Thursday, July 27, 2017

Turtle and Bond Power

I started off another cloudy, cool day with breakfast and an episode of the original Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles cartoon from the late 80's. Baxter Stockman joins the ranks of mutants in "Enter: The Fly" when, instead of frying him, Krang accidentally merges his body with a fly. Shredder somehow convinces him that the Turtles were the cause, not his boss.

As I did yesterday, I worked on my story throughout the morning and into the early afternoon. Leia is locked in a closet by Vader after Tarkin threatens the Cottages. She bangs on the door with a broom until Luke finds her...and then accidentally wallops him with it. He, Hank, and Charlie are all dressed as Imperial Gang members. They're attacked by not only the gang members, but the Empire Industries workers. Leia manages to take out a few with her broom long enough to jump out a window and into a dumpster. Not having many other options, the boys follow.

I got so into my writing, it was late when I broke for lunch. Did another Turtles episode, since I was in a hurry and the disc was already there. "New York's Shiniest" is a robot cop created to take some stress off the human police officers. April breaks into the lab where he's being developed to get a scoop, but ends up with him following her. Shredder is able to get his blueprints and create an army of robot cop clones to do his bidding. The Turtles have to figure out a way to avoid the clones and keep an eye on April and her new silver buddy.

Work was actually pretty quiet. I did a very small cart of returns, bagged, and gathered carts, baskets, and trash. There wasn't even really much of that to do. I was in and out. Grabbed two more containers of Talenti Gelato while they're still on sale (our sales end Thursdays), Black Cherry and Caramel Apple Pie.

Made Pasta With Broccoli to go with my leftover turkey hot dogs for dinner. Switched to the second season of Moonlighting while I ate. "The Lady In the Iron Mask" is a veiled woman who comes to Maddie and David asking them to find the man who disfigured her...because she wants to marry him. Turns out, the guy is an ex-con who found God and isn't so eager to marry her, especially since she has a husband. Even as Maddie debates whether it's right to take this woman's money, the man they visited is killed. After getting into an argument over how to solve the case, they each decide to go their own way and solve it themselves...which involves drag, breaking and entering, and lots of veils.

Finished out the night with Never Say Never Again. This is the 1983 remake of Thunderball, with Sean Connery playing James Bond for one last time on the big screen. This time, Bond is on holiday when he's called to investigate the disappearance of two nuclear warheads. His search takes him from a health spa in London to the Bahamas, where he first encounters industrialist Maxmillian Largo (Klaus Maria Brandaur) and his current flame Domino (Kim Basinger). After winning a dance with Domino in a video game, he reveals that Largo's henchwoman Fatima Blush (Barbara Carrera) used and then killed her beloved brother. They both end up in North Africa, where Largo has hidden the bombs. Now it's up to James, Domino, and his CIA buddy Felix Leiterer (Bernie Casey) to track down Largo and his explosive cargo.

First off, I'll admit that the original Thunderball was never my favorite Connery Bond movie. Some of that film's problems (length, slow pacing) are repeated here, and Basinger is a stiff Bond girl. On the other hand, the wonderfully nasty Brandaur is a vast improvement on the broader Adolfo Celi from 1965, and Carrera is obviously having a ball as Fatima Blush. Also look for Rowan Atikinson in a small role as the British Foreign Office representative in the Bahamas and Max von Sydow as Blofeld.

If you're a hard-core fan of Sean Connery's run or must see every Bond film, then you might get a kick out of this. For everyone else, it's completely skip-able.

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