The Unpopular Opinion Thread.

AI art is absolute fucking trash.

Except, maybe, when used for political satire.

 

I don't know if the following is AI, but I know I don't like it:

Art that looks like someone took a real photo, & ran it through software that makes it look like a painting. For me it's most noticeable with human & animal figures. The "painting" just doesn't look real, it's like I'm seeing a photo & a painting.

 

Not a fan of a capella pop groups. Not at all.

 

Out of polite curiosity,
how do you define "pop?"

I enjoy most? some? a capella groups,
but not the ones that incorporate
dances moves, too much arm waving,
& exaggerated facial expressions.

 

Think Sing-Off style selections with shrill sopranos, singers being just off-pitch enough, and a beat-boxing “percussion” a capellist spitting all over the microphone.

###########
Not related, the way Yinzers pronounce words that end with the letter L.

 

i hate self checkout

 

The self checkout at our local Kroger, when they first installed it, used to drive me crazy. I'd see people scanning 20 items with no problems, but I couldn't get through five items without the damn thing repeatedly telling me to place the item in the bag, after I had already placed the item in the bag.

 

I routinely talk back to the self-checkout in our local CVS. She’s just so impatient.

 

With Val Kilmer's passing, this is probably a bad time to mention that I hate Top Gun. (But I'm doing it anyway, because I hate Top Gun.)

I had no interest in seeing it when it first came out, because fighter planes don't spark my fire, and Tom Cruise was just starting his Smug Phase, when he could do no wrong and everyone except me believed him.

However, I got dragged into seeing it with a group of friends and reluctantly went along just to not be a wet blanket. I was disinterested for the first half of the movie, and as the second half began, I started to predict how the storyline would progress. ("Let me guess: his buddy's going to die, everyone's going to think he's a bum. Then his girl leaves him, and he'll feel sorry for himself until a mission comes up and his superiors give him one last chance. Then, he'll initially fail but turn things around at the last second, save the day, everyone ends up loving him and his girl will come back to him.")

I was 100% on target. I figured this out at age 14. I would hear people say it's the best movie they've ever seen, and would stare at them in disbelief. How could they not perceive the transparently poor writing?

Although I'm no fan of Roger Ebert, I believe he once said, "It's not what a movie is about; it's how it is about it."

Or if you prefer the MeltedMetalGlob version: If you can make me forget how a story unfolds, you've sold me on your filmmaking technique. This is why I loved the Pixar movie Cars: it made me care about a Nascar race.

I'll give one point in favor of Top Gun, though: It's got a bitchin' soundtrack. Larry Greene's "Through the Fire" FTW!!!

 

I refused to see it because I thought Tom Cruise was (he still is) a total dickhead. It turns out his acting in Rain Man, an excellent movie, wasn't acting at all. There are also many holes in the movie.

Oh, I should also mention Cruise & Kilmer, grinning like narcissist pricks while chewing gum like they're on amphetamines, seriously put me off.

One aftereffect of the movies did amuse me. Before I go any further I was at one time a teenager subject to being influenced by movies. I still found it nearly unbelievable that Average Joe guys were trying join the Air Force to become fighter pilots, that they didn't realize only the very best, highly educated guys would even be considered for flight school. Duh!!

 

Real Genius and Willow are far superior examples from Val Kilmer's acting cannon, IMO.

 

I think Thunderheart is really good,
but it certainly helped that
Kilmer was acting with Graham Greene.

 

I'll see your Willow and raise you Heat.


I notice that not many people mention Heat when they're talking about Kilmer's work. I thought Real Genius was hilarious (saw it in the theater) but Heat is a masterpiece, all-around.

Granted, Kilmer's not an overly sympathetic character in it, but despite his dysfunctional relationship with Ashley Judd's character, they both love each other and in the end, it shows. (and if you haven't seen the film, I won't spoil it, but SEE IT.)

 

I agree, though sadly I’ve only seen it once, which will clearly need to be rectified!

 

Oddly (perhaps not with me) I recall seeing Heat, but remember little about it.

I might been shitfaced which was common in my drinking days, or it was on & I just wasn't paying attention. Chances are good I saw just enough action scenes to dismiss it just another Hollywood action movie.

Another factor is I might have seen the edited (butchered) & sanitized version.

On that thought...try watching Reservoir Dogs on free TV. .

 

Heat might be in my top ten (or at least top twenty) greatest films of all time. Part of its power, I find, is all the hard decisions almost every character is forced to make. Even minor characters with less than 15 minutes of screen time (in a three-hour movie) get a chance to shine.

MINOR SPOILER: One character is released from prison and is eager to start an honest if lowly job at a greasy spoon diner. He wants to make his wife proud (she's waited for him faithfully) and discovers that he'll be doing menial labor and his boss will be skimming off his own paycheck, subjecting him to blackmail as well.

He's offered a chance to replace a getaway driver in a heist, and after careful consideration takes the job, telling his scumbag boss to shove it. Unfortunately he gets killed in a shootout and later the audience sees his death reported on the news while his wife is watching in a public place... she remains rock-still, apart from tears streaming down her face. It's a sequence that rips my heart out every time I see it, and again- it's not even about a main character!

 

I have not seen those movies in years

 

I have thrown things at the one at kroger, thats frowned upon.... I mean it was just an apple

 

when i say frowned upon i mean by the people that work there. the other customers found it funny and it started a whole conversation behind me