Author Archives: Doc

The Day of the Dead (1985)

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October 1 of 13

The first film of the October 13 this year was one of the all-time classics among the zombie genre, written and directed by the father of the zombie movie, George R. Romero. It was the third film in his zombie trilogy, The Day of the Dead.

To be honest, I thought that I had seen parts of this movie before, but after watching it this morning, I realized that I had never seen it at all. None of the film was recognizable for me.

The film follows a group of survivors, a combination of military and scientists, who have taken up refuge in a deserted missile silo to avoid the Living Dead. Meanwhile, one scientist tried to discover a way to domesticate the Dead.

The military men, in particular, were such horrendous people that it was clear that they were being set up to become zombie chow, and have the audience happy at their fate. There were very few of the survivors that were easy to root for.

Sarah (Lori Cardille) was one of the scientists who seemed to have the best head on her shoulders. John (Terry Alexander) was the helicopter pilot.

The worst of the military men was Captain Henry Rhodes (Joseph Pilato) and Private Walter Steel (Gary Howard Klar), both men were abusive and power mad. They were the characters in a slasher film that you want to see killed. And this film did not let us down. Rhodes’s death specifically was horrific.

We also came as close as we were going to get to a thinking zombie with Bub (Sherman Howard) who was being trained by scientist Dr. Matthew Logan (Richard Liberty).

There was a lot of screaming in the film, but I think that was meant to show the negatives of the humans, how the humans may actually be the monsters in this monster story.

One of the funniest part of the movie was seeing the oncoming zombie horde with the collection of zombie types in the mass. There was a zombie cowboy, a zombie football player, a zombie clown… makes one wonder why this group of one time people were together at all.

The Day of the Dead is a solid film with some amazing zombie gore, particularly for the time frame. I was very pleased with the kills of the film as the deaths of these unlikable humans were satisfactory.

Joker: Folie à Deux

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I appreciate those films that take a big swing. However, big swings lead to big misses, and that is what Joker: Folie à Deux is… one big musical miss.

Joker: Folie à Deux picked up after the end of Todd Phillip’s Joker, with Arthur Fleck (Joaquin Phoenix) in Arkham awaiting his trial for the multiple murders that he committed at the end of the previous film. With a swelling support from the streets of Gotham, Arthur met his soul mate Lee (Lady Ga Ga) who encouraged him to embrace the Joker side of his personality.

Let me kick off with the positives. Joaquin Phoenix does an excellent job as Arthur Fleck and he has great chemistry with Lady Ga Ga. Both actors are very good here, even if some of the storytelling pieces of the film did not do them any services.

There are some great shots in the film. There is one in particular where Lady Ga Ga had drawn a smile on the glass with lipstick. There are several shots like this. Anytime we see Arthur and Lee dancing, the shots are impeccable.

Unfortunately, that is about where it ends for positives. I was actually fairly bored through the first hour or so of the movie. The music was more of a distraction than it was an effective piece for the narrative storytelling. The songs were fine, but none of them felt as if they needed to be in the movie.

There are some things that I cannot mention without spoiling what happened. Let me just say that the ending of the film took away from the first film and did nothing to advance the character of Arthur Fleck.

In fact, it feels as if Todd Phillips wanted to rebut the last movie with something else. I mean, it did win an Oscar. I am sure this was not just a way to stick it to the fans, but I can understand someone who may think so.

Overall, this was a bad movie with some great performances. Joker: Folie à Deux just does not reach the levels of the first one, and I did not even love the first one.

2 stars

Monster Summer

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Monster Summer has a feel to it like this is an 80s film, a mixture of Monster Squad, Hocus Pocus and The Sandlot, but without taking any of the good parts.

From IMDB, “When a mysterious force begins to disrupt their big summer fun, Noah and his friends team up with a retired police detective to embark on a monstrous adventure to save their island.“

I had heard almost nothing about this movie. and you can see why. Mel Gibson appears in the film as former detective Gene, who is almost a recluse. Gibson did not feel like he fit in this type of a role.

The main protagonist of the film is Noah, played by Mason Thames. Thames starred in The Black Phone, but I spent the entire movie trying to place him. I swear he looked like he has so many traits of Omri Katz, the star of Eerie, Indiana and Hocus Pocus, that I kept thinking that he could be Katz’s son. It was distracting, even though Thames was fine in the role.

The writing of this movie was really weak. It had several moments that were just too hokey or poorly executed that even a few of the moments that were not bad were overshadowed by the poor parts.

I tend to like these kind of kids adventure films, but this just did not do enough well to recommend this film. Mason Thames is likable enough, but there is just not enough around him to make this worthwhile, even during spooky movie season.

2.4 stars

The October 13 (2024)

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I’m a little late getting started because I’ve been busy, but it is time for the October 13. I love Halloween and to celebrate the scary season, every October I pick out 13 horror/thriller movies that I have not seen before, at least in its entirety, and watch them.

This is the October 13 for 2024.

The October 13

  1. The Day of the Dead (1985)

2. Speak No Evil (2022)

3. Hell House LLC (2015)

4. The Pool (2018)

5. Sorry About the Demon (2022)

6. Messiah of Evil (1973)

7. Psycho II (1983)

8. Piranha (1978)

9. I Was a Teenage Zombie (1987)

10. Kill List (2011)

11. The Changeling (1980)

12. Little Evil (2017)

13. Mad God (2021)

EYG Comic Cavalcade #118

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October 4, 2024

It will be a busy Saturday this week, with a couple of movies, Badd Blood from the WWE, and a Dodger post season game, so with a smaller number of books this week than recently, my goal was to get this Comic Cavalcade out on a Friday instead of the weekend. I just finished reading, even with a couple of new arrivals from eBay.

Books this week:

Storm #1. “Grand Opening.” Written by Murewa Ayodele and art by Lucas Werneck. I go the variant foil cover with the art by Jerome Opena. Storm is seeing quite the upswing of popularity as she is just recently in the Avengers and now with this new series. This is the fifth volume of Storm which surprised me, and she is one of my favorite mutant characters out there these days.

Hyde Street #1. Storytellers are Geoff Johns & Ivan Reis. Cover art was by Ivan Reis, Danny Miki and Brad Anderson did the cover art (Gold Medalist). This is the new series joining the Ghost Machine imprint from Image. It is very creative concept and it gave me an Ice Cream Man type flavor. This one is going to be very interesting.

Dead Eyes #1-4. Written by Gerry Duggan and art by John McCrea. Here is the eBay series I just recently purchased. A few week ago, I picked up Dead Eyes: Empty Frames and the book felt as if it were a sequel series, and, after a quick trip to eBay, I confirmed that truth. The Dead Eyes series arrived in the mail today. I loved this first series. Read them all in one sitting tonight.

Ultimate Black Panther #9. Written by Bryan Hill and art by Stefano Caselli. Cover art by Stefano Caselli and David Curiel. I have not done a write up for this series recently and it is because it has been my least favorite new Ultimates series. That is still the case, but we get a issue that is heavily featuring Storm and Killmonger and they do make a good team.

Daredevil #14. “Introductory Rites” Part Fourteen. Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Luigi Zagaria. Cover art this issue was by John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna and Richard Isanove (Bronze Medalist). Matt Murdock has to face off with Elektra and she is not having it. To say that she is spurned is an understatement. However, there is little time for hurt feelings as they are in search of the missing kid from the halfway house.

The Power Fantasy #1-2. Written by Kieron Gillen and art by Caspar Wijngaaard. This is a series that I missed the first issue of and I had heard positives about, so I got #1 on eBay and read these two. Only a handful of superheroes on the earth and they are causing trouble. How about one Kieron Gillen has done a solid job with that.

Immortal Thor #16. “Fire and Stone.” Written by Al Ewing and art by Jan Bazaldua. Alex Ross did the cover art. If I am being honest, this was a fairly pedestrian issue of Thor that was saved by a new group of villains and a shocking final page. I am excited to see where this goes from here.

Deadpool #7. Written by Cody Ziglar & Alexis Quasarano and art by Andrea Di Vito. Tauron Clarke did the cover art. This was okay, but I am not sure how I feel about the daughter of Deadpool taking up his mantel. I do like how they are keeping Wade’s body around with sunglasses on it expecting a resurrection.

X-Men #5. “Psychic Rescue in Progress” Written by Jed MacKay and penciled by Ryan Stegman. Stegman, JP Mayer & Marte Gracia did the cover art. Psylocke and Quentin Quire heading on a psychic mission together was a joy. I am a fan of Quentin Quire because he is such a little jerk. And I love it.

Redcoat #6. Creators are Geoff Johns and Bryan Hitch. Variant cover art is by Francis Manapul. For awhile in this book, it was feeling like a end of the series as things were wrapping up with Benedict Arnold. However, there is another issue coming as George Washington has reared his wigged head. Next issue is entitled “Epilogue” so does that mean next issue is the final one? That would be sad as this has been a consistently entertaining book.

The Deviant #8. Written by James Tynion IV and art and cover art by Joshua Hixson. The penultimate issue of this series really sets this one up for a huge finale. The mystery of what is exactly happening is great.

Plastic Man No More #2. Written by Christopher Cantwell and art by Alex Lins. Alex Lins & Marcelo Maiolo did the cover art (Silver Medalist). Plastic Man is taking a huge step to try and solve the problem of his rubbery body falling apart, afraid that his son may wind up the same way. Unfortunately, it leads to a bad situation for the Metal Men.

Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #6. “Haunted” Part 6. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Paolo Villanelli. Mark Brooks did the cover art. Gwen Stacy joined up with one of my favorite female Marvel characters, Jessica Jones, and I loved it. I could always enjoy the appearance of Jessica Jones.

Get Fury #6. Written by Garth Ennis and art by Jacen Burrows. Cover art was done by Dave Johnson. The finale of this series is just as brutal as this series has been. Nick Fury is downright unbalanced. This was a series that I did not initially plan on getting, but after re-reading the first issue again, I was in and I have enjoyed it each month.

Other books this week: Creature Commandos #1, The Nice House by the Sea #3, Robbie Reyes: Ghost Rider Marvel Voices Special #1, All In Special #1, and Wolverine: Deep Cut #4.

Poetry- Poe’s Lament

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I have a second poem in as many weeks. This time, it is with my seventh grade class and I asked them if I should wrote a poem, too. They said yes, fairly excitedly. One student said I should do that author. She was referring to Edgar Allan Poe and I jumped at that chance. Much more of a fan of Poe than I was of four-wheelers.

I took a bunch of Poe’s works and made them a part of the story. I based it on the Raven, as you may know.

Here is the poem. It has the rhyme scheme of AABCCB

======================================================================

Poe’s Lament

1

Once upon a night so dreary

Edgar Allan Poe was weary

Sitting in his chamber all alone.

Dreaming of his lost Lenore

Or the lovely Annabel Lee some more

Spritzing the air with their favorite cologne.

2

Breaking the melancholic music of the score.

A gentle rapping, tapping came to the chamber door.

“What’s this?!” exclaimed Poe, flabbergasted.

“There’s something familiar about this,” he said.

As his broken heart was filled with dread.

Across the years of loss and fears, the gloomy feelings lasted.

3

Standing up from his writing desk, Poe cries, “By all that’s holy

If this be that blasted bird, I’ll kill it real slowly!”

Anger swelled within his breast as the irksome tap resumed.

Impatiently, the poet stormed across his chamber floor

Flinging open the door, Poe presumed a raven speaking ‘nevermore.’

No bird fueled Poe’s confusion of which he was consumed.

4

Nervous- very, very dreadfully nervous Poe became

The beating of his hideous heart was partially to blame

Poe was not calmed by the feathery fiend’s truancy.

“That tapping, the gentle rapping was coming from somewhere.”

Thought Poe, glancing around the hallway unaware.

Another creature had stalked past him with great fluency.

5

Cleaning its ebony fur upon the bust of Pallas

A slick black cat glared with eyes full of malice.

Poe covered his eyes and said, “What now?”

As the night was disrupted by the ringing of the bells, bells, bells

Poe screamed, “What do you want, creature of hell?”

And the black cat responded, “Meow.”

6

“Is that the best you’ve got, cat, one cliched word?

At least ‘nevermore’ was unexpected from the cursed bird!”

The black cat disregarded Poe’s raving, refusing to kowtow.

Poe poured himself a glass of amontillado wine.

“Why are you here?” said Poe. “You sent a chill down my spine.”

And the black cat responded, “Meow.”

7

“Creature! Are you a demon or is this but a dream within a dream.”

Poe’s words came out less like a question and more like a scream.

And o’er his heart a shadow fell as he found now

The feline sat on the bust stoically like the Red Death

“Will you lead to the fall of the house of Poe,” said he with a single breath

And the black cat responded, “Meow.”

8

Slumping back into his desk chair, Poe prayed for an end

From the torment and tempest of the works that he had penned.

“I would rather die at the hands of a raging orangutan, POW

Than suffer the indignities of your singular phrase.”

You fancy me mad, he thought, Madmen know nothing- just craze.

And the black cat responded, “Meow.”

9

Dark and brooding images throughout his mind did sprawl

Like disposal of this failure by burying it in the wall

Or tying it to a slab as a pendulum swings in this city.

At the peak of Poe’s macabre mind, in a dark blur.

The black cat leapt down, hopped on to Poe’s lap, and began to purr.

Taken aback, Poe slowly stroked the shiny fur. “Good kitty.”

10

Loss and grief can cause suffering and undo pain

And can lead to a darkness across your brain.

Loneliness can ravage your heart, here and now.

But Edgar Allan Poe and the black cat have each other.

Poe said, “Thank you for filling the hole in my soul left by another.”

And the black cat responded, “Meow.”

===================================================================

This is the works by Edgar Allan Poe that I either used lines from or took homage of:

Poems: The Raven, Annabel Lee, Eldorado, The Bells, A Dream Within a Dream

Short stories: The Tell-Tale Heart, The Black Cat, The Fall of the House of Usher, The Cask of Amontillado, The Masque of the Red Death, The Pit and the Pendulum, The Murders in the Rue Morgue

Upcoming Comic Preview

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So I have the new Previews and there are several intriguing new books coming somewhere around December. Let’s see what is available.

Honestly, the two books I was most excited about were from Dark Horse. Ripperland has Jack the Ripper involved and I have always been a Jack the Ripper stan. There is another Dark Horse book called Those Not Afraid, also involving serial killers. However, the book I am the most excited for is called Behemoth. It is a group of people on a bus that is eaten by a giant monster and then the story is living inside the beast. What an amazing concept. I can’t wait.

Image has several new books this month. Doll Parts: A Lovesick Tale is one that I am not sure I can handle. Lovesick was a series I grabbed off eBay, but goodness, I am not sure I could handle it. It was very disturbing. Juvenile– kids with a virus, but some are immune. I have heard this concept before, but it sounds intriguing. Then, how about a one-shot called Mother Fu*kin’ Monster #1. How can you not want a book with that kind of title?

Dust to Dust is another Image book. Yes, there is another serial killer involved, but set in a dust storm in the past. This one looked solid.

Through the Boughs #1 is from DSTLRY, which has been doing so much lately that I have loved. This is a Christmas tale.

And how about a Marvel TVA book. Sign me up for that one.

More books in this Previews. I’m looking forward to them.

Agatha All Along E4

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Spoilers

“If I Can’t Reach You, Let My Song Teach You”

Whoa, this was a great episode.

Aubrey Plaza has returned, summoned to the Witches’ Road to replace the recently deceased Mrs. Hart (aka Sharon Davis).

Rio and Agatha certainly has a complicated history.

Agatha continues to show signs that she has feelings for Teen. Agatha thinks Teen is her son, you can tell. That is why Rio’s line at the end of the show about Teen not being her son hit Agatha so hard. I don’t know if that was true or just Rio’s vicious attempt to hurt Agatha.

When Teen looked like he was dying, Agatha was truly scared. Kathryn Hahn is such a great actress.

The new version of The Ballad of the Witches’ Road rocked hard. Lorna’s Ballad.

“We’re an album cover waiting to happen.”- Teen. The outfits for this trial were awesome.

The curse in demon form was very frightening too.

I am so curious about Patti LuPone’s character and the strange moments she has. It makes little sense so far, but I really love her so far.

This has been so enjoyable. The cast is tremendous and have so much chemistry with each other. There are so many questions to this story and I am into all of them.

EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week

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Week of September 30

Welcome back to the EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week. It is a busy night (Agatha All Along is on!) and we’ll just jump into this.

Bronze Medalist

Daredevil #14

Cover art by John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna, and Richard Isanove

What a dramatic cover this was. The imagery of the DD mask being held up in the lightning storm with the rain coming down… excellent.

Silver Medalist

Plastic Man No More #2

Cover art by Alex Lins & Marcelo Maiolo

Plastic Man, trying to hold himself together, makes this an extremely attractive and intriguing cover.

Gold Medalist

Hyde Street #1

Cover art by Ivan Reis, Danny Miki, and Brad Anderson

This is a cool looking new series from the Ghost Machine imprint from Image. The purple color of his face with the glowing green of the glasses just makes this stand out.

Bonus Action Vol. 2 E5

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Spoilers

“A Party Prepares”

This episode of Bonus Action was just chocked full of character development. It was really fun taking the time to give these characters the chance to shine.

  • Rory and the interns
  • Victor taking steps to be a leader
  • Bar’B dealing with her depression
  • Bric soulbinded his blacksmith hammer
  • Victor demanding practice
  • Bar’B’s father made a ‘deal’

This is such a fun time every week.

Only Murders in the Building S4 E6

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Spoilers

“Blow Up”

I loved this episode.

Like a found footage film, Only Murders in the Building went through the whole episode on cameras, which happened to be everywhere.

The Brothers Sisters were set up as a new suspect last week, but they are cleared this week after spending most of the episode trying to make them look guilty.

Best Zach Galifianakis cameo of the season so far as he was recovering in the hospital after being shot by a ricochet off Glen Stubbins’ metal plate in his head. The few seconds Zach was on were hilarious.

The discovery of two left shoulders in the ashes of Sazz was cool. The reveal that the second body from the incinerator being the mysterious Dudenoff was a great twist. I never thought that the Brother Sisters were the killers, but the way this used the reveal in this episode was tremendous.

The way the show used the narrative plot map (Inciting incident, Rising Action, Climax, Denouement) was unbelievably clever and worked so well.

There is still the emotional connection for Charles in Sazz’s death, even with the increased paranoia as it seemed that all three of our podcasters were the targets, as the Oliver crew were shot at.

And the discovery of the cameras and the text message to all three of them saying “I’m Watching You” was creepy.

Love love love this episode. I watched it twice. I love this entire season so far.

Sonnet writing- Four Wheeler

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In my 8th grade classes, we have been doing some study on sonnets. I said to my class that I wanted to write a sonnet too and I asked them to give me a topic. Most sonnets are love poems, but I did not want the eighth graders writing love poems, so I allowed them to do whatever topic they wanted. My topic was chosen to be Four-Wheelers.

The rules were that the poem had to have fourteen lines, follow the rhyme scheme of abbaabbacdcdcd and could have no more or nor less than ten syllables per line (which is kind of linked to iambic pentameter. Yes, I know there is more to it than just the syllable count, but it is a tough concept for 8th graders).

Here is my sonnet.

FOUR-WHEELER

The sun shines brightly in the midday sky,

The warmth on my face brings joy to my life.

It washes away the pain and strife

I am so excited, I want to fly.

Bursting forth with an exuberant cry,

Bouncing and hopping; excitement is rife.

Sharing this fun with my friend and his wife.

Suddenly, the fun ceases. Why oh why?

I cry as my body flies through the air.

My four-wheeler flipped when I hit a rock,

The oncoming ground gave me quite the scare.

Spiking my head caused me a state of shock,

The doctors placed me in intensive care.

Months and months to recover. What a crock.

Mr. McMahon E5, E6

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Spoilers

“Family Business”

“The Finish”

I wonder what this documentary series would have looked like had the lawsuits and the scandals of sexual misbehavior had not come out when it did. I have a suspicion of what it would have been.

There felt like there was a lot of positive Vince moments and that they would have outweighed the negative or the rumored scandals and this would have been like a fluff piece of the WWE Chairman.

Even now, I would say that most of this documentary felt like it was telling the positives of Vince McMahon and those things that were really bad seemed to be added into the episodes.

Bruce Pritchard was on the doc in episode six making a reference to seeing some of the earlier episodes and saying that it sucked, that it was a hatchet job going against Vince. I am not sure what episodes he was watching because they never felt like a “gotcha” episode to me. Pritchard was a close friend to Vince and so perhaps some of this ideas he formed came from being protective of him. Outside of the sixth episode, the first five felt so much more like a WWE doc.

I really think there are many more things the doc could have gone into with more specificity than what it did. It was an interesting doc, but it did not feel like something that was really worthwhile.

The Penguin S1 E2

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Spoilers

“Inside Man”

Boy, Oz is just a big time manipulator. He thinks on his feet better than anyone. He is so close to being revealed, but he just talks someone out of it by making them believe something else.

I am sure that I will never do one of these reviews without commenting on the unbelievable make up job Colin Farrell has. There is just no way that you could identify him as the actor playing Penguin if you did not already know. It is astounding.

I thought that Victor might actually be done when Penguin had him in the grave in the ground with the other two bodies. Penguin was teaching him a lesson, but was it just simply a cruelness in Oz?

This show looks great and it is a dramatic and tension-filled crime story of a manipulator who has goals beyond what some believe is possible.

Sofia Falcone (Cristin Milioti) is fabulous and borderline crazy. Okay, maybe not borderline.

I thought this was coming out on Thursdays, but, instead, it is out on Sunday nights. That works well for me. The Penguin is on HBO Max.

Grotesquerie S1 E1, E2

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Spoilers

“Pilot”

“True Crime Catholics”

I did not need another series on my watchlist. Currently, I am watching Agatha All Along, Only Murders in the Building, Bonus Action on YouTube, The Penguin, Mr. McMahon on Netflix, Raw and Smackdown, as well as coming to the end of season four of Bates Motel, preparing to start season seven of The X-Files, in the middle of season two of The Greatest American Hero and nearing the end of season two of Battlestar Galactica. The schedule is pretty tight at this point.

Yet, seeing the series entitled Grotesquerie pop up on Hulu (originally aired on FX), a series that I had seen intriguing trailers for at Cinemark, and a series by American Horror Story producer Ryan Murphy, I thought I could find a time to add this to the rotation.

The first two episodes became available together and it combines a vicious and brutal serial killer with the world of religious iconography.

Niecy Nash stars as Detective Lois Tryon, who finds herself at these horrendous crime scenes, really not wanting to be on the case. Still, the cases feel so very personal. Drinking heavily throughout both episodes, Lois is joined by a journalist who also just happens to be a nun, Sister Megan Duval. Sister Megan is an odd duck as a nun, unlike most nuns that you would see.

Lois’s husband, played by the incomparable Courtney B. Vance, is in a coma after being revealed as a cheater. Lois’s feelings toward her husband Marshall is complicated to say the least. However, she feels as if she needs to protect him from a nurse at the hospital, Nurse Redd, who has other ideas of what to do with Marshall. Nurse Redd is maybe the creepiest character on the show so far.

Showing on FX, Grotesquerie is available on both Hulu and Disney + the next day. I hope this is stronger than the last American Horror Story that we got.