J.B. Sommerset

That's right, I started " House Of The Dragon " season 2. Let's talk about it, like hard, real hard because it does a whole lot right, especially in todays world where screenwriters and showrunners have completely forgotten how to write a good story and then translate it to the screen. Most modern renditions of my favorite childhood stories are so bad that when I watch them I can smell the sour grape and watermelon vape fumes of the douche-people who wrote them. Because that's the kind of image modern literature and film puts in my head. A douchey one with a whole lot of vape-fumes. What an image, it I could describe it, it would look like this: It's this image of an androgynes guy sitting outside the Star-bucks. He's got whispers of chin hair on his prepubescent jawline, and poorly applied black nail polish on his hands. There's an uncentered man-bun on his head, a snake of ratty coils, unwashed hair that smells of pot smoke. Leaning on his tiny littl...

Blame this one on Disney, they recently added the franchise to their lineup on Disney+, which means one thing to a guy like me: Marathon!  Let me clarify, I don't mean the old classics , and I don't mean the Mark Walberg / Tim Burton version (just threw up in my mouth a little). No I mean the modern remakes. That's right, this is a remake review. Something I almost never do, out of kindness. I usually only do them because I need to spit venom. Not this time, this time I have some praise to give. Most remakes are atrocious, poisoned with " the message " in attempts captivate new audiences, and make that sweet, sweet, cash-money! All the while betraying the original story and plot to bring something "relatable" to a new audience. In the process, the work loses it's context, it's believability, and it's soul. The reality is that a good writer creates a relatable story, no matter the audience because they are writing with themes that all people...

I really don't know how to feel about this review. I don't know how I feel about the show I just watched, hopefully, this can help sort it out. The fact that it's Amazon that did made this show, somehow makes it worse. Not sure if they are telling us about how they will manage the apocalypse, if they are just providing entertainment at this point, or if we are the entertainment or both... Anyway, here's an honest review of " Fallout ".  That's right, grab your two headed cow, get all your Stem packs together, and finish off that "nuka-cola", then lets ride out into the atomic sunset together- This week I will be reviewing Amazon's " Fallout " series. Buckle up vault-dwellers, strap on yer' pip-boys and enjoy the show. There is something to be said for the story telling and mastery thereof in certain video games, especially those made by old school "Bethesda". Some of the best story telling came from those early years. ...

  Sometimes I go looking for shows with certain actors in them just to see what those gifted sons a bitches are up to. I feel certain actors deserve follow up. This week I got curious about our favorite malcontented sheriff from Duffer-ville: David Harbour of Stranger Things . So, what has good old Jim Hopper been up to recently? David is one of those actors who's in more movies than most people think. He just shows up, does a fairly good job and then fades into the background like " Homer Simpson into that hedge" . David's filmography is fairly long, and he's in a number of my favorite shows and movies. From Stranger Things to the Marvel franchise he does a little for everyone. And who could forget one of my favorite quirky, gorey, and slapstick Christmas Movies- Violent Night ? But what has he been up to recently?  The good news is he's still acting. A quick search revealed a couple of new movies and some Netflix work. So, I decided to indulge. You might h...

While straggling through the wilderness of Netflix shows the other day I came across " The Three Body Problem ". I know of story, mostly of the Chinese novel   by the same name. It's on my reading list, I just haven't gotten to it yet. My list is pretty big, so I prioritize which ones I will read first. This one was high on my list, and that hasn't changed. I suspect there is more in the book than there was in the show. Normally I don't like to watch the show before I read the book, but in this case, I didn't see any good options- There's not much on Netflix I haven't seen, at least from a critical stand point. So when I see something new, I typically like to give it a spin. A lot of my friends recommended the book, so I knew something about it. It went on the old reading list when it was first translated. I decided to watch the show which made it to my plate first.  " The Three Body Problem " is an award winning Science Fiction book by ...

There are very few Adam Sandler movies I actually like. For the most part it's the same movie over and over again. It's okay sometimes. But I have to be in the mood to waste a couple of hours watching one of his movies. I guess you might say I have a love hate relationship with him and his work. Most of it, is very "Meh". There's only one Adam Sandler movie I will watch over and over again- outside of " Eight Crazy Nights ", which my family insists is a "Christmas movie". That movie would be, you probably guessed this one, " Happy Gilmore ". And it's really not even a good movie, it's just super nostalgic. There are some other movies he's in that are good, but they don't have a replay value- case in point " Reign Over Me ", " Punch Drunk Love ", and " Uncut Gems " among others. They're good movies, but they just aren't worth watching multiple times, especially Uncut Gems.  So when ...

Since I have been doing the Godzilla thing recently, I thought I'd take advantage of that free subscription my wife has for Apple TV . There are only a couple of reasons to watch Apple TV in my opinion, but ever since I watched " Godzilla Minus One " (read that review here ), I have been craving some more giant lizards stepping on people, stepping on buildings, stepping on other monsters, etc. So I bit the bullet and decided to watch " Monarch: Legacy of Monsters ". And it was "meh", but the good kind of meh. The kind of meh that you might settle in with on a Saturday night and Netflix and chill with- but NEVER tell any one that you did it, and also, that you kind of, sort of, might have gotten a little enjoyment from it. But only just a little bit, not the full fireworks. Before I get started, let me preface this- This isn't even in the same wheel house as Minus One . Expect some speed bumps in the quality, and maybe a gag reflex. Make sure to wr...

Last week I went back to watch some old shows while I wait for " Godzilla Minus One " to come to streaming- Which I am really looking forward to. In the mean whiles, I decided to take a break from my murder porn (investigation ID true crime shows) as I am pretty sure the F.B.I. has me on some sort of watch-list by now.  So what else is there to watch when you have watched the good stuff and need a fix? Old shows, re-runs of course, those shows that are sitting on the back burner waiting for another shot, waiting for a second time to shine. Lonely shows hiding in the backs of our playlists, looking for some more love in their forgotten little slots where they are missing the lime-light.  I went through my list of favorites, a not too sizable amount. I looked at my usuals- Game of Thrones, House of the Dragon, LOTR, Altered Carbon, Stranger Things, 1899, Vikings, and ad nauseum... I wasn't really feeling any of them. Then, there on the bottom of the play list I saw it. A sh...

I decided to watch " Lou" on Netflix and it was surprisingly good.  When I say I was surprised, I mean it impressed me more than it should have. There are three things about this film that really stood out about it. The first was that it was very well written. The second was that it took a pretty common premise and stripped it down like a dancer named Candi (that "i" on Candi was intentional). And lastly, it has what so many movies these days don't... a soul, and an actual soul.    I was bored and wanted to watch something out of my normal genre at the end of a very long day. Lou didn't really look like anything special by the descriptor. To be honest, it looked like another over-the-top, "super-woman" movie with all female leads. The kind of movie where the good guys are female and the bad guys are male. You know, a film where "the message" is really clear. Thankfully, it wasn't that, it was a surprisingly refreshing movie about da...

( Photo by Pietro Jeng) I usually don't do movie reviews, but I felt this one is appropriate considering that  movies  are a storytelling medium- plus, this movie's made almost 2 billion dollars so far. In other words, it's doing something right. Study up my burgeoning writers, directors, and film majors!  Before I get started, I have to post a short disclaimer here: I am going to avoid major spoilers, however, I might give away some smaller ones. As much as I would like to go in-depth on this one I will abstain and perhaps bring it up in the future.  For convenience I will break this down into five parts; the story, the characters and their development, the use of elements and themes, world-building, and lastly, the visual aesthetics. Hopefully, this will answer the question-  Does it tell a good story and should I go see it ?  Starting off with the story and plot. There's no easy way to say this, the story and plot are the weakest part of the movie. That...