Mel Brooks’ 1981 comedy History of the World Part I was never actually intended to have a Part II, but here we are four decades later and Hulu decided to make one anyway. Being so late in coming is part of the joke, I suppose. If anything, the time gap may actually benefit the show,… Read More A Festival of Zeroes – History of the World Part II (2023) Limited Series
Star Trek: Picard begins its third and final season haunted by the fact that (how to put this delicately?) the show’s first two seasons basically sucked. I’m honestly at a loss to decide which of the two was worse, but at the moment am inclined to say the second. Planned as a big reunion and… Read More The Past Matters – Star Trek: Picard Season 3 Premiere (2023)
Culture often seems to move in thirty-year cycles. Growing up back in the 1980s, it felt like nostalgia for the 1950s was everywhere, as my parents’ generation hit middle age and started pining for their own youths. Now here we are another three decades hence, only to find the United States in a renewed Cold… Read More Don’t Think, Just Do – Top Gun: Maverick (2022) 4K Ultra HD
With all the hype and hoolpa over Tom Gun: Maverick last year, did everyone somehow forget that Top Gun already had a sequel? Released way back in 1989, Top Gun: The Second Mission continues the adventures of ace fighter pilot Maverick as he blasts enemies out of the sky in 8-bit aerial combat on the… Read More 8-Bit Replay – Top Gun: The Second Mission (1989) for NES
With five TV series on the air in 2022, all of which he claims primary writing credit for, prolific creator/producer Taylor Sheridan may have just about hit his limit. 1923, the newest entry in his Yellowstone saga, is a very dull affair that not even Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren can bring to any life.… Read More That’s Ranching for You – 1923 (2022) Series Premiere
Produced 34 years after the original, Disney’s reboot of Willow is a fair bit better than the film that inspired it. That’s something of a relief, if not exactly much of an achievement. Improvement or not, the new Willow is still a dull, derivative, and uninteresting fantasy adventure. Not every old movie deserves nostalgia. As… Read More The Fellowship of the Underwhelming – Willow (2022) Series Premiere
Sequels cranked out rapidly following the success of a hit movie too often fail to recapture the magic, but 1993’s Addams Family Values manages to improve upon its predecessor. The film doubles down on all the parts that worked the first time around, eliminates or fixes the parts that didn’t, and generally feels like a… Read More Let’s Not Forget Our Cheery Little Chippewas – Addams Family Values (1993)
Making a sequel to a beloved holiday classic that countless families have a tradition of watching every year is a tricky proprosition that rarely works out. Anyone who’s suffered through Frosty Returns can attest to that. Thankfully, HBO Max’s new A Christmas Story Christmas mostly pulls off the task. The film may not be a… Read More The Old Man Would Be Proud – A Christmas Story Christmas (2022)
I have a soft spot for Predator 2, even if the movie may fail pretty badly at its intended purpose as the sequel to a bona fide action masterpiece. Taken on its own, as a schlocky B-movie about a grizzled urban cop fighting a superhuman hunter from outer space, the picture has a lot of… Read More A New Player in Town – Predator 2 (1990) 4K Ultra HD
By this point, 25 years since its debut, I suspect that the only people who would still willingly subject themselves to Joel Schumacher’s Batman & Robin must fall into one of three categories: 1) Franchise completists who feel compelled to watch every entry no matter what, 2) Bad movie aficionados who revel in its awfulness,… Read More Stone Cold Awful – Batman & Robin (1997) 4K Ultra HD
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