Author Archives: Doc

Battlestar Galactica S2 E16

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Sacrifice”

Intense episode. Dana Delany took a longue full of people hostage in an attempt to get Adama to give over the Cylon onboard the Galactica… aka Sharon.

I thought this was a solid episode but I was not sure some of the plans that were hatched by Lee, Kara and Adama made a whole lot of sense.

I still feel as if the relationship between Lee and Dee came out of nowhere and this did not feel as earned as it could have been. However, the killing of Billy was shocking and put a serious stake on the episode.

I was not a fan of Kara shooting Lee during “friendly fire.” Starbucks just has not been portrayed recently as the kick ass pilot that she had always been and this error really brought that home. Perhaps it will lead to some serious drama between the pair, but we’ll have to see.

The other thing that I disliked was when Dana Delany told Lee that she did not believe that he would kill the man he held at gunpoint and Lee eventually dropped his gun. Did I not just see Lee shoot an unarmed crimeboss in the previous episode? I believed he absolutely would blow this guy’s head off, but he surrendered his firearm immediately.

I do believe that Lee’s character has been written inconsistently during this season, and I hope they can get him back on track, since he should be one of the top characters on the show.

The Deliverance

Posted on by

I was surprised to see the name Lee Daniels attached to this Netflix horror movie. Daniels has directed such films as The Butler, United States vs. Billie Holiday and The Paperboy, none of which moved into the genre of horror. With a great deal of curiosity I went ahead and pulled this up on Netflix.

It started out listed as based on true events.

According to IMDB, “An Indiana family discovers strange, demonic occurrences that convince them and their community that the house is a portal to hell..“

The Deliverance hooked me right away, with its depiction of this black family from Indiana. Ebony (Andra Day) was rough and troubled, dealing with her issues through alcohol and anger. The fact that there was little redeeming qualities about Ebony made the character and the film more intriguing. Her three children struggled to try and find their own way through the difficulties presented to them by their mother. Ebony’s mother Alberta (Glen Close) moved in with them to try and help them with their troubles while dealing with her own health issues. Each character was angry and expressed it in a variety of manners.

Andra Day and Glen Close were both great with their performances. They brought the deep-seeded frustration and regret to the forefront. Caleb McLaughlin (from Stranger Things) also does a very strong job with his role of one of Ebony’s suffering children, Nate.

After about an hour, I was fully invested. The problem was that, when the film started to transition from the familial problems into the haunted house ones, the film lost a lot of steam and became just another haunted house movie. The final act of this movie was tremendously bad and spent every ounce of good tidings that it spent the first part of the film building up.

I really wish this film had taken a different path because it started with a very compelling group of characters with problematic family issues and slipped into a cliche-ridden, disappointing haunted house film.

2.5 stars

Rebel Ridge

Posted on by

This was on my queue at Netflix for the last week, but it was a film that I was not sure I was intending on watching any time soon. However, a friend of mine said that he liked it so I decided to give this a chance. I am really happy that I did because Rebel Ridge was an excellent film.

I have heard people refer to this as a Rambo-esque film, and I can see some connections, especially First Blood. However, the feel of these two films differ as does the main protagonist.

According to IMDB, “Terry Richmond enters the town of Shelby Springs on a simple but urgent mission– post bail for his cousin and save him from imminent danger. But when Terry’s life’s savings is unjustly seized by law-enforcement, he’s forced to go head to head with local police chief Sandy Burnne and his combat-ready officers. Terry finds an unlikely ally in court clerk Summer McBride and the two become ensnared in a deep-rooted conspiracy within the remote township. As the stakes turn deadly, Terry must call upon his mysterious background to break the department’s hold on the community, bring justice to his own family– and protect Summer in the process.“

The film provided a potential star-making turn for Aaron Pierre, who played Terry Richmond. He carried himself with a confidence and a force that made you believe that, despite being in what seemed like an unwinnable situation, he would come out of it on top. His screen presence was off the charts and he seemed to match with Don Johnson, who played local sheriff Sandy Burnne.

I really enjoyed the manner in which Terry went about his business. It was not as much about revenge as it was justice. The inclusion of Summer kept him grounded and I was very happy that it did not just devolved into a big gunfight.

This seems to be a thinking-man’s action hero and it makes Rebel Ridge down to earth and intelligent. It started out with that yucky feeling of police dealing with an African-American man, but it became more than just the racism.

I enjoyed this Netflix film quite a bit.

4 stars

Bates Motel S4 E4

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Lights of Winter”

I’m having a tough time falling asleep, so I figured to give Norman Bates a chance to help with the shut eye. Should have guessed that it would not be the best choice.

Norman and his friend at the mental institution Julian sneaked out in the night and went to a strip club. If you knew of Norman’s proclivity to turn into his mother and murder women when he is placed in sexual situations, you could guess this was not the best idea. Thankfully, no one got murdered.

Of course, that was probably only because Julian got into a scrape with the bouncers at the strip club. Norman was in full blackout and in the personal of Mother at the time.

This led to Norman tearfully accepting whatever help Dr. Edwards was able to give him, as he realized that he was not sure what was real or not.

Meanwhile, the relationship between Norma and Alex picked up as they attended the “Lights of Winter” in town. Norma had gone to Portland to visit Emma and my first thought was… who’s running the motel? If Norma is gone and Norman is locked up and Emma is in the hospital, who is left?

Anyway, there is a woman from the bank named Rebecca, who had been having some kind of relationship with Romero prior to his marrying Norma. Rebecca had ties to Bob Paris and believed that Romero had killed him. She told Romero that Bib had a safety deposit box full of laundered money that was there for the taking, if Bob’s killer would just have the key. Romero is too smart to incriminate himself, but after the Lights of Winter, Romero and Norma discovered the house had been ransacked (perhaps someone looking for the key).

Well, that’s enough for now. I’m going to try to shut my eyes again. Here’s hoping.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #115

Posted on by

September 14, 2024

Not much to say this week. Jumping right in to the books I picked up.

Duck and Cover #1. Written by Scott Snyder and art and cover art by Rafael Albuquerque. An interesting new book from Dark Horse. This gives us an alternate reality of 1955 and the story of a group of teenagers, that have been instructed to “duck and cover” as a way to protect themselves from a nuclear bomb. When the bomb goes off and the teens come out from beneath those life-saving desks, they find a post-apocalyptic world that they need to survive. Pretty good start to this new series. Hope you’re happy, Todd.

Groo: Minstrel Melodies #1. Written by Sergio Aragones and Mark Evanier and illustrated and cover art by Sergio Aragones (Bronze Medalist). The Minstrel and his daughter Kayli are traveling the land, singing about the misadventures of Groo. I love the Wanderer.

Amazing Spider-Man #57. Written by Zeb Wells and penciled by John Romita Jr. Cover art was done by Romita Jr., Scott Hanna and Morry Hollowell. Tombstone is in jail. He does not stay there long. He is out trying for revenge on the person who put him there… his daughter Janice.

Time Waits #1. Written by Chip Zdarsky and David Brothers and illustrated by Marcus To & Marvin Sianipar. Marcus To was the cover artist. I have been enjoying the books coming out of DSTLRY, and the new Time Waits is another excellent start. This is told in a fascinating manner, with flashbacks that just appear in the narrative and kind of do not make sense. I am looking forward to the next issue.

Geiger #6. Creators Geoff Johns and Gary Frank. Cover art by Gary Frank & Brad Anderson (Gold Medalist). A story focusing on Barney, the two headed dog that has been an important piece over the last couple of issues. Barney and a bunch of the other animals involved in this issue. Good stuff.

Transformers #12. Written by Daniel Warren Johnson and art by Jorge Corona. Cover art by Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer. Optimus Prime makes a major decision. Cybertron or Earth? There are some major issues among the Autobots here too.

Spider-Man: Reign 2 #3. Written, drawn and cover art by Kaare Andrews. MJ has the Venom symbiote. Miles and Peter face off. I have to say that Peter’s gigantic white beard is somewhat distracting, but the discovery of what happened was powerful. This has been a good series, even though I am not a huge fan of these alternate stories.

Captain America #13. “The Last Stand of the Front Door, Part 2” Written by J. Michael Straczynski and art by Carlos Magno. Taurin Clarke did the cover art. I have not been a fan of this arc of Captain America, but this finale of that arc was okay. Cap was definitely kick ass here, but I am glad the comic moves on to another storyline next issue (which looks like it will co-star Thor and Spidey).

Vengeance of the Moon Knight #9. “The Killing of Moon Knight” Written by Jed MacKay and drawn by Devmalya Pramanik. Davide Paratore did the cover art. This issue brings to a close the “new” Moon Knight, aka Shroud. Khonshu wants Shroud dead and he ordered Marc Spector to do it. This is the final issue of this series as we get a new Moon Knight title coming soon.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #2. “Super Mutant Turtle Power Go!” Script by Jason Aaron and art and cover art by Rafael Albuquerque. I really loved the first issue of Jason Aaron’s TMNT book, but issue two is not as amazing. It is still good as we focus on Michelangelo and his new career as an action actor.

Red Before Black #2. Written by Stephanie Phillips and illustrated by Goran Sudžuka. Val and Leo have a throwdown in a cafe over breakfast. Yet they end up somewhere completely different. This new book has some cool moments and some originality.

Uncanny X-Men #2. “Red Wave” Part Two. Written by Gail Simone and art by David Marquez. Marquez & Matthew Wilson did the cover art. We get introduced to the Outliers, a new group of mutants that Rogue, Gambit, Wolverine, Jubilee and Nightcrawler have to deal with. We also have a new character named Sarah that is somehow tied to an early Charles Xavier. Gail Simone is an outstanding writer and she has a cool concept working with this version of the X-Men.

Ain’t No Grave #5. Written by Skottie Young and art by Jorge Corona. Ryder challenges death in this series finale issue. It is a real jaw-dropper of an issue. I did not expect the conclusion of this story to happen the way that it did. I was very impressed with the way this mini-series concluded.

Spider-Gwen: Ghost-Spider #5. “Haunted” Part 5. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Paolo Villanelli. Mark Brooks did the cover art. Gwen is out to try an help Chameleon, whose powers have gone haywire. Plus, they were being pursued by forces, as well as having to battle Vermin.

Blood Hunters #2. Written by Erica Schultz and art by Robert Gill. Ema Lupacchino and GURU-eFX did the cover art. Elsa Bloodstone seems to be fairly unhinged and she is anything but happy about vampire Miles Morales. However, she is forced to work with him against the Bloodcoven.

Jonny Quest #2. Written by Joe Casey and art by Sebastian Piriz. Chad Hardin did the cover art. The new Dynamite comic of Jonny Quest is once again a great book, as we get past Jonny and the future Jonny try and find a way to get the Quest family back where they came from. This has been a solid start to this series so far.

Space Ghost #5. Written by David Pepose and art by Jonathan Lau. Francesco Mattina did the cover art. Another Dynamite book that has been awesome. Space Ghost is desperate as he tries to save Jan and Jace from the clutches of Zorak. Then, Jace drops a bomb at the end of the issue.

Avengers Assemble #1. Written by Steve Orlando and penciled by Cory Smith. Cover art by Leinil Francis Yu & Romulo Fajardo Jr. The new Avengers Emergency Response Squad starts to assemble under the leadership of Captain America. It is nice to see Jarvis once again and it is fun to see the plethora of the heroes arriving, answering the call of the Avengers. There is also a battle with Sin.

Fantastic Four #25. “Star-Crossed” Written by Ryan North and drawn by Carlos Gomez. Joshua Cassara & Dean White did the cover art. Okay, this is a love story. And a weird one with Johnny Storm falling in love with an alien. And Star-crossed is a good example of the story here.

The Department of Truth #25. Written by James Tynion IV and drawn and cover art by Martin Simmonds. There are actually a series of other artists who worked on this issue, which details more about the life and ties of Lee Harvey Oswald and may even insinuate that the assassination of JFK was done by the fictional woman. The Department of Truth is always full of wild ideas in storytelling.

Wolverine #1. “In the Bones” Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Martin Coccolo (Silver Medalist). Logan is running with a pack of wolves. The whole X-Men thing was weighing on Logan and Nightcrawler came to try and get him back. Cyber is there hunting Logan too.

Other books this week: The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #12, Profane #4, Wonderland: Return to Madness #3, Domain #3, and Ultimate Black Panther #8.

Speak No Evil (2024)

Posted on by

This is the most recent film that showed way too much in its trailers. I wish I had not seen some of them and more was left for a mystery.

However, the new Speak No Evil film starring James McAvoy is an intense film, with some dark tones, but also some strange humor mixed together.

According to IMDB, “A family is invited to spend a whole weekend in a lonely home in the countryside, but as the weekend progresses, they realize that a dark side lies within the family who invited them.“

The darkness of the film is prevalent throughout and James McAvoy embodies that darkness brilliantly. You are never quite sure what he is doing or why he is doing it. His manipulation of the Daltons is amazing and more subtle than you would think.

I was very impressed with young Dan Hough, who played Ant. This character is really tragic and Hough is excellent at portraying this role without the ability to talk. There is such an aura of sadness surrounding Ant that you connect to the boy without any difficulty. Of course, the one scene that is in the trailer really should have been left as a movie surprise.

The tension of the film is built up well as the strange occurrences keep happening. There always feels like a reasonable excuse, but you could tell that there was more under the surface than you think. It felt wrong to be laughing at some of the things that I was laughing at.

The third act of Speak No Evil was wild. I found myself engaged throughout the film and I really found the performances intriguing and the characters interesting.

3.75 stars

The Killer’s Game

Posted on by

As a fan of the WWE, I was always going to see The Killer’s Game. It was not just because of Dave Bautista in the starring role, but also because of the debut of Drew McIntyre, a current WWE superstar.

According to IMDB, “…Veteran assassin Joe Flood, who is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness… authorizes a kill on himself to avoid the pain that is destined to follow. After ordering the kill, he finds out that he was misdiagnosed and must then fend off the army of former colleagues trying to kill him.“

This was not a great movie, but I enjoyed it despite that. The best part of the film was easily Dave Bautista, who was engaging and entertaining. I thought he was great in everything that he had to do, from the physical and brutal killings to the more softer and emotional bits. He was funny too.

I am going to say that there were some glimpses of Bautista’s acting skill in this film. Yes, it was mostly an action fest, but Bautista has a future in more challenging roles and we can see how successful he could be.

Some of the other assassins were fun, but were nothing but cannon fodder. Drew McIntyre was one of these, and it was fun to see him. He seemed like he was having a lot of fun playing this character.

It was fun and I did enjoy Bautista. Is it a great movie? No. If you are a WWE fan, you’ll think this is a hoot. If you find big violent action films unenjoyable, then you should stay away from this.

3 stars

EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week

Posted on by

Week of September 9

Three winning comic covers, three separate comic book companies. Nicely spread out this week. There is one variant cover and two number ones. One artist who is already in the EYG Hall of Fame, and in fact was in an early class (Class of 2012).

It is September 11th today and it is a good day for reflection.

Bronze Medalist

Groo: Minstrel Melodies #1

Cover art by Sergio Aragones

This is the EYG Hall of Famer. Sergio Aragones has been treating us with Groo books for years and Groo is one of my favorite characters and this cover really captures the humor of the character.

Silver Medalist

Wolverine #1

Cover art by Martin Coccolo & Bryan Valenza

A new Wolverine book featuring some great variants, but I think the cover A is right there with the best of them. This gives us an amazing view of Wolverine the character atop of these skeletons. I also love the snowy trees in the background.

Gold Medalist

Geiger #6

Variant Cover B

Cover art by Francis Manapul

A glowing man and his two-headed dog. What more could you want. I love the shades of green across this variant cover as Geiger seems to be relaxing with a book. Beautiful art.

Bonus Action Vol. 2 E2

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Battle at the Parade of Celebrants”

The second episode of the second volume of Bonus Action was the combat that was set up last week. The parade that Bric was so looking forward to was attacked and danger was placed upon the heroes.

This was so awesome.

Bar’b was unbelievable.

Everyone had a remarkably awesome moment. Marlon was excellent. Rory pulled a remarkable retribution moment with a Nat 20. Bric and his boulders…

So much fun.

Only Murders in the Building S4 E3

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Two for the Road”

So, why is Zach Galifianakis such a dick?

The three actors who are intended to play Oliver, Charles and Mabel came to shadow our plucky podcasters and became involved in the investigation into the Westies.

Zach Galifianakis, Eugene Levy and Eva Longoria clearly were playing caricatures of themselves in this episode, but I have to say, they were easily my least favorite part of this entire season so far.

I have loved this season, but the three actors felt like something crammed into the story that just did not work. I will admit Eugene Levy’s partnering up with Charles to look into the patch-wearing Richard Hatch was the best of the three. Eva Longoria was way over-the-top and annoying. Galifianakis was downright disrespectful to Oliver and I found him to be the worst of the three.

The episode is much stronger with the time that Oliver, Charles and Mabel are together. The beginning with the murder board and Detective Williams and the ending scene when the three were having a housewarming for Mabel’s squatting in the apartment that the sniper had shot from were both considerably more entertaining than them with the actors.

One has to wonder though… why Perfect Strangers?

There were a bunch of clues dropped this episode and several red herrings that played out, including Kumail Nanjiani, who we meet as Christmas all the time dude.

This was my least favorite of the episodes so far in season four, but it was just because those first two were so excellent for me. I am fully engaged in the mystery of who shot Sazz and how it related to Charles.

Only Murders in the Building airs on Hulu.

Battlestar Galactica S2 E15

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Scar”

A Battlestar Galactica Starbuck-centric episode is always great. Starbuck is simply been put through the wringer for this entire series and she has been slipping into the bottle more. Her guilt over Anders and being unable to get a rescue mission back to Caprica, as well as her guilt over the deaths of other pilots have pushed her into being very brittle.

Scar is that Cylon Raider ship that has been targeting and killing pilots in a manner unlike other Cylons. Scar is known as the “Ace of aces” and a master of sneak attacks.

The show featured the conflict between Starbuck and Kat, as the two women showed their anger with one another over just about everything.

Katee Sackhoff was exceptional in the episode, being able to play up the myriad of flaws displayed by Starbuck and still be a dominant force on Galactica.

The show told the story out of order, as it flashed from the confrontation of Starbuck and Kat with Scar, back to the time before they headed out.

There are some great action scenes in the episode too.

The X-Files S6 E17

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Trevor”

This was yet another X-Files episode that I swear I have never seen before today. I am surprised how many of those types of episodes happened during the first six seasons, which was a time where I was an extremely big X-Files fan.

“Trevor” is a monster-of-the-week story dealing with an escaped convict who, because of a tornado, developed the power to walk through objects. Wilson “Pinker” Rawls is the convict who was in pursuit of what seemed to be missing money he had during a robbery prior to his incarceration, but the story turned out to be something much more personal.

It is revealed about halfway through the episode that Pinker was, in truth, looking for an old girlfriend named June who kept a secret from him. The secret was that she had given birth to his son, a boy named Trevor.

I saw a quote from the director of this episode, Rob Bowman, who indicated that, yes Pinker was a terrible killer, but the main antagonist of this episode was June, because she had hidden the fact from him that she had given birth and that he just wanted to be with his son. I do not think there is a bigger bunch of hooey than that. It felt as if the show tried to make Pinker the victim at the end and, when June hit him with a car, killing him, that she had done the wrong thing. Even Mulder made a comment that maybe Picker just wanted another chance.

What a load of crock. Seriously, this guy had been leaving a path of dead bodies in his wake as he was searching for June and Trevor. He would have killed Scully if she hadn’t gotten away, inside a phone booth. Mulder had discovered that, although he could walk through objects, he could not pass through things that was an insulator to electricity, glass, rubber etc.

This switch at the end trying to place Pinker in a positive light dragged the episode down several pegs for me. I did enjoy what was here prior to that, but the show just did not build any sympathy from me for this murderer.

The Greatest American Hero S2 E3

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Don’t Mess Around with Jim”

Did Tony flunk?

I ask because at the beginning of this episode of The Greatest American Hero, Ralph was getting after Tony to meet him at his house an hour after school let out in order for them to work together so Tony would not flunk. Tony wasn’t excited about the extra work, but he eventually agreed to Ralph’s pressure (Sure felt like blackmail to me). However, Ralph was kidnapped in the school parking lot after school and taken away.

And there was not one mention of Tony after that.

I really expected that there would be some kind of tag at the end with this dangling plot point, but there was not. So I can only assume that Tony was going to flunk.

The episode was pretty good in-between the fate of Tony. The man who had Ralph (and Bill) kidnapped was a man who had just faked his own death. A man who was big enough of a figure in the world whose funeral would be aired on live TV. This man had his will taken and needed Ralph and Bill to help him reclaim it.

The truth was mixed though. The man knew about the suit from the “little green guys” and his friend was able to tell Ralph how to use the suit’s telekinesis.

Turned out, the man who had faked his own death, at one time, had a suit of his own from the aliens. He apparently abused the power and the aliens took it away from him.

The idea that Ralph was not the first to be approached by the aliens is a fascinating idea and helped to build the world even more.

This episode was really solid and shows that this show had spent time doing more than just breaking cases. This episode was a development for both Ralph and Bill. This was the third really good episode in season two.