• Mon, May 12, 25
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review

23 Jul

Carrion Review: A Brilliant Horror Game Where You Are the Monster

New DVD release, , , , ,
You know that bit in your favorite scary movie where you get to know your soon-to-be-slaughtered protagonists and the tension is slowly strung out like the string of a bow? Yeah, CARRION doesn’t do that. Instead, it skips right to the good part and gives you control of the monster. You play as an amorphous blob creature who breaks out of a test chamber to swiftly wreak havoc on an underground lab. It’s the stuff all great slasher fiction is made of, only here the “reverse horror” conceit firmly places you in the driver’s seat. Such a setup might sound…
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23 Jul

Doom Patrol Season 2 Episode 7 Review: Dumb Patrol

New DVD release, , ,
This Doom Patrol review contains spoilers. Doom Patrol Season 2 Episode 7 As its title suggests, Doom Patrol gets pretty dumb this week when the manor experiences an infestation of microscopic beings that feed off of bad ideas, but which reveals Miranda to be an effective primary. Meanwhile, Cliff rockets back to Earth, and vows endlessly to kill the Chief, who is seeking answers in the Yukon, and Rita decides to shadow the Cloverton beekeeper for her community theater role. And once again, Doom Patrol hits us with a silly episode that still manages to push character development forward –…
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23 Jul

Agents of SHIELD Season 7 Episode 9 Review: As I Have Always Been

New DVD release, , , , ,
This review contains spoilers for Agents of SHIELD. Agents of SHIELD Season 7 Episode 9 Groundhog Day episodes are a dangerous prospect. They can be whimsical, with mistakes erased and deaths undone, or they can be meaningless, completely removing the stakes that make conflict interesting. They can allow characters to learn from each time loop, or they can become irritatingly repetitive for the viewer. Fortunately, this week’s Agents of SHIELD does everything right, from varying the camera angles to break up the duplicate scenes to pausing for reflection with both comedic and tragic results. Time loop episodes always have one…
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22 Jul

Malorie Review: Does the Bird Box Sequel Live Up to the Original? (Spoiler Free )

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When Josh Malerman’s debut novel Bird Box landed in 2014, it was a critical and financial success and quickly found itself optioned for a movie, despite being apparently ‘unfilmable’. The movie arrived on Netflix in 2018, starring Sandra Bullock and was a storming success for the streaming channel. Hot on the heels of the buzz around John Krasinski’s A Quiet Place, Bird Box was likened to that movie, switched hearing for vision. The premise was simple: Earth has been invaded by mysterious creatures. If you look at them, you go mad and kill yourself. The book worked wonderfully, telling the…
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20 Jul

Stargirl Episode 10 Review: Brainwave Jr.

New DVD release, , ,
This Stargirl review contains spoilers. Stargirl Episode 10 At this point, we should all really feel sorry for people who aren’t watching Stargirl. It doesn’t seem as though it should be possible for a show about a teenage girl with a glowing staff and a knockoff Captain America costume to be the consistently best superhero series on the air and, yet, here we are. “Brainwave Jr” doesn’t just manage to pull off a truly shocking final scene, it also rehabilitates its most problematic character, shake-up life at the Whitmore-Dugan household forever, fully establishes Brainwave as the most terrifying villain on…
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20 Jul

NOS4A2 Season 2 Episode 5 Review: Bruce Wayne McQueen

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This NOS4A2 review contains spoilers. NOS4A2 Season 2 Episode 5 It’s been established. Charlie Manx is coming to Haverhill and he’s looking to get his hands on Bruce Wayne McQueen, one way or another. There are FBI agents, explosive devices, and Wayne’s family standing in his way. So, really, nothing that can slow down a man who is essentially immortal with a lot of experience sneaking around and stealing children, especially with the Gas Mask Man, Bing Partridge, working alongside him. “Bruce Wayne McQueen” is one of the most cleverly constructed episodes of NOS4A2, especially of this season, because it…
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20 Jul

The Alienist: Angel of Darkness Episode 1 Review: Ex Ore Infantium

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This THE ALIENIST review contains spoilers. The Alienist Season 2 Episode 1 Times have certainly changed. I’m not comparing today’s world to that of 1897; the scenes in the premiere of The Alienist: Angel of Darkness featuring police brutalizing innocent protesters highlights that society hasn’t evolved that much. No, I’m talking about the world in which The Alienist’s first “event” season arrived in compared to the TV landscape that the second outing arrives in today. The Alienist’s first good, not quite great, season was dinged for arriving in a crowded pack of shows with similar subject matter or period settings.…
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20 Jul

Perry Mason Episode 5 Review: Chapter Five

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This Perry Mason review contains spoilers. Perry Mason Episode 5 Perry Mason episode 5, “Chapter Five,” delivers what viewers expecting the classic series were waiting to see happen. The scruffy private investigator who has maintained a three-day stubble for five weeks cleans up and gets an education, not necessarily in that order. The first cleanup is actually done by Della Street (Juliet Rylance). “Chapter Four” ended with the suicide of E.B. Jonathan, esteemed but broken attorney at law. That act began almost imperceptibly at the start of the episode, as John Lithgow, who plays E.B., masterfully allowed his wounds to…
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20 Jul

The Alienist: Angel of Darkness Episode 2 Review: Something Wicked

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This THE ALIENIST review contains spoilers. The Alienist Season 2 Episode 2 “Get in good trouble. Necessary trouble,” is a famous quote from the late civil rights leader and United States politician John Lewis. Since his passing this week, the quote has been on my mind, for a variety of reasons, and I thought about it again watching “Something Wicked.” Sara, John, and Laszlo are experts at creating necessary trouble, but it certainly attracts attention and enemies. We know that former police chief Thomas Burns isn’t fond of our central trio, but now they’re attracting the ire of the infamous…
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17 Jul

The Sandman Audible Original Review: the Dreaming Comes to Audiobook

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Screen adaptations of Neil Gaiman’s celebrated graphic novels have been teased since the 90s, with various talent attached but none as yet managing to materialize in physical form. While a TV series for Netflix is in pre-production with Wonder Woman writer Allan Heinberg showrunning and David Goyer and Gaiman exec producing, an audio book has arrived from Audible boasting super-high production values and a starry cast. More like a radio play than a straight up reading of the text, this adaptation works surprisingly well and stays very faithful to the books, adding in physical descriptions of characters where necessary. The…
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17 Jul

Cursed Review (Spoiler-Free)

Netflix, New DVD release, ,
This Cursed review contains NO spoilers. Though many people watching the new Netflix series Cursed may have heard of the character Nimue, they may not be super familiar with how she connects to the story of King Arthur.  Because, unfortunately, although most of us know the basics of this legend – heroic king, a magical sword and a powerful wizard – its women are generally treated as afterthoughts, and remarkable only in the way their lives impact the stories of the tale’s various men. The difference is usually only in whether they’re adulteresses (Guinevere), outright monsters (Morgan Le Fay), or…
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16 Jul

Agents of SHIELD Season 7 Episode 8 Review: After, Before

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This review contains spoilers for Agents of SHIELD. Agents of SHIELD Season 7 Episode 8 Agents of SHIELD proves time and time again that it knows how to pair its well-developed characters to great effect, and this week’s May and Yoyo outing serves as a great counterpoint to last week’s goofier adventures of Mack and “The D.” Although many emotional moments felt a bit muffled, this series’ excellent track record with using understatement to allow viewers to fill in the gaps compensated somewhat for the scenes that lacked the intensity we might have expected. Meanwhile, revisiting Afterlife provided some season…
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16 Jul

The 100 Season 7 Episode 9 Review: The Flock

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This THE 100 review contains spoilers The 100 Season 7 Episode 9 This episode backfills Octavia, Diyoza, Hope, and Echo’s experience with the Disciples that led to their dramatic entrance/reveal in the stone room with Clarke in the previous episode. It turns out that the reason Hope was missing is that she didn’t pass the training and was unable to sever her “selfish bonds” to fight for “all of humanity.” Echo buying into the Bardo BS makes a certain amount of sense. She’s loyal, but her problem has always been the question of who she considers “her people.” Echo brings up an…
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15 Jul

Brave New World Review: Dystopia Fatigue

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This Brave New World review contains no spoilers. In Brave New World, the filmmaker character of Helm Watson, played by Hannah John Kamen, laments having to create yet another sequel to her successful feelie series, Pleasure Bomb. “They want more,” she says. “I don’t know more!” Such is the paradox of Peacock having adapted Aldous Huxley’s 1932 novel after years of audiences being subjected to the dystopian stories of The Hunger Games and The 100 among many others. The book was an innovation, satirically criticizing the utopian novels of the time, but the reinterpretation now illogically appears to be derivative…
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14 Jul

Ghost of Tsushima Review: A Beautiful Homage to Akira Kurosawa

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Ghost of Tsushima is a daring departure for Sucker Punch, who since 2009 has worked solely on the Playstation-exclusive Infamous series. While those games were steeped in modernity, offering sprawling cityscapes players could explore from top to bottom via superpowered “conduits” Cole MacGrath and Delsin Rowe, Ghost of Tsushima’s open world is set in feudal Japan. It’s here that we meet young samurai Jin Sakai, who must defend his homeland, the titular island of Tsushima, from an invading Mongol army. Right off the bat, the shift in time period and milieu to 13th century Japan is notable because Sucker Punch…
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13 Jul

Stargirl Episode 9 Review: Brainwave

New DVD release, , ,
This Stargirl review contains spoilers. Stargirl Episode 9 After a truly excellent two-parter, Stargirl comes back down to Earth with an hour that’s merely very good, rather than great. Don’t get me wrong, “Brainwave” is propulsive and interesting, answering questions, dropping hints of plot developments to come (Justin!! The!! Janitor!!) and ending on the sort of cliffhanger other series might have taken multiple seasons to reach. But it’s just not quite as good as the “Shiv” episodes that more fully introduced us to Cindy Burman. And part of the reason for that is Henry King, Jr. just isn’t on Cindy’s…
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13 Jul

Snowpiercer Episode 10 Review: 994 Cars Long

New DVD release, ,
This Snowpiercer review contains spoilers. Snowpiercer Episode 10 A history lesson learned, over and over, is that conquering a territory is much easier than governing it. Even if the revolution is just, once the bloodshed stops and the compromises begin, not every general is a George Washington-level statesman. The bodies have barely been frozen and the blood still stains the floors and yet, there’s already another threat demanding Layton’s attention. It’s not looting or worries in First Class, it’s something much harder to put a stop to. There’s another train, and it’s coming to link up to Snowpiercer.  Snowpiercer has…
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13 Jul

Perry Mason Episode 4 Review: Chapter Four

New DVD release, , , ,
This Perry Mason review contains spoilers. Perry Mason Episode 4 Perry Mason’s “Chapter Four” is a long denouement for the Emily Dodson (Gayle Rankin) legal team. The woman who has been accused of, at the very least, conspiring to aid in the kidnapping which led to the death of her child, is running out of options. The entire episode shows her falling through every loophole laid out for her, except of course, the ones that Perry Mason (Matthew Rhys) employs to circumvent the law. John Lithgow can really elicit sympathy. Stephen Root’s district attorney Maynard Barnes is relishing his every…
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13 Jul

Snowpiercer Episode 9 Review: The Train Demanded Blood

New DVD release, , , , ,
This Snowpiercer review contains spoilers. Snowpiercer Episode 9 As a series, Snowpiercer has done a great job of respecting the power of a ticking clock. A lot of the actions that Layton and company have taken have been timed, measured, and planned out to the most careful of degrees to take advantage of something on the train, from a shift change to doors opening for lunch service, and that necessary clock-watching serves “The Train Demanded Blood” well during its tense, world-changing climax. The characters are acutely aware of the passage of time, of the ticking clock, of their opportunities slowly…
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13 Jul

NOS4A2 Season 2 Episode 4 Review: The Lake House

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This NOS4A2 review contains spoilers. NOS4A2 Season 2 Episode 4 For as much skill as Bing Partridge (Ólafur Darri Ólafsson) has with connecting to children, Charlie Manx (Zachary Quinto) is no slouch in that department, either. He might not be able to talk to kids on their level as well as Bing, but there’s just something about Charlie, and the tantalizing lure of Christmasland, that speaks to children in a way that’s difficult to resist. Throughout “The Lake House,” Charlie is putting a full-court press on Wayne (Jason David) to get him to take a seat in the back of…
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DVD Guide reviews current dvd releases of movies and TV shows. The reviews of these dvd releases are my thoughts and understandings of the movie, dvd releases or TV show and not be taken as fact.

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