I have been looking forward to this documentary since I first heard about it. Stan Lee is one of my idols. He helped shape my childhood and helped make me the person I have become through his imagination and creativity. His influence is massive for me.
So a documentary on his life streaming on Disney +? Well, I was all in on it.
Stan Lee, the documentary by David Gelb told us, in his own words, the story of Stanley Lieber, a comic book writer who helped revolutionize the industry and who helped create a mythology of today with some of the most recognizable characters in all of pop culture.
Stan Lee nearly narrated this entire doc from clips of him giving interviews and other public appearances, and this gave us a real insight on the ‘character’ of Stan Lee, the larger-than-life, braggadocio whose super heroes helped inspire a generation.
This documentary focuses on the positives of Stan Lee’s life. I would not go as far as to call it a ‘puff piece’ but there were areas of Stan Lee’s life that was just barely touched upon that could have made this an even more enjoyable documentary.
For example, the documentary truly popped when it played a clip of a radio show where Jack Kirby, Stan Lee’s longtime collaborator and one of the most successful and prolific comic book artists of all time, was being interviewed and Stan called in to wish him a happy birthday. The conversation between the two icons got away from the host and the conflicts between Stan and Jack came out. Those few seconds of the doc were as compelling as anything and I would have loved to hear more about that.
They also touched on the conflict between Stan and Steve Ditko. This, along with the conflict with Kirby, was based around the credit on who actually created certain characters. Was it the writer who came up with the idea or was it the artists who created the visual concept? Again, this idea was brushed across in this doc but really could have been the center of a major piece of the doc. It is a section that I would have loved to hear more about.
Stan also mentioned a time when Marvel Comics had been sold and he went from having a lifetime contract to having a two-year deal. He said he was not happy about that, but the doc does not go into much detail or specifics on this.
While the documentary did not dive into the controversies of his life, the doc was very entertaining dealing with the positives of Stan Lee’s life. His story of the creation of the Fantastic Four, about how the Spider-Man character became published, the creation of Black Panther all were fascinating, and hearing them from Stan’s own words made it all the more special.
This was a fun reflection on the parts of Stan Lee’s life that led to the iconic Marvel Comics. While I would have loved to have some of the doc go into more depth with the ‘warts’ of the man, what we got was still engaging and entertaining. Much like Stan Lee himself.
Burgess Meredith returned to the Twilight Zone, bringing with him Don Rickles for this mostly comedic episode of The Twilight Zone.
I have to say that most of the time when The Twilight Zone dips into its comedic well for an episode, it does not work nearly as well. This was a ‘funny’ episode that was not very funny. Even with the iconic Don Rickles in tow.
Burgess Meredith is a fantastic actor and he carries himself well, but he just did not feel in place in this episode. He couldn’t even save what was a very disappointing episode.
There was so much slapstick involved in the show and it just was not very funny. The aliens who give Mr. Dingle the super strength are a boring design and make little sense. The aliens at the end that are the little kids were worse yet.
Definitely one of the lower episodes of the show which has failed as of yet to show me a really effective comedy episode.
The Flash has been in development for years. Finally, the movie has arrived with an unbelievable controversy and with some people claiming that it is the ‘best comic book movie ever.’
I’ll start with the controversy. I have to address it. Ezra Miller has had an insane path over the last several years, leading an abusive stretch with others. I am really trying my best to separate my thoughts of the creative person from the content, so my review will not detail my thoughts on Ezra Miller’s real life craziness.
So, on to the review.
Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) uses his super speed to travel back in time to save his mother (Maribel Verdú) from her untimely death, which causes the universe to go seriously wonky and all kind of changes happen. Barry goes on a quest to try and right the wrongs he did, along with a younger version of himself, Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) and Kara (Sasha Calle).
Okay, first off, this is not the best comic book movie ever made. Period. That does not mean I did not like The Flash, because I did. But this movie is fun, but very messy.
Let me start with what I liked. Ezra Miller did a great job as Barry Allen, in particular as the older Barry Allen who had more experience. They had a confidence and a swagger that fit the character very well. Miller did a great job playing two distinctly different characters, as well. Honestly, they did such a good job that I never thought about it being the same actor playing two roles.
Michael Keaton was sensational as the older Batman. Keaton looked as if he was having a blast returning to a version of a role that he played in 1989. He was absolutely the standout character in the film and his re-introduction was epic.
Sasha Calle was a wonderful addition as Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl. She brought a character that was nowhere near a Kal-El and a character whose brutality made a lot of sense considering the situation that she had found herself in.
Some of the emotional scenes that we got between Ezra Miller and Maribel Verdú as Nora Allen were extremely well written and directed. They had some powerful moments together and brought a heart to the movie.
Then there were several parts of The Flash that I thought were a mixed bag, some good, some bad. One of these was the special effects. Honestly, the first 10-15 minutes of CGI in this movie (I’ll say one word… babies) was some of the worst special effects we have had in a major movie in awhile. It was really a turn off in that scene. However, there were also some CGI in The Flash that was amazing and awesome. The speed force and the way the Flash was shown using his speed were beautifully rendered. There were times when one Barry Allen was carrying the other Barry Allen and it was totally seamless. CGI was truly a coin flip for the movie.
I found the cameos and Easter eggs that were plastered throughout the film were great and a lot of fun. Some did not always look as great as it could be, but the film absolutely played on the nostalgia (‘member-berries). However, there felt like some of the nostalgia was too forced, especially with the dialogue for Batman/Bruce Wayne. Is there a reason Michael Keaton had to repeat so many lines from his original movies? We get it, we remember. That felt too ham-fisted at times. Still, the best cameo came right at the end of the film (no spoilers, of course), but this felt like a giant middle finger to everyone and I was here for it.
Another up and down aspect was the humor. Some of the jokes worked really well, but other times it felt out of place. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that I want always serious comic book movies like the Snyder films, but some of this worked and much of it didn’t. Part that I did not like was the way young Barry Allen was portrayed. He was so obnoxious and played as a moron for much of the film. I know it was meant to show older Barry Allen what he had been like and to let him understand how others had seen him, but it felt too much. Young Barry felt stupid and I did not get that from previous films.
I will say that I hated the post credits scene at the very end of the film. It felt totally unnecessary and just not funny.
It also is unclear after this movie what the direction of the DCU is going to be. This felt much more like a goodbye to the previous films/universe instead of something that was going to kickoff the next round of movies. This was loosely based on the comic run called Flashpoint (which had an awesome animated DC movie back in 2013). The only set up in this film was.. ‘hey, multiverse!’ The multiverse concept has been done better in Across the Spider-Verse, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and the MCU.
I had fun with The Flash. Do not go into the film with the expectations that it is going to revolutionize the comic book movie industry, because it is not up to that standard. It is fun, with some solid actors who looked to be enjoying themselves, and a sprinkling of emotions in all the right spots. It is not the best DCEU movie, nor is it the worst. In fact, I would place it in the upper half of the DCEU films, and I believe that The Flash gives you permission to move on.
Today’s June Swoon 2 film is on Netflix and it deals with a very heavy subject. The Son was a film directed by Florian Zeller and starred Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern. Depression is a tough challenge that many people struggle with daily.
Peter (Hugh Jackman) and Kate (Laura Dern) split up years before when Peter met and fell in love with another woman Beth (Vanessa Kirby). The divorce was tough for their son, Nicholas (Zen McGrath), who held on to the pain he felt.
When it was revealed that Nicholas had been skipping school, Kate chose to have him go live with Peter to hopefully help him. Peter was very busy at work and he saw what he wanted to see when it came to Nicholas.
Nicholas continued his struggles at his father’s home, slipping back into some negative behaviors.
There was a lot of melodrama in this movie to the point where it felt like there was too much. While the performances were solid, the material was not up to par. It seemed as if there was nothing deeper than what was shown and some of the dialogue was iffy.
I had a major problem early on that pulled me out of the story. As someone who works in a school, I can not imagine how a student could skip school for a month at a time without someone checking on him. It happened in this movie with two different schools and that just did not feel realistic to me and that caused me to disassociate myself with the story.
Anthony Hopkins appeared as Peter’s father, but he was completely wasted in the film. His appearance was literally just a few minutes, making this role nothing more than a cameo.
The key is that there is not enough specifics or development of the character of Nicholas. He is very surface level and, because of that, we are unable to access the important part of the story that would help with the emotional beats of the film. Zen McGrath does a good job with what he was given, but there just was not enough of a portrait of this character.
The Son was a sad story that does not go any deeper than that. The actors are very good with the limited details they are given and instead of three dimensional characters we get melodrama.
Premonition. The feeling that something is not right. Twenty-Two is a Twilight Zone episode that looks at the phenomenon, even though we do not know that until the very end.
“This is Miss Liz Powell. She’s a professional dancer and she’s in the hospital as a result of overwork and nervous fatigue. And at this moment we have just finished walking with her in a nightmare. In a moment she’ll wake up and we’ll remain at her side. The problem here is that both Miss Powell and you will reach a point where it might be difficult to decide which is reality and which is nightmare, a problem uncommon perhaps but rather peculiar to the Twilight Zone.”
There was some really strong, subtle hints throughout this episode, especially when dealing with the character of Liz Powell. I enjoyed this character piece as she went through the creepy hospital and had to deal with her slimy agent. You’re never quite sure what is going on, much like a dream in actuality. I’m sure, just like I did, everyone thought that this dream was foretelling something tragic at the hospital itself. Liz’s insistence that it was not a dream, despite the evidence to the contrary, kept the audience wondering what was going on.
It was strange after she had left the hospital and was on her way on a plane because the hospital was not involved any longer. However, as things started happening in the waking world as they happened in Liz’s dream, I had the idea of what was happening.
The metaphor of the morgue being the doomed airplane and the sinister flight attendant with her line, “Room for one more, honey” representing death itself was more apparent once it was out of the hospital. I actually expected the plane to crash, but the explosion in mid-air did surprise me.
There was a surreal feel to the episode and the dream-like state worked very well.
“The Odyssey of Flight 22”
“Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue…“
That line is one of the best from 1980’s Airplane! and this episode of The Twilight Zone made me think about that. Mainly because the voice of actor, John Anderson, who was the pilot Captain Farver, sounded a lot like Robert Stack who appeared in that movie.
His voice and the setting aboard an airplane were the only connections I had to Airplane! though as this episode dealt with a much more sci-fi aspect than the parody/comedy of Airplane!.
The crew aboard the plane (which they called a ‘ship’ which I found funny) were very competent and were flying easily on their way to New York. Strange occurrences began to happen. Captain Farver noticed a feeling in the plane, something like picking up of speed. The radio could not contact anyone and other instruments were out of whack.
When they went through a bizarre light and what felt like terrible turbulence and they were not sure what was going on. The glance out of the window as they approached Manhattan Island revealed what had happened to the plane.
Time travel pokes its head back into another Twilight Zone episode and was another very effective use of it. The crew decided to try and go back through the light again, this time ending up in 1939.
A Global jet airliner, en route from London to New York on an uneventful afternoon in the year 1961, but now reported overdue and missing, and by now, searched for on land, sea, and air by anguished human beings, fearful of what they’ll find. But you and I know where she is. You and I know what’s happened. So if some moment, any moment, you hear the sound of jet engines flying atop the overcast—engines that sound searching and lost—engines that sound desperate—shoot up a flare or do something. That would be Global 33 trying to get home—from The Twilight Zone. “
I loved the idea of this plane just lost in time, flying around for as long as it could, trying desperately to find its way home. This episode was Airplane! crossed with a sprinkling of Quantum Leap.
Yes, it is NEW COMIC BOOK DAY so there are a bunch of new books again this week. I’m happy to say that Todd was able to see this week. Progress.
It was cool today as Todd brought a bunch of his art pages from his collection. It was awesome to see some of these.
New books this week…
Something is Killing the Children Pen & Ink Issue One. This is a version of the first issue of Something is Killing the Children in pen & ink, no color. It is spectacularly gorgeous. There are also notes at the bottom of each page from artist Werther Dell’edera. This is an awesome collectible. Boom is sure taking advantage of this book as much as they can.
Something Epic #2. Written and illustrated by Szymon Kudranski. Another wonderful issue. Beautifully illustrated and a lot of details about Danny and his mom. I have to say that this is one of my most favorite new books.
Doctor Strange #4. “U.X.O.” This issue gives us some information on W.A.N.D. and Wong’s involvement in said organization. It’s great to see Wong getting some attention and, plot wise, someone or something is killing evil magicians and monsters. This book has done a solid job of building anticipation and suspense.
Amazing Spider-Man #27. Written by Zeb Wells and penciled by Ed McGuiness. Peter and Norman try to deal with their own guilt over the death of Kamala Khan last issue. Meanwhile Doctor Octopus is back trying to figure out the problems with his arms’ betrayal. ASM is always consistent and is one of the first books I read every time.
Black Panther #1. “Reign at Dusk: Part 1” Written by Eve L. Ewing and penciled by Chris Allen. Taurin Clarke was the cover artist. The new Black Panther series kicks off with T’Challa still hanging out in the shadows of Wakanda after being banished in the last series. Black Panther follows a young lawyer, N’Yobi. We follow the character of N’Yobi through much of this issue and I am intrigued on why T’Challa is following him because the conversation between the pair was interrupted by a new, cool looking villain.
The Great British Bump-Off #3. “Bloodshed Berry Cheesecake” Script by John Allison with art by Man Sarin. Another attempted poisoning sends the cast into chaos as they are to make a cake that shows their favorite movies. I knew the movie that Shauna chose (Under the Skin- starred Scarlett Johansson). This Dark Horse comic continues to be entertaining every issue.
Haunt You to the End #1. Written by Ryan Cady and featuring artist Andrea Mutti. This issue was fun, but it was basically a set-up issue. We met some characters and set them up to go to this haunted house on an island that was to be the most haunted isle of the world, An isle that is going to be overwhelmed by water in a couple of days. Set the timer and place everyone in position. Looking forward to the next step in this one.
Captain Marvel #50. “Marvelous.” Carol is dealing with her loss of Binary during the Brood story arc and her friends throw her a party, a party they knew Carol would hate. Spider-Woman then took Carol to Dr. Strange to help her deal with her pain. Lots of Marvel cameos through this book as Kelly Thompson’s run on Captain Marvel comes to a close.
Moon Knight #24. “Ill Met By Moonlight” Written by Jed MacKay and drawn by Federico Sabbatini. Steven Segovia & Rachelle Rosenberg did the cover art. Why does Marc Specter look exactly like peter Parker as he is grilling? That distracted me the whole time during this section of the book. Morpheus is here, but not in the best shape ever. He drops a name to Moon Knight about who is behind it all.
Spider-Man: India #1. “Seva Part 1” One of the coolest characters from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse gets a comic all of his own. Pavitr Prabhakar is Spider-Man: India and we get a bunch of his life shown to us in Earth-50101, in Mumbai, India (not Mumbattan like in Across the Spider-Verse) and I think I liked the costume design in the movie more than what we get here. Still, I enjoyed this first issue and wonder where it will go.
Captain America: Cold War Omega. “Part 6” The Cold War story concludes here with Cap and Sam confronts the White Wolf, Bucky and Ian in Dimension Z. The control of Dimension Z is up in the air and gets wrapped up in this issue. Btw.. the battle between Peggy Carter and Sharon Carter was pretty epic. This is leading into the big Captain America #750 (legacy numbered).
“Mr. Hector B. Poole, resident of the Twilight Zone. Flip a coin and keep flipping it. What are the odds? Half the time it will come up heads, half the time tails. But in one freakish chance in a million, it’ll land on its edge. Mr. Hector B. Poole, a bright human coin – on his way to the bank.”
Dick York, eventual star of Bewitched as Darren Stevens, returned to the Twilight Zone as Hector Poole, a bank employee who, through a strange twist of fate and luck, gained the ability to hear the thoughts of other people.
This is a fairly light episode that takes this premise and shows that there might be a drawback to being able to read other people’s thoughts. The whole deal with the old man who was thinking about robbing the bank but never intending to do it is a good example.
The episode also showed us how superficial some people could be, saying one thing out loud while thinking something totally opposite on the inside. The episode does not speak well of the nature of humankind, even having our straight-laced protagonist, Hector, use his mind reading ability to blackmail his boss over a weekend tryst.
Still, “A Penny for your Thoughts” is fine. It is an enjoyable enough episode to watch and Dick York showed a skill for comedy, especially with his facial reactions that would become so important for him later on in his career as Bewitched.
This Places Rules was the latest movie released in 2022 that will be today’s entry on the June Swoon 2 list. It was released on HBO on December 30, 2022 and then on HBO Max the next day. This documentary followed the events that led up to the January 6th insurrection, and was directed and hosted by journalist and YouTube content creator Andrew Callaghan.
The film went to several of the major events prior to Jan. 6th, interviewing the extremists on both sides. This doc does a great job of not only laying out the bizarre thoughts of Trump supports, Qanon wackos, and Proud Boys, but also extremist on the left like Antifa and BLM.
Some of the wildest scenes of the movie involved Alex Jones, host of Info Wars. His far right propaganda highlighted some of the worst natures that we as the people have, while truly showing that what Jones (along with others) really wants is to make money off the selling of merchandise. It was revealed that Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio not only sold Trump merch, but also merch for Joe Biden.
The interviews of random people at the rallies are jaw dropping. Some of the insanity that comes from these people defy all logic. Another fascinating moment of the doc was his interview and time spent with the Spencer family, who were big Trump supporters and Q-believers, in particular the young kids of the family. Then, at the film’s end when Q’s dates passed without anything happening, the disappointment and realization of this family that Q was not what they thought was an amazing punctuation on the film.
Callaghan’s confrontation near the end of the film of “The Inglorious Patriot” Dave Todeschini was epic. Todeschini spent all of his times talking about his personal battle against the pedophiles of the world, how Hollywood would drink the blood of babies, only to have Callaghan point out to him that in 1999, Todeschini had been arrest and convicted on sexual abuse charges of young boy.
While This Place Rules is not a laugh out loud film, the humor comes in the shocking realization of what some people really think and what they are willing to say or do.
Today, I carved out most of the afternoon, dedicating the time to reading a giant graphic novel that I picked up last week at Comic World and had not gotten around to yet.
Criminal: The Deluxe Edition Volume One from Image Comics arrived at the shop last week and I thought it was interesting. I have been reading more independent books over the last year or so, especially from Image, so this looked like a collected series that I wanted to try out.
I have also enjoyed the work of Ed Brubaker, in particular his work on Captain America and Daredevil. My rule on independent books to to look to the writer and, if the writer is someone I enjoy, I’ll give it a chance. Marvel and DC are more about the character and the independents are more about writer (and to a lesser extent artist).
However, Criminal: The Deluxe Edition Volume One was an intimidating book. Four hundred and fifty-two pages of content. That is a significant time commitment. I still have that graphic novel, Monsters by Barry Windsor-Smith, that looks like a textbook which I haven’t gotten around to reading yet (maybe this summer…?).
As I said, I left time available this Tuesday afternoon after I spent the morning with the June Swoon 2 and The Daily Zone and I started in on Criminal. I was happy I did.
I will admit I had some trouble getting into it at first, but you could say that about any brand new story that you start. It did not take too long before I was engaged and reading closely on the crime story that was being unraveled before my eyes. I loved the characters and was hoping that things would work out. Things were happening that I did not expect. When the first part of the book, “Coward” was over, I was thrilled.
Then I thought this was going to be an anthology book because of the way the first arc ended. I was wrong though. Instead, the next story arc, “Lawless” took characters involved in that first story and looked at them from a different POV and a different time frame. I loved how they were able to interweave the different stories focusing on different characters who may not have been the focus of the original story.
The third arc was called “The Dead and the Dying.” It actually had the focus on three different characters around the same story which was a real novel way to present the story.
This book was awesome, filled with violence, sex and questionable choices. The characters were very well developed and three dimensional. Their arcs were well defined and you see how things blended together. It was worth the commitment required to read the book.
Other books this post…
Year Zero Volume 0 #2. Written by Daniel Kraus and art by Goran Sudžuka. Kaare Andrews provided the cover art. Year Zero continues to have multiple stories going on that all are interesting in this new troublesome world. I loved the last page which indicates a Bigfoot/zombie connection.
Sleeping Beauties #9. I skipped number eight. Oops. Oddly enough, I did not notice until just now. That does not speak well for this series. I think I may be done with this one.
Strayed #2. Written by Carlos Giffoni and drawn by Juan Doe. I was a few pages into number two and this is another book that I have decided to stop reading. I got this series in a Christmas pack at Comic World a few years back but I just was not enjoying the book.
Warlock Rebirth #2. “Mindscape” Written by Ron Marz and drawn by Ron Lim. Eve Warlock is here and she is ready to kick some butt. Meanwhile, Adam Warlock is having some issues and Gamora, Pip the Troll and Genis-Vell went to see Dr. Strange.
Money Shot: Comes Again #2. Written by Tim Seeley and drawn by Gisele Lagace. Not sure what this book is about. Lots of sex scenes with weird robots in this issue. The cover… boobies and nipples!
Damn Them All #3. Written by Simon Spurrier and illustrated by Charlie Adlard. Mr. Wax, who has one of the possessed coins in his pocket, found that his wife would pay the price. Elle Hawthorne are getting into the mix and meets up with Theo Bolster of the 500 Club, another iffy character. Things are bolstering in this series. I am having some issues with knowing who is who among these characters, but I am still engaged enough to decipher it.
One wonders if the creators of Jim Carrey’s movie Liar Liar was inspired by this episode.
“This, as the banner already has proclaimed, is Mr. Harvey Hunnicut, an expert on commerce and con jobs, a brash, bright, and larceny-loaded wheeler and dealer who, when the good Lord passed out a conscience, must have gone for a beer and missed out. And these are a couple of other characters in our story: a little old man and a Model A car – but not just any old man and not just any Model A. There’s something very special about the both of them. As a matter of fact, in just a few moments, they’ll give Harvey Hunnicut something that he’s never experienced before. Through the good offices of a little magic, they will unload on Mr. Hunnicut the absolute necessity to tell the truth. Exactly where they come from is conjecture, but as to where they’re heading for, this we know, because all of them – and you – are on the threshold of the Twilight Zone.“
When Harvey Hunnicut bought the Model A car from the little old man, it seemed as if Hunnicut was ripping the man off. Oh how the tables turned.
As the little old man left the car salesman, he informed him that the car was haunted and that he would be haunted until he sold the car.
Little did Hunnicut know that it meant that he would be unable to tell a lie.
A used car salesman unable to lie? How could he sell anything? Especially when he had a lot full of lemons and clunkers. Hunnicut found that the truth was not a friend to him.
Overall, this episode was fairly light and, truthfully, kind of dull. He faced some initial consequences for his lies, especially form the wife on the phone, but he was able to get it sold without too much difficulty, passing the curse along to another person.
This lacked much of the Twilight zone’s usual oomph. The episode was not great.
“The Invaders”
And we went from a weak episode to one of the best of the series. The Invaders was totally original and featured a fantastic performance from Agnes Morehead (who would become Endora on Bewitched).
The dialogue of the episode was almost completely absent. It started off with the typical opening narration:
“This is one of the out-of-the-way places, the unvisited places, bleak, wasted, dying. This is a farmhouse, handmade, crude, a house without electricity or gas, a house untouched by progress. This is the woman who lives in the house, a woman who’s been alone for many years, a strong, simple woman whose only problem up until this moment has been that of acquiring enough food to eat, a woman about to face terror, which is even now coming at her from – the Twilight Zone.“
An isolated woman and a spaceship arriving in her home. However, the spaceship had miniature invaders-what appeared as robots, inside. The woman battled against the invaders, trying to protect herself and her home.
The old woman searched throughout her house, ending up capturing one of the invaders in a blanket, and beating it into unconsciousness. She then tossed it into the fire in the fireplace.
During this entire episode, we only hear the grunt and the screams of the woman. Never does she talk to the invaders or talk to herself during the horrifying time. It creates a great deal of tension and anxiety. The music from Jerry Goldsmith amplifies the atmosphere.
When she returned to the roof where the spaceship is located, she hears a message from the invaders back to their home planet saying to abandon this mission, do not strike a counterattack. There is a race of giant creatures here. The woman finishes off the ship and we see that it is from the US Air Force. The invaders were humans in suits, not miniature robots.
“These are the invaders, the tiny beings from the tiny place called Earth, who would take the giant step across the sky to the question marks that sparkle and beckon from the vastness of the universe only to be imagined. The invaders…who found out that a one-way ticket to the stars beyond has the ultimate price tag…and we have just seen it entered in a ledger that covers all the transactions in the universe…a bill stamped “Paid in Full” and to be found unfiled in the Twilight Zone”
This was an awesome ending to a tense and nerve-wracking episode. Agnes Morehead does an amazing job acting without any dialogue. She created a ton of sympathy for the old woman when you thought she was trying to save herself from some alien robots.
Olivia Colman has become one of our best current living actors working, and she brings her best no matter what project she is in. This is a perfect example as today’s June Swoon 2 is Empire of Light, a film that did not receive near the amount of love as many had anticipated.
According to IMDB, “Hilary (Olivia Colman) is a cinema manager struggling with her mental health, and Stephen (Micheal Ward) is a new employee longing to escape the provincial town where he faces daily adversity. Together they find a sense of belonging and experience the healing power of music, cinema, and community.“
There was a lot of good things here. First was the performances, led by Olivia Colman. Michael Ward was excellent as Stephen. There were solid supporting performances from Colin Firth, Toby Jones, Tom Brooke, Crystal Clarke, and Tanya Moodie.
There were also several very good scenes in the film that brought some emotional heft and strong character development. The film looked beautiful too.
This is where things kind of went off the rails. The positives of this film are there, for sure, but there are other issues that drag this down, most of which deal with the story being told.
The film did lack a general narrative throughline. It felt as if it tried to do way too many different things and none of them worked together very effectively. The movie lacked a focus as this film felt as if it were about mental illness, racism, the power of the cinema and theater experience, relationships at the work place, adultery and the use of power to get your way. These all were used and most of them used equally which made the film feel too muddled.
There also seemed to have a couple spots at the end of the movie that could have served as an effective ending, but it kept going back to continue the story. Some times that works, but here it just felt like the movie wasn’t sure how to end.
Empire of Light had its moments and Olivia Colman is, once again, exceptional, but it feels to much of a mess to be a great movie. It is currently passable at best.
“This is Mr. Henry Corwin, normally unemployed, who once a year takes the lead role in the uniquely popular American institution, that of the department-store Santa Claus in a road-company version of ‘The Night Before Christmas’. But in just a moment Mr. Henry Corwin, ersatz Santa Claus, will enter a strange kind of North Pole which is one part the wondrous spirit of Christmas and one part the magic that can only be found… in the Twilight Zone.“
We get the drunk Santa story that we have seen so many times since. Henry Corwin, after being fired from his Santa job at the mall for being drunk, found a Santa gift bag that allowed Corwin to pull out whatever the gift receiver wanted.
The police believed he had stolen the stuff, but they could not prove anything. He was able to show them that he could pull anything they asked for out of the bag.
He ran out of gifts and wound up getting in the sleigh and becoming the real Santa Claus.
This was an okay episode. We’ve seen this before, but I’m not sure they saw this at the time (1960).
“Dust”
We get another Western on The Twilight Zone. This one deals with a very dark issue and one of sadness.
“There was a village. Built of crumbling clay and rotting wood. And it squatted ugly under a broiling sun like a sick and mangy animal wanting to die. This village had a virus, shared by its people. It was the germ of squalor, of hopelessness, of a loss of faith. For the faithless, the hopeless, the misery-laden, there is time, ample time, to engage in one of the other pursuits of men. They began to destroy themselves.”
The episode started off with a terrible tragic event. We find out that Luis Gallegos, who is in jail and being prepared to be hanged, had been drunk and accidentally ran over a little girl with his wagon.
We get one of the worst characters I have seen on The Twilight Zone in the peddler Sykes. This guy was so horrible in this episode. He taunted Luis while he was in jail. He was snarky with the Sheriff. He was looking to make money off the pain of Luis’s father. This guy should have received the ironic ending of the episode. He did not though. He did see, apparently, the errors of his ways.
Sykes sold Luis’s father a bag full of dirt from the ground and pretended as if it were magic dust. Luis’s father showed up at the hanging and threw the dirt around hoping it would work.
Shockingly, the rope snapped, dropping Luis to the ground. The parents of the little girl decided that this was a sign and Luis should be left alive.
I liked this episode quite a bit, but I did want Sykes to pay for his cruelness. The ending did feel a little underwhelming.
“Back There”
The Professor winds up in a time travel episode.
“Witness a theoretical argument, Washington, D.C., the present. Four intelligent men talking about an improbable thing like going back in time. A friendly debate revolving around a simple issue: could a human being change what has happened before? Interesting and theoretical, because who ever heard of a man going back in time? Before tonight, that is, because this is—The Twilight Zone.”
Peter Corrigan is involved with his friends in a discussion on time travel. As he was leaving the club, he finds himself transported to 1865, on the day that Abraham Lincoln was to be assassinated.
When Corrigan realized when he was, he tries going all over the place trying to stop the assassination. He winds up at the police station arrested. A man shows up and takes him out of the jail.
The man takes him to a room and drugs him. It was actually John Wilks Booth who took Corrigan so he would no longer be yelling about the assassination.
When Corrigan awoke, he discovered it was too late and that Lincoln was killed. He wound up back in the present and discovered that someone who had worked in the club before, now was a member because of things that happened when Corriganhad gone back in the past.
This was interesting. They took plenty of liberties here, especially with Booth. It’s great to see the Professor once again.
With the June Swoon 2 in full swing, I came this morning to an Academy Award winning film that I had not seen from 2022. Women Talking was written and directed by Sarah Polley and won the Oscar for the Best Adapted Screenplay, as well as being nominated for Best Picture.
Women Talking featured a powerful ensemble cast that included Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jesse Buckley, Frances McDormand, Judith Ivey, Kate Hallett, Shelia McCarthy, Ben Whishaw, August Winter, Liv McNeil, Michelle McLeod, and Emily Mitchell.
It was 2010 and a group of women from a Mennonite colony discovered a horrendous secret. There were men in the colony who would take horse tranquilizers and drug the women in order to rape them. When one of the men were captured, he revealed the others involved too.
These men went to a neighboring city for trial and most of the men from the colony went to help with bail, leaving the women and children behind. The group of women who had all at one time been raped or assaulted came together in order to decide what they were going to do. Would they stay and allow it to keep happening, would they stay and fight or would they leave the colony?
Most of the movie was this debate among the women, trying to keep themselves and their children safe as well as keep their religious faith.
There is a reason this was a screenplay winner at the Oscars. The dialogue and the character interactions here were remarkably powerful and covered every aspect of the situation. The conflicts within each woman was shown with understandable relatability. There was anger, grief, guilt, confusion all beautifully portrayed by a very talented ensemble cast. None of the survivors had the same reactions and that made it all the more potent.
There is not much action going on, but you do not miss it because the tension of the conversations were so high, you feel as if you’ve seen such a dramatic decision.
Women Talking could be a challenge for some people, but it is an outstandingly acted film with amazing character driven dialogue that provides an empowering message.
After three of the best episodes of the series so far in the last group of four, the enxt to are watchable and enjoyable, while not, perhaps, extraordinary.
“The Trouble with Templeton”
An aging theater actor, whose wife is openly cheating on him, reminisces back to his first wife who had since died.
“Pleased to present for your consideration, Mr. Booth Templeton; serious and successful star of over thirty Broadway plays, who is not quite all right today. Yesterday and its memories is what he wants, and yesterday is what he’ll get. Soon his years and his troubles will descend on him in an avalanche. In order not to be crushed Mr. Booth Templeton will escape from his theater and his world, and make his debut on another stage, in another world, that we call the Twilight Zone.”
Arriving late for his latest play, a hotshot new director chastised Templeton, causing the actor to flee from the theater. Before he knew it, Booth Templeton found himself back in the middle 1920s and was able to go to see his late wife Laura once again.
However, as is the case with most of The Twilight Zone episodes, Templeton did not expect what he found. His wife Laura was at a speakeasy having a lot of fun and was not overly pleased to see Templeton. She wanted to stay and dance whereas Templeton wanted to go be alone with his wife.
Templeton realized that his idyllic memories of Laura had been shaped by his loss and his loneliness and that his wife was not as perfect as he thought he remembered. He found a script in his pocket covering the very conversation he was having. He decided that the ghosts of the past were performing this play for him to bring him out of his funk.
When he returned to the present, Templeton faced the new director and, filled with new confidence, demanded the respect he deserved.
This was a solid episode with a nice use of the time travel trope.
“A Most Unusual Camera”
Chester and Paula Diedrich were a married couple who worked together as small time thieves, robbing antique shops. In their hotel room, they were going over their disappointing haul from that night’s robbery.
“A hotel suite that, in this instance, serves as a den of crime, the aftermath of a rather minor event to be noted on a police blotter, an insurance claim, perhaps a three-inch box on page twelve of the evening paper. Small addenda to be added to the list of the loot: a camera, a most unimposing addition to the flotsam and jetsam that it came with, hardly worth mentioning really, because cameras are cameras, some expensive, some purchasable at five-and-dime stores. But this camera, this one’s unusual because in just a moment we’ll watch it inject itself into the destinies of three people. It happens to be a fact that the pictures that it takes can only be developed in The Twilight Zone.“
Chester and Paula find a strange box camera among their loot and they wind up taking a picture with it. The picture showed Paula wearing a fur coat, that she did not own. A few minutes later, she found a fur coat among the objects that they had stolen and she put it on, striking the exact pose shown in the picture.
They took a second picture with the camera which showed Paula’s brother standing in the doorway. They knew that couldn’t happen because he was in prison. Yet, a few minutes later, her brother Woodward entered the room claiming to have escaped.
Chester realized that the camera was taking pictures that showed the very near future. Trying to find a way to take advantage of the camera, they went to the race track and made a ton of money taking pictures of the winner’s board before the races started and then betting on the winners shown in the pic.
The greed and selfishness of the trio came through later when a French bellhop decoded the camera indicating that they only are able to take 10 pictures. They argued over what to do with the final two and eventually led to Chester and Woodward falling out the window to their death.
That point would have made a dark and satisfying ending for the episode, but unfortunately, it kept going. For some reason, Paula took a picture of the dead bodies from her window with the camera. The French bell hop returned and stole the money, threatening to turn Paula in. He took the picture of the dead bodies and said that there were more than two.
Oddly, Paula went rushing to the window to look at the bodies and she tripped, flying out he window as well. Then the bellhop looked at the picture and saw four bodies and somehow fell out the window too.
That ending turned out to really cut into what was a decent episode. The cartoony ending, especially with Paula and the bellhop, tarnished what could have been a solid, though dark ending.
Overall the episode was fine, but it could have been so much more.
Season two has not been very strong so far. However, there were three exceptional episodes in a row with the fourth one being fine. This stretch of episodes really elevated the season.
“The Howling Man.”
Dutch angles for everyone!
What a great episode this one was. I enjoyed The Howling Man. Stumbling into the castle, David Ellington was lost and needed help. Just like Brad and Janet from Rocky Horror. Just like Bugs Bunny in several Looney Tunes shorts. Or Count Dracula’s castle. It never turns out well.
It was a unique opening as we started with David Ellington seemingly addressing the audience about the shocking horror that he had experienced. It felt for awhile that David would take the place of Rod Serling in the narrator chair, but Rod did eventually show up.
“The prostrate form of Mr. David Ellington, scholar, seeker of truth and, regrettably, finder of truth. A man who will shortly arise from his exhaustion to confront a problem that has tormented mankind since the beginning of time. A man who knocked on a door seeking sanctuary and found, instead, the outer edges of The Twilight Zone.”
Mr. Ellington was allowed to stay in the castle because he was sick and could not leave on his own. However, this was a bad thing for all as he came across a man locked away in the castle who claimed that the leader of this cult-like group, Brother Jerome, was crazy and had him locked up for no reason.
Brother Jerome was pretty sketchy too. Mr. Ellington wanted to understand, but Jerome did not want to tell him the full story. He knew the true story would make him sound like a loon.
Finally, Jerome broke down and explained to Mr. Ellington that the man he spoke to was no man at all… he was the devil. He told Mr. Ellington how the devil came to be locked in a room in their castle. Mr. Ellington pretended to believe him, and as soon as he could, he went and freed the man from the room.
Ellington was clearly blinded by his illness and his own foolishness because the questions he asked, which were good one about the lock on the door and why the man couldn’t just get himself out, were ignored.
Sure enough, the devil was freed and shapeshifted into his devilish form, horns and all. According to Rod’s narration, the devil was behind WWII, The Korean War, the weapons of war until Mr. Ellington had recaptured him.
We find out that, instead of narrating, he had been telling his own maid about the story to make sure that she never open that door. Which, of course, she promptly did.
This reminded me of the myth of Pandora’s Box. Pandora was a good person who did not intend on releasing the worst pain and anguish onto the world by opening the box and letting them out. Yet, that is what happened, just like Mr. Ellington opened the door and let out the great evil of the world. They say that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Looks like this episode agrees with that idiom.
“Eye of the Beholder”
A second consecutive awesome episode. Eye of the Beholder started out with the poor fate of Miss Janet Tyler, her ugly face completely covered in bandages, in a hospital for her last chance treatment.
“Suspended in time and space for a moment, your introduction to Miss Janet Tyler, who lives in a very private world of darkness. A universe whose dimensions are the size, thickness, length of the swath of bandages that cover her face. In a moment we will go back into this room, and also in a moment we will look under those bandages. Keeping in mind of course that we are not to be surprised by what we see, because this isn’t just a hospital, and this patient 307 is not just a woman. This happens to be the Twilight Zone, and Miss Janet Tyler, with you, is about to enter it.“
The nurse and the doctor were in to see Janet, but it was clear immediately that something weird was going on. We saw nobody’s faces. The doctor and the nurses were shot with specific camera angles or within shadows that kept the audience from seeing anyone’s face. Meanwhile we were told that Janet had one final chance to be able to be normal or she would need to be taken away to be with her kind of people.
Boy, are there some connections to this episode and the world we live in right now? As the episode continued, we were introduced slowly to several ideals of their current society. We even got to hear from their “Leader” on a closed circuit TV. The longer the episode went, the more bizarre the world seemed to be.
I thought the truth was fairly obvious early on in the episode. I had guessed that when they removed the bandages from Janet’s face, she would be revealed as being beautiful and, my thought was that everyone else would have blank faces. I was half right as the doctors and nurses were revealed to have ugly, pig-like faces.
The actual removal of the bandages was done wonderfully, building tension with every unwrapping. It took its time and it was a great payoff.
“Nick of Time”
William Shatner is in The Twilight Zone!
Before his iconic turn as Captain Kirk or his role in probably the most well-known Twilight Zone episode ever, William Shatner was here as the recently wed Don Carter.
“The hand belongs to Mr. Don S. Carter, male member of a honeymoon team en route across the Ohio countryside to New York City. In one moment, they will be subjected to a gift most humans never receive in a lifetime. For one penny, they will be able to look into the future. The time is now, the place is a little diner in Ridgeview, Ohio, and what this young couple doesn’t realize is that this town happens to lie on the outskirts of the Twilight Zone.“
Don and his new wife Pat have their car break down and they get stuck in Ridgeview, Ohio. While they were waiting for their car to be repaired, they went to a diner for food. At their booth, there was a little fortune teller napkin dispenser that you could put in a penny and ask a yes or no question and the machine would spit out an answer like a fortune cookie.
Problem was the answers seemed coincidentally accurate and Don, who was very superstitious, began to believe in the power of the machine. He slowly became obsessed with what the fortune teller was saying to them and was allowing the box to dictate their life.
At first, Don thought the machine had told him that something bad would happen if they left early. Don figured out that if they left before three, something bad would happen. So they stayed until 2:55. This drove me crazy. You waited this long, why not wait another five minutes. Why press fate?
Of course, right at 3, they nearly get hit by a car, which only cemented Don’s belief in the precognition of the machine. He took Pat back to the diner and began asking question after question.
Pat was able to bring Don back to reality with some common sense and they were able to get out of the diner and into their car to go wherever they wanted to go. However, another desperate looking couple came into the diner and sat down at the booth, pumping the fortune teller full of pennies and asking advise for their lives.
William Shatner was great here, really playing up the paranoia and the obsession of the superstitious man, and he showed the strength to escape from the pull of this belief.
“The Lateness of the Hour”
Robots everywhere.
“The residence of Dr. William Loren, which is in reality a menagerie for machines. We’re about to discover that sometimes the product of man’s talent and genius can walk amongst us untouched by the normal ravages of time. These are Dr. Loren’s robots, built to functional as well as artistic perfection. But in a moment Dr. William Loren, wife and daughter will discover that perfection is relative, that even robots have to be paid for, and very shortly will be shown exactly what is the bill.”
Dr. Loren’s daughter, Jana, was not a very likable character. She felt very selfish and most likely jealous of the robots and how much they did for her mother and father. She worried that these robots were keeping her parents from fully living their lives.
She did it in the most obnoxious way though, including throwing one of the robots down the stairs. She insisted that her father shut the robot staff down. He did not want to but he finally acquiesced when Jana said that either it was the robot staff shut down or she would leave and never come back.
I personally would have shown her the door, but there was a reason that was not going to happen. The twist of the episode, which again I had figured out early, was that Jana was also a robot. She flipped out when she discovered this truth, and her father had no other choice but to turn her into a maid instead.
“Let this be the postscript — Should you be worn out by the rigors of competing in a very competitive world, if you’re distraught from having to share your existence with the noises and neuroses of the twentieth century, if you crave serenity but want it full time and with no strings attached, get yourself a workroom in the basement, and then drop a note to Dr. and Mrs. William Loren. They’re a childless couple who made comfort a life’s work, and maybe there are a few do-it-yourself pamphlets still available… in the Twilight Zone”
While much of this episode irritated me because of Jana’s behavior, I loved the end of the episode. She absolutely deserved this ending.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 