- This trend can stop any time. The trend of taking movies -
good ones - and reviving them when there’s no life left in their franchise name
by doing a “bold” all-female version is getting lame in a hurry. The middling, uninspired “Ghostbusters”
spinoff earlier this summer was proof that the concept doesn’t work, but just
to hammer that point home, “Ocean’s Eight” is marching forward. The new film
will be an all-female spin-off from the Steven Soderbergh-directed Ocean's
trilogy, which started out well with “Ocean’s Eleven” and got progressively
worse with “Ocean’s Twelve” and “Ocean’s Thirteen.” Perhaps feeling like “Ocean’s
Fourteen” would just be numerically excessive, Warner Bros. elected to go the
opposite direction and discard George Clooney, Brad Pitt and Matt Damon in
favor of Sandra Bullock, Cate Blanchett, Helena Bonham Carter, Anne Hathaway,
Mindy Kaling and Asian-American rapper and actress Nora Lum…along with Rihanna,
the newest addition to the cast. The new project will be co-written and
directed by “The Hunger Games'” Gary Ross, which means not only will it get rid
of the cast and chemistry that made the first two movies in the series solid or
better, but it will replace the creative vision that helmed them. The project
even has a lame nickname, “Ocean’s Ocho,” which simply means it’s now a
terrible idea in two languages. At best, this is a new slant on Hollywood
wanting to do a remake or sequel of every movie ever made rather than come up
with original ideas, cloaking it under the fabricated notion of gender equality
by giving the ladies a chance to lead. Give them original, fresh ideas for
movies if you really want them to shine, yo……….
- Oh, the perils of the eager beaver. An overly zealous and
possibly rabid beaver made its impact felt near the Pomfret/Killingly town line
in Connecticut earlier this week, attacking two people and prompting the Department
of Energy and Environmental Protection to warn all swimmers and boaters in the
area to be on guard. A man and woman were swimming in the Quinebaug River
around 7 p.m. when they were bitten by the angry animal, according to DEEP
officials, in the vicinity of the Route 101 bridge. Both beaver bite victims received
stitches at Day Kimball Hospital in Putnam and will have to go through a series
of rabies shots as a precaution. Wildlife officers searched the area and
located a beaver "exhibiting aggressive behavior" near the Route 101
bridge, but were unable to do the crucial part of their job by bringing in this
renegade beaver. "We did see an animal in the area where this took place
and it was looking aggressive to our officers so all the more reason for people
to stay out of the water, even people in small water crafts like a kayak or
canoe," said DEEP spokesman Dennis Schain. "There have been fairly
rare reports of beavers being aggressive toward people, also beavers can be
infected So we don't see that a lot but it does happen. So we don't know here
if it's a healthy beaver being aggressive or an infected beaver with rabies acting
out.” Maybe you want to find that out before this critter sinks his massive
chompers into someone else, D. As wildlife officers, you have one job and at
this point, you don’t seem to be very good at it……….
- Because you’re Deon Long. There’s really no other way to
explain a random roster transaction by a consistently mediocre NFL team happening
the way it did, with Long getting axed by his head coach on national television
because the wide receiver brought a woman into his training camp dorm room. Rams
coach Jeff Fisher cut long in a scene broadcast on this week’s episode of HBO's
"Hard Knocks," with the veteran coach informing Long that he is being
cut for violating team rules. "What part of the rules, what part of 'no
female guests in the room,' did you not understand?" Fisher asked Long in
their meeting, filmed as part of HBO’s annual series profiling one reluctant
NFL team during training camp. Long protested, arguing that his visitor was
there before curfew and he didn't intend to have her stay, but Fisher realized
he was talking to a guy who spent time with the Tennessee Titans and Miami
Dolphins last season but never played and only recently signed with the Rams,
meaning he didn’t have to overlook the transgression the way he would for a
player such as Todd Gurley or Jared Goff. "Sorry, but this is our world,
man," Fisher says. "We have rules and we have to abide by them. Not
the first time I've done this for this particular violation, but I thought I
made myself really clear." Oh, you did coach. You made it clear that a
fringe player who you can make an example of on national television is going to
get no leeway in your organization……..
- In the world of non-shocking news, the Italian government
believes Mafiosi have infiltrated the local administration of Corleone, the
Sicilian town which inspired the fictional crime clan's name in "The
Godfather" novel and movie. Premier Matteo Renzi's Cabine took bold action
this week, dissolving Corleone's municipal government and putting its City Hall
under temporary control of the interior ministry at the urging of Interior
Minister Angelino Alfano. Political corruption is almost expected in Italy, but
it goes to another level when you have Corleone's mayor voicing worries about
Mafia infiltration. Sicily's Cosa Nostra is well-known for flexing its criminal
muscle to intimidate those who stand its way and to exert influence on decisions
and public contract bidding or to support local politicians sympathetic to the
Mafia's economic interests. Corleone is one of many city halls in Italy's
south, and, lately, increasingly also in the north, that has been put under the
national government’s control in a last-ditch effort to remove mob influences
from the political process. Corleone was an extremely obvious place for all of
this to unfold, as the city was the stronghold of convicted mobster and reputed
chieftain Bernardo Provenzano, who recently died. His demise doesn’t seem to
have lessened the mob’s presence in the area and if the national government is
hijacking control of governance in the area, this is a much bigger problem than
anyone in the government cares to admit. But hey, corrupt government is still
better than the prospect of electing Donald Trump to run your country, eh
Italy? Count your blessings………
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