Last of the Men Standing

I recently finished watching the Tim Allen sitcom. By which I mean the second big sitcom of his.

The setup of the show is all about Mike Baxter (played by Allen). He has a family of a wife and three daughters (they start in the range of teenagers, but this show takes place over 9 seasons and even more years!). He is also the man basically in charge of Outdoor Man, a hunting and fishing goods store.

Each episode more or less comes down to "someone has a problem, Mike gets involved, and Mike is right." Sometimes the problem is of Mike's causing, but he's still right even then.

I liked Home Improvement, and this is broadly the same style of comedy, with one big focus change. Mike Baxter is a Republican and hardly an episode goes by where he doesn't espouse an opinion either pro-Rep or anti-Dem. If you can ignore that (and it is really obnoxious), you'll enjoy this more. Interestingly, after 42 gets in, that aspect quietens down a lot (although Allen does like him), which suggests that the writers weren't as happy with a Rep in charge as the character would otherwise profess.

But a big part of this show is that everyone cares about everyone else. Yes, there is arguing, but ultimately everyone has everyone else's back, and that's a great foundation for all the comedy in the show. And that is, essentially, why I kept watching it.

There is also a lot of meta-humour. There are tons of references to Home Improvement, with the actors from there turning up here (including one episode in season 9 where the Tool Man from Binford turns up). Also the series changed network, and an actress changes is also referenced. (In fact there are two cast member changes where Kristen changes from season 1 to season 2, but this isn't addressed, but when Mandy changes from season 6 to 7, yep, that's in there.)

I liked it, but will you? It will depend a lot on how much you can stand Tim Allen, but I was able to enjoy the show while not diving too deeply into the politics of the star behind it.

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Gloss Anian

I saw this! Moreover, I saw this on the big screen! In the brief window before it hits online, I saw this in the cinema with other people. Who laughed a lot. And also whispered, when they could have shut up. Can't have everything.

Benoit Blanc ends up going to a murder mystery weekend, but what is going on with the people who are there is far more interesting than the why they are going. Big egos are involved, and when they get threatened, we see a lot unravel. Often in a rather hilarious way!

I do feel that the comedy in this movie is ramped up more than Knives Out. Not saying that was a stoic piece, but this just feels more like it is going for the japes. There are a lot of "this scene isn't what you think," duping the audience more than anyone else, but I don't mind too much as Rian spins it out. There are some moments at the end where I felt that Rian was handholding a little too much with "remember this bit that I'm bringing up now?" You can trust the audience a little.

Daniel Craig is of course wonderful, and Janelle Monáe gives a fantastic performance. Edward Norton is just having fun, and Katheryn Hahn continues her big "Agatha" energy. Some quite neat cameos too, although I'm thinking I didn't quite get the impact of all of them.

Glad I saw it on the big screen, but looking forward to rewatching on the smaller. Let's see how many easter eggs there are!

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Catching The Bus

Last week was Desert Bus... so it's gone. But you can still watch what happened.

This is all thanks to the Video Strike Team. So named because within minutes of something happening on the bus, they have a clip on the YouTube channel.

But so much happened! If only there was some way to sort the highlights!

There is a spreadsheet listing basically everything that happened during the run, from Coffee Pong to This or That to interviews to just chatting... and there are links to all the video clips. So browse and click through to anything interesting.

And then there's the poster. M Lee Lunsford creates it each year, putting on key highlights. But because this is the internet, this is an interactive poster. See something weird or draws your attention? You can click through to see where that come from!

And if that is still not enough... after about a month, there will be a full torrent of the entire run! Lately in both high and low def, but these are chonky bois these days (as the kids call it). Thicc! But it is everything you can want.

And this is all available for all DB runs, although prior to DB5 it's more hit and miss as to what got archived. But hey, it's more than you have at the moment!

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Watching it forever and forever and...

I saw this the other day, but it's a long ass movie and it got out late, so today I post!

One year after the death of T'Challa (yes, that is a major moment in the film), the Queen and Shuri are finally starting to get over it when Namor turns up. He also has unobtanium, so their two countries should team up against the world. Only, he doesn't really sell that well, and so the two nations instead end up in conflict. Oops!

It's unfortunate that during the whole COVID thing (he says, as if it is no longer a thing) a certain actress became rather (in)famous denier... and she is all up in this movie. Which casts a bit of a pall over things, but aside from that...

Ryan Coogler certainly does his world building. Not only with more Wakandan culture, but also Namor's people. I have no idea how well known his particular (for this movie) backstory is, so I'll stay vague, but we do get a lot of it. And yes, the use of the word "mutant", but I don't think it means what you think it means. I could do with it being a little shorter, but there is a great wee cameo I am definitely not cutting (not that I think anyone would).

My biggest complaint: a lot of scenes take part in the dark of the ocean or in dark caves or at night... which makes it really hard to see what is going on! And I'm definitely going to have to wait for subtitles to get all the lines (and jokes) that were said.

Ultimately: wow, what a way to have a big world spanning war between nations... that has absolutely no impact on the world at all!

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It's "Weird"

So there's an Al Yankovic biopic... or is there?

This covers all the well known parts of Al's life: getting an accordion from a salesman, recording a song in in a bathroom, Madonna asking him to do a parody... but we get those other parts as well. Al going to polka parties, drinking excessively, making real songs that others do covers of. Going to a Mexican criminal's home. You know, the rest of the story. Not to mention the torrid love affair with the aforementioned Ms Ciccone.

Okay, so there might be some liberties taken with the truth, but there's no doubt this is 100% as real as that other music biopic, Walk Hard. Your actual level of humour you will get out of this can vary a lot, but there's no doubt everyone is having fun. And play "spot the celebrity".

While we know Daniel Radcliffe is playing Weird Al, Al himself does the songs. Although we have Evan Rachel Wood as Madonna, we don't get any of her songs, but she definitely looks the part (mainly helped by the 80s hair and the trashy clothes - very on brand for Maddy at the time).

As for where you can watch it outside of having Roku, Mr Weird himself had this to say on twitter:

Roku's working on it. In the meantime there's VPN (Very Probably No) way to watch it legally. I'm sure you have a TORRENT of other questions, but I have to move along, sorry.

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Bar-bar-bar-barberryann

I've heard a few people talk about this horror movie, and I like horror movies, so I like this. Or do I?

A woman arrives at an AirBNB home, but finds someone else has also rented it out. It gets a bit creepy, but then they find the very creepier basement. A man tries to get away from his problems, and ends up at the same house, and finds the creepy basement. Another man sets up the creepy house.

If this sounds a bit disjointed, it really it. It's like three different stories that sort of come together, but it really just feels like three stories that don't cohesively work well together. Fine, I can easily put together details myself, but that's because I've seen this sort of thing so often before, I know what this movie is skipping over... which means this movie isn't actually a good movie in and of itself if I need meta-knowledge to bridge those gaps.

Georgina Campbell gives the best performance, Bill Skarsgard is decent enough, but one big problem... Justin Long. Nope, I just cannot take any horror movie seriously that has Justin Long in it. He has huge stoner energy and that just overwhelms any sense of dread or tension. Just can't buy it.

There are a number of problems with this movie that just don't work, and I thought that during the movie, these aren't 3am fridge thoughts, so... others like this movie, but it's not working for me.

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Maybe Worry A Little, Darling

I watched Stepford Wives in preparation, this is basically an update on that.

Alice is a wife that lives for her husband. Everything he wants, doing mysterious work, don't ask. But then she does start asking, and finds there some weird things going on. Perhaps, just perhaps, what Jack wants is more than what Alice wants.

So the basic premise of Stepford Wives style movie is "men suck, and the only way they can get what they really want is to so control women that they are no longer themselves." And this is definitely in that mold. A "better" update would involve people of all genders being terrible to their partners, but we are still so in the "woman = property" mindset that won't be coming to the theatre to quickly. (There are probably tv series that tackle it, possibly just one episode, but I can't think of any examples.)

Florence Pugh is fine, Harry Styles is... on screen. He means nothing to me. Olivia Wilde should be better, but there has been so much about the making of this movie that her connection to this movie is tainted. Chris Pine cameos and Gemma Chan is the better star in all her scenes.

Before I watched this movie, I watched the Pitch Meeting for it. It was more enjoyable.

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