Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Prophecy Comes True & Full Season – TV Review

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TL;DR – Some staging issues aside, I am glad to see that Percy Jackson stuck the landing as it brought season 1 to a close.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Percy approaches the tree.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Review –

Well, we have come to the end of the first and hopefully not the last season of Percy Jackson and the Olympians and what a season it has been. But the critical question we must always ask in the final episode of a season-long story is: Did they stick the landing? Which is slightly more difficult with the God of the Skies is your enemy. 

So to set the scene, at the end of We Find Out The Truth, Sort Of  Percy (Walker Scobell) had a revelation about the whole situation and the oncoming war. For you see, there is someone even more ancient than the Greek Gods stirring, and Kronos (Nick Boraine) is not at all happy with the Gods that defeated him, cut him into tiny pieces, and threw him into Tartarus. I mean, fair point. However, before Percy has time to tell anyone about it or possibly return the Master bolt to Zeus (Lance Reddick), he, Annabeth (Leah Jeffries), and Grover (Aryan Simhadri) are confronted by an angry Aries (Adam Copeland) out for blood. We will be looking at the episode and season as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Argylle – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A film that makes one of the worst mistakes it can: constantly remind you of better films you could be watching.

Rating: 1.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film

Agent Argylle is captured.

Argylle Review –

Today is a bit of an awkward review because I am exploring a work from people both in front of and behind the camera who I have deeply loved before. However, today, I am looking at a film that fails at almost every single step. It failed so badly that I had moved from frustration to disappointment, to wholly checked out by the time I rolled my eyes at the mid-credit scene. With that in mind, we will explore just what went wrong because, like many things, it was not just one road bump that led to this.

So to set the scene, we open with Agent Argylle (Henry Cavill) infiltrating the lair of Lagrange (Dua Lipa) and initiating a pretty intense dance-off. However, Lagrange knew he was coming and what he looked like because someone in his organisation was a mole. In fact, it could be one of his teammates, Keira (Ariana DeBose) or Wyatt (John Cena). However, just as the big reveal happens, we discover that this story is not real. It is a novel written by noted author Elly Conway (Bryce Dallas Howard), whose Argylle series of spy novels are best sellers. However, as Elly takes a train ride with her cat Alfie (Chip) to her mother Ruth (Catherine O’Hara), she is interrupted by the unkempt Aidan Wilde (Sam Rockwell), who might be leading her into a world she wrote about in fiction, that just might be real.

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Badland Hunters (Hwang-ya/황야) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While some moments hit hard, it felt like we had a world that was only ankle-deep deep, and you really wished you could dive in.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

The destruction of Seoul.

Badland Hunters Review –

The thing that makes the post-apocalypse setting such an excellent world to explore is that you can explore human stories without the frameworks that hold everything in place. But if you are going to dive into that world, you need to bring something to the table.

So to set the scene, a scientist, Yang Gi-su (Lee Hee-joon), was involved in many unethical experiments in an attempt to bring back his daughter. However, just as the authorities reach him, Seoul is struck with an earthquake so severe that it destroys most buildings and leaves much of the Korean Peninsular a barren wasteland. If you are lucky, you will find a place to barter on what food and water is left. If you are unlucky, you will see yourself set upon by cannibals. Nam-san (Ma Dong-seok) and Choi Ji-wan (Lee Jun-young) work as hunters bringing food to the local settlement, but when people kidnap Han Su-na (Roh Jeong-eui) with a bad habit of not dying, well, that is not on.   

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Percy Jackson and the Olympians: We Find Out the Truth, Sort Of – TV Review

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TL;DR – It is time for things to come together and for answers to be given … maybe …

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Hades' Palace

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Review –

We are getting to the pointy end of the season, and we are about to dive into the penultimate episode of the season. It is the time when you have to stop holding your cards close to your chest and to use the metaphor from We Take a Zebra to Vegas, you have to go all in. Well, I am not sure we quite get that, but maybe something close.  

So, to set the scene, after being given a hint as to where there might be a portal to the underworld, our gang of Percy (Walker Scobell), Annabeth (Leah Jeffries), and Grover (Aryan Simhadri) just have to get by Procrustes or as he likes to be known Crusty (Julian Richings), kin he may be to Percy, but danger is his game. But no matter what your obstacles are, walking into the underworld is no mean feat. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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The Beekeeper – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It is a solid action film and one of Jason Statham’s best roles in a while.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid to see this film.

Warning – contains scenes that may cause distress.

Adam Clay sits in a felid with his bee hives.

The Beekeeper Review –

Do you have a world that exists just outside of the one we live in, moving through the cracks of society? Well, can I just say that you have written something that I am very excited about? Today, we look at a film that explores what happens when you upset the wrong person, someone you never should have gone within 100 miles of.

So to set the scene, Adam Clay (Jason Statham) is a quiet person who keeps to himself, tending his beehives with space that he rents off Eloise Parker (Phylicia Rashad), a retired school teacher who owns an old farmstead all by herself. One day, Eloise was doing her bills when spyware was detected on her computer, but the people she called didn’t help. In fact, they were scammers that took everything from her. Clay arrives for dinner to find her body, just as her daughter, FBI Agent Verona Parker (Emmy Raver-Lampman), gets to the farm to find out what happened to her mother’s bank accounts. Clay is at a loss as to who would hurt someone as caring as Eloise, but unlike many, he has resources, a lot of resources. The kind that can find things the FBI cannot and does not care if someone goes on a rampage.

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The Kitchen – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A thoughtful meditation on identity, community, and family.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Izi pears out from behind the slit in his door.

The Kitchen Review –

I am always fascinated by the techniques that filmmakers use to hit you with emotions. Sometimes, it can be pretty forceful, like a slap in the face. Other times, it is like a tide coming in, almost imperceptible, until you realise that you have been engulfed. Today’s film skews closer to the latter and is just as powerful for it.  

So to set the scene, in the not-to-distant future, Izi (Kane Robinson) lives in The Kitchen. A large, dense residential area on the outskirts of London’s centre. It is a difficult life because the police are trying to move people out of the slum, but most have nowhere to go. Izi works for Life After Life, a company that repurposes the remains of people who have died to become the support network for a new tree to be planted in a reclamation project. It is here when he discovers one of the names is someone deeply familiar to him from his past. A woman whose only griever is her son Benji (Jedaiah Bannerman).

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The Color Purple (2024) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While it has its powerful moments, you can’t help but sit there and feel that this would have been better not as a musical.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening for this film

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Celie and Nettie play in a tree.

The Color Purple Review –

Today, we are looking at a film that is quite difficult to parse because it is a film of mountains and valleys. When it soars, it soars, and you are captivated by the movie as it sweeps through the sky. But for every peak, we must then wade through a deep valley of missed opportunities. It is such a stark range that it is hard to find your footing at times.

So to set the scene, Celie (Phylicia Pearl Mpasi) and Nettie (Halle Bailey) are grouping up on the Georgia coastline at the start of the 1900s. Things are difficult for the sisters for many reasons, most notably their step-father Alfonso (Deon Cole). His actions have led to Celie being pregnant twice now and both babies being sent away. Life for Celie only becomes worse when she is married off to Ol’ Mister Johnson (Louis Gossett Jr.) and her sister is sent away. But the coming of Shug Avery (Taraji P. Henson) might be the chance Celie (Fantasia Barrino) needs to find herself.       

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Percy Jackson and the Olympians: We Take a Zebra to Vegas – TV Review

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TL;DR – We’re in Vegas baby, so surely everything is going to go well, and nothing will derail their plans at all.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this series.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Grover pokes his head out of the top of the truck.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Review –

Time is coming close to the end, and the quest does not have long to run, which makes things complicated when The Gang are stuck in the middle of America with everyone up to the FBI on the lookout for them, monsters on the hunt, and some pissed off gods. I mean, if there is time for a Hail Mary, this is it.

So to set the scene, since meeting Aries (Adam Copeland) in A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers, our gang of Percy (Walker Scobell), Annabeth (Leah Jeffries), and Grover (Aryan Simhadri) have taken a lorry smuggling animal to Las Vegas, because if they have one chance to get their quest done in time they need to find Hermes (Lin-Manuel Miranda). I mean, one god in all of Las Vegas, how difficult could that be? We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.   

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Sixty Minutes (60 Minuten) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While the narrative needed some strength, we got a quality action film with some stand-out brawls.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

Octavio runs while time counts down.

Sixty Minutes Review –

It is Action Friday because after finishing off the final episode of Reacher’s second season, it is time to take a trip to Berlin to check out a German action film. While we have seen a lot of action films, I realised that I have never seen one out of Germany before. Well, today is the day I will fix that.

So to set the scene, Octavio Bergmann (Emilio Sakraya) is an MMA fighter who is stuck in a dilemma. He is facing the biggest and most prosperous fight in his life. But it is also his daughter Leonie’s (Morîk Maya Heydo) birthday, and the fighter Benko (Aristo Luis) is late, very late. He is stuck between a rock and a hard. But when his ex and mother of Leonie, Mina (Livia Matthes), gives him an ultimatum: see his daughter by 6 pm (one hour away) or be cut out of her life, well, that decision becomes clear for Octavio. Just maybe not for all the shady people who put bets on the fight. Oh, and it is rush hour in Berlin.

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Reacher: Fly Boy & Full Season 2 – TV Review

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TL;DR – While the season might have had some pacing issues, the final episode sticks the landing.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Amazon Prime subscription that viewed this series.

Langston pontificates.

Reacher Review –

Well, all things must come to an end, and for Reacher, that means the end of their second season, a season full of reuniting with their old team, fighting bad guys, and stopping terrorism. That is, if they can survive this final test where the bad guys hold all the cards. In today’s review, we will first look at how the final episode landed before exploring the season as a whole.

So to set the scene, things are looking bad for Reacher (Alan Ritchson). He has turned himself in because Dixon (Serinda Swan) and O’Donnell (Shaun Sipos) have been captured by Langston (Robert Patrick). They are being tortured, and Neagley (Maria Sten) is dead. Langston holds all the cards. Or he would if Neagley was actually dead. For you see, the bad guys have not captured Reacher. They are trapped in this building with him. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode and season as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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