Happy new year eve. Review coming soon.
Thursday, 31 December 2020
Friday, 25 December 2020
Tuesday, 13 October 2020
American Pie Presents: Girls' Rules (2020)
The film runs at 95 minutes, and there really isn't that much of a story here so the review will follow the lead of the film and will be quick. The film follows sex curious Annie with her friends Stephanie Stifler, the badass of the group who just needs a good guy, Kayla, the wild control freak who doesn't trust her boyfriend who dumps her, and Michelle, the smart one with a collection of sex toys who masturbates to John F Kennedy speeches on their final year of high school. To come to terms of what they are missing romantically, they make a pact to see their desires come true for MORP, a backward prom. Think Sadie Hawkins.
The forced feminist message that has been complained about in several female-centric films as of late is dialed up to 11 here, and yet it completely misses its point by having the main girl group lust after the same guy. This is something a male would imagine, so in that respect, it is an American Pie film. If a comedy film just wants to be what it is and not be about anything, that is just fine. I enjoy movies like that. The problem is this film is not funny at all. Several unfunny gags are repeated and the dialogue of many lines comes off as wooden. The set up for the opening scene is rushed and obvious.
It is a lazy and a watered-down installment of the franchise that I question the R rating. The opposite sex version of American Pie has a lot to prove to justify its existence, and this film just was not up to the task, despite the hard work the actors are putting into it. Maybe for a female version of American pie, you have women write and direct it. Just a thought. Booksmart (2019) received acclaim for a reason.
American Pie Presents: Girls' Rules is both cringey and generic with nothing there. It has a good case for being one of the worst films of the year.
1/10
Friday, 9 October 2020
The Boys - "What I Know"
Friday, 2 October 2020
The Boys - "Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker"
Friday, 25 September 2020
The Boys - "The Bloody Doors Off"
So... Stormfront is a Nazi. Racist was bad enough, but she is a straight-up nazi. As if audiences needed another reason to hate her. Jumping the gun a little bit here. Below, I go in a bit more depth but for my opening statement, I feel like I needed to acknowledge this first.
Following some snooping on Stormfront's computer, Annie discovers that something is happening at the Sage Grove treatment center. She brings this to The Boys after Frenchie removes Vought's chip implant in her body. Butcher and Annie finally team up in this one, and they hate each other. Butcher hates Supes and general, and Annie hasn't forgotten when he shot her last season. Seeing them work together was quite engaging, and they work together for one important purpose: saving Hughie. After he gets hit with Shrapnel, they rush to save his life. Another interesting tidbit: Annie is hardened. After she accidentally killed a man to take his car, she didn't self destruct or cry in a corner. She rationalized. It earned Butcher's respect, not that she wants it. The character has gotten great development, and I am all for Annie leaving behind that shiny superhero portrayal she plays for Vought. Seeing Butcher and Annie bond over the silly things Hughie does, like use child shampoo makes for nice levity, especially compared to the drama heavy storyline with the rest of the team.
We finally see why The Boys broke up in the first place from Frenchie's perspective. Hell, this is Frenchie's episode, and Tomer Kapon owns the spotlight. Jumping back and forth with the use of flashbacks, we see Frenchie with his lover Cherie, and his friend Jay. He originally joined The Boys to keep them out of prison. Later, Mallory orders him to follow Lamplighter after the team blackmails him. We know that he left his post, and Lamplighter torched Mallory's grandchildren, but now we know why he left. His friend Jay was suffering from an overdose. After saving his life, he rushed to go back to his post, but it was too late. To make it even worse, Jay, figuring Frenchie abandoned him left him and dies a few months later from another overdose.
All this is revealed when the team discovers that Lamplighter is working at the center, torching uncooperative team subjects. Rather than seeing vengeance being served, we see a team-up. Cindy, a test subject gets loose, and releases more subjects to cause absolute mayhem. Shawn Ashmore is a very underrated actor, so not only am I happy to see him play Lamplighter in an irony casting since he was Iceman, but he gave the character depth rather than him being clear cut evil. He is in torment for killing those kids, and it results in him covering for The Boys so Stormfront doesn't know that they were there and later meeting Mallory in the forest.
Frenchie comes to terms that saving Kimiko wouldn't solve his problems and she doesn't need to be saved. Now, Stormfront kills most of the escaped subjects, but there are a few standouts. Cindy, who is much stronger than she looks as she survived a direct blast from Stormfront, and Love Sausage, whos power is exactly what it sounds like. Seeing a CGI dick wrap itself around Mother's Milk's neck is something I will never forget. A fun easter egg for fans of the comic. I wasn't too sure they would put the character in the series.
Speaking of callbacks, the events of last season involving the plane crash come back here to haunt Maeve. The Deep provides her with a Go Pro from the crash in the sea, and Elena happens to stumble upon it. The video is damaging. This lights a bit of a spark in Maeve's storyline, but not much. The character in hindsight hasn't done much this season, but given how my complaints are seemingly addressed each week, I'll reserve my judgment for next week.
The endgame is revealed. Stormfront and Vought are trying to stabilize Compound V so an adult will be able to take it and get powers without dying. This is an effort to create an army of Supes so Vought can take back control of the culture as in Stormfront's eyes, the other races are beating them. By the episode's end, she reveals this to Homelander and her origins. She is over 100 years old, a nazi, the first successful superhuman experiment, and was married to Fredrick Vought. There is a moment after she dumps this on him that you don't know how he is going to take it, but he responds by kissing her while The Golden Girls theme song is playing. With these two closer than ever, this power couple is even more dangerous.
There is a fun cameo with Christopher Lennertz, the composer of the series. He raps a theme song for A Train, and I demand that it be made available to Spotify immediately.
"The Bloody Doors Off" fires on all cylinders with black humor and gory violence, but successfully ramps up the tension without being repetitive.
9/10
Friday, 18 September 2020
The Boys - "We Gotta Go Now"
Any show that disses what Joss Whedon did to Zack Snyder's Justice League is instantly my favourite. Writer Ellie Monahan is the episode's MVP. Her commentary of the way superhero films are created, and how corporations have thin unfelt inclusion hits the mark.
We open on a Zack Snyder like shot, with Queen Maeve and a hacker woman in a war-torn street. Through he dialogue is noticeably low quality and the pandering to the LGBTQ community obvious as if the writers of Supergirl were on set. It turns out that Vought is making their Justice League film: Dawn Of The Seven. Besides having to perform a noticeably weaker role in the film, Maeve also finds herself Vought's new diversity hire, with a massive campaign made behind her and her girlfriend Elena's relationship. The satire here should be a wake-up call. It is awkward and cringes in all the right ways. I like the direction that they are taking Maeve here. As the character suffers from burnout, she didn't have that much of an active role in season 1, nor the comics. Now, with the mission she placed upon herself to take down Homelander, she will take a more active role in the overall storyline. Her and The Deep haven't interacted, so it will be cool to see where that goes.
Anthony Starr was surprisingly hilarious in this episode. Sure, more unsettling moments, especially the scene at the protest, but he was a source of some of the biggest laughs. Homelander was filmed killing a Supe terrorist on video, but his laser vision ended up hitting an innocent, resulting in protests against him. Homelander's mental state during the protest scene was suspenseful and tense. The moment when he lasers the entire crowd is a fake-out, but with what has been established with him this season alone, I wouldn't have put it past him, so it gives the moment impact and weight.
A-Train, having been fired also finds that his storyline in the film has been altered to retire him. He attempts to resist it, but both Ashley and the director reject his ideas. In the end, to avoid losing his benefits, he submits and films his exit to Homelander. Actually, to add insult to injury, he films his goodbye in front of a Homelander stand-in. Jessie T Usher didn't waste his screen time here. He was great. Also, with what we know about Stormfront, the conversation between the two regarding Church was uncomfortable.
The Boys storyline will more dramatic than action-packed, but still interesting. For one, the team is still separate. Not a big deal, as The Seven have all been together a total of 4 times through the entire show so far. Just an observation. Butcher, still reeling from Becca choosing not to leave with him leaves the team to visit his aunt Judy, who is taking care of his dog, Terror. Terror in the comics had a habit of humping thins. Behind the scenes, the dog actor was a bit of a diva, and would not hump on command. Of course, the dog being as cute as he is is excused from any culpability. Hughie and MM (Mother's Milk) find him there. Black Noir is also there, having tracked Butcher from the Vought compound, and they rigged the house with explosions. They failed to do anything but destroy Judy's house. The team fights Noir face on, and it also failed. Butcher manages to keep them alive by threatening Vought with pictures revealing the secret of Ryan's existence. Mr.Edgar who is watching from a camera in Noir's suit calls off Noir in exchange for the photos never being released. At this moment, I realized two things. One, Butcher's lying on the spot was incredible. Two, Mr. Edgar is aware of everything that goes on in his company. As a black man, what is he doing with Stormfront?
The relationship between Hughie and Butcher is given more depth here. We learn that Butcher had a brother named Lenny who is like Hughie in a lot of ways. The older brother younger brother relationship had subtle yet tender moments. The chemistry of The Boys as a whole makes their team dynamic feel natural and believable. The history implied between Butcher and MM works because of this.
The episode benefits from a faster pace from last week's episode. The weakest part of of this episode is with Kimiko and Frenchie. Frenchie adoration with her was sweet in season 1, but his character has become defined by it. Kimiko, venting her anger has become a hitman, resulting in the week's grossing visual of ripping a man's face off. Was it because he thought Dear Evan Hansen was better than Hamilton? No, but I like to think so. This results in the two fighting in a church. This fails to create the effect the show wants it to as Kimiko is communicating in a language that Frenchie does not understand, so it is rendered useless.
The ending of this episode has me cringing. I thought Homelander and Stormfront would-be rivals, not lovers engaging in super-violent superhero sex. The sound effect during the oral portion is brief yet shocking. I expected the two of them to be rivals, but as lovers, their dynamic is much easier to invest in. Stormfront puts on a good face to disguise who she really is, so her plans for Homelander raise a lot of them. Also, the sex scene, while beautiful shot revealed that she is just as powerful as him, withstanding his laser blasts that are known to cut people in half. She is much more dangerous now with Homelander wrapped around her finger. Shawn Ambrose, best known as Terry Fox and Iceman from the X-Men franchise plays Lamplighter and had a brief cameo in this episode. He and Stormfront are working together. It has been a while since I read the comics, so I don't know his purpose, but the character was referenced last season as the reason The Boys broke up in the first place, so last week has me hyped.
Side note: 3 former castmembers from Timeless were in this episode. As a clockbuster fan, I loved this.
The Boys sets up new dynamics, providing more developed stories for The Supes, continuing the show's streak of satirical wit, and shocking moments. This is the show at its best. Kimiko and Frenchie's story is still weak though.
9/10