Adam Scott goes back to his dead wife's home town to start over with his only sun. But there is a serial killer in town who is following the pattern of another serial killer who has been in jail for 25 years. That serial killer was put away by Adam Scott's estranged father by played by Robert Deniro. When Scott's son goes missing Scott calls on Deniro to help with the case. But not in a nice, let's reconnect sort of way. 

It's a pretty good police procedural. Everyone is solid in their roles. The best scene in the film is when Deniro goes to the prison and confronts Frank the serial killer, played really well by Michael Keaton, about who the copycat killer might be.

My favorite part about the film is this subtle weirdness that happens again and again in the film. No spoilers but you'll see it. It was one of those things where the filmmakers decided not underestimate the intelligence of their audience.

Vancity Reynolds crashes in the middle of the Soviet Union while on a spy mission. Henry V rescues him. A road trip buddy adventure begins as they escape to the west. And along the way we learn the real meaning of friendship. It's been a long time since Vancity hasn't done his Deadpool stick which he does again here. It's a bit tiresome at this point although he does dial down the macho. Kenneth Brannagh isn't bad as the ex-KGB agent, but unlike old man action star Bob Odenkirk, I didn't really buy the fight scenes. They were all very slow.

On top of that, a lot of the effects are painfully bad, the worst sort of AI slop that you might see on ticktock. There is a pretty good chase seen towards the end. The getting shot down seen did have a good moment. But a lot of it was meh.

The plot was very predictable. Except for one seen in the Dacha that did make me laugh.

She was a chiropractor who volunteered for JAH Med. She was living in Santa Cruz when I first returned here. Her daughter Naomi got her acupuncture cert thru 5 Branches here but they both left before we could connect. I haven’t seen her in years, since before the pandemic, but we knew each other long before that. I just saw another mutual friend post her grief at her passing on Facebook. I posted condolences on the JAH Med fb group. I think she was younger than me and I don’t know anything about the circumstances. Just saw a lot of posts mourning her on her fb.

(06-17-2026, 06:28 PM)Drunk Monk Wrote: All Wishes Come True

Lanterns is about Hal Jordan training John Stewart to take over the Green Lantern job. Or is it? The first episode introduces the troubled relationship between Mentor and Mentee until they realize there is an alien invasion possibly going on in the midwest. Ep 02 digs further into the problem of aliens in a small midwest town. Ep 03 devotes itself to how John Stewart got to be John Stewart and it's the best episode so far full of tragedy and determination and how Stewart continues to soldier on despite the roadblocks in his way.

It's a really good show. Kyle Chandler is really good as the I don't give a fuck Hal Jordan but still bent on protecting the planet. Stewart is equally good. Lots of great emotional scenes. The people all seem to be smart. If HBO had dropped all the episodes at once, I would be burning through them.

I Swear is the feel good movie about Tourette's! But not really. For most of the film, it's really depressing. John Davidson lives perfectly normal life until about age 14 when the first symptoms start to kick in. Everybody thinks he's faking including his own family. He has no control over his body and nobody wants to be with him, even his own mother treats him like a problem. Until one day that changes and he meets a mental health nurse dying of cancer. She wants John to live as normal a life as possible and challenges John to do that. It is not easy. He continues to get into trouble by encountering people who take advantage of him or attack him for his outbursts.

It does get better. There are some moments of genuine relief. But the film is harsh.

One of the greats of the golden age of Kung Fu movies. I was honored to spend the weekend with him in 2012 in Florida. That’s after when The Gallants came out, a film I still love ( https://www.brotherhoodofdoom.com/doomFo...p?tid=2179 ) and I based my interview on that but I regret going deeper into his extensive cinematic legacy. He was such a gentleman - Kung Fu movie royalty.

This is an AMC series, but is currently available on Netflix. A drama set in the Silicon Valley with an unlikable tech bro CEO trying to save his company, a therapist who is leveraging her myriad of tech CEO clients, and many other characters. Unlike the show "Cupertino" (which I haven't seen), this is shot in and around the bay area. Without mentioning current real company names, the number of times they mention Cupertino and Tim would make a gnarly drinking game.

The writers are doing a pretty good job of being "local-accurate". In one scene, the annoying CEO takes his daughter out for burgers and when he asks her if she likes the place, she says likes "Alpine" better. i think meaning The Alpine Inn in the hills behind Stanford (where the first the first internet message was sent from)

Zach Galafinakis and Rob Cordry make up part of the ensemble, but this isn't really funny. Part of the story is a little triggering as it takes place during massive fires in Napa and one of the characters loses (one of) their home(s) in a fire. Season 8 ends pretty darkly, but with nine of the story lines finished. I'm engaged enough now, I want to see where it goes.



--tg

Bob Odenkirk plays the temporary Sheriff for the town of Normal, Minnesota when the previous sheriff dies unexpectedly. Odenkirk as Ulysses has issues of his own, but nothing compared to the weirdness going on in the town. There sure are a lot of guns. Everything goes to hell when two sweet but inept bank robbers try to rob the local bank. See, the bank is full of Yakuza money. The only person out of the loop is Ulysses. This sets off a massive shootout throughout town full of glorious blood kills, more akin to a horror film than an action shoot-up.

All in all, I enjoyed this. Loud dumb fun. But not too dumb. Odenkirk continues to lean into his action hero persona. Like I said, lots of gruesome kills.

What is with this week? And as will probably be said many times in many places, not the right 80 year old.

Iconic actor. Big part of my teen years.