It’s been awhile! For everything! We’re in the thick of the holidays so there’s a lot of slowdown. Great time to catch up on movies with TV on haitus but that ends next week.

It’s been some time since I’ve watched a movie I really liked. I’ve watched 3 this week and I’ll be doing quick hits of those this weekend. I plan on getting out to see Aquaman in January, which I’m looking forward to.

Netflix keeps putting out shows I like so a lot of my free time has been put there. Let’s go over some stuff.

Ink Master finished another season and this year was themed to a Grudge match. Cleen and Christian coached teams and overall it was a fun watch. The final 4 were tremendous talents but good lord do I hate the finales of this show. So much back-biting and trash talking makes it such a drag. I jump ahead to see the final pieces and the results.

On SYFY I completely missed Nightflyers and the new season of Channel Zero. I’m halfway through Nightflyers (if you can use the SYFY app on a media device instead of their website. The video player on the site is not good). I like but do not love Nightflyer. It looks gorgeous, the cast is great but there’s something about it that doesn’t make me seek it out like other similar-ish shows like The Expanse. I don’t like most of the characters, I think that’s why. I’m hoping it all comes together. When I finish, I move on to Channel Zero. I think Happy! starts soon and the ads for Deadly Class are interesting so that’s two more for SYFY.

The final season of Gotham starts on the 4th!

I was fortunate enough for DC to gift me a year subscription to their new DC Universe service. That gave me access to the first season of Titans which I have been looking forward to. First and foremost, it isn’t Teen Titans which the fan base knows and loves the best. The tone of this show is much different and the only thing they really have in common (so far) are the main characters of Robin, Raven, Beast Boy, and Starfire. I think you need to drop the expectations for a live-action Teen show coming into this, that’s how much different they are (Titans is a very dark, adult take on the property). It’s a little slow to get going but overall I like it. Cliff hanger ending, but I think the casting is right on and they sell the story well. Robin is pretty fresh from leaving Batman behind due to (mostly) ethical reasons. Beast Boy has been living an isolated life so finding this group of misfits is the start of something great for him, even if it is dangerous and challenging. Raven’s powers are just starting so she has no idea what’s going on and that’s the main arc of the season. Starfire is the most different. We meet her “on the job” but she doesn’t know what that job is. She can’t remember what she’s here for only that she’s looking for Raven. Dressed as a prostitute, it means she’s been in some shady places trying to put things together. She’s comfortable on Earth, having no idea she’s not from here. Her childish and goofy charm isn’t part of this take which I don’t mind. I think her fish out of water mistakes/comments would have gotten old fast. It’s a short season so it moves at a good clip and teases a lot of DC tie-ins which I like so I’m invested in what happens. This is just the start of their original programming and there’s a great promise. Doom Patrol is next, the return of Young Justice should be fantastic (it never should have been canceled, it’s easily one of the best animated DC shows) and Swamp Thing is filming now. There’s more coming down the pipe but those shows are a ways off.

Now for Netflix. Voltron is finished and I liked it a lot. They put a lot of work into wrapping everything up and I think they did an admirable job. The timing of seasons coming out felt random so there is disjointed feeling I got from watching each chunk. There’s a lot I didn’t remember right away (I never went back to rewatch) but this show really scratches that sci-fi itch. Great characters, great animation, and some terrific sound design make it the total package. The ending had some serious weight to it, glad I watched it.

3Below: Tales of Arcadia. The spin-off series from Troll Hunters. I forgot all about this so when it popped up about a week ago, I dove right in. The tie-in to TH turned out great. Fun and inventive way to spin out this universe into another one about an alien prince and princess. It maintained the quality of animation and I really like Aja, Krel, and Varvatos Vex. The fish out of water stuff was often really funny, the writing on this show is really good. My only problem was with their pet, Luug. Why does this alien animal sound exactly like a dog? Sure you have to suspend your disbelief to make a lot of this show work (everyone speaks English, for example) but this doesn’t match the creativity put into the rest of the show.

I’ve been away from anime for a long time so I was happy to see a new batch of Seven Deadly Sins episodes. This show is basically a version of Dragon Ball Z but with way better pacing. All the problems are unsurprisingly still there though. Some really horrific dialog, which I think is mostly from directly translating Japanese to English so the syntax is all wrong. Another annoyance is when something happens on screen (like a monster getting cut with a sword) and a character will say exactly what happened. Nothing that ads context or background, but a literal replay in dialog form (“The sword cut the monster, it must be a sharp blade”). It’s the weirdest waste of time. The other problem is this show can get really uncomfortable to watch. The main character, Meliodas, gropes Elizabeth’s chest, looks up her skirt, and she does not like it. He basically ambushes her randomly and she recoils in horror every time. Saying it’s perverted is an understatement and it ruins every moment. Crazy costumes that exploit female bodies is a long staple of this genre but this stuff is mind-bogglingly stupid. I don’t know why they still do stuff like this. It serves no good purpose and is such a slam-on-the-breaks blight to an otherwise good show.

I can’t remember if I wrote about the second season of Castlevania, but I’ll say it’s totally worth watching. Some of the action is killer and the final fight is especially fantastic. The best choreography I’ve seen since the end of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles last year (the CG one).

I just started Sirus the Jaeger which has something to do with vampire hunters so I’m hoping it’ll be cool. I’m dying for some good anime, it’s been so long since I’ve seen a good one worth recommending.

I went through the entire The Great British Baking Show collection (except for Masterclass) in like 3 months and if you need something to kick back to, this is it. You can have it on the background while you do stuff and it’s just as enjoyable. One of my favorite competition shows, there’s a lot of jolly vibes in every episode.

I just started Sick Note which stars Rupert Grint and Nick Frost. I saw Rupert on the thumbnail and had to give it a try. Rupert plays Dennis, a 20 something shlub who is lazy and takes everything good in his life for granted. On his worst day ever. his girlfriend kicks him out, his job is threatened, and to top it off, he’s diagnosed with cancer. The hook is, due to stupid Dr. Glennis (Frost), Dennis is given the wrong info, he doesn’t have cancer. Dennis notices a rather nice upswing in his life when he told everyone he had cancer and instead of telling the truth, he doubles down to milk it for a few months and everything spirals from there. I’m on episode 2 (of 12, don’t know if there is more) and it’s great. It’s obviously a dark comedy and man, by the end of episode 1 they go to places I didn’t even think of.

When I’m done with Sick Note I’ll stay on that side of the pond with Derry Girls. That or the final season of A Series of Unfortunate Events. That drops on January 1st so I’m not sure which will pull me in first.

Pacific Rim: Uprising– I’m a fan of the first movie that came out in 2013. Guillermo del Toro making a sci-fi giant robots fighting giant monsters action movie was basically made for me. While it had its faults with a simple plot, I think it did what it wanted to. It set up a new universe and showed audiences giant robots fighting giant monsters in spectacular fashion. The sequel starts 10 years later with the human race largely recovered from the alien beings invading through the dimensional rift that opened in the Pacific Rim. Wealthy countries rebounded much faster than other locations, but as far as everyone is concerned, the war was won. The aliens had an ace up their sleeve though and as time has passed, they have quietly been setting up the next invasion. A young generation of Yaeger pilots is introduced, including Jake, the son of Stacker Pentecost, one of the heroes from the original. As a whole, I liked this new one has it showed me more of what I liked. That’s a basic need for any sequel. Many more robot and monster types and more action (that’s set during the day with no rain!) that show off how mankind has pulled together to defend the planet. But it also doesn’t do anything new or daring. There’s very little lore added to the universe (I don’t think they even mention what happened to Charlie Hunnam’s Raleigh Becket) and the movie boils down to the exact same arc of the first movie: the best defense is with teamwork. Now the set up for a sequel looks to do more, but it’s disappointing that more wasn’t done with this story. Meet the new team, show them training, the threat grows, the threat comes out, the final fight, credits. While I did enjoy it, Uprising is a rote adventure that hangs its hat on giants for its action scenes in an attempt to stand out.

Hotel Artemis– A really neat premise of a movie with a stacked cast. In the not too distant future, Los Angeles is in a state of chaos over fresh water. In the city is the Hotel Artemis, a secret hospital for criminals that is run by The Nurse. She’s been running this members-only facility for around twenty years and she’s pushed to her limit when a volatile mix of clients come knocking. There are strict rules set up for the Artemis to function and things fall apart when those rules are broken. If you’ve seen John Wick, this idea may sound rather familiar. I think it’s safe to say the idea for Hotel Artemis was taken from the assassin hideout in the Wick series. While the general idea of the facility is similar, the story is quite different. The Nurse is the main character and as the movie progresses we learn more about her and the hotel. I liked this a whole lot as I was always surprised at how many story layers there are (something that Pacific Rim: Uprising is sorely lacking) and was happy to see each layer get pulled back. I’m a fan of assassin movies and Artemis gave me my fill. Fun characters that are put into a pressure cooker, each with their own motives and histories. Some have met, others have not. Check out this cast list: Jodie Foster, Dave Bautista, Sterling K. Brown, Jeff Goldblum, Charlie Day (I don’t know what the odds are of watching two movies that Charlie is in back to back unintentionally), Zachary Quinto, and Sofia Boutella. It looks cool, it’s acted slick and the action was surprisingly on point. I give the action set piece gold star to Sofia Boutella’s hallway gauntlet. A lovely mix of vicious and sexy. I even liked the ending so I’m happy to report that the Hotel Artemis was a pleasant surprise.

Tomb Raider (2018)- I wanted to like this. The one sentence review is this was a disappointment. It’s not a bad movie, it just sits somewhere in the middle with nothing there to elevate it to greatness. The plot follows closely to the recent game reboot: a young Lara Croft, with no adventures under her belt, follows a path left behind from her father’s disappearance and assumed death to a remote island that hides a legendary power. So we have some globe-trotting, a bunch of chase sequences, gun and fist fights, and a little bit of bow and arrow work from Lara. It’s all well made too. Well shot, special effects are good, editing and acting are fine. It all falls flat though, there’s just no meat to bite into. I think Alicia Vikander does a fine job as Lara but with so many action movies coming out every year, you need to do something to stand out from the rest. I don’t think Tomb Raider does. I can compare it to Mission Impossible: Fallout. While that movie leans heavily on what’s come before, the whole “we’ve been abandoned by the government, again!” angle, the action on display is mindboggling exciting and unique. Tomb Raider just doesn’t reach the bar set by its peers. If you skip this, you aren’t missing out on anything.

A trip down Stephen King Lane!

1922– This story reminded me a lot of the kind of pieces that Edgar Allan Poe wrote. Wilfred James is a farmer struggling to make ends meet in 1922. When he gets the idea that the best fix for their problems is to kill his wife for financial gain, he convinces his son to help. Like any good story with a moral center, this action by Wilfred has consequences he never could have foreseen. It’s a slow ratchet up the hill of insanity for Wilfred. A plan that seems like the best and only way out for him and his son to prosper, one he plans out as best he can, completely ruins his family. The damage radiates for from his home as well. A very telling line early on is one where Wilfred narrates ” I discovered something that night that most people never have to learn. Murder is sin. Murder is damnation. But murder is also work.” I liked this a lot for the road it traveled. How Wilfred, who did everything to hold on to his pitiful pride, lead himself to bring hell on Earth. What he held dearest, his land and his son, not only continued to drift away but also rotted from the inside out because of him.  I wasn’t sure what to expect going into this but came away with an appreciation for another Stephen King concoction.

Gerald’s Game– This tale takes place almost entirely in one location. I’d consider this a “bottle” episode where the razor-sharp focus is on one character and their journey of self-discovery. Here, the character study is on Jessie. She and her husband Gerald go away for a weekend. The spark in their marriage has been on life support for some time and the idea for them to be alone and explore new things with each other on a lovers retreat seems like a good one. It goes wrong quickly and Jessie finds herself alone and trapped in the house. Once she’s alone I wasn’t sure where the story would go but I liked where it went. A deep dive into Jessie’s past makes her confront her long locked away secrets and find a possible path to save herself. I saw Jessie a certain way at the start and found her to be completely different at the end, something I always look for and appreciate when it’s done well. Things get weird, in typical Stephen King fashion as he explores childhood trauma and emotional shackles that can weigh anyone down, even if they aren’t conscious of it. Mix in flashbacks, hallucinations. a few boogymen, a dash of ‘oh nooooo’ gore, and you have a Game you won’t soon forget.  Another one I was pleasantly surprised with.

Cargo– A simple and straight forward story of a family trying to survive a pandemic in Australia. While the cause is never covered, it’s a zombie-like virus that is spread by being bitten. Once contracted, a person has about 48 hours before they transform completely. In just a few hours, the first terrible symptoms start. Andy and Kay are traveling with their infant daughter and after making a misstep, Kay is bitten. From there it is up to Andy to keep his daughter safe. Andy is played by Martin Freeman so he’s the immediate draw. He’s great in this, a father doing everything he can to keep his family safe. This reminds me of The Road as it’s a bleak story in a minimalist environment with few characters. I like this kind of stories, where people are pushed into tough situations and have to make major decisions that can mean life or death. The “what would you do?” angle is a fun thought experiment. This isn’t a scary movie, maybe a bit more if you have children, but it’s a well done if unoriginal survival tale that doesn’t overstay it’s welcome at 100 minutes long.

The Night Comes for Us– This isn’t a horror movie, but the level of gore and violence push it in that direction. If you like the two The Raid movies, you are going to want to watch this right away. Ito is a gangland enforcer, a stone cold killer in a group called the Six Seas. So deep in the Triad world, a person can never get out of such a position by simple means. After a brutal mission overseas, he can’t take carnage anymore and he defects. Once home he’s sucked into an insurrection is his Triad family and all hell breaks loose. He and his remaining friends are constantly being attacked and they must take extreme measures to protect themselves as it’s killed or be killed. The story is kept simple, with a few screens of text at the start to give the background set up, then you meet the main character and it’s off through almost two hours of straight mayhem. Brief pauses in the action set up the next action sequence and it’s some of the wildest and most vicious fight choreography around. This one is solely for action fans, dig in.