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.