sneaky effectiveness of the movie.

It’s one of his good ones.

Small, modest, a little stodgy.

But good, and even a little brave in its courtroom-drama willingness to dunk the audience in the main character’s soup of anxiety almost immediately.

That’s the first surprise in “Juror #2,” and while it may sound like major spoiler material, it’s not, because it’s all over the trailer and wastes little time emerging in the movie.

In Savannah, Georgia, a murder trial is underway.

A man is accused of killing his girlfriend after an arguably violent confrontation in a roadside bar at night, with rain and thunder for added dramatics.

Nicholas Hoult plays the title juror, a magazine writer recovering from alcohol addiction, with a child on the way.

The usual questions arise in jury selection:

Do you have any “personal relationship with the accused”?

He answers no.

He’s agitated, though; he doesn’t want to have his time carved away from his wife’s imminent delivery.

And there’s something else.

Driving home one night recently, this man, Justin, had the bad luck to strike a deer crossing the road, which apparently (the flashbacks tell us) limped off into the woods.

But this is not what really happened, which screenwriter and New Trier High School alum Jonathan Abrams clarifies at a daringly early point in the story.

Not everything’s out in the open, though.

Like any courtroom drama, even an off-center one, other jurors harbor other suspicions, other secrets.

J.K. Simmons plays a retired Midwestern police detective (Chicago, I think) whose experience leads him to doubt the prosecution’s case.

Toni Collette takes the role of the prosecutor with political ambitions; her adversary in court, and her drinking buddy outside it, is the defense attorney portrayed by Chris Messina.

At this point I’m going to quit with the plot summary, because I respect incremental reveals a lot more than does the Warner Bros. marketing team.

It’s enough to say that “Juror #2” presents a life-changing dilemma for Justin and his family.

He is clearly a loyal husband and very likely a good parent in the making.

He is also faced with a couple of extremely difficult designs for living, one a lie, the other the truth.

He’s not alone in facing a crossroads of conscience in Eastwood’s film.

For me, “Juror #2” holds together even though some of the narrative developments don’t, and there’s a reason for that.

Many, though not all, of Eastwood’s recent films as director boil down to a simple, shared theme of noble men whose acts of courage run afoul of everything wrong with America:

the sniveling media (“Richard Jewell”),

big government bureaucracy (“Sully”) or,

in the case of Eastwood’s biggest hit, “American Sniper,” post-traumatic stress disorder, insufficiently cared for by both the man, a fictionalized version of Chris Kyle, and the military apparatus surrounding his short life.

“Juror #2” is a completely different undertaking — an unpretentious genre exercise, well-acted by Hoult and Collette, especially.

Yet its ethical morass holds you.

Its rooting interests are not fixed.

Some of it’s a mite preposterous, once the flashbacks to what really happened get going in the later stages.

But I can see why Eastwood went for it; it’s old-style but with some odd wrinkles.

I hope it finds an audience.

Courtroom dramas, after all, remain one of the hardiest genres in filmmaking, even now, when studios no longer know or care about selling a mid-budget ’90s-style courtroom drama in theaters.

To wit:

Eastwood’s movie, which may be his finale, is opening in theaters in glaringly limited release.

Thirty-one theaters, at last count.

In the entire country.

Originally slated for a streaming bow on Max, which is a business unit of Warner Bros. Discovery, “Juror #2” may well be unfashionable enough to make money theatrically.

Warner Bros. is essentially guaranteeing that outcome now.

Loyalty to Eastwood is one thing, and maybe a sentimental thing.

But the movie itself, cannily handled, deserved a better shot for a better reason:

It works.

Juror #2’ is almost an extended ‘Law & Order’ episode

'Juror #2' is rumored to be Clint Eastwood’s last film as a director.

Sad if true, but he is 94 years old.

He deserves the rest if he wants it.

If this is his last stint behind the camera, however, a legendary career ends with more of a whimper than a bang.

And Eastwood has had a lot of bangs as a director – 'Unforgiven,' 'Million Dollar Baby,' 'The Outlaw Josey Wales,' for instance.

'Juror #2,' a kind of moral thriller, falls in the solid-effort category, like his previous film, 'Cry Macho.'

It’s not the kind of film that made his reputation, but it’s also not the kind that will harm it, either.

The story is where it falls short.

The direction is taut as ever in an Eastwood film, and the performances are good.

But the plot strains credulity to the breaking point.

Nicholas Hoult stars as Justin Kemp, a magazine writer whose wife, Ally (Zoey Deutch), is about to have their first baby.

The film opens with Justin just having put the finishing touches on the nursery, surprising Ally.

'You’re perfect,' she says.

Hold on a second while we wave this GIANT RED FLAG.

Justin has been selected for jury duty.

Like anyone else who’s ever been called, he hopes he isn’t seated for the trial, a grisly murder in which a man (Gabriel Basso) is accused of beating his girlfriend, Kendall (Francesca Eastwood, Eastwood’s daughter), after an argument in a bar and throwing her off a bridge on a rainy night the year before.

The prosecutor (Toni Collette) is running for district attorney, so she wants a conviction.

Despite going up against her, the defense attorney (Chris Messina) feels like there is something off about the whole case.

And there is! Because

wouldn’t you know it, as Justin, who indeed has been seated as Juror #2, realizes when he hears the opening statements that he may have been responsible for Kendall’s death.

Probably not the kind of thing you would forget, you may be thinking, but in fairness it is a little more complicated than that.

Justin is a recovering alcoholic, and while he was not drinking the night of Kendall’s death, he has reason to believe he may have caused it.

As the details are sorted out, Justin has to figure out how to keep the jury from convicting an innocent man – most of them just want to get home for dinner – while not incriminating himself.

It’s not a whodunit.

It’s a will he or won’t he – or will someone else figure out what really happened?

Hoult gives a convincing performance as a man tortured by his conscience and his hopes for the future (new baby and all).

I especially liked that his Justin is able to compartmentalize his dilemma at times, not just sit around hangdog while pulling his hair out.

J.K. Simmons is, well, J.K. Simmons, as another juror who suspects there is more to the case than what they’ve been presented, but isn’t yet sure what.

If his performances are often similar, they’re also similarly strong.

The focus shifts to Collette, particularly in the second half of the movie.

She, too, is conflicted, haunted by doubt as she starts snooping around but clouded by ambition.

If it weren’t for her and Hoult, this could have been a supersized episode of 'Law & Order.'

Well, them and Eastwood.

He keeps things clean and crisp, even as the jury members break all kinds of rules that would get the case thrown out.

Which is fine.

It’s not a documentary.

But it’s not a fable, either, despite the dueling morality dilemmas.

'Juror #2' isn’t quite forgettable, but it’s also not the movie we’ll remember Eastwood for.

JUROR #2 is stupefyingly dumb and hokey. A ‘this could have been solved in a minute’ case, a comically wonky script and with a laughable jury group filled with dingbat performances. Nicholas Hoult has perfect skin. Toni Collette and Chris Messina innocent.

‘Juror #2’: Review

In recent years, Clint Eastwood’s films have often paid tribute to ordinary men who stand up and do what is right.

With Juror #2, he tweaks that tendency in a fascinating fashion, telling the story of a troubled writer who discovers that he may be intimately connected to the murder trial in which he is sitting as an impartial juror.

Nicholas Hoult gives a nicely modulated performance, conveying the character’s conflicting feelings of guilt, fear and moral conscience as he begins to realise that he, in fact, may be responsible for the accidental killing.

This sturdy courtroom drama moves along briskly, asking questions about personal ethics while supplying the genre’s comfy pleasures.

A typical lack of flash from Eastwood, who turned 94 this summer

After an AFI Fest premiere, Warner Bros. releases Juror #2 in the UK and US this Friday, catering to older audiences and Eastwood’s longtime fans.

This modest picture, which boasts dependable supporting work from Toni Collette and JK Simmons, is not expected to be a strong theatrical player.

But Juror #2 should be warmly welcomed by at-home viewers, especially those who enjoy the myriad TV dramas involving law and order.

Hoult plays Justin, a features writer who is selected for a jury that will deliberate on a high-profile homicide involving James (Gabriel Basso), a violent man accused of killing his girlfriend Kendall (Francesca Eastwood) after a fight in a bar on a rainy night.

Prosecutor Faith (Collette) believes she has an airtight case, betting that a conviction will help win her the election for district attorney.

But the more Justin hears in the courtroom, the more he worries: at the time of the murder, he was at the same bar and drove away, accidentally hitting what he assumed was a deer down the road.

But maybe he was wrong — perhaps he struck Kendall that stormy evening.

Working from a script by Jonathan Abrams, Eastwood delivers a variation on 12 Angry Men, with a twist.

Justin’s fellow jurors are convinced James is guilty thanks to eyewitness testimony and the defendant’s history of violence, but Justin, riddled with guilt, works to persuade the others that maybe they need more time to pore over the case.

While Justin is not positive that his car hit Kendall, the layout of the evening’s events — which includes a crucial period of time after she walked out of the bar alone — suggests that was the exact moment Justin had his accident.

Justin does not want James to be convicted, but the more he argues for the defendant, the more it leaves room for the evidence to point at him.

With a very pregnant wife (Zoey Deutch) at home, will he risk his future to do the right thing?

Juror #2 features the typical lack of flash from Eastwood, who turned 94 this summer.

The director allows Justin’s moral dilemma to add sufficient suspense to what is otherwise a compelling but fairly straightforward procedural.

And Hoult brings complexity to his silently anguished character, a recovering alcoholic grateful for the second chances he has been afforded.

The actor conveys both Justin’s desire to save James and his hesitation to come clean about what actually took place.

Eastwood’s heroes are frequently meant to be inspirational, but Justin is a far more nuanced protagonist — one who recognises that ensuring justice for James may mean destroying the life he has meticulously rebuilt after a string of DUIs.

(Crucially, Justin had not been drinking that fateful night when he drove off.)

To give the defendant, an equally flawed man, redemption, Justin might have to jeopardise his own.

The plot machinations may be familiar for the genre, but there is welcome shading within the narrative.

Simmons is excellent as another juror, a former detective named Harold, who believes Justin about James’ innocence and does some investigating on his own.

But to Justin’s chagrin, Harold quickly deduces that the murder was probably a hit-and-run, his findings tightening the noose around Justin’s neck.

Justin is not alone in grappling with guilt, however.

Faith is a potentially stereotypical ambitious prosecutor, but Collette instead portrays her as a noble, dedicated attorney who starts to have her own doubts about the case.

Separately, Faith begins digging deeper, her revelations risking her chance of victory at the polls if it turns out James did not kill his girlfriend.

Juror #2 has its occasional creaky moments and illogic, but Eastwood has a firm hand on the wheel, invested in his characters’ ethical conundrums as much as he is in the courtroom drama.

The film builds to a conclusion that is unexpected but surprisingly effective in its understatement, suggesting that this veteran director can still find new ways to explore what everyday courage looks like.

[skeedog]

IK Multimedia Celebrates TONEX Anniversary

IK Multimedia TONEX 2nd Anniversary Product Review To mark the second anniversary of their TONEX product range, IK Multimedia showers us with substantial updates and exciting new offerings including a coveted limited-edition pedal, software updates, and enhanced AmpliTube integration. A comprehensive dive into these reveals a promising outlook for both existing and new users of the TONEX series. Key Features: - TONEX Pedal Anniversary Limited Edition: Handcrafted in Italy, this limited-edition pedal showcases an elegant white finish and comes preloaded with 150 Premium Tone Models from notable partners such as The Studio Rats and Jason Sadites. - New Firmware and Software Update: Scheduled for release in November 2024, this update will introduce eight new effects including two delays, chorus, flanger, phaser, tremolo, and rotary processors with tap-tempo control, alongside a new spring reverb. Additionally, it includes a real-time editor allowing swift custom settings configuration. - AmpliTube Integration: This integration has been enhanced with a new user-friendly interface in AmpliTube 5 X, facilitating easier navigation and management of Tone Models. - RedSeven Hybrid100 Signature Collection: This recently launched collection incorporates 34 Tone Models of the versatile three-channel Hybrid100 amplifier, providing a spectrum from 60s-style cleans to fierce high-gain tones. Pros: - Increased Versatility: The addition of eight new effects and two new configurable blocks for more routing options considerably widens the sonic possibilities. - Ease of Use: The real-time editor and improved AmpliTube integration simplify the user experience considerably. - Exclusivity and Quality: The limited-edition pedal offers not only unique aesthetics but also a collection of high-quality Tone Models. - Free Updates: The upcoming software update is free for all existing TONEX hardware and software users, adding great value. Cons: - Price Point: The TONEX Pedal Anniversary Limited Edition might be considered pricey at €449.99, which could be a barrier for budget-sensitive users. - Waiting Time for Updates: Users have to wait until November 2024 for the new effects and features to be available. Customer Feedback: Customers have expressed excitement about the scheduled updates and the integration with AmpliTube. The visually striking TONEX Pedal Anniversary Limited Edition has especially drawn attention, with many praising its aesthetic and exclusive Tone Models. However, some potential buyers are hesitant due to the high cost of the limited-edition pedal. Meanwhile, existing users are thrilled with the AmpliTube enhancements, highlighting how these have smoothened their workflow and enabled easier access and management of Tone Models. Conclusion: IK Multimedia's second-anniversary updates for the TONEX range present a mix of innovative features and significant improvements that enhance user experience and expand musical creativity. While the pricing for the limited-edition pedal might be steep for some, the overall reception is positive, reflecting IK Multimedia's commitment to quality and continuous improvement. The future looks bright for TONEX users with these enriching additions set to elevate music production to new heights. https://www.ikmultimedia.com/index.php Read the full article