Alan Rapp

The Shannara Chronicles – Chosen

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Shannara Chronicles – Chosen
  • wiki: link

The Shannara Chronicles - Chosen

I still remember when MTV played music videos. So watching a sci-fi series like The Shannara Chronicles seemed more than a little out of place. However, at least for someone that hasn’t read Terry Brooks‘ The Sword of Shannara Trilogy, I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. I had expected something similar to the more modestly produced Legend of the Seeker series, but MTV appears to have spared no reasonable expense on the show’s production values.

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Rocket Raccoon and Groot #1

/ / Comics

Rocket Raccoon and Groot #1Occasionally comic writers can get too cute for their own good. Set eight months after the events of Marvel’s Secret Wars (an event I skipped and have no plans on catching up on anytime soon), the new series launches with the rest of the Guardians believing both Rocket Raccoon and Groot are dead (although they mostly don’t appear that broken up about it).

With our heroes missing in action, Rocket Raccoon and Groot #1 delivers a Rocket and Groot story featuring two low-rent stand-ins in a surly mouse and (far less imposing) walking plant lifeform with a limited vocabulary hired by Groot to deliver himself to his old friend (who apparently has become a dictator on some far off world).

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The End of the Tour

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The End of the Tour
  • IMDb: link

The End of the TourBased on the memoir Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself in which David Lipsky (Jesse Eisenberg) recounts his experiences meeting and interviewing David Foster Wallace (Jason Segel) at the end of the author’s book tour for Infinite Jest, The End of the Tour is character-driven piece centered around the conversations between the two authors twelve years before Wallace’s suicide. Smart, insecure, and low-key (all which could also be used to describe Segel’s character), director James Ponsoldt‘s take on the memoir allows us to see both men at their best and worst (often brought out by their own fears and each other) over a condensed period of time.

Playing on themes of imperfection, ego, self-doubt, envy, and an undeniable need to connect and befriend someone else in your same specialized niche, Ponsoldt and his two stars deliver an engaging movie about nothing more than two writers talking about what they do and how they think.

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Galavant – World’s Best Kiss

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Galavant – World’s Best Kiss
  • wiki: link

Galavant - World's Best Kiss

The second episode of the show’s Second Season gets back in the groove as Galavant (Harry Collett) and Richard‘s (Timothy Omundson) journey continues, Gareth (Vinnie Jones) struggles with both Madalena (Mallory Jansen) and his role in the kingdom – offering Sid (Luke Youngblood) a temporary position (before being thrown into the moat), and Isabella‘s (Karen David) continued attempts to free herself from Prince Harry‘s court. Although the premiere had its moments, “World’s Best Kiss” does a better job of recapturing the magic of he show’s First Season.

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Scorpion – White Out

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Scorpion – White Out
  • wiki: link

Scorpion - White Out

When the lives of of a special forces team in Darfur is put in jeopardy after the military temporarily loses connection with the satellite used to control drone strikes Scorpion heads to Antarctica to perform a quick fix. As is the nature of the show, the simple satellite upload almost immediately becomes far more complicated due to a blizzard which limits connectivity to the satellite and, while the team attempts to rectify the situation, comes close to claiming the lives of two Scorpion‘s team after Happy (Jadyn Wong) is separated from the group and Toby (Eddie Kaye Thomas) risks his own life to find her.

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