r/RedLetterMedia

A lot of comments suggest that his issues are specific to the theaters he goes to or the area he lives in, which may be true. For me, my experiences have not trended quite as negative as Mike's have been but I would say that theater etiquette has gotten noticeably worse in my lifetime with COVID rapidly accelerating the decline. It's worth noting that roughly half of my theatergoing experiences in the last several years have been special events of some sort - re-releases or special screenings of The Room, Monty Python, Back to the Future, et cetera. These have by and large been fine because they just don't attract the same kind of riff-raff you'd run into at mainstream releases. But for the big-name blockbuster type stuff that genpop goes to see? Yeah, there have been more than a couple of shitty experiences of late. From memory:

Avatar 2 - went on a Friday afternoon to avoid mouthbreathers, but then a family walks in like 45 minutes into the film, kids all on Switches and phones, barely paying attention to the movie at all and talking nonstop. I guess the runtime wore them down (as it did me) and they fucked off before the final act, but like, why the fuck even pay to go see a movie you're not gonna watch?

Gladiator 2 - unbelievably obnoxious 13/14 year old sitting next to me, who I guess didn't want to be there, talking the whole time, making annoying ass sounds just to be a prick and piss his useless parents off, then acting like he didn't know what they were talking about when they told him to be quiet. The theater was packed, otherwise I would have moved. I didn't like the film in general but his shit behavior didn't help matters

Project Hail Mary - Annoying woman with her boyfriend sitting next to me acting like she's in her living room, narrating and commenting throughout the first half hour or so until I gave her a nasty look and she STFU so I could enjoy the rest of it

The Odyssey (most recent) - this one was OK for me at least, because I again chose a slow time and sat near the aisle away from most other people. But there was a lady in a middle seat who was just talking the whole fucking time and I could hear her chattering whenever things got quiet (which, this being a Nolan film, wasn't that often)

Even excluding the niche/special events and focusing on mainstream releases alone, I'd still say that bad experiences account for less than half my time at the movies, but it's frequent enough that I do kind of low-key dread going to see any major release that's not near the end of its theatrical run. Most people are fine, but it just takes one asshole to ruin the moviegoing experience for others and I do feel like assholes who have opted out of the social contract have become noticeably more common.

Bear in mind that this is all specific to America. I lived in Japan where this sort of thing practically never happened (unless foreigners were around). Even in other Western countries I've lived in, people seemed better behaved, but that was before COVID. What have your experiences been like?

After watching the trailer, I thought it was only appropriate to put some respect on Mikes name.

He could literally interview anyone and I would watch every minute

Think of the possibilities

Better than I expected…way more entertaining than anything in recent times.

In his TNG movie reviews and the Picard discussions Mike repeatedly pointed out how Patrick Stewart influenced the writing and pushed for certain scenes, which lead to multiple out of character moments. The TNG movies are almost "black tanktop movies" in a way, Picard rides a dune buggy, just because Stewart loves driving, he is an action hero that saves the day, he flaunts rules and direct orders, he's a rebel, overly emotional, he gets the beautiful lady, and so on.

But after re-watching TNG as an adult I noticed that this process seems to have already started in the show. In the early seasons Picard gets initially characterised as a reserved and introverted man that is primarily interested in intellectual pursuits. But over the course of the show Picard increasingly gets episodes where he's the action hero and ladies man, with multiple beautiful women swooning over him, he saves the Enterprise by fighting a terrorist gang singlehanded in Starship Mine, basically Die Hard in space, the Vash episodes. It really feels like Stewart pushing for "manlier" scenes, where he can be the irresistible and dashing hero.

Curiously he also continues to show up in clothes that reveal his chest hair ... No Patrick, that's supposed to be Riker, you are supposed to be the older, more reserved captain. This basically amounts to stealing scenes and episodes from his co-star, who'd be the much more appropriate character for it. It felt very blatant when rewatching. I guess the producers still constrained Stewart somewhat, so it didn't go completely overboard like in the movies, but it was already happening in the show. Anyone else noticed this?

I vaguely remember this movie from when we rented it when I was kid, but I do remember it got blasted to hell at the time. It was weird enough that I wonder if it is worth a reappraisal, especially since they've taken an interest in the late career of Bruce Willis. Though it is kind of weird that they've never done a re:View of Die Hard. Do you think this is worth an RLM segment?

A deepity is a superficial statement that seems profound because of its ambiguity.

Example: “Love is just a word.”

“Love” is a just a word. (No duh.)
vs.
Love is a just a word. (Preposterous!)

Mike really nailed it with his Picard monologue that Kurtzman’s Star Trek uses profound words and ideas without a pattern of meaning behind them. It “wags the dog” in that sense, telling you such and such is profound but constructing nothing behind it.

Hello!
Just found this channel and was curious if someone has a general explanation of the different “shows”? I presume “re:view” is just a general longer form review of a film, but what is “half in the bag” / how is it different?
Apologies if this is a dumb question, just trying to figure it out and know where to get started.

Thanks!

I imagine Jay sitting there through 3 hours of star trek talk must be torturous. But seriously, when theres just two people on camera do you think they always bring in someone else to man the cameras and recording equipment or would they have a pretty solid setup by now where its not needed?