Okay, for real it's Hobbes and Shaw, but when I couldn't remember the name of the film that was my fallback position. I'd seen trailers and was pretty ambivalent about the project. My first comment was "I am obviously not cool enough to watch this picture". It was stuffed so full of toxic masculine energy that I started to wonder if this would be a ( Read more... )

Prepping for the new release in the Terminator franchise, I thought I'd watch the older ones I hadn't seen. (Considering rewatching Judgement Day, I might enjoy it this time.) Rise of the Machines is... not good. It has serious tonal issues, going from 'high emotional stakes end of the world' to a Looney Tunes cartoon complete with *boing* sound ( Read more... )

This time you get a twofer! Double billing! Woo!

( Booksmart )

First note: this was an actual steampunk movie. There was enough steampulp to keep it from being a Blade Runner sort of down-mood production, lots of epic action and airships and sword fighting, but also the dark richness and classic conflicts of steampunk. I love the term 'Municipal Darwinism'. It sounds like a very British concept ( Read more... )

The thing that caught my eye is that Karen Gillan wrote, directed, and starred in this. I wanted to see how she'd done. And the short answer is, I'm looking forward to seeing future projects, but I don't need to see this again. The story is nonlinear, and takes place in the same sets so it's really hard to figure out when you are. And I don't think ( Read more... )

Impulse is the new 'teenager with super powers' show on YouTube Originals (previously YouTube Red). There are ten episodes, and while there is one slow moving episode in the middle, there is very little fat. It's good TV, and while there is one 'girl gets assaulted' scene, the way it and lots of things around it get handled makes me feel hope about ( Read more... )

Discussion this afternoon ( Read more... )

I went into this movie wanting to like it. And I put in some effort, but at first it felt like it wasn't willing to meet me halfway. The first part of the movie, after some nice work technically setting up Meg's character, consisted of a lot of the rough equivalent of minding a four year old child at Nieman-Marcus. Tug tug tug. "LOOK AT THIS!" Tug ( Read more... )

The story starts out in the usual manner--a princess surrenders her voice for the chance to go somewhere new and find love. The fact that the movie takes place in 1961 Baltimore only assures you that Del Toro is telling the story. I enjoyed the movie, barring a couple of unfortunate plot holes or simply transforming them into a metaphor for ( Read more... )

I went into this blind--I'd read the description, and the concept was intriguing. There's this guy and he finds out that people who get within fifty feet of him die. That's a problem. Also apparently works on pigeons and goats, but not plants. Production values aren't great, and I think I could have out acted anybody on the bill, but they do some ( Read more... )