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justthehiddleswrites · 3 years

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Accidently Married | Tom Hiddleston x OFC | Chapter 1 | Living Well is the Best Revenge or Just Trip Her on the Red Carpet

A/N: Tom makes certain comments about an ex (who is unnamed). It is a fictional girlfriend, take from it what you will. Keep your hate to yourself.

SERIES MASTERLIST HERE

Pairing: Tom Hiddleston x OFC (Molly Bishop)

Summary: Tom is stuck in a news cycle from hell; Molly is stuck in the dead end job of bartending with a pile of student and credit debt. Tom has an idea to solve all their problems. Get married, get the paparazzi off his back, divorce after a year and Tom pays off Molly’s debts. Tom has everything figured out, that is until he sees Molly as more than a just a friend and so does someone else. In this vying for affections who will win, the handsome Brit or the boy from Boston?

This Chapter: Tom is in Vegas to present at a music awards ceremony and what do you know his high profile ex girlfriend is nominated for two awards. And the press are having a field day. Molly Bishop is grateful for the awards show because it means extra tips and getting her closer to paying off her student debt. An offhand comment by Luke coupled with an encounter with his old girlfriend has Tom’s mental wheels turning. Perhaps he and Molly can solve each other’s problem. All they have to do is get married.

Warnings: fake marriage, smut (vaginal sex), mentions of: child abuse/neglect, foster care, substance abuse, cheating.

TAGLIST IS OPEN! PLEASE LET ME KNOW IF YOU WANT TO BE TAGGED! THANK YOU FOR READING!

Tom dreaded turning his phone back on when the plane landed at McCarran airport. He knew what waited for him on the other side. Tom wondered if his publicist would buy the story he left his phone back at the bar in Heathrow. Probably not, he had tried that earlier in the year and Luke went ballistic until he came clean. He did not want a repeat of the earful he got back then. With a sigh, Tom switched on his mobile and shoved it into the front pocket of his jeans, vibrating as messages and emails came in.

Tom never imagined the relationship would end like this. He thought he was in love. He thought she was in love. But it had all been what were the words she used “escape hatch”. Tom had been a means to an end. And the punishment for his naivete was a news cycle that would not die. And that photo.

He waited until he was in the car on his way to the Bellagio before checking his messages. There were a series of several text messages from Luke.

Call me when you get to your hotel room.

Don’t read the papers.

Don’t talk to any reporters.

Don’t do anything until you talk to me.

Tom pinched the bridge of his nose underneath his sunglasses.

“Fuck!” he hissed under his breath.

This meant only one thing. Another story. Maybe more pictures. He shouldn’t have been surprised. After all, she was attending the same awards show. It ventured to guess the papers would play that up. Tom slumped against the car seat for the rest of the ride.

Check in went fine at the VIP check in. One perk of not only being a celebrity, but a presenter at the awards show. The bellhop delivered Tom’s luggage and garment bag. He pulled the outfit for tomorrow and hung it up, just like Illaria told him to. It was only when he flopped onto the sectional couch, Tom called Luke.

“I’ve been waiting for your phone call.” Luke deadpanned. “I started to worry you would pull that ‘I left my phone at the airport bar’ story.”

“I did cross my mind.” Tom let his head hit the back of the sofa. “Do I want to know?”

“Not really.” Luke winced. “They used the photo again.”

“Of course they fucking did!” Tom punched a nearby pillow. “I look like a twat. Luke, I need this to stop.”

Luke sighed. “Until something comes along that is better than this, expect it to hang around for a while. Unless you are planning on getting married in the next two days.”

Tom chuckled darkly. “Not bloody likely.” He sighed again. “Thanks for everything Luke.”

“It’s my job, mate. But you’re welcome.”

After Tom hung up, he stared first at the phone in his hand and then at the ceiling. He wasn’t sure how he got here, and he sure as hell didn’t know how to get out. Tom decided instead to wallow in self-pity and eat a ridiculously expensive room service steak.

Weekends were always busy when there were special events over at the MGM arena. This weekend was no exception. And while it may not be good for Molly’s back, her bank account greeted every penny with a smile. Vegas may be a cheap place to live, but it still costs money. And her college did not accept IOUs for student loans. She shoved more tips into the jar behind the bar and helped the next person.

“What’ll be?”

“Whatever you have that is strong and on tap.” Tom’s smooth voice cut over the din of slot machines and video poker machines.

“Coming right up.” Molly poured him a beer, and he signed the receipt with his room number before sliding to the end of the bar.

Three hours later, Tom still sat at the end of the bar, nursing the same beer. Most of the crowd dissipated at this point. Celebrities needed their beauty sleep. Or at least most of them.

“Would you like to switch that one out for a cold one?” She leaned over, smiling. “On the house.”

“Sorry.” Tom blinked and glanced around, looking for a clock Molly imagined.

“No clocks.” she commented. “Or windows.”

Tom’s brow furrowed. “Really?”

“The whole point of casinos is to keep people inside. Clocks and windows help people realize how much time has passed.” Molly replaced his beer. “The whole place is set up like a maze.”

Tom took a long draw of the fresh beer. “You seem to know an awful lot about casinos for a bartender.”

“You seem awfully forward for a movie star.” she snapped back. Tom’s eyes met yours. She shrugged her shoulders. “I have a friend who works at Regal Cinema, they let me in for free.”

“I’m having a bad day.” Tom muttered back. “You still didn’t answer the question.” He took another long draw, leaving the glass half empty.

“Oh, so we are adding pushy to your resume. I thought Brits were supposed to be charming. If you must know, I have a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Tourism from Arizona State.”

Tom opened his mouth to comment, but Molly cut him off.

“Funny thing about the tourism industry. You need experience to get a job, but you can’t get experience without having a job. Classic catch-22. Which does not pay my bills. So I bartend until I get hired somewhere.”

Tom felt like a prize idiot moping about his problems. He cleared his throat. “Apologies for my earlier behavior. I have been in a poor mood for the last several weeks and it has made me a terrible companion and customer.”

Molly smiled at him. The first truly friendly face in a while. “It’s fine. And you are entitled to a bad day.” She filled up his glass. “Once or twice. Share your troubles with me. Unless it is about which supermodel you should date next, then I don’t want to hear it.” she joked. Tom’s face fell. “Oh shit, I’m so sorry. I didn’t…”

Tom held up a hand. “Please don’t apologize. I take it you don’t read the magazines.”

“As a matter of course, no I don’t.” Suddenly a lightbulb went off. “Oh…”

Tom twisted his face into an exaggerated expression. “‘Oh’ is right. Usually followed by the words ‘shit’ or ‘fuck’.”

“And is she…”

Tom drained the glass. “Yep. Nominated for two awards.”

“Yikes! Well, if there is anything I can do, I am here all weekend.”

Tom stood up and left several twenty-dollar bills. “I might take you up on that. Thank you again for the conversation… I didn’t catch your name.”

“Molly Bishop”. she said, clearing his glass.

Tom offered his hand, and she shook it. “Tom.”

“I know.” she leaned in, her dark brown hair falling to the sides of her face. “Remember, you’re a movie star.”

Tom laughed. A real belly laugh. So loud that it jolted the old man at the other end of the bar awake. “I needed that. Thank you again. Have a good evening, day, morning.”

“It’s evening. Goodnight, Tom. Sleep well.”

Tom headed back towards the bank of elevators. He glanced over his shoulder to watch Molly wipe down where he had been sitting, shove the twenties into a tip jar, while tucking her hair behind her ears and help an obviously drunk couple. Tom made a mental note to find her again before he flew back and leave an even bigger tip.

Tom woke up the next morning and headed down to the gym to run on the treadmill. He would have preferred running outside but wanted to avoid people. After running five miles, he switched the machine off, wiped it and him down and headed upstairs to shower and change for the day. Tom wandered back downstairs in search of Molly, but the bartender on duty, a guy named Seth, mentioned she wouldn’t be back until the evening. Tom thanked him and headed back upstairs.

He was restless until it was time to get ready. After dressing, he took a selfie in the mirror and sent it to Illaria who confirmed he did it right. Now came the waiting game. Tom wanted to time it to avoid having to see her at all. Finally deciding he had wanted long enough, Tom called for the car and headed downstairs. What Tom forgot to account for was his incredible bad luck.

He arrived right after her and was forced to walk the red carpet, watching her out of the corner of his eye, with her arm linked around whatever man, boy, prey she ensnared for the evening. Tom plastered a killer smile on his face and continued to repeat the mantra in his head “Living well is the best revenge” when all he wanted to do is either trip her or return to his hotel room and eat an inordinate amount of chocolate cake.

The rest of the awards show blurred together into moments of white hot rage masked by a cool exterior and numbness. Thank god for the teleprompter or else Tom wondered if he would have made it through his presentation. But he did and thought he made it through the entire event without running into her and then…

“Tom!” her voice called out.

Tom froze and stiffened. What a difference a few weeks can make.

“Darling!” He spun on his heel to face her, smile firmly in place. He leaned forward and kissed her cheeks. “It’s good to see you. You look good.” he lied through his teeth.

“You too. I thought I might miss you. I just wanted to say—”

Tom waved her off. “Water under the bridge.” Another lie. Perhaps he missed his calling as a barrister or even a publicist. “Your date seems nice.”

She smiled. That smile that once melted his heart. “Thanks. He is. Where’s your—”

“Back at the hotel.” He checked his watch. “Which reminds me, I should head back. Big plans for the night.”

She blinked, and stutter stepped back. “Oh. Right.” She composed herself. “Well, it was nice to see you again. I hope we can be friends.” She held her arms open.

Fucking friends! Tom howled inside his mind. What was she playing at? More fodder for her songs? Tom seethed on the inside. He stepped forward to awkwardly hug her, praying there was no one around to snap a photo. Knowing her, though, she probably had someone in the balcony with a zoom lens.

“Of course, love.” He squeezed her a little too tight until she let loose a small yelp of pain. Tom allowed a genuine smile to come across his face. “I won’t keep you any longer. Enjoy the after party.” He walked away before she could continue on the conversation.

He waited until he was well out of earshot. “Bitch.”

The crowd started waning around 9:30 as the awards show let out. Molly figured most of the attendees would hit the after parties and things would pick up around 1 or 2 a.m. Until then, it would just be the regulars. She turned around to arrange the glasses she just cleaned when a now familiar voice rang out.

“Marry me.” Tom asked, his tie loosened.

“I don’t know you.” Molly teased back. “Now what will you have?”

“You as my wife.” Tom repeated, his palm flattened against the bar.

“Be serious.”

“I am serious.”

“Are you drunk?”

Tom shook his head. “Stone cold sober. Hear me out.”

She glanced around, seeing no plausible escape. “I’m listening. But if another customer comes up, I’m walking away.”

“I need something to move the paparazzi off this current news cycle with me.”

Molly smirked. “You ran into the ex. Did she have a new boy toy on her arm?”

“Yes, but that is beside the point.”

“It is entirely the point.”

Tom slammed his hand against the bar, rattling the container of nuts nearby. “Can I continue or are you going to keep interrupting?”

Molly crossed her arms. “Go on.”

“I need something to move the press off this story. You need money. We are the solution to each other’s problems.”

“You may be gorgeous, but if you think I am sleeping with you for money…”

“I never said sex. I said marriage. The last I checked, they could be mutually exclusive.” Tom’s expression softened. “Listen, you are clearly unhappy here. I am unhappy too. If us being together could alleviate a bit of that unhappiness, why wouldn’t we seize the opportunity? We get married. Get the paparazzi off my back. I would pay off your student loans and credit cards. And then after a year of living together, we quietly divorce. No sex. Just a business relationship.”

Molly chewed over what Tom said, while chewing on her bottom lip. He wasn’t wrong, she was unhappy. Vegas was supposed to be a brand new start, but it was more of the same. Dead end job and no career prospects on the horizon.”

“Did you say live together?”

“In London, yes. I have plenty of room. Your own space. You have a passport.”

“Yes.”

Tom’s face broke out in a wide grin. He couldn’t believe this was happening. The blood pounded in his ears and adrenaline coursed through his veins. He looked up at her with his bright blue eyes.

“Will you marry me, Molly Bishop?”

“Yes.” she smiled back.

Tom leaned over and kissed her cheek. “Then let’s get going, because the licensing bureau closes at midnight.”

Molly headed over to the manager, Nick.

“I quit.” she shoved her apron at him.

“What? You can’t quit, Molly. The big rush is coming.”

“You heard the lady.” Tom called. “She quits.”

“And who the hell are you?”

“Her fiancé. Come on, darling.” Tom held out his hand. She lifted up the bar at the entrance and took his hand.

The two of you were full of nervous energy the entire cab ride to the licensing bureau, fitting right in with the other couples waiting to get a license. While you waited in line, Tom made some calls to several chapels until he found one open and able to squeeze the two of you in.

“Now all we need is to get you a dress and some rings.”

“Oh!” Molly dug through her purse. “My friend’s kid gave these to me.” She pulled out two plastic rings. “I think these will do in a pinch.”

Tom closed his hand over hers. “I’ll buy us proper rings tomorrow. Now a dress.”

“There’s a mall on the way. I can grab something on the way.” Tom kissed Molly’s forehead.

“You are brilliant.”

“Thank you.”

Within an hour, Molly was wearing a simple white slip dress, Tom still in his suit from the awards show, although he did straighten up the tie. She smiled like a fool, holding onto a fake bouquet and Tom’s wedding ring, complete with a plastic spider in her hand.

Tom slipped on the plastic gem ring when the minister told him to, and she did the same with the spider ring. Tom giggled and so did Molly .

“I now pronounce husband and wife, you may kiss the bride.”

Tom leaned in and pressed a chaste kiss to her lips. His lips were warm and soft. It was… nice. Under other circumstances, she imagined Tom would be an excellent kisser.

Tom gazed down at her. “Hello, Mrs. Hiddleston.”

“Hello, Mr. Hiddleston.”

#tom hiddleston #tom hiddleston fanfiction #tom hiddleston fanfic #tom hiddleston x ofc #tom hiddleston imagine #tom hiddleston fluff #tom hiddleston smut #tom hiddleston angst #accidently married

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script-nef · 3 years

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So why won’t you realise it '^' | Gojou Satoru

Category: fluff

1.9k words; Movie date [2/6]

Spoilers of Howl’s Moving Castle!! Beware!!

← Previous chapter | Masterlist

“Eh, Shouko! What do you mean you can’t make it?”

“I mean, another person is about to come in and they need me to heal them. By the time I’m done the movie will be finished.” Shouko’s voice over the phone is laced with annoyance and sadness coupled with lethargy. You don’t know how she pulls off such a unique combination of emotions but she somehow accomplishes it every time. “And I was looking forward to it…”

This would have been the first time you had a break with her since the trip to France. And while she enjoyed it a lot, the same couldn’t be said for the two males. Which was weird since Gojou is infatuated with sweets and Ken-chan agreed to come. So it was kind of weird when there was a tense atmosphere between them. You know your brother and Gojou are nearly polar opposites, but their animosity wasn’t usually that strong.

They brushed it off as nothing when you asked if something was wrong, which was sort of dubious since you could kind of see the black cloud looming over the both of them, but you let it go. If it was something important, they would be able to handle it themselves or report it to you. You couldn’t sense any cursed spirits nearby so you guessed that they were just in a bad mood for some reason.

Still, you had a wonderful time and found some new snacks that everyone enjoyed. So a day well spent, all in all.

And Ken-chan told you to tell him if Gojou ever offers overseas trips or anything similar, so he must have enjoyed it. Maybe you can ask Gojou to take all of you to Denmark one day.

“Ah… my dear Howl. Life and curses separate us again.” Her voice is full of sadness now, no doubt mourning over her chance of watching her favourite character on a huge screen with surround sound disappearing.

“It’s okay! I’ll bring you the figurine and we can watch it again here in about… uh…”

“Ten years?” She sounds like she’s about to drop dead.

“Uh… yes… But maybe five years? Hopefully? You know, I shouldn’t watch it without you. I’ll come back to school.”

“No, no. Watch the movie. At least you’ll get to see it. Ah, they’re coming now so I have to go.”

“Ah, okay. Bye, Shouko! Stay positive!”

A non-committal sigh accompanies a small “Bye” before the call clicks off. A frown takes over your face at the lost opportunity for her. She was looking forward to this for a long time and you leapt at the chance for another girls’ day out. Being able to watch a childhood favourite is an added bonus. But now you’re standing in the movie theatre, the ticket desk just across the room and an extra on your hand.

It’s a shame because it cost quite a lot. Shouko is definitely going to mope about this when you get back and maybe start smoking again. She always has a pack on her even if she said she quit, and smokes one if she’s stressed or angry. You should call someone and make sure somebody takes it away from her.

You should probably hold onto the ticket and give it back. Or maybe that would make it worse for her, serving as a reminder of this day. Conflict rages inside your head. There’s a high possibility of either decision breaking her heart. Again. A buzz from your phone saves you the trouble of deciding.

Shouko: I sent someone as my replacement.

A tap on the shoulder makes you turn as you type in a reply and you come face to face with a black jacket. Gojou’s head pops down.

“Hey there. I think you called for a replacement!” He seems to be in a ridiculously good mood, even more so than usual. Maybe his students successfully finished another mission. Which is great. It also means more paperwork for you. Which is not so great.

“How did you com—ah. Teleportation.”

“Ding ding ding! Correct!” He's been using the skill more frequently lately, popping in and out of places like one of those Whac-A-Mole games. . It gives you heart attacks all the time and you’re sure he gets a kick out of it. You saw how his smiles widen when you flinch or react. Thankfully it’s when you’re alone so other people never see you jump what feels like a metre into the air.

“Do you want popcorn?” He breaks you out of your thoughts. “I think they have the new caramel flavour. Apparently it’s way too sweet.” So perfect for Gojou. Even though he’s asking if you want it, there’s a spring in his step which definitely means he’s getting some. Probably the biggest option they have.

And you’re proven right because he comes back with two huge buckets which look impossible to finish. When you try to object, he cuts off with “I’ve eaten three buckets before. Alone.” With the smile he’s giving you, it really doesn’t sound like he’s joking. You try to take one to lighten the load but he says it’s alright.

He signals the way to the theatre rooms with his head, walking beside you as you find your way.

“So what’s the movie?” Your head snaps to him in confusion.

“You don’t know?” A shake and a shrug. “It’s Howl’s Moving Castle. This was Shouko’s idea since she loves it and this year is Studio Ghibli’s 40 year anniversary. The cinema is having an exclusive showing of their movies this month. Only one session per movie, for some reason. Surely they would make more money if they played it over multiple days, but. I dunno. Executives make weird decisions.” A light scoff from him to tell he knows exactly what that’s like. His hatred for the higher-ups runs deep. You don’t push it.

“So she wanted to come but got held back at the last minute?”

“Yeah. Ah, here are our seats.”

You’re placed in the very middle of the room and you both make yourselves comfortable. Shouko went all out for this movie, upgrading the seats and making it a recliner. Your poor back, abused after sitting in chairs and hunched over computers for so long, practically melts into the plush cushion. It’s so comfortable that you might fall asleep in it if it isn’t Howl that’s about to start.

Feet dangling in the air, you look over to Gojou to see him on his phone. It looks like he’s in a chatroom and you catch the words ‘Shouko’ and ‘favour’ before looking away. You didn’t mean to peek, but it’s not like you can consciously not read something. It was in your line of sight and you averted your eyes as soon as you realised what you were reading. Your brother brought you up better than to pry into other people’s businesses, even if it’s really, really tempting.

“Phones need to be placed on silent, you know.” The ads are coming on the screen. He smiles at you, slipping it into his pocket.

“Just talking to Shouko. She says she hasn’t even started properly.”

Disappointment fills you. Gojou is a good friend to watch this with but you hoped Shouko would somehow miraculously finish in time. She would be devastated.

“I’ll have to make this up to her when we get back. Give her the figurine and keep her hap—ah! I forgot! Gojou, I was supposed to ask someone to take her ciga—” He cuts you off with a light pat on your hand.

“Don’t worry, I did it already. All of them are safe out of her reach and I gave her packets of hot chocolate instead. When we get back, she’ll have drunk at least half of them and be in a good mood.” What a Gojou-like replacement. He smiles like a child wanting pats on the head for a job well done. You just barely catch yourself from moving.

Gojou gets a rep for being aloof and neglectful, but he does take care of the people he holds dear to him. His friends, members of the school, his students. You hope you’re included in the list.

Actually, the more you think about it, the more you realise he’s different from initial perceptions. You learn more and more about him as time goes on, in the most delightful sense. He’s somewhat like an onion, new characteristics being revealed every time a layer is peeled. A snicker escapes at the thought of Gojou dressed up like an onion, just waddling around. He shoots you a questioning head tilt which you wave off.

In the years that you’ve known him, he made himself into a trustworthy friend. One full of laughs and ridiculousness. Maybe it’s his childishness that puts you at ease, but he’s incredibly comfortable and easy to relax around. Thoughts trail and the words fly out of your mouth before you even think.

“You know, I think you would make a wonderful boyfriend.”

He freezes completely, like somebody’s zapped him in place. You stare at him, wondering what’s wrong, but the lights dim and by the time he gathers coherence, your concentration is on the opening sequence.

“Ah, that was so good! Ugh, I love Howl. Isn’t he so cool?” You skip out of the room, remembering to take the figurines provided at the exit, with Gojou trailing behind you. “You know how she asks him to wait for her in the past? The first thing he says to her in the movie is ‘I’ve been looking everywhere for you.’ He searched for her the entire time! This is modern poetry. This.”

“Do you think Howl would be a good boyfriend?” The question stops you. It’s different than usual for some reason, the voice asking the question and the intensity of it. He’s still his aloof self, all smiles and grins, but there’s something you can’t quite place that’s wrong. It’s unnerving, but you diligently answer his question.

“Um, I mean, yeah? Look at how cute he is with Sophie. See?” The figurine is a frozen shot of Howl and Sophie dancing in the rain with an umbrella that’s not being useful at all. They’re both incredibly detailed, so much so that you can see their clothes and skin drenching wet. Wow, this is actually a phenomenal job. Shouko will be so happy. It makes your heart lighter knowing that at least something might light up her day.

“Why is he cool?” Gojou seems to be invested in Howl. It confuses you since he just watched the movie with you and he saw how awesome Howl is.

“Hm, well for one he can do magic.” He opens his mouth but you shush him with a finger to his lips. “Yeah, I know, what we have is kind of like magic too. But theirs is just… different. He just makes it seem kind of elegant. And he overcame his fear just for Sophie. Remember the scene with Sulliman and in the cluttered bedroom? He still found the strength to protect her even though he was so scared before. It’s admirable. I guess I like strong guys.”

“Hmm~” His tone is contemplative. “You know I’m stronger than him, right?”

A question mark forms over your head. He’s being really weird today. “Yeah? You’re the strongest in the universe, silly. What’s up with you?” Gojou just chuckles and ruffles your head.

“Nothing, nothing. Just making sure you know.” He slings his arm around your shoulder, the intensity gone and the light spring in his step back. “Who else do you think is strong?”

Next chapter →

#gojou x reader #gojou imagine #gojou satoru x reader #gojou satoru imagine #gojo x reader #gojo imagine #gojo satoru x reader #gojo satoru imagine #jjk x reader #jujutsu kaisen x reader #jjk imagine #jujutsu kaisen imagine #jjk #jujutsu kaisen #gojou #gojou satoru #fluff #series #female reader

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avengerscompound · 3 years

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Small Gods: Spring Thaw - 2

Spring Thaw: A Bucky Barnes Fanfic

Spring Thaw Masterlist | More Small Gods PREVIOUS //

Buy me a ☕ Character Pairing: Bucky Barnes x F!Reader

Rating: E

Word Count: 2046

Warnings: nothing this chapter.

Synopsis: Bucky Barnes hates winter. He always looks for the first signs of the ice thawing and new life growing. When that desire for the end of winter brings to him the god of the spring thaw, he discovers a brand new reason to get through winter.

Chapter 2

Bucky arrived at the movies twenty minutes before he had arranged to meet you and then proceeded to mentally curse himself out the entire time because of how eager it made him look. He was just considering leaving and coming back again so he could maybe come off as fashionably late when you appeared behind him and tapped him on the shoulder.

He jumped and spun around, instantly going into fight mode, and when he saw your slightly bemused expression, he instantly relaxed. You were wearing another warm winter coat that looked impossibly spring-like. This one was sky blue with daisies printed on it as if they were polka dots. Your hat, scarf, and gloves were in a darker shade of blue, and on the side of your beanie was a crochet daisy that matched the ones on your coat. “Hey, you’re early,” he said.

“So are you,” you said.

Bucky smiled sheepishly and ran his hand through the back of his hair. “Yeah. It’s been a while and I didn’t want to be late.” He held out a bouquet of different colored tulips for you. “I got you these.”

“Oh my,” you said, taking them and inhaling deeply. “These are so out of season. They must have cost a fortune.”

Bucky shrugged. The bouquet did cost significantly more money than when he’d last bought a girl flowers, but as that was in 1943, he didn’t think it was fair to compare. “It wasn’t so bad. And I knew you’d like them.”

You leaned up and kissed his cheek. Another first for this new life he had. It felt like a static shock and he flinched a little, and then hoped to god you didn’t notice because he wanted there to be more of that. He wanted that kind of physical affection that had been withheld for so long. “I love them,” you said. “Thank you.”

Bucky turned back toward the cinema and then debated what his next move should be. He had the tickets. Did he offer you his arm or just start walking? There were so many new rules about dating and he realized he didn’t know any of them. Did you hold doors and pull out chairs anymore? Who paid for things?

While he was thinking, you slipped your hand into his and pulled him toward the cinema. “Come on, slowpoke,” you said.

The warmth from your skin seemed to radiate out from you so that he could feel it through both his and your gloves.

“Do we need to buy tickets?” You asked when you entered the building.

“I’ve got them,” he said.

You took off your gloves and shoved them in your coat and looked up at him. “Then let me buy the candy.”

“Now that hardly seems fair,” Bucky said. “The tickets were cheap. You’ll have to mortgage your house for candy.”

You snorted. It was an adorable sound but you quickly covered your face in embarrassment. “Oh my god,” you mumbled.

Bucky laughed and rubbed your arm. “That was cute, don’t worry.”

You shook your head. “I can’t remember the last time I laughed like that,” you said. “So now I’m gonna buy candy so I can pretend it never happened.”

He chuckled and followed you to the counter as you bought popcorn, jolly ranchers, and a couple of sodas before the two of you headed into the theater. It was strange how familiar it felt to be on a movie date. Like muscle memory. He sat down in the assigned seat and you put your coat on your lap with the popcorn sitting in his. There was the awkward start where you aren’t sure if you should be touching or not - not that there was much choice in such a confined space. There was an accidental hand touch when both of you went for popcorn at the same time. Then you snuggled into him during the sappy parts and even though having you pressed against him felt alien to him. It felt familiar and comfortable and he put his arm around your shoulders and held you in a casual way he hadn’t done to anyone since before he was sent off to war.

It was dark when you both came out of the theater with your arm tucked in the crook of his. “Do you want to get a bite to eat?” He asked.

“I would love it. Just something simple though,” you said.

He nodded and the two of you began walking down the street together. “Thank you for this, Bucky,” you said as the two of you walked along. “I never do this.”

“I’m pretty out of practice too,” Bucky admitted.

“Why is that?” You asked. “You seem like a natural. Not to mention - you’re very handsome.”

Bucky looked at you, once again not sure if you were being completely honest with him or not. Not just about not recognizing him, but about any of it really. Questioning his reality had become second nature. He was used to being lied to and used. He was used to things being taken from him. “You really don’t know who I am?” He asked.

You stopped walking, a little startled, and looked him up and down. “I don’t meet too many people, I know we haven’t met.”

“No,” Bucky said, shaking his head. “I’m the winter soldier?”

“Winter…?” You said, furrowing your brow. “You control winter?”

Bucky laughed. “No. What?”

“Oh,” you said, relaxing a little. “I don’t know what you're talking about.”

“Captain America’s friend?” He asked, only to be met with the same look of confusion. “The Avengers?”

“I’m so sorry,” you said. “I don’t keep up with current popular culture.”

“You don’t know about the people disappearing and then the fight and them showing up five years later?” Bucky asked.

“I mean… I know they all went away and came back, but I wasn’t…” you trailed off.

“Captain America? Iron Man? Thor?”

Finally, a glimmer of recognition reached your eyes and you smiled. “You know Thor?”

“I mean, a little. He’s a nice guy,” Bucky said.

“I know,” you said. “He’s really funny. Likes to fight a lot though.”

“Wait…” Bucky said. “Do you know Thor? Like you’ve met him?”

“Yes! I’ve met him. It was a long, long time ago,” you said, nodding enthusiastically. “Are the gods… are we showing ourselves again?”

Bucky blinked at you. “What do you mean ‘we’?”

You looked around and took his hand tugging him along. “We should go somewhere to talk.”

He walked with you until you found a diner and the two of you ducked inside and slipped into a booth by the window. You put your coat with your flowers beside you on the seat and neither of you said anything until the orders had been placed.

“It was easier back before,” you said as you began to play with the little tubs of half-and-half on the table.

“What was?” Bucky asked. “I don’t know what’s going on right now?”

“I’m a god, Bucky,” you said.

Bucky laughed. He wasn’t even sure why because he knew a god. He knew and had experienced far stranger things than gods. But here, sitting in a diner with you, the thought just struck him as absurd. “What?”

“Back before, when people were primitive and didn’t understand how things worked, we just walked with the mortals,” you said, answering a question he never asked as you looked out the window. You turned your attention back to him and lay your palms flat on the table. “I don’t know how to start the story.”

Bucky shook his head. “The beginning?”

“That goes back to before I even was,” you said. “And I don’t have all the story. From what I understand, when the universe was born, the worlds were formed from a central point where all matter was one. And then it exploded out in a mess of matter and energy. Some of that energy you and I would call magic. Some words, like Asgard and Olympus, were drenched in it…”

“Woah, hold up,” Bucky said. “Olympus is real?”

“You’ve met Thor but you doubt the existence of the Greek Gods?” You asked with your eyebrow raised.

“Right, okay,” Bucky said. “Go on.”

“The magic on Earth is weaker and so the gods here are also weaker. We came to be when people pray for us, even if that’s just a muttered hope, like “oh god let me pass this test,” you explained.

“So you’re telling me that there might be a god for the red light changing?” Bucky asked.

You nodded. “Oh yeah, they’re doing quite well for themselves.”

“That's…” Bucky said and shook his head as he tried to absorb it. “Not the weirdest thing I’ve ever heard,” he settled on. “So what are you?”

“The spring thaw,” you said.

“What? Like Persephone?” Bucky asked.

“Well, no,” you said. “For starters, she lives on Olympus and she’s way more powerful than I am. And she covers all over Spring. I’m just the part where the ice melts. I was way stronger back before industrial farming. People prayed to see the ice receding. Now, it still happens but not with as much need. Oh and also, when Persephone isn’t doing her thing, she has somewhere she goes.”

“What? What does that mean?” Bucky asked. “Where do you go?”

You shrug. “I’m just not.”

“Not what?”

“Not anything,” you said. “I’m here when people start wishing for the end of winter, and I’m gone when they stop.”

Bucky furrowed his brow and nodded. “Would you believe me if I said I know how that feels?”

“Really?” You asked. “How?”

The waiter came over and placed their orders in front of them. Bucky took a drink of his black coffee and wished it was something a little harder. Not that alcohol would actually do anything. “I guess I better start from the beginning too.”

As the two of you ate your meals, Bucky unloaded everything. From when he was born, to going to war, to being captured by HYDRA and experimented on, not just once but twice. About how they brainwashed him and had him commit unspeakable acts, and when they weren’t getting him to do these heinous things, they would freeze him, so that every time he woke he had no idea who he was or where he was or even what year it was. How he’d broken out of it and had to adjust to life on the run 60 years after the last time he had control of his body. How that had ended up going to shit and he’d opted to go on ice again because even that was better than living with what he had in his head. How they managed to get HYDRA out and he was just settling into life again when Thanos happened and he’d just stopped existing.

The food was gone by the time he was done with the story and he was on his third cup of coffee. He’d worry about staying up, but the caffeine would pass out of his system soon enough and besides, he didn’t sleep that great anyway.

You had listened intently, never interrupting, but the expression on your face told him how horrified and sad the story made you. “... and then the Avengers stopped being a thing and I tried to cancel out some of my bad with a friend and then I moved here.”

You reached over and took his hand. “I’m so sorry all that happened to you,” you said earnestly. “And I can see why we were drawn to each other.”

“Why is that?” Bucky asked.

“I bet you aren’t a big fan of the cold, huh?” You asked.

He smiled and shook his head. “No, you could say that.”

“Were you hoping for some sign of the thaw?” You asked. He smiled and nodded. “And there I was. I probably felt it too.”

“I’m glad you did,” he said.

“I’d like to see you again,” you said. “Would that be alright?”

“How will that work if you’re only going to be here for such a short time?” Bucky asked.

“Well,” you said thoughtfully. “I guess we’ll have to enjoy the brief time we have?”

// NEXT

#bucky barnes #bucky barnes x reader #the winter soldier #the winter soldier fanfic #fanfic #fanfiction #reader insert #small gods #spring thaw

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legionnaireslover · 3 years

Note

My point, you ignoramus, is that bragging a movie that hasn't even made half the money it spent to make it back, is stupid. Now, I understand you didn't write that article and news outlets are simply reporting facts. But if that was my movie I'd be doing my best to sweep that information under the rug. It has nothing to do with the artistic success or failure of the movie. The fact that you all can't seem to understand that just proves how truly dense you all are.

I suspect you must be the person who posted those "charts" to Gator's blog. Why don't you come off of "anonymous" so I can see exactly who I am dealing with?

My question to you is, why should anyone associated with The Courier "sweep" any data under the rug? They've got nothing to be ashamed of.

Considering the number of screens it debuted on (less than 2000 in the US), the film did relatively well.

No, it can't compete in ticket sales to blockbuster action movies, but it was never intended to. It's numbers were considered to be quite solid for the kind of movie it was. Here's the top dozen films domestic stats for 2020 releases and you can see The Courier ranks 11th. And it is one of only THREE top films that were released to under 2000 theatres. In fact it outperformed the 12th ranked film even though that film was an Oscar nominated movie and released on more screens!

As for it ROI - in these COVID19 days, all past "standards" are virtually useless. Calculations will have to take into account for streaming services to a much higher degree because of all the closed venues for films to be shown in, I would think. Even the site that you found agrees that this kind of film has to be judged on the HOME MARKET in these lockdown days...

So your criticism of people feeling good about the film because it hasn't made a profit yet seems highly premature IMO. (Point to note: you actually don't even know for sure how much the movie cost, do you! All you have is one unsubstantiated amount from a site. Usually in the business of gathering FACTS at least THREE sources are needed to verify information.) .

Another thing I'd like to draw to your attention is that you pulling out a chart to show BC's drop off in 2020 belies the irrefutable fact that almost EVERY actor has shown a comparable drop off! Ever hear of COVID19? Of course you have! But you don't want to bring that up, do you?!?

One last point - all these charts only deal with theatrical releases. None of BC's TV work is even considered at all. And Cumberbatch has been very busy on that front.

He has stated a number of times that his primary consideration when choosing projects is HIS FAMILY and how a project impacts on him being away from his wife and three small boys. Doing as much work as possible as close to his home base as possible is obviously very important to him at this stage in his life.

Sometimes he has been able to bring his family along (as he did for the upcoming The Power of the Dog filmed in NZ). But smaller TV productions naturally don't require usually traveling far from home for extended location shooting, so that's something to consider for him.

Patrick Melrose is a prime example of this. Most of the location shooting was done in France or the UK. It was hugely successful and garnered much critical praise, scooped up a lot of nominations and even a couple of prestigious awards (one personal one for best actor at the BAFTAS for BC!). This has of course taken him in another direction from cinema work for the moment so just looking at movie titles to gauge his "success" doesn't give a very balanced picture.

He never said he just wanted to be a cinema "star" anyway.

Success comes in MANY forms, my dear anonymous Hater!

All this emphasis on his film career is actually something the Haters have concocted and twisted to fit their warped agenda.

I've got a suggestion for you... relax a bit, pony up some pocket change and order The Courier online and watch it! It's a greatly entertaining story and BC is wonderful in it!

Have a nice day!

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chaniters · 5 years

Text

Phantom

Awan Cormac, post Rebirth, meeting Ortega once more at the Rangers HQ!

Introducing his villain persona, PHANTOM. Thanks, @kruk-art for lending me your character again! :D

Enjoy!

________________________________________

PHANTOM

________________________________________

Looking around for a clean cup, you find plenty, though they are all new and impersonal. There's no trace of the old ones, chipped and personal, and in Ortega's case, the one that you had given him. Did someone throw them out when they moved?

It's been 7 years. Of course, they've moved on. The thought brings a mixture of sadness and relief.

"If you want some Coffee, it's going to cost you!" he says beaming a smile

"I'll pass... you know I'm cheap," you say keeping a straight face.

"Oh believe me I do... come over already!" he motions for you to follow.

You go through the corridors behind him. This is so wrong! Being back at their new place. Why... why did you ever return? You're not one of them and you never will...You should run. Tell him you had something bad to eat and leave. You should…-

"Here!" he stops and opens a door for you.

His office. You're still in time... you could just...

"Take a seat man!" he says pointing at a small sofa... there's a tray with some pastries... and two mugs with hot chocolate.

No... you shouldn't be doing this... you shouldn't...

And there are churros.

“I got some churros, I know you like them and…”

But you’ve already walked past him, sat down. You are completely focused on dipping your churro in thick chocolate. He chuckles shaking his head and takes a seat as well.

"You know, I never understood how you kept in shape back then" he comments. He has that fond half-smile. "You eat like there's two of you"

"Neither do I... maybe all the running from psychos with laser guns and evil robots had something to do with it" You speak between bites... it's exquisite... This is the best you've had since that mission in Spain when you stopped at the bar in Madrid. You were fresh off your training and full of questions and your handler told you to order whatever you wanted just to get you off her hair for a few minutes. Then she had to basically drag you out of the cafe.

He takes a sip of chocolate... and your gaze freezes on him.

It's the very same cup. Crap... your

"Y... you kept it," you say, stuttering

“Wha…?” he asks

You point at the cup. He puts it down and looks at you.

“Of course I did… Sidestep gave it to me.”

He extends a hand, taking yours. You let the churro inside the chocolate as he presses your fingers slightly.

“I gave it to you. Sidestep is dead”

“I still see him,” he says letting go. “He’s just grumpy, as he always was”

“That’s… not… “ you can’t finish that sentence. You realize not everyone’ has moved on. He hasn’t. You can see memorabilia of your past self all across the office. There’s even a shelf behind a glass… full of relics... It’s like he’s living the past.

Shit. There are a few seconds of silence… more than enough to be awkward.

And then he changes the subject. He was always better than you at these things. Soon enough you are devouring the churros and pastries along. He laughs. He talks about the past, without mentioning Sidestep again. Makes you laugh too. You say he looks good, that you’re happy to be here with him, sharing some sweets once more. He takes it as a flirt and escalates by comparing the churros to something else and makes you blush and wish the earth swallowed you. You deflect, but it leaves both of you longing for more, like always.

He planned the whole evening. You go to the cinema, watch a new movie. Animated, about a hero who encounters different realities and versions of himself. You don’t need that. There are already too many versions of you lose in this reality alone. You own regene self. Your puppet, walking around in your name. Your villain persona. Your past self, engraved in everyone’s mind. Especially his.

Again the superhero theme in the movie he chose. He hasn’t moved on past your death at all. He wants you to become your old self again. And you can’t… you can’t turn back time and erase your scars. You are heading towards mutually assured destruction. What will he think once he figures it all out? You’re not one of them…

He won’t want anything to do with you. You are the black and white, dissonant in a colored world. Perhaps It was better when he didn’t know you were alive… You were meant to protect humans. Your disguise was never meant for you to believe yourself one of them. That is where you failed.

You’ve certainly not protected Ortega. He’s been tortured all these years by the death of a friend that doesn’t even really exist. And he wants to be much more than your friend. And you…

You want it too, more than anything.

You suppress the contradicting thoughts.

Whatever finally happens between you, you’ll help him move on.

It’s the least you can do.

………………………………………..

Mortum was dead right on design...

The extensible nanomesh cloak swirls theatrically as you reach the window, leaving a trail of fog behind you through its small smoke machines.

With the addition of the silent thrusters, you appear to glide in the night. Phantom is really a sight to behold. And you’ll play the part literally tonight.

The window is open, so it only takes a simple push to create an opening, and you hop inside. You’ve been here before, so you know your way around. The hallway… the guest room… You are careful not to step where you know the boards will creak, revealing your presence.

You glide through the last part, opening the door with the utmost scare.

Your target’s asleep, as you expected.

Good.

Without a single sound, you take the magnetic cuff from your inner pockets.

“Once it hits the target, it automatically binds them with titanium grade bindings” Mortum explained. You hope he’s right, or this will be a very awkward encounter.

The thing is shaped like a small disc, with a pair of buttons.

He stirs in his sleep, his chest facing up. Good, it’s almost as if he’s asking for you to do this.

You place the disk atop his chest. It sticks to his skin, with a small hiss of air suction.

He opens his eyes, groggily at first... And then they fix on you, with a sudden moment of terror, followed by recognition.

And you press the button.

He attempts to incorporate, his senses warning him about the danger...

“SSCHCLACK!”

Metal tendrils extend everywhere from the circular device stuck to his chest, binding his arms and legs. It looks awfully uncomfortable, you’re glad they didn’t have any of these terror devices back at the farm.

“What in the hell…” He fights it, but the metal tendrils extend everywhere, and finally pull his arms together, behind his back, and his legs end up bound to each other.

Defeated, he falls on the bed struggling like a fish out of water. He glares at you.

You stand unmovable, your cloak swirling in the air, and fog filling the room. You must look ghostly and terrifying right now…

“Good evening Charge. Is this a bad moment?” You let out a few laughs, which isn’t hard because this is actually funny in a very twisted kind of way. And, hey, that’s you these days. Twisted.

You turn off the for generators with a flick of your wrist. Enough smoke already.

“Phantom! How did you…”

“I disabled your security systems Charge. It wasn’t difficult. I wonder how do you expect to stop me when your own house is such an easy target” Really. You could have just walked in and killed him. Not fun at all.

He lets out a powerful discharge. It doesn’t break the bindings but reminds you this won’t stop him indefinitely.

“Hijo de puta! Get this thing off me! What the fuck do you want?”

“I want what’s in your safe. The one behind that painting” you state. Better to go all about the business and not prolong this unnecessarily.

“What? Why? THere’s not even that much money in there! Do you think I’m rich pinche pendejo? I’m still paying debts, idiot!”

“Really? Because I know there’s something there that could be worth a small fortune” There are so many ways you could have found out, you should be safe from suspicion back as Awan.

He looks puzzled for a moment. And then he understands.

“No! No way!”

“Yes, way!. Tell me the access code. It will make this whole thing faster”

“Never! Go to hell! Vete a la chingada!!”

You laugh.

“You honestly think your old safe is going to stop me when I’ve robbed banks?”

He spits on you. “¡Púdrete!” he adds finally.

“I expected you to be a better loser” you sigh, clearing the spit from your mask. “Whatever, I’ll open it myself.”

You turn and remove the painting, some old picture of a farm. You hate farms. And then you begin working on the safe, connecting it to your wrist computer. All the while Ortega keeps yelling profanities from the bed.

“CLACK”

The door opens.

And there it is. You pull it out.

Your old gun. Sidestep’s old gun.

You turn to him showing him your prize.

“Put that back you fucker! You’ve got a problem with me you take it out on me! THat’s…”

“You know, you say you’re paying debts, and you keep a lot of memorabilia that could be worth so much all around this place. I’ve studied it well…”

“THat’s mine you psycho! It’s part of my fucking life! What the hell would you know about that?!”

“I know I could have killed you for the safe codes. You should put your priorities in order ranger. Sidestep is dead, after all” you say tapping his hair with the gun as you leave. He screams and yells, and you hear a loud thud as he falls from the bed trying to slither his way to you.

You glide away, trough the streets.

……………………………………………..

You hurry to the elevator. It’s on the news already, and you’re really worried.

Did you overdo it? Of course, you did, as usual. You should have left things as they were.

You get off the elevator and walk to his office passing the kitchen. Steel is there.

“He’s at his office,” He tells you, from the opposite end of the corridor. “And he’s completely out of it, see if you can talk to him”

“Will do. Thanks!” you stride through the corridors, and knock once you reach his door.

“Go Away” he yells.

You open it anyways and come through

“I said go awa...! ” he stops, as he sees you.

“Hey, it’s me… Are are you ok?” you say. It feels odd. To be the one asking. This isn’t how it always goes.

He’s teared up. And he’s got a remote control on his hand. The TV is on, and you can see Mia Ochoa reporting on how Phantom stole and sold Sidestep’s original gun on the Dark Web to an unknown collector for 1.5 million dollars, mocking the Rangers once more.

The remote sparkles in his hands, his electrical power acting up under stress.

You approach, hesitantly… and hug him. You wonder if you’ll get a jolt… but he seems to calm down and hugs you back.

“I couldn’t… couldn’t stop Phantom” his arms hold you tight, his voice trembling. Fuck you definitely overdid it. He’s already traumatized by your death and now you pull this... You are hopeless trying to understand humans. You should just... “I’m sorry... He took… he took it…”

“It’s just a gun,” you say

“It’s not… It’s… It’s your gun. The real one!”

“That’s not mine Ricardo. Sidestep is dead. I buried him”

“No, he isn’t! You’re here!”

“I WAS Sidestep. Not anymore. I choose to be myself. Not him.”

“But…”

“I’m alive. I survived. Isn’t that what counts? He’s just a memory… let it go”

It takes a few moments before he physically lets go of you.

“Mierda… I… I guess you’re right.”

“I am?” you ask surprised. Is this actually working?

“Yes, pendejo. I’m thinking I got too attached to your old stuff… when you were...”

“... you don’t have to say it”

“You get me”

“Yep… “ when you were dead.

He plops down on the sofa.

“Thanks,” he says leaning back. “I’m still pissed. That money should have gone to you“ he says pointing at the TV which is showing a cash icon for the sale for 1.5 million “

It takes all of your acting skills to keep a straight face. “Well… yeah, it could have helped, but … Just let it go Ricardo, ok? It’s a stupid gadget. And I don’t need it.”

He rubs his face, then looks at you. “Since when are you the grown up?”

“I don’t know Ricardo, and it's fucking scary… so please let’s not do it anymore?”

You manage to make him crack a smile this time. “Alright, deal then.”

“Also, talking about scary… You should get rid of all this!” you point at a lot of your old stuff all around his office. “It’s hella creepy” you add as you fall on the sofa by his side.

“Shutup,” he says jokingly, punching your arm.

“Ow… I mean it You know, I could help you sell it. I think I remember what most of this shit is… Is that a piece of Quasar’s positronic brain?”

“You bet… “ he sighs “I’ll think about it… “.

And then he holds your hand… and you made the mistake of being too close, and he kisses you…

It takes longer than you’d want to regain control, but you make do, manufacturing an excuse to leave… but before that...

“Hey, I’ve got something for your office!” you say

“Huh? Really?”

“Yep! Here!” you hand him a small box.

He opens it… there’s another cup there. Just like the one you gave him back then. You had to pay 300 dollars to get the exact same, but you did.

“What the… “ He smiles, surprised “Is it my birthday or something?”

“No asshole. That’s for me to use the next time you have churros and chocolate, obviously!” you say closing the door behind you.

______________________________________

My Fanfiction: https://chaniters.tumblr.com/post/181692759294/my-fanfiction-for-fallen-hero

DISCLAIMER: This is a work of fan fiction using characters and the setting of the Fallen Hero: Rebirth and upcoming Fallen Hero: Retribution games written by Malin Riden. I do not claim ownership of any characters from the Fallen Hero wold. These stories are a work of my imagination, and I do not ascribe them to the official story canon. These works are intended for entertainment outside the official storyline owned by the author. I am not profiting financially from the creation of these stories, and thank the author for her wonderful game/s, without which these works would not exist.

#fallen hero: rebirth #fallen hero spoilers #Awan Cormac #Phantom #Chargestep

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amplesalty · 3 years

Text

Christmas 2020: Day 3 - Home Alone 4: Taking Back the House (2002)

On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me...

3rd degree burns!

Wait, you mean there are more than just two of these? Yeah, I guess people only talk about the two starring The Incredible Culk himself. I’m uncharacteristically skipping ahead here to the 4th movie as I understand the 3rd doesn’t even take place at Christmas. For shame! It does have a young Scarlett Johansen in though and was surprisingly still released in cinemas at that time. I would have thought it would been a straight-to-video job for sure. Apparently it was up for a Razzie for worst remake or sequel but lost to Speed 2. I actually saw that in the cinema!

Anyway, not only does 4 actually take place at Christmas, it’s notable for starring Kevin McCallister so serves as a continuation of the first two movies, unlike 3 which went off with brand new characters. No other returning faces here either so no Catherine O’Hara, no Joe Pesci, no Daniel Stern, not even a John Heard. Guess we’ll just have to make do with his showing in Would You Rather? Back during Halloween. We get some familiar characters but they’ve just been re-cast. Peter McCallister was really throwing me off at first, I recognised him from something but just couldn’t place it...

Holy shit, it’s the guy from Monkey Shines! That would make for a much more interesting movie; the psycho monkey defending the house from burglars.

They could have very easily worked a monkey into the movie if they wanted since the story goes that Kevin’s parents are now about to go through a divorce and Peter is shacked up with some rich lady. Rather than face another holiday season being abused by Buzz and Megan, he decides to take his chances with the step mother. And boy, is he ever glad that he did because he gets his own bedroom choc full of gizmos like a giant multi screen television, games consoles, arcade cabinets and computer. Bit of a step up from sleeping in the attic or playing with that Talkboy all the time. That thing seemed really big for what it was, you’d expect a voice recorder to be a sleek little device but you had this fairly big camcorder like unit with a handle and extending microphone that looked like an eyepiece. Maybe kids just like having a substantial toy like that or it was trying to make them feel more grown up to have something camcorder like without the accompanying video technology that wasn’t as ubiquitous and cheap at that time.

He’s not the only one with cool toys to play with as Dad’s new girlfriend, Natalie, has a smart house which seems pretty revolutionary for the year 2002. Like, full on smart house that doesn’t even need a front door key, just take our your little voice remote dealie and give the house an instruction. Open door, play music, turn on the fire...it’s like Alexa 15 years ahead of it’s time. Modern day Chucky would have a field day. It feels like a bit of a wasted opportunity though as it’s not really used as part of the eventual house defense. You’d think there’s a lot of potential there for Kevin to setup traps that he can trigger by saying a keyword but I think the only time it really comes up is when he immediately tells the house the shut the door that one of the burglars open so they promptly get their nose smashed in.

To that end, this is a fairly shoddy setup security wise as it seems to respond to any voice, not just the owners so what you get is the burglars who happen to have their own remote they can use to just stroll into the house. I say burglars, they’re not really, they have greater criminal aspirations; kidnapping. For Natalie has foreign royalty due to stay at the house for the holidays so they figure they can swoop in and kidnap the crown Prince and ransom him off.

And these aren’t just any crooks, for in what is one in a long line of rehashes, it’s Marv! But no Harry, instead it’s Marv’s wife Vera tagging along. Only, Marv is dressed much more like Harry so this is really confusing. Like, there’s this one point after Marv realises that Kevin is staying at this house too, he tells his wife how much trouble this kid has caused and that he has the scars to prove it. I kept expecting him to pull out his hand to show the ‘M’ burned into it but of course that was Harry who scolded his hand on the heated doorknob.

I must say, there’s obviously some big shoes to fill coming in to replace Daniel Stern but I kinda liked French Stewart here as Marv. Maybe they switched the characters to avoid confusion with him already having played a character called Harry in 3rd Rock from the Sun? There’s just this sort of fast paced, talkative energy to him which whilst not entirely fitting for Marv, it did put me in mind of Jim Varney. I feel like he’d do a good job if they ever wanted to do more Ernest type commercials or movies.

We really do get a wider look at the extended Marv family with not only his wife but also his Mother too since, spoiler warning, the movie spends the whole time dropping massive hints that the butler is the one running an inside job and helping out Marv and his missus but it’s actually the maid the whole time who turns out to be Marv’s mum.

I feel like this would have been a cooler plot point if they’d played into it more, like you could this have this whole duality thing where you have Kevin going through these coming of age experiences, no longer the helpless little boy, compared to Marv now going from hardened criminal to having his mum fighting his battles. It could be this elaborate revenge scheme from a mother who has been robbed of her son for years because of Kevin foiling his plans and landing him in jail. He’s the reason she’s got no grandkids!

I mean, between all the jail time and the fact he keeps going for the guys balls, whether he’s shooting them in part 1 or flying a drone into them here. In the end though it’s all just a bit of a coincidence more than anything, she just happened to running this con job in a house where Kevin just happens to end up living in.

There is a really stupid moment here where they lock the butler and Kevin in the wine cellar and the two spend ages pondering how they’re going to get out. The butler then realises he has a cell phone. Now, this is 2002 so these things are becoming much more widespread and writers have to start thinking of ways to write around them. It seems fairly obvious that they’d say “Oh, can’t get a signal down here in the cellar.” or something but no. Instead, he just hands the phone to Kevin who promptly calls home, gets hung up on twice by Buzz before getting through to his mum who suddenly can’t hear him very well despite Buzz hearing him fine. Then the phone’s battery dies despite only being in use for like 2 minutes. Bullshit, this isn’t an iPhone 12 GIGAMAX or whatever the hell they’re on nowadays where the battery runs out after 6 hours, this is the early 2000’s where your Nokia 3310 could last a week off a single charge.

Stupid just kinda sums the whole thing up really. Marv and Vera seem to be lacking in that sense of menace that Harry and Marv had back in the original. Maybe 2 was already taking them a little sillier, that whole electric shock skeleton scene springs to mind, but here there always seems to be goofy music backing them or silly sound effects that make everything feel a lot of childish. I guess they always have been kids movies but it feels especially so here, Harry and Marv just felt a lot more threatening. Probably helped that Pesci had that pedigree of being in all those mobster movies.

It’s cute in a way for them to bring back these characters and reference all these things from the original but it’s just lacking the heart that the first one had. It’s called Home Alone but this isn’t a home, it’s a house. The McCallister house in the first movie just had this warmth to it, all those vibrant colours, the greens and reds, sure it was extravagant but it still felt like a family home whereas this just feels cold and sterile. It has this sort of emptiness that seems so common with the way rich people’s houses are decorated in media. There’s not even a single snowflake in sight either, you call this Chicago?

And just think back to the lengths Kate was willing to go to to get back home to Kevin, “If it costs me everything I own, If I have to sell my soul to the Devil himself, I am going to get home to my son.” The step mother here though couldn’t care less and is prepared to just throw money at the problem until Kevin’s love is bought.

Now that I think about it, it’s called Home Alone but I don’t think there’s a single point in this movie where he’s left Home Alone. He’s either being babysat by Buzz, the butler or the nanny. Well I guess there has been some character growth around t

Of all the re-hashes though, there is one that is particularly alarming...

Goddamnit! They did it again! I’d been safe for years but it just keeps on finding its way back to me. And they can’t even do that tradition right, you’re supposed to play a foreign dubbed version! We’ve already had the French and Spanish versions, where’s the German one?! Though the alternative universe where George isn’t there to save Harry so Harry then can’t save that ship full of American soldiers in WWII is probably considered the good ending there...

#Christmas 2020 #Home Alone #Home Alone 4

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chicagoindiecritics · 4 years

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New Written Review from Mike Crowley on You’ll Probably Agree: What it was like returning to the theater to see “Inception” and what theaters will look like after the pandemic

SKIP TO THE FIFTH PARAGRAPH FOR MY THEATRICAL EXPERIENCE

I had my doubts if Christopher Nolan was the true authoritarian on demanding “Tenet’s” release. I know he has enormous power in Hollywood, but was he wielding it like a selfish dictator? A man of his intellect couldn’t be narrow-minded enough to refuse to delay his film until it’s safe to show in theaters, right? About 70 films have been pushed to the fall, next year, or placed on streaming. James Bond, Christopher Nolan’s childhood hero, was even forced back to a November release date. A November release date in which, like many, is viewed to be moved until things are safe. After seeing the promotional materials for the 10th anniversary 70mm print of “Inception,” there’s absolutely no doubt that Nolan is entirely hell-bent on releasing his film only in theaters. To see these promotional materials, I couldn’t access them online. At least not by any legal means. Much like his iMax previews to his last four films, it was mandatory to watch them in the cinema.

Attached were two reels. One was a 10-minute preview for “Tenet.” After that was a 2-3 minute look back on “Inception.” In both shows, Christopher Nolan makes it crystal clear that his films are intended to be seen on the biggest screen possible with the loudest speakers surrounding the audience. On the “Inception” reel, Nolan expressed his disappointment that there are those who couldn’t see his 2010 film in a theatre, so here was their chance to do so. The problem is from my understanding is that the 70mm print of “Inception” that I viewed is the only available one in the United States. I know that when they filmed the sizzle for these movies, Nolan couldn’t have predicted such a global catastrophe. I feel incredibly fortunate to have seen “Inception” on 70mm film when initially I saw it on a generic digital 35mm reprint in a theatre that wasn’t a lover of cinema like The Music Box Theatre in Chicago is.

But even before the Pandemic, how many people would get access to this print other than iMax cinemas? How long could iMax last? Most of the country has switched to digital. Celluloid has become a novelty that I will always prefer over digital, a uniqueness that appeals to a very niche audience. How would that be profitable in the long run? Now with the COVID-19 Pandemic, that novelty will probably die forever. It was probably going to die anyway, just not this fast.

To make a movie on film is far more costly than to use digital. Not only do you shoot the movie, but you must also send it to a lab to develop the print afterward. The chemical emulsion process is an expensive mechanism. Shooting on digital only requires a memory card or hard drive that you can directly dump the data onto another hard drive to start editing immediately on a computer. It’s cost and time efficiency towers over film. The theatrical distribution model is a dying breed, only left alive through purists like Mr. Nolan. His purity may be going a bit too far, however. It was only a matter of time before iMax would once more be something that was only used for nature and space films to be seen in a museum.

Walking into a theatre once more felt like going into a gallery. I can happily make it very clear that The Music Box Theatre is not taking this Pandemic lightly. Instructions weren’t given to me; they were borderline shouted.

-Theatre Attendant: Have you been here since we reopened?

-Me: Uh, I was here before.

-Theatre Attendant: NO! Have you been here on JULY 3rd SINCE WE REOPENED?

-Me: No

The attendant proceeded to provide me with the social distance seating protocol. He ended the briefing with “that’s it.” I almost expected him to say, “dismissed.” Usually, I would have been taken back by such an aggressive custom. Considering the unprecedented circumstances we all are in, I respected the young man’s sternness. I was picturing all the morons he had to deal with that didn’t follow proper instructions. People who ignored the blue “do not sit here” taped signs, took their masks off when not using a concession—pulling their phones out during the movie. Let alone, coughing or sneezing without their face cover. With 745 available seats, only 50 were free to use. People were spread exponentially more than 6 feet apart. In the row next to me, there were two young ladies. One of them was politely holding in her cough. Her mask was still on before the lights dimmed. During my state of alarm, I knew it was only a matter of time before one cough might slip out. Trying to mean no offense, I quietly sneaked towards the nearest row of the screen.

The woman’s coughing wasn’t the only reason I sat in the semi front row; I was also wearing glasses, whereas you may know, masks and glasses don’t make the best mix. If I was close enough to the screen, I can take my fogged up glasses off and still clearly see what was going on the screen. That mostly worked, but my natural eyesight couldn’t substitute for my assisted one. And boy did those glasses get foggy. I increasingly grew jealous of those that could tolerate contact lenses. Even worse were people with perfect vision. I had to limit my breathing during the film because every natural exhale felt like a steam pipe was being burst onto my eyes.

With me, I came equipped with two masks. The medical kind you see everyone wearing, and a cloth one. Both were on at the same time. In my pocket was a bottle of hand sanitizer for whenever I touched a surface. I heard that COVID doesn’t last on surfaces, but I’ve listened to the CDC change their minds before. My paranoia level varied. Once comfortably watching the film from a safe distance with my double-layered mask, I felt secure. The Music Box has been open for long enough since the Pandemic. I haven’t heard of any cases appearing within their establishment. They’re not like some local restaurants or bars I saw in Wisconsin during my vacation there who acted like everything was normal. With that said, you can’t control the actions of others.

Let me be clear that I never removed my mask once during the entire three hours I was in that theatre. While the movie played, I turned around to see if my fellow patrons were applying the same amount of caution that I was. In the beginning, everyone was covered up during the pre-roll “Tenet” adds. The rule in the theatre was that once seated, you can only remove your mask when eating or drinking, then immediately put it back on. This rule was announced by the man I spoke to earlier, where he took the stage before the film began. There was no way you could claim you were unaware of the safety guidelines. Of course, Americans had to act like Americans. Once the film started after the promos, everyone’s masks were off. At one point during the movie, that lady who I moved away from that was coughing, yup, one cough slipped out. Luckily I was about 50 feet away from her while looking like Shredder with my extra protection. Throughout the rest of the film, I didn’t hear a single cough or sneeze. How did the movie look on its correct format though? Spectacular.

Christoper Nolan may be a stubborn stick in the mud, but my God is he right when it comes to the beauty of the theatrical experience. The black levels in the colors are vibrant far beyond anything you’ll get on your 4K 60-inch television; the sound is bone shatteringly clear. Every nuanced detail in the phenomenal production design is visible to an otherwise naked eye; this is something special. “Inception” is a bombastic operatic picture in the very best sense of the meaning. My appreciation for the 2010 spy thriller was improved when seeing it on the big screen. Even with my fogged up glasses and short breaths, I felt like it was an experience worth having. To have that experience though you really, REALLY, have to love film. The common man would not go to the trouble I did to see a movie that they can easily watch at home.

Seeing “Inception” in a nearly abandoned theatre that still classifies as sold out was a bit of a relic. I felt like the little kid in “The Last Action Hero” walking into the old man’s theatre. I’m experiencing something from a great past time that no longer exists. It was like going to the Omnimax Theatre in the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry. Only this time, there was an inherent fear of disease, which luckily rapidly dissipated once there. I sympathize entirely with Christopher Nolan’s stone wall decision on maintaining a theatrical release for “Tenet.” He doesn’t have the power alone to release the film, whichever way he sees fit. Warner Bros is in the same boat as him. Nolan was the man who brought Batman back from the dead. He’s the one man in Hollywood who can sell an original big-budget picture on his name alone. Chris brought Warner Bros a lot of money.

The theatre is located upstairs

The termination of the Paramount decree’s 72-year law is the final nail in our current chain’s coffin. Movies won’t be evenly distributed. All of our existing theatrical establishments are running around like chickens with their heads cut off trying to make their money back to the point of offering 15 cents per movie ticket upon initial reopening. When theaters do come back, they’ll be rebuilt, owned by the studios that distribute them. You’ll have your Disney theatre attached to your Disney store. Watch “Spider-Man Homecoming 3” on the second floor, then buy your Spider-Man toy on the first floor. Go to your Netflix theatre so you can see a film four months before it hits streaming. Finally, go to a Warner Bros theatre in Six Flags Great America, where you can watch Matt Reeves’ “The Batman.” Then buy your Robert Pattinson caped crusader doll when exiting the show. The funeral is in procession for theaters as we know it. Christopher Nolan may be able to make movies on film throughout the rest of his career, but to see them on celluloid; you’ll have to go to a museum or a specialty theatre like The Music Box. Such a realization is a heartbreaking reality. The sooner we can accept it, the better off we’ll be.

More of my thoughts on the future of movie theaters can be seen below.

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serenavangstuff · 4 years

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Juniper Publishers-The Exercise Continuum and the Role of Doctors

Introduction

Everyone can be placed somewhere on an exercise continuum with the idle at one end and the hyperactive at the other. At both extremes, health suffers. Exercise is essential to health and managing it is the responsibility of individuals but few know what they should do. Doctors seldom teach how to be healthy and act only when repair is needed.

The Idle

In the oceans, lakes and rivers are creatures that stay in one place and water flows over them bringing food to their open mouths and removing waste from the opposite end of their bodies. Of all land animals, humans are the only creatures able to exist by the same idle method. The human brain can contrive a situation in which other humans care for idle ones and this is not about looking after a patient in bed, it is feeding an idle person who commands others. That image, perhaps of ancient kings, is seen by many to represent ultimate ambition; servants supplying all needs. The reality is that the idle one is the one that suffers and those scurrying around have more benefits.

These days, physical inactivity is available to all, rich and poor and some of the poor appear to love it. Getting food has become no more arduous than opening a packet. Ordering and paying for it is done by pressing buttons on a smart phone and getting the money in the first place is in some countries only a matter of getting state aid on the grounds of unemployment or being unable to work. The more idle they are, the less they are able to work. The consequences are obesity, diabetes and heart disease. Muscles weaken and joints are unable to carry the added weight. Generally, idleness is accompanied by little mental stimulation which leads to further decay of the body. Doctors are then asked to make repairs. In go the drugs, up go the pharmaceutical profits and up go the costs to insurers and governments. Should the doctor take the smart phone away, ban them from television and send them swimming three times a day because swimming is less damaging to fat limbs than walking and to run is impossible? Such hardship would help the patient and in some rare cases it is being done. Usually they get drugs and a suggestion that they should exercise but no enforcement. This is the situation in the prosperous countries in recent years.

The Hyperactive

In racing sports, they talk of going through the pain barrier. The margin of safety is considerable. Grin and bear it and you will win. By that means, it was not always the strongest who won but the person who could tolerate most suffering. When drugs became available, the pain barrier ceased to be a barrier and the body lost its protection. The determination to win would expose the body to excess stress that could be fatal (Figure 1).

I took this photograph of a bicycle hill climb in 1965. Almost certainly no performance enhancing drugs were used. At the finish line, all the competitors were gasping for breath and some lay on their back to recover but they were up again in a few minutes grinning and eager to find out their time. The winner I knew well back in those days and he went on to become the National Hill Climb Champion. He was only a year older than me and, from what I have been able to find out, he died some years ago of a strange illness. He had suffered a crash in a race and had never properly recovered. This, as I see it, is a danger. He had pushed himself too far, not just in physical effort but by taking chances. It was a risk he would not ordinarily have taken but, in a race, where everything is about winning it becomes combat.

The drugs scandals at the Olympic games and in the Tour de France cycle race are now headline news. That competitors will sacrifice their lives for the vanity of winning shows the danger of sport at this level.

Amongst amateurs, dangers abound. There are combat sports that were encouraged because they prepare soldiers for battle. With less hand to hand fighting in modern armies and more alternatives in schools that are threatened by lawyers there is less boxing but rugby is still popular especially in fee- paying schools. A young boy's father will tell him that the rough treatment in a game of rugby will make a man of him. If the boy is stocky enough and determined, it is very likely he will have a life changing injury before he is thirty. Physiotherapists and orthopaedic surgeons specialising in joint replacements are grateful to football, squash and tennis for the business it brings. Footballers get kicked as well as adding pressure to their knees and hips. Racquet games twist the knees more violently than straightforward running with the result that a titanium implant is offered as the easy repair. The fact that a revision (another replacement) will be needed ten to fifteen years hence is seldom mentioned.

At the extremities of all sports there are dangers even in those that are danger-avoidant. Rock climbing is all about fall prevention until the glory of not using a rope takes over and then there is no back up. Mountaineering is safe until risk taking becomes more attractive than the scenery and the threats of bad weather, an avalanche or thaw (the ice giving way) are pushed to one side believing that these hazards have been overcome before. Confidence leads to invincibility, a concept that has never been proven.

Over confidence is as much a danger as depression. The role of exercise in combatting depression with the suicides and anger that arise are seldom appreciated. Mental health benefits from exercise as much if not more than bodily health.

There are many activities classed as sports that do not involve muscles and cause damage to the participants and even more so to spectators. Motor racing is a major culprit. Deaths on the track are less than they used to be but they instil a culture of speed which on the public road will kill. It was often commented years ago when people went to the cinema that after a James Bond film the cars were hurtling away a break neck speeds with the drivers inspired by what had enthralled them half an hour before. Motor racing is nonsense. The winner is not the most skilful but the one prepared to take most risk. Is that meritous? It is not even a sport. Shooting must be equally condemned. Just as the ancient Greeks may have delighted in wrestling and the Romans in gladiator fights, those sports gave way to fencing and when those weapons were superseded by guns it was shooting that was applauded. To aim, it is necessary to be fit, so the argument goes, so that one can hold one's breath when firing to keep the gun steady as one breaths. Does that compare with the fitness of a swimmer or any athlete? When the target for shooting is an innocent wild animal or bird, the claim that this is a sport is hard to sustain.

It is a fact that most people are impressionable; they are followers and do not question those they admire. This gives role models a responsibility many of them do not understand. A star footballer is seldom an intellectual. From being groomed at school to being paid to play the game, he has learned only that what he does is right; it must be because he is paid a lot to do it and whatever he does must be right. He has a licence to do anything because at the extreme end of the exercise continuum he excels. Brawn beats brain and entertainment damages a thoughtless majority. Doctors are left to pick up the pieces. Could they have advised so that the damage is avoided?

The Importance of Exercise

Between the extremes of immobility and hyper-activity is where we should be but where is it? A good observation is a report on cycling to and from work:

Kevin Murnane writes: The effects of walking and cycling were measured by comparing them with the Non-active mode of transport. Cycling to work was associated with very large health benefits. Commuters who cycled to work had a 41% lower risk of dying from all causes than people who drove or took public transport. They also had a 46% lower risk of developing and a 52% lower risk of dying from cardiovascular disease, and a 45% lower risk of developing and a 40% lower risk of dying from cancer.

This is a study of ordinary people doing what everyone does, getting around as easily as possible. When it involves exercise, there are great benefits - listed in the article:

a) Cycling makes you happy

b) You lose weight

c) And build muscle

d) Without worrying about over eating

e) Good for the lungs

f) Cuts heart disease and risk of cancer

g) Less damage to joints

h) Saves time and money

i) Mental skill of route finding

j) Better sex

k) Better sleep

l) More brain power

m) Improved reactions and responses

n) Better immune system

o) More friends

Each one of the above would be a medical breakthrough. To get the lot for free is astounding and true.

In richer countries in the last decade cycling has become more popular and is said to be the new golf. For those who have always cycled, it is flattering to be recognised as sensible and not shouted off the road as used to happen. When the scientists investigate, they explain what to the cyclist is obvious.

Michelle Arthurs-Brennan reports that a study followed 125 long-distance cyclists. The riders are now all in their 80's but their immune system function is similar to that of 20-year-olds. The research, published in the Aging Cell journal, showed that the ageing cyclists produced the same number of T-cells - which help the immune system respond to new infections - as adults still in their 20s, and a separate study revealed that cyclists didn't lose muscle mass, strength, or gain body fat in the same way as non-cyclists.

Co-author of the report, Prof Norman Lazarus of King's College London is 82 himself; he told the BBC: "If exercise was a pill, everyone would be taking it. It has wide-ranging benefits for the body, the mind, for our muscles and our immune system."

In parallel, the same journalist presents a report on the sex lives of female cyclists:

Saddle discomfort is mentioned and the solution is a well- made lady's saddle of which there are many on the market. They have a slot along the top to avoid pressure on the genitalia. Usually the nose of the saddle is angled down for a lady whereas a man will have the saddle horizontal. Every woman should be able to ride comfortably. If you have a problem, a good bike shop will help you. (BioFlex O-Zone Gel Womens Saddle - Black).

The reports about Robert Marchand are incredible. He is the first of many in his category. One year after setting a new Hour Record for his age category, centenarian cyclist Robert Marchand has decided to hang up his wheels and retire from competitive riding at the grand old age of 106. A multiple record holder for age-group events, Marchand has now been advised not to take on any further competitive events on medical grounds. He can continue cycling but should stop racing. Read the report and note that there is nothing extraordinary about Robert other than he is doing what others half his age could not do. If he can do it, others can. Born in Amiens in 1911, Marchand started riding at the age of 14, but gave up the sport only to return to cycling in 1978 aged 67. Since then he has maintained a daily routine of riding and stretching, eating plenty of vegetables and little meat, not smoking, and generally avoiding alcohol.

Here is a report on a study of aging published on 6th January 2015 in The Journal of Physiology:

a) Emeritus Professor Norman Lazarus, a member of the King's team and also a cyclist, said: "Inevitably, our bodies will experience some decline with age, but staying physically active can buy you extra years of function compared to sedentary people.

b) "Cycling not only keeps you mentally alert but requires the vigorous use of many of the body's key systems, such as your muscles, heart and lungs which you need for maintaining health and for reducing the risks associated with numerous diseases."

c) On the 8th March 2018, Prof Lazarus's team published another study in Aging Cell published by the Anatomical Society and John Wiley & Sons Ltd. and appears to be a similar group of people, maybe the same.

d) Study confirming old cyclists same as healthy young.

e) The benefits of exercise all one’s life has always been known. The biological data is now measured in the Aging Cell report of the study by Birmingham University.

f) Dr Ross Pollock, who led the team of scientists from King's College London, warned that most of us are inactive, which causes 'physiological problems at any age'.

Study of cyclists found they were physically younger than most their age Underwent extensive tests of their heart, lungs and exercise capacity Researchers found they had muscle strength similar to younger people Say it proves cycling keeps the body and the mind staying young Aging and Physical Performance.

Mind and Body

If the articles referred to above suggest that all that is needed to get all the benefits is to move muscle, think again. The mind and body are inseparable. In a paper published last year on The Body’s Operating System, I discussed the effect of mind on body. The interaction is also body on mind. The Birmingham and Kings Studies accurately report the biological effects of exercise. It should be obvious that the same effect will apply to runners, walkers, swimmers and all active people. In these studies, cyclists formed a convenient group that could be identified and measured. Kevin Murnane's article listing 15 benefits is correct. This includes mental health. One cannot cycle without thinking. The machine has to be maintained. It can fail when you are miles from home and you have to fix it. Problem solving is where our brain excels. It distinguishes us from other animals and has got us to the stage where we can disrupt our environment; to solve the problems we have created (Figure 2).

The man repairing a puncture became the British National Hill Climb Champion. With modern tyres and less glass on the road, punctures are not as common as they were. We used to always repair the puncture, not just fit a new tube, and competed to see how many patches were on a tube before it was eventually discarded. You will see that his friends are there to tell him what to do even though he would do better without their distraction. This is social interaction at its best. The group broke up as members dispersed to study and work, married and, in some cases, died. I am still cycling and, if this article makes sense to you, am still fit and cognitively active. The Birmingham-Kings studies required the old cyclists to be able to ride at ten miles an hour for over six hours. Believe it or not that is very easy. Normal cycling speed is 14 mph and a club (chain gang) can be doing evens (20 mph or more). For 10 mph to make the difference between being as fit as a person 40 years younger is very interesting.

This shows that the discovery is not that exercise helps, it is that no exercise is damaging. To exercise always all one's life is normal. To refer to the cyclists as a remarkable minority is to forget what we are, animals born to forage and hunt from dawn to dusk. To feed, we had to exert. When people are astounded that I can ride a hundred miles (160 km) a day, I tell them it is only ten miles an hour for ten hours. If there was more time available, I would be able to cover longer distances. It is not a matter of strength. A normal person is well capable of these distances. The pity is, they don’t know it. Nevertheless, more people are discovering they have hidden talent. Often a bicycle is daunting and they do not live where there are quiet roads. They make go walking, Scottish dancing, swimming or just flogging themselves in the gym.

Resistance

Look at again at the photo of the puncture being repaired. This was before most wheels had quick release hubs. He has taken the tube out of the cover without removing the wheel to avoid getting his hands dirty on the oily chain but he is still going to end up with the grime of the road and aluminium oxide from the rim on his hands and nowhere to wash them. The simple answer is to peel and eat an orange. We were never ill. In the summer of 1966 I cycled from Graz to Athens on unsurfaced roads through the Balkans averaging over a hundred miles a day. There were no plastic bottles of water for sale in shops back then. The water bottle carried in a cage on the bike frame was topped up at roadside wells and pumps. I never had diarrhoea and I drank a lot cycling in the heat through Greece. Nowadays, our exposure to germs is no less but our resistance is far less. Go on an airline flight for a few hours and breath the air expelled by your fellow passengers and be prepared for a sniffling cold for a few days afterwards. These are serious dangers.

Exercise in the open air, away from cities and pollution and your immune system improves not just from exercise but from the simple relationship with your environment, a relationship with which we have evolved. India has a campaign for indoor toilets to be flushed clean by water and proper sewage management. Outdoor defecation that had served for centuries became impractical as population density increased and privacy, especially for the girls and women, became difficult. They are moving to a modern system in which chemicals will certainly be used to solve one problem and cause others. The immune systems will adapt maintained by exercise, sleep, diet and a balanced approach to hygiene. We can be too careful.

Sunshine

Use of gyms is growing and is to be encouraged. For a traditionalist and outdoors man like me, a gym is hard work and uninspiring. In some climates, extremes of hot and cold, it can be the only option. In temperate climates the smell of fresh air, birds singing and wind in the face is pleasure. What the scientists investigating the improvement to the immune system did not record is the vitamin D from sunlight. You don't get it in a gym and the modern practice of protecting the skin from the sun reduces the essential vitamin intake. Sunglasses are worn too often. There appears to be a belief that they protect the eyes. If that were true, I should be blind by now. Bright sunshine tells the skin to beware, it changes and adds protection. People outdoors all the time seldom have the skin cancers that attack those exposed infrequently to unfiltered sun. In high altitude Switzerland and under the thin skies of New Zealand and the southern hemisphere, the conditions are dangerous and protection is essential. Under the haze of The Gulf, sunburn is less a risk.

Diet and Drinks

The old cyclists who have cycled almost all their lives learned what to eat and what to avoid. Very few smoked and that made them outcasts in the 1950s and 60s when the majority of people smoked. You did not need to be a scientist to see that the smoker had not got the puff to pedal. In other words, his lungs were being damaged by smoke. In those days, and I remember them well, almost all doctors smoked. In their ignorance, they gave their patients bad advice.

Food was frequently discussed. We had large appetites. There was more organic food fifty years ago and it was fresher because transport was less efficient than today; food had to be grown locally. Knowing what was best to eat was understood by all and we worked it out empirically. One rider worked as a window cleaner during the week and cycled at the weekend so he was physically active outdoors every day in all weathers. He was our advisor and paid little attention to books. His knowledge came from experience. He never added sugar to his drinks or salt to his food and his explanation made sense to all of us. There was enough carbohydrate in a balanced diet and too much sugar meant too little roughage. Bran and the bike kept him regular. The amount of salt added to bread was more than enough in a temperate climate. Maybe in hot weather when sweating increased the water through-put there is a case for additional salt and more fluids but for the mileage we were doing, about 80 miles on a Sunday run, no additives were needed.

We learned to not be on the road after 10 o'clock at night because the drinkers would be driving away from the pubs drunk. It was not illegal to be drunk driving a car. Indeed, when there was a crash, the defence was that the alcohol made the driver incapable so it was only an accident, not deliberate bad driving. If the driver was incapable, he could not be blamed. Eventually this nonsense led to laws banning drivers from drinking alcohol and there seems to be a recent understanding amongst the general population that alcohol damages health. Cyclists knew it many years ago and by avoiding alcohol they have maintained good health. People have to be told. Is that the duty of doctors?

Resilience

Whether you are on a mountain ridge in the mist or miles from anywhere on a bicycle, you have only yourself to depend on. You may have companions and they look to you for leadership. You have no choice but to be resilient and carry on, map reading, apportioning your energy, not taking risks. It is all about survival. Move then to a city job and your mental attitude goes with you. Exercise maintained your health mentally and bodily.

The Role of Doctors

Clinical evidence that the minority group of old cyclists have an immune system comparable to people in their twenties is proof that the majority of people are in poor health because they do not exercise. If a doctor’s duty is to improve people's health, then the doctor has to tell them to exercise and say it before the deterioration goes too far. On the other hand, if a doctor is there only to repair the damage however caused, the doctor can let people make mistakes through ignorance and this will keep the doctor busy and prosperous. Do we not argue that in an ideal world there need be no police? By the same reasoning, doctors should not be needed if people live properly.

Has science got us to the stage where all illness is a mistake? Humans live and work in communities with many specialising thanks to their education. Theoretically we can prevent all illness and injury by education, control and prevention. For example, from the earliest age, teach and practice the benefits of exercise. Avoid the dangers of extremes. Control individuals by implanted chips so that everyone is answerable to an artificial intelligence central computer thereby eliminating the benefits of crime and war (and I would resist this being done to me and demand that it be done to others, such is hypocrisy and was well foretold in Brave New World by Aldous Huxley and 1984 by George Orwell). Ensure that the makers of pharmaceuticals and machines serve the majority in the world and not just the rich. Ebola can be controlled. Cancer is avoidable.

Guidance on these policies can only be given by those who understand the body and mind and they are doctors. Now is the time for doctors to work towards making themselves redundant. I am sure that will never happen but it ought to be an objective. The police do little to prevent crime. They advise people to lock their doors but does nothing to change the motivation of potential burglars other than apply threats of punishment. Similarly, doctors prescribe drugs on top of drugs without getting to the source of a patient's problem. People respond to carrot, not stick. The evidence is clear. Most people can be maintained in good health by simply changing their lifestyle so that they exercise as much as their bodies have evolved to do. You are a doctor so tell your patient the blunt truth and when you say to them you don’t want to see them again, you mean it in the friendliest way.

To read more articles in Journal of Gerontology & Geriatric Medicine

Please Click on: https://juniperpublishers.com/oajggm/index.php

For more Open Access Journals in Juniper Publishers

Click on: https://juniperpublishers.com/journals.php

#Juniper Publishers #Juniper publishers group #Elderlycare #Aging #Geriatrics #Open access journals

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uacboo · 7 years

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As a boy of 11, I left Ireland for London on Aug. 12, 1964 — the same day Ian Fleming died. That weekend I saw “Goldfinger” with Sean Connery at the ABC Cinema on Putney High Street with my mother, May, and my stepfather, Bill. How could I know then that my life would be entwined by the great alchemy of a cinematic hero such as James Bond? There I sat, that first weekend in my new life in London, motionless and spellbound by the beauty of CinemaScope. I had discovered the movies and Bond, James Bond. However, it cost money to go to the pictures. And that’s when I discovered my first real hero, Roger Moore. Simon Templar, the Saint, all rolled into one man. Only on reflection do I see how much of an influence Roger Moore had on me as a young Irish immigrant lad from the banks of the River Boyne. I guess the combination of Bond and the Saint ignited a flame for fame in my heart of innocent wonder. I wanted to be up there. Roger as the Saint made me believe in his world. And before I knew it, the man who was the Saint transformed into James Bond, an even greater hero to me as a boy. Having by now fully immersed myself in the magic of movies, and with my appetite for more informed and character-driven work in films, I guess I slowly dreamt of being an actor as I watched their work, which never really seemed like work to me. Of course, I was only 12 years old. Only now after 40 years as an actor do I know the hard road it takes to be one. It’s only now, after all these years, that I know he was a hero. He became James Bond — not an easy task for any man. As an actor he must have known the job at hand was Herculean, with an expectant world awaiting; who was next in line? Sean Connery had set the bar high, and George Lazenby, with mighty flair and a valiant heart, had given it his best. Now it was Roger’s turn. He knew his time was now, and he reigned over seven movies as James Bond with exceptional skill and comic timing laced with a stiletto vengeance. He knew his comedy, he knew who he was and he played onstage and off with an easy grace and charm. He knew that we knew. We fell in love with a magnificent actor. Never forgetting the audience, never letting the begrudgers in, Sir Roger enthralled the world for many years as Bond. Sir Roger played it to the end with impeccable good manners and a wicked sense of irony that was born of years upon the stage. He saved our world, for heaven’s sake, with his movies as James Bond. He is the only actor I ever asked for an autograph. I was 12 years old, and my mom and dad had taken me to Battersea Park. I lined up by the Ferris wheel and waited my turn to get his autograph. I wanted to be somebody like him. Maybe that’s why I waited. Little did I know my time would come to someday enter onto the stage as 007. Many years later I was a working actor with a wife and children, and Roger and his Bond came to save the day. My late wife, Cassie, and our family were living in Wimbledon. I had just finished a yearlong run in the West End with a production of “Philomena” directed by Franco Zeffirelli. And then nothing — no work. One day, Cassie got an audition for a James Bond movie called “For Your Eyes Only,” and bingo, we were off to the races once more. The film shot in Corfu. Cassie played Lisl von Schlaf — not a great name, but what a great time. By then Roger was the man — the world was at his feet. He was most gracious to the children and myself. I was there for less than a week, because I got the lead in a six-part series called “The Manions of America.” That miniseries would lead me to play Remington Steele and then, eventually, James Bond. By the time I came to stand on the stage as Bond, the performances of Sean Connery and Roger Moore were difficult to shake from my DNA. Roger came down to set one day on “GoldenEye” and wished me well. I was still in awe of the man. Last time I saw him was at the Albert Hall for a tribute to Cubby Broccoli. What more can one ask for? I am so proud to have known the kindness and humanity of Sir Roger Moore. Golden Globe-nominated actor Pierce Brosnan played James Bond in four films from 1995-2002. What a touching tribute in Variety from Pierce Brosnan.

#roger moore #james bond #pierce brosnan #cubby broccoli #sean connery #remington steele #ian fleming #river boyne

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bholenathvalsan · 5 years

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Horror Branded Content

(~2300 words, 9:30 minutes read)

Branded Content Outfit: a firm or group of firms covering many niches related to a subject or topic. A branded content network or distributor has different sub-divisions or products that can be unbundled from the chain as a standalone brand or line each.

I think I’m seeing this marketing modality badly executed. I’m seeing it this way pertaining to the horror film industry.

Let’s look first towards a successful horror fiction writer. I was going to write an article on Stephen King, but I decided not to. Even if I love his novels, it’s not pertinent for me to write about him on this Tumblog since it would be straying from the subjects I decided to focus on.

Yet, I wanted to mention him, because he is a great example for those looking to make a dent in the horror brand arena.

I think he transcended the branded content stage, first creating his personal, consistent and interlocking mythopoetic horror world, and ultimately becoming a horror household name.

If you read my previous post, you know that I used to be addicted to reading books when I was a child. Thankfully, skater/hc-punk friends pulled me out of that when I was a teen, and I didn’t read again until the fag-end of my teen years.

My way of exploring branded content, without having to invest a big amount of money to do it, was resorting to identity design.

I have the capacity of liking and being enthusiastic and passionate about an above-average quantity of things. My challenge was organizing all my niches in ways that minimized the disparity between the topics.

I achieved the needed organization classifying my subjects and creating a different identity for each broad niche and its sub-niches. This was a basic coping-mechanism for my ever increasing list of interests. I started doing this years ago, not knowing that it would be very useful to me when I decided to put to good use my knowledge and skills.

Even if coping mechanism can’t be called branded content, it has some points in common with it, at the personal level.

Let’s analyze a few branded content firms that specialize in the horror genre.

Production Outfits and Streamers

Shudder

A great idea, that I personally think would benefit if it expands to global markets. Seen from the audience's side, I think it would definitely benefit horror fans outside of USA if they opened the service to non-US subscribers.

I don’t have Shudder and haven’t even tried it, but just seeing its offer, especially the things they produce makes me wish I had it.

Netflix’s User Interface Horror

Since Netflix as a production company still has a lot of room for improvement in the horror genre, let’s just bash it about its user interface.

After a little over a year as a subscriber, my personal conclusion about Netflix is that it’s great for horror TV series. You can sample and watch from the big series catalog they have. Their offer of original and licensed horror series is big.

Still, Netflix’s selling point to me is its price, since the balance between price and quality is beneficial for the subscriber. My personal opinion is that you get a lot of bang from your buck when you subscribe.

I don’t understand those that dis Netflix. Maybe they had a preconceived idea that it was going to be a substitute for having a personal film library, which is way removed from what Netflix has to offer. You’ll have a library of the movies you like that Netflix was able to license only.

Compared to a collectibles marketplace. If you know the business model of Valve/Steam, you know that Steam game buyers don’t physically own the games in their libraries.

The nightmare of Steam video game collectors is if something happened with Valve/Steam and the loss of their collection of games. Netflix has an equivalent to this, the Steam games owner’s worst nightmare. But dealt to the user in smaller, albeit constant, doses.

You can have the greatest curated movie list on your Netflix account, but movies can and actually do disappear from it. I don’t have much of a problem with this, but I do with the way this happens.

When for some reason Netflix pulls a movie from the catalog, it stays in your list, but you aren’t able to watch it. Obviously, the only way of finding out is clicking on it, which is, I think, preposterous. You have to depend on a site that tells about imminent pulls in advance to cope with this.

Another thing, that due to the outdated interface, obliges you to work outside the portal to make your use of it more efficient.

Beyond the licensed classic movies and blockbusters (that for me are the hardest to find), I take it as a sampler and viewer of licensed series and in-house produced movies and series, what’s called Netflix Originals.

It’s good to have because I guess everything Netflix produces is impossible to find elsewhere. Even on the p2p networks.

Still, one thing that I see as very, very bad of Netflix is the minimalist interface. It’s difficult to curate good movies and organize your list.

The simplistic way it orders the movies in one’s personal list is a letdown because you can’t sort or otherwise order them in any way unless you install a Netflix-experience-breaking browser extension or use the User Ordered mode of the list. The User Ordered mode could have fields with information about the movie, like genre and year. But it doesn’t, and that makes it useless.

There’s the possibility of narrowing movies with the genres menu, but that still is inefficient compared with the possibilities of a more streamlined and feature-richer interface.

Search engines showed me alleged browser extensions to deal with this problem, but they don’t work. Don’t bother to install the browser extension that uses grease monkey, it doesn’t work and the provider is a twitch to keep it around, same for the search engines that take one to the pages that have it for download when searching for a solution to this Netflix problem.

I tried it (it’s called Netflix Queue Sorter) with Greasemonkey in Opera, Waterfox, and Firefox. It’s forget it, Pablo, absolutely nothing appears on Netflix page with the extension enabled.

Blumhouse

I don’t know the nitty-gritty of branded horror cinema like what Blumhouse is doing for some years now. What I can say is that, for me, the end product leaves a lot to be desired.

The ultimate insult was to see an article that compared Jason Blum to Roger Corman. I didn’t bother to read it.

It’s wrong when the company’s approach is a profits-based one. Give Blumhouse credit as a profit-turning company, but their movies aren’t comparable to Corman’s by a long shot (no pun intended).

I guess I get the business model of Blumhouse. By keeping the production costs lean they have spare resources to make a greater quantity of movies in a shorter span of time.

To have an assorted and big catalog like that, and integrating all kind of marketing techniques before and the during the promotion, gives them a clear view of what audiences want. Then they have just to allocate resources to the properties that resonate with the audiences. And then... the numbers speak for themselves.

Why I think a system like this wouldn’t be sustainable, and why I dislike Blumhose so deeply? Because I’ve watched, I’d say around seventy percent of their movies and I can’t remember almost any scenes from practically any of them.

What’s more, when I remember a scene of any one of them, if I’m able to do that at all, the only thing that I remember is that I was disappointed by the movie while watching it. This is a basic sign that the movies aren’t good. Even if you go with practically null expectations into them, like I went into these movies.

I must have watched Paranormal Activity two, three or four years after it was released, and I really liked it. The low budget, indy approach was a highlight of what attracted me to watch it.

That’s why I kept on watching Blumhouse movies. But my disillusionment with the brand didn’t take long to make its presence felt.

It was depressing, to watch succeeding movies, each and every one of them having a lower value for me than the previous one.

Especially the Paranormal Activity series. From their whole catalog, I can say I like only the original Area 51, Paranormal Activity, Hush, Lords of Salem and Sinister 2.

That’s a pathetic low count of liked movies. The worst part of it all is that these movies cheat, you get used to them and end up enjoying them, but the non-memorable fact is the ultimate truth of them, they aren’t that good.

My final opinion about this company is, one, that they are trying too hard. Two, they go too much by the book. They’re doing what they were told to do in film school: a low-production-values, scarce-funding-resources approach to movie making, to be efficient in business and turn a profit. The result may be the investors getting rich, but a market flood with trash movies.

While I researched for this article, I was confronted with the unknowns.

Companies that I haven’t heard about, nor about their movies, but that slowly seem to be approaching movie-making the way Blumhouse does.

Other Horror Producers

(still in business)

Zide/Perry Productions Hard Eight Pictures Practical Pictures Matinee Pictures New Line Cinema Parkes McDonald DreamWorks Pictures Benderspink New Regency Vertigo Entertainment Solana Films Room 101, Inc Twisted Pictures Lionsgate Platinum Dunes

Most of the contemporary horror movies are created by any of these companies.

On the other hand, these below I found them when researching for this article, and I think I haven’t watched any movie by them:

Dark Matter Dark Rift Films Terror Films Thriller Films Roller Disco Massacre Aventus Dark Dunes Eleven Film Last Doorway Productions

I have still to check out these companies.

Internet-based Horror Branded Content

One easy way to find out if a site is part of a branded content web chain is to look at the footer of the said site. If there are additional domains being offered, that’s most probably branded content.

Horror.net

The aggregation system doesn’t have any flexibility for serious horror curating. It’s obvious that the horror community didn’t adopt it because of the obtuse and lacking features design.

This promotes a random frame of mind that pre-conditions one to accept whatever is given. Seriously, what were the designers thinking when they did this? It reflects on the content, very old, non-updated things.

A great idea badly executed. Naysayers will say it’s just a museum now. But let’s see it for what it’s worth. I’m sure that going through the pages of these portals would be a field day for curators.

Someday I’ll curate entries from this horror portal that survived through the years. I tested links, some are dead, but some took me to horror bloggers and such, sites still being updated that seem interesting.

I guess if your intention is learning about horror, its age makes it valuable due to the entries being so old. If the horror things they link to are still up, that does mean something.

Buried.com

A monster site about horror. As I see it, the fun factor of for this site was very intended.

Horror Movies Database (12555 movies) Horror Movies Reviews (4900+ reviews) Horror Fiction Reviews (1000+ reviews) Horror Interviews (300+ items) Horror Editorials Horror Conventions Classic Horror Films: links to Horror.net’s tribute sites

Tribute Sites:

　　The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 　　The Evil Dead 　　Friday the 13th 　　Halloween 　　A Nightmare on Elm Street 　　The Living Dead

Samhain.com

Halloween search directory. Sixteen sections with links to more than 1000 sites. The sections seem to cover almost everything related to Halloween. From the history of the holiday to even Halloween cooking to safety.

HauntedHouses.net

Haunted houses directory. Currently broken.

Horrormovies.org / Brimstone Pit

Horror movies database. Has a basic initial-based organization. Still, it also allows searching horror movies with its search function. It can be a broad search or narrowed down by title, plot, actor, director, producer, writer, composer or keyword.

ScreamQueen.com

A directory for scream queens. I have to give credit to this site for the concept. It’s a really original and helpful concept to make a directory of scream queens. This is an important niche for many horror fans.

Cryptcrawl.com

It’s another horror portal-cum-directory touted as horror and Halloween search. It has sixteen niches, that are similar but also different from horror.net’s twelve.

FirstFright.com

Another original idea, a hub for press releases related to horror. A great idea, but they’re no longer accepting press releases.

Frightmaster.com

Horror recommendations. Has a home feed of recommendations, the Frightmaster’s own database of endorsed horror movies. A nice idea, but the site is way, I’d say ~84%, out of order.

Bloody Disgusting

From the site’s About page: “An independently owned champion of the horror genre established 2001”.

Bloody Disgusting mimics the branded content modality, with a silo approach to horror content. It also became a film production company and released more than half a dozen films.

Bloody Disgusting’s sections are:

Movies

Reviews

Editorials

Videos

Video Games

Podcasts

Forums

Bloody Disgusting Select

Distribution company releasing genre films in AMC theaters and on DVD, Blu-ray, and VOD. They have distributed around twenty productions.

HorrorWorld.org

Something I noticed from this chain of content and collectible distributors, is that almost every site has a different founder.

JournalStone.com

Horror books bookstore. Has PDF, .epub, .mobi and paperback formats available. If you buy the paperback version, you get the electronic one free.

DarkDiscoveries.com

A quarterly color/glossy magazine published by JournalStone. It covers the horror, dark fantasy and science fiction genres.

BizarroPulpPress.com

Another publishing outfit, related to JournalStone. The site has articles by Vincenzo Bilof. The ones I could find were either titled Meet The Author and The Tough Questions. They were brief interviews of authors. It has a link to Sean Leonard’s reviews at horrornews.net.

HorrorReview.com

All kind of horror-related reviews.

BuyZombie.com

A site dedicated to all things zombie.

Hellnotes.com

Horror fiction, movies, and art. Similar to the other sites by HorrorWorld.org, but it has the best about page of the lot.

Outro

This article was my way of getting started in knowing internet distributors of branded horror content. I thought it was more valuable to make it something public for others to benefit from it and give input if they care.

It wasn’t easy to find this kind of businesses without a pre-planned set of keywords. Worse if you stick to B, G, and Y only. You have to get used to using like a dozen more search engines.

Photo Credits

Wikimedia Commons 1,2,3

#horror #branded content #content design #content distribution #content management #content development #love of camp

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weekendwarriorblog · 5 years

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WHAT TO WATCH THIS WEEKEND January 4, 2019 – Escape Room

Happy New Year!

Thankfully, we’re getting a fairly light first weekend to the year, which is good, since I was ready to retire after last year’s sucky year. But it’s 2019, a new year and hopefully one with new opportunities. In fact, I wrote something previewing the 2019 box office for my old boss at VitalThrills.com, which you can read here.

As far as this weekend, and as has been the case a few times over the past few years, the year is kicking off with a horror movie.

ESCAPE ROOM (Sony)

This high concept horror movie is the sole release of the weekend, and why not? After all, the film’s director Adam Robitel kicked off 2018 with Insidious: The Last Key, which he directed, and that opened with $29.6 million on its way to $67.6 million domestic and $100 million overseas.

There’s actually a pretty long history of horror movies kicking off the New Year with big business, even though most studios are afraid those returning to work/school after the long holiday might be too focused on work/school to go to the movies. Usually, these horror films are fairly low-budget, so there isn’t much danger, but there have a few substantial hits in the first weekend of January like Taken 3 and Leonardo DiCaprio’s The Revenant. In 2012, Paramount opened the high-concept horror The Devil Insideto $33.7 million, and that movie cost a cool million so it was instantly profitable. Another early January hit was 2005’s White Noise from Universal, which opened with $24.1 million; 2013’s Texas Chainsaw 3D also opened with $21 million. Few of these movies are expected to stay around very long and few of them last beyond opening weekend.

As with many horror movies, the cast doesn’t do much to sell the movie, as Robitel stars in this one along with Deborah Ann Woll (Netflix’s Daredevil), Taylor Russell (Lost in Space), Tyler Labine and others whom I’ve never heard of.

At one point this had the generic title of “The Maze,” so it was a wise move to change the movie’s title to something that’s easy to understand (and works on a couple levels), since most young people that might be interested in the movie will know what an escape room is and may have even taken part in one or two.

Being the only new movie this weekend should help it bring in some of its projected younger target audience, especially being so different from other options in theaters. Coming out just two days after people are back from vacation may mean their priorities lie elsewhere, but this still should be good for somewhere between $12 and 15 million this weekend, and it should be able to make between $30 to 40 million depending how much it gets destroyed once Glassopens in two weeks.

MINI-REVIEW: Assuming you already know what an escape room is or have participated in one, then you’ll already know what to expect from this high-concept thriller that’s more about tension than gore. Then again, if you’ve seen Cube,Saw II or are even vaguely familiar with Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians, then you’ll also be ready for this idea of strangers thrown together into a puzzle game of survival.

Personally, I prefer comparing it to Final Destination, my favorite horror franchise, as that also throws people together into situations where they have to work together to survive, the winner being promised $10,000. From the very first room, which turns into a giant oven, it’s obvious that it’s going to be harder to escape with one’s life.

In most horror movies, the characters are mostly stereotypes, including a-holes and idiots alike, who you’re eager to see killed off. In the case of Escape Room, there are actually likeable people including Taylor Russell’s shy science nerd Zoey, Deborah Ann Woll’s Amanda, a veteran of the Iraq War and other equally compelling (or annoying) characters.

What’s good is that Escape Room knows viewers need to be invested in and entertained by these people, which is why you have comic relief in Tyler Labine’s Mike and escape room expert/enthusiast Danny (Nik Dodani). Jay Ellis’ Jason is the clear-cut a-hole finance guy stereotype, while Ben (Logan Miller) is the underdog who never gets a break.

As they go through the rooms, we learn more about their pasts and what links them together, which makes things far more compelling and emotional as it becomes obvious that any of them can die at any time.

The key to movies like this is when it gets to that third act, and there needs to be some sort of reveal of why these six people are being put through all of this and who is responsible. It’s often the point when movies like this can succeed or fail, and if you’re familiar with other films in this genre of horror, you can probably guess some of those things and probably be right.

If you can get past the decision to leave things open-ended without all the expected answers, Escape Room is equal parts clever and fun, pretty much the movie experience being advertised.

RATING: 7.5/10

This week’s Top 10 should look something like this…

1. Aquaman (Warner Bros.) - $24.8 million -53%

2. Mary Poppins Returns (Disney) - $15.5 million -45%

3. Escape Room (Sony) - $14.6 million N/A*

4. Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse (Sony) - $10 million -45%

5. Bumblebee (Paramount) - $9.6 million -53%

6. The Mule (Warner Bros.) - $7.1 million -40%

7. Vice (Annapurna) - $4.5 million -42%

8. Second Act (STXfilms) - $4 million -45%

9. Holmes and Watson (Sony) - $3.5 million -55%

10. Ralph Breaks the Internet (Disney) – $3.1 -52%

* After seeing the movie and how well it plays with an audience, I have upped my weekend prediction.

LIMITED RELEASES

Opening on Wednesday at the IFC Center is Oscar-nominated filmmaker Christian Frei (War Photographer) and Maxim Arbugave’s doc GENESIS 2.0 (KimStim), a documentary that profiles the hunters who brave the North Sibeiran Islands looking for rare mastodon tusks and other artifacts that are worth quite a good deal of money. While the tusks are often bought for a substantial resale value, they’re also are being preserved for the Mammoth Museum in Russia, and Frei’s film looks at the scientific efforts of North Korean scientists to find a sample of living mammoth DNA that can be cloned to bring the prehistoric creature back. Much of the film focuses on the Grigoriev brothers, Semyon being a paleontologist who runs the Mammoth Museum; as well as Spira Slepstov, a first-time tusk hunter in it for the “big money” promised by investors; geneticist George Church, one of the pioneers in synthetic biology; and controversial Korean scientist Woo Suk Hwang, who has cloned hundreds of dogs and hopes to help the efforts to bring back the mammoth. There’s some really interesting science on display in the film which harks back to the documentary work by Werner Herzog with films like Cave of Forgotten Dreams and Encounters at the End of the World. (Frei’s narration isn’t nearly as commanding but it adds to the comparisons.) It also should be of interest for those who enjoy sci-fi films like Jurassic Park, as it explores the real science behind the science fiction. Genesis 2.0 will also open at L.A.’s Laemmle Music Hall on Jan. 18.

Another doc opening at the IFC Center is the Polish Oscar-shortlisted COMMUNION (from director Anna Zamecka looks at the lives of 14-year-old Ola, a Polish teen who must care for her autistic brother Nikodem while preparing him for his first Holy Communion, while also dealing with a lay-about father who relies more and more on his teen daughter. I was generally mixed on the film only because I’m not as big a fan of cinema verité-style documentary filmmaking i.e. just rolling the camera to show the lives and offering no narrative to help viewers understand the story.

Based on true events, Gerard Butler and Peter Mullan (Ozark) star in Kristoffer Nyholm’s suspense thriller THE VANISHING (Saban Films) about three lighthouse keepers working on a remote Scottish island who discover a wrecked rowboat on which is a chest full of gold, forcing the men to make some tough decisions. It opens in New York (Cinema Village), L.A. (AMC’s University City Walk) and other cities as well as On Demand this Friday. This is actually a fairly decent film, mostly due to the two lead actors doing a rare smaller film in their native country and accents.

Jen McGowan’s thriller Rust Creek (IFC Midnight) stars Hermione Corfield (Pride and Prejudice and Zombies) as ambitious college senior Sawyer who takes a wrong turn on a way to a job interview and ends up in the frozen Kentucky woods pursued by outlaws until she hooks up with an enigmatic loner (Jay Paulson). It opens at the IFC Center and other theaters, as well as On Demand.

The final thriller (of sorts) this weekend is Meredith Danluck’s directorial debut State Like Sleep (The Orchard), starring Katherine Waterston as a widow who receives a disturbing phone call a year after the death of her husband (Michiel Huisman). Also starring Michael Shannon and Luke Evans, it’s in select theaters Friday and On Demand beginning Tuesday, following its premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival last year.

From China, the sequel to Xing Fei’s action-adventure film Mojin: The Lost Legend, Mojin: The Worm Valley (Well GO USA) once again follows tomb explorer Hu Bayi on a mission looking for the Tomb of Emperor Xian, which is located on an island filled with monsters. It will open in select cities.

James Brolin and Cybill Shepherd star in Rod McCall’s Being Rose with Shepherd playing Rose Jones, a widowed ex-cop who is diagnosed with a life-threatening health issue, so she decided to go on a road trip of the Southwest on her motorized wheelchair. In New Mexico she falls for an old cowboy, played by Brolin.

REPERTORY

METROGRAPH (NYC):

The Metrograph has been doing late night screenings most of this year, but this weekend they make it official with Late Nights at Metrograph, running from Thursday through Saturday nights with this weekend starting out with Masaaki Yuusa’s appropriately-titled Anime Mind Game (2005). Things are getting a little more esoteric in the New Year (at least for me) with Pier Paolo Pasolini: A Future Life, Part 1, a retrospective of the Italian filmmaker’s works including Salo, Or the 120 Days of Sodom (1975), The Decameron (1971), The Canterbury Tales (1972) – the latter two of the three movies in his “Trilogy of Life” -- and more. I’ve heard of some of these but never seen any, so maybe that will change as this runs over the next two weeks. This weekend’s Playtime: Family Matinee is Barry Levinson’s baseball movie The Natural (1984), starring Robert Redford. On Saturday night, the Metrograph is also doing a special event, a screening of Godard’s 2010 film Film Socialisme presented by author Nico Baumbach.

THE NEW BEVERLY (L.A.):

Tarantino’s repertory theater kicks the year off with a number of double features with Francis Ford Coppola’s 1972 classic The Godfather. On Weds. and Thurs, it will double feature with The Gang That Couldn’t Shoot Straight (1971), while Friday and Sat. sees it paired with Richard Fleishcer’s The Don is Dead (1973).

FILM SOCIETY OF LINCOLN CENTER (NYC):

You have to give the Film Society credit for being loyal to the filmmakers who regularly bring their works to the New York Film Festival, and in honor of Roma’s premiere there last year, this week begins Complete Cuaron, which is exactly what it sounds like showing all nine of Alfonso Cuaron’s films including Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, although it’s also a great chance to see Children of Men back on the big screen as well as seeing Gravity back in 3D.

QUAD CINEMA (NYC):

The Rated X series continues this weekend with a few repeat showings, plus the Quad is screening the 1991 film Van Gogh from the Cohen Film Collection. Also, the Quad will be showing a 30th anniversary rerelease of Isao Takahata’s anime Grave of the Fireflies.

IFC CENTER (NYC)

Hm… no new series announced yet for 2019… :(

EGYPTIAN THEATRE (LA):

Oscar-winning filmmaker Adam McKay gets a tribute this weekend with a double feature of Vice and The Big Short on Thursday, while Rob Marshall gets himself a triple feature on Friday with his musicals Mary Poppins Returns, Into the Woods and Chicago and Marshall there in person. (The American Cinemateque’s other theater, the Aero, is also showing fairly recent films rather than repertory ones.)

FILM FORUM (NYC):

Jacques Rivette’s banned 1966 drama La Religieuse (Rialto), starring Anna Karina, gets a 4k restoration, while this weekend’s Film Forum Jr. offering is Buster Keaton’s Three Ages (1923) with live piano accompaniment.

LANDMARK THEATRES NUART (LA):

Friday’s midnight offering is the classic 2001 Anime filmAkira.

MOMA (NYC):

New Year means a new series, and this week begins Modern Matinees: Sir Sidney Poitier with 1963’s Lillies of the Field(for which Poitier won the Oscar) on Weds, To Sir, With Love (1967) on Thurs. and Norman Jewison’s In the Heat of the Night (1967) on Friday.

MUSEUM OF THE MOVING IMAGE (NYC):

The Astoria theater is beginning January with a series rescreening a Curator’s Choice of films from 2018 including Hereditary, The Rider and more.

That’s it for this week, but next week, there are three new movies in wide release, Sony’s A Dog’s Way Home, Keanu Reeves’ sci-fi thriller Replicas and the Bryan Cranston-Kevin Hart comedy The Upside.

#WhatToWatchThisWeekend EscapeRoom Movies Reviews BoxOffice TheWeekendWarrior

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filmista · 7 years

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Vintage horror: Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960)

In 1960, Alfred Hitchcock decided to make a different kind of film than he had ever made. US censorship had become more relaxed and B movies gathered thanks to their rotation in drive-in theaters many times their cost. This gave him the opportunity to experiment with the horror genre and to display his versatility to the world.

To cut costs, he used instead of his usual film crew team of the popular television series Alfred Hitchcock presents, lesser people. Only composer Bernard Herrmann, and his personal assistant Peggy Robertson were allowed to participate.

Hitchcock managed to complete the film for one million dollars. However, he was not convinced of the quality and even toyed with the idea to shorten the film and use it for television. But as so often his wife Alma had a positive influence on him and the film was brought into cinemas.

Psycho became a huge success in no time and one of the first so-called hypes. The influence that the film has had on the horror genre, shouldn’t be underestimated. In 1998, Gus Van Sant made an exact remake of Psycho; The film was butchered worldwide under the motto "if it ain’t broke, then don’t try to fix it."

Throughout film history there probably hasn’t been committed a murder that is as famous as the one in Psycho. Almost everyone knows the iconic scene in which the character Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) is attacked while showering with a knife. In the 45 seconds that the attack lasts, director Alfred Hitchcock used more than seventy angles. When the attacker flees and the horrible violins on the soundtrack die down a little, Marion collapses and takes the shower curtain down with her in her fall.

Leigh died in early October 2004 at the age of 77. In her career, she has portrayed more than one impressive role. Yet she will always be remembered, for coming to her end screaming in that damned shower.

For her role she got her only Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Leigh became a horror icon as did her daughter Jamie Lee Curtis ("Halloween" (1978), "Halloween H20: 20 Years Later" (1998) and 'Halloween: Resurrection' (2002)). In H20 mother and daughter act side by side. Psycho apparently led many viewers to become afraid of the bathroom and Leigh admitted several times that she wasn’t able to shower without fear after seeing the film.

If you look at that particular moment without any context in the year 2017 you’ll find it incomprehensible even silly, why precisely this one murder has become so famous. So many years later, it looks pretty old-fashioned. It’s not so much about the moment itself but rather the impeccable, unpredictable buildup to it: It is a massacre that no one saw coming. And one that by the standards of that time was very intense and in your face.

By the time the Marion Crane comes to her grizzly end, Psycho is a small three quarters of the way…

The film begins with office clerk Marion Crane she works hard but earns too little. She wants to marry her boyfriend Sam (John Gavin), but she also has to survive on a meagre quite miserable salary. One day she receives from her boss the task to take a large sum of money to the bank. In a fit of despair and desperation Marion decides to keep the money for herself and then she flees. After a long journey, she stops to spend the night in the first, completely random motel that she encounters.

It turns out to be the Bates Motel, where the timid and shy Norman Bates (Anthony Perkins) works alongside his mother. He has it turns out a weird fascination with mommy dearest, who lives in the sinister mansion that stands behind the motel. Norman and Marion eat something together, and she decides to take a shower. How that shower ends we all know. Afterwards Marion's sister Lila (Vera Miles) and her friend (Sam Lomis) come to investigate, assisted by inspector Arbogast (Martin Balsam). It soon becomes clear that Norman is not quite who he seems.

It’s now almost impossible to imagine how big the shock must have been when Psycho was first released to the public. At the time Marion gets in the shower, there is no reason to not believe that she is not the protagonist of the story. Hitchcock himself had bought almost all the copies of the book Psycho to ensure that no one would know the plot twist. He also made his cast and crew swear to not reveal the twist.

What also helped to increase the shock effect was the marketing campaign of Psycho. In 1960 it was still normal to enter the room after ten minutes or even after the first half of a film. That was different in Psycho. Large posters were distributed to cinemas, Hitchcock claimed that nobody (even though you might have been the Queen of England or the President of the United States) was allowed in the room after the beginning of the film. It caused a real hype and there were long lines at the box office.

Even before the release of Psycho horror films were made, but they were especially made for young audiences. A great director had never ventured into the genre. Hitchcock was at the time a familiar face because of his tv series. His latest film attracted a large audience: an audience that was totally not prepared for the gruesome massacre of the main character. Several reviewers described how visitors began to panic and run through the cinema. The screeching violins on the soundtrack, they would only notice during the second or third viewing, because the music simply didn’t rise above the screams of the audience.

And to think that the scene was almost stopped by the censorship committee. In 1960 several (Christian) clubs had much to say about the content of films. They found the famous shower scene obviously much too explicit. But Hitch convinced them that the violence wasn’t all that bad…

According to him, you do not see a woman being stabbed, that is only the illusion of the assembly. That the film is shot in black and white was a deliberate choice of the director. That would help, according to him to make it less gruesome. For many, the film was nevertheless still too much to handle. Walt Disney famously denied Hitchcock access to his park because he had made “that disgusting Psycho movie”

The Bloody script couldn’t appeal to most studio bosses. Because of this Hitchcock decided to fund Psycho largely out of his own pocket, with his house as collateral. He was by this time sixty years old and wanted to deliver something exciting, something that would shock. He had, had enough of the big stars and expensive films. He wanted make something on a small scale. A bold choice, but one that worked out. Psycho was his most successful film yet and the director made his fortune.

All these things contribute to the legendary status that the film still enjoys. About the production a biopic was made, with Anthony Hopkins as Hitchcock. But even without that knowledge in mind Psycho is worth it, as pure entertainment. Of course, the film is slightly old fashioned for modern standards, but the great atmosphere, memorable scenes and legendary soundtrack by Bernard Herrmann are certainly not.

For instance just take the dinner that Marion and Norman have, immediately before she is killed. It is a fairly normal conversation, one we could all have but because of the strange way Hitchcock puts it on screen it doesn’t feel that way. Hitchcock chooses strange, crooked angles and always take the stuffed birds on the wall onto screen. An ordinary dialogue becomes suspenseful even frightening. It’s amongst other things, for that kind of little things that Hitchcock is called the master of suspense.

I read the novel by Robert Bloch on which the film was based a while ago, the book is to put it mildly not a good book, it's even hard to read because it's so poorly written.

Quality wise It’s miles away from what we ended up with in the film. It is essentially a poorly written novel, of the kind you can buy at an airport the scenes are absurd, the horror gorier, absolutely disgusting (in the shower scene, there is talk of decapitation) and far from subtle and even the dialogues are not as sophisticated. And this is not only the merit of the director but also of the talented screenwriter Joseph Stefano.

The actors deliver performances of high calibre. This time, no big stars like James Stewart or Cary Grant, but the back then relatively unknown Anthony Perkins and Janet Leigh played the main roles.

Perkins is especially memorable as the nervous, strange Norman Bates a man who is difficult to seize up and get through. A man whose best friend is his mother and with who you can both sympathise and easily feel hatred for. You really care about what happens to him. And that is a rarity in many modern horror films.

One of the characteristics of a Hitchcock film are the strong interpretations of the actors. Anthony Perkins is great. And It’s a mystery why he stayed Norman Bates in the shitty sequels, as he probably could have done so much more. He was the right man to interpret this particular role though.

Unlike in the book where the main character was obese, older, careless and unsympathetic, Hitchock and Stefano made the character likeable, young, slim, sensitive and even attractive in a nonchalant, almost imperceptible way. Although personally I’d never ever go out with a man that looked at me like this:

I like to think I have common sense and not a death wish...

And it works. You're attracted by the intriguing character with his frail voice. You feel compassion for him, you even feel sorry for him, and at times you feel that a relationship with Marion could possibly flourish. Consequently, the film in the first place is a tragedy and then a horror film.

The question of whether It’s Hitchcock's best? Might divide opinions. The American Film Institute for example, once chose Psycho as the most suspenseful film ever made. Anyway Psycho is much more than just one of the films with the most famous murder in film history. It is one of the most influential and best films ever made. And an excellent movie to get acquainted with the work of Hitchcock.

The film was groundbreaking at a time when horror was actually really more something of the past (Frankenstein, Dracula, ...). The shock element in the film has quite naturally become a little less shocking with the passing of time, but the manipulative narrative technique and masterful interpretations continue to impress and strike a chord.

It’s a film that has inspired many other thrillers and horror films (Raging Bull, Jaws, Cape Fear, Halloween, Dressed to Kill, ...) and, moreover, created a new genre that’s still alive and kicking today, the slasher film. It’s a monument of cinema and should be seen at least once, or more than once by any film lover.

“It's sad, when a mother has to speak the words that condemn her own son. But I couldn't allow them to believe that I would commit murder. They'll put him away now, as I should have years ago. He was always bad, and in the end he intended to tell them I killed those girls and that man... as if I could do anything but just sit and stare, like one of his stuffed birds. They know I can't move a finger, and I won't. I'll just sit here and be quiet, just in case they do... suspect me. They're probably watching me. Well, let them. Let them see what kind of a person I am. I'm not even going to swat that fly. I hope they are watching... they'll see. They'll see and they'll know, and they'll say, "Why, she wouldn't even harm a fly..."

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moviessilently · 7 years

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When a railroad paymaster and the $25,000 in cash he was carrying disappear, returning WWI ace Billy Stokes is put on the case. This independent feature has an all African-American cast and is the only complete surviving feature of the Norman Film Manufacturing Company, a Florida-based studio that specialized in so-called race films.

Home Media Availability: Released on DVD and Bluray.

Up, up and away. Ish.

Richard E. Norman is not a household name these days but he left his mark on motion picture history. Like so many filmmakers operating outside the studio system, Norman tried various approaches until he found one that worked. He started with “home talent” pictures—that is, films shot by itinerant filmmakers in smaller cities and towns that made use of non-professional local talent (you can read my review of one such picture, The Lumberjack, here) but then discovered his niche in making films aimed at African-American audiences.

Poster for the film touting its cast.

Norman was a white Southerner but he did not seek to include the sort of insulting, dangerous, condescending stereotypes that D.W. Griffith was spreading in his films. Black audiences of the day were sick and tired of seeing white performers in blackface acting like monsters, fools or infants; they wanted to see themselves as they really were. There was a strong demand for positive African-American pictures and Norman sought to fill that demand. The Flying Ace is the only extant Norman film and it was the second-to-last feature he made. Like so many independent concerns, the cost of converting to sound proved to be a fatal blow.

Movies were mad for airplanes and Norman aimed to join the fad.

(If you would like more detail on Norman’s life, career and place in African-American film history, I recommend Richard E. Norman and Race Filmmaking by Barbara Tepa Lupack, which traces Norman’s career through personal correspondence and shooting scripts.)

The story opens with three disparate men standing outside a railroad station. Finley Tucker (Harold Platts) is a local sheik with a mysterious source of income, Dr. Maynard (Sam Jordan) is a respectable dentist and Jed Splivins (Lyons Daniels) is the buffoonish local constable. The trio observes the arrival of Blair Kimball (Boise De Legge), the railroad paymaster.

A dentist, a cop and a sheik walk into a speakeasy…

It seems that Kimball has decided to deliver the payroll early. Because no one will be expecting him, he has left his guards behind and is carrying $25,000 in cash all alone. Kimball waits for the next train with stationmaster Thomas Sawtelle (George Colvin).

The stationmaster has a charming daughter, Ruth (Kathryn Boyd), and she is just crazy about airplanes and flying. Tucker has been courting her and he offers to take her up in his plane but nefarious deeds go down while she is home changing into her flight suit.

He wants to get serious but she’s having none of it.

Sawtelle is knocked out by some mysterious substance and both Kimball and the cash disappear. This looks like a job for… Captain Billy Stokes (Laurence Criner)!

Stokes is an ace pilot who has just arrived back home from service in the First World War. Before the war, he was a railway detective and his old job is open to him; he heads over to Sawtelle’s station with orders to solve the mystery. He is assisted by engineer Peg (Steve Reynolds), a fellow veteran who lost a leg in the war. (Reynolds really was an amputee and his ability to still move with balletic grace was a popular feature of his stage show. It’s refreshing to see a disabled part played by a disabled performer, something that modern Hollywood would do well to learn.)

A decidedly unimpressed Stokes.

Stokes asks Peg to disguise himself as a hobo and reconnoiter the situation. Meanwhile, Stokes takes the more direct approach and introduces himself to Sawtelle as the railway detective on the case. Ruth is interested in the dashing pilot while Tucker tries his best to use reverse psychology to throw the blame on Sawtelle. You see, this is not really a whodunit as the film makes it very clear that the money was stolen by Tucker, Dr. Maynard and Jed. The fun is watching Stokes and Peg unravel the clues with tidy efficiency. These fellows are great at what they do!

Impossible in the real world but this is the movies!

The story of The Flying Ace can be viewed as existing in an alternate 1920s, one that contains no white characters, no racism and absolutely no content that would have been considered political (interracial romance, passing, Jim Crow, and so forth). Norman chose to avoid overt political statements in his films (and complained when other filmmakers, such as Oscar Micheaux, did) and instead sidestepped the topic entirely by attempting to portray aspirational African-American characters, heroes and heroines who would never have been allowed within a hundred yards of a mainstream Hollywood production. Captain Stokes certainly would not have been able to earn the title of ace in the heavily segregated U.S. military of WWI. Norman’s approach has been variously described as utopian, savvy and cowardly. Perhaps it was touches of all three.

Stokes knows his stuff.

Now we will compare The Flying Ace to other mystery/adventure productions of the time and see how it holds up in direct competition. First, the bad news.

When viewing any independent silent production, there are usually a few pitfalls to watch out for. In order to save money, low-budget films would often use an enormous number of title cards—it was cheaper to write more cards than to shoot more movie. The Flying Ace uses this trick with cards here, cards there, enough cards to open a casino. They also lack the professional snap of Hollywood intertitles and instead have stiff, formal sentences with plenty of semicolons and an honest to goodness, unironic use of the “I have you now, my beauty!” chestnut. Oh my. Further, there are clunky moments of exposition, like when the film screeches to a halt so that Tucker can show Ruth the mechanical workings of an airplane.

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While the title cards are about as poor a lot as I have ever seen, I am delighted to report that the actual plotting of the film is excellent, if hardly original. Far too many movie mysteries of the period would force their investigators to be stumped by a puzzle that the audience solved an hour before. For example, many mystery films would have had Stokes fret about just how Sawtelle was knocked out, stretching it out for a big reveal. Meanwhile, the audience is shouting, “The dentist! He has all kinds of drugs! The dentist!” Well, Stokes walks in, figures out that drugs were used on Sawtelle, finds a small vial on the floor, meets Dr. Maynard and puts it all together. It’s highly satisfying to watch a detective keep pace with the audience and even get ahead of us.

Don’t take your eyes off Jed!

I was also a bit worried about the characters of Peg and Jed as they are both introduced as broad comedy stereotypes. While this is not entirely done away with, both prove to have more depth than I expected. Peg is shown to be a clever gadgeteer who can innovate new uses for his crutch on the fly and ends up capturing two villains single-handed. Jed soon shows that his Keystone Cop routine is all an act and he proves to be the wiliest of the conspirators with his concealed handcuff key and trusty pistol. I would have preferred the dialect title cards to have been eliminated but at least the characters have some dimension to them.

Peg and his versatile crutch.

Norman had been in talks with Captain Edison McVey, a pilot who billed himself as the King of Stunts, and with famed aviatrix Bessie Coleman. However, McVey pulled out of negotiations and Coleman was killed in an accident before a deal could be closed. Norman finally cast a group of experienced stage actors to serve as the lead performers in the film.

A real charmer!

Without a doubt, the standout of the cast is Kathryn Boyd, who is a perfect charmer as Ruth. With her cute body language and infectious smile, she is exactly what the doctor ordered for a 1920s heroine: sporty, sweet, flirty and loyal. Laurence Criner (Boyd’s real-life husband according to Lupack) is fine if a bit stiff as Stokes, the two-fisted railway detective. He certainly throws himself into the fight scene with Harold Platts, which is always appreciated.

That’s gotta hurt!

Good though the cast turned out to be, the loss of experienced pilots meant that Norman’s options were limited. (Assuming he ever had the budget to include much airplane stuff, which is doubtful.) The Flying Ace rather famously shows no flying. Tucker and Stokes both taxi their planes around the airfield and then we are shown closeups of the cockpits against a sky backdrop but very few shots of planes in the air. It’s not really a dealbreaker but it’s another element that exposes the picture’s micro budget.

Totally up in the air.

In fact, Peg’s pursuit the villains on bicycle is far more dynamic than any of the airplane stuff. He peddles with his crutch and once he gets a good speed built up, he fires at the fleeing car with the gun he has concealed inside that same crutch. It’s exciting and the scene is unusually well-shot and edited for a budget picture. Great work there!

All in all, The Flying Ace is a fine bit of unpretentious silent entertainment and even without its historical importance, it works as a diverting detective yarn. This is a must-see for nerds and casual fans alike.

Where can I see it?

The Flying Ace was released on DVD and Bluray as part of the Pioneers of African-American Cinema box set. It’s accompanied by a fine score performed by the Mont Alto Motion Picture Orchestra.

The Flying Ace (1926) A Silent Film Review When a railroad paymaster and the $25,000 in cash he was carrying disappear, returning WWI ace Billy Stokes is put on the case.

#1926 #African American Cinema #Crime #George Colvin #Kathryn Boyd #Laurence Criner #Richard E Norman #Steve Reynolds

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puddygeeks · 5 years

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Beauty

Garnier SkinActive BB Active – Combination to Oily skin BB cream

Last time I talked about my love for Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation, and although I’ll admit that I’m still absolutely smitten with the coverage and smooth finish it gives, if we’re getting down to real talk, it’s a little out of my budget right now. I’ve been using luxury makeup for quite a few years as my treats throughout the year, but now that we’re committed to saving for a place to live and a wedding, spending money is a thing of the past! Alongside the cost, I’m now getting up at 6am, and so a long makeup routine is not something I have the energy for. That’s where this BB cream comes in! Originally I bought it for Florida as I wanted something lightweight with SPF, that wouldn’t melt too badly in the heat. This gives reasonably good coverage without being overly obvious, stays pretty well over the day and doesn’t feel thick or cakey on your skin. With a layer of powder and some concealer, I’m happy with the finished result for a Monday to Friday at work. At £9.99 per bottle at full price, which has lasted me 5 months already, it’s an absolute bargain! If you fancy giving it a try it’s currently on offer for £6.65 at Superdrug.

Coty Airspun Translucent Loose Powder

This is another product I would consider a luxury item, and honestly I don’t know what I’ll do when it runs out! I don’t use a huge amount of this day to day, I mostly use it for cosplay, but I love to keep it in my daily makeup bag instead of with my costume makeup as it can be used to fix so many problems. I use this powder mostly for contouring when I need an extreme contour to look like a different character, but I also use it for parties or nights out, when I want a heavy makeup look. On a daytime look, I’d mostly use it to fix any shine or areas where I have a larger skin problem I want to cover, like when my dark circles get too raccoon like. Currently it’s not too costly, as there seem to be some U.K sellers on Amazon meaning you can get it for £12.99 including postage, but the last time I ordered it from Amazon I had to have it shipped from the U.S. which got expensive fast, and I think I ended up spending around £30 for it. However that was two years ago and I still have plenty, so I’d absolutely say it’s worth the cost.

Maybelline Tattoo Brow

As I mentioned earlier, I now get up at 6am Monday to Friday for my job, and as someone who is absolutely not a morning person, this has been a struggle. I’ve tried to keep my makeup routine as minimal as possible, because I can’t bear to think about getting up any earlier, and Tattoo Brow has helped to keep it short & sweet. This usually lasts about 3 days before I need to start filling my brows again, but at the moment I’m on day 6 and still only need to top up rather than completely shape my brows. I find shaping my brows to take me a while in the morning, so having them prefilled is amazing. It’s easy to do, and once you’ve applied it you can chill out for 2 hours whilst it works its magic. Then you simply peel it off (pain free and doesn’t pull the hair out) and your eyebrows are done for at least 3 days.

L’Oreal Paris Miss Manga Mega Volume Mascara

I originally bought this as my bestie Hollie rated it and it was far cheaper than the mascara I had been using. I honestly thought it looked like the best mascara in the world and would make my lashes look huge. It turned out that Hollie just has mega dollie lashes naturally and it wasn’t the mascara that was doing it haha! Having said that, this mascara has given me the fullest lashes I’ve ever had, it’s just unfortunate that mine are very short. As you can probably see from the photo, my bottle is very well loved and coming to it’s end, but I thought I’d include it as it’s a budget item that really does the job. I’m not sure if I’ll still get the exact same one next time, as there’s a couple of different “Miss” named products in the Mega Volume line that I’d like to give a try. For now though, if you’re thinking of trying a new mascara and saving some money off those ridiculous £20 a bottle brands which don’t really do anything extra for the money (here’s looking at you Benefit) I’d definitely rate the Miss Manga for only £7.99! Maybe I’ll even review them all over 2019.

Jeffree Star Velour Liquid Lip

I have wanted some of these for the past 3 years since my bestie Claire let me use hers. They’ve been out of my budget pretty much the whole time, so I waited until I went to Florida and planned to buy some to bring home. It was only half way through my trip I realised there wasn’t any shops near us that stocked them and I’d need to buy them online, and I didn’t have time to do so. I was pretty devastated and thought I’d have to wait until I could afford to import some, until my lovely friend Helen came up with these babies! She’d been trying to sell them for ages and they were brand new, so I snapped them up immediately. And I must say, they have absolutely delivered. They apply beautifully (bar the fact I’m personally terrible at them) and they last all day, even through meals. The colours are to die for and I can guarantee I will absolutely be buying more! Thanks Helen! ❤ I currently have the shades Skin Tight, Mannequin, Posh Spice and Androgyny: my absolute fave! I’ll be posting a photo of each on my Instagram later this month if you’re interested in seeing them on.

Kent Brushes Pebble Brush with ladybird

Okay I know I’m late to the party on this one, but I finally invested in a tangle teezer style brush. It took me forever to get one as I just felt they were incredibly overpriced for a hair brush, but I decided to give it a go when I saw this one for £7 and see if it made a difference. I’m so glad I did! My hair has always been ridiculously knotty, but especially now that it’s coloured I find that it dries out easier and can matte up if not well looked after. I’m much more invested in hair care now, as I want to keep my bright colours without ending up having to cut all my hair off to rescue it again, so keeping it matte free is just another step I need to do. I’d say they’re definitely worth investing in if like me your hair knotts a lot, because they’re designed to pull through the tangles without causing total agony. Recently, I even had a cashier during my food shop ask me how my hair is coloured and so healthy, so I guess I must be doing something right?

Food

Aldi Choceur Milk Hazlenut

Okay I’ve only got one food product this month so I thought I’d throw it into the same photo. We’ll keep this one short and sweet – if you like Ferrero Rocher, you will love this. It’s chunkier, but it’s basically a Ferrero chocolate bar and it’s heaven. As you can tell, my January eat healthy goal has gone very well!

Movies and TV

Spider-Man into the Spiderverse

I cannot even put into words how much I have to talk about this! I know I’m way past the hype and I pretty much saw it as late as possible in cinemas but here’s why: I’m not a Spiderman fan. I’ve tried to be, I’m just not. I like Tom Holland in Avengers, but I haven’t bothered watching his films. I know I’m a terrible comic book movie fan, but you can’t like them all. I watched up to Andrew Garfield, and although I honestly found his films okay, I just have never got hype about Spiderman. I wasn’t planning to see the Spiderverse at the cinema, although I was intrigued by the trailer and loved that it was Miles Morales they were following. (Plus not gonna lie I am a huge fan of Gwen Stacey in all forms!) What eventually got me, was seeing all of the hype online. Slowly it started to convince me, until I saw people creating their own Spidersonas and realised that the love for this movie was huge. So I decided to give it a go. And honestly, the only thing I can say without any spoilers to show how much I loved this movie: it made a previous non Spiderman fan want to cosplay several characters. If this film can make a Spiderman fan out of me, I’m pretty sure it can make a fan of anyone. Go watch it.

How To Train Your Dragon: 1&2

Speaking of being late to a series, I am seriously late to this one. I tried watching the first many years ago, mainly just because of my uncontrollable love for Jay Baruchel. I would literally watch anything if his iconic voice and hot skinny self was in it (see Fan Boys, I am so far from into Star Wars but I love that film cuz I just adore him as nerdy, awkward Windows <3). For whatever reason at the time I couldn’t get into it and always meant to go back to it. Karl forced me to watch it last weekend and we burned through both movies. I am beyond excited for the third movie, and it is definitely on my list for cinema visits this month. These films are heart warming, fun and carry some really important messages. And now I want my own Toothless plush to cuddle. And my own Hiccup.

Birdbox

I know literally everyone has talked about this and most people are sick of hearing about it so I’ll just keep this brief. This movie messed me up. I truly enjoyed it, but I was sweating like crazy the whole time and actually felt like I should keep my eyes closed. It definitely got in my head and made me nervous. I thought it was an excellent concept and really stood out from other apocolypse films I’ve watched. Also Sandra Bullock is a goddess as usual and I continue my lifelong worship of her.

Maniac

I thought I’d better throw a TV show in here to mix it up. Yet another thing that messed me up. It probably took around 5 episodes for Karl and I to decide if we actually liked this show, and even by the end I’m not sure if we could say that we did. But it was intriguing and completely different from anything else. At the very least I can say that Jonah Hill and Emma Stone have shown how incredibly talented and versatile they are. I can’t even comprehend how difficult it is to play a single character so many opposing ways in one show, but they nailed it and the result was something powerful and unique. By the end of the show, we didn’t realise how attached we had got to the characters and how badly we were rooting for them. Worth watching, at the very least for how much it stands out from the crowd, makes you think and for an example of excellent writing and acting.

Music

I don’t have a particular album that has been my favourite this month, instead it’s an artist. I’ve been on massive James Arthur binge as late, I’ve always liked his music, but recently I’ve realised how much. Every time he comes on the radio I turn it up, and his voice always makes me all gooey and doe-eyed. So I’ve been listening to a lot of it! Here’s my songs of the month, including my latest James Arthur loves.

Empty Space – James Arthur (How have I only just found out Tom Felton is in the video for this?! This just made top of list!)

Nothing Breaks Like A Heart – Mark Ronson ft Miley Cyrus

Sunflower – Post Malone & Swae Lee

The Power Of Love – Dalton Harris feat James Arthur

Sweet But Pyscho – Ava Max

Without Me – Halsey

And that’s a wrap!

Hope I’ve been able to give you some inspiration for the month. Let me know what your Jan faves have been in the comments

Peace

Kit xx

January Favourites 2019 Beauty Garnier SkinActive BB Active - Combination to Oily skin BB cream Last time I talked about my love for Estee Lauder Double Wear Foundation, and although I'll admit that I'm still absolutely smitten with the coverage and smooth finish it gives, if we're getting down to real talk, it's a little out of my budget right now.

#beauty #birdbox #cinema #cosmetics #favourites #jeffree star #makeup #movies #music #netflix #spiderman #tv

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