I was in the mood to turn my brain off witch an action movie I hadn't seen before, so did just that.
I won't do a full review since I'm only 30 minutes in, but the movie is Ambulance, 2022; Jake Gyllenhaal, some black dude, and some hispanic chick.
It's competent enough so far, generally. It's not doing anything too fancy, but I appreciate that from an action movie. But the Modern Audiences™ nonsense is unavoidable. I wish I didn't notice this but, once you know, you know.
Every black person is competent and in a position of power. Every white person is some combination of psychopath, loser, or incompetent. There's only been one woman in focus so far, but she's - no kidding - "the best paramedic in the city," and extremely competent. Hobbled with some newbie white dweeb...who's probably going to die or otherwise get damseled, at a guess.
Gyllenhaal and Black Dude are brothers. Black Dude was adopted by, wait for it, Gyllenhaal's psychotic criminal father. Black Dude is a patriotic veteran who's trying to get his life together, while his white brother is a criminal who drags him into shit. Gyllenhaal's criminal crew are, I believe, all white...and some of the most ridiculously incompetent or insane people around. Hilariously, they're also a very diverse set of whites for some reason; you have I believe an Italian, Irishman, and some sandal-wearing hippy hacker or something. It's bizarre.
It's all so tiresome.
A minute after I posted this, all the diverse and incompetent white dudes are dead. This is so stupid.
As a general rule, I avoid all western entertainment made in 2012 or later. The whole modern audiences thing accelerated hard in 0bama's 2nd term. There's only a few rare exceptions, otherwise you're better off watching or playing vintage or eastern stuff.
You are 100% right about 2012. Obama singed a bill into law back in 2012 that legalized directing propaganda towards the American public.
I occasionally recommend a few Western films after 2012 that aren't woke:
Otherwise, you're right... it's best to just stick with Eastern films for good action-thrillers.
I mentioned it in one of my comments, but check out Boss Level too. I rewatched it after my frustration with Ambulance, and it held up. It's not overtly "based" or anything, but it does have a very pro-fatherhood and generally masculine message, and doesn't really do sex/race discrimination. It's shocking it was made in 2020.
I said it's not "based," but if we're going by today's shitty standards (which is a bad standard) I suppose it actually is kind of based. Mostly it's just stupid action movie fun though.
I adore some good bad-action movies -- we used to have plenty in the 80s, which were a good way to burn an afternoon and come away feeling stoked to workout or get active outside. We don't really have those feel-good, cheesy action films these days, so I'm all for that whenever a proper one rears is head, and Boss Level seems like a decent go of it.
I've actually had it on my watchlist for ages but I've never sat down to give it a look -- so I will need to make time for it at some point.
Sounds good. Also I just (like literally just now) got done rewatching Baby Driver (2017), which also held up. Another relatively modern action movie that managed to be good.
It's real sad how racialized everything has become, where you have to sing a movie's praises for having good and bad white people, good and bad black people, etc. As a crime movie, you expect some psychos. You had black psychos, you had white psychos. But you also have good people regardless of race too...which really underlines my issues with Ambulance; if it had been a little less selective and targeted when it came to the race of characters, it wouldn't have been such a bad movie. It still wouldn't have been great, as the writing still had some issues even putting race to the side, but at least it wouldn't have left quite such a bad taste in my mouth.
Anyway, put Baby Drive on your list too.
Last bit of the rant...I hate how crap most things are...because I find myself worried to watch things I haven't seen before, so just end up rewatching stuff...and generally having a better time than when I try to watch anything modern that I haven't seen. Seriously, Ambulance pissed me the fuck off...and wasn't even the worst movie ever.
Ha, I can usually spot that nonsense from the trailer... and when I watched the trailer for Ambulance (whenever it first aired) I instantly wrote it off. It reminded me of the movie Kin (2018), where a delinquent White brother was always trapped in criminal mischief and his adopted younger black brother was the good son, and of course the delinquent older brother got their White father killed. Sound familiar, eh?
They all recycle the same tropes for establishing predictive programming patterns in how people view races. Once you establish what the patterns are you can spot them a mile away, which is precisely why I stayed away from the film Ambulance. Saw all the usual tropes and patterns of the Left rearing their head.
That being said, I know exactly how you feel about the demoralisation and paranoia of trying to avoid media that is designed to purposely demoralise you with Lefty propaganda. It messes with your sociocultural equilibrium, so much so that it makes it difficult to consume or engage with anything culturally without filtering them through the lens of the culture war.
It can also dampen the enjoyment of non-woke films/shows/games because you're always watching/engaging with the expectation that it may go woke.
All that being said, it's become a bit easier these days to spot the patterns before engaging: is it from a major Hollywood studio? Likely woke. Does it star or prominently feature the moral minority trope? Likely woke. Is the female a commanding, snarky girlboss? Likely woke. Etcetera, etcetera.
But yeah, Baby Driver was a decent flick. Jon Hamm being the final boss was a bit unexpected, as well as Kevin Spacey not being the final boss. That one surprised me.
The Channel (2023) was another halfway decent Western crime thriller/heist film -- had some really good action beats. Always been a fan of Clayne Crawford and Max Martini, too, so that was a good treat. . Somewhat predictable but also pretty badarse, and they weren't afraid to show black guys as ruthless thugs/gangsters, which was a surprising twist.
EDIT: Almost forgot about Spectral (2016) and 13 Hours (2016), those two were both really badass too.
Pretty similar formula for most modern day shows. Why my general rule of thumb is 2014 and prior
Generally pretty dang solid advice.
I should have listened.
Been rewatching The Sopranos. Refreshing to hear "fag" and "retard" like we were still in the real timeline.
Even if the mood were to strike you, why pick something recent? Your chances of finding something you walk away from pleased decreases dramatically the closer to now you pick from.
Also reading this reminds me of another movie Jakey did a long time ago with Tobey Maguire. In which Jake is a criminal loser to a patriotic military brother. Except in that one Jake does get his life together slowly taking care of Tobey's family while he is a PoW.
Its called Brothers. Solid movie for anyone who wants to relive some childhood PTSD of dealing with a Vet father's emotional violent breakdowns from his own PTSD.
Shear hubris? Drunken stupidity? Unbridled yet entirely unfounded optimism?
Nah, seriously, I like some of the technological advancements, and I have seen some modern action movies that are fun. Boss Level and Baby Driver come to mind. The latter being almost a decade old now. Although you're one hundred percent correct on the next part, and in hindsight I should have avoided modern stuff:
Yup, anything past the '00s is pushing it, anything into the '20s is some Russian roulette shit.
I have a friend who does this. He subjects himself to media he knows sucks. He does not expect to be wrong, he just has a curiosity about exactly how bad it is.
We've dubbed the condition "cinemasochism"
Your friend clearly does not value his time.
All that complaining about stereotyping and and pigeonholing wasn't because of any ideological foundation, it was because they weren't benefitting.
I watch only anime and old shows for the most part now. Play only indie games, might get a PS5 to play Stellar Blade. Been to the theater only to see Godzilla x Kong. Don't even really bother to keep up with sports any more. Don't even go out much anymore. Name of the game nowadays.
Oh goodie Kienan, my Internet stalker gave me my customary one downvote. That will totally change my mind and not make me double down. No siree Bob.
It is weird. It's usually a very specific set of circumstances, often involving the Jews. But, for whatever reason, you do seem to have someone after specifically you, no matter what, no matter the context or comment. As you said, surely that will change your mind, and make you realize the error of your ways.
Same. And now I'm reminded why.
I hope there's a decent movie that grabs my attention at some point...I don't think I've been to a theater in almost a decade.
I noticed that my theater is part of a "Flashback Cinema" program that cycles an old classic (some not so old, but undeniably great) every week.
Personally, I hope one day it cycles Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990).
I think all theater chains do that now.
Yep, that's the problem, it's not just the fact that it's blatantly ideological, it's all tediously predictable. Say what you will about the North Korean propaganda at least they can make it entertaining in a fucked up kind of way. You can't even enjoy a decent B-Tier action movie anymore precisely because of the problems you describe in the story writing.
It's not about plot development or anything basic like that and the action scenes you do get are fucking shit. This becomes painfully obvious for example if you've ever tried watching through in sequence action movie series and you realise that they're not only becoming heavily reliant on CGI it's not even good CGI.
Also just to assure you you're not going crazy because leftists always gaslight us on this, yes, not only are the women tediously amazing in these films with zero flaws only black men are allowed to be any kind of positive masculine figure in it. This is something that's really fucked up about western media because they really are trying to tell white men that you're a piece of shit and always are. If the white men ever happen to be not evil, they're gay as fuck so what kind of message does that send? Of course you know the answer to this if you know anything about leftist ideology.
This is why young men with any brains are leaving the west in droves when women are openly cheering this shit on and not in an insignificant number. It's probably an extremely good thing that it's boring because even the normies are switching off as a result. I've seen better short films rendered on someone's laptop than whatever Hollywood poops out of it's arse these days.
There are North Korean films? I'll be honest... I never bothered checking, but do you know of any good ones?
With very few exceptions 2016 was the end of western media as entertainment. From then on it is all agenda and blood libel and resentment-fueled revenge fantasies against White men and Christians.
A few projects were in production before the tipping point and made it past relatively OK, but dont bother "giving it a chance" unless you see a trusted recommendation. The odds arent good enough.
Gyllenhaal apologized for his 'toxic masculinity' or something and praised feminism in an article about him being a forty-something bachelor. Never liked this guy and never will. (Although, Nightcrawler was kind of cool.)
FBI Faggot: Where is that? I don't usually go East of Downtown.
Trans(?) Fat Uggo (in no position of authority): You realize four million Angelenos live East of Downtown?
Faggot: Sorry, my husband is an environmental attorney, okay? We like the beach.
Transfat: That's like the whitest thing I've ever heard.
Faggot: Well, I'm white. I can't help it.
Transfat (again, no position of authority): Save it for Oprah, buddy. We got shit going on.
Alright, at least it cracked me up once. Two faggots at a therapist (because why not), and one's an FBI agent (feds are gay confirmed).
Non FBI Faggot: Whhhaaaaa, why don't you pay attention to me?
FBI Faggot: Bruh, I'm doing my thing, moving up, I have my own unit.
Therapist: What kind of unit?
FBI Faggot: Special Agent in Charge of L.A. Bank Division.
Therapist: People still rob banks?
(Shocked Silence)
FBI Faggot: Kyle, do we have to pay for the dumb questions, or are these ones free of charge?
What can I say, I enjoy people dunking on therapists.
"I'M NOT [A GOOD MAN]!" - Last words of last remaining Straight White Man in the movie, as his own black brother shoots him through the heart.
Dude, I'm...so...fucking...done.
I was already really fucking annoyed, but would have said it wasn't a "woke" movie, just a Modern™ movie for Modern Audiences™.
And then the only white survivors were the FBI Faggot and the Transfat.
Fuuuuuck yooooouuuu, Hollywood, you pieces of shit.
Sad part is, if you remove the race and sex aspects, this a a fine story. If you notice who is cast in what role...it becomes a very intentional attack.
If every character had been white, or every character had been black, this wouldn't be nearly as much of an issue. But they have to throw specific and dedicated casting choices into it.
Again, perhaps the worst part is that this actually isn't the worst movie. Certainly not the worst modern movie. I'm sure if you're not paying attention, it's a relatively enjoyable classic 'crime doesn't pay' sort of crime thriller.
But, as I started with...if you know, you know. White people bad. Blacks good. Whamen good.
I'd love to go back to when things weren't so fucking retarded.
for a palette-cleanser, look up source code from 2011
another jake gyllenhaal flick, pretty well done, heavy on the sci-fi though so if you're not into it...I dunno.
Look up the monkey king series by China. I think it's 2008? Just a fun story. The second one has a lot of fun adventure stuff. Chinese fantasy is fun.
I was re-watching The Shield and it's basically the same thing, but came out in the early 2000s.
All white males are corrupt and/or pieces of shit. The one competent white male is a clown that everyone makes fun of (and whose wife left him/cheated on him).
There are two pure good cops in the precinct; one is a black woman who is a genius and honorable (wants to root out corruption). The other is a black man who is also a repressed gay Christian (fucking hell lol). He's not as competent, but along with the lady, is one of the only two cops trying to do good and push back against corruption.
So yeah... Once you notice "black characters and women good; white characters and men bad (or at least comic relief/a joke)"; you may realize it goes farther back than you thought.
On the other hand, the tall black cop (who goes gay) is now -- in real life -- in jail for brutally beating (murdering?) his wife.
2008 is the soft cutoff, 2014 is the hard cutoff for anything in English.
And i see nothing wrong with that.
You're no longer worth my time, retard.
Bring something new to the table.
Well, if the show you were watching had the opposite. i have a feeling you'd be sucking it's dick. but feel free to ignore me i'll comment on all of your post i find stupid. cheerio.
Just for argument sake, can you name a movie that shows the opposite?
i don't know any.
Kind of the point
well it's a hypothetical man.
If it were only one like that, then sure, whatever. Instead, repeat it in every goddamn movie since at least 2014. Are you ok with that?
Because that's the problem. They're all like that. And have been for a decade or better.
At best, if the main character is a white guy, he's allowed to be competent, though he'll still probably be shown up a few times by a woman or other Diverse characters. Otherwise, white men are always evil, idiots, or evil idiots. Occasionally they'll be be semi-competent comic relief.
That's the problem, you dimwit. Not this one particular movie.
Oh i know. i will engage in whataboutism here. let's say there was a movie that did the exact opposite... who cares? i get it, i don't like shows when the whole plot is making the white straight guys dummies, or complete asshole because of... reasons. however. there is a time, and place where you can have white straight guys be total buffoons. my problem here is if you have it in reverse it probably won't be made. my stance here is i don't have a problem with a show that demonizes blacks or whites. gays or straights, men or women. so long as people can express themselves without fear of censorship, or worrying about getting fired. so to me, shows like these are annoying don't get me wrong. but i'm afraid people, will see this, and go in the opposite direction. where making fun of white straight dudes, will be a taboo or something.
So you've missed the point. It's not about "a" movie. It's about all movies. And TV. And video games.
Well now you're being hyperbolic. remember that meme where you jackasses thought the left think right leaning people were calling engines woke? if you believe everything in entertainment is like that. then you're not gonna get very far in the culture war.
Comment Reported for: Rule 16 - Identity Attacks
Comment Approved: Didn't actually violate that rule yet.
thanks again man.