Galaxy's Edge review

My wife and I had the opportunity to visit Batuu on Sunday, October 28th (in WDW in Orlando).

First and foremost, I've seen a lot of click bait articles and YouTube videos saying "Galaxy's Edge is empty and here's why" and in my experience, those articles are simply not true.  It was a Sunday morning in Hollywood Studios and there was a steady stream of people walking towards Black Spire Outpost and it was constantly busy during the hours I was there.  The only quiet time was at night, but let's start at the beginning.

If you've unfamiliar, here's a map of the area.  We entered via the Grand Avenue side, which is where the Resistance area is located.  You can see where the new ride will be as there were a few cast members "standing guard".  There was also an X-wing and an A-wing.  They were cool to see, but I found them to be cooler looking and sounding at night, but more on that later.

We walked past the market area on the left and stayed more towards the right so we passed between Ronto Roasters and then the Droid Depot and hung a left.  (If you hang a right, you head towards Toy Story Land.)  There is a little courtyard-ish area where there are the refreshers (bathrooms), and a little bit of a bottleneck of people, but right after that we found the Milk Stand.

Re:  Blue milk, in a word, fantastic.  

It was a little odd at first, but then it was super addicting.  My wife and I shared one, and then later got another one.  We didn't try the green, nor did we try either with alcohol.  Something for next time.

Next to the Milk Stand is the First Order Cargo with the giant First Order ship.  I don't know what it's called, but we saw some Storm Troopers who saw my wife's BB-8 ears (from Etsy), and they told her that her “allegiance may be questioned".

We passed Oga's Cantina and made our way to Smugglers Run.  It was only a 55-minute wait, and it went surprisingly quick.  When we finally got to Hondo, we made our way up near the front of the stagging area and scored jobs at Pilots.  I controlled left and right; my wife controlled up and down.  We made it back with 31% power back.  I'm glad we didn't die/fail the mission.  We were able to get one vial of coaxium.

Afterwards, we walked past Docking Bay 7 and went through the "market" area to check that our briefly.  We had a FP for the Indiana Jones show, but we didn't make it in time, so I think we checked out Toy Story Land to potentially do Slinky Dog Dash before our 1 PM reservation at Oga's for "lunch".  

Re:  Oga's.  

I feel like it's something you'll want to experience, but unfortunately it wasn't the best experience.

1. There is a line of people waiting outside to get in.  Even if you have a reservation, you are asked to stand in line to get "checked in".  Once you get checked in, and your spot becomes available, a cast member yells your name as they walk down the line looking for you.  They take you to the entrance/exit where there is only one way in and out as other cast members "guard" that spot.
2. The bar area and entire experience is 95% standing, so there are no seats around the bar.  The bigger alcoves and tables go to the larger groups, so if you're a group of two like my wife and I, you're mostly likely getting put at the bar.
3. We got placed at the very end of the bar on the far-right side which was near an area where only cast members were allowed.  It's a blind corner so throughout the entire "experience" cast members were constantly yelling “corner” to avoid a collision.
4. We were greeted by an older gentleman who welcomed us and placed some coasters down and took our drink order.  I guess this is on me, but I THOUGHT they served food at Oga's.  They do NOT.  They have some sort of snacky thing (Batuu Bits) and a meat/cheese plate thing that wasn't on the menu.  I was kind of disappointed and annoyed as I was hungry.  I later learned that even though they serve breakfast, they don't serve lunch or dinner.  
5. Located at the edge of the bar was a young man making drinks.  3 or more tickets would print, and he'd make the drinks.  He wasn't our bartender, and spoke to us once, but was just kind of going through the motions.  He got us our second round as the initial older bartender didn't check on us when our drinks were finished.
6. Drink-wise, my wife got the Jedi Mind Trick and I got the Bespin Fizz.  The Fizz had a cool presentation and tasted good.  For our second drink, my wife got a Bespin Fizz, and then I      got a Yub Nub.  You can get it without paying for the mug, which costs $15 which they still make it in the Ewok mug.  I did later decide to purchase the Ewok mug ($30), which they give you a clean one in a box when you leave/pay.  Four drinks (plus mug) and the snack was over $100 without the tip.
7. From where we were standing, we could NOT see DJ Rex.  We did hear him talking and playing music the whole time, which was okay.  The original cantina song did play which was nice I guess.  I didn't really know what to expect music wise.
8. Before leaving, we wanted to walk around to see the entire bar to realize how tiny it was.  Also, the opposite side of the bar was a mirror image of the other.  
9. Lastly, we were initially told that the experience was 45 minutes which I think is about the time we stayed.  No one forced us out and I had a feeling that if we kept ordering drinks that we would have been able to stay.

We headed to Toy Story Land to get some lunch quick.  We did mobile ordering somewhere and just split a sandwich.  I was kind of in a bad mood after Oga's and my wife wanted to go to Magic Kingdom, so we did that.

We came back to Batuu at night, which I alluded to earlier.  You can really hear the ambient sounds of the forest/jungle area at night, and the sounds of the ships and the droids were lit up.

Since I missed Dok's earlier, we made it a point to check that out after riding Smugglers Run again.  This time it was only a 20 minute wait and we were both gunners.  We only had one engineer.  If you don't have a sixth person, that vacant job gets put on "auto pilot” per the cast member.  We did slightly better with 39% power left on the Falcon and we got 2 vials of coaxium.

Re:  Disney Play app.

Earlier in the day, during Smugglers Run, I was able to enhance my experience with the app while waiting in line.  As I mentioned earlier, the line kind of moved fast, so I didn't have a lot of time to “play”, but what I did get to experience was cool.  I scanned a container that held a droid arm that was going to Lothal.

I was also able to hack a communications tower near the refreshers and got some information about a Wookiee (not Chewy) that was shot or something.  I think I needed to hack the other towers to get the whole story.

Overall:

Even though I spent ~6 hours total in the land (~4.5 hours during the day and ~1.5 hours at night), I didn't really feel immersed in the world.  It was a neat experience to be sure, but I would want to go back and spend more time there, but at the same time I want to have fun (and ride rides), so spending $100+ on a park ticket just to experience a subset of the entirety of Hollywood Studios seems like a waste of money and of my time.

Side notes:

1. The Void at Disney Springs – highly recommended the Star Wars “Secrets of the Empire” experience.  It’s definitely worth the cost, and probably best with four friends.
2. Star Tours – was fun and I’m glad we did it before going into Batuu.  I’m looking forward to them adding TROS stuff to it later this December.
3. Pandora’s Flight of Passage – was probably the highlight of the trip as I think on it.  It hits 4 of your 5 senses.  The wait time of 90 minutes sucked, but the 4.5 minute ride was fantastic.

Joker [2019] review

While Joaquin Phoenix and the entire cast does a great job, it's really a downer of a movie.  I appreciate how it's not really an origin story, but it's more of a hard breaking tale of mental illness.

With this movie attempting to be grounded in reality and not being your typical fantasy adventure, I would be remiss to mention the uneasiness I felt during the film.  With the real world threats of violence and a police officer posted near the employees taking the tickets, I don't know if most of my dread was generated by the movie or a possible looming outside incident.  I was just hyper aware of my surroundings while trying to get lost in the film so I found it a little difficult to do so.

While the movie was dark in tone and you really didn't know what was going to happen next, quite frankly, I kind of expected the movie to be a little bit more fucked up.  While there are some truly violent scenes that happen to the main character, I wanted to sympathize with him more and then I really wanted to see him let loose.  Maybe a more unleashed Joker would befit a sequel.

The last half of the movie does crescendo to a point where you it feels both satisfying and heartbreaking.  The final few minutes take the viewer to a place that may generate a lot of discussion as it's up to interpretation and semi open ended on the journey that just took place.

I definitely look forward to watching this again in the comfort of my own home in the future.  Right now, I will say that I give a slight edge to Heath Ledger's Joker performance.

Westworld [1973] review

I'm curious.  In 1973, was this considered a good movie?  Did people love it?  Either way, this movie does not stand the test of time, and frankly, it's just not a good movie.  The dialogue is minimal and uninspired.  The characters are very underdeveloped.  The movie is trying to sell you on the idea of Westworld as if the park itself is the main character.  The movie fails on all fronts.

With the recent HBO show as my only point of reference, I know the general idea of Westworld.  If you don't, that's okay as the movie begins with a commercial to introduce you to the land, kind of.  It's more of advertisement than anything - "only $1,000 a day!".  Once that is complete, the movie focuses on two friends - Peter and John.  John is played by a young James Brolin (who looks a lot like a Christian Bale).  John has been there before and literally smiles the whole time and that's about it.  Peter, as the newcomer, plays the part of audience member as he asks questions, is skeptical of who is and isn't a robot, and is in constant disbelief on what you can or can't do, which is supposedly nothing.  So what do they do?  - the bare minimum.

Plot-wise, the friends enter a saloon and the Gunslinger (Yul Brynner) insults Peter.  Peter shoots him and the Gunslinger is taken away.  Then the two friends have sex with two prostitutes.  The next morning, the Gunslinger is back and Peter shoots him again to "save" John.  This time Peter is sent to prison for it.  John breaks him out and they ride away.  They sit in the desert to do nothing, but they have to move the plot along.  For reasons unexplained, a robot snake attacks John which is the first sign that Delos, the company running the park, is losing control of the robots.  The Black Knight robot kills some random guest in Medieval World that we haven't been following this whole time so why would we care about him?  The Gunslinger is back again and is some how able to shoot and kill John.  It's explained earlier in the film that the guns don't work on warm blooded guests, but only work on the cold/no blooded robots, so I guess the guns have also malfunctioned along with the robots?!

The rest of the movie plays like the Terminator where the Gunslinger chases after Peter.  The music consists of what sounds like someone jumping on a diving board for the entire final act in an attempt to create tension and maybe give the Gunslinger a theme when he was on screen.  Peter makes his way into the Delos lab and tries acid on the Gunslinger's face.  It slows the Gunslinger down for a little bit, but he keeps going.  Peter makes his way to Medieval World and is able to use a torch to set the Gunslinger on fire and the movie ends.  Everyone else appears to be dead.  The other robots that revolted?  MIA.  So yeah, this movie is pretty bad.

Little [2019] review

If you're unfamiliar, the basic concept is that Regina Hall's character of Jordan gets a spell/curse put on her by a random little girl and she wakes up 13 years old again.  The intent of the movie is that hilarity will ensure as Jordan has to navigate life as an adult trapped in a child's body.  It's kind of like A Christmas Carol where adult Jordan is Scrooge and she gets a chance to re-learn a lesson that she didn't quite learn when she was young - that just because you were treated poorly as a child doesn't give you the right to treat people poorly when you're an adult and have money and power.  

Personally, I'm not a huge Regina Hall fan.  I didn't like her character in "Girls Trip" or this movie.  Obviously, you're not supposed to like her character, but I suppose you're supposed to sympathize with her.  In the end, I didn't really find that the case.  

As a comedy, thankfully there were some funny parts where I laughed out loud.  This was mostly thanks to Issa Rae who played adult Jordan's assistant, and Marsai Martin who played the young Jordan.  There's one or two tiny heartfelt moments, but they don't involve the main character, just a side character named Isaac that I later learned actually has real talent and was cast as the voice of young Simba in Favreau's The Lion King.

Overall, I get what this movie was going for, but the execution was lacking and the writing could have been better.  There was some tone issues where serious parts played more silly so therefore they didn't feel grounded in reality.  A better utilization of sound would have helped as some scenes felt devoid of any background music at all.  There were also moments that were supposed to play for physical comedy that just came off as mean spirited.  Lastly, there were two scenes with a child flirting with an adult where the first one was tongue in cheek, but the second was kind of uncomfortable.  

Twins [1988] review

Schwarzenegger and DeVito do not disappoint in what I consider a classic late 80s comedy.  Schwarzenegger naivety in the real world pairs perfectly with DeVito's abuse of it.  They balance each other out thematically, and almost comedically with Schwarzenegger taking the burden in the beginning and DeVito more in the middle with his side hustle.  In the final third of the film when it becomes more about family, the laughs do decrease dramatically so we can have a heartfelt ending.  I would have appreciated if they could have kept the laughs going, but I understand that the tone has to switch when things get serious so it feels like there are actual stakes.  (A similar thing happens in "Knocked Up")  Kelly Preston and Chloe Webb, playing the female co-stars, don't get too much time to shine as the movie focuses on the twins.  Maybe they could have been incorporated more in the final act instead of being sidelined but I'm not sure how you execute it without it feeling silly. 

Overall, the movie still holds up after 30+ years.  With rumbles of a possible remake staring Momoa & Dinklage, I think you may insult a lot of people making Momoa the "perfect human" and Dinklage the "genetic defect" so I wouldn't be surprised if they decided to swap the roles and change up the jokes completely.  In recent roles, Momoa tends to be more silly while Dinklage is more serious, so I think it would work.  It would would be interesting to watch if they did something different and didn't just rehash the original, in my opinion.

Once Upon a Time In Hollywood [2019] review

Walking out of the theater, I felt that I kind of got it, but I kind of didn't.  I talked it over with my wife on the way home and then I watched the RedLetterMedia review and understood what they were going for and it made a little more sense.

I don't want to spoil anyone, but if you're going to see this, I think it would help having a general knowledge of the real world events involving Charles Manson and Sharon Tate.  Detailed knowledge isn't crucial but the movie assumes you have some knowledge, because it won't be explained to you.  Those real life events serve as the movie's backdrop and what's at the forefront is story of Rick Dalton (DiCaprio) and Cliff Booth (Pitt).  From there, this movie is essentially Tarantino's take on a fairy-tale. 

The acting in this movie does not disappoint even when it's meant to be on display due to the meta nature when the movie is a film within a film.  The line between the actor's reality and our reality is walked with precision and expertise.  There are a few scenes that go on a little long where I was wondering what the point was, but I chalked it up to quality time spent with these characters so we end up caring about them, otherwise the final act wouldn't work. 

Also, I learned that from the aforementioned review that Tarantino took a lot of time to re-create 1960s Hollywood and use a minimum about of digital effects as possible.  Personally, I guess it felt like 1960s Hollywood, but as a non native I didn't appreciate it as much as maybe a native would.  I know "La La Land" got a lot of praise for its treatment of Hollywood and since I don't have that extensive background of that area and/or era, it was just that - background.  I cared more about the characters and plot than I did about Cliff driving around for 5 minutes.  Although, it was nice to see the driving and feel the time it took to get from point A to point B instead of it feeling like insta-travel.

Overall, this wasn't my favorite Tarantino film, but I have a good appreciation for it.  I loved the scenes where he expertly created tension as those sucked me in and had me at the edge of my seat.  He does that very well and the payoff definitely comes later so you have to have the patience for it going in hence why I didn't see this movie opening weekend and waited until I was prepared to go on the journey.

Aquaman [2018] review

Surprisingly, I enjoyed this movie.  There are some character name drops early in the film before you're introduced to said character which may cause confusion, but thankfully there is a scene that helps clear it up.  Specifically, late in the first act, a certain sequence flips back and forth between the past and the present which was welcome to give the audience background on how Arthur was trained and which character(s) is aligned with which people.  I'm also glad Mera name drops a certain character which lets us know when this movie takes place in the timeline of recent DC films.

With that said, there were other character names mentioned in reference to family trees and who was related to whom which I was a little lost on, but I'm sure a second watch would help clear that up.  I got the general gist and that was fine.  I'm glad there was an actual story and not just action scene after action scene.  I did like the way scenes were shot when there was action.  Getting that full 360 view worked well and made most scene flow.

I do admit that I did have to google, "Is Aqauman bulletproof?" as I didn't realize he was nor did I understand why certain characters needed water to breath, but I guess since they've never been on land before that they were out of their element.  This works at the time, but there were some inconsistencies that are kind of ignored in the final act.

But overall, it wasn't too campy, the tone was consistent with a good mix of seriousness and humor throughout.  There were a lot of set pieces with different rulers and such, again a little confusing on first watch keeping all of it straight when this was my first introduction to this world, but upon second watch I think things will make more sense.

The Predator [2018] review

I'm trying to think of something positive to say, but this movie was a mess. Nothing was explained / made much sense, everyone was over acting, Olivia Munn continues to showcase her lack of acting ability and also happens to be a combat biologist?, the main cast's plot armor was strong until the third act, the Predator dogs really had no point, and the mcguffin at the end to set up a sequel?...it was just a hot mess. There was an excessive amount of cursing that didn't bother me too much probably because the script/acting was so bad. I didn't mind the gore but the way it was used in the first movie was like, "Oh I can't believe they just killed [blank]; no one is safe." Well, spoiler alert, it turns out in this movie that everyone was safe until the third act so no stakes equals weak movie. Of the Predator franchise, I'd probably rank this one as the worst.

Orange is the New Black [2019] Seventh and Final Season review

In the extras section there is a 19 minute farewell video where the writer/creator of this show, Jenji Kohan, said this show was never about women in a prison, but it's essentially a social commentary on what's currently happening in the world and her soapbox to get the conversation going.  So with that said, I'm kind of glad it's over as it feels like, especially in the later seasons, that the message became the priority. It's not like it was too preachy or anything. The message was powerful and I get it, but at the same time I need a good story. There would be episodes, especially early on where an episode would end and I'd be like, "That's it? What happened after that?" and it would never be revisited again or it would be revisited in a later season when it served the message and not the story that was referenced so long ago that it's already been forgotten.

As for this final season, I was mostly okay with it. I defintiely thought it was a stronger season compared to most, but I probably should have re-watched season 6 first. Anyway, there were a few moments where it felt like it dragged, especially when focusing on the detainees verses the inmates, but I think the show did a decent enough job to give us a balance of the characters we cared about while they hammered their message home.

Kate Mulgrew (Red), Uzo Aduba (Suzanne), Danielle Brooks (Taystee), Adrienne C. Moore (Cindy), and Selenis Leyva (Mendoza) are the real stars of this show and they all gave great performances this final season. Special shout out to the writers for taking the characters of Caputo and Fig (Nick Sandow & Alysia Reiner) who I never thought I would give a shit about, and keep us interested in their story. Personally, I'd love to see a cut of this entire series without Piper (and Alex), or at least a diminished role, as I think the show would have highly benefited with their storyline as the minimal as possible.

Tomb Raider [2018] review

This movie was a hot mess.  There were many scenes that simply added nothing to the plot and many things that simply made no sense.  1 out of 5 stars.

So Lara's profession is a struggling bike messenger because she doesn't believe in herself or something?  Or maybe she's refusing to take on the responsibility of her father's large company?  And she didn't go to college because?  Either way, the movie opens with her boxing, losing, talking to a friend, and it's never mentioned again.  We later get some flashbacks of her doing archery as a kid.  So apparently these scenes serve the purpose to show the audience that she's in really good shape and she can take a beating I guess.

Then we have a bike race scene where it's a modern version of fox hunting and she's the fox, ha...ha...!?  Anyway, she gets arrested because it's illegal and she gets bailed out by some woman who runs her father's company.  We finally get some backstory about Lara, her father, and now the movie is setting up the actual plot of the movie.  By the way, the movie has a cold open with a male voice narrating about some ancient tomb.  That entire dialogue is repeated again here.  Why though?  Also, we learn her father has been missing for seven years and she finds his hidden workshop with a video camera not plugged in that has enough battery power to still work?

Another pointless scene is Lara trading in her father's necklace at a pawn shop run by Nick Frost.  So far the movie has been semi serious with little to no jokes or humor.  Now, for no reason, this pawnbroker is supposed to be the comic relief?  Also, her father owns a huge company.  She couldn't borrow money from it/them?

So now that Lara has money from the pawnshop, she heads to some Asian country because she found an email/picture of a boat that her father used before he disappeared.  She naively trusts the wrong person and gets her backpack stolen.  We have another chase scene where she gets it back and inadvertently meets the son of the boat owner she was originally looking for.  Now, the picture showed a boat and she found what appeared to be the same boat.  If Lara's father and the boat owner's father disappeared with that boat 7 years ago, how is that boat still around?  

It's now essentially an hour into the movie, and we're finally on the boat to find Lara's father or find the Mcguffin on the movie -- some demon queen's tomb because remember "Tomb" raider.  The boat hits some rocks during a storm and both Lara and the boat owner are washed up on an island run by Walton Goggins and a band of mercenaries.  Goggins character Vogel is on a mission to find the tomb and reveals that he killed her father and the boat owners father although he was lying about Lara's father.  After she escapes, she finds her father semi crazy but brings him back to reality.  He reveals that he can't let Vogel find the tomb as it would unless hell on earth and he's been secretly throwing him off the trail for years.  Lara reveals she brought his research to the island and we have a very "Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade" moment.

Somehow the mercenaries find Lara and her father, and Lara is forced to solve a puzzle to open the way into the tomb.  Finally, something is happening in this movie and with 40 minutes left we finally get to see what has been set up since the beginning of the film - the actual tomb.  So after a couple red shirt deaths and puzzle solving, they find the tomb and discover that this queen had a disease and isolated herself so others wouldn't get the disease.  So when Vogel's men try to move her, one of them gets infected and the disease kills him within seconds.  Lara's father gets infected battling an infected mercenary and decides to blow himself and the tomb up.  Lara defeats Vogel in hand to hand combat and escapes with the help of the boat owner and others that have been trapped on the island who were forced into slavery by Vogel and his men.

Earlier, Vogel had called a helicopter to get off the island, so all the survivors pile in and leave I guess?!  Lara returns home to finally sign the paperwork that she owns the company and gives power of attorney to the woman that bailed her out earlier.  She then realizes too late that Vogel's employer was a subsidary of her father's company therefore Vogel was working for the woman that she just gave power of attorney to.  So Lara, who has been praised as the smart Croft the entire film is not smart at all.

Then for no reason we get the final pointless scene of Lara revisiting the pawn shop, getting her necklace back and buying her iconic guns that she uses and the movie ends.

Cobra Kai Season 2 [2019] review

Johnny - I appreciated what we got concerning his growth and his path, unfortunately, the show decided to put a little more focus on the children this season and of course John Kreese's underlying arc was always looming in the background and ultimately bit him in the butt in the end. He's now lost everything - his best student, his potential girlfriend aka Miguel's mom, and even his dojo. The little tease on the end with Ali was fine, but this tiny seed won't grow unless we get a third season and if Elisabeth Shue is on board which both are uncertain at this time. I wish we had gotten a little bit more. We know he's trying his best, but it just wasn't enough this season. So we got to see his rise in Season 1 and I guess Season 2 was about seeing his fall.

Daniel - He also falls and fails this season. He fails his wife and business, but fixes that, at least his wife. He loses a salesman, but overall it's family that's most important so that's what he focuses on. Unfortunately he ends up failing his daughter and his dojo. He's forced to put it all away...for now.

Miguel / Robby / Samantha - I was really hoping Samantha was going to move on, but she still had feelings for Miguel as her feelings for Robby grew. The love triangle turned into a rectangle when they introduced Tory. She was very one dimensional, so I didn't care for her. I did hate Yasmine from Season 1, and I kind of wondered why they didn't develop her role, but I guess the writers didn't want a "rich" girl turned villain, and decided to have a new character that was "less fortunate".

Honorable mention: The Anthony Russo character had two scenes I believe. Thank you, writers, for including him sparingly.

Overall, everything else with Cobra Kai was a little disappointing. Johnny tried to put his students on the right path following the events of the tournament, but John Kreese was manipulating from the background, so they didn't grow. They became a bunch of bullies, and now they're back in the hand of Kreese so Johnny giving up and walking away was also disappointing. Obviously, it'll be a fight for another day and with the loss of Miguel (for now), I guess Johnny just didn't have the heart, which broke mine. Miguel was the only one to learn from Johnny, but his moment of weakness put him in his coma, so I feel he's just going from good, to bad, to worse.

Cobra Kai Season 1 [2018] review

In terms of overall arcs,

Johnny - I believe this was the highlight of the series and the one I'm most looking forward to in the 2nd season.  Johnny is a jerk, to put it lightly, due to his poor home life as a child.  His step father used money instead of parenting to solve problems and as a result Johnny doesn't know how to cope in the real world.  He drowns his own problems in alcohol.  His relationship with his own son has been damaged, possibly beyond repair.  All he wanted to do was win that karate tournament and beat Daniel in the 80s, and his life would have been better, or so he thought.  When he finally gets that win in the present, it doesn't feel as good as the thought, because of the way it was earned.  That inner turmoil of finding that balance is something that he has yet to achieve and that journey is the one I'm most interested in seeing.

Daniel - While it was mostly fun watching his story unfold and waxing nostalgic, the story I'm most interested in is his role as sensei to Robby.  Also, back to Johnny, I can't imagine how hard it must have felt for him to watch his son being close with and taught by his enemy, Daniel.  Johnny reveals to Miguel that John Kreese was a father figure in his life so seeing Daniel in that role will hopefully add to Johnny's journey to improve himself.  I did love seeing Daniel and Johnny rock out together to REO Speedwagon in the penultimate episode.  If things had been different in the 80s, they might have been friends.  And I still stand by the line in KK1 when Johnny says, "You're all right, LaRusso." validating the audience that he has earned the respect of his enemies by standing up for himself.  Obviously, with John Kreese choking out Johnny and destroying his trophy and then Johnny leaving the Cobra Kai had a profound impact on his life but we didn't get that story until now.

Miguel / Robby / Samantha - These three were the highlight of the children as the rest were pretty much "comic" relief.  It was great seeing Miguel rise from loser to winner and get that confidence they needed in their life, similar to Daniel in KK1.  It's sad to see Miguel take a turn towards the "dark", but as we know, there's no such thing as a bad student - just a bad teacher - and IMO Johnny isn't bad, just misguided for the time being.  I'm glad Robby found a teacher/father figure in Daniel which prevented him from turning to a life of crime.  Sam is wise beyond her years, and based on the Season 2 trailer, will add herself back into the narrative of the karate world which is better than the snooty rich mean girl world.

Honorable mentions:  Aisha and Hawk.  I liked their mini arcs of gaining confidence.  Hopefully they don't lose themselves like Miguel has started to.

Small nitpicks aside with some of the corny dialogue, plot holes, and characters like Anthony & Amanda LaRusso, Kyler, Moon & Yasmine, and Daniel's cousins, I think we have a pretty good foundation to the Cobra Kai series and I look forward to what we get in Season 2.

Eighth Grade [2018] review

Bravo to Bo Burnham and Elsie Fisher.  They really did capture what 8th grade felt like and I was pleasantly surprised how much I cared about Elsie's character Kayla when I didn't really know much about her.  Like many of us who might have felt like outcasts or who weren't socially accepted, she gave great advice that she couldn't really herself simply out of fear of being rejected, but she did try.  

The humor was very subtle which fit for this film.  I did enjoy when I got the chance to laugh out loud with the cast, especially during the scene when Kayla and Gabe dinner scene.

Her father did an excellent job - trying to play it cool, but not too cool, and also wanting to be there for his daughter.  I thought they worked well together.  I also liked when they introduced the character of Olivia.  The movie needed that outgoing friendly person to help Kayla on her journey and it gave us hope that things might be okay.

In the end, there isn't a huge revelation why Kayla is the way she is.  They don't dig into her mental health, or go on in length about the absent mother, or what the father does for a living, or feel the need to have an adult step in and be a voice of reason.  The movie presents a serious of simple experiences and puts an awkward teen said experiences, and the result felt very genuine.  Personally I was transported right back to 8th grade.  I can see why it has a 99% on RT and I definitely recommend it.

Glory [1989] review

It's the time during the Civil War.  As a non-war expert, the audience is given dates of certain events, but since I don't know the specific start or end dates, I wasn't sure at what point in the war these events were happening and if they were building towards a large battle.  So plot aside, racism is at the front and center.  The audience is constantly reminded through the dialogue and actions of the cast.  Matthew Broderick's character of Colonel Shaw appears to have no racist bone in his body, but his flaw is that he's pretty clueless on how to run his own command so he has to rely on a lot of help.  Unfortunately the help is also racist, on both sides of the coin.  

The orchestral score does most of the heavy lifting when it comes to emotion.  Early in the movie when Col. Shaw informs those under his command that General Lee has decreed that any black person fighting for the North will be executed and when the fighting is over those black people must also return to a life of slavery.  Shaw expects his entire company to quit.  The next morning when he asks his second in command, Mayor Forbes (Cary Elwes) how many soldiers are left, the music swells as Shaw turns a corner to see that no one quit and everyone stayed.  The music swells again when the soldiers get new shoes and uniforms and when they finally get their first real assignment.

Outside of that, the biggest stars of this movie were Morgan Freeman and Denzel Washington (who I later learned received a Best Supporting Academy Award for his role).  Denzel doesn't chew the scenery as he would in later movies, but you can see the seeds of it start here.  He does an excellent job of crying on command and you truly care about what happens to him, Morgan Freeman's characters, and the other troops.  Speaking of the other troops, Andre Braugher (Brooklyn Nine-Nine) also does an excellent job in his role.

Overall, the plot isn't important, and the main message is that racism is bad (obviously).  The writers and director must have felt that the American people need that reminder, whether it comes in the form of this movie in the 1990s, or we get a more recent reminder with the films honored during the 2018 Academy Awards.

A Star Is Born [2018] review

Personally, my biggest problem with this movie was that initially I could only see Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga.  Who I needed to see was Jack and Ally.  When the movie started, I began to get Jack as a character, the nooses on the billboard as he coughed and drank from his limo, just looking for any bar to satisfy his addiction.  But then the movie switched to Ally, who I guess sucks at her job and gets yelled at, but all I see is Lady Gaga and knowing that she is the star "to be born" and knowing she's already a huge musical star, I found it a little hard to get past to just see her as "Ally - no name girl going no where in life that happens to strike gold".  Then for her to punch the guy in the bar... I know it was needed to move the story along and for her and Jack to bond outside the supermarket, but it just felt out of character for her from the little I knew about her.  Is she a hot head all the time?  Is she potentially violent?  Who is this girl?  All I know is that she's Lady Gaga, but I'm supposed to see her as Ally and it's not quite jelling with me yet. (Maybe it's probably because she's not a great actress, super talented musically, but not an actor.)

So things start to happen for Ally very fast and I like that the movie picked up steam here as she needed to decide whether to go for it or just stay at her job.  We begin to get more love story, but we're reminded that Jack is broken, losing his hearing, alcoholic, doesn't get along with his brother so my focus is caring about him and not Ally at this point.  I was surprised when Shallow came so soon in the movie, as I thought it would be the big number later, but it was perfectly placed. Then my mind started to leave the movie world and enter the logical world as Allly began to rise from a nobody to a somebody and she's writing music with Jack and touring on Jack's tour, what happens to her if her and Jack break up?  Who owns the music they wrote?  Does Jack?  Would Ally just fade away?  I started to become concerned with her and then shortly after questioning that, in walks in new character - ass hole music producer.  Good, this is what my logical brain needed.

So as Ally's star burns brighter, Jack's brother quits his tour, and Jack and Ally somehow continue to work professionally and personally, but then they start to take different paths musically.  Ally is shown to have a few flaws with firing her dancers and butting heads with her producer, but then eventually listens.  She continues to rise and Jack continues to fall, and I thought it was a great contrast in telling the story.  

I thought the movie was shot very well and while I didn't initially get sucked in, it wasn't until the last 45 minutes or so that I really cared about Jack and Ally and I saw the characters and not the actors.  I don't know if it was just me, but I was entertained and intrigued the whole time so I'd definitely recommend it.