3/10, do not recommend

Review complete, the next 19 minutes will be spent processing existential dread.

Whether or not I factor in tax is entirely dependent on the size of the purchase I’m making. For the vast majority of purchases I make on a daily basis, I don’t think about it at all. 7% of $2.99 is negligible to me. However, if I’m making a large purchase, or if it’s a purchase which I know is subject to additional taxes beyond the sales tax, then I might consider it. 7% of $2.99 may be negligible, but 7% of $29,999 is a significant amount all by its lonesome.

For most people, I’d imagine this is most common when it comes to purchasing vehicles, as those tend to carry large prices and special taxes which results in a significant increase in price. For example, I purchased a new vehicle a couple years ago for MSRP, but wound up paying several thousand dollars more than that due to various taxes and the registration fees. I didn’t know exactly how much those surcharges would be (though I easily could have calculated them by visiting my state’s Department of Motor Vehicles website and plugging a figure or two into their calculator) but I had a ball park idea which I could budget around. Also, I’m pretty sure the dealership I bought from provided an estimated total purchase price which included the fees for the locality it was located in. Unfortunately, most of that was irrelevant to me, as I had traveled from another state to purchase this vehicle, which illustrates the minor frustrations that an all-inclusive price tag would introduce in America.

Like, I don’t think you’re wrong for thinking it’s odd, and yes, there are ways to fix it, but it’s just such a non-issue (not to mention America’s “touchy” relationship with taxation meaning these attempts to “fix” things would rapidly become politicized) that no one cares to do anything about it. As someone else said, we intuitively learn what the rough tax rate will be for our common purchases and just factor that in.

Man. I really need to start watching movies from the French New Wave. I knew Alphaville was technically a science fiction story, but I didn’t realize how far I to the genre Godard leaned.

High Hopes by Mike Leigh seems like it at least partially checks that box.

Run Silent, Run Deep (1958)

Is this version of the Green Lantern a big Electric Callboy fan?

Your final sentence provided me an audible guffaw.

Yeah, granted the article is quoting the plaintiffs’ suit, so we’re getting a pretty skewed interpretation, but both films ending with a scene in which the leads select the same Spice Girls album to listen to really does point towards plagiarism. With that being said, I don’t know how anyone could think they’d get away with that blatant.

Blood Vessel (2019).

An improbably diverse group of U-Boat attack survivors find their way aboard a seemingly abandoned Nazi vessel, discovering, in time, what happened to the previous occupants.

The movie has 3 things going for it:

1. A perfect title.
2. Commitment to make-up and practical effects in most scenes(the standout being the main antagonist)
3. The production either filmed on a real vessel, or they have very talented set decorators. Given how many B-grade creature features (esp. ones set in WW2) wind up being 80 minutes of stereotypes tramping through the woods, the production value was not unappreciated.

Is it good? Not really. Does it make good on its premise? Also, no. Is it better than it could have been? Absolutely.

Worth a watch for fans of foam latex.

Please no. Adding to my collection is pricey enough as-is :(

I have not yet seen the sequel, but I might if I can find a good matinee deal or something. This makes me feel ancient, but I remember when a ticket was like $5 if the showtime was before 5 pm. Sadly, that seems to have gone the way of the $5 footling.

Beekeeper is one of the best surprises I’ve had in a long time. I was looking for something new, but sorta familiar, to watch and gave it a shot on streaming, pretty much sight unseen. I thought it was just Statham.trying to cut in on that John Wick money. Which, it sorta was, but man, that script just kept out doing itself with every expansion in scope / stakes. By the time they “reveal” who the kid’s mom is, I was so on board their ride.

I wish Statham had brought something to the role other than stoic badass. Maybe it would have been too much at that point, but I kinda wanted an actor who could match the script in brazen buffoonery. Maybe then they could have cut the FBI agents’ scenes and focused more on him. I practically snoozed through that whole B plot.

It’s a mixed bag tbh. I think the first one is overlong and less clever than it thinks it is. The action is competent, but not substantively better than a good direct to video shoot em up, and there’s just so much dead space between these sequences it’s almost not worth it.

That being said, i’d rank it above Jason Statham’s A Working Man, but below Jason Statham’s The Beekeeper. Idk if that helps you at all, but I think it’s indicative of the mode this movie is trying to operate in.

Post your shit, don’t be excessive. If it gets deleted for self promo in one community, there’s several alternatives. If it gets deleted in every community, reassess your messaging lol.

This platform requires OC to survive, or else we’re just a mirror for other sites. Deleting OC because it comes from the Creator seems short-sighted, but I’m also not a mod. So, ymmv.

I ate the onion.

And a hundred thousand tons of crude oil.

Don’t get me wrong, it absolutely is that, but that’s the surface level shit that got the movie financed. Underneath those obligatory trappings (which the film itself seems relatively uninterested in exploring) is a film so ridiculous, I have to question if they are pulling a sneaky and engaging in knowing parody. I refuse to spoil where the second act of that movie leads, because it was a wonderful surprise while I was watching what I figured was going to be, as you said, “dollar store John Wick”.

I gotta be clear though, it still isn’t better than a 3/5 even with an aggressively charitable attitude, but it should be criticized for its actual faults, not for what people assume it is.

Of the many accusations that you can hurl at it, I don’t know if “generic” applies to The Beekeeper. Like, the plot in that movie really goes places. Most of them ridiculously stupid,

Secure the bag.

Now, if only EA would put the damn game on PC…

I feel like my regular rotation is slight in comparison to what other folks are posting, but podcasts are an unwinding kind of activity for me, so I don’t really want to be inundated with current events or heavy topics. Accordingly, here’s a bunch of “Arts and Culture” type recommendations.

Bandsplain: Yasi Salek explores bands’ discographies, usually with a guest who is a self-described super fan of the band being discussed. I think it’s a Spotify exclusive, which is a bummer, but they leverage that to actually play relevant songs at certain points in the cast. A good way to remove blindspots in your catalog, or to achieve a greater understanding of artists’ holistic output, rather than just the hits.

Blank Check: A podcast about filmographies. Each “season” covers a different director, and the hosts examine their career chronologically. Fun, and it encourages me to finally tackle movie blindspots. They are doing the first half of Spielberg’s career at the moment, most recently discussing 1987’s Empire of the Sun.

Eye of the Duck: A podcast about movie genres / vibes. Each “season” is a different kind of film, and the hosts select emblematic examples to examine in chronological order, with a mind towards how the genre evolved over time. Examples of past topics include Alien Invasion, 80s Dark Fantasy, Space Movies, and so on. They are typically a little more “film school brain” than most amateur podcasts, which I appreciate, but may not be everyone’s cup of tea.

Three Moves Ahead: Weekly video game podcast, with a heavy emphasis on strategy games. I’m not a regular listener, but I will often check to see if they’ve done an episode on a particular game that I’m playing.

Every F’n FF: Three folks (who I think are involved in the speed running scene) on a quest to complete every Final Fantasy game. This coincided with a replay of FFX that I embarked upon. Sadly I think X-2 may have broke them, as they’ve not uploaded since last October, but it does look like they completed 1, 2, 4, 7, 10, 13, and Dirge of Cerberus.