wolfkin

Honestly a little better than JW1 and JW2. I have to keep reminding myself of that because it's not a good movie. It's just not so awful my brain hurts. That said the things that really stick out in my head were the amount of casual death. They treated people getting eaten like it was a bloody cartoon. Jurassic Park made the dinosaurs horrifying creatures that would kill you and sometimes did but Jurassic World just throws it to the side. Yeah we have dinosaurs, yeah people get eaten by them but here's the real story. I saw a dude get eaten in the background and no one flinched or cared not even the camera man. it's callous and weird and makes me care less about the movie when their biggest monsters can eat everyone except the cast whom I do care about.

There were a LOT of cinematic motif homages to previous JPs. Not just Dr Grant referencing how he knows how much electricity was in the fences. There are recreations of scenes that expand or re-imagine their equivalent. My favorite being Ian Malcolm redoing his T-Rex distraction with... better results.

I think I've talked myself into giving this an average rather than below average score. There was a lot to work with and honestly they did a not awful job of it all things considered with all the awfulness of the first two. I have to admit surprise it didn't extend into the final one.

A perfectly solid action thriller. A little bit on conspiracy. A little bit of punchy punchy. A little bit of reverse heist. All while not forgetting itself and contradicting it's own plot points or being overly silly. I've wasted more time watching worse. Looking at you Eraser Reborn right now. The acting was fine. It does have some classic copaganda where the NYPD is super dedicated and can't be taken off a case. It's kinda amusing that there's a plot point where a cop gets killed and suddenly the police decide to start enforcing laws and stop the drug trade. It's a bit serendipitous because a cop was just killed in Canada and we all got an emergency alert on our phones about an active shooter.

For the most part the flubs that I could tell as a civilian weren't big enough to affect the narrative. It's kinda funny watching prisoners make phone calls and they just go through. Prison calls always require approval and warning. It's adorably throwbacky and yet another plot point involve the police listening in on the calls. It's just a weird balance.

I liked the ending. It was a solid and effective use of the open-ended narrative. The story was complete. i don't need to know what happens next and I was satisfied with the conclusion. That's a really hard balance to hit. The Matrix hit it. Terminator 3 hit it and then both of them ruined perfect endings with sequels. At least I don't have to worry about that here.

Episodes are getting better. This episode was interesting showed growth. Honestly for all the fourth wall about how this isn't a feature show. I think it's too much. The show doesn't feel like a feature show and I only think that every time there's a fourth wall break to get my attention just to say it's not a feature show. It's one of the few things I think the show has done unequivocally right. Based on trailers and scenes to come as well as what we have so far I'm not sitting here thinking about whose gonna show up next on She-Hulk and even when I do think that. I'm not thinking about it as it's not She-Hulk's show.

Tatiana is an actress I enjoy. I don't really think she's gotten to sink her teeth into this yet but it's a comedy show her style has to adapt and basically SHE is doing okay. Her CGI is less good but :shrug:.

The pacing is still awful. This one wasn't AS bad as the others but the Disney MCU shows suck at being shows. They're really just chopped up movies and obviously all over their pacing. I wish they'd give these shows more time to breath. We had a complete story there were hulk parts, there were law parts, there were cameo parts. It was just an excellent episode until they injected another storyline right in the cooldown which again throws off the pacing. These shows should be about 4 episodes longer and have an extra two months of time gap so they can polish up their CGI which wasn't bad this episodes. Blonsky's Abomination looks better than Walter's She-Hulk but that's both the time put into his model, the lack of time put into hers and the decisions made about what kind of She-Hulk this show is gonna look like. I maintain their model is awful but bad character design doesn't make the show itself bad.

Fun fact I know who/what Megan Thee Stallion is but I literally couldn't pick her out of a lineup to save my sister's life. I knew she was in a cameo and i got spoiled for the end credit scene visually on twitter so when that black lawyer came in I assumed that was Megan. For all the talk about her joining the MCU and how she wants to go into acting like Latifa and Cube I kinda assumed she would have a role. She has a microcameo. Barely worth talking about seriously. But looks like she had fun so more power to her. I got nothing against her. I know the Tory Lanez story. She's loyal and deserves better just in general from everyone.

As far as I'm concerned Astrid & Lilly Save the World is filling the void in our hearts left behind by Todd and the Book of Pure Evil. Personally I think I like Todd a smidge better but I think I can say that's a matter of my tastes rather than a reflection of Asrid and Lilly's quality. This is a show that fought hard to establish itself. While it lacks in the excessive teenage cursing for no real reason it kinda excels in the guts bit of blood and guts.

We have a solid premise here of Astrid & Lilly being outsiders who become the schools guardians. But their arc in just this first season isn't the typical hiding in the shadows doing thankless work. Yeah they do have teenage romantic angst but they also develop relationships with the people who have looked negatively at them. It's an interesting take... on top of course of the gore. I can't unstress the gore.

It's plain fun. You could harp on the way our dynamic duo different from the typical protagonist in gender and body type and attitude but to put it simply they're just kinda fun to watch and rather refreshing and mostly reasonable. I'm a big fan of Astrid and I can sympathize enough with Lilly. They have a companion to be their "Giles" which is a great throwback and just perfectly captures the humor of the show. He's overly enthusiastic and you kinda assume he's lying about something. He is but it wasn't what I anticipated so even that was amusing.

Finally watching this show now you can feel the complained Simu voiced about this show. It's great but holy wow does it stall the character growth. Honestly Appa and Umma are great. But everyone else could use room to grow just a little bit. This is one of the more emotional episodes of the series so far and it shows so much. I mean Janet and Gerald I would care more about if there was any sexual tension between them. Like all the times we kinda hoped there would be and the show neutered it. This is why it mattered because now that something does happen. I don't care. Also Janet kinda sucks as a characters and that's not on Andrea Bang she's just clearly the last character anyone writes. I kinda understand now why Shannon got the spinoff because she's better written (though annoyingly so) than Janet. Heck the annoying worker whose name I forget is written better. Janet more than any other character in this show needs better writing and arcs. Kimchee is underwritten but what we do get is pretty solid.

But this was a solid episode. Umma and Appa get news. Janet finally makes a decision and then it gets complicated. Jung.. was Jung even in this episode?

If you can buy-in, I maintain it's a fun ride. The fight choreography works for TV. It's got a pretty interesting Sci-Fi concept. But Dollhouse is a show that's tough to recommend. Primarily because of it's concept. Something they lampshade in the first season and they constantly drop in is that for a show that sleeves personalities into bodies and yet needs to protect the bodies. It sounds like prostitution with fancy words. And basically it is. If WW84 caused you to throw up a little in your mouth and you seriously rate that film negatively purely because of the narrative shenanigans surrounding Chris Pine. Then just stay away from Dollhouse.

What this show does well is showcase great actors doing great acting. You won't see this level of acting again until Orphan Black and even then I think I'd put some of these dolls a little ahead of the impressively consistent Tatiana Maslany. The casting is just phenomenal. An impressive amount of new talent considering how many Buffy the Vampire Slayer actors ended up in this show.'

It's just a shame it never ended up anywhere. The show is about a company that sells their agents out to you with whatever persona you want programmed in. But .... why? It starts off trying to showcase all sorts of uses like getting an expert negotiator or a fun girlfriend, or n outdoorsy girlfriend, or a body guard who doesn't realize they're a body guard, or thief or an old girlfriend. The idea that people would pay for these things makes sense. But the idea that people would pay ludicrous amounts of money for them just doesn't make sense. You can pay a girl to date you for half that money and just user a portion of that to ensure discretion. Programming someone to be your best friend and unexpectedly motivated to protect you isn't that much better than just hiring a body guard and having them pretend to be your friend. The show goes through great pains (some of the time) to stress to value of authenticity. These people don't pretend they become. Thankfully the show doesn't drag on about that point but by not doing so it fails to actually close the loop and justify WHY this technology should exist in this world.

But if you are willing to let that go.. it's a fun enough ride. I enjoyed it so much I've seen it three times basically. Dollhouse is a really fun show. It has some great epilogue episodes that expand the fiction. Great actors and great acting. And a pesky little problem with it's central premise.

Okay this is another example of what I'm talking about this show oscillates between an okayish long form mystery show and ridiculous parody. For instance one thing I like in this show is the lack of melodrama. People pining for other people and weak attempt at wooing other people. In part because the cast hasn't been aged up like with Nancy Drew that's not an issue. But I think I like Frank's storyline but I don't like Frank as much. But his story makes sense, his characters feel consistent and believable.

Then we have Joe. Joe being younger is yet somehow more interesting than Frank. He comes off in someways as a kid pretending to be in a hardboiled mystery but yet... I like him. He's not my favorite character on TV by far but on the show he's more energetic then Frank. He's got more moxy. Unfortunately it's Joe's storyline that is completely silly. It's Joe's storyline where he's winning and it's magic and I couldn't tell because he just looks like he's being a dick. I swore that episode the reveal was going to be that Joe's Dad studied carnival tricks and that's how he knows how to beat them. Because THAT was more believable than that Joe has a magic charm. Not because magic doesn't make sense in this world but because that's not what I was seeing.

We've seen Joe act very unlike a kid his age but more importantly act not like a human. Strange people in his room and he doesn't care. Here in this episode Joe gets pull into a storeroom IN SCHOOL and he doesn't say anything while it's happening. It KINDA makes sense for an adult hardboiled detective but one of the more respectable things they've done with Joe is give him a child's fear. He isn't paralyzed by it because he's a hero but he's been shook because he IS a kid. Yet someone grabs him and drags him to a storeroom and he says... NOTHING!??! It's weird. Offputtingly so. You're a kid like kick and scream or something. Joe is constantly getting tricked by adults like he's 2 instead of 12. It's weird for a kid who is otherwise kinda cool and mature-ish and personable.

I'd have thoughts on the other characters if I could tell them apart but the whole show having that yellow darkened color grading tint kinda sucks. Does every scene need to look like it's shot through 10% yellow mist and then desaturated another 7%? No, but clearly I'm not in charge.

Two episodes in this isn't as .... comprehensive as Nancy Drew. Although this show so far is what I expected Nancy Drew to be. Non-fantastical, long form mystery. Part of what I think makes this show confusing is while the acting is fine the characters don't work properly. Joe is dropping metal things because he has to find out what it's inside. It's weird. This guy has a broken ankle and he shows up in the Hardy house and no one is.. surprised. I mean they're shocked a bit but they're not surprised. How do you know where I live? WHY are you here? How did you get in? It's weird how much Joe doesn't care. For a kid who sucks a stake outs in spite of the fact that his father is a LEO. I assume the wrong person picked up the envelope in part just because of how dumb Joe looks obviously watching that spot from behind a tree like you can't just casually observe in the park. Then the older teens can't "blend in" at a hotel. You're teenagers.. just sit and play video games. Don't read a newspaper like a man in the 50s. If you can't license a Nintendo Switch use phone games. Though I'm sure you can get some money selling world of tanks or whatever phone game will sell you rights to make that scene happen.

More confused characters. And a HILARIOUS throwback to Terminator 2. With an obviously terrifying man asking people for Joe and then Joe's friend stumbling away to tell him. Joe winning games like a boss. But he's playing them terribly. You can't pop underinflated balloons with a casual toss you have to power it in.

Heck I'm almost convinced maybe it IS fantasy and he DOES have luck as his power right then and there.

Lol "Not a demon" that line itself almost refutes this as another version of Nancy Drew.

Am I supposed to be shipping Frank and this other girl? It's weird. Random. I haven't seen any chemistry. Yet the lovey dovey music plays so heavily on the scene with them together. Doesn't Frank have a girl "back home"? I don't mind the cheating. It's a TV show after all but I just don't understand if that's what's happening because this show insists on confusing me. As cheesy as it is when the boy goes into town, sees a girl and goes "Whoa" I at least understand what that means. It means he'll either get with her or some other girl he was ignoring to lust after her not realizing what was happening the whole time. This whole show is just have your cake and eat it over and over again.

Moon Knight still failing to hook me. I mean so far the most interesting part of the show has been it's biggest joke. Mr. Knight. I believe that's the name for the variation on the persona that wears a suit. While I kinda think it's more sensical for Moon Knight to be able to adjust his outerwear when appropriate, I do think it's make for good drama and hook for the suit to shift with the personalities. Mr. Knight is so far the only part of the show I care about not named Ethan Hawk. I like Ethan Hawk as an actor. I think he's excellent and I think he's excellent here. He even makes a great villain. It's just that he has nothing to villain against properly. The Protagonist isn't doing anything interesting. We're officially three episodes in and I'm officially calling it a disappointment. The last episode was so not hook-y i keep walking away while it's on. I've had to watch the thing three times and I don't like it any better. I hope it'll get better, but the pace it's going right now is putting it below The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and that's a low bar because it had some great hooks even if I can't remember anything that happens in that show BUT the hooks.

This is one of the most ruined episodes of the series. The Orville's legacy is to be the Star Trek show we never knew we wanted that for some inexplicable reason let Seth sneak in a joke every 5 pages. In this episode it felt like every two pages. In what is ostensibly one of the most dramatic and interesting episodes since Bortus has to adapt his girl-child into a boy-child and in future episodes when (big spoiler)Isaac dates Claire in a manner that's completely serious and void of sarcasm. This dramatic episode is constantly undercut by the sarcasm and attempts at humor.

There are times when the humor of this show is a nice change of pace from the "dull" Sci-Fi that inspired it. A little wet humor isn't the worst thing even if it isn't my cup of tea but here it's just way too much at the exact wrong times. It really undercuts everything that's happening here. This is the kind of episode you really wish had come in Season 2 when they kinda burned out of that humor and pulled it back a lot.

Humor aside this episode is intriguing. The Krill actors are solid and composed. We learn a lot about their culture even if every attempt to learn goes wrong.

Ooooh dang. I've heard about this movie for so long and now finally seeing it. We have a movie that's basically as bad as you've heard. You really have to look past the huge elephant in the room and on top of that elephant is Ryan Reynolds in a South Asian accent. Beyond that we have a fairly simple fish out of water is really a Swan (to mix metaphors) story.

The backbone is there. We even have a ever lovely Glenne Headly as the female lead. You loved her in Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and she was made to be in Dick Tracey but here she's an Aunt with a boyfriend who's a bit much and a nephew she doesn't understand. But Headly alone can't be a movie and if she was this wouldn't be it. Aside from a fun conversation about basketball vs Yoga and a scene where Ganesh holds his breathe for 12 minutes there's oddly little character. Ganesh has some curiosity but not as much as Mimi-Siku in the American remake Jungle 2 Jungle. His lack of curiosity and his apathy to his community makes it hard to care for the people around him until they care for him.

What a horribly inconsistent movie. Featuring the cheapest wardrobe I've ever seen. Our lead and Snoop both look like kids wearing their daddy's uniform. It's hilarious. The story editing is awkward.

The messaging is all about anti-classism while at the same time being weirdly sexist. Our lead Henry is alarmingly forward in every scene UNTIL the girl actually comes to him and tell him she likes him then all of a sudden he goes full classist talking about how he's not good enough for her. It's completely inconsistent with all the messaging prior to it.

There's a hilarious scene where we're supposed to feel something for the patriarch of the family whom we clearly see in the beginning of the movie as both an idiot and a racist. It's like the movie can't keep it's ideas straight. Does it have 70s sexism or 90s anti-classism. Even the big finale is weak in both concept and execution.

This idea was done MUCH MUCH MUCH better in She's Out of My League. There at least the conflict isn't between two people who clearly like it each except for the very times when one admits they're into the other. There the conflict is between the couple who are perfectly happily into each other and their friends who insist they're an unbalanced match.

It's a better episode that still is stretching itself too thing. Fantasy Island has traditionally been about the guests. Roarke was the medium now the lead. Roarke doesn't have a story because the story is about the guests. This time around they're trying to change that and while sure maybe that's not a bad idea by itself. What it does here is detract from the guest narratives.

I think this is a result of the serialization of TV. People hate monster of the week arcs or episodic adventures because everything should be "bingeable" meaning it should be so complicated and hard to track it should reward the person who binges it all at once. (That's what that word means Peter). I'm not saying they needed to wait an entire season before fleshing out Roarke but they could have done very well to establish itself better. Too much time is spent on Roarke to no interesting result and in return our two guests the sleeping man and the Freaky Friday couple come off less interesting. This is similar in scope to what happened with The 4400. The 4400 was a show that did what short stories do. It said forget the background let's just start at the interesting part. People disappear and then come back. The why isn't important. Here again Fantasy Island is too focused on building up to a why when that's not the point. The Fantasy and watching people confront is the first grab. This early on anything else is secondary

The sleeping man's narrative comes together well in part because his pacing is done well. He's a character that dips into life every few years why wouldn't he dip into the narrative only every few scenes. Would have made a great multi episode guest arc. But Fantasy Island at least sticks to that formula. You're in, you're out, you get the t-shirt later. His conclusion feels rushed but again we spend too much time working on Roarke, but at least this time we're getting some juicy details. It feels kind of weird that someone in hospitality would be so closed-minded about a girl friendship unless they're supposed to be lovers in the end considering Ruby's .... predilections (The term I'm using until she actually sleeps with a girl or confirms her "deal" either way)

It's a good thing you don't judge a show based on the first episode because this one was weak and uninteresting. For a show that's about getting your fantasy in unexpected ways that reach to the heart of what you truly want. This episode was severely wanting. A bit in premise and a bit in execution.

There are two guests in this episode. Bellemy Young plays the reporter who just wants to pig out for once and not have to watch her weight. A change to indulge something she denies herself all the time. The other guest is Kiara Barnes as Ruby, a dying woman who wants one pain free night to indulge before she gives up.

Where as Ruby's story is uninteresting it is Young's Christine Collins character that is underserved. The story of a women who refuses to eat any sweets lest she be called fast. That's a tale as old as time sure but it's a story that can be explored on Fantasy Island. The show just... kinda doesn't. We get a little narrative background but it's so disconnected and disjointed and poorly written that in the end, when Christine is presented with her abuser set on a spit, I'm confused on what the show wants me to even feel much less what action they're implying. Is she supposed to be aroused by it? Horrified? Satisfied? Bloodlusty? It's framed like a big reveal and the culmination of the story but she could have slam dunked it, stuck it. flipped it and riden and I wouldn't have been anymore surprised. It's not until the plane ride back that it's explicitly stated and even then it's just ridiculously unearned. Young is a certain type of actress and it's a shame to underuse her here so poorly that it makes me harken back fondly on her days doing Prodigal Son. Prodigal Son was a terrible show but even at it's worse it respected Young better than this.

Ruby's story is so headnoddingly dull. It's cheesy, it's uninspired it has the same ending that was in the recent Fantasy Island movie. This whole episode was weak. I don't care about characters, the new relationships between the Island folk. It's just a bad pilot for a good premise. I look forward to this being the worst episode of the series.

Did they find a blackwriter somewhere because Ned has been firing on all cylinders for the past two episodes. Tom Swift had a lot of potential as well.

I think his back story made me dislike his character. Swift was super fly with all the swagger. The tragic backstory of a father who doesn't accept him kinda didn't suit him. I kinda just wanted better for him. I assumed his backstory would be about trying to get his beloved father back from something science-y. Instead I had to endure the most complicated definition of "I'm in the closet" possible just to shoehorn in a metaphor for Nancy. Also I know it's CW but there was no reason for him to take off his shirt. It was just silly.

George was also 30% just off. Why would the only other minority in the group be so confused why Nick kinda liked talking to a black person for a while. It didn't seem weird at first until she kept insisting that he bring out his "real" personality. I mean she's Asian. She has her own cultural context both internally and externally. Something she points out later in the episode. If anything George should be the first one to be capable of understanding what it's like to be around white people all day.

I also think it's weird that George apparently has social media but doesn't post Nick. All the reasons make sense but they don't feel like George. Like I'm surprised she posts on social media at all. When it comes to TV it's all or none. Then I was surprised she posts people to her social media. I would expect food and the Crab but her sisters were a bit of a shock. Considering how official they are (RIp Nancy-Ned) I too like Nick am disappointed that she would share every other aspect of her life except her boyfriend. Now George's explanation is 100% reasonable but she should have told him been up front. Heck honestly go with two accounts. Everyone these days has two Instagrams one for the parents and one for friends.

Val Samuels is unfortunately the character I like least. I actually like her in the last episode she was in when we found out she was just a cold conniving villain. She gave sloppy advice to Nancy and she blew her secret for money. Not ideal but it's a character and nothing wrong with a character being bad. The problem here is that in this episode she tries to fit both sides of the fence. She's weirdly into Ryan Hudson (but legitimately???). She also doesn't understand the concept of a threat. "If you were seriously about threatening to kill me you'd have already done it" is terrible logic. Then through the most handwavingest illogical conversation we completely ignore the fact that she told someone about Nancy sharing a secret that she knew would put her in danger because... she can see that Ryan is really good underneath? She had to tell the Hudsons about Nancy in order to protect Nancy by taking down the Hudsons so they don't lose their mind about Nancy and kill her? The entire conversation makes no sense. Then she throw out her journalistic integrity even more but suggesting she's going to deserve a Pulitzer for the epic takedown she's about to do. If she ends up with him I'm going to puke. This better be some sort of poorly staged triple backstab.

Also that's not how "my blood" works. He's a scientist he doesn't believe in magic why would he make this kind of inference. For all he knows she is using her blood because she has powerful spirit magic not because she's genetically linked to the spell. TV sucks at writing smart characters a lot. Also he JUST came into town following a meteorite why would he be up on the tensions between various houses specifically by name?

Not a very compelling episode. We don't get a great ghost mystery out of it. We don't get decent character out of it. Even the complaining about the journalist telling her to keep her profile clean was silly. More silly than the fight that started for story reasons a few episodes ago. A journalist told her the double standard was real and she broken down like she's never heard of it before. Just like she gets upset at some ancestor who made a wedding dress like what? Also who writes for this show? Ned's like Thomas Jefferson didn't free his slaves like it's just a minor slight. In 2019 Jefferson is known for a LOT more bad things than that. Thomas Jefferson RAPED his slaves and called it a "relationship". Thomas Jefferson raped slaves that were his own family that were children at the time. Jefferson gave weapons to the French to help them take back Haiti the first place where slaves successfully overthrew slavery. He imposed a trade embargo on Haiti to kill the nation off so that American slaves didn't get the idea that they could be free too. And Nick the black character just drops that in like it's basically the same thing as these women making a dress on commission. Which apparently isn't gross because the family paid them to do it but because they did the job they were paid to do so. There are lots of examples of people who were otherwise heroes except for slight of some sort. Sanger is a great example. She did something good for the wrong reasons.

Of course the regular cop can't understand the crime so he's gonna make up the crime to arrest someone on even though he has no evidence she was high on drugs he's gonna get her into a rehab program and get her community service even though a hair sample they have can not possibly test for drugs. In a different supernatural show where the police were clued in they would make stuff up like this an that would be a heroic moment. A way for them to get justice but still not charge people for being possessed. Which is silly but here it's even sillier. You can't just make up the crime. But NO ONE calls him on this. Not the affected woman, not Nancy. No one questions that he's gonna send this person to jail for drugs.

The most interesting thread was of course Odette going on a date with Bess. This brings up even more questions. We haven't seen her girlfriend since the family dinner. In TV universe this IS a breakup offense but it also calls for a "where were you" episode where they yell and scream and then have a "we're on a break" moment. Odette acts like Nancy just a completely sexual creature with zero other concerns. Last episode she was going to kill herself to get back to her lady love now. She's from an era where holding hands with a woman would and did get her killed. Yet she has no hesitation, no traditionalism, no shyness about embracing Bess who as far as we know still has a girlfriend. There's an argument to be made that Odette is adapting fast because she watches while George is in charge. But we don't see any sort of change or adaption. That's the perfect sort of thing for George and Odette to talk about. We could talk about the way that TV lesbians never fall for anyone who isn't a lesbian themself. Of course she doesn't fall for Nancy she has to fall for Bess. Again there's a missed opportunity for her to fall for Bess because Bess is English and her lady love was also English but rather than show or tell the show just skips.

Nancy and the Cop. Nancy and the Crook. Neither of these I care about but I still don't know where this crook came from and why everyone acts like we all know who he is. I feel like both of these guys are designed to elicit the response from real like women as the college girls at Ace. "He watches Downton Abby!" :arousal increases:. They all just know what brocaded is but they're also so masculine and tough with lots of muscles.

All the previews and clips of this episode looked interesting. It's a super interesting premise. It's just a shame that aside from an interesting premise, Rick and Morty does Voltron, the episode just kind of flops instead twisting into a Casino parody. At that point it's mostly too abbreviated to be more than just recognizable and not really interesting. The clips and previews we've been seeing all still work but things like the FBI replacement characters (the real Anime characters), feel far more gratuitous than again interesting.

It's a shame this is the episode I was most looking forward to and so much of it just felt reductive. Like having both a rick that's a version of Tony Montana AND having a final scarface scene.

In the post they fret and frown over how much scale there is in this episode but there isn't really. There was more scale in the meatballhead uncertainty principle episode. The animation here isn't that interesting. They talk about how many different versions of Beth and Jerry have to be created but all the family members look the same. There's no design work. The only thing different is the Ricks. It actually would have been more interesting if the family members took on their rick's features. As in Fat-Faced Rick would have a Fat-Faced Morty and the entire family would also likewise be Fat-Faced. It's not as if we haven't seen the Mortys come in different flavors. The voltrons are supposed to scale up as in 5 voltrons form a super-voltron with each voltron forming a body part but when this happens it looks exactly like a normal voltron. There's no careful animation showing for instance than the right arm is made up of 5 lions thus each arm is multicolored to show it's makeup of a full voltron. it's just one big voltron. There's actually a lack of scale you never feel like anything is bigger. The grid shot where you see five headshots showing five voltrons has all the family members in place when instead it would make more sense and be more interesting to see the placement by body parts. [Right Foot, Right Arm, Head/Body, Left Arm, Left Foot]

Reviewing the producer comments on the Inside the Episode (https://youtu.be/k6WR_lmExqs), there's a scene at about 0:22 where everyone is flying out in hexes and it's even lazier than the aforementioned scene. In this scene there's a series of hexes flying out but in every hex it's the same, Morty-Yellow, Summer-Red, Beth-Blue, Jerry-Green. They're all identical in identical poses every time. Clearly they were copy and pasted around randomly occasionally flipped. Lazy animation is fine but it's weird that they would insist that this episode was so harrowing. When clearly they cut corners, that they didn't cut on A Rickle in Time back in Season 2, or even The Ricklantis Mixup, in Season 3.

It's well acted, it's well filmed. The protagonist is pure disgusting evil. I can't even properly say at least it had a happy ending because of "legally".

I thought this was going to be a stronger battle of wits between Maria and Jennifer Peterson but Dianne Wiest while excellent didn't feature as much as I would have hoped. Instead the focus is quickly shifted to Dinklage's Roman. Which is fine I suppose and while the tension builds nicely there are elements that are confusing in retrospect like why Roman is so insistent that his actions be so legal and/or covert. He's organized crime. He's terrifying. Dinklage is filmed excellently and his character has body. I understand his character. I don't understand the psychopath Maria. Her entire setup works because it's so circumspect and yet when a third party threatens to blow up her spot she fights back rather than getting ride of it so she could remain quietly doing her thing. There's no motivation that works for to fight so hard when she's clearly in the wrong. She's NOT a gangster though we could be forgiven for thinking that with how the movie surrounds her in plot armor and calm stoicism. I half expected an explosion that she of course would slowly walkaway from without looking back. Maria isn't more effective than Roman but Roman is far more reserved and less effective. There's some hand-waving about how he faked his death but that doesn't explain this level of restraint from insisting that all his kills be organic to not just storming an old folk's home. One might ask why a security guard at a senior care facility has a gun in the first place but as well ask why people weren't tortured, maimed and shot as is the way of organized crime.

I don't like Maria. I kept being afraid the movie was going to make her likeable but it never happens leaving me to wonder why she's the protagonist. In Thank You For Smoking we have a similar protagonist from the start but at the end of the movie he's brown and changed and you like him more even as you drolly recognize he's up to the same tricks with a different product. This movies goes in the opposite direction.

Every time I see a movie like this it makes me more angry at the reviews for Attack the Block where so many people complained about how they couldn't get into the movie because the main characters robbed someone from their neighborhood. It's weird because that whole movie is about those kids not being as bad as you might think based on that one interaction. They were redeemed and if not that then fleshed out time and time again. This movie has a protagonist that ironically I don't care a lot about.

Rewatching this with my sister who has read the first 4-5 books is hilarious. She's always been geek friendly but now she can participate with full understanding.

In this episode we've decided to give the women names based on the type of bosom them have because the costume design is .. well it's fun but it's also hilarious. Our guest star sister of the thief is now dubbed "Ample Bosom" and for this episode Kahlan is "Casual Bosom". It's weird that in a land of magic people think monsters are just myths and legends. You KNOW it's not. People fear Kahlan all the time (when they remember to mention she's a confessor). You all are under control of D'harans who control a dragon (i think) and there are gars all over the place. I understand it in Westland but Midlands is supposed to be the land of magic. It's also supposed to be the land where the Seeker has been selfish and mercenary until the true Seeker Richard so this is a classic case of sure maybe the events work but not with the motivations provided. Like in Invincible when the girlfriend broke up with the boy because he told her he had powers which was lying because she already knew but she's only angry at him in the first place because he was doing secret identity superhero things that literally saved her life in front of her. Our heros get caught up in the worst traps I've ever seen and despite being a simple woodsguide Richard doesn't have a knife to cut himself down. Kahlan however DOES and she doesn't use it until after Zedd fireballs the rope. Oh ... writers.

The photocopy of Richard in the sword and sorcery era is hilarious. Remains hilarious this many years later since this first came out. It's a simple story plotwise of saving an innocent woman's brother even if it means going up against D'Harans. It's silly but it's serviceable.,

I've said on many occasions I had zero interest in a Black Widow movie. In the first place she makes much more sense as a interstitial character gluing the MCU together. In the second place her story is over. What is the point of this?

I've also said that I've been wrong in so many occasions I'd be delighted to be wrong again here. For the most part I was. This is a movie that should have been made ages ago and it's a solid MCU film as good as any of the others. It does better than a lot of them in some ways. It doesn't throw in unnecessary love interests, it doesn't end in a giant CGI battle against anything much less a CGI bigger better version of herself.

Taskmaster is an interesting villain. They've flipped his character a lot which is kind of a shame because I think the mercenary that trains henchmen would fit rather nicely in the MCU and this movie in particular..

The final sequence involves a falling airship but having rewatched it I'm still unclear why the entire airship was exploding. The area was only losing a single engine, even our smart character acknowledged it was functionally a controlled descent. I can believe you can take down an airship. I can't buy the whole thing collapses with a SINGLE engine blowing up. Commercial airplanes won't self destruct with a single engine failure.

Oddly enough this movie perfectly encapsulates my fears for the Wheel of Time adaption. There are so many aspects to the Wheel of Time series and while certainly a LOT of it could but cut, so many plotline that could be reduced and just hinted towards, there's still so much that I would consider essential and "high wants" that the budget would need to be immense. I fear the result will look like this movie.

I haven't read The Knife of Never Waking or whatever that first book is called. But I can see even in this movie holes. There's just so much more that would be reflected in a world where men's thoughts are open and women don't exist. The movie is mostly good but it feels like it could have been more.

The casting was great top notch actually. Tom Holland and Daisy Ridley as Todd Hewitt and Viola Eade are both excellent. Our antagonists are especially well cast from the cowardly bully played by Nick Jonas to the war preacher by David Oyelowo, and the sinister Mayor by Mads Mikkelsen they're all excellently casted. Their acting is great. Unfortunately the writing doesn't give them much to do. Nick Jonas ironically enough is wasted. He's really got the cowardly bully character down but he's just so unused from a narrative perspective. He was far more reserved when he should have been hitting out at Todd. Oyelowo's Aaron as a fire and brimstone preacher is effective when he's on screen but his role in the movie is confusing. He doesn't represent an antagonizing force to anyone but he should. He's not with the Mayor or against him yet they're both hunting Tom and Viola. It's not like represents another faction because he's just himself and even in the end he only wants final absolution. "The Mayor" is somewhat presented as this insidious force corrupting the men, but how? No offense to Mads but he wasn't that charismatic. Or even that scary. I don't understand why everyone is following much less Todd's surrogate father Ben.

I kinda think this is a movie with too much telling and not enough showing in that regard. But the effects are pretty solid. Men's thoughts are broadcast and while it's amusingly PG thoughts. I kinda would like to see some explanation of that. Like are they completely over women? There are parts in Act II that suggest this isn't the case. If you show me a high school and tell me the nerds got together and killed a jock I have no problem with this but I'd like to see something about why they did it or how they did it and how this affected the student body. This movie has no interest in telling me any of that.

I'd totally watch two more of these though I'm not sure where there is to go plotwise.

A season that lives up to it's title, not just with it's premise (girl gets note that would make any normal teen suicidal and then has an accident that looks like suicide), but with nearly every episode. The cast is colorful but interesting designed to maximize the amount of awkwardness in our protagonist Jenna Hamilton's life. From her mother Lacey, who had Jenna as a teen and waffles from advice on how she should tart it up more to get the sexy boys to insisting that she's still a sexy young thing herself, to her guidance counselor, who doesn't understand the concept of sensitivity and personal space, Jenna is surrounded by adults who try way too hard to be her friend.

Her actual friends while they love her bring their own levels of awkward to the story from Tamara the overly effusive friend with a motor mouth coming up with so much slang she could be E-40 Jr to the criminally underused Ming who pretty much always brings sense and reason but is a "bad Asian" and so her parents limit her screentime. The only thing more awkward than having one love interest in Matty "the arm pit sniffer but that's okay because she strangely likes it" as the boy who only sleeps with her where his reputation isn't at risk, is having a second love interest in Jake Rosati as another chill sport-y type who likes Jenna as much as he doesn't like his actual girlfriend.

The season works even 10 years later even though some aspects appear dated their concepts aren't. Yes the world has moved from diaries to blogs to microblogs but while in a facebook world a myspace inspired show sounds old. It doesn't lean too much on that for thematic or storytelling structure. The concept of friends online vs friends in person remain today just as much as bullying though no longer as acceptable openly still happens.

There's a lot of good central backbone mystery to this season. Who wrote the cruel "carefrontation" letter that should have driven our hero to suicide instead of an accident that just looks like suicide? Will Jenna get a boyfriend and which one will it be? Heck just what is it about Ricky Schwartz that Tamara can't let go.

There are some great highs here, not too many lows and I swear there is legit slang that has it's etymology from Tamara. A fun season that closes well with only a minor cliffhanger.

There has been a lot of departure from the comic but in one of the most impressive adaptions ever Invincible has to this point been more than faithful to every theme and major beat in the storyline. Simple things like Rick being gay and Amber being black they change the comic visually and alter the storylines but not in ways that matter. However I really really don't like the beat in this episode where Amber breaks up with Mark. This is an inevitable beat and while the comic version was a bit cringe at time in it's teenage angst. I feel like the way it happens in this episode if completely unfair to the characters.

It starts with the attack at the University this time during the visitation rather than in Freshman year. Mark "abandons" Amber in order to save her which is more or less on par. This is something for which Amber is justifiably upset which is again on par. In this episode in a much more abrupt manner than in the comic Mark reveals his identity to finally answer her questions about why he's such a bad boyfriend and always leaving. In the comics this is a 3 page conversation followed by a minor adventure and then another three page conversation followed by Amber understanding and that taking their relationship to a new level. Now in the end this doesn't work out because she started dating him expecting a normal boy and wasn't prepared for the challenges of dating a superhero. That's fair. In the TV show they choose to go another route and that's also fair. We don't necessarily need the Amber/Mark will it last? relationship to the storyline. In a book this long even spread out over multiple seasons somethings have to go and they've built up 6 episodes of extreme good faith.

My issue here isn't the result, it's the execution. In a single sentence: I don't understand why Amber is upset at Mark. In the comics she and Mark both point out that it's unfair for her to be upset at him saving lives, however real and true those emotions are. Whatever else he did wrong in this phase (comics wise), and there's a lot, the breakup was about a mutual recognition that the relationship wasn't going to work. I've been loving animated Amber until this episode. Where we learn three things
1. She already knew Mark was a superhero, despite zero hinting.
2. She doesn't consider the fact that he has to save lives in a very literal sense an appropriate reason for him to leave unexpectedly
3. She doesn't understand the purpose of a secret identity. At this point his identity has been pretty well kept. No one who isn't a relative, or empowered knows who he is yet she's upset because he didn't "trust" her.

I think that third point especially is very unfair to her character who has been until now very cool. There are a lot of ways this could have been handled. She could have for instance been more understanding of what he's been doing and had the foresight to realize she didn't want the life of a hero's romantic partner. William being a dick tracks with his immature attitude and with the narrative that Mark avoided helping. But even Eve accuses him of "stringing her along for five months while being an a****** about it. But while it could be argued he was stringing her along, this is a world where people do keep their identities pretty secret, when was he being mean about it? I just don't think it's tracks with the previous episodes. When do you tell someone you're a superhero? Month 3? Are you proposing by month 8? What is this timeline that she's proposing? All your exes know which superhero you are?

This whole thing is a frustrating beat in an otherwise great show. I was wondering how they were going to pull off the full public face-heel turn of Omni-Man. It came off spectacularly. The fight was good, the changes were good, the reveal was excellent. Watching the Guardians was fun and interesting. In the comics I actually felt it was weird that the Mauler twins didn't try to backstab Robot, and I like the changes here. We still have one more episode to go but the nature of the break up was such that they closed off any backdoors of understanding and reconciliation so I doubt this is a red herring setup. I've really enjoyed this version of Amber it's a shame to see her depart the cast on such a discordant note.

Delivered exactly as promised from the trailer. This is a squirrel that's powerful (for a squirrel) who bonds with a girl going through a rough time. I like the characters (Flora for instance is a cynic who is trying to push down her sense of hope and wonder), I like the actors (Matilda is adorable with her dark eyebrows who is capable of gazing at things, usually Ulysses, with such wonder).

Because of the comic book references you kinda wonder if this is going to be the new Matilda and it isn't, but it's not going to blow you away but it's not going to make you grade your teeth with how twee it is (looking at you Book of Henry). The story is cute without being too cute and they don't waste your time making you wonder if this is all in the girls head like (other movies featuring fantastical girl that I'll not name for semi spoiler reasons). The Squirrel has powers and can understand. That much we know almost right off the bat. There are still surprises to be found. The movie also has an excellent sense of scale. We don't end up saving the world or with a squirrel suddenly lifting entire buildings.

This movie knows what it is and doesn't try to be anything it isn't. It's just a fun inoffensive family movie featuring a lot of your favorite comedic actors (I mean a LOT of them from Nancy Roberts of Corner Gas to Danny Pudi of Community and more). It's a great time to watch with boys, girls and any number of the whole family.

This season is a confused mess. That said there ARE highlights. Wyatt Russell's John Walker was better than anticipated. A lot of people hoped Sam would become the new Captain America but I've never liked Anthony Mackie for that role. Over the course of the season he does a good job of bulking up to someone I could see as Captain America as well as fleshing out as a person to the point where I wouldn't hate him being Captain America. Zemo is touted as a newer bigger badder villain but we barely see his iconic mask. The primary antagonists the "flash smashes" are a confusing muddled set of characters that it's hard to care about even as we watch them do heel-face turns and face-heel turns.

People have said a lot about WandaVision but it was a show that had a clear purpose and strong vision. From episode one it's both striking in tone and directly aimed at it's goal. Falcon and the Winter Soldier tries to mask that by looking REALLY good. Visually it does feel like a VERY long movie. The choreography is excellent and the fight scenes I did focus on while heavily edited were at least very well formed. They represent some of the best story telling in this season.

For all my relative distaste for F/WS I think it will hold up better than I think. I think that maybe when I watch it again it will fair very well. I may have to amend my score at that point.

As I predicted from the trailer and again on episode 1 this is the episode that lands over the line of offensive. IMO episodes 1 and 2 were questionable but not over the line of offense. THIS is one removes all doubt. He's not just a wacky foreigner who in spite of obsessing over America somehow doesn't know how anything works here. He's also a regressive foreigner whose values can't work here.

I think it's funny that Al notes "we have Wifi" in an argument with Riley about how he should have been kept up to date on family drama. Al is someone who by his own admission watches american movies and TV and has been dreaming about coming to America for 3 years. Yet the first thing he does when he arrives and treat it like Afghanistan which doesn't make sense. This gets compounded when his friend Riley asks his SISTER Lizzie to "dress down" so as not to excite Al in her own home. This is one of the most WILDLY offensive things I've seen. Bro, we've had like 3-5 women's movements specifically so that we don't ask this very question. She refuses but at no point does the show portray Riley as wrong. The episode ends with Lizzie actually apologizing to Al for... I'm honestly still not sure. This is where i DNF.

Ok this is excessive. I mean not only is this entire season excessive but this first episode is filled with just "too much" from the heart to heart conversation between Liza and Josh about how they are "each others's person" and they don't need to define each other's relationship. To the weird C plot about Josh being paranoid that his baby mama is going to steal his baby. It feels too much like we're trying to get every idea out because this is the last time we're going to be doing this. Umph even that ending conversation between Liza and Charles was bordering on twee. Honestly everyone just needs to have a conversation like two normal people with low stakes. Part of the reason people on TV suck at sharing their emotions is everything in this episode. Every "conversation" is threaded with heaps of subtext. I just want everyone to sit down have a chill talk over coffee not at some super memorable location over the bottle of wine they had on their first date. Just like suss out what you want the deal to be. Instead these people have to turn everything up to 11 for EVERY thought and if you aren't perfectly in sync then you're enemies.

Younger is a great show. Full of it's own types of flaws but greater than the sum of all it's flaws. It's gone from a random TV Land show to a proper cable programme. I'm not even sure I LIKE all the decisions but I enjoy that they were held fast. Of course it's silly that Kelsey gets the short end of the stick YET AGAIN. But whatever we're getting a Lizzie McGuire reunion at some point so it's all good.

Lauren is still the worst but she's earnest enough that she's not without charm.

So much of this movie can be explained by the realization in the end that this was filmed in a 24 hour period. In many respects it's actually impressive from a technical standpoint. But as a movie it's all theme and no narration. The story of a women's support group that becomes the target of a misogynistic brotherhood is a great idea. I just got NONE of that on the film. This film could have benefited greatly from more time. It would have revealed that Act 1 going until the 60 minute mark of a 90 minute film is just too long. The ending would have had a lot more punch because it would have been filmed better and edited better.

The acting is fine but the writing and directing feel incomplete. There are shorts that are cut too short leaving you confused. Ironically so many of the answers the film gives you for the many missing narrative gaps are insufficient. The set design is so wanting I can't tell where in the timeline any given scene is taking place. I mean even color grading the flashbacks would have been helpful and I hate the hyper color grading that's so popular in big budget films now. Ironically rather than showcasing that a movie CAN be made in a 24 shoot window this movie shows why you shouldn't film a movie in 24 hours.

I mean even the title "My Sisters" I think is supposed to refer to how the women in the film for a family unit for themselves but it's so incoherent we never see them as a family and it only comes up basically in the final words of the movie.

The fight choreography is trash but again in a touch of irony I don't care about that. The fight choreography tells a story and as bad as it looks it's one of the most clear scenes of narrative in the movie. It was just a strange experience.

Well this was an interesting time. On one hand it's far superior to the later Passengers with Lawrence and Pratt because at least the plot and direction are consistent with the story being told. I honestly think the ending was my favorite part of the movie. It can be (i imagine) very hard to end a movie on the perfect note. Whatever else i feel about the rest of the movie the ending crescendoed to the exact right spot and coasted just long enough.

Maybe I'm the victim of a poor description but I feel like the tension in the movie wasn't in the right place I expected a lot more tension between Claire and Eric. Not necessarily them struggling to date or do therapy but tension with Eric regarding the central premise of the film. I would actually say the movie doesn't go far enough to build that tension. It doesn't feel like anything it happening with regard to the plane crash. And yet it doesn't commit to the drama about survivors. I would have preferred the former but I could have accepted the later. The acting was great with a few exceptions that mostly felt like poor writing I felt these characters were in their own unique bubbles. The act 3 ride down the plot I feel I should have seen coming but I didn't.