Monthly Archives: April 2020

TV Review – Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Valloweaster

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TL;DR – A fun family story but they may have picked the wrong story to focus on

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Valloweaster. Image Credit: NBC.

Review –

One of the things that can help cement a long-running TV show is those recurring themes and events that you can keep going back to, like How I Met Your Mother’s slap or Deep Space Nine’s O’Brien-must-suffer time. However, as times goes on it can be hard to balance the return of an episode with the necessary escalation you need to pull it off. Well, today we have a similar time because it is a holiday so let’s begin the heist.

So to set the scene, we open in as two patrol officers are coming up the elevator, with everything being fine bar when they open the doors and the room is full of fighting rabbits in impeccable suits and glasses. Before you go have time to wonder what is going on we hear “Is this still going on” and cut back 6 months to Halloween because it is heist time and this time to stop betrayals, everyone is getting cuffed to their partners. Now we will be looking at the episode as a whole so you better believe that there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Movie Review – Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn (Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey)

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TL;DR – A really solid follow up to a film that didn’t work, so that is a great change of pace

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is a post-credit scene sort of

Awards –

Nominated: Explosive Action, Stunning Costumes & Exquisite Musical Score

Birds of Prey and the Fantabulous Emancipation of One Harley Quinn. Image Credit: Warner Brothers.

Review –

As things have been going, I think it has been safe to say that the DC expanded Universe has been made up of more misses than hits. However, in recent times that trend has started to change with Aquaman being a fun little film and Shazam! finding some real heart, showing that the studio can make it work on something other than Wonder Woman. However, coming into Birds of Prey, I was a little hesitant given what came before, but thankfully I had nothing to worry about.  

So to set the scene, in the time since Suicide Squad ended, Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie) broke up with The Joker and it was entirely amicable … okay maybe not. However, everyone thinks she’ll get back together with him, it’s only a matter of time. Well, that’s not what Harley thinks and to prove it to everyone she blows up the symbol of their love the chemical factory which does not quite go to plan. Meanwhile, Renee Montoya (Rosie Perez) is trying to find out who is going around crossbowing local goons and a young pickpocketer Cassandra Cain (Ella Jay Basco) is about to pick the wrong pocket potentially shifting the balance of all of Gotham City.  

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Movie Review – Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu)

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TL;DR – A beautiful yet deeply sad film that never quite escape its emotional weight      
Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Portrait de la Jeune Fille en Feu). Image Credit: Madman films.

Review –

Several films came out around Christmas that I wanted to see but I could not make it work because my new job didn’t start till the end of January. Well thankfully a lot of them are now making their way to video on demand (at a reasonable price unlike some other films) so I get to jump back in and fill in those gaps. The first film in that group is full of mood and tension and 18th century France.

So to set the scene, in the 18th century of the coast of Brittany, France a woman takes the long trip across the ocean in a rowboat. Marianne (Noémie Merlant) is a painter and has been hired The Countess (Valeria Golino) to paint her daughter Héloïse (Adèle Haenel). The painting is to be sent as a part of Héloïse’s wedding present, an arranged marriage to a noble in Milan. However, there is a catch, because Héloïse sent the last portrait painter off in disperse with an unfinished work hanging in the house, Marianne has to paint Héloïse in secret without her knowing. 

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Movie Review – Coffee & Kareem

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TL;DR – When you can make a running tally of bad paedophile jokes and that is not the biggest problem with your film then you have some real problems.    

Score – 1.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Coffee & Kareem. Image Credit: Netflix.

Review –

Have you ever watched a film that is filled with talented people with an interesting concept, but it fails on almost every level. Well if you haven’t, I have the film for you, which shows you that you need to pick a tone when you start rather than trying to find one in production.  

So to set the scene, Officer James Coffee (Ed Helms) is going through life, and not succeeding bar the fact that he is dating Vanessa Manning (Taraji P. Henson). Well in one day Vanessa’s son Kareem (Terrence Little Gardenhigh) found out they were sleeping together and he became the laughing stock of the police force when Orlando Johnson (RonReaco Lee) escapes from the back of his police cruiser. To get back at Coffee, Kareem sets it up so Coffee would take him to a friend’s place but instead it was to a place so he could get a beat down. Well, it all fell apart and now Kareem and Coffee are on the run.

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TV Review – Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Admiral Peralta

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TL;DR – A fun family story but they may have picked the wrong story to focus on

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Brooklyn Nine-Nine: Admiral Peralta. Image Credit: NBC.

Review –

When you have a long-running show, changing up the dynamic can keep it fresh or be its downfall. This usually takes the form of the key relationship in the show, but not only did Brooklyn Nine-Nine let Amy (Melissa Fumero) and Jake’s (Andy Samberg) relationship develop naturally they have let it go through all the phases of life.

So to set the scene, at the weekly briefing Amy and Jake have an important announcement to make, they’re having a baby, which everyone already knew about. But with the thoughts of the coming bundle of joy come to the foreground, Jake starts thinking of the past and what his father Rodger (Bradley Whitford) refers to as the ‘Peralta Curse’ that is the terrible relationships that fathers have with their sons. Well there is only one way to fix that and that is to reunite a father with his son and that goes about as well as you expect. Now we will be looking at the episode as a whole so you better believe that there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Movie Review – Altered Carbon: Resleeved

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TL;DR – It’s fine, nothing amazing but not a complete mess.    

Score – 3 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Altered Carbon: Resleeved. Image Credit: Netflix.

Review –

I’ve been quite enjoying the jaunts into the world of Altered Carbon as of late. A world of switching bodies and switching cast members. A world of excesses and a world of death that is only real death half the time. I’ve watched both seasons, so when I heard there was an animated movie, well I had to give it a watch and well … it’s fine.

So after the events of the Second Season (I think, but I’m not entirely sure), we open on the planet Latimer. Here a young girl Holly (Brittany Cox/ Ayaka Asai) is running from her life through the upper streets as air cars and large holograms walk around her. She is being chased by two thugs, who are trying to catch her. Running into a club she is almost at a needle casting facility when a ninja slaughters the two thugs and turns on her. Things are bad but then Takeshi (Ray Chase/ Tatsuhisa Suzuki) arrives to save the day. Teaming up with local CTAC operator Gina (Elizabeth Maxwell/ Rina Satô) they get Holly to the safety of the Yakuza or as it turns out maybe into significantly more danger than she was before.

Now, this is an interesting film, in that we are usually a bit cagier about spoilers with films, but then it is also hard to talk about this film without getting into spoilers for both past seasons and a big reveal in this film. So with that in mind, there will be some big [SPOILERS] around character points going forward but not for the ending.

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Movie Review – Sol Levante

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TL;DR – An interesting vignette, but more focusing on the style than the substance   
   
Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Awards –

Nominated: Creative Animation

Sol Levante. Image Credit: Netflix.

Review –

I mentioned earlier this week with Familiar Strangers, that it was the shortest film that I had ever reviewed for the sight, well not three days later we are going to beat that record with Sol Levante. An animated short made in 4K HD that I don’t think anyone in the world is going to see at 4K at least not for the foreseeable future.

This is an interesting film to review because there is not a whole lot to it, but then it also feels like there is a bit more to it than first appears. There is not a story, bar a young woman fighting I want to say demons across a shifting landscape. There are quite a few of these set-piece moments that the fit into the three minutes run time that hint at things. It is a film that fits into the sort of nexus of fantasy, science fiction, and spiritual genres and is steeped in symbolism if nothing else.  

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