The finale of Secret Invasion dropped on Disney + this morning and I am struggling with the feeling that I am having. It is the first time that I am feeling disappointed with a Marvel series on Disney +. Secret Invasion started so strong, but the truth is, the quality of the show slipped with every episode and this finale is so underwhelming that this has become my least favorite MCU TV show.
There was so many things about this episode that I did not like that I feel that there is just too many to list. I’ll give it a try:
The showdown between “Fury” and Gravik was dumb. Of course, it was G’iah instead of Fury and the whole Super Skrull fight at the end was terrible.
Does this mean that G’iah has the powers of all the Avengers?
Gravik and G’iah sure seem to master their new powers quickly and easily.
What is up with the President?
With the phone call Fury made to the president, why is he leaving the earth again?
They rush through the reveal of the kidnapped people and just taunt us with how long they were held.
Oh, and by the way, when they did release the prisoners, shouldn’t they be feeling the affects of the radiation like “Fury” was earlier?
This episode was too short and felt incredibly rushed.
Gravik’s death was just anticlimactic. The relationship with Fury and Gravik was wasted too as it should have been so much more. The scene with Samuel L. Jackson and Kingsley Ben-Adir was well acted, but since it was not actually Fury, it did not feel right.
No end credit scene
Olivia Colman is still the best part of this entire series. Every second she is on the screen is special and I want more of her in the MCU. I am not sure I want overpowered G’iah involved though.
The ending scene with Fury and Varra was decent. It was shot well, but it still did not make much sense. It felt as if the show thought this relationship was the key one for the show, but I felt as if the relationship was not as heavy as it could have been. They settled.
Secret Invasion’s strength was easily the acting. They had a bunch of scene work with some excellent actors, but it does not fit together well. This could have been so much better. I just am so disappointed with the overall series of Secret Invasion.
I figure I would toss out the current list of MCU Disney + shows.
Lookie, there is Robby the Robot again. This is the second bad episode guest starring Robby.
This is also very relevant episode in today’s world as the Screen Actor’s Guild and the Writer’s Guild of America has been on strike with one of the big reasons being the use of AI by studios, which threatens to replace working actors and writers. Much like the theme of this episode.
“These are the players — with or without a scorecard. In one corner a machine; in the other, one Wallace V. Whipple, man. And the game? It happens to be the historical battle between flesh and steel, between the brain of man and the product of man’s brain. We don’t make book on this one and predict no winner….but we can tell you for this particular contest, there is standing room only — in the Twilight Zone.”
Wallace Whipple is only a caricature of a person. He is only a representation of the selfishness and the greed of the CEOs and the faceless heads of giant companies. His glee in his cruelty in this episode really takes away from the downfall later in the episode because it all turned on him too quickly.
Still, there is no one to truly root for in this episode. I think you are meant to relate to Dickerson, the foreman who lost his job and got drunk and tried to destroy the computer, but he was a loud drunk and not someone I felt for. The character of Mr. Hanley was shown as a decent man, but he was not around enough for any connection to be made.
There was Robby the Robot! A silly cameo tucked on at the end of the episode to show that even Mr. Whipple is replaceable. Danger, Mr. Whipple, Danger!
A poorly written episode with way too much melodrama that draws away from the important theme of the show. I did not like much of anything in this episode.
“Stopover in a Quiet Town” is a standout episode of The Twilight Zone that has inspired plenty of other pop culture items.
“Bob and Millie Frazier, average young New Yorkers who attended a party in the country last night and on the way home took a detour. Most of us on waking in the morning know exactly where we are; the rooster or the alarm clock brings us out of sleep into the familiar sights, sounds, aromas of home, and the comfort of a routine day ahead. Not so with our young friends. This will be a day like none they’ve ever spent – and they’ll spend it in the Twilight Zone.”
Trapped inside this apparently deserted town, Bob and Millie run around the city of Centerville realizing that they could not escape and that thing that looked to be real, such as trees and the squirrel, were fake or stuffed.
They could find no one else in the town, only a few dummies set up in cars to look like there were people. They ran around in desperation to try and find their way out.
They heard the laughter of a little girl all around them, which was eventual revealed that they had been abducted by aliens and were being used like dolls in a little girl’s toy set.
The idea was similar to the set up of the season three episode, “Five Characters in Search of an Exit” except this was a “don’t drink and drive” type theme. I’m not sure if it was a good idea to make it the woman’s fault for being abducted, which the show hinted at. Still the execution of the story was very good even if the child’s laughter and the hints of a shadow coming over the car made this twist fairly predictable.
“The Encounter”
This one was uncomfortable.
I immediately thought that this was George Takei, who would wind up as Sulu on the original Star Trek series, which it did turn out to be. Both Takei and co-star Neville Brand were intense with their performances in this story.
It made me feel like it was a stage play. One basic setting with two actors just bouncing their performances off the other. It was certainly carried by the strength of these two actors.
“Two men alone in an attic, a young Japanese-American and a seasoned veteran of yesterday’s war. It’s twenty odd years since Pearl Harbor, but two ancient opponents are moving into position for a battle in an attic crammed with skeletons, souvenirs, mementos, old uniforms, and rusted medals. Ghosts from the dim reaches of the past, that will lead us into the Twilight Zone.
This episode was removed from much of the Twilight Zone syndication after its initial debut because of the racial overtones present and some of the controversy over the story told, in particular the revelation that Takei’s character’s father had been a traitor at Pearl Harbor and had helped signal the planes, a fact that was not true and that there had been no indication that there were any Japanese-Americans at Pearl Harbor helping the bombers.
There was also a lot of racial insensitive language being tossed around, especially from the character played by Neville Brand, who was a former soldier during WWII and had recently been fired from his job and had his wife leave him because of his drinking. Both actors used this incendiary dialogue to create some real tension in the scenes.
There were some supernatural elements of the episode too, mostly surrounding a samurai sword that Band’s character had taken off of a Japanese soldier that he had killed during the war. This was the weaker aspect of the script as the interactions with the actors was considerably more potent.
This episode had its strengths and weaknesses and they were distinctly pronounced. Some of the scenes were riveting while others made no sense. It was a tough watch for sure.
“Mr. Garrity and the Graves”
This is definitely the worst of the three episodes in this post.
“Introducing Mr. Jared Garrity, a gentleman of commerce, who in the latter half of the nineteenth century plied his trade in the wild and wooly hinterlands of the American West. And Mr. Garrity, if one can believe him, is a resurrecter of the dead – which, on the face of it, certainly sounds like the bull is off the nickel. But to the scoffers amongst you, and you ladies and gentlemen from Missouri, don’t laugh this one off entirely, at least until you’ve seen a sample of Mr. Garrity’s wares, and an example of his services. The place is Happiness, Arizona, the time about 1890. And you and I have just entered a saloon where the bar whiskey is brewed, bottled and delivered from the Twilight Zone.”
A con man comes into town, pretending to be able to raise the dead. He sets up a town that, apparently, did not have any loved ones that they were sad were dead. All the people of Happiness, Arizona seemed to be happy that their relatives and family members were gone.
So, after he pretended to raise the dead, Garrity had the people pay him to have them go back to their graves.
It was clear that he was pulling a con on everybody except these dumb people.
However, the worst part of the episode was the ending. When Garrity met up with his accomplice and the dog that he pretended to bring back from the dead, it was revealed that he had actually unwittingly brought the dead people back to life and they were heading down to the town to cause trouble.
I thought maybe these zombie-like people would attack Garrity as a way to show that you can’t mess with life-death, but, nope. It was not that. They were just heading back to Happiness and the closing narration implied that Garrity did not know his own power.
How dumb was this episode? Extremely dumb. Did not like this one at all.
As of now, I only have four more episodes of the original series of The Twilight Zone for the Daily Zone. Plans are to do one episode on Wednesday and then finish up with three on Thursday (pending actual time). Perhaps it gets pushed back a day or so, but Friday is the absolute last potential day for the Daily Zone.
Director Abner Biberman was responsible for one of the best shots of the entire episode, as this point of view shot through the hangman’s noose was one of the images that truly stuck with me over this entire series.
“Sheriff Charlie Koch on the morning of an execution. As a matter of fact, it’s seven-thirty in the morning. Logic and natural laws dictate that at this hour there should be daylight. It is a simple rule of physical science that the sun should rise at a certain moment and supersede the darkness. But at this given moment, Sheriff Charlie Koch, a deputy named Pierce, a condemned man named Jagger, and a small, inconsequential village will shortly find out that there are causes and effects that have no precedent. Such is usually the case—in the Twilight Zone.”
There were a couple of familiar faces popped up in this episode. Ivan Dixon, Kinch from Hogan’s Heroes, and George Lindsey, Goober Pyle from the Andy Griffith Show, appear in this episode.
While this episode turned out to be a touch preachy, I really enjoyed the idea of the darkness overcoming the small town, how hate can only bring more hate to the world. The anger of the crowd toward Jagger, who killed a bigot supposedly in self-defense, and the desire of Goober to see him hanged really stood out.
According to Wikipedia, this episode was penned by Rod Serling as a response to the assassination of John Kennedy.
“Sounds and Silences”
Here is another Twilight Zone episode that suffers from a lead character that is wholly unlikable.
However, some of the comments made about Roswell by his staff and co-workers were very inappropriate and were directed simply at his weight. That makes them every bit as bad as this guy, who is absolutely obnoxious and loud.
“This is Roswell G. Flemington, two hundred and twenty pounds of gristle, lung tissue and sound decibels. He is, as you have perceived, a noisy man, one of a breed who substitutes volume for substance, sound for significance, and shouting to cover up the readily apparent phenomenon that he is nothing more than an overweight and aging perennial Sea Scout whose noise-making is in inverse ratio to his competence and to his character. But soon our would-be admiral of the fleet will embark on another voyage. This one is an unchartered and twisting stream that heads for a distant port called the Twilight Zone.”
This episodes shows the progression of a man and his succumbing to a mental illness. The episode shows Roswell first hearing every sound at a deafening level and then, after seeing a psychiatrist, trying to be able to control the sound, succeeding in a sense, but unable to adjust that volume back up again.
Another episode with sound effects that are truly awful, which is bad considering how important they are to this story. Overall, unlikable protagonist and unenterable sound beats in the story. One of the weaker episodes of the series.
“Caesar and Me”
The idea of a living ventriloquist dummy returns to “Caesar and Me.”
“Jonathan West, ventriloquist, a master of voice manipulation. A man, late of Ireland, with a talent for putting words into other peoples’ mouths. In this case, the other person is a dummy, aptly named Caesar, a small splinter with large ideas, a wooden tyrant with a mind and a voice of his own, who is about to talk Jonathan West – into the Twilight Zone.”
This is another episode that deals with mental illness, as Jonathan West descends into a dark place because of the machinations of the dummy, Caesar. Of course, the episode makes us think that Caesar can talk, but this is clearly a metaphor for someone hearing voices and having those voices make you do things. Jackie Cooper’s desperate pleading to Caesar to talk when the police had arrived was a haunting moment of a very good episode.
This is the same dummy used in the season three episode entitled “The Dummy.” On fact, in my head (although not labeled as such) I considered this a sequel to that episode, seeing where the dummy ends up after that last appearance.
There is also one of the worst characters of the show. The young girl named Susan, played by Morgan Brittany (who appeared later in Dallas), was just a horrible person and shown as a whiny, cruel, mean-spirited character and I do not think it is a coincidence that she ends up with Caesar at the end of the episode.
“A little girl and a wooden doll. A lethal dummy in the shape of a man. But everybody knows dummies can’t talk – unless, of course, they learn their vocabulary in the Twilight Zone.”
While this is not as great as “The Dummy,” “Caesar and Me” is another very strong episode that I enjoyed tremendously.
“The Jeopardy Room”
Welcome to The twilight Zone, Martin Landau!
Some spycraft arrives in the Twilight Zone with a single room setting, creating some stress and claustrophobia.
“The cast of characters—a cat and a mouse, this is the latter. The intended victim who may or may not know that he is to die, be it by butchery or ballet. His name is Major Ivan Kuchenko. He has, if events go according to certain plans, perhaps three or four more hours of living. But an ignorance shared by both himself and his executioner, is of the fact that both of them have taken the first step into the Twilight Zone.”
The cat and mouse between Martin Landau and John van Dreelen (who played Commissar Vassiloff) was the highlight of this episode. Vassiloff was clearly interested in finding a worthy adversary which he even placed above the actual mission – which was to kill Kuchenko.
Because of his personal machinations, Vassiloff created several holes that allowed Kuchenko a chance to survive. Vassiloff even pulled The Dread Pirate Roberts’ trick of drinking a poison that he was immune to in order to win the confrontation. No idea if this was Iocane Powder or not, though that was the deadliest poisons known to man and it did not kill Kuchenko (Love a good Princess Bride connection!)
I did like this episode a lot, but the ending turned out to be cheesy. Kuchenko turned the trap back onto Vassiloff and his henchman Boris, a henchman that proved himself to be a really stupid one, answering a booby trapped phone even though he knew that it had a bomb in it. That ending was a bit of a drawback to the solid episode.
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The Daily Zone is down to seven remaining episodes in the final season of the original version of The Twilight Zone.
I do like how the episode “Queen of the Nile” did not come right out and namedrop Cleopatra as the true identity of the ageless starlet Pamela Morris. Sure, they implied it heavily, with plenty of evidence to support such an inference, but without the specific name coming up, this felt more in doubt.
Funny how the next episode, “What’s in the Box?” actually mentions Cleopatra.
“Jordan Herrick, syndicated columnist, whose work appears in more than a hundred newspapers. By nature a cynic, a disbeliever, caught for the moment by a lovely vision. He knows the vision he’s seen is no dream; she is Pamela Morris, renowned movie star, whose name is a household word and whose face is known to millions. What Mr. Herrick does not know is that he has also just looked into the face—of the Twilight Zone.”
All I could think of as I was watching this episode was the MCU movie, The Eternals, with Kumail Nanjiani’s character Kingo being a star in movies from Bollywood and having to pretend he is a descendent after so many years, since he did not age. Of course, Kingo did not need the help of an age-sucking scarab to stay youthful.
Poor Jordan Herrick never suspected the real truth about Pamela Morris and the sacrifices that she had to make in order to stay young. I suppose if he had stayed alive, he may have uncovered the whole truth, but when you are aged so rapidly that you turn to dust on the floor, you may not be able to realize that you’ve messed up.
I liked the end of this episode as Herrick met his fate and we see how Pamela remained so young after centuries of life.
“What’s in the Box”
This is another episode of The Twilight Zone where our main protagonists are just unlikable which makes it difficult to care what happened to either of them.
“Portrait of a TV fan. Name: Joe Britt. Occupation: cab driver. Tonight, Mr. Britt is going to watch “a really big show,” something special for the cabbie who’s seen everything. Joe Britt doesn’t know it, but his flag is down and his meter’s running and he’s in high gear—on his way to the Twilight Zone”
Honestly, it was the TV repairman that may have been the worst character around. I mean, he pulls some tricks with the TV causing Joe to see his future, the murder of his wife, Phyllis. The TV repairman, played by Sterling Holloway, did not appreciate the snide comments made by Joe so he pulled something sneaky with the TV and that led to the death of Phyllis. This feels a bit much for the TV repairman’s hurt feelings. It also seems a bad turn for the voice of Winnie the Pooh, himself (Sterling Holloway).
This is basically the same story as “A Most Unusual Camera” from season 2, only this is a TV instead of a camera. Overall this is not as good as that episode and this feels excessive.
“The Masks”
You may have to use some of that inheritance for some plastic surgery.
“Mr. Jason Foster, a tired ancient who on this particular Mardi Gras evening will leave the Earth. But before departing, he has some things to do, some services to perform, some debts to pay—and some justice to mete out. This is New Orleans, Mardi Gras time. It is also the Twilight Zone.”
Jason’s family was really a rotten group of people. This makes their eventual fate quite satisfying. You kind of see it coming, but it still works because of these terrible characters. They may not be as well developed of a group of characters (this is another one that might have benefitted from the longer run time of season 4), but we get enough of each character that lets us understand how lacking they are as human beings.
Robert Keith was excellent as the dying patriarch of the family that he had clearly had enough of over the years. He was very effective delivering the exposition in a clever and revealing manner.
This was a solid episode that does deliver the justice you want. The masks were sufficiently creepy and Keith is the pulse of the whole episode.
The new film, They Cloned Tyrone, a sci-fi/mystery/comedy arrived this weekend on Netflix. The film is a satire of the Blaxploitation genre from the 1970s as well as the manner in which black people are exploited by governments and the more powerful.
They Cloned Tyrone starred John Boyega as Fontaine, a drug dealer, Jamie Foxx as Slick Charles, a pimp, and Teyonah Parris as Yo-Yo, a sex worker. The three of them become involved in a secret conspiracy to continue experimenting on people in an attempt to find peace in America.
This is a weird movie with some much deeper moments than I expected. It sounded as if the film was going to be one of those dumb comedy films that try too hard to get someone to laugh. However, this had much better characters and had some real thoughts on its mind about themes that it wanted to cover.
I’m going to get this white guy criticism out of the way. I do not like to hear the use of the N-Word as often as it is used in movies like this. I understand that I am not black and it is a word that is used in different context in situations like this. I just don’t like the word.
Having said that, the best part of this film is the performances from the lead three actors. John Boyega, Jamie Foxx and Teyonah Parris are outstanding, both separately and together in every scene they are in. The interactions among the three of them are quick, clever, funny, standing out in the film.
Kiefer Sutherland played a role that I am not going to spoil, but he is exceptional as well.
The plot can be a bit convoluted, but I loved how the characters, especially Yo-Yo, approach the situation as if they are trying to solve a mystery and the references to Nancy Drew is both funny and ironic. There is a definite pulpy feel to scenes in They Cloned Tyrone.
The film does take a little time to get going, but once the three characters wind up together trying to figure out what had happened to Fontaine and what is going on around the neighborhood, the movie flies.
Teyonah Parris will be starring in The Marvels later this year as Monica Rambeau and, if this performance is any indication, she is going to be awesome. She showed that she is a rising star with this role, really fitting in well with John Boyega and the amazing Jamie Foxx.
They Cloned Tyrone takes some big swings. Some of them miss, but more than not, it is wildly successful and creatively effective. Director Juel Taylor went out on the limb in his directorial debut and you can tell that he is not afraid to break the mold.
An episode of The Twilight Zone that was unlike any of the others shown. Namely, it is an Academy Award winner.
“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge” was a short film that was shot in France and won at the Cannes Film Festival. It also won an Academy Award for Best Short Film. According to Wikipedia, the rights to the French film was purchased by TV producer William Froug to show to the American public. With a few adjustments (such as adding an introduction from Rod Serling and closing narration at the end), the film became the 22nd episode of The Twilight Zone.
It was also very different than other episodes because there was barely any dialogue in the film, depending on background sounds (such as bird noises or military orders) and a song laid over sections of the episode.
The story focused on a man named Peyton Farquhar, who was being prepared to be hanged by Union soldiers during the Civil War off a bridge over Owl Creek. As he was pushed off the edge of the bridge, his rope broke and he fell into the creek below. As he was fired upon by soldiers, he made his desperate attempt to escape. He successfully escaped the soldiers and wandered back to where his wife lived.
Just before their happy reunion, he snapped his head backwards and went taut and we saw, in reality, that he had never escaped and had been hanged on the bridge. We realized that everything that had happened after his rope broke took place in his head during the time when he had been pushed off the bridge and before the rope when tight.
“An occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge, in two forms: as it was dreamed … and as it was lived and died. This is the stuff of fantasy, the thread of imagination … the ingredients of the Twilight Zone.”
I found this to be an extremely engaging and exceptional episode of the show. I actually had figured out that he was still hanging on the bridge before the reveal, but I thought all the events that had happened were a purgatory of some sort instead of it all being in his head. I thought that twist at the end was really well done.
Roger Jacquet brought an excellent performance to the episode, showing his desperation and determination to get back to his love. The episode leaves with a haunting image of Farquhar hanging from the bridge.
It all started at Cinemark in Davenport. Friday, July 21, 2023 at approximately 10 AM.
I went to the machine to pick up my tickets. I had purchased them online, as I always do. As a member of the Cinemark Movie Club (a Platinum member), getting them online is just too easy and convenient.
First up was Oppenheimer. It was being shown in the IMAX theater. At least, this was the theater I wanted to see it in. No sense in going to see this in a theater without the largest screen possible.
Excited to start the movie. I even had forgotten that i had my sunglasses on when I left the car. I usually leave them in the car, so here I had to hang them on my shirt.
Noovie is the opening pre-show with Maria Menounos.
Barbie is next up. It is in the XD theater.
Bought some popcorn for Barbie. I do not buy a lot of popcorn often, but it felt like a good day for a taste of the corn.
These seats would be all filled up before too long.
I had a great day at Cinemark, celebrating the event that was Barbenheimer!
The second segment of the Barbenheimer double feature was a film that had no right to be as good as it was. I mean… what were the odds that I was going to like a Barbie movie?
As it turned out, the odds were pretty good.
Greta Gerwig, director of such great movies as Lady Bird and Little Women, directed the adaptation of one of the oldest and most iconic toys in Barbie, and she did it in a highly entertaining, funny, clever and one of the most visually stunning movies of the summer.
Everything seems to be perfect in Barbieland for Barbie (Margot Robbie) and all of the other Barbies. Every day is a party, a trip to the beach with Ken (Ryan Gosling), Ken (Simu Liu), Ken (Kingsley Ben-Adir… honestly it is a little difficult to see him and not think about Gravik from Secret Invasion) and a party at the Dream House.
However, Barbie suddenly has a thought of death, something that no Barbie ever thinks about, and it disturbs her, but that is not all. Her feet go flat. She starts to show some flab on her thigh. Her world was falling apart.
Barbie went to see Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon) and she explained that Barbie had to go to the real world and find the kid who was playing with the doll and get her to fix it.
Whereas you might think that this is just a surface level comedy, you would be wrong. There is actually quite a bit of depth to the story going on here. There is a lot of clever and insightful writing involved that is not only very funny, but also has things to say about someone being who they are and the expectations individuals face.
Margot Robbie is spectacular as the stereotypical Barbie and Ryan Gosling is brilliant as the oft-ignored and put upon Ken. Both Barbie and Ken have distinct arcs to their story and really carry this movie. Gosling steals every scene he is in.
The film is not only for fans of Barbie, but also for those people who hate Barbie. The film certainly has sections dealing with women power/feminism, but it also looks at the story of Ken, being beneath Barbie and how that affects him.
The costumes and sets, especially in Barbieland, are gorgeous and are awesome to look at.
The music in the film is hot. I have to say that the greatest song of the whole film is Ken’s song in the third act.
There is a large cast, many of which are playing Barbie. Some of these actors could have received a little more to do, but they all take advantage of what they are given to do. Other actors in the film include America Ferrera, Arianna Greenblatt, Helen Mirren (as the narrator), Rhea Perlman, John Cena, Issa Rae, Alexandra Shipp, Emma Mackey, Hari Nef, and Michael Cera as the non-Ken doll Allan.
However, Will Farrell, who played the Mattel CEO, was wasted. His first few scenes were interesting and had some funny bits, but his part of the rest of the film was dull and dumb. It was underwhelming and anticlimactic. His entire section of the film could have been removed and the movie would not have lost anything.
Barbie is a deconstruction of the roles of men and women in society, with social comment without being preachy. It is clever and funny. Witty and engaging. And all of the Barbie types shown in the film are real Barbies. Barbie is way better than I thought it would be.
I have not been a fan of Christopher Nolan. I believe he has been overrated by all kinds of critics. Of his movies, I did not like Interstellar (about half of it I liked), Inception, Tenet, The Dark Knight Rises or Dunkirk, which I know is a hot take.
However, the buzz around his new biopic Oppenheimer (and the combined Barbenheimer) was high and I will say that I was anticipating the film.
The film tells the story of J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy) and how he, along with a group of scientists, created an atomic bomb and the fallout of the use.
The plot is not anywhere near as simplistic as I just laid out. Like many other Nolan films, the narrative of the story is told in a disjointed, non-linear timeframe. At times, it was a challenge to know what time period it was showing. They did a lot of black and white shooting for the most recent timeframe (which was the Senate confirmation hearings for Lewis Strauss). This storytelling technique requires the audience to keep their attention on the screen, so that is not a bad thing.
The acting in Oppenheimer is absolutely top notch all around. Cillian Murphy has to be considered an early favorite to be nominated for best actor at the Oscars next year with his performance. He brought such a humanity and soulfulness to this man who could have been difficult to get to know. The expressiveness of each expression and his eyes was utterly fantastic.
Robert Downey Jr., who played Lewis Strauss, is another actor who should probably be in contention for a statue next year. Downey Jr. loses himself in this role and, before long, you do not see RDJ anymore, you see this manipulative politician out for a touch of revenge. Emily Blunt is a powerhouse as Kitty, Oppenheimer’s wife. She spends much of the film in the background, but when she gets the chance to step forward, man does she step forward.
I loved Matt Damon as General Groves too. He delivers one of my favorite lines of the movie that was also in the trailers when he asks about the chance of them destroying the world when they pushed the button to the bomb. “Near zero” was the response and Groves preferred the idea of “zero” instead.
The visuals of the film were breathtaking. I watched this in IMAX and I absolutely recommend that you watch this on as big of a screen as possible.
The score of this movie was amazing. It beautifully illustrated everything that was happening on the screen. The sound of every explosion or loud noise literally shook the seat that I was sitting in. I can’t imagine watching this in some kind of 4D version because I am sure that the moving seat would completely destroy you. Each second of the sound effects were worth it.
Unfortunately, as we have seen with some other Nolan films, much of the dialogue of the actors gets drowned out by the score or was muffled and difficult to understand. This is truly the one aspect of the film that is worth criticizing.
As I said, I have believed that Christopher Nolan has been overrated. This, however, is a brilliant movie with unbelievable filmmaking. I think this is probably Nolan’s greatest movie ever. While I personally prefer The Dark Knight, there is no denying that this is a one-of-a-kind movie with phenomenal acting, special effects off the chart, a complex and well-organized story and a score that does exactly what you want a score to do.
Today is July 21st, and it is officially Barbenheimer day!
The release of two of the summer’s biggest films, Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer are released in theaters today (technically last night) and are going head to head. For some reason, the idea of watching a double feature of these two movies has gotten me way more excited about both of them.
Honestly, at the beginning of the summer, neither of these two movies were films that I highly anticipated. I would have watched them both, but neither were appointment level for me.
Then, they started talking about the whole ‘Barbenheimer’ idea. Setting these two movies up, such polar opposites, as a perfect double feature is genius.
I mean, there have been plenty of times when two major films released on the same day. Perhaps part of the feel is that there has not been anything thins big since the COVID era. This feels different than other co-releases.
If I owned a movie theater, I would be taking advantage of the promotion of the dual films. There would be Barbenheimer specials and discounts for those who bought tickets for both in the same day.
The internet memes are certainly on fire as well. All of this has made me so excited that I am writing an EYG Blog post about it.
I am starting out watching Oppenheimer in IMAX and then I will follow that up with Barbie in XD. Big screens for a big event.
The Twilight Zone is once again dealing with time.
“This is the face of terror. Anne Marie Henderson, 18 years of age, her young existence suddenly marred by a savage and wholly unanticipated pursuit by a strange, nightmarish figure of a woman in black, who has appeared as if from nowhere and now, at driving gallop, chases the terrified girl across the countryside, as if she means to ride her down and kill her, and then suddenly and inexplicably stops to watch in malignant silence as her prey takes flight. Miss Henderson has no idea whatever as to the motive for this pursuit. Worse, not the vaguest notion regarding the identity of her pursuer. Soon enough, she will be given the solution to this twofold mystery, but in a manner far beyond her present capacity to understand, a manner enigmatically bizarre in terms of time and space – which is to say, an answer from… the Twilight Zone”
The start of this episode was pretty strong. Admittedly, it would have been nice to have the mysterious woman look a little more mysterious as you can tell immediately that this is the same actress. Still, it is unclear what was going on in the scene.
Then, to have this turn into a confrontation between old and new loves…is a totally different feel. When her former fiancé, David, arrived at the door, you get the feeling of what was going to happen. She was going to marry Robert despite her love for her childhood sweetheart and she would ruin her life. We have seen this dozens of times in narratives, the denial of true love causing pain.
However, that is not what happened. We see Anne in the future (or is it the present?), depressed, angry, her father dead, her mother begging for help and married to a drunken David. We learn that Anne did indeed run off with her love David, leaving Robert at their engagement party, and this was led her down the path to unhappiness and angst.
The future Anne realized that the frightening confrontation she had with her younger self was nothing more than a desperate attempt to warn herself of her failure.
I have weaved around the Amazon Prime listing and I am back on regular track for the correct listing of Twilight Zone episodes. However, this morning’s episodes are quite a run of mediocre offerings.
“The Long Morrow”
This is the best of the episodes that will be on this post. A new world version of “Romeo and Juliet” where you have the doomed couple that is fated for failure.
“It may be said with a degree of assurance that not everything that meets the eye is as it appears. Case in point, the scene you’re watching. This is not a hospital, not a morgue, not a mausoleum, not an undertaker’s parlor of the future. What it is is the belly of a spaceship. It is en route to another planetary system, an incredible distance from the Earth. This is the crux of our story – a flight into space. It is also the story of the things that might happen to human beings who take a step beyond, unable to anticipate everything that might await them out there.”
“Commander Douglas Stansfield, astronaut, a man about to embark on one of history’s longest journeys: forty years out into endless space and hopefully back again. This is the beginning, the first step towards man’s longest leap into the unknown. Science has solved the mechanical details and now it’s up to one human being to breathe life into blueprints and computers, to prove once and for all that man can live half a lifetime in the total void of outer space, forty years alone in the unknown. This is Earth. Ahead lies a planetary system. The vast region in between is the Twilight Zone.”
So the plan was to put Doug into suspended animation so when he returned to earth, he would be the same age, basically, that he was when he left, though the earth would be 40 years older. However, before his departure, he met his young colleague, Sandra Horn and they fell in love. They were sad that he was leaving and, when he would return, he would be in his 70s.
The couple made decisions as it was happening that were in direct opposition. Doug chose not to go into suspended animation and age regularly while Sandra chose to go into suspended animation on earth and not age at all until he would return.
Doug did not want to saddle this young beauty with an old man so he left her. Romantic and tragic all the same time.
“The Self-Improvement of Salvadore Ross”
Salvadore Ross is yet another protagonist in The Twilight Zone who are unlikable and just a bad guy. I’ve seen some review that have said that the audience can relate to him with his desire to improve himself. I never got that from him. I saw him as someone who just wanted something that he couldn’t have and would go to any extremes to do it no matter what the cost. I was very pleased with the end of the episode with Salvadore taking a bullet, even though it basically destroyed the life of the man who wound up shooting him.
“Confidential personnel file on Salvadore Ross. Personality: a volatile mixture of fury and frustration. Distinguishing physical characteristic: a badly broken hand, which will require emergency treatment at the nearest hospital. Ambition: shows great determination towards self-improvement. Estimate of potential success: a sure bet for a listing in Who’s Who in the Twilight Zone.”
Salvadore had some kind of supernatural ability to make deals that would do amazing things. He made a deal with an old man in the hospital to switch his cold with Sal’s broken hand. The old man agreed, not knowing that the deal would happen.
Salvadore then started making deals to make money, to make himself old, to regain his youth… all to the detriment of the people in which he was dealing. He was not doing it to improve himself, but in order to try and make his desired woman, Leah Maitland, fall for him.
He was played with quite a temper and I definitely got the vibe from him that he would be an abusive husband. He grabbed Leah by the arm and put his hand up around her chin several times in the episode during their arguments. I found most of the early scenes between Sal and Leah to be quite cringeworthy and uncomfortable.
He bought the compassion off of Leah’s father, which led to Leah’s father shooting and killing him so he would not marry Leah. While that is a happy ending for me, it would certainly lead to prison for her father and would lead to another person out of Leah’s life. Salvadore was so selfish and self-absorbed in this episode that he turned out to be one of the worst characters on the show.
“Black Leather Jackets”
Aliens preparing for an invasion of the earth, who speak to a giant eyeball on a computer screen? Oh, and these aliens are shown wearing black leather jackets, like those troublesome kinds of the time.
“Three strangers arrive in a small town; three men in black leather jackets in an empty, rented house. We’ll call them Steve, and Scott, and Fred, but their names are not important; their mission is, as three men on motorcycles lead us into the Twilight Zone.”
There is a whole bunch of silliness here. The whole black leather jacket/motorcycle thing is a stereotype. The love story that comes between alien Scott and neighbor girl Ellen is ridiculous and makes no sense. There was zero chemistry between the two of them and I did not believe their relationship even once.
Why was the leader shown only as a giant eyeball? We may never know.
There was a recognizable face here though. Duke of Hazzard’s Uncle Jesse/Grizzly Adams’s Mad Jack, Denver Pyle played Ellen’s father, who confronted the aliens early and got mind controlled after they bullied him. Ellen was also a known actress, Shelley Fabares, Christine on Coach.
“From Agnes-with Love”
You can always tell when there is going to be an attempt at a comedic episode of The Twilight Zone. You get the cartoonish background music, trying to use the music to help make episode funnier than it was.
Again, that is unable to help this one.
“James Elwood: master programmer. In charge of Mark 502-741, commonly known as Agnes, the world’s most advanced electronic computer. Machines are made by men for man’s benefit and progress, but when man ceases to control the products of his ingenuity and imagination he not only risks losing the benefit, but he takes a long and unpredictable step into… the Twilight Zone.”
The computer named Agnes wanted to help with James’s love life, giving him tips for women (tips by the way that were remarkably sexist or even a touch misogynistic), especially one woman in particular, Millie.
The computer responded to verbal questions with the large font print on what looked like paper. The entire set up was ridiculous.
Poor little nerdy James really had no chance. He clumsily poured champagne all over Millie on one date. She, for some reason, gave him another date, even after giving her roses, flowers in which she was allergic. James, unintentionally introduced Millie to another co-worker and they hit it off really well.
Turned out that Agnes was sabotaging James, as if he needed the help, because Agnes was jealous. I guess this led to a nervous breakdown for James.. who was just trying to get some work done. James’s boss was Mr. Drysdale from the Beverly Hillbillies.
I am not sure that the show has ever had a successful episode of comedic nature. At least this comedic episode did not try to get by on slapstick and the music changed as the episode moved on.
Forty-two is the answer to the question, “What is the meaning of life, the universe, and everything?”.
It is one of the numbers from LOST (4, 8, 15,16, 23, 42)
It’s the retired number across all Major League Baseball in honor of Jackie Robinson.
And today, it is the 42nd edition of EYG Comic Cavalcade on NEW COMIC BOOK DAY (which also happens on National Hot Dog Day!)!
UPDATE: We are down to two missing independent comic issues #3: No/One #3 and Neighbors #3 (got Neighbors #4 today, which was missing last week). Blue Book #3 was in the books this week.
There were only five Knight Terrors books this week, continuing the 46-issue run in DC Comics with the villainous Insomnia causing terrifying nightmares for the DC Heroes and Villains. This week the five issues included: Knight Terrors: Wonder Woman #1, Knight Terrors: Superman #1, Knight Terrors: Nightwing #1, Knight Terrors: Catwoman #1, and Knight Terrors: Punchline #1. Wonder Woman, Superman and Nightwing were all really good. The Punchline one was a character I did not know at all, but it was still okay. I did not like the Catwoman issue at all. So far, the overall enjoyment of the Knight Terrors event has been good. I have enjoyed most all of the 17 books so far, with Catwoman being the sole flop for me. Next week should bring us to about the halfway point.
Then… what a shock! I could hardly believe it…
A Vicious Circle #2. Written by Mattson Tomlin and art by Lee Bermejo. I can’t believe it. This large scale book from Boom! Studios came out after issue #1 was released on December 14, 2022. Yes, I said 2022. There have been a couple of times when I was looking at my pull list and I came across the title A Vicious Circle and I had no idea what t was. As I was reading #2 today, I could not tell you much of anything about #1. What do I remember about #1? I remember the spectacular artwork that it featured and that part of it was in black and white. I should probably re-read it at some point. However, issue #2 was phenomenal. The art, once again, was breathtaking. The story was awesome with two characters, Sean (who I do remember from issue#1-though I remember nothing about him) and some other guy and these two are jumping across time. Some absolutely stunning visuals in the book and, while I may not necessarily say that it was worth the wait, I am absolutely happy that it is finally here and I hope I do not have to wait until 2024 for the next installment.
Something is Killing the Children #31. “Showdown at the Easy Creek Corral: Part One.” Written by James Tynion IV and drawn by Werther Dell’edera. It has also been awhile since we have gotten a new SiKtC issue too (while nowhere near as long as A Vicious Circle). It is setting up a huge showdown between Erica Slaughter and Charlotte Cutter. It was good to see this one again.
Deadpool: Badder Blood #2. Script by Chad Bowers and story/pencils by Rob Liefeld. Deadpool finds himself in a weird situation, fighting… Shatterstorm?… and then Killville (which is not “a hallucinogenic-torture chamber/fun house where super people with a price on their heads are taken to die.”) Fun Deadpool action.
Blade #1. “Mother of Evil: Part One.” Written by Bryan Hill and featuring art by Elena Casagrande. The Daywalker is back in his own series finding himself stuck in several plots that are meant to help save the world. And he’s not happy about it. Some fantastic artwork in this new issue with some wonderful full splash pages that jump off from the book.
Spider-Gwen: Shadow Clones #5. Written by Emily Kim and penciled by Kei Zama with Geoffo. This short series came to a close with all of the Spider-Gwen clones coming together to help. Fact is this issue did not keep my attention. I am not a fan of clone stories and this one is one that I am glad is over. I did not hate the issues leading up to this one, but I just did not find it engaging today.
New Mutants: Lethal Legion #5. “Vampire Heist II.” Written by Charlie Jane Anders and penciled by Enid Balám. Here was another short story where this finale did not grasp my attention much. I have struggled with knowing who these character were the entire series and this continued. I did kind of like their giant dragon that they took to Krakoa. Otherwise, this was a meh.
All Eight Eyes #4. Written by Steve Foxe and featuring art by Piotr Kowalski. However, this Dark Horse short series brought it to the finale. No ‘meh’s or lack of attention in this one. This had some great artwork, some visceral imagery and a very cool wrap-up to the story of Reynolds. Great conclusion.
Guardians of the Galaxy #4. “The Star-Sheriff.” The Star-Sheriff is Rocket and we find out where he has been and what he is trying to do to replace his connection with Groot (who has become the Grootfall). Looks like Rocket is reunited with the Guardians and they are teaming back up to help their wayward friend.
Big Game #1. Written by Mark Millar and drawn by Pepe Larraz. The Mark Millar Universe of characters all come together for a five-issue series that is pretty fun. I did struggle with who some of these characters are, but I did know the Ambassadors and Kick Ass. This is an interesting beginning.
Black Panther #2. “Reign at Dusk Part 2.” Written by Eve L. Ewing and penciled by Chris Allen. Issue two of this new Black Panther series was a struggle to get through as well. There are a lot of characters that I am not sure about and not quite enough T’Challa. Still, I expect this to pick up as we go.
Blue Book #3. Written by James Tynion IV and art by Michael Avon Geming. This series has been weird to read. I read it in the following order: issue #1, issue #4, issue #5, issue #2, and then issue #3. It was all connected to the story of Barney and Betty and so the differing order messed things up a bit. Still, the individual issues were engaging and I do like UFO stories.
The penultimate episode of Secret Invasion dropped on Disney + this morning. It did feel that this was an episode that was meant to set up the finale. Not that it is a bad episode, but it did feel that it did not have a ton of events happen.
Last week, I complained that there was no Olivia Colman in episode 4 so my favorite thing this week was the return of Sonia Falsworth.
She is simply my favorite part of this series and I would absolutely watch a series with her as the main protagonist. She is so charming and witty and yet as brutal and matter-of-fact as any character we have seen. She is completely believable as an MI6 agent and her moments with Samuel L. Jackson have been wonderful. I am pleased that she made her way into this episode more prominently than she had been up to this point.
I have also found Priscilla to be a great addition to this story. There is so much background that can be mined between Fury and Priscilla that it feels as the little bit that we have gotten here is gold. I want more of that as well.
Emilia Clarke feels underwritten and I have not had a ton of connection with this character. I wanted more form her with the death of Talos, but she seems very emotionally distant, even in situations where she should feel something. The scene with G’iah and Priscilla gunning down the Skrull house invaders was bad ass though. Emilia Clarks feels like she should be someone that is dominating every moment she is on screen and she just hasn’t. That is not her fault because it does feel as if she is doing what she can, but there just has not been enough with her to justify my emotional connection.
I liked the scene with Fury and ‘Rhodey’ at the hospital, even though there seemed to be a few holes in the logic. Sam Jackson and Don Cheadle are always welcome together on my screen.
There seems as if there is a lot of things happening and with next week’s finale coming, I hope they are able to wrap everything up effectively.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 