Author Archives: Doc

Blue Eye Samurai S1 E1

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“Hammerscale”

I decided last night to give the first episode of Blue Eye Samurai a chance on Netflix. I have heard a lot of positive word of mouth about this series and, after watching the first episode, I have to agree. This is a spectacular animated series.

Beautifully animated. Dramatically presented. Its share of animated violence and blood. Blue Eye Samurai is a classic revenge tale engulfing our main protagonist, who has a major secret to hide.

Not only is the samurai tainted by blue eyes, Blue Eye Samurai (aka Mizu) is in truth a woman masquerading as a man.

We see a good chunk of her back story, where she learned to fight and how she constructed her sword. Plus, there was a major series of sword fights, beautifully animated and constructed.

This is an adult animation as there are blood splatters, language and plenty of nudity and sexual encounters.

There are eight episodes of this show on Netflix and I cannot wait to continue seeing this show. I have heard that Netflix has approved a second season, so I am happy that I am jumping on Blue Eye Samurai when I am.

American Symphony

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Jon Batiste was the band director on Stephen Colbert’s The Late Show. Last year he won five Grammys including Album of the Year.

Meanwhile, his life partner (and eventual wife) Suleika Jaouad learned that her leukemia had returned. 

This documentary was truly emotional and showed such a powerful love between the two, counter-balanced with the love of the music. American Symphony gives a look at the creative process and the energy brought about by love and courage illustrating how much it can do to save a person.

Matthew Heineman, director, created an intimate picture of this relationship and the pain and power of positivity that both Jon and Suleika provide. 

This documentary is currently available on Netflix. If you are a music fan, or if you want to see a beautiful love story, I would recommend that you give this impressively personal documentary a try.

4.5 stars

EYG Comic Cavalcade #74

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December 24, 2023

Happy holidays. Merry Christmas! As I write this, it is Christmas Eve and over 50 degrees outside. Clearly no white Christmas this year, and that does not bother me even a little bit. 

With a hectic schedule at EYG, I am getting last week’s books finished up. One of the best things about Christmas break is that next Wednesday, I get to go spend time at Comic World reading my pull list. 

I have a group of back issues being held for me in my box, from a collection that may be sold to Comic World. It includes the Demon in a Bottle issue of Iron Man. It could still fall through, but if it comes through, I’ll have that plus some Tomb of Draculas. Cool stuff.

This is the books from last week…

Amazing Spider-Man #40. Written by Zeb Wells and penciled by John Romita Jr. Romita Jr, Scott Hanna & Marcio Menyz did the cover. We are in the Gang War storyline and The Rose is making his presences known. So the new alliance between Spidey and Tombstone is bringing in another big hitter.

Spider-Boy #2. “`Twas the Fight Before Christmas” and “X-Mas Ex Machina.” Written by Dan Slott. First story drawn by Paco Medina and second story drawn by Ty Templeton. Cover art was done by Humberto Ramos and Edgar Delgado. Spider-Boy teams up with Captain America in a battle with the Taskmaster. 

The Original X-Men #1. Written by Christos Gage and penciled by Greg Land. The cover art was done by Ryan Stegman, JP Mayer & Brad Anderson. A futuristic Phoenix comes back in time to see the young X-Men (who had, at one point, come to the present day Marvel Universe) for help with another universe Phoenix. This was really great and book that I wished had more than the one shot. 

Spine-Tingling Spider-Man #3. Written by Saladin Ahmed and drawn by Juan Ferreyra. This horror story continues to be one of the best books on the market. Spidey comes across Mysterio in this horror house and figures out, with the help of Spidercide, the man behind the terrors. The Jackal!

Superior Spider-Man #2. ”Suit Up“ Written by Dan Slott and penciled by Mark Bagley. I was not sure if I was going to get this series. After issue #1, I was still on the fence. This book cleared that up for me as I loved this issue. Doc Ock and Spidey team up, if reluctantly, to try to save Anna Marie. This solidified this book for me.

The Deviant #2. Written by James Tynion IV and drawn by Joshua Hixson. Hixson did the cover, which was our cover of the week. This book has been so great so far. Set during the Christmas holiday, it follows the story of a comic book writer researching a serial killer from the past. This has been so awesome so far.

Capwolf and the Howling Commandos #3. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Carlos Magno. Ryan Brown did the cover art. Capwolf continues to fight in the World War II battle. Looks as if old Nick Fury may be coming back to the action.

Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong #3. Written by Brian Buccellato and art by Christian Duce. Drew Johnson & Romulo Fajardo Jr. did cover art. Superheroes vs. monsters are filling these pages. Is Superman dead? Since this is not in continuity (or at least, so it seems) anything is possible. It does look like Atom Smasher bit the big one (thanks Godzilla).

Animal Pound #1. ”Chapter One: The Proud Dog Dies.“ Written by Tom King and illustrated by Peter Gross. The first issue of the new Tom King book follows the adventures of a group of animals at an animal pound and their attempted coup of the pound. First issue had a lot of dialogue but I think it will improve as it moves along. Tom King has earned the patience.

Astonishing Iceman #5. ”Out Cold Part Five“ Written by Steve Orlando and art by Vincenzo Carratù. Jesus Saiz did the cover art. Iceman has his final conflict with Clean and sees if he can reform himself without help from Romeo. This short series ended with a solid conclusion. 

The Incredible Hulk #7. ”Spirits of Vengeance” Part Two. Written by Phillip Kennedy Johnson and art by Nic Klein. Hulk fights an undead Ghost Rider and then teams up with him as dangers abound. This version of the Hulk is interesting, but I do think it is going to pick up soon.

Uncanny Avengers #5. ”Unmasked“ Written by Gerry Duggan and art by Javier Garrón. This series closes up after a final conflict with Captain Krakoa, aka Steven Grant Rogers, the Captain America who joined Hydra a few years ago.

Killadelphia #32. ”Death Be Not Proud Part II: Whatever Happened to Blake Edwards?“ Written by Rodney Barnes and art by Jason Shawn Alexander & German Erramouspe. We have Spawn. And at the end of this issue, another independent all-star showed up… Savage Dragon. Wild series so far. 

Daredevil: Black Armor #2. Written by D.G. Chichester and penciled by Netho Diaz. Mark Bagley & Romulo Fajardo Jr. did the cover art. Daredevil has to deal with a bunch of villains such as Hobgoblin, Sabretooth, Mole Man and Baron Strucker.

Uncanny Spider-Man #5. “Fade to Blue” Written by Si Spurrier and drawn by Lee Garbett & Simone Buonfantino. Another short series that comes to an end this week. Kurt finally brings down the Vulture and frees Warlock. 

Doctor Strange #10. ”Nebraska Pt. 2” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Pasqual Ferry. Alex Ross did the cover art. Dr. Strange and General Strange end their war and Doctor Strange shows the compassion of a doctor. 

Other books read: The Plot Holes #5, Project Cryptid #4, Hunt for the Skinwalker #4, Newburn #13, Kill Your Darlings #4, G.O.D.S. #3, Hexagon Bridge #4, and Rare Flavours #3. 

Picket Fences S4 E8

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“This Little Piggy”

The season four episodes of Picket Fences have been consistently lower on my list than the first three seasons. ”This Little Piggy” is a little better than most of the season four episodes so far, but it is still far from the heights this show reached in its first three seasons.

Animal rights take front and center on the show as Kimberly gets mixed up with a group who wanted to end the yearly pig wrestling that went on at the Rome fair. The group started having their protests escalate from words to actions, including an exploding pig balloon filled with feces during a city council meeting to the planting of a smoke bomb to cause more chaos.

Kimberly was involved with the leader of the group and she wound up volunteering to set the smoke bomb, which nearly got her shot and did get her arrested. 

The whole animal rights bit in the episode was heavy-handed at times, using a video of horrendous treatment of these animals. It got Zack to swear off meat. That whole part of the story only got me thinking one thing… when Zack was weakening with his resolve and was opening the fridge, seeing a plate of fried chicken… all I could think was, “Why is that plate of fried chicken in that fridge uncovered? That’s dangerous, isn’t it?”

There was another story on the show of a patient of Dr. Joey who had terrible cancer and it brought up pain for her watching him struggle through the treatments. This felt odd and was one of the key issues with this season. In previous seasons, this patient would have been a character we had seen before, even if it was a background character. The recurring aspect of the show made the town feel like a real town. I had less connection to the old guy because I just met him and his daughter. 

Overall, better than most of the shows so far in season four, but still a huge step down from most of the first three seasons.

What If…? S2 E3

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“What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

What a delight.

‘Twas the morning before Christmas

And I couldn’t sleep

So I popped on What If…?

Season two just for keep.

The Avengers were tussling

With a purple freak,

Inside Avengers Tower

Things looked really bleak.

The Watcher took us back

Before things got too charred

And we realized the show

Was a nod to Die Hard.

With Happy and Darcy,

And Maria Hill, too

While Justin Hammer dances

As he is wont to do.

From a purple “Hulk” Hogan

Whose punches are stiff,

Merry Christmas to all

From the world of What If…?

This was an unbelievably fun episode that filled me with joy… and not just Christmas joy. Die Hard is one of my all-time favorite movies, so seeing Marvel put an Avengers-spin on it was so epic. 

And then, the actual writing of the episode was so good. Christmas puns and tropes scattered throughout and great use of two secondary characters in Happy and Darcy that we all love. There was some great comedy in this episode and the use of the actual Avengers was just perfect as well. Was this the first What If…? episode that included Tony Stark where Stark did not die?

This was the first episode this season that did not feel as if it had a rush to finish. I thought the pacing of this was spectacular. 

And the return of Justin Hammer, voiced by the one and only Sam Rockwell, as a stand in for Hans Gruber, was inspired. Sam Rockwell sounded as if he was having a blast with the character. You could hear the lilt in his voice. The fact that Marvel is able to get these huge stars to come back and voice their characters in this animated series never fails to blow my mind. Sure there are some who are voice actors (hiya Lake Bell), but the fact is this episode had Mark Ruffalo back for like two lines of dialogue. Jon Favreau, Chris Hemsworth, Jeremy Renner, Kat Dennings, Cobie Smulders were all here for this episode.

And that Happy Hulk Hogan fight with the Iron Man suits/robots in the hallway was amazing. The oil splatter, replacing blood, as the purple hulk rampaged through the suits was some special visual storytelling. There were plenty of visual jokes/bits that helped tell this story. 

Legitimately, this is probably my second favorite What If…? episode of the entire series, only behind the S1 E4 Supreme Strange episode, and that is just barely ahead of this.

Merry Christmas to all…

Up to Date Running Order:

E3  ”What If… Happy Hogan Saved Christmas?”

E1  “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”

E2  “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”

The 2023 Spider-Man 3 Disappointment of the Year

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The Spider-Man 3 Disappointment of the Year 

Previous Winners:  In the Heart of the Sea, The Snowman, Amazing Spider-Man 2, After Earth, Dark Knight Rises, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter, Batman v. Superman, Christopher Robin, IT: Chapter Two, Tenet, Snake Eyes: G.I. Joe Origins, Halloween Ends

There have been several disappointments this year, but I do not have one that jumps out as the obvious winner of this award. It was a tough choice.

Runners-Up: I thought about The Flash, but it already won the John Carter Award and I did not hate The Flash. Napoleon was much less than I expected. It was clear that much of the movie had been cut out. I left Book Club: The Next Chapter early because I did not feel well, but I never felt the need to go back and see the ending. Ghosted should have been better with Chris Evans. Nope, it wasn’t. The Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers: Once & Always was just a waste of time. Paint was not the biopic of Bob Ross as I hoped. Shazam: Fury of the Gods was one of the worst comic book movies this year and quite a come down from the excellent first film. Adam Driver and dinosaurs? How could that go wrong? 65 figured out how. 

Winner: Next Goal Wins

Taika Waititi’s latest film was a real disappointment. I had liked the trailers and I was looking forward to seeing it. Jo Jo Rabbit was one of my all-time favorites. I loved Thor: Ragnarok. Taika Waititi had a solid track record with me.

And then Next Goal Wins was just a huge disappointment. It had a lot going for it, but it was just not funny or entertaining.

Moonlighting S3 E4

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“Yours, Very Deadly”

This episode was the first of the episodes that lead to one of the downfalls of the series. It was the debut of Curtis Armstrong as Herbert Viola.

While Herbert Viola was not as obnoxious in this episode as he will become, he is one of my most hated characters in all of TV. He was brought on as a love interest for Miss DiPesto but he becomes such an obnoxious, unlikable character that is thrust upon us that I could never get into him.

Meanwhile, this episode had Miss DiPesto committing a lot of sexual harassments in the workplace, pinning Herbert down and kissing, groping him. Until, that is, he stands up and does not run from her advances and that upsets her. This is not how you start a relationship.

The case this week is an interesting one with a wife writing letters to another man she did not know, until things start to get dark. She hires Dave and Maddie to find the man and get him to stop writing.

As with all Moonlighting cases, things are not as they look. It is cool though that Dave and Maddie seem to be doing better in solving the cases and not just stumble into the answers. 

This had some fun but it is all a portend for bad days ahead. Thanks a lot, Mr. Viola.

Rebel Moon: Part One-A Child of Fire

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Zack Snyder is bad in just about the most Zack Snyder-like Star Wars wannabe movie on Netflix today. You should read that last line in slow motion to celebrate this movie because there is a TON of slo-mo in Rebel Moon.

According to IMDB, “When a peaceful settlement on the edge of a distant moon finds itself threatened by the armies of a tyrannical ruling force, Kora (Sofia Boutella), a mysterious stranger living among the villagers, becomes their best hope for survival. Tasked with finding trained fighters who will unite with her in making an impossible stand against the Mother World, Kora assembles a small band of warriors – outsiders, insurgents, peasants and orphans of war from different worlds who share a common need for redemption and revenge. As the shadow of an entire Realm bears down on the unlikeliest of moons, a battle over the fate of a galaxy is waged, and in the process, a new army of heroes is formed.“

This film was surprisingly boring for much of the run time. And then there was some slo-mo. Kora went out to recruit a band of characters to help protect the village in a very Seven Samurai inspiration. One problem? None of these new characters were very interesting or more than a one-dimensional archetype.

The dialogue was poorly written, and there was so much exposition when dealing with these characters. It makes this so much more dull than it needed to be. 

Typically A Zack Snyder movie looks great. This one looks great at times. It also looks badly. It is such a mishmash of special effects that you do not expect from such as visual of a director as Zack Snyder. 

The villains of this movie are basically Nazis in space. There is no nuance to any of these villains. 

There is some interesting world building in the film, but the execution of presenting it was really weak. 

This was not a good film. I am not sure if the next part of the movie will be better or just a lot of the same.

1 star

2023 In Memoriam Part 3

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Annie Wersching

Senator Dianne Feinstein

David McCallum

Adam Rich

Alan Arkin

Al Brown

Andrea Evans

Matthew Perry

Andre Braugher

Annette McCarthy

Arleen Sorkin

Cindy Williams

Len Goodman

Michael Gambon

Henry Kissinger

Jerry Springer

John Romita Sr.

Judy Farrell

Lisa Marie Presley

Marty Krofft

Norman Lear

Suzanne Somers

Tim McCarver

Richard Moll

Robbie Knievel

Benjamin Zephaniah

Shane MacGowan

Joss Ackland

Evan Ellingson

Mark Gaddard

Burt Young

Jim Brown

Eileen Saki

Chaim Topol

Barbara Bosson

Charles Kimbrough

Barry Humphries

Poor Things

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Oh boy.

This one is out there.

A pregnant young woman (Emma Stone) jumps off a bridge only to have a bizarre scientist (Willem Dafoe) use a experimental procedure to resurrect her into a whole new, childlike being. The woman, Bella, began learning about the world as a child may, but inside the body of a grown woman.

Be warned. Anyone who may be offended by sex scenes in a movie… get ready. There are tons of these in this film. Many of the scenes are just jaw-dropping, but, strangely enough, have an innocent feel to them.

Emma Stone is spectacular with this offbeat, weird character. Willem Dafoe is always great, and he brings his a-game here beneath a bunch of prosthetics. Mark Ruffalo is unbelievable as the annoying lawyer whom Bella runs off with (sort of). The acting is special among the whole cast, but these three stand out specifically.

The story is about as original as you are going to get. Original and bizarre. I was definitely seeing a correlation between Poor Things and another classic story, that I even think might be connected closer than one might think. No spoilers, but I do believe there is a connection.

Watching Bella develop across the film was fascinating, and I was really enjoying the character progression. Seeing the men that were drawn to her was again somewhat humorous and horrifying at the same time.

As I said earlier, there are some shocking scenes in the movie between Emma Stone and the multiple men in her life. 

Poor Things is unlike any movie you have seen and it stands out with some amazing acting and oddball energy.

4 stars

Migration

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I was not excited to see Migration. I was not much of a fan of the trailers and so I had been unsure if I was even going to it. I decided to give it a try anyway.

It was fine.

Honestly, I do think the best bits were in the trailers, but it had enough good feelings about the film, with some positive messages about family and growing up that it was worth the watch. 

A family of ducks try to convince their overprotective father that they should leave the safety of their pond and fly south to Jamaica for the winter. 

There were some dull moments on the predictable adventure, but there were some highlights too. The stop off with the herons (the duck eating machines) and the conflict with the Chef were moments that were fun. 

The film looked great and the voice cast was solid. Kumail Nanjiani, Elizabeth Banks, Danny DeVito, Keegan Michael-Key, Awkwafina, Carole Kane, and David Mitchell provided some excellent voice work. 

The best parts of the film included the flying scenes through the clouds. Those were beautifully animated.

This was decent. I actually liked it more as it moved on through the film, with it winning me over as I kept watching. It is not going to be a long time memorable film, but it gives families a decent time watching a movie together. It is okay.

3.1 stars

What If…? S2 E2

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“What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.”

Episode two is a bit of a step back from the excellent first episode of season two. 

Peter Quill gets taken by Yondu and given to Ego. They go about on the Expanse and Peter comes back to earth, leading Peggy Carter to bring together the best heroes the earth could muster at the time.

It was sort of a different style Avengers formation, including Bill Foster, King T’Chaka, The Winter Soldier, Hank Pym, and Dr. Wendy Lawson (Mar-Vell). Things picked up when Thor arrived too.

As with all of the What If…? episodes, one of the cool things is that the most actors who played these characters in the MCU films reprise their roles on the animated show. That led to an astounding cast for an animated show including Chris Hemsworth, Michael Douglas, Laurence Fishburne, Kurt Russell, John Slattery, Sebastian Stan and Hayley Atwell all on the call list for episode two. 

There were some good things that happened in the episode. It is not as if I hated this one. It just felt too rushed in some places. I did not love some of the character choices and a lot of what could have made the episode stronger was left out.

The animation continues to be a highlight of the show so far. Everything looked awesome and feels like a step up from season one. 

Running Order:

Definitely…

E1  “What If… Nebula Joined the Nova Corps?”

E2  “What If… Peter Quill Fought Earth’s Mightiest Heroes?”

2023 The Gomer for the Biggest Surprise

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The Gomer for the Biggest Surprise

Previous Gomer Award Winners:  The Gift, Ferdinand, Edge of Tomorrow, We’re the Millers, The Campaign, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Bumblebee, Crawl, Greenland, Free Guy, Deadstream

This is one of our oldest awards in the Year in Review. It is a movie that I did not expect to like as much as I wound up liking. Several films this year were up for consideration for the Gomer.

Runners-Up: Jennifer Lawrence’s raunchy comedy No Hard Feelings started me off in this category mainly because I typically tend to not like raunchy comedies as much as some. This was really good though. Barbie was a surprise in a different way. It turned out to be much deeper of a film, with more intriguing themes, than a Barbie film has a right to be. Barbie could be an Oscar nominee and that is definitely a surprise. The Blackening is another comedy that I found really funny. I really thought it was going to be a film like Haunted House. It is much better than that. A movie I never thought would be any good was Tetris. It was a real great and tense thriller. Missing was another awesome thriller, using the internet (much like Searching). Plane is such a great surprise because it was able to be more than just another Gerard Butler movie. It was amazingly entertaining. 

The winner this year is a total surprise…

Winner: Totally Killer

Time travel and serial killers? How much better can it get? This was such an unexpected surprise. It was clever, funny and tense at times. Kiernan Shipka does a remarkable job as the lead character, Jamie. 

This was on Amazon Prime and I was so pleased when I watched it.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters S1 E7

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“Will the Real May Stand Up?”

Answers about the past of May came in this episode. 

Honestly, I was not that interested.

I have had a difficult time getting involved with the 2015 characters, outside of Kurt Russell. I am much more invested with the 1954 version of the show, but that was not on this episode.

Most interest part of the episode was that Tim did not die in that helicopter that Godzilla crashed last week. I guess Shaw didn’t notice him when he said no one survived the crash. Tim is showing some feelings toward the three 2015 kids and is willing to give them the benefit of the doubt.

No Godzilla this week though he was all over the show last week. Only one quick glance of a Titan this week and it got blown the hell by Shaw.

Monarch continues to be up and down every week. 

The Iron Claw

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As a pro wrestling fan, the story of the Von Erich family was one that I was very familiar with so when I heard that there was going to be a movie called The Iron Claw that told the story of their family, well I was anxious to see it. I saw it today and it was special.

The film was centered around Kevin Von Erich (Zac Efron) and his career as a pro wrestler. He worked in the ring with his brothers David (Harris Dickinson), Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) and Mike (Stanley Simons). They were all under the sight of their overbearing father Fritz (Holt McCallany). Kevin spoke about the “Von Erich Curse” and we see how tragedy would strike this family over the years.

This was an amazing film. Zac Efron’s performance was sensational. He went through so much emotional trauma with the loss of his brothers and he portrayed it perfectly. I kept thinking about how much Harris Dickinson and Jeremy Allen White looked like the Von Erichs they were playing, but Efron did not necessarily look like Kevin Von Erich. He did not have to because he embraced that character in more than just a visual style. 

That is not to say that Dickinson and White only looked like David and Kerry. They both did a spectacular job in their roles, in particularly White, who, as Kerry Von Erich, faced his share of obstacles. 

It was fun watching other actors playing many of the wrestlers of the time such as Harley Race, the Fabulous Freebirds, Gino Hernandez, Bruiser Brody, and The Sheik. I have to admit that I was not a fan of the portrayal of Ric Flair in the film. It felt way too much like an imitation instead of a performance. 

The film was very heavy. It was difficult to watch at times because I knew a lot of what was going to happen because I lived through much of this in real time.

Interestingly enough, there was a fifth Von Erich brother, Chris, who was left out of the film for narrative reasons. Apparently, the youngest Von Erich from the film, Mike, was kind of a blend of the real Chris and Mike.

Maura Tierney played the mother of the boys and the wife of Fritz, Doris. Lily James starred as girlfriend and eventual wife of Kevin, Pam. Both women held their own in the testosterone-filled film and built humanity into the story.

This was a powerful, painful and emotional movie of a real life series of tragedies that devastated millions of fans and the remaining family members.

4.8 stars