Bald Move Pulp

Bald Move Pulp is where you can get your fix of robots, aliens, action space adventures, and everything in between; on television or on the big screen. Pulp was not made for serious drama, if that’s your thing, you might be looking for Bald Move Prestige.

Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (2002)

Special thanks to Brian Strader, previous commissioner of the podcast for the underrated sci-fi saga, Babylon 5. This time he’s back to, as he says, “play ‘TV Show Dumpster Fire’ roulette.” Unfortunately we think he may have lost by betting on Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex. We were suitably impressed with the detail of the animations, certain aspects of world building, and the themes were philosophically engaging here and there. Unfortunately, other aspects of the world building struck us as silly or worse, the dubs and probably general translation on the version we watched were almost universally bad, and the themes that were otherwise engaging have been either dated or made more engaging by later works such as Altered Carbon.

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Sharp Objects Ep. 6 – Cherry, Castle Rock

We’re back to talk HBO’s Sharp Objects and a preliminary spoiler-free discussion of Hulu’s spooky Castle Rock!  Here are some time stamps to help you navigate the podcast…

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Sharp Objects Ep. 5 – “Closer”

Jim and A.Ron talk about another hard to watch but impossible to turn away from episode of HBO’s Sharp Objects, “Closer”. The town of Wind Gap celebrates what could charitably be called a a dark and regrettable moment from their past history, while Adora tortures her daughter Camille in ways that would make Ramsay Bolton blush. Not much is advanced in terms of the central murder mystery, but we get the sense that this show is about to take a big step off a deep, dark cliff that is this toxic town and the damage it’s done to the people unfortunate enough to have been stuck there.

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Sharp Objects Ep. 4 – Ripe

Jim and A.Ron continue to focus on HBO’s Sharp Objects, with a deep dive on the fourth episode, “Ripe”. Of course, Adora is just The Worst, but we see hints that the crazy awfulness of her family didn’t start with her. Who knows how many generations of Wind Gap women have been caught in this cycle of rage and shame?  Also, Camille and Willis get handsy, suspicion swirls around John Keane and Bob Nash, and Amma gets (probably) fake murdered by the end of the episode.

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Mission: Impossible – Fallout (2018)

Jim and A.Ron have seen the latest “how old is Tom Cruise again?!” installment of the Mission: Impossible franchise, “Fallout”, and it’s crazy. The plot around the absolutely bonkers stunt work is a bit thin, but the stunts themselves fully justify the movie. You can see ever dollar spent and bone broken literally up there on the screen, but it also must be said that these stunts are clinging desperately to the line from believable to unbelievable. And half the time they are careening over that line and land into Fast & Furious territory. Unless they can find an emotional core to build future episodes, this might be as good as a retro-futuristic spy thriller can get.

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Sharp Objects Ep. 3 – “Fix”

This week’s episode of Sharp Objects, “Fix”, is rough to watch. Filled with painful encounters with family, self-harm, and suicide, it is bleak and yet remains engaging and thoughtful as the camera captures the horrific events without artifice or judgment. Amma appears far more at risk and overtly dangerous than we first anticipated, Adora is an absolute monster, and Camille is clearly in over her head with this situation that she isn’t emotionally prepared for. The authorities are getting nowhere in their investigation, with bickering, mistrust, provincialism, and envy clouding their judgment. Who or what is Camille trying to “Fix”, anyway?

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Sharp Objects Ep. 2 – “Dirt”

We’re back for more discussion of HBO’s miniseries, Sharp Objects, discussing the second episode, “Dirt”. But it turns out we can’t resist the siren call of discussing “all of television” as we do a deeper dive than is truly necessary on the 2018 Emmy nominations, as well as talk about the Stranger Things season 3 teaser that just dropped. We just can’t help ourselves!

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Skyscraper (2018)

Jim and A.Ron are back with another first run Bald Move, this time taking in The Rock’s latest family friendly action flick, “Skyscraper”. Die Hard + Towering Inferno = a pretty damn engaging and entertaining action film, smarter than most, and with plenty of heart courtesy Dwayne Johnson’s charisma and chemistry with co-star (and fellow badass) Neve Campbell. You’re going to be able to predict most beats of the film from the first 10 minutes, but it’s still a pleasure to watch Mr. Johnson do his thing. The flaming 220 story building against the dramatic back drop of Hong Kong serves up several great set pieces and looks great doing it. 

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Sharp Objects Ep. 1 – “Vanish” and HBO Talk

Jim and A.Ron are here to talk about HBO. Both in general terms, because we’re not big fans of the way the new executive overseeing the network is talking about our baby, and in specifics, namely the new mini-series, Sharp Objects. Based on the novel by Gillian Flynn, it features Amy Addams as a journalist who returns to the small town she grew up in to investigate a series of killings. Giving us strong True Detective vibes, the mystery is intriguing and the characters are vivid and well developed just one episode in. We’ll be back with weekly coverage of Sharp Objects, if you’d like to join the conversation, use the links below!

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Incredibles 2 (2018)

Cecily and A.Ron are back to discuss Incredibles 2, a sequel that’s been a long time in the making. Brad Bird returns to direct the original cast and some fun new cameos. If you liked Incredibles, this is more of it in every way.  More supers, bigger action scenes, more Mr. Incredible angst, super teenage dating, and the best animal control scene in movie history. The script is literally the same script from the first, with the same twist at the mid-way point, but the plot is really secondary to the pleasure of watching the characters metaphorically and literally bounce off each other.

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