Tag Archives: Christopher Heyerdahl

Corner Office – Movie Review

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TL;DR – It has its moments, and it very much lands its vibe, but there is an intensity that loses its impact halfway through.

Rating: 3 out of 5.
The brutalist concrete building they work in.

Corner Office Review –

Today we are looking at a film that I can’t quite place into the world of genre’s it is not quite a comedy, or a drama, or even a mystery. It has elements of all of those, but not enough to categories it. The only thing I can say is that it is a film about facial hair, and how there is probably a reason those styles are not popular anymore.

So to set the scene, we open in a car park covered in a layer of snow as the wind howls around. Orson (Jon Hamm) is arriving for their first day at work at The Authority Inc. in a large brutalist building. He is trying to stand out in the office, which is full of quirky characters, including his tablemate Rakesh (Danny Pudi). One day, while trying to find where they hid the printer paper, he stumbled across a room Orson had never seen before: a beautiful corner office. The room calls to him, like a forbidden lover, a place worthy of who he thinks he is, even if that does not match reality. The only problem is that no one else acknowledges that the room even exists.  

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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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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Secrets and Lies – TV Review

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TL;DR – After grounding our story, we start escalating this week.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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

a cammera lens

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Review –

While I did not attend this to happen, this week has been very MonsterVerse-focused, with us exploring the first episodes of Monarch, as well as a dive back to the original 2014 Godzilla film that set this universe off (only this cinematic universe, I know Godzilla has had several of them in its lifetime). Well, all good things have to come to an end, well, an end till we come back next week, but it is time to look at the third episode of this opening bunch when things start unravelling fast.  

So to set the scene, at the end of Departure, Cate Randa (Anna Sawai), Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe), and May (Kiersey Clemons) found an old Lee Shaw (Kurt Russell) living in a retirement home. However, it was not just an average home for the elderly. It was also a Monarch prison facility. Well, a short tour and a cut ankle monitor later and Shaw escapes, and well, if Monarch was not after them before, they sure are now. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Monarch: Legacy of Monsters – Departure – TV Review

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TL;DR – The mystery starts to catch up with people as enemies loom over the secrets of Monarch.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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

USS Lawton

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters Review –

In the last episode with Aftermath, we got to dip our toes into this multi-generation mystery surrounding the Monarch organisation, the group behind monitoring/studying/controlling/exploiting the Kaiju of the MonsterVerse. It was enough to intrigue, but today’s episode needs to take it up a notch, which it does.

So to set the scene, we open in Manila, 1952, as Lt Shaw (Wyatt Russell) sporting a shiner on his left eye. When he is given a mission by General Puckett (Christopher Heyerdahl) to escort a Japanese scientist on a mission, some awkward introductions later, he and Keiko Miura (Mari Yamamoto) are crashing through the jungles of Mindoro hunting down odd radiation. Meanwhile, back in 2015 Tokyo, the revelations that Hiroshi Randa (Takehiro Hira) had two families echoed through the lives of Cate Randa (Anna Sawai) and Kentaro Randa (Ren Watabe). We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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Peacemaker: Season One – TV Review

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TL;DR – There was a surprising amount of charm on show here but also an almost equal amount of frustration.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Binge subscription that viewed this series

Post-Credit Scene – Each episode has an end credit scene

Peacemaker opening titles

Peacemaker Review –

Recently my day-time contract ended, and I have a bit more time during the day to catch up on things I missed before starting my next one. In this catch-up mood, I wanted to look at things that I had heard good things about but still had questions about. The first thing on this list was Peacemaker, a spin-off of The Suicide Squad film, which I liked, but based around a character Peacemaker (John Cena) that I didn’t. I was interested to see just how that juxtaposition would work, which was intriguing.

So to set the scene, it has been months after the events on Corto Maltese, and Peacemaker has recovered enough to be let out of the hospital. Seeing as no one is there to take him back to prison, he takes the chance to run out of the hospital and back to his home, a trailer painted with the American flag. But of course, he was not free as members of A.R.G.U.S. black ops squad “Project Butterfly” drew their guns on him. They need a psychopath to stop the ‘butterflies’, and Peacemaker is perfect for the job, just as long as Leota Adebayo (Danielle Brooks), daughter of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), can leave some incriminating evidence if the whole thing goes sideways. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode and season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.

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TV Review – Star Trek Discovery: People of Earth

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TL;DR – This week is the surest sign so far that things are not what the once were when the crew return home to Earth.  

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

Star Trek Discovery: People of Earth. Image Credit: CBS Studios.

People of Earth Review –

So far this season, everything about been about coming together and finding their place. In the first episode this season That Hope Is You, it was all about Michael (Sonequa Martin-Green) finding her place in the future. In episode two Far From Home, it was the USS Discovery’s turn. But now they have both found themselves in the future; it is time to go back to where it all started.

So to set the scene, at the end of last week’s episode, we discovered that it was Michael that was digging the USS Discovery out of the parasitic ice that was threatening to crush them all. This week we get to see the immediate aftermath as Michael is reunited with the crew. It is all joy and hugs … hugs remember how good hugs were … oh and a sly supportive nod from Philippa (Michelle Yeoh). She lets them know about her year alone, and what has happened to the Federation. However, now that the Discovery is there they can go somewhere that had been out of Michael’s reach until now … Earth, we just need to know who the captain is first. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead. 

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