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Week 10, 2017


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Why AI Will Probably Kill Us All

The threat does seem pretty real...

TNT Credits

Has anybody posted this before? It's pretty much the same as the interactive DOOM 2 enemy credits, just with a different background texture. Just in case no, have a go...

Zombieman

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O'Learys Bowling

I went bowling again! Still got some of these,

The Strikes

and a few of these!

The Spares

Also one of these odd ones,

The Circle

and unfortunately a bit more of these.

The Dashes

We tried a new place this time:

OLearys Norrtull

4 and 1/2 games. 544 points. 121 average. 133 tops. Not as high as last time, but a good time regardless. :) Won half the rounds. If you want to see the holy sheet you'll find it here.

Spectral (2016)

Spectral (2016)

IMDB sums this one very simply, as a sci-fi/thriller story centered on a special-ops team that is dispatched to fight supernatural beings.

It stars the relatively unknown James Badge Dale as Darpa researcher Clyde, who seems to be able to build something out of anything, no matter what tools he has at hand. In an unnaturally short amount of time he doesn't just build one, but a whole set of state-of-the-art plasma rifles out of scrap in what seems like a moment's notice, that he and his team then embark with to beat an unbeatable foe. They're untested weapons, as the commander in chief points out, but of course they all work fine.

I did raise an eyebrow during that final phase, but I'm getting ahead of myself. It starts eerie. It plays with both sci-fi and supernatural, with an intrigue that builds up fast, paranormal entities that don't seem to have a weakness, or explanation, and a military group in a war-torn Moldavia who are soon holed up against an army of ghosts of war. Ethereal beings with a vengeful will, but human in form. Who are they? What are they? And more importantly: how do you kill them?

It is a scary story, and it gets scarier when logic is applied to it. It looks good. The effects are great. The ghosts feel perceptible, and some moments do feel truly hopeless. But not all. Sometimes the main characters seem too sheltered, and the tension levels drop slightly. Like we need a pause in the tension. I'll tell you: we don't! Just keep it going. Had they managed to keep it consistent I would've have beads of sweat on my brow when it was all over, but unfortunately the atmosphere shifts, and the element of fear isn't always present. I think that could've turned this from an impressively immersive war movie, to a nerve-wracking one. But it was good.

I don't recognize most of the guys on the army team, but Max Martini at least is a familiar and appreciated face, that always-Army guy. He fits the role more than the rest of them, but everyone puts on a good performance, and the ending CGI was something else. It wasn't all the way through perfect, but creative: an eerie action movie, with a false enemy, and a real enemy that died at the hands of their creation. Which just makes it all the more... mystical. I do like that mood.

 rated 4/5: fo shizzle

It Follows (2014)

It Follows (2014)

Here's a different horror story for a change. Without jump scares. Without shaky cam. Without speed, but a dread that builds steadily. Packed with symbolism. Authenticity. Sexuality - even incest, but not in a gross way. It's as intimate as it is scary, and it gets under your skin slowly. It really doesn't walk the way you tell it too. It follows.

Following the life of Jay, it all starts with a gray afternoon in a pool, and a date, to a sexual encounter, getting drugged by her boyfriend, and suddenly there's someone following her. Not the same person, but always someone. It moves at a steady pace, and it goes straight for her. No matter what's in her way. No matter where she goes. No matter what she does.

No one else can see it, and though her friends are there for her from the start it takes a while before they believe her. They eventually go on a road trip to find answers, but even then the notion that someone might be creeping up on you stays with you, and maybe the scene by the beach is what really enforced that notion.

It's the simple things. Its a gnawing fear and paranoia - an unexplainable, yet unwaverable force. The more they figure out the less they really know, but they keep going.

Maika Monroe plays Jay, and she's perfect. Her friends too. They're not always screaming their lungs out, but that's a part of what makes it as convincing as it is.

The atmosphere's always hazy. There's day, and night, and dawn and dusk. There's light and dark, and warm and cold. It seems to take place at no specific time, in no particular season, and the vague setting seems to only enhance the uncertainty.

I like how even in the day it's equally scary, and maybe that's the worst part. There's no definite barrier. Walls might help. Bullets might draw blood, but they don't stop it. It doesn't come out only in the dark, or hide within a certain house, or pool of water. It's not omnipresent either, but it just never stops walking.

Add to the creative and uncertain intrigue an ambiguous ending, a great cast, symbolism you'll see if you look, re-occurring items, characters and states of being whose patterns enhance the mystery, and a sinful, sexual, and relentless evil that follows... and you've got a pretty good movie. Just writing the review brings back the shivers.

There's probably much more to analyze, and it feels like one of few movies where the more you look, the more you'll appreciate it. Maybe the fear effect won't be as great a second time around, but first impressions linger on. It follows.

 rated 5/5: friggin awesome

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