April/May 2021 Movie Grades

I reactivated my AMC A-List 6 weeks ago.  Here is what I have seen-

Voyagers – Lord of the Flies set in space.  It had a few good moments but overall, it felt like another CW teen angst story.     C

Nobody - Bob Odenkirk is just fun to watch as John Wick.  The first 2/3 of the movie is riveting.  The last third took on a campy tone and I would not have been surprised to find that the writing and directing were done by someone else.  It felt that different.  Still, it was good enough for a second viewing that same week.  If guns and brutal fight scenes are your cup of tea, this is a good one.  B

The Unholy – My daughter is my horror film buddy… and we both agreed that this was a dud.  It had a good cast and Jefferey Dean Morgan in the center seat made it endurable.  However, since nothing in the story was particularly scary, they went to the jump-scare well 10 times too often.  D

Nomadland – The story of a wanderlust-driven widow living out of her van.  There is a thin plot, but mostly it is just a series of encounters with different people.  A slow burn that is designed to meander.  I was completely entranced and I left the theater desperate to travel.  B+

Wrath of Man – A moderately entertaining revenge/heist flick.  A father develops an elaborate plan to get revenge on the men who killed his son.  I guess Liam Neeson is too old for this role now.  B-

Those Who Wish Me Dead -  This movie started off on the wrong foot for me.  Angelina Jolie and her cadre of firefighters are just a bunch of loud bullies.  They are introduced interrupting a commencement that they are too cool to respect.  In the next scene, the guys in her posse are in a bar making fun of others for not being as “manly” as them.  I had nothing but disdain for the protagonists the first 10 minutes in.  It did pick up after that somewhat.  Ultimately, it is a story about a firefighter saving a kid in the mountain forests, but I never shook my first impressions.  C

Spiral -  I usually pass on Saw movies and their like.  I don’t want to see one torture death, let alone a series of them.  However, I am a fan of Chris Rock… and there was nothing else new to see that week, so I gave it a go.  Minus the torture-death aspect, I enjoyed the movie.  Chris Rock delivered.  It was a good cop story.  Just give me the edited version, please.  B

Raya and the Last Dragon – This was a very enjoyable Disney movie. It succeeds in walking that line of keeping the adults entertained while engaging the children.  Fun characters.  Fun story.  B+

Scott Pilgrim Vs The World – AMC has been doing “Fan-Faves” in their theaters.  Older flicks for 5 bucks.  I hope they continue this practice beyond the pandemic.  I have tried to get in to see Back to the Future and Raiders of the Lost Ark but they are always sold out (theaters still only allow 40% seating).  I did not see this movie when it first came out but I assume it must have been for 20 somethings then what Singles was back in the early 90s.  Still, even at 50+ I thought this movie was hilarious.  I love fast, underplayed witty lines and this movie had loads of that.  B+

Cruella – The trailers for this movie did not do it justice.  I went in with low expectations and ended up thoroughly enjoying it.  The character of Cruella was a perfect anti-hero.  This is the direction that the Harley Quinn movie SHOULD have taken. The movie has one major failing through no fault of its own.  It is NOT a kid’s movie, though it can’t help but be billed as such.  It is long and filled with dialog… and the kids in my theater were not enjoying it.  You might want to catch this at a later showing to avoid a theater of bored 7-year-olds.  B+

A Quiet Place II – I was not as enamored with the first one as much as everyone else seemed to be.  So, when this one chose to retread the same territory as the first one, I found myself looking at my watch a lot.  Not a good sign if the movie is only an hour and a half.  C+

(BTW, my grades speak primarily to my personal enjoyment of the movie.  You may notice I rarely give A’s.  To me, those are reserved for movies I can see a dozen times and never get bored.  Movies like Tombstone, A few Good Men, The Thing, 2010.  C’s are “average” and still worth a watch, but not a repeat.  B’s are enjoyable and probably worthy of another view or two.  D’s I don’t recommend and F’s I walk out of.)

Black Superman?

Putting different spins on canon comic characters has been going on since... forever.  In fact, Marvel once had a monthly called "What IF" that looked at just such stories - What IF the spider had bitten MJ rather than Peter Parker?  Disney+ will be doing an animated Marvel series of these stories this summer.

Superman is a favorite for such tales.

In one story, called Red Son, Superman lands in Russia rather than Kansas and no longer fights for the "American Way".

In the popular game and comic series "INJUSTICE", Superman becomes an overlord of Earth after Lois and his unborn child are killed by the Joker.  He rules with an iron fist and kills heroes like Shazam.  Snyder was clearly hinting at taking the character in this direction in his movie "Justice League" which premiered on HBO a few weeks back.

And do you know HOW CLOSE we came to having Nicolas Cage as Superman??  The script was written and they were outfitting the man who stole The Constitution with a big S and a cape!

Yep, everyone loves a new spin on the Superman legend.

Unless...

Apparently, for some folks, asking "What if Superman were black?" is pure Kryptonite. Warner Brothers is getting a lot of hate mail, written with smoldering Crayola's, by fans who do not want to see a black Kal-El on the silver screen.

Me?  I'm all in!  Just give me a second to run to the concession stand and grab a popcorn and soda.

A Life Well Lived

On Tuesday, March 2nd, my father died.  I had come down to Florida the Friday before when he and my mom were diagnosed with Covid and my dad was admitted to the hospital.  Though he was pretty sick, he seemed to be on a slow improvement track.

So, I was caught off guard when the doctor called me Tuesday night to let me know that my dad had a heart attack and would probably not make it through the night.  She was not unkind, but she was so technical as she explained to me the medical decisions we had to make that I had trouble connecting those decisions to her first statement.  The floor had completely dropped from beneath me.

I asked if my wife could call her to walk through all that again.  In hindsight, I realize I just needed confirmation.  My wife is a talented medical professional and I knew she was going to make the same recommendation the doctor had just made.  Still, part of me was scrambling for another option.  I have always seemed to be able to figure out a way to make the most sideways scenario successful.  In the end, everything works out. But not this time. I felt like I was being smothered as it became clear what was about to happen.

Mary Lee joined with my brothers and I on a Zoom call.  While she walked them through our decisions, I informed my Mom.

After everyone got through their initial tears, we knew we wanted Dad to hear our voices one more time.  He was sedated and would probably not be aware of us but we wanted to be present.  So, me and my mom in Florida, my family in Utah, Matt’s family in N. Carolina, Steve’s family in Hong Kong, and my nephew in England all joined in a Zoom call and the nurse would take a device into my Dad’s room.

When the nurse came on the call, it was to tell us my father had passed a few minutes before.  Wife, sons, daughters-in-law, and grandchildren were all together to hear that sad announcement.  I am grateful we were with each other in that moment.

My last conversation with my dad was filled with laughs and joking.  I had gotten locked outside their retirement community and my mom must have been sleeping.  After a few attempts to persuade the security guard, I got my dad on the line to give him the all-clear.  We found it funny how iron-clad the security protocols of his neighborhood are.

And that is how I think of my Dad.  He could be serious, but I suspect he is most remembered for his happy-go-lucky temperament.  He liked and was liked by everyone.

My Dad would have been 80 this summer.  He went on his first cruise last year and loved it.  We had hoped to do one together to celebrate his 80th when covid was in the rearview mirror.

He ran a carpet company out of our home back in the day.  My brothers and a lot of our friends worked for him as laborers on big jobs.  We would spend days ripping out carpet in a theater or tiling an office building.  We would pile into the work van early in the morning and, as my friend Jon reminded me, sit on buckets of glue for the ride down.  Carpet jobs were nice cause then we could sit on a roll of padding.  

When my Dad was not on the job, he was usually traveling.  When my brothers and I were little, we traveled by car and camper across America many times and even headed across Canada once.  I suspect my Dad hit all the contiguous 48 at one point or another.

Beyond that, he was a world traveler.  His passports were littered with stamps.  Africa, Asia, Europe, Central America.  He and my mom were always up for another adventure.

He loved to cook.  He had numerous specialties we all looked forward to him making.  Some of my favorite memories are hanging out on his back patio in Michigan while he was grilling up burgers.

My dad was a wonderful father and loving husband.  His was a life well-lived.  I am immensely proud of him.

No Place For Reagan

There is no place for a Reagan Republican in the GOP right now.  Oh, like Jesus, they will use his name... but they would have no interest in implementing his ways.

The Democrats have their extremes... and they often grab headlines.  But the election of Joe Biden shows that Democrats have formed a coalition.  Biden went out and sought the vote of all Americans and in the process, he even got many conservatives to join its big tent.

Meanwhile, the GOP under Trump focused on a much narrower field.  They pushed away their moderates and focused on their extremes.

It is time for a new conservative party in America... one based on policy and principles.  I know there is hesitancy with some on that idea because they believe it will hand America to liberals for the next 20 years.

I really don't think that is the case.  Right now, there are folks voting on the Democratic side who do so ONLY because the GOP is so crazy presently.  They pine to vote "Republican" again.  Also, there are folks voting with the GOP who are doing so only under duress.  They hate what Trump has done to the party... but fear speaking out will just get them "primaried".  Decades of loyalty can be wiped away in an instant right now in the GOP for failing to lick the boots of the leader.

Democrats have conservatives, moderates, leftists, and their extreme.

The GOP has sidelined everyone but their extreme.

This World IS My Home

I get distressed when the number of renters in my neighborhood goes up. Though not true in all cases, renters simply do not care for their home and our neighborhood the way owners do.

When I sat on our HOA board, I found most of our "issues" in the neighborhood revolved around renters.  Though they were only about 10 percent of our neighborhood, over 50 percent of our problems with dues being paid, yard maintenance, parking compliance, abusing the clubhouse, etc came from those who did not own their home.

Similarly, I also find it distressing when religious people refer to our beautiful and fragile world in a "renter's" voice. For example, the statement in the picture was shared on Facebook by a friend of mine.  To her, this world is something to be discarded rather than cherished.  The Christian artist Larry Norman famously sang that "This world is not my home.  I'm just passing through."

How much different our world would be if everyone DID see this world as our home... something to invest in and nurture, rather than as a temporary stop-off on our way somewhere else.

This Next Time It Is Really, REALLY Real!

Some of my friends who were raised secular stare in awe as Trump supporters cling to a new date for when he will be declared the election victor (first came December, two in January, next one is in March).  Then I explain growing up with televangelist end-time preachers and all the rapture dates that were set.

"Sure... but when it didn't come to pass, they all knew the preacher was a grifter... right?"

I shake my head.

"But... but... the evidence... it's right there!"

I continue to shake my head.

For those of us who grew up in fundamentalist religion, seeing people STILL cling to Trump and Q-Anon fantasies borders on nostalgia.

You Are Not Broken

During what may have been our last time attending our Evangelical church eleven years ago, the pastor was talking about sin and brokenness.  He let the congregation know that God saw their sin and could not abide it.  Yet, Jesus comes and stands in front of you... and then God can accept you, through Jesus.

On the drive home my wife said that while Jake sat in her lap during the service, she wanted to cover his ears. "I don't want him being told he is dirty and broken.  The message there has changed."

"No, it hasn't," I replied. "We have."

We were still believers but had started to see the foundational perspective of Evangelicalism as toxic.  Our ears became attuned to how many of our faith's beliefs sounded like something you would hear in an abusive relationship.

To clarify, I did not become an Atheist because of that experience or my decades in Evangelicalism.  There are plenty of churches out there that do not promote unhealthy views of the self and spirituality.

I just don't believe in the supernatural.

However, if you are a believer and have been attending the same kind of church for decades, I would encourage you to visit a different church once every month or two.  Get a perspective of what else is out there.  Because, here is the thing: If you had pointed out to me the toxic phrases my belief system used when I was all in, I would have denied they were toxic.  I would have told you that those messages were "good" for me and that you needed to hear them too.  Fish do not know they are wet and folks in toxic churches don't think they are toxic.

There may be a church community out there that would bring you a peace and happiness you never imagined... but you have never gone outside your bubble.

Of course, I have never been happier since I started playing disc golf on Sunday mornings... but that's just me.  🙂

Teachers Need To Set Boundaries

I am going on 30 years in the teaching profession.

If you make it this far you either:

A. Don't have a life outside your job

B. Have learned to set boundaries and let the rest go

I don't panic when the district or the state changes this or that, fails to fund or support their expectations, makes contradictory demands.

I put in X amount of time on my job.  I have learned over the years to use that time pretty efficiently.  However, when the district increases a time demand in one spot, I remove something else.  X does not increase.

That may sound callous but it isn't.  It is reasonable.

I know there are teachers who can't accept that... and they pile on the time.  They spend themselves to make it all work.

They also tend to leave the profession inside of 10 years or sidestep to another spot in education that does not require them to be in a classroom full-time.

If you truly enjoy the classroom and want to continue being a happy human, you have to learn to let some things go.

Good For The Soul To Just Be Wrong

There is a lot of whataboutism and deflection going on at the moment as many on the Right wring their hands and try to redirect the negative attention they are getting due to what happened at the Capitol.

"Well if you were upset about the riot at the capitol but you weren't upset about the riots last  summer then..."

No.

That is not how you address wrong behavior.  That is how you PROTECT wrong behavior.  That is how YOU protect YOUR ego.

Last summer during the protests there was some objectively bad behavior.  When protestors went into restaurants and intimidated people into pledging support for the cause... that was wrong.  It was horrid.  And I said so.

I didn't try to soften the blow by bringing up some horrible thing done by right-wingers.  I didn't try to argue that those were just plants to make the cause look bad.  They were liberals... and they went too far... and they were wrong.

Presently, there are a lot of folks on the Right who are having trouble with making such a statement.  Even if they recognize that what happened at the capitol was wrong, their ego can't help but cushion that recognition with a blanket of whataboutism.  "Yeah, the protestors in Washington shouldn't have done that... BUT Y'Know, THE DEMOCRATS DID THIS...."

Let me give some honest advice here to some folks.  Just be wrong.  Let the behavior be wrong.  No qualifications.  No side issues.  It is good for your soul to not muddy the waters, to not make excuses, and not deflect.  

You know this particularly if you are a parent or work with kids.  When they admit wrong with qualifiers... they aren't really admitting anything. They are still protecting the bad behavior.  But when the light goes on and they see their error, you know good change is on its way.

The DCEU Needs a Good Bad Guy

WW1984 was worth a watch.

As was Aquaman, Suicide Squad, Justice League, etc.  That seems to be the best I have to offer the DC movies since their universe started.  The movies aren't bad... but I do not have that drive to get back in line and buy another ticket because I HAVE to see it again!

It is not a DC problem.  Nolan didn't have it.  I have watched his Batman trilogy numerous times.

Maybe it is because the DCEU has the Yang but no Yin.  

When I look back on the Nolan movies, he pretty much nails the bad guy.  Neeson's Ras and Ledger's Joker were epic.  Even the weaker Bane redefined the character and his voice/cadence became iconic.

On the Yang side, the DCEU has been impeccable (minus Shazam). Affleck, Gadot, Cavill, and Momoa couldn't have been better casting choices.  Their heroes are solid.

But the villains?  So far they have been forgettable, awkward, or just silly.  

Where is the Loki or Vader of the DCEU?