Poker Face: A Shorter Slightly Worse Knives Out

Summary

A woman, Natasha Lyonne, who can always tell when people are lying heads out on the road to solve crimes. It is such a simple premise you wonder why it hasn’t been done before.

Rian Johnson is a controversial figure, a man of highs and lows, sometimes he makes something very good Looper sometimes he makes something very bad The Last Jedi. His Knives Out films were woefully not of the same quality, with the Netflix sequel being dumber and more distracted. Clearly he was working on other things whilst writing it. As such this series could have either been great or terrible, there was no room for in between.

Turns out life won’t be put in a box and despite my previous statement this is a pretty mixed show.

Now there are some things that it does well Lyonne is a strong and likable lead and you care about what happens to her character. I think if you had got someone who was less affable to do this show then it would have just been bad, as even in some of the harder to get through episodes Lyonne’s charm just about makes it bearable.

The episodes themselves fall into more of a villain of the week sort of thing, though the series tries for a wider overarching plot, for the most part it is oh the lead has tripped over a corpse better find out who killed them. Some of these episodes are good, usually the ones with notable guest stars who get to have fun, but some aren’t. The issue with villain of the week storytelling is that not all the episodes are created equal, some get the guest stars and more time to do interesting things and some are filler, and that is not just true here but in a lot of shows.

The issue with this show is that it can have a few bad episodes in a row before you get a good one and because of that it is a slog to get through.

If you are a Knives Out fan then you will almost certainly be into this show.

Overall, fun at times but mostly slow and predictable.

2.5/5

Pros.

Lyonne

Some of the episodes are fun

It has some good ideas

Cons.

Some of the episodes are dull

It is not as smart as it thinks it is

The ending is underwhelming

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Life and Beth: The Show You Make When You No Longer Have Any Jokes Left About Your Vagina

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Amy Schumer continues to try and cry out for relevance.

I was subjected to the first season of this during a binge day when we couldn’t find anything else to watch and wherein I was eventually outvoted, and whilst a part of me wanted to get up and go for a walk whilst it was on it was also raining and I didn’t have my raincoat so I had to stay and watch it.

As many of you might know I do not like Amy Schumer, she is not funny, her material is that she likes to use people for sex and then talks about her body in a self-deprecating way, it is neither new nor intelligent. What’s more she had sex with someone when she was sober and they were clearly very drunk so in no place to properly consent, she has told this story several times, this is a thing she did in real life. She is a sexual predator, in my opinion, and if a man told a story about how they took advantage of a woman who was unable to properly consent they would never work again, not so for Schumer.

That aside I knew I wasn’t going to like this show going in but as I was forced to watch it I thought well maybe there could be something I’ll like about it, but no. Essentially, what this show boils down to is a worse version of Fleabag, Schumer’s’ character has to deal with grief, as we all have, whilst being a mess and going around and treating people like garbage. It think it is very deep and a comment on life and what it means to lose someone but its incredibly thin on anything other than generic platitudes, but that speaks to the quality of the writing.

Schumer does fair better here as she doesn’t have to be funny, with it being a comedy drama, and believe me she isn’t. I suppose she is a little bit less irritating and obnoxious here than she was in something like I Feel Pretty yet I digress.

Overall, it is sad that a sexual predator, in my opinion, still gets work.

0/5

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Roundup Punishment: Fighting In The Toilets And On A Plane

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A no nonsense police officer, Ma Dong-Seok, tries to take down an overseas casino racket that is soaked in blood.

I enjoyed this film for its mix of both serious action, with fairly high stakes, and also more comedic and light hearted moments. It felt like a homage to classic 80s era American action films like Lethal Weapon in many senses. The film knew what it was doing on all fronts and it knew when to let things get serious and when to draw back for a joke.

The action itself was intense, it felt very full on and visceral, though at the same time it wasn’t super gory, what I appreciated about it was that it was not like an American action film very often a bad guy might take one hit to go down or maybe 3 if he is the big villain but instead this felt drawn out and far more realistic.

This I think is the fourth film in the series and after watching this it made me want to go back and watch the other films in the franchise that I have missed, that was how much fun I had with it. Sadly, I think a lot of people won’t watch this as they won’t want to watch something with subtitles but I am telling you that you are missing out.

Overall, a fun and well done action film.

4.5/5

Pros.

The action

The comedy

The cast

It is a lot of fun

It has some great set pieces

Cons.

It has some pacing issues

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The Fall Guy: The Best Blockbuster That We Have Been Given In Years

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A stuntman, Ryan Gosling, must go through hell and highwater in order to solve the mystery of an actors disappearance and reunite with his lost love, Emily Blunt.

I would argue though it will be a controversial opinion that Blunt and Gosling have better chemistry here than he did with Margot Robbie last year in Barbie. I think the film is made all the better for their relationship being front and centre to the film as the love story aspect really gives you something to root for and hold onto during the film.

I also liked that this film felt like a push back against a lot of the worst trends of recent Hollywood blockbusters, there was no dumb over the top CGI fight, the characters had humour and felt like real people, and crucially there was little to no identity politics. There was a line about toxic masculinity which was played for laughs and said by the villain of the piece to show how it was just another way to manipulate people into going along with her.

This film felt like in many ways the sort of film we used to get 10 years ago, before Hollywood decided to tie its fate to left wing politics and repeat every social justice buzz word they have heard online for points alienating half their audience in the process. You could argue in many senses that Blunt’s character here is a girl boss trope done right, she is in charge yet she also is allowed to have emotions and not be perfect, which makes a change from the self-serious, stoic, no nonsense girl bosses we often see, or the I’m so random iteration of the girl boss.

I would say my main issue with the film was that the second act went on for far too long and became bloated. If it had been better paced the film would have naturally flowed a lot better.

Overall, a solid and fun blockbuster

4/5

Pros.

It is fun

It doesn’t take itself too seriously

The stunts

The characters are likeable

Cons.

The second act is bloated

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Boy Kills World: Bob Tries Out Some New Techniques In The Kitchen

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A young man, Bill Skarsgard, goes on a quest for revenge in an odd and absurdist world.

This film feels like it would have worked a lot better as a videogame, in almost every way it feels like a tongue in cheek, silly but also taking itself seriously videogame. As it stands it has problems and won’t work for a lot of people, the main reason for this is because the tone is just so jarring, there are moments where you are like okay this is a comedy and then others where you think it’s a drama, and plenty of films can wed these two things together but not this one, they make it feel tonally like two different films.

The third act plot twist adds to this it takes what could easily have been a pretty straight forward narrative and it twists it into being convoluted and just silly. The idea that the main character is the villain’s son and he has been trained to kill her after being abducted by his master who then wiped his memory of it all, just makes everything start to make no sense at all.

The positives I have for the film is that the violence and the fights are well done and feel very Wick esque, they are quick and brutal and you feel every minute of them. In that vein I wanted to say how both Jessica Rothe and Sharlto Copley stand out here, the former for her strong action skills and how she was able to give a character behind a mask a strong sense of personality and identity and the latter because he always enhances any film he is in.

Overall, though I am a big H. John Benjamin fan even he couldn’t save whatever this was.

2/5

Pros.

The action

Rothe and Copley

Cons.

Tonally it is a mess

The twist

It goes on for too long

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Spy X Family Code White: The Quest For Poo

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

The Forger’s head off on another family trip.

As a big fan of Spy X Family I was a little upset that rather than a second half to season two we were getting this, however, after watching it I can safely say that though I would have liked a few more episodes this was far more worthwhile than I had expected it to be.

I liked seeing the family come together both in terms of the family unit but also in terms of action, as this is the first time we see Loid and Yor fighting together, when they aren’t pretending to be something else or doing it in a comedic fashion, though I suppose they still don’t know about the other.

I also liked seeing that the promised Loid and Yor romance grows ever closer to happening, as a person who at times could be described as mushy it warms my heart to see Yor clearly having feelings for him. It remains to be seen if Loid has them back but it is still very interesting to watch.

The one area where I would say the film goes off the rails somewhat is with the long drawn out sequence of Anya needing to poo. I understand they were trying something there and with the different animation style I am sure a lot went into it, however, personally I felt like it didn’t fit the style of the show well at all and felt very disconnected.

Overall, a worthwhile follow up to the series but not without its off moments.

4/5

Pros.

The Forger family coming together

The romance grows

Anya steals the show

It is funny and sweet

Cons.

The poop stuff goes on for far too long

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Knuckles: Life In The Fast Lane

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

Knuckles, voiced by Idris Elba, is back and this time he is patching up father son relationships, or trying to at least.

I was really, really looking forward to this and possibly I went in expecting a bit too much. I thought this was going to be the next chapter in the Sonic universe, I was expecting much more in the way of cameos and maybe even some more games characters being introduced that were more Knuckles centric. Alas we didn’t get that, and maybe I expected too much, this was an incredibly self-contained show and without the opening credits, the villains being vaguely tied to Robotnik, and a brief first episode cameo, you could watch this and not even realise it was related to the wider Sonic universe.

Another odd choice was that the main character of this series isn’t Knuckles, but rather Wade Whipple, Adam Pally. Now there is nothing wrong with Wade he is quite a funny character and you can easily relate to and root for him, but he isn’t the show’s namesake. I expected far more time to learn who Knuckles as a character was, learn more of his back story, maybe through flashbacks to before the Owls attacked, but again no. We don’t learn much more about Knuckles from this show other than he likes grapes. That said I did like Wade’s quest to become a warrior and to defeat his dad, Cary Elwes, who was comically evil.

I also thought the bond between Wade and Knuckles was quite endearing, they genuinely seemed to care about each other, in a sort of human pet way, or maybe even a father and son way.

The humour of the show was good and it was mostly funny, there were a couple of times were they let a joke drag on for too long or repeated an unfunny joke but for the most part it was funny.

A final word I would like to say that no doubt will get me hate, but hey I am not going to stop, is that I liked that this show gave an upfront portrayal of the Jewish Shabat dinner and had a lot of good Jewish representation without reducing the characters to stereotypes or having it be all they are. I think in these politically divided times, I am writing this in May 2024, where antisemitism is on the rise and more and more people seemingly hate Jews, for something that is not their fault, they are not responsible for state policy, it is nice to see positive representation, it shouldn’t be needed to combat all the hate as the hate shouldn’t exist but that is the world we live in.

Overall, a nice, fun self-contained series but one that left me a little disappointed

3.5/5

It is funny

Wade and Knuckles

It provides much needed representation

It sets up new adventures

Cons.

It is not as big in scope as I would have liked it to be

It repeats a few unfunny jokes

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Swede Caroline: Growing Wild and Free

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A mockumentary film about the world of competitive vegetable growing.

This may be one of the best surprises of the year so far, it seemingly came out of nowhere and had little to no fanfare but it was easily the funniest film of the year by a wide margin. Whilst I often say of comedy films that they had some good laughs but it was not a laugh a minute, I would argue this was. For the most part I was laughing consistently throughout.

I thought the characters were all very likeable and distinctive and that is a hard feat considering that for some of them we only meet them for about 5 minutes or so, yet still they manage to leave an impression. I think why the characters worked so well is because they are believable, as in perhaps it is a British thing, but I for one could see parallels between the characters in this film and to people I know in the real world.

I think the only area where it lost me somewhat was when it tried to hit into darker subject matter. I understand the parody was of true crime docuseries so it needed to have those darker themes but I thought that it would have been better served by maintaining a consistent tone throughout.

Overall, a hidden comedy gem.

4/5

Pros. It is funny

It is relatable

It is original

It uses its runtime and cast well, there isn’t any waste

Cons.

The darker moments and the inconsistent tone

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Mindy Kaling: The Modern Embodiment Of Hating Your Audience And Then Wanting Them To Watch Your Show

Written by Luke Barnes

This piece will talk about Velma and how the show optimises three key concepts, firstly the idea of the out of touch celebrity, secondly the disrespect of fans, and thirdly the idea of being edgy for the sake of it and then using your gender or race as a shield to hide behind when facing criticism.

Let me lay my cards down on the table for you, I watched the first season of this show I didn’t bother with season two as I knew what to expect and thought I would spare myself for once. I don’t like Mindy Kaling as she is problematic, with the alleged stories of her forcibly kissing someone and writing it off as a joke, as well as her repeated fetishisation of white guys in her various shows. She has also been accused of presenting Indian women as losers who despite being treated badly by white male characters keep going back to them. In many respects she is a bad person. Yet she thinks as a lot of Hollywood celebrities do that they are above you and I, she thinks that through her stupid adult Scooby Doo show watched by a grand total of 5 people that she can tell you how to live your life and that by her messages in the show she is doing something to make the world a better place. How out of touch and into yourself can you be? Moreover, another issue with Kaling and this show is that her Velma character is a self-insert, meaning when a writer doesn’t try and come up with a character of concept but rather puts themselves into the show or film instead. Kaling turns herself into Velma and then plays the character entirely alien to how we have ever seen her before in the franchise. In that frame Kaling’s Velma is a racist, sexist, bully who treats everyone around her like dirt and then uses manipulative tactics in order to force them not to leave her, she is a reciprocal for vitriol.

As with many modern shows they can’t be made without insulting the fans of the IP you are trying to win in order to watch it. Of course anyone that doesn’t like her bastardisation of a beloved franchise rather than be told oh well we’re sorry you don’t like it you can watch the older series or another series if there is another Scooby Doo series airing at the same time, I don’t know if there is, she attacks fans and calls them sexists or racists or bigots, as that is a great way to try and win people over. Anyway the first season was widely hated by the fans and it has only got a second season likely because of a contract agreement for it, it seems that with the fact there has been no publicity at all with this second season it has been sent out to die and rightfully so. Hopefully we get a cancellation notice before too long.

I think at the centre of this whole mess is Kaling, she thought she was important enough to take over a beloved franchise and try and self-insert and to change it fundamentally into something else. That speaks to a level of delusion as surely someone must have told her hey the fans aren’t going to like this, there will be a backlash. I think the issue I have with this is that rather than be like yes we are trying to do something different, yes not everyone will like it but maybe someone will and pressing on, she has to be adversarial from the start and then play the race and gender card to mask her from any criticism. It is perfectly okay for her Velma to be racist, sexist and to treat the rest of the gang like dirt but if you call her out for her own characterisation or writing then you are racist. There is nothing racist about calling someone out for doing a bad job and being a hypocrite. Obviously some people will be racist and take it too far and I condemn them, there is no need to behave like that all it does is give Kaling more ammunition to play the victim and scream bigotry.

God I hope this is the last time I had to talk about this show

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Seize Them: An Aimless Trek Through The Welsh Countryside

Written by Luke Barnes

Summary

A queen, played by Aimee Lou Wood, loses her thrown and must go on a journey to get it back.

So with the cast this film had I was optimistic, I thought that it had every chance to be a new British comedy gem, but it just didn’t go far enough. My main criticism of this film is that it is too tame and really quite underdeveloped.

Whilst I thought Wood and co.’s adventures were enjoyable to watch they weren’t very funny, the humour widely didn’t work as it was too tame and felt like something out of a family film. Any chance the film had to be bawdy or edgy it never uses as it prefers instead to be incredibly safe. Moreover, the characters never felt three dimensional, they try and give them some personality and some backstory but even then you never understand them in more than just a puddle deep sort of way. The ending of the film is also incredibly predictable.

The main praise I will give this film is that it put Aimee Lou Wood, really in my opinion the star of Sex Education, up front and in many respects Wood is easily one of the best British actors working right now but too often she is overlooked or cast in a supporting role so it was nice to see her starring here. However, they don’t really give her much to do except be bratty for most of the film, that is except for the scene where her toes get blown off wherein she gets to do some acting.

Overall, Wood shines but this film is far too safe to be either funny or good.

2/5

Pros.

Wood

The toe scene

Cons.

It isn’t funny

The ending is so cliché and trite

It is too safe

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