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How’d You Spend the 99 Days of Summer 2023 – (Part 1)
I read at lot and watched a lot of movies. There. End of post. See ya. What did I see and read? I’ll recap the reading next week. Here’s what I watched…and hopefully you did, too. Summer 2023 Movies Were Great When was the last time we had a summer movie season like this? I think many of us earmarked certain dates on the calendar to get ourselves to the movie theater. I did that nearly every weekend this year. The end result was that, with the exception of the Pixar film, Elemental, I saw every movie I wanted to see this summer. And I enjoyed just about every one…
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Is It Really That Bad? A Reevaluation of Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skulls
Let’s not bury the lead: given the five Indiana Jones films, Crystal Skulls still ranks last. But a “bad” Indiana Jones movie is still better than a lot of other films. And you know what? It’s not as bad as you remember. The Connection With the Dial of Destiny When it came time to write the final Indy film, the screenwriters could go one of two ways: acknowledge the events of Crystal Skull or retcon them. Thankfully for all of us, they took the former route. And the end results in the new movie are ultimately quite moving. In fact, there is one scene in the new movie that reminds…
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Growing Up and Older With Indiana Jones: A Dial of Destiny Review
Indiana Jones and the Dial of destiny is a chance to reconnect with an old friend for one last adventure before we have to say good-bye. In that framework, the new film works quite well.
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The Real Batman Day: June 23 1989
[In light of Michael Keaton’s return as Batman in 2023’s The Flash, I thought I would re-post this piece from 2019 about the the original Batman movie from 1989, now thirty-four summers ago. The original post is here if you want to compare. Ever since 1989, the date of June 23 has been fixed in my mind. It will always be the true Batman Day for me and likely millions more.] Where were you 30 years ago today? Probably standing in line to see Batman. The Date It all began with a symbol and a date. A simple poster considering what it wrought. For months, all you needed to know…
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What Are You Going To Do With the 99 Days of Summer 2023?
Veteran writer Dean Wesley Smith dubs the summer months the Time of the Great Forgetting. It’s that point in the year when the good intentions of New Year’s Resolutions made in the depths of winter fall by the wayside in bright light of hot summer days when the pull to do just about anything other than writing draws writers away from their keyboards. It’s only in later summer and early fall when writers remember their annual goals and either charge full-stream ahead and barrel to the end of the year, desperately hoping to achieve their milestones, or just give up and do something else. He speaks the truth. But I’ve…