They do live in the United States and would be eviscerated if they said anything else. Thou shalt not criticize Saint Serena. Who knows if they share that sentiment in private.

There is one person who far exceeded Steffi’s dominance. During what should have been Steffi’s absolute, absolute prime years - Steffi won two Grand Slam titles over a two plus year period. Monica Seles won eight of nine titles and made it to the finals in the other. And skipped one grand slam, that Steffi won.…

My argument is that a serious case for GOAT can be made for several players. If there’s a jingoistic argument, it’s the one that postulates that only Serena Williams has a case for the GOAT.

Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert and Steffi Graf have won significantly more singles titles than Serena and hold other important records, so in terms of records and titles, hers isn’t even the strongest case for GOAT. No one, male or female, has come close to Steffi’s era of dominance from the mid-80ies to mid-90ies,…

Hence why superhero fare requires a lot of suspension of disbelief, and wringing serious drama out of the source material - like Nolan did with his Dark Knight trilogy - is no small accomplishment.

This show was my pulpy guilty pleasure for 14 years. When my brain was too tired for The Wire or The Sopranos in the early years, Supernatural was my go to antidote. It stayed with me through Breaking Bad and the explosion of Netflix goodness to this day.

As long as you still have all of your hair, there’s a reason to be greatful.

Public transportation? What communist devilry is that?!

Even Bale was kind of pissed when he learned about Gary Oldman’s fatsuit after he had already fattened up for Vice. Fatsuits and prosthetics have reached a realism today where an actor doesn’t really need to go through such extreme physical changes anymore.

Blade Runner is one of the most influential and beloved American films of the last fourty years, even though it was a flop at the box office and panned by many critics at the time. Porkys, released in the same year, outgrossed Blade Runner fourfold, and on a fraction of the budget.

The most meaningful number would be the percentage of the population who watched a film during its initial run, but such numbers do not exist.

The unique quality of Avatar aren’t iconic characters or an intricate, gripping story, but the gorgeous alien world of Pandora. Never before or since has anyone else fully realized another world like this, and in 3D it immerses you as if you are right there.

until recently I thought of Aussie’s as rather sophisticated

The last time I shared in the hype for a pop culture product was Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. I try to look at it like this: The film will either be good, or it won’t, but I want to enjoy - or loathe - it on its merit, not on external factors that have no influence on its quality.

And speaking of Hitler, the problem with most superheroes being depicted in that war is why they didn’t kill or capture him.

Ares, the epic Greek god of war, as a middle-aged British man with a silly 1910s mustache

It’s a fun trope to play with Hitler’s fascination with the supernatural, but it would not be fun to suggest that Hitler’s rise to power and command over the German people was a result of supernatural influence.

It’s that kind of demonic image of the Germans that was also whipped up by Allied propaganda and helped to ensure that the Treaty of Versailles was so punitive. Maybe we should just be grateful the screenwriters didn’t go with Kaiser Kong as their villain.

IN A WORLD
Ruled by the iron fist of Rome
Where faith is threatened
Even death
Could not stop
One Man
From meeting his Destiny

A show that was ahead of its time and unfortunate to run on the wrong network.