13 Comments
founding

I wish I lived in the timeline in which you reviewed The Holdovers (which I loved).

This episode made me want to drink and hide under the covers

Expand full comment

Really good discussion, especially the end regarding comic books and Marvel’s treatment of other worlds.

Expand full comment

The problem I have the GOTHG3 (G3) was what was said about Dark Phoenix. During G3 a planet with a modern (to us) civilization is destroyed, but hey we rescued some baby racoons.

Expand full comment

What the award-winning Alyssa said here was spot on. “There is a generation of art that we have missed because of this.”

Expand full comment

Re the WB decision.

Boy, While E. Coyote suing acme sounds like a riot, I hope we do get to see it some day!

Regarding the tax decision. My first instinct is to think it’s a failed tax policy if it’s more profitable for value to be destroyed on purpose. That said, it’s good to encourage risk taking but at what cost to the taxpayer and the overall good of society?

Expand full comment

I didn’t think The Marvels was a terrible film, I’m just not as invested in the whole project as I was ten years ago. They’re essentially the same stories which is fine if you have great characters. Unfortunately Marvel still, somehow, struggles to write good villains.

Expand full comment

I'd hesitate to call it a cold streak, too. I thought GotG3 was successful both critically and commercially. If it was an outlier, that still breaks a "streak".

That said, the Paramount Marvel movies all had an edge to them that Disney got rid of. I think Iron Man 3 would have done the alcoholism storyline based on the amount of drinking Tony did in the second film. Cap was too expensive a soldier to be wasted in war,even if he's have ended the war sooner (like an atom bomb). Thor was a warmongering dick! But those edges remained enought to carry that group of characters. The new class doesn't have that edge. Shang Chi likes drinking and karaoke, for example. Weak. Better is Wong as a cage fighting sorcerer supreme on the side! I think Giant Girl and Kate Hawkeye can fix some of that if they are allowed. I don't think any of this is actor/director issues. They just need to be a bit bolder otherwise they are all the same.

Expand full comment

Some movies are so enjoyable that people might want to purchase a copy so they can watch it whenever they want and not fund a poor business model.

Expand full comment

Hockey fans who have watched Slapshot over and over again know all about tax writeoffs.

Expand full comment

Local news announced last night that Warner Brothers was making it available to other streaming services.

Expand full comment
author

Well, they're letting the filmmakers shop it around.

Expand full comment

The schadenfreude will be good.

Expand full comment