Stacy's Blog Has Got It Going On

 "Maybe the pandemic was a big test...and we all failed." -Stan Marsh 40 years after the pandemic began, it finally starts to come to an end.  The children of South Park have all grown up, drifted apart, and moved with their lives.  When Kenny, now a scientist studying the origin of the pandemic, dies, his childhood friends return home for the funeral and reunite.  They quickly discover that Kenny's death may have been part of a larger conspiracy. Spoilers below!  If you like South Park and don't mind when the show deals with more serious emotional moments at times, then you will really like this movie.  Spoilers!!!!!  You've been warned. What Works: South Park is a comedy, first and foremost, but every so often, they drop the jokes and go for the emotional gut punch.   Post Covid definitely does that a few times.  We get it right away in the opening sequence where we learn it has taken 40 years for the pandemic to end.  I figured the movie would start with the ma

 "What does a hamster have in common with a cigarette?" -Phoebe Spengler After Egon Spengler (Harold Ramis) passes away, his estranged daughter, Callie (Carrie Coon), inherits his farm, which is located in the middle of nowhere, Oklahoma.  Callie's children, Phoebe (Mckenna Grace) and Trevor (Finn Wolfhard), soon learn about Egon's past with the Ghostbusters and what he was really doing in Oklahoma. What Works: Off the bat, I want to give this movie some credit for doing something different, at least for the first 2/3rds of the movie.   Ghostbusters II and the 2016 version are both basically the same movie as the original.  Why bother making a movie if it's going to be virtually the same as the original?  This one at least has a very different cast of characters and is more of a coming-of-age movie rather than a comedy.  The 3rd act reverts back into overly familiar territory, but the tone is very different throughout the entire film. Mckenna Grace plays our main

 "We are all liars here." -Shan Smith Wow, what an awesome episode of  Survivor.   I'm not even mad that I lost my winner pick.  This episode had interesting emotional conundrums, spectacular strategy, an epic blindside, and no time spent on garbage advantages.  I love it!  Let's take a closer look and figure out who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: The move to take out Shan was awesome and a great move for everyone involved.  Shan likely could have beat everyone left in the game, except for maybe Xander, so good on Danny, Deshawn, Xander, Heather, Erika, and Ricard for taking her out.  The plan was the brainchild of Ricard, who I applaud for being willing to turn on his closest ally and for saving himself by winning Immunity. Erika may not have come up with the plan to take out Shan, but she improved it, at least for herself.  With Ricard's original plan, had Shan played her Idol, Erika would have been out.  By getting Danny on board, Erika found a wa

 "Let me try and enlarge your vocabulary." -James Bond When both a British and a Russian nuclear submarine disappear, both countries assign their best agents to the mission.  James Bond (Roger Moore) quickly runs into Major Anya Amasova (Barbara Bach) and clash at first, but later team up to stop a madman, Karl Stromberg (Curt Jürgens), from destroying the world.  What Works: The Spy Who Loved Me is, without a doubt, the definitive Roger Moore movie.  It's silly and over-the-top, but manages to be serious when it needs to be.  It gets that balance right more than any of the other Moore Bond movies.  Even when it is silly, it also manages to be awesome and nothing sums that up more than the opening sequence ski chase.  Bond skis off a cliff and parachutes away with a Union Jack parachute.  It's amazing. The music is also on point in this entire movie.  "Nobody Does it Better" is an excellent Bond song, but the score is awesome as well.  Bond is at his funkies

 "Take Mr. Bond to school." -Hai Fat James Bond (Roger Moore) is pulled from his assignment when a golden bullet arrives at MI6 with "007" engraved in it.  MI6 assumes that Bond has been targeted by the world's most dangerous hitman, Francisco Scaramanga (Christopher Lee), who uses a golden gun and golden bullets.  Bond goes after Scaramanga, hoping to get the man with the golden gun before he gets Bond first. What Works: Christopher Lee is hands down the best part of this movie, which should come as no surprise to anyone who has ever seen a movie with Lee in it.  He is absolutely magnetic and has a wonderful screen presence.  He's a match for Bond and the best villain of the Moore films.  I especially like his relationship with his henchman, Nick Nack (Hervé Vilechaize).  Nick Nack likes to hire assassins to try and kill Scaramanga so he can inherit his vast estate.  Scaramanga doesn't mind.  He actually welcomes the challenge.  I love it. The funhouse

 "Yeah, no way." -Naseer Muttalif Boy, was it nice to have an episode with no live Tribal Council.  It's so refreshing.  The boots of this episode were absolutely brutal with two of my favorites being voted out, but I'm not that upset about it.  They were the right moves.  This was a really fun episode of Survivor and I'm excited to figure out who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: Let's start with Deshawn.  He was in a really unfortunate position, where no matter what, one of his allies was going home.  Either way, he loses someone he can work with.  I think he ultimately made the right move by taking out Evvie, as she was a bigger threat than Liana.  Obviously, this was the right move for Danny and Liana as well, so good for both of them for managing to keep Deshawn on their side.  I didn't like how Deshawn was so pissy with Shan after the previous Tribal Council, but they made up...for now. Xander's an interesting one.  He definitely could

 "Names is for tombstones, baby." -Mr. Big Three British agents are killed in a single day in three different locations.  All of them were investigating the Prime Minister of the Caribbean nation of San Monique, Dr. Kananga (Yaphet Kotto), and his ties to a notorious Harlem gangster.  James Bond (Roger Moore) is sent to investigate and discovers a plot that delves into the supernatural. What Works: Off the bat, this is the first time Roger Moore plays James Bond.  As I've mentioned before, I like all of the Bond actors and appreciate what they each bring to the role.  Moore is easily the funniest Bond, and it isn't remotely close.  He's sarcastic and dry-witted.  Moore gives some of the best one-liners in the series, and the cheesiest, and he doesn't hold back with them in his debut. One thing I love about Bond in this movie is that he's very quick on his feet and good at improvising.  We get to see him kill a snake using hairspray, disarm a potential assa

 "Don't cry in my office." -Arthur Howitzer Jr. When the creator and editor of The French Dispatch suddenly dies, the newspaper is only allowed to publish one final edition before ceasing production forever.  These are the final stories. What Works: The French Dispatch is very much a film by Wes Anderson.  His directing and the cinematography come together to make this film feel like a storybook come to life.  I love the framing of each shot.  It's so meticulous and most of them are very layered.  As per usual with Anderson, this movie is a visual feast. This is an anthology film with the first segment being a very short story of the cycling reporter, Herbsaint Sazerac (Owen Wilson), giving us a tour of the city of Ennui.  It's a quick segment, but it does a good job of setting up the city, where all of the stories take place.  And Wilson is hilarious in both his narration and physical comedy. The next story is the best one, which involves an art dealer (Adrien Br

 "I have absolutely zero idea what's going on, but thank you!" -Sebastian Schlencht-Wöhnert Army of Thieves is a prequel to Army of the Dead  that follows how Sebastian  Schlencht-Wöhnert (Matthias Schweighöfer) became Ludwig Dieter.  A lowly bankroller with an obsession with safecracking, Sebastian is recruited by a gang of international thieves to rob three legendary safes. What Works: The best character from Army of the Dead was Ludwig Dieter.   Matthias Schweighöfer gave by far the best performance, was genuinely interesting and funny, and was the only character of the film I cared about seeing live.  So if we're getting a prequel to the film, I'm glad it's about Ludwig.   Schweighöfer continues to give a charming and endearing performance.  He's an interesting leading character and actually fun to watch.  He also directed the film and did a really good job.  Unlike Army of the Dead, this was actually an enjoyable film to sit through from beginning to

 "You just killed James Bond!" -Tiffany Case After hunting down and killing his nemesis, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Charles Gray), James Bond (Sean Connery) is assigned to investigate a diamond smuggling ring.  James infiltrates the group, but discovers the smugglers are being killed off one-by-one.  He has to continue up the chain which is connected to a wealthy businessman, Willard Whyte (Jimmy Dean). What Works: Far and away my favorite part of this movie are the two main henchmen, Mr. Wint (Bruce Glover) and Mr. Kidd (Putter Smith).  These two are hilarious and like to kill their victims in a creative fashion whenever they can.  Their scenes are always a blast and it is kinda cool to have a gay couple as Bond henchmen.  They even get remarkably close to killing Bond by trying to cremate him. Wint and Kidd are very campy characters and this is a very campy movie.  I like James Bond movies, period.  It doesn't matter to me if they are deathly serious or goofy.   Diamonds Are

 "Survivor happened to me." -Liana Wallace Would you look at that...another episode with hardly any advantage talk.  I like it!  This was a solid episode of Survivor , even if the live Tribal made a large chunk of the episode feel irrelevant.  I have an idea for a new Advantage.  We call it the "Fasten Your Seatbelts" Advantage.  You play it during Tribal Council and all of the seat have seatbelts built in.  If it's played, everyone has to buckle up and stay in their seats for the rest of Tribal Council.  Thoughts?  Anyway, let's figure out who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: As a group, I want to give Liana and the remaining members of Ua and Luvu (except for Heather) some props for getting through this Tribal unscathed.  They all could have done better, but they all could have done much worse.  In the end, a member of Yase did go home, not a member of the majority alliance.  Yes, Xander's Idol is still in the game, but so are they. Finally

"I'm a big baby." -Gilgamesh A group of aliens, known as Eternals, are sent to Earth at around 5,000 B.C., to protect humans from a species of predators called Deviants.  Eventually, they wipe out the Deviants and go their separate ways.    In present day, the Deviants return and the Eternals have to assemble and fight their newly evolved enemy. What Works: I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting much from Eternals going in.  Nothing about this film interested me and I walked into the theater feeling nothing but apathy.  I'm glad I went in with such low expectations because I really enjoyed myself.  I like that this movie is so different from all of the other MCU movies.  I've been saying for awhile now that Marvel really needs to take some big swings in Phase 4 to keep my interest and this is the first time they've really done that.  Sure, not everything they try to do here works, but a good amount of it does and I really respect the attempt. I know some p

 "This never happened to the other fella." -James Bond James Bond (George Lazenby) saves the life of Tracy di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg), the daughter of Marc-Ange Draco (Gabriele Ferzetti), the leader of a crime syndicate.  Draco asks Bond to date Tracy and eventually marry her.  Bond agrees if Draco tracks down the location of Bond's archenemy, Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas).  Bond soon finds himself at Blofeld's mountain lair and discovers Blofeld is planning to hold the world hostage once again. What Works: Let's get the obvious out of the way first.  This is George Lazenby's first and only turn as 007.  He's my least favorite James Bond, but that doesn't make him bad.  We just didn't really get enough time with him. This was also his first film role and he does a remarkably good job at it.  He's great in the action sequences and shows some vulnerability, which Connery never did.  Lazenby makes Bond feel more like a real person than an unst

 "This one may ruffle some feathers." -Jeff Probst Since no one was voted out in episode 6 and this was basically one long episode, I decided to combine my gameplay breakdown for these two episodes into one.  I gotta be honest, I'm not thrilled with Survivor right now.  The Hourglass advantage is pretty much the worst thing to ever happen.  The twists and turns have become too much where it severely impacts my enjoyment of the season.  I don't like seeing players get royally screwed out of the game via production's B.S.  While there were a few fun moments and I do like the idea of having half of the merge tribe get Immunity in a challenge and then having a second challenge for the remaining players to win Individual Immunity, the amount of Advantages in the game really sucks the life out of the show.  Anyway, let's figure out who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: We'll start with Danny and Deshawn.  I really liked how they faked a game of rock,