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Netflix dropped a shark movie called Thrash that I wasnt too sure to watch but still gave it a try, this was the back to back 7 of the weekend with Apex and Thrash, latter on I find out this movie went through so many name changes before landing on that title that people online were just calling it "the shark movie" and its not that complicated and everything is totally expected and predicatable from the trailer, there was nothing hidden here, no mistery no nothing, it was mostly about the kills tbh. The setup is a Category 5 hurricane named Henry slamming into a small coastal town in South Carolina called Annieville, the local levees break and flood the streets with a literal truckload of animal blood from a meatpacking truck that gets wrecked in the surge, perfect situation of fire and gas in the same place, blood and sharks, then the bull sharks show up for the buffet. Tommy Wirkola directed this and if you know his work from the zombie Nazi movie Dead Snow or the Christmas action thing Violent Night you already know how his brain works, so watching him spend the first hour playing it relatively straight before finally letting the chaos loose is too much to ask and a little frustrating because I thought we were coing to get less drama and more chaos, I mean the drama here was just for decoration. We get Phoebe Dynevor as Lisa, a nine months pregnant woman who gets forced to come into work and then becomes trapped in her electric car while trying to leave town, with floodwater rising around her and bull sharks circling, and Djimon Hounsou shows up as Dr. Dale Edwards, a marine researcher who is also the uncle of Dakota played by Whitney Peak, a teenager who cannot leave the house because her some kind of phobia she has, she decide to remain locked in after losing her mother, and then there are three foster kids stuck with a guardian who thinks a Category 5 hurricane is just bad weather.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32362890/
• Platform: NETFLIX

What actually works in this movie is Phoebe Dynevor doing everything she can with a role that does not give her much breathing room and she is the kind of performer who sells you on the fear without needing to scream every five seconds, you believe she is scared because the way she carries herself in those flooded scenes feels real in a way that a lot of streaming creature feature movies just do not bother to get right. Djimon Hounsou is Djimon Hounsou period, meaning the man grounds everything he touches and makes you believe in whatever absurd situation the script drops him into, even when he is racing toward town on a boat in the middle of a catastrophic storm to rescue his niece. The bull sharks circling in the dark water during certain sequences are actually decent for a streaming production, the CGI does not embarrass itself the way you expect it to, and the production design of the flooded sets is clever because they built interlocking environments where the water level rises as the story moves forward, removing levels of the buildings to sell the illusion that things are getting worse. There are moments where this thing is clearly trying to be a proper disaster movie and the craft behind those moments is legit enough that you can see what it was aiming for before it gets distracted by all the side drama stories going around.

The second half is where everything starts feeling scattered because the pacing cannot hold together once the movie realizes it needs to make you care about Dakota processing grief for her mother while also delivering Lisa baby and also dealing with sharks and also wrapping up the foster kids situation and also setting up some kind of message about climate and intensifying storms, its just too much going at the same time on a story that really feels short, and none of that gets the time it needs to actually connect or even make you care about it, you still locked in on the sharks and getting people eaten so this is where the movie goes insane action with sharks flying and giving babies birth under water like its nothing. The emotional weight around Dakota dealing with her loss is there in theory but it comes and goes so fast that it barely sticks with you before the next thing is already happening and the choice to spend that much of the screentime trying being serious about the disaster before finally letting the director be himself ends up costing the movie whatever personality it was hiding underneath. You can feel that Sony had something to do with making this thing behave for most of its runtime before it finally gets weird in the end, and that calculation doesnt do it any favors because the first hour is a drag when the person they hired to make this movie is someone who strapped a machine gun to a reindeer and called it a Christmas movie. Latter on I notice that there was a bit of Australian cast doing Southern accents something that also that just happens and it sounds off if you look around and see a small town with couple of red neck kinda scenery but I guess its fine, Im not an expert on accents and not that I care much about it, it does not kill the performances but it is one of those things that sits wrong in your ear every time someone opens their mouth.

Watching this reminded me a lot of Deep Blue Sea, which understood it was ridiculous and committed to that energy without flinching and also Crawl, which I think is the actual better version of this exact movie because Alexandre Aja kept everything focused on one story and one location without losing the thread. Thrash wants to be both of those things and also a serious disaster movie about climate and human survival, and the problem with wanting to be everything is that you end up being a slightly lesser version of each thing instead of really delivering on any of them. Adam McKay produced this through Hyperobject Industries and you can feel his disaster framing fingerprints in the background with the climate references and the storm surge setup but that is more of a tone thing baked into the world than anything that slows the movie down to make a point. The idea of Lisa giving birth inside Dakota flooding house as the structure collapses around her is insane on paper and the kind of sequence that should make this movie not easy to errase just form that scene but it arrives in a movie that spent too long pretending it did not want to be that kind of movie, so the landing feels half earned instead of completely ridiculous in the way it should be, its like the movie suddenly figure out where it was and hit the gas too late and end up been too ridiculous.

#thrash, #netflix, #sharkmovie, #horrorreview, #hurricanehorror, #bullsharks, #phoebedynevor, #djimonhounsou, #tommywirkola, #creaturefeature, #sharkattack, #moviereview, #streamingmovies, #survivalhorror, #southcarolina, #campyhorror, #bloodflood, #gore, #monstermovie, #sharkweek, #fosterkids, #pregnantlady, #cgi, #disastermovie, #sharks

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Released in 1995 and directed by Allan Moyle, Empire Records did not become a massive hit when it first came out, but over time it built a loyal following and became a true cult favorite. It is one of those movies people discover years later and immediately wonder how it was not bigger from the start.

The story takes place over the course of a single day inside an independent record store called Empire Records. The employees are trying to save the store from being turned into a corporate chain while also dealing with their own personal drama, relationships, and identity crises. It sounds simple, but the charm is in the characters.

Anthony LaPaglia plays Joe, the manager trying to keep the store and his group of chaotic young employees from completely collapsing. He brings a grounded presence to the film, acting almost like the reluctant father figure in a place where nobody seems fully in control.

Liv Tyler plays Corey, the overachiever with pressure building beneath the surface. Tyler gives the role real emotional weight, showing how someone who looks like they have everything together can still be struggling deeply underneath.

Renée Zellweger as Gina brings confidence and attitude, while Robin Tunney as Deb gives one of the film’s most memorable performances. Deb’s shaved head and quiet emotional struggle make her one of the most human characters in the movie, and Tunney handles it with honesty rather than melodrama.

Then there is Rory Cochrane as Lucas, the unpredictable employee whose impulsive decision to take the store’s money to Atlantic City sets everything in motion. Lucas feels like the kind of person every friend group had in the nineties—smart, strange, and impossible to fully trust.

Johnny Whitworth as A.J. and Ethan Embry as Mark help round out the cast, while Coyote Shivers as the washed up rock star Rex Manning gives the movie one of its funniest running jokes. “Damn the man, save the Empire” became the perfect summary of the film’s entire spirit.

Director Allan Moyle keeps the energy moving with a style that feels loose and alive, matching the unpredictable nature of the characters. The film does not rely on a huge plot twist or dramatic structure. It works because it feels like spending a day with people you actually know.

The soundtrack is a massive part of why Empire Records works so well. Like Dazed and Confused or Singles, the music is not just background noise. It defines the mood and identity of the film. The songs make the store feel like a real place and the characters feel connected to a specific moment in time.

What makes the movie special is that it understands how important small places can be. A record store is not just a business here. It is a home, a community, and a symbol of independence. That feeling resonates even more now in an era where places like that keep disappearing.

The film also captures the uncertainty of being young. Nobody in the story fully knows what they are doing. They are trying to figure out love, careers, friendship, and who they want to become. That uncertainty gives the movie its emotional core.

Some critics at the time dismissed it because it did not fit neatly into a traditional structure, but that is exactly why it lasts. Life at that age often feels messy and unstructured. The movie reflects that honestly instead of forcing a cleaner narrative.

Over the years, Empire Records became more appreciated because people connected with its attitude and authenticity. It is not polished, but it has personality, and personality lasts longer than perfection.

In the end, Empire Records is an excellent film because it understands that music and community can shape your life just as much as major life events. It is funny, emotional, messy, and full of heart.

It remains one of the best cult films of the nineties and a reminder of why independent record stores meant so much to so many

Source

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt16431404/
• Platform: NETFLIX

Taron Egerton showing up as the villain Ben is the best thing about this movie by a wide margin, and the dude goes absolutely full send into this role in a way you would never expect from the guy who played Eggsy in Kingsman. He is wearing these fake veneers that he actually rips out to reveal a set of jagged teeth underneath, which is such a weird and specific visual choice that you cannot stop staring at his mouth every time he is on screen, and that kind of committed weirdness is exactly what a movie like this needs to stay interesting past the setup. Ben plays the charming local at first, giving Sasha directions to a camping spot at Blackstone Bay while the whole time he is already planning the hunt, stealing her gear overnight, and letting her get a head start while a pop song blares on a speaker as his personal pump up routine. He tracks her down using a phone playing family videos as audio bait, and when she hears the voices and goes to investigate on foot, he pops out of nowhere and the game is officially on. The bird screeching noise he makes when he gets close to his prey is the kind of unhinged character detail that the movie needed more of, and word is that Egerton invented it himself on set, which makes it even better. Charlize Theron for her part is doing heavy lifting with barely any dialogue once the chase starts, she communicates the whole weight of Sasha through body language and her eyes alone, and there are stretches where she is just running and reacting and you are completely with her anyway because she is that locked in.

The problem is that the logic in the second half of this movie is a mess that kept pulling me out of it. She takes a head slam off an underwater rock that would put any normal person out cold for a week, and she just shakes it off and keeps moving like it never happened, then later she steps into a massive metal leg clamp trap that should have snapped her shin in half, but somehow she is still sprinting through the forest two scenes later with no visible issue. Ben chasing her through the canyon while somehow keeping pace on foot while she is in a kayak is the kind of thing you just have to choose to accept or you are going to spend the whole movie arguing with the screen, and I kept arguing with the screen. The secondary hunters that harass her at the van early on are a complete waste of time because they show up making a racket, act creepy, and then vanish from the movie entirely without a single payoff, like they were cut from a different version of the script and nobody caught it in the edit. The cave hideout where Ben keeps his operation has that classic slasher villain aesthetic with bodies stored in the dark, and he gives this rambling speech about rituals and consuming the spirit of his prey, which is supposed to make him feel like a deeper character but just lands flat because nothing in the script earns that kind of weight for him. You could tell from pretty early on where things were heading because the movie sets up its circular structure too obviously, telegraphing that the ending is going to mirror the opening in a very deliberate way that removes most of the surprise.

The closest comparison for Apex is somewhere between the dread of Fall, that 2022 movie with the two women trapped on top of a five hundred foot tower, and a throwback 90s slasher where the villain has a gimmick and the survivor just has to outlast him. Fall had better tension because the danger felt physically real and the stakes were simple, while Apex is trying to layer a survival thriller over a slasher vibe at the same time, and the two things keep bumping into each other in ways that hurt the pacing. The canyon cinematography is solid at times, those claustrophobic angles that make you feel like the rock walls are closing in, but then the movie cuts to wide shots that lean too hard on budget CGI and the illusion falls apart. The opening scene on the Troll Wall in Norway is the most visually striking thing in the entire movie, and it is also the part with the least amount of action, which tells you something about where the attention went. That sequence has a weight and stillness that the rest of the movie never really gets back, and every time Apex tries to build real tension in the second half you keep measuring it against that opener and finding it a little short.

#apex, #charlizetheron, #taronegerton, #survival, #thriller, #netflix, #horror, #action, #mountaineering, #australia, #kayaking, #killer, #jerky, #cliffhanger, #cinematography, #moviereview, #baltasarkormakur, #missingpersons, #adrenaline, #climbing, #forest, #rapids, #revenge, #ritual

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New York, a metropolis that—whether justifiably or not—is regarded as the most important city in the world today, was at the start of this decade going what were probably the worst moments in its history, thanks to the global pandemic and its economic effects. Until 2020, however, the worst period for the citizens of the Big Apple was considered to be the 1970s, a decade in which the city with the highest concentration of financial capital and power was burdened by a politically inert administration, incompetent municipal services, an economic crisis, and social problems that—among other things—triggered an explosion of crime on a previously unimaginable scale, so that the average New Yorker had more reason to fear being killed on the street than a citizen of conflict-ridden Belfast or Beirut. Fear City: New York vs Mafia, a three-part mini-series directed by Sam Hobkinson, attempts to show how the unquestioned hegemony of the Italian-American mafia contributed to all of this in no small measure, and how putting that organisation in its rightful place was the beginning of the journey towards a calmer, more decent, better-ordered and happier New York—the New York that would exist until the spring of 2020.

The opening of Fear City shows that the New York mafia based its hegemony over the streets of the world's most important metropolis not so much on the sheer number of its members, its penchant for extreme violence, its superb organisation, strict discipline, or brilliant strategy, as on the skilful exploitation of one prosaic fact. Individual mobsters could "fall" and end up in prison for extortion, robbery, drug-dealing and similar crimes, but the organisation itself remained untouchable, because the bosses could not be proven to have directly participated in those illegal activities. At the beginning of the 1970s, the famous law known by the acronym RICO was passed, introducing new concept to American criminal law, and making it possible for mafia leaders to be held accountable for crimes to which they had given their direct or indirect blessing. Admittedly, it took several years for a group of FBI agents and the federal prosecutors working with them to remember to use RICO as a tool to attack the previously untouchable leaders of the five New York "families". In this, they were greatly aided by the development of modern technology, which made it possible to bypass "omertà" through intensive wiretapping and thus uncover the most closely guarded secrets of the world's most famous criminal organisation. As the years go by, the data thus collected allows federal prosecutors finally to launch proceedings that, in the mid-1980s, lead to spectacular trials and the imprisonment of mafia bosses.

Fear City is quite cleverly conceived, the most important creative decision being to make only three episodes, so that viewers can watch the whole story in a single evening's binge. The second thing that makes Fear City different from most series and films on a similar subject is that it hardly ever shows the mafia from the perspective of the mobsters themselves, but almost exclusively from the perspective of the federal agents and prosecutors who fought against them. This is both a strength and a weakness of the series, given that viewers already know or have reason to guess the outcome of the conflict, so there is no particular tension, and the only thing that could be called "action" is the occasionally ingenious but mostly prosaic placement of hidden listening devices in the cars and homes of mobsters. That does not mean Fear City lacks moments of interesting content, but it all largely boils down to dry testimony from retired civil servants in their seventies or eighties, who only here and there try to "spice things up" with an amusing anecdote. The authors themselves are sometimes aware of this, and allow themselves the occasional digression, such as mentioning Trump in the context of the 1980s construction boom in New York, when the future president, as an entrepreneur in an industry riddled with organised crime, had to be careful about how he positioned himself vis-à-vis the mafia. By an ironic twist of fate, one of the main protagonists of this series is former federal prosecutor Rudy Giuliani, who brought indictments against mobsters and thereby laid the foundations for his mayoral career, and who later made headlines as Trump's controversial lawyer in lawsuits over alleged election fraud. When it is necessary to show how all these events looked from the mafia's perspective, the authors use interviews with mobsters who did not end up serving multi-decade prison sentences and who, by nature, were "small fry".

The most important shortcoming of Fear City, however, is content that is actually inadequate for this story. The series simply ends too quickly; it does not show the events that took place after the trials and that should have given context to the federal operation to remove the untouchable mafia bosses. It completely ignores the generation of new, young mobsters who replaced the imprisoned ageing "dons", among them John Gotti, the head of the Gambino family, who in just a few years became a media star and the subject of countless biopics, TV series and even a reality show devoted to his descendants. Compared to other works that have dealt with the mafia—whether fiction like The Godfather, or even 1980s documentaries like Mob Inc.—Fear City comes across as disappointingly like reheated cabbage.

RATING: 4/10 (+)

(Note: The text in the original Croatian version is available here.)

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Three Sundays (S2x04)

Airdate: 17 August 2008

Written by: Andre Jacquemott & Maria Jacquemott Directed by: Tim Hunter

Running Time: 48 minutes

The structural rhythm of Mad Men has often been described as episodic vignette, a series of finely observed “day in the life” slices that advance the overarching plot with deliberate, often glacial, slowness. Each episode typically confines itself to a narrow temporal window, deepening character through mundane ritual and subtle interaction rather than through sweeping narrative leaps. Three Sundays, the fourth episode of the second season, represents a slight but significant deviation from this established pattern. As the title overtly signals, the episode’s plot is spread across three consecutive Sundays—Passion Sunday, Palm Sunday, and Easter Sunday—encompassing the period between 8 April and 22 April 1962. This tripartite structure allows the writers, Andre and Maria Jacquemetton, to trace the gradual accumulation of pressure and revelation in their characters’ lives with a novel sense of weekly ritual, using the Christian liturgical calendar as both a narrative scaffold and a potent source of thematic resonance.

The choice of Eastertide is far from incidental; it ensures that questions of faith, guilt, redemption, and resurrection permeate the storylines. The episode is bookended by the high holy days of Christianity, and the script deftly explores how these abstract concepts collide with the messy, secular realities of early 1960s America. The most explicit engagement with faith is found in the storyline centred on Peggy Olson. Visiting her devoutly Catholic family for Sunday dinner, Peggy is pressured into attending Mass, an experience that visibly discomforts her. Her flight from the service—feigning illness—leads her to a chance encounter outside the church with Father Gill (Colin Hanks), a young, tall, and disarmingly handsome priest. In a beautifully ironic twist, his earnest, unintentionally charismatic presence inadvertently draws her back into the fold, setting in motion a complex dynamic that blends spiritual guidance with unspoken attraction and professional exchange.

Father Gill’s subsequent visit to the Olson home, where he learns of Peggy’s career as a copywriter on Madison Avenue, allows the episode to forge a fascinating connection between the pulpit and the pitch meeting. He recruits her to help craft his Palm Sunday sermon, a request that Peggy, ever eager to prove her utility and perhaps intrigued by the priest, accepts. This collaboration culminates in one of the episode’s most quietly devastating moments: during confession, Peggy’s sister Anita confesses to Father Gill that she “hates” Peggy. Anita, who has followed the traditional path of marriage and motherhood, seethes with resentment that Peggy, who bore a child out of wedlock, has simply abandoned that life for a career and acts like nothing happened. The Church, traditionally a bastion of the very morality Anita embodies, is here represented by a priest who is not a figure of judgement but of confused, slightly hip compassion. His final gesture—giving Peggy a painted Easter egg “for the little one” on Easter Sunday—is a masterpiece of ambiguous kindness. It is both a recognition of her secret and a gentle, painful reminder of the life she has chosen to suppress, highlighting the impossible gap between her modern aspirations and her family’s (and faith’s) traditional expectations.

Whilst Peggy grapples with the personal implications of faith and family, Don Draper is embroiled in a professional crisis that mirrors the episode’s themes of disaster and forced resurrection. Sterling Cooper is tasked with salvaging the American Airlines account after a recent, devastating air crash. The assignment is a public relations nightmare, and the pressure is ratcheted up when Duck Phillips informs Don that the airline wants concepts before Easter. This forces Don to summon his creative team for an emergency meeting on Palm Sunday—a violation of the Sabbath that underscores the agency’s secular devotion to commerce. The scenes of the team working in a near-deserted office are among the episode’s most striking visual departures; the men, usually icons of tailored perfection, are dressed in casual sweaters, slacks, and even shorts, creating a comical yet revealing contrast. Their dishabille mirrors their mental state—stripped of their professional armour, they are forced to think rawly. Don’s solution, when it comes, is pure Draper alchemy: to ignore the disaster entirely and pitch a future-oriented campaign asking “what 1963 will look like.” It is an act of audacious denial, a secular form of resurrection. Yet, in a cruel twist of corporate fate, Don’s perfect pitch is rendered useless when Duck reveals that Shel Keneally, their key contact at American Airlines, has been fired. The executives will attend the meeting merely out of courtesy. Don’s creative resurrection is stillborn, and his bitter reaction contrasts sharply with Roger Sterling’s world-weary consolation that “these things happen.”

Don’s professional frustration is expertly paralleled with his domestic turmoil. Most of this stems from his five-year-old son, Bobby (now played by Aaron Hart), whose childish irresponsibility causes minor but resonant chaos. Betty, overwhelmed and increasingly detached, demands that Don discipline his son. Don’s refusal, and his subsequent, raw admission to Betty, provides one of the season’s most poignant character insights: he confesses that he was savagely beaten by his own father and cannot bring himself to replicate that violence. This moment fractures the façade of Don as the omnipotent patriarch, revealing the traumatised child within who is desperately trying to forge a different, better fatherhood—even if he has no model for how to do so.

The episode’s focus on these two major arcs is disciplined, but it allows minor storylines to weave through the narrative with natural ease. Bobbie Barrett appears at Don’s office, using a flimsy business pretext to reignite their affair, highlighting Don’s continued moral drift. More notably, Roger Sterling, preoccupied with his daughter’s upcoming wedding, encounters a call girl named Vicky (Marguerite Moreau) in a hotel bar. Impressed by her brazen resourcefulness (she poses as a client’s wife to dine in a restaurant), he hires her services. In a telling moment of self-rationalisation, Roger tells Vicky he hasn’t been with a prostitute since his Navy days, framing this transaction as a tidier, less emotionally fraught alternative to an affair. It’s a sad, funny commentary on the compartmentalisation of his life, and the actor John Slattery delivers the line with perfectly dry irony, especially when Vicky dismisses his health concerns by stating “nobody ever died doing this,” prompting Roger’s wry smile at the memory of his own near-fatal heart attack.

The episode’s strength lies in this nuanced, structurally sound scripting and its acute sensitivity to the cultural shifts of its time. 1962 represents a pivotal moment where the old, established world begins to subtly erode. Peggy Olson is the embodiment of this change—a woman prioritising career over family in an era where such a choice was socially anathema. The episode cleverly contrasts her with the older, plainer, more “square” women in her family, framing the conflict not as a simple battle between progressive and conservative, but as a more tragic clash of mutually incomprehensible life paths. The casting of the youthful, attractive Colin Hanks as Father Gill adds a fascinating twist: the Church, the institution most associated with tradition, is here represented by a face that looks almost cool, blurring the lines and suggesting that even organised religion is not immune to the changing tides.

The use of humour is equally deft. Kiernan Shipka, as Sally Draper, steals her scenes with a child’s unfiltered curiosity, asking awkward questions and even sipping a cocktail in Sterling Cooper’s offices—a moment that is both charming and faintly unsettling. The visual joke of the creative team in casual weekend wear punctures the series’ usual aesthetic of rigid formality, reminding us that beneath the suits and slicked hair are fallible, tired men.

Three Sundays is a particularly finely crafted episode. It uses its expanded timeframe to explore themes of sacrifice, failure, and the hope for renewal—both personal and professional—against the backdrop of a fading, yet still potent, American Protestant ethic. It doesn’t advance the season’s plot in giant leaps, but in doing so it offers something richer: a profound, moving, and critically astute examination of its characters straining against the confines of their era, their faith, and their own deeply flawed natures.

RATING: 7/10 (+++)

==

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Released in 1987 and directed by Howard Deutch, Some Kind of Wonderful often gets overshadowed by bigger John Hughes titles like The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink, but it absolutely deserves to be mentioned alongside them. Written by Hughes, the film takes familiar teen movie territory and gives it a sharper emotional honesty.

The story follows Keith Nelson, played by Eric Stoltz, a smart but working class high school student who develops a crush on Amanda Jones, the beautiful and popular girl who seems far out of reach. Keith decides to take his shot, even though nearly everyone around him thinks it is a bad idea.

Lea Thompson plays Amanda with far more depth than the typical “popular girl” role would suggest. She is not simply shallow or unreachable. Thompson gives her vulnerability and self awareness, making Amanda feel like a real person rather than a stereotype.

Then there is Mary Stuart Masterson as Watts, one of the best characters in any eighties teen film. Watts is Keith’s best friend, drummer, and the person who understands him better than anyone else. Masterson gives the role attitude, humor, and emotional depth, making it impossible not to root for her.

The real heart of the movie is not the obvious romance, but the emotional tension between Keith and Watts. He is chasing an ideal while completely missing what is right in front of him. That dynamic gives the film its emotional weight and makes it much stronger than a standard high school romance.

Craig Sheffer plays Hardy Jenns, Amanda’s controlling ex boyfriend, bringing just enough arrogance and menace to keep the stakes real. His presence reminds you that the movie is also about class, reputation, and the pressure teenagers feel to fit into social expectations.

Howard Deutch directs the film with a strong sense of intimacy. He does not rely on flashy scenes or exaggerated comedy. Instead, he lets the emotions sit where they need to. The quieter moments often hit harder than the dramatic ones.

John Hughes’ writing is what gives the movie its staying power. He always understood that teenage emotions feel huge because, in that moment, they are huge. The script respects that instead of mocking it. It treats heartbreak, insecurity, and self discovery like they actually matter.

The soundtrack also deserves praise because, like most Hughes related films, music becomes part of the identity of the movie. The songs capture that late eighties emotional energy perfectly and help define the tone.

What makes Some Kind of Wonderful stand out is how grounded it feels. It is not overly polished or cartoonish. The characters feel like real teenagers making messy choices rather than movie versions of them.

Watts especially became iconic because she broke the mold. She was not written as the glamorous obvious choice. She was tough, funny, loyal, and emotionally honest. For a lot of viewers, she became the character people remembered most long after the credits rolled.

The final act works because it earns its emotional payoff. The movie understands that growing up often means realizing you were chasing the wrong thing. It is not just about getting the date. It is about understanding yourself.

Over time, the film has gained more appreciation as people revisit it outside the shadow of Hughes’ bigger hits. Many now see it as one of the strongest examples of his writing because it feels less manufactured and more sincere.

In the end, Some Kind of Wonderful is an excellent film because it combines romance, heartbreak, and character growth without losing its authenticity. It is funny, emotional, and honest in a way that still connects decades later.

It may not always get the same spotlight as other eighties classics, but for many people, it is one of the best of them all.

Hi there,

Welcome to a new movie review article from my blog. I decided it was time to sit back and relax, but this could not be completely achieved with the presence of something to watch. For me, and I think many others out there, movies are a way to relax from all the hustle and bustle of life. So it was a no-brainer when I decided to watch a movie, but this time it was anime, Devil May Cry. At first, I had a conflicting idea about the difference between an anime and a cartoon. It all boiled down to the geographical location of its creation. If it was created in Japan or by Japanese, then it is anime. Since Devil May Cry was created by the Japanese Madhouse, it is anime.

The anime came to Netflix on the 3rd of April 2025, and there were major concerns about how well it would perform. In the mixed world of both video games and anime adaptations of the video game, there have been concerns about how well these movie adaptations of video games will fare. Will they be good? Or will it just be another try-and-error method like some in the past? Well, here is one deciding factor that many fail to consider when putting these adaptations into consideration. There will be instances where certain storylines have to be cut off, especially when it is a full movie adaptation of bringing these game characters to life. Like for One Piece, there were certain episodes from the manga that were cut out or, in better words, summed up.

In my case, I did not play much of the game Devil May Cry when I was much younger; I only came across it a few times to remember that it was a good game. So, going into the series on Netflix, I did not place all my hopes in the field of high expectations. I sincerely recommend that movie lovers do the same. Do not place so many high expectations on the movie before watching. Just keep an open mind, so that way you get amazed when you get to watch things that are super interesting. The anime, Devil May Cry, is based on the demon hunter character Dante, one of the sons of Spada.

Dante has a living of killing demons without knowing he was one of them, a hybrid, both demon and human, but in this sense, he is one of the good ones. He is the second twin son of Spada, the demon who created the barrier between the demon world and Earth. He was strongly regarded as the defender of humans for the heroic act he did when he realised the demon king Mundus had a growing quest to conquer the world, starting with Earth next. After setting up the barrier, Spada moved to Earth, where he met Dante's mother. It is quite an amazing story that keeps one on their toes while we edge closer to the unveiling of each plot, one episode at a time. A good factor that made me realise this was going to be a good anime to watch was the action mixed with good cliffhangers at the end of each episode. It was amazing as it kept me wanting more each time. You do not know how good a series can get until it gets to the end of each episode. Do not sleep on Devil May Cry, go and watch it.

My Rating: 9/10

♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟♟

The Benefactor (S2x03)

Airdate: 10 August 2008

Written by: Matthew Weiner & Rick Cleveland Directed by: Leslie Glinka Glatter

Running Time: 48 minutes

Matthew Weiner’s choice to depict the tumultuous decade of the 1960s from the perspective of advertising industry executives and employees proved to be an exceptionally astute creative decision. These individuals were not merely passive observers of momentous cultural shifts; they were, by virtue of their profession, on the forefront of shaping consumer desire and, via the creative class, firmly connected with the entertainment industry. This vantage point allows Mad Men to serve a dual purpose: as a penetrating insight into a transformative past and as a veritable treasure trove of pop culture references, where the mechanics of selling products intertwine with the era’s defining media. One such exemplary fusion is found in The Benefactor, the third episode of the show’s second season. This instalment masterfully leverages a real television controversy to hold a mirror to the personal and professional machinations of its characters, revealing the brittle facades of control they maintain in a world on the cusp of radical change.

The episode’s engine of conflict is ignited in a utilitarian studio, where the crudely popular comedian Jimmy Barrett (Patrick Fischler) is filming a commercial for Utz Potato Chips. The arrival of the company’s owner, Hunt Schilling (Steve Stapenhorst), and his wife Edith (Jan Hoag)—an ardent fan—sets the stage for disaster. Barrett, unable to resist the lowest-hanging fruit, unleashes a series of brutally insensitive jokes about Edith’s obesity. This represents a catastrophic failure for Sterling Cooper, which had the Utz account. The cardinal sin, as Roger Sterling later elucidates, was allowing the clients near the combustible Barrett, a man whose reputation for offence preceded him. The ensuing scramble for accountability finds Don Draper peculiarly absent, having chosen to spend the afternoon in a cinema watching a pretentious French art film—a futile attempt to connect with a “cool” new world that remains elusive to him. Don’s solution to the crisis is both swift and cowardly: he deflects blame onto his secretary, Lois, demoting her back to the pool of switchboard operators, thus providing a sacrificial lamb to appease the gods of corporate hierarchy.

This professional fiasco, however, also presents an opportunity for Don to reassert his value as a fixer. His plan is to compel a humiliating apology from Barrett to the Schillings. The path to this goal leads him to Bobbie Barrett (Melinda McGraw), Jimmy’s wife and manager, a character of formidable and unapologetic sexual agency. Their initial meeting is a tense negotiation; Bobbie is dismissive of the need for an apology, viewing the incident as trivial client hypersensitivity. The dynamic shifts, however, when they have sex—a transaction of power as much as desire. Don’s strategy culminates in a staged reconciliation at Lutèce, New York’s most elite restaurant, where the Barretts and Schillings are to dine with Don and his wife, Betty. Betty’s participation is secured through immense reluctance, yet once at the table, she performs her wifely duty with devastating efficiency, charming everyone present. Jimmy, emboldened by alcohol and his own nature, shamelessly flirts with her. When he still refuses to apologise, Don follows Bobbie to the restroom. In a chilling display of coercive power, he grabs her and threatens to destroy her husband’s career. The apology is swiftly delivered. Don’s mission is accomplished, but the cost is laid bare in the final scene:As he returns home, he finds Betty weeping, her composure shattered by the evening’s degrading spectacle.

Running parallel to this central drama is the episode’s second major storyline, which serves as a superb study of corporate envy and opportunistic ambition. Harry Crane, feeling undervalued and financially stagnant, accidentally opens a piece of mail intended for Ken Cosgrove and discovers the vast disparity in their salaries. This moment of private humiliation fuels a crisis of confidence. He explores a move to CBS, but a fruitless phone call yields an unexpected prize: intelligence about an upcoming episode of the prestigious legal drama The Defenders. Titled “The Benefactors,” the episode deals with the taboo subject of abortion, rendering it so controversial that the show’s regular sponsors have withdrawn. Harry, seeing a chance to prove his worth, attempts to secure a new sponsor through Sterling Cooper. His pitch to Belle Jolie fails, but in the process, he earns the public admiration of the company’s executive, Paul Keeley, for his resourcefulness and bravery. This display of initiative does not go unnoticed. Roger Sterling, impressed, rewards Harry by promoting him to head of a newly created Television Department, complete with a modest raise. This subplot is a perfectly calibrated piece of storytelling, illustrating how personal grievance can be channelled into professional advancement within the mercurial logic of the corporate world.

The Benefactor is firmly anchored in television history. The Defenders, created by Reginald Rose of 12 Angry Men fame, was a critically acclaimed series, and the episode “The Benefactors” was indeed pulled from its initial broadcast schedule in May 1962 due to sponsor revolt over its abortion storyline, only airing later after a replacement sponsor was found. The episode’s use of actual footage from the 1962 broadcast is not mere period dressing; it provides a potent meta-commentary. Just as the fictional Sterling Cooper navigates the fallout from Barrett’s offensive humour, the real-life television industry was grappling with the limits of acceptable discourse. The episode smartly parallels these two realms, suggesting that the anxieties about content and sponsorship in entertainment are inextricably linked to the broader cultural anxieties the ad men both exploit and embody.

Co-written by Matthew Weiner and Rick Cleveland and directed with assured clarity by Leslie Linka Glatter, the episode is a model of narrative focus, weaving together only three primary storylines with precision. The Harry Crane plot is a quintessential Mad Men exploration of office politics and the slow, often accidental, shifting of cultural attitudes. The minor thread concerning Betty’s struggle with adulterous temptation—she is simultaneously repulsed by Don’s world and drawn to the crude validation offered by Jimmy Barrett’s flirtation—serves to deepen the main narrative, highlighting the emotional collateral damage of Don’s transactional existence.

The episode’s success is significantly bolstered by its casting. Patrick Fischler embodies Jimmy Barrett with a pathetic, wounding energy, channelling the aggressive, insecure humour of era comedians like Jerry Lewis. Even more compelling is Melinda McGraw’s Bobbie Barrett, a revelation as a sexual manipulator who, despite being arguably older than Don, exerts a formidable and unsettling power over the men around her. Their dynamic serves as a fascinating study in layered frustration: Jimmy, presumably henpecked and emasculated by Bobbie’s management, lashes out through alcohol and cruelty; Don, feeling inferior to Roger Sterling’s effortless authority, reasserts control by bullying an innocent subordinate and manipulating his own wife into a degrading performance.

The Benefactor also occupies a curious place in Mad Men lore due to an unresolved mystery. Matthew Weiner has deliberately never identified the pretentious French art film Don watches in the cinema, leading to years of fervent fan speculation. The prevailing theory suggests the footage was either from an extremely obscure picture or created specifically for the series, a deliberate void that amplifies the episode’s themes of elusive authenticity and Don’s futile pursuit of a sophistication that remains just out of reach.

The Benefactor is particularly rich and cohesive entry in the series’ canon. It functions brilliantly as a case study in crisis management and personal compromise, utilising a real-world television controversy to illuminate the fragile ecosystems of advertising, marriage, and corporate ambition. The episode demonstrates how Mad Men consistently finds the profound within the professional, revealing the quiet desperation and opportunistic grit that fuelled the American machine on the eve of its most dramatic upheaval.

RATING: 8/10 (+++)

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Hello, anime fans. We’re back with more gems from last year’s anime world, this time featuring the return of one of the most popular and controversial remakes of recent times. A return that didn’t generate as much excitement as its first season did when it premiered almost two years ago. Based on the manga series of the same name written and illustrated by the great Rumiko Takahashi, Ranma ½ was produced by the famous MAPPA studio. Let’s talk again about the anime of the boy who turns into a girl when he gets wet.

Hola, fanáticos del anime. Volvemos con más joyas del mundo del anime del año pasado, esta vez con el regreso de uno de los remakes más populares y polémicos que han existido en la actualidad. Un regreso que no causó tanta emoción como lo tuvo con su primera temporada estrenada hace casi dos años. Basada en la serie de manga homónima escrita e ilustrada por la gran Rumiko Takahashi, Ranma ½ fue producida por el famoso estudio MAPPA. Volvamos a hablar del anime del chico que se convierte en mujer cuando se moja.

Source: FilmAffinity.

Plot

The second season begins with the return of Akane Tendo and Ranma Saotome, who, after learning that their parents have arranged their engagement, have no choice but to live together while attending school. After some time, one of Ranma’s romantic rivals, Hikaru Goensuki, returns to pursue his goal of marrying Akane. However, seeing that she pays him no attention, he decides to declare war on Ranma, her current fiancé. Despite all his efforts, Hikaru cannot defeat him in any way. That is when the eccentric Kasumi appears to him and reveals Ranma’s weakness so he can use it against him.

Trama

La segunda temporada inicia con el regreso de Akane Tendo y Saotome Ranma quienes, después de enterarse de que están comprometidos por decisión de sus padres, no tienen otra opción que vivir juntos mientras van a la escuela. Luego de un tiempo así, uno de los rivales amorosos de Ranma, Hikaru Goensuki, vuelve para cumplir con su objetivo de casarse con Akane. Sin embargo, al ver que ella no le presta atención, decide declararle la guerra a Ranma, su actual prometido. A pesar de todos sus esfuerzos, Hikaru no consigue vencerlo de ningún modo. Es así como el rarito de Kasumi se le aparece y le cuenta la debilidad de Ranma para utilizarlo en su contra.

Trailer & Review

Here’s the trailer for the second season of this anime:

By: Netflix Anime

All the best.

By: Nattosheru.

Posted Using INLEO