Movies and tv – A gentleman with opinions

Gina Carano – 2 years later

So, a little over 2 years ago I wrote about the hilarity of Gina Carano trying to sue Disney for the consequences of her own actions, namely to compare modern day conservatives to Jews in Nazi Germany.¹

About 6 months ago she reached a settlement with Disney, claiming she was smiling and grateful to Elon Musk for funding her lolsuit. Oh how I laughed. But, was this sincere or just more acting by the former MMA fighter? Well, let’s see.

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Gina Carano v. The Walt Disney Company, 2:24-cv-01009, (C.D. Cal. Feb 06, 2024) [Carano v. Disney]

I watched: Black Bag (2025)

This film is equally strange for being one of the most expensive and highly produced pieces of fan fiction that completely missed the point – and also for being an incredible attempt by domestic abuser Michael Fassbender to reinvent himself as a character actor placing himself around good actors and looking blankly into space.

The plot is essentially a modern fan fiction of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy (1974) but with a complete lack of appreciation for what made the original work – counting instead on there being a lot of talking to have labelled as a psychological and clever.

Between this at The Killer (2023) I am starting to think there’s a pattern here and Fassbender is now basically on a quest to erase past with forced accolades – and Netflix is either trying to make Fetch happen or exploiting him as cheap talent.

Spoilers ahead for Black Bag (2025) and The Killer.

I watched: Splinter Cell – Deathwatch (Season One)

So, the reason I played Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Conviction(Conviction) is because I had watched Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell: Deathwatch(Deathwatch), the Netflix show led by John Wick writer Derek Kolstad.

Apparently Koldstad was a huge Tom Clancy fan,¹ and enjoyed the games as well – and that makes it very odd how the series diverges from games and from the general approach taken by Clancy. Of course, he was also the executive producer of The Continental: From the World of John Wick mini-series that cast infamous antisemite and all round shitbag Mel Gibson in a major role. So, understanding the audience isn’t his strong suit.

This leads to a weird scenario where it doesn’t quite feel like a Splinter Cell story, or John Wick story, but some sort of third thing that references Splinter Cell while trying to point to the latter. It’s fun, but its also very scattershot in that way which properties designed to try to reinvent a thing by making it more like an unrelated thing often end up being.

I’ve written this to contain minimal spoilers, however it is impossible to talk about elements of characters and narrative without touching on major spoilers – so be warned.

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Joe Deckelmeier & Grant Hermanns “Netflix’s Splinter Cell: Deathwatch Creator Talks Franchise’s New Era” (14 October 2025) Screenrant <screenrant.com>

I watched Alien: Romulus

It’s… not great.

A latest in the weird reboot of the property since Prometheus (2012), this one appears to be an attempt to combat the poor reception to the other movies by going back to the roots. Unfortunately, it appears that Ridley Scott has both forgotten everything that people liked about Alien (1979) and fired everyone who mentions what worked or questions the genius of his new Prometheus ideas. In this case, he didn’t even bother to make it himself, but he did watch it after the fact.

It tries to play the greatest hits, and it seems somewhat inspired by the hit video game Alien: Isolation (2014), but ultimately it falls flat because whenever it has the choice of being a horror movie or trying to be the fresh take… it always chooses the later. I’m not sure how much control director Fede Alvarez had, but this seems to be his third attempt to redo a classic horror and so far… none of them seem to be working.

The saving grace of the film is the amazing standout performance by David Jonsson. It is a brilliant display of talent and craft from beginning to end.

A promo shot of David Jonsson as Andy, courtesy of Disney's presskit.

From here on, there be spoilers: