The Skolney Blog

1995: Good old Eden Prairie Mall. About ten minutes from where I live. A frequent stop of mine in the early 90s, for movies (they had two theaters, one on each end of the mall) and sometimes for Sam Goody trips. I still go to that mall now, but it has been completely remodeled some time ago, its original form preserved in cinematic form in Mallrats.  When I first heard about this movie being made here, it meant nothing to me. Who cares about some Shannen Doherty movie set in a mall? But then, a few months before the movie came out, I saw a little movie called Clerks. Kevin Smith's debut was one of my formative movies, an instant favorite, which it remains to this day. So now Mallrats was going to be a big deal.  For some reason, I did not see Mallrats at Eden Prairie. I assume it showed there.  Having followed Smith for so long, I am very familiar with the lifespan of Mallrats. Despite being a low-budget movie with no major stars (or none who were stars yet), ...

In theaters: HIM Another of these "unsuspecting person goes to banal place and weird shit happens" movies that there have been a lot of lately, some good (Midsommar, The Menu) some bad (Blink Twice, Opus). This one has an up and coming quarterback go to be mentored by the aging superstar (Marlon Wayans). Weird shit surely happens, and the visuals are really good. It's not great at all, but it has just enough narrative thread to hold together, and I liked the ending.  GOOD BOY A horror movie from the perspective of a dog (who is, yes, the goodest boy). It's a gimmick movie, and it's pretty well done. A little making of segment plays in the credits to show how they filmed it. But even at barely 70 minutes, the film does get a little tedious.  THE SMASHING MACHINE Dwayne Johnson takes a swing at indie cred by playing a real-life person who was one of the early MMA fighters. He's good in the movie, and I hope this does lead him to get back to at least trying some ...

CHARGERS 37 VIKINGS 10 The Minnesota Vikings are covered in failure. Everything they did to set themselves in for the 2025 season has been a disaster. This truth that has been bubbling up for weeks spilled over completely in Thursday night's lifeless, disgusting, humiliating loss to the Chargers.  Typically, I do some sort of chronological recap of the games, but what's the point? The only moment there seemed to be the slightest shred of hope for a win was when Isaiah Rodgers pick sixed Justin Herbert on LA's opening drive. But the refs screwed us and negated the score, saying Rodgers didn't secure the catch. Even though he clearly did. We have enough problems without the refs stealing touchdowns, now two weeks in a row. The demolition to come rendered this irrelevant. The rest of the game was a grotesque "effort" by the defense. Zero pressure on Herbert. Zero coverage of receivers (the middle of the field was wide open all night). Zero resistance against the ...

EAGLES 28 VIKINGS 22 Is this not classic Vikings? I didn't think they would win this game, yet they managed to find a way to NOT win that was so aggravating and depressing that I want to find the nearest bridge to leap off of.  The Eagles. Defending Super Bowl champions. Likely pissed off following back to back losses. You knew this would be a tough task. But a tough task becomes impossible when you spend as much time beating yourselves as they beat you. The Vikings could have won on Sunday. Instead, they blew a chance at a big win, and now face the reality that the entire season might be teetering on the edge of oblivion. I figured the Vikings porous run defense would be no match for Saquon Barkley, and the game's opening drive did look like that. The Eagles gashed us on the ground. Then, on a 4th and 2, it was Jalen Hurts's turn, as he threw a 37-yard TD pass to AJ Brown, who torched Josh Metellus. Much to the delight of the many Eagles fans at US Bank Stadium. The Viking...

VIKINGS 21 BROWNS 17 Entering the season, it seemed pretty clear that the pre-bye portion of the Vikings schedule was where they were going to need to pile up some wins, before the schedule gets a lot harder. So imagine the despair I felt throughout much of Sunday's game, watching the Vikings again play mistake-filled football against a very beatable team, which looked to be sending them to a 2nd straight loss in Europe, and a 2-3 record into the bye that would make any hopes for a meaningful season slim at best. Fortunately, as had happened so often during the KOC era, the Vikings managed to escape with a late touchdown to get the hell out of there with the win. Coming off last week's loss in Dublin, it was off to London (where the Vikings are undefeated) to face a bad Browns team starting rookie QB Dillon Gabriel. The Browns defense is pretty good though, and once again the Vikings were starting an offensive line that couldn't be less ideal (Blake Brandel at center, Joe H...