3 Razors

The Old Guard

  • Title: The Old Guard
  • IMDb: link

The Old Guard movie reviewIn the first three minutes The Old Guard introduces not one but two action movie cliches. They will not be the last. We’re introduced to the movie through the voice of a grizzled veteran (Charlize Theron) who in the movie’s first scene is offered a mission she knows better than to accept. The leader of the elite covert squad made up of Marwan Kenzari, Matthias Schoenaerts, and Luca Marinelli takes the foursome to the South Sudan where they are promptly betrayed, ambushed, and riddled with bullets allowing the film to reveal its big twist.

The four characters are immortals who have walked the Earth for hundreds of years. Borrowing more than a little from the original Highlander, it doesn’t attempt to explain the immortals’ existence while offering a circumstance where they can die (along with flashbacks to lives throughout history). On the run from an evil pharmaceutical executive (Harry Melling), did I mention the script really loves cliches, who wants to use them as lab rats, the four attempt to keep their existence secret and deal with the birth of a new immortal (KiKi Layne) not ready to leave her old life behind.

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Warrior Nun – Psalm 46:5

  • Title: Warrior Nun – Psalm 46:5
  • wiki: link

Warrior Nun - Psalm 46:5 television review

Adapted from the comic book Warrior Nun Areala, the opening episode of Warrior Nun introduces us to a world where a legion of heavily armed nuns fight battles against an unknown foe. The field leader of the group (Melina Matthews) is injured in an attack and unable to be saved by the medical nuns (guess they have every type of nun in this series) with the yet-to-be-named enemy at the door. The opening episode of Warrior Nun could use a bit more world building as we’re left largely as clueless as to how the nuns operate (are they known? work in the shadows? vigilantes? some kind of official law enforcement?) although Father Vincent‘s (Tristán Ulloa) musings to a bartender near the end of the episode seem to point to most people being unaware of their existence and at least explain what the group is fighting against: demons on Earth.

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Altered Carbon – Phantom Lady

  • Title: Altered Carbon – Phantom Lady
  • wiki: link

Altered Carbon - Phantom Lady television review

One of the most intriguing aspects of both the show’s premise and the open-ended Season One finale, is that Altered Carbon can be reset with a new actor and new story whenever necessary (not unlike Doctor Who). 30 years after the events of last season’s finale, “Phantom Lady” opens with Takeshi Kovacs living in the body of a lounge singer waiting for payment. The arrival of a bounty hunter (Simone Missick) working for Horace Axley (Michael Shanks) forces Kovacs back to Harlan’s World in the body of a new sleeve (Anthony Mackie) with a new mystery to solve and a new lead to the whereabouts of Quellcrist Falconer (Renée Elise Goldsberry). The circumstances of Kovacs being reborn in Mackie’s body make sense (even if it leaves questions unanswered about the sleeve he ended Season One in), and the set-up will offer a new mystery to solve, although I’m mixed on the choice to make the new mystery as personal (involving the love of his life) at the outset as last season (which involved his sister).

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SHAZAM!: Lightning Strikes #1

SHAZAM!: Lightning Strikes #1 comic reviewDespite the digital cover by Doc Shaner paying homage to the classic Captain Marvel style with a modern twist, SHAZAM!: Lightning Strikes #1 is very much a modern take on the hero with Billy Batson bringing forth his alter-ego in order to put a school bully in his place.

The consequences of the hero’s arrival at the Egyptian exhibit involve the magic lightning accidentally activating an Egyptian artifact and releasing a warrior trapped within the ankh for thousands of years (none too happy to see the temple’s treasures having been removed from the Dendera Temple complex leading to a tussle between Kaemqed and Earth’s Mightiest Mortal).

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Super Dinosaur – BFFs

  • Title: Super Dinosaur – BFFs
  • IMDb: link

Super Dinosaur - BFFs television review

“BFFs” gets its name by the introduction of the Earthcore robot Kal (Vincent Tong) out to prove he would make a far better partner and friend to Derek (Valin Shinyei) than Super Dinosaur (Mac Heywood). The other half of the episode deals with the arrival of Ms. Finkle (Lisa Bunting) determined to force Derek into taking the test he’s been putting off for a month. The episode offers a moral for kids about balancing school versus play (even if Derek’s play is really saving lives, making Finkle’s hard-line stance come off short-sighted and a little cruel). This is the first episode to reveal Derek, Erin (Shannon Chan-Kent), and Erika (Shannon Chan-Kent) all have the same teacher (whose authority over her students trumps even General Casey). When a situation arises, SD and Kal are forced into the field without Derek but Kal’s attempts to prove his superiority on exacerbate the problem the two were sent to solve and force Derek into some chicanery to save his friend from the the unstable robot transformed into Erupticus by the lava flow he was unable to stop.

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