Tag: comedy

Liam Neeson is superb in Memory (2022 film)

Liam Neeson is back in action in the 2022 film, Memory. Like seriously, this guy is a film-making machine at this stage. In this one, he stars as a septuagenarian hitman called Alex Lewis who is—plot twist—forgetting things. Not metaphorically. Not “I forgot where I put my keys.” We’re talking medically, tragically, narratively, forgetting things. Which is bold, because the man’s entire cinematic brand is “I will find you,” and now the movie dares to ask: but what if he occasionally forgets why?

Alex is hired for a job that he doesn’t really want to take, only to discover that the target is a child. In a move that instantly promotes him from “professional killer” to “professional killer with ethics,” he refuses the hit. He gives a warning that the girl is to be left alone. When another contract killer completes the task and goes after him, he turns his very specific set of skills on the people who ordered it. Meanwhile, his memory is deteriorating faster than a phone battery in the cold, forcing him to leave himself notes like a lethal, cardigan-wearing version of Memento.

This is where the movie shines. Instead of pretending Neeson is still 30, Memory leans into age, regret, and cognitive decline—and somehow makes them tense, sad, and weirdly wholesome.

The action is grounded, tense, and refreshingly free of superhero nonsense. Neeson doesn’t leap off buildings—he moves with purpose, like a man who knows his knees won’t forgive him later. Every fight feels heavy, deliberate, and earned.

The supporting cast (including Guy Pearce and Monica Bellucci) adds gravitas, though let’s be honest: this is Liam’s movie, and everyone else is just trying not to get emotionally or physically outmatched.

Oh, and the ending is perfect.

The best film I’ve seen in some time. Five stars out of five from me.

Have you seen it? Let me know what you think.

A Review of Netflix’s ‘Being Eddie’: Insights and Reflections

Anybody within seven or eight years of my age (I’m forty-six) would have fond memories of Eddie Murphy. I still remember seeing Beverly Hills Cop for the first time. A great film that would never have made it without him. It was the first time I saw on-screen a black character who was clearly more intelligent than the white people around him. All the curses stuck out as well.

But what happened to him recently? I haven’t heard his name in an age. I was also interested in what other aspects of his life were like.

That’s why I watched the documentary “Being Eddie” on Netflix a couple of nights ago.

If you are looking for something visceral, raw, then this is not it. Some critics think it’s more like a prelude to him returning to stand-up more than anything else. It retreats from anything awkward/contentious. He comes across as a family man and reminisces about voicing the donkey in Shrek. There is nothing about the paternity suit with Mel B, for example. He has ten children. Musk would be proud.

The best part is when it just lets him speak. I found his tendency towards OCD intriguing. Great minds appear to have a likelihood for such things, and I doubt it’s a coincidence.

He also brings up that he has never won an Oscar, despite his great performances and sometimes playing multiple characters in the same film. I wouldn’t worry about it if I were him; their value has greatly diminished over the years.

The interviews with other comedy legends, Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Kevin Hart, and more, show what a powerful influence he was on the industry. They all say nice things. What a pity!

I give it three stars out of five. It’ll make you feel warm. Just don’t expect anything beyond the bland, though.

Have you seen it? Let me know what you think.

Why Wednesday Season 2 is Worth Your Time

Dear readers, it is great to be back here with you again. For those who may not remember, or dare I say it, may not have read it, I thoroughly enjoyed the first series of “Wednesday”. The second season was recently released on Netflix, which is playing a blinder at the moment.

There has been quite a delay since the first series. Somewhat ironically, considering the black comedy, Jenna Ortega, who plays Wednesday, did not wish to return. She was not impressed with the rest of her team, and apparently had to come up with a considerable amount of her own dialogue and improvisations. Then, it became a huge hit. I’m sure this gave her much more power to get things done the way she wanted.

So what did I think of Season 2?

One word – excellent. And this from a man mid-forties about a bunch of mostly female high schoolers in a supernatural mystery comedy.

The first series turned Ortega into a worldwide star, and she is just as good in series two. In fact, her skills may even be more challenged in this one, where bodies are temporarily swapped. A powerful dynamic in Series Two is the relationship between Wednesday and her mother, who is played by the legendary Catherine Zeta-Jones. There is a certain warmth underneath the coldness as they try to outwit one another. Wednesday, so she can break free, and fear on her mother’s side that she pushes things too far. A pivotal moment is a veiled sword fight between them to determine if Wednesday gets her psychic knowledge book back.

Pugsley becomes a more central character in Series 2. He has a much greater wish to be loved than Wednesday. It hurts when he is rejected, and he ends up making a very unusual friend, even by the standards of the Addams family.

Another character who lights up this series is Enid, played by the delightful Emma Myers. Enid is an unforgettable character who plays an important counterpoint to the deadpan Wednesday.

Five stars out of five from me. Now, go watch some TV!

So, have you seen it, and what did you think?

The dog, the bird, the wheelchair user and the blind woman (comedy)

A few weeks ago, during the glorious weather that visited Ireland, I was out the back of my garden sunning myself. You know, working from. I notice a bird flying low that flies straight into one of my upstairs windows before falling to the ground with a thud.

“What was that?” Tina asked. Tina and her fiancé are currently visiting my house, like forever, while their own house is being completed. They both have visual impairments.

“A bird crashed into the window. Ah, no, it’s after walking into the kitchen. We’ll never get it out.”

Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Paris coming to the rescue. Paris is a Labrador, and an occasional guide dog when it suits her.

Now, I imagine its honed instincts, which evolved over millennia, turning it into a cold, ruthless killing machine.

Paris went into the kitchen and then came straight back out. There was no sign of any blood. It put its toy bird in its mouth and brought it into the kitchen before exiting again.

“Ah, it brought a friend for the bird,” Tina gushed.

That dog is such a disappointment.

“Okay, Tina, you go in next. Get rid of the bird.”

“Me, shur I can’t see it. You’re the man.”

“Well, I never,” I replied with indignation, “I believe in equality and women in leadership. This is your time to shine.”

There is a bit of back and forth before I convince her to go in. Bad news, I have to follow.

We are all in the kitchen, except for Paris, who is resting. The bird is standing in my bowl of bananas on the counter.

The bird flaps its wings and briefly flies. Tina screeches. She’s worried about it flying into her face. Well, at least it wouldn’t be mine.

“Be brave, Tina, take the sweeping brush and get it to go out.”

The bird flaps again, and Tina threatens to abandon me.

It does another short flight and lands near the back door.

“Okay, Tina, stick out the broom. It’s on the floor.”

She moves towards the bird, and it walks outside before flying away.

I was so brave.

The Talimammy

The house was quiet, not a murmur or even the sound of wind whistling.

“No fuckin’ way. What the fuck?” I roared looking at the computer screen. My perfect life suddenly shattered.

My Mammy ran into the room.

“What’s wrong?”

There was a moment of silence.

“It’s not that bloody chess again? For God’s sake.”

I’m too annoyed to speak. My blood is boiling, my eyes bulge. I had just thrown away my queen, blundering to another catastrophic defeat. My queen had been a thorn in the side of the enemy till that point. How could my Mam not understand the anguish.”

“That’s it no more chess in this house. It’s banned. You can go up to your own house if you want to play it. Imagine, if your nephews heard you roaring like that. Such a bad example. And you, in your mid-forties”

“You can’t ban chess. What are you? The Taliban?” I replied mockingly, “So, I can go drinking and whoring but no chess?”

“That’s right.”

“Even kill?

“Yep”

“Are you a secret Osama or something”

She wasn’t joking. Now my time spent visiting is about getting a few quick games in here and there.. Anything to feed the monster inside. If I get caught, the computer is off no matter the damage to my ratings.

Talking to a Scammer (comedy)

We all have little quirks to our character. Things that don’t really make sense. One of mine is that I love winding up scammers. And today is no exception.

Yesterday I received a friend request from what looked like quite an elderly lady called Jacinta Halpin. I wondered whether I should accept it. If I’m going to be a famous author, I need as many “friends” as I can. So I accepted and forgot about it.

Then today things got interesting when I got the following message –

JC

Hello Mark

How are you doing?

Ah, that’s nice of the sweet old lady. Might as well be nice and reply.

Me

I’m doing good and u?

JC

Good to hear from you. I’m doing amazingly well too. I have been trying to reach you here because I saw your name on the (DHHS) list. Have you heard from them yet?

Game on. I didn’t expect this convo to become interesting.

Me

Who are the DHHS?

Play dumb. I want the fun to last.

JC

The Department of health and human services , they have a campaign program to help pensioners, workers, youth, old and disabled with money in the community and your name was on the winner list . Did you get anything from them?

Ah ha, I have been targeted. All is fair in love, war and scamming.

Me

Nope.

How much will I get?

JC

Oh, really? I received 150,000 cash from the program when I applied and you don’t have to pay it back , do you know how to apply for the program?

Me

No, sounds super.

How do I apply?

JC

A link appears on a picture of a suited man with an American flag in the background. It appears to be another Facebook page.

Click on the link it we lead you to the agent page message them that you are ready to apply for your own winning money okay

No way I’m clicking but you don’t know that.

Do I have to give my bank details?

I have them here if needed

So happy I’m getting money from US Dept even though i’m in Ireland

i’m so lucky

thank you so much

JC

You didn’t have to give that

Have you message the agent?

The fun

yes

& I was about to lose the house

the kids have been starving all day

JC

Trust me I don’t want you to be skeptical about this, everything about this program  is real and legit. You know I can’t pull your leg into a scam or to hurt you no I can’t do such, Just put your mind at rest

Any respond from the agent?

The scammer is getting suspicious. Why is everyone so paranoid?

no not yet

i know you wouldn’t scam me

Why won’t he email me?

JC

Text me your email

I text him my dodgy email I use for nefarious purposes. He replies with a thumbs-up emoji.

Me

Still no email?

JC

Just click on the link and message the agent now so that he can proceed on your winning money

Me

I did

didn’t work

can you get email sent to me

?

will try that way

JC

Email xxxxxxxx@gmail.com

Message them on

email right now

?

Me

sent email

so excited

Why did you unsend your email?

Still waiting

JC sent a thumbs up emoji

I now have one less Facebook “friend”.

Mark goes for an interview (comedy)

I love going to interviews but have failed to get the expected promotions. I trundle into the room for the latest one. There are three interviewers, one man and two women. They are well dressed and I reckon they are in their sixties.

There is a long desk. I drive into the middle, they are on the other side.

Male Interviewer: Welcome Mark (M), my name is Seamus (S). I will be asking you about your CV and your past accomplishments. To my left is Yvonne who will ask you about achieving results and performance through people. Finally, Siobhan (S) will ask you questions about Communication and about managing people. I will now start the interview

S: So Mark, I see that you went to College. Can you tell me a bit about that and what you learned?

M: It was great craic altogether. I learned all about hardcore drinking. My friend Timmy thought me all about drugs and then there were the women..

S: I mean from a work perspective, what did you learn?

M: Feck all really. You know, I just wanted to hang out for a while. There was something I learned. I knew you’d ask this you see. I’m a clever boy. What was it? Oh yeah reading. Talk about boring. I mostly just looked at the pictures.

S: Right, I’ll continue on I guess. What is your achievement you are most proud of?

M: When I drank twelve vodkas in one day.

S: Why are you here? Do you really want this job?

M: Well my holidays were cancelled and sure I said, I may as well. A few extra euro ya know.

S: Ok Mark, thanks for that. I’ll now pass you over to Yvonne.

Y: Mark, can you tell us how would you resolve conflict?

M: By ramming them in my wheelchair.

Y: Oh dear. What do you do when your Manager asks you to do something you disagree with?

M: Ignore him. He can get tetchy when told to feck off.

Y. Right em can you tell me about a time you delivered results?

M: Not really, I don’t like exams.

Y. That’s it for me from now. I’ll pass you over to Siobhan.

S. Tell me what your role would be if you got this job?

M: To order people about. I like that sort of thing.

S: What would you do if you received a customer complaint?

M: Oh, I hate customers. Tell someone else to do deal with it. That’s what management is all about ain’t it?

S: What would you do if one of your subordinates wasn’t pulling their weight in the team?

M: Tell them to cop on. I’m not going to do it for them.

S: Ok Mark, I think that’s enough questions for now. Is there anything you’d like to ask?

M: When do I start?

S: The HR Department will be in contact with you shortly to let you know the outcome.

Well readers, what do you think? Will I get it?

Writing Panel (comedy)

My dear readers, I attended my very first writing panel event during the week. This was a big deal for me as it was the first time I was invited to anything in my capacity as a writer, that I hadn’t organized myself. Kind of like Mr. Bean getting a Christmas Card from somebody other than himself. It was titled “Pathways to Publishing” and it was run by Westmeath Arts Office.

So, last Thursday I trundled down to the library, not quite sure what to expect. When I was first invited, I thought that the other writers would be very low key, you know like myself. Then I heard that the writing God that is Patricia Gibney would be in attendance. So, this would be higher profile than I thought. She would obviously be the star and there would be myself and other low key writers at her alter.

But, I was wrong. There would be myself, Patricia Gibney and Anne Griffin who is the author of the Irish No. 1 bestseller ‘When All Is Said’. She also won the Newcomer of the Year Irish Book Awards 2019 and was longlisted for the Dublin Literary Award 2021. I was now a mere mortal between Gods.

In footballing terms I felt like a player from the Conference league in England getting to play on a team with Messi and Ronaldo.

I was pleased when my ebooks had two hundred free downloads during a week. Patricia Gibney has sold millions. Anne’s books have been translated into more languages than I have followers.

I brought along my books. They could easily find theirs stocked right there in the library.

But, as everybody knows I have a hard neck and was going to promote myself as best I could no matter what. I told the audience about why my novels were every bit the masterpieces.

A good crowd turned up may twelve to fifteen people. I was a bit surprised there wasn’t more given the names of the other two panel members. But those that did show up listened intently giving it an intimate atmosphere. The library should be a writers paradise, but I always envisaged writers meeting in a smoke filled place of debauchery. Maybe, it’s just me.

There were secondary school students a few meters away behind us wasting their youth studying. Surely, everybody their age knows about Netflix by now.

I learned a lot. The Gods write, then rewrite, then talk to lots of people and write some more. They are true professionals and at times it sounded like hard work. I have a day job for that sort of thing. I rarely rewrite things at all. My mind drifts onto other things, other projects.

They recommend that you submit your short stories to competitions, I’m all about building brand Mark.

I may never get to their heaven but I’m more than happy where I am. Here, with you my readers.

The Horror (Comedy)

This may be a time of war, starvation, homelessness and despair but its rare for me to be truly horrified. But, this was a truly terrible confession by Mr R (to keep anonymity). It took some minutes for me to stop shaking with the dread. Well Mr R was out on the town having some beers. All good so far. It has to be done after all. I’d like to imagine he was chatting up everything with a skirt.

And as is customary he decided to have some vodka when he got home. As God would have intended. Well, after pouring himself a triple or so, he had a sip and let the taste hit his tongue.

But he decided that he had his fill and threw it down the sink.

“How could you?” I said

“It’s just so wrong?”

“Think of all the alcos dying for a drop, how do you live with yourself?”

The horror.

All those years of patience, seeking perfection ruined.

Perhaps, it started its life as a potato out in a field full of hope that someday in the future, it could be distilled into the most perfect vodka before being drank by a good man. Hopes now cruelly dashed.

I think of that partially empty bottle of vodka, all alone in a fridge somewhere wondering what is the meaning of it all.

It’ll take time folks but I’ll be okay. Each hour I’m thinking about that beautiful full glass of vodka, a little bit less. I’m strong, I can do it.

Reality (comedy)

Thud, thud, thud.

Mr. B, my anonymized brother (blog fully GDPR compliant) enters the room while I am watching tv.

“You still awake?”

“Why yes, Mr. B I am fully awake.”

“What shite are you watching now?”

“I am watching a physics documentary about the tiniest of particles that could form the basis of reality.”

“Why do you care? Ya don’t live in reality anyway.”

Well Mr. B never ceases to amaze and he always starts such interesting conversations. Mr. B really is a closet genius.

“Very good point Mr. B I think you are alluding to the fact that as two independent observers we might not share the same reality. Or maybe you are alluding to the fact that there is a multiverse and I am both watching and not watching the tv.”

Mammy enters the room

“Tell Mark to stop bullshitting.”

“Stop Mark, leave Mr. B alone.”

“I love it. Is this like the triple slit experiment?”

They exit the room.

All so very fascinating.

Later that day, I am talking to the auld fella.

He asks, “Do you believe in the afterlife?”

“Well interesting question. If there is a multiverse, there is an innumerable number of yous and countless versions where you are still alive.”

“But what about the me in this life?”

“Oh no chance, you’ll rot.”

Well, he didn’t seem to be overly upbeat about this.

Guess you just can’t please everybody.