YMS

**YourMovieSucks**, or **YMS** for short, real name **Adam**, also called **Adum** (since there's too many Adams), is a movie critic who runs YourMovieSucks.org and its YouTube channel of the same name

## History

### Foreshadowing

During EFAP 2, MauLer, Rags, and Wolf learned that YMS had left a lengthy comment on the Patrick Willems video they were covering, which they read out after finishing the video. Adam initially copy-pasted his comment from a reddit thread about the video, saying he felt Patrick's distinction between criticisms that matter and don't matter was fairly arbitrary and even contradictory, and it felt elitist to tell people that certain parts of their experience with a film weren't worth commenting on, especially since those things can take someone out of a movie just like anything else can. He later edited his comment to add on a bit more, stating he found it odd Patrick considered character actions not worth criticizing but character motivations to be worth it, since one impacts the other, and concluded by saying many creators put painstaking work into making their story as tight as possible and to dismiss that quality as unimportant can devalue that work.

Adam was told that MauLer and Co were reading his comment on stream, and joined the Chat during the second half of it to say hello and lurk

### vs *Kimba the White Lion*

> "Wa wawaaa, wa-wa, waaa wa-wa, waaa wa-wa waaa / Wa wawaaa, wa-wa, waaa wa-wa, waaa wa-wa WAAA, wa wa-wa waaa"
>
>

> - *Kimba the White Lion* soundtrack
>
>

While working on his review of *The Lion King*, Adam looked into the popular belief that *The Lion King* had plagiarized manga and anime *Kimba the White Lion*. His research, much of which he livestreamed, led him so far down the rabbithole that it warranted compiling into its own video rather than an aside in his *Lion* *King* review. In May of 2020, Adam released his 2 1/2-hour video on the topic, combing through the various claims and finding that much of the cited parallels between the two were vastly different in context or simply the result of both featuring African animals as main characters, and most of the more direct parallels cited were from *Kimba* content that was released after *The Lion King* was. His video also touched on the broader topic of similarities between works of fiction as well as his own insights into the actual content of *Kimba the White Lion*.

MauLer would later promote Adam's video in Part 3 of his critique of *The Force Awakens*, after showing a clip from Adam's *Civil War* review as an example of audience responses to throwaway lines

### EFAP Movies

YMS joined MauLer, Rags, Fringy, and Metal for EFAP Movies 14 to watch Extraterrestrial, a movie he had apparently seen before but had no memory of watching. He cringed at the cliched montage of the characters doing nonspecific partying, and could not predict whether or not the dog would die, but did predict it would be the one to sense the aliens. YMS had forgotten how generic-looking the aliens in the movie were, which MauLer had eagerly hoped for, and correctly identified Jacob "Jacob Trumbly" Tremblay. He explained that he had thought he was starting to remember the movie but was actually remembering a different shitty alien movie from the year prior, and stood by his previous rating of a 1/10, adding that he would rate it a 1 twice if he could. He noted that the ending shot was better than the entire rest of the movie, and looked up the infamously self-named Vicious Brothers who had directed the film, learning that they are not even actually brothers

### On Reviewing Partially-Watched Movies (ft MovieBob)

Adam got himself into some hot water by tweeting out his defense of why he will review films that he hasn't watched in their entirety. Many people took issue with this, including one MovieBob, leading some to cite this as a rare MovieBob W. Adam clarified that any time he doesn't finish a film he states as much in his review for the sake of transparency, and any dedicated video he makes will only be on a film he's watched fully, with only his bulk reviews of things like film festivals including partially-watched films. Adam ended up changing the titles of these bulk reviews to include the word "impressions" to differentiate them semantically from more dedicated reviews.

MauLer and Fringy joined Adam on his stream to discuss the topic, as well as pick his brain about the ins and outs of reviews and where the line is drawn on what falls under the definition of the word "review"

### vs *Lion King* 2019

> "JON!"
>
>

TBA

### vs *Final Destination*

> "Get over it!"
>
>

YMS joined MauLer, Rags, Fringy, Jay, Metal, JLongbone, and shoe0nhead for Halloween's month-long *Final Destination* arc, recorded October of 2021 and released throughout October of 2022. Due to scheduling errors he was 2 hours late, and so the rest of the gang watched *Karen* together, Adum not considering himself to have missed much. He described his experience having grown up watching the films and enjoying the first three moreso than the latter two, then as the film opened he mentioned how the closeup shots of fans would been very effective in Korea where there is a superstition about indoor fans suffocating people. He found both the pre-9/11 airport security and the unrealistically spacious airplane amusing, but questioned the logistics of people thinking the airplane was sabotaged after it crashed, feeling as though Alex should have been kept in custody over it. He had forgotten that Death actually does physically appear in reflective surfaces in this movie, and questioned if there being a set order for eveyone's deaths made the other characters invincible until it was their time, as well as how there could be a set order for the protagonists' deaths when surely other people worldwide would have died in the meantime, leading MauLer to suggest that the order is contained to localized bubbles. There was a more generalized discussion of what even counts as an attempt on Death's part, YMS asking why Alex' premonition counted as cheating Death and other things all the way down to not choking on your food every time you eat don't count, especially when the Rube Goldbergs that end up killing the protagonists are half-based on their own actions. The conclusion that was reached, aided by the random 6-month gap between the penultimate and last death as well as MauLer bringing up that Death could just induce aneurysms in everyone, is that Death was bored and decided to do a little trolling. Once the film was over, Rags suggested the movie would have been better making Death an actual character, though YMS countered that Death being faceless gives a more relatable "this could happen to me" anxiety to the deaths, which Rags agreed would work if not for the cartoonish Rube Goldbergs that end up killing people. YMS' rating of the movie went down from a 6/10 to a 4, fitting in with the 4s and 5s given by the rest of the cast

### Peeing

YMS joined MauLer, Rags, and Fringy for EFAP 248 to talk about a stream he had done looking at an interview Russell Brand had done with Critical Drinker. The stream took place on a Wednesday rather than the usual Saturday because it was the only day he had free (though he did end up having to reschedule a Patreon hangout when he realized he had scheduled it the same day). Humorously enough, some had been led to believe MauLer had talked YMS into taking down his stream privately, though it turned out it was actually just to fix an editing flub. After MauLer took a quick minute to turn off his alarm clock (his house is so long that it takes a minute to walk to and from the other end of it), FutureMauLer, FutureRags (he'll be there in a few minutes), FutureFringy, and FutureYMS took a look at PastYMS taking a look at PastDrinker and PastRussell Brand. PastYMS laid out that he had heard both positive and negative things about Drinker here and there, with some asking for him to be on the Sardonicast and others wanting him not to be, and so wanted to see what it was about him that appealed to people, mentioning him having landed interviews with bigger names like Russell Crowe as evidence that he must be resonating with people in some way. FutureYMS explained that he chose the interview with Russell Brand since it was just Drinker talking about broad topics rather than a specific video that may only be a narrow slice of his content, whereas MauLer would have recommended a positive review, a negative review, and a review of a more obscure movie to give a good sampling, and felt that the Russell Brand interview would have been more filtered through what Brand wanted to talk about.

PastYMS described the gist of what he got from Drinker's content as "Hollywood's woke now," to which MauLer described the bulk of what Drinker talks about as just being movie writing, only bringing up political topics when he felt as though the movie itself did, though more politically-charged clips may be the ones that circulate. PastYMS figured Drinker seemed to make videos less focused on film as an art form, which MauLer completely disagreed with. FutureYMS clarified that he felt Drinker's channel was more skewed towards mainstream films rather than ones that try to say something new. MauLer asked if he would say the same of EFAP, and FutureYMS ultimately answered no, and added that the more typical a movie is the less art it is. Fringy asked him what he considered to be art, and FutureYMS answered that anything can be art since anything has the capacity to invoke an emotional response within people, but that just like how everything is technically subjective but some things are more objective than others, some things can be more artistic than others, and the more a piece of art does something new rather than recreate the same experience the more artistic it is. He figured that Drinker may attract viewers who are more into the political angle rather than the movies themselves, and MauLer asked if similar could be said of most YouTube critics, to which FutureYMS ultimately agreed that most YouTube critics would attract people who are interested in movies more as entertainment, but not so much those who are into conspiracy theories.

At this point, FutureYMS went to go pee. PastYMS recounted how his friend's sister had fallen down a conspiracy theory rabbithole and believes the elites want to force people to eat bugs, and when he asked her boyfriend what movie reviewers he watches, the only one he listed was Drinker, which will always stick with him. FutureRags figured that Drinker has broad enough appeal that basically any type of person might watch him, even Rags' dad watches him, and when FutureYMS returned from peeing, MauLer asked him if he thought that was a fair thing to open with, to which he answered he only brought it up as an anecdote and specified as much, feeling it was better to be upfront about any potential biases he had going in. MauLer asked how he would feel if a similar anecdote was told about either of them, to which FutureYMS answered he only considered the connection relevant since Drinker is often criticized for culture war stuff. MauLer expressed concern that YMS' audience is already inclined against Drinker, while FutureYMS disagreed and felt it was half and half, citing a highly-rated comment on his VOD that gave a balanced summary of the stream. MauLer was happy to agree that there was no malice behind him bringing up the anecdote, but felt that strategically it wasn't fair to Drinker.

PastYMS wished that Drinker had a better media diet, though FutureYMS had already conceded while he still feels it could be healthier he had learned in the interrim it was more varied than he had initially thought, PastYMS took issue with Drinkers' series being titled Why Modern Movies Suck when it was just focused on studio movies, whereas MauLer was in agreement with Drinker that movies are noticeably worse now than they have been in past decades. FutureYMS asked if in those videos Drinker clarified he only meant mainstream movies, and while MauLer was uncertain he answered that regardless that would be made clear by the movies he uses as examples, though YourMovieSucks still considered it likely the title could lead someone to thinking he meant all movies

TBA

## Trivia

* Adam gave *Captain Marvel* a 4/10, while he gave *Glass* a 1/10
* He once worked at a Blockbuster

## Quotes

* "He likes bob chipman because he's in bed with journalists at polygon and kotaku" - YMS in Chat, on Patrick Willems, EFAP 2
* "So yeah YMS, not only are you white, but you're wrong about that too" - MauLer, EFAP 2
* "bazinga" - in Chat, EFAP 2
* "This was made by nobody" - EFAP Movies | Extraterrestrial
* "This is uh, fuckin Keanu Reeve time travel movie, what's it called?... I got *Tucker and Dale* in my head, there's another- two character name movie"
* "The Vicious Brothers, yeah! How vicious are they?"
* "It's foreshadowing the inevitable probing"
* "I gotta tell you, that is pretty high on the list of the stupidest things I've ever seen in my life"
 "He must be new to the force"
 - A cop and YMS, EFAP Movies | Extraterrestrial
* "There are few things as cringeworthy as compilations of filming your actors pretending to have fun and party when they're really being told to do it, and it's so awkward. When you try to film them like dancing and shit, and you have like no choreography or coordination"
* "*Jeepers Creepers*, directed by a pedophile"
* "If you know he's out there-"
 "'He'?"
 - Rags and YMS, EFAP Movies | Extraterrestrial
* "When I watched Cloverfield, I'm thinkin about the girl passed out on the couch at the beginning, what happened to her? I wanna see a movie where people are tripping on acid and then a giant alien invasion happens"
* "They are citizens of space, and they must obey the president of space"
 "Elon Musk"
 - Rags & YMS, EFAP Movies | Extraterrestrial
* "All Aliens Are Bastards, AAAB"
* "Alan is an anagram for alien, if you rearrange the letters, yeah"
 "and add a few in"
 "and anal"
 - Rags, MauLer, & YMS, EFAP Movies | Extraterrestrial
* "Have you seen it, by any chance, or-"
 "I don't want to"
 - MauLer and YMS on *Karen*, EFAP Movies | Final Destination
* "Dear Slim, I wrote you but you still ain't callin / I left my cell, my pager, and my home phone at the bottom / I sent two letters back in Autumn, you must notta gottem / There prolly was a problem at the post office or something... I could keep going, but let's not" - EFAP Movies | Final Destination
* "Air is scary though"
* "Ah, pre-9/11 air travel"
* "Death is not the end"
 "It will be for you if you harass my students"
 "She just threatened to prevent his afterlife"
 - an evangelist, a teacher, and YMS, EFAP Movies | Final Destination
* "Dear Mr 'I'm Too Big to Call or Write My Fans' / This'll be the last package I ever send your ass"
* "The whole movie is just a regular flight with some scary music"
* "Mm, something smells like ham"
* "Oh yeah, I left my pipebomb on the plane"
* "'You can have France at home,' it's just Quebec"
* "Get over it! Grow up!"
* "Yeah, it's almost like kids suck at acting"
 "I bet if you had kids, you'd say they're great little actors, and put em on the fridge"
 "I would never lie to my children. 'Yeah, you're great little actors, acting like a little bitch. You're grounded'"
 - YMS and MauLer, EFAP Movies | Final Destination
* "Sometimes I cut myself just to see how much it bleeds / It's like adrenaline cuz pain is such a sudden rush for me"
* "Quick, pull your pants down so at least it looks like you tried to- this is more embarassing than auto-erotic asphyxiation"
* "She's like, 'I was psychic too but just not as much... I was helping!'"
* "If he was pulling at the wire, he wasn't trying to kill himself"
 "Well he could've changed his mind"
 "Yeah I think a lot of people who kill themselves do [chuckle]"
 "The perfect thing to laugh at, anyway-"
 "I know, Adam's like, 'hahaha, sometimes people change their mind when they're killing themself'" - Alex Browning, Rags, YMS, MauLer, and shoe, EFAP Movies | Final Destination
	+ "WHAT! It's TRUE! This is reality, get over it!"
* "Oh is that what we're doing, Death is like a- Death is trying to kill them all?"
 "Ding ding ding ding ding ding!"
 - Rags & Adam, EFAP Movies | Final Destination
* "Pictures in my head of the final destination"
 "Good song! And he says 'final destination' in the lyrics! Way to go, Trent Reznor, you did it! They said the title!"
 - Trent Reznor and YMS, EFAP Movies | Final Destination
* "He should just yell, 'This coffee shop's gonna blow up!' and run away and see if they all-"
* "Enough! They died, and we lived! Get over it!"
 "Yeah get over it!" - Terry Chaney and YMS, EFAP Movies | Final Destination
* "Death's just doin a little trolling, okay?"
* "That guy looks like, like OJ mixed with Tom Cruise"
* "These are basically just trickshots"
* "At a certain point it's like, 'why live?'"
* "She's a good person cuz she's trying to save the dog!"
 "Yeah but the dog's invincible until everybody else dies"
 - Rags and YMS, EFAP Movies | Final Destination
* "It's a good thing you can visually see electricity"
* "Y'know I just can't believe we got on a plane again"
 "I can't believe you got on a plane again either"
 - Clear Rivers and YMS, EFAP Movies | Final Destination
* "There should be a rule like, you kill someone else and you're good"
* "There's just something, y'know, something I can't figure out"
 "Get over it!"
* "'Clear, I know you were bullshitting me when you said you were psychic too'"
* "So the ending just told us, as a big reveal, it keeps cycling"
 "And there's no reason why there was a 6-month gap other than he does a little trolling"
 - MauLer and YMS, EFAP Movies | Final Destination
* "Oh, the main character had autism and it was the next step in human evolution!"
* "At the time it was like a unique idea"
 "Yeah well at the time banning gay marriage was a unique idea!"
 - shoe and YMS, EFAP Movies | Final Destination
* "There's very few people on the internet that I will just publicly say I don't have any intellectual respect for at all and xQc is one of them" - EFAP 248
* "What I've noticed is that every beach turns you old if you think about it" - EFAP 248
* "Because of recent drama, just wanna make sure, YMS do we have your permission to react to your video?"
 "I mean you don't need my permission because we're providing substantive commentary and criticism over top of it-"
 "Thanks for going with the meme"
 - Rags and YMS
* "If we're talking about like, definitions, or the philosophical definition that I would have, I would say everything's art, I would say life's fuckin art, right. So when I say that something's like, more or less art, it's in the same vein as saying there's no true objectivity but something can be more or less objective. You can have someone in the jury for a crime and it's like, 'okay they know the victim,' that's less objective than someone who doesn't know the victim sitting on the jury, although no one is truly objective, so there's varying degrees of scale without being absolutist about it. I think that anything and everything can be considered art but I would argue that the more artful pieces of media that exist are the ones that are not showing us things that have already been shown before" - EFAP 248
	+ "It's whatever someone makes of it. It is whatever someone experiences that can have them think about something in a different way, right like, this conversation's art. It literally is, like we're producing video content, and it doesn't even have to be- like a conversation in a real room with someone can be art. Something that can influence or alter your experience on this planet and have you think about something, I think that's art"