Against the reign of chaos

EDIT: Here's a link to my write-up of GMT East, because I know y'all care.
GMT East 2011 - One Newbie's Experience


(Playing Z-Man's Merchants and Marauders at GMT East. I'm the guy in the corner holding his head in bewilderment in response to so much audacious piracy going on.)


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I spent last weekend at GMT East 2011. I met some incredibly nice guys and got in some good gaming, notably a couple plays of Normandy '44. Pushing cardboard counters across a plexiglass-covered paper map is one of life's finest pleasures.

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So, I haven't had time to respond to the flurry of posts. Here's a quick thought on one subject recently discussed:

There is no shame in skipping any movie for any reason. Y'all should check out the SL&tIFL post on this topic:
http://sergioleoneifr.blogspot.com/2010/01/preconceptions-responsibilities-and.html

I haven't seen Antichrist and likely never will. Brandon and I talked about having an Antichrist party at his place when it first showed up On Demand, but I couldn't make it and he watched it without me. It hasn't been high on my priority list since. I can literally think of a thousand other films I'd rather see. The only reason I'm at all interested is because von Trier dedicated Antichrist to Andrei Tarkovsky.

Similarly, I just haven't had interest in Black Swan despite its mostly positive reception by most of the rest of you. I'm not a fan of Aranofsky at all and the script seems like a lame mash-up of ideas from older, better movies. I tried to make myself see it a few times and just couldn't do it. The film's chances on DVD are even slimmer.

On the other end of things, I'm also the only dude in the world that skipped Avatar. Whether high-brow, low-brow, or no-brow, I'm not going to waste time on something that I've been able to form an educated opinion on and subsequently have made a choice that the film is not for me. (Can I use the word "educated" in a sentence that awkward?). Skipping a movie because it looks boring (or, in other words, because it was written and directed by Cameron), despite what almost everyone else says, is just as valid a reason as skipping a film because it may give you nightmares. Skipping a film because it may give you nightmares seems like a no-brainer to me.

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I did watch Dogtooth relatively recently. As Ben noted, there is a back-and-forth between me and Brandon in the archives.

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I was in a bad mood after having to stay late at work yesterday so I chose to go see a 10:20p showing of Paul to wind down.

If you like...
...gratuitous strings of vulgar language (for the sake of cheap laughs rather than honest character exploration), pseudo-science, nerd ignorance and prejudices, cheap shots at fundy evangelical caricatures, anal probe jokes, notorious product placement, hit-you-over-the-head-obvious-because-you're-stupid film and pop culture references, dumb road trip conventions, bromantic deconstructions of male friendships, cardboard characters, and a lame plot that doesn't do much to transcend any of the weakest of the above...

If you like all of those things, you'll love Paul.

I don't like any of those things.

I hate Paul.

Greg Mottola, you make me weep.

So far, 2011 is 0 for 2 in my book.