The Skolney Blog

1995: The original Die Hard set the template for action movies for years (decades?) to come. It is pretty much a perfect movie, and impossible to follow up, which Die Hard 2 tried to do and fell way short. That might have been the end of the franchise right there, as Bruce Willis was now established as a huge star and probably didn't need to bother with Die Hard anymore. I even remember a quite from him in the early 90s saying that he had no interest in making another one. But then you had Willis's post-DH2 filmography, which was pretty rough. Now, The Last Boy Scout was awesome and a solid hit, and I stand by mega flop Hudson Hawk forever. But you also have things like Striking Distance and Color Of Night. So Willis was losing his shine, and went back to the Die Hard well.  What was kind of unexpected was that, in between him signing on for Die Hard 3, and it coming out, a little movie called Pulp Fiction happened. Willis was not THE star of the film, but there is ...

In theaters: THE ACCOUNTANT 2 This nearly decade after sequel to the Ben Affleck film is mostly...fine. Instead of being a kind of unusual spy thriller, this is more of just a standard shoot em up action flick. Jon Bernthal gets an expanded role and steals the movie.  FINAL DESTINATION: BLOODLINES I'm really glad this franchise is back, since it is one of my favorite horror franchises. And this one has been a big hit, so expect more. But I was kind of disappointed by this one, and would rate it my least favorite of the six. Some of the acting in this is borderline embarrassing for a major studio release, and while the film had the requisite creative kills, some of them have just awful cgi. The best scene is the surprisingly poignant sendoff for Tony Todd. The odd number FD films are the best ones, so the next one should be great.  HURRY UP TOMORROW I honestly didn't know what this was going in. I saw it was from the director of the sublime Waves, and Jenna Ortega is in it. Tur...

Last month, Revenge of the Sith got a 20th anniversary re-release. And it had the 2nd biggest opening weekend at the box office ever for a re-release, behind the 1997 Star Wars special editions. I saw it twice myself (I wanted to get it into double digits). But those special editions were enhanced films, promoting improved special fx and added scenes. The re-release of Sith offered no new stuff. Just the film itself. And it raked in millions, actually leaving money on the table as it got pulled from theaters after just a week. I took this as ultimate confirmation that, yes, the prequels ARE popular. Phantom Menace has made some money on two re-releases itself. And if we ever see Attack of the Clones on the big screen again, it will make money too. 20 years ago, RotS arrived as the final chapter of that glorious prequel era. I have already done stand-alone blogs about episodes 1 and 2, so I have probably already talked about how all-encompassing these films were in my life f...

At least this time I saw it coming.  A year ago, after the Wolves broke through 20 years of nothing to sweep Phoenix and pull off that grand comeback upset of Denver, I bought in. I believed they were going to dispatch Dallas and probably even beat Boston to win it all.  Of course, that didn't happen. The Wolves were horrible against Dallas and bounced in 5. Then came the Karl-Anthony Towns trade just before this season began. Hated the deal at the time. Hated it most of the year, as the Wolves, instead of building on last year, spent most of the season hovering in that play-in zone. The Wolves caught stride late in the season, securing a playoff spot in the last regular season game. I didn't like their chances against the Lakers, but they knocked out LeBron and Luka in 5. I did like their chances against the Warriors, even before the Steph Curry injury, and again they won in 5.  They hardly played their best ball during these series and won anyway. That could trick one i...

The Minnesota Lynx begin their 2025 season ready to defend their richly earned 2024 championshi....oh that's right. The Lynx had their title stolen away from them. It's fact. It happened. Can't do anything about it. Except use it as fuel for a glorious revenge tour to take the title.  It's happened before. In 2016, the Lynx got screwed late in a finals-deciding game by a blown call, then rebounded the next year to re-take the title. That's the hope for 2025, that the Lynx take all that bitterness and anger that they have to feel, and use that as motivation. In 2024, the Lynx were a surprise. Nobody expected them to go so far. So this year they won't be able to sneak up on anybody. They are agreed upon to be one of the 3 or 4 most likely champions. It's them, the Liberty, the Aces, and probably the Fever (you know the league doesn't want Caitlin Clark making another quick playoff exit).  Napheesa Collier has ascended to MVP level status, and she again lea...

Thunderbolts, the 36th film (wow) in the MCU proper, is the latest entry to bear the burden of "Is the MCU back?" Now, sane people, whose livelihoods and sense of self are not dependent on regurgitating Marvel hate, understand that the MCU has never left. Any franchise, even with ones as large as this (not even counting the TV shows and MCU adjacent stuff), is guaranteed to have ebbs and flows. It is IMPOSSIBLE to always churn out 5 star classics. It's remarkable that the MCU has gone this far without delivering a single film yet that I would call bad (some mediocre entries, sure), and only missing on a couple of the main TV shows. But if you listen to the internet (you shouldn't), the MCU is basically finished, and should have just stopped after Endgame. Nonsense, of course. Truthful people understand that the MCU's post-Endgame era has been a lot like the pre-Endgame era. A few top tier highlights, and a lot of stuff under that that ranges from very good to soli...

Twins 7 Giants 6 10 innings Not to court hyperbole too much, but Sunday afternoon at Target Field was everything that makes baseball great. Hot pre-summer afternoon. Massively entertaining ballgame, with multiple lead changes and lots of activity, and the final blow being delivered by literally the last guy you would expect. The Twins came in riding a 7 game win streak, part of a 13-5 run that had brought them from one of the worst records in baseball to .500. They have, at the very least, restored some hope that the summer will be full of games that actually might matter for something. And with Pablo Lopez on the mound, it seemed a good chance was there to sweep the Giants. We didn't quite get top flight Lopez, though. He labored through a long 1st inning, and after giving up a homerun to the day's Twins nemesis, Heliot Ramos, in the 4th, the Twins trailed 3-0 and had only one hit themselves, and it looked like maybe the streak was gonna end. But Brooks Lee hit a 2 run homerun...