Straight Outta Compton has been an enormous success for Universal, and with good reason. In addition to being a very entertaining movie and, in its best moments, a breath of fresh air in the “musical bio-pic” genre, it’s a film that came into being at the perfect time. During a year in which systemic racism and police violence against black Americans have been more public and undeniable than ever, Straight Outta Compton is a literal and figurative middle finger to the white establishment, a highly satisfying statement of rebellion in motion-picture form.
This article won’t be a review of the film (for what it’s worth, I thoroughly enjoyed it, but felt like it lost the plot somewhat in its last half hour). Instead, I’d like to examine the film’s representation of race and gender, as it’s a fascinating counterpart to the modern, whitewashed blockbusters.
Thanks for joining us for another episode of Unknown Hosts! This week, technical difficulties left us minus one host, but we still managed to put on a solid show! Check below for timecodes to specific topics!
0:00 – Intro (What’s New, What Are We Playing?) 2:16 – Happy Birthday Sega Dreamcast! 4:49 – Stream Viewing and Casting, and TwitchCon 5:40 – Giveaway Tease: Hitman Absolution 11:07 – The Flock
—11:46 – The Flock Video Review
The Good, The Bad, and The Kappa 17:27 – Pikmin 4 Very Close to Completion 22:56 – Square-Enix Imagines a “Shared Movie Universe” of All Its Major Properties 27:58 – Ubisoft Accounces Assassin’s Creed/Rabbids Theme Park 31:38 – PewDiePie Surpasses 10 Billion Views on Youtube 39:01 – Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain Suffers from Major Server Issues 43:31 – Fallout 4 Announces DLC Plans
I won’t mince words: Winter’s Tale was a disaster upon release. With a 13% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and a worldwide gross of only $30 million, there is no world in which Warner Bros didn’t regret releasing this film. The rumor is that it was a long-gestating passion project of Akiva Goldsman, who had worked on so many films with so many powerful players in Hollywood that he was able to call in favors and assemble an all-star cast and crew to bring his dream project to life. Every one of them likely wishes they had just said no.
That being said, it could have probably worked better than it did. Right from the start, Winter’s Tale establishes that Colin Ferrell’s Peter Lake has existed in multiple time periods, that he was shipped out in a tiny Moses-boat when he was still a baby, that everybody has a “miracle” for somebody else if the two can meet, and that there is a dog spirit (guardian?) that shows up to rescue Lake in the form of a horse, which is actually a Pegasus. When the Pegasus-dog-horse showed up, I checked my blu-ray timer to see how long the movie had taken to establish all this nonsense. It had been seven minutes and thirty seconds. Winter’s Tale wastes no time leaping into crazytown.
(The first half of this article is spoiler-free. The second half contains only light spoilers, but goes into the game’s mechanics in a way that could limit one’s enjoyment. The transition is clearly marked, so if you intend to play Until Dawn, please do not read that section until you are finished)
If you’ve played Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, Life is Strange, or any of the recent Telltale Games series’, then you have a pretty good idea of what to expect from Until Dawn. Dawn uses the same “Your actions have consequences” framework as its predecessors, and works with the same combination of choice and quicktime events that made most of them enjoyable.
The difference, here, is the genre. Unlike the heavy drama often found in these narrative-choice games, Until Dawn exists wholly within the b-movie slasher-horror realm. All major characters are teenagers (appropriately portrayed by actors and actresses well into their 20s and 30s), the location is a creepy house hidden away from civilization on a mountain (with a series of cabins, mineshafts, and an insane asylum to boot!), and there are tons of cheap scares and red herrings to keep things interesting.
Thanks for joining us for another episode of Unknown Hosts! This week we unveiled our BRAND NEW LOOK (thanks Lucid!), and were PACKED with topics for The Good, The Bad, The Kappa, chat suggestions, and random tangents, so check it out and feel free to leave your opinions in the comments!
1:45 – Lucid Nightmare’s Graphic Design
3:28 – Our New Look!
5:42 – What’s New? What Are We Playing?
9:27 – Giveaway Tease: Penny Arcade Episodes 1 and 2
9:49 – Green Man Gaming Bioshock Infinite Bargain
10:52 – Mad Max PC Port Update
11:43 – Portal Stories Mel “Story Mode” Update
The Good The Bad The Kappa
13:30 – New GBK Art
13:50 – Trine 3 Developers Apologize for Upsetting/Disappointing Fans
17:54 – No Server Browser for Star Wars Battlefront
23:17 – Xbox One Elite Console Unveiled
28:37 – Konami Made Employees Give Up Vacation Time to Ship Peace Walker on PC the Same Day as on Consoles
33:12 – FTC (Settles) Investigation into Microsoft-Machinima Deceptive Youtube Marketing
38:20 – PS4 Update Adds Major Features, Including Youtube Streaming
41:32 – Youtube’s Automated Copyright Protection Causing Issues with Super Mario Maker
46:49 – Steam Getting an Uncensored Sex Game
55:52 – Hulu Plus ad-free for $11.99
1:12:55 – Lucid and Graphic Arts Discussion
1:14:30 – Lucid’s Door “Giveaway”
Chat Topics
1:16:03 – Rock Band 4 – No RB1 Instrument Combatibility
1:18:48 – Sword Coast Legends, Battlefront Open Beta, and Black Ops 3 Beta
1:19:37 – Call of Duty and eSports
1:22:29 – Sword Coast Legends
1:24:00 – Evolve Free Weekend: Will it Spike Interest?
1:26:00 – “If you want to get into MOBAs, here’s Infinite Crisis…and, it’s gone”
1:27:17 – Rainbow Six Siege
1:28:18 – Big Game Launches for September and October: Metal Gear Solid V, Mad Max, Destiny: The Taken King
1:31:13 – Dishonored: Definitive Edition
1:32:08 – Game Giveaway: Penny Arcade – On the Rainslicked Precipice of Darkness, Episodes 1 and 2
—1:36:00 – 1:37:06 – Steam Competitor Tangent
1:40:57 – Plugs
1:43:57 – About Lucid Dreaming
1:51:19 – Kingsman
