RECENT VIEWINGS (Bad Movie Thread!)

[claws]

Just like those Ghibli-style videos, a new wave of AI-generated shorts has flooded feeds with titles like "You Wake Up And It's Christmas 1988," "1985," or "1981." Most likely churned out by content farms, these clips aim straight for pure nostalgia, evoking an era explicitly branded as "a long time before Wi-Fi."

These videos follow a remarkably predictable formula. They almost always feature a grandmother at the stove stirring pots while a younger relative puts the finishing touches on the Christmas roast. You can reliably expect a POV walk through a mall, shopping carts loaded with discontinued treats, a shot from inside a car driving through snowy streets, a husband hanging lights on the roof, and a cozy POV of someone holding a warm drink while watching a Christmas movie on TV.

Technically, the quality is surprisingly high, and I've noticed many are built using picture-to-video live-action techniques. Pop-culture nods default to Back to the Future or Home Alone, while the soundtrack in nearly every single video is Whitesnake's "Is It Love."

Lately, though, the trend has taken a weird turn, shifting its focus toward attractive young women, even featuring wildly out-of-place women in skimpy outfits cooking holiday meals. At this point, it honestly feels like being trolled.

Naturally, Summer and Autumn spin-offs of these 20-to-30-second clips have started popping up, too. It was fun for the novelty at first, but it's gotten far too repetitive, and it's obvious that the creators know next to nothing about what life in the 1980s was actually like.

[M.10rda]

Good for you for reviewing these trends. I am unsurprised that the ladies in the videos have gradually started appearing w/ less clothes on. The Internet!

[claws]

The sad thing is these videos and shorts were made for mass consumption, for views, likes and clicks.
No creativity or passion in their "art." I guess that is why these videos come off as unintentional funny.

[LilCerberus]

Tonight's Stinker
The Devil's Mistress(1965)
https://youtu.be/sgh_mzxpIIM?si=r90DsBFolgekM5zS

Four cowboys is riding through the desert, as a narrator delivers a modified quote from Deuteronomy 32:24.....
They stop for the night, & a pair of cowboys determined to stay perpetually drunk make jabs at a naïve young cowboy & how they'd treat an Apache woman, while the leader tries to keep a level head.... Talk turns to some ill gotten loot....
The next day, the spot a cabin.... The leader is uneasy about a lonely cabin in the middle of Apache country, but the other three expect a free meal & maybe an easy night's sleep.....
At the cabin, they find a creepy guy dressed in black with a glued on Amish beard, and his mute wife.....
They get free food, but the leader doesn't go in, as nothing seems right about the situation.... The leader & the young'un decide to ride on, but the two drunks decide to kill the creepy dude & abduct his wife....
At camp that night, one of the drunks kisses the girl & immediately get sick.... The next day, he dies along the trail, & things start going wrong for the other three....

Tries to go for atmosphere by doing a lot of panning through the scenery.... Sound track's okay....
I thought it was okay......

[LilCerberus]

Tonight's Stinker
Missile to the Moon(1958)
https://youtu.be/FDxo09r3wVc?si=-MjyEjFLnxn1xJHJ

Some local cops are looking for a pair of escaped convicts.... Meanwhile, an eccentric millionaire scientist argues with a military leader over whether or not his new rocket & all it's innovative new features will work... There's also the tiny matter of the government taking it over & shoving him aside....
The sheriff shows up at the lab & wants to take a look around the property.... While showing the sheriff around, the scientist sees the two convicts hiding in the rocket, but instead of turning them in, he locks them inside & later blackmails them into helping him fly the rocket.... The scientists partner & his fiancé decide to look for him, & get trapped on the rocket when it takes off....
From there, it turns into an unapologetic remake of Cat-Women of the Moon(1953), with a few deviations....

Maintains a decent pace.... While names, costumes, sets, props & even some footage are recycled, many of the characters are more fleshed out, with the two ex-cons adding an interesting dynamic.....

[claws]

Yellowstone Chaos: Breaking Down Another Bizarre AI "Ghibli" ASMR Video

I just finished watching one of the latest Ghibli-style ASMR videos, and it is an absolute hoot. This time, the setup kicks off with a family of four road-tripping to Yellowstone National Park in a bright pink, Barbie-style RV, only to run smack into a violent thunderstorm. A fallen tree blocks the road, and for reasons known only to the algorithm, the family decides to abandon their perfectly safe vehicle and wander deeper into the forest on foot. Naturally, they stumble upon an abandoned cabin. Before they can even think about getting cozy, chores pile up: cleaning the place, fixing a leaking roof, and setting up a makeshift water purifier, a seemingly mandatory ritual in this genre.

Once they settle in, the narrative goes entirely off the rails. The father suddenly hisses, "Get away from the window" even though no one is standing anywhere near one. They all scramble to a window anyway, just in time to witness a nearby tree get struck by lightning and explode. The resulting fire spreads to the cabin, forcing the father and son to frantically put it out. No sooner is the fire quenched than another tree crashes straight onto the cabin roof. Predictably, the father and son have to drag out a jigsaw to chop it up, which naturally damages the roof all over again, requiring a second round of roof repairs.

After a much-needed breather, the dad leaps out of his chair for a split second, sprints to the door, opens it, slams it shut, and calmly sits back down. Classic AI logic.

With the chaos finally over, the family dives into the standard cooking routine. Once fed, they turn in for the night, crammed all together in a single bed, mirroring the exact sleeping arrangement from the very beginning of the video before their road trip even started. The next morning brings a hearty breakfast, a brief drive in the RV, and, naturally, a second hearty breakfast just down the road.

Character Cast & The Expanding AI Multiverse

The Cast: This particular installment puts the spotlight on the kids: daughter Coca (famously without Cola) and her slightly older brother Ken, who looks unmistakably like a Harry Potter clone. Meanwhile, Mom spends the entire disaster-filled wilderness survival trip wearing a bizarre, vintage-style long dress.

The Genre Expansion: These specific tropes are just the tip of the iceberg. Beyond standard forest cabins and "Treehouse" editions swapping out the RVs, sometimes featuring grandparents or a family pet instead... the genre has spawned bizarre sub-genres. You can find zombie apocalypse spin-offs, cave variants, rainstorm adventures set on ships or trains, alternative Indian versions with a distinct 1990s aesthetic, and rainy UK editions set in cramped hotels or apartments.

[M.10rda]

AI has the same storytelling shortcomings as many 10 year olds.