Kingsman: The Golden Circle review and the rules for action sequels.

Following the success of the spy movie Kingsman: The Secret Service (2014) is the sequel Kingsman: The Golden Circle. And like any action sequel there are rules, at least for big budget sequels. Yeah, this is inspired by the rules from Scream 2. (1997)


Rule 1. Bigger action set pieces. Come on you got more money because of the first one. It's a franchise. Rule 2. More carnage. That means more dead bodies. Rule 3. Bigger explosions. See Rule 1. Rule 4. Big dramatic plot surprises. Yeah, everybody wants to make The Empire Strikes Back. Rule 5. Give the audience more of what they saw in the first one. But what about creativity? You want art, go to The Louvre. We're trying to make a boatload of money from our franchise.

In The Kingsman; The Golden Circle, super drug dealer Poppy (Julianne Moore) destroys The Kingsman headquarters. She's this crazy nostalgia freak for the fifties, and the sixties. And her Cambodian jungle headquarters shows it. There's an old fashioned bowling alley, and yes it could be a nod to The Big Lebowski. After all Jeff Bridges is in this movie. At the center is Poppy's headquarters which is fifties hamburger diner complete with robot dogs and a gigantic meat grinder for turning your human enemies into meat patties. She's also captured Elton John who has some very funny moments. Anyway, she's got a plan. Since she supplies most of the world's drugs, she's decided to spike the supply with a poison and blackmail the world since she has the antidote.

Kingsman Eggsy aka Galahad (Taron Egerton) and Merlin (Mark Strong) must seek out help. They are directed to Kentucky where the Statesman are headquartered. The Statesman are American version of the Kingsman. They're led by Champagne aka Champ aka as The Dude. (Jeff Bridges) Um... okay, he's not known as The Dude. But come on, there's Julianne Moore here and bowling. They find Harry Hart still alive. (Colin Firth). Hart was shot in the head by Samuel L. Jackson in the last film. Halle Berry is here as the American version of Merlin or Q. But she's given very little to do. Hold on. Berry, Bridges, Moore and Firth. A law firm? No. But these four actors have Oscars. Whoa. Bet you a dollar, nobody is going to get an Oscar for this movie.

Director Matthew Vaughn and Jane Goldman have made a screenplay that follows the rules of action sequels. It's got bigger action, there's more carnage, bigger explosions, big dramatic plot surprises, and it gives the audience the same stuff from the last movie. Action and comedy. So what's not to like? Well, too much of a good thing may not be a good thing. The movie is bloated. For example, Poppy grinds a henchman into ground... well, ground henchmen and then cooks the um... said beef and makes a burger out of it. She then feeds it to another henchmen. You guys are trying to turn us into vegetarians. And then the way they bring back Harry is kind of ridiculous. The Statesmen have nano technology to repair head shots. Really? How about just having him shot as glancing flesh wound? And if you thought the first one was campy, this one seems to get its inspiration from the sixties Batman TV show. There was also no need for the demise of some of the characters. Guys, you're not making The Godfather II here.

Director Vaughn certainly knows how to frame and set up the action set pieces. He relies less on editing and more on slow motion tracking shots. It makes sense and there is less confusion. There's some good comedy here and some cringe worthy comic material. The later stages of the poison causes people to dance. As Steve Martin would say, "Comedy is not pretty." I will say this. Elton John's last sentence is one of the funniest lines in cinema this year.

Kinsman: The Golden Circle is fun. But it's like eating ice cream too fast. You'll get a headache. The grade is B.

Trump shows the world he's a racist and Colin Kaepernick's mother's response

On Friday, conservative Republican President Donald Trump showed the world he wants the angry bigoted white man vote and that he is a racist. You see he was in Alabama, the heart of the angry , racist white male nation. Remember what Bull Connor did to civil rights protesters in the sixties? Anyway, Trump in a political rally said this about NFL players kneeling in protest to racial injustice during the national anthem,

"Get that son of a bitch off the field right now, he's fired. He's fired!" CNN REPORT

Now let's not be suckers here. We know who he is referring to. It's African American quarterback Colin Kaepernick who kneeled in protest to the treatment of black people by the police. Trump said this in front of a white audience full of angry white males. He said it in Alabama, the heart of angry, white, racist male nation. Alabama has a history of opposing civil rights. It's a message of support for bigots. And before you say there was nothing about blacks in that statement please remember that Trump did not call Nazi protesters "sons of bitches." In fact, he said there were "fine people" in the Nazi ranks. (The Atlantic) Guess who are the bad guys according to conservative Trump? The African Americans. And what about free speech/ This is not just saying that the NFL can punish protests therefore not a government suppressing speech. Trump as President is the government. By urging the suppression of free speech, he's violating the guarantees of free speech under the First Amendment.

So, what did Colin Kaepernick's mother say about this? Here's her glorious tweet.

Guess that makes me a proud bitch!

— Teresa Kaepernick (@B4IleaveU) September 23, 2017

You go girl. Impeach Trump now. Vote liberal Democrat, if you want to live.

The Bengals' season is over

Is it too early to call the 2017 Cincinnati Bengals season over? After last week's game where the Bengals couldn't score a touchdown against the Houston Texans who had their two starting cornerbacks injured and now the Bengals drop a game to the Green Bay Packers after leading them 21-7, this long suffering Bengals fans has had it.

Yesterday's game against the Packers had all the hallmarks of your typical Bengals epic meltdown. After leading the Packers at halftime by 21-7, the Bengals scored just 3 points the remainder of the game. It's time to sit Bengals cornerback Adam "Packman" Jones down. His new nickname should be "Toast." Because he got toasted on a 72 yard pass play to set up the Packers winning field goal. Not only has he lost a step, he's an embarrassment off the field and do you all remember his meltdown against the Steelers in that 2016 Playoff game? His temper in that game caused a unsportsmanlike penalty which gave the Steelers a chip shot field goal. (Check out this News Record op-ed piece on Jones.)

Yesterday, the Bengals lost in the usual heartbreaking way. I've seen this movie before. Time to call the season. Not really interested in writing about the Bengals until they do something sustainable in a positive way. Time to think about the draft. Here's Lance McAlister's report.

Sen Bill Cassidy aka Doctor Death fails two oaths and Jimmy Kimmel torches conservatives

Conservative Senator Bill Cassidy (R-La.) who is a doctor violated his primary medical oath which is to do no harm and then fail his own coined term "The Jimmy Kimmel Test." Cassidy after hearing Kimmel make a public plea to Congress to provide health care to everyone even those who could not afford medical care. Kimmel was grateful that he had health insurance to cover his infant son who had a congenital heart condition. Kimmel was urging Congress to either fix Obamacare or provide insurance to everyone even the poor. Cassidy told Kimmel on his show that any plan he would support would do so.

Kimmel unfortunately trusted a conservative Republican. You see they view government assisted healthcare as socialism That comes from their god, Ronald Reagan. (My post with Reagan's audio on the issue.) So now Cassidy has proposed a new healthcare plan. It would repeal Obamacare. And it would slowly kill Medicaid. Place caps on how much insurance would pay for one patient. And get this it would allow states to opt out of mandating insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions. Since his plan would cause millions to lose coverage and likely lead to deaths. So, let's call Cassidy, "Doctor Death."

Here's Jimmy Kimmel on the Cassidy 's "healthcare" plan.



Cassidy then said he didn't lie to Kimmel and then indicated that Kimmel didn't understand healthcare. Bad mistake. Kimmel torches him. Thank you Jimmy Kimmel for fighting for Americans' healthcare. Here's Kimmel's response. And vote liberal Democrat if you want to live.

mother! review

mother! is the second movie this year to deal with the idea of creativity. The second was Alien: Covenant. Whereas that movie was more conventional science fiction. mother! is a film that answers the hypothetical question of what a movie made by Luis Bunuel, Salvador Dali and Stephen King would look like.

Mother (Jennifer Lawrence) and Him (Javier Bardem) are husband and wife. They have no children. Him is a poet. They live together in a large house somewhere in the country. One of the opening scenes of the film has Him placing a crystal on a mantle. The crystal was recovered from previous house which burned down inspires Him to write. However, Him is having a bit of writer's block. A doctor (Ed Harris) stops by and asks to stay. Later, doctor's wife (Michelle Pfeiffer) joins him. She lectures Mother that she should have a child. They are basically boarders from hell. Speaking of which, when the doctor breaks the crystal, all hell breaks loose. It doesn't happen all at once. But actions in the movie are murder, blood seeping in floors and walls, riots, cannibalism, a strange creature living in the toilet, and idolatry. You know the stuff in Disney movies.

You get no bad performances with this A list cast. Jennifer Lawrence suffers quite a bit in this movie. Physical and emotional. In keeping with the surreal nature of the movie, the insane events seem to be real to her. Javier Bardem initially seemed a little to intense for me but his performance makes sense as a man who needs the approval and worship of a crowd. As his career winds down, Ed Harris is making some excellent acting choices. His Man in Black in Westworld was more than evil he was complicated. In this film, he strikes me as a hypocrite. Michelle Pfeiffer's wife has a Lady Macbeth vibe happening here.

Director and writer Darren Aronofsky's camera follows Mother around with either over the shoulder, first person or cover shots. She is in virtually in every scene in the movie. The effect is that we feel her suffering. This film is certainly metaphorical and surreal. With all the gore and violence, it becomes quite intense. That's a problem for mother!. Aronofsky's film needed editing. Was there a need for all the murder, people getting shot and rioting? It got to a point where it slowed down the movie. Still, the film is fascinating. I spent the time trying to understand the multiple allegories crashing into each other.

mother! is a thought provoking, surreal and disturbing movie. Big studio Paramount should be praised for producing this piece of avant-garde art. The grade is B.

What?! Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn was advocating building Middle East Nuclear Power plants with Russians while in the White House

The Wall Street Journal is reporting that former National Security Adviser Micheal Flynn was supporting the construction of nuclear power plants across the Middle East with Russians while he was working in the White House. (Wall Street Journal) Rachell Maddow covers the scheme in the video below at the 8:30 minute mark. Flynn did not disclose any contacts with foreign individuals as required by his security clearance. Maddow then goes over all the things that Flynn did not disclose as required by law. It's at the 14:25 mark. It's a lot of failures. He's in a lot of trouble.

What did conservative Republican President Trump know and when did he know it? Impeach this guy now. Vote liberal Democrat if you want to live. And General Flynn. Do the patriotic thing. Do the thing in your self-interest. Do the thing to save your family. COOPERATE AND TELL THE TRUTH ABOUT TRUMP AND RUSSIA. HELP THIS COUNTRY GET RID OF TRUMP WHO IS A CANCER KILLING THIS COUNTRY.

How dirty Russian money is laundered in a Trump property

Ever wonder how dirty Russian money might be laundered in conservative President Trump's properties? Found this July article from Craig Unger of The New Republic. (New Republic: Trump's Russian Laundromat) Basically, if you are a Russian seeking to launder dirty money, you would buy an apartment say in Trump Tower. Unger traces Trump's Russian connections back thirty years. And he also covered Trump adviser Felix Sater, who has become more relevant lately as it has been reported that he was trying to set up another Trump tower in Moscow in 2015. Unger appeared on MSNBC's the 11th Hour to summarize his report. Below.

Impeach Trump. And vote liberal Democrat if you want to live.