Alan Rapp

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

  • Title: John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum
  • IMDb: link

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum movie reviewJohn Wick was simple revenge story stylized with a flourish of memorable action scenes (and an absurd amount of killshots to the head). John Wick: Chapter 2 brought back Keanu Reeves as the notorious hitman featuring a more convoluted story that was designed to help expand John Wick’s world. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum returns, at least initially, to the clear focus of the original by offering a set-up of Wick declared excommunicado and on the run from the very organization he has worked for, with an ever-increasing price on his head, numerous assassins looking to cash in, and all the usual help and support once available now denied.

For the first-half of the film, Chapter 3 works quite well as our protagonist runs for his life and calls on the few remaining debts owed to him. However, about halfway through the film the story shifts and, despite several impressive action scenes, never works quite as well as the writers once again over-complicate what should be a relatively straight action tale while instead focusing on more world building and setting up the next inevitable sequel. Parabellum doesn’t so much as come to a close as run out of time with the story left unfinished (and me left unfulfilled).

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Hawaii Five-0 – Hewa ka lima / Hana Mao ‘ole ka ua o Waianae

  • Title: Hawaii Five-0 – Hewa ka lima / Hana Mao ‘ole ka ua o Waianae
  • wiki: link
  • wiki: link

Hawaii Five-0 - Hewa ka lima / Hana Mao 'ole ka ua o Waianae television review

Aaron Wright (Joey Lawrence) resurfaces in the final two episodes of Hawaii Five-0‘s Ninth Season as a cyber-terrorist working for the NSA. When his field office is hit and the other hackers are killed, Wright goes to Five-0 for help. The evidence points Five-0 to a medical manufacturing company who one of the hackers was blackmailing after he discovered the company’s latest, and most profitable, invention killed three people in testing. While all the facts are true, it takes Jerry (Jorge Garcia) too long to discover that Wright has played the team, and the NSA, for fools as he orchestrated the entire attack in order to obtain his freedom and a profitable hard drive full of the best cyber-terrorist software ever invented which he plans to sell to the highest bidder prior to sneaking off the island.

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The Big Bang Theory – The Stockholm Syndrome

  • Title: The Big Bang Theory – The Stockholm Syndrome
  • wiki: link

The Big Bang Theory - The Stockholm Syndrome television review

After 12 seasons The Big Bang Theory comes to a close with an episode that falls back on the reliable premise of how inconsiderate and selfish Dr. Sheldon Cooper (Jim Parsons) can be. The show never lost money revisiting that plot thread. The series concludes with the cast out of the country to be in attendance when Sheldon and Amy (Mayim Bialik) accept their Nobel Prize. While on the plane trip over the secret of Penny‘s (Kaley Cuoco) pregnancy is revealed, Sheldon’s reaction causes an immediate (but quickly reconciled) dust-up, and the show offers some individual moments for various characters as Howard (Simon Helberg) and Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) freak-out over leaving their children for the first time and Raj (Kunal Nayyar) meets a new woman (who may have once slain vampires, but has no romantic interest in him).

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Coming Soon – Batman Vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

  • Title: Batman Vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles –
  • IMDb: link

Based on the comic cross-over, the new animated movie Batman Vs. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles features the Bat-Family teaming up with the Turtles to battle Shredder and the League of Assassins. Now available for digital download (but for some reason not on DC’s own digital platform), the straight-to-video movie will be available on Blu-ray, DVD, and 4K on June 4th.

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1982 – Conan the Barbarian

  • Title: Conan the Barbarian
  • IMDb: link

Conan the Barbarian reviewToday’s Throwback Thursday takes us back to harsh lands of Cimmeria, the days of high adventure, and a barbarian known as Conan. On or around this date 37 years ago Arnold Schwarzenegger hit the big screen in the first of several iconic roles which would transform the former body builder into a movie star. Based on the character and stories created by Robert E. Howard, Conan the Barbarian offers an origin story for a barbarian thief raised in slavery and his quest to avenge the death of his parents by the wizard Thulsa Doom (James Earl Jones).

More one-dimensional than his comic counterpart, this Conan lacks the wit found on the printed page as he stumbles through the various obstacles put in front of him. From his journey of slave, to gladiator, to wandering barbarian, Conan picks up companions in the beautiful Valeria (Sandahl Bergman), the wizard Akiro (Mako), and the archer Subotai (Gerry Lopez). The film is hardly the stuff of great cinema, and some of its elements and effects have aged better than others, but more than three decades later it still retains its charm (including Jones’ reptilian villain turn, some enjoyable action sequences, and the memorable score by Basil Poledouris).

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