I just learned that the super badass Lark decoy dude who took on both Ethan and Walker in the Paris bathroom fight scene in MI - Fallout was the main stuntman who trained the young actors in the new Star Wars films. His name is Liang Yang and I remember seeing him in several behind the scenes featurettes with Daisy Ridley. On top of that, he played the stormtrooper with the fancy weapon Finn takes on in The Force Awakens and one of the Praetorian Guards in The Last Jedi! That dude is AWESOME. Nice to see a talented stunt-person / fight choreographer like that featured so prominently in front of the camera.

The first Mission Impossible movie with Tom Cruise came out in 1996. That's 22 years of running, jumping, and whatnot. I'm exhausted just thinking about it.

Moviepass cut its #movies/month from 30 to 3: [link]

But apparently surge pricing and ridiculous availability issues will be resolved? I mean, this is what they SHOULD have done in the first place, honestly. 3 movies/10 bucks a month is a decent deal. That whole 'A Movie Every Day!' thing was bonkers. But they dicked around their customer base too much this past last month and and now people are like, "I don't care what you do, the fucking TRUST IS GONE, yo." At this point, I find them so sketchy that 'moderately okay' service is not enough to lure me back. I'ma gonna stay with the more reliable-seeming AMC A-list for now.

Anyway, since I signed for A-list 2 weeks ago, I watched 4 movies. No trip to multiplex this week since it's Vividcon Weekend (VIVIDCON YAY!!) The nice thing about subscription services is that it's enabling me to seek out films I might have waited for streaming access (and often end up not bothering). One such film was this doc called "Three Identical Strangers" I saw on a lark on Saturday, which is about a triplet separated at birth. And that's all I will say about that because this film takes you on a JOURNEY. Don't read about it, just go see it. It's really something.

Also under the belt: the second viewing of MI: Fallout in IMAX. Okay, it's a retrofitted fake IMAX in my local AMC instead of the real deal, but it was still a sight to behold when the screen expanded to fill the entire wall during the climactic helicopter chase. YOWZA.

One such film was this doc called "Three Identical Strangers" I saw on a lark on Saturday, which is about a triplet separated at birth. And that's all I will say about that because this film takes you on a JOURNEY. Don't read about it, just go see it. It's really something.

My friend's mother taught one of the triplets!

Also, my ex (Emmett's mom) encountered a separated-at-birth twins scenario at summer camp when she was growing up. (Not her - two other campers.)

What a weird thing it would have been to encounter your double like that.

I was surprised to see a documentary playing in a multiplex but apparently the film has proved to have some legs. It was the second week it was playing here and the mid-afternoon Saturday showing was like 60% full.

There's also the documentary "Twinsters", on Netflix.

The three movies/month thing would be just fine with me (I signed up with my yearly average of two/month in mind), but I have zero faith that the current setup won't be ditched in favor of some other ridiculous set of restrictions next week when the patch job of the latest announcements turns out not to solve MoviePass' financial difficulties, or the CEO sees a squirrel or something.

If I hadn't gotten the yearly plan I'd have been long gone by now—moviegoing should not be ADDING stress and uncertainty to my life, it's supposed to be a way to relax!

Also, my ex (Emmett's mom) encountered a separated-at-birth twins scenario at summer camp when she was growing up. (Not her - two other campers.)

Are you sure she wasn't just remembering seeing The Parent Trap when she was a kid?

If I hadn't gotten the yearly plan I'd have been long gone by now—moviegoing should not be ADDING stress and uncertainty to my life, it's supposed to be a way to relax!

Right?? I paid surge pricing once, then the second day the theaters were blacked out for selection, I was like, fuck this, I'm out. But I was a monthly subscriber. The unreliability was the crux of the thing. And who the hell knows how the plan will change in the next few weeks?

I keep checking on the entertainment news to see what other shenanigans MoviePass people are up to every day, even after cancelling. It's like a slow trainwreck -- I can't look away. I think their stock fell from like $35 last year to less than a buck this month. Someone referred to this as an inadvertent Robin Hood scheme, where they unwittingly enabled taking money from a bunch of clueless venture capitalists and giving them to the People in the form of movie tickets. It kinda was!

In the long run, this may end up facilitating several theater chains offering competitive subscription services, which is a good news for the consumers.

I'm staying with my MoviePass for the time being. I bop between several theaters to see what I want and 3 movies a month works for me.

The daily changes need to stop though.