My Cultural Life - The Runs

What's Up?

The Epstein Files have been released. I said to the wife less than two weeks ago, "You watch, it'll be loads of redacted stuff and only half of them will be released." I actually said this; the wife would verify it if she could.

[He did - the wife]

Did people seriously believe that files would be released that could possibly incriminate many of the world's former and presently most powerful people? I mean, really? Did you not realise that they waited the full time possible to release them so they could put black lines through everything remotely incriminating, unless it involved people Donald Trump doesn't like or couldn't care less about?

Ornery folk ain't never gonna learn what's in them there files...

Run Like Hell

Edgar Wright's remake of The Running Man felt a little more like Stephen King's original story (but it has been over 40 years since I last read that, so...) and for most of the film's duration it was a very enjoyable, if slightly camp, adaptation. It was the last five minutes or so that let it down and this is weird, for two reasons. 1) Everything I've seen or heard about the movie suggests the ending lets it down and 2) I remember seeing the trailer for this about seven or eight months ago and something in that trailer was omitted from the final print. Now, that isn't unusual, lots of trailers use footage that doesn't make it, but this specific section of the trailer had Josh Brolin explaining to Glen Powell why he can't win the Running Man competition because of the financial hit his company would take. This made me think that Wright's vision of a media-run dystopian USA - quite a recurring theme in recent years - maybe had the ending changed because it wasn't as ... revolutionary as it ended up being.

Is it any good? Like I said, until the final ten minutes or so, it's a seat of your pants action thriller. Yes, there's elements of it that feel a little too like the Awkwafina/John Cena comedy from last year called Jackpot, which is essentially the same movie but played for laughs, but in general it's not bad. It could have done with being a little more serious at times, maybe a look at just how the Network manipulates and doctors stuff, or even just how much of the government it runs would have made the viewer realise what Powell's Ben Richards was truly up against. It was, in general, an interesting and mildly enjoyable way to spend a Saturday night, that otherwise would have been the pub had the weather not been so awful. 7/10

Holy Mystery, Benoit 

This is the third Benoit Blanc movie that Rian Johnson has made with Daniel Craig - who's almost made as many of these as he did James Bond films. I don't think they get any better, I just think they become more convoluted and longer. This story of a monsignor murdered by a member of his dwindling parish felt like a cross between fire and brimstone and hell hath no fury like a devotee scorned, wasn't that clever really, it's just dressed up that way to make Blanc seem more Sherlock Holmes than a Baker Street impostor. Because that is essentially what Johnson has created - a new Holmes or Poirot or Marples, but without their particular charms... 

Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery puts Josh O'Connor's Jud Duplenticy in the centre circle as both prime suspect and obviously innocent victim. He's the new assistant priest sent wherever he had to go (but clearly England, despite being told it was New York State) to work with a senior figure in the church who was losing his congregation through his increasingly hostile sermons. The monsignor - played by Josh Brolin - upsets one of his faithful flock enough for them to kill him, but why? What secret did he hold? How could someone create a crime that seemed almost impossible to commit? This movie was two and a half hours long, it could have been an hour less and still packed the weak and feeble punch it delivered - especially as Josh O'Connor's character in a previous life was as a boxer. I just don't think these films are particularly good; that said they're relatively enjoyable without taxing you too much and never really too heavy. I expect we'll get another one of these for Christmas 2027 or 2028 and I will probably watch it. 5/10

It's Over

Jesus H Christ, there was one moment in the finale of It - Welcome to Derry which required you to suspend most of your free thinking abilities. I won't spoil it for all my readers who will ignore my warnings and still watch this heap of arse scrapings, but it needed added ghost to get the story over the line. This was fucking abysmal. This started brilliantly, but shot its (and It's) load inside the first two episodes, we all know the only way is down after that. It was never going come back - at least, not until next year. If that's the case, I'm not sure I can be persuaded to drink the Kool Aid next time. Pennywise is becoming the new Freddy or Jason...

Expletive Deleted

You will be hard pressed to see a better, more funnier movie this or any year than I Swear, the story of a Galashiels man's struggle with Tourette's Syndrome. John Davidson is quite well known to people around my age; he first came to prominence in the 1980s while trying to make people aware of Tourette's and how it affects his life. It is genuinely funny; Davidson - played quite brilliantly by Robert Aramayo - is the first person to admit it and from almost the opening minute, when he calls the queen a cunt, you know you are watching the story of a special man, who has overcome so much and now has been rewarded with an MBE for services to health and the Tourette's cause. Maxine Peake plays his mate's mum, a former mental health nurse, who can see that John is desperately unhappy, so takes him under her wing to bring the best in him out.

This is a phenomenal movie. It possibly rates as one of the best British made films I have seen this century; it might even be close to being one of the best films I've ever seen. It is a docudrama and is as much educational as it is emotional and also entertaining; it borders on tragic at times, but those moments are what makes it such a quality feature. I have seen three or four bloody brilliant movies in 2025, this might be the best one. 10/10

Laugh, I Almost Did

On Tuesday night, we started a new journey; one I didn't expect to be going on. On Tuesday night, we started watching The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, with Rachel Brosnahan as Midge Maisel, a woman who finds herself in the world of stand-up comedians and after spending four years trying to help her husband become one, she ends up being far more successful than he'd ever hoped... But I expect I'm getting ahead of myself; as opening episodes go I was not hooked, but I saw enough to make me want to watch some more. Given the ridiculously high rating it has on IMDB and the fact that I did laugh at the opener and was rather stunned by Brosnahan's boobs making a very unexpected appearance, during her first stand-up routine; I expect this is going to be an enjoyable 43 episodes of fun. I shall drop back into reviewing this, now and again.

Fall... Asleep?

I was really looking forward to season two of Fallout. I seemed to recall a slightly anarchic dystopian series, with crazy creatures and Mad Max-styled lunacy. So when we had a five minute 'Previously on Fallout' section at the front, I expected to have remembered a lot of it, but I didn't. After that some stuff happened but I can't really remember much; something about a dinosaur's mouth - not a real one - and Kyle What'sisface giving us a forgettable dialogue over a transmitter. It was just a bit meh and not at all as fun as I seemed to think it was (or others thought it would be)...

Free Will

Now that Carol has 'apologised' to the hive mind of humanity, everyone is moving back to Albuquerque and she doesn't feel so isolated. She's begins to form almost a relationship with Zosia and learns that the hive mind has its own individuality, but it's not really fooling her because she is still planning or at least that's how it seems. Pluribus has really just meandered for the last few weeks and this was without a doubt the meandering of the lot. All the media has been talking about this show for most of the last week; it's Apple TV+'s biggest hit apparently and it's got everybody talking. While I've not doubt this is the case, it really does need something to happen and as Manousos zeroes in on Carol, the hive mind of humanity seem unsure about what the future might hold. I haven't fallen out of love with this, but after eight episodes, five of those have been as illuminating as a computer screen picture reel. Nothing happens! Maybe we might get an episode where something happens that feels like an important step rather than the feeling we're having the piss taken out of us at times. Season finale next week; it needs a boost.

Sea Creature Feature

I'm not sure what is happening with The War Between the Land and the Sea because it's gone a bit wonky and logic seems to have taken a backseat. Sea Devil diplomat - Gugu Mbatha-Raw - has suddenly realised she loves Russell Tovey's Barclay and vice versa. Some humans try to blow up the fish people then make it sound like it was the fish people's fault and there's not a lot of war going on. I'm not sure this is going to get finished...

What's Up Next?

By the time you've sat down to read this next week Christmas will have been over a couple of days and there will be just one episode of bloody Stranger Things to go...

There's probably shit going on this coming week; I know I'm doing the pub's Christmas quiz on Sunday, so next week's effort might be even smaller than this. Whatever.