Rona Barrett shows up at the Blue Moon Detective Agency to do what only she could do… find out why there is no new episode again.
This was a clever episode that took the rumors and speculation about the on set feud between Cybill Shepherd and Bruce Willis and poked fun at the random release schedule of episodes. They use this set up to create a clip show of the best moments from the first two and a half seasons of Moonlighting.
Clip shows are a normal thing that happens during seasons when a show needs some extra time, and there was no show that needed time more than Moonlighting. Using Rona Barrett as the transition between the clips is a stroke of genius.
There were some fun cameos in the episode as well, including Pierce Brosnan as Remington Steele, a Moonlighting-type of detective show that was airing on NBC. They also interviewed Peter Bogdanovich, the director who worked with Cybill Shepherd on several of his movies which led to an affair between them and a several year relationship. The show joked about their relationship and how he took up with Maddie after the relationship with the other model went away.
They added bloopers at the end over the credits which are always fun.
Moonlighting caught a lot of criticism from the public and the media for the amount of weeks where they did not have a new episode ready to go. There were several reasons behind it, but this is a funny and neat way to address it as well as remind everybody why they loved the show in the first place.
Happy New Year to everyone. We start the new year off around EYG with our second annual Genre-ary DailyView. This year, the genre we are watching will be musicals, and we are starting off the month with The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, starring Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton. The movie was an adaptation of the stage play that came before it.
The Chicken Ranch was a legendary place in the county of Lanville, in Texas. It had been open for decades with nary a problem. When its iconic madam passed away, Miss Mona Stangley (Dolly Parton) took over. She had been in a side relationship with Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd (Burt Reynolds) for years. He would protect the Chicken Ranch and make sure things went well for Miss Mona.
When consumer advocate and television personality Melvin P. Thorpe (Dom DeLuise) started to investigate the Chicken Ranch, things got more troublesome for the ladies of the night.
There is an overall silliness to this movie that, I think at times, overwhelms the film as a whole. Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds are no doubt charismatic figures and carry a heavy load of the film. When they are on screen, everything is working.
Dom DeLuise added an antagonist that you can really root against without being a true villain. He seemed to be doing what he believed was right, even if some of the things he did would not be considered right. Charles Durning had a memorable turn as the Texas Governor and provides one of the best, most ingenious songs of the film.
I did enjoy the duet between Dolly and Burt, “Sneakin’ Around” even if Reynolds’ voice could not necessarily match that of Parton.
Jim Nabors was the narrator, Deputy Fred Wilkins, speaking directly to the camera as the film would go on. Nabors played the basic character he did in his other TV appearances.
While there is nothing amazing about the film, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas does have some fun scenes and some decent music and dance routines. It may not be a standout of teh Genre-ary, but it was a fun way to start the month off.
This was a disturbing and scary episode of the X-Files, and it really didn’t have anything to do with aliens or the paranormal. What it had to do with was a frightening man who had a terrible fetish that led him to do atrocious things.
The man started by digging up bodies in the cemetery and defiling them, cutting hair and puling out fingernails. That was disturbing enough without needing to go into it further. Mulder and Scully was called in because the police officer believed that aliens may have been invovled, but Mulder shot that down quickly.
However, Scully was having reactions to the case, having flashbacks to her recent abduction and it was affecting what she did. It showed her own PTSD over the incident that she has clearly not gotten over as of yet.
Nick Chinlund was cast as the ‘monster’ this episode and he was remarkably chilling. His tone and normal feel made him all the more sinister.
The local police detective involved in this case was a well known face to police show enthusiasts. Bruce Weitz played Sgt. Michael “Mick” Belker for years prior to this on the NBC show Hill Street Blues. He had won a Best Supporting Actor Emmy for the role, and he provided a nice foil for Agent Mulder. It was cool to see a local cop not turn the stink-eye to Mulder for once. It was a different kind of case, but Weitz was very supportive of Mulder, including being a believer at the beginning.
It was cool to see Mulder and how efficient he could be as an agent with his profile skills that was not paranormal related. You could see why Agent Mulder had been regarded as highly as he was at the bureau prior to his involvement with the X-Files.
I do like how Scully was able to fight back before Mulder arrived. I would have liked for her to have been able to subdue the suspect before Mulder came to the rescue, but I guess her fighting back was enough. I do not want Scully to be seen as a victim.
However, the scene at the very end when Scully broke down in tears with Mulder was a very strong scene too. It showed how important the characters were to each other.
Very good episode. Different from other X-Files episodes and that keeps the viewers unsure about what is next.
This Picket Fences episode was quite the step up from the last one.
It is also an episode that feels very current day and was filled with hatred. The way Chuck Dante, as played by Charles Rocket, is portrayed here made me think very much about some of the political discourse that happens regularly in our society today.
Admittedly, this episode was certainly pointed more toward Howard Stern than it was Donald Trump, as Chuck Dante was a thinly veiled caricature of the shock jock. Still, it felt very much like something that could happen today.
The influence Dante showed in this episode over his listeners was eerily similar. The anti-feminist hatred that the character spewed on his radio show felt much like some of the hatred that happens on the Internet on a regular basis.
Wambaugh used the words of Dante to defend his client, a man who shot Maxine who had been appointed as the acting mayor while Laurie Bey was on maternity leave. The shooter was just as unlikable as Dante. As Wambaugh cross examined Dante, the defendant would snicker at some of the outrageous comments he made during his testimony.
Of course the jury found him no guilty which was horrendous. Judge Bone sent the shooter to a mental institution for observation.
After the case, the people turned on Dante, which is something I wish would happen today to these people who try to use their words to rile up the influential of the country.
By the way, Jill Brock was back to her normal routine after her complete psychotic break last episode. She said things last episode that were really cruel and she said them for no reason. I guess we are meant to forget about that.
With the year 2023 officially reviewed, it is time to look forward to what 2024 will bring us. There are ton of TV shows and movies for the calendar year of 2024 and there is a lot to look toward.
To be fair, some of the things I am going to include on this post could be pushed to 2025, because that has been happening quite a bit lately.
Movies for 2024
Leading the pack is Deadpool 3. The only MCU film out in 2024, seeing Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool in the MCU with Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine… I mean.. what else can a geek ask for? It is my most anticipated project from 2024.
Other movies I am looking forward to include Inside Out 2, Joker: Folie a Deux, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, Argylle, Dune Part 2, Furiosa, Fall Guy, Beetlejuice 2, Kung Fu Panda 4, and Wicked Part 1.
TV for 2024
Who would have thought that the show that I was looking forward to the most was Echo. Dropping all five episodes at the same time, Echo changed perspectives with a great trailer.
Coming up in 2024 include True Detective: Night Country, The Penguin, Agatha: Darkhold Diaries (if it comes out in ’24), X-Men ’97, Eyes of Wakanda, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man, The Artful Dodger, Doctor Who, Stranger Things and Jinx Part Two.
It is time for the second annual Genre-ary DailyView. It started last January 2023 with a DailyView of Science Fiction movies that I had never seen before. It went so well, I decided that this would be a regular event every January with different types of genres.
This year’s genre will be musicals.
I generally consider musicals to be those films that have people break into song at times during the story and not a film that uses music as the backdrop of the story. So This is Spinal Tap is not a musical despite there being a bunch of songs. It is a movie about music. Yet, I will probably not hold to that definition during this DailyView.
The DailyView for this Genre-ary will begin on January 1st. I have a list of musicals that could work for the month, but I have not yet determined which one will kick us off.
This will be the running list of the movies watched during January.
Genre-ary 2024
January 1: Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982)
January 2: Kinky Boots: The Musical(2019)
January 3: Top Hat (1935)
January 4: Tommy (1975)
January 5: Dicks: The Musical (2023)
January 6: My Fair Lady (1964)
January 7: Fiddler on the Roof (1971)
January 8:Eric Idle’s What About Dick? (2012)
January 9:Oliver! (1968)
January 10:Brigadoon (1954)
January11:High School Musical (2006)
January 12:Hair (1979)
January 13:Man of La Mancha (1972)
January 14: Damn Yankees(1958)
January 15:The First Nudie Musical (1976)
January 16:Viva Las Vegas (1964)
January 17: A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)
January 18:How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying (1967)
Dorothy returned to Fargo this week as we discovered exactly what she was after. A woman named Linda.
Whereas last week’s episode was lacking Dorothy, this week we get a lot of her. In fact, we only get a little of the rest of the crew outside of her. We do see how the events have affected Wayne and his new attitude toward the car dealership. We see Gator in an attempt to kill Ole Munch, but who is several steps behind him.
And we have Dorothy nearly wrecking her car when she fell asleep at the wheel. After she wakes up, she finds a card for Camp Utopia, which turns out to be a place where Linda had created a refuge for abused women.
Dorothy tried to convince Linda to return and go against Sheriff Roy. Linda says she has to make her puppet first and tell her truth. This was weird and Dorothy did not want to do it at first. However, she finally just basically said screw it and she made a puppet.
Then, we got the backstory of Dorothy (called Nadine at that time) and how she came to be with Sheriff Roy. It was told with puppets and it was awesome. It did remind me of scenes from The Boys and from Gen V where puppets or animated characters narrated flashbacks. Still, this was beautifully done.
However, this was all apparently a dream as Dorothy had actually crashed her car when she fell asleep and dreamt this whole section. The nurse told her that they were happy that she came to and her husband was here. In walked Roy.
This was a great episode as we learned a lot of truths about Dorothy and her past and we get a chance to see how lowlife Roy Tillman truly was.
Three more episodes for this season, which has been a lot of fun.
Moonlighting had some great Christmas episodes. We are up to the “It’s A Wonderful Job” episode from season three, which, of course, is a parody of the all-time Christmas classic “It’s A Wonderful Life.”
Everything is set up to have Maddie alone in a bar after making a public wish that she had never kept the agency open. She is approached by her guardian angel, Albert, who goes ahead and shows her what her life would be like had she closed down Blue Moon instead of keeping it open.
Miss DiPesto was a cruel, cold businesswoman running a greeting card company. David married Cheryl Tiegs. Maddie would be fated to kill herself in a car crash.
There are some really good scenes with Cybill Shepherd, especially the scene on the roof of the building with Albert. She was very subtle with her facial expressions, but you could see them change depending on each situation.
Along with Cheryl Tiegs, there were some fun cameos. In particular, Lionel Stander, who played Max on Hart to Hart, an earlier detective show on ABC. Stander was playing Max here as Blue Moon had become Hart Investigations in this alternate future. We also saw Charles Rocket once again as David’s brother Richie. This is the first time in awhile since we saw Jack Blessing as Mr. MacGillicudy, one of the staff workers at Blue Moon.
Again, I found Herbert Viola’s presence in this episode to be fine. I am curious to see when my abject hatred of this character starts because so far I think he has been used very well.
This is a strong episode to follow the best episode they ever had with Atomic Shakespeare. The third season was on fire at this point. Although the kiss at the end of the episode with David and Maddie was confusing, since it felt as if something had changed, but they do not reference it again.
I watched a run of the fourth season episodes of Picket Fences this afternoon. They were all fairly low on the overall list of Picket Fences as a group of characters were acting out of character and there was plenty of mean-spiritedness.
The best of these five episodes was “Snow Exit” when a blizzard crippled the city and Mayor Bey had to give birth at the police station. By the way, this was the last time we saw her, She had asked Kenny to help be her Lamaze partner and he had to tromp through the blizzard to get to her. Then she named her child Michael. You know… Michael Bey. Is that a joke or is Michael Bay the son of Marlee Matlin?
One of this episode’s problems is that everyone had a storyline, but there was no through line. They were all separate. Henry Bone had a heart attack. Max got stuck with Jack Black, who was dressed as a cat. Jill got stuck at a bar with Lydia singing. Nothing was sensible.
Henry and Doug seemed to bury the hatchet with their fight over the Pope, but that changed a few episodes later.
In another episode, Carter nearly gets run over by a bus, gets electrocuted and is dead for 3 minutes before being revived. It led to an after death moment for him, and caused a major upheaval in his relationship.
The first episode was called “Bloodlines’ and it was actually not bad. Matthew saw a classmate who had killed himself with a shotgun and the sight messed with his head. So Jimmy took him on a trip to chase the Cocaine Bear. Well, it may not have been the Cocaine Bear, but it was a giant bear that was roaming freely around the county. That bear, by the way, left the county and there was never any resolution to that storyline. Matt did some nice acting in that episode. Of course, he then spent time kissing the young girl who Zack liked.
The worst of all of these episode was the old Brock party episode in “Bottled.” Jill thought she was going through menopause and she spent the whole episode being cruel and totally out of control. Even after she discovered that she was not going through the change, she was just as cruel and as crazy, saying such horrendous things as you could imagine to Jimmy and her kids. It was totally inexcusable and there was no reason given for her behavior. If I did not know better, I’d say these people all hate each other. This went well beyond family squabbling or saying unhappy truths to work through issues. This was just obscene.
Matthew had the best joke, saying that they always make up at five minutes to 11, which was a breaking of the fourth wall type joke as that was the time the show aired. Of course, there was no resolution of the arguments or anything but apologies that felt empty. This was not the Jill Brock that I have watched for three seasons + before this.
Henry was also going crazy as he was being totally rude to Douglas, who began to take his rudeness to heart. They came to an understand, sort of, but I got the implication that Wambaugh was not a forgiving as he usually was.
By the way, Zack was allowed to invite four people to his birthday party and he chose Wambaugh, Henry Bone, Maxine and Kenny. Why did he not pick Mayor Bey? Weren’t they so close that she got caught as the Dancing Bandit coming back to see Zack on his last birthday?
I did not mention about the Z Files, where Zack used an internet site to create a dirty picture of his teacher and then he gave it to his friend Kevin who put it on the internet.
Honestly, this Brock family probably all grew up to become serial killers or master criminals.
It is a good thing that this is in the middle of the final season of Picket Fences because if this show continued to rape these characters as it has been doing, I’d be ready to stop watching. As of now, I have only seven more episodes left so no sense in stopping now.
Sad fact is this is just not the same series as it was in the first three seasons.
Here it is. The ultimate list of the Favorite movies for EYG in 2023. This is the culmination of the movie reviews we do around here. We finished the year with 154 movies reviewed in 2023, down quite a bit from 2022.
Some interesting tidbits while compiling this list. Numbers one and two were really close this year. Close enough that I considered doing a tie at number one. This is not unprecedented as it happened in 2014 with Captain America: Winter Soldier and Guardians of the Galaxy. I decided not to go that route, but the two films definitely flipped positions several times before I finally made a choice.
Another thing, this was the year where there were the most films that were all around the same level. I would say starting around #15-40, these films were all pretty close to each other. It made placing them in an order a challenging thing to do.
I have some honorable mentions as well this year. They include: Extraction 2, Pale Blue Eyes, Medusa Deluxe, and No One Will Save You. Those last three have fairly high star ratings, but honestly, a lot of these do not stick out in my mind. I also should state that I did not include the four Doctor Who specials or the Netflix Roald Dahl shorts despite my reviewing all of these for the site.
Once again, I should tell you that my star ratings are not the end all for these rankings. In fact, I know there are some five star films that are behind some others on the list. Star reviews can change and reflection can go into consideration. The star reviews are meant to help point me in the direction of a list, not cement films into place. And finally, if you disagree with my list, that is fine. I would expect there to be disagreement. This is my list and I mean no disrespect to anyone who differs from my opinion. You have the right to like or dislike anything you want.
So, let’s get started…
#40. Plane. A fun Gerard Butler action film that centers around, you guessed it, a plane. This one was better than I expected it to be.
#39. Skinamarink. One of the most inventive and creative horror movies of the year. It really defies explanation and is one of the creepiest films of the year.
#38. Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie. A documentary on the life of Michael J. Fox and his struggles with Parkinson’s Disease and how it affected his career. Very engaging.
#37. Scream VI. A decent entry in the Scream franchise, the film keeps reinventing itself and keeping the audience on its toes.
#36. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem. A solid animated movie with a new look at the Turtles. The art of the film is spectacular. A great job by the young voice actors too.
#35. Joy Ride. A raunchy film that was more than just the dirty jokes. It had heart and a lot of humor to it, deeper than the typical vulgar film.
#34. Dumb Money. An entertaining look at the GameStop Wall Street situation from the recent past. Paul Dano was solid as the lead.
#33. The Creator. A sci-fi film that received more hate than it deserved. It featured a brilliant performance from young Madeleine Yuna Voyles. I found this to be a really good film.
#32. The Equalizer 3. Denzel Washington returned for the third installment of the Equalizer franchise. This was a little different as we see the older Denzel deal with the issues with the dangers and of his age.
#31. Sisu. One of the best revenge films of the year. Sisu is a bad ass and his mostly quiet persona carried him through the film, killing Nazis.
#30. American Symphony. The documentary featuring Jon Batiste at a time in his career when he was about to compose a symphony and his partner had her cancer return. It was an emotional documentary.
#29. Poor Things. Weird movie with remarkable performances from Emma Stone, Mark Ruffalo, and Willem Dafoe. Wholly original and creative.
#28. The Little Mermaid. A decent remake of the animated classic. I actually liked the relationship with Ariel and Prince Eric better in this film than the animated one.
#27. Wonka. I wasn’t sure if I was going to like this. I was totally entertained by the film. The music was great and I thought Timothée Chalamet was a solid Willy Wonka.
#26. Saltburn. Another wild and weird film with some solid performances anchoring the story. Barry Keoghan gave a tremendous performance.
#25. Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour. A concert movie following one of the most successful tours of all-time. I am not a fan of Taylor Swift, but the music was excellent and the stage show was next level.
#24. Past Lives. A beautiful story of a pair of childhood friends/loves who find their way to each other later in life when they had moved on.
#23. The Covenant. Guy Ritchie tells the story of a soldier and an interpreter in the hills of Afghanistan, trying to get to safety. Very dramatic.
#22. Tetris. A surprisingly awesome story about the creation of the video game called Tetris and how it spread across the world. Who would have thought this would be as tense as it turned out to be.
#21. Nimona. A Netflix animated movie that really worked well. Nimona was a little girl, or at least it seemed as if she was. In truth, she was a shapeshifter seen as a monster. This had a real emotional core to it.
#20. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Probably the best version of D & D ever put to film. A great cast goes through a fun adventure with heart.
#19. Air. Another product movie that is fabulous. Tells the origin story of Jordan Air shoes and how they became the biggest shoes in the world. Another fine cast, led by Matt Damon.
#18. Nyad. One of the last films I saw this year and it was a great film of overcoming a challenge and never giving up. Amazing performances from Annette Bening and Jodie Foster.
#17. Ant Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. This film gets more hate than it deserves. Are there some iffy moments? Sure, but I found it entertaining and a solid Marvel outing. Paul Rudd is always excellent.
#16. The Blackening. A wonderfully funny satire about horror movies and racial stereotypes. A group of young people are trying to avoid being murdered by a slasher.
#15. Blackberry. Another product film, this time about the drama surrounding the production and growth of the first smart phone, as well as the collapse of it. Exceptional work from everyone involved.
#14. The Marvels. Another film that I liked a lot, but received more hate than it deserved. I loved the interaction between the three heroes, particularly Iman Vellani, who as Ms. Marvel was a joy.
#13. Totally Killer. One of the most surprising films of the year. I saw it on Prime and did not expect to enjoy it as much as I did. A cool time travel tale mixed with a serial killer mystery. Very funny and engaging.
#12. Missing. A teenage girl tries to find her mother after she disappears. She uses the internet and the world online to figure out what happened to her mother. Very dramatic and a great performance from Storm Reid.
#11. The Holdovers. A wonderful Christmas movie featuring an Oscar-worthy performance from both Paul Giamatti and Da’Vine Joy Randolph. A very human story of loss and grief and surviving. Beautifully written and constructed.
#10. The Color Purple. Officially the last new film I saw this year. An amazing musical with an emotional story. The music was awesome. The choreography was great and there were several amazing performances, especially from Danielle Brooks, Fantasia Barrino, Taraji P. Henson and Colman Domingo.
#9. A Haunting in Venice. The third and possibly best of the Hercule Poirot movies we have gotten so far. A fun horror flick with a mystery that is very engaging.
#8. Barbie. One of the biggest hits of the year. Barbie was much deeper of a movie than you would ever guess. Margot Robbie was perfect in the role and Ryan Gosling stole every scene he had as Ken. A brilliant film from director Greta Gerwig.
#7. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1. Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible franchise roared back with an exciting action packed thriller with a couple of insane stunts. I enjoyed the film completely.
#6. John Wick 4. So much John Wick goodness in this movie. Long and brutal, John Wick 4 brought the franchise to an exceptional end (if it actually is the end).
#5. Oppenheimer. Christopher Nolan’s masterpiece of Robert Oppenheimer and the creation of the atomic bomb. The Oscar worthy work of Cillian Murphy, Robert Downey Jr., Emily Blunt, Florence Pugh, Josh Harnett, Matt Damon and Casey Affleck. It is an epic movie.
#4. The Iron Claw. The story of the family of the Von Erichs and the tragedies that engulfed them leads to an amazingly sad story, one that is very difficult to watch. It is heavy and rough. Powerful. You don’t have to be a wrestling fan to embrace this film.
#3. Godzilla Minus One. This is the best Godzilla movie I have ever saw. The main reason is that the time spent on the human characters made me love them. That is uncommon in Godzilla movies. Most of the time, the human characters are just in the way. Not here. Plus, Godzilla is not an anti-hero here. He is a monstrous force of nature.
#2. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3. The brilliant conclusion to the Guardians trilogy from James Gunn. It was truly an emotional tale, focused mostly on Rocket and his background. Everyone got their moments in this finale and there was a great, vicious villain in the High Evolutionary. This almost was the number one movie of the year. It was really close.
#1. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse. Spider-Man is my all-time favorite character and that pushed this one over the finish line. An amazing sequel to an Oscar-winning animated film, Across the Spider-Verse has great story, characters that are full of humor and drama, and an exciting and thrilling tale. Beautifully animated. It was more like art than a movie.
It is that time. The Year in Review has come down to the final two lists. The big two. The Best and the Worst list movies this year.
I know that there are people out there who do not believe in “Worst” lists because of negativity or because of punching down, and I don’t disagree. I just believe that I have the right to state an opinion, and I can do it respectfully, without just making it a hate fest.
Honestly, this year I only have a Top 20 list of Worst Movies (which perhaps it should be listed as my Least Favorite Movies instead) and there was not as much vitriol for a lot of these as some past years. In fact, numbers 7-20 are all not actively horrible. They are just not very good movies.
Final point once again is that the star ratings that I give throughout the year do not factor into the final decisions on movies. Movies can change over time so just because a film gets 1 star doesn’t necessarily mean that it will get a higher spot on the list than a film that got 1.5 stars. Remember, it is all subjective.
And, as I have said before, this is my list. If there is a film on here that you love, I would say good for you. These are my thoughts and opinions. It is not an attack at anyone who may have loved the film. You are welcome to love any film you want.
Okay… here we go…
#20. Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom. I put this at #20 as a final placement, but I did have it higher at first. I kept thinking, would I rather watch this again or some of the others, and I would choose Aquaman over other movies on this list, so there is that.
#19. It Lives Inside. A horror movie that was pretty boring. This is one of those horror movies that shows us too much of the monster. Imagination can more more scary if you let it.
#18. About My Father. A comedic love story with characters that I just did not like or want to cheer for and one that lacked laughs.
#17. Next Goal Wins. One of the biggest disappointments of the year. I usually love Taika Waititi’s movies, but this one just missed the mark in so many ways.
#16. Ghosted. Chris Evans and Ana de Armas together should be a winner, yes? You would think so, but this movie does not live up to their charisma.
#15. Insidious: The Red Room. A fifth installment in a franchise that felt as if it should have closed the door on several films ago. A waste of Lin Shaye.
#14. The Baker. Despite charismatic lead characters, this film was nothing more than a cliché-ridden revenge film. Nothing new and very repetitive.
#13. Fast X. Stupid action film with lackluster dialogue and a story that truly does not go anywhere. Jason Momoa is the only saving grace and that is just because he was so over-the-top that he brought an energy the film was missing.
#12. Strays. Another unfunny comedy featuring several dogs trying to find their way back to one of their homes so he could bite the dick off his owner who had deserted him. A movie with a lot of mean-spirited scenes.
#11. Marlowe. A dull and plodding film that may have had a strong cast, but they did not seem to want to be involved in the movie at all.
#10. Family Switch. Merry Christmas to you, though not too merry if you had to watch this Freaky Friday rip off. Another comedy without much comedy.
#9. The Nun II. Nonsensical. Maybe better than the original film, but that is not saying much. First half of this film was boring and even a better ending could not save it.
#8. Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Once & Again. It’s Morphin’ Time! What a lackluster return of the original, surviving Power Rangers. What could have been filled with nostalgia and emotion was lacking all of that. Definitely a disappointment.
#7. Paint. I was sure this was a biopic of Bob Ross. Oh, how I was wrong. There was not even a slight connection to the painter outside of Owen Wilson’s ridiculous hairdo.
#6. Retribution. We are starting to get into the really bad films now. Liam Neeson in a car with a bomb. Of course, the real bomb was in the theater with all of us. Stupid film with the most predictable ending imaginable.
#5. Rebel Moon. Zack Snyder’s most recent visit to this list with his sci-fi epic that was not very epic. Even some of the CGI was lacking, which was uncommon for a Snyder film. He claims that a 4-hour director’s cut which will come out someday makes this a whole different story. Why am I watching this then?
#4. R.L. Stein’s Zombietown. This film had Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase in it. Let that sink in a minute. This was a stupid movie that was intended to target younger viewers and introduce them to horror. There are much better ways to do it than this mess.
#3. Meg 2. Not a good sign when I found myself laughing at the movie in scenes that were not intended to be funny. And honestly, in a movie titled Meg 2, there sure wasn’t much with the shark in it. I guess we got to spend enough time with these plastic characters.
#2. Expen4bles. Why? What was the purpose of this film? It was a terrible film with little enjoyment as possible. Gee, you mean Stallone is not dead? Duh.
If you do not know my number one, you have not been paying attention…
#1. Winnie the Pooh: Blood & Honey. Where to start with this? It is the worst movie I have seen in quite awhile and it solidified this position as soon as I watched it. Sadly, I fell asleep during the film so I had to go back and watch the pieces I slept through again. Punishment? This was dumb. It was laughable. I hated it.
Special mention: Beau is Afraid is the only movie I have ever given a N/A star rating because I just could not wrap my mind around it.
I thought that I was done with X-Files episodes that I had not seen. Then I started watching “Aubrey” and I realized quickly that I was not done with unseen X-Files shows.
The show kicked off right away with John Locke! My ever favorite LOST star, Terry O’Quinn, was playing a police detective involved in the case that Mulder and Scully would be involved in.
A female detective stumbled into the desert and digs up the bones of a missing FBI agent from the 40s. This leads to a look at a serial killer from the time and how it connected to three murders from the present.
I did like the story. It was inventive and the answer was a surprise. It had that same X-Files feel to it, but it was unlike other episodes.
Well, here we are. The finale of season two of What If…?, and it has been a glorious season. Several of these episodes truly took a leap from season one. I shouldn’t say that I disliked season one, because I liked it enough. It just does not stand out. It’s fine.
That is why season two has been so great. Because it went beyond what was before and improved everything: storytelling, animation, characterization… all of it.
The 1602 episode was the highlight of a fantastic season and its placement just before the finale raised the stakes for the finale.
The finale turned out to be a step back from the best episodes of the season, but was a lot of crazy fun.
Strange Supreme returned to his goal of saving his universe, especially Christine, and he tried to fool Captain Carter into helping him by retrieving Kahhori, who had slipped from his grasp. However, together Captain Carter and Kahhori fought against the Doctor.
Most of the episode was taken up by the two powerhouses battling the demonic doctor with their powers. Peggy seemingly kept acquiring even more power, through other MCU weapons that she obtained through the episode.
What was the most fun about the episode was the Cabin in the Woods type situation that happened. Supreme Strange had been collecting and imprisoning powerful forces from the multiverse. In order to distract Strange, Peggy freed them all, leading to a wild brawl among all of these Easter eggs.
While this was a lot of fun, I kind of wanted more because the season had been so good. I’m not calling this a bad episode. It just did not quite reach the level of so many of the other episodes of the year.
Though the final shot of the Watcher and Captain Carter standing in front of the Tree of Life from Loki season 2 finale presents a lot of possibilities for the third season, which has been confirmed by Marvel.
Final Episode Order:
E8 ”What If… the Avengers Assembled in 1602?”
E3 ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”
E1 “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”
E5 ”What If… Captain Carter Fought the Hydra Stomper”
E9 ”What If… Strange Supreme Intervened?“
E6 ”What If…Kahhori Reshaped the World?”
E7 ”What If…Hela Found the Ten Rings?”
E2 “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”
E4 ”What If… Iron Man Crashed into the Gamemaster?”
One of my favorite hours of television of all-time is next up for Moonlighting. It is the iconic “Atomic Shakespeare” episode that saw David and Maddie taking the place of Petruchio and Katharina, respectfully. It was a show that understood that it did not matter the setting or the format of the show as long as there was David and Maddie.
The show was written in iambic pentameter, honoring the Shakespeare play of The Taming of the Shrew, in which it was based.
The episode went full throttle into the Shakespeare of it all in dialogue, costuming and sets. Yet, it maintained the certain flair that made this Moonlighting.
Bruce Willis performed “Good Lovin'” after his “wedding” to a bound and gagged Katharina as the entire church sang along. The wedding itself is hilarious, especially the grunts of Cybill Shepherd at the antics of he soon-to-be husband.
Petruchio, for his part, wore his Rayban sunglasses (so did his horse, btw) and showed himself to be the one man that could handle his Kate. The ending in the town square when Petruchio speaks about how he and Kate were partners and how much better it was than keeping her under his thumb was a fantastic end to the show. It was a great message and gave Kate some strength after being forced to marry him.
This was clever, funny as can be, and still gave us the flavor of David and Maddie, advancing their characters, without even having it be their characters.
This is one of my favorite episodes of TV ever, right up there with “The Constant” of LOST and the pilot of Twin Peaks. The risks the show took with this episode were great, but this provided a remarkable result.
And Cybill Shepherd was meant for this time, because she absolutely rocked those dresses. They could not have been comfortable, but she was unbelievably gorgeous in them.
I did not want to put it at the top of my Moonlighting episode list until I saw it again, to see if it held up. After finishing the episode, I can safely say that this is the best episode of Moonlighting ever made and that it holds up beautifully.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 