This Week in Dulture…

Approx 5 minute read:

🤖 AI finally tricked humans

🤮 A reminder why I barely watch wrestling

🎦 Jack Black should be in every video game movie

🎴 Key NBA stars missing this post-season

Dulture weekly mix

This week’s mix starts off with “If you don’t like something, change it.”

If that wasn’t the best advice you’ll ever get today, then I don’t know what is. With this mix, I’m taken back to all the times I went somewhere and conceded to the music. When clubbing was still a thing in my life, there were so many clubs we went to where we had no idea what the music was going to be like but you kinda had no choice but to stay and enjoy it - especially after lining up in the freezing cold outside for a good half hour. I’d like to go back to my 22 year old self and ask him why he would stand in the freezing cold for anything. And then I’d tell him to put down the backyard fight YouTube videos (because that’s all that basically was on YouTube at the time) and give him this mix so he could get his musical enjoyment from the comfort of his tiny bedroom.

We Need to Talk About Wrestlemania

I wouldn’t say I’ve become this crazy wrestling fan but I’m not going to lie, Wrestlemania is a lot of fun to watch, especially because of the Saturday and Sunday night tandem events they run. Also it’s all on Netflix so it’s like watching the PPV your parents wouldn’t purchase for you as a kid but a lot more accessible.

When The Rock came back last year as The Final Boss, things looked like they were going to be a lot of fun to watch leading up to the main event at Wrestlemania. And last year’s event truly lived up to the hype.

However, this year?

IT WAS TRASH.

Okay, if you watched the Saturday event, it was actually pretty good. However Sunday was supposed to be the big day - John Cena’s final match and it was for the title. Let’s put aside the fact that this is all scripted for a second - it’s still a lot of fun to watch like your favourite K-Drama.

But when the combination of the performers end up sucking and the storyline becomes as weak as your attention when you read my final story in Dulture, you start to wonder who wrote all of this??

So the idea was that John Cena would fight his last match and retire as a “bad guy”. Leading up to this match The Rock had supposedly influenced Cena in turning into a bad guy after being a fan favourite for like 20 years. And so naturally you would think The Rock would show up at Wrestlemania, the biggest WWE event all year.

Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s reason for not being there, after effectively building up the idea of Cena becoming a bad guy, was that he wanted to put the spotlight on the guys wrestling in the main event - Cena and Cody Rhodes. However it made literally no sense because The Rock and Cody have had a feud for the better part of a year already so one would think he would show up.

Instead we got Travis Scott and a really stupid finish to wrestling’s biggest event all year. What did Travis Scott do you ask? He wore sunglasses to the ring, that’s what he did.

(sorry to everyone who doesn’t like Wrestling, it was painful to watch so I’m sure this is painful to read)

The Cube Universe Movie

For me, it goes Mortal Kombat and then the newest Super Mario Bros. movie when looking at the spectrum of decent films based on a video game.

I don’t know what it is because a lot of games make it feel like you’re playing within a movie, so you’d think they’d be able to do the reverse and make the movies feel like you’re in the game.

I went with my kids to watch MInecraft earlier in the week and I think I could add this movie to the list of movies that did a good job in making it feel like you’re in the game.

Now, I’ve never actually played Mincraft before but I’ve watched my kids play enough (only builder mode, they’re too scared to play survival mode) that I have a good idea of what goes on in the Minecraft universe. That said, I went into the film wondering how exactly would they tell a story given Minecraft is meant to be a vast world where you can do whatever you want and there doesn’t really need to be an end.

I think that actually helped me with enjoying the film because I had no idea what to expect, except for this stupid chicken jockey thing going on. The whole theatre erupted when the chicken jockey thing happened - no clue why this was so exciting…

I think it’s safe to say Jack Black has to be in every video game movie moving forward. I don’t even know if Jack Black was acting at all in this film because it felt like he was just being his normal crazy self and it just so happened that he was in Minecraft world.

Also I can’t take Jason Momoa serious, no matter what role he has - I just think of Baywatch Hawaii, his only good acting role 🤷 

BUT - Minecraft was pretty decent. Without giving the details away, it’s an easy watch, light on the story, but layered with a series of charming points that just remind you not to be so critical of Jack Black running around like a goof, the Minecraft characters doing their Minecraft thing (all the villagers, for instance), and the stereotypical nature in how the characters navigate the Minecraft universe.

For kids (of all ages), this movie was awesome - it had been a while since I’ve been in a theatre with a ton of cheers.

MIA from the NBA Playoffs

I’m not gonna lie, I did not watch a lot of the NBA season this year. I just couldn’t watch games where every second possession was a 3-pt shot. The lack of playmaking drove me nuts…that and the Raptors sucked so bad, none of it was fun to watch.

Heck even the All-Star game was trash

I figured I would just wait and watch the playoffs. But in doing so, there were certain teams/players I assumed I’d get to watch. Surely the games would be more fun then! After all, the playoffs are a whole different season, so they say.

Except there’s a few usual suspects that didn’t even make the playoffs which threw me for a loop.

Kevin Durant

I actually made it a point to watch a few Suns games this year, mainly to catch Kevin Durant playing, but man oh man, between KD, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beal, as well as a fired coach, they could just never get going. This was just a prime example of no matter how good you are, it really doesn’t matter if you can’t get your team to win.

Trae Young

I don’t know about you but watching playoffs Trae Young is A LOT OF FUN. That guy goes off in the playoffs and shoots the lights out. Trae had a GAME in the play-in game against Miami but OT crushed the Hawks and the Heat moved on. I’d much rather watch a Hawks/Cavs series but what can you do.

Joel Embiid

I just think this guy deserves to miss the playoffs for the rest of his career. I get that he was injured but he just has a bad attitude in how he approaches the game and the league. That said, it’s so much fun to boo him in the playoffs - it almost feels like anywhere he plays outside of Philly, he gets the boos.

Kyrie / AD

I really wanted to see this duo do something in the playoffs. With Irving being injured and out for the season, I didn’t expect much from Dallas but they’ve always been a fun team to watch, with and without Luka. Adding AD to the rotation made me believe they could’ve done some damage in the playoffs, but they never made it past the play-in game. Oh well…