The Review: The Batman

The Batman 10/10

I can say this is my favorite Batman on film! I have written about who has been the best Batman, Catwoman, and even defended Ben Affleck when he was first announced years ago. This is not gonna be a normal movie review. I am gonna sit here and just talk about all the things I loved about this damn movie! I thought that I would like this movie just from the trailer after seeing Batman walk into a room full of cops and them not attack him. That alone made me happy. I wanted to see this in theaters because it came out on my birthday but the world is still gross so I didn't and by the time I decided to it was not playing nearby. A couple weeks ago L. said it would be on HBO Max so I watched it that way. Still wish I got to see it in a theater. This will have some spoilers all up in it so if you don't wanna have this spoiled then stop reading this now.

The Review: Forever Purge

Forever Purge 6/10

This was actually a decent movie. I watched Forever Purge with L. last weekend and before I did I talked shit about the various films since I have watched all of them for some reason (click here, here, here, and here for those reviews) and even write how to survive the Purge (click here for that). It took this many tries but they managed to keep the story coherent and not make it feel like a bunch of the people were slapped together for story's sake. This takes place in 2048 and is supposed to be eight years after the lady president from one of the other films and the New Founding Fathers of America are back in control of the government and they're like “Guess what, America? We bringing back the Purge!”

The Review: Cobra Kai Season 4

Cobra Kai Season Four 6/10

I watched this so many months ago but never did a review for it. It was not a bad season but it started to feel like the series is repeating itself. Things seem okay then someone from the past shows up from one of the old Karate Kid films and then cause trouble until it is resolved. Or not. There is one more season of this to go (I think) but I would have been okay with the previous season being its last. When looking for my reviews it turns out that I never even did one for seasons two and three for some reason. That says something. I don't know what it is but it says something about me and how I consume this show. Like, I enjoy the show and all but after a while it has dragged on. I don't remember this season beat for beat but I recall strongly feeling like LaRusso children being assholes. I think that's about it, really. The show is fine but I won't be clamoring to watch the next season and if I do I might forget to even write about it.

Ralph Macchio as Daniel LaRusso

William Zabka as Johnny Lawrence

Courtney Henggeler as Amanda LaRusso

Xolo Maridueña as Miguel Diaz

Tanner Buchanan as Robby Keene

Mary Mouser as Samantha LaRusso

Jacob Bertrand as Eli "Hawk" Moskowitz

Gianni DeCenzo as Demetri Alexopoulos

Peyton List as Tory Nichols

Vanessa Rubio as Carmen Diaz

Thomas Ian Griffith as Terry Silver

Martin Kove as John Kreese

Click here for previous The Review.

Curtain Call: Blues For An Alabama Sky

Blues For An Alabama Sky 9/10

I like going to see live theater. For years it was a ritual to see at least two at The Pantages or whatnot. Last year L. and I saw one called The Octoroon which was hot trash. After that she went to see another one called Slave Play and I was very glad not to see that. She thought that my ass would never go see another show with her but I have a tendency to like musicals and such. This week L. got us tickets to this play Blues For An Alabama Sky at the Mark Taper Forum downtown. There were not many blues songs played in this but it was really good. It felt like I watched a really good movie but...live. When we arrived we were able to find easy parking which worried me the entire time we sat in the theater. It felt too good to be true. So we got in, sat in the lobby, and got our seats and kept our damn masks on.

The Review: Ozark Season 4 Part 1

Ozark Season 4 Part One 10/10

Let me start off by saying that I am amazed that a show can be on for this many seasons and not have any episodes that feel like filler or a waste. They have split this season into two seven parts and I am glad they did because my poor heart could not take anymore intensity than I witnessed and felt while watching just these episodes. I watched the first episode with Cam and sat on the rest because I knew more were not coming. I'm not into binge watching so much anymore particularly with certain shows. This is not the kind of show you can just blow through quickly and absorb all the information. Plus I don't wanna be one of those people that start crying for more after I have gobbled up what these folk have worked so hard on doing and get mad when I'm not served another helping immediately.

The Review: The Adam Project

The Adam Project 5/10

Spoilers. This movie starts off in the future with this guy escaping from someone in a ship. He lands in 2022 and there is this smart mouth kid that turns out to be him. He needs to find his wife who also traveled back in time and then destroy his fathers time machine that is the cause of all of this. Ryan Reynold's can act. I know he can because I have seen it. Ever seen Buried? Holy shit. That movie was incredible. So when I watch some of the movies he has been doing for a while now it doesn't feel like I'm watching him act so much as people saying “We know what he does so just write a part and let him do what he does.” This movie was okay. Before it even reached the midway point I felt like this should have been a short mini series instead of cramming all of this into a 90 minute movie. Not sure if I would have watched it but I would have felt more...something for the characters. I might have liked it more or felt differently if I had a close relationship with my father and/or mother. The kid wears on me a bit because it feels like there are two Ryan's at once. The effects are good except for when the evil woman is de-aged somehow and it looked creepy as hell. This movie has a lot of good actors and actresses but they didn't need to be in this. I think if I were a kid I would have loved this movie, too. But I'm old. Leave me alone. It did have a great soundtrack. Again. I'm old.

Ryan Reynolds as Adam Reed

Walker Scobell as young Adam Reed

Mark Ruffalo as Louis Reed

Jennifer Garner as Ellie Reed

Catherine Keener as Maya Sorian

Zoe Saldaña as Laura Shane

Alex Mallari Jr. as Christos

Click here for previous The Review.

The Review: Pieces Of Her

Pieces Of Her DNF/10

I did not finish this series. After two episodes of watching an adult make such childlike mistakes and decisions I had to tap out. After reading in detail how the rest of the series goes I am very glad that I did. I was into this show during the first episode but by the end of the second I needed to know if the daughter stayed dumb and sure enough that seemed to be the case. This is about a 30 year old woman named Andy and her mother Laura. On her birthday a dude walks in and starts shooting up the restaurant they're in. Andy crumples on the ground unable to move. The guy thinks she is a cop (she is a dispatcher) and wants her to shoot him. Laura says to shoot her instead and gets a knife through the hand which she uses to slice his throat. Now they all over the news and some people she was hiding from realize who she is now and where she is start coming for her. After leaving the hospital Laura tells Andy to leave the house and she needs to grow up. She pouts and helps her mother bonk a guy on the head and goes on the run.

Documentality: Puppet Master/Tinder Swindler/Bad Vegan/When We Were Bullies

The Puppet Master 7/10

I watched a lot of documentaries over the last few months and forgot that I actually have a segment on this damn blog for them. So here goes. This one was about a dude named Robert Hendy-Freegard that managed to trick people into thinking he was a government agent. He would have them doing random tasks, stake outs for no reason, and getting money from their family's for years at a time. One dude he just kinda forgot about. It was fucking weird and went on for like twenty years. Watching these documentaries makes me realize that I am too un-trusting and way too skeptical to trust strangers. This dude is still free.

Sitting In The Aisle: Morbius

Morbius 3/10

This could have been so cool. I will say that it was much better than either of the Venom films. This is the story of a young boy with a blood illness named Michael Morbius. A new kid joins him at the hospital and they bond for life. As an adult Michael is a doctor trying to find a cure for this disease. He finds it in the form of bats and while offshore experimenting because this shit ain't close to legal it works but turns him into a monster that needs to feed off blood to survive. His friend Milo from when he was little is like “Can I get a taste?” and Morbius is like “No. Sure, it made me buff and have superpowers but its the worst!” Milo steals it as Morbius is framed for murder. I mean, he did kill some folk but not the one he was arrested for. Lots of flying in cool ways ensues as well as some uninspiring fight scenes and some end credit scenes that baffled the fuck out of me.