There was this weird voice over going on through this episode with a voice talking about the tiger, specifically how dangerous one could be. In particular, the female of the species.
Of course, I understood the metaphor. It wasn’t subtle, but I found the voice over annoying and unneccesary.
However, that was the only drawback that I could see from this episode.
We continued to see the amazing abilities of Dorothy, as she had people coming after her from all sides and was desperately doing everything she could.
These scene between John Hamm and Jennifer Jason Leigh was exceptional. They both have a great grasp on their characters and you could see how they each were cautiously moving around each other verbally.
Meanwhile, Dorothy was steps away from being caught by several different people. Of course, she was a tiger and was most dangerous when cornered. I heard that somewhere.
It was clearly that the show is moving quickly toward a major confrontation between Dorothy and Roy, and I am here for it.
I’m not 100% sure how he is getting around, or if he is supposed to be the same Titan or if he is a different one, but Godzilla was making the rounds in this episode.
The Godzilla of 1954 came back up out of the water after supposedly being blown up a couple of episodes ago. In 2015, Godzilla was in an African desert, coming up from beneath the sands. Was this the same Godzilla who rampaged through San Francisco during G-Day? I am just not sure.
I love seeing him though. He looks great. The special effects on Godzilla are amazing.
We get quite a bit of switching between 1954 Shaw and 2015 Shaw. It is always fun to see both Russells on screen.
Some of the 2015 Monarch people learned that the helicopter vs. Godzilla, not a good idea. There was a surprising death there as well.
Jack Black guest starred in this episode, playing a man in a giant bratwurst costume. He got in a confrontation with Maxine and she ends up shooting him in the shoulder. He ends up suing her and the city for excessive brutality.
I have to say that this episode was not very good. Once again, the show tried to to take the situation and make it a character piece, but I wasn’t buying it. They tried to undermine Max’s confidence in her choice, but that seemed outside of the character.
I kept waiting for Wambaugh to bring up all the great things that Max has done in her time as a Rome Deputy, the Green Bay Chopper, Cupid, etc. but he never did. It feels as if the show has been trying to tear this character apart for awhile, and I have not liked it.
At this point in season four, I have not seen that same spark from the first three seasons, with just a few exceptions.
Part two with Duane Barry and the kidnapping of Agent Scully.
Very active episode of the show including a very tense snow lift ride. Show included:
The capture of Duane Barry
The death of Duane Barry
Alex Krycek disappears when Mulder figures him out.
Skinner reinstated the X-Files in the FBI
Scully is taken and ‘tested’ on; still missing by episode’s end.
It was meant to look like Mulder had killed Duane Barry, but the show did not build on it. It was funny. One of the people at the meeting suggested that Mulder was behind it, Mulder said he did not do it, and everything just went on as normal. Bizarre.
Everything was done because Gillian Anderson was pregnant, and this gave her the time off she required. These two episodes are exceptional examples of what this series could be.
I was not looking forward to this movie. I love the original film, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, and Gene Wilder is the perfect actor for the role. I hated the Johnny Depp Charlie and the Chocolate Factory film and it felt as if nobody needed or wanted more of this.
So when they announced a prequel featuring Timothée Chalamet as Wonka, I did not find it to be something to anticipate. However, I really enjoyed Wonka after seeing it this morning.
We start with Willy Wonka arriving on a ship, preparing to become a great chocolate maker. Unfortunately for him, he spent through his money in the first song and had no place to spend the night. He was brought to a place by Bleacher (Tom David) run by his companion, Mrs. Scrubitt (Olivia Colman). They seemed kind, but wanted Wonka to sign a contract, one with plenty of fine print. Wonka was warned by a young girl named Noodle (Calah Lane) to read the fine print, but Wonka did not know how to read. He signed and it turned out to include charges for just about everything.
When his chocolate selling was disrupted by a chocolate cartel and the police chief (Keegan-Michael Key), Wonka discovered he owed Scrubitt a lot of money and had to work it off as an indentured servant.
I found the music of the film to be extremely enjoyable and catchy. My favorite song was probably “Scrub Scrub” but they were all very engaging.
Timothée Chalamet was very good as Willy Wonka, bringing a kindness and a sugary sweet disposition to Wonka. It was clear that there was more going on with the character and Chalamet’s performance brought that out.
However, my biggest criticism with the way Chalamet was presented as Wonka was the original Wonka, as played by Gene Wilder, had a definite amount of sinister aspects to him. You believed that Wonka would be just as happy letting those kids fall into his furnaces or be tortured by stretching or juicing. The manner in which Wonka was presented as barely caring when terrible things happened to the kids made that performance so deeper. There is no way that this Wonka would allow a child to fall into his chocolate river and get sucked up the tube. Maybe you could say that he was still heading toward that, but I was hoping to see some darkness inside of this version of Wonka, and there was none there.
Still, I found the story to be fun, the music to be great and the overall acting was very enjoyable. The film looked good with some beautiful imagery and some powerful moments.
Some of the side characters and the villains felt too cartoonish to really matter, but there was a really great relationship between Wonka and Noodle, which led to to some emotional moments as the story moved on.
I am not sure how I feel about Hugh Grant as the Oompa-Loompa. He had some moments, but I am not sure if his inclusion was worthwhile. His song was very funny though as it takes a bit of a twist from the original film with the use of the Oompa-Loompas.
I was thoroughly entertained by Wonka and my criticisms were not that major as to throw off my enjoyment of the film. It was better than I anticipated, even if it were lacking a little darkness in the soul of Wonka.
Previous Winners: Emjay Anthony (Chef), Jacob Trembley (Room), Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things), Dafne Keen (Logan), Elsie Fisher (Eighth Grade), Noah Jupe (Honey Boy), McKenna Grace (Troop Zero), Jeremy T. Thomas (Antlers), Alisha Weir (Matilda the Musical)
Last year, it was a late arrival to win the award. It was around the Thanksgiving holiday when I saw Matilda the Musical and I knew that Alisha Weir would win this award. This year’s winner was an obvious choice that I knew immediately after seeing the movie, just like last year. The only difference was that this one was earlier in the year.
Runners-up: Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth season 2, Cocaine Bear), Lidya Jewett (Exorcist: Believer), Olivia O’Neill (Exorcist: Believer), Emma Ho (The Baker), Chase Dillon (Haunted Mansion), Abby Ryder Fortson (Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret), Elle Graham (Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret), Iain Armitage (Young Sheldon).
This year’s winner:Madeleine Yuna Voyles (The Creator)
One of the top performances of the year came from one of the youngest actors out there. Madeleine Yuna Voyles was amazing in the sci-fi movie. She was just nine years old and she made her acting debut in this movie and she was absolutely the best part of his movie. The Creator did not make a lot of money, but it was a great movie and much of that greatness came from this little girl.
Series creator Chris Carter was the first time director for this episode and he did a fantastic job. It was tense, suspenseful and simple in the construction.
Duane Barry was a former FBI agent who claimed to have been abducted by aliens and had taken hostages. Because of the alien abduction claim, Mulder was summoned to help with the negotiations. The steps of the negotiations did not feel right to Mulder.
Mulder winds up going into the situation when one of the hostages gets shot, and Mulder begins to connect with Barry.
The imagery of Duane Barry’s abduction from out of his memory were truly frightening. Of course, as in all things X-Files, you are never sure if this is true or just inside the mind of a mentally disabled psychopath.
Barry talked about the implants in his cheek, sinuses and abdomen. This would be important later as they eventually remove the one in the gut and Scully tries to identify it.
After being shot, Barry goes to the hospital. He is in critical condition, but wakes up and escapes. This was the weakest part of the episode because I had a hard time thinking that he would not have been secured better than he was and his escape seemed too simple.
He winds up grabbing Scully at the end of the episode before it flashes the “To Be Continued.”
There were great performances across the board.
The cliffhanger was scary with Scully begging for help from Mulder over the phone.
When I saw the episode, I did not remember much about it, but I knew this was the one where Scully would be kidnapped. I do not think I saw this before, but I did see the conclusion of it. This is a sensational episode and I am excited to see the next chapter.
It is a term that gets thrown around a lot in the world of movies. At times it is really a matter of opinion. Others it is painfully apparent as to whether a film has flopped. Sadly, 2023 saw more than its share of flops.
Truthfully, even some of the better movies of the year could be considered a flop this year because of the way the box office seems to be going. I know that there will be some films on my Top 30 films list of the year that would be considered a flop. It has been a tough year.
Even the juggernaut of film companies, Disney, has lost its share of money on movies this year. If it can happen to Disney, it can happen to anyone.
The excess of streaming services can be blamed for some of these flops. Who wants to go to the theater when they can just wait a few months and see the film on Disney + or on Max?
The John Carter Memorial Award is given to the film chosen by EYG as the biggest flop of the year. This year was a tough decision.
Past years had some tough choices too.
John Carter Memorial Award
Previous winners: John Carter, Alice Through the Looking Glass, The Lone Ranger, A Million Ways to Die in the West, Expendables 3, Jem and the Holograms, Pan, Rock the Casbah, King Arthur: Legend of the Sword, Robin Hood (2018), Mortal Engines, Playmobil: The Movie, The Rhythm Section, Reminiscence, Strange World
This year had plenty of runners-up.
Dis-Honorable mention: One of the reasons that these films are considered flops is the size of the budget. Some of these movies just spent too much money and had no chance of making it back. One example was the fifth film in the Indiana Jones franchise, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, which was a decent movie, but it seemed as if no one was going to go see it. Certainly not enough to make up a budget of reportedly 294.7 million dollars, not counting marketing. Another film with a budget too high was the first official flop of the MCU, The Marvels. I liked that movie a lot, but it did not make it to $100 million domestically. Killers of the Flower Moon also did not make much money domestically with a considerably larger budget than this type of film usually has. Shazam: Fury of the Gods did not succeed on building on a successful first film. Disney’s latest film Wish should have done much better business than it did, just showing that Disney is struggling to put together that classic animated hit. Big George Foreman only made $5.7 million worldwide on a $32 million dollar budget. I did not see it either. Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One was one of the best films of the year, but it just did not make much moolah.
Of all of these, though, there is one that should have been way more successful and should have been a lynchpin of the films this summer.
Winner: The Flash
This was a huge DC Comics film, featuring one of the top characters of the company. The Flash had a nine year TV show preceding this. And yet, it was as if everything was playing against The Flash for Warner Brothers. Starting with the craziness of its star’s life over the last couple of years. Ezra Miller made headlines with his behavior and it reflected poorly on The Flash. Though not the sole reason for this film’s downfall, it did play a part. Secondly, the film was not very good. It had some parts that were solid, but a film that saw the return of Michael Keaton as Batman should never have had this much trouble. Third, everyone knew that this was a film that was staggering to the end as the whole DCEU was being revamped into the DCU by James Gunn and this film would not go on.
I’ve always liked the Flash. He is one of my top DC characters. This was, at best for me, okay and I could see the numerous problems with it. I never would have guessed that it would only make $55 million opening weekend.
That makes this the John Carter Memorial Award winner for 2023.
This was a really strong episode because it moved the relationship between David and Maddie along. Some of the scenes between Bruce Willis and Cybill Shepherd were very strong when they were fighting over spontaneity.
Mr. Bower, in a fit of passion, killed his cheating wife. Panicking, he took her into the forest and buried her. The next day, he received a phone call from her. Of course, he was shocked. It led him to hiring Dave and Maddie.
Dave and Maddie did a decent job on this case, which is something that you cannot say every time. They discovered about the affair, they traced the phone call and they figured out that what had actually happened.
I also loved the conclusion to the episode, because typically when the reveal comes about, it leads to a chase scene, but this felt much more mature than some of those. Not that I want to put down those chase scenes because they are always fun, but it was a nice change of pace.
They toned down the fourth wall breaking too, with one, very subtle, reference the ‘home viewers.’ It worked very well.
We also get the first appearance of Jack Blessing as MacGilludy, one of the office workers who would be a recurring character.
It was weird today as I watched episodes three and four of the fourth season, but on Amazon Prime, The episode three was entitled “Pal Joey” and episode four was titled “Bloodbrothers” but the truth was that those titles were backwards. The episode I saw in the morning was “Bloodbrothers” and the one I watched tonight was “Pal Joey.”
Bloodbrothers was one of the better episodes of the fourth season. It was a self-contained episode focusing on John Littleton whose brother, Dale, escaped from prison and showed up on his doorstep looking for money.
This, obviously put John in a bad situation, being the Rome District Attorney. However, it got worse as the other prisoner who escaped along with Dale, showed up with a gun in hand. This led to John getting shot and Dale being killed.
I have to say that the only drawback I had of this episode was the score did not feel as it fit the story that it was telling and was a distraction of the episode.
In Pal Joey, we are introduced to Dr. Joey, played by Amy Aquino. A talk show/doctor who shows up and tries to strong arm Jill into selling her practice. It turned into a partnership between Jill and Dr. Joey.
There was further advancement of the marital strife between Douglas and nuMyriam. I have really not liked this story arc because it turns Douglas Wambaugh into a real jerk. Wambaugh has always been a shyster lawyer who would do anything, but he had a heart of gold and was a good man deep down. This whole episode made Douglas look terrible. There may be more coming with this, but this does not feel like the character that we have seen over the last three years.
It was weird considering I only intended on watching one Picket Fences today, but with the strange mix up on the episode order, I had to watch “Pal Joey” in order to stay in the right stretch. It was much like the Twilight Zone during this past summer’s Daily Zone as there were several episodes that were out of order according to the list of Twilight Zones episodes. Not sure why this happens on Amazon Prime, but I have it straightened out as of now. I am going to have to keep my eye on these last season episodes to make sure they are in the correct order.
We start off with Gator leading a group of men, masked by the creepiest masks, into Dorothy’s house in an attempt to get her to return with them.
That did not go as they had planned.
This was like a real-life, more brutal Home Alone sequence as Dorothy had booby trapped her house and played with the home invaders like a cat playing with its prey.
Oh, and speaking of creepy, the Tiny Tim version of “I Got You, Babe” playing as the crew slowly moved through the traps was just goosebumps inducing.
That was… until Wayne stumbled into the situation. Poor, dumb Wayne needed to listen to his wife’s directions about sliding down the laundry chute, but he decided to try something else, which got him electrocuted.
It also caught the house on fire. It made the whole situation even more of a challenge as Dorothy had to try and get her unconscious husband out of the house and to safety.
That included dumping him into bushes from the roof. Oof!
We got to see more of Sheriff Roy Tillman and his own brutality. He is so manipulative and crooked, but able to easily work the system to his favor. He was remarkably intimidating and sinister through this episode, even making up details to service himself.
John Hamm is amazing as this sociopath. I believe everything that this guy does and says. He feels like a total lunatic in a position that allows him the power to do what he wants.
Juno Temple is awesome as Dorothy as well. Her strength both physically and emotionally was on display not only with fighting off the home invasion, but also at the hospital with Deputy Witt Farr and her mother-in-law.
This really was an excellent episode that had me engaged from the first scene.
A tornado was on its way to Rome, Wisconsin and it sent the populace into a tizzy.
It was also the longest tornado I have ever seen. It was raining there for what felt like multiple days at a time. I’m just not sure this was the way weather worked.
Lots of storyline arcs taking place during the tornado.
Carter decided to take up quilting and meets a new woman.
Kenny is having sex with a hooker.
Maxine sets up a sting and catches said hooker.
There is a new Miriam Wambaugh.
Doug and nuMiriam had an anniversary party where Doug made a bunch of dumb jokes about her and their marriage.
Zack gets worried about Kimberly and rides his bicycle ten miles through the tornado to get to her.
nuMiriam leaves Doug after the tornado.
Carter was worried that his reputation was going to chase the new woman away- so he gives up on her and quilting.
Judge Bone talked Carter out of his stupidity.
Honestly, this episode was not a very good one. None of these storylines felt as if they had any sort of connection or throughline to them. So far, season 4 is not off to a great start.
Season three started off with a message to the audience with Dave and Maddie sitting on her desk. It was a joke about how Moonlighting lost all those Emmys after receiving 16 nominations for season 2. It was a funny joke, but I remember watching those Emmys and being really mad about Moonlighting losing.
We get to meet David Addison’s father, David Addison. Who knew that our David was a junior?
He came to see David to tell him that he was going to get married. David Sr. wanted David Jr. to meet her.
Thing was that David Jr. had already met her. Four years before, he picked her up in a bar and slept with her.
This episode had a nice balance between seriousness and silliness from David Jr.
Paul Sorvino appeared as David Addison Sr. Brynn Thayer played the woman. Two solid castings for the show. We added to the family of our two main leads.
A major Academy Award potential film has been on Netflix for a week or so and I have just had the time to get to it. May December is an unsettling, awkward film based loosely on a true story.
According to IMDB, “Middle aged Gracie (Julianne Moore) lives a happy, well settled life with her husband [Joe (Charles Melton)]. Some years ago she was involved in an unsavory scandal but for her it is all in the past. Movie actress Elizabeth (Natalie Portman) is on a visit to this home and she is on a mission. This visit is a part of her preparation to play the role of Gracie in a movie being made. As she goes about talking to the family members Gracie wonders whether Elizabeth will uncover some secrets from her past and will some skeletons be revealed.“
Gracie, as an adult, had an affair with 13-year old Joe, and she spent years in prison for statutory rape. However, they stayed together in a relationship and had children.
There was a definite ick factor going on with this story.
Julianne Moore and Natalie Portman were both outstanding as the two main women of the film. Charles Melton was also very good as Joe, the younger man who was not sure what his relationship was.
I will say that the ending was a little questionable for me. I was not expecting the ending and it through off my entire thought process of the film. That is not a bad thing in the end.
The first episode of the finale season of Picket Fences started with a solid episode with a lot of character development.
Carter’s house burned down, and he had to be carried out. Turned out that he took some pills. mixed with some wine that caused him to fall asleep while there was something on the stove.
We learn that he took the pills with the idea that he might die. He was not exactly suicidal here, but the concept was definitely there. Judge Bone offered to have Carter move in as a border in his big house.
We also had Kimberly decide that she did not want to become a lawyer and instead go into medicine. That created some conflict with Jill.
Another storyline was Marlee Matlin, new series regular, trying to make changes at the police station, including uniform changes that Jimmy balked at.
Maxine dyed her hair blonde (I remember always hating it, by the way) and that led to a deeper conflict with Kenny. They split up as a couple.
There is no major storylines going here, but there were a lot of little things that will play into the fourth season.
Honestly, my memory of the fourth season was that it was a step back from the first three seasons, but we’ll see how it goes.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 