Tag Archives: reviews

EYG Comic Cavalcade #223

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October 5

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.

War of the Worlds (2005)

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October 4

#3 out of 13

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.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #89

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DTF St. Louis

“The Go Getter”

The theme of this episode: Floyd was wonderful.

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.

Resident Evil (2002)

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October 2

#1 of 13

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The October 13 is not starting off strong.

Unabomber

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

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

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

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

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

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

2.8 stars

Primetime

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I have been excited about this movie from A24 for awhile now. I did watch How to Catch a Predator at times, though not regularly (as the film tells us… it was up against LOST) and this sounded interesting.

I have to say that I did like this movie, and I think that Robert Pattinson did a great job as Chris Hansen. There was something about the film that just felt off. I am not sure what it is about Primetime that did not work as well as I would have liked it, but it was an interesting film.

The behind the scenes aspects of How to Catch a Predator was weird and strange. I am not sure what was happening with Chris Hansen. He was extremely creepy in the story as well. The film split the difference between Chris Hansen and Dan Plum (Skyler Gisondo) as what felt like the co-protagonists.

I had some issues with Skyler Gisondo. I think he is a great actor and he does an admirable job in this movie, but I just had a hard time thinking of him as a 13-year old. That might be just my own problem, but it was in my head the whole time.

The third act took all of the bizarre parts of the film and made it compelling during this over-the-top ending.

I think the film was not as strong as I thought it was going to be, but there were some great performances from both Robert Pattinson and Skyler Gisondo (and also Merrit Wever, whose Andie Bender was a real fascinating addition). The film felt psychedelic at times, which was both intriguing and weird.

I think I enjoyed the film more than what bothered me. It is a strange film but I liked it in the long run.

3.4 stars

American Horror Story 13 S13 E1-3

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“13”

“1:13 AM”

“Rauhnacht”

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

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

Wild.

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

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

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

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

The number 13 is significant this season.

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

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

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

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #87

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DTF St. Louis

“Cornhole”

An Emmy winning limited series from HBO Max is the next show for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk and I am a little disappointed. Not with the show, I thought it was a compelling and gripping first episode that I am excited to continue. I am disappointed because I knew the premise of the show before I watched episode one.

I knew that there would be a surprising murder in episode one… truthfully, it was what attracted me to the show… but I really wish I had not known this fact because the surprise would have been monumental.

We got some hints at the non-linear storytelling techniques in the first episode as we did see David Harbour’s character Floyd Smernitch in flashbacks after his body had been discovered dead. I do enjoy the non-linear structure as the use of flashbacks can help tell the story extremely effectively.

Jason Bateman’s weatherman character Clark Forrest feels like the classic red herring, as he was arrested in the first episode. Linda Cardellini, who was Floyd’s wife, Carol, was purposefully made to look sinister at times in the episode.

It’s really early to try to make a judgment on whom the killer is, because there could be any number of factors that played into it that we do not know yet. The manner in which Floyd was killed does seem to limit the number of possibilities.

I love a good mystery and a major character being offed in the first episode is great. It reminded me of when Laura Palmer was found wrapped in plastic, though I do not expect any sort of weirdness like I got in Twin Peaks in DTF St. Louis.

I do love the dynamic between Richard Jennings (who played Detective Donoghue Homer) and Joy Sunday (who played Detective Jodie Plumb). They will be a fun pair to follow as the facts of the case are laid out before the audience.

Jason Bateman, Linda Cardellini and David Harbour are awesome actors that I love in just about everything I have seen them in, so I expect this seven-episode limited series to be a fantastic ride. It already dropped a bunch of shocking reveals that I can’t wait to see play out.

Resident Evil (2026)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.4 stars

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #86

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Spoilers

Black Bird

“You Promised”

The finale of Black Bird on Apple TV + was satisfying. It was also sad. I had been cautious to look at any reports about the case, since this is based on a true story of Jimmy Keene and Larry Hall, so I would not know how it turned out. This episode saw Larry draw a map and carve a little bird for each of the girls that he murdered. He sent the map to his brother. I was not sure the reasoning behind that, but Jimmy was able to get a look at the map.

Sadly, the map was not specific enough for Jimmy to get any details outside of a general location and, in the end, none of the girl’s bodies had been recovered.

The final scene between Jimmy and Larry was powerful, as Taron Egerton and Paul Walter Hauser just knocked this scene out of the park. Jimmy tried to convince Larry to let the parents of the victims know where their daughters were buried and Larry did not understand why he would do that. You could see Jimmy slowly reaching the point of breaking from the horrors that Larry was laying out in front of him.

Watching Larry’s face as his evil continued to shine out was a frightening occurrence and showed what kind of actor Paul Walter Hauser could be.

In a fictional tale, ,they would have found the graves of the victims, but, with the true story, those remain a mystery.

I am very pleased with the way Jimmy Keene’s life played out both on screen and in real life. The show added “boxed text” at the end to give us some falling action for this story, including what happened to Jimmy, to his father, Larry and Larry’s brother Gary.

The strength of this series was absolutely the performances of its two lead stars, both who had been nominated for Emmy Awards with Hauser winning Best Supporting Actor in a Limited Series.

Next week, we start a new series for the Sunday Morning Sidewalk. I decided to watch another limited series that won some Emmys, this time on HBO Max entitled DFT St. Louis featuring Jason Bateman, Linda Cardellini, and David Harbour.

Hope

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

Wild is not the appropriate descriptor for the film.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

4.5 stars

Practical Magic 2

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I was in the theater watching Practical Magic 2 and there were a couple of young women sitting a couple seats away from me. They were enjoying this movie so much. They were crying, gasping, leaning on each other and reacting to everything that was happening. It made me remember how I reacted to Avengers: Endgame on the first watch. There was an energy coming from them that was wonderful.

I wish I would have liked the movie anywhere near what they did.

I just watched Practical Magic for the first time earlier this week in preparation for this movie, and, while I did not like it that much, I am glad I watched it, because you needed to know the story of the original in order to know what is happening.

The curse of the Owens sisters (Sandra Bullock & Nicole Kidman) takes front and center once again as Sally’s husband Gary died off screen, confirming that the curse was still going on. The story transferred to Sally’s daughters, Antonia (Maisie Williams) and Kylie (Joey King), as they were coming to celebrate the birthday of Aunt Jet (Dianne Wiest). Sally had kept her daughters in the dark about their background as witches so when Kylie came with a boyfriend (Xolo Maridueña), things take a turn for tragedy.

The actors are all likeable. I have to admit to only seeing Blue Beetle when Xolo Maridueña was on screen. I was also happy to see Stockard Channing, who I really thought was dead.

The story felt very shaky and I found it to be the biggest weakness of the film. The writing was silly and it was really predictable. I was rolling my eyes several times.

I am glad the young ladies in my row enjoyed this so much. I did not hate the film, but I did not find it any better than the original, which I thought was below level.

2.8 stars

Buddy

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

5 stars

Ted Lasso S4 E6

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Spoilers

“Don’t Jump Around Much Anymore“

Be careful when “Jump Around” comes on… especially when you have a bad knee.

Roy went down at a New Year’s Eve party as the House of Pain hit played. He and Jamie Tartt, who was back guest starring, joined in the dance and Roy’s knee let out. It led to Keeley to meet Roy’s new doctor girlfriend, which was crushing to her.

Then a supremely doped up Roy ends up telling the doctor that he loves….Keeley. Roy did not realize he was talking to the doctor… and Keeley heard him, but only up to the point where he said “I love you”. Of course she thought Roy was meaning the doctor. It was an old misunderstanding trope of sitcoms, but there is a reason why it has been used as often as it has. It worked here too.

It did feel weird that we got a New Year’s Eve episode in September, but I forgive that too because it was a solid character episode. We had important moments for not only Roy & Keeley, but also Ted & Ted’s ex-wife, Michelle, Beard, Jamie, and Rebecca and Matthijs. Then, Alice seemed to take some huge steps, but then took giant leaps backward.

Oh, and Tracy Ulman’s character is amazingly weird and downright psychotic.

Some of the episode’s arcs were heartbreaking while other arcs help move the characters forward. The scenes between Ted and Michelle were really sweet. I was afraid they were going to do some alcohol related sex between them, but they stuck with the friendship and Ted feels able to ask someone out on a date.

Rebecca and Matthijs made up in time for midnight as Matthijs arrived at the hospital where Rebecca was hanging out with Jamie after bringing Roy here for his knee. It was a nice resolution, but there was not really much of a story this way. Still, with the other flops of relationships, it was nice to have someone happy.

The Runner

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

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

I can see now why it was available free.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

0.5 stars