2.5 Razors

Lost in Space – Impact

  • Title: Lost in Space – Impact
  • IMDb: link

Lost in Space - Impact television review

The cheesy 60s sci-fi drama gets a gritty reboot on Netflix beginning with “Impact” which introduces us to the new version of the Robinson clan who crash land on an un-mapped planet in the show’s opening episode. Using flashbacks (which, even only one episode in, I’m tempted already to start fast-forwarding through), the episode fills in a bit about the Robinsons and the cataclysmic event on Earth that sent families like them to the stars in hopes of finding a new home. We discover that Maureen (Molly Parker) and John (Toby Stephens) are far from the happiest of couples and their children are clever beyond their years but also have a habit for getting themselves in trouble.

Lost in Space – Impact Read More »

Rampage

  • Title: Rampage
  • IMDb: link

Rampage movie reviewRampage is big dumb fun, but it’s a little light on the fun. Based on a simplistic 32 year-old arcade game and its various sequels concerning giant monsters toppling buildings, the film centers on Dwayne “It’s Okay to Call Me The Rock Again” Johnson and his ape friend George who is one of a small group of creatures enlarged and driven violent by gas from a secret orbital laboratory run by a pair of douchey CEOs (Malin Akerman and Jake Lacy, neither of whom appear competent enough to run a taco stand let alone a multi-billion dollar company). There’s also a scientist (Naomie Harris) and a government agent (Jeffrey Dean Morgan) who figure into the long and drawn-out set-up before the film finally offers us monsters destroying a city.

Director Brad Peyton‘s largest asset is The Rock who makes the film watchable, if not always enjoyable. The best scenes are between The Rock and his ape pal George (even if the humor is pretty lowbrow). As for the rest of the film, it’s comparable enough to any throwaway monster flick from the 1950s with plenty of plotholes and monsters that are somewhat interesting but aren’t necessarily all that scary.

Rampage Read More »

Truth or Dare

  • Title: Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare
  • IMDb: link

Truth or Dare movie reviewDirector Jeff Wadlow‘s Blumhouse’s Truth or Dare is pretty standard stuff as a group of college kids get in over their heads in a bizarre situation that threatens all of their lives. While on their final spring break of college in Mexico, a stranger (Landon Liboiron) invites Olivia (Lucy Hale), Markie (Violett Beane), Lucas (Tyler Posey), Penelope (Sophia Ali), Tyson (Nolan Gerard Funk), Brad (Hayden Szeto), and Ronnie (Sam Lerner) to a cursed mission where he entices them into a game of truth or dare that gets deadly serious.

Even after returning to college days later, the students find themselves still stuck in a game that forces them to tell secret truths to and about each other or perform increasingly dangerous dares. Failure or refusal of a turn isn’t an option as death claims the player.

Truth or Dare Read More »

Shadowhunters – What Lies Beneath

  • Title: Shadowhunters – Beside Still Water
  • wiki: link

Shadowhunters - What Lies Beneath television review

The season’s new villain Lilith (Anna Hopkins) isn’t given much screentime in “What Lies Beneath,” but the search for her disciple the Owl (who one Shadowhunter mistakenly believes is Jonathan) takes up much of the episode. While Clary (Katherine McNamara), Isabelle (Emeraude Toubia), and an obsessed Jace (Dominic Sherwood) search for the Owl who has been killing mundanes in large numbers, Raphael (David Castro) mourns a loss, Alec (Matthew Daddario) throws a dinner party for his mother, and Simon‘s (Alberto Rosende) new powers continue to grow causing new problems with the Pack and other vampires.

Shadowhunters – What Lies Beneath Read More »

Krypton – Pilot

  • Title: Krypton – Pilot
  • wiki: link

Krypton - Pilot television review

Created by David Goyer, the SyFy’s new Superman-inspired TV-series cobbles together a version of Krypton from various sources (unfortunately Goyer’s Man of Steel being one of them), to offer a look at the civilization that gave birth to the Man of Steel. Set during the lifetime of Superman’s grandfather, the “Pilot” introduces us to Seg (Cameron Cuffe) whose family is disgraced in the show’s opening scene, ending the House of El. Heroics 14 years later allow for the possibility of Seg regaining honor with another house, although a time-traveler named Adam Strange (Shaun Sipos) has other plans for the rebellious street rat who must fulfill his destiny to continue the El line.

Krypton – Pilot Read More »