Author Archives: Doc

The Unholy

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I returned to Cinemark today, fully immunized, for a double header. I have not been feeling desperate to go back to the theater though. Watching at home has been pretty convenient and comfortable. However, with a light, yet extended, weekend, I had some time to head out. So I grabbed my heavy-duty mask and headed for the theater.

Of the two film I saw, one was great, one was not.

This is the not.

A hearing-impaired girl named Alice (Cricket Brown) is visited and healed by what she believed was the Holy Virgin Mary. She also gained the ability to heal others through the prayer and belief. Disgraced journalist Gerry Fenn (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) is coincidentally in the area investigating a cattle mutilation story and stumbled across an artifact that freed up a demon. Fenn connected with Alice and hoped to use her story to get back his prime job.

There are a couple of familiar faces in the church with Father Hagan (William Sadler) and Bishop Gyles (Cary Elwes). I have to say, there were two moments where I was quoting The Princess Bride because of the familiarity of the scenes. And not in a good way.

Sadly, there is a lot of dumb here. Characters who are dumb doing things that are dumb. Jeffrey Dean Morgan feels as if his character is remarkably inconsistent and has a back story that is touch on, but not developed in any way. Alice is even less of a developed character.

The whole religious line of the story is surface level at best. There might have been an idea here that the film could have said something about, but it does not. The mysterious demon was never scary and the jump scares were nothing new or original. You have seen this all over the place.

There are some seriously laughable scenes. There was one scene where one of the priests ( it was actor Diogo Morgado) was trying to light a match and the spirit/demon kept blowing it out from over his shoulder. It was hilarious. Unfortunately for the movie, it was not supposed to be funny.

There were as many eye rolls for me here as anything else. The Unholy is not a good movie.

Go listen to EYG Hall of Famers Kiss’ song Unholy. It is much more entertaining and has been going through my head since.

1.8 stars

The Falcon and The Winter Soldier Episode 3

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SPOILERS FOR THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER EPISODE 3

Baron Zemo is here.

Daniel Brühl reprised his role from Captain America: Civil War starting big time in this week’s episode of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and he dominated the screen.

Bucky helps break out Zemo from his prison cell in Berlin (unbeknownst to Sam) and the scene where Bucky is telling Sam the “hypothetical” situation is awesome. Sam’s reaction, especially the line “I don’t like how casual you are being about this, it’s unnatural” which I absolutely laughed.

Anthony Mackie was great here with his quips throughout the episode.

Back to Daniel Brühl. I lost my mind when he walked onto screen with that jacket. It was perfect costume for Zemo, and that was before he put the purple mask on. We discover that Zemo is wealthy and has a ton of resources, including his own evil Alfred butler, played by Nicholas Pryor, who used to be Kevin Collins’ father on General Hospital/Port Charles. Brühl works as this character amazingly well.

Agent 13, Sharon Carter (Emily VanCamp) made her return as well, helping Sam, Bucky and Zemo in their search for the new super solider serum. We find out that there had been a limited amount of new serum created, and, when Zemo killed the scientist, the limit may have a shelf life. Sharon Carter showed off her super spy fighting skills as she beat the crap out of a bunch of henchmen.

Speculation: I really have a theory that Sharon Carter is going to be revealed as the Power Broker. When Sharon got into the car with her driver and she said that they were going to have two troubles, I got a feeling she had some nefarious actions in her future.

We got a huge setting for the first time, right out of the X-Men comic books. Madripoor is one of the iconic places in the Marvel Universe and, with the rights now under the Marvel Studio banner, it gets to make its debut in the MCU. The phrase “hive of scum and villainy” springs to mind when thinking about Madripoor (as does Patch, but that will be for another time). This is a setting that we will see again in the MCU without a doubt.

A view of Madripoor from Marvel Studios’ THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER exclusively on Disney+. Photo courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.

Then, the episode came to a close bringing up yet another tie in from Civil War, this time being Ayo (Florence Kasumba), apparently the second in charge of the Dora Milaje from Wakanda. Her arrival made a lot of sense since she was the Dora Milaje that was protecting King T’Chaka, who was killed in an explosion set by Baron Zemo. She might not be to fond of the idea that Bucky, a person they brought into Wakanda, helped “fix” him and dubbed him the White Wolf, helped the Wakandan king’s killer to escape.

Other points:

  • John Walker starting to show some cracks
  • Sam’s sister makes a return with an ill timed phone call
  • The whole snake shot thing was horrible.
  • Sam’s lines were epic: the reference to looking like a pimp and then not being able to run in heels…LOL
  • Flagsmasher Karli Morgenthau continues to be an enigma, showing both sides of her character.
  • I guess Sharon is also an art thief.

Three more episodes to go.

Godzilla vs. Kong

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Monster super slugfest. When you get two of the most iconic giant monsters together, monster super slugfest is what you should expect. Thankfully, Godzilla vs. Kong delivers in that department.

When Godzilla unexpectedly attacks an Apex Cybernetics technical site, CEO Walter Simmons (Demián Bichir) approached expert/author/scientist Nathan Lind (Alexander Skarsgård) for ideas on what to do. Nathan traveled to Skull Island to try and convince a former colleague, Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall), to use Kong, who she had been studying for years, to lead them to Hollow Earth, the legendary location believed to be the birthplace of the Titans.

Bringing Kong with them, the giant ape’s very presence attracted the attention of Godzilla, kicking off the ultimate battle of the alphas.

I believe that this movie is the best of the recent series of monster movies that include Godzilla (2014), Kong: Skull Island, and Godzilla: King of the Monsters. None of these movies were bad, per se. In fact, I liked most of them. However, they all suffered from the same misstep. The film focused way too much on the human characters and limited the amount of time with the monsters.

Admittedly, these movies require some form of human characters to hold the film together between huge monster fights, but some of the previous films may not have known exactly what the intent was of the film.

There are a couple of interesting characters here. The little deaf girl who had formed a connection with Kong, Jia (Kaylee Hottle) was one of the best. Kaylee Hottle makes her film debut in this role and she does a fantastic job. Millie Bobby Brown returns in her role as Madison from Godzilla: King of the Monsters. Kyler Chandler returns as her father with very little to do. Brian Tyree Henry plays a paranoid podcaster filled with conspiracy theories the whole way.

Godzilla vs. Kong does a much better job of balancing the humans and the monsters. The film seems to clearly have these human characters as thin plot points. They exist to put the minutes in the film as down periods. This film knows what we want.

The battles with Kong and Godzilla are some of the best of the series. The CGI and effects are beautiful and awe-inspiring. Once the film brings Kong and Godzilla together, it picks up the pace dramatically. While the first 30-45 minutes are fairly slow, the first watery fight is amazing.

The third act of the movie is just fire. Some of the best monster fights you could hope for. These battles are planned out perfectly and the choreography is on point. Yes, the plot is thin and contains plenty of holes, but it is good enough for what it needed to be. It needed to be there for an excuse to bring Kong and Godzilla face to face.

And kudos to the writers in having a clear cut winner between the two Titans while still maintaining the aura and the mystique of both of these icons.

Godzilla vs. Kong is a lot of fun and a full blown spectacle that should be enjoyed as what it is. A monster throwdown.

4 stars

King Kong (1933)

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With Godzilla vs. Kong opening worldwide this weekend and stomping into theaters and onto HBO Max this coming Wednesday, it was time to take a look at the past of the creatures. I had recently watched Godzilla Against MechaGodzilla so I thought that it was time to revisit King Kong. It had been decades since I had seen the original 1933 version so I decided to watch that over the 1976 or 2005 versions.

Of course, the fact that this is 1933 has to be taken into consideration with the movie. There is no fair way to compare the special effects, done here with stop motion animation, to anything more recent. I can only imagine what the people of 1933 thought of what they were seeing.

The classic story appears here of a film crew heading to Skull Island in an attempt to catch the images of the mighty myth Kong, only to have the lead actress Ann Darrow(Fay Wray) kidnapped by the island natives and given to Kong for a bride. The massive Kong is taken by Ann and fights off the monsters of Skull Island that want her for dinner. When she is rescued by John Driscoll (Bruce Cabot), Kong chases them back to their ship, where the giant gorilla is felled by bombs. Making an extremely greedy choice, film director Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) decides to return to the States with the captured Kong to create a stage show with him. When Kong escapes on opening night, he grabs Ann and climbs to the top of the Empire State Building.

The scene at the end of the movie is as iconic of a scene as you are going to find in a monster movie. In more recent films, in an attempt to make Kong the hero of his films, the Ann role has connected with Kong more, seeing that the giant gorilla is very gentle and kind-hearted when comes to the blonde actress. There is none of that here as Fay Wray spends most of the second half of the movie screaming her lungs out. It is very understandable and males a lot of sense. Again, King Kong is the monster here, where as in more recent films, he plays like the misunderstood hero. The tragedy of the ending is less so here as he falls to his death from the Empire State Building.

I was surprised how violent the film is as we see several crew members being devoured by the dinosaurs on the way to Kong and we see Kong chewing up villagers as well. Kong dropped one woman from out of a building that he had thought was Ann as she fell to her death. Kong dumped a makeshift bridge of people to their deaths as well back on Skull Island. I guess I did not expect a 1933 movie to show as much carnage as this did.

Some of the parts of the film are dated (such as the depiction of the island natives), but the film is timeless and the story is iconic. King Kong is the first of the cavalcade of films for Kong and Godzilla and I am excited to see the pair of them come to blows next week.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

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Back in 2015, the consensus of thought was that Mad Max: Fury Road was the greatest thing since sliced bread. Everybody loved the movie and claimed it was the most epic of all films. Then, there was me. When I saw the movie, I thought it was fine, had some cool practical stunts and was good enough. However, it was anything but a rave review for me. If memory serves me, it fell into the 20s range on the Best of 2015 movies list. I still liked it, just not as much as everybody else.

The last few months I have wanted to revisit the movie to see if it was better than I remembered. With an open evening and HBO Max, I decided tonight was a perfect opportunity to see how 2021 Doc felt about the fourth Mad Max film of the franchise.

I do believe that I enjoyed this more than I did back then, but I can still see the issues that I had with the film at the time.

One of the issues was not the stunt work. The action and the designs of this is utterly brilliant. Director George Miller created most of the stunts with practical effects and they are breath-taking, better than I remember. I was quite juiced up with these action scenes as the movie continued. Putting this much into action sequences shows the dedication to this project from Miller and everyone involved.

Though Tom Hardy does a fine job in taking over the role of Mad Max from Mel Gibson, the obvious star of this movie was Charlize Theron as Furiosa. She was utterly amazing in this role and set herself up as a huge action star from this point on.

One of the issue I did have back in 2015 that has not changed is that the story is fairly thin. The characters try to escape, head out, get chased, get away, and then goes back and gets chased. That might be too much of a simplification of the plot, but there is a lot of pieces that did not mean as much to me.

The look of the movie is just amazing. These characters are weird and designed beautifully. Some of the other characters are a little under developed, though I did enjoy the use of Nicholas Hoult as Nux.

So I think I liked Mad Max: Fury Road more this time around than I did in 2015, but I would stop short of claiming it as the best movie of that year. Definitely a great movie.

The Father (2020)

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One of the movies that has received some Oscar nominations that I had never seen was The Father. Sir Anthony Hopkins was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a film that I was not 100% sure actually had been made. That’s a joke, but it has not been readily available for sure.

However, The Father arrived this weekend on streaming (specifically Vudu) and I decided that the air of mystery on this film needed to end.

Hopkins played Anthony, an elderly man, whose daughter Anne (Olivia Colman) has been taking care of him and he has been becoming confused.

However, this is not simply a movie talking about Alzheimer’s Disease or any sort of decline in mental acumen. It is more than that. The film gives us scenes from the POV of Anthony. By doing this, the film creates a enigmatic jumble of memories and scenes that change per each one and we, the audience, have no idea which one is the actual reality. This is because Anthony was not sure of which of the moments was reality either. It kept the viewers totally off balance and uncertain about what they were seeing.

Anne might be movie to France or she might be looking for someone to move in and help take care of her father or she might be living with a man or they might be living in her father’s flat or her flat or … well, you get the idea.

By choosing this style, director Florian Zeller creates a symbolic reality about what living with this horrendous disease is like and going out of the way to provide an air of confusion to the audience.

Sir Anthony Hopkins is wonderful here, never sure exactly what is going on or why he is unable to straighten the thoughts out in his head. He keeps referring to another daughter, a painter named Lucy. We never are sure what had happened to Lucy, or honestly if she ever really existed in the first place, though it seemed as if she was killed in some kind of accident. Hopkins masterfully brings all kinds of emotional moments to the haze around him in reacting to Anne and the others that come in contact with him.

Olivia Colman is excellent here too, given a difficult assignment. She plays off what Anthony does and shows how important he is to her and yet, we understand the pressures and frustrations that go along with the role. She is shown in each of the POVs with a differing reaction but equal amounts of guilt and pain.

This is a powerful story with a lot of pain and depressing moments. It might be a film that is challenging to watch and may stick with you for awhile.

4 stars

Invincible episodes 1-3 (Amazon Prime)

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SPOILERS FOR INVINCIBLE

Robert Kirkman has had a lot of success in comic books. The Walking Dead is one of the best and most successful comic series to come along outside of the Big Two companies. He is currently working on another Image comic called Firepower.

However, one of the most beloved series from Kirkman was known as Invincible and became one of the premier titles in the independent circuit.

Now, Amazon Prime has taken the IP of Invincible and turned it into an animated series aimed at the adult fans of the comic, releasing the first three episodes this week.

I had never read any of the Invincible comics, but the character was always an interesting one. Son of the world’s greatest hero, Omni-man, Invincible has joined his father’s war to help save the earth from evil and dangers. Along with a cavalcade of super heroes, Invincible does a good job of telling its story.

Amazon Prime Video's Invincible Premiere Review

Invincible is Mark Grayson (voiced by Steven Yeun) the son of Omni-Man (J.K. Simmons), an alien from the planet of Viltrum, a planet filled with beings with super powers. Mark gets his powers around his 17th birthday and begins training with his father.

Sandra Oh voices Mark’s mother Debbie, who has had a happy marriage to Omni-Man (aka Nolan).

Earth’s heroes, The Guardians of the Globe, are here as well, though their fates are not positive ones for the team. At the end of the first episode, Omni-Man arrives at Guardians HQ and slaughters the entire team, before slipping into a coma himself. That was an unexpected twist to the show and really set up the series as one with stakes and surprises.

After three episodes, we have no idea why Omni-Man did what he did, but I have to say that I am fascinated to find where this is taking us. It was as if Superman turned on the Justice League.

We also meet the Teen Team, featuring a group of heroes closer to Invincible’s age. Among them, Mark connects with Atom Eve (Gillian Jacobs), who helps Mark through some of the beats of being a super hero.

Invincible' Arrives on Amazon Prime With a Young Hero for Mature Audiences - The New York Times

There is a huge voice cast here as well including such notable performers such as Mark Hamill, Zazie Beetz, Zachary Quinto, Walton Goggins, Michael Cudlitz, Khary Payton, Seth Rogen, Michael Dorn, Mahershala Ali, Ezra Miller, Jason Mantzoukas, Lauren Cohen, Kevin Michael Richardson and Clancy Brown.

Invincible is notable as well because of the adult manner in which the show is presented. It is certainly rated R, with plenty of swear words and blood splatter. In fact, the first couple of episodes were extremely filled with blood in the violence. I am not sure that I thought it was necessary to show all the animated blood. It felt more distracting than realistic. It might have been effective in a live action setting, but this animated show feels nothing more than exploited using the blood.

TV Review: Invincible, Series Premiere (Episodes 1-3)

Mark is a fantastic protagonist and you find yourself rooting for him easily, though I can say that I worry about when he discovers the truth about his father and his crime.

Invincible is scheduled for a total of 8 episodes, releasing from now on, one a week, on Fridays on Amazon Prime. There is enough here for me to continue to watch, adding it to my weekly viewing of The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and Superman and Lois.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 2

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SPOILERS FOR THE FALCON AND THE WINTERSOLDIER EPISODE TWO

The second episode of the new Disney +/Marvel Studios limited series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, debuted on the steaming service in the wee hours of the night. After the slow burn of last week’s episode, some people were anxiously hoping this episode would be paced quicker. I am not in the same boat. I loved the slower burn character development that was all over last week’s show. However, this week’s show brought both and elevated itself above last week.

This week’s episode, entitled “The Star Spangled Man,” did not waste time in bringing Sam and Bucky back together and we see the real key to the show. Yes, there is great character development that makes us care for these people more, but the real standout of the show is the relationship of James “Bucky” Buchanan and Sam Wilson. Their chemistry is off the charts and the bromance is amazing. The banter between Bucky and Sam was great and the show gives us plenty of examples of it.

Even before we see Sam and Bucky meet up, we get some background for the new Captain America, John Walker. While he is set up to be hatred by the fans last week, we see some info on Walker that humanizes him. Some have claimed that he is the “evil” Captain America, but I think that is way too surface for this show. Walker is not a villain. He may be a character being set up for a fall, but his motivations are understandable and relatable. However, he is certainly not the most likable person in the show.

The scene with Walker arriving at his old high school to a band playing the song “Star Spangled Man” from the movie Captain America: The First Avenger was fire.

My favorite scenes in the episode were the scenes where Bucky took Sam to meet a certain person that Bucky had known in the 1950s. Carl Lumbly, a veteran movie/TV actor, had been rumored to be playing the Marvel character Isaiah Bradley, who was a black Captain America back after Steve Rogers had gone into the ice. Apparently, Isaiah had previously had a battle with The Winter Solder in the 1950s. Lumbly brought the tragic character to life with a few powerful moments that showed that he was still a dangerous super soldier. This is a character I want much more from movie forward.

Then, directly after this scene with Isaiah, Bucky and Sam encountered some local police officers who stopped because they saw Bucky and Sam arguing in the middle of the road and we see that the lives of a black man are not any different because he is an Avenger. There was some subtle racial connotations last week with the bank loan stuff, but this week the police, who only see Sam as an angry black man, is anything but subtle. It is real though. Seeing the race issues in the MCU is both interesting and painful. Watching the police backtrack when Bucky said to them, “Do you know who this is?” was, once again, too real. This theme is layered throughout this show and I am here for it.

We got another scene of therapy, this time with Sam joining in. This scene truly highlighted the connection between Buck and Sam. Bucky kept going back to the issue of why Sam gave back the shield, and it revealed why it was such a blow to him. Bucky said it was Steve’s decision to give Sam the shield and if he was wrong about Sam being able to handle it, he would be wrong about giving Bucky another chance. Depth of character once again.

We got a great fight with the Flagsmashers and Falcon, Bucky, Walker and his sidekick Battlestar atop of two semi trucks driving down the road.

The end shot showed us the next step… Bucky heading to see the still imprisoned Helmut Zemo. Daniel Brühl appeared at the very end, bringing yet one more great piece to the chess board. This episode was tremendous and always feels like it ends too soon.

This has been awesome so far.

Alien #1

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Alien #1

Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson

Artist: Salvador Larroca

Cover Art: InHYUK Lee

Marvel has been the home for Star Wars comics for several years now. Now, another benefit from the FOX acquisition has come to light. Marvel Comics released the first comic based on the hit movie series, Alien.

Alien #1 is wonderful. The horror comic genre has been very hot lately, and this has such a classic IP to use as a backdrop. The story featured a former mercenary Gabriel Cruz, who had some kind of major event happen to him in space years before. The multinational corporation Weyland-Yutani controls the spaceways. Gabe’s estranged son, Danny, leads a group attempting to stop the corporation. Unfortunately, Danny’s group found something they did not expect.

The Xenomorph looks awesome on the pages of this comic book. The art is beautiful, in particularly the parts in space. I will say that there are some weird looking human faces in the book. It appeared as if the artist was recreating some real life faces, (including actor Lance Henriksen, who played android Bishop in the movie).

It did not take long to be drawn into the story, the father-son tale that has some horrific monsters involved. Interesting to see how the incident from Gabe’s past will play into the current situation with his son.

Off to a great start.

Footloose (1984)

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My memory of Footloose from the 1980s was that I loved the movie and that it was a load of fun, full of dancing and music. I was about halfway through the film this morning and I was surprised to find that it was not how I remembered. It still had its music and dancing, but there was not a lot more beisdes.

Beaumont is little town where the fiery town preacher (John Lithgow), whose son had died years before in an auto accident, had led the town in abolishing dancing and other perceived debaucheries. The arrival of newcomer Ren McCormick (Kevin Bacon) shook up the status quo and energized the senior class.

Footloose was a series of music videos connected by some surface level teenage melodrama and the cheese that goes with it. It is amazing how many of these kids were unbelievable dancers, especially since they have not been allowed to dance for five years. I guess that is just the power of Kenny Loggins.

Yes, Kenny Loggins’ theme song is catchy, but it is used three times in the film. There are some other good songs here, including Bonnie Tyler’s anthem, Holding Out for a Hero and the Denice Williams’ Let’s Hear it for the Boy.

However, the film does not age well. There are several scenes where we see moments that might have been okay in the 1980s but have not been acceptable since. Several scenes are left dangling and really never properly addressed. One in particular, where Ariel (Lori Singer), the daughter of Rev. Moore, breaks up with her boyfriend and he beats her up. There was no consequence of that scene and there was no effect of it either.

Kevin Bacon puts himself on the map here, helping kick off a career where he becomes a party game (Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon). He is fine here and he moves well.

There is a story arc involving the death of Rev. Moore’s son and how Ariel is responding to that memory, but it goes away without any real significance because they can now dance. There are two scenes that showed how downright careless Ariel is with her life and this is just cured with dancing.

Montages tied together with teen drama. I was quite surprised when I found myself not as impressed as I was when I was younger.

The Falcon and the Winter Soldier Episode 1

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SPOILERS FOR THE FALCON AND THE WINTER SOLDIER EPISODE 1

Fresh off the success of WandaVision, Disney + revealed the premiere of their second MCU series, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, featuring Anthony Mackie and Sebastian Stan.

You could not find two properties more different than WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, and that is a great thing. It was expected that F&WS would be more of an action/adventure based series, but, to be honest, Marvel Studios still kind of surprised us. The show started with a great action scene, but then the remainder of the show was a real slow burn that focused on character growth and character development.

Sam Wilson, the Falcon, who had been given the Captain America shield by Steve Rogers himself at the end of Avengers: Endgame, but the series kicked off with Sam giving the shield to a museum, claiming that he did not deserve it, that the shield was not the symbol… the man who holds it was.

We also see Bucky still struggling to get through his life. With a pardon in his hands, he had to attend sessions with a therapist. Bucky continued to have nightmares about the horrible things that he has done in his life. He had made a list of people that he had to make amends with, in one way or another.

We see so much character development in this first 50 minutes than they had received in all of the movies that they have appeared in. We meet Sam’s sister and her children. We discover about their life and their struggles. The show is hinting at a theme of racial troubles. When the government announced the arrival of the new Captain America, a white man, you can see where this show is heading. This is a fascinating look at racism in the MCU.

The episode also introduced the new group of terrorists called the Flagsmashers. While we did not see any signs of Baron Zemo yet, the Flagsmashers are a cool new threat.

There is a great deal of fallout from The Blip in this series, which feels as if it will be another theme of this series.

We saw some great work from Mackie and Stan and they have not even met up yet. The first episode was a slow burn and I loved it. I am excited to where this show is heading.

Zack Snyder’s Justice League

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It is here.

After years of squabbling and online trolling, the fans of Zack Snyder have helped accomplish it. The infamous “Snyder Cut” has arrived on HBO Max after WB approached Snyder to complete his vision of what should have been in the 2017 Justice League movie that he had started but had to leave before it was completed. Snyder tragically had to leave the project when his daughter passed away.

WB had brought in Joss Whedon to finish the project and he wound up doing a lot of re-filming and re-editing, taking Zack Snyder’s ideas and repurposing them. The Justice League (2017) was a failure and cast members and fans were calling for the release of the Snyder cut. Some did not believe that this mythical “Snyder cut” actually existed. But, as I said earlier, it is here.

We will get this out of the way immediately. Zack Snyder’s Justice League is a better movie than the Justice League (2017). Period. It can not be debated. Of course, it is double in time (4 hours compared to 2) and there is no sign of the CGI-killing Superman mustache so that has to be considered a vast improvement right there.

The story in this new version is considerably more coherent and it is easier to follow. Many of the scenes that appeared in both films make more sense here than they did in the previous movie. The characters get a considerable amount more time and it helps them tremendously.

In particular, Ray Fisher, who played Victor Stone (aka Cyborg), had an amazingly different film role here. Fisher was one of the earliest and loudest voices about releasing this film and how unhappy he was with Joss Whedon, and you can absolutely see why. Victor Stone is way better here than he was in the previous version. He was wasted away in that film, but here, you can see the relevance and the importance of Cyborg. His story with his father Silas (Joe Morton) was so improved here (although it is a typical father-son estranged story). It worked much better and provided some important emotional beats later in the film.

Ezra Miller’s Flash though felt a little creepy considering the situation Miller found himself in a year or so ago. The memory of his choking that girl, whether it was real or not, did play on my opinion of this character. Flash did get some funny lines, but he felt off to me.

It is a four hour movie and, I will be honest, the first hour or so dragged for me. There was a lot of set up and I am usually in favor of such things, but it just did not move with the flow that I would have hoped. Perhaps it is the downtrodden tone that seems to cover much of Zack Snyder’s DC films. However, I think the film really picked up and I found myself really engaged in the third act battle with Steppenwolf.

Let’s talk about Steppenwolf. In the 2017 film, he was the single biggest problem I had with the movie. Every time he was on screen I could not see anything but a failed and sloppy CGI character. The CGI felt unfinished and just constantly distracting. Here, Steppenwolf is much better. I would even go as far as to say, he was watchable. The face on Steppenwolf was still a problem, but it did not become a huge issue and I found it acceptable.

However, this film had too many moments of CGI that were poorly rendered. Especially the CGI used to create Darkseid. Darkseid did not make a lot of appearances (considerably less than I had thought he was going to) and I did not like the look of the character. Cyborg too had several moments, though fewer overall, of CGI issues. When the super hero genre has a character such as Thanos, the CGI for the big bad guys need to be stepped up.

Though some of the characters had some iffy CGI, the backgrounds and the settings were consistently beautiful and was extremely artistic. Though, in my opinion, it could have used some brightness here and there, for what was here, the art was gorgeous.

A couple of other problems I had fall under the realm of SPOILERS so be aware. First, there was the weirdest cameo in the middle of the movie that was revisited at the very end. I am not sure why they felt the need to include this character. Secondly, I found the “futurescape” dream that Bruce (Ben Affleck) had where Superman is evil and Darkseid has taken over Earth, was a silly and unnecessary tag on to the film simply to get the Joker (Jared Leto) into the movie and to show Flash in his outfit from Batman v. Superman (when he appeared to Bruce in another dream). This was just a waste of time and it goes nowhere. END OF SPOILERS.

I did not like the use of the Amazons this time. It felt different than the first film, which I thought was one of the better moments. Here it just did not work for me. I also was not a huge fan of the exposition drop of the past battle with Darkseid and the “age of heroes.”

The best part of the film is still the cast and their interactions with each other. We did lose that great scene with Aquaman and the magic lasso, but there was so much more there that it balanced out. Zack Snyder’s Justice League was better than I thought it was going to be and I enjoyed the overall film.

3.8 stars

Oscar nominations 2021

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Best Picture

“The Father” (Sony Pictures Classics) 

“Judas and the Black Messiah” (Warner Bros.) 

“Mank” (Netflix) 

“Minari” (A24) 

“Nomadland” (Searchlight Pictures) 

“Promising Young Woman” (Focus Features) 

“Sound of Metal” (Amazon Studios) 

“The Trial of the Chicago 7” (Netflix) 

Best Director

Thomas Vinterberg (“Another Round”)

David Fincher (“Mank”) 

Lee Isaac Chung (“Minari”) 

Chloé Zhao (“Nomadland”) 

Emerald Fennell (“Promising Young Woman”) 

Best Actor in a Leading Role

Riz Ahmed (“Sound of Metal”) 

Chadwick Boseman (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) 

Anthony Hopkins (“The Father”) 

Gary Oldman (“Mank”) 

Steven Yeun (“Minari”) 

Best Actress in a Leading Role

Viola Davis (“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom”) 

Andra Day (“The United States v. Billie Holiday”) 

Vanessa Kirby (“Pieces of a Woman”) 

Frances McDormand (“Nomadland”) 

Carey Mulligan (“Promising Young Woman”) 

Best Supporting Actor

Sacha Baron Cohen (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”) 

Daniel Kaluuya (“Judas and the Black Messiah”) 

Leslie Odom Jr. (“One Night in Miami”) 

Paul Raci (“Sound of Metal”) 

Lakeith Stanfield (“Judas and the Black Messiah”)

Best Supporting Actress 

Maria Bakalova (‘Borat Subsequent Moviefilm”) 

Glenn Close (“Hillbilly Elegy”) 

Olivia Colman (“The Father”) 

Amanda Seyfried (“Mank”) 

Youn Yuh-jung (“Minari”) 

Best Adapted Screenplay

“Borat Subsequent Moviefilm,” Peter Baynham, Sacha Baron Cohen, Jena Friedman, Anthony Hines, Lee Kern, Dan Mazer, Nina Pedrad, Erica Rivinoja, Dan Swimer https://e39b5a5fe0fe4171e01aebcc578ad807.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-37/html/container.html

“The Father,” Christopher Hampton, Florian Zeller 

“Nomadland,” Chloé Zhao 

“One Night in Miami,” Kemp Powers 

“The White Tiger,” Ramin Bahrani 

Best Original Screenplay

“Judas and the Black Messiah,” Will Berson, Shaka King, Keith Lucas, Kenneth Lucas 

“Minari,” Lee Isaac Chung 

“Promising Young Woman,” Emerald Fennell 

“Sound of Metal,” Abraham Marder, Darius Marder, Derek Cianfrance 

“The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Aaron Sorkin 

Best Original Song

“Fight for You,” (“Judas and the Black Messiah”) 

“Hear My Voice,” (“The Trial of the Chicago 7”) 

“Húsavík,” (“Eurovision Song Contest”) 

“Io Si (Seen),” (“The Life Ahead”) 

“Speak Now,” (“One Night in Miami”) 

Best Original Score

“Da 5 Bloods,” Terence Blanchard 

“Mank,” Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross 

“Minari,” Emile Mosseri 

“News of the World,” James Newton Howard 

“Soul,” Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, Jon Batiste 

Best Sound

“Greyhound,” Odin Benitez, Jason King, Christian P. Minkler, Michael Minkler, Jeff Sawyer 

“Mank,” Ren Klyce, Jeremy Molod, David Parker, Nathan Nance, Drew Kunin 

“News of the World,” John Pritchett, Mike Prestwood Smith, William Miller, Oliver Tarney, Michael Fentum 

“Soul,” Coya Elliott, Ren Klyce, David Parker, Vince Caro 

“Sound of Metal,” Phillip Bladh, Nicolas Becker, Jaime Baksht, Michelle Couttolenc, Carlos Cortés, Carolina Santana 

Best Costume Design

“Emma,” Alexandra Byrne 

“Mank,” Trish Summerville 

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Ann Roth 

“Mulan,” Bina Daigeler 

“Pinocchio”

Best Animated Short Film

“Burrow” (Disney Plus/Pixar)

“Genius Loci” (Kazak Productions) 

“If Anything Happens I Love You” (Netflix) 

“Opera” (Beasts and Natives Alike) 

“Yes-People” (CAOZ hf. Hólamói) 

Best Live Action Short Film

“Feeling Through” 

“The Letter Room” 

“The Present” 

“Two Distant Strangers” 

“White Eye” 

Best Animated Feature Film

“Onward” (Pixar) 

“Over the Moon” (Netflix) 

“Shaun the Sheep Movie: Farmageddon” (Netflix) 

“Soul” (Pixar) 

“Wolfwalkers” (Apple TV Plus/GKIDS) 

Best Cinematography

“Judas and the Black Messiah,” Sean Bobbitt 

“Mank,” Erik Messerschmidt 

“News of the World,” Dariusz Wolski 

“Nomadland,” Joshua James Richards 

“The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Phedon Papamichael 

Best Documentary Feature

“Collective” (Magnolia Pictures and Participant) 

“Crip Camp” (Netflix) 

“The Mole Agent” (Gravitas Ventures) 

“My Octopus Teacher” (Netflix) 

“Time” (Amazon Studios) 

Best Documentary Short Subject

“Colette” (Time Travel Unlimited) 

“A Concerto Is a Conversation” (Breakwater Studios) 

“Do Not Split” (Field of Vision) 

“Hunger Ward” (MTV Documentary Films)

“A Love Song for Latasha” (Netflix) 

Best Film Editing

“The Father,” Yorgos Lamprinos

“Nomadland,” Chloé Zhao 

“Promising Young Woman,” Frédéric Thoraval 

“Sound of Metal,” Mikkel E.G. Nielsen 

“The Trial of the Chicago 7,” Alan Baumgarten 

Best International Feature Film

“Another Round” (Denmark) 

“Better Days” (Hong Kong)

“Collective” (Romania) 

“The Man Who Sold His Skin” (Tunisia)

“Quo Vadis, Aida?”(Bosnia and Herzegovina) 

Best Makeup and Hairstyling

“Emma,” Marese Langan 

“Hillbilly Elegy,” Eryn Krueger Mekash, Patricia Dehaney, Matthew Mungle 

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Matiki Anoff, Mia Neal, Larry M. Cherry 

“Mank,” Kimberley Spiteri, Gigi Williams 

“Pinocchio,” Dalia Colli, Anna Kieber, Sebastian Lochmann, Stephen Murphy 

Best Production Design

“The Father,” Peter Francis, Cathy Featherstone 

“Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom,” Mark Ricker, Karen O’Hara, Diana Stoughton 

“Mank,” Donald Graham Burt, Jan Pascale 

“News of the World,” David Crank, Elizabeth Keenan 

“Tenet,” Nathan Crowley, Kathy Lucas 

Best Visual Effects

“Love and Monsters” 

“The Midnight Sky,” Matt Kasmir, Chris Lawrence, Dave Watkins, Max Solomon 

“Mulan,” Sean Faden, Anders Langlands, Seth Maury, Steve Ingram 

“The One and Only Ivan,” Nick Davis, Greg Fisher, Ben Jones, Santiago Colomo Martinez 

“Tenet,” Andrew Jackson, Andrew Lockley, Scott R. Fisher, Mike Chambers 

List from variety.com

Short Circuit (1986)

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Short Circuit was one of my favorite movies when I was younger. I would have been in high school when it came out and I loved the tale of No. 5 and how he came to life. So I was excited to rent the film on Vudu today.

Sadly, I found the movie less than entertaining this time.

Newton Crosby (Steve Guttenberg) worked for Nova creating weapons in the form of robots. One day, robot Number 5 (Tim Blaney) was struck by lightning and was suddenly alive. He escaped the facility and met up with Stephanie (Ally Sheedy), a lady who he befriended and helped avoid the army and the Nova forces.

The beginning of Short Circuit was surprisingly disappointing. The set up and the characters were uninspiring and seemed more like something that should be for a 10 year old. Steve Guttenberg is likable, but hardly a standout actors and Fisher Stevens’s Ben Jabituya was an Indian stereotype that bordered on racist.

The story was basically a lesser version of E.T. the Extra Terrestrial with a robot and Ally Sheedy playing Eliot.

However, the only reason this film worked at all was the charisma of the robot Number 5. He was cute and had some definite moments of humor. The end of the movie was decent. I remember being emotional when I first saw the movie despite the obvious set up for what Number 5 was going to do.

Sgt. Rizzo from MASH (also Captain Harris from Police Academy), G.W. Bailey played security leader Skroeder, a one note villain who was just out to destroy Number 5 because that is what he was supposed to do.

I did not hate the second half of this movie, but getting there was painful and made me wonder why I loved this so much as a kid (not to mention, I wasn’t that much of a kid even. I was in high school). Short Circuit was nowhere near what I remembered.

Show the kids. That is the level this might be good for.

Spider-Man 3 (2007)

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As a huge Spider-Man fan, I generally come out of these films with a rosy-colored vision of what I just saw. I had strong positive feelings about Spider-Man 3 when I first saw it, but with subsequent viewings, the truth came forth. It is not a good movie.

Thing is Spider-Man 3 does have some positives to it. It is not as God awful as some have made it out to be. Yes, the negatives overwhelm what is good here, but there are some examples.

Specifically, the action scenes are inventive and strong, with CGI that is still decent, especially those effects dealing with the Sandman (Thomas Haden Church). The final battle in the third act was emotional and filled with dramatic images.

I think all three villains involved here were done well. Not only Sandman, but Eddie Brock aka Venom (Topher Grace) and Harry Osborn aka New Goblin (James Franco). However, there really was not enough room for all three in this film. I could only imagine that Venom alone would have been enough for the film. Or maybe they could have still used New Goblin as they did to set up his redemption for his past mistakes while focusing on Venom more.

The inclusion of Sandman, while visually impressive, was narratively weak. I did not like tying Sandman to the death of Uncle Ben and that whole plot felt tacked on and did not deliver the emotional wallop that it could have. The Sandman was a wildly inconsistent character as well. He went from criminal just trying to steal money to help his daughter to murderous, rampaging monster out for blood to empathic anti-hero sorry for his involvement in Ben’s death. Anything positive from before went out the window when Sandman joined up with Venom to kill Spider-Man. It made no sense in the thematic tale they had been telling.

And, of course, one of the worst scenes in all of comic book movies was dancing Peter, over taken by the anger of the black suit, takes Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard) out to a jazz club to rub it in the nose of Mary Jane (Kirsten Dunst), who had just broken up with Peter. The piano playing, dancing Peter Parker was just such a weird choice that it devastated the reasonably powerful ending of the scene where Peter realizes that he had lost control of himself because of the black suit.

The relationship between Peter and Mary Jane, which was a strength in the first two Spider-Man movies, was a total flop here. Neither of them were honest with each other. They were both selfish and needlessly jealous. There was no sign of the love that we had gotten from before. It was an annoying addition to the plot and, of course, MJ turned into nothing more than a damsel in distress and someone to be kidnapped by the villains.

J. Jonah Jameson (J.K. Simmons) was wasted, used strictly now for a few stray laughs. James Cromwell played Captain Stacy, Gwen’s father and police chief, but I had honestly forgotten he was in this movie since Captain Stacy does nothing in this movie. I am not sure if he was being set up for a further role in the potential future of the series, but this could have been played by anyone.

While I have seen worse Spider-Man movies, Spider-Man 3 was a huge step down from one of the best Spider-Man movies ever, Spider-Man 2. Sam Raimi’s direction did not feel as tight as it had been in the previous two films and One could only wonder if the film was supposed to feature all of the characters that it did.

Hopefully, Sam Raimi will have more success dealing with a large cast in next summer’s Dr. Strange and the Multiverse of Madness.

Spider-Man 3 was a financial success, but has found its place among the weaker of the Spider-Man flicks. What gems here are clouded by too much excess and unneeded garbage.