Oh, I’m not missing anything. Sparky and I talk all the time. For example, the photo above, Sparky is saying, “Are we going for a walk, or what? We aren’t going to prom, just put some pants on and let’s go.”
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Box Office Mojo provides up-to-date ticket sales for movies that are in theatrical release. Looking back 20 years, there is a trend that hasn’t been commented on elsewhere. Based on the trend, movie theaters will close and more movies will be sequels.
Bankrate: Survey on tipping says that tipping culture is out of control.
This survey on tipping is interesting because nobody knows what they are supposed to do. Tipping etiquette used to be an element of American culture, but “tipping culture” wasn’t a thing. With social media, someone says the rules have changed, it goes viral, and becomes part of tipping culture.
Everything you need to know is on this graph.
Proclamation on the Termination Of Emergency With Respect To The Southern Border Of The United States And Redirection Of Funds Diverted To Border Wall Construction.
WH.Gov: Biden upens the Southern border.
On the first day of President Biden’s term, he rolled back Trump’s border policies.
FoxNews: Biden wants to close the border.
“To protect America as a land that welcomes immigrants, we must first secure the border and secure it now,” he said. “Simple truth is there is a worldwide migrant crisis and if the United States doesn’t secure our border, there’s no limit to the number of people who might try to come here, because there’s no better place on the planet than the United State of America.”
Biden should hand the keys to Trump right now and apologize to America.
Americans who knew the border invasion was a threat and bad for American citizens will not be fooled, and will remain Trump voters.
Americans who consider the border invasion to be beneficial and good for the Democratic Party, will be angry that Biden threw them under the bus and disgruntled Biden voters.
Biden did the same thing with the Israel/Palestine issue. He pissed off everyone.
CNBC: Nestle launches Vital Pursuit
People take these to work, and eat with their friends. “Healthy Choice” and “Lean Cuisine” invite criticism if you courteously accept a cupcake that someone brought in for Dessert Thursday. “Hungry Man” announces that even you don’t believe you are big-boned. “Marie Callender’s” declares that you really are better than them.
More food brands should be named like a military operation.
Taco Bell could move into frozen meals under the “Rolling Thunder” or “Urgent Fury” brand
Have a “Vital Pursuit” for lunch with a couple of Red Bulls, and you are Tommy Lee Jones, going after The Fugitive. Your afternoon plan may be to teach Algebra 1 to a bunch of mopes who sniffed out all the dry erase markers, but you’re ready for that too.
The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare is a movie made for streaming, but it opened in theaters 6 weeks ago and only pulled $21 million domestically. It has a good cast, used poorly.
At this point, it would be easier to list the Covid statements that were true and backed by scientific evidence.
Sixteen thousand people erupted into rapture when Donald J. Trump walked into the Prudential Center in Newark at 10 p.m. Saturday to attend an Ultimate Fighting Championship match.
UFC doesn’t appeal to me, and this article about Trump attending isn’t illuminating, but it did get me thinking about other presidents and candidates.
Where would Joe Biden go to revel in the embrace of his most avid fan base?
When was the last time a Godzilla movie was a good movie? Not good for a monster movie, but a good movie? Godzilla Minus One is a good movie and is available on Netflix. It won an Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, has a 7.9 on IMDB and 98%/98% on Rotten Tomatoes.
Godzilla Minus One cost $15 million to make and pulled $56 million at the domestic box office. For comparison, Godzilla x Kong has an IMDB rating of 6.2, cost $150 million to make and pulled $196 million in domestic ticket sales. Godzilla x Kong turned a profit, but is a forgettable movie.
Why was Godzilla Minus One so much better at a tenth the cost?
- It’s not funny or even a fun movie. G M 1 is an action movie with emotional depth. The movie takes the time to introduce characters and get the viewer to care about them. The characters are normal people for their time and place. They are not hilariously inept or cowardly, they don’t make quips, aren’t extraordinarily brave or super smart. They aren’t fashionably casual, or trendy.
- The characters don’t come with a bag full of trauma to justify why they are petulant and unlikable. That was a big problem with the TV show, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, which is part of the same franchise as G x K. The setting is post-WW II Japan, so the trauma is obvious and everyone is doing their best to survive with some humanity.
- The movie doesn’t try to overwhelm with spiffy technology, spectacular scenery, teams of government scientists, or unlikely weapons. Godzilla looks believable, but there aren’t scenes meant to look impress the viewer with awesomeness.
- Japan is threatened, but the movie is about an impromptu family. The stakes are human sized. The tension comes from the people in the family surviving, not saving Japan, the world, the multiverse or other stakes too big to care about.
One aspect of Godzilla Minus One was unusual. In Independence Day, and some other American movies, there is a national pride that is central to the plot. For Americans, we are proud of our military, our ingenuity and our ability to pull together despite our differences. That isn’t often shown in foreign movies. Since this was post-WW II in Japan, the kamikaze tradition comes up and along with other aspects of culture that develop in a country that just got their ass kicked in a world war that they started.
Godzilla Minus One is not a perfect movie. Everyone was Japanese, so no diversity at all. When the little kid cries, she sounds like a baby crying. The aircraft used in the final battle was too unconventional.
Godzilla Minus One is a movie that will stick with me for a while. 9/10.
The movie reviewer, Critical Drinker, does a better job explaining it.