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Among other things, I got a nice document carrier bag. I am so tired of needing to find random boxes to take documents back and forth to the office when I need to work from home for whatever reason, so this will be very helpful.

Excellent review, folks. Great discussion of Last House on the Left. After reading a synopsis of the plot and listening to the review, I am definitely never watching this thing. That said, I do know what happens and I have some thoughts. And yes, I am going to have to get political here because this is a very political movie. I do not think you can separate Last House on The Left from the overall political culture at the time. Richard Nixon was on his way to a massive landslide re-election victory as President and concerns about violent crime were at a height in 1972. It would get worse before it got better, and even Bill Clinton knew he had to be seen as "tough on crime" to get elected two decades later. This movie represents the very early stages of the right wing populist propaganda about violent crime: The police cannot protect us and we have to take the law into our own hands. Wes Craven continued these right-wing populist themes a decade later with A Nightmare on Elm Street, how a bunch of fed up parents murdered a child killer when the system failed to punish him. For all of the talk of "liberalism" in Hollywood, there is a very strong current of right-wing populism in movies like this. I don't know what Craven's personal political views are, but those two movies were very much right-wing populist. The original Death Wish, and all of the (racist!) propaganda that came with that franchise, came out only two years after LHOTL and covers many of the same themes. Right wing populism is in my opinion very different from true constitutional conservatism, which emphasizes the rule of law and due process to guard against abuses and to ensure the guilty party actually is punished. Even with constitutional safeguards, there have been a number of high-profile cases of people falsely convicted. The Central Park Five is the most obvious example. There is also Bernard Baran, who went to prison during the "satanic panic" of the 1980's and was raped 30 times before being exonerated. This was an early version of QAnon, and it was fully mainstream. And that's far more terrifying than any horror movie. Hollywood helped fuel the paranoia with propaganda like LHOTL, Death Wish, Stallone's Cobra and many more.

Men in Black International (Men in Black 4) - It was fine. Worth watching if you like the MIB franchise. Was surprised to see Liam Neeson in something other than a straight-to-video action movie. It does take place in the same universe. One of the things I hate about Hollywood over the last 25 years is the refusal to put numbers on sequels.

Beavis and Butthead do the Universe: Uhhhh huh huh huh. Yeah yeah, heh heh heh. FIRE!! FIRE!! heh heh heh.

Bad Boys For Life: Bad Boys 3 was miles better than Bad Boys 2, which felt like it was 5 hours long. The whole movie is based on one big retcon, which does hurt it but overall this was a lot of fun.

I looked for an existing thread but missed this one. Sorry. Mods, please merge my thread into this one.

Kevin Conroy, the iconic voice of Batman from BTAS and Justice League, has passed away. The greatest Batman ever, surpassing any of the live-action versions. There will never be another KC. The actor who played Nighthawk on Avengers Assemble did his best to mimic Conroy's voice when the Squadron Supreme showed up, which was a wonderful tribute. It was great to finally see Conroy onscreen in Crisis on Infinite Earths. @James D. had a nice tribute here:

I have been playing CastleVania: Symphony of The Night on my iPad. Great game, but some of the knock back damage can be really cheap. Especially when you get knocked out of the room and enemy health resets. Why does Dracula have so much Christian iconography in his castle? It seems like that would be like Superman decorating the Fortress of Solitude with Kryptonite.

Please post a link when the episode goes up.

Immediately downloaded and listened. I have enjoyed the whole series of Scream reviews. Great as usual @dc20willsave and @SkylerQ91.

Black Adam - This was the first movie I have seen in the theater since "The Hunt" in March 2020. Theater was surprisingly empty on opening weekend, even for a Sunday afternoon. Complaints: Billy Batson should have been in this movie, especially since the Wizard Shazam was in it. (Batson's super-hero alter ego will always be Captain Marvel to me.) The people who wrote this seem to be fans of the JSA run from 20 years ago, and in the comics Black Adam has a history with Hawkman and Doctor Fate that goes back thousands of years. Plus he has a close friendship with Atom Smasher. None of that was touched on at all in the movie, so including those guys makes no sense for people who didn't read those comics.

Bloodshot - Very good, nice twist. A lot of fun. Also, they push that PG-13 to the absolute limit. Probably should have gotten an R. Last Seen Alive - Gerard Butler carries a film that wasn't bad, but kinda "meh." Why does this American have a Scottish accent?

"Maniac Cop" was a product of its time - a populist far-right screed against due process and in favor of police brutality. Criminals don't follow the rules, so we need to show no mercy. For all of the discussion of Hollywood liberalism, not enough is said about this propaganda from Hollywood, especially in the 80's.

Very cool. Congrats!

I believe She-Hulk is described as a "comedy" series. And that, in a nutshell, is the biggest problem with the MCU. Way, way too much comedy. If the writers don't care, and the characters don't care, why should I care? Is Marvel/Disney capable of writing anything that takes the subject matter seriously? The worst example I remember is Korg cracking jokes as Asgard was being obliterated by Surtur, something I complained about before. The Asgardian refugees should have erupted in anger, jumped on Korg and ripped him apart. Look, I am not saying that everything should be "Grimdark." Comedy has its place, and the MCU wouldn't be what it is without comedy. But cracking jokes while genocide is happening is not the time or the place.

Dashcam - The Horror Virgin podcast described the main character as a "MAGA idiot." I am a conservative Republican, so I thought "I will watch this and see if they were overreacting." Well, I did disagree with them, because they undersold how annoying and obnoxious this woman is. I couldn't take it so I tapped out after 16 minutes and took the DVD back to Redbox. I don't know if I can even qualify this as a movie I watched, since I watched only 1/6 of it. Here is the movie.

Maybe Punk has become embittered over the years, but WWE's decision to let him go is looking pretty good these days. And he has only himself to blame for that perception. They should have learned that from 1990's WCW.

It has been a great show, but that was laughable.

Cobra Kai, Season 5. Ralph Macchio is 5'8" Sean Kanan is 6'0" I was guffawing as soon as I saw this.

LOL I had an issue some years back where I sent a report to a vendor. They called me and asked where it was. Me - "I sent it to you." Them - "What address did you use?" Me - "I sent it to X." Them - "Don't send it there. That mailbox is not monitored. Send it to Y." Me - "Someone read it. I have a read receipt in Outlook. I am looking at it right now. Do you want me to forward it to you?" Them - "Let me look... Oh, never mind. We got it."

Rogue Hostage - Meh. Need to avoid Redbox Studios movies. I should rewatch that. I have always thought of 007 as the pinnacle of stereotypical Hollywood hyper-masculinity, back into the 60's. Not sure how you make him more "masculine" than he already is. (Whether Bond is actually "masculine" is another question altogether.)

Morbius - Actually watched last month. It was fine. I don't understand the hate the movie gets. It wasn't that bad.

This doesn’t apply to this forum, where people are very chill. This really is one of the best forums I have ever been on, and I have been here for 18 years. It does apply to the rest of the Internet, though: If you find yourself getting angry because someone has a different opinion about a movie, TV show, novel, video game etc. than you do, chillax. It is not that important. You have bigger problems than someone disagreing with you about pop culture. And if you don’t, find some.

We don't talk about Bruno. (My kids love that song and now I have it stuck in my head again.)

Deep into Season 3 of The Flash and the relationship between Iris and Barry is seriously creepy and cringeworthy. Joe West repeatedly refers to Barry as his "son," meaning that Joe's son is marrying Joe's daughter. Um, ew? Yuck. This was avoided in the comics as Joe didn't raise Barry. You could have had them be next door neighbors and very close, without the super creepy vibe of a man's two children marrying each other. Yes, I know they're not biologically related. But they were still raised in the same household, and Joe considers both to be his children.