3.5 Razors

The Flash – Don’t Run

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Flash – Don’t Run
  • wiki: link

The Flash - Don't Run TV review

Christmas comes to Central City, but no one is in a celebratory mood as Barry (Grant Gustin) is abducted by the Thinker and Caitlin (Danielle Panabaker) is kidnapped by Amunet Black (Katee Sackhoff). With limited resources at their disposal, Iris (Candice Patton) is forced to choose which one becomes the priority for the team to recover. While the episode is apparently the last we will see of Clifford DeVoe (Neil Sandilands), it’s far from the last we’ll see of the Thinker whose need for new metahumans, one in particular, is finally explained.

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The Post

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: The Post
  • IMDb: link

The Post movie reviewThe Post is unquestionably lesser Spielberg and is more comparable to 1994’s The Paper than Spotlight or All the President’s Men in examining a newspaper room chasing down a story. While there’s nothing wrong with that (lesser Spielberg is still Spielberg), and cast and crew still deliver an entertaining and informative film, it never reaches the the heights to which it aspires.

Based on real events, the film focuses on The Washington Post and their decision to follow the lead of The New York Times and publish the results of a leaked government study that would come to be known as the Pentagon Papers and predicted the U.S. failure in Vietnam years before troops were recalled.

Director Steven Spielberg assembles an impressive all-star cast headlined by a terrific performance by Meryl Streep as the paper’s owner Katherine Graham who is faced with tough choices between balancing corporate concerns and her editor Ben Bradlee‘s (Tom Hanks) desire to print despite the U.S. Government’s legal efforts to stop the leaked documents from making it to the front page.

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John Wick #1

/ / Comics

John Wick #1 comic reviewSet prior to John Wick‘s retirement in the first film, the new series from Dynamite Entertainment focuses on the professional killer’s earlier career. Ghosts from the past lead John Wick to El Paso, Texas where an encounter leads to a confrontation with a gangster he knew from childhood. Whether or not Wick was specifically hunting the killers, or merely coincidence, is a bit unclear (although the former seems more likely). Stepping in on a hit allows John to reintroduce himself to and old “friend” and likely get him into considerable trouble int he issues to follow.

The trouble with John Wick: Chapter 2 was that the motivations in the sequel will far more convoluted than the simple revenge fantasy in the original film. Tying events in this issue to Wick’s childhood makes an attempt to streamline the plot of the comic and lead John Wick on another personal crusade.

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Blade of the Immortal

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Blade of the Immortal
  • IMDb: link

Blade of the Immortal movie reviewBased on the Japanese manga of the same name, Blade of the Immortal is bloody affair from director Takashi Miike. The story centers around the cursed samurai Manji (Takuya Kimura) who cannot die. Approached by a young girl (Hana Sugisaki) who reminds the samurai of his lost sister, our hero reluctantly agrees to help her get vengeance on the swordsmen who killed her father and their leader Anotsu Kagehisa (Sôta Fukushi).

In terms of action and body count, the movie doesn’t disappoint. However, adapting two books from the series into a single film proves to be a bit awkward at times. There’s a completely unnecessary subplot of a group of mercenaries killing off the same samurai as our hero which only bloats the film’s already considerable running time. Also troubling is the script’s inability to decide how great a swordsman our protagonist truly is. In the opening and closing scenes our hero is unstoppable, taking down an insane number of enemies. However, in pretty much every scene in-between, in one-on-one combat with Anotsu’s lieutenants, his skill is highly questionable. The result is an interesting, if uneven, action film.

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Last Flag Flying

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Last Flag Flying
  • IMDb: link

Last Flag Flying movie reviewLast Flag Flying is a by-the-numbers road trip movie featuring three talented actors (Steve Carell, Bryan Cranston, and Laurence Fishburne) and an experienced director (Richard Linklater), all of whom have done more memorable work. The film centers around Carell’s character seeking out two Vietnam War buddies when he learns his son’s body is being shipped back from Afghanistan. Having not seen each other in decades, and tied together by an irresponsible act that left another member of their unit dead, the odd couple of Fishburne and Cranston begin the long journey to help their old friend bury his son.

There’s nothing really wrong with the film, other than being Linklater’s least-ambitious project in recent memory. This is the man who spent more than a decade putting Boyhood together and crafted the most accurate version of a Philip K. Dick story we’ve ever seen on film. The solid, if predictable, script offers plenty of moments for each of the three actors to shine. It has its heart in the right place and should play well to both military and civilian families alike, although I didn’t find the film’s emotional moments as affecting as the film’s premise suggests.

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