Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One"

IMF lifers Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie always wanted to crash a train together. (Paramount)

it’s an honor and a privilege to dissect the latest entry in my favorite film franchise with Linda Holmes, Wailin Wong, and Roxanna Hadadi on today’s Pop Culture Happy Hour. My estimation of the film grew when I saw it a second time after we recorded this, but it’s an accurate reflection of my somewhat perplexed initial response.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny" and What's Making Us Happy

Harrison Ford is superannuated and super angry in Dial of Destiny. (Disney/Lucasfilm)

I’m destiny-dialin’ on Pop Culture Happy Hour this week with Glen Weldon and Kristen Meinzer.

Pop Culture Happy Hour: "Asteroid City" and What's Making Us Happy

Jason Schwartzman and Tom Hanks in Wes Anderson’s latest. (Pop. 87 Productions/Focus Features)

Wes Anderson’s Asteroid City is one of my favorite films of the almost-half-concluded year, an entirely predictable result given his track record with me. I was chuffed to discuss it with Pal-For-Life Glen Weldon and The Indicator host Wailin Wong.

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.

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.

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.

A Degree Absolute! episode forty-two: "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes"

It's a Y2K-pop extravaganza as Chris and Glen emerge from their unplanned and unannounced hiatus to dissect 72-year-old Patty McG's brief-but-memorable guest appearance reprising the role of Number Six for (the final eight minutes of) the Season 12 Simpsons episode "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes." Cowabunga!

The Simpsons, season 12, episode six — "The Computer Wore Menace Shoes"

Written by John Swartzwelder

Directed by Mark Kirkland

Originally aired December 3, 2000

POP CULTURE HAPPY HOUR: "THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN" and What's Making Us Happy

Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson in another Martin McDonagh joint. (Fox Searchlight)

I was happy to join Bedatri D. Choudhury and host Stephen Thompson on Pop Culture Happy Hour to talk The Banshees of Inisherin, playright-turned-filmmaker Martin McDonagh’s latest feature. I was one of the few defenders of his prior film the highly divisive Three Billboards Outside of Ebbing, Missouri five years ago, but I was mostly here as a stan for McDonagh’s plays, which are what Inisherin recalls far more than any of his prior movies. My reviews of some of his plays seem to have blinked out of existence, but I reviewed Constellation’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore in 2015, and Keegan’s The Lonesome West and Forum’s The Pillowman, both in 2016. When we got to the What’s Making Me Happy segment, I had several good candidates, but I chose — defaulted, really — the most Irish of them. Because McDonagh.

I went with the Most Irish of my Happy candidates on today's INISHERIN-themed @pchh, but: QT's CINEMA SPECULATION, Bechdel's THE SECRET TO SUPERHUMAN STRENGTH, & on @criterionchannl BLACULA & THE FAN*.

*scenes wherein Lauren Bacall rasps her way through Broadway rehearsals only pic.twitter.com/UHO8blcQ7D

— Chris Klimek (@ctklimek) November 4, 2022