Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3

I was hesitant to give Disney any money, but I needed some exercise today, so I walked to the theater and bit the bullet. Guardians 3 is a decent conclusion this "trilogy". It may be a part 3, but the parts between Vol 2 and Vol 3 have a big impact, so it's hardly a real trilogy, but in that regard, the director can make it feel bigger than it is.

I'm hopeful for James Gunn's DC, and his Marvel efforts have always been an alternative style to the cookie-cutter other entries in the MCU. He picks interesting soundtracks, and I was happy to see Alice Cooper in the mix, and even happier that it wasn't some overplayed drivel like "School's Out" or "No More Mr. Nice Guy". It was a lesser known track from Alice Cooper Goes to Hell, "I'm Always Chasing Rainbows". So good for him calling out to the overlooked things in life.

The movie's main plot is more personal this time around, although they do shoehorn in some free-the-oppressed subplots, but the main plot is Rocket's, for sure. How he came to be, caged, neglected, and more animal cruelty in the mix. Maybe Peta made Gunn an offer he couldn't refuse? It was pretty interesting though, with some surprisingly violent moments sprinkled throughout, especially regarding the irritable High Evolutionary antagonist.

One bit that annoys me is the pacing sometimes. They really really try to milk some of those emotional moments too long. In this and No Way Home. It's like, "Yeah, we get it. It's a sad scene. Can we move on please?" Could've chopped maybe a minute or two off the runtime, but maybe they wanted that even 150 minute length?


Chris Pratt carries it well. He seems like he'd be a cool guy in real life too, especially if Schwarzenegger likes him so much. And on a similar note, Stallone is in the movie, but barely. He should be in every movie ever made. It's also good to see Nathan Fillion in there, as well as a cameo by Michael Rooker and Gregg Henry. Remember him?

Bautista is one of those wrestlers turned actors that I've liked in everything I've seen him in. He's a funny guy, especially when playing such a dumb character.

Groot is there when he's needed, but still just a tree in the end. Vin Diesel probably got paid millions for his intricate dialog in these movies. He's a way to make the team bigger without actually having a character for it.

Zoe Saldana has a nice body, that's for sure. It's fun to watch her gradually come around to Quill all over again, and I'm glad they didn't solidify anything. Leave it ambiguous.

Will Poulter (aka weird eyebrows) as some gold-painted man-child superhero is mildly amusing here. Still a pretty meaningless side character used only to get the ball rolling, but I didn't hate him.

Mantis is a little more fleshed out here than we've seen before. Not as useless this time around.


Finally a piece from Marvel that isn't a let down. Of course, the guy who helmed it is done with them now, so it's goodybe to this chapter of hopeful Marvel storytelling. They had me rolling my eyes when they worked some of that generic Avengers theme into the score, just to remind me that I'm riding the coattails of a convoluted bigger mess of a movie universe. Get that shit out of here.

#Review

The Godfather Series

I've been on an organized crime kick lately. For some random reason, I'm finding mafia stuff quite fascinating, so a few crime movies into this binge and I'm finally revisiting The Godfather series.

I first saw them years ago. These movies were always ranked as some of the all-time best, and yeah... I thought they were good enough. Maybe a tad overrated, but whatever. Now I'm watching them again in my contemporary point of view, after I've dissected all the tropes of the genre, and boom. These movies are fire!

I just put on Part 3 to see how off par is is, according to some. I think the first 2 films are more cohesive because they were made in the same era, so a lot of the best ideas were still at play. The definitive mafia movies (Goodfellas is close).


How do you feel about this series? Are you a mafia movie fan?

Cain and Abel, and characters named Kane

I don't know what section I should post this in...? Box, place this elsewhere if you want, obviously.

Anyway, I was just thinking about how the characters named Kane in Kung Fu, The Ninth Configuration, the Karl Edward Wagner books, and probably lots of other TV shows, books, movies, comics, maybe story-songs, etc are all likely to be derived from, or at least connected to, the story of Cain and Abel. Just the idea of a dangerous dude named Kane who wanders the Earth, getting into adventures. If I have ever thought about this before, I had forgotten it.

Anyway, I just thought this was interesting. Anyone have any thoughts on this???
Here, scroll down a little to see a list of some characters named Kane. You can decide for yourself if any or many of them were inspired by the Cain of the Cain and Abel story.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kane

How fast can you type?

Here's a typing speed test I ripped off for the lulz.

https://trashepics.com/app/typing/

I average around 93 wpm, a couple errors, and 100% accuracy. What about you?

zeds rantos

zeds descent into hell: (and loving it)

- So as not to polute the shitbox I will keep my crap here. sometimes it feel like its only my shit in the shoutbox, & I feel I have to post, just to keep it relevant. Otherwise its just gonna be no posts for 5 days and then no one feels like posting.
Im just drinking the 99cent liter wine (they raised the price, it used to be 95 cents and before that I remember 85 cents), soon it will be more than 1 euro for a litre of wine, FFS is there no god)
anyways enuf wine talk.
Anyways I feel good, I showed my daughter rain tonight, well it was fuck all rain. and she was scared, what is this stuff falling out of the sky ( for what its worth I think it only rained 1mm, but for here thats more than normal, normal is zero) , just wait until I show her snow.
I feel good cause the day after tomorrow is may, and thats the month I have to go to ukraine, and fuck am I looking forward to it so much.
I really cant convey why, and if anyone saiz its a way to die then they can fuck off totally cause they do not understand.
My philosophy is one only has one life, there is no afterlife, no matter what ever anyone tells you or what you read, thus this is it. So fucking make the most of it. Each day is special, each day is a gift.
Life itself is a fuckin gift, and as being one so lucky to be gifted this, it would be terrible to waste it.
One thing is certain is , I will die sometime in the future, thus live the best Life I can live.
Here I was thinking about my best days & for some fucking reason both days came back to dogs giving birth in my room the previous night. I think I can just compredhed a good start to the day. I dont even like dogs. Every moment is a gift. Think of that when you are lying on your deathbed in a hospital cunts.
truth be told I am scared. hell 3 kiwis have died there already, which I can believe, as we are nutcases in case you dont understand, why thats nuts its cause thats prolly 2000% higher than the number of people for the USA that have died per population, but I have no idea, look up the figures).
Im part yank myself, I think I'm 1/16 yank (since my grandfath from WW2 is from the US),
I will need to do a DNA test, we have to anyways, to see what my daughter is, She look like me, but her mother, I have no idea, I guess from eastern europe.

Microcosmic God, by Theodore Sturgeon

I just wanted to mention an interesting story that I have been thinking about lately. (There are a couple of YouTube videos up of people reading it out loud, by the way). First published n 1941, it's about a scientist who creates artificial life, and accelerates its development until he has his own little artifical creatures who evolve to become intelligent, then eventually they become smarter than humans. As AI develops, I think about that story sometimes. In some ways it just helps me to imagine the dangers and problems that could arise from creating things that are more intelligent than we are, and which may or may not be essentially sympathetic to us. Had to share.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microcosmic_God

Deadwood, season 1

I think my original attempt to watch this show was a download on an old computer that eventually crapped out on me before I could finish, and I never picked it up again. Here I am finally getting past those first few episodes and I'm only mildly interested. I wasn't quite getting it until about episode 10, in which the events lead to Swearengen uttering the words, "We're forming a fucking government." Suddenly, it all comes together for me.

I loved how Farnum snapped at the chance to become mayor and suddenly thinks he's a big shot, but this is still Ian McShane's show. He's calling the shots, and he's got enough charisma to be a total asshole and still be likeable.

Brad Dourif is also fully charged as the doc, and Olyphant is always cool as that sheriff type. Solid show so far.

Pet Sematary Prequel

Supposedly this is coming out in October. Has anyone been keeping up with any kind of news reports on how it's going? Interviews, social media posts by the actors or crew, anything like that? I didn't really LOVE the 2019 one, but I would still watch a prequel, just to give it a shot. They have a pretty good cast.
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14145436/

Bitch (2017)

I watched this weird drama on the Tubi earler called Bitch. A neglected and cheated on wife is hanging by a thread. Depressed and stressed out to the point of being suicidal. Her unfaithful, workaholic husband checked out a long time ago and is about as uninvolved/self-involved as a family man could be. He works and fucks co-workers and that's about it. The wife runs the family, takes care of the kids, who he may not even know the names of. This guy doesn't care about jack shit, but he's gonna have to learn how or at least pretend cuz the wife is about to go away for a while, eventually losing her identity as a human being all together. This wife and mother, more or less, reverts to that of a dog. In her mind, she is now a dog. She becomes feral and goes down into the basement to shit and piss everywhere, and possibly willing to attack anyone who bothers her. Meanwhile, the husband is automatically thrust into a world of a single parent, having 4 kids to take care of. He is quickly exposed as a clueless man child who doesn't understand how anything works.

Being the self-absorbed prick that he is, he feels sorry for himself and despises the wife for disrupting his life, but after losing his career is eventually forced to do some soul searching, coming to the conclusion that he has no real identity or personality, but also finally realizing how he has come off all these years and how damaging his lack of caring has been to everyone. This once selfish, oblivious prick makes a legit transformation into a genuinely good guy who gets enthusiastic about being around his children and desperately wants to help his wife stop being such a bitch so they can finally be a real family. 5/10

Bud Light Boycott

This is some funny shit. And when I say funny, I mean facepalmingly stupid. They partnered with some trans guy/girl/thing and they're getting a lot of backlash for it. Because bud is a man's drink! No beers for queers!

On one hand, they should have known rednecks would take offense, but on the other hand... who gives a fuck? It's still the same old shit I never bought even when I drank like a fish.