The Review: Carrie

Carrie 10/10

If you can't tell by the score I gave this series I thoroughly enjoyed it. I have seen two previous Carrie films and read the book years ago but that's doesn't really matter because this show took the basic premise, put it in modern times, and still managed to make this thoroughly entertaining. It changed the same way Interview With The Vampire was, keeping core plots but different it enough to be original. There were so many times while watching this with my lady that I realize how much worse some of the things that Carrie was put through were made super bad because everyone carries a camera in their pocket. Like, even if you have never seen or read Carrie you know about the shower scene. Now imagine that shower scene where over a dozen girls are filming it happen. So yeah. It's pretty damn bad. This is going to be full of spoilers by the way.

The Review: Backrooms

Backrooms 0/10

This is one of those types of films that I absolutely cannot stand. Sometimes it feels like someone has access to do something and they do it and I get absolutely no joy from it. But for whatever reason millions of people seem to love it. I wish I was one of them. This movie was straight up stupid to me. Me and my lady were watching this and she kept calling it Backshots and I laughed every single time. We started watching and we had pretty much no reaction to it except for a jump scare in the beginning. The rest of what we were able to watch was like how most suspense and horror films are done these days with an unlikable cast. We have this guy named Clark that we don't care about and his therapist named Mary that I had zero interest in. Clark owns a crappy furniture store. He keeps complaining about a high electricity bill and issues with lights. He's also an alcoholic and angry. Those two tend to go hand in hand.

The Review: Lanterns

Lanterns 10/10

Spoilers. I had absolutely no interest in watching the series. I am not a big Green Lantern fan and one of the stars of this has a face that bothered me but now I am used to him. This is the story of how Jordan training John Stewart on becoming a Green Lantern. Green Lanterns normally do not have trainees and Hal knows that at some point this guy is supposed to replace him and does not want that to happen. He barely even trains him and when he does it's dangerous. Like jumping out of a moving vehicle and leaving John the ring to figure out how to survive type of dangerous.

The Review: Cape Fear

Cape Fear 6/10

Spoiler city! It is hard to review this series considering how I felt about the ending. I have seen both versions of Cape Fear in film form and was very interested in seeing this series. Now out of ten episodes I can confidently say that I enjoyed about eight of them. My lady ended up tapping out in episode nine and as I watched the finale I laughed knowing that she was right about what was going to happen and that she would have been very pissed off watching this. This is about a defense attorney named Anna. She's part of this projects that helps free wrongfully convicted criminals. Her husband is named Tom. Tom was the actual prosecutor during this guy named Max Cady trial. Anna was his defense lawyer. As you can see this already seems shady. Max ends up getting released and for some reason we don't know yet Anna seems very upset about this.

Sitting In The Aisle: Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother

Your Mother Your Mother Your Mother 11/10

Spoilers!!! It has been very hot. One place that is not hot is a movie theater so Cam decided to take me to go see this movie. I had seen the trailer for it and it seemed to be a sort of Black John Wick style action film. That is not what this is and I really wish that the trailer could somehow show more of this movie but not at the same time. This was an incredible film. I hate that it has a limited release and is not playing in a lot of theaters because I really do see this movie being far more popular than it currently is.

Curtain Call: Ma Rainey's Black Bottom

Ma Rainey's Black Bottom 10/10

A few weeks ago me, my lady, Cam, and her friend all went to see this show at A Noise Within in Pasadena. I have been to this place a few times now and I think it may be one of my favorite places to watch a live show. They have plenty of parking that is free and the seats are comfortable. The seats have to be comfortable considering August Wilson shows are very long. I have counted and so far have seen five out of the ten of these stories (Pittsburgh Cycle). We plan to see another one next year. Now, I know that there is a movie based off of this play but I have not seen it. So going in I did not know what to expect. I thought that there would be a spooky element considering there has been and all of the other August Wilson plays that I have seen but there was not. I also thought that Ma Rainey would actually be in the show a lot more than she was. This is not a complaint just the fact that I did not know anything about this including the fact that Ma Rainey was a real person.

The Review: Is God Is

Is God Is 9/10

A few weeks ago L and I watched this movie called Is God Is. This is one of the movies I wanted to watch when it was in theaters but never got around to it. This is about these twin sisters named Racine and Anaia. One of them gets called ugly when they're children and the other sister gets up and just starts beating the hell out of these kids. We fast forward to them as adults and they get a letter from their mother. They thought their mother had died in the fire when they were little which is why each of them have burns on their faces, arms, and back. They go and meet their mother who they call God and she lets them know that they need to go and kill their father who did this to them. Anaia is the more squeamish of the two of them and has no idea how they are going to try and kill someone. Their mother reveals that injuries to her body which we don't see but it is enough to convince them that, yeah, they need to kill their father.

Documentality: Death Of A Pastor's Wife

Death Of A Pastor's Wife 8/10

So me and my lady watch this insane documentary called Death Of A Pastor's Wife on Netflix. I was trying to figure out how I was going to even write this because it's hard to talk about it without inserting my own thoughts. This is about a lady named Mica Francis who started going to this guy named John-Paul Miller's church when she was 13 years old. John-Paul was married with four children and also had a child from a previous relationship. He starts having an affair with Mica and he and his wife get separated. By the way, it wasn't as if this pastor admitted to this affair. His wife found messages on his phone and there is video of him laying on his lawn crying like a little bitch. I wanted to elbow drop him when I was watching this. So he starts being with Mica out in public and dating her. By the way Michael was this guy's babysitter as well. And his now ex-wife looks like Mica. It's very creepy.

The Review: Mother Mary

Mother Mary 0/10

This movie was ass. A few weeks ago we watched this movie called Mother Mary. Did not know anything about it but from the poster knew that it was starring one actress I knew and another that I had seen before and thought had a very creepy looking appearance. We ended up looking her up online and it turns out that she has or looks to have had some work done and comes across as very scary looking. I know that this movie is not about this actress and what she has done to herself allegedly. But I just had to point this out because as I watch the movie I kept being creeped out by the way she looked. This movie is about a pop star making a comeback after an incident on stage. I don't know why I'm being vague. It look like she tried to kill herself at one point. So she goes and finds her old costume designer named Sam and wants her to give her a new look before her next tour that starts in three days.

The Review: Widow's Bay

Widow's Bay 9/10

I would suggested watching this series Widow's Bay (on Apple TV which means I signed up for a week long trail) and after hearing about how well the show was received decided to check it out. L made it through one episode and decided that she didn't want to continue. I did and ended up finishing the last nine episodes this weekend. I don't tend to binge watch shows but this one is such an easy and fast watch that I did not realize how quickly I was plowing through it. I read today that there is going to be a second season and even if there was not I could imagine slightly how the town would have carried on after the finale. This is going to be full of spoilers.

The Review: The Last House

The Last House -2/10

Greta Lee as Ann

Wagner Moura as Jason

Riley Chung as 8-Year-Old Ruth

Emma Ho as 13-Year-Old Ruth

Arden Cho as adult Ruth

Noah Alexander Sosnowski as 12-Year-Old Graham

Gabriel Chung as 17-Year-Old Graham

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The Review: Strung

 Strung 0/10

Chloe Bailey as Laila Calloway

Lynn Whitfield as Audra Jelani

Lucien Laviscount as Marcus Walker

Anna Diop as Imani Walker

Coco Jones as Jasmine

Romy Woods as Zuri

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The Review: Another Man's Wife

Another Man's Wife 0/10

So this past weekend we managed to watch two terrible movies. Another Man's Wife. It's about this guy who's crazy rich. He's a tech guy and he created a dating app. Next we have a couple named Maya and Shawn. Shawn works making video games (which to me at this point seems like a job that's not going to exist in like two years). Maya, I am not sure what job she has but it involves fundraising. Seriously sitting here right now I am not sure what this woman does for a living. So Shawn heads the work and he finds out that he's getting laid off because of the competition. He decides not to tell his wife about this. Oh, and he finds out that his mother has cancer. What kind of cancer does she have? They don't say. How long does she have to live? They make it seem as if she doesn't get treatment in an hour she's going to die. Meanwhile Maya got a promotion. She is having the best day ever and she gets home and Shawn is like “Oh my mama dying.” She feels terrible for him.

The Review: Mortal Kombat 2

Mortal Kombat Two 0/10

I am not going to waste my time writing a lot about this movie. I love the 90s version of Mortal Kombat. I've even liked some of the animated films. The one that came out a few years ago was far better than it had any right to be. But this one I was worried about even from seeing the trailer. So I watch this yesterday and was so disappointed. The acting, the special effects, and the story were absolutely trash. I am not sure why they took such a huge step back from the previous film and making this one but it sucks. I have zero desire to see the upcoming Street Fighter film. I'm not sure what they need to do to make Mortal Kombat a watchable film other than duplicate what they did in the first one and enhance it.

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Sitting In The Aisle: Spider-Man Brand New Day

Spider-Man Brand New Day 7/10

So I just watched the latest Spider-Man. Three people I know told me that I needed to see this movie and I was on the fence about it since I first saw the trailer. I tend to judge these movies based on how many goosebumps I get and I didn't get any watching it. The main reason is because of that Doomsday movie that's coming out later this year. To me there are no stakes because people can be brought back from other realities or just brought back to life. I used to read comic books all the time and I know that this happens in those, but with the films I actually like that there seem to be some form of permanence with these characters deaths. For as sad as it is that Aunt May died in December we can see her come back to life. So while watching this movie I did enjoy it but there was just a cloud of doubt that anything that actually happened in his film would have stakes.

The Review: The Vampire Lestat

The Vampire Lestat 10/10

It's hard to try and describe this show. The fact that a lot of it bounces through time makes it hard to try and talk about this in a linear fashion so I'm not gonna even try. So far this show has managed to do three incredible seasons. That is close to being unheard of in this day and age. I was worried that there would be little interaction between Louis or Daniel or Armand this season because I've read these books and I need to realize that they have done something so different with this series that it is gotten to a point that I and a lot of other people need to let those books go. I see so many arguments and anger about certain things that are changed when people either don't realize or seem to forget that Interview With The Vampire, Lestat, and Queen of the Damned are pretty much the only good books in that series that contains so many books. No, I do need to point out that the Mayfair Witches or the Witching Hour is a very good book but they have managed to make a horrible series out of it.

The Review: Obsession

Obsession 1/10

This is a video/audio version of my review for the movie Obsession. I had to do it this way because I was full of far too many complaints to type it out.

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The Review: They Will Kill You

They Will Kill You 3/10

Okay. So when L and I watched this I knew who was starring in it and as the movie began had some basic idea of what it was possibly about. Woman named Asia and her younger sister we thought was her daughter are on the run from their abusive father. He finds them at a store and as he is about to capture them Asia shoots him and he grabs the younger sister Maria. Asia is like "Deuces!" and leaves her sister behind. Years later Asia been in and out of jail I guess and learning every fighting technique known to man. She gets into this place called The Virgil by stealing someone's identity.

Documentality: Bang My Box The Robyn Byrd Story

F

Bang My Box The Robyn Byrd Story 9/10

This was a damn good documentary L suggested. This is about Robin Byrd. She hosted a public access series called The Robin Byrd Show in Manhattan where she spoke about sex, love, life, championed causes for the LGBTQ community, and safe sex. And this is something she kinda fell into. A show she had showed up on was being canceled (Hot Legs) and they just sorta threw her on and the show blew up. This show aired from 1977 to 1998. She went against the government during the shitty Ronald Reagan era (I shit you not when I was about 5 or 6 years old I wrote an article for the school paper about him titled “Bad Actor Makes Worse President”) and she won. Robin had been in adult films and would have adults performers on the show to just hang out, talk, dance, and speak with callers live on air. This could not exist now. People suck.

Documentality: The University of Cosmic Intelligence

The University of Cosmic Intelligence 2/10

Not too much to say about this as it was advertised as a documentary when it was more of a I guess “be on the look out for these missing people” type of thing. This dude Rashad Jamal from Chicago beats and strangles his woman. Years later he is Atlanta trying to rap. Meets this lady who has kids who wants to be a singer. They get together and have a kid. He starts making up all these conspiracy videos that get traction online talking about Black people being gods and Atlantis being where Atlanta now sits and all kinda weird shit. Its Pandemic time so everyone is going crazy and a bunch of crunchy Black folk start following him. He gets too nutty and molests his lady's daughter and eventually he is arrested for 18 years.