Tag Archives: review

Wednesday S2 E2

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“The Devil You Woe”

I have found the second season of Wednesday on Netflix to be a bit of a mixed bag so far. Anything dealing directly with Wednesday and her orbit has been great. Episode two revealed her stalker, an invisible girl who is Wednesday’s #1 fan.

There was also a great scene between Wednesday and Tyler at the insane asylum. Tyler’s psychiatrist makes me suspicious. There is more to this character than the few fleeting moments we get with her.

It was Prank Day at Nevermore, which feels like a horrible idea. Barry Dort is another of the new characters this year that clearly has more to his story than what we know. Will the principal of Nevermore now be like the Defense against the Dark Arts teacher at Hogwarts?

Donovan Galpin, a major character of season one, was found dead by Wednesday, his eyes pecked out by crows. “Murdered by a murder of crows” as Wednesday said. Donovan’s eye found its way to Wednesday and Enid’s dorm room.

All this is fun and I expect will mix together before the end of season two. What I have not enjoyed at all so far has been Pugsley Addams and his storyline. There is just something about Pugsley that is off-putting. I am also not fond of Eugene this season. I loved that character last year, but I am just not feeling him in season two so far. These two together have been dragging these episodes down.

Catherine Zeta-Jones is great as Morticia and seeing her more this season is only a good thing. She has some storyline that requires her to bring in her mother. It ties into Barry Dort’s desire as he blackmailed Bianca to use her siren song on Morticia.

There are two more episodes in the part one of season two.

War of the Worlds (2025)

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To be fair, I went into the new version of War of the Worlds on Amazon Prime expecting that it would be a terrible movie. I had watched a… review of sorts.. from Dan Murrell and it was a remarkably entertaining video, you can see HERE.

I also had watched Jeremy Jahns’ review, that he dubbed War of the Worlds “dogshit.”

So, my expectations could not have been lower, but my morbid curiosity overcame my better judgment.

Told in screen time (like much better movies Searching, Unfriended, Host), War of the Worlds featured Ice Cube as William Radford, an NSA computer security analysis, who is in charge of watching the people of the US. According to Rotten Tomatoes, “A computer security analyst working for the U.S. government finds his daily life disrupted by an alien attack. Accustomed to dealing with virtual threats, his struggle extends to secrets the government may be hiding.”

After watching it, I can why everyone hated this movie. It is truly bad. Everything about it was terrible. The acting was terrible. The story full of holes. Nothing makes sense. Characters do the stupidest things.

I do love to see Clark Gregg in roles. The former Agent Coulson is great, but even he could not make up for this travessty.

Now, this is one of those movies that had some laughs in it, but it was not written to be funny. Some of the situations were just so ridiculous that they couldn’t help but be laughable. It feels like a film that would be great for the RiffTrax guys to riff on.

The biggest part is how blatant the Amazon Prime advertising was in the film. If you did not know that this was showing on Amazon Prime, the product placement and reference would surely show you. If only I knew where to get an Amazon Prime gift card.

Truly one of the worst movies of the year.

0.3 stars

What We Do in the Shadows Season 6

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Today I finished the final season of What We Do in the Shadows on Disney +. Season six had eleven episodes, one more than any of the other seasons. I have to say… I thought this season was the worst of the six. Not that it was bad overall, but it just did not feel like it was scattered all over the place.

These were a few of the highlights for me:

  • Laszlo’s ghost father arriving was a funny bit. His father trying to take over Laszlo’s body was a fun scene.
  • I enjoyed the Monster, created by Laszlo and Colin Robinson, but that joke ran out of steam during the season.
  • The big night for the Baron led to the vampires looking to kill the group. This felt familiar (no pun intended), but I thought it was one of the better episodes of the season.
  • I did like the concept of Nandor and Guillermo forming a crime fighting duo. I would have liked more of this during the season instead of a joke at the end.
  • The Finale. I’ll talk about that in a little while.

Low lights:

  • Jerry. Though it was funny that they forgot to awaken another vampire who used to live with them as he entered “super slumber,” the character of Jerry was hardly worth the time and turned out to be a throw away as the season progressed.
  • Guillermo working at the office. It had some funny moments, but it did not work well for me. It was lackluster.
  • They repeated a couple of beats from the series, including how Nandor was ready to go to war with the TV show filming outside.
  • Sleep hypnosis. Nandor as Richard Nixon was funny, but overall the idea was barely enough for an episode.
  • Nandor’s Army? That felt like a waste.

Let’s talk about the finale. I loved this. It was easily the best episode of season 6. It was so meta that I found it highly entertaining. The documentary filming was coming to an end and Guillermo was having trouble accepting it. They had so many fun meta lines which were referring to the documentary, but in reality were designed toward the actual show itself. My favorite was Nadja, who, when talking about how the documentary should end, mentioned how the doc should have ended last year after Guillermo was turned back to human after being a vampire. This line basically said the fifth season finale would have made a better ending to the show than anything done during season 6. She was 100% accurate.

They added some parody endings that came about when Nadja hypnotized the audience. The first one was a spoof of The Usual Suspects. The next two, which came as post credit scenes, were one like Newhart, with Nandor having a dream and telling Guillermo, who is in bed with him, about it. The third spoof was one of Rosemary’s Baby, with Nadja playing the role of Rosemary (and Colin Robinson back as a baby again). These were a lot of fun and an enjoyable way to end the series.

With the whole group (except Guillermo) singing “We’ll Meet Again” was a wonderful moment. Even better was when Laszlo exclaimed, “Now, everyone but the Guide!” because of how badly she was singing. I laughed out loud at that line, which was said off screen.

While this season would be my least favorite of the six, What We Do in the Shadows is one of my favorite comedies of all time. The stories were great. The characters were a hoot. It was very enjoyable. I do think it was time for the show to come to an end [although I would have loved more of the crime fighting Nandor (aka The Phantom…Menace) & Guillermo (aka The Cowboy Kid)].

What We Do in the Shadows Season 5

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I binged season five of What We Do in the Shadows today and it was a great season once again. This show is one of the most consistently funny shows on television.

This season had several running storylines that carried through most of the year. These included:

  • Guillermo’s slow transformation into a vampire after giving money to Derek to turn him. Little did Guillermo know how much of an insult that would be to his master.
  • A hex that had been cast over Nadja, causing terrible things to happen to her.
  • The Guide trying to fit in with the rest of the vampires.
  • Guillermo’s uncertainty over what he wanted to be.

My favorite episode of the season was “Local News”, which was an episode featuring a local news reporter covering the story of a water main break on the street of the vampires’ house. They interviewed Nandor and he believed he accidentally let slip that he had lived in the house for centuries. Believing that he had given away the truth that they were vampires, the group started going crazy. It was really funny and resolved wonderfully. It also crossed over with Guillermo going to see his mom to tell her about his life choice.

Another thing I really loved was the development of the character of Guillermo over the ten episodes. He was learning a lot about himself, to the point where he realized that he was not going to be able to become a vampire. His Van Helsing blood had been fighting off the vampirism all season, keeping him from fully turning.

I loved how, when Nandor finally discovered the truth, it led to another truth. Nandor never turned Guillermo into a vampire over the years because he knew that Guillermo did not have the stomach for the killing involved. Nandor really showed that he knew Guillermo well, but also cared for his familiar/bodyguard.

I also liked how the other vampires showed some concern for Guillermo, way more than they had ever done. I would go as far as to say that they all had accepted him as part of their lives. Laszlo, Nadja, Colin Robinson and even The Guide went out of their way to try and help Guillermo. That was way different than the first season.

Cameo of the season: Patton Oswalt. He became a major component in helping Nandor get past his hurt feelings, allowing him to save his friendship with Guillermo. And he did all this before being thrown to his death.

I am also a fan of how characters from previous episodes/seasons keep showing up. It gives the show a real flavor and world that has a lived in feel to it. The Baron, Derek, The Doll, Topher, Djinn etc.

Although I could see this change a bit, here is my current list of seasons in order of my favorites:

  1. Season 1
  2. Season 4
  3. Season 5
  4. Season 2
  5. Season 3

I could see seasons 4 & 5 flipping places after more time to reflect. Season six has 11 episodes instead of 10 and it is the final season of the show.

Stick S1 E10

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“Déjà Vu All Over Again”

I finished up the first season of Stick on Apple TV + tonight with the finale, entitled “Déjà Vu All Over Again.”

The episode featured the final day of the ReadySafe Invitational golf tourney with Santi right in the race to win. Last episode, we meet Santi’s father for the first time who showed up with all the right words for his son. We would find out that, unfortunately, little had changed.

I am going to say this about the season finale of Stick. It was extremely satisfying and I liked how things worked themselves out. However, the episode was really predictable. It followed my expectations really tightly. Yet, predictable is not always a bad thing. The episode worked narratively and the result was an enjoyable final show.

Owen Wilson is a charming and engaging actor and he does a fantastic job in this show. he had great chemistry with Peter Dager, who played Santi. Their relationship was very real and went through a lot of different stages during the ten episode season. I believed everything that happened and I felt badly for Pryce when Santi asked him to step aside so his father could caddy for him. It was clear that the choice would turn out poorly, but Pryce allowed the kid the chance to find out for himself. Then, Pryce came back and helped Santi reclaim his mindset, giving him a chance to make an unbelievable shot, even in defeat.

I wonder if this is a series that will continue into a second season. I am not sure where the story will go, unless the hints at the end of Pryce getting back into shape and rejoining the tour is where they will go. No matter what, this first season was excellent and definitely worth the watch.

Stick S1 E5, E6, E7, E8, E9

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So I wanted to catch up on Stick, which is on Apple TV + and has episodes dropping on Wednesdays. I do believe the final episode of the season is this week, so I had five episodes to run through in order to get caught up.

Stick is such a great show and it is a easy watch as the episodes run around 30 minutes. It is also very well-written and compelling in a sport that does not truly entice me much.

Much like the F1: The Movie and auto racing, a film/show can be entertaining and engaging if it is intelligent and well-written, acted and smartly plotted out even if I am not a fan of the sport involved. I am not a fan of golf, but Stick is far more than just about golf.

The story of Pryce trying to help Santi to become the best he could be in the world of golf took a lot of turns, some that very not necessarily positive, but everything worked well.

That is, until Santi’s father showed up at the end of episode nine. That feels like one more major hurdle for the characters to overcome.

Some other cool highlights of the five episodes include:

  • The truth with Zero and Pryce’s deal coming out rocked Santi’s world. We knew that was going to happen when it first happened.
  • Santi and Zero have sex. This was surprising… especially with Santi looking for advice from Pryce. I really thought Pryce was going to respond differently and I liked the uncommon response he had.
  • Timothy Olyphant is always a welcome actor in any show I am watching.
  • Mitts and Elena’s relationship comes around. I like them together.
  • We get more with Pryce and his dead son. The dream of Pryce with his son, Jett, was really hard to watch.
  • The whole scam to try and get Santi into a pro PGA tournament was strange, but cool.

There was a lot of enjoyment in these episodes and I have grown to like these characters.

What We Do in the Shadows S3

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So I dove into the third season of What We Do in the Shadows this morning, planning another binge watch of the ten episodes. I do like this model of taking some time and binging this series. I pulled it up on Disney +.

Overall, I have to say that I think season three was not as entertaining as season two, which has been my favorite so far. However, season two was more of a bunch of individual episodes whereas season three has a running throughline of the season. Although you may not know about it at the start, it does all pay off in spades by the end.

I was finding myself liking Colin Robinson more each episode this year, so the death of this character was tough. Seeing him as a Colin-faced baby at the end of episode 10 was rough too. I did enjoy how Laszlo was bonding with Colin Robinson through the season, with the knowledge that at 100 years old, energy vampires die.

Nandor’s eternal-life crisis was another storyline that progressed through the season, and came to a head at the end. He tried to join a cult, take the Super Slumber and, eventually, choosing to take a trip across the world. It was a sad ending for him too as he expected Guillermo to accompany him on the trip and he promised the familiar/bodyguard that he would turn him into a vampire at the end. Of course. Guillermo would face yet another trouble.

Poor Guillermo had a tough season as well, as he felt rejected and afraid of winding up alone. As the vampires all were ready to make their away out of the house and on adventures, Guillermo did not know what he was to do. Of course, his skills as a vampire killer was shown off several times during the season, including a cool final battle with Nandor. I was shocked when Laszlo, who was preparing for Nadja and his trip to England, flipped Guillermo into the coffin that was meant to be for Laszlo and sent him in his place. It was all because Laszlo needed to stay behind and look after baby Colin Robinson.

Even though I may not have considered this my favorite of the seasons, it continued to be extremely funny, even if some of the situations turn out to be silly. It is consistently one of the funniest shows on TV.

EYG Favorite Comic Covers of the Week

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July 17

Another big week of covers this week. I have a ton of variant covers, especially from Marvel. It is the third time where I had to have a tie for the bronze medalist. I even wished that I had more medals available because the also-ran section will be large this week.

Also-Rans: SpaceQuest #2, Be Not Afraid #2, Be Not Afraid (Virgin Variant Cover) #2, Red Sonja vs. the Army of Darkness #3, Robin & Batman: Jason Todd #2, Red Sonja Noir #1, Krypto the Last Dog of Krypton #2, This Ends Tonight #1 (aka Let It Stand #1), They Choose Violence #2, Godzilla Destroys the Marvel Universe #1 (Foil Variant), Pinupocalypse #4, and Past Time #4.

TIE

Bronze Medalist

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #10

Cover Art by Jorge Fornes

This is a wonderful cover with Raphael staring down to the street with the police showing up. The colors of the lights standout extremely well and illuminates the cover beautifully. This was one of the two that wound up tied for the bronze medalist. The other one was….

TIE

I Was a Fashion School Serial Killer #4

Cover art by Daniel Hillyard and Michelle Madsen

These “Fashion School Serial Killer” books’ covers have been sensational, and I love the image of our character slowly ascending from the pool of blood. I love the red with the black background. Just beautiful cover.

Silver Medalist

Gargoyles: Demona #1

Variant Cover D

Cover art by Mark Spears

Our leader in the clubhouse for 2025, Mark Spears is back again, doing a specialty cover for Dynamite This is not a book I would have picked up if it had not been for the Spears cover. Shout out to Todd for picking this one up for me (he always complains when I don’t give him credit.)

Gold Medalist

Spider-Girl #2

Variant Cover C

Cover Art by Nogi San

Love this Spider-Girl variant cover. The black and white imagery on the cover is so great. There is just a little touch of red. I saw this on the shelf today and I grabbed it immediately.

The Bear S4 E9, E10

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“Tonnato”

“Goodbye”

These final two episodes of season four show exactly why The Bear is constantly nominated for Best Comedy Series at the Emmys.

That is sarcasm. This is not a comedy series for me. It is a full on drama that might have some comedic aspects at times.

Nothing showed that more than these final two episodes which were full of amazing moments and performances that were off the charts.

First, in “Tonnato,” we get an amazing set of scenes with Carmy and his mother, Donna. Jamie Lee Curtis may as well make some room on her mantel for another Emmy because this was unbelievable. The performance was so raw and powerful and brought a tear to my eyes. She was as vulnerable as you could be in this scene while expressing her overwhelming guilt and regret over her behavior and choices. Jeremy Allen White was an exceptional scene partner as he pillowed her performance while not taking away from it. Both of these characters felt on the precipice of an emotional breakthrough, though at any second, it could fall apart. It was a tremendously powerful scene.

Then, in the finale of the season, Carmy, Sydney and Richie (with Natalie eventually joining) spent the episode out back of the restaurant screaming at each other over the impending departure of Carmy from The Bear. Carmy’s decision to “retire” has been forming over the last few episodes as he realized that he did not love what he was doing anymore and that he was only serving as a roadblock for the restaurant’s success.

With the backdrop of the ticking clock, Carmy’s decision may have felt like a betrayal to Sydney and Richie, but he seemingly was able to convince them that he was not just dropping them. The ownership agreement, half for Jimmy, half for Sydney, Natalie and Richie, was something that Sydney insisted on (including Richie).

Carmy’s confession that he had attended Michael’s funeral, even though everyone thought he had not gone, was massive for Richie. You can see why these three actors in particular have been so in demand lately for other projects. They are truly some fantastic performers (no pun intended as Ebon Moss-Bachrach, who played Richie will be Ben Grimm, the Thing, in Marvel’s Fantastic Four in a couple of weeks).

I thought the fourth season of The Bear was far superior to season three, which felt like a down year to me. I loved the way Carmy was going on the self-improvement trip. I really wanted to see the scene where he gave the green sweater (which he found at his mother’s in episode 9) back to Claire, but hopefully that scene will make it into a future seasson.

This season left plenty of plot threads dangling, as the ticking clock struck zero at the end of the final episode. Was that the end of the restaurant or will it be able to be saved as they were starting to put things together, albeit slowly.

The Bear S4 E5, E6, E7

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Season four rolls along…

“Replicants”

I had a feeling that something was happening to Sydney’s father when he gave her that call at the beginning of the episode. A heart attack left Sydney shaken and all of us scared for Sydney.

Natalie bringing the baby to the restaurant brought all kinds of feels for everyone involved and there was nearly no other moment that was as sweet as Carmy holding his baby niece for the first time as Natalie left the room.

Neil trying to get as close to the baby as he could was hilarious, as was protective mother Natalie. When Neil asked to hold the baby, Natalie asked him when he last washed his hands. A couple days ago was probably the answer she was expecting.

It was cool to see Luca again. Will Poulter fit right into the cast perfectly after guest starring a couple of years ago.

Rob Reiner returned again to help with the business plan for Ebraheim.

“Sophie”

We get more on Sydney’s father’s heart attack and the episode is really showing how much everyone at The Bear loved her. Claire finds her at the hospital and comforts her as Sydney was waiting for word. The dialogue between them is one of the strengths of this show as everything is done so well.

Sydney’s father is going to recover and the rest of the episode was basically prep for the wedding with Tiff and Frank.


“Bears”

This was the best episode of the season so far and one of my favorite episodes of the entire series. It was the wedding of Tiff and Frank and the party afterwards where all of the family descended on each other.

All you can expect is yet another Berzattos crash and burn, and yet, this turned out to be a wonderful night with some remarkable scenes without the over-the-top drama that one would expect.

I absolutely loved the interactions between Richie and Frank. The tension was thick between them, but they were able to put anything side to help Eva, who was scared about doing a dance with Frank. All I could think of during this scene was “How big is that friggin’ table?” as more and more members of the Berzattos clan, both related and honorary, found their way underneath the table. It turned into a giant “What are you afraid of?” share time to help Eva feel better. I loved this scene even if it felt like there were enough people under the table.

Other awesome moments/scenes:

  • Donna and Sydney talking. Sydney got stuck with Donna as Carmy got taken off. The scene was both wonderfully caring and deeply sad at the same time. Jamie Lee Curtis is a tremendous actor and she conveyed multiple feelings with single looks.
  • The feud between Natalie and Francie went full boar as they yelled at each other but ended the day hugging as friends. Apparently they were a thing at one time.
  • The scene between Uncle Jimmy and Tiff was sweet and dealt with Tiff’s concerns that the divorce with Richie would lose her the Berzattos family.
  • As Carmy hid in the kitchen, Lee (Bob Odenkirk) showed up and they had a deep discussion over everything. The dialogue played it as if they were on the edge through the whole time, but that they both wanted to clear the air.
  • Sydney and Richie dance at the wedding and he asked her about the other thing she wanted to tell him. She said it was a decision she had to make. Richie asked if she had made it and she said she only really had one choice. Not sure what that meant.
  • Stevie, played by John Mulaney, was hilarious through the entire episode. His line about all of the Berzattos attending the wedding was laugh out loud funny.

There was so much wonder here and the amount of chaos was limited to a normal wedding, not a Berzattos meeting.

This was such a great episode.

The Bear S4 E3, E4

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“Scallop”

“Worms”

Two very solid episodes of The Bear are next in their season four on Hulu.

“Scallop” featured Carmy, dealing with a bunch of his own issues. There is a tremendous scene between Carmy and Marcus outside on a smoke break. Their dialogue between them was sharp and filled with evidence about how important they were to each other. Carmy is slowly straightening his life around by seeing the energy and effort given by the staff of the Bear.

Rob Reiner guest starred as Albert Schner, in the episode with Ebraheim, who had asked for his opinion as a mentor about the window for “The Beef” which had been doing great business as a window behind The Bear.

This episode finished with a long overdue confrontation with Carmy and Claire. I would be lying if I did not say that I was yelling at the screen about this scene, waiting for Carmy to just apologize. While it did not feel resolved, I think it is the first baby steps in getting these two back together. Splitting them apart was the start of Carmy’s downward spiral and getting them back together is so needed.

Then in “Worms,” we focus in on Sydney and her decision between staying at the Bear or moving over to Shapiro’s. She has been split over this choice dating back to the last season and she is reaching the point where she is needing to decide.

She goes over to her cousin’s place. Her cousin was played by Danielle Deadwyler, who had had some of the top performances over the last few years. If you have not seen her in Till, do yourself a favor, get some tissues, and watch it.

Sydney winds up watching her cousin’s daughter, TJ. TJ and Sydney have a really nice episode bonding and talking over their own troubles. Sydney tries to use an analogy to get TJ’s opinion about where she wanted to work. She pretended to talk about sleep overs, but, we find out in the end, TJ knew it was about a job.

Sydney called Shapiro and started to talk about paperwork, making us think that she was ready to make the choice to leave the Bear.

These episodes are just nice, calmer character episodes, keeping the craziness to a limit. I like the way this season is going so far, but I expect fireworks coming up soon.

Squid Game Season 3

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Squid Game Season Three dropped on Netflix yesterday and I was able to binge it on Saturday and what an emotionally ragged trip this show took us on over the last six episodes of the acclaimed Korean series.

If we are really being truthful, season three of Squid Game really should be considered the second part of season two, as season two left us with a huge cliffhanger and very little to nothing resolved. Season Two Part 2 or Season Three is really semantics, so who cares that much?

Season two had spent a lot of time building the characters participating in the Squid Game up, so we had connections to them and that we cared about them (or despised them, as the case may be). I guess we should have known that they were building up these characters in order to rip our hearts out in the last season… because that is exactly what happened.

Honestly, there were a few characters that I believed would survive this season because I couldn’t believe that the show would be that cold hearted. Unfortunately, the show could be that cold hearted because practically every character that I thought “no way do they kill them off” got killed off.

Seong Gi-hun (played by Lee Jung-jae) was the one I was sure would survive, but the show had a fate for him planned out. He was truly our hero of the show and he showed what an honorable man he actually was. His efforts to save the baby, as well as others along the way, made him the show’s breakout character.

Geum-ja was another character that I thought for sure the show would not kill off, and then she hanged herself, after stabbing her own son to prevent him from killing Kim Jun-hee moments after she had given birth. That round of hide and seek was just horrific and filled with tension and anguish. Hyun-ju was another who I was sure had a great chance of being safe, but she did not make it out of the hide and seek, despite the fact that she found the exit before anyone else. She returned to get Geum-ja and Kim Jun-hee, whom had been together the whole game, only to get killed from behind by Myung-gi, right in front of Jun-hee and his daughter.

The jump rope section was also just rough and showed the worst in the players of this game. In fact, the worst of them kept making it through and the characters that I cared about kept getting killed off. I felt satisfied by the end with the deaths of those rotten players though.

However, the VIPs arrived to watch the games and they all had zero accountability at all. Man, I really wanted those VIPs to pay some kind of price for their cavalier attitude toward the games and their downright cruelty and wickedness. Nope, they see the ending of the games when Seong Gi-hun threw himself off the large pillar to save the baby and the VIPs are just never seen again. I really wanted someone to burst into the room and blast them all with some automatic weapon.

Who would guess that Cate Blanchett would be involved in the recruiting for more Squid Games in the world? She made a cameo as an American recruiter playing ddakji with some guy in an alleyway.

The last ten-fifteen minutes was spent wrapping stories up, giving us some ideas on what the few surviving characters were doing, specifically those secondary characters, such as Seong Gi-hun’s daughter.

This was a rough final season as so many of the characters that we had bonded with are killed rapidly. As I said, I really wanted more of a final ending that does not make me think that the Squid Games could be brought back or continue on as the show outright implied. The VIPs needed some kind of comeuppance for me to feel completely satisfied. The sacrifice made by Seong Gi-hun was beautiful and packed an emotional wallop.

A powerhouse of a series.

Ghostlight

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June 7

This was another movie that I never would have heard of if not for Dan Murrell, online critic, who put Ghostlight on his best of 2024 list. After hearing that, I added it to the June Swoon list.

Thank you, Dan. This was a sensational movie, one of the best that I have seen over the last year or so.

According to IMDB, “When a construction worker unexpectedly joins a local theater’s production of Romeo and Juliet, the drama onstage starts to mirror his own life.”

This script was beautifully constructed and the story told in a wonderful manner. Pieces of the story were given as the film progressed. We knew some of the things that happened, but they hold on to the overall events for the stretch. The writing was layered and worked so well that you could feel everything going on.

The performances were out of this world. Interestingly, the actors who played Dan and Sharon Mueller, Keith Kupferer and Tara Mallen, are married in real life, and their on-screen daughter Daisy was played by their real life daughter Katherine Mallen Kupferer. All of this made this feel real and all three of them knocked this out of the park.

I had immediate connection to this movie because I know kids like Daisy, who came out immediately with curse words and anger. I wanted to know more about what was going on, and these characters were so well done that everything was awesome.

I watched the movie on Amazon Prime and, I am not sure if this was the way it was supposed to go, but the very end felt like Prime cut off too soon. Maybe that was how the film ended, which, if so, it felt like I needed one more scene.

That was the only problem that I had with this film. It is one of the best movies I have seen in awhile. The story was small and emotional with the feeling of reality truly cutting deep. Ghostlight was great. If I were giving star ratings for these June Swoon movies, this would be five stars.

Screamboat

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June 4

When I saw this for rent on Vudu, I expected it to be another film in the same vein as Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey. It had two movies and both were in the top 5 worst movies of their respective years. Taking the Steamboat Willie cartoon from public domain felt like the same kind of sad and pathetic attempt.

Make no mistake, this is a terrible movie….

But…

I don’t know… I guess I came in with the expectations of Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey, but Screamboat was better than that. It’s not good. Just better than Blood and Honey.

According to IMDB, “A seemingly routine late-night ferry ride in New York City descends into chaos when an ordinary mouse undergoes a terrifying transformation. This mutated creature unleashes a reign of terror upon the unsuspecting passengers, forcing them to fight for their survival. As the body count rises, the remaining survivors must band together to find a way to escape the deadly vessel and confront the monstrous threat“

The piece that felt better than Blood and Honey was this had a satiric side to it. The Steamboat Willie character itself had some funny parts. He would whistle just before killing his victim, much like Mickey would in the original Steamboat Willie animated movie. I kind of liked the backstory of Steamboat Willie, involving the man known as Walt. Some of the kills were sufficiently gross. There were a couple of characters that I wanted to survive the trip on the ferry.

What was bad about the film? Oh, let’s see… the acting, the dialogue was horrendous. Most of these characters were one-dimensional and there were these “bad girls” that I really wanted to get killed by the mouse. I was cheering for Willie when they did. The characters did some really stupid things and made some really stupid choices. Plenty of the choices made no sense. Of course, stupid characters are not uncommon for some horror films, especially the slasher ones. A couple of the deaths of our main characters felt underwhelming.

If I am being honest, there are some funny moments in the movie and they actually felt like they were intended it to be funny. There was one line of dialogue that made me laugh out loud. One character fired a flare gun at Willie and said “Say cheese, mother f@#$%.” I thought that was exceptionally funny.

This is nowhere as bad as either of the two Winnie the Pooh: Blood and Honey movies and if you want a stupid movie to watch that has some dumb laughs and a murderous version of Mickey Mouse, you could do worse than this movie. Just know what kind of movie this is and do not expect much, and you might even have a passable time.

2.1 stars

Ender’s Game (2013)

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With the school year coming to an end, we decided to show a movie at the end of the most recent unit we have been working on. It was a sci-fi/space adventure unit and it actually had a possible “long” read offered of Orson Scott Card’s novel, Ender’s Game. We decided to show the movie to the seventh graders.

I hadn’t seen Ender’s Game since it was in the theaters back in 2013, so I was excited to get a chance to see it again. I remember liking it, but not loving it.

The cast of this film was extraordinary, starting with Asa Butterfield as Ender and Harrison Ford as Colonel Graff. These two had tremendous chemistry and carried much of the film. The actresses that played Valentine and Petra drove me nuts at first because I knew I recognized them but I just could not place their youthful faces. After a check on IMDB, I realized that Valentine was Abigail Breslin and Petra was Hailee Steinfeld. They were both great. The movie also included Ben Kingsley, Nonso Anozie and Viola Davis. Great actors in this film.

The special effects and the shots were spectacular as well. It looked beautiful and stunning at every moment. The animation of the mind game was a little uncanny valley, but it was supposed to be, showing the difference between this game world and the real world.

I did have some problems, basically with the script. It felt like there were too many moments that were rushed, as if they needed to cut things out to fit it in the film, and because of that, some scenes which were meant to be more impactful, ended up less so than it could have been.

One example was a scene between Ender and Sgt. Dap (Nonso Anozie) where Ender was being a particularly annoying child. Dap screamed at him to shut up and that he would never salute Ender. Then it felt like ten minutes later that Dap was doing that very thing. It was meant to be a powerful moment, but Ender did not seem to have earned that salute in any way, so the powerful moment felt a bit flat.

The conclusion of the film is sensational and Asa Butterfield is excellent at this moment. The eyes of Butterfield were remarkable, constantly right on the verge of being filled with tears while reflecting the light perfectly. The close-up visuals of Ender always worked.

The message is not ignored in Ender’s Game and, in fact, could be argued that it is as important to the film as anything else.

The students of my class seemed to enjoy the film, as every class that I showed this to asked if there was a sequel. I pointed out the book series while telling them that this was the only movie. One girl told me that she wanted Ender and Petra to get married… that she shipped them.

In the end, the film was pretty good. Yes, I think some of the writing needed some work and some of the moments did not feel as earned as it should have, but Ender’s Game was still a fun time among sci-fi films made for both kids and adults.