Another Modern Moron Movie Review

Evil entities from the Outworld have zero conscience when it comes to murder, and they set out to kill all the chosen warriors on Earth before they learn their supernatural powers.

Back in the 1990s, when I played video games, "Mortal Kombat" was a favorite, and 2021s "Mortal Kombat" has some clever and funny references to the video game. The movie, like the game has its signature fatality moves, sheer graphic violence executed innocuously.

"I have risen from hell to kill you," Scorpion said. 

Scorpion, aka Hanzo Hasashi is a valued ally for the Earth warriors, especially when the Earth realm is on the verge of catastrophe. 

"Mortal Kombat's" tale begins in Japan, 1617. Subzero kills Hasashi along with wife and very young son. Subzero is definitely an Outworlder you don't want against you. Unknown to Subzero, Hasashi's infant daughter is saved by Raiden, an Outworlder you totally want on your side.

The storyline weaves wonderfully, and surprisingly funny with the graphic combat scenes. "Mortal Kombat" may be geared for teens and early 20s audiences, yet it seized my attention enough to watch it four times, and I'll watch it again. 

Three and a half stars easy for this entertaining flick. 

Mark Izzy Schurr

 

 

"Yoga Mythology" and Everything Else

Tapasya, a Hindu word meaning to churn the fires of our minds and burn the knots out of our brains. 

Without Goddess, there can be no God, God is as useful as a corpse without His Goddess, and Hindu gods don't judge. Our rewards or punishments in eternity are dictated by karma. (Hinduism)

I'm no Hindu by any stretch of the imagination, I'm not a vegetarian. "Yoga Mythology" is very descriptive about the spirit realm, and I'm stoked I have more than 30 pages of notes to use at my discretion.  

Some people believe there is justice in the world, others don't. People have the same thoughts about God. 

"Yoga Mythology," a 2019 book ignites intrigue to Hinduism. Duel author's Matthew Rulli and Devdutt Pattanaik who's written more than 50 books did a fantastic job on the idea's and facts of Buddhism, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism and Christian mythology. Yes, the authors refer to all five religions mentioned as mythology.  

Thanks to my sister Linda, I read "Yoga Mythology." This book taught me a lot of cool phrases, and its philosophical words on spirituality gave meaning to eternity.  

Hindu's view of God has more to do with the evolution of the mind and less about the rules. 

Do we live true to our nature, or constantly adapt or pretend to adapt to an environment that knots our minds? ("Yoga Mythology") 

Sheer paradise is being nourished on love and tranquility as opposed to food and water. The abundance of  laughter and pleasure are added perks in paradise. Hindu haven would suit me just fine!

Yoga is a gateway to heaven, or at least to peace of mind, and its been in literature for more then a 1,000 years. ("Yoga Mythology")  

The soul, like matter can't be created, nor destroyed. The soul is immortal, thus it's not hungry and doesn't fear death. Our souls are associated with the Goddess, aka Parvati and the feminine nature of things. Parvati is The Goddess. (Hinduism) She's the mother of the lord of all lords, Ganesha, or so it was written centuries before the Bible, if not longer. 

As we all know from our reading, Parvati granted Ganesha the power to be lord of the universe. When Ganesha, the elephant headed god was a mere child, he won his mother's heart when he and his brother, Skanda were challenged to race around the universe. Skanda vanished instantly into the stars and immediately took a massive lead over his brother Ganesha. Ganesha simply walked a full circle around his mother and said she was his universe. Parvati's heart was cerebrally melted and Ganesha won his race across the universe handily.    

"Yoga Mythology" doesn't condemn Christianity, Hinduism or the other three religions, it simply illustrates their differences and similarities. 

The Bible has the tale of Noah's Ark when the world was flooded thousands of years ago. 

The great flood over came the universe, not just the Earth. The oceans engulfed the stars and the planets as well. Upon this universal mass of water, a baby god, Vishnu, who represents preservation, was amidst this water wrapped in a banyan leaf, and thus, humanity treads on. (Hinduism)   

Even today, we live in myth. Gradually we're all living in a world of ideologies transmitted through educational institutions and social media constructed on a daily basis. Tribal mythology creates its loyalist and national mythology creates patriotism. 

All religions create class and gender roles and cultural hierarchies to value a favored few. Words from India have been mainstream for more than 2,300 years. The Goddess is the heart of wisdom. Dance with a lady rather than seek to have control over her. (Hindu literature) 

Hinduism is by far my favorite religion. Of the top five most popular faiths, Hinduism has many gods, not just one. Every book on Hinduism would fill a library shelf in every library across America, while Christianity has only the Bible and "The Book of Mormon" as its official doctrine.

Having read "Yoga Mythology," I still cannot grasp the concept of leaving your body as if it were a shell to travel across the astral realms and back to Earth again and again. 

Serious advocates of yoga master a certain group of 64 yoga poses in order to achieve a perfect state of consciousness, or at least journey their minds in that direction. Yoga postures are more than 4,000 years old, a timeless wisdom unbound to history or geography. Yoga popularized tantric literature more than 1,000 years ago. Om, the Hindu chant known to all is the primal sound of the universe. It created a series of vibrations that eventually led to life itself. (Hinduism) 

Imbibe the nectar of immortality representing knowledge, because we as humans have the power of imagination. 

Five stars easy for "Yoga Mythology," only my third five star rating. Thanks again Linda! 

The picture is a beach in Jenner, Schurr Shot in February. 

Mark Izzy Schurr 

    

     

Beautifully Brutal

Friday's release of "Cocaine Bear" drew me into the Airport Stadium 12 box office, and as expected, it was a bizarre journey into a comedic parade of graphic horror.

The story is based on a drug smuggling plane that crashed in a northern Georgia town, just south of the Tennessee border in 1985. The plane was piloted by convicted drug dealer, Andrew Thornton who died in the wreck. Several hundred pounds of cocaine were lost in one of Georgia's state parks, and it's proven a bear tore into 40 different containers of that cocaine. (New York Times) The rest is screenplay writer, Jimmy Warden's imagination. 

The police are aware of the lost nose coke, and the duel conflict between the law and the crazed criminal trying to find and retrieve the devil's dandruff gels well with the mother searching for her adolescence aged daughter in the woods where a wired-out bear roams. 

This movie is a farce with heart and insanity with laughter.  

Mark Izzy Schurr 

Another Modern Moron Book Review

 

Substance to fantasy, love pirates and sex bitches who showed the world how attractive sin and beauty is while having a keen sense and knowledge of evil. 

Some starlets in the silent era of movie making were described as perversely beautiful with an intoxicating allure. Seductively calculating and wonderfully wicked women who cast spells on some men, causing them to lose all thoughts of their past and sending them into the realms of amnesia, all this power over men with a simple gaze. ("Sex Goddesses of the Silent Screen")  

Some doctors claim it's possible for a man to get a blood clot in his brain with simple thoughts of love. 

The unrelenting vehemence of Barbara Lamarr put so much pressure on one man's brain, she inadvertently killed him in 1914. Lamarr was guilty for having soft soulful eyes and radiating a depth of experience, uncommon for her young mind. ("Sex Goddesses of the Silent Screen") 

A young man infatuated with Lamarr more than 100 years ago was diagnosed with a permanent brain disorder, causing insanity before his death. Her lips, nose and mouth were perfect, as if drawn by an artist, and one man's insane allure to her looks eventually ceased all of his brain functions.    

"The Queen of Tragedy to Wed the King of Comedy" was a 1922 Los Angeles Times headline when Charlie Chaplin was engaged to actress Pola Negri. 

Negri wrote and directed herself in the movie "Love and Passion," and was happy she never went through with the marriage to Chaplin, who was overly jealous and constantly bothersome, she said. By 1923, she was making $500,000 a year.    

Norman Zierold's 1973 book, "Sex Goddesses of the Silent Screen" was inspired by the ancient tabloids of the 1920s and years earlier. Upon the release of this book, even Zierold was oblivious to all five of the women he wrote about, yet illustrated the facts and fantasy with signature prowess. 

"My heart is ice, my passion consuming fire, men beware," Theda Bara said. "The Devils Daughter," starring Bara still has some punch for a movie more than 100 years old.  

Hypnotic eyes and her dark lustrous hair cascading in great waves across her bare shoulders ignited her fabulous frame. Bara was called a serpentine of sexuality who adverted the minds of movie goers who were reading about the disheartening figures of American soldiers killed in World War I. 

Bara was described as having a generous voluptuous fame that seldom moved to an ordinary beat. She said she was an ordinary woman, a little tall, a little thin. 

From beginning to end, the personal lives of these women were of little interest to me, except for Clara Bow, yet there were some fascinating facts on all five lucrative actresses featured in this book. 

Clara Bow, 1920s

Clara Bow, "Dangerous Curves," 1929

Clara Bow, 1920s

Pola Negri & Charlie Chaplin

Clara Bow, 1920s

Clara Bow, left, 1927s "Hula"

Clara Bow, 1927s "Hula," left and 1929s "Dangerous Curves." 

Clara Bow was the number one box office draw in America, if not the world for a few years during the 1920s and starred in 1927s "Wings," the first movie to receive best picture of the year.

The sex oracle or her time, Elinor Glyn, a risque and acclaimed novelist before 1910 found many of her stories transformed into screenplays, and Bow was a featured actress in some of these flicks.

"When they line up a story for me, the first thing they think of is how do I get Clara undressed?" Bow said.  

Zierold's synopsis of Bow's career and personal life is no "Running Wild," and it doesn't need to be. Bow was indeed a mega movie star before she was 21-one-years-old, and lived the hype of the Roaring Twenties.  

• Bow was the ideal woman of the 1920s, hot cha-cha, an adolescent rebellion with a reckless hilarity, suitable in an era of short skirts, bath tub gin and hip flasks a journalist said. ("Sex Goddesses of the Silent Screen)

Excessive boozing, hard drug use, and lascivious desires achieved from both genders were mere pieces in the puzzle in Bow's life. Her mother entertained abusive Johns before she was 5-years-old, and she witnessed her best friend Johnny die from severe burns before her 10th birthday. 

Bow moved away from Los Angeles in the early 1930s to live with her lover, Rex Bell on his ranch in Nevada. She married Bell in 1931, and made her last movie in 1933. By 1938, she had two boys with Bell and the two lived together on the ranch until his death in 1962. Bow was institutionalized briefly in the 1950s for her mental health. She made her second to last public appearance in 1952, and her last one at her husband's funeral in 1962. She passed away peacefully in 1965. 

At one point, she was receiving 40,000 fan letters a week, and her ambivalence toward a Yale football player summoned his attempted suicide by slashing his wrists. While recovering in the hospital from his self inflected wounds, a doctor said women slash their wrists when committing suicide, men use a gun.

"The more I saw of men, the better I liked dogs...I've never done a thing everyone else in Hollywood hasn't done. I may have made mistakes, I must have certainly been foolish, but my greatest mistake seems to have been I was open and above the board about everything," Bow said.

She retired when she was 28-years-old and by the 1950s, she was reading about four dozen books a month. 

All five women featured in "Sex Goddesses of the Silent Screen" had youth, beauty and wealth while living in the spirit of the Roaring Twenties. Four stars easy for this book, and thank you Steve for giving me this book, a great read.

Mark Izzy Schurr 

 

  

      

Government VIII

 

The blood of slain justice flows into oblivion as media misinformation feeds too many minds.

The politics of world power are a kaleidoscope of catastrophe and if women ruled the world, there wouldn't be bombs that kill, just ones that make you feel real bad, Robin Williams said.    

Mark Izzy Schurr

A Schurr Shot picture of a Trinidad beach in 2020 or 2021. 

Modern Moron Reviews

 

The critique of commercial Christianity was derailed in Hollywood as early as the 1920's and 30's, and December's movie "Babylon" weaves fantasy and reality into a crazed cocktail of movie magic, and sordid sexuality away from the cameras eye.   

For many, including myself, movies are an opiate to the senses, venturing into the frontiers of free expression and the kaleidoscope of imagination lures us into darkened movie venues laden throughout the lands.  

As advertised, Nellie LaRoy (Margot Robbie) was loosely based on the iconic 20s actress, Clara Bow. Like Bow, LaRoy sheds tears on cue for the camera, and claims it's easy to cry instantly simply by thinking of her home life. Having read 1988s, "Clara Bow: Running Wild" by  David Stenn, Bow indeed was able to shed tears instantly on camera if the scene dictated so. 

"Crying is easy, I just think of home," Clara Bow said. 

Between 1906-1910, before she was old enough for kindergarten, Bow's mom hooked herself to abusive men while under her supervision, and that's just the tip of the ice berg on Bow's torrid childhood. I have an extensive and geekish knowledge on the gossip of this Roaring 20s flapper. Eight of the 13 movies I've seen of Bow's are worthy of multiple views.

"Babylon" (s) LaRoy indulged in sex, cocaine and life itself as did Bow during her peak years as a star. Once Upon a time, Clara Bow was the number one box office draw in America, if not the world. 

LaRoy mounts an ice sculpture at a ritzy premiere party, and a studio executive says to another higher up, 

"Yep, that's our new star, fucking the ice sculpture."            

I honestly don't remember Bow fucking an ice sculpture in front of strangers, but it's certainly unsurprising if she had. "Running Wild" is a fitting title for Clara Bow's biography. 

Other similarities to Bow occur, then "Babylon" becomes its own story.  

Insane sexual references to Roscoe Fatty Arbuckle, are suggested in "Babylon," I perceive. 

Fans of twisty, yet comprehensible dialogue should like "Babylon." A solid three star rating from myself. 

Mark Izzy Schurr  

Another Modern Moron Movie Review

Greed and violence awaken the warrior within the legendary Santa Clause; thus, a new tale of the jolly soul is birthed. 

Spawned to the masses on December 2, "Violent Night" weaves brutality and comedy with bizarre originality.

A very wealthy and dysfunctional family in Connecticut has their Christmas eve party disrupted by a large number of heavily armed and skilled thieves who have no qualms when it comes to murder, even if it's a young girl who still believes in Saint Nicholas.

Pat Casey and Josh Miller co-wrote this future classic and many questions are resolved on the many mysteries of Santa, especially how he's able to get through a chimney. 

Santa simple wants to deliver his presents on December 24, but when he encounters nefarious men eager to kill an entire family for $300.0 million in cash, Saint Nick cannot abandon the young girl. 

David Harbour did a great job playing the part of a hard boozing Clause, and Leah Brady, as Trudy, set the tone for combating evil when she booby trapped the attic, resulting in comedic violence. 

John Leguizamo as a baleful Scrooge engages in a bombastic fight with Santa, and the end result of their combat ends with extreme uniqueness. 

Four stars for "Violent Night." 

Mark Izzy Schurr