Month: September 2019

Renee Zellweger’s performance prevents ‘Judy’ from being forgettable biopic

/ Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

Judy does what most good biopics do, focusing on a particular period of the subject’s life, rather than try to fit an entire life and career into a two-hour story. 

There are flashbacks that show what Judy Garland endured as a young girl, trying to please those who wanted to make her a star at the cost of any sort of normal childhood. Those sequences presume that you know about Garland and her career, which doesn’t seem particularly unreasonable if you’re seeing this movie. If you know Judy Garland was in The Wizard of Oz, that’s probably all you need to get by here. 

Continue reading →

The Podcass 010: Brad Pitt in Space, Cam Newton’s foot, and Rambo in Mexico

/ Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

Here’s some Podcass for the weekend! (We should’ve gotten it posted before the weekend. Still a work in progress, folks. Eventually, I’ll stop saying that.)

Catching up on some movies, we review Ad Astra (01:51) and Rambo: Last Blood (29:07). In between is my WISE Sports Radio NFL segment (10:24) and a couple of corrections from the last episode (37:06).

https://open.spotify.com/episode/6KIIQIQ01V6nP230QGONfN

Links to a few things mentioned during this episode:

Continue reading →

‘Rambo: Last Blood’ chooses violent fantasy over final word on tragic character

/ Ian Casselberry / 1 Comment

With the title Rambo: Last Blood, you get everything you need to know about this movie. It’s the last stand of John Rambo, a character who already received a fitting ending in 2008’s Rambo.

Sylvester Stallone should’ve just left Rambo on that Arizona ranch, training horses and repairing tractors for the rest of his life. His Vietnam veteran turned virtual superhero finally left war, service to his country, and his self-imposed exile in Thailand behind. But maybe Stallone saw Logan two years ago and thought Rambo could get a final story like that. 

Stallone should’ve left it alone, man. A better version of this story exists in Rambo: Last Blood, but Stallone and the other two writers credited who worked on this script, nor director Adrian Grunberg, aren’t interested in exploring how a man trained to be a weapon can’t escape violence, can’t truly find peace. Maybe he should’ve traveled to Neptune with Brad Pitt. 

Continue reading →

The Podcass 009: Not Podfade Away

/ Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

Folks, we might be back on schedule. (Well, almost. I’d like The Podcass to post on Tuesdays and Fridays. We’re almost there.)

We break out of “podfade,” recapping our summer absence (3:31), the shutdown of the Amusement Park Podcast (6:55), and a brief fling with an NFL writing gig (15:25). Also, my radio baseball segment (21:00), catching up on what we would’ve talked about over the past four months (30:32), and a handful of sad goodbyes (32:40). Thank you for listening! Please subscribe to The Podcass on Apple Podcasts!

https://open.spotify.com/episode/4WJEiIEmkxMwW4bmwTLJPB

A few links to articles or podcasts that were mentioned during this episode:

Continue reading →

Ad Astra’s beautiful solitude in space creates emotional clarity for Brad Pitt

/ Ian Casselberry / Leave a comment

Brad Pitt in space! Months ago, when I saw a sponsored post for an Ad Astra trailer pop up in my Twitter timeline, I thought Brad Pitt was doing a car commercial, making sure Matthew McConaughey didn’t own that territory. That misperception was quickly corrected once I clicked on the trailer. 

So Brad Pitt is doing his space movie. I forget who wrote this or where I read it, and I would love to give him — or her, but I’m pretty sure it was a “him” — credit for saying that every big actor has to do a space movie in his career. Because it sure seems true. 

George Clooney did Solaris, then Gravity. (Hell, let’s give Sandra Bullock her space movie here too.) Matt Damon had The Martian. McConaughey did Interstellar. Tom Hanks did Apollo 13. Ryan Gosling was in the criminally overlooked First Man last year. (Seriously, what happened there? How is that film not more acclaimed?) 

Can we put Hugh Jackman in The Fountain in this category? Does Mark Wahlberg in Planet of the Apes count? Will Smith in Independence Day?

Continue reading →