Author Archives: Doc

Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey 2

Posted on by

Last year, in my opinion, the worst movie of 2023 was Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. By far. Despite the negative word of mouth (and honestly, probably because of it), I saw that movie on streaming and hated it. There were several movies that I saw last year that, in my movie reviews, I said that this ‘new movie’ would be the worst movie I saw that year, except that I had seen Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey.

I was very surprised to see a sequel already to this horror schlock. What was even more odd was that I saw that it had 100% on Rotten Tomatoes at the time (6 reviews).

Admittedly, this sequel is better than the first one. Honestly, that bar was REALLY low.

Then, it kicked off with an opening between Rhys Frake-Waterfield, the director, and Scott Chambers, who had assumed the role of Christopher Robin. They spoke about their new Pooh cinematic universe that they are building including movies featuring horror-takes on Pinocchio, Peter Pan and Bambi, and then even a Poohniverse film where all the monsters assemble like the Avengers. I’m not making this up. The most unbelievable part was when they spoke to the director of the upcoming Bambi: The Reckoning, Dan Allen, who said if you liked movies like Jaws, Aliens and Jurassic Park, you will love Bambi: The Reckoning. What?

Then, Pooh 2 started with an animated intro which made me pause. I thought it was very well done, and I was intrigued with the set up coming out of the opening. Could this actually be a good film after the pile of crap that the first one was?

Short answer: No.

The very next scene was a kill scene with Pooh, his new cohort Owl and a reanimated Piglet, attacking and killing three of the worst female characters you will ever see in a movie. There was no rhyme or reason to it. It was just to have some kills, and I realized that my initial possible thoughts (dare I say, hopes) would go unfulfilled.

I am going to say this. I actually thought when the film focused on Christopher Robin in the first act of the film, it was decent. I liked the conflict of Christopher Robin being accused of being involved in the 100 Acre Wood Massacre (which was basically the first film). Chris had become a doctor and he was struggling not only with the events of the last movie, but also a trauma involving his brother when he was a young boy. All this piqued my interest.

Sadly, that entire storyline was interposed with some of the dumbest scenes of Pooh and Owl killing random people in graphic and gory fashion. Some of these kills were laugh out loud funny, and I did that several times. They took away most everything from those initial scenes with Chris.

By the end of the film, I hated the Christopher Robin story too because they had taken it in the most bizarre and stupidest path. Predictable too. I said several points during the film that were so obvious that it was shameful that they tried to pass them off as reveals.

There were several story elements that were brought up, but either never followed though with or tossed aside with a rampant abandon.

The film did look better. Frake-Waterfield and Chambers had said in their intro that the success of the first film allowed them to approach this one with a considerably larger budget and it did show in the look. However, just because something looked better, does not mean that is better.

Case in point, the film introduces Tigger late in the third act and does nothing with him. He is there for basically one slaughter scene and he was a tiger with long claws that killed people. No sign of “the tops are made of the rubber, the bottoms are made of the springs” that you might associate with Tigger. The film did nothing to establish that this was the Tigger we knew. It made him generic.

The relationship between Pooh and Chris took an even more messed up twist that was completely unnecessary and barely acknowledged.

Yes, this is better than last year’s film. I don’t think that this is an automatic, no-doubter for the worst movie of 2024. However, I am not saying that it won’t be the worst movie of 2024. It will be in the conversation.

1 star

EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week

Posted on by

Week of March 25

It is another NEW COMIC BOOK DAY and I have the three medalist for this week’s best covers. All three this week are independent issues. The Marvel books this week were fine, but these three stood out more than the others.

Bronze Medalist

Feral #1

Cover art by Trish Forstner & Tony Fleecs

There is actually a really fun variant cover for this book too that probably would have made this list. The blood red jumps off the cover and the cartoonish looking cat stands out in this strange environment. Looking forward to seeing what this is like.

Silver Medalist

The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #8

Cover Art by Nick Robles

The book continues with the story of Adam Frankenstein and the cover pops very well, especially with the border around the outside.

Gold Medalist

Zorro: Man of the Dead #3

Cover Art by Dan Panosian

What a beautiful black and white aesthetic to this Zorro cover featuring our main protagonists. This is truly a stunning cover that took the gold medal by a long stretch this month.

X-Men ’97 S1 E3

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Flesh from Fire”

Is there anything more useless or unnecessary than the “Skip Intro” button on this series?

At the end of episode 2, we see double Jean Greys and, those of us who are comic readers, we know what that meant. Madelyne  Pryor, aka The Goblin Queen, was a clone of Jean Grey from the evil Mister Sinister, and she was the mother of Cable.

This episode felt a little rushed for me, but I could understand why they did. There was so much packed into this episode, with the Inferno arc and the techno-organic virus which led to the Cable storyline.

This episode felt like a horror movie, almost body horror film in many ways, and in all the best ways. They did not need to do it this way, but so much of the body horror in the mansion included such character moments for the X-Men.

The animation continues to be great. One of the great things they have done was use specific X-Men classic covers as frames in the episode. Those are epic things that are like Easter eggs for the comic lovers of us.

This has been an amazing continuation of the X-Men animated show so far. With the Storm and Forge end, Lifedeath is on its way which is a classic X-Men story.

Shogun S1 E6

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Ladies of the Willow World”

In episode six of Shogun, some big things happened.

We see some of Mariko’s back story, and see how tragic it actually was.

We go inside the best brothel and engage between John and Kuki, the top courtesan of the house. He was given this as a gift from Toranaga, a thank you for saving his life during the earthquake last episode. Of course, this was not what John had wanted, as he had asked once again for the return of his men and his ship. John wants to leave Japan, but Toranaga continues to keep him. He even promoted him to the head of his canon brigade.

An attempt to vote against Toranaga by the council failed, leading to the death of the regent who voted against the plan.

We continue to see the machinations of Ochiba no Kata, who has her own plans brewing clearly.

We learn of the plan called Crimson Sky, which is Toranaga’s forces launching an all out assault on Osaka, killing the regents and setting up a new form of government with Toranaga at the head. A Shogun. Toranaga rejected the plan at first, however, the death of regent Sugiyama changes his mind and we end the episode with Toranaga’s forces honoring their leader, preparing for their attack.

A fascinating episode as we dive into another aspect of the Japanese culture with the brothels. The manner in which sex is used is not what I am used to seeing. This show continues to be really great.

Man from Atlantis S1 E4

Posted on by

Spoilers

“The Disappearances”

This is the fourth and final TV movie of the series, which was actually entitled “Man from Atlantis IV: The Disappearances.”

It is interesting that I remember this being one of my favorite TV shows when it was on back in the 1970s, but after watching the first four TV movies, I do not remember anything about them.

I enjoyed this fourth movie of Man from Atlantis quite a bit. In fact, it might be my favorite of the four.

According to IMDB, “Elizabeth is kidnapped, one of dozens of scientists held prisoner on the island of Felicitos, controlled by special mineral springs that render their victims completely happy and compliant. Dr. Smith is using them to build a rocket to take her away from our troubled planet in search of some better world, and Mark must find a way to counter the brain-washing and free the captives“

I really do like this show. There are problems, of course. The acting is not what I would call great, but for the 1970s TV, it is acceptable. They have the most conveniently placed cameras around the sub and areas where people can watch what is happening on monitors. That is just a weird bit that doesn’t really affect anything. In a show about a man with webbed fingers who can breathe underwater, having cameras in places that make no sense should not be the biggest drawback.

I did like the Dr. Smith villain of this episode. She was quite brutal and cruel, yet I could understand why she was doing what she was doing. It could be an episode that features a debate on climate change, even before it became a real thing.

Mark was a real hero in this episode. He came up with solutions for everything from the torpedo to the mind-control. I thought the look of Mark when he was trapped in the shed without water was great for the special effects of the time. His underwater scenes were excellent as they always are for this show. Those scenes underwater were well done and looked great. I am not a huge fan of the manner in which Mark always swam, but that would be the way a real person would swim. Today, he would be more CGI and could look like he was swimming faster. Still, I liked the realism of the shots.

Moving ahead, the show starts its regular series run of 13 episodes, which was all the show would get. This is actually a pretty decent sci-fi series and, despite some flaws, has been a fun watch so far.

The X-Files S4 E4

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Unruhe”

This X-Files episode featured a really creepy villain, a cool paranormal effect that we have not seen before and another solid performance from our leads.

Unfortunately, as it seems to be the wont, Scully was put in jeopardy again.

The main villain, Gerry, as played by Taylor Vince, was great as the antagonist of the episode. His backstory really informed his psychosis and the fact that the paranormal aspect really did not have much to do with himself is a neat change for the X-Files.

But I am going back to the fact that Scully got taken again and had to be saved by Mulder. I understand that that could happen, but it sure feels as if that trope happens on too regular of a basis for this show. We need Scully to rescue Mulder more often, as she did in the previous episode, “Teliko.”

The whole concept of psychic photography was different and provided a cool effect for the show to play off. It was odd though considering that Gerry was not making it happen intentionally. That it was the side effect of the “howlers” in Gerry’s head (or at least that is the implication that I took from it).

This was a good episode featuring the monster-of-the-week story.

The Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Becoming”

Lookee there… it’s Father Gabriel.

Did not expect to see this former character again. Did not expect to see him interacting with Jadis. I really thought he was going to buy it at her hands in this episode. I am glad how it worked out for him.

Jadis, however, met her fate at the hands of Rick, via a walker. She caught up with Rick and Michonne and their showdown was very intense. It was unclear what was going to happen. Yet, when the walker took a bite out of Jadis’s neck, the end of the major feud came.

Jadis showed her inner humanity after the walker bite by telling Rick and Michonne the truth about the dossier that she had on Alexandria.

The whole wedding proposal reaction between Rick and Michonne was a beautiful moment before they return to the C.R.M. in the finale next week.

Man from Atlantis S1 E3

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Killer Spores”

This TV movie was actually titled Man from Atlantis III: Killer Spores. It is the third of four TV movie prior to the debut of the short-lived TV series.

For the second TV movie in a row, Mark, Elizabeth and Miller have to deal with something extraterrestrial as they were assigned to recover a space probe from the military. Mark can hear a horrible screeching sound that the others could not. When he arrived at the site of the space probe, Mark discovered  strange, blue, intelligent spores covering it. They started spreading across the city, causing panic and problems.

This is a pretty good sci-fi episode. The spores are able to take over people’s minds and make them do what they want. The spores use the people to learn. Meanwhile, Mark is conflicted by his desire to not destroy the spores and trying to save his friends.

The best science fiction leads to moral quandaries and “Killer Spores” seemed to have that very conundrum.

This episode was better than the previous one, though the conclusion with the spores hopping a ride on a launching rocket back to space was iffy. There were a whole bunch of these spores, but it seemed as if Mark only transported a couple to the rocket. I got a feel of a hive-type group from the spores. It made me think about the Borg from Star Trek: A New Generation.

Road House (2024)

Posted on by

I just watched the original Road House on Hulu this morning. I wanted to have seen it before watching the remake on Amazon Prime tonight. I did not love the original. I did not hate it because I could see the appeal. The 2024 version of Road House I did not love, but I liked it more than the original.

Jake Gyllenhaal steps into the role of Dalton (who gets a first name in this movie, Elwood), this time a former UFC fighter whose career ended after a tragedy. Dalton’s name was enough to intimidate most people so Frankie (Jessica Williams), who owned a bar named Road House in Florida came to find Dalton and offer him a job to help clean up the bar.

Just like the original, Dalton discovered that the backwoods town had problems with certain individuals who want the Road House gone.

These people bring in Conor McGregor to try and kill Dalton.

I was actually more engaged with the character of Dalton immediately in this movie because of a scene with a train. I found him more interesting than the late Patrick Swayze version.

The villains were every bit as one dimensional as the original. Even McGregor was just the violent killer character.

This was just as violent as the original with Gyllenhaal being quicker to fight than it was with Swayze. The fight scenes were very brutal and displayed Dalton’s skills in mixed martial arts.

There were less involvement with the rest of the bar employees in the new film than the original, but they were there in the scenes.

Gyllenhaal is the star of the film and I thought he did a really solid job. The film is not brilliant, but I was entertained and I did find it better than the Road House I watched this morning.

3 stars

Man from Atlantis S1 E2

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Death Scouts”

The second of the Man from Atlantis television movies was actually entitled “Man from Atlantis II: Death Scouts.”

According to Wikipedia, “Mark investigates the disappearance of three scuba divers, two of whom are ‘replaced’ by waterborne aliens (Tiffany Bolling as Lioa / Dilly and Burr DeBenning as Xos / Chazz). The aliens assignment is to scout Earth and check its defense capabilities. They also give the impression that Mark may also be one of them, specially bred for Earth infiltration.“

I was not wild about this story. While I appreciate them trying to tie Lioa and Xos to Mark’s background, it all felt kind of muddied. It seemed to indicate that they were lying about Mark when they informed him that he was from their planet, but at the end, it sounded as if Lioa had confirmed that he was from earth.

It was a messy story. If Mark did not have a connection to these two, why did they both have the webbed fingers? The symbol on Mark’s trunks, was I to understand that it is not the same as he saw in the spaceship?

I hope that this was a lie because I feel as if making Mark an alien from another planet is just lazy writing. I do not know if they will ever go into further details on his past in the short season one, but I’m sure it could be handled more deftly.

There were just too many plot holes for this tv movie. There were some decent sci-fi shots, several of which actually reminded me of The Land of the Lost, but the writing of the story felt off.

However, the shots of Patrick Duffy underwater continue to just amaze me. I am curious how they shot these, especially those that seem to have Mark in a tank of water for extended periods of time while on screen. How much did Patrick Duffy do on his own? I would love to know the specifics of these shots because they are the best underwater shots I think I have seen and this was 1977.

Late Night with the Devil

Posted on by

I remember hearing about this film last year from Kevin Smith on his Fatman Beyond podcast. Smith raved about this from his friend David Dastmalchian. So I was excited to see this when I saw it coming out at Cinemark.

I can honestly say that I have not been as shaken or unsettled as much from a horror movie is quite some time. The creativity and originality of this film is off the charts and it strung me along in a beautiful manner.

The film starts off in a style of a documentary where the topic was a late night talk show in 1977 that wound up going off the charts. The main part of the film featured the Halloween episode of the Night Owls late night talk show and footage from behind the scenes recorded that night, which presented a picture of a tense and nerve-wrecking situation.

David Dastmalchian played Jack Delroy, the late night talk show host who was struggling to try and become the leader in ratings for late night shows, but who was always coming up short to Johnny Carson. The first fifteen to twenty minutes of the movie set up the background, much like a documentary might, including giving us details on Jack’s wife Madeleine (Georgina Haig), who had died about a year before.

Jack and the producers of his sinking show were looking for a way to recover from the dwindling ratings since the tragic death, and they were looking for this Halloween episode to really pull in the viewers. They stacked it up with some amazing people.

First, was the psychic Christou (Fayssal Bazzi), who was clearly pulling the old tricks of a fraudulent psychic, saying names and looking for people who might fit into the category. However, there were a couple of things that happen that make us wonder exactly what was going on.

Then, he brought out Carmichael Haig (Ian Bliss), a skeptic who would punch holes in the seemingly paranormal moments. Carmichael was a real jerk about it too, being very condescending and arrogant.

Things really picked up when Dr. June Ross-Mitchell (Laura Gordon) and the young girl Lily (Ingrid Torelli) took the stage to talk about Lily’s demon residing inside of her.

From this point on, this film just took off, as you were never sure what was going on, what was real or what was about to happen. The ending sequence, which I will not spoil, was totally off the charts and absolutely stunning. I was completely floored by the third act of this movie, both in the story telling aspect and the way it made me unnerved.

David Dastmalchian is perfect in the role of Jack. You can suspect that there is more to Jack than what you see, but he is so likable that you really want to believe in him and root for him to make it back to the top. Ingrid Torelli is utterly creepy as Lily. Her looks, her voice, everything about Lily was distressing.

Jack’s sidekick (much like Jimmy Kimmel’s Guillermo or Carson’s Ed McMahon) was named Gus (Rhys Auteri) and you could tell that he was just not sure that they should be doing what they were doing. Gus spoke to Jack as the audience spoke, and he was rebuked over and again.

This movie has a definite retro feel to it, and you believe everything that happens. I really loved this movie. It built amazingly from the beginning until the ending sequence. I can see the end being something that some people will not like, but I was utterly engaged and shaken by it.

This is streaming on Shudder in April, and I would recommend everyone to search it out. It takes the old sub-genres of found footage and demonic possession and brings a new life to them. It is a really great film, one of the best of the year.

4.85 stars

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Posted on by

I love the Ghostbusters movie from 1984, and no Ghostbusters movie since has come anywhere close. That does not mean that every film since has been garbage. I had heard that the new film, Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire was not very good. It lowered my expectations for the movie. I think that helped.

According to IMBD, “The Spengler family returns to where it all started – the iconic New York City firehouse – to team up with the original Ghostbusters, who’ve developed a top-secret research lab to take busting ghosts to the next level. But when the discovery of an ancient artifact unleashes an evil force, Ghostbusters new and old must join forces to protect their home and save the world from a second Ice Age.”

I did think the story was decent. I liked the idea of the villain and the powers made it very cinematic. There are some great moments with the cast, in particular McKenna Grace, who once again had the biggest arc among the new characters. Paul Rudd was playing Gary in the best Paul Rudd manner. Carrie Coon did not have much to do. Finn Wolfhard was a nice addition for comedic purposes.

However, there was way too many in the cast. There are too many characters who were just here because they were in the last movie, and they added several new characters who are performed by great actors. I do not think that any of the new characters were needed additions. I love both Kumail Nanjiani and Patton Oswalt, but they felt forced into the story.

And I hate to say it, but of the original Ghostbusters, Dan Aykroyd’s Ray Stantz was the most important. Bill Murray and Ernie Hudson were there for no major reason and Annie Potts was just collecting a paycheck. It is nothing against any of these actors, because they are all great, but there was just not enough in the script for this many people to do.

Making William Atherton’s Peck the new Mayor of New York though is a stroke of genius. He is a perfect antagonist for the Ghostbusters and it makes sense why he hates them.

The special effects are great. They use them in the proper times and it does not seem to be overused.

However, the finale of the film was a touch underwhelming for me because of which characters were central in the battle, and I saw it coming a mile away.

I enjoyed the film for the most part, but it did feel as if there were just too much stuffed into the two hour run time, making the movie feel cramped. Very few of the new characters are developed. There were a couple that I did not even mention. Still, as a fan of Ghostbusters, this was a good time at the movies. It could have been considerably better.

3.25 stars

Road House (1989)

Posted on by

As I was going to Amazon Prime yesterday, I saw that the new Road House movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal was now available for streaming. With the schedule, I plan on watching that later this afternoon or evening, but I thought I should watch the original 1989 movie starring Patrick Swayze first. I have never seen Road House even though it has a large cult following. I have heard a wide variety of opinions on the film. Everything from it is a favorite movie of all time to it is one of the worst. I found it on Hulu/Max so I watched it this morning.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, “The Double Deuce is the meanest, loudest and rowdiest bar south of the Mason-Dixon Line, and Dalton (Patrick Swayze) has been hired to clean it up. He might not look like much, but the Ph.D.-educated bouncer proves he’s more than capable — busting the heads of troublemakers and turning the roadhouse into a jumping hot-spot. But Dalton’s romance with the gorgeous Dr. Clay (Kelly Lynch) puts him on the bad side of cutthroat local big shot Brad Wesley (Ben Gazzara).”

Starting off, this is a silly, mostly stupid, film with poor dialogue and simplistic characters. It is not a very good film.

However, it is entertaining. It is one of those film that you need to approach knowing what kind of film it is and not to expect a lot. There is fun to be had in the mindless violence and one-note characters.

This is basically a 1980s-style Western, with two main characters, Dalton and Mason (Sam Elliott), who are the silent, gunslingers, who coming into the town to clean it up. They are Clint Eastwood-like characters coming face-to-face with the mustache-twirling villains. The story fits right into the genre of the Western, right down to the shootout in the finale.

I will say that the longer the film went, the more ridiculous it became. There is no attempt at realism and it felt much more a cartoon than anything else.

It was awesome to see the late Terry Funk in this film. Sure, he was not much of an actor, but he wasn’t supposed to be. As brutal henchman, he was right in his element.

The more I reflect back on this movie, I can see why people enjoy it, but it really is not a movie that I would recommend unless you are bored on a Saturday afternoon and looking for a really dumb film to pass the time.

Twin Peaks S2 E13

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Checkmate”

Once again, there are parts of this new arc of stories on Twin Peaks that are decent and have its share of mysterious moments, and there are parts of the new arc of stories on Twin Peaks that are just horrendous.

Let’s start off with the good:

  • The creepiness factor of the Windham Earle chess game is just top notch. He feels as if he is a worthy challenge for Cooper.
  • Dick and Andy in search of info on Little Nicky. More on this later though.
  • Major Briggs and everything surrounding him. Project Blue Book? Giant Owl? The performance of Don S. Davis as Major Briggs in this episode was exceptional.
  • Crazy Ben Horne is the best Ben Horne.
  • Nadine beating the hell out of Hank and making out with Mike? Funny!
  • The return of a live and in person Leo. The final shot of Leo with food all over his face was just frightening.
  • Agent Cooper really has respect for everyone. His response to David Duchovny out of the dress was amazing.

Not so good

  • James. Everything with James. Falling into bed with Mrs. Marsh really tells me that James is not, nor ever has been, in love with Donna. She deserves way better than James.
  • Dick and Andy are more like bumbling boobs in pursuit of Little Nicky. Did they get out of the adoption office? The show did not tell us. I guess they did since Andy was at the showdown with Renault.
  • David Duchovny in drag at the end is silly. He’s pulling up his dress, wouldn’t Renault notice the gun too?
  • Bobby and Audrey still feels forced. Trying to find someone for Audrey besides Cooper.
  • Josie. That’s all I got.
  • They really wrapped up the Renault drug storyline quickly.

The overall feel of Twin Peaks during this time is that it could have benefited from some editing and tightening up the scripts. There were some good ideas here, but they were too inconsistent, not developed enough.