Tag Archives: Novel Adaption

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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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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Reacher: New York’s Finest – TV Review

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TL;DR – There comes a point when you are on the run where it is time to start fighting back.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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

A pissed off Reacher.

As we start heading towards the pointy end of the season, there comes a moment when things have to start hitting the rubber. You can only prolong the inevitable so long before you start losing the tension. This week, we can see the start of that shift happening as the team decides not to play defensive anymore.

So to set the scene, at the end of Burial, we discovered just how brutal these people are as they use a tripwire IED to kill a sniper. Their opposition is trying to erase everyone from existence, even the people working for them. Now they see the lengths their opposition is going to. Well, it is time to take the battle back to them. 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: I Plunge to My Death – TV Review

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TL;DR – A more contained story that brings with it strengths and weaknesses.

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.

The Gateway Arch

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Review –

When you have a ticking timebomb with regard to your quest, you need to start moving it. Indeed, our team has to make it across the continental USA in a couple of days, or all is lost. I just hope you don’t have a wave of upset monsters and feuding gods chasing after you.

So to set the scene, after tangling with the Medusa in We Visit the Garden Gnome Emporium, the gang  Percy (Walker Scobell), Annabeth (Leah Jeffries), and Grover (Aryan Simhadri). Decide to hop on a train to make up some missed time. But things start looking dire when their train cabin is trashed while they are out to breakfast. Good thing there is a friendly lady (Suzanne Cryer) that can help … right … ? We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

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Reacher: Burial – TV Review

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TL;DR – Bookended by two fantastic action sequences, it shows that Reacher is peak-Dad Show Energy, but also more than that.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

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

The American flag over a coffin.

Reacher Review –

Last week, we dived into the first half of Reacher’s Second Season, and it was fantastic. It hit the same energy of the first season, with the added bonus of getting the team back together. With all of that energy behind it, I wondered if its central premise could hold up to the end because righteous Reacher might need to get dirty.

So to set the scene, Reacher (Alan Ritchson) has stayed behind in New York with O’Donnell (Shaun Sipos) to help his family bug out and move to safety as they turn their focus on New Age Technologies. This company seems to be having a bad case of wanting to kill them all. Meanwhile, Neagley (Maria Sten) and Dixson (Serinda Swan) have made it to Denver, Colorado, to see just what is going on in the software division of this new missile company when bullets start flying. 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: I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher – TV Review

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TL;DR – This is a fantastic introduction to the character and the world.

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 in the rain.

Percy Jackson and the Olympians Review –

Can you hit lightning a second time with the first strike? It was a bit of a whiff. That is the question that we are looking at today with the second bite at the apple with a Percy Jackson adaptation. I had found the first Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief movie to be okay, nothing to write home about, though very famously, it has a terse relationship with the original author. The Percy Jackson: Sea of Monsters worked even less. I didn’t think much more about this until one day, I came across the novels and thought I would give it a go, and well, I got hooked. But can they learn from their mistakes with this second adaptation? This is what we are going to look at today.

So to set the scene, Percy Jackson (Walker Scobell) has had a difficult life. He struggles to focus at school, he is always daydreaming and seeing things that are not there, he never knew his father, and while his mother Sally (Virginia Kull) loves him dearly, her partners tend to suck. The only things working in his life are his friend Grover (Aryan Simhadri) and Mr Brunner (Glynn Turman), the one teacher who believes in him. Well, when he is on a trip to the history museum, he wanders through the rooms full of statues of Greek Gods when he is attacked by one of his teachers, Ms Dodds (Megan Mullally), and his life forever changes. We will be looking at the episode as a whole from here, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.    

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The Boys in the Boat – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A perfectly okay film that refuses to integrate any of the themes it proports to be exploring.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

The boys lined up with their oars.

The Boys in the Boat Review –

Today, we look at an interesting biographical film because, at its core, it is more interesting for what it does not do than what it is that we see in the final product. This creates a film that, by all metrics, is perfectly okay from a technical perspective, but the moment you integrate any of the narrative, you find it to have the solidity of balsa wood.  

So to set the scene, it is 1936 in Washington state, at the height of the Great Depression. Joe Rantz (Callum Turner) has spent most of his life sleeping rough but still managed to get into the University of Washington. But when financing becomes tight, he decides to take up an opportunity with the University rowing team because it comes with a room and a small financial compensation. The Washington University rowing team has not won a race in a long time, and coach Al Ulbrickson (Joel Edgerton) is starting to feel the pressure from above to place or get replaced. But could this new batch of rowers be the best crew he ever taught? And in an Olympic year, no less?

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Wonka – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A delightful romp through Wonka’s past, full of musical energy and more than a few full-belly laughs.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

An overhead shot of dancers making a W out of umbrellas.

Wonka Review –

I am going to be perfectly honest with you from the start, when I heard that there was going to be a prequel based on the back story of Willy Wonka, I could not help but roll my eyes. The constant francisation of the cinema landscape has led to many of these projects that just feel like they are going through the motions rather than having anything interesting to say. However, now that I have seen it, I am glad to say that I was wrong.

So to set the scene, we open as Willy Wonka (Timothée Chalamet) arrives in a mysteriously unnamed European City. He has spent the past few years sailing around the globe, finding the best combinations for chocolates, and he is now ready to share them with the work at the famous Galleries Gourmet. But Wonka has a kind view of the world and is not prepared to be crushed by the Chocolate Cartel run by Slugworth (Paterson Joseph), Prodnose (Matt Lucas), and Fickelgruber (Mathew Baynton). Nor does he read the small print before taking a room in Scrubbit’s (Olivia Colman) Laundry as recommended by Bleacher (Tom Davis), a less-than-savoury individual. However, just when things are at their lowest is when you can really shine, and his new friend Noodle (Calah Lane) helps him find that.

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Leave the World Behind – Movie Review

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TL;DR – What happens when the world slips away from you but only fragments at a time until you don’t even realise you ran off a ledge?

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.

An Oil tanker crashes into the beach.

Leave the World Behind Review –

The disaster film is such an intriguing genre, especially when you are not sure what disaster you are in or even if there is one going on. For me, it is not the disasters themselves that bring the core of the work, but how people respond to the crisis. This week, we look at a film that focuses mainly on that, and I found it to be deeply compelling.  

So to set the scene, Amanda Sandford (Julia Roberts) and her husband Clay (Ethan Hawke) have had a long, stressful year, and one morning, as Amanda was up not sleeping, she decided to randomly book the family for a trip away in a hamlet by the beach. The aim is to leave the world behind for a time, and the house absolutely provides all of that. All is going well until an oil tanker crashes into the beach, and the TV and Wi-Fi stops working. Which is when late at night, there is a knock on the door when the purported owners of the house, G.H. Scott (Mahershala Ali) and his daughter Ruth (Myha’la), arrive and decide to stay.   

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The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A an odd egg of a film, it reaches for the stars, and there are moments when it almost gets there even if everything else is messy.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

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

Disclosure – I paid to watch this film.

Viola Davis.

The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes Review –

Well, I should put all my cards on the table before we start. I have never read the books that these films were based on. But I did watch the Hunger Games quadrilogy back in the day, and they never felt like they came truly together and sort of rode on some particularly well-timed casting. I was not sure how a prequel could work given how we know things end, even more so when I heard that the focus of the books was going to be Snow, one of the least interesting characters from the series, but I am glad to have been only partly wrong.

So to set the scene, it has only been a couple of years since the end of the Dark Days and the Start of the Hunger Games. Coriolanus “Corio” Snow (Tom Blyth) knows this pain well because even though he and his family live in the Capital of Panem, they lost everything in the war and can barely survive. He is looking forward to winning a prize only to discover that people have stopped watching The Hunger Games and that he can only get the money by being the best mentor to one of the tributes in the upcoming 10th Hunger Games. But he was not ready for his tribute, Lucy Gray Baird (Rachel Zegler) from District 12, who sang and almost murdered her way into the cage after being announced.  

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