Edgy MD

WTF is Road Warrior II? I know three canonical movies: Mad Max, Road Warrior, and Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. OE: Oh, I see what's happening here. This one is called Mad Max: Fury Road. You have the Franchise Root Title Confusion (FTRC), as this one is actually called Mad Max: Fury Road. This sort of thing has been rampant since Rambo II: First Blood, Part 3, or whatever it was called.

Is he making more consistent contact than the Kirk? Because I'm growing whiff weary.

You know who's hittin'? Mets number one draft picks are hittin'. Nimmo? Hittin'. Conforto? Blastin'. Cecchini? Whaling away. The exception is Dominic Smith. Last year, his lack of power development was disappointing. This year, well, disappointing would be an improvement. He's totally swinging a wet noodle! And he's presenting a vomitrocious .143 / .194 / .159 // .353 next to his face whenever somebody looks up at the St. Lucie scoreboard. So, three out of four ain't bad, right? Right? Well, one thing my Dad taught me is to buy low, and things are low for Dominic. He also taught me to keep and eye open for someone who needs a friend. Come over here and get a hug, Dom. And put down that stoopid-looking bat!

Benjamin Grimm wrote: It's hard to believe that this thread went almost two years without an update. And then POW!!! Two hours later and I'm back again.

PCL Pitcher of the Week. That's what you get for waiting until the game is over to hit the clubhouse spread.

Last two starts. Mon vs. Albuquerque: 7 IP, 0 R, 2 H, 0 BB, 9 K Sat vs. Reno: 7 IP, 0 R, 4 H, 2 BB, 10 K That's 26 Ks and 8 walks in 21 2/3 innings on the season.

It's the strange nature of these films that, while one may leave me underwhelmed or overwhelmed or both simultaneously (this one did), I then end up having more sympathy for the previous one. They're like latter-day U2 albums in that sense.

I celebrated this evening with some Chipotle.

The Rain keeps falling in Bingo, leading the staff with a 2-0 record and a 2.04 ERA through three starts. A 0.91 WHIP (seventh in the Eastern League) goes a long way. He gave the team their first win back on April 10 when he combined with two relievers for a two-hitter over the Akron Rubber Duckies. He opens a series against Portland today, locking up with Mike Aguilera who previously starred for Binghamton... SUNY Binghamton, that is.

The time jumps weren't bothersome, so much as the attempt to redeem Turing not just as a persecuted homosexual, but as a misunderstood and misjudged autistic savant, somehow justifying him being a brutally smug and superior asshole. And of course, that's the label over Cumberbatch's head. That's what you're buying when you hire him. (I imagine he was first and last on a list of one when it came to Marvel hiring a cinematic Dr. Strange.) But does it really serve Turing to play him as such a caricature? He didn't make it where he did by being the clueless outsider/victim to predators/humourless jerk he's played as. It seems to me that it just gives justification to ambitious and hatefully smug crazy makers creating dysfunctional workplaces everywhere. I'm a misunderstood genius! Kneightly's characters seems drawn from a stencil of Helena Bonham-Carter's in The King's Speech (the trailer of which was surprisingly included on the DVD here.) She's provides the humanity that leavens Turing and allows him to interact with the rest of us mortals. But again, is it fair to him and all his achievements to have made him dependent on his not-wife to conduct a coherent conversation with other smart professionals working for for such a noble purpose?

In a vaguely futuristic Japanese version of San Francisco, a middle school-aged robotics whiz has the technology he's developed stolen by a villain, and is forced to outfit his college friends with advanced technology to combat the threat, along with his brother's languid balloon robot. [fimg=450:1vplvhe1]http://i.imgur.com/sfm33Zn.jpg[/fimg:1vplvhe1]

Couple thrown together by fate looks to human traffickers to get them out of Mexico, quarantined off from the United States during an alien invasion. [fimg=450:3omzhtm3]http://blog.moviepostershop.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/Monsters-movie-poster.jpg[/fimg:3omzhtm3]

Yay, a post in the Film Review Forum. This seems to confirm my long-held suspicion that the protagonist is a coming-of-age paduan/offspring of Leia and Han, likely the young woman. For if we know anything about long-delayed Harrison Ford sequels, the adult bambinos from his libertine years will show up. Not for nothing, but if we're trying to restore balance to the Force here, shouldn't Star Wars films be released in May?

Anybody else catch M&M yet?

We'll finally have a name to rhyme with Sadecki.

That's my second memory fart of today. Earlier today I called the Bellamy Brothers "The Statler Brothers." I have to put my neurologist on speed dial.

Balance is the key.

Yeah, I guess that is Arnie. Still, though, those mooks have little growing to do. Neither looks like he's particularly worried about being drafted.

Freddy kinda dug his own grave though. He had a chance to show some heart during Daniel's fight at the beach and then at soccer tryouts. His crew gave him this "That guy's a loser, just leave him there to bleed" attitude, and Freddy turned away with them. Peer pressure. Still, one might expect an official closing of that circle, either through a reconciliation or a "You weren't THERE for me, Freddy!" outburst from Daniel.

The simplest solution is always the most likely. And the simplest solution is that he's a time-traveler from the future.

Karate Kid in the archives: The Karate Kid (ranked). (I also puzzle over the dousing-Zabka scene here. It's interesting that he's dressed as a shower and he showers water on his enemy.) Karate Kid Villain Deathmatch. Karate-Kid-ettes. WSo8M: (2) The Karate Kid v. (6) The Terminator (This ended in a tie!) The Karate Kid, Part II (ranked)

We've talked about this film plenty. I'm not sure these factors have come up, but I was cooking an elaborate dinner and watched this again and they piqued my interest. Standard cheap remote location shot as the film opens in Newark and uses broad shots and voiceovers of the actors so doubles can play them as the car pulls away. Ralph Macchio and Randee Heller are also not there as the green station wagon drives through a symbolic Iowa. Cheap but effective. Less effective is the stereotype-laden first line: "Tony, don't forget to tell Uncle Louie that I left the red wine and the parmesan in the refrigerator." Daniel makes a friend in Act One. Freddy Fernandez, I think his name was. Helps Daniel with his stuff, and invites him to the party. This kid briefly talks with Daniel at soccer tryouts the next day and then disappears. He's like the gun in the first act that never goes off. This movie is a near masterpiece of dramatic arc, but they blow that one. Or it was genius misdirection, I'm not sure. Imitation Beach Boys song that plays at the party to establish that "this is California and this is the beach" is called "(Bop Bop) on the Beach." The composer credit on the soundtrack album goes to Mike Love. Not lyrics credit, but the whole song. I've been reviewing the Beach Boys catalog and I'm up to the Friends album of December 1968 (their 15th non-"Greatest Hits" album) and I haven't discovered Mike credited as music composer for anything. The artists credited with performing it are The Flirts ("(Don't Put Another Dime in the) Juke Box") and Jan and Dean ("Surf City"). In a second nod to the budget, when Daniel arrives at school, there is an extended shot of the dedication plaque. This shot has no contextual purpose, and is clearly included as part of the payment for the school allowing the production to shoot on campus. [fimg=600]http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6mltTIqaRjs/VAaD1sLHhBI/AAAAAAAAFtk/YtGvV1LOTyg/s1600/KarateKid3.JPG[/fimg] An artist self-help book can be written about Mr. Miyagi's technique of bonsai sculpting. Close your eyes, see the tree in it's entirety, completed, and only then will you know what you have to do. The artist's way. Ever give somebody a bonsai as a gift? They always die, and everybody feels bad. Teenagers are stupid, and I was no exception. I'm going back and forth with whether I would have been stupid enough to have pulled the hose-from-the-slopsink-pouring-water-onto-Johnny/Zabka's-head maneuver. I tend to think that, as poor as a teenage male's judgment is, he remembers pain, and this move might have been, like, fifth-grade dumb. But yeah, maybe I might have done this stupid thing, especially after a slow dance with a pretty girl, which has a way of killing brain cells. But I like to think I might have removed the shower costume apparatus. Never realized it because Daniel is such an ungrateful and ungracious whiner, but he's right when he says that Miyagi has to get involved because he already is involved. Cobra Kai is going to come down on him so much harder because of the beating that Miyagi handed out. GO THE DISTANCE, MIYAGI. Chad McQueen's hair dye is hilarious. He looks like a college grad and was actually 24 at the time of the film's release. I figured he was Ali McGraw's son. I in fact thought maybe that was kind of a production in-joke, the female lead explicitly spelling her name in tribute to the supporting player's famous mother, but he was in fact the product of Steve McQueen's prior marriage with Filipina actress Neile Adams. [fimg=300]http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m723iw3GnP1r1r7rjo1_1280.jpg[/fimg] That shot was taken in 1960, the same year Chad was born, so there's a good chance that she's carrying legendary bully sidekick Dutch the Cobra Kai at that moment. The two middle-aged fools at the beach who harass Mr. Miyagi by drinking on his car and refusing to move. One of them � and this will shock you � is a visitor from the future wearing what we didn't recognize in 1983 was... a Washington Nationals hat. Black Cobra Kai kid is so doomed. So doomed. The subtle/not-so-subtle racism of eighties movies, man. When Daniel is getting his gee with the Miyagi patch sewn on the back, it's sort of reflected in the scene behind Mr. Miyagi, where a golden paper lantern is shining behind one his bonsai trees. This was either a very nice touch or some strange luck. I'm sure it's been done and done better than I could, but I think I'd like to write a book-length shot-by-shot exegesis on this film. (How did we never notice the cap before?)

I saw this the night after watching Arrowhead (1953), and I went from "Boy this is sure is one surprisingly racist movie" to "Boy this sure is one surpassingly misogynist movie."

I guess I might've felt different if I saw it when I was younger, but I found this to be just nuts. Two stars, for the little subplot of ecumenicalism.

Some good epic kissing, I'll give them that, interspersed with a LOT of uncomfortable manhandling. Strange that I never realized the ET kiss came from this movie.