That last sentence is a little funny since the depiction of Italian criminals was actually controversial decades ago, when there was still a widespread belief in American society that Italians were an inferior race and a threat to American society. As American beliefs about race and culture changed, so did the meaning…

The Acolyte very much feels like a first draft of a TV show. The dialogue is often bad and unpolished. There’s pacing issues. There’s exposition dumps and things happen that seem to have little internal logic but happening because the plot requires it to happen. I’m not sure it being a movie would have changed any of…

Yes, the one that required absolutely no homework whatsoever about that 1980s TV show, and that was a great action-comedy in the exact vein of True Lies, which I hear from sources that we’re not getting any more of.

Qimir vs Jedi in episode 5 and Kelnacca vs Sol/Torbin in episode 7 were gnarly.

For a while it seemed like The Rock was an approximation of Arnold’s ability to do action and comedy, but in more recent years I’m convinced that John Cena is actually the true Arnold successor.

I find this show inconsistent, but not overall bad. The highs are quite high, especially Episode 5. But the lows are quite dreary, particularly Episode 3 and 7 (the flashback episodes). I feel like the story and concept is solid, but the execution is uneven.

My favourite take on Arnie in his movies are that he encapsulates the American Dream perfectly.

My problem with non-gendered awards is that women are already undervalued in Hollywood, while having to work harder. Women actors spend most of their time emoting, while men spend it running around and blowing up stuff.

I really don’t want the preponderance of awards going to guys blowing up stuff.

For what it’s worth, I don’t love the term “sportsballs,” which is often used as a way to position oneself as too good to care about sports. (I’m not saying that’s what you’re trying to do here.)

Whether Curtis enjoyed it or not, or whether her character found it empowering or an adrenaline rush or whatever is beside the point. It was petty and abusive of Harry to put her through that all because he was a shitty husband and a jealous prick.  

The overwhelming majority of actors are unsuccessful, but they still act anyway. It’s the sort of thing that a lot of people do for the sheer love of it, while working regular day jobs.

You said it yourself, it doesn’t justify his approach. The misogyny is that it tries to justify spousal abuse because it make him a better man. Just because she’s willing to go on a mission doesn’t mean she consents to her husband lying, manipulating, and attempting to sexually demean her. 

I enjoy the unspoken joke of a guy who looks like Arnold Schwarzenegger  going through life pretending to be an unassuming software salesman and everyone just buys it.

But that just frames it as his cruelty and manipulation of her is justified because it made him a better man. It’s not OK to victimize your spouse for your own personal growth.

That’s really the crux of it. The scene is just mean-spirited. It’s meant to be Harry giving Helen some excitement, but it comes across as deeply cruel and manipulative.

But, according to the author of this piece, if you’re man, it’s not your place to find it misogynistic, since a handful of women didn’t.

“Is the scene humiliating for Helen? For Jamie Lee Curtis?”

I saw True Lies late—whenever it originally came out on home video—and was pretty startled by how the movie treats Curtis’s character, compared to the fun reputation the movie had. The strip scene may scan as empowering and funny to some, but she’s manipulated into it by her own husband, and not just to “give her…

Though the xenophobia hasn’t gone away