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Fallout Season 2 wrapped up with Episode 8 and I got to say even though I enjoyed the ride this season gave us, I cannot stop thinking about how messy the whole thing felt by the end, like there were just way too many things happening all at once, they also kept jumping from one scene to another just to keep up the hype and none of them got properly closed which left me feeling kind of unsatisfied but also satisfied at the same time for what actually happen, its weird. I get it Season 3 is already confirmed so they do not feel the pressure to wrap everything up but damn, when you got Norm disappearing into thin air, the Brotherhood doing whatever the hell they doing, the Ghoul on his own mission, Lucy and Maximus stuck in Vegas with no clear direction and Steph sending that Phase Two message to Colorado it just feels like too much shit left hanging in the air, Im sure its annoying for many but I get it, this is going to be a two part season where three will finish what season 2 started. The whole Macauley Culkin situation was weird too because they promoted the guy like crazy and he barely got five minutes of screen time as the new Caesar felt like a marketing trick more than anything else and I hope Season 3 gives him more to do or else what was the point, was he really needed or just HBO trying to pull attention with a known actor to bring more people for episode eight. The action scenes were solid though that fight with Maximus in the power armor against the Death Claws was sick and seeing the NCR sniper moment was a nice throwback to New Vegas for those who played the game but again it just sets up more questions instead of giving us answers and its frustrating when you wait the whole week for it, specially since it was the season finale and I was hoping for more closure than what we actually got.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12637874/
• Platform: PRIME VIDEO

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Source Getting into other topics because as I mention there was a ton happening at the same time, there is Macauley Culkin and the Legion deciding who is the new Caesar after their civil war ends and homie just eats the note that said the Legion should end with the old boss and kills the only witness so now he is the new leader marching towards Vegas that is such a classic Ceasar move by the way, its a quick scene that sets up the big battle coming in season three between the Legion and the NCR and I like how they are building towards that showdown even if it feels rushed right now. Then we got Cooper meeting Mr House who is back online thanks to that cold fusion thing and House is dropping all this data about how he was screwed over by the Enclave and how everyone ends up working for him eventually which is such a House thing to say, the whole conversation felt very much like the game where he gives you missions and acts like he owns everything in Vegas which technically he does. House gives Cooper a Pip Boy with his consciousness inside it so he can guide him to the secret vault under Vegas where his family is supposed to be and I thought that was pretty clever even if it felt a bit convenient for the plot, now Cooper has this AI companion for season three which should be interesting to see how if that duo ever work out but got dropped real quick. Maximus fighting the Death Claws on the strip was probably the best action sequence of the entire episode even if it went on a bit too long in my opinion, he gets out of the power armor after it stops working and tries to fight them with just a pool cue and a roulette wheel as a shield which is both badass and stupid at the same time but it works for his character who has always been about being a true knight, also a bit cliche considering they are in Vegas, not just another dumb soldier in armor following orders. The townspeople taking bets on whether he will survive was very Vegas and added some dark humor to the scene even though you know Maximus is not going to die because he is one of the main characters, then the NCR shows up and saves him with that sick sniper shot and I literally gasped when I saw the ranger because I was not expecting them to bring back the NCR in such a big way after the Ghoul left them behind I really thought they were all dead.

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Source Probably the most fucked up moment of the episode is when Lucy gets to the "main frame" and realize her dad has been using Congresswoman Welch head to program mind control chips for the Enclave which is so messed up, the whole scene where Welch is begging Lucy to kill her because she has been alive for 200 years as just a head hooked up to computers was disturbing and sad at the same time and Lucy just screams why everyone wants her to kill them. Hank then explains his plan to chip everyone in the wasteland and turn them into docile followers with the perfect personality type which sounds like something straight out of a dystopian psychopath nightmare and its crazy how far he was willing to go to create his version of a perfect world, even his own daughter was going to get chipped until the Ghoul showed up and shot Hank in the ass which was hilarious to watch. Lucy has the chance to kill her dad but instead she chips him and tries to make him confess everything except he wipes his own memory with a remote control he had hidden and now he is basically brain dead just standing there with no thoughts or memories. The whole father daughter relationship has been the emotional core of the show and ending it this way was brave from Hank to be honest, he basically suicide and at the same time the situation left me feeling empty because there was no real closure just sadness and loss which I guess is the point that it crates this feeling of sadness towards Lucy. The Steph situation at the end where she reveals she is Hanks wife and activates Phase Two for the Enclave was one of the biggest twists of the episode even though I kind of saw it coming after all the hints they dropped throughout the season about her past, finding out she was married to Hank before the bombs dropped and has been working for the Enclave this whole time makes you rethink everything she did in the vaults and how much of it was planned versus just survival. The flashback showing Cooper and Barb leaving Vegas and talking about going to Colorado was important because it connects to the postcard Cooper finds in the empty cryo tube later telling him his family went there and now we know that is where the Enclave research facility is located so everything is pointing towards Colorado for season three.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #fallout, #season, #finale, #episode, #vegas, #cooper, #lucy, #maximus, #enclave, #hank, #ncr, #legion, #caesar, #deathclaws, #house, #chips, #colorado, #steph, #ghoul, #brotherhood, #quintus, #prime, #armor, #wasteland, #vault

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This movie is one of the reasons why I couldnt watch some of the tv series I follow yesterday, my wife wanted to watch a movie and one of my son sat with us, its funny but the two reasons she wanted to watch it because it is a fantasy movie and the damn chicken lamp, btw SPOILERS AHEAD. After watching Dust Bunny I cannot say I felt pumped about what I saw yes it had its cool action scenes and some tender moments but I felt more like confused on what the hell Bryan Fuller was trying to do with this thing because this movie never figures out what it wants to be and just ends up feeling messy when it should be simple and fun. The setup sounds adorable right, little girl is scared of a monster that lives under the floorboards and hires the hitman living next door to kill it for her, she even steals cash from the church collection plate to pay him which I thought was pretty funny in a twisted way, are we showing stealing is good now? to kill monsters?. Then Fuller throws in all these John Wick style shootouts and secret assassin societies moves and none of it clicks together like it should because he cannot decide if this is a kids movie about facing fears or an action movie about killers or some emotional thing about foster care stuff, so I felt everything just get all smooshed together fighting for screen time but on the surface it still looks cool and moving. The best moments are when Mads Mikkelsen and Sophie Sloan are just sitting there talking to each other and building this strange connection between a hired killer and a foster kid who keeps losing families to this creature, those scenes work because you can see both actors putting in effort to make it feel real even when the script is not giving them much. Mads plays this guy called "Intriguing Neighbor" sounds ridiculous because during the movie other characters refer to him as "Resident 5B" or just "5B" basically his appartment number, he thinks the monster is fake and that bad guys just killed her parents by accident because they were aiming for him instead since he lives right next door. The girl Aurora is not buying any of it though, she knows what she saw and she is sure this thing ate her foster family, which when you think about it is crazy and should have way more attention from authorities than just one FBI lady named Brenda poking around asking questions every now and then.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt23172090/
• Platform: PRIME VIDEO

Rottentomatoes Rating Source Sigourney Weaver shows up as the villain boss lady named Laverne who runs this whole assassin network and I hate to say this but she was not good at all and honestly been the villain is one of the hardest jobs most of the time, her scenes felt wooden and I was not buying whatever vibe she was trying to bring to the character even though she looks fantastic and wears these crazy high heels that work as guns which is a cool idea on paper. The big reveal is that she is actually Mads mom which should hit harder than it does but we get zero backstory on their relationship or why she raised him to be a killer or why she is willing to put a hit out on a little kid just because the kid saw his face, it just happens and then the movie moves on without letting it sink in or mean anything. Her death scene where the monster eats her should feel like justice or catharsis but it just feels flat because we never got to know her beyond surface level evil lady stuff, she walks around the apartment trying to shoot Aurora while Mads is yelling at her to get off the floor because the monster comes up through it if you touch the ground, and she goes you know how much it hurts me when you call me mom, which is supposed to be emotional I guess but it comes out of nowhere so who cares really. The monster itself is the most disappointing part of the whole MOVIE because the design is way too CGI heavy when it desperately needed practical effects to make it feel like an actual creature instead of a video game blob, we are talking about something that lives under floors and eats anyone who touches the ground which is such a goofy fun concept but Fuller treats it like serious horror instead of leaning into the camp and making it weird and gross in a tactile way. Even the title makes no sense because the thing is not a dust bunny at all, its just this big hairy mass with teeth that moves through solid surfaces like water and looks like bad rendering from a PlayStation 3 cutscene, I kept waiting for them to explain why its called Dust Bunny but they never bother to justify the name at all.

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Source Fuller said in interviews that he made this as a gateway horror movie for young girls which is a nice idea but in my opinion there is way too much gunfire and heavy themes about loneliness and foster care for kids to stay locked in and adults are gonna get bored waiting for something interesting to actually happen because the pacing drags so much once you get past the first act. From a breaf search about this movie it seems this whole project started as an episode for the Amazing Stories reboot and it really shows in how thin everything feels stretched out to feature length. The action scenes are fine I suppose but they feel out of place in a movie that should be more about the relationship between the hitman and the kid, there is a big shootout near the end where FBI agents and assassins are all trying to kill each other while the monster pops up and starts eating people, and it should be exciting but it just goes on too long and feels chaotic without any real stakes because you do not care about most of these characters dying anyway since they were barely in the movie before this. The opening action sequence in Chinatown where Resident 5B fights a bunch of guys during a festival while Aurora watches from the rooftops is actually pretty solid, that one has a fairy tale quality with the dragon costume and the way its shot from her perspective as she sees him as this monster slayer, I cant denied some of this scenes are exciting but the rest of the action never captures that same energy again and just feels like generic shootouts you have seen in better movies a hundred times before. When the movie gets to the ending where Aurora realizes she can control the monster because she wished for it on a shooting star I was just ready for it to be over, the movie runs about 106 minutes and it feels every minute of that runtime because there is not enough here to justify the length, would have worked way better as a tight forty minute short or even just the original TV episode Fuller planned before expanding it into a full feature.

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Source The production design is probably the only thing that really works all the way through, whoever did the art direction deserves credit because the apartment looks gorgeous with all this vintage furniture and that chicken lamp is what got my wife to watch this movie so thanks who ever created it, the thing looks hilarious and when its on the light bulb is right where the egg comes out. Aurora also does this thing that she rides around the apartment on this giant brass pig to avoid touching the floor, she even says at one point that the floor is lava so she has to stay off it which should be more fun than it ends up being because Fuller keeps undercutting it with overly serious drama about her dead foster parents and her fear of abandonment, honestly if they would have taking a Monster Inc like approach would have been excellent, but the movie really needed to just pick a lane and commit to it instead of trying to have it both ways. Sigourney has this whole scene where she is eating at a fancy restaurant covered in flowers and she then unhinges her jaw like a snake which is a cool character moment that shows she is not entirely human or at least not normal, but then the movie never follows up on that idea or explains what she actually is beyond just a weird lady who runs assassins. The FBI agent Brenda played by Sheila Atim is solid in her few scenes and she has great chemistry with Mads during the shootout when they are both trapped in the bathroom trying not to touch the floor while the creature moves underneath them, that whole sequence is tense and works better than most of the movie because it keeps things small and focused instead of trying to juggle ten different plot threads at once.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #dustbunny, #movie, #review, #madsmikkelsen, #briannfuller, #sigourneyweaver, #monster, #horror, #action, #assassin, #fantasy, #thriller, #foster, #trauma, #violence, #johnwick, #fairytale, #creature, #drama, #disappointing, #messy, #confusing, #streaming, #theatrical, #rating

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I watched another movie yesterday, and I really wish to review it for all of you. If you have watched this in the past, please let me know your opinion below!

Sweet Home Alabama is one of those films that, more than 20 years after its release in 2002, still feels like a cozy company.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0256415/

This is a romantic comedy (and feel-good film as described in imd), in which stars Reese Witherspoon as Melanie Carmichael, a successful New York fashion designer who is suddenly engaged to an amazing man (Patrick Dempsey), but she should return to her home town Alabama to finalize a very important situation that she has left behind and keeps a secret. I prefer not to tell you exactly what this is :)

Part of what keeps this film feeling light and comfy, is lead actors' performance. Witherspoon brings a positive energy to Melanie. She is funny, relatable and likable almost in every scene. Her chemistry with co-stars Josh Lucas and Patrick Dempsey adds a genuine warmth to the story and with some funny elements, the viewer is hooked and is always anxious to see what comes next.

Co-stars like Candice Bergen as mother-in-law, Mary Kay Place and Fred Ward as the brides's parents are also excellent at their small, but defining roles.

There are many surprises in the film, and sometimes I dont want to say the story because it is nice to not anticipate what's coming.

The rating of the movie says it all. 6.2/10 out of hundreds of people who reviewed it.

I would honestly give it between 6, 6.5/10 and would recommend it for a light and funny afternoon, with a nice and easy-to-handle pinch of feelings!

You can watch the trailer here:

To conclude, I would recommend it if you enjoy these kind of films. Easy to watch, fluffy and cute, with funny moments and romantic feelings in the atmosphere. If you enjoy action/horror/thrillers, maybe you could skip this one!

Thanks for supporting!

Democracy gives you a lot of freedom, even to destroy it.

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I know this is a series probably not may are into but I enjoy watching this drama and honestly for the tv series adaptation I though it was enough with just the first season, I mean leave it as a mini series because from what it seems its always the same theme, brothers competing with each other but I get there is a lot to work with as the story behind this series is a very long one. Drops of God Season 2 Episode 2 really gets things moving after that first episode laid down all the groundwork for this whole wine hunt they have going on, this one actually makes you feel like the search is starting to go somewhere real instead of just sitting around talking about it but the series doesnt seem to respect time and space enough as they just go around the world on a single episode. Camille chasing down that garbage truck to get the empty bottle back was kind of funny but also showed how serious she got about helping Issei find this mystery wine, even tho she was the one who threw it away when she got pissed off, she is very dramatic and impulsive, now she regret throwing it away. The sticky wax on the bottle seal ends up been the first actual clue they get, turns out its beeswax not regular resin witch is rare as hell these days for sealing wine bottles, so Philippe suggests they go see his bee expert friend Raphael to figure out where it came from. Watching Camille run around doing all this research while Issei is stuck in the hospital recovering from almost drowning himself was interesting because you can tell he thinks she is trying to beat him to the answer, like she wants to prove to her dead dad that she is still better than everyone else even tho she already won the competition in season one. The whole episode is basically Camille going from one lead to another, getting lab results on the beeswax pollen, going to this huge grape archive place called Vassal, tasting like a hundred different grape varieties until they find the right one, and then eventually tracking the whole thing back to some beekeeper dude in Athens who sends his wax to a monastery in Georgia the country not the state.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt6867482/
• Platform: AppleTv+

Source Issei gets more frustrated as the episode goes on because he cant do anything from that hospital bed, he is stuck there eating shitty hospital food and watching Camille do all the work without him witch makes him feel useless and like she is stealing his mission from him. When she visits him and admits she dumped all the wine down the drain he gets mad as hell and call her out to realize how stupid that was straight up, that was a funny moment and the reason why I keep watching this drama, he is right to be mad because now they cant test the actual wine itself, they just got an empty bottle with some wax on it and nothing else to work with for figuring out where it came from, then Camille tries to change the subject by talking about Hirokazu leaving with Marianne instead of staying around to support his son but Issei does not want to hear it that part of his life is in the past, he just wants to get out of that hospital and start doing the work himself before Camille finds the wine without him. The doctor tells him he needs rest because his lungs are still messed up from almost dying underwater but of course that does not stop him, as soon as he gets a call from Camille with an update about the Vassal grape testing he just discharges himself and tells Natasha to drive him to Montpellier so he can taste wines with Camille and Thomas. Natasha sees right thru his bullshit excuse about not trusting Camille to do the tasting properly, she knows he is competing with his sister and trying to prove he is better than her, witch is exactly what is happening even if Issei wont admit it out loud to anyone including himself at this point in the story.

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Source The Vassal Research Center part was probably the coolest part of the whole episode for me, they got this massive archive of like every grape variety that exists and they keep all ind of samples so people can taste them and compare its something really crazy and consider if there is something like this for multiple industries. Camille and Thomas end up tasting 171 different grapes if Im not mistaken trying to find one that matches the mystery wine. The show does this thing were the room fills up with vines and plants when Camile finally find the right grape because even though Issei is now having "visions" too they are not the same as when Camile does, after all it was a nice visual way to show that moment without just having someone say hey we found it out loud to the camera. Turns out the grape they are looking for is called Herbemont, and its basically banned in France because the wine made from it supposedly drives people crazy, although the director of Vassal says that is just a legend and the real reason it got banned back in 1935 is because it does not need pesticides so if everyone used it the chemical companies would lose money and its almost ethanol. Nobody makes wine with Herbemont anymore or at least they are not suppose to, but clearly somebody did because that is what was in Legers mystery bottle, so now they know what grape it is but they still need to figure out where the hell it came from and who made it in the first place. Issei shows up right when they are down to the last ten wines and he joins in on the tasting, you can see he is still weak and his breathing is not great but he pushes thru it anyway because he needs to be part of this search, he can not just sit on the sidelines and let Camille do everything without him or he will go insane thinking about it the whole time he is recovering.

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Source While all this wine detective work is going on we also get some scenes with Hirokazu running into his ex wife Honoka a part of Season 1 context that you might not get if you havent watch season 1 but the entire story is that her mom is some kind of high class who use to dominate both Hirokazu and Issei until everything falls appart when Issei accept to join the competition not for the money but to proof he is worthit of been call the best ever, they clearly separated on really bad terms and Hirokazu almost called her to tell her about Issei almost dying but he did not because he figured she would not pick up the phone anyway, its when he accidentally sees her in person he tells her everything about what Issei has been doing, how he almost drowned free diving in Marseille, how he is now obsessed with finding this wine to prove something to his dead father Leger who never really cared about him when he was alive. Hirokazu tells Honoka she should call Issei even tho he probably wont answer, just so she can feel better about reaching out, and then they go there separate ways and you can tell Honoka is still miserable and lonely as hell just like she was last season. Back at the Chassangre Estate, Marianne is getting annoyed that Camille has been ignoring her the whole trip, she came there to spend time with her daughter but Camille has been so focused on the wine search that she forgot to eat meals or hang out with her family at all. Thomas tries to defend Camille by saying she is doing this for Issei, but Marianne is not buying it, she knows her daughter has some of her fathers narcissistic traits and Camille is doing this partly for herself to prove she is still the best even tho she does not want to admit that to anyone including herself probably.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #dropsofgod, #wine, #mystery, #camille, #issei, #beeswax, #herbemont, #grape, #vassal, #athens, #georgia, #monastery, #rivalry, #search, #hospital, #leger, #hirokazu, #honoka, #Philippe, #thomas, #marianne, #recap, #season2, #episode2, #quest

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Episode 3 got me feeling like damn Game of Thrones really knows how to pull you back in just when you start getting comfy with the lighter tone, episode three of A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms just went full on you and I did not see that ending coming at all even though I should have because this is Westeros and nobody gets to be happy for too long. The whole thing with Duncan stepping up to defend Tanselle at the puppet show and then Egg revealing himself as a Targaryen prince put both of them in serious danger, like I knew Egg was hiding something big but watching him get grabbed by the situation with his own brother Aerion was crazy because you could see the fear in his face when he realized there is no running away from this anymore. The way Aerion treated that whole situation like he owned everyone there and could do whatever he wanted was such classic Targaryen bullshit, killing that horse on purpose during the joust was messed up and you could feel how wrong that was for everyone watching it happen, you could feel the buildup to that final scene where Duncan throws down to protect Tanselle and Egg jumps in to stop his psycho brother from beating the crap out of both of them. What gets me is how much this changes everything for Duncan because now he is tied up with royalty and probably about to get his ass kicked by Targaryen guards or worse, thrown into some trial by combat situation that could end with him dead, the actors in this show continue to be really good and the chemistry between Duncan and Egg feels real like they actually care about each other which makes you worry about what is gonna happen next.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt27497448/
• Platform: HBO MAX

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This episode really starts off chill with Egg training Thunder the horse and getting it prepare for his first joust at the Ashford tourney, Egg is learning all the stuff a squire needs to know like bringing weapons and sewing patches on clothes which he is terrible at because he never had to do that kind of work before as a royal kid. The whole opening section with Egg talking to Thunder and trying to get the horse to listen to him was sweet, he mentions how his father told him horses are dumb and only understand pain but Egg thinks horses are smarter than that and deserve respect, which is another hint at how different he is from the rest of his family, specially his brothers who treat everyone and everything like garbage. Ser Robyn Rhysling shows up looking like some crazy one eyed knight asking if Egg stole the horse but Egg stands his ground, Robyn turns out to be this fighter who talks about himself in the third person saying he is a vessel for the warrior, its weird but also kind of badass how confident he is despite looking like a mess with no shoes and that eye patch. Duncan teaches Egg how to sew and compliments him when he does a good job which is a nice moment between them showing how Duncan sees Egg as more than just some random kid, Egg sings this funny song about the Blackfyre Rebellion which is full of dirty jokes but also tells the story of how Prince Baelor and Prince Maekar who is Eggs father defeated the rebels at the Battle of Redgrass Field, its another clue that Egg knows way too much about Targaryen history for a regular kid from Flea Bottom. The tournament starts and they watch Ser Humfrey Hardyng fight Ser Humfrey Beesbury in what everyone calls the Battle of the Humfreys, then Ser Andro Ashford fights some other knight with a chalice on his shield, Duncan is getting nervous about his own match because he still does not have his shield ready and he knows only knights of high birth can fight on the first day so he has to wait. Plummer the steward shows up trying to bribe Duncan into throwing his match against Ser Andro so Lord Ashford can make money off the bets, Duncan refuses because he does not want a victory he did not earn which shows he has way more honor than most of these other knights, its a good scene that sets up how Duncan is different from everyone else at this tourney, this shows how Duncan is a man of his word and honor for not accepting.

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The joust between Prince Aerion and Ser Humfrey Hardyng is where everything goes to shit and the tone of the whole episode changes completely, Aerion shows up in this fancy armor with flames all over it and his shield has a three headed dragon in red orange and yellow, he looks like he is trying way too hard to make everyone scared of him because the Targaryens do not have dragons anymore so they rely on looking intimidating with their outfits. Before the match starts Aerion rides up to his cousin Valarr and says he will not embarrass him today which is already a dick move because it implies Valarr is weak compared to him, Prince Baelor is sitting in the stands looking worried because he knows Aerion is about to do something fucked up and sure enough he does. During the joust Aerion deliberately aims his lance at Ser Humfreys horse instead of Ser Humfrey himself and kills the animal by stabbing it through the neck, the horse goes down hard and Ser Humfrey gets thrown off and his leg gets completely shattered, you can hear it break and can imagine how bad it is when you fall fully suited armor and a horse falls on top of your leg, the crowd goes silent because they cannot believe what they just saw. Aerion did it on purpose to win the match in the most dishonorable way possible and also to send a message that he can do whatever he wants because he is a prince, someone in the crowd throws something at Aerions helmet maybe a rock or a piece of shit and it snaps his visor shut which is pretty funny but also dangerous because now the crowd is pissed off at the royal family. The whole scene is rough and the show does not hold back on showing the violence, you see the horse bleeding out and some guy has to come put it down with a weapon which is heartbreaking, Ser Humfrey is screaming in pain from his broken leg and his whole career as a knight is basically over now, Duncan and Egg both look horrified by what happened and Egg says it was not an accident Aerion went for the horse on purpose. Raymun Fossoway tells Duncan later that Aerion is a vicious fighter who only acts nice when his father Prince Maekar is watching but goes full psycho when no one important is around, he also goes on about how Targaryens are incestuous aliens who burned the kingdom and enslaved people and the only honorable thing they can do is finish on their wives tits which is harsh but also shows how much the regular people hate the royal family now that the dragons are gone. The whole conversation makes Duncan realize that this tourney is not about honor or chivalry at all, its just rich people playing games while the common people suffer and die for their entertainment.

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Duncan and Egg end up at the puppet show tent where Tanselle is performing, she does a show about Serwyn and the dragon where the knight stabs the dragon in the neck just like how Aerion stabbed the horse earlier, its a callback that pisses off Aerion who is drunk and horseless after Lord Ashford made him give away his mount as punishment for killing Ser Humfreys horse. Aerion walks into the puppet tent after the show and starts attacking Tanselle, he grabs her and breaks her fingers one by one because he is mad about the puppet show making fun of him and dragons losing, its cruel and unnecessary and shows what kind of person Aerion really is, he does not care about hurting people specially women and commoners because he thinks his royal blood makes him untouchable. Duncan hears whats happening and rushes in to stop Aerion, he sees Tanselles father Tansyl dead on the ground and Aerion breaking her hand, Duncan goes into a rage and tackles Aerion to the ground kicking him in the face and loosening one of his teeth, Aerion tries to pull his sword but Duncan is faster and beats the shit out of him in front of his guards. Aerion asks why Duncan threw his life away for some girl who is not worth it but Duncan does not care, he did what he thought was right even though it means he just assaulted a prince which is basically a death sentence in Westeros, Aerion says the dragon never loses and threatens to break all of Duncans teeth for loosening one of his, the guards surround Duncan and it looks like they are about to kill him right there in the tent. Egg runs in and tells the guards to stop, he calls them by name and orders them to release Duncan, Aerion recognizes Eggs voice and asks what happened to his hair, Egg says I cut it off brother I did not want to look like you. Everyone freezes because they just realized Egg is Prince Aegon Targaryen the fourth son of Prince Maekar, the episode ends on that reveal with everyone looking shocked, its a great cliffhanger because now Duncan is in even more trouble for attacking a prince while being the squire to another prince, and Egg just blew his cover which means he has to go back to his shitty royal life.

This episode works so well because it builds up the friendship between Duncan and Egg while also showing how dangerous Westeros really is, the lighter tone from the first two episodes is completely gone by the end and you realize this is still Game of Thrones where bad things happen to good people all the time. The whole thing with Aerion killing the horse was shocking because the show spent time making you care about Thunder and how Egg was training him, so when Aerions horse dies it hits harder because you know how much losing an animal like that would hurt, Duncan loves horses as much as he loves people maybe even more so seeing one get killed for no reason other than Aerions ego was probably the breaking point for him. The stuff with the fortune teller earlier in the episode was creepy, she tells Duncan he will be rich and successful but she tells Egg he will be king and die in hot fire and worms will eat his ashes and everyone who knows him will be happy when he dies, its a dark prophecy for a little kid to hear and you can tell it freaks Egg out even though Duncan laughs it off as a joke. All the scenes with Raymun Fossoway talking about how much people hate the Targaryens were important because it shows the political situation in Westeros right now, the royal family is hanging on by a thread and if they keep doing stuff like killing horses and hurting commoners eventually there will be another rebellion, Raymuns line about them being incestuous aliens was funny but also true, without dragons the Targaryens are just weird looking foreigners who married their own siblings for generations and now expect everyone to bow down to them. I really liked the scenes with Egg talking about wanting to live a simple life with horses and cows, it shows he is not like the rest of his family, he does not want power or glory he just wants to be left alone to do his own thing, but the episode ends with him losing that dream because now everyone knows who he really is and he has to deal with the consequences of being a prince.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #knight, #westeros, #targaryen, #duncan, #egg, #aerion, #tournament, #joust, #ashford, #squire, #prince, #honor, #betrayal, #violence, #horse, #tavern, #reveal, #brotherhood, #medieval, #fantasy, #hbo, #series, #recap, #episode, #danger

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Im a bit split in between Chapter 1 and 2, same as on my previous post none of this are better than the original although I do prefer Chapter 2, I think was a bit just a bit better but I can understand how this can be a massive disappointment to the audience considering they have now done two movies that do not cover up half of how good the first one was. Today I watch most of this movie while I was waiting to get my hair cut and it had me checking the guy before me and watch multiple times wondering when something interesting was actually going to happen. When they announced this trilogy being shot back to back I got excited thinking they had some killer ideas to justify three whole movies, turns out they had nothing and this second one proves it completely and now my hopes are lower for the upcoming and final Chapter 3. The concept of one long chase from hospital to woods sounded cool but everything about it felt rushed and lazy, the kills are mostly weak cutaway shots like some PG 13 trash, the Shelly backstory adds nothing and makes the strangers less scary, plus there is this bizarre wild boar scene that is so out of place I still cannot believe they included it. Madelaine Petsch does her absolute best with what she is given but the script offers nothing beyond just surviving, no character goals or creativity in how she escapes these masked killers and it shows. Everything feels pointless like it could have been twenty minutes tacked onto Chapter 1 instead of its own movie, then it ends with to be continued a big wtf moment for me so my only hope is that Chapter 3 does its own thing but most likely will be a continuation of whats going on unless they go with a bunch of flashbacks that gives more context but I dont see anything hidden that needs much explaining. They took terrifying characters from the original 2008 movie and turned them into boring nothing villains I do not care about anymore, that is actually an achievement when you think about it because those characters used to be scary.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt28671344/
• Platform: STARz

Rottentomatoes Rating

Source This whole thing picks up right after Maya wakes in the hospital following the attack that killed her fiance Ryan, she is processing everything while knowing these killers are still out there hunting her down. The hospital sequence works decently for the most part and its here where I think it was slightly better, we got Maya sneaking around avoiding the strangers who got inside and are killing staff members but then it becomes this repetitive loop where she hides runs hides runs with zero variation whatsoever and it gets old fast. They try adding emotional weight by showing her trying to escape through the morgue where she climbs into one of those body storage racks but it is heavy handed and obvious, we get she is traumatized but come on show us something new instead of recycling every horror movie cliche. Once she escapes things get even more boring because now she is running through woods while killers chase at a casual pace like they do not really care about catching her at all or they just already know where she is going to end up, there are this long stretches where absolutely nothing happens at the woods. Maya literally walks and try to stitch wounds, then suddenly a stranger pops up for a quick jumpscare before vanishing again for fifteen minutes, I kept waiting for it to kick into high gear and deliver something wild but it never does. She runs into random people throughout the night including Nurse Danica and her roommates Gregory, Chris and Wayne, and you are never sure if these people are actually trying to help or if they are part of some bigger conspiracy in this town, now thats is the only topic that might data dump it on Chapter 3 like the entire town is one big trap where everyone participates. I kinda do this when a movie is not that good, expecting a twist or surprise that saves it but no clever twists or surprises just the same stuff over and over until the credits finally roll and you feel like you wasted your time.

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Source The kills are such a letdown for a slasher trying to be dark and brutal based on marketing, most deaths happen off screen with weird angles hiding actual violence so you see someone grabbed then cut to their corpse on the ground a minute later. A few moments show some gore like crossbow killings or stabbings but nothing stands out or makes you think damn that was crazy, just standard stuff done better in tons of other horror movies over the years. The strangers are not scary this time, because they get too much screen time and this Shelly backstory nobody wanted or asked for at all, flashbacks reveal she killed a girl named Tamara when they were kids at school, beat her to death with a rock over childhood jealousy and now she grew up as Pin Up Girl one of the masked killers. It makes much sense and ruins the mystery that made the originals work so well but I guess thats the jist of this story to slowly reveal who the hell are this people, their motives, their reasons and why the damn masks, but I think more of the audience is more used to the idea that the whole point was random faceless killers with no motive beyond because you were home. Giving them names and tragic pasts turns them into regular slasher villains that are not interesting anymore, they also introduce random characters showing up five minutes before dying like this state trooper Billy Bufford and the horse farm owner named Shar. None of these people matter or add anything they just pad body count and waste time filling up runtime that already feels way too long, Gregory at least tries to help Maya by telling her she is the only one who survived these killers but then he leaves and gets killed anyway so what was the point of that whole interaction.

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Source Now one or probably the only memorable part of the movie and not necesarly because it was good, its the wild boar scene where this completely lost me and went from boring to actually laughable, what the hell were they thinking with this decision. Maya is running through woods and finds an abandoned campsite, builds a fire treating wounds which makes no sense because smoke gives away her position, then out of nowhere a giant wild pig attacks her for five straight minutes and it is absurd. She fights this thing with sticks eventually killing it with a knife, then I was thinking is this the strangers or some nature survival movie now, it feels like a different movie breaking any suspense built up to that point. Watching Madelaine Petsch wrestle a CGI boar biting her leg and stepping on her back looks ridiculous, after killing it there is a long face shot where I guess we think she has become a killer too or something deep but it comes across silly and tryhard instead. The movie keeps throwing random elements that do not fit like Maya showing up at the cabin from Chapter 1 and changing clothes, the ambulance crash at the end where Pin Up Girl flies through the windshield and dies after Maya stabbed her in the neck with scissors, meanwhile Scarecrow and Dollface just show up to mourn her while Maya watches from the woods. The script could not decide what kind of movie it wanted so it tried everything at once which is disappointing, Renny Harlin proved he can direct good stuff before but this feels lazy like he had no real ideas making a full sequel work at all.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #strangers, #chapter, #horror, #slasher, #sequel, #maya, #hospital, #chase, #woods, #killers, #dollface, #tamara, #backstory, #disappointing, #boring, #trilogy, #maline, #pesh, #deaths, #offscreen, #boar, #scene, #ambulance, #review, #rating

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It usually gets like this when I skip a few episodes of a series, I left it of latter and todays is latter, its a Sunday and I wake up early, did a few things before sitting down and starting to watch some content, decided fo finish Pluribus before I move on into continue with Wonder Man. The season finale wrapped up pretty good I would say and the whole situation where Carol has to decide between saving Zosia or the world hits different after everything that went down, because we spent all season watching her get manipulated by the Hive and finally she is waking up to the fact that they played her from the start. The big egg reveal was something everyone saw coming from miles away, the second they mentioned freezing eggs earlier I suspect that was going to be the loophole the Hive uses to get her stem cells without technically breaking the consent rule, but even though it was predictable it still landed well because you see the fear and betrayal kick in on Carols face when she realizes what is about to happen to her, she thought she had control over this whole thing and turns out she never did. Zosia being part of that betrayal too is what really hurts because Carol spent so much time convincing herself that the individual version of Zosia was real and not just the Hive pretending to care about her individually, honestly it was stupid, but that scene where Zosia tells her they love everyone equally really shows how fake that connection was all along and that the Hive does not do special bonds or real human love, they just do this weird distributed affection thing that sounds nice but feels hollow when you really think about it. The fact that Carol goes from being all colorful and happy to back in black with an atom bomb shows how fast reality hit and Manousos asking her do you want to save the world or the girl is the perfect question to basically point out what this whole season was about, Carol was broken after Helen death and the Hive knew it they just had to wait and wait until she needed someone, that someone was Zosia. I get why people are excited about Carol and Manousos finally teaming up to take down the Hive and that final shot of them with the bomb is cool I guess, but bringing in an atom bomb this late feels like the series is going over the top to make things more intense instead of just letting the thing breathe on its own, it feels a bit rushed considering how much time they spent on other stuff during the season. Still seeing Carol go full badass mode again after spending most of the season doubting herself is satisfying and that moment where she shoots the shotgun through the wall to stop Manousos from experimenting on Rick was pretty damn tense and shows she still has limits even when she is mad at the Hive, she is not going to let him kill people just to prove a point.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22202452/
• Platform: AppleTV+

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The clock is still thicking and episode 9 is seventy one days before the finale with this younger immune Peruvian girl named Kusimayu getting turned into the Hive, she was in episode two and I totally forgot about her until she showed up again, they bring her this formula that will let get turn into the Hive, she just drinks it and boom she is one of them now. She was curious about what it felt like so I guess she wanted to join since she constantly said wants to be with her family, which makes sense but also feels sad because you know once you are in you are never coming back out of that thing, your individuality is just gone forever and replaced with this collective consciousness that pretends to care about you but most likely will starve to death. They show this whole elaborate ceremony with the entire village gathered to chant and support her as she becomes part of the Hive, but the second the conversion is complete they all fall silent and swiftly move to abandon the place which is creepy and shows how the Hive only cares about spreading not about actually staying with people once they convert them, because once she convert then everyone who was pretending to be there for her became just another number, its almost like your hari. Now into much more bigger stuff, Manousos finally arrives in Albuquerque to meet Carol and right away you can tell these two do not trust each other at all which makes sense because Manousos thinks the Hive is evil and Carol is basically in love with one of them. He refuses to get in Carol's place and preffer the ambulance because he thinks the Hive is watching with satellites, then he compromise so he asks for an umbrella to hide from the drones which seems paranoid but also he is probably right, those weirdos do have eyes everywhere watching everything. The whole language barrier thing between them is handled really well, Manousos speaks some English but not a lot so half their conversation is in Spanish and the other half is broken English, it feels realistic instead of just having everyone speak perfect English like most shows do when they have international characters, I appreciate that they did not take the easy way out on this. Carol takes him inside her house and Manousos starts checking for bugs, and sure enough he finds a movement sensor in her liquor cabinet that Helen planted years ago to make sure she was not drinking, the Hive admits this and says they been monitoring it but they frame it like they were just helping Helen keep track of her sobriety which is such bullshit manipulation. Manousos calls the Hive on the phone and starts asking them questions, and because its their nature they have to answer him with complete truth even though they know he is using that information against them, that whole we cannot lie thing really backfires on them here and its satisfying to watch.

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Source The next day things get crazy when Manousos does his frequency experiment and causes a bunch of Hive members to go into seizures all at once after he kept screaming at one of them, its the same thing he tried earlier in the season but this time its way more people and you can tell Carol is pissed because she knows a lot of them probably just died from that. Zosia sits down right before it happens because the Hive warned her it was coming, which shows they learned from the first time Manousos tried this but even with the warning it still looked bad, I would just imagine people dropping all over the place. Manousos is trying to bring a guy name Rick back by talking to him while he is seizing, saying listen Rick I am here you can come back and for a second it feels like it might actually work because Rick seems like he is responding to his voice but this could be just me hoping it really happen for a big twist in all this, but then Carol grabs the shotgun and shoots it through the wall to make Manousos back away before he can finish his experiment. That moment is so intense because you are not sure if Carol did the right thing, like maybe Manousos was actually about to save Rick and bring him back to being human again or maybe he was just causing more damage and Carol stopped him from killing someone, at the same time I kind of love that they did not spell it out. Laxmi calls Carlo pissed off assuming it was her and then Zosia and all the others leave Albuquerque again because of what Manousos did, you can see Carol is torn because part of her wants to stay with Zosia but another part of her knows Manousos is right about needing to fix this whole mess, its a great internal conflict that they built up over the entire season and it finally comes to a head here.

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Source Then we get all these scenes of Carol traveling the world with Zosia, they go skiing and to the beach and it looks like Carol is the happiest she has been during the entire series or probably years of her life, all those happy chemicals flowing through her bloodstream making everything feel perfect, but you can tell something is off because Carol keeps asking questions about Zosia past, like did you have someone before you joined the Hive and Zosia says yes but they are dead now which makes Carol realize that even this relationship she thinks is so special is just the Hive pretending to be whoever Carol needs them to be, its not real love its just a simulation of it. The whole conversation where Zosia admits they have Carols frozen eggs and can turn those into stem cells without her consent is the final nail, you see the exact moment Carols face changes when she understands she has been played this entire time, Rhae Seehorn does such a great job during this scene with her expressions. Zosia tries to justify it by saying they love Carol and have to do this, but Carol throws it back at her saying if you loved me you would not do this, and Zosia just responds with we have to do this because we love you which is the most fucked up logic ever, its like an abusive relationship where someone says I hurt you because I care about you. That young Peruvian girl Kusimayu from the opening gets brought up again and Zosia says she just joined us and I promise you she is happier than she has ever been, which is such manipulative garbage because yeah she might feel happy but she also lost her entire identity and in fact who knows if she even exist anymore and this is just a virus that turn a human into a tool and ctrl+shift+del free will in the process, the Hive always frames everything like its a good thing when really its just them taking over more people.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #pluribus, #finale, #recap, #carol, #zosa, #hive, #manus, #betrayal, #manipulation, #scifi, #thriller, #bomb, #choice, #survival, #stemcells, #trust, #relationship, #sacrifice, #experiment, #seizure, #collective, #consciousness, #albuquerque, #episode, #season

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The Wrecking Crew is one of those movies where you just turn your brain off and enjoy the ride, you are not getting some masterpiece here but you are getting Jason Momoa and Dave Bautista being themselves and having fun witch makes the whole thing work way better than it should and I think this is something that works just great with streaming type of movies, its almost like an in between and you dont tend to expect much so it surprise you. Two half brothers Jonny and James have not talked in years because of family drama and all that mess, their dad Walter gets killed in what looks like a hit and run but surprise surprise its not just some random accident, turns out there is Yakuza involved and a dirty developer and all this crazy underworld stuff happening on the islands. Jonny is this loose cannon cop who got suspended from his job back in Oklahoma for doing some questionable stuff, he drinks way too much and curses the entire time while James is this by the book Navy SEAL who keeps his life together and follows all the rules but even he has his own issues to deal with. When their dad dies Yakuza guys actually attack Jonny at his Oklahoma home looking for a package Walter supposedly sent him, thats when everything goes to hell because people start trying to kill them left and right and they gotta figure out who actually murdered their dad and why, the whole thing is basically them running around Hawaii causing mayhem and destroying everything in their path while trying to solve this mystery that is not that hard to figure out if you pay attention for like the first 30 min. Director Angel Manuel Soto who did Blue Beetle a couple years back knows how to shoot action and keep things interesting especially with Hawaii as the backdrop, some of those closing shots were beautiful, the action is solid but nothing you have not seen before, there is fight scenes in hallways, there is helicopter chases on highways where innocent people definitely died but nobody seems to care, there is shootouts in compounds and on streets where civilians are just getting caught in the crossfire and its kinda wild how they just brush past that like its no big deal.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt33046197/
• Platform: PRIME VIDEO

Rottentomatoes Rating

Source The tone for this movie is kinda of a mix because one minute its this fun buddy cop comedy with Jason making jokes and cursing everyone out, then the next minute its trying to be serious with family drama and revenge but it never really commits to either on fully so you end up with this weird mix that works sometimes but also feels messy. Jason Momoa is basically playing himself again witch is not a bad thing because he is fun to watch, he brings this energy where he is always drinking beer and making one liners and not taking anything seriously even when people are shooting at him. Dave Bautista is the straight man trying to keep things together and he does a good job balancing out Jasons craziness, their chemistry feels natural like you actually believe these dudes could be brothers even though they look nothing alike and have completely different personalities, there is this running joke where people keep commenting on how big they are and how they look like they eat steroid pancakes for breakfast witch made me laugh because its true. The supporting cast is pretty solid too with Jacob Batalon as Pika who is basically the tech guy that helps them out and he was way funnier than I expected because he was swearing his ass off the whole time, Morena Baccarin shows up as Valentina and she is great, she has this scene with chili pepper water that was so random and stupid but also hilarious, she really steals some scenes from the two big guys witch is impressive. Temuera Morrison aka Boba Fett is in this too as the Syndicate leader Mr. K and Claes Bang plays Marcus Robichaux the developer villain, the moment you see them you know they are gonna be important to the plot because they are the other recognizable faces in the cast besides the leads, they do not even try to hide it so there is no real surprise there.

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The script of the movie at times felt like it tries to do too much with conspiracies and twists and connections to Hawaiian culture but it ends up feeling cluttered and unfocused, there is stuff about illegal gambling and dirty money and corrupt politicians that is nothing new or groundbraken but none of it gets looked at deeply enough to actually mean anything, they throw in these emotional aspects of the story about family and brotherhood and letting go of the past but since this two are not that serious most of they time they are together then first you dont care much about their thoughts and feelings, I guess based on the style of the movie looks like something that was planned. Jonny has this whole backstory about his mom being murdered when he was young and he been trying to find her killer for years. James actually sent Jonny away to Oklahoma to save his life from the Syndicate because Jonny was going after them for his moms death and it caused all this tension between the brothers for decades, some of the main reasons they stay apart aside form the fact they kept arguing when ever the could. That subplot gets solved in the most flat way possible you could imagine that takes so much away from the movie when Mr. K gives Jonny the name of the actual killer at the end because he appreciated that they took out the Yakuza and Jonny just burns the note with the killers name without even looking at it, its supposed to be this big moment of him letting go and self healing doing the right thing not going for revenge but it doesnt hit, same thing with James who supposedly feels guilty for being a bad brother but we dont see enough of their relationship to care when they finally make up after having a fist fight on the beach to settle their differences. The really sad part of the story is the villains because it looks like they put minimal effort on making them interesting and not been their just to fillup the place, almost like just to give this two someone to fight, Marcus Robichaux is this developer with shady business trying to build casinos which are illegal in Hawaii so obviously he is doing corrupt shit, Walter was actually hired by both Marcus and his wife Monica to investigate each other witch is kinda funny, when Monica turns up dead Jonny knows Marcus killed her and that connects everything back to their dads murder. Stephen Root shows up as the police chief who is your typical authority figure that yells at them for causing chaos but never actually stops them from doing whatever they want, where it actually shines is in the gore and the kill scenes because they did not hold back on the violence, there is a part where someones arm gets ripped off and another where a dudes face gets grated on the street like a cheese grater and it was brutal in a good way.

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The action is the most fun even if its nothing too smart, the highway scene with the helicopter was over the top and ridiculous but also entertaining in a turn your brain off kind of way, same with the final shootout at Marcus compound where they just mow down dozens of guys without much effort and rescue James wife Leila and daughter Nani who got kidnapped, they lean into that 80s action vibe where the good guys never miss and the bad guys cant hit anything even from five feet away, its dumb but it works because it knows what it is and doesnt try to be something more serious or grounded. The Hawaiian setting is used well visually but they do not do much with the culture beyond surface level stuff, they mention some local things and show some scenery but it never feels real or lived in like they actually working the island, its more like Hawaii is just a backdrop for all the explosions rather than an actual character in the story. Angel Manuel Soto tries to bring some of that island respect into it and you can tell he cares about it properly, the biggest issue with The Wrecking Crew is that its trying to be too many things at once and ends up not being great at any of them, its not funny enough to be a full comedy, not serious enough to be a drama, not smart enough to be a thriller and not crazy enough to be a balls to the wall action thing like it should have been. If they had just leaned all the way into the stupidity and made it a full on brainless action fest it probably would have been way more fun, instead it keeps trying to have these moments of depth and meaning that just fall flat because the rest is so ridiculous, its the kind of thing where you watch it once and forget about it a week later, nothing about it sticks with you except maybe a couple of the gnarly kill scenes and the fact that Jason and Dave have good chemistry together.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #wreckingcrew, #jasonmomoa, #davebautista, #action, #comedy, #buddycop, #hawaii, #primevideo, #movie, #review, #yakuza, #brothers, #revenge, #fighting, #explosions, #gore, #violence, #thriller, #2026, #angelmanuesoto, #marinabacharin, #tamoramorrison, #jacobbatalon, #streaming, #entertainment

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This has to be one of those franchise most people do not like but somehow I do, Im probably too soft when it comes to criticism and my scores are often higher than normal but I think I land at least the number for this one, The Strangers Chapter 1 I woulndt call it a complete waste of time but you will find me ranting a bit here because yeah they could have done way better. Now with Chapter 3 releasing on February I wanted to watch all movies starting from the OG that I posted about a few days ago. This whole thing is just a lazy copy of the 2008 movie but somehow they managed to strip away everything that made the original work in the first place. When they announced this was gonna be part of a trilogy I got excited because I thought maybe we would finally get some answers about who these masked psychos are and why they do what they do to random people, but after watching Chapter 1 it didnt do much context so I realized they are just dragging this out for no good reason except to milk more money out of a franchise that should have stayed dead or they really going to data dump on Chapter 3, almost like doing the reboot, sequel and prequel all in one package of a trilogy, so I dont know whats next and dont expect too much out of it. The whole setup feels so played out and tired, you got Maya and Ryan driving through Oregon on some road trip and of course their car breaks down in the middle of nowhere at the sketchiest town you have ever seen, with creepy kids handing out bibles and mechanics that look like they wanna murder you before you even get out of the vehicle. These two idiots decide to stay at some random cabin in the woods even though every single person in that town gave them bad vibes from the second they arrived, but no they just go with it because the script needed them to be stupid enough to put themselves in danger without any logical reason behind it.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt22050754/
• Platform: PRIME VIDEO

Rottentomatoes Rating

Source The whole movie just recycles the same exact story elements from the 2008 version but makes everything worse somehow, instead of building dread and making you feel uncomfortable they just throw in cheap jump scares and people standing in doorways for two seconds before disappearing into thin air. Maya keeps seeing the masked woman at the door asking for some person who does not live there, then she sees one of them inside the house while she is in the shower, then the power goes out and suddenly all three of them are running around the cabin playing hide and seek with a couple that has zero survival instincts between them. Ryan leaves Maya alone multiple times to go back into town for his inhaler or to get food, even though there is a psychopath knocking on their door and acting like everything is totally fine, also this guy has zero balls when he had doll face on sight with the shotgun but I guess she had him all the time, but still who the hell does that when your girlfriend is freaking out about masked strangers lurking around the property. Then when he finally comes back with his burger he just eats like a complete slob with ketchup dripping everywhere, the camera zooms in on his face while he chews and I kept waiting for something to happen like him getting attacked from the back or something, but nope, its like the movie just wanted to watch him eat the damn burger.

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Source The kills in this movie are so weak and disappointing, for something rated R you would expect some actual gore or creative violence but every single death happens off screen or cuts away at the last second, reminds me of FNAF 1 & 2 where they did choose to be PG 13 when they should be R rated, so it was like a backwards situation, so yeah kinda the same which is just embarrassing for a horror movie over all like whats the point. They give Ryan a shotgun at one point and instead of using it to actually defend themselves he just puts it down on the ground so he can hug Maya with his back turned to both the door and the window, there are so many scenes that were too predictable and honestly nobody in real life would be that dumb even in a panic situation. The strangers themselves are not scary at all in this version, they just stand around doing nothing most of the time and the few moments where they actually attack someone it happens so fast you barely see anything, the whole point of the masks in the original was to make them feel inhuman and unpredictable but here they just feel like random people cosplaying horror movie characters. They set this up as chapter one of a trilogy and spent the whole movie teasing that we might finally learn who these people are and why they target random victims, but by the end you get absolutely nothing except hints that maybe the next two movies will explain it all which feels like such a ripoff after sitting through this boring retread of a story we already saw done better sixteen years ago.

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Source The two lead characters have zero chemistry together, you are supposed to believe they have been dating for five years and Ryan is about to propose because why not make this cliche, but they act like strangers who just met last week and got stuck together on a road trip neither of them wanted to take. The dialogue is so bad it made me cringe multiple times, they say things no real person would ever say in those situations and make decisions that only exist because the plot needed them to stay in danger instead of just leaving when they had multiple chances to get out, you might think they act they way they do because they are been push by this psychos like real psychological horror situation, almost like the OG SAW movie but its not, they just dumb as hell. When they find a dead bird hanging upside down in the cabin they finally realize something is wrong but instead of grabbing their stuff and running to the road or hiding in the woods they decide to crawl under the house through a vent and then run straight into a shack five feet away from the cabin, staying on the property where the killers obviously know every inch of the area. Ryan sprains his ankle or his leg gets stuck at some point but then somehow he is still moving around fine, the whole scene makes no sense and just exists to give them a weapon they will immediately waste by making more stupid choices that get them almost killed again and again.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #strangers, #horror, #remake, #trilogy, #disappointing, #slasher, #masks, #cabin, #Oregon, #survival, #jump, #scares, #weak, #kills, #shotgun, #psychopath, #retread, #boring, #outdated, #chemistry, #dialogue, #cringe, #violence, #sequel, #waste

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What happened to you, Amenábar?