The Blackening is a dark horror comedy directed by Tim Story. It is a satire of horror movies and racial stereotypes while being both suspenseful and outrageously funny.
A group of former college friends receive an invite for a reunion/party at a cabin in the woods on Juneteenth. Unbeknownst to them, the party is a cover for a trap meant to kill them all.
This ensemble cast was excellent and worked so well with one another. The main cast included Antoinette Robertson, Dewayne Perkins, Sinqua Walls, Grace Byers, X Mayo, Melvin Gregg and Jermaine Fowler. This cast took their characters and avoided the simple stereotypes while developing the characters very successfully considering the short time of the film.
There was a great amount of self-awareness in the movie, playing up on the horror movie tropes. They even go as far as to make references to other movies such as Scream.
The movie does have some things to say about the plight of black people as well as the selfishness of a group of people. The message of the movie never threatened to overwhelm the entertainment, which is not always the norm. This group of people were not innocent in this and you can understand the reasoning behind what happens to them. However, you cannot help but cheer and root for them to make it through the challenges and games that they are being forced to undertake.
One of my favorite jokes in the film, subtle as it was, was when Diedrich Bader’s park ranger character, Mr. White, is referred to as a ‘white savior.’ by one of the cast. That was hilarious and a great example of how smart this movie’s dialogue and writing was.
I found this extremely intelligent and hilariously funny. I was thoroughly entertained by the film that moves at a brisk pace and never felt boring.
The latest Pixar animated movie left me all wet at first, but I did warm up to it as it went along…
Yes, I am ashamed of those puns.
Elemental featured the story of Ember (Leah Lewis), a young girl of the fire people living in a land where the other elements- air, water and land- live together, who is trying to convince her father Bernie (Ronnie Del Carmen) that she is ready to take over running their family store so he can retire.
However, during the important sale at the store, the pipes of the store burst, flooding the basement. The water also pulled in Wade (Mamoudou Athie), a local building inspector and a water person, who writes a bunch of tickets that would lead to the store’s closure. Ember chases after Wade in an attempt to stop him from turning in the tickets.
As they work together, Ember and Wade realize that there is a spark between them, despite being apparently incompatable.
I came into Elemental with very little anticipation. Though I always enjoy Pixar, this film was just not doing much for me. Then, it did not help that the film had an animated short featuring Carl and Doug from Up called Carl’s Date. I disliked this short a great deal. It was dull, repetitive and just not funny. It kicked off the afternoon in a poor manner.
The film then started and I had a real difficult time getting into the film. I was not enjoying the story, the characters felt way below the line of the usual Pixar work and I just did not like what I was watching. I was counting the time waiting for this to be over.
Of course, the animation continued to be absolutely gorgeous and at the high level of quality of Pixar movies. It could easily be considered a work of art. The character designs were good. I loved the way Ember’s nose moved like it was a flame.
As the film moved on, I started to become a little more engaged with the relationship between Ember and Wade. By the time the third act was underway, I was liking what I was watching more than I did before. It had won me over with its charm.
Elemental was a mixed bag for me. The story and the world did not grab my attention at first, but I did eventually found it entertaining. It was beautiful to look at for sure. It is a borderline recommendation for me.
Oh, the good old days. Back when the TV wasn’t always on and the music was live on the radio.
This is the basis behind the twentieth episode of season two of The Twilight Zone.
“No one ever saw one quite like that, because that’s a very special sort of radio. In its day, circa 1935, its type was one of the most elegant consoles on the market. Now with its fabric-covered speakers, its peculiar yellow dial, its serrated knobs, it looks quaint and a little strange. Mr. Ed Lindsay is going to find out how strange very soon when he tunes in to the Twilight Zone.”
Ed Lindsay was a very unhappy man. He had grown older and would grumble about everything, especially the TV that was in the house. When he found an old time radio, which somehow seemed to be able to connect to radio stations from years past, Ed started to feel more alive.
This episode was more of a character piece with Ed and his one time love Vinnie Broun, a woman who still lived with him in the same boarding house. By this point, their love was gone. Vinnie, along with the professor, worried that Ed was losing his grasp on reality, and they give away the radio. Ed retrieves it and winds up back in the past for good.
I think this was intended to be a romantic story, a second chance for Ed and Vinnie, but I do not see it that way. This feels almost like an alcoholic whose family members try and remove all the liquor by pouring it down the drain. It never works because the pull is too strong.
It could also be a way to speak against the inclusion of television into the lives of people, which considering The Twilight Zone is a TV program, that would be pretty ironic. Ed certainly had grumblings about the TV while the rest of the borders were transfixed by it and implied that radio was more of an activity to foster creativity and imagination than the TV.
Not sure what was intended in this episode worked very well. The acting was fine, but I am not sure the youthful reunion at the episode’s end was what the writers of the episode wanted.
“The Prime Mover”
When the main protagonist of an episode of The Twilight Zone is as unlikeable as Ace Larson was, the episode is difficult to enjoy.
Buddy Epson was much more likable, relatable in this episode a Jimbo, a down-home fellow who has telekinetic powers. The character of Jimbo in “The Prime Move” reminded me very much of Big Ed Hurley from Twin Peaks, lovable, kind of slow witted.
When Ace discovered Jimbo’s power, he immediately started planning how to take advantage of it. He took Jimbo and his girlfriend Kitty to Vegas to have Jimbo use his TK to manipulate the system and rig it in his favor.
Although he made a ton of money, Ace was not happy, anxious to keep going. Only when Jimbo said that he was too tired to continue did Ace take a break. However, he got in a fight with Kitty, who stormed off, and then he ‘hired’ a Vegas cigarette girl to go out on the town with him.
He then taunted a Chicago gangster into a game of craps with him in his room. After winning all the money, Ace went all in on one more roll of the dice. However, Jimbo had lost his power and Ace lost everything. At the end, Ace was back in the diner where they worked and he proposed to Kitty.
I had a lot of issues with this episode, all centered around the character of Ace. I already mentioned how I did not like the character, which is a major drawback. I did not feel like the character that I had seen this whole episode would react to losing all the money in the manner in which he did. The show seemed to imply that it shocked him back to normal, but I saw no evidence of that. Then, when he proposed to Kitty at the end after going out on the town with the cigarette girl (who showed up during the craps game implying that they were going away together), I literally said out loud “no.” Ace is going to be the type who will turn on Kitty the second things get tough and be cheating on her with some other woman. I don’t want them together because there is no happy ending for Ace.
Extraction 2, the sequel to one of the most successful Netflix original movie from the streamer, dropped today on Netflix starring Chris Hemsworth, once again playing Tyler Rake.
However, at the end of the last movie, we thought Tyler Rake might have died. At the beginning of this movie, we see how close he actually came. Pulled out of the river, Tyler was operated on in a desperate attempt to save his life.
Tyler came out of the operations injured and weakened, destined for retirement. When Idris Elba came to see him with a mission request, Tyler found the boring and low-intensity life he had been living went out the window.
Extraction 2 elevated the action of the previous movie to a remarkable level in the sequel. Chris Hemsworth is a wonderful lead character, right at home with the fighting and gunfire. Although I have to say that during one fight when Hemsworth reached for a nearby hammer on the ground, I got excited.
The action of this movie was brilliantly conceived and executed. The first scene of Tyler Rake going into the prison where the family he was trying to extract was amazingly shot. It looked like a constant one-shot, though it was not. It got to be fun as I was looking for the hidden cuts during the scene. It was flawlessly edited together to make an anxiety-ridden scene.
There were three main action set pieces of Extraction 2 and they were all different enough to keep them fresh. Director Sam Hargrave sets up the action with some excellent shots and creative ways to highlight the gunfire that can become repetitive.
The film also tosses some emotional moments, especially when dealing with Tyler Rake’s son and the family that he was hired to rescue.
Other actors in the film included Golshifteh Farahani, Adam Bessa, Tornike Gogrichiani, Andro Japaridze, Olga Kurylenko and Idris Elba.
I had a lot of fun watching this movie. Chris Hemsworth does a great job with what his character is supposed to do and the action is extremely well shot and outlined. It’s a great streaming film.
Hulu is the location today for the June Swoon 2 as I came across a dark comedy/drama film directed by Jerrod Carmichael called On the Count of Three. This was a film where the premise really snagged me when I came across it.
Two long-time friends are both at a point in their lives where they are both suicidal and agreed to shoot each other. Played by Jerrod Carmichael and Christopher Abbott respectively, Val and Kevin have had horrendous backstories that have led them both to stand opposite each other with a gun pointed at their heads.
However, Kevin hesitated and knocked the gun aside, wanting to have one more day to do some things that they wanted before the end.
Dark and funny at times, Val and Kevin run around the town doing some shocking things that do a great job of informing these two characters. They are so messed up, but you can’t help but find yourself rooting for them and hoping something happens to change their minds on the ultimate end.
Tiffany Haddish, Henry Winkler and J.B. Smoove have vital supporting roles in the movie that give the pair some dramatic characters to play off.
The third act of the film is dramatic and the ending is amazing. No spoilers, of course, but it is a satisfactory ending to the movie.
On the Count of Three is an excellent dark comedy with some wonderful character development.
I have been looking forward to this documentary since I first heard about it. Stan Lee is one of my idols. He helped shape my childhood and helped make me the person I have become through his imagination and creativity. His influence is massive for me.
So a documentary on his life streaming on Disney +? Well, I was all in on it.
Stan Lee, the documentary by David Gelb told us, in his own words, the story of Stanley Lieber, a comic book writer who helped revolutionize the industry and who helped create a mythology of today with some of the most recognizable characters in all of pop culture.
Stan Lee nearly narrated this entire doc from clips of him giving interviews and other public appearances, and this gave us a real insight on the ‘character’ of Stan Lee, the larger-than-life, braggadocio whose super heroes helped inspire a generation.
This documentary focuses on the positives of Stan Lee’s life. I would not go as far as to call it a ‘puff piece’ but there were areas of Stan Lee’s life that was just barely touched upon that could have made this an even more enjoyable documentary.
For example, the documentary truly popped when it played a clip of a radio show where Jack Kirby, Stan Lee’s longtime collaborator and one of the most successful and prolific comic book artists of all time, was being interviewed and Stan called in to wish him a happy birthday. The conversation between the two icons got away from the host and the conflicts between Stan and Jack came out. Those few seconds of the doc were as compelling as anything and I would have loved to hear more about that.
They also touched on the conflict between Stan and Steve Ditko. This, along with the conflict with Kirby, was based around the credit on who actually created certain characters. Was it the writer who came up with the idea or was it the artists who created the visual concept? Again, this idea was brushed across in this doc but really could have been the center of a major piece of the doc. It is a section that I would have loved to hear more about.
Stan also mentioned a time when Marvel Comics had been sold and he went from having a lifetime contract to having a two-year deal. He said he was not happy about that, but the doc does not go into much detail or specifics on this.
While the documentary did not dive into the controversies of his life, the doc was very entertaining dealing with the positives of Stan Lee’s life. His story of the creation of the Fantastic Four, about how the Spider-Man character became published, the creation of Black Panther all were fascinating, and hearing them from Stan’s own words made it all the more special.
This was a fun reflection on the parts of Stan Lee’s life that led to the iconic Marvel Comics. While I would have loved to have some of the doc go into more depth with the ‘warts’ of the man, what we got was still engaging and entertaining. Much like Stan Lee himself.
Burgess Meredith returned to the Twilight Zone, bringing with him Don Rickles for this mostly comedic episode of The Twilight Zone.
I have to say that most of the time when The Twilight Zone dips into its comedic well for an episode, it does not work nearly as well. This was a ‘funny’ episode that was not very funny. Even with the iconic Don Rickles in tow.
Burgess Meredith is a fantastic actor and he carries himself well, but he just did not feel in place in this episode. He couldn’t even save what was a very disappointing episode.
There was so much slapstick involved in the show and it just was not very funny. The aliens who give Mr. Dingle the super strength are a boring design and make little sense. The aliens at the end that are the little kids were worse yet.
Definitely one of the lower episodes of the show which has failed as of yet to show me a really effective comedy episode.
The Flash has been in development for years. Finally, the movie has arrived with an unbelievable controversy and with some people claiming that it is the ‘best comic book movie ever.’
I’ll start with the controversy. I have to address it. Ezra Miller has had an insane path over the last several years, leading an abusive stretch with others. I am really trying my best to separate my thoughts of the creative person from the content, so my review will not detail my thoughts on Ezra Miller’s real life craziness.
So, on to the review.
Barry Allen (Ezra Miller) uses his super speed to travel back in time to save his mother (Maribel Verdú) from her untimely death, which causes the universe to go seriously wonky and all kind of changes happen. Barry goes on a quest to try and right the wrongs he did, along with a younger version of himself, Bruce Wayne (Michael Keaton) and Kara (Sasha Calle).
Okay, first off, this is not the best comic book movie ever made. Period. That does not mean I did not like The Flash, because I did. But this movie is fun, but very messy.
Let me start with what I liked. Ezra Miller did a great job as Barry Allen, in particular as the older Barry Allen who had more experience. They had a confidence and a swagger that fit the character very well. Miller did a great job playing two distinctly different characters, as well. Honestly, they did such a good job that I never thought about it being the same actor playing two roles.
Michael Keaton was sensational as the older Batman. Keaton looked as if he was having a blast returning to a version of a role that he played in 1989. He was absolutely the standout character in the film and his re-introduction was epic.
Sasha Calle was a wonderful addition as Kara Zor-El aka Supergirl. She brought a character that was nowhere near a Kal-El and a character whose brutality made a lot of sense considering the situation that she had found herself in.
Some of the emotional scenes that we got between Ezra Miller and Maribel Verdú as Nora Allen were extremely well written and directed. They had some powerful moments together and brought a heart to the movie.
Then there were several parts of The Flash that I thought were a mixed bag, some good, some bad. One of these was the special effects. Honestly, the first 10-15 minutes of CGI in this movie (I’ll say one word… babies) was some of the worst special effects we have had in a major movie in awhile. It was really a turn off in that scene. However, there were also some CGI in The Flash that was amazing and awesome. The speed force and the way the Flash was shown using his speed were beautifully rendered. There were times when one Barry Allen was carrying the other Barry Allen and it was totally seamless. CGI was truly a coin flip for the movie.
I found the cameos and Easter eggs that were plastered throughout the film were great and a lot of fun. Some did not always look as great as it could be, but the film absolutely played on the nostalgia (‘member-berries). However, there felt like some of the nostalgia was too forced, especially with the dialogue for Batman/Bruce Wayne. Is there a reason Michael Keaton had to repeat so many lines from his original movies? We get it, we remember. That felt too ham-fisted at times. Still, the best cameo came right at the end of the film (no spoilers, of course), but this felt like a giant middle finger to everyone and I was here for it.
Another up and down aspect was the humor. Some of the jokes worked really well, but other times it felt out of place. Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that I want always serious comic book movies like the Snyder films, but some of this worked and much of it didn’t. Part that I did not like was the way young Barry Allen was portrayed. He was so obnoxious and played as a moron for much of the film. I know it was meant to show older Barry Allen what he had been like and to let him understand how others had seen him, but it felt too much. Young Barry felt stupid and I did not get that from previous films.
I will say that I hated the post credits scene at the very end of the film. It felt totally unnecessary and just not funny.
It also is unclear after this movie what the direction of the DCU is going to be. This felt much more like a goodbye to the previous films/universe instead of something that was going to kickoff the next round of movies. This was loosely based on the comic run called Flashpoint (which had an awesome animated DC movie back in 2013). The only set up in this film was.. ‘hey, multiverse!’ The multiverse concept has been done better in Across the Spider-Verse, Everything Everywhere All At Once, and the MCU.
I had fun with The Flash. Do not go into the film with the expectations that it is going to revolutionize the comic book movie industry, because it is not up to that standard. It is fun, with some solid actors who looked to be enjoying themselves, and a sprinkling of emotions in all the right spots. It is not the best DCEU movie, nor is it the worst. In fact, I would place it in the upper half of the DCEU films, and I believe that The Flash gives you permission to move on.
Today’s June Swoon 2 film is on Netflix and it deals with a very heavy subject. The Son was a film directed by Florian Zeller and starred Hugh Jackman and Laura Dern. Depression is a tough challenge that many people struggle with daily.
Peter (Hugh Jackman) and Kate (Laura Dern) split up years before when Peter met and fell in love with another woman Beth (Vanessa Kirby). The divorce was tough for their son, Nicholas (Zen McGrath), who held on to the pain he felt.
When it was revealed that Nicholas had been skipping school, Kate chose to have him go live with Peter to hopefully help him. Peter was very busy at work and he saw what he wanted to see when it came to Nicholas.
Nicholas continued his struggles at his father’s home, slipping back into some negative behaviors.
There was a lot of melodrama in this movie to the point where it felt like there was too much. While the performances were solid, the material was not up to par. It seemed as if there was nothing deeper than what was shown and some of the dialogue was iffy.
I had a major problem early on that pulled me out of the story. As someone who works in a school, I can not imagine how a student could skip school for a month at a time without someone checking on him. It happened in this movie with two different schools and that just did not feel realistic to me and that caused me to disassociate myself with the story.
Anthony Hopkins appeared as Peter’s father, but he was completely wasted in the film. His appearance was literally just a few minutes, making this role nothing more than a cameo.
The key is that there is not enough specifics or development of the character of Nicholas. He is very surface level and, because of that, we are unable to access the important part of the story that would help with the emotional beats of the film. Zen McGrath does a good job with what he was given, but there just was not enough of a portrait of this character.
The Son was a sad story that does not go any deeper than that. The actors are very good with the limited details they are given and instead of three dimensional characters we get melodrama.
Premonition. The feeling that something is not right. Twenty-Two is a Twilight Zone episode that looks at the phenomenon, even though we do not know that until the very end.
“This is Miss Liz Powell. She’s a professional dancer and she’s in the hospital as a result of overwork and nervous fatigue. And at this moment we have just finished walking with her in a nightmare. In a moment she’ll wake up and we’ll remain at her side. The problem here is that both Miss Powell and you will reach a point where it might be difficult to decide which is reality and which is nightmare, a problem uncommon perhaps but rather peculiar to the Twilight Zone.”
There was some really strong, subtle hints throughout this episode, especially when dealing with the character of Liz Powell. I enjoyed this character piece as she went through the creepy hospital and had to deal with her slimy agent. You’re never quite sure what is going on, much like a dream in actuality. I’m sure, just like I did, everyone thought that this dream was foretelling something tragic at the hospital itself. Liz’s insistence that it was not a dream, despite the evidence to the contrary, kept the audience wondering what was going on.
It was strange after she had left the hospital and was on her way on a plane because the hospital was not involved any longer. However, as things started happening in the waking world as they happened in Liz’s dream, I had the idea of what was happening.
The metaphor of the morgue being the doomed airplane and the sinister flight attendant with her line, “Room for one more, honey” representing death itself was more apparent once it was out of the hospital. I actually expected the plane to crash, but the explosion in mid-air did surprise me.
There was a surreal feel to the episode and the dream-like state worked very well.
“The Odyssey of Flight 22”
“Looks like I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue…“
That line is one of the best from 1980’s Airplane! and this episode of The Twilight Zone made me think about that. Mainly because the voice of actor, John Anderson, who was the pilot Captain Farver, sounded a lot like Robert Stack who appeared in that movie.
His voice and the setting aboard an airplane were the only connections I had to Airplane! though as this episode dealt with a much more sci-fi aspect than the parody/comedy of Airplane!.
The crew aboard the plane (which they called a ‘ship’ which I found funny) were very competent and were flying easily on their way to New York. Strange occurrences began to happen. Captain Farver noticed a feeling in the plane, something like picking up of speed. The radio could not contact anyone and other instruments were out of whack.
When they went through a bizarre light and what felt like terrible turbulence and they were not sure what was going on. The glance out of the window as they approached Manhattan Island revealed what had happened to the plane.
Time travel pokes its head back into another Twilight Zone episode and was another very effective use of it. The crew decided to try and go back through the light again, this time ending up in 1939.
A Global jet airliner, en route from London to New York on an uneventful afternoon in the year 1961, but now reported overdue and missing, and by now, searched for on land, sea, and air by anguished human beings, fearful of what they’ll find. But you and I know where she is. You and I know what’s happened. So if some moment, any moment, you hear the sound of jet engines flying atop the overcast—engines that sound searching and lost—engines that sound desperate—shoot up a flare or do something. That would be Global 33 trying to get home—from The Twilight Zone. “
I loved the idea of this plane just lost in time, flying around for as long as it could, trying desperately to find its way home. This episode was Airplane! crossed with a sprinkling of Quantum Leap.
Yes, it is NEW COMIC BOOK DAY so there are a bunch of new books again this week. I’m happy to say that Todd was able to see this week. Progress.
It was cool today as Todd brought a bunch of his art pages from his collection. It was awesome to see some of these.
New books this week…
Something is Killing the Children Pen & Ink Issue One. This is a version of the first issue of Something is Killing the Children in pen & ink, no color. It is spectacularly gorgeous. There are also notes at the bottom of each page from artist Werther Dell’edera. This is an awesome collectible. Boom is sure taking advantage of this book as much as they can.
Something Epic #2. Written and illustrated by Szymon Kudranski. Another wonderful issue. Beautifully illustrated and a lot of details about Danny and his mom. I have to say that this is one of my most favorite new books.
Doctor Strange #4. “U.X.O.” This issue gives us some information on W.A.N.D. and Wong’s involvement in said organization. It’s great to see Wong getting some attention and, plot wise, someone or something is killing evil magicians and monsters. This book has done a solid job of building anticipation and suspense.
Amazing Spider-Man #27. Written by Zeb Wells and penciled by Ed McGuiness. Peter and Norman try to deal with their own guilt over the death of Kamala Khan last issue. Meanwhile Doctor Octopus is back trying to figure out the problems with his arms’ betrayal. ASM is always consistent and is one of the first books I read every time.
Black Panther #1. “Reign at Dusk: Part 1” Written by Eve L. Ewing and penciled by Chris Allen. Taurin Clarke was the cover artist. The new Black Panther series kicks off with T’Challa still hanging out in the shadows of Wakanda after being banished in the last series. Black Panther follows a young lawyer, N’Yobi. We follow the character of N’Yobi through much of this issue and I am intrigued on why T’Challa is following him because the conversation between the pair was interrupted by a new, cool looking villain.
The Great British Bump-Off #3. “Bloodshed Berry Cheesecake” Script by John Allison with art by Man Sarin. Another attempted poisoning sends the cast into chaos as they are to make a cake that shows their favorite movies. I knew the movie that Shauna chose (Under the Skin- starred Scarlett Johansson). This Dark Horse comic continues to be entertaining every issue.
Haunt You to the End #1. Written by Ryan Cady and featuring artist Andrea Mutti. This issue was fun, but it was basically a set-up issue. We met some characters and set them up to go to this haunted house on an island that was to be the most haunted isle of the world, An isle that is going to be overwhelmed by water in a couple of days. Set the timer and place everyone in position. Looking forward to the next step in this one.
Captain Marvel #50. “Marvelous.” Carol is dealing with her loss of Binary during the Brood story arc and her friends throw her a party, a party they knew Carol would hate. Spider-Woman then took Carol to Dr. Strange to help her deal with her pain. Lots of Marvel cameos through this book as Kelly Thompson’s run on Captain Marvel comes to a close.
Moon Knight #24. “Ill Met By Moonlight” Written by Jed MacKay and drawn by Federico Sabbatini. Steven Segovia & Rachelle Rosenberg did the cover art. Why does Marc Specter look exactly like peter Parker as he is grilling? That distracted me the whole time during this section of the book. Morpheus is here, but not in the best shape ever. He drops a name to Moon Knight about who is behind it all.
Spider-Man: India #1. “Seva Part 1” One of the coolest characters from Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse gets a comic all of his own. Pavitr Prabhakar is Spider-Man: India and we get a bunch of his life shown to us in Earth-50101, in Mumbai, India (not Mumbattan like in Across the Spider-Verse) and I think I liked the costume design in the movie more than what we get here. Still, I enjoyed this first issue and wonder where it will go.
Captain America: Cold War Omega. “Part 6” The Cold War story concludes here with Cap and Sam confronts the White Wolf, Bucky and Ian in Dimension Z. The control of Dimension Z is up in the air and gets wrapped up in this issue. Btw.. the battle between Peggy Carter and Sharon Carter was pretty epic. This is leading into the big Captain America #750 (legacy numbered).
“Mr. Hector B. Poole, resident of the Twilight Zone. Flip a coin and keep flipping it. What are the odds? Half the time it will come up heads, half the time tails. But in one freakish chance in a million, it’ll land on its edge. Mr. Hector B. Poole, a bright human coin – on his way to the bank.”
Dick York, eventual star of Bewitched as Darren Stevens, returned to the Twilight Zone as Hector Poole, a bank employee who, through a strange twist of fate and luck, gained the ability to hear the thoughts of other people.
This is a fairly light episode that takes this premise and shows that there might be a drawback to being able to read other people’s thoughts. The whole deal with the old man who was thinking about robbing the bank but never intending to do it is a good example.
The episode also showed us how superficial some people could be, saying one thing out loud while thinking something totally opposite on the inside. The episode does not speak well of the nature of humankind, even having our straight-laced protagonist, Hector, use his mind reading ability to blackmail his boss over a weekend tryst.
Still, “A Penny for your Thoughts” is fine. It is an enjoyable enough episode to watch and Dick York showed a skill for comedy, especially with his facial reactions that would become so important for him later on in his career as Bewitched.
This Places Rules was the latest movie released in 2022 that will be today’s entry on the June Swoon 2 list. It was released on HBO on December 30, 2022 and then on HBO Max the next day. This documentary followed the events that led up to the January 6th insurrection, and was directed and hosted by journalist and YouTube content creator Andrew Callaghan.
The film went to several of the major events prior to Jan. 6th, interviewing the extremists on both sides. This doc does a great job of not only laying out the bizarre thoughts of Trump supports, Qanon wackos, and Proud Boys, but also extremist on the left like Antifa and BLM.
Some of the wildest scenes of the movie involved Alex Jones, host of Info Wars. His far right propaganda highlighted some of the worst natures that we as the people have, while truly showing that what Jones (along with others) really wants is to make money off the selling of merchandise. It was revealed that Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio not only sold Trump merch, but also merch for Joe Biden.
The interviews of random people at the rallies are jaw dropping. Some of the insanity that comes from these people defy all logic. Another fascinating moment of the doc was his interview and time spent with the Spencer family, who were big Trump supporters and Q-believers, in particular the young kids of the family. Then, at the film’s end when Q’s dates passed without anything happening, the disappointment and realization of this family that Q was not what they thought was an amazing punctuation on the film.
Callaghan’s confrontation near the end of the film of “The Inglorious Patriot” Dave Todeschini was epic. Todeschini spent all of his times talking about his personal battle against the pedophiles of the world, how Hollywood would drink the blood of babies, only to have Callaghan point out to him that in 1999, Todeschini had been arrest and convicted on sexual abuse charges of young boy.
While This Place Rules is not a laugh out loud film, the humor comes in the shocking realization of what some people really think and what they are willing to say or do.
Today, I carved out most of the afternoon, dedicating the time to reading a giant graphic novel that I picked up last week at Comic World and had not gotten around to yet.
Criminal: The Deluxe Edition Volume One from Image Comics arrived at the shop last week and I thought it was interesting. I have been reading more independent books over the last year or so, especially from Image, so this looked like a collected series that I wanted to try out.
I have also enjoyed the work of Ed Brubaker, in particular his work on Captain America and Daredevil. My rule on independent books to to look to the writer and, if the writer is someone I enjoy, I’ll give it a chance. Marvel and DC are more about the character and the independents are more about writer (and to a lesser extent artist).
However, Criminal: The Deluxe Edition Volume One was an intimidating book. Four hundred and fifty-two pages of content. That is a significant time commitment. I still have that graphic novel, Monsters by Barry Windsor-Smith, that looks like a textbook which I haven’t gotten around to reading yet (maybe this summer…?).
As I said, I left time available this Tuesday afternoon after I spent the morning with the June Swoon 2 and The Daily Zone and I started in on Criminal. I was happy I did.
I will admit I had some trouble getting into it at first, but you could say that about any brand new story that you start. It did not take too long before I was engaged and reading closely on the crime story that was being unraveled before my eyes. I loved the characters and was hoping that things would work out. Things were happening that I did not expect. When the first part of the book, “Coward” was over, I was thrilled.
Then I thought this was going to be an anthology book because of the way the first arc ended. I was wrong though. Instead, the next story arc, “Lawless” took characters involved in that first story and looked at them from a different POV and a different time frame. I loved how they were able to interweave the different stories focusing on different characters who may not have been the focus of the original story.
The third arc was called “The Dead and the Dying.” It actually had the focus on three different characters around the same story which was a real novel way to present the story.
This book was awesome, filled with violence, sex and questionable choices. The characters were very well developed and three dimensional. Their arcs were well defined and you see how things blended together. It was worth the commitment required to read the book.
Other books this post…
Year Zero Volume 0 #2. Written by Daniel Kraus and art by Goran Sudžuka. Kaare Andrews provided the cover art. Year Zero continues to have multiple stories going on that all are interesting in this new troublesome world. I loved the last page which indicates a Bigfoot/zombie connection.
Sleeping Beauties #9. I skipped number eight. Oops. Oddly enough, I did not notice until just now. That does not speak well for this series. I think I may be done with this one.
Strayed #2. Written by Carlos Giffoni and drawn by Juan Doe. I was a few pages into number two and this is another book that I have decided to stop reading. I got this series in a Christmas pack at Comic World a few years back but I just was not enjoying the book.
Warlock Rebirth #2. “Mindscape” Written by Ron Marz and drawn by Ron Lim. Eve Warlock is here and she is ready to kick some butt. Meanwhile, Adam Warlock is having some issues and Gamora, Pip the Troll and Genis-Vell went to see Dr. Strange.
Money Shot: Comes Again #2. Written by Tim Seeley and drawn by Gisele Lagace. Not sure what this book is about. Lots of sex scenes with weird robots in this issue. The cover… boobies and nipples!
Damn Them All #3. Written by Simon Spurrier and illustrated by Charlie Adlard. Mr. Wax, who has one of the possessed coins in his pocket, found that his wife would pay the price. Elle Hawthorne are getting into the mix and meets up with Theo Bolster of the 500 Club, another iffy character. Things are bolstering in this series. I am having some issues with knowing who is who among these characters, but I am still engaged enough to decipher it.
One wonders if the creators of Jim Carrey’s movie Liar Liar was inspired by this episode.
“This, as the banner already has proclaimed, is Mr. Harvey Hunnicut, an expert on commerce and con jobs, a brash, bright, and larceny-loaded wheeler and dealer who, when the good Lord passed out a conscience, must have gone for a beer and missed out. And these are a couple of other characters in our story: a little old man and a Model A car – but not just any old man and not just any Model A. There’s something very special about the both of them. As a matter of fact, in just a few moments, they’ll give Harvey Hunnicut something that he’s never experienced before. Through the good offices of a little magic, they will unload on Mr. Hunnicut the absolute necessity to tell the truth. Exactly where they come from is conjecture, but as to where they’re heading for, this we know, because all of them – and you – are on the threshold of the Twilight Zone.“
When Harvey Hunnicut bought the Model A car from the little old man, it seemed as if Hunnicut was ripping the man off. Oh how the tables turned.
As the little old man left the car salesman, he informed him that the car was haunted and that he would be haunted until he sold the car.
Little did Hunnicut know that it meant that he would be unable to tell a lie.
A used car salesman unable to lie? How could he sell anything? Especially when he had a lot full of lemons and clunkers. Hunnicut found that the truth was not a friend to him.
Overall, this episode was fairly light and, truthfully, kind of dull. He faced some initial consequences for his lies, especially form the wife on the phone, but he was able to get it sold without too much difficulty, passing the curse along to another person.
This lacked much of the Twilight zone’s usual oomph. The episode was not great.
“The Invaders”
And we went from a weak episode to one of the best of the series. The Invaders was totally original and featured a fantastic performance from Agnes Morehead (who would become Endora on Bewitched).
The dialogue of the episode was almost completely absent. It started off with the typical opening narration:
“This is one of the out-of-the-way places, the unvisited places, bleak, wasted, dying. This is a farmhouse, handmade, crude, a house without electricity or gas, a house untouched by progress. This is the woman who lives in the house, a woman who’s been alone for many years, a strong, simple woman whose only problem up until this moment has been that of acquiring enough food to eat, a woman about to face terror, which is even now coming at her from – the Twilight Zone.“
An isolated woman and a spaceship arriving in her home. However, the spaceship had miniature invaders-what appeared as robots, inside. The woman battled against the invaders, trying to protect herself and her home.
The old woman searched throughout her house, ending up capturing one of the invaders in a blanket, and beating it into unconsciousness. She then tossed it into the fire in the fireplace.
During this entire episode, we only hear the grunt and the screams of the woman. Never does she talk to the invaders or talk to herself during the horrifying time. It creates a great deal of tension and anxiety. The music from Jerry Goldsmith amplifies the atmosphere.
When she returned to the roof where the spaceship is located, she hears a message from the invaders back to their home planet saying to abandon this mission, do not strike a counterattack. There is a race of giant creatures here. The woman finishes off the ship and we see that it is from the US Air Force. The invaders were humans in suits, not miniature robots.
“These are the invaders, the tiny beings from the tiny place called Earth, who would take the giant step across the sky to the question marks that sparkle and beckon from the vastness of the universe only to be imagined. The invaders…who found out that a one-way ticket to the stars beyond has the ultimate price tag…and we have just seen it entered in a ledger that covers all the transactions in the universe…a bill stamped “Paid in Full” and to be found unfiled in the Twilight Zone”
This was an awesome ending to a tense and nerve-wracking episode. Agnes Morehead does an amazing job acting without any dialogue. She created a ton of sympathy for the old woman when you thought she was trying to save herself from some alien robots.
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 