[Trihexagonal]

Riki-Oh: The Story of Ricky
​

In the far distant future of the year 2001 prisons are run by private corporations and Supervised by crooks with hooks and monstrous mammys.

One of those prisons houses Ricky, who will punch a hole right through you (which is a great vantage point for the camera), knock one of your limbs off or smack you up aside the hear and take half your head off with it.

But not unless you deserve it, He's a great guy and someone to be admired, if you're not his celly....

It takes me forever to write and I can't waste any more time on this than I have already. I own it though and have watched it many times. Go Figure.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riki-Oh:_The_Story_of_Ricky

 

[DLeeWebb]

Just watched the documentary, "Squaring The Circle: The Story Of Hipgnosis" on Netflix.
It was just great learning the backstory of some of the greatest album covers of all-time.
Highly Recommended!​

 

[tdockweiler]

Cyberbunker: The Criminal Underworld - 9/10

I never knew about any of this, but it's an interesting story.
A group of people built an underground 5 story bunker and ran a web hosting company inside of it promising the best possible security.
Turns out that they were basically selling services to criminals and other people doing illegal things.
I imagine though that might have been a small percentage of their customers.
Did the company know about all this criminal activity? They claim they didn't, but I don't believe that.
Even on their website they claim they don't spy on you or stick their noses into your business.
Even the guy who ran the company was seen hanging around a known drug dealer that was on some wanted list.

I believe the owners deserved jail time for sure.
Here's my problem though, where does it all stop?
There is thousands of web hosting companies out there.
Should they be liable for unintentionally hosting some bad sites for a short period of time?
I imagine they have tools to find out what content is hosted on their servers and delete it.
Plus if someone reports a criminal website i'm sure most of them would terminate the account that was reported.
I don't know the laws on this. I should probably read up on it.

I was just thinking about something like Youtube.
They have millions of songs on there that are basically pirated.
Why don't they actively scan for copyrighted content and remove it?
I know. I think it's because they too are profiting off piracy!
Of course if any musician wanted their content removed, Youtube would delete it right away.

Does anyone remember MEGA? It was a file sharing site that got raided and shut down.
I suspect it was due to all the pirated Hollywood movies they had available on there and were not deleted quickly enough.
They also were profiting off piracy by offering premium accounts. I'm not sure how it all worked though.
I believe people who posted content got a cut for getting people to sign up.

Seriously, what is next? Going after VPN sellers because maybe a customer did something illegal? It makes no sense.
There is an app I use called Kodi. It's pretty great, but is known for having plugins for piracy (I don't use them).
I mean it's crazy to think that someone could someday make similar software illegal to download.
I don't own or use a cell phone, but with all the spyware out there, it almost makes sense to use a VPN these days to prevent advertisers from tracking you etc.

 

[dougms3]

Cyberbunker: The Criminal Underworld - 9/10

I never knew about any of this, but it's an interesting story.
A group of people built an underground 5 story bunker and ran a web hosting company inside of it promising the best possible security.
Turns out that they were basically selling services to criminals and other people doing illegal things.
I imagine though that might have been a small percentage of their customers.
Did the company know about all this criminal activity? They claim they didn't, but I don't believe that.
Even on their website they claim they don't spy on you or stick their noses into your business.
Even the guy who ran the company was seen hanging around a known drug dealer that was on some wanted list.

I believe the owners deserved jail time for sure.
Here's my problem though, where does it all stop?
There is thousands of web hosting companies out there.
Should they be liable for unintentionally hosting some bad sites for a short period of time?
I imagine they have tools to find out what content is hosted on their servers and delete it.
Plus if someone reports a criminal website i'm sure most of them would terminate the account that was reported.
I don't know the laws on this. I should probably read up on it.

I was just thinking about something like Youtube.
They have millions of songs on there that are basically pirated.
Why don't they actively scan for copyrighted content and remove it?
I know. I think it's because they too are profiting off piracy!
Of course if any musician wanted their content removed, Youtube would delete it right away.

Does anyone remember MEGA? It was a file sharing site that got raided and shut down.
I suspect it was due to all the pirated Hollywood movies they had available on there and were not deleted quickly enough.
They also were profiting off piracy by offering premium accounts. I'm not sure how it all worked though.
I believe people who posted content got a cut for getting people to sign up.

Seriously, what is next? Going after VPN sellers because maybe a customer did something illegal? It makes no sense.
There is an app I use called Kodi. It's pretty great, but is known for having plugins for piracy (I don't use them).
I mean it's crazy to think that someone could someday make similar software illegal to download.
I don't own or use a cell phone, but with all the spyware out there, it almost makes sense to use a VPN these days to prevent advertisers from tracking you etc.

I think its more the responsibility of the people themselves and not the company.

Doesn't make sense to blame a knife or gun manufacturer if people decide to use them with bad intentions. If its becomes a popular thing for the crazies to smash people in the head with hammers are we going to shut down all the hammer manufacturers?

 

[Philimon]

I don't own or use a cell phone

While cell phones can be an utter convenience or a necessary utility, cell phones can also be a buffer from irl interaction or a constant tether. Id rather maintain access to instant communication, internet, and a camera - all in one small portable device to choose to use whenever I please. But I can understand not wanting one too.

 

[dougms3]

Devs 9/10

Really interesting sci fi series. A story in which it reflects the concept of the many worlds theory vs free will, technology vs religion. This is not your laid back and enjoy type show, this show encourages thought and provokes mental conflict. There many instances of dual options, to make the viewer ponder whether that choice is free will or predetermined. Coming from Alex Garland (28 days later, ex-machina), I should expect no less than a masterpiece.

Nick Offerman is great as usual, Sonoya Mizuno (ex-machina) plays the role wonderfully.

There are many things which I still don't understand but its an Alex Garland film so everything is purposefully included for a reason.

 

[tdockweiler]

The Killer - 5/10

(2023 Netflix David Fincher movie)

This movie is a complete waste of time in every way. No point to even watch this.
The entire movie has this voice-over of it's main character, who is an assassin.
It's basically like listening to some mentally ill serial killer rambling on about non-sense for 2 hours.
The dialogue is just poorly written and adds nothing to the movie at all.
How does someone write such terrible dialogue anyway and let it get a pass?
I actually think the movie would have been better with zero voice-over.
Maybe Netflix made them add it because they thought nobody would want to watch a nearly dialogue free movie.

50% of the movie is just the assassin sitting around waiting for people outside their home.
Apparently the director thinks it was important to spend 25% of the movie on the assassin's travel habits.
Even going so far as to have two scenes in a rental car office.
So many pointless scenes in an airport too. Didn't they have anything else to add that was important to the story?
Then 10% of the film was spent on driving scenes.

The worst scene is where he's in a restaurant with Tilda Swinton's character. The main character just has this blank stare on his face the entire time and says one or two words.
Totally pointless and they could have cut the scene to under 1 minute.

For the entire movie, barely anything happens. Feels like the time is spent on us watching the character waiting on things.
It's really all style over substance.

You know what I think happened here? They fed an AI chat bot all those recordings of known serial killers like the Unabomber etc.
Things like their printed manifestos. Then generated the main character's dialogue from that.

The director should have just called this movie "My big dumb Assassin Vlog adventure movie".
Really that's sort of that it feels like. Some moron assassin telling us about his terrible life and telling us every random weird thought that pops up in his head.

Then they disguised this as some sort of art film. At least it's visually nice to look at. I also liked the tone of the movie and the soundtrack.

Maybe this was supposed to be some parody of one of those french Assassin films.
I think it's more like "Hey, I love those movies! Maybe I can make one too!"

 

[jsk ksj]

Just goes to show....

The Killer - 9/10
Slick, stylish, utterly gripping.

Despite 2hr running time & leisurely pace, the movie flew past...always a good sign. Dialogue is sparse, but on point.

Plot is standard "Liam Neeson "I am a man with a special skill set & I'm going to have my revenge" scenario", but executed (lol) by true artists. Fassbender's character is not a monster, he is a sociopath. Huge difference, but in some ways more menacing.

The (brief) scene with Tilda Swinton is astonishingly good. Reminded me of the opening scene from Inglorious Basterds.

"For the entire movie, barely anything happens"....sorry, that's nonsense.

My single criticism, which is odd because I love The Smiths, is the use of their music in the film. Maybe something truly nihilistic or truly bubble-gum pop would have been better.

 

[tdockweiler]

The Farewell - 10/10

Probably the best movie I've seen in the past year. I think it's near perfect.
I actually found it to be very funny at times and not really a downer at all.
Awkwafina deserved an Oscar for her acting in this movie, but the movie somehow didn't get a single nomination!
Going to buy the Blu-Ray and watch it again.
Currently on Netflix.

PS Reminded me a little of Edward Yang's "Yi Yi" (a must see) and some of the earlier 90s films from Ang Lee.

 

[jsk ksj]

The Creator 4/10

I don't know the budget, but Gareth Edwards always makes movies that look like they cost $300 million. Also appears to have spent $300 on the awful script. Riddled with plot holes and shallow characters that I could not give a damn about. I loved his Godzilla movie and Rogue One, but not this. I hope he is given another chance.

 

[nraymond]

The Creator 4/10

I don't know the budget, but Gareth Edwards always makes movies that look like they cost $300 million. Also appears to have spent $300 on the awful script. Riddled with plot holes and shallow characters that I could not give a damn about. I loved his Godzilla movie and Rogue One, but not this. I hope he is given another chance.

I haven't seen it, but it looks very impressive for an $86 million budget, and there was a lot of innovative thinking that went behind the filming and production:



It's unfortunate if the story doesn't hold up.

 

[dougms3]

The Creator 4/10

I don't know the budget, but Gareth Edwards always makes movies that look like they cost $300 million. Also appears to have spent $300 on the awful script. Riddled with plot holes and shallow characters that I could not give a damn about. I loved his Godzilla movie and Rogue One, but not this. I hope he is given another chance.

It was so promising but just really lazy writing and thought put into the story.

I found it amusing when the main character jumped off the boat a very far distance from land and everyone just assume oops he disappeared and gave up looking within seconds.

Michael Bay level movie making, he'd be proud.

 

[jsk ksj]

The visual effects were top notch & for $86 million they are astonishing. I might watch again, with the sound off, perhaps listen to some prog on my headphones

 

[tdockweiler]

Downsizing - 8/10

I can't believe i'm giving this movie this high of a score! What can I say? I really enjoyed it. Not just a little.
I can totally understand the poor reviews of it. If you take it too seriously and overthink the crazy ideas of this movie you may like it a lot less.
It goes off the rails into total weirdness in the last hour. It's like they ran out of ideas and decided to change the story up towards the end.
What made this movie better for me was the character of Ngoc Lan Tran (played by Hong Chau).
She was just too funny.

Other than the last hour, the only big negative is that some of the acting could have had one or two more takes. It wasn't great during a few scenes. Not a big deal. I'd say the acting overall is very good. The political comments kind of didn't work too well also.

But I have no doubt some would give this a low score and say it's the stupidest move they've ever seen.
I saw this had a 5.8/10 on IMDB!

PS Just read Hong Chau got nominated for a Golden Globe for this movie.
It's currently on Netflix FYI.

 

[tdockweiler]

Nyad - 6/10

Took me about 4 attempts on different days to finish this. Not a good sign.
Not terrible, but not something I could suggest.
It's about a woman who swam from Cuba to the Florida keys.

Can I suggest a different movie that's kind of memorable for me?
It's called "Losing Sight of Shore" and it's about four women who rowed across the ocean from California to Australia without any supporting boats.
It took them nine months and they traveled 8000 miles.
If I remember right they took turns alternating between resting for 2 hours and then rowing for 2 hours.
Can you imagine being on a tiny boat that long and being in the extreme heat at times?
I'd probably get sick of it and want to quit within a week.
PS currently free on Freevee with ads. Worth a watch!