Author Archives: Doc

Stranger Things S4 E6

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SPOILERS

“Chapter 6: The Dive”

Are you s#*%ing me?

So far in this season, Stranger Things has avoided doing the black screen cliffhanger, where they are at a desperate moment, full of tension and then they go black screen and head to credits. They had a chance when Max was running up the hill from the Upside Down hoping to escape Vecna. They threw a black screen up at that moment, only to return for the resolution before the episode ended. My emotions appreciated it.

This time, though, they couldn’t help themselves.

Poor Steve is stuck in the Upside Down with some kind of demon birds eating at him as he screamed and kicked in hopes of getting free and then…

Black screen.

Arrrrrrrrrrggggggghhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Great episode with the tension and frightfulness that Steve, Nancy and their group was facing to the humor of the crew at Suzie’s house searching for the address of the Nina Project.

Things are setting up nicely in Russia too as Murray and Joyce showed some really good planning and some serious backbone when dealing with Yuri. It is looking more and more like we are getting a Hopper, Joyce, Murray confrontation with the Russian Demogorgon gladiator style. The whole Hopper is a prisoner angle has been my least favorite so far in the season (outside of Argyle turning Jonathan into a stoner plot point), but I hope that everything that they have been building to in this season is going to be worth it in the end.

Then, I really want Dr. Brenner to die. I hate “Papa” so much. We continue the search into Eleven’s past to try and regain her powers. I am beginning to think that there is something coming in this story that is going to be a twist. The first scene of the season implied that Eleven massacred the entire project, but I am not sure that is the truth right now.

Then Jason seems to have an ability of the oratory nature. We have seen that all season with his pep talks to the basketball team and his friends, but after Patrick was murdered, it looks like he might be taking a step toward charismatic leader. I was wrong about him seeing Patrick’s death and accepting Eddie’s innocence like I speculated about last time. In fact, he doubled down, claiming Eddie is a vessel for the power of the Devil and he got the townspeople whipped up into a mob to search for Eddie.

There is one more episode remaining in the “Volume One” part of season four. It is a 2 1/2 hour episode and I am afraid that it is going to leave us off in another cliffhanger. Episodes 8 & 9 are going to drop at the beginning of July and I am just hoping that it is not a horrible cliffhanger like episode 6 left us with.

Stranger Things S4 E5

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“Chapter 5: The Nina Project”

After not seeing Eleven in episode 4, she is front and center in “The Nina Project” as Dr. Brenner returned and we see he is working with Owens to get Eleven back. I have to say, I really hate Brenner and I hope he finally dies for good.

It’s hard to tell exactly who is involved with whom here. I guess the government agents shooting up Joyce’s house last week were with Lt. Colonel Sullivan and not with Brenner. I was surprised that Owens was involved with Brenner, but he certainly looked as if some of the things Brenner was doing did not sit well with him.

Eleven does regain her powers and so who knows where this is going now as Eleven accepted the hand of “Papa.”

Meanwhile, our group found their way into the Creel house looking for clues. They realized that Vecnu was in the Upside Down opposite of this house. They are following their flashlights through the house, much like they have done during every season so far.

Mike, Jonathan, Will and Argyle bury Unknown Hero Agent Man and end up figuring out what Nina was… and discover they need a hacker and Mike suggests Dustin’s girlfriend Suzie in Salt Lake City.

Murray and Joyce escape from their bonds on the airplane and they fight Yuri, rendering him unconscious. We get some karate from Murray the black belt. The plane then crashed in the woods in Russia, I assume.

This episode felt like a transitional one to set up the final two episodes. With Patrick being killed as Jason was swimming after Eddie in a rowboat. Perhaps this will show Jason that Eddie is not the person behind Chrissy’s murder.

I think a lot of what is in this episode is important but it is nowhere as intense as the last couple of episodes. As I said, this is building for an awesome final two episodes, getting all the pieces into place.

Stranger Things S4 E4

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“Chapter 4: Dear Billy”

What an episode.

This was the best episode so far of season 4 of Stranger Things, by far. Every ne so far had had some issues for me, but “Dear Billy” was just intense and totally compelling with every plot piece to every story beat.

Easily the most emotional part was the whole Max section as she went around delivering letters to the people she loved in expectation of her dying at the hands of Vecna. This led to the best sequence of the series so far with Max in another dimension, confronting Vecna while Steven, Dustin and Lucas desperately try to snap her out of the the trance that she was in.

Tie that sequence in with the excellent use of Nancy and Robin confronting Victor Creel (played by the iconic Robert Englund) and finding a piece to the puzzle that could possibly help prevent Max’s death.

This entire act was just breathtaking and steeped in character. Sadie Sink is just an exceptional actor and she nailed this scene.

Then, the agents arrived at Joyce’s house, guns a blazing, killing one of the two cops assigned to protect Mike, Jonathan and Will. The second cop took out a bunch of the government agents in a fire fight in the house in an impressive one shot. He took a bullet trying to save them, but they all found themselves in Argyle’s pizza van. Mike, Jonathan and Will had already planned on ditching the cops and finding their way back to Hawkins before the strike team struck.

What has been my least favorite part of the season so far has been Hopper and the Russians, because it feels like such an outlier to the story. It’s last season’s leftovers. However, this episode’s Hopper scenes were just fabulous, exciting and just a thrill a minute. I did not think about a betrayal from the pilot, Yuri. I do remember that the Russians have a Demogorgon so perhaps that is how this aspect of the plot will tie in and make it feel like a Stranger Things element. Still, Hopper’s escape, eating peanut butter to recapture was just beautifully done.

No Eleven in this episode(outside of flashbacks), though her presence was felt.

Stranger Things S4 E3

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“Chapter 3: The Monsters and the Superheroes“

I am now fully on board.

I was very disappointed with the first chapter of the season four Stranger Things because it spent so much time with people I did not know. Looking back now after episode three, I understand why they told this story the way that they did and I can appreciate the effort.

Chapter Three was full out plot progression on all areas and it just just thrilling. I was compelled by every story going: Eleven and her inner struggles and police troubles, Lucas and his confliction between friend groups, Nancy and Robin’s investigation into the Victor Creel clue, the desperation of Mike to help Eleven, Dustin and Steve trying to help Eddie by figuring out what was happening with Vecna, Hopper’s soon to be escape attempt… so much going on and it is all firing on all cylinders right now. I am very happy.

There is so much tension right now and it gets even more ramped up by the return of Paul Reiser’s Sam Owens. Perhaps his supposed ability to give Eleven her powers back is a bit of a contrivance, but he certainly delivered a fantastic monologue to Eleven in that diner to convince her to come with him. Paul Reiser is a great actor and he brought that gravitas to the scene and kicked Stranger Things into high gear.

And then…Vecna has targeted Max. When his voice said Max for the first time, I nearly cried out. I love Max and specifically Sadie Sink, who is one of the best young actresses on the show, and I do not want to see her all bent and cracked out of shape. I don’t know how they’re going to stop Vecna from claiming Max, but I am so invested in them stopping him.

I want this season to end with Mike telling Eleven that he loves her. That is the only way it must work.

I am so happy that I feel that things have really been elevated, even if Eleven hitting Angela with the roller skate is going to be swept away easily, as Paul Reiser insinuated.

Wall-E (2008)

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Do Over: EYG Sunday Morning Revisit Week 5

The movie for this week’s Do Over is a film from Pixar, a studio where I have always enjoyed their efforts and some of my absolute favorite animated movies such as Toy Story 3 and Inside Out have been created. However, I have always stated that I did not like Wall-E, one of the films that is nearly universally beloved among the Pixar lineup. Wall-E won an Academy Award for Best Animated Film and holds 95% on Rotten Tomatoes. So this week’s Do Over will feature Wall-E to see if my opinion of this movie changed from when I first saw it years ago.

I did not see Wall-E in the theater. I would have watched the DVD of the film to watch it, which makes sense, since as I watched the film today on Disney +, there were several things that I did not remember. What I remember of my initial thoughts was that Wall-E was dull and boring. It is quite possible that I did not watch the entire film, skipping parts of it.

After watching this on Disney +, I found Wall-E to be considerably better than I remembered. I did not find it boring or dull in the slightest. While it may not break into my Pixar Top 10, it is certainly no longer going to be down at the bottom with Cars or The Good Dinosaur.

Wall-E (Ben Burtt) stood for Waste Allocation Load-Lifter: Earth-Class, which was assigned the job of cleaning a post-apocalyptic earth. Ultimately, the earth proved to be too damaged to be fixed and the robots all were gone. All, that was, except for one Wall-E unit that achieved sentience. Wall-E spent his day collecting intriguing pieces from the planet while compacting the rest into little blocks. Along with his cockroach friend, Wall-E did not realize that he longed for companionship as he watched old VHS copies of musicals.

One day, an egg-shaped probe arrived on earth named EVE (Elissa Knight), pronounced Eva, which stood for Extraterrestrial Vegetation Evaluator. Wall-E was taken with the new robot and tried to make friends with her. He showed EVE lots of the things that he had collected, including his VHS movies. When Wall-E showed her his latest discovery: a small, living plant, EVE went into her primary function, which was to return to the ship with the plant.

Wall-E hitched a ride along with EVE and found a starliner named Axiom. Aboard the ship was a population of humans who had become lazy and fat from decades of pampering and service by the robots. The humans sat on hover chairs and had the robots do even the littlest of jobs.

The Axion’s captain, Captain B. McCrea (Jeff Garlin) was just as slovenly, but when he learned of the existence of the plant from earth, he began to study the past history of earth, and he heard the terrible message from Shelby Forthright (Fred Willard), CEO/owner of the Buy n Large Corporation and President of Earth.

With the hope of the green plant, Wall-E, EVE and the Captain attempt to find a way to return to earth despite the resistance that sprung up against them.

This was a lovely film. The animation was extraordinary and remarkably imaginative. The section that I would have thought was boring back when I first watched this was an important aspect of the film as we learn more about our little robot and the status of the planet earth.

The film certainly seemed to have an anti-technology theme as it implied and came right out with how technology can cause humans to become complacent and lazy, despite their better judgments. However, I always thought that the humans in this movie were to represent the worst of the human race, those completely given in to the 7 sins, especially sloth and gluttony, but after watching this again, I do not think that is accurate. I think this is a warning to people that technology advancements could figuratively place them into a coma, a state of inactivity that causes them to stop thinking, living. The film wants people to be able to keep everything into perspective. You can tell it is not the seven sins because as soon as the plant appears, the humans kind of awaken from their trances and begin to hope to go home.

There are plenty of other themes at work here as well including the use of waste and the effects on the environment. For a movie about a little robot that has a limited amount of dialogue, Wall-E is considerably deep.

Wall-E is much better than I remembered and I am glad that I took the time during this Do Over to give it a second chance.

Stranger Things S4 E2

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“Chapter Two: Vecna’s Curse”

That was much better.

Interesting that of the two new series that I am watching, Obi-Wan Kenobi had a first episode that I absolutely loved and a second episode that I was disappointed with. Now, Stranger Things season four had a first episode that I did not like much and a second episode that I liked way more.

My complaint about Chapter One was that there was too much focus on characters that I did not know or care about. Chapter two is just the opposite as we see so much more with our main characters as the story kicks into high gear.

I will say that I was not a huge fan of the answers about Hopper. His whole Hopper in the gulag bit is not what I would want, but Joyce and Murray stuff helped make that storyline more engaging. In a show with so much fantastical things happening, Hopper’s story feels very mundane, or pedestrian. Maybe it’ll pick up as other sections of the plot have done.

Mike arrives in California and meets up with Elle. There is some issue going on with Will, but we will see more of that as the season moved on. Elle gets tormented by Angela at a roller skating rink, showing Mike that Elle had been lying to him about how positive her life in California has been. After Angela and her minions embarrassed Elle, she came back and hit her in the head with a roller skate in a terribly violent encounter. She kept flashing back to the slaughter in 1979.

My favorite parts of this film was the story going on in Hawkins. With Dustin and his crew searching for Eddie to get him to tell his story about what happened to Chrissy and with Nancy and Fred following the story and having Fred be the next victim of Vecna.

We got a name to pay attention to as Enoch from Agents of SHIELD (Joel Stoffer, playing Eddie Munson’s father) told Nancy the story about Victor Creel. Victor Creel will be a major piece of this season, I am sure.

This episode took a huge step in the right direction for me. There is a lot of horror elements that make the show stand out. It looks great on the screen and the effects are top notch.

Expectations and Privilege

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An EYG Editorial

I went to watch Top Gun: Maverick today and I overheard something that got my mind to racing about one of the biggest problems in the world of fandom today and I wanted to write about it while the thoughts are fresh.

Top Gun: Maverick ended and I was sitting in my seat as most of the theater filled out. I was staying for several reasons. One, I like to see credits, at least for a bit because there are so many talented people who work hard on movies. Two, I was enjoying the score that was playing over the credits. Three, I was in no rush, and four, and probably the most important, I was hoping that the line at the restroom would be shorter at the end of the credits.

I was not the only person still in the theater, but I was not paying any attention to them as I was just enjoying the after thoughts of an excellent movie. The credits end and I hear the lady standing directly in the row behind me say, “There better be more.”

I thought, is she waiting for a post credit scene? It’s Top Gun: Maverick. There was never going to be a post credit scene on this movie. It’s not a comic book movie or a fantasy film of some sort.

When the film ended and there was, of course, no post credit scene, the lady started to leave and then said to the people who she was with, “They got us” and then she added “Bastards.”

I was shocked, but it put something immediately into focus, a problem that has been rearing its ugly head all the more over the last few years. This woman clearly had an expectation that there should be a post credit scene and then, when there was not one, she reacted with privilege that she had been cheated out of something.

Who told you or hinted at you that there might be a post credit scene at the end of Top Gun: Maverick? No one, anywhere. I could MAYBE understand this reaction if it were a Marvel or DC movie and there were no post credit scene because we have become accustomed to them being there. And they always have them. But Top Gun? That makes no sense.

The only person at fault here is you, by building up your own expectations about what you think should be there.

Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness faced some of the same backlash, in my opinion. There had been so much speculation that the film would contain a hoard of cameos and that everything from the introduction of mutants to the arrival of Tom Cruise’s Superior Iron Man was going to happen in this movie, so some people were disappointed that the number of cameos were kept at a minimum and there were only a few multiverses included. The internet feeds all of this by taking any tiny news bit and writing articles that blow the info way out of proportion.

Now, to be fair, Marvel does a lot of this on purpose and they never outright reveal what is not going to happen. By trying to keep the surprises a surprise, they teach their audience to speculate about what could be connected. And they absolutely encourage this behavior with their Easter Eggs and including Patrick Stewart’s Professor Xavier in the trailers. If Professor X is there, and given away in the trailer, clearly there must be much more coming, and the fans are off to the races.

I will admit that I liked the movie better the second time around because my own expectations were removed and I was just able to watch it as a movie. I did not wonder every second if this is how the MCU was going to introduce the X-Men or when Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine was going to show up. I just enjoyed the film.

It is not just the movies either. I was at Comic World, my local comic shop, and discussing the Disney + series Moon Knight with another customer. He said that Marvel made a mistake and that he might have liked the show if they had made it like Moon Knight originally was, “Marvel’s Batman.” I wish I would have had time to continue that conversation because it highlights perfect the fact that fandom, at times, judges a movie or series by what they wanted it to be instead of watching it for what it is. This irritates me, though I understand it. I have done the same things before.

I remember when Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man came out and there was such an outrage about organic webs and no mechanical ones. I remember hating the idea and I even wrote something about how it damaged the character of Peter Parker, and then I saw the movie and it was fine. It didn’t bother me at all. However, if I had decided that I hated what they were trying to do and refused to watch the film, I would have missed out on some great Spidey movies (and Spider-Man 3).

My fervent wish for people in the internet community and for the lady at Cinemark today, don’t judge on expectations. You don’t deserve the filmmakers to do what you want. If there are no post credit scenes, just go home. These are pieces of art that the producers, directors, actors and all other creative arts individuals work hard on. Try not to judge it because of what is not there. If you watch a movie and you dislike it, that is absolutely fine. You have the right to like or dislike anything you want. Art is subjective. However, you have no right to say, “I think this should be included and because it is not there, I am mad.” Grow up. Deal with it.

Stranger Things S4 E1

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“Chapter One: The Hellfire Club”

Okay, I have finally been able to start Stranger Things season 4, which debuted on Netflix Friday. I had several other commitments to watch and could not start until this evening.

What the hell did I watch?

Season fours premiere episode was really odd. Sure, we saw our favorites from the past season and learn where they are currently at, the show threw at us a ton of new eccentric characters, giving them an excess amount of screen time.

Who the heck is Chrissy?

At first, I was kind of into what we were seeing, but as the focus increased on the new characters, I got less and less interested. I liked the way some of the characters we knew from before were being portrayed. There were plenty of troubles for our heroes as their friendships have been tested, and their lives have been messed up.

Max (Sadie Sink) is clearly struggling since her brother was killed in the finale of season three. Her troubles were engaging as we saw her withdraw from the group and break up with Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin). Speaking of Lucas, he has joined the basketball team and is finding that he is being pulled away from his friends. The whole basketball game story was bizarre and made little sense.

Jane, aka Elle aka Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) is going through plenty of typical high school problems in her new school in California. She was involved in several scenes right out of the “mean girls” playbook, which are made even more difficult since her powers seem to be gone.

Of course, maybe that is a good thing since we saw a flashback to 1979, with a distinctly de-aged Millie Bobby Brown murdering the entire group at Hawkins National Laboratories. That opening scene was great and intense and really set the tone…

Except it didn’t.

The tone of the rest of the show was pretty campy. Every once in awhile, there would be a tense scene that did not feel so hokey, but they seemed to slip into the unknown. By the second half of this episode, I was not sure what I was watching and was hoping it would end.

There was quite a bit of disappointment over this episode. The use of characters that I did not know was oft-putting for me and the characters I did know seemed to be acting in manners that didn’t fit or were painfully cliché.

I hope this gets better.

Top Gun: Maverick

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Just a few years ago, I watched, for the first time, Tom Cruise’s iconic film Top Gun, and I did not like it at all. I know it is a beloved film by many, but it was just not my thing. So I approached the sequel Top Gun: Maverick with less excitement than many people may have.

Still, there was a ton of positive word of mouth floating around about this movie, so my interest level had improved.

After seeing the IMAX version of Top Gun: Maverick, I can say without any doubt that this movie is worlds better than the original, in my opinion.

After years, Pete “Maverick” Mitchell (Tom Cruise) gets called back to train a group of young fighter pilots, the best fighter pilots in the world, in an attempt to carry out an improbable mission to bomb an uranium enrichment facility of an unnamed enemy country. Maverick was not wanted by Admiral “Cyclone” Simpson (Jon Hamm), but Maverick’s old friend Iceman (Val Kilmer), another admiral, overrules him. Maverick’s brand of rebellious behavior conflicts with everyone.

There is a great cast. The new pilots included Miles Teller (who played the son of Goose), Monica Barbaro, Lewis Pullman, Glen Powell, Greg Tarzan Davis, Jay Ellis and Danny Ramirez. Yes, most of these were fairly typical type characters, but you do grow to like them. Miles Teller is the character that really gets some time as his relationship with Maverick came to the front.

Top Gun: Maverick has much more depth and more emotional moments that connect with me than the first film. Tom Cruise is excellent throughout the film, carrying a lot of powerful angst on his shoulders, dealing with loss and his own doubts about his past. The scene between Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer was just outstanding.

The action scenes with the jets were totally compelling and put you on the edge of your seat the entire movie. There were so many stakes involved because you were never 100% sure who might be killed. The stunt work was amazing and the choreography is gorgeous. Some times it was hard to follow with who was who, but it never looked anything but spectacular.

It was not a perfect movie. The third act had not one, but two Deus ex Machinas involved, and both were pretty predictable. The events in the third act were really hard to believe as well. The thing is, by the third act, you are so into the movie that you cannot help but be swept up by what happened and the weakness of the story/plot does not jump out at you.

This was a lot of fun and was a complete exciting joy of a film that, if you look too close at the story, it may not hold up. However, if you just engage with the spectacular, you will have all kinds of fun. If you can see it in IMAX, do it. You will appreciate it all the more.

4.5 stars

Obi-Wan Kenobi Episode II

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“Part II”

So now I am not as confident.

After, what I thought was a sensational first episode, Obi-Wan Kenobi Episode II came back down to earth. Simply put, this felt like a giant step back in terms of just about everything.

It was not terrible. I’m not going to stop watching the show because of this episode, but it had a feel like much of the Book of Boba Fett series. I found it paced incorrectly, the characters felt just wrong, and the dialogue was not up to par on the first episode.

The show truly feels as if it is trying to recreate the Mando/Grogu dynamic with Obi-Wan and Leia, and, sadly, it did not seem to work for me.

I’m not sure why they rushed through so much of what could have been a strong story, but Obi-Wan found Leia, got her out of the clutches of the villains, avoided the Inquisitors and escaped the planet with her.

I did enjoy the appearance of Kumail Nanjiani as a fraudulent Jedi, scamming people for credits, but he also seemed to switch up his character midway through the episode and that felt too quick as well. Nanjiani is always welcome, but I’m not sure this was executed to its fullest extent.

The rooftop chase scene felt silly too. The Third Sister was the one standout of this show, but the whole conflict with The Grand Inquistor did not mean as much to me. I have not watched the animated Star Wars shows so the apparent retcon when Third Sister killed him (or so it seemed) did not register with me. I’m also not sure of the connection between Obi-Wan and Third Sister so I hope we find out why she was so obsessed with him.

I do like how Obi-Wan is struggling with using the Force and that he has to use a blaster because he does not have the fortitude or the confidence to wield the weapon of a Jedi.

I just found this episode disappointing and I hope Obi-Wan Kenobi gets back on the fight track now that Obi-Wan and Leia are together.

However, that last scene of the show with the shot of Vader…. that was powerful. Excited for his return.

Friday Night Titans #13

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SPOILERS

This week’s Friday Night Titans featured one of the greatest rivalries of the Innergeekdom division. Champion and the best IG player of all time Mike “The Killer” Kalinowski defended against Kevin “The Smasher” Smets.

This was the third time these two powerhouses of IG played each other. The first time was the infamous “Don’t Tell Peter” answer that temporarily halted Kevin Smets’ ascension, giving Mike the victory. In their second meeting, Kevin Smets dominated Kalinowski and took the IG title from him.

However, Smets’ momentum was stopped. First by Chandru the Chosen and secondly by a real life battle with prostate cancer. As Smets begin his recovery, inside his head, he was always hoping to return to the Schmoedown. Meanwhile, Mike Kalinowski was cementing himself as the greatest IG player we have ever seen, by regaining the championship for a third time and by defending it successfully against the best the Innergeekdom division could provide. He beat Chandru. He beat Robert Parker. He beat Amaru Moses. Despite being champion, these players all were expected to beat Kalinowski. They did not. Each time, Mike looked as if he was ready to falter, but each time he came back as IG Champ.

When Kevin Smets returned to the Schmoedown at the Spectacular, cancer free, a rematch with Kalinowski was what everyone had hoped for. Smets had to go on a journey to earn the rematch, defeating Chandru and then Saul, but the match was set up for episode 13 of Friday Night Titans.

And it did not disappoint.

Kalinowski, with his new face persona, was quipping throughout the match. He was having fun with the game. Kevin Smets was more intense, but did allow himself a few moments of levity as the game progressed.

Smets and Kalinowski were close through the first three rounds, ending up tied. The speed round was next. Kevin Smets nailed the first three questions like a machine and it looked as if the speed round would be the end of Kalinowski, but he showed what kind of champion he was by battling back and grabbing the final two questions of the speed round in a dramatic style.

In the end, Mike was given an extremely difficult 5-point question about 2012’s Dredd and Kevin Smets was crowned IG Champion once again.

Jenn Sterger carried out two extremely emotional post-match interviews because there was so much undertow of real life creeping into the story. Mike and Kevin are close friends outside the Schmoedown and they became even closer with Smets’ cancer that the respect and the love between them came out clear as day in the interviews. Both men added to their legacies with this excellent encounter.

Two underrated competitors were the undercard for Titans with Witney Seibold and Rachel Silvestrini matched up. Both of these competitors had yet to win a singles match, and they put on a good show. Both are remarkably knowledgeable. Seibold, in particular, were does plenty of podcasts with William Bibbiani, has always seemed to be underachieving in the Schmoedown.

Seibold got the victory over Silvestrini in a competitive match up that was fun to watch. Some of the most entertaining aspects of the match was the inclusion of Zaflertinflouse as manager. The character created by Kristin Harloff and Brett Sheridan on SEN Live, is completely wild and funny with his faux German accent and strange dance moves. He announced the formation of the faction, The House of Flouse. Even Witney cracked up several times during the match from Zaflertinflouse’s antics.

Obi-Wan Kenobi Episode 1

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SPOILERS FOR OBI-WAN KENOBI

“Part One”

I have not reviewed any of the Star Wars Disney + series so far, including The Mandalorian, The Book of Boba Fett or any of the animated series. However, after watching the first episode of the newest Star Wars series, Obi-Wan Kenobi, I feel that this is a series that deserves a write-up.

I really enjoyed this first episode.

Ewan McGregor returned as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the time frame during the years that he was a hermit on Tatooine keeping an eye on young Luke Skywalker. We see Obi-Wan in his depressed state, struggling to deal with the failures of his past.

The episode actually started with a group of flashbacks to the prequels, making them look so much cooler. If only those three films were as exciting and well done as this montage.

So coming into the series, one thought that the story would be Obi-Wan watching over Luke and protecting the young future Jedi. However, that does not appear to be what is happening. Instead, Obi-Wan is on his way to try and help save the kidnapped Leia Organa.

How cool it was to see Alderaan and a young Leia running through the forest and playing with her droid, Lola. Everything made a lot of sense as Leia’s adoptive parents contacted the hidden Obi-Wan to ask for help from the Jedi Master.

Ewan McGregor is such a great actor and he is piling on the layers of Obi-Wan as he resisted the call to return to action. It worked extremely well and gave him ways to create tension and anxiety in a character that we know makes it through to Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope.

The villains are really introduced well, with the Inquistors making an impact right off the bat.

I am very excited to continue the series.

Memory

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The latest Liam Neeson film arrived on Vudu recently and I gave it a watch. Memory did not last long in the theaters, but there have been decent films starring Liam Neeson over the years. Sure, several of them were interchangeable and forgettable, but not all of them.

Unfortunately, Memory is one that will not stick in my own memory for long either.

Alex Lewis (Liam Neeson) was an assassin-for-hire whose reputation for precision was well known. He was hired to carry out a contract on two people, a lowlife and a little girl. Alex refused to kill the girl, thus breaking the contract. He tried to get the contract revoked in his special brand of violence, but the girl still wound up dead. This sent Alex in a path of vengeance for those involved in the case.

Meanwhile, FBI agent Vincent Serra (Guy Pierce) had been involved with an investigation toward the little girl and her sex trafficking father and her death brought him into the case and crossing paths with Alex Lewis.

Oh, there is one more issue going on here. Alex Lewis was hoping to retire because his own memory was beginning to fail with Alzheimer’s Disease starting to develop, much like his brother, whom we saw for a moment.

Liam Neeson was fine here and he was different than in many of his other roles because he looked really old and shaky. That is, until he wasn’t and was a killing machine.

There were so many times during the film that I stopped and wondered who these people were. The villains were so underdeveloped and were nothing more than a person for Alex to kill. Alex was placed as our protagonist but then so was Vincent. There was a Mexican FBI agent Marquez (Harold Torres) who was constantly being, at best, treated as an outsider and, at worse, treated in a totally racist manner. There was meant to be a twist at the end but it was so poorly foreshadowed that it was painfully obvious what was going to happen.

The film was a mess with a poorly written story with weak characters. Liam Neeson deserves better than this.

2 stars

Agent Carter S2 E4-10

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I ripped through the final seven episodes of the second season of Agent Carter last night, once again not wanting to stop to write up a review for each episode. As I did for the first season, I would get to the end of an episode and just wanted to continue immediately. I very much enjoyed the second half of the second season as the stakes were upped with Whitney Frost and her quest for the Zero Matter.

Let’s hit some of my favorite moments:

  • The entire Jarvis and Ana relationship is the best relationship on television and right near the top of the MCU. And, of course, when Ana was shot by Frost, it shook Jarvis to his core and truly messed with his relationship with Peggy. Guilt and blame flew freely in some powerful scenes between these two fantastic actors.
  • I did not have near the emotional connection to Dr. Wilkes as I did when I originally watched Agent Carter on ABC. He was fine, but I remember rooting for him to be with Peggy. Now, not so much.
  • Peggy being impaled in episode 5 and being back to full strength by 7. I have to say that this was a bit iffy. Peggy may be remarkably trained and talented, but she is not super human and that sure looked like a killing blow.
  • Whitney wiping out half of the Council of 9 was quite the power move.
  • Howard Stark returned for the final episode once again, delivering a great line about Jarvis hitting a woman with the car when Jarvis drove into Whitney Frost.
  • I appreciated the use of secondary characters Rose and Aloysius Samberly in helpful, yet comedic ways. Samberly in particular was the total antithesis of a spy character.
  • The use of Dottie Underwood was interesting as they continued to set her up as Peggy’s arch nemesis but someone who has a healthy bit of respect for Carter.
  • Just how untrustworthy Jack Thompson is and whose side is he actually on. I loved how Peggy just went about her business even after Jack tried to find dirt on her to “balance the scales” between them. Peggy just said that she would never reveal his confidence, and we believe her.
  • Jack ending up in a bloody pile on the floor of his hotel room in the post credit scene was something I did not remember. However, it sure looked like the assailant was Ray Wise to me. Of course, this is a forever dangling plot since Agent Carter was not renewed for season three. I assume Thompson died there.
  • Musical dance numbers are always a plus!
  • Gamma cannon setting up a future issue for Bruce Banner?

I did enjoy a lot of the humor in this season, but there was quite a bit that felt forced as well. Anything between Peggy and Jarvis though, gold.

I wish this show had more of a following, because it was so well done. I am sure we will be getting more Agent Carter, in the form of Captain Carter as the MCU continues. I am happy with Sousa heading off into the multiverse with Quake from Agents of SHIELD.

Agent Carter is able to be binged and streamed on Disney +.

21 Jump Street (2012)

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Do Over: EYG Sunday Morning Revisit Week 4

Still not sure how I feel about this.

Everybody seemed to love 21 Jump Street, the “adaptation” of the 1980s TV show into an action/comedy movie starring Channing Tatum and Jonah Hill. I did not like it much at all, but this is the Do Over and I give films that I didn’t like the first time a second viewing to see if I missed something about it the first time.

Honestly, there are a ton of things in 21 Jump Street that I never like in movies. I am not a huge fan of vulgarity, and there is plenty of that in this movie. Drug jokes are not one of my favorites either and this movie’s whole plot focuses around drugs. I have never been a fan of Jonah Hill as he falls right into the loud, obnoxious protagonist character that I have always found off-putting. All of that is still in 21 Jump Street.

I will say that I found a little more to enjoy in the film the second time around.

I did appreciate the chemistry between Tatum and Hill. If they did not work together, the film absolutely falls apart. I found Channing Tatum to be surprisingly good. This was one of the first opportunities he has had to show his comedic timing and he does an excellent job with it.

I’m not sure if Chris Parnell is just going to be in every movie that I watch from now on as he was in three different films that I watched this weekend. Ice Cube was funny as the 21 Jump Street Captain, and the cameo with Johnny Depp and Peter DeLuise was fun.

The storyline is pretty stupid, which I think it was supposed to be. However, it is interesting looking at the idea of popularity in high school and how it has changed over the years. How the groups in high school form and how that affects the people involved. Getting a taste of being popular sent Jonah Hill off the deep end and he was doing things that he never should have been doing to maintain the level.

Phil Lloyd and Christopher Miller directed the film and tried to do something unexpected than just recycle an old TV show for nostalgia purposes. There were thoughts on deeper themes contained inside 21 Jump Street that elevates it above just another vulgar-comedy. Unfortunately, a lot of what turns me off in a comedy are on display here, so I still do not love the movie, even if I may respect it a little more.