Ahnold and Reacher together - isn't that what you wanted for Christmas?



--tg

Based on the books by Patrick O'Brien, this movie tells the tale of Captain Jack Aubrey of the HMS Surprise and his friend Dr. Maturin as they chase a French ship around the Galapagos Islands.

Yes, Peter Weir can direct and he does an excellent job with this. Long before the CGI craze, this grimy look at life at sea during the Napoleonic wars seems to be all practical effects. Probably why they never made another despite the fact there are dozens of books. It's kind of a slow build as we watch life aboard ship. There are three encounters with the French ship with the final one being the most dramatic and must be seen. If you like swords fights and mayhem and carnage, that's the battle to watch.

Even if you haven't read the books, you can still follow along. I recommend.

(09-08-2025, 12:20 PM)Drunk Monk Wrote: Samurai Fury

A new documentary about the life of Rush's drummer. They did a final tour and stepped away from the limelight (pun intended), but then Neil got a brain tumor and died. This was right when covid hit and bandmates Geddy and Alex felt they never got to honor him properly. At the memorial for Foo Fighter's drummer Taylor Hawkins, Geddy and Alex reunited and played some Rush songs. That was the spark for them to think about playing again. In this documentary, they bring in 4 drummer friends of Neil's: Stuart Copeland (The Police), Chad Smith (Red Hot Chili Peppers), Danny Carey (Tool), Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree), each individually. They reminisce about Neil, talk about they songs they're going to do together and then play. The performance part of the doc is serviceable, but the stories are more interesting to me. I knew he had a few tragedies in his life, but I didn't know the details. I had a couple laugh out loud moments, like when Geddy kicks off the opening synth intro to 2112 overture and Alex mimes lighting up a joint. Epilogue introduces Anika who is filling the Professor's seat on the current tour. I'll be seeing them in a few weeks at the SAP center with my high school friend Antony who first got me into Rush way back when...

Recommended for any Rush fans (I'm talking to all you ladies out there...)

Available for streaming on YouTube
(full movie below)




--tg

An undiscovered WW2 bomb has been unearthed at a building site in the center of London. Everyone scrambles to defuse the bomb before it can go off. Blocks around the building site are cordoned off and everyone is evacuated. Pretty exciting stuff. But that is not all. In the center of the evacuation zone, thieves take advantage of the lock-down to break into the vault of a bank. It's all very twisty. There is a race against time to defuse the bomb and to rob the bank as well. Of course, everything goes wrong. Sometimes in unexpected ways. Some things you see coming a mile a way.

It was entertaining and diverting, just don't think too hard about some of the situations, which I for once did not.

This show has been kicking around for awhile. It posits the idea that the US didn't win the race to the moon and everything that stems from that. The first episode covers the Russians landing on the moon and the subsequent Apollo 11 mission to show the US isn't done. The show is really well done, at least the first episode. Joel Kinniman plays the lead astronaut struggling with the failure but there are all the usual characters for actual history, like Nixon, Werner Von Braun, Buzz Aldrin, and Neil Armstrong. It is quite the pastiche.

Will watch more.

His real name is John Wardle. A pretty good musician' memoir, although he didn't talk that much about making the albums. It was more about his personal life. He grew up in council housing and went to school with John Lydon. They had two other close friends named John, and they nicknamed one of them Sid. He later became Sid Vicious, and Wobble later made a documentary called "Searching for Sid." Sid gave him the name Jah Wobble when he drunkenly mangled his name. He liked it and decided to use it when he joined Lydon in Public Image Ltd.

I felt some kinship with him on several points. He mentions being blown away by Burning Spear. (Although for him the song was "Marcus Garvey" and for me it was "Civilize Reggae.") He calls Dark Magus his favorite Miles Davis album (also a favorite of Bill Laswell) and I used to love that one too. And he calls Laswell's Radioaxiom maybe the best thing he played on, and I would agree (although his bass line on The Orb's "Blue Room" is right up there.)

Iron crotch gets a mention. His wife is Chinese - incidentally he says her father, Kui Hsuing Li, is considered one of the best bamboo flute players in China - and before their wedding they go to China to meet the relatives. They go to Guilin and he hears about a Qigong demonstration. He briefly explains what that might entail, adding "It can also refer to blokes pulling trucks along by their penises...."

Stylistically, he used an interesting organizing method. He would talk about some event, the follow it with a section in italics where he looked back on it from the time of writing and considered things like people's character and motivations, his take on it etc. It was rather effective.

Probably not of interest to any of you. Maybe TG. I got it from Recycle and they declined to buy it back. I'll try again, but if they pass, I'd happily pass it along.

KB knew her. She was my ex's close friend when we first met. Her younger brother was also a close friend of ours and when we had children, he was really tight with them. After my ex and I split, I've remained friends with him and visited him last Xmas in CO when we were re-homing my mom's dogs. 

Lisa was quite a stoner in high school. We listened to a lot of music together. She turned me on to Brian Eno's Apollo album. I think It took awhile for her to launch, but when she did, she was doing interior design consulting. She did faux marbling and such, for a time...She had a good eye...she just struggled with adulting for a long time. I hadn't seen her in decades, but when my ex and I split, I hung out with her brother at their mom's place in Carmel for an afternoon and she happened to be staying near by, so we caught up a bit and she seemed mostly the same. Another decade later, when I was visiting her brother last Xmas, I got an update that she'd had some psychotic episodes and in the email I just got today, it looked like they were going to come back, but apparently she had a heart attack in her sleep before that happened. She and I lost touch a long time ago, but I am sad. I hope she found a happy place.

I think this is the appropriate exit music for her



--tg

I thought this was the recent Reacher flop. This one. 

(07-15-2026, 03:33 PM)Greg Wrote: Runner. Now with more Owen Wilson and Alan Ritchson, who is everywhere. September. (To be honest, I don't know if this film is called Angel or Runner)

From FB:

Quote:95-year-old Star Trek legend William Shatner covered Ozzy Osbourne, Metallica and Motörhead at his first-ever heavy metal shows over the weekend at a rain-lashed Riot Fest in Chicago.


Flanked by his band The *uckers, which includes guitarist and musical director Marcus Nand, bassist Phil Soussan, guitarist Britt Lightning, and drummer Fred Aching, Shatner performed a 35-minute, six-song set on Saturday night (19th September) at the Riot Fest aftershow at indoor venue Park West.

With Shatner delivering the lyrics in his trademark spoken word style, he and The *uckers performed six songs including covers of Metallica's 'Enter Sandman', Ozzy Osbourne’s 'Crazy Train', and Motörhead's 'Ace of Spades'.

Original tracks from Shatner's upcoming debut heavy metal album 'What the F--- is Heavy Metal?' on the setlist included 'Sky', 'Rage' and set closer 'One Fear'.

Less than 24 hours later, Shatner took to the outdoor Rebel Stage to perform his main 35-minute set, which featured an on-screen introduction from intergalactic barbarian horde, GWAR.

Before launching into set opener 'Crazy Train', Shatner told the soggy audience: "Oh boy! The rain and the wind is perfect. I'm so glad you're here, folks. Braved the elements to see us and braved the fire girls."

He continued: "So, a little while ago, Cleopatra Records’ Brian Perera said to me, ‘why don’t you do a heavy metal album?’, because I’d done five albums with them, and I said, ‘What the f--- is heavy metal?!’

"And that’s the name of the album that will come out in the wintertime and it’s called 'What The F--- is Heavy Metal?' and I want to present to you The *uckers!”
Shatner then proceeded to tear through a second set.