The Mandalorian – Eps 1-3 – (Re)Reviewed

mandalorian-poster-detail-cropEp 1: “Ok, so, you have to watch The Mandalorian.
The Mandalorian. You know, I can’t believe you! Why are you even watching that–that–garbage!? You know it’s bad. You know what Disney has done to Star Wars.”
“No, it’s actually surprisingly decent.”
“…”
“It is!”
“How can it be Star Wars when it ain’t even got none of the original people in it?”
“What? Look, just watch this gunfight at the end. Watch it!”
[…]
“Wait, wait, wait, why does this look like a Western?”
“Yeah!”
“No!”

Ep 2: “Look, it’s Baby Yoda.”
“Oh my gosh are you buying into that Baby Yoda cr–craziness? It’s aaaaaall over Facebook. All the time. Baby Yoda. Baby Yoda. Baby Yoda. Gah! It’s annoying! What is the big deal with Baby Yoda!?”
“People like Star Wars when it’s done even, y’know, half-way decently well!”
“Baby Yoda. Oh gosh. I can’t believe you.”
“Heh, see, he’s chasing the frog thing. And Mando tells him to spit it out. ’cause, y’know, babies.”
“Oh [hork], he ate it!?”
“You’re acting as though my niece did not just try to eat a dead fly off the windowsill.”
“…that was only once!
“And look at the Jawas! I always liked the Jawas!”
“I can’t believe you.”
“You gotta watch the whole thing, there’s a bit where he’s fighting this creature and he goes through each of his weapons–he goes through his rifle, and then his sidearm, and then his flamethrower, and then the mud-horn is y’know, getting ready for the charge and he’s like all beaten-up and on one knee, and all he can do is pull out his knife and get ready for it–and he’s so tired and his hands are shaking, and so he has to steady the knife with both hands as the creature is barreling down on him. It’s awesome.”
“…I don’t get it.”
“…y’know, we can always watch some little Barbie Disney Princess movie if you like instead.”
“Shut up.”
“We can watch My Little Pony!”
“SHUT UP.”

Ep 3: “Wait, so he never takes his helmet off?”
“This is the way.”
“His skin must be horrible.”
“…”
“I mean, imagine if he has dandruff. His hair must be sooo greasy and then he has to keep putting the same helmet back on again. It would never get a chance to get better. Ew.”
“…”
“Maybe he has like a beanie or something he wears under it and he can change that out. Like a helmet liner. Do they have helmet liners? Why are you looking at me like that? He’s the one who said he don’t ever take his helmet off!”
“SO THE GUNFIGHT HERE IS REALLY COOL, YEAH?”
“Yeah, it’s okay. But it’s still not as good as real Star Wars.”
“It’s the best we’re gonna get, and they were making an effort. They’re actively trying to do the story right, and, and, when they do insult your intelligence, it’s unintentional.”
“But there’s no lightsabers. It can’t really be Star Wars without lightsabers!”
Star Wars is technically–”
“It ain’t Star Wars unless it’s the original movies with the original cast, with the original director making it.”
“The movies had different directors.”
“You know what I mean! No lightsabers, no Star Wars! No George Lucas!”
Star Wars is science fiction. You don’t need lightsabers. You just need spaceships and blasters. And George Lucas sold out to Disney for four billion dollars.”
“Hmph. And also! There’s no Jedi. And there’s no Luke or Leia. Or Han.”
“You have Mando! And Baby Yoda! They are introducing new characters to Expand the Universe! And
can you imagine how they’d screw it up if they did have Luke and Leia?”
“Oh. Well. Yeah.”
“And Baby Yoda is very cute.”
“It looks realllllllly fake.”
“Yeah, it really does.”

The star of Old Yeller is dead

oldyeller(Not the dog.) 

Tommy Kirk played Travis Coates in Disney’s classic Old Yeller and Savage Sam, Ernst in The Swiss Family Robinson, and nothing else of real note due to being fired by Disney due to a) aging ungracefully out of child-stardom and b) being gay. 

He was 79. May he rest in peace.

So, Gina Carano got cancelled

They’ve been after her for a while, but I didn’t expect Disney to start chiseling away at the cow that produces the golden m….I’m going to stop that metaphor right there.

Gina, who portrays an unabashedly physically and mentally strong, female character on The Mandalorian, has been under fire for a while by the twitverse psychopaths for: mildly poking fun at mask and lockdown hysteria, not putting pronouns in her twitter bio and publically stating she was not going to (if you see her described as transphobic, it’s because of this incident), generally being suspected of having less-than-extremist-left-wing-views, and now, apparently for anti-Semitic tweets. Given the context of the attacks on her, I’m going to guess she said something on the lines of, “Palestine and Israel should both chill out.” (Oh, wait, it’s even worse than that. Apparently, she made a reference to the pre-WW2 period of history as could be applicable to current events.)

(Oh gosh, it’s even worse than that. SHE WROTE ABOUT HOW THE NAZIS MADE JEWS INTO ACCEPTABLE TARGETS BY SOCIAL MANIPULATION AND ENCOURAGING HATE.)

A lot of people have been urging me to watch The Mandalorian season 2. I probably will get around to it.

But guess who isn’t going to be watching Season 3?

Artemis Fowl 2020: Movie Reaction (yeah, no. it sucks.)

Here.

We.

Go.

DIE DISNEY

Having a reporter describe himself and the multiple voiceovers we are getting as “a media frenzy” is really lazy.

OH HEY I KNOW THAT PLACE, it’s that sea…nation…station place thingy. It also has nothing to do with MI6, since it’s privately owned. See, I knew that.

McGuffin interrogation. Mcguffin interrogation. Mcguffin. Mcguffin. Mcguffin. To be honest, I’m also listening to music and surfing reddit, so the dialogue isn’t bothering me as much as it might, which it would, because it’s also lazy and boring.

Fundamentally changing your main character in the first scene he’s in isn’t necessarily a bad sign, right? (the casting director’s name popped up over the surfing scene. Coincidentally, I’m sure.)

The voiceover describing Artemis might have worked, if it was then competently followed up by a scene in which Artemis, for example, showcased his ruthlessness, criminal chops, and intelligence in a plot-relevant way. Such as forcing a fairy into betraying sacred secrets for his own benefit. Instead…ARTEMIS ANALYZES HIS THERAPIST’S CHAIR AND DEDUCES IT IS A FAKE.

Oh, and Artemis’s mother is dead. You know, Artemis’ mother, who is an important and highly sympathetic character in the book who provides Artemis with his first shot at redemption and morality. I mean, seriously!

OH THIS PAINFUL. This is painful. It really hurts. It’s only been about ten minutes, too.

OH GOD HE’S QUOTING THE “MAY THE ROAD RISE UP TO MEET YOU” prayer. In voiceover.

Butler. Why. WHY? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYY??????????????????????????? OK. OK. Break it down.
1) Racebending. He’s Eurasian and lives in Ireland. Eh, I always had Dwayne Johnson in my head. A black guy could do it, sure, if he looked the part.
2) But here’s the actual disrespect. I mean: why just casually completely reverse the way the character is named and referred to? In the book, Butler is Butler. We only find out his first name in the third book when he’s at the point of dying and wants to say goodbye to Artemis. Here, it’s “Don’t call him Butler, call him Dom. Or Domovoi. If you call him Butler, he’ll snap you in half.” Why? It’s just such a small thing, just…why? WHY?!!?!?!?
3) Anyhow, he doesn’t look the part. Butler should have a sculpted, lean but powerful build. Like, uh, Dwayne Johnson. Instead, he’s bulky and, frankly, looks slow and heavy.
4) The white hair plus blue eyes just looks dumb.
Ugh.
5) Butler gives Artemis orders. NO.

ARTEMIS SCREAMING THAT HIS FATHER IS NOT A CRIMINAL?! Artemis Fowl. Artemis Fowl of the Irish criminal dynasty whose fortunes were reduced by their run-in with the Russian Mafia. Artemis Fowl of the kidnapping fairies for ransom fame.

Butler introduces Artemis to the supernatural/relics. Together with some of the most on-the-nose expository dialogue I’ve ever had the misfortune to hear, not to mention Artemis’ instant emotional 180. Man, that was poorly-done.

Oh, wait, there’s more of that Mulch Diggums narration.

Mulch Diggums is a giant dwarf. ?! !? !! ?? No, literally. He says, he is a “GIANT DWARF.” Seriously? SERIOUSLY?

He’s a giant dwarf who tries to be humorous but really, really, really, REALLY REALLY REALLY ISN’T.

I’ll admit it. I’m skipping pretty hard at this point.

Judi Dench. Well, ok, I’ll be honest here. She’s doing her Judi Dench best and it could have worked decently. The problem is the movie, the script, the situations, and the characters.

Is that supposed to be Juliet? So you took a quirky, amusing character with a distinctive personality and made her…non-distinct, non-amusing, personality-less…and black with poofy hair. Why? I mean, it’s hard to come up with interesting characters BUT ALL THE WORK WAS ALREADY DONE FOR YOU! I MEAN, SERIOUSLY!

Foaly. WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY FOALY? Why does he look totally and utterly…gay? He shouldn’t look gay. He should look like a nerd. He should look like a four-legged underwear-wearing basement dweller who drinks Mountain Dew and eats Doritos, only he’s in a superhyperultrafuturistic computer den instead surrounded by serious professionals. He’s wearing a skirt!? He’s got long hair and a side cut? Why isn’t he wearing his tinfoil hat? Where’s his personality?
OH MY GOSH OH NO OH GOD HE LITERALLY SAID “I LOVE SCIENCE.”
OH HELL
OH FRICKING HELL.
NO. OW. OW. Owhhhhowhow.
OK, that’s it. That’s seriously it. I officially cannot stand this any more. Ow.

DIE DISNEY. DIE PAINFULLY.

Today just keeps on giving

The (deep breath) Artemis Fowl movie is released on Disney+ streaming tomorrow. Critical reviews, however, are in, and….

YEAH I TOLD YOU SO I EFFING TOLD YOU DIDN’T I.

Rotten Tomatoes: as of now, it’s at 14, oh my, ahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAH excuse me, 13%.

The AV Club website has a review and plot breakdown that’s frankly too painful for me to recap here. Slashfilm rates it as 1/10 from a book reader’s perspective.

Look, guys. If you wanted to make a movie called STUPID KID AND THE FAIRIES, you should have effing called it Stupid Kid and the Fairies. NOT ARTEMIS FOWL. I’m probably not going to fly the black flag and obtain this movie off the high seas even just to make fun of how bad it is. Because this is just depressing.

It’s going, well, I don’t know if bomb is the correct word, but, y’know. Whatever.

#TheMouseMustDie

 

 

 

Movie Review – Eight Below – sad with puppies

“What is this one about?”
“I’m not going to spoil it for you guys, I’m sorry. You’ll just have to watch it.”
“….M2 said it’s sad. Do the dogs die?”
“No spoilers!”
[…]
“Do they eat the dogs?”
“This is a Disney movie, Riders!”
[…]
“So this is based on a Japanese movie, and in that one there were nine dogs and seven died.”
“Oh.”
“And that was based on a real story and…oh my gosh. There were fifteen dogs and only two survived.”
“Oh…”
“Now I don’t know if I want to watch this either.”
“Seven of them died chained up!”
“Yeah, and you know the people didn’t even go back on purpose to look for the dogs. They just left them and went back a year later to do more research.”
“People SUCK.”
“But Max is a good boy!”
[…]
“OH GOOD GIRL!”
“Maya is the best girl!”
“She really is…”
[…]
“Does the aurora actually reflect on the snow like that?”
“You might want to step outside at this part, Riders.”
[…]
“Are they ok now?”
“Go back outside!”
[…]
“Like we care about him!”
“No, he’s been traveling around this whole time trying to get funding to go back.?”
“Oh. Well, ok then.”
[…]
“I’m literally watching the credits to make sure they put the dogs’ names there. Because this movie? Was all theirs.”

Rated: NEVER, EVER AGREE TO WATCH SAD DOG MOVIES.

The Mandalorian – Eps 1-3 – Reviewed

mandalorian-poster-detail-cropEp 1: “Ok, so, you have to watch The Mandalorian.
The Mandalorian. You know, I can’t believe you! Why are you even watching that–that–garbage!? You know it’s bad. You know what Disney has done to Star Wars.”
“No, it’s actually surprisingly decent.”
“…”
“It is!”
“How can it be Star Wars when it ain’t even got none of the original people in it?”
“What? Look, just watch this gunfight at the end. Watch it!”
[…]
“Wait, wait, wait, why does this look like a Western?”
“Yeah!”
“No!”

Ep 2: “Look, it’s Baby Yoda.”
“Oh my gosh are you buying into that Baby Yoda cr–craziness? It’s aaaaaall over Facebook. All the time. Baby Yoda. Baby Yoda. Baby Yoda. Gah! It’s annoying! What is the big deal with Baby Yoda!?”
“People like Star Wars when it’s done even, y’know, half-way decently well!”
“Baby Yoda. Oh gosh. I can’t believe you.”
“Heh, see, he’s chasing the frog thing. And Mando tells him to spit it out. ’cause, y’know, babies.”
“Oh [hork], he ate it!?”
“You’re acting as though my niece did not just try to eat a dead fly off the windowsill the other day.”
“…that was only once!”
“And look at the Jawas! I always liked the Jawas!”
“I can’t believe you.”
“You gotta watch the whole thing, there’s a bit where he’s fighting this creature and he goes through each of his weapons–he goes through his rifle, and then his sidearm, and then his flamethrower, and then the mud-horn is y’know, getting ready for the charge and he’s like all beaten-up and on one knee, and all he can do is pull out his knife and get ready for it–and he’s so tired and his hands are shaking, and so he has to steady the knife with both hands as the creature is barreling down on him. It’s awesome.”
“…I don’t get it.”
“…y’know, we can always watch some little Barbie Disney Princess movie if you like instead.”
“Shut up.”
“We can watch My Little Pony!”
“SHUT UP.”

Ep 3: “Wait, so he never takes his helmet off?”
“This is the way.”
“His skin must be horrible.”
“…”
“I mean, imagine if he has dandruff. His hair must be sooo greasy and then he has to keep putting the same helmet back on again. It would never get a chance to get better. Ew.”
“…”
“Maybe he has like a beanie or something he wears under it and he can change that out. Like a helmet liner. Do they have helmet liners? Why are you looking at me like that? He’s the one who said he don’t ever take his helmet off!”
“SO THE GUNFIGHT HERE IS REALLY COOL, YEAH?”
“Yeah, it’s okay. But it’s still not as good as real Star Wars.”
“It’s the best we’re gonna get, and they were making an effort. They’re actively trying to do the story right, and, and, when they do insult your intelligence, it’s unintentional.”
“But there’s no lightsabers. It can’t really be Star Wars without lightsabers!”
Star Wars is technically–”
“It ain’t Star Wars unless it’s the original movies with the original cast, with the original director making it.”
“The movies had different directors.”
“You know what I mean! No lightsabers, no Star Wars! No George Lucas!”
Star Wars is science fiction. You don’t need lightsabers. You just need spaceships and blasters. And George Lucas sold out to Disney for four billion dollars.”
“Hmph. And also! There’s no Jedi. And there’s no Luke or Leia. Or Han.”
“You have Mando! And Baby Yoda! They are introducing new characters to Expand the Universe! And
can you imagine how they’d screw it up if they did have Luke and Leia?”
“Oh. Well. Yeah.”
“And Baby Yoda is very cute.”
“It looks realllllllly fake.”
“Yeah, it really does.”

Missed Music Monday

In honor of the belatedly-lauded Star Wars Prequel Trilogy, and the apparent fact that:
– the rumors that Emperor Palpatine will be returning in the Rise of Skywalker are apparently, regrettably, true
the fact that the image of the Emperor Palpatine used on the promotional poster was apparently, regrettably, recycled from a toy….
– The Mouse Must Die
–remember a grander and more civilized age, before the dark times, before the Disney Empire…