After a couple of lesser episodes, “S.R. 819” regained the feel of classic episodes of The X-Files, featuring a conspiracy level event.
The show begins with the apparent death of Walter Skinner, setting up the stakes for the episode.
Flashing back to before the ‘death’, we see the events leading up to the current situation and we learn that someone had poisoned Skinner, injecting him with nanobot tech.
Mulder and Scully raced against time to try and save the life of Skinner.
Of course, Mulder and Scully did not solve anything. They circled the truth, but the events were out of their hands. The final shot, of a now compromised Skinner with Krychek of all people was a kick. Especially after Skinner’s ‘deathbed’ confession to Scully that he regretted not being more of an ally to them.
This was a tough episode, but very enjoyable. It had that early X-Files feel to it and advanced the mythology along nicely.
Lucy Lawless brings a journalist aboard the Galactica with full access to everything to, as Adama put it, place a human face on the crew of the Galactica.
The shocking end of the episode was something that I never once considered. I love it when a series can surprise me.
The use of the camera provided the episode with that documentary style as Lawless, whose character was named D’Anna Biers, interviewed crew members and was constantly there sticking the camera into the faces of the people on Galactica.
It felt like what I expected. A cool concept where D’Anna Biers is won over at the end by the dedication and perseverance of the crews. And that is exactly what we see in the final cut… until we learn that Biers is a Cylon.
It was truly an unexpected reveal for me and it immediately elevated what was turning out to be an okay episode with a neat hook to something more.
The show also continued to show the faults of Col. Tigh, as he just does not seem to be mentally tough for any of this and that his decisions seem to not work with the position in which he finds himself.
I liked how the show returned to the Gideon incident from a few episodes ago. The whole firing on a crowd of people felt like it was dropped, but the show circled back to it and made it a major component for this episode.
We have yet another contender for worst movie of 2024.
I have had five other films that I would consider for the top spot of the worst film list and I am not sure yet which movie will gain that lofty position. You can add a sixth to the mix.
And this one had two Oscar winning actors on it too.
Borderlands, based on the popular video game, may have set the video game movie subgenre back years as the last several projects based on video games had been well received. Borderlands put that streak to an end.
According to IMDB, “Lilith (Cate Blanchett), an infamous bounty hunter with a mysterious past, reluctantly returns to her home, Pandora, the most chaotic planet in the galaxy. Her mission is to find the missing daughter of Atlas (Edagr Ramírez), the universe’s most powerful S.O.B. Lilith forms an unexpected alliance with a ragtag team of misfits – Roland (Kevin Hart), a seasoned mercenary on a mission; Tiny Tina (Ariana Greenblatt), a feral preteen demolitionist; Krieg (Florian Munteanu), Tina’s musclebound protector; Tannis (Jamie Lee Curtis), the oddball scientist who’s seen it all; and Claptrap (Jack Black), a wiseass robot. Together, these unlikely heroes must battle an alien species and dangerous bandits to uncover one of Pandora’s most explosive secrets. The fate of the universe could be in their hands – but they’ll be fighting for something more: each other.“
The first thought I had when it started was how cheap it looked. It felt like a really low-budget film, something that might appear as a short on YouTube. The CGI at the end made Blanchett look really like a video game, and not in a good way.
The dialogue was horrendous. You could almost hear Blanchett gritting her teeth as she said some of the words. Okay, maybe that was just me.
The characters were silly and barely two dimensional. None of their stories were interesting and they were only relatable because they were famous actors in these roles. Kevin Hart was more laid back than he usually is in a film like this though. Ariana Greenblatt was an attractive young woman, but her character was inconsistent and shaky.
The robot Claptrap needed to shut up. He was not funny. He was obnoxious and not even the great voice over skill of Jack Black, who has done a ton of voice over work from Po to Bowser, could save this character.
I think I giggled twice (it may have been more of a guffaw) and the story just did not do justice to this amazing cast of actors.
I found little interesting in here, outside of just constantly thinking to myself that I was watching Cate Blanchett in this movie.
Welcome back to the EYG Comic Cavalcade. We have a new banner this week. I do love putting together the new banners when it feels as if it is time. This one has several of the more recent books represented. This is the first non-special banner that did not have some variant of Spider-Man on it.
Books this week:
Refrigerator Full of Heads #1-6. This DC series was written by Rio Youers and drawn by Tom Fowler. I picked up a couple of these issues a week or so ago at Comic World because they looked interesting and I like horror books and then I filled out the remaining part of the six-issue series on eBay. This was a real hoot. I loved the story and the fact that there were decapitated, talking heads inside a refrigerator? What’s not to love. An awesome appearance by a chopped off shark’s head too. This was a lot of fun and shows a whole lot of creativity. One wonders if this series inspired the Plastics: Death and Dolls creators. By the way, the guy on eBay who I ordered the series from also sent me Heart Eyes #1 for free. It is from Vault Comics and I enjoyed it enough that I purchased 2-5 on eBay.
Uncanny X-Men #1. Written by Gail Simone and art by David Marquez. Cover art by Marquez and Matthew Wilson (Gold Medalist). I love Gail Simone. She is extremely engaging and entertaining on X and she writes a beautifully powerful story for this new iteration of Uncanny X-Men. It also contains perhaps the best lineup of all of the new X-books with Wolverine, Nightcrawler, Gambit and Rogue at the heart. This starts out hot!
Spider-Man: Black Suit and Blood #1. This has four stories contained inside and three of them are okay. The first story in the book, focusing in on a small time crook named Joe Face, is a wonderful story of redemption and humanity. The first story was written by J.M. DeMatteis, who always seems to have a really strong grasp on Spidey and the people in the web-head’s orbit.
Avengers #17. “Impact Part One” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Valerio Schiti. Joshua Cassara & GURU-eFX did the cover art (Silver Medalist). New regular artist joins the Avengers and brings along Storm! Sam Wilson goes to find Storm and asks her to be the mutant representation on the team while the rest of the team struggled with their successes/failures during the Blood Hunt.
Incredible Hulk #15. “Lament for a Fallen Crown”: Part One. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and art by Danny Earles. Cover art by Nic Klein. I also picked up the Disco Dazzler variant cover by Todd Nauck & Rachelle Rosenberg (Bronze Medalist). Not sure I cared much for this issue of the Hulk. I am not sure what is going on and I’m not sure I am enjoying the path this book has taken.
The Last Starry Night: Vincent Van Gogh graphic novel. Written and drawn by Jamison Odone. This is a lovely graphic novel detailing the final days in the life of artist Vincent Van Gogh in a style of The Last Starry Night, one of the artist’s classic painting. The graphic novel is beautifully illustrated and dives deeply into the last days of Van Gogh, a physical and psychological investigation. I’m calling it now. Keep your eyes on this one for next year’s Eisner Awards.
Spectacular Spider-Men #6. “Fulfillment” Written by Greg Weisman and penciled by Humberto Ramos. Ramos & Edgar Delgado did the cover art. Peter and Miles continue to battle robots in Arcadium. The robots, now with hammerhead at the lead, are the crimelords of the world, including Black Cat, which makes Peter uncomfortable.
Space Ghost #4. Written by David Pepose and art by Jonathan Lau. Cover art was by Francesco Mattina. This series has been awesome so far. It has done an amazing job of taking these characters that I only really know via the Space Ghost: Coast to Coast animated series, which made them all comedic, and turn them into serious characters. In this issue, we get Zorak and he is completely terrifying. He’s not just singing with Brak. He is monstrous and an epic villain that puts the fear of death into Space Ghost. Amazing.
Arkham Horror: The Terror at the End of Time #1. Script by Cullen Bunn and art by Andrea Mutti. Cover art was by Rafael Albuquerque. This new Dark Horse book is the next horror comic and it was interesting. It started off feeling kind of like a noir/period piece, but the horror comes quickly near the end of the book.
A Vicious Circle #3. Written by Mattson Tomlin and illustrated and cover art by Lee Bermejo. To be honest, I have not read this one yet. I could not believe when I saw this advertised in Previews because #2 had been released so long ago that it was one of those that I just never thought we’d see again. In fact, I looked up the release date for #2 and it was July 2023. Over a year ago. That is quite the gap in publication. Because of that, I want to go back and look at the previous issues to recap what was going on. What I do know is that this has some of the best art I have ever seen in comics/graphic novels. It is breathtaking how beautiful it is and perhaps this is the reason the release date was so spread out. I am looking forward to reading this with some prior knowledge restored.
Doctor Strange #18. “Deathless“. Written by Jed MacKay and art by Pasqual Ferry . Cover art was by Alex Ross. This feels like the final issue for Doctor Strange as he was coming to grips with the fact that he is no longer Sorcerer Supreme, a title he had to give up to Doctor Doom in order to save the planet during the Blood Hunt. I assume Doc will be back at some point.
The Big Burn #1. Written by Joe Henderson and drawn by Lee Garbett. Cover B was done by Tula Lotay. Carly and Owen met one day as they were both trying to rob the same bank. They fell in love and began a crime spree together. When they were finally caught, the Devil showed up to offer them a way out, if they sold him their souls. When they agreed, they realized that selling their souls cost them even more than they expected. After a near death experience where the Devil taunted him, Owen decided to recruit a team of thieves for the ultimate heist, to steal their souls back from hell. This was a fantastic first issue from DSTLRY and I am excited to see the next issue.
Venom War #1. Written by Al Ewing and art by Iban Coello. Coello & Frank O’Armata did the cover art. This is the new giant crossover among the Venom books. I am not a Venom collector, but I did glance through this issue. There were some moments with Spider-Man that I found intriguing, but I do not plan on following this whole new crossover with Venom.
Ain’t No Grave #4. “Depression” Written by Skottie Young and art and cover art by Jorge Corona. This book literally has two words in it. The entire book is told visually with the stunning artwork from Jorge Corona. “Hello, Ryder” are the only words in the whole script. That is an amazing accomplishment, to keep the energy of the book alive without any words at all.
Daredevil #12. “Introductory Rites” Part Twelve. Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Aaron Kuder. John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna and Richard Isanove did the cover art. Daredevil has to square off with the possessed Kingpin in a violent battle for his own life and faith.
The Deviant #7. Written by James Tynion IV and art and cover art by Joshua Hixson. This has been a consistently awesome series as they take a look at a serial killer in the most original way. There is a lot of discussion among these characters but it is never dull. This is another classic Tynion story.
Blood Hunters #1. Written by Erica Schultz and drawn by Robert Gill. Cover art was by Ema Lupacchino and GURU-eFX. From the pages of Blood Hunt comes a group of heroes out to take out the vampires of the world… Elsa Bloodstone, Hallows’ Eve, White Widow and Dagger… adn their first target… Miles Morales?
Spider-Man: Reign 2 #2. Written and drawn by Kaare Andrews. Brian Reber did the cover art. Old Man Spidey is back in time trying to desperately save MJ. This continues to be compelling, but I am never a fan of seeing Spider-Man who is willing to kill. That is so opposed to the character that it just does not fit, no matter what he has gone through. Still, the story is gripping and I hope it leads to Peter facing what he has become and reclaiming his humanity.
Other books this week: Public Domain #7, Free Agents #2, Cruel Universe#1, Ultimate Black Panther #7, Wolverine: Deep Cut #2, and The Boy Wonder #4.
Three medalists this week and they all come from the House of Ideas, Marvel Comics. I actually had a list of about six or so in the competition so it was a solid cover week.
Bronze Medalist
Incredible Hulk #15
Variant cover C
Cover art by Todd Nauck & Rachelle Rosenberg
Disco Dazzler cover! What more could you want than a sparkly Hulk on roller skates? Like most variant covers, this has zero to do with the story, but this cover was a ton of fun.
Silver Medalist
Avengers #17
Cover art byJoshua Cassara & GURU-eFX
Storm joins the Avengers and she is a major force on this Avengers cover. The lightning from her eyes is extremely dramatic and the colors of the cover are perfect for Ororo.
Gold Medalist
Uncanny X-Men #1
Cover art by David Marquez and Matthew Wilson
With all the relaunching X-Men books, Uncanny X-Men comes with the cover art featuring the hands of the members of the new team…each extremely distinctly X.
So much happened after Norma stormed out of her house with a suitcase and a gun. Thankfully, the only person or thing that she shot was her cell phone.
She bought new clothes, she bought a new car and she had sex with her therapist. Spiraling.
It is always scary how she then turns on a dime, returns to her life and pushes everything down back inside.
We get a lot of development of Alex Romero too as he runs the gamut from finding out about his father using Alex’s dead mother’s name in a drug deal to being shot and then to kill the guy who was running against him for sheriff. I did not remember how much of a bad ass Romero was in my first watch of this show, but he straight up murdered fools during Bates Motel.
I have never seen such a “happy” family dinner, where nothing negative happened, that was as full of tension as this dinner was with Norma, Alex, Norman, Emma, Dylan and Caleb. I sat watching this just waiting for something to happen. It was a lovely moment, but the anxiety it built was off the charts. It was a great scene.
The scene with Norma and Caleb at the farm was so powerful. Norma coming back from her night out and dominating Norman and Dylan, demanding that they all head out to the farm to talk to Caleb. She was not taking any opposition from her kids and their shocked faces as they followed along was great.
It was also funny every time someone saw Norma’s new car. She definitely had buyer’s remorse over the car though.
Dylan is also one of the best characters on this show and he has turned his attention to Emma’s illness and trying to get her the lung transplant that she desperately needed. It is weird how Emma and Norman, who were dating, kind of stopped just out of the blue.
I have been typically been a huge fan of the X-Files humor episodes. “Bad Blood,” “Humbug,” Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” “War of The Coprophages,” and “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” are all classics for different reasons. However, not every humor episode hit as well as those.
“The Rain King” is one of those humor episodes that did not work very well for me. Victoria Jackson guest starred as Shelia, who was the center of the story of someone who can control the weather.
The story develops into a romance between some of the characters in this town and Mulder was stuck in it too. It was a weird story.
The best part of this episode was Scully’s dry reactions to some of the things that happened. There was one moment where Mulder told her over the phone that he was staying to help another man with his dating advice. The camera lingered on Mulder as no response came from Scully and the camera switched to Scully who just sat staring into the sky in shock. That was probably my favorite moment of the show.
This just felt too silly and the humor did not work. This was the second consecutive X-Files episode that was disappointing.
Something odd happened for a few episodes of the Greatest American Hero during the first season. Ralph Hinkley suddenly became Ralph Hanley. This was the first time one of Ralph’s students referred to him as Mr. Hanley.
This was done because President Ronald Reagan had been the victim of an unsuccessful assassination attempt by John Hinckley Jr. and the show’s producers clearly did not want their titular character to be connected in any way to that.
It was a very weird time during the series with the change of name, but it only lasted a few months (according to Wikipedia) before the show reverted the name back to Ralph Hinkley.
This was a fun episode where Ralph and Bill were checking on a list of ‘bad guys’ when Ralph’s student Rhonda arrived to look for help. Her mother had disappeared had was missing.
This seemingly unimportant piece tied right into a huge international incident with Russians and Ralph and Bill had to try to stop.
I still d not know why Ralph doesn’t wear some kind of mask. His face is right out there. The show could have said that the suit automatically projected some kind of facial protection. It would have prevented Ralph from always having to cover his face with his arms when someone was shooting at him.
There was also a potential story beat of Ralph not being a very good father, putting the super suit ahead of his son Kevin, which we did see this episode. It is not something the show really touched upon, probably because it is more serious of an issue than the comedic lean that the show had. Still, Kevin was pushed off to Pam most of the time. It is a good thing Pam is so understanding.
Above all else, you got to love Bruce Campbell guest starring as this man trying to have a baby. Well, I guess there was more to it than that. He was a demon trying to have a normal baby.
The story itself was messy and needlessly convoluted. The devil image we got was pretty low grade too.
The show tried to flip the script, but it just felt forced and I was disappointed with the overall episode. I do love Bruce Campbell, but this was just not worth his time.
Vera Farmiga is a fantastic actor and she endues Norma Bates with the ferocity of a force of nature. That was on display in a scene with Romero as she confessed to him about the flash drive she had been given by Annika. She was also stone cold with her bargaining with the criminal Bob Paris.
And to say that she did not react well to the news from Dylan that Caleb had been staying up at his farm would be a drastic understatement.
As Dylan and Norman were telling Norma about Caleb’s presence, I was really hoping that Norma would take the news well.
Of course, I knew that was not going to happen.
Norma Bates is anything but rational when she is upset. The ending of the episode, with Norma packing her bags, grabbing the gun and leaving in her car was powerful and scary.
At lest she did not seem to strike out to Dylan, whose whole thing has been trying to find the family that he had been desperate to have, and who had been making so much progress with Norma. Her anger seemed directed more at Caleb and the memory than at Dylan.
I do not remember what happened as the result of this, but things certainly do not look to be going well.
Commander Adama was tired of the divisiveness and decided the best choice was to reunite the fleet that had splintered apart when President Roslin and Apollo escaped in an attempt to find earth.
I loved these two episodes because the story took a new path. It showed how people can bring each other together instead of tearing each other apart. Seeing Adama go to Kobol to find the fleet was great, as was his confrontation with Sharon, the lookalike Cylon to the Sharon who had shot him.
The Sharon storyline is awesome too because you think the whole time that she was being manipulated by Meier and that she was going to take that bait, but instead, she turned on Meier and showed Adama that she was more than just another machine. I did not see that coming and I really like the way the show has written this character. For the first time, I see Sharon as not just a Cylon antagonist, but an intelligent being who makes her own choices.
The relationships are all wonderfully played here including Apollo-Starbuck, Adama-Roslin, Sharon/Helo, Sharon/Chief, and Adama/Starbuck.
I still have no idea of what to make of Baltar and his mysterious vision. She was not from a Cylon chip that was in his head, so what exactly is she? Baltar sounds as if he has a plan for the baby that Sharon is carrying, or at least that it will work into one inside his head. What is Baltar’s motive? I really do not know.
The episode felt like a reboot of the show’s goals, specifically focusing on the characters. I’m pleased that everyone is back together.
It is M. Night Shyamalan’s latest movie. Some of his movies have been epically great. Some of them have been horrendous. You are never sure what you are going to get.
His new film has its moments, but felt as if it collapsed the longer it went and seemed to never end. Actually, it felt like it was ready to end several times.
A fire fighter named Cooper (Josh Hartnett) was attending a concert from the hot singer Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan) with his teenage daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue), who was a huge Lady Raven fan. While at the concert, Cooper sees what seemed to be an excessive police presence. He discovered that the entire concert was a trap for a serial killer named The Butcher, who FBI agents had decided that their tip that the Butcher was attending this concert was good intel.
It turned out that Cooper, the good father and friendly man, was, in actuality, the Butcher and he spent the next part of the film trying to find a way out of the trap.
The first hour of the movie was actually not too bad. I did like the premise of the film and I liked how we were seeing this from the POV of Cooper. He was the main protagonist and the film seemed to want the audience to cheer for him to get away from the FBI despite the fact that he was a vicious serial killer.
I could not tell whether this was a good performance from Hartnett or if it were terrible. There were moments that it felt like Hartnett was absolutely delivering horrendous dialogue, but I think that maybe he was doing this to show that this guy struggled with feelings and that he was more of a sociopath. I am choosing to believe that these were acting choices by Hartnett as a way to show more about this character.
However, the dialogue was not very good. It felt like a typical Shyamalan film where the dialogue sounds as if it is not spoken by real people.
Lady Raven was shown performing multiple songs during this concert, and we get nearly the entire songs. It turned out that Lady Raven was M. Night’s daughter Saleka, who wrote, recorded and performed these songs on her own. It felt like a good chunk of this movie was M. Night trying to help out his daughter’s music career. I thought she was fine, and her acting, when she became a more integral figure in the plot, was, at best, okay.
A major problem with the film is that some of the things that happen are so improbable and implausible that it was hard to accept. And it only got worse as the film continued. The second half of the movie saw things happen that you really had to stretch credibility to believe.
Again, avoiding spoilers, I absolutely hated the events at the very end of the movie. Without going into anything specifics, people just do not act this way and the choices that were made are just ridiculous.
Trap was too long and it dragged on. It should have been 15-20 minutes shorter. Josh Hartnett was strong and, if he did make those specific choices during the first part of the film, then his performance certainly kept this messy film afloat. I thought this premise had some promise but it was mostly unfulfilled.
This movie is based on a children’s book by Crockett Johnson from 1955. I had not heard of this book before, though the person who can draw things into existence is not a concept that I had not seen before.
This version starred Zachary Levi as Harold, who lived in a world of fiction, with his friends Moose (Lil Rey Howery) and Porcupine (Tanya Reynolds). A narrator (Alfred Molina) told the story of Harold and his adventures with the magic crayon.
Then, one day, the narrator no longer spoke and Harold and his friends did not know what to do. So Harold decided to use the crayon to go to the “real world” and find the “old man” once and for all. Moose and porcupine decide to follow him.
Of course, once they are there, there is the obligatory fish-out-of-water story for the characters, though it seemed as if sometimes they understood the world’s items or culture when needed.
Zachary Levi played Harold in much the same way he played Shazam, with a childlike wonder, only with the volume turned way up. At first, he seemed charming, but it did wear thin after a while.
The first part of this film was fun and did have some cute moments. I found my attention wavering as the film went on. It was just an hour and a half length of the film, but it did feel longer than that. There were plenty of things that happened that were pretty difficult to accept. I do not just mean the magical crayon thing, but some of the other things that happened.
Without giving any spoilers, I really disliked the finale of the movie as it seemed to take the story and amped it up in a manner in which the film was not taking it. The action battle at the end just did not feel as if it fit in this movie.
Still, there were some sweet moments and I liked the pairing of Zachary Levi and the little kid who played Mel, named Benjamin Bottani. Again, I think this is more of a little kid movie than for me, and in that manner, it works.
I finished up the remaining five episodes of the new animated Amazon Prime series, Batman: Caped Crusader, and don’t listen to the angry mob of online haters, this was great.
You get a few race and gender swaps and people get angry. That is sad. These 10 episodes are still really great no matter how ‘woke’ you claim it is.
We get several villains that we do not usually get in the first stretch of Batman. There was no Riddler. No Joker (until the very final scene). No Killer Croc. No Bane. No Scarecrow.
Instead, we got Gentleman Ghost and a couple of characters who I did not recognize. One was Onomatopoeia and the other was Wednesday Adams. Um… actually, it was a character named Nocturne, who I had never heard of before, but she sure looked like Wednesday Adams.
Then the season long running storyline with Harvey Dent led to the acid-in-the-face origin of Two-Face, but the end of the two episode season finale led to a surprising and tragic end for Harvey Dent. I liked the way that storyline wrapped up. It was more than just what we usually expect from a Two-Face story.
Marc Bernardin wrote the Gentleman Ghost episode. Bernardin who co-hosts the podcast Fatman Beyond with Kevin Smith has done a lot of television writing over the years, including animation. The Gentleman Ghost episode was excellent and one of the better ones of the season.
While this does not reach the level of Batman: The Animated Series, Batman: Caped Crusader was a lot of fun and seemed to get better with each episode. I look forward to seeing the next season.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 