After they master this, they will figure out how occupy all the good sleeping spots at the same time.
Hulu thankfully gave me a second chance to watch this incredibly well-done Horror movie written by a former Cracked writer. I knew it was going to be good because Paul Giamatti was an executive producer and probably through him the director scored the very talented Clancy Brown and Doug Jones. Now some people have crapped on John due to the special effects being cheap looking. I don’t really care. A great story, flawless execution and good acting always override effects. The gold standard? Star Trek. Sure, Paramount “fixed” all the starship sequences but re-using shots of Enterprise didn’t matter when else rocked. So John is this good company.
It’s hard to remember what the heck this was even about yet I enjoyed John immensely. The movie begins with John’s friend Dave talking to a journalist about this crazy new drug hitting the streets and how the duo discovered its horrifying side effects on its users. Then it becomes a very weird story inspired by Lovecraft, minus the racism, with help from Chris Carter and Vince Gilligan. The dreadful Ghostbusters sequel should try something so daring instead of flogging the dead horse we all know they’ll do since the studio still thinks Bill Murray is relatable and funny to Zoomers.
Even if you’re casual fan of Horror, I can’t recommend John Dies at the End enough. I was sold immediately when I knew the director also made Bubba Ho-Tep. These two movies, alongside Mandy and Beyond the Black Rainbow are the flicks pushing Horror into new directions after decades of Gorenography and weak M Night Shama-lama-ding-dong plot twists we saw coming a kilometer away.
This sad crap opinion piece from their deep bench of tone deaf Neo-Liberal apologists and stooges demonstrates why we must be at late-stage Kapitalism, it plans to take us all down with it before a stake is put through its heart.
There shouldn’t be any “debate.” Firstly, if someone is so poor they need to sell a kidney, which shortens their life, then something is wrong with the society. Secondly, those who need a kidney or whatever organ it is, should be getting them from the dead. Lastly, the rich don’t get to cut in line. They’re less important and what sucks, nature also abhors a vacuum when a well-deserved asshole dies as there’s at least two others taking their place.
Case in point, war criminal Dick Cheney somehow got a new heart to carry on his attempts to beat Kissinger’s genocidal record.
Two mainstays of the Seventies when I was growing up are sadly gone. First up would be Denny who I didn’t know was a member of Wings until I was in college. I never gave much thought like a dummy, to me it was just Paul McCartney and an excuse to allow tone deaf Linda be in the band, aka the other Yoko. I do have to give him credit though, even if he didn’t get to write many songs (mostly on London Town), his guitar playing stood out to make him more than a “pity” member. Quite a rebound after being the dude behind the only hit the Moody Blues had until the late Sixties. He did come play at UT’s Cactus Cafe about a decade ago. Very expensive and I didn’t bother, now I feel a little sad about it.
Norman was a bigger deal. His TV shows, despite some being repurposed stuff from the UK, were necessarily funny…the got the conversations rolling in Amerika at a time when Tricky Dick’s “Silent Majority” wanted to keep the lid on uncomfortable stuff. I was too young to understand the preachy elements of All in the Family, Sanford and Son, Maude, Good Times nor The Jeffersons, I just loved fart jokes or Redd Foxx’s catchphrases. What I’m more grateful is his production company being responsible for making The Princess Bride! It was a flop initially but it lived on as a hit on cable/VCRs and goes on as a loved…ugh, classic. I hate to use that word since Boomers drove it into the ground in the Eighties, ruining it for films, TV shows, book, etc which deserve it.
Thanks everything Denny and Norman! You live on with the guitar riffs from “Band on the Run” and “Junior’s Farm” and all the times I must outwit a Vizzini type.
I know it has been pretty crazy out there with the wars happening abroad, a bunch of polls that don’t mean shit and it’s Saint Nicholas day.
This was possibly Nora Ephron’s worst movie after My Blue Heaven, the comical take on what Henry Hill’s life was possibly like after Goodfellas. It never should’ve been made for it is a complete waste of Michael Caine, David Alan Grier, Amy Sedaris, Richard King, Steve Carrell and Stephen Colbert’s talents. Bewitched also strengthened my dislike of Nicole Kidman’s shitty acting, just being cute and bubbly is weak sauce and fellow Aussie Margot Robbie took over her spot with equally awful choices. Obviously, Nora and her hack writers knew nothing about the character Elizabeth Montgomery created. Oh yeah, and shame on Penny Marshall for being involved!
The premise is a sorry attempt at recreating what made 1995’s The Brady Bunch Movie a surprise hit. Isabel is a real witch trying to fit in with the mortal world when she’s spotted by Jack Wyatt, a movie star limping to TV to save his career. He wants her to audition for the role of Samantha in a modernized Bewitched all because she has mastered the famous nose wrinkle Montgomery did and she’s nobody, so he can get all the funny lines. See, it’s funny and ironic as this movie is breaking the fourth wall. Ho hum! Ephron should’ve just made another by-the-numbers Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks flick.
None of it is funny, Kidman and Ferrell have the chemistry of New Coke and all the old show’s characters and tropes are just wedged in…I’m guessing for the few people who grew up with Bewitched during its original run, syndication and Nick at Night years? The film’s only bright spot would be the impressive special effects, namely how they get Isabel’s dad to appear in products or whatever he does to communicate to her. Meanwhile, when they do the same with Uncle Arthur inspiring Jack, it’s rather forced. Hence I chose the very well trained cat as this review’s art.
Now I am hoping Hollywood learned its lesson and any plans to re-imagine or reboot or whatever, with I Dream of Jeanie are dead for 100 years.
As far as I’m concerned she’ll be remembered for only two things. Being the first woman on the Supreme Court which is on the short list of good acts of St. Reagan’s reign of error. It only happened because the doddering old fart blurted it during a debate with Carter and the Republicans probably thought, That’ll work! We will get the broad vote now! When the opening presented itself, obviously St. Reagan’s handlers said, C’mon, we didn’t mean it! But this is one promise he actually followed through on unlike the actresses he raped on the casting couch saying it was just a date.
Despite O’Connor being a female, she passed the critical Republican litmus tests via her WASP credentials (why I refuse to include her maiden name in her surname, again, it’s a pompous American WASP trait). In short, she appeared to be a clone of Phyllis Schlafly. Her apologists have gone on to claim she was the swing vote through the Rehnquist years, if not siding with the Conservatives 23% of the time is “swinging.”
As for the second act, it was O’Connor’s most damning act, she voted for Dubious in the disastrous Bush v. Gore decision, installing one of the most incompetent POTUSes until 2016. She wasn’t discrete about her opinion on this neither. Before the Florida mess, she was overheard at a Beltway cocktail party stated how she hoped Gore would lose because she disliked him. Thanks asshole! Dubious then crapped on O’Connor during his next and only legitimate term by replacing her with Samuel Alito, a bigger dick wanting to take the country further back in time. All part of the Republican and Federalist Society’s endgame to make Amerika a Corporate version of Gilead.
Many of you may be now thinking, Jesus Steve! Give O’Connor a break! She was the first woman and moderate Republican. To you I say, ha! There’s little difference with the GOP. The current bunch beholden to Orange Foolius are brownshirts who wanting to make a Fascist WASP society with Jewish, Catholic and Mormon trustees. A moderate wants the same thing, just without all the tacky display, you know, swastikas, visible concentration camps and riots. So-called moderates don’t want to get their hands dirty in making those they find undesirable “go away.” Her legacy is on par with Clarence Thomas’. We’ll never know how many bribes she took for her vote and she kicked the ladder down for millions of women.
Now some extra levity given the deaths of some people and I think it was a slightly tough week for many. Klothos loves to hang out in the cat tree but it doesn’t always work out when she wants to be alone, Chaos thinks he’ll fit in there. I believe she’s still mad about no longer being the baby and star around the house, having to share Jennifer’s affections with Chaos and he’s a whore.
Given how hard this Shane lived, it’s amazing he made it to 65 before his liver gave out! Shane only outlived Kirsty MacColl, the woman who sang with him on the now politically incorrect Xmas fave “Fairytale of New York,” because she got decapitated by a jet ski 20 years ago.
Still, Shane was the distinctive voice of The Pogues, a real Rock n’ Roll band from Ireland unlike those tax-dodging poseurs U2. I enjoyed many of their hits in college and through my brother who was a bigger fan during they heyday in the late Eighties. I loved how my mother was appalled when 91-X played “Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah” and his Irish cred fell on deaf ears with my Irish-descended grandma when I would play If I Should Fall from Grace with God in her car. If it were Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, she would’ve crapped her pants and died.
Thanks for everything Shane! You gave the world and the Alternative Rock genre a more genuine sample of what Ireland had to offer in Pop Music!
Damn, the current year is almost over and it has been a pretty solid one too. In many ways I hate to see it end. This month’s header is a nod back to the Seventies when I really, really wanted an Atari 2600. I recall it debuted in 1977 for the mere price of $150. I thought it was relatively affordable but my parents disagreed vehemently; I have to side with them as the inflation calculator says that “tiny amount” is equal to $750 today. Yikes! An increase of five times and given the shitty economy Girth Vader and Grampa’ Brunch helped cause, one multiple happened under their incompetence.
We never had an Atari in the Maggi house, even when they became all the rage by the early Eighties. Hell, we never had a personal computer. Then my old man wondered why I had no frickin’ interest in pursuing a computer science degree in 1986! He constant badgering and screaming about it contributed heavily too.
At work it’s a favorite month thanks to all the overtime pay I wrack up during the Holiday week. Throw in all the food (pot lucks), parties, egg nog and Amerika dropping into a low gear yet shifting the stress to another area in our lives, I can get through it until I have enough money and time for a real vacation in 2024. Sucked I failed to get the chance at all this year; things got tight in Castella di Maggi. I think my sacrifices weren’t in vain.
Overall, I remain optimistic and feeling good. I’ve come a long way in four years! Not long ago I felt awful. I felt rudderless. There was an awful lot of regret with the divorce and as expected, second guessing if I did the smart thing. Who knew a pandemic cinched it! Other good things are in the pipeline: I finally have a gift Jennifer really wants, cards are running late but they will happen, I’m kicking ass on the first new portable from Apple seriously outpacing the hype all manufacturers promote and the house is filled with five cats who love humans.
My counter the hagiography and/or massive mainstream corporate media ass-kissing of America’s biggest war criminal for the 20th Century. Kissinger easily defeated some heavy hitters before and after him:
Given his days as National Security Advisor and Sec’y of State, he used to share the title with Tricky Dick, a time when Kissinger also believe he was co-president, but he racked up higher numbers by sticking around in the Ford administration. He wasn’t done yet. Nope he continued to consult presidents of both parties until the end. It’s pretty easy to pull up incriminating photos of him with Slick Willie, Obummer and despite his efforts to snub the bastard, Grampa’ Brunch. Bilary definitely embraced him in her failed ’16 run, odd she didn’t blame him for losing too.
According to a biographer on Democracy Now! This shitty person was responsible for the deaths of at least three million people around the world. If you have the patience, you can learn why Hell may have a cell ready for him by listening to all six episodes of the podcast Behind the Bastards covering just him. Host Robert Evans also included the best guests to help explain why Kissinger was a bastard, Dave and Gareth from The Dollop.
One major highlight to illustrate his evil and lust for power. He was involved in wrecking the 1968 Vietnam peace talks with Kai-Shek’s widow and Tricky Dick’s dirty pool agents. An act which should’ve had him arrested for espionage because he had access to top secret materials through his consulting roles with the State Department. Instead, he landed the NSA role and in Tricky Dick’s second term, Sec’y of State while still being the NSA guy for another year or two. It’s amazing his neck didn’t break from the weight of his ego since he probably thought he was the new Bismarck or Talleyrand.
Kissinger didn’t stop at just expanding the Vietnam War into Cambodia. His hate of letting Latin America have free will resulted in the overthrow of Chile’s legitimate government so his Chicago Boys could plunder their economy under the murderous Pinochet. No doubt he received kickbacks…sorry, consultancy fees for privatizing the resources belonging to the Chileans.
If America ever wants to be embraced as a trustworthy partner, besides spending decades of cleaning up our bloodletting with humanitarian aid, it will be mandatory for our leaders to condemn this piece of shit. So in short, it’s never going to happen with the Boomer and many Gen X leaders. Too many have been poisoned by Kissinger’s realpolitik lies.
Hipsters do all look alike! The only things missing from this photo:
Or maybe it was really Jason Momoa incognito?
It probably only worked with college ladies who liked good-tasting food and had a taste for immature young men trying to figure crap out.
Marty and his brother Sid were a huge part of Generation X’ Saturday mornings! This duo shook up the Hanna-Barbera-dominated landscape in the late Sixties to the late Seventies with their live-action shows. Many often starred SitCom stars such as Bob Denver, Charles Nelson Riley, Ruth Buzzi and Jim Nabors alongside psychedelic-looking puppets or people in silly costumes. Contrary to all the fan mail they received from stoned college students, I recall them telling an interviewer, “If we did the drugs you thought were required to come up with these things, we wouldn’t be alive today.”
Besides kid programming, the Krofft Brothers produced prime-time programs. They made Donnie and Marie’s variety show mandatory watching on Friday nights. You could tell they were involved too; the bright colors and the ridiculous skits (ice skaters during the opening every week!). They sure toned it down for Barbara Mandrell. I would’ve never guessed in a million years they produced her hit show. But for me, the biggest prime-time legacy I will always remember them for, The Paul Lynde Halloween Special. It was PURE CHEESE. Yet it’s one humongous cultural moment it will live in infamy for, introducing mainstream America to KISS. I remember shortly after the special, “Beth” was on the radio all the time and all the bigger kids/teens in school were buying up Destroyer and Rock and Roll Over.
Thanks for everything you did Marty! I hope your brother Sid remains in good health so I can save up the other great history and things you all did for his obit.
Next year is going to be the big one because it turns 50. Meanwhile, I’m pretty exhausted today and it’s taking all my energy to write this post. We didn’t spend the night in nearby Houston’s periphery, yeah, we drove all the way there and back. I did the driving too. No nap in the backseat for me.
Still, it was amusing to see all the people dressed up and I was surprised how light the crowd was. I figured it would be nuts on the weekend after Thanksgiving. Maybe most thought like I did, the weather in Central and Southern Texas tends to suck around now. In my 29 years, it is often wet, cold and rains. It was none of these. Being too close to the upcoming Xmas holiday, I had to resist buying anything cool…and I did, hard to believe. Look out next year!
