#i love the akira bike slide so much...

[tamago-aki]

🗣️💥 MAKE WAY THE MANDADLORIAN IS HERE!!! 🗣️💥

i was commissioned by @/peeppq on insta to draw her current brainrot duo... and she told me to make it a print so look out for it at upcominng cons and shop openings!! 🤭🤭

UPDATE : they're now available as a print on my kofi!!

[im-still-a-robot]

The drift king and sailor asteroid

[afterlife-2004]

FIRST OFFICIAL TRAILER FOR THE SONIC MOVIE 3! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! 🦔💨💙💥🦔🖤❤️⚡️

[un-pearable]

internally: decent movie. more tolerable than the previous for most parts. rewatchable. FINALLY has a soundtrack that sounds like sonic and DOESNT have gratuitous plot-irrelevant human scenes. sonic gets to do sonic stuff!!!!! characterization makes sense given previous movies and (very slightly) nudges him towards something potentially interesting. not inventive AT ALL (missing everything intriguing about SA2) but could be worse

externally: while some lore omissions make sense given the world established by the previous films, those choices are boring and others they make are completely baffling changes. rouge omission harms the whole thing. i dislike the entire direction they’ve taken with their sonic characterization and the themes and they fundamentally miss key traits for everyone involved . why did we do this. what was the point

it’s fun. more consistently enjoyable than the previous but that’s mostly bc the scenes that bothered me with the aggressive Carryness had tails in them so i could just watch him be cute.

lore change to make him another mystery alien is annoying but frustratingly makes sense given the context. i’m not torn up over it <- don’t care about shadow and didn’t expect much going in . the missing part of maria’s story is ridiculous though (why is she just there??????)

i love herrrr i love her 70s energy and outfits and i will incorporate the roller skates. its soooo cute . the godzilla movie with the biolizard is pretty funny but that’ll totally piss off diehards. i do think they do good job of showing shadow + maria as friends and why he cares so much about her but that’s mainly just the scope of a film vs a video game

COWARDS THOUGH . SAYING “THEYRE CHILDREN” ON SCREEN TO INTERRUPT A SHOT-FOR-SHOT RECREATION OF HER DEATH??? THATS THE POINT. SHES A CHILD. ITS A TRAGEDYY

the shots directly from the shadow 2005 intro…. unbelievable . hilarious

akira bike slide ON VERTICAL BUILDING is cool i’m here for it

low budget flight and actual sonic-esque music…. i accept my crumbs

knuckles is lame. literally stolen joke from sonic boom w the team knuckles stuff. i wanted him to fight sonic over the ME so bad

the wade reveal is physically painful like i knew it happened in the show but he sucks sucks and right after the only satisfying scene w the humans (shadow fuckin up tom) . ME you deserve betterrrrr

torn on the overall message. i think it’s a more coherent film than the last two and the message isn’t terrible - it aligns with sonic’s overall freedom and choice vibes. but having shadow be a tag along to eggman’s schemes is a weird choice given he was pretty explicitly the one who wanted to . yknow. blow up the earth in the first place and just gave eggman the tools in SA2. this version takes a lot of agency out of his story bc gerald is here. which is weird since the whole explicit theme is choices!!

fucking gerald. can i kill someone. mr carrey i hate him

extremely dragon ball combat. which is fine but unexciting . WHERE the fuck did the emeralds go at the end they just??? gone??? they detransform and (incorrectly) sonic falls out of super and shadow dies but the emeralds flat out do not appear in the film again after they initially transform . what happened

FINALLY giving us a heart to heart AND live and learn for the fight ONLY TO CUT AWAY TO TWO MINUTES OF CARREY SHENANIGANS. illegal . egregious. im glad he’s dead

the shift from sonic having to inspire shadow to be better and move onto his past to . shadow pulling a ‘you’re just like me’ is lame. hello again scourge .

like it’s a logical change especially given the target audience and the kind of stories that are popular rn but it’s sooo less interesting than SA2’s thing

shadow being confronted by sonic bc he challenges his belief of being exceptional and makes him reconsider what it’s possible to be -> shadow being sonic’s narrative parallel bc they both had one (1) human they liked who they would do anything for

^^^ it’s bad. not unwatchable like sonic 1 but bad change. makes sense for this established universe tho so i get it

tails is great . colleen should be paid more

WAIT THINKING ABOUT LIVE & LEARN AGAIN. I CANT FUCKIN BELIEVE IT at least they had the music still playing when they cut back to the fight scene but that bullshit w the egged men. torture

yay shadow dead!!!!! no that final endcredit didn’t happen

the moon shot was cool. sadly now sonadow fans will claim the moon <- IT WAS SONKNUX TERRITORY FIRST

rouge would have made this film 1000000000% better

why so many metal sonic???????? hi amy

at least she’s cute i’ve seen so many bad edits since 2020 at least she’s cute. i’m intrigued w the cloak choice what’s going on here. just to hide the outfit so they can change it? reference? hmm

fascinating implication for whatever 4 is going to be. in my heart carreybotnik stays dead and we get a pseudo heroes where metal is pretending to be him. but alas i fear the family focus for eggman in this film is leading up to. him making metal sonic and treating him as his kid. which could be fucked up in fun ways but i’m so tired of carreyisms

they did say 2027 though which is an extra year than the last two got…. what are you budgeting guys

why oh why is shadow consistently the only character who gets any emotional arcs or storytelling it taunts me…. can’t even hate the guy bc he’s the only one with interesting stories . this story sucks and it’s still better than what knux got . orz

sayonara shadow the hedgehog

[ninja-knox-ur-sox-off]

Finally watched the hedgehog 3 movie and I LOVED IT

[Spoilers rambles under cut ]

I’M SORRY THE STRAIGHT UP VERTICAL AKIRA BIKE SLIDE OFF OF A TOWER INTO THE AIR????? THE WAY IT WENT FROM TOWER UNDER THE WHEELS TO JUST AIR????? SHADOWS EXPRESSIONS??? MARIAS ROLLERBLADES?????? WHEN I SAW THE BIKE SLIDE IN THE TRAILER I THOUGHT IT WAS ON SOLID GROUND, NO THEY FOOLED US IT WAS MID AIR AND IT WAS AWESOME. THE ‘I’M RIGHT HERE’ KILLED ME I’M IN A THOUSAND PIECES YOU BET I’M READING WAY TOO FAR INTO THAT listen hear me out I know someone has probably already said this but I’m insane about Maria and Tom doing the “who you are in here” and Shadow pointing there when he says I’m right here because hey listen that’s where he’s feeling all his pain that’s where he lives FACE IN HANDS I CAN’T ARTICULATE IT BUT IT’S SO GOOD. Listen, listen, it’s just a REALLY REALLY FUN MOVIE and I ENJOYED IT and I WILL WATCH IT AGAIN IF I CAN. I need a file of the movie so i can make an amv or SOMETHIGN THE FIGHT SCENES ARE SO NEAT I’M AAAAA OUGH “what was his name, Tom?” AND ACTUALLY LOOKS CAUGHT OFF GUARD WHEN SONIC PUNCHES HIM TO THE LITERAL M O O N i sound insane but listen listen LISTENNNNNNNNNNNNNN REVENGE GUAC THANKS FOR NOTHING. SHADOW????? SHADOW WAS INSANE VOICE ACTING OFF THE CHARTS ANIMATION FOR FACIAL EXPRESSIONS HURT ME HIS CAUTION AROUND MARIA WHILE SHE REMAINS THE MOST IMPORTANT PERSON IN THE WORLD TO HIM [FLIPS TABLE] GET ME OUTTA HERE I’MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA FAMILY RACE HAPPY BEARTHDAY SONIC AND KNUCKLES??? OUGH UGH AAAAAA Kay, listen, I really loved the movie, if you haven’t seen it I would highly recommend it, it’s got the most absolute nonesense from the eggman side and the most hurt from the shadow sonic side and the most family ever from sonic and fam and Tom’s donut lord sweater is just as glorious as it looked in the trailer and okay okay I’m going to stop for now but I loved it, it was so much fun, it was so entertaining, i was smiling for so much of it, THE LASER DANCE IMCRYINGLKMDF I’m totally fineAMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYY I DON’T EVEN GO HERE BUT I ENJOYED IT SO MUCH okay okay time to chill out it’s like bedtime for me i literally have a test tomorrow i have to sleep goodnight goodnight i loved this movie it brought me joy the angst was so good the MOON SCENE OUGH OUGH gngngnngn

[midnight1nk]

So, this week's episode...

[spoilers below cut]

oooohhhh, so we're doing another one of these, eh? let's have some fun!

(the following is my live reaction:)

ah yes, the new TADC episode, which was fantastic btw

HELL YEAH

I honestly didn't expect that bc I was like, "what kinda trip would it be for them to take a bike? camping maybe???" (I still don't get the "trip" part about it tbh)

sooooooo teasing and banter are part of your (platonic/romantic) love language?..... [*writes it down*]

3, we all know Mario is basically invincible right? betting 4 dollars on him winning this race

ooooohh, a prize 👀 though based on past episodes, 4 doesn't have the greatest ideas for prizes, judging by the Crew's reaction at least (I would still want your autograph, 4)

LET'S-A FUCKIN GOOOOOOOO

honestly mood

"imaging yourself as a jet plane will not help you zis time, jet" (gotta add the riders fandub in here man)

That wasn't even Mario's fault, that was a bigass rock

PFFFT ASHD;LAF four tf are you doing dude, can i join you

[*looks at moon*] don't say it don't say it don't I'VE COME TO MAKE AN ANNOUNCEMENT—

If Mario's flexible enough to reach the moon and the sun and the Great Beyond, you can too 👍

oh my god, i get it /ref

WHY IS THAT ROCK STILL THERE?

whelp Kev, looks like you aren't voicing Boopkins this episode

I miss your pink reading glasses 3 (wait did you somehow lose them on that island?)

also you do need glasses, my guy? i think you would cute in them btw

so um... who's gonna tell him?

(actually now I thought about it, the drawing that 4 had was on his PC and it got thrown away. 4 please tell me you saved that file somewhere else, was the printed-out version in 3's notebook actually canon? can it be?)

apparently fanartists, we need to make for fanart of 3, let's get to it!!!

loved the way James delivered that line "ouchie" (timestamp 5:29)

OH HEY slenderman, it's been a while, hello!

Kev, is that you? I can hear a bit of Shroomy in that voice

🤔 huh

Tari and Luigi are so sweet, I love them 💙

"I don't have eyes so I can't see you!" 🧍 not gonna question it

Mario, what were you so afraid of? it's slendy, your bro (looks like they didn't put that lore in smh, it's fine tho)

slenderman being here kinda fits tho bc we first saw 4's locket in the "Lost in the Woods" episode to come back in the "Plane Trip" and now slenderman comes back in another "Mario's Trip" ep

if only those cowards would show us what pic is inside that locket this time (I KNOW FOR A FACT THAT IT'S A DIFFERENT PIC, 4, I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE)

anyway, he's just a little guy (i'm still waiting 4)

Tari, sweetie, this is 3 we're talking about here, ofc he would cheat

[*italian gibberish argument*] ah yes, just another normal sibling moment

MARIO LOCK IN, BRO

SONIC?! WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE? :D

alright, now we gotta do it: 📢🎶I'm hanging on to the other side, I won't give up to the end of me—🎶 [*gets run over by a bike*] OH C'MON

LET'S GOOOOOO WOAH DUDE ANIMATION

WE'RE GONNA TOKYO DRIFT IN HERE BOYS

nothing person-el, kid /ref, and the rock came back full circle

AKIRA SLIDE BABYYYYY

kinda half-expected slenderman to accidentally win the race but CONGRATS MARIO 🎉

it was really gonna be sweet but yeah, that's our Mario

I'm sure the mar3 shippers are enjoying their crumbs

AWWW 4 HONEY I WOULD ENJOY YOUR GIFT

i would protect him at all costs (no don't look at what I did for the episode concepts shhhh)

and i oop

well um congrats to Abbie/Abit (@/jYMylD9Rm84xxCX) for your art featured at the end credits 🎉

.・-: ✧ :--: ✧ :-・.

This was a silly little episode and I have indeed enjoyed it. Not as emotional as the last one but I had fun nevertheless. Though, it didn't feel like a "Mario's Trip" episode, compared to the other ones. Maybe that's just me idk.

The animation and references, peak. As for the plot itself, it felt very on-brand for SMG4. Strangely, the chaotic energy in this one was toned down which is new. Like I said, it was still fun, had plenty of laughs. There isn't much to say about this but yeah, good to have a silly goofy time overall!!!

and yes, I will gladly take that bell, 4 [*ding ding*] :)

[emma-is-swaggy-and-epic]

Happy valentine's day :3333

Ngl it was kinda hard for me to think of something to draw this year bc i'm still REALLY proud of the valentine's drawing i made LAST year and i lowkey felt like i needed to sorta one-up myself in some way (some considered ideas were to either do what i did last year, but with my CRACKSHIPS instead, or do something with my OCs) but y'know....i've had the idea for a drawing like this for a while and i lowkey wanted to draw something with candy hearts in it so here's a simple lil naegiri for your troubles <3

Oh yea and also since naegiri is a RIDICULOUSLY popular ship in the danganronpa fandom so this theoretically is gonna get more notes than i usually get, i've provided links under the cut to some other art i've made that i'm really proud of and i think need a little more attention

A redraw of MCR's three cheers for sweet revenge album cover but with celeste and byakuya (CW: PINK BLOOD)

A rendition of a friday night funkin character i saw in a dream a few years ago

My danganronpa OC yuriko in the artstyle of an early 2000's cartoon network show

Sans undertale as a super saiyan

My deltarune OC sprite recreating the akira bike slide with a fisher price car

Minecraft gijinkas part 1

Minecraft gijinkas part 2

Minecraft gijinkas part 3

Yuriko in the actual dangan artstyle (honestly i'm happy with ANY of my yuriko art getting attention, i love that girl SO MUCH)

Me redrawing art of a witch i made when i was 11 (...and then redrawing a redraw of that art that i made when i was 13)

Me redrawing fanart of hatsune miku i made when i was 13

A redraw of the painting saturn devouring his son but with hello kitty (CW: BLOOD, MILD GORE)

[crazylittlejester]

Ayyy it's been a while since I've shared a random headcanon through ask on here, so here's one I just imagined after seeing a really cool Akira slide edit on Tiktok

Sun has done the Loftwing Equivalent of the Akira Slide multiple times. She actually did it during her own knighting ceremony, and while Sky thinks it's badass everytime she does it, that time was his favourite purely because of how cool she looking holding the statue while doing THE THING!

Flora has also done it before. HAVE YOU SEEN THE AOC DLC!? MY GIRL IS KILLING IT ON A BIKE!

Even though Wild and Flora are STILL trying to figure out where tf the Mastercycle is during LU, by TotK, Flora is driving that thing around Hyrule ALL THE TIME! SHE'S AKIRA SLIDING AND BRINGING LINK OUT ON MASTERCYCLE RIDE DATES 24/7! IT IS THE ONE PIECE OF SHEIKAH TECHNOLOGY THAT SHE REFUSES TO LET GO OF, SHE LOVES THAT DAMN BIKE AS MUCH AS SHADOW THE HEDGEHOG LOVES HIS!

(it seems my tumblr inbox still loves corrupting your asks and not letting me answer them, which is so awful and mean of it because i do love hearing from you)

I SO AGREE. I SO SO AGREE.

ALSO FLORA DOES COOL TRICKS WITH THAT BIKE AND SAYS ITS 'FOR SCIENCE' I KNOW THIS IN MY HEART.

[joeys-piano]

Fic Author Self-Rec

Tagged by @voxofthevoid to share 5 of my favorite fics I've written. This might be a trip down memory lane for some of you who've been here for a while, and it might be a crazy experience for the rest.

Soft tagging: @feu-eau, @thechaoscryptid, @shiguangism, @heymacareyna, @bowties-are-cool3000, and any of you!

I can't think of a more OG story that had my heart, and my soul, and my sanity stitched inside it. This was a pure character study for one of my favorite characters, Oda Sakunosuke. He's a handyman. He's a gunman. He raises orphans as an orphan himself. He knows love like a favorite meal, but is still surprised he can indulge in it. I just wanted to write a single evening from his life and write how cherished he is even if he doesn't know it.

If he could trade every summer for a bowl of this, he'd never complain again and would savor the moment.

Remember the love stories about the Suez Canal and the Evergiven? I don't write much about trending topics but this was something I wanted to get my hands on. It was refreshing and very freeing getting to bottle this up like a time capsule.

He looked at him the way every ship wanted to be looked at when they docked — for who they were, not what they bore — and that made all the difference.

The most poignant memory I have of writing this is being in Vietnam at my grandfather's house and there is a wild rooster roaming the grounds by the banana trees. And well, given the circumstances, it was a good chance for me to flex my poetry muscles and have something cozy to sink into. I love how playful the writing this. I love how it reflects what I think love is, in the same way I think it's love when I cuddle my squishes in the morning and can't bring myself to leave them in the morning.

It’s no mistake that he’s as part of you as the Middle Ages, that to hold him is like you’re slipping into a bout of familiar Englisc. Which is about as timeless as the stars when you kiss him in a language that’s never not-enough and as part of him as a promise.

It's not a love story, but it's written like one. No one dies, but someone died. There were two brothers in this story; there are two strangers aimed to kill. This is a religious-esque story with a prophet and a martyr, and at the same time this a story about misconceptions disguised as faith. I very rarely write stories that don't feature romance, if you judge based on my body on work. So this one sticks out a lot to me and really gives you the full spread of my dynamic as a writer I feel. I often think romance is what holds me back in my writing, so getting to not do that here and just writing what interested me felt good.

This could swallow, eat him alive, when he tells himself that the hardest part of being human wasn’t hate, or disgust, or the anger, or the insistence to rid another. But to love, and have the patience, and be the kindest you could be when the world — when your brother — struck the anvil of your knees.

I wrote an Akira slide reference I'm still proud of. And I get to write about food, one of my favorite joys.

Lu Guang edges them to the road. He brakes to the side, sliding westward across a storm drain and the open maw of every pothole in existence, burning rubber across the metres. Pushing his whole weight to stop the bike, he digs his right sole into the earth. And almost topples—because of physics, because of mass times acceleration, because of the pressure inside his leg—threatening to fall apart once they stop.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Michael in the Mainstream: Top 100 Movies #100 - #76

For the longest time I've wanted to do something like this, but I never could find the right time to do it. It just seemed so daunting, and the website's image limit was a hindrance, and then my computer died and my wife's computer was all I could use... and then I went on my hiatus from doing major reviews. But I found some time, so here we go.

These are my hundred favorite films ever made, divided into fourths so each one can get an image and I can devote more time to gushing about them if I want to without feeling like I'm dragging things out.

Speaking if dragging things out, let us waste no more time! We have a hundred movies to go, so let's knock out the botom quarter!

100. Us

Jordan Peele’s sophomore effort gets a lot of shit that I feel is mostly undeserved. Sure, some of the over explaining at the climax is a bit clunky when taken at face value, but it almost feels like it’s by design, as if the movie is daring you to nitpick the premise so that you can ignore the message it’s trying to convey. For me, I find that the stellar themes, fantastic acting, and godly soundtrack manage to make up for any of this movie’s flaws.

99. Crimson Peak

Murder! Mystery! Ghosts! Incest! Leave it to Guillermo del Toro to craft a Gothic horror film this stylish and impressive! This might just be my favorite of his films, and I definitely think it is severely overlooked compared to the rest of his output.

98. Mandy

Nicolas Cage is one of my favorite actors of all time, because when he goes crazy it’s always fun, and when he’s dramatic he genuinely kills it. This film lets him do both,with the first half being a slow burn dramatic romance that ends in horrific tragedy, and the back half having him do demon drugs and get into a chainsaw duel while he murders an entire cult. Truly a beautifully insane film.

97. Scream

The film that both revitalized and ruined the slasher genre, with winking nods to the tropes that made those films what they are while also playing things just straight enough to be appealing. Only a genre master like Wes Craven could pull off a pitch-perfect satire like this, though none of it would be near as good if it didn’t have a great cast who were firing on all cylinders. Young Neve Campbell before she became a sellout, Matthew Lillard cementing his place in horror history, David Arquette and Courtney Cox in their prime, and Roger “Mojo Jojo” Jackson playing the iconic voice of Ghostface… They’re as crucial to this movie’s success as the meta winks and impressive kills are.

96. Jojo Rabbit

Taika Waititi made one bad superhero movie and then everyone turned on him as if he didn’t make the film that proves you absolutely could make Blazing Saddles in this day and age. While it’s neither as gut-bustingly funny nor as profane as Mel Brooks’ magnum opus, it’s still a very fun, funny, and heartbreaking satirization of Nazism. I think he’s allowed to make one Love and Thunder when he made something this good.

95. Akira

The movie with the coolest bike slide in cinematic history, and this is indisputable because every single movie and show with motorcycles in it borrowed that cool bike slide. This film does show its age a bit, but it’s still an awesome sci-fi showcase of animated action and body horror. Plus it’s just a lot of fun seeing Tetsuo and Kaneda spend at least half of their dialogue dramatically screaming each other’s names.

94. 300

I make fun of Zack Snyder a lot, but I do it out of love; the dude who made 300 has gotta be capable of doing better than his recent output, after all. Stylish, slick action and slow-mo put to good use showing an army of nearly naked macho men cutting down hordes of nasty bad guys… The fact I watched this movie so much as a teenager should’ve been the first hint I was bisexual.

93. Spider-Man: No Way Home

People are really fucking hard on the MCU Spidey, and not without reason, but sometimes it really comes off as disingenuous. Look at this film, for instance; it has gotten some flak for just being a cheap nostalgia circlejerk that uses cameos so you can clap and cheer and ignore the ‘plot holes.’ I cannot imagine being that miserable of a movie watcher. To me, this film is a tribute to the cinematic Spideys that came before while giving them some degree of closure that I never thought I’d see, while simultaneously bringing Holland’s take on the character closer to where he should be. It’s also really hard to hate a movie where Willem Dafoe gets to go Goblin Mode again and power bomb Tom Holland through several floors of an apartment, cementing him as comic book movie villain royalty once and for all. Are there cheesy moments, moments where things don’t make the most sense? Sure. But to focus on those bits instead of the core themes and how the characters are used is an awful way t do film criticism. The returning heroes and most of the returning villains are used very effectively to tell the story they wanted to tell, and most importantly they don’t overshadow Tom and his friends. The fact he stands toe-to-toe with Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield is nothing short of amazing, spectacular even.

92. The Lost Boys

Joel Schumacher died with one of the most unfairly earned infamous reputations around. Man made one campy superhero movie where you can see George Clooney’s nips and hear Arnold Schwarzenegger make ice puns and suddenly everyone forgets he made one of the greatest and most homoerotic vampire films ever made. While the stuff with the kids is very hit or miss, the stuff with David and his vampire biker gang is awesome, and the climax is one hell of a good time.

91. Barbie

Want to introduce your kids to feminist concepts but really don’t think they’re ready for Poor Things? Greta Gerwig has got you covered, with this pink-hued intro to feminism that uses the world’s most popular doll in a meta-narrative about her impact as well as what it means to be a woman and how the patriarchy is detrimental to both men and women. Margot Robbie gives a great performance as the titular heroine, but it is Ryan Gosling as the well-meaning idiot turned antagonist Ken that steals the show. It helps that he sings one of the most incredible, sincere power ballads ever written.

90. Street Fighter

As a connoisseur of cheesy, “so bad it’s good” films, quite a few of them have made my top 100. Here’s the first of those, this goofy Saturday morning cartoon of a film where the most American character ever (Guile) is played by the least American guy imaginable (Jean-Claude Van Damme). While it undeniably fumbles a lot of the cast of the game it’s adapting, Chun-Li and especially M. Bison are done so well it’s hard to be too mad. It’s a fun, stupid, silly 90s action film and sometimes that’s all I need.

89. Knives Out

After polarizing sci-fi audiences with his Star Wars film, Rian Johnson subverted our expectations by delivering a whodunnit for the ages. After seeing them restrained by blockbuster franchises for the better part of a decade, seeing Daniel Craig and Chris Evans really let loose again is a real treat.

88. Everything Everywhere All at Once

Twitter tries to convince me every other week that this movie is dogshit, but I ain’t buying it. This is one of the best uses of the multiverse in recent memory, using it to tell a stylish, silly, and heartfelt story about family and trauma. The entire cast is amazing, but it’s Ke Huy Quan in his big return to the silver screen that really steals the show.

87. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre

My favorite thing about this movie, this proto-slasher, is just how fucking unclean it makes me feel. It’s not overly violent or gory, but it is genuinely grimy and unsettling in a way few other horror films can match. The dinner scene near the end in particular is just so fucking unnerving. Just truly unmatched atmosphere with this movie.

86. Spaceballs

While I’m not going to argue that this is a better film than Blazing Saddles, I still enjoy it a lot more since I’m a bigger fan of Star Wars and sci-fi than I am of Westerns. It’s just a damn funny parody, and hoe can it not when it has some of the funniest people to ever live (Mel Brooks, Joan Rivers, Rick Moranis, John Candy) and a great heroic lead performance from Bill Pullman all delivering some of the silliest lines ever written?

85. RRR

This is basically live action historical fiction anime. These characters pull off some of the most insane feats of action I have ever seen, action that makes the average American action film look like Peppa Pig. But I would not give a shit if there wasn’t a strong emotional core; the two leads have a brotherly bond unlike anything I’ve ever, and it makes the action that much sweeter. Frankly, this movie would make the list just for the final battle alone, since it might be my favorite action scene of all time.

84. Strange Magic

This movie holds a very special place in my heart. I went to see this with my wife back when we first started dating, and at the time I was filled with anxiety and insecurity, worried that I wasn’t good enough and didn’t deserve a relationship among other things. I sat down to watch this, and when it got to the titular song, something clicked, and I felt secure. I felt like our relationship was the right thing, and all these years later it’s hard to deny I was right. So thank you to this cheesy jukebox musical inspired by Shakespeare and George Lucas’ desire to make a film for little girls. They will never convince me you’re a bad movie.

83. Princess Mononoke

Maybe Miyazaki’s Spirited Away is objectively better, but this is my favorite. I think it’s because this one is a lot more excitin and action-packed, with all sorts of thrilling setpieces interspersed with the quieter dramatic moments Miyazaki excels at.

82. Jurassic Park

One of Spielberg’s greatest achievements is bringing dinosaurs to life on the big screen. No matter how many times I sit down to watch this, I still feel the same awe the characters do when they lay their eyes on the dinosaurs—which really highlights how good the cast is, because they’re amazingly convincing even when they’re looking at dated 90s CGI.

81. Labyrinth

It’s David Bowie starring as the villain in a musical filled with puppets that’s directed by Jim Henson. How the fuck is it possible to not love this movie?

80. V for Vendetta

Yes, this does dumb down the politics of Alan Moore’s comic significantly and turns the story into a much more straightforward plot. But what it lacks in depth, it makes up for with Hugo Weaving and pyrotechnics. And it’s not like there’s no depth here; crucially, this film keeps the entirety of the prisoner’s letter sequence. If that was left out, I would not have liked this movie at all.

79. Wreck-It Ralph

It’s amazing how much Disney got right here that it would go on to get wrong over the next decade. We have a hidden twist villain, something that hampered later films… but he’s shown to be a dick, with the villain reveal being how evil he is. It’s a big crossover of nostalgic properties… but they’re more used as seasoning for a story about original characters. It’s just astonishing how Disney would end up dropping the ball, even in this film’s sequel, when they got everything right the first time.

78. Sin City

What’s black and white and red all over? This bloody brilliant adaptation of Frank Miller’s sleazy comics (and one of the last genuinely good things with his name attached to it). The visual style here is the real big selling point; it genuinely looks like the pages of a comic come to life. While the movie as a whole is fantastic and “The Big Fat Kill” segment is still really, “The Hard Goodbye” and “That Yellow Bastard” are the real highlights, the former because of a career highlight performance from Mickey Rourke and a terrifying villain turn from Elijah Wood of all people, the latter because of one of Bruce Willis’ finest performances of the 2000s and excellent use of slight splashes of color (yellow for the titular bastard).

77. Batman & Robin

As long as I live, this movie will have at least one defender. Joel Schumacher created a silly, campy comic book movie for the ages, and maybe back in the day people weren’t read for it… but I was. I love the ice puns, the nipples, the bat credit card, all of it! All of its silly, stupid corniness makes this as memorable as it is! It’s like the West show with a gigantic budget.

76. The Rocky Horror Picture Show

And speaking of camp, here is the cult classic. We can argue all day and all night whether this film has aged badly, but this was a huge step forward for queer cinema on top of being a damn good musical. If nothing else, this movie helped rocket Tim Curry into the stratosphere and made him the star we know him as.

[firespirited]

NOPE 2022. Review with spoilers under the read more

Nope didn't quite work as horror for me but was a decent action flick, I'd have enjoyed the experience better if it wasn't under "sci fi" and "horror": spent the time expecting something else instead of properly being in the moment - I was tired, had specific ideas about what might happen, then immediately wanted a rewatch because I'd missed the good stuff looking for other stuff (will do that rewatch as soon as possible)

It didn't work (as sci fi horror) partly because I'm a know-it-all/super nerd who gets all the sci-fi references and knows all the tropes and partly because Peele really doesn't do subtle.

Entertainment chimp chaos + ufo + horse wranglers = space chimp chaos, it was clearly a people and horse eating creature from jump so no build up there. I'm totally used to aliens being either creature based or beyond our understanding.

// or that wonderful balance in between that films like Arrival and Annihilation (or Evangelion) found where there's a logic but it's larger than we are, we're space dogs compared to their space humans.

That's my jam. The existential horror/wonder of encountering something advanced enough we can interact but to understand it? That's beyond us: might blow our minds or change us forever or leave us without answers because we're just not good enough. Yeah. Tangeant over lol //

- The second very specific thing is the sound of screams. I have trouble telling the difference between good and bad ones, I have had dissociative freezes at fairs and theme parks looking at people clearly enjoying themselves. For some reason that I cannot rewire or logic away, my brain assumes 1 of the people on the ride must be in genuine distress. Occasionally it happens with playground screams too. It's something I've had to work on as I lived close enough to hear fairgrounds every summer from age 15 - 30. I've heard them on the wind in july here for ten years. I cope well nowadays, a brief shudder then it's fine.

Anyway, Nope also didn't work as horror for me for two very specific personal reasons:

-the first that I won't really expand on here is trauma turned into a good story: dealing with something bad (and also very much NOT dealing with it) by having a good story to tell. The fact that this story dropped that into the narrative then didn't follow up meant that I briefly thought there might be something to break my heart in two... but that wasn't the point being made, the point clearly was a childhood exploitation turning into a pattern of exploiting everything.

// If you know of stories about trauma turned into a story to avoid confronting it directly or giving a good end send me reccs I'm ready to pick at that wound (okay okay maybe not 'I May Destroy You' final episode levels of ready, Michaela Coel is too powerful). //

So I was looking for that and it didn't happen.

So I knew exactly what the opening sound was, what the faint sound in the wind was. So the only reveal was that it wasn't mimicry or psychological tactics by the alien (i was still in the mode of thinking of various sci fi beings who used/enjoyed fear instead of just a wild creature. I was primed to puzzle solve and there's no puzzle just layers of meaning).

But I did love OJ the cowboy hero and his sister Em on the motorbike. They had very believable sibling energy despite one of them being in a deep funk at the start. And yeah the Akira bike slide was awesome. I really liked the alien design, starting with something we think we know but actually more of a sand dollar then popping into the jellyfish form but with the non-organic, not quite working within our physics square.

If it's an action film, it takes its time to really start which is why I was stuck on slowburn dread sci-fi mode for so long but that could be western film pacing. I honestly have no understanding or knowledge whatsoever of westerns: the whole genre stank as ahistorical attempts at myth making.

// It's one of the reasons I don't watch war films, often about myth making, post hoc justifications, glamorising a life of 95% boredom 5% hell. //

But yeah my expectations were a little too high: it hit me way too late that it was a 1:1 chimp metaphor not a more vague tampering with something we can't control and really thought the creature would be playing with fear or have somehow been formed by fear (like the boar in Annihilation having taken on its victims traits).

Also suffered from way too dark syndrome. I loved the well lit final action, if it'd been well lit during the creature choking over the house scene that would have been so much cooler. I have a low tolerance for ooh it goes bump in the dark for half the movie, I'm just squinting and cursing you for padding the film with anything but character moments in the aftermath or in dread that would make the human impact feel more real.

Solid action flick: We need dashing Daniel Kaluuya on a horse in more films. Keke Palmer is a scene stealer I look forward to seeing more of her. I liked the emo tech guy. Film dude was wack without being funny. Why did they give him so much screen time? Steven Yeun does what he can with what little he had. I would have liked to have lingered a little longer on his conflicting relationship to fame.

My review? No yet rated. Gonna rewatch it as an action flick in the dark and enjoy it for what it is. Something tells me it's very rewatchable! And... I need to stop making assumptions based on genre expectations.

[canmom]

Utena or G-Witch?

as in like which is my fave or...

honestly I need to go back and give gwitch a proper watch through, I fell off watching it when it was airing right before what are apparently some of the most impactful episodes. I definitely mean to do a proper writeup about gwitch when I do.

that said, i mean... I doubt my opinion would change that much. gwitch is a very solid gundam. it's got a lot going for it, it's good TV. but utena is utena. there's nothing else like it, even other Ikuhara shows (not at all to their detriment, it's good that he went on to do different stuff than more utena). it's just shooting for something so weird and interesting and bringing in such specific vibes. it's got crazy formal stuff with the way it uses bank shots and borders and the greek chorus and stuff. it's got the architecture. it's got incredible character writing. it's got ja seazer doing full on alchemy in the soundtrack. it's got an episode where someone turns into a cow. it centres on an oblique metaphorical depiction of sexual abuse and has something interesting to say about it. it declared some of the most iconic imagery in anime, the finale is up there with the akira bike slide for shots that people would subsequently homage. but it's also really funny. and i love utena fans, they're nuts in the best way.

gwitch, for all its nods to utena early on, just wasn't so ambitious. it can't be so experimental, it's gotta be a gundam - a relatively grounded if melodramatic scifi centring on exploited teenagers piloting robots, one which has gotta hit certain series motifs - it's gotta have a masked char figure etc. which is fair enough, I've been really enjoying getting into gundam, gundam is good shit! and gwitch from what i've seen finds good ways to mix up the formula (what if char was the mc's mum). but 'gundam with lesbians' is not novel in the way utena was.

if you wanted to name a more utena-like modern show you might point to revstar, which is straight-up directed by one of Ikuhara's protégés who'd worked on penguindrum, though it took the movie for that to become bold enough to compare at all tbh.

but honestly, while I could point to a lot of visually innovative shows in the last 10 years, nothing can really be 'another utena'. utena is utena! and we're not in the mid 90s anymore, we're v much post utena, we've long ago absorbed utena (and lain and eva and so on) into our sense of what anime is and can be. and of course, anime works differently now - economics, production, social context, etc. I guess it's an interesting question to wonder which works will come to be seen with 25+ years' hindsight in a similar light...

[masonuf]

Post for 3/4

What happened in Akira was not at all what I expected from looking at the cover art of Kaneda with his bike. I was expecting the movie to be some post-war commentary where teenagers would protest against government corruption or something along those lines, but it took a completely different direction. Nevertheless, it was a really good watch! Now I understand why some of my high school friends thought so highly of it.

For the first half of the movie, I had no idea where the plot was leading. Everything felt kind of random and unexplained. I couldn’t quite decipher what message the movie was trying to signal. I did find the movie’s aesthetics to be very artistically unique, though. The surreal imagery that it uses to depict mental experiences was extremely well-done. It definitely reminded me of Neon Genesis Evangelion’s surrealism in many ways.

Then, halfway through the movie, I became more engaged with the movie once Tetsuo developed his psychic abilities. I thought, “Oh, so it’s about some kid who has hidden superpowers? Wasn’t expecting that, but… awesome!” Then, once Tetsuo started going mad and abusing his strength, I started to realize that the movie was pivoting towards signaling the consequential corruption of humans when they are handed too much power. Still, I was a big fan of his destructive outbreaks.

My interpretation of the end of the movie largely hinges on what Kei said to Kaneda in the prison cell: when amoebas are given human capabilities, they only consume and destroy because that’s the only thing that they’ve ever known how to do. What follows is that when humans are given godlike capabilities, their inherently human traits, such as selfishness and greed, consume them. So, at the end of the movie, when the three zombie kids realize that they can’t destroy Tetsuo’s humanity, they guide him to godhood, instead. Behaving like a god, Tetsuo uses his powers accordingly to create a universe. I still don’t know why they didn’t just do that to begin with, to be honest (I guess they didn’t have access to Akira’s remnants).

Anyway, the movie grew on me toward the end. I’m really glad it was selected as one of the class choices and I look forward to hearing what everyone else got out of it. Maybe there were some allusions to religious themes that I may have missed. Also, I finally understand where the signature Akira slide comes from now. I love how different animators have adapted it to their shows.

Image from https://hard-drive.net/news-games/the-wilhelm-scream-is-out-the-akira-bike-slide-is-in/.

[alterimaige]

*akira bike slides in* 😎 hello!! been wanting something action-y so i'm super excited to be joining this lovely group!! i bring you wren who like everyone else here was at the wrong place at the wrong time w this outbreak. her bullets from the app are here with more bullets below!! i dont mind either dms or discord for plotting, just lmk which you would prefer!! lets write together and have some fun <3

pre-outbreak: a vagabond work and enviro-obsessed photojournalist! loved loooooved her job and would not have changed it for anything else in the world. is used to constantly being on the move, and credits that to her upbringing

outbreak: shedoesntevengohere.gif but a girl needs a vacation alright!! nobody gave her the memo that the price to pay for going to a fun little conference and wanting to eat sugar encrusted garlic bread is a zombie attack. her and her small group of colleagues/work friends scram over to the seoul qz asap

post-outbreak: slowly getting a grasp of the language here, doesn't need it to know that these kdrt people are totalitarian-esque assholes. time 2 bounce. over to busan we go with another small group. there's a couple of grueling incidences of beloved friends that get infected, some reflection on humanity and how futile all of this seems, and depleting rations. they make it—though not all in one piece—but they make it! figures her experiences n knowledge are enough of a bartering chip just in case it's needed to join the fireflies, but there's not a whole lot of it

pre-division 4: working as an instructor to help finetune survival skills and the like. gets bored and starts itching for some adventure again because apparently one near-death experience isn't enough a girl needs 5. thus here she is as a scout!

looks like horoscopes are in rn so here's hers: sag sun, aqua moon, aries rising

literally just the human vers of the 😎 emoji for better or worse. this either makes her very approachable or she feels like A Lot. understandable regardless!!

it's not that she doesn't think it's just that she feels too much time shouldn't be wasted on sitting idle. very much all about trusting the process and following instinct

also truthfully when you're in a foreign country with no idea how your immediate friends and family are even doing right now she doesn't have much to lose. carpe diem baby

i rewatched NOPE like 2 nights ago and she's loosely based off of the guy who tried to take a video of jean jacket + em (if you squint) so take that as u will

thank you for reading!!

[rainsoftenings]

19, 21, and/or 25 :3

19. [said with a huge grin, while suffering the martyrdom of st sebastian] it has a lot of flaws in canon but i actually rlly like kaoritets, they are actually my go-to "mash them together like dolls" akira ship but not out of seeing Any Of That as genuinely romantic, i just love how fucked up and weird it is, tho i definitely think it wouldve been a better flavor of fucked up and weird if kaori had been given equal consideration within the narrative. her lack of agency could be so interesting if more of her inner life was on display. i think this goes w/o saying but i generally prefer the movie's more codependent take on them than. All That. in vol 4. vol 4 was so gratuitous and for what purpose

21. just generally everything to do with kaneda's bike and jacket in the movie? like i won't like ofc i want a capsule jacket, everyone does, it's a cool jacket, but i think if you have an overfocus on the aesthetics of akira/the bike slide/the jacket you're probably not getting the actual intended message of the movie. (especially considering both of them are symbols and kaneda loses them both by the very end). the bike slide in its original context is a neat bit of animation but that's all it is. aside from the live-action one in NOPE when i see a bike slide homage these days i feel nothing

25. i'm honestly not sure. there was a huge renaissance on here of akira fans right around 2018-2019ish but i wasn't around for that. at the moment akira fans seem broken up into several little disconnected groups so it's hard to pinpoint any sort of unifying fandom complaint. wait scratch that. ive gotten reactions before where it seemed like ppl very much did not like it when i actually criticized the way vol 4 is written esp wrt misogyny and its portrayal of sexual assault. so i guess my winner for "most annoying complaint" is the ppl who act as though you can't or shouldn't complain abt akira bc it's "a classic" and therefore somehow untouchable. which is just such a strange way of engaging with media to me. when i see something that i think sucks i will say it sucks

[anissapierce]

Ok so extra thoughts on mut mayhem after watching for the second time:

Aprils hair isnt entirely red and there's about two small locs that are actually black one is like there for basically the whole movie the other is mostly hidden by the other locs until near the end. Its possible this is a new version if the movie ...similar to all the 'patches' that went on w across the spidv but idk i think i just missed it while watching at the AMC

The boys get back from watching the movie in Brooklyn bridge park (? Idk where it is could be prospect, marine etc any park lol ) sometime after 2 am bc the clock in leos bunk says 2:22 or sometime similar ?

Ok now for actual more plot related kinda spoilery stuff

I paid attn n the first dude tht reaches out to splinter when he's hurt is Def Eastman. Wait .....lol i missed the line abt him needing a vet or a doctor? Weird idk if it was said by eastmans character or someone else. Ngl this watch felt like it wasnt as long ? But i chalked it up to this being my second viewing i don't think my theater was showing an abridged version n i probably just missed tht line organically

At the amc i totally missed that cynthia had fly in the jar? At the end and i forget tht she was surveiling the turtles? So its good to know that superfly isnt Gone gone but damn him being reduced to a housefly is pretty sad ....esp a housefly thts being held by TCRI.

Again in love the character design as an asymmetrical lady myself. I love cynthia Utroms design esp bc we Nvr see women tht look like tht in animated movies or tbh live action movies but like theres women tht look like tht

I love how basically any sign in a background cant be read bc its scribbles unless its plot relevant like the high school bulletin board...

I paid special attn to aprils pins n scooter + helmet stickers n yeah tht shit is inscrutable on purpose but bc i saw the concept i noticed

The all power tothe people Sticker based on shape n color but nothing else specific.

Ok so april didn't Akira slide exactly but she kinda did ? While everyone is coming back from staten island n doing a cool walk april n her new tcri ride move sideways across the group pretty sure the bike/scooter/motorbike was sideways too idk .... Donnie akira slid w the pizza truck near the end. At the end wingnut was so happy tht donnie had an Akira boxset.

Also i was listening so hard to scutterbugs like three lines of 'dialogue' n like theres no way yall heard tht n thought alex hirsch like thats impossible im p sure if bauza did those 'lines' i wouldn't even know it was him n bauza has a much more distinctive voice