Cobra Kai S6 Part 2 E9, E10

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Spoilers

“Blood In Blood Out”

“Eunjangdo”

So I watched episodes 6-8 earlier this morning and I was truly underwhelmed. I would go as far as say that I disliked E6 while not being much of a fan of E8, with 7 saving the threesome a bit. I was disappointed and I even went as far as to wonder if they should have ended the series after season five with that tremendous finale.

Well, I’ll shut up now.

Episodes 9 and 10 of Cobra Kai Season 6 just said ‘hold my beer.’

Holy crap. What an amazing two episodes in a row. Everything that was weak about the first three I saw this morning was totally crushed in these two episodes. I can’t believe I have to wait for the next episode, whenever the part three of the season is released.

The show amped up the karate fights in these two episodes and ended the stupid conflicts that I complained about in the post this morning. The Miyagi-Do crew finally just put their cards on the table and got the stupid arguments and hurt feelings aside after their team got kicked in the first match of the tag team competition. The tag team battle was creative and awesome.

With the tag team competition done, and Cobra Kai out… you knew something was going to happen to bring them back in. Performance enhancing drugs for one of the non-important teams brought Cobra Kai back into the mixture with the Iron Dragons and Miyagi-Do.

Then, that twist led to something the show has not had in a long time, an epic all-out karate war with everybody fighting each other. It was something that Cobra Kai the show had been well known for, but hadn’t used lately. Certainly not on this scale, with the whole thing broadcast to the world.

And you could tell that someone was getting that knife that Kreese was brandishing all over the place. The show wouldn’t have kept showing it if it was not going to be used. I was afraid that Daniel was going to get that blade as it was being set up, but I never thought that Kwon would taste the dagger. I was sure it was going to be the giant Iron Dragon guy getting killed. But no, Kwon was stabbed int he chest and fell upon his own weapon, Kreese’s dagger which he had picked up from the floor.

Of course, Kreese had every intention of using that dagger to kill Terry Silver, but when he realized that he had dropped it, Kreese decided that they had to have an old man fight, hand to hand.

I may have actually grown to like Chozen and Kim Da-Eun as a pair. Them fighting side by side was cool, even if the show did make Da-Eun flip as a character really quickly. Reminded me of Hawk’s face turn a few seasons ago. Kind of our of nowhere.

Oh, and by the way, Daniel’s dream with Mr. Miyagi making the cameo was out of this world. Make you wonder about AI.

Unbelievable two episodes, especially after the first three of this second part of the season were so iffy. I am completely back on board with the show and can’t wait for the final five episodes.

A Real Pain

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A Real Pain is a perfect example of an independent movie.

For me, an independent movie does not have a plot, or at least one that drives most of the story. It is a film where we take some characters and drop them into situations and let them see what happens. You could define it as character based films. I don’t want to imply that I do not like that style of movie, but it is distinct.

In A Real Pain, two cousins take a trip to Poland after their beloved grandma passed away to go on a Holocaust tour and visit her childhood home.

The movie was written and directed by Jesse Eisenberg, who starred as David Kaplan. Kieran Culkin played his cousin Benji Kaplan. They both brought Oscar-worthy performances in these roles. Their performances were very important since the characters were so important to the story.

The tour of Poland and a nearby concentration camp was very powerful and the actors did a great job responding to it.

The film was only 90 minutes long, but it did feel longer than that. That is probably because of the dense material that the film featured. However, there were some really funny moments too, which you do not find too often with Holocaust films. A Real Pain is an ambitious film with great performances that had some challenging moments to watch it.

4 stars

Red One

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Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Chris Evans and J.K. Simmons star in the new Christmas themed film, Red One, opening this weekend to a large budget.

Santa (JK Simmons) is preparing for his yearly trek across the globe when he gets kidnapped. Cal (Dwayne Johnson), head of St. Nick’s security, has to reluctantly team-up with 4th level naughty-lister Jack (Chris Evans), the man who unwittily provided specifics for the kidnapping to be successful, to save Christmas.

Johnson, Evans and Simmons are all very likable and entertaining in this movie. Johnson is playing the same version of The Rock that he always plays, but he is enjoyable at it. Evans’ character is another version that we have seen before.

The story had some fun moments, but truthfully there was not much that we have not seen before. I did like the Krampus (Kristofer Hivju) section of the film, but we saw a good chunk of this in trailers. In fact, one of my favorite lines of the trailer was not in the film. Still, I did like the section.

Some of the special effects looked great, but a lot of the CGI was not great. Again, most of the Krampus parts of the movie were good, mainly because they seemed to be mostly practical effects.

I had heard a lot of negative reviews about this movie, but I did not hate it. It was okay. It may not be a great movie, but it is about what you would expect when you watch it. It has a place as a Christmas movie watch that can be fun for the family. It is never going to be considered a classic, but it has likable actors and some fun action.

3.1 stars

Cobra Kai S6 Part 2 E6, E7, E8

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“Benvinguts a Barcelona”

“Dog in the Fight”

“Snakes on a Plane”

I watched the first three episodes of the second part of season six of Cobra Kai that came out on Netflix this weekend. The show had split into three sections for the final season. This middle part deals with the Sekai Taikai tournament in Barcelona, Spain.

Among the first three episodes, I thought there was one good one, and the other two were disappointing.

I thought episode seven was pretty good, as Daniel gets kidnapped by Kreese and put in a dog cage. The questions surrounding Miyagi’s past, which was a distraction in the first half of the season, was actually the only thing here that was interesting at all.

The rest of these episodes have so many immature, dumb moments. The first one started out with fart jokes. It went downhill quickly. The childish arguments between characters were meant to be conflicts, but they instead just seemed annoying. The conflicts were either easily resolvable, or not even worth the time.

Chozen arriving at the Sekai Taikai drunk was embarrassing. The whole issue between Hawk and Demetri is unrealistic. The apparent relationship between Chozen and Kim Da-Eun came out of nowhere as she took a totally flipped personality. The issue between Robbie and Miguel felt repetitive. Same with Sam and Tory. Devin’s whole arc is her guilt over giving Kenny a laxative and she drops that news to him over the phone.

There are a bunch of new karate fighters around with zero personality and crammed in stories, including one giant fighter whose sensei uses physical violence to train him.

They explained away Kreese’s availability here as the brushed aside the prison escape. And I guess Terry Silver is back, also somehow out of jail and backing one of the other dojos in the Sekai Taikai.

These have really taken a step back from previous episodes and I hope that it is just a matter of having to many episodes in a season (they have 15 overall, more than they usually have) and that this is not the way the remainder of the season would go, because, right now, I wish this show would have ended after the outstanding finale of season 5.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #124

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November 15, 2024

It is time once again for the EYG Comic Cavalcade! It was a good week of books with some interesting new books.

On the eBay front, Tick #13 (aka Tick: The Pseudo Edition) came in the mail this week. It is a beautiful book that is in awesome condition. I also picked up the whole series (except one issue) of Marvel’s The Human Fly. That was a huge guilty pleasure when I was younger.

Books this week:

G.I. Joe #1. Written by Joshua Williamson and art and cover art by Tom Reilly. It has finally arrived. After several G.I. Joe books over the last six months to a year, the team book is finally released. It was a intriguing group of characters in the book, including the Baroness on the Joes. There is a cool wrap around cover. I enjoyed this one quite a bit even though I did not love all of the other Joes books. This one has a great start.

The Spectacular Spider-Men #9. “Gone Girl.” Written by Greg Weisman and art by Andres Genolet & Emilio Laiso. Cover art by Emilio Laiso & Edgar Delgado and variant cover C art by Josemaria Casanovas (Silver Medalist). Story is still focused on the people at the coffee shop and we get some FF action.

Captain America #15. “And a Town Shall Rise.” Written by J. Michael Straczynski and art by Jesus Saiz. Taurin Clarke did the cover art. I have enjoyed this short arc featuring Cap, Spidey and Thor. The strength of this arc is the three of them and their interactions.

NYX #5. Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly and penciled by Francesco Mortarino. Sara Pichelli & Federico Blee did the cover art. Ms. Marvel, Wolverine and other members of NYX face off with the public. And Sophie Cuckoo picks a side.

Uncanny X-Men #5. “Thunder in our Hearts.” Written by Gail Simone and art by David Marquez. Cover art by David Marquez and Matthew Wilson (Gold Medalist). It is a brutal battle with Rogue and the other Uncanny X-Men versus Gaunt. The four new kids of this series (Jitter, Ransom, Deathdream and Calico come to the fight as well. Gail Simone’s book has been probably my favorite of the new X-books so far.

Amazing Spider-Man #61. “Inevitable Attraction.” Written by Joe Kelly and penciled by Ed McGuinness. Cover art was done by John Romita Jr., Scott Hanna and Marcio Menyz. The new creative team takes over ASM as Zeb Wells departs the series. This also kicks off “The 8 Deaths of Spider-Man” storyline where Spidey is recruited by the Sorcerer Supreme, Dr. Doom to be his “hero.” I am not sure how I feel about seeing Spidey die a bunch of times, but I will, of course, give this new arc a chance.

Transformers #14. Written by Daniel Warren Johnson and art by Jason Howard. Cover art by Daniel Warren Johnson and Mike Spicer. This could be entitled “How Starscream got his Mojo Back.” It’s not, but it easily could be. We get another issue focused heavily on the Decepticon Villain Starscream. It has been a very consistently good series. Anxious to see more crossover with this and G.I. Joe.

Tim Waits #2. Written by Chip Zdarsky & David Brothers and illustrated by Marcus To & Marvin Sianipar. Cover art is by Marcus To. It is time travel in the world created by Chip Zdarsky. Lots of action and some weird time events. Can the present day people stop those from the future? I guess we’ll have to see.

Absolute Batman #2. “The 200” Part Two of Five. Written by Scott Snyder and art by Nick Dragotta. Cover art by Dragotta & Martin. Absolute Batman and Alfred team up and start a beautiful friendship…maybe. Oh, and we get the Absolute debut of one Selina Kyle.

Silence #1. Written by Evan K. Pozios and art & cover art by Alex Sanchez. A comic book artist needs a break after a major health scare. So he goes to a city named Silence. However, this does not seem like a good choice in the end. This mini series has not yet appeared in the CZL app, but it was an intriguing book from the company Afterlight Comics.

Sam and Twitch Case Files #8. Script by Todd McFarlane. Plot by McFarlane & Jon Goff. Art by Szymon Kudranski. Cover art is done by Raymond Gay & Mirko Colak. Sam and Twitch are finally back together after being separate for most of the series so far. Everything feels nicely wrapped up after this issue, though there is more coming for them.

Life #3. Written by Brian Azzarello & Stephanie Phillips and art by Daniel Žeželj. This has been a cool concept with this being a flip book, with two stories from different POVs. One story a heist and the other a prison break. DSTLRY has been releasing some really fun and enjoyable books so far.

The Mammoth #5. Written by Paul Tobin and art and cover art by Arjuna Sudini (Bronze Medalist). This series comes to a weird conclusion as the dead seem to find their place. This was a strange series that I am not sure had a overly satisfying ending.

Werewolf By Night: Red Band #4. Written by Jason Loo and penciled by Sergio Davila. E.M. Gist did the cover art. Jack Russell and Elsa Bloodstone tried to find a place where the overtly savage nature of the Werewolf by Night would not be bad. One would think that the Savage Land would be the place. It seems as if Ka-Zar may disagree.

Other books this week: Deadpool #8, Psylocke #1, Huge Detective #3, Domain #5 and Ultimate X-Men #9.

Shrinking S2 E6

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 “In a Lonely Place”

Jason Segal and Harrison Ford are absolutely on fire in this episode. Jimmy and Paul are hilarious and the writing was spectacular. They were here as kind of the commentors on the things going down.

Lots of relationships were straightened out here. Gaby and her sister. Sean and his father. Alice and Louis, via Brian.

However, it seems as if Liz is approaching a major conflict that might affect her marriage. I don’t like that. I hope that this show does not take it in the way that it looks like.

I want to go back to Segal and Ford. When they paddled up in the boat to see Sean’s father, I thought I was going to lose it. They are such a fantastic pairing and they are written with such smart dialogue.

I wonder where this season is headed as it feels like a bunch of the story has been wrapped up. It was extremely entertaining, but not sure where it is going.

EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week

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Week of November 11

Mid-November and we have a new crop of medalists. When we reach December and have the Year in Review, I will be totaling up these points to determine who the comic cover artist of the year. I will also be picking the best comic cover of the year. That will be coming in December. Meanwhile, here are this week’s covers.

Bronze Medalist

The Mammoth #5

Cover art by Arjuna Susini

The scary, white creatures around the characters are a stark difference and the color of the characters and the title pops off the cover.

Silver Medalist

The Spectacular Spider-Man #9

Variant Cover

Cover art by Josemaria Casanovas

A fun Kraven the Hunter cover trying to catch the Spider is a wonderfully excellent variant cover. I love the blue tint on the cover of this issue.

Gold Medalist

Uncanny X-Men #5

Cover art by David Marquez & Matthew Wilson

Funny enough, Todd had pulled a variant cover of Uncanny X-Men#5 for me, but I saw this cover and loved it, so I switched them. Gambit looks tremendous, cornered with a bunch of cats all around him. This has been a big year for Gambit and this cover fits right in with that.

Yellowjackets S2 E2

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“Edible Complex”

Well, bon appetite.

It looks like my original thought back when this started turned out to be true after all. The surviving girls tried to cremate Jackie’s corpse because Shauna was spending too much time with her (braiding her hair and putting on makeup). That was pretty creepy. The creep factor was only getting worse.

When they tried to burn the body, some falling snow stopped the fire from completely burning Jackie’s body, leaving a perfectly cooked frame, just right for eating.

Ooof.

This scene of the starving kids stuffing their faces with pieces of the charred body of Jackie was truly wild. It felt like the deep seeded creatures inside the girls all came out. Coach limped away in disgust. Ain’t no way that he doesn’t become another meal, another day.

Present day, Elijah Woods is here and has a connection with Misty. I am curious to see where this goes.

Kevyn is circling around Shauna in the disappearance of Adam Martin. He thinks he knows that Shauna had an affair with Adam, but he is still on the outside.

Lottie says that she was with Travis when he hanged himself. He was trying to reach a certain level of consciousness so he could see images like he did in the mountains. However, the machine button jammed and he wound up dying. I do not know if I trust Lottie. She is certainly suspcious.

Taissa is really flipping out too. She imagined her son came to her house after school to play with the new puppy, however that did not happen. We’ll see what that car crash will do to this story.

Yellowjackets has been wild so far and the mysteries continue to abound in this wilderness. What is going on? What is the symbol? Who was Taissa following when she almost ran off the cliff in her sleep?

Bates Motel S5 E9, E10

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“Visiting Hours”

“The Cord”

The rewatch of Bates Motel came to an end tonight as I watched episode nine and ten of season five. I did not remember any details of this finale so I had no idea of what was going to happen.

I was afraid that I would not feel that the end of this show would have a satisfying end. I was wrong.

It has been fairly clear the last season that this is not a prequel to the movie Psycho. It just had the character of Norman Bates and the setting in place, but they did not feel the need to keep things so they would line up with the movie.

I mean, Norman died at the end. That would make it difficult to have the movie come after this.

The scene between brothers with Dylan killing Norman in self defense, because Norman wanted him to. Dylan was shocked by the corpse of Norma at the dinner table. Freddie Highmore and Max Thieriot brought some amazing emotion and energy to this final confrontation.

What did feel like a letdown was the end of Alex Romero. The ending was always going to be about the Bates brothers and not Romero, but I loved Romero and Norma as a couple as I have mentioned several times so I wanted Alex to have some kind of retribution. Of course that was not going to happen. Alex’s emotions over the Norma body is what cost him his life. He should have killed Norman first, but he was not thinking, he was still in total grief.

I was very happy that Dylan and Emma wound up together. I was a little worried that they would no longer be together because Emma was mad about her mother being murdered by Norman. However, the end of the episode showed Emma, her daughter and Dylan meeting up and they shared a kiss. This was a wonderful moment that made me very happy. At least one of the great couples from Bates Motel made it through the series.

I am glad that I have made it through this series. It was a quality show that flew under the radar while it was on TV.

Bates Motel S5 E7, E8

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“Inseparable”

“The Body”

So much for Chick being the author of the novel Psycho was based on. One bullet to the head from Alex Romero took care of that.

I really do not remember how this is resolved, so I cannot begin to know where this is heading. I just have two more episodes left for the season and it is thrilling. I’m sure I watched this when it was released on A & E, but I legit do not remember much of this.

These two episodes had so many massive moments that it took my breath away.

The whole scene where Norman, as Norma, attacked Dylan and Norman prevented his other side from stabbing him was insane. I was telling Dylan to get out of there, I was so worried about him. Dylan is the conscience of the story, the heart of this family. His loyalty to his brother, despite all, is amazing. I do not remember Dylan’s fate, but I really do not want him to die. I want him to go back to Seattle with Emma and raise their baby girl, Katie. I feel a foreboding that those thoughts are pipe dreams.

Alex Romero is another character that I do not want to see come to an end. I think he is going to end up dying, but his will to come back for vengeance against Norman is downright Shakespearian. Alex is so damaged that you could see the pain constantly. The look on his face as Chick was telling him about what Norman had done (digging up Norma’s body and building a ‘mausoleum’ for her int he basement freezer) was very telling. There was one shot where his face looked to be like death itself, pale and conflicted.

I kind of loved watching Norma take over control of the body of Norman only to be thwarted by the new sheriff. ‘Norma’ thought she had everything handled, but surprises kept coming.

The police discovered the body of Emma’s mother in the lake alongside the guy Romero sent to try and kill Norman.

Just two more to go…

What If…? Season Three Trailer

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Okay, this looks epic.

Storm! With Mjolnir! Yes please. And that did sound like the voice of Storm from X-Men ’97. Cool, if that is.

When we saw the three Watchers, I literally let out a squeal.

I am still not sure how the 8 episodes will drop. All at once? Starting on Dec. 22? One a week? Either way, I’ll be there.

The Penguin S1 E8

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“A Great or Little Thing”

What a gut punch.

The Penguin has been a spectacular crime show from the beginning. It has never felt like a comic book show to me, despite being set in Gotham with The Penguin as the protagonist.

Francis was going to have Oz killed because she knew what he had done to his brothers. The whole scene at the jazz club with Francis and Oz and Sofia was crushing. Deirdre O’Connell was sensational as the grieving mother unleashing an inner hatred she had pushed down for years.

The whole final showdown between Oz and Sofia was awesome, and it was very satisfying seeing Sofia returned to Arkham.

The hardest scene for me was watching Oz strangle Victor to death because Oz believed that having someone close to him would be weakness. The darkness inside Oz has truly transformed him into a monster, a true Batman villain, which is why the Bat-signal at the end was so appropriate. Shocking end for someone who had been so loyal to Oz.

This is my final time that I can say that Colin Farrell is absolutely amazing in this role. I can hardly believe that he is actually this character. It looks nothing like him. It is a tremendous performance that really is more than just the makeup.

Colin Farrell and Deirdre O’Connell deserves Emmy Awards and so does Cristin Milioti. Seriously brilliance among the cast.

Bates Motel S5 E2, E3, E4, E5, E6

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“The Convergence of Twain”

“Bad Blood”

“Hidden”

“Dreams Die First”

“Marion”

Got on a bit of a run during the final season of Bates Motel. A couple of things turned out clearer than I remembered when I first watched the series on A & E.

First, I always had an issue with the Marion Crane storyline, which began to happen this season because I had believed that this was a prequel series to the Psycho movie from Hitchcock. However, I realized that this was not the case… or at least, I think that is the case.

When Norman chained Caleb in the cellar, Chick discovered all of the secrets of Norman and his “Mother.” He saw the frozen corpse of Norma in the basement. Chick, being the opportunist he is, decided he would write this story. He got a typewriter and was taking notes on a tape recorder. He told Norman that he was writing a suspense/thriller novel that he thinks could be a good movie someday. So the show is now an inspiration for the novel/movie instead of a prequel. I like that switch, and I wonder why I did not see it last time.

Understand, it might all be for naught considering I do not remember if Chick met an end during the series. If that turns out to be the case, then perhaps I will have to adjust my thoughts.

Second was the way Dylan and Emma finally found out that Norma was dead. It was a small scene, but it was really well acted. Dylan not knowing about what was happening with Norma was one of the more frustrating parts of the season. I know why they did it, but it was tough. Of course, Dylan lost both his mother and father. The scene with Dylan and Norman on the phone was powerful considering they were just on the phone together.

Third, I was not expecting Romero to get shot, but I do now remember it happening. Buckshot from a kid’s gun. He shows how tough he continues to be. I’m not sure if the show intends for us to hope that Romero fails, but I find myself rooting for him way more than I ever root for Norman.

Five more episodes remain in the series.