vancleef

My brother mentioned an awesome idea about them creating a Bond Universe. That way you could try out stories with other characters, still meet the quotas and not have to touch the James Bond character. I would love to see a movie or sub plot where Q is kidnapped and engineers his escape using only his wits, knowledge and the items on hand. Picture him finding his way into a janitor's closet and creating Tear Gas out of cleaning products! And you want a female agent? Add one. Give her a sub plot or even a whole movie. But don't whine and blame straight males if it tanks. Maybe it's just not meant to be. What makes me think this isn't going to happen, though, is when EON experimented with making a spin-off movie with Jinx, Hallie Berry's character from Die Another Day. Apparently, though, the idea was so unpopular and tested poorly that it didn't even make it into pre-production. So maybe that's telling us something. JB is Guy Stuff. Leave it there.

As usual, my inarticulate ass hovered around but never actually landed on the point. If these DEI companies want to keep their similarly minded allies on their side then they have to double down on their failures. This is what's going to suicide them. They so want to be "on the right side" that they're ignoring good business practices. Look, I'm not naive enough to think that there aren't capable Ethnic, Female and LGB-whatever-letter-is-added-this-week people who can do the job. But lately, they're being promoted or positioned way over their capabilities. If you're passing over a middle-aged White Guy with two decades of experience to look like you're "With It" by hiring some kid fresh out of college to meet a quota instead, your business is fucked. Hire them into entry level positions so they can learn the ropes and work their way up. But the DEI initiatives will call you out if you do this, even though it is a fair way to begin integrating said subjects into the workforce. Instead of being lauded for hiring more DEIs in the first place, you'll be excoriated for not giving them the plum jobs. And this is what's fucking over these companies. I mean, how does Budweiser lose half a billion dollars in one fucking quarter? And Disney? They have Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Disney and what else that should, by all rights, give them a license to print money. Instead, they're hemorrhaging it! All I know is, if Broccoli and Eon are smart, they'll just keep making movies with a White Male James Bond. If they deviate one degree from that we're going to witness the first James Bond movie to lose money. I mean, View to a Kill was a fucking turd and even it made a decent profit!

and this is the problem with the whole DEI initiative: it's going to eat itself. There's no way you can insert this ideology into a successful business. If the concept isn't selling, you can't back out without calling down a whole shitstorm from the rest of the initiative. For example, if Ubisoft backs out and replaces the character with an Asian Samurai (you know, like, the version that would have made the game a hit), they get canceled. Similarly, if they fire the people who tanked their stock price, they look like Racists. It's a never ending circle. This whole DEI thing is a fucking joke and I can only wonder what new industries are going to spring up by taking away market share from the floundering corporations who are shooting themselves in the head over this Utopian Daydream. Christ, I wish I had a few million dollars and a business plan right now!

I laughed way too hard at this. Hezbollah propagandist gets hit with airstrike on live TV!

It's like that line from comedian (comedienne?) Eddie Izzard. "Go ahead, kill each other. We've been trying to kill you for ages!"

The Peace , Love and Understanding party just tried to take another (literal) shot at Trump. This from the same people who were planting IEDs in Portland police stations during the pandemic riots. I'm not going to pretend Jan 6th never happened but c'mon. When is someone going to call these Radicals out?

The Trinity films are fun. Not great, kinda slapstick, but enjoyable. Lee van Cleef as Sabata is fun too. The first Django is kind of stylish. Other than that, yeah. Most of the others are sub-B level, maybe some ever dD and F!

I played the shit out of this game in the 90s, mostly just to listen to the music. It's one of the best Spaghetti western soundtracks I've ever heard.