Funding a Riot

The current riots in LA, which will soon spread nation-wide, are planned events.  Someone is funding them.  Pallets of bricks don't just happen to appear at the scene of a 'protest' where there isn't any construction.  Drivers don't arrive with supplies of high-end masks to protect from tear gas without someone footing the bill.  Both the governor and mayor are in league with the funders.  This 'protest' is designed to thwart the entirely lawful enforcement of immigration law.

During the Obama presidency, the state of Arizona was miffed that the government wasn't enforcing immigration law.  Arizona passed a law to allow it to enforce the border.  The Obama administration sued Arizona and won.  Border enforcement is a federal responsibility.  States don't get their own immigration laws.  California doesn't get to opt out of ICE enforcing the law.

The Trump-Musk Break-Up

From strong allies to mortal enemies in nothing flat.  Elon does not approve of the Big Beautiful Bill that continues to spend the country into bankruptcy and Donald isn't so keen on the sudden disloyalty from one of his top supporters through the campaign and early administration.  The spat quickly elevated and now has Musk claiming that Trump is on the Epstein List, thus explaining why it still hasn't been released.  Yes, this break-up has gone nuclear.

I am highly doubtful that Trump is on the list.  If he was, the Biden Administration would surely have released that snippet of the list along with any damning pictures and video.

Charlie Chan and the Curse of the Dragon Queen (1981)

Lee Chan, Jr. (Richard Hatch) was an aspiring detective and a well-established klutz.  His ability to suffer cringe-inducing slapstick silliness knew no bounds.  Worse, he was engaged to marry Cordelia (Michelle Pfeiffer), who proved to be his equal in uncoordinated pratfalls.  Lee worships his grandfather, the great detective Charlie Chan (Peter Ustinov).  As a series of bizarre murders have plagued San Francisco, the police chief (Brian Keith) has summoned Charlie Chan to consult on the case.  The chief is an ill-tempered hypochondriac who spends most of his time yelling.  Lee's grandmother, Mrs. Lupowitz (Lee Grant), is desperate to spend time with her grandson and convince him that detective work is not for him.  Often, she fondles and caresses her husband's urn, explaining how she needs him.  His murder by the Dragon Queen (Angie Dickinson) was detailed in a black and white flashback.  Yes, Charlie Chan solved the case.

The mystery is hardly a mystery and the comedy is atrocious.  Charlie Chan spends most of his time making fortune cookie observations and marveling at the incompetence of his grandson.  When the climax arrives to reveal the killer, Charlie exposes most of the characters for this or that, all of which is meaningless.  Great, the chauffeur is an African prince.  So what?  This character is not really confined to a wheelchair.  Impressive deduction, but meaningless.  The big twist - such as it is - was revealed earlier to a casual viewer.

Despite an excellent cast, this movie is barely watchable.  Skip!

Mickey 17 (2025)

Mickey Barnes (Robert Pattinson) was surprised to wake up.  He found himself at the bottom of a snow-covered crevasse on the planet Niflheim.  How could he get out?  Luckily, his friend Timo (Steven Yeun) arrived.  Timo was surprised that Mickey wasn't dead yet; he had only come looking for Mickey's weapon, which was on a ledge above.  Leaving Mickey to his fate, Timo left.  How did he come to this?

Mickey and Timo had borrowed money from a shady character to launch a business.  It had failed spectacularly, and the lender intended to recoup his losses by carving the pair of them into pieces with a chainsaw.  In order to escape this fate, Mickey and Timo signed onto a colony ship bound for a distant planet.  Where Timo had a skill that earned him a spot - the waiting list was long, Mickey did not.  He volunteered to be an expendable.  He was given all the dangerous work.  If he died, a newly printed clone would take his place.  So far, he had died 16 times, making his current incarnation Mickey 17.

Mickey has a girlfriend, Nasha (Naomi Ackie).  The colony ship is led by Ken Marshall (Mark Ruffalo), a buffoonish congressman who lost his election so he paraphrased Davy Crockett: "You can go to hell -- I'm going to Niflheim."  His wife, Ylfa (Toni Collette), is no smarter that her dull-witted husband, but she encourages him in his stupidity.  Yes, this is supposed to be a dark comedy, but the idiocy of these villains is pathetic, not funny.

It was hard to like Mickey.  He comes across as a hapless victim.  The laughs are few and far between.  Mickey falling naked out of the printer because no one put the print tray in place proved to be a repeated joke.  Oh, so funny.  Ugh.  Some of the world building was cool, notably the explanation of how cloning was outlawed on Earth and how the only exception for cloning was if the previous incarnation was dead, thus Mickey's loophole for regular resurrection.  Of course, Mickey 17 surviving the fall into the crevasse and returning to the colony ship resulted in a multiples violation.  The Nasha and the Mickeys demonstrated stupidity in trying to resolve this issue before they could get caught.  Ugh.

Disappointing.  Skip.

Biden has Cancer

It has been reported that President Biden has an aggressive form of prostate cancer that has metastasized to his bones.  Was this only discovered since he left office or has this been kept under wraps for longer?  Back in 2022, President Biden claimed that he had cancer that had been caused by oil refinery pollution in Delaware.  Was this a case of the President going off script, but revealing something that was true?  Has he had cancer since 2022?  If the White House and the media were so busy keeping signs of senility out of the news, what are they odds that they also opted not to talk about a cancer diagnosis.

Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (season 2)

Season 1 concluded with Dirk (Samuel Barnett) and Ken (Mpho Koaho) captured by Black Wing, a government agency that sought to contain people who had supernatural powers.  Todd (Elijah Wood) and Farah (Jade Eshete) were on the run, trying to avoid being swept up by Black Wing while also seeking to locate Dirk.  Amanda (Hannah Marks) and Vogel (Osric Chau), the last member of the Rowdy 3, were likewise on the run and searching for the rest of the gang.  Somehow, most of them are drawn to a small Montana town where strange things are happening.

Farah meets her brother at a sailing ship in the middle of a field.  No one knows how the ship got there as there is no navigable waters for miles around.  Todd has a run-in with Sheriff Sherlock Hobbs, who is entirely too friendly.  Meanwhile, the local pariah, Suzie Boreton (Amanda Walsh), witnesses her boss's murder.  She was on the brink of being murdered when Bart (Fiona Dourif) arrived to kill all the thugs.  Though Bart thinks she maybe should kill Suzie, she desists on account of her time with Ken; Ken often counseled against killing.  Moments later, Bart regretted her decision to not kill Suzie.  Suzie blasted her with a wand!

In the land of Wendimoor, the Dengdamors and the Trosts are on the brink of war.  Panto Trost, the greatest swordsman of the land, sought the witch of the woods who would allow him to fulfill the prophecy by locating Dirk Gently!  In this fairy realm, strange creatures exit, pink is a natural hair color, and the wizard (John Hannah) is the bad guy.  Soon, Panto finds himself in Montana and teams with Bart.  Conversely, Amanda crosses into Wendimoor to become the wood witch's apprentice!

Though entertaining, this is not nearly as good as the first season.  Our titular hero is a whiner.  Oh, how he whines and cowers and quakes.  It is really hard to like Dirk.  Since there was a holistic detective and a holistic assassin, how about having a holistic actress?  Yes, there is Mona Wilder.  She has the ability to play any part, and she means any part.  She played a chair for 6 years.  Oh, she's a shapeshifter who claims to be able to transform herself into something as big as an aircraft carrier.  The entire dimension of Wendimoor was created by a holistic creator.

This story does not tie neatly together like the first season.  It does end with some interesting twists that change the dynamic between some characters.  The show was not renewed for a third season.

Just okay.

Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970)

Civil War Veteran Hogan (Clint Eastwood) was riding through Mexico when he heard a commotion.  He dismounted and looked over a rise to see a trio of men pushing a mostly naked woman among them.  Well, that just wouldn't do.  He intervened by killing the trio.  He was quite shocked when, once she was dressed, she proved to be a nun!  Sister Sara (Shirley MacLaine) was also a Juarista out to raise money to fight the French.  As such, Hogan's plan of handing her off to a French patrol was nixed.  As it happens, Hogan was in Mexico to assist the Juarista cause, but he was less than keen on having a nun - especially a pretty nun - around.  The more time he spent around her, the less she seemed like a proper nun.  However, she always had a reasonable explanation for this aberrant behavior.

Clint plays his usual Western anti-hero, though he adds a dash of romance.  His interactions with Shirley are fun and funny.  Much of the fun is that Hogan doesn't know how to interact with her, nor can he get rid of her.  Though she plays her role well, Shirley is a hard sell for a Mexican.  She looks not at all Spanish and is entirely too pale for such a climate.  That said, Sara is a great character, and MacLaine imbues her with just the right combination of reverence and sass.

The scenery is terrific, but much of it is nowhere near the putative setting.  The story is set near Chihuahua, but a lot of filming was done south of Mexico City.  As for the French, they didn't look French.  According to IMDb, the director sought to save money and cast a bunch of no-names for all the roles other than Clint and Shirley.

After the US Civil War concluded, the United States took more robust measures against the French intervention in Mexico, selling tens of thousands of rifles to the Juaristas and threating US action against the French.  The movie Vera Cruz also took place during the French invasion of Mexico.

Good popcorn fun.