The Friday High Five

On Diminishing Returns, Space Cowboys, and Royal Penises

Universal Pictures

Every Friday I share 5 things that brought me joy this week. Also, high fives are inherently cool, and I think we can all agree Friday is the bestest day. Hence the Friday High Five. 🙏🏻

Have a great weekend! High five!

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5 Things I Enjoyed This Week:

• Guardians of the Galaxy 3

• Shannon Sharpe’s YouTube Channel

• The Night Agent

• Starfield

• Miami Vice

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Guardians of the Galaxy 3

I think you can easily discover someone’s passions based on how they spend their special days—birthdays, holidays, etc. I know dads who spend Father’s Day fishing or golfing or putzing around the garage while drinking a beer. Days meant to celebrate my me-ness typically involve movies and games. If your main takeaway is ‘this Eric guy is just a big kid,’ you’re on the right track.

Thus, we went to see Guardians on Father’s Day. It’s sorta telling that we didn’t prioritize seeing it sooner. We used to watch the newest MCU films opening weekend, if not opening night. But Guardians basically finished its theatrical run before we got to it, and we still haven’t watched Ant-Man 3, despite it now being free on Disney+. I’ve said it before but it becomes truer with every new release: I’ve lost the ability to care about superhero movies.

Against that backdrop, how does Guardians 3 fare? Steering clear of spoilers in case you, too, haven’t bothered with it yet but intend to, eventually—it’s pretty damn good. The story ties up in a satisfying way that avoids cliche and melodrama. It’s frequently funny. Definitely my least-favorite Guardians film though. That’s not really a slight—the other two are just much better. The soundtrack has some killer entries this time around, but also feels a bit less special, and the highs aren’t nearly as high. The villain is a comic book villain in the worst sense of the meaning.

The film also feels weird, structurally. All the necessary stuff is there—rising action, payoffs, surprises—but the arrangement struck me as unpleasant. Describing it better would require a repeat viewing, which I’m not really in a rush to do. That’s maybe the most damning thing I could say. Fun but kinda forgettable. That’s the MCU in a nutshell post-Endgame (Spider-Man aside).

Were I to rank the films, I’d go in sequential order: 1, 2, 3.

Shannon Sharpe’s YouTube Channel

This was one of those things that somehow popped up on my YouTube feed and I’m so glad it did. Sometime the algorithm actually works.

Club Shay Shay is a podcast hosted by NFL legend Shannon Sharpe. He (mostly) interviews former star athletes. The vibe is jovial and relaxed, and the questions are really good. Not Hot Ones good, but Sharpe brings the goods.

I’ve listened to two episodes so far and both were fantastic. Links below. I’ve subsequently subscribed and earmarked previous episodes that look intriguing. If you are a sports fan, this is definitely worth your time.

The Night Agent

Netflix

This dropped on Netflix some time ago and we’re just now getting around to it. I honestly put it off because none of the cast is recognizable, which tends to be a bad sign. The hero is a generic white guy who looks like he was somehow sired by Chris Pine and Matt Damon. In fact, the only actor I recognize from anything is Robert Patrick, who you might know as the liquid robot from Terminator 2: Judgement Day. And he basically only has a cameo.

And yet.

Whatever money Netflix saved on its bland cast must’ve gone to the writers because this show is good! The Night Agent reminds me strongly of 24. It’s propulsive, and twisty, and basically everyone is out to get the good guys. We’re only halfway through so not sure yet if they stick the landing, but it’s been a fun ride.

Starfield

Bethesda

This game has been on my radar for years. Bethesda is the developer of my all-time favorite roleplaying game Skyrim, which I still return to almost 12 years after it was released. Bethesda is also the company behind the Fallout games, which I enjoy though not as all-encompassingly as the Elder Scrolls series (Skyrim is the fifth title in that series). Bethesda recently rolled back the curtain on its newest game, which releases in September.

Starfield is a roleplaying game set across the galaxy and, per the developer, it has more than 1000 planets to explore. The sheer magnitude of the galaxy, plus some of the activities you get into planet-side, is strongly reminiscent of No Man’s Sky, which may or may not be a good thing. However, what made me sit up while watching the recap on YouTube was the screenshot above. This is probably the closest we’ll ever get to a Firefly videogame.

I took the day off when Skyrim released in 2011 and I’m thinking I might need to do the same this September.

Miami Vice

This week’s workout watch was the 2006 film Miami Vice. I’m old enough to remember the 80s TV show of the same name, but have no real memory of watching it. Though I’m sure I did—the one thing we had going for us in the 80s was a lot of stuff to watch and not much supervision. Which is how I ended up seeing the full, R-rated version of Coming to America when I was about 10. The royal penis cleaning at the beginning was basically my “we’re not in Kansas anymore” moment. After that I grew a mustache and started smoking Marlboro Reds.

My brother was only 7 or 8. To paraphrase an Eddie Murphy skit, “that shit fucked him up.”

Anyway.

I have no nostalgic allegiance to Miami Vice, the brand, but I felt like throwing on the movie this week. I am the kind of person that just likes rewatching stuff. I didn’t love this movie the first time I saw it, but I’ve found it’s become more enjoyable the more I see it. I don’t know if this is some version of Stockholm syndrome or if I’m tapping into some rich vein writer-director Michael Mann left to be discovered. But I also just enjoy watching a long-haired, vaguely strung-out Colin Farrell chum around with Jamie Foxx at his peak.

The one thing I came into the rewatch thinking about was the legendary Jay-Z and Lincoln Park jam Numb/Encore, which featured prominently in the trailer. Imagine my surprise when the movie literally starts with the song. Shouldn’t you save that for later? Or was this Mann’s version of having a naked lady emerge from a bubblebath to tell Eddie Murphy his junk is clean?

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What are you into at the moment? Leave a comment and let me know!

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