Word Cloud: Oppenheimer
EYG 2024 Academy Award Picks
https://www.vanityfair.com/hollywood/awards-insider-oscar-nominations-2024
Here are the picks from EYG for tonight’s Academy Awards. I am giving the Should Win, Will Win choice for each. These are my picks, the nominees I think are going to win, not necessarily my favorites.
BEST PICTURE
American Fiction
Anatomy of a Fall
Barbie
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Past Lives
Poor Things
The Zone of Interest
SHOULD WIN: Oppenheimer
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
BEST DIRECTOR
Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest
Yorgos Lanthimos, Poor Things
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall
SHOULD WIN: Christopher Nolan
WILL WIN: Christopher Nolan
BEST ACTRESS
Annette Bening, Nyad
Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall
Carey Mulligan, Maestro
Emma Stone, Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Emma Stone
WILL WIN: Lily Gladstone (I’ve got a feeling on this one. I could see Emma Stone winning easily too)
BEST ACTOR
Bradley Cooper, Maestro
Colman Domingo, Rustin
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
Jeffrey Wright, American Fiction
SHOULD WIN: Paul Giamatti
WILL WIN: Cillian Murphy
BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS
Emily Blunt, Oppenheimer
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple
America Ferrera, Barbie
Jodie Foster, Nyad
Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
SHOULD WIN: Da’Vine Joy Randolph
WILL WIN: Da’Vine Joy Randolph (LOCK!)
BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR
Sterling K. Brown, American Fiction
Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon
Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer
Ryan Gosling, Barbie
Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Robert Downey Jr.
WILL WIN: Robert Downey Jr. (Almost a LOCK)
BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY
Justine Triet and Arthur Harari, Anatomy of a Fall
David Hemingson, The Holdovers
Bradley Cooper and Josh Singer, Maestro
Samy Burch, May December
Celine Song, Past Lives
SHOULD WIN: The Holdovers
WILL WIN: Anatomy of a Fall (I have not seen this film, waiting for the June Swoon.)
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY
Cord Jefferson, American Fiction
Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach, Barbie
Tony McNamara, Poor Things
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
Jonathan Glazer, The Zone of Interest
SHOULD WIN: American Fiction
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
BEST INTERNATIONAL FEATURE
Io Capitano, Italy
Perfect Days, Japan
Society of the Snow, Spain
The Teacher’s Lounge, Germany
The Zone of Interest, United Kingdom
SHOULD WIN: Society of the Snow
WILL WIN: The Zone of Interest
BEST ANIMATED FEATURE
The Boy and the Heron
Elemental
Nimona
Robot Dreams
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
SHOULD WIN: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
WILL WIN: I’m uncertain for this. I am tempted to say The Boy and the Heron, but I’ll stick with Spider-Man.
BEST DOCUMENTARY FEATURE
Bobi Wine: The People’s President
The Eternal Memory
Four Daughters
To Kill a Tiger
20 Days in Mariupol
Haven’t seen any of these. I’ll guess 20 Days in Mariupol
BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY
El Conde
Killers of the Flower Moon
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Oppenheimer
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
BEST EDITING
Anatomy of a Fall
The Holdovers
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Poor Things
WILL WIN: Poor Things
BEST COSTUME DESIGN
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Barbie
WILL WIN: Poor Things
BEST HAIR AND MAKEUP
Golda
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
Society of the Snow
SHOULD WIN: Poor Things
WILL WIN: Poor Things
BEST SOUND
The Creator
Maestro
Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One
Oppenheimer
The Zone of Interest
SHOULD WIN: Oppenheimer
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
BEST VISUAL EFFECTS
The Creator
Godzilla Minus One
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3
Mission: Impossible—Dead Reckoning Part One
Napoleon
SHOULD WIN: The Creator
WILL WIN: Godzilla Minus One
BEST PRODUCTION DESIGN
Barbie
Killers of the Flower Moon
Napoleon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Barbie
WILL WIN: Poor Things
BEST ORIGINAL SONG
“What Was I Made For?”, Billie Eilish and Finneas, Barbie
“I’m Just Ken,” Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt, Barbie
“The Fire Inside,” Diane Warren, Flamin’ Hot
“It Never Went Away,” Jon Batiste, American Symphony
“Wahzhazhe (A Song for My People),” Osage Tribal Singers, Killers of the Flower Moon
SHOULD WIN: “I’m Just Ken”
WILL WIN: “What Was I Made For?”
BEST ORIGINAL SCORE
American Fiction
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Killers of the Flower Moon
Oppenheimer
Poor Things
SHOULD WIN: Oppenheimer
WILL WIN: Oppenheimer
BEST LIVE-ACTION SHORT
The After
Invincible
Knight of Fortune
Red, White and Blue
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
SHOULD WIN: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
WILL WIN: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
BEST ANIMATED SHORT
Letter to a Pig
Ninety-Five Senses
Our Uniform
Pachyderme
War Is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko
SHOULD WIN: Letter to a Pig
WILL WIN: War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko
BEST DOCUMENTARY SHORT
The ABCs of Book Banning
The Barber of Little Rock
Island in Between
The Last Repair Shop
Nai Nai & Wai Po
Again, have not seen any of these. Guess: The Last Repair Shop
Damsel
Millie Bobby Brown has had success with her movie role choices since her breakout performance on Stranger Things. This weekend saw her brand new film, a fantasy film, debut on Netflix.
According to IMDB, “A young woman who thinks she is being married to a perfect prince is thrown into a pit where she discovers she’s not going to be a princess after all, but a sacrifice to appease a bloodthirsty dragon. Trying to survive long enough until someone can save her — she soon realizes that no one is coming and this “damsel” must save herself.“
Led by Brown, the cast of this film was solid. Robin Wright, Angel Bassett, Ray Winstone, Nick Robinson, Brooke Carter, Shohreh Aghdashloo, and Milo Twomey. However, Millie Bobby Brown spent a lot of time on screen and the other powerful actors were supporting for sure. This is definitely Millie Bobby Brown’s movie.
The special effects/CGI of the movie were pretty good, specifically the look of the dragon, which was on screen a lot.
The story was fairly simple. It was a survival tale, bit it took the concept of a “damsel in distress” from fantasy movies and flipped it on its head. She did not need anyone to come rescue her.
I did enjoy the voice of Shohreh Aghdashloo as the dragon. Aghdashloo, who I remember from 24, has a very distinctive voice and it gave that dragon a strong presence.
There is a lot of fun in this movie. Brown is very charismatic and easy to root for. It may be a simple film, but that does not mean it is a bad one.
3.4 stars
The X-Files S3 E21
Spoilers
“Avatar”
This is an episode featuring Assistant Director Walter Skinner. We get to learn some details about Skinner’s life, such as that he was married, a marriage that has been on the rocks for many months now.
Skinner is also being visited by a spirit of an old woman, who had helped protect him during his tour in Vietnam, and who was referred to by Agent Mulder as a succubus. Honestly, the paranormal aspect of this episode was a little slipshot.
The use of Skinner’s sleep troubles as a weakness for the secret government group to manipulate is better for the episode, to me. The way Agent Mulder found the culprit was quite clever (with the use of the airbag).
I am glad that they put Skinner front and center in this episode, but it did feel like the episode needed some more attention overall. Still, it was a decent X-Files contribution.
Shogun S1 E3
Spoilers
“Tomorrow is Tomorrow”
Toranaga makes a brazen escape attempt from Osaka with Blackthorne and Mariko in tow.
This episode was chocked full of some exciting action bits, including a fire-arrow fight in the woods and a dramatic ship ‘race’ on the sea. Both action scenes were extremely well done and shot.
You can see the beginnings of the relationship between Blackthorne and Mariko forming. Mariko’s husband Buntaro, stayed behind and held off the forces trying to prevent Toranaga’s escape. We do not see him killed on screen, but that is certainly the implication. I was never a fan of Buntaro, but he came through big time in this episode. I wonder if we will see him again since we did not see his death on camera.
Néstor Carbonell returned this episode as Vasco Rodrigues. He was a hoot here and shows, again, how awesome Carbonell is as an actor.
Oscar Nominated Shorts-Live Action & Animated
I was able to see the ten films nominated for the Academy Award in Shorts, five in Live Action and five in Animation.
I am going to list the five films in each category in the order in which I like them. I will then be adding my little Oscar predictions after it too. I will say which short film I think SHOULD win the Oscar and which short film I think WILL win the Oscar.
We will start off with the Live-Action Shorts or, as I dubbed it during my viewing, “the shorts that show that bad things happen to kids too” films. Most of these were really downers, with some really tragic circumstances happening.
LIVE ACTION SHORTS
#5. The After. This was my least favorite of the live-action shorts despite there being a very strong performance from David Oyelowo as the protagonist. It felt very disjointed despite being a short. Oyelowo was really strong in his part and I could see the Academy seeing the well-known actor and giving this the win because of it.
#4. Invincible. One of the tragic stories based on a true story that recounts the last 48 hours in the life of Marc-Antoine Bernier. If the Academy is pulled in with the true story aspect, this has a chance. I thought this was a good short among the downers.
#3. Red, White and Blue. A story of an Arkansas woman trying to struggle to get enough money to have an abortion. The road trip is part of the story and the twist ending was rough. I do not think this has any chance of actually winning, considering the controversial topic. Still, it was well acted and powerful.
#2. Knight of Fortune. The one that does not involve a kid, finds a man at a morgue, trying to build up the courage to look at the body of his dead wife. This actually had quite a bit of hope for life involved as well as an unlikely friendship is created.
#1. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar. This was the one short of the ten I saw today that I had seen previously. I watched this on Netflix last year and even wrote a review for it. It was one of the longer shorts and was directed by Wes Anderson. This was one of the Roald Dahl films Anderson did for Netflix last year. I loved the way the film is directed and the writing is clever and quick. We get Dev Patel, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ralph Fiennes and Ben Kingsley in the short. This was funny and considerably lighter than the others in this category.
SHOULD WIN: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
WILL WIN: The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
I think this is the easiest of the two categories here. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar is full of energy, clever writing and a story that bounces around, engaging the audience at every turn.
ANIMATED SHORTS
I liked the animation shorts more than I liked the live action this year. If I remember correctly, it was that way last year too. Creativity is all over this category and I love that.
#5. Our Uniforms. From Iran, I almost put this at number four instead because of the amazing cleverness of the animation style here, but I did not find the story to be as strong as the others. This was awesome to look at though.
#4. Pachyderme. This was very deep, and while I did not love it, the story did elevate this ahead of Our Uniforms. It is the story of a girl remembering her visits with her grandparents in the countryside.
#3. War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John and Yoko. This was a great animated short, albeit fairly simple. I loved the message of the short and I, of course, love the Beatles and John Lennon’s War is Over song provides the biggest emotional score of the film. I really loved this, but the other two were just a little higher for me.
#2. Letter to a Pig. A story of a Holocaust survivor and how he escaped from the Nazis by hiding in a pig pen. But it was more than that. This was very abstract and the animation was absolutely stunning. I LOVED this animation above any other of the five films I saw. I thought this would be my top favorite because of the animation, but the story did become a little too abstract in the ending, giving the number one spot on my favorites list to…
#1. Ninety-Five Senses. This one caught me off guard, as it was shown after Letter to a Pig, which I thought was going to be my favorite, but this passed it by. Voiced by Tim Blake Nelson, this follows the story of a character who has made his share of mistakes in his life and is about to pay for them. This was really powerful and carried its share of emotions with it. This was my personal favorite short of the day, animated or live action.
SHOULD Win: Letter to a Pig
WILL Win: War is Over! Inspired by the Music of John & Yoko
This shows the depth of the animated short category. My personal favorite was Ninety-Five Senses, but I think it does not win this category. Letter to a Pig is the best overall animated short here, both story and animation, but I do think the connection to John Lennon makes War is Over the ultimate winner. I might actually be rooting for Letter to a Pig though because of the stunning design of that animation.
Imaginary
2024 must be the year of imaginary friends. The film IF with Ryan Reynolds is out later this year, and this weekend dropped the latest horror movie featuring the idea of the imaginary friend.
According to IMDB, “a woman returns to her childhood home to discover that the imaginary friend she left behind is very real and unhappy that she abandoned him.”
Here is the thing with Imaginary. I was fully engaged in the first 2/3rds if this movie. I was invested, surprisingly so. Then, in the third act of Imaginary, everything absolutely fell off the cliff. The last third of this movie absolutely crushed the enjoyment from the first part of the film and brought this rating way down.
So what went wrong in that third act? Without talking in spoilers, the problems are varied. The movie suddenly falls into exposition. It starts to explain things and doesn’t seem to stop. SO MUCH EXPLAINING!!!! And it was multiple scenes.
Not only are they over explaining things, they are explaining things that we just saw happen, as if we were not smart enough to understand what had just happened. There was one scene in particular where once the action ended, the characters told us what we had just seen. I do not like to think the movie thinks I am too dumb to understand what I am watching. This sure as hell is not Dune 2.
The third act became ridiculous. The story was convoluted and then everything had to be explained. Things happened that did not make sense. The special effects were okay, except for the look of the bear. The monstrous bear known as Chauncey looked like a fraud Bigfoot on a poor video recording.
The acting was, at best, passable, but the writing was extremely weak and the dialogue felt wooden in a lot of times.
They used a bunch of jump scares in the film because they could not really create the type of horror that built on it normally.
I was enjoying the first two acts, despite the fact that it was a little slower. But that third act just drove the film into the ground. I went from being invested to laughing at the scenes. It has been a long time since a movie took this hard of a turn into badness for me.
1.5 stars
Moonlighting S5 E2
Spoilers
“Between a Yuk and a Hard Place”
I am glad that Moonlighting decided that Dave and Maddie needed to deal with the miscarriage before just moving on. The fact that they were both denying the problem and running away from it in their own ways.
Agnes Dipesto was the MVP of this episode as she showed some true manipulation by arranging it for Dave and Maddie to get stuck in an elevator. I guess she also is able to work it so they are leaving at the same time and wound up in the same elevator. She’s sneaky!
But the best moment of the episode was inside that elevator when the Muzak in the elevator was playing the song, You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby, causing Dave to freak out and use his briefcase to destroy the speaker. This led to a beautiful moment between these characters and they end up singing together. It’s weird since this show mixed this kind of strong drama with powerful acting with the over-the-top cartoonish moments.
There was a typical Moonlighting-like case too that ended up with a fun chase scene involving a hot air balloon. There were some surprisingly good stunt work here.
The problem was that this felt too cartoonish. In fact, Dave even made a Wile E. Coyote joke. The show does become like a cartoon before, but when it gets too cartoonish, it weakens the situation. The ending with Maddie and the jeep just is like an animated moment.
Such a contrast in tones inside this episode.
By the way, Bert is just so obnoxious. I can see why I hated that character so much.
EYG Comic Cavalcade #85
March 8, 2024
Another big week. Some great new books.
The Bat-Man: First Knight #1. Written by Dan Jurgens and art and cover by Mike Perkins. I picked this one up off the stand. It is a larger book from the DC Black Label featuring a Bat-Man from 1939. It is a interesting first issue, but it really was similar to other Bat stories. The ending with the electric chair, though, that was shocking….
The Spectacular Spider-Men #1. “Arachnobatics: Chapter #1: Regulars” Written by Greg Weisman and penciled by Humberto Ramos. Ramos & Edgar Delgado did the cover art. Peter and Miles decide to hang out together, outside of any Spider-action. Can Peter become a regular at the coffee shop they are meeting at? Lot of fun.
Ultimate X-Men #1. Written by and drawn by Peach Momoko. I loved this. This is what I wanted the new Ultimate Universe to be like. I did not just want new versions of the same characters. I want something new. You never would mistake Hisako for the regular X-Men. Instead of just another version of Wolverine or Jean Grey, we have a new character that is really enjoyable. I am excited to see the series continue.
Pine & Merrimac #3. Written by Kyle Starks and illustrated by Fran Galán. This fun Boom! Studios series gives us some back story on Linnea, including meeting Parker. Meanwhile, Linnea and Parker find their way onto the mysterious island and find even more than they expected. These two lead characters are the absolute strength of the book so far.
Sensational She-Hulk #6. “All In: Part 1” Written by Rainbow Rowell and featuring art by Ig Guara. Jen Bartel did the cover art. She-Hulk is suspended as a lawyer for her ‘rampaging’ and she decided, with Jack of Hearts, to take a vacation … in space, near the sun.
Captain America #7. “Intermezzo, Part One of Two” Written by J. Michael Straczynski with art by Carlos Magno. Taurin Clarke did the cover art. Steve Rogers is involved in a strange, magical story at The Front Door. This was an interesting start to the new story.
What If…? Aliens #1. Part 1 written by Hans Rodionoff & Adam F. Goldberg with art by Guiu Vilanova. Phil Noto did the cover art. Paul Reiser was involved in creating the concept for this limited series in the What If world. Reiser’s character Carter Burke from Aliens the movie survives and things go different. I love this too.
Torpedo 1972 #1. “About the Dead Sea” Written by Enrique Sanchez Abulí and art by Eduardo Risso. Risso, Dan Panosian & Fritz Casas did the cover art (one of the medalists this week). A new crime series from Ablaze, but I have to say that the first issue was a struggle to get through. I hope this one improves.
Doctor Strange #13. “Cobolorum Pt. 1” Written by Jed MacKay and with art by Pasqual Ferry. This may have been the most fun book of the week. A magically based RPG called Cobolorum? Strange has to follow the rules of the game and has to recruit a ‘party’ to go gaming. He needs a thief (Black Cat), a priest (Hunter’s Moon), and a fighter (Taskmaster). As a former D&D player, this was a hoot.
Thanos #4. “Please Don’t Tell Me How the Story Ends” Written by Christopher Cantwell and art by Luca Pizzari with German Peralta. Leinil Francis Yu & Sunny Gho did the cover art. Can the Illuminati do anything to stop the epic war between Death and Thanos? Probably not.
Daredevil: Gang War #4. Written by Erica Schultz and penciled by Sergio Davila. Davila, Sean Parsons, & Ceci De La Cruz did the cover art. The Gang War is over, but there is one more thing for Elektra to do. A showdown with Bellona.
Void Rivals #7. Written by Robert Kirkman with art by Lorenzo De Felici. The second story arc begins with the introduction of a brand new villain called Proximus. Solila and Darak are trying to escape, but challenges abound. However, there was something familiar for Darak.
Jill and the Killers #2. Written by Olivia Cuartero-Briggs and illustrated by Roberta Ingranata. Sanya Anwar did the cover art. Jill has discovered a pattern in the mystery of what happened to O’Brien. Have there been multiple murders? This is another fun new series from outside the basic companies.
The Avengers #11. “A Grand Tradition” Written by Jed MacKay and featuring art by Ivan Fiorelli. Cover art was from Stuart Immonen. The Impossible City was missing something. What was it? I know… Edwin Jarvis!!!
X-Men #32. “From Emma, With Love” Written by Gerry Duggan and art by Phil Noto. Joshua Cassara & Marte Gracia did the cover art. Magik is back and teams up with Kate Pryde and Polaris to keep the war with Orchis going.
The Sentry #4. “Legacy Part IV” Written by Jason Loo and with art by Luigi Zagaria. Ben Harvey did the cover art. The power of the Sentry, which had been split among several people. However, the sociopathic Ryan Topper killed several of them and claimed their part of the Sentry power. With this battle, there is one with the power.
Other books this week: Giant Size Spider-Gwen #1, Antarctica #9, Ms. Marvel: Mutant Menace #1, Love Everlasting #13, and Weapon X-Men #1.
Kung Fu Panda 4
All across the realm of social media the last few weeks, the clip of Jack Black with Tenacious D, doing a cover of the Britney Spears hit, Baby, One More Time, thrived. It was everywhere, and it was the song to play over the end credit scenes of the fourth installment of the animated film from the DreamWorks franchise, Kung Fu Panda.
That was my favorite part of the film.
Kung Fu Panda 4 was okay, but it definitely felt like the franchise had stretched farther than it should have.
Jack Black, however, is a treasure as always. He completely embodies Po, the Dragon Warrior and commands the screen with his voice in every scene that he is in. Awkwafina voiced the character of Zhen, a fox who was a thief looking for a specific score. Awkwafina was just okay in this film. Dustin Hoffman resumed his role as Shifu and Po’s two fathers, voiced by James Hong and Bryan Cranston, were back as well.
However, there was no sign of the Furious Five, as the characters were off on their own adventures.
Our new villain, voiced by Viola Davis, was The Chameleon, and was quite a letdown. The character had some great design and looked awesome in the animation, but there was just not enough done with her, leaving a lot of potential untapped.
The story was just so obvious that it was quite the drawback. It was pretty clear what was going to happen and it felt as if it was something that I did not want to see.
The animation, though, was beautiful as always for this franchise. Po looked great and all of the characters were designed wonderfully. There were some very creative animated spots throughout the film and the film looked excellent. Plus, the animation of the action scenes were really well done.
The involvement of Po’s two fathers, Mr. Ping the goose and Li the panda was one of my least favorite parts of the story. It made little sense and they felt as if they were shoehorned into the story so they could have Bryan Cranston in the movie more.
I found this to be okay. I expect that the kids of the world will enjoy the film way more than I did.
However, I did love that Baby One More Time cover.
3 stars
Twin Peaks S2 E10
Spoilers
“Dispute Between Gentlemen”
With the case of who killed Laura Palmer solved, the show Twin Peaks started off on its newest mystery, “How do we keep Agent Cooper in Twin Peaks?”
Okay, maybe that is not quite right, but it is pretty close. Twin Peaks began its new group of stories for the second part of the second season with some background on Agent Cooper, a revenge plot from a Renault, another mysterious disappearance and the return of Josie.
Cooper is suspended for his part in the rescue of Audrey Horne, which is orchestrated by Jean Renault, via the FBI. This keeps him in Twin Peaks, for the immediate future.
I do love the brotherly relationship between Cooper and Sheriff Truman. Harry believes in Coop completely and their bromance just works on a positive note. And Harry 100% has Cooper’s back, even in the face of the FBI (and the Royal Mounties, apparently).
Just before Major Briggs disappears, he drops the first mention of The White Lodge. Even if the show becomes too disjointed or less taut in the rest of this season, I do enjoy the concept of the White Lodge.
Leo looks to be starting to get ready to stop being a wheelchair bound vegetable.
As the show tried to push Bobby Briggs and Audrey Horne together, Audrey had a goodbye scene with Agent Cooper that just showed how much chemistry this pair had and makes the decision for them to never get together all the more questionable.
Windham Earle is name-dropped once more. If I had not known, it would be painfully apparent that these moments of foreshadowing would lead to Windham Earle’s arrival eventually in Twin Peaks.
Those owls are still not what they appear.
EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week
Week of March 4
It’s late this week because of Parent/Teacher Conferences so we’ll jump right into it.
Bronze Medalist
Torpedo 1972 #1
Cover Art: Eduardo Risso, Dan Panosian & Fritz Casas
The first cover medalist from Ablaze Publishing. There is a cool use of pictures and the gun in the background.
Silver Medalist
Thanos #4
Cover Art: Leinil Francis Yu & Sunny Gho
A kick ass Thanos just dominating the cover of this issue. The final issue of this limited series that reunites Thanos with his love, Death.
Gold Medalist
Pine & Merrimac #3
Cover Art: Fran Galán
This is a beautiful cover featuring Boom! Studio’s new hit series. The flames stand out on the this cover, making the entire book all the more interesting.
The X-Files S3 E20
Spoilers
“Jose Chung’s From Outer Space”
“I know how crazy this is going to sound, but….”
One of the greatest BLEEPIN’ X-Files episodes of all-time was next on my list. It was “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space.”
Let’s start off with the amazing casting of Charles Nelson Reilly as author Jose Chung. CNR was so great in this role and he brought a sensational comedic chemistry with Gillian Anderson, whose facial expressions and comedic timing were as on point as I have ever seen her. The pair of them recounting this story from different POVs made for such a fantastic framing device that the humor just worked perfectly between them.
Guest appearances from Jesse Ventura and Alex Trebek as Men in Black added such a special feel to the episode, as they tormented the weirdos involved in the story. Jesse Ventura was a personal favorite performer, originally from the world of pro wrestling, and I loved his use in this show.
David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson did a great job of changing the style of their characters’ performance depending on which person was providing the POV.
This episode was not just a comedic one. It started the stretch of doubt from Mulder that led him to dismiss his belief in UFOs, accepting the fact that everything is part of the government plan. This would carry on for quite a few episodes.
The use of footage of Scully’s actual autopsy of a man in an alien costume being used as a cheap alien autopsy video was a master stroke of genius as was Scully’s breathless reaction of consternation when Chung asked her about it.
This was the final episode written by Emmy winning writer Darin Morgan, whose episodes included classics “Clyde Bruckman’s Final Repose,” “Humbug,” and “War of the Coprophages.” Morgan would return in the X-Files 2016 revival.
There are so many clever moments in this episode that you could not hit them all. From the craziness of Rocky to the sweet potato pie, “Jose Chung’s From Outer Space” had something for everyone. It is one of my, if not THE, favorite episode of the show and I am so glad that we reached this episode in season three.
The X-Files S3 E19
Spoilers
“Hell Money”
The X-Files head into the world of Chinese culture with a odd game played that is involved with harvesting body parts for money.
There are some creepy people in scary masks, but not much for paranormal activity. There was some talk about ghosts, but it felt more like an idea shoehorned into the story to involve Mulder and Scully.
The setting was Chinatown in San Francisco and you could see many of the typical Chinese stereotypes.
So much so that we see James Hong, an actor who has been in countless films and TV shows over the years. He even received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
B.D. Wong as corrupt detective Glen Chao was one of the more interesting characters on the show. Mulder and Scully did seem like arrogant outsiders.
Overall, this was not my most favorite episode, but it was fine.
Walking Dead: The Ones Who Live S1 E2
Spoilers
“Gone”
It has been a few years since I watched any Walking Dead, but I remember a cardinal rule about the show. Never get attached to characters, particularly new ones.
I broke that rule tonight as I was watching the second episode of the Rick/Michonne spin off The Ones Who Live. And did I pay for it.
Episode one focused on where Rick was and what he had been doing all this time and this week, we got the same thing with Michonne. With Michonne, she came across some people whom she saved and then bonded with. So did I as an audience member.
So of course they were doomed.
I think some of these characters at the beginning of this episode were from the end of The Walking Dead, but I have not watched that show for several years so I have no idea what was happening at first.
I did love Nat though. I was sad when he died.
Rick and Michonne are now in the middle of the belly of the beast.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 