I Finally Saw the Estrogen-Fueled Ghostbusters...

...and yes I will be offering my analysis of the movie waaaaaaaaaaaaaay later than everyone else.  Ya ya ya, I know pretty much the entire world has forgotten about this movie and are all focussed on Star Wars VII Rogue One at the moment, but since I gave my analysis of the trailer when it came out I feel obligated to give my 2 cents about it as well.  Plus, I wanted to wait until I actually saw this movie before I said anything about it's quality because that's the fair thing to do.  I finally got the opportunity to view it while on the plane trip to the Philippines to marry my fiancee, so now my critique should have that much more integrity because of that (that is how blogging works, right?)

OK folks, here it is.  I'm about to give my overall opinion of this movie.  Will it be favourable or not?  Will my thumb be up or down?  Will I make an enthusiastic 'yay' or a very crestfallen 'nay'?  Will the egos of Paul Feig, Kristin Wiig, Melissa McCarthy, Kate McKinnon, Leslie Jones (and anyone else who worked on this film in some way) be stroked like a kitten that's a symbol of an erection or OBLITERATEEEEEEEEEEED  like a kitten in a war zone (also a symbol for an erection).  It could go either way at this point.  I could shine my light of positivity or I could cast my shadow of negativity.  The very tone of my analysis of this movie (as well as the tone for the rest of this blog post) all rests on the very opinion I'm about to speak.  It's taken 5 months to make it to this moment and now here it is.

My official opinion of Ghostbusters 2016 with four female leading characters is...........................

a satisfactory 'meh'

It wasn't close to anything great, at many times it wasn't even good, but it was also not the pile of festering garbage that too many people made it out to be either.  In that airplane seat, I clicked that watch button expecting to cringe like it was 'A Rusty Old Rake Being Scraped Against a Chalkboard In a Room Well Below Freezing - The Movie'!  I anticipated my brain climbing out of my head, grabbing the flotation device from under my seat and then jumping out the window with it at some point after the first 5 or 10 or 15 minutes.  But thankfully none of that happened.  To my surprise and delight, I found this movie to be a relatively nice way to spend 2 hours.

Truly, the mind-numbingly stupidest aspect of this movie was all of the hype around it fuelled by the perpetually offended and egged on by the film's director.  I think the Nostalgia Critic satirized that the best in his review so I would like to embed that below right now.



I personally prefer to focus on the movie itself and all of its merits.  That's all I'm interested in anyway.  I don't give two tosses what the SJW or MRA crybabies think.

First I'll talk about all of the good that I saw in this movie.  In my assessment of the trailer, I anticipated that the four women starring in this movie would pull off enjoyable performances and in my opinion that was indeed the case.  The standout performance for me was Kate McKinnon.  She was fun to watch in every scene she was in, whether she was moving all over or just standing there in the background.  I could watch her all day.  My favourite performance of hers was when she was working on one of her ghost-catching contraptions while dancing to El Debarge's song Rhythm of the Night.  That was fun to watch.  Like many people, I was left rather puzzled by a few of the jokes in the trailer involving Kate such as that 'wig surprise' scene and her licking the guns before shooting them.  But, like my attitude was for the whole movie, I didn't want to officially label them as awful until I saw the full context for those jokes.  Now that I have I can see that those jokes do make more sense.  Kate character Holtzman is a rather socially awkward mechanical genius who does weird things and makes weird gestures on a spur of the moment without giving even one care about whose eyebrows were furrowed together.  Upon learning that aspect of her character, those jokes weren't so puzzling anymore and I was satisfied.
Both Kristen and Melissa did their usual brilliance.  I'm sure none of this material was in any way a challenge for them so wasn't blown away by them at all.  They simply showed up, took their roles seriously and held up their end of the movie.  A job well done.  I also enjoyed Leslie Jones performance.  She was essentially being herself, but she is such an overwhelming presence that she couldn't (and shouldn't) possibly hide it.  More than an actress, she is one that gives a definitive persona like John Wayne or Mr T.  She's one of the lucky few that can make a living just showing up and being herself.  For that I applaud her.
Since I'm talking about Leslie, I would like to take this time to address my take on the craziness that happened with her and Milo Yiannopolis on Twitter.  In my opinion, both of these people are total badasses who deserve all of the respect.  At the same time, I also feel that both behaved rather shabbily during that whole twitter debacle.  Also at the same time, neither of them deserved even a minute fraction of the hate and/or punishment they received because of it.  For Leslie, I can understand that being compared to a gorilla is not a pleasant experience whether it has racial connotations or not.  But at the same time she should know that the internet is full of roguish goblins who use anonymity as a cloak to carry out nasty deeds onto unsuspecting mortals.  No matter what words or images were presented, it's important not to give in by getting upset.  That's what they want and that's how they claim victory.
As for Milo, his mistake was starting his trolling at a less than ideal time.  He jumped in and tweeted at Leslie right at the peak of all of the shitposting and therefore Jones was at the peak of her emotions running high.  If he had realized this and maybe come back at a less hectic time, the situation would not have escalated as much as it did and maybe he would still have his twitter account.  Yes, @jack absolutely overstepped his bounds when he banned Milo from twitter over this.  And at the same time, Leslie did not and DOES NOT deserve any of the hate brought upon her for this situation.  When emotions run high and out of control, people say all sorts of crazy things they don't mean.

I'd also like to address all of the people who attacked Jones on twitter in the first place.  Yes, I know you were upset about this female Ghostbusters and you have every right to be.  You also do indeed have every right to express that anger.  However, simply harassing Leslie Jones is not a practical solution.  She was just one actress in that movie.  Concentrating all of your energies on her is like using all your knights, rooks, bishops, and queen to take out one little pawn in chess.

Really, following the advice of "don't like it - don't watch it" is the best thing you can do.  That's the sort of action that caused the movie to not make nearly as much money as it wanted to.  I don't even think they've covered their costs yet.  That gets more results that online harassment campaigns ever could.

Oh wait, that's all part of that stupid hype I said I wasn't going to talk about.  Enough about that.  Now I'll get back to the movie's merits or lack of merits from this point on.

The overall story does in no way come close to the fun and excitement of the original.  It's not horrible but it's mores just bland and forgettable.  For one I felt no urgency when the villain was revealed.  Maybe it's because the actor who played him was boring or his part wasn't written all that well.  I just felt nothing for him.  I felt no sympathy when he talked about his hard life nor was I ever fearful of his villainy.  He was just kind of there and then he was gone after he was defeated and I didn't care one bit which is not a positive aspect of an antagonist.
I'd also like to say something at this time about the movie's director Paul Feig.  He's good at what he does, but based on this and other movies he's made, he seems to have a fiery hot intense anger towards his own penis.  I think he might even want to murder it and I suspect he might attempt it someday.  Did he witness his penis torturing a puppy at some point?  I don't know.  Whatever is going on, I think Mr. Feig and his penis need to sit down on a soft padded couch and have a nice long talk to work out their differences before he makes any more movies.  That would do a great service to Hollywood, his friends, his relatives, his co-workers, the general public, and mostly his penis because it won't get murdered.

I am indeed aware that many feminists have elevated this movie to loftier heights than it deserves and that is inspires others to direct heaps of vitriol towards it.  In essence this movie is the Lisa Lionhearted doll.

 The feminists who wanted this movie to be made and actually paid money to see it, didn't even care if it was successful or even if it was crafted well in any way.  All they wanted was something to make them feel good about their ideology and give them the illusion that they're "inspiring little girls everywhere".  (Most of these people of course completely forgot about those strong women characters in that Mad Max movie from last year.) Because they believe that hard enough, that is essentially what they got.  I say let them have it.  The more time they spend watching this movie on Netflix or Blueray or wherever, the less time they'll spend online complaining about how everything we say or do or create is "sexist" or "problematic" or any other buzz words they'll mash together to trick themselves into thinking they've said something profound.  We should make more of these "feminist-niche" movies to distract them.  They could take the Y chromosome out of other masculine movie franchises like maybe have a female Rambo or an all female version of the Godfather (the Godmother possibly?).  How about a feminized version of Die Hard?  Could you imagine Lena Dunham shooting up a building full of terrorists shouting "YIPPEE KAI YAY, FATHERFUCKERS!!!"?

If you found that last paragraph an "insult to women" that's because it kind of was.  For real, making 'girl versions of supposedly guy things' is not an effective way to elevate women in the movie industry, quite the opposite in fact.  By making these, women are basically saying "we wish we could do what the guys are doing".  Instead, you need to make movies that guys wish they could make.  Sigourney Weaver's character Ripley in the movie Aliens is a good example.  More like that need to be made.  And of course, in the case of Aliens, both men and women worked on that movie in front of and behind the camera.  Therefore, it's not just a 'guy movie' or a 'girl movie' it is simply 'a movie' to be enjoyed by all.
I guess that right there is what you need, just have both men and women involved in quality products.  The best way to do that is to let both men and women succeed and/or fail based on their own merits without being at all judgemental.

I think that's all I need to say about this movie.  If you enjoyed it, good for you.  Keep enjoying it at your leisure.  If you didn't enjoy it or still refuse to see it, that's fine too.  Just simply continue to not see it and resist giving this movie more free publicity by complaining about it.  That way everybody is happy (except for the people who lost money on it, but I'm sure they'll recoup their losses eventually).  Plus the classic original Ghostbusters still exists for all to enjoy.  I suggest you revisit Venkman and Egon and Slimer and the rest of the gang to keep you feeling that all is right with the world.

Everybody happy? Alright!

Keep On Truckin' Black Pussy

I just got back from this venue.  The band known as Black Pussy quite thoroughly rocked the house tonight at Cloud 9.

I'm blogging about this because of the controversy surrounding this band.  I'll elaborate on that here for the benefit of anyone who doesn't know.  You see, they were originally supposed to perform at a bar called The Exchange.  However, the management there had second thoughts about and made the following statement about it:

Yep, they actually said that.  In a truly free society,  NOTHING supersedes anybody's artistic freedom ESPECIALLY someone or some group's objection to that artistry.  The Exchange really dropped the ball with their attempt at virtue signalling and their sudden puritanical attitude.  Thankfully, Cloud 9 has the open mind to pick up that fumbled ball and do the decent thing.
But they're not the only ones who have strong objections to the band's name.  Here's Black Pussy's lead singer Dustin Hill defending the band's name to a crowd of angry people.



Ok, no.  This is not appropriation.  Black women did not en masse go to the "Cultural Patent Office" and all chip in to pay for trademarking their genitals.  The band's members Dustin Hill, Adam Pike, Ryan Mcintire,  and Chief O'Dell have every right to call themselves Black Pussy.
According to legend, the band got their name from a Rolling Stones song.  The song Brown Sugar was originally going to be called "Black Pussy".  Then someone in a suit at the record company considered that to be too much, so Mick and the boys had to change it to the more mentally digestible Brown Sugar.  It looks as though naming their band Black Pussy was their way of both correcting that bit of unfortunate bit of censorship from the past and firmly establishing that they will not be censored either.  If anyone tells Black Pussy to change their name to "something less provocative that my grandchildren can enjoy" they will of course respond to that with a resounding NOOOOOOOOO followed by the displaying of 1 out of 5 fingers, the gluteal muscles, and several minutes of pantomiming the more intricate positions of the Kama Sutra.

For anyone who's coming here to say "oh well you're not black or a woman so of course you're not offended blah blah chu chu", none of that matters.  If, say, for equality's sake, there was a gangsta rap group that "appropriated" white culture by calling themselves "Droopy Little White Penises That Just Came Out Of The Pool", I would be more than fine with that.

It's dope, dog. For all the shizilz.

So to anyone who, after reading this, STILL has a conscientious objection to this band's name you are beneath contempt and should really just stop experiencing art in any form altogether because your brain is obviously not developed enough to handle it.

For those of you good people who are capable of appreciating art in any form (like music as an example) then I have embedded a Black Pussy performance below.  Enjoy them in all of their glory.

I ain't 'fraid o' no Ghostbusters trailer

So this trailer was released recently...



...and thousands (possibly millions) of people went beyond apeshit over it.  If there was an outdoor concert like Woodstock or Coachella just for apes and there was only one porta-john and all the concession stands only sold bran muffins and prunes, that's the equivalent to the amount of apeshit people threw when they saw this thing.

People like this guy...

Don't mind him.  He's just trying to be the Bill O'Reilly of Canada (as if we need that).

I personally find all of the backlash to this trailer ridiculous.  It amazes me that so many people can tell what the entire movie is all about just from the few second clips they've seen.  They don't need to actually see the movie.  They all possess this 'magic clairvoyance' that allows them to see into the future.  Or maybe they all took turns using Doc Brown's time travelling car to go to the summer of 2016, see the movie, and then travel back to warn us all.  If that second one is true then why don't they just travel back to the summer of 1984 and see the original Ghostbusters film?  Or just watch their copy on DVD or Blueray or find it on Netflix?  It would save us all a lot of aggravation.

There were two groups of people who really got irked by this movie.  The first being the MRA types (the ones who campaign for men's right).

They felt the entire thing was some sort of "politically correct" attempt to empower women at the expense of men or something like that.  (If someone could enlighten me on their full argument say in the comment section at the end of this blog, I would be grateful.)  
I disagree with their position for a few reasons.  The first reason makes me a bit sick to my stomach to say it and I will feel as though a need a strong chemical bath afterwards.  You have been warned.  Anyway, here it goes...

>GULP<

Political correctness can be fine at certain times but just so long as it's not intrusive. (Ugh! I can taste the bile in my throat already).  I know that sounds contrary to the pro-free speech and egalitarian things I've posted on this blog, my original blog, and in both of my comic books (plus more to come) but hear me out.  I'll use the example of a relatively brand new show called How To Get Away With Murder.

The star of that show is a black woman named Viola Davis.  It could have easily starred a white male, or a white female, or an Asian pony (but not without rubbing peanut butter on her gums first) but they ultimately went with a black female.  It's probably a good bet that a certain amount of 'political correctness' went into making that casting decision.  However, the result of this is simply a talented actress finding steady work and, in this case, getting appropriately awarded for her talents.  That's exactly what would happen if a talented person of any race or gender were hired for this role.  That's called equality.
The times when political correctness gets very intrusive and cancerous is when people either mess with the classics (and in some cases completely suppress them) or vehemently dictate their demands on artists as they're making their creations.  For instance, Pepe Le Pew has been absolutely ravaged by political correctness.  For my full analysis of Pepe Le Pew, please consult this blog post I did many years ago.

Speaking of talented women getting the recognition they deserve, this brings me to the main reason I want to see this film and why I don't share in the disdain for it at all.  I absolutely enjoy all the comedic women starring in this movie.  No, I am not just saying that in an effort to appear like some "empathetic feminist" in an effort to get laid or whatever.  I'm a happily engaged man with a beautiful and amazing Filipina fiancee.  I don't need to do any of that.  I am  genuinely entertained by the very funny women in this movie.
I am definitely NOT one of those people who think that "only men can be comedians".  Anyone who thinks that "only men can" and "only women can't" obviously has no idea how comedy works.  The mostly unwritten rules that people have uncovered and utilized over the centuries can be applied by anyone, not just certain genders or races of people.  One of the great Gilda Radner's many rules for her comedy is to simply "do what the boys are doing".  It's as simple as that.
Of course women performing comedy is not anything new.  Mabel Normand was dazzling people with her comedie del art abilities back when Lucille Ball was still a toddler.

I could go on listing a lot of names of women who have consistently made amusing and hilarious comedic performances throughout history, but this blog post is getting long as it is.  So right now I will just showcase the women starring in this movie and go over why they are worth watching on both big and small screens alike.

Kristen Wiig

I adore the quirky genius she puts into everything she does.  Like all great comedic performers, she's not afraid to look crazy.  When I first saw her in a sketch on Saturday Night Live back in about 2006 my immediate thought was "why wasn't she hired sooner?"  It almost felt like Jack Nicholson's character in The Shining a little bit, in that in a way 'she has always been at SNL and will always continue to be at SNL in either body or spirit'.  It's no wonder that her screenplay for Bridesmaids was nominated for an Oscar.  If I had my way, she would get all of the awards.  I am very enthusiastic about seeing her contribution to this new Ghostbusters movie.

Melissa McCarthy

She pretty much rocketed to stardom with her performance in Bridesmaids.  If you saw her performance in that you can easily understand why.  Like Wiig, McCarthy is also a fearless performer who willfully does whatever the scene requires.  No, I'm not just talking about the 'diarrhea in the sink scene', I'm talking about the whole movie.  Whether it was hitting on a guy in an airplane bathroom or giving Wiig's character the literal bite in the ass she needed, McCarthy just nailed every line from every scene she did adding more personality than anyone could have thought possible.  Even in movies she was in afterwards that didn't have stellar scripts or competent direction or whatever, she still does an excellent job that worth watching.  I'm looking forward to seeing her bring those same abilities to this movie.

Kate McKinnon

When I first saw her on SNL in the Spring of 2012, I felt rather sorry for her.  For one thing, when she was hired she was advertised as "Saturday Night Live's first lesbian cast member".  That is such a huge weight to thrust upon anyone's shoulders.  She was pretty much forced to represent the entire LGBT community AND put up with the stigma of "oh she's just a token so she obviously wasn't hired for her talent".  So poor Kate was practically forced to work 10 times harder than anyone else since her first sketch.  Her first two shows (which were the last two shows of that season) were harrowing indeed.  I think she was feeling that pressure.  I was even afraid she wouldn't last.  But, thankfully for herself and the whole entertainment industry, she didn't let that get her down and continued to persevere.  Now, not only is she still a valued cast member that many people love to watch every week, she's received Emmy nominations for her work on SNL two years in a row.  Just her Justin Bieber impression by itself has given her this well deserved attention.  If her performance in this movie is even a quarter as good as her Bieber, she will be so much fun to watch come this summer.

Leslie Jones

At this point I'll bring up the other despicable group of assholes that spat their bile all over this movie trailer.  It's those GODDAMN SHEEP-FUCKING SHIT-LICKING ISIS-SUCKING VOMIT-EATING DANGLING SCROTAL PUSTULES also known as SJW's!!!

HOT HOLY FUCK I HATE THOSE PEOPLE!!!!!

This is where the online critique of this trailer gets really bizarre.  The same people that initially praised it as "female empowerment" later condemned it for racism because of what they saw of Leslie Jones' performance.
NO!  Fuck you, assholes.  Leslie is not some Stepin Fetchit you can throw under a bus.  She is letting her feelings out through her comedy without holding back and is always hilarious.  If you're too fucking dense to see that then you can just turn around and take a nice long walk into the ocean.  You can attempt to spread your censorious ass-hattery to any passing hammerhead shark and see what happens to you.
I will always be in Leslie Jones' corner.  Like many people, I was blown away by her first Weekend Update rant on SNL.



She rattled everyone's cage with that one.  Afterwards on Twitter, she defended her rant against SJWs like a bear with ninja training and The Force defends her asthmatic autistic cub.  She is an unstoppable ball of comedic fire.  So, for that reason, I will always be in her corner whether she wants me there or not.  Also, I am emphatically looking forward to the verbal dynamite she will unleash on everyone in that movie.  That is going to be a rollercoaster of awesomeness!!!

 Yeah, I guess I can end this post here.  I'll just make one last plea for all of this movie's detractors to please pull the massive sticks out of your asses and let this movie either fly or crash on its own merits.  Forget your stifling narrow-minded agenda and just let the movie be what it is.  At the very least see the entire thing before you conclude whether it sucks or not.

To get everybody in a movie watching mood, I'll post the original Ghostbusters theme song.  Enjoy everyone!  See you at the movies!

Defending 3 movies

Indulge me while I play a white knight of sorts for just a bit.

I am a consumer of movies and have been for pretty much my whole life.  When I was a toddler my dad was a theatre manager and a film enthusiast himself.  Since then I've tried to watch as much movies and TV shows as I can from any and all time periods.  My VHS and DVD collection easily weighs more than I do.  So, I think it's easy for me to say that I've seen my share of turkeys and masterpieces and I hope to see many many more before I leave this earthly plane about 200 years from now.
However, while many poorly conceived movies deserve the low "splatty tomato" rating they get, there are some that get misplaced anger towards them for dubious reasons.  Although in many of these cases I'd say the reasons for the vitriol is bruised egos of sorts.
It is at this point that I will start making my triple feature movie review.  Here are 3 movies that I think got unfair criticism in 2015:

The Ridiculous 6

I feel obliged to talk about this one since I defended it last April when the walkout incident happened.  As you may recall, that mini-exodus happened because some of the natives playing extras in the film had some problems with the few isolated jokes they saw.  They, and the media covering this story, declared the movie to be maliciously racist and should outright be banned forever.  My argument was for people to see the whole movie first before making any judgements like that.  Well, I finally got around to seeing this movie with all the aforementioned jokes in their proper context so it is now that I can finally and effectively talk about it.  So................ here it goes:

Well.................... it's an Adam Sandler movie.  If you're familiar with his work you know what you're in for.  There's a burrow that shoots its diarrhoea everywhere, Tayler Lautner's character talks about having sex with cantaloupes, Vanilla Ice does a bit of hip hop dancing to some 'old time pianie',  Terry Crews plays that 'old time pianie' with his 11th finger so to speak, and Rob Schneider attempts a Mexican dialect that can only be described as "Schneider-esque".  Basically, you know going in that it's going to be a delicate balance of stupid and fun always teetering towards plain old stupid.  In that vein, the Happy Madison crew do not disappoint, in that they please the fans they have and merely disappoint the ones who are already disappointed.

Thankfully, there are some clever bits in the film that help it rise above the stupidity Sandler and his crew tend to wallow in.  One such bit is when the 6 meet Abner Doubleday (played by the always brilliant John Turturro) as he's developing a game with some Chinese migrants that will later become baseball.  According to this hilarious sequence, the rules of the game come about because Doubleday is a pompous lunatic who must have things his own way.  Turturro's performance makes it work so well.
Another bit I found to be pretty clever was the back story of Luke Wilson's character.  Apparently he became an outlaw after he did a botched up job of being Abe Lincoln's body guard at Ford's theatre.  Not only did he leave to use the bathroom, he lead John Wilkes Boothe right to him.  "Hey, do want to meet the president? He's sitting right there!"  I found that rather amusing.  Bravo for the Happy Madison crew for attempting something in a high brow vein for a refreshing change.

Of course, the elephant spirit guide in the room is, how are the Apache Indians portrayed?  In an interview, Mr. Sandler declared that this movie is pro-Indian.  Based on what I saw in the movie, it certainly looks like he went in that direction.  Whether he succeeded enough to appease any nay-sayers is open to opinion.  Sandler's character is White Knife, a white man who was adopted and raised by Indians so he pretty much looks and acts like them (at least within the narrative of this story).  The opening scene is of a small general store with signs that say "No Injuns Allowed".  As you may have guessed, the shop-keep is a googli-eyed racist willing to shoot any Indian on site.  However, White Knife is highly skilled with the white knives that he carries and easily outwits the shop-keep as well as the filthy outlaws harassing his Apache fiancee outside.  Then, back at the Apache camp, the Indians are not portrayed as savage imbeciles either.  It may not be a 100% perfect portrayal as many, especially actual Natives, would like to see, but it is a much better portrayal than what has been done and what many of your more uptight SJW types thought this would be.  So to all those who made any complaints about this movie in any way, I say just relax and let people have a good time with this.  Nobody died because of this movie and I doubt it will resurrect any colonial genocide or the Trail of Tears again, so what's the problem?
One big criticism I do have about this movie is that Sandler makes his character into such a Mary Sue type that it almost gets to the point of nauseating.  He basically props himself up to be the perfect hero who always does the right thing and can't be harmed in any way.  It's the kind of character a bullied 10 year old creates when he finally has some alone time in his bedroom.  Likewise, every other character is a "dorkly doofus" that he can laugh at or easily conquer.  If Sandler could've stayed away from that kind of pubescent cheese, it would have been a somewhat more intelligent movie.

On to the next movie...

Pixels

Ok, this movie has gotten nothing but negativity ever since it came out.  Pretty much all the film critics hate it as well as many of the people who saw it.  It's practically a shoe-in to win a Razzie award or two.  But, of course, it's an Adam Sandler movie so you go in expecting the kind of stuff you're used to seeing him produce.  If you like it you're already engaged, if you don't like it you already have the instinct to avoid it.

However, this time around many people eschewed that instinct and went to see it instead.  I'd make a guess that the reason was people were attracted by the sci-fi element of it all.  I mean, giant 8-bit video game characters coming to life and destroying a city!!!!  Who can resist?  It's just like that one Futurama episode but with a much higher budget.
But of course the dark side to attracting this wider audience to the movie is that it drew much more ire than a Happy Madison project usually does.  That's because the sci-fi nerds who mostly steer clear of Sandler's stuff actually went to see it and, big surprise, they didn't like what they saw.  I can kind of see what they didn't like though.  In this movie, Adam Sandler plays a nerdly loser who's played lots of video games in his youth.  Now that he's a grown up he has to use his game playing skills to save the city from the giant Pac Man, Space Invaders, Tetris Blocks, etc.  With his performance (and the entire script), he seems to be trying to appease the nerds but also laughing at the nerds at the same time.  That element is quite evident in that one scene where Josh Gad's character is in mortal danger from one of the pixelated baddies and shouts "I'M GOING TO DIE A VIRGIN!!!"  I don't think the vast majority of the audience appreciated that underlying sentiment too much.
Like I said, I can see why they feel that way, but on the other hand I also say "So what?!"  Most of the animosity being projected here is nothing but what's known as nerd rage really.  Big deal!  Nerds are easily mad at pretty much every movie or TV show they see.  No matter how carefully and/or expertly crafted a show is, hard core nerds will always find something to complain about.  That's almost a main attribute of the way they "enjoy" movies anyway.  I saw this movie after hearing an onslaught of this rage so I thought it would be just an awful cringe-worthy disaster.  But, after I had seen it for myself, it turns out that is was not much different from any other Sandler film.  It was just some dumb goofy fun.  Once again, the raging nerds made a big stinky deal out of not much of anything.

One incredibly great element to this movie that I feel the need to showcase is Peter Dinklage's performance.  I'm serious, watch this movie just for that reason.  He literally steals every scene he's in with just his eyebrows.  It's amazing and mesmerizing to watch.  Whether this movie takes home any Razzies or not, I would like to insist that Peter Dinklage's eyebrows at least get an Oscar nomination for best actor.  Come on, Academy!  An indigenous "eyebrow American" has never won an Oscar before. You'd set an inclusive precedent and look that much more diverse.  Do it I say!

Well, anyway, on to the next and final movie...

Mad Max Fury Road

There's not much need to be defending this one since it's already up for several Oscars including Best Picture.  And why not?  It's easily one of the best action movies I've seen in a long time.  But, as the saying goes, you can't please everybody.  There were a small group of malcontents who were adamant in their displeasure of this movie.  They are a relatively recent phenomenon that call themselves "meninists".  They fight for men's rights or something like that, and, just like NAMBLA, they have skewed facts and figures to back up their philosophy.

Their biggest complaint was that the women in this movie were over-dominating the men in an unfair and unbalanced way.  I didn't want to say anything about that either way until I saw the movie so I could judge for myself.  Well, thanks to a nice long plane trip on Korean Air on my way to a trip in the Philippines, I got my chance to see it.  After seeing it, I can now honestly say I don't know what those guys were talking about.  I saw no evidence of misandry anywhere.

The characters these men-children had a big problem with were the five women used as sex slaves by the villain as well as Charlize Theron's character who rescues them.   They were portrayed as capable of handling themselves and fending off the villain and his henchmen as best they could but I certainly wouldn't call what they were doing "dominating".  Just like Mad Max and every other character in this movie, they were just doing whatever they can to survive in this post-apocolyptic hellscape.  There's no time to be "lady-like" or some damsel awaiting rescue.  In this environment that could be deadly.  Fight or flight are your only options no matter what gender you happen to be.  Hell, one of those ladies even finds a boyfriend AAAAAAAAAAAND feels devastated when that boyfriend dies.  That's pretty much the opposite of misandry.  If this was the man-hating movie the meninists say it is, any one of these women would have abhored his presence and celebrated his death.  But, that didn't happen at all so once again I have to ask, "WHAT'S THE PROBLEM???!!!"  Gawd! These meninists are the opposite side of the same twisted coin as the most rabid feminists.  The same way shrills like Anita Sarkeesian are doing all they can to ruin video games and twitter, so too are meninists trying to ruin stuff like Mad Max here or any other work of art involving strong intelligent women who exercise their freedom of expression.  Did any of these diaper babies give any flack to Beyonce's half time show?  Online or otherwise?

Whatever!  Anyway, that's my rant about the backlash of these movies.  If any of you reading this watched these movies and enjoyed their more appealing elements, good for you.   You're what's right with humanity.  But, to any of you out there who wholeheartedly participated in the negative vibes that encompassed all of these movies, then well I'll just say you're the polar opposite of those other people I mentioned.

Thanks for reading.  See you at the movies.