Tag Archives: reviews

Yellowjackets S3 E7

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“Yellowjackets: Croak”

Joel McHale.

I did not expect to see him as one of the outsiders that came upon the Yellowjackets last week, but there he was, sporting a crossbow and everything.

I don’t know, if I were Joel McHale, who played Kodiak, who was a guide for the frog scientists, Edwin and Hannah, I would not have run from the girls. I had a crossbow. Even after Lottie killed Edwin with an axe, I think I might have tried to take a stand against them. He was clearly bigger and stronger than the girls.

In the end, both Kodiak and Hannah were captured by the Yellowjackets and, if what he hear about in the present day, it does not sound as if either of them make it out of the wilderness. At least, if they do, they are missing.

Then, the mystery of who killed Lottie continues to be crazy as it could, literally, be just about anyone. Taissa has been under the control of her other half for who knows how long. Something confirmed by Van when she was hallucinating at the hospital. She was throwing up blood as Shauna, Tai and Misty joined her on the way to confront the daughter of Hannah, who they believe had sent them that tape. Of course, it could also be Shauna, who had her DNA under Lottie’s fingernails.

Shauna ditched her, well, I was going to say friends, but that is not right) former team mates at the hospital and went to the daughter’s house and Shauna had purchased a big old knife. What is her plan? Or is she just still as psychotic as she seemed in the wilderness? Callie seems to be wondering if her mother is a bad person.

This episode flew by for me and I was not ready for it to end. I can’t wait for next week’s new installment… along with the rumored appearance of Hillary Swank.

Locked

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I had not heard about this movie until I saw a mention of it on TikTok. Starring Bill Skarsgård and Anthony Hopkins, this reminded me quite a bit of Phone Booth, with Colin Farrell, but with a car.

Eddie Barrish (Bill Skarsgård) was a man struggling to get his life on track. His van was in the shop and he did not have the money to pay to get it fixed and he could not keep his promises to pick up his daughter, Sarah (Ashley Cartwright) after school.

In an attempt to get the money he needed, Eddie was in search of a car that might be open where he could steal the money he needed. He was not stealing cars, just looking for stuff he could steal inside.

When he comes across a wealthy looking car unlocked in a parking lot, Eddie thinks he has struck it rich. That is until he realizes that he can not get back out of the car. He is locked inside. And a phone line from the car is ringing, demanding that he answer it.

When Eddie can’t take the ring any longer, he answers the phone to discover that the car’s owner, William (Anthony Hopkins) is on the other end and this car was a trap to punish anyone trying to rob it. William then tortures Eddie for several days in several hard to buy scenarios in an attempt for justice. Eddie does not know how deep the anger goes inside William.

I am of two minds with this one. While I like the idea and the execution, some of the things going down are hard to accept as possible. The electrified seats, the bullet proof glass, and the cameras everywhere were all accepted as part of the trap. I kept thinking that there had to be a way out of this car and that made it tough for me to accept the premise.

Bill Skarsgård, however, does a fantastic job as Eddie. Eddie goes through the ringer here, both physically and emotionally. This is one of the rare films that Bill Skarsgård has done where we can see his face, and he does not disappoint. His character is filled with all kinds of emotion and guilt over the life that he has chosen and his own failures as a man and a father. He clearly loves his daughter, even while letting her down consistently.

There just felt like there was something that did not work in this movie for me, and, I can’t believe I’m going to say this, but I think it was Anthony Hopkins. He is a master at acting, but I just did not feel like he was cast properly in this role. I found his dialogue to be clunky and all over the place, lacking that taut delivery of some of his other classic villains. The film want this to be a morality tale, but it takes too long to get to the reasoning behind the trap and I found Hopkins to be more annoying than sinister.

The drama is well done and the scenes with the car in motion are both ridiculous and suspenseful at the same time. There is a scene with a slow motion deflecting bullet that is kind of laughable, but most of the action is good.

I do think the performance of Bill Skarsgård is worth the price of admission alone. Locked felt too long, even at just over 90 minutes, but what worked in the film worked well.

3 stars

The Leftovers S1 E1

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“Pilot”

I needed some more TV shows to watch. Of course, I have a bunch of shows that I watch during the week, such as Daredevil: Born Again, The White Lotus and Yellowjackets. However, with the rewatch/new watch shows, I have finished Battlestar Galactica, Bates Motel, Dark Matter and others leaving me just The X-Files to watch. I decided it was time to dip into the queue and see what series I could add to the X-Files.

I have been interested in The Leftovers for awhile now. I have heard positive word of mouth about the series, and it did not hurt that it was from Damon Lindelof, one of the driving forces behind LOST, my favorite show of all time.

The Leftovers has been on my MAX list for awhile now and I thought this was the perfect time to start this show.

My first thoughts was that the Russo Brothers must have taken inspiration from this show for Avengers: Endgame, because there were so many early episode similarities. The disappearance of the people from the earth right down to the THREE YEARS LATER that came on the screen. (Yes, Endgame was FIVE YEARS LATER, but that is semantics).

The world we were being introduced to had that same grim feel that Endgame had in its first moments where we see the post blip. This was with only 2% of the population of earth disappearing. I can’t imagine how that would feel, when people you know were just gone, with no explanation. Avengers: Endgame could blame Thanos. Where were the answers for these people?

The pilot began to introduce us to characters, and getting to know a large ensemble is a challenging task. This show did it very well as I was engaged with everyone as the episode progressed. There were plenty of mysteries and untold stories that will be revealed, I’m sure. The trauma from everyone in this town was obvious.

There are three seasons of The Leftovers with 28 episodes overall. There were several moments in the pilot that caused me to shout out. I am sure that this will live up to the hype.

The X-Files S8 E11

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“The Gift”

Agent Doggett is still in search of Agent Mulder, as he said he would do when we first met him, and his investigation brought him to a strange town with a bizarre creature. A creature that turned out to be more moral than the people of the town.

Tracking Agent Mulder’s cell phone, Doggett finds his was to Squamash, Pennsylvania. With his investigation, he discovered that Mulder had submitted some false reports the day prior to his abduction.

We had seen a mysterious figure enter a house with a married couple and shoot someone that was there. We soon learn the man who shot those three bullets was Agent Mulder. It all felt bizarre, and it seemed very out of character for Mulder, something that Skinner pointed out to Doggett.

The story wound up being about a “soul eater” and the town knew about it, keeping it as property to help save the sick and dying. This was apparently the reason that Mulder had sought out the soul eater. Mulder was dying from a brain disease and he came looking for the healing of the soul eater. When he found him, he realized how much pain the soul eater was in, and Mulder’s shooting of it was meant to euthanize it. The soul eater would survive and drag itself out of its grave.

It was a shocking moment in the episode when Doggett is shot from behind by the sheriff’s men, who want to keep the soul eater for themselves, and died. The soul eater had escaped and saved Doggett by taking Doggett’s death for itself.

One would think that an experience like this would have turned Doggett into a believer, shaking that skeptic tag that he had worn in season eight so far, but I guess he is too hard headed to be changed.

There was no Scully in this episode and it marked the basic return to the screen of David Duchovny, though only in flashbacks and memories.

Adolescence TV Mini-Series E1-4

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Whoa.

The new Netflix series Adolescence was a British crime drama that really packed a punch.

It was a four episode limited series that explored the story of a 13-year old boy accused of murdering a female classmate and the effects that this had on the boy, his family and others at school.

The third episode was the most stunning of the four, as it featured the boy Jamie Miller and Psychologist Briony Ariston having a session where she was trying to assess Jamie’s understanding of the case. This hour of TV was as thrilling and anxiety-ridden as you will ever see, with two amazing performances from these two actors, who spent nearly the entire time alone in a room. Owen Cooper played Jamie, and Erin Doherty played Briony.

The four episodes are shot in a one take (although there are a few moments where there are hidden cuts in the filming). It was an amazing accomplishment of acting and staging of a TV program to make this one take even remotely possible.

The show was created by Jack Thorne and Stephen Graham. Graham also starred as Eddie Miller, the father of Jamie. His performance in episode four was all kinds of heartbreaking, ranging from anger to total rage to regret and grief. The show did not shy away from the after-effects on the family, showing how the parents were forever damaged by their son’s actions.

The show uses the term incel, which is a mostly online subculture of men who are unable to find a girlfriend and who use this as an excuse to blame women for it. It is a type of misogynistic tendency that has been more active in the last few years. The show name dropped Andrew Tate during one episode.

Owen Cooper was exceptional as the Jamie Miller. His performance was both emotional and chilling. I wanted to believe his denials right up until the fourth episode when he calls his dad, on his father’s 50th birthday, to tell him that he had decided to plead guilty. Even after Jamie nearly admitted that he had done it in episode three and the implication that they had him on CCTV footage actually stabbing the girl, I wanted to believe that there was going to be a twist. I wanted to believe that there was something else going on. In the end, it was exactly what it looked like the whole time.

This was a devastating four episodes of TV, with unbelievable performances from everybody and a plot that was absolutely gripping and crushingly real. It is not an easy watch, but it is a powerful one.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #8

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“The Last Patrol”

I enjoyed this episode because it felt a little different than some of the others.

One of the biggest reasons I liked this one so much is that there was less of the war time action involved. Don’t misunderstand me. I think the war action has been great in the series so far, but a little less in this episode fits with the narrative and allows for character growth for several characters. Would I have wanted the same amount of action in the previous episodes? No, I would not, but this gives a bit of a different look.

The POV of this episode was heavily featured by Private Webster, who had been with Easy Company during D-Day and other early offensives, but had missed Bastogne since he was recovering in the hospital. However, when he returned, Easy Company had been through the ringer in Bastogne and Webster found them considerably different than he remembered.

The company did not accept Webster’s return easily either. Since he missed Bastogne, they saw him now as nothing more than a replacement and they shunned him.

We also met a new character named Lt. Jones, fresh out of West Point. He was another character the hardened soldiers had a difficult time connecting to and Jones was desperate for experience in battle as the war did seem to be slowly coming to an end.

A dangerous patrol was sent out across the rover to attempt to capture some German prisoners that they could gather info from. The mission was not well received by Easy Company since the soldiers were beginning to believe that they might make it out of the war alive.

The character development included Sgt. Malarky, who had lost most of his friends at Bastogne and was extremely burned out. Webster was able to convince the brass to give Malarky this mission off because he needed the time.

After coming back from the mission with only one casualty, Lt. Col. Sink ordered the men to return for another patrol. This one would be more dangerous since they would have to go further into the city. Captain Winters met with the men and basically told them to get a good nights sleep and then report to him in the morning that they had completed the mission but were unable to attain any more German prisoners. Winters took the unneeded order and made a judgment call about the viability and importance of it. He weighed the lives of his men ahead of any miniscule benefits that might come from executing the patrol.

The end of the episode indicated that Easy Company would be soon heading into Germany.

Novocaine

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The new action/comedy Novocaine was released this week starring The Boys star Jack Quaid. Quaid played a character that could not feel any pain and winds up in the middle of a bank robbery.

This movie was extremely violent and Jack Quaid does a wonderful job as our lead protagonist. It was impressive how much you could relate to Quaid’s character Nate Caine considering he had this ability to not feel any pain. Everything that Nate said made sense to me and I could understand why he made the choices that he made.

Amber Midthunder played Nate’s love interest, Sherry. They had great chemistry in the film and you could believe that Nate goes to the extremes that he does when Sherry gets snatched by the bank robbers.

There were some truly brutal moments in the film, bad enough that some of them reminded me of the animated Invincible, and if you know anything about that show, you know that it is very gory and bloody. Novocaine seemed to take inspiration with some of the things that they did to Nate or the others in the cast.

It was funny several times when Nate would be injured and he would not feel anything. This is a SPOILER if you have not seen the trailers, but Jack took a swinging spiked ball to the back and just looked at it and said what was that. I t was funny.

Some parts of the story require suspension of disbelief, but I do not have a problem with that when you have a character who can not feel pain. The writers used this in several very interesting ways, in ways that I never would have thought about.

Jacob Batalon, who played Ned in the MCU Spider-Man movies, played Nate’s online gamer buddy, and, though he spent much of the time in the movie on the phone where we do not see him, his presence is welcome and his comedic timing is excellent. He worked very well with Jack Quaid despite not sharing much screentime together.

Novocaine was an enjoyable film with plenty of comedy and plenty of violent action. It feels a little long, but there are many great moments inside of the 110 minutes.

3.8 stars

The X-Files S8 E10

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“Badlaa”

So I have mixed feelings about this episode of the X-Files.

On one hand, I really liked the way Scully responded in this episode. It has been one of the questions I have had about the season 8 episodes. Scully has been doing the believer part, replacing Mulder and Doggett took the role of skeptic. It felt as if Scully really switched places quickly, without any trouble. Here, two things finally happened.

First, they mentioned Mulder’s name again. I am not sure when he was last mentioned, which felt weird for such an important character. Secondly, Scully admitted that she had been struggling to see things the way Mulder did and that she was not having much success. Both of these truths have been long time coming, and I assume it means that the writers are trying to put Mulder’s name back into the show because David Duchovny would be returning soon.

As for the other side of this episode, I have to say that the monster-of-the-week here, what was referenced as a fakir, was laughable in appearance and would climb into its victim’s body though his butt. Looking at the Wikipedia entry, the antagonist was being dubbed “Butt Munch” by a critic and “Butt Genie” by fans. Gurdeep Roy, aka Deep Roy, was a noted stuntman who wound up playing the fakir in the episode and he made me laugh immediately. Whereas I think it was intended to be creepy, the creature was silly.

That was a major drawback immediately, and the whole butt stuff did not help that out. I am not sure they ever really gave a motive for what the fakir was doing, or why he was killing those people that he was killing. Why he went after the boys in the end is unclear, unless it was just a response to them being able to see him.

The entire story, except for the Scully character parts, was a joke and lacked any real tension. Gillian Anderson brought her best in the episode and made some great material out of the weakness.

Daredevil: Born Again S1 E3

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“The Hollow of His Hand”

Holy crap.

My jaw is still agape after the dramatic end to Daredevil: Born Again episode 3.

The episode’s main drive is the Hector Ayala case and Matt’s desperate attempt to free him. Things were looking good for awhile since Matt had the witness in his custody, the man who the police were roughing up when Hector came across them. However, the witness proved to be a little weasel, and decided to change his story on the stand.

Hector was in a lot of trouble and Matt decided to put him on the stand. Matt dropped the bomb of all bombs… Hector Ayala was the White Tiger.

The judge and the D.A. were angry at Matt’s grandstand play, especially after Matt had argued that Ayala’s life as White Tiger should be kept out of the case.

Moving forward, the reveal of Ayala as White Tiger took the breath out of the case against him. It removed the motive for Hector to have attacked these police officers. Despite D.A. “Hawk” Hochberg’s talented closing, hector is found not guilty on all counts. It had to be that way. There was no reason why Hector would attack these cops just out of the blue and the jury knew that.

Wilson Fisk was not happy about this. He summoned BB Urich to talk to her about vigilante’s and the rule of law. Fisk indicated that he would need to step up with these vigilantes.

And then it happened.

As Hector dressed up in his White Tiger gear, and he went out and gets shot in the head. I have to say I was kind of expecting it. What I was not expecting was seeing the gunman walk away with a big skull on his chest.

Frank? That can’t be you, right?

Unbelievable moment that drove this episode. It appeared that Matt did not murder those cops in that apartment so that is a good thing, but they really do not bring it up much. The one cop only had a black eye. Sounds sure made it seem as if bones, like neck bones, were breaking.

Anyway, back to the Punisher. My guess is that this was one of the police officers who had the skull tattoos that shot Hector. I can’t believe that Frank Castle would kill Whiter Tiger.

Good episode with a major ending.

Sunday Morning Sidewalk #7

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“The Breaking Point”

This was one of my favorite episodes of Band of Brothers so far. I’m not ready to anoint it as my favorite, but it is certainly in the argument.

There was so much character development throughout the entire episode, narrated by Lipton, that it provided me with more feeling toward some of these characters that, to be honest, blend together for me at times. Lipton. Speirs. Dyke. Compton. Malarky.

I have to say, there were two visceral moments for me in the episode. The first was when Joe Toye lost his leg in the shelling. It was such a shocking moment and the shell that then shredded Bill Guarnere, who had rushed out to help Joe, was unthinkable.

And the second moment was during this entire barrage, the soldiers kept jumping into their foxholes and I kept thinking how are these foxholes supposed to help against these shells? I mean, I understand how it can provide shelter to gunfire, but these shells were coming down from above, right? Then the show proved me right when it showed Corporal Penkala and Sgt. Skip Muck getting blown to bits while they were inside their foxhole, begging for George Lutz to get in it with them. I literally cried out when that happened.

The show dealt with the incompetent leadership provided by Dyke and continued to enhance the legend of Speirs. Buck Compton was not injured during this episode, but it showed that he had reached his own “breaking point” after seeing so many of the people he had been close with over his time with Easy Company dying. Part of the theme of this episode was that wounds were not all physical injuries and that the path of war took a toll on the soldiers’ minds as well.

The mood of the show was downtrodden, depressed. The cold weather played right into that as well. There was little joy in this episode. Even when the company felt safe and were singing, they were interrupted by a sniper.

There are three more episodes remaining in the first series of the Sunday Morning Sidewalk.

EYG Comic Cavalcade #142

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March 8

Big week here at EYG Comic Cavalcade. We had everything from weather to special sales to eBay orders. I have a bunch of books to enter into my CLZ app. I broke the 17,000 limit this week and, after today’s “fill-the-bag” sale at In This Issue Comics, I am nearly to 17,100.

I went to the comic shop In This Issue Comics in Bettendorf, which my friend James goes to for his Turtles books. There happened to be a special sale going on. It was a really nice little shop with terrible parking. It had a great variety of independents and variant covers. While I am always loyal to Comic World, In This Issue Comics was a nice shop that I might go back to some day, just to check it out. Certainly, I will go there before I go back to the other one in Davenport that I visited last month that made me think of an armpit.

Books this week:

What If…? Mickey and Friends Became Avengers #1. “The Coming of the Avengers.!” Plot by Steve Behling, script by Luca Barbieri and art by Alessandro Pastrovicchio. I started off with this because I got this cover A from Comic World, but picked up the Pluto variant at In This Issue Comics. This cool Pluto as Ant Man variant looks awesome and I just could not ignore it.

The Missionary #2. Written by Ryan Stegman and art and cover art by Jason Howard. This DSTLRY book continues with all kinds of demons and creatures battling their way through the pages. The character designs are really cool and well done. The imagery of the book works so well for these larger sized pages from DSTLRY.

Falling in Love on the Path to Hell #1-4. Story and art by Gerry Duggan & Garry Brown. I picked up these four issues of this ongoing Image book off eBay this week and I have #5,6 & 0 on the way in another order. I have enjoyed this series very much as we cross genres between Western and Samurais. It is a mystical story with two characters stranded on an island. Always reminds me of LOST. This has been very enjoyable so far.

Hornsby & Halo #3. Written by Peter J. Tomasi and art by Peter Snejbjerg. Peter Snejbjerg and John Kalisz did the art for the cover. I actually haven’t gotten this read yet, since it just arrived in the mail today from eBay. However, I had #4 last week and realized I was missing an issue. I am hoping to get to these two later tonight or sometime this weekend. They look cool.

Uncanny X-Men #11. “Echoes of Madness” Written by Gail Simone and art by Javier Garrón. Cover art was by David Marquez & Matthew Wilson. The big crossover “X-Manhunt” started in this issue with Chapter 1. Charles Xavier is out and about, back to causing trouble, even if he does not intend to.

NYX #9. “Charles.” Written by Jackson Lanzing & Collin Kelly with art by Francesco Mortarino. Variant cover B art by Peach Momoko. This is Chapter 2 in the “X-Manhunt” crossover event as Charles makes his way to New York. Mojo is also here ready to bring his own brand of problems.

Storm #6. “Thundercloud.” Written by Murewa Ayodele and art by Luciano Vecchio. Cover art was done by Mateus Manhanini. Chapter 3 of the “X-Manhunt” happened in this issue. Storm faces off with the X-Men and she shows them that she is anything but a soft touch. Xavier came to Storm for help and boy does she give it. Poor Cyclops and Juggernaut.

The Spectacular Spider-Men #13. “Life and Limb.” Written by Greg Weisman and art by Emilio Laiso. Cover art was by Emilio Laiso and Edgar Delgado. The Lizard stopped the Electros from finishing off the Spider-Men, but the Lizard was still in a crazed form. So Peter and Miles had to face off with the reptile.

Juvenile #4. Written, illustrated and cover art by Jesus Orellana. Juvenile has been an excellent book so far and this penultimate issue of the series is not the exception. The kids get together and attempt an escape from the institution. I look forward to seeing what the end of this book will bring.

Doctor Strange of Asgard #1. Written by Derek Landy and art by Carlos Magno. Cover art was done by Geoff Shaw & Arthur Helsi (Gold Medalist). After losing his Sorcerer Supreme mantel for earth, Strange heads to Asgard to attempt to become the Sorcerer Supreme of Asgard. Thor says sure, but there are other obstacles for Strange to avoid. This is a cool new book featuring Dr. Strange while Doom is earth’s sorcerer supreme.

Jumpscare #1. Written by Cullen Dunn and art and cover art by Danny Luckert. This brand new Dark Horse book was a lot of fun. A new super hero is one the scene and she can summon weapons that she has seen from horror movies. Luckily, she is an aficionado of the genre. This is another cool, new Dark Horse book. I love the originality.

The Ultimates #10. Written by Deniz Camp and art by Juan Frigeri. Cover art was done by Dike Ruan & Neera J. Menon. It is always great fighting Nazis. We wind up with an unofficial Invaders reunion… though Namor has seen better days and our villain is a surprise (though I guessed it right away) identity.

The Terminator #5. “Gemini Rising.” Written and cover art by Declan Shalvey and art by Joe Mulvey. Action in outer space with astronauts and a Terminator. This Dynamite book has given us multiple locations for these robot battles and this one makes me think about the Alien franchise instead. Still cool though.

Spider-Gwen: Ghost Spider #11. “Uncharted” Part 1. Written by Stephanie Phillips and art by Paolo Villanelli. Cover art was done by Mark Brooks. Some of the answers as to why Gwen had to leave her dimension and how she got tied up with the TVA come out in this issue, as King Loki guest stars.

Space Ghost #10. Written by David Pepose and art by Jonathan Lau. Variant cover C art was done by Bjorn Barends. Space Spectre arrives from the future with a mystery identity and a mission to prevent what is coming. Can Space Ghost stop someone so close to him?

Wolverine #7. “Ancient History.” Written by Saladin Ahmed and art by Martin Coccolo. Cover art was done by Martin Coccolo & Bryan Valenza. The mystery of the Adamantine rolls on as Wolverine goes one on one with Romulus. Things do not look good for our hero.

Spider-Boy #17. “Bug Brothers.” Written by Dan Slott and art by Nathan Stockman. Paco Medina and Edgar Delgado did the cover art. Spider-Boy and Boy-Spider try to co-exist now that Bailey is back from his overseas trip with Daredevil. It is weird but it seems as if every Spider character has a monstrous sidekick nowadays. Bailey has Boy-Spider, Miles has Shift and Peter has Rek-rap. Hmm.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles #7. “The Sewers of Newark.” Written by Jason Aaron and art by Juan Ferreyra. Variant cover B art by Kevin Eastman. A new story arc begins with this issue, but the Turtles are certainly not on the same page yet. However, perhaps Donatello is not as crazy as he seemed.

Kill Train #2. Written by Olivia Cuartero-Briggs and art by Martina Niosi of Outclass Studios. Skylar Patridge did the cover art (Bronze Medalist-tied) We get introductions to some of the other people on the Kill Train and they team together to try and keep themselves alive.

Pinupocalypse #1. Written, art and cover art by Andrew Tarusov. This was one of the independent books I picked off the shelf at In This Issue on Friday and I was surprised how much I loved the book. It reminded me a bit of Love Everlasting crossed with a zombie book. The book was from Massive Comics and I really loved it. Those unexpected treats are the best.

Dust to Dust #3. Written by JG Jones & Phil Bram and art and cover art by JG Jones (Silver Medalist). Sheriff Meadows tried to convince people around him that the mysterious dust storm did not cause a family’s truck to burst into flames. He suspects foul play but no one else seems to buy into it. This was my favorite of the Dust to Dust issues so far as I was into the investigation.

The Tin Can Society #6. Written by Peter Warren and art by Francesco Mobili. Cover art was by Francesco Mobili and Chris Chuckry. I swear Tin Can Society has the absolute best cliffhangers/last pages of any series out there. My jaw dropped at the last page of this issue.

The Immortal Thor #21. “Two Did Enter.” Written by Al Ewing and art by Jan Bazaldua. Cover art was done by Alex Ross (Bronze Medalist-tied). We get a Executioner-centric issue as he faces off with Thor as they fight over who will go ahead to face the danger coming.

Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu #6. “Shame.” Written by Jed MacKay and art by Domenico Carbone. Davide Paratore did the cover art. I have to say that I was a bit confused by this issue and I do not remember much about it. I do love the cover from Davide Paratore and it was nearly a medalist this week.

The Fade #1-2. Written by Aabria Iyengar and illustrated and cover art by Mari Costa. Another fun independent book from the shelves of In This Issue. I liked this story and the way they brought the “Fade” into the book. Is it just all in their minds? This was a great couple of books.

Sam and Twitch Case Files #11. Written by Jordan Barel and Todd McFarlane with art by Thomas Nachlik (with special thanks to Magnus Arts). Cover art was done by Raymond Gay & Marco Failla. This issue focuses more on Twitch than we have gotten in the entire series.

Secret Six #1. Written by Nicole Maines and art by Stephen Segovia. Segovia and Rain Beredo did the cover art. It is another DC book that I liked a lot. I just grabbed this at Comic World this week because the heroes intrigued me and… dang it… I really enjoyed this one too. I have too many DZC books on my list. I don’t need another, but… it looks like I have another.

Parliament of Rooks #4. Written by Abigail Jill Harding with Richard Starkings and illustrated and cover art by Abigail Jill Harding. Things are taking a sharp turn for the worse with our mismatched lovers. There are a lot of monster fight going down this issue and it feels like it is building towards a conclusion.

Hyde Street #4. Storytellers are Geoff Johns and Ivan Reis. Cover art was done by Ivan Reis & Danny Miki with Brad Anderson. This month’s tale is of an actor cast in the role of Frankenstein’s Monster in an Abbott and Costello movie and his problematic path, from hours in the makeup chair to injuries to his eyes. Hyde Street continues to be one of the more entertaining horror anthologies of the month.

Blade Forger #1. “Sakima.” Written by Inaki Miranda & Roy Miranda with art and cover art by Inaki Miranda. I liked this book even though it felt all over the place. It is told over the span of decades and feels like a mixture of current and fantasy storytelling.

Scarlet Witch #10. Written by Steve Orlando and art by Jacopo Camagni with Russell Dauterman. Variant cover C art by Corin Howell & Raul Angulo. This next run of Scarlet Witch books came to an end with this issue. It looks as if Wanda is going to have a new series coming up with Vision. I am not sure why they can’t just keep these as a Scarlet Witch book featuring the extra character. They did the same thing last year with Quicksilver.

Blade Red Band #5. Written by Bryan Hill and art by Federica Mancin. Cover art was by David Yardin & Romulo Fajardo Jr. This also brings this round of Blade books to a close. Only five issues for Blade this time. Blade is much like Wanda because they both come back for short runs in a book and then go away for a short period before they return in a new volume. I wish Marvel would not do that so many times or call it a mini-series and put the numbering on the cover (such as 5 of 5).

Two-Face #4. “The Trial of Harvey Dent.” Written by Christian Ward and art by Fabio Veras. Cover art was by Baldemar Rivas. This Two-Face series has been bat-shit crazy. All of the action inside Harvey Dent’s mind, but we are learning a ton about the character of Two face. It has been a great read.

Justice League: The Atom Project #3. “The Bond.” Written by Ryan Parrott and John Ridley and art and cover art by Mike Perkins. Captain Atom is in a difficult mindset and he is not quite in a state of mind for help from the other Atoms.

Other books this week: Web of Spider-Verse: New Blood #1, The Nice House by the Sea #6, Living Hell #3, Moon Man #7, Knights vs. Samurai #6, and Huge Detective #4.

Dog Man

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With a day off school for weather, I had a chance to watch Dog Man on Fandango at Home (Vudu). Dog Man was a movie that I was avoiding at the theaters because it just did not look like something that would intrigue me. The trailers did nothing for the film in my opinion and, even after some positive reviews, I did not care to watch it.

So when I rented Dog Man, I was not especially anxious to see it.

I have to say, this was a movie that I found much more enjoyable than I ever expected it to be.

The film kicked off with the origin of Dog Man, and set up his rivalry with the evil cat, Petey (Pete Davidson). With pressure from Chief (Lil Rel Howery) and the Mayor (Cheri Oteri), Dog Man was chasing Petey, and every time Dog Man would catch him, Petey would escape from the Cat Prison. Everything changed when Petey decided to clone himself.

The script of this movie was pretty good, as it told the story of what was going on, but also reveled in a ton of meta filmmaking. There were tons of jokes about the movie, the style, the animation, and about the tropes that were actually quite funny. They were jokes that worked much better in context than they did during the trailers, which always seemed to be painfully unfunny.

The look of the animation was original and creative. I thought this looked really good and kept my focus on the screen.

I am sure that the target audience for this movie, of which I am not one, would find this incredibly entertaining. I would go as far as to say that I was entertained as well. This had some jokes for me as an adult mixed in with the jokes for the youth. They worked well together.

It is very sweet, maybe even too sweet at times.

I am happy that I was able to watch Dog Man. It was much better than I thought it would be. I would highly recommend it to any families out there looking for some funny family fare that everyone will enjoy.

3.6 stars

Paradise S1 E8

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Spoilers

“The Man Who Kept the Secrets”

Paradise’s first season of episodes came to a close with an answer to the central mystery of the whole first chunk of episodes: who killed President Cal Bradford?

We see, not only, who the killer was, but also how it happened and where he had been since. It turned out that the librarian Trent was the killer of the President. However, it a plot twist worthy of this show, the librarian was not actually Trent. It turned out that the librarian was the man who attempted to assassinate the President in episode one. He had replaced the real Trent, who was a librarian on the list heading to the underground city. The assassin took his place and hid in plain sight the whole time.

He had wanted to finish the job, but he got comfortable and decided he wanted to live. When Cal had come to the library to make a mix tape for his son, it triggered Not-Trent and convinced him to finish the job.

We see the actual flashback to the murder and it is a dramatic end. Xavier chased Not-Trent as he tried to escape the city. Xavier had found directions to escape and Not-Trent smashed him over the head to take it away.

The end to Sinatra was not quite as satisfying, though Jane shooting her through the throat was not as good as Xavier blowing her head off. Jane did this to keep Sinatra alive and keep Xavier from killing her. Jane had been ordered to take care of Presley, but she did not do it. Xavier was happily reunited with his kids without knowing that Jane was behind the murder of his friend.

This is an awesome show and the show set up a great arc with Xavier on his way out of the city in an attempt to find his wife. Paradise has been renewed for season two so that is exceptional.

Paradise S1 E7

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Spoilers

“The Day”

Holy $%^$

Flashback episode and WHAT A FLASHBACK episode. Man this was tense. The show finally showed us the day when everything changed. We learned what happened to the earth that sent the Americans into the plan to go inside the Colorado mountain.

And man, was it powerful.

I mean, this was something else.

Not only the flashback, but the bookend scenes with Xavier and Sinatra was absolutely jaw-dropping. I found myself hating Sinatra almost as much as I used to hate the Cigarette Smoking Man on the X-Files. I was yelling for Xavier to put a bullet in her head, just like I used to want Mulder to do to CSM.

Sterling K. Brown and James Marsden are absolutely tremendous in this episode. Both of them gave amazing, Emmy-worthy performances in this episode as they dealt with the crisis of the earth’s downfall and the President’s drastic decisions prior to entering the mountain.

The tying of the events of The Day with the Cuban Missile Crisis is a stroke of genius and amazing writing. The determination of President Bradford in his decision to set off the huge EMP instead of launching the nuclear armory from the nuclear football is stunning. Could he have save the world with his choice?

Hearing Teri’s voice at the end was shocking and made me just hate Sinatra (aka Samantha all the more).

Plus, Sinatra told Xavier that the DNA found at the President’s murder site did not match anyone from inside the mountain, meaning that the murderer came from outside. I am not sure I believe her, but it is a massive twist if true.

This was the best episode of the season so far in a show that is chocked full of amazing episodes. Such a great hour of television on Hulu (or Disney +).

The White Lotus S3 E1

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Spoilers

“Same Spirits, New Forms”

I wanted to have season one and two pf The White Lotus completed before season three kicked off, but I found out that the first episode had debuted last week and I was still in season two. So this week, I made it a goal to get through season two so I could follow along with season three as a weekly show.

I did complete the second season earlier this week so today I watched the first episode of season three.

The White Lotus for this season is set in Thailand and the exteriors and the surroundings are absolutely stunning. They have always looked great, but there is something both beautiful and mysterious about the set up for this season.

The opening of the season is as dramatic as always, with gunfire breaking up a young African-American’s one-on-one meditation session. We learn that he was at The White Lotus with his mother, but we do not have any ideas whom that is. However, I did have an idea whom that MIGHT be. I knew coming in that Natasha Rothwell would be resuming her role as Belinda Lindsay from season one, and so I could assume that this was her son. Maybe I am wrong, but I am fairly certain that is the case.

I do have more of a connection to this new group of characters in the first episode than I did in the season two introduction. That’s not to say that these characters aren’t rotten jerks, because clearly they are, but I have more of a connection to these. Why? I am not sure.

Actors in this season, along with Natasha Rothwell, include Walton Goggins, Jason Isaacs, Parker Posey, Patrick Schwarzenegger, Sarah Catherine Hook, Sam Nivola, Michelle Monaghan, Carrie Coon, Leslie Bibb, Aimee Lou Wood, Nicholas Duvernay, Lalisa Manobal, Tayme Thapthimthong, Lek Patravadi, Christian Friedel, Shalini Peiris, and Jon Gries.

New episodes are on MAX every Sunday night at 8 PM CST.