That particular brand of ‘enthusiasm’ is what really turns Mrs. ricepad off Welcome to Wrexham.
My wife finds it hard to watch, not so much for the language itself but for what she sees as the disturbing ‘tension’ behind the interactions during it. I grew up in NYC so maybe I don’t see it that way as much.
As a former chef I can’t find the interest to watch this show-- if it really captures the unpleasant tension of chef life, why on earth would I want that feeling in my relaxation time?
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I’ve enjoyed it off and on and there have been a couple great episodes and a bunch that are a bit tiresome. More mystifying is that it gets nominated as a comedy every year by Emmy people. It’s run its course I think and should probably wrap up this season.
Well, I’m not sure it would matter, but most of the tension in The Bear seems to be between family members with history and maybe not so much just from the ‘kitchen experience’. I’d be interested in the thoughts of someone who’s been there. Mine is from watching Tony Bourdain and other film views of that life.
The ‘comedy’ and ‘drama’ categories are largely a matter of format, rather than content. That is, a show structured like a comedy, (approx 30 minutes, A/B story with dovetailed ending) is a comedy, regardless of whether or not it’s funny. The Bear has caused controversy about this the moment it was nominated for its first season.
It was ok.
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Jurassic World Rebirth (2025) - dir. Garett Edward’s
Sometimes, movies can become seriously metatextual. The story becomes about the story itself. This feels very much like one such movie.
The premis of the film is that, in a world where dinosaurs have been brought back, escaped to the wild, and are now semi-common sights, people have become bored. People will no longer pay extraordinary fees to see these wonders. So, naturally, the genetics company responsible for them in the first place starts to experiment with creating new, more dangerous mutant dinosaurs. Ptero-raptors, the six limbed Dominus Rex. No one wants to see them. They’re gross. Things go wrong. The research island is abandoned.
Now another company enlists the help of Scarlett Johansen and Mahershala Ali to visit the island to get samples from the largest land, sea, and air dinosaurs in order to ‘cure heart disease’. There’s also a little family on a sailing trip, dad, small daughter, bigger daughter, and bigger daughter’s annoying GenZ boyfriend. Boats are wrecked, people are stranded, hilarity and death-by-thunder lizard ensue.
The film itself is very much like those mutant dinos. An attempt to take something that was genuinely special (the first Jurassic Park) results in a misshapen version of a much better original. This film tries very hard to maintain the same story beats as the original Jurassic Park, right down to the slimy corporate toady and ‘kids in danger’, which felt like something that was shoved into the film at some studio exec’s insistence.
These a couple of good action scenes, the best of which borrows liberally from the barrel-shooting scene in Jaws. There about 75 minutes of perfectly good action movie here. Alas, the film 135 minutes long.
If you want to be in the A/C for a couple of hours and turn your brain off, this will do the job. Though I’d only opt for it if Superman at the same multiplex is sold out.
2 out of 5 traumatized children that are gonna need SO MUCH THERAPY after seeing people get eviserated.
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I remember Edith Massey sitting in the window of her “store” in Fells Point. Sui generis.
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Just watched the first ep of Ballard, the Bosch spinoff. It’s good.
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David Lynch is probably the only director other than Waters who could really make use of genuinely unique characters/faces. The Egg Lady has the be pretty near the top of that list.
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Watched Jaws @50: The Definitive Inside Story last night. We knew about most of the issues with “Bruce” and Shaw, but it was still fun to hear not just the main actors, but many of the extras (i.e. real islanders 
) talk about their experience being part of the movie & seeing themselves on the big screen.
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looking forward to seeing the re-release in a theatre in a few weeks. i understand a lot of places are booking it a few nights this summer in honour of the 50th. i’ve never seen it in on a big screen.
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Have to say…… for all the ups and downs I’ve had watching The Bear …… I found season 4 Episode 7 to be one of, if not THE best episodes of the whole show. It started out like it was going to be a repeat of the Christmas dinner episode but ended up a thoughtful, touching tribute to this usually messed up ‘family’. My wife, who had lately watched reluctantly, just loved it.
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We started the new season of Taskmaster, which is still hilarious. Good group of comedians this round, including the seemingly ever-present Nick Mohammed, who is in full vampire makeup for every challenge. I have to assume he was filming something at the time 
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“You’re gonna need a bigger screen…”
… I’m sorry. I’ll show myself out.
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Wut? I coulda sworn @Lectroid done did one of his epic write-ups on this one, but I guess not. We finally watched Friendship with Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson — the latter a former SNL writer who created Detroiters and I Think You Should Leave. Both shows are an acquired taste, and the strange, often very cringey humor is not everyone’s cuppa. That said, some skits in ITYSL are absolutely hilarious.
Friendship is equally weird, and we didn’t know what to make of the ending.
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Nope. Haven’t seen this one. I gave I Think You Should Leave a shot, but I couldn’t get into it. I really have to be in the right headspace for that deeply cringe sort of humor. I’ve heard really good things about Friendship. But then, people seemed to love A Real Pain and I was rather cool towards that as well.
As I said, def an acquired taste. Here’s a couple of faves from ITYSL, but they may well not be yours.
https://www.youtube.com/shorts/virmqp5cx2E (not sure why it shows up in this format, but it’s FOOD-THEMED!)
I watched about five minutes and hated it.
