If

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Ryan Reynolds is back in a new film named If. If stands for Imaginary Friends, which has had a long history in the films. There are quite a variety here as these Ifs are trying to find purpose after their kids forget them.

There were several references to Ifs fading away, particularly from Blue (Steve Carell), which I believe is an allusion to Bing Bong from the Inside Out film.

According to IMDB, “A young girl who goes through a difficult experience begins to see everyone’s imaginary friends who have been left behind as their real-life friends have grown up.“

The young girl, Bea, is played by Cailey Fleming and she does a good job opposite Ryan Reynolds, who played Calvin, and John Krasinski, who played her father. Fleming is charming and has a nice chemistry with the other actors. There is a lot placed on her shoulders and if she is unable to carry the load, this movie would absolutely fail. She is very good in this role and very believable.

The designs of the Ifs are fine, albeit fairly average. Nothing really stands out on the design but none of them are bad either.

The voice cast of the Ifs are tremendous. besides Steve Carell, there is Phoebe Waller-Bridge, Awkwafina (who is in every animated program now apparently), George Clooney, Emily Blunt, Jon Stewart, Matt Damon, Bill Hader, Richard Jenkins, Keegan Michael-Key, Christopher Meloni, Sam Rockwell, Maya Rudolph, Amy Schumer, Brad Pitt, Bradley Cooper, Blake Lively, Matthew Rhys, and Sebastian Maniscalco.

The film does run a little long, and the final twist was pretty obvious, but the story itself was charming and showed the strength of the film. Ryan Reynolds is always likable and funny, and this is another example.

I did not feel that this was exclusively a children’s flick. In fact, I believe there are some big time concepts that will appeal to the adults in the crowd as well.

3.75 stars

EYG Comic Cavalcade #98

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May 17, 2024

We are back with the EYG Comic Cavalcade this Friday night.

Made a bit of a mistake. I went to eBay to start working on filling out my New Warriors collection. I ordered several different issues, but I had looked at several of them. A few days later, I was sent an offer from a seller on eBay for the New Warriors Vol. 2 #1-10. I knew I had looked at this before, so I jumped at the offer.

Then, I received the package of the ten issues and they were great. I went to eBay to leave feedback and found out that on that first day, I had already ordered the Vol. 2 issues, and another set was on its way. They arrived this week.

This was my dumb mistake, so I decided just to keep the double set of issues and not go and try and return one of them. I just have two copies of these books.

Books this week:

Saga Vol. 4. Okay, this week I was able to read the fourth volume of the complete set of Saga I picked up at Free Comic Book Day. This continues to be a fantastic trade paperback. I hope to get some time carved out to continue reading this soon, but summer vacation is coming soon, and, if I have not finished it by then, that would be a great opportunity.

X-Men Forever #4. “No Hope” Written by Kieron Gillen and art by Luca Maresca. Cover art by Jim Rigg (Silver Medalist). Jean Grey as the Phoenix is back once again, but it comes at the end of the road for Hope.

Bear Pirate Viking Queen #1. Written by Sean Lewis and art by Jonathan Marks Barravecchia. I mean… that title? How could I possibly pass up Bear Pirate Viking Queen? It is a beautiful book with a cool story with a dangerous bear. I enjoyed reading number one. I believe it is a three issue mini series from Image and I am excited to see where this goes.

Ice Cream Man #39. “Decompression in a Wreck (Part One)” Written by W. Maxwell Prince and art by Martin Morazzo. Cover art by Jeffrey Alan Love (Gold Medalist). One of the most interesting and creative concepts for an issue, Ice Cream Man #39 tells a five second story, going through a fatal car crash. Great issue.

Free Comic Book Day: MAD. It’s absurd…it’s inane… it’s… MAD. Todd picked this one up for me a few weeks after Free Comic Book Day and it was a hoot. It focused on DC Comics characters given the MAD treatment. EYG Hall of Famer Sergio Aragones did several of the bits. It also includes some Spy vs. Spy classics. Fun.

Amazing Spider-Man: Blood Hunt #1. Written by Justina Ireland and penciled by Marcelo Ferreira. Ferreira, Roberto Poggi & Rachelle Rosenberg did the cover art. The story continued from the Amazing Spider-Man regular series as Spidey teams up with Misty Knight and …The Lizard? to go in search of a missing Morbius… aka Dr. Mike. More vampire action than you can shake a wooden stake at.

Displaced #4. “Chapter Four: Go Our Own Way”. Written by Ed Brisson and illustrated and cover art by Luca Casalanguida. Displaced continues to be an excellent book. We see the group splitting apart which is causing some of them fade away. There is still a LOST vibe to this book and I am loving it.

Doom #1. “Days of Doom” Written by Jonathan Hickman and art by Sanford Greene. Cover art by Ari Granov (Bronze medalist). This was strange. It was one of those potential future stories. I am never a huge fan of these and this one with Doom in space was not what I expected. I did like the inclusion of Valeria. I’m just not sure the purpose of this book.

Redcoat #2. Written by Geoff Johns and art by Bryan Hitch. Redcoat is one of my favorite new comic series. Simon Pure has seemingly found himself a sidekick… Albert Einstein? And there was a new antagonist… Benedict Arnold. Creativity abounds in this new series.

Dark Ride #12. Written by Joshua Williamson and art by Andrei Bressan. Cover art was by Andrei Bressan and Adriano Lucas. The series comes to an end as things go fairly poorly for Arthur whereas his kids, Sam and Halloween get everything they ever wanted. As happy of an ending as Hell could provide.

Miles Morales: Spider-Man #20. “Sibling Day” Written by Cody Ziglar and art by Federico Vicentini. Vicentini & Matt Milla did the cover art. Miles and his clone “brother” Shift take their little sister on a sibling trip. They meet up with Kamala Khan!

Ms. Marvel: Mutant Menace #3. “Reunions” Written by Iman Vellani & Sabir Pirzada and art by Scott Godlewski. Cover art was done by Carlos Gomez and Jesus Aburtov. Speaking of Kamala Khan, this series sees her reunited with Red Dagger and we get a bit of a love connection. Also zombie Cyclops.

Something Epic #10. Written, Illustrated and cover art by Szymon Kudranski. The investigation into the death of Sherlock Holmes and the disappearance of Zeus continues as Noa goes in search of the first goddess. The imagery of this book is always gorgeous.

Fishflies #6. Written by Jeff Lemire and illustrated by Lemire as well as Shawn Kuruneru. We find out the origin behind the creature and Helen has a shocking loss. Fishflies #6 is the penultimate issue of this run and it was one of my favorites of the series so far.

Ultimate X-Men #3. Written, art and cover art by Peach Momoko. Hisako and Mei get some more specifics in their powers, and they drop the word…mutants for the first time. I really like the way the Ultimate X-Men is very different than the regular X-Men. I love how the Ultimate X-Men are their own character and not just repeats of the normal team.

What If…?: Aliens #3. Written by Hans Rodionoff and art by Guiu Vilanova. Phil Noto did the cover art. I have been loving this new type of What If. You have the rights for Aliens so why not tell a What If story with these characters. Paul Reiser and his son Leon came up with the concept.

House of Slaughter #23. “The Butcher’s War Part Three” Written by Tate Brombal and illustrated by Antonio Fuso. Cover art was done by Nimit Malavia & Werther Dell’edera. The Houses come together to try to plan what to do about Jace Boucher.

Other books this week: Wolverine: Madripoor Knights #4, Napalm Lullaby #3, FCBD: Ultra Duck, What If…Venom #4, and the Energon Universe #1.

The X-Files S4 E21

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“Zero Sum”

No Scully this episode.

Instead we get Skinner involved up to his neck with the Cigarette Smoking Man.

He is stuck because of his attempt to save Scully.

We also see some of the bees, which have been used as a transportation device for smallpox. Tested on a group of children at a school? CSM is truly a heartless bastard. These bees become a major piece of the mythology, even being a focus of the first X-Files movie.

How does this rotten bastard continue to escape? Skinner stood in the dark with a gun to his head, and fired three shots. However, Skinner allowed his shot to the side, not plugging him in the head. I still wish someone would just finish him off. How bad could it be?

It was also a key moment for the relationship between Mulder and Skinner. Mulder caught Skinner in his lies, but listened to what he told him and he believed him.

Apparently, Gillian Anderson was off filming The Mighty during this time. There is no doubt about it… Scully was missed in this episode. It was still entertaining though.

Bodkin S1 E3

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“Perfectly Innocent Life”

Bodkin episode three saw Dove, Gilbert and Emmy head to an Irish wake.

The wake of Darragh led to a lot of drinking, dancing and some intriguing clues to what happened on Samhain when the three strangers went missing.

They discovered more about the connections among Seamus and both Malachy and Fiona. Seamus was Malachy’s brother.

Dove and Emmy also found a suspicious image in a local bog. It looks like a car. Several comments about a car crash that night sent them to this bog to see what might be in it. Dove went into the water finding a car.

It was pulled out, but it was empty. At this point I was saying out loud to my screen for them to look in the trunk, but they seemed to not plan on doing that. Fortunately, Dove kicked the back end of the car in frustrations and the trunk popped open revealing two bodies that had been in the trunk, in that bog for 20 years.

With the bodies in the trunk, it supports the theory that these two were murdered.

The Netflix series has been a decent watch so far. I really do enjoy Will Forte in his role.

EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week

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Week of May 13

It is that time again this week to give out some medals for the best covers from this week’s comic books. Interestingly enough, this week has three variant covers as our medal winners. Oh, and no Alex Ross this week…

Bronze Medalist

Doom #1

Variant cover

Cover Art by Adi Granov

This one became the Bronze Medalist by the skin of its figural teeth as this one held off Ultimate X-Men to take this prize. The imposing nature of Dr. Doom in close up dominates the cover and stands out like a boss.

Silver Medalist

X-Men Forever #4

Variant Cover

Cover art by Jim Rugg

A beautiful painted looking cover with Jean in her Phoenix outfit, having the fiery bird land on her arm. And it is lovely. It is compelling of a piece of art.

Gold Medalist

Ice Cream Man #39

Variant Cover

Cover art by Jeffrey Alan Love

Ice Cream Man typically has some frightening horror covers and this one is creepy as heck. The Ice Cream Man with the arms coming from his back, in the black and white cover is really excellent.

X-Men ’97 S1 E10

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“Tolerance is Extinction, Pt. 3”

The third part of the season finale was brought to a close on Disney + in one of the most epic animated wars ever put to screen. A struggle with Bastian, with the mind of Magneto, and with the conflict within the Marvel Universe.

There is so much to see in this finale. A finale that ranged from Magneto and Charles inside Magneto’s head, to the momentary return of Phoenix, to cameos from Daredevil, Cloak and Dagger, Cap and Iron Man, Peter and MJ, Omega Red, Alpha Flight, Doctor Strange, Black Panther, Red Guardian, Darkstar, and ending with Apocalypse.

The show did an amazing thing, telling this story of Bastian’s future and finding the threads of family within. It blended perfectly with Magneto’s story and the battle with Xavier for his own soul. Onslaught is surely in there somewhere, but I am not sure it is where the next step for this series lies.

Post credit scene with Apocalypse, grabbing something from the ashes of and saying the word “death?” I am not sure after first viewing what it was that was in Apocalypse’s hand, but it will clearly lead to Death in his Four Horsemen. Will it be Gambit?

A version of Bishop returned to meet Forge, telling him that the X-Men were not dead, but were instead lost in time and that they needed to find them. A crew of them in Ancient Egypt with En Sabah Nur and Scott and Jean in the far future with a young Nathan. But we did not see Storm. We did not see Wolverine. Where did they end up?

Phoenix messed up Mister Sinister something bad. Then Phoenix was gone, regulated to a feeling deep inside Jean Grey. I knew we were seeing Phoenix this season. Every opening credit included a scene with the Phoenix. It only made sense. Apocalypse has been on most of them as well.

This animated series truly has been one of the greatest things that Marvel Studios has put out, especially among the Disney + shows. It has to be considered right there with WandaVision and Loki as the upper echelon of projects on the streamer.

They do a sensational job of wrapping up the season’s story while building toward where the next season is heading. The Apocalypse material did not come at the cost of the Bastian/Magneto tale. It was masterful storytelling.

I know season two has already been written, so I cannot wait until this gorgeous series returns to my screen. It can not come too soon.

X-Men ’97 is masterful. An amazing ten episodes that brought the mutants to the forefront of Marvel where they belong.

Bodkin S1 E2

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“Who We Are”

Episode two of Netflix’s Bodkin was pretty decent as the show seems to be starting to grab some footing in both the mystery aspect and the characterization of the group.

The trouble between the investigative Dove and the more relationship-building Gilbert is an intriguing conflict with them. Both seem to have success and failure in their methods of going about their jobs, even if their overall goals are different. Dove is after the story, the answers to the mystery of what happened to the three boys who disappeared, but Gilbert is more about the path that the story takes and presenting it in a manner in which people can relate.

It does feel like the journalist vs. podcaster theme is in full effect. Meanwhile, Emmy is caught between both worlds.

The mystery at the center of the story feels slight at this point. They seem to be trying very hard to make it feel more compelling and I hope that there is more coming from it, but this series right now is more about the conflict between Dove and Gilbert than it is about this mystery.

There are also a few background details finding their way into the story, but none of that feels like it will have the needed kick to elevate the characters into more than the simplistic characters that they have started out as.

Still, I liked the second episode and I think there is enough here with the talented cast to keep watching the remaining five episodes on Netflix.

Them: The Scare S2 E7, E8

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“One of Us Is Gonna Die Tonight”

“The Box”

This is what American Horror Story: Delicate wished it could be.

I was very disappointed with AHS this year as the classic horror anthology series just failed in this season. However, Them: The Scare was everything that AHS was not.

I had not seen the first season of Them, so some of the things that happened in the finale seemed a little confusing. I could only guess (and then confirmed after the show was done) that the photo and the woman giving baby Dawn and Edmond away had some tie to the first season (she did) and that the weird creature at the end also tied it to the first season (yup, it was something called Da Tap Dance Man).

So we have a connection between the first and second seasons, but the story of this season was all about family and the pain of being rejected and tossed away. The seventh episode does a tremendous job of laying out everything that we needed to know to understand what was happening and gave us a horrendous end for Athena Reeve (Pam Grier).

With the exception of the arrival of Da Tap Dance Man, there was plenty of satisfying moments in the finale. The confrontation between Dawn and Edmond was tense and powerful, showing how much love still existed between the twins, even if Dawn had forgotten about him. The scene of Edmond killing himself and giving himself over to the demon with the red hair was tough to watch. The shooting of McKinney was dramatic and pleasing to see the rotten racist get his comeuppance.

This was just so creepy. The imagery of the red-headed man will never allow me to look at Raggedy Andy the same way ever again.

There were several times that I found myself holding my breath from the tension of the situation. The performances were top notch and the tone was just so exceptional.

Them: The Scare was everything you would want in a horror anthology series, filled with thrills and anxiety and a story with themes of family, loss and rejection. I loved this show and I was happy I gave it a chance. Them: The Scare is on Amazon Prime.

The Jinx Part Two S2 E4

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“The Unluckiest Man in the World”

The trial had been going Bob Durst’s way at first.

Then came Emily Altman.

Emily and her husband Stewart were long time friends with Bob. When the prosecution put Emily on the witness stand, they were able to get her to place Bob in Los Angeles at the time of the murder of Susan Berman. That was something that had never happened before.

Because of that, Bob admitted to writing the “Cadaver note.”

I’m not kidding.

This is absolutely nuts.

Bob had sent years denying that he wrote that note, the one sent to the police alerting them to the death of Susan. The one with the misspelling of “Beverly” with an “E”. Now, he has changed his story and claimed that he had walked in and found the body and sent the anonymous note to police to avoid his own suspicion.

This changed the entire feel of the trial.

Emily had not intended on making thing bad for Bob. In fact, the show speculated that she may have thought she was trying to help him.

This episode ended with the shocking reveal that Bob had decided to testify on his own behalf. We get that next episode. Can’t wait!

Boy did this one take a turn. I love how the producers of the mini-series used Bob’s correspondence with friends and others to score the program. Bob’s voice was the key to the first season, and this second season uses his voice just as well. When Bob said that Emily was so stupid, it was an amazing moment.

Them: The Scare S2 E5, E6

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“Luke 8:17”

“Would You Like to Play a Game?”

Whoa. Some huge revelations dropped in these two episodes that made it a little clearer about what was going on… however, there are still some strange things going on.

I always thought Raggedy Andy was creepy.

Part of the intended confusion early in the show, the stuff that made me think that Edmond was only a copycat killer, was that he seemed like he had not killed before. I actually thought for a brief second last episode that these two stories going on we in different timelines, but I dismissed the idea quickly. Turns out, what we were seeing of Edmond was two years before the stuff with Dawn. Boom, mind blown.

Things go down hill quickly for Dawn Reeve. Edmond is her biological brother. She tries to save a little boy by taking him to the hospital and he dies in the back of her car. This little boy had told her that he was seeing a red-headed man who wanted to kill him. She is put on leave from her job because of this. The racist cops of the LAPD made things even worse, making sure that everything looked bad for her. McKinney is such an a-hole.

However, it is not as simple as Edmond is the killer. There is something supernatural going on too. How does that happen? Edmond hears voices. I do not think it is as simple as Edmond has mental illness. There is something deeper and darker going on.

The attack on Dawn’s son during his performance was frightening as could be, as was his breakdown in the classroom as he was seeing the red-headed man.

Wild speculation time: Does Dawn have something to do with these murders? I mean, more than just being connected to them or being Edmond’s sister? The missing time suggestion means something. What is it? Clearly, Dawn is not very stable at the moment and her life is falling down around her.

Deborah Ayorinde was outstanding in these two episodes. I am very conflicted by her character and I am not sure what this show is expecting me to think about everything. Is she just a victim? Or is there something more sinister going on?

Only two episodes remaining and there are a lot of questions with the show. Either way, this has really kicked into high gear, which was impressive because it was always very compelling already.

Bodkin S1 E1

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“One True Mystery”

“People will listen to it?“

This was the question throughout the entire first episode of Bodkin, a series from Netflix featuring Will Forte as a podcaster and Siobhán Cullen as an investigative journalist whose editor insisted on her accompanying Forte on his podcast to get her out of the way.

IMDB says, “A group of podcasters set out to investigate the mysterious disappearance of three strangers in an idyllic Irish town. But when they start to pull the strings, they find a story much bigger and stranger than they could have imagined.”

Bodkin is a dark comedy/thriller dealing with the disappearance of some people in the small Irish town of Bodkin. By the end of the first episode, I was intrigued enough to continue with this.

I definitely liked the actors. Both Siobhán Cullen and Will Forte were great and Robyn Cara as Forte’s investigator on his podcast was good too. The Irish people of the town were very quirky and mysterious.

I did not find anything downright funny, but oddball worked as a descriptor. The curiosity of what exactly was going on when Cullen’s character Dove was struck by a car was definitely interesting.

With some open spots on the schedule for TV shows, I think the seven-episode series on Netflix will work nicely.

Them: The Scare S2 E3, E4

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“The Man with the Red Hair”

“Happy Birthday, Sweet Boy”

This series on Amazon Prime has been so very tense so far, and I am not sure exactly what is going on. I was thinking that Edmond was not the bone breaking killer, but just a warped and mentally sick individual, but the end of episode four seems to show us that my thought was inaccurate. Or was it? Still not sure. That is good writing at this point.

McKinney comes into more view than he had before with his inclusion in a hate group that Detective Reeve comes across and is caught observing. This was a tense moment and helps solidify my hatred of the character of McKinney. When he picked up Detective Reeve’s son and drove him home, it was such a anxiety-ridden moment because you just did not know what he was capable of doing in the moment.

Pam Greer came to play in episode four as she had a real shock to drop on Dawn. This is the first moment of the season where it made sense why they cast an actor the quality of Pam Greer in this role.

Edmond was totally creepy in both of these episodes as it seems as he is escalating things terribly. However, it still does feel as if this is not something that he has done multiple times and that makes me wonder if he is simply copying the serial killer or if this just lets us into the mind of Edmond. Either way, Edmond is completely unhinged.

This has been exceptional so far and it does such a top notch job of creating tension and suspense in the viewers. I am on the edge of my seat every episode and I had not planned on watching a second episode today, but after episode three, I needed to see more.

Halfway through the season and this has really elevated the material.

The X-Files S4 E20

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“Small Potatoes”

Some of my favorite X-Files episodes are the ones that lean toward the comedic. Jose Chung’s From Outer Space, Humbug, Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose, and War of Coprophages are so awesome to watch and David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson work extremely well within them.

So Small Potatoes goes on that list of great episodes.

Shape shifting Eddie Van Blundht is our villain of the episode as he fathered five children with tails with five different women. Thing was, the women did not know they were have sex with anyone except their husbands. One of the women thought she had sex with Luke Skywalker.

One of the best parts of this is that Mulder does not have a theory for a good chunk of the episode. Usually he comes up with his idea of what was going on immediately, sometimes even before the case started. They are quite a bit into the story and Mulder even admits that he does not have a theory of what was happening.

The show did seem to go out of the way to make Eddie a relatable character despite the fact that he is basically a rapist. Eddie was played by Darin Morgan, the former X-Files writer who penned Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose and Jose Chung’s from Outer Space. In fact, Vince Gilligan, who wrote this episode, said they wrote the character of Eddie specifically for Morgan.

One of the best scenes of the episode was at the end when Eddie had taken Mulder’s place and him going through Mulder’s office and trying to seduce Scully. This entire stretch of time when we see Mulder’s life and career through Eddie’s eyes deconstructed the Mulder character and provided a different aspect of it. It was just fantastic writing and showed our favorite conspiracy theorist in an entirely new light.

Doctor Who S14 E2

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“The Devil’s Chord”

I knew Paul and John saved music, but I never thought it was quite so literally.

Note: I have changed my mind about the listing of these Doctor Who episodes. I have decided from now on, I will call them Season 14. This is now S14 E2.

I really enjoyed this episode. It was over-the-top, yes, but I am one of those people who love music and I can understand the power of it. This was a love letter to music in all its forms.

Maestro was an amazing villain, and as a child of Toymaker, and the performance of Jinkx Monsoon in the role was exceptional. Monsoon brought a sinister tone to this character, which by all rights, could have been a joke. Maestro was a mixture of Ethel Merman and Freddy Krueger and Jinkx Monsoon played it with a perfect flair and monstrosity.

The use of the Beatles as an important cog in this machine was a stroke of genius. Having Paul and John come together at the end to play the missing note to banish Maestro was poetry.

“There’s Always a Twist at the End” served as an awesome wrap up to the episode and a fourth wall break that was unexpected. Ncuti Gatwa does an amazing job this episode spanning the emotions of the Doctor, as he made reference to the split of his soul from the specials this past year.

I also loved the warning Maestro gives at the end of the episode, when it is tied back to the warning the Toymaker gave in the special. Something big is coming and I am here for it.