Reviews

Having only recently seen the Orient Express & Death On the Nile entries, I was stoked for the third installment. I was not disappointed. The film is heavy on atmosphere & does suffer due to the lack of any humor but, it's still well-acted, well produced & well written.

The story picks up with Poirot still struggling with his previous experiences during his self-imposed retirement in Venice. Enter an old acquaintance who convinces him to attend a seance in an effort to debunk the medium. This leads to a night of frightful weather, mysterious apparitions, things moving about by themselves and, of course, murder.

The script is relatively short & sweet & worth a second viewing to catch missed clues. Additionally, the performances are top notch; special shout outs to Tina Fey and Michelle Yeah. Mostly though, this film has style coming out of the walls. The photography & set decorations are gorgeous & I love that once again, they have used CGI to recreate a long-vanished world of post-war Venice.

Finally, I was taken at first by some odd directorial decisions as the film played out. However, the big reveal basically explained those shots.

In the end, I'm ready for Entry #4 in the series. Bring 'em on Mr. Branagh.

The season was short. Unlike previous seasons, the remained focused on one central mystery without the random cases along the way. Overall, it was different from what we've come to expect from the character but, this basically tracks with the age of the main characters; after all, Veronica is no longer a high-school or college student.

As for the ending, it makes sense that it was controversial. Many "LOVE"ers have shipped the Veronica & Logan relationship for the better part of 2 decades. However, the end was a shock & once that wears off, it adds to the epic nature of Veronica's overall story. I would gladly watch a Season 5. I do hope this isn't the end of her saga but, I have a sneaky suspicion that without fan support, we've seen the finale. (sigh)

I did not expect to enjoy this film. I've liked some martial arts/action flicks in the past but, often they rely on too many of the same tropes. This one had an interesting take on the genre & placed in the MCU gave it a touch more zazz. The photography is gorgeous & the cast attractive and appealing for the most part. The furries were not my cup of tea but, it was fun to see Ben Kingsley reprise his Trevor Slattery role. Add Tony Leung & Michelle Yeoh and I'm sold.

Overall, an enjoyable, fun action adventure with some spectacular fight sequences. Big 9 rating from me.

If you're like me & getting your first exposure to some of the MCU Universe, you were probably confused when you heard a woman was cast in the title role. I admit, I had it confused with Shazam. Watching the film, I was pleasantly surprised with the character, her backstory & the overall arc. Now that I've watched it, I can say, it's not my favorite film but I really enjoyed it & will probably go back & watch it again at some time.

The casting was great btw - not just Larson but, the addition of Benning & Law to the MCU was fun. Jackson is awesome as always & watching the de-aged versions of him & Gregg was amazing. (If only I do that to myself in real life).

A couple of quibbles now that I'm watching the series in Chron order, there's a bit of a mystery of how the made its way into the possession of Mar-Vel. Also, what's the deal with the cat & how did it end up where CM & Fury find it?

Otherwise, this is a solid entry in the MCU.

Admittedly, this starts out weak. The whole, I know you pushed me off a building but, we're family bit was clumsy, & mostly exposition dialogue. But, once they move past establishing Danny's identity, a focus of the first 3 episodes, the seasonal plot finally begins to take shape.

The fight scene in the hallway is good, not great, but a step in the right direction. Henwick's 2nd cage match is also good though, you do question her costume choice given the situation.

Most of all, we finally get to see a bit of the Hand in action. Since they have been a menacing force for this show & Daredevil, it's good to see that even other criminal organizations fear them.

Again, the biggest problem with the episode lies at the center, the lead. He's attractive and all but, I'm still not getting the vibe that this guy has spent the past 15 years practicing & mastering martial arts every day of his life. Should he be a bit more Bruce Lee, or even Jet Li?

The first half of the season was pretty good, some excellent action sequences & interesting characters. But now, with Cottonmouth gone, we get Diamondback trying to fill the space & it doesn't work for me. The acting is too over the top next to the rest of the characters; no subtleties in the character or performance or his dialogue.

Woodard is stellar as always. Colter doesn't get much to do. But Dawson & Missick make the best they can of a lesser episode.

*** Spoilers ***

One of the facets of Tales of the City was how each of a small circle of characters interact within a world that is only 2 or 3 degrees of separation of another major character. So, while some people may take issue with the extreme coincidence of Mona ending up meeting Mother Mucca & working at the Blue Moon Lodge in order to discover her own identity & relationship to Anna, it's consistent with the storytelling. In the meantime, Mona's adventures are funny & a major advancement of her character.

Brian continues his "romance" with a stranger unaware of his audience, Mary Ann's romance with Burke intensifies, Dede leaves Beauchamp after telling him about the father of her babies, . . . And Michael continues to try to have sex.

Overall, the story keeps moving forward but, much like the original season, the main plotline has yet to emerge.

Right off the bat, MTOTC rips off the band-aid by putting the recasts up front. This is good as it allows the audience to try and move past the absence of Chloe Webb, Marcus D'Amico & Paul Gross. Nina Siemaszko does an admirable job as Mona, despite lacking Webb's goofy charm. Whip Hubley appears older than Paul Gross as Brian but, most of his role seems to be about stripping down & he fills out that aspect of the role. My biggest issue is the miscasting of Paul Hopkins as Mouse. Either he doesn't understand the role or, he & the director chose to take it in another direction. Either way, most of his scenes serve as an unwelcome distraction to everything else going on. Also, and I realize this was a flaw in the books, Mouse's adventures only seem to be about his "love life". It's kind of disappointing to have the major gay character only be about him having or trying to have sex.

Otherwise, the first episode starts quite well, picking up shortly after the deaths of Edgar & Norman, moving through DeDe's unplanned pregnancy and most of all, continuing the storyline of Anna Madrigal's big secret. This will be a major story line through all iterations of the series. As always, Dukakis & Linney nail their roles, Campbell is still handsome & charming, and Thomas Gibson revels in the nastiness of Beauchamp Day as he plots against DeDe & her impending delivery.

Finally, there is the introduction of Mother Mucca (Jackie Burroughs) who seems a bit over the top at first but, she settles in fairly quickly. Overall, worth your time.

I decided to go back & watch the First season. The 2nd & 3rd seasons are both okay but, the setup for Season 1 always grabbed me; the idea of how a news team would deal with huge historic moments in recent history. I also have to say, I got a kick out of the number of "reviews" I read for episodes where the viewer was unaware of Sorkin's politics & were turned off. To me, that's like saying, I didn't realized Santa had a weight issue till I met him at the mall.

To be fair, Sorkins' scripts are flawed. While I get the desire to increase dramatic potential, the constant love triangle nonsense does not work. The Jim/Maggie coupling has no chemistry, both characters are the least interesting when interacting with each other & they are the most contrived characters in the show. Besides, making a show about professionals who work together & constantly jump in and out of the sack with each other is just not realistic anymore. Believe it not, people actually date outside of their workplace. That said, the big "They Kiss!" moment felt like a waste of time away from the central plot.

As for the rest of the show, again, I wish there was less time spent on Will & Mac's relationship woes but, since it occasionally integrates with the plot, I can roll with it. For me, the big moments come during the discussions about the role media plays in relaying information to the public. The background discussions, the problems with commercial-sponsored news & ratings, how news gets hijacked by tabloid-style garbage & most of all, how the philosophy of the media shapes the information we receive. Obviously, conservatives represent getting news with a liberal viewpoint & vice versa. But how do you focus on facts without shaping a narrative or putting them on context?

For my money, the season has several beautiful moments, the opening scene in Episode 1 (Jeff Daniels' finest moment), the on-air "apology" in the 112th Congress episode, the drama around the shooting of Gaby Gifford, the moments leading up to the announcement of Bin Laden's death were all moving and well performed. But this episodes' discussion of "The American Taliban" is one that should be viewed in the context of the past decade to really appreciate the season. It's a strong message that will certainly offend some people but, it is well worth a listen and more than a few thoughts.

Finally, I want to say that several times the show left me choked up. In addition to the the moments I mentioned above, just the idea that there are still people out there that believe in the public good gives me hope. That should cut through all partisan discussions.

Teen Wolf is far from perfect but, while treading familiar ground (teen with super-powers), it manages to be a cut above most other attempts. I personally would put it up there with BTVS in terms of ambition, scope & creativity. Through 100 episodes, we've been treated to various werewolves, but also unusual creatures like the Nogitsune, the Dread Doctors & a bunch of ghost riders. But it was only fitting that the final villains of the series would be humans themselves. Scott had once said to Liam "You're not a monster, you're a werewolf". In this case, the monsters aren't werewolves but Gerard leading a crew of new characters that are ruthless and cannot be reasoned with. Aroused by fear, citizens of Beacon Hill have turned on the supernatural beings that have held the balance & protected the city.

While there are definitely some political undertones given the era the produced this story line but, don't let that turn you off. Scott & Co once again rise to the challenge even as they witness unimaginable cruelty inflicted on their own. While there is still a new monster at the root of this final arc, it's clear that they have met the monsters & the monsters are us.

I was disappointed that they chose to pair Scott off with Malia given her previous relationship with Stiles but, that seems to be more of a plot device. and it appears that Stiles is ending up with his true love, Lydia. The best of the rest of the characters all return to take a last bow including Stiles, Derek, Jackson, Aiden and even a few deceased villains. Overall, the finale attempts to reach a scope not usually attempted in smaller genre shows like this while still managing to leave an opening for the return of the characters on a future date. I'd watch a reboot although, you can't really call him a "teen" wolf any longer.

I went back and rewatched most of the Universal Horror series this year. It had been years since I had seen some of them and I have to say, most do not hold up as well as I remember.

While there are arguments about whether this title should be included in the specific canon of Universal's monster universe, there's no denying that the characters went out with style with this entry. A&C and the monsters had all seen their stars fade as the 1940s wound down & the quality of the films were deteriorating. However, this film actually works for both the comedy team of Abbott & Costello as well as for Dracula, the Wolfman and, of course, the Frankenstein monster.

Separately, the comedy duo's routines tend to rely on the usual schtick, occasionally to the point of annoyance but, it's when they interact with the monsters that everyone shines the most. The dialogue is funnier & the slapstick almost seems fresh. (Witness Lou under Dracula's spell responding to his beckons as he staggers, then skips to his potential doom.) Everyone gives their best in this one and it shows, especially for Lugosi in his second (and last) performance as the undead Count.

The sets are top-notch, and it looks like they even dug up some of Frankenstein's old props for the final sequence. Finally, and I don't think this gets mentioned enough, even the musical scoring is a vast improvement over the previous monster films which basically kept recycling the same music over and over. The soundtrack on A&C Meet Frankenstein is fresh and one of the best scores ever recorded for the Golden Age of Universal Horror.

All in all, I like this as part of the "Dark" Universe if only because it ended the beloved monsters on a high note.

Like so many of Serling's teleplays, this episode is less about horror & more a series of morality plays with a supernatural background. Pamela's Voice featuring John Astin & Phyllis Diller is a mild attempt at black humor with a murderous husband getting his come-uppance. Lone Survivor features John Colicos as a doomed man who will spend eternity traveling through maritime disasters. The final episode, The Doll, meets the standard of horror as a British Office faces vengeance at the hands of a demonic doll. (The ending on this one is actually quite good). Highlights - Henry DaSilva as a menacing villain and a particularly disturbing doll.

Finally watched this and I have to say - not overly impressed. While the actual story of the Crash of 2008 (and when are we going to start calling it that?) is too long for a two hour movie but, this film drops some major turning points that contributed to the meltdown. The writing tries to make the issues understandable, sometimes at the expense of characters (like when the Treasury Secretary's staff explain to their communications director how the mortgage meltdown happened . . . really? An senior employee of the Treasury Department has to have this explained to her after working through the crisis for months?). However, the film does not try to hide some colossal and often tragic mistakes by the main characters. Hurt is good as Paulson but, the best performance has to be Paul Giamatti as Ben Bernanke. I also enjoyed how the film showed the top CEOs for the spoiled divas that they are. This is a good starter if you want to get a grasp on what happened but, there are much better source materials such as "Inside Job" and Matt Taibbi's book - Griftopia.

One of the scariest episodes of the series ever!!! Basically, this covers 4 alternating stories all taking place at the same time. On one hand you have Buffy, engaged in a conversation with a former classmate turned vamp. Dawn is receiving messages that she believes are from her deceased mother, and Willow is speaking to Cassie, the young woman who died a few episodes earlier. Finally, you have Jonathan and Andrew returning to town on a mission which, unbeknownst to Jonathan is being directed by the apparent spirit of Warren.

From the opening moments (a haunting song) to the final sneer on Cassie's face as she takes on a Lovecraftian appearance momentarily, this episode grabs the story arc finally, and forces it into the forefront. Apparently, the First Evil has decided to make it his/her/it's business to destroy the Slayer once and for all and it's stepping up the psychological warfare as well. Dawn's scenes are particularly hair-raising! In fact, the final few moments of this episode were wonderfully nightmarish.

Great performances by all and some wonderful dialog. My one complaint would have been that as much as I liked Jonathan Woodward in this episode, it would have been nice for Buffy to have been speaking to an actual classmate from the first three seasons - just a quibble but I hate it when new characters are introduced just to be dispatched.

Final note **** spoiler alert **** don't get too attached to this level of story for the remainder of the season. For all intents and purposes, this was the last truly great episode of the series, mostly because the promise of this episode was never fully realized.

And way over the top in the in "ick!" factor. Willow finally returns from her rehab in England but, because she is so nervous about facing the people she harmed at the end of Season 6, she inadvertently makes herself invisible to them, and vice versa (again with the invisibility?) All this happens as a new baste appears in town by the name of Gnarl. Gnarl appears to be a poorly devised riff on Gollum from the LOTR movies who eats the skin off of his victims alive (hence the ICK!). Of course, Willow flayed a victim alive in Season 6 so it's only natural that her best friends think that she's the culprit and with friends like those . . . ahem.

Everything is wrong with this episode. The performances are flat which makes Camden Toy's performance as the Gnarl all that more fey and yucky. And the scenes of him torturing Willow are far to gratuitous and go on way too long; it's as if the writers wanted to make sure Willow was punished for her actions in Season 6. And Hannigan, always one of the best performers in the series goes into mope mode with this episode. That has to be the biggest disappointment of the season that Willow's character goes from being a strong, self-willed woman to the quivering mass of nerves for the entire season. It was just plain stupid.