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AusGAF 5/5 - Everything's Amazing and Nobody's Happy, a rental at best

Danoss

Member
Even if you don't like Blade Runner, just visually it should be easy to see why people love it and how it is a classic in just aesthetic alone - even

For me it is a combination of things. None of which is really the story. The score is brilliant, the cinematography and panoramas in particular are amazing. I am a sucker for modern noir so that is always a draw too. It is not a fast paced film, or one that reaches out and sucks you in, that's for sure, and quite often I like slower paced films. The world they are in is amazing to me as well, such a detailed thing, crafted beautifully.

It is just an outstanding experience to sit through for me.

Aesthetically, I can absolutely see it. The world and atmosphere portrayed in the film is quite gritty and cool, I will admit. That part I can appreciate.

I love noir films, I enjoy a good slow burn and Blade Runner fits both those categories.

Unfortunately I can't forgive a film if the story isn't engaging or if the characters aren't interesting. These were the pitfalls of the film that drag everything else down with it for me. If other people are able to look past these problems and enjoy the rest of it, that's something I can completely understand.

Thanks to both of you for explaining this. At least I know I'm not missing something or misinterpreting it. Clearly it's not my cup of tea and there's nothing more to it.

I also studied Blade Runner in high school. Since then I've watched it 10 times maybe. Amazing movie. The book we had to compare it to was Frankenstein. It was decent but I don't think I even finished it. I wasn't a book person back then. I am now though, 9 books read this month.

Books are awesome. I took an unplanned, extended sabbatical from them and since returning have started to lose interest in keeping up with watching tv shows, films and such; I'm finding books thoroughly engrossing again.

At the moment, I'm working my way through H.P. Lovecraft's works and am finding it very interesting and different from what I'd normally read. The imagery in some of them is absolutely incredible, to the brink of excess on occasion, but many of the horrors in his later stories are mentioned as "indescribable" or "unspeakable", for good reason of course. If you or anyone else is a big reader, it's well worth a look. Not all his stories are good (especially early on), but at least they're short. If you have a Kindle or e-reader, some lovely lady has compiled all his stories into a download for them and a PDF for everyone else, for FREE (it's in the public domain).

What's making these stories even more enjoyable is the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast. They go through each story in order, recount and discuss it in very interesting and often humourous ways, all summed up in 30 minutes. Even if the story was bad, you're bound to enjoy the podcast about it. Highly recommended.
 

Jintor

Member
I went second hand bookstore diving the other day and got, like, 5 books for $18.

The next day I went to Kinokuniya and got 5 books for $75 :|
 

Dead Man

Member
At the moment, I'm working my way through H.P. Lovecraft's works and am finding it very interesting and different from what I'd normally read. The imagery in some of them is absolutely incredible, to the brink of excess on occasion, but many of the horrors in his later stories are mentioned as "indescribable" or "unspeakable", for good reason of course. If you or anyone else is a big reader, it's well worth a look. Not all his stories are good (especially early on), but at least they're short. If you have a Kindle or e-reader, some lovely lady has compiled all his stories into a download for them, for FREE (it's in the public domain).

What's making these stories even more enjoyable is the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast. They go through each story in order, recount and discuss it in very interesting and often humourous ways, all summed up in 30 minutes. Even if the story was bad, you're bound to enjoy the podcast about it. Highly recommended.

I bought a 3 volume collected works of his a few years ago, still working my way through it, but I love them so much. It is a bit funny with all the 'unspeakables' but he has some great stories too. I'll check out that podcast for sure.

Edit: It is so good to see works enter the public domain, it will not be happening much in the future.
 

humana humana

I don't understand how to read reddit. It always just looks like a mess to me.

It takes a while to get it. Most of it is bad jokes and circlejerks.

Mean Girls was more interesting.

You go Glen Coco!

Studying Gattaca killed any interest in that movie for me, which sucks because I remember originally enjoying it.

Studying Gattaca was my introduction to it (2 years ago) and didn't lessen my appreciation and enjoyment of it at all really.

Image quality was the least of the problems I had with the film, it wasn't even a factor. The Final Cut would need some drastic changes to make the film enjoyable and engaging for me.

There are things like voice overs and other scenes/endings that are in some cuts and not others which change the whole tone.

These were the pitfalls of the film that drag everything else down with it for me. If other people are able to look past these problems and enjoy the rest of it, that's something I can completely understand.

People aren't looking past pitfalls, there are none. (I say this as one who isn't even fanatical about it in the slightest really). You should really give it one more go one day with the proper version.
 

hamchan

Member
Books are awesome. I took an unplanned, extended sabbatical from them and since returning have started to lose interest in keeping up with watching tv shows, films and such; I'm finding books thoroughly engrossing again.

At the moment, I'm working my way through H.P. Lovecraft's works and am finding it very interesting and different from what I'd normally read. The imagery in some of them is absolutely incredible, to the brink of excess on occasion, but many of the horrors in his later stories are mentioned as "indescribable" or "unspeakable", for good reason of course. If you or anyone else is a big reader, it's well worth a look. Not all his stories are good (especially early on), but at least they're short. If you have a Kindle or e-reader, some lovely lady has compiled all his stories into a download for them and a PDF for everyone else, for FREE (it's in the public domain).

What's making these stories even more enjoyable is the H.P. Lovecraft Literary Podcast. They go through each story in order, recount and discuss it in very interesting and often humourous ways, all summed up in 30 minutes. Even if the story was bad, you're bound to enjoy the podcast about it. Highly recommended.

Oooooh, thanks for this. I was planning to go through H.P. Lovecraft eventually so his organized works are extremely useful to me. Adding it to my Kindle right now.
 

Danoss

Member
There are things like voice overs and other scenes/endings that are in some cuts and not others which change the whole tone.

People aren't looking past pitfalls, there are none. (I say this as one who isn't even fanatical about it in the slightest really). You should really give it one more go one day with the proper version.

One day I may give The Final Cut a go, but I have many books, movies and tv shows unexplored before I plan to. Especially when given the impression the story and characters aren't great to begin with (from outside sources I've read since posting about it here). If the reasons for me not liking it are justified, I see no reason to watch it again.

I bought a 3 volume collected works of his a few years ago, still working my way through it, but I love them so much. It is a bit funny with all the 'unspeakables' but he has some great stories too. I'll check out that podcast for sure.

Edit: It is so good to see works enter the public domain, it will not be happening much in the future.

Yeah, the lack of description is a stark contrast to much of his writing. In context it makes sense as the things he is referring to are not of our world and something our minds have a hard time comprehending. Sometimes you'll get a few descriptive features, however vague and the rest is up to your imagination, which is usually more horrifying.

It's quite interesting reading the stories in the order he wrote them as you get to see parts of the universe he is creating unfold and how they relate to one-another. When you get to Call of Cthulhu it's just like a massive injection of awesome into your brain. Such an amazing story (then a great 3-part podcast afterwards :D) After listening to the podcast, I have the urge to read the next story immediately so I can enjoy it and then listen to the podcast about it. It's like an awesome cycle of entertainment that keeps on giving.

I'm glad I'm reading it on the Kindle, the built in dictionary is very welcome as there are some antiquated words used. Not surprising for stories approaching a century in age.

As for public domain stuff, it is indeed a shame. Endless copyrighting is ridiculous. There is a time when things should be shared with the world at little or no cost, especially books.

Oooooh, thanks for this. I was planning to go through H.P. Lovecraft eventually so his organized works are extremely useful to me. Adding it to my Kindle right now.

Glad I could help. You're in for a treat. :)
 

wb

so ok what the crap
like 3 pages in 1 day. ausgaf is back on track.
therefor i think i will stop reading.
then it occured to me.
we lose (what i think is?) the only female in the thread and then a week later everyone is reduced to a pack of males drooling over, frakly what i think, are not that attractive news presenters.
coincidence i think not.
my theory is, the internet needs ladies to keep the rest of us in check so we arnt reduced to a bunch of douchebags like the rest of the internet seems to be. but alas thats a vicious cycle.
anyway its a new month so everyone welcome back my banana.
this is a banana >>> C or is this better ) ?
 
I didn't reallly mean for that to sound like it did I was just commenting on the sudden influx of lady pictures on this thread. I wasnt having a go at anyone either. I was just thinking about how sometimes the internet depresses me.

P.s. Seriously fuck editing and scrolling posts in 2nd aps
 
Coming in to say fuck Gattaca. I don't care about the curves or the fucking title is super with only letters that comprise DNA. I don't careeeeeeeeee

..I need sleep. I should destroy my Imgur script. It takes hours away from me
 
oh shit
so we were talking about super soakers the other week.
then thanks to random imgur i found this.
enjoy everyone.
YjLGp.jpg
 

Bernbaum

Member
Floating in karma.

Sadly it's not a link to my site.. now that would be pretty awesome.

My cat is acting like a diva tonight, she knows she's famous.

Appearing on Reddit must be an existential goal for every cat everywhere. Like reaching Nirvana.
 
I do agree that Blade Runner can be a difficult film to watch. It's all over the place and there seem to be some illogical leaps , but the atmosphere and universe that's presented easily makes up for it.

On the Blade Runner game from Westwood, man, what a game that was. It's been far too long since I've played it. Not even sure if I have it any more.

I watched Gattaca about six months ago after not having seen it for a decade, I enjoyed the hell out of it. Everything just clicks. I'd put it up there with Children of Men.
 

Jintor

Member
Week 4 Day 1 run out in the pouring rain. 5 min warmup, 4 min run, 2 min walk, 6 min run, 3 min walk, 4 min run, 2 min walk, 5 min cooldown. Kill me if I chicken out of it. I'm off.
 
Mega, there's also this.

Yeah, that's a better one. Everything is client based. I might try remake mine in Javascript. I just did out in php cos I know php better than Javascript. Mine seems much slower because you don't see everything updating.

Though it must be said, I got boss way more often in mine. I've gotten dicks the fiver times I've tried that one
 
Reading their code, that's pretty much how I would've done it, but I was thinking I'd use jQuery's $.ajax call and then got stumped when I realised I'd backed myself into a corner as cross-domain calls using $.ajax aren't allowed.

The only bad thing I don't like about the code is that it assumes an image of specific size is the error message, which isn't perfect but was also how I was considering checking for an error (as well as using the content-type returned from $.ajax)...

Theirs is nice and simple though.

That Humble Bundle is an interesting idea, especially since you get the Steam versions (or Windows, Mac, Linux, whatever) as well.

Edit: The Bundle games aren't linked to the Android Market. ;(
 

r1chard

Member
At the moment, I'm working my way through H.P. Lovecraft's works and am finding it very interesting and different from what I'd normally read. The imagery in some of them is absolutely incredible, to the brink of excess on occasion, but many of the horrors in his later stories are mentioned as "indescribable" or "unspeakable" ...
Lovecraft is awesome. Also, you forgot "squamous" :)

Edit: oh cool, someone did a word count. Hah, "squamous" only appears once, apparently. It sticks in the mind though ;-) Also that page has a link to the a free ebook of the complete works.

Week 4 Day 1 run out in the pouring rain. 5 min warmup, 4 min run, 2 min walk, 6 min run, 3 min walk, 4 min run, 2 min walk, 5 min cooldown. Kill me if I chicken out of it. I'm off.
Awesome, keep at it - it's an great program. I did it a while back and from being an absolute arse of a runner now I'm doing 7-8km 4-5 times a week and still building up.

The weather can be challenging sometimes though :-(
 

Jintor

Member
Yeah, that's a better one. Everything is client based. I might try remake mine in Javascript. I just did out in php cos I know php better than Javascript. Mine seems much slower because you don't see everything updating.

Though it must be said, I got boss way more often in mine. I've gotten dicks the fiver times I've tried that one

I kind of prefer it loading images in full-size.
 

jambo

Member
Didn't I get told off for saying PC gaming was expensive

I've spent way more than a normal gamer would need to. These days you can spend $1000 and have it last you 3-5 years, but I've been constantly buying new CPUs and video cards to stay ahead of the curve and power my gigantic 30" 2560x1600 LCD monitor.

ALSO I AM MEGA HYPED BECAUSE I GET TO SEE ROGER WATERS PLAY THE WALL TOMORROW NIGHT! FUCK YEAH!!
MMwbO.jpg

So fucking pumped, I'm going to the Sydney show on the 14th! FUCK YEAH!!!

Also, on Blade Runner... I didn't like it. I don't understand all the love for it.

Try the Final Cut. Also it took me a few watches of the film to truly understand and appreciate it. It has such a rich feeling and some brilliant miniatures and backdrops. One of my top sci-fi films of all time now.
 

Shaneus

Member
For me it is a combination of things. None of which is really the story. The score is brilliant, the cinematography and panoramas in particular are amazing. I am a sucker for modern noir so that is always a draw too. It is not a fast paced film, or one that reaches out and sucks you in, that's for sure, and quite often I like slower paced films. The world they are in is amazing to me as well, such a detailed thing, crafted beautifully.
Have you seen Drive? You've almost exactly described that as well. I loved both BTW, and on reflection, mostly for the same reasons, I think.

It takes a while to get it. Most of it is bad jokes and circlejerks.
AusGAF?

If we're ever attacked by zombies that are vulnerable to pressurised water, we know who to call.
Signs, dude. SIGNS.


Also, re: BR Final Cut. I saw it in 4K at the Astor in Melbourne. U jelly?
 

r1chard

Member
Also, re: BR Final Cut. I saw it in 4K at the Astor in Melbourne. U jelly?
That was so awesome. So much Astor love for them making that possible :) I have the Final Cut BR (and the first DVD release, which is interesting to play as a comparison and see how much was cleaned up) but still have unmatched memories of that amazing picture on that humungous screen :)

(especially seeing the new rain scene close footage for the first time on the big screen... oh yeah)
 
I kind of prefer it loading images in full-size.

Me too but it would just be a matter of loading the correct url.

edit: looking at the code all youd need to change is this line:
Code:
$('#images').prepend("<li><a href='http://imgur.com/" + id + "'><img src='http://i.imgur.com/" + id + "s.png' height='200' width='200' /></a></li>");
to
Code:
$('#images').prepend("<li><a href='http://i.imgur.com/" + id + "'><img src='http://i.imgur.com/" + id + "s.png' height='200' width='200' /></a></li>");

edit2: I may spend some of my lunch fucking modifying their script and throwing that on my server instead of my PHP.
 

Gazunta

Member
Today's magic word is "karma"

:)

In other news, Brendan Brewer now has his own Twitter, I haven't asked him where he stands on Karen Gillen / Ricki Lee / Missy Higgins yet though.
 

Shaneus

Member
Today's magic word is "karma"

:)

In other news, Brendan Brewer now has his own Twitter, I haven't asked him where he stands on Karen Gillen / Ricki Lee / Missy Higgins yet though.
First follower! Can I ask just how much earlier than me asking about him the other day was the account actually created?

Edit: Just noticed in the link to Ban's post it was a few months ago. Coolio.
 

Shaneus

Member
I think you're about the fifteenth now! I figure it's only fair I'm the first, given I basically kicked this whole thing off ;)

(at least, I'm totes taking credit for it :p )
 
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