The Skolney Blog

In theaters: CREED 3 Am I nuts or are the 1st 3 Creed movies better than the 1st 3 Rockys? I loved Creed 1 and 2, and 3 is possibly the best of the bunch. Michael B. Jordan directed this, which could have gone poorly, but MBJ proves to be a natural. These films would seem to be running out of hooks, but Creed 3 finds a really gripping one with Creed's adversary this time, a childhood friend played by the magnetic Jonathan Majors. We know the two will end up fighting, but the journey to get there is really absorbing, and Majors's unusual energy makes his character really interesting. And when they do fight it is just awesome. Loved the part where the crowd disappears. And the way it is resolved is really satisfying. Yes this is a Stallone-free film, but this story honestly didn't need a handful of shoehorned-in Rocky scenes. That's the best news yet for this franchise, that it can keep going and thrive even without its original star.  OPERATION FORTUNE This Guy Ritchie m...

2003: The Core was a pretty big box office flop. I don't think it has had much of a second life over the years either. But I really like it. It's a big budget throwback to the kind of high concept sci-fi adventures that were made a lot in the 50s and 60s.  The premise is crazy in a fun way. The earth's core has stopped spinning, causing all sorts of disasters and eventually meaning all life on the planet is doomed. Unless, of course, America can come up with a plan. And hey they do! The plan is to travel down to the core, aboard a special ship, and set off a bunch of nukes to restart the core. Cause it's gotta be nukes.  There is of course a team rassled up to undertake the mission, a collection of scientists and a couple astronauts. The Core was wise to be cast extremely well. Aaron Eckardt never really took off as a leading man, but he's really engaging here. Hilary Swank, sporting a brutal hairdo, is also really good. Delroy Lindo, Stanley Tucci, Bruce Greenwood ...

 I am REALLY excited for the 2023 MLB season. Not for a team or a player, but because of a rule change.  Among several other rule changes, MLB has finally made a pitch clock official. No more of this preposterous garbage of watching pitchers take 45 seconds between pitches for no reason other than that they like the attention.  I didn't get a chance to watch too many spring training games, but I can read a box score, and seeing games routinely ending in 2 1/2 hours even if it isn't a pitcher's duel was thrilling. Some people are really cranky about this, but this shortening of games is not taking away anything good.  Will it help baseball from a ratings standpoint? Can't hurt. I love baseball, but I couldn't stand watching a 9 inning game go for 3 1/2 hours for no reason.  So, on to the Twins. Their September collapse last year was so complete that it is easy to forget that they spent more days in 1st last year than not.  The big news of the offseason was t...

The Scream franchise was brought back to life in a big way with last year's terrific 5th installment, a great legacy sequel that did just about everything right, and set the franchise up for a kind of second renaissance. And just a little over a year later, we have Scream VI, which moves the setting to New York City. And for the first time, Neve Campbell is not involved. The "core four" survivors from the last movie (Melissa Barrera's Sam, Jenna Ortega's Tara, Jasmin Savoy Brown's Mindy, and Mason Gooding's Chad) are now in NYC, with the latter 2 in college, when a new Ghostface strikes.  The franchise is known for their big opening scenes, and this one finds a creative twist on it. Ghostface killings start again, and a lot of people blame Sam, because a bunch of conspiracy theorists have popped up (on Reddit of course) accusing her of being behind the killings in 5. We of course get a fresh new crop of characters, largely cannon (or knife) fodder. There...