Author Archives: Doc

Friday Night Titans #9

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SPOILERS

What a shocking heel turn. If I hadn’t seen it with my own eyes, I never would have believed it.

Ben Bateman and Kate Mulligan set up “PG” Peggy Gubbins and The Survivor for a team match with Ben and, a player he called a patreon of his. Nicknamed “Geoff” the guy came out, pretended to be really shy and was covered from head to toe.

Kate had told Peggy that after the match that she would be welcomed back into the Den, because Ben wanted the Den to head in a different, more positive direction.

If you did not see that swerve coming, you haven’t been watching wrestling.

The match was fine, but Ben and Geoff dominated, winning by TKO. And then it happened.

Geoff took off his mask and his outfit to reveal…

Dan Murrell.

The one player who I never thought would go heel and who always looked uncomfortable when Ben would make his snide remarks or use his bad behavior last year when they played together as Danger Zone had gone heel. And with this win, Danger Zone had earned a number one contenders match that had been negotiated at the beginning of the year by Kaiser in an attempt to keep Danger Zone in the Dungeon.

The show had recapped that whole early season storyline, which I thought was odd, but it was clear now why they did that.

Dan Murrell turning heel was something I thought Dan would never do. Kristian had said before that he tried to get Dan to go heel, but Dan always told him that he wouldn’t feel comfortable doing it. Times must have changed since then because he went real heel tongiht.

As they kept calling the mystery player Geoff, I was sure that it was Jeff Sneider. This would have been right up his alley, but I assume that is what the Schmoedown wanted you to think by calling him Geoff the whole match. There was just no way that this was Dan Murrell. And then it was.

Dan Murrell has been my favorite Schmoedown player by far since the Schmoedown’s early days. His match against John Campea brought me into the league to start with. I have cheered for him in every match he has played, even those with Danger Zone. I have never been a fan of the way Ben Bateman plays, but I do respect him as a player. I’m curious to see what will happen when Danger Zone plays again.

The undercard was a decent Innergeekdom match between Amaru Moses and Saul. I kind of like the way Saul has been carrying himself this year and he was inserted into the storyline with Kate Mulligan as well. Saul pulled the upset, defeating Amaru who beta Saul last year.

With this victory, Saul gets a number one contenders match in IG against “The Smasher” Kevin Smets. They had a very respectful, but intense promo confrontation with Jenn in the interview segment. Saul came up with a great line after Kevin spoke about how he had always embraced being the underdog. Saul said “You’re not the underdog anymore.”

I have to say, I enjoyed Saul’s work the last few weeks. It’s going to be difficult to knock off Kevin Smets, but, if you get the right questions, you never know.

Titans was very good this week. Two entertaining matches and a massive heel turn.

The Boys S2 E5

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I feel like this episode was more like it. I was not as much of a fan of The Boys S2 E4 but I believe this one was much more enjoyable.

The emotional downturn of Homelander continued as he accidentally killed an innocent while killing one of the super-terrorist. The nation’s public opinion began to drop, causing Homelander to become even more upset than he was. So upset that he pictured himself frying a group of protesters with his laser beam eyes before he left the area. He also had a violent sexual encounter with the apparently masochistic Stormfront. Homelander’s mental status will be huge for the rest of the season, I am sure.

This episode helped with my dislike of Billy Butcher. I have not liked this character much over the first 12 episodes of this series, but the episode does a good job of making him more relatable for me. A big part of it is the bulldog and the “taffy-making” aunt.

I want more of Black Noir, and he showed up this week. This guy is something special. I want him to face off with Homelander, but it sure seems as if he is totally loyal to Vought. Still, more of Black Noir.

Vought continued to film the movie of the origin of the Seven, albeit of the current roster instead of the originals. The three women of the Seven had their share of moments.

The Boys S2 E4

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SPOILERS

Not sure how I felt about this episode.

Homelander is certainly one sick puppy.

Billy Butcher is still one big jerk. I don’t care if he is right in his opinion on Vought pursuing Ryan if Billy and Becca went on the run with the boy, he is still one big a-hole. I just do not like Billy Butcher. He only cares about himself. I hope the show changes my mind sooner or later because I love Karl Urban, but as of right now, I could not like this guy less.

Easily the best part of this episode was the “We Didn’t Start the Fire” bit in the car with Annie and Hughie singing and MM trying to put up with it. The road trip part of this story with these three characters was the most effective, character building section of the story.

Homelander is just on the edge. He’s going go on some gigantic killing spree soon. Everything in his life seems to be trying to push him over the edge… including our apparently immortal racist superhero Stormfront (or is it Liberty?).

The episode had a weird framing device talking about love that turned out to be the interviews by the Church of the Collective to find a wife for The Deep. That was all kind of creepy.

That seemed to be the theme of the episode.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

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The Marvel Cinematic Universe continues on thru its massive storytelling with the latest huge film, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, the sequel to Doctor Strange and the continuation of stories that have been told in WandaVision Disney + series and Spider-Man: No Way Home.

There is almost no way to give a plot synopsis of this movie without spoiling something in this movie. This entire movie is a spoiler. So I am going to do my best to try and give a plot synopsis without spoiling anything. Dr. Strange gets pulled into a multiversal struggle by the appearance of new young hero America Chavez (Xochitl Gomez). Wanda Maximoff (Elizabeth Olson) is involved too.

There. Plot summarized.

Let’s talk about the stars of this movie. Elizabeth Olson is absolutely fantastic. She was amazing in WandaVision and she just kept killing it in MOM. She is such an asset to these films and has such a grasp on her character that she brings so much gravitas to her role. Wanda Maximoff is dominant.

Benedict Cumberbatch continues to grow into the character of Stephen Strange. Every time he played the Master of the Mystic Arts, he has gotten better. Strange has a definite character arc going on through this film and he carries it extremely well.

Benedict Wong, Rachel McAdams and Xochitl Gomez all give solid performances. I liked America Chavez here actually much more than I ever liked her in the comics. Xochitl Gomez is extremely charming and you connect to her right away. Rachel McAdams’s Christine is much more important to this story than she was in the first Dr. Strange flick. And Wong is just always awesome.

When Sam Raimi stepped in to replace Scott Derrickson as director of MOM, there was a lot of excitement, but also some doubt. Excitement because Raimi could bring an aesthetic to Doctor Strange unlike any other director. Raimi’s résumé seemed to fit perfectly with the weirdness that Dr. Strange could bring to the movies. Doubt because many people wondered how much freedom Raimi would have to create something that had his flavor to it in the MCU. Never fear, the film is ripe with Raimi flavor and it is a Sam Raimi film made inside the MCU. There are so many wonderful Raimi touches from the images to the camera angles that he makes a feast for the senses.

The special effects are tremendous. It is a beautiful film and there are very few missteps in the visual creation.

However, this is also a Sam Raimi film in the sense that it is a horror movie. There are some distinctly scary scenes dealing with body horror or frightening imagery that it might be too much for some of the MCU’s younger fans. It has a really nice balance between a horror movie and the super hero film that we are accustomed to.

I will say that there were a few scenes, particularly in the middle, that I found it difficult to connect to or that I thought I should feel more than I did. I have some theories about why that was, but I can’t go into them without diving into spoiler area so I will just say that some of the emotional beats very not as emotional as I would have liked them to be.

Part of that could be the pacing of the film. It was at a rapid pace and I think I would have liked to have seen this movie get maybe 20 minutes more. That might have allowed me some more time to let certain scenes breathe. Much like the finale of Moon Knight from earlier this week, the shorter run time might have been a challenge.

Another reason may have been the expectations I had for the special cameos that were going to be in this movie…or so I thought. Again, no spoilers, but there were way fewer cameos than I thought there would be. I think it is a good thing, but my own expectations may have been playing havoc with what I watched. I plan on seeing the film again tomorrow and I will see how a second viewing does or does not change that feeling. Expectations about what COULD have been in this movie is always my fault, not the films. I should learn to just sit back and enjoy what it gives me instead of me worrying about what it doesn’t.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is an insane film, with great imagery and some unbelievable story beats. Benedict Cumberbatch and Elizabeth Olson are MVPs of the film and we are introduced to a great new character (another possible ‘Young Avenger’). Sam Raimi brings his directorial skill to the film that makes it feel like nothing we have seen in the MCU yet while still maintaining its connection to the ongoing story of the MCU. Some pacing issues aside, MOM is another success for Marvel Studios.

4.75 stars

Moon Knight S1 E6

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SPOILERS for FINALE

“Gods and Monsters“

Moon Knight came to a conclusion this morning with a fantastic finale episode that should have given those people complaining about a lack of Moon Knight or a lack of action just what they wanted.

For the record, I have not been complaining about this at all. I have thoroughly enjoyed following the life of Marc Specter, either as himself or his alter Steven Grant. I consider having Marc on screen the same thing as having Moon Knight on screen.

But there was plenty of Moon Knight (and Mr. Knight) in the finale as he took on Harrow in the streets of Cairo. Meanwhile, gigantic Ammit was fighting Khonshu outside the pyramids. The action was planned out well and then the blackout moment that we haven’t seen in a few episodes took me by surprise. Jake?

I’m jumping around, but the post credit scene with the official debut of Jake Lockley, still under control of Khonshu, arriving to kill off Harrow was an awesome moment. I had a sneaking suspicion that Jake would show up and be named in the post credit scene. I was not sure how that would be done, and I did not see the way they did it coming. It was great.

Leyla, the newly minted avatar of Taweret, is amazing. Her wings were stunning and looked so bad ass. I loved how they carried out her story. I was afraid that they would have her take the power of Moon Knight instead and I’m not sure how I would have felt about that. She has been a secondary character and the show has been about Marc and Steven. No one else should be finishing up a fight but them (or… I guess, Jake).

I thought the special effects were just spectacular, especially with the god fight. There was a shot of harrow walking with Khonshu and Ammit fighting behind him that was just exceptional. All three of the Egyptian deities that we got in this series (Khonshu, Ammit, Taweret) were brilliantly designed and the execution of the CGI was seamless.

I will say that this week’s finale was a bit of a step back from last week’s brilliant episode, but that is to be expected. Last week was one of the best episodes of TV that Marvel Studios have put together so far. The finale pacing did feel somewhat rushed. It would have been nice if the episode was closer to the hour mark than it was to the 40 minute mark. That would have given some of the emotional parts (such as an excellent scene with Marc and Steven in the sands) some time to breathe. I’m not sure why the finale turned out to be the shortest of the episodes, but that is what happened.

In fact, I think there was enough story here that they could have had 7 episodes instead of six. It is not a complaint that is going to ruin my love of this series, but it is more of a wish instead.

Here is my list of Marvel Studio Disney + series so far.

  1. WandaVision. This continues to be my #1. A lot of emotion and so much fun. I could not wait for the next episode to arrive every week.
  2. Loki. Very close to WandaVision. I loved the creativity and the craziness of Loki.
  3. Moon Knight. Close to Loki, but just behind. Oscar Isaac is the MVP and probably the best actor of any Marvel series (with Elizabeth Olson right there too).
  4. Hawkeye. Lots of fun and a great Christmas tone. Kingpin returned. Hailee Steinfeld and Florence Pugh were sensational both together and with anyone else who shared scenes.
  5. Falcon and the Winter Soldier. This moved up a notch because of some of the emotional moments I recently revisited. It was messed with during COVID so I give it a bit of a break.
  6. What If…?. This is a vital series for the upcoming Dr. Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. The animation was astounding, but the fact that it is animation moves it back a tad.

We are about a month away from Ms. Marvel. We’ll see where that one falls.

The Boys S2 E3

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Remember when I said that episode two of season two was more of a character piece? Well, episode three just kicked the crap out of that episode and took its lunch money.

I had watched a season two trailer after I finished season one, and I damn sure wish I hadn’t because that trailer spoiled a whole bunch of shocking moments in this episode that would have been absolutely insane had I not knew they were coming.

For example, Billy Butcher in the speedboat ramming a whale that had been placed in the path by The Deep which sent the boat inside the whale like a giant missile. RIP Lucy the whale. We hardly knew ye.

I mean… holy crap.

That had to be some of the grossest filming that this cast ever had to go through. How much fake blood and intestines did they have to use?

Also, we saw Homelander ordering Starlight to kill a fairly defeated Hughie. Admittedly, there was a whole Billy Joel allusion that made this moment even more painful. I feel so bad for Hughie because he has been taking it in the rump this whole season.

Oh, and Homelander threw his son off the house roof to see if he could fly. It was another moment spoiled by that trailer. I can only assume the tension that might have been built had I not known that Homelander was tossing poor Ryan off the roof. I did enjoy Ryan’s response to his father here.

I am glad that the reveal to the world about Compound-V came here and didn’t carry on through the entire second season. As I said, I felt that this had played out in season 1 and getting it out of the way in season 2 was smart.

Kimiko’s brother having his hands ripped apart by Stormfront, who turned out to be dramatically racist apparently, was a horrible and Stormfront has set herself up for an eventual faceoff with Kimiko.

The Boys are absolutely falling apart. I feel so bad for Hughie, because he has been taking the brunt of the problems, but everyone has been taking their share. The show has truly been sending them down the low level, putting them at the worst possible moment.

I’m not sure where they go from here. With the Compound-V done, and Vought seemingly unfazed with the revelation (blaming it on the recently deceased Madalyn Stillwell), what do the Boys do now? Is it all a revenge season? Is there another path? There are only five more episodes in season 2 and they certainly can’t depend on harpooning a whale with a speedboat. I assume Stormfront will be front and center, but where do the Boys come in?

The Boys S2 E2

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The second episode of The Boys on Amazon Prime in season two was less violent than episode one was, but there were a bunch of tense scenes that were character driven.

I officially do not like Billy Butcher. He’s a hypocrite and selfish-as-hell and if I were Hughie, I would have left his ass when he punched me and threatened to murder me. Sure, Butcher just found out about Becca being alive (and Becca has some guts too standing up to Homelander as she did), but he still only gives a crap about his own life and he does not give a care to anyone else.

I love Karl Urban and his performance has been excellent, but I just cannot stand this character and I want him to get his just desserts.

Starlight’s confrontation with A-Train was epic. She came out of her own cocoon and put that jerk in his place. Bringing up A-Train’s murder of Popclaw was excellent and showed some real backbone. One wonders how much the new attitude came from the time Starlight spent with Stormfront, who sure seemed to not take anyone’s crap. I get a feeling that Starlight has been inspired by the latest female in the Seven.

Then, the most ridiculously wonderful thing happened. The Deep got stoned from the cult (with Fresca?) and sang a song with his gills (who were voiced by Patton Oswald). They sang “You are so Beautiful” together in the most bizarre thing I have seen on this show. The Deep is going deep into his soul to try and work out his personal issues and his body shame. This was a character that I never wanted to cheer for, but I am slowly coming around to a new way of thinking for our fish-talking superhero.

Princess Maeve got a great scene too with her secret ex-girlfriend and she admitted to her that she was afraid that Homelander would kill her if he knew the truth. When Maeve admitted that the reason she told her now was that she didn’t want her to keep hating her, well that was powerful.

Sadly, Kimiko’s brother turned out to be one of the super terrorists that the Boys were pursuing. More conflict from within the group.

This episode was a lot slower, but that was not a bad thing. Solid episode that developed characters instead of just exploding heads.

The Boys S2 E1

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SPOILERS

After binging the first season yesterday, I started season two of The Boys tonight in what is going to be more extended of a time frame. The story continued with all of the favorite character from season one still around and stuck deep in their individual troubles,

The Boys, aka Hughie, Frenchie, MM and Kimiko are on the run, hiding out from a public that sees them as the most wanted fugitive in the country. We do not see Butcher at this time and they struggle to try an determine exactly what their next step will be.

Meanwhile, Homelander has started to assume more of an alpha male role at Vought since he killed Stillwater. The world at large believes that Butcher killed Stillwater with his bomb, even though we all know that Homelander was the actual killer. There was no mention of Becca Butcher and her son’s living status. We see her eight near the end, but we have no idea what has happened from the cliffhanger at the end of season 1 episode 8.

I’m just here to say… I want more Black Noir.

We see more of the downward spiral of The Deep, living in Ohio. The Deep had another minor breakdown at a water park and wound up in a jail cell. When he was bailed out by another minor hero, Eagle the Archer, who brought The Deep back to his place and introduced him to what looked to be a super hero cult, The Church of the Collective.

We meet our newest member of the Seven with Stormfront. That was after Homelander rejected a potential new member who was blind with super hearing. And rejected in a extremely vicious manner.

This show is incredibly violent as always, including another head exploding in this episode, and The Boys continue to be excellent. I do worry a little bit about the story continuing to be “we’ve got to find the Compound-V” again this year. It feels like this was played out by the end of season 1, but I am here to see what the series has in store for me.

Of course, the episode ended with Billy Butcher back and rejoining the Boys. What happened to him? Where has he been? He does not look any worse for the wear. I guess we’ll find out next episode.

The Boys S1 E7-8

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Spoilers

Ah, Elisabeth Shue, we hardly knew ya.

The Boys have two sides to the same psychopathic coin in Homelander and Billy Butcher. Neither of them are heroes in this series. Butcher may have been with our protagonists, but he was more of a conflict among them than he was another protagonist. I love Karl Urban, but truthfully, I found myself tired of him by these episodes too.

Meanwhile, Hughie showed us what a character who was easy to root for, an underdog who was likeable and provided us with a heroic individual. He wouldn’t even leave A-Train to die on the ground after the heart attack. Even Starlight considered just leaving him there, but Hughie refused to just let him die.

I’m not sure I loved the ending of the series. It felt as if there was a huge switch between episode 7 and episode 8 without a lot of explanation.

I also guess my thought that Elisabeth Shue was Homelander’s mother was incorrect, since she had sex with him. I kept waiting for her to drop the incest angle, but it did not happen.

The whole “Butcher’s wife is still alive” twist at the end was interesting. It feels kind of cruel, but in the best way possible.

The Deep is truly paying the karma back over the last few episodes, including getting a feel of what it is like to be on the other end of the sexual assault.

I am looking forward to see where season two takes me. I will be starting that some time this week.

The Boys S1 E5-6

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Spoilers

Episode 5 took a huge dive into religion, especially Christianity. Starlight went to speak to the Believe Expo in her home town and to see Ezekiel, a preacher (who we saw in a bar scene in a homosexual encounter) who is also a supe who can stretch. Starlight delivered a speech standing up for herself and making her points about how she did not believe in the messages that were being preached at the Believe Expo.

Hughie came to the Believe Expo as Starlight’s guest, but he had a separate assignment. He had to go to Ezekiel and blackmail him to reveal everything that he knew about Compound-V.

There is a ton of great character moments here too. We learn some info on Rebecca Saunders Butcher (Butcher’s missing, presumed dead wife), Maeve was having some problems, and we started seeing some signs of Homelander had some kind of issue with Madelyn Stillwell’s baby. It looked later in the episode that the answer is that Homelander was Stillwell’s son.

With the info from Ezekiel, Butcher and MM found their way to a hospital where they discovered that they were injecting babies with Compound-V to give them super powers. There was a ridiculous use of a baby with laser beam eyes.

Black Noir battled the Asian woman and left her dead…except she did not die. She healed. However, Popclaw did not heal since A-Train killed her by injecting her with heroin.

Episode 6 Vought began to attempt to revitalize the image of the Seven through a series of vignettes.

The episode had more wonderful character moments including

  • Learning the Asian woman’s name (Kimiko) and her back story
  • Mesmer, a psychic, helped reveal her past and then betrayed them to Homelander
  • We learned what had happened to Becca Butcher
  • The Deep was revealed as the sexual abuser of Starlight to the public
  • Frenchie and Kimiko continued to bond
  • Starlight dropped out of view, hiding out with Hughie
  • Hughie and Annie bond, but Butcher played cockblocker
  • Starlight stood up to Stillwell
  • Vought is making Compound-V boosted terrorists to push militarization of supers

The Boys S1 E2-4

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SPOILERS

There were some serious events that happened in these three episodes. It has been a great three episode arc so far. The capture and eventual murder of Translucent, the race for A-Train, the failed attempt to save the hijacked airplane, blackmail of a Senator by a shape shifter, Popclaw popping the head of her landlord with her vagina…

Yeah, that one was shocking.

The team of Butcher, Frenchie, Hughie gained a fourth member with Mother’s Milk. The four of them were investigating A-Train and his use of a performance enhancer called Compound-V. Meanwhile, Hughie is getting closer to Annie, aka Starlight while he was having guilt and flashes to some of the things that he had done.

This continues to be a fantastic deconstruction of the superhero genre and it is doing it with some excellent characterization and storytelling. Vought’s efforts to get superheroes allowed to join the military of the United States, all led by Elisabeth Shue keeps one wondering what is going to happen next. Hughie is getting further away from the supervillain that I thought he might become after episode one.

There is a new and mysterious woman involved heavily in episode 4. She was very brutal and violent, tied somehow to the Compound-V.

The Deep has gone from a horrible sexual predator in episode one to a comedic presence with one of the most unbelievably chaotic scenes of the series involving an attempted escape of a dolphin from a water park. I couldn’t believe what I was watching.

There really are a ton of irons in the fire. I haven’t even mentioned the continued behavior of Homelander, who feels as if he is heading toward big bad status of the series.

This has been excellent so far and I am excited to see where it goes next. There are a lot of storylines underway and I expect that they will intersect before too long.

The Boys S1 E1

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SPOILERS

“The Name of the Game“

I have heard a lot of positives about The Boys on Amazon Prime. It has always sounded like a series that I would like, yet I have not gotten into it. Today, as I was working on the month banner for June, I came across the fact that Season Three of the Boys will be coming out in June this year. Going over to Prime, I saw that each of the first two seasons had 8 episodes around an hour-ish each. I figured that I could easily blow through those before the debut of season three so I decided to give it a chance.

Episode one grabbed me right away.

The set up was extremely intriguing, especially with Hughie and Robin and their shocking scene. I did not see that coming and my jaw dropped. I also loved how Hughie did not move forward as I expected him to. I saw this as the origin story of a supervillain (and it may yet be for all I know), but the fact that he is my protagonist, and the easiest character to cheer for in the show, that takes what seemed obvious and made it uncertain.

I enjoyed how this show seemed to be breaking down the superhero tropes and playing with the genre. The Seven, the group of heroes idolized by the public, are actually a group of self-centered, selfish, asshats.

The show smartly gives us Starlight, a new member of the Seven for the audience to follow. She has the general qualities that we look for in our heroes which makes the scene with The Deep all the more disturbing.

I am unfamiliar with the Dynamite comic book this show is based upon, which is great. I do not have to worry about expecting what is next and just enjoy the ride.

I also loved Karl Urban and his arrival on the scene. I have no idea the background of Billy Butcher, but I am excited to see.

Blade 2 (2002)

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Do Over: EYG Sunday Morning Revisit Week 1

With the DailyView concluded, I am beginning one of several new features at EYG. Every Sunday morning, I will be watching a film that I had seen before, but did not like. Many of these will be loved by others and I am going to do a Do Over to see if my thoughts on the film have changed since the first viewing. It has happened several times (Seven, Fargo being two major examples). Starting on May 1st, I have revisited Guillermo Del Toro’s sequel to the Daywalker himself, Blade 2.

I really enjoyed the first Blade and I had high expectations for the movie. I remember going to see it in the theater with a bunch of my friends down in Iowa City and coming out of it very disappointed. We had spent time before playing video games, particularly a fight video game, and I could not shake the feeling that Blade 2 was nothing more than just another video game. I thought the graphics were terrible and that it looked no better than the animation in the video games that we had played prior.

Unfortunately, I felt that way still after watching it this morning. There are just so many moments that are so rubbery in the fights that it takes me completely out of the movie.

Of course, Wesley Snipes is perfect casting. He personified the character of Blade beautifully, even in the moments of this movie that I did not like.

The return of Whistler (Kris Kristofferson) was ridiculous. They just wanted him back after his impactful death in the original and I am not sure I bought how they brought him back.

Norman Reedus was there too as a Whistler-lite replacement. His story arc made no sense and was there just for the predictable swerve. Reedus does much better work in The Walking Dead and, hopefully, gets a chance to play Johnny Blaze in the MCU because that feels like perfect casting. Here…not so much.

The villains are dull and reminded me too much of the Ubervamps from Buffy the Vampire Slayer. To be fair, this movie looks to have been released before (right around the same time) the Ubervamps made their appearance on Buffy, so this is most likely coincidental.

The story was lackluster and simplistic. I did like the idea of Blade being forced to team up with the vampires to face a greater threat, but, in the end, that plotline fell apart. There were plenty of moments that made no sense. It was just included in the film because the plot needed it to be there. There was very little in way of character development.

Leonor Varela was an interesting addition to the cast as Nyssa, but she was the only one of the entire vampire team that had any personality at all. The rest were all just characters there to look cool and to get picked off. Even Ron Perlman’s Reinhardt was the bad ass that you knew eventually would face off against Blade. And then that confrontation was anticlimactic.

Overall, I did not find much more enjoyable about Blade 2 than I did the first time. I am hoping that Marvel Studios will do better with their upcoming Blade film.

Ambulance

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I have to admit that I get tired of the excuse, “It’s a Michael Bay movie, what do you expect?”

I found that Ambulance was available to rent on Vudu this weekend. I had actually considered heading to the theater tomorrow to see it, but now I did not have to. I could watch it at home.

I’m not a fan of Michael Bay, but there have been a select few movies of his that I have liked and with a talent such as Jake Gyllenhaal in the film, I had some hope.

Did I mention that it is a Michael Bay movie?

Will Sharp (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) was desperate. His wife needed a surgery, but the insurance would not cover it. So he went to his adoptive brother Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal) for help. Unfortunately, Danny is getting ready to rob a bank and needed his brother’s help.

The robbery goes terribly wrong and Will, Danny a paramedic named Cam (Eiza González) and a cop that Will had shot (Jackson White) wind up inside an ambulance being chased by the police.

This is very much a Michael Bay movie. It is loud, stupid, has characters of little to no substance, dialogue that is laughable at times and a plot that makes little sense.

Sure, there are a few scenes of action that can be exciting, if you do not let yourself think about what is happening, because it rarely makes sense.

Jake Gyllenhaal is doing his best, but even he is too over the top. One of the issues is that none of these characters are worth rooting for. They are horrible and, despite the film trying its best, I just could not find anything redeeming about them. Even the heroic Cam is anything but likeable. Even if you could like her, she does some things that are just not possible or that make any sense at all. Cam’s last few scenes almost make her bearable. Almost.

By the way, I found the driving and pounding score to the film to be obnoxious and loud.

Some people will be happy with this. It is nothing more than ridiculous action with explosions and gunfire and car crashes. It had a minimal story with a group of actors giving what they had despite there not being much. Some will say that it is okay since it is just a “Michael Bay movie and why would you expect more?”.

2.4 stars

Marry Me

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I have had Marry Me on my list of 2022 movies to watch for quite awhile now. I was not interested in watching this movie while it was in the theaters, but once it started streaming on Peacock, I figured it would be just a matter of time.

I have become a huge fan of Owen Wilson since his turn as Moebius in the Loki series. He remains charming in this film. Jennifer Lopez is absolutely gorgeous and remarkably talented.

Marry Me is completely ridiculous and about as improbably as you are going to find, yet there is something about this rom-com that makes it enjoyable. If you think about this as a fairy tale/fantasy instead of a regular rom-com, it helps.

J-Lo played an international pop superstar Kat who is planning on a social media sensational wedding with her boyfriend Bastian (Maluma). Normal teacher Charlie (Owen Wilson) wound up at the wedding concert with his daughter (Chloe Coleman) and his friend (Sarah Silverman). Just prior to the wedding, Kat discovered Bastian had an affair with her assistant. She came out on stage and spoke to the world about the problems, and she spotted Charlie holding a “Marry Me” sign, (her new big single) and she called him up and they got married.

It turned into a whole publicity stunt, but the pair of them began to grow closer as they learned about who the other person was.

I have to say, the ending was surprisingly effective. Was it overly sentimental? Maybe. It is just a couple of likeable characters who you want to see get together. It is far from a perfect movie, but I liked watching it.

The music was good. Sure, it is not the type of music that I would listen to on a regular basis, but in this context, the music was enjoyable. Jimmy Fallon had a funny cameo. It worked as a rom-com.

I am glad I finally got around to Marry Me. For what it is worth, it is a fun time in a movie that shouldn’t work at all.

3.3 stars