Contentious C

Sure it wasn't an unused costume design from The Warriors?

GO SUNS. The only thing that makes it hard to pull for them is that Booker looks like one of my piece-of-shit neighbors (at least, that is if Booker took Deadpool's advice and face-fucked the proverbial topographical map of Utah).

I tried watching things; apparently Sling has a nice habit of removing things if they're not in the active rotation of whatever channel they'd normally play on, so I didn't finish Tomb Raider in time. It was shaping up to be somehow worse than the Angelina Jolie movies, though; the first 40 minutes felt both too short (because they didn't develop any characters besides Lara in any worthwhile manner) and too long (because the asides to show you how PLUCKY~! and SCRAPPY~! and NEVER-SAY-DIE~!~! she is drag on and on and on). Maybe the last 2/3s are better? Maybe I don't give a shit about ever finding out, because I'd rather play the games since they're actually enjoyable. Is there a movie conceit that has aged worse than the one for Searching for Bobby Fischer? I'm guessing there isn't, unless you include obviously racist/sexist stuff. Bobby Fischer was a piece of shit and needed to stay gone; it's too bad he didn't, post-9/11. This movie is not-quite-a-piece of shit, but it's tepid and milquetoast and generally badly executed, aside from a few of Ben Kingsley's scenes and basically all of Larry Fishburne's scenes. Otherwise it's a Lifetime movie. You get the sense by the end that Kingsley's character is secretly a pedo and he's doing all he can to resist his urges, or at least that's how I thought he was playing it. Or maybe I just made that up because it gave the movie some goddamn flavor. Creed is simultaneously one of the best Rocky-based movies and also Ryan Coogler's least interesting film by a mile. I have never liked Stallone in anything whatsoever other than First Blood - not even the first Rocky - but he's actually pretty great here. He seems more real and relatable as someone this broken-down and past giving a shit about himself anymore. Michael B. Jordan is great, but Tessa Thompson's character...I mean, it's Tessa, when has she been terrible in anything, but her whole subplot feels tacked-on, just so her character seems more sympathetic. Unless the second movie does something real with it, it's the weakest part of what they were doing. Oh, sorry, second-weakest, because the Goddamned Rocky Boxing is always always always the weakest part of these ridiculous movies. No one stands and trades shots like that, except Kazushi Sakuraba when he's feeling particularly masochistic! Quit filming this! Ugh, lame. I expect better out of Coogler, but maybe I shouldn't. I'm about 2/3s through watching Dumb and Dumber To, and it's very clearly a movie that never needed to be made. But it's not without a couple of decent laughs. The nicest thing I can say about it, though, is it's not as bad as Ebert made Freddy Got Fingered sound.

Starting to play Control and I don't know what I think of this so far. It's like someone took a bunch of ideas that didn't make it into Half-Life 2 and made a significantly weirder game from the bits. I only have 1 ability so far, so I doubt what I've seen is an entirely representative sample, but it's just...it's definitely off-kilter in any number of ways. It tries to be, I dunno, Lynchian almost? But it doesn't really pull that off. It's more like if someone tried to make an Umbrella Academy-adjacent video game that took itself far too seriously. The feel of the gameplay is all right, but there's also stuff that's just kind of nutty from the get-go, like how you can jump off the second story and make dents in the floor *immediately* upon starting to play the game, no explanation, no reason for it to be happening. That's just...there. A part of me wants to like something that feels no need to explain itself, but this takes it to almost being meta. "You're a gamer, you don't really care about the premise, just hit the thing with the other thing and progress the story."

If by some miracle Atlanta comes back in this, Cam Reddish has earned a place on the McMillan Rolex Shopping Spree. Too bad the rest of the team can't get stops or defensive rebounds.

Control & Return of the Obra Dinn mark the most I've picked up from a Steam sale in a few years now. I'm not sure if I really like Obra Dinn or not. I probably should, and I got it up to 15 fates on my current playthrough, but...I don't know. There are times when it feels like it's overwhelming, or that there's too much guessing. Plus, the interface is super-clunky in terms of collating relevant information; it'd be great to have a page that's nothing but solved fates, a page for speculative fates, and then one for everyone else. But I like the details that are there: jewelry makes a difference; who's carrying food makes a difference. And man, that dude going out while taking a shit...oof, poor guy.

It also has the consequence of blowing any sense of continuity for the show right out of the water; it can always be attributed to a decoy you didn't know about. Besides, remember Rick getting arrested in Ep 1? Exactly.

Chris Paul should make a WrestleMania appearance with that bump. And that's about the third inbounds violation on the Clippers that the refs have missed in this series. Not that it matters. They should call the LAPD to report a murder. Metaphorical and literal, keep it classy, Patty.

If the Hawks come back in this series, I hope Nate McMillan buys Okongwu one hell of a nice watch. I like John Collins but Okongwu is making Giannis work so much harder for everything. Oh fuck that looked ugly.

Gotta love millionaires who don't know the rules of their own job. After your super millionaire keeps missing.

Probably, because who were they going to get that was better, but I feel like McMillan is only a relatively incremental improvement over someone like Doc Rivers. Compared to Budenholzer, he may as well be playing 7th-dimensional chess. Funny how being an actual great coach, being rewarded for being "great", and being successful can be 3 different things. Sure, it's a league where talent wins out above all else, but if the Clips somehow win a title, no one is going to point out Ty Lue's contribution to two quite different title teams. They'll just chirp about LeBron and Kawhi. On the other hand, I thought the Suns hiring Monty Williams was a great move for them, and it's sure as Hell looking that way; adding Chris Paul just accelerated their timetable. Then there's Bud & Thibs, who are "GENUISES~!" but will likely cry themselves to sleep with their COTY awards and never even make a Finals appearance.

I really hope people realize how much FUN these games can be without being badly played. Collins is having himself a quarter.

And the Joe West Fan Club is no more (unless someone can see it on profiles as a mouse-over; I don't think it works for your own profile). Eh, that's definitely OK.

Well, good to see the David Stern Memorial Small Market Steering Committee is on the floor tonight in uniform. Too bad it didn't account for Playoff P missing free throws.

Ben Simmons is the Steve Sax of Tom Watsons.

Uh-oh, PJ Tucker actually hit a shot this series. Bucks blowout incoming!

Not a good trade, but at least it means no longer expecting Walker to accomplish anything for us. Should clear some cap space, too.

If Giannis v Harden were a hotel, it'd be a Travelodge. Or maybe a Motel 6 Steps before Taking a 3.

This is why we can't have nice things.

This is like Game 1 flipped on its head, except the Hawks will possibly take both. I turned this off when the lead was, what, 25? And that was in the third. What a huge collapse. Now I just gotta pull for the Hawks the rest of the way (unless they run into Phoenix).

The replays of that Tucker foul made that look like the real Finger Poke of Doom. Eeeek.

Right, jae's pain and sadness is way more painful and sad than a Mavs fan's lately...

Hah, without Irving coming back in a real way for at least Game 6, I doubt we get to a Game 7. That ankle roll did not look good. But as they say, a playoff series doesn't start until someone wins on the road; hasn't happened yet. Guess we'll see tomorrow night.

My brain is a weird place. I had a dream the other night that Criterion chose to release Wonder Woman 1984 and I finally understood what it felt like to see a movie on their list that was worse than Armageddon.

That...sounds like it could be at a very different type of expo (though one partially populated by the same guys).