I have had a interesting relationship with the show Invincible. Where as a lot of people love the show and swear that it is one of the best shows on television, I am not as enamored with it. While I have enjoyed most of the seasons, I have found that the blood becomes excessive and is unnecessary in many cases. There are too many scenes where the blood feels like it is just there to say that it is there. It feels like professional wrestling in a lot of cases. When blood is used sparingly, it can create a compelling piece of the story, but when it is overused, it loses a lot of its impact.
After watching the first episode of season four of Invincible, I did not think they over did the blood and that it was fairly well used as a whole.
I was unaware that Invincible had already debuted on Amazon Prime last week with a three episode drop. Episode four was also released before I knew it so I am officially a bit behind. However, I do have a long list of shows currently on the watchlist, so I will be spreading out the next three episodes over the next several days to a week.
I did find the character work in this episode to be very solid. I enjoyed Mark’s progression from the end of last season to now where he is fighting himself over his use of deadly force. Of course, the end of the episode placed Mark in a situation where he had to kill a person. It was very much a Man of Steel- Superman snapping the neck of Zod moment.
I like how the show with as much violence as it has is not afraid to make that internal struggle with its main character.
With Eve’s powers glitching badly, we get another, albeit well used, superhero trope to deal with. I do think Eve’s father needs a punch in the face.
The Guardians… their timing can’t be any worse. They showed up right at the end of the fight with the dinosaur guy and seemed to be standing behind Mark as he is struggling to decide if he needed to kill the guy to save the world from the Sequids. Get there sooner guys.
I hope the woman who attacked the power plant’s story is not just over. It sounded as if there was a reason behind her trying to steal the energy and I expect that story to get picked up somewhere down the line.
Then, Cecil’s stupidest decision at the end of the third season, keeping Conquest alive and buried in an underground vault. There was no way that wasn’t coming back to haunt him. I wonder if he will tell Mark now that Conquest has escaped and left butt-naked into space. Or will this be just another secret that Cecil will hide?
Good start to the season. I hope it continues to value story over spectacle, especially when it comes to blood.
I found myself yelling “Don’t end there” at my TV as The Pitt went to black screen.
I thought the lead of this week’s episode would be ICE.
Instead, the sudden awakening patient who grabbed Emma, who was just checking his vitals. The patient was a golfer who had been admitted after passing out from drinking too much and, as he held Emma in the headlock, said “What did you do to me?”
Oof. That was rough and the door was closed, keeping the sound away from the busy ER. I hope Emma gets out of this ok.
Now, back to the big event this week… ICE brings in a detainee for medical attention and brings chaos with them. The Pitt has never shied away from the political storytelling, but this one was a big swing. The very presence of the ICE agents sent a ripple effect through the ER and the waiting room as people were just taking off in fear of what could happen.
It was certainly implied that the patient, the little lady with the torn rotator cuff, had that injury because of the ICE agents. Then, when they were trying to take her away (before she got her sling), nurse Jesse (Ned Brower) tried to intervene because the ICE agents were hurting the patient and he wound up on the ground, arrested too.
At first, Robby wanted to get the patient treated and out of the ER quickly to minimize the presence of ICE, but his monologue he delivered to one of the agents showed how on edge he was about the situation. This whole ICE beat played into Robby’s own struggles this year as he let him have it.
It was a tense stretch of time that really colored the episode.
There were other major things that happened. Rosie dies. Ogilvie is facing so many challenges, including a misdiagnosis that led to a patient’s major trauma. A young boy is brought in with severe heat exhaustion, and his mother struggled with the her failure to protect him. Mel is having issues with her sister’s sex life. Then there is a conflict with Langdon and Santos. Robby’s friend gives Robby the reason to stick around after his shift ends.
This was a solid episode with a lot of things happening.
The original Ready or Not from 2019 was a surprise smash hit featuring a star making turn from Samara Weaving. However, it did not feel like a film that required a sequel. Still, in Hollywood, a successful film, especially a new and original IP, will most likely lead to a new installment. So we get Ready or Not 2: Here I Come.
Ignoring the stupid use of the number 2 in the title (it should only be Ready or Not: Here I Come), this new sequel is a solid continuation on a story which both built on the first film and provided new ground for the sequel.
According to IMDB, “After surviving one deadly game, Grace and her sister Faith must now outrun four rival families competing for a powerful throne – winner takes all.”
The sequel is every bit as gruesome and bloody as the original, with people exploding into pools of blood and sinew all over the place, usually when they are facing Grace and Faith, so the splatter does not miss them.
This film added some star power to the hunters chasing Grace and Faith, including Buffy herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar. The Pitt’s Jack Abbot, Shawn Hatosy is here as Gellar’s character’s brother. Elijah Wood played the lawyer behind the competition for the seat on the council that the hunters were competing for. LOST’s Richard, Nestor Carbonell, is another of the hunters, who turns out to be a piss-poor shot.
Once again, this is a group of Satan worshipers, so if that is something that you do not like in your movies, this one is built around it even more than the original. It can be jarring hearing Elijah Wood say “Hail Satan” several times. Of course, Satan worshipers make for excellent villains.
There is a lot of comedy in the gorefest too, and much of it worked. There were some ridiculous characters among the hunters’ families there for support and backup during the game.
The relationship between Grace and Faith had to work for this film to work, and I will say that it was shaky at times. I only heard about their estrangement, not being shown it, but they did win me over as the film went along. Both Weaving and Kathryn Newton do a great job with their performances, though there are a couple of times in the film that made me feel a little icky about what was going on.
Grace takes a real beating in this film and, like so many other action heroes, she shrugs wounds off as she goes. There needs to be some suspension of disbelief that Grace (and also Faith, to a lesser extent) can keep going despite all the stuff that has happened to her (them). Of course, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, and other action heroes who are men would push on too, so why couldn’t Samara Weaving?
It is a strong follow up to the original. I do not think it is as good as the first one, but it does not fall into the garbage as many sequels do. Ready or Not 2: Here I Come is a fun time at the theater for fans of horror and good action.
Monkey D. Luffy might be one of the best characters in all of fiction.
I don’t know how you can watch Luffy and not love him. He is such a honorable, heroic, kind-hearted, awesome hero. He is always smiling and laughing and so child-like. He is unlike any character that I can think of.
The battle for Drum Island was the backdrop for the finale of season two. The people of Drum Island against King Wapol and his monsters was an awesome battle. Wapol fighting Luffy was epic. I do not think there was a better representation of the way Luffy is than when he threw himself in front of the pirate flag, taking the whole blast of Wapol’s canon, and, when the smoke cleared, he was there ready to monologue to the King. I found this remarkably inspiring.
Of course, Chopper is joining the crew as the ship’s doctor. The way this crew bonds with each other is such fun and you can see how much they mean to each other.
But again, the magic of the Straw Hats is Luffy. He is the center of this crew and I love how the others look at Luffy.
The episode continued to build the lore as we meet Mr. Zero, aka Sir Crocodile.
I speculated that the trip to Alabaster would be next season, and that is exactly what has happened. I love how the show has taken its time to introduce the character of Chopper and Vivi, and because of that, we love them.
Season two was sensational. It is every bit as great as season one, if not better. I could watch more than just 8 episodes per season. One Piece is such an amazing show and I can’t wait for the third season.
The next two episodes of season two gives us the debut and the origin of a character that I had heard about, but knew very little about him.
Chopper is a character that I heard some people wonder how they were going to adapt him. Apparently, Chopper is a reindeer who had eaten a Devil’s Fruit and turned into a being that walked on two legs and could talk. Moreso, we discover that Chopper is able to change between forms.
Katey Segal joined the list of guest stars this season as Doctor Kureha, who they took Nami to see after she fainted last episode.
The path to Dr. Kureha was one of the most tense moments of the series as Luffy and Sanji literally climbed a mountain side to reach a castle. They were told that the castle held a witch, but it is just Dr. Kureha and Chopper.
On the way up the mountain, Sanji slipped and fell. Luffy caught him by stretching his neck and catching him with his teeth. While that was all kind of bad ass, it had a weird CGI about it. Stretching can be a tough thing because it does not look natural. Still, Luffy using his teeth to save Sanji… great.
The story of Chopper’s origin is heartbreaking and is told to Luffy, Sanji and Nami by Dr. Kureha. It was after Luffy found a pirate flag in a crate and Chopper yelled at Luffy to not touch it.
The seventh episode was almost the entire story of Chopper and it goes to show you how important of a character he is.
We are introduced to the King of Drum Island, Wapol, who is just a horrendous character. Wapol also got a Devil’s Fruit at the beginning of episode 6 and he is one who really needs his comeuppance in the finale.
It really looks like there are a bunch of storylines that are not going to be wrapped up this season. The whole bit with Smokey and the Marines are not going to catch up yet. I am not even sure that Vivi is ever going to get back to Alabasta this season. Maybe as the cliffhanger. That is fine with me.
When Monarch: Legacy of Monsters debuted on Apple TV + a few years back, the show was definitely hit and miss. Most of the misses came from the human characters in the present day.
It’s clear that those characters in the present day have not learned anything since season one.
Cate Randa showed off her selfishness and her stubbornness in the last half of this episode and wound up getting Natalia Verdugo, the Deputy Director of Monarch, killed by a new monstrous Titan that also escaped into the world when she opened a rift to retrieve Lee (Kurt Russell), who was stranded in the other world last season.
She would not listen to anyone else. She was going to do things her own way and to hell with any consequences. Well, Cate, you got an innocent woman killed. A woman who was just trying to get you and your foolish group to safety. She may be a bureaucrat, she may have different viewpoints, but she did not deserve to be swept away by some giant tentacle.
Cate really should be held accountable for Verdugo’s death. It was her fault.
The new Titan is going to be called Titan X and it sure looked as if Kong wasn’t happy Titan X was here.
Of course, Kong is supposed to be guarding the island, but he is too busy sleeping away in the middle of the afternoon.
Kong looked great in this episode. He was massive and the effects were movie-like. My memory of the first season was that everything did always look great, but the humans in the present day were just insufferable.
However, any time we spent time back in the 1950s, this show was so much better and it seemed as if that trend is going to continue. Wyatt Russell, Anders Holm and Mari Yamamoto appeared in the flashbacks and they were always smarter, more engaging and less likely to do something deftly stupid. This season looks to be the same way.
I was up and down with the first season. At least this year, the action was top notch. The question will be… can I stand the stupidity of Cate and her friends in the present? Will there be enough positives in the rest of the show to keep me from hating her?
We kicked off the final season of Sha Na Na with the first three episodes and a surprise. Dirty Dan was gone. He was no longer on the show, off the theme at the beginning and out of the “Goodnight Sweetheart” line at the end. I took a deep dive trying to discover the reason why he left the group and I did not find much of anything outside of wanting to pursue other opportunities. It did leave a gap in these episodes because the lack of guitar limited the type of songs they were singing.
Fourth season guests included Stephanie Mills from The Wiz, impressionist Fred Travalena, and, my personal favorite, The Unknown Comic (aka Murray Langston) who I saw regularly on the Gong Show, which was another show of the time that I enjoyed. Just a few years ago, I dressed up as the Unknown Comic for Halloween which was a ton of fun.
The group redid a song called “Remember Then” on stage as an opener. They had done this on the rooftop set a few seasons before (may have even been season one). It is a great song and was well worth the redo.
In episode two, they did a whole comedy bit called Mastergrease Theater, without the musical song between the jokes. They had three of the boys dressed up like detectives (Jocko was Columbia- a parody of Columbo, Bowzer was dressed like Sherlock Holmes and Santini was dressed like Sam Spade/noir detective). They were there to investigate the murder of Lennie, who was supposed to be a rich, high class businessman. It was a weird bit, but I liked that it was different than what they had ever done before.
Chico and Donny continued the trend of blending voices extremely well as Chico sang “Teenage Idol” with Donny providing the backing vocals. Chico and Donny had a couple of songs in these episodes and both seemed a touch soft. I thought they were living singing these and both were quite tender. Screamin’ Scott had a song like that too called “Things We Used to Do.”
The group was using more props in the opening songs during these episodes too, including long white beards for “Rip Van Winkel” and a giant broken heart for “Remember Then”
I finished watching season three of Sha Na Na over the last couple of days from episode 17 to episode 24. There were some interesting things that went through these episodes.
After the first three or four episodes, I noticed that Dirty Dan and Screamin’ Scott had been doing a bunch of the songs, more than they usually would do. Then, I wondered why we were not getting the amount of Denny songs. As soon as I thought that, Denny did a bunch of songs over the next several episodes. I have to admire how well the group did of giving everybody the spotlight without shorting anybody. Chico was probably the least used singer in the group of episodes I saw, but he was there with Rubber Ball, where he was back on roller skates.
The final two episodes were very different than any other ones prior. They both carried a storyline throughout the entire show. In episode 23, Jocko fell for an uppity British woman named April (played by Lorrie Gia, who was announced with the opening credits). April wanted Jocko to change for her and he went on an episode-long journey to try and de-grease himself. Troy Donohue guest starred and tried to help in a My Fair Lady type story.
Meanwhile, in episode 24, Bowzer was hired away from Sha Na Na by Charo to play the piano for her Charo’s Cuchi Cuchi Club. The whole episode focused on Bowzer’s work for Charo and his eventual return to Sha Na Na.
I am curious to see if these storyline-based episodes will continue into Sha Na Na’s final season.
It was also interesting that Jay Johnson from Soap appeared on the show with his ventriloquist dummy, Squeaky… whose name was Bob on the show. Did that mean that Squeaky was the real name and Bob was the character he played? That seems weird.
Other guests in this run included The Kingston Trio, James Darren, Steve Allen, The Crystals and the 5th Dimension.
These episodes featured some of the comedy bits that stood out in my memory, such as 16 Tons, Romeo & Juliet, Book of Love and one that I did not remember, but it had the cast dressed up as bunnies doing At the Hop.
Screamin’ Scott was always my favorite Sha Na Na member and I remembered clearly him doing “Does Your Chewing Gum Lose its Flavor on the Bedpost Overnight?” So to see it again in episode 18 was a treat.
Lennie and Bowzer did a version of “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling” and their voices mixed so well together. I think Lennie could sing with anyone.
It was sad that episode 17, specifically, was such poor video quality. I know that the person who put these episodes up on YouTube did the best they could to make it as watchable as possible, but it was an old VCR recording from 40 plus years ago. Clearly, the rights to the songs make it nearly impossible to put these out on anything more up to date, despite the fact that I do believe that there would be an audience for them.
I arrived at the third season of Sha Na Na with the first four episodes on YouTube and it kicked off with an odd thing. Episode one started with the group singing “Summertime” and then they had a backstage version of Up on the Roof, and I swear I had seen both of these performances on previous episodes. I did not want to take the time to go back and see if I could find them, but it was so odd that I wondered if they had to plug in some older versions of these songs for some reason. Jocko did not have his mustache, which is a key clue.
There was another song that I think they had done: Three Cool Cats. It featured one of the actresses who was the waitress at the diner, who we did not see in any other season three episode.
The season added a new set. One set was Greasers’ Hall, which apparently replaced the diner set. We also got much more Soupy Sales than in previous seasons. The new season episodes kicked off with a comedy bit before the introduction and episode one and two had a bit called “The Sha Na Na Joke Hall of Fame” which seemed like it was going to be a regular bit, only to not have it in episode 3 or 4.
Connie Stevens and Danny and the Juniors did a typical routine, with Stevens singing “Tan Shoes and Pink Shoelaces” and Danny and the Juniors doing “At the Hop.” The other two guests were Conway Twitty and Ben E. King, who both did medleys of their songs. I liked that and hope more musical guests will follow suit.
Sha Na Na did the theme song for Grease as one of their opening songs on the stage and poor Donny was so lost on the choreography of the dance routine. I felt so bad for him. He was giving it his all, but he was just behind the others so much. Donny is not the best of the backup dancers and this was pretty complicated. He kept just trying to do the grease your hair move.
Of course, Sha Na Na appeared in the movie Grease, playing the band at the dance where John Travolta and Olivia Newton John would win.
Maybe that was why they sold Donny to science in a future episode.
Man, they sure stick Lennie into a lot of dresses.
Lookin ahead, there are a lot of country musicians coming up. I wonder if they had burned through guests from the 1950s and had to move into different genres.
Polite Society has been on my queue over on Peacock since the 2024 June Swoon. I had just never gotten around to watching it. It was not that appealing for me.
However, when I came across it on my queue a few days ago and it listed it as a comedy, I thought this would be the perfect chance to put this one to bed. The Rotten Tomatoes score was strong and I thought I would finally give it a chance.
According to IMDB, “Ria Khan believes she must save her older sister Lena from her impending marriage. After enlisting her friends’ help, she attempts to pull off the most ambitious of all wedding heists in the name of independence and sisterhood.“
I had a hard time getting into the movie at first. It did not grab my attention to really intrigue me. However, I have to say that about halfway through the film, I started to get into it and was much more engaged.
I do think the wilder the plot became for the film, the more interested I was.
I enjoyed the performance of Priya Kansara as Ria, the sister whose behavior did seem out of control. She was very funny, even if she was hard to like at first. She seemed so over the top that it made her a bit abrasive. However, once the shoe dropped, things took off.
I loved the performance of Nimra Bucha, who played Raheela. She became a devastating villain and an amazing foil for Ria. Bucha, who also appeared in Marvel Studio’s Disney + series, Ms. Marvel, showed exactly what she could have been on that show with her big time villain turn. She was sinister in the very best possible way. I would have loved to have seen this side on Ms. Marvel more. Even though the plot became exaggerated, she made it work with everything about her.
The film had a definite Bollywood feel to it, mixed with a martial arts film. It was very original and I wound up very much enjoying it, even after the slow start for me.
I took a deep dive into season to of the Sha Na Na show and watched seven episodes. I watched this many cause I wanted to get to episode 10, where the run of musical guests came to an end. However, this was how you take a non-musical guest and use him effectively. Of course, it was Billy Crystal.
It was interesting when Johnny introduced Billy Crystal, telling a story about Billy working with Sha Na Na in the past, before Billy hit it big with Soap. He must have been a warm-up act for the group. Awesome that he was willing to come back to the group after he had become a star. It was shocking to see what a resemblance Billy Crystal had to Johnny. They could have easily been brothers.
Billy did an act on the stage and participated in the comedy song skit by doing his impression of Howard Cosell.
Earlier that episode, Sha Na Na did a musical tribute to Little Richard, which was very cool too. This might have been the best episode of the series so far.
Not that the other ones were bad. Actually, I have found season two to be very solid. The group has really spread out the songs among each other, even though there were several songs that I did not recognize.
The show has done an effective way of bringing on their guest stars in this stretch of episodes. With Brenda Lee, she came into the diner, looking for a hiding place because she didn’t want to sing. She wanted to hide in the powder room or behind the counter, but the waitress said they would find her in both places. She then mentioned how the Shirells hid behind the counter but was caught (in a previous episode). I appreciate the continuity.
Then, in episode 5, Sha Na Na did their opening number on the stage, Santini took the microphone, and introduced the Coasters, who came up and sang “Charlie Brown.” I thought that was a cool way to introduce the guest star in a way they had never done before.
Chubby Checker came back to the show to perform again. I wonder if he had filmed this at the same time when he was on the show before in season one. He became the first headliner to return as guest star, though Milton Berle was on the show twice too.
Donny really showed off his voice in this group of shows. He had a beautiful rendition of Mr. Blue, another ballad in Oh, Donna, sang with Johnny on Let the Good Times Roll, and a street set version of Singing the Blues.
Jocko also had a bunch of songs in this stretch, including Do You Love Me, Tossin’ and Turnin’, and, a personal favorite, Ya Ya. Jocko wound up in several background dance moments when one of the other background dancers had to sing.
Speaking of that, I have a question that I wonder any time I see Jocko up front and Dirty Dan on the drums. I know a lot of the times, they sing live but to a backing track and they do not do the instruments or background vocals live. I just wonder, does Dirty Dan know how to play the drums or is it just for show? It does the same thing when Screamin’ Scott is somewhere else. In these episodes, I saw Johnny and Lenny on the piano. Are they just sitting there?
Screamin’ Scott is another interesting one because he covers guitar at times when Dirty Dan is on drums and he has been shown to play the banjo. I do believe he knows how to play the banjo because during the comedy skit based on the song “Battle of New Orleans,” which Scott sang and played banjo. However, in between the song, where they did some comedy, Scott played a bit to help someone do a song. It sure sounded as if he really did play that banjo in that moment.
We rarely see Donny on any instruments (although I saw him on a guitar once) and Denny never plays anything either. I wonder if that is because they can’t play these instruments and when someone steps in for an instrument, they know how to play it, even with the backing track. It is an interesting thought and it makes me think about it any time someone is not in their spot.
They also made the first reference to Sha Na Na’s appearance in Grease. They also played “Those Magic Changes” which was one of their big songs from the film. I wonder what the timeline of that movie compared to the show was.
We are ready to give the list of the Worst Movies of the Year. Or more specifically, the EYG Least Favorite Movie of the Year. These are my opinions and thoughts. It is okay if you disagree with me. I encourage it. In fact, I know there are a couple of films on my list that are high on the Tomatometer. Movies are subjective and what I think is the worst, may be someone else’s beloved.
I should also state that, during the year, I give star ratings to movies. I do not use these star ratings to order them. I do use them to choose the films that would make the list, but I may have a film that got 1.5 stars higher than one that has a 1.2. Movies and thoughts about movies are fluid and change over time with reflection or hindsight. Honestly, if I redid this list in a month, there might be differences.
The list this year is the Top 20. This year has had a lot of movies in the mid-range, from star rating between 2.5 and 3.8 or so. Most of the movies fell into that range. These are the ones that were under that.
I should mention that I have nothing but respect for the creative people who made these films. I may not like the work, but I respect the efforts you have made to try to entertain us.
Here are the Top 20 Least Favorite/Worst Films of 2025
#20. Den of Thieves 2: Pantera. I hated this sequel. It is the first of my list that has FRESH reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. I still found this dull and dumb.
#19. After the Hunt. Julia Roberts gave her best for this flopper, but there was only so much she could do. It was too long, the story was mixed and it did not make a lot of sense.
#18. Tron: Ares. What a terrible film. Great soundtrack though (way to go, Nine Inch Nails). There are so many problems in this, including the lead performance from Jarred Leto. It did look great. It might be the final installment in this franchise as it flopped hard.
#17. Until Dawn. Great premise. Horrible execution. The story was boring and the killings were unoriginal or interesting. I watched this during the June Swoon and I was happy I rented it on sale.
#16. Screamboat. Here was the horror/murder film featuring a monstrous and brutal Steamboat Willie (aka Mickey Mouse) who entered into public domain recently. This was better than the Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey films (but that is a low bar).
#15. Flight Risk. Here is a good example of a film with a reasonable star rating that slipped with hindsight. A terrible and ridiculous performance by Mark Wahlberg. The characters do the dumbest things. This one has slipped down the list onto the Top 20 Least Favorite.
#14. M3GAN 2.0. The first Megan movie was such fun. The second one was far from it. I was so disappointed with M3GAN 2.0. It is too long. Too filled with nonsense. It broke into a song at one point.
#13. Friendship. Here is another one that everyone seemed to love, but I could not stand. It was a comedy with Tim Robinson that was just not funny. I did not enjoy this one at all.
#12. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2. This got worse. I did not like the first film that much, and this sequel only got worse. The actors seemed to be just going through the motions.
#11. Love Hurts. I love Ke Huy Quan. Boring and a dumb story. It could not be rescued by the wonderful Ke Huy Quan.
#10. Fear Street: Prom Queen. The first trilogy of Fear Street was so great. This one was horrendous. A sloppy, stupid slasher killer story that was so dumb, almost as dumb as it was disappointing.
#9. Together. A body horror film that most of the critics loved. I hated it. There were a bunch of scenes that were laugh out loud funny, though I do not think they were intended to be funny. It felt so silly that I was rolling my eyes at it throughout.
#8. I Know What You Did Last Summer. One of the worst remakes of the year. What was the purpose of redoing this film? I guess it was sort of a sequel, but the killer turned out to be from the original and his turn made zero sense. It was done for just the shock value.
#7. Electric State. The big Netflix action movie was so bad. The budget on it was reportedly $320 million. It had the Russo Brothers as directors. Yet there were so many problems with this. Characters without depth, various tones, and humor that did not work.
#6. A Minecraft Movie. You know there is trouble when the best part of the movie is the memes for Chicken Jockey. I love Jack Black, but this is just a film with so much stupidity, designs that were poorly constructed and a feel that made it too cartoonish. It was repetitive and dull.
#5. Into the Deep. A shark movie. However, that was the highlight of this film. Dialogue that was so unnatural. Acting that was horrendous. Richard Dreyfuss was in this movie… why? Did he need a paycheck that badly? Another film I did for the June Swoon that made me wish I had not chosen it.
#4. 2073. I found this on HBO Max and it seemed interesting. It wasn’t. It was a weird blend of documentary, post-apocalyptic wasteland and history lesson. It was depressing and full of fearmongering.
#3. HIM. Again, this is not directed by Jordan Peele. Even though they kept putting his name on the advertising, he was not directly involved. This horror/thriller with football players is about as bad as it comes. I hated sitting in the theater watching this.
#2. Star Trek: Section 31. Michelle Yeoh? Why? You won an Oscar. Do the producers have something on you? This is the worst Star Trek anything that I think I have ever seen. This would have easily been the worst movie of the year except there was a film that was historically bad that surpassed it.
#1. War of the Worlds. What can be said about this film that hasn’t already been said? It is one of the most agreed upon worst movies of all time. It did creep its way up to 4% on Rotten Tomatoes, so there is that. Ice Cube deserved better, but his acting against the computer screen was laughable. This was shot during Covid and just now released. They should have let this one stay on the shelf. It was like a giant advertisement for Amazon Prime. Who knew their gift cards were so important? The worst product placement of all time. The special effects were ridiculous. The story was dumb. The characters made me want to root for the aliens.
I began my Agents of Shield rewatch this afternoon with the first three episodes, bringing the team together.
These first three episodes reminded me why I loved this show so much. One of the biggest reasons was Clark Gregg as Agent Phil Coulson. He is so charming and funny and a joy to watch. They set up the mystery of Tahiti (it’s a magical place) right away and they do a fine job of teasing that something was going on.
I love Melinda May, aka The Calvary. She is such a bad ass in this show and her chemistry with Coulson and everyone in the cast is spectacular.
Fitz and Simmons are such cool characters. They are not the type of characters that you would expect in a spy show like this, but their presence is extremely awesome.
Chloe Bennett, who played Skye (at least Skye at this point…. one day to become Daisy Johnson) is another great character who is so easy to root for. There is just enough of uncertainty about Skye to make you wonder what is going to happen.
Grant Ward, on the other hand, is more difficult because I know where his character goes. Watching him in these first episodes, knowing that he was in Hydra, was much more difficult. I wonder when they knew, as a creative team, that Ward would be betraying the team as a Hydra agent. There does not seem to be any signs or hints at this point.
These first episodes are used to bring these characters together in a team, something that did not seem likely to happen in the early part of the show. They were arguing and fighting and did not trust each other, but their plan to sabotage the Shield plane bonded them together.
The Samuel L. Jackson cameo as Nick Fury was awesome too as he yelled at Coulson. Fury’s question about Lola, Coulson’s flying car, was both funny and telling.
I know that this show winds up having to slosh along until the Hydra reveal in Captain America: Winter Soldier, but it has started off strong. I wish that the show had more continuity to the MCU as I would love to see Melinda May appear in MCU films or shows.
Dr. Robby kept saying in episode 11 that there was only two hours left in the shift, but I knew there were still multiple hours of episodes remaining. I did not know what was going to happen.
And then all hell broke loose.
Some of the most unbelievably intense, stressful stretches of television that I have ever seen. The whole active shooter storyline came back around and slammed everyone at the ER in one massive blast.
I get the feeling that David, the boy who had the hit list back at the beginning of the day was not the culprit of this shooting. It may seem a bit contrived, but I believe it is all coincidence. When David strolled back to the hospital to pick up his mom, he did not seem like someone who just shot dozens of people.
Either way, this series of episodes was amazing, in the most difficult and painstakingly horrendous ways possible.
Who would have thought that the high pressure baby delivery in episode 11, with Dr. Collins working it after suffering her own miscarriage, would be the low stress scene of these three episodes. That whole baby thing was just anxiety-filled and I was begging the screen to save the baby.
Then, it went crazy.
Watching the hospital prepare for the mass shooting before the victims arrived was fascinating. I wonder if that is the way most/all hospitals respond to an emergency like that? They knew what had to happen and they turned their ER into a MASH unit. I have never quite seen anything like it.
Then, Robby cracking at the end of episode 13 brought one more scene for Noah Wylie’s Emmy roll, with all the weight of the deaths of the day, compounded by this horrible triage situation, and trying to explain to his step-son (of sorts) how he could not save the girlfriend.
I can’t imagine what would be going through the minds of those doctors and interns who were having their first day on the job before everything went to crap. They all were having their moments during the chaos.
The first season is down to just two episodes remaining, which does not seem to be enough to manage everything that the show has set up. This makes me feel that there will be plenty of things dangling at the end of the season, when this day finally comes to a close.
Okay, there were a couple of moments during these two episodes that we rough on me. There was a heart attack scene that was just about more than I could handle.
I do like how the show has been, for the most part, more about the characters than with the illnesses. Whether it be the staff of the ER or the patients, the characters are the driving force behind story.
The abortion arc is really good. There is a father abuse storyline that did not work for me. One comment was made that the doctors and nurses were mandatory reporters but couldn’t report without evidence. As a mandatory reporter, that is patently incorrect. That pulled me out of the scene.
Then, it took a dramatic twist with Trinity Santos, who was a character that I have not been a fan of so far in the series, and a vicious confrontation with the child abuser in question. It was fairly unrealistic, but very kick ass. It helped that storyline.
The end of episode seven was horrific, as Dr. Collins went into the restroom, with tears, seeing blood in her underwear. There had been subtle hints through the last couple of episodes that Collins, who was pregnant, was going to have something terrible happen to the baby. While it is unconfirmed as of yet, this ending scene did not make things look good.
This pair of episodes started to show Doctor Robby was acting unlike he normally would do. I had a bit of a problem with that too because up until here, he seemed like he was great. I had no idea that he was acting differently than normal. The show had told us about his struggles on the anniversary of his mentor’s death, but I still thought he was doing a great job. When Collins called him out on his behavior, I was surprised. Some of these scenes with Robby felt out of place from the rest of the season. Of course, we did not know Robby before this series, and all of the episodes have been the same day, so it is hard to see the changes.
The show brought up the kid with the “hit list” again, but it is a story arc that feels like it will come back hard later in the season.
I was so happy that Whittaker made it through episode 7 without having to change his scrubs!
EYG- Embrace Your Geekness 