Turnstile Summer
Hope you have been listening…
Let’s Channel the Police
Turnstile switching into The Police…
The Fantastic Four: First Steps
There is an issue of bronze age Marvel “What if?” that asked the question, “What if Sue Richards had died?” Spoiler alert for The Fantastic Four: First Steps. In that issue, Sue Richards died giving birth to her son. Her death drove Mr. Fantastic crazy that he decided to kill the villain who had a hand in her death — a villain clueless as to his participation, Annihulus. It was a good read. I remember it to this day. I had thought of this as I had watched Fantastic Four.
While it was a big hit at the start, I believe it fell off quickly. It should’ve had been better with Galactus. It could’ve been better with Namor in love with Sue Storm. Yes. In that “What if?” issue, it was Namor who recognized the despair in Reed Richards. He was the one to attempted to save him. I thought more of this tossed off issue than the film.
Yet, I am not so intrigued for where Marvel’s cinematic universe goes next. As I said, I am bored of superheroes.
3 of 5 stars.
It’s Never Enough
I bumped into this video — or rather the algorithm served it up to me — about a week again. I had no idea there was such a band in Baltimore or that there was a hardcore scene. I’ve been catching up.
I know that there is a well established music scene in Baltimore. I know Beach House. I know that its rap scene had received some publicity a few years ago. So, they’re doing music in town.
But I didn’t know Turnstile. They had been nominated for a Grammy a few years ago. Sounds good. I like what I am hearing. Let’s listen to it some more.
Jurassic World: Rebirth
Do we need another Jurassic World movie? We need another Jurassic World movie like we need another hole in our heads. Well, considering I have an extra hole in my head, we got Jurassic World: Rebirth, another movie to jump start the second trilogy of Jurassic World. Again, it must be asked, “do we need another Jurassic World movie?”
This version gives just enough to keep you watching. There are several red shirts willingly given as dinosaur fodder. There’s the kids in jeopardy. Why are they even there? There’s the scientists who fight for dinosaurs to be given there space and their right to live without being bothered. There’s Scarlett Johanson looking for a paycheck, and there’s the hero who you knew could not die. This is a complete throw away of a movie, and yet, it is just barely necessary.
Definitely, we don’t need another Jurassic World movie. We got one anyway. If you see it, just enjoy it.
3 of 5 stars.
Why Screaming Blue Messiahs?
Is this my favorite band ever? Maybe…
It is said that your choice of music solidifies in your teens. That may be anecdotal, but I definitely still listen to the Messiahs now and then forty years later. Three albums, a few B-sides and EPs, and then done. For a decade from the early 1980s to the 1990s, they were often in my tape deck. They very much a part of me growing up. So lately, I hope to find some smidge of information about them and find my younger self as well.
The Surfer
Nick Cage is The Surfer. That’s not enough to describe this movie. The plot revolves around a man, the titular Surfer, trying to buy a house at this very “locals only” beach, and he’s harassed by the locals over three days. It leaves hims psychologically scarred. Same for me.
I was expecting action, but got trippy psychedelics. Was he even who he thought he was? Was he the bum on the beach?
The locals were even crazier. Turns out they were led by man of the “man-o-sphere” who lived life through pain. He put his underlings through a lot and they would respond like wolves. Alpha-males all around. This leader was causing much suffering and it was expressed as localism.
Anyhow, as I sat through this I knew that I ended up in a late career Nick Cage film. Weirdness abounds.
2 of 5 stars.
Thunderbolts*
Thunderbolts has an asterisk because it is The New Avengers. Spoiler alert!
It was the post credits ending, but to get there was two hours of action. Now, people seemed to have been satisfied with the film. I don’t think I was. I hadn’t watched many of the MCU films in the last four years, and I don’t bother with the television series. Therefore watching this movie was like coming in half way through. I felt like I had picked up the comic and found out that I need to pick up the back issues to get what it going on and who these heroes are. Like seriously, who was that one character that was killed?
I’m just catching up. I don’t know any of these characters. I guess I’ll have to read the wiki!
3 of 5 stars.
The Friend
The Friend is the type of movie we don’t anymore. A smallish movie with well established actors just telling a quaint story. Back in the day, you would go watch such films on a lazy Sunday with your mom. Nowadays, since they are few and far between, they are skipped altogether.
The Friend stars Naomi Watts and Bill Murray. It’s tells a story of Watts’s character struggling to find a home for Murray’s great Dane and dealing with his ex-wives after he dies. It’s a story about mourning, but also acceptance. And a big dog in a small apartment. Watts and Murray were just really great friends, maybe once lovers, but now the friendship kept them together. It is hard to say goodbye with a dear friend one whom you never noticed was one in the first place.
I hope we get a bit more of these type of smallish films, but the future of Hollywood is dire.
3 of 5 stars.
In the Lost Lands
I completely forgot that I saw In the Lost Lands until I saw a YouTube video of several movies from March. It must’ve been a terrible movie.
It was.
And yet I think it was worth watching. Not for a good a move, but for just enjoying bad movies in theaters. It’s a good thing once in while. Not all the time, but once in a while you got to go and experience terribleness on a large screen.
Anyhow, it was a Paul W.S. Anderson film with Mila Jovovich in the lead from a story by the writer of Game of Thrones. David Bautista was in it, and I didn’t know he was Filipino, but he had tattoos that hinted to it.
1 of 5 stars.