LesSmarberry

I never went to a youth centre (& yes think it's basically the internet) but when I was a teenager there were, en route between my school & bus stop, 3 pool halls, 2 arcades, & at least 1 pub that would serve you if you were at least 15. They were a part of our daily commute & they're all gone now

Would've loved to see a McGoohan Bond, just to compare & contrast the differences, but I didn't realise, until I watched The Frightened City a while ago, how inextricable the classic Bond persona is from Connery. The charming/mean/charming aspect was stuff he'd done before onscreen & brought to Bond

A shot from Thunderbolts*. The five members of the Thunderbolts stand inside an large elevator, the doors of which are open

Thunderbolts* (2025) Not the biggest Marvel fan but this was big time fun. Earns its place on the front of the Wheaties box

Cheers!

Yes in substance I think it really works, & liked where the story ended up. Just didn't think the drip feed way it played out added much

If you're a man who always knew you didn't have particularly large hands, but never thought you had particularly small hands, then learning guitar will properly humble you

Jack's mysterious back story really feels like Gatiss writing tick. Not the details of the story itself mind, just the dangling mystery

YouTube video by Budget VHS Bin Jeffrey Bernard Is Unwell (1990) | Peter O'Toole, Timothy Ackroyd - Comedy Drama Play

#BOTD Peter O'Toole in a bravura performance from The Old Vic - JEFFREY BERNARD IS UNWELL....
youtu.be/g6cYbZe1WYU?...

I immediately had to watch the 1st 20 minutes for the Denis Shaw story

This (petty crime) + public realm still a bit ragged compared to pre-crash + a lot of people who, while not necessarily causing any trouble, are clearly on hard drugs

Public transport has a certain edge to it when the bloke sitting opposite you on the tram is clearly high on cocaine at 11am

One partial answer to this might be that of 'collector' hobbies (watches, guitars stamps, toys...) can be both obsessive & largely invisible apart from online or at things like trade fairs or con's

Re the supposed crisis in masculinity I say:

"Shut up you whiney babies! You think you have it tough? My parents saw fit to name me Leslie & then send me to an all-boys school in the 1980's"

Young lads today don't know they're born

I wonder, particularly for silent & studio era, whether we're so used to having seen what might have been a copy of a degraded print that subliminally that's what we think of as the real version?

So that a clean recreation looks off & a faux degraded one looks inorganic

A shot from KPop Demon Hunters. The three main characters Mira, Rumi, & Zoey, carbo load on ramen before slaying demons through song (and edged weapons. Through song & edged weapons)

KPop Demon Hunters is without reservation one of the best movies I've seen in ages

But the moment where one character asks another "What are you, from the 1900's?"

Why movie? Why must you hurt me like this?

Went to see The Ring in 2002 with some co-workers. When the woman on the spooky tape's name was revealed to be Anna Morgan, my colleague Anna Morgan, who was sitting beside me, screamed loud enough to nearly burst my eardrum

And if it was Reed, what does his 70s non-Bond filmography look like then (Cubby Broccoli let him have free reign of other roles)?

Cheers, came very close to blowing the budget & getting a Vintera tele deluxe but I'm delighted with it

I am a ridiculous person

Great view, great shot

Patrick McGoohan accepts the role of James Bond for Dr No, & goes on to be one of the major movie stars of the '60s & '70s

Sneakers (1992) When shadowy U.S. intelligence agents blackmail a reformed computer hacker and his eccentric team of security experts into stealing a code-breaking 'black box' from a Soviet-funded genius, they uncove...

Rewatching 1 of my faves w @aundriaparker.bsky.social. I tweeted this on the other platform back in the day, but watching Redford go from counter culture in 3 DAYS OF THE CONDOR through SNEAKERS to SPY GAME to, finally, evil company man in CAPTAIN AMERICA: WINTER SOLDIER is fascinating

boxd.it/26VU

YouTube video by Saul Goodman Titus Welliver - Al Swearengen Auditions

See also

youtu.be/fS_lE_AcD2k?...

Working in the public sector in a front facing role was eye-opening re how many people have moderate to severe issues with reading. Heavily skewed towards 60s+ age cohort, so probably mostly related to access to education, or at least access to education not involving having the head thumped off you

Dunkirk was the one where I went off Nolan definitively. Distinctly remember sitting in the cinema thinking 'Why doesn't he just drop the pretence and call the next picture "Spectacle!" or "Bigness!" ?'

Legitimate use case

Hard not to think that was at least partially motivated by Guess wanting to say "We're doing fine Kate Upton! See, we have a new model, and she's 8ft tall! Do you see how fine we're doing?!"

I can't find the exact quote but IIRC correctly Sherman said something along the lines of "The Confederacy will never accept rebellion was wrong, or be reconciled to the Union. All we can do is teach them, through fire & blood, the utter folly of ever again raising arms against the North"

A selection of images from The Simpsons episode involving a fictional lost happy ending to Casablanca

It's so close & yet so far from the important point that tragedy is not inherently more meaningful than comedy & that miserabilism is too often a crutch for dull stories

Dracula Has Not Risen From The Grave

#MildHorror