Movie of the Week: TANGLED.

I don’t know how I got sucked into rewatching TANGLED. All I know is, that movie has absolutely no business being as good as it is. Seriously, if you’ve never watched it then you’re missing out. Also note that the cover image actually accurately promises you some of the stuff that happens in the movie itself. I know Disney’s quality has slipped, but this is firmly from a time period where that had not yet happened.

06/26/2024 Snippet, SEVEN FLAGS.

I may need to break this story in two parts, because it’s really a damned novella. Hell, I’m worried it’s a damned book.

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“I’m wondering about the decanus,” Liza admitted to Jan afterward. They were back in Jan’s office, but this time they were drinking broth, not bourbon. “What’s her background?”

“Aside from the alchemy?” Jan chuckled. “Decanus Karen Blank used to be a damned rebel and guerrilla. The records say she’s killed everybody from overseers to Legionnaires. Even bagged a mage apprentice, once.” She sipped more broth. “She came in from the heat when we took Gallstone, and hanged every son of a bitch that her rebels didn’t see to themselves during the fighting.”

“So can we trust her?”

Jan gave her a steady look, over her cup. “‘Trust’ is one of those words that has a weird meaning in my line of work, Tribune. We need alchemists, and we were killing the same people at the end. It’s everything that happened before the end that’s the problem.” Jan’s mood got visibly heavier. “If somebody’s still holding a grudge over what we all did back then, God knows I can’t blame them.”

The Adorably Stupid RED ONE trailer.

I mean that as a compliment. I am absolutely down for an adorably stupid Christmas action movie, particularly when everybody in it has decided to go with the flow. I also want to know more about Santa Claus’s position vis-a-vis the US armed forces. Judging from the uniforms, obviously NORAD is all up in this business.

Via @zamoose.

Tweet of the Day, They Sent Lawyers, Guns, And Money edition.

And, indeed, the ordure is about to hit the winnowing blade.

Via @KateDrawsComics, and more here. Note, however, that this case involves musical catalogues, and that Sony, Universal, and Warner are no doubt willing to negotiate a payoff (and licensing fees). Does that make this a pointless lawsuit? …Not really, because it’ll establish that ‘fair use’ does not extend this far. And that will help immensely with all the other anti-AI lawsuits out there.

The ‘The Rules Exist For A Reason’ THE HERETIC trailer.

It’s not that I don’t like the concept of THE HERETIC. It’s that it’s one of those films that needs their protagonists to do something stupid (like not see the wife with their own eyes before entering the house) for it to work. It is also a movie that would get shut down in about five minutes if one of the protagonists simply had a revolver, but that’s a common problem in American horror movies*.

*Writing horror novels set in the present and/or future are a real problem in this regard, let me tell you. That and cell phones. Cell phones kill half a dozen different perfectly good horror scenarios dead, dead, dead.