site banner
PaperclipPerfector  1d ago (text post)   1129 thread views

Friday Fun Thread for May 29, 2026

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

1
Top Bottom Old Controversial Comments
Jump in the discussion.

No email address required.

Just finished Independence Day on Netflix.

I loved it. Despite its two and a half hour runtime, the pacing is great, and the movie goes by very quickly; it only feels like it drags at a couple of points, such as the first alien dogfight over the desert, which lasts a little too long, or the ending, which goes on for about fifteen minutes after the climax.

The movie is a model of 90's racial colorblindness; you have the white hero (President Whitmore), the black hero (Captain Hiller), and the jewish hero (David Levinson) working together to save the Earth, with nobody ever noticing or remarking upon this fact.

Despite the scale of destruction (dozens of cities wiped out, millions dead), the film has a fun, swashbuckly atmosphere. I particularly enjoyed the president's speech, and the way he personally leads the counterattack against the aliens.

Negatives? The Will Smith dialogue can get annoying ("I got to get me one of these!", "Elvis has left the building!", etc.), but thankfully he only gets a third of the screen time. I'm not sure the little boy or (especially) the dog contributed anything to the movie. And why the hell is that officer waving a gun around while looking at a map?

An excellent summer blockbuster. Highly recommended.

Haven't seen that one, but 𝖒𝖔𝖛𝖎𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖉.

  1. A Private Life (2025). 3/5. Jodie Foster as a psychiatrist in Paris who convinces herself that her patient was murdered. RT shows a pretty poor audience rating, but I think it was competently done, even if it was obvious from the start that she wasn't murdered. Foster's character overall feels believable and real.

  2. Le Circle Rouge (1970). 4/5. Classic French heist film. The heist sequence is simply kino, and there's several other scenes that are pretty high quality. The plan isn't revealed until it's put into action, which keeps you rapt. Perhaps a little anticlimactic at the end, and my wife fell asleep.

  3. There Will Be Blood (2007). 5/5. Probably this movie has been discussed to death but I hadn't seen it before. The opening sequence does its best to make oil extraction seem evil and almost demonic, which is a little ridiculous and overwrought, but Day-Lewis's performance is just excellent. A very uncomfortable moment for me when I hear a speech like this and find it not entirely unrelatable:

    I hate most people. There are times when I... I look at people and I see nothing worth liking. I want to earn enough money I can get away from everyone. I see the worst in people, Henry. I don't need to look past seeing them to get all I need. I've built up my hatreds over the years, little by little. Having you here gives me a second breath of life. I can't keep doing this on my own... with these, umm... people. [laughs]

Since you started this, I'll suggest Nomads (1986). Same year as Independence Day (which I've never seen but will now, thanks, @erwgv3g34 .

Roger Ebert, whose reviews I enjoyed reading usually, absolutely hated it. It has a poor rating on IMDB.

I thought it was fantastic. John McTiernan director, before Die Hard put him on the map. Pierce Brosnan, Lesley-Anne Down. I don't know why I like it so much. The soundtrack seems very dated (a lot of Ted Nugent guitar). And the plot at some point just becomes twisted into a confusing pretzel. I don't care. It was a great movie experience for my teenage self (though is saw it on television a year or two after it was released.) The most distracting thing was Brosnan putting on a French accent, but once you get passed that (if you can) it's a great weird ride.

Independence Day was 1996, not 1986. For a really good underrated McTiernan film closet to that, I recommend Last Action Hero from 93, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger with middle-aged Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones) as the villain. It was overshadowed by the Jurassic Park juggernaut, but it's a fantastic meta comedy action film parody. Feels a decade or two ahead of its time, as this kind of self-referential satires became far more common in this century than the last.

My decades collide. You're correct of course. Charles Dance always brings it. I do remember Last Action Hero but don't believe I ever saw it.

What is this place?

This website is a place for people who want to move past shady thinking and test their ideas in a court of people who don't all share the same biases. Our goal is to optimize for light, not heat; this is a group effort, and all commentators are asked to do their part.

The weekly Culture War threads host the most controversial topics and are the most visible aspect of The Motte. However, many other topics are appropriate here. We encourage people to post anything related to science, politics, or philosophy; if in doubt, post!

Check out The Vault for an archive of old quality posts. You are encouraged to crosspost these elsewhere.


Why are you called The Motte?

A motte is a stone keep on a raised earthwork common in early medieval fortifications. More pertinently, it's an element in a rhetorical move called a "Motte-and-Bailey", originally identified by philosopher Nicholas Shackel. It describes the tendency in discourse for people to move from a controversial but high value claim to a defensible but less exciting one upon any resistance to the former. He likens this to the medieval fortification, where a desirable land (the bailey) is abandoned when in danger for the more easily defended motte. In Shackel's words, "The Motte represents the defensible but undesired propositions to which one retreats when hard pressed."

On The Motte, always attempt to remain inside your defensible territory, even if you are not being pressed.


New post guidelines

If you're posting something that isn't related to the culture war, we encourage you to post a thread for it. A submission statement is highly appreciated, but isn't necessary for text posts or links to largely-text posts such as blogs or news articles; if we're unsure of the value of your post, we might remove it until you add a submission statement. A submission statement is required for non-text sources (videos, podcasts, images).

Culture war posts go in the culture war thread; all links must either include a submission statement or significant commentary. Bare links without those will be removed.

If in doubt, please post it!


Rules


Recommended Posts And Communities

Recommended Realtime Chats