#still have to watch the sequel film upon writing this

[ihopesocomic]

My Pride is weird bc the gore for shock value is really the only thing "adult" about it. As far as plot and characters and themes it fits right in with YA xenofiction - yes, even "mature themes" like abuse and oppression are often covered in children's media like Wings of Fire and AtLA, that's not exclusive to adults. I feel like MP was actually intended for the same type of audience, but they added the unserious bobblehead disclaimers at the last minute bc they realized angry parents might come after them if their kids watched a Lion King-style YouTube video that turned out to be super violent and bloody.

Its really hard to tell who the audience for MP was outside of "people who were already fans of Tribble's warrior cat/cotw content". Can't be for children, cuz there's warnings (well "warnings" in the form of cute widdle bobbleheads with little fun quips from the characters)

Like is this for teens? I mean I know teens like a lot of crappy stuff (not me tho, I've always had impeccable taste /sarcasm)

Is this for adults? Cuz the messaging and writing is almost unfathomably immature. The messaging was so bad, people still don't understand what's so "problematic" about it. They think RJ and I are just mad because ableism and homophobia is in it. Like why do we have to keep explaining things to people. If people used their brains, or consumed literally anything else, they'd arrive to the conclusion themselves. After all a ton of the opinions we expressed in our video were already expressed by lots of other people beforehand and they didn't need us to tell them what to think lol

Even the violence was immature, which I can say because I love me some creative violence in my movies/shows. There's science behind violence, so you'd think a show that prides itself as being a "more mature Lion King" and believing itself to have a more realistic portrayal of lions, it would have realistic violence, but nope.

The violence in this show is sometimes hilariously censored, like for some reason Barkmane's body was completely blurred out when they had no qualms about showing Starmane and Quickmane's body, their injuries were not even indicative to anything based in reality

Karabi's throat was slashed open and her voice actor was just groaning (not the voice actor's fault, this is the fault of the director) and I dunno, I feel like I've seen enough slasher films to know a convincing dying noise when I hear one, but I don't expect people working for me to know what that sounds like so as a director it would be my responsibility to... you know... direct.

And Sharptongue's death, like I still don't know what was supposed to even be wrong with her. She just started having a coughing fit and died off-screen.

AND YET MP somehow manages to be really fucked up in its mediocrity?? Because it just shrugs off child death like the characters do.

It's not like resources aren't out there, people have been posting videos of lions killing each other on youtube for years lol

"Adult shows" that are easily outshined by kids shows in maturity are fascinating to me, and they're more commonplace and I don't know why. At least two other "adult shows" have so little respect for the intelligence of their audience that they put in a shit ton of information that adults get mad when they have to think about things. And/or they are so embarrassingly safe it's almost like they're made specifically to cater to kids.

I mean the fuckin Lion King straight-to-video sequel had an effective abusive family dynamic, so what's the excuse here exactly. (I mean I know the answer, it's because Tribble pulled heavily from Warrior Cats and didn't improve upon it.) - Cat

[always-a-joyful-note]

Revue Starlight is just ORV but what if it was theatre instead and what if we told you that a tragedy can always be rewritten? What if the end of the story, the end of the play, your defeat onstage - what if all that doesn't mean everything is over because you can always make a new play, always become better, always rebuild the stage and stand on it again? What if there WAS death but what if rebirth was also possible?

What if this tragic tale that always ends the same had new actors, you know? How would they play it? How would they spin the story a different way? Will they try to outshine the past, outshine others? Or will they find their own unique brilliance instead and join the stars that shine in the night sky?

[return-of-a-space-cowboy]

🧚‍♀️ Anon

Slasher!Josuke with Nerdy Darling? (Based off Scream)

Darling is a Horror Movie Fanatic, as she’s seen them all, from B Films, Foreign, Classics, Silents and the more Recent ones

Reader comes off as a Geek, but she doesn’t really care if people like her or not (She even works part time at the local Video Store) she’s kinda a loner as she has no friends at school

Reader is sorta based off Randy (I loved him in the Scream Movies and was upset that he was killed off in the Sequel) as she takes pride in her Horror Movie knowledge

If Darling has a Stand, maybe it’s called ‘Mortician’ (Based of the Band known for their songs based off Horror Movies) maybe she affects her surroundings like a movie based upon the 3 simple rules she makes? (If you break the rules you get injured or attacked, but if you don’t break them nothing happens)

Josuke gets a crush on Darling after they were grouped together for a school project and realized Darling is pretty cool (She even tutors him so his grades don’t slip since she’s a straight A+ student at their high school)

However Josuke noticed Darling only shows interest in Horror Movies and Slashers, so what better way to get the girl of his dreams than by becoming a real life slasher himself?

I’ve been watching Slasher Movies on loop, including delicious plot twists so what if Darling is Kira’s daughter? (She doesn’t know about his hand fetish or about him being a serial killer) She doesn’t have interest being in the spotlight like her dad (This can be scrapped if you want)

Ooh this is so interesting I had to start writing. I ended up writing a prologue.

I'm going to set the main part of the story a couple of years post DIU (mainly to age up) but the prologue takes place just before with reader being 14/15.

Still thinking about the stand. Possibly being a stand that almost looks like a phone dangle charm on her phone that sometime gives out rules in the form of a text for a set amount of time (anywhere from an hour to 24). It's one of those self destructive stands (not literally but it's always screwing with darling).

Really loved the Kira daughter idea, writing that darling knows and is actively trying to hide it after his "death". In a way she ends up paralleling him with her need to hide it as it previously ruined her life back in marioh cho.

If you have any more ideas please let me know as I am really invested.

(Also an odd fact, my dad's bday is the same as Yoshikage kira's)

Sins of the father prologue

(Yandere Josuke X female Reader)

Warnings: mentioned abortion

You looked at the address you'd written down before knocking on the door. Your lucky your friend had offered up the cover of a sleepover to your grandparents as they'd be furious to find out what you were doing, but you needed closure on the matter.

There was a car in the driveway so you knew he was home so you knocked on the door again. Who exactly? Your father.

You'd never met him in person as from what you knew him and your mother had been at odds over the idea. So the most he did was sign his name on your birth certificate before the relationship had ended. About a year after your mother had visited him to try and rekindle the relationship only to disappear.

You snapped out of your thoughts when the door opened. He was definitely the same man that your mother had stashed photos of.

Blonde hair, blue eyes and sharp features.

He was probably wondering why some random middle schooler was at his door.

“Mr Kira?” You asked.

“Yes, that is me,” he told you. You looked oddly familiar but he couldn't quite put his finger on as to why. You quickly held out a paper bag, you'd gone to the effort to buy him a castella cake as a sign of good will.

“My name is (Y/n) Kira, I was hoping we could talk” you told him. He took the bag but he had a scrutinizing look.

“Is this about your mother's disappearance? I already told your grandparents all I knew” he asked.

Of course he lied, he simply told them that she'd left his house. In truth she never had but back then the villas hadn't been developed yet so no one was around to discredit his claim. Yet your grandparents had not believed such a claim.

“No, I wanted to meet you” you said and immediately he began to close the door before you wedged your foot between the door and the frame.

“I'm not asking anything of you, after this we can just go our separate ways… I promise” you said, desperation in your tone.

He sighed before opening the door again.

“Just this once, if I ever see you here after I'll call the police” he warned you as he stepped aside to let you in.

You came in and left your shoes on the shoe rack before following him into the living area. You sat down on the cushion behind the low table.

“Tea?” he asked.

“Yes please Mr Kira” you responded with a nod. You looked around as you waited. This was definitely one of the older houses in Morioh cho. tatami mats, sliding doors and hanging lights. Probably made around the 50s/60s like your grandparent's. Most of the houses in the town now were around tenish years old at most.

Soon he brought some cups and a teapot before sitting down himself and pouring the tea.

“So why did come here? I thought your grandparents would have been completely against you coming here?” He asked.

“I found some of my mothers belongings. After reading her diary I was hoping to get your side of the story, if you're comfortable with that?” you told him.

“Well I suppose you should know” he said with a sigh. Your gaze was just like hers and a small part of him was terrified by that, that dead woman's stare haunted him.

You rummaged through your school bag before grabbing out a piece of paper full of questions you jotted down.

He told himself to think of this like how he would any other interview. The sooner he answers your questions the sooner you'd leave.

“So first off, mom wrote down that you two were in the same homeroom in highschool when you two met” you said.

“Yes, she was seated next to me. I hadn't realized she'd had feelings for me til Valentine's day” he told you.

“Why'd you accept?” You asked. Now that was a hard question to answer. He'd been shaken after killing Reimi, a girl from the same school. He'd tried to keep his urges in check. After your mother had confessed her feelings to him he believed that if he'd had a partner maybe he'd have no need to ever do it again and she happened to have a lovely pair of hands. His eyes couldn't help but drift to yours. They were quite pretty too, he noticed the light polish on them and spoke up.

“I thought the schools had a no polish policy” he told you. You rolled your eyes, you'd painted such a similar shade to your skin hoping no one would notice.

For a while you continued to ask him questions. Until you inevitably asked why he and your mother broke up.

Another tough question, he had many reasons. He'd realized that his plan to keep his desires in check wasn't working, not to mention your mother's pregnancy had caused issues. He'd swore up and down he'd worn protection. At first he believed your mother had cheated but that was disproven. He never heard the end of it when his mother found out. She believed her son wouldn't have ever done something like that and demanded your mother have an abortion if true. In truth he'd silently wished for the same but your mother was headstrong and was determined to keep the child.

Eventually he'd decided to break up with her and at least fill out the birth certificate but that was it.

“It was complicated, in honesty my feelings for her washed away and when we found out she was pregnant, both our families had a feud over it. We decided it was best that I wouldn't be in the picture… I also wasn't ready for a child in my life” he explained, his eyes gazing upon his tea.

“Thank you Mr Kira” you thanked him, you knew these were hard questions so you appreciated that he gave you the answers. At this point he couldn't help but have questions of his own, as he couldn't quite figure out what type of person you were.

“May I ask you a few questions of my own? nothing too personal” he asked.

“Of course, it's only fair after all that I've asked you”

“What after-school club are you in?” That was probably the best way to gauge the person you were.

“Oh I'm in a book club” you replied, that was the same club he'd been in when he was younger.

“You like to read?” He asked.

“Kinda, in truth it was the only club that gave me privacy. My media interests are more on movies but reading the original sources are always fun” you confessed.

“Any plans after highschool?” He asked.

“I'm not entirely sure, I do want to do university but I'm unsure of what course to take” you told him with a sigh.

“You'll figure it out in time, I only decided what I was going to do during my last year” he told you.

It wasn't long after that you left. To go to your friend's to watch movies over the weekend. They had a large collection of horror movies that your grandparents would never allow you to watch.

Unfortunately your life would never be the same after your father's true nature became public news. Forcing you and your grandparents to have to start a new life away from Marioh cho.

[idleglowingpixels]

I was rewatching Monster High: The Movie (2022) cause the sequel's coming out next week and upon rewatch, the fucking signs that Komos was actually Hyde's son not from the writing but from the COSTUME DESIGN for him was so striking to me that I'm pissed I didn't realize sooner.

Not only does he have the glasses, sideswept bangs and general human appearance of Jackson (minus the horns, I think in this universe Komos's mom was like a centaur or something, would explain why he's still so human-looking besides the horns), but there's nods to Jackson and Holt specifically all throughout his outfits in the movie.

(Also for the sake of ease I'm referring to the teacher as Komos cause typing Hyde Jr. or something constantly is gonna drive me nuts)

First, there's his main outfit which we see across the film as well as in promotional images, and YOU CANNOT FUCKING TELL ME the posing for his promo pic wasn't an intentional nod to Jackson LIKE LOOK AT THIS SHIT!!

The main thing that strikes me is the inversion of the yellow/gold and blue with Komos's tie and shirt, also the fact the colors are significantly desaturated in comparison to Jackson's flashy yellow and blue. My interpretation of this is that it's representative of the bad-guy/villainous interpretation Komos represents, in comparison to Jackson/Holt which seem to be a rare good-guy/positive interpretation of Jekyll and Hyde. It's like, yes this is the Jekyll/Hyde guy of this gen, his outfits are nods to G1 but is otherwise an entirely different character than Jackson/Holt. Which I mean, I do respect the writers for not having Komos be this gen's Holt Hyde and just as "Hyde's son," I feel like separating the two (three??) characters is and was the best decision. Just two different interpretations of the "descendant of Jekyll and Hyde" thing.

Another part of the decision to go with Jackson's more traditionally nerdy or professional type of fashion style is interesting to me. Komos does not want to be perceived as his Jekyll half, he wants to just be Hyde, hence why he refers to himself as Hyde's son not Jekyll and Hyde's son. And yet, it's like he can't deny his human Jekyll side. To be honest Jekyll's only referenced a few times in the movie (which okay, Hyde's the monster half, I get that, but you'd think he'd be a little more important yeah??) so it makes sense they're focusing on Hyde more but I did find it an interesting decision.

Next there's THIS OUTFIT which on rewatch made me audibly point like that soyjak meme like "THAT'S A REFERENCE TO JACKSON AND HOLT CAUSE OF THE YIN YANG DUAL COLOR SHIT"

Red and blue are mainly Holt's colors, but Holt's signature outfit's shirt is also dual-toned, split through the middle.

It's just with Komos, there's less of an emphasis on the yin-yang thing Jackson & Holt had in their interpretation of Jekyll & Hyde -- he's unbalanced in comparison to them -- hence it's not a black and white cardigan. Also, THE BOWTIE! Can't get more obvious with the Jackson nods than that.

There's also this outfit I wanted to mention, the one he wears during the Founders' dinner toward the end of the movie. Notice It's fully red-toned, where his initial outfit was mainly blue-toned, and the cardigan showed the transition between. It's like at first, he's studious and mellow-natured with a bit of flare but nothing too crazy -- Jekyll. Then when he's wearing the cardigan, he asks Clawdeen about her research, almost insisting she provide him the information she's gathered because of his desperation to lose the duality going on with him. And finally, at the end, he takes the potion his father made, fully embracing Hyde and abandoning Jekyll once and for all.

---

That's pretty much all I wanted to mention regarding the outfits, but I remember when I first watched the movie, I was severely disappointed that Jackson/Holt were basically confirmed to not be making a return in this generation (or at least in the live-action films but I imagine it'd be pretty confusing to have two characters represent the same specific monster character in the same gen). They were a really underutilized character concept outside of Ghouls Rule, and I feel like especially with Clawdeen being half human in this version that they could've been friends or something!

Maybe Jackson/Holt could've served as the antagonist of the film in Komos's position, but not out of malice, moreso misguidance. Holt was kinda hinted at in his diaries to have depressive symptoms, it would've been interesting to explore that with how he might have low self-esteem because of his half-human-ness. Also, apparently Deuce in G1/G2 was half human too? Why did they get rid of that this gen??? I don't know why they keep shifting representation around at times.

Questionable decision making aside, I actually did enjoy this movie a lot. From an objective standpoint it's a DCOM-quality movie with average writing (except Frankie bro they were funny as hell in this movie), slightly more fashionable outfits than DCOMs, and a basic self-acceptance plot. There's several movies, including one or two in G1, with similar but better-executed writing and storytelling and similar themes. But DAMMIT I can't get enough of this movie when I see it. It's a comfort movie. :'D

I could go ON about the Jackson/Holt erasure all throughout this movie, especially with the rumors it was based off an abandoned movie concept for the two back in G1, but this post is too long already and I've distracted myself from my work enough. :'D If anyone on this side of Tumblr wants to hear that ramble, I shall ramble about it another day.

Also, HAPPY SPOOKY MONTH!!! My Monster High AU is beginning this month with the main 5 ghouls' designs as well as a one-shot I've written. Maybe stick around for that if you want to idk! :D

[handsome-jacks-bottom-bitch]

Alright, let's talk about Easter in November, and by Easter, I mean easter eggs. The Borderlands franchise is chalk full of them, some obvious, some not. I'm gonna go over some of my personal favorites. Note, I'm not gonna go over EVERY easter egg, as that would take all day, so instead, I'll include the others in some future posts.

First easter egg I want to tell you about is in Borderlands 3. It's real easy to find, as it's a whole quest. Ever watch the best movie of all time, The Room, created by the best mind of anyone's generation, Tommy Wiseau? No? What are you doing with your life?

Well, regardless if your cultured or not, Tommy Wiseau makes a special appearance in his own quest "Buff Film Buff", located in Devils Razor. This quest becomes available once you've completed the main story quest "Blood Drive". The whole quest entails you helping Tommy Wiseau, or "Buff", get his film on the big screen for all to see, instead of the Calypso Twins propaganda videos.

Next easter egg is a smaller, more obscure one, but I still thoroughly enjoyed stumbling across it. In Borderlands 2, in the head hunter dlc "T.K. Bahas Bloody Harvest", you can come across a fun egg to classic horror films "The Blair Witch Project", "The Ring" and "Poltergeist". Scattered about the map are three televisions to find, and upon approaching them, little scenes will pop up referencing the films. They can be found in hidden, off the map areas.

You ever watch a movie and at the end, you sort of just sit there and think "what the hell did any of that mean?" Well, that was me watching Stanley Kubricks "2001: A Space Odyssey". So, imagine my confusion when I stumbled upon the all infamous monolith in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel. If you head to Stantons Liver, search out the cave to the east of the map. It'll be chalk full of torks, so you'll know it when you see it. There will be a little opening towards the back of the cave. Hop in and follow the path, until you find it. The monolith. There will be some enemies in the area, so take them out, and then touch the monolith. You'll touch it about three times, each time taking you to a little area referencing different scenes from the film. At the end, you'll be greeted with a weapons chest, and that all too weird baby in space.

This particular easter egg is probably one the most known ones, but it's also one of my favorites. It first showed up in Borderlands 1, and even made a comeback in Borderlands 2, offering a little challenge if you go find it. I'm of course, talking about the hidden Claptrap of Fyrestone. In the town of Fyrestone, you can climb up onto a little fence when you first enter. Make it up to see onto the cliff, and you can find a green Claptrap unit waving and greeting you. Fast forward to Borderlands 2. Return to Fyrestone and follow the same path, however this time, you can approach the unit. Unfortunately, due to Jack destroying the product line, the Claptrap unit is now dead. However approaching it will reward you the challenge "Hey! Over here!" for 5 badass points. There's also a red chest waiting for you!

Those are just some of my favorites, but I don't want to make this post *too* long, as I could write all day. I'll make posts about other easter eggs in the future. In the meantime, I'm working on a thesis of sorts as to why Handsome Jack isn't as terrible as he may seem, and also a detailed telling of his entire backstory, working through all the plot inconsistencies that have shown up throughout the games.

[yernemm]

FNAF Movie :^)

Just watched it and I wanna write down my thoughts.

First bit of this post is mostly spoiler-free, I'll put spoilers under the read more.

If you're a fan and you're planning on watching it anyway, DO NOT READ ANYTHING ABOUT IT. TL;DR: it's good, we've waited so long for this, you'll enjoy it, don't spoil it for yourself :^)

First of all, I really enjoyed it. It felt very genuine, like it was made for the fans. Despite having a couple scares, it wasn't really scary. People who just wanna watch a horror film but don't really care for FNAF might be a bit disappointed there. Though as a FNAF fan, it's exactly what I hoped it would be tone-wise. It has a horror theme to it but doesn't take itself too seriously. It's pretty funny too, and has a lot of references to various things from the games and community (I'll elaborate in the spoilery bit).

There's a lot of small details sprinkled in throughout the movie, and I definitely missed some of them. I'll probably be rewatching it asap whenever it's available online.

Spoilers below (I have a lot to say about the lore) \/

FINAL SPOILER WARNING, IF YOU MISCLICKED, LOOK AWAY NOW. I WILL BE SPOILING THE FNAF MOVIE !!!!

I'm very interested about the canon of this movie. Although it seems like an adaptation of the first game, the plot and some major characters are very different. Game canon has always been pretty unclear but this movie contradicts a lot of what we thought we knew. It could be a retcon, or it be its own movie canon (that the potential movie sequels will follow). I'm very curious about the theories that people will have about it.

Here's some major points:

Mike Schmidt is Mike Schmidt, not a pseudonym for Michael Afton. Does Michael Afton even exist?? Who knows. Either way, William Afton immediately recognises his surname and immediately offers him the Freddy's job upon reading it. This could be because he knew Mike's brother, though I would've assumed that William was just killing random kids during MCI. Specifically picking Mike for the job due to this connection was very interesting. Also, what happened to Garrett? Like, yeah, William killed him, but he's not one of the ghost kids.

Abby / Vanessa -- who even is Elizabeth Afton?? The general theory before the movie came out was that Abby was the movie version of Elizabeth. Name is an anagram of Baby, she's Mike's sister, etc. But we now know that Mike and Abby are not William's children. Instead, Vanessa is William's daughter. It sort of makes sense, Elizabeth has been portrayed with blonde hair before and there is a loose connection between Security Breach Vanessa and Elizabeth. (Her actress is also Elizabeth Lail...) The timeline also lines up, Vanessa/Elizabeth was a child in the 80s, since the FNAF movie is set in 2000. One small problem though... Vanessa is alive. Is Elizabeth actually Vanessa's sister that died in the 80s, similar to what happened to Mike's brother? Why does William blame the missing children incident on Vanessa during the final confrontation? I have no idea. I'm really curious to see how this all connects.

There's a weird previously unseen springlock suit in the storage room??? It almost looks like an early version of Baby, based on the face... And Abby almost gets placed into it. Interesting.

I gotta refresh myself on the game lore, I do wonder how much of the game lore still makes sense if you assume the movie is also canon. Maybe the Schmidt family (Mike, Abby, Garrett) can work as the Afton children (Michael, Elizabeth, Crying Child) with William Afton actually having a different family to what we assumed (Vanessa). Though, assuming movie Vanessa is the same as game Vanessa, with Security Breach taking place likely 25-35 years after the events of the movie (which was confirmed to be in 2000), she would be in her 40s / 50s in SB. Maybe she just looks young for her age ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I suppose it's possible that in the 2030s, an unrelated woman who looks strikingly similar to Afton's daughter just decided to work for Freddy's. Maybe Afton controlled SB Vanessa because she reminds him of his daughter. Who knows.

Moving on from the lore, here's some other things I wanted to mention:

Chica's magic rainbow in the mall

The diner that MatPat works at is named Sparky's (reference to the Sparky dog hoax from early fnaf days)

Also... MATPAT IS IN THE MOVIE. And he says something like "Lunch is more important than breakfast, but that's just a theory." (or the other way round)

Dream theory being a book and major plot point

After the credits, there's a robotic voice reading out letters (similar to that one fnaf minigame). At first I thought it read something like HOME (I didn't quite hear the rest). But it could just have been SAVE THEM or HELP THEM like in the minigames. EDIT: After rewatching this part, it definitely says "COME FIND ME".

They actually played TLT's FNAF song in the credits.

There's some loose parallels to things that happen in the books, like foxy for Abby around arcade machines, similar to what happened to Charlie in The Silver Eyes.

Balloon Boy toy jumpscares were hilarious.

The animatronics teaming up to build a fort for Abbie was hilarious.

I just love how goofy this movie was in some parts...

The ending does establish some plot points for the sequel with Willy getting springlocked and Mike telling Abbie "you never know what may happen" when she asks to return to Freddy's.

What happened to the aunt's body?? Like, the people who broke in got stuffed so they are accounted for. Presumably golden freddy didn't take the aunt's body when he and Abby went back to Freddy's. So did Mike and Abby come back home to their dead aunt lying on the floor????

They used the profanity budget for the movie's age rating to let the pharmacist call Mike an asshole. Love it.

WILLIAM ALWAYS COMES BACK

But Cupcake was the real villain all along.

That's all I remember for now. I might edit this later if I remember more. Very cool movie :^) 👍👍

[tiffanylamps]

Heyyyy do u have any wlw/GL film recs it can be dramas movies anything at this point im so desperate 😭

Hello!!!! Thanks for the ask! I love the topic haha. I'm going to give you 8 recs, I hope you like them! (synopses taken from imdb) The Handmaiden / 아가씨 (2016) A woman is hired as a handmaiden to a Japanese heiress, but secretly she is involved in a plot to defraud her

I don't think I've watched this movie since it came out, so my memory is a little fuzzy. I remember thinking it was brilliant and entertaining; I found the plot and characters to be compelling and I was really rooting for Lady Hideko to get a happy ending. The cinematography is so delicious, as is the romantic tension between the lead female characters. However, I did find the sex scenes to be a little... not to my taste but my opinion might have changed in the last few years

Colette (2018) Colette is pushed by her husband to write novels under his name. Upon their success, she fights to make her talents known, challenging gender norms

A Historical biopic about the life of Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette. It's another movie I haven't seen since it came out but I also enjoyed it. Although married to a man (who is also a dickhead), Colette has relationships with women, most notably, Missy, who is male presenting. (I don't remember if Missy's gender is ever defined in the movie, so I'm not sure if "women" is the correct term to use when describing them. I might be misgendering them as the real-life Missy, Mathilde de Morny, did go by Max/Uncle Max in their later years.)

The Favourite (2018) In early 18th-century England, the status quo at the court is upset when a new servant arrives and endears herself to a frail Queen Anne

Here we have another biopic, this time it's about the relationship between Queen Anne, Sarah Churchill, and Abigail Masham. I adore this movie! It's soooo fantastic to see queer women be so ruthless, cunning, terrible and desperate. Gosh, I love how love and ambition are depicted throughout. It's fantastic! All three female leads are excellent.

Atomic Blonde (2017) An undercover MI6 agent is sent to Berlin during the Cold War to investigate the murder of a fellow agent and recover a missing list of double agents

Charlize Theron plays a bisexual baddie in a spy action movie where she is hunted down by James McAvoy?? Yes please and thank you!

Shiva Baby (2020) At a Jewish funeral service with her parents, a college student runs into her sugar daddy and ex-girlfriend

This is one of my favourite movies. It is a horror dressed up as a comedy. THE INTENSITY is sooo unreal that it inspired me to write an original story! I love everything about it! Plus, YES to bisexual and sex-work representation!

Bend it like Beckham (2002) Two ambitious girls, despite their parents' wishes, have their hearts set on careers in professional soccer

Yes, the main character ends up with the male love interest. But this movie is still soooo queer! Jess and Jules are gay for one another, I don't make the rules! Kiera Knightley wanted them to be together and so did everyone else. If they ever made a sequel (which they should), it could be about them reuniting and getting together. I watched this movie soooooo many times growing up.... lol Calamity Jane (1953) The story of Calamity Jane, her saloon, and her romance with Wild Bill Hickok

Another biopic but this time, it's a musical haha. Okay, yes, Jane ends up with a man and yes, the real Calamity Jane was married twice in her life to men. But when I watched this as a child, it awaken something in me. The movie is so queer-coded, I could see it even as a little child who didn't know what queer was yet. I haven't seen it in over a decade, maybe more, but it left a huge impression on me. Plus, The Windy City and A Woman's Touch are absolutely certified jams. (side note: when I watched A Woman's Touch for the first time, I remember thinking that I wouldn't mind living in a cabin with my best "gal friend" 😂) Now for a TV show I watched growing up (when I was WAY too young to be watching something so adult) that made me feel the feels:

Sugar Rush (2005) 15-year-old Kim has just moved to Brighton and developed an earth-shattering, hormone-surging crush on her new best friend, Sugar

Coming-of-age/ sexual awakening stories aren't always my thing anymore, as I don't care to watch teenagers exploring their sexuality but I watched this when I was 10(??), and it was very important to me. It's not a very good show and is probably considered to be super outdated now, but I found it formative. Plus, when I was growing up, there weren't any (not from what I can remember) shows or movies with a lesbian lead wanting to be in an interracial relationship with her best friend. It's an important part of queer TV history. Plus, it has Andrew Garfield playing one of the wettest male characters ever lol

Thanks again and I hope you like my recommendations! 😊

[kitchfit]

Year in Review: Movies Part 1

I don't have that great of an attention span. If its something I am invested in I can spend hours upon hours reading or playing through it until I get a headache telling me its time for bed, but if something doesn't hook me after around 30 minutes I'm probably turning it off or putting it down for a bit. It is for this reason I don't finish a lot of movies unless there is another reason to watch through it all. Usually that means watching it with other people. If there aren't friends to help me finish this movie it's probably going back in the case, which I think is true for all but one movie on this list.

Glass Onion

Knives Out is one of my favorite movies of all time. I've not read any of Agatha Christie's works which is who Benoit Blanc is largely parodying, but I do love other things inspired by her such as Columbo, and the first movie is a stellar deconstruction of that genre, while still providing an engaging mystery. I saw this movie's baby brother at the dawn of the New Year alongside my cousin, both fervently pushing out trope appropriate theories only to be completely wrong at the twist ending in plain sight.

This sequel is not anything as elegant as the first, but still seeks to deconstruct mystery tropes in a very similar fashion. The mastermind behind a series of murders or even one murder is a role often given to rich, suave, and intelligent people of high standing. It is this role that Edward Norton's character sees himself as, but while he is a rich dude of high standing, he is a more realistic rich dude than most murder mystery antagonists; that is, an arrogant dumbass who got where he is by manipulating and screwing over everyone he can. He wants to be complex while being transparently simple. Also he smells. LIKE AN ONION. WHOA. ONE MADE OUT OF GLASS. THANKS JOHN LEMON.

A Silent Voice

A good way to get me to watch a movie until the end is to make it animated, that way even if its boring as all hell I still get to look at some pretty art. That's not the case with this movie. I first watched this on a bus ride when I was sixteen with one earphone on while the girl next to me held it up on her phone. That was a good memory, but seeing the gorgeous animation on the big screen was a nice treat.

I love the dynamic between the two main characters. I wouldn't say this movie is a romance in any real sense of the term, but is about a relationship. Both of these kids spend most of their adolescence admonishing themselves for hurting the other, believing everyone hates them for what happened when they were 10. This is especially tragic for Shouko, the deaf girl who did literally nothing besides exist and try to make friends. The fact that she blames herself for her bully becoming ostracized is even played as a twist, but its a very realistic mindset anyone can fall into. The theme is forgiveness of the self after others have already forgiven you, which can be pretty tough to do, especially when you've done some genuinely shitty stuff.

I also showed this movie to my mom, an ASL instructor and translator, cause I thought it might be interesting for her, but she lost interest and fell asleep after she realized it was JSL and couldn't understand it.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

My friends were freaking out about this film, one of them going so far as to watch it like six separate times within the span of a couple weeks. This made me expect it to blow my mind, but it was just a very well written, beautifully animated movie about a cat coming to terms with its own death. I think the drought of movies with good writing from mainstream studios really elevated this one further than it would have normally. It was nice to return to this character, having grown up with the Shrek films, and doubly nice to see his character arc being used to discuss a serious topic in a healthy way.

The central conflict is the most compelling aspect of the story, the John Mulaney villain and Goldilocks subplot are funny and entertaining, but the effectiveness of Death as the main antagonist is genius. The Shrek universe has always been a conglomeration of fairytales and folktales brought to one setting, and who is most common death metaphor than the big bad wolf? Or I'm sorry. Not a metaphor. He's just Death. Straight up. You don't outrun death or win against it in any meaningful capacity, and the story could only end with Puss' acceptance that he will die. There's no Sisypussing his way out of this one. Pussyphusing? Pfft.

X-Men: First Class

My dad and I decided to watch through every X-Men movie earlier this year. We managed two of them. They're good movies, most of them at least, but marathoning all *looks at watch* eleven films just never came to fruition. This one might be in my top 3 for X-Men movies, though. Xavier and Magneto's relationship has always been the most interesting part of these films, and this movie puts it front and center. Xavier's focus on helping his friend make peace with his traumatic past is something so genuinely sweet that ultimately empowers his greatest enemy. It's this understanding they have with each other, established in this movie, that underlines every interaction they have in the future.

The rest of this movie is pretty standard origin story stuff for the ensemble cast. How the Beast Became Blue. How Mystique Stopped Pretending and Became Her True Blue Self. How the Guy Who's Power is To Never Die, Died. It's fun for what it is but overall pretty generic.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

This is also one of the better X-Men films, not sure if I'd put it in the top 3, but there's enough time travel nonsense in this movie to make me giddy. I love paradoxical bullshit. This movie works as both a direct sequel to First Class, while also working in the continuity of the first 7 or so films. It's the Apocalypse, baby! Okay, not that Apocalypse, I still haven't seen that one, but we are introduced to one of the more famous fascist genocidal hellscapes to come out of Marvel comics. The story starts at the very end of this murderous crusade, only a handful of mutants are still alive, grouped together as a unit in some abandoned... temple bunker? I'm sure this is explained somewhere in the movie, but it makes a cool setting to fight for your life in.

Most of the plot, however, takes place in the 70s. It was a big twist in the comics that the girl who can walk through space without hindrance can also walk through time the same way, but in this movie Kitty Pryde can only send other people into their past selves, meaning it's once again Wolverine's turn to take the spotlight, because Hugh Jackman is more expensive than Elliot Page. It makes less sense, but this movie still has a lot of fun jumping between the past and future versions of established characters. Angry, passionate Magneto in his 30s vs the wizened Sir Ian McKellen Magneto. At some point the X Man himself gets to talk directly to his depressed, 70s incarnation. Not to mention Quicksilver is there, which is always nice.

This was the "Rogue Cut," which adds cut content about Rogue infiltrating a sentry factory to blow it up. The new stuff doesn't add a lot, but I did like her character from earlier films, so it was cool to see her again.

Shrek

After the joy of obsessing over Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, one of my friends insisted that we all catch up on the deep lore of the franchise, and go through every Shrek movie in order. Unlike with X-Men, we succeeded in one marathon through them all. The dude who suggested this also made the assertion that PiB: Wish was the first Shrek film to feature blood and cursing. This is patently false and I took immense pleasure in proving him wrong. *whispers* Shrek says ass within the first twenty minutes, don't tell mom!

The first movie got memed on quite a bit, but I think most people have come around to enjoying it in a genuine sense. It's a cute love story with a good message and funny fard jokes. I don't think the gross-out humor really oversteps in bounds, and it would feel pretty bizarre in hindsight if a movie like Shrek ever toned that stuff down. There were a lot of movies with "fairytales come to life and their rude and goofy," as their premise, (think Hoodwinked, another fun movie) but I think the style of the Shrek world comes off in the most endearing way. Or maybe that's just nostalgia talking.

Shrek 2

I have the soundtrack of this movie embedded into my skull. I had the CD growing up and would make my mom play it in the car on the way to primary school ad nauseum. I also had the entire movie with incredibly compressed graphics on my GBA. This classic film is synonymous with my early childhood, and it holds up really well. It's shorter than I remembered, but I think that's just because it's so expertly paced.

It also introduces our favorite fearless hero, who blends effortlessly into the main cast. All of the character's play off of each other really well, actually. The gags of a royal knight planting catnip on Puss or Gingy yelling "IT'S A THONG" to get Pinocchio to lie still get me. Not to mention the perfect fight scene scored by "I Need a Hero." Every studio with rights to that song have been chasing that high ever since.

Shrek the Third

Some people hate this movie with genuine vile and malice in their hearts. Maybe that's harsh. It definitely doesn't match the highs of either of the first two, but I still enjoyed it a lot as a kid and had a good time with it now. My friend noted that the first half of this film has a lot of funny gags that peter out in the second half, where the focus is on Shrek's complicated feelings on fatherhood. There are moments in the movie where I can tell it can't decide whether to write a scene with appropriate drama or make a stupid joke, which is odd as the first one balanced those aspects pretty elegantly.

This movie does have a sequence where the classic fairytale princesses learn martial arts from Julie Andrews and kick the bark covered asses of the trees from Wizard of Oz, all to the beat of Barracuda. Disney could never. I also like that Prince Charming takes a more central role as antagonist in the story this time around, which feels very appropriate for the setting. Justin Timberlake is here too I guess. Damn, I forgot about him. Sorry Justin.

Shrek the Final Chapter

This movie came out when I believed myself toooo olllllllld and MATURE for silly animated movies with farting in them. I had grown, and was ready for stuff like *looks at movies that came out 2010* MEGAMIND, an even sillier animated movie with still probably several fart jokes. I had a bunch of reasons for disliking this one when it came out, but I don't really recall any of them. This movie is pretty wild upon revisiting. Shrek pulls a It's a Wonderful Life with Rumpelstiltskin and is pulled into an alternate universe fanfiction where he never existed, joins an Ogre resistance and tries to get his wife to fall in love with him again. It's such a goofy premise with some fairly well constructed dramatic moments. It's also very good 3D animation for its time, which might be consistent with the rest of the series.

There's a scene where Rumpelstiltskin jumps off a ledge and makes a weird noise that I cannot for the life of me find on youtube, but it sticks in my brain for some reason. He's a pretty fun villain, overall, all of his scenes made me laugh. I think we watched the other Puss in Boots movie after this, but I fell asleep. Sorry Justin.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

This franchise got reimagined with a new cast a few years ago, and for some reason became a controversial focus of American politics for several weeks. I mean not for some reason, it was really just sexism. Women? Fighting ghosts??? Only men fight ghosts in real life, everyone knows that. This movie, on the other hand, is a direct sequel to the original film and also didn't come out during an election year, so even though Girls do be Fighting Ghosts in this one, there was less outrage around it. It's a fun homage to the original, but doesn't acknowledge the original Ghostbusters 2 in the least, and that movie genuinely freaked me out as a kid with its pink slime that kills you.

The film focuses on the very autistic granddaughter of the late and famously autistic member of the original cast, Egon. She's a delightful protagonist throughout the story, working with the ghost of her grandfather to uncover the truth behind the natural disasters plaguing her Podunk town. There are also some fun new ghost designs our child heroes have to overcome. The supporting cast is serviceable, mostly focused around Finn Wolfhard and Paul Rudd's eternal struggle to get dates before the world is eaten by Gozer, or whoever. There's a lot of nostalgia bait in this movie. The OG Ghostbusters even make a Deus Ex Machina style cameo, saving Baby Egon at the last moment aside a CGI Harold Ramis that did get me to tear up a little. This whole movie was dedicated to him, which is sweet.

Kingdom Hearts: Back Cover

Remember when I said I was done talking about Kingdom Hearts for this year? No? You haven't been reading these? That's okay, I was lying anyway. As part of my full bodily integration into this series, I watched the entirety of the KH Union X Cutscenes interspersed with clips from the Back Cover movie in order of the proper timeline of events. This is probably the sanest way to experience this story. The original has you play a mobile game where you are updated on the plot every ten or so boring ass missions and then watch the movie as a companion piece. It's a pretty engaging narrative by KH standards, but its told in the most batshit way possible, which I guess is also up to KH standards. You can watch it here, if the embeds work:

The first part of this story focuses on a member of the Keyblade Guilds, who is slowly encroaching upon the reality that the organization they're apart of is tearing itself apart. All of the Guild Masters are in conflict over a potential traitor, and this suspicion eventually spirals into an entire war. The Master of these Masters, or MoM, is largely implied to have orchestrated the entire event. The second half focuses on the fallout from that war as the surviving Guild members try to escape the end of the world.

I got pretty attached to several of the characters and their ultimate fate, but I think this could have worked better as a TV show rather than a REALLY BORING MOBILE GAME. I guess you can watch it as a TV show, if you watch the video above in 30 minute chunks, and if you're okay with beautiful 3D animated cutscenes transitioning into kind of stale sprite art at random.

Alright ending this here. I didn't finish this on Friday as I had some other Things going on, so we're in for a double feature! Hopefully, I'll continue on the games list which will be out this evening. I'm writing these ahead of time so who knows???

[jfleamont]

Will you be watching the new HP show?

I haven't really thought about it to be honest? I get my 'fix' from fics, and they're enough for me.

A few years ago, before that POS turned out to be a terf, I had decided to re-read the books for fun and I noticed a few things that really irked me: the way she described Dudley was so fatphobic and unnecessarily mean, and the same thing goes for her descriptions of other characters' physical appearance (a lot of the time if someone's ugly or has unconventional features they're also evil). This is, at best, lazy writing. Tone-deaf for someone who advocates for acceptance and writes a bunch of novels where being different is a good thing and so on. And then goes on and engages in the same stereotypes she was trying to criticise. I could go on but I'll stop here... Point is, that re-reading really soured me on the whole thing and then her transphobic tweets came out and I couldn't handle it anymore and took a step back from HP. Then I stumbled upon a Jily fic in late 2021 and found my way back, sort of.

But this is a project where she's involved, and the more I think about it the angrier I get. There's also the fact that the movies aren't even that old and that it's too early for a remake, and that I have a thing against this Hollywood trend of remakes, reboots, sequels and prequels because god forbid original content existl! Honestly my problem isn't even that the series will never be as good as the films: don't get me wrong, I love them, but they didn't get A LOT of things right and if it wasn't for the reasons stated above I'd be actually excited about it.

To be fair, I just find the Marauders era more interesting at this point in my life and yes, I know I said I was against prequels and I still stand by that, because I don't want a Marauders series either, but I if I had to choose this is what I'd go for. If that were the case, though, I'm sure she'd be involved and aside from being a generally shitty person, I think she has exhausted her talent and can't write anything decent anymore.

Furthermore, I think it's important to reiterate, especially in times like these where trans rights are being threatened all over the world, that a person like her, with the power that she holds, does not deserve a platform.

In conclusion: I'm curious about the show, I'm not going to lie, and I might check it out - illegally, of course, because they don't deserve nor need my money - but I don't really care about it.

I'll stick to fics and fanart ❤️

[signalwatch]

Frankenstein (1931)

Watched:  10/24/2023

Format:  Peacock

Viewing:  Unknown

Director:  James Whale

Every year during the spooky season I try to give Frankenstein (1931) a watch.  The past several years, I've double-billed Frankenstein with Bride of Frankenstein, usually the night before - or night of - Halloween.  

But this year I wanted to give the movie a bit more time to percolate and watch it as its own thing.  

It's a movie I've seen *a lot* and so I can spot the places where the dolly shot bounces on the tracks, and I can see the literal creasing in the backdrops used in the forest scenes.  I laugh with anticipation at the jokes and know which bits work best as scares.

I make a lot of notes about how Dracula movies don't match the novel, because there's usually some adherence to the book and seeing where and why they diverged is a curiosity.  But by the time you get from the publication of Mary Shelley's novel in 1818 to the play and the movie, this story was well over 100 years old, and folks were going to do their own thing.*  There's barely any of the novel left in this film.  Themes.  Some names.  Some settings.  A wedding.

So I tend to separate them and consider them their own thing, and it's usually in subsequent adaptations that I look for whether they're borrowing from this film or from the novel or doing something entirely new.  

Even if the film is nearing the century mark, it still plays.  The creatures' pathos is as real as the novel, if reduced to a child-like state of confusion rather than a sort of existential crisis of existence.  The performances are of their time but would absolutely put fire in a modern adaptation.  You simply won't beat Colin Clive going mad in the moments of success after the monster is lowered from the tower.  

The look is borrowed from German Expressionism, and between the Gothic horror of Dracula's settings and this film, we get a language for how the best sets and scenes should look in horror that will be endlessly copied, parodied, stolen from and refracted for the next 90 years.  That's not to say this was the final word, but the starting line and the thing to which everything else can draw comparison.

Further, the themes of "who is the real monster?" would echo throughout horror and science fiction, and are often the best part to chew on in a film (and something zombie movies picked up and ran with).  But I think this movie does the best job of bringing a Dr. Frankenstein to life who really thinks he shut the door behind himself and his experiments, only to have it come roaring back.

I'm now curious to read the play upon which the movie is based.  Curiously, next year sees the publication of the script for what I believe to be the first time.  

Some time I will write a much longer bit on this movie, it's sequel and the novel and why I keep coming back to them, but not today, kids!

But for the best Halloween spookiness for the whole family, I humbly submit this classic.

*worth noting, this film will be 100 in just 8 years

[magpie-to-the-morning]

Ouuu for the Pedro ask game, 11, 14, 18! 💜💜

Hello lovely! Thanks for asking 🥰

11. Which sequel movie is the best? Kingsman Golden Circle, The Equalizer 2, or WW84? Bonus: what other sequel would you like to see Pedro have a part in?

I think Kingsman holds up better as a film, or at least, it’s the one I found the most genuinely entertaining and am most likely to watch a second time. And oo that’s such a good question 👀 Hm… I’m still dying to see him in a romcom so maybe a spiritual sequel/remake of something like French Kiss lol.

14. If you could only ever read or write fics for one Pedro character who would it be?

This so hardddddddd. Hmmm. Probably Din. There’s endless kinds of stories to tell in the Star Wars universe, which would help. I would absolutely cheat and do modern AUs too, though :p

18. Travel through the Green with Ezra or through the jungle with Frankie?

In the one hand, I want to know if I’d be stuck w the events or general circumstances of the movies? But then again, both situations are dangerous and uncomfortable so…. Frankie. Despite my concerns about Canon!Frankie, the heart wants what it wants and I want that sweet, damp, put-upon pilot man.

[theharpermovieblog]

#HARPERSMOVIECOLLECTION

2023

I re-watched Desperado (1995)

After watching a shitty action movie that bored me to tears I decided to watch an action movie that entertained me a lot as a kid, to see if it still entertained me.

The Mariachi, carrying a guitar case full of weapons, goes after a brutal drug lord named Bucho.

I don't love Robert Rodriguez as a director. I think he has a 50/50 record. El Mariachi, his first film, is definitely an amazing use of a meager budget. Both From Dusk Till Dawn and Planet Terror are fun and ridiculous horror films. But, movies like Machete and Once Upon A Time In Mexico are dissapointing to say the least. Rodriguez's strength has never been story. He does his best work by making things fun and exciting and throwing in cool over the top ideas to make up for lackluster writing. Sometimes that mixture doesn't turn out well.

Desperado is probably his best moment. The sequel to El Mariachi, which was good but not enough, and the prequel to Once Upon A Time In Mexico, which was bad and way too much.

The best and most solid writing comes in the beginning. Steve Buscemi walks into a Mexican bar and regaling and scaring the patrons with a tall tale about the Mariachi. It's a damn good scene and an interesting way to enter the world of this film. From there it's just cool ideas and action sequences. Not exactly a bad thing, but not exactly a plot driven film. At one point Rodriguez tries to throw in the idea that the Bad Guy is The Mariachi's brother, but it's an afterthought and pretty pointless. He also throws out the idea that there is more than one Mariachi and a few of them actually show up, to be quickly killed off and that's a pretty pointless bit too.

Desperado is a western. A Mexican western and action film to be precise. A loner hero strolls into town to take out the big bad who has a stranglehold on the people. There isn't much more to it than that and we don't need more. There are nice touches that replace plot throughout. Little flashes of stuff going on that do manage to do some world building and some minor character development.

Antonio Banderas as the Mariachi is just plain cool. He plays it cool and fills the character with little hints of suffering and personality. The supporting cast is also a joy. Cheech Marin, Steve Buscemi, Question Tarantino, Salma Hayek and a little bit of Danny Trejo looking menacing. All of them making this a better experience.

The action is ridiculous, violent and fun. There's a lot of the 1990's in this film, as well as a lot seriously over the top stuff that turns this into a comic book of a movie. There is no care if something looks impossible or dumb, if it seemed cool to Robert Rodriquez at the time, it made it into the film.

The overall sense of fun makes up for the many missteps. It's an undeniably good time. Although, the lack of a well thought out story does cause some lag. There isn't enough here to give the movie very high stakes, which I suppose is why Rodriguez tacked on the "Brother" story out of nowhere. And, toward the end everything starts falling apart. The movie even leaves you with a few questions. Like, after Mariachi kills his brother, how did he escape the compound? The movie doesn't tell you, it just fades to white and then we are somewhere else entirely. Like wtf is that? The movie has problems, for sure and for something so simple it gets pretty messy.

Movies don't need to be perfect. Directors don't need to be perfect. Writing doesn't need to be perfect. The basic point of movies is to entertain and Desperado is entertaining, even though it could have been much better if more thought out.

[bg-sparrow]

7,8,15,18 for fanfiction writer ask!

The wonderful @mangotortoise always indulges me on these FanFiction Writer Asks 🥰 Thank you for being an enabler (and curious about my process lol)!

7. When is your preferred time to write?

I don't really have one! Because I'm so scatterbrained, I write the moment an idea strikes if I can, even if it's just texting myself a few lines of dialogue I don't want to forget. Being a working mom doesn't leave much time aside from evenings/ late nights/ weekends, but when I get those Saturdays that I can wake up, park myself at my computer, and just go all day between switching laundry and loading the dishwasher, I love those days. I'm also really excited to write after I write loose scenes/ notes in my notebook because I end up expanding on them so much in the Word document effortlessly!

8. Where do you take your inspiration from?

Obviously, as fanfic writers, we're inspired by the source material, but my motivations beyond that vary by story. I'll stick to my BttF ones here.

For the Time Circuits Series, it wasn't born out of "I want to make a quality MartyOC across the trilogy" (even though that was ultimately my goal). I watched these films growing up with my dad a lot, and the idea of giving Doc a daughter and exploring that father-daughter relationship was my initial motivation before I even realized I wanted to rewrite the series years later.

Once Upon a Time in the West was at first a "stuck in 1885" AU for Cowboyvember, but after years of working on the T-rated trilogy rewrite, I wanted to try my hand at branching out into topics I'd never written about (depression, sexuality, etc). I was motivated to get a little grittier, and as someone who you could easily call modest, I wanted to see what I was capable of beyond the T rating. And I feel like I finally have enough life experience to give an accurate voice to these topics.

15. If you write OCs, how do you decide on their names?

Well, that depends! I enjoy the repetition and echoing in the BttF trilogy a lot, so it made sense that Doc's daughter is Emma (since he's Emmett). She just never had another name to me. Her middle name is "Jean", and at the time I decided that, I think I'd just reread Harry Potter, and "Jean" is Hermione's middle name. It's also an 80s nod to "Billie Jean".

Emma's mother is Dolores - because "DeLorean". And I think that plays a bit of a personal role in Doc choosing the DeLorean aside from all the science hoo-ha.

Clarence Livingston in There Are No Roads was the son of the cabinet maker in 1885. The cabinet maker's sign says "T. Livingston", and as Clarence was sort of the love interest in that story for Emma, his name became the male version of "Clara." So we have "Emmett and Clara" and "Emma and Clarence", and it makes me happy lol.

Other OCs I've created, it's a matter of making sure they're period-appropriate and a lot of "screen testing" -- saying the name out loud in dialogue, seeing how it fits against the canon names, etc. It's just like naming a child, honestly! It has to sound right and feel right. How do the canon characters feel meeting someone with this name? What nicknames/ pet names come out of it? Does the OC LIKE their name?

18. Do you have any abandoned WIPs? What made you abandon them?

Boy, I'm glad I'm being asked this now as opposed to two years ago! For the last ten years, I always wanted to come back and finish my stories, and I'm happy to say that I've completed two since I returned to writing in 2021: Principles of Compromise I left hanging for eight years, and Where You're Going (Time Circuits #1) I left hanging for three years.

I still have one I know I want to finish for the National Treasure fandom. I wrote a successful RileyOC story there in high school titled Another Clue, and I burned out halfway through writing the sequel to it titled One More Clue (but I still have all the notes to continue and finish it)! Perhaps now, with the new National Treasure TV show coming out on Disney+, it's a good time to hunker down and finish One More Clue (even though I'm totally going to have to spruce up Another Clue first because I've grown too much as a writer to leave it as-is before posting it to AO3).

I loathe getting so invested in an unfinished story, so I've tried to make it my mission to have the story finished/ an ending decided when I commit to posting a story. I don't want to make people disappointed like that. It's frustrating. So I'm trying to make good on it by finishing all my WIPs now!

Thanks again for the ask! I'm always open to more!! Have a great day!

[adamwatchesmovies]

Warlock (1991)

Warlock isn’t really a good movie. I say this because the writing is wobbly in the first act and there are a couple of clumsy plot points during the middle that someone should’ve ironed out before shooting began. That said, it’s so much fun you don’t even have to call it a guilty pleasure. The picture’s nasty sense of humor, some subtle touches here and there, and a half-dozen great scenes make it the kind of movie that’s a joy despite its flaws.

In 1691, witch-hunter Giles Redferne (Richard E. Grant) has captured a warlock (Julian Sands). The spellcaster is sentenced to death but is saved by Satan, who propels him into the 20th century. In Los Angeles, California, The Warlock prepares to fulfill his devilish mission: reassemble The Grand Grimoire and unmake Creation. Only the time-displaced Redferne (how he time-travels isn't that important) and an ordinary waitress named Kassandra (Lori Singer) can stop him.

I started this review by telling you Warlock isn’t really a good movie and you’ll be able to tell why as soon as The Warlock arrives in Kassandra’s home. She and her roommate, Chas (Kevin O'Brien), are just doing their thing when suddenly, this strange man bursts through their window. The fact that The Warlock is still there in the morning raises an eyebrow. Even if it’s because the police are too busy with the big storm raging outside to come pick him up, it just doesn’t feel right. Don’t worry, it gets a lot better from there. It isn’t long before The Warlock murders Chas and curses Kassandra. Now, she ages 20 years every night. In a couple of days, she’ll crumble to dust, which means the stakes are layered. Redferne needs to stop the evil sorcerer. Like a good Sarah Connor-wannabe, Kassandra is willing to tag along with the time-displaced hero so she can save the world and undo the spell threatening her. There’s a particular scene that showcases this film at its best. The Warlock has been knocked out. It's Kassandra's chance to grab the bracelet he uses to maintain the curse on her. Unfortunately, the villain is in a train wagon that’s slowly picking up speed and the bracelet is just out of reach. Kassandra desperately needs to not only keep up, but move a little bit faster so she can grab it, but she’s not young anymore. She can’t run! You'll be white-knuckled watching her grow increasingly desperate.

Some of the other scenes you can look forward to showcase just how evil the Warlock is. At one point, he encounters a boy playing outside on a Sunday morning. He’s surprised. “Shouldn’t you be in church?” The boy tells him he never goes and that he isn’t baptized either. When you see the gleam of delight in Julian Sands’ eyes, you’re filled with giddy excitement. What follows may be sick but come on. That brat deserved it. In a world where Satan is very real and he grants his followers magical abilities, not bringing your kid to church is bad parenting and the family deserves everything that’s coming to them! There are nice bits of humor here and there, including one in a taxi. The conclusion is what clenches it. That finale so effortlessly amps up the stakes it makes you wonder how the clumsy scenes ever managed to get in there.

While the special effects are dodgy, they’re acceptable for a low-budget film made in 1991. The makeup used to make Lori Singer old less so but even if they were great, they wouldn’t have been the reason to see Warlock. I’m not saying this is a great film. In fact, it’s pretty easy to make an argument for it being lousy but the entertainment factor is high. I suspect the two sequels will essentially be remakes and are unlikely to improve upon it but who knows? The second (or third) time might be the charm! (June 17, 2022)

[declanowo]

Random Weekly (Horror) Film - Week Six - American Psycho II: All American Girl

17/12/23

American Psycho 2: All American Girl

Sequels are nothing new to horror - they have always existed, ever since we began telling stories. Yet, there is a distinct difference between a sequel told, because it adds to the narrative of the original story, and one that exists to make money. A good sequel will expand upon something within the previous story, uncovering new aspects and forking into new areas, the purpose is to expand, while working off of what has already been set up. Of course, a bad sequel can still be a good story, they are not mutually exclusive concepts; American Psycho 2: All American Girl is neither of these. 

It feels peculiar to write this on a Sunday, usually it is the first thing I do - I watch the film on Monday, write the review on Tuesday. It’s a simple cycle, yet, this week I instead worked on my bonus review first, mostly because I was far more excited to watch it. While I planned on working on this one soon after, this week I have been incredibly busy house (and pet) sitting! Most nights I have had people with me too, therefore, I haven’t had too much time to watch films. However, I ensured I first watched the original American Psycho first, which I had seen most of anyway! Yet, I felt it imperative to watch the two so closely together so I could compare the two properly, understanding why one worked, and the other likely didn’t. After watching them both, I realised there was hardly a purpose to this - the two films feel so distant from one another, almost unrecognisably so. While the first film deals heavily with the theme of toxic masculinity, shown through its protagonist Patrick Bateman, this film doesn’t offer anything in a similar vein, instead following Racheal Newman, who murders her competition in college in order to become a teaching assistant, a role which she hopes will act as a pipeline to the FBI. Sure, the film will reference Bateman, but the connection feels so weak, they may as well be different films, which makes sense considering the film was originally entitled “The Girl who Wouldn’t Die”, but the studio mandated they edit the script to make it a sequel to American Psycho instead. Given that the writer of the original novel, Bret Easton Ellis, has denounced the film, ensuring people it is not canon, it doesn’t provide a very positive light for this film. 

Even separating the sequel from its predecessor, which here is pretty important, the film doesn’t hold up - scenes are overwritten long, the score buries any tension and the editing doesn’t match the film’s tone. I will detail all the reasons why, but I will say I didn’t absolutely hate this film, I found the first half or so fun to watch, yet the plot grows tiresome after the main goal of the film, to become the teaching assistant, is ripped away. While not entirely directionless, the second half is instead simply boring, it lacks much structure and there is nothing left to be invested in. I neither liked, nor hated this film, I truly thought after that first half I would enjoy all of it, but I guess not! 

Starting with our protagonist, Racheal, who is the core of this movie. Much like its predecessor, the film focuses on a central character, sure there’s a few intervening characters who appear several times, yet the film is stuck on this single character, it’s part of what makes the first movie so good, we are forced to follow this single, unreliable narrator, what happens, and what doesn’t happen, is completely unknown, it adds to its themes and just how fun it is. Here, Racheal is instead a pretty boring character, she lacks much development besides her single goal, her dialogue just feels wonky and I couldn’t find myself invested in her character. She never leaves an impression, I don’t care if she gets the place or not, and it’s seldom enjoyable to watch the kills within this pseudo-slasher. There is nothing redeemable about her character. Mila Kunis, who plays her, stated that she signed on for a completely different movie, and was horrified when she saw the final outcome. While her performance here feels pretty flat, she has done so much more, and so much better, than this, I will assume the same is true for all the cast and crew, the studio is likely at the root of a lot of problems with this film. 

Beyond the bland main character, there is also an issue with the voiceovers. The film opens on one, similarly to the one early in American Psycho, yet, it’s once again very flat, there is no life or flair injected into this character, she feels totally lifeless in a way that is dull, unlike the way Bateman feels out of touch and distant from reality. Not to mention they kill the previous films protagonist off screen, in a boring monologue that offers us nothing. Film is a visual medium, therefore, there is almost no reason for us to be told what is happening on screen during a monologue - we can see it! Rarely are they insightful, or offer us anything other than a small giggle at the film (never with). 

The score is also pretty abysmal; this is not an attack or disregard for the piece of music itself, but more so how it doesn’t, in any way, match the film’s tone, instead flattening any tension that could ever rise. One such scene that comes to mind is the best kill of the film, where Racheal kills her classmate with a condom, it works perfectly for the scene itself, and is in general just fun! Yet, the second she starts strangling him with it, the score kicks in, it’s upbeat and almost western in tone - in no way befitting of this big kill sequence. Constantly, this is the case, and it’s so difficult to enjoy a scene when the score will boringly chime over it, smearing itself across what could otherwise be fun. So often I discuss how great scores are, and as mentioned, for another film this could be good, but here it just doesn’t work for me! The first one uses silence especially well, and while listening to this upbeat score, I couldn’t help but think of that, sound is so vital to building tension and a dramatic scene, and it was the only time I even started thinking of the original (other than when they mentioned Patrick Bateman among real serial killers, which I also have some thoughts on, but I’ll save those for now).

While watching the film, I decided to make a few notes of things to talk about, while most of them were general, one was the “running sequence” which I found to come out of nowhere and be particularly funny. Edited in such a weird way, I wish the whole film was more like this - it isn’t good, but I was laughing and happy, it was fun and that’s all I was looking for! Similarly to how over the top Racheal’s costuming is, as she brandishes the film’s subtitle on her shirt, it’s peculiar, yet so much more fun than anything in the second half of this film. 

I honestly have nothing else to say about this film, as mentioned, I found the first half pretty enjoyable, but that second half dampens it so much that I find no reason to ever bother rewatching this film. While I had plans to discuss a few other elements of the film, such as more deeply looking at the plot, I would have nothing to add beyond using the same words - flat and dull. A film can be poorly made, poorly written, poorly shot… but still be fun, I would class any film I had a good time with as a good movie, but here yielded no such case.

3/10

[evco-productions]

The Best Sequel of All Time Is Actually...

We all know the usual contestants for the title of Best Sequel of All Time. The Empire Strikes Back, The Godfather Part II, Terminator 2, The Dark Knight, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, The Bride of Frankenstein, Toy Story 2, Aliens, Spider-Man 2, Dawn of the Dead, Wrath of Khan, and so on, and so on, and so on.

But the truth is, it’s none of those movies. The best sequel of all time is actually…

…insert drum roll…

…Wayne’s World 2.

Okay, in all seriousness, I don’t believe in the word “best” because it is impossible to objectively determine anything when it comes to deciding the quality of movies and the word “best” implies objectivity. I much prefer to use the word “favorite.” Wayne’s World 2 is possibly my favorite sequel of all time. I think it’s just as good as the original. Probably not better, but definitely even with it, which I like because then we don’t have to debate whether the first or second movie is better like we do with Star Wars and Terminator.

Here's a few things Wayne’s World 2 does that I really like to see in a sequel, especially a sequel to a goofy comedy.

For one, the romance from the first movie isn’t ignored or tossed away. Have you ever noticed how many sequels actually do this? The first movie will dedicate the majority of its runtime to a romance that is then rendered pointless by the sequel (or sequels). Often it is because the actor who played opposite the main character is not asked back for the sequel or their schedule doesn’t allow them time to film anything but a short breakup sequence to be shoved into the sequel’s opening exposition, or maybe the writers just don’t have the imagination to develop that love interest character any further and so they write them out.

Movies of all genres and varying quality can be faulted for this: the James Bond series, the original Indiana Jones trilogy, Paul Blart: Mall Cop 2. Why should we care about the love story in one movie if the next movie is just going to be a different love story?

Wayne’s World 2 doesn’t do that even though it’s exactly the kind of movie that could have easily gotten away with it. There’s a longtime trend in comedy that forces exceptionally attractive female characters into relationships with slacker men who are mostly if not entirely unappealing, and while someone like Tia Carrere is definitely out of Mike Myers’s league, the whole situation would be made much worse if, in the sequel, Wayne and Cassandra had split up only for Wayne to stumble into a new relationship with another equally attractive woman, which of course he would have.

Another great strength of Wayne’s World 2 is its handling of supporting characters and cameos, which the first movie definitely had but the sequel builds upon. A lot of my favorite moments in this movie are not coming from Wayne or Garth but from the other characters. The British roadie Del Preston is a hilarious character with a great monologue I quote constantly. Chris Farley, Kevin Pollak, James Hong, Kim Basinger, they’re all good in this movie. They don’t phone in their performances even though, again, this is exactly the kind of movie where they could get away with doing that.

But the most interesting appearance here is Christopher Walken. Walken is an acting legend—watch his scene with Dennis Hopper in True Romance if you’re not convinced of that—and he treats his role as Bobby the sleazy record producer as seriously as I’ve seen him treat any other role. Not only that, but as strong as his presence in this movie is, he seems to have known just where to stop so that Mike Myers and Dana Carvey are still allowed to be the stars. He doesn’t overshadow them in their scenes together. I don’t know if that’s all on Walken, or on the director, or if Myers and Carvey are more talented actors than I understand and were able to match Walken’s presence with their own… Whatever the reason, it works beautifully, and I think Bobby makes for a better antagonist than Rob Lowe’s Benjamin from the first movie.

But I think that Wayne’s World 2’s greatest strength is its flow. Back when it was a regular skit on Saturday Night Live, Wayne’s World only needed to entertain you for several minutes at a time. The skits in most individual SNL episodes never relate to each other, so there was no need to worry about continuity or flow because there was only going to be one Wayne’s World “scene” per episode. That concern only arrived when it was decided to make Wayne’s World into a movie, and then another movie after that. Suddenly, the writers had to worry about making this into something more than a bunch of individual gags shoved together until they had enough to equal the length of a feature film. They needed to ensure that they had a story and characters which would accommodate those individual gags while also maintaining a solid flow throughout the movie. I think both Wayne’s World movies pull this off, but for some reason Wayne’s World 2 stands out especially well to my eyes. It reminds me of Monty Python at their best (The Holy Grail and Life of Brian). Each new scene is able to present a unique joke or banter without ever feeling forced. The plot is always moving forward in Wayne’s World 2, even if you don’t realize it. Also, very few of the jokes are recycled, but when they are (sometimes from an earlier scene and sometimes from the earlier movie), there’s always a slightly different spin on it, which means that the comedy isn’t weakened by the repetition but actually strengthened by it.

So there you have it, three major reasons why I think we ought to rank Wayne’s World 2 much higher in the realm of movie sequels. It’s a ton of fun, it’s very quotable and very rewatchable, and obviously, I rate it a “W” and if you haven’t seen it, I highly recommend it.