Curtain Call: Twilight Los Angeles 1992

Twilight Los Angeles, 1992 10/10

"Nearly thirty years after the Los Angeles uprising following the Rodney King verdict, Twilight: Los Angeles, 1992 returns home to the Mark Taper Forum to be reimagined with an ensemble cast for a new generation of audiences. A powerful piece of living record and one of the most important works in the history of the Taper, Twilight is a stunning and seminal play that explores the devastating human impact of the five days of uprising following the Rodney King verdict. From nine months of over 300 interviews conducted during the year following the uprising, playwright and scholar Anna Deavere Smith crafted a play that goes directly to the heart of the issues of race and class."

The Review: The Mandalorian Season 3

The Mandalorian Season 3 (6/10)

This previous season of The Mandalorian while it was good it was not close to as entertaining as previous seasons. This felt like TV shows back when I was younger that came out in the '70s '80s and early '90s where there would be episodes where the main character was barely in it and it focused mainly on side characters or new characters. Next thing you know you realize that it was setting up for a spin-off. That's what this season felt like. I remember on Married with Children there were a few episodes where the same thing happened and I just sat there like “What the hell does this have to do anything with the show?” It was cool and everything but I didn't like the way the main villain was taken out and that maybe half the season focused on the Mandalorian. I did not hate the season but I'm not excited for another one the same way I was after season one and season two.

Pedro Pascal as Din Djarin/The Mandalorian

Katee Sackhoff as Bo-Katan Kryze

Emily Swallow as The Armorer

Carl Weathers as Greef Karga

Katy M. O'Brian as Elia Kane

Mercedes Varnado as Koska Reeves

Giancarlo Esposito as Moff Gideon

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The Review: The Woman King

The Woman King 8/10

As I sit here with my feet soaking in warm water with bubbles in between my toes I realize that after watching a film like The Woman King I would not have survived that environment in real life nor the training done to do this movie. The Woman King turned out to be a far better film than I expected it to be. Not that I thought it was going to be bad or anything but I pretty much thought it was just going to be an action film with a lot of tough ass looking women and that's about it. I was very wrong. This is about a general and she leads and trains a group of women warriors from all different parts of Africa. Colonizers start arriving and she begins to realize that they are just trading their own people for more weapons and losing more and more of themselves as time goes on. The king agrees with her but he also has his evil ass wife in his ear who tries to go behind his back and make decisions because she wants to be declared the next woman king.

The Review: The Menu

The Menu 9/10

I finally decided to check out this movie The Menu because a few people I know had seen it and talked about how good it was. They did not spoil it for me which I very much appreciated so I'm going to do the same thing. I went into this movie not knowing anything about it except one of the main actors and that's about it. The basic premise is that about a dozen people pay a lot of money to have dinner on this island where there is a world-famous chef. Once they get there they're served multiple course meals that look extremely pretty and fancy but out of all of them there was only one that I thought I would try. This always happens whenever I see anything very fancy being made. It doesn't look appetizing to me and I know I do not have the pallet or food language to describe what I like about anything that I eat. So at first you're just watching these different people and these different couples talking about themselves mostly and about their lives and then they're interrupted by the chef who explains a small story about each dish and then it continues to get weirder and weirder after every single course until all hell breaks loose. This was a really good movie. I started watching it while I was ironing and then slowly started ironing less and less until I was just very much into this. You can check this out on HBO Max. It's a good quick watch that is in a 3-hour movie doesn't need a sequel and has a satisfying ending.

Ralph Fiennes as Chef Slowik

Anya Taylor-Joy as Margot

Nicholas Hoult as Tyler

Hong Chau as Elsa

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The Review: House Of The Dragon/Pale Blue Eye/Wednesday/The Imperfects

House Of The Dragon 10/10

This is me catching up on the whole lot of different things at once. The first one is going to be House of the Dragon. I watched this show as it debuted and watched every single episode as they came out and absolutely loved it. This takes place a couple of hundred years before the Game of Thrones so you don't really need to have watch that show to enjoy this one. It does help with random little Easter eggs like when you hear a certain name or something and you recall it from Game of Thrones. The basic story of this without getting way too deep into it is that there's a princess and her father and mother who are the king and queen are having trouble giving birth to an heir that is a boy and when they finally do the child ends up dying along with the mother. The princess is supposed to be made the leader eventually but nobody wants to listen to women so she ends up hooking up with her uncle eventually which is really weird and creepy but after listening to so many episodes of that Noble Blood podcast was totes norms back in the day. This show had a really cool story, really good casting even though it was kind of weird to get used to this young girl suddenly being a grown woman. I enjoyed every single episode of this and none were wasted and could have easily watched twice as many if they had made them. Is this show bloody and violent? Yes, very much so. But I would not expect anything less from HBO or the creator of the series of books. This also filled the fantasy whole that was left by certain shows either not coming back or not being made. Every year I need at least one show with some kind of magic or science fiction or something and can't sit around watching nothing but detective stuff all the time.

The Review: The Invitation

The Invitation 7/10

So L. and I watch this movie called The Invitation. All I knew about this movie from the trailer was at this girl gets invited to go overseas and then weird things start happening in the house that was pretty much the extent of my knowledge on this film. Now it's about this girl named Evie who works freelancing at a catering place and getting felt up by pervy men and somebody leaves a gift bag where you can do DNA test. She takes it and is contacted by a cousin that's in England somewhere. Her best friend tells her that she shouldn't go and she's going to end up killed or something but she doesn't have any other family so she decides that she's going to make the trip. Now at the beginning of the film we saw some woman end up hanging herself with a piano wire trying to get away from everybody in the house and now Evie starts seeing weird visions and having dreams about this woman. There's also some maids that are working for this gathering of all these different people and they all start getting picked off one by one by some creepy ass monster this giant manner is owned by this guy named Walter who takes a liking the Evie.

The Review: Paper Girls

Paper Girls 8/10

There was this show called Paper Girls that Miss Jackie told me about. When I read the premise I did not think that I would be even kind of interested in this but after the first episode I knew I was going to plow through this show. It came out in July of last year on Amazon but this show got absolutely no advertisement. I have seen a lot of reviews compare it to Stranger Things even though this show came out and comic book form before stranger things did but nobody likes to do any kind of research. Plus the guys who created Stranger Things have already been accused of stealing the entire shows idea. I am rambling so let me get to the main part of this review.

The Review: Black Adam

Black Adam 3/10

So I finally got around to watching the Black Adam movie. I don't have all that much to say about it because I didn't hate it but I can't say that I enjoyed it. It starts off with a backstory that turns out to sort of not be his own and then we're introduced to a bunch of brand new characters who aren't all that interesting. We have Hawkman who is supposed to be really good friends with Dr Fate because they told me so and when one of them dies it's supposed to be emotional but I felt absolutely nothing. There's also a dude that grows really tall who isn't interesting at all and the girl who can make wind. None of these people can beat Black Adam and it's kind of pathetic. All of the human characters are unrelatable and uninteresting and of course they have a young child that provides pure annoyance. The only thing I can truly say I liked about this movie was the portrayal of Black Adam. He looked just like the character and was cool himself but just surrounded by a lot of people that I did not care about whatsoever. The pacing of this film was all over the place. There would be a crazy action scene and then it would just slam on the brakes for uninteresting exposition. After I was done watching I looked up who wrote and directed this movie and that answered any question I had as to why I did not like this. I would like to see this character again but in a movie with an interesting villain and a far better story.

Dwayne Johnson as Teth-Adam/Black Adam

Aldis Hodge as Carter Hall/Hawkman

Sarah Shahi as Adrianna Tomaz

Marwan Kenzari as Ishmael Gregor

Quintessa Swindell as Maxine Hunkel/Cyclone

Bodhi Sabongui as Amon Tomaz

Pierce Brosnan as Kent Nelson/Doctor Fate

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The Review: The First Noelle

 

The First Noelle 1/10

So over the weekend L. and I ended up watching two holiday movies. The first one was called The First Noelle and it was not good. Instead of giving this a 0 I gave it a 1 because I actually finished this hot trash. I don't know what people saw online but a lot of people were praising this film and I cannot understand why. The movie starts off with Noelle and her friend Terrence who have known each other for 20 years breaking up because he's moving to London for a new job. The movie fast forwards a year later and she's working at a publishing company and he decides to come back and visit. Noelle obviously still has feelings for him but doesn't say anything and she lets her sister who we both thought was her mother know. Her sister mother tells her to try and get back with him even after Noelle discovers that he is now dating a new girl named Noelle as well.

The Review: P-Valley (Season 1 and 2)

 

P Valley 9/10

Now I know I am super late with writing this review but the show called P Valley needs to be talked about. This might be a little bit confusing since I watched season two and then went back and watch season one. I think what I'm going to try to do is talk about how the characters change between both seasons and of course whether I like these people or not. Now at first I had zero interest in watching this show. I've never been to a strip club, I've never wanted to go to a strip club, have zero interest in going to a strip club because I compare it to going to a buffet and watching other people eat. But this show is about more than just a strip club somehow. I know if you look at any photos from it or ads or anything it looks like the show is nothing but strippers dancing but it really is about more than that. I should also point out that the second season took place during the pandemic (we still in one though!) and the show portrayed it perfectly.

Documentality: Killer Sally

 

Killer Sally 8/10

This past weekend Cam and I watched this crazy ass documentary on Netflix called Killer Sally. It was about a former bodybuilder who had murdered her husband Ray McNeil who was a former Mr. Olympia competitor. They have interviews with her as she's in prison so you know that she ended up getting locked up for his murder and they have interviews with her two children that she had from a previous marriage. As the story continues you see that she had a terrible upbringing. The husband she murdered had a terrible upbringing and by proxy her children also had a terrible upbringing. Now Sally she was in the Marine Corps as well as the husband that she ended up murdering. As they did different bodybuilding competitions and everything after leaving service she started doing these videos where men would wrestle women in apartments, specifically buff ass women. She would get about $300 an hour wrestling these men and made enough money to support the family just barely and her husband wasn't even working. He would just be competing in these different competitions and sometimes winning most of the times losing or placing very far behind and then being a cheating and abusive asshole on top of it.

The Review: Spiral

Spiral 7/10

Spiral was actually good. I gave up on Saw films a while back because they started getting brutal for nothing and the traps were set up so there was no way to actually survive. This is a Saw based film but no Billy the Puppet showing up. This detective named Bozwick chases this guy down into the subway and ends up caught in a f-ed up trap where he has to cut his tongue off the survive. He don't. This is not that kinda movie. If someone is in a trap if they don't immediately make the decision to maim themselves they're gonna die. His former partner Zeke Banks tries to track down who is now murdering multiple cops before it gets even worse. What sucks is that his department is dirty as hell and he can't trust anyone. Hell, it turns out his father is one of the main dirty ones. Zeke gets a new guy that works with him and he ends up getting killed. Or does he? This was a jacked up ass movie but the kills were not as gory as previous films. Just really jacked up. This movie showed that you could make Saw spinoffs and they would be cool. I'd like to see a few seasons of shows just like this movie.

Chris Rock as Detective Zeke Banks

Max Minghella as Detective William Schenk/Emmerson

Leonidas Castrounis as Young William

Samuel L. Jackson as Marcus Banks

Marisol Nichols as Captain Angie Garza

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The Review: Thor Love And Thunder

 

Thor Love And Thunder 9/10

This was a funny ass movie! I watched this over a month ago with L. after not seeing it in theaters. The basic story is that Thor is lacking confidence and direction in his life while traveling with the Guardians Of The Galaxy. He heads back in time to have to deal with this guy named Goor the God Butcher. He wasn't always this way. He had a god he believed in and after his daughter died and he met his god he found out that there was no paradise or rewards for his worship. Using a magic sword he kills the god and decides to kill all of them. Meanwhile Jane is dealing with cancer. She goes to New Asgard and using the shattered Mjolnir she becomes a new Thor. Its fucking awesome. This was another fun ass Thor movie that had me laughing while also some touching moments dealing with the fact that Thor and Jane still loved one another and reconciling with her impending death. Yeah, this is short because the movie ain't as fresh in my head but I really loved this movie.

Chris Hemsworth as Thor

Christian Bale as Gorr the God Butcher

Tessa Thompson as Valkyrie

Taika Waititi as Korg

Russell Crowe as Zeus

Natalie Portman as Jane Foster/Mighty Thor

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Curtain Call: Oklahoma!

Oklahoma! DNF/10

Full disclosure: me and Cam left during intermission. She had tickets to the play Oklahoma and I didn't know anything about the story. She did. We got there early and chowed down on some good Lemonade and headed over. Had great seats in the balcony pretty much dead center as you can see from the photos. I will point out some good about the show. The seats were comfy. The lady singers were incredible and too good to be in this. Also the unintentional humor that was riddled throughout this uneven show. There were parts where the audience didn't know if they were supposed to laugh, clap, or whatever. I was one of them. So after some weird ass experimental footage was shown on a large screen and the lights came up Cam started laughing. Not a “this is fun!” laugh, but a “What the fuck am I watching?!” laugh. I asked if she wanted to leave, she didn't want me to leave if I wanted to see the rest of the show. I said I was totally cool with bouncing so we did and headed to Jack In The Box.

Curtain Call: Cats

Cats 7/10

This past Saturday Cam took me to see Cats at the Pantages Theater. We had seen it there before back in 2019 and I remember seeing the commercials for it back in the 80's on TV and all I knew that someone flew away on a giant hubcap. I was wrong. It was not a hubcap. We got there early and wolfed down some Vito's pizza outside and took our amazing seats. I have never had seats that close at this theater and it helps because I tend to be in the balcony and this theater is known for having terrible sound. So we sat behind this weird old white dude that wanted to talk to everyone (I ignored him because he didn't have a mask and I don't talk unless I wanna) and this older Black couple where the husband kept taking his mask off and on and moving weirdly to the music. Otherwise the audience was pretty okay. And, and the wife of the mask man trying to film the last act, being told to stop, trying one more time, and being told to stop again. People are trash.

The Review: The Outfit

The Outfit 9/10

Hey, this was a real movie! I use that description rarely. But this was something I would've watched in a theater. I didn't even know it existed. Miss Jackie's mama suggested it to me and I checked it out and thoroughly enjoyed it. This cutter (not a tailor!) named Leonard Burling is enjoying a nice, quiet existence making suits. Most of his clients are with the mob but so what? His receptionist Mable starts dating the son of a mob boss who later shows up shot and Leonard is forced at gunpoint to sew him up to stop the bleeding. This leads to the talk of a rat and a tape that was taken from the FBI. This is where my detective skills shine like a turd in the dark because I was accusing everyone left and right of being the rat. This movie had me guessing until the very last scene. This movie was on some The Usual Suspects/Knives Out type shit. It is on Amazon and everyone should be watching this and wanting more movies like this. Small setting, great acting, the look of the movie, the sound was good (didn't have to keep adjusting the volume like a Netflix movie). Damn thing had me applauding by myself in my apartment.

Mark Rylance as Leonard Burling

Johnny Flynn as Francis

Zoey Deutch as Mable Shaun

Dylan O'Brien as Richie Boyle

Simon Russell Beale as Roy Boyle

Nikki Amuka-Bird as Violet LaFontaine

Alan Mehdizadeh as Monk

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The Review: Ricochet

Ricochet 7/10

This was some perfect 90's cheese. I had heard of Ricochet and knew Denzel was in it but that was all. Next thing you know the credits start rolling and all the greats were here! This is about a cop/law student named Nick Styles who before he got started was a flirt and played basketball with a thug named Odessa. He later becomes a cop and while at a carnival he and his partner stumble on a shooting by a dude named Earl Talbot Blake. This dude is nuts as hell! He takes a woman hostage and strips down to his draws (which pleased my lady to no end) and shoots Blake and saves the day. By the way, that hostage deserved it. She came skipping out the port-a-potty like there weren't two men with guns out. So while Style's life skyrockets after the arrest Blake plots to get revenge from prison.

The Review: A Jazzman's Blues

 

A Jazzman's Blues 2/10

This movie was ass. L. wanted to check out this Tyler Perry movie called A Jazzman's Blues on Netflix so we did. This movie was long and full of people making dumb decisions to keep the story moving. It is about a dude named Bayou who falls in love with this girl named Leanne aka Bucket. They explain why she was called Bucket and it is so stupid that nickname would have never stuck. Bayou's no father hates him. His brother hates him. Everyone makes fun of him except for his mother who baby's him. This story is told through letters that Bayou wrote to Leanne in the late 30's to early 40's after they were given to this racist dude in the 80's. Yeah.

The Review: The 355

The 355 (1/10)

I almost didn't even write a review for this because I did not care for it. I also don't want to be accused of hating women since at this point if you say you don't like something that is female led it means you hate them. It isn't the fact that the action was shot terrible, the story was weak as hell and incredibly predictable, or that the actresses you see in this have been in far better films. That couldn't be it. I looked up the director after watching this and slapped myself for even watching this. I was familiar with his name as a producer and writer but when he got to do all three...yeesh. What is this about? Different government spies trying to out think one another for a device that can control technology until they start to work together but only the women because the men are all dumb, violent, or dumb and violent. I wish this was good and it didn't get a 0/10 because I finished it while ironing my clothes.

Jessica Chastain as Mason "Mace" Browne

Penélope Cruz as Graciela Rivera

Fan Bingbing as Lin Mi Sheng

Diane Kruger as Marie Schmidt

Lupita Nyong'o as Khadijah Adiyeme

Édgar Ramírez as Luis Rojas

Sebastian Stan as Nick Fowler

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The Review: RRR

RRR 9/10

Some movies are just way more fun than they need to be. I had seen a scene from this movie and wanted to check it out. I didn't know what it was about or that it was three hours long. Within the first few minutes a woman was smacked in the head with a log and a child was kidnapped after singing a nice song. The hell is happening?! This is the story of two men with very different ways of achieving the same goal. One dude is trying to get his sister back and another is trying to arm his people by joining with the enemy. That is actually pretty much the gist of this.