Tubi Log

  Whenever I visit family, one of our favorite activities to do these days is watch free movies on the streaming service Tubi, so I figured it’d be fun to make a log of everything we watch together that I can revisit and add to, just for the heck of it…

These aren’t ranked in any particular order or anything, so don’t get too excited:

Papadopoulos & Sons

All Nighter

A Walk in the Woods

The Big Year

Bottle Shock

Sing Street

The Problem with People

Hampstead

Wild Target

Everything Must Go

The Company Men

Night School

Wrath of Man

Our Idiot Brother

Top End Wedding

Man Up

I Give It a Year

Sunshine Cleaning

Four Weddings and a Funeral

Feast of the Seven Fishes

Burnt

21 Grams

The Con Is On

The Contractor

All the Old Knives

A Long Way Down

Noel

Funny Farm

Best Man Down

The Bank Job

San Andreas

In a World…

Learning to Drive

The Commitments

Toast

Spin Me Round

Chef

Somewhere in Queens

Hard Miles

Hearts of Champions

Pawn Sacrifice

Twist

One More Time

Funny Story

Girl Most Likely

Into the Blue

Gifted

Duchess

About Time

Midnight in Paris

Peace!

Related: List Repository

Ideas for Star Wars X-XII

  So recently it was reported by Deadline that, rather than just one post-Rise of Skywalker film in the Star Wars franchise, we might actually get three, and they might collectively be branded as the next trilogy in the mainline saga, i.e. Episodes X, XI, and XII.

Mind you, other outlets have since followed up on this initial report, stating that Deadline’s claim of these new films being X-XII is inaccurate. A couple of other sources who have proven to be mostly-credible recently though say that Deadline is right on the money. For what it’s worth, Daisy Ridley herself liked a post on social media the other day referring to these new movies as specifically X-XII, so make of that what you will…

Whether or not Deadline’s scoop turns out to be accurate or not, since it dropped a few days ago, I couldn’t help but start thinking what I would do if I were tasked with crafting “Episodes X-XII” specifically. I’ve written before about how I would revisit characters like Rey in a post-Rise timeline, but never before with the notion of her future films actually being branded as “Episodes” of the main saga. That in itself carries a whole lot more weight to it…

As I’ve said before, however, lately I haven’t really been into Star Wars as much as I used to be. I’m not planning to watch Skeleton Crew or the second seasons of Andor and Ahsoka (at least not right away), and I’ve also decided to just wait for streaming for any movie going forward (unless I happen to be home for the holidays and family wants to go see something in theaters). I’ve got nothing better to do today, though, so I might as well write this…

And here… we… go!:

A new Skywalker heir

If this does end up getting branded as part of “the Skywalker saga,” but has Rey in a mentor role rather than as the protagonist again, then I think the new protagonist should either be someone Rey adopted at a young age, or a child she had biologically, who maybe decides to use the name “Skywalker” rather than whatever their father’s last name is. I’d be fine with a “long lost child” angle (i.e. Luke had a kid we never knew about until now or an offspring that was created artificially for evil reasons or something). Rey was almost gonna be a long lost Kenobi, after all. If they go the adoption route, the new lead hero could be someone who doesn’t like using the Skywalker name at first, due to all the baggage it carries, but then learns to embrace it. Or maybe they can flip the script and have it be a Skywalker who decides to take on a different name, for some other noble reason (or cause they’re pissed at Rey for being known as a Skywalker instead or something).

Alternatively, I’m also cool with the idea of these next movies being X-XII, but not necessarily part of the Skywalker saga. People forget now, but the main saga rebrands itself all the time. When the original trilogy was made, the whole thing was just known as “the Star Wars trilogy.” Then the prequel trilogy happened and the whole thing got rebranded as “the complete saga.” Then the sequel trilogy happened and the whole thing got rebranded again as “the Skywalker saga,” which also helped distinguish the main films from the spin-offs. We are probably heading for another rebrand. In the future, Episodes I-XII will probably just be called “the Star Wars Episodic Saga.”

Double down on the Rey Palpatine thing

I suppose another angle would be to do a Bloodline* scenario with Rey, where the galaxy finds out she’s actually related to Palpatine instead of Luke. Perhaps that would helps to make things feel more thematically connected to I-IX. Maybe the new villains want to use her DNA to try to resurrect Palpatine yet again, or maybe they wanna see if they can “possess” her so that his essence can come back through her. Just spitballing here…

*Bloodline is a recent book that takes place before The Force Awakens, and showcases the galaxy finding out that Leia is related to Vader, and how she learns to deal with this.

Plagueis

Regarding what I was saying earlier about them working the “Rey Palpatine” angle, they could also bring Palpatine’s master, Darth Plagueis, back from the dead. It’s implied that he also figured out how to cheat death, after all. Plus, Lucasfilm already introduced him in canon via The Acolyte. I could see his motive being to want to destroy “the last living descendant of Palpatine” as a form of revenge. Maybe he also learns that Rey decided to abandon the whole “Jedi are not allowed to have kids” rule, and therefore wants to prevent that bloodline from continuing, which leads to Rey’s true lineage being exposed publicly. Perhaps they could even establish that Palpatine stole the idea of “corrupting the republic into an empire from the inside out” from Plagueis, to tie things all the way back to Episode I a bit more.

Mortis

For those who don’t know, this is a “realm” introduced in The Clone Wars that serves as the home of three Force-sensitive entities: The Daughter (who represents light), The Son (who represents darkness), and The Father (who represents balance). The first season of Ahsoka seems to imply that Ahsoka, Baylan, and Anakin’s ghost are all slowly turning into the new versions of these deities, but we’ll see if the second season follows through with that. Either way, Lucasfilm almost incorporated Mortis into the plot of Episode IX, so this angle has clearly been on their minds already as is. Even if Mortis itself is never seen in live-action, I think future “mainline” movies will need to start bringing in “bigger” stuff like this. Or else, what’s even the point of continuing the so-called “saga”?

Use more previously-discarded ideas

Might as well, right? On the subject of “bigger” ideas, Lucas wanted the sequel trilogy to introduce the “creators” of The Force, whom he called The Whills (which some people also speculate might be the “Force Priestesses” whom Yoda met in The Clone Wars). I wouldn’t mind something like that. Maybe they could even do a Wonder Woman scenario where the heroes kill the “creator” of the dark side, but evil (the Sith, etc.) continues. Lucas apparently also wanted the new evil war faction to be a collective of pirates/ crime syndicates. I wouldn’t mind something like that either. He also wanted to bring back “weirder” worlds like Felucia (the planet with the big flowers briefly seen in Revenge of the Sith), etc. Again, why not? You could even pull from non-Lucas ideas that never made it passed the red tape before, like how Episode IX was originally gonna be a “post-apocalyptic” movie, of sorts, with inter-planetary comms across the galaxy being knocked out and stuff.

Use the prequel trilogy as a blueprint

Since VII-IX recycled a bunch of ideas from the original trilogy, this next batch of films might as well recycle some ideas from the prequels now. Maybe another clone wars? Maybe cloning has gotten advanced enough now that Force-sensitives can be cloned too? The old expanded universe novels toyed around with this idea. Make Rey fight a clone of herself, or a CGI Luke clone or something. Screw it! Go nuts! EDIT: Rather than echo the prequel trilogy, I suppose an alternative would also be to try to echo the few unique things that the sequel trilogy did (runaway stormtrooper, etc.).

An outer-galactic threat

I’ve proposed this idea before, and it’s something else the expanded universe explored too. Plus, some of the newer canon novels have hinted at a looming threat coming from another galaxy, and the Ahsoka show has now established that advanced civilizations that speak english do in fact exist in other galaxies, with Force-sensitive factions and all.

More Expanded Universe stuff

With Rey and Kylo kissing at the end of The Rise of Skywalker, I think it’s pretty safe to say that Disney is trying to move away from the whole “no attachments allowed” rule that the prequel-era Jedi had. Between that, and the growing possibility of outer-galactic threats, it’s starting to feel like Disney is just taking stuff that Luke did in the old expanded universe timeline, and giving it to Rey. That might not necessarily be a bad thing, though! In fact, they can even acknowledge it by having Rey say some quick line like “lately I’ve been having dreams of Luke doing these things, in another life.” Maybe not exactly like that, but something along those lines.

The feeling of “delight”

Above all else, the most important thing about the new movies is that they just need to be fun. While I don’t consider The Force Awakens a perfect movie, one thing I do enjoy about it is how “light and airy” it feels when you don’t think too hard about it. JJ Abrams had said that the writing process of that movie started with he and the other creatives asking themselves “what do we want to feel?” And then writing a bunch of emotions on the wall, with “delight” being the primary one. Hopefully future films in the franchise take a similar approach. That said, I understand that sometimes it’s less about “what the audience wants” and more about “what the story needs,” so that balance needs to be taken into account too.

…Well, that was a fun way to waste another day!

Peace!

2026 UPDATE: With the recent news that Ben Solo might also come back, I know a lot of people think that means he and Rey are finally gonna end up together for real, but I’m not so sure. I used to think Rey’s order would embrace attachments, but the Rise of Skywalker novelization, Luke’s personality in The Book of Boba Fett, and Finn referring to Rey and Rose as “just friends” in that Resistance Reborn book all make me think otherwise now.

Related: Fiction Repository

The Different "Ages" of Blockbusters

  Recently I was revisiting all of my different movie lists (making little tweaks here and there and whatnot), and while doing so, I stumbled upon an interesting epiphany:

When Star Wars was first released in 1977, it basically invented the blockbuster genre, paving the way for a 1980’s movie landscape filled “larger than life” films along the lines of E.T., Blade Runner, Alien and Aliens, Legend, The Terminator, and so on. This was a stark contrast to the decade before, as the 1970’s was mostly known for “down to earth” films such as The Godfather and The Godfather Part II, Network, American Grafitti, etc. I suppose the 1960’s could be seen as a sort of “proto” age for blockbusters, considering how James Bond and westerns practically dominated that decade. This itself was probably a response to the 1950’s being rather “dark” (Rear Window, On the Waterfront, Twelve Angry Men, etc.).

The 1990’s saw another pendulum swing back towards “darker, counter-culture” stuff, such as Pulp Fiction, Clerks, El Mariachi, The Shawshank Redemption, Fight Club, and so on. This led to a swing back towards “bright” stuff in the 2000’s, but rather than a return to blockbusters, this decade was more-so dominated by an influx of comedies (be it rom-coms, parodies, etc.). Don’t get me wrong, I know this is also the decade that brought us The Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Spider-Man, X-Men, and the Star Wars prequels. But outside of Potter, the rest of those franchises only carried a few films each, and therefore don’t really represent what the movie landscape as a whole felt like in the 2000’s…

But then we get to the 2010’s, and here, we finally see a return to something more along the lines of what the 1980’s seem to have felt like (I say “seem” cause I wasn’t born in the 80’s yet, to be fair, so I can only go off of historical reflection). The MCU, the DCEU, and Disney’s rebooted Star Wars franchise were all in full-swing, by this point, but Marvel and Star Wars both reached culminations in 2019, while the DCEU eventually fizzled out altogether. This brings us now to the 2020’s, where a pandemic, two strikes, and a sudden influx of streaming services have basically left the theater-going industry in shambles…

So, to recap: I basically consider the 1980’s to be “the golden age of blockbusters,” and the 2010’s to be “the silver age.” But now here’s the question: Will we ever have a “bronze age” too? We’re now exactly halfway through the 2020’s. The first half of this decade was mostly a shitshow, but the second half could go either way. Star Wars is apparently gonna try putting out movies more frequently from now on, as is James Cameron’s Avatar. On similar notes, James Gunn will be launching his new version of the DC universe soon, and Marvel is starting to pivot towards some crazy “Tony Stark as Doctor Doom” thing. Both Marvel and Star Wars are also starting to produce less shows, so that they can focus their resources towards movies again. Here’s the thing, though: Even if all this stuff happens, that doesn’t mean any of it will be good. The second half of this decade could end up being known as the “dark age” of blockbusters, rather than the “bronze age.”

Either way, it’ll be interesting to see how all this shit unfolds, so I figured I might as well blog about it for a bit, is all!

Peace!

UPDATE: I know Jaws technically was the first blockbuster, but it didn’t have the “larger than life spectacle” feel that Star Wars and others like it would go on to have. Jaws is still a great movie too, though!

UPDATE 2: Even though the 2020’s have been mostly a shit show for blockbusters so far, there have still been some all-time great ones that have come out this decade. Just felt the need to clarify that, is all…

UPDATE 3: Something else I didn’t consider before is that maybe, when it comes to both movies and music, the 80’s swung the pendulum to one extreme, and then the 90’s swung the pendulum to the complete other extreme, and maybe that’s why everything has felt weird since, apart from some good movies or music every now and then. Furthermore, maybe we’re entering an age now where everyone will just use AI to make their own media at home, and there will never be a unified pop culture of any kind ever again. So be it if so, I guess…

Star Wars Films Will Keep Getting Axed, Here's Why

  I haven’t done one of these “think pieces” in awhile, so I’m gonna start with a list:

Star Wars movies either canceled or in limbo:

Obi-Wan Kenobi (reworked as a show)

Boba Fett (reworked as a show)

Rian Johnson Trilogy

Benioff & Weiss Trilogy

Knights of the Old Republic

Kevin Feige Movie

Rogue Squadron

A Droid Story

Lando

Taika Waititi Movie

Damon Lindelof Movie

That’s fifteen movies. Quite a bit, eh? So now the question becomes: Why does this keep happening, and will it ever get better?

I can already answer the second part of the question: No.

But to understand why, we need to dissect the first part of the question…

Back in 1972, George Lucas began working on what would eventually become Star Wars. The movie came out in 1977. That means he had five entire years to work on the movie soup-to-nuts, without having to worry about fan expectations because, surprise, there were no fans yet…

Thankfully, the film received immediate universal praise. The following film, The Empire Strikes Back, was met with some initial criticism, but people quickly came around to it. Since then, each installment has been divisive, at best. Things became even more complex in 2012, when Disney acquired the property. Now, the franchise had to try to please both fans AND shareholders alike. Spoiler alert: both camps want as much content as possible, even if they don’t admit it…

To make matters worse, Disney launched its own streaming service in 2019, just as the mainline Skywalker Saga was coming to end. Similarly to Marvel, Star Wars now had to define a new, post-saga course for its movies, while also justifying the existence of multiple shows a year, all while still having to appeal to both fans and shareholders alike…

Therefore, as one would expect, Lucasfilm is under pressure to keep announcing content on a regular basis. Some of you reading this may go “they should at least write an outline before announcing something.” While I’m not on the inside, I can all but guarantee that every new movie they announce has at least an outline before they announce it. That said, a good outline doesn’t necessarily guarantee a good script, let alone a good movie. Speaking as a writer myself, I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve written an outline, thinking I have a hit on my hands, only to then start expanding said outline into an actual manuscript and realizing what I had was actually shit. In fact, it just happened to me again today…

So now you may be thinking “okay, well then they should write at least one full script draft before they announce something.” I think it’s pretty safe to say that, if it weren’t for having to keep the shareholders happy, that’s exactly what they would do. In fact, they even tried that a few times, but the problem is that scripts take quite a bit of time to write, and when it comes to Star Wars, it’s hard to keep things a secret, especially from scoop-hungry journalists. Keep in mind that the Kevin Feige movie was never officially announced by Disney or Lucasfilm themselves. They were secretly working on the script, and then someone on the inside talked to a journalist, and the rest is history. Same thing happened to the Damon Lindelof film.

This is all to say that, a lot of times, a project is either forced into announcement prematurely by the major studio (Disney, in this case), or its existence is leaked to the press while it’s still in the scripting phase. This even happens to small, non-IP projects that never get finished, let alone something like Star Wars…

Even Marvel’s beloved Infinity Saga hit some bumps in the road along the way (some entries were better than others, plus, remember when Inhumans was supposed to be a movie?). And while the Multiverse Saga continues to chug along, its reception seems to keep declining with each and every new release, and their plans are slowly becoming more “wobbly” now too (remember when Armor Wars was supposed to be a show? Is Kang still gonna be the new final boss?). I’ve also said this before, but even the Infinity Saga itself didn’t become “solidified” until the first Avengers film in 2012 (they didn’t know they were gonna pursue the Thanos story until then, hence why the cartoony-looking gauntlet full of stones in the first Thor film had to be retconned as a decoy).

Besides, do you think the people running Star Wars want to keep putting out multiple mediocre movies every year, like Marvel does right now? Especially when Star Wars seems to receive ten times as much scrutiny? As a matter of fact, no other franchise outside of Marvel has managed to pull off the assembly-line model that they themselves pioneered, and can barely still do themselves. I can’t even count on two hands how many abandoned film slates DC has had in the last decade, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the whole James Gunn thing doesn’t work out now either…

With that all being said, I think it’s time for all of us to accept that the Infinity Saga was a fluke, and that a pre-determined, decade-long film slate like that is never gonna happen ever again. When it comes to any franchise, movies are gonna keep getting announced because shareholders (as well as fans, to a lesser extent) want to keep knowing what’s going on. Some of those plans will happen, some of them won’t. It is what it is. In fact, we now live in a world where an entire movie can be filmed and yet still be canceled (RIP Batgirl). My best advice would be to just not take any of this stuff too seriously until you see a trailer for it…

I’d like to also remind everyone that good art usually takes time. It took Tolkien seventeen years to finally publish all three volumes of The Lord of the Rings, after all. I also think that the days of something getting announced and then being released just a few years later are over. Like I said at the start of this post, Lucas took five whole years to make the original film. Similarly, he announced The Phantom Menace in 1993, and the movie itself only came out six entire years later. On another similar note, the original Spider-Man movie was in development hell for like ten years and went through a few different directors (even James Cameron was supposed to do it, at one point). Terminator 2 and Aliens both took seven years to make (both by Cameron too, funny enough). Pixar sequels take a while too. The list goes on…

People these days expect a slate announcement for everything when, not that long ago, there were no slate announcements for franchises cause franchises as we know them now didn’t even exist yet. For a long time, there was no internet/ social media to even use for such announcements. Everything just got reported through trade magazines like Variety and whatnot. Also, up until 2008, superhero movies did not connect together to form cinematic universes, and other series like Star Wars, Harry Potter, Middle-Earth, etc. were nowhere near ready to think about spin-offs and whatnot. Furthermore, Marvel head Kevin Feige even said recently that, going forward, Marvel itself “will operate more like a normal development studio, so don’t expect every project that gets reported on to actually get made” (I’m paraphrasing there). Even he’s getting tired of these big slate announcements, cause they’re starting to backfire on him (remember when the Blade reboot movie was announced in 2019?).

I say all this because I’ve noticed movie nerds getting more and more anxious about this stuff. A few months ago, it was announced that the sequel to The Batman would only be released in late 2026 (four and a half years after the first one), and a bunch of people online threw a temper tantrum over it (EDIT: Delayed to 2028 now, which is more warranted of criticism). Unfortunately, it seems that Marvel (and major studio culture in general) has conditioned everyone into thinking that we always need content within a few years from announcement. We need to get out of that mindset, I think…

If it’s any consolation, I’m sure all the in-limbo Star Wars projects listed at the top here will eventually get made. Some might mutate into shows (like Kenobi and Fett did). Some might change directors still. Some might only get released like ten or so years after they were originally announced. This was the world before Marvel, and it’s the world again now…

Peace!

UPDATE: I’m not saying that all future Marvel films will suck, nor am I saying that Star Wars shouldn’t start doing multiple movies a year like Marvel does. I’m not in a position to say what any of these brands should or shouldn’t do. Maybe all Marvel movies from here on out will be great. Maybe Star Wars will start doing multiple films a year and be able to do it just as well as Marvel does. Both of those cases would be nice, actually…

My Top 10 Films Per Year: 1996-2023

  So last year I listed my Top 5 Films Per Year from 1977-2022, and figured that now it made sense to try to expand each list from a Top 5 to a Top 10 (yes, I know I am crazy). This time around I was only able to make it as far back as 1996 because, believe it or not, even I haven’t seen every movie ever…

As I like to say, here we go again:

2023

6.The Super Mario Bros. Movie

7.The Bikeriders

8.A Haunting in Venice

9.Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny

10.Wonka

2022

6.Batman: The Long Halloween - Deluxe Edition

7.Everything Everywhere All at Once

8.Nope

9.Somewhere in Queens

10.Jurassic World Dominion (guilty pleasure)

2021

6.Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings

7.Black Widow

8.No Time to Die

9.Cruella

10.The Green Knight

2020

6.Bill & Ted Face the Music

7.Tenet

8.Sonic the Hedgehog

9.Birds of Prey

10.My Salinger Year

2019

6.Top End Wedding

7.Shazam!

8.Captain Marvel

9.Avengers: Endgame

10.Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker (guilty pleasure)

2018

6.Deadpool 2

7.Black Panther

8.Blackkklansman

9.Mary Poppins Returns

10.Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (guilty pleasure)

2017

6.Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle

7.Murder on the Orient Express

8.The Lego Batman Movie

9.Star Wars: The Last Jedi

10.The Disaster Artist

2016

6.Sing Street

7.Captain America: Civil War

8.Doctor Strange

9.Moonlight

10.Jason Bourne (guilty pleasure)

2015

6.Man Up

7.Star Wars: The Force Awakens

8.Steve Jobs

9.Spotlight

10.Jurassic World (guilty pleasure)

2014

6.The Imitation Game

7.The Lego Movie

8.Edge of Tomorrow

9.Pawn Sacrifice

10.Ex Machina

2013

6.In a World…

7.The Heat

8.This Is the End

9.White House Down

10.Star Trek Into Darkness (guilty pleasure)

2012

6.Zero Dark Thirty

7.Looper

8.Argo

9.Prometheus

10.Wreck-It Ralph

2011

6.Horrible Bosses

7.A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas

8.Paul

9.Delhi Belly

10.X-Men: First Class

2010

6.Everything Must Go

7.The Company Men

8.Iron Man 2

9.Wild Target

10.Knight and Day

2009

6.The Hangover

7.2012

8.Sherlock Holmes

9.Public Enemies

10.The Princess and the Frog

2008

6.Sunshine Cleaning

7.Kung Fu Panda

8.Pineapple Express

9.Gran Torino

10.Bottle Shock (guilty pleasure)

2007

6.Superbad

7.The Simpsons Movie

8.Bee Movie (for the memes)

9.Balls of Fury (guilty pleasure)

10.Wild Hogs (guilty pleasure)

2006

6.Mission: Impossible III

7.The Prestige

8.The Devil Wears Prada

9.Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny

10.Nacho Libre

2005

6.Sky High

7.Corpse Bride

8.Kiss Kiss Bang Bang

9.Kicking & Screaming

10.Are We There Yet? (bad ending, though)

2004

6.Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy

7.National Treasure

8.The Day After Tomorrow

9.Dodgeball: A True Underdog Story

10.Napoleon Dynamite

2003

6.The Italian Job

7.Once Upon a Time in Mexico

8.Holes

9.Elf

10.Love Actually (guilty pleasure)

2002

6.Ice Age

6.Punch-Drunk Love

8.Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams

9.Star Wars: Attack of the Clones (guilty pleasure)

10.Clockstoppers (guilty pleasure)

2001

6.Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase

7.Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius

8.Spy Kids

9.The Fast and the Furious

10.Serendipity (guilty pleasure)

2000

6.Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker

7.Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders

8.Me, Myself & Irene

9.O Brother, Where Art Thou?

10.High Fidelity

1999

6.Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me

7.Star Wars: The Phantom Menace

8.Dick

9.The Sixth Sense

10.Stuart Little

1998

6.Les Miserables

7.Jerry Seinfeld: For the Last Time

8.Sliding Doors

9.Safe Men (guilty pleasure)

10.Hard Rain (guilty pleasure)

1997

6.Air Force One

7.Men in Black

8.Tomorrow Never Dies

9.Alien: Resurrection (guilty pleasure)

10.Vegas Vacation (guilty pleasure)

1996

6.Jingle All the Way

7.Happy Gilmore

8.Romeo + Juliet

9.Twister

10.Independence Day

…Peace!

Related: List Repository

Related: 2023 Pop Culture Review