Monday Movie Mania - Superman (2025)

I'll be blunt--this isn't going to my typical review. Usually, I try to highlight the thing I like/dislike in a flick without giving too much away. But since a lot of incel trolls are trying to paint this movie with a political brush, well, I'll be honest. When kindness is considered a political flaw or liability in the United States, then frankly, we've seriously lost our way as a country.


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SPOILERS!


A LOT OF SPOILERS!!


GO READ THE FUCKING COMIC BOOKS BEFORE YOU BITCH IN THE REPLIES!!!


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Okay, now that I got my irritation out of my system...

PROS
1) David Corenswet was absolutely adorable as both Clark Kent/Superman. It was lovely to see him played as a person instead of a god. Deep down, he's a sweet Kansas farm boy who still says "Yes, sir", "Thank you, ma'am", and "Please". He just happens to have some cool powers. I say this because he reminds me of someone I knew as a kid. Except Tommy and I both grew up on farms in Ohio. And this Clark resembles my son who is currently 25, the same age as Clark in the movie. The young adult who's finally realizing the world isn't perfect, you can't make it perfect, and you just need to do the best you can. But there's a reason Superman is still referred to as the Big Blue Boy Scout, and Corenswet sticks that landing without any schlock or wink-wink at the camera.

2) Rachel Brosnahan was awesome as Lois Lane! Feisty without a chip on her shoulder as in some other portrayals of Lois. James Gunn had the balls to show her and Clark in a real relationship with all the attraction and insecurities that come with it. She and Clark actually have an argument on screen!

3) I can't say enough about Nicholas Hoult as Lex Luthor. I've followed this young man's career for the last 14 years, and he just gets better and better. There's been a lot of really good actors who have been the Man of Steel's greatest enemy, but Hoult's the first Luthor that actually felt dangerous on screen.

4) Krypto. As a dog parent, I recognize Clark's frustrations and love when it comes to your beloved pets. But with the furbaby having superpowers, those emotions are ratcheted up. However, when Clark tells Krypto to "Get the toy", all of us dog people know exactly what was going to happen, and it did, and it was fucking brilliant!

5) Gunn brought back Eve Tesmacher and Otis from Superman (1978) in a delight nod to the Richard Donner film.

6) Wendell Pierce as Perry White and Skyler Gisondo as Jimmy Olsen were pitch perfect! They even address the stupid glasses controversy at the end of the film, admitting in a humorous exchange they knew Clark and Superman are the same person.

7) Thank you, thank you, thank you to John Murphy for reworking John Williams' main theme from Superman (1978)! It is the fucking definitive music for the character.

8) Even better, Gunn's story didn't kill Jonathan Kent! Pruitt Taylor Vince and Neva Howell were incredibly Midwestern average and sweet as Jonathan and Martha Kent, which is why Clark is incredibly Midwestern average and sweet. This is not a putdown, because the Kents aren't any different from our neighbors in Ohio. Just folks working hard, raising their children, and paying their bills. Though watching Krypto trying to get the cows to play with him was so fucking cute!

9) This wasn't yet another introductory exposition which been done to death. I mean, how many times to we have to watch Pa Kent, Uncle Ben, and Mom and Dad Wayne die? This was a new story that acknowledges other metahumans exist right up front. We had appearances from Peacemaker, Metamorpho, Hawkgirl, Mister Terrific, and Supergirl.


CONS
1) My one and only gripe was having Guy Gardner's Green Lantern in this film. I've hated this character since his JLI days (which was when I was introduced to him), I still hate him, and out of all the Lanterns, he's the last one I'd ever put in a movie. Seriously, I would have preferred fucking Kyle Raynor over Gardner the Asshat! On the other hand, it's not Batman/Bruce Wayne who is Clark's shadow. Guy Gardner is what Clark could have become if Jonathan and Martha were shitty parents and didn't give him a solid moral foundation.


Folks, go see Superman (2025)! Take the young people in your life to see it. In a world where Kindness is Woke, and Woke is a political slur, it's refreshing to see a movie centered on Kindness. Superman saves the world, his cousin's dog, and a squirrel in a glorious act of kindness! And I think Mister Rogers would have approved. I give Superman (2025) a MILLION stars out of 10 because it's the type of superhero movie--no, it's the type of story the world needs in an age of fascism.

Music I've Been Listening to Lately

Gues what we saw last night? I may have to see it again this weekend. The review will be up on Monday morning. And I'm soooo glad they retailored the John WIlliams theme!

Milestones!

Back in 2018, I wrote a post about getting your butt in your chair and your fingers on the keyboard if you want to be a writer. In the replies, we got into the subject of how many books Nora Roberts had written in forty years (La Nora is closing in on fifty years and still writing).

The subject of how many books I'd written came up in yoga class last Friday. One of my classmates had looked me up and commented on how I had a ton of books for sale. She asked me how many I had published in total.

I said, "Over eighty, I think." Because yes, I'm at the point where I'm starting to have trouble keeping track of all of them.

So I counted them over the weekend. Eighty-nine.

Yes, you read that right. 89.

I probably won't catch up with La Nora or any other prolific writer, past, present, or future. But this is what happens when you write for twenty-one years straight.

We'll see what the count is in another four years.

It's a Monday After All

This afternoon, I went to Starbucks after the Grandpuppy's annual doctor's appointment. (He's doing great other than putting on two and half pounds by being a spoiled rotten grandpuppy.) I get my lunch and tea from the counter and set up at a free table, all enthused because I broke 75K on A Cup of Conflict last night.

And I forgot my flash drive.

Of course, I heard Doctor Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) as I searched for a recent copy of a different WIP on my travel laptop.

Music I've Been Listening to Lately

No one can create fun tunes like Dandra Boynton, and it's amazing who she gets to sing her ditties.

AI Scraping?

I've seen a meteoric rise in hit on my blogs over the past few months. Whereas, I used to get maybe a hundred hits a week, I got over 10K a DAY last week. So, what's going on?

While I'd like to believe the growth is organic, I fear it's simply bots scraping the internet for content to feed their AI.

*sigh*

Yep, despite the lawsuits about theft, the AI progenitors are still stealing to feed their creations. It's a little sad, not to mention my sarcastic pro-feminist agenda is not the content they really want. It's also amusing since the whole point of AI is to wipe out minority voices.

The dudebros creating AI don't want to admit this, but that is their and their bosses' endgame.

However, what's more amusing is while the dudebros get more people to use their AI algorithms, the more garbage is spilled into the wild. Now, the algorithms are harvesting that garbage and feeding in to themselves. Which results in nonsensical garbage.

On one hand, I foresee AI imploding on itself sooner rather than later.

On the other, we get Skynet.

Anyone want to flip a quarter on the outcome? 

Monday Movie Mania - Karate Kid: Legends

There's always going to be a soft spot in my heart for the original movie. 1984 seemed to produce so many fun original movies! I didn't see the remake with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan, one of the rare instances I've missed a J.C. movie in the theaters. But it doesn't really matter if you haven't either. This flick picks up from the three Ralph Macchio movies and the Cobra Kai TV series while blending in Jackie's Mr. Han character from 2010 remake.


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SPOILERS


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PROS
1) First of all, kudos to stunt coordinator Peng Zhang! He kept the fighting style from the orginal movie while incorporating some of Jackie Chan's signature moves.

2) Ben Wang was excellent in both his acting and his martial arts abilities. I see a promising future for this young man.

3) It was just supercool to see Jackie Chan and Ralph Macchio together!


CONS
1) There's not a whole lot different as far as story telling here. Same old storyline--widowed mom, kid trying to adjust to a new environment, martial arts teaching confidence, etc.

This is a movie to go see if you're feeling a bit nostalgic for the 80's. Overall, I give Karate Kid: Legends 7 stars out of 10.

Music I've Been Listening to Lately

When children sing the truth. . .

Things Are Getting Worse in the World, Especially the Food

There's the Gaza crisis, the Russia-Ukraine War, U.S. troops stationed in Los Angeles for no reason other than Tribblehead's ego, Tribblehead arbitrarily bombing Iran (okay, GK and I will probably "discuss" that one the next time I see him in person), and a lot of other shit going on in the world.

But when close to twenty percent of Denny's go under, you know the shit has hit the fan.

For those of my readers outside of the U.S., Denny's is a chain modeled after the classic 1950's diners. Greasy food, black coffee, and shakes. Not exactly healthy, but comfort food after a late night partying or when you're pregnant and can't keep anything else down.

(Don't ask me why on that last one. It's the one place my stomach could tolerate when I had morning sickness and after I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes.)

I wasn't surprised when my sales dropped shortly after Tribblehead's inauguration. The same thing had happened during his first term, and that's accounting for me doing elder care for the in-laws.

But this time around, things are much, much worse. ICE is kidnapping brown folks, whether they're legally in the U.S. or not. White folks don't want to admit brown folks are the backbone of the restaurant business.

The quality of a lot of restaurants' food has gone downhill, especially fast-food joints. The last Big Mac I ate had more special sauce than burger. My last two sandwiches from Arby's were not cooked all the way through.The last cheesy fries I ordered from Wendy's were. . .let's just say there was a quarter inch layer of oil in the bottom of the container making the fries very, VERY soggy.

Look, I've had diabetes and been immunocompromised for the last twenty-six years. But I still treat myself once in a while. But even DH was grossed out the last three times we hit a fast food place. And he has a cast-iron stomach. Needless to say, I've been cooking cheeseburgers, pizza, and tacos from my own recipes at home, and not just because it's cheaper and healthier.

Which brings me to my second point. With retail prices for everyday needs staying near the levels they were during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, people don't have the extra money for eating out. And if my experiences with really shitty take-out are any indication, people just aren't going to splurge at those restaurants anymore.

It's not just Denny's closing thousands of stores. I scrolled through other restaurant news. McDonald's sales are down as is everyone else's in the fast food market. Red Lobster nearly collapsed. In fact, the one in our town was originally slated for closer, but somehow, they found a CEO who pulled them out of the tailspin. By the way, the new CEO is . . .what for it. . . . . . . .brown!

In the meantime, DH and I aren't wasting money at these franchises anymore. We've been patronizing locally-owned restaurants at the rare times we go out, mainly out of a sense of self-preservation. I don't feel like dying from fast-food food poisoning. I've got a ton of books to write.

Why I Need to Write Right Now

By now, I'm fairly certain most people have heard about the U.S. bombing of Iran.

My feelings right now are fairly complex. My son is stationed on a U.S. base in the Middle East. He was supposed to be rotated stateside later this summer. We don't know if that will happen as scheduled.

To make matters worse, Tribblehead (no, I will not be respectful to a convicted felon who has no remorse) cut quite a bit of funding to the Army for fun stuff like sports equipment. Our soldiers believe in themselves, their jobs, and their country, not necessarily in that order. They were already under a lot of stress. They need a healthy way to deal with that stress, and Tribblehead and the DOGE bros took that away from them.

I fear for these kids' health, both mentally and physically. All of them, not just Genius Kid. I've seen the toll on them first-hand, and that's not even including death and maiming if a full-scale war breaks out.

Which it's likely to do with Tribblehead at the helm.

So, that's why I've been burying my head in writing over the weekend. Going to Starbucks because DH and I are feeding each other's anxiety, and the Grandpuppy and Princess Pup are picking up on our emotions which sends them in a tailspin.

Yes, I'm channeling my fears into Anthea, who's trying to keep a civil war from breaking out in Jing without interfering with their autonomy. It's a delicate tightrope. One she's determined to cross successfully or die trying.

That's what I need right now. A leader who actually gives a shit about the people around her.

I wish the kids in the military had a leader who gave a shit about them.