Netflix has been huge in 2017 for their scripted television programs, but you know that they want more than that. They have been releasing movies all year too, in a varying degree of success, looking to become a force in the world of cinema.
The next step in that attempted evolution of the streaming service was Bright, the new film by Will Smith and Joel Edgerton. That is two big names in the world of movies (not Adam Sandler and his latest travesty) and there were high hopes that this might be the film that put Netflix into that next level. Not only do you have Smith and Edgerton, but the film is written and produced by Max Landis, who just had a hugely entertaining series based on the Dirk Gently book. Sounds as if the film was going all in.
Unfortunately, Bright was not the epic film that Netflix had hoped for. It is not bad and it certainly has its share of positives, but the fact is that this is nowhere near the tent pole film that Netflix had hope it to be.
Will Smith played police officer Daryl Ward who, despite his own protests, had been assigned the world’s first Orc police officer, Nick Jakoby (Joel Edgerton). The fantasy world was filled with Orcs and fairies and elves. It felt like the world of Dungeons and Dragons held in Los Angeles.
After recovering from being shot, Ward returned to work among whispers and hatred for Nick. Ward would tell anyone who would listen that he did not want to have Nick as a partner and he tried everything to get rid of the Orc. What Ward did not know was that a powerful magical artifact had turned up in the city and that mystical forces were arriving to try and reclaim it. Ward and Nick got sucked into the search and found themselves at the center of the problem.
My biggest issue with Bright is that it tries to do too much, so most of the story felt crammed into the film. It tried to set up too dense of a mythology for the two hour run time. While I appreciate the attempt to include such fantasy creatures as it does, there was overkill with all of the different races. This felt like it would have been more fleshed out as a Netflix original series. If Bright had six-eight episodes, I feel that there would have been some really great storytelling happening here.
Will Smith was his typically great self, bringing the most he could to the role. The connection between Ward and Nick was a tad forced and made it more difficult to accept this as the buddy cop movie that it was intended as. I also thought that, though his performance was solid, Joel Edgerton’s character of Nick was all over the place and too inconsistent to be effective. Edgerton was good for what he was given though.
The film looked great, with some solid effects and some exciting action scenes. Admittedly, there are probably too many gun fights, and there were too many scenes that felt like the conclusion of the Suicide Squad.
David Ayer directed Bright and you could see his touches throughout the film. I did very much enjoy the opening musical montage scene where the camera moves around the city seeing the graffiti on walls, telling you stories of the creatures in the world. That worked very well. And seeing Will Smith kill a fairy with a broom was a great scene.
Bright was an uneven film that had some solid work, but also had too much mythology for its time and some questionable choices. Still, it isn’t the worst films you can watch on Netflix (Hi Adam Sandler). It just is not the next huge hit.
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#1. Rick and Morty (Cartoon Network)
The Movie Trivia Schmoedown finished its season, preparing towards the Schmoedown Spectacular II on December 22nd. There was only one match this week, but it was a doozy. “The Pit Boss” Ken Napzok no showed his Nerd’s Watch teammate Rachel”the Crusher” Cushing in their team match with The Lion Den’s Blofeld’s Cat. Cushing, as a competitor who did not want to forfeit, took on the duo by herself. She showed great heart and battled to the very end, but eventually fell to the team Blofeld’s Cat. At that point, Ken Napzok came out from the back and revealed that he had officially joined the Lion’s Den and that he had left Rachel alone on purpose. The ensuing promo between Movie Trivia Champion and former Commissioner Kristian Harloff and Napzok was right out of the WWE book. Harloff, and especially Napzok, was just tremendous with the passion and the story they told with their words. When the Collider series adds these type of storylines, it certainly adds dimensions to the program. The game is untouchable, but the storylines bring even more excitement to the show. The Schmoedown Spectacular II looks to be awesome this coming Friday.
Agents of SHIELD continues to move along as the ABC show has taken its main crew into the future. The Kree has captured Daisy and figured out that she is Quake, Destroyer of Worlds, thanks to Deke. However, Deke is playing a long game and may not necessarily be opposing the agents. Kasius plans on selling Daisy to the highest bidder and taking that money and leaving the remains of the earth. Mae might have gotten beat in the inevitable confrontation with Lady Sinara. Everything looked bad for our heroes until an unexpected face arrived. With the removal of a helmet, we see Fitz, who had been left in the past had found his way to the future somehow. The scenes for next week look as if we get the story of Fitz and how he arrived in the dark future.
Saturday night saw the finale of Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency season two as Dirk gets the boy back to Wendimoor, to complete the prophecy and bring the story to a happy conclusion. The boy was able to fix all of the terrible things that had happened over the last several episodes. Meanwhile, Blackwing looks to be under complete new leadership in Ken, after Friedkin derailed it and helped Dirk return to Wendimoor. Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency finished a tremendous season with a happy ending unlike season one.
I will say that I found this week’s Runaways fairly underwhelming after the last few weeks of awesomeness. The kids were trying to get the video of their parents released out into the world but the party that they decided to do it at was some kind of big party for Prime. We also got big bad Jonah who seems to be 
from his brain tumor, but apparently cured by a unknown injection. The standout of the episode was clearly the Stan Lee cameo as the limo driver.
Riverdale seemingly killed the Black Hood vigilante this past week, but there is some question that this story was actually over. The Black Hood was revealed to be the school janitor Joseph Svenson, but he had been eliminated as a suspect last episode and Archie still talks about his eyes. Either way, Riverdale continues its homages to Twin Peaks as we get the Black Hood doing his best Killer Bob impersonation in one of Betty’s dreams.
#1. Movie Trivia Schmoedown (Collider). The Movie Trivia Schmoedown had quite an incredible year. The Schmoedown is one of the most entertaining programs on YouTube right now. It mixes movie trivia with the world of WWE and UFC fighting. It brings you great characters, teams, storylines, team factions and promos. There are champions and challengers and the games are high drama. The brainchild of the Schmoes (Kristian Harloff and Mark Ellis), the Movie Trivia Schmoedown has only grown each week. Each week there are matches mainly on Tuesday and Friday and it leads to big events such as the Collider Collision or the Schmoedown Spectacular. Harloff is the current Movie Trivia Schmoedown Champion having defeated the legendary “Dangerous” Dan Murrell. The team of “Little Evil” JTE and “The Insneider” Jeff Sneider form the championship team of The Patriots who have held that title all year long. They have special divisions that include the Innergeekdom championship, held by Hector Navarro and the Star Wars Championship, held by Ken 
Napzok. Napzok, who just recently turned heel (or to the Dark Side, if you want to remain in the Star Wars world) had a remarkable promo against the face Harloff. The two of them arguing over Napzok’s heel turn was gold and worthy of the best of the WWE (a world where both men have more than a passing knowledge). This was after Napzok turned his back on his Nerd’s Watch teammate Rachel “The Crusher” Cushing, forcing her to play in a handicap match against Blofeld’s Cat. The episode was uncomfortable, but riveting. This season of Movie Trivia Schmoedown ends on December 22nd with three YouTube videos featuring major matches that is known as the Schmoedown Spectacular II. I know I’ll be watching.
#3. TV Fights (Screen Junkies). The first of the cancelled too soon shows on the list. Roxy Striar hosted the debate show and our own Billy Business was the fact checker. Each week, I would watch along live and it would make my night when Billy would read a tweet from me. I miss TV Fights.
#5. Schmoes Know Show (Schmoes Know). Kristian Harloff and Mark Ellis are here again as they host a show on YouTube that streams live (most) every week on Wednesday nights. They have a cast of revolving regulars helping them each week that include such individuals as Ken Napzok, Mark Reilly, Josh Macuga, Brett Sheridan, Joelle Monique among others. There is a ton of fun and great talk. They passed show number 300 this year. Here is to another 300 episodes!
#8. Fatman on Batman (Kevin Smith). Pop culture icon Kevin Smith joins Marc Bernardin every week to talk about the latest in Geek culture and entertainment. Anytime you can listen to Kevin Smith tell stories, it is a good thing, and he has a great chemistry with Marc Bernardin.
#10. In Bob We Trust (Movie Bob). Movie Bob does movie reviews, explains how he would “fix” certain franchises, does a popular series on movies that are “Really That Good” as well as other forms. Movie Bob is enjoyable to listen to as he speaks fast and gives his honest opinions, even if you won’t like them.
I want to start with my favorite scene in this movie, which was the face-to-“face” meeting between Leia and Luke. When Luke arrived to see Leia, they spoke, Leia made a joke about her hair and it was as if these two characters had been together since day one. Luke gave a kiss on the forehead to his sister before heading out to confront her son/his nephew. It was meant to show Luke saying “goodbye” to Leia before he met his end. However at this point, a year after the loss of our beloved Princess, it played more like Mark Hamill getting a chance to say goodbye to Carrie Fisher. I know that is not what the scene was meant to do, since Carrie Fisher survived the filming of this movie, but with her devastating untimely passing, it brought on a different layer. And it was so beautiful.
I was not as huge of a fan of the storyline involving Poe. There was a running plot thread that seemed to be trying to teach Poe a lesson of not being such a “jump in an X-Wing and blow stuff up” guy and, instead, be more of a leader. The first time I saw The Last Jedi, that storyline bugged me a bit, but it was better in the second viewing. The problem was, so much of the troubles that happened aboard the ship came directly from this attempt to teach Poe how to be a leader that it was hardly worth it. Had Laura Dern just told Poe that she had a plan and had given him a heads up about it, nothing would have come from it. Poe would not have mutinied. Finn and Rose would not have headed off to find a Master Code breaker to sneak aboard the Star Destroyer, they would have never met up with DJ (Benicio Del Toro), and the First Order would never have gotten wind of their plan because DJ would not have given them up. Because she refused to trust Poe, one of the greatest pilots in the Rebellion, nearly the entire Rebellion had been blown up before they ever got to the planet’s surface. Leia had criticized Poe for not turning around at the beginning of the movie when he wanted to try to finish the plan to blow up the Dreadnought and had told him that the loss was too great, but doesn’t that same philosophy include her old friend Laura Dern?
I think I did mention this in the main review, but I hated the trip to Crait. It was the biggest waste of time in the entire film, and it was also the point when I was originally watching it that I thought to myself, “Is this going to be it?” I had a moment when I thought that maybe the Last Jedi would underwhelm me as some other movies have done. Fortunately, the film picks up BIG time after this, but the entire sequence on Crait could have been cut out. That included everything with DJ, whom I really disliked. The coincidence alone was hard to handle, as Finn and Rose, who had come to Crait in search of a Master Code Breaker (directed there in a wasted cameo from Maz Kanata), wound up getting arrested and thrown into a prison cell with… you guessed it… a thief who could help them anyway. I thought maybe this was the guy Maz was referring to, but they made it clear that he was not.
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#10. Chirrut Imwe. From Rogue One, Donnie Yen created a wonderful new character who was not a Jedi, but who believed in the Force and that the Force would protect all. Chirrut was blind and extremely spiritual. He brought several funny moments to a film that could have been truly dark.
#9. Mon Mothma. Another character who made an appearance in Rogue One, returning from The Return of the Jedi, where she uttered the huge fan favorite line of dialogue, “Many Bothans died to bring us this information,”
#8. Admiral Akbar. IT’S A TRAP! One of the most iconic lines delivered in Star Wars by any character, despite the fact that this could have been a throw away side character. Akbar will always be remembered for that line, but he is actually quite an important character. He was also Ken Napzok’s number one character on his list, which immediately provided Akbar with credibility.
#7. Lando Calrissian. Billy Dee Williams arrived in Empire Strikes Back at Cloud City on Bespin and created a character that will always be memorable. The oozy charm of Lando fit beautifully with Han Solo. The idea that Lando was in the origin story of the Millennium Falcon as the person who lost the Falcon in a poker game, something that we might get a chance to see in Ron Howard’s upcoming Solo standalone movie.
#6. Saw Gerrera. Another character from Rogue One. Saw was a rebel fighter during the Clone Wars. I would have loved more with Saw in Rogue One. Part of the real epic nature of this character was the portrayal of Saw Gerrera by Forest Whitaker. The way Saw was more mechanical than human any more really spoke to the difficulty of this character’s life. We may yet see more of this character in the history of Star Wars.
#5. Maz Kanata. Lupita Nyong’o played a great character in The Force Awakens. She has a world of experience that we have yet to see. She had Luke’s lightsaber and was able to provide Finn and Rey a place to pause on their trip. She was someone whom Han Solo knew. There is background to her that we may see yet. Maz is a great looking character and is a great addition to the Star Wars world.
#4. Boba Fett. I actually was not as much of a fan of Boba Fett as many people are, but you cannot argue that this bounty hunter had an impact on geek culture. For someone who did not have very many lines and died in a horrific way, Boba Fett was very popular. The outfit is iconic.
#3. K-2SO. One of my favorite droids ever. This droid, voiced by Alan Tudyk, stole every scene he was in in Rogue One and his death was one of the most emotional of any of these ill-fated characters. K-2SO was snarly and snippy and funny as can be. He was the most original droid we have seen in Star Wars and I loved him.
#2. Darth Maul. I would not have included him at first, but the Top Ten guys had Darth Maul on their list, so I included him. I loved Darth Maul and I think he was the biggest waste of the prequels. This guy could have been the ultimate villain until Vader arrived. Ray Park was the actor, but he did not have to give a great performance. Darth Maul had a great look and a great fight scene with Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon. I almost made Darth Maul number one, but I acquiesced to put the one and only number one…
#1. Jabba the Hutt. I loved Jabba the Hutt. He was such a great villain in one of my absolute favorite action set pieces from Return of the Jedi. Jabba is slimy, lowlife gangster that is clearly wicked. He kept the carbonized Han Solo as his prized possession. He forced Leia into a metal bikini and put her on a chain. He spoke a weird language. He was fat and slovenly and just so awesome. I would love a Star Wars crime story telling about the world that Jabba the Hut was involved in. And he has an iconic laugh…
