Men in Black II [2002] review

Most of the humor of this movie falls flat.  I think I maybe chuckled twice at two of J's lines and none of K's.  Tommy Lee Jones just looks tired in this movie as anyone would be who was forced out of retirement into the crazy world of aliens and other creatures.  

Lara Flynn Boyle and a two headed Johnny Knoxville add very little to the story and this movies' villain is very lack luster compared to the menacing bug of the original.

Rosario Dawson is cute, but clueless.  The final chase scene is hollow and a means to attempt to probably wake up the audience who has been asleep for the last hour.

This movie is not worth revisiting and I hope the writers of the next MiB take notes from this one on what not to do for their movie.  1 out of 5 stars.

Honorable mention:  Forgot about the Michael Jackson cameo and my wife questioning if it was really him.

Bumblebee [2018] review

I enjoyed Bumblebee, but it wasn't without its flaws.

While the first Transformers movie was supposed to be about "a boy and his car" according to Spielberg, this movie was definitely about "a girl and her car" almost to a fault. Hailee Steinfeld felt genuine and true to the character. Her overall arc was well done. I wish there was a little bit more meaning to her final "heroic" act instead of just the act itself.

As for the rest of the cast, they didn't get much development. It's not like I needed more about (Steinfeld) Charlie's family, but they seemed poorly written to almost non-existent. They were really only needed for one part towards the end. Thankfully they didn't have Michael Bay cringe-worthy dialogue, but some of that went to John Cena and the doctor character. The guys at Collider said John Cena was acting like he was in a Bay movie and I agree with them. I appreciated his effort, but he was a little too much. He did have one or two good one-liners. The boy neighbor and mean popular people weren't really needed and didn't add anything to the movie for me.

To echo the sentiments of other critics, the G1 stuff was great and there's no reason why we couldn't get that in the first place. If this was the first ever Transformers movie, people would have lost their mind. It's kind of like serving your guests burgers for the past 11 years when you have a fridge full of filet mignon the whole time.

As for the connectivity from this movie to other movies, there are some plot holes, but Bay's movies are so full of holes that this one kinda fits with them in that aspect unfortunately.

This movie was good for Travis Knight's first time and we'll see if he gets a second shot at it and where things go from here.

Ralph Breaks the Internet [2018] spoiler review

Going in, I knew the general premise was that the Sugar Rush steering wheel was going to break and the goal for Ralph and Vanellope was to get a new one to save the game so all the characters had a home to go back to since having your game unplugged was a huge deal, based on the events of the first movie.  And how would they get a new steering wheel?  The internet. 

So I kind of figured they'd get the steering wheel with relative ease, maybe a hiccup here or there, while going on some fun adventures in the internet based on what I saw in the trailers specifically in reference to the Disney Princess scene.

I was slightly disappointed to learn that getting the steering wheel would be the goal throughout the entire movie.  On their way to accomplish their goal, while creative at times, sometimes felt contrived based on the worst parts of the internet.

So while on their way to eBay to win the auction for the steering wheel, they meet characters that represent a pop up.  They decide to use the pop up which brought them to the racing game which makes sense because, pardon my pun, as that's in Vanellope's wheel house.  We meet Gal Gadot's character Shank who gets way too many lines and way too much screen time.  It felt like the people in the game were trying to be the Fast and the Furious family, but I never got a sense of family from them.  

After failing to achieve their goal in the racing game per the direction of the pop up character, Shank tells them to go see Yes who runs Buzz Tube or something very similar to Youtube.  Yes helps Ralph make videos which get likes which gets them money.  They get enough money to buy the steering wheel and their mission is accomplished.

But the steering wheel wasn't, again sorry for the pun, driving the story, but the friendship between Ralph and Vanellope was supposed to be focus.  Vanellope was tired of the same thing day in and day out and dreamt of something bigger / more out of life, while Ralph liked things the way they were for the past six years.  Their friendship is tested, they fight, and eventually Ralph learns to deal with his insecurities and is able to let her go.  So Vanellope decides to stay in Shank's game and Ralph still gets to talk and visit his friend when he can i.e. when an upgrade is happening for the online game that Vanellope is now a part of.

So while I appreciated the overall message, I think the execution was a little lacking.  I loved the Disney Princess stuff and wish they were more involved with the story than they were.  I would have much rather had more of them and less of fake Youtube and fake Fast and the Furious plot lines.

In summary, I enjoyed the original more.  It needed more Disney Princesses.  C+

Fantastic Beasts The Grimes of Grindelwad [2018] spoiler review

Going into this movie, the only thing I knew is what I knew from the first movie and that Dumbledore and Gindelwald were supposedly romantically involved via the implications of the last Harry Potter book and tweets from Rowling herself.  So below is my take on things mixed with the questions I still have.

1)  The opening escape sequence - how did Grindelwald and Abernathy switch places?  Did they switch bodies allowing Grindelwald to get his tongue back?  I was very confused on what was going on.

2)  Then we get Newt and Leta at the Ministry.  Who were those guys in the room?  None of them introduced themselves or said their names.  Why was Leta there?  What does she do again?  Is she an auror?  Also, random guy hiding in the corner that turned out to be a follower of Gindelwald later -  who was that?  Did he ever say his name?

3)  I don't think any of Grindelwald's crew ever said their names or I missed them.  The only name I knew at this point was Abernathy, Grindelwald, Newt, Leta, and Newt's brother who's name I know was mentioned, but I need to look up.

4)  Cool, Queenie and Jacob show up.  I know those people.  But why does Queenie have Jacob charmed?  Because he didn't want to run away together?  Who's running the bakery back in America?   Also, who is Newt's assistant?  Is that Newt's house?  It feels like he was running his own private zoo outside of the suitcase, right?

5)  And back to more people I know - Tina and Credence.  Credence works at this traveling freak-show/circus and has developed feeling for Nagini and also is trying to figure out who is real family is.  Tina is following him.

6)  Oh I forget, we get young Dumbledore and we learn that he was the one that sent Newt to America.  Cool, something tying the first movie and second movie plot together.  I didn't catch what Newt was supposed to do or what Dumbledore wanted him to do in the first movie, but cool, Newt is secretly working for Dumbledore but everyone at the Ministry sees right through it so it's not a secret and he's being watched/followed?  Maybe both of them are?

7)  Anyway, back to the circus, we meet a new player.  It sounded like his name was Comma like the punctuation, but after looking it up it's Yusuf Kama.  Who is this guy now?

8)  So Newt likes Tina (duh) and he learns that she is in Paris and she also thinks that Newt is engaged because of a poor use of grammar in a publication of some sort.  So now everyone is in Paris but WAIT, we need to visit Hogwarts for some reason.

9)  Hogwarts

- Dumbledore is questioned and nothing comes of it other that we learn he can not or will not fight Grindlewald

- He gets some weird bracelets so now the Ministry knows if he casts any magic

- Leta gets a flash back so we can learn about her a little bit and we get some interaction between her and young Newt. 

(The actor playing young Newt was probably the best acting of the movie.)

And back to Paris!

10)  So Grindelwald using a skull hookah to create a 3D powerpoint?  So he wants Credence - makes sense because he wanted the Obscurus in the first movie.  Why?  We will find out in the last two minutes of the movie.

11)  So Newt is using magic powder of some sort to do some high level Batman investigative stuff to find Tina.  But isn't he on a secret mission for Dumbledore?  Yes he is.  Will we learn what that mission is?  Not until the last two minutes of the movie.

So I guess we get to follow Credence who is being followed by random guy at the Ministry while Tina is trying to find Credence while Newt is trying to find Tina and I'm trying to find out what the heck is going on.

12)  So evil Ministry guy is secretly working for Grindelwald and his purpose was to kill a random little person.  Credence attacks bad guy but is unable to hurt him.  And this guy is supposed to be able to defeat Dumbledore?  I hope Dumbledore knows the magic bubble move.  By the way, where does the bad guy go after speaking with Grindelwald?  Do we see him the rest of the movie?

13)  At some point we learn Grindelwald is holding a rally to bring together his followers.  It's a peaceful rally (and he doesn't start to kill everyone until all his followers leave but more on that in a bit).  Before the rally, we have a scene where everyone we care about meets up and we finally are given a giant dump of what has been going on this whole time.

A)  So Kama wants to kill Credence because he promised his father (via an unbreakable vow) to kill the thing/person that the guy who stole his wife loved the most.  By the way, what was the thing in Kama's eye?  Who put it there?  Why was Nicolas Flamel in this movie?  Was he even needed?  Who did he talk to in his magic book?

B)  The guy that stole Kama's father's wife was Leta's dad so originally, Kama was going to kill Leta, but actually Papa Lestrange didn't care about Leta either.  The only thing Papa Lestrange cared about was a baby, a baby that he sent to America with Leta and that little person from earlier that the bad guy killed.  So the baby wouldn't stop crying on the boat to America, so Leta swamped him with a quiet baby.  The quiet baby was actually Credence and baby Lestrange actually drowned.  So we finally learn that's what Leta saw when looking at the Boggart.  Also, was that the Titanic?

- We actually get a visual family tree in the movie.  Thanks, movie.  If you have to bust out a family tree, don't you think we need to re-evaluate your story telling technique?

14)  So now that that has all been cleared up, it's time for the climax - the Grindelwald rally.  As I mentioned above, he kills a lot of Aurors, who don't put up much of a fight at all.  Then sadly Queenie and Credence join Grindelwald and Leta fights and dies.  Everyone else makes it out safely and Newt accomplishes his mission - getting some sort of item that physically represents a blood pact that Grindelwald and Dumbledore made to never fight each other.  It's essentially the LOST game where Jacob and the MIB couldn't kill each other directly so Grindelwald needs someone that can kill Dumbledore and that person is supposed to be Credence who BIG TWIST is possibly also a Dumbledore and he has a phoenix - maybe Fawkes.

Jeez.  That's a lot of plot to cut through like a vine filled jungle.  Just like the first movie, this is going to take a couple watches to attempt to enjoy / understand / make sense of it all.

Things I liked

- Dumbledore mentioning to Newt about a phoenix coming to a Dumbledore in a time of need and then it actually happening at the end (allegedly)

- Leta saying I love you in the direction of both Newt and Theseus

- Newt and Theseus hug at the end of the movie

- Grindelwald makes a compelling argument and World World 2 does happen and it's a threat to not only the wizarding world, but humanity itself

Monty Python and the Holy Grail [1975] review

It's been years since I've seen this movie and even when I first saw it years ago, I chuckled here and there, but ultimately I didn't get it. I don't mean to ruffle feathers as I know people ADORE this movie but I still don't get it.

The classic moments still brought some intermittent laughs, but some left me scratching my head.

• "I'm not dead yet."
• The fight with the Black Knight
• The monks hitting themselves in the head
• Castle Anthrax filled with women
• The French heckling the English
• The minstrels' "Brave Sir Robin"
• The Knights that go Ni
• The holy hand grenade
• That ending

So it's kind of my understanding that Monty Python and the Flying Circus is the SNL of British sketch comedy and they decided to make some movies in the same vein that Lorne Michaels produced the movies Wayne's World, Coneheads, Superstar, Night at the Roxbury, Ladies Man, etc right? Am I on the right path?

And just like some of the SNL movies had huge cult followings at the time and people still quote and love them today, people feel the same way about the Monty Python movies I would assume. But just as I find re-watching some of those SNL movies now don't quite pack the same punch comedically as they once did, I wonder if Holy Grail is the same way or maybe it's just me as I'm not a huge fan of British comedy. I remember my dad watching "Are you being served?" and "Fawlty Towers" and not really getting it either. I thought maybe I was too young, and maybe I was and need to revisit these shows, but I do like some of the stop motion / claymation British comedy movies, I don't know, I digress.

Anyway, if you like British comedy and have NOT see Holy Grail, you'll probably love it. Otherwise, I wouldn't bother. It has a strong start, but then I was starting to fall asleep towards the end. Even the characters in the movie say, "Get on with it" and I think Arthur's favorite line was "Shut up". If the writers had shut up and got on with it a little more in the script department, maybe I would have been more entertained.

Epilogue
In 2011, an ABC prime-time special, Best in Film: The Greatest Movies of Our Time, counted down the best films chosen by fans based on results of a poll conducted by ABC and People. Holy Grail was selected as the second best comedy after Airplane!.

I think the take away is that the special was called “The Greatest Movies of Our Time.”

Airplane! [1980] Review

It's been years since I've seen it, but damn, there were so many things that I loved that I forgot about.  It kind of feels dumb explaining it in words as it doesn't do it justice but I should note that there are a lot of visual gags as well as blink and you'll miss it things written on signs or labels.  A good number of jokes are misinterpreting a person's response answering what you thought was a generic inquiry and quickly dismissing it.  Also, a lot of jokes are repeated, but still funny, i.e. "I picked the wrong day to quit _____ ".

Parts where I laughed out loud
- When the doctor from the Mayo Clinic calls Captain Oveur at the airport, you can see jars of mayo behind him and a beating heart in a large petri dish.
- Zooming in on the doctor, after cutting back to him from the captain on the phone, with the jars out of focus, the heart is shown bouncing in and out of frame
- The guy dancing with the knife in his back in Striker's flashback
- Striker asking the guy at the bar to pinch him and the guy gives him a confused look and slowly backs away
- Joey visiting the cockpit for the first time is probably the best scene in the movie
- When the stewardess is looking for a doctor and Leslie Nielson's character is sitting there wearing a stethoscope
- Leslie Nielson aka the doctor saying he had the lasagna

Gags that kind of fell flat
- the passengers killing themselves when listening to Striker's story
- the jive guys, while entertaining, isn't super funny
- the stewardess singing with the guitar and knocking out the girl's IV
- Rex Kramer's bad driving
- the dog attacking the guest
- Oveur's wife sleeping with a horse
- Stephen Stucker's character of Johnny, who I probably found hilarious as a kid, was actually quite annoying and I didn't find anything he was doing or his side comments during the crisis funny.  When he said, "____ is getting larger" reminded me of when Family Guy stole that line to use it in their Star Wars satire.  It wasn't funny then either.

Overall, it's definitely one of the funniest movies ever created, and I appreciate that it can still make me laugh 38 years later.  I would definitely say the first 2/3 of the movie is very strong comedically while the last 1/3 kind of falls flat.  My wife not getting the jokes and rolling her eyes made the movie a little more enjoyable as well.

Side note:  I didn't realize Jonathan Banks was in the movie until I looked at the IMDb cast listing.  He even has two speaking lines, but he looks totally different.

Orange Is The New Black - Season 6 - Spoilers Review

Season 6
Episodes 1 - 4

Per the usual, the beginning of these new seasons, the writers set up more questions than answers from the cliffhanger ending of Season 5. Where do all the girls end up? Well, they're all over the place, but thankfully the focus is on the ones that were in the pool area first.

All Piper cares about is Alex, where's Alex, where's Alex, and she's already annoying by the fourth episode and no longer needed as part of this story. Alex was sent to the hospital as her arm was broken last season and they're reunited. (I hope this gets less attention than the other stories.)

The real focus is on who is getting blamed for the death of Piscatella as the guards that accidentally shot him set up the pool area to make it look like he was killed by the inmates, so they're all in Max awaiting questioning by the district attorney. They want to squash this in a week to prevent other prisons from rioting.

Suzanne and Cindy witness this happening as they weren't captured until later, but Cindy keeps her mouth shut and Suzanne is off her meds. The best part is getting to see what Suzanne sees when she's off her meds. It's a little frustrating because as the audience we want answers, but it was entertaining none the less.

Diaz is getting the brunt of the punishment as she shot the one guard at the beginning of Season 5 and I think he ended up dying, but it wasn't her fault if I remember correctly as the meth heads killed him. They have not been featured as of yet so we don't know where they are.

Red and Nicky's storylines are a bit intertwined once again as Red clearly wanted Piscatella dead for torturing her and the other girls so a lot of blame is put on her as well as Taystee for organizing the riots. It's implied that Red takes the brunt of the blame to help Nicky not get 70 more years for dealing drugs during the riot.

It's interesting to see which girls turn on each other to save their own skins. We get more background on Cindy before prison and that she actually has a son. We see a young Frieda make a deal and ending up burning some bridges in the process. She's safe, for the time being, in cell block B affectionately called Florida as that's where all the old inmates end up.

We also see Lorna, Flaca, Blanca, and Ruiz. Eventually all the girls in the pool area that were in Max are released to Gen Pop save for Red and Taystee. They're probably screwed. The DA has a white board and I think they may be getting LIFE in prison, while 4-5 other girls are getting 10 years added on to their sentence. Big Boo is seen for a hot minute as one of the blocks is suffering from a lice outbreak. Zirconia as well.

Meanwhile, in the outside world we have Pennsatucky hanging out with the one guard who is her love interest and another random heavy guard who was supposed to be dropped off at his sister's but they all end up hanging out at Hershey Park.

Aledia Diaz appears to be getting into the supplement business.

Caputo is on paid leave, but wants back in.

Figueroa is currently interim warden.

Some of the other guards like Luschek are back by the 4th episode, and they will be playing a Fantasy Football esque game with the new group of guards, but with the inmates lives instead. They get points on things like inmate fights, relapses, deaths, etc.

Haven't seen Norma, Gina, Yoga Jones, Sophia, Brook, Ramos. Don't know if they'll get a mention or be shown later this season. This show is probably worse than GOT with all the characters and which ones get the focus, which ones get the backstory that pertains to what is happening. It's very confusing and I'm a little lost, but just going on the ride one episode at a time.

Episodes 5 & 6
Mischief Mischief & State of the Uterus

Sophia finally makes an appearance and is given a few lines. The best new character is the Jamaican lady. The writers are giving her a lot of funny quips to enhance a scene.

Caputo is stuck taking a job in Missouri, but with the way things are going for Linda Ferguson (Beth Dover) and Figueroa not giving a shit, she may change her mind on shipping him away and giving him his shit show back, but just a guess/speculation on my part.

Pennsatucky turns herself in after they finally found out that Caputo had the count wrong which is good because she needs to get away from that guard who is quick to anger. I wonder if this is the last we'll see of her or if she'll get grouped with the rest of the girls and added back into the story.

Unfortunately, we get more Piper whining and Alex telling her to shut up and care less, yet again, just like last season.

We learn more about the "Daddy" character, but unfortunately it feels like we're getting only some of her story in the flash backs, and they never flesh out the whole story. The writers show what her life was like before being incarcerated, but we never see the "event" and I remember that being an issue with past seasons. The writers give you a little taste, but then don't complete the arc. I guess you just have to assume what happens next and fill in the blanks.

Red takes the plea and adds 10 years to her time while Taystee is fighting against the murder charge. To her surprise, and mine, the Black Lives matter and ACLU group have her support and plan on putting a legal team together for her. She's released into Gen Pop and things are looking up for now before we head into the back half of the season.

Episodes 7 & 8
Changing Winds & Gordons

While Changing Winds focus was on Badison, an annoying new character that thinks very highly of herself, Gordons puts the focus on Taystee and I like that they introduced a guard character this season that was friends with a person in the real world before she became an inmate.  The end of the episode as they walk their separate ways after working 3rd shift at a fast food restaurant was a small reminder of the different paths we take in life and where they can lead.

Pennsatucky aka Doggett, who I thought we wouldn't see for a while after she turned herself in, popped up right away and got herself out of Ad Seg and into Florida pulling the right strings with Linda Ferguson.

Caputo and Figueroa go on a real final date, but a connection actually sparks and Figueroa becomes sad that he's leaving.  I really like her line that Bruce Springsteen may be the boss, but he's not the boss of me.

Red spots Frieda in Cell Block B aka Florida and this drives her crazy.  It ultimately brings her on Carol's radar - the lady who runs D Block and was betrayed by Frieda 30 years ago.  They appear to form an alliance.  By the way, Carol's sister Barbara runs C Block and I think has only had one scene so far.  Badison works for Carol while Daddy works for Barb where Daddy is getting most of the screen time.  A war is starting to brew and we got a hint of it during a kickball game flashback earlier in the season.  Piper finds old kickball photos and wants Luschek to organize a game.

Speaking of Luschek, he's bringing in cell phones for Badison and is trying to rope Alex in as well.  The character is fighting because she doesn't want to be involved.  Not sure why Badison wants Alex so badly, as she's not easily manipulated, which is more reason while Alex and Piper should be written off, but I highly doubt they will be.

Speaking of being written off, it's time to end the Diaz storylines.  Dayanara continues to create more problems like a child, and Aledia continues to push her vitamin product out in the real world and is now getting involved with one of the guards.  I just don't care.  Give me a more interesting storyline.

Episodes 9-13

Things get a little more interesting with the drug trafficking in the prison as Aledia uses her boyfriend and main guard Hopper as a drug mule to sneak the drugs into the prison creating a secret compartment under her giant tubs of vitamin product that he was using.  Hopper eventually figures it out, confronts Aledia and they have a huge fight which results in their breakup.  Surprisingly, he amends things with her and voluntarily continues to bring in the drugs.  Aledia later realizes that Daya is using instead of just distributing.  In a rare moment of seeing Aledia show some humanity, it's clear that she has a dilemma.  How is she supposed to make money and get her kids out of foster care while her other daughter continues to use said drugs that are supposed to be helping her not hurting those she cares about?  Aledia can stop bringing in drugs right then and there as she has Hopper's support to do so, but she makes the decision to not stop as it's worth the cost of one daughter to save her other kids.  Really powerful stuff and even though the storyline was convoluted and a little annoying how it got to that point, the pay off was excellent.

Speaking of powerful payoff, the culmination of the entire season was the kickball game - C Block verses D Block - Carol verses Barb.  Tensions were high throughout the entire season - filled with retaliation, shifting alliances, information exchanges or lack there of and it was finally time for the big game.  Everyone was armed with a shank of some sort.  But then the big reveal - Carol and Barb weren't even going to participate.  They devised a plan when put in the Ad Seg together as the one guard was trying to get fantasy inmate points.  The plan - during the chaos of the game as guards escorted inmates back to their cells, the ladies, in their pink uniforms would waltz right into Florida and dispatch of Frieda.  As shit was about to hit the fan during the kickball game, and they were given the signal to attack, the attack never came.  They got wrapped up in the game and started having fun.  Before the game began, Ruiz had asked the one female guard who was suffering from the PTSD from the riot last season, to mix up the Blocks.  She reluctantly did and it helped prevent a situation.  Unfortunately for Carol and Barb, who were off hiding, realized something wasn't right, they ran out of patience and killed each other, Carol getting shanked in the back and Barb having her neck slit.  (The guard who put them together in the first place ended up wining fantasy inmate for earning double points due to the double murder.)

Speaking of fantasy inmate, Mendoza found Luschek's paperwork concerning the game and tried to out him and the other guards on the radio show with Flaca as Cindy was having guilt pains with the whole Taystee situation.  Mendoza didn't get a chance to out him and was put in the SHU.  Red was also put in the SHU when she got a chance to attack Frieda as Red was on the way to visitation to see her grandchildren for the first time and Frieda was on her way back from the courthouse.  Red never got to see her grandchildren as she put her hatred for Frieda above everything else.  Very powerful scene.

Speaking of court, Taystee was ultimately found guilty for the 2nd degree murder of Piscatella.  It was very well done as the jury chairperson was about to read the verdict, the audio went silent and we just saw reactions, first of Taystee just loosing it emotionally and her being cuffed and taken away.  I thought she was dreaming at first because I was surprised there wasn't a sentencing hearing, but I guess that'll happen at another date.  The crowd freaks out which Taystee's one childhood friend/guard in attendance as well as Caputo.  Caputa gets drunk and shows up at an MCC event where Figueroa takes care of him.

Lastly, in a surprising turn of events, 25 inmates were getting an early release.  The new character Badison was trying to get Chapman more time by planting drugs on her.  Chapman turns the drugs over to Hopper and promises to keep an eye out for any illegal activity.  Unbeknownst to her, Hopper is running that activity, and he manipulates a new inmate rating system to put her on top of the list.  Surprisingly she actually gets out.  Her and Alex have there prison wedding and they get their happy ending for now even though the tension of the kickball game loomed.  Sophia Burset also gets out, but earlier in the season when Caputo came to her to ask for her help to sue MCC for her wrongful treatment, she takes a payout so I believe her story is done.

The third person to get released is Blanca.  She gets her period that day so her attempt to get pregnant didn't work, but she's able to contact Diablo and tell him the news that they get to try for real.  In probably the sadest twist of the season, as she's processed and released, she's taken into custody by ICE.  She begins to cry and the audience is shown Diablo at the main entrance with a boquet of flowers, looking for Blanca as everyone else is being released.  I didn't care about Piper and her brother's reunion or Sophia and her wife's reunion at all.  It was overshadowed by what happened to Blanca.  I did like Piper's brother's line of "Let's get out of here before they chance their mind."  Before going to the car, Piper was able to look at the kickball game through the fence and saw them all having fun before the episode ended.

Honorable mention:  Sophia had a moment with Frieda when quoting a famous author about being free and seeing the sky.  Frieda made a point that she can't see the sky because they're not free.  Frieda when gets a chance to go outside during the kickball game to actually see the sky, but because of the attempt on her life earlier in the season by one of Carol's people, she chose to stay inside, unbeknownst to her that she could actually go outside as no harm would come to her.  So in the end, Sophia was right that freedom is a state of mind as in Frieda's own mind she could not go outside because the threat of death due to the sins of her past.  I appreciated the message that the show was attempting to get across in this instance.

***

This season feels on par with the others.  It's not super clear where things are going at first, but eventually everything comes to light.  Sometimes that journey is hard and annoying; sometimes that journey is easy, fun, and engaging.  You care about certain people along the way and not so much about others.  The writers don't disappoint in surprises and twists.  I know the show has been officially renewed for at least one more season and I will definitely be tuning in to see where the writers and actors take us.

Mission: Impossible - Fallout [2018] Non-Spoiler Review

Mission: Impossible - Fallout (aka M:I-6) was actually quite enjoyable. I found myself holding my breath at certain parts, and I loved the audience getting into it and cheering at the good parts. It currently has a Rotten Tomatoes score of 98%, and it had a stellar box office weekend. There were a lot of clever call backs to previous installments, so if you're very familiar with the series or you watched a recap video of all five movies (Screen Junkies has a good one) then you'll definitely find something to enjoy about this film. I would recommend being very familiar with Rogue Nation most of all as Fallout feels like a direct sequel that was set up with the events of the previous movie - specifically the Syndicate organization, its leader, and other characters that survived the movie.

Blockers [2018] Non-Spoiler Review

I didn't expect this movie to be good.  I was mostly right, but I will admit that I did find myself laughing at certain parts.  John Cena is great, his male co-star Ike Barinholtz gets a few good lines, and Leslie Mann is a mess.  Speaking of messes, so is the plot.  I'll do my best to avoid spoilers, but the general plot is that these three parents attempt to stop their respective daughters from fulfilling their prom night sex pact.  It's a similar premise to 1999's "American Pie", except the focus is primarily on the parents.  But then the movie tries to focus on the girls and make us care about what they're going through personally, but by the time the movie gets going, it forgot to establish the characters and make us care about them at the beginning of the movie.  You get sprinkles of information here and there as you go, but I never found myself caring about either set of characters.  The parents don't even like each other, so how is the audience supposed to like them or root for them?

There is some heart at parts especially towards the end of the film.  Sadly, when a certain parent's motivation is revealed, during that heartfelt moment, it falls on deaf ears and the scene is played for a comedic response.  It appears to be a common thing as many have griped about this same thing happening in recent Marvel movies.

I do not recommend this movie as it will be forgotten as quickly as other comedy related movies over the past few years.  If you do decide to give it a shot and go in with low expectations, you may be pleasantly surprised, but the movie couldn't really keep my attention.

Honorable mention:  Gideon Adlon, daughter of Pamela Adlon, gave the most believable performance 

Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle [2017] review

So I finally got around to watching this for the first time and I will say that it wasn't completely horrible.  I did find myself laughing at Jack Black mostly and Kevin Hart a little.  They both did a good job of embodying the real life people they represented.  The Rock and Nebula did a good job as well, except their real life characters had little to no personality so it would have been nice to see them embrace their avatar more than they actually did.  Most of the time it felt like they embraced their avatar when the script said to.  It didn't feel real or organic, mostly haphazard.

The story was on the weak side and the CGI makes Black Panther's CGI look like a masterpiece.  The movie is slow to start as it has to set up the young characters and how Jumanji is now a video game and not a board game. 

I did like the concept of the NPC characters in the video game that repeat themselves over and over again just like they would in a real video game, unfortunately that left all the heavy lifting concerning acting to a weak underdeveloped villain.  The whole time it felt like there weren't any stakes save for the stupid way they lost their lives - they each have three lives established by three hash marks on their arm - and we never got to see what happens when you game over.

Spoiler alert - they get out of the video game and small the console with a bowling ball.  I was hoping for a little stinger at the end of the credits, but all you hear is the ominous drum beat when something bad is about to happen so if the board game can magically transform into a video game, I'm sure a smashed one can transform into something else.  (At the time of this review, I just read that Jumanji 2 has been greenlit for a December 2019 release, so it's definitely coming back.)

Lastly, I did like that the characters were staying in the same hut that Alan Parrish stayed in when he was trapped in the jungle in the original Jumanji.  It was a nice little touch, but since the characters didn't and wouldn't know who that was, it would be a throw away line for anyone not familiar with the original.

So is it worth a watch?  If you're curious enought, you've probably seen it by now, but if you haven't, I wouldn't spend more than a Redbox rental amount on it. 

Reminiscence Therapy - She's Out of My League - My Two Day Experience

Below is an account of my experience after returning home from my two day shoot of She's Out of My League.  I put it on my personal website under the "News" section back in 2008.  Re-reading it now, I put WAY too much detail, but I'm kind of glad I did and I'm glad I wrote it while it was still fresh in my mind.

At the time of the writing of this recap of events, I wasn't even sure I would survive the cutting room floor.  I joked with my friends that maybe they would cut me and re-shoot with Chuck Norris.  It wasn't until early 2010 when trailers started appearing and I saw myself in them that I had a pretty good feeling that I made the cut.  I saw the entire scene for the first time in the theater, on March 12, 2010, with the rest of the world and a large group of my friends.  It was so surreal.

05/08/2008      She's Out of My League
This is the story of my two day shoot in Pittsburgh for the Dreamworks picture, "She's Out of My League", directed by Jim Field Smith, and starring actors (to name a few) Krysten Ritter, Jay Baruchel, T.J. Miller, and Alice Eve.

On Tuesday, May 06, 2008, I woke up at 5:15 AM.  After the morning routine and last minute packing, I left the house a little before 6:00 AM.

After two quick stops at two different Sheetz', one for gas, and one for a water and a honey bun, I arrived at the shoot in Pittsburgh, specifically in Braddock, PA around 10:15 AM.  I parked near the white tent as I was instructed.

By 10:30 AM, I filled out the necessary paper work to make sure I get paid.  I was told to bring three outfits.  I wore my suit and brought two other casual outfits that some lady looked at.  She chose my second outfit, but ultimately, I didn't need it.  Once that was taken care of, I was told to have a seat.  While seated I took a rough count and there were definitely more than 50 extras there, so I estimated around 75 – 100 of us total.  There might have been more since some were filming at the time.

My call time of 11:00 AM came and went and lunch was served at 12:00 PM.  I grabbed some lunch and chatted with some of the other extras.  A lot of them had call times of 5 AM and hadn't been in a single scene yet.  At this point, I figured that I'd be getting paid to do nothing all day.  Thankfully, I was wrong.

Very shortly after lunch, around 1:00 PM, a gentleman with a radio came into the tent and grabbed me and two other extras in suits.  He walked the three of us to the set.  We stood and waited outside the airplane mockup.

Within moments, the director, Jim Field Smith, walked out of the plane and looked at the three of us.  He whispered to the gentleman with the radio and walked away.  The gentleman walked towards the three of us and asked the two extras standing next to me to hang back.  The gentleman asked me my name and took me onto the plane.  There I met the assistant director named Richard.  We shook hands and he told me that I'd be playing the part of "business man".  I said ok and sat in the seat where the business man would be sitting – seat 10A.

I noticed that in rows in front of me, diagonally to me, and to the side of me were filled with people with matching sweatshirts.  I didn't recognize any of them as the actors.  I saw that they had two names written on a piece of tape on their sweatshirts.  After they were dismissed and the actors came in, I realized that they were the stand-ins.

So the actors came in; the director spoke to them, and then the assistant director Richard spoke to the extras.  That's the way it was.  The director doesn't direct the extras; that's the assistant's job.

So we filmed a scene with the camera to our fronts, and then to our backs, while the actors did their thing.  The scene was T.J. trying to get Jay off the plane because he's not with the girl he's supposed to be with.  Jay says that's he's with Lindsay and her family now and that's that.  T.J. gets taken off the plane by the pilot and the scene ends.  So there's a good chance you'll see me in some of those scenes in the background.  They gave me an organizer so it will appear that I'm taking notes if I'm seen.

After a couple of takes the unneeded extras are sent back to their base camp - the white tent.  We waited there until we are needed.  A few of us were called to set around 5:00 PM, but when we got there, it was decided that we weren't needed for the shot, so I waited off to the side, just in case.  I wasn't used for the rest of that day.

Dinner was supplied at 5:30 PM.  First class passengers were on the plane, and they got dinner (pizza) when they were done filming the last scene of the day which was done at 7:00 PM.
The casting agency had us line up so they could sign our paper work from the beginning of the day.  We were told to show up at 6:30 AM tomorrow.

After getting our sheet signed, I left the shoot and arrived to the Days Inn in Monroeville around 7:30 PM.  I checked in, got my room, relaxed and hit the hay at 10 PM after watching some free HBO and checking my e-mail on the free wireless internet.

On Wednesday, May 07, 2008, I woke up at 5:00 AM.  I got showered, dressed, and then packed up all my belongings.  I checked out of the hotel around 5:45 AM.

I got to the shoot at 6:10 AM, and got the necessary paperwork once again so I would get paid for the day.  I was happy to see that breakfast was provided.

Around 7:00 AM, they called for the first class passenger extras, and shortly after they called for the extras in rows 11 and lower.  Since I was in seat 10A, I made my way to the set.

We were filming the scene after the blow up between T.J., Jay, and the pilot from yesterday.  Jay sits back down after the blowup and Lindsay starts talking.  He decides that T.J. was right and he needs to get off the plane.

Jay stands up and gives a little speech.  The camera is behind us facing him.  He tells all the actors in sweatshirts "Fuck you" individually, except for the mom character.  While flipping them off, he says, "Fuck you, random business guy" and proceeds to flip me off.  Then apologizes quickly and proceeds to tell Lindsay "Fuck you" and then tries to get off the plane.  They won't let him off because they already closed the doors.  So Jay has to come back and sit down with all the people he just told off.  Then the scene ended.

Needless to say, I thought that it was pretty awesome that my character of businessman gets caught in the line of fire.  The back of my head will probably be seen with all the actors looking at me at some point in the scene.  I wondered if they'd do some shots from the front, but they didn't at the time.
We finished shooting that scene a little after 9:15 AM.  All the extras headed back to base camp.  We waited to be called again.

At 11:00 AM they called for ALL EXTRAS to fill the plane.  Everyone came to the set, and they filmed a quick scene where everyone had to deplane because of a problem with baggage.  Jay rushes out and Lindsay follows behind him while we all shuffle about and react.  We did that a couple of times over and over again.  Finally, at 1:00 PM, we broke for lunch.

Shortly after lunch, around 2:00 PM, we all got called back to the set.  We all got on the plane, and the extras that weren't needed were asked to step off.  I spent the rest of the day on the plane.

They took reaction shots of the parent actors and the other actors from the scene where Jay tells everyone off.  Then, to my surprise, they took reaction shots of me.  The makeup people came on the plane and put makeup on me.  Then Jim Field Smith, the director, provided me with direction, while Jay said his line off screen.  I heard Jim laughing at the monitor on the camera when I did my reactions.  I did a confused look, like what did I do type of thing.  We did that about 5 or 6 times.  Jim told me to do a couple looking mad and I did.  It was freakin' awesome.

After doing a few more reaction shots of Lindsay and Jay, we had finished all the scenes for the plane at 4:30 PM.  Shooting had rapped for the day and we were dismissed.

When I got outside, extras were waiting in a line to get their paperwork signed.  They had Arby's for us to eat for dinner.  I got changed, gave my prop back to Jesse, the prop guy, got my paperwork signed and grab some roast beef sandwiches for the road.

I stopped at Sheetz for gas ($3.65/gal) and proceeded back to Bloomsburg.  I got home around 8:30 PM and thus my trip ended.  It was a really cool experience, and if the scene doesn't get cut or edited, there's a really good chance that you'll see my mug on the big screen in 2009.

STAR WARS TAG & BINK WERE HERE #1 [2018] spoiler synopsis

This Legends Star Wars story details the adventures of Tag and Bink, two rebels who end up intertwined with the canon events of the Star Wars movies.  These stories originate back to the Dark Horse comic days, which is extremely evident when they show the Dark Horse logo in lights in the shadow of the Death Star.  It has a lot of humor, but it's a little campy.

Star Wars:  Tag & Bink Are Dead #1 - "Episode IV.1:  Tag and Bink are Dead"
The opening crawl is very meta talking about Episode II being months away, so it appears this was released sometime in late 2001, early 2002.  Tag and Bink are Rebel officers on the Tantive IV.  They dress as stormtroopers and end up on the Death Star.  Their adventures coincide with the main adventure in a clever way.  They appear to be the two gunners with Darth Vader at the final battle and somehow survive.

Star Wars:  Tag & Bink Are Dead #2 - "Episode IV.:  Tag and Bink Live"
Again, we get another meta opening crawl and a meta moment where the writer draws himself in to explain a plot twist.  It it revealed that Tag & Bink weren't the gunners after all;  they took a different route and actually steal the shuttle Tydirium.  They end up back on Yavin after everyone is gone, run into Boba Fett, and then head to Cloud City before our heroes get there.  Chaos erupts on Cloud City like in the movie, and they escape.  They give the shuttle to Mon Montha and then Boba Fett's ship shows up and it ends.

Next we get the Star Wars:  Tag & Bink Were Here TPB (2006) cover art which collected these stories back in 2006 by Dark Horse.  Now that Star Wars is owned by Disney, it's just them republishing it under the Marvel banner.

Star Wars:  Tag & Bink II #1 - "Episode VI.1:  The Return of Tag and Bink -- Special Edition"
The opening crawl mentions that the writers were given an opportunity to write a third part of their adventure in Star Wars Tales #12, but due to deadlines, had to submit what they had and they weren't pleased with it, so this story is an attempt to fix their "grievous" wrong.

The story is intertwined, you guessed it, with Return of the Jedi.  It start before the events of Jedi with Tag & Bink partnering with Lando to get information from Boba Fett on the location of Han.  Tag ends up dressed as Boba and Bink as the guy who shoots Luke in the hand on Jabba's sail barge.  Boba Fett's ex-girlfriend Kannen saves them.  She puts them in contact with Manny Both-hanz.  Then they end up on the Death Star disguised as the Emperor's Royal Guards.  They end up blowing up with the Death Star and end up Force Ghosts

Star Wars:  Tag & Bink II #2 - "Tag and Bink Episode I:  "Revenge of the Clone Menace
We get the prequel backstory of Tag and Bink being told to Anakin by Palpatine during the Darth Plagueis the Wise story where they were identified as Jedi and end up being trained by Yoda and intertwining with the events of Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.  They survive the purge as they were friends with Anakin, and end up going to Tatooine in the end, where they eventually join the Rebellion and well, you know the rest now.

Star Wars Tales #12 - "The Revenge of Tag & Bink"
Starts off very similar to the special edition, except they never make it on the sail barge.  They end up in the Sarlacc Pit, tied to a long stick that ends up getting caught.  Later on, others end up falling in as well as Boba Fett, they grab his jet pack and somehow save themselves and Boba.  The issue ends there.

Westworld S2E2 spoiler review

Updating my brain timeline to help keep things straight. A lot happened but nothing big was revealed.  It was heavily implied that management is using Westworld as a data collection store for marketing purposes. "Westworld is one thing to the guests, another to the shareholders, and something completely different to management."

Timeline 1: Right after Season 1 ends
S2E1

• Bernard & Charlotte finding secret bunker
• Dolores & Teddy causing mayhem
• Maeve & crew looking for her daughter
• MIB (Man in Black) door adventure

S2E2

• Dolores on a mission to "wake" Teddy and recruit those to their cause
• Dolores (and team) and Maeve (and team) briefly meet up but go their separate ways/separate missions
• MIB continues on his adventure where Robert seems very much present (Great acting from Giancarlo Esposito, but not really needed plotwise)

Timeline 2: Two weeks later after Timeline 1
S2E1

• Bernard & "Rescue" team

S2E2

• [nada]

Timeline 3: The Past
S2E1

• Appeared in some of Bernard's flashes

S2E2

• Arnold and Dolores in the real world. Quick appearance from Ford
• Presentation put on for Logan Delos with Angela and other hosts - agrees to financing Westworld (I think this is the first time is last name is revealed.)
• Sometime after William's first visit, he visits Westworld with Logan's father and his father in law Jim Delos
• William and Dolores have a private chat. William appears to have come to his senses and has an awakening of his own.
• Dolores plays piano and talks to Logan in real world years later as it seems Jim Delos is retiring/sick, and William and wife have a daughter

So this episode added more to the past, a lot more, with little to no explanation about underlying motives, but there was a lot of exposition, almost too much. Dolores remembers everything so she was collecting data before William thought about the idea of collecting data, so who's really in charge, right?

Since we got so much Past, we didn't get any Future concerning Bernard, which I assume we won't visit again for a while. The Present continued the plot lines right after the finale of Season 1 and it was mostly setting up future events. Not sure how much of a rush they are in. Maybe Dolores knows how long it's going to take for the rescue team to show up.

Westworld S2E1 spoiler review

I very much enjoyed the season premiere.  

The episode opened with Arnold talking to Dolores, but then it cuts to Bernard on the beach 2 weeks after the events of Season 1.  Bernard seems to be semi self aware yet it's kept intentionally vague as we go on the journey with him.  Are the others (the "rescue" team) going to figure it out?  Are they going to assassinate him like the others?  Eventually we visit the aftermath of the new narrative and we see Ford's body being eaten by maggots.  Do maggots eat host bodies because I don't believe for a second that Ford is really dead.  I believe he used the same catalyst that was used before the park first opened to kick-start the hosts to become "self aware".  Are they really self aware, or did Ford program them to kill his partner Arnold?  Are they just following another program?  Anyway, Bernard says, concerning the hosts, at the end of the episode that he "killed them all".  Seed #1

Meanwhile, we get some flashbacks concerning Bernard 2 weeks prior where Season 1 left off.  He and a few guests survive the shoot out, later survive a trap, and make it to some hidden area that he didn't know about but Charlotte Hale (Tessa Thompson) knew about.  There's a pretty important scene that is pushed aside that this hidden area is taking GUEST memories and DNA.  Seed #2

The writers also make it a point in this episode to show us multiple times that there is a white fist size object in each host's brain that holds their memories.  I don't recall seeing that in Season 1, so I think it's new.  We do know that Charlotte put all the data from the park into Peter Abernathy's brain, who was supposed to be delivered off park, aka the package, but it was not received.  Seed #3

Elsewhere, we find out that Dolores appears to be fully self aware and has one part to play - herself.  She leaves some guests to die, but is seen killing a bunch on horseback like a badass.  She has some things to show to Teddy to reveal the truth.  Angela, another original host, the one that gave the young William (future Man in Black) his hat choice, appears to be on the level with Dolores as well.  It appears that Dolores's end goal is not to find a nice place to live quietly, but prevent those that would enslave her mind to ever do so again.  Seed #4

Speaking of William, the Man in Black is alive (of course) and after surviving a mini shoot out, tends to his wounds, and proceeds on a new adventure.  He runs into the young Ford robot whose voice is a combination of a young boy, old Ford, and techno babble almost like it's malfunctioning.  He says he has a game for him to find a door.  William is finally where he wants to be because the threat of death is actually real this time so we get to follow his journey as well.  Seed #5

Last, and certainty not least, Maeve is on a mission.  She wants to find her daughter.  She gets partnered with the guy everyone loves to hate, Lee Sizemore, who almost gets her killed, but she keeps him alive because he knows the park and she needs his help.  They run into Hector Escaton who also joins them on their journey.  She doesn't use any special commands, but appears to be able to command the hosts.  I hope they explain that.  Seed #6

Well if my brain hasn't forgotten anything, I count six seeds planted and ready to grow into what will be a hell of a ride concerning Season 2.  Based on the weeks ahead preview, not only will is flash between present and two weeks prior, but it appears to flash back to the beginning of the park where we'll see young William again, and just a guess but we might get flash forward in the future as well, where Dolores appears to be in a city.  This could be the outside world or maybe there is a park based on a city.  I'm looking forward to the journey into night.

Too Much TV - Most Recently Viewed 20180424

Homeland, All In, S7 E11 - Best episode of the season. You could take this episode, throw a 30 minute exposition piece in front of it and have an awesome 90 minute standalone movie. I heard that Claire Danes said S8 is the last, which I hope is true as I hope this show goes out on a high note after a weak 5th and semi weak 6th that brough things back around. I'd say it's the second best show on Showtime. But what's the first? Well...

Billions, Flaw in the Death Star, S3 E5 - Great episode and nice turn of events on the side of Chuck Rhodes. It's good for him to get a win this week as his old friend gets closer and closer to the truth, alliances are made and unbent, and Axelrod continues to shine but realized he's screwed. So Axe is going to need a new angle even though Rhodes has what one would call the smoking gun. We'll see how he uses it and if it makes it to trial. Taylor had their own little side story which I'm not sure where its going, but hopefully it doesn't come back to bite them in the ass. The Dollar Bill side story was fantastic and was a great source of humor this week.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine, S2 E22 & 23 - Two decent episodes to round out the finale of the season. The Chopper was fun and it was great to have Holt, Peralta, and Boyle team up. Their dynamic is fantastic, especially when Holt finally gets into it. As with the S1 finale where Peralta goes undercover and "leaves", Holt is forced to leave per his boss to the public relations office. So the crew gets a new captain who is.....?!?!.....revealed in S3 which the wife and I will probably watch tonight.

Batter's Box: Family Guy, Westworld, Last Man on Earth, Flash, Arrow
FYI: No new Roseanne nor Modern Family airs this week.

Too Much TV - Most Recently Viewed 20180410

The Walking Dead S8E15 - only one more episode to watch before I say goodbye.  I'm glad this episode did not disappoint me as it continued to support my decision to quit this show.  Everything that you expected to happen with the Saviors happened.  Daryl and Rosita capture Eugene and then lose him.  Oceanside and Aaron get a few minutes of screen time for no reason other than Aaron's passionate speech to fight.  

Prediction for finale - Rick and group fall for Negan's trap.  Oceanside comes to the rescue.  Maybe Jadis shows up to help the heroes for once.  Also they keep advertising the big crossover event where Morgan goes over to Fear.  I wonder if some Fear characters will pop up in WD.  Maybe they're the ones with helicopter.  It doesn't matter because it'll just be more characters I don't know/care about and since I won't be moving forward with the show, it truly doesn't matter either way to me.  They won't kill off anyone important.  The episode will end with Rick bleeding by the tree so fans can speculate until next fall whether he survives or not.  It feels so good that that will not be me.

Billions S3E3 - this season is still dealing with the fallout and aftermath of season 2 and I'm not too proud to admit that it's a little hard to follow at times.  I'm definitely enjoying it but when I'm not sure where alliances ally sometimes until the final few minutes of the episode.  The acting is excellent by all as always.  The actor/actress that plays Taylor continues to be the standout and the fun one to watch even though it takes my brain a second to process the pronouns because their pronouns are they and them.

The Last Man on Earth S4E14 - the big focus is Todd wanting a child and it appears that Erica will be the one to carry it if and when it takes.  Melissa acts very out of character for no reason.  There was a big reveal at the end of the episode which the previews for next week confirmed so good potential for some funny next week.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine S1E20 Jake and Charles spend the day preparing for Charles wedding with the threat of him moving to Canada with Vivian in the background.  Good as always, and super clever writing keeps us returning.  The wife and I looking forward to the final two episodes of the season and seeing what happens with Charles and Vivian.

The Walking Dead [2010 - 2018]

The Walking Dead has died on April 15, 2018 at the age of eight years old.    It is survived by Fear the Walking Dead and is preceded in death by all the zombie related media before it.

The Walking Dead started on Halloween in 2010, where viewers were given a promising six episode story arc showcasing a man waking up to a world of the undead hellbent to find his family.  With the odds heavily stacked against this man, he eventually finds his family, but learns that he and everyone he loves is infected.  When they die, they will also turn to become the undead.  This man, his family, and a few other survivors are "The Walking Dead".  The end...

...Wait, this isn't a movie where the story ends here, this is a television show and the story can continue on.  What will happen to this man and the rest of the survivors?  Nothing good. 

They found a farm, and then it was destroyed.  Friends were lost or separated.
They found a prison, and then it was destroyed.  Friends were lost or separated.
They found a town, and then it was destroyed.  Friends were lost or separated.

After eight years, the black and white of good and evil has bled into gray.  The story of moral ambiguity will continue on, but it will so do minus one viewer.

As a viewer, I was emotionally involved with the characters that I cared - characters that the writers took the time to write well and make us care about.  The threat of their passing along with their mission to survive made for interesting television.

The telltale sign finally came to me in season 8 when I realized that I was no longer emotionally involved with the show.  This came in the form of the death of a first season character, the son of the man from the very beginning was killed off pointlessly.  He was bit.  He was bit by a zombie.  That's all.  In this post apocalyptic world where it's man against man, the threat of the undead is treated as a footnote. 

The show has forgotten itself and therefore keeps reinventing itself.  It's stuck in a loop, repeating the same themes and similar beats, while the characters take turns either being the fire that leads them to victory, or the reason they fail because of very bad and poor decisions that only serve them and not their survival.

It has been forgotten by most that the characters are already dead so there is no point in fighting.  The philosophy of season 8 is that they don't need to fight;  they need to work together.  That's never going to happen.  That's not interesting.  Conflict is interesting.  Killing off characters the audience hates is interesting.  Unfortunately, I've lost interest in the writing, the story, and the characters that I'm supposed to care about. 

The time has come to walk away.  I finally feel comfortable in doing so and I will invest my time in media where storylines are well written and characters are valued, non hypocritical, and true to their nature from season to season.

Ready Player One [2018] spoiler review

I did not read the book, so I had no frame of reference before going in.  I did hear there was a Willy Wonka-esque story line where the creator was dying and wanted to leave his creation - the Oasis - to someone before he passed.

With that said, I liked it and I catch myself still thinking about it.  Then the more I think about it, the more questions I have that the movie didn't answer, but more on that later.

First, the visual and sound effects were great.  I noticed a lack of background music to enhance what was happening in the action filled scenes.  Downside to those scenes, they start to feel like the first Transformers movie and it's hard to follow the action when all the CG objects are just crashing into one another, giving no weight to the scene, just a beautiful spectacle bordering on a mess.  Sure, you can glimpse something nostalgic here and there to ground you back into the scene, but you care about the nostalgic CG character, not the human behind it.

With that said, I did found myself caring about the main character and his group of friends, but nobody else in the film.  I think we were supposed to care about the crowd / residents of Columbus, Ohio because they are tasked not once but twice to come to the aid of the main characters that call themselves High Five.  The narrator/main character mentions some bad things happened in the world, but they didn't go into detail on why things are so bad and if the Oasis helps with that.  It seems like the IOI corporation uses the Oasis to get away with slavery.  Multiple times military-esque IOI team comes into the Oasis or real world to make things hard for our heroes as they are the main antagonists.  I thought they were the law in this future 2045, but then the actual police are shown at the end, so there is some sort of law and order that you don't know exists until the very end of the movie.

Also, I don't know if I missed it, but what does the main character do for a job?  Sure, you want to spend all your time in the Oasis because you can do and be anything, as long as you have the coins to do so, but you need to work to buy food to eat and such, and that's never shown.  Sure, I wanted as much Oasis as I could get, but we needed more reality to make us appreciate the real characters behind the action.  The message at the very end of this movie is how important reality is so it's a little bit of a curve ball after spending 5/6 of the movie in the Oasis and not really caring about reality.

With the aforementioned gripes aside, I did like it and I want to see it again to spot all the nostalgia nods possible.  I was expecting to see E.T., and maybe some Star Wars things, but I didn't spy either.  The Millennium Falcon did get a name drop.  I do love the Iron Giant, and even though he flew in his own movie, he doesn't fly in this one which I was semi expecting.  I'm not a Gundam fan, but I enjoyed that reference when it appeared.  The movie had some good laughs, but it didn't make me tear up like other Spielberg movies in the past, so I'll give it 3/5 stars.

Too Much TV - Currently Watching

I've watched a lot of TV this week and it's only Wednesday.

Family Guy S15 E8: I'm not sure why I still watch this show as it's been very hit or miss, but I guess it's those hits that keep me coming back even though they are very few and far between. Unfortunately, this episode was another miss as it was a Sherlock Holmes homage that very much borrow from the movie starring Robert Downey Jr. The episode also tried to make jokes about how meta it was, but it just came off more annoying and sad. "Enjoying these old-timey jokes? Look, we're really trying!" No, you're not.

Homeland S7 E7: With 12 episodes each season, I remind myself to be patient as the big surprises won't pop up until later in the season and this was a good episode with a lot of big punches in the gut for our players. Unfortunately, the real victim in these episodes have been Franny, who I wouldn't be surprised if she grew up to be a serial killer. She really shouldn't be with Carrie and based on the previews, I actually agree with what her sister is about to do. Other than that, everyone is getting what they deserve and nothing is easy - just like real life!

Billions S3 E1: I love this show and I really need to make it a habit to watch last year's season finale prior to starting a new season. The recaps before the show aren't enough and I was kind of lost on certain relationships. I highly recommend this show if you haven't watched it yet. Damien Lewis and Paul Giamatti are fantastic.

The Walking Dead S8 E13: Only three more episodes left this season to hate watch and I'm actually excited to delete this series recording from my DVR. I just don't care anymore and the people on these shows keep making the worst possible decisions. Characters like Carol and Tara are so inconsistent and poorly written and very poorly acted, yet both are given more screen time than people we care about Rick or Negan. This show is lost and I'm getting off the train. My only regret is that I didn't do it sooner.

The Last Man on Earth S4 E12: I'm not really sure where this show is going, but it's not as good as it once was. Since it's only 22 minutes, it's not a huge commitment, but it's falling into the same problem as I mentioned above with Family Guy.

DC's Legends of Tomorrow S3 E16: A very odd episode but they're all kind of odd, which makes them interesting to watch.

Brooklyn Nine-Nine S1 Eps 1 & 2: I know I'm late to the party since this show is in its 5th season, but I just heard from an old interview with Terry Crews that this show comes from the same group that did Parks & Rec. Since I loved that show, and SNL has been crap since Andy Samberg and friends left, I decided to give it a shot and I'm happy to report that I loved it. I will definitely be watching this in my leisure and catching up.

Roseanne S10 Eps 1 & 2:  It wasn't too bad. I don't typically watch shows with laugh tracks, but my wife wanted to watch so I mostly paid attention. It was 10x better than Fuller House.

On my Watch List for the rest of the week:
The Mick, Modern Family, Arrow, and more Brooklyn Nine-Nine

Thinking about watching eventually:
Barry, The Goldbergs

Honorable Mentions:
Netflix
Voltron: Legendary Defender - be about it. So good!
Jessica Jones - Season 2 - gave up after 2 episodes

The House [2017] review

The House had its moments and I did laugh, but it was kind of a mess.  Will (Ferrell) and Amy (Poehler) have some good chemistry, but I didn't believe them as husband and wife.  Their characters were very inconsistent throughout, and then they each adopt weird alter egos.  Concerning these two powerhouse comedians, it was hard to care about them or their cause for their daughter.  Personally, I cared more about Jason Mantzoukas's character of Frank and his quest to better his life and get his wife back.  That was the heart of the movie and since he was the one that thought up the idea of the casino, he was also the brains of the movie.  There lies the unbalance.  Jason carried the entire movie on his back while Will and Amy were along for the ride.  

The daughter character was nice, but under developed and under utilized.  Then the writers add public figures like the idiot police officer with a heart of gold, and the jerk city official that is corrupt;  then mix in a random crime boss with no connection to either, you're not really sure what's happening, the writing isn't making much sense and therefore you get the mess I alluded to in my opening statement.  Like I said, there are some funny parts, and I did laugh, but I wouldn't recommend you go out of your way to see it.

Coming to America [1988] review

Since I was 7 years old when this first came out and it was Rated R, I don't think my parents let me watch this especially with the cursing and nudity. I do recall seeing bits and pieces on Comedy Central over the years, but I never got into it nor watched from beginning to end. Now, 30 years later, I can finally say that I've seen this movie in its entirety.

With that said, for the jokes to land, you definitely need the cursing. There isn't a lot of cursing (or maybe I'm desensitized to it), but there are definitely two comedic payoffs where you need to watch it uncensored. The nudity, while very brief, is needed because one of the first laugh out loud moments of the movie is said by the female bather. This scene is probably cut entirely for public television as it was brand new to me.

I love James Earl Jones and he definitely shines in his role. All the barbershop stuff is great. The rally scene was odd and the comedy didn't land for me, but it was needed to push the plot forward with Eddie's character and his potential love interest.

A lot of this movie actually remind me of parts of Black Panther, to be honest. The African culture that was established was played serious with humor at the right parts so it didn't feel like they were making fun of the established fake country or its culture, just the characters in it. The matte painting of the palace was super obvious, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment.

I'd give this 3 out of 5 stars as I found it entertaining overall with very minimal slow parts or parts that I wasn't laughing.

Black Mirror Season 4 review

S4E1:  USS Callister - The focus of this episode is essentially a virtual toy box where the main character got to play with his work friends in a Star Trek themed environment.  It borrowed from an earlier episode where you can make a virtual copy of a person in real life using their DNA.  This digital copy identified as a real person and didn't want to be trapped inside the game.  In the Christmas episode, we saw Jon Hamm's character torturing one of these digital copies to make it obedient.  In this episode, we saw what it would be like if the copies were not obedient.

Since I'm not a huge fan of the original Star Trek episodes, it was difficult getting into the episode, but I started caring about the digital copies and wanted them to win, but also I wanted them to lose because it wouldn't matter because they're not real people, they're just digital.  I was hoping for more of twist, but I didn't get one and it was actually semi hopeful for the copies - at least they would be living a better "life" than what was originally tasked of them.

S4E2:  Arkangel - This is the first episode of the last series of episodes that I really liked.  I understand a mother's desire to keep tabs on their child and I thought the idea of not only tracking them but being able to report on their vitals was very interesting.  They could have focused on keeping the child balanced on medication and the effects of big Pharma, but instead the writers focused on the location of the child turned teenager instead.  I liked that a mother would want to shield their child from the bad things in the world, but that comes with consequences that could potentially damage a child's mind when he/she becomes aware of what he/she had been censored to.  The end was very fitting and I loved how it mirrored the beginning of the episode.

S4E3:  Crocodile - I thought the premise was very interesting except I was a little confused on why a claim agency would (a) have such powerful software and (b) have it displayed on a tiny CRT screen.  I guess it was supposed to represent the haziness of memory I suppose.

Side note, if I'm sharing a memory of what I think happened, especially getting hit by car, or something quick happening like maybe a soccer player running and scoring a goal, my brain isn't going to store how fast the car was going or how fast the soccer player was running, just that it was "fast" or it happened "so fast" so it seems like the software is only there to try to catch you in a lie.  So I suppose the software and person collecting the memories is doing a good job if they catch people lying and reduce the number of claims paid out for the company.

I felt the ending was a little on the shock value side especially since I think the one investigator says the baby was blind making the death even more meaningless.

Out of curiosity, I researched why the episode was called Crocodile because the only thing I could think of was "See you later, Alligator.  After while Crocodile."  In actuality, according to IMDB, it's called "Crocodile" due to a crocodile's cognitive ability to associate memories with senses such as smell or hearing which is the same technique used to access the memories of the people in the episode.  I didn't know crocodiles could do that.

S4E4:  Hang the DJ - This is the first episode with a positive ending that I actually enjoyed.  When I saw the coaching device it initially reminded me of the Christmas episode where Jon Hamm's character was coaching the guy through the date.  I'm glad it was not a person behind the coaching device, but an actual program.  It was a really great concept that out of 1000 simulations that they choice each other in 998 of them.  I wonder what the difference was in the two outliers, but I guess it doesn't matter because they ended up together in all the other scenarios.  The program within a program was a nice touch as it could have gotten very dark and the main characters were living some sort of Groundhog Day scenario, or the program was designed that they would never be together.

S4E5:  Metalhead - I think this entire episode is shot in black and white to give it that dystopian feel which it pulled off well.  I also thought the main antagonist(s) was convincing and threatening.  Sadly, I figured out the ending and when it turned out that 3 people died for what boiled down to nothing, I was left with a feeling of disappoint.  I will hopefully never have to experience a kill or be killed situation in real life, but I would think that every move should be clear and calculated before doing anything.  In the battle for survival, once I had food, water, shelter, then maybe I would crave some comforts like maybe soap.  But to go after something that provides nothing other than emotional comfort/support didn't make sense to me especially when the protagonists had no offence or defense against their enemy.

S4E6:  Black Museum - It felt like this episode was trying to be a lot like the Christmas episode in the way it attempted to combine multiple technological elements to tell its story.  While it wasn't as good as the Christmas episode, this one did a very good job.  First thing that was great was the museum itself and seeing technology from past episodes collected into one place.  I also applaud this episode for not relying on past episodes even though it could have and it was kind of what I was expecting.  I appreciated the fresh story based on a piece of technology concerning the brain, how it failed, improved, and grew from there constantly building towards the end.  There was a small twist that one could possibly see coming towards the end.  While it wasn't a total surprise, there were still a few smaller twists to enjoy that pulled at the brain strings (instead of the heart strings).  I wouldn't mind seeing a part two to this story with the characters that were still alive at the end.  It was a happy ending compared to some of the more dismal endings from prior episodes, but there is definitely more story that could be told.

Black Mirror Season 3 review

S3E1: Nosedive - Hayley Atwell really carries this episode and her reactions feel natural and unforced. With only seeing her in the Captain America movies, I didn't realize how talented and attractive she actually is. Domhnall Gleeson plays a good robot. I wonder if he gave Alicia Vikander tips when they were in "Ex Machina" together. The end was super heartbreaking. Everything ends up in the attic.

S3E2: Playtest - I really enjoyed this episode.  I appreciated the main character's motivation to remember and experience as much as he could in the memory of his father who died of Alzheimer's.  Unfortunately, he didn't value his mind enough and it ended up poorly for him.  I liked that the episode kept you guessing and it was almost inside my head as a viewer as if it was aware what I was thinking would happen next save for the twists at the end.

S2E3: Shut Up and Dance - This episode was pretty good and also heartbreaking -- testing the limits of what a person would do to keep their secrets private only to have them released anyway by the hackers and internet trolls that exist in the world.  It was great seeing Jerome Flynn aka Bronn from Game of Thrones outside of his normal role.  I really like him as an actor.

S2E4: San Junipero - This episode was crafted pretty well as there was no sign of any technology until the end.  The episode teased us with a "one week later" card throughout which was revealed towards the end when everything was revealed.  It was actually the first episode that had somewhat of a happy ending for the characters involved as it essentially was a digital heaven that was created.  I liked this episode, but I didn't love it.  It dragged a little too long until the reveal and I wanted more information about the main characters.

S2E5:  Men Against Fire - This episode was pretty predictable for me.  I guessed early on that they were augmenting their soldiers to make them better.  I thought it was just their sight, but it makes sense that the program inside of them would also have to affect what they smell and hear as well.  This episode was just okay.

S2E6:  Hated in the Nation - It felt like this season finale was trying to top the season 2 finale, but I feel it missed the mark a bit.  I liked that the episode acknowledged a very real current problem - the bee population and how doomed we are as a society if bees become extinct.  In this story-line, the government is funding the bee project, so big brother installed some backdoor software to help them spy on their citizens.  They claimed it reduced crime and maybe it did, but it allowed a hacker/fellow creator of the project to access the bees for his own purpose -- to play a game that ultimately turned out poorly for those targeted and those playing it. 

I'll mention two negatives - 1) the swarm of bees special effect looked a little cheesy at times, and 2) I wasn't a huge fan of how the episode ended.  There was a glimmer of hope in catching the hacker, but I didn't think that was needed concerning a little twist/lie about one of the British agents.  I think it would have been sweet irony if instead they used  a bee to track him down and then leave it open ended if it was assigned to kill him or not.

The Future of Star Wars

1) Rebels is starting in 10 days and it'll be over the beginning of March.  We have Han Solo coming out this May, and then we don't have Episode 9 coming out until December 20, 2019.  The comic stories are limping along.  I'm not sure what's coming out novel-wise.  So it appears we have somewhat of a Star Wars "drought" coming between June 2018 and December 2019.  Is this good?  Is this bad?  

2) We have Rian Johnson doing his own trilogy.  No release schedule, not filming currently, and he's still thinking about ideas according to an article from January 16th.  So I'm guessing he's in the writing phase now, will start casting/auditioning/etc later this year and start filming next year for a May 2020 release date.

3)  We have David Benioff and D.B. Weiss doing "a new series of Star Wars films." after GOT is over.  GOT is rumored to air April 2019 according to Maisie Williams.  So they probably won't start writing/thinking about ideas for their films until early-mid 2019.  Will their first movie come out in 2020 as well?  Maybe December 2020?  Two Star Wars films a year from two different teams?  Will they stagger the releases to allow the ILM team to do the post production special effects work or will they expand the team? Johnson 2020, 2022, 2024 -- Benioff/Weiss 2021, 2023, 2025?  

Final questions and thoughts...

4) What's Filoni working on? [Probably a new show, but when in the timeline and with what characters is anyone's guess at this point.]

5) Do we really want an Obi-wan movie?  [I don't.  The comic stories involving him all take place on Tatooine and are not very exciting.  Leave it as is.  He's watching over Luke and doesn't leave the planet to go on an adventure that we need to see.]

6) Will we see Episode 10-12?  [maybe in 2026, 2028, 2030]

Now that Disney has made their 4 billion back, it's experiment time.  Kennedy likes working with Johnson so we'll see how that gamble pays off in the future.  Whether you love, hate, or are indifferent to GOT, in my opinion, it's the best show on television when it's new and I think Benioff and Weiss have a lot of potential to bring us some good stories.  Sure, they don't have Martin's source material, but they have the Lucasfilm Story Group and plenty of "Legends" material to cherry pick from and make their own.  So in my opinion, this is "fun" time for Disney and when "fun" time is over, they'll go back to the core Skywalker trilogy if there are any Skywalkers left by the end of IX.