4 Razors

Voltron – Launch Date

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Voltron: Legendary Defender – Launch Date
  • wiki: link

Voltron - Launch Date television review

The first episode of Voltron: Legendary Defender‘s Eighth Season gives us the final day of the Paladins on Earth. With winks to the earlier Voltron cartoon, shown here as a cartoon within the cartoon which Pidge (Bex Taylor-Klaus) learns to use to her advantage, the bulk of the episode leads up the first date between Lance (Jeremy Shada) and Allura (Kimberly Brooks) on their final night on Earth. There’s plenty of humor leading up the big night, and a sweet moment between the pair prior to the Paladins leaving Earth to return to the war with the Galra and Honerva, who it seems has turned the Altaen survivors against Allura and Voltron.

…

Voltron – Launch DateRead More »

Voltron – Launch Date Read More »

SHAZAM! #1

/ / Comics

SHAZAM! #1 comic reviewThe world’s mightiest mortal returns to the comic page in SHAZAM! #1 Despite the character getting his own movie release in the near future, DC Comics has had trouble knowing what to call the character since loosing the rights to the name Captain Marvel. Realizing this, writer Geoff Johns has a little fun here (first by almost having Billy use the name and again having our hero ponder the trouble with calling himself Shazam as he would never be able to introduce himself without loosing his powers).

Although we don’t see Tawky Tawny, Johns does give us a full Marvel Family who is called on to take down some low-rent crooks. The comic even foreshadows the possibility that my favorite of the Marvel Family characters may appear at some point.

…

SHAZAM! #1Read More »

SHAZAM! #1 Read More »

They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead
  • IMDb: link

They'll Love Me When I'm Dead movie reviewFor more than a decade before his death, Orson Welles worked on a film that was never finished. The new documentary by Morgan Neville, featuring plenty of clips from The Other Side of the Wind and interviews with cast and crew, takes audiences back into Welles’ struggle with the experimental film about an aging director and his tumultuous relationship with Hollywood. Although Welles repeatedly denied any autobiographical nature to the film, as the documentary points out, it’s hard to not see the parallels to his own life.

With The Other Side of the Wind finally finished and released almost five decades after Welles began the project, They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead is timely both in explaining the project’s history and enticing viewers to seek out the movie itself. The documentary doesn’t shy away from the rougher edges of Welles’ nature whose bullying hardheadedness led to strained relationships. Like many documentaries in the same vein, the main takeaway from They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead is how hard it is to get a film made. Whether a fan of Welles or just movies in general, the documentary is definitely worth your time.

…

They’ll Love Me When I’m DeadRead More »

They’ll Love Me When I’m Dead Read More »

Widows

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Widows
  • IMDb: link

Widows movie reviewRe-imaging a twelve-hour mini-series into a two-hour film, Steve McQueen delivers an action-drama featuring Viola Davis, Michelle Rodriguez, and Elizabeth Debicki as the widows of an armed robbery team who are forced by the gangster (Brian Tyree Henry) turned political figure their husbands robbed to pay back what they owe.

There’s an awful lot of plot and superfluous characters here, most likely because they appeared in the mini-series. A tighter focus on Viola Davis’ character and the robbery itself could have helped shore up the script a bit more, which gets lost in the weeds a bit when dealing with the political aspirations of a criminal and the criminality of the son (Colin Farrell) running for his father’s (Robert Duvall) office, as it seems to need at least one additional rewrite. The also the trouble with Debicki’s arc, while her new-found self-confidence makes sense as part of the robbery I’m not sure how it makes her twice as intelligent by the movie’s end (seriously, I was starting to expect a Keyser Söze twist). And the film isn’t without twists, although none are particularly necessary to the overall plot or natural conclusion of the story. (And one actually wraps up things a bit too neatly.)

…

WidowsRead More »

Widows Read More »

Supergirl – Elseworlds (Part 3)

/ / Television Reviews
  • Title: Supergirl – Elseworlds (Part 3)
  • wiki: link

Supergirl - Elseworlds (Part 3) television review

Although apparently it will be the last we see of him for awhile, Superman (Tyler Hoechlin) gets quite a bit of screentime in the the “Elseworlds” finale as Hoechlin does double duty as both the Man of Steel and the new form of John Deegan (Jeremy Davies). As with the previous two episodes, Part 3 gives us more nods and winks at both Crisis of Infinite Earths (which apparently will be next year’s big crossover) and other famous moments of our heroes climaxing in the Flash (Grant Gustin) and Supergirl (Melissa Benoist) circling the globe (Superman: The Movie) so quickly they begin to burn themselves out of existence (Crisis of Infinite Earths). The visuals work quite well, even if the logic of the entire segment seems pretty shaky on multiple levels.

…

Supergirl – Elseworlds (Part 3)Read More »

Supergirl – Elseworlds (Part 3) Read More »