Author: dtm666

I ramble about things.

The Prerequisite Star Wars Ambivalence Post

There’s a new Star Wars movie tomorrow… I should be excited, no?

Except… not really. It’s a TV movie that they decided to put into movie theaters. And yes, I liked the Mandalorian for the first couple years… and then the Book of Boba Fett stunk up the joint and I never came back for the third. Now you want people to get excited for a big screen airing of what is essentially an abridged fourth season of a show most people probably already forgot about.

I’ve already talked about my overall ambivalence over this thing months ago when the deal was first announced, so I will not repeat myself here. For what it’s worth, I did dabble in some Star Wars games and books as of late… had fun with those. I might even bust out the old DVDs and give those a watch. (Yes, I said DVDs because they have the original original versions on those.)

Speaking of which, new review is coming tomorrow. It covers Empire on Game Boy. It’s not a good game, but after covering a surprisingly solid Master System port of Star Wars back in March, we need some balance in the proverbial force. As an added bonus, there’s a fun piece of business to mark the occasion.

All that in mind, I expect the flow of Star Wars game reviews to pick up sometime next year in time for the 50th anniversary of the original Star Wars. I’m saving the really good stuff for when it matters (mostly because they take too damn long to play through.)

Anyhoo, that’s it for today.

Later.

The Strange Case Of Crocodile Dundee II

1986 saw Crocodile Dundee be a surprise hit and gave Aussie actor/writer Paul Hogan a step in the global movie stage.

Two years later, they produced a sequel that proved to be not quite as successful as its predecessor, both in terms of box office and critical reception. Make no mistake; the film still made money, but not as much as the first time around. And as far as the critical reception is concerned, the general consensus is that it’s not quite as funny (or original) as the first film and by the second film, the novelty that made the first film endearing has mostly worn off.

Personally… I liked the film. Sure, there’s going to be that inevitable feeling of rehashing ideas from the first film, but I honestly don’t mind it because one of the ideas behind rehashed is ol’ Mick Dundee himself because Paul Hogan maintains his wonderful charm that makes the character so endearing, as he attempts to settle in New York while keeping up with old habits and there’s a couple funny bits in there. But that eventually gives way to the main plot involving main squeeze Sue being pursued by a drug lord who wants photos she got from her ex, which eventually leads our heroes to stake their ground in Mick’s home turf of Australia’s Northern territory.

This is where the film slides into almost action schlock, with Mick using home advantage (and some local friends) to pick off the drug crew one by one. There’s some chuckles here and there, but going into what is essentially generic action fare with a quirky hero… I can understand if people see this as the train falling off the rails, but I’m personally engaged in seeing how Mick stays ahead of the bad guys. It’s not sophisticated fare, but it doesn’t have to be. You’ve got a likeable enough hero, you want to see him overcome the odds, and save the day. We saw Mick out of his element in the first film; now we see him in it.

If there’s any fault to be found here, it’s really in the overall pace. Sometimes, you really want to get to the next big scene, but the movie takes its time to get there and rarely during these slower moments do you get anything that can’t be just skipped with a fast-forward or two. Croc I didn’t have these moments; that had better pacing and took better advantage of the central character.

Other than that, though, I could think of worse sequels that didn’t quite live up to the original. Crocodile Dundee II might not be the splendid brilliance of its predecessor, but it’s still a perfectly fine follow-up.

AEW Dynamite (May 13th, 2026) – Struggling With Words

A little late with this one, but to be fair, I had to play catch-up on a few things, a couple other IRL things also came up, and I’ve been getting more unwanted sleep. Regardless, I was able to watch this show via PVR recording and honestly had little to say about it.

I mean, let’s get it out of the way. I largely enjoyed the show and there were some fun bits. Darby retained the AEW Title over Takeshita in a fun match before we get the contract signing for the PPV match with MJF, which is officially TITLE (Darby) vs. HAIR (MJF) at stake. As if you needed a dead giveaway that MJF is winning the title back because I doubt he’s going to be cutting that mop of his. There was also a really great match between Ospreay and Ace Austin, with Ospreay getting the win and also his training with Mox and his Death people continue, which I’m actually turning a corner on bit by bit… I’m waiting for this moment to be ruined, eventually, but that could be a trigger warning on my part. Kevin Knight retains his TNT title over the returning Brian Cage, who looked pretty good after a long injury hiatus… and then Speedball Bailey wants a shot at the AEW Champion next week, so we have our last Darby defense before the ride comes to an end this coming Sunday. And of course, the obligatory party match, which I largely skipped due to other stuff happening in the background, but I don’t think I missed much there.

Anyway, we’ve got the go home for Double Or Nothing coming up and if things work out, I might be able to catch the PPV this coming weekend and hopefully do some musings on it, since that’s the whole payoff of this mini sojourn of sorts through the Darby era of AEW World title matches. We’ll see about doing the Dynamite after DoN before closing out this run of musings, because June will be wrestling free.

Sunday Gimmick Table #57 – InfoGenius Productivity Pak: Personal Organizer and Phone Book for Game Boy

For anyone who thought selling a calculator or clock on the Nintendo Switch eShop was the most outrageous thing they’ve ever seen, someone designed a POCKET ORGANIZER for your OG Game Boy handheld unit in 1991. Because if they’ll put the Bible on there, they’ll put anything on there.

In Case You Need A Reminder… (Like I Do, Apparently)

So there was a supercard on Netflix. You may have heard of it. You might have even seen it… but I sure as hell didn’t because I don’t have a Netflix subscription and I don’t care enough about this show to get one.

Okay, kids. It’s time to break the kayfabe and explain how this thing works.

Both this and yesterday’s post (which also features that lovely image of Cold Ronda getting a cold dose of reality) were written back in February, when this thing was first announced. I did express some quick thoughts on the announcement (which you can read here) and then prepped these two posts because I figured… why not have a little fun with this? So as much as I would like to feed the notion that I’m obsessing over this thing despite supposedly not caring about, the truth of the matter is that this was written ahead of time and then promptly forgotten about.

That last line isn’t figurative; there’d be instances where posts would published before they were finished because I told myself that I’d get back to it later and later would turn out to be after the fact.

So yes, I more than likely didn’t watch the show. More than likely, I forgot the show was a thing. If anything, I’m probably watching some hockey games during this time for a lark. Not a sports guy in general, but I do enjoy some good, fun playoffs hockey, especially if it involves the home team.

Oh well…

In Case Anyone Cares… (Which I Don’t)

Just a reminder, tonight is the long awaited return of Cold Ronda Rousey to the MMA return to fight the long awaited returning Gina Carano brought to you by Netflix. If you wanna watch it, go for it. If not, that’s cool, too…

I’ll be in the latter category.

New Wily Challenge later today… I think.