Donomark

*Mike upon changing his forum username*

I knew about the notorious Lawrence Tierny from the Simpsons Season 7 DVD commentary. In the episode where Bart steals the Bonestorm game, the security guy was voiced by Tierny. In the commentary, Bill Oakley and Josh Weinstein go on for most of the remaining episode to talk about how bizarre an experience it was to record him. Apparently the limo driver that brought him to the studio said "I'm not dealing with that guy again" and sped off. Tierny wanted to do the voice in a silly accent, and did not understand the joke about leaving a voicemail for Homer and Marge. They said he was the most intimidating guest they've ever had, but so memorable that in Oakley and Weinstein's UPN series "Mission Hill", Gus, the gruff gay neighbor, is expressly based on their dealing with Lawrence Tierny.

Candyman: The third Clive Barker related movie I've seen after the first two Hellraisers, this was a pretty damn dark and disturbing movie. It gets points for imbedding racism as part of the backstory, but it also is a bit white savior-y at the end. Tony Todd is legendary in the role however. Da 5 Bloods: Spike Lee's latest, I found this more emotionally cathartic and satisfying than Black KKKlansman. Chadwick Boseman has a limited role in the film, but gives my favorite performance from him, embodying a true Black Panther spirit in early 1970s Vietnam. Delroy Lindo rocks the house as a PTSD suffering Trump voter, and Clarke Peters and Isiah Whitlock rejoin from The Wire to turn in very human performances. It's not a perfectly structured film, but I really enjoyed it.

Out of The Lost Boys, BF and B&R and Phone Booth, I can say I've never seen a film of his that hasn't entertained me. RIP

The CW has had a lot of shakeups in the past several months

Mane...on the road just getting over the end to John Oliver's high-emotion episode already brought to tears, and I just got over that when listening to BOTI, only to start back up again when Mike was starting to shake. Good job guys.

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation: B A D, and hardly in a good way. The effects are embarrassing, the movie revolves entirely around fight scenes that connect sparse minutes of a thin-ass plot, and as Harry pointed out it's rampantly more misogynist than the first one. The only reason to watch it is to marvel at how awful it is. Gabriel's Inferno: Based on another in what must be a long line of Twilight fanfic novels, this watched more like 50 Shades of Grey. It's also terrible, because nothing happens. The central romance is contrived and cloying and the movie drowns in scenes of anti-climactic, unresolved tension where nothing happens by the end...oh, but it's only Part One! Nope.

I feel the recent turnaround with her character has moved away from that in a big way. Like originally, Harley's education wasn't anything noteworthy. The comic straight said that she slept her way through school and was only working at Arkham to get rich and famous. The current animated show depicts her past self as a complete professional who sees the Joker for what he is the whole time and cares for the well-being of the inmates. Well, Ivy. Which I had a problem with as there was a scene where Ivy was tearing guys apart with her vines, but when a guard used a flamethrower to get past them and subdue her, Harley yelled at him for abuse. That super-didn't play. Bottom line, I think the discussion of how toxic the Joker and Harley's relationship has been more public and frequent in recent years, and as a result the character has been put over, sometimes aggressively, into the good camp where her abuse produces a heroic Harley instead of an equally criminally insane one. I liked how the BOP movie did it, as it kept Harley's character funny and silly while still realistically going through Joker withdrawals.

Lakeview Terrace: Very entertaining for 2/3rds of the film, with Sam Jackson carrying the whole thing with his beady eyes, but the politics of having the black LA cop being the racist one terrorizing an interracial couple because they're interracial is...there's no getting around that. It feels like a blaxploitation throwback, but there's no irony or awareness in how not cool that set up is. And it's a shame because the acting really does make it watchable. Mortal Kombat (1995): A classic, still and always.

Johnny Mnemonic: A favorite of Mr. Chute's, this was a 90s sci-fi/cyberpunk movie in the extreme. It doesn't work, the futuristic world never really gelling into anything memorable or unique, separate from a lot of other 90s sci-fi films out there, from Ghost in the Shell to Strange Days to even Judge Dredd and Tank Girl. Keanu Reeves is objectively bad in the film, but his badness makes for an unpredictable watch. It's entertaining, never boring and Dolph Lundgren plays a murderer dressed as Eric Matthews from that future episode of Boy Meets World. It's hard to follow, but ultimately worth seeing once I'd say.

Ugh, that sucks. Really sorry man.

Friday Night Lights: This was an engrossing drama, but mainly from the acting and directing. Halfway thru I'm like "...it's just high school." That realization made the thing more melodramatic, which made the final state championship game hilarious because it was so OTT and violent. I liked it, partly ironically.

This is truly the Darkest Timeline.

Didn't see this coming

Straight Jacket: Horror Noir (?) film starring Joan Crawford, I really enjoyed this. It's appropriately creepy with some shocking violence for a 1960s movie, and an ending that totally threw me, being perfectly guessable but not entirely predictable. I guess this movie didn't enjoy a great reputation, but I dug it.

Dan nailed my feelings on Jodie from after watching this first ep, and most of what I've seen from her subsequent season. She's solid and has that Doctor-ish "X" factor quality, but I want to see her more determined and a little more badass. I don't miss Moffat's "The Doctor will kill you so hard whenever he's mad enough to feel like it" BDE because that was unending, but at the same time I want to see that heroic determination that most protagonists have. And I see the balancing act of either employing some toxic characterization or airing on the side closer to pacifism, but there has to be a better equilibrium to strike. I like Jodie, but I think how she's written feels too familiar to Tennant or Smith, or at least it did for a while.

IM3 actually gets better every time I watch it, but still falls down at the end for me. Thor 2 is as bad as its reputation. The second act is fun and the third act fight is fun to watch, but it's on total autopilot. But that's enough spoiling episode 1100...

Harlem Nights, even though it isn't funny, he does a decent quasi-serious turn.

I killed all of Beastars in a marathon session last night. The animation, particularly the frame rate, takes some slight getting used to, but by episode three you're not even thinking about it. The themes of the story is in point, and goes into some truly provocative places concerning the social fabric of a world occupied by anthropomorphic animals divvied by by carnivores and herbivores. Very creative series.

There will be ZERO TOLERANCE of any Nicholas Hammond dragging in my house. *Realizes this isn't his house* Something Borrowed: A 2011 adaptation of a novel with a sequel entitled "Something Blue" starring Kate Hudson, Gennifer Goodwin and John Krasinski about a woman who's having an affair with her best friend. I watched this film after dipping my toe into a review excoriating it, so I was curious. It's a slow burn, pretty basic for the first half where you're not immediately disdaining the premise but as time goes on the character mire in stupidity and by the end everyone is plainly awful. And the screenwriter doesn't understand how awful they are.

Bad Boys for Life: I remember first watching the trailer for this on this very board! This was actually better than I was anticipating, with moments of genuine drama and character interplay. It's by no means innovative or brilliant, but it's far more restrained on the levels of crass that the previous Bay film indulged in. It also avoids a lot of the cliche'd pitfalls of certain story elements like bringing in some younger characters and having a romantic interest for Mike Lowrey be not a damsel in distress. Pretty good.

Spectacular Spider-Man is the best Spidey show, but the 90s series is the one I grew up under, making it my favorite.

Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956): Entertaining. Pop Culture osmosis spoiled much of this, or made it predictable but it was still a suspenseful film.

Thank you!

Beverly Hills Cop: I was into this more for the serious acting and plot than the comedy. It's a funny movie, but far less of a goofy laugh riot than I was led to believe. Eddie Murphy's really a very good actor, and all of the scenes where he was pissed off or acting genuine hooked me far more than his comedic gags, which were for the most part still funny. I also liked how super competent he was throughout.