New Trend & More

Paging Sue Ellen Mischke: There’s a new trend, wearing underwear in public. Here are Bella Hadid & Julia Fox, photo from Google Images:

In case you’ve forgotten or do not know, here’s Brenda Strong as S.E.M, Elaine’s nemesis, in Seinfeld, photo from GI:

Imagine if crypto crook Sam Bankman-Fried had donated to Trump instead of Dems.

Headline out of Illinois from foxnews.com: “Automaker Stellantis lays off hundreds of American workers, blaming high cost of making electric cars.”

Friday night’s movie fix courtesy of Netflix by mail was surprising in a positive way. With my list down to zero, I opted for a flick someone mentioned on Facebook, The Mist (2007), an adaptation of a novella by Stephen King. It’s a simple monster movie about critters growing large, although there are interesting aspects involving human behavior, familiar though they are. The acting is good, the special effects are first rate. My only quibble is the tediousness of the religious fantaticism, which has been done to death. Still, it’s a good show I’m sure most fans of horror would enjoy. It’s in the upper half of King screen adaptations, written and directed by frequent collaborator Frank Darabont, whose career has been highly successfully. Running time is a shade more than two hours. The ending is about as hardcore as could be. The zealot’s prophecy comes true in the end, although it would be wrong to believe it came from above, or below, for that matter. I didn’t like it, but it was plausible, true horror. The film fared well at the box office, returning more than $57 million worldwide against a budget estimated at $18 million. Add streaming and DVD sales and rentals, and oh la la. 313,000+ users at IMDb have rated The Mist, forging to a consensus of 7.1 on a scale of ten. The violence is not overdone, another plus. I was amused by the casting of Laurie Holden and Jeffrey DeMunn, as if they hadn’t suffered enough in The Walking Dead, which Darabont created. Screen vets Marcia Gay Harden, William Sadler, Andre Braugher, Toby Jones and Frances Sternhagen are among the large cast. Here is the protagonist, Thomas Jane, in character, photo from GI:

My thanks to the lovely young woman who overcompensated me for a kids’ book in Russian for her beautiful little girl; and to the one who did the same regarding The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and a collection of Sherlock Holmes tales by Arthur Conan Doyle; and to the one who bought Real Stories by Milton Katz; and to the lady and gentleman who combined to purchase five books in Russian.

My Amazon Author page: https://www.amazon.com/Vic-Fortezza/e/B002M4NLJE

FB: https://www.facebook.com/Vic-Fortezza-Author-118397641564801/?fref=ts

Read Vic’s Stories, free: http://fictionaut.com/users/vic-fortezza