The Fall Guy is a good movie. That should be the main point here. I want you to go see it because I think that if you are the type of person who reads this newsletter then you are also the type of person who will love it. But, unfortunately, we also have to think about those open-collared executives. We need to throw them a bone sometimes so they at least try to give us more cool stuff to watch. Like Ryan Gosling as a stuntman who uncovers a conspiracy and Emily Blunt singing karaoke and everything else that happened in The Fall Guy. A movie that, again, rules.
Okay, this is the trailer for a new show coming to MGM+ called Hotel Cocaine, which already sounds fake on a number of levels but I swear to god it is real. It stars Danny Pino and Michael Chiklis and has an official description and everything. Here, look.
The Mutiny Hotel becomes the epicenter of the Miami cocaine scene in the late 1970s and early '80s. At the center of it all is general manager Roman Compte, a Cuban exile doing his best to keep it all going and fulfill his own American dream.
Brian there's the part where they're under the staircase and Gosling realizes they're about to get shot and he pushes the other person out of the way but it's in slow motion and you hear 1.5 seconds of the na-na-na-na sound effect from Six Million Dollar Man whenever bionic powers were used. and I ASCENDED TO A HIGHER PLANE OF BEING.
I do not disagree with a single thing said here but...Ryan Gosling's resume is littered with "should have made more money" asterisks. He is an incredibly famous person who is widely regarded as one of the best actors of his generation, everyone SEEMS to like him but...people don't show up for his movies. There's a total disconnect between his fame and his actual, dollar-paying audience. It is FASCINATING.
I\u2019m not mad. I swear I am not mad. I\u2019m just disappointed. That\u2019s all. I\u2019m just very disappointed. And a little mad. Maybe. Probably. I just really do not understand why you haven\u2019t seen The Fall Guy yet.
Maybe you did. I\u2019m not mad at you, personally. But I am pretty bummed that you, in general, came out in such low numbers that big Hollywood trade publications felt obliged to write articles about how it came up a little short of the already low-ish projections it had for its opening weekend. I do not want to see those. For a lot of reasons. It matters about zero percent to me that a movie makes money for billionaires who wear suits with open-collar dress shirts to various functions where they grumble about economic headwinds. I just care that the movie is good and fun and interesting and original and a cool way to spend two hours some afternoon. But it does matter to those open-collared billionaires. And if they see these kinds of fun movies going kerplunk and getting written up in their favorite magazines about it, they\u2019ll be less inclined to make them. And then we\u2019ll be stuck with the same sequels and superheroes business that has been getting exhausting for a few years now. It\u2019s a rough circle.
But it\u2019s not that you need to go see this movie out of like charity or some noble cause. It\u2019s a really good time! Ryan Gosling is charming as hell. Emily Blunt carries both the comedic and dramatic moments in a way that made me a little angry she\u2019s not a bigger star. There are cool twists and big action sequences and the soundtrack is so good that it\u2019s practically part of the plot. (Huge shoutout to Phil Collins here, as always.) I would advise you to go see this movie anyway, for you, for a good time. I went on a Monday afternoon and the theater was mostly empty and all of us in there were hooting and hollering. You should have been there with us. I don\u2019t mean that figuratively. I mean that very literally. I would have given you some of the beef jerky I was snacking on. It was a blast.
So this is already a bummer for two reasons, the stupid risk-averse tan executives and the thing where you missed out on a good time at the movies, but it\u2019s also kind of a bummer for Ryan Gosling. This should have been a huge hit for him, a big fun action-comedy the summer after he stole everyone\u2019s hearts as Ken in Barbie. Which would have been great because he\u2019s legitimately terrific in movies like this and I want him to get more cracks at doing them. This is kind of like The Nice Guys all over again. Now I\u2019m definitely mad.
I don\u2019t know. Maybe I\u2019m overthinking this part of it. Ryan Gosling is a handsome millionaire with a goofy little twinkle in his eye and he\u2019s married to Eva Mendes. He\u2019ll be fine. I\u2019m just all worked up about this and lashing out now.
Matt Singer at ScreenCrush wrote about all of this a few days ago in a piece titled \u201CWhat The Hell Do People Want Out Of Movies?\u201D that touched on a lot of these same points. His main takeaway was that if a movie like this gets released in a primo early May spot without much competition and it can\u2019t get people to a movie theater, then, like, what are we even doing? This was the thing that stuck with me:
But for some reason, The Fall Guy failing to live up to experts\u2019 already low expectations bummed me out a lot. This is not a \u201Cdifficult\u201D movie. This is what people tell me they want in a movie. And they didn\u2019t go see it. If something like The Fall Guy can\u2019t bring people out to the theater, what can?
I am trying to help here. I am trying to help you and society and me and Ryan Gosling a little bit, too. And all we have to do is drag our butts to a movie theater to see a good movie. If not this one, then the next one. Because if we don\u2019t ever get around to doing it, there might not be too many next ones to drag ourselves to.
Which, I don\u2019t know. Cool? Fine? I just can\u2019t get over the thing where the title of this show is Hotel Cocaine. Or at least I couldn\u2019t get over it until I saw these promo pictures of the character Michael Chiklis plays in this show. Look at this guy.
I really hope his character is trying to be an undercover cop here because I have never seen a combination of face and body language that screams \u201CCOP\u201D more than everything going on in this picture
It is all maybe the best use of promotional images for a character on a television show I have seen since Pablo Escobar on Narcos. Yes, I will take this opportunity to post the picture of Pablo grinning like a naughty little boy in front of a mountain of cocaine\u2026
\u2014 watching John Mulaney\u2019s Netflix show this week reminded me how great Richard Kind is and that reminded me to watch his performance from the Co-op episode of Documentary Now three times in a row
During the 1980s, Partnership for a Drug Free America began airingcommercials that seem to either frighten or educate people about theuse of illegal drugs. One of these commercials avowed, "No one eversays, 'I want to be a junkie when I grow up'." The comment is obvious,but very true. Probably very few people aspire to be drug addicts. Butit happens, everyday. Why? What is so good about a drug that canpotentially destroy a person's body? How does it work? What are itseffects on the brain? Why is it so hard to quit?
Cocaine (C17H21NO4) comes from the leaf of an Erythroxylon coca bush.It is a drug that effects the central nervous system. It causesfeelings of euphoria, pleasure, increased energy and alertness. Peopleunder the influence of cocaine often do not feel the need for food orsleep. They also feel energetic and may talk a lot. However, dependingon factors such as environment, dosage, and the manner in which thedrug is taken, cocaine can have adverse effects such as violent,erratic behavior, dizziness, paranoia, insomnia, convulsions, and heartfailure to name a few. Long- term effects of cocaine include, but arenot limited to strokes, heart attacks, seizures, loss of memory, anddecrease in learning capability (1).
People may not always know the exact consequences of the drugthey are taking, however, chances are that they do know that the drugis unhealthy for them. Schools across the country educate about thedangers of drug use and abuse through programs like D.A.R.E.,television stations show anti-drug advertisements as a public service,and even city buses blazon anti-drug propaganda. People are aware thatvery rarely does anything good come from drug use, and still, everydaypeople fall victim to drugs. Why do people succumb to the urge to trydrugs? It feels good...why else?
When a person takes cocaine, it causes a rush. There is between one ortwo minutes of intense pleasure. This is followed by five to 8 minutesof euphoria, then as the high comes down, an overwhelming urge formore, which may last for a day. (3) When a user is between cocainedoses or halts usage, the opposite effects occur. The user is depressedand tired (2).
Cocaine is attractive to users because it triggers dopamine. Dopamineis a neurotransmitter that is present in many regions of the brain. Innormal mice, the introduction of cocaine increases dopamine by 150percent. Dopamine regulates movement, emotion, motivation, and thefeeling of pleasure. In a normal brain, dopamine is released by aneuron into a synapse and then it moves to dopamine receptors on otherneurons. It is then moved back to the neuron that transmitted thedopamine initially.
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