Blackmoor Vituperative

I enjoyed John Wick. It’s another Keanu Reeves movie: more or less a remake of Payback, but still a lot of fun. It built its own little world. I like that.

This reminded me of the good old days, with Lloyd Montgomery​ GMing and Dan Donovan​ playing the guy they won’t let retire in peace.

Sometimes a whole lot of people just need to die.

It’s no small secret that I don’t even consider Man Of Steel (2013) a Superman movie. It’s not a bad science fiction film, in the same vein as Hancock (although I prefer Hancock), but the guy in that costume is not Superman.

Superman knows right from wrong, but like Gene Roddenberry’s “Star Fleet”, he is very careful about using his power to save people from *themselves*, because he knows that it often makes things worse, and he respects the rights of individuals even if their decisions disappoint him.

Superman has a sense of humour, and he’s easy-going. Why wouldn’t he be? He is powerful enough to deal with any ordinary problem, and there is virtually nothing that ordinary people can do to hurt him. He’s like a lumberjack in a room full of puppies and kittens (we’re the puppies and kittens).

Above all, Superman cares. That’s why he fights corruption as reporter Clark Kent — contrary to what some people have claimed, Clark Kent is not the disguise. Clark Kent is who Superman *is* — a man raised by decent people, who cares about others, and who wants to help make the world a better place.

He also just happens to have the powers of a god.

I watched The Last Survivors recently. It’s a well made movie, and it held my interest.

There is a common assumption that the people who survive past the first days of the apocalypse are the lucky ones. People seem to like the idea of struggling against insurmountable odds to hold on to scraps of a dying world.

I do not agree. The Last Survivors does a pretty good job of supporting my opinion.

I don’t mind that the vast majority of Star Wars’ sequels and spin-offs have been declared no longer valid by Disney (what nerds call “canon” — or “cannon”, if they are exceptionally illiterate). I only wish Disney had taken the additional step of declaring it all no longer canon, and started over from scratch. The Force Awakens would have been vastly improved if it had not been dragging along the baggage of the last 40 years. Every time they trundled out the cast from the 1977 movie (including the robots), the film ground to a cringe-inducing halt. What’s more, the most egregious plot holes were directly the result of shoehorning those characters into the story.

Ah, well. The film appears to have served its purpose, regardless. It’s the most successful toy commercial ever made.

Me: You know, I watched “Manos: The Hands Of Fate” the other night, and I don’t think it’s as bad as everyone says.

Susan: … Really.

Me: Yeah, really! I mean, yeah, the pacing is pretty bad —

Susan: And the acting, and the sound, and the cinematography…

Me: And the directing, yes. But other than that —

Susan: The writing?

Me: Okay, not the writing itself, no, that’s terrible. But the basic premise —

Susan: The plot?

Me: Yes, the plot. The essential concept of the film. That’s actually pretty cool. This family goes on vacation, takes a wrong turn in the desert, and they wind up somewhere that normally isn’t there. It’s off sideways, and most people can’t find even if they are looking for it.

Susan: I don’t remember that.

Me: Yes! Everyone says that road doesn’t go anywhere. So where did this family end up? It’s like some otherwhere. And there’s a creepy caretaker, and a Master who’s always with us but “not dead as you know it”, and then the Master returns, and the family runs away into the desert but they come back… it’s actually a pretty cool idea.

Susan: Huh. So maybe they should remake that.

Me: Yes, they should! Only bad movies should have remakes, and only until a good movie is the result. They should never remake a good movie, because there is no need to — there is already a good movie with that concept. That’s how we got “The Maltese Falcon”.

Susan: So what do you think about the new Ghostbusters?

Me: sigh

Years ago, while watching The Wraith, I wondered out loud why “cool” villains like Dracula (or Nick Cassavetes in The Wraith) were always surrounded by incompetent creeps and toadies like Renfield (or “Skank” in The Wraith) — people I wouldn’t trust to guard an egg salad sandwich. Her reply was, in essence, because those are the kinds of followers they deserve — that they are not, in fact, “cool” at all.

I am reminded of that conversation whenever I read comments by Larry Correia and Brad Torgersen where they make weak attempts to distance themselves from Theodore Beale without distancing themselves from what Beale says or does. When you find yourself on the same side as the Theodore Beales of the world, it’s time to reevaluate your position.

Just watched Hustle & Flow. To my surprise, I liked it a lot. Craig Brewer and John Singleton get the South. They get it.

Everybody gotta have a dream.

Just finished watching Gaslight (1944), with Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, and Joseph Cotten. It’s interesting to contrast Cotten’s performance in this with his role in Shadow Of A Doubt, released the previous year. If you’ve not seen these two films, I suggest that you do.

And is that a very young Angela Lansbury as the saucy house maid with aspirations “above her station”? Why yes, it is! In truth, I did not recognize her. I only know this because I read the credits.

Just watched Lucy with Susan and Vixen. Vixen and I LOVED it. What the Matrix is to computer science, Lucy is to biology. No, it does not make sense, and in fact it’s absurd on several levels, but it is nonetheless AWESOME and perhaps even mind-blowing. And much like the Matrix, any sequel(s) would be both superfluous and inevitably disappointing.

Vixen agrees.

How many of you remember with fondness the 1973 “Dr. Phibes’ Abominable Christmas Special”?

“Twelve signs of the zodiac. Twelve apostles. Twelve times, twelve! The human body has twelve cranial nerves, Doctor. … I will now play the Twelve Days Of Christmas. Ho. Ho. Ho.”
(from “Dr. Phibes’ Abominable Christmas Special”, 1973)

Dr. Phibes’ Abominable Christmas Special was a Christmas-themed television special starring Vincent Price broadcast December 23, 1973 on ABC. It featured guest star Joseph Cotten in a reprisal of his role as Dr. Vesalius from The Abominable Dr. Phibes. Also guest starring were Virginia North as Vulnavia, Billie Hayes as Witchiepoo from “H.R. Pufnstuf”, Tim Conway, Roz Kelly, Florence Henderson, rock band Pink Floyd, Billy Barty, Betty White and, in an unbilled surprise appearance, Sonny and Cher (whose own Christmas episode of the hit show “The Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour” had been broadcast on CBS four days earlier, on December 19, 1973).

The 1983 Japanese LaserDisc release is the only issue of this special on disc due to the rights issues involved with the various characters and musical performances. The special was announced for DVD release in 2002 but then cancelled when rights could not be obtained, and Disney now claims rights clearances are impossible.