Fortune's Spin Ballet: Dancing through Jackpot Wins

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Slot is a term referring to any narrow opening or groove in hardware, or its equivalent such as television shows. Additionally, slots refer to positions or timeslots within shows on television or radio that could potentially serve as venues for shows that air on them.

The Dragon188 element is part of Web Components and allows you to add slots to an utterance. For instance, an utterance such as "I want to book two executive rooms for three nights starting tomorrow" could be mapped onto a built-in slot type called Room.

Casinos are public gambling venues located near hotels and restaurants that allow visitors to engage in gaming activities. Some casinos feature stage shows and dramatic scenery while others may resemble ancient Greek temples or medieval castles in design, offering table games as well as slot machines for gambling purposes.

Casinos can be dangerous places, and setting a budget before entering one is essential. Gamblers with gambling addiction may quickly get lost in an endless cycle that leads to debt and bankruptcy; however, responsible gambling is possible; only 1 percent of people suffer from serious gambling addiction according to industry estimates. Casinos also tend to have a negative effect on local economies and property values.

As soon as you step foot inside a casino, you enter an environment in which people spend money with the hope of winning big. Casinos make money from taking a percentage of what gamblers wager while providing amenities such as restaurants and entertainment to lure in customers.

Casino managers may spend much of their time looking out for fraud or security issues, but their primary role should be making sure people continue playing and contributing towards billions in profits for them.

They do this by offering "good" players free hotel rooms, food, drinks and limo services as rewards; as well as offering frequent gamblers limousine services and airline tickets. Furthermore, sophisticated surveillance systems monitor every table, window and doorway - these high-tech "eye-in-the-sky" systems are monitored by security workers from rooms full of monitors in which security workers monitor everything; additionally, cameras can be adjusted to focus on suspicious patrons or identify specific gamblers by face recognition software.

Casinos are designed to make money, and they employ all available tricks in order to do so. Their games are programmed to lose money, creating an illusion that keeps customers betting despite all odds. Flashing lights and loud noises signal when someone wins on a slot machine or makes chips at table games; additionally, losers may not be featured publicly by not appearing on television programs or local newspapers.

Casinos can influence player behavior in several ways. One such technique involves altering payouts for specific games, such as blackjack or craps. Casinos do not put clocks up because they want players to lose track of time while gambling; this will lead them to spend more than planned and spend more money than expected. Likewise, they tend not to provide comforting amenities to their patrons.

Slot machines are one of the most beloved casino games, representing a significant chunk of revenue for casinos worldwide. Their simplicity and reliance on chance make them attractive to many people; unlike table games that require skill and strategy to play effectively, slots take in money before displaying bands of colored shapes that roll past on physical reels or video representations - when the right pattern emerges the player wins an predetermined sum.

Casinos often give their most loyal players complimentary goods and services known as comps, such as free meals, hotel stays and tickets to shows. Some even provide limousine service or airline tickets as rewards!

Even with all of the hype associated with casino gambling, winning big money is no simple task. Most casino games feature house advantages that most players are adept at recognizing; therefore some casino managers avoid raising house advantages too high out of fear that their customers may flee for competing casinos.

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20 YEAR RETROSPECTIVE: The Best of the Rest of 2003

In an annual series, Every Movie Has a Lesson is going to look back twenty years to revisit, relearn, and reexamine a year of cinema history to share favorites, lists, and experiences from the films of that year.

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Favorites

Image: IMDb

Once Upon a Time in Mexico, The Italian Job, Phone Booth, Tears of the Sun, Under the Tuscan Sun, The Rundown, Gods and Generals, Holes, Bruce Almighty, Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, American Wedding, Freaky Friday, S.W.A.T., Out of Time, Runaway Jury, Shattered Glass, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions

If I was making a “10 Best” of pure favorites from 2003, Once Upon a Time in Mexico would be near the top. I love Desperado, and I recognize the sequel is a big step down, but, hot damn, I still love it. I’d rather watch this edgy-and-still-hammy Johnny Depp in Robert Rodriguez’s movie than as Captain Jack Sparrow in the Pirates of the Caribbean series which started this year. While I push away the Pirates franchise, I gladly hug and inject the lesser Matrix sequels which took the world by storm in 2003 to varying levels of appreciation and disappointment. Put me in the group of the former.

The rest of this “favorites” list shows my centrist taste in 2003. Hollywood still knew how to make good action movies, courtroom thrillers, and mainstream comedies. They would be tailing off soon after 2003, but there are some solid winners from the year that birthed new stars like Dwayne Johnson, Colin Farrell, and Jason Statham.

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Guilty Pleasures

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Daredevil, The Core, Cradle 2 the Grave, Confidence, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Hollywood Homicide, Terminator 3: The Rise of the Machines, Spy Kids 3-D: Game Over, In the Cut, Bad Santa, Timeline, Cheaper By the Dozen, Paycheck

Here’s likely where my centrist tastes of my twenties still get the best of me. Much like Hulk which made my Top 20 in the previous retrospective post, I’ll take Daredevil (especially the darker Directors Cut on disc) over plenty of today’s comic book movie entries. I’m also a sucker then and now for slick science fiction, even if it’s lesser quality. That explains my levels of appreciation higher than the rotten scores for movies like The Core, Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines, Timeline, and Paycheck.

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Rewatches Needed

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Lost in Translation, Matchstick Men, The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen, Lara Croft Tomb Raider: The Cradle of Life, Down With Love, Intolerable Cruelty, Pieces of April, Beyond Borders, The Singing Detective, House of Sand and Fog, Peter Pan

This is the first spot of two where my higher-brow cinephile followers and peers can finally chase me down. Like I said in the last blog post, Lost in Translation missed my mind and heart. It definitely deserves another chance where I realize with my age now that I’m probably closer to identifying with Murray’s lead than I did twenty years ago. I also need to give Ridley Scott’s underrated Matchstick Men another chance. I bet I was still riding the action high of Black Hawk Down two years earlier to accept that caper flick. The Coens and I don’t typically get along, but I should rewatch Intolerable Cruelty and see I can appreciate it more.

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Blind Spots

Image: IMDb

Oldboy, Memories of Murder, American Splendor, City of God, Bend it Like Beckham, Assassination Tango, A Mighty Wind, The Good Thief, Whale Rider, Sinbad: Legend of the Seven Seas, Bad Boys II, Dirty Pretty Things, Wonderland, The Station Agent, Girl With the Pearl Earring, Underworld, The Fog of War, The Shape of Things, All the Real Girls, The Triplets of Belleville, The Magdalene Sisters, Demonlover, Good Bye Lenin!, Intermission, Dogville, Veronica Guerin

This is the second place my high-falutin’ critic friends will crucify me. The films on this list that I haven’t seen, even after a two-decade head start and accumulated buzz, are embarrassing, especially things like Oldboy and City of God. Knowing the younger and dumber guy I was in 2003, I’m not surprised several of these were missed. I had not tapped into the power of foreign film. Being a fortysomething now, I have a good feeling I would really enjoy A Mighty Wind, American Splendor, and Bend It Like Beckham, even if I’m still not a soccer or dog person. Before Val Kilmer departs this mortal coil, I owe him Wonderland. Some of these I’m not exactly rushing to see still. I’m not interested in the good old days of Michael Bay for Bad Boys II and what would likely require a franchise dive into crappy sequels to take in Underworld. 

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Still Bad

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The Room, Gigli, Identity, Just Married, A Guy Thing, Kangaroo Jack, National Security, The Guru, Bringing Down the House, Agent Cody Banks, Dreamcatcher, Head of State, Anger Management, Bulletproof Monk, Malibu’s Most Wanted, It Runs in the Family, Daddy Day Care, Duplex, Dumb and Dumberer: When Harold Met Lloyd, Charlie’s Angels: Full Throttle, From Justin to Kelly, Legally Blonde 2: Red, White and Blonde, My Boss’s Daughter, Dickie Roberts: Former Child Star, Anything Else, Radio, Scary Movie 3, The Cat in the Hat, Gothika, Love Don’t Cost a Thing, Stuck on You

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RETROSPECTIVE: The 10 Best Films of 2003

In an annual series, Every Movie Has a Lesson is going to look back twenty years to revisit, relearn, and reexamine a year of cinema history to share favorites, lists, and experiences from the films of that year. When measuring back as far as twenty years or more, I feel like “favorites” that have stood the test of time have aged to become some level of “best.” I feel like a bunch of those populate my reflective look back at the best of 2003.

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As with every year, I need to offer a personal level of clarification when I build and justify lists like the one you’re going to read below for 2003. That challenge is that there can often be a distinct difference between a movie that is considered one of the “best,” respected and revered on technical and artistic levels, and something held dear as a personal and subjective “favorite.” I find myself torn between “bests” and “favorites” all the time, every year present or past, when creating any “10 Best” list as a credentialed film critic. Call it an occupational hazard.

NOTE: Poster images from IMP Awards

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MY TOP 10 FILMS OF 2003

1. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King

2. Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World

3. Secondhand Lions

4. X2: X-Men United

5. Elf

6. The Last Samurai

7. School of Rock

8. Mystic River

9. The Cooler

10. Old School

THE NEXT TEN BEST

11. Finding Nemo 

12. 28 Days Later

13. Something’s Gotta Give

14. Hulk

15. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days 

16. Big Fish

17. Kill Bill: Volume 1

18. Cold Mountain

19. The Hunted

20. SEABISCUIT

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A year ago when I was chronicling my place in the world in 2002, I called myself a mess. By 2003, I found myself in a better place and secure in a teaching job in the south suburbs of Chicago I would have for six more years. I found a great group of teacher friends and movies were a spot to gather from time to time. Overall, though, I can’t say the year was all that great.

For me, it’s the big finale of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King and a massive valley before anything and everything else. As many will tell you, it was the perfect capper to one of the greatest film trilogies of all-time. It deserved every Oscar it won and, quite frankly, every Oscar it didn’t the two years prior. I felt bad then and now that Peter Weir’s Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World had to share the year with Jackson’s opus. That film deserved better (and a sequel). 

After those two Oscar bait films aside, 2003 had a few excellent exemplars of old Hollywood formula done in a new century that populate my Top 20. You won’t find many superhero sequels better than X2, blueprint rom-coms better than Something’s Gotta Give and How to Love a Guy in 10 Days, college movies better than Old School, white savior historical epic glamor projects better than The Last Samurai, and straight westerns better than Open Range. They may be “typical” movies, but they are typical movies done extraordinarily well within their trappings. Add the wonderful, brawny whimsy of Secondhand Lions to that list of classical-feeling movies done in a new era.

The other big keepers of this year for me are the family films that become instant cornerstones. In a rapid amount of time Elf became a modern Christmas classic that will have more legs than any movie from this year. Right behind it is the Jack Black all-timer School of Rock, a movie eternally dear to my teacher’s heart. It took time, but I came to get over the nails-on-the-chalkboard “whale talk” of Finding Nemo and recognize its brilliance. While it’s not completely a family film, I’m a long-time defender of Ang Lee’s Hulk. I wish more modern superhero films had its challenging intelligence and stylish transitional editing.

It’s probably more telling about me what is NOT in this Top 20. What can I say? I was still years away from being the pedigree-sniffing film critic I have to pretend to be today. Then and still now, I was never a Pirates of the Caribbean guy. I think Love Actually is incredibly overrated and have died many deaths on that hill. Everyone else’s seminal #1 of 2003, Lost in Translation, was exactly that for me. The cult classic The Room is the dogshit that it really is and belongs nowhere on any list. The rest is the rest.

NEXT: Best of the rest of 2003!

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Interconnecting Blockchains - The Critical Role of Crypto Bridges

Image: As innovation on blockchain technology accelerates, an increasingly urgent challenge emerges - public chains have limited ability to communicate with each other. This severely restricts composability, exchange of value and functionality across isolated crypto networks built on fully decentralized infrastructure. Cryptographic bridges provide the missing link enabling frictionless interoperability. DefiWay builds highly advanced solutions to connect the fragmented world of blockchains.

As innovation on blockchain technology accelerates, an increasingly urgent challenge emerges - public chains have limited ability to communicate with each other. This severely restricts composability, exchange of value and functionality across isolated crypto networks built on fully decentralized infrastructure. Cryptographic bridges provide the missing link enabling frictionless interoperability. DefiWay builds highly advanced solutions to connect the fragmented world of blockchains.

Assets and Apps Confined to One Chain 

Without blockchain bridges, digital assets like tokens or NFTs and blockchain-based applications are restricted to the single chain they are issued on. For example, DeFi apps developed on Ethereum’s network will only work with other Ethereum products and services. This prevents assets on one chain interacting with another ecosystem even if it could bring mutual value.  

These barriers undermine what made the internet such a success - open communication protocols allowed information to flow freely for permissionless innovation. For blockchains to achieve mainstream adoption, they require similar interoperability foundations.

Building Trust Between Divergent Architectures

Establishing secure connectivity between isolated blockchains is extremely complex compared to traditional web protocols because of their decentralized nature. Public chains use diverse encryption, hashing algorithms, data structures and consensus rules invented independently. 

Creating bridges between these blockchain networks means crafting sophisticated mechanisms for verification, value transfer, governance and coordinating logic across completely different cryptography and game theory incentive designs.

DefiWay builds specialized technology stacks to overcome these challenges at both the cryptography and economic layers. Our bridges facilitate trust by verification on both sides of a multi-chain architecture using staking structures. We also leverage hardware security for resilient key management introducing monitoring against threats. The result is robust interconnectivity between blockchain networks securely unlocking new economic possibilities.

Unlocking Cross-Chain Applications   

Decentralized applications that can harness the capabilities and liquidity of multiple chains open up exponentially more use cases. Assets like NFTs and metaverse items can bring utility across different blockchains in a decentralized manner, applications can leverage the strengths of each network. Opening up borders between ecosystems unlocks cross-collaboration opportunities.

At DefiWay, our bridging protocols already power interoperable token swaps, AMM liquidity pooling, lending/borrowing across blockchains and more. But we believe more mainstream dApp innovations will emerge as developers embrace multi-chain architectures supported by our bridges. Soon, building for a multi-chain world will become standard.

Weaving an Interconnected Fabric  

There is no limit to the number of sovereign blockchains that will emerge, each with their own capabilities, token economies and community subcultures. But the real magic happens when connective infrastructure enables frictionless access between these networks. DefiWay is positioned to provide the internet of blockchains - an interconnected fabric where bridges serve as the threads weaving it all together.

Whether discussing consumer apps, enterprise systems or even smart city frameworks, DefiWay delivers essential interoperability machinery for the multi-chain future. Our advanced core technology means developers worldwide can build borderless applications without reinventing complex cryptography and security mechanisms.

As blockchain permeates industries, DefiWay will provide the interoperability protocols enabling it to scale. The open, connected ecosystem of tomorrow will run on bridges built today!

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MOVIE REVIEW: Society of the Snow

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SOCIETY OF THE SNOW– 4 STARS

There are certain subject matters that have become known deal breakers for audiences. Across the spectrum of moralities, each individual has a list of avoidances of varying lengths and specifications. For some, it’s the brutal violence or triggered phobias found in the horror genre. For others, it’s the gamut of possible human atrocities inflicted on characters. Almost always, it’s when the movies on those touchy topics are depicted in ways that feel too real, despite what should be a clear use of dramatic license. Society of the Snow, playing in limited theatrical release before arriving on Netflix in January and representing Spain for the Best International Feature category at the Academy Awards, is going to be one of those movies. 

LESSON #1: THE EFFECTS AND APPRAISALS ARE INTENTIONAL– As difficult as those movie experiences are, audiences need to know provoking those feelings is wholly intentional. The fact they can achieve those overflows of discomfort, sympathy, or other emotions in between counts as successful exercises of those intentions. If anything, movies like Society of the Snow stand as specific tests. They are important personal explorations that gauge or remind each viewer the stamina levels of their emotions and constitution.   

Society of the Snow is what this writer calls a “thank your lucky stars” movie. It depicts the kind of true story experience that is frighteningly unfathomable to comprehend. You watch it constantly trying to determine what you would do in the characters’ places and reach an overwrought point where all you can do is, hence the nickname, “thank your lucky stars” you didn’t have to go through what you saw on-screen echoing history. The survival you watch fuels and trumps your own. Nevertheless, like 1993’s Alive illustrating the same event, Society of the Snow is the kind of film you watch once with great respect but cannot muster the emotional courage or moral constitution to watch again. However, that one viewing changes you because the film hits chords of fortitude so strongly that it is, from then on, unforgettable.

Directed by J. A. Bayona and based on the La sociedad de la nieve by Pablo Vierci, Society of the Snow chronicles the infamous 1972 crash of Uruguayan Air Force Flight 571 in the Andes Mountains of Argentina that departed Montevideo, Uruguay en route to Santiago, Chile. The  twin-engined Fairchild FH-227D was carrying 45 total passengers and crew, most of which members of the Old Christians Club rugby union team and their families. Over the course of 72 harrowing days, only 16 of those 45 people survived after two of them, Nando Parrado and Roberto Canessa, ventured 38 miles in ten days without gear to Chile to find help and secure a rescue.

There are those uninformed of this disaster reading this review who are already doing the math as to how anyone, let alone 16 people, could survive that long after a plane crash in high altitude conditions and extremely limited resources. They are right to open enormous curiosity. Alas, those who have seen Alive or know the event’s infamous notoriety were already braced for what is coming. The ghastly answer in Society of the Snow is cannibalism. Yes, I felt your shiver too from here.

LESSON #2: WHAT COULD OR WOULD YOU DO?-- As abrupt as the terrible and spectacularly recreated plane crash itself, introducing the very notion of cannibalism becomes precisely Society of the Snow’s trait of challenging, deal-breaking subject matter. A viewer cannot help but ask themselves could they or would they be able to approach that controversial decision if they were in that given situation. The ease or difficulty of your response becomes quite telling, and (hopefully) leans right into the aforementioned “thank your lucky stars” realm of gratefulness.

LESSON #3: THE GAP BETWEEN A MIRACLE AND A TRAGEDY– Society of the Snow knowingly speaks to and swings a pendulum between “miracle” and “tragedy” matching the scope of the incredible actual story. For better or worse, both of those phenomena involve humanity in their rawest form, meaning the observed reactions to miracles and tragedies garners the same stoked sincerity. J. A. Bayona eases viewers into this arduous ordeal as best he can with the necessary mortal fragility in mind and at heart to avoid any derision. 

The warmth of Society of the Snow is guided by a central, thoughtful narration from team member Numa Turcatti, played by Enzo Vogrincic Roldán, and features a wide-eyed cast of predominantly new actors from Uruguay and Argentina speaking their native Spanish. Roldán leads a few selected standouts in the ensemble that include Matías Recalt and Agustín Pardella as Canessa and Parrado– the two who embarked on the climactic hike out of the Andes– and Diego Vegezzi as Marcelo Pérez del Castillo, the rugby team captain who played an early leadership role. 

Much like Paul Greengrass’s United 93, the use of unknown performers creates a focused effect on character purity devoid of distracting star power. Unskilled survival amateurs endured these 72 days, meaning its fitting that each cast member put through this wringer shares the gravity. Screen presence is earned as these actors become the faces that emboss your reactions and memories, especially when the overwhelming uncertainty and death toll rise. To hear them extol the mantra of “There is no greater love than to give one’s life for their friends” is truly moving. Guided by an impactful musical score by Academy Award winner Michael Giacchino, the solemnity of it all is enormous.

Backing that humble, intimate passion in Society of the Snow is an equally tremendous level of technical prowess from Bayona and his production teams. The time-marked dates and on-screen notes of casualties as they are discovered present a borderline forensic accuracy. That attention to honorable detail spread to all prongs of the breathtaking location shoot (filmed in Spain’s Sierra Nevada and near the actual Andean crash site), from the costume and production design creations to the astonishing prosthetic makeup effects blurring movie-making illusions. Still, lifting above possible thrills, Bayona’s keen grasp of emotional foundation seen in The Impossible and A Monster Calls before the franchise bug bit him with Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom returns in force to make this film as uplifting as it is sorrowful.

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"Bender in Las Vegas" Has Been Given the Green Light

A movie about Dennis Rodman, "Bender in Las Vegas," has been given the green light

The movie "Bender in Las Vegas" is based on the true story of Dennis Rodman and his then-girlfriend Carmen Electra's grand vacation to Las Vegas in January 1998. The trip became one of the most scandalous and talked about events in the sports world, causing a lot of speculation and talk about the player's breach of professional responsibility.

The movie will appeal not only to fans of the famous basketball player. It will overflow with the atmosphere of Vegas and gambling. Of course, to touch the world of casinos, you can simply go to this link, www.topcadcasinos.net, and get a no-deposit bonus. But an even safer option is to watch the movie and save money and not register at the casino.

What the movie will tell you about

In the movie "48 Hours in Vegas," Hollywood producers decided to retell this story, but with some changes. Instead of going to Las Vegas in the middle of the NBA season, as it actually happened, Dennis Rodman will visit the casino city during the middle of the NBA Finals. Such a plot allows for a dramatic situation and emphasizes the extravagance and unpredictability of the main character.

The movie will feature the incredible adventures and events that accompany Rodman and Electra during their two days spent in Las Vegas. The audience will be immersed in the world of gambling, show business, and entertainment that this city offers. The movie promises to be a real journey behind the legendary athlete and will reveal new facets of his personality. 

Dennis Rodman was always known for his extravagant lifestyle and attracted attention both on and off the field. He was known for his brightly colored hair, tattoos, and unpredictable personality. On a trip to Las Vegas, he demonstrated his ability to not be afraid to be bold and eccentric. The movie "Bender in Las Vegas" will allow Rodman's fans to better understand his inner world and why he became such an enigmatic and impressive character.

The team behind the movie aims to show viewers not only the magic and entertainment of Las Vegas but also the depth of Dennis Rodman's personality. They want to reveal his inner struggle and the hardships he faced while playing the game. The movie "Bender in Las Vegas" will not just be an entertaining blockbuster but also a narrative about a man whose life is full of complexities and challenges.

What was the basis of the plot

The episode "The Last Dance" of the famous documentary series about the Chicago Bulls and their last season together in 1997-1998 featured Dennis Rodman's famous trip to Las Vegas. During the season, team coach Phil Jackson approached Michael Jordan and informed him that Rodman needed some time away from the team. Although Jordan and Jackson initially resisted the idea, they eventually relented and gave Rodman 48 hours for his rest.

Dennis Rodman and his then-girlfriend Carmen Electra chose Las Vegas as their vacation destination. They decided to spend two days in this famous casino city, leaving the team and all of their teammates completely bewildered. None of them received any reports from Rodman either during his absence or after he was supposed to return to the team.

It's interesting to note that Rodman himself is serving as executive producer of a feature film, "Bender in Las Vegas," based on this very trip. This could mean that viewers will see plenty of details of their antics in casinos and elsewhere in Las Vegas. Whether it's gambling, attending swanky parties, or other exciting adventures, viewers will get to learn more about what went on during the two days Rodman was away from the team.

However, the story doesn't end there. After Rodman failed to return to the team in the expected time frame, Jackson and Jordan decided to head to Las Vegas and try to find their teammate. According to some reports, they actually retrieved Rodman from his hotel room to bring him back to Chicago to continue preparing for the playoffs.

The movie "Bender in Las Vegas" promises to be an exciting and original journey into the life of Dennis Rodman and an immersion into his eccentric personality. Viewers will be able to see what really happened during his vacation in Las Vegas and how it affected the team and the season as a whole.

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Unlocking Entertainment: Exploring the Excitement of £4 Minimum Deposit Casinos

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At online casinos, gaming experiences now reach even wider audiences with the advent of PS4 minimum deposit casinos. These platforms have quickly gained in popularity due to their accessibility and low-risk entry; making them ideal for both seasoned as well as casual players alike.

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Exploring all available PS4 Minimum Deposit casinos requires strategic searching. Use search engines, read reviews, and utilize comparison websites to locate reliable options.

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MEDIA APPEARANCE: Interview in Bored Panda for Unrealistic Movie Moments

I was recently approached by Bored Panda for an interview opportunity to offer some expertise as a film critic for a piece they were doing on unrealistic movie moments. For the piece written by Adelaide Ross and Vikrorija Ošikaitė, the crux was identifying common movie moments and specific scenes that did not happen realistically and whether or not they took me out of the movie or if I had a hard time taking their seriously. Playing the school teacher card, my answers ended up being about the depiction of teachers and schools in movies. Check it out.

FULL BORED PANDA ARTICLE

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PODCAST: Episode 137 of "The Cinephile Hissy Fit" Podcast

For their 137th episode, two Smith-loving film critics, two calculated dads, and two methodical teachers, Will Johnson and Don Shanahan, have long circled the next David Fincher movie on the calendar, and it's finally here. The Killer starring Michael Fassbender is circulating on Netflix and making the rounds with awards season. We talk about the rock-solid film and the razor sharp people who made it. Come for the shared challenge and stay for the mutual love and respect for the fun movies encapsulate. Enjoy our podcast!

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Cinephile Hissy Fits is a Film Obsessive Radio, brought to you by RuminationsRadioNetwork.com. Please visit, rate, review and subscribe. If you enjoyed this show, we have more where that came from, with interesting hosts, and wonderful guests. All available on iTunes, Spotify, and anywhere you find your favorite shows. Follow the show on Twitter at @CinephileFit and on Facebook. Also, find both Will Johnson and Don Shanahan on Letterboxd as the accumulate their viewings and build their ranks and lists.

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Don Shanahan on Letterboxd Will Johnson on Letterboxd Don Shanahan on 25YL Will Johnson on 25YL

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MOVIE REVIEW: Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom

Images courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures

AQUAMAN AND THE LOST KINGDOM– 2 STARS

LESSON #1: WE’VE COME TO THE END OF THE ROAD– As the timeline and statistics will tell you, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is the 15th and final film of the DC Extended Universe which began 10 years ago with Zack Snyder’s Man of Steel. It finishes over a year’s worth of “play out the string” death march energy since the appointments of Peter Safran and James Gunn to lead the rebranded DC Studios on a reboot beginning in 2025. Since James Wan’s incredibly successful billion-dollar global earner Aquaman from 2018 was never really part of the so-called problem, this new sequel and conclusion can feel bittersweet.

If there are folks experiencing those feelings, might I suggest putting on Boyz II Men’s classic #1 chart-topper “End of the Road” to match Lesson #1. If we do, the question becomes matching the appropriate level of sadness coming out of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom with the Boyz II Men lyrics.

Genuine DC and Aquaman loyalty matches the song’s main refrain:

Although we've come

To the end of the road

Still I can't let go

It's unnatural

You belong to me

I belong to you

Those fans carry the understanding that, no matter where the future DCU goes under new stewardship, you’ll always have Jason Momoa. You’ll match us old Superman fans who still hold Christopher Reeve in the highest regard. They’re the sweet people who will stay that way and be ready for Superman: Legacy in July 2025 with open arms.

Maybe, despite all the rants of “comic book movie fatigue,” some fans saw a hot guy named “Marvel” and broke up with DC for a spell while trying to wish for the best of DC, like the first Aquaman, to come back to you. This verse would be for those wayward rubberneckers:

Girl, I'm here for you

All those times at night when you just hurt me

And just ran out with that other fella

Baby, I knew about it, I just didn't care

You just don't understand how much I love you, do you?

I'm here for you

However, that kind of verse is tip-toeing to the clingy side of obsession, which brings out the “Snyder Bros.” They are the butthurt militants with their hashtags of false internet courage and internet spamming who will not accept new film attempts going forward and cannot admit that the DCEU is dead and gone. They’re trying to play uneducated movie moguls nonsensically selling the Snyderverse to Netflix. Those toxic people seem to hang on this kind of “End of the Road” verse:

Said we'd be forever

Said it'd never die

How could you love me and leave me

And never say goodbye?

You needed a minute to say goodbye and Warner Bros. gave you a year and four movies to “play out the string.” If that segment of fandom was really present or as well-populated as they claimed to be then Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, The Blue Beetle, and now Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom (and yes, even the new one that’s not out yet is heading that financial direction) would not all be box office failures of disinterest and indifference to the masses. If they cared, an impending reboot rendering their future meaningless wouldn’t stop them. If anything, they would have come out to support them even more urgently to save the greater movement.

Well, they didn’t and here we are with Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom at the end of the road. When stock is taken for the final movie and the zero ceremony it’s being given, it’s as messy as the breakup from the song. That sweet harmonizing refrain of belonging no longer applies. This clunker of a sequel gets this lyric instead:

When I can't sleep at night

Without holding you tight

Girl, each time I try

I just break down and cry

Pain in my head

Oh, I'd rather be dead

Spinning around and around

Yup! That’s the winner. Go ahead and read each line of those richly-sung actions into Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. Between the spinning, the lost grip, and the headaches, it’s all unfortunately and loudly there.

In the years since the first film, Arthur Curry (Jason Momoa) has assumed the dual responsibility of becoming the King of Atlantis ruling many competitive undersea kingdoms and the father of a new baby with his main squeeze Mera (Amber Heard). At one moment of an “aw shucks”-level introductory voiceover, he’s in his Aquaman costume sleeping through international decisions of governance at the Council of Atlantis and, in the next, his son is peeing directly into his mouth on a diaper change (not once, but twice in fact) while the monarch is bumming about his father’s (Temuera Morrison) lighthouse residence in rustic loungewear. Tonally, what was majestic in the first movie now looks like something that could be cut to the Family Matters theme for cheesy effect. That’s not the best way to reestablish the hype of who became arguably this cinematic universe’s best lead hero.

Luckily, the main villainous presence of Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom comes out as serious as a heart attack. Yayha Abdul-Mateen returns as David Kane, better known as Black Manta. The thirst of his vendetta to blame Aquaman for his father’s death (seen in the first film) remains unquenched. His quest to increase his suit’s offensive power brings Kane to the possessed black trident of Kordax (Pilou Asbæk of Samaritan), an exiled and evil ancient ruler of a frozen and entombed Atlantean kingdom that’s been wiped from the history books. With no other leads to find Black Manta, Arthur needs his condemned brother Orm’s (Patrick Wilson) assistance and breaks him out of his desert prison in an overbooked action sequence.

LESSON #2: BRING BACK YOUR BEST VILLAINS– One legitimate kudo of credit that Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom deserves to be celebrated for is bringing its villains back to extend their story as much as the hero’s. Too often, comic book movie villains are as one-and-done as stud high school basketball players wallowing through a year of college basketball before turning pro. Collecting a story treatment conceived by director James Wan, Momoa himself, Thomas Pa'a Sibbett, and the final credited screenwriter David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick, the scaffolded returns of Black Manta and Orm/Ocean Master carry more weight than the thin and underdeveloped baddies trotted out by the Mouse House’s Marvel brand. On that point alone, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom won at least something.

However, even with the reinstated aggression, the scheme of Black Manta is extremely imbecilic and does Abdul-Mateen no favors. Armed with a new sonic weapon that can subdue the nervous systems of his targets, Kane has been traipsing all over the ocean pilfering the kingdom’s potent glowing green orichalcrum (MacGuffin alert!). Aided by the reluctant tag-along Dr. Stephen Shin (Randall Park, a purely doltish distraction despite his usual charm), Manta’s crew have created massive hidden furnaces topside that burn the orichalcrum to increase the greenhouse games at a rapid rate and planetary scale. The resulting global warming helps Kane create human upheaval and thaw Kordax’s waiting undead army in Antarctica.

This nefariously silly plot and globe-trotting pursuit plays out at a clumsy pace. Like the third act of a Pixar movie that’s in gotta-get-back mode, everything about Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom is in a massive hurry. Battles and transitions bleed together with little time for thickening explanation, pauses for emotional effect, or the application of pressure stemming from the ramifications of what is really at risk. This movie would have been better served stopping once in a while to soak in a little wonder or terror manufactured by the visual effects from supervisor Nick Davis and producer Alex Bicknell.

LESSON #3: BROTHERS, BROTHERS, BROTHERS– Naturally, Arthur and Orm are forced to team up, mend their issues, and save the day together as former worst enemies turned reunited brothers. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom goes out of its way, both with its dramatic notes and injections of levity, to play up the sibling strife and offer Patrick Wilson a gradual (and convenient) face turn of restored familial honor. Their hijinks rarely lift above buddy comedy level where Wilson’s playing the straight man paired with Momoa’s the loose cannon clown. 

Taking stock over the entire kitchen sink that is this sequel and franchise finale, Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom feels like a movie that gave up itself or had puppeteers do it for them in post-production– as rumored with extensive rewrites and reshoots– once a new regime arrived. For example, the notion to weave in classic rock soundtrack inclusions feel very James Gunn-inspired, only to result in the extremely simplistic Steppenwolf’s “Born to Be Wild” (which will always belong to Easy Rider and no one else) and cinema’s most overused pop song “Spirit in the Sky” by Norman Greenbaum. 

Somewhere, originality died. Somewhere, someone in charge (disappointing if it’s James Wan with his perceived taste and clout) said “to hell with it” and “what do we have to lose.” By the time this movie ends with a global press conference of Jason Momoa aping Tony Stark with an “I am Aquaman” mic drop, the answer of what is lost is dignity. Go ahead and put a pile of “Road Closed” barricades all over the end of this road. 

LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#1164)

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