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RhymesWithTendon posted:I also saw Poor Things, which was a lot of fun but definitely not for everyone. Worth seeing in a full theater if you can, just to see the division in audience reactions. A lot of people at my showing were laughing throughout, but the people sitting next to me clearly hated it because they didn't know what kind of film they were in for. It looks like a quirky Tim Burton kind of thing, which it is to some extent, but there's also a lot of uncomfortable sexual content and gruesome surgery stuff. I've heard it described as a subversion of the "born sexy yesterday" trope, and I think that's accurate. Emma Stone plays sort of a Frankenstein creation whose mind is gradually developing over the course of the film, and she plays that transition really well and brings a lot of physicality. You see her start to develop an understanding of the world as well as her own sexual identity, but various male characters are trying to control her in different ways throughout. Overall it's a good story about a woman taking ownership of her own sexuality (including a non-judgmental depiction of sex work), with a lot of funny, bawdy dialogue. Cool visual style as well, with a lot of stylized sets that look like they were done partly in miniature, and a Technicolor vibe in parts. B+ I liked it, a bit overstuffed and very taboo, I think a 4/5 is on point. Stone and Ruffalo are phenomenal. It's gonna gross a lot of people out, like body dysphoria: the movie, and similar to other Lanthamos films very political under the hood. There's a vibe going on in 2023 of films like this and Beau is Afraid where the directors seem to have a lot of resources atm and know that probably won't be the case next time, so they are just stuffing everything they want to say into the film and not worrying too much if it all works perfectly, and given the understandable cynicism regarding the present moment in the world... they have A LOT to say. Though, where Beau is Afraid largely fell apart for me after the first hour Poor Things feels cohesive throughout.
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Dec 26, 2023 23:52
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 Death Note (2006) The first of several live action adaptations of the Death Note manga series from Japan. I am unsure how faithful it was to the manga since it's been so long, but I did see this when it originally came out and really enjoyed it. Rewatching this, it was still incredibly fun. The twists and turns are great. The CGI demon is serviceable. And the music during the credits is a what the gently caress. Do not watch the Netflix remake, it is poop. 3.5/5 Philthy fucked around with this message at 06:06 on Dec 27, 2023 |
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Dec 27, 2023 05:54
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 Death Note 2: The Last Name (2006) This is technically the second and final part of the series, I guess. We find another death note in play, which complicates things for both Kira and L. The number of twists had to have broken some brains along the way to put this on paper and on film, because drat. I'd put this one a notch below the first, because some of the acting seemed out of place and over the top which became distracting a few times. Overall, it was enjoyable to rewatch these again so many years later. They hold up. The story is still incredibly unique. 3/5
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Dec 28, 2023 03:58
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 Yakuza Apocalypse I have no idea what is going on. The characters have no idea what's going on. No one has any idea what is going on. This is one of those movies you just have to embrace the weird and go with it. You can try and make some sense out of this, and you might get pretty far, but then things happen. Strange things. Hilarious things. Kickass things. And it all looks pretty good throughout. I am completely enjoying these really off the wall movies. 3.5/5
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Dec 29, 2023 05:15
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My theory on this movie is that the writer penned out a completely straight yakuza crime drama with some supernatural trapping for the first draft of the script. Then, they did all subsequent drafts on stronger and stronger hallucinogens. I've been wanting to watch it again, but the subtitles for it on Amazon Prime are out of synch.
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Dec 29, 2023 15:54
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Yeah. I had to dig for a version with the subs in the proper place, and then I was second guessing if the subs were even correct at times. It's showing as on Tubi now. Literally the day I watched it, but it wasn't there earlier in the day. How does a service add new movies on the 28th of December? What the gently caress.
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Dec 29, 2023 16:15
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Terror in Beverly Hills (1989): D Incompetently directed, acted, edited, plotted, and even scored. Stallone's low budget brother - appropriately named "Hack" Stone in this movie - is an ex-Marine working to foil a barely comprehensible "terrorist" plot involving vague, swarthy Middle Easterners kidnapping the president's daughter. The politics of this one, where Middle Easterners are angry at the US for our meddling in their country, and whose demands include Israel releasing "terrorists" from their custody, have aged like a gallon of milk in the summer sunshine; particularly given current events of the past almost three months. This would be much better as a Rifftrax movie; Mike Nelson and company would have a field day with this crap. Standing alone on its (lack of) merits it's hilarious in places and  in others (e.g: in one part, cops pursuing the terrorists in a helicopter are distracted by women sunbathing topless in a truck). Highly recommended if you're a fan of lovely movies like I am, though.
F_Shit_Fitzgerald fucked around with this message at 02:53 on Dec 30, 2023 |
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Dec 30, 2023 02:48
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 Malignant (2021) This was pretty drat awesome. A woman begins to see through the eyes of a murderer who is seeking revenge for being experimented on as a child. Fantastic budget that was used extremely well provides some really cool freaking shots and visual effects. The first half of the movie has some great scares as it's building up, and the second half doesn't play around at all. You can put away your thinking cap for this one and just enjoy the ride. 3.5/5
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Dec 30, 2023 07:41
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Leave the World Behind Starts off promising with the world falling apart and some interesting racial tension about how successful black people still have to appease white people. Unfortunately the movie goes in a well-worn direction in the second half and becomes a modern adaptation of The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street. Black and white Americans need to band together to fight the real enemy: foreigners Update: 2/5 Steve Yun fucked around with this message at 12:11 on Dec 30, 2023 |
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Dec 30, 2023 08:56
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Man, you're a lot more generous than me or anyone else I've seen. That was the biggest piece of poo poo I've watched all year. Some of the dialogue and takes are best described as after-school special leftovers. The cinematography was especially awful in a movie filled with any number of other reasons to hate it. The Starbucks scene made me audibly groan. Absolutely no reason for any of that 10 seconds of film, but that's somehow the least offensive part of this trainwreck. I feel a deep embarrassment for Julia Roberts. The rare 1/5 I end up seeing and with a 2:15 runtime it's the first time I've ever used the play speed feature on Netflix. Watching that back to back after the Snyder movie sucked all the ire I'd built up for it into this giant turd. Speaking of, Rebel Moon - 2/5 and that's being generous, as I alluded to above. The super special lens he developed looked like poo poo in 90% of shots. $500 anamorphics look better than that. That's about all the in-depth criticism it deserves. The Iron Claw will hopefully be a good palate cleanser this week. Bottom Liner fucked around with this message at 10:08 on Dec 30, 2023 |
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Dec 30, 2023 09:57
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Yeahhhhh maybe I’ll knock it down as I mull over it more
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Dec 30, 2023 10:17
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Who the gently caress is Sam Esmail and why does he think he deserves to Kojima his name all over that poster?
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Dec 30, 2023 10:30
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I think the movie only really lands if you watch it with the mindset that it's in the same universe as Mr Robot (which it is). You lose a lot of the ambiguity, but that just seems to have confused viewers anyway.
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Dec 30, 2023 10:44
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Ahhh gently caress it 2/5
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Dec 30, 2023 12:11
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The enemy in LTWB are the super rich, who are architecting the collapse of societal order to create a power vacuum. The main characters all get along in the end because they realize they're being manipulated, the contradiction in the information the dropped propaganda flyers are conveying leading them to believe they're just a tool to rile them up. The characters discuss this on screen. The ending also isn't quite as bleak as it appears given that the event seems to happen during the ending episodes of Mr Robot and that implies that there is still some societal stability, hospitals are working. It isn't a "we can all get along" tale, more a "we should kill and eat the rich" tale, which is more in line with Esmail's typical writing than an invading boogeyman interpretation. SCheeseman fucked around with this message at 12:33 on Dec 30, 2023 |
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Dec 30, 2023 12:30
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SCheeseman posted:The enemy in LTWB are the super rich, who are architecting the collapse of societal order to create a power vacuum. The main characters all get along in the end because they realize they're being manipulated, the contradiction in the information the dropped propaganda flyers are conveying leading them to believe they're just a tool to rile them up. The characters discuss this on screen. The ending also isn't quite as bleak as it appears given that the event seems to happen during the ending episodes of Mr Robot and that implies that there is still some societal stability, hospitals are working. True, it slipped my mind that they were behind it all But even so the “we should get along” message is what people take away from it because that’s what 95% of the movie is strongly focused on
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Dec 30, 2023 13:54
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It doesn’t matter what the message of the film is if every single aspect of it is terrible.
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Dec 30, 2023 16:15
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SCheeseman posted:The enemy in LTWB are the super rich, who are architecting the collapse of societal order to create a power vacuum. The main characters all get along in the end because they realize they're being manipulated, the contradiction in the information the dropped propaganda flyers are conveying leading them to believe they're just a tool to rile them up. The characters discuss this on screen. The ending also isn't quite as bleak as it appears given that the event seems to happen during the ending episodes of Mr Robot and that implies that there is still some societal stability, hospitals are working. All the characters in the movie fall into the 2-5% and are ultimately just kind of inconvenienced by the collapse of society, which would feel like good satire except the rest of the movie is so tone deaf and poorly executed that its hard to give it a charitable read Edit: or rather, this seems to be the point but then you’re left with a shoddily made movie about miserable people you’re rooting against going through largely stakes-free trials morestuff fucked around with this message at 17:27 on Dec 30, 2023 |
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Dec 30, 2023 17:22
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Eh....since it's on queue in this thread.....I watched LTWB too. I thought it was pretty good.....and I appreciated that there wasn't some wacky twist. 7.5/10
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Dec 30, 2023 18:42
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 The Passenger (2023) A psychological drama that was somehow billed as a horror thriller? I'm not going to complain too much because this was a very good movie despite expecting one thing and getting something completely different. While there is definitely some horrific moments by pretty much everyone's standards, I find it hard to define this movie because of it. Two coworkers start their shift, and one has a mental break which leads to a lot of bad decisions. The interactions between both actors are phenomenal, and it just kept me enthralled. The movie is very tense, unsettling, and also very sad. 3.5/5
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Dec 31, 2023 01:21
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Poor Things - Yorgos with a Tim Burton / Terry Gilliam riff that works better for me than nearly anything those guys ever put out
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Dec 31, 2023 08:45
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Ta Ra Rum Pum - 2007 153 min, Hindi Language w/English Subtitles lol this was actually quite good. We were desperately searching for something to watch with our 9 year old, found this. guess I can check off “Hindi NASCAR musical kids movie” Pros: Stock Car Racing! Dance numbers! Cute kids! Non subtle economic warnings (credit cards/installments/interest bad!), more dance numbers!, great POC cast, snappy writing!, accurate portrayal of us healthcare system!, shot nicely, only a couple of things felt awkward eg rotating overhead pans when starting into some car racing scenes. Cons: reckless driving in NYC, reckless pursuit of $$$$$$$
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Dec 31, 2023 16:53
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morestuff posted:Poor Things - Yorgos with a Tim Burton / Terry Gilliam riff that works better for me than nearly anything those guys ever put out Similarly, El Conde is Wes Anderson-esque but better than anything he's done in years. It's a riot. Beautifully shot too. 4/5.
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Jan 1, 2024 00:37
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 Suitable Flesh This started out really well with a great Lovecraftian premise. It also had a pretty solid ending. However, everything in the middle feels like it was total filler, which consisted of body swapping horny. It was a bore, and tiring to watch. The ending payoff wasn't great enough to be worthwhile. It did have a fantastic top 10 kill scene that I hadn't seen anywhere else yet! 2.5/5
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Jan 1, 2024 00:47
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 Last Night in Soho A fashion designer heads to London to go to college. While there, she ends up having dreams of someone else's life in the 60s. She becomes obsessed with what will happen every night she dreams. Things begin to become clear that not everything is happy go lucky. A very slow burn which leads into quite a payoff. The entire cast was pretty fantastic, this movie was a joy to watch as all the scenery, costumes, and overall style was top notch. Anya Taylor-Joy is also one of those people I can just stare at forever. Overall, a great psychological horror. 4/5
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Jan 2, 2024 06:32
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 Dead Heat (1988) Joe Piscopo's biceps and a guy who played a rebel officer in Empire Strikes Back star in this zombie flick from the 80's as police detectives who get yelled at for parking tickets right after 15 of their colleagues were just gunned down an hour earlier. Zombies are robbing stores with uzis and the mystery must be solved before the city runs out of police. Sadly, I missed this one growing up. A comedy horror that is pretty fun all the way through. Special effects here are pretty great. Especially the big biker dude and the butcher shop insanity. I had to rewatch the biker scene twice because it was just cool looking. The comedy is groan worthy for the most part, with a few exceptions that caught me by surprise. This was a pretty good watch. 3/5
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Jan 3, 2024 01:37
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 Torture Dungeon (1970) In medieval England, the 1960s counterculture is ramping up for the 1970s. This should be a terrible movie, but I was entertained by everything going on. From the naked frolicking mudwrestling to the ménage à trois with a humpback, I couldn't look away. Half the scenes end with either the camera spinning or someone screaming, or both. You might even catch the cameraman cough once or twice! If only the local renn faires were this fun. 3/5
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Jan 3, 2024 05:14
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The Conjuring 2. Watched it for the first time since I saw it in the theater. I forgot how good it was. The direction, camerawork, script, cast, acting, and tone are all so drat good for a mainstream horror film. The positive ending with the two leads dancing with that Elvis song had me moved. It’s rare for sequels to top their predecessors, especially in the horror genre. 5/5
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Jan 3, 2024 07:32
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I've been wanting to rewatch that one. The Conjuring 2 was my favorite of the series, it's really good!
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Jan 3, 2024 15:41
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Went back and finished White Noise after bouncing off it previously. Glad I did, as it clicked for me this time that it’s kind of an absurdist National Lampoons film. 3/5, pretty good time.
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Jan 3, 2024 15:42
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Philthy posted:
That jail cell scene near the end tho. Also the woman in that scene is the Aussie stunt woman that's in many things including Deathproof.
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Jan 3, 2024 18:43
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falz posted:Also the woman in that scene is the Aussie stunt woman that's in many things including Deathproof. Zoe is from New Zealand and you never, I repeat never call a kiwi an Aussie
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Jan 3, 2024 19:49
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 Sister Death (2023) A sister joins a haunted convent. This movie is really, really well done. Everything looks amazing, and it's really creepy throughout. The special effects are amazing. However, the story felt a little thin. The interactions between the other sisters were strangely absent despite what was happening. It's a solid film, otherwise. 3/5 Philthy fucked around with this message at 00:48 on Jan 4, 2024 |
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Jan 4, 2024 00:46
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 Demon City Shinjuku (1988) Fantastic art and animation. Part of Tokyo is taken over by demons, and a high school kid must save the world with his super anime powers. Most of the movie is a boss run. Lots of fun fights and interesting characters. This is about average as far as animes go. I really did appreciate the amazing artwork, though. Very cool. 3/5
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Jan 4, 2024 06:11
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The Iron Claw definitely lived up to the hype for me. Great performances across the board and well crafted all around. Leans on a few genre conventions, but that didn't matter much to me because the emotions all hit really well. 4/5.
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Jan 4, 2024 07:11
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Broadcast Signal Intrusion is a waste of time and a waste of Chicago's cool history of pirate broadcasts 1waste/time Upsidads fucked around with this message at 08:17 on Jan 5, 2024 |
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Jan 4, 2024 19:13
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 Tales From the Crypt (1972) A horror anthology with 5 stories being told with a joining tale. Not too bad, all the stories were just alright with no real stinkers and tie to the premise pretty good. I think my favorite of the bunch is tied between "Wish You Were Here" and "Blind Alleys". An enjoyable watch. 3/5
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Jan 5, 2024 01:55
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Night Swim was a bit better than I expected. In some ways it was what it looked like, which is an entry-level horror flick aimed at teens that over-relies on jump scares, and it did seem like the premise was a little half baked and I'm not sure they thought too much about the "rules" behind its own lore. But that being said, it had some things going for it that distinguished it from other PG-13 horror movies. There were some genuinely clever shots and sequences of surrealistic imagery, and the sound design could range from isolating to grotesque at times, in ways that really sold what was happening on-screen. The plot involved sort of a "monkey's paw" situation where good things happened for the characters but came at a cost, and the movie did a good job of making the moments of triumph and wish fulfillment feel vaguely off-putting while the tension of the story steadily ramped up. Personally I always like to add immersion to underwater sequences in movies by holding my breath along with the characters, and there were plenty of opportunities to add anxiety to scenes in this movie that way. Didn't blow me away, but it's not a bad time if you're in the mood for something spooky and disposable. C+
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Jan 5, 2024 17:30
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 Tormented (2009) This was pretty bad. A bunch of bullies drive a kid to suicide, who then comes back to murder them all. No one is likable in this movie. School massacres happen so often these days in real life (Even back in 2009), it's just kind of weird to see someone make a movie about it with a horror twist added. None of the kills were entertaining, either. 1/5
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Jan 5, 2024 22:27
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| # ? May 16, 2024 01:17 |
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Bottom Liner posted:The Iron Claw definitely lived up to the hype for me. Great performances across the board and well crafted all around. Leans on a few genre conventions, but that didn't matter much to me because the emotions all hit really well. 4/5. Definitely same. I don't think I've ever seen Zac Efron in anything and he really impressed me, as did Jeremy Allen White. The scene where Zac is saying goodbye to his brother actually choked me up. The performances all felt very real.
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Jan 5, 2024 23:28
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