Cool, Herc! I watched the doc last night and very much enjoyed it. I almost lost it at the pre-show voice exercises. "PED-O-PHI-LI-A IS AN OP-TION IF YOU HAVE THE GUMP-TION."

I'm a big Community fan and listen to Harmontown here and there, so before viewing I already felt like I knew Dan, in a way. I'm curious as to what people who are new to his world think of the film. I have a feeling that people unfamiliar with Harmon won't find it particularly compelling as far as documentaries go, but I could be wrong. The narrative felt kind of all over the place, but I didn't care because I knew what I was in for and, as you said, it's very watchable.

I can't say I'm in love with Dan Harmon. His ego and douchery get on my nerves sometimes, but his extreme honesty and wit make him a very captivating and challenging person to listen to. I'd definitely like to catch a live show if they were ever to come to my area.

Outland is a movie I loved without ever seeing it. Just like with Alien, I discovered Outland through the novelization, which was among the many SF books my older cousin sent me when he was done with them. Alan Dean Foster wrote both adaptations, and reading them together, it seemed like both movies were set in the same universe. You had the same level tech, the same view of space and corporations. I was so excited at the idea that there was this movie universe being created with "unrelated" films. Unfortunately, it turned out that wasn't the case 

I agree that Tucci makes up for a lot, but 4 is still the absolute worst of the franchise to me--the worst movie I've ever seen, really. I literally felt sick watching the thing (was dragged to it by a friend who had free tickets--would never give it money), despite anticipating how awful it would be. The awful product placement, the completely WHAT IN THE FUCK ARE YOU TRYING TO SAY ending, the rampant misogtny, the awful shooting and editing, the deus ex machinas, the new levels of sociopathy from Prime. And the bad humans are COMPLETELY JUSTIFIED in their motives. There is no good reason whatsoever we should put up with the goddam alien robots "protecting us" from a threat that is specifically out to get *them*.

I think Fury is a lot better than you give it credit for. It's incredibly hardcore un-sugarcoated violence, and it's aggressively focused on avoiding most of the cliches of war movies like Saving Private Ryan. There's no inspirational speechifying, no talking about the family back home, no stirring patriotic music, no "but its all for the greater good" bullshit. It's also the extremely rare WW2 movie that's sympathetic to the german soldiers and civilians, showing how their life is utter hell, and they're only fighting under threat of hanging. On top of that, it looks fantastic and brings a lot to the table visually, using tracer rounds to make the battles both extremely dynamic, and easy to follow.

I think the action climax somewhat abandons the gritty realism the rest of the movie accomplishes, but it's still a pretty uniquely dirty, uncompromising entry in the war genre.

Akira was sort of like 2001. You watched for the spectacle, and either the attempt at being "deep" worked for you or it didn't. Blame the marketing at the time for hyping it, but it did lead to the flood of uncut anime that came after that in the US. Without Akira, you don't get Spirited Away in US theaters.