Music/Movies

WHY “THE BATMAN” IS THE BEST BATMAN MOVIE EVER MADE

by David Vox MullenLeave a Comment on WHY “THE BATMAN” IS THE BEST BATMAN MOVIE EVER MADE

It’s no surprise to anyone who knows me that I’m a BIG Batman fan. In fact, I’ve been one for as much of my life as I can remember. From being a little kid in the ’70s & ’80s watching Superfriends while eating a bowl of cereal. Watching the old Adam West Classic 1966 TV series, to running home from high school just so I can make it home in time to catch Batman the animated series. Up until yesterday, if anyone had asked me what I think the best Batman movie ever made was, I would’ve said the 1989 film BATMAN directed by Tim Burton. He was the first filmmaker to capture the dark knight that my friends and I had been reading about in the comics. But last night, after the DC special “FAN-FIRST” private screening of the Matt Reeves film “THE BATMAN“, my world was completely rocked.

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politics, Pop Culture

The Company We Keep: CPAC, Marjorie Taylor Greene and White Nationalism…

by Matt Drufke1 Comment on The Company We Keep: CPAC, Marjorie Taylor Greene and White Nationalism…
The Company We Keep: CPAC, Marjorie Taylor Greene and White Nationalism…

Last weekend was CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Committee, so a ton of Republicans went down to Orlando to watch some speeches and maybe visit the new Star Wars exhibits that Disney has. CPAC’s chairman is Matt Schlapp, who famously left Michelle Wolf’s speech at the White House Correspondence Dinner with his wife, Mercedes, when he claimed that Wolf was an out of touch elite liberal who didn’t speak for the American people. Look, no one should be punished for their name, but if Schlapp was going to speak for the American people, he should have changed his wife’s name, just for one night, to “Gently Pre-Used Honda Civic”.

Anyways, CPAC has this wonderful thing happen every year where some loud racist conservative says something racist and says it quite loudly. This is then followed by the RNC trying to disavow the comments as quick as they can so they can spend the entire weekend complaining that the media is only covering one loud racist and not the other racists who are much more cool about keeping their feelings hush hush. My bet is a lot of CPAC members don’t visit Epcot.

So, did this happen this year? Yes. Well, kind of. And it leads to some thoughts about why we say the things we say in front of the people we say them to.

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Music/Movies

The Official Batman Movie Rankings

by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment on The Official Batman Movie Rankings
The Official Batman Movie Rankings

With Matt Reeves’ The Batman headed to theaters this weekend, we welcome Robert Pattinson into the role of Bruce Wayne. I think Bobby Patts is going to do a good job and am excited to see it. But instead of looking forward to this new film, I decided to look back.

Let’s reflect on the dozen theatrical releases of Batman and see how they shape up. Will this new Pattinson Bats (Pats Bats?) be remembered like Keaton or Bale? Or will we be yearning for the days of bat-nipples?

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baseball, Sports

This Isn’t The Player’s Fault

by Brandon AndreasenLeave a Comment on This Isn’t The Player’s Fault
This Isn’t The Player’s Fault

Last week, MLB players were supposed to start Spring Training. Currently, they are sitting at home, waiting. Due to an ongoing lock out, Major League Baseball has been put on pause, with the threat of part of the baseball season being cancelled. As with all things such as this, there is a lot of acrimony involved, and unfortunately, a lot of the negativity is being directed towards the players. This is wrong.

The players are not to blame for this fora number of reasons, but the biggest reason is this: The players are not on strike. The players are ready to go back to work immediately under the parameters of the most recent Collective Bargaining agreement. The owners have locked out the players in an effort to further restrict player’s abilities to make money while maximizing profits for teams that are not currently putting in an effort to win games.

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politics, Pop Culture

You Can Receive 81,282,632 Votes And Still Have Nobody Like You

by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment on You Can Receive 81,282,632 Votes And Still Have Nobody Like You
You Can Receive 81,282,632 Votes And Still Have Nobody Like You

At the time I’m writing this, President Joe Biden has an approval rating, according to the FiveThirtyEight site, of 41.8%, and that is not a good number. It’s not the worst his approval ratings have been at, but I don’t see it taking any monumental changes anytime soon. It appears that Biden will have the same fate of former President Trump, whose approval rating always seemed to stay between 40-43%.

Liberals are disappointed with him because he’s unable to do any of the things they want him to do because of the razor-thin Senate majority. Conservatives hate him because their hearts are mostly empty, like the Grinch in the beginning and middle of the book. The media doesn’t like him because they cannot fill their day like they did with Trump. This is just speculation, but I bet even the White House chefs don’t like him, because he seems like the kind of motherfucker whose idea of a perfect meal is just plain white rice and a glass of tap water.

We all don’t like the dude. But we also knew that when we elected him.

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Music/Movies, Oscars

FBC 2022 OSCAR COVERAGE, PART III: Where Does West Side Story Rank In The Spielberg Pantheon?

by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment on FBC 2022 OSCAR COVERAGE, PART III: Where Does West Side Story Rank In The Spielberg Pantheon?
FBC 2022 OSCAR COVERAGE, PART III: Where Does West Side Story Rank In The Spielberg Pantheon?

With his nomination for West Side Story, Steven Spielberg joined Billy Wilder at third place for the most Best Director nominations of all time with eight. He’s four behind the great William Wyler, but it’s who is just one ahead of him that I find more interesting: Martin Scorsese.

I don’t think Spielberg has much of a chance to win this year, which means he will have lost that category six times. Now, to put that in perspective, that is a very impressive number especially when you consider that he has more LOSSES than some of the greats like Alfred Hitchcock, John Ford, Robert Altman, Francis Ford Coppola, Clint Eastwood, etc.) have total nominations.

Best Director nominee Steven Spielberg arrives on the red carpet for the 85th Annual Academy Awards on February 24, 2013 in Hollywood, California. AFP PHOTO/FREDERIC J. BROWN (Photo credit should read FREDERIC J. BROWN/AFP/Getty Images)

Here’s what I find interesting about Scorsese having more nominations: while he is an amazing and influential filmmaker, Steven Spielberg is the greatest director of my lifetime. And to be in his sixth decade of moviemaking with only two Oscars and eight nominations is kind of an insult to the man. And I know it seems crazy to be so revered and decorated AND underrated at the same time, but Spielberg has been redefining the concept of success in the art of film his entire career.

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NFL, Sports, television

California Knows How To Party: Dr. Dre, Sexual Anarchy, and Where This Super Bowl Halftime Show Ranks

by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment on California Knows How To Party: Dr. Dre, Sexual Anarchy, and Where This Super Bowl Halftime Show Ranks
California Knows How To Party: Dr. Dre, Sexual Anarchy, and Where This Super Bowl Halftime Show Ranks

First off, let’s get the disappointments out of the way: there was no hologram Tupac on Sunday night.

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Advice, NFL, Sports

An Agnostic Football Fan Guide to the Super Bowl

by Brandon AndreasenLeave a Comment on An Agnostic Football Fan Guide to the Super Bowl
An Agnostic Football Fan Guide to the Super Bowl

So it’s that time of the year. The biggest sporting event of the season is happening and your favorite team is long since eliminated from contention. The elimination could be heartbreaking (49ers/Chiefs) or predetermined by fate (Jaguars/Lions). Thirty fan bases are left out in the rain on February 13th. And the remaining fanbases?

Bengals fans have been so embarrassed by their team over the past three decades that they didn’t really claim their own existence until a month and a half ago.

The Rams….well, they don’t have fans. I can speak to this because I was in St. Louis over the weekend, when they beat the 49ers to go to the Super Bowl. The team, who existed in the STL until just a couple years ago, do not have many fans (more on this later). The team now exists in Los Angeles, which doesn’t give a damn about them.

Over 70 million people watch the Super Bowl each year. The vast majority of those people are not fans of the Bengals or Rams. Welcome to the Agnostic Football Fan Guide to Super Bowl LVI.

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Music/Movies, Oscars

FBC 2022 OSCAR COVERAGE- PART II: NOMINATION RECAP (or, The Power Of The Power Of The Dog)

by Matt DrufkeLeave a Comment on FBC 2022 OSCAR COVERAGE- PART II: NOMINATION RECAP (or, The Power Of The Power Of The Dog)
FBC 2022 OSCAR COVERAGE- PART II: NOMINATION RECAP (or, The Power Of The Power Of The Dog)

When the dust settled and I saw that I was 39-for-50 on my Oscar nomination predictions, some things were very easy to understand. I mean, I really didn’t think the Academy was going to nominate Nicolas Cage for his role in Pig, even though that was the best performance of the entire year. And it made sense that there were slight underperformances from films like West Side Story and Belfast, even though they both each had seven nominations and each film was nominated for Best Picture and Best Director.

But two things stood out in a huge way: the fact that the film I consider the frontrunner in many categories dominated the nominations even more than I thought possible, and that a little film from Japan made a whole lot more noise than I thought it possibly could have.

In short, I love the Oscars. Let’s dive into the nominations.

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