Disney Watch: Zootopia 2 (2025)

Watched:  04/16/2026

Format:  Disney+

Viewing:  First

Director:  Jared Bush/ Byron Howard

I'm on record as a Zootopia stan.  I watched it initially on a plane to Helsinki and lost my mind when we landed and it cut off the last ten minutes and I couldn't watch the end til I got back home a week later.  I loved the ideas and characters, the world they built and the imagination and thinking that went into the jokes.  And, I liked the character arcs for Judy and Nick and how they played off of each other.  Good stuff.

Do I want to see the Zootopia-land in Shanghai? Yes.  Yes, I do.

Godzilla Minus Zero Teaser Trailer

 

Godzilla Minus Zero - First Look Teaser Trailer is GO!!!

that's muh boi

No idea what the story is, but so glad to see our heroes from Godzilla Minus One return.  I very much like these characters and am happy to spend more time with them.

Coming out in November.  Plan accordingly.

Noir Watch: Down Three Dark Streets (1954)

Watched:  04/12/2026

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  First

Director:  Arnold Laven

We're just going to slowly make our way through the Ruth Roman filmography, I guess.  

I had no idea what this was about, but it's a bit of 1950's pro-FBI propaganda.  It makes sure we, the citizens and tax-payers, understand how the FBI is working tirelessly on crimes big and small.  

When an FBI agent, a family man, is killed, Broderick Crawford is asked to pick up all three of his open cases to figure out which case was the one that got his pal murdered.  And, much as in real life, things move a lot faster now that one of their own was the victim.

The three cases are:

Canon Watch: Conan The Barbarian (1982)

Watched:  04/12/2026

Format:  BluRay

Viewing:  I have no idea

Director:  John Milius 

Conan the Barbarian (1982) is not for everyone.  And were it released now, it would have social media film people absolutely up in arms.  

I confess I've never read any Robert E. Howard, and maybe I need to fix that.  He is a Texas boy, after all.  But since the last time I watched the movie, I did read both the Prose and Poetic Eddas.  And what Howard was up to, and what this movie was up to - and what a lot of heroic fiction of the past was doing - all feels much more part of a lineage.  

The movie exists in a world far removed from a 2020's concept of "heroes act thusly" - something I am obviously behind as someone who felt like 2025's Superman and the TV show Superman and Lois finally got the character right on screen.  But that doesn't make me naive as a reader or person - that's just one type of character in one type of story.  

51

This one is for Jamie.  Who is, in fact, tougher than the rest.

Emmylou Harris' cover / version of Springsteen's "Tougher Than the Rest" from her album Brand New Dance.

Well, it's Saturday night

You're all dressed up and blue

I've been watchin' you go out

Maybe you been watchin' me too

So somebody ran out

Left somebody's heart in a mess

Well, if you're lookin' for love

Honey, I'm tougher than the rest

Some girls they want a handsome Dan

Or some good-lookin' Joe

On their arms some girls

Want a sweet talkin' Romeo

Well, 'round here, baby

I've learned you get what you can get

So if you're rough enough for love

Honey, I'm tougher than the rest

Yeah, the road is dark

And it's a thin, thin line

But I want you to know

I'll walk it for you anytime

Maybe your other girlfriends

Couldn't pass the test

Well, if you're rough and ready for love

Honey, I'm tougher than the rest

Well, it ain't no secret

I've been around a time or two

Well, I don't know, baby

Maybe you've been around too

But there's another dance, baby

All you got to do is say yes

And if you're rough and ready for love

Honey, I'm tougher than the rest

Yeah, if you're rough enough for love

Honey, I'm tougher than the rest

Canon Watch: RoboCop (1987)

buy this poster here

Watched:  04/10/2026

Viewing:  ha ha ha ha ha

Format:  BluRay (Arrow Deluxe)

Director:  Paul Verhoeven

For some reason my Threads.com algorithm kept showing me people discussing RoboCop (1987), and I realized that it had been some time since I'd actually watched the movie.  Not that I have to.  It's one of the movies I've seen so many times I have recall of every scene in the movie - if not the exact dialog, I have the imagery of each scene locked in my brain.  

Why RoboCop?  I know I've mentioned this, but when I was 12, we were visiting my grandparents and my mom wanted us out of the house to talk about something with my grandparents, so we were taken to a one-screen theater in Ishpeming, Michigan where my brother and I watched the movie. 

Series Watch: Scarpetta Season 1

Lots of Spoilers

I don't know the work of novelist Patricia Cornwell.  But she's written something like 29 books about Kay Scarpetta, a medical examiner detective.  Quincy, but super dark.  

Y'all know I love me some Jamie Lee Curtis, and she co-stars and produces, and is the primary reason I tuned in.  It didn't hurt that the show features Bobby Cannavale and Ariana DuBose, who I also like a lot.  And Nicole Kidman, about whom I am ambivalent, as the eponymous Kay Scarpetta.

I just finished the eighth and final episode of Season 1, and...  It was fine?

Here's kind of what I think...  

Someone really loves those 29 books.  I believe they take place over time with characters aging and growing.  And someone came up with the idea that you could combine the action of an early book with a newer book (publishing wise, the first came out in 1990 and the most recent is like 2025).  So, we'd get some origin story for Scarpetta and her first case and jump to "where is she now?"  We can keep the story of the younger woman and pair it with the current version.  

Comedy Watch: The Naked Gun (2025)

Watched:  04/09/2026

Format:  Amazon

Viewing:  Second

Director:  Akiva Shaffer

This is the second time I'd seen this.  Holds up.  I laughed.

Noir Watch: T-Men (1947)

Watched:  04/09/2026

Format:  TCM Noir Alley

Viewing:  First, surprisingly

Director:  Anthony Mann

When you think of film noir, you may get some evocative images in mind.  Deep shadow, fog, deep focus shots.  There's a few photographers who helped define this style that we're still reeling from (and stealing from) today, and among the top three or so is John Alton.  And, boy howdy, is this movie John Alton. 

So, if you want a movie that's a gritty crime procedural (with a voice-over hellbent on taking me out of the movie) and looks like a million bucks, this is it.   

It is also very much an Anthony Mann movie.  Tough, not afraid to go dark, and not talking down to the audience.  However, it's not a movie about bootleggers or guys running a numbers racket or any of that.  There's no dame manipulating men with a promise of sex.  This is a movie about undercover men of the Treasury department.  Thus, T-Men (1947). 

New Chabert for the Holidays? (I'm predicting July)

what the hell are they looking at?

 

I have a suspicion that Hallmark is going to release this Christmas movie during Christmas in July.

I don't know, obviously.  But it's still early April and today Lacey Chabert released the poster for this movie that Hallmark very loudly announced they were producing back in December.  And it *is* exciting.  A Disney/ Hallmark collab?  Like peanut butter and Nutella.  

So, it struck me...  Disney is likely making this movie to convince people to come to the parks/ resorts for Christmas.  And if you tell people to book a vacation for December in October, it's way too late.  But during the summer?  Still time to book that trip.  And sell your house so you can afford it.

Now, maaaaaybe Disney is all in on Christmas and wants to release this during the holiday season, but... ha ha ha... no.  This is probably going to be 3 parts Hallmark movie, 2 parts travel brochure.  And that's fine!  

So let's have a watch party

When they announce the release date, whenever it is, I'll organize something.  We'll have cocktails, toast Chabert, Mickey and Hallmark.  Just be ready to use Google Chat.