ctdsnark

Last night,I re-watched Ready Player One...my favorite scene is still the Copper Key Race,a seemingly impossible-to-beat auto race through a fantasy New York,so filled with dangers it makes the real city in the notorious mid-1970s look like Amish country. In keeping with the Easter-Egg-laden tone of the movie,several characters drive some famous vehicles....there's actually a few not included that would've loved to have seen compete:

--The Ecto-1 (in fact,why wasn't that in this race?)
--The Mystery Machine
--The Drag-ula (the drag race car,whose main body is that of a coffin,seen in the movie Munster Go Home)
--The Batmobile from Tim Burton's '89 movie.
--The Flintstones' car.
--The Creepy "T" (a model car available in the 70's....look it up!)
--The Mutt Cuts van from Dumb And Dumber.
--The Homer (the car designed by Homer Simpson for his brother in the episode Oh Brother,Where Art Thou?)
--Herbie The Love Bug
--Christine (Stephen King's haunted car)
--Mad Max's car from The Road Warrior
--Chitty Chitty Bang Bang
--Stuntman Mike's car from Death Proof
--The Hannibal Twin-8 (Prof. Fate's car from The Great Race)

.....any thoughts?

I guess this is an annual thing for me now; here,in the order they were released,are last year's movies which I saw,with a few brief thoughts.

Glass.....and M. Night Shyamalan BLOWS it again....in a sequel to one of his best films,and another nearly as good.
Happy Death Day 2U......Good Lord,does everything have to have a bloody sequel?! Especially one that does little more than rehash the plot of the better original?! Is there even any point in my hoping they won't make a part three?!?
Alita : Battle Angel....It's no secret that Hollywood's adaptions of popular anime haven't exactly been setting box-office records. Truth be told,I've never even seen whatever animated show/graphic novel this movie's based on....but I liked it anyway. I just wished it hadn't ended with an obvious hint at a sequel.
Captain Marvel....a filling appetizer for those of us who were waiting in rabid anticipation for a certain upcoming superhero-group movie.
Dumbo....the first of three live-action adaptions of Disney animated features that came out last year. Visually stunning,and started out strong but in choosing to go beyond the public revelation that Dumbo can fly...which is where the animated original ended...it ended up limping to a rather uninspiring finale.
Shazam!....proving that perhaps there is hope for DC superhero movies,provided they can keep Nolan and Snyder at least a hundred feet away from them.
Missing Link....I was disheartened to learn that this brilliant stop-motion animated feature,the latest from Laika (Coraline,The Boxtrlls,Kubo And The Two Strings),was a commercial failure. In a climate where CGI is the dominant medium,it would indeed be a shame if we got no more offerings from such skilled animators.
Avengers:Endgame.........you know,there really isn't anything I can say about this fantastic conclusion to a decade-long superhero tale that hasn't already been said....so I won't even try. Yet,I cannot help but wonder if the MCU is indeed continuing,can they actually repeat this success in another decade?
Tolkien....I find it absolutely amazing that a movie about the man who created Lord Of The Rings was so damn dull.
Aladdin....the second of this year's live-action adaptions of Disney animated features....and without question,the best one.
Men In Black:International..... Ugh.
The Dead Don't Die....you'd think that the offbeat filmmaker Jim Jarmusch would've been able to breathe some life into the long-since-gone-stagnant zombie movie. Guess what....he didn't.
Toy Story 4....many called this sequel unnecessary,especially considering what became of Andy's toys at the end of the previous one. Who knows? Maybe they're right. But I found it enjoyable regardless.
Yesterday....believe me,being a Beatlemaniac is not a prerequisite for enjoying this wonderful film.
Spider-Man:Far From Home....after watching this,is it any wonder there was such a huge uproar over the notion that this version of the Friendly Neighborhood Wall-Crawler might no longer be part of the MCU?
The Lion King....the third live-action Disney animated feature....and definitely the WORST. It wasn't even a good idea!!!!
Once Upon A Time In Hollywood....my first theatrical Tarantino movie in....well,quite a while.  Liked it. Hey,who didn't want to see Sharon Tate's killers get what they truly deserved?!
Fast And Furious Presents : Hobbs And Shaw....the very,very first of this series' films I've ever seen. No joke. I've truly and honestly never seen the appeal of Vin Diesel,beyond providing a voice for a talking tree. Dwayne Johnson and Jason Statham,however....well,you get the idea.
Jacob's Ladder.......what the HELL was I thinking?!?
Judy....Hey,what was I expecting? A happy ending? Judy Garland's life and career have practically become a cautionary tale about getting into show business!
Joker....The other great movie of last year based on superhero comic books,albeit one a complete opposite in tone from the above-mentioned Avengers!
Jay And Silent Bob : Reboot.....I got one word for Kevin Smith.....retire.
Maleficent:Mistress Of Evil....my dislike of Disney's animated Sleeping Beauty nearly kept me away from the original;as good as some of these live-action remakes are,I'm really hoping that sequels to them will not become a trend.
The Current War....I don't even think the History Channel could've made such an incredible depiction of the intense rivalry between Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla,and how it impacted technology in this country!
Terminator : Dark Fate....okay,I admit it. I actually liked some of the previous Terminator movies. But even I found my patience tested with this one; with James Cameron supposedly holding the creative reins on this,I was expecting a conclusion to the whole Skynet/Sarah Conner saga....guess what....
Frozen II.....Good movie.
A Beautiful Day In The Neighborhood....considering how popular that Fred Rogers documentary was last year,I shouldn't have been too surprised when I learned of this. And who better to play him than the man who also played Walt Disney? Thumbs up!
Knives Out....Good Lord....someone actually made a good murder-mystery comedy?!
Jumanji : The Next Level.....Every bit as good as the first...it's a pity these four kids can't actually meet Alan Parrish....
Star Wars : The Rise Of Skywalker.....yeah,yeah,yeah....the glory days of George Lucas and the original trilogy are long gone....look,it erased the disappointment I got from The Last Jedi and Solo,so I'm giving it high marks!!

A little over a week ago,I found out that Netflix is,after only two seasons,pulling the plug on their MST3K revival. Frankly,I'm not the least bit surprised.

Did I say that because I didn't think the new version was as funny as the Joel/Mike era?

Truth be told,I'm really not qualified to judge. I've never had Netflix,and during the brief time I had access to it (when my brother and his family moved into our old house following my mother's passing),I only watched two episodes. I seem to recall liking it at the time. But anyone with even a rudimentary knowledge of the history of television knows of the numerous times that old TV shows,especially ones considered cutting-edge in their day,were brought back....or rather,they tried to bring them back. Nine times out of ten,it didn't work.

I understand this hasn't deterred Joel Hodgson,the creator and star of the original who was behind the revival,from trying to bring back the show. All I can say is,more power to him!

I just finished watching a funny video on YouTube in which Pennywise the clown suddenly appears in some guy's house...but except for the initial shock that comes with someone or something unexpected suddenly appearing before you,the guy tells Stephen King's iconic clown that he's not afraid of him,then proceeds to tell him why he's not afraid of him,largely because he doesn't consider clowns scary.
It got me to thinking as to exactly when clowns,long associated with their delightful,madcap,crowd-pleasing antics in the circus,started being considered scary. The circus,as modern audiences know it,dates back to the late 19th century. These days,this form of entertainment is quickly becoming a thing of the past,the best example being that it was just this past year that the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus,after more than a century of performances,decided to finally bring down the proverbial curtain on themselves. There was a PBS special on this,which included their final show. I don't recall seeing any clowns,at least of the greasepaint-and-rubber-nose variety,included in the show. Have they,like live animal acts,become obsolete?
Currently,the most popular movie in the country is Joker,the latest depiction of the nemesis of comic-book masked vigilante Batman,created by Bob Kane in 1939...I imagine that,at that time,the idea of an evil clown must've been quite revolutionary. Yet,supposedly just a few years before,Lon Chaney made his famous statement about clowns at midnight. During the 1950s,popular circus clown like Lou Jacobs were pictured on the boxes of Kellogg's cereals,just a few years after Bozo the Clown made his debut. In the mid-sixties,Ronald McDonald appeared,becoming a staple of the fast food chain's TV commercials.
And yet it seems that it was sometime in the late 60's/early 70's (I'm guessing)that comedy writers began to suggest that there was something wrong with clowns in general...that they were all psychologically maladjusted social misfits whose supposedly kid-friendly makeup concealed a hidden persona. I imagine the public revelations about John Wayne Gacy helped to confirm that notion.
From the Killer Clowns From Outer Space to the Simpsons' Krusty,I can't even recall the last time I saw,or even heard of a kid-friendly clown,at least not in any popular media. Even Ronald McDonald seems absent from the commercials these days. The clown seems to have joined vampires and werewolves as an icon of horror,if the selection at any Halloween store is any indication.

Is this really what's happened to the clown?