Checkmate #4

/ / Comics

The chess game between Checkmate and Leviathan continues in issue #4 as Green Arrow and Manhunter are able to fight off Leviathan agents Guardian and Merlyn who infiltrate the abandoned JLA Watchtower for unknown nefarious purposes. Not only are the heroes successful in driving out the invaders, but they are able to obtain a sample of Guardian’s blood which offers a clue to Mister Bones recognizing a rejected DEO program of splicing alien DNA into agents which may help explain how Mark Shaw has created his own little army.

Although he appears in the cover, we don’t get much from Superman here other than acting as a sounding board for his wife and helping Lois Lane make a discovery which seems important (but I’m not sure how it fits into this storyline). The issue ends on a cliffhanger where Leviathan comes after Checkmate suggesting things are finally heating up.

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SummerSlam (2021)

/ / Home Video
  • Title: SummerSlam (2021)
  • wiki: link

One of cornerstone PPV events of WWE, 2021’s SummerSlam had some memorable moments, but not much in terms of memorable matches. Both main events showcased champions battling over-the-hill wrestlers coming out of retirement as Roman Reigns beat down the 44 year-old John Cena (who hasn’t wrestled full-time for five years) for the Universal Championship and Bobby Lashley defeated the 54 year-old Goldberg to retain the WWE Championship.

The biggest moment of the night, and only real surprise, came in the shake-up for the SmackDown Women’s Championship as Becky Lynch made an unexpected return and defeated Bianca Belair in under a minute in what can’t really be referred to as a match. A contender for match of the night, in the Raw Women’s Championship triple-threat match Charlotte Flair (as expected) defeated Nikki A.S.H. and Rhea Ripley to win another title and continue her run as the most decorated women’s champion in WWE history.

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Y: The Last Man – The Day Before

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Y: The Last Man – The Day Before
  • IMDb: link

When you sit down to watch a post-apocalyptic series the one thing you expect to see is a post-apocalyptic world. Other than a short tease at the beginning of the episode and the beginning of the strange events that cause the death of all but a single man on the planet at the end of the episode, nearly all of “The Last Day Before” offers a look at the last normal day before the end of the world. While the idea here is to introduce who the characters were before the world went to shit, the reality is that the episode meant to sell audiences on the concept of the series is nearly completely about events and troubles that are irrelevant by the end.

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Halloween H20: 20 Years Later

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Halloween H20: 20 Years Later
  • IMDb: link

Released 20 years after the original Halloween, Halloween H20: 20 Years Later brought back Jamie Lee Curtis as Laurie Strode while retconning much of the franchise becoming a direct sequel to Halloween II (which, until H20, marked Curtis’ last appearance as the character). After an initial sequence showing Michael Meyers (played here by Chris Durand) back on the hunt, the movie opens with Strode having faked her death years earlier and now living as Keri Tate, the headmistress of a private school that her son John (Josh Hartnett) attends.

Directed by Steve Miner, after John Carpenter proved too expensive for the project, the sequel lacks the look of the early Halloween films feeling much more like any other generic 90s horror flick. We also get LL Cool J in a role of school security guard, Adam Arkin as a love interest for Laurie, Janet Leigh as the school secretary, and Michelle Williams, Adam Hann-Byrd, Jodi Lyn O’Keefe, Branden Williams, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as teen monster fodder for Michael.

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Leverage: Redemption – The Mastermind Job

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Leverage: Redemption – The Mastermind Job
  • wiki: link

The mid-season finale for Leverage: Redemption hits close to home for the team when they discover the existence of a tell-all book that would reveal secrets about the team and their clients to the world. Worst of all, the writer of the book is pretending to be Nate Ford. While I was expecting some nefarious purpose here, possibly an old enemy bringing the team into the light to spring a trap, that’s not what writer Kate Rorick has in mind for us. Instead of finding a con man or villain, the team comes across an accountant (Joey Slotnick) and former friend to Nate.

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