Better Call Saul (seasons 1-3)

Better Call Saul - can it live up to Breaking Bad?

Better Call Saul

Breaking Bad spinoff starts off slow, but ramps up over the first three seasons

Breaking Bad was one of those once a decade kind of shows. A show so exceptional that it will be remembered for decades as one of the finest TV shows of all time. How do you follow an act like that?

Well, the short answer is you follow tradition and create a spin-off series based around the most popular supporting character of the show. Since the fate of all the main characters in Breaking Bad were pretty much sealed by that show's conclusion, creators had to dig deeper into the minor characters to find a suitable protagonist. The choice was obvious, though: Bob Odenkirk's fast-talking shyster, Jimmy McGill A.K.A. Saul Goodman.

This necessitates a pretty big change to Saul, though. The Saul we knew was something of a comic relief character set against Breaking Bad's unrelenting seriousness. Consequently, a little Saul went a long way. To sustain a long-form dramatic series, Saul had to be more nuanced, and so Odenkirk, the writers, and the directors took it down a few notches - something made readily apparent from the very first episode.

True to Breaking Bad formula, this spin-off show aims to chronicle the rise-and-fall of a regular guy who by small, almost imperceptible degrees, goes from loose morals to master criminal. Of course it still necessarily had to be a prequel - Saul Goodman was pretty far along by the time he first appears in Breaking Bad.

Therein lies the rub: in Breaking Bad, one could root for - or at least hope for - Walter White to come out on top. With Better Call Saul, we already know the ending, so can harbor no such illusions. This makes Better Call Saul much more challenging to watch. Especially as we get to know and love those characters closest to him, knowing that he's inevitably going to hurt them, or take them down with him, no matter how much he doesn't want that to happen. Chief among these is fellow attorney Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn), who becomes the Sundance to his Butch. Kim is smart, sexy, believes in Jimmy, but rarely falls for his crap. She knows what he is, but is still loyal to a fault. We already know she's not in Breaking Bad, so whatever happens to her, it's going to be heartbreaking to watch.

The series spends a good deal of time on the story arcs of some of the other major characters - even more than Breaking Bad did. This includes Kim, Jimmy's brother Chuck, and some of the Breaking Bad characters like Nacho, and Mike Ehrmantraut.

So, is it as good as Breaking Bad? No. But that doesn't mean it's not pretty damn good anyway.

The Good:

• full of surprises, it keeps you on your toes
• quality made in every way - too many good things to list.

The Bad:

• not as good as Breaking Bad
• relentlessly downbeat
• slow to develop plots aren't as immediately engaging as some might expect

Stuff to watch for:

• numerous appearances of people, places, and things from Breaking Bad

The Verdict:
***1/2 out of *****

Deepwater Horizon

Deepwater Horizon

Deepwater Horizon

One of the greatest environmental crimes of the last decade was the Deepwater Horizon oil rig explosion which killed 11 people and spewed 210 million gallons of oil and other contaminants into the Gulf of Mexico. A crime for which only two BP executives were charged with manslaughter, neither of whom were convicted of anything beyond minor environmental pollution offenses. The film Deepwater Horizon dramatizes the events of the fateful day aboard the Deepwater Horizon rig.

In 2010 while the events of the Deepwater Horizon rig were going on film director Peter Berg and actor Mark Wahlberg were both working in schlocky action movies when they teamed up to film an adaptation of Marcus Luttrell, the sole survivor of an ill-fated SEAL team mission in Afghanistan's memoir Lone Survivor. The success of that film has led to a string of based-on-fact action films pairing Berg and Wahlberg. The followup to Lone Survivor was Deepwater Horizon.

Deepwater Horizon's intense focus solely on the events of the day of the disaster is simultaneously the film's greatest strength, and its greatest weakness. It's a strength because never does it get bogged down in the kind of melodrama that so often plagues disaster movies. In fact, the authenticity and brisk pacing make it a contender for a place on the list of all-time greatest disaster movies (though admittedly the competition isn't that fierce). On the other hand, the narrow focus is also a weakness because it omits some of the larger context that gives the actual events so much resonance. The film opens with audio from the Congressional hearings on the disaster, but the film never circles back to tackle that aspect of the story; merely tacking on about a minute of C-SPAN footage during the credits. The film shows BP's culpability, but concentrates primarily on Donald Vidrine (played by John Malkovich) while fellow supervisor Robert Kaluza has few lines. Of the other two key players, Transocean is barely mentioned, and Halliburton isn't mentioned at all. It seems like a missed opportunity to add the fascinating courtroom drama that resulted in the aftermath.

The Good:

• brisk pacing
• Mark Wahlberg, Kurt Russell, and John Malkovich all give convincing performances

The Bad:

• provides little context for events, reducing the complexities to a black-and-white action movie

Stuff to watch for:

• country music star Trace Adkins in a bit part
• director Peter Berg's onscreen cameo

The Verdict:
***1/2 out of *****

Monster Snowman (Jû jin yuki otoko)

A movie that's almost as elusive as the creature it's about

Monster Snowman (1955)

Two years before Hammer's version of The Abominable Snowman, Japanese studio Toho released Monster Snowman (Ju jin yuki otoko) the Japanese name for the Yeti.

There's a couple things you need to know about this film before seeking it out, though. First it was released after The Abominable Snowman in the U.S. in 1958 as Half Human. That version excises more than an hour of footage and replaces it with English narration. Unlike the American Godzilla, which is close in quality to the original Gojira, Half Human is significantly inferior compared to Ju jin yuki otoko.

Unfortunately, the second thing you need to know is that the version you are most likely to come across of this film is the butchered American version. That's because the Japanese government objected to the portrayal of the Ainu (indigenous people of Japan) in this film - even though many claim the people depicted in the film aren't actually Ainu. In response, Toho pulled the film and never released it again.

Fortunately a bootleg copy of Ju jin yuki otoko made it into circulation, however it's a work print that contains timecode overlaying the image. Some versions crop the whole image to eliminate the distracting numbers, while others blur it, or leave it alone. Nevertheless, this version is still superior to the English dubbed Half-Human.

The story involves a group of skiers in the Japanese Alps who come across a Japanese version of the Yeti when they get caught in a blizzard. Later a scientific research team searching for the Yeti agrees to help with the search and rescue operations. That team, however, is tailed by an exotic animal dealer who intends to capture the Yeti for profit.

Overall the film is a minor entry in the Toho canon, but worth searching out for fans of Yeti/Bigfoot/cryptid lore.

The Good:

• This is like Godzilla director Ishiro Honda's version of King Kong

The Bad:

• Hard to find English subtitled or dubbed versions of the original uncut film

Stuff to watch for:

• Features gorgeous cabaret dancer turned actress Akemi Negishi in a major role
  Negishi would later star in a number of Akira Kurosawa films and Lady Snowblood, the film that inspired Kill Bill.

The Verdict:
**1/2 out of *****

The Legend of Boggy Creek

The movie that started the Bigfoot craze of the 1970s

The Legend of Boggy Creek

A low budget horror film from the Texarkana area serves as an ethnographic document of a time gone by

One sad thing about the movie industry is that it's often more about who's more well-connected than who's more talente. As a result, many complete hacks head up mammoth hundred-million dollar projects. Meanwhile, many great talents turn out films in relative obscurity.

Charles B. Pierce was one of the latter. Like Herk Harvey (the Kansas based director of Carnival of Souls) before him, Pierce worked in the middle of the U.S., producing remarkably creative work with what funds they could raise through investmen by local businessmen.

The Legend of Boggy Creek was made for about $165,000 but grossed over $25 million making it one of the top 10 films of 1973, and one of the most successful independent features of all time.

The plot concerns alleged sightings of the supposedly real-life Fouke Monster, a bigfoot like creature named after Fouke Arkansas, the town nearest most of the sightings. And while The Legend of Boggy Creek is almost documentary in style, it's not a mockumentary, or even a pseudo-documentary - it features the actual people who claim to have seen the creature playing themselves in scenes recreating events on the actual locations. The film is more like part nature documentary, part docudrama.

Like Jaws it barely shows the creature, which probably accounts for it's MPAA "G" rating. But similar to Jaws, this less-is-more approach makes the film far more effective than would lingering shots of a guy in a gorilla mask. And because of it's effectiveness it helped kick off a Bigfoot craze of the 1970s that exceeded the Yeti craze of the 1950s. This film alone spawned a raft of imitators, rip-offs, and sequels.

By casting local Arkansas residents this movie is strangely akin to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre in its (perhaps unintended) ethnographic-like examination of the last vestiges of the rural South. Before factory farms, strip malls, Walmarts, shrinking wild areas, and endless economic recessions transformed the landscape forever.

The Good:

• gives a good idea of the region's actual geography and residents
• authentic redneck dialect

The Bad:

• heavy-handed narration by the director
• groan inducing back-to-the-land hippie folk songs
• a bit slow by modern standards

The Verdict: **1/2

Leave No Trace

Leave No Trace

It's difficult to discuss Leave No Trace without spoilers, since it's a pretty simple film. Father and daughter live alone in the wilderness. When the government finds them and intervenes they're taken to the city where they try to fit in. Unable to fit in they escape to the wilds again, but their differing experiences with civilization, father's negative, and daughter's positive, begins to drive a wedge between them.

While the plot is pretty simple, the emotion-laden questions it brings up, such as "what is home?", "what is family?", "what is the importance of community?", and "what is the responsibility of the State?" are deep, complex wells to explore, and Leave No Trace explores them in a way that is not heavy-handed. The film itself just offers up questions, not simple answers, so in a way it leaves no trace itself.

The Good:

• virtually everything, but in particular Thomasin McKenzie's Oscar-worthy performance as the daughter

The Bad

• nothing, although the film can be a bit of a downer

The Verdict: **** out of *****

Furious 7

Furious 7 feels like the end of an era.

Furious 7

Feels like the end of an era

Furious 7 opens with Deckard Shaw (Jason Statham), brother of Owen Shaw, the villain from Fast & Furious 6 visiting his brother in the hospital. He vows vengeance against those who put him in a coma. Turns out Deckard is a former Black Ops operative gone rogue. He exits the hospital which is obviously in ruins from his rampage. Why he should want to damage the hospital and staff that are trying to save his brother is the kind of pesky question you don't ask in this movie, and it pretty much sets the tone for everything that follows.

After breaking into DSS Agent Hobbs' (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's) computer one night, Shaw gets into a fight with Hobbs, putting him in the hospital. When Dominic (Vin Diesel) visits him, Hobbs unofficially authorizes him to hunt Deckard down and kill him. But when Dominic does meet Deckard, a covert military squadron led by Mr. Nobody (Kurt Russell) appears and Deckard escapes.

I know what you're thinking - Vin Diesel, The Rock, now Jason Statham, and Kurt Russell, is this a The Expendables crossover? Well, actually, it probably bears more in common with that franchise that it does with the earliest The Fast and the Furious films. And in retrospect, that was probably a wise decision. Halfway through filming lynchpin cast member Paul Walker died (not on set, but in a car crash of all things), meaning that for the franchise to continue (and of course it will continue), it necessarily needs to evolve to something less centered on the Brian/Mia-Dominic/Letty framework.

With a funeral for Han, major development in both Brian/Mia and  Dominic/Letty's relationships, and extremely beautiful goodbye between Dominic and Brian - a montage that works both as a retirement of Brian's character, and a eulogy for actor Paul Walker - the film ties up loose ends going all the way back to The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift,  closing out a seven film story arc, and what feels like the end of an era.

The Good:

• The best Fast and Furious feature since the original The Fast and the Furious
• Filmmakers did an excellent job of salvaging the film after Walker's death

The Bad:

• For a film with the line "cars don't fly", there are a lot of flying cars
• The Rock gets very little screen time
• Gisele (Gal Gadot) is noticeably absent

Stuff to watch for:

• archival footage of the long absent Tokyo Drift cast
• the destruction of a rare Lycan Hypersport sports car
• Three members of the cast of Guardians of the Galaxy appear in the film, there is an in-movie reference to The Hulk; Kurt Russell would also go on to appear in Guardians of the Galaxy 2.
• Ronda Rousey v Michelle Rodriguez

The Verdict: ***1/2 out of *****

The Jungle Book (2016)

The Jungle Book is part of Disney's plan to remake its animated films as live action films

The Jungle Book (2016)

Unnecessary remake, but still fun

When the idea of a Jungle Book remake comes up, the question that immediately comes to mind is, "why?". Of course, that question should really be the central question before making any film, but it's particularly prominent when we're talking about the remake of a beloved classic. After all, Disney's original animated adaptation of the Kipling tale is one of the finest animated adventures the studio has ever produced. It would be more than 20 years after it was released until Disney even came close to making an animated film of that quality again with The Little Mermaid.

Like The Little Mermaid, The Jungle Book is particularly notable for a soundtrack full of memorable songs. Anyone who's seen the movie even once can probably sing a bit of "Trust in Me", "Bear Necessities", or "I Wan'na Be Like You". So it came as a particular shock that there would be very few musical numbers in the 2016 remake. In hindsight, that was probably a wise decision as King Louie is probably one of the most memorable characters in the story, and who could really replace Louis Prima?

Well it turns out those big shoes were to be filled by Christopher Walken. And by big shoes, we mean BIG shoes, as Louie is reimagined from an orangutan to a gigantopithecus, an extinct genus of giant ape. It was a bold decision, and it works. While the rest of the film mostly plays it safe, hewing closer to the book, the '67 film, or the '94 remake, overall it's still fun, even if it's not as fun as that first animated version.

The Good:

• Christopher Walken as the voice of King Louie who lives in an abandoned Rajah's palace
  

The Bad:

• You're still better off watching Disney's 1967 animated version
  

Stuff to watch for:

• the magic lamp from Aladdin
• references to Apocalypse Now and The Lion King
• Gary Shandling's final role as the voice of Ikki the porcupine
• more cowbell
  

The Verdict:
***1/2 out of *****

Fast & Furious 6

Fast & Furious 6: Because they're not going to stop until... well, they're just not going to stop, O.K.?

Fast & Furious 6

Warning: large plot holes in the road

When it was revealed at the end of Fast Five that anti-hero Dominic Toretto's on-again-off-again girlfriend Letty Ortiz was still alive, you knew Fast & Furious 6 was going to be the Star Trek III: The Search for Spock of the Fast and Furious franchise.

And frankly, that's kind of refreshing. For a series that constantly emphasizes the importance of family, a film where they are trying to track down one of their own resonates more than yet another film where the Furious gang has to take down an international drug cartel.

The film opens with the "family" of Furious drivers scattered across the globe until DSS Agent Hobbs (The Rock), convinces them to help take down international criminal Owen Shaw, who is stealing military weaponry (for reasons that are never explained) by showing them evidence that their fellow family member Letty, missing and presumed deceased, is actually working for Shaw.

This leads to a ton of car chases, and (thankfully) to an actual street race (between Dom and Letty) the first we've seen in the series in a while. But the action sequences are all strung together with this loose plot-hole filled spy story that doesn't hold up to much scrutiny. For example, somehow by paint scrapings from the floor of the bad guys previous vacated location they are able to determine the bad guys next location. Not using trace evidence to figure out where they've been, but where they're going to be - it makes no sense.

At another point they capture the bad guy but are forced to release him because his men have a hostage... then moments later they attempt to recapture him even though nothing has changed in those few moments - the bad guys still have the hostage, so why are they trying to catch him, or why did they let him go to begin with? They just uncuff him with no guarantee of a hostage release, let him go, then immediately start chasing him down again. This is especially confusing since letting him go meant a loss of the deal that cleared their names (the deal they were promised in exchange for capturing him) with nothing gained in return. Again, it makes no sense.

And that's just two of many plot holes. But let's face it, The Fast and the Furious movies have never been strong on plot - even by action movie standards. And when it comes to action Fast & Furious 6 doesn't disappoint - although someone needs to tell their editor to slow down the rapid-fire editing of fight scenes so we can actually see what's going on. Other than that - it delivers all the gunfights, car chases and physics-defying stunts you could want.

Indeed, for sheer entertainment value, Fast & Furious 6 is probably the best Fast & Furious film (excluding the shorts) since The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Possibly because you actually seem to care about the characters for a change. The emphasis is on the team as a family; and with two Caucasians, two Latinas, two African-Americans, an East Asian, a jew, a multiracial guy, and now a Pacific Islander, you can't help but think this family is somehow a microcosm of America, and we can't help but want to see them succeed and be reunited.

The Good:

• The Rock's acting is much improved over Fast Five
• The action scenes in the Canary Islands
• far more ethnic and gender balanced than most Hollywood blockbusters 

The Bad:

• so many plot holes

Stuff to watch for:

• "Ride or die!"
• Three references to rival franchise The Avengers
• A post-credits sequence that finally explains one of the series' biggest mysteries
• A Jason Statham cameo

The Verdict:
*** out of *****

Ant-Man and the Wasp

Wasp and Ant-Man

Ant-Man and The Wasp

Hank Pym is one of the oldest Marvel characters, he even predates the Marvel Universe, appearing first in Marvel's predecessor Atlas Comics anthology Astonishing Tales (see our review of that story here). And Pym is one of the most interesting superheroes in the Marvel Universe, having created more of The Avengers' tech over the years than even Tony (Iron Man) Stark. But he also had a very tumultuous relationship with his wife, the independent Janet Van Dyne, who kept her maiden name, flirted mercilessly with the other male Avengers. Their relationship eventually deteriorated into spousal abuse.

So it was huge lost opportunity when Marvel chose not to make a movie about Ant-Man, hero by day, wife abuser by night - possibly one of the darkest, most nuanced superhero movies imaginable, and instead go the complete opposite direction, making Pam the old scientist on the sidelines with goofy Paul Rudd as Scott Lang, the new Ant-Man. In the sequel to 2015's Ant-Man, Pym, Lang, and Pym's daughter Hope decide to rescue Janet who's been living in the quantum realm for 30 years (apparently eating and drinking subatomic particles?). Seriously, don't try think too hard about the science in this movie - it kind of makes sense in a comic book way for the first half hour, then it's like the writers just gave up - at one point Scott even says, "Do you guys just put the word 'quantum' in front of everything?".

Anyway,  Pym is the crotchety old guy. Hope when we first see her is the spitting image of the classic Wasp, bob haircut and all - obviously a wig, though, as a few minutes later in the film she inexplicably has long hair. Janet is played by Michelle Pfeiffer (who bears no resemblance to Janet in the comics), and despite her presence in the story there's once again no indication that Pym and Van Dyne's marriage was anything less than perfect. Lang is the wacky but lovable rapscallion who's under house arrest, but still has the nothing less than perfect relationship with his own daughter and with his ex-wife, and with the ex-wife's new boyfriend. And he also has some wacky but lovable rapscallion friends, and they all have a jolly good, wacky but lovable adventure together.

This is a long way of saying that Ant-Man and The Wasp is goofy fun. That's great and all, but it could have been so much more.

The Good:

• the humor - plenty of laughs, as you might expect from a cast comprised of stand-up comedians

The Bad:

• the science - it doesn't even adhere to the "comic book physics" rules it set up for itself - for example, it's been established that Ant-Man is dangerous because although tiny he still possesses all the mass of a full-grown man, making his punches devastating. Yet in this film a whole building is shrunk to luggage size and tossed around from person to person.

Stuff to watch for:

• the requisite Stan Lee cameo
• the inter-credits sequence is one of the best ever in a Marvel movie, adding a twist ending
• there's also a post-credits sequence

The Verdict:
***1/2 out of  *****

Fast Five

Fast Five attempts to revitalize the series

Fast Five (extended cut)

After Fast & Furious, it seemed like this series finally came to the end of the road. But the real racing here is how fast they can pump these movies out. At this rate they're set to overtake the number of Friday the 13th films by 2020.

Fast Five is widely acknowledged to be the film that revitalized the franchise, and its the one most frequently cited as the best in the series. Which is strange given that it has the exact same plot as 2 Fast 2 Furious, and Fast & Furious, the two most reviled entries in the series.

Once again, for the third time in five movies they take on a drug kingpin, with a bit of personal revenge mixed in. The tired plot is helped by over-the-top action sequences, and the introduction of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson to the cast.

The trouble is the over-the-top action scenes go way over the top, pushing the believability of not just what people can do, but what cars can do too. Let's face it, in the real world if you hit too big a pothole you'll break an axle, yet in the opening scene a fully loaded bus rolls over the top of a car a car and not only is the driver, Brian (Paul Walker) not crushed to death, he and the car emerge completely unscratched. And that's nothing compared to what the cars driven by Toretto and Brian do in the last big action scene.

And while The Rock isn't here for his acting skills, his role as a Diplomatic Security Service Agent also lacks credibility. Honestly, compared to his performance in similar roles like Central Intelligence, The Other Guys, etc. he really seems more wooden than hammy here - particularly in a scene where he's grieving/angry over the loss of comrades.

All of this wouldn't be so bad if the film didn't fall down on all three of the series cornerstones: music, babes, and car races. The music here is pretty generic, with only a couple (also generic) salsa tracks breaking up the monotony. There are very few scenes with the classic girls in short shorts, although one plot point actually requires Gal Gadot to show off her flat booty in a bikini - so there's that. But worst of all, there's almost no street racing. While there's plenty of car chase action sequences, there's only one race scene where the guys race some stolen cop cars. Another race scene for titles is part of the plot, but the actual race happens off-screen, and we just see the results by who is driving what car.

The movie culminates in a chase sequence in downtown Rio de Janiero that stretches credibility, even for Fast and Furious films, with enough danger to innocents and other collateral damage that it makes the drug dealer look like the good guy.

The extended cut is about 1 minute longer than the theatrical cut, but is made up of barely noticeable seconds of shots here and there throughout the film.

The Good:

• The Rock is in it

The Bad:

• the acting is generally weak all around
• skimps on the basic ingredients that made the franchise successful
• not exactly the fastest Fast film, at over 2 hours runtime
• stretches credibility

The Verdict:
**1/2 out of *****

The Abominable Snowman (and farewell Commander USA)

Commander USA was a man of his times

The host: Commander USA:

When the FCC opened up the UHF band to television in the 1960s, the potential channels in a given market went from 14 to over 80! Now in practical terms that usually meant three broadcast networks were supplemented by a PBS station or two and a few low-budget local operations in most markets, but that still more than doubled the amount of broadcast hours, which in turn resulted in the doors being flung open for any oddball with a dream to host their own TV show. Amongst the talk shows and cooking programs was a wave of horror movie hosts like Svengoolie, and Ghoulardi.

The trend died out after several years, but then in the 1980s with the explosion of cable television, the number of channels expanded into the hundreds, and suddenly a second wave of campy B-movie hosts and shows, some of which survive to this day (Elvira, Mystery Science Theater 3000, etc.), while others are almost forgotten. 

One of the hosts from this era was Commander USA, host of Commander USA's Groovie Movies and unofficial mascot of the USA cable channel. Commander USA (real name Jim Hendricks) was a superhero that entered the room smoking a cigar and hanging up a trench coat before introducing B-movies, kind of like a cross between Mr. Rogers, Space Ghost, and Columbo. If Hendricks came off more like a NYC taxi driver than a superhero, that's because driving a cab was his day job.

While some of Commander USA's contemporaries like Joe Bob Briggs, and fellow USA alum Rhonda Shear had some more success (possibly due to appearing in primetime instead of weekend afternoons like Hendricks), the show was surprisingly long-lived, airing more than 200 episodes in its five seasons. But aside from the mandatory appearance on Law & Order: SVU (of course), Hendricks pretty much went back to being a New York cabbie after the show was canceled in 1989, having outlasted most of the other horror movie hosts, and even USA's venerable Night Flight. And hat pretty much closed the book on the horror hosts of the 1980s.

Jim Hendricks passed away in March of 2018.

The Film: The Abominable Snowman of the Himalayas

The Abominable Snowman poster

While shows like TNT's Monstervision, and USA's Night Flight, Up All Night, and Commander USA's Groovie Movies were great in that, in most cases they were the only way to find these obscure sci-fi, fantasy, and horror films deemed too niche for the Blockbuster video shelves, they were usually not the best presentations of the features - just the only accessible ones. By necessity there's commercial interruptions - why else would we need a horror host to tell us to stay tuned? But there was often little thought given to print quality, nearly everything was in pan-and-scan, and still you got distorted aspect ratios.

Which brings us to the 1957 Hammer horror film, The Abominable Snowman. Bearing a striking resemblance to the 1955 Japanese film Ju jin yuki otoko (Half Human), it was made between The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula, when Hammer was at the top of its game. The impressive sets, and lavish use of the widescreen "Hammerscope" process to capture the grand vistas of the Pyrennees (substituting for he Himalayas) was completely lost on TV.

I'd highly encourage you to seek out a quality letterboxed version of this film, and here's why:

The Good:

• Peter Cushing in his first (of more than 20) Hammer films
• Best film to come out of the Yeti craze of the 1950s (yes, there was a Yeti craze)
• The aforementioned cinematography of the Pyrennees Mountains

The Bad:

• The science starts out good but gets a little too pseudoscience-ey in the second half
• Slow pacing in the beginning
• Maureen Connell in a parka is as close as we get to a Hammer babe this time

Stuff to watch for:

• Anthony Chinn (Mohan from Raiders of the Lost Ark) in a small part

The Verdict: *** of *****

The Defenders (season 1)

Marvel's other superhero team

The Defenders (season 1)

Defenders Assemble!

With one full season of four different superhero shows on Netflix complete, Marvel did the obvious thing, and brought them all together as a team in yet another series, The Defenders.

Long time Marvel fans will recognize the name 'The Defenders' as the title of several superhero team comics the company tried to launch over the years with widely varying lineups, beginning with Doctor Strange, The Hulk, and Sub-Mariner in 1971. The one common thread over the years was that they were all loner types, reluctant to join a superhero team, but banding together out of necessity (thus obviating the reason they weren't part of the Avengers).

It's this thematic element behind the group's founding that the show The Defenders taps into more than any lineup similarity, although it bears mentioning that both Iron Fist and Power Man (Luke Cage) had tenures in past incarnations of the comics.

In this case, the four team members are Iron Fist, Luke Cage, Jessica Jones, and Daredevil, and their common foe is the villainous organization known as The Hand. Also obvious to anyone familiar with the comics (minor spoiler for those who aren't), they plan to resurrect Elektra and make her their assassin.

It seems like The Defenders was conceived sometime after the success of Daredevil and Jessica Jones, first seasons, but certainly before Iron Fist's inaugural season, as the events of the shows Luke Cage (to a lesser degree), and Iron Fist (to a greater degree) lead right into season one of The Defenders.

With so many heroes and co-stars vying for screen time, Marvel wisely avoided getting bogged down in the weeds by focusing on the action and keeping the series to a mere eight episodes. This doesn't mean that Foggy, Karen, Trish, Misty, Claire, and Colleen don't all have their parts to play - but the show mainly belongs to The Defenders themselves, and sticks to the action, or as Jessica Jones describes it, "one big kung-fu party".

While The Defenders first season isn't better than the first season of any of its individual characters, except Iron Fist, which it feels like an extension of, if you like the rest, chances are you're going to like this.

**** out of *****

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom - surprisingly better than the trailers make it look

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom

this franchise is still not extinct

It seems like Jurassic Park should have gone extinct a long time ago. Of the two creative geniuses behind the franchise, writer Michael Crichton has been dead for a decade now, and Steven Spielberg, the producer hasn't directed one of the films in over two decades.

And for a while it seemed like that was the case. With Jurassic Park III, and Jurassic World, it really seemed the creative well had run dry - things were getting dull and repetitious, living on CGI alone. But along comes Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, and suddenly new life is breathed into some old dinosaurs.

A lot of the big monster movies lately have had fairly simple plots - big monsters get loose and unleash havoc, heroes have to bring them down. But Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom has a much more complex plot - which is both to its advantage, and to its detriment.

The original Jurassic Park is now abandoned, and the island's volcano is set to erupt, eradicating the remaining dinosaurs. While Congress debates whether these genetically revived species should be saved, the executor of the estate of the Park's billionaire founder takes it into his own hands to mount a rescue mission with the intent of weaponizing the dinosaurs for the military black market.

But with an expansive plot comes more expansive plot holes. Following the rescue, Claire the former Park Manager, and Owen the dinosaur behaviorist (played by Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt, respectively) become aware of the secret plan to auction off the dinos and are captured and imprisoned by the greedy executor. In the less than one night they spend in captivity the bad guys go from having the captured specimens to extracting their DNA, creating a viable crossbreed offspring (the "prototype" of their weaponized dino), teaching it to respond to commands from a signaling device, and arranging an auction with buyers from all over the world. Still, the film is filled with enough action to propel the movie along at a pace fast enough that one doesn't need to dwell on the plot holes for long.

It all culminates in a pretty startling conclusion that takes the entire franchise in a bold new direction, and for that it's worth seeing.

The good:

• thank god Bryce Dallas Howard and Chris Pratt are easy on the eyes, because man can they be annoying at times
• excellent pacing
• extensive use of animatronics and other effects keeps it from feeling like wall-to-wall CGI
• best Jurassic movie since The Lost World

The bad:

• some massive plot holes
• some really cliched characters we see in every Jurassic Park movie such as: the naive billionaire, the amoral geneticist, the wimpy boy that repeatedly needs to be saved by the tough chick tomboy girl, and of course the arrogant Great White Hunter guy.
• Jeff Goldblum only gets a few minutes of screen time at the beginning and end of the movie

Stuff to watch for:

• the amber headed cane, the one prop that goes all the way back to the first film
• Ian Malcolm's monologue
• gratuitous Star Trek reference
• a post-credits sequence
  

**** out of *****