Egg McGuffin, or the Xenomorph-or-Egg Paradox

The 1991-2 production of Alien 3 was by all accounts more of a slog than this photo of Sigourney Weaver and her tall, dark plus-one would suggest.

Here’s a Smithsonian piece wherein I put my lifelong independent study of xenobiology to good use by documenting curator Ryan Lintelman’s quest to sleuth out exactly which ALIEN flick the big prop egg in the Smithsonian Museum of American History. It’s not the first time I’ve recounted the tortured history of of Alien 3, a less imaginative exponent of the visual and thematic ideas that had made the first two pictures in the slime-dripping series so widely admired.

Trigger Warning: "John Wick: Chapter 4," reviewed.

Keanu Reeves and Donnie Yuen in John Wick: Chapter 4 (Lionsgate).

John Wick: Chapter 4 looks great, goes on forever, and ends with dudes facing off with archaic single-shot dueling pistols at dawn. It's Barry Lyndon: Chapter 2 — Parabellum, basically. 169 minutes. More is less... says the guy who saw Avatar: The Way of Water more than once.

My Washington City Paper review is here.

POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR: "Creed III" and What's Making Us Happy

Director/star Michael B. Jordan confers with Jonathan Majors on the set of Creed III. (Eli Ade/MGM)

I was glad to join Aisha Harris and Shamira Ibrahim — and to reunite with Gene Demby from the Creed II episode of PCHH back in 2018 — for this hard-hitting dissection of the disappointing-to-me Creed III.

My review of the film is here, and the Smithsonian piece I plugged in the Happy segment is here.

Glass Jaw: "Creed III," reviewed.

Jonathan Majors and Michael B. Jordan in the Jordan-directed sequel Creed III. (MGM)

I go into a Creed sequel hoping for another Creed or Rocky Balboa but perfectly willing to accept a Rocky III or a Creed II. Creed III is... well, better than Rocky V, but dang. I'm so disappointed.

Triple Ex: "Magic Mike's Last Dance," reviewed.

Channing Tatum and Salma Hayek Pinault are just a pair of middle-aged folks getting to know one another.

Magic Mike’s Last Dance is the Ocean’s 13 of Magic Mike flicks. My Washington City Paper review of the new three-quel is here.

POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR: "Plane" and What's Making Us Happy

Gerry B. and Mikey C. get serious in Plane, a movie.

I heard that if you go to see Plane on Broadway, stars Gerard “Leonidas, King of Sparta” Butler and Mike “Luke Cage, Hero For Hire” Colter trade roles every night.

Pals Linda Holmes, Ronald Young, Jr. and I had a sublimely fun conversation about this somewhat fun passengers-in-trouble flick.

Homage Control: Wherein I attempt to catalog all the shoutouts in "Avatar: The Way of Water" to Cameron joints past

My man Big Jim Cameron isn’t just a vegan pea protein farmer, he’s a committed recycler. Hey, at least he’s got the good taste to steal from the best.

This exhaustive-and-yet-surely-incomplete list I made of his many self-homages in the new Avatar: The Way of Water is up at Vulture.

POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR: "Avatar: The Way of Water" and What's Making Us Happy

Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Zoe Saldaña, and Sam Worthington shooting one of the current or forthcoming Avatar sequels at some point between late 2017 and early 2020. (Fox)

James Cameron only releases a new feature film every dozen or so years, so you’ll forgive me if I’m excited. My Avatar: The Way of Water media blitz kicks off with a fun PCHH wherein Stephen Thompson, whom I’d incorrectly predicted would hate this movie, Reanna Cruz, and I talk through our reactions, and I plug my holiday mixtape.