This isn't for you. it's for me.
Star Trek: Prodigy: Created by Dan Hageman, Kevin Hageman. With Rylee Alazraqui, Dee Bradley Baker, Brett Gray, Angus Imrie. A group of enslaved teenagers steal a derelict Starfleet vessel to escape and explore the galaxy. I have the second season on disk, but I decided to watch the entire series again on Netflix to try to help their stats a little bit. Hope to see the crew again in season 3! Buy On Amazon!
Uncovered: Directed by Jim McBride. With Kate Beckinsale, John Wood, Sinéad Cusack, Paudge Behan. A woman finds a hidden message in a restored painting questioning a knight’s death. When her friend is murdered investigating it, a chess game’s moves in the painting link to killings from the past that she must solve. I sought out the film because of the nudity, which was 10/10, loved every moment of it, but found a movie with a captivating storyline with surprising depth and intensity. Well worth your time if you’d like to see Kate Beckinsale in a European setting doing things as...
Jack Reacher: Directed by Christopher McQuarrie. With Tom Cruise, Rosamund Pike, Richard Jenkins, David Oyelowo. Jack Reacher, a homicide investigator, digs deeper into a case involving a trained military sniper responsible for a mass shooting. It’s crazy to me that it’s been over 14 years since this movie was made and it’s still just as enjoyable as it was the day I first saw it. Mind you, there’s a much better version of Reacher out now, but the concept and writing here are pretty darn good. The experience of getting the movie onto my tv screen wasn’t as enjoyable, something...
Unlikely Angel: Directed by Michael Switzer. With Dolly Parton, Roddy McDowall, Brian Kerwin, Allison Mack. Dolly Parton portrays a country-music performer who meets an untimely demise, but cannot enter heaven until she performs a good deed back on Earth: to reunite a workaholic widower with his children for Christmas. Allison Mack! So young, but still so familiar to me as a fan of Smallville, it was super weird to see her as a kid when I know what her future holds for her both as an actress and as a convicted conwoman and religious nutjob. Whew! That shock aside, this...
Blue Eye Samurai: Created by Michael Green, Amber Noizumi. With Maya Erskine, George Takei, Masi Oka, Brenda Song. Driven by a dream of revenge against those who made her an outcast in Edo-period Japan, a young warrior cuts a bloody path toward her destiny. Fantastic series with all the necessary elements for me to recommend it to you. Do you like Samurai? Do you like tales of racial injustice being ever so slightly set right? Here you go! Buy On Amazon!
31 books reviewed 9 games reviewed 170 movies reviewed 40 television shows reviewed 2024 sucked on many levels, but on my other levels it was fantastic. On the less than great side: the loss of a decade long job, the loss of a family cat, and constant health struggles. On the fantastic side, a new job, new Star Trek travel adventures, and the joys of launching a new business (still no sales, but we’re working on it!). On the whole, I don’t think I liked the year, the negatives far outweighed the positives, but at least I’m still around to...
Kite Man: Hell Yeah!: Created by Justin Halpern, Dean Lorey, Patrick Schumacker. With Matt Oberg, Stephanie Hsu, James Adomian, Jonathan Banks. The adventures of the minor villain Kite Man as he commits crimes to support the purchase of Noonan’s, Gotham’s seediest dive bar. I didn’t know this was being done and I ended up not really caring that I watched the entire first season. It was good enough that if you really really liked the Harley Quinn cartoon then you’ll likely like this, but I wasn’t such a huge fan that this show is necessary for me. I’m going to...
Superman & Lois: Created by Greg Berlanti, Todd Helbing. With Tyler Hoechlin, Elizabeth Tulloch, Alex Garfin, Inde Navarrette. The world’s most famous superhero and comic books’ most famous journalist face the pressures and complexities that come with balancing work, justice, and parenthood in today’s society. This show obviously has to get out of the way of the upcoming Superman movie (which the first trailer looked about as good as this tv show was in the first season) and they did justice to the characters and their storylines and wrapped everything up as neatly as I could hope for. My one...
Memories: Directed by Katsuhiro Ôtomo, Kôji Morimoto, Tensai Okamura. With Tsutomu Isobe, Shôzô Îzuka, Kôichi Yamadera, Shigeru Chiba. Three separate science-fiction stories by three prominent Japanese animators. TikTok hit me with the bomber short from this anthology and it seemed interesting enough to watch and I really did not expect the other two shorts to be as emotionally intense as they were. There’s subtitles, but it’s worth your time if you enjoy watching spaceship horror, mysterious political allegories, or darkly humorous genocide stories. Buy On Amazon!
Love and Monsters: Directed by Michael Matthews. With Dylan O’Brien, Jessica Henwick, Michael Rooker, Dan Ewing. Seven years after he survived the monster apocalypse, lovably hapless Joel leaves his cozy underground bunker behind on a quest to reunite with his high school sweetheart. I bought the 4k version of this film a while ago when it was $5 and just got around to re-watching it. I remember liking it the first time I seent it, and I liked it again this time. I had also forgotten about the tear jerking scene with the robot, who knew that an AI could...
