My Cultural Life - What Are We Missing?

What's Up?

Power to the people!!

What a quaint and utterly ineffective idea that is in 2025. People have no power. Protestors are likely to get more jail time than someone trying to 'rid the country of foreigners' with fire. Protestors are as demonised as Muslims, Europeans and socialists...

The crazy thing is more and more people are voting for politicians who want to steal away the rights people have fought for over the last hundred years or so; many in the belief that their own rights will not be affected, just those of people they don't like or want. Supporters of Trump, Farage, Orban, Meloni, etc don't mind that their civil liberties are being removed just so long as someone else is worse off than them. It's a race to the bottom. These people aren't optimistic about the future, they just want as many people to suffer as possible while allowing politicians to strip mine assets, line the pockets of their rich overlords and concentrate on making sure caring about others is as bad as fiddling with kids. Don't be 'woke' it's a sign of weakness. How can you possibly care about someone you don't know? Get back under your rock and shut the fuck up, you fucking woke socialist pansy. 

In 2025 there are more people frothing at the mouth about Disney casting a brown person in a role that once was the 'property' of a white person than they are about Israel starting fights with almost everyone. Maybe that's because Israel is picking on brown Muslims and white people shouldn't care about that. I mean, we don't really care about our own brown people so why care about others?

I wonder if others - and you lot who read this - are aware of how shit life has become. The threat of war; the normalisation of billionaires; the lack of hope. We sit down to the news and we're fed a stream of horror stories, which many of us are simply immune to and those of us who are horrified have this feeling of uselessness. Governments don't act in our names or beliefs; we elect people to carry on butt fucking us; some parties with lube, most of them with sand or salt. Everything has been 'capitalised', everything has to make a profit or it's not worth having. If people miss out on something - tough. Then there's the bi-products of all of this; such as attacking people we once respected because it's not just about me me me in their eyes. Doctors, nurses and schoolteachers are verbally and physically abused and again there's this normalisation arising from it. Why should people get pay rises; we should shoot strikers, sink boats in the channel... Has anyone looked at X in the last year or so? It's scary. It's so full of hatred, rage and discrimination, but distilled and bottled like it's some rare essence - actual pure evil (that again has been normalised). 

Soon, people like me and some of you will have to watch what we say, or write or comment about on social media. Tolerance will become a crime, hatred will be rewarded. This is 2025 and everything I've written above isn't just an old man moaning. That's the most frightening thing.

Waylaid on Mars

We have seen John Carter before but apart from some scenes, which vaguely rang bells, it was very much like watching a new [Disney] film. The critics hated it, it bombed at the box office, Taylor Kitsch and Lynn Collins were exceptionally wooden and yet I know a few people who rate this quite highly. I wouldn't go as far as that, but I would suggest it isn't as bad as everyone thinks. It has many problems, but the bones of the story isn't one of them. There are some stilted plot points along with some contrived elements, but these only really surface when you sit down and analyse the film... I remembered John Carter from his Warlord of Mars days, as a Marvel comic in the 1970s, when the MCG (as they were known then) picked up some contracts from Edgar Rice Burroughs properties, Toho and Mattel. It wasn't a comic I was blown away by, but they were written by Marv Wolfman - who lived in Tarzana, the name of which was adapted from Tarzan - another ERB property - and where the author spent his final days. I've been to Tarzana (and to Marv's old house) and because it was dark I can't tell you much about it at all.

Essentially, John Carter, ex-Confederate Captain, is a gold prospector who stumbles across a cave full of the stuff, which turns out to be a portal for ancient Martian mystics to travel to and from Mars. Carter accidentally ends up on Barsoom (Mars) and after learning to walk again - because of the atmosphere and pressure - he ends up being captured by native Martians called the Tharks, where he becomes an honorary member of their tribe. Meanwhile the last free city of Mars - Helium - is about to be conquered by a warlord who is being guided by the same ancient mystics Carter came across and the Virginian gets involved in a rebellion and a revolution to save Deja Thoris, the Princess of Mars. The special effects are pretty good, in places, and very silly in others. Kitsch isn't a leading man, hasn't got the physique and can't act for toffee, but he doesn't stop the movie from rattling along at a cracking pace. In the end it was an agreeable way to spend a wet and damp Saturday night. 6/10

Wondrous Story

Whatever happened to Curtis Hanson? (He died in 2016 is the simple answer) The film director and writer was responsible for some groundbreaking and original movies, such as LA Confidential, 8 Mile and The River Wild. He wasn't prolific but like so many distinguished film directors (and writers) his output was nearly always quality. I never knew Hanson directed The Wonder Boys, in fact, I hadn't even thought about this film since its release in 2000, when Barry Norman gushed about how good a film it was. I never found myself in the same sphere as this movie and it could well have completely passed me by has it not been for a slip of the finger when looking at IMDB. So because of that, we settled down to watch it as our Sunday night treat. Oh and what an absolute treat it was...

Having no idea what it was about (because sometimes that's the best way to watch a film) we were captivated by it from almost the opening scenes. With a stellar cast including Michael Douglas, Tobey Maguire, Frances McDormand, Rip Torn, Katie Holmes and Robert Downey Jr, it told the story of Grady Tripp, a writer and professor at a Pittsburgh university who is juggling work, his new book, his wife who has just left him, his editor, the affair he's having with the university's chancellor and the advances of a young student, over a 72 hour period. It reminded me of the screwball comedies of the 40s and 50s, which usually starred Cary Grant. It was funny, strange and goes off in a direction - or directions - probably no one expected. It involved some of the following - an odd student who no one likes; a dead dog, a bag of weed, an unfinished novel, a transvestite, a pimp, a jacket and a set of interconnected circumstances that are relentless in their delivery. It's one of those films where if I started to explain what went on I would end up writing a novel about it and the way everything that happened had something to do with something else that was also going on. It could have been a jumbled mess, but it's held together by Grady's commentary. The thing is to tell you about the plot is a really difficult thing to do because many of the events that take place - out of context - would simply sound bizarre.

It absolutely speeds along, almost like the drug-fuelled farce it is, but ultimately it's about a period of time where the main protagonist finds redemption after a series of misadventures. Apart from the fire hydrant, this is a faultless comedy. If you haven't seen it, track it down - they simply don't make films like this anymore; but perhaps this was the last great movie of its kind. 9/10

A Fan Theory

Is DC/Warner Brothers about to usurp Marvel with a Multiverse idea that no one saw coming? The reason I ask this is because if you look at the new Superman film, in some kind of context, it makes little or no sense... Allow me to chuck my idea at you and see if any of it sticks (because the actual film will be out in a few weeks, so all this might end up being moot). The things that are bugging me about this relaunched DC Superhero Universe don't seem to have been picked up by anyone else. The discussion appears to be whether or not James Gunn can pull off something special and whether it will kickstart a new DC Cinematic Universe. However, I'm not sure it fits into that category. I think we might be seeing something altogether different...

What are the key factors in the upcoming film that make zero sense in terms of DC superhero history in films? This film has a living Jonathan Kent in it. It has Krypto the Super Dog. There's a Guy Gardner, a Mr Terrific, a Hawkgirl, a Metamorpho, an outrageously nasty Lex Luthor and a number of other characters we've never seen before. Could we be dipping into another Earth? Not the one that Henry Cavill's Superman exists? Not the one where Michael Keaton has been Bruce Wayne? Not the one where Ben Affleck's Batman is Superman's mate? Not the one where Jason Momoa is a truly fucking awful Aquaman? Where Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman is someone else entirely? Are we seeing DC steal a march on Marvel and take back their original idea? Marvel's Multiverse ramblings have been dull and boring and have suffered from one really fanboy problem - that Multiverse that they've struggled to get any excitement for over the last five or six years isn't even their idea. It was DC Comics' idea in the 1980s (and then subsequent sequels). 

What if James Gunn's revamp of the DC Universe is actually a kickstarter for a cinematic Crisis on Infinite Earths? It's definitely an idea to think about. This Superman might be a new look at an old idea, but this has things that are incongruous to Superman films of the past - Clark's alive dad being the most jarring. There has never been a super dog and apart from Ryan Reynolds' Green Lantern flop there has never been a Green Lantern in the DCEU. In fact other super beings have been few and far between, apart from in The Flash. We've heard that Momoa is coming back, but this time as Lobo (far better casting); there's also got to be a reason why DC continued releasing all those shit films. I wouldn't be at all surprised if we haven't seen the last of Henry Cavill, especially as he said four days before he was replaced as Superman that he was looking forward to carrying on in the role. Or the fact that one of Gunn's proposed future films is OMAC - which would tie into DC's Infinite Crisis comic series. I'm probably wrong, but part of me wants to be right.

Pensioner Abuse

A decision I found strange was casting 79-year-old John Lithgow as Dumbledore in the new Harry Potter TV series, which is expected to run 10 years. That means the American veteran actor will be pushing 90 if he sees out the distance. However, in The Rule of Jenny Pen he seems much more sprightly than his co-star Geoffrey Rush, who is six years his junior. This is a movie about abuse of elderly and infirmed people and the fact those with a duty of care to protect them are often uninterested and ignorant of what goes on... Except, this isn't some kind of documentary or socially right-on film, this is a psychological horror story that suggests for large parts of it that Lithgow's psychopathic cruelty dispenser might be something more than just a sadist and a bully. Rush's judge has a stroke while sentencing a child abuser in court and finds himself, because of circumstances, in a rehabilitation centre/home that he treats with some disdain. He's targeted by Lithgow's Dave Crealey, who might have worked at the home for over 60 years and possesses a strange doll that is always with him. People die, are tortured and systematically abused and he gets away with it because the staff simply aren't listening. The film's problem is it's really boring and a little dull. The acting is okay - for a New Zealand movie - but it just seems to drag on and feels a little voyeuristic. 5/10 

Up in Smoke

Cheech and Chong's Last Movie is an entertaining documentary looking at the lives of Richard 'Cheech' Marin (the Mexican one) and Tommy Chong (the Canadian/Chinese one) and how they, for a while, became one of the biggest acts on the planet with what was then extremely iffy material. Cheech and Chong were the first and best stoner comedians; able to make jokes about something that was extremely illegal in the USA at the height of their fame. Reuniting the pair to be in a documentary was inspired - Chong is 87, Marin 79 and both of them, considering the amount both smoked, are in fine fettle. As they told their life stories, via interviews and old film footage was funny and nostalgic, reminding me of an age when I'd sit and listen to Big Bambu or watch one of their stoner comedies with plenty of my own weed knocking about.  

The weird thing about this film is how, from about the 70 minute mark you start to see that the dynamic between the two was maybe not as egalitarian as Tommy wanted you to believe it was. I first noticed it during clips of an interview they did with Playboy that was filmed; Chong did most of the talking, Cheech did lots of eating and drinking and when he did speak it was like an addendum. Then you start to notice the way Tommy talks about himself in the first person; how he likes to be in charge; how he was the director, the main script writer, the reason for the two of them being so successful, yet, like all good narcissists managed to make it sound like the double act was just that, when it was clear that despite being the actual comedian, Cheech Marin was the poorer of the duo both in the money they made and the credit they were due. There is a point towards the end of the film where the two talk about the slightly acrimonious split they had and one has to wonder if it was deliberately filmed the way it was or if there really is still some resentment from Cheech - who, it has to be said has gone onto a far more successful career as a solo performer. I'm sure there are places where I can find more out about this, but at the moment I'm just glad I watched the documentary... however, it lacked a couple of things - real humour and a sense of honesty. 6.5/10 

The Return of the Living Dead

There is always one huge elephant in the room when you start watching a TV show that first aired on the SyFy Channel. That is the fact that this TV station has a history for putting shit in their schedules. The station that actually first showed Resident Alien and then dropped it because it was shit (only for it to be picked up by some other stupid fucker). However, despite all the warning signs, the alarm bells and the fear that it might just be another series with quirky characters, plinky-plonky incidental music and actors you've only ever seen as extras in mid-budget films, we watched the first episode of Revival and didn't vomit all over the carpet. It suffers from the same problem other SyFy Channel programmes have since I first started watching the station in the 1990s - Amdramitis; but it was also just about watchable. It tells the story of a small town, presumably near the Canadian border given the thickness of some of the accents, where everyone who has died since a specific date has come back to life and the fallout it causes. There's also a mystery involving a dead horse and the Sheriff's family, consisting of two daughters - one a deputy, the other a student - and a grandson. I'm not expecting to make it to the end of the first season, but we'll definitely give it a few more weeks before calling it a night.

Too Many Kooks

To spoil or not to spoil, that is the question? I wasted my entire Wednesday evening watching the first four episodes of the ten-part TV series, of which I am not going to watch the other six parts. I'm sure the missing parts may well end up being the best TV show I've never watched, but I'm getting too old to persevere with something I was bored with after 45 minutes, but after three hours I was just praying for it to end. The Crowded Room has a good IMDB rating. It has a pretty good cast including Tom Holland, Amanda Seyfried, the fantastic Emmy Rossum and Jeremy Isaacs, but if you'd asked me halfway through the fourth episode what it was about I think I would have been utterly clueless. All I did know was it was as boring as fuck and nothing seemed to happen apart from Tom Holland's Danny Sullivan getting himself into a number of scrapes he could have avoided. 

It turns out this is based on the non-fiction book The Minds of Billy Milligan - an account of the first person ever to be acquitted of a crime after being diagnosed with what we call a multiple personality disorder and we got our first clue about this with the conclusion of the fourth part. However, I'd given up the will to live by then and the story that was stutteringly unfolding in front of us felt so far-fetched and riddled with bollocks. From what I've ascertained since watching those four episodes is that Danny goes on to commit a number of quite horrible crimes, which he was eventually acquitted because of dissociative identity disorder - having a split personality. The series follows the psychiatrist as she slowly peels away the layers of personalities to uncover the truth - a truth that Danny is never aware of because his other 'selves' did it. The problem I had was the longer it went on the more I lost interest.

Obfuscation

It sometimes amuses and amazes me that I can continually find movies I've never seen before, especially ones I've known the existence of for well over a decade. With this particular film, it has been on TV a few times (as has its sequel), yet for some strange reason it (and they) have never really appealed to me and I don't understand why. On Thursday night, I watched Now You See Me and wondered why I'd never been tempted. You see, it's probably one of the biggest movies of the 21st century I have never watched; it ranks very high on IMDB and it has among others Mark Ruffalo and Isla Blair in it. It also has Woody Harrelson, Morgan Freeman, Michael Caine and Dave Franco, plus a few more well known faces; it is almost an event movie. Yet, here I was watching it for the first time and wondering why? It is quite brilliant. Now, there's a scene right near the beginning of this where Jesse Eisenberg (he's pretty much the star) is explaining to a young lady he's bamboozling with a magic trick that she is paying too much attention to the trick and not enough to what is going on around the trick and sure enough when the reveal happens it surprises the viewer as much as it does the actress being surprised. This is quintessentially the heart of this magical heist movie; you are led by the nose through the entire thing until you start to question everything that happens and almost everyone involved. You don't watch the film, you watch the action and even if you didn't do that you probably wouldn't see the twist at the end that's coming - the more you see the easier it is to fool you. I'm still not quite sure what I watched or how it was done, unless it was just special effects to make it look like fabulous magic tricks. What I will reveal though is if you haven't seen it you should, because it will blow your mind at times and have you shaking your head at others - in a mixture of disbelief and amazement. It's an absolutely stonking film that will leave you wondering just why they did everything they did. 9/10

The Missing

Another film that I missed when it came out that has finally made it to a TV near me is the Ben Affleck directed Gone Baby Gone, which tells the story of two private investigators who are brought in to work side by side with the police after a four year old girl goes missing. Casey Affleck and Michele Monaghan play the two private eyes who are also romantically involved, while Morgan Freeman and Ed Harris play the veteran cops investigating the case from the right side of the law. It isn't an easy film to watch and not because of the subject matter but because of the thick Bostonian accents, the mumbling and the fact that it's just extremely difficult to follow the narrative. That's not to say it isn't a good film, it's just a bit strange as far as the pacing goes and the way it unfolds. Eventually everything comes to light, thanks to Affleck, but is it a happy ending or is it tragic? Are the victims really victims and are the guilty really criminals? It might seem strange asking these questions in a film about the disappearance of a child but these questions are what your brain will be debating. 6/10 because it was tough to follow.

It's About the Game

The penultimate episode of this season of Welcome to Wrexham focused on the football rather than the human interest. It kicks off with a slightly shocking tale of a travelling fan experiencing cardiac arrest at a crucial away game against Wycombe Wanderers but dedicates most of the episode with the battle for second place in League One, especially as everyone has given up chasing Birmingham. It's weird, really, because this felt like a treading water type of episode rather than the one that leads up to yet another record-breaking milestone for the Welsh club. There was a reunion and a visit from Ryan, but it was all about the men's and women's teams and how their seasons were culminating and, oddly enough, it was the least entertaining so far...

And Then It's Gone 

A good friend of mine (and many of the people who read this as well) suggested that Murderbot is a great show to sit down with a cup of tea and a biscuit. The thing is I could easily manage the biscuit, I'm just not sure the tea would cool down enough for me to drink it. This week, which continues on from last, is really about trying to get the hippy scientists to understand that while Sec Unit might have blown the nasty woman's head off, she was likely to have killed them all and the sec unit was actually doing them a favour. The problem is they're now all scared of him despite their own lives being in imminent danger from a threat they don't know or understand. You kind of wish they'd just all die because they do themselves no favours and Gurathin's insistence that sec unit is bad/evil is starting to look more like the ranting of a fool than a man with tech implants to make him clever. This show will never be long enough and I wonder if some tech savvy person will simply cut all the action bits into a 2½ hour film...

What's Up Next?

The Bear is back next week so provided the end of the world doesn't happen one of the best things on TV returns. Nothing else really matters (but there are some finales and some penultimate episodes of stuff). 

Oh and this year, the longest day, was also one of the warmest and felt like summer, which made a nice change. It's all down hill from here (and summer might have ended looking at the long range forecasts).