Mission Creep

In which we discover, truly, how much I was missing by not spending enough time with comic books as a kid, and in which we learn again and again how the Spiderman character in particular allows writers and audiences to explore infinite iterations of adolescent struggles with the experiences of inheritance, responsibility, loss, and change. Do we see a spark in these films?

That's a copy.

Seriously: the killer's motives make NO SENSE. He has gotten away with avenging his daughter's death, and four teenagers in the full flower of their glorious youth think that THEY are responsible! And everyone else seems to think that David Egan accidentally drowned, or just disappeared, or something. So why would the killer want to off his own alibis?

This movie brought to you by the North Carolina State Tourism Board. Not really.

Is there such a thing as a "meet-violent?" Was George Clooney simply auditioning for the Ocean's 11 franchise with this performance? How does love enmesh us in a web of vulnerabilities, to use Winston's phrase, and what does it have to do with midlife crises? All this and more in a discussion of yet another Elmore Leonard adaption.

It doesn't make sense for this show to have "seasons" at all, so please enjoy this thirty-first overall episode of the podcast, featuring substantial digressions into Star Wars and Westworld, in addition to the promised subject matter!

In which we tackle the really big questions, like: "Is 44 old or not that old?" "Is a body count of 4 high or low?" "Who, in this movie about seedy life in the underworld, most closely resembles Mr. Rogers?"

The cast of this movie is so incredible that Hank Azaria, Brendan Fraser, and Janeane Garofalo are merely scene-stealing cameo appearances!

Chili Palmer, minivan connoisseur, would be on the right side of the WGA writer's strike, is all we're saying.

What EXACTLY are Jerry and Dorothy on the well-lit front porch, in full view of any neighbors, before they go inside to be swept away by Chad-the-nanny's jaaaaaazzzzzz?

Can the king of the school turn a girl who wears a one-piece to the beach into a prom queen? Find out the answer in the best-ever adaptation of Pygmalion*!

Also if I were to tell you that this movie features Gabrielle Union, Lil Kim, Usher, and Dulé Hill -- which it does! -- you would never in a million years be able to predict how white it remains.

*except for literally all the others.

Look. It's actually insane that one of the top-five lines in movie history -- "If peeing your pants is cool, then consider me Miles Davis" -- is barely a top-three line in this very film.