The DCEU films have been having a tough run, but the original Aquaman film made over $1 B dollars. Still, with it being the final DCEU film before James Gunn reboots the DCU, it could feel to many audience members that this is not necessary viewing.
That made this trailer very significant.
For all that was riding on this trailer, I found the trailer for Aquaman and the Lost Kingdom to be a bit messy. It was fine, but it did not knock it out of the park for me. It felt like a giant CGI fest. The best parts of the trailer were the ones containing Jason Momoa, as a father.
Again, I will be watching the film anyway, but this trailer did not make me any more excited. It was fine.
If I am being honest, Killers of the Flower Moon has not been a film that I was anticipating. I have no problem with Martin Scorsese as a director, but I do not revere him as some do. Leonardo DiCaprio is an excellent actor, but he does not drive my attention to a project like some actors might. The first trailer was fine, but did not do much for me.
After this trailer, I am considerably more excited for this movie. This trailer did exactly what it was supposed to do… made me look forward to the movie more than I was before.
There was considerable more emotion shown in the trailer than it showed before. It was more intense than it was in the first trailer.
I was always going to watch this movie, but I admit that I am now anticipating the movie and that is thrilling.
I was worried that after the excellent episode last week that the three main leads of the show would just be back together at the beginning of the episode and just push the serious struggles that they faced in episode six’s outstanding work out of the way. Thankfully, that was not going to happen…even though Oliver and Charles did find themselves back to each other fairly quickly. In fact, Charles was ready to be back with his friends almost immediately, but even by the end of the show, Charles and Oliver had not yet reunited with Mabel, who seems to be ready to move on as a solo act.
I’m glad they took some time to wonder whether the group was completely over, but the wisdom of Uma, who was missing Bunny, who was murdered in season 2, and who had actually taken the handkerchief out of Ben’s dead hand. Seems that Uma was a bit of a kleptomaniac and this provided another big clue. We found that she had sold that handkerchief for big money to Ben’s brother Dickie (who is looking more and more like a major suspect).
Mabel, however, has found herself a new duo to team up with, including Tobert and deaf Theo Dimas back from the previous seasons. Mabel started to record the podcast on her own, calling it Only Murders in the Building #BloodyMabel.
Big cameo this week too as Matthew Broderick, who was playing a hyped up version of himself, was hired to replace Charles in the role of the Constable after Charles had quit. Oliver discovered to his horror that Broderick was a nightmare to work with and wanted to go over his role dozens of times, requiring a full background and lifepath for the character. Another cameo included Mel Brooks, whom Oliver called on his phone to see if he could give any advice on working with Broderick. Brooks had worked with Broderick on The Producers and he asked Oliver if he had given into any of Broderick’s “suggestions.” Broderick’s cameo was one of the funnier ones involving the play this season.
Plus, who knew that Charles was up for the role of Ferris Buehler? Funny. There are only three more episodes remaining this season so I expect the case to really amp up now that the podcast is officially being recorded.
I should have guessed that this was going to be something special when I saw that the run time on this episode was over an hour, which was uncommon for the show up until this point. I had no idea what was coming.
We got an entire flashback episode to a Berzatto family Christmas dinner that had everybody on edge and led to some of the most dramatic, mentally unstable moments I have ever seen on the TV screen.
The cast was unbelievable. Along with our normal cast members, we got Jamie Lee Curtis as Donna Berzatto, Carmy mother, Jon Bernthal returning as Michael, Oliver Platt returning as Uncle Jimmy, Bob Odenkirk as Uncle Lee, Sarah Paulson as cousin Michelle, and John Mulaney as Michelle’s boyfriend Stevie. These amazing actors brought such a dynamic to the ensemble that was draining to watch, in the best possible way.
The amount of disfunction going on in this house was just stunning. Every moment, every interaction between these characters were amplified by the tension, the clear mental illness going on among the family members. What started as friendly interaction devolved into anger and resentment within seconds.
Stevie’s beautiful grace seemed to disarm the situation and a lesser show would have sent this show off into a happy ending, but that is not The Bear. It quickly spiraled into a series of shocking conclusions to the episode, punctuated by Donna driving her car through the house’s wall.
Jon Bernthal and Jamie Lee Curtis gave unbeleivable performances and deserve Emmy Awards for them. Bernthal was nominated for Best Guest Actor in a Comedy, but it did not look like Jamie Lee was nominated and that is a shame.
This was the most amazing hour of television I have seen in a long time. One of the most dramatic episodes of a ‘comedy’ that you are ever going to see. Amazing character work from an amazing cast of actors at the top of their games. I was dreading what I thought was coming, but I had no idea.
One Piece continues to be one of my favorite viewing experiences with every episode that I watch. Episode six, The Chef and the Chore Boy, is one of the most emotional of the series so far as out characters are dealing with their concern for their fallen crew mate, dangers from outside and the betrayal of someone close.
Luffy is learning about being the captain and the difficulties that goes with that. He also had to face off with the fish-man Arlong, where the fish man kicked his butt. Not only was this a defeat for Luffy, but he had to deal with the betrayal of Nami, who was working for Arlong and brought him the map. However, she was able to manipulate Arlong to not kill Luffy after he had beaten him and to toss him into the sea water instead. While it may seem cold, she saved Luffy from Arlong ripping his throat out.
We saw how a young Sanji and former pirate captain Zeff came together, stranded on a deserted aisle with little food. The show also revealed that Zeff cut off his own leg to eat after he gave all of the food to Sanji. Christian Convery (Sweet Tooth himself and one of the stars of Cocaine Bear) played the young Sanji and he did an amazing job. Convery has been one of the top actors of a young age over the last few years.
The final scenes of this episode were powerfully emotional as we got Zoro waking up and committing to be Luffy’s first mate, a goodbye between Sanji and Zeff, and a surprise for Kobe when Garp double down on going after the Straw Hat Pirates when he thought they were just going to leave him be. Kobe discovered that Garp is Luffy’s grandfather.
And then Buggy the Clown is back… or at least, his head is. And he is working with the Straw Hats! Not sure he can be trusted.
Two more episodes to go. Finale planned for Talk Like A Pirate Day!
Good Sunday to everyone. I am back with a new Comic Cavalcade after I spent some of my day at a special event that was held at the Five Flags Center in Dubuque, Iowa. It was the Quad Con, a convention featuring all of the keys of pop culture, from comic books to toys to artwork and geek/nerd culture.
I had heard that this was a minor convention and that there would not be much there, but when I showed up at 10 AM this morning, there were quite a few people there and they had a lot of things set up. I am sure that it was not at the level of events that, say Todd, is used to, but for me, who had never attended a comic convention before, this had a ton to look at.
I will agree that comics made up about 30% of the overall exhibits on display and that there were also a ton of toys, but the comic vendors that I saw had a lot of choices and I was happy to get an opportunity to pick up some books that I normally do not see anywhere but, perhaps, on eBay.
My local comic shop from Dubuque, Comic World and games, had a presence at the show too as Pat and Jeff were here working. They had a pair of giant D & D dice to role to determine discount on what is purchased. That was fun. As always, I want to support Comic World so, even though I had seen most everything that they were going to have, I picked up a couple of things, including Action Comics #454, which Pat had said was his favorite cover of all time.
They also had some Ghostbusters cosplay going on with some cool looking set up, a Ghostbuster truck, a couple of inflatable Ghostbusters creatures, including the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and such. I think they were doing something special with the Ghostbusters later in the day, but I did not stick around for that.
I got a bunch of cool comics to go along with the experience of attending the con. I picked up my first ever CGC Universal graded book, Amazing Spider-Man #289, which was graded at 9.4. I thought having one of these would be cool and this was the ASM issue where they ‘revealed’ the identity of the Hobgoblin. I also pocked up Daredevil #12 guest starring Ka-Zar (which is now my oldest Daredevil book), three issues of a Hellcat series that I had never seen before (she is in a blue outfit), Not Brand Echh #1-3, What If… #61, 71, 97, 88, 92, 112 and What If Dr. Doom had Become Thing #1. Also Amazing Spider-Man issues 655-658. and 544 (Part 1 of One More Day). Ice Cream Man trade paperback (collecting #1-4). Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom #1 (from IDW)New Thunderbolts #17 (which was free on the table for coming to the con), Plastic Man #10, and issues #1 & 2 of American Vampire Anthology from Vertigo. There were a lot of fun stuff and the only thing keeping me where I was was my wallet.
Other books this week:
Planetary #2. “Island.” Written by Warren Ellis and featuring art by John Cassaday. Elijah Snow and Jakita headed to an island (that really resembled Godzilla’s Monster Island) to try and prevent a group of people from discovering the mystery of the island. We also see a giant green lizard’s carcass (which sure resembled Godzilla) on the island. Fun issue.
Omega the Unknown #2. “Welcome to Hell’s Kitchen.” Written by Steve Gerber & Mary Skrenes and illustrated by Jim Mooney. The mysterious connection between Omega and James-Michael continues as James-Michael is injured when something happens to Omega. Oh, and there is a Hulk too.
Dr. Strange #7. “Don’t Let Your Ashes Fill Your Eyes.” Written by Jed macKay and drawn by Pasqual Ferry. Alex Ross did the cover art. Doctor Strange and General Strange come face-to-face and Stephen realizes what a challenge is ahead of him. And what exactly is going on with Clea?
Swan Songs #3. Written by W. Maxwell Prince and art by Filipe Andrade. One of the most beautifully rendered books I have seen in a long time. This is simply an artistic masterpiece. Plus, a story of nuclear destruction and the survival of two individuals. Beautiful book.
Barnstormers #3. “Chapter Three.” Written by Scott Snyder and drawn by Tula Lotay. This series wraps up with a somewhat happy ending… or as it seems. The fact that this book ends about half way through the book and the second part of the book is art and covers etc.
Black Panther #4. “Reign at Dusk Part 4” Written by Eve L. Ewing and penciled by Chris Allen and Mack Chater. Jesus Aburtov did the cover art. Black Panther battles a controlled Deathlok. I am still struggling to follow this book with all the characters that I am not sure of.
Moon Knight #27. “Journey to the Center of the Mind.” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Federico Sabbatini. Cover art by Stephen Segovia and Rachelle Rosenberg. Moon Knight and Hunter’s Moon go inside the mind of Vibro’s mind to try and find out what he knows about Black Spectre is found.
Peacemaker: Tries Hard #5. Written by Kyle Starks and drawn by Steve Pugh. Cover art by Kris Anka. Peacemaker and Red Bee have to fight a bunch of Deathstroke clones, especially Teen Deathstroke and a bunch of baby Deathstroke clones. Fun series with the tone of the HBO Max show.
Silver Surfer Rebirth-Legacy #1. “Temptation” Written by Ron Marz and drawn by Ron Lim. Variant cover drawn by Frank Miller. Silver Surfer steals the time gem from Gamora to take Genis-Vell into the past to let him see his father, Captain Marvel. Everything is not as happy as it seems.
Void Rivals #3. Written by Robert Kirkman and drawn by Lorenzo De Felici. Darak and Solila have to face off with a new villain as they try to return to the Sacred Ring. Void Rivals has been a fun and intriguing series so far and it looks like a betrayal is going to where we are moving forward.
Silk #5. Written by Emily Kim and drawn by Ig Guara. Cindy Moon goes into her brother’s dream to try and stop Saya Ishii from taking her revenge on Cindy through Albert.
The second season of the animated short series, I Am Groot, dropped on Disney + as we return to the time of Baby Groot.
The first season of the show included short films that were fun and cute. This is very much the same, but, to be honest, the second season was even more light and inconsequential as season one. Seriously, there is just not much to these shorts.
Some of my favorite moments included the fact that, in a post credit scene, we hear Bradley Cooper’s voice saying one word so he could get a credit on the show. I did enjoy the use of Jeffrey Wright’s voice as Uatu the Watcher, who narrated the “Groot and the Great Prophecy“, which was probably my favorite of the five new shorts.
The whole Groot finds a nose episode was odd. And honestly, that was about all that sticks out in my mind of these five episodes.
I am sure that maybe some young kids would find these all fun and entertaining, but they are, for the most part, a little too young for me. I had a couple of chuckles, but this is something that I will not remember moving forward. Even the Watcher episode doesn’t stick out for anything else but Jeffrey Wright.
The animation is fantastic though. It is a beautifully detailed and constructed series. Vin Diesel is listed as doing the voice of Groot for all five episodes, despite the voice of Groot being considerably higher than we’ve heard before. Vin Diesel has done some excellent voice acting with this character over the years and this I Am Groot series has not been as exception.
A few years ago there was a 2014 horror movie that I hated called Ouija. Two years later there was a sequel to that terrible movie called Ouija: Origin of Evil and I went to it expecting another flaming pile of crap, but it turned out that the sequel was considerably more entertaining.
This is what I had hoped for with The Nun II. I disliked The Nun, a film from the Conjuring universe, very much as it made #5 on my year-end list of worst movies.
Sadly, though I do think this is better than the first one, The Nun II is most likely still on target for the 2023 worst movies list.
Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) returned to face off with the Valak, the evil nun, who is in search of an artifact that would give the demon more power.
There are so many dumb things that happen here and the story just does not work very well for me. I will admit there are some cool scenes, such as the newspaper stand. Unfortunately, those were in the trailers (as many of the best moments were) so the shock value was not there now.
I was really bored for the first part of the film. Things picked up a bit as it moved along, but there was nothing new or interesting to carry the story early.
Taissa Farmiga did a decent job and it was cool to see Storm Reid as Sister Irene’s ‘sidekick’ Debra, even though Debra had nothing to do.
This was not a film that I enjoyed much, though the film looked good. It was a step up from the garbage pile of the first film though.
This was a weird and bizarre farce of a movie, which I enjoyed very much.
Bottoms is a teen sex comedy, in the veins of American Pie or Porky’s, but taking the genre in a new and over-the-top way. I literally wondered aloud about several of the details that I saw in this film that at times felt like a parody or a satire of the type of film.
PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) were two young girls who came up with a plan to start a “fight club” at their high school in an attempt to sleep with their crushes from the cheerleading team.
The thing is the world that they exist in is so bizarre that it seems more like a dream. In fact, the first five-ten minutes, I kept waiting for a character to awaken. They did not though.
The football players always wore their football uniforms (including shoulder pads) even at school. Mr. G (Marshawn Lynch) was a teacher going through his own problems so he did not seem to care about anything else. The whole school and town culture treated quarterback Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine) as if he could do no wrong and he and the other football players ran the school.
There were so many of these little details that the entire story felt ridiculous, but in the good way. It definitely did not prevent this movie from doing silly things because common sense says you wouldn’t do it. There were even a couple of jokes that I cringed on because it felt as if these jokes were not appropriate. The film clearly did not believe that any topic was off limit and it approached it with some real guts.
Bottoms was very funny, but it did get fairly mean-spirited at times, which made it harder to laugh at some of the situations. As soon as I was able to get past the unrealistic aspects of the film, I was able to enjoy the warped nature more.
Directed by Emma Seligman, who directed 2020’s Shiva Baby (which also had Rachel Sennott), Bottoms played with the genre of teen sex comedies. There are a lot of the typical tropes in here, but everything is so weird that you are never sure how it is going to play out. Definitely an original film in the genre.
There is such an amazing group of characters on this show, and they continue to add even more awesome characters every episode.
In this episode, we meet Sanji, a disgruntled cook at a floating restaurant Luffy and his crew arrive at. I have seen photos with Sanji with the other Straw Hat Pirate crew so I am guessing he is the next crew introduced. Then, we get the next major antagonist, Mihawk, the world’s greatest swordsman and Zoro’s new white whale.
Just no way around it, Mihawk is bad ass. He is one of the most intimidating new characters we have ever seen and the end sequence with Mihawk and Zoro in their big swordfight, which was a massively emotional battle.
We just saw the background of Zoro last episode with his oath to become the greatest swordsman in the world, to honor his friend.
Watching Zoro’s two swords crumble after being struck by Mihawk’s sword was shocking. The scene of Mihawk slicing his gigantic sword across Zoro’s chest was unbelievable. Of course, no one ever believed that he was actually going to die, but it does a wonderful job making you think that it could happen.
This really sets up Mihawk as someone for Zoro to aspire to and a goal for him to target. This continues to give an incredible depth of character to him.
We are also see more character points from Luffy (with his grandpa), Kobe (conflict with the Marines truth and his own perception) and Nami (her conflict between her new friendships and her plans).
I love this show. Even an episode that did not feel as great as the previous ones, ramped it up in the final fifteen minutes with scenes that were powerful.
A whole bunch of back issues have come into my possession recently for several series that I just recently discovered. A big thank you to Todd for his efforts to find these books for me across his mountains of contacts.
There is also, of course, a NEW COMIC BOOK DAY in there as well, although this was actually a lighter week of new books for me. The whole DC Knight Terror series is done now, which is helpful in bringing down my total.
Oh, and I owe an apology to Todd for doubting that he had already found me Planetary #12 & 13, which I thought he had not. I did not recognize the pics that he showed me on his phone. He was sure that he had already gotten those two books, and he was right. My bad.
Books this post…
Avengers #502 & 503. “Chaos” Part three and four. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and penciled by David Finch. This is the Avengers Disassembled story arc that had seen some of the team killed (such as poor Scott Lang and Hawkeye) by Wanda Maximoff. The story arc is tense and exciting, if not a tad anticlimactic.
Avengers Finale. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and art by a plethora of people. The surviving members of the Avengers gather together to mourn Scott Lang, Hawkeye, Vision, while dealing with their anger/frustration over Wanda’s decisions. The book wound up with the Avengers just reminiscing over their biggest moments and felt like a minor wrap up of the more tense Avengers Disassembled series.
Kill Your Darlings #1. Written by Ethan S. Parker and Griffin Sheridan with art by Robert Quinn. This is a book considered hot, coming out of Image, and it is, of course, because I picked it out of Previewed months ago. I am a trendsetter. Seriously, this is really an engaging book with a young girl named Rose and her imaginary world… or is it imaginary? Beautiful art work and a gripping story.
Secret War #5. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and art by Gabriele Dell’Otto. The heroes get together to finally discover what Nick Fury had gotten them to do the year before in Latveria. Daisy Johnson, aka Quake, steps forward to take Fury’s back. Honestly, this felt a little anticlimactic as well. I liked the whole series, but it just did not finish up that well.
Omega the Unknown #1. Written by Steve Gerber & Mary Skrenes and illustrated by Jim Mooney. Cover art by Hannigan & Sinnott. I picked up Omega the Unknown #6 at last weekend’s super secret sale at Comic World and I loved the issue, so I went to eBay and found the whole ten issue series. I started off with number one and it was decent. I was really curious about what has been set up in the story between Omega and James-Michael. Pretty good for a series that I had never heard of before.
Amazing Spider-Man #33. Written by Zeb Wells and featuring art from Patrick Gleason. Marcio Menyz did the cover art. Well… sure looked like Kraven done f@*ked up. Last issue, he stuck Peter with a spear that he intended to stab Norman Osborn with to make him return to his darkside, but instead, it turned Peter into something horrendous. The scenes at the end of this issue with Spidey and Kraven are as cold-blooded as I have seen. It always makes me unhappy to see Spidey look anything but his happy-go-lucky self.
Hunt for the Skinwalker #1. Written by Zac Thompson and illustrated by Valeria Burzo. Cover by Martin Simmonds. Colm Kelleher and George Knapp wrote the original book that this was based on and was involved with the series. This included some weird things as the Skinwalker ranch took center stage. This is a fascinating four issue series with a strong beginning.
Scarlet Witch #8. Written by Steve Orlando and art by Lorenzo Tannetta & Sara Pichelli. Russell Dauterman was the cover artist. Wanda heads to meet up with Loki in a battle of… the truth? I never thought two comic characters could show as much chemistry as these two did. This was written beautifully and showed something that you never thought you wanted.
Fantastic Four #11. Written by Ryan North and drawn by Iban Coello. Cover art by the legendary Alex Ross. I have really enjoyed this run on FF. It has had engaging stories with the team at the Grimm family farmstead in Arizona that feel very down to earth while still having huge stakes and action. This is a Thing-centric issue as he is joined by a little dog. Good stuff.
Void Rivals #2. Written by Robert Kirkman and drawn by Lorenzo De Felici. This is another book Todd got for me because I was not aware that when I picked up issue 1 a few weeks ago that I actually was buying a second printing and that this series already had several issues released. I really loved #2 and I really liked this issue too.
Planetary #1. Written by Warren Ellis and art by John Cassaday. Another series I had never heard of before until I picked up issues #17-22 because they looked like an anthology series that was interesting. However, after reading 17 & 18, I realized that there was more to it than just an anthology series so I waited until I got #1 to continue reading. Todd got me a bunch of these and I did like #1 a lot.
X-Men #26. “Whack-A-Mole” Written by Gerry Duggan and art by Jim Towe & Javier Pina. Alex Ross did this cover too. Kate Pryde heads to assassinate Firestar, unaware that she is a mole set up by Jean Grey just before she died. Plus, Tony Stark and Emma Frost wind up in a strange moment where it looked as if Stark was popping the question leading to their wedding??? I do like how Stark and Kingpin have become major players in the mutant storyline.
The Exorcist is one of the most frightening horror movies of all-time and this new trailer for the next chapter of the story is something truly horrifying.
The first trailer focused more on the pre-possession for a chunk of it, but this is all out evil and it gave me that feeling.
This could be a huge hit this October as a Halloween celebration.
I am so very excited by the upcoming second season of Loki on Disney +.
I also like that this new trailer is just a teaser, coming in at under a minute. I do not need to see more than what I have already seen.
I can not wait to see more Loki/Moebius goodness. The appearances of Ke Huy Quan, which should be a ton of fun. Curious how much we will see Jonathan Majors. There is, once again, a little bit of him here, with just a little bit new.
The series drops on FRIDAY (which is different than any other Marvel Disney + show) Ocotber 6th.
If I am being honest, I have found season three of Only Murders in the Building to be lackluster. They have focused less on the case and the investigation than I would have liked. However, after episode six, “Ghost Light,” I see why they have been making the choices that they have made.
This is the best episode of this entire season.
The previous episodes focusing on their individual lives and the play have beautifully circled back into this wonderful episode, which encapsulates the entire season into that final throw down with our three main characters.
Even in this episode, Charles, Oliver and Mabel are focused on individually, each having to deal with an uncomfortable situation or a truth. Charles, unable to accept how much Joy’s departure has hit him, Mabel, afraid to move forward in fear of what she would leave behind, and Oliver, who suspects his new love has secrets to hide that would leave him alone.
The investigation went to the theater and moved into high gear. It was cute to see how Charles and Oliver felt threatened and jealous of Mabel’s new relationship with Tobert, again, probably built out of fear of being left.
The whole Gideon Goosebury ghost twist in this episode really worked well, as Howard is clearly a true believer. His whole arc within the episode centered around his ‘protecting’ the play from this killer ghost. The addition of Jerry, a former friend and colleague of Oliver who was down on his luck and squatting in the theater brought a new witness to the case that only played on Oliver’s fears of failure and loss. Jerry was truly a sad story. He did tell Oliver about Charles’ punch to Ben that we learned about last week.
Jerry helped Oliver make a decision about his life, which was to protect Loretta under all circumstances, that his love for the actress was greater than the chance that she was a killer. This lead him to erase the lipstick message on the mirror in the dressing room which triggered the meltdown among the threesome.
I have pretty much decided that Loretta is not the killer, but it seems apparent that she wrote that message on Ben’s mirror.
Ben’s understudy, Jonathan seemed to be cleared of suspicion this week as he revealed to Mabel and Tobert that he did not want to be the lead of this play, that the stress of carrying a Broadway play was overwhelming, thus taking away his motive. He also revealed that Ben had been taking some concoction of medications from his doctor, which feels like an important clue for down the road. My guess is that this mixture of drugs played a part in Ben’s first ‘death’ on stage.
I loved this episode and it helped frame what the season had been about up to this point. I am sorry that I even entertained the idea that the season was lackluster. I do not think this episode hits as well without the set-up prior. Four more episodes to go and I am invested.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 