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What annoys you? (2 Viewers)

cinemiracle

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The godawful, execrable stuff that passes for much of today's popular music. At the Subway near my work, they play nothing but endlessly repetitive, monotonous, nearly melody free stuff with "singers" that are all heavily synthesized. The rappers, of course, don't even bother to pretend to sing, congratulating themselves on their "creativity" as a preprogrammed rhythm drones on.... and on....

Let's not condemn street music. Edith Piaf started her singing career on the streets of Paris, only to become one if the most famous singers of all time.
 

RobertR

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Let's not condemn street music. Edith Piaf started her singing career on the streets of Paris, only to become one if the most famous singers of all time.
Your logic is flawed, to say the least. First of all, you're making a straw man argument. I never used the term "street music". I mentioned "singers" who are synthesized to death (Piaf obviously wasn't), and "music" that hardly has any melodic content at all, and what there is of it is lousy. I further mentioned rappers, who don't bother to sing at ALL. The fact that you cited Piaf is an admission on your part that rappers are NOT the sum total of "street music".

Second, you're trying to use logic that says "Piaf started on the street. Piaf sang well with good music. Therefore all street music is good". That's an obvious non sequitur.
 

bmasters9

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That many movie reviews (especially for films that the reviewers hate) are written in such a manner as to lay down the law, if you will-- basically, it's as if the reviewers are saying, "You're not allowed to make up your own mind-- we hated this film, and you should too; AAMOF, you shouldn't even try to see it." Why would this annoy me? Because when you see a preview for a film that you think might be good, but then you see that it has a ton of negatives and a smattering of positives, you wonder why the film was even made. After all, a review is simply an opinion, not the final word.

This is very much annoying me in the case of a new film called Wish Upon w/Joey King; the preponderance of the reviews of it are incredibly negative, with just a smattering of positive/remotely positive reviews, but I'd like to see it and make up my mind as to whether I like it, or whether I actually happen to agree with the reviewers. That might be a tough row to hoe, though, with the many reviews that insist that I shouldn't even try to see it; according to them, it isn't good enough that they're welcome to have their opinion-- I have to agree, or something is wrong with me.
 

Alf S

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If there is a movie that gets universally panned, but I have a mild interest in seeing (like the latest Pirates film for example), I'll just rent or stream it in most cases vs. paying the hunk of change it would require for me to enjoy it in a theater. It's as simple as that for me.
 

Tony Bensley

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Living in a complex where neighbors have zero respect for other people's space, and zero respect, period!

Our next door neighbor's a real loudmouth! One thing that really gets on my nerves is when she yells at one of her kids to "Get your ass over here!" (She pulled that one again this afternoon!)! Yes, we get to hear this sort of garbage in the discomfort of our rental abode INDOORS! :angry:

At least the front yard garbage issue seems to have abated for the moment. They even have a small garden where their trash bags used to be. Just wish we could have civilized next door neighbors, for once. We live in a 6 unit section, and the 2nd through 4th tenants are decent types, who mostly keep to themselves. Why can't WE get one of those neighbors? I suppose some spaces simply become asshole/bitch magnets, and our next door is unfortunately one of those!

On a positive note, we'll be out by the end of October. The next 3 months might feel like 3 years, though! :rolleyes:

CHEERS! :)
 

Stan

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That many movie reviews (especially for films that the reviewers hate) are written in such a manner as to lay down the law, if you will-- basically, it's as if the reviewers are saying, "You're not allowed to make up your own mind-- we hated this film, and you should too; AAMOF, you shouldn't even try to see it." Why would this annoy me? Because when you see a preview for a film that you think might be good, but then you see that it has a ton of negatives and a smattering of positives, you wonder why the film was even made. After all, a review is simply an opinion, not the final word.

This is very much annoying me in the case of a new film called Wish Upon w/Joey King; the preponderance of the reviews of it are incredibly negative, with just a smattering of positive/remotely positive reviews, but I'd like to see it and make up my mind as to whether I like it, or whether I actually happen to agree with the reviewers. That might be a tough row to hoe, though, with the many reviews that insist that I shouldn't even try to see it; according to them, it isn't good enough that they're welcome to have their opinion-- I have to agree, or something is wrong with me.
I haven't paid attention to "professional" critics in years. Way to impressed with themselves.

True, honest reviews come from good old average "Joe Six Pack". Those are the real reviews you can trust.
 

BobO'Link

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That many movie reviews (especially for films that the reviewers hate) are written in such a manner as to lay down the law, if you will-- basically, it's as if the reviewers are saying, "You're not allowed to make up your own mind-- we hated this film, and you should too; AAMOF, you shouldn't even try to see it." Why would this annoy me? Because when you see a preview for a film that you think might be good, but then you see that it has a ton of negatives and a smattering of positives, you wonder why the film was even made. After all, a review is simply an opinion, not the final word.

This is very much annoying me in the case of a new film called Wish Upon w/Joey King; the preponderance of the reviews of it are incredibly negative, with just a smattering of positive/remotely positive reviews, but I'd like to see it and make up my mind as to whether I like it, or whether I actually happen to agree with the reviewers. That might be a tough row to hoe, though, with the many reviews that insist that I shouldn't even try to see it; according to them, it isn't good enough that they're welcome to have their opinion-- I have to agree, or something is wrong with me.
If you want to see a film, then see it. I've seen hundreds of films "Professional Reviewers" said are dreck. I've greatly enjoyed some of the bottom-of-the-barrel rated films reviewers said to avoid and thoroughly detested many they've praised and put on "must see before you die" lists.

But I know where you're coming from... it's why I rarely bother with "reviews" any more.
 

bmasters9

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If you want to see a film, then see it. I've seen hundreds of films "Professional Reviewers" said are dreck. I've greatly enjoyed some of the bottom-of-the-barrel rated films reviewers said to avoid and thoroughly detested many they've praised and put on "must see before you die" lists.

But I know where you're coming from... it's why I rarely bother with "reviews" any more.

Thanks for that response! I saw another film that had Joey King in it that the reviewers hated-- White House Down from 2013 (she was Emily Cale in that one). Most of the reviews were negative, but I purchased the DVD/Blu combo, saw the film through, and loved it! That again proves your point right there.
 

jcroy

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I usually read the reviews on amazon, primarily looking for the reviews which go into details about what was good or bad about the movie. Occasionally I'll also look through rotten tomatoes.

In terms of watching stuff "blind" (ie. without reading any prior reviews), I'll only do it for sci-fi type movies.

More generally for generic action movies, I'll primarily look at the ratio of bad reviews to good reviews on amazon to determine whether something is a priority to watch for me. This criteria is largely due to too many generic action movies to go through, and it's an easy way of cutting down the list to a manageable number of action movies to watch.

For other genre stuff like fantasy, superheroes, horror, etc ... I'll also look at the ratio of bad reviews to good reviews on amazon to determine whether something is a priority to watch.

For non-genre stuff (ie. romcom, generic dramas, comedies, etc ...), I'll read through detailed reviews on amazon or rotten tomatoes.
 

jcroy

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If you want to see a film, then see it. I've seen hundreds of films "Professional Reviewers" said are dreck.

At times I wonder how many of these "professional reviewers" were paid a bribe under the table, to slant a particular review to be favorable/unfavorable.

(More generally).

I always read the 1-star reviews on amazon and google for bad reviews about a product, to see whether there's any obvious technical problems.
 

Malcolm R

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If you want to see a film, then see it. I've seen hundreds of films "Professional Reviewers" said are dreck. I've greatly enjoyed some of the bottom-of-the-barrel rated films reviewers said to avoid and thoroughly detested many they've praised and put on "must see before you die" lists.

But I know where you're coming from... it's why I rarely bother with "reviews" any more.

My family has generally found that our enjoyment of a film is often inversely proportional to the amount of critical praise a film receives by the "professionals". Some of our favorite films were thoroughly trashed.
 

bmasters9

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My family has generally found that our enjoyment of a film is often inversely proportional to the amount of critical praise a film receives by the "professionals". Some of our favorite films were thoroughly trashed.

And, I would imagine, the inverse as well (that some of your least favorite films were critically praised, possibly deemed Oscar-worthy)?
 

jcroy

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I never really bothered paying attention to what professional film critics write and say.

The type of films I use to watch a lot back in the day, were not exactly highly praised by critics, such as: Cheech and Chong, Rambo, etc ...
 

jcroy

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And, I would imagine, the inverse as well (that some of your least favorite films were critically praised, possibly deemed Oscar-worthy)?

I never really had a personal "least favorite films" list. The closest would perhaps be a list of films I fell asleep watching ?
 

Tony Bensley

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Sadly, due to an unforeseen circumstance, which I'll not get into, there may be some delay in our North Bay to London relocation. While this fall still isn't absolutely out of the question yet, there's a definite possibility that we may end up having to remain in North Bay until next spring. If we are unable to move out by the end of October, my wife refuses to move during the winter months, which are long in our neck of the woods. In that scenario, moving in April/May, 2018 is probably realistic.

Unfortunately, our next door neighbor is still an inconsiderate, loudmouth b*tch. She still leaves the odd green garbage bag in their front yard, despite having a small garden. The thought of having to put up with her sh*t for another winter (Not to mention the aches and pains that I get these days from the extreme northern cold!) galls me to no end, but we may just have to suck it up for awhile longer. There's worse things, I suppose! :blink:

CHEERS! :)
 

Tony Bensley

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Of course, no sooner do we think the garbage issue has more or less abated, we find yet another torn green garbage bag inches from our space. It apparently looks like Raccoons, or something like that, has ripped into it further. I say apparently because I've taken to going out the back, as the disgusting sight triggers my anxiety. Just can't handle it. My wife called in another complaint to housing, but we've honestly lost track of how many times we've already done so, and still it goes on. I don't believe that anything short of eviction will stop it, and even then, we always seem to end up with more rabble next door, and that's being charitable!

The past few weeks have been a vicious circle between a relatively garbage free front yard but a lot of yelling from the loudmouth at all hours, or relative quiet, but open trash bags left outside whenever they take off for a few days. She simply has NO consideration for others. Very frustrating! :(
 

Aaron Silverman

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I recently read (maybe it was in this thread somewhere?) that the "Baby on Board" signs are actually handy for first responders to know that a crashed vehicle might have a child inside. Finally, a reason that makes sense!
 

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