The olde fashioned term is a “journeyman director” - someone who knows how to manage of production and make an elegant product but doesn’t have a particular stamp. MCU arguably hit the sweet spot with the Russo Brothers, but making two of the most lucrative movies ever opens doors. 

I’ve been thinking about that “minor title” problem. It really seems like the MCU expected people to flock to the third Ant Man movie, for example, with the same enthusiasm as the third Spider-Man movie, which seems... Absolutely crazy?

Yes, that was the joke. 

It’s ironic that spend so much time dealing with the fallout of choices that were obviously bad to begin with. But hey, these giant mergers help the stock market to... Um... Well, eventually they'll help the stock market. 

Unfortunately, over the last generation or two Congress has done a great job convincing the American people that  it can’t control anything. We assume anything more ambitious than “keep payroll going” is beyond their jurisdiction. 

Inflation, man.

I really like how Jerry Seinfeld was willing to play a version of his weird TV persona for Curb Your Enthusiasm - even as a straight man he comes across as uncomfortable and odd (unlike his assertively boring public persona). All the actors play “themselves” like that, and it’s wonderful. 

Yeah, people are talking about how moviegoing habits changed during the pandemic, which is true - studios helped the change along by touting their streaming services as a great replacement for movie theaters. Now they want to unring the bell. (Or more accurately, they want to double dip, with people going to the…

Keeping the characters in different continuities was one of the nice things about different studios owning the rights. Fox and Sony made plenty of mistakes with the X-Men and Spider-Man, but playing around with the characters produced good stuff like the Mangold Wolverine movies.

I’m sure people are still excited about the MCU, but people still get excited about going to TGI Friday’s.

Because they’re out of ideas. 

I can’t imagine anything in the series being as awesome as this video’s revelation that Emma Caulfield calls Amber Benson just “Benson.”

Garage Inc is rich with terrible covers, but I’d say their cover of the Nick Cave song “Loverman” is the worst one. The original is very creepy and also a little sexy, but since Metallica can’t manage either of those moods they stick with LOUD.

“Rocket Man” is a little bit more disciplined in its delivery and kind-of sort-of sounds like a dramatic monolog. I’d never heard that “Lucy in the Sky With Diamonds” cover before, but holy hell... he changes up his inflections a lot without ever capturing a genuine human emotion. 

Wait, wait, wait - they have zero taste for not liking Disturbed or Alien Ant Farm? Was there some kind of Daylight Savings error and we fell back to the early 2000s? 

“Pretty much everyone enjoys” Alien Ant Farm is one of the most unsettling thing I’ve read today. 

It’s by Disturbed. It is, by definition, a poorly done cover. 

Can you imagine the poor sap who has to take over Wolverine from Hugh Jackman?

Same reason they gave Iron Man to the guy who directed Elf, Thor to a period drama director, Avengers to a TV writer, Ant Man to a romantic comedy director, Dr Strange to a low rent horror director, the Captain America and Avengers sequels to TV directors, etc... It’s cheaper to hire someone who doesn’t have a lot of…

Wow, Alan Ng from Film Threat says the quiet part loud - “made for teen girls and not for actual comic book fans.” God forbid those groups overlap.