Daily Countdown: Animated Movies #23

Posted on by

#23

ParaNorman

Released: August 12, 2012

Runtime: 92 minutes

Rating: PG

Animation Style:

Studio: Laika Studios

ParaNorman is the story of a young boy who can speak with the dead, which comes in handy when the town is swarmed by zombies. I sometimes get this film confused with Frankenweeine. Maybe it is time for a rewatch.

Voice cast: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Jodelle Ferland, Bernard Hill, Tucker Albrizzi, Anna Kendrick, Casey Affleck, Christopher Mintz-Plasse, Leslie Mann, Jeff Garlin, Elaine Stritch, Bernard Hill, Jodelle Ferland, and John Goodman

Lanterns S1 E5

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Light’s Out”

This big week’s episode made me feel very icky over all.

We were led to believe that Hal Jordan denied his oath and was not the hero expected. I don’t see that. Him leaving John in the car (which eventually blew up) was not cool, but the show tells me that Hal broke his principles. They indicated he was like an addict, but I just did not get that from him.

John was rotten through the entire episode until he left that ring on the bar in front of Lianna. John made a deal with the Manhunter, who, if you did not realize it last week, was Zoey, to heal himself. However, he did not follow through with his end. He attacked Hal and they had a knock down battle and he took the ring off his finger. I really did not like John Stewart in this episode, until he left the ring on the counter.

So much was finished off this episode. I am not sure where this goes from here. Zoey is dead (killed by John), there is no Lantern, the whole town got blown up real good.

Huge Lantern battles had been missing, but everyone must be happy with the amount of Lantern power being used. Still, I found this episode to be my least favorite of the season because it seemed like a lot of the characters were doing things out of their normal behavior.

Seeing next week’s previews, it looks like the story is heading back to 2026.

Dark Matter S2 E2, E3

Posted on by

Spoilers

“A Perfect World”

“Everything Beautiful, Everything Terrible”

I don’t know how I feel about this show. I had enjoyed the first season, but it felt like such a long time between that and the second season that made me lose some interest.

Then, these two episodes felt really slow and I just struggled with all of the Jasons running around. I was confused at times and I was not following a lot of what was going on.

Outside of the family that have settled down in Chicago (which I believe is Jason 1), I am not sure how any other the rest work or which world they are currently inhabiting.

I did like the ending of the third episode. Jason dismantled the Box, leaving just a shell. He returned later that night to find that the Box was back in full working order. I am not sure how this happened or what it will mean for the family, who have identified each other through family tattoos.

I am not sure how I feel about continuing this show moving forward. I probably have at least one more episode in me, but if it is not improving or grabbing my attention more, I think this show is iffy for me t keep watching every week.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #86

Posted on by

Spoilers

Black Bird

“You Promised”

The finale of Black Bird on Apple TV + was satisfying. It was also sad. I had been cautious to look at any reports about the case, since this is based on a true story of Jimmy Keene and Larry Hall, so I would not know how it turned out. This episode saw Larry draw a map and carve a little bird for each of the girls that he murdered. He sent the map to his brother. I was not sure the reasoning behind that, but Jimmy was able to get a look at the map.

Sadly, the map was not specific enough for Jimmy to get any details outside of a general location and, in the end, none of the girl’s bodies had been recovered.

The final scene between Jimmy and Larry was powerful, as Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser just knocked this scene out of the park. Jimmy tried to convince Larry to let the parents of the victims know where their daughters were buried and Larry did not understand why he would do that. You could see Jimmy slowly reaching the point of breaking from the horrors that Larry was laying out in front of him.

Watching Larry’s face as his evil continued to shine out was a frightening occurrence and showed what kind of actor Paul Walter Hauser could be.

In a fictional tale, ,they would have found the graves of the victims, but, with the true story, those remain a mystery.

I am very pleased with the way Jimmy Keene’s life played out both on screen and in real life. The show added “boxed text” at the end to give us some falling action for this story, including what happened to Jimmy, to his father, Larry and Larry’s brother Gary.

The strength of this series was absolutely the performances of its two lead stars, both who had been nominated for Emmy Awards with Hauser winning Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series.

Next week, we start a new series for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk. I decided to watch another limited series that won some Emmys, this time on HBO Max entitled DFT St. Louis featuring Jason Bateman, Linda Cardellini, and David Harbour.

Daily Countdown: Animated Movies #24

Posted on by

#24

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

Released: December 21, 2022

Runtime: 102 minutes

Rating: PG

Animation Style: hybrid 2D and 3D look

Studio: DreamWorks Animation

I always liked the character of Puss in Boots, but the first solo film from the character was okay, at best. So I went into Puss in Boots: The Last Wish with low expectations and questions about why we needed another Puss in Boots movie. Those questions were answered big time as the movie was tremendous.

Voice cast: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek, Harvey Guillén, Florence Pugh, Olivia Colman, Ray Winstone, Samson Kayo, John Mulaney, Wagner Moura, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, Anthony Mendez, Kevin McCann, Bernardo De Paula, Betsy Sodaro and Artemis Pebdani.

Hope

Posted on by

My friend Chris asked me if I was going to see Hope this weekend. I had no idea what it was. He sent me a link, which introduced me to this Korean action/sci-fi/monster movie. I also heard some chatter about how wild this movie was, so when I saw the film available at Cinemark, it moved up my list.

Wild is not the appropriate descriptor for the film.

According to IMDB, “A mysterious discovery is made on the outskirts of the remote harbor town. The residents find themselves in a desperate fight for survival against something they have never encountered before.“

The movie starts off with the Chief of Police (Hwang Jung-min) getting called by his cousin Ko Sung-ki (Zo In-sung) to investigate a dead cow on the road that had gaping claw wounds on its body. This led to a pursuit of some kind of monster that is rampaging through the heart of the small town.

Another character that I enjoyed a great deal in this movie was Im Sung-ae, who was played by Jung Ho-yeon- one of the stars of the first season of Squid Game.

The first act of this movie is basically the monster and Chief going through the city and it was tremendous. There were so many epic action moments that were amazingly shot. Some of the CGI was a touch shaky, but there were also some awesome CGI as well. There were no moments of bad CGI that took me out of the movie.

There was a switch along the line when we discover something unexpected and it changes the perspective. It is still some greatness, as there are a ton of great action chases and exciting, thrill ride scenes.

There were some extremely funny scenes too. Especially some of the dialogue of the film was hilarious and my entire theater was laughing at it.

Hope, though I am not sure where that name comes from, is so great for most of this movie that the long run time of over two and a half hours did not feel that way for me. I really was considering this being the second 5 star review of the day.

However, without spoiling anything, the ending of this movie dropped a gigantic HUH??? on the audience and came from out of nowhere. I was totally confused at the end of the film, and it hurt a film that I thought was superb so far. It felt like the film was incomplete. It does sound like they are working on the sequel.

As with any foreign language film, I forgot the fact that I was reading the English dub on the screen as the film progressed. It just becomes part of the experience. I prefer reading the subtitles over having English actors dub the words because the performances always seem to suffer in that way. The tone of voices is as important as the words that they are saying.

This was a lot of fun even though the ending dinged it. It is a bat-shit crazy film that flipped the script a couple of times and kept me tense and anxious the whole time.

4.5 stars

Practical Magic 2

Posted on by

I was in the theater watching Practical Magic 2 and there were a couple of young women sitting a couple seats away from me. They were enjoying this movie so much. They were crying, gasping, leaning on each other and reacting to everything that was happening. It made me remember how I reacted to Avengers: Endgame on the first watch. There was an energy coming from them that was wonderful.

I wish I would have liked the movie anywhere near what they did.

I just watched Practical Magic for the first time earlier this week in preparation for this movie, and, while I did not like it that much, I am glad I watched it, because you needed to know the story of the original in order to know what is happening.

The curse of the Owens sisters (Sandra Bullock & Nicole Kidman) takes front and center once again as Sally’s husband Gary died off screen, confirming that the curse was still going on. The story transferred to Sally’s daughters, Antonia (Maisie Williams) and Kylie (Joey King), as they were coming to celebrate the birthday of Aunt Jet (Dianne Wiest). Sally had kept her daughters in the dark about their background as witches so when Kylie came with a boyfriend (Xolo Maridueña), things take a turn for tragedy.

The actors are all likeable. I have to admit to only seeing Blue Beetle when Xolo Maridueña was on screen. I was also happy to see Stockard Channing, who I really thought was dead.

The story felt very shaky and I found it to be the biggest weakness of the film. The writing was silly and it was really predictable. I was rolling my eyes several times.

I am glad the young ladies in my row enjoyed this so much. I did not hate the film, but I did not find it any better than the original, which I thought was below level.

2.8 stars

Buddy

Posted on by

I have been trying to get to the movie, Buddy, for the last two weeks, but it just was not working out. So when I went to schedule this week’s movies, Buddy was the priority.

Man, am I glad I made this a priority. I loved this movie.

Buddy reminded me of the late WWE superstar Brey Wyatt, who had a stretch where he was playing a demented children’s host, much like Mr. Rogers. Instead of Mr. Rogers, this is a demented Barney.

Buddy is an orange unicorn who hangs out with a bunch of little kids who sing to Buddy and tell him how much they love him, but it turned out that there was something much more sinister than you expect.

The film started off showing what seemed like an episode of “It’s Buddy” and the first one felt fun. However, it definitely took a turn soon after. Everything looked like it was one of those cheap ’90s kiddies show, but that was what the creators of the film wanted it to look like.

I just thought this was so great as the kids slowly learned about Buddy’s true nature, and i found myself really cheering for these kids. Wade was my favorite one (played by Caleb Williams), and the kid seemed like her was absolutely in a Barney episode. I think that was intentional. Another of the lead kids were Freddy (Delany Quinn) and she did a great job as the overall protagonist.

After a point in the film, the story left the “It’s Buddy” set in the middle and we were in the real world. It was discombobulating at first, but the craziness of these scene, plus the awesome Cristin Milioti and Topher Grace were involved in the story. I was so into this movie that I was trying to guess what was going down during this time and I found myself yelling at Topher Grace for his character.

There are some legitimately horrifying moments in the film with some awesome gore. It was such an entertaining film that I was completely invested in. I was alone in the theater, which allowed me to be as expressive as I could be, and I loved what happened.

There were some real funny moments in the film too… in a really dark comedic manner. It is one of the most creative films of 2026. I loved Buddy and it is another odd film that I absolutely enjoyed completely.

5 stars

Daily Countdown: Animated Movies #25

Posted on by

#25

Monsters vs. Aliens

Released: March 27, 2009

Runtime: 94 minutes

Rating: PG

Animation Style: stereoscopic 3-D computer

Studio: DreamWorks Animation

This film is done in an old, B-movie format, like some of the old alien/monster movies of the 1950s. The characters in the film are very funny and led by Susan, it has a surprising amount of heart.

Voice cast:  Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Hugh Laurie, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland, Rainn Wilson, Paul Rudd, Stephen Colbert, Amy Poehler, Jeffrey Tambor, Julie White, Renée Zellweger, John Krasinski, and Ed Helms .

Stuart Fails to Save the Universe S1 E8

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Spoiler: We’re as Confused as You Are”

Time travel.

It is always confusing. Stuart Fails to Save the Universe is no exception.

They do not stick around in the centaur universe long as Stuart, Denise, Bert, and Kripke went back in time to try and get the other machine from themselves. Only those army people turned out to be themselves after all.

Like I said, always confusing.

Penny was back again this episode as a military lawyer who was prosecuting Stuart, Denise, Bert, and Kripke for desertion after they tried to leave the army world again. Penny wound up getting transported back to the centaur world just before Stuart, Denise, Bert and Kripke left again. Penny seemed to like being a centaur.

We did some timeline jumping and it was fun. It did not feel that significant, but I liked it more than some of the other episodes.

The four of them wound up in a comic book at the end of the show. I am looking forward to that next week, although unless this was just another momentary pause like centaur would was.

Daily Countdown: Animated Movies #26

Posted on by

#26

Toy Story 2

Released: November 24, 1999

Runtime: 92 minutes

Rating: G

Animation Style: 3D computer-animated style

Studio: Pixar/Disney

Toy Story 2 is my least favorite of the original trilogy for this movie, which, considering that it is just short of the Top 25 all time, should tell you what I think of this franchise. It was a great reveal on the villain twist and introduced us to some amazing characters.

Voice cast: Tom Hanks, Tim Allen, Joan Cusack, Kelsey Grammer, Don Rickles, Estelle Harris, Jim Varney, Wayne Knight, Wallace Shawn, John Ratzenberger, Annie Potts, R. Lee Ermey, John Morris, Laurie Metcalf, Jeff Pidgeon, R. Lee Ermey, Joe Ranft, Jodi Benson, Jonathan Harris, Andrew Stanton and Dave Foley.

EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week

Posted on by

September 10

Another big week of covers. The race for the Cover Artist of the Year is really heating up.

Also-Rans: Doomquest #4, Challenges of Doom: Spider-Man #1 (Peach Momoko version), Spawn ’77 #1 ( Cover A & B), The Punisher #8, The Omega Book #2, and Marvel Gold ’76 #1.

Bronze Medalist

Iron Man #9

Variant Cover B (Timeless)

Cover art by Alex Ross

For some reason, I love Hellcat. She is the definition of a C-level hero, but I just have always liked her. So this beautiful cover from Alex Ross was a major draw for me. Plus, the white background is another favorite of mine.

Alex Ross is a major competitor in this season’s Cover artist of the Year.

Silver Medalist

Wolverine #27

Cover art by Dan Panosian

Inspired by the iconic Todd McFarlane cover with the Hulk appearing in the reflection of the claws, this new version is beautiful with the reflections of the Savage Champions. Wolverine is looking really rough in the black background. This is very stylish and awesome.

Gold Medalist

Six of Us #1

Variant cover E

Cover art by Raul Allen

I was excited to hear about this new Tom King book from Dark Horse, but what truly drew my attention to this comic cover was how the bottom corner looked to be ripped and the inside page revealed. That is on the cover, but it is what page one would have looked like had it been torn. I found this so clever that I had to grab the variant.

Daily Countdwn: Animated Movies #27

Posted on by

#27

Ratatouille

Released: June 29, 2007

Runtime: 111 minutes

Rating: G

Animation Style: stylized, caricatured computer-animation style

Studio: Pixar/Disney

I did not watch this Pixar movie for years. I do nto know why I shunned this film for so long, but when I did finally watch it, I absolutely loved it. Ratatouille is one of the hidden gems in the Pixar catalog.

Voice cast:  Patton Oswalt, Lou Romano, Ian Holm, Janeane Garofalo, Peter O’Toole, Brian Dennehy, Peter Sohn, Brad Garrett, Will Arnett, John Ratzenberger, James Remar, Teddy Newton, Brad Bird, Jake Steinfeld, Tony Fucile and Stéphane Roux  . 

Ted Lasso S4 E6

Posted on by

Spoilers

“Don’t Jump Around Much Anymore“

Be careful when “Jump Around” comes on… especially when you have a bad knee.

Roy went down at a New Year’s Eve party as the House of Pain hit played. He and Jamie Tartt, who was back guest starring, joined in the dance and Roy’s knee let out. It led to Keeley to meet Roy’s new doctor girlfriend, which was crushing to her.

Then a supremely doped up Roy ends up telling the doctor that he loves….Keeley. Roy did not realize he was talking to the doctor… and Keeley heard him, but only up to the point where he said “I love you”. Of course she thought Roy was meaning the doctor. It was an old misunderstanding trope of sitcoms, but there is a reason why it has been used as often as it has. It worked here too.

It did feel weird that we got a New Year’s Eve episode in September, but I forgive that too because it was a solid character episode. We had important moments for not only Roy & Keeley, but also Ted & Ted’s ex-wife, Michelle, Beard, Jamie, and Rebecca and Matthijs. Then, Alice seemed to take some huge steps, but then took giant leaps backward.

Oh, and Tracy Ulman’s character is amazingly weird and downright psychotic.

Some of the episode’s arcs were heartbreaking while other arcs help move the characters forward. The scenes between Ted and Michelle were really sweet. I was afraid they were going to do some alcohol related sex between them, but they stuck with the friendship and Ted feels able to ask someone out on a date.

Rebecca and Matthijs made up in time for midnight as Matthijs arrived at the hospital where Rebecca was hanging out with Jamie after bringing Roy here for his knee. It was a nice resolution, but there was not really much of a story this way. Still, with the other flops of relationships, it was nice to have someone happy.