The Heartland Institute’s Donald Kendal and Jim Lakely talk with conservative movie and culture critic Christian Toto on episode 275 of the In The Tank Podcast.Donald and Jim get your holiday binge streaming off right with a discussion with the publisher and editor of HollywoodInToto.com. Toto and the In The Tank crew talk about Wonder Woman 1984 (and why Toto hates it), how “woke culture” and social justice warriors are ruining the enjoyment of movies and TV shows, and if traditional theaters can survive the COVID era.They also talk about the brilliance of director Jon Favreau, who has not only saved Star Wars as a viable creative property with his Mandalorian series on Disney+, but gave the world “Elf” — the greatest Christmas movie of all time.Enjoy this discussion about pop culture from a non-leftist perspective for a change. And read more at the great HollywoodInToto.com https://www.hollywoodintoto.com/

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  1. Jim Wright Inactive
    Jim Wright
    @JimW

    WW84 was a hot mess – some fun scenes in the first hour, but a train wreck for most of the last 90 minutes. Even for a comic book hero, this was a bad cartoon. The message was ham-fisted.

    Sorry, Pedro – you gave it your best, but this is not the way.

    • #1
  2. Jim Wright Inactive
    Jim Wright
    @JimW

    But given the choice, I’d watch this dumpster fire again before I’d subject myself to another round of ELF. just not into Will Ferrell.

    • #2
  3. OwnedByDogs Lincoln
    OwnedByDogs
    @JuliaBlaschke

    Jim Wright (View Comment):

    WW84 was a hot mess – some fun scenes in the first hour, but a train wreck for most of the last 90 minutes. Even for a comic book hero, this was a bad cartoon. The message was ham-fisted.

    Sorry, Pedro – you gave it your best, but this is not the way.

    I thought it was okay. Hubby certainly enjoyed watching Ms. Gadot ;) I kind of liked the hot, scantily clad Israeli chick rescuing the little arab children. But it seemed to be a film about the 80’s made by people who were either not alive or very young. The 80’s were a great time and Reagan was nothing like the twit playing the President.

    • #3
  4. Taras Coolidge
    Taras
    @Taras

    OwnedByDogs (View Comment):

    Jim Wright (View Comment):

    WW84 was a hot mess – some fun scenes in the first hour, but a train wreck for most of the last 90 minutes. Even for a comic book hero, this was a bad cartoon. The message was ham-fisted.

    Sorry, Pedro – you gave it your best, but this is not the way.

    I thought it was okay. Hubby certainly enjoyed watching Ms. Gadot ;) I kind of liked the hot, scantily clad Israeli chick rescuing the little arab children. But it seemed to be a film about the 80’s made by people who were either not alive or very young. The 80’s were a great time and Reagan was nothing like the twit playing the President.

    The Eighties were a period of failure for liberals, revealing them as completely misunderstanding both Communism and the US economy. So they’ve been trying to rewrite history ever since.

    Where they had once claimed that the Soviet Union was too strong to oppose, now they insist they thought it was so weak it didn’t need to be opposed, dissolving spontaneously.  “Ronald Reagan did everything wrong, and then the Soviet Union mysteriously collapsed.”

    • #4
  5. Lois Lane Coolidge
    Lois Lane
    @LoisLane

    OwnedByDogs (View Comment):

    Jim Wright (View Comment):

    WW84 was a hot mess – some fun scenes in the first hour, but a train wreck for most of the last 90 minutes. Even for a comic book hero, this was a bad cartoon. The message was ham-fisted.

    Sorry, Pedro – you gave it your best, but this is not the way.

    I thought it was okay. Hubby certainly enjoyed watching Ms. Gadot ;) I kind of liked the hot, scantily clad Israeli chick rescuing the little arab children. But it seemed to be a film about the 80’s made by people who were either not alive or very young. The 80’s were a great time and Reagan was nothing like the twit playing the President.

    My husband reminded me that comic book world has no real presidents.  After all, the boyfriend from the 19-teens was astonished by an escalator, though these were used for function in the 1890s… trains certainly existed as well!  Come to think of it, there was a lot of suspending disbelief, but I liked the film, too.  It was popcorn entertainment, and we saw it in an actual cinema while eating popcorn… a Christmas Day tradition for my family.  It felt… normal.

    • #5
  6. SeanDMcG Inactive
    SeanDMcG
    @SeanDMcG

    I have to disagree a bit where Star Wars is concerned. I agree the Favreau and Filoni are good for moving forward with the franchise, Favreau for directorial expertise, and Filoni as the Star Wars historian. However, Season 2 of The Mandalorian , to me, was filled with fan service. Practically every episode reached back to pick up characters (not just races) from either the Star Wars books or the various animated series (Clone Wars  and Rebels), which were also helmed by Filoni. Rumors are that fan pressure even affected a casting decision. In that sense it was disappointing that this universe wasn’t big enough to support more new characters. 

    While it wasn’t as in your face as Avengers:Endgame, there was a definite GRRRRL Power moment in the final episode. They are not unaffected by woke culture.

    Having said that, the fact that you enjoyed the series is an indicator of their skill. I have enjoyed the story arc over the past two seasons. The technological advances in the production are amazing. The reach backs to the other shows do give me something to watch over the next year to get more information on the characters. And they are all also on Disney+. Strange how that worked out, eh? /s

    • #6
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