"I'm not gonna give up on my pursuit to become an autist."
"You should just enjoy the movie by ignoring parts of the movie."
— Adam, paraphrasing the standard fan response to his brand of analyzing.
For added effect, listen to this playlist
while reading.
Adam Johnston (born April 14, 1991) is a film critic, YouTube creator and musician from Vancouver. He most notably runs YourMovieSucks, a movie review show with a YouTube channel that derives its handle directly from a coexisting website. Through the show, he's known for his nasal monotone voice, dry, snarky sense of humor, inquisitive style of explanations, eclectic choices of background music, surreal editing style, and lack of taped material or a narrative/character of any kind.
Outside the long-review YMS series, he does straightforward film reviews not attached to a preexisting series, more informal reviews referred to as Thoughts On, and movie reviews/vlogs known as Quickies (which sometimes aren't that quick but generally are such compared to the length of his YMS videos).
Several major draws to Adam's content are his care for film as an art form rather than any particular genre or style, as well as his pointed and strong opinions towards the works he reviews, which has made him a routine recipient of the He Panned It, Now He Sucks! treatment over the years. He has also been doing videos since 2009 recounting his top ten films of the year, which include indie or foreign films that were made in the year but did not get a wide release at the time. Said videos never end up being released in time with their years, as this gives Adam the space to watch all the films of a certain year he was interested in seeing.
As for that musician part, Adam also runs an indie/alternative rock band called an Unkindness, in which he sings and has played up to 14 separate instrumentsnote . The band has currently put out 4 projects: 2 EPs (4 Songs, The Present), a compilation (Low-Budget Randoms), and a full-length album (10 Years), the lattermost being released after a healthy amount of postponing and rescheduling. They have had a few songs of theirs featured on Rock Band and one of their songs ("Fragments") covered by Blondie. Their full discography is accessible on Bandcamp, and several works are also available on streaming.
Adam's further creative ventures include:
- The Let's Play channel AdumPlaze and its side channel AdumPlazethroughs (which contains unedited gameplay from livestreams)
- His work as a co-host of the film podcast Sardonicast alongside I Hate Everything (and ralphthemoviemaker prior to his 2023 departure)
- His series Adum & Pals, based on full commentary tracks of him and a group of friends riffing in real time on movies and shows (which are released for free), edited down to pair highlights from the commentary with the film/show
Adam himself can be found on Twitter and YouTube and supported via PayPal. YMS can be found on Patreon, Facebook and IMDb, and has a subreddit. AdumPlaze can be found on Patreon, X and Facebook. There is additionally a Twitch account attributed to this channel, although it's more prominently used as a general streaming site for Adam, from which some content is uploaded to the fan-run (and officially co-signed) YMS Highlights channel.
Adam was also once a member of The Amazing Atheist-run entertainment network Not Productive until he left due to commitment issues.
YourMovieSucks.org provides examples of:
- Accentuate the Negative: Some of his reviews run on this (see Jupiter Ascending), but his ratings avoid it as they are meant to be a reliable measure of the movie's quality.
- Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: He points out several of these in The Lion King (2019), as part of a general thesis that the creators, despite creating a very close remake, didn't actually absorb a lot of what was going on.
- In the original film, Scar commanded the hyenas during the initial elephant graveyard plan and rewarded them with food, it's very heavily implied that they've known him for a while based on how they act towards him, and the hyenas are universally depicted as idiots. In the remake, the hyenas have a reasonably smart leader, the food is left out entirely, and Scar only met and recruited them after the elephant graveyard plan, which raises the question of why they're so willing to trust him when they barely know him, he's the brother of the guy that just rampaged through them, and he's offering nothing but his word for an incredibly risky plan.
- In the original film, Scar's plan was to simply kill Simba and Mufasa in the stampede, he told Simba to "work on your roar" as a halfhearted suggestion to keep him occupied while he left to get a "surprise present," and he suggested to Simba that he was responsible for Mufasa's death as an on-the-spot improvisation after Simba survived. The remake mixes all these elements up into the idea that Scar's plan was to frame Simba for killing Mufasa through setting off the stampede by roaring—ignoring that this relies on Simba surviving said stampede, and that Scar choosing to leave Simba now no longer makes sense.
- All Part of the Show: Played for Laughs. Adam purchased an opening-day ticket for The Rise of Skywalker, but was unable to watch it in theaters due to Vancouver's faulty public transportation system. Refusing to buy another ticket and give Disney more money, he opted to watch a pirated version, and the first two minutes of his Quickie review of the film treats the poor-quality cam-rip 100% seriously, and he almost gives it a 10/10.
- He remarks that the Opening Scroll is in an "alien language"note with J. J. Abrams providing (quite poor) English subtitles.
- He comments on Abrams' bold decision to stick it to the man by making his characters have visionsnote of a gambling website ad involving a piñata being hit by a bat.
- He notes the presence of silhouetted ghostsnote .
- Animal Motifs: Equine, as his fursona is a horse. His current face card shows an anthropomorphic horse, and a Running Gag among fans is referring to him as an actual horse.
- Animation Age Ghetto: He has a good time pointing out that the creators of The Lion King (2019) kept pushing for the idea that it was not an animated film, even though by any sane definition, it is one. He claims that nearly all the ideas they bring up in favor of it being live-action have been done by other animated films (for instance, Surf's Up used the idea of filming as if a real camera were being used as part of its Mockumentary formula), and that the claims of seamless hyper-realistic CGI don't hold water when there are parts of the film where the CGI doesn't hold up. This is perhaps best showcased by him pointing out that the film submitted a "For Your Consideration" campaign that attempted to get the film a nomination for Best Picture, but not Best Animated Feature.
- Annoying Laugh: Downplayed, but he does have a notably distinct one.
- April Fools' Day: Put out a review for Ricky Berwick, one of the worst films he'd ever seen (giving it a 6/10). Once the joke seems to be done though, he then reveals a cover of "Fragments", a song from his band, only played poorly on a recorder with the singer being a man who sounds vaguely African.
- As You Know: In his review of The Lion King (2019), Adam points out several scenes where the original film found ways to deliver exposition seamlessly, only for the remake to just have the characters awkwardly tell each other things they both already know instead. For example, while the original had Mufasa remind Scar that Simba was next in line as a demand to show his future king some respect, the remake just has him bring it up without much prompting at the end of the conversation.Adam: "Yes, Scar, it is true that you are upset that you will not be king, and you would be king if Simba wasn't about to be king, but Simba is about to be king, and he is your nephew and you are his uncle and you are also my brother and I am Simba's father."
- Berserk Button:
- Rude filmgoers, as ranted about in his Quickie review of Birdman.
- Poor remakes of excellent films, as seen in his reviews of Quarantine (2008), Oldboy (2013), and Aladdin (2019), among others.
- Adam really doesn't like Lucas Hedges, as expressed when he talks about Manchester by the Sea and Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, which made it all the more shocking for his audience when his mid90s Quickie saw him state that he actually enjoyed Hedges' performance.
- Adam is a big believer in the freedom to express art no matter what it may be. As a result, he gets very angry at the subject of suppressing the freedom to be able to express one's creativity in any way.
- Bait-and-Switch: Adam uses this as an absolutely awesome opening to his Kimba video.Adam: So although he was never able to comment on the controversy at all, those who took it upon themselves to speak for him were upset that Disney never credited him as an inspiration for The Lion King. And of course they should, right? I mean, it's pretty obvious that Kimba the White Lion was used as a blueprint for The Lion King. And if that's not true, then all of these popular videos on the subject were misleading people into believing an exaggerated version of what the controversy is. Well, after watching through and reviewing Kimba, I can definitively say that you have been lied to.
- Catchphrase:
- "X is a shitty movie." How he begins nearly every YMS review.
- "Just don't think about it!" after pointing out a glaringly obvious plot hole.
- Adam starts every review with, "So I just saw [Movie Title] and it was [Analysis (Good/Decent/Bad)]."
- Adam ends most YMS commentaries with "We're all gonna die, Synecdoche."
- In a YMS review, he'll often conclude a quick rundown of all the good things a failed movie had going for it (ex: a talented crew) with a sharp "So what the fuck happened?"
- Corpsing: In his Quickie review of Monster Seafood Wars, the famously monotone Adam is unable to say the name of one of the director's other movies (The World Sinks Except Japan) without giving the slightest chuckle.
- Deadpan Snarker: Adam can deliver long strings of puns, hyperbolic analogies, and snide remarks on a work, all in an almost completely monotonous voice.
-
Designated Hero: A major criticism of 13 Reasons Why on Adum & Pals, to the extent that Adam and co. have called it the most morally bankrupt show they've ever seen. They've mainly taken major issue with the show's extensive efforts to redeem and give sympathy to rapists, murderers, and school shooters as long as they're the protagonist or friends of the protagonists. - Double Standard: Abuse, Female on Male: At one point in his The Amazing Spider-Man 2 review, Adam comments that, at many times, Gwen pissed him off so much he wanted to punch her in the face the instant she came on screen. He then adds a sarcastic addendum:"But only assuming she has a sex change operation in the time it takes for my fist to connect because making jokes that include violence against women is wrong!"
- Dull Surprise: Frequently speaks in a monotone and dry tone of voice in his reviews. Often times this is fine however, as he tends to do so for movies he has either criticism for or does not like. When speaking about films he enjoys more than he dislikes, he tends to have a more casual-sounding tone. In movies he strongly dislikes, including The Lion King (2019) and The Super Mario Bros. Movie, he does sometimes get angry, raise his voice, and laugh sarcastically.
- Early-Installment Weirdness:
- Adam's earliest videos (such as the Quarantine review) were more reminiscent of Mr. Plinkett. It wasn't until later that he developed the more dynamic style of editing and voiceover that he'd come to be known for.
- Several of his early videos had him use recorded footage of himself for various reasons, usually for skits. His newer reviews have mostly done away with this, focusing on describing the story using examples from the movie itself. In his less serious reviews, he'll sometimes use footage of himself, such as his discussion on Neil Breen and his films.
- Ensemble Dark Horse: Adum & Pals immediately take a shine to Zach Dempsey, aka "the Asian kid from 13 Reasons Why". one of the few times they're properly emotionally invested in the series is when they think that Zach died in the car crash at the end of "House Party".
- The Faceless: Averted now, played straight earlier in his career. Adam used a horse mask in Cyberbully, and didn't show his face until the quickies came to be.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus:
- In his Unfriended video, he talks about the idea that it would have been clever if the main character was shown muting apps in the background instead of the Skype call simply fading to nothing while she checked Facebook. Accompanying this point, he has a screencap of a Windows Audio Manager... where all the volume bars are showing various furry porn applications and web pages. Yes, really.◊
- When he checks out the Cool Cat book he got with his copy of the movie in his Cool Cat Saves the Kids review, you can see that he filled in the blanks on one page so that it says, "This Cool Cat book belongs to the Islamic state" and "I like to read it with no clothes on".
- In the same Cool Cat review, when he puts the DVD into his PlayStation 3, you can see a vibrator on the floor.
- In his Only God Forgives review, he at one point describes the film as "all icing and no cake"; at the moment he says "cake", a picture of GLaDOS flashes onscreen.
- In his Unfriended video, he talks about the idea that it would have been clever if the main character was shown muting apps in the background instead of the Skype call simply fading to nothing while she checked Facebook. Accompanying this point, he has a screencap of a Windows Audio Manager... where all the volume bars are showing various furry porn applications and web pages. Yes, really.
- Gambit Roulette:
- During the first segment of Amusement, Adam notes that the killer's whole plan seemingly revolved around a trucker randomly deciding to form a convoy with him and his target, for said trucker to also happen to be driving a mentally ill girl to rehab, for her to jump out of the moving vehicle midway through the drive, and for the trucker to not communicate any of this to anyone and act as if he's a creepy kidnapper for no good reason, all of which are things he should have had no control over and no way of predicting.
- Adam criticizes the way the outcome of the stampede is handled in the The Lion King (2019) version compared to the original for this issue. Specifically; the fact Scar's plan is now changed to seemingly be for Simba to survive, even though it was something he couldn't have been sure would have happened. Compared to the original movie, where it was clear Scar tricked Simba into thinking he was responsible for Mufasa's death because he never intended for Simba to survive, the fact Scar goes out of his way to make Simba more explicitly "guilty" makes no sense and hinged on something he couldn't have guaranteed would happen.
- Go Mad from the Revelation: The trippy montage that plays when it's revealed that M. Night Shyamalan directed After Earth certainly gives off this vibe.
- Hand Wave: His After Earth review stopped every once in a while to let his friends offer bullshit explanations for egregious Plot Holes.
- In the After Earth review, as well as many other videos, he mockingly dismisses things like Artistic License – Physics with "Eh, it's the future!"
- Hopeless with Tech: The Hot Tub Cinema Club event organizers for the Vancouver screening he attended apparently comprised all the people on staff except the tech guys. Not only did they not know how to get a legal copy of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy in time for the showing, forcing them to use a pirated copy (a pirated YIFY copy, which for anyone in the torrent space means an extremely low-bitrate copy that's basically just upscaled 480p), but they were playing the film using the notably shoddy and outdated QuickTime Player despite having VLC already installed. The film didn't have audio until they finally restarted the computer about twenty minutes in, they attempted to restart the film where it had left off rather than letting it play from the beginning with audio, and when no one could hear it over the sounds of the crowd they didn't know how to download subtitles off the Internet. Finally, Adam managed to convince them to just let him help, after which he was able to download subtitles and play the film off VLC almost immediately. The organizers reacted as if he was some kind of computer genius rather than just a person with the most basic understanding of how technology works. If nothing else, they did comp his drinks for the rest of the night as thanks.
- Hurricane of Puns: His Nymphomaniac review indulges in this a bit when Adam discusses his frustrations with Lars von Trier's directing choices and his fans' relentless defense of them. Using the incorrect "TRY-urr" pronunciation of "Trier" (he does also use the correct "TREE-urr"), he comments that the fans of his who refuse to see any issues with his style are wearing "Lars von blinders", and that the whole ordeal has made him sick and "Lars von tired".
- Hypocritical Humor: Done as a deliberate contrast in "Cool Cat Learns Fair Use". After showing Derek Savage's repeated claims that for-profit videos are automatically susceptible to copyright law, Adam explains how Savage himself is exercising fair use principles to make his argument by using copyrighted material; he then cuts to later in that "non-profit" video, where Derek begins giddily plugging Cool Cat Saves the Kids.
- Insistent Terminology:
- His After Earth review pronounces "ursa" as "UERR-suh", in Jaden's unplaceable accent, for the duration of the 3 parts of the review.
- He becomes endless frustrated when the cast and crew of The Lion King (2019) keep referring to it as a live action film even though it's computer animated.
Adam: This is a computer animated film! You used computers to animate the film. - Invincible Villain: His opinion of Jigsaw from Saw, whose plans have every eventuality, even random chances, all factored in. Even after his death, he somehow planned ahead and manipulated all sorts of people. Adam got a lot of mileage out of making fun of the contrivance of it all.
- It's Been Done: His main argument against those that tout the commonly-held belief that The Lion King (1994) ripped off Kimba the White Lion. Throughout his hours of research and watching every single incarnation of the show, he's come to the conclusion that in a series as long and vast as Kimba, practically every trope that could be done with that kind of setting and premise had been done. For instance, the idea of Simba's father visiting him from beyond the grave was criticized for resembling some shots where the same thing happens to Kimba—even though the plot point itself is taken from Hamlet, which the creators made no bones about being an inspiration (not to mention all of William Shakespeare's plays are in the Public Domain). And furthermore, Kimba had many encounters with his father's ghost which took all kinds of different forms, so chances are, no matter what route they went, it would have looked like something in Kimba. He gives particular criticism to conspiracy theorists that use footage from the 1997 Kimba film (that was released three years after The Lion King) as attempts at evidence that Disney stole shots directly from Kimba, when if anything the inverse is true. The final nail on the coffin of this argument was the discovery of the 1946 comic Simba: King of Beasts which contains a lot of tropes used by Kimba (including the appearance of a white lion) and made Adam give the Kimba Crowd A Taste of Their Own Medicine through a montage that 'proves' how much Kimba "plagiarized" the Simba comic showing the similarities between the two in the same fashion of all the "The Lion King copied Kimba" videos.
- It's the Same, Now It Sucks!: In his review for The Lion King (2019) he goes over all the scenes and plot beats that are shared between both versions and the elements the remake does worse than the original. Adding that thanks to the film's strive for photorealism, nearly all of the emotional impact any of these scenes had originally have either vanished thanks to the emotionless faces, or been simply removed for the sake of "realism".
- Jeopardy! Thinking Music: Used as a Running Gag in the Unfriended review whenever it shows a scene that consists of nothing but Skype conversations.
- Kubrick Stare: A rather unsettling one done to the tune of "Under the Sea" in his Frozen review. It Makes Sense in Context. Sorta.
- Let's See YOU Do Better!: He's mentioned that one of his inspirations for starting film critique was that he found Confused Matthew's negative review of The Lion King (1994) so bafflingly awful that he figured if Matthew could get views for spouting what he perceived as stupid opinions, then why couldn't he?
- Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Adam has very long, straight hair.
- Mickey Mousing: He points out that The Lion King (1994) made heavy use of this in its score, which leads to a lot of moments in the The Lion King (2019) where the score is playing in response to events that aren't actually happening. For instance, it played falling notes when the wildebeests crested the hill and began charging downhill, but the placement of that shot was changed, leaving the falling notes to be simply... there.
- Milking the Giant Cow: Parodied. When the actress playing one of Megan's friends from Megan is Missing does her "Oscar-worthy performance", she starts flailing her arms around so much that Adam begins pumping hardcore rap.
- My Nayme Is: A popular nickname for Adam among friends and fans is the admittedly more phonetically accurate "Adum".
- "Not Making This Up" Disclaimer: Several reviews with jarring editing choices sometimes have a message from Adam on screen saying that the excerpt he's showing is unedited.
- Does this in his Megan is Missing review when the first shot freezes.
"I haven't actually edited anything yet."- During the Kimba video, he has to emphasize that he has not manipulated the dub of the second Kimba series in any way. The dub is just that comically inept.
- Not So Stoic: In his quickie for The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, he eats "The hottest sauce in the world". He spends the next few minutes trying to review the movie whilst in serious pain.
- Nothing Is Scarier:
- In his Unfriended review, he notes the inconsistency of whether or not the Skype call is audible while another program is being used, with most cases being that its dead silent. He notes that this could be a setup for a potential Jump Scare, and tries to demonstrate by showing eerie footage of a dark room with atmospheric sounds, although there's no scare since he loves us too much.
- He also points out how this trope is exploited in Megan is Missing, when two photos of Megan being tortured are shown with no music or sound effects, explaining that people find it one of the scariest scenes in the movie because it takes advantage of the anticipation that usually comes before a Jump Scare, but without an actual Jump Scare.
- Once per Episode: A disclaimer stating that his usage of the copyrighted material is protected under fair use flashes at the start of most of his videos.NOTE: Unfortunately, a significant amount of copyright holders are clueless to the fact that my usage of copyrighted clips and music are Fair Use under copyright law. This video is NOT an infringement on copyright: http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap1.html#107
Any missing video can be found at YourMovieSucks.org - Overly Long Gag:
- In order to demonstrate how easily out-of-context editing can make The Lion King (1994) look like a ripoff of Kimba the White Lion, Adum creates a five-minute cherry-picked montage to make it seem like Kimba is a ripoff of W.M. Allison's comic strip Simba: King of the Beasts.
- Much earlier in the same video, he does a montage of the many, many times Kimba or another character hangs from cliffs to debunk the argument that a character hanging from a cliff is an important element of the plot of both Kimba and The Lion King (1994).
- Overly Narrow Superlative: Delivers a very long one in "Thoughts on Nanalan". Where he describes Nanalan as "Possibly the best Canadian TV show marketed towards preschoolers with a runtime of under 3 minutes of all time."
- Pet the Dog:
- He's perfectly willing to acknowledge when he finds something he likes in an otherwise bad film.
- After savaging Megan is Missing, he declares that he understands and sympathizes with the message the director was trying to convey (that blindly trusting people you meet on the internet is a bad idea).
- His "Best Underrated Horror Films" video.
- He freely admits to finding some of the films he reviews to be So Bad, It's Good, to the point of where he'll happily watch them again.
- After spending twenty minutes mocking the dreadful films of independent writer-director Neil Breen, he said that he respected that Breen is obviously very passionate and sincere about what he does.
- He spends over two hours bashing the quality of the Kimba franchise and debunking comparisons to the Lion King before admitting that he likes the music. While he clearly isn't a fan, he ends the video by arguing that the Kimba conspiracies do a disservice to Osamu Tezuka by only characterizing him as the guy who had his work ripped off by Disney instead of focusing on his many achievements.
- Plot Hole: Discussed. Pointing out glaring inconsistencies in films is sort of his thing. Often follows this up by sarcastically saying "Just don't think about it!"
- Praising Shows You Don't Watch: Discussed in his Kimba the White Lion video. One of the biggest problems he has with the Kimba crowd is that they defend the series and praise it while mocking or yelling at The Lion King (1994), yet also admit they have never watched any Kimba content. This means they spout the same arguments as other people without looking into it themselves, or at best use surface-level claims that once analyzed fail to hold up when he actually does watch it. He puts it bluntly that many of the Kimba defenders are doing so not because they like the series, but because they dislike Disney, and are using it as ammo.
- Right for the Wrong Reasons: In response to Derek Savage's videos, he states that Derek is right in that there are many misconceptions about fair use on the internet used to get out of breaking the law, except Derek doesn't actually get it right or explain anything properly.
- Renaissance Man: Film critic, writer, documentarian, musician, journalist, and Lets Player just to name a few.
- Running Gag:
- Jaqui smirking and Michael Scott's "NO, GOD, PLEASE, NO!" scene.
- “Who/what/why is phone/camera?”
- Used Jaden Smith's distinctive wi-fi forehead throughout the After Earth review, especially when discussing the "getting a signal" plot points.
- Pronouncing the title of "I am here....now" with an increasingly long pause in his Fateful Findings review.
- In the above review, Adam will also often sneak the name "Breen" (the name of the director) into certain words.Adam: Fateful Findings is a work of sheer Breenious.
- Playing a Master Chief death scream whenever someone dies onscreen, whether male, female, or zombie.
- Also, using the Mario coin sound when people are shot.
- He always reviews a film called Frozen upon hitting a big subscriber milestone (the Disney film for 100,000, the 2010 ski-lift thriller for 500,000, and the British psychological thriller for 1 million). To take it even further, he reuses the same intro for each video down to the background music and images.
- From the Adum & Pals videos, they often point to any Asian male character and ask if they're "the Asian guy from 13 Reasons Why", after mistaking Ki Hong Lee from Wish Upon for the same actor.
- Within the YMS commentary, and subsequent Adum & Pals edits, of 13 Reasons Why:
- In reference to an event in Season 2, singing "broooooom...raper" to the tune of the theme to Goldfinger.
- None of them knowing or caring about what is happening in the show at any given time.
- During Season 4, and to a lesser extent in Season 3, each of the main characters is gay.
- During Season 3, Ani being the Oracle or a trickster god and each of them trying to figure out whether the scenes in widescreen or fullscreen are the present.
- During his The Flash review, he repeatedly mocks Ezra Miller's acting by mimicking the "Wait, he's Batman?" line in a goofy, exaggerated way.
- Sampling: In his review of Cool Cat Saves the Kids, Adam made a beat of Erik Estrada's hammy exclamation of "That kid kicked sand in Cool Cat's face!"
- Shoddy Shindig: Adam has a video covering his experience at Hot Tub Cinema Club's disastrous Vancouver event, which was marred at every turn by poor planning and clueless staff. While promotional materials showed off pictures of a spacious rooftop location, the actual event took place in a cramped indoor venue, the location of which wasn't revealed to attendees until mere days beforehand. The hot tubs, advertised as comfortably fitting up to five people, could barely hold four, were packed together so tightly that servers couldn't get through to bring guests their drinks, and hadn't been heated up beforehand so the water was lukewarm at best. The movie they were showing was a pirated copy of Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy (according to the organisers, they couldn't find a legal copy of one of the most popular comedies of the 2000s in time for the event, despite having months to prepare). For the first 20 minutes of the film there was no sound, and even after they managed to get it working it was still too quiet to be heard over the drunken crowd, yet no subtitles were provided until a frustrated Adam volunteered to download and install them himself. And that's not even getting into the heavy leaks and water damage caused to the building, as no effort was put into waterproofing the room.
- Shout-Out:
- He actually gets pissed off at Nymphomaniac's reference to Antichrist, and argues that it ruins the latter for those who haven't seen it.
- At one point in the Cool Cat Saves the Kids review, he puts footage of Death Grips and Uncle Ricky over Cool Cat. He even gets dubbed by M.C. Ride. There are a few Death Grips shout-outs in other videos as well.
- During the "wolf mauling" scene in his review of Frozen (2010) (wherein the trained animals used for the film were clearly only playing with him with SFX to make it sound brutal), he states that the character is only being kissed by doggos all the while playing the Annoying Dog's theme.
- Part 1 of his The Lion King (2019) review ends with the camera zooming into Mufasa's eye as homage to a similar scene near the end of Martyrs.
- Shown Their Work:
- Adam has a rather impressively vast knowledge of what works within a film and such, always looking for key elements in a film such as the purpose of framing, the sound production, etc.
- Case in point: he criticized Lars von Trier's logic of constantly throwing stuff in his films with little to no reason for it and getting immensely frustrated that his fanbase are able to justify everything he does as art. He even threw a rant about how Lars made the aspect ratio in a scene of Nymphomaniac completely small despite it appearing normal, even saying that he did in fact look through various versions of the movie to explain this point.
- His video on Kimba the White Lion went into extensive detail of the work, with Adam going so far as to watch every piece of Kimba media he could to get a fully informed opinion on it. When he tackles the accusations of plagiarism afterward, he uses his watching of the series to debunk every major argument about The Lion King (1994) "copying it". There is a reason it's over two hours long.
- Sir Swears-a-Lot: Lampshaded in his Toy Story 3 review:Adam: "By the way, if you haven't noticed, this video is not appropriate for children. Dick, cunt, shit, pussylick, horse cock, cunt nugget."
- Straight Gay: If you didn't know any better, you'd have no idea he's homosexual unless you follow his gaming or vlog channels. That's not to say he doesn't drop hints in his proper film reviews, however.Adam: (in his Death Race 2 review) This movie's gay for me and I suck cocks.
- They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: It comes with the territory for the reviews of The Lion King (2019) and Oldboy (2013), which largely consist of Adam comparing the remakes to their respective original films and criticising the changes made between them. However, he also takes the time to explain why he feels the changes were for the worse rather than treating them being different as an inherently bad thing, such as how Chiwetel Ejiofor's serious, menacing take on Scar makes it harder to buy him being able to manipulate Simba so effectively or retain Mufasa's trust for as long as he did when compared to Jeremy Irons's Faux Affably Evil portrayal, or how the changes made to Oldboy's imprisonment sequence do a worse job of communicating the passage of time, making it feel like Joe Doucett was barely locked up for a few weeks even though he was supposed to have been in there for even longer than Oh Dae-su was.
- They Copied It, So It Sucks!: He has made a video criticizing the "Kimba crowd" that bashes The Lion King (1994) for supposedly copying elements from Kimba the White Lion. It argues that the comparisons between the two works are misleading (and in several cases poorly researched) — the "plagiarized" elements are just superficial similarities and common tropes that both of the works happen to use, such as lions being good and noble, the protagonist having a dead father, or an evil character with facial scars and dark colors. It is also argued that the accusations of plagiarism are not just an insult to the talented people who worked on TLK, but also a disservice to Kimba — they give the impression that Kimba is so much like TLK that it's not worth checking out if you've already watched TLK — as well as disrespectful to Osamu Tezuka, as they often describe him (even on IMDb) as "the guy who got plagiarized by Disney," ignoring his many, many accomplishments and influence on modern manga and anime.
- Too Incompetent to Operate a Blanket: Conversed in the review of Neil Breen's films, which compares the clumsiness in the films to the clumsiness in infomercials. It even uses film clips to make a parody infomercial.
- Triangles Are the Worst Instrument: Discussed and actively defied in his review of The Lion King (2019). Adam points out that while the triangle was present in the opening song "The Circle of Life" in the original animated film, the remake completely removes the triangle from the same song. He lists this as a point against the remake, explaining that the triangle actually adds a subtle effect to the original version that the remake sorely lacks. He even goes as far as to wonder if Hans Zimmer has a persona vendetta against triangles given how much he removed their presence in the remake's soundtrack.
- We Used to Be Friends: With Mark from Mark After Dark. The two of them were friends, with Mark both living with Adam and being his editor for some time after Adam started his channel. Sadly sometime between 2016 and 2017, Mark began to flake on his job, while also demanding money despite not working for his at the time girlfriend and drugs. This, along with Mark constantly taking advantage of Adam's attempts to be reasonable and understanding, eventually reached a point where the two started arguing during streams, most cases being Mark lashing out at Adam. Adam eventually reached a boiling point and not only fired him but also kicked him out. Since then, Adam has not talked about Mark at all, while Mark would focus on his own channel, earning a decent fanbase but nowhere near as much as Adam.
