2.5 Razors

Shadowhunters – The Guilty Blood

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Shadowhunters – The Guilty Blood
  • wiki: link

Shadowhunters - The Guilty Blood TV review

Given the fallout from last year’s cliffhanger, Shadowhunters spends most of its season premiere resetting the world now that Jace (Dominic Sherwood) is in the clutches of Valentine (Alan Van Sprang) and the new head of the Institute (Nick Sagar) has branded the missing Shadowhunter a traitor – although his true allegiance is still very much in doubt. His mother attempting to kill him in the final scene, however, isn’t likely to entice him to return to the Clave any time soon. Although the truth about his birth from his father gives Jace just as many reasons to run screaming from his father.

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The Most Overrated Movie of 2016

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Jackie
  • IMDb: link

Jackie movie reviewThe goal of a biopic is to offer insight into its subject, to explore the life of an individual and share something new or interesting about its central character. By that definition Jackie is a complete failure. The only takeaway from director Pablo Larraín‘s film is that Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis was upset by the assassination of her husband. That’s hardly worth the price of admission (let alone the film’s $9,000,000 budget). Natalie Portman may shine in the role, but to what purpose?

Oscar-bait, the film is notable only for its recreation of the time period and for Portman’s peformance. The problem with the former is the glamour is wasted as window dressing on a film without a reason to exist (other than grab Portman some statuettes). The problem with the later is Portman’s performance is undercut by both a questionable accent and Noah Oppenheim‘s script which is never sure who Jackie was, as it jumps from portraying a vapid creature out of touch with reality (as seen in the flashbacks) to a woman of cunning and guile completely controlling an interview with a journalist (Billy Crudup) looking to find the real Mrs. Kennedy.

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Café Society

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Café Society
  • IMDb: link

Café SocietyDefinitely fitting into the category of lesser Woody Allen films, Café Society follows the rather uninteresting romance between a Brooklyn transplant to Los Angeles (Jesse Eisenberg) and a young woman (Kristen Stewart) who is also dating his older, and married, uncle (Steve Carell). The main problem with the film is we don’t care about any of the three characters or who ends up with who. There’s also an underdeveloped subplot involving the kid’s gangster brother (Corey Stoll) which, like the rest of the film, never goes anywhere all that interesting.

While capable, and beautifully shot, neither Stewart nor Blake Lively (in a much smaller role) have the wit or spirit of Woody Allen’s more memorable female characters. No one will confuse either with Annie Hall. And neither Eisenberg nor Carell seem particularly suited to Allen’s storytelling, although the blasé script gives them very little to work with.

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Trolls

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Trolls
  • IMDb: link

TrollsThe animated musical adventures center on the perpetually happy Trolls who are hunted by the miserable Bergens who believe the only happiness they can achieve is from eating the colorful creatures infatuated with hugs, dancing, singing, scrapbooking, cupcakes, and rainbows. When her loud party gets several of her friends captured, it falls on Princess Poppy (Anna Kendrick) and the morose Branch (Justin Timberlake) to bring them home.

Trolls borrows several key elements of its plot from The Smurfs (such as an evil giant obsessed with eating the delicious creatures). Big and bright without being all that memorable, Trolls is more kiddie movie than true family fare.

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Star Wars Rebels – Iron Squadron

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Star Wars Rebels – Iron Squadron
  • wiki: link

Star Wars Rebels - Iron Squadron

A forgettable episode in pretty much every respect, “Iron Squadron” introduces the crew of the Ghost to a trio of young Rebels defending their homeworld of Mykapo from the Empire. While the young members of Iron Squadron have been able to fight back a little Imperial presence, the Empire turning their attention to the sector has brought the Ghost in to evacuate the locals and attempt to talk some reason into Iron Squadron before they pick a fight they won’t survive. Although Grand Admiral Thrawn (Lars Mikkelsen) makes a token apperance here, the episode is largely disconnected from the bigger themes of the season. And with the focus of the episode being on (the far less interesting) Iron Squadron, the result is the weakest episode of the show’s Third Season.

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