Day: August 5, 2025

David Fincher, Brad Pitt, and Edward Norton roasting all the critics who trashed Fight Club.
pic.twitter.com/zI13uSrlcu

— cinesthetic. (@TheCinesthetic) August 4, 2025

Contrary to what you may have heard or assumed due to his representation by Henry Willson, Guy Madison (aka the star of the hit TV series Wild Bill Hickock between 1951 and 1958) was straight. Madison was no one’s idea of a gifted actor, but he did a little better, career-wise, than Rick Dalton. His only serious A-level film was David O. Selznick and John Cromwell‘s Since You Went Away (’44). Madison died from ephysema in 1996, at age 74.

“If our young people aren’t doing well, we have failed as a nation”…100% true.

“Just call me lardbucket…I’m sensitive, I speak softly, I listen well and I care.”

My first instinct was to feel instant, irrevocable hate. Then I watched the trailer a couple of times, and now I’m thinking “okay, maybe.”

I don’t believe that She Rides Shotgun is as good as some people have been saying. I just don’t believe it. Partly because I really kinda hate Taron Egerton. Hate team! Partly (largely?) because I really despised his Elton John performance.

Okay, I get it: It’s a non-judgmental contemplation of Hollywood narcissism.

Laura Dern‘s character: “Don’t. Touch. People.”

The one thing that Laurence Olivier and John Gavin don’t do in Spartacus is smile like socially outgoing, alpha-vibe executives at a company picnic.

Let’s all celebrate the AI transformation of Leonardo da Vinci’s painting of Italian noblewoman Lisa del Giocondo, dated between 1503 and 1506…let’s all cheer the degradation of this fascinating 16th Century woman into a banal shopping-mall Zoomer, posing for a selfie.

“Wicked, evil, up to no good” — Roger Thornhill, 1959.

Bringing art to life with Grok Imagine

1. Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa pic.twitter.com/0RgzKudjNU

— James Lucas (@JamesLucasIT) August 3, 2025

I caught a midnight show of The Empire Strikes Back on 5.21.80 at Loew’s Astor Plaza, and I’ll never forget that feeling of immense calm and profound satisfaction as I sat in my aisle seat and listened to John Williams‘ closing credits music.

I was especially charmed by a 15-second-long downshifting bridge (1:18 through 1:35) that departed from the traditional theme.

Even listening now (I watched it last weekend with Sutton) puts you in the mood.

The greatest of all Star Wars films doesn’t really “end” brilliantly — it just stops and winds down and settles into an “okay, all that happened so now it’s time to settle and reflect” mood, but that spunky, tarah-tarah transformation when “directed by Irvin Kershner‘ suddenly appeared…I was muttering ”thank you, God and Gary Kurtz“.

George Lucas was increasingly freaked by and fretting about Empire‘s production costs rising from $8 million to $30.5 million (“It doesn’t have to be that good!”). It wound up making $401.5 million worldwide that year. Not to mention another $138M from subsequent re-releases.

The “fans” who were “conflicted about Empire‘s darker and more mature themes” were major-league morons.