Lorne Malvo

I'm attempting to keep some sort of record of 2021 releases I watch this year so I'm not as totally lost when it comes to year-end rankings as I usually am. I think the best way to do it is to do an @HarmonicGenerator esque write-up every few weeks. 

The year started off well with Freaky, which I know has been around forever but isn't officially out here yet. It's a ton of fun and Vince Vaughan plays teenage girl just as well as Jack Black does in Jumanji. Really enjoyed this, one I'll probably rewatch every couple of years. Pieces Of A Woman has an incredibly harrowing intense opening 30 minutes, then the rest of the film is completely unremarkable. I think it was going for a Manchester By The Sea realism vibe, but then at times it suddenly veers into Hollywood sentimentality so it's quite confusing tonally. 

Stardust would've been decent if it was about any fictional rockstar, but as a David Bowie biopic it's a bit of a disaster and Johnny Flynn is horribly miscast. I only watched it last week and have already forgotten most of it. I watched The White Tiger afterwards which was much better. A rags to riches story, I've seen it compared to Parasite a few times but that's quite lazy and reductive. Loses points for having an unnecessary voiceover but gains points for Priyanka Chopra looking like Priyanka Chopra. Outside The Wire was the kind of mid-level actioner Netflix are quite decent at, and decent about sums this up. At times it threatens to be more interesting but for the most part its a generic, if watchable sci-fi actioner.

Assassins is one of those documentaries that probably benefits from knowing nothing about the subject going in, but I'd watched a BBC doc a few years back covering the same story so didn't quite have that effect on me. Well-made though and worth a watch if you don't know anything about the assassination of Kim Jong-nam. The Dig was just a nice warm blanket of a film and follows in the tradition of Summerland and Guersney Literary Society, they're gentle and nothing much happens but they're perfect Sunday afternoon with a cup of tea fodder. 

Promising Young Woman is probably my favourite of the year so far, although it's a bit more... safer or conventional than I expected. Carey Mulligan is great here, the performances across the board are all strong. I can see it being a crowd-pleaser if it ever gets to play in cinemas. 

I couldn't really work out why it was a penalty (and I'm a Wolves fan!) I've watched it about 8/9 times now and still can't see where the contact was made. Arsenal got really unlucky with that as if that first half was anything to go by, it could've been a thumping.

Even though he's the same age as me I still want to be Ricky Starks when I grow up. He pisses cool.

Just found out my Nan passed away due to covid this morning. It's not quite hit yet, but to be honest - as bad as this may sound - she's suffered from dementia for the last 6/7 years and hasn't recognised me for a long time, so it was almost as though I'd lost her already. I feel for my Dad more than anything, as although I've drifted away from the family the rest of them are really close-knit. He probably spoke to her everyday when she was healthy so he's completely tore up about it.

86 though, pretty good innings.

Her favourite carer in the carehome sat with her and held her hand while she passed which has really touched me.

48 minutes ago, BomberPat said:

As a rule, the women with a more "alternative" look tend to attract the bigger weirdos, and the ones who flirt with childlike imagery are even worse. Alexa's basically picked up the old AJ Lee "fanbase".

 

Yeah, see Liv Morgan too. You'll need a cold shower after reading some of the replies she gets on Twitter.

She posted a pic the other day where her gear said 'Watch me' and one of the top replies was something like 'I already am ;)'.

He was actually good fun for about three weeks in NXT, when he had that little storyline of battering his jobber tag partners. But yeah, he was shite. I can imagine him being like a Ryback in the next few years, begging for bookings on Twitter and generally being a thick shite.

My main takeaway from this show is that 'archer of infamy' is one of the all-time shit nicknames. Terrible work there.

I really want a 00s Office/Parks & Rec documentary type episode. Vision talking to the camera while Wanda fucks stuff up behind him could be gold. 

I'm really enjoying it. Thought the opening to this weeks episode with everybody reappearing from the blip was really well done, and Darcy and Agent Woo teaming up made me smile. Like when two jobbers in the Attitude era would team up and make it work. 

Is there going to be a big bad behind it manipulating events, do we think, or is it all just a grief-stricken Wanda's doing?

Bray Wyatt never jumped the shark, he was fucking shit to begin with. We're in an era of WWE where everyone can put on a good match in there sleep, yet the only good matches this fucker ever had was with Bryan at the Rumble years back and multi-man affairs with the Shield. And obviously not everyone needs to rely on in-ring bell to bell stuff when they've got a great gimmick or character, but his character has consistently been involved in the worst storylines and moments of the past five years. The free pass he seems to get irrationally annoys me too - I'm sure creative is responsible for a lot of how shit he's been, but surely some fault has to lie with the performer too, yet tons of people let him off because he cuts a half-decent promo once in a blue moon,

Anyway! To get back to the subject, Baron Corbin went from being one of the most over acts in NXT with the fans counting how long it took him to finish off jobbers, to one of the most boring heels I've ever seen on the main roster.

I was a massive Matt Hardy mark back in the day too and I'll always prefer him to Jeff, but he jumped the shark for me as soon as Broken Matt became a thing.

The past year I've built up a tidy little collection of mugs based on tv shows/films. Bit gutted I had to retire my Brooklyn 99 NYPD one as in the summer it started to look increasingly Blue Lives Matter, but my new Parks and Rec mug is doing a decent job as a replacement. There's definitely a gap in the market there somewhere as most of the designs are terrible, finding one that is half-decent is a challenge.

Richard Yates is my favourite author so anytime I see any of his books I'll pick it up. I've got about 6 editions of Revolutionary Road. They have to be from a used bookstore or a carboot or something though, using Amazon or Waterstones is just cheating.

That was way better than the action scene at the end of Tenet tbf.

On 1/20/2021 at 7:09 PM, Merzbow said:

Is M'Badu still around? He was a boss, his gimmick was just that he's Nigerian but that's enough for me.

Incase you haven't watched Dark this week, M'Badu is back! Teaming up with everyone's favourite Tyson Kidd cosplayer.

I hate the 'its no surprise they're right-wing racist/homophobic/daft cunts, look at where they come from' argument used when talking about people like Taker/Lesnar/Styles personal and political views. Like the fact he had an old-fashioned tough upbringing in Texas excuses what he says and thinks in 2021. They've spent years and years on the road with people from all walks of life, shared a locker room with people of all colours, nationalities and backgrounds. If that isn't enough to open up their narrow blinkered world-view then quite frankly they're either thick as fuck or nasty, spiteful people. 

He's probably getting the hate for being a daft old insecure right-wing cunt but let's not split hairs.

Adama is a right headache. On his day he's unplayable and makes opposition defences look silly, but his end product and decision-making leaves a lot to be desired. He'd seemed to sort out those issues last season but then he faltered again. Until recently he'd gone something like 20 games without a goal or an assist, which isn't good enough for someone who regularly leaves defences in his dust.

He's a right sulker too. He had to fill in at RB for us a few times at the start of the season and he had a face like a slapped arsed for it.

13 hours ago, BomberPat said:

Similarly, the Headbangers making three random Smackdown appearances in 2016.

The Headbangers getting that Smackdown gig in 2016 was bizarre as fuck, but I enjoyed it. Spirit Squad started showing up around the same time too. It's like they were just pulling names out of a hat marked 'old tag teams that are still alive'.

5 hours ago, Merzbow said:

El Australiano may be the worst looking wrestler going, the most dreadful attire I've seen in years and wrestles like a third rate Jack Evans.

Full on shitarse.

I noticed him being utter shit in a tag match last week, but he didn't get to do much. He got way too much offense in this week against Sammy though. And for a highflyer, he doesn't half take an age to climb the ropes. Some of these AEW lads need to be less generous, Sammy should be beating him in 3 minutes tops.

I am a little bit obsessed with these random job guys AEW keeps using. It's a look at the US indie scene that I'd never usually get otherwise. My current fave is the Tyson Kidd rip-off. 

2 hours ago, BomberPat said:

 

I don't think it's just the slow trudge toward mediocrity, though. There's a nostalgia element, for sure, but also that by cherry-picking old shows you're not really all that bothered about creative direction, who wins or loses, or where a story might be going. I hated the Vince vs. Bret match when it actually happened, but found it fun if overlong when watching it recently. I remember thinking Sting vs. Triple H at Wrestlemania was the biggest, most ridiculous creative misstep going, but now love it for its absurdity. Being removed from all that second-guessing the booking, or following it week-to-week, or just giving a shit in general means that even the shit stuff can be enjoyable. It's why I really enjoy watching latter day WCW now, but it was infuriating at the time - because none of it matters any more.

 

This is a fantastic post and something I've felt for a while but just never been able to put into words. Going back and watching old wrestling, we know where everything is going and where everyone ends up. We don't have to worry about booking decisions, people being held down and things not making sense.

As wrestling fans, we don't afford ourselves the luxury of enjoying current stuff nearly as much because we're all so caught up in 'where is this going?' 'They're going to fuck this up arn't they?' 'Why isn't Johnny Kickpads getting this win?' It's why judging current wrestling next to older stuff isn't really fair, because the older stuff doesn't come with the baggage of second-guessing everything.

Saying that though, Raw is fucking dogshit at the moment.

It's been mentioned on here before, but I really like Varsity Blondes just because they've got that WCW Worldwide 1993 vibe.

@air_raid It does seem worse than ever this season, and the knee-jerk reactions seep down to the supporters too. It's not just the top six teams. I only really read about Wolves, but a few months back Nuno won 'Manager of the month' and there were articles about if we could make another challenge for Europe. Since then we've had injuries to some of our most important players and a lot of our team is made up of unproven teenagers, and predictably the results have suffered. Now there are articles calling for Nuno to get the sack and asking where it all went wrong? Football journalism is lazy at the best of times but this season especially so. 

The BBC football site is always shite and only worth keeping an eye on for Garth's comedy team of the week section. You'd be forgiven for thinking Utd vs Liverpool was the only game on this weekend as it took up about 8 of the top 14 stories when I went to check the results yesterday.

Rene Duprees 'Cafe de Rene' was absolute filth.

This weeks Road To does a cracking job again of building up some of the matches. Proper hyped for Darby/Cage and especially Pac/Kingston after this. 

WHO THE FUCK DO YA THINK YA WINKING AT EH?!

It was mentioned on here not long back, but the celebrity involvement I always forget about is Evander Holyfield vs Matt Hardy. 

I do love reading old WWE reports and finding mention of mad storylines that never went anywhere and got dropped never to be mentioned again. They've had a fair few the past couple of years. Equally mental yet completely forgettable. Shit like Erick Rowan's pet spider, Maria Kanellis cuckolding Mike, Mojo Rawley shouting into a mirror and Shelton Benjamin making weird faces. I think it proves that the vast majority of the time, they come up with these ideas without a clue as to what the finish line is, nevermind how they're going to get there.

Yeah, Matt Riddle being the worst-scripted character in all of WWE is pretty hilarious considering what a knobend he is.