Category: Live Action

Stranger Things Subtitles

I usually watch everything with subtitles when subtitles are available. For Stranger Things, occasionally, I find them hilarious.

In Season 1, Nancy admits to her mother and the police that her friend Barbara went missing while she and Nancy were attending an unsanctioned party at Steve’s house. When Nancy’s mother is more outraged that Nancy was at Steve’s house than upset about Barbara, Nancy shuts herself in her room. She sits on her bed, sniffling slightly and accompanied by the subtitle:

[Crying]

In Season 3, Joyce and Hopper fight the Russian Terminator in the large Russian base under the mall. Joyce makes a variety of sounds during the fight, each one of which are subtitled:

[Joyce yelps, grunts]
[Joyce squeals, pants]
[Joyce screams]

1984 (Joe White Adaptation)

Big Brother would approve of this audiobook/radio play adaptation of George Orwell’s 1984. 75% of the words have been replaced with heavy breathing and lip smacking.

On the subject of what content is there though… In some ways, 1984‘s world still parallels common conservative criticisms of modern socialist and big governments. The fictitious totalitarian superstate Oceania restricting language and spreading propaganda as facts, for example, eerily parallels real governments’ tendencies to emphasize certain views and suppress others.

Some of George Orwell’s other predictions for the future, however, haven’t aged as well. For example, the citizens of Oceania are encouraged to have children for the good of the Party. Having sex out of love or for pleasure is forbidden. In today’s reality, conservatives are more likely to complain that sex for pleasure, devoid of its biological purpose of procreation, is celebrated and used by governments to distract the first-world population from their replacement by third-world immigrants.

Red Letter Media gave another example of 1984 showing its age in the course of a somewhat relevant discussion about AI and dystopian futures. George Orwell imagined that, in the future, the government would place cameras everywhere to watch everyone. As the future has actually unfolded, today, almost everyone has a camera almost at all times, built into their smart phones at their own request. Everyone is watching everyone else, ready to record inappropriate behavior and use those recordings incite public ridicule or other life-destroying consequences. We did it to ourselves! We are our own Big Brother!

Frankenstein (2025)

When Victor Frankenstein kills his benefactor Henrich Harlander by mistake, I expected his death to play a larger part in the story. Perhaps Harlander would somehow become the Creature, or his soul would animate the Creature in bid return for revenge. Nothing really happened though. He was just dead.

During post-movie analysis, one of my friends surmised that Victor killed Harlander as short hand for him being an asshole. She recalled that in the book Victor is emphasized as being an asshole by repeatedly blaming other people for his mistakes. The movie, which was long enough as it was, didn’t have time to repeatedly show the Creature killing Frankenstein’s love interests and Frankenstein painting himself as the victim, so he killed someone instead.

It seems plausible, but still, I missed the significance of Harlander’s death, leading it to feel like a sub-plot that went nowhere. Victor didn’t intentionally kill him, which might have made him too much of an asshole to the audience. The intent seemed to be for Victor to either use the death to play the victim or to show his remorselessness or single-mindedness. There isn’t a character to be horrified by his behavior though (at least about killing someone by accident and not caring that much), so there wasn’t guidance as to how I should feel about it. In contrast, Victor’s treatment of the Creature and Elizabeth’s outrage with him quickly made him look like enough of an asshole to overshadow murder.

Closer

Closer is a new play based on The Day the Earth Stood Still. That’s Closer as in “he moved closer to it,” not “he was the show closer.” Contrary to what I thought when I tried to remember if I had seen the story before and what it was, The Day the Earth Stood Still is also not The War of the Worlds, which originated as a radio play that caused mass panic because people thought aliens had really come to Earth.

I’ve recently begun compiling a list of books, movies, and other entertainment that have inspired my science fiction saga over the years. I can’t remember if I’ve seen either the 1951 film The Day the Earth Stood Still or the 2008 remake, but the concept of an alien coming to Earth and threatening to kill all of humanity unless they committed to changing their ways sounded very familiar. Hmm… That’s almost like something I wrote.

Then again, I’m sure this idea has been rehashed in multiple other stories and mediums. I just have yet to find the one that inspired me. There’s also a theory in the UFO-community that if aliens ever did come to Earth, it would be to encourage peace and harmony with the planet. I may have gotten the idea from that.

I do want to see the 2008 remake of The Day the Earth Stood Still though to see if it looks familiar. Plus, Keanu Reeves is the perfect actor to play an alien.

Good Boy

When I watched Dog in theaters a few years ago, I realized I have zero tolerance for sad animal movies. It was marketed as a comedy, and some of it may have been funny. Ultimately, I found then entire movie about a dog with PTSD and an incorrigible man disturbing. Sure, the dog didn’t die at the end, but I didn’t see anything to be happy about.

I had a similar experience with Smile a few months later. The first half of the movie was uncomfortable and disturbing. When the protagonist found her dead cat gift wrapped in a box, I seriously considered walking out of the theater. Fortunately, it became a standard, silly horror movie after that, but I wasn’t tempted to come back for Smile 2.

Recently, knowing nothing about the movie except that it was a horror, I went to a friend’s house to watch Good Boy. When the first scene depicted a sad, frightened dog, I wondered if I should leave immediately. Good Boy turned out to be quite tolerable though. The movie depicted a dog’s worst nightmare told from a dog’s perspective. I found it really interesting. And secretly, I wanted to coo at the screen the whole movie, “Look at that good boy!”

So for those of you with a similar sensitivity to animal movies, don’t be afraid to give Good Boy a watch.

Predator: Badlands

Predator: Badlands didn’t feel like a Predator movie. Granted, it’s been more than a decade since I’ve seen a Predator movie. Actually, I can’t remember if I’ve seen a Predator movie. Was it Alien vs. Predator? Was it Alien? Was it something else entirely? Is there a Predator movie? O.o I remember nothing about what I’ve seen of Predator except that it should be scary or at least attempt to be so.

Watching Predator: Badlands was like what I imagine watching modern Star Wars is like. Given that I also have very little experience with modern Star Wars, I’m basing this opinion entirely on The Mandalorian & Grogu trailer I saw before Badlands started. About at the midpoint in the movie, Badlands introduces a cute mascot character. From that point forward, I felt like I was watching a ripoff of The Mandalorian & Grogu: a brooding protagonist, a comedic side kick, and a cute mascot having a space adventure.

Also, there’s a series of shots of the Predator and his side kick walking through fields and over mountains. After the first couple shots, I predicted the next shot would show the Predator walking along a mountain ridge. Lo and behold, the next shot was the Predator walking along a mountain ridge. Hell yeah! I’m watching a Lord of the Rings ripoff, too!

Overall, I don’t know what I watched or what I expected, but it seemed like something else with the Predator brand slapped on it.

Spring Baking Championship (Season 8)

Season 8 of Spring Baking Championship introduced two gimmicks, and both of them failed.

The first was the elimination of two bakers in episode one and the introduction of two new bakers in episode two. Typically, a season begins with twelve bakers and one is eliminated each episode until the season finale with the final 3-4 bakers. In this season, two bakers were eliminated in the first episode to make way for the addition of two more bakers in episode two. The new bakers, however, first had to compete against each other alongside the other bakers. Out of the two bakers, the one with the better dessert would continue competing. At the end of the episode, one of the new bakers and one of the original contestants were eliminated, bringing the contestant count down to the regularly scheduled ten. The second new baker, however, was eliminated in episode three, making the whole gimmick pointless.

The second gimmick was the unexpected introduction of a pre-final bake off. Until Season 11, season finales included two rounds. The first round eliminated one of the four finalists. In the second, the final three competed for winner of the season. In Season 11, the four finalists still competed in round one, but then, the bottom two were required to compete against each other in a bake off to join the top two in the final round. Unprepared for the sudden development and overwhelmed by the emotional toll of the previous round, however, one of the contestants simply quit, making the other the winner by default and the whole gimmick pointless.

The first gimmick never made another appearance. Despite its similar failure, however, the second would become the new finale format for all following seasons of Spring Baking Championship. No one has quit since, so it seems the contestants get a warning about it now.

Cake Wars: Christmas

For a season of Cake Wars contestants came in teams to compete against each other in creating the best Christmas-themed cakes across multiple rounds/episodes with the final round being a life-size gingerbread house.

This season of Christmas-themed challenges took out the best part of food-related shows (delicious-looking food) and left in the worst part of Cake Wars (cake decorating). I was mildly entertained by Cake Wars for the cake, man! The characters and things made with the food were often related to properties I didn’t care about and didn’t even look good. They may be edible, but they also aren’t appetizing: usually fondant, food coloring, and rice crispy treats and modeling chocolate that someone has rubbed their hands all over. That vanilla bean, buttercream frosting cake, however, tell me more about that.

Most of the cakes in Cake Wars: Christmas weren’t presented to the judges as food for tasting. The cakes themselves were judged purely on looks, but the judges also required and judged a separate tasting element (e.g. “Here’s cookies that we also baked.”). These tasting elements don’t even get that much emphasis. Most of the episode is dedicated to how impressive that firetruck-shaped, questionable-food on a platform screwed to a wall smeared in food coloring is.

I’m glad I skipped Cake Wars: Halloween because it would probably be the same but Halloween themed.

AKA Charlie Sheen

I was listening to this podcast “The Toxic Fuel That’s Destroying Your Motivation” when host Chris Williamson recommended AKA Charlie Sheen to Healthy Gamer’s Dr. K. The discussion had veered onto the topic of how some people get stuck in bad habits because they don’t experience the consequences. Chris said Charlie Sheen was a prime example of this and recommended the documentary as evidence.

It sounded interesting, and I have Netflix, so I figured, why not? Indeed it was a documentary about how Charlie was repeatedly rewarded handsomely for bad behavior. When he arrived to the set of Ferris Bueller’s Day Off late, the director didn’t mind, and he was later praised by audiences for the two scenes he was in and began his ascension into fame. He attempted to leave Two and a Half Men to get off drugs but was paid a ridiculous salary to stay. When he became such a crack head that he was fired, he became even more famous.

I’ve heard the name Charlie Sheen throughout my life, but it occurred to me as I was watching this documentary that I couldn’t think of anything I’d watched that had Charlie Sheen in it. Upon looking through IMDB, the two movies of his that I remember watching are Foodfight! and Scary Movie 3. Truly the height of cinema.

Is he just famous for being a drug addict? Even my favorite moment from Scary Movie 3 is more funny as I remember it (“Bring me that railroad tie… my balls… Jesus. Not that!”) than it actually is.

Also, that guy from Grace and Frankie is his dad? I guess that shows how much I pay attention to celebrities.