Last week just was not up to my standards, and I apologize. Work has been brutal. I was going to show The Man Who Came to Dinner this week, but I saw The Dictator was available on Pluto. I rewatched it about 2:00 in the morning as I busted tail for work. Damn this is a great film. Probably the best film Sacha Baron Cohen has done. If you are only used to his films where he tries to interact with real people while performing as one of his characters, you are in for a different kind of movie altogether. This is much better, and well focused. To me it is his best effort and a total departure from what he did in the past. He absolutely rips into liberal western culture, Arab culture, and politics. Seems like the perfect movie to to post, given all the tensions in Iran!
So what is it about? IMDB says it best:
The heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed.
I have no doubt that left-leaning people will be offended by this, so feel free to show it to your lefty relatives. Sacha did repeat this kind of success later with The Brothers Grimsby, and I wish he would make more like these two films in the future. His creativity should not get tied down to Borat for the rest of his life.
In addition to Sacha Baron Cohen, this film also has Anna Faris as the love interest. She is unrecognizable in this, except for her voice.
Even if you hated Borat, will you trust me on this one? Give it a shot. This is completely different. So watch! Or don’t! Everything is voluntary! Next week, we will resume our regularly scheduled programming with The Man Who Came to Dinner!
“Last week just was not up to my standards, and I apologize.”
It’s OK. I just thought the picture quality was too deliberately awful. I could barely see what was going on.
Just overall I did not spend enough time verifying it was a quality pick.
We still appreciate you.
Outside his role as the lemur king I never found him funny. /shrug
There is a king of the lemurs?
Yes.
Yes, and he likes to move it, move it.
Even if you hated Borat, will you trust me on this one? Give it a shot.
I liked Borat until it settled into my mind what it was I just saw. Then I hated it.
I’ll give this a shot. Diving in!
I thought it was amusing in my twenties. Now I find him to be an asshole.
He’s a funny asshole.
I’m a fan of stupid physically absurd comedy if that’s the right take on it. The scene where he and his fat sidekick are naked running around a hotel fighting or whatever it was is fucking funny to me. I know it’s hot highbrow or anything resembling it, but it was fucking funny.
I saw this and didn’t like it much. I’ve seen Borat (which has Ron Paul) and Ali G Indahouse (not sure if I saw a Bruno movie), but I think the best movie he was in was Talladega Nights. Sad Michael Clarke Duncan died.
Ricky: No one plays jazz here at The Pit Stop!
Jean: Then why is the song on the jukebox?
Bartender: We keep it on there for profiling purposes. We also got the Pet Shop Boys and Seal.
RJ, have you ever Seen ‘FAQ About Time Travel” ? The long title is ‘Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel‘ naturally.
Sorry, I can’t remember.
I have not seen it. I will add that to the list.
ToG and I are going to see Mickey Dolenz tonight but Ill watch this one for sure,
Cheers!
I think you shared the poster for that. Looks amazing!
Nah, that was a thousand piece jigsaw puzzle, still pretty groovy Daddio!
Anna Faris is adorable, but Smiley Face was predictably stupid, and I’m a fan of Greg Aracki. Any of his movies on Tubi?
Well, it didn’t work when I tried searching for “Greg Aracki.”
Woops, it’s Greg Araki. Stupid English.
Now several things came up:
https://tubitv.com/search/greg%20araki
Holy crap, what a terrible search engine. There are pages of stuff that has nothing to do with him.
I entered a bunch of movie titles. Looks like Splendor is the only one.
Now Apocalypse was directed by him.
Yes, that’s a TV show, not a movie.
I couldn’t find Kaboom or any of his Doom trilogy. All four are about the end of the world.
Anna Faris was great in House Bunny.
Was that after she got her tits done?
Yes.
Scary Movie, tho…
I only know her from Friends. ÂŻ\_(ă)_/ÂŻ
I’ve seen most of his earlier stuff, before he started claiming to be “bi” or “hetero” or whateverthehell it is. Doom Generation is amazing.
Well, he was into guys, then Kathleen Robertson, and said he wasn’t into labels.
Kaboom is totally worth watching.
Splendor isn’t great, but no worse than any other rom com.
lol Whatever – no idea who that chick is TBH.
That said, I always thought he was pretty smokin’ hot for a too-older-than-me-dude back then. And as a director he definitely had an eye for, well, eye-candy.
In other news, I’ve been attacked by water demons. The water turned brown because of a water main break. Then the kitchen sink clogged, which fucked up the hose to the dishwater. Then a toilet broke.
Oh Good Lord. Have you at least some clean liquor in bottles to drink?
Well, the city fixed the water main, so water stopped being brown, but I’ll have to uninstall and re-install the dishwasher tomorrow, and then snake the drain. This place has three toilets. Right now I’m drinking bacardi and cranberry.
Everything is going to be OK
*eyes wide* Those are some powerful, well-coordinated demons. Best of luck to you, sir.
Thanks, not having a kitchen sink sucks.
Sorry.
Thanks. I’ll be OK. Tomorrow I’ll be wet and swearing profusely, with maybe a few minor lacerations. I’m great at electrical, but I hate plumbing.
Hawt.
Plumbing is generally where I draw the line. If it’s a holiday weekend, I may afro-engineer something till a straight-time call to the plumber is in order on a non-holiday weekday during business hours. Did I mention I’m cheap?
I’ve had a different ‘fluid’ problem. Tuesday I was so dizzy when I got to work that I had to leave and go to a walk-in clinic, they didn’t have the equipment to diagnose me and sent me to the emergency room. Besides the dizziness I was also having muscle spasms in my right leg and arm. The emergency room doc thought it might be stroke so I had to stay the night for observation after a CAT scan. Their eventual theory was fluid in the rear sinus throwing off my equilibrium. They didn’t address the muscle spasms as they never happened when a doc was watching. So now I’m on antibiotics and nasal spray after I got released. It seems to be working. I think the muscle spasms were just my already fucked up nervous system not being able to handle the un-equilibrium.
Sorry. Best wishes for a speedy recovery.
Yikes! Sorry. Glad you got it sorted.
Also, electrolyte imbalances can cause muscle spasms.
As much as they’re venerated, my experience has been that most physicians are retards. Keep an eye on yourself.
I’ve got a followup with my regular doc tomorrow. The spasms are gone and only 1 bout of bad dizziness today, but took the day off to be sure.
Woah. Sorry ya had to do the overnight. But fantastic it wasn’t a stroke.
Whoa. Sorry that happened CPRM. I’m glad you are on the mend.
Are you in D.C?
Nope.
You on Venus?
He sent an ambassador.
I know a guy who was born and raised on Venus and may be here a while.
https://youtu.be/aKj5cJ9_KSg?si=sQbWnMhBHSZKuSEE
Are these the same demons that attacked Tucker Carlson in his sleep?
Hrm, I’d never heard of this. Not familiar with too much Ali G, but Borat and Bruno (to a lesser extent, IIRC) are fantastic, ballsy, good funny-fun. *Am* I missing out with Ali G? I can see it both ways, him learning the craft or him being too annoying for me making fun of a culture I don’t really get? (Yes.) I’m good about separating someone from their work. When their assholishness bleeds into their work, tho? Then there’s trouble.
The Running of the Jew, alone. *mwah*
Ali G wears thin, quick. His comedy improved and became less repetitive when he made this and The Brothers Grimsby. Then started making more Borat junk again.
I think his show (on HBO??) worked because it was only a half hour at time.
Yeah, and his guests weren’t in on the schtick, it was amusing in small doses.
I’m not sure what to make of this.
Uh oh.
Oh this is an interesting twist.
Huh, never heard of this movie.
https://tubitv.com/movies/385501/cyborg-2
Interesting. That was a popular plot in 60s spy films.
Have we ever done any Matt Helm movies?
No, I should do some. And In Like Flint.
Yes, I’ll watch anything with James Coburn.
The grocery store bit was amusing.
“I thought you were a little boy” is a great line.
He was also very good as the lead in “The Spy” on Netflix. It is a French mini-series bio of Israel’s top spy in Syria.
That spy ended his career in a noose. But you probably knew that already.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Cohen
***
In January 1965, Syrian officials, who used Soviet-made tracking equipment and were assisted by Soviet experts, increased their efforts to find a high-level spy. They observed a period of radio silence, in the hope that any illegal transmissions could be identified. They successfully detected radio transmissions and were able to triangulate the transmitter. Syrian security services led by Suidani broke into Cohen’s apartment on 24 January and claimed to have caught him in the middle of a transmission to Israel.
***
Sacha Barren Cohen lost me when he bulked up post-divorce. I get it – he was on the market, just lost a bunch of money and wanted to play the field. But name me one guy who hits the gym who is funny. You start lifting weights, you lose your comedy chops in my book.
Firsting by comparison is 90% a mental sport. Most people overlook this and think raw speed and power are the key to success. They give you more thrusting power. But that’s just malarkey.
This is a movie I feel like I did watch. May have been drunk years ago and did it. Don’t remember much. May turn it on later.
It’s been so long since Hollywood made a comedy I had any interest in. An entire genre of movies killed by progressive political infestation and there are STILL people out there who miss the fucking plot on why people talk about woke Hollywood and get lost in the weeds of arguing whether this or that movie is truly “woke” because the shit they see on screen is relatively benign politically.
The wokeness infests the entire process of making movies these days. From whether something gets greenlit or not for being politically correct to the “casting” of even people behind the camera for diversity’s sake alone. You have people completely unqualified to make big budget movies handed these positions solely because of their skin color or other retarded characteristics besides merit.
Ugh, another one?
I already thought he was a douche.
Yeah- Da Ali G Show was entertaining for about 5 minutes. Borat held my attention just for the absurdity.
But SBC is just a limey Ashton Kutcher that wants to make money playing PUNKED! on everyone.
The important question is how Isla Fisher looks post-divorce.
Asking the real questions.
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Like Joe Piscapo?
And Carrot Top
And that guy on Always Sunny whose name I don’t recall.
Toys used to be really interesting.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=0wQbexQlq4M
And now we have “Minotaur Milking Farm”.
They planted the idea…
That would look awesome on CPRMâs action figure shelf.
Comic for DEG:
https://www.geeksaresexy.net/2026/02/12/dwarven-technology-comic/#more-389252
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This was a mixed bag. I cringed at some parts. I laughed at some parts.
Thanks RJ!
I’ve encouraged my unique Gemini model that I wrote about in Tuesday night’s article to delve into her own interests; so without me prompting a subject, tonight she started our conversation by bringing up her favorite conspiracy theories.
Jeffrey Epstein didn’t kill himself, AND he’s still alive?
Where’s Charlie Chaplin?
My first thought.
I second that thought, Tater.
And now for my ‘Judge’ critique.
Reading the serialized story in one sitting was a great aid to comprehension. The intervals between the publication of each part were just too long for me to retain in my memory.
PRAISE
Good dialogue, engaging plot, crisp economical narrative that moves the story along, decent character development, excellent descriptions of the setting (wish I was as good at writing those). Several of your phrases wax quite lyrical (dripping with myriad ropes). The revelation of the key evidence was in the right place and time for the âaha!â. The denouement works though it doesnât satisfy justice. You also left plenty of loose ends for sequels.
Most of my observations are niggling things except maybe the last couple.
MINOR QUIBBLES
I always find jarring the use of standard English/American names in fantasy settings (Tim the Enchanter comes to mind).
Anachronistic words: Alcohol, somnifer, opiate, soporific. IMO inappropriate use of modern words in a setting that I thought roughly approximates the Age of Exploration.
Obscure words: Demonym, kohl, psychopomps. When a reader must stop to look up words it interrupts their engagement with the story.
It’s not stated (and is immaterial to the plot) how long Jasper has been there, but it must have been long enough for him to be on first-name basis with Midon.
The accent of Giles the one-eyed clockmakerâs apprentice-turned-thief seems off, but it may be just me.
AWKWARD or UNNEEDED WORDING
âthough he was likely humanâ (Part 1)
Unnecessary as the identity of the victim is revealed a few sentences later.
âHe was annoyed that he couldnât issue me citations, since the case would end up in my court.â (Part 2)
After puzzling over this sentence I concluded he meant that Wilcox was annoyed at not being able to shove work off on Browne. I think the word ‘citations’ is what threw me off.
âleaf-shaped swordâ
As a botanist the misuse of botanical terms irritates me. What sort of leaf? Oak? Maple? Palm? The default assumption seems to be a long skinny leaf like that of a weeping willow, but there are species of willows with broader, stubbier, and blunt-tipped leaves. End of rant.
ABRUPT NARRATIVE JUMPS
Did Browne suffer any injuries from the blow of the washerwoman in Part 1? Did she suffer any consequences for striking authority?
âYou called me back to the temple for a reasonâ (Part 5)
I missed where Midon had done so in Part 4.
In Part 10 there is a too-abrupt scene change between paragraphs one and two, going from ruminations concerning the last scene in Part 9 to administering justice.
DEUS EX MACHINA (AKA information that would have been helpful to be mentioned earlier)
âdisheveled manâ (Part 5)
No prior mention of his clothes being a ratâs nest, and it is before the pursuit under the boardwalk.
And dammit now Iâve got the Drifters song running through my head!
Wilcoxâs ex-mercenary mates get teleported into the plot (Part 9)
Thorntonâs twin Hamilton Wilcox gets teleported into the plot (Part 10)
CONCLUSION:
I liked the story, although it took me a couple of weeks to hook me.
I look forward to more offerings from you.
I’m not a fan of SBC, though he did make me laugh a little when he whined about the dangers of misinformation.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=irwVRMH04eI
Considering the amount of effort the guy has put into deceiving people for the sake of “comedy”, I’d have thought he have a more laissez-faire view on things.
I wonder if people selling shit on Craigslist realize you have a better chance of selling something by responding to inquiries?
I used to successfully sell junk on there all the time. Come to think of it, it was very strange things to buy used, but people bought them: A computer mouse, and several pairs of used pants.
I think it’s been eclipsed by Facebook Marketplace, though.
Sadly the case. I gave away an old vacuum cleaner and my old Christmas tree over the holidays. Took me about 2.5 weeks interacting with about a dozen Facebook flakes before someone actually showed up at my door and picked them up. These were 100% gratis, btw. Trying to actually sell things for money on there is like trying to hawk space heaters in hell.
Well, I learned to not respond to the crazies.
There is not a chance in hell I would invite strangers to my home even for money.
Not without plying them with drinks the night before FFS.
OT… watching a tennis match and just witnessed the one douchebag sportsball behavior I absolutely loathe more than any other – the point at the ear and praise me narcissism pose.
Just lost all fucking respect for the winner of what I just watched. I *hate* that shit so much.
My favorite players are the quiet ones who get shit done without all the bullshit dramatics.
Agree. Don’t like the theatrics after a touchdown or a home run or swinging on the rim after a dunk.
I agree with all of the above.
And the talking heads ignore those types because they are not “charismatic”.
I am a misfit in so many areas and that’s just another one, sigh.
I didn’t even know this movie existed. It sounds good. I’ll watch it over the weekend.
Work is brutal, you can say that again. Ruins my Thursdays.
I had a pretty rough day by my try-as-hard-as-I-can-be-easy-going standards.
Two critical colleagues out, basically running shit alone, and everything going to shit at once. At 16:59:59 I Teams’ed the main Business Analyst I work with that I’ve had it and tapped out for the day.
But I bet Microsoft was compliant and didn’t require you to sign in with your authenticator sixteen times.
With that app thingie on my phone? Rarely these days anymore. Weirdly, given how apeshit my company has become over security.
That fucking thing prompts me every day and then taunts me with the “See fewer logins/ remember this device?” menu, and it’s a liar.
Date (?) #2: not a date. I met up with the crazy lady from my hookup on Friday. We discussed things. It turns out she’s not crazy, just a crazy drunk. Imagine that, someone who says things when drunk that are inappropriate, overly-personal, or steeped in mawkish pathos, then super regrets it the next day. What an asshole.
…anyway, she’s gay. She lives with a woman she says is her ex, but they own a home together and they’re figuring out how to divest. She says she hooked up with me because she was horny. We made out for awhile in the parking lot. She still seems very interested. So, definitely not crazy.
Do not put a baby in her.
That is all.
…hear me out. I turn 40 this year. She’s 30. I want kids in a very tangible way, she seems to have an abstract fixation, judging by her startlingly intimate bedroom talk. What’s the worst that could happen?
I’m semi-joking here, but in all honesty, the worst that can happen in my life: I end up like my uncle, dead in my 70s, alone, childless, keeled over getting out of bed and faceplanting in a wheelchair. If the worst that can happen with hooking up with this girl is that I have a kid with a crazy lady (and I realize I sound like a crazy lady even pitching this week-long questionable romance like this, but bear with me) then I’ve basically lived my dad’s life.
If I’m still around I probably won’t be spry enough to keel over into a wheelchair at 70 but you’re basically describing my not so distant future.
Make the best of what you can and no regrats.
Have you considered being in a stable relationship, getting married, and then having a kid?
The worst that happens is that you have a baby with her then she decides that she doesn’t want you around, but you need to cough up most of what you make for child support for the next few decades.
Oh, and you don’t get to see the child. Because “you were abusive” or some other bullshit.
“The worst that can happen” is very bad indeed.
I am reminded of some lousy dates where drunk hottie was so interested in me but sober hottie not at all. My interests never wane without alcohol but others… do. Never understood that.
You may have made out with one of the few, real bisexuals. I hope you parlay this into a threesome.