Michael*

Not that I'm especially big on nostalgia (of any kind, really), but that was the golden age of BZ for me. I missed the boat on that particular conversation though, true to form I didn't end up seeing the film until much, much later.

I've yet to see the film, although I did manage to catch this seven-minute preview video posted recently by HBO Max. For me, there was something curious about the way they introduced a new and fairly bland-looking character, seemingly to be the main protagonist. I haven't played the games for a very long time, but I think I'm right in thinking that Liu Kang was in that role for a good chunk of the franchise.

Not that I myself have ever really watched SNL, I do know that a lot of people consider it to have been on autopilot for some time now. So maybe it's a good fit after all.

Billy Shears. Abbey Road or Penny Lane?

The whole SNL caper sounds tedious, honestly. I dare say even the most ardent fans of Musk and his companies would probably concede that he's far from the most charismatic public speaker, nor is he anywhere close to being a decent actor (see his guest spot on Rick and Morty).

Looks like Max will be the second extra character along with Estel, the special forces officer from the main story. A third, as yet unconfirmed character (almost certainly Shiva) should be arriving soon as well.

It would appear that some new DLC is on the way, with Dotemu promising three new playable characters, a new game mode and customisation options.

Good. La La Land?

Christmas Cash or card?

Oh my no. It's difficult to contemplate what twins must go through on a day to day basis, I find it hard enough just looking at myself in photos. Should I tell my parents that I'm adopted?

Smart Form or function?

Good. Legend (with Tom Hardy and Tom Hardy)?

There's a certain droning quality to it that for me recalls Lloyd Christmas's "most annoying sound in the world" from Dumb and Dumber. Where do lost socks go when they go missing?

A very short teaser for the ninth season just appeared, although perhaps understandably they're not giving much away as yet. The apparent addition of Jamie Chung as a true-crime podcaster could be an interesting wrinkle, though.

I've seen a few clouds that looked a bit like faces with beards, so maybe. What do you think is the most annoying musical instrument?

I enjoyed the first act, thought it went pretty sharply downhill after that. Hot Shots?

Yeah, it would seem that the exit of Spielberg raised a few eyebrows at the time, but he didn't exactly bring the old magic to Crystal Skulls so quite honestly I wasn't too put out by it. Now, as long as Lucas isn't involved in the story or scripting process, I'd say there's a chance it could be decent. Of course, at this point a decent Indy movie would probably also have to deal frankly and directly with Ford's age, but Mangold seems more qualified than most to handle that with care.

Honestly, I thought most of the frontrunners were good choices and well deserving of their expected wins. However with Supporting Actor seemingly up in the air, coupled with the fact that I fondly recall the Alligator Man episode of Atlanta on a virtual daily basis, I will admit to pulling for Lakeith Stanfield.

I should probably have added that I've only seen four out of the eight films nominated so far. Promising Young Woman is an absolute blast, by far the most purely entertaining of the best picture field, but Nomadland is the best thing I've seen in quite some time. Oddly although I was really jacked for Sound of Metal, it struck me as a fairly "by the book" film, albeit with great work by Riz Ahmed as well as brilliant sound design. Were you rooting for anyone in particular?

Sad that Tom Dumoulin won't be at the Tour de France this year, but it'll be interesting to see what Jonas Vingegaard can do. He's been an important rider for Jumbo-Visma so far this season.

It feels like Liege-Bastogne-Liege is going to be great for at least the next few years. The change in the course and the generation of riders we've got at the moment just seems like a perfect storm.

I could see Waller-Bridge perhaps as a new tenure-track professor trying to gain respect, with Indiana as the surly old professor who grudgingly gets talked into mentoring her and has one last adventure. What they'll do with the villians I suppose remains to be seen. In order to keep fighting Nazis, Ford would have to play either 30s-40s Indy which wouldn't be very believable, or a 120-year-old Indy fighting them in the present day. Which might be slightly more believable at this point.

I would say, taking into account the number of sequences that were probably 90% CGI, the visuals in Endgame are of a decent-to-good standard, although there are plenty of noticeably not-very-good effects in some of the other Marvel movies. I don't recall anything in Endgame looking as rough as the final battle from Black Panther though, or Mark Ruffalo's seemingly disembodied head inside the Hulkbuster armour from Infinity War, to name a couple.

Other than unceremoniously shutting down the proposed fan remake, which was probably never likely to amount to much more than a flashy trailer and a new thing to put an anti-Konami hashtag on, I don't recall them showing much inclination to try and move the property forward for some time, so this could be interesting. Naturally I suppose the question for most fans will be whether or not they can get it right without Kojima, since a lot of his stuff in the original was so genuinely surprising and fourth wall breaking. Even taking into account that things have moved on since 1998, it's a truly great game and a legitimate all-time classic.

I guess they'll be using this thing to "pass the torch," which they probably would have been planning on doing with Shia LaBeouf, but, well, you know. Mangold has directed some very good stuff in the past. It'll be interesting to see if he can repeat what he pulled off with Logan, a wonderful send-off for a similarly beloved character.