So now that the Marvel one-shots are over, it frees up this Saturday Shorts to look at one of the greatest classics of all time. It is an animated video that is one of the few inducted into the EYG Hall of Fame. Let’s get this out of the way early…
I mean, there is an image from the cartoon on the banner. So it should not surprise anyone that the Merrie Melodies animated short, What’s Opera, Doc? is epic.
Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny took their normal rivalry to a new level as Elmer donned a Viking outfit, including his spear and magic helmet, to chase after the rascally rabbit in his Brünnhilde outfit.
Voiced by Mel Blanc and Arthur Q. Bryan, the cartoon included some of the greatest classic music of all time, bringing a tone of seriousness despite the silliness happening on screen. With the singing Elmer Fudd and Bugs Bunny, this transcended your typical Merrie Melodies show.
What’s Opera, Doc? has been considered one of the greatest animated cartoons ever produced by Warner Brothers and appears in many lists of the greatest cartoons of all time.
The short has so much creativity and enjoyment that it ha been the one WB cartoon that sticks out in my memory, without anything else blending together with it. Kill the Wabbit!
In the vein of the very successful Team Thor shorts, Taika Waititi returned after the release of Thor Ragnarok with another visit into the life of Darryl, Thor’s former roommate.
Of course, Darryl, who has moved to Los Angeles, needed a new roommate because Thor had left him. Unfortunately for Darryl, the only person to have answered his want-ad was The Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum).
Grandmaster, who was one of the characters from Ragnarok, has a great relationship with Darryl as Grandmaster plots to take over earth. He bonds with Darryl despite Darryl’s own discomfort and anxiety about the situation.
Jeff Goldblum is fantastic here, taking the comedic place of Chris Hemsworth in this series of shorts. Once again written and directed by Taika Waititi, he provides his warped view on the MCU through these eccentric characters.
The follow-up to Team Thor Part 1 was more of the same from writer-director Taika Waititi and Chris Hemsworth.
Thor has taken an apartment with a human named Darryl (Daley Pearson) and Thor has been enjoying his time away from battle. Darryl struggled to get Thor to pay his rent because Thor did not understand the use of money. He believed that Asgardian coins he brought would suffice.
Instead, Thor hired a servant to help him with the tasks of polishing the hammer, making money and paying rent.
This is pretty much the same idea as the first one, which was so popular that they decided to make more.
Taika Waititi has a great grasp on the character of Thor and he brings out the fun in the situation unlike anyone else. Chris Hemsworth is extremely talented in the area of comedy and he shows his remarkable timing here.
I was incorrect when I said that the last Marvel One Shot was All Hail the King with Trevor Slattery. I did not know that this series of Thor shorts with his roommate Darryl were from the Marvel One Shots series, but that is how they were listed on Disney + so I thought I would watch them next.
Chris Hemsworth has a remarkable comedic timing. He is very funny and he has taken Thor in a much different direction than when he started out in the first Thor film. He has truly revitalized the character and he has said that he is much more interested in Thor now than he was before.
This short takes place after Civil War and it is Thor moving into an apartment in Australia with a man named Darryl (Daley Pearson). Thor is upset that neither Cap or Tony Stark called him during the conflict between them and he is trying to go on with his life.
Written and directed by Taika Waititi, this short gives us a definite flavor of how Waititi was going to take the character of Thor with Thor: Ragnarok.
This is a really funny little bit that I assume is outside of the typical MCU continuity. Watching Thor desperately trying to convince us that he was still relevant is so very funny.
This was the final of the Marvel One Shot series that Marvel Studio produced. It was in response to the remarkably infamous twist from Iron Man 3 where the Mandarin, as played by Sir Ben Kingsley, turned out to be nothing more than an actor playing a part. To many ardent fans, this was a twist that they used to hate on Iron Man 3. To me, it was quite a wild thing for Marvel to pull off.
However, they used this short to bring Trevor Slattery, the name of the actor who pretended to be the Mandarin, back to the forefront. The fact that an actor of such renown as Ben Kingsley would be willing to do this short speaks a lot to Marvel.
The character of Trevor Slattery is a ton of fun, almost in a world of his own. The main purpose of the short was to tell the world that there was still a character known as the Mandarin in the MCU besides the one being played by Trevor Slattery.
We see Trevor in prison banking off his reputation and his ability to do the scary Mandarin voice.
In fact, this one shot would eventually lead into one of the best Marvel films of 2021 in Shang Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, where we get to meet the actual Mandarin (though he does not go by that name) and we get a chance to see Trevor Slattery return to the MCU stage and we discover where he has been for all of these years.
Also in All Hail the King, look for a great cameo from Sam Rockwell as Justin Hammer.
Following in the footsteps of Captain America: The First Avenger comes Agent Carter, a Marvel One Shot that proceeded a short run TV series on ABC starring Hayley Atwell as Peggy Carter.
That TV series on ABC is one of the most underrated shows in the Marvel canon as it took a character and made her beloved. Hayley Atwell is charming and exceptional as an actress and every bit of it comes through in the series, as well as this one shot.
Peggy is working in the post war age in the intelligence business, a business that did not take well to a woman doing anything of the sort, and Peggy was becoming bored with the monotony of her position. Knowing she was more suited for the field, Peggy wished for an escape from the reports and the behind the scene paperwork she was being given.
When she had a chance to go take care of a mission on her own, she does so with flair and style becoming a special agent who fought side by side with Captain America.
There is a reason why Hayley Atwell keeps coming back to the MCU, most recently in Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness as Captain Carter. She is just awesome and she gets a chance to show that special oomph in Marvel One Shot: Agent Carter.
This was the first one shot to exceed double digits in minutes, and they use every second to highlight Peggy Carter and to provide reasons why we love her.
And I have to say that I felt touched when she pulled out the picture of Steve Rogers as thin, skinny Steve that we saw on her desk in Avengers: Endgame. It is one more awesome connection and a reason why we love the MCU continuity.
I thought I had seen all of the Marvel One Shots before, but then I came across Item 47 on Disney + and I realized that I had not.
Set after the events of The Avengers (2012), Item 47 was a piece of alien tech left on earth that was discovered by two people who started using it as a way to rob banks. This drew the attention of SHIELD and Agent Sitwell (Maximiliano Hernandez) and his boss Agent Blake (Titus Welliver).
It is hard to watch this short which made Agent Sitwell into the hero knowing that this could have been Agent Coulson (who died in Avengers) and that Sitwell would be revealed as a mole inside SHIELD for Hydra in the upcoming Captain America: The Winter Soldier.
It was kind of fun, but with the lack of someone who I really cared about, this one just felt like it was going through the motion.
These short four minutes show you everything that we love about Phil Coulson, and of course, the amazing Clark Gregg who portrayed him.
Stopping for gas as the erstwhile Agent of Shield was on his way to see the unmovable hammer that had appeared on earth in New Mexico, Agent Coulson crosses paths with some dimwits trying to rob the gas station.
It was a pity for them.
Phil Coulson was funny, calm and absolutely kick ass.
I am certain that this is one of the reasons why Coulson was brought back to head up ABC’s Agents of Shield TV show.
The first ever Saturday Short is off and running with the first of the Marvel One-Shots currently on Disney +. It was called The Consultant and it featured the ever awesome Clark Gregg as SHEILD Agent Phil Coulson. I have missed Phil Coulson since the ending of the Agents of Shield and getting a chance to see him again is one of the main reasons why the Saturday Short binge does not have to be shorts that I had never seen before.
I saw this on the DVD of Thor and the short explained the reason why Tony Stark met with General Ross (RIP William Hurt) as the post credit scene from the Incredible Hulk.
This short has very little to do except show off Clark Gregg and Maximiliano Hernandez (who played Jasper Sitwell), both of whom would play bigger roles in the beginning of the MCU.
The Marvel One Shots include more substance as they continue so the next ones will be more than a short scene with two cool actors reprising their characters.
It is Friday night and it is time again for the Movie Trivia Schmoedown’s weekly show, Friday Night Titans. This week we get a number one contenders match for the Innergeekdom championship on task with Saul facing off with Kevin “The Smasher” Smets. The winner of the match would earn a title match against the IG Champion Mike Kalinowski in a couple of weeks.
With all due respect to Saul, who I have gotten to like more this year, the Smets-Kalinowski rematch is clearly the match that everyone would want to see.
And after a solid performance from the Smasher, we will be getting that rematch.
Smets defeated Saul by TKO. There were some questions that Saul struggled with as it seemed as if he knew the answer and just could not pull it or just missed. He answered Travis “Wyatt” for the director of Bumblebee instead of Travis Knight. I am sure Saul knew the answer, but just lost it in the moment.
While Saul was respectable in his game, Kevin Smets looked like his old self. He was powerful and even survived the dreaded “opponent’s choice” spin under a Wild Card.
Smets dedicated the match to a Schmoedown fan, J.J. Singleton, who has been fighting his own battle against cancer since 2015. Smets, of course, had a year of cancer treatment and “Smashed cancer” but he wanted to continue to shine the light on those heroes who battle the horrid disease every day. Prayers to J.J. Singleton as the entire Schmoedown community wishes him the best.
In the opening contest of the show, the Wildberries defeated Jay Washington in a teams match. Yes, I said a teams match as Jay had to compete 2 on 1. In storyline, Kristian Harloff, who is in charge of the show, was punishing Jay for his involvement in last season’s attempt to oust him. Jay was commissioner last season, but now has been reinstated as a player and Harloff is going to put him through the ringer. The handicap match was the first step.
Being fair, first round questions for Jay counted as 2-points instead of one, which definitely helped him out. In fact, he was ahead at the end of round one. Sadly, the lack of a partner hurt Jay in round two when he got a category that was not in his wheelhouse.
Of course the Wildberries were out there loud and proud and promoting t-shirts. They always bring amazing charisma and an unmatched energy.
The end of the show featured a recorded message from the current Star Wars Champion Thomas “The Major” Harper who announced that, in order to spend time with his family, he was retiring from the Schmoedown and vacating the Star Wars Championship that he won last year. It was a surprise, but he talked about how much time the Schmoedown took away from his family, including his young children, and you could understand his eventual choice. He was a dominant force in Star Wars, but it will be interesting to see what happens next.
Firestarter is a remake of a Steven King film from 1984. I have not seen the 1984 version either which starred Drew Barrymore. The 2022 version starred Zac Efron and Ryan Kiera Armstrong.
Charlie (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) is a young girl, the daughter of two people with psychic powers. Charlie has pyrokinetic powers, which means she can set things on fire with her mind. Her family has been on the run as the group that experimented on her parents was looking for them.
Charlie’s father (Zac Efron) wants her to keep her powers hidden while Charlie’s mother (Sydney Lemmon) wanted her trained. When Charlie had a fire incident at school, the secret government entity known as The Shop, sent the dangerous Rainbird (Michael Greyeyes) after them with the mission to bring Charlie in alive.
This movie was bad. I had some initial thoughts that this could be a surprise, but, sadly, it was not. It was boring, among other issues.
One of the things that jumped out at me immediately was that the dialogue of the film was laughable. People do not really talk like this. It felt very unsophisticated. Maybe you saw it in the trailer, but the “liar, liar, pants on fire” line is an example of how bad it got.
I think young Ryan Kiera Armstrong does an adequate job with what she had to do. The story was just not very good and there was very little in character development.
The story felt rushed and things happen that made no sense. Rainbird as a character was all over the place. Why he does what he does in the third act is completely up in the air. The insanity of the third act was not a good thing. It was downright ridiculous. There were plenty of times where I had to hold back laughter or comments about why someone was doing something stupid.
Kurtwood Smith, the iconic actor, was in this movie kind of. He was in one scene. I have no idea why he appeared here for the few minutes of screen time that he got. His appearance had no effect on the story either.
Sadly enough, even the special effects of the new version was lacking. It did not look great which was a shock for a film coming out in 2022. Maybe they spent too much of the budget on Kurtwood Smith.
Was there a purpose for this movie to be remade? I don’t know, but, for whatever reason, this was just a bad film.
The second week of the Do Over is here and this week we are revisiting the 1993 Nora Ephron film starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan, Sleepless in Seattle.
I remember watching this film for the first time on VHS and being truly bored by it. In fact, I remember being so bored that I fell asleep during part of the movie. Despite enjoying the work of Tom Hanks, I haven’t been interested in revisiting this.
However, with the Do Over series, I gave Sleepless in Seattle another chance and I found it to be much more enjoyable than the first time.
Recently widowed, Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) moved with his son Jonah (Ross Malinger) away from Chicago where everything reminded him of his lost wife to Seattle for a new start. Jonah was seeing that his father was not moving on and he called into a radio show designed to help people with their love lives.
Jonah is able to get Sam on the phone to talk to the “doctor” and his story went out across the nation. Annie (Meg Ryan), engaged to a man (Bill Pullman) who was steady and kind, but who was not magical, became obsessed with Sam and Jonah, finding the pull of the pair to be irresistible.
Using the romantic movie An Affair to Remember as its backbone, Sleepless in Seattle is a romantic comedy that looks at the fantasy/magical side of love, how some loves are destined to come about despite distance or implausibility.
There is certainly a ton of implausibility inside this script. Just the idea that Jonah could get himself to the top of the Empire State Building from Seattle alone is implausible enough. There is the apparently live broadcast of “Dr. Marsha Fieldstone” on Network America that went live across the whole nation instead of being taped and recorded earlier. Not to mention that Jonah set this whole thing up because he read Annie’s letter that talked about Brooks Robinson. Oh, and there has never been a man like Bill Pullman’s character in the history of the world.
Sure, there are plenty of moments that are just not realistic, but that works in this movie. The movie depends on the unlikely to pull the viewers into the magic. We know that Annie is not a creeper and that there is some unspeakable connection between the two of them and you root for them to overcome these unlikely odds to find a way together. And the ending scene on the top of the Empire State Building is both amazingly romantic and downright weird at the same time.
Sleepless in Seattle is considered one of the greatest rom-coms of all time by many and I have a much more appreciative opinion of the film than I did before. It helps that Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan are exceptionally likeable actors and that Ross Malinger is as charming of a kid in the movies as you are going to find.
Season two came to shocking ending with some horrible scenes and some dramatic revelations.
Intriguingly, the early part of this episode seemed to set up a contradiction between Homelander and Billy Butcher as fathers for Ryan, and it was looking as if Homelander was being set up as a much better father than Billy, who wanted no part of Ryan. Billy only wanted Becca, not the kid. In the end, Billy does the right thing and Homelander shows his selfishness and evil soul.
By the way, the introduction of this episode with the school video was really disturbing.
The death of Becca was extremely well handled at the hands of Ryan. It was one of the most emotional beats of the series. Most of the time, The Boys gives us the shocking violence like heads exploding or pulling off someone’s face, but this was much more powerful.
The head exploder identity was revealed to be Congresswoman Victoria Neuman, as she blew up the head of the Church of the Collective, Alastair Adana at the end.
And they absolutely showed that “Girls Do Get It Done” with Maeve, Kimiko and Annie kicking the crap out of Stormfront. That conflict was so satisfying, but, Frenchie, why are you yelling out that the weapons are your only chance? Why give away your strength?
Homelander continues to lose his grip. He will be coming back in season three still in his role as the leader of the Seven. The final scene of Homelander pleasing himself in the air against the moon leaves us with an indelible impression of him.
What an explosive episode. Hm, maybe I should avoid those puns while dealing with the penultimate episode of season two of The Boys. Named “The Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker”, this episode continued the run of solid and shocking events leading to season two finale.
The boys believed that they finally had Vought by the short-hairs, but things changed with a bloody pop of a bunch of heads. Who is doing this? Is it Cindy whom we met last episode? Personally, that does not feel right. We did not see Cindy exploding just heads last episode. She blew up the whole guard that time. Why would she specifically target just heads? And this is clearly the same person who killed Raynor in episode one this season. I hope this mystery gets resolved in the finale.
Oh, and C-SPAN.. what’s going on? You can’t go to blank screen sooner? Lots of heads exploded on live TV before you guys decided to shut it down.
RIP Lamplighter. We hardly knew ye…except that you loved porn videos.
Once Hughie talked him into going to the Tower to help try and save Starlight when Hughie was supposed to be babysitting him, it was clear he was not coming back alive. However, I did not expect it to have been by his own hand. Perhaps the same hand that Hughie cut off with a broken wine bottle. Seriously gross.
Hughie going in to rescue Annie, who had been caught thanks to her dumb-ass mother, was an awesome moment. As was Maeve force feeding Black Noir an Almond Joy (bringing that back from last season) because he had a tree nut allergy. I hope Black Noir is not dead because I love him despite his blind loyalty to Vought.
Highlander and Stormfront going to take Ryan away from his mother, by telling the kid the truth and getting him to turn on her was a despicable thing to do. Especially the line “He’ll still have a mother” coming from the O.G. Nazi, Stormfront. This makes me worried big-time for the kid. I assume that Billy Butcher will be involved in saving him, or at least, looking as if he will save him.
More machinations happening with the Church of the Collective. Apparently Eagle the Archer is now persona non grata as The Deep and A-Train are told that no Church member should communicate with Eagle any longer. Sounds as if Eagle has found a way out from his Fresca induced loyalty.
Billy Butcher and his emotional reunion with his father was tough to watch as well. I am just happy that his father did not get tossed over the railing, because I truly thought that was what was about to happen.
There are so many stories dangling around season two and I expect a crazy finale to start to build toward season three this coming June.
I have not been as big of a fan of season two of The Boys as I was of season one, but last episode was a real step up for me and then episode 6, “Down the Road and Back Again” may have been my favorite episode of the entire series so far, dating back to season 1.
In the episode, we got a Frenchie flashback to the night where he was supposed to be following Lamplighter, but the fiery hero ended up burning children alive. Along the way, we meet Lamplighter in the form of Sean Ashmore (from X-Men movies and The Rookie). Once again, the show takes us in a different, unexpected path by showing us how Lamplighter was being tormented by the memories of that night, how he was not intending to kill the children, and how Frenchie fit into the narrative of the evening. It was exceptionally well done introducing this character and not just making him the evil flamethrower that a lot of series would have done. It even seems that Lamplighter is going to be with the Boys for now.
All of this happening inside the Sage Grove Center, an experimental lab where humans were being given Compound-V and were being tested on how they reacted. Some adjusted well, some were going crazy while others still were exploding. Inside here, we meet Cindy whose powers are terrifying. Cindy escapes too, providing another potential foil for either our heroes or the Seven to face eventually.
This episode also brought more of a connection between Butcher and Annie. I loved how Annie started off with a confrontation with Butcher, laying down some truth that I 100% agree with when it comes to Karl Urban’s character. It was an important scene that may help Butcher eventually be able to accept Ryan, Becca’s son.
There were some tough moments too, as when Annie killed Lt. Randy Disher (from Monk) to get his car in order to try and save Hughie, who had been injured terribly earlier in the show. It showed how Annie and Butcher had more in common than either were comfortable with and that they both have real feelings for Hughie. Hughie was bringing them together while he was unconscious.
There was perhaps the funniest moment of the entire series too as, during the riot at the Sage Grove Center, MM was attacked by the guy whose penis grew and wrapped around his neck.
Stormfront came clean with Homelander, who had been upset prior when he realized that she had been lying to him. She told him about her past as a Nazi and that she had been born in 1919. She laid out her plan to start a race war and how she wanted him to be front and center as the leader. Homelander kissed her after this, but there may still be more to this. Homelander is absolutely still deteriorating mentally. Perhaps this is the recognition his ego requires to keep from losing his mind, but we’ll have to see. He is certainly unstable.
The Deep brought a cell phone to Maeve that contained a video about the plane crash, taken aboard the plane. She planned on blackmailing Homelander to leave her and Elena alone, but Elena found the phone and it may have tainted her opinions toward Maeve.
This was a great episode and I am excited to see where this season goes.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 