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Showing posts from August, 2022

House Of The Dragon Episode 1 – Non-Spoiler Review

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Written and Reviewed by Jan At last, we’re there: New Game Of Thrones content. And if there’s one thing for sure, it’s this: HBO made the correct choice in doing this show – at least in terms of success. Apparently it was the most watched premiere in HBO‘s history. Despite many audiences going in with a hefty dose of skepticism after being burned by GoTs final two abysmally bad seasons, it’s clear there’s still much hunger for more stories in the world George R.R. Martin built. And indeed, the premiere offers many of the aspects that made early GoT so great. Like morally grey, conflicted protagonists and their rogue family members making everything so much worse, while conspiracies are spun in the background. House Of The Dragon doesn’t reach the heights of early GoT here – cast your mind back to how instantly endearing Ned, Catelyn, Jon, Arya, and Tyrion were, and how thunderously well written the backs and forths between Varys and Littlefinger were – but it comes close enough to get

She-Hulk Pilot Episode Review

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Written by Jan ⚠️ This review contains spoilers!! So, I saw episode one of the MCU's new hot and hit show SHE-HULK. Wait for it... -> „She-Hulk – Attorney at Law“ is the newest D+ TV expansion to the MCU. At this point, is there any point in asking whether this new addition makes sense in a broader worldbuilding context? Of course not. The MCU has long abandoned all pretense of some kind of unified worldbuilding making sense. We had our first parallel universe in Shang-Chi, but this had nothing to do with Loki and its Alternaverse shenanigans. Which in turn had nothing to do with No Way Home & Multiverse Of Madness. To say MCU’s phase 4 feels disjointed is an understatement.   And here comes the next thing, hot on the heels of the unbearable misfire Love & Thunder. Mind you, this is just a review of the first episode and not the entire show. That will follow. As it stands now, we have a good working hypothesis as to how things will develop from here. The tone the show is

The Black Phone (Review)

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Directed by Scott Derrickson of Marvel's Doctor Strange, The Black Phone is a book adaptation Coming-of-age thriller set during the early Seventies featuring Finney Shaw, (Mason Thames) a shy kid who gets bulled in school, and as if that wasn't bad enough, a grim-masked child abductor called,  "The Grabber," (Sounds like a generic Spider-Man villain from the Seventies.) kidnaps Finney and holds him in an isolated soundproof room with no one to communicate with....except for a few familiar "voices" from a rotary black phone! Are they voices from the dead, or is Finney imagining things? Black Phone has few good features going for it, thanks to a solid cast with Ethan Hawke taking his turn as a creepy antagonist in a horror film, which is the actor's most disturbing if not menacing role to date. Mason Thames paired along with Madeleine McGraw were almost viewed spiritual  successors of Phantasm's Mike and Jody Thornbury.  What I also found troubling, wa

This-is-Dystopia! Class of 1984 (1982)

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"Last year there were 280,000 incidents of violence by students against teachers and their classmates in American high schools . Unfortunately, this film is based on true events. Fortunately, very few schools are like Lincoln High...yet." This static text served as a bleak opening for this cult classic thriller from the early Eighties that was as prophetic as it is disturbing! Meet Andy Norris, a High School Music Teacher “straight outta Nebraska,” who gets a transfer to a graffiti sprawled Lincoln High, but suddenly realizes that his dreams of being a teacher, is now a living nightmare that he cannot escape...or can he?  Directed by Mark Lester (Commando and Showdown in Little Tokyo) and written by Tom Holland, Director of cult favorite, Fright Night, 1982's Class of 1984 is more than a schlock Teenage based film, with its nuanced approach to the subgenre and most importantly, foreshadowing, I rate this as one of my favorite films that debuted during the 80's, a dec

G.I.Joe The Arcade!

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Gameplay Footage: Stalkeye via Konami Japanese Videogame developer Konami have garnered tremendous success during the ninety’s courtesy of their in-house franchises such as Castlevania, Contra, Silent Hill and especially Metal Gear! This was the era in which the company was on top of their game (no pun intended) but unfortunately, thanks to questionable business decisions, from firing Hideo Kojima, removing his Silent Hill project and producing piss poor games like Metal Gear Survive, nowadays they are merely a shadow of their former selves. But let's go back, as in 30 years ago, to reminisce about their arcade games based on licensed properties. While many have flocked to play the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles game at the arcades, to my shock and awe, there was this cabinet that had bold lettering of an all-too familiar font "G.I. Joe A Real American Hero!" Based on the iconic toy and comic line by Hasbro and Writer Larry Hama, G.I. Joe is America's Elite Special Mis

Dissecting Prey (A Review n Rant)

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Reviewed and Written by: Gogoschka So, I watched 'Prey' and was mostly entertained by it - and some of the gorier scenes were great fun - but I thought the writing was very sloppy, considering the fantastic premise offered so much potential. Sorry if I start to ramble, but it really bugs me when I believe a film could have been greatly improved with a few tweaks of the script. Now, my problems are as follows (please hear me out - and excuse such a terribly long review, but I just can't help myself, lol): Why is Naru 150% convinced right from the first tiny hint at the predator that there's this HUUGE threat out there? As far as she knows, the predator hasn't hurt anyone except for a snake, and when she finds a weird, huge footprint and sees the unnatural, purple lightning/light flashes just before she falls when the mountain lion attacks - how are those things indicative of a bigger threat than the metal trap her dog gets caught in at the beginning? And why does sh