#casting directors were just like he looks punchable

[livesinyesterday]

David Strathairn Appreciation: 

David “Feeling So Attacked Right Now” Strathairn in the 90′s

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | The Package (Davis, 1989)

This review contains mild spoilers.

When I'd watched Under Siege and Above the Law, I'd assumed that their politics had come primarily from Steven Seagal. I'd assumed Seagal and director Andrew Davis had been hanging around on set and Seagal had been hinting to Davis that he'd totally, for real, involved in some secret black ops type stuff that he wasn't allowed to talk about but that it was totally a bad thing that these secret black ops guys were allowed to do bad stuff, man. This was in between Seagal hinting that he was totally, for real, involved with the Sicilian mafia and talking up his total, for real, Italian heritage. And Davis would politely nod along, for fear of pissing off the Ponytail, and try to get back to filming. But based on The Package, maybe Davis held some of those politics too, because while this is one of many CIA-related thrillers and action movies made and set during the Cold War, it actually is less than thrilled with the CIA and expresses a healthy skepticism about clandestine operations.

The conspiracy plot here, without revealing too much, is a dark mirror image of thawing U.S.-Soviet relations. If the heads of both governments can come together in the name of peace, so too can the more hawkish elements in their administration to keep the war going. Which means, among other things, that this is the kind of movie where you get actors playing real life historical and political figures. To that end, I will say that the guy playing Gorbachev does bear a resemblance to the real deal, but while I assume the American president was supposed to be George H.W. Bush, the guy playing him looks more like FDR. (Davis would improve in this regard in his next movie Under Siege by getting the man himself.) I think he would have been more convincing as H.W. if he were accompanied by somebody playing Dan Quayle. Maybe he could have given a speech. "This disarmament treaty between the U.S. and the Soviet Union is a lot like a tomatoe." At which point he presumably would have been heckled by the press.

Anyway, this is a pretty entertaining watch, in large part because Davis is really good at handling intricate plots. This is maybe not as relentless as The Fugitive, but there's some nifty juggling of story threads, particularly a Chekhov's gun involving an undercover man that pays off with a literal gun. He also makes great use of locations. This was mostly shot in Chicago (standing in for a few other places). Unlike many other CIA thrillers set in sexy foreign locales, the action here takes place in shitty looking streets during the winter when everything is drab and grey. But you get the sense that this is a living, breathing city that these spies are running around in, so that when action erupts, like an ambush in a crowded bar, it has an added kick.

And of course there's the cast. Gene Hackman might not be anybody's idea of an action hero, and the movie keeps him from doing anything too physically strenuous, but as usual, he imbues this character with a lifetime of experience without doing a lot to spell it out, making what could have been a stock role into a real human being. The look of sheer contempt he gives to his captor when given milk and cookies is priceless. And Joanna Cassidy, who like Hackman imbues some real humanity into a role that could have been a plot device in a lesser movie (the early scenes between them make it clear why they're ex-husband and ex-wife). And you got Tommy Lee Jones as the assassin, having a ball in his dryly humorous way, and a very punchable John Heard as a slimy CIA guy (I assume his rank is chief asshole). And just when you think the movie couldn't get any better, it drops in Dennis Franz in a classic Dennis Franz role as a gruff but principled cop, a cherry on top of this conspiracy thriller sundae.

[helie-brain]

Troy (2004)

I recently watched Troy again, and I have to say that I really love the film. I understand that it’s not the greatest film and that a lot of people hate it because it is a horrible adaptation from the Iliad. But does it deserve all of the hate. I mean if you take away the aspect that it is supposed to be BASED OFF of the Iliad, its a great movie. 

The sets are beautiful and impressive.  You feel, or in my opinion, like you are in the city of Troy. Even when it is being sacked, you still get a feeling of how large the city is. Talking about the sacking,  the movie, the directors cut version, did not shy away of depicting how violent the sacking of the city can be; children being burned, women being raped, people hanging and much more. The costumes, even if they may not be accurate, are very beautiful and looks like a lot of work was put into them. Same can be said about the weapons being used. 

The fighting scenes are gruesome, realistic, thrilling and well choreographed. Especially when it came to Hector and to Achilles, it definitely shows why they are the greatest fighters of their time. Without dumbing down the other fighters. For example Hector vs A-Jax, it was a really close fight, with both getting some good punches, but in the end Hector won. And while they were fighting, the rest of the soldiers were fighting and not watching them with amazement. But the greatest fight scene would have to be Achilles vs Hector, no cgi, no stunt men, just two men fighting to the death. 

The characters/cast themselves were great and memorable. You cannot think of Hector without thinking Eric Bana. He played him so well, whenever he talked it felt like an actual leader was talking. Brian Cox was perfect for the role of Agamemnon, at times he was the best part of the film. His outburst were never played as a joke and were never overly emotional. He was not a dumb villain who only had one goal, his moves were calculated and there was always another reason at play. Even Orlando Bloom did a great job at playing a naïve, entitled, most punchable face, which is what Paris was; a prince who stole another man’s wife and started a war that resulted in countless deaths. 

My favorite character would have to be Briseis, played by Rose Byrne. She is a stubborn, fearless, family oriented, somewhat entitled person, who doesn’t want people to die; Greeks or Trojans. And is willing to put herself at risk so others won’t risk there lives saving her. Not to mention I love her dynamic with Achilles. Speaking of which, Brad Pitt did amazing job at playing an annoying, arrogant, childish, warrior with a cheeky heart of gold. Yes I know that in the Iliad or other related books, he has a romantic relationship with Patroclous, but honestly I like the idea that he his cousin that he must watch over. In my opinion it adds more pain to Patrclous’s death; not only did Achilles lose someone he loved but he failed as a guardian. 

I liked that they didn’t add Gods to the film, even though they were a big part in the books. The reason is that the movie would then be more about the gods than the warriors. Meaning that the choices and actions the humans did would not be so impactful since it didn’t come from them fully but were swayed by the gods. Also we the audience would not have much a connection with the humans if we constantly had to go back and forth between the humans and the gods. 

But again nothing is perfect, there are things in the film that I have trouble with. The main one being pacing, I understand that showing 10 years would be somewhat difficult. But make the war last longer than a few days, that way you can flesh out more the relationships and the characters.  Also how passive Helen was through out the film; I mean Hector’s wife was taking care of her child, dealing with the lose of her husband and in the end saving Troy. Briseis was trying to stay alive in the enemy camp. Helen just seemed to be sitting there and only making small attempts to flee back. 

But in the end it’s a film that is BASED ON the Iliad. And the primary purpose of a film is to entertain. Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk. 

[bereft-of-frogs]

1 4 5 17!

4. are you likely to blush when a sex scene comes up or can you read/watch it with a straight face?

It definitely depends on how it’s written and if I’m expecting it! I’m definitely the type where like, I can read porn with a straight face but if I’m reading/watching something unrelated and a sort of awkward sex scene comes up out of nowhere I might blush/cringe a little. I think it’s more about expectation/preparation than the content itself. It’s much better than secondhand embarrassment though. Even an awkward sex scene I’m usually fine with, a character is making a fool of themselves or is about to get in trouble? Oh my god I cannot watch it.

5. [answered!]

17. are there any tropes you wished were used less often?

I don’t know if this is just the weird mood I’m in, but like...honestly most romance tropes with the exception of a few. I think this is just a product of me being in a really weird place re: romance. Absolutely more power to shippers, it’s great, I just wish there was a little bit more gen relationship appreciation. (And there are a couple upcoming canon things that I’m just like...kneeling down before the fandom gods being like ‘....please don’t give them a romance subplot in this please don’t give them a romance subplot.’)

The big one that I hate and would love to never see again is ‘Accidental Baby Acquisition’. Well I’m not sure it’s that exactly. Like, I don’t love kidfics in general but it’s the, male character comes back to see ex-girlfriend/one night stand and ‘surprise you’ve got a kid I never told you about!’ stuff. I avoid it like the plague in fanworks and I physically cringe when it’s in canon works. This is so specific. The only example I can think of right now is the episode of Supernatural in season 4 or 5 where he goes back to see Lisa and learns about Ben and while I came around on their characters by the end of season 5 (when I stopped watching), the whole episode’s subplot was centered around the ‘wait is this Dean’s kid?’ mystery/tension and I remember being viscerally uncomfortable the whole time. That was in like 2008 and I still hate this very specific trope.

I also feel like this depends on the fandom because there always seems to be one trope that just takes over a fandom and you have no idea until you’re staring down the ao3 tag being like....so can I find a fic that doesn’t include this trope? Like the joke is ‘you never know which fandoms got absolutely taken over by A/B/O like some sort of invasive plant species’. I feel like so many fandoms have this where it’s like. Enough. I mean, I support you to create whatever you want but...maybe branch out a little. (Looking at you, Star Wars fandom and time travel fix-its...) (Like again, I support you writers but oh my god there are so many of them.)

[fandom asks]

1. is under a cut for spoilers for Falcon and Winter Soldier:

1. if you could hit any character without repercussions, who would it be?

Oh my God, discount Captain America. Off-brand Captain America. Walmart Cap, I believe I saw someone call him? I saw that face for 2 seconds at the end of the first episode and God, I just wanted to punch him in the face. I remarked to several people that the MCU casting directors have achieved true brilliance once again in casting the man with the most punchable face. (No offense intended to the actor! He’s doing a great job but like....his job is to make me hate him and it’s working.)

[popculturebuffet]

Scooby Doo (2002) Review: The Most Punchable Fred Jones of All Time

It’s one last hurrah for Halloween as I take a look at the often derided 2002 Scooby Doo Movie! See what happens when you combine future superstar director James Gunn with .. the guy who thought directing the Smurf’s movie and Big’s Mama’s House were good ideas. Oh and with a splash of the guy who wrote the loveable family film Cheaper by the Dozen and the utterly loathed Percy Jackson film. It’s as messy as you’d expect with that.. but is it BAD? good, so bad it’s good, just sorta okay? Come with me as I try to find out under the cut with a full review. 

I’ve always loved Scooby Doo. I grew up with the guy, watching reruns of the non-scrappy classic series from Where Are You to the Scooby Doo Movies, the three Superstar 10 movies (Boo Brothers, Ghoul School and Reluctant Werewolf), or the at the time brand new What’s New Scooby Doo. And later in life i’d absolutely adore Mystery Incorporated.. minus the whole Shaggy, Scooby Velma love triangle, but i’ll likely cover that at some point or sooner, you can comission reviews from me for 5 bucks each, 5 dollars off group orders if you really want to make me suffer through that that bad. But getting off self promotion point is I loved and still love the franchise. While I”ve yet to see “Scooby Doo and Guess Who”, though given there’s Weird Al, Kristan Schaal and Urkel episodes you can be sure i’m going to eventually, and Scoob was VERY ehhh even if Dick Dastardly was awesome. But despite my history with the great dane much like with Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, despite my rich history with the franchise I haven’t dove in yet and with a friend who could use a nice halloween suprise and loves scooby doo, I figured now was the time to take a look at it.  And since i’d been wanting to take a look at it again anyway, and decided going big wasn’t a bad way to start, i’m taking a look at the 2002 Scooby Doo movie. I saw this flim first run in a drive in, and saw the sequel the same way and loved it as a kid, and fondly remember checking out the Sountrack Preview page back before youtube existed to make checking out soundtracks easier. It was a simplier time. And even rewatching it later with my nieces, I found myself liking it.  And the thing was almost every time this film comes up it’s with a turned up nose. The CGI, the confused audience, the deciding to cast Freddy Prinze Junior.. all terrible decisions that overshadow the film, when it’s not that bad. It’s not GREAT, but it’s not TERRIBLE either. So what is it then? Well i’ll tells ya. Let’s start with

PRODUCTION: Wait James Gunn Wrote This?

At the turn of the millneium Scooby Doo was back on top. After waning popularity during the Scrappy era, the advent of the warner affilated Cartoon Network meant a whole new generation of kids (raises hand) got to experince Scooby Doo for the first time. This new audeince lead to Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, the first of the franchises 80 or so DTV movies that will continue on long after the earth dies, and brought back the franchise after it’s long slumber. Scooby Doo went from dead to as popular as he was in his hey day again. Naturally Warner wanted to cash in and thus this movie was born.  Originally the film was supposed to be a more adult project, a send up of the franchise with more sex jokes and what not than made the final cut according to writer James Gunn. Yes, the same James Gunn who wrote and directed the Guardians of the Galaxy movie and whose currently saving the suicide squad. It was one of Gunn’s earlier films but just from when he’s talked about it, you can tell he genuinely cared about the project.  Along for the ride with our future Guardian was his co-writer, Craig Titely,  who i’m convinced only came in to do punch ups as the guy has only written three other movies. One of them was being one of MANY writers on Cheaper by the Dozen and thus likely not doing much of note with that, and the other.. is being the only writer on Percy Jackson: The Lightning Thief’s movie adaptation.. aka the movie the fanbase and general audiences rejected in droves yet SOMEHOW got a sequel. Which is somehow still worse than his other film, one that asks “was the moon landing a hoax?” Spoilers, it wasn’t. Point is this isn’t a resume that screams co creator and more screams “Guy brought in to kid freindly this up”. More on that in a minute.  The director is another less than reassuring face: Raja Gosnell, whose credits BEFORE this film were Home Alone 3, Never Been Kissed and Big Momma’s house.. so already he dosen’t have the best track record but somehow got worse because AFTER this film and it’s sequel he directed both live action Smurfs Movies and the universally hated Show Dogs, aka the film  that thought dog rape was funny. The fact this film isn’t out and out terrible is a miracle. 

Even more so because naturally, as Studios tend to do they interfered: The film was supposed to be more adult, cracking jokes about common things fans of the series growing up thought like Velma is Gay or Shaggy’s a stoner, and having both be fully true. But wanting to appeal to kids, Warner gradually lightned it, hence Craig, and Raja clearly having no shame gladly took it instead of you know.. standing his ground.  So Velma has a love intrest thrown in and her kiss with Daphne is gone, while Shaggy’s toke smoking was lowered to subtext.. because either of those things is bad apparently? I dunno the 2000′s were fucked. 

Point is THAT’S why these films are so tonally confused and why I don’t hold it agains the film now I know: It wasn’t James Gunn or even, as dumb as he is, Raja Gosnell’s fault that the film had some tones clashing when the studio was demanding it, instead of you know, thinking this through at all and realizing more kids cared about Scooby Doo than they would’ve josie and the pussy cats instead of bringing it up DURING production, when most of the adult stuff was in there. It’s also why the sequel has no real adult stuff, though it’s STILL damn good, but i’ll get to that some other day. 

The film was also shot at an actual theme park in australia. Neat. 

So yeah the film’s humor kind of ping pongs between knowing adult winks and kids stuff. We get Scooby dressing like a grandma in the same film shaggy enhales his demon possed love intrests breath like weed. The jokes themselves on average are pretty good: Some of my faviorites include the grandma scene, everything rowan atkinson does, Velma getting drunk off her ass, and the instructional video bit which is easily my favorite bit of the episode and one of my faviorite scooby doo jokes period:

This is even FUNNIER to me on rewatch, as we now know this is an instructional video for demons.. and that Scrappy clearly had enough problems with his demon horde to have to pay for this thing. It tis glorious.  However there also are also a few that HAVE NOT aged well, are very creepy at best and disgusting sexual assault at worst with Daphne getting her ass grabbed by the Luna Ghost at the start being treated as a joke and Fred oggling Daphne’s body when he’s in it being treated as a ha ha and not...

So yeah the humor’s USUALLY good, but the slipups are noticable and do bring things down a bit when they come by. So the humor is decent if mixed and the production’s a nightmare, how’s the plot? The Plot: Scoob, We’re Getting the Band Back Together!

I won’t be as through as usual because this is a 90 minute movie, I’m running behind as is and it’s 20 years old, 

We start with your standard mystery inc case with the Luna Goose, aka Old Man Incel who resented Pamela Anderson for not boning him. But Fred hogging the glory during the resulting News Cast leads the gang to start fighting over lingering tensions: Velma is tired of Fred hogging all the credit when she does most of the legwork solving things, Daphne is tired of being kidnapped and being mistreated by Velma and Freddy who laugh at the idea of her doing more, and Fred..

We’ll get to him later. Shaggy is the only one wanting to stick together, but no one’s having it and the group breaks apart and Matthew LIllard REALLY sells Shaggy’s heartbreak over his friends all abandoning him well. 

Two years later though, with Shaggy and Scooby naturally getting stoned and eating large quantities of food on the beach, have made peace with retirement, and have apparently had to duck tons of people coming to them to solve mysteries since they aren’t about that. The latest in that line is a man representing Emile Mondovarius, the owner of Spooky Island, a vast island resort and theme park. Naturally since it has spooky in the name the boys want nothing but Mondovarius does what honestly every previous guy coming to them should’ve done: offers them an all you can eat buffet.  Since they’ve done more traumatizing for Dog Treats, they agree and it soon turns out the entire gang was invited, though none of them but Shaggy and Scooby are happy to see each other. I will say one of my complaints about the film is it never tackles the emotions behind the breakup: while the teams slowly repairs there are never any outright apologizes or scenes of them recociling or scenes of Shaggy chewing them out for abandoning him due to their spat. It just skips over the emotional bits to either wave a joke for the kiddies around or scream 

Really the jokes aren’t bad, the film just has trouble with actual emotion or depth that could’ve been there and tries for it once in a while, but dosen’t really do anything with it. The gang splitting up’s a good concept, and at this point on Scooby Doo on Zombie Island had really used it, and that was one where they were clearly still close friends and were still in touch they just quit mystery solving for a while till Zombie Island happened. Mystery Incorpreated would finally give this story justice later: Instead of over a petty ego squabble, the gang broke up over underlying tensions: The revelations about Fred’s dad caused him to go try and find himself, Velma alienated herself by hiding things from them, and Shaggy was shipped off to Military School and Scooby doggy prison camp... thankfully the last two didn’t last and Scooby rescued Shaggy with a tank but the tension DIDN’T go away: While the gang mostly reunited, Velma took time to forgive them and also tried bringing in the friend/girlfriend she’d made in the meantime only for her friends to isolate her and throw her out while Daphne took her time to return due to being hurt by fred. It’s complex and good stuff versus here where it’s just “WE’RE APART BECAUSE WE HATES EACH OTHER. And now we’re NOT”. It’s just a waste of a good concept and i’ m glad the franchise got around to doing it right. 

But my gripes aside our heroes head to the resort and meet Mondevarious, who admits outright to having tricked then and with confronted with the gang being broken up, makes it clear he knews.  “That’s the thing about broken things.. you can put them back together.”

And so he did. He needs the Gang’s help as he’s worried about the island and something going wrong there: The teens are leaving polite, well behaved. and clearly not themselves as one reacts to an old friend by neck lifting him and tossing him aside. Something’s deeply wrong here and the gang’s intrest is piqued enough to stay though everyone but Shaggy is determined to solve it themselves out of ego. Mondvarius is played by Rowan Atkinson and while I watched the bean movie as a kid this is where I fell in love with the guy, with later watches of Blackadder confirming that in my college years. Rowan just brings a fun dorky energy to the character and a nice earnestness too but when he later takes a turn for the bad, he does that well too. Atkinson is HIGHLY underated in my opinon and easily the MVP of this film’s supporting cast.   So the investigation begins, and we get our supsects: The first we met on the plane, Mary Jane, a kind blonde played by Isla Fisher who got the job becasue Gosnel, in a rare good decision, saw how talented she was and while still picking Sara Michele Gellar for Daphne, made sure she had  a part. She’s a nice sweet girl who Shaggy falls for and Scooby’s annoyed by it.. though unlike earlier the film beats mystery inc easily here as it’s a more understandable conflict and dosen’t act like Dog Issues is a thing people says. Again i’ll get to that clusterfuck of an arc some day. The other two are N’Goo Tuna, a shady worker at the park who spouts off the legends of the island. In a nice twist, he’s NOT the vilian, as is obvious but is his right hand man. He also has his own right hand and muscle in Zarkos a cool looking Luchador and N’Goo’s muscle. Also N’Goo may be one of the worst names in Scooby Doo History, and that includes Dabba Doo. But the legend claims the island was once owned by demons who want revenge since the resort took the island from him. 

The other is probably my faviorite non Rowan Atkinson character, Voodoo Maestro, played by Miguel Nunez. He’s basically just a guy who lives on the fringes of the island and also hates the resort and tries using voodoo curses. He’s honestly a delight from his attempt to sacrifice a chicken (An already dead one at that), to his general hammy and annoyed at dealing with these teenagers demeanor. NAturally he has nothing to do with this but he’s still a fun addition and I wish he was in more scnenes than the two he gets.  But with what they’ve gathered the gang all end up at a spooky castle attraction, with Scooby and Shaggy of course being bribed by daphne while Velma and Fred show up indpeendntly and end  up finding the weird training video from earlier but all get caught when the traps are activiated> There’s also a farting contest which.. eh not funny to me but i’ve seen so much worse i’m not even remotely upset. But then the traps trigger though during the chaos Fred and Velma are forced to work together and finally start doing so, and Daphne finds a clue: A mysterious pyramid known as the damon righus and finally gets some, if not nearly enough, credit.  So the gang is back together.. even if it’s a tenative peace, the high from solving this and relay to their boss the suspects, including him, though Fred assures Mondovarius it’s just because he’s spooky and rowan’s character’s delight over that is fucking glorious.  So the gang enjoys some down time at the local bar, with Fred and Daphne doing their own look ins, Scooby and Shaggy eating and encountring mary again and Velma getting hit on by a dude while looking over the ritus, revealing it’s some sort of soul sucking aparatus, and going into their history... which is really just an excuse to bring Scrappy in who in this universe, is a horny egotistical little shit whose abandoned as a result. ANd before anyone boos he’s not a puppy here, he’s got.. dog dwarfisim.. which while .. how does that even work... means he’s a grown ass man and deserved this. We also get drunk velma and Linda Caredenlli is a delight

The night gets interupted by terrible cgi monsters, the aformentioned emon who soul suck most of the college kids present and also get fred and velma who both find out these are very much real. We also get the best song on the soundtrack, man with a hex. It slaps. But it makes good chase music as with Mondvarious, Fred and Velma captured, the rest of the gang and mary escape.  The next morning we get a surreal as hell scene as everyone’s partying, Fred’s talking in slang and Velma with clevage, thank you, is chatting up.. Sugar Ray? For those younger of you they were a band at the time. They were a big thing. Not half bad but faded away. They looked as 2000′s as hell though. WHy Smash Mouth gets all the memes and not them is beyond me. Look at lead singer Mark McGrath!It’s like the early 2000′s gained sentience and took a human form. But the gang is quickly forced to run from sugar ray, though they get Daphne in a deleted scene. Why it was deleted I dunno. Point is Shaggy, Scooby and Mary are all alone.. oh and Mary’s possessed. Shaggy and Scooby argue over it because Shaggy just thinks Scooby is jealous and while he is .. why would he lie about this? He’s as cowardly as you are. But Scooby falls through the floor, and Shaggy is now going solo but luckily finds his friends souls, and eveyrone elses in a massive cool looking vat and frees them all.  Velma, when the demon leaves her and confronts her, finds out sunlight kills the demons and saves Daphne from hers... only to find Fred in her body. Daphne is naturally horrified and we do get a great bodyswapping scene.

Our heroes reconvince on the beach where htey find the Maestro who explains what’s going on to a point, with the gang’s clues filling in the blanks: The ritus, which they stole back earlier, is used for a ritual that will allow the Demons to rule over the earth for “a thousand years of darkness” but it requires a pure soul to work. Cue our big bad talking Scooby into being their willing sacrifice since Scooby dooes not understand what a sacrifice is.  Shaggy naturally rallies the group to go save him after their understandably worried since they usually dealt with weirdos in costumes and not the apocalypse.. well okay Velma and Fred aren’t, Daphne dealt with this kind of thing once a week back in Sunnydale. So they set up a plan to destroy all the demons at once by unleashing the soul bath, setting them all loose and then using a spooky disco ball from one of the attractions rigged up over the ritual area to shine the light in. It’s classic scooby doo. 

Things naturally go wrong as while Shaggy goes to rescue scooby and makes up with him, he’s caught, so are fred and velma and they have to scramble, while Daphne looses a fight with the luchador up top while trying to let the light in to finish the trap. Meanwhile Shaggy saves Scooby’s soul just as Mondovarious sucks it out by shoving the guy.. revealing him to be a robot! DUN DUN DUN. And inside is Scrappy.. which you all probably knew already but try to act suprise who wanted to conquer the world as revenge for the gang abandoning him and because again, in this universe he’s kind of an asshole. He absorbs the souls gathered so far and merges with the damon ritus, because we’re operating on video game rules now apparently, so final boss time.  But we get a great climax as Scrappy chases scooby, Daphne goes buffy on Zarkos ass , and as a result he shatters the glass and lets the light in releasing the disco ball the kill the demons.. man I love that I get to type things like that. Scooby removes the ritus and defeats his nephew and the day is saved. Velma hooks up with random guy, Daphne and Fred get together, I die inside a little and Shaggy and Mary Jane bond. At the press Fred does his good deed for the movie by letting Velma explain things and get the spotlight and the group have firmly reunited. THE END. Overall it’s a solid plot, that works well, comes together in the end and was well put together, it’s more the filling that causes it to tilt back and forth a bit, but overlal outside of the issue I mentioned it’s a good scooby doo plot. While some have pointed out it is similar to zombie island, a case reuniting the gang, the person who brought them there wanting to sacrifice them, or just scooby here, monsters being real, it works because everything else is so different. But since there’s more to break down and it’s easier to give it it’s own section let’s look at...

THE CHARACTERS: NOT HALF BAD, FRED CAN GO FUCK HIMSELF. 

So we’re down to character.. and since there’s a blonde, preeening, selfish, arrogant, sleazy, sexist, obnoxious, loud mouthed, useless elephant in the room, let’s start with Fred. And to quote it’s always sunny....

Yeah so that fury of a thousand crashing waves (Cracks Knuckles): Fred is the worst part of this movie, the worst version of the character across the entire franchise that i’ve seen with the sincre doubt that there is ANY version worse than this. Everything I said above is true and THEN some. He is one of the most unlikable characters i’ve seen in a film that wasn’t INTENDED to be. There’s just NOTHING to like about him. Nothing. He treats his “Friends” like garbage, all four of them: He basically ignores shaggy and scooby at best and treats them as if they were nothing. For Velma he’s your classic power abusing douche who pushes her to the side and often steals the credit for things she did. He’s still a good mystery solver, but he acts like he does all the work to the press and takes all the credit when Velma works as hard as he does if not harder. And worst of all is Daphne, who he basically either treats like some moron who gets kidnapped due to incompetence and not because creepy old dudes want to feel her up, which given the intro is VERY likely the reason she’s the resident victim of the group, and not like a person, or like a pair of boobs and legs he wants to bang or feel up creepily while he’s in her body. For fuck’s sake his reaction to finding out he’s in her body is a creepy and smug “I can see myself naaaakeddd” If that dosen’t make you want to smack him get off my blog. And they get together in the end! 

Who who wanted that. I genuinely want the presumibly original ending where Daphne and Velma hook up and Fred falls off a pier and is never seen again. The acting does not help. While the other four gang members are expertly cast Fred was given to Freddy Prinze Junior, who made a career out of playing arrogant dicks who are somehow the main character so I can’t fault the casting but I can fault that he can’t delver any line without that smug air of trying to be cool douche and it’s at it’s worst with Fred since Fred’s already written as the biggest creepiest douche in the world and Freddy somehow makes it WORSE. He also has zero chemstiry with Daphne, which would be weird given he and Sarah Michelle Gellar had dated for 2 years at this point and as of this writing have been together for 20 overall and have two wonderful kids together... but given how badly written Fred is here, I can’t blame either of them. And i’m sure FPJ is a swell guy, loves his kids loves his wife seems like a really plesant guy, nothing against him as a person, but at least at this point in his career he wasn’t very good. And I am actually planning on trying to seek out one of his later works in his career to see if he’s gotten better in recent years, and willing to give him the benifit of a doubt that he probably has. I just don’t like him here, and while the script does most of the work he only makes it worse.And works before this (Pup Named Scooby Doo) and after this (Mystery Incorperated) would prove you can give fred a personality that’s not dick tip, so fuck this character, fuck the writing.. and I hope Freddy is having a happy halloween with his loving wife and children, seriously I meant it I have nothing against him as a person. A terrible actor can still be a WONDERFUL guy. 

Now that’s thankfully put to bed, let’s pivot over to Shaggy, whose easily the best of the cast. Matthew Lillard looks the part pefectly, has the right combination of heart and goofus and has some great comedic timing. Granted Scream had already proven the guy’s got genuine talent, but still he’s great here and is currently playing Shaggy in most films and productions, except Scoob which.. was far from it’s only mistake but easily the biggest. There’s not much else to say: the guy IS Shaggy and is the only person whose taken up the roll to equal Kasey Casem in it. As for how he’s written.. he’s basically the same and apart from one line of him wanting to leave everyone to their deaths, which feels like it was added later, he’s written really well and is easily the most likeable of the group. 

Scooby is alright. Not the best version but funny and charming enough when he needs to be and while I hated the CGI at one point.. it’s honestly not that bad. It’s not GREAT, but time has actually been very good to it both in how it’s held up and in the fact we’ve gotten SO MUCH WORSE with so much better techlogies. I mean.. Cats exists.. Marmaduke Exists.. the Bill Murray Garfield exists. This was offputting at the time but now it’s just okay. But character wise he’s good and again not much diffrent. 

Velma is the second best casting of the movie. Played by Linda Cardenelli, who i’ve harbored a crush on for a good few decades now and admire mostly for her talent and charm, Linda kills the roll and easily slips into it as easily as Matt did, and while not picking it up full time like he did, still did it a few times afterword and played hot dog water in mystery incorperated, so she did finally get to play a Lesbian Velma it just took a while. And while Velma being gay is kind of sterotyping, it would’ve been nice to have been kept in instead of edited out for bullshit reasons. But overal her character is decent: While she ALSO bullies and belittles daphne like fred, unlike fred it comes less from just being a douche and more from insecurity. As her scene at the bar makes clear she feels undervalued like the other, like the nerd who the cool kids LET hang out with them instead of part of the team. While it dosen’t make her treatment of Daphne OKAY, it makes Velma understandable. We also get Velma Clevage which.. okay not sure if the world needed that but whatever. Point is it’s throughly likeable portryal that I wish got some character growth.  Finally out of the main 5 there’s Daphne, whose alright. Not as good as the other two, as it feels they lean a bit too heavily on her having taken self defense and wanting ot be tougher, but Sarah Michelle Gellar gives her a ton of charm and likeablity that her husband’s character sadly lacks. There’s just a fun, adorable energy to daph that ends up coupling with her buffy style badassery at the end and Sarah plays both beautifully. The script didn’t give her a ton to work with, though that’s the same for all four of htem, but Sarah really made the character work and made her somewhat memorable despite not being as good as Linda or Matthew. Basically not the best, but still a comfortable third ahead of scooby doo and jackass jones. 

As for the rest of the cast, Rowan Attkinson i’ve covered and is utterly fantastic as is the Voodoo Maestro, and both should get hteir own hbo max spinoff together. The minons.. stupid name and luchadoor are decent enough, nothign special but they have presence and do the job of goon well. And Mary Jane is alright.. the joke is WAY too on the nose to be funny and she’s mostly just there to be sweet, but she’s harmless. Not good but not bad.  So finally we have our big bad, Scrappy. And i’m.. mixed about this. On one hand, Scott Innes, who it turns out is also from Missouri good on you dude!, does a terrific job and I couldn’t tell it wasn’t don messick as Scrappy and he plays him as evil great. On the other.. it’s just kinda goofy. Out of all the tips of hte hat to scooby stuff this feels the most over the top. Scrappy was hated, including by james gunn.. so he’s the bad guy. It’s just a bit on the nose, and the twist is pretty easily teligraphed since Scrappy suspciously is mentioned in one scene so him showing up at all is pretty easy to see coming. It’s not terible but it’s not great. His demon minons also just suck.. the designs are wonky and their cgi, unlike scooby and scrappy’s, is just REALLY bad and dated, and even as a kid I never liked them. 

FINAL THOUGHTS:  Scooby Doo is a decent but messy movie. The clashing tones, dated humor and godawful version of fred drag it down at times, and it’s very clear this had a lot of hands in the pot. But.. I still enjoy it. It’s not the best scooby ever, tha’ts mystery incorpeated, but it has great atmosphere, some good ideas, an utterly spectacular with one exception cast, and some really funny jokes. I genuinely feel the film is overhated when it’s a unique, weird and wonderful slice of Scooby. For better or worse there’s no other Scooby doo property quite like it, and that’s what makes it so fun. And it has enough good performances and jokes to smooth out the edges. It’s not the best, it’s a mess.. but sometimes a mess is fun and I like this flim for being a fun mess I can enjoy with my nieces and talk about to all of you. And sometimes that’s all you need.  Thank you for reading this. If you like this you can comission your own review: 5 bucks for a tv episode, 15 for a movie, 10 for an hour long special, and 5 dollars off when you order more than one episode of a show at a time. Just send me a direct message or ask on here and we’ll get started. Until then you can check out my backlog of reviews, check this space every monday for ducktales reviews, and VOTE DAMMIT VOTE. Until we meet again it’s been a pleasure. Play us out Atomic Fireballs, it’s been a wonderful halloween. 

[jimsturgessnews]

Actor Jim Sturgess, recently seen in BBC drama Hard Sun with Agyness Deyn, divides his time between Hollywood movies and songwriting. He talks to The Cork about constantly getting beaten up, the similarities between film and music, and swapping his skateboard T-shirts for a bespoke English Cut suit. As a fixture on the red carpet at Hollywood film premieres, Jim Sturgess has had to get used to being decked out by brands. “I remember the first time I got put in a suit,” the Wandsworth-born actor recalls. “I got on my bike the next day and delivered it back to them. They were like, ‘No, no, it’s yours, you can have it.’ I was like, ‘Are you joking?’” Even now, selecting from English Cut’s vast menu is a novel experience for someone accustomed to choosing from a rail of off-the-peg suits. “It’s like ordering a salad in America,” he says of the bespoke process, speaking like a man who spends extended periods of time in health-conscious Los Angeles for work. “You have a million options: do you want three buttons or two? I got quite into it. You start off thinking, ‘Oh, I don’t mind.’ Then you go, ‘Actually, let me see what pleated trousers look like ��� ’” After chewing it over, Sturgess settled on a rustic dark green. “I have a load of black and grey suits, so it was a chance to create something a bit different,” he explains. “It’s got a sort of tweed feel, a bit boxier than I’d typically go for … I’m sounding like a pro now, aren’t I?” His self-conscious laugh betrays that tailoring is not his, well, strong suit. “I live in Dickies trousers and a pair of white canvas shoes,” confesses the fresh-faced 39-year-old, who could comfortably pass for a twentysomething and still dresses, by his own admission, like a teenage skateboarder, even if he no longer actually skates in the park like he did when he was a teenager growing up in Surrey. “I sort of still think that I do, but I don’t,” he says. “Last year, I was messing around on my board, and I fell off and really hurt myself. Like, it hurt and hurt for a long time. You start to learn the hard way that your body’s not the same as it once was. Plus I have to go and throw myself around and get beaten up for work. You get injuries, and it makes life pretty difficult.” “You have a million options: do you want three buttons or two? I got quite into it. You start off thinking, ‘Oh, I don’t mind.’ Then you go, ‘Actually, let me see what pleated trousers look like’” Sturgess does seem to have a history of being on the receiving end of on-screen violence, from 2008 thriller Fifty Dead Men Walking, in which he played a British agent infiltrating the IRA, with Sir Ben Kingsley as his handler, to 2016 US TV series Feed the Beast, in which he played a Bronx chef with David Schwimmer as his fellow restaurateur. “I’ve got a punchable face,” Sturgess quips. “I suppose I’m attracted to stories that have an edge. Now I just assume that’s what acting is: getting beaten up.” Most recently, he was punched in the face by model-slash-actress Agyness Deyn – with a brass knuckle – for Hard Sun. (She learnt Israeli special forces fighting system Krav Maga for the role.) Written by Neil Cross, the scribe behind Idris Elba series Luther, the pre-apocalyptic BBC series stars Sturgess and Deyn as police detectives who inadvertently uncover a government-level conspiracy to conceal the inconvenient truth that the sun is going to destroy the Earth in five years. As knowledge of impending doom becomes more widespread, the fabric of society begins to unravel. At the time of writing, Sturgess has been selling Hard Sun to audiences in America. “They get bombarded with a lot of regal stuff, and they have a particular idea of what England looks like and sounds like,” he says. “It’s nice to show another side of London – a bit more contemporary.” Less like, say, 2008’s Tudor period drama The Other Boleyn Girl, where he played the brother of Natalie Portman’s Anne and Scarlett Johansson’s Mary, with Eric Bana as Henry VIII. Besides, Hard Sun is “very international”, even if it’s set in the UK: “If you live on this planet, you’re definitely involved.” Hard Sun also involved Sturgess wearing a suit every day, something he’d usually only do on special occasions. “It killed the joy,” he says. “I remember going to the Baftas, so I got out of one suit that I’d been wearing for months and put on another. Normally I’m pretty scruffy, so to put on a suit is quite a big change. It’s nice to put something on occasionally and feel a bit … You just feel different in a suit, don’t you?” Sturgess feels different whenever he gets into costume for a role. “It’s when the character comes alive, when you put on his clothes and the shoes that he wears,” he says. “It’s your identity. When you put on a different pair of shoes, you feel like a different version of yourself. So it’s really not until you put the costume on, clothes that you’ve specifically chosen to represent the character, that you understand, ‘OK, this is who he is.’” It’s surprising to hear that it all comes together at that late a stage, albeit after much planning and research. “Yeah, for sure,” insists Sturgess. “It’s always a very exciting moment, actually, when you go, ‘All right, there he is. That’s the way he’s going to look.’” One of Sturgess’s most sartorially memorable roles was the one furthest removed from any semblance of fashion: 2010’s The Way Back, inspired by the memoir of a Polish officer who claimed to have escaped from a Siberian gulag during WWII and trekked 4,000 miles across the Himalayas to British India. (A 2006 Radio 4 documentary questioned the veracity of the account, although there is evidence that someone did do the walk – just not the author.) “One of the great things that the survival expert told us was that you would never throw anything away,” remembers Sturgess. “So you wouldn’t get rid of your jacket, even in the desert – you’d cut it up and wear it as a headband.” Sturgess went straight from that to 2011’s One Day, the adaptation of the then-unavoidable David Nicholls novel with the instantly recognisable orange cover. Over the course of two decades of on-off romance with Anne Hathaway’s Emma, his character Dexter graduates from student to successful 90s TV personality. “Suddenly I’m in a tight pair of leather trousers and a giant jacket,” Sturgess laughs. “You couldn’t feel more different. And the clothes definitely navigate those feelings.” Those feelings were more combative in the case of London Fields, the adaptation of the Martin Amis novel also starring Billy Bob Thornton, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard, which has been trapped in legal limbo since 2015 after the director sued the producers for allegedly releasing their own cut (panned by the few critics who saw it). Sturgess played petty criminal and pub darts virtuoso Keith Talent, covered in tattoos and a grimy beard that made him feel “a bit tastier than I probably was”. This nearly proved disastrous when someone almost ran him over in a car: “I got really aggressive with him, and quickly realised that he was double my size.” Still, at least he’s used to being beaten up. Sturgess’ own sartorial identity was influenced by American skateboarding culture. “Certainly, when I was in my teenage years, I was very skateboard-heavy in my fashion,” he says. “And now most people look like skateboarders. It blows my mind that the standard footwear is a pair of Vans. Because when I was younger only someone who was into skateboarding would wear Vans.” He’s similarly bemused that lowly streetwear brands have ascended to the height of fashion, and that kids now queue round the block and overnight for the latest product drop at the Supreme store he used to wander into when it was just a skate shop. At the same time though, he totally gets it. “I remember my mum trying to put me into a pair of shoes that weren’t Converse All Stars,” he says. “They looked exactly the same, and they’d probably be way cooler now, but I was mortified. I was like, ‘No, they have to be Converse.’ My mum was like, ‘But they’re too expensive. These one look exactly the same – they’ve even got a star.’ And I was in tears: ‘Mum, you don’t understand. I can’t wear these to school: I’ll get crucified.’” The other major key to Sturgess’s wardrobe choices was music. He started a band when he was 15, singing and playing bongos in pubs despite being under-age. When school and the band finished, he went to the University of Salford to study media and performance, and be closer to the Manchester music scene. “There were a lot of jackets done up to the top and desert boots,” he says. “I miss that different kinds of music were so influential in the way people dressed. It was almost like a gang mentality: you’d have mods, you’d have rockers, you’d have two-tone … And now everyone looks roughly the same. But maybe that’s because I’m just hanging out with 40-year-old men. I don’t know.” Sturgess was as obsessed with films growing up as he was records. “Even at school, drama and music were the two things I was interested in,” he says. His uni course taught him scriptwriting, editing and theatre production as well as acting; he wrote and performed a one-man show called Buzzin’ that brought him to the attention of an agent, who encouraged him to move to London. Instead of kickstarting his acting career, he got into the Camden music scene and started a band called Saint Faith, taking bit parts in TV and ads to pay the rent. When they broke up, Sturgess was cast in 2007’s Across the Universe, a film musical based on Beatles songs and a perfect fit for his skill set. The common thread between music and acting is creativity and, perhaps not obviously in the latter’s case, self-expression. “It’s interesting because they’re very similar and totally opposite at the same time,” says Sturgess. “When you’re writing and playing music, it’s completely you, naked and bare; when you’re acting, you’re pretending to be somebody else. But you use your own emotions and life experiences to try and relate to the character. At the same time, people behind a microphone are playing some sort of a character. They might tell you that they’re not, but there is a level of performance that isn’t you while you’re just sitting with your mum and dad having a roast dinner.” Sturgess describes his diversion into acting as “circumstantial”; even now that he’s a star, music remains a big part of his life. “I’ve got a little studio at home, and then a lot of my friends are musicians,” he says. Over the years and the various bands, he’s amassed a vast quantity of unreleased material; he’s just now really putting his mind to doing something that might actually get out there. “I just want to finish a cohesive record that kind of has a beginning, a middle and an end,” he says. “Not just a load of scratchy demos that are all just lying around that could potentially grow into something great.” Songwriting inspiration can strike Sturgess in different ways. “Sometimes it’s just a thought,” he says. “Sometimes you’ll be messing around on the guitar and a little melody comes into your head, but you have no idea what the song’s about. Sometimes it’s lyrics: you build a song around the words first. Sometimes you can hear a drum loop, someone starts messing around with some melodies and then you just start singing on top.” Either way, it tends to be followed by a great deal more perspiration: “the grinding bit”. Sometimes Sturgess will know from the first page of a script how he’ll play a character – and sometimes not. “I’ve been offered things and I’m like, ‘I don’t know why you’re asking me to do this,’” he admits. “And that’s always quite exciting because it’s out of your comfort zone. You have to build a character, and change the way you speak and move.” For that, he accesses a database being constantly compiled. “Sometimes you’ve got a character in your head that you’d love to find a story for, and then you read something and go, ‘I could put that into this,’” he says. “Or you’ve noticed somebody on the Tube: ‘That’s interesting, the way he is.’ Then you read something and go, ‘I could use a bit of that.’” Getting noticed on the Tube is not something that Sturgess has to worry about – not even on buses with a picture of his face on the side. “Nobody’s that interested, really, so it’s very grounding,” he says. “In LA, people are very excited about movies, it’s an city built around the movie industry, and actors are kind of the commodity of that industry. So you feel a bit of treatment that you definitely don’t get when you come home.” London brings him back down to earth with a bump: “I’m very quickly getting knocked over on the Underground.” He tells an anecdote about a foreign tourist at King’s Cross who kept saying to him, “You’re a star, you’re a star.” Turned out she was looking for the Eurostar. That probably has more to do with Sturgess’s down-to-earthness than any lack of profile. Certainly, though, his flight path has brought him into the orbit of some massive stars. Like Tom Hanks, his co-star on 2012’s Cloud Atlas, who Sturgess describes as “the nicest guy you could possibly imagine” (exactly how you’d imagine him, then). “He took it on himself to organise a movie night every Sunday at his apartment in Berlin,” Sturgess says. “He’d order loads of food and put out the word to the cast and crew. And we’d all pile round there, hungover from Saturday night, to sit on his couch and watch movies.” Hanks would also talk with Sturgess about music: “He knew quite a lot about hip-hop.” Ed Harris, his co-star on The Way Back, is another. “He was one of the first actors that I worked with who I was so in awe of, and who became a friend, which was amazing,” says Sturgess. “He really took me under his wing, we bonded and we’ve stayed in touch ever since.” A surreal scene ensued in a hotel in New Orleans where the pair were working together for a second time, on 2017’s Geostorm. “We bumped into Billy Bob Thornton, who I’d just done a film with in London, in the foyer of the hotel,” says Sturgess. “We were in an elevator – a lift – and I introduced Ed Harris to Billy Bob Thornton. And I was just standing in the middle of two of the coolest dudes I know.” Sturgess doesn’t know what the future holds, beyond the release of two films that he shot after Hard Sun. The first, JT Leroy, is the strange but true story of a woman, played by Laura Dern, who writes a fictional memoir in the persona of a 15-year-old boy. When it becomes a literary sensation, she convinces the younger sister of her boyfriend, played by Kristen Stewart and Sturgess respectively, to masquerade as the non-existent male author – for six years. The second, Berlin, I Love You, is an anthology of 10 romantic stories set in the German capital and the latest in the series that began with 2006’s Paris Je T’’Aime; Dame Helen Mirren and Keira Knightley grace the ensemble cast. “It always surprises you,” Sturgess says of his fluid profession. “Which I quite like. What’s going to happen next? What sort of story am I going to be involved in telling?” Back in his normal “scruffy” clothes, he blends into the Chiltern Street foot traffic like a chameleon, just another anonymous extra in the movies of everyone else’s lives.  (credit)

[cartoonhangover]

Meet Brett Jubinville

Brett Jubinville is the Creative Director at Tinman Creative Studios and creator of Super Science Friends, an animated series about a team of superpowered scientists (Freud, Einstein, Tesla, Darwin & Tapputi) who travel through time fighting nazis, renegade soviet cosmonauts and their own scientific rivals. The latest episode, “Freudian Sleep” is available now on Cartoon Hangover Select on VRV.

We got to talk with the creator himself about the ins and outs, and all abouts of the series!

What's the story behind the creation of Super Science Friends?

Since I’m less of a writer and more of a drawer, the way I typically come up with ideas is by drawing. In the case of Super Science Friends I was home by myself for a weekend, my girlfriend was out of town, and I stayed up really late playing Fallout New Vegas and drawing. At some point I drew a sketch of a soviet zombie astronaut.

Later that night I couldn’t sleep because I kept thinking about that drawing, so I got up and spent the rest of the night coming up with a show idea where that character could exist. I still have those drawings, and they’re more-or-less what the designs for the show ended up looking like.

What other historic geniuses might be part of the Super Science Friends? Who didn’t make the cut?

Because we went for the lowest hanging fruit possible, there weren’t many characters who didn’t make the cut. Everyone we chose needed to be more-or-less a household name, have a power that was easily identifiable as a superpower (for example, Tesla = Electricity Powers) and also they had to have been dead for a certain amount of time to get us out of any sticky likeness rights trouble. Aside from Tapputi, they all hit each of those marks.

I’ve got a lot of characters I’d like to get onto the show. One of them who played a major role in the comic book was Ada Lovelace, and I’d like to find a reason to have her join the cast for an episode.

Other than that we’ve got ideas for James Prescott Joule, Lord Kelvin, Robert Oppenheimer and Pythagoras.

What made you think, “Man, we need a young Einstein, let’s do a clone!”?

I really made him a clone in order to justify the design choice I had made during that all-nighter where I came up with all the characters. I happened to draw him as a teenager, but gave him white hair so he would be recognizable (since I couldn’t give him the moustache). So in order for that to all make sense he couldn’t be the original Einstein, and so I wrote that the original Einstein was dead and Churchill had ordered himself up a clone. Then we decided that he was a clone created by the US Government in order to justify casting Fred Kennedy who has a North American accent.

What modern day evil-doers would the Super Science Friends have beef with?

Assuming they arrived in 2017 coming from 1941 I’m pretty sure they would think that the entire human race has been brainwashed by our phones, computers and televisions. My guess is they would dedicating themselves to “freeing” us and in the process set the science and technology back decades. Oh man, we just wrote a sweet episode of Super Science Friends!

Is it okay to punch a Nazi?

Well … I was ready to punch the person in front of me at Starbucks this morning for returning her drink because she asked for half-sweet and not full-sweet and felt that it was still just too sweet, so I’m probably not the most moderate person to decide on who’s punchable. But I figure, hey if you can’t punch a Nazi then who CAN you punch?

Will you ever do another segment like you did for Episode 1 with the nerds fact-checking the show?

Those nerds (as you so callously put it) were actually our biggest Kickstarter backers for the first episode. They donated enough that they were able to get killed in the show. The main nerd actually went on to play the voice of Edison in episode 2.

But while they don’t get apple’d, we do have people who donate to our Patreon as extras in the show all the time. So if anyone wants to be in the show they can become a patron and then email us some photos and we’ll put them in.

Can we expect more episodes of Super Science Friends?

You sure as heck can! Episode 4: “Freudian Sleep” is out now on Cartoon Hangover and our Patreon, and on YouTube December 14th. After that we’ve got three more episodes planned to round out season 1. So there’s still lots more on the horizon.

What artists and animators inspire you?

That’s such a big question! I’m just going to spout off some Instagrams that I think people should follow if they want to look at the same cool stuff I look at on a regular basis.

ashleywoodart

crom_cristianortiz

heikala

jbnda

loiclocatelli

merghimself

nuriatamarit

shaneglines

taryndraws

thasenkamm

Also, follow an artist named Xulm wherever you can. He does background designs for Super Science Friends and they’re literally the least cool thing he does, which is saying something because the backgrounds he does for us are amazing.

What are your favorite cartoons?

As a kid I was all about Looney Tunes, Batman the Animated Series and X-Men. Lately I’ve actually been on a bit of self-enforced cartoon embargo until I finish Super Science Friends. There are a lot of cartoons I know I’d love but haven’t seen yet because I don’t want them to subconsciously affect how we write our show. Those include Adventure Time, Rick & Morty, Steven Universe and Gravity Falls to name a few.

“Ermagerd you haven’t seen Rick & Morty!!!!!!!1” Yep. Haven’t seen it. I really want to, but I gotta wait until our show is done so it doesn’t inadvertently become Super Rick & Morty Friends.

What's the last thing you took a picture of on your phone?

This checklist of scenes that were completed for the next episode of Super Science Friends. We’ve gotten a few more done since then.

What else are you working on?

We’re in development on a couple other series that we’re really getting excited about. You should be hearing about those sometime in 2018.

Anything else you'd like to share with the world?

Yeah, actually one of Super Science Friends’ background designers has a book coming out soon. If you’re into cats and large, naked men, you should check out Manfried the Man.

Thanks to Brett for taking the time to talk with us!

Super Science Friends Episode 4 : “Freudian Sleep” is out now on Cartoon Hangover Select on VRV. Watch here.

[newagesispage]

                                                                        JULY              2020

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Tammy Duckworth or Stacey Abrams for VP PLEASE!!!!! Thus is one of the most important Vice Presidential picks ever. Since Biden was not the first choice for a lot of people, I think many want to see if at least he will make good choices for the slots he must fill around him.** Shut up Klobuchar, nobody was going to make you VP, why do U need more spotlight?

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Hooray for the LBGTQ community! The Supreme Court has ruled that a human can’t be fired because of sexual orientation or gender identity.** On the down side, the Trump administration overturned protections for transgender people against sex discrimination in health care. It now defines gender as a person’s biological sex.**Also, Single sex homeless shelters can turn away our trans friends. ** The Supreme Court also ruled that Trump is blocked from ending Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival.** Another court ruling struck down the Louisiana law that had never really went into effect.  The rule was to make Dr.’s register with hospitals. Next up: The Court is taking on the issue of Trump’s tax returns.

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You have to check out Kubrick.life. It is fab!!

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The reason there’s never been a Rolling Stones musical is that it’s so hard to find a casting director without sin. –Gary Delaney

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Native Americans are set to protest Trump’s visit to Mt. Rushmore for the 4th.

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AP Bio is moving to Peacock.

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Great to see Search Party back for season 3 now on HBO max.

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The Brockmire jacket is on display now at the Baseball Hall of Fame.

*****

Hooray for Pete Davidson and his basement living. Times have changed and families are living together again, often because financially, they have no choice. ** Pete and Colin Jost will star in worst man.** Jost also has a memoir, A very Punchable Face, on the way. He will also star in a live action/animated Tom and Jerry.

*****

Days alert: I think Brady is beyond redemption. ** I am always so glad when Lucas or Wilhelm come back!!!!!** Jack and Jen need a story! **I hope Sarah gets over her shit and runs to Xander before he starts acting like a thug again.** Marci Miller is on the way back. ** The Daytime Emmy’s were held on June 26. There were wins for Ellen, The View, Heather Tom and Sesame Street.  Days did not fare too well this year but did honor Olivia Rose Keegan. ** So glad to some returns for Eli’s wedding!!!

*****

Can’t wait for the film, Never too late. The Michael Lembeck directed project stars Ellen Burstyn, James Caan, Ann-Margret, Jane Curtin, Loretta Devine, Christopher Lloyd and French Stewart.

*****

Other Countries are starting to ban us from travel in theirs because of our rampant covid-19.** The WH wants to end Federal funding for testing and research in parts of the country.** 1.4 billion in taxpayer $ went to aid dead people since the Government did not check death records.** Kid Rock’s bar had their liquor license revoked for covid-19 violations.** There are so many spoiled rotten Americans who seem to care nothing for the safety of others and only their own “rights.” People are dying, how long do we ignore the crazy people?? Can we stop harassing law abiding minorities and protestors and start arresting those that refuse to wear a mask? Thank you to the Governors, like JB Pritzker who have been level headed and kept us safe

*****

I am so looking forward to I’ll be gone in the dark. We miss you Michelle McNamara..

*****

Ozark will come back for a 4th and final season!!!!!

*****

“Shaming doesn’t lead to learning.” –Willow Smith

*****

I wanna see a buddy movie with Amy Sedaris and Amber Ruffin!!! Wouldn’t that be delightful?? They could be besties running a shop or estranged sisters or long lost cousins. I just think they would have great chemistry.** At least we can look forward to the Amber Ruffin show which has been in the works for a year, coming to Peacock!

*****

The RNC had not updated its platform since 2016. Their site said “the current administration has abandoned American friends and rewarded its enemies.”** The much touted Oklahoma rally was a complete dud. Word is that campaign manager Brad Parscale and Jared are getting most of the blame. They and the secret service are reportedly in quarantine now. Next, Mr. Brilliant was off to the equally intelligent Dream City Church in Arizona. The mega church said that they had installed an air filtration system that kills 99,9 % of the Corona virus in 10 minutes.  Their FB page soon took that statement down. **  “Still the most believable thing that’s ever been said in a mega church.” –Stephen Colbert. The administration uses the lag time between exposure and test results. By the time these crowds of people may start to test positive, Trump will have moved on and take no blame. ** It seems all that has been accomplished since Scary Clown 45 took office is angst. From reporters to Doctors to politicians to the public there have been disagreements and turmoil. Behind the scenes, however, the agendas being pushed thru are trampling all over our rights.

*****

The Government has purged 174 thousand fake accounts that originated in China.

*****

Studies show that cop shows make us believe that police are mostly good and mostly break the rules only for really bad perps. 21% of the public interact with police on a regular basis. Can we not separate fact from fiction?

*****

Paul McCartney is pretty pissed at the Italian government after they gave no refunds to fans for a cancelled concert. ** A story that turned out to be a non-story is Penny Lane. Someone wrote ‘racist’ above the famous Penny Lane sign because they thought the street was named for slave trader James Penny. It turns out that this had been researched before and this is not a true story .  The street was originally Pennies street and had no connection.

*****

Jimmy Kimmel is taking a couple of months off.  Guest hosts will pop up in July. He has had some backlash from old blackface controversy and some questionable interviews.

*****

What we’ve seen now is how fragile a democracy is. –Sherilyn Ifill

*****

70% of companies have cancelled internships. The rich have gotten a lot richer.

*****

Hooray for the young! Many are volunteering for the Corona virus trials in which they will have to be given the virus.** What a wonderful world it would be if we could all get along and play fair and help each other. Why do some so hate that idea?

*****

Army for Trump.com???? Did he get this idea from Gene Simmons????** People are starving, there is unrest in the streets, protesters beaten, racial inequality, over 110thousand dead to a virus and Trump wants a military parade for the 4th of July??? WTF?? The people of Washington are not too happy as they ponder the weight of tanks ruining their streets.

*****

Why does Trump talk of his love of Police and yet in Dallas he did not have the Police Chief, the Sheriff or the DA at his event?

*****

The Senate armed services committee has adopted an amendment to remove the names of confederate General from military assets within 3 years. ** Traitors statues are being removed. Will the faces of slave owners on currency be next???** Princeton is taking Woodrow Wilson’s name off of the school. ** Why do we even have to take flags, statues and imagery from Naval ships and the halls of our Government buildings?? They should have been removed long ago.** We do not live in a country to which Braxton Bragg, Henry L. Benning or Robert E. Lee can serve as an inspiration. –Gen. David Patraeus**Perhaps Scary Clown could just be President of the Confederacy since they seem to want it miss it. Is it time to secede and this time, just let them go??** Free speech is very important in this country and those who want confederate flags on personal property should be able to. It is good to know who the traitors are. Things do not change, from parading the possible communists to Japanese internment to Native Americans to the Irish, the Jewish, to Black lives matter. The uninformed, the bully’s and the haters just seem to need someone to blame for their problems.

*****

Dolly Parton and Nina West will sell products which declare, “Kindness is Queen.”  The sales will fund Imagination Library and Nina West foundation.

*****

This month in “alleged” creep news : Actor Danny Masterson has been charged with 3 counts of rape.** Chris D’Elia is accused of sexual harassment and grooming under aged women. **Justin Beiber is accused of sexual assault from 2014.** Ron Jeremy has been charged with the rape of 3 women and sexually assaulting another. His bail is 6.6 mil.** Mythbuster’s host Adam Savage has had a lawsuit filed against him by his sister, Miranda Pacchiana for sexual abuse.** The Weinstein global settlement is 46.7 mil.

*****

There is word that they may replace Tennessee’s statue of Nathan Bedford Forrest with Dolly Parton. That is pretty good thinking!!

*****

Don’t worry about those confederate statues being torn down. They’re getting what they always wanted: Out of America.** I think the statues of the white European they claim is Jesus should also come down.  They are a form of white supremacy. –Shaun King

*****

Slavery is still legal by way of the industrial prison complex and privatized prison systems. –Wolfe the Chef

*****

Trump has a half billion in loans coming due. –Mother Jones

*****

Perhaps Trump thinks between, the protests, the Covid and the cop killings, many of those against him will just die off. Moscow Mitch and the boys are right there with him. Bill Maher would call it the red wall of silence. Next up to kill us off: the draft?

*****

The Senate armed services committee has adopted an amendment to remove the names of Confederate Generals from military assets within 3 years.

*****

Trump signs executive order renaming the Pearl Harbor memorial, ‘Fort Yamamto.’ –Danny Zuker

*****

Asst. Secretary of State for legislative affairs, Mary Elizabeth Taylor is out.

*****

Let us never forget the name Darnella Frasier, the 17 year old girl who took video of George Floyd’s murder.

*****

Hollywood never told us that 1 in 3 cowboys back in the day were black. Legend has it that the Lone Ranger was based on one of those very cowboys by the name of Bass Reeves.

*****

Nascar has banned the confederate flag from events thanks to Bubba Wallace, the first black driver in 50 years to win one of the top 3 National touring series.  He has introduced his new #43 Chevy which  states Black Lives Matter with  black and white fists clasped with the caption, “Compassion, love and understanding.” Fans were asked in 2015 to stop with the flag but many ignored the request. Driver Ray Ciccarelli says that he will leave at the end of the season.  Kyle Larson was suspended from Nascar and fired by his team for a racial slur during a streaming event. Kyle Weatherman unveiled a blue lives matter flag car with the slogan “Back the Blue.”** Why was taking a knee so bad? The NFL says they made a mistake. This country is so slow to change which is why we must keep the pressure on.  To focus on punishment after and not prevention of these crimes is a huge mistake.** The June 21 race was delayed for rain but it will be remembered for the plane that flew overhead with a confederate flag that declared ‘Defund Nascar’ and a noose that was found in the garage stall of Bubba Wallace. The next day at the postponed race, the other drivers walked Wallace to the front. It was something to see.  Mike Skinner’s son, Dustin wrote, “My hat is off to who put the noose at his car. I wish they would of tied it to him and drug him around the pits.” **The next day the FBI declared that the noose was just a garage pull that had been there for months. WTF???? The right has gone crazy with clever turns of phrase like, ‘fake noose.’ Was it an honest mistake?  I suppose these things can happen when everybody gets jumpy . The crew member that found it asked others what they thought so it wasn’t lie they jumped to conclusions. It was Talladega that should have known. Mike Skinner’s son,

*****

Trump began his term promising to build a wall to protect America from the world. He ends it building a wall to protect himself from Americans. – Nick Confessore

*****

The Dems are happy to let Biden stay safe at home. Journalist Jonathon Lemore mentioned that with all the polls, mishandlings and faux pas from Trump, he may want to change the nickname he has given from sleepy Joe to President –elect Joe. Not so fast, we know the die-hards will not give up even in this ‘Trump fatigue’ slide, but voting is happening in record numbers.

*****

A judge has ruled that children must be released from the detention centers after 20 days.

*****

It has been reported that Scary Clown found out in March that Russia offered Afgan militants bounties to kill US troops. Once a traitor, always a traitor. Of course he supports confederate traitors.

*****

The Georgia Secretary of State spent $400thousand on a commercial. He wanted to pat himself on the back for buying new voting machines.**The Republican party is reportedly spending $20 million to hire people to intimidate voters that they call ‘pollwatchers.’

*****

Blue Apron will close facilities on Election day and give employees a paid day off. Anybody else wanna step up?

*****

Raven Symone married Miranda Maday.

*****

Michelle Williams and hubby Thomas Kail had a baby.

*****

There are no good cops as long as there are bad cops.** With all the insanity, Marianne Williamson sounds pretty good right now.

*****

If you have not seen this Trump coloring book that sells for $20, it is something to see. He looks like a super hero which seems like just one more step to dictator.

*****

AG Barr told the US attorney for the Southern District of NY, Richard Berman that he was stepping down but he refused.  Barr then said that Trump was removing him. Trump says he has nothing to do with it. Have we ever heard of a bigger coward?

*****

I suppose it is too much to ask but I hope the people who still don’t get what is going on in this country will pay attention and at least try to understand. There are such intelligent points being made and we need to listen. I will share many of those with you. U may have seen a lot of these for yourself but I wanted to highlight some wonderful words.  Slavery, minimum wage, payday loans, can you blame the few looters? Some may be protesters but most are profiteers . Corporate America does not keep a lot of their promises so many feel they have no deal with these people. Most of the protests are peaceful so leave them alone. When the police go after innocent people who assemble, they prove the point that the force is out of control.  It is time to demilitarize and defund the police. Changing policy is nice and all but there are still many cases and those officers remain on the job. ** The protests are about a lot more than George Floyd.** Is this true that some police are covering their badge numbers and names?? Why wouldn’t a person want to serve and protect instead of being so covert? They are proving the point of the protests.

*****

It’s Boogaloo, not Antifa.

*****

James Bodenstedt, CEO of Muy who has stake in many Wendy’s, Taco Bell and Pizza Huts has donated hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Trump campaign. ** Defund Tucker Carlson, let’s keep an eye on all who advertise on FOX and boycott those. Disney and T mobile have pulled out. I cannot believe Disney was showing ads on there anyway but they claim that it was some 3rd party ad buyer and they did not know. In return, Tucker is telling his listeners about the nasty companies that support Black Lives Matter. ** Why have so many of the Fox employees and their frequent guests been arrested?** I suppose many republicans are quite happy that the Federal government is doing next to nothing to help its citizens. They often scream that they do not want the government involved and we should all be on our own.

*****

Oh Joy, to wake up and see that The Politician S2 was up! Woo Hoo!! I saw a review in the Reporter that stated , ”Nor does it have anything vaguely insightful to say.”  Well I enjoyed it , mostly due to the wonderful Bette Midler, Judith Light, Joe Morton and the fashion!! Not everything needs a message. There is some outright preaching and a few clever lessons here though.  The last episode could have been better but the line about the older generation and game theory really hit home. Not only do older generations think different, we were taught different. Computers can confound them, gaming can confuse them. Of course, this does not include everyone. But it does seem that the logic we use is just different.  As far as season 2 though, sometimes you just want to watch something delicious and ornery FUN!!

*****

Givers beware: Many have been finding out that when they donate to the Black Lives Matter Foundation, it is not the Black Lives Matter movement. Do your research!

*****

I saw a point from a talking head that answered the question of why do blacks keep killing each other? She wondered if people have seen the ID channel which is whites killing each other every day. There seems much plotting and hiding on these shows and somehow they get away with it for so long. I myself have seen much violence in my own family.

*****

North Carolina would not let the RNC hold its big night there because of restrictions. West Virginia Gov. Justice welcomed Trump to have it the convention there and in fact invited any President there but not Obama. Scary Clown went with Florida.** A white hate group opened a FB page to pose as ANTIFA.

*****

Scary clown 45 can’t legally employ army against citizens. He declared a dictatorship. –John Cusack** Never forget: Posse Camatatis: The President can’t use the military as his own posse. The insurrection act is the exception if there is an ongoing problem and the Governor has to invite them in.** It is confusing in D.C. for there are secret service, local and Federal all vying for jurisdiction. There is also the ‘correctional police force.’ The AG is combining multiple forces like the DEA, military police, prison and National Guard. Huh? It is time to make D.C. a state. ** After his big show of force for his Bible day, he sent most military leaders back to their home bases.** General Milley has apologized for being a part of the photo op.

*****

Intel reports show that Russia is so happy with their plan to destroy us from within. It has worked like a charm!** Many in China are saying that Trump is a godsend because he is ruining the rep of the U.S.** It is quite sad to hear leaders and journalists from around the world reporting that America’s time has passed and is no longer a super power.

*****

He desecrates the Bible. He desecrates a Christian church and he desecrates the Presidency. Shame. –James J. Zogby** The Episcopal Bishop of DC who oversees the DC church that the President stopped at to hold up his book, was outraged. Neither she nor the rector was asked or told that they would be clearing peaceful protesters with force and smoke bombs or that one of their churches would be used as a prop. ** A truly sacrilegious use of the Bible to bless a brutal stunt. –Michael Gerson, GW Bush speechwriter

*****

Trump has asked CNN to apologize for a poll that claimed that Biden was winning. Fox had a similar poll so WTF?

*****

Oh no, I see that Loews gave 25 mil to help minority owned business’s while Home Depot gave 7 mil to Trump. I have my own issues with service at Loews in the past and good things to say about the Depot. Thus does make one think.

*****

White supremacists and racist terrorists pose a greater risk of violence. –FBI

*****

Judge Jed S. Rakoff has declared ICE’s policy of courthouse arrests to be illegal.

*****

He who is reluctant to recognize me opposes me. –Frantz Fanon

*****

ABC senior executive Barbara Fedida is on administrative leave after allegations of racial remarks and insensitive comments.

*****

Kristen Wiig and Ari Rothman had twins.

*****

The Hollywood walk of fame is adding Kelly Clarkson, Benedict Cumberbatch, Dom McLean, Zac Efron, Shia LaBeouf, Missy Elliott, Luciano Pavarotti and August Wilson.

*****

Holland Taylor and PBS have brought us Ann. The Tony nominated play is about Governor Ann Richards.

*****

North Korea has recently added enough material for 20 more nukes. While we are distracted, Kim Yo-Jung, Un’s sister had come front and center. She has said, it’s time “to break ties with South Korea.”

*****

Employees had told me that Costco samples were a thing of the past but it looks like they are coming back.

*****

A new book about Melania, which she calls fiction is here. There are many stories inside like how Ivanka calls her step mother, The portrait because she never smiles. ** A Trump niece, Mary L. Trump has also written a tell all. The courts have it held up at the moment. ** A judge denied an injunction to block Bolton’s book. Did he think he would be a savior because he says he is telling the truth NOW?

*****

A judge had to order Mnuchin to give $679 mil in emergency covid-19 relief funds to Native tribes.** Be aware- Covid tests are free but they sometimes test for flus first and they are not always covered. This happened to Katie Porter.

*****

“There isn’t a coronavirus second wave.”- Mike Pence. This is also a man who once wrote ,”smoking doesn’t kill.”

*****

Save the Merit System Protection Bureau!!  The backlog gets bigger and bigger and will cost the taxpayers more and more.

*****

The U.S. now faces allegations of human rights abuse because of treatment of protesters.** Private jet companies got $300 million in bailout $. What about small business?** Bullfighters in Spain have asked for Government help since they can’t kill their bulls.

*****

It is such a shame that George P. Bush (who I once thought could steer the Republican Party back) is solidly in the Trump camp. Yikes!!

*****

Doug Mills won the WH correspondents Association photo of the year for the Pelosi clap pic from the State of the Union.

*****

The ACLU has filed suit against Minnesota police for ‘targeting’ journalists.

*****

How can the black community dismantle a problem they did not create? – James Corden

*****

Mississippi voted to remove the confederate emblem from the state flag.

*****

I swear if I ever hear Stephen Colbert talk about his hair again, I will scream!! The rest of us need haircuts too.  I wish he would stop whining about it before he turns to the “dark times” of the day. But hugs for Colbert though for his Bolton interview. It is pretty sad when a comic minded talk show host digs deeper in an interview than the news pundits. The jack ass needs to be called out cuz his arguments are ridiculous.  ** Oh no, Since I wrote this, Seth Meyers has now bitched twice about his hair.** They are teaching the thoughts of Trevor Noah in classes now. And BTW when will we have more diverse late night hosts?

*****

Hooray for John Cusack, Elizabeth Warren, Madonna, Tammy Duckworth, Dick Durbin,  J.B. Pritzker and Mitt Romney for coming out to march. More of that!!

*****

There is word that an old sketch from David Cross and Bob Odenkirk is being pulled. I am not sure that what they were doing was understood. There are many shows taking out the blackface scenes such as Scrubs and 30 Rock.

*****

I just keep seeing the scene in my head from The Wall: “UP against the wall.”** It is simple, I always think, half of this country just has a completely different idea of what America is or should be than the other half.** And what kind of number did Trump’s parents and Roy Cohn do on him? He really has this thing about weakness.** Why was Trump allowed to visit a swab production plant without a mask? They had to throw away the days production. President does not mean ruler.** Trumpism is that state of having insane racist moron candidates running for offices that they’re completely unqualified for is alive and well. – Molly Jong-Fast

*****

Hurry up Fall so we can see The Trial of the Chicago 7 with Eddie Redmayne, Sasha Baron Cohen, Joseph Gordon- Levitt, Frank Langella, Jeremy Strong, John Carroll Lynch, Yahya Abdul- Mateen II, Mark Rylance and Michael Keaton.

*****

HBO Max has pulled Gone with the Wind and sales skyrocketed. Hattie McDaniel won an Oscar but was seated separately at the event. It is now back with a discussion.

*****

How many broken or new machines or outlets that don’t work do we have to put up with before we strictly go to PAPER ballots?? I get so tired of writing this. I am all for states running their elections but this is ridiculous. In the elections that I have worked, the only real problems were with machines!!!!!!!!!!

*****

Planet of the Humans was banned for a time it now it is back. Don’t they get that it only makes people want to see it more?

*****

The DOJ filed a civil action against Bolton to stop his book but it did not work,  It is chock full of info that would have come in handy months ago.** This whole administration is one big reality show, move in, move on and make $ out of it. They have no shame!

*****

No one is ever a victim, although your conquerors would have you believe in your own victimhood. How else could they conquer you? –Barbara Marciniak

*****

R.I.P. more Covid victims, Bonnie Pointer, Christo, Joanne Lara, Robert Fuller, Michael Daly, Rayshard Brooks, Victoria Sims, Oluwatoyin Salau, Sirlan Holm, Jean Kennedy Smith, Dame Vera Lynn,  Keith Blocker, Mary J. Wilson, Joel Schumacher, Steve Bing, Mexico city earthquake victims,  covid victims, Stuart Cornfeld, Lucius J. Barker and Carl Reiner.

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Ghostbusters (Reitman, 1984)

This review contains spoilers.

A key cinematic text of the Reagan era, Ghostbusters presents a tale of triumph over big government and bureaucratic waste by free enterprise. This is not a remotely original observation on my part (director Ivan Reitman basically admitted this was intentional, and J. Hoberman’s Make My Day discusses the film extensively), but this is probably the first viewing when it really caught my attention how comprehensively the film’s politics are imbued into the narrative. After being cast off by a mostly undemanding public sector environment where grants are readily given away, our heroes find success as small businessmen, only to be antagonized by excessive government regulation (astutely embodied by the exceedingly punchable William Atherton) that exacerbates the very problems it is supposed to mitigate. Eventually government gets out of the way, allowing the private sector to take the reigns and save the day.

Of course, if the film were merely a political screed, we probably wouldn’t be still talking about it (and I probably wouldn’t enjoy it so much, given that my politics don’t exactly line up with those of the film), but the fact is, as most people who’ve seen the film know, it’s a supremely entertaining example of the special effects blockbuster (and almost acts as self-commentary in that respect, making a plot point out of its marketing campaign). Reitman has shown a proclivity for action-packed climaxes throughout his career (Stripes and Twins both transition abruptly into action-heavy third acts which don’t necessarily jive with their overall tones, although in the case of the former it can be defended as a parody of the genre took over that decade), and Ghostbusters easily features his best-executed one, evolving organically from the story and ably handling the imaginative special effects. It helps that Reitman’s direction is much tighter here than the scruffiness of his preceding films (Meatballs and Stripes, at least until their climaxes, are fairly episodic in structure) and the film is grounded with a real feel for its mythology (credit goes to Dan Aykroyd’s belief in the supernatural, which also inspired him to write in a scene where a ghost gives his character a beej), so that, despite the ample humour, the whole thing doesn’t just feel like a put on. It also helps that the film has a real sense of place and character, the New York City location giving it enough grit to give it a sense of life outside of the special effects, and the heroes, however sarcastic, exhibit enough recognizable human emotion for us to identify with them.

Reitman juggles the tones deftly and knows when to dial it up or down, allowing room for smaller jokes and seemingly improvisational banter in between the broader, zippier ones and the spectacle. (He’s not interested in getting through a dozen jokes a minute, and the film is all the better for it.) It helps that he’s joined by a great cast, not just in the leads (Bill Murray as the supreme smartass, Aykroyd and Harold Ramis as deadpan nerds of varying stripes) but also in the supporting cast. Ernie Hudson’s role was greatly reduced to his dismay (an injustice the sequel attempts to correct for), but he’s valuable as a skeptical, valuable working class perspective to the lunacy (and who achieves empowerment and self-actualization through the heroes’ enterprise, furthering the Reagonomic commentary). Both Gregory Hines and Eddie Murphy were considered for the role at one point, and the latter would have brought a very different energy to the role, perhaps as a foil to Murray’s wisecracking. Weaver’s romantic interest is underwritten in some ways but her physicality is essential to the character (apparently she won the role by leaping on a table and acting like a dog), while Rick Moranis and Annie Potts seem to be playing each others’ male and female equivalent. (The movie attempts to push the Potts’ character into a courtship with the oblivious Ramis that amusingly goes nowhere, although its insistence that Potts isn’t totally hot as fuck is completely unconvincing. Sorry Ivan, but I can see what’s onscreen.)

But ultimately what makes the film succeed is its sense of irreverence. The film co-opts the form of a blockbuster while undercutting its excesses. The arrival of the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man in the climax feels like a punchline on the dearth of imagination accompanying the technical possibilities of bug budget special effects, but isn’t so jokey as to completely deflate the film. (This is another way in which it parallels the Reagan presidency, outsiders taking control of the institutions they attacked.) The early Saturday Night Live / SCTV stars weren’t particularly photogenic and had a kind of charisma very atypical of movie stars at the time. These were guys who looked like they had no business making movies but somehow broke into them anyway and knew they were getting away with it. The sequel features the same director and stars more comfortable in their new place in the industry and lacks the same hunger as a result, even if it’s executed pretty capably. I have not seen the remake, but now that Saturday Night Live is an institution and plays political softball (I think of Trump hosting or Pete Davidson fucking up a punchline and insisting on making nice with the target of his joke), I have a hard time believing that a new batch of talent pulled from that ecosystem can replicate the original’s energy. Ghostbusters isn’t terribly hard-edged, but it comes from a pretty particular sensibility for which it makes no apologies. And more importantly, it’s really fucking funny.