I was expecting a bank robbery movie

I went to see this movie in the theater assuming Woke wasn’t very pervasive in the 1970’s. I was wrong. To be fair I generally liked the movie overall. It was well made and Al Pacino is one of the best actors.

Subjects related to gay, transgender, gay community, sex changes, race wars, etc. are all present. I was expecting a bank robbery movie. It is said this is a “True” story but we all know the news/media spins things to their liking so how true this story is, is a matter of conjecture. But at least it promoted polygamy.

My result is the stories Hollywood have always produced will always have some socio-political goal, or at least they will try to force their ideas on you. I was unhappily surprised by the as promote excellent movie.

Excellent Movie

Nothing woke here.

Basically, Dracula with the names changed.
The history of the original movie is interesting.

Well, done all around.
This is what Hollywood can do when the socio-political garbage is expunged.

The 2025 Tournament of Roses Parade

Woke elements:

1- Global warming- From the beginning of the parade.
a. Starts out with the “Humans Destroying the Universe” message. i. In effect a Honda advert how they will save the world. BS ii. All the usual buzz words like BS bingo. 1. Sustainability- No EV is sustainable or clean in any way. Have you seen a lithium production plant? 2. Carbon Neutrality- This is a complete lie. Most of the materials are mined in China, etc. using Oil and Coal.
b. The horses “Vehicles that use no electricity but only use horse power”
i. Well Al, the farming needed to feed them uses oil. Diesel to run the tractors, etc.
1. And Oh No, they fart releasing methane that is killing “The Universe”.

2- Gay is great. About half way into the parade.
a. Billy Jean King is the Grand Marshal. Ok but why all the usual socio-political spin. i. Social Justice- DEI, Affirmative action. ii. Gender Equality
1. The Bobbi Riggs tennis match. Really?
a. Beating Bobbi Riggs was her watershed accomplishment? iii. The battle of the sexes- Feminism

3- Feminism
a. All female mariachi band.
b. Billy Jean King.

4- Racial Bias in the Bands. I liked them, they were good but… I did not see the usually Rose Bowl team bands that would have been Oregon and Ohio State. Why? DEI- Equity?
a. LA HS Band is mostly Hispanic
b. Panama band is all Hispanic
c. Jackson state band is from a historically black college

Other observations-

“We’ve got a parade to start”- What’s the first part of the parade, singing dancers that have nothing to do with the parade. No clue who they are nor do I care. Get on with the parade. FYI- The lady singing was off key but I liked Avicii. Luckily it was short unlike the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade where you see very little of the actual parade anymore.

In the end, it’s on NBC. I wonder if they are given a script to read written by their Woke producers. The nice back and forth between Hoda and Al was nice and likely genuine but not the rest of it.

Odd observations- Only one US High School band from LA. But a band from Panama. Why not more bands from the US?

I should have cued up “Cord & Tish” with Will Farrel and Molly Shannon. At least there wouldn’t have been “The Message”.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FB8vPuAYGSY&pp=ygUZY29yZCBhbmQgdGlzaCByb3NlIHBhcmFkZQ%3D%3D

Just glad I’m no longer paying for this crap in any way. 34 minutes on my DVR minus the commercials. It felt like 2 hours. Since it’s in your face it’s a minimum 3/5 woke. If I watched this with the sound off it would have been a 1/5.

Advertisers to avoid; NBC products, Comcast, Xfinity, Peacock, Universal, Honda.

Woke Increasing

Season one was OK. It ended weird but Ok. On the woke scale it was at most a 2/5. Most of the woke elements can be ignored.

Now with season 2 all the usual woke elements have been amplified. I estimate a 3/5 or 4/5 by the time episode 4 came along. This is feeling a lot like the show Picard. I wanted to like it.

Gotta have the required gay married characters and of course criticize Christians for their beliefs.
I find it hard to believe “gay” was acceptable to the Shoshonee Indian tribe. But that was never mentioned during the show, of course.

The interaction with Indians and related spin was entirely amplified. As expected with the specific director of episode 4.

The story at this point has lost the cool points and is nothing more than the usual Hollywood preaching.

HOLLYWOOD. ARE YOU LISTENING? No one wants the preaching. You morales are trash. The spin is crap. You are losing gobs of money because of it. The domestic box office is cratering. Maybe $5.6 billion for 2024. Taking into account inflation that’s like the year 1980 box off draw. Your headed for bankruptcy.

***** Spoilers *****


The first 20 minutes was classic Indiana Jones. Now we transition to the old broken-down Indiana Jones.

It would have been easy to continue the thread only a few years later following this plot direction. It would have been a good movie. A real Indiana Jones movie but Disney doesn’t know how to do this properly without George and Steven.

Why this movie is woke:

He was apparently a “Cracker”. Use the N word and everyone has a hissy fit these days but it’s OK for someone black to call a white guy a “Cracker”. Got it Disney. Disney, George Lucas would never have brought your petty fascist racism into Indiana Jones. Oh, by the way I highly doubt the CIA had black, female operatives back in the 1960’s. So, this is typical woke sex/race placement regardless of the era or situation.

Apparently, Capitalism is the act of theft, per Disney. I assume Disney is non-profit. Oh, that’s right they aren’t. This is a result of the DEI-ESG rampant at Disney and permeating their products.

Yes, this movie is woke. As usually these days, Disney can’t help themselves. None of this was necessary to the plot and does nothing but diminish the story and turn off the fans.

Oddly this is a poor copy of the plot points of Crystal Skull, Raiders, Temple of Doom, and/or Last Crusade. Old guy surprises everyone by doing a bunch of unbelievable things. “Dad knows where the grail or the graphicos is”. Someone gets abducted, insects everywhere, etc. Not too different from the new Star Wars trilogy mess. Just copy the previous plot points that worked. At least Crystal Skull was a different group of bad guys. This by itself is not woke but still very bad story telling in that you have NO NEW IDEAS.

This movie pulled in $175 million domestic in 2023 dollars. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade did $197 million domestic in 1989 dollars which is $430 million in 2023 dollars. By comparison Crystal Skull killed with $317 million in 2008 dollars. This movie didn’t do well at all. I wonder why, DISNEY?

Excellent Biopic

Not woke. I like it a lot.

A Fun Movie With Minimal Woke Elements

Product placement. CNN, Greenpeace, and Fauci on CNN. About typical of Hollywood today. Promoting multiple failed enterprises.

Minor woke item- Gay placing. Apparently, Benoit Blanc is gay. As usual unnecessary to the story but typical Hollywood and entirely irrelevant. Hollywood just has to promote their random sociopolitical bullshit. In other words, fascist.

Warning to Hollywood- When JK Rowling and Warner Brothers randomly made Dumbledore gay the results didn’t work well. That series of movies evaporated.

Oh, one last observation. I noticed the huge list of VFX, visual effects names. It looks like the entire country of India was involved in making this movie. Great job Hollywood for promoting your local talent and not employing Americans. What’s wrong with ILM?

A fun movie that was well acted.

Not Woke-An Excellent Movie

It's set in the 1937s so the history of that period becomes relevant. There are elements like Socialist/Marxism discussed and quickly dismissed as dangerous.


Very entertaining.

I was ready to start typing away to document Woke elements but none here.

Medium Woke but still entertaining

The Asian girl (Joy Yoshino) is automatically stereotyped. Everything is racialized these days. She is teased that she only eats rice. Really?

The Asian girl (Joy Yoshino) wants to come back from the dead and haunt Ted Cruz. She hates Republicans? Most people on the left hate anything to the right of socialists. Why bring politics into this discussion unless you as the director want to do a hit job? Oddly it has no relevance to the conversation. These days even a liberal can’t get a word in. Ironic.

Here goes another stereotype. The Asian girl (Joy Yoshino) instantly appears to write code on his computer and magickly the answer appears. Really?

I liked the two boys. Good typical high school interaction. The family overall gelled well. They are a black family but it didn’t matter either way and was transparent to the story.

The gay ghost reference was interesting. I would guestimate that there is no sexuality of any kind on the other side.

Save Ernest from Capitalism? Again, a reference to politics with absolutely no relevance to the storyline. How about explaining the director’s goal of saving the USA from success and freedom.

Of course, CNN gets a plug in the movie. This only happened because the director or Netflix chose it this way. No one watches CNN anymore!

The Asian girl (Joy Yoshino) runs into the boy’s bathroom and criticizes a football player for his “gender norms”. Completely unnecessary to the story line.

I am utterly amazed the director put and outright home invasion of a black family’s house in the movie.

I did drop Netflix for the woke spin on their content. They are not the worst like Disney is but the corrosion is expanding.

I Loved the Real Mad Max Movies

I don't see the point of this movie. Yeah, a lot of action. A feminist Mad Max. Maybe Mad Maxine? Maybe try to sell a new idea, instead of forcing an existing action movie franchise into Feminism. A common refrain today.