EYG Comic Cavalcade #57

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September 10, 2023

New banner!

Good Sunday to everyone. I am back with a new Comic Cavalcade after I spent some of my day at a special event that was held at the Five Flags Center in Dubuque, Iowa. It was the Quad Con, a convention featuring all of the keys of pop culture, from comic books to toys to artwork and geek/nerd culture.

I had heard that this was a minor convention and that there would not be much there, but when I showed up at 10 AM this morning, there were quite a few people there and they had a lot of things set up. I am sure that it was not at the level of events that, say Todd, is used to, but for me, who had never attended a comic convention before, this had a ton to look at.

I will agree that comics made up about 30% of the overall exhibits on display and that there were also a ton of toys, but the comic vendors that I saw had a lot of choices and I was happy to get an opportunity to pick up some books that I normally do not see anywhere but, perhaps, on eBay.

My local comic shop from Dubuque, Comic World and games, had a presence at the show too as Pat and Jeff were here working. They had a pair of giant D & D dice to role to determine discount on what is purchased. That was fun. As always, I want to support Comic World so, even though I had seen most everything that they were going to have, I picked up a couple of things, including Action Comics #454, which Pat had said was his favorite cover of all time.

They also had some Ghostbusters cosplay going on with some cool looking set up, a Ghostbuster truck, a couple of inflatable Ghostbusters creatures, including the Stay-Puft Marshmallow Man and such. I think they were doing something special with the Ghostbusters later in the day, but I did not stick around for that.

I got a bunch of cool comics to go along with the experience of attending the con. I picked up my first ever CGC Universal graded book, Amazing Spider-Man #289, which was graded at 9.4. I thought having one of these would be cool and this was the ASM issue where they ‘revealed’ the identity of the Hobgoblin. I also pocked up Daredevil #12 guest starring Ka-Zar (which is now my oldest Daredevil book), three issues of a Hellcat series that I had never seen before (she is in a blue outfit), Not Brand Echh #1-3, What If… #61, 71, 97, 88, 92, 112 and What If Dr. Doom had Become Thing #1. Also Amazing Spider-Man issues 655-658. and 544 (Part 1 of One More Day). Ice Cream Man trade paperback (collecting #1-4). Rocketeer: Cargo of Doom #1 (from IDW)New Thunderbolts #17 (which was free on the table for coming to the con), Plastic Man #10, and issues #1 & 2 of American Vampire Anthology from Vertigo. There were a lot of fun stuff and the only thing keeping me where I was was my wallet.

Other books this week:

Planetary #2. “Island.” Written by Warren Ellis and featuring art by John Cassaday. Elijah Snow and Jakita headed to an island (that really resembled Godzilla’s Monster Island) to try and prevent a group of people from discovering the mystery of the island. We also see a giant green lizard’s carcass (which sure resembled Godzilla) on the island. Fun issue.

Omega the Unknown #2. “Welcome to Hell’s Kitchen.” Written by Steve Gerber & Mary Skrenes and illustrated by Jim Mooney. The mysterious connection between Omega and James-Michael continues as James-Michael is injured when something happens to Omega. Oh, and there is a Hulk too.

Dr. Strange #7. “Don’t Let Your Ashes Fill Your Eyes.” Written by Jed macKay and drawn by Pasqual Ferry. Alex Ross did the cover art. Doctor Strange and General Strange come face-to-face and Stephen realizes what a challenge is ahead of him. And what exactly is going on with Clea?

Swan Songs #3. Written by W. Maxwell Prince and art by Filipe Andrade. One of the most beautifully rendered books I have seen in a long time. This is simply an artistic masterpiece. Plus, a story of nuclear destruction and the survival of two individuals. Beautiful book.

Barnstormers #3. “Chapter Three.” Written by Scott Snyder and drawn by Tula Lotay. This series wraps up with a somewhat happy ending… or as it seems. The fact that this book ends about half way through the book and the second part of the book is art and covers etc.

Black Panther #4. “Reign at Dusk Part 4” Written by Eve L. Ewing and penciled by Chris Allen and Mack Chater. Jesus Aburtov did the cover art. Black Panther battles a controlled Deathlok. I am still struggling to follow this book with all the characters that I am not sure of.

Moon Knight #27. “Journey to the Center of the Mind.” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Federico Sabbatini. Cover art by Stephen Segovia and Rachelle Rosenberg. Moon Knight and Hunter’s Moon go inside the mind of Vibro’s mind to try and find out what he knows about Black Spectre is found.

Peacemaker: Tries Hard #5. Written by Kyle Starks and drawn by Steve Pugh. Cover art by Kris Anka. Peacemaker and Red Bee have to fight a bunch of Deathstroke clones, especially Teen Deathstroke and a bunch of baby Deathstroke clones. Fun series with the tone of the HBO Max show.

Silver Surfer Rebirth-Legacy #1. “Temptation” Written by Ron Marz and drawn by Ron Lim. Variant cover drawn by Frank Miller. Silver Surfer steals the time gem from Gamora to take Genis-Vell into the past to let him see his father, Captain Marvel. Everything is not as happy as it seems.

Void Rivals #3. Written by Robert Kirkman and drawn by Lorenzo De Felici. Darak and Solila have to face off with a new villain as they try to return to the Sacred Ring. Void Rivals has been a fun and intriguing series so far and it looks like a betrayal is going to where we are moving forward.

Silk #5. Written by Emily Kim and drawn by Ig Guara. Cindy Moon goes into her brother’s dream to try and stop Saya Ishii from taking her revenge on Cindy through Albert.

I Am Groot Season 2

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“Are You My Groot?”

“Groot’s Sweet Treat”

“Groot’s Snow Day”

“Groot Noses Around”

“Groot and the Great Prophecy”

The second season of the animated short series, I Am Groot, dropped on Disney + as we return to the time of Baby Groot.

The first season of the show included short films that were fun and cute. This is very much the same, but, to be honest, the second season was even more light and inconsequential as season one. Seriously, there is just not much to these shorts.

Some of my favorite moments included the fact that, in a post credit scene, we hear Bradley Cooper’s voice saying one word so he could get a credit on the show. I did enjoy the use of Jeffrey Wright’s voice as Uatu the Watcher, who narrated the “Groot and the Great Prophecy“, which was probably my favorite of the five new shorts.

The whole Groot finds a nose episode was odd. And honestly, that was about all that sticks out in my mind of these five episodes.

I am sure that maybe some young kids would find these all fun and entertaining, but they are, for the most part, a little too young for me. I had a couple of chuckles, but this is something that I will not remember moving forward. Even the Watcher episode doesn’t stick out for anything else but Jeffrey Wright.

The animation is fantastic though. It is a beautifully detailed and constructed series. Vin Diesel is listed as doing the voice of Groot for all five episodes, despite the voice of Groot being considerably higher than we’ve heard before. Vin Diesel has done some excellent voice acting with this character over the years and this I Am Groot series has not been as exception.

The Nun II

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A few years ago there was a 2014 horror movie that I hated called Ouija. Two years later there was a sequel to that terrible movie called Ouija: Origin of Evil and I went to it expecting another flaming pile of crap, but it turned out that the sequel was considerably more entertaining.

This is what I had hoped for with The Nun II. I disliked The Nun, a film from the Conjuring universe, very much as it made #5 on my year-end list of worst movies.

Sadly, though I do think this is better than the first one, The Nun II is most likely still on target for the 2023 worst movies list.

Sister Irene (Taissa Farmiga) returned to face off with the Valak, the evil nun, who is in search of an artifact that would give the demon more power.

There are so many dumb things that happen here and the story just does not work very well for me. I will admit there are some cool scenes, such as the newspaper stand. Unfortunately, those were in the trailers (as many of the best moments were) so the shock value was not there now.

I was really bored for the first part of the film. Things picked up a bit as it moved along, but there was nothing new or interesting to carry the story early.

Taissa Farmiga did a decent job and it was cool to see Storm Reid as Sister Irene’s ‘sidekick’ Debra, even though Debra had nothing to do.

This was not a film that I enjoyed much, though the film looked good. It was a step up from the garbage pile of the first film though.

1.8 stars

Bottoms

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This was a weird and bizarre farce of a movie, which I enjoyed very much.

Bottoms is a teen sex comedy, in the veins of American Pie or Porky’s, but taking the genre in a new and over-the-top way. I literally wondered aloud about several of the details that I saw in this film that at times felt like a parody or a satire of the type of film.

PJ (Rachel Sennott) and Josie (Ayo Edebiri) were two young girls who came up with a plan to start a “fight club” at their high school in an attempt to sleep with their crushes from the cheerleading team.

The thing is the world that they exist in is so bizarre that it seems more like a dream. In fact, the first five-ten minutes, I kept waiting for a character to awaken. They did not though.

The football players always wore their football uniforms (including shoulder pads) even at school. Mr. G (Marshawn Lynch) was a teacher going through his own problems so he did not seem to care about anything else. The whole school and town culture treated quarterback Jeff (Nicholas Galitzine) as if he could do no wrong and he and the other football players ran the school.

There were so many of these little details that the entire story felt ridiculous, but in the good way. It definitely did not prevent this movie from doing silly things because common sense says you wouldn’t do it. There were even a couple of jokes that I cringed on because it felt as if these jokes were not appropriate. The film clearly did not believe that any topic was off limit and it approached it with some real guts.

Bottoms was very funny, but it did get fairly mean-spirited at times, which made it harder to laugh at some of the situations. As soon as I was able to get past the unrealistic aspects of the film, I was able to enjoy the warped nature more.

Directed by Emma Seligman, who directed 2020’s Shiva Baby (which also had Rachel Sennott), Bottoms played with the genre of teen sex comedies. There are a lot of the typical tropes in here, but everything is so weird that you are never sure how it is going to play out. Definitely an original film in the genre.

3.6 stars

One Piece S1 E5

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Spoilers

“Eat at Baratie!”

One Piece is an absolute joy on Netflix.

There is such an amazing group of characters on this show, and they continue to add even more awesome characters every episode.

In this episode, we meet Sanji, a disgruntled cook at a floating restaurant Luffy and his crew arrive at. I have seen photos with Sanji with the other Straw Hat Pirate crew so I am guessing he is the next crew introduced. Then, we get the next major antagonist, Mihawk, the world’s greatest swordsman and Zoro’s new white whale.

Just no way around it, Mihawk is bad ass. He is one of the most intimidating new characters we have ever seen and the end sequence with Mihawk and Zoro in their big swordfight, which was a massively emotional battle.

We just saw the background of Zoro last episode with his oath to become the greatest swordsman in the world, to honor his friend.

Watching Zoro’s two swords crumble after being struck by Mihawk’s sword was shocking. The scene of Mihawk slicing his gigantic sword across Zoro’s chest was unbelievable. Of course, no one ever believed that he was actually going to die, but it does a wonderful job making you think that it could happen.

This really sets up Mihawk as someone for Zoro to aspire to and a goal for him to target. This continues to give an incredible depth of character to him.

We are also see more character points from Luffy (with his grandpa), Kobe (conflict with the Marines truth and his own perception) and Nami (her conflict between her new friendships and her plans).

I love this show. Even an episode that did not feel as great as the previous ones, ramped it up in the final fifteen minutes with scenes that were powerful.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Trailer

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Another trailer featuring Godzilla.

This time, it is the trailer for the upcoming Apple TV + series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, streaming on November 17th.

This trailer included some big stars in the show, including Kurt Russell and John Goodman.

This looks interesting and Godzilla looks tremendous for a TV show, even if that TV show has Apple money behind it.

I am excited for this one.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #56

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September 7, 2023

A whole bunch of back issues have come into my possession recently for several series that I just recently discovered. A big thank you to Todd for his efforts to find these books for me across his mountains of contacts.

There is also, of course, a NEW COMIC BOOK DAY in there as well, although this was actually a lighter week of new books for me. The whole DC Knight Terror series is done now, which is helpful in bringing down my total.

Oh, and I owe an apology to Todd for doubting that he had already found me Planetary #12 & 13, which I thought he had not. I did not recognize the pics that he showed me on his phone. He was sure that he had already gotten those two books, and he was right. My bad.

Books this post…

Avengers #502 & 503. “Chaos” Part three and four. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and penciled by David Finch. This is the Avengers Disassembled story arc that had seen some of the team killed (such as poor Scott Lang and Hawkeye) by Wanda Maximoff. The story arc is tense and exciting, if not a tad anticlimactic.

Avengers Finale. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and art by a plethora of people. The surviving members of the Avengers gather together to mourn Scott Lang, Hawkeye, Vision, while dealing with their anger/frustration over Wanda’s decisions. The book wound up with the Avengers just reminiscing over their biggest moments and felt like a minor wrap up of the more tense Avengers Disassembled series.

Kill Your Darlings #1. Written by Ethan S. Parker and Griffin Sheridan with art by Robert Quinn. This is a book considered hot, coming out of Image, and it is, of course, because I picked it out of Previewed months ago. I am a trendsetter. Seriously, this is really an engaging book with a young girl named Rose and her imaginary world… or is it imaginary? Beautiful art work and a gripping story.

Secret War #5. Written by Brian Michael Bendis and art by Gabriele Dell’Otto. The heroes get together to finally discover what Nick Fury had gotten them to do the year before in Latveria. Daisy Johnson, aka Quake, steps forward to take Fury’s back. Honestly, this felt a little anticlimactic as well. I liked the whole series, but it just did not finish up that well.

Omega the Unknown #1. Written by Steve Gerber & Mary Skrenes and illustrated by Jim Mooney. Cover art by Hannigan & Sinnott. I picked up Omega the Unknown #6 at last weekend’s super secret sale at Comic World and I loved the issue, so I went to eBay and found the whole ten issue series. I started off with number one and it was decent. I was really curious about what has been set up in the story between Omega and James-Michael. Pretty good for a series that I had never heard of before.

Amazing Spider-Man #33. Written by Zeb Wells and featuring art from Patrick Gleason. Marcio Menyz did the cover art. Well… sure looked like Kraven done f@*ked up. Last issue, he stuck Peter with a spear that he intended to stab Norman Osborn with to make him return to his darkside, but instead, it turned Peter into something horrendous. The scenes at the end of this issue with Spidey and Kraven are as cold-blooded as I have seen. It always makes me unhappy to see Spidey look anything but his happy-go-lucky self.

Hunt for the Skinwalker #1. Written by Zac Thompson and illustrated by Valeria Burzo. Cover by Martin Simmonds. Colm Kelleher and George Knapp wrote the original book that this was based on and was involved with the series. This included some weird things as the Skinwalker ranch took center stage. This is a fascinating four issue series with a strong beginning.

Scarlet Witch #8. Written by Steve Orlando and art by Lorenzo Tannetta & Sara Pichelli. Russell Dauterman was the cover artist. Wanda heads to meet up with Loki in a battle of… the truth? I never thought two comic characters could show as much chemistry as these two did. This was written beautifully and showed something that you never thought you wanted.

Fantastic Four #11. Written by Ryan North and drawn by Iban Coello. Cover art by the legendary Alex Ross. I have really enjoyed this run on FF. It has had engaging stories with the team at the Grimm family farmstead in Arizona that feel very down to earth while still having huge stakes and action. This is a Thing-centric issue as he is joined by a little dog. Good stuff.

Void Rivals #2. Written by Robert Kirkman and drawn by Lorenzo De Felici. This is another book Todd got for me because I was not aware that when I picked up issue 1 a few weeks ago that I actually was buying a second printing and that this series already had several issues released. I really loved #2 and I really liked this issue too.

Planetary #1. Written by Warren Ellis and art by John Cassaday. Another series I had never heard of before until I picked up issues #17-22 because they looked like an anthology series that was interesting. However, after reading 17 & 18, I realized that there was more to it than just an anthology series so I waited until I got #1 to continue reading. Todd got me a bunch of these and I did like #1 a lot.

X-Men #26. “Whack-A-Mole” Written by Gerry Duggan and art by Jim Towe & Javier Pina. Alex Ross did this cover too. Kate Pryde heads to assassinate Firestar, unaware that she is a mole set up by Jean Grey just before she died. Plus, Tony Stark and Emma Frost wind up in a strange moment where it looked as if Stark was popping the question leading to their wedding??? I do like how Stark and Kingpin have become major players in the mutant storyline.

The Exorcist: Believer Trailer 2

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Okay, that is terrifying.

The Exorcist is one of the most frightening horror movies of all-time and this new trailer for the next chapter of the story is something truly horrifying.

The first trailer focused more on the pre-possession for a chunk of it, but this is all out evil and it gave me that feeling.

This could be a huge hit this October as a Halloween celebration.

It made me a bit uneasy… if not anxious.

In cinemas on October 6th.

Loki Season 2 Teaser Trailer

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I am so very excited by the upcoming second season of Loki on Disney +.

I also like that this new trailer is just a teaser, coming in at under a minute. I do not need to see more than what I have already seen.

I can not wait to see more Loki/Moebius goodness. The appearances of Ke Huy Quan, which should be a ton of fun. Curious how much we will see Jonathan Majors. There is, once again, a little bit of him here, with just a little bit new.

The series drops on FRIDAY (which is different than any other Marvel Disney + show) Ocotber 6th.

Only Murders in the Building S3 E6

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Spoilers

“Ghost Light”

If I am being honest, I have found season three of Only Murders in the Building to be lackluster. They have focused less on the case and the investigation than I would have liked. However, after episode six, “Ghost Light,” I see why they have been making the choices that they have made.

This is the best episode of this entire season.

The previous episodes focusing on their individual lives and the play have beautifully circled back into this wonderful episode, which encapsulates the entire season into that final throw down with our three main characters.

Even in this episode, Charles, Oliver and Mabel are focused on individually, each having to deal with an uncomfortable situation or a truth. Charles, unable to accept how much Joy’s departure has hit him, Mabel, afraid to move forward in fear of what she would leave behind, and Oliver, who suspects his new love has secrets to hide that would leave him alone.

The investigation went to the theater and moved into high gear. It was cute to see how Charles and Oliver felt threatened and jealous of Mabel’s new relationship with Tobert, again, probably built out of fear of being left.

The whole Gideon Goosebury ghost twist in this episode really worked well, as Howard is clearly a true believer. His whole arc within the episode centered around his ‘protecting’ the play from this killer ghost. The addition of Jerry, a former friend and colleague of Oliver who was down on his luck and squatting in the theater brought a new witness to the case that only played on Oliver’s fears of failure and loss. Jerry was truly a sad story. He did tell Oliver about Charles’ punch to Ben that we learned about last week.

Jerry helped Oliver make a decision about his life, which was to protect Loretta under all circumstances, that his love for the actress was greater than the chance that she was a killer. This lead him to erase the lipstick message on the mirror in the dressing room which triggered the meltdown among the threesome.

I have pretty much decided that Loretta is not the killer, but it seems apparent that she wrote that message on Ben’s mirror.

Ben’s understudy, Jonathan seemed to be cleared of suspicion this week as he revealed to Mabel and Tobert that he did not want to be the lead of this play, that the stress of carrying a Broadway play was overwhelming, thus taking away his motive. He also revealed that Ben had been taking some concoction of medications from his doctor, which feels like an important clue for down the road. My guess is that this mixture of drugs played a part in Ben’s first ‘death’ on stage.

I loved this episode and it helped frame what the season had been about up to this point. I am sorry that I even entertained the idea that the season was lackluster. I do not think this episode hits as well without the set-up prior. Four more episodes to go and I am invested.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #55

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September 4, 2023

I hope everyone has had a happy Labor Day spent with friends, family or engaging in their favorite geek activities. I went to a movie, although saying that I ‘enjoyed’ it would be a gross overstatement.

By the way, it really feels like Sunday night to me right now. Have to keep telling myself that it is Monday.

Before heading out to the theater though, I did some comic reading this morning, finishing off the books from last week’s pull list that I needed to read and getting some of the new back issues that I recently purchased read as well.

My comic book shop sprung a super secret sale on Sunday out of nowhere. Literally, I saw a Facebook post about it on Saturday night and Todd called me wondering if I new anything about it. LOL. Anyway, I went and sprung for a bunch of comic bags and boards for my continuing goal of getting my full collection bagged and boarded, including replacing the old books’ protective materials with new ones. However, it was quite the depressing fact because I am almost done with the bags/boards that I bought and I made it through one long box with unbagged books. I have at least two more of these long boxes to go BEFORE I get into the books in the old boxes. Suddenly, I saw the expense that I would be looking at to complete this goal…

Definitely a LONG term goal.

I originally thought it would be about a year, but that seems impractical (and quite expensive). Anyway, it is still a process.

The books read…

Omega the Unknown #6. “A Tug of the Wrench” Written by Mary Skreenes & Steve Gerber with art by Jim Mooney & Mike Esposito. Cover art by Romita/Cockrum. I bought this at the aforementioned Comic World secret sale simply because it came out in 1977 and it would allow me to make my first post in the Facebook group that I recently joined, Old Guys Who Like Old Comics. I had never heard of Omega the Unknown. I just read it and I have to say that I loved it! I was totally in on everything happening in the book and I thought it was amazingly original and unlike most anything that I have read before. Looks like a winner for the first post.

Marvel Spotlight #24. “Walk the Darkling Road.” Written by Chris Claremont and drawn by Sal Buscema. This featured Daimon Hellstrom, aka the Son of Satan. I have always enjoyed the character in his runs in the Defenders and such and I loved his involvement in the recent Hellcat series. He had a confrontation with his sister Satana, but he seemed too goodie-good for the Son of Satan. Still a fun read.

Local Man Gold. Creative team: Tony Fleecs & Tim Seeley with colors by Felipe Sobreiro. This surprised me to no end. I enjoyed the Local Man series that was recently out by Image, and this was a one shot involving him. However, there were other heroes that showed up from the past. Strangely enough, I did not recognize them and I thought they were just new characters in Jack Xaver’s life. Then, shockingly, there was Joan Petersen, the main character in Love Everlasting. I couldn’t believe it. Then, I got to the page that showed that all these characters that I thought were just new characters were actually from all kinds of Image books. It was a cool surprise.

W0rldtr33 #5. Written by James Tynion IV and featuring art by Fernando Blanco. I will be honest that I have been struggling with this book so far. However, this issue was really exciting and compelling and made me want to get the next issue immediately. Much like a lot of Tynion’s work, W0rldtr33 requires focus and is not designed for a quick skim, and that is not a bad thing.

Spider-Man: India #3. “Seva Part III.” This has been fun so far. Pavitr started selling videos making Spider-Man look bad for money. However, this is all playing back into his own self-image issues. I like Spider-Man: India and the character is interesting.

Justice League: Another Nail #1-3. Written and drawn by Alan Davis. This is an Elseworlds series featuring Superman as an Amish kid and Batman depressed over the death of Robin and Batgirl by the hand of Joker. I liked the resolution of the series, but to be honest, I did not like this that much. It felt like just a whole bunch of cameos by DC heroes that, while cool, did not service the story very well. I did not love the manner the story was told or constructed. Superman did not feel like he was Amish, with it being more in name than anything else. The Batman stuff in Hell was interesting. Overall, this was okay, but not much more than that.

Deadpool: Badder Blood #3. Story by Rob Liefeld, script by Chad Bowers and penciled by Rob Liefeld. Venompool takes on Deadpool… and Zabu? This is a great series that feels like a top notch Deadpool book.

Godzilla Minus One Trailer

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Whoa.

That is a trailer. Short and devastating.

The people who gave us Shin Godzilla in 2016 has now given us a new trailer with the force fo nature that is Godzilla.

Wow that was intense. This is the way Godzilla is meant to be portrayed.

That final shot of Godzilla roaring is just amazing. This feels like Godzilla coming for retribution against the human race and he just does not give two gigantic craps about them. The line “The Monster will never forgive us” is all kinds of powerful.

Really looking forward to seeing this and hoping that I will be able to see it in the theater and not just on Vudu because this feels like the kind of epic film that needs the biggest screen possible.

R.L. Stine’s Zombie Town

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Near the end of the movie, main character Mike said “It was a good little movie.”

Au contrare.

This is an adaptation of author R.L. Stine novel Zombie Town, which, much like his Goosebumps series of books, is meant to be targeted to young readers to give them an introduction to horror, so you can expect this film to be a younger skewing movie. Still, skewing young does not excuse a film from being so stupid.

Reclusive director/filmmaker Len Carver (Dan Aykroyd) lived in a town named for him, after disappearing and stopping creating zombie movies at his high point during the 70s. Today, Carver prepared a new film for release.

Mike (Marlon Kazadi) did not like zombie movies, but he did work at the theater that had the exclusive release. However, Mike was more interested in what the girl he had been crushing upon, Amy (Madi Monroe) was up to.

When Carver was dropping off the film the day before the big release, he was hit on the head and taken to the hospital. With the film in his possession, Mike texted Amy, who hurried over to the theater, asking to see it early. Though he was not sure if this was a good idea, Mike acquiesced and played the film for her. Instead of a film, there was just white light and some magical power that transformed the town into zombies.

Mike and Amy was not changed into zombies so they ran across the town in an attempt to figure out what was going on.

This had a ‘so bad, it’s okay’ feel to it as this conceivably could turn into one of those cult films that are shown like The Room or Samurai Cop. In fact, I feel as if this film would be extremely entertaining as a film shown by RiffTrax Live. It absolutely has that level of quality (or lack there of) to it.

It was intended to be funny, but, at best, I may have chuckled once or twice. Would a ten year old find it funnier than I did? Maybe, though I am not convinced of that.

Clearly, the budget on this was all for Dan Aykroyd and Chevy Chase because the zombie makeup was basically some dark eye liner and maybe some powder for the faces.

Some things happen that defy total explanation. For example, Carver never made the hospital, but the theater owner (Henry Czerny), who had been coming with him to the hospital and had changed into a zombie, actually drove the ambulance with Carver… and he drove it as a zombie. What?

Characters were inconsistent with their motives and their actions. Carver himself was a mess of contradictions, flip flopping all over the place.

I did think that Marlon Kazadi was okay as the lead. He did not have a lot of material that stretched his acting skills, but he did have a decent screen presence. He did not have much chemistry with Madi Monroe though and unfortunately, they were supposed to have plenty. Their relationship felt mean-spirited at times and seemed more like siblings than anything else.

I intended on watching this on Saturday after The Equalizer 3, but my plans changed and I decided to go today on Labor Day instead. It was a poor choice as this was an hour and a half that I won’t get back again. There are considerably better films to introduce young people to horror, including films from the oeuvre of R.L. Stine, like the Goosebumps films or the film by Guillermo Del Toro, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark. Don’t waste your time with this one.

1 star

The Bear S2 E5

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Spoilers

E5: “Pop”

Carmy gets out of the restaurant for a bit as he goes to hang out with Claire. She talks him into accompanying her to a ‘party’ where one of her friends had just had a bad breakup. Carmy clearly was uncomfortable.

As this was going on, all kinds of troubles were coming to the restaurant in only six weeks before the opening. Oliver Platt made another appearance and helped get a liquor license. Better to not know how he cut through the red tape.

Richie is always fighting with everyone and it is becoming an issue.

Sugar is trying to deal with all of the problems as Sydney struggled with the menu.

The restaurant continues to be a place of chaos and it feels as if something is going to need to give soon.

Tina is doing well in her training, but she is worried about  Ebraheim. Others in the program invited Tina out for drinks that night and she ends up singing at karaoke and just knocking it out of the park. Tina seems to be living her best life so far this season. Carmy had gotten her a new knife too.

Carmy and Claire end up kissing after returning to the restaurant and seeing the chaos first hand. He admits how much he likes her and this is great. These two have amazing chemistry and have expanded the character depth while interacting.

This was a solid episode, but it does feel as if the show is in a bit of a holding pattern as it moves toward their opening date.

One Piece S1 E3 & E4

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Spoilers

E3: Tell No Tales”

E4: “The Pirates are Coming”

I love this show.

After four episodes, it has completely engaged my curiosity, anticipation and thrilled me to no end. I love these characters and I love the villains that cause the conflict. One Piece has been a huge success in my eyes for Netflix.

It is just so much fun.

Episodes three and four are a two-parter, in sense, though it does not call it so. This is the first time where the story expanded past the first episode and encapsulated a second one.

This two episode arc serves to introduce Usopp, who would become one of the new crew (not a crew) members. We are shown a young Usopp running through the town calling out that “The pirates are coming.” He is great with a slingshot and works at the shipyard.

This is the reason why our Straw Hat Pirates crew come to this town. The boat they were are was leaking and getting ready to sink and they needed to find a new pirate ship.

When Luffy finds the ship that ‘speaks’ to him, they meet Usopp and he tells them about the owner of the shipyard, who is a friend of his. You doubt this considering we have seen that Usopp is the ‘boy who cried wolf.’

However, he does take them to meet his friend, Kaya, a wealthy but sickly young girl about to turn 18. Luffy plans on convincing her to make a deal with them for the ship. However, as they were there, it was revealed that her butler was a pirate captain who was slowly poisoning her.

The butler was revealed as Kuro, the captain of the Black Cat Pirates, who had long blades on his fingers and an ability to move quickly. This would lead to yet another epic fight scene with Luffy and the crew.

We learned more about the background of Zoro, specifically why he carries a third sword. This dated back to his early sword training with a young woman who he could not defeat in combat. This back story did give us more insight into Zoro and it helped him be motivated to escape the deep hole he had been tossed in by Kuro’s two henchpeople.

The Marines are on Luffy’s trail too as Garp becomes a mentor for Kobe. The very end of episode four dropped a bomb too as Luffy sees Garp through a spyglass as they were being pursued on the new ship and he says “Grandpa.” Garp is Luffy’s grandpa??? Did not expect that.

Our main characters continue to bond as they battle with each other to help save Kaya from the evil clutches of Kuro. Having this occur over the run of two episodes allowed the show to pace this very well and not make it feel rushed. All of these storylines received a nice amount of time and fit together extremely well.

Buggy the Clown literally pulled himself back together after being trapped by Luffy last episode only to be grabbed and taken by another pirate that felt like a big deal. Even though we know nothing about this Arlong (at least I don’t since I did not see the anime this is based on), this character absolutely felt sinister and a problem. I wonder if Kuro will wind up with Arlong and Buggy too?

This has been great so far. I did not intend on watching this many episodes already, but the cliffhanger at the end of episode three made me keep watching. According to Netflix, there are only eight episodes, but Wikipedia indicates that there are ten, so I wonder if the last two episodes are being saved like a part two, much like season 4 of Stranger Things did.

Either way, my goal is to spread out watching the remaining 4 available episodes so that I can watch the final one on September 19th as a way to celebrate Talk Like A Pirate Day. Ahoy!

Their new ship was dubbed The Going Merry, after Kaya’s lawyer who had been killed by Kuro.