The Winchesters: Pilot

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The CW is in desperate need for successful shows so now we are being given a spinoff/prequel about the Brothers from Supernatural’s parents.

So this episode was a mixed bag, in some senses it is nice to be back in the world of Supernatural again, in addition I also like the very active role that Dean, played by Jensen Ackles, is taking in the show being both the narrator and also turning up at the end, I think for this prequel series to work it needs to be tied in heavily to the original series. I think it is a shame that Ackles is still mainly acting through this franchise and think that he is a talented actor that deserves to breakout more, I hope he can return to the Boys next season.

Moreover, I think that Meg Donnelly, who plays Mary Winchester, is doing a hell of a lot of the heavy lifting here. She was the only new character who was both interesting and also charming the rest struggled to be either. I think that John, played by Drake Rodger, is a wet blanket and cannot possibly hold a candle to the Jeffery Dean Morgan version of the character we saw in Supernatural. The sidekicks were instantly annoying and one note, hopefully they don’t stick around beyond this opening arc.

Lastly I think that the opening mystery that this episode tries to set up is pretty boring all things considered and doesn’t really inspire confidence for where the series is going to go, however, it is worth noting that pilots are often quite rough and hopefully the later episodes will be better because if they carry on like this I will be checking out soon.

Overall, It is nice to see Dean again and be back in that world but ultimately this feels needless.

Pros.

Dean

The return to the world

It is watchable

Cons.

Most of the cast outside of Mary are dull and or one note

It has major pacing issues

The mystery doesn’t feel particularly interesting

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Invasion Of The Body Snatchers: Is Anyone You Know Behaving Differently?

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

People in small town America are switched with parasitic aliens who make doubles of them.

I have never seen the original Invasion Of The Body Snatchers so I can’t say how this remake compares to it. Additionally due to my lack of experience with the original film I came into this one with fresh eyes not sure what to expect, I would say widely I enjoyed the film though there are a few elements where I think it can be improved.

I liked the paranoid thriller aspects of this film wherein we don’t know who is a pod persona and who isn’t right away, and as the number of pod people grows our heroes become more and more outnumbered both of these add to the stakes of the film as well as the greater sense of threat. However, the scaling of the threat is not done very well, these elements are brought in fairly early on and are at maximum from the get-go so there is no rising sense of things getting worse throughout the film, from the midpoint things are at their worst and it continues at the same level from there.

It is nice to see the familiar faces of Jeff Goldblum and Donald Sutherland, I would say both add a lot to the film though Goldblum probably steals the show. Outside of the two of them the rest of the performances are more of a mixed bag, I think this is more easily gotten away with due to the genre of the film and the fact some of the actors are tasked with playing aliens.

The pacing of the film leaves quite a lot to be desired, I would say the film could quarter its runtime and be better for it, as you approach the last act of the film viewing really starts to feel like a drag. It goes on for far too long.

Overall, a good paranoid thriller that could be better paced and performed.

Pros.

Some good paranoid elements

Goldblum

It is watchable

Cons.

The performances aren’t great across the board

The threat isn’t scaled up over the course of the film

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Rosaline: Reducing Shakespeare To Make Bland Tasteless Garbage

1.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The untold story of Rosaline, played by Kaitlyn Dever, Romeo’s ex-girlfriend.

Yikes another group of old people trying to right how they think Gen Z talk. This film is deeply unfunny on multiple levels and more often than not crosses over into irritating territory, I didn’t laugh once whilst watching.

Moreover, the titular heroine of Rosaline was deeply unlikeable for most of the film and behaved like a brat who used people for her own ends. Not only did this make her detestable it also meant that she needed to be redeemed by the end of the film in a narrative sense, yet the film just thought that it could cram all of her apologies and soul searching into a 5 minute sequence then move on which makes the whole thing feel incredibly shallow.

In addition to those glaring issues the film also has Rosaline using men for sex and then just chucking them treating them more as bodies than as people, and whilst I acknowledge that there is a long cinematic tradition of male characters doing this, in modern times it is seen as wrong to do so. As such if Rosealine’s character was male and behaved the same way their would be an outcry against this film yet it is okay because she is a woman? Surely for things to be truly equal if anyone regardless of gender just uses a person for their body and doesn’t even treat them like a human being it deserves to be called out as wrong. To ply further scorn, the film also includes an incredibly reductive stereotypical gay best friend character, played by Spencer Stevenson, which feels like it belongs in a film from at least a decade ago.

Overall, a terrible film that no one will fondly remember.

Pros.

A nice central romance

Dever is trying her best

Cons.

The lead is awful throughout

It is unfunny

Some of its characters are reductive stereotypes

It has nothing to say and isn’t a clever play on Romeo and Juliet

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Rick and Morty: Final DeSmithation

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Rick, voiced by Justin Roiland, and Jerry, voiced by Chris Parnell, go on a fortune cookie related quest to stop the latter from sleeping with his mum.

Right off the bat I just want to say that the whole incest theme running through the show doesn’t particularly bother me, honestly I think it is done out of desperation to try and seem edgy and keep the controversy and in that the attention on the show. No, I don’t think one of the writer’s fetish is bleeding onto the show, it’s just for attention.

With that in mind I am starting to question whether I might be tapped out on this show, as I am just finding with this new season that I am not really enjoying it anymore and quite often, though there are good parts to some episodes, I am finding them a slog to finish. Again with this episode I liked that it was a Rick and Jerry adventure, those are fairly rare, and I also liked the fact that fortunes played such a big part of the final battle sequences, but at the same time it just didn’t hit in the same way an earlier season episode would have. Moreover, I also think the social commentary of the show is starting to become far too obvious and on the nose, in short I think the quality of the writing is getting worse.

Overall, the fortune cookie angle is a nice gimmick for the episode but it is nothing special.

Pros.

The fortune fight at the end

Seeing more of Rick and Jerry

It is very watchable

Cons.

It lacks the spark it once had

The writing is not great and that effects the episode in a number of ways

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Andor: The Eye

4/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Cassian, played by Diego Luna, and co finally rob the Imperial base.

I thought this was a strong episode, I liked that we got to see the native people who lived on the planet it helped the world to feel more realised.

I think rather predictably we got several deaths here and more than a few loose ends. Nemik’s death was the most obvious and when it happened I thought finally, however, it also packed an emotional punch and feels like it will be important to Cassian’s wider journey. Skeen’s turn to the dark side is again not particularly surprising, however, what is surprising is just how quick Cassian puts him down- pretty dark for a Disney + show. There are several other characters that just seemingly walk off into oblivion for no real reason, to me these are irritating loose ends but hopefully the next few episodes will explore what happened to them.

I do appreciate that this show continues to play with moral ambiguity and go a lot harder than we have seen any other Star Wars property go in a long while. I am curious to see where the show will go from here as nothing particularly has been set up, but I do hope they don’t bring Kyle Soller’s Syril back again as I feel he would be a weak villain for the series on the whole.

Overall, a strong episode but one that also raises the question where do we go from here?

Pros.

The tension

The stakes

Luna

The darkness and moral ambiguity

Cons.

Too many loose ends

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Cursed Friends: Finding A Razor Blade In Your Halloween Treats Would Be More Fun Than Watching This

0.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A group of friends find the predictions they made decades earlier coming eerily true.

So the opening few minutes of this film could be a cautionary tale all its own, bad effects work, worse jokes and immediately unlikeable characters. Yet what follows is so much worse, the direct next sequence is the gang as tweens walking around and talking about how much they want to ‘shag’ the boy dressed as Austin Powers. If that doesn’t tell you why this film sucks nothing ever will.

I have written quite a lot about the digital future and the pros of streaming, yet this film presents me with a very real case for how it is ruining the industry. Before pretty much every movie studio had a streaming service that they needed to plug with content things like this would get made far less and that was a good thing. However, with today’s need for content at all costs these sort of low effort, unfunny, trash pieces are becoming more and more frequent.

The thing that I think is the worst about this film is how try hard it is. Every joke tries to out edgy the last until honestly it just becomes boring because behind that edge there is no real bite just desperation. In my mind Jessica Lowe’s Erica was probably the worst in this regard, she was both unfunny and unlikeable and most of her jokes were written to be as outrageous as possible. However, Lowe is just one of a truly bad bunch, no one is good here and the fact that Will Arnett even agreed to be in this is nothing short of manically depressing.

Overall, probably the worst horror film this Halloween season.

Pros.

It is not offensively bad

Cons.

It is not funny

None of the characters are likeable

It is trying too hard to be edgy

Will Arnett needs to have some conversations with his agent

It is really just awful

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Bromates: This Film Makes The Hangover Look Oscar Worthy

2.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

After two friends, played by Josh Brener and Lil Rel Howery, get dumped they must try and get on with their lives and get back on the horse, all with the help of each other and their wider group of friends.

So whilst this film had some funny jokes and strong performances from Howery and surprisingly from Snoop Dogg, it just isn’t enough to save it.

I think the worst part of this film is how cringey it is at times. There are multiple scenes where Brener’s character is just out and out humiliated, not in a funny way but in a sad way, and he just takes it and it is hard to watch. I suppose by the end of the film he has grown slightly as a person which I guess you could say is character development, but honestly those earlier scenes are hard not to fast forward through.

Moreover, I think this film is lacking anything new to say about male friendship. It has the same tiresome plot beats that we have seen dragged out over and over again for decades, it is so obvious where this film is going and it doesn’t even have the good grace to be funny to make up for it. There are one or two jokes that land, and they did make me laugh hard, but for the most part the jokes miss by miles.

Overall, watchable but Howery and Snoop Dog are wasted in this. To see a good Snoop Dogg film that features him well check out Day Shift on Netflix.

Pros.

Dogg

Howery

It is watchable

Cons.

It has nothing new to say about male friendship

It is the same old same old

It has some really horrible cringe

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She-Hulk: Whose Show Is This?

1.5/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

She-Hulk, played by Tatiana Maslany, breaks the fourth wall and in doing so ruins everything her own show has been building towards in the pinnacle of lazy writing.

Where to begin with this? I think the most egregious thing this episode does is have its first half be bad on purpose so that Jen can call it out and then break out of the show and go and talk to the writers, acknowledging your own poor writing doesn’t make it any better. Worse still, the choice to have Jen talk to the sentient A.I overlord K.E.V.I.N to fix everything is the ultimate Deus Ex Machina fake out which just throws away everything the season has been building towards in just a few moments.

Why does the episode do this? Well because in its bad headed own way the show thinks this is funny, it thinks by crapping all over other Marvel films and shows endings that they are in on the joke and that by having it all magically tie itself up that that is clever subversion. Marvel would do well to remember how well subversion by Rian Johnson in Star Wars was taken. Also to make this all so much worse the jokes don’t actually land at all and for the most part are back to the early season cringe wine mum jokes. If this show has taught me anything it is that writer Jessica Gao really wants to appear down with the kids when in her every attempt she translates this into being cringe, moreover her heavy handed political comments only make this cringe issue all the worse.

The ending of the episode has to bring back Hulk, played by Mark Ruffalo, and Daredevil, played by Charlie Cox to try and leave us on a positive note, but even here we are reminded that this show was only ever good when it was relying on cameos from other characters that people actually like.

Overall, boy oh boy Marvel screwed the pooch on this one.

Pros.

Jen’s line about the X-Men

Bring back Daredevil for a few brief scenes

Cons.

It is cringe

It throws out everything that the series has been setting up

The meta joke mostly don’t work

It feels gimmicky throughout

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The Blues Brothers: Singing For Their Supper, Which In This Case Is A Catholic Orphanage

4/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Two blood brothers set out on a mission to save the Catholic orphanage in which they grew up. To do this they must put on a musical fundraising performance.

I have had this film on my watchlist for some time and now after seeing it I can see why so many people like it. Though I didn’t think this film was by any means perfect there was enough about it that I enjoyed to make my watching it worthwhile.

I think the film really nailed both the heart and the comedy of its story as it made me both feel and laugh, though I would say the humour was hit or miss and not all of the jokes landed. On top of that when watching this film one has to be in awe of all the musical talent on display as there are some real heavy hitters in this film.

My main issue with this film is that the narrative arc feels overly familiar, and yes whilst this came out a while ago so may have been fresh at the time I doubt it. In addition the film is frequently predictable and goes exactly as you would expect it to.

Overall, it is fun and worth a watch but also very familiar and predictable.

Pros.

It is very watchable

A few funny jokes

Belushi and Aykroyd

The musical talent

Cons.

It is overly familiar and predictable

It also has pacing issues

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Vengeance: Things Are Different In Texas

3/5

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Ben, played by B.J Novak, heads to Texas to investigate the murder of his one night stand.

Honestly, I think this film has been a little overhyped. Some of the praise I had heard about this film being a ground-breaking first feature for Novak and that it really went to some interesting places seem to have been misplaced. I thought the mystery was okay, average at best, but certainly nothing to write home about in the way something like Knives Out was. The commentary on life and where we are all going is incredibly pedestrian and seems to think it has something new to say when in fact it is just the same old same old.

Sadly for Novak what makes his film good are the supporting performances that in no uncertain terms upstage his performance. Boyd Holbrook and Ashton Kutcher both deliver really strong performances that make this film what it is. Holbrook is incredibly warm and likeable and Kutcher makes for a villain that is both evil but also at times talking some sense.

Overall, fine if forgettable.

Pros.

Holbrook

Kutcher

It is very watchable

Cons.

It has nothing to say

The mystery is deeply average and nothing particularly new

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