I don't know who needs to hear this, but life is indeed good... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Not Nice! It has been a tough time for Hard Rock properties around the globe. A number of them have closed this year, and last night it was announced that the cafe in Nice will be closed by the end of the week. The cafe itself was kinda boring on the inside, but it was still a nice place with beautiful views...

I visited in 2014. This was the infamous trip where I was hit by the shuttle that took me to the airport. In the end, it's just a restaurant... but I do feel bad for the people who worked there and built a family around it.

   
• Scuttlebutt! Look, there is no denying Halle Bailey's talent. There was a reason she was cast as Ariel in the live-action The Little Mermaid remake, and it had absolutely nothing to do with Disney being fucking "woke" or whatever racist bullshit people are claiming. Because holy crap is she fantastic...

That being said... this was a wholly unneeded remake of a classic film because they didn't try to do anything new or revolutionary with it except add a couple songs (including the gut-wrenchingly awful Scuttlebutt). The sea creatures were scary as fuck because they looked so weird. The guy playing Prince Eric was okay, but has less charisma than his animated counterpart. While I like Awkwafina, she was horrifically miscast as Scuttle (Buddy Hackett made him absent-minded and charming, Awkwafina just made the character stupid?). Melissa McCarthy was good casting, but as much as she relished in the role, she paled in comparison to the late great Pat Carroll as Ursula. Also I agree with the criticism of the makeup...

On the plus side, the special effects were actually pretty great. But that's hardly enough to make it a good use of your time.

   
• Oxygen! Wow. The more you know (here's a link in case TikTok is being a dick)...

Science is darn cool.

   
• Nice Dress! It's so simple. Just be kind... and correct where needed to continue to be kind...

Why are there people who would rather be a fucking asshole about it in these situations where it costs $0 to just be kind? I saw this pop up somewhere in social media, and thought how nice it was that this guy's day was made just because somebody wasn't an asshole. Couldn't we all use a little of that?

   
• MangaManga! I gotta say... so far as manga adaptations go, One Piece feels pretty spectacularly faithful. The casting is flawless. And, let's face it, that's where the series was going to live or die. How they found their Monkey D. Luffy is close to a miracle, as Iñaki Godoy is Luffy come to life. And Nami, Shanks, and Zoro are straight out of the books too!

On one of my trips to Japan, the manga was all the rage, so I looked up the English translation when I got back to the US (thanks, Viz!). I've been addicted ever since. The Netflix show makes me want to re-read it from the start.

   
• Circle, Send! If you have ever watched the absurd Reality TV game show on Netflix called The Circle, you know how batshit insane it is. Leave it to Jake Cornell to completely summarize the insanity in a TikTok. This is painfully accurate (here's a link in case TikTok is being a dick)...

I swear, some comedians are more brilliantly able to explain things than an entire textbook.

   
• MAX... Prices! Warner Bros. Discovery Says Ongoing Strikes Will Mean $300M-$500M Hit to 2023 Earnings. Guess it's going to be time to raise the subscription price to HBO Max. Again. They don't give a fuck about the people making their content... they sure don't give a fuck about their customers (except how much money they can wring out of us). It's absolute madness how they were bragging about how much money they were going to SAVE because of the strike... and now they're watching people unsubscribe in droves because they raised prices and customers mad about paying more for the new content won't get... so now they're going to LOSE money. Good. Couldn't happen to a nicer conglomerate. Fuck Warner Brothers-HBO-Discovery and and their idiotic fucking leadership who have brought this entirely on themselves. If they sink under their stupidity, that's one less service I'll have to rotate through. Which is fine by me.

   
Enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Dreaming of a Cheeseburger in Paradise while blogging for my own amusement... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Bunny Boo Berry! You're welcome (here's a link in case TikTok is being a dick)...

Baby animals... amirite?

   
• Medal Medal Chicken Dinner! This Sunday's burn provided by Andy Murray from a 2016 interview that's making its rounds around the interwebs again...

Class. Act.

   
• Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo! People are aghast when I tell them that I got my hair cut at Disney World. "YOU WASTED TIME AT A BARBER SHOP INSTEAD OF RIDING THE ATTRACTIONS?!?" And it's like... I ended up at Disney World 3-4 times a year every year for over a decade with my work. I've done all the rides many, many times. And I was always booked in one of the Disney hotels, so if I was too busy to get a haircut back home, where else was I going to go? Take a pricey taxi into Orlando? Of course not. I'd just go to where I was at (here's a link in case TikTok is being a dick)...

And, yes, my friends convinced me to get the glitter once. It didn't look biodegradable, so I took a pass every other time... even though it made me look fabulous.

   
• Margaritaville! Jimmy Buffet passed. He was one of those rare figures who are so ingrained into American culture that you know him even if you don't realize it. His music is pervasive, yes, but it's his lyrics that hold a wisdom everybody can relate to. "I’d rather die while I’m living than live while I’m dead" and "We are the people our parents warned us about" and "Wrinkles will only go where the smiles have been" can be found on the walls of his Margaritaville restaurants, but aren't exclusive to parrotheads (Buffet fans). I've actually been to many Margaritavilles, because Jimmy always had some good vegetarian options on the menu. I know I just posted this video by Eddy Burback a month ago, but it's a pretty cool look at the restaurants.

Jimmy had a crazy amount of songs I liked, but whenever I'm trying to zero in on a favorite, my mind keeps going back to One Particular Harbor...

Yeah, that's a classic right there. Rest in Peace, Jimmy.

   
• Harley Forever! Arleen Sorkin died! My mom was a big Days of Our Lives fan and she played Calliope... but it was her work as the voice of the original Harley Quinn that I knew her best...

Paul Dini (who created the character) was a college friend, and based the character on her. That's an incredible legacy. Rest In Peace.

   
• He'll Bore Every One of Us! So... The Flash is free to watch on HBO and I've had it on while I was working...

I can't believe that people liked this movie. IT'S COMPLETE SHIT! Alternate Barry is fucking annoying. Unwatchable. The special effects are horrible. The character isn't even consistent with the shitty JLA stuff that Zack Snyder crapped out of his ass. How this got 64% on Rotten Tomatoes is beyond my ability to fathom. I sure hope that this box office failure means we'll never see Ezra-Flash again. And the box office failure of Shazam means we'll never see Zachary-Shazam either. Just flush the Snyderverse down the toilet and have Gunn ignore all of it. This movie cost TWO HUNDRED MILLION DOLLARS! The first Avengers movie cost $220 Million, and most of THAT went to the cast. So what the hell? Where is the money on this one? There were exactly two things worth watching. Michael Keaton Batman and Sasha Calle Supergirl. But neither made this worth my valuable time.

   
• Marcie! the new Marcie Peanuts special on Apple TV is fantastic... and looks visually stunning. So much better than the gawdawful Snoopy in Space or whatever that was...

I hope we get more like this..

   
Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes. Until next Sunday.

As I've written many times, I'm really into film analysis. I'm often linking to videos of my favorite content creators (like Thomas Flight) adding depth and understanding to the movies I like.

Sometimes I run across a deep-dive into a film where moments are mirroring my reaction. Most people would write this off as a coincidence. I prefer to see it as validation.

Like this amazing look at the translation of Scott Pilgrim from comic book to screen. It's long, but it's really good. Especially if you're a fan of the comics...

In my review of the film from 2010 I said this...

Where the movie fails... and fails massively... is the casting of Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim. It was an awful, awful choice that dogged the movie from start to finish. Michael Cera was NOT Scott Pilgrim. He was Michael Cera. He's Michael Cera in everything he's ever in. Don't get me wrong... I liked his nervous geeky schtick the first time I saw it in Arrested Development. I even liked his nervous geeky schtick in Superbad... and Juno... and Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist... but I'm done with it now. I wanted to see Scott Pilgrim in Scott Pilgrim, and it never happened. You can surround Michael Cera with all the incredibly cool special effects and kick-ass fight scenes you want, and it doesn't change the fact that it's Michael Cera up on the screen... he never lets you forget it.

I was really looking forward to the movie and was primed to love it. But due to one major casting fault, it completely failed for me. And in the above video, James Woodall devotes his entire chapter five to this very subject.

Watching the video made me want to watch the movie again. Something I haven't done in probably a decade.

I was hoping that time will have softened my opinion on the whole Michael Cera thing.

But NOPE! If anything, now I'm doubling down when I say that this potential masterpiece of a movie was utterly and totally sabotaged by the casting of Michael Cera as Scott Pilgrim. Every other actor in the cast? Brilliant. And for many of them this was a stepping stone to even more brilliant things*. But... well... this movie has a major problem which it can never overcome. Except for the fantastic Universal Studios opening which has zero-percent Michael Cera...

Oh well.

I still have the Scott Pilgrim comics. Those aren't going away.

*Seriously... just look at who's in this movie...

• Mary Elizabeth Winstead (pre Ahsoka)
• Aubrey Plaza (during Parks & Rec and pre EVERYTHING since she basically took over the world after this)
• Kieran Culkin (pre Succession, where he was the only actor I thought killed it in that show... and he's brilliant in Scott Pilgrim)
• Brie Larson (pre Captain Marvel)
• Chris Evans (pre Captain America)
• Jason Schwartzman (well, okay, he was already a muse for Wes Anderson... but he did go on to do even cooler stuff)
• Ellen Wong (pre Glow)
• Alison Pill (pre Picard)
• Brandon Routh (pre Legends of Tomorrow)
• Anna Kendrick (pre Pitch Perfect)

It's the day before I get so buried in work that I won't have time to blog, but you're in good hands today... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Omens! I finally got around to watching Good Omens 2 and liked it well enough... though it's a bit of a letdown after the incredible first season. It could very well be that the first season was so amazing that there was nowhere to go but down. But still... it didn't seem to hang together as beautifully as the original story. If you want to save yourself some time, here's a wrap-up of every episode of the series...

I may have laughed a little too hard at that.

   
• Asteroid Flight! I am convinced that one of the most important voices in film is Thomas Flight. I've brought up his YouTube Channel before, but with each new video I appreciate his takes on movies even more. On Friday I finally got around to watching Wes Anderson's Asteroid City. I didn't want spoilers, so I've been sitting on Flight's deep-dive into the film until I watched it. And last night was the night. It's as good as I knew it would be...

Having somebody explain why you loved a film as much as you did is a bizarre experience. I loved Asteroid City. I thought I knew what it was trying to say as a film. But it turned out I was only scratching the surface. Flight's attempt to put into words what he thinks Anderson was saying and what the film meant to him just makes me want to watch Asteroid City all over again.

   
• Pinball Wizard! I gotta say... I passed on this movie because it didn't look that interesting to me. But then I heard enough people saying that it was good that I ended up tuning it to Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game...

And it is, in fact, pretty darn good. In surprising and unexpected ways. Streaming on Hulu.

   
• Make Mine Duncan! Fine people of the world, may I present Hajime Miura doing incredible things with a yoyo...

It's almost like he's defying physics or something.

   
• Mac Tonight! Big Tugg took an interesting look at McDonalds that was entertaining and informative...

I was surprised that Tucker didn't mention Mac Tonight, a moon-headed mascot from the 80's that I remembered being freaky and perplexing. I also remember a lawsuit. So I did a YouTube search to see what's going on there...

You can't make this stuff up. White supremacy? Animatronics? DOUG frickin' JONES?!? Real Life is SO weird.

   
• Heartless! Good Lord. They hired a great cast. Had an interesting concept. Staged some terrific action sequences. Went to some fantastic locations. THEN MIRED EVERYTHING IN THE MOST BY-THE-NUMBERS SPY STORY IMAGINABLE. Who in the hell is calling the shots at Netflix that Heart of Stone ever got made?

Is it too much to ask to get something that's not an inferior wannabe expensive Mission Impossible clone? And the absurdly silly AI computer's constant recalculation of the mission's chance of success is just fucking stupid and unneeded. Does the AI computer have God-vision to be able to calculate infinite variables of unfolding events like this? Why does every movie have to drop in some kind of AI computerized crutch to up the tension instead of just WRITING SOMETHING WITH ACTUAL TENSION? Having C-3PO, oops... I mean "The Heart"... saying "YOUR MISSION ONLY HAS A 35% CHANCE OF SUCCESS" means NOTHING and does nothing... especially if Gal Gadot is going to ignore it. "DON'T TELL ME THE ODDS, 3PO!" Everybody involved in this film deserves better than this stupid shit. Thank you Netflix for spending a ton of money on this crap while increasing our rates. Jesus.

   
• Irony Can Be So Ironic Sometimes! THIS JUST IN FROM THE "IRONY IS NOT DEAD" DEPARTMENT... Zachary Levi Criticizes Hollywood for Making Too Much “Garbage”.

   
And, on that happy note, I'm off next week for Hell Week. See you on the 28th!

Wes Anderson's Asteroid City started streaming on Peacock, and it went beyond my lofty expectations.

Right now it's my favorite film of his after The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. In time, once the newness wears off, The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Royal Tenenbaums might eclipse it because they're just such incredible films, but for now... I'm thrilled with this gorgeous spectacle...

And so here's my ranking of all eleven Wes Anderson films...

1. The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. It's weird to me how this movie doesn't top everybody's list as their favorite Anderson film. It's wildly imaginative, beautiful, poignant, and has some of the best performances ever coaxed out of his usual stable of exceptionally talented actors.
2. Astroid City You'd think that his visual style and quirky dialogue would have diminishing returns, but Anderson's latest flick proves that's not even remotely true. Not only is it a gorgeous visual feast, it's unique and interesting in all the best ways. Plus what might be the greatest role of Jeff Goldblum's career (despite it lasting mere seconds).
3. The Grand Budapest Hotel. This is, in so many ways, Peak Wes Anderson. It's when he was able to fully realize his characterization not just for individual characters, but how they work within the framework of the full cast.
4. The Royal Tenenbaums. Rarely does an Anderson film fall upon a single actor to achieve greatness. Indeed, the actors he works with are all vastly talented and his films can lean on absolutely any of them at any time. But Gene Hackman is the character around which every other character revolves, and his brilliance is critical to why this film works so very well.
5. Moonrise Kingdom. Stories of first love are a dime a dozen. But rarely are you treated to a story in this genre which is as visually appealing as this. As a bonus, this is probably the last great movie with Bruce Willis (an argument could be made for Looper which came out the same year). Quite a statement considering he made 50-some-odd movies after this one.
6. Fantastic Mr. Fox. A Roald Dahl book seems like a natural for Anderson. But nothing could prepare you for just how genius his take on the material would be. The animation style is both rough-hewn-hand-crafted and meticulously-realized-crafted at the same time... with the movement of the fur adding as much to the characters as the flawless voice talent.
7. Rushmore. You'd be forgiven to think that this is Anderson's fifth or sixth film after Bottle Rocket because it has a much more mature sensibility, But nope! It's his sophomore effort, which just goes to show that his brilliance as a filmmaker came very, very quickly. Jason Schwartman would end up being the gift that just keeps giving, and this was where he got his start. Not just with Anderson, but with acting as a whole.
8. The French Dispatch. I'm just going to say it... I don't think this film really works. It's three separate stories woven together in a way that's not as smart or clever as I would have expected coming from Anderson. That being said, as a love-letter to journalism realized by actors at the top of their game, and that's not nothing.
9. Isle of Dogs. This should have been a home-run. It's animated wonderfully. It's a great story idea. The visuals are incredible. But the fact that Wes Anderson decided to use the White Savior Trope in the most unforgivable and unnecessary way possible is just awful. It's a glaring problem in an otherwise good movie.
10. The Darjeeling Limited. If this were an early film in Anderson's oeuvre, I'd likely rank it higher. But this follows The Royal Tenenbaums AND The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, which makes the whole ordeal inexplicable. It's stylized well enough, but it's painfully obvious in execution, has some racial stereotypes that are not cool at all, and it's painful to watch because the characters veer into tedium and new levels of annoying. This is not to say that I don't like the film... I do... it's just that it makes no sense why it's not so much better than this.
11. Bottle Rocket. Right out of the gate Wes Anderson showed a unique style and sense of humor. But it all needed some work. The film had a meandering to it that would undoubtedly be tightened up if he were making it today.

NEWSFLASH @ Ars Technica: Sonos has been unable to fix Arc soundbars’ “pop of death” for over 2 years.

Ever since the technology became available for home theaters, I've wanted Dolby Atmos, the specialized sound system which adds a "height" channel to your surround sound setup. So that when you are watching John Wick and it's raining overhead... or a bullet goes flying above you... you hear it happening. It's a very cool effect (when done properly) that adds to the experience of watching movies and television... or listening to Atmos music.

I have been investing in a Sonos speak setup, which has been a pretty good solution for home audio. It's wireless so you don't have to run speaker cables, and you can group some (or all) of your speakers so that your audio is playing everywhere you have a Sonos speaker.

At first I had a Sonos PlayBar. It was an amazing soundbar for under your television. Sure, the separation between Left/Center/Right channels wasn't the best, but it was a darn good effort that I enjoyed for years.

Then Sonos released their Arc soundbar which added the afore-mentioned Dolby Atmos.

I waited for the reviews, heard good things, and bought one.

Then I went to crazy trouble to install it in my living room.

It was okay. The Dolby Atmos height channel was incredibly weak (even when set at full volume) and I don't think the quality was quite up to the standards of the PlayBar, but I was pretty happy with it overall.

Then Sonos released the Era 300, which also had the Dolby Atmos height channel for your rear speakers. This was a far, far better implementation of the Atmos effect, and I was very happy to have purchased them.

Until I wasn't.

One day while watching a movie I heard a massive POP sound and my Arc soundbar went dead. I thought it had died a horrible death... but unplugging it and plugging it back in did the trick. Until I experienced the POP again. And again. And again. And again! Apparently once it happens, it will continue to happen forever.

Sonos's solution is to turn off CRC (which turns on your television when your AppleTV turns on), which didn't work for me. Their next "solution?" Turn off Dolby Atmos. Yes, you read that right, turn off Dolby Atmos.

Now, If Sonos gave any shits at all, they would simply have one of their many users who are experiencing this POP OF DEATH problem send in their AppleTV 4K Gen 3 and Xbox, their television, their cables, and their Arc soundbar (after sending them replacement shit). Then they would have a complete system where they could CONSISTENTLY REPRODUCE THIS PROBLEM. But nope. They'd rather say "Oooh... we can't reproduce the problem!" and do NOTHING. — Every fucking time I've contacted Sonos support, they just tell me to turn off Dolby Atmos, WHICH IS THE ENTIRE FUCKING REASON I BOUGHT THE ARC IN THE FIRST PLACE! More and more I regret getting in bed with a company that doesn't give a shit about shipping a faulty product, and has been promising a fix for OVER TWO YEARS that never comes. Get a system that doesn't work.

I don't care if Sonos comes up with a special cable that filters out the problem... or sends out a firmware update... or offers to replace whatever component they can't work out with something that does... or whatever... so long as they actually come up with a fucking solution that doesn't involve turning off Atmos!

This is not fucking rocket science.

NASA could build a rocket in this amount of time.

Don't worry about there being only one month of Summer left because there's bullets 52 times a year and... because an all new Bullet Sunday starts... now...

   
• Opponent! The only way this could more accurately describe American politics would be if they asked "WHAT DO YOU HATE?" and the politician answered "MY OPPONENT!" or even "WHATEVER YOU WANT ME TO TELL YOU TO HATE!"...

Oh how I love Berkeley Mews. Though not all of the posts there are negative. Take this one, for example...

For more wackiness, see Ben's Berkeley Mews site.

   
• Stargirl! It took a total pass on Stargirl because the whole "Arrowverse" of DC Comics shows turned into a suckfest of boredom. Earlier this week I had the first episode pop up and watched it because there was nothing more interesting going on. Turns out it is fantastic. This isn't just "Stargirl"... it's the entire Justice Society of America being reborn from the ashes of the old one...

I am only half-way through the first season, but watching everything come together is one of the better super-hero comic book shows I've seen. A pity that the rest of the awful Arrowverse shows were tied to Stargirl like a boat anchor and sunk the show.

   
• Cat Walk! I've watched this entirely too many times and cannot fathom how this is not CGI (here's a link in case Instagram is being a dick)...

The fact that the first two fell off when the third one jumped on is some kind of talent.

   
• Just Ken! To think there was a time that I actively avoided Ryan Gosling projects. I remember him mainly being in sports movies and such before he appeared in his breakout role in The Notebook (a movie I still haven't seen). Then in 2016 I saw his incredible performance in The Nice Guys and was an immediate fan. I went back through his movies and found out just how talented he is. Then he was in Blade Runner 2049 and I was a fan for life. Now he's Ken in the Barbie movie, which seems an odd choice, but seeing videos like this makes me think that he probably killed it...

Gosling's next film is The Fall Guy with Emily Blunt. Cannot wait to see what that's about.

   
• Sharing is Caring! They've come a long time since Love is sharing a password...
Netflix: DON'T SHARE YOUR PASSWORD! EVERYBODY HAS TO PAY FOR A SEPARATE ACCOUNT! LOVE ISN'T SHARING A PASSWORD, IT'S YOU GIVING US MORE MONEY!
Also Netflix: We are going to force you to select a user profile every FUCKING time you use our service... even if you only have one profile!
God. Just fuck off and make up your damn minds. Or at least stop forcing me to choose my only profile every time I start up your shitty streaming service. I regret never sharing my password.

   
• SHAT! William Shatner is NINETY-TWO YEARS OLD! And don't mistake the satellite delay of him hearing the question as him not understanding the question in this video. The guy is sharp as a tack!

The only comment I have is that maybe the visiting aliens have a "Prime Directive" which, like in Star Trek, means that they can't interfere with the natural development of earthlings. And that's why they are hiding?

   
• Invasion Secret! I had such high hopes for Marvel Studio's Secret Invasion, but it ended up being a total dud. Whereas the original comic book story was an epic event where a ridiculous number of heroes had been replaced by Skrulls... the Disney+ adaptation had... one? And it was kinda a nerfed one, because they never had the hero even use their super-powers at all. Add to that some totally unnecessary and non-eventful deaths of beloved characters... and a resolution so sloppy that had me wondering why they even bothered with this waste of Samuel L. Jackson's talents... and I wondered what in hell Kevin Feige was smoking to greenlit it. Maybe it's for the best that Disney+ is reducing their output of Marvel stuff. Because with the exception of Hawkeye, which I loved, none of it has been worthy.

   
And now I'm off to comfort my cats, who are cowering under .

Paul Reubens has died.

I am a massive, massive fan. I was in college when Pee-Wee's Playhouse debuted, and somebody had recorded a bunch of episodes and played them on the big screen in the lounge. It was incredible. Despite being a show for kids, there was a lot of material for adults to latch onto as well. Pee-Wee's show was fun, smart, imaginative, diverse, brilliant television. Exactly the kind of thing kids should be watching.

But Paul Reubens was more than Pee-Wee. He has the absolute best death scene in the history of cinema from Buffy The Vampire Slayer (here's a link in case YouTube is being a dick)...

But it was Pee-Wee that made him (rightfully) famous, and I've had him make an appearance on Blogography more than once.

Godspeed, Paul Reubens. You will be very much missed.

The official trailer just dropped for The Marvels at Comic Con... which looks much like the initial "teaser trailer" we've already seen.

But before we get to that...

The rumors circulating around this movie are pretty crazy. It had already had a round of reshoots before the first test screening, which is normal. But apparently the test audience reaction was so horrifically bad that they decided to do more reshoots because people felt the tone of the film was way too over-the-top goofy. And, if that's the case, then thank heavens. I can't stand it when bad writing ends up being "goofy" because the writers don't understand "humor." Suffering through films that are so groan-inducing awful like that is what hell must be like (see: both cuts of Justice League).

But anyway, here's the trailer...

Now, to me, that just looks like a fun super-hero action flick. And while there are goofy moments (LOVE YOU, GOOSE!) it's not over-the-top. Hopefully this is what the tone of the final movie will be, because I think I'll really like it.

When I wade into the toxic cesspool that is the internet, there's a lot of hot takes on the film.

Mostly centered around people's "hatred" of Brie Larson.

Which takes me back to the first Captain Marvel film, where fanboys were unloading on Brie and review-bombing the film... apparently because they hate the idea of a female-led Marvel movie. In the comics the first Captain Marvel was a Kree male named Mar-Vell. Eventually his mantel was passed to Carol Danvers, which makes the MCU version comic-book faithful in every way except her origin (which I thought was better in the movie than the comics). The fact that Mar-Vell ended up being a Kree scientist played by Annette Benning (a character I loved) along with Brie Larson hate made it seem like the movie would be a financial disaster.

Captain Marvel went on to make 1.3 billion dollars despite it all.

Anyway. I don't really follow Hollywood, but apparently Brie Larson has said a lot of controversial shit. Like advocating for a more diverse population of film critics because there's an awful lot of 40-year-old white men trashing films that were not made for them. Now, personally I think this is bullshit. A professional critic is able to keep in mind the audience while reviewing a film... that's the job. But realistically? Yeah, Brie Larson is 100% on-point. There will alway be material in a film that a 40-year-old white man can't relate to and this will taint their feelings on the film. In that respect, I would absolutely love to see more diversity in the film critic profession. I love looking at the world (and movies!) from other perspectives. Makes me appreciate people more because diversity is good. So, sure, points to Brie. But come on. She could have phrased that without attacking people. A simple "I would sure like to see more diversity in movie critics so that more viewpoints are out there" would have been a far better way to make your point.

And it goes on and on. The most common critique is that "Brie Larson is unlikeable." And that's fine. If the things she says bothers you so much that you find her unlikeable... you be you and own your feelings. But I have to wonder how much of her "unlikeability" comes from being an outspoken woman. Personally, I think she's perfectly nice in all the interviews I've seen. Abrasive at times, sure, but that's a huge part of my personality, so who am I to judge? Who is anybody? A lot of the drama around Brie seems to be taking small moments (like Don Cheadle grimacing when Brie Larson gave him a friendly ribbing) and exploding them. And even when people shoot that down (Don Cheadle tweeted they were all good), the drama lives on.

Plus... she's friends with Samuel L. Jackson and has the guy on speed-dial, which carries a lot of weight on my opinion because I don't think that Samuel L. Jackson is the type of man who would put up with bullshit from assholes.

Anyway, I guess this is just my long, drawn-out way of saying "I like the MCU Captain Marvel, love Brie Larson's take on her, loved her first movie, LOVE LOVE LOVED her in Avengers: Endgame, like the look of the new trailer, and am looking forward to The Marvels." I hope it doesn't disappoint. The first one sure didn't.

And yes, I fully believe that The Scarlet Witch and Captain Marvel are the two most powerful characters in the MCU, so I guess our toxic, misogynistic society can spend their time hating me as well.

And now SAG-AFTRA (actor's union) has joined the WGA (writer's union) and gone on strike.

Contract negotiations have always seemed like a big puzzle to me. But not a difficult one. Actors and writers are saying that they're being exploited (which they are, especially as AI tech advances) while studios are saying that the new streaming business model has drastically cut into the money they're raking in (which is likely true).

Studios put up the money to get stuff made. Sometimes it's successful (read: profitable) and sometimes it's not (read: loses them money). The success of some shows and movies offsets the losses from other shows and movies. Studio executives try and balance this out favorably so they can return a profit. If they don't turn a profit, then they don't have the money to take a chance on new shows and movies.

So, realistically, writers and actors want the studios to make money. That's how they will continue to find work. Not that there aren't writers or actors who would gladly screw over other writers and actors or the studios so they get more money... of course there are... I'm just saying that, in general, it is in their best interest to want the studios to turn a profit.

But they don't want to be exploited while doing it.

And studios, honestly, shouldn't want that either. No sane person wants to make money via exploitation. Anybody who does is evil and has no business being in control of a company.

And therein lies the problem. There are people in these studios who are, to put it mildly, evil. They don't give a shit how they make a buck, and if it takes fucking over the people who create the product they put out, they're going to do that. Scripts written via AI so you don't have to pay creators and writers? Do it! Actors forced to sign over their likeness so you can fire them and continue to have them in your product? Do it! If they can fuck over creative people for a buck, they will 1000% do that and think nothing of it so long as they keep making money.

Which is why this isn't really about the studios or the talent behind the studios.

It's about us consumers.

Will we support studios who think nothing about their writers and actors and have zero problem exploiting their talent for a buck while not giving a fuck who they're screwing over? I sure as hell hope not. I, for one, would never support a show where the writers and actors aren't fairly compensated for their work and have no security from the work and services they provide. Fuck that. I can very easily cancel all my streaming services with zero regrets. And that's exactly what I'll do if it comes down to it.

This is a strike with two sides that's going to take understanding from everybody involved. And it's largely going to fall on the studios to do the right thing. Because so many of the rank-and-file writers and actors want nothing more than to be able to make a living doing the work they love. But when writers have to live in fear of being cut loose after creating something so their ideas and hard work can be turned over to a computer... or actors have to worry they will be cut loose so computer-generated actors can exploit their likeness... well... that doesn't seem very fair, does it? Just listen to this horrendous crap that was revealed at the press conference...

"They proposed that our background performers should be able to be scanned, get one day’s pay, and their company should own that scan, their image, their likeness and should be able to use it for the rest of eternity, in any project they want with no consent and with no compensation."

There's a lot of room to create a system where studios can make a profit while treating the talented people that work for them fairly. But it will involve transparency. It will involve not being evil.

And, as much as I would miss the television and movies I love so much, I am more than willing to give it all up to make sure that the system which provides it is a fair one.