Author Archives: Doc

Only Murders in the Building S3 E5

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Spoilers

“Ah, Love!”

I really enjoyed this episode. It focused on the relationships of the three main characters yet included the case extremely well.

Charles had some confrontations with Joy as some truths came out. Charles had to try to find out why Joy had a lipstick found back stage in Ben’s dressing room. Of course, there was a message written in lipstick on the mirror which said, “F*#%ing Pig.” Joy did not take it well having her just recent fiancée accuse her of being involved in a murder. What turned out even worse was when she found out that Charles had not intended to ask her to marry him. These two, who had never felt right before this, really suddenly made me want them to stick together, but it looks bad for them.

Oliver lost a tooth on the pork chop cooked by Loretta on their dinner date. He took that smoothly. Oliver and Loretta went out and roe the ferry to toss the tooth overboard like Loretta would do when she was a child (the Tooth Ferry). Martin Short and Meryl Streep had a ton of chemistry, which was a surprising thing for me. I know it shouldn’t be because they are both exceptional actors, but I was not expecting such a strong connection. However, Oliver still found evidence that implicated that Loretta had an obsession with Ben. We also found out about a physical conflict between Loretta and Ben the night of the failed play opening. Charles apparently punched Ben too right afterwards.

Meanwhile, Mabel had a ‘meeting’ with Tobert at a restaurant. Mabel accepted under the idea that Tobert had a lead, and, in truth, it was more of a date. They were staking out Ben’s understudy, Jonathan, who they saw meeting with Ben’s doctor, Dr. C. When they accidentally revealed themselves to Jonathan, they went back and added Dr. C to the murder board. Then Mabel and Tobert had sex.

Oliver and Loretta had sex as well during this episode, while Charles and Joy were falling apart.

We had the return of the awesome Jane Lynch as Charles’s longtime stunt double Sazz. Sazz is always a great addition to an episode.

The three couplings did not take away from the story as the work on the play has done in previous episodes because the murder was always there in the atmosphere. We got a lot of interesting details dropped throughout the episode. I still hope that the killer is not Loretta as that feels just too contrived.

I believe we are now officially halfway through the third season and I have no idea who the killer is.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #53

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August 28, 2023

Part of the fun of being a comic collector is not only what is coming out now, but what has come out before.

My friend Todd said to me once that I did not like old comics, but that is not true. Todd thought that because I would never get into the ‘new’ old issues at Comic World, looking through the boxes, that I wasn’t interested in the back issues. As I said, that is not correct.

Fact is it goes back to the fact that I do not know exactly what is in my collection. I have older books in boxes in the other room, but I have not been through them in ages. I want to get the book reorganized, re-boarded, re-bagged, but until I do, I am not sure what exactly is there. And I do not want to be spending money on books I already have.

However, lately I have found some books that I know I never had before, some books that I had no idea were ever published, and a couple of biggies that I know I have never read.

Avengers #500, 501. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and drawn by David Finch. This is the start of the Avengers Disassembled storyline. The first two issues of this was just amazing. Admittedly, some of the impact of the story was weakened since Scott Lang, who died in the early parts of the first book, is not dead as of today. Plus, some of the character interactions were different than I know, since this is during the whole Bendis period in Marvel. There were some fighting among the Avengers that I was not expecting. I need #502 but i have the remainder of the story and I hope to finish that up one day soon.

World War Hulk #1-5. Written by Greg Pak and drawn by John Romita Jr. Another story that I had heard about, but had never read. World War Hulk was brutal and seeing the Hulk run rampant over the Marvel heroes that he blamed for his love being killed was awesome. This is a beautiful book with amazing imagery and some massive battles with the Hulk and other heroes. World War Hulk was very satisfying.

Planetary #17, 18. Written by W.G. Ellis and drawn by Johnny Mac Cassaday. This was a book from Wildstorm that I had never heard of before and when I saw it in the box at Comic World, it piqued my curiosity. There were a couple of books and they all looked very different. I assumed that this was an anthology series. When I read number 17 & 18, I realized that this is not an anthology. There was a character named Elijah Snow that crossed into both. I liked both books very much (one had a character that had quite a bit of resemblance to Tarzan) so I decided to hold off reading more until I got some of the early books in the series so I could get a base behind what was going on with these characters.

Black Orchid #1. Written by Neil Gaiman and art by Dave McKean. Another book that I did not expect. I bought this on the basis of the name of Neil Gaiman. I did not know that this three issue series was set in the DC Universe. However, there was Lex Luthor making an appearance. There was a lot of exposition here and I am not sure how I felt about it. It was okay and I am sure I will read parts 2 & 3 eventually.

Secret War #1 & 2. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and featuring art by Gabrielle Dell’Otto. Yes, that says ‘Secret War’ not Secret Wars. Another series that I had no idea about. It is a five issue series that I have 1-4 of. I read the first two and it was not what I expected. Nick Fury, the original one, recruited a bunch of heroes in their non-hero identities to go into Latveria because the country of Latveria was funding the tech based villains such as Killer Shrike (who did not have a great appearance). I really liked this even though he approached Peter Parker and Logan was drunk and not acting like himself. I know some times the criticism of Bendis was that he had characters act in ways that they wouldn’t do. This did feel like that. But I let that slide because the concept of the series was pretty cool.

Retribution

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Happy National Cinema Day!

When I discovered that my local Cinemark was participating in the National Cinema Day festivities, I decided that I should go to a movie this afternoon. You can hardly beat $4 dollar tickets to a new release movie.

I am so very happy that I only spent $4 per ticket for this movie. I may have overpaid.

The latest film from Liam Neeson is Retribution (which by the way, that title has no relevance to the story at all). I had originally thought this was going to be similar to the Keanu Reeves pic Speed, but Speed was a lot of fun. The only connection to Speed was there was a motor vehicle and there was a bomb.

When we get a Liam Neeson action flick, there is an understanding that the audience will have to suspend some disbelief in order to enjoy the movie, but this film had me rolling my eyes and wondering how dumb these characters (all of them) actually were.

Liam Neeson gets in his car to go to work one morning, but he has to take his troublesome children to school first. Unfortunately, he gets a call on a mysterious phone and the disguised voice on the other end tells him that there is a bomb beneath his seat triggered when he sat down and if he did not do exactly what he said, he would detonate it remotely.

The bomber then sent Liam driving around the city doing inane things and blowing up other vehicles.

This was so dumb. Worse than dumb, this was predictable. I figured out the face behind the scheme immediately and I spotted the supposedly smart trick in the film. It was painfully apparent.

I thought Liam Neeson was pretty poor in his performance. I have seen Liam Neeson in better (and even worse) action movies where he gave a solid performance. Unlike most of Neeson’s films, in this one, I felt his performance just did not rise above the material.

Liam Neeson’s kids were played by Jack Champion (who was Spider in Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water and the kid on the bike in Avengers: Endgame. This film will not be anywhere near those in box office) and Lilly Aspell (young Diana in Wonder Woman & WW84). The kids were fine, but so much of the dialogue was so poorly written and cliched that they did not have a chance to make anything out of these roles.

Matthew Modine is the other well-known actor involved here as Liam Neeson’s best friend and boss.

This is one of those movies where the plot could be overcome in five minutes if the characters would just react in reasonable ways. I would never answer a strange cell phone that had ‘unknown caller’ listed. If Liam Neeson just ignored the phone, everything is wrecked. Why did Liam Neeson believe that the bomber could see what he was doing? He never once gave him any evidence of that. I was constantly thinking, “no way the bomber can see him.” That took me out of the little bit of tension that the film generated.

There were so many flaws in this movie, it felt as if people involved were just going through the motions in order to get paid. Good for them… but bad for me.

1.7 stars

The Bear S2 E1 & E2

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Spoilers

S2 E1: “Beef”

S2 E2: “Pasta”

I started in season two of The Bear on Hulu this morning, watching the first two episodes. It’s been about a week since I finished the first season and I remember thinking that the first season ended in a manner that could have easily concluded the series. I was intrigued to find out exactly how they were going to press on. The first two episodes showed me how.

There was a ton of details and areas of improvement in order to open a restaurant, and the first episode did a great job of showing all of the things that they have to do.

The best part of this series has always been the character interactions, and the second season continued that trait. Sydney, seeing how Carmy was not strong at managing the plans for everything that needed to be done, offered a project manager position to Carmy’s sister Sugar, who has seen her presence in the series pick up over the first couple of episodes. The episode started with Marcus rubbing lotion on the hand of some woman in a hospital bed. We do not find out the identity of this woman, but I do believe it will come into play as the season progresses.

Oliver Platt returned as Carmy, Sugar and Sydney work to try and convince him to invest in the restaurant to the tune of another $500,000 dollars. Carmy makes a deal with him that if he did not pay him back by 18 months, Oliver Platt would get the whole property. This sets a ticking clock in place for the crew at the Bear.

Richie is struggling with purpose and the show gave us more scenes between Richie and Fak, first arguing about moving lockers and then about mold in episode 2. How they have started to calling Sugar “Mom” like they are quarreling brothers is a hoot. More of Fak this season would be awesome.

Carmy also ran into a childhood friend, Claire, who is clearly heading toward being a romantic interest for Carmy. Apparently, Carmy had shared his restaurant name with her at some point in their childhood and she remembered it. Carmy did not believe she remembered the name, and bet her, jokingly, a million dollars that she did not know the name. She did and these two showed a ton of chemistry in this short scene. Claire is being played by new cast member, Molly Gordon (from Booksmart).

Ebraheim and Tina are attending culinary school. Tina seems excited, but there is something bothering Ebraheim. This is clearly another of the side stories this year and I’m down for it. Ebraheim did not have much screen time last year. I love Tina and her excitement when Sydney asked her to be the new sous-chef was one of my favorite moments of the first two episodes. The connection between Sydney and Tina has grown so much since their initial negative response that it is great to see.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #52

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August 26, 2023

I have wrapped up the books from last week’s NEW COMIC BOOK DAY tonight as I read through a bunch of books.

There was a book that I had zero interest in and that I started, but chose not to continue reading. That was the Realm of X from the Fall of X storyline. My feeling of the current X-Men continue to be up and down.

Looks like we are down to the wire with DC’s Knight Terrors. There is just the finale (next week) remaining after six books this week. Two of them were books that I absolutely did not find interesting and that I skimmed through and pushed aside. Those are Knight Terrors: Harley Quinn #2 and Knight Terrors: Angel Breaker #2. I continue to not be interested by the characters in this series that I do not know, which is the Angel Breaker and then I was not a fan of the Harley Quinn series.

The other four books though were all really good. My favorite this week was the Knight Terrors #4, followed by Knight Terrors: Detective Comics #2 (featuring James Gordon), then Knight Terrors: Titans #2, followed by Knight Terrors: Action Comics.

I wonder if next week’s finale is a larger, double sized book?

Rest of this week’s books:

Big Game #2. Written by Mark Millar and drawn by Pepe Larraz. Whoa. This series picked up big time this issue. I did not see this coming. The Chrononauts and the Ambassadors slaughtered! Westley Gibson bringing the doom. Hit Girl escapes the assassination. Watching the Ambassadors, who I just finished their new book a few months ago, get just destroyed was wild. Who knows what is next.

Deadpool #10. “To the Victor” Written by Alyssa Wong and drawn by Luigi Zagaria. Martin Coccolo & Neeraj Menon did the cover art. The arc with Deadpool, Valentine and his symbiote dog come to an end with this issue and it may be the end of this Deadpool run. I have enjoyed this volume of Deadpool so I wish there was more coming. Surely, the Merc with a Mouth will return to his own series somewhere.

Klik Klik Boom #3. Written by Doug Wagner and illustrated by Doug Dabbs. Another book that ended with a shocking cliffhanger. It sure seemed as if one of our characters bit the big one in this issue and it was a tragic end. I hope I misread that because I liked this character a lot.

Daredevil & Echo #4. Written by Taboo & B. Earl and featuring art by Phil Noto. This limited series ended with this issue too. Daredevil & Echo has been an okay read, but I would not ever go back and read it again. All of the characters involved seem more interesting in other books.

Moon Knight: City of the Dead #2. “Hearts on Fire.” Moon Knight and Scarlet Scarab are in search of the soul of Khalil inside the City of the Dead. A series of Moon Knight’s dead enemies teamed up to take him down. Now Marc Specter came face to face with someone he never thought he’d see again. The character of Moon Knight continues to be top line.

Newburn #10. “Chapter Ten: He’s Got History.” Things are looking bad for Newburn and the crime families as tensions are high. The crime families let Newburn know that they are thinking about changing the way things are done and Newburn let the crime families know that he has some surprising knowledge protecting him. Newburn feels like he is in the most trouble he has ever been in during the entire series so far.

Indigo Children #6. Written by Curt Pires and drawn by Rockwell White. The Indigo Children have reached their goal, but Director Rand stands in their way. Another shocking last few pages for this book.

Black Panther #3. “Reign at Dusk: Part 3” I’m not sure I know exactly what this book is about. There are a lot of pages involving characters from Wakanda that I do not know very well. The very end of this issue though looks as if it is about to pick up with Deathlok making an appearance.

Gran Turismo

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I was not anxious to see this movie. Based on a true story, Gran Turismo is a video game that simulates the process of auto racing, and the film tells the story of some gamers who attempted to become actual race car drivers after mastering the game.

I am not a fan of auto racing in any form. I have not enjoyed very many movies on the topic either. Outside of Rush and Ford v. Ferrari, there are not many that I have even seen (I’m not counting the old Herbie movies because they all blend together).

So with low anticipation I went to see Gran Turismo today and it was okay.

The standout was clearly David Harbour, who played Jack Salter, the man with a dark past who was entrusted to determine which of the gamers would win the contest and then help that racer become the best they could be. Harbour is always great and he brings his typical strong performance to this movie. The character had some surface traits, but the big hidden piece to the character was fairly obvious and did not seem to really hit hard when revealed. However, Harbour was very fun and did a lot for this character that was not on the page.

Gamer to racer Jann Mardenborough (Archie Madekwe) was a teenage Gran Turismo player who won the Nissan motorsport division’s GT Academy, a competition to find the best sim player and turn him/her into a race driver. Mardenborough had some solid scenes and he was easy to watch. He was believable as the teen and he had some decent scenes, especially with Djimon Hounsou, who played Jann’s disapproving father.

However, the other big name actor in the film was Orlando Bloom, who played Danny Moore, who was a marketing executive at Nissan. When you cast an actor of the stature of Orlando Bloom, you should have something vital for him to do. Sadly, Orlando Bloom felt very wasted in this film and this role could have gone to anybody.

The racing scenes were all very well done and did a great job of building excitement and uncertainty of the race, highlighting the dangers of the sport.

The movie is a basic sports movie, with many of those types of clichés solidly in place. Jann is the typical underdog story, having to overcome the obstacles that the sport, the competition and fate throw into his path. It certainly has that structure of sports movies, but the execution of that structure is decent. The soundtrack was well constructed and added to the film.

Director Neill Blomkamp brings an enjoyable film that, while it has its problems. is a lot of fun to watch.

3.5 stars

Bray Wyatt Passes Away

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As a wrestling fan, there have been several times when you get that feeling like you’ve been punched in the gut. Sadly, that feeling has returned as WWE Superstar Bray Wyatt, whose real name was Windham Rotunda, passed away today.

WWE chief content officer Paul “Triple H” Levesque made the announcement through a tweet on Twitter.

After the loss of Terry Funk yesterday, Bray Wyatt was even more shocking. He was just 36 years old. He had been on the injured list since before this year’s Wrestlemania with an unknown ailment, but the buzz around the world of wrestling was that he would be making his return soon.

Windham Rotunda had been the man behind a series of awesome characters, including Husky Harris, the Eater of Worlds, the Fiend, and the head of the Wyatt Family. His stretch of time portraying Bray Wyatt as a Mr. Rogers-like kiddie show host of the Firefly Funhouse was some of the most compelling television the WWE had created in a long time. Rotunda, one of the sons of wrestling legend Mike Rotunda (aka I.R.S.), brought such a level of acting and character development that you did not always see in wrestling.

Sometimes it seemed that his creativity conflicted with the scripted world of the WWE, but when things were working, the character of Bray Wyatt was epic. His work on the mike was some of the best you would ever find. His promos created emotions among the audience.

The recent death of his friend and fellow wrestler, Jon Huber aka Brodie Lee (or Luke Harper in WWE), caused a lot of sorrow in Rotunda’s life.

Windham Rotunda was a beloved figure in the world of professional wrestling and his loss will be felt for years to come. I am shocked and saddened by this loss. RIP Bray Wyatt.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #51

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August 23, 2023

Happy Birthday, Todd!

It is another NEW COMIC BOOK DAY and, with school underway, I have less time to read. I came back from Comic World tonight and, since the Dodgers game was in a rain delay (and eventually postponed) I was able to get some of them read. I hope to get another post later this weekend with the rest of the new books.

Plus, I picked up a series of back issues at Comic World today. Some back issues of The Avengers during Avengers Dissembled, a series called Planetary from Warren Ellis, Bendis’s Secret War, Neil Gaiman’s Black Orchid three issue series, and World War Hulk issues of Incredible Hulk. I hope to get these read over the next week or so as well.

The books I started reading first this week included:

The Schlub#1. Story by Ryan Stegman & Kenny Porter with art by Tyrell Cannon. Freaky Friday meets The Boys. Roger Dalton is a down on his luck loser whose dentistry business is in jeopardy from his own brother. When a super hero named Cirrus crashed into his dentist office during a fight with villainous Wyrm, thing get strange. Roger winds up with a mysterious artifact that flips the consciousness of Roger with Cirrus, giving Roger the power that he had been lacking for so long. This was an interesting start that I am curious about movie forward.

The Immortal Thor #1. “All Weather Turns to Storm.” Written by Al Ewing and drawn by Martín Cóccolo. Alex Ross is the cover artist. A great new arc for the Thunder God as we get Loki, some frost giants, and some amazing creatures from the Utgard dimension. There are some utterly gorgeous images in this book, in particular the art near the last third of the book. The arrival of Toranos are breathtaking. I am more excited about Thor than I have in quite a while.

Amazing Spider-Man #32. Written by Zeb Wells and drawn by Patrick Gleason. Marcio Menyz did the cover art. Kraven the Hunter is back and causing trouble, heading after Norman Osborn. Spider-Man is to the rescue, but things go awry for Spidey. Kraven may have actually %$#%ed up badly.

Unleashed #1. Written by Kyle Starks and drawn by Jesus Hervas. The cover art was done by David Baldeón & Israel Silva. This is a combination of the DC League of Super Pets and Strays. It did feel better written than Strays (the movie) though (maybe Stray Dogs-comic series is a better comparison). Marvel animal characters are teaming up with such animals as Lockjaw, Goose, Lucky the Pizza Dog, Redwing and, apparently, Throg. And another appearance of Kraven the Hunter. The dialogue between the animals threw me a bit, but I think I am going to continue to give this a try. It is silly, but harmless.

Invincible Iron Man #9. “The End of Iron Man.” Written by Gerry Duggan and drawn by Juan Frigeri. Kael Ngu did the cover art. Tony Stark and Emma Frost are at their lowest. Stark has to give up his Iron Man armor and Emma just discovered about the massacre on the night of the Hellfire Gala. With their back against the wall, they take some drastic steps in their battle with Feilong and Orchis. The characterization of Tony Stark in this series has been top notch.

The Oddly Pedestrian Life of Christopher Chaos #3. Written by Tate Brombal and art by Isaac Goodhart. Nick Robles did the cover art. Christopher, Jordi (aka Dracula Boy) and Viv are in trouble and things are only getting worse. They all believe themselves to be monsters and the ghosts chasing them are making matters even more problematic.

Jean Grey #1. “Mind Maze” Written by Louise Simonson and drawn by Bernard Chang. I got a variant cover with Miss Minutes on it. Not sure what happened here. The book started with Jean’s latest death, but then went back to the time when Jean and the other original X-Men came to the present. They went back to their own time, but kept their memories of what happened in the future and suddenly Jean was becoming more drastic in her actions. It felt like a What If issue that is extending on. It was fairly engaging though.

Fantastic Four Annual #1. “Contest of Chaos: Part Three” Written by Zac Gorman and featuring art by Alan Robinson. Francesco Manna & Erick Arciniega did the cover art. The back up story with Clea, Spidey and Jessica Jones was written by Stephanie Phillips and drawn by Alberto Foche. The Contest of Chaos continues on, this time with Johnny Storm vs. Johnny Blaze. Human Torch vs. Ghost Rider. I have enjoyed these annuals so far as I am intrigued by what Agatha Harkness is up to.

No/One #5. Written by Kyle Higgins & Brian Buccellato. Art is by Geraldo Borges. The mystery behind No/One continues to enthrall me. In this issue, Aaron Kern, the man convicted for being No/One, recanted his confession and wound up being released. Things are heating up again as we reach the halfway point for this series.

Captain America Finale #1. Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly with art by Carmen Carnero. The Outer Circle storyline comes to an end as Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes bring the manipulators to their Doom (literally).

Tenement #3. Written by Jeff Lemire and drawn by Andrea Sorrentino. They are to Floor Seven. Not sure where Isaac had went, the group continue to explore this spooky building. The comic art is beautiful, but I have been having a tough time following everything so far. I have loved the previous Bone Orchard work so I am ready to continue this.

Rebel Moon Trailer #1

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This is a two-part film on Netflix from Zack Snyder.

I was surprised to hear what sounded like Anthony Hopkins’s voice immediately. I did not see him in th etrailer but I am sure that was his voice.

This feels epic, but is it going to be too much. Sometimes Snyder films are more style over substance. This is clearly a lot of world building going on.

Still, it looks to be fascinating at least. There are a lot of scenes that feel like it comes from other sci-fi franchises.

The film stars SOFIA BOUTELLA, CHARLIE HUNNAM, ED SKREIN, CLEOPATRA COLEMA, DJIMON HOUNSOU, ANTHONY HOPKINS, COREY STOLL and JENNA MALONE.

Only Murders in the Building S3 E4

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SPOILERS

“The White Room”

Only Murders in the Building returned this past Monday night with the next episode of the third season. Charles, Mabel and Oliver did a little more investigating on the murder of Ben Glenroy this week while Charles’s panic over his patter song from the musical Death Rattle Dazzle sent him into the White Room.

Apparently, the White Room is a panic-induced delusion suffered by stage actors where they do not realize what they are saying or doing. Charles’s trips into the White Room apparently resulted in some vile and shocking behavior during his song performance.

This was not the only thing that happened when he was in the White Room. He also proposed to his girlfriend Joy, who has just recently moved in with Charles- along with her 62 fish. Charles was trying to find a way to get her to move back out when he went into the delusion and ended up popping the question.

Meanwhile, Joy becomes yet another suspect as they found one of her lipsticks in Ben’s dressing room, with a picture of a pig drawn on the mirror in the red lipstick. Mabel discovered that someone was in the dressing room with Ben the night he collapsed and ‘died’ on stage.

We also got the return of Tina Fey as Cinda Canning with an offer to Mabel. It’s always fun to see Tina Fey on this show and I am curious about what she is really trying to do with her offer to Mabel.

Mabel, who was having trouble finding an apartment. She was shown doing a visit to an apartment that was very small (all white too) and you could tell that she simply did not want to move into this after living in the Arconia.

We did not see Meryl Streep this week, but we did hear about Oliver’s stress over trying to come up with the perfect date to break his rule about dating someone from his play. He eventually just texted her the word, ‘dinner?’.

It was good to get more into the mystery and less with the musical.

2023 EYG Hall of Fame Nominees

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It is that time of the year again. The poll is active and the ballot is available on the main page.

Vote here: https://embraceyourgeeknesseyg.com/

You may vote as many times as you would like.

You may vote for any nominees that you think deserve to be inducted in the 2023 Class of EYG HoF.

The poll remains open until Talk Like a Pirate Day (psst… that is September 19th, if you are a landlubber who did not know).

Nominees include:

Dungeons & Dragons (1983 animated TV program)

Barbie Doll (the toy)

G.I. Joe (the action figure)

The Armorer (a character from The Mandalorian)

John Wick (movie character)

The Witcher (streaming TV show on Netflix)

Wheel of Time (fantasy book series)

Return of the Jedi (Star Wars movie)

Smokey Bear (character)

time travel (theory)

Coelacanth (an ancient group of lobe-finned fish)

Neil de Grasse Tyson (American Astrophysicist)

Lock Ness Monster (legendary Scottish creature)

Power Rangers (characters/Team)

Frankenstein’s Monster (class monster)

Lebron James (NBA star player)

UFOs (unidentified flying objects)

Jurassic Park (movie featuring dinosaurs)

Marques Brownlee (YouTube creator)

streaming videos (digital online videos)

Kenner Star Wars toys (original Star Wars toys)

electric vehicles (new cars that run on electricity)

Dave Filoni (director, producer, screenwriter, and voice actor. Mind behind Mandalorian)

Medusa Deluxe

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What a wild ride.

Medusa Deluxe is a murder mystery set at a British competitive hairdressing contest. One contestant is found dead and scalped. The other contestants, models and lovers interact as the uncertainty of what happened washes over them.

The plot itself is not the most important aspect of this film. The flamboyant atmosphere and over-the-top characters dominate the screen.

The other true star of this film is the director, Thomas Hardiman, who made his directorial feature debut with this A24 film. His film was shot as it was a one-shot throughout. It clearly was not and I enjoyed picking out the hidden cuts, but it is a big swing to attempt to do this as your debut. Plus, it was done so well that if you did not know much about filmmaking, you could believe that they just followed the actors with the camera. It was smooth and beautifully constructed. This was a remarkable debut as a director.

The performances are all excellent. Some of the characters are strange, but every actor does an exceptional job. Standouts included Clare Perkins, who played Cleve, a hairdresser with a serious anger problem, Luke Pasqualino as Angel, the lover of the victim, and Harriet Webb as Kendra, another of the hairdressers.

There are some really strange things happen too as the movie progresses. There is a dance routine at the end of the film that is just amazing.

Now, the murder mystery does fade as the film goes. The story itself is a little weak and does not feel like the most important part of the film. However, the dialogue is spectacular, the characters are eccentric and bizarre, and the film’s technical aspects are just excellent. There are also some impressive stunts and a scene involving fire that is outstanding.

This is an original film with some of the most creative moments in it.

I rented this film on Vudu.

4.35 stars

The Bear S1 E7 & E8

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Spoilers

Wow. These two episodes were fire. I have to say, they felt more like a series finale than just a season finale. Most of the main storylines were wrapped up ion the eighth episode.

E7: “Review”

E8: “Braciole”

Episode seven was amazing, but I swear it was over like a snap. I paused writing this to look up the run time for the episode and it was only 20 minutes. So much was packed into that 20 minutes though that it really had a frantic pace, which really emphasized the breakdown that the characters were having in the show. It was set in real time and that added to the nature of the chaos happening in the restaurant.

The end was as anxiety-filled as the entire episode as I couldn’t believe that it was over. I had just mentioned how the crew had been starting to really blend as a team heading into this episode, but that went straight out the window.

“Review” was an outstanding episode and, probably, the best episode of the series so far.

Then, episode eight had some amazing work too. First, we kicked off with one of the best monologues you are going to see on TV from Jeremy Allan White. His seven minute monologue was so powerful and filled with amazing character admissions that had been building all season.

White had another astounding moment when he accidentally set the stove on fire and he was suddenly lost inside his head. You could almost hear his thoughts thinking that this would end the problems of the restaurant.

Richie had wound up in jail waiting to see if he would be charged with manslaughter because he had punched a guy who was tearing up the restaurant and the guy had hit his head. Thankfully, the guy awoke and Richie was not facing a manslaughter charge. You could see how this affected Richie and he made some realizations of his own.

Then Richie gave Carmy the letter he had found a few episodes ago from Michael. Another dramatic moment from White as he finally opened the letter.

It read “I love you dude. Let it rip.” and then on the back was a recipe for the family spaghetti and that which indicates that they should use smaller cans of tomatoes for their taste.

Another thing I had speculated on earlier in these posts was what Michael was doing with all the money that he had been borrowing or taking in. We discovered that answer here as when Carmy had opened up the tomato cans, he found bags of money in it.

Closing down The Beef and announcing the soon-to-be opened The Bear was very satisfying as a closing scene. Episode seven and eight really work well together and highlights the best parts of this series.

Season two is next up, featuring 10 episodes instead of the 8 like season one received.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #50

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August 20, 2023

Fifty posts in the EYG Comic Cavalcade! Of course, when I reached fifty posts in the Comic Catch-Up, I rebooted into this current format. I am not going to do that this time. We will continue to push forward with the EYG Comic Cavalcade moving ahead.

It is a good time to reflect on what I have done over the last year or so. I have gotten through a ton of the piles sitting around my house. The books are being bagged, boarded and boxed. I am in the process of reorganizing everything, which is a massive chore.

The comics I read on a weekly basis are really some of the best I have read in my years of collecting comics. I still consider myself a mostly Marvel guy, but the increase in my independent collection cannot be ignored. I would guess that Something is Killing the Children was the initial emphasis of this new push, though one can not deny that Jeff Lemire’s Gideon Falls had a lot to do with it too.

Some of my favorite Marvel books over the last few years are more than just Spider-Man books. It was unexpected, but I loved Hellcat, a few of the variations of Jessica Jones, and Loki. It always seemed that when I really started to enjoy a book, it would end. Now, with the limited series being the norm, it is easier to deal with.

I am still not into DC much, but I will admit that I am enjoying the Knight Terrors event. This week there were only five issues as things are starting to wrap up. My order of favorites this week would be Knight Terrors: Nightwing, Knight Terrors: Superman, Knight Terrors: Wonder Woman, Knight Terrors: Catwoman, and then Knight Terrors: Punchline. Punchline has been one that I have had a hard time getting involved with since I did not know the character prior to the event.

Other books that I completed this week:

Void Rivals #1. Written by Robert Kirkman and featuring art by Lorenzo De Felici. Ryan Barry and Mike Spicer did the cover art. What an unexpected pleasure this was. I had no idea that this book was tied into the Transformers at Image thing that is happening. Yes, the cover looked like a Transformer, but I did not make the connection. This would not be the first character that looked like a Transformer. Not only was this a Transformer, but it was Jetfire. Jetfire was my favorite Transformer character on the 80s cartoon (he was called Skyfire on the show), but his appearance here caught me completely off guard. I was interested by the two characters the book introduced at first, but when Jetfire showed up, the book truly started to pop. Void Rivals made me interested in checking out Transformers #1 from Image, something that I had not been before.

What If…? Dark: Moon Knight #1. Written by Erica Schulz and drawn by Edgar Salazar. The new Dark What If series of books have been interesting and this new issue deals with Moon Knight… at least a little bit of Moon Knight as he does not last long in the story. The whole ending with Marlene becoming a luminary of Ra and being taken over by Ra was weird, but fit well in the nature of the What If series.

Loki #3. “The Liar: Chapter Three.” Written by Dan Watters and drawn by German Peralta. Dustin Nguyen was the cover artist. Remember when I mentioned that the limited series allow me to know a story isn’t going to last. This one caught me unexpected when the final page said it would be concluded next issue. Four issues was not what I thought. I did enjoy the reunion with Loki, Wiccan and Hulkling.

Something Epic #4. Written and illustrated by Szymon Kudranski. The latest issue of the book that does more to celebrate creativity and the imagination of comic books than just about any book out there came out this week once again. It is working on creating the mythology of this universe with the existence of ‘epics’ and has placed Dan into almost a video game like situation. Something Epic is continuing to be the most original book I read.

X-Men: Days of Future Past-Doomsday #2. The prequel to the major X-Men story from the 1980s continues here as we get several of the mutants dying and Colossus and Kitty Pryde taking the chance to express their love for one another. The series is dark, but I did appreciate how it took a moment to find the joy inside the grief.

Star Signs #4. Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Megan Levens. The people with their star sign powers continue to join together, finding where they belong. It was a close call for the group to escape Mister Duke, and things look to be getting worse as we meet Libra.

Ghost Rider #17. “Part 2: Demonology” The team up between Ghost Rider and Wolverine is in full swing as they search for the young boy Bram. We get a flashback to where Logan and Ghost Rider meet for the first time too. The next part of the story takes place in the issues of Wolverine, which I do not get so I am not sure where this will go for me.

Marvel Voices: X-Men #1. This is a compilation of a series of shorts featuring the X-Men characters. I have to say I do not usually read these Voices books too closely, but I did enjoy this one and read it through. Bernard Chang & Marcelo Costa did the cover art.

Iron Man Annual #1. “Contest of Chaos: Part Two.” Written by Jason Loo and drawn by David Cutler. I had a variant cover drawn by Felipe Massatera. As we saw in the Spider-Man annual earlier this month, two heroes wind up fighting with each other and the winner winds up being taken. In this annual, we get Iron Man vs. Storm. There were some snipping going on through the book and it was a pretty solid fight between an X-Man and an Avenger. We also see a final few pages with Spidey and Jessica Jones heading to see Clea to look for answers.

Dark X-Men #1. “There is a Kingdom.” Written by Steve Foxe and featuring art by Jonas Scharf. Madelyne Pryor, the ruler of Limbo, returns to the forefront as she is helping some mutants escape the persecution of Orchis. She is also involved with Alex Summers, aka Havok. A bunch of interesting X-Men characters are in this book and it was a fun read.

Money Shot Comes Again #3. Written by Tim Seeley and drawn by Gisele Lagace. I have to say, this book is weird. I feel a little dirty reading it.

Here is to fifty more posts in the EYG Comic Cavalcade!

Blue Beetle

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The latest DC movie dropped this weekend as the superhero known as Blue Beetle made his big screen debut. I do like Jaime Reyes, the most recent version of the character of the Blue Beetle in the DC Comics.

I also liked the new Blue Beetle movie, though I did not love it. It was extremely watchable and worth the time.

This is basically the origin of Jaime Reyes (Xolo Maridueña) and how he came about having the Scarab, a powerful alien artifact that gives Jaime a dangerous weapon and armor. Kord Industries head Victoria Kord (Susan Sarandon) wanted to possess the Scarab as well and she had a plan to use it to create weapons for sale.

Xolo Maridueña was wonderfully cast as Jaime. Maridueña, one of the main stars of Netflix’s series Cobra Kai, has a charismatic presence and carries himself as a star. Some of the over-the-top acting in the third act was not the best from Maridueña, but it did not pull me away from the film.

Jaime’s family was a huge piece of the film, and brought some of the most emotional aspects of the story. Uncle Rudy was played by George Lopez. Rudy was distrustful of the government and was experimenting in his brother’s home. Alberto and Rocio (Damien Alcazar and Elpidia Carrillo), Jaime’s parents, his sister Milagro (Belissa Escobedo), and his grandmother Nana (Adriana Barraza) all lived together.

The idea behind this family is very much Latino and I did not relate as much to them as I might have. Some of the cheesiest aspects of the movie were centered around the family especially including some of the unexpected skills shown by Uncle Rudy and Nana. The movie required the audience to really extend the suspension of disbelief. It is something that you really have to get past in order to enjoy the movie. I was really not a fan of the character of Milagro at first, but I came around to her as the film went on. The family grew on me as the film went on and I was able to get past the strangeness.

The special effects are pretty good and the action was really fun. There were some times when I had a difficult time hearing what Jaime was saying, but that was the only drawback to these scenes.

I mentioned earlier about some emotional scenes and there were some very powerful ones and these very some of the best scenes of the movie. No spoilers to the content of these scnes, but you’ll know them when they come around.

The humor of the film was hit and miss. Again, as with several of the other criticisms I have levied with this movie, the humor was not something that stuck out as a major flaw. The criticisms I have of Blue Beetle were all just things that did not bother me that much.

Blue Beetle was a decent film that introduces us to a new super hero that is charming and fun to watch. It may not be the best comic book film ever, but it is an enjoyable one.

3.6 stars