Things I'm Thankful For

1. Not having acquired the Coronavirus.

2. Not having to go to the hospital.

3. Being able to take time off work without losing my job.

4. Having friends and family who are well and healthy.

5. Not having to experience again what it feels like to be on a ventilator -- especially when there's a strong chance that next said experience might not involve giving me sedatives to keep me unconscious.

Trailer of the Week: The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

This is one of the better Roger Corman Poe films with absolutely no connection at all to current events...

At least I hope so.

Book of the Week

Apparently Debbie Tung is not the only writer out there who knows me...

Trailer of the Week: The Dead Zone (1983)

Ah, for the good old days when Hollywood chose to concentrate on movies involving nice cheery topics...

Movie Quote of the Week

I hardly think a few birds are going to bring about the end of the world.
--Ethel Griffies, The Birds (1963)

TV Quote of the Week

I was just in it for the sin.
--Nancy Cartwright, The Simpsons, "Treehouse of Horror XVIII"

But Differ Greatly in the Sequel: Machete Kills

Apparently Machete does vex. At least that is what he did in the 2013 movie Machete Kills, a sequel to the 2010 movie Machete.

I wanted to like this film a lot than I did but I could not help hating the way Robert Rodriguez liked to constantly repeat his jokes. And what he did to Michelle Rodriguez's character was just pathetic. He wasn't content to present her as a badass rebel wounded in battle; he had to make her a pathetic damsel in distress as well. She deserved a way better ending than that.

Ironically, Hollywood outcasts Mel Gibson and Charlie Sheen came across a lot better even though their scenes were basically one-joke roles. And please don't get me started on how much more popular this movie seemed to be with liberal non-Hispanic critics than myself...

Of course, by now we should have seen the sequel to this movie and I suspect that if it hasn't been made by now, then it's never going to be made. Given director Rodriguez's everything-but-the-kitchen-sink approach to this series, I suspect that even he lacked faith that Hollywood would give him enough funds to create Machete III. Of course, given his approach to the Michelle Rodriguez character, I'm not convinced that that's a bad thing but still...

Quote of the Week

History offers some consolation by reminding us that sin has flourished in every age. Even our generation has not yet rivaled the popularity of homosexualism in ancient Greece or Rome or Renaissance Italy.
--Will and Ariel Durant, The Lessons of History