A P Clarke

Moss!

This is a great thread but just to say: if it was my call, this film would end with Bond finally bedding Moneypenny, but with him ironically having trouble 'keeping up performance', and her saying 'Oh James, this is no time to die!'. Credits.

If I had my call.

I'm super into it.

But what did she find in the freezer...???

:)

I think the Pluribus lady is a bad person who doesn’t realise she is.

Also I wouldn't eat the Turkey. It wasn't cooked long enough.

Yes: Super Puzzle Fighter 2: Turbo!

The piece contains the hilarious term 'Rote-GPT' - making an image using someone else's protocol? Utterly without meaning or interest.

Nice.

This, I find, is the best clarifying thought through all this, and the avant-garde, AI-enthusiast futurists agree with the good luddite anti-AI souls - control is the only path forwards.

I would argue all the other anti-AI arguments are just post-hoc justifications.

'Information wants to be free' used to be a rallying cry for the individual.

Now 'free information' means 'the corporations will own it, and you will not profit, benefit, or even be identified with your own'.

Their conclusions - that shaping the protocols, or 'context', or 'training set' is where the genuine artistic decisions will be made - essentially boil down to 'individual control'.

I agree.

The rage against AI is class-based. It is corporations/billionaires taking control away from individuals.

What Is Post-AI Art? Avery Singer, Simon Denny, Holly Herndon, Mat Dryhurst and Jon Rafman discuss – with the help of a generated AI – what the future holds

I keep looking for the people using AI as a tool for expression - as this is the actual path to the future of art - after the hype and the bubbles and the righteous indignation have gone.

This is closest so far:

artreview.com/what-is-post...

Wow, Jimmy is boooorrreeeeeddd of Avatar :)

Would Ming The Merciless call it The Flicker?

Would Luke Skywalker call it The Button?

Important questions! And probably the basis of a perfectly decent quiz show you could snooze through on Boxing Day.

"God is dead, and no one cares
If there is a hell, I'll see you there"

Anyway, Star Wars is fun, but it is HARD if you are not willing to just do 'Here's a new secret order of Mercenary Jedi with cool eyepatches' or 'Star Destroyer Tri-maran!'

My other idea was to just do Indiana Jones but Star Wars - and very clever I felt about it too - but, of course, Doctor Aphra is already an archeologist!

Dammit!

Gillen, it must always be concluded, is a bast.

The problem, of course, is what kind of a pitch is 'everything is moving and it's all really exciting! Y'know?'

That's not gonna win anyone over, or even help me write a story.

But that's all the Jedis and Darths are for - the epiphenomena of adventure!

So any Star Wars thing that explains itself using these things - any re-arrangement of the surface specifics - immediately outs itself as missing the point.

'In this we learn more about the ....' HONK NO STOP

The problem is that I set myself a mini-task of 'well, what would *I* do with Star Wars'? And, like, how do you aim for THAT? Sheesh!

A useful task in quickly revealing that all the surface specifics - jedis, droids, death stars, forces and all that - do not mean a toot!

The very absolutely best bit of Star Wars is when ESB cuts back to the Falcon as it is desperately flying through the asteroid belt to avoid the Imperials.

There's no plan, no complexity, no strategic goal, no macguffin, just deep, in media res, ADVENTURE. All the plates spinning, at once. Yeah!

IF I HAD LEGS I'D KICK YOU (2025) | D: Mary Bronstein #OnePerfectShot

Maybe, beyond questions of if it is a well-written song or not, it is just that it is very written. It feels rich and full. Too much vibes-only these days, perhaps.

I hope to go back to not thinking about them soon, but I really liked them at the time, and for this last week.

YouTube video by BenFoldsFiveVEVO Ben Folds Five - Battle Of Who Could Care Less (Official Video)

After nearly 30 years of happily not thinking about The Ben Folds Five, I have had The Battle Of Who Could Care Less in my head for a full week now.

youtu.be/0Y1wm7CFRCQ?...

The only thing worse than UK/US food is US/UK food.

Anyway: movies are great.

And, while i'm on the letterboxd, I too kinda get annoyed at the jokey one-line reviews clogging up all the 'popular reviews' spaces on film pages.

But the reason I write longer reviews is coz I just can't write the short pithy ones! I try!

I'm jealous!

Yet on the other hand it is a path to madness reading every like or not-like as a passive aggressive judgement on your film taste. The system simply can't support that level of intentionality.

And don't get me started on comments!

Coz it don't half wind me up when someone likes dozens of reviews at once, or decides to wishlist their next year's worth of watches - totally gumming up everybody's feed!

So rude!

Letterboxd etiquette is getting me this morning: the balance between only liking reviews that specifically give me something new, liking all the ones by yer mates just coz, and just generally liking any review that's kinda nice.

People getting rabid over movies & filmmakers failing their purity tests and I dunno man. It’s movies, not global politics. If Eric Trump decided he wanted to direct action movies I bet I would watch that shit religiously. Movie stars are knuckleheads. Studios are evil. Find your heroes elsewhere.