Spider-Noir

It was 1933 in New York City and PI Ben Reilly (Nicolas Cage) was hired to find a man.  The man, Addison, proved to have a superpower: he could burst into flames.  Strangely enough, more such super-powered individuals surfaced in NYC.  These 'monsters' were soon in the employ of Silvermane (Brendan Gleeson), the crime lord of New York.  In response to the growing crime, newsman Robbie Robertson (Lamorne Morris) called for the return of the Spider.  The Spider had been a superhero in the city, but he vanished five years ago.  Reluctantly, the Spider (Nicolas Cage) returned.

The Spider has allies.  Of course, Robbie has long known that Ben Reilly was the Spider and also why he stopped being the Spider.  Ben has a secretary, Janet Ruiz (Karen Rodriguez), who bemoans the dearth of clients and frequently threatens to quit.  However, she is a loyal friend and performs a lot of the legwork for Ben.  Then there is Frankie (Cary Christopher), a street urchin with sticky fingers.  Ben can count on the kid to watch his back, keep an eye on people, and do odd jobs.

Cat Hardy (Li Jun Li), a lounge singer at Silvermane's bar, is the femme fatale.  Everyone has eyes for her.  Flint Marko (Jack Huston), one of Silvermane's enforcers and also a super-powered villain, is deeply in love with her and jealous of a growing connection she has with Ben.  Of course, she is Silvermane's kept woman, though there never appears to be anything physical between them.

The 8-episode Amazon series explores how Ben got his powers and why he stopped using them, his clashes with Silvermane, Silvermane's goons and super-powered thugs, his relationship with his allies, and his attraction to Cat.  The setting is well-realized, giving the look and feel of a movie from the era.  There is illicit drinking, Hoovervilles, down on their luck veterans of the Great War, and even a movie clip of James Cagney.  Cage is often manic, showing that Ben isn't comfortable in his skin.  His assumed characters are a bit hammy, not really carrying off the Mid-Atlantic accent and frantic speaking pace one associates with Depression Era movies.  Also, Cage is too old for the role.  He was great as the animated version of Spider-Noir, but the live action is more demanding and he's obviously 20 years older than he should be.  I was reminded of Marlowe, another noir film that cast actors too old for their roles.

The inevitable defeat of Silvermane was disappointing.  Gleeson makes for a good villain and has plenty of presence to show he is the alpha in the room.  Indeed, his final scene undercut everything that preceded it.  That's all it took?  Really?  Maybe there was a message in that; villains are never as hard to overcome as you might imagine.

In Casablanca, The Third Man, Chinatown, and the like, our hero doesn't get the girl.  No, she leaves with another man, abandons him, or dies.  Such is the case here.  However, their final meeting is unusual; it subverted expectations, but was also unnecessary.  In any case, Li Jun Li fills out her sleek dresses nicely and strikes the femme fatale poses well.

Great popcorn fun and recommended.

Fallout (season 2)

At the end of last season, Lucy's father, Hank (Kyle MacLachlan), was shown to be the true monster.  While Maximus (Aaron Moten) returned to the Brotherhood of Steel with cold fusion, Lucy (Ella Purnell) and the Ghoul (Walton Goggins) followed Hank to New Vegas.

In flashback, Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins) found himself at odds with his wife (Frances Turner) and roped into an assassination plot against noted industrialist, Robert Edwin House (Justin Theroux).  House was the CEO of a robotics company but was also developing a mind-control device for use on people. Cooper's past was further revealed with another flashback to his time in Alaska during the war.  Here he first saw a Deathclaw.

Back with the Brotherhood, Maximus gained considerable status on account of his recent success.  However, he had also grown a conscience on account of his recent travels with Lucy.  Can he accept that the power of cold fusion will launch his faction of the Brotherhood into a civil war with the rest?

In her trek to New Vegas, Lucy encountered various groups that seek to establish a new civilization.  First, there was Caesar's Legion, a band of people who had adopted the Roman Empire as a model for the future.  Among them was Lacerta Legate (Macaulay Culkin), a high-ranking officer who controled Lucy's fate.  Then there were the soldiers of the New California Republic, a would-be government for the wasteland.

While Lucy hunted for her father, her brother, Norm, found his way to the surface with freshly awoken Vault 31 middle managers.  Could he fool them into believing he was in charge while also delegating to them solving his problems?  So far, so good.

Lastly, there were those still in the vault, trying to rebuild.  Not everyone was who they seem to be, especially Stephanie (Annabel O'Hagan).  Though promoted to overseer of the re-established Vault 32, she proved to be... gasp...  Canadian!  There is a lot of backstory for the cyclops lady.

The second season is outstanding, every bit as good as season 1.  Not only is more of the pre-apocalypse explored, there are many developments in the present.  Hugely entertaining and highly recommended!

Amazon's James Bond

Since Amazon bought the rights to James Bond, there has been much speculation on where the franchise would go.  Will Bond become a social justice warrior?  Maybe Bond will be a black man - Idris Elba was once suggested - or even a woman.  Heck, Lashana Lynch could just resume her position as Agent 007 from No Time to Die (2021).  An online creator suggested that Pierce Brosnan resume the role as Old Man Bond, something along the lines of Logan (2017).  Then there is the idea of having Young Bond.  This could be like Batman Begins (2005), exploring Bond's final days in the Royal Navy and joining MI-6.  A series of 9 novels have been written about Young Bond.  Another suggestion, and one which appeals to me, is to do the literary Bond.

Ian Fleming set the books in his present, which was the 1950s and early 1960s.  Amazon could do for James Bond what Granada Television did for Sherlock Holmes.  Jeremy Brett played the most faithful adaptation of Sherlock Holmes.  It was an outstanding series.  Eventually, the literary Bond will be made.  Will it take almost a century as it did with Holmes or will Amazon take the leap?

Mr. Inbetween (Season 1)

Ray Shoesmith (Scott Ryan) is a criminal, a hitman, who otherwise has the regular problems of an average working Joe.  He's divorced but has visitation with his daughter.  He has a girlfriend who works as a medic.  He has a best friend - also a criminal - who he constantly bails out of troubles of his own making, often humorously.  He attends meetings for anger management because he 'bashed a bloke.'  Of course, he saw nothing wrong with bashing the fellow, who fully deserved it.  Such a view does not impress the counselor.  Though Ray comes across as an amiable, even friendly, guy, woe to those who provoke his ire.  He is a cool customer when conflict arises.  Not only does Ray face threats of death with equanimity, but he has more tricks up his sleeve than even professional rivals can counter.  He recognizes that he is a criminal, but he also knows the 'work' will get done with or without him.  He has a strong sense of honor, frequently protecting innocents, but having no compunction about punishing the guilty.

The show takes place in Australia, which apparently has a bigger criminal underground than one would expect.  In any case, Ray is never short of people who need killing.  One curious thing is that Damon Herriman plays his primary employer, Freddy.  He had done so well in the role here that he got an almost identical role in The Bondsman with Kevin Bacon.  Scott Ryan is spectacular as Ray.  He has a unique face, putting him in the category of Steve Buscemi or Willem Dafoe.  Not a typical leading man.

The first season is only 6 half-hour episodes.  It has a terrific conclusion that got me wanting more.  Good popcorn fun and recommended.

The Bondsman

Hub Halloran (Kevin Bacon) arrived at an abandoned motel to catch one of the Earl brothers.  It turned out that the brothers knew he was coming and set a trap.  They killed him!  To his great surprise, he awoke with a slit throat.  Why wasn't he dead?  Then the phone calls started from Pot O' Gold.  He was back from the dead for a purpose: he was now a bounty hunter in the employ of the devil.  His Pot O' Gold supervisor, Midge (Jolene Purdy), explained that Hell is basically a prison and sometimes there are escapes.  Escapees possess humans.  The only way to send them back is to kill the human they have possessed.

Hub isn't a lone wolf in his efforts.  His mother (Beth Grant) is his boss and she finds out about his new job when he does.  Of course, his mom is more interested in why he went to Hell rather than his new job of demonslaying.  Hub is coy on that subject, declaring it a mistake.  Hub's ex-wife, Maryanne (Jennifer Nettles), stumbles upon him in action against a demon and joins his efforts.  He roped his teenaged son, Cade (Maxwell Jenkins), into serving as a lookout on another instance.  Ex-con and Maryanne's boyfriend, Lucky (Damon Herriman), knows something dark is happening and wants to protect Maryanne and Cade, whatever measures that might require.

Though Hub accepts his new role, he thinks there must be a loophole, a way to get out from under his misdeeds.  He spends a lot of time plotting against Lucky rather than hunting demons that are clearly working as part of a greater plan.  His mother tells him that pride is what led him to Hell and he still hasn't mended that.

The series is available on Amazon.  It is only 8 episodes long and each episode is only 30 minutes.  Yeah, this is easy to binge in a single sitting.  The gruesome deaths of demons and their victims is often over the top, reminding me of Death of a Unicorn.  Good popcorn fun!

The French Connection (1971)

Marseilles, France

A detective surveilles a meeting and trails one of them.  Afterward, he buys himself some bread and heads back to his apartment.  He has hardly opened the door when an assassin guns him down.

New York City

Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Gene Hackman) takes down a drug dealer while dressed as Santa Claus.  His partner, Buddy "Cloudy" Russo (Roy Scheider) suffered a knife-wounded during the arrest.  Rather than go home, Popeye convinced Cloudy to get a drink.  This soon turns into a stakeout of Sal Boca, a convenience store owner with a criminal record.  Popeye has a hunch that something big is coming and Sal is part of it.  However, the mastermind of the drug dealers, Alain Charnier (Fernado Rey) is quite clever himself.  He quickly spots Popeye following him and takes measures to lose him.

It is a gritty movie that spends the majority of its time in the dark underbelly of New York's drug culture.  It's cops, drug dealers, and innocent bystanders.  As the Charnier and his sidekick are French, they only speak French to each other; the Amazon version of the film has no subtitles, making their conversations a mystery.  

Gene Hackman won the Academy Award for his role as Doyle.  Doyle is a loose cannon cop with anger management issues and poor taste in hats.  To the positive, he is a workaholic with a nose for finding the bad guys.  Overall, he is not a particularly likeable person.  He's abrasive and abusive.  On the other hand, he has an endless supply of persistence.  Hackman's range as an actor was truly impressive.  He could be hard-as-nails dangerous (this movie or Unforgiven), funny and devious (Lex Luthor from the Superman series), or goofy and harmless (Young Frankenstein).  RIP

The Tick (season 2)

After his televised heroics, Arthur found his old accounting job didn't want a superhero as an employee.  For the time being, he would need to rely on savings.  While depositing his severance check, bank robbers struck!  One of the bank robbers proved to be Lobstercules.  While Tick engaged the giant crustacean in battle, Arthur managed to pull a shoe from one of the goons.  Sadly, all of them escaped.  Could they locate Lobstercules lair in the sewers by a forensic examination of the shoe?  Thanks to the fall of the Terror and his gang, AEGIS, a SHIELD-like agency, has reopened its office in the city.  In fact, AEGIS has proposed establishing a new Flag Five.  Tick and Arthur eagerly apply.  However, Overkill is a fugitive from AEGIS.  He had been a former agent until a mission went badly and he received the blame.  Can he find the real party responsible for the catastrophe and clear his name?  Dot, Arthur's sister, has been having visions.  In fact, she has precognition!  She can predict the near-future, which allows her to dodge bullets!  The bizarre incident at the Terror's capture when Arthur's garrulous stepfather managed to defeat half a dozen goons while blindfolded is explained.  Not all of the Terror's organization has been defeated.  The lightning-tossing villain, Miss Lint, has decided to switch sides.  Now Joan of Arc, she has taken to blasting all the criminals who are moving in on her turf.

It is an entertaining show but lacks focus.  There are too many stories to tell and no binding villain like the Terror to hold it together.  There are big hints at what a third season would hold but the series was not renewed.

Good popcorn fun!

The Tick (season 1)

When he was a boy, Arthur Everest (Griffin Newman) was out with his father when suddenly the Flag Five's ship plummeted from the sky.  His father was killed.  The blinded members of the Flag Five stumbled from the wreckage only to be killed by the goons of The Terror (Jackie Earle Haley).  In one fell swoop, Arthur had lost his father, the superhero team of his hometown, and stared into the face of the Terror.  Unsurprisingly, he is not a well-adjusted adult.  Though the Terror was reportedly killed by Superion (Brendan Hines) - a Superman-like hero, Arthur doesn't believe it.  He has spent the 10 years since the Terror's supposed death looking for signs that he is still alive.  One night, he sneaked onto the grounds of a warehouse and witnessed something going down.  Moreover, he met the Tick (Peter Serafinowicz).  Though the Tick has immense strength and is nigh invulnerable, he's not very bright.  The Tick eagerly attached himself to Arthur.  Together, they will ferret out the Terror and foil his dastardly plan, whatever that might be.

To complicate matters, Arthur has a well-meaning older sister, Dot (Valorie Curry), who urges him to both abandon his quest for the long-dead Terror and avoid the obviously disturbed Tick.  There is also Overkill (Scott Speiser), a Punisher-like vigilante who is out for revenge.  He does not reveal his reasons for wanting to kill the Terror.  Overkill has a self-aware boat, Dangerboat (Alan Tudyk) that serves as his lair and sidekick.  One of the Terror's former lieutenants, Ms. Lint (Yara Martinez), can fire bolts of lightning.  However, she is rather staticky as a result and attracts a lot of lint, thus her name.

The Tick has been different in each incarnation, from comicbook (1980s) to the cartoon (1994 to 1997) to first live-action series (2001-2002) to this.  Where the 2001-2002 series was a straight episodic sitcom, this one is a miniseries with an overarching story.  There is plenty of comedy, but far less silliness.  Also, Arthur is the main character and Tick is the sidekick.  Despite the change in tone and humor from each iteration, Ben Edlund - creator of the Tick - has been involved in all of them.

Lots of fun and highly recommended.

Secret Level

Amazon has a new original series called Secret Level.  It is an anthology of 15 stories - each about 10 to 15 minutes long - that are based on various video games.  The tone varies widely from one to another.  Some are quite dark while others are light and funny.  Arnold Schwarzeneggar has a role as a conquering king who repeatedly resurrects each time he dies.  His repeated efforts and failures are quite funny.  "And yet Aelstrom lives," he proudly states each time he finds himself alive again, always posing to display his muscular physique.  Such a great role for Arnie.  In another, Keanu Reeves is a mercenary pilot of a battlemech on a mission against a mysterious band who are almost as skilled as him, maybe even more skilled.  There is a Dungeons and Dragons story, a martial arts adventure, a modern day shoot 'em up between competing mercenary teams, a chase through space at lightspeed where the pursed and the pursuer age at different rates, a game of Go in a fantastical AI city, Warhammer 40,000, and even a bizarre take on Pac-Man.  Much of the animation was done with screen capture.  It gives the characters more vitality than typical CGI animation.  I hope some of these stories get another chapter next season.

Great popcorn fun and highly recommended.

Fallout (2024)

Cooper Howard (Walton Goggins) is performing at a birthday party for the wealthy.  He is a noted actor famed for his Westerns who has clearly fallen on hard times.  His daughter, Janey, is with him.  When taking photos with the birthday boy, Cooper declined to do his noted 'thumbs up' pose.  The significance of the pose will not be revealed until later episodes.  The party is wrapping up when an unmistakable mushroom cloud appears over the city in the distance.  The shock wave breaks all the windows.  Cooper grabs his daughter, mounts his horse, and gallops away amid the panicked party guests.

Lucy (Ella Purnell) lives in Vault 33.  The vaults were built to protect against radiation and allow humanity to survive underground until the surface was safe again.  Lucy is eager to marry but there are no bachelors in Vault 33 that aren't cousins.  As such, she wants to arrange a trade with Vault 32.  The council, which includes her father, Overseer MacLean (Kyle MacLachlan), agree to her wishes.  Preparations for a wedding are made and representatives from Vault 32 are welcomed through the extremely sturdy gate.  After the wedding, the visitors commence to kill the residents of Vault 33!  Lucy survives the clash, but her father is carried away by the raiders; she is determined to get him back.

Maximus (Aaron Moten) is a member of the Brotherhood of Steel, a religious band of warriors who scour the land for technology.  It's kind of vague what they do.  However, they field knights who wear powered armor suits that make them immune to most small arms fire.  Maximus is selected to be the squire for Knight Titus.  The knights are dispatched to capture Dr. Wilzig, a defector.  Despite his nearly impervious armor, Titus proves to be a coward when faced with battle.  Maximus takes Titus' armor and assumes his identity.  He continues on the mission, convinced that he will be allowed to keep the armor for himself if he is successful in finding Wilzig.

The Ghoul (Walton Goggins) is dug out of a grave by a trio of bounty hunters who view him as the edge they need to capture Dr. Wilzig.  Ghouls are undead, creatures with the ability to heal from most wounds though they require an elixir to prevent them from descending into homicidal madness.  Like zombies, a bullet through the brain kills them.  The Ghoul is, of course, none other than Cooper Howard.  How he 'survived' the apocalypse to be an undead bounty hunter is not explained, but it must be a really interesting story.

The plot follows these three as they each seek the MacGuffin that will allow them to achieve their ends.  Lucy is naive and friendly, attempting to get along with all the unfortunates who have suffered on the surface while she lived an idyllic life in the vault.  Her sunny disposition is sorely tested with each new encounter.  Maximus is a man unsure of himself but generally distrustful of others.  However, he is almost immediately enamored of Lucy and eagerly plays knight in shining armor to her maiden in distress.  He brings a healthy dose of realism to her idealism in those times when they are together.  The Ghoul is a cynical misanthrope.  He has been around far too long to have any illusions about people or even to care.  He kills without compunction and uses others only if it furthers his ends.  Lucy proves to be sufficiently outside the norm that he might moderate his behavior.

The show concludes by answering many of the big questions but posing entirely new ones as a hook for the inevitable next season.  The setting reminds me a lot of the Resident: Evil franchise and the evil corporation was similar to Umbrella Corp.

As I have never played the game, I have no idea how well the series does in bringing it to life.  Overall, I very much enjoyed it and eagerly await the next season.

Good popcorn fun.  Recommended.

Good Omens (Season 2)

The Woke is Strong in this one!  Aziraphale (Michael Sheen) and Crowley (David Tennant) return to London and the latest issue from Heaven.  Rather than the forthcoming apocalypse with the arrival of the anti-Christ, we have Archangel Gabriel (John Hamm) arriving naked and with a severe case of amnesia at Aziraphale's book shop.  Now, both Heaven and Hell want to get their hands on Gabriel while Aziraphale and Crowley must not only protect him but discover why he has amnesia.

As in the previous series, we are shown several incidents through history where Aziraphale and Crowley crossed paths.  One of these is the Book of Job.  It turns out that Job's wife was black.  Oddly, his three children by her prove to be a lily-white son, a mixed-race daughter, and an Iranian daughter.  What is this casting?  The makers want it to be abundantly clear that they cared not a whit about race or ethnicity during casting.  Genetics worked differently in Biblical times.  Then we have the vinyl record seller who is crushing on the coffee shop lady.  Yes, here's a relationship that will check off the mixed-race box and the lesbian love box.  Sigh.  Oh, and God's pronouns are 'they/them' for those who are curious.  In the middle of the 19th century while visiting Scotland, Crowley and Aziraphale come across grave robbers who sell bodies to the local surgeon.  Of course, the body snatchers are a pair of waifish girls.  Um, they have no other means of supporting themselves.  Really?  Digging up bodies is just the sort of work for 100 lbs. girls.

As I strongly advise against seeing this travesty, spoilers follow.  It turns out that the Archangel Gabriel had been meeting secretly with Beelzebub (Shelley Conn) to agree never to have Armageddon.  During these meetings, they fell in love.  Yep, by the end, they run off together to spend eternity on Alpha Centauri.  Crowley gets inspired by this and, at the end of the finale, kisses Aziraphale passionately and proposes that they too run off together.  Sigh.

Skip.  Do not waste time on this disaster.

The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee (2020)

Paul Hogan returns in this quirky comedy based on his life after Crocodile Dundee.  While his manager, Angie (Rachael Carpani), tries to get him a new movie deal and arrange his imminent knighthood, Paul's life spins out of control through a series of unfortunate events.  First, he defended himself from a snake by batting it away... into the face of a 5th grade teacher!  Oops.  Next, he doesn't like the movie pitch where Will Smith is his son... because he's black.  Did they not see the previous Dundee movies?  Of course, that's not how the press reports it.  When he finds himself in a car chase from the police through the street of LA, it has really gotten out of hand.  If it can go wrong, it does.

Though there is the overall arc of Paul's public life becoming a nightmare, he rolls with the punches and isn't much concerned by it.  Some of the comedy bits have nothing to do with the life-in-ruins arc, just random sketch comedy.  Wayne Knight as a bad house guest, failed paparazzi loitering at his house, and so forth.  I'm generally baffled why his 'son' had such a large part in the movie since he really didn't add anything.  Wow, you've got a multi-talented son who has an active social life.  This is light and fun, an entertaining diversion with a wide-variety of cameos.  John Cleese is the standout as an Uber driver, but there is also Olivia Newton-John, Reginald VelJohnson, and Oscar-winner Chevy Chase.

Some of the best comedy had nothing to do with the storyline.  At one point, the producers suggested a new Crocodile Dundee film where his wife has been killed and he's out for vengeance with a sexy park ranger!  Rachel McAdams is suggested.  Paul shakes his head.  "I'm 80!  She's like 30."

"Right!  She's too old!  Who was in High School Musical that we can cast?"  Funny!

A large chunk of the movie is Paul watching how the news reports his misadventures.  There's texting and facetime, news programs and red-carpet interviews.  Life as a celebrity is a PR campaign.

Fun and nostalgic.  Recommended.

The Dain Curse (1978)

Hamilton "Ham" Nash (James Coburn) is a private investigator working for an agency.  The "Old man" who runs the agency sends him to investigate a diamond heist.  Nothing seems to add up.  One diamond was on the stoop, apparently dropped by the thief.  The rest of the diamonds were tiny and hardly worth stealing.  Looking around the house, the thief would have to ignore far more valuable stuff to take the diamonds.  Nash has an odd encounter with the daughter, Gabrielle, who claims to be suffering the Dain Curse.  Nash has hardly begun the investigation when the diamonds are recovered, and the thief is found dead.  Nash realizes there is more to this heist than meets the eye.

This made for TV miniseries is a convoluted mess that takes several short stories and stiches them into a single meandering narrative.  The 3-hour version is incomplete, having sliced out large chunks from the full miniseries.  At the end of one scene, Gabrielle is holding a bloody knife and confessing to a murder while her fiancé and Nash stand nearby.  Then, practically the next scene, there is a discussion of her husband's murder and her kidnapping.  Huh?  When did he get killed?  When was the wedding?  What kidnapping?!  There are several times that Nash or someone else refers to an event or conversation that was not shown.  Who edited this cut?  Entirely too much time is dedicated to Nash's efforts to cure Gabrielle of morphine addiction.

Nash is a keen investigator and seldom misses clues.  However, I had picked out the main villain fairly early and was a bit disappointed that it took Nash so much longer.  Coburn is good in the role and may even be terrific in the full cut, but the Amazon cut is confusing and incomplete.

Skip.

Dinotopia (2002)

In a sudden storm, half-brothers Karl (Tyron Leitso) and David Scott (Wentworth Miller) crash into the ocean with their father on a small plane.  The brothers escape the sinking plane but their father does not.  The pair manage to swim to shore and encounter Cyrus Crabb (David Thewlis), a vaguely sinister fellow who proves to nonetheless be helpful.  He guides them to the nearest town.  Here, the brothers encounter dinosaurs!  An ankylosaurus with a toothache rampages through the street until Marion (Katie Carr) calms it and yanks out the troublesome tooth.  Karl and David are agape.  With a return to civilization declared impossible, the two must somehow acclimate to this new world.  David eagerly embraces Dinotopia, but Karl resists all efforts to assimilate.  To add to their troubles, the sunstones that power this world are failing.  Without the sunstones, the carnivores - led by a herd of T-Rexes - will lay waste to the cities and towns of Dinotopia.

Right out the gate, the idea of an undiscovered island the size of Jamaica is ludicrous.  Sure, maybe in the Age of Sail you could have unknown islands, but not in the Age of Satellites.  These dinosaurs survived the extinction thanks to the world below.  They took shelter underground until it was safe to come out.  The society of Dinotopia has both human and dinosaurs.  The human population has arrived in Dinotopia through shipwrecks over the centuries, thus providing a mix of cultures that have integrated into the wider society.  Though dinosaurs and humans are equal, there is only one dinosaur of note: Zipeau the Librarian.  Zipeau is the only dinosaur who is shown to have mastered English and accompany the heroes on their journeys.  Though friendly and helpful, he is rather dull-witted and a klutz: a dinosaur geek.

Jim Carter - best known for his role as Mr. Carson in Downton Abbey - plays Mayor Waldo.  Waldo is introduced in something close to a clown costume and never recovers.  As the society is collapsing around him, he chows down his vegetarian feast and claims all will be fine.  It is unclear if he is really in charge as he often defers to the grunting of dinosaurs.  Mayor Waldo is also Marion's father.  Alice Krige plays Marion's mother who lives far from Waldo.  She has a gift for identifying the attributes of people and this talent is unleashed on Karl and David.  She sees David as a man of the sky, which he views as crazy since he is afraid of heights.  Nonetheless, he is sent to Canyon City to learn how to fly dinosaurs.  Oonu (Colin Salmon) is the commander of the Skybax Riders.

Throughout the series, Cyrus Crabb plots.  Usually, he convinces Karl to steal this chronicle from the library or that sunstone from the hatchery in order to advance his inscrutable plans.  Despite his attempted murder of Zipeau, Cyrus is still walking freely through the capitol.  Like all villains, his cleverness varies depending on the needs of the plot.  Thewlis brought enough ambiguity to the character that he could easily have become an antihero.  In fact, but for his selfish machinations, Dinotopia would have been doomed with the failure of the sunstones.

The main characters are mediocre.  Karl is hostile to virtually everyone in Dinotopia and essentially demands that they figure out how to send him home.  He has no interest in getting along with anyone and says so.  He is not against committing crimes to further his efforts to escape Dinotopia.  He is hard to like.  David is more open to Dinotopia, embracing the culture and learning the language.  However, he comes across as a loser when he professes his love for Marion and is too terrified to jump over a gap that literally a dozen others have just safely and easily done.  Marion is the princess of Dinotopia, though not so named.  She has a knack for communing with dinosaurs.  Both brothers pursue her, but it is clear she is more attracted to Karl than David.  This love triangle is not resolved.

Though this was produced 9 years after Jurassic Park, the dinosaurs are less convincing.  Then again, this was a made-for-television production, so the special effects budget was limited.  It is good enough.  Had the story been better, the effects would not have had to carry so much weight.

Overall, mediocre.  Skip.

Reacher (season 2)

After beating a carjacker to a pulp, Reacher (Alan Ritchson) gets a message from Frances Neagley (Maria Sten) that one of their former comrades has been murdered.  Reacher heads to New York immediately.  Upon rendezvousing with Neagley, he learns that she has been unable to contact most of the Special Investigators, the Army unit that Reacher commanded, and she served in.  Only 2 of 6 members respond to efforts to contact them.  Visiting the homes of others provide stories of mysterious disappearances.  The history of the Special Investigators is told in flashback throughout the series, offering insight into the members who have been killed already.  In addition to Neagley, Karla Dixon (Serinda Swan) and David O'Donnell (Shaun Sipos) join Reacher to discover who is out to get the Special Investigators.  Is it blowback from their time in the military?  No sooner do they begin investigating the deaths than assassins arrive to kill them.

Alan Ritchson is once again terrific as Reacher.  He is particularly coldblooded when facing those who killed his former colleagues.  While Maria Sten was a late arrival in the first season, she is a main character and Reacher's righthand.  Serinda Swan's Karla takes over as love interest for the absent Roscoe.  Reacher never hooked up with her back in the day because he was her commanding officer; she points out that things have changed.  Shaun Sipos' O'Donnell is a womanizer in the flashbacks but a devoted family man in the present.  It is interesting that he is the only one who has settled down.

Robert Patrick plays the villain.  He is introduced with a humorous bit where he learns that Neagley used the alias of Sarah Connor.  Nice call back to Terminator 2.  Patrick is the final boss who sends wave after wave of assassins to kill Reacher and his meddlesome crew.

Another outstanding season of Reacher and I can hardly wait to see what happens next season.  Good popcorn fun and highly recommended.

The Expanse (Season 6)

It has been six months since the Free Navy last hit the earth with an asteroid.  Mostly, this is because the UN Navy had been reassigned to asteroid protection rather than hunting down Free Navy ships.  As such, the Free Navy has had free reign in the belt and beyond.  Though independent, the Rocinante had also been on asteroid patrol when it encountered an asteroid with a rocket engine.  Interesting.  Naomi (Dominique Tipper) reverse engineers the receiver signal and soon locates a Free Navy ship that is orbiting earth and launching these self-propelled asteroids at weak spots in the screen of ships.  Plans are hatched to capture the ship.  Avasarala (Shohreh Aghdashloo) sends Bobbie Draper (Frankie Adams) to the Rocinante to oversee the operation.

Meanwhile, Marco Inaros has challenges with his Free Navy.  His son, Filip, has a breakdown; that his mother and father are trying to kill one another has been hard on him.  The Inners (Earth & Mars) have built new ships and are starting to turn the tide against him.  However, Marco hasn't been idle.  His alliance with the Martian separatists has provided him some surprises for the Inners.

In a tenuously related storyline, Cara is a girl on Laconia, the Martian separatist colony beyond the ring gates.  While exploring, she has encountered some strange dogs that seem to have the ability to fix things that are broken, even reviving a dead bird.  Well, that's interesting.  There was a definite Pet Cemetary vibe to this.

The inclusion of Cara's tale on Laconia is really a distraction.  Yes, this would be important background for the next three novels, but superfluous if this is the final season.  The time and expense would have been better spent on the story back in the solar system.  I would rather have seen the cameos of Anna Volovodov, Elvi Okoye, and Praxidike Meng expanded.  Those were major characters from previous seasons who each had maybe a minute or two in this finale.

It is unfortunate that Kas Anvar, who played Alex Kamal, didn't get to remain with the show for this final season but his character is fondly remembered by the crew in more than one episode.  Every character had an opportunity to reflect on his absence.  Holden (Stephen Strait) has taken over as pilot and proves to be every bit as good as Alex because the plot requires him to be that good.  In the novels, Alex survives to the final book.

At only 6 episodes, this season goes by fast.  Though well-handled, it does feel rushed compared to previous seasons.  Problems don't get to percolate for a couple of episodes before they get resolved.  Nope, this season, we spot a problem at the beginning of the episode and overcome it by the end.  It moves toward the standard episodic pattern of TV rather than the ongoing space opera from previous years.  Nonetheless, it is great.  The whole series is highly recommended.

Reacher (2022)

Somewhere under a bridge, a man races through the brush only to be gunned down by an unknown assailant.  The dead man is then severely beaten before a piece of cardboard is laid on him to 'conceal' the body.

Jack Reacher (Alan Ritchson) gets off a bus while still on the highway and then starts walking.  He is headed to the small Georgia town of Margrave.  He has hardly been served at the local diner when the police arrive with guns drawn to arrest him for murder!  He happened to walk near where the dead man was found and is now the chief suspect.  At the police station, he finds that there are 5 officers on the force, among them are Captain Oscar Finlay (Malcolm Goodwin) a Harvard-educated Boston cop who has relocated to Georgia for undisclosed reasons and the oddly named Roscoe Conklin (Willa Fitzgerald), a no-nonsense officer who is not intimidated by the hulking Reacher.  Finlay has hardly started the investigation than the nebbish Paul Hubble, a local financial wiz, admits to the murder but provides all the wrong details.  Both Reacher and Hubble are sent to a nearby prison for holding until they can be arraigned.  And here the fun begins.  Through some 'mistake' they find themselves in the general population and are targeted for death by various groups of convicts.  Reacher is not an easy man to kill.  There is a lot more to this murder than it first appeared.  Although he plans to leave town as soon as his alibi is confirmed (he was on the bus at the time of the murder), he changes his mind when he discovers that he knew the victim.

Alan Ritchson is outstanding as Reacher.  His version is very different from Tom Cruise.  Cruise is generally a regular guy who just happens to be a badass who wanders the country.  Ritchson is that as well, but he is an emotional recluse as well.  That Ritchson had 8 hourlong episodes to develop the character surely explains the greater depth to the character.  The flashbacks to his youth where he plays the avenging angel even then provides further development.

Malcolm Goodwin is terrific as the police captain.  There is a lot of character here, from his unexplained move to rural Georgia, his struggles to stop smoking, his habit of spinning his wedding ring on tables, his music tastes, and his habit of always wearing a jacket and vest.  He proves to be an excellent foil to Reacher but also a reliable ally.

Willa Fitzgerald is a combination of love interest and buddy cop.  Roscoe is clearly enamored of Reacher after reading his military record.  She is a competent cop who, despite recruitment efforts by the FBI, has chosen to stay in this tiny town.  Though a local, she doesn't have any close ties.  Why is she staying?  Her parents died when she was a child and the man who was her father-figure committed suicide last year.  She often plays referee when Reacher and Finlay argue.  Fitzgerald does a great job, but the character didn't quite fit the setting.

There are a few instances that are just too coincidental.  It would be one thing if the murder victim had said to meet him in Margrave, but that Reacher should happen to arrive on the very day of the murder is beyond belief.  There are other crazy coincidences that caused some eye rolling.  In the big finale fight, each of the main characters has a one-on-one opponent to overcome, which was a bit too much.  Another issue was that Reacher's fighting ability changed depending on the needs of the plot.  In prison, he took down four guys solo and it is totally believable; Reacher is a huge guy with a Schwarzeneggar physique.  Later, he has trouble with one guy who is dinky by comparison.  Sigh.  That character should have been played by a much bigger guy.

This is an awesome series and I couldn't stop watching once I started.  The action is well done and the body count is off the charts.  In the real world, the FBI would have swarmed this town with a score of agents by the third episode.  Still, this was great popcorn fun and highly recommended.  I can hardly wait for the next one.  Binge this series!

Upload, Season 2

The first season ended with Nathan (Robbie Amell) having a visit from his cloying girlfriend, Ingrid (Allegra Edwards).  She revealed that she had uploaded for him.  She had committed suicide to join him in the digital afterlife.  Now feeling massively guilty and beholden to her, he tries to make a go of it while wondering what happened to Nora (Andy Allo).  He had used his computer skills to rescue her from an assassin in the real world, but now he couldn't contact her.  Was she okay?  Indeed, Nora is fine though she has fled the city and now lives a technology-free existence with a cult of neo-Luddites called Luds.  In her absence, a new employee, Tinsley, uses Nora's avatar, much to Nathan's consternation.  The Luds are very interested in using Nora's skills and connections to oppose the eternal life granted to some while denied to the majority.

Only 7 episodes for the season, but overall good entertainment.  There is a strange fascination with going digital by some people.  Nathan's program, a free version for uploading, is online but controlled by unscrupulous people.  Nathan's mother plans to upload as a surprise to her son.  What?  You are healthy and not that old but you're going to commit suicide to have a virtual life?  What kind of nuttiness is that?  The show does reverse itself on technology from last season; it turns out that there is a backup that can be restored.  Thus, downloading into a new body and then getting run over by a truck will not result in permanent death.  Of course, that is going to quickly result in multiple versions of the same person.  More on that next season.

Good popcorn fun.

Amazon Documentaries

Thomas Sowell: Common Sense in a Senseless World: Here is a documentary about Thomas Sowell, PhD economist who studied at Columbia, Harvard, and the University of Chicago.  Jason Riley outlines his career and interviews various friends and associates of Sowell.  As a longtime fan and avid reader of Thomas Sowell, I was already familiar with most of what the documentary covers.  This is a good primer for Sowell, but only scratches the surface.  There was not enough of Sowell himself in this documentary about him.  A search on YouTube will provide some great videos of Sowell covering a wide array of topics.  Recommended.

Val: The life and career of Val Kilmer, narrated by his son, Jack.  The story is told both in the present with a dramatically diminished Kilmer (he has survived throat cancer) and in the past through home movies.  Val had carried a video camera with him throughout his career and had captured a great deal of behind-the-scenes video, both on the sets of his movies and of his home life.  Val Kilmer has always seemed like the coolest of the cool, but his autobiography is one long tragedy interrupted by moments of joy.  At least, that is how the documentary paints it.  Well-made but depressing.  Proceed with caution.

Shatner in Space: On October 13, 2021, William Shatner, the original Captain Kirk, went to space on Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket.  Here is the background of how he met Jeff Bezos and then launched into space to become the oldest person ever (90) in space, surpassing the previous record holder, Wally Funk (82), who had flown on the first crewed New Shepard.  Shatner is astonishingly spry for a man his age and still mentally sharp.  He does not seem 90.  Though sometimes saccharine sweet and occasionally preachy about the environment, it is mostly fun and worthwhile.