2024 TV Highlights Thus Far, Pt. 1 | Bite-Sized Reviews

(L-R, 1st row, then 2nd row) SHOGUN (FX / Hulu), RIPLEY (Netflix), FALLOUT (Prime Video), MR. AND MRS. SMITH (Prime Video), and Presumed Innocent (Apple TV+).

You don’t really understand it when you’re a kid, but, boy, it really feels like time flies by as you get older. When you’re stressed or overworked or even just have more important things on your mind, it can be difficult to find the time to do what you want to do before it feels like you’re too late. This is, in part, why I started doing these review compilation posts sometimes containing bite-sized reviews about shows or films that I feel like I still need to talk about, even though I missed out on the moment right after the release. If you read my website frequently, then you know that I’ve recently posted two backlog/catch-up compilations for last year’s TV series. With that out of the way, I now want to focus on some of the shows of the past seven or eight months that I really want to give you my thoughts on. Today, I’ll focus on some of the shows that I think are the very best of the year thus far, including, but not limited to, a video game TV-adaptation and an incredibly stylish reimagining of an iconic Patricia Highsmith story.

Continue reading “2024 TV Highlights Thus Far, Pt. 1 | Bite-Sized Reviews”

REVIEW: John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)

Keanu Reeves as John Wick and Donnie Yen as Caine in John Wick 4. — PHOTO: Murray Close/Lionsgate.

Directed by Chad Stahelski — Screenplay by Shay Hatten and Michael Finch.

A lot has happened since Chad Stahelski and David Leitch took a Derek Kolstad script with Keanu Reeves attached and successfully revitalized the action genre with an emotional storyline and kick-ass, high-octane action and stunt work. Since then Stahelski’s sequels have consistently upped the ante and topped their own action sequences from chapter to chapter. New locations were revealed, and the world-building just kept on growing eventually introducing everything from a gun sommelier to an Elder who you can only hope to confront in the desert. The films have gone from its gun-fu action and then added in vehicular action and sword fights. With John Wick: Chapter 4, which is the first film in the series not to be written by Derek Kolstad, Chad Stahelski and Keanu Reeves have once again topped themselves with an incredibly accomplished action epic that is both inventive and almost like a greatest hits for the entire franchise. 

Continue reading “REVIEW: John Wick: Chapter 4 (2023)”

REVIEW: Army of the Dead (2021)

Dave Bautista in Zack Snyder’s ‘ARMY OF THE DEAD.’ — Photo: Clay Enos / Netflix.

Directed by Zack Snyder — Screenplay by Zack Snyder, Shay Hatten, and Joby Harold.

There is always something special about films that return a filmmaker to his beginnings in some way, shape, or form. Such a film may not always end up as a ‘return to form,’ but for a filmmaker to return to his roots is undeniably exciting. Before Zack Snyder became a fanboy favorite as the director of multiple different graphic novel adaptations such as Man of Steel or 300, his very first feature film was the 2004 remake of the 1970s horror classic Dawn of the Dead. The remake, which was written by James Gunn, is still my favorite film that Snyder has directed, so I was naturally very excited when it was announced that he was returning to the zombie horror sub-genre with Netflix’s Army of the Dead. Although it’s certainly not as good as his previous zombie flick, Snyder’s latest film is definitely worth checking out on Netflix.

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REVIEW: Life (2017)

Theatrical Release Poster – Columbia Pictures

The following is a review of Life – Directed by Daniel Espinosa

Life, written by Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick (the writers of Deadpool and Zombieland), is an intense science fiction thriller. The film follows the International Space Station’s crew, which captures a space probe that holds an organism that proofs the existence of extraterrestrial life. The organism is named ‘Calvin,’ after an elementary school named after Calvin Coolidge, but the astronauts soon discover that the organism isn’t as harmless and friendly as they expected. Continue reading “REVIEW: Life (2017)”

REVIEW: The Wolverine (2013)

Release Poster - 20th Century Fox
Release Poster – 20th Century Fox

The following is a spoiler-filled review of The Wolverine – Directed by James Mangold

X-Men Origins: Wolverine was an unnecessary, bloated mess of a film that managed to – not just butcher the Deadpool character – but also harm the legacy of Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine. In 2013, James Mangold managed to restore Jackman’s legacy with an exciting chapter in that character’s story. So, today, in anticipation of the release of James Mangold’s Logan, I want to do a spoiler-filled review of Mangold’s first film about Wolverine. Continue reading “REVIEW: The Wolverine (2013)”