Overpriced Popcorn

 I'll be honest: I don't listen to a lot of podcasts. I tune them out. I can't do audiobooks, either, for the same reason. A half hour will pass and I'll realize I didn't actually hear a word of what was just said, unless I do nothing but sit and listen, and when I do that, I'm not doing anything else and it just feels...weird.  I've also talked about my disdain for the current state of fandom and popular culture. It frankly disgusts me overall. It's negativist, insulting of anyone who doesn't go along with the negative bent of it, and focused entirely on going with what the crowd tells you to think. If the general tenor of social media appears to hate Star Wars, man, you'd better goddamn hate Star Wars or you're a pariah. Worse, if you stand up for it, if you call people out on their hate, they make you the one out to be "toxic."  Yeah, at some point in time, liking things became toxic, and negativity became healthy. That's jus...

Update 10-28-21 I re-watched this on HBO and am slightly revising my original ranking. I still stand by most of what I said, but it's not QUITE as slow or uneven the second time around, so I'm awarding it an extra half-tub of popcorn. It's worth noting that I was very tired after a long drive when we went to see the flick, and probably not in the ideal headspace for it.   Introduction 2021 has been a year of hotly anticipated films, unlike any we've seen in a very long time. A lot if it is because of pandemic delays, no doubt, but that doesn't change the fact that the films that are coming out this year are ones we've waited for a long time. Dennis Villeneuve's Dune (Part One)  is no exception. For a certain section of science fiction fans, this one was as anticipated as The Force Awakens was to Star Wars fans--possibly more, because the only adaptations we've had of the novel up till now have been a confusing mess of an art film adaptation by David Lync...

Before I get started, let me be clear that there will be minor spoilers in this review. Minor ones. It's really impossible to talk about what sets this flick apart without that. But I'll try to keep them to things that won't ruin the experience.  No Time to Die may be the most eagerly anticipated James Bond film ever made. It ends Daniel Craig's historic run as the seminal and iconic antihero, secret agent, and assassin in explosive fashion. This one has been a critical darling, but the fanbase seems wildly split. Let's be fair, though: a lot of the negative fan reaction comes from "fans" who haven't seen the film and are knee-jerking something that's quite frankly, not even a thing in the movie.  I'll get it out of the way without taking a stand on whether it would be a good or bad thing. James Bond is not turned into a black woman, nor is he changed in any way whatsoever. Bond is still Bond, through and through, and as a very minor spoiler ju...

 Introduction  Halloween Kills is the eagerly-awaited followup to Blumhouse's new timeline in the Halloween series. People called it a "reboot," which it wasn't, and I absolutely hate when that term is misused. Halloween 2018 was a sequel to the original 1978 film. It was not a reboot, except that it ignored the ensuing 7 films and 2 Rob Zombie remakes (and those were reboots).  I wasn't sold on H2018 when it came out. I didn't like that they ignored Halloween II, that they ditched Laurie being Michael's sister, and that, in my eyes, they turned Michael into just another Jason Voorhees--a mindless killer who murders for no reason. I found it less compelling and less scary. I also personally preferred the PTSD take on Laurie presented in H20 back in 98. I thought Danielle Harris got short-shrifted by not being cast as a different version of Jamie Strode and being replaced by Judy Greer's Karen. That being said, I did like Greer's character and...

  So it's time to kick this blog back up, I think. I can't count how many times over the past couple years I've found myself infuriated by both professional and armchair critics online, and said, "I would be a better reviewer than these people."  It's time to prove it.  In my experience, for the most part, film critics (professional and amateur) fall into two categories: either they know squat about film but worked their way up from the mailroom in some newspaper, or they know too much about film and consider themselves frustrated auteurs. It's chic to issue bad reviews, to nitpick, and to make assumptions about what characters in films should be doing that are as stupid and unbelievable as what they actually do. People actively go into movies these days looking to figure out what's wrong with them, so they can bitch about it on social media.  My favorite term that's come out of this is "toxic positivity."  I've never heard a more lau...