Smile had the potential to be genuinely great, but in the end, it took the safe route and became just another forgettable horror movie.
Category Archives: Movies and Shows
A Cry for Help: John Mulaney Baby J
When AI technology copies the voice of John Mulaney, he will be out of work for good, because I can’t imagine a single studio taking a chance on him after seeing his new comedy special, Baby J. Let’s me give a little backstory first before I get into it.
Mulaney is a standup comedian who went to rehab in 2021. He is reportedly “clean” now and decided to do a Netflix Special explaining his time in rehab and what he did after. Imagine watching a man, publicly tell a group of people all the ways he’s a complete screw up, but he does it in a silly voice?
Mulaney explained the night of his intervention. First buying drugs and then trying to get a haircut at the Saturday Night Live studio at 7pm, because he desperately needed a haircut while high on drugs. Afterwards, walking into an apartment with 12 people trying to get him to change his life around. In rehab, Mulaney joked about not being recognized by his fellow junkies and told stories of his “doctors” who gave him whatever drugs he wanted. All the while, speaking in a funny voice.
After rehab, of course, Mulaney still wanted drugs and told a story of how he bought a 12 thousand dollar watch to pawn it off and ended up getting 6 thousand dollars for it, because he wasn’t able to access his bank accounts without a doctor notified. After that embarrassing story Mulaney said, “if you think that’s bad, imagine all the stories I didn’t tell you,” And the audience laughed because again, he said it in a funny voice.
There was one takeaway that really made me point to the screen and say, “well that explains it,” It was when Mulaney explained that he’s been drinking since he was 6 because his father let him do it. This was the confession of a man masking his demons with comedy.
The oddest part of me watching this, was when Mulaney mentioned he has a son and after a quick Google search, I found out that he had a kid with Olivia Munn. Mulaney’s marriage ended in 2021, and then he started dating Munn and went to rehab. Munn dated and had a kid with Mulaney at his absolute lowest point in life…. what the F#@$ was going on with her life at that time? Munn dated Aaron Rogers during his peak years and also Chris Pine, but somehow let John “snorting coke off the child’s changing station at a gas station” Mulaney put it in her?
I was a fan of Mulaney’s earlier specials and I liked Big Mouth, before I realized that it’s a show written for people who want to see kids in sexual situations. Thankfully, that show in its final season. I do wonder what’s next for Mulaney going forward. I imagine Netflix will throw a boat load of money for a single “soon to be canceled” tv show on their network.
It was amazing to me that I put this special on in support of him, but came away disgusted of the man. I do think men like Mulaney will never truly defeat their demons, mainly because he is constantly surrounded by deviants, but I hope the best for him and look forward to the day he can make me laugh again from actual jokes and not just a funny voice.
Star Wars: Remaking The Sequel Trilogy?
I was watching the Snyder Cut of Justice League and was wondering if this would be something Hollywood do in the future. The idea of remaking a recent movie because it didn’t meet expectations or downright was terrible. And it made me think about the Star Wars sequel trilogy. It’s very hard to find someone that says that the Star Wars sequel trilogy was actually good.
Then one day I stumbled on this post on Facebook. It seems as though there “might” be a chance Disney is remaking the trilogy. I use the word might because there is a lot of misinformation on the subject. But the same thing happened with the Snyder Cut. At first, they told the fans it didn’t exist, then it would be too expensive to film and then one random day it was announced to stream on HBO Max.
Hollywood has been doing things like forever. I remember when the series finale of Seinfeld was filming, cast members were only given their specific lines in the script and that was it. Not many knew the actual ending. And Tom Holland isn’t even given the actual script sometimes because the company fears him shouting out leaks.
So all we can do now is speciate until a mysterious trailer drops one day in the future. The idea of remaking the trilogy is good for Disney and the fans. I would imagine they would get Jon Favreau to write and direct the entire thing. Favreau made the Star Wars franchise cool again with the success of The Mandalorian.
One of the biggest missteps in the sequels were the competing directions of directors and writers. Very strange that they didn’t have a full plan for all three when production started and they were mostly scrambling to put something out. You’d expect more from one of the most well know companies in cinema.
This would also be a massive win for Disney as well because the last series was terrible and still managed to make over 4 billion dollars worldwide. So they would still be making a massive profit, be able to sell a ton of toys and merchandise and get to pat themselves on the backs why saying “we wanted to do right by the fans”.
However, I don’t see Disney making another billion-dollar movie in the future, Disney + put an end to that. Why would I go rushing to the theaters when I can simply wait a few months to watch it for no premium markup? But it would still make a profit in the long run.
Either way, the idea of remaking the failed sequels is a win for Disney and the fans. So now all we can do is speculate, keep the idea alive online and hope that Disney actually gives the fans what they want.
Dr Death
Let me tell you about a brilliant neurosurgeon, Christopher Duntsch. A man who wants to heal people. MD. PhD, about a decade of experience, 5 star reviews, recommendations from top accredited professionals, was trying to patent his stem cell research to cure spinal injuries. Confident, cool, and always had a plan to fix his patients.
And then in the years of 2011 to 2013, it was reported that Duntsch operated on 37 patients, killing 2 and leaving 35 with permanent and serious injuries. Even his best friend wasn’t safe.
He wasn’t even slick about it. Duntsch was blatantly doing the wrong thing in front of everyone. Neurosurgeon Robert Henderson and vascular surgeon Randall Kirby were the doctors who instantly knew something was up with Duntsch. Either Duntsch was the most incompetent doctor they ever saw, or he was a sociopath.
In one scene a patient’s procedure was compared to an IKEA box. Parts scattered around and not connected. Another scene had a massive sponge left in a patient causing a life-threatening infection.
Duntsch was able to move around to 4 different hospitals during these incidents without any pushback. Even as an investigation was being done, Duntsch wasn’t suspended, he was free to keep practicing, operating and hurting patients.
As Duntsch was on trial, I was almost surprised he was found guilty. Yes, obviously Duntsch willingly hurt his patients, but I’ve seen how its tough to prove intent in a trial. I remember watching every minute of the Casey Anthony trail, and before the verdict was read, I knew she wasn’t going to be convicted of murder.
The defense was citing Duntsch’s training as to why he made so many mistakes. Most neurosurgical residents do about 1,000 surgeries in their residency. Duntsch performed less than 100. Which in dealing with precise medical procedures you would want all the on-the-job training you can get.
Thankfully, this went in the other direction and Duntsch is now facing life in prison. Which is good because Duntsch always had a plan. Even with his medical license was revoked, Duntsch’s plan was just to go to another state to practice medicine. One of my favorite lines of the show was “There are 49 other states I can practice in. Hell, there’s a whole world,” he was never going to stop.
Peacock put of ton of effort into one of their first big original shows. Joshua Jackson plays the role of Duntsch perfectly and I’m surprised he doesn’t have more upcoming projects on his IMDB page, but after this show he should be flooded with work. I imagine there should be a nomination from this show somewhere.
Alec Baldwin and Christian Slatter have a perfect Ying and Yang styles of acting that work perfectly. Baldwin is more precise and professional while Slatter is more comically entertaining, but not overplayed.
The only flaw, if there is one, is that there isn’t an impactful ending to the series. Dr Death doesn’t end like a typical big budget Hollywood show. This show closely reminds me of one of my favorite and Oscar snubbed movie Wind River, where there was no big mystery to solve. It was pretty obvious what happened at the start and when that movie ended, I was waiting for another act to surprise me.
There was no big reveal to why Duntsch was doing this. The only thing I can think of he has a massive ego and when he is questioned at all that sets him off and takes it out on patients and his staff. Girlfriend breaks up with him and he give her glances as he paralyzes a patient. If a husband has some concerns about his wife’s surgery, then Duntsch hurts her. If his coach questions his ability, then he tackles the quarterback hard. So, we never got a satisfying “You can’t handle the truth moment” in court.
Dr Death isnt a show for the faint of heart. At some moments in the show I had to turn it off for an hour, take a walk, get some water and restart it. I hope you enjoy it.
Loki the Skeptic Loki the Believer
Remember that sad emotional scene where Loki watches his future and becomes a better person from it? He sees himself and Thor becoming friends, getting along, seeing that he is the reason his mother was killed in Thor 2, ultimately sees himself die at the hands of Thanos and realizes this is his fate if he doesn’t change. Yet when He Who Remains shows Loki the script of what’s about to happen, he says “It’s a parlor trick”.
Ummm what?
Loki watched a montage of his future, took it as gospel, became a better person from it and now, all of a sudden, after he’s gone on this massive journey, now you’re a skeptic.
It reminds me of one of my favorite and most hated movies The Polar Express, where a child who doesn’t believe in Santa goes on a magical train ride, meets elves, sees Santa’s workshop yet when he finally sees Santa in person he doesn’t know if he believes.
That’s what happens when you try to shoe horn 3 movies of character development into one montage and then all of a sudden make the lead character go through actual moments of doubt.
Mortal Kombat: How To Make Cole Work?
The Mortal Kombat creators have given us some of the coolest fighters in gaming history. You have ninjas, sorcerers, demons, zombies, special forces, and literal Gods…..so why did the base the future movies around a brand new character?
When I put it on for the first time, I completely missed Cole’s name and was thinking “Oh cool this is a new take on Liu Kang’s story” and then when Liu Kang showed up I thought, “Oh I guess this is Kung Lao,” and then Kung Lao showed up in the next scene so I didn’t know who Cole was anymore.
Now Cole is leading the franchise going forward. I wasn’t a big fan of Cole, but since he’s here to stay I’m gonna give me 2 cents to make him better.
The first issue I had with Cole was he had such a positive family life. Usually, characters in these situations are “lone wolves” who don’t really have a solid family dynamic. The family wasn’t really seen struggling to survive. Sure, Cole was losing cage fights, but it wasn’t like Cinderella Man where the family was filling jugs of milk with water to make it last more. For the sequel, someone has to die.
Cole has to experience some sort of lose to change his world view. Maybe even corrupt one of them to become a popular Mortal Kombat character. It might be a stretch, but making Allison into Frost and fighting along Subzero might be an interesting idea. Cole would then have to kill Allison, giving his character more depth and maybe making him resent his position in protecting Earth Realm.
Another thing I didn’t like was Cole’s powers. The magical armor and weapons he conjured seemed lazy and didn’t look appealing onscreen. I guess the hidden meaning was that he was a protector and giving him armor was some kind of symbolic way of showing that.
The opening scene of the sequel should have Cole practicing his powers, maybe have the armor do more things than take endless blows. The armor could have similar properties to the T-1000 or Venom orIron Man in Infinity War, where they are a living weapon able to manipulate their bodies to help them in certain situations, creating new and exciting ways to solve problems and defeat their enemies.
Might be alittle overpowered, but if they do a good job establishing the parameters of the powers early, they can derail any fan complaints. All that can easily be done in a few short lines telling his daughter what he learned or even having Raiden say something like “You’ve been practicing”.
Overall, I thought the new Mortal Kombat was a fun movie. It wasn’t perfect and a lot of scenes could’ve been redone, but ultimately it was a good first movie of the series. It didn’t do an info dump of the world and a lot of the questions I had early on were answered organically. Out of all the big named series out now, I feel the most confident about Mortal Kombat.
Let me know what you guys think about the changes I had for Cole and the franchise moving forwards.
Reva the Scapegoat
What the best way to stop criticism? Clam that all the negativity is because of racist homophobes who are review bombing the product for biased reasons. Which leads to my conspiracy theory, that Disney only casted Moses Ingram as Reva in the Obi-Wan Kenobi show as an excuse for the criticism of bad writing. Think I’m crazy? Let’s take a look at Reva’s character and you tell me if this makes sense.
Reva was a youngling Jedi who survived the Order 66 attack. She was stabbed through the chest by Darth Vader and left for dead. Reva went on a vengeful quest to join The Inquisitors, who are an extension of the Sith, move her way up the ranks through terrorism, hunt down Jedi, kill innocents, all so she can be next to Darth Vader to try to kill him. You can argue that she did those things to complete her mission for revenge, but let’s take a look at a movie that did a similar thing.
Traitor, was a movie about a US specials forces agent who infiltrated a terrorist organization to stop it from the inside. The agent, Samir, helped the group plan multiple attacks. In one scene, Samir had to blow up a construction site. Samir waited until the site was empty and placed the bomb in a certain part of the building away from everyone else. Sadly, someone was killed in the bombing and Samir was racked with guilt.
Reva, felt nothing the entire show. Even if her ultimate plan was to kill Vader, she seemed to enjoy the deeds she did. There was no scene of her crying in a corner after doing something. No scene of her masquerading some evil deed and being found out by her fellow Inquisitors. Just an evil woman doing evil things.
Reva was a horrible written character, with bad motivations and executed poorly. The Obi-Wan show was a horribly written and executed poorly, yet now they can use Ingram to stop any sort of criticism. I’ve even read reports that Ingram was talked to about race related comments that she will be receiving when the show aired and Ewen McGregor even spared 50 seconds of his life, while driving, to address that people have sent her racist messages. I don’t doubt that Ingram hasn’t gotten any race related negative comments, but it feels like Disney and McGregor are committed to believe that ALL negative reviews of this show are based in racial biasness and not on the merits of bad writing. Disney is reported to want to use Reva in future Star Wars adaptations, but there are no details on that yet.
Was Moses Ingram casted in a role solely to ward off criticism?
The Last of Us Season 2: Big Brain Move
HBO has done it again. First, they hired Bella Ramsey to ward off negative criticism and now the second season won’t be the whole second game. Somehow the company that gave us Velma, apparently can read their audience all of a sudden and know people are tuning in for Pedro Pascal and when his character dies, the numbers with Ramsey in the lead will start to drop. Also, the Last of Us Part 2 was F-ing terrible!
There’s a reason why a third game wasn’t made. Ellie wasn’t fun without Joel. The ending was dumb. Ellie went on a rampage of revenge on Abby because of Joel’s death and didn’t kill Abby in the end? She let her go. Ellie killed tons of Abby’s coworkers just to leave her in the end before she can land the killing blow.
I imagine season 2 will take a lot more creative liberties and spend most of the time on Abby’s story. She was interesting. I do love stories where I get to see the villain’s point of view and maybe try to understand their reasons for their actions. Realistically, HBO needs to put a time table on this and not go the Game of Thrones path of too many seasons.
World War Joe
Big Mouth:Creepy Demographic
There is push in America to expose children to more sexual topics in schools and in entertainment. Balenciaga landed in hot water with some sexual pictures of children holding up bondage gear, we’re seeing a massive number of books being taken off a Elementary School Library shelves with sexual content in them and now grown men are fighting for thr right to dance provocatively in front of children
Remember the movie Cuties on Netflix? The one where “reportedly” dozens of little girls were auditioned and they all had to twerk before the casting director “allegedly”? Yea, that happened. Now, lets talk about a show on Netflix called Big Mouth.
Big Mouth is an “adult animation” show about children growing up and becoming more sexually active. The main characters have Hormone Monsters who show them how to masturbate and they discuss their sexual urges in great detail. There’s a lot a lot of cartoon nudity…of children. Who is this show for?
Is it possible that Big Mouth is a show hiding behind the category of “adult animation” and made for an audience of people who want to see sexualized children and child pornography?
World War Joe
Marvel Studios Is Screwed: Jonathan Majors Situation
This might be a worst-case scenario situation for Marvel. Jonathan Majors is now tied to an alleged assault of a woman. Obviously, more details will come out soon and since I wasn’t there, I can’t comment on how true or not true this is, but Marvel is in a bad situation either way. There are many social issues at play right now and Marvel has been kowtowing to the Woke mob, which resulted in a massive loss of revenue and this situation could potentially cripple them in the public eye.
The Disney World Parks are filled with “Celebrate HerStory” because we are in Women’s History Month. Disney got rid of Johnny Depp over allegations that were proven to be false and did it under the umbrella of the “Me Too” movement and showing how much they believe women when they tell tales of abuse.
Now let’s talk race for a moment. Very quickly, I want to talk about Ja Morant, an NBA player who was under investigation for playing with a gun while drunk in a night club. Morant has bee suspended a couple of games by his team and has attended a theory session to discuss this. The comments I’ve seen with this story are:
“If he was white this wouldn’t have happened”
“Y’all are just trying to take a young black man down”
“White people celebrating too much”
Of course, this isn’t every comment in the world, but there is an alarming amount of comments race based on that situation and there will be even more with the Majors one. Marvel has gone all in on hiring black actors and race changing many white characters to kowtow to the Woke mob on representation. Marvel and Disney have gone out of their way to scold fans who dislike the changes and expressed their desire for diversity.
Majors is in a very simple situation. Either he assaulted the woman or he didn’t and Majors is just a victim of someone wanting a pay day or to ruin his reputation. More details on this case will come out very soon, but it doesn’t sound good in my opinion, since he was arrested on the spot and it was in an apartment, where there might not be any witnesses.
What does Marvel do about this? You can’t appease to both sides of the Woke mob and come out on top. There is still a large number of people who support Amber Heard, citing a patriarchal law system that protects men and demonizes women who speak up. If Majors is found innocent, they’ll say he paid the woman off.
I imagine the race card will be thrown around a lot if he is fired. Citing is he was white this would’ve been swept under the rug like many other Hollywood actors who have been accused on much worse.
Marvel should be preparing a statement which I imagine will sound a little like this, “We are aware of the incident surrounding Jonathan Majors and decline to comment until the facts come to light” anything else will be shooting themselves in the foot. I don’t know how this situation will turn out, but all I can say is that its going to expose Marvel in ways they didn’t expect.
World War Joe 