Rocky IV [1985)

America is in serious trouble.

The USA has no pride.

No cohesion.

The United States of America does not command respect from any nation on earth.

This process began to exponentially accelerate on 9/11/01.

That is when we entered the Age of Perpetual Lies.

Two wars.

Afghanistan.

Loss.

Iraq.

Lost before it even began.

You cannot predicate a “righteous war” upon a lie.

Two wars.

Two towers.

More lies.

Why do I love Russia?

Because they are not weak.

They are not spineless.

They are not a nation of ineffectual do-nothings.

And that is because of one great man.

Vladimir Putin.

There is a vacuum of power in the United States.

An absence of leadership.

We are a country drifting at sea.

A country who does not know who it is.

Or what it stands for.

A country perfectly divided.

Right down the middle.

Where one side cancels out the other.

This is not a check and balance.

It is a negation resulting in complete defeat.

America has no national spirit.

America’s reason for being has disappeared.

Along with the truth.

Who will save America?

You must save America.

It’s ok to love Russia.

It’s ok to love China.

Yes, I love China too.

Why?

Because they are on the righteous side of the war in Ukraine.

America is on the wrong side.

And I also love Palestine.

I’m sick of Donald Trump’s bullshit lies and politicking.

Even though I voted for him twice.

He has lied repeatedly about the COVID vaccines.

But even so, I support Trump in his legal battles.

Why?

Because he is being unfairly persecuted and punished.

But Trump is wrong about Israel.

Lindsey Graham is wrong about Iran.

I love Iran.

Because they stand with Russia.

And I love Syria.

Because they stand with Russia.

America continues to fight a pointless war.

IN SYRIA.

This is madness.

I support Palestine because they are the bastard children of the world.

They have no big press machine behind them.

Unlike the propaganda onslaught in favor of Israel.

Josh Hawley is wrong about Israel.

So wrong that it is embarassing.

Fox News is infinitely embarassing.

They have completely lost the ability to think as logical, rational human beings.

Whose interests are they serving?

And why?

Trump is wrong to politick off the war in Israel.

I don’t hate Israel.

I don’t hate Ukraine.

But I hate propaganda.

And I hate an unfair advantage.

Ukraine has had the advantage of a global propaganda machine behind it.

I detest that.

Israel always has the advantage of a global propaganda machine behind it.

And America fights for everyone but itself.

America is weak.

Porous.

Like Swiss cheese.

What can bring America together?

Not more lies.

No more lies.

No more noble lies.

RFK Jr. is right about the vaccines.

And MSNBC is actually right about Palestine and Israel.

America is on the point of total collapse.

The American military leadership is an embarassment.

Particularly Mark Milley.

His obstreperous James Comey pantomime is finally over.

He no longer has the office of CJCS to lend him any undue legitimacy.

I expect he will become much like John Brennan and Michael Hayden.

A complete detriment to the USA…even in retirement.

Does America have any good military leaders?

At all???

I like Michael Flynn.

That’s about it.

No one else has shown me anything impressive.

RFK Jr. is the best candidate to unite the country.

Trump may be the best candidate to save the country.

The American government is completely dysfunctional.

George W. Bush stole the 2000 election.

And Joe Biden stole the 2020 election.

Will your vote matter in 2024?

Do any votes matter?

Republicans lack a coherent strategy.

As dumb as Trump is (very fucking dumb!), he’s a fucking genius compared to ALL other Republican Presidential candidates.

Biden is as dumb as a potato.

And RFK Jr. will be boxed out everywhere he goes.

This is not a free system.

These are not “free and fair” elections.

This is a travesty.

Who will save America?

You must do it.

In your own way.

Whether big or small.

It’s ok to love and respect Russia.

It’s ok to say nice things about China.

It’s ok to root for Palestine.

It’s ok to sympathize with Iran and Syria.

Where is the American military?

We’ve seen the worst of the U.S. military (Milley).

Where’s the best?

Show yourselves.

-PD

Lost Transmissions [2019)

This is the worst movie I’ve ever seen.

QAnon.

Katharine O’Brien should have failed film school.

Or she should enroll in film school, submit this film for her final project, and then flunk out.

This is the most unartistic hunk of shit I have ever sat through.

For fuck’s sake.

It takes a special lack of talent to make a Simon Pegg movie suck.

But this bitch did it.

And she had some help.

Juno Temple is a horrible, talentless fucking actress.

Jesus God.

So bad.

Especially next to the amazing talents of Simon Pegg.

Pegg is decent here.

Juno Temple is all-world bad.

Born of a communist family.

Makes sense.

Nina Temple.

U.K. commies.

Nina.

Sister of Julien Temple.

Nepotism.

No-talent Juno gets this gig.

Julien Temple has talent.

A lot of it.

Juno Temple has no talent.

At all.

Whatsoever.

But just when you think this film can’t get any worse, Harley fucking Quinn pops up courtesy of vapid null Alexandra Daddario.

Lots of nepotism.

Emilio Q. Daddario.

Connecticut.

Democratic Party.

OSS.

Fort Meade.

You are watching a movie.

One in which Nakasone kisses Michael Hayden’s ass.

And Colin Powell’s ass.

Who else inflicted this film upon the world?

Filip Jan Rymsza.

Shame!!!

The music isn’t horrible.

Hugo Nicolson does alright.

Gravitas Ventures should have chucked this film directly in the nearest trash bin.

Straight-to-video would have been too good a fate for this moronic feature.

Tribeca Film Festival should have categorically denied this film a venue.

Because it is utter shite.

De Niro loves the Chinese commies.

Li Shaohong.

Liu Fendou.

Li Yang.

Keep the money flowing to De Niro and Tribeca.

Then we have to suffer through the maudlin coda with Tao Okamoto.

Nepotism everywhere.

Richard Harris’s son Jamie.

No talent anywhere except for Simon Pegg.

And Hugo Nicolson.

But mainly Pegg.

This is a fucking movie.

Q: What makes for a good movie?

A: The exact opposite of all the rubbish crammed into this godawful flick

Nepotism.

Robert Schwartzman in his cousin Sofia Coppola’s films.

Sofia has talent.

Quite a bit of talent.

Unlike the director of Lost Transmissions.

What ever happened to Q?

Almost one year since the stolen election.

Our military cucked out.

A bunch of fucking pussies.

Commies.

Mark Milley.

Michael Gilday.

Lloyd Austin.

Commies all.

Fuck ’em!

Talia Shire’s son.

Talia had talent.

A lot of it.

Unlike Juno Temple.

Who has none.

Then you get Schwartzman’s nepotism brother Jason.

Jason Schwartzman.

Band Rooney for Robert.

Geffen.

Must be nice.

Phantom Planet for Jason.

Epic MCA Geffen (2) Interscope.

Must be nice.

Polish Jews.

You don’t say…

Italian Catholic.

Ok.

Uncle Francis Ford.

Cousin Nicolas Cage.

Nepotism.

Jewish Catholic.

Uh huh.

Weezer.

Lame.

The Strokes.

Must be nice.

But the main offender is the screenplay.

By director Katharine O’Brien.

For fuck’s sake.

Ten minutes worth of material spun out into a 105-minute wank fest.

Yeah.

O’Brien does not have control of her craft.

No one (not even herself) should have funded this folly.

This film has no plot.

…and not in a cool way!

It is just the Jew bitch with the big nose chasing Simon Pegg around screaming “Theo” for 105 minutes.

Lame, nepotistic tripe.

The Prague International Film Festival should be ashamed for enabling this shit.

Best actor?

Ok.

Best actress?!?

You gotta be fucking kidding me!!!

And the GRAND PRIX???????

God damn.

ANYTHING would be better than this film.

Give me 105 minutes of Czech TV commercials.

It would be better than this.

Trump loves Pfizer, Israel, and America [maybe].

In that order.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/donald-trump-i-got-the-pfizer-125703879.html?guccounter=1

https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/antisemitism/trump-says-israel-literally-owned-congress-in-interview-683759

Trump lost me when he started shilling for Pfizer.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/safety/adverse-events.html

CDC lowballs it.

https://openvaers.com/index.php

For a person who supposedly reads several newspapers a day, Donald Trump sure is one dumb motherfucker.

He owes at least 9,367 apologies to the families of those who perished due to the vaccines he rushed to market through Operation Warp Speed.

But he’s not fighting for you, Mr. and Mrs. America.

As you are losing your jobs because of the Biden vaccine mandate.

Trump wants us to fight the rigged election.

But he is not fighting for us.

He is ENCOURAGING people to get these deadly shots.

How many newspapers does one have to read in order to pretty quickly conclude that the COVID vaccines are neither safe nor effective?

And in case you wanna pretend Pfizer (the most deadly vaccine in America according to VAERS data) didn’t get any OWS funding, you must admit that the MASSIVE U.S. government preorder allowed them to scale up production.

It was an advance.

Hell…Trump even funded the AstraZeneca clot shot.

https://web.archive.org/web/20201219231756/https://www.hhs.gov/coronavirus/explaining-operation-warp-speed/index.html

N.B. Janssen = Johnson & Johnson [vaccines developed in the Netherlands by Belgian JnJ subsidiary Janssen Pharmaceuticals]

Recapping:

Johnson & Johnson [Janssen] $456 mil. + $1 bil. = $1.456 bil.

AstraZeneca at least $1.2 bil.

Pfizer $1.95 bil.

Moderna $4.1 bil.

Again, Trump RUSHED these vaccines to market.

And left us at the mercy of Joe Biden and the globalists who are now killing us with them.

Either we can take the #NeitherSafeNorEffective vaccines, or we can lose our jobs.

We can be refused organ transplant surgery.

We can be kicked out of the U.S. armed forces.

We can be fired from NYPD and FDNY.

Where’s Trump?

Sure would be nice if he called the vaccines bullshit (which they most certainly are).

He is so at ease in calling bullshit on ANYTHING in this world, but not when it comes to these vaccines.

Ask yourself Y.

Let’s go, Brandon!

-PD

Rocky [1976)

Here we have a great film.

From an actor with whom I was so lucky as to work on one occasion.

Sylvester Stallone.

It was an honor.

And yet, I didn’t really get it.

That this movie, Rocky, was so central to the American dream.

But it’s more than that.

It’s the backdrop of Philadelphia.

The streets.

The eggs.

The meat.

The iron gates you gotta kick open.

And the screenless door you gotta reach around.

It’s the machete stuck in the wall.

And the black leather jacket to hang over the handle.

The knife stabbed into the wall.

And the black fedora that hangs on it.

But most of all it is Talia Shire.

To offset the brutality of boxing.

A shy soul.

In kitty cat glasses.

It’s the pet store.

The failed jokes.

The parakeets like flying candy.

And Butkus the dog.

You know, I don’t hear so well…because I got punched too many times…taking my best shot at music.

And so I’m a bum…but I got into the arena for a good 15 years.

And those final four…when I was a contender.

When I met Sylvester Stallone.

I was standing next to greatness.

A great actor. A great figure in film history.

We are taught to denigrate our American movies.

That they could never be as good as the French.

But the American films inspired the French.

It was Truffaut and company took Hitchcock from novelty to pantheon.

But it’s shy Talia.

Telling a story. A real love.

Getting up in years. And maybe she’s retarded.

Maybe he’s dumb.

But to him she’s the prettiest star.

And he perseveres.

However many rounds it takes.

Because fate has called him to one woman.

Why does he fight, she asks.

It’s a big obstacle.

For Rocky and Adrian to overcome the awkwardness of their collective insecurities.

For them to communicate.

But it’s such a beautiful story.

Pithy. Gritty.

When Pauly throws the Thanksgiving turkey out into the alley.

It’s dysfunction. Dysfunction everywhere.

Abusive meat packing desperation.

Always an ass pocket full of whiskey.

And just a favor to the loan shark.

I can break thumbs.

But you don’t wanna do that.

The protector.

In the world of crime, but not of the world of crime.

Poor, simple icebox. Some cupcakes.

Never enough beer. Anywhere.

And the genius of spectacle comes along.

Carl Weathers. Like Clyde Drexler.

Reading The Wall Street Journal.

Like Trump…thinking big…and juxtaposing entities.

To speak to the sentimental. Sentimental.

Because you don’t wanna be known as a whore.

It’s that reputation. A hard lesson.

Big brother to a little sister.

You don’t wanna smoke.

Make yer teeth yellow.

Breath rotten.

But you gotta work.

To stay in this game.

Train. Train. Train.

And maybe you get one shot.

It all comes down to this.

Burgess Meredith like Rod Marinelli.

The wisdom of hard knock cracks.

But we like ice skating.

$10 for ten minutes.

A date.

A tip.

When you give life back to a prisoner of home.

When you give love to a lonely fighter.

Misunderstood.

Rough around the edges.

Desperation of poverty Pauly.

Makes us all a little crazy to be so trapped economically.

But God has called you to greatness.

And will you answer that call?

Can you imagine the career?

Is anything at all clear?

We only know tenacity.

Fighting till the very end.

Hospital and next day Pentagon basement.

Be an expert for your country.

So many skills needed for a nation to flourish.

Trust.

Go the distance is not just Field of Dreams (another great sporting film).

Going the distance. Till the very end. Tour of duty.

God, please get me back home.

We’re so close now.

You’ll have to cut me so I can see.

“When you’re lost in the rain in Juarez” and you only want to hear her say “I love you”.

And she you.

You made it.

You lost by decision. But you proved it to yourself.

That you could go the full fifteen rounds with the best.

The best and brightest.

That you could be the shy, awkward bum to overcome.

Don’t say that.

You’re not a bum.

We want. Need. That positive reinforcement.

When the whole world tells us we’re losers.

You won by keeping going. Every day.

-PD

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paulydeathwish

musician and film critic

Tag Archives: Talia Shire

Rocky IV [1985)

Lost Transmissions [2019)

Rocky [1976)