43 Comments

Top gun maverick director Joseph Kosinski also helmed Only the Brave. Hope he can make more movies like those. As someone who has been a terrified passenger of many Asian female drivers, I don’t think an Asian woman could ever be an elite fighter pilot - that was the only glaring diversity issue in the whole film.

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You made me laugh comrade. But I think she's latinx or whatever the cult calls it. The sentiment is agreeable nonetheless. If they make a third film there will have to be a tranny in the tower or the budget will get cut off.

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One of the other squad members was Kara Wang as LT Callie "Halo" Bassett. If the woke call Latinos Latinx, what do they call the Chinese?

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Completely missed the Chinx girl. Her performance must have been that forgettable. Just saw phoenix played by Monica Barbaro.

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Chinx?

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You've nailed it on the cultural de-evolution/evolution of the Information Age. Many years ago my mother pointed out the obvious; as the quantity of information and ease of communication increases, the quality of it decreases. For years she and her siblings exchanged a "round robin" letter, initially handwritten by most and eventually upgraded to manual typewriters. Now our thousands of emails and crudely spelled text messages disappear into the ether, while our families have boxes of those carefully crafted letters.

There is nothing so constant as change though; as people slowly wake up, or are rudely awakened when they're mugged by reality, personal relationships will become more dear and once again the cream will rise to the surface. As the masses begin to reject and ignore the mindless drivel that Hollywood and the MSM churn out, the momentum will eventually be lost, making a way for individuals to be recognized for their merit.

For some, it's going to be more painful. As my mother also said; "Experience is a dear teacher, but the fool will learn no other way".

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As much as I liked TopGun back in the day, and as much as I enjoy a noisy ass fighter jet doing jet stuff, I just can't get behind it because we're reduced to rehashing fucking TopGun and celebrating the fact it "wasn't fucking awful" like that's something to be happy about.

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My thoughts exactly. The larger cultural problem here is that people think movies are art.

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They used to be.

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Things were a lot better with the WASP ruling class. I watched Mr. And Mrs. Bridge last night. The main characters (Newman and Woodward) were sympathetic while being kind of racist, no woke nonsense. Present day I thought the Elvis movie was good but could have been edited down 10 minutes by removing the racist Southerner politician segment which had nothing to do with the story . I definitely recommend Elvis which took over Maverick at box office , could be a message there, nostalgia generates profits

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We have eschewed most TV now except for PVRd episodes of Call the Midwife, Bluebloods, and the most wonderful recent remake of All Creatures Great and Small. In Call the Midwife and All Creatures, we see eras when civility, manners, deference, and restraint are offered, creating greater harmony and stability. We are now investigating Roku for more of the same.

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I find myself watching old tv shows from the 70's and 80''s. The Rockford Files, Hawaii Five-o, Threes Company, even the miserable Love Boat. Good guys taking down bad guys. Guys trying to get girls. Fast cars. Cheesy dialogue, and corny story lines. No politics, no jamming the gay mafia ageda down your throat. No checking every left wing box within 10 minutes of dialogue. Just campy, mindless TV.

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I get a tear in my eye just listening to the theme song from Rockford Files. Best theme song in history and brings back great memories.

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and the message on his phone at the start of every episode......great show

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The answering machine opening was great. My favorite part is the harmonica in theme song. Here you go.... Enjoy

https://youtu.be/yg1Cx26-928

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I’ve watched a lot of Maverick from the 50’s lately. Give me a rerun of M*A*S*H over anything Hollyweirds push on the stupid tube. Even my millennial DIL, has started to complain.

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imagine klinger in a show today?? he was appropriating the trans community by wearing dresses to get discharged..lol

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There's also the original Magnum with Selleck, Simon & Simon, Doc Martin (terrific !!) the I.T. Crowd ( funny ! ) plus old stuff like The Thin Man series with Powell & Loy .

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magnum p.i. is another good one. another alpha male lead filled with toxic masculinity.

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Most of the shows I suggested star men and mostl;y men. Not every woman and I do mean woman subscribes to this idea of toxic masculinity.

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That's pretty much what we watch. Also, mostly the same channel all day long. Although, I've got to admit, I'm getting kinda tired of Perry Mason.

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Totally enjoyed this dude!

https://jrichardson.substack.com/

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I guess I'm a Boomer, because my take at 61 is that after growing up in the 60's and 70's, I lived the demise of music from that awesome time, thru the dying pangs of the 90's, to the absolute death knell of the early 2000's until now, where music is a dead, bloated, ugly corpse unworthy of any attention.

I say "Boomer" because so many seem to think us old folks simply deny what we are told is good now, for what we KNOW was the pinnacle then (talking pop/rock music). I am a huge fan of classical music, btw.

BS

It is obvious today's music sucks and was obvious while it was happening. Now we have shit music. period.

And quite frankly, its the same for movies. I haven't (and will not) go to a movie theater for any amount of money. I haven't watched an entire movie in over 15 years, so I am way behind.

I've never even seen an entire Star War movie (even the old stuff).

There has ALWAYS been something sinister about the movies, but nowadays, the woke agenda is so prevalent that it sickens me.

You can all have Hollyweird, as far as I am concerned.

And don't get me started on the obvious mixed race agenda happening on TV commercials. Its truly overwhelming and obvious that this is a social agenda.

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You lived through the absolute best of music and cinema. The one point of agreement with any boomer of any political stripe appears to be this universal fact.

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there is some good music out there, but not rock and roll or pop music. Listen to some bluegrass or americana music..tyler childers, sturgill simpson, colter wall. but if you cant stand country you wont like that either.

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Do you mean like this (I have lived in the deep south my entire life)?

https://youtu.be/fK1QCSwj1Sg

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Loved the proposal! LOL!

In my country of Canuckistan one has to feel terribly sorry for any blondywhytish actor who relies on TV commercials gigs to keep KD on the table. If Rip van Canuckle rose from a 100-year nap he would be stunned by commercials where he would note that in Canuckistan all marriages are multi-racial, saym-sx couples are pre-eminent, and only 30% of the population represented in these product shills is whytish. Guess that is what happens when young, woke Advertising exec zirs +++ all live in one of the most multiracial cities in the world - they think all of Canucki looks like Trawna. BTW, I am not the only person to note this, but we are too damned polite (scared) to say anything out loud, lest the silver hammer of condemnation is heaped upon our whytyness.

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I noticed it in winter 2020 visiting the pnw because that's all the cult of DIE wants us to notice - race. And what could be more racist than that? I think less than 5% of the TV commercial actors were from the 70% of the population that holiday season while 90% were from 13%. Truly bizarre. Like a twilight zone or black mirror episode. No pun intended.

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I guess I’m impolite

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As a lifelong movie-lover who’d just about given up...I am downright thrilled about this!! Thanks for giving me hope for the future and thank you for adding movie critic to your list of contributions!

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Watching TV for the first time in 2 years. Argh. Grew up on Warner Brothers hand-drawn by artists cartoons. Have to mention it’s not only the haphazard quality of music, but the whole digital format vs a quality stereo turntable with big fine speakers. And then there’s the architectural cubes and cookie cutter crap we live in, with our wonderful flat 62” flat screen HD (as long as there’s no lightening to scramble pixels one can see the plastic surgery on the commentators!) Opening days for NFL season, I watched 2 hours worth of PC advertising per each 3 hour slot, with a few PSA’s thrown in by the co-opted league as well as the subliminal messages on the players’ helmets; luckily with the remote I am able to mute much of the garbage. (Rush Limbaugh was right about the wussification of the NFL.) But now I can have Door Dash delivery of fast food poisoning for halftime, and they’re promoting a new company, bound to be a big success; it will deliver wine, beer and booze. Wondering if you can get cannabis delivered in Denver, and crack & fentanyl in San Fran? Ah, the beauty and ease of the new Marxism. Comfortably numb & dumb.

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Frictionless existence of passive mindless consumption x150 million? Are they socially engineering us to be worthless as Harari says or are we actively choosing it? This war would be a lot easier if people knew. I still watch the occasional NFL highlight. But Brady or Herbert only. One defies time, the other our age of chest bumping narcissism.

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Still having withdrawals 15 years after moving to the heartland from New England where it was pro sports 24/7/365. Curiosity relapse. Turns out don’t miss it.

It’s sort of like that clip of the lady at the Capitol on 1/6 “They’re ACTORS! They’re all ACTING.”

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Spot on. Audiences want escapism. Not to get lectured, not to see race-swapped tokenized emasculated characters and no woke “message”. Hail, Maverick!

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I haven’t been to the movies in a very long time.

4 daggers by TGC has me motivated to check this out. Now if I can just figure out the best time to go when no one will be there. 😏

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I like that this time around they didn’t even bother to name the enemy country. Might as well have been OPFOR.

The funny thing is that 10 years ago I would have passed on the movie, never was a fan of the original. Now even my wife liked it a lot.

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i thought it was a little too nostalgic, as a fighter jet fan i thought some of the action scenes were a bit too OTT unrealistic but i suppose its fine for normal viewers.

what really surprised me the most was how everyone raved about it, some films ive had to watch a few times like goodfellas or the usual suspects or v for vendetta, this is not in that category for me.

my guess is its a reflection of how bad movies have become

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Agreed. Not exceptional but a fun escape. Had to shut off quite a bit and just surrender. When the bar is so low, a little piano riff nostalgia and some jet fighters sends everyone into a frenzy.

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"...and great art never carries a political message over its form, it never reveals itself directly."

~~~

Such an interesting lens of seeing & painting pen.

Kudos.

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Just a short way in.

You Are Such An Excellent Writer.

Had to say it.

Sorry...not sorry.

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