In which the pond enjoys a Bronnie short, before getting into earth-shaking excitement with a salivating Savva ...

The pond is so bored with the outpouring of crappy CGI fests and comic book films that recently it's taken to doing a Coen brothers revival.

Not all of their films are worth a revival - up against the glorious original, The Ladykillers is inexcusable, and while Barton Fink remains fun for movie buffs, The Hudsucker Proxy has less charm. But you've got to do a few misses if you want to turn out a dude hit like The Big Lebowski, and some of the lesser known Coen films are worth a second look. 

The pond recently checked out Burn After Reading with the immortal Tilda (does she know how to do a beat or what?). It's likely that the film works best because Brad Pitt and George Clooney aren't acting so much as revealing their inner selves, but it remains fun, especially in light of the recent fuss about dealings with the Ruskis ...

Somehow the grasping Frances McDormand trying to sell state secrets to afford a nip and a tuck ineluctably reminded the pond of the greed of the Donald entourage ... shameless in their desire to sell themselves ...

Next up is A Serious Man, which the pond liked at the time - that dark cloud approaching on the horizon - but the pond appreciates that others prefer their comedy a little broader, which is why it was a tragedy for Bronnie that she couldn't actually get to four weddings, and so the HUNsters had to settle for three ...

 

The reptiles also picked up the story and ran with it, and they kept the filmic heading ...

The report went on - the yarn's easy enough to google - but it swept the pond back to the glory days ...

There's a lot to be said for nostalgia, and for mayhem, and for follies ...

And so the pond turned to the salivating Savva for a fun Thursday meditation.

Now Savva had already signalled her thesis on last Sunday's Insiders, a generally disappointing and dull show, almost as alienating as 'their ABC' showing the Caterists on The Drum, with nary a mention of how grants might save the population from worries about employment ...

Never mind, the pond has always believed that the enemy of an enemy is a friend, and so it loves the way that the knives are now out for the onion muncher ... and for Malware ... as this day's double feature splash shows (with rip-snorting serial and Bugs cartoon), with the bromancer after Malware and the savage Savva after the onion muncher ...

It created an agony of choices for the pond but let's face it, if you get caught and charged within the Chinese legal system, you're almost certain to go down ...

The pond knows the data comes from the US, in the form of Chinese Statistics Indicate More than 99 Percent of Criminal Defendants Found Guilty in 2004, and then in WaPo in 2014 China scored 99.9 percent conviction rate last year ...

Funny, it's pretty much the same procedure in Japan and it's exactly the sort of tough on crime, effective judicial system that conservatives moan about not having here, but it tilted the pond's balance towards Savva ...

The pond already knows Malware is fucked, and has fucked the NBN, and doesn't have a clue about China or ROW, so why not pin it all on a skulking rat?

That shot of the rat, alone and clearly caught out in some act of malfeasance, is just the way to get things going ... oh how alone he always is ...

...and then Savva stokes the flames of fear by giving Comrade Bill a shot at the crown.

Years of Comrade Bill lecturing the pond? It could be quite the end of the pond, with the relatives (by marriage) triumphant ...

But who is responsible for this state of affairs, what skulking, malign rat has gnawed at the emperor's footwear?

"And government backbenchers worry the Chinese are untrustworthy."

"... they know nothing will stop Abbott."

Why, the lying, despicable, brown coal-loving rat ... sock it to him some more, stern Savva ...

Of course the pond will stay tuned. The pond will be even more tuned than when it tracks Lloydie explaining how the Great Barrier Reef is safe for the ages, no doubt thanks to the Donald and clean coal ...

The notion of the onion muncher being up for a fierce pre-selection challenge is just the sort of show that excites the pond even more than a Coen brothers' movie.

And from a mystery challenger, no names, no pack drill, anyone, just anyone who'll call a halt to the champion's shenanigans.

Who could it be? Pick a box, any box will do ...

Yes, it takes the pond back to the good old days of black and white telly and the Saturdee matinee ... oh pity the young 'uns who've never seen the glory of coming of the lord or those wondrous quiz show days ...

Let Victor fight a stuffed lion, let Hedy loll sensuously, let George drink a final toast to his doom, let the pillars come down and fall where they may, let the earth shake ...

... which luckily brings the pond to another form of earth-shaking excitement, with more moving of the earth from David Rowe here ...

Good old Sally. 

This song has had over two million views on YouTube ... The pond has no idea why ... apparently some can't handle earth-shattering excitement, but hey, let's see that cat pin its claws to the lining ...