I have a soft spot for mysterious small town/location with some kind of enigmatic strangeness. Twin Peaks, Eerie, Indiana, LOST, Picket Fences, Widow’s Bay… and now you can add one more to the list.
From.
I have heard about this show for quite awhile now. It starred Harold Perrineau, who was, of course, on LOST as Michael Dawson, and the show had that eerie, weird feel immediately.
In these premiere two episodes, we get introduced to the fact that no one can be out past dark because of some kind of creatures that are all kinds of bad news. The little girl in the cold open of episode one paid the price for opening that window. A bloody, bloody price.
Lots of mysterious rules that we are told and see in action right off the bat. Not very many answers. Just how I like it.
Harold Perrineau is Sheriff Boyd Stevens and he has been clearly going through this for some time now. We see him trying to help people immediately.
There is a family driving into the town in their RV, after being redirected by a tree that was blocking the road. Apparently, once you are in this area, you do not leave. Again, reminded me of LOST with the people who could never leave the island.
The family is involved in a wreck with their RV, putting them all in danger. Little boy gets impaled in the leg by a table leg. That means he can’t be moved and darkness was coming.
There is a loaded cast and it will take some time for me to be able to identify which character is which. However, the show did a good job of showing me Boyd, his son Ellis, the Matthews family, and Donna. Donna’s story about her sister was tragic. The rest of the group will be people I am sure I will get to know over the next four seasons.
From is now on Netflix, while it is also on MGM + on Prime.
The new Laika top-action animation film was released this weekend. It was named Wildwood, and the trailers for this film looked tremendous. After seeing the whole film, it was even better than tremendous.
According to IMDB, “The adventures of Prue McKeel as she sets off to the forests outside Portland to find her kidnapped brother.“
Prue McKeel was voiced by Peyton Elizabeth Lee, and she was the main protagonist as she attempted to enter the Impassable Forest to save her little brother Mac, who had been abducted by a murder of crows.
The story is a master class in narrative storytelling. Everything combines together in such a perfect way and there are no loose ends or unimportant moments. Every character had an arc and the story did not leave anyone out. It is a top notch, emotional film that had me teary eyed in several moments of the third act.
It is also a masterpiece in stop-motion animation. It was the best stop-motion animation that I think I have ever seen. Every moment on the screen was gorgeous and filled with imagery and amazing color. I think this may be my favorite animation of the year.
The voice cast was powerful too. Along with Peyton Elizabeth Lee, the cast included Jacob Tremblay, Carey Mulligan, Richard E. Grant, Mahershala Ali, Jemaine Clement, Tom Waits, Charlie Day, Tantoo Cardinal, Marc Evan Jackson, Jake Johnson, Angela Bassett, Awkwafina, Maya Erskine, and Amandla Stenberg.
This is an epic fantasy that does not spare on the violence because it is animated. Several characters are killed and it is right up front about it. This is not a film for the youngest of the kids, but mid to teen would love this. It is such an amazing feature that showed what filmmakers are capable of with the medium. Director Travis Knight, who directed Kubo and the Two Strings, Bumblebee, and new Masters of the Universe, was also a producer on ParaNorman and Missing Link. He clearly has some skill when it comes to animation.
There are not many flaws to this magnificent movie. It may be a touch long, but it did not feel that way.
I do not usually have documentaries on the year end Best Movies because they are more difficult to compare them to scripted films. Won’t You Be My Neighbor about Mr. Rogers was a exception.
You Can See Everything will also be an exception. It will be on my Best Movies list for 2026.
I did not know anything about Elizabeth Holmes, nor did I watch the Hulu series The Dropout, so I came into the doc without any knowledge of what I was going to see. All I knew was that there was going to be some kind of twist, and that this was very well received. None of that was going to affect my enjoyment.
The fact is that I think the documentary started off a little slow. Part of that, I assume, is that I did not know any of the story previously. However, one this thing got cooking, man it was something else.
Nathan Fielder was one of the co-directors for this doc and he was the main, on-screen interviewer. He spent the last 34 days before Elizabeth Holmes surrendered herself to go to the prison.
This doc really kicked off for me when Nathan was interviewing Elizabeth’s father, and Elizabeth’s partner Billy Evans, interrupted, causing the father to change his entire attitude. It was creepy and very suspicious. There was also an awesome use of Abbot & Costello’s Who’s on First.
I was very impressed with the amount of participation this documentary got out of Amanda Seyfried, who played Holmes in The Dropout. The last part of this movie felt more like a movie than a documentary. I had to keep telling myself that the scenes with Amanda Seyfried were real. I thought this was designed so well that it gave me a total different feel (the whole scene about Charlie Kirk was uncomfortable as could be).
I was completely enthralled in the story this doc was telling and I was trying to figure out what was going to happen. Of course, doc endings are many times lacking because of the nature of the story. This ending was as satisfying as it could have been considering what had happened.
This is really not only a great documentary, but a great movie too.
The next film in the October 13 was a film that I had not heard about before, but found on Amazon Prime. It blended the horrors of a survival/revenge flick with the comedy of a dark nature. It worked extremely well.
According to IMDB, “Rivalries, dark secrets, and sexual tension emerge when three best friends find themselves stranded on a yacht in the middle of the ocean desperate for survival.”
This really mixed the two styles well, which is not an easy task. There have been so many horror/dark comedy amalgams over the years that simply failed to achieve the proper tone/balance. Harpoon hit a nice level between the two.
The best part of the comedy was the narrator, voiced by Brett Gelman (from Stranger Things and Fleabag) whose wry lines were the perfect soundtrack to the absurdity going on with these three friends.
The three actors who portrayed the central protagonists do a great job too. Munro Chambers played Jonah, Chris Gray played Richard and Emily Tyra played Sasha. They had a strong chemistry with each other and their emotions bounced around as we got to learn more about the trio.
Most of the film takes place aboard the stranded yacht and it created a real sense of isolation for each of the three. The use of Edgar Allan Poe’s only complete novel, The Narrative of Arthur Gordon Pym of Nantucket, as a plot point.
There are a bunch of scenes that were difficult to watch. Some that were painfully bloody or stomach wrenching. They fit well within the story unraveling on the screen.
I was not sure this was going to be for me after the very beginning of the film, but it rapidly became one that I was invested in and I really did enjoy watching it. The ending was satisfying too.
So the next DC Studios movie dropped today with the debut of Clayface, a body horror film featuring the classic Batman villain.
Straight up first, as this is a Batman villain without Batman, this is better than any of Sony’s Spider-Man villain films (Morbius, Madame Web, Kraven) sans Spider-Man. However, I did not find Clayface to be a great film. At best, it is mid.
According to IMDB, “Rising Hollywood star Matt Hagen descends into a horrifying revenge-filled monster when scientific ambition strips him of his identity and humanity.”
What did I like about Clayface: Most of the CGI was strong. I may not have loved the last look of Clayface, but most of the brutal body horror was great work. There were many scenes where I could not help but squint my eyes or look away. Those were strong moments.
Tom Rhys Harries does a good job as Matt Hagen, the actor who gets his face cut up and comes to the become Clayface. I liked his performance.
The story was fine, but I have to say that the dialogue of this movie was horrendous. There was a ton of cheesy lines that really were laughable. I wish the writing was better because it was one of the biggest drags on the film.
I did not love the third act very much either. Some of the developments of the story near the end of the film did not work for me well. Again, no spoilers here, but there are moments that I just did not like.
I left the theater feeling mixed about the movie. There were things I enjoyed about it. I did not hate the film, by any stretch, but it feels like it is right on the line between positive review and negative review. In the end, I think I would say that I liked more than I did not.
The next two episodes of VisionQuest dropped on Disney + tonight and there are some big time stuff.
Jocasta made her first appearance in the MCU as a brutal AI killer. We get a background on her. And she was kicking Vision’s butt.
The first episode this week dealt with Vision’s damage from Paladin’s attack, and the relationship between Tommy and Vision is handled. Admittedly, Tommy was a little whiny in that episode, but that is understandable.
One of the funniest parts of the first episode was that they had to fix Vision by shutting him off and restarting him. Just like any tech.
My first thought about “Reboot” was it felt a little silly at times, but I loved how it developed through the episode.
By the end though, my mouth was so agape. When Vision let Ultron take over the body to stop Jocasta and he helped her kill her target, I was shocked. Then, Ultron was was going to keep Vision’s body. Whoa!
I am amazed at this twist at the end of episode four. Holy cow, it was chilling. I loved how they dubbed James Spader’s voice over Paul Bettany’s acting. It was so smooth that it almost seemed as if Bettany was doing the voice. It was definitely Spader’s voice, but if you told me it was just Bettany doing a Spader imitation, I would believe you.
I enjoyed the path of E.D.I.T.H. looking at her past in the real world. They mentioned how Tony Stark based the AI’s on real people (in the MCU). Ultron actually had a good scene with EDITH about this.
Oh, and Paladin was fired by the mysterious benefactor. There was a ton of mentions of JIM… Jim Hammond, the original Human Torch, and that is my guess right now about the benefactor. JIM is absolutely going to be a part of this show.
James Spader is so great. Ruaridh Mollica is a fabulous Tommy so far. I am not sure how I felt about Dum-E and U suddenly speaking. The whole U singing at JARVIS’s “funeral” was too sappy for me.
Still, I can not wait for next week. It was extremely well done.
I caught back up with American Horror Story’s 13th season after missing a few weeks. I watched episodes 7-10 of the big crossover season.
These four episodes featured the witches from AHS: Coven heavily, specifically in the first two of these four episodes. We also get back to Ben, and we learn what his deal is and why he has that tattoo 616 on his back.
I did love seeing the Nightstalker, Dahmer and Zodiac make appearances only to get their asses handed to them.
I have to say that the first six episodes of this season were fun, but I was not very invested in them. I think a big reason was that there were a lot of Easter eggs with characters showing up from seasons that I did not watch or did not remember. For every Twisty or Rubber Man, there were two or three characters that I did not know.
However, with the focus on the Coven witches, even though that was not my most favorite season, I was able to focus in on what the story was going to be, and these last four episodes had me bought in.
We find out the truth behind Mr. Nas and his purpose. A bet between God and Satan? How very Chris DeBurgh of the show. Constance discovering the shocking truth behind her own parentage, which was a big time cock block as well.
Then, the end of episode ten, with Ben, who just learned of his own position as son of Satan and Satan’s potential right hand man on earth, heads to Miss Robichaux’s Academy to confront the Coven who is beginning their search for him.
These episodes felt very much more concise, more planned and we more than just a bunch of member-berries. These have me much more excited for American Horror Story than I was before, as it was clear that the last AHS episode I watched was Oct. 4. It won’t be two weeks until I watch episode 11, for sure.
Boston Legal has always had some wonderful guest stars over the years who played some extremely memorable characters. The three episodes of season two had several examples of some of the best.
Catherine Piper- played by Betty White. She had been on previous episodes as well as on The Practice. She starts robbing convenience stores to get Alan’s attention.
Jerry Espenson- played by Christian Clemenson, who would eventually become a series regular… at this point was just an eccentric lawyer who would not take his hands off his thighs. He also held a knife to Shirley’s neck when he found out that he was not making partner.
Daniel Post- played by Michael J. Fox, who was a young CEO who had terminal cancer, but becomes involved with Denise. Daniel was very spoiled and used his money to try and take advantage of a special cancer trial.
Bev Bridge- played by Joanna Cassidy, had sex with Denny the night they met… the the coat check room. Denny and Bev planned to marry, and the firm worried about the influence she would have over Denny. She does fire the sandwich guy.
This is not just guest stars, but these roles are being played by big name stars. They all would appear in several episodes, if not many more.
These episodes start to show that Alan Shore is more than just a lawyer with questionable ethics. They are showing Alan as a man who is willing to fight for what he believes and for his clients. He might still do what it takes (like bribe a witness with a new car), but I might go as far as to say that Alan is beginning to become the heart and soul of Crane, Poole & Schmidt. He’s always been a good man deep down, but much of these episodes show him being a good man outwardly.
The new thriller with a credibility-stretching premise came out this weekend. Whalefall sees our main character getting swallowed by a sperm whale.
According to IMDB, “Follows a scuba diver who, while looking for his father’s remains, is swallowed by an 80-foot, 60-ton sperm whale and has just one hour to get out before his oxygen runs out.”
Austin Abrams starred as Jay Gardiner, the kid who winds up inside the whale. Josh Brolin played his father, Mitt Gardiner. I think that Austin Abrams does a great job, and he is having a big year after starring in the new Resident Evil film. I think he is a star in the making.
Now, the whale in the room is this… you absolutely need to suspend your disbelief in order to accept this premise. The idea that someone could be swallowed by a whale and attempt to survive is just ridiculous and implausible. If you can get past that, the scenes where Abrams is swallowed by the whale (thanks a lot squid) and trying to survive inside the whale are compelling, stressful and engaging as hell. I was fully tense the entire time Jay was inside the whale.
The film used flashbacks to give more details to the relationship between Jay and Mitt. Most of these flashbacks were okay, even if the ones that they showed were kind of heavy-handed. All of the flashbacks played a role in the situation Jay was in. The flashbacks were nowhere near as captivating as the scenes inside the whale. Josh Brolin was fine, if not good, as Mitt, but the character itself was fairly stereotypical.
The first two acts of Whalefall were tremendous and created such a suspenseful tone that it was feeling as if it was going to be one of the best movies of the year. Sadly, the third act was nowhere near as strong and, while still not keeping me from enjoying the film overall, it did bring my opinion of the film down. No spoilers of course, but I just did not think the ending reached the high levels of the first two acts.
The effects inside the whale were absolutely spectacular. They created such a feeling of claustrophobia and tension that the scenes were hard to watch at times. I was always waiting for the next thing to drop to cause trouble for Jay. The sound mix was perhaps Oscar level as the sounds inside the whale and the lead up to Jay being inside was just amazing.
One area that was a problem was the fact that Jay had to keep a mouthpiece in his mouth the whole time he was in the whale because of the toxic air in the whale’s stomach, and that led to Austin Abrams having to mumble a lot of the lines he had. It was difficult to understand what he was saying through much of the movie. So much so that perhaps they should have given an ADR for Abrams so he could be heard. It may have been used to give some realism to a series of scenes that had little to no realism about them. Maybe they could have placed words on the screen so the audience could know what Jay was saying.
I enjoyed this movie for most of the runtime, though it did slip from my initial thoughts of it challenging for the top 10 of the year to a point where it is a movie that I would recommend and liked, but not loved.
I did not think that the trailer to this new version of the video game, Street Fighter, was very good. In fact, I thought it looked bad. However, I knew that WWE Superstars Cody Rhodes and Joe ‘Roman Reigns’ Anoai appeared as characters, and so, even with Cody displaying the ridiculous hairdo of Guile, I wanted to see the film.
After watching the new Street Fighter, I confirm that the trailer was an accurate description of the film. This really did suck.
According to IMDB, “Street Fighters Ryu and Ken reunite when Chun-Li recruits them for the World Warrior Tournament. As they face a hidden conspiracy, they must confront each other and their past-or face destruction.“
Ken was played by DC Movie Black Adam’s Atom Smasher himself, Noah Centineo and Ryo was played by GI Joe’s Stormshadow, Andrew Koji. I am sorry to say that neither of these actors were good in this movie. Ken was especially difficult to watch because the character was meant to be stupid. He sure was that, so maybe Centineo does a better job of it than I expected.
Oddly enough, I thought Cody Rhodes was the most entertaining aspect of this movie, as Guile and his incompetent, smart-aleck quips. I even got use to the ridiculous hairdo. Unfortunately, Roman did not get much of a character in the film. But he did look great. I acknowledge that.
The story of Street Fighter is so dumb that it takes away from anything positive that the film may have. I found it boring for a good chunk of the film and I could not close my mind off enough to enjoy it. Things happened off screen that seemed to be important to the overall film.
I do like David Dastmalchian, who is always a great choice for a villain, even if M. Bison is a one-note villain. Jason Momoa was in this too, but I spent most of his time on screen trying to figure out if that was Roman Reigns playing the role.
The film looked decent. I liked the color and the design of most of the film. The music was filled with needledrops that were really on the nose.
The ending was left open for a sequel that, I can imagine, that if you were enjoying the movie, you would have been upset at the lack of a satisfying conclusion. I had long since given up on enjoying the movie so the crappy ending did not bother me any more.
The film was too long. It was too dumb. It was not a fun kind of dumb. It was more the stupid kind of dumb. This could have had a role as a satire/parody, but it was supposed to be too serious.
I did like the animated sections they used to fill in the exposition. They should have done more with that. Any time they went back to the live action, this movie suffered.
This was much worse that the Mortal Kombat film from earlier this year. Thank goodness for Cody Rhodes.
I had thought that I had seen It Came From Outer Space (1953) before, but there was no review on the site. Because of that, I decided to add it on the list for the October 13. After watching it, I think what I was thinking was “The Day the Earth Stood Still” instead of this one. Both of these films were named in the “Science Fiction/Double Feature” song from Rocky Horror Picture Show, which may have led to my confusion as well.
I have definitely not seen this movie before, but it was a really enjoyable. These kind of sci-fi outer space films from the 50s have a tone about them that really sets them apart from other films of the time. They are also great in comparison to the more recent because of their low budget and reliance on practical effects.
According to IMDB, “A spaceship from another world crashes in the Arizona desert and only an amateur stargazer and a schoolteacher suspect alien influence when the local townsfolk begin to act strangely.”
There was some good tension in the film as the aliens moved about taking over humans’ appearances in order to walk freely among them. The interactions between astronomer John Putnam and Sheriff Warren was fun, even if it was unlikely.
I was surprised when the Professor from Gilligan’s Island walked onto the screen. Russell Johnson played George, one of the earliest of the humans to be taken by the aliens and replaced. I have seen Johnson in other roles such as in The Twilight Zone before his most recognizable role on the sitcom.
I liked this a lot and it was fun watching the story develop. This film was not afraid to set the humans in a more aggressive manner when the aliens just wanted to fix their crashed ship and leave.
I got a ton of books this week. Mainly because I attended In This Issue’s 10th anniversary sale. They had their stuff a bag sale and I had two of the bags, $50 dollars each, and I wound up with over 200 back issues. I got a lot of New Avengers, War Machine, Rebels, New Universal, some alternate covers of Something Epic and many others. It was a lot of fun. Congrats to In This Issue on their anniversary.
Comic of the Week
Gee, what could it be?
Amazing Spider-Man #1000
I got so many Amazing Spider-Man #1000 this past week. Of course I did. Spider-Man is my favorite character in all of fiction, not just comic books, so this is a major accomplishment. There were a bunch of covers and two of them were medalists this week (Silver and Gold).
The initial story was slightly disappointing when Peter’s cousin, Cormac, became a villainous character. I was hoping this would go in a different direction. I thought the story itself was fine, but I hoped for something different.
I loved the Old Man Parker in the retirement home story though.
Books This Week:
Operation: Iron Coffin #3. Written by Kenny Porter with art and cover art by Tyrell Cannon. I picked up the B cover too by Juan Ferreyra. Count Dracula finally finds his way to the children… which leads to the end of this series. Now, they certainly are going to continue this series eventually I believe. I have enjoyed this series very much.
Uncanny X-Men #36. “Wild Ride,” Part 4: “Rights of Rage“. Written by Gail Simone and art by Luciano Vecchio. Cover art was done by Luciano Vecchio & Matthew Wilson. We get the fourth part of the Wild Ride. I am not sure if Gambit is cured or if there is more, but I do love the originality of the series.
Queen in Black #5. Written by Al Ewing and art by Iban Coello & Paco Medina. The cover art was done by Ryan Stegman & Marcelo Maiolo. I have to say that I am not a fan of the end of the Queen in Black. It started fairly strong, but the ending did not do much for me.
Hyde Street #13. Written by Geoff Johns and art by Ivan Reis. Cover art was done by Ivan Reis, Danny Miki, & Brad Anderson. The Butcher is here and the denizens of Hyde Street are not a fan. Things are very dangerous with the Butcher out to attack Mrs. Goodbody.
Mister Nemo #3. Written by Mark London with art by Alden Kaye. Cover art was done by Duncan Rouleau. Big new adventure as Nemo and the crew launch a rescue mission on the island of Faro. The Mister Nemo book has been very engaging and entertaining as the series moves on.
Hammerfist #2. Written by Rick Remender and art and cover art by Steve Epting. William is on the run from all of the people who want what he has. There are some great action and brutality in this new series. This is a great new Image book that has been fun to read.
Denver #2. Written by Jimmy Palmiotti & Justin Gray with art by Pier Brito. Cover art was done by Amanda Conner. Max Flynn’s wife has been kidnapped and the villains are threatening to kill her off if Max does not do what they want… let several boats into Denver. Max gets a bit wild.
Geiger #25. Written by Geoff Johns and art by Gary Frank. Variant cover D art was a pic of the MacFarlane Toys Action Figure. The big 25th issue of Geiger saw the battle between the Glowing Man and the bandaged President Griffin. It looked like we are on the way to a showdown with Glowing Man and Redcoat.
Fantastic Four #17. “A Rat is Killed, A Man is Broken…” Written by Ryan North and art by Vincenzo Carratu. Cover art was done by Humberto Ramos & Edgar Delgado. I also picked up the Muppet version of the FF cover by Giuseppe Camuncoli & Edgar Delgado. The FF are shrunken down and are inside the body of Magneto. Problem is they do not remember anything. It was fun how they interacted with each other without their memories. It was one of the strengths of Ryan North and it reminded me of the early days of his run.
X-Men #38. Written by Jed MacKay with pencils by Tony S. Daniel. Cover art was done by Netho Diaz, Sean Parsons & Arthur Hesli. This DNX tie-in goes inside Magneto’s mind with Charles Xavier showing up… or does he? There feels to be a never ending mine of details between Magneto and Xavier.
Amazing Venom #1. Written by Jordan Morris with art by Luke Ross. Cover art was done by Stefano Caselli (Bronze Medalist). Fred Myers was at one time Boomerang. He has bonded with the symbiote Passenger and they come together as Comeback. I am not sure if I am getting this book in the long run or not. I do like Fred so I might give it a chance.
DNX #2. “Part Two” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Federico Vicentini. Cover art was done by Kaare Andrews. Cyclops and Chairman face off as the X-Men try to keep 3X from releasing the X-Virus in Philadelphia. And seemingly, they succeed. Problem was… 3X had a second site… and the X-Virus was released in Juniper. The X-Virus is now out. What are they going to do?
X-Men United #7. “Shadow Play Pt. 3” Written by Eve L. Ewing & Evan Narcisse with pencils by Ruairi Coleman. Cover art was done by Stefano Caselli & Federico Blee. Wither and Blade arrive, leading to… a fight with Bald and Wolverine, of course. But in the end, they are in search of the missing daughter of Blade, Brielle aka Bloodline.
Venom #262. Written by Al Ewing and art by Carlos Gomez. Cover art was done by Carlos Gomez & Guru-eFX. This is the end of this version of Venom. Mary Jane has had her symbiote taken away and she is back to normal. I am not sure where things go from here, but it looks as if Eddie Brock is back as Venom.
Hello Darkness #25. Todd saved me a couple of variant covers by Jenny Frison. She created these variant covers as a connective cover and they are just beautiful. The stories within this issue were not my favorite over the 25 issues so far, but I am always down for some awesome cover art.
White Sky #6. Written by William Harms and art was done by JP Mavinga. Cover art was done by JP Mavinga. The first arc of White Sky wraps up with issue six. David tries to break out of the scavenger camp while Violet leaves San Francisco. White Sky will return in a few months.
Hillbilly: The Treason of Twelve-Toe Maggie #1. Written, art and cover art by Eric Powell. The synopsis? The wandering hero Rondel (wielder of the Devil’s Cleaver) must save an old friend. To do so, he is forced into the service of his former captor, the twelve-toed witch Twelve-Toe Maggie. Rondel must figure a way to break the magical tie to Maggie. This was a cool new book from Dark Horse and I am looking forward to more.
Zorro’s Legacy #3. “True of False.” Written by Dan Abnett and art by Guillermo Fajardo. Cover art was done by Aaron Lopresti. Crooked cops and the mafia of the area are trying to set up the new Zorro. Zorro knows this is a trap, but he does not seem to care. The present day Zorro has been an entertaining twist on the classic character.
Bizarro: Year None #3. “Chapter Three: How Do I Look?” Written by Eric Carrasco & Kevin Smith with art by Nick Pitarra. Variant cover C by Ibrahim Mostafa. I picked up a great cover off the stand for this book. Bizarro apparently has realized that he is not Superman. Is that a good thing?
Other books this week: Shift #1, American Caper #11, Queen in Black: Venom Unchained #3, Fantastic Four: First Foes-Dragon Man #1, Web of Destiny #1, The Smart Division #2, and Valhallaw #1.
Quick Hits: The Tomb of Apocalypse #2 was back this month with more action involving Jubilee, Shatterstar, Rictor and Wolverine. The Sorcerer Supreme #10 found the end of the series with Wanda. I have not loved this series, despite loving Wanda. Reborn Ultimate Impact #5 wrapped up this week as well. I was also not a huge fan of this, but I did like the New Jersey Wonder Man. Gambit Wanted #3 saw our wonderful Gambit in a dark situation. Predator versus the Planet of the Apes #3 brought two of the big tentpole franchises owned by Disney together again. How many other mash-ups are in our future? Speaking of… AVX #1 which is Alien vs. X-Men. Final Boss #10 is another brutal video game-like fight. Vertigo’s Bleeding Hearts #8 and the zombie action moves along. The is a wonderful Conan the Barbarian #35 which had a beautiful cover that could have been in the medal round had there not been 20+ Amazing Spider-Man books out there. Bad Thoughts #4 is one of the top notch Ignition Press books. Ande Parks is a awesome writer and this has been a strong book.
I adjusted the rules of the October 13 because I wanted to do a rewatch of Steven Spielberg’s War of the Worlds. Typically, the October 13 is reserved for films that I have never seen before, and I did see this film in the theater back when it came out. However, I decided to include this one in the October 13 as a rewatch this year because I did want to give it a second chance, and I am glad that I did.
I remember not liking this movie at all when I saw it in the theater. I distinctly remember sitting in the Voy Theater and hating this film. I pulled it up today on HBO Max and thought it was much better. I still wouldn’t say that I loved it, but I did enjoy it more than that first time, and I am happy I did the rewatch.
According to IMDB, “An alien invasion threatens the future of humanity. The catastrophic nightmare is depicted through the eyes of one American family fighting for survival.”
One of the reasons why I think I liked this more this time than back then was I was not as familiar with HG Wells’ novel War of the Worlds at the time. Since I have read it and taught it at school and I have more of an appreciation for it. While they made many adaptations to it, there are several key scenes that come from the novel, including the scenes involving Ogilvy (Tim Robbins).
I was now familiar with the ending of the story, and how the alien tripods were brought down. I remember being really unhappy with the conclusion when I first saw it, but now it feels much more acceptable, if not even somewhat iconic.
Tom Cruise is solid as well, and we get some great scenes of him running. The two kids (Dakota Fanning and Justin Chatwin) were annoying through much of the film, but they grew on me as the story progressed.
The film looked great with the tripods and the aliens, and the scene where the long tentacle searched through the basement where Cruise and Ogilvy were hidden was very tense and suspenseful.
In the end, this was way better than I had remembered, and, while it is nowhere near the top of my Spielberg list of movies, it is no long near the bottom either.
I mean, the character of Floyd, as brilliantly played by David Harbour, is one of the best character/people on TV. Everything about him was awesome, personality wise.
That all came through during the interrogation between Clark and Detective Plumb and Homer, after Plumb discovered that Carol had lied about the Go Getter drink.
The way Clark spoke about Floyd was as loving as you could and the descriptions of the way Floyd handled his life, from his step-son to a chance encounter, was so above board that one wonders why anyone would want him dead.
This episode revealed that Floyd was not a closeted gay. He had misinterpreted a picture on the DTF St. Louis site as a woman (didn’t have his spectacles on) when it was a picture of David Bowie, and his chance encounter with a man. Floyd lets him kiss him in the parking lot to avoid hurting the man’s feelings, even though he was not into him in that way.
This episode spent a chunk of time setting up Carol as the obvious suspect in the murder. Since it is episode three, I think she is also a red herring. We saw Carol riding one of the recumbent bikes like Clark does, plus she spent a bunch of time trying to get Clark to help her get life insurance for Floyd.
There is no doubt after this episode that Clark did not kill Floyd. The key that the police showed him clammed him up. I think it probably leads to some life insurance that would point the finger at Carol, and Clark was trying to protect her. I have a suspicion that he believes she killed Floyd.
Their sex life encounters… weird.
By the way, the gymnastics routine from Floyd on the hostile architecture was epic. Floyd was really out of breath after it. Is that a clue?
I am intrigued with this case, and I really want to know what happened to the wonderful Floyd.
The first film of The October 13 this year is the first film of a franchise based on a video game from 2002. The video game? Resident Evil.
I had kind of wanted to watch this before I went to the rebooted Resident Evil from Zach Cregger, but it was out in September and I did not want to wait. I really enjoyed that movie starring Austin Abrams. Unfortunately, the original film, starring Milla Jovovich and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, was nowhere a good as the 2026 film.
This was tremendously bad. The acting was just atrocious. Milla Jovovich, who starred in one of my favorite movies The Fifth Element as Leelo, was just going through the motions, and sadly, she was the best actor of the crew.
There was LOST’s own Michelle Rodriguez, but she was just not bringing the goods. The rest of the cast was as wooden as one could be.
There were some moments that made me laugh loudly, even though they were not intended to. One example was when Milla made an acrobatic kick after bouncing off the wall, into the face of a monster dog. It was so ridiculous that it was embarrassing even for a video game.
The film did not look good. It was 2002, but it still lacked what I would have hoped for from the day. It was predictable and, while at the time it might have been more than just another zombie flick, since I am watching this is 2026, this is just another zombie flick.
Milla Jovovich is gorgeous and definitely stands out among the images of the violence and the gore, but there just is nothing else here. I am so happy the new film took a different direction, because it was heads and shoulders above this mess.
