Alan Rapp

Richard Jewell

  • Title: Richard Jewell
  • IMDb: link

Richard Jewell movie reviewDirector Clint Eastwood‘s latest film examines Richard Jewell and the rise and fall of the security guard in the media from the hero who discovered a bomb during the 1996 Summer Olympics at Centennial Park to the FBI’s prime suspect in the bombing. An indictment on both media and the tendency of local and federal agencies to decide on a narrative and attempt to fit the facts to it rather than the other way around, the film focuses on how the lack of any evidence didn’t prevent either the FBI or the media at large from determining Jewell was guilty (despite the fact he was never charged with a crime).

Paul Walter Hauser is the stand-out as the naive Jewell who, even while being accused by the FBI, can’t help but try and help due to his hero worship of the police. Sam Rockwell and Kathy Bates are strong as the few supporters believing in Jewell’s innocence while the other side of the investigation features far more one-note characters with Jon Hamm is stuck in a cliched cop role as the man leading the investigation, and other actors as forgettable nameless support, and Olivia Wilde is a slutty reporter whose need to break the story costs Jewell everything.

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The Flash – Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Three

  • Title: The Flash – Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Three
  • wiki: link

The Flash - Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Three television review

Since the creation of The Flash the writers have foreshadowed the character’s death in a Crisis set in the not-too-distant future. “Part Three” sees those events come to pass. Again, pulling from the original source material, we get the Anti-Monitor’s canon and the one hero whose speed can stop it and save the Earth. Knowing that The Flash wasn’t looking to kill off Barry Allen (Grant Gustin) and permanently leave a hole in the show left the writers looking for an out, and they found one that might even work better than Gustin’s Flash giving his life as it plays on well-developed themes of Barry seeing those he loves die and hits just the right nostalgic notes for fans of the original Flash television series. While one Flash does dramatically sacrifice his life to stop the anti-matter wave, it’s actually the Flash of Earth-90 played by John Wesley Shipp reprising his role from the 90s television show (complete with a flashback and use of The Flash‘s opening score).

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Batwoman – Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Two

  • Title: Batwoman – Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Two
  • wiki: link

Batwoman - Crisis on Infinite Earths: Part Two television review

Hey, an episode of Batwoman that is actually good!? The Crisis crossover continues with the heroes searching for a very specific Superman before Lex Luthor (Jon Cryer) can kill them all. Sorry Smallville fans it isn’t that one (although we do get a cameo by Tom Welling on the Kent family farm). The Superman (Brandon Routh) they are looking for turns out to look an awful lot like the Atom (also Routh) living on Earth-96 (based on Kingdom Come and also the various Superman films starring Routh and Christopher Reeve). That Superman is one of seven paragons necessary to fight the Anti-Monitor. That leaves Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) and Batwoman (Ruby Rose) in search of another paragon in Gotham of Earth-99 where the pair run into that world’s Batman (Kevin Conroy). I don’t mind the episode making Conroy a red herring, as it was unlikely Crisis would suit him up and throw him into the big battle scenes to come. Instead he offers a cautionary tale for Kate Kane to take another step forward as a hero (now if she could just find a show worthy of her).

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