Not really. Will be back next week.
© 2010-2025 grouchyeditor.com (text only)
Asleep While the World Ends
A funny thing happened when I woke up this morning. After enjoying coffee and a cigarette, and a quick check of the morning news, I remembered that I watched A House of Dynamite the night before.
“Oh, yeah,” I thought. “It was pretty good.” Then I forgot about it.
That’s strange because the Netflix movie, while I was watching it, kept me absorbed throughout. And yet … I don’t think it will stick with me. Not like Fail Safe. Not like Dr. Strangelove or Crimson Tide or any other nail-biter about nuclear war.
I suspect House doesn’t hold up because of its structure. Director Kathryn Bigelow mounts a fine production with numerous tense scenes. The setup: Someone has launched a nuclear weapon aimed at Chicago, and the U.S. government scrambles to decide what to do. In just 19 minutes.
But the script plays out this horrifying scenario in a nonlinear fashion. We see the same 19 minutes from the perspective of three different characters. Just when suspense should be reaching fever pitch, we cut back to witness the same events from someone else’s point of view. This undercuts tension.
The result is a gripping story that starts and stops, starts and stops. After the first segment, we know what will happen in the next playouts.
House is a good movie but, unlike Fail Safe, not a particularly memorable one. On the other hand, we do need periodic reminders that civil war and pandemics are not the only nightmares we have to be concerned about. The nukes are still there.
**
On a lighter note, Sabrina Carpenter guest-hosted Saturday Night Live.
For those of us who prefer not to listen to her hit song “Manchild,” we can watch her dance in her underwear, instead:
And look what demonic A.I. has done to poor Sabrina’s panties:
© 2010-2025 grouchyeditor.com (text only)
Peace in the Middle East!
OK, everyone needs to settle down. Maybe I’ve seen too many episodes of Fauda on Netflix. Or maybe I’m so damn old that I can’t completely buy “peace in the Middle East.” Seen that movie before, and it never ends well.
These people have despised each other forever — almost literally.
Give it a few years. Then check back with me.
Editor’s note: This review was written Saturday, October 18. I woke up this morning, Sunday, October 19, to this “breaking news”:
**
Short review this week because I am busy battling Amazon in an attempt to get my book published on its site.
In the meantime, I noticed a hot actress named Cleopatra Coleman on Black Rabbit. I did some research and unearthed these clips of her in another film, which I will call Black Backside:
© 2010-2025 grouchyeditor.com (text only)
Black Rabbit
I’ve long maintained that you don’t need “likable” characters to sell your show. That helps, usually, but I’m also drawn to “interesting” characters. It’s why good villains are often more memorable than heroes. You hiss at the bad guy, but you can’t stop watching him.
Black Rabbit, an eight-part series on Netflix, is an example of this phenomenon. Jason Bateman and Jude Law play middle-aged New York City brothers who clash — to put it mildly — while running a trendy bar. Law, ostensibly the good brother, and ne’er-do-well Bateman are both brilliantly compelling. But you wouldn’t want either to marry your sister. Release: 2025 Grade: A-
Would I watch it again? Because of the time commitment, I rarely rewatch TV series. But I recommend this show. It’s stylish, well produced and, at times, agonizingly tense.
© 2010-2025 grouchyeditor.com (text only)
Trump’s Achilles’ Heel
It’s probably too late — Donald Trump is 79 years old — but the dude really, really needs to stop currying favor with institutions that despise him.
What is blindingly obvious to most of us is to Donald the holy grail. He craves the respect and admiration of the New York Times, the Nobel Peace Prize committee, and every other once-venerable institution.
He grants interviews to the Times, then watches as the Old Gray Lady twists facts and stabs him in the back. He appeals to the Nobel voters — a group that cemented its liberal bias by awarding Barack Obama before he’d done a damn thing.
These people are never going to embrace you, Donald. They are hopelessly corrupt. Give it up.
**
Word Games
From Lingo Digest
Whenever there’s a dispute over the meaning of a word (often), I prefer to refer to the ultimate authority: an old-fashioned dictionary.
But I worry because, reportedly, the woke police have been busy changing the meanings of words and phrases in that formerly ultimate authority.
Here is a good task for artificial intelligence: scan a 2025 dictionary and compare it to, oh, say a 2015 dictionary. Find out how many definitions have discrepancies between the two.
In the meantime, I’m not buying any new dictionaries. I’ll use an old one.
© 2010-2025 grouchyeditor.com (text only)
Deportation Dilemma
Well, this deportation uproar was predictable. Many people predicted it. I predicted it, years ago.
The left — “progressives,” “liberals,” “independents,” all of them voting for Democrat policies — created an illegal-immigrant crisis. Now they complain about the people trying to clean up their mess.
They are like children who, after making a cluttered nightmare of their bedroom, complain that their parents moved toys where they can’t find them while cleaning up the clutter.
Mistakes will be made by ICE. Some people will be detained who shouldn’t be detained. A lot of people will be inconvenienced. What would you expect when the mandate is to deport millions of illegal immigrants? An episode of Law & Order?
**
Potter Wars
I’d like to jump on the J.K. Rowling bandwagon over her takedown of Emma Watson. I’d really like to because I’m on Rowling’s side.
But from what I can tell, Rowling is still full of shit on a host of other liberal issues.
**
Sellouts of the Week
Bill Burr, Louis C.K., and Dave Chappelle, all of whom decided they don’t have enough money and so decided to go kiss ass in Saudi Arabia.
**
X Files
Milo gave this girl a backhanded compliment, I guess:
So did I, I guess:
I thought her photo shoot looked like A.I. handiwork. Turns out I was (gasp!) incorrect. She posted the pic above to prove me wrong.
Not sure about the authenticity of the picture of her below:
**
Jonie tells it like it is. You won’t see her selling out in Saudi Arabia.
At least, not yet.
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29Sep
by Harlan Coben
Just to give you an idea of how out of touch I am with bestseller lists, I had no clue who Harlan Coben was until movie adaptations of his books became a fixture on Netflix. I enjoyed the film version of The Stranger; some of the others, not so much.
Missing You is my first Coben book, and it’s easy to see why he’s so popular. He tells you just enough about his characters to generate interest in them, then pops them (and us) with a shocking surprise. And another, and another. Or, as the book’s blurb says, he’s the “master of the hook-and-twist.”
The protagonist of Missing You is a female cop who reminded me of Stephanie Plum, sans the goofy slapstick. A single woman with a messy love life, she’s also haunted by the murder of her cop-father. Oh yes, and she has an old flame who vanished without explanation 18 years previous. But now it seems he might be back.
The novel is fast-paced and peppered with sharp dialogue. The twists are frequent and not too implausible. Missing You is the perfect “beach read” — entertaining, but a bit shallow and forgettable.
© 2010-2025 grouchyeditor.com (text only)
When I watch horror movies, the scariest villain, to me, is not the monster like a vampire or a werewolf, nor is it the masked slasher like Jason Voorhees or Michael Myers. It’s also not the crazed serial killer.
The most frightening monster is the angry child in an adult’s body.
This type of monster — I think of “Billy” in the original Black Christmas — is recognizable because, at some level, he or she exists in all of us.
That’s what scares me about this culture war, or civil war, we are now in. I’m seeing millions of citizens behave like angry children: unreasonable, crazed, and often violent. Thanks, Boomers, for unleashing these scary brats on the nation.
The bad news: They are hysterical, and there are a lot of them. The good news: They are not very bright.
I used to think these adult-children just needed a good spanking. Apparently, that’s not enough. A lot of them need to be sent to their rooms (i.e., jail) without dinner.
© 2010-2025 grouchyeditor.com (text only)
Influencer
Synopsis: When a social-media influencer’s boyfriend fails to join her on a trip to Thailand, she makes an ill-advised decision that leads to lies, betrayal, and murder.
I had high hopes for Influencer. The opening scenes make use of spectacular Thailand scenery. The plot shows the influence of two of my favorite films, All About Eve and The Talented Mr. Ripley. The villain is telegraphed from the start, but it’s fun watching this person smile, connive, and seduce his or her way into power. And the social-media angle is timely.
Alas and alack, alack and alas, the movie cannot, or will not, sustain a good thing. The last act devolves into either trailer-fodder or lazy screenwriting, take your pick. For some godawful reason, modern thrillers feel they must always wrap up with some sort of physical confrontation, often with a slight-figured young female handily outmuscling a healthy young man. Logic flies right out the window.
But I did enjoy the lead-up to Influencer’s absurd ending. And Thailand never looked better. Release: 2022 Grade: B
Cassandra Naud gives her ass all to the cause of ‘Influencer’
Would I watch it again? Only the shower scene pictured above.
© 2010-2025 grouchyeditor.com (text only)
I think it’s time we drop the word “conspiracy” from conspiracy theories. Too many conspiracy theories turn out to be factual.
But the term has a negative connotation. Sounds like something dreamed up by shadowy cultists in a smoky basement.
Let’s just call them “theories.”
**
Is Donald Trump pulling MAGA’s leg because Benjamin Netanyahu is pulling Trump’s strings?
Is Israel somehow behind the Charlie Kirk assassination? The Epstein files? Dancing with the Stars?
Conspiracy theories? I have no clue.
**
Speaking of the Kirk assassination, I admit I am enjoying the mass firings of leftist celebrants, thanks to doxing on sites like X.
On one hand, it’s a satisfying case of giving them a taste of their own medicine.
On the other hand, what comes next if both sides do nothing but seek vengeance? Civil war? Or is that a conspiracy theory?
My head spins.
**
Speaking of X, some poster is catching flak for complaining about creeps filming scantily clad chicks at water parks. He did this by posting a video of scantily clad chicks at a water park.
I suppose I will catch flak for posting pics from his pics about creeps taking pics.
But she does have a nice ass. It’s her fault for showing us her bare ass at a water park.
Since we’re on the topic of female rear ends, let’s check in with Morgan (top) and Lauren (bottom) in the backyard of the Big Brother house:
Let’s check in a bit closer:
THE END
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