Some songs just perfectly capture the mood.
Scenes That I Love: Danny Meets The Girls In Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining
Today’s scene that I love comes from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining.
Stephen King can whine about this film all that he wants. It’s one of the few adaptations of his novels that can still scare the view even after numerous rewatches.
These two still freak me out.
6 Shots From 6 Films: Special Stanley Kubrick Edition
4 Or More Shots From 4 Or More Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!
On this date, 97 years ago, Stanley Kubrick was born in New York City. The rest, as they say, is history.
In honor of one of the world’s greatest directors, here are….
6 Shots From 6 Stanley Kubrick Films
The Killing (1956, dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: Lucien Ballard)
Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964, dir. Stanley Kubrick, DP: Gilbert Taylor)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968, dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: Geoffrey Unsworth)
Barry Lyndon (1975, dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: John Alcott)
The Shining (1980, dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: John Alcott)
Full Metal Jacket (1987, dir by Stanley Kubrick, DP: Douglas Milsome)
Artwork of the Day: Amazing Stories (by Frank R. Paul)
This cover is from 1927.
Music Video of the Day: My Life by Billy Joel (1978, directed by Steve Cohen)
This is one of Billy Joel’s best-known songs. For people who grew up at the right time, it will always be remembered as the theme song from Bosom Buddies. (Unfortunately, due to licensing issues, the song does not appear on the show’s DVD release and it has recently been removed by syndicated airings. All ten of Bosom Buddies‘s fans were very disappointed.) In the background of this song, you can hear Chicago’s Peter Cetera and Donnie Dacus contributing backing vocals.
This video was directed by Steve Cohen, who directed several videos for Billy Joel in the late 70s and the early 80s.
Enjoy!
Review: Ball x Pit
have been playing Ball x Pit way too many times. It is the kind of game that sinks its hooks into you, not through a gripping narrative or photorealistic graphics, but through a pure, unfiltered gameplay loop that is as addictive as anything I have played in years. Developed by Kenny Sun and published by Devolver Digital, this title takes the classic, almost primordial concept of Breakout and smashes it together with the modern, progression-driven obsession of a roguelike, all while throwing in a dash of bullet-hell chaos and even a little bit of base-building for good measure. The result is a game that feels both immediately familiar and utterly fresh, a bizarre and brilliant genre stew that has completely consumed my gaming time.
At its core, the action in the pit is a frantic, vertical-scrolling brawl. You control a hero at the bottom of the screen, and from above, relentless waves of blocky enemies march downwards. Your only defense is a stream of magical balls that you launch upwards, watching them bounce off walls and foes alike. The key is to angle your shots to get the most bounces for maximum damage, a concept straight out of the Arkanoid playbook. But where it gets wild is the roguelike layer. Enemies drop XP gems, and with each level-up, you are presented with a choice of new abilities or perks. This is where your build starts to take shape. You might pick a fireball, a ball that spawns smaller “baby” balls on impact, or a passive perk that causes enemies to explode upon death. This system, highly reminiscent of Vampire Survivors, is where the “bullet hell” moniker comes into play, as your screen eventually becomes a chaotic, beautiful mess of ricocheting projectiles and particle effects.
The true genius of Ball x Pit, however, lies in its fusion and evolution mechanics. You have limited slots for your special balls, but the game frequently drops items that allow you to merge two existing balls into one powerful, combined version. This frees up a slot and creates something new and often devastating, like a laser that also causes bleeding damage. Deciding which balls to fuse, and which passive abilities to stack to support them, is a constant, engaging puzzle that makes every run feel distinct. As one review perfectly described it, the game is a laboratory of damage-dealing, where the question of who do I want to be for this run drives the entire experience. With over fifteen unique characters and dozens of possible evolutions, the strategic potential is huge.
Just when you think you have got the loop figured out, you return to the surface, and the game completely switches gears. The resources you have gathered in the pit are used to rebuild the fallen city of New Ballbylon in a clever base-building minigame. You place farms, quarries, and forests on a grid and then, in a brilliant twist, you harvest them by launching your own heroes into the town like they are balls in a game of Peggle. They bounce off buildings and collect resources, which you then use to construct permanent stat-boosting buildings and unlock new characters. This dual-loop structure is relentlessly compelling. A fifteen-minute run in the pit is always followed by a quick visit to the city to manage your resources and feel your power grow, which in turn makes you eager to dive back into the pit.
It is this frictionless cycle of action, reward, and progression that makes Ball x Pit so dangerously addictive. It is the perfect game for a quick session, but its just one more run hook makes it nearly impossible to put down. Some critics have noted that the base-building can feel a bit tedious and that the game can become too easy once you have unlocked a powerful build, but these are minor complaints against the sheer, joyful momentum of the experience. It is a game that respects your time with its short runs, rewards experimentation, and consistently makes you feel like a genius when a risky fusion pays off. Ball x Pit is more than just a good game; it is a masterclass in game design that understands the core appeal of a simple, satisfying mechanic and builds a sprawling, intricate, and endlessly replayable world around it. It is a cheap, chaotic, and utterly brilliant time sink that I wholeheartedly recommend.
Things are heating up in the trailer for Mike Flanagan’s Carrie!
It’s not always easy to adapt someone else’s work.
Stick too close to the source material, and you end up with Gus Van Sant’s Psycho. Veer just a bit away from it, and you may end up with surprises like Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining or Frank Darabont’s The Mist. Tossing out the source material or rushing the story gives you Nikolaj Arcel’s The Dark Tower. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn’t. Even Stephen King had a rough time adapting his own work to film with Maximum Overdrive.
So seeing that we have yet another adaptation of King’s first novel, Carrie, I was a little confused and surprised when Mike Flanagan’s name came up. I know I haven’t kept up on everything online these days, but wasn’t he working on an adaptation for The Exorcist? Either way, we have it, and it looks like it has the potential to be pretty great. Flanagan’s no stranger to King’s works, having adapted Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep.
As always, Flanagan’s invited some of this friends to join in on the fun. For me, the standout returning actor is Samantha Sloyan, who previously worked on Hush, Midnight Mass, and The Life of Chuck, among others. Samantha’s playing Margaret White, and while Piper Laurie’s portrayal in Brian DePalma’s 1976 classic still scares me, I’m excited to see how this will turn out. Additionally, we have Midnight Mass‘ Michael Trucco and Rahul Kohli on hand. Of course, Flanagan production would be complete without his Hush lead actress, muse and wife, Actor/Director Kate Siegel. Matthew Lillard (Five Nights at Freddy’s) and Amber Midthunder (Prey, Novocaine) are also featured, with Summer H Howell (Night of the Reaper) as Carrie.
Carrie premieres on Amazon Prime early this October, just in time for Halloween.
Brad’s “4 Shots from 4 Films” feature Walter Brennan!
Legendary character actor Walter Brennan was born on July 25th, 1894. Brennan had one of the most recognizable voices in the history of cinema, and he won three Oscars for his incredible body of work. He’s simply one of the best!
Here are my 4 personal favorite Walter Brennan films:
Brad’s “Scene of the Day” features Woody Strode!
July 25th is the birthday of actor Woody Strode. In celebration of what would have been the icon’s 112th birthday, I’m sharing one of my favorite scenes in the history of cinema, which was made greater by the presence of Strode. One of the genius movies that Sergio Leone made when filming ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST (1968) was casting Jack Elam and Woody Strode as two of the three men waiting for Harmonica to get off the train in the opening scene. It’s a classic!
Brad reviews SHAOLIN SOCCER (2001), starring Stephen Chow!
My favorite living actor is the Hong Kong legend Chow Yun-Fat. His heroic bloodshed gangster films with John Woo turned me into a Hong Kong superfan. I’m also a big fan of Jackie Chan. His kung fu action-comedies eventually led to him being one of the biggest movie stars in the world. But did you know that when they were at the peaks of their careers in Hong Kong in the early 90’s, neither was the biggest star in their homeland? Nope! The true box office champion in Hong Kong was the comedian Stephen Chow. From 1990-1995, Stephen Chow led the box office every year except 1994, when Chow Yun-Fat barely edged him out. In the 2000’s, Stephen didn’t make a lot of movies, but when he did, they were record breaking box office smashes. The first of those was SHAOLIN SOCCER.
The film has a pretty simple concept… a former soccer great, known as Golden Leg Fung (Ng Man-Tat), has been down on his luck for 20 years after his leg was broken in a soccer match. Drunk and at his lowest, he runs into the Mighty Steel Leg Sing (Stephen Chow), a poor Shaolin disciple who spends his time trying to figure out a way to make the teachings of Shaolin popular again. When Fung sees the power with which Sing can kick a soccer ball, he comes up with the idea of recruiting and coaching a soccer team of Shaolin kung fu masters. He wants to challenge Team Evil, the reigning Chinese soccer champions, and their arrogant Coach Hung (Patrick Tse), the man responsible for his crippled leg. Can they win the Chinese Cup, restore the legend of Golden Leg Fung, and bring Shaolin Kung Fu into the modern world?
No matter what you think of my summary above, I can assure you that it doesn’t even come close to doing the film justice. What may sound like just a kung fu comedy is actually a kung fu comedy, a sports movie, and an effects driven, fantastical live-action cartoon all rolled up into one. As funny as I thought he was in the James Bond parody FROM BEIJING WITH LOVE (1995), writer-director Stephen Chow proves himself to be a comedic genius with SHAOLIN SOCCER. Apparently the citizens of Hong Kong agreed as the film broke all of their previous box office records when it was released in the summer of 2001. Chow would break his own records a few years later when he wrote, directed and starred in the international hit KUNG FU HUSTLE (2004).
As the film kicks into gear, we’re treated to a succession of “Magnificent Seven” like scenes where Fung and Sing try to build their soccer team from Sing’s former Shaolin “brothers.” These aren’t obvious badasses like Charles Bronson and James Coburn, though. These guys may be Shaolin masters, but in the world they live in now, they’re a bunch of beaten down losers. They all initially turn the guys down due to their complete lack of confidence in themselves, but something has undeniably stirred in them again. With Fung and Sing sitting alone and thinking all hope is lost, Chow brilliantly parodies John Woo, and the brothers join them in stylish, wind blown slow-mo!
Once the Shaolin masters get together on the team, director Stephen Chow cranks up the CGI and special effects to 10 to illustrate their true powers. This is all done for entertainment purposes, so don’t expect anything that resembles real soccer. Their first practice begins with Mighty Steel Leg Sing kicking a ball straight up in the air, so the team just has to hang out and take naps while they wait for the ball to finally come back down. As the guys discover their true CGI-enhanced Shaolin soccer superpowers, they seem unbeatable… that is, until they run back into the superdrug-enhanced Team Evil and their unethical coach Hung. Part of the fun of these types of movies is in seeing how they deal with adversity and overcome the bigger, badder team. I want to shout out Patrick Tse, who played Coach Hung. He’s deliriously over-the-top here, and we definitely want to see him get his comeuppance. One of the reasons I decided to rewatch SHAOLIN SOCCER is to celebrate Tse, who passed away on July 16th, 2026, at the age of 89, after a 7-decade film career in Hong Kong. Rest in peace, sir.
I think that the best thing I can say for this film is that underneath the entertaining craziness of the comedy and special effects is a sweet underdog story of unappreciated greatness being unleashed. The various characters may seem like jokes in their day to day lives, but they’re not, and it’s a joy to behold as the world sees how special they really are. This theme runs through several of Stephen Chow’s films. In his best movies, he doesn’t just prove that he’s a brilliant comedian, but he also shows us that he’s got a good heart.
Through the Shattered Lens 