The Skolney Blog

LIONS 19 VIKINGS 15 The Minnesota Vikings lost a football game Sunday, something that hadn't happened in roughly 11 months. I expected them to. I mean, they weren't going undefeated. They weren't sweeping the division. Facing the Lions on the road is a tough game. Losing this one is hardly shameful.  But here's the thing. The Lions have one of the worst defenses in football, and we're further depleted during this game. And the Vikings finished with 15 points. This just isn't getting any better. The early vibes were bad when the Vikings opening drive ended with a deep shot to Jordan Addison that had pretty clear DPI that went uncalled, and then Will Reichard missed a long field goal. But the Vikings' defense went to work and did their thing against the Lions' challenging offense. Detroit moved the ball a little bit but was not explosive. Andrew Van Ginkel got 2 ½ of the Vikings 4 1st half sacks. James Pierre nabbed the 1st interception of the year from Ja...

2006: By 2006, Martin Scorsese was legendary not just for his body of work,  but also for not ever winning an Oscar for his work. He should have won by then, of course, probably many times over. He had even been making some films that to many felt like blatant Oscar bait. And those films were not that satisfying. So, instead of doing period pieces and biopics, he went and did just a badass, cool as fuck crime movie...and finally won for it. The Departed is a remake of a foreign film called Infernal Affairs, retrofitted into a Boston setting complete with thick accents. The target is a mob boss, Frank Costello (Jack Nicholson gnawing the scenery in his last great performance). He has a mole in the police department, played by Matt Damon. And the police have an undercover against in Frank's crew, played by Leonardo DiCaprio. The bulk of the story is how each guy maintains their cover when almost every encounter could blow it. The film sizzles like all great crime movies. ...

In theaters: THE SOCIAL RECKONING Many years after The Social Network, a film that's very good if a bit overrated (the people who talk it up as one of the greatest films of the 2000s so far are nuts), comes this sequel, which only carries over writer turned director Aaron Sorkin.  I have no idea what purpose this film serves. While the previous film was all about the beginning of Facebook, this is a smaller story of a whistle-blower (Mikey Madison) and a journalist (Jeremy Allen White) exposing how Facebook cares more about engagement and clicks than it does about its users. I mean...yeah...duh. Even if we didn't know this, we knew this. FB has been a cesspool. There's a basically useless storyline here with Zuckerberg (Jeremy Strong in for Jesse Eisenberg) preparing to testify to Congress. The Madison-White stuff is fine, I guess. Mikey is a soothing presence. But this film is so inconsequential, and the ending is treated like Facebook was an evil entity that got defeated....

VIKINGS 16 COLTS 10 November will dawn with only one undefeated team left in the NFL, and that team is the Minnesota Vikings! Off the bye, and facing a fading Colts team (which I picked to make the playoffs...hardly my worst prediction this year *cough*Chargers*cough*), the Vikings went about their usual 2026 business, winning a game in rather ugly fashion. But winning. I had hoped that coming off the bye and with the healthiest roster they will have all year, the offense in particular would look sharp. It didn't. The opening drive showed we were going to have another muck fest. We wasted another really good Myles Price return by running up the gut with Aaron Jones over and over, including a 4th and 1, and getting stuffed. A short time later, Jonathan Taylor (future Viking?) burst for a long TD run, and the Colts grabbed the 7-0 lead. A familiar pattern played out after this. The Vikings offense was occasionally able to move the ball, but only got field goals. The defense bounced b...

VIKINGS 23 SAINTS 13 I had high hopes coming into this Vikings season. I picked them to win the north, after all. But I never thought the Vikings would hit the bye week at 5-0. I thought 3-2 would be a solid start. Instead, they remain one of only 3 undefeated teams left (49ers and Chiefs the others). The latest victim: the New Orleans Saints. The latest venue: the Superdome, site of the Vikings' last playoff win and site of the single greatest injustice this franchise has ever suffered. Vikings fans have been perpetually mad so far this year, fretting over the offense being inconsistent to put it mildly. But there was tangible progress made in that Dolphins game last week. Kyler Murray had a terrific 4th quarter, and his positive momentum carried over to this game. Murray was incredibly sharp for much of this game, but especially early on. He hit on his 1st 12 passes and led two good drives. Problem is that the Vikings only got 3 points out of them. Following a Will Reichard field...

VIKINGS 15 DOLPHINS 10 Sunday presented the 3-0 Vikings hosting the 0-3 Dolphins. A classic spot for one team to overlook another, especially when that team is also mired in an offensive funk. But the Vikings have spent the early part of this season mastering the (abstract) art of the ugly win. Style points aren't happening. Doesn't matter. Wins matter. Keep winning. I do think this game eventually showed some evidence that the offense is figuring some things out. But it sure wasn't in the first half. It was a lot more of the same stuff we saw last week. A messy offense, with penalties and a skittish Kyler Murray. Justin Jefferson didn't play, and in the 1st half, we also lost both Donovan Jackson and Christian Darrisaw. But the offense was able to scrape together a trio of field goals from the machine Will Reichard.  The Vikings also got a couple of breaks. Malik Willis appeared to have lofted a long touchdown pass, but the receiver had stepped out of bounds before cat...

1996: Adam Sandler officially ascended to bona-fide comedy star with his consecutive hits Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore. And later graduated to one of the biggest movie stars period with The Wedding Singer, The Waterboy, and Big Daddy in succession. In the middle of all these hits is the almost completely forgotten Bulletproof. Bulletproof is classic 90s buddy action comedy stuff. Sandler is a low-rent criminal. Damon Wayans, top billed since it was still 1996, is an undercover cop who befriended him but then has to bust him. Plot stuff happens, and Wayans get shot by Sandler. Sometime later, Wayans has to escort Sandler to trial so he can testify against his criminal boss (James Caan), and Bulletproof becomes a chaotic road movie as they try to get from A to B. Bulletproof didn't break any new ground. Some of the dialogue is bad. But it works because of a couple of reasons. One is that it was directed by Ernest Dickerson, the Spike Lee cinematographer whose directing...

Well, so much for THAT season.  For the 2nd year in a row, the Lynx had the best regular season record in the WNBA. And for the 2nd year in a row, that meant nothing. But this time, it was so much worse. The 2026 Minnesota Lynx will be a team that takes its place among the all-time Minnesota sports chokers. Because they pulled off an embarrassment that will be hard to live down, or forget. The Lynx struggled late in the season, but still were able to grab that #1 seed. And in a super competitive league, where it was haves and have nots, they drew the 8th seeded New York Liberty, one of the preseason favorites and of course the team that fraudulently "won" the title from us in 2024.  It's not like the Lynx were guaranteed to win it all, and they were going to have to beat 3 good teams to do it. But show up! My god! The series was the first time in my now nearly 2 decades as a fan that I felt embarrassed to be a Lynx fan. All the other teams in town have done things that ma...

In theaters: RESIDENT EVIL Hey! They actually made a good one of these! When I heard Zach Cregger was following up Weapons with a reboot of a franchise that had never yielded a single entry that was more than passable, I thought he was crazy. But this is great fun. It's hilariously grotesque, paced by a terrific performance by Austin Abrams. It really feels like a video game, too, with how they do the action.  BY ANY MEANS One of those dreaded "based on true events" movies that are usually bs. It's about a black FBI agent and a mob hitman teaming up to track down racist killers in the 60s. The frame of the story really happened. It's a solid movie, with Yahya Abdul-Mateen and a miscast Mark Wahlberg. Loved seeing the gorgeous Nicole Beharie.  PRIMETIME Robert Pattinson plays Chris Hansen in a strange movie built around the rise in popularity of his To Catch A Predator show. I watched that show back in the day. I never once thought Hansen was as sleazy as the peopl...

VIKINGS 23 BUCCANEERS 16 The most important thing to come out of this game is further evidence that we have a Vikings defense that could be generationally great.  And we know this because for the 2nd straight week, that defense bailed out a largely hideous performance from the offense. Kyler Murray was back after missing a week with a concussion. The Vikings were facing a Bucs squad that was 0-2, and considering that and last season's collapse, have a head coach in Todd Bowles whose seat has to be blazing hot. A desperate team can be dangerous, but the Vikings assumed control early. An opening drive field goal and a fantastic 86-yard punt return touchdown by Myles Price paced them to a 10-0 lead.  Tampa responded with a TD drive, really the only series all day they got the best of our defense. And a short time later, they added a field goal to tie things up. The Vikings offense had negative yards since their opening drive (and lost Justin Jefferson to an ankle injury), but awo...

VIKINGS 9 BEARS 3 You don't usually think of football games being won by coaches, but I think Sunday was one of those times. The Vikings managed their unthinkable 7th straight win at the onetime cursed Soldier Field because Brian Flores put together the kind of masterful work from the sideline that becomes the stuff of legend.  It was a game played in a dreary rain the whole way, so that surely helped some. Still, this is a Bears team that rolled up an absurd 59 points in Carolina last week. The Vikings had Carson Wentz at QB again, with Kyler Murray still in concussion protocol. And we were also without Jordan Mason and Jauan Jennings. So you figured we weren't going to pile up the points in those conditions.  Each team did get a field goal on their opening drive. The rest of the half was muck. Neither team did anything. The Vikings eeked out another field goal. Byron Murphy picked off Caleb Williams. It was 6-3 at the half. The 2nd half opened with the one Bears drive where ...

VIKINGS 39 PACKERS 22 The Vikings opened their 2026 season by beating the Packers by 17 points. You might think that means the Vikings kind of dominated the game. But oh, how that wasn't the case. These two teams have played each other 132 times, and this has to go down as one of the goofiest, weirdest entries.  If you believe in omens, the Vikings season couldn't have begun much worse. On the opening drive, on Kyler Murray's 1st pass, he threw a hideous lob ball interception, firing up all the smelly Packers fans who infiltrated the purple palace.  The Packers didn't move the ball, but their rookie kicker (named Smack) hit a long field goal. The rest of a bad first quarter saw the Vikings fall behind further, as Christian Watson had an 81-yard catch and run touchdown through a Vikings secondary that spent much of the day looking hideous. Following that TD came the biggest blow. On a scramble, Murray slid down and got hit (illegally) by two Packers. The good news is it ...

Let's get this out of the way quickly.  I think the Vikings are winning the NFC North at 10-7. I think the division could be won by anybody and could finish in any order. So, in that scenario, why not just pick the Vikings? I don't expect Kyler Murray to have a sensational season, but I do think he will be an effective playmaker and distributor. I expect a big Justin Jefferson season. Addison and Jennings will get theirs (both are playing for their own dollars). I think Hockenson has something left. The run game has never been satisfactory under KOC, but, well, hopefully, this year, it's an asset. We got a healthy Darrisaw. If Brandel can hold down center, the OL should be rock solid. And the defense could be the best we have had since peak Zimmer. Gone are some of the crappy veterans. The run defense has been an evergreen issue, but with Banks and Orange added to a talented bunch of youngsters that should improve. Linebackers are good, and Dallas Turner is primed for a sta...

In theaters: THE END OF OAK STREET The kind of fun late summer movie that always goes down well. A suburban neighborhood is mysteriously transported from the 80s to the age of the dinosaurs. Anne Hathaway and Ewan McGregor have to keep their family (including daughter Maisy Stella!) safe. Watching Hathaway fire a shotgun at dinos is quite enjoyable. I really liked this movie, even though its ending backs off one of its more daring twists.  COYOTE VS ACME A movie that Warners tried to bury for tax purposes finally sees the light of day. And it deserves to be seen. It's a really fun, zippy mix of Looney Tunes and live action, centered on the coyote suing ACME for always making defective products that keep him from catching that roadrunner. Will Forte, a great match for material, is the lawyer the coyote hires. Pretty much all the usual characters pop up, but this is mostly a coyote tale. Lots of clever comedy here, and even a sweet little bit at the end that recontextualizes a relati...

1986: We now arrive at the first movie I cared about.  I was 7 years old in 1986 (do the math, I'm old), and by far my favorite bit of what would later come to be commonly called "IP" was the Transformers. I watched the animated series all the time. I had tons of the toys. And then here comes this movie. So I didn't understand things then about TV seasons or character continuity or all that. I just knew the show and characters. So I probably didn't even know what the movie itself was, other than thatnit was a movie. I had only seen a few movies in theaters at that point, and I think they were all tied to birthday parties. So Transformers: The Movie marked the first time I went to a movie because I wanted to see that movie. I have some vague memories of seeing the commercials for it. I didn't know anything about release dates or anything like that. I don't even remember what theater I saw this at. Honestly, I don't even recall the experience...

PHILLIES 7 TWINS 5 Okay, we had some fun. We had some laughs. But it's time to admit the Twins aren't only not making the playoffs, they never were.  Since I last set foot in Target Field, we had the trade deadline. And for the first time in years, the Twins were absolute buyers (albeit buying from the bargain bin), bringing in starting pitcher Dean Kremer and relievers Jeff Hoffman and AJ Minter.  The other thing that happened, though, is that the Twins went in the tank. They came into Sunday 4-7 since the deadline. Hilariously, this hadn't cost them too much ground in the "race" for the 3rd wild card, cause all these other teams "fighting" for the spot have stayed bad, too.  But Sunday proved one thing pretty conclusively. We have all been fooling ourselves. The Twins are not at all eliminated from the playoffs, but they will NEVER make it.  Sunday was close to a must win game. The Phillies had clobbered the Twins in consecutive games, including the Fi...

"Marvel is cooked," they said. Idiots. The 4th MCU Spiderman entry, Brand New Day picks up shortly after the end of No Way Home, where everybody forgot who Peter Parker is. Peter is still Spiderman, and still fighting bad guys, and working with the police. Good. It's a tired trope to have the cops hate Spiderman. But he has no friends, and still stalks MJ and Ned on social media (not in a weird way). The only people he sort of has are a friendly police chief, and Frank Castle! Yes! Jon Bernthal's Punisher is in this, and quite a bit. Obviously, he is toned down from his show, and there's a lot more comedy in his testy relationship with Peter.  The early part of the movie is kind of an extended montage, pushing through about 4 years, just long enough for MJ and Ned to finish college, return to NY, and be involved in the plot. The main plot involves a mystery figure or entity or something taking people over, and going after Damage Control, the government...