4 Razors

Only Murders in the Building – To Protect and Serve

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Only Murders in the Building – To Protect and Serve
  • IMDb: link

“To Protect and Serve” brings back Da’Vine Joy Randolph as the grumpy Detective Williams. While I’m not wild about the character, her discovery that the police department didn’t look further into the evidence of Tim Kono’s apparent suicide, and the needling from her fiancé (Alysha Deslorieux), pushes her to helping out the podcast she despises by sending them a big clue. Speaking of the podcasters, still wrapping their heads around Tim’s investigation into black market jewelry, Charles (Steve Martin) and Oliver (Martin Short) stumble across unexpected boost to their podcast and a new suspect.

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Stargirl – Summer School: Chapter Eleven

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Stargirl – Summer School: Chapter Eleven
  • wiki: link

Trapped in the Shadowlands, Courtney (Brec Bassinger) runs into nightmarish versions of people and places from her past making up the hellish purgatory where Eclipso was born and where his victims are tortured for his amusement. The setting allows the show to bring back a few departed former cast members as well as have Courtney run into a couple of other souls trapped in the Shadowlands in both her old frenemy Cindy Burman (Meg DeLacy) and the not-so-dead Charles McNider (Alex Collins) who are both haunted by their own demons. Cindy’s visions allow the strongly-hinted at past to be explored a bit more confirming the tragedy of her mother and monstrous nature of her father.

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Dune: Part One

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Dune (2021)
  • IMDb: link

More coherent, but less complete, than David Lynch‘s bizarre 1984 film, director Denis Villeneuve‘s adaptation of the first half of Frank Herbert’s Dune is rich and elaborate storytelling. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still Dune, meaning the story is still complex and bizarre, but, despite only giving us half the story, offers a more satisfying movie experience.

Breaking the film into two halves allows this Dune to spend more time with character, worldbuilding, and setting the stage for a hero’s emergence which won’t fully be explored until the next movie. Gone are the emperor, who is referred to but never seen, the odd space traveling creatures of Lynch’s film, the sound-based weapons which will play such a pivotal role in the second-half of the story, and the narration of the emperor’s daughter which helped explain the story and the large gaps necessary for Lynch to fit the entire tale into a single film.

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Stargirl – Summer School: Chapter Ten

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Stargirl – Summer School: Chapter Ten
  • wiki: link

It’s answers, revelations, and callbacks in the latest episode of Stargirl. While Courtney (Brec Bassinger) struggles to come to terms with the truth of the JSA killing Eclipso‘s former host years ago, and Pat (Luke Wilson) keeping the secret from her, “Summer School: Chapter Ten” provides a callback to earlier in the season with the return of Jennie (Ysa Penarejo) whose powers might just be what they need to put to Black Diamond back together (which they believe can be used to trap Eclipso). While struggling to control the instability of her powers, Jennie has been searching for her lost brother in a thread foreshadowing the introduction of at least two more DC characters in Mr. Bones and Obsidian. I’ll be curious to see just what version of Bones we get, and which secret organization he’s working for on this Earth.

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Halloween (1978)

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Halloween (1978)
  • IMDb: link

The 1978 film directed, scored, and co-written by John Carpenter (along with Debra Hill) introduced the world to Michael Meyers and launched a franchise of, to date, 13 films. Looking back on the original Halloween, it’s surprising the small amount of bodies dropped and blood spilled compared to more recent horror films. Instead, Carpenter counted on thrills, ambiance, tension, and the menace of an unstoppable killing machine, without conscience or remorse, who took his first life on Halloween night when he was only six years-old.

After the opening scene involving a first-person look through the Halloween mask of Michael killing his teenage sister, the film jumps 15 years in the future where Michael has escaped the sanitarium where he has been locked away and returned to the sleepy town of Haddonfield, Illinois to begin a killing spree on Halloween.

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