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Over-the-top ‘Meg 2’ bites off more than it can chew

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:06 GMT

Many, many times bigger than Bruce the “Jaws” shark, Meg is the mighty undersea Megalodon that helped make “The Meg” a hit 2018 monster movie.“Meg 2: The Trench” picks up where that left off. We are back in the vast, expensive and elaborate Oceanic undersea lab founded by Jiuming, a Chinese billionaire (martial arts star Wu Jing).  He speaks Chinese at a glittering reception praising environmental studies as we read the English subtitles (“Meg 2” is a Chinese co-production).Here again is Jason Statham as Jonas Taylor, the unofficial guardian of the endeavor who will soon find himself facing continual life or death crises but never shake his resolve to do one thing at a time.As a series of spectacular underwater scenes unfold, you might see the submersibles and think sadly of the real-life submersible implosion that claimed the lives of five people trying to explore the Titanic.But that passes quickly as “Meg 2” settles into being a campy, virtually non-stop series of increasingly ab...

Graham: Dems double down on indictments, take Biden risk

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:06 GMT

You don’t have to be a hardcore cynic to suspect that one of the goals of Tuesday’s indictment of Donald Trump — the third this year — is to keep the GOP primary electorate rallying around the former president. It’s a transparent political ploy openly discussed by operatives on both sides of the aisle. So if it works, Republican primary voters will have nobody to blame but themselves.But if Trump does win the nomination and then goes on to beat President Biden, whom will Democrats blame then?When Trump was indicted the first time — and on a legal theory just as novel as the one prosecutor Jack Smith used Tuesday — veteran Democratic operative Bob Shrum said that any attempts by Democrats to boost Trump’s candidacy would be a mistake.“I don’t want to run against Trump because he might win,” said Shrum, now the director of the Center for the Political Future at the University of Southern California-Dornsife. “The problem with this ‘help-Trump-win’ strategy — and smart people know this...

Poignant ‘Dreamin’ Wild’ can’t quite hit high note

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:06 GMT

Casey Affleck appears to chase “Manchester-by-the-Sea” thunder in “Dreamin’ Wild,” an emotionally big, time-flipping, conceptually flawed drama about two brothers, one of whom is a hot-headed, downcast genius. Guess which one Academy Award-winner Affleck plays? Affleck and Walton Goggins are, respectively, Donnie or Don and Joe or Joey Emerson aka the real-life Emerson brothers of Fruitvale, Washington, where they have no internet, but they have heart to spare.As adolescents, Don and Joe have a studio in the woods and learn to play instruments and make recordings. They live with their hardworking and devout parents on a thriving farm, where the boys are expected to help out. Played, respectively, by Noah Jupe (“A Quiet Place”) and Jack Dylan Grazer (“Shazam!”) as adolescents, the grown-up Don and Joe learn in early middle-age that an album they recorded 30 years earlier in their “work shack” (built by dad), has developed a national cult following and is in serious danger of br...

Editorial: Credit rating drop demonstrates folly of Bidenomics

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:06 GMT

If there was ever any doubt that President Biden has made a pig’s breakfast out of the economy, renowned credit-rating agency Fitch just downgraded America.Fitch Ratings dropped U.S.. long-term debt one notch from AAA to AA+, citing “expected fiscal deterioration over the next three years, a high and growing general government debt burden, and the erosion of governance…”You can stump for Bidenomics all you want, you can declare that a trillion-dollar spend will cost nothing, but you can’t fool a credit agency.Fitch called out rising government deficit, which forecasting a jump to 6.3% of GDP in 2023, from 3.7%  in 2022.We know how we got here, it just comes as a surprise to most on Capitol Hill. There was the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, the $500 billion Inflation Reduction Act, the $1 trillion infrastructure bill, the $280 billion Chips Act. It adds up – disaster.There was pushback, the Congressional Budget Office sounded the alarm on the Inflation Reductio...

‘Afire’ crackles with tension, desire & dread

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:06 GMT

German filmmaker Christian Petzold has turned his attention to making films about the four elements: earth, air, fire and water. Petzold began with actor Paula Beer (“Frantz”) and “Undine” (2020), a marvelously mysterious and watery entry with her in the seductive title role.Now, he brings us “Afire,” a film about a group of young people vacationing in a home near a Baltic Sea resort town in danger of being engulfed by nearby wildfires and by their own own overlapping desires. Leon (Thomas Schubert) and Felix (Langston Uibel) are, respectively, a judgmental, brilliant young writer, working on a new manuscript for his hovering, paternal editor; and a young photographer completing a portfolio to apply for admission to a prestigious art school. The two of them engage in some homo-erotic roughhousing in an early scene.After their Mercedes breaks down in the nearby woods, which are alive with the sounds of their insect and animal inhabitants, Leon and Felix discover that Leon’s mot...

Ambrosi: Raising pilots’ retirement age bad for aviation safety

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:06 GMT

Flying has never been safer in the United States. Our country’s current approach to aviation safety is clearly working — the U.S. is the gold standard for aviation safety around the world.Despite this achievement, lawmakers working on the Federal Aviation Administration reauthorization bill are considering introducing new risk and rolling back safety regulations just as passengers are returning to the skies.Right now, some in Congress are seeking to unilaterally raise the airline pilot retirement age from 65 to 67 without scientific study or safety research. What we do know is that this ill-conceived proposal could introduce more risk into our aviation system, disrupt airline operations, cause more flight delays and cancellations, and increase ticket prices for passengers.This political exercise would also put the U.S. in conflict with the international retirement age standard. As a result, some pilots would be limited to flying only domestic routes, and thousands would need to be r...

Hilarious ‘Shortcomings’ comes up a winner

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:06 GMT

“Shortcomings,” a film directed by the Korean-American actor Randall Park (TV’s “Fresh Off the Boat”), making his solo feature debut, and written by Adrian Tomine (“Paris, 13th District”) who also wrote the 2007 graphic comic version, is like no other comedy I have seen and yet like most of the classic comedies I love. For one, we have the pairing of Ben Tanaka (Justin H. Min, “After Yang”), the film-school-drop-out, manager of a Bay Area art house cinema, and lesbian-on-the-make Alice (Sherry Cola, “Joy Ride”). These two make quite a team.Ben lives in a comfortable, minimalist flat with long-term girlfriend Miko Hayashi (Ally Maki, TV’s “Hacks”), a film festival director from a wealthy family. Miko and Ben fight all the time, mostly about his attitude, which is sarcastic, intellectual, combative and often miserable. Alice is Ben’s best friend and confidant, who is currently flirting with a waitress at one of her and Ben’s favorite restaurants.The troub...

Howie Carr: So when is free speech a crime?

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:06 GMT

So now it’s against the law to believe that an election was stolen?That is what former president Donald J. Trump was essentially charged with in a federal courtroom in Washington yesterday.Amazing stuff, and it raises the question, who will be the next politician charged with saying publicly that an election was stolen?Jimmy Carter? Hillary Clinton? Joe Biden? Kamala Harris? Bernie Sanders? Jim McGovern? Jamie Raskin? Stacey Abrams?That’s just a tiny sampling of the Democrats who have publicly stated that they believe that the evil Republicans have stolen elections, or words and phrases to that effect, like “illegitimate” or “not on the level.”If you include those Democrats who’ve said it privately, you’d also have to throw John Forbes Kerry and his lovely wife Mama T for… wrongthink, as George Orwell would have put it.But of course, all the above are Democrats. So it’s okay for them to say whatever they want. It’s only against the law for Trump to think that something was amiss, af...

Yankees open 4-game Astros series with win over rivals

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:06 GMT

The Yankees won their second consecutive game over a rival on Thursday, beating the Astros, 4-3, before a rowdy crowd at Yankee Stadium.The foes traded blows throughout the game, but Anthony Volpe’s sixth-inning RBI single gave the Yankees the lead for good. The hit scored Harrison Bader, who walked and stole second base.The Yankees scored their first three runs in the opening frame with a pair of dingers off Astros right-hander Cristian Javier. Giancarlo Stanton got the scoring started with a two-run blast, his second home run in as many days. Billy McKinney immediately followed with a solo shot.A thorn in the Yankees’ side in the past, Javier only gave the Astros 4.2 innings. The pinstripers made him throw 102 pitches.Houston responded quickly after the first inning, however, as a Jake Meyers groundout and a Martín Maldonado single gave them two runs off Clarke Schmidt in the second inning.But Schmidt didn’t allow any more runs to the Astros, who the Yankees...

Dear Abby: 50/50 custody leaves mom lost, anxious

Published Sun, 29 Dec 2024 12:48:06 GMT

Dear Abby: Five months ago, my relationship of 10 years ended. I discovered my boyfriend had been unfaithful on more than one occasion. He didn’t want to fix the relationship, and I could no longer take more of his mental and emotional abuse.My biggest hurdle is our children, who are 3 and 6. I have done everything for them since they were born.My ex and I verbally agreed on a 50-50 schedule, so I have gone from being with them every day to half that time, and I hate it. I miss them terribly when they aren’t with me. My anxiety and worry have skyrocketed.I want to do what’s best for my kids, and I struggle daily with worrying if what I am doing is best. Is it best for them to be with their dad half the time when he hasn’t been around much these past two years? I have talked to a lawyer, who said it’s up to me since we were never married. Friends and family have told me to give Dad only every other weekend, but is that truly what’s best for them?I ...