But where those films...emphasized practical effects and the amazing skills of highly trained stunt people, Shang-Chi insists on either interrupting or burying the stunt work...with mountains of blatant CGI.

You mentioning that just gave me heartburn.

This reminds me of a conversation with my cousin when her second kid was born.

In particular, I felt like the Gunn learned the wrong lessons from the first GOTG movie, and really doubled down on the quirky soundtrack and all that goofy stuff instead of finding a different story to tell.

To me, Winter Soldier didn’t do an effective enough job of creating the dread and paranoia, and the feeling of powerlessness for the protagonist, that the good spy thrillers possess. That is, in large part, because we are ultimately watching a super-powered good guy and his hyper-competent team go against a…

In some part because these Marvel shows seem to pull the rug out from under fans looking for fantastical Big Bads, and instead give relatively “safe” alternatives, I too am guessing it’s a Loki variant.

Wonder if the last we see Dickie Moltisanti, he’s carrying in a crib.

And weren’t the Ottoman emperors of the medieval period stylized as Kaiser-i Rum - “Caesar of Rome,” generally” after they conquered Constantinople?

I’ve always been of the opinion that, while Tom Cruise has certainly been in some objectively bad movies, he hasn’t been in very many unwatchable movies.

The dude holds the screen. Like, Cocktail is a generally lousy movie, and I’m still sucked in for two hours because somehow Tom Cruise gets me to *care* about this…

So, because I have YouTube Premium, I was able to get in on that deal for a free Stadia controller and Chromecast Ultra. I decided to try out Stadia Pro because I just got a new 4K TV and figured, “What the hell?”

The shame of this is that I actually think I really like it. I played the hell out of Cyberpunk 2077 and,…

I’ll buy it at a high price!

Man, I’ve always been baffled by the wardrobe in this one.

I think you might have swayed me here, actually. I feel like I was right there, talking about Jack’s upbringing... but obviously there are plenty of people who grew up abused that do not become abusers themselves.

I still think Jack has a level of sympathy to him, but you’re right; the man doesn’t take responsibility…

I disagree with that characterization quite a bit, actually. The issue the book lays out is that Jack Torrance is a man that lacks control - he cannot control his anger when Danny pours beer on his papers, nor when George Hatfield slashes his tires, and he cannot control his drinking, which may (or may not) have led…

You could practically tell the guy was going to be a villain in the first episode reveal. You DEFINITELY could in every subsequent check-in.

I liken it to one of Stephen King’s criticism’s of Kubrick’s adaptation of “The Shining.” The novel spends a lot of time getting to know Jack Torrance, learn about his demons,…

This is a design aesthetic that needs to come back, the sooner the better.

To my knowledge I never contracted COVID - I was exposed to one Patient Zero that I know of but tested negative, and never had any out-of-the-ordinary symptoms that I wouldn’t have gotten in the winter anyway.

I guess that’s the problem with action movies now. There’s no sense of “how did they do this?”

I acknowledge that I’m a curmudgeon, so bearing that in mind... my opinion is that it’s not limited to the DC movies. I think the Marvel movies kinda look like crap, too.

More exhausting than the build-up to the Snyder Cut has been the commentariat that has whined relentlessly about not wanting to hear about the Snyder Cut. Because honestly, the only people I see talking about it online are the people bitching about it for the last few years.