Quote of the Day [12.26.24]

broderic on December 26, 2024

“To the Feds, I’ll keep this short, because I do respect what you do for our country. To save you a lengthy investigation, I state plainly that I wasn’t working with anyone. This was fairly trivial: some elementary social engineering, basic CAD, a lot of patience. The spiral notebook, if present, has some straggling notes and To Do lists that illuminate the gist of it. My tech is pretty locked down because I work in engineering so probably not much info there. I do apologize for any strife of traumas but it had to be done. Frankly, these parasites simply had it coming. A reminder: the US has the #1 most expensive healthcare system in the world, yet we rank roughly #42 in life expectancy. United is the [indecipherable] largest company in the US by market cap, behind only Apple, Google, Walmart. It has grown and grown, but as our life expectancy? No the reality is, these [indecipherable] have simply gotten too powerful, and they continue to abuse our country for immense profit because the American public has allwed them to get away with it. Obviously the problem is more complex, but I do not have space, and frankly I do not pretend to be the most qualified person to lay out the full argument. But many have illuminated the corruption and greed (e.g.: Rosenthal, Moore), decades ago and the problems simply remain. It is not an issue of awareness at this point, but clearly power games at play. Evidently I am the first to face it with such brutal honesty.”

Luigi Mangione
Manifesto on United Health

It’s Bad Boyyo…

broderic on November 7, 2024

Fudge. We lost.

Definitely feel like we’re going into some weird dark age. The cynic in me is really wanting to see them burn it all down. I really feel like it. I don’t want to.

In the long run, it will be fine. Will I be there to see it?

“You’ve gotten soft. You’re like one of those police dogs who’s released into the wild and gets eaten by a deer or something.”

broderic on September 22, 2024

Pixar is in trouble with sequelitis and Inside Out 2 is another example of that terribleness. It lacks the emotion of its predecessor. Funny, that, considering that there were additional emotions added to the four from the first film. Every new one was funnier than the new emotional antagonist. Ennui and embarrassment were fun. Anxiety not so much. The additions were not enough to make me like the film.

2 of 5 stars.

Deadpool & Wolverine

broderic on August 16, 2024

Deadpool & Wolverine should be the end of the Deadpool franchise. You can not go more meta than this film, the first serious foray of Fox’s mutants into the MCU. It has tons of cameos and many self-referential bits. If you are comic nerd, this is for you. Yet in order to top it, the fourth will have to be a remake of the first with a decidedly aware Deadpool knowing he’s in a remake/reboot.

Where will the fun be in that?

Actually, I enjoyed it because of all the cameos. Channing Tatum’s Gambit was outlandish and perfect. Wesley Snipe’s back together with Ryan Renolds? Witness! Jennifer Garner? Like that’s nuts that Marvel went and spent money to get these actors to reprise their super hero roles. Well done.

3 of 5 stars.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

broderic on June 14, 2024

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga did not do so well at the box office. It fell short of projections and contributed to the worst Memorial Day weekend box office in a long while. That’s the story you’ve been hearing about the movie, but you never hear about if it was good or not. I’m here to tell you that it was okay. I say that about all movies, so this is how that goes.

I guess if you follow up one of the most exciting movie going experiences in this century with an conceptual film about anger then you’ll definitely fall short. Most likely it wasn’t what we were expecting, but it was also somewhat mediocre in telling its story. Chris Hemsworth and Anna Taylor-Joy certainly gave decent performances. The action was pretty well down too. It was just not as fun this time around. A bit of fun, but not like the last time.

3 of 5 stars.

Comment Down Below

broderic on March 1, 2024

The comments are closed.

I have to manually do it that way. Why?

Why isn’t that a feature of WordPress to set comments off by default? Nowadays, it’s just spammers. No one comments. At least not here. I am not pleading for comments nor readers. I am just trying to figure out if there is a way to turn off the button by default.

The Boy and the Heron

broderic on December 27, 2023

With his return from retirement and with retirement seemingly forever suspended, Hayao Miyazaki brings about his latest film, The Boy and the Heron, ten years from his last. It is with a lot of anticipation that I went to the theater to watch. Is he still as great as story teller? Is he still one of the best anime directors, even film directors? Yes and yes. But.

The film is okay. It rehashes a lot of Miyazaki tropes. It felt like a mash up of Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and Castle in the Sky. It was just fine. Glad he’s doing films, but sometimes I wonder if maybe he should retire for good. Let’s hope his next film, if there is one, may not be in another ten years.

3 of 5 stars.

Godzilla Minus One

broderic on December 8, 2023

It is deserving of the praise its been getting. Godzilla Minus One is a rare movie pulling off earth shattering spectacle with a dramatic, intimate story involving characters that you really feel for. It’s something that American movies can’t seem to get right — making the human element believable as the CG FX.

This Godzilla movie opens at the end of WWII in the dying embers of the Japanese empire. The main character is a kamikaze pilot who chickened out and finds himself face to face with Godzilla. He chickens out again and Godzilla ends up slaughtering his fellow soldiers. The main character is a survivor with PTSD from the war as a well as survivor’s guilt.

With a return to Japan post war, this film reminds us on the malevolent force that is Godzilla. Cribbing a few notes from the previous Godzilla film, Shin Godzilla, it makes the big one an unstoppable, dangerous monster. He just washes up on the shore and demolishes Tokyo like the first film. In the end, they have to stop Godzilla. They do via some plan, but he’ll be back.

Surprisingly, this film really hit you in the feels. I think it’s because we’re rooting for the humans and not the kaiju. You feel for them and hope they survive. It’s a good film and probably will be the best I’ve seen this year. We’ll see.

4 of 5 stars.

Best Films Of 2022 — a faux list

broderic on January 2, 2023

There is only one movie on this list. I think it was my favorite time in the theaters, but to tell you the truth I didn’t see that many movies this year. It’s a combination of not really wanting to watch what’s being exhibited, not much being released in theaters, and just not wanting to go to the movies anymore.

Funnily enough, as I reviewed the movies I did see, I noticed that I gave out a lot of low ratings many 2 stars and even a few 1 stars. Some readers had complained that I always gave a 3 star rating for good and bad movies. I think I broke that habit considering that I have no compunction to now give out low ratings.

  1. Everything Everywhere All at Once (5 of 5 stars)

That’s the list. That’s it. Was there anything good that had come to your theater?

Movies are never going to be good again are they?