Author Archives: Doc

Andor S2 E7, E8, E9

Posted on by

Spoilers

If I am being truthful, I have only liked Andor some over the last season and a half. I recognized how solid the show was and how great the characters and the acting was, but it just never quite fully grabbed my attention as I viewed it.

That all changed with episodes seven, eight and nine.

In particular episode eight, I have never been as enthralled and engaged in this show as I was with these episodes.

The slaughter at Ghorman was as thrilling and tragic of an episode of television as I have seen in quite a while. Placing all of the characters that we have been connected to over the show’s run created such a dynamic that snatched the attention and caused me to worry about all of them.

The slaughter on Ghorman led to so many things, including the end of the story for Syril and the origin of K2SO.

The speech and subsequent escape from the Senate by Mon Mothra was just as intense, seeing Mon and Cass running through the hallways in an attempt to avoid capture was great.

I do believe that episode 8 is one of the best episode of TV this year so far. It will probably be what this show will be remembered for when the show is done.

How can Andor be so good when other Star Wars TV shows are just not nearly as well done?

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #16

Posted on by

Spoilers

“The Sound of Her Wings”

This was an interesting episode that could be seen as two parts surrounding a common theme. That theme is Death and the preparation for it.

The first half is Morpheus following his sister, Death around while she approached those who were about or pass to the other side. He sees Death interacting with the humans that she was meeting and how she made them feel comfortable with the unhappy news.

After Death leaves, we move back to 1389 where we see Morpheus and Death once again at a pub. They overhear a man making a boast that he would never die. Death decided to grant his wish and Morpheus talks to the man, Hob Gadling, telling him he would return to this pub in 100 years to speak to him again.

Obviously, the man did not buy the comment at first. Morpheus expected the man to beg for death after awhile. Every year, fate had found Hob in a different circumstance, but always happy to be alive.

The episode showed Morpheus learning lessons from both opposite characters. Both Death and Hob helped create a fascinating episode and all the mini-stories they encountered were well done.

This feels like a middle episode before the next big struggle, which seems to be Morpheus’s other siblings, Desire and Despair, the twins. Still, I like a good transition episode and this is certainly that.

Lilo & Stitch (2002)

Posted on by

I knew that I wanted to revisit the original animated Lilo & Stitch (2002) before the new live action adaptation that is coming on May 23. I believe that I have only seen this animated Disney classic once, back in the early 2000s. I know that I did not go to the theater to see this, so it must have been on VHS.

With the new film coming, I pulled this film up on Disney + today to rewatch it. And I have to say that I really enjoyed this more than I remember liking it that first time.

The voice cast was great. The voice that I immediately recognized was that of David Ogden Stiers, who played Charles on MASH and had been one of the regular voice actors in several other Disney movies(such as Beauty and the Beast). Chris Sanders voiced Stitch while Daveigh Chase voiced Lilo. Other voices in this movie included Tia Carrere, Ving Rhames, Kevin McDonald, Zoe Caldwell, Jason Scott Lee, and Kevin Michael Richardson.

Lilo & Stitch is a fun movie with a great story and a powerful message of family and acceptance. It was short but well paced. I loved the use of the Elvis Presley catalogue of songs, which kept my toes tapping throughout the movie.

The animation style was traditional, but still worthy. The design of the alien characters are not my favorites as they feel fairly common. Honestly, the characters of Jumba and Pleakley remind me of the Muppets, not Kermit or Miss Piggy, but those Muppets that you would see in the background.

After seeing this film once again, I am looking forward to the live action remake more than I was before, which was the idea.

Doctor Who S2 E5

Posted on by

Spoilers

“The Story and the Engine”

I think this season of Doctor Who has been just exceptional. Every episode has been enjoyable and had its own brand of originality and creativity. This week, The Doctor goes to Africa for a story about stories.

Based inside a barber shop, the story was incredibly clever. The use of the barber shop to tell stories that then powered the barber shop was excellent. So was the antagonist who was intense and worked wonderfully off the Doctor.

The format of the storytelling was amazing, with the story that was being told being animated by the window of the barber shop. It was such an impressive piece of storytelling.

There was a wonderful story told by the Doctor during this episode that gave us some more background on Belinda and her career as a nurse. It was a lovely story about how she put her own wishes aside to help a sick woman in her hospital.

I don’t care what anyone says, I have loved these episodes on Disney +. I will be sad when the Doctor regenerates.

Clown in a Cornfield

Posted on by

I saw this listed at Cinemark and my mind immediately went to movies like Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. Clown in a cornfield? It seemed so ridiculous. However, the reviews were mostly positive, surprising me. I decided to give it a chance.

According to IMBD (by way of Bloody Disgusting), “Quinn Maybrook and her father have moved to tiny, boring Kettle Springs, to find a fresh start, But what they don’t know is that ever since the Baypen Corn Syrup Factory shut down, Kettle Springs has cracked in half. On one side are the adults, who are desperate to make Kettle Springs great again, and on the other are the kids, who want to have fun, make prank videos, and get out as quick as they can. Kettle Springs is caught in a battle between old and new, tradition and progress. It’s a fight that looks like it will destroy the town. Until Frendo, the Baypen mascot, a creepy clown goes homicidal and decides that the only way for Kettle Springs to grow back is to cull the rotten crop of kids who live there now.” Synopsis from Bloody Disgusting“

I was torn by this movie. There were parts that I thought were really dumb and, if you excuse the pun, corny. However, it was heads and shoulders above the type of movies that I expected it to be lke.

The film did start off by introducing a group of young teen characters that I hated and led me to look forward to seeing them killed by a clown. As the film progressed, I learned that the unlikable characters were part of the story, not just a slasher movie trope. I started to believe that the writing was more clever than I initially thought.

The story had some interesting moments, but was very messy in a lot of spots. I am not sure everything came together well. There were some holes in the story, especially the ending. Without spoiling anything, something at the end confused me so much that I was questioning myself that I must have missed something.

Clown in a Cornfield is not a bad film. It was an enjoyable enough watch as it moved along quickly. I think I went in with low expectations and I had a good enough time with it. I did like how the film changed up several of the expected horror tropes. This was fun at times.

3 stars

June Swoon 4: Two A Day!

Posted on by

We are under a month until our fourth annual June Swoon… except, there will be a twist this year.

There have been a lot of movies that I have missed so far in 2025 that are showing up on the streaming services. I was looking for a way to do a big couple of day watch… much like the Friday Fun Festival I did late last year, but the timing just was not working out.

The list was getting longer when I came up with the idea. I knew the June Swoon 4 was starting on June 1 (I can announce that September 5 is the first film of the June Swoon this year), and I thought… what if I did a movie from this year every day as well.

Typically, the June Swoon is a DailyView, where I watch a movie that I missed from 2024, once a day from June 1st to June 30th. That will still be in place. Joining the movie from 2024 will be a movie from 2025, giving us two movies a day, every day for the month of June!

I love this as a new challenge. EYG has done the June Swoon for three previous years and this new wrinkle will spruce up the event even more. It will be a busy month as I would like to finish the X-Files this summer, there is the Sunday Morning Sidewalk continuing, and any continuing series are still on the docket.

I would guess that the new releases on the weekend during June will count as movies from 2025 for this challenge.

I am excited about the new June Swoon! Starting on June 1st…

June Swoon 4: Two A Day Movie List

It’s Then Now: 2024 movie

It’s Now: 2025 Movie

June 1

It’s Then Now: September 5

It’s Now: Black Bag

June 2

It’s Then Now: Hundreds of Beavers

It’s Now: Into the Deep

June 3

It’s Then Now: Wallace & Gromit: Vengeance Most Fowl

It’s Now: The Luckiest Man in America

June 4

It’s Then Now: Flow

It’s Now: Screamboat

June 5

It’s Then Now: Memoir of a Snail

It’s Now: A Working Man

June 6

It’s Then Now: The Only Girl in the Orchestra

It’s Now: Wick is Pain

June 7

It’s Then Now: Ghostlight

It’s Now: Wrestlemania IX: Becoming A Spectacle

June 8

It’s Then Now: Sing Sing

It’s Now: The Ballad of Wallis Island

June 9

It’s Then Now: Love Lies Bleeding

It’s Now: Death of a Unicorn

June 10

It’s Then Now: Y2K

It’s Now: Becoming Led Zeppelin

June 11

It’s Then Now: My Dead Friend Zoe

It’s Now: Warfare

June 12

It’s Then Now: Caddo Lake

It’s Now: Karen

June 13

It’s Then Now: Small Things Like These

It’s Now: Fear Street: Prom Queen

June 14

It’s Then Now: Queer

It’s Now: The Rule of Jenny Pen

June 15

It’s Then Now: The Brutalist

It’s Now: Finger Food

June 16

It’s Then Now: The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim

It’s Now: Magazine Dreams

June 17

It’s Then Now: Ultraman: Rising

It’s Now: Rust

June 18

It’s Then Now: The Last Showgirl

It’s Now: Mountainhead

June 19

It’s Then Now: Black Barbie: A Documentary

It’s Now: Titan: The OceanGate Disaster

June 20

It’s Then Now: In a Violent Nature

It’s Now: The Surrender

June 21

It’s Then Now: I’m Still Here

It’s Now: The Friend

June 22

It’s Then Now: The Fire Inside

It’s Now: Another Simple Challenge

June 23

It’s Then Now: Nickel Boys

It’s Now: Nonnas

June 24

It’s Then Now: Tuesday

It’s Now: Revelations

June 25

It’s Then Now: Chicken for Linda

It’s Now: Art Spiegelman: Disaster is My Muse

June 26

It’s Then Now: Your Monster

It’s Now: Until Dawn

June 27

It’s Then Now: Hitpig

It’s Now: Star Trek: Section 31

June 28

It’s Then Now: Babygirl

It’s Now: K-Pop Demon Hunters

June 29

It’s Then Now: The Order

It’s Now: G20

June 30

It’s Then Now: Absolution

It’s Now: Deep Cover

EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week

Posted on by

May 8

Here we are on Thursday, not Wednesday. Why is that?

Diamond.

Curse you Diamond. Once again, the Diamond order does not arrive when it was supposed to arrive. It also did not arrive today yet. That means that there are no Marvel or other company’s books in the race for the cover of the week this week.

Medal Winners this Week:

Bronze Medalist

Don’t Run With Scissors #1

Cover art by Stefano Cardoselli

This is one of the most interesting covers of the week. This cover makes me curious about what is going on here and the color scheme for the cover is sensational. I also love the X’s through the title card. Keenspot has a history of great covers with Mark Spears, and this is yet another one.

Silver Medalist

Los Monstruos #1

Variant Cover C

Cover art by Marcos Martin

I was looking at the variant covers for this book and I saw this C cover and I loved it. It had such an old school noir feel to it. I was intrigued by this book already and this cover only amplified that.

Gold Medalist

Two-Face #6

Cover art by Baldemar Rivas

The final issue of the Two-Face mini series saved the best for last. This is a great cover with a horrific image on Harvey Dent’s face and the iconic coin in his hand. The white background remains as one of my favorite background in comics.

The Studio S1 E8

Posted on by

Spoilers

“The Golden Globes”

I did not love this episode of The Studio because I am not a fan of our main protagonist acting the way he did. When the character becomes so crazy, it was not that funny for me. It was more pathetic.

It was fun to see the background of the Golden Globes and it felt very realistic with the way some of the creators would act.

I did feel badly for Matt. It is a shame how everyone made such a big deal out of being thanked, but he went out of his mind. I preferred the Matt at the very end, even though he was depressed over the lack of a thank you.

Zoë Kravitz and Adam Scott were the main cameos of this episode. Kravitz was the director of the movie that came from Matt’s studio which was up for the Golden Globe.

Of course, I want to thank Sal Saperstein.

The Last of Us S2 E4

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Day One”

So I got to watch The Last of Us on MAX last night, but I had to wait until the Dodgers/Braves game ended, and I did not have time to do the write up.

This was a heavy Ellie/Dina story with them trying to navigate the city of Seattle. They are in search of Abby for revenge, but they have yet to find her.

Ellie and Dina had some big things happen.

  • They get together and make love. Dina told Ellie about her real feelings.
  • They get caught in a building with a bunch of infected and try to run.
  • Just before Dina gets bitten, Ellie stuck her arm in the way and takes the bite.
  • Ellie confesses to Dina that she was immune to the infected.
  • We meet Isaac, who killed his whole FEDRA unit.

Isaac is played by Jeffrey Wright, who is an awesome actor. His scenes with the naked guy he was torturing was intense. I am looking forward to seeing what this guy’s story is going to be.

  • Dina tells Ellie that she was pregnant.
  • Ellie finds a guitar and plays “Take on Me.” She sings to Dina. I really liked that scene.

These Wolves look to be a real problem.