Ty Watches "The Alpinist"

After doing my regular activities on a Thursday I had a few hours to kill. I like to watch movies when I have down time, so I fired up the Netflix account and went searching. I was in the mood for a documentary, and when you can make it about sports, I will be fully in. I found a great doc that was recommended on my account called "The Alpinist".

I am a big fan of extreme sports docs. And when I say extreme sports I do not mean skateboarding or snowboarding or surfing, none of the cliche extreme sports that I have no ability to do. When I say extreme I mean ultra running, ice climbing, stuff like that. "The Alpinist" is about a person who many consider to be the best solo climber that ever lived. I saw "Free Solo", and thought that guy was the guy, but he was in this movie talking about Marc-Andre Leclerc. Marc-Andre is the person who many consider to be the best solo climber there ever was. This guy did some wild and crazy things that many people thought were impossible, and he did it, mostly, by himself. Sometimes he would bring a helper, or a guy that would film his climbs. But he was usually doing the climbs alone, filming alone and putting everything out there on his own time. The filmmakers decided they needed to make a movie about this guy, and when they approached him he was on board. But they soon found out that Marc-Andre was a free spirit who did not succumb to the everyday norms. He wasn't a social media guy. In fact, he barely ever truly owned a phone. He did not do these climbs for the recognition. In fact he shied away from it when possible. He simply wanted to see what he could do, and how far he could push the limits. Like I have said, this guy did some solo climbs that people considered impossible. He did this big time climb in Patagonia, Argentina that was the thing of lore amongst the climbing community. And when he filmed it, and we the viewer got to see what he put out there, I was blown away. I could not believe what I was seeing. I am afraid of heights, and while watching the movie at home, I was getting weak in the knees and sitting up in my seat. It was so high and dangerous, and he was doing this with a minimal pack and low food and water. But he was fast and figured things out quickly. They also would show him climbing other mountains, after he did one solo he would allow the filmmakers to film him doing it again, and it was silence and him climbing and it was beautiful. It was also mesmerizing. I was completely wrapped up in what I was watching.

After the Patagonia climb, I thought that was where the movie would end. Unfortunately, and this is all too often the case, Marc-Andre went on a climb in Juneau, Alaska with one other climber, and they never returned. There was some video of them at the top, but after that a big storm came along and an avalanche pretty much ended their lives. It was sad. I felt awful for his girlfriend and mom and all the people who came to know him and truly love him. It was a bleak ending to a very moving and fascinating movie. Marc-Andre was only 25 when he passed away. That is far too young. But near the end the movie showed his girlfriend still climbing and making videos for him. His mom spoke at his memorial service, and the place was packed to the brim. She said that Marc-Andre always lived his life to the absolute fullest, and she knew he would want everyone to do the same. It was a sad ending with a very uplifting message.

I loved this movie. I cannot recommend it enough for people that love sports documentaries. "The Alpinist" is a must watch.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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The News About Bruce Willis Sucks

Yesterday I was scrolling through social media and I saw that Bruce Willis announced he was retiring from acting.

I was kind of stunned. I had no idea why. I wanted to know why he was doing this. I am a fan, more on that later, and it really bummed me out. I do truly like a good amount of movies I have seen that Willis has starred in. I love "Die Hard". It is a great movie and he is electric in it. I really love his performance in "Pulp Fiction". He is my favorite part in fact. I enjoy his storyline the most in that movie. He is tremendous in "The Sixth Sense". That was my first drama experience with him. I love "Unbreakable". I actually think that is the best Shyamalan movie personally. I truly do love "The Fifth Element". This is not me being a hipster, I genuinely like that movie. A lot. He showed up in "Between 2 Ferns: The Movie", and it was great. "Glass" isn't a great movie, but it brings back his "Unbreakable" character, which is nice. He voices himself in "The Lego Movie". He's solid in "Sin City". "Looper" is my modern day "Blade Runner", and he is the best person in that movie. I loved him in "Moonrise Kingdom". It was cool to see him in a Wes Anderson movie. "RED" is a great, underrated movie. If it never got an undeserved sequel, that movie would be a cult classic. "Cop Out" is not a good movie, but I loved seeing him and, my favorite actor, Tracy Morgan play off one another. "16 Blocks" is a very cool, solid movie. "The Whole Nine Yards" is dope. He voiced a bad guy in "The Beavis and Butthead Movie". "12 Monkeys" is a trip in all the right ways. I just recently saw "Death Becomes Her" for the first time, and I enjoyed the whole movie, especially Willis' performance. "The Last Boy Scout" was the first hyper violent movie I ever watched, and it opened my eyes to wild movies. And, as a child, of course I watched "Look Who's Talking" all the time. The last decade his movie choices have not been great, but he was still steadily working. Needless to say, I am a fan of his.

I also like how he has lived a relatively scandalous free life outside Hollywood. Sure, his marriage to Demi Moore did not last, but they have been incredible co-parents and continue to be friends. He has helped other actors land big time roles. He is widely known as the best tipper in Hollywood. He seems as down to Earth as someone as famous as he is nowadays. So to hear he was retiring, it was out of left field.

Then I did a little digging to see why. I assumed he just wanted to step away, or that he has done what he has wanted to do. He does not need to act, I just think he truly likes it. But that was not the case. Upon further research I saw that he was diagnosed with aphasia. That is not a disease anyone should hope to get diagnosed with. From what I know, aphasia "typically occurs after a stroke or head wound". It could also occur "from a slow growing brain tumor". It will cause "progressive permanent damage". Willis' family has not disclosed how he got it, and they shouldn't have to. Digging a little deeper, aphasia sounds dreadful. I have read that this disease will cause the patient to "speak in short or incomplete sentences, speak in sentences that do not make sense, substitute words for other words, speak unrecognizable words, not understand what others are speaking about or write sentences that do not make sense". This all sounds so very brutal. It sounds like Alzheimer's, except that maybe your brain doesn't fully go away, you just find it hard to communicate. What a blow. I hope Willis finds some great doctors to help him ease into this horrific situation. He is still relatively young, at 67. I hope he has another 20 plus years, and that this disease doesn't paralyze him.

This news stinks. It bums me out. I hope he gets the help he needs. What a drag. Another great actor, and seemingly decent person, stricken with a disease that just sounds horrendous. Fight the fight Bruce Willis. You seem strong enough to give it real hell.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Tickled"

For date night this week I was feeling a documentary. I love docs. I like when information is given to me in heaps. It makes for an interesting viewing in my opinion. My wife isn't as big a fan as me, but she still enjoys them from time to time. It is not like I picked a noir or an indie movie.

I went searching for something a little different from your everyday doc. Then I remembered listening to a recent episode of the pod "This Is Important" and Anders Holm mentioned a doc he recently saw called "Tickled". He described it wonderfully on the pod, so I went looking for it. And much to my surprise, it was steaming for free on HBO Max. I was stoked. So I told my wife the name of the movie, and not much else. I wanted us to both go in with as little info as possible. That was the way Holm said people should view the movie.

What we then proceeded to watch for ninety minutes blew our minds. "Tickled" is one of the weirdest, yet most intriguing documentaries I have ever seen. The movie is about a journalist from New Zealand that covers the lighter side of life. He has very nice and heartwarming stories that he does from the clips we saw. But one day, when researching his next story, he stumbled across a website that was promoting a sporting event called Competitive Endurance Tickling. He was intrigued. As was my wife and I. What happened next, I never could have imagined. The journalist contacted the people from the website in the movie and asked to do a story with them. They responded with an email filled with threats and incredibly hurtful words and allegations. This only made the journalist, David Ferrier, more interested in what was going on. He could not let this story go. He was able to get a hold of three people who work at one of these CET areas, and he flew them out to New Zealand. The moment they landed and saw cameras, they went on the defensive. More threats came out. They refused to do anything on camera. It was all very strange. Ferrier dug even deeper, being able to get interviews with a few people who got involved with the website and CET. Their stories are harrowing. There is extortion and threats and real fear coming from these people. Their lives, since they have left the tickling world, are truly altered. And that is another thing, the tickling in this movie. Ferrier meets many people who have this fetish, and yes it is a total fetish, and it is uncomfortable to watch. They show long videos of people being tickled by other people, and it feels wrong. One of the people who have made a living doing these videos called it BDSM, and he is not wrong. I felt like I should not be seeing what I was seeing while showing these videos. It was worse than pornography in my opinion. It was, at the very least, way more uncomfortable. And all of this was being done all over the world, and seemingly run by one person. When the reveal of this person happens in the movie, I was floored. It was more intense than a villain showing their true colors, or someone who has been playing coy in a fiction movie the whole time. This person was real. And they were scary. And they were gross. And they had no bad feelings about the truly awful things they were doing to these young people.

"Tickled" had me shook. I was visibly shaken after we were done watching. So was my wife. But you know what? We both thought it was worth seeing. We were not disappointed when the movie ended that we had watched it. We found it disgusting and intriguing at the same time. "Tickled" is a movie that truly has to be seen to be believed. I for sure recommend to anyone that enjoys weird yet interesting subject materials. "Tickled" is a very good doc.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "The Batman"

I have just returned from my second in person theater experience since the pandemic started. I went to see "The Batman" by myself at a vax only show this afternoon. It was me, two other people by themselves and one couple. It was about as safe as I have felt inside an enclosed building in two years. I also really wanted to see this movie, so I found a way to make it work. I am at a point now where, to actually go inside a theater, it has to be a movie I really, really want to see, and I did not want to wait for it to stream. "Nope" fits that bill, and so did "The Batman".

Leading up to the movie I watched all the trailers, I like the actors, I like the director and I wanted to see what all the fuss was about. I'm usually a MCU guy, but Batman has always held a spot in my heart. I am pretty sure I have seen all the Batman movies, I used to watch the Adam West show, and I have even seen some of the campy movies they made with West. And as previously stated, I am a fan of the actors that were cast in this movie. I have pretty much enjoyed everything that I have seen Robert Pattison star in post "Twilight".

Getting to my thoughts on “The Batman” I think Pattison did a very good job as the lead in this movie. He brought a more emo version to the screen of Batman. He also used a lower toned voice, but it was not on the level of Christian Bale. He was also in shape, but not overly in shape. He actually looked like a somewhat regular ass person in this movie. I liked his take on the character. Zoe Kravitz was amazing as Catwoman. I think she might have been the best actor in the movie. She was very confident and calm and really held it together. I also like how she did not alternate her voice at all, or say any ridiculous cat puns. I truly adored Andy Serkis as Alfred. Serkis is a good actor, and to let him play actual people, not motion capture people or monsters or apes, seems to work. He was great as Klaue, and he was great in "The Batman". Jeffrey Wright is the consummate actor and professional and he was tremendous as Commissioner Gordon. I am a fan of his. I like John Turturro, but he felt a little overused here. He was important to the plot, but they could have cut a scene or two of his. I liked what they did with Colin Farrell as the Penguin, I just wanted more. He was hardly in the movie. Farrell went for it, and I was in, but he was only in a few scenes. I will watch the show that they have reported to be making about him on HBO Max.

Out of the main cast, Paul Dano hit an absolute homerun. He was terrifying. He was insane. He used social media, and the director and writers also did a great job of portraying how evil social media can be. Dano is almost too good at playing creeps. He legitimately frightened me in this role. The scenes where he films his criminal acts is downright stomach churning. I was terrified of him and his actions. That is the sign of an actor doing a phenomenal job.

I do think Matt Reeves did a fine job of directing. I liked this movie. I found myself invested. I wanted to see what was going to happen next. This is not a superhero movie, it is a crime drama, and I like that. But I did think it could have been a bit shorter. There were some cuts I would have made, but I am not a director. Also, the fight scenes were amazing, so Reeves crushed that component.

All in all though, I found this movie to be very okay. It was a very solid viewing experience. I'm glad I ventured to a theater and saw it on the big screen. It was worth it. I recommend "The Batman", but know going in that it is three hours long and it feels three hours long. But if you can deal with sitting around, go see this movie. It was solid.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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"The Replacements" is Not Worth a Revisit

Now that I have caught up on some newer movies I wanted to see, I have decided I am going to go back and watch some movies I used to adore when I was a kid. I am curious to see if they hold up, if I will still like them. I also want to show my son some older Adam Sandler movies since I am such a big fan of his older stuff.

With that, I started this yesterday and watched the movie "The Replacements". "The Replacements" came out in 2000, and when I was 17, this movie was the shit. I loved it. I would rent it constantly and watch it over and over again. I got a good group of my friends into the movie as well, and when we had free time, this movie would be a top pick of ours. We loved everything about it.

The movie is about a bunch of replacement players for the NFL when they go on a strike. The usual players want more money, they do not get it at first and the team that is the focus of the movie goes out and finds guys who used to play, or had promising careers cut short. There is obvious hijinks and tomfoolery that happens, as you would expect, and of course they win enough games to make the playoffs. Again, I adored this movie as a teenager. So I decided to revisit it.

Unfortunately, it does not hold up. Keanu Reeves is the main character, and he cannot carry this movie. I love Keanu Reeves. This resurgence he has made is incredible, and he is making some kick ass stuff and showing up in random movies and stealing the show, namely in "Always Be My Maybe". But back in 2000, Reeves was asked to do too much in movies. The reason why "John Wick" works so well is because Reeves doesn't have to talk very much. He just has to kick ass. In "The Replacements" he has to give motivational speeches and rally his team around him. For a wacky sports movie, it is too much. Gene Hackman is an all timer, and he is probably the only one who did a good job in this movie, but it seems below his level. He is too good to be in this movie. I mean, he followed this one up with "The Royal Tenenbaums", which is a masterpiece. He probably took this role to do something different, but he is far too accomplished to be slumming it in a movie like this. Another guy I like, Orlando Jones, is barely used in this movie, and when he is, he hardly gets to make any jokes. Jones is funny and charismatic, but he is just put upon as a fast receiver who cannot catch. It is a waste of his talent. Brook Langton has some pull in this movie, and she gets to be more than just the love interest, until the end. She is a badass throughout, but when Reeves comes back, she is putty in his arms, and that is a bummer. Jon Faverau is a caricature of a jock. He goes way, way too overboard. He chews way too much scenery. I kept watching it and marveling that he is the guy who essentially revived Marvel movies. It is an insane performance. Rhys Ifan is almost racist in his portrayal of a Welsh person. He drinks, smokes and doesn't pay off his gambling debts. It is an affront to the Welsh people I feel.

I don't know what it was when I was a teen, but this movie is downright dreadful. I just could not wrap my head around why I liked this movie so much. There were some scenes where the players on strike kept showing up at the field and pushing Reeve's car over. And I kept saying to no one out loud, "shouldn't they be at a meeting trying to get more money and better benefits?". That was where my mind was going yesterday. There are a lot of people I like and respect in this movie, and I love football. But "The Replacements" is not a good movie. It is, in fact, a very, very bad movie. I do not recommend watching it, unless you want ti kill a few hours. But it would be a wasted few hours. You can believe that.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "The French Dispatch"

For date night last week I picked "The French Dispatch" to watch. My wife and I are both big Wes Anderson fans, and before the pandemic we had planned on seeing this in the theaters. Then we all know what happened. The movie was recently put on HBO Max though, so we were good to go for a watch.

For the record, I adore Anderson's movies. I think "The Royal Tenenbaums" and "Rushmore" are two of the best movies ever made. "Rushmore" reminds me so much of RD it is crazy. I love "Isle of Dogs" and "Fantastic Mr Fox". I really enjoyed "Moonrise Kingdom". I even like "Bottle Rocket". The only movies of Anderson's that I am not so crazy about are "Life Aquatic" and "The Darjeeling Limited". Those two movies never hooked me. But I was excited for "The French Dispatch". After "Grand Budapest Hotel", I felt like Anderson was on a hot streak. He has such a unique style and he is going full bore ahead. No one can stop him seemingly. He is having a moment. And boy oh boy is "The French Dispatch" about as Wes Anderson as it gets.

The movie is told in three stories from three writers from a newspaper in the 60's I assume. The setting is very whimsical and very colorful, when the movie uses color. There is a ton of black and white in this movie. But when the color shows up, boy does it pop. The sets are also very Anderson-esque. They look quaint and old timey and are like a mashup of all of his movies in one. It has feelings of everything he has made prior to this movie. The movie also takes place in a city called Ennui Blase. It does not get anymore Wes Anderson than that.

Outside the sets and the look, this movie moves and is written in Anderson's singular style. The actors, and my goodness is this a murderers row of actors, all talk fast but look sad. Bill Murray is the head editor, and he is as ennui as they get. Some of the writers we meet, played by Tilda Swinton, Jeffery Wright, Frances McDormand and Owen Wilson, just to name a few, really go for it in Anderson's style, and they nail it. Tilda Swinton is as weird as ever. McDormand is rough and tumble and sweet and straightforward. Wright is fast talking and smart and unique. And Wilson has the silliest and quirkiest story of them all. Some of the actors who play the people being portrayed, like Timothee Chamaleet, Benecio Del Toro, Adrien Brody, Lea Seydoux, Lyna Khoudri, Mathieu Amaric, Steve Park, Bob Balaban, Henry Winkler, Saoirse Ronan, Willem Defoe, Liev Schrieber, Edward Norton and Tony Revelori all really crush their respective performances. I enjoyed the Del Toro story the most, he plays an insane painter who is in jail. But the story Wright tells, which features Ronan, Defoe, Amaric and Park is fast paced and has a kick ass animation scene attached. Also, Chamaleet is the main character in the McDormand story, and he does just a tremendous job. I have become a big time fan of his as of late. He has made some great choices on the roles he has picked recently.

When we were done watching the movie I asked my wife what she thought. She said she enjoyed herself, but it wasn't her favorite Anderson movie. She is partial to "The Royal Tenenbaums". I have thought about it since Friday, and I liked the movie too, but I prefer many of Anderson's other movies. "The French Dispatch" is a very good, very Wes Anderson movie. But it is dark at times. It can also be a bit slow. But Anderson is at a point in his career where he can do what he wants, and what comes out is fun and interesting to watch. I definitely recommend checking this movie out, especially if you are already a fan. I had a good time, and I think you would too.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "High Flying Bird"

Yesterday I was finally able to see "High Flying Bird". I have been putting this movie off for various reasons. I forgot about it. The pandemic started. I stopped watching movies on my own for a while. Sports movies depressed me during the start of the pandemic. There were just a myriad of reasons. But then my interest was reignited when I watched a trailer for it on Netflix. Then I watched the trailer again. Then I read some things about it, and with my wife on a work trip, it was as good a time as ever.

"High Flying Bird" is about a future NBA player, his agent and his agent's assistant trying to find an end to the lockout and get this rookie paid. Oh, and the movie was filmed on an iPhone. It was directed by Steven Soderbergh. This movie has a lot of things going for it for me as a movie watcher. I love basketball, and as I am getting older, I am really into the stuff behind the scenes. I like to know how the people who do not play the game work amongst each other. I mean, I still prefer to see things from the player's perspective, but it is cool to get another look from time to time. The agent is played by Andre Holland. I am a Holland fan. He is really good in most things he is in, and this is no exception. He is fast talking yet level headed. He is the guy who figures out how to get through all the nonsense. He is the smartest one in the room. He knows more than any person he works for or with. Holland was tremendous in this movie. He is the star and the person you cannot take your eyes off when he is on screen. Zazie Beetz plays his assistant, or as she puts it, "former assistant", and she does a great job. She is passionate and as hardworking as anyone. She knows what she wants and how to get it. She also knows how to help players and agents. She is a strong, independent person, and that comes across with Beetz's performance. Melvin Gregg plays the soon to be NBA player. Gregg was also a basketball player in the second season of "American Vandal". But this time he uses his dramatic chops, and he does a solid job. He has the look and attitude of a young rookie trying to find his footing in the league. Then you add on the lockout, and Gregg does a great job of portraying an uncertain future. I also like how he became his own person near the end of the movie. We also have Kyle MacLachlan as a greedy owner, Sonja Sohn as the strong headed president of the Players Union, Zachary Quinto as the head of the sports agency who is way in over his head and Bill Duke as Holland's buddy and tough nosed coach for a youth basketball program.

This is a fast talking, very inside basketball movie. I love how they went from scene to scene in a snap. I also found it easy to watch, even though it was filmed on an iPhone. You could tell it was filmed on something small because there are never anymore than five people in a scene together. I really enjoyed the close up shots of two people talking hoops at any time. I also really liked how Holland was in command and wanted to give his players the most leverage they could have. He was in it for his players. He wanted this lockout to end so they could get paid and he could take over. It was a great story of a person trying to help other people in very, very high profile situations.

I fully recommend this movie for basketball diehards. It is so good, really interesting and a great watch. Check it out.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Titane"

So I just watched the movie "Titane", and boy oh boy what a ride. This has to be one of the most insane things I have ever watched. I have been thinking about the movie since I finished it last night, and I was thinking about it during my morning run. Hell, I am still thinking about it while I write this right now.

For those that may not know, "Titane" is about a child who gets in a horrible car wreck, gets a metal plate inserted in her head, grows up to become a go go dancer and a killer, pretends to be someone else, meets that person's father, works and lives at the dad's firehouse and eventually has a baby. Seems like a lot, huh? Well that is just the tip of the iceberg. I have heard many people talk about this movie. The first person who told me about it was my dad. He showed me the trailer months ago and I was intrigued. We had talked about going to see it in theaters, but opted not to because of COVID concerns. Then we both forgot about it. Then I heard Tatiana Maslany talk about it on a podcast and that jogged my memory. I read, after listening to the podcast, that it won the top prize at Cannes. I read that it got a nine minute standing ovation. I read that people were saying it is unlike anything they have ever watched. I even read that someone fainted at a screening. Needless to say, I was going to find a way to watch. It was simple enough when I checked Amazon Prime and saw it was available for rental. And since my wife is not into movies like this, and she is on a work trip, it was the perfect time to watch.

I mentioned the plot before, but as I said, there were so, so much more insane and wild things that happened in the movie. First off, the main character has sex with a car and a firetruck. You read that correctly. She has actual sex with an automobile and a firetruck. I do not know how that works, but the movie made it seem possible. She also becomes pregnant with the car's baby. Again, you read that right. All the while she is some kind of serial killer that the police cannot find. She is also super distant from her mom and dad, and seems to do her own thing all the time. The movie is also hyper violent and an extreme version of a body horror movie. I had to stop eating my dessert while I watched. The sex scene with the car was just the tip. The murders are absolutely brutal. There is a scene with a stool and a random dude that will haunt my dreams. She also stabs people with a knitting knife. But when you think it cannot get any crazier, the main character goes on the lam and takes on the life of a random guy who went missing ten years ago. The missing child's dad sees her and just accepts her as his lost son. And then we get some weird dance scenes, especially the one on top of the firetruck near the end. The dad also does steroids for some reason. The two of them together made me uncomfortable. They were too close. As the main actor gets more and more pregnant it just gets grosser and grosser. She leaks oil instead of milk. She scratches her body to the point of ripping her skin apart. As she gets bigger her skin continues to rip apart. When she is on the verge of having the baby, it is pure body horror. All the oil and blood and everything, it was nutso. And the dad helping her out, it was crazy.

I really do not know what to think of this movie. I have gone back and forth. I do not know if I love it or hate it. I do not truly know if I understand it. I am just confused. But the fact that it is stuck in my head has to mean something. At the very least the, the movie leaves a mark. I really do not know if I would recommend this movie or not. It is nuts and gross and sad and gory. But it does not leave you after you watch it. It stays in your head and makes you try to figure out what you just watched. All I know, "Titane" is the most insane and interesting movie I think I have ever seen.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Werewolves Within"

I recently watched a movie I enjoyed. I feel like I have been seeing movies that I had high hopes for and they turn out to be not so good. It is kind of a bummer to be frank. But the movie I just watched, I had no idea really what it was going to be. The movie in question is called "Werewolves Within".

I had read that it was based on a video game, and since I do not play many video games, I had no idea what the game was like. I guess the game is a role player game, and you hunt werewolves. Seems easy enough, but those games are not for me. But, I did also see that Sam Richardson was a producer, and he was going to be the star. This got me hype when I read about it. I adore Richardson. He is so funny. He is unassumingly funny. He plays an every man type guy, but an every man that happens to be funny as hell. That kind of piqued my interest in this movie. Then I saw the reviews when it was released, and people seemed to really like it. It got really solid reviews in fact. When I checked the other day it was at, or around, 80 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and the user score was in the upper 80's. I usually dismiss critics' reviews when it is a movie I want to see, but it is a nice plus when reviews are, for the most part, very good. It makes it easier to swallow.

So I sat down the other day to fold laundry and that was going to be my time to watch. I had a ton to fold, so 90 minutes seemed perfect. And I truly enjoyed what I saw. This is a good movie. It has good scares and good humor. It is beautifully shot too. The snow and mountains and the CGI used at the end, it was done really well. The look of the cold actually made me cold when watching. And as I assumed, Richardson was wonderful. He is a forest ranger who moves to a new town. He is there to help the community reconcile a law that is trying to be passed by a gas and oil man. Then a random attack happens to a neighborhood dog and the townspeople start to turn against one another. Everyone thinks everyone else is a werewolf because the simple idea of one is floated by Richardson. It only gets wilder and scarier and funnier from there on out. Richardson stands out, but so does the rest of a great ensemble cast. Milana Vayntrub plays the town mail person. She is funny, sweet and seems to have a secret that she simply won't reveal. I really enjoyed her in this movie. Catherine Curtin is the B&B owner who's husband was one of the wolf's victims. She too is great. Wayne Duvall is the oil tycoon who is as old school and country as they come. Michaela Watkins and Michael Chernus are the crazy town people. Watkins makes wild dolls and Chernus is too handsy with other members of the town. Cheyenne Jackson and Harvey Guillen are a married rich couple who own a small vacation house in the town. They are hilarious. George Basil and Sarah Burns are another couple that are hoosier and dumb and love and hate one another at the same time. They both have some excellent line reads in the movie. Glenn Fleshler plays Emerson. He is the town recluse and the one everyone blames from the start. He also has a great story involving Mr Rogers. And Rebecca Henderson is the doctor in town fighting the oil tycoon. She is creepy and perfect in her role.

This movie, and this has been said many times, reminded me of a modern day "Clue". I was trying to figure out the twist the whole time, and it did not happen for me until it was fully revealed. I love when that happens. I had all these theories going on in my head, and they seemed to change every five minutes or so.

I love this movie. I love how it was all resolved. I thought the actors did a wonderful job. I am not going to get the video game, but I would be lying if I didn't say that I was semi interested in what the game looks like now. If you want a solid scare and a very good laugh, watch this movie. It is totally worth your 90 minutes.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Better Never Than Late on "New Mutants"

For date night last Friday my wife picked the movie "New Mutants". We had both wanted to see this movie, but we both also remembered how many times it was pushed back due to various reasons. That is usually never a good sign. I cannot recall a movie being wonderful after many reshoots and pushbacks. In fact, it seems you only ever hear about that stuff when it happens because the movies are not good.

That, unfortunately, happens to be the case with "New Mutants". From what I knew this movie was supposed to come out in 2018. I am pretty sure that Aarya was filming this movie as "Game of Thrones" was ending. Then it was stopped due to reshoots. Then they had to do more reshoots. Then they had to recast some roles. Then the pandemic hit. Then it got pushed back even further due to variants and other circumstances involved with COVID. Then it was just kind of dumped in the late summer months of 2020 and that release was met with very poor reviews from critics and fans. We opted to not go to the theaters because I still will not go to a theater to see movies I really want to see. We decided we would wait. And to be quite honest, I had forgotten about the movie. But it was on HBO the other night and my wife asked me to record it so we could watch it on date night. I did, and we proceeded to watch after the kids went to bed.

I have to say, I agree with most of the criticisms that the movie got from the general public. "New Mutants" was very dour and sad and filled with messy dialogue and action scenes. There were times when I didn't realize what was going on, and it is not like this is a complicated premise. It should have been pretty easy. These are the mutants that are supposed to take over for the X-Men. Aarya should have been cool as hell. She was a shapeshifting werewolf. But I couldn't get over her hair or her weird Irish accent. Anna Taylor Joy should have been dope, she had a sweet power, but she had some of the corniest dialogue and her backstory was the thing of nightmares. The guy from "Stranger Things" had an even worse accent than Aarya and I could not take anything about him seriously. His whole backstory was absurd. The fire dude, I have no idea who he was, had this weird tonal change halfway through the movie, becoming the "funny guy" out of nowhere. It was very confusing. And the doctor, she was in the new "Suicide Squad", was so easily pointed out as the true villain from the jump. Even the main girl, the newest of the new mutants, was just too sad and gloomy throughout the entirety of the movie. There were some cool things they did. I liked the new girl and Aarya being a couple. I find it comforting that these superhero movies are letting the characters be gay or bi. They do not all have to be straight. I also did like Taylor Joy fighting the big ass dream bear at the end. But that was about it.

I should have liked this movie. I am an X-Men fan. They were the first superhero movies I watched and really enjoyed. This should have been in my wheelhouse. But it took itself too seriously. It was too dark in tone. There was no real fun, and this was not on the level of "Logan", which wasn't made as a fun superhero movie. "New Mutants" was a big miss for me. I should have known because of all the pre release stuff, but I still wanted to give it a chance due to my love of the X-Men and all things mutant in the comic book world. But this did not work. Oh well, they canceled the rest of the trilogy they were going to make, and maybe that means they will go back to the drawing board to try to fix it. My fingers will be crossed until then.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches the Trailer for "Nope"

When the Super Bowl was on, during a commercial break, they aired the trailer for the new Jordan Peele movie "Nope". I, like everyone else for that matter not involved in the movie, had no idea what the movie is about, but I am damn sure going to see it. Hell, I will even go to a theater if I have to.

The thing with Peele, he has knocked two grand slams out of the park with his first two movies. "Get Out" is original and hilarious and scary and wonderful. Peele got a much deserved and well earned Oscar for that movie. And I liked "Us" even more. Again, it was original and unlike any type of psychological horror movie I have ever seen. I still, to this day, think about the ending of that movie. So when he announced this new movie I knew I was going to see it. I also told myself I would not make the mistake of waiting to see this movie. I do not want a thing spoiled for me, and nowadays, people are spoiling movies left and right. Even if you ask them not to, they will spoil minor details that prove to be major. Luckily I avoided spoilers for "Get Out" and "Us", but I feel like it will be next to impossible to avoid spoilers for "Nope". They will be on the internet moments after the movie is released. So, like I said, I may have to go to a theater on opening night to see this movie. I do not mind wearing a mask, and I can go to an early afternoon show with the hopes that the theater will be pretty empty.

I did watch the trailer during the Super Bowl. I watched it intently. I went so far as to ask my guests, don't worry it was my mom and in-laws, to be quiet so my wife and I could focus, and it was amazing. I have since watched the same trailer four times, just trying to parse what I saw. The good thing about this trailer, there is little to nothing in the way of giving away what the movie may or may not be about. There are horses. I see that Keke Palmer, Daniel Kaluuya and Steven Yeun are, possibly the leads. There also seems to be some kind of thing that blocks out the sun, causing all the lights to go out and the electronics to turn off. We also see people running away, some getting sucked into the sky and Kaluuya riding away on a horse. There is also a commercial shoot in the beginning with Palmer talking about her ranch, at least I think.

When watching this trailer, and then analyzing it, this is exactly what modern movie previews should be. Most trailers give away far too much. Some will spoil major plot lines or twists. It can be very frustrating. But Peele did not do that with this movie or any of his others for that fact. He is so good at showing the littlest bit, but at the same time making you want so much more. Like I said, I have watched the trailer five times and I am still trying to figure out what I saw. But that is great. That makes me want to see what this movie has in store. I want to know what is coming to this town. I want to know what is sucking people into the sky. I want to know about the ranch. I want to know about Yeun's character and his job and how this affects him. I want to know why Palmer runs away screaming "NO NO NO". I want to know why Kaluuya is so calm, yet he rides that horse with a fire in his belly. I just want to know what "Nope" is about. And I also want to see what kind of brilliance Peele has in store with this new movie.

I cannot wait for July 22. And until then, I will be here analyzing the trailer.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Game Over Man", Again

During our date night on Friday it was my turn to pick the movie and I chose "Game Over Man". I had seen the movie twice prior to this viewing, but my wife had not watched it yet. I wanted something light and fun and goofy to watch, so it seemed like a great time to show her this movie.

For those that may not know, "Game Over Man" was written, directed and starring the Mail Order Comedy guys. To go even deeper, the MOC guys are the dudes behind "Workaholics", one of my all time favorite shows. I adored that show when it first premiered, I have watched it several times since, I listen to their podcast, I am a fan. So we watched the movie, and I am here to say, I still like it. My wife liked it as well.

First off, the movie is not a good movie. It has issues, it is kind of sloppy and there is some problematic stuff. But I did not go into this on all three watches expecting to see something like "Uncut Gems" or "No Country For Old Men". I knew going into "Game Over Man" that it was going to be over the top, goofy and crazy action comedy. I also fully understood that it was going to be a hyper-realized version of the dudes they played in "Workaholics". I imagine when they wrote this movie they had to have a conversation along the lines of what Ders, Adam Demamp and Blake would do in a wild terrorist situation, and they worked at the place that was being taken over. It has to have happened. What I also imagine, and was confirmed by my wife, that all three of the stars got to pick their wardrobe and how their hair would look as the movie moved along. Adam Devine has his shirt open and he looks like a former athlete. Blake's shirt is tucked in, he has glasses and his hair is pulled back. And Ders has a vest, his bowtie is askew and he has shaggy, unkempt hair. I feel like they wrote perfect for their characters as well. Devine is a drug dealing big time thinker. He wants to be rich. Blake is a quiet worker that just wants to come out of the closet. And Ders is a former athlete who now has to smoke saliva just to get high. He has checked out. As they are helping out at a party for a famous person, all the craziness goes down and they get stuck in the hotel. From there on out it is filled with gory kills, great jokes and an okay enough story to move the movie along. We see a face go into a meat slicer, a guy get impaled by a computer, a guy fall from a big building, many gunshot deaths and even a dead guy get used as a decoy. We also see hilarious stuff like Devine pretending to be dead due to auto erotic asphyxiation, Ders getting super high on saliva, Blake trying as hard as he can to not be loud while using duct tape, the aforementioned zombie guy beating up tons of people and Shaggy performing "It Wasn't Me" at gun point. The story of the movie is simple enough too. The three main guys just want to get rich with a video game idea they have. They try to pitch their idea when all the shit goes down and they end up saving the day even though they are totally inept. They do sell their idea as a video game and do become rich, but it is all a joke how it happens, and my wife and I were laughing the whole way.

Again, "Game Over Man" is not cinema, but it is a damn fun and funny movie to go relax and watch. I will surely watch it 3 to 4 more times. I love putting it on and just vegging out while it plays. And it always finds a way to catch my full attention. Add on the fact that my wife enjoyed herself, and that is icing on the cake. "Game Over Man" is a very, very fun action comedy. Check it out.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Better Never Than Late on "Magic Mike"

This past Friday for date night my wife chose the movie "Magic Mike". I have never seen the movie before. She said she may or may not have, she could not fully remember. She did say that she thought she might have watched it at a party with all ladies, but she could not fully remember. We figured Friday night was as good a time as any, so we watched it on HBO Max. It was free, so that was nice too.

This was not the movie that I expected. I assumed it was going to be a good, energetic and fast paced movie about strippers. And coming off "Zola", which is a tremendous movie, I assumed I was in for another solid viewing. Well, it was not for me. And it had nothing to do with the fact that it was about male strippers. In fact the best parts of the movie, the parts I enjoyed was when they were at the strip club. They did not show any nudity, and seeing the way these actors danced and grabbed the attendants was pretty cool, but also stripping, of any kind, makes me uncomfortable. But there were only a few moments in the movie where they talked about stripping or did their thing. The other part of the movie, about 60 percent of it, was all the story developing and the lives of the characters. And it was mad boring. There was only so much I could watch of Channing Tatum going to work at his construction job. I also did not care, at all, about the relationship he built with his buddy's sister. It was pretty dull. The stuff with his buddy, played by Alex Ptefyer, was pretty blah as well. I read that the two of them did not get along on set, I have read quite a few things about Ptefyer being a headache, and that totally showed on screen. They truly seemed to hate one another, even though they were supposed to be friends. I also found all of the scenes outside of the random clubs to be super boring. Even when you get a glimpse into how Tatum gets people to come to the club, to see him work outside of work, it just simply had no oomph. It was very blah.

Honestly, the only stuff that worked was the club, and a few of the guys who worked there. I will give Tatum credit, even if I was not into the movie, you can see that this dude can act. He did a very solid job of being, basically himself. This may have been his first time taking a real shot at doing drama, and he did a good job. Joe Mangiello was funny and goofy, as his character should have been. Anyone called "Big Dick Rick" should never, ever take themselves seriously. And he did not take it too seriously. Ptefyer was lame, but I do not like that dude. Matt Bomer and the other dude I did not recognize were fine as side characters. But Matthew McCanoughey was the draw. He was having the best time in this role, and it showed. He was out there. He was wild. He was silly. And it was perfect. He was so wild and crazy, and much like Tatum, I feel like he did a good job of basically playing himself.

All in all the movie just did not work for me. It was too much Steven Soderbergh. He is a very, very good director. But this movie just seems like it is not something he should do. He is much better at doing harder drama, and when it comes to comedy, he should just stick with "Ocean's 11". "Magic Mike" is just not what I thought it was going to be. It wasn't the fun and silly movie I was hoping for. It took itself way, way too seriously. I do not get the hype around this movie, but that is just my opinion. I'd pass if you haven't seen it yet.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Better Late Than Never On "American Pickle"

Continuing with the Seth Rogen talk, after reading his book I decided I wanted to see "An American Pickle". He mentioned filming the movie in the book, he talked about its release coinciding with the pandemic and I had remembered seeing the trailer and wanting to see it. So for date night last week that is the movie my wife and I watched. It was streaming on HBO Max and it was 90 minutes long. It was perfect.

I really liked this movie. For those that do not know, "An American Pickle" is about a man who falls in a pickle barrel in the early 1900's and somehow stays preserved until the barrel is opened 100 years later. Herschel, who is one of the characters Rogen plays, finds himself in modern day Brooklyn and he wants to reconnect with family. There is one great grandson left, Ben, the other character Rogen plays, and they connect after doctors and scientists deem Herschel fit to leave. From there on out the movie has very funny and very sweet jokes about family. There is also a nice little rivalry that starts to brew between the two when they have a falling out. I enjoyed seeing Rogen kind of stretch his acting chops a bit on this one. First off, he plays two roles and the two characters share quite a bit of screen time. I was fascinated by how well the directors and animators were able to pull this off. It looked as real as it could have. They nailed it. Rogen also shows some depth doing some more dramatic things in this movie. He has been in other drama movies, stuff like the Steve Jobs movie and "50/50", but he is barely in the movie or used as comic relief. In "An American Pickle" he stars in two roles and does the drama really well. I also liked the way they weaved family and love in the movie. That is really the sticking point of the whole thing in my opinion. Herschel wants to reconnect and learn all he can but Ben is not very keen on doing such. He is more reserved and quiet and keeps his feelings to himself. Herschel does get him to open up, but it takes some doing. When Ben finally does open up, great things happen. And there were other people in the movie with bit roles. I saw Jorma Taccone, but this was all about Rogen. He is the star. He is the draw. He is why people were tuning in to watch. He nailed it, as I have already said. I really liked how he embodied Herschel, accent and all. He went for it, and to me, he nailed it. But I also liked what he did with Ben. Ben was a modern day hipster, and Rogen really portrayed that very well, but he was never over the top or douchey about it. He was a mild mannered hipster. And the run time, the 90 minutes I mentioned before, that was the exact right amount. The movie was short and sweet and to the point. That is how I like to consume my movies nowadays.

I highly recommend "an American Pickle". It is a bit different from Rogen's normal movies, but I always like when an actor takes a chance and does something out of their comfort zone. It is an added bonus when they nail it. Check this movie out.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Zola"

Yesterday I was flipping through the channels and I happened upon the movie "Zola". I had heard of this movie, but hadn't seen it yet. I also read that it was a pretty good movie. A lot of publications had it on their best of lists, the actors were getting high praise, Janicza Bravo, who I am already a fan of, was getting just due for a good job directing it and I had some free time so I watched it.

I loved it. This is a very good movie. All the praise is very due. I was enamored by this movie. I could not take my eyes off the screen. I needed to know what was going to happen. I was all in. For those that may not know, "Zola" is a movie about a Twitter thread from a dancer about a crazy few days and nights in Florida. Getting a little deeper into the movie, the Twitter thread is about one dancer being conned by another dancer to do some crazy stuff that she definitely did not sign up for.

The two stars of the movie, Taylour Paige and Riley Keough were exceptional. There were other actors in the movie, and they did a good job, but Paige and Keough are the reason to see this movie. They play the dancers. Keough is repugnant in this role, as she is supposed to be. She is a white girl that wants to be black. I read some stuff about how she was kind of uncomfortable doing the voice she uses in the movie, but that Bravo told her that is exactly what she wanted her to do. Her character is supposed to be the villain. She is supposed to be gross and disliked and have zero redeeming qualities. Even when there were times I may have felt bad for her character, she would do something that would immediately pull me back into simply disliking her. I realize that the fact that I was actively rooting against her means Keough did a great job. There is one moment in particular, where she tells her side of the story, that is amazing film making, and it made me loathe her even more. But Paige, my goodness did she carry this movie. She is Zola. She is the person that did the Twitter thread on which the movie is based. To open the movie with her meeting Keough and stating, "you want to hear a story about me and this bitch falling out", I was hooked. I needed to know this story and I needed to hear Paige as Zola tell the story. The way she embodied the character, the way she acted, the cool and calm she portrayed, the easy going demeanor, it was all perfect. She did such a great job as the only real adult in this movie. She owns every scene. She commands the viewers attention. It is a powerhouse performance from beginning to end. It was awesome. These two actors did a masterful job.

I was also super impressed with Bravo's direction. She shot the movie almost like a fairy tale, the craziest, messiest and grossest fairy tale ever. Some of the shots, for example, the beginning after the two meet, they are putting their makeup on to get ready to dance and Bravo has them in a fully mirrored room with haunting music playing while they stare at each other getting ready. I don't know why, but that resonated with me big time. I also enjoyed that, every time someone says a line that was an actual tweet, the bird noise comes up whenever you put out a tweet. It is a nod to let you know that it is a real thing that came from a real person's phone. It made for an even wilder viewing experience. I also appreciated that the movie was a quick 90 minutes. No muss, no fuss. There are no meandering or pointless scenes or shots. Everything that is in the movie is needed to push the narrative forward.

I cannot recommend this movie enough. It is a crazy story that actually happened, and the actors portraying the real life people did an exceptional job. Check out "Zola". It is worth your time.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "The Eternals"

Last Friday for date night my wife picked "Eternals". It was finally streaming, we both wanted to watch it, we are both Marvel fans and we figured if we started it early enough, we could watch it all in one sitting. We started it at 6:30pm our time, sent the kids downstairs and we were able to finish it in one sitting.

As I have been saying since 2022 started, I am being more hopeful this year, but man did I not like this movie much at all. It definitely had some solid parts. There was stuff that made me laugh. My son had to explain a few things, and when he did, I liked some of what I was seeing. I thoroughly enjoyed, spoiler alert, the mid credits scene with Harry Styles. I thought Kumail, the deaf lady and Brian Tyree Henry did a very good job in their roles. And it was visually beautiful. But this movie was boring. Angelina Jolie and Salma Hayek are barely in it. And Jolie's character had this cool glitch, but it was seemingly resolved with no real reason. I like the idea of giving no names, or up and coming names a shot, but when you throw Jolie and Hayek on posters, I was under the notion that they would be in the movie much more.

This movie did not feel like a Marvel movie. My wife and I almost simultaneously said it felt like a DC movie. Marvel movies are bright and fun and funny, even when they are bad. DC movies, even when they are good, are dour, sad affairs. That was what "Eternals" felt like to me. It was almost exclusively at night. And when it wasn't, the fight scenes were in the woods or in the clouds. Even the final battle was surrounded by erupting volcanoes which obscured a lot of my viewing experience. The villain was weird. There were absurd guitar riffs that seemed out of place. All of that stuff, the darkness and the crummy 80's esque hair metal music was so akin to what DC does. I mentioned a few times to my wife that this was more boring than "Thor 2", which is saying something when talking about Marvel movies.

What made me most annoyed, not even annoyed just kind of bummed out, the actors, minus the three I mentioned did not do great with the source material. The leading actors, Sersi and Ikaris, were way to melodramatic for these roles. I get they are supposed to be gods, but they were far too doom and gloom. They never seemed to have fun. Jon Snow, I do not know the actors names, sorry, was also barely in the movie, and he just seemed stuffed in for future "Eternals" movies. Everyone else treated the movie like it was a hard drama. I wanted so badly to have more Kumail in the movie because he was the only one that felt like he knew he was in a Marvel movie. He and Tyree Henry as well. They both had a good time with their roles. But not everyone else. And while I really enjoy Chloe Zao, "Nomadland" is amazing, she just does not seem to be a superhero movie director. And that is fine. She just took the material way, way, way too seriously. Superhero movies, for me, need to be like "Thor 3" or "Black Panther". Those movies are simply having a good time, with some little elements of drama. "Eternals" just took itself way too seriously and it made for a convoluted and dull movie. It simply wasn't for me.

Maybe I am not smart enough or I do not get what they were trying to do, but I did not like "Eternals". Oh well, maybe the second one will be more fun. I will be sitting here being hopeful.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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RIP Bob Saget

While quarantining in my basement, again more on that tomorrow, my wife called down to me on Saturday night that Bob Saget had died. I did not hear her correctly at first so I asked her to Facetime me. She did and told me that Bob Saget had passed away.

I was stunned. I truly did not expect to hear this news. He was young. He was in his mid 60's, and nowadays that is young. He was also touring, his opener said he seemed totally fine and I was just in shock. I was watching Comedy Central yesterday and with every commercial break ending they went silent and showed a picture of Saget and it said RIP. This hurt every time it appeared on screen.

I have a weird relationship with Bob Saget. I was born in the early 80's and grew up in the 90's, the TGIF era of TV. Of course I adored "Full House". That was my jam as a kid. I thought it was hilarious. I loved the dynamic of the family in the show. And Uncle Joey was super funny. The show, and some of the people involved are now problematic. But that does not take away from the joy that show gave me when I was a pre teen. I already stated Uncle Joey was my guy. Uncle Jesse was cool. Stephanie and DJ were great foils to one another. And the Olsen twins were great actors as children. But Danny Tanner, Saget's character, was the glue that held that family together. He was never the one that got the most jokes or had the most moving scenes, but he was THE DAD when it came to prime time TV. He was the GOAT. He was the guy we all looked to. He represented a dad doing his best and thriving in a very unfortunate situation that that show gave his character. So I liked Danny Tanner. He was a good person to look up to on TV.

As I got older and stopped watching "Full House". I was too cool and too hip, in my own mind, to watch the show anymore. I kind of forgot about everyone on the show too. Jesse, Joey, Stepahine and DJ, Michelle Tanner and Danny all went away. Then, when I was 16 Saget showed up in the movie "Half Baked". I loved that movie. Jim Breuer is a total douchebag now, and Dave Chapelle can be problematic, but "Half Baked" was my jam. Saget was uncredited for his role, but it was memorable. He played a former junkie, and the stuff that came out of his mouth was vulgar. I couldn't believe Danny Tanner was saying such things. But it made me laugh. Then, in 2005, my dad and I went to see the movie "The Aristocrats". That movie is hilarious. It is also the first movie I have seen people walk out of because of how vulgar it was. My dad and I loved it, and Bob Saget kept popping up telling his version of the joke. If "Half Baked" made me gasp, "The Aristocrats" made my jaw drop and made me guffaw. I was astonished at how dirty and foul and blue Saget could be. Here we have Danny Tanner saying some of the grossest things I have ever heard a human being say. But it made me laugh out loud in the theater. It was only after the movie did I learn, from my dad, that Saget had always been a very blue comedian. Long before any of his TV or movie work he was a stand up comedian and he was a filthy stand up comedian. He would say things that would make Redd Foxx blush(thanks to Krusty the Clown for that line). That was his gimmick, and apparently he was very good at doing it.

Saget was a consummate stand up. He was liked by a lot of people, and they wanted to go on tour with him. I looked up some of his old gigs on YouTube, and they were gross and hilarious. After this I noticed Saget more. He would appear in TV shows and movies I watched. He was even on the very bad Jamie Kennedy rap record, and Saget was the only good part. He was also a good person off stage and off screen. Jimmy Kimmel gave an incredibly touching monologue on Saget last night to open his show. Go check it out if you need a good cry. He also started a charity in honor of his sister who was misdiagnosed with a disease multiple times before it was too late. He helped many people with this foundation. It seems as if his stage persona was just that, and that his acting was a means to an end. It also seems that he was a beloved actor and stand up. I have never heard of anyone saying that he was a bad guy or did bad things. He seemed to be on the level. He was a good guy and this is just straight up bad news.

While this one didn't hit as hard as Norm Macdonald, this one still hurts. Saget could still be doing stand up and doing shows. This is a bummer and Bob Saget will be missed. RIP to another great one, gone far too soon.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "Don't Look Up"

I just finished "Don't Look Up". I am being as literal as possible. I just turned off my tv after watching the movie.

First off I loved it. It is a great movie, very well made, the acting is superb and it is wonderful. I do not understand the bad reviews. My only critique is that it is a bit too long, but it did not feel like any of the footage was overused or unnecessary. The movie is very funny, but also horrifying. I actually look at this movie more as a horror movie than a comedy.

For the people that do not know, the movie is about a comet the size of Mt Everest coming to Earth in six months. There are scientists, astronomers, doctors and other very smart people that want to do whatever they can to stop this comet. Then we have the politicians, their followers and the tv people that just want ratings who choose to ignore the smart people. We also have a tech company leader, a la Steve Jobs, who is a money grubbing genius, and may be the most evil of all the villains in the movie. I am not going to spoil the movie because people must watch this movie. It is an important piece of pop culture that perfectly encapsulates our modern society. Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence play the scientists, along with Rob Morgan. Lawrence discovers the comet, she tells her teacher and mentor, DiCaprio, about it and they celebrate, until they find out how disastrous this comet is going to be. They have done the calculations over and over again, and it keeps coming up that the comet will destroy Earth in just over six months. They tell Morgan's character this, and since he has connections to the White House, he gets them in front of the president.

Meryl Streep plays the president, and my goodness she is wonderfully scary in this role. She is this media obsessed, money grubbing scumbag of a person. She doesn't care about anyone but herself and she is all about her image and her votes. She crushes this role. Jonah Hill is her son and chief of staff. And he is woefully terrible at his job because he doesn't know what he is doing. There is a great runner that starts when the White House and scientists meet, and a general charges DiCaprio, Morgan and Lawrence for their snacks. Then they realize that they are free. It is truly the funniest bit in the movie.

From this meeting on out we get the whole social media circus. Tyler Perry and Cate Blanchett play a morning talk show team that just wants ratings. They loathe Lawrence and love DiCaprio. When Lawrence tells everyone the truth, she is immediately made out to be the pariah. She is memed to death. She is portrayed as the "bad guy", She is the only one that lets everyone know the truth from jump street. But that doesn't stop everyone from finding a person to bash. That is exactly what people do everyday now. It is maddening. And this movie shows that to perfection. Streep as the president takes even more of a heel turn when she gets rid of the original crew who told her what to do, and tells everyone to simply not look up. The comet is in the sky, we can all see it, but she is too busy worrying about the upcoming election. She goes so far as to put a hat on. It is frighteningly hilarious. And when stuff does hit the fan, the way people reacted, it sent chills up my spine. It was like looking at the real world. I cannot fathom what we would do as a country if this really happened. I have sat here just typing and thinking about how truly scary all of this would be. Then I remember that we have something similar with COVID. It is so wild and so scary.

Watch this movie now. It is required viewing. It is important to watch and discuss. Everyone must, must watch this movie. Please.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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Ty Watches "The Super Bob Einstein Movie"

Last night my wife and I watched "The Super Bob Einstein Movie". We have been kind of champing at the bit to see this movie. We happened to be out of town when it was originally aired, then the new year kind of took over our time, but last night we had the requisite 90 minutes to watch, and it did not disappoint.

For those that may not know, Bob Einstein is a comedy writer and actor. He is also the brother of Albert Brooks. He had a wonderfully prolific career, and it is all talked about during this movie. I know of Einstein from "Curb". He plays Marty Funkhouser, and he was an absolute treat whenever he was on the show. He had some of the best scenes in the history of that fantastic show. We are rewatching "Curb" right now, and we saw the episode last night where Funkhouser tells Jerry Seinfeld one of the funniest, and most revolting jokes I think has ever been put on TV. Of course they talked about his work on "Curb". That was pretty much the last 20 to 25 minutes of the movie. And it was simply wonderful. To see all these people, Susie Green, Jeff Garlin, Cheryl Hines and Larry David sing his praises, that just further proved to me his worth among those comedy giants.

What was new to me was all the stuff Bob Einstein had done before "Curb", and I had no idea. He was one of the first writers hired by the Smothers Brothers. In fact he and Steve Martin worked as a team on that show, and according to people in the know, they wrote some of the best bits. They showed some of them in the movie, and my god they were funny as hell. I was rolling. To hear Steve Martin essentially give him all the credit, that spoke volumes to me. Einstein then went on to work on a number of variety shows. He did "The Redd Foxx Show", "Sonny and Cher", and his creation with another buddy, a show I have never seen but will now be searching out, "Bizarre". The stuff he said, and the people who knew him back then, made these shows sound wild. It seemed like the wild west, and Bob Einstein was the go to guy for the best jokes. "Bizarre" looked exactly like its title. The clips were insane. But they were also wildly hilarious. It was on this show where he came up with the character Super Dave. I always heard the name Super Dave as a kid but I had real idea who it was. Well this movie has made me go and check out classic Super Dave bits on YouTube today, and they are incredible. This was a great idea, they wrote great stuff for him and he delivered it like only he could. No one else could have done the great things that Bob Einstein did with Super Dave. They even showed the work he did with his brother, Albert Brooks, in the movie "Modern Love". It was just one scene, but boy did he shine. They played the whole thing during the movie and it was dynamite.

What I also enjoyed was the talk of his personal life. He stayed married to the same lady until the day he died. He was a doting and caring father. He was a wonderful grandpa. He just seemed to be a solid dude his whole life. I also loved the old footage of him telling some wild jokes. Those jokes really made me laugh.

I really liked this movie. It was short and sweet and to the point. All the talking heads were great and insightful. For any fans out there you have to see this movie. For fans of comedy, you should watch as well. I highly recommend it.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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It is Time for Will Ferrell and Adam McCay to Make Up and Make Great Entertainment Again

Over the past couple of weeks, and months for that matter, my wife and I have been watching Adam McKay and Will Ferrell movies. We love these movies. They are so funny, they fit what I adore about comedy, they are very niche and they are good, despite what the critics say.

We watched "Anchorman" 1 and 2, "The Good Guys", "Talladega Nights", and most recently, "Semi Pro". We had our date night this past Saturday, it was my turn to pick the movie and I wanted a funny sports movie. "Semi Pro" more than fits the bill. I loved this movie when it came out. I saw it in the theaters with a group of friends when I still did that. My wife came with me, except we were only dating back then. That's right, "Semi Pro" came out fourteen years ago, which blew my mind. The critics were tough on this movie, but, to me, it is the quintessential Ferrell and McKay movie. It is goofy, well made, has a ton of great comedic actors and they got to base it on basketball, a sport both of them love. All the other movies I mentioned are great, but "Semi Pro" is the best thing those two ever did.

After watching the movie my wife and I got to talking about how much of a bummer it is that they do not work together anymore. I know that Ferrell wanted to do his own thing and that McKay wanted to make more serious movies. But I was holding out hope that they would get together every now and then to do a silly movie. But the more we talked about their split, the more bummed I got at how minuscule it truly seemed. As I said, they each wanted to do their own thing.

More news has come out recently, with McKay even commenting on record why they actually split. McKay has a new basketball show coming out soon on premium cable, and I cannot wait to watch. I am not a Laker fan at all, but this show looks amazing. And when I saw the casting I was pumped. There are a good amount of unknowns, but there are some big name people in it as well. McKay has gotten to a level where he is a guy that actors want to work with. He has some pull now. And when they showed John C Reilly as Jerry Buss, I was stoked. But this seems to be where most of the trouble with McKay and Ferrell bubbled over. I guess they had someone else in mind for Buss, but when that actor pulled out, McKay gave the role to Reilly. Seems simple enough. Well, according to McKay, Ferrell was really upset that McKay didn't even ask him to play Buss. Ferrell is a lifetime Laker fan, and it seemed like he was destined for this role, especially considering McKay was making the show. Well I guess McKay never asked him, just gave the role to Reilly, and this pushed Ferrell over the edge.

That stinks. I get it. Ferrell probably dreamed of this role, probably assumed he had it, and then it was given to a good friend of his by another former friend of his. But I also feel like it is a bit juvenile to end a friendship and a partnership over something so trivial. I am not there either. I am not in the room, I have no idea what may have gone down with the two of them behind closed doors, maybe they have some bigger beef that they aren't releasing, I don't know. But it kind of bums me out, as a fan, that they simply refuse to work together anymore. This means no more silly, goofy and great comedy movies from two brilliant comedic minds. They have both done great stuff since they split, but nothing that holds the weight of "Anchorman" or "Talladega Nights" or "The Good Guys" or, especially "Semi Pro" for me. I hope they can get together and figure this all out sooner rather than later because the fan in me would love to see them work together again. They were so great as a duo, made some great movies and great content for Funny or Die, and I just really miss their style of comedy. They were unmatched as a team. They were my generation's great comedy team. But now it is just gone.

Again, that stinks. Hopefully, it will change. Hopefully they reconcile. My fingers will be crossed until then.

Ty

Ty is the Pop Culture editor for SeedSing and the other host of the X Millennial Man Podcast.

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SeedSing is funded by a group of awesome people. Join them by donating to SeedSing.