From S1 E1, E2

“Long Day’s Journey Into Night”

“The Way Things Are Now”

I have a soft spot for mysterious small town/location with some kind of enigmatic strangeness. Twin Peaks, Eerie, Indiana, LOST, Picket Fences, Widow’s Bay… and now you can add one more to the list.

From.

I have heard about this show for quite awhile now. It starred Harold Perrineau, who was, of course, on LOST as Michael Dawson, and the show had that eerie, weird feel immediately.

In these premiere two episodes, we get introduced to the fact that no one can be out past dark because of some kind of creatures that are all kinds of bad news. The little girl in the cold open of episode one paid the price for opening that window. A bloody, bloody price.

Lots of mysterious rules that we are told and see in action right off the bat. Not very many answers. Just how I like it.

Harold Perrineau is Sheriff Boyd Stevens and he has been clearly going through this for some time now. We see him trying to help people immediately.

There is a family driving into the town in their RV, after being redirected by a tree that was blocking the road. Apparently, once you are in this area, you do not leave. Again, reminded me of LOST with the people who could never leave the island.

The family is involved in a wreck with their RV, putting them all in danger. Little boy gets impaled in the leg by a table leg. That means he can’t be moved and darkness was coming.

There is a loaded cast and it will take some time for me to be able to identify which character is which. However, the show did a good job of showing me Boyd, his son Ellis, the Matthews family, and Donna. Donna’s story about her sister was tragic. The rest of the group will be people I am sure I will get to know over the next four seasons.

From is now on Netflix, while it is also on MGM + on Prime.

Harpoon (2019)

October 23

#11 out of 13

The next film in the October 13 was a film that I had not heard about before, but found on Amazon Prime. It blended the horrors of a survival/revenge flick with the comedy of a dark nature. It worked extremely well.

According to IMDB, “Rivalries, dark secrets, and sexual tension emerge when three best friends find themselves stranded on a yacht in the middle of the ocean desperate for survival.”

This really mixed the two styles well, which is not an easy task. There have been so many horror/dark comedy amalgams over the years that simply failed to achieve the proper tone/balance. Harpoon hit a nice level between the two.

The best part of the comedy was the narrator, voiced by Brett Gelman (from Stranger Things and Fleabag) whose wry lines were the perfect soundtrack to the absurdity going on with these three friends.

The three actors who portrayed the central protagonists do a great job too. Munro Chambers played Jonah, Chris Gray played Richard and Emily Tyra played Sasha. They had a strong chemistry with each other and their emotions bounced around as we got to learn more about the trio.

Most of the film takes place aboard the stranded yacht and it created a real sense of isolation for each of the three. The use of Edgar Allan Poe’s only complete novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, as a plot point.

There are a bunch of scenes that were difficult to watch. Some that were painfully bloody or stomach wrenching. They fit well within the story unraveling on the screen.

I was not sure this was going to be for me after the very beginning of the film, but it rapidly became one that I was invested in and I really did enjoy watching it. The ending was satisfying too.

Two more movies to go in The October 13.

American Horror Story 13 S13 E7, E8, E9, E10

“The Baddest Witch of Them All”

“Hell No”

“The Devil Is in the Details”

“The Prodigal Son”

I caught back up with American Horror Story’s 13th season after missing a few weeks. I watched episodes 7-10 of the big crossover season.

These four episodes featured the witches from AHS: Coven heavily, specifically in the first two of these four episodes. We also get back to Ben, and we learn what his deal is and why he has that tattoo 616 on his back.

I did love seeing the Nightstalker, Dahmer and Zodiac make appearances only to get their asses handed to them.

I have to say that the first six episodes of this season were fun, but I was not very invested in them. I think a big reason was that there were a lot of Easter eggs with characters showing up from seasons that I did not watch or did not remember. For every Twisty or Rubber Man, there were two or three characters that I did not know.

However, with the focus on the Coven witches, even though that was not my most favorite season, I was able to focus in on what the story was going to be, and these last four episodes had me bought in.

We find out the truth behind Mr. Nas and his purpose. A bet between God and Satan? How very Chris DeBurgh of the show. Constance discovering the shocking truth behind her own parentage, which was a big time cock block as well.

Then, the end of episode ten, with Ben, who just learned of his own position as son of Satan and Satan’s potential right hand man on earth, heads to Miss Robichaux’s Academy to confront the Coven who is beginning their search for him.

These episodes felt very much more concise, more planned and we more than just a bunch of member-berries. These have me much more excited for American Horror Story than I was before, as it was clear that the last AHS episode I watched was Oct. 4. It won’t be two weeks until I watch episode 11, for sure.

Whalefall

The new thriller with a credibility-stretching premise came out this weekend. Whalefall sees our main character getting swallowed by a sperm whale.

According to IMDB, “Follows a scuba diver who, while looking for his father’s remains, is swallowed by an 80-foot, 60-ton sperm whale and has just one hour to get out before his oxygen runs out.”

Austin Abrams starred as Jay Gardiner, the kid who winds up inside the whale. Josh Brolin played his father, Mitt Gardiner. I think that Austin Abrams does a great job, and he is having a big year after starring in the new Resident Evil film. I think he is a star in the making.

Now, the whale in the room is this… you absolutely need to suspend your disbelief in order to accept this premise. The idea that someone could be swallowed by a whale and attempt to survive is just ridiculous and implausible. If you can get past that, the scenes where Abrams is swallowed by the whale (thanks a lot squid) and trying to survive inside the whale are compelling, stressful and engaging as hell. I was fully tense the entire time Jay was inside the whale.

The film used flashbacks to give more details to the relationship between Jay and Mitt. Most of these flashbacks were okay, even if the ones that they showed were kind of heavy-handed. All of the flashbacks played a role in the situation Jay was in. The flashbacks were nowhere near as captivating as the scenes inside the whale. Josh Brolin was fine, if not good, as Mitt, but the character itself was fairly stereotypical.

The first two acts of Whalefall were tremendous and created such a suspenseful tone that it was feeling as if it was going to be one of the best movies of the year. Sadly, the third act was nowhere near as strong and, while still not keeping me from enjoying the film overall, it did bring my opinion of the film down. No spoilers of course, but I just did not think the ending reached the high levels of the first two acts.

The effects inside the whale were absolutely spectacular. They created such a feeling of claustrophobia and tension that the scenes were hard to watch at times. I was always waiting for the next thing to drop to cause trouble for Jay. The sound mix was perhaps Oscar level as the sounds inside the whale and the lead up to Jay being inside was just amazing.

One area that was a problem was the fact that Jay had to keep a mouthpiece in his mouth the whole time he was in the whale because of the toxic air in the whale’s stomach, and that led to Austin Abrams having to mumble a lot of the lines he had. It was difficult to understand what he was saying through much of the movie. So much so that perhaps they should have given an ADR for Abrams so he could be heard. It may have been used to give some realism to a series of scenes that had little to no realism about them. Maybe they could have placed words on the screen so the audience could know what Jay was saying.

I enjoyed this movie for most of the runtime, though it did slip from my initial thoughts of it challenging for the top 10 of the year to a point where it is a movie that I would recommend and liked, but not loved.

3.8 stars

Street Fighter (2026)

I did not think that the trailer to this new version of the video game, Street Fighter, was very good. In fact, I thought it looked bad. However, I knew that WWE Superstars Cody Rhodes and Joe ‘Roman Reigns’ Anoai appeared as characters, and so, even with Cody displaying the ridiculous hairdo of Guile, I wanted to see the film.

After watching the new Street Fighter, I confirm that the trailer was an accurate description of the film. This really did suck.

According to IMDB, “Street Fighters Ryu and Ken reunite when Chun-Li recruits them for the World Warrior Tournament. As they face a hidden conspiracy, they must confront each other and their past-or face destruction.“

Ken was played by DC Movie Black Adam’s Atom Smasher himself, Noah Centineo and Ryo was played by GI Joe’s Stormshadow, Andrew Koji. I am sorry to say that neither of these actors were good in this movie. Ken was especially difficult to watch because the character was meant to be stupid. He sure was that, so maybe Centineo does a better job of it than I expected.

Oddly enough, I thought Cody Rhodes was the most entertaining aspect of this movie, as Guile and his incompetent, smart-aleck quips. I even got use to the ridiculous hairdo. Unfortunately, Roman did not get much of a character in the film. But he did look great. I acknowledge that.

The story of Street Fighter is so dumb that it takes away from anything positive that the film may have. I found it boring for a good chunk of the film and I could not close my mind off enough to enjoy it. Things happened off screen that seemed to be important to the overall film.

I do like David Dastmalchian, who is always a great choice for a villain, even if M. Bison is a one-note villain. Jason Momoa was in this too, but I spent most of his time on screen trying to figure out if that was Roman Reigns playing the role.

The film looked decent. I liked the color and the design of most of the film. The music was filled with needledrops that were really on the nose.

The ending was left open for a sequel that, I can imagine, that if you were enjoying the movie, you would have been upset at the lack of a satisfying conclusion. I had long since given up on enjoying the movie so the crappy ending did not bother me any more.

The film was too long. It was too dumb. It was not a fun kind of dumb. It was more the stupid kind of dumb. This could have had a role as a satire/parody, but it was supposed to be too serious.

I did like the animated sections they used to fill in the exposition. They should have done more with that. Any time they went back to the live action, this movie suffered.

This was much worse that the Mortal Kombat film from earlier this year. Thank goodness for Cody Rhodes.

1.5 stars

Other Mommy

It has been a great year for horror. I spoke about it in a review just a few weeks ago after watching Resident Evil.

Then came Other Mommy.

They can’t all be winners.

Other Mommy was a huge disappointment because the initial trailer for this movie was so good. How could a trailer be so intense, creepy and disturbing while the movie it is from is dull, stupid and downright pathetic.

According to IMDB, “Bela, an 8-year-old girl living in a home with marital problems, confronts a sinister entity which comes out of her closet. The presence, whom she calls “Other Mommy,” becomes increasingly threatening to her and her family.”

Jessica Chastain committed to the role, but I was underwhelmed by the performance. It was funny at times, and that is not what the film wanted.

I will say that the young debuting actor Arabella Olivia Clark as Bela did a good job. She handled a lot of the heavy lifting in the story as she had most of the story on her shoulders.

The problem is the story itself was lacking in too many ways. There is no specific plot involved. What is Other Mommy’s motive? Not really sure. There are moments when the tone of the film is all over the place. It felt like they tried to infuse some humor into the story that just never worked and only served to pull me out of the film.

The biggest problem of Other Mommy is that, outside of the great jump scare that they showed in the trailer, this movie was just not scary. It was nowhere near as creepy or intense for almost the entire run time of the film. The trailer made me think this would be a tense and anxious film. Nope. I actually laughed at several of the scenes that were supposed to be scary.

I thought the acting was fine, but there are just too many problems with the film to add to the list of great 2026 horror films.

1.2 stars

Resident Evil (2002)

October 2

#1 of 13

The first film of The October 13 this year is the first film of a franchise based on a video game from 2002. The video game? Resident Evil.

I had kind of wanted to watch this before I went to the rebooted Resident Evil from Zach Cregger, but it was out in September and I did not want to wait. I really enjoyed that movie starring Austin Abrams. Unfortunately, the original film, starring Milla Jovovich and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, was nowhere a good as the 2026 film.

This was tremendously bad. The acting was just atrocious. Milla Jovovich, who starred in one of my favorite movies The Fifth Element as Leelo, was just going through the motions, and sadly, she was the best actor of the crew.

There was LOST’s own Michelle Rodriguez, but she was just not bringing the goods. The rest of the cast was as wooden as one could be.

There were some moments that made me laugh loudly, even though they were not intended to. One example was when Milla made an acrobatic kick after bouncing off the wall, into the face of a monster dog. It was so ridiculous that it was embarrassing even for a video game.

The film did not look good. It was 2002, but it still lacked what I would have hoped for from the day. It was predictable and, while at the time it might have been more than just another zombie flick, since I am watching this is 2026, this is just another zombie flick.

Milla Jovovich is gorgeous and definitely stands out among the images of the violence and the gore, but there just is nothing else here. I am so happy the new film took a different direction, because it was heads and shoulders above this mess.

The October 13 is not starting off strong.

Unabomber

I have always had a fascination with serial killers, and I remember when the chase for the Unabomber was going down in the 1990s and the capture and arrest of the Unabomber, Theodore “Ted” Kaczynski. When I saw the new film on Netflix entitled Unabomber, I put it on my queue. I saw some big named actors involved, including Russell Crowe, Jacob Trembley and Shailene Woodley. I was surprised to find out that it was Jacob Trembley who was playing Ted Kaczynski.

The film was told in two time periods. Jacob Trembley was playing Ted during his time as a 16-year old Harvard student and his involvement in a debate club led by Russell Crowe’s Professor Henry Murray. The second time period is the time period of the Unabomber Manifesto and the subsequent capture of Kaczynski, led by FBI Agent Joanne Miller, played by Shailene Woodley.

I thought that the casting of Trembley was Kaczynski was odd, but Trembley did a solid job in the role. His interactions with Russell Crowe were strong and both of their performances elevated the material.

Sadly, the basic idea of the film felt fairly low level and lacking some of the key components of the character. The psychological aspect of the film was questionable, and it even went as far as to imply that Crowe’s Murray helped turn Kaczynski into what he would become. I am not sure the writing of the film was to the level it needed to be, despite a couple of actors bringing the work to a higher level.

The present day storyline felt fairly typical of the true crime genre, without a ton of depth. Shailene Woodley was decent, but there just was nothing more to add to the story that hadn’t been covered before. The final scene of the capture of Kaczynski had some tension to it, but it was filmed straight up and simple when it could have had more layers.

There just was not much to the overall story, and that is a shame as the Unabomber was one of the 20th centuries biggest criminal cases.

2.8 stars

American Horror Story 13 S13 E1-3

“13”

“1:13 AM”

“Rauhnacht”

I was shocked to see that the latest season of American Horror Story debuted this week. I was also surprised to see that they dropped three episodes on the opening night. I thought to myself that I did not have the time to fit three episodes into my schedule for the night, so I started the first one to see how much I could see.

Episode one ended suddenly after only about 33 minutes. The second episode was around 31 minutes and then episode three was the shortest of the three at 22 minutes. I was able to see all three in a short space of time.

Wild.

The show was weird as could be. There were characters that were from previous seasons that I recognized, such as Constance from season one, the Coven from season three and Rubber Man, also from season one.

Since I have not watched all of the seasons of AHS, I was not sure how many were returning characters and which were new. I discovered that the entry point to the season was Ben (Joey Pollari), a hospice and palliative care worker who suffers from triskaidekaphobia. Trying to overcome his fear, Ben went on an ill-fated plane trip with his girlfriend for her birthday. The plane crash killed her in the cold open. We then see Ben taking a hospice job at a residential building called The Apollyon in New York City. This is where the characters from previous season can be found.

Ben was hired by Constance to take care of the mysterious Mr. Nas. There are a ton of weird things going on with this man, including his vomiting black substances, what looked like a tail, and possible horns. Devil, anyone?

Tate Langston is alive and living in the building along with Kai Anderson, the cult leader from season seven (Cult). Both are played by Evan Peters. Twisty the Clown showed up about midway through episode 2 and brutally killed 13 people.

The number 13 is significant this season.

Black Dahlia, Elizabeth Short also returned from Murder House and Apocalypse (season 8). Sarah Paulson is all over the place too, back as both Apocalypse’s Wilhemina Venable and Coven’s Cordelia Goode.

There is a portal to Hell beneath the Apollyon. This is where Wilhemina is hanging out.

This has been wild so far, and I do like how things are coming together, though I wonder if my lack of knowledge over the AHS seasons will hurt the experience of the show.

Resident Evil (2026)

The Resident Evil franchise is one that I have only ever saw one film prior to this new version from director Zach Cregger. I saw the Resident Evil: The Final Chapter which I soundly hated. I do have the first film of the franchise schedule to be among the October the 13th-watch films this year. However, I went into this new Resident Evil film with a very hopeful attitude. I have found Zach Cregger’s recent films, Weapons and Barbarian to have been exceptional horror/thriller films and I had heard a lot of positive word of mouth. Still, I was not totally convinced of the quality this film would be.

After seeing the film, I am ready to declare that 2026 is truly the year of the horror film. Not only did we get Obsession, Backrooms, Buddy, Exit 8, Send Help, The End of Oak Street, 28 Years Later: The Bone Temple, Deep Water, Hokum, Leviticus, and still have sever such as Clayface, The Other Mommy, Werwulf, and Godzilla Minus Zero still to come, but the new Resident Evil film was a fabulous film.

Bryan (Austin Abrams) was a hapless courier who was enlisted to take a medical package to the hospital in Raccoon City. As he made his way through the snowy conditions, Bryan encountered some monstrous creatures trying to kill him.

The number one thing that made this movie so awesome was the performance of Austin Abrams as our protagonist. Abrams had appeared in the HBO show Euphoria as well as Weapons and Wolfs before this role, and he showed that he was a charming, wonderful lead for the film. He delivered every line with such a flair that you could not help but cheer for the guy.

Again, with much thanks to Abrams, this film was just unexpectedly funny. I did not expect to laugh as much as I did in Resident Evil, and laughing when the film wanted me to laugh. I credit Austin Abrams’ work in the film for a large part of why it was so funny.

There were moments of the movie that were extremely tense too. The jump scares were kept to a minimum and were remarkably successful when they did show up. The tension was created from the situation and by placing Bryan into circumstances that the audience responded to effectively.

Without spoiling, the ending of Resident Evil (2026) did leave me a little dissatisfied overall, but it was not a deal breaker as some films have been. This third act resolution is not unwatchable by any means. I just wanted a different result.

I never played the video game that this franchise was based upon, so I do not know how the hardcore Resident Evil fans would take it, but I know I was never confused by what was on the screen. Could there be some Easter eggs that I did not realize? Sure, possibly, but I absolutely feel as if previous viewing was unnecessary to enjoy this movie.

This was a scary, funny, hoot of a good time movie with a lead actor who I think is going to be a superstar soon.

4.4 stars

Hope

My friend Chris asked me if I was going to see Hope this weekend. I had no idea what it was. He sent me a link, which introduced me to this Korean action/sci-fi/monster movie. I also heard some chatter about how wild this movie was, so when I saw the film available at Cinemark, it moved up my list.

Wild is not the appropriate descriptor for the film.

According to IMDB, “A mysterious discovery is made on the outskirts of the remote harbor town. The residents find themselves in a desperate fight for survival against something they have never encountered before.“

The movie starts off with the Chief of Police (Hwang Jung-min) getting called by his cousin Ko Sung-ki (Zo In-sung) to investigate a dead cow on the road that had gaping claw wounds on its body. This led to a pursuit of some kind of monster that is rampaging through the heart of the small town.

Another character that I enjoyed a great deal in this movie was Im Sung-ae, who was played by Jung Ho-yeon- one of the stars of the first season of Squid Game.

The first act of this movie is basically the monster and Chief going through the city and it was tremendous. There were so many epic action moments that were amazingly shot. Some of the CGI was a touch shaky, but there were also some awesome CGI as well. There were no moments of bad CGI that took me out of the movie.

There was a switch along the line when we discover something unexpected and it changes the perspective. It is still some greatness, as there are a ton of great action chases and exciting, thrill ride scenes.

There were some extremely funny scenes too. Especially some of the dialogue of the film was hilarious and my entire theater was laughing at it.

Hope, though I am not sure where that name comes from, is so great for most of this movie that the long run time of over two and a half hours did not feel that way for me. I really was considering this being the second 5 star review of the day.

However, without spoiling anything, the ending of this movie dropped a gigantic HUH??? on the audience and came from out of nowhere. I was totally confused at the end of the film, and it hurt a film that I thought was superb so far. It felt like the film was incomplete. It does sound like they are working on the sequel.

As with any foreign language film, I forgot the fact that I was reading the English dub on the screen as the film progressed. It just becomes part of the experience. I prefer reading the subtitles over having English actors dub the words because the performances always seem to suffer in that way. The tone of voices is as important as the words that they are saying.

This was a lot of fun even though the ending dinged it. It is a bat-shit crazy film that flipped the script a couple of times and kept me tense and anxious the whole time.

4.5 stars

Buddy

I have been trying to get to the movie, Buddy, for the last two weeks, but it just was not working out. So when I went to schedule this week’s movies, Buddy was the priority.

Man, am I glad I made this a priority. I loved this movie.

Buddy reminded me of the late WWE superstar Brey Wyatt, who had a stretch where he was playing a demented children’s host, much like Mr. Rogers. Instead of Mr. Rogers, this is a demented Barney.

Buddy is an orange unicorn who hangs out with a bunch of little kids who sing to Buddy and tell him how much they love him, but it turned out that there was something much more sinister than you expect.

The film started off showing what seemed like an episode of “It’s Buddy” and the first one felt fun. However, it definitely took a turn soon after. Everything looked like it was one of those cheap ’90s kiddies show, but that was what the creators of the film wanted it to look like.

I just thought this was so great as the kids slowly learned about Buddy’s true nature, and i found myself really cheering for these kids. Wade was my favorite one (played by Caleb Williams), and the kid seemed like her was absolutely in a Barney episode. I think that was intentional. Another of the lead kids were Freddy (Delany Quinn) and she did a great job as the overall protagonist.

After a point in the film, the story left the “It’s Buddy” set in the middle and we were in the real world. It was discombobulating at first, but the craziness of these scene, plus the awesome Cristin Milioti and Topher Grace were involved in the story. I was so into this movie that I was trying to guess what was going down during this time and I found myself yelling at Topher Grace for his character.

There are some legitimately horrifying moments in the film with some awesome gore. It was such an entertaining film that I was completely invested in. I was alone in the theater, which allowed me to be as expressive as I could be, and I loved what happened.

There were some real funny moments in the film too… in a really dark comedic manner. It is one of the most creative films of 2026. I loved Buddy and it is another odd film that I absolutely enjoyed completely.

5 stars

The Runner

Amazon Prime has had some big “winners” from their original films. Anyone who saw War of the World a couple of years ago knows to what I refer.

I did know that the latest Gal Gadot movie, The Runner, was being dropped on Amazon Prime. I saw that it was available to see free and I could not believe it.

I can see now why it was available free.

No one would pay for this movie. What in the heck was this?

First, Gal Gadot played Maia, a high-powered lawyer, whose son was kidnapped and the kidnapper blackmails Maia. The kidnapper (played by Damian Lewis) put her son into a diabetic coma and threatened to give him another dose that would kill him. He gives the boy an IV with a drip so there is a counting clock on Maia.

He wanted her to go and shoot her key witness who is going to testify against some mob boss. Then he had her run across London in order to get to kill the guy. It is like Die Hard With a Vengeance meets Speed, but way stupider than either one.

Gal Gadot is just not a good actress. She absolutely peaked with the first Wonder Woman. There were some unbelievably horrendous scenes with her performances. There is one moment where a train was going past her that was some of the worst acting I have ever seen. It was Tommy Wiseau level acting.

The situation is as stupid as it could be. How did this guy get his hands on the kid? Maia dropped him off at school. He wanted his mom to walk him into the school, but she ignored him. It was just a few scenes later when Lewis had the kid in a room and had him in the coma. There is just no way this set up worked in any fashion. Suspension of disbelieve is one thing, but this is just not possible.

The entire film makes zero sense. There is a moment where Maia runs down a subway train. I wish I was kidding.

The one positive of the film is that I did not see any Amazon Prime product placement, which is something they must have learned from War of the Worlds. Now… Nike shoes is a different thing.

The editing of the movie is just terrible. It is so noticeable that it is so obnoxious that I can’t even explain it.

It is only a 85 minute film, but it really felt like it was double that.

It is truly one of the worst movies of the year. Way to go, Amazon. You’ve got another winner.

0.5 stars

Boston Legal S2 E6, E7

Spoilers

“Witches of Mass Destruction”

“Truly, Madly, Deeply”

Two Boston Legal episodes, one that I thought was a typically strong one, and one that I found ridiculous.

“Witches of Mass Destruction” had two main story arcs. One was about the death of a young man in the military whose sister brought a case against the government that during recruitment, the recruiters committed fraud by what the told him. Alan stepped up to take the case despite Denny’s objections and direct orders to drop it. The other arc on this episode was a Christian couple and a Wiccan couple joining forces to sue to stop a Halloween pageant at a public school. This tale, though bizarre, at the heart is about religious freedom and schools keeping religion out. Both of these stories were solid and the military one in particular was extremely emotional.

“Truly, Madly, Deeply,” on the other hand, had two silly arcs and one of Denny Crane. Alan and Brad defended a station manager who fired their clown who was talking about global warming on air. The thing is, the man was attending the court in his clown makeup and Alan was afraid of clowns. It made Alan look bad as he could not do cross or even look in the clown’s direction. The second arc featured Michael McKeon, who I love as an actor, trying to prevent his wife from getting an annulment on grounds that he had sex with a cow. If one of these to stories had been opposed by something more solid, I don’t think that I would have felt as… icky. Then, Denny Crane decided to shoot his client that he had been assigned to defend by the judge in the knees. The client was a child rapist and murderer and Denny did not want to defend him. He tried many other tricks to get off the case and then he ended up shooting him, claiming to be defending himself.

To be fair, all three of these storylines had positive resolutions, but by that time, I had checked out on them.

To me, the second of these episodes only served to make some of the lawyers at Crane, Poole & Schmidt look foolish, in particular Alan and Shirley (who couldn’t defend the cow lover). Denny always looked that way so it was no big deal for his character.

Oh, and the first episode was the one where Denny and Alan famously dressed as flamingos for their firm’s Halloween party (which is an image on the banner above the post).

Boston Legal has shown the ability to go from deadly serious to over-the-top absurdity in a blink of an eye. Episode seven just did not work for me.

Fall 2: Deadpoint

I was excited for this movie. Honestly, I did not immediately recognize the original film from the title of the sequel, because the title Fall was so generic. However, once I refreshed my memory, I remembered how tense and thrilling that first film was and how it had a really great twist. I was excited to hear that it was getting a sequel.

After seeing Fall 2: Deadpoint, I’m at a mid level for it. There were moments where the film was tense and filled me with anxiety, but, unfortunately, there seemed to be more moments that were just so stupid and that they tried to force a twist in the movie at the end that really did not work for me.

According to IMDB, “Grieving her sister Shiloh’s death, Jax Hunter bonds with Shiloh’s bold friend Luce. Together they tackle dangerous Mount Kwan in Thailand. When a rockslide traps them on a narrow plank 4,000 feet up, Jax must face her fears to survive.”

I did like how they tied this movie to the original, by giving Shiloh (played by Virginia Gardner) a younger sister. This is part of the plot that worked as her sister Jax had to deal with her grief and her own fear.

I did like the new setting for the situation the girls found themselves in and there were some really tense and scary moments. If the film would have been happy just to build suspense in that manner, this would have been an acceptable film and a decent sequel. Unfortunately, you could tell that they were trying to one up the surprise twist of Fall, and that was where this film fell flat.

Because the fact is that the third act of this film was easily my least favorite part of this film. It felt added on that damaged the film dramatically.

Some of the images shot for the film was fine, but nowhere near as well done in the first movie. It felt like there were more shots that were obviously green screen compared to the first one.

This film has its positives, but the stupid stuff really hurt this movie for me. I didn’t hate watching Fall 2: Deadpoint, but there were enough issues with the film that made me disappointed.

2.7 stars