Indy

I've been on vacation this week.  Finishing a couple projects.  Watching a few movies.  We've wandered into the Indiana Jones movies this week.  Doing this somewhat out of order, we did Raiders early in the week, Last Crusade last night and Temple of Doom tonight.  

I may even do Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  I am undecided.

What I am decided upon is this:  I want to live in the parallel universe where instead of the 3 Indy movies from the 1980's, and the fourth from a decade ago or so, we have Indy start getting the Bond treatment, and we get a new Indy movie every few years, with a new actor taking over the Indiana Jones role so often.

In that reality, Crystal Skull isn't reviled like it is here.  It's simply the tenth Bond movie, where Harrison Ford takes the role he made famous one last time.  (And I've maintained that it's not as bad a flick as some make it out to be.  It's a perfectly pulpy flick.  It's not as strong as the first three, but it's not as far behind Temple of Doom as people like to pretend...)

In that reality, we have a couple of 90's Indy movies, with somebody like a Mel Gibson in the role.  And then, in 1999, we have Brendan Fraser taking the role, and we have a story of Indiana Jones fighting the Mummy, with Stephen Sommers directing, and Rachel Weisz and Arnold Vosloo along for the ride.  We could even do a Indiana Jones and the Scorpion King sequel.....

Then, somewhere around 2004 we get a couple Brad Pitt as Indiana Jones.

Then we'd have Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

And then a couple more with somebody like a Channing Tatum.  Or, interestingly:  Sam Rockwell.

And, in that reality, for Memorial Day 2019, we're looking at Idris Elba taking over the role.....

Eh.  Just meandering.  It'd be cool.....

In which he pretends it was a snow day

My ass is on vacation.

We were initially forecast a bit of snow on Sunday.  It didn't come to fruition, but damn did it make for a cold day.  I settled in, cooked some brown stew in the crockpot, and sat my ass in front of the teevee to watch a few movies.

I watched:

The Ballad of Buster Scruggs.  It was a second viewing.  I wanted to put a few weeks space between viewings.  My initial reaction was so positive, I'd wondered if I was just riding the high.  I wanted to see if it actually held up.  And it does, in my opinion.  Liam Neeson and Harry Melling's bit is still my favorite segment, though in a perfect world, Chelcie Ross should get some special attention for his steamrolling everybody else in his segment.  I don't know that I've ever laughed so hard....

Raiders of the Lost Ark.   Mostly for background noise while I prepared my stew fixings.  Such a wonderful flick.

Hot Tub Time Machine.  I watched this when it first came out, and I didn't care for it.  I was a little more forgiving this time, as it does have a few good gags.  An admission:  I don't care for Rob Corddry.  I don't find him funny.  Even when he's playing annoying and antagonistic roles.  He's got what somebody on a pro wrestling board once called "X-Pac Heat."  It's heat where he's dislikeable, but not engaging, and only makes you want to turn the channel

The Third Man.  I hadn't watched this one in twenty years.  Found it streaming on Netflix.  Amazing how a flick can, 70 years after its release, leave you so off balance.  I'd forgotten how great.

The Disaster Artist.  I got really worn out on James Franco a while back.  He just showed up in everything and he took shots at adapting a couple of my favorite novels (As I Lay Dying and Child of God) for the screen, with middling results.  I don't find him all that interesting or entertaining.  So I'd skipped this one.  And, well, I gotta say this was a helluva fun flick, with James and Dave Franco both hitting the nail pretty squarely on the head.

Sicario: Day of the Soldado.   I was tentative.  I loved Sicario.  I'd heard a LOT bad about this one.  And, well, there's a good bit of fear mongering in this one.  But Del Toro still carries his weight, and then some.  I didn't like it, but it was by far the worst thing I've ever seen.....

A picture

I'm surprised by so little of what he does.  He's just a con man.  And he looks so little to actually serve.  He can't even spring for steak, or some decent meal.  It should be a special moment for the kids, and he can't even dip a pinky into the well of empathy to cater to that.

Just garbage.

A Lie

I don't know if I've ever told you people this, but my Dad could recite Pi to the 9,400th digit.  For years, we didn't know that those numbers he was spouting off, usually while staring into a carton of Mayfield's Vanilla Bean ice cream, were indeed the ratio of a circle's diameter to its circumference.

It made cleaning the kitchen after dinner a troublesome proposition, because he'd usually just stand there, carton in hand while it melted into slush, reciting off number after number.

We didn't figure out until after his death that he was wishing for pie to go with his ice cream, and he was merely suffering from a mental typographical error.

It's easy to understand, because most pie, indeed, are round.