Metal Reviews

This was a great series, one of the best sports docs I've ever watched. Excellent insight into the culture and politics of an elite franchise with a wonderful cast of characters that are never less than engaging. You have Michael Jordan, the psycho competitive task master who never forgot a slight; Scottie Pippen, the quiet and under valued second wheel who was no less important than MJ; Dennis Rodman, a basket case with the mind of a basketball savant; Phil Jackson, as much life coach as basketball coach who somehow got them all to work together to achieve greatness beyond themselves. Perpetual role player Steve Kerr's backstory was really interesting as well. I won't spoil it, but he and Michael shared a tragic commonality that I was unaware of before watching the doc. Non-basketball watchers have complained about the narrative format being hard to follow, but I thought the filmmakers did a stellar job developing the storyline where a casual could follow along just fine. Believe the hype on this one.

I need to watch that sometime Thrash. I used to love playing basketball. MJ was a huge inspiration for me growing up.

I was a Run TMC kid. Chris Mullin was my dude. Like Jordan's Bulls, another great core that was broken up too soon. The NBA Playoffs were "must see" TV back in the day, especially the Eastern Conference. Those teams went to war on the court. I thought this doc developed MJ's competitive pathology to winning in that hostile environment incredibly well. Jordan was out of line from time to time, but after the hell he went through with New York, Indiana and especially Detroit, people can better understand the type of mentality it took to beat those great teams.

I miss liking basketball too, husker. The new generation of guys don't jive with me. The pride & competitive edge isn't the same. Guys like Jordan, Bird and Magic wanted to beat you on their own terms, while the new guys want to stack the deck and all play together against lesser competition. Kevin Durant leaving the Thunder to go play with the team that beat him in the previous year's playoffs is all time weak. The old guard would have never done that shit. The game totally died for me when Kobe and Duncan retired. Oh, well. There's always ESPN Classic.

How do you say "badass" in Japanese?

A solid little thriller that went virtually unnoticed when it dropped in 2017. Music is a bit odd and out of place in some scenes and the ending feels a bit abrupt, but overall a welcome departure for "nice guy" Jackie. Well into his 60's now (god, where has the time gone!), Chan shows he still has more than a little gas left in the tank. A solid turn from Brosnan as well. Worth a watch, if you like these kinds of flicks.

watched american psycho tonight. crazy movie lol

Finally read the book recently and it's far more fucked up than the film, which is basically a dark comedy. Comedy goes out of the window when you're reading the umpteenth passage about some woman being slowly dismembered...

yeah i had only ever seen clips of it on youtube, movie was pretty graphic at times!

No Time To Die - Ehhhhhhhhhhh boooooo. Not a good Bond film, outside of Ana De Armas who was a breath of fresh air and felt like something from a better film. Still no chemistry between Craig and Seydoux, still massive plot holes as they try to make all the Craig films fit a narrative arc, still feels like they shoehorn in villains and plot points and just make a mess, and definitely didn't need to be nearly three fucking hours long. Some nice forest scenes and decent action setpieces, but otherwise give me Roger Moore's eyebrow any day.

An absolute feast for the senses. Sumptuous in every way. The pared down plot may not be as compelling for those unfamiliar with the books, but the beauty and sheer scale of the visuals are an absolute wonder to behold. Part 2 should be no less impressive. Definitely worth watching on the biggest, fanciest cinema screen you can find.

Top Gun Maverick was pretty fucking great. Possibly the best big budget action since Fury Road? Flying scenes were unbelievable.

Interesting. I've heard from a lot of people that it is much better than the original movie (I understand the tech is better now but even beyond that people like this much more). Wonder how often it happens that a sequel, many, many years later is so much more highly regarded than the original.

TG:M was a welcome surprise to say the least. Every aspect from the first film was improved. Higher stakes, better performances, a believable romance and yes, the incredible flight sequences. From what I understand, Paramount paid the Navy roughly $13,000 per flight hour while the actors filmed themselves inside the F/A-18s. Cruise also put them through a four week training camp to get their bodies acclimated to withstand the high number of G's during flight. With all the money and effort it took the studio to film those scenes, I doubt we'll see anything like it again for a while.

Say what you will about Cruise, that man has a drive to succeed.


Finally saw a John Ford film. Wayne and his character as the A plot is very good, unfortunately the comedic B plot feels extremely out of place 65 years later. But understandable why Ford was so many directors' favorite director as he could compose and shoot some incredible footage.

Missed your point and wrote a whole nother post thinking it was your first Wayne, hah. But yeah, that's a great film.

Tonight's fare, on a rewatch:



Peckinpah was a (drunk) genius, the action shots are like nothing else and although they unbalance the film the overriding tension otherwise sets them up so well. You can feel the urgency, the desperation. And the stuff like the kids watching ants overwhelm scorpions works so well as a metaphor. So dark, so essential.

I watched The Wild Bunch based on your rec and having interest in watching another western. Definitely worth the $3 rental, as you noted the action filming was great as was the overarching theme about men facing time that had passed them by.

Peckinpah always seemed to use slow-motion in a great way too, much smoother than a lot of 90s movies seemed to with that horrible jerky style. What a king.

Speaking of kings, pour one out for James Caan. RIP.

Yeah, can't remember the last time I watched a movie before this one where the action scenes were the standout.
RIP to Caan as well. Saw him in a bunch of things over the years but imo one of the great bait and switches in movie history is how Sonny Corleone is set up to be the main character of Godfather--can't get away with that unless Caan had the presence and charisma to deceive the viewer.

John Wick 4 - how do they keep the quality levels up? Not been disappointed by one of these... Fantastic action (the Paris traffic and top-down scenes especially) and great supporting cast - Donnie Yen the highlight, and Rina Sawayama very good in her debut. Rip Lance Reddick.

RIP Lance Reddick.

'McNulty! My office.'