Tag Archives: news

Twister

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I wanted to do a rewatch of the 1996 film Twister starring Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton since there is the movie Twisters, which I do not know if it is a sequel, reboot or continuation, coming out this summer. I rented it on Amazon Prime tonight and gave it a rewatch.

I was not a fan of Twister the first time I watched it back in the 90s. I did not see it in a theater so it must have been a rental. I remember thinking it was pretty dumb.

I do not think my opinion of the film changed much after watching it in 2024.

According to IMDB, “TV weatherman Bill Harding (Bill Paxton) is trying to get his tornado-hunter wife, Jo (Helen Hunt), to sign divorce papers so he can marry his girlfriend Melissa (Jami Gertz). But Mother Nature, in the form of a series of intense storms sweeping across Oklahoma, has other plans. Soon the three have joined the team of stormchasers as they attempt to insert a revolutionary measuring device into the very heart of several extremely violent tornados.“

One of my biggest problems was the lack of any real characters. There was near zero development among any of the characters. A slight attempt was made to give Jo a background with a childhood trauma, but it was barely touched upon in the movie and the few times that it felt like it was handled, it was tossed in with little to no explanation.

The rest of the cast was just people to read the doppler and yell “Yahoo” as the tornados whipped.

Admittedly, the special effects looked pretty good for the mid-90s, although the flying cow was unintentionally funny. However, watching Bill and Jo running through the fields towards a barn with all kinds of things flying past them made me wonder why the tornado was unable to pick them up as it was pulling fences out of the ground.

The story is basically going between different tornados and trying to release this new device and failing. There is not much, if any, real human conflict. They gave them a rival tornado chaser, played by Westley himself, Cary Elwes, but that character was as one-dimensional as you could get.

I did not recognize the late, great Phillip Seymour Hoffman in his role as Dusty, the oddball who yells a lot. Alan Ruck from Ferris Buhler’s Day Off and Jeremy Davies, who would play Faraday on LOST, were here too in unimportant background character roles.

I do like Helen Hunt and Bill Paxton as leads, and their chemistry did make up for the lack of plotline between the couple. I did feel bad for the fiancé Melissa because you could tell that she never stood a chance. I did like how they wrapped up her story though, with her just realizing the truth and breaking it off like an adult.

Some of the tornado sequences became kind of boring after awhile since there was little else to keep me engaged. The final tornado was better than some of the others, but it was also a big chunk of the time I was rolling my eyes at this movie.

It is a watchable movie, but you have to shut down your brain and just watch the spectacle around it to enjoy it.

The Jinx Part Two S2 E4

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Spoilers

“The Unluckiest Man in the World”

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

Then came Emily Altman.

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

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

I’m not kidding.

This is absolutely nuts.

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

This changed the entire feel of the trial.

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

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

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

Bodkin S1 E1

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Spoilers

“One True Mystery”

“People will listen to it?“

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

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

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

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

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

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

EYG Favorite Comic Cover of the Week

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Week of May 6

It is time again this week for the three medalist for best cover of the week. I must say that I eliminated one possible cover this week because I picked up a variant version of The Creature of the Black Lagoon Lives #1 which I really loved. But since this was actually released a few weeks ago, I decided to not count this one as a comic cover medalist. The original cover (Cover A) did place in the medal round prior so it is not like it comes out empty handed. Call this an honorable mention.

Otherwise, we had several comics in the running this week. There were some really cool covers that did not place in the top three. It was two independent books and one Marvel. And the Marvel cover artist has been a medalist several times already.

Bronze Medalist

Ain’t No Grave #1

Image Comics

Cover art by Jorge Corona

A new Western series written by Skottie Young. The cover has some wonderful Western imagery blended together.

Silver Medalist

Crocodile Black #1

Boom! Studios

Cover art by Andrea Sorrentino

New book from Boom! Studios has a very compelling cover. The guy on the bench with that alligator behind him is cool, but I loved the red highlights down on the ground around the body. Is it blood? Maybe, it looks awesome though.

Gold Medalist

Fantastic Four #20

Marvel Comics

Cover art by Alex Ross

EYG Hall of Famer Alex Ross earns yet another medal this week with the great FF cover that is not only beautifully drawn but tells a fun story with Ben and Johnny. What is going on here? I don’t know, but I am excited to find out and that means the cover does its job well.

The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst S1 E6

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SPOILERS

“What the Hell Did I Do?”

“There it is. You’re caught. You’re right, of course”

“But you can’t imagine.”

“I don’t know what’s in the house.”

“What a disaster.”

“He was right. I was wrong.”

“And the burping. I’m having difficulties with the questions.”

“What the hell did I do? Killed them all, of course.”

This was a tremendously engaging and thrilling docuseries before that unbelievable ending to this episode. Perhaps the idea that this show presented a true crime case and what looked to be a wrap on the case was what was so special. Usually a lot of these true crime docs end up with an ending that does not have the kind of finality that this had. That is part of what made this such a stirring ride.

Watching Andrew Jarecki, holding an ace up his sleeve, trying to get Robert Durst to agree to one more interview to spring it on him, only to have Durst cancel and delay and put off the final meeting, is just sensational. Then when Bob finally agrees to the interview, the prep for the interview with Andrew and the rest was so great. They went all in. It was also exceptional when Andrew commented on how cold this was going to feel to Bob. It was an interesting moment and you could see how the weight of what was going on, and how Andrew actually had some feeling for Durst, stressed Jarecki out.

Then that last moment. The confrontation with Robert and the letter/envelope was rough as Robert tried to get through the interview without giving anything up, but clearly it was building up inside of him because as soon as the interview ended and he used the restroom, Durst starting talking, dropping lines that made it look real badly for him.

He did not come right out and admit to the murders, but he came really close. This is the reason we saw the time in episode three or four where they showed Robert talking with his live mike… all to set up for this very moment.

And it is a glorious reveal. Shocking. A man who has been brilliant in his ability to avoid being sent to jail several times, even after he was shown to have cut up a body and dumped its parts into the water, he basically wrecks himself with his own words.

I have never expected that we would get more episodes to this as it felt done, but I am ready to dive into the next round of episodes in season two.

The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst S1 E5

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“Family Values”

Episode five goes into more of the Durst family drama, including the apparent hard feelings between Robert and his younger brother Doug, who had taken over the running of the family business.

The sibling rivalry part of this docuseries was truly weird. Robert had some real issues with his brother Doug and Doug was avoiding everything to do with his brother, especially the documentary that was being film about him.

But the real meat of this episode was back with the murder of Susan Berman, who was murdered in Los Angeles. Susan had been a huge Robert Durst supporter, but she wound up death, with a bullet in the back of her head, execution-style in her home. There was a timeline laid out that indicated that Robert could have done it. He is placed in California, but not actually in LA. Even Robert said it though, they never placed in in LA and California is a big state. That line from Robert was chilling. He clearly stated this as a way to show what his defense would be if this charge ever became reality.

But then the letter was found that had been sent by Robert to Susan that matched the letter that had been sent to the LA police, that had the same misspelling of Beverly Hills, with an extra E in the word. The handwriting sure looked to match between the two documents. Andrew Jarecki wanted to record the reaction of Robert to this piece of evidence that no one knew they had.

This is what would lead to the bombshell next episode. The insanity of this entire show has been off the charts and this little man is just an amazing character that you find so difficult to believe was real.

The Jinx: The Life and Deaths of Robert Durst S1 E4

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“The State of Texas vs. Robert Durst”

Okay, this is just astounding.

This episode featured the trial of Robert Durst in Galveston, Texas on the murder of Morris Black, Durst’s neighbor while he was hiding out in Galveston, pretending to be a woman.

There are so many unbelievable things that happened during the trial that would lead to his being found “not guilty” that it is difficult to understand how it could happen. The thing is as you are watching this trial unfold, including Durst’s own testimony on the stand, you can see why the jury made this remarkably unpopular verdict, freeing the NYC billionaire in what seemed to be a slam dunk case.

I may have missed this, but why in God’s name did the prosecutors in Galveston not include charges against Durst for cutting up the body, destroying evidence or anything else along with the murder charge? By not charging him with these other offenses, they gave Robert Durst a clever way to get away with what he had done.

The fact was that no one could conceivably say that how the event in the room happened. Was it a murder-execution style or was it an accidental death coming from self-defense? Once Robert explained the decapitation part, in a way that made somewhat of a sense, the jury only could decide whether Robert had committed murder. They could not determine if he had cut up the body and disposed of the evidence. None of that was relevant to this case because there were no charges stemming from that.

That entire jury may have believed that he had killed Morris, but there was no proof that he had done so.

The creators of the docuseries added something at the end of this episode that is foreshadowing the bombshell that would be dropped at the end of the series. Andrew Jarecki had asked Robert if he needed a break and during the break, Durst was practicing what he was going to say, which was being picked up on his hot mike.

Durst said, “I did not knowingly purposefully lie. I did not knowingly purposefully lie. I did not knowingly, purposefully, intentionally lie. I did make mistakes.“

I literally shook from this. Durst is such a chilling, manipulative person and his words both at trial and the interview with Jarecki is what makes this more than just any true crime story.

And by the way, why does nobody ask Durst what happened to the head?

This is amazing. I remember how much this stuck with me after the first watch and it absolutely holds up and a compelling piece of drama.

Fallout S1 E6

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Spoilers

“The Trap”

This show has been very consistently solid every episode, and it has given us enough from the history of the world and the background of these characters, as well as the mystery surrounding the vaults to keep things really interesting.

The main thrust of this week’s episode was two pronged. One, we get to see more with Lucy and Maximus inside the new Vault that they quite literally stumbled into at the hospital at the end of episode five. Then, two, we get to see more about the background and life of the Ghoul, and start to get some idea about what is motivating him all the while continuing to see what a bad ass he is.

Maximus finding the vault-life to be appealing is a funny bit. Having him see all of the things that he had never seen before while living on the surface, such as a hot shower, a record player or oysters, was comedic while serving his character. And Maximus’s response to Lucy’s questioning him to see if he wanted to have sex was truly hilarious. “It gets hard and explodes like a pimple” is an appropriate manner to describe it.

There was some weird stuff happening in this vault too as there were a lot of surface dwellers who had been brought into the vault. We saw them carrying off some kind of cult-like ceremony involving blood. Never a positive sign.

It creeped Lucy out and she is anxious about what is happening in this vault. The episode ends with Lucy getting grabbed by people from the vault while Maximus is just living his best life, with popcorn in his new, white robe.

There was also an epic scene with the Ghoul and some guy he knew from before, who claimed to be president. The Ghoul is just an awesome character.

Fallout continues to be so good that I am looking forward to the final two episodes of the season. Video game adaptations are on a pretty good role.

Fallout S1 E3, E4

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Spoilers

“The Head”

“The Ghouls”

Lots of things happening on the next two episodes of Fallout. I don’t want to recap everything, but, instead, I just want to give some of my thoughts.

I love Lucy. She has shown to be a remarkable survivor, facing off with all kinds of challenges. And who knew the Golden Rule could be used like that? Her coming out party as a bad ass at the end of episode four was excellent.

The Ghoul’s back story looks to be awesome. Seeing more about him by seeing some of the time of his life when he was an actor provided some nice specifics about this character.

Maximus is still my least favorite character in here and his absence in episode four was fine with me. Giving him a squire to play off, specifically the one they give him, should help him to develop more.

The soundtrack has been amazing. I love the variety of the music that they use to tell the story.

Lucy’s brother Norm, is giving me the Maximus from the Inhumans vibes. I don’t know if I am misreading the situation, but I really get some eventual evil from him. Maybe I’m incorrect. There is certainly machinatio0ns going on in the vault.

The idea that they are all trying to find Ben Linus’s head is funny. I guess Maximus currently has the head, but who knows where it goes next.

Lucy saving the Ghoul at the end…where will that lead?

This has been a ton of fun so far. The whole series is available on Amazon Prime.

Fallout S1 E1

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Spoilers

“The End”

I think the TV shows that are based on video games have been doing great recently. There was The Last of Us, and now we have a new video game series on Amazon Prime called Fallout.

I have not played the Fallout video game so I have no predetermined expectations for the corresponding show.

However I do have a love for the actor Kyle MacLachlan, who was Agent Cooper in Twin Peaks. I know that Michael Emerson, who played Ben on LOST, is coming next episode. Love these actors and it gives me an inspiration to watch the show.

The opening scene of the bombs being dropped on LA was devastating and kind of difficult to watch. It reminded me of the dark beginning of The Last of Us, which saw the death of Joel’s daughter Sarah.

We focus in on two main characters for most of the episode: Lucy and Maximus. Then, we end the episode meeting The Ghoul.

Lucy is played by Ella Purnell. Lucy is Kyle MacLachlan’s Hank’s daughter. Maximus is played by Aaron Clifton Moten. The Ghoul is played by the exquisite Walter Goggins.

Hank is taken from the bomb shelter by people from the surface world. This sends Lucy after him. I would expect her to come into contact with our other protagonists. Her story, for me, was more compelling than Maximus’s so the show does have some work to do for me to engage with his character. The Ghoul is just a cool cowboy and I want more from him.

All eight episodes have dropped on Amazon Prime and I will be working to watch the rest of these over the next few weeks. I do not expect a binge as the episodes are all around (or surpassing) the hour runtime.

Bray Wyatt: Becoming Immortal

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The WWE has always done exceptional documentaries. The new doc about the late great Windham Rotunda, better known to the world as Bray Wyatt, is about as exceptional as it comes.

Windham Rotunda shockingly passed away in 2023, something that no one expected or saw coming and it left a massive hole in the world of WWE. This documentary gives the story of Windham Rotunda from his early days to his final days inside the squared circle.

Narrated by the Undertaker, Becoming Immortal did not just focus on the positive moments of Windham’s life, but also the challenges that he faced as he worked his way through the world of sports entertainment. Though many said how difficult it was to work with him, everyone admitted what a creative genius Windham Rotunda was.

Comments from so many of Bray Wyatt’s contemporaries spoke throughout the doc, including Triple H, Seth Rollins, Becky Lynch, Braun Stroman, Sami Zayn, Big E, LA Knight, John Cena, Hulk Hogan, Alexa Bliss and Erick Rowan.

However, the most emotional moments are provided by Windham’s younger brother, Taylor Rotunda, known to the WWE audience as Bo Dallas, as well as other family members of Windham, including his father Mike Rotunda, uncle Barry Windham, his first wife Samantha and his second wife JoJo. The recollections of this group of people about the final days of Windham’s life were absolutely heart-breaking and brought tears to my eyes.

It was so clear how much Windham Rotunda was loved by everyone around him. Jason Baker, who was one of Windham’s closest friends, was one of the creative forces behind the masks and outfits for the character of Bray Wyatt. His insights into Windham Rotunda were very powerful as well.

Seeing some of the art Windham did during the time when he had been released from the WWE was amazing. It displayed such an amazing truth about how talented and creative Windham Rotunda was.

As a fan of Bray Wyatt, this was tough at times to watch, but I am very pleased that the documentary was shown. It is available on Peacock.

4.6 stars

Shōgun S1 E1

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Spoilers

“Anjin”

Shōgun has dropped on FX and I was able to watch the first episode on Hulu. I have not had the chance to watch episode two, which also dropped. I do thin that this is something that I will continue to watch.

Easily my favorite part of the episode was the arrival of Vasco Rodrigues, played by Néstor Carbonell, Richard himself from LOST. I loved him on LOST and Bates Motel, so it was great to see him once again.

This is a new take on the novel of 1975 and the mini series from the 1980s.

According to Wikipedia, “Shōgun follows “the collision of two ambitious men from different worlds and a mysterious female samurai; John Blackthorne, a risk-taking English sailor who ends up shipwrecked in Japan, a land whose unfamiliar culture will ultimately redefine him; Lord Toranaga, a shrewd, powerful daimyo, at odds with his own dangerous, political rivals; and Lady Mariko, a woman with invaluable skills but dishonorable family ties, who must prove her value and allegiance“

John Blackthorne is played by Cosmo Jarvis, and he does a good job filling the role made famous by Richard Chamberlain. Lord Toranago is played by another LOST alum, Hiroyuki Sanada. Lady Mariko is played by Anna Sawai.

I did not watch the mini series back in the 1980s, but I was aware of it. I was only around 11 years old and not interested in feudal Japan. Many decades later, I am more intrigued by the story.

This is beautifully shot and looked great. I am excited to keep watching the series. I should get to see episode two later this week and then I will be following along on Hulu as it releases weekly.

American Nightmare

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Spoilers

Unbelievable.

I have had this three episode true crime documentary on my list at Netflix for a few weeks now and I found a time to binge it tonight. What an unbelievable story. Shocking and outrageous in many ways.

Honestly, even the manner the show presented the story messed with the emotions and the comprehension of the audience. What actually happened? It laid out the story in a definite manner that was meant to have audience members draw their own conclusions… and then they flipped the script.

In 2015, Denise Huskins was the victim of a home invasion that led to her kidnapping. Her boyfriend Aaron Quinn reported the abduction the next day, claiming that he had been instructed that the kidnappers were watching him on a camera and that they would hurt Denise if he called the police.

The Vallejo Police investigated but the story of the kidnapping was so out there that they switched gears and began to believe that Aaron was responsible for Denise’s disappearance.

Then, she returned.

At this point, the police began thinking that this is a real-life case based on the Ben Affleck movie Gone Girl, and that this kidnapping was a hoax.

Except, it wasn’t.

This was amazingly compelling. The first episode focused on Aaron’s story and how the police were looking at the case. the POV of law enforcement was a major theme throughout all three episodes. I was shocked when Denise came strolling to her father’s house at the end of the first episode.

Episode two dealt with her story and the horrors that she went through. Again, her story was so wild that it was difficult to believe and it was much easier for the police to believe that a hoax was a much more likely scenario.

I really liked this doc because it had quite a bit of finality to it. A lot of these true crime docs that I have seen have an air of uncertainty to them, perhaps a mystery that is still unsolved. This may have had some unanswered questions (in particular, the kidnapper had told Denise that he had intended to kidnap Aaron’s ex instead of her), but there was a very definitive result which I truly appreciated.

It is a resounding accusation against police forces in the area that did not believe the stories of the women victims and instead, chose to relate it to a fictionalized movie. It also showed that there were police officers who took their jobs seriously and were dedicated to finding the truth, in particular Misty Carausu, a police officer with the Dublin Police Department in Dublin, California, who found the kidnapper, found goggles and a strand of long blonde hair that she eventually tied to Denise. It was the efforts of Misty Carausu that led to the arrest and conviction of the kidnapper/rapist, Matthew Muller.

This was an amazing documentary series, shocking and a powerful watch. I am very pleased that I decided to watch this compelling story.

The Greatest Night in Pop

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A great new documentary arrived on Netflix that featured the story of the recording of the classic 80’s song, We are the World.

There was a lot of recorded sections of the actual archive recordings with all of the artists involved in the amazing night. Starting after the American Music Awards were done, the recording session went the rest of the night and into the morning hours. 

Lionel Richie was one of the first interviews the doc had as he was a major factor behind the creation of the song. He and Michael Jackson wrote it, despite trying to get Stevie Wonder to be a part of it.

The artists interviewed for the doc included Richie, Bruce Springsteen, Kenny Loggins, Huey Lewis, Cyndi Lauper, Smokey Robinson, and Dione Warwick.

One of the interesting tidbits in the doc included the section with Sheila E talking about Prince and the desire of the people in charge to have Prince as a part of the song. 

Watching the process of these legends of music trying to put together this epic song in the limited time they had was fascinating. Seeing Bob Dylan struggle to get the line of the song out was amazing. You had Huey Lewis and Cyndi Lauper express their doubts and insecurities over being included with people that they looked up to for their whole lives.

Another awesome moment was when Quincy Jones thanked Harry Belafonte, whose idea led to this night’s work, and the whole crew broke into a version of The Banana Boat Song. That was an excellent moment from the doc.

This was a fantastic peek behind the curtain of one of the most amazing nights in music history. 

4.3 stars

The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (1982)

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Happy New Year to everyone. We start the new year off around EYG with our second annual Genre-ary DailyView. This year, the genre we are watching will be musicals, and we are starting off the month with The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas, starring Burt Reynolds and Dolly Parton. The movie was an adaptation of the stage play that came before it.

The Chicken Ranch was a legendary place in the county of Lanville, in Texas. It had been open for decades with nary a problem. When its iconic madam passed away, Miss Mona Stangley (Dolly Parton) took over. She had been in a side relationship with Sheriff Ed Earl Dodd (Burt Reynolds) for years. He would protect the Chicken Ranch and make sure things went well for Miss Mona.

When consumer advocate and television personality Melvin P. Thorpe (Dom DeLuise) started to investigate the Chicken Ranch, things got more troublesome for the ladies of the night. 

There is an overall silliness to this movie that, I think at times, overwhelms the film as a whole. Dolly Parton and Burt Reynolds are no doubt charismatic figures and carry a heavy load of the film. When they are on screen, everything is working. 

Dom DeLuise added an antagonist that you can really root against without being a true villain. He seemed to be doing what he believed was right, even if some of the things he did would not be considered right. Charles Durning had a memorable turn as the Texas Governor and provides one of the best, most ingenious songs of the film.

I did enjoy the duet between Dolly and Burt, “Sneakin’ Around” even if Reynolds’ voice could not necessarily match that of Parton. 

Jim Nabors was the narrator, Deputy Fred Wilkins, speaking directly to the camera as the film would go on. Nabors played the basic character he did in his other TV appearances.

While there is nothing amazing about the film, The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas does have some fun scenes and some decent music and dance routines. It may not be a standout of teh Genre-ary, but it was a fun way to start the month off.