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What is ludicrous it seems propaganda machinery is firing on all engines, tough to believe what is what. Like allegedly (or not), a Russian projectile fell on an Israel memorial centre. True story. Then it fell on some 300 meters farther. True story.

But nobody to mention that US (and probably UK) faces shortage of lock n load ready people to serve in times of conflict (never said which though).

Saying Putin is bad however would sound hypocritical at least from our side and I am not ashamed stressing that our leaders are svim and NATO is bully. Maybe we should clean up our own yard first.

Even for the Express, that's quite the story. Or non-story, I guess.

"a lack of democracy"

So they fled to Russia, a country known for its amazing democracy! There must be something else to this story, surely?

"and forced immunisation"

Ah. There it is.

Well, let's say that I believe they moved to Russia. Why..? Only express and daily mail know. But we live in era of disinformation and our media is trash anyway, so...

"and forced immunisation"

Ah. There it is.

"They are inviting all the immigrants over so they can stir up trouble in the country and start the war the government wants."

There, I fixed it for ya.

https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/698419/German-family-flees-to-Russia-claim-asylum-Griesbach

https://taskandpurpose.com/news/gen-z-worried-draft-war-russia-ukraine/

Lmao. Aren't people aware that wars are being fought from your cozy chair xD?

As for Putin, I don't think he seeks to re-establish another USSR, it sounds more like tries to renew imperialist Russia. First by pushing back NATO.

Whatever Putin reasoning might be, I find his "N" rhetorics as scary bedtime story. WW3? Metaphorically speaking, we already live in WW3. Nuclear warheads weren't flying in 1962, as they weren't since 1945. And Cold War was already much strressful period. And I don't expect this conflict will last much (but with using knee-jerk to reserve my wrongness). Whatever the outcome might be. And please without Johnson's involvement!

(Crimea for a long time has been Russian; only when Kruschov (or whathisname) made catastrophical error, transferring it to Ukrainian SSR).

What irritates me here is big man Boris promising military help to Ukraine, like there are no bigger issues to solve on the homefront, such us taking care of the country in post-Brexit. Jumbling into internecine conflicts always led up to disasterous consequences afterwards. What a plonker.

[Raw Deal]

Raw Deal

I caught this Arnie's film yesterday, I thought I could give it a go, as he was the topic recently in this section. Plus, I haven't seen it recently, I think it was maybe 15 years ago.

Probably the least remembered Arnie's film from the 80s (save Red Sonja). It's not difficult to say why. Why most of his movies from this decade were fairly entertaining and cheesy (the latter certainly being this picture), my main issue is that film never really transcended B film qualities. Though I admit it has some entertaining value.

The script is weak and faintly reminescences A Fistfull of Dollars, and requires a huge amount of suspension of disbelief. Arnie is Mark Kaminsky, former FBI agent, summoned to go undercover in mafia ring under disguise of Joseph P. Brenner (this one has a fairly funny one-liner), secretly undermining their ranks in order to bring down the whole group and find a mole inside. I don't why he blew up oil facility in order to stage his death. Arnie's cover gets blown in a dumbed down manner. There is a rather surreal sequence, which I found rather cringy, when Arnie guns down a group of baddies, hiding in a quarry, while listening - I Can't Get no Satisfaction. Although the film quickly redeems itself by massive, pop-out shootout (not unlike the finale of Commando) that quickly follows, and which basically wraps up the film. Action in general has potent mix of gunplay and explosions, not hackneyed, nor mindblowing. As for the rest of the cast, there are familiar faces; Sosa from Scarface, Sam Wanamaker as the main antagonist, Robert Davi as his right hand and colourful antagonist to Arnie and Kathryn Harrold, serving for nothing more but eye-candy part. There are some funny one-liners here and there (this being after all, Arnie's vehicle).
-"What P. in your name stands for?"
-"P***y."
Or "cow's biggest contribution to the world is s**t."

Overall, I don't think this is the worst Arnie's film, but I definitely would stow it medium-lower category. If anything, the end credits have one of the coolest, badass tunes I've heard.
https://youtu.be/5DmxfOGlPIg

Fans of Schwarzenegger's 80s and 90s output have probably already seen these, but just in case here are Arnie's greatest movies as musicals:

Predator
Conan
Commando
Total Recall
Terminator 2

Then I feel awkwardly embarassed. How come they skipped Last Action Hero (arguably the most underrated Schwarzenegger film?

lol I've found for some reason among the top results (below og version ofc) Don't know who she is, but she excelled! And I never thought about a woman covering this, and I don't think just any woman could, but glad I was proven wrong

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR-v2ZyrIuo

[Commando]

Commando

Ah...this, Running Man (I won't ever forget Arnie's liner "because I am going say please") and Predator were movies that since I saw them for the first time I knew I should watch. For some time,  I even thought these were the most accomplished action films ever. Nothing much has changed in meantime (except I am 20 years older).

[Power & Glory]

Power & Glory

I appreciate Howard Chaykin as a creator. He could be terrific or terrible, but I don't think there was anyone else as audacious as is he in the field. No one else did deconstruction of already established properties like him. The Shadow, Blackhawk, Twilight, his Elseworlds stories, and now Power & Glory.
Here ol' Howard pisses on the superhero concept, pop culture, politics, and political correctness, through sharp-edged satire and self-referential meta humour.

As it goes, NIA director Malcolm LeStrange determined that "Japs make stereos, while Krauts make hot cars," leaving the US to develop something already done too well. The answer is obvious - a superhero. And Power & Glory offers a slightly different spin on the theme. Enter Alan Powell, ideal candidate; narcissistic, cowardly NIA operative, pervert who is afraid of being touched. The latter comes into full expression when he masturbates while watching two hookers frolicking, then declining the offer to join them with "no, who knows where you've been." It cracked me up so much, it still holds inside me.
That's where Michael Gorski steps in, Powell's total opposite. Gorski is a proto-1950s cynical, world-weary, but very efficient NIA agent and, albeit reluctantly, agrees to help Uncle Sam to keep the superhero product flowing. Plus, Gorski is also Jewish, and this is referenced throughout the whole book (which I can't help but consider this was self-insert on the Chaykin's behalf). And like the title says, one has all the power; the other has all the glory. The only problem is - they hate each other's guts.

What keeps this four-issue series from being stellar are the narrative choices. Chaykin often sacrifices narrative in favour of ideas. As a result, the plot itself largely makes no sense. The comic devotes considerable time to side characters who only relate to the infamous duo in very superficial ways. The main antagonist (whose part plays more like a tertiary) is a joke. A supposedly notorious drug lord, a dictator of a third-world country, and a wannabe Hollywood producer, yet so elusive for NIA to bring him down. A character named Belladonna (thinly veiled Madonna reference), a superficial celebrity that shags the drug lord first, later Powell, whose role serves for nothing more than to illustrate the shallowness of celebs we see every day.

The story ends with the one-shot Christmas special. Leaning more straightforward than the previous 4-issue series, this time Gorski and Powell severe ties with the US government. But are forced to renew their love-hate (mostly hate) partnership to battle an overly pious woman, aptly named Epiphany St.McMiracle, who is bent on destroying the whole globe (just because of her philandering husband, who gave her AIDS). It's a solid wrap-up, though I've found the religious humour a bit off-colour to me.

And there is the art. I have to say there is something sympathetic about Chaykin's art style. I like how he draws faces, but more often than not, due to troubled framing, intricate grid, and pages crowded with balloons, I had issues in working out what picture I should follow.

Hm... Seems that some issues are out of stock. Although I wish if someone collected all four vols into the one

https://www.amazon.co.uk/s?k=garth+ennis+war+stories&crid=1XVHP8IBO5UKJ&sprefix=Garth+ennis+war+s%2Caps%2C411&ref=nb_sb_ss_ts-doa-p_1_17

[Swamp Thing]

Swamp Thing

Ah... This was mild fun, stupid, trashy, monster flick. That'll probably satisfy afficionados of B monster flicks of the 1950s. In this case, overly cheap look, sets look unreal and design of the creature leaves much to be desired (man in rubber suit. Allegedly, budgetary constraints, even for the early 80s (meaning no computer sfx) meant that a lot of goodies from the script had to be put in oblivion. I was aware of this film before, but only because Wes Craven did it, but haven't seen until now. I think Adrienne Barbeau gave the performance of her lifetime; she could have been action heroine much like Sigourney Weaver was. It was odd to see David Hess from Craven's debut, controversial The Last House on the Left (who came a bit like a creep in an interview), makes appearance playing a dumb goon. The actor who plays Arcane, (who also played the main villain in Octopussy), delivers another diabolical, but sophisticated character and chews all the scenes he is in.

Overall, I think it's pretty decent DC adaptation, and while definitely not a high point, nor is the bottom of the well either. I think it came in a rather interesting time. Swamp Thing comics weren't selling well at that point as Moore's run on Swamp Thing occured year afterwards.

[War Stories]

War Stories is a sort of anthology series of one-off war tales (it's all good, but volumes 1 & 2 are sublime, and you've got the likes of Ezquerra, John Higgins, David Lloyd, and Dave Gibbons on art); Battlefields is great too, and you have a chance to get to know the characters a bit more than in War Stories as most of them get repeat outings. Out of the Blue is an aerial combat book, continuing the story of a character from War Stories II. The artist struggles a bit with people quite frankly, but his dogfights are something else. The same team also did a great Johnny Red book. There's also a Battler Briton miniseries with Colin Wilson which is unmemorable but decent enough; and The Stringbags, a recent HB with PJ Holden that should probably be top of your list - it's superb!

Aw, cool! War Stories sounds intriguing, I just the idea of having multiple artist. And I'll keep my eye on Battle Briton, I just love Colin Wilson.

Is there anything good from Ennis, ww2 related, aside Sara? I am not really versed in his ww2 output, although I've read The Adventures in the Rifle Brigade, and while it had Kelly's Heroes, dark, farcical humor, I actually found it often off than hit. I don't know about his Battlefield, many gave it good reviews so I may get that one day.

[Xerxes: The Fall of the House of Darius and the Rise of Alexander]

Xerxes: The Fall of the House of Darius and the Rise of Alexander

What an ineffable twaddle! If Miller thought that revisiting the world of 300 by doing nothing but a bland potboiler, he can suck up.
While 300 (a much superior comic) was pretty straightforward in its narrative, that it for gave callously inaccuracies, it was at least a devilishly entertaining comic. Xerxes is not. Serving as basically prequel and sequel to 300, covering the period of about 150 years, Miller miserably failed to tell a cohesive story worth reading, even if he had 5 issues at disposal. His narrative is so heavily fragmented and aimless. Of all characters that appear here, none is given a valid arc (and I deem the title of this book misleading and inaccurate), and all of them appear in no more than one (or two, in case of the Athens war captain) issue. If you are interested in Alexander the Great and Darius III, you won't find those answers here, whose conflict is superficially touched, and the ending is awful. And since this is obviously no history book, I guess the only selling point are illustrations. Which, I must say, are not bad, and images of bloody battles are epic and beautiful as were in 300. Also, colors scheme by Alex Sinclair mask well Miller's drawing shortcomings, and I've seen worse Miller. Additionally, I find a bit peculiar how Miller drew characters, soldiers in thongs and over-bejeweled Xerxes. But I guess those only served to cover up the superficiality of the plot.
Better go back to 300, which I might just do, to wash away the emptiness I felt after reading this crap.