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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Lift – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It may not be original, but it needs to be said that Lift failed to launch.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

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

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

A literal ton of gold.

Lift Review –

Historically, I have tended to have a better time with the sort of films that Netflix has been championing as of late because even if they are not high art, they still have amusing moments. Or at least bank their blandness of stars with personalities that can shine through. Well, today, we have a film that flounders when it should soar.

So to set the scene, we open on an art auction in Venice that is happening in tandem with London. Cyrus (Kevin Hart), a world-renowned art thief, is there, as is Abby (Gugu Mbatha-Raw), the Interpol agent out to capture him. When an NFT for N8 (Jacob Batalon) sale goes wrong, it is time for a chase through the canals. It is a scene of chaos, but it is all a distraction. But when Abby’s boss, Huxley (Jean Reno), discovers a terrorist plot and needs something heisted from a plane in mid-air, well, it looks like Abby will need Cyrus and his team.   

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Maboroshi (Alice and Therese’s Illusory Factory/ Alice to Therese no Maboroshi Kôjô/ アリスとテレスのまぼろし工場) – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While there were some good ideas here, an unfortunate narrative focus and other frustrating narrative issues held it back for me.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

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

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

Warning – Contains scenes that may cause distress.

Steel Factory on fire.

Maboroshi Review –

When something supernatural happens, is that divine retribution or divine protection? In a time of crisis, do people continue to carry on, or do they give up? What happens when you are stuck? Can you go on?

So to set the scene, it is 1991 in a small town in Japan, as Masamune (Junya Enoki) and his friends are all staying up late studying when an explosion rips out into the night. The local steel factory is ablaze, sending flames up into the air. Then, a light flashes through the air, and time becomes a bit funky. Running outside, they see the factory on fire, but cracks appear in the sky, and the smoke from the factory is not as innocent as it first appears. Everyone in the town senses the presence because everyone is trapped, and no one can get out.  

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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Beyond Logic & Season 1 – TV Review

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TL;DR – It may have left the best for last as it ratchets up the tension and the monsters.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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

Godzilla surfaces.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Review –

Well, we have reached the end of our first season of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, and what a fascinating season it was. We got governmental intrigue, timey-wimey physics, and also some giant roar monsters. In our final update for the season, we are first going to take a look at whether they stuck the landing in this final episode and then also how well the season worked as a whole.

So, to set the scene, At the end of Axis Mundi, everything went wrong. The monsters attacked the old nuclear plant in Kazakhstan, setting off the explosions, and throwing Cate (Anna Sawai), May (Kiersey Clemons), and Shaw (Kurt Russell) into the portal and badly wounding Kentaro (Ren Watabe) and Tim (Joe Tippett). Cate thought she was going to die. The last thing she expected to find was herself alive in the underworld or that the person who would come to her rescue was none other than her grandmother Keiko (Mari Yamamoto), who had not aged a day. 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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Role Play – Movie Review

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TL;DR – There are some moments when the film shines. However, there is a lot of space in between those moments filled with missed opportunities.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

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

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

Role Play Review –

In the Spy and Spy-adjacent world, one of the core narratives that we see is when a spy’s family does not know what they do for a day job. The most famous is probably True Lies, but we see a lot of them moving from the more comical to the more serious, depending on the vibe that they want. That is if you can choose a vibe.  

So to set the scene, on the surface, the Brackett family is your perfectly normal middle-American suburban unit. The father, Dave (David Oyelowo), is an architect. They have two wonderful kids, Caroline (Lucia Aliu) & Wyatt (Regan Bryan-Gudgeon), and oh, by the way, when Emma (Kaley Cuoco) says she is going out of town to work cooperate management, she actually is a very successful assassin. Emma wants to have some time at home, but her handler, Raj (Rudi Dharmalingam), wants her back out in the field. After Emma forgets their anniversary, they decide to have a fun night out where they pretend to be two strangers meeting in a bar. One long ride stuck in the tunnel and the poor advances of Bob (Bill Nighy), and it looks like the night might be a bit of a mess. It would be the wrong time for someone’s cover to get blown.   

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Reacher: The Man Goes Through – TV Review

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TL;DR – When Reacher is at his lowest is when Reacher is his most dangerous.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

Reacher gets reamed out.

Reacher Review –

There is a point in a series-long arc when you can tell, ‘Oh, we have entered the end game’. Well, for this season, that time is now as forces that have been building all season start crashing into each other, and with Reacher, that is not a minor collision.

So to set the scene, with the death of their only true ally at the end of New York’s Finest, well, things have gotten personal. It is clear that the deal is about to go down, and Shane Langston (Robert Patrick) is leaving no strings attached. There are limited options left for Reacher (Alan Ritchson), but if there are dirty cops everywhere, maybe we need to start introducing some of those dirty cops to the contours of his fist. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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Percy Jackson and the Olympians: A God Buys Us Cheeseburgers – TV Review

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TL;DR – This is the episode where the quest, the gods, and the half-blood’s stories all coalesce together in a way that makes it the strongest episode so far.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

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

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

Gateway Arch smoking.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Review –

There is one thing that can make or break your show, movie, video game, or even radio play, and that is the casting. It is so important to find people who can embody the characters and bring them to life. Add in the added pressure of playing new interpretations of old characters, and you have a recipe for disaster. But as we see today, this might be Percy Jackson’s biggest strength.

So to set the scene, since feuding with the Chimera at the top of the Gateway Arch and maybe causing a bit of destruction to a national monument in I Plunge to My Death, our gang of Percy (Walker Scobell), Annabeth (Leah Jeffries), and Grover (Aryan Simhadri) are forced to start hitchhiking as the cops are starting to get suspicious about them. But their day goes from bad to worse when Annabeth spots The Fates (Joyce Robbins, La Nien Harrison & Cindy Piper), and a gentleman (Adam Copeland) in a motorcycle rides up to them. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

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Echo: Season 1 – TV Review

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TL;DR – There are clearly some rough edges where the production issues the show had shone through. But I do think it found its feet, and it could be the start of an interesting new direction for the MCU.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

End-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene in the final episode.

A magical portal.

Echo Review –

It is an odd time for the MCU; projects falling to launch and land in cinemas, and failed opportunities like Secret Invasion making no impact in the cultural landscape are everywhere. But there has been hope here and there, and Marvel making a gamble is better than Marvel playing it safe. In that case, let us see if they can bring something new to the table.   

So, to set the scene, Maya (Darnell Besaw) has never had a normal childhood, as her mother (Katarina Ziervogel) was killed. At the same time, she was young, and her father (Zahn McClarnon) took her to New York and eventually brought her into his world, the same world that killed him. A world run by Mr Fisk (Vincent D’Onofrio). He was a powerful man, a man with connections, a man that Echo (Alaqua Cox) would eventually have to betray, but not before he turned her into a murderer. You can turn against Fisk, but the man has a long reach, even when he was the man who had your father murdered. [the first half of the first episode basically catches you up to the end of Hawkeye with some added context]. Now from here, we will be looking at the series as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.

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