Tag: analysis

Ponty Praises: The Fly (1986)

The Portly Politico26 Comments

Truly the 1980s were a golden age in many ways—a great economy, a confident Western civilization, and tons of great movies.  Even remakes from the era felt like totally fresh intellectual properties, with screenwriters taking advantage of improved technology to breathe new narrative life into older stories.  But it was also the peak of practical effects, as CGI had not quite reached the point of plausibility (and digital effects from the late 1980s now look quaint and dated).

I would argue, too, that the 1980s represented a golden age for body horror.  Who can forget the grotesque transformation scene in An American Werewolf in London (1981), or the stomach-churning effects in The Thing (1982)?

So it was with 1986’s The Fly, a film that combined the narrative abilities and amazing musical scores so endemic to the 1980s with the most horrifying body horror the decade could muster.  The combination of these elements—combined with great performances from the cast—put The Fly into the national consciousness, all while scaring the living taters out of us.

With that, here is Ponty’s buzzing review of The Fly (1986):

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Monday Morning Movie Review: Deathdream (1974)

The Portly Politico7 Comments

A common thread among horror aficionados is seeing some horror flick at an age that is far too young.  Maybe it was a whole movie, or maybe just snippets and scenes, but the movie terrifies and fascinates, leaving in indelible imprint on the impressionable young mind.

Often, we don’t even know the name of the film that affected us so.  If we’re lucky, we might stumble upon it years later, and go back to that time when we experienced horror for the first (or one of the first) time(s).

There were several such moments for yours portly.  Growing up with a Stephen King- and Halloween-loving mom, two that immediately come to mind are the It (1990) miniseries and the Salem’s Lot (1979) miniseries.  That little boy vampire scratching at the window still frightens me.

Another possible film is Deathdream (1974).  I’m not 100% sure if Deathdream is the movie I saw as a kid, but I remember seeing a flick as a kid that featured a deceased son who came back from the dead and was utterly soulless.  I think the film I saw was made a bit later, but Deathdream sucked me in because it seemed so familiar.  The soulless Andy—who is killed in the Vietnam War—is truly haunting.

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Myersvision: Joe Rogan Meets Bigfoot

The Portly Politico9 Comments

The title of today’s piece is misleading—we call it “clickbait” in the blogging biz.  Joe Rogan doesn’t actually meet Bigfoot, which would surely be the media event of the century, but he does listen to an alleged recording of our big, hairy friend.

Audio is pretty easy to manipulate, and with the rise of AI-generated sounds, it’s going to be increasingly difficult to discern actual recordings of anyone—much less Bigfoot—from AI ones.  The difference here is that the audio Rogan listens to was recorded in the early 1970s, and is—as far as we know—undoctored.

Our senior correspondent and resident cryptid expert Audre Myers offers up several videos of alleged Bigfoot recordings, one of which is at an Interstate rest stop.  I’m willing to believe that any thing is possible at an Interstate rest stop at 10:48 PM, and not just calling Seabass for a good time.

With that, here’s Audre with some intriguing possible recordings of Bigfoot:

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TBT^4: Reclaim the Rainbow

The Portly Politico7 Comments

Perhaps it is my own ignorance of worldly affairs, but it feels like the gay stuff has been toned down dramatically this June.  After many years of insufferable degeneracy masquerading as “tolerance,” the “pride” people went too far, and people who didn’t want their kids stuffing dollar bills into gay men’s leather thongs or getting secret gender reassignment surgery through their local elementary school’s guidance office rose up and fought back—by withholding their spending.

Conservative efforts at boycotts have always been iffy, but now they actually seem to be working.  Target saw a substantial reduction in its business after displaying kid’s clothing that came equipped with wiener-tucking compartments for all those “trans” kids out there.  Budweiser—the most American beer, perhaps the most American product, period, after maybe the Ford F-150 and Levi’s—lost so much market share that Modelo—a Mexican beer company!—dethroned it as the king of beers.  In this case, I don’t think you can chalk that up to mass Mexican immigration.

Of course, I could be wrong.  In spite of these clear messages that most Americans don’t want to be forced to “celebrate” a tiny minority’s sexual peccadilloes, I suspect that we’re going to keep having public homosexual erotica thrust into our faces (perhaps quite literally) whether we like it or not.

All the more reason, then, to reclaim the rainbow.  What was once a symbol of God’s Promise to Moses—and, thereby, humanity at large—has been co-opted to represent the government’s promise to emasculate and depopulate all of us.

With that, here is 22 June 2023’s “TBT^2: Reclaim the Rainbow“:

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Monday Morning Movie Review: Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

The Portly Politico13 Comments

Nine years ago, George Miller’s Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) hit cinemas with an explosive impact worthy of the big screen.  It is perhaps the best film of the last decade.  I remember seeing it at least twice in theaters, and being totally enthralled both times.  My niece, who is now nine, was still in my sister-in-law’s belly at this point; Barack Obama was still president; and the idea that the world would shut down due to a bad case of the flu seemed outrageous.  It was a different world.

Indeed, I remember my younger brother scolding me for seeing MM:FR with a colleague instead of him and his wife (and, I suppose, my natal niece by extension).  I think I saw it with them for my second viewing, but I cannot remember at the moment.  Regardless, that was probably the last time that the three of us could have gone to the movies together—truly the end of an era.

And MM:FR was the perfect film to end that era.  Indeed, it was something a vestige of the dying days of practical effects and crazy stunts.  Fury Road did use some CGI and digital effects, but it was largely shot practically, which is insane when one considers the dangerous stunts.  It must have been grueling to film.

What captivated me so much about Fury Road was the world in which this extended car chase occurred.  Miller dribbled in just enough information to give a sense for how this wasteland worked, but left a great deal unexplained.  That fueled hours of speculation about the locations and people in this world.  How did Immortan Joe come to power?  What happened to the Green Place?  What is going on with Max’s mental state?

After nearly a decade, Miller released Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024), which serves as a prequel to Fury Road.  The film did not answer every question, but it does a great deal to flesh out the world of Mad Max, while still allowing it to maintain some of its mystique and mystery.  It’s also an excellent film.

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Ponty Praises: Disco Elysium

The Portly Politico25 Comments

Disco Elysium is quite possibly the best video game I have ever played.  It is certainly the most unique.  I knew it was something special after only an hour of playing it, and while I have not started a new game since finishing it—“beating” is probably not the right word for Disco Elysium—it is a game that could reveal fresh layers through dozens, perhaps hundreds, of playthroughs, even if it only consists of one “main quest,” as it were.

I’ve never played a game that more accurately reflects the way my own mind is structured, and the way that I think about and dwell upon certain inane details.  I don’t have a “Thought Cabinet,” per se, but the notion of fixating upon and ruminating about an idea to the point that it worms its way into your psyche feels true to my experience.  As dear old Ponty will point out, the game has a way of seeping into your mind and, therefore, your life outside of the game.

I don’t want to give too much away, as Ponty delivers a brilliant and detailed review, so I’ll turn the controller over to him.

With that, here is Ponty’s review of Disco Elysium:

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Myersvision: The Last of Us (TV Series)

The Portly Politico8 Comments

Dear old Audre Myers e-mailed Ponty and me a couple of Sundays ago recommending the HBO Max series The Last of Us, based (albeit, I suspect, somewhat loosely) on the video game of the same name.  I’ve never played either of the two TLoU games, but I am quite familiar with the controversy surrounding the sequel, which went fully woke.  It is a classic scenario:  a hugely successful cultural phenomenon gets hijacked—willingly or otherwise—by the Cultural Marxists and becomes a pitiful version of its former self.  The Cult Marxists hope to trade on the popularity of the intellectual property or franchise by shoehorning their bizarre beliefs into it, thereby reaching a massive audience before everyone sours on it.

It’s a fundamentally vampiric, parasitic relationship:  the healthy host rapidly loses whatever cultural cache it enjoyed, becoming an insufferable, withered husk of its former self.

I was not surprised in the slightest that Ponty reacted so negatively to Audre’s request that one of us review the show.  As an avid gamer who (it seems) enjoyed The Last of Us video game and despised its woke sequel, I knew the suggestion would touch a nerve.  Poor Audre had no idea; I hope Ponty wasn’t too hard on her!

So, I proposed that Audre write a review.  I’ll check out the show when I’m able, but she is the queen of television reviews around here.

With that, here is Audre Myers’s review of the television series The Last of Us:

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TBT^256: End the Income Tax

The Portly Politico5 Comments

It’s that time of year again, when yours portly yells impotently at the clouds and demands the end of the income tax.  Unlike prior years, yours portly actually got his taxes done relatively early (if you count early March as “relatively early”), and while I owed both Uncle Sam and the Great State of South Carolina a pound of flesh, I ended up getting away with only paying $54 total—woooooot!

Still, the annual ritual of telling the federal government how many miles I drove to music lessons and what I paid for WordPress is an odious and obnoxious reminder that the federal government dominates our lives and our personal information.  I recognize that taxes are a necessary evil, but let’s focus on the “evil” part of that equation.

I don’t know what the solution is, and I think the Republican Party has spent far too much time quibbling over the placement of commas in the tax code instead of fighting the necessary cultural battles in our nation, but tax reform should be a no-brainer.  Here’s the Portly Proposal:

  • Tax all income at 10%
  • Don’t tax interest earnings in savings accounts

That’s it!  Easy.  Cheap.  Everyone pays the same percentage.  Maybe—maybe!—have a carveout for people who earn, say, less than $20,000 a year—they pay, say, 5%, or even just 1%.  If people want to withhold from their paycheck, fine.  But there are no surprises—if you earn $2000 in March, you withhold $200.  At filing time, all that would be done is confirming you’ve paid your amount; if you overpaid on that first $20,000, then you’d get a refund.

Even that is more involved than I’d like, but it gives a bit of relief to the working poor.  Otherwise, no deductions, no carveouts, nothing.  There’s still an incentive to save, since no one pays for interest earned on savings accounts.

Yeah, yeah—you want to write off your $300,000 mortgage.  No.  Sorry—let’s not incentivize people to borrow huge amounts of money so they can save forty bucks on their taxes.

With that, here is 13 April 2023’s “TBT^16: End the Income Tax“:

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Monday Morning Movie Review: Southern Comfort (1981)

The Portly Politico8 Comments

Shudder serves up some strange dishes sometimes, including a good bit of non-horror fare.  For a service that is ostensibly dedicated to horror, it’s always interesting when something outside of that genre pops up.

Of course, “horror” is a pretty broad category, and there is horror in many situations.  Perhaps that is the rationale for the inclusion of Southern Comfort (1981) to its slate of films.

Southern Comfort follows the foibles of a Louisiana National Guard unit on a weekend bivouac into the swamps of Cajun country.  After a truly stupid act, the weekend warriors find themselves embroiled in a guerrilla war with murderous Cajuns.

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