Tony Duncan

Okay, Eddie has been suspiciously *absent* from this season, so now I’m worried about Surfer Boy pizza guy. Dammit, Duffers! #StrangerThings

Dying. The word is *dying*. Not “unaliving”. That’s bullshit Newspeak. Don’t let the algorithm make you soften your language. If you have something worth saying, say it in the clearest possible way. Especially if you’re talking about *fiction*.

Ophelia didn’t “sewer slide”. Eddie wasn’t “unalived”.

Okay. Season 4 is good so far, but holy shit, Owens’ “A war is coming and only you can fight it” speech is so awkward and obviously written for the trailer. #StrangerThings

Proudly never used an LLM. Never even played with DALL-E or whatever it was called. Won’t say I’ve never ever used an AI, but I have never *chosen* to.

Oh, no no no, Duffer Brothers. You ain’t getting me to feel good about Eddie. You just ain’t. I hate him. He’s a slacker. Probably comes from a whole family of slackers. He’s no Bob. He’s not even an Alexei.

NO. STOP IT. HE’S AWFUL AND WHEN HE DIES HE’LL DESERVE IT. LA LA LA LA LA! #StrangerThings

It really, really doesn't.

Take that, Gabrielle Carteris!

My point is, at that scale, there is no atonement. Hitler could never atone. Pol Pot could never atone. Truman could never atone. There are some evils you don’t get to come back from.

People want to see a lot of stuff. Cool. These were just my thoughts on the matter.

I mean it’s in there, just mostly floating around the middle, unobtrusively.

Could it be done? Maaaaybe. I'm not a screenwriter and I don't have any ideas for it myself.

But to not come off as some "woobification" like Spike in "Buffy the Vampire Slayer", it would have to be better than Star Wars has ever been, better than Empire, better than Andor. I don't have that faith.

Also, the jaw where his lips are parted is giving me more "Val Kilmer" than "Michael Keaton" vibes.

He and Anakin only get "redeemed" because they die immediately after helping the good guys win. If they live and then don't face justice for their crimes, it's not really redemption.

Individual characters may forgive them, but their crimes extend beyond our heroes.

How does he atone for what he's done? He didn't just kill Han and now needs to make penance for murder. He abetted the destruction of whole worlds. He was head of state for fascist conquerors. There's no atoning for that. He gets put on trial, he sits in prison, and maybe he's even executed.

Why Does This Michael Keaton Batman Figure Look Like That? Hot Toys has a new Keaton Batman out, this one from 'The Flash,' and it is very confusing.

Skipping the whole, "Why is he in the blue and gray?" thing, something about the cowl feels wrong. I think it's a relative scale thing? Like how part of the reason for Barbie's ridiculous figure is to compensate for the irreducibility of the material for her dresses?

Anyone else get emails like "[OBVIOUS SCAM] has been deleted from your Calendar"? The sender is, from what I can see, an automated email with an apple.com domain. Is it being spoofed? Or do I need to check something concerning my family's shared calendar? Odd I never get a "has been added" email.

Sharing a name and initial with Anthony Daniels, I always preferred Threepio to Artoo growing up.

WHAT

60?

WHAT?

WHAT?!?

(All praise our lord and savior Babu Frik) #StarWars

So there you have it. A whole ass thread where I geeked out about some stuff that isn't #StarWars for once.

"Moulin Rouge!" has my favorite opening sequence and I have never heard a scream that completely gutted me like Christian's when Satine dies.

"Some Like It Hot", like "Citizen Kane" feels like it should appear on everyone's Top 10 by default. And, "Nobody's perfect." is THE greatest closer ever.

"Les Diaboliques" is maybe the softest entry on the list, but it's close to my heart because it was the movie used to illustrate "mise en scene" and thus we spent a lot of time dissecting it in college and my Columbo loving heart really digs Inspector Fichet.

"Sneakers", "Casablanca" and "His Girl Friday" make the list on the strength of some truly wonderful writing and top notch casts who all understand the assignment.

"Citizen Kane" is... well, I mean. You could almost reconstruct the film from Simpsons clips. It's almost tautological how good it is.

"Alien" is the best example of someone who was already a filmmaker when "Star Wars" came out who decided they wanted to try and capture some of that imagination and then helmed a movie that is clearly inspired by Lucas and, in every respect, better made.

I could go on and on and on about the editing in "Speed Racer". That and "Raiders" would be my picks for best editing I've ever seen.

Elsewhere on that list in no particular order:

Sneakers
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Some Like It Hot
Citizen Kane
Alien
Moulin Rouge!
His Girl Friday

But here's the thing: none of the "Star Wars" movies even crack my personal Top 10. But I don't go on and on and on about "Casablanca", "Les Diaboliques", or "Speed Racer" because none of them have active fan bases. You wanna shoot the shit about how Alfred Fichet is a prototype for Columbo?

I once told someone I enjoyed "Star Wars" pretty uniformly and was told, "Well, you have no taste". And maybe where "Star Wars" is concerned, that's true. I just love "Star Wars".

The Trek movies are a different matter, with a fairly clear ranking:

1 - Khan
2-4 First Contact/Beyond/Undiscovered Country
5-7 TMP/Search/Voyage Home
8-10 Star Trek/Insurrection/The Final Frontier
11 Generations
12 Nemesis
13 Into Darkness

God, I reminded myself "Into Darkness" exists. Blergh.

#StarTrek is pretty similar. I have a clear favorite in Deep Space 9, a clear least favorite (and in this case, I *do* hate it) in Voyager, and then the various seasons and episodes of everything else get kinda clumped together. SNW, TOS, TNG and LD tend to bubble upward more than Picard or Disco.

I don't have a #StarWars ranking. My "list" is "Whichever one I'm watching that I'm quoting and posting about... unless it's Attack of the Clones" and then "Attack of the Clones, which I'm quoting and posting about". Because even if it's a clear "least favorite" doesn't mean I hate it.