Watchlist

– Navy SEALS (1991): Michael Biehn and Charlie Sheen do not quite convince as some of the titular all-American supersoldiers….and, despite some presumptive Pentagon backing…this movie is a fine example of the cheesy, cheap 80s-90s action movie that don’t get made any more because people collectively grew out of them.
Does it have any good points? Sure: Biehn doing his stay frosty act across from a jittery Charlie Sheen, or Sheen futilely attempting to charm reporter Joanne Whaley (better known as Sorsha from Willow). Bill Paxton’s sniper–callsign “God”–also hits the mark (see what I did there?), and gets an especially good callback at the end, when a militant, overhearing their radio chatter, taunts a pinned-down SEAL that “His God will not help him now,” only to get blown away by a .50 cal round. There’s also a gonzo team-bonding golfing sequence that’s fun to watch.
The action is plentiful but, to Black Hawk Down or Act of Valor standards, pretty flat. In fact, the action is pretty flat even by Commando or True Lies standards.
Rated: 2/5 golfcarts.

– While the City Sleeps (1956): Dana Andrews, Rhonda Fleming, George Saunders, Ida Lupino, That Guy Who Plays the Weedy Guy in all the old movies, Vincent Price…are moderately corrupt reporters competing for the top slot in the company.
Rated: five typewriters out of five.

Readlist:

– Batman: Year One
This is, I am assured, one of the more famous/approved/widely read/ cannonical/ whatever Batman origin stories. Nolan drew on it for elements of the Batman Begins movies. It’s more about Comissioner Gordon than Bruce, but, whatever.
It’s quite good.
For a funny book.

– Catwoman No. 1 (the new one, by Joelle Jones).
As someone who is not into comics, but rather comics-adjacent, the furor over the Bat/Cat wedding and resultant spillover to the sequel Catwoman series caught my attention and I picked this one up on a whim.
I guess you have to be into comics to be into them, because I sure wasn’t into this.
The art was very pretty, though, and the image of the villainess (motives, name, character, plot unknown) removing her makeup…wig…dentures….prosthetics…face…was striking and creepy.
Rated: not going to read about or think about the rest of the series ever again.

it’s like reese’s cup in a cup

“I don’t know where the protein powders are,  I don’t have anything to do with them. Just the peanut butter powder. That’s in the pantry.”
“The what.”
“Peanut butter powder. You never heard of it?”
“What do you put in it to make it like, normal?”
“Water. Oh! And you can put it in chocolate.”
“What.”
“Like, hot chocolate? You make hot chocolate–like cocoa powder–and then you put a little bit of peanut butter powder in it too, and it’s really good.”
“You are not normal.“