3.5 Razors

Blade Runner 2049

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Blade Runner 2049
  • IMDb: link

Blade Runner 2049 movie reviewGood news, bad news. Blade Runner 2049 isn’t as good as the original. It’s also far better than I expected from a sequel no one really ever wanted to see made. While I’d expect the initial reception to be better than the original Blade Runner, the sequel’s plot does have serious plot holes which multiple viewings are likely to further expose.

Set 30 years after the first film (coinciding with the similar gap between the original and the sequel), the world still has plenty of runaway replicants which need to be found and retired. While Deckard (Harrison Ford) has long-since disappeared, the role of our main Blade Runner this time around is played by Ryan Gosling.

Director Denis Villeneuve offers a visually interesting film with several nods to Blade Runner. While the story is more complicated than necessary, and requires characters to ignore specific questions which seem obvious to ask, K’s (Gosling) journey and the mystery he’s tasked to solve does keep things on track (even if Villeneuve gets stuck multiple times dragging out shots and scenes for the visual style long after the plot has been satisfied).

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American Made

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: American Made
  • IMDb: link

American Made movie posterWe’ve seen this all before. And even if we’ve seen it done better at times (see Charlie Wilson’s War, The Wolf of Wall Street, The Big Short, American Hustle, and others), American Made certainly entertains. Director Doug Liman and screenwriter Gary Spinelli come together with star Tom Cruise to offer us another one of those stories too crazy not to be true.

Cruise is in fine form. I’ve remarked before that I have always enjoyed the movie star more when he’s able to unleash a bit of the crazy. And American Made certainly has enough crazy to go around. The film is based somewhat loosely on the real experiences of former TWA pilot Barry Seal (Cruise) who went to work for the CIA in the late 70s and 80s running clandestine reconnaissance missions in South America while also working on his own making money smuggling drugs into the United States from Columbia. After introducing us to his Seal, his wife (Sarah Wright) and the CIA agent (Domhnall Gleeson) who enlists him and funds the dubious enterprise, the insanity begins in earnest. What makes things work is Seal is just smart enough to know when to take advantage of the situation and just dumb enough to not know when he’s over his head.

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The Big Bang Theory – The Complete Tenth Season

/ / Home Video
  • Title: The Big Bang Theory – Season 10
  • wiki: link

The Big Bang Theory - The Complete Tenth Season Blu-ray reviewThe tenth season of The Big Bang Theory marks a major change for the nerds as Sheldon (Jim Parsons) and Amy (Mayim Bialik) begin living together apart from newlyweds Leonard (Johnny Galecki) and Penny (Kaley Cuoco). Over the season the guys will work on a project for the Untied States Air Force (with mixed success), Leonard and Penny will re-do their I Do’s for family and friends, Bernadette (Melissa Rauch) will give birth, and Sheldon and Amy’s relationship will be tested leading into a surprise proposal to close out the season.

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The Librarians #1

/ / Comics

The Librarians #1 comic reviewDynamite Entertainment brings TNT’s adventure series The Librarians to comics beginning with The Librarians #1. For those unfamiliar with the premise, the Librarians are a group of talented archaeological heroes and their Guardian Eve Baird who keep the world safe from magical artifacts and groups who would use them for evil. Appearing to be set sometime during or after the show’s Second Season, which saw a more hands-on involvement by original Librarian Flynn Carson, the first issue of the series involves the group heading to the film festival of an archaeological hack who is murdered on stage by a mysterious wooden weapon by his longtime partner.

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The Good Place – Everything Is Great!

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: The Good Place – Everything Is Great!
  • wiki: link

The Good Place - Everything Is Great! TV review

After the shocking reveal to end last season, “Everything Is Great!” resets The Good Place as Michael (Ted Danson) erases the memories of the four humans and reintroduces them to a heaven that is really anything but. There’s a bit of redundancy in the two-part premiere as the show gives us the perspectives of each of the main characters over the course of the first day in The Good Place. Despite his best efforts to separate the quartet, Michael watches despondently as his reboot doesn’t have the effect he had hoped. But when you fail, try, try again.

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