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A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms just dropped and this feels completely different from anything we have seen in this universe before, like the whole vibe is way more light and chill compared to Game of Thrones or House of the Dragon where everyone is scheming and killing each other every five seconds, this episode is basically just Duncan and Egg meeting each other and going to this tournament, nothing crazy happens except for some jousting setup and people getting slapped around witch was funny the way they edited those scenes together. The music fakeout at the start had me thinking we were getting some epic intro but nope, just a dude burying his mentor and talking to horses, witch I actually do not mind because it gives us time to see who Duncan really is without throwing a million characters at us right away, the setup is simple and works better that way. The whole thing with Egg lying about his name and Duncan just going along with it even though he knows this kid is probably Targaryen royalty or something, that dynamic between them is what makes the episode worth watching because you can tell these two are gonna have this brother type bond as the series goes on, they got this chemistry right from the start witch is rare. What bugs me a little is how short the episode feels, like it ends right when things are getting interesting and I know the rest of the season is gonna be even shorter episodes witch worries me because I want more time with these characters but at the same time keeping it tight and focused might work better than dragging things out for no reason, we will see how it plays out as more episodes drop.

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

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Source The tournament setup takes up most of the episode and its basically just Duncan walking around trying to get someone to vouch for him so he can compete, he goes to the Dondarrion pavilion looking for Sir Manfred because Sir Arlan fought alongside Manfreds father in Dorne hunting down outlaws. Two guys make fun of Duncan for being a hedge knight witch is what they call wandering knights without a master, they sleep in hedges because no lord will have them and everyone looks down on them like trash, but Sir Arlan always told Duncan that hedge knights were the truest kind of knight because they serve out of personal conviction not feudal obligation or land ownership. Duncan sees Raymond Fossoway getting beat up by his older cousin Sir Stefan Fossoway who is a real piece of shit, Stefan asks Duncan to try him in battle but he decline as its not his problem, this shows that Duncan isnt some hero rushing in to save people he is just trying to survive and not make enemies before the tournament even starts. Later Duncan goes to this big party at the Baratheon pavilion and meets Lionel Baratheon who is called the Laughing Storm because he laughs at his opponents during battle, Lionel is heir to Storms End and loves fighting, he asks Duncan why he slouches all the time when the gods gave him tallness and tells him to just be who he is without shame. The two of them get drunk together and dance and Duncan stomps on Lionels feet witch makes the lord laugh even harder, Lionel tells a story about almost dying in a storm at sea but pushing through witch is supposed to parallel Duncans situation going into this tournament, by the end of the night Duncan is wearing Lionels stag crown and they are best friends even though they just met a few hours ago.

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Source After the party Duncan finally finds Sir Manfred Dondarrion but Manfred doesnt remember Sir Arlan at all, he says House Dondarrion launched several excursions into Dorne with hundreds of men losing their lives so one random hedge knight doesnt stand out in his memory, Duncan gets rejected and walks away with no vouch and no way into the tournament witch is a bummer. Back at camp Egg has set up a fire and caught a fish and tended all the horses, Duncan makes a deal to keep Egg on as his squire until the end of the tournament promising to feed and clothe him but not beat him except when he deserves it, Egg is just happy to have a place to stay and someone who treats him decent even if Duncan is broke as hell. The falling star moment at the end is beautiful because it shows these two outsiders finding each other, Duncan is a hedge knight pretending to be something he might not be and Egg is a royal kid pretending to be a peasant both of them are lying about who they are but they connect anyway, thats what makes their relationship work so well even this early on, Im sure all this lies are going to become a problem at some point in time either between them or around them, most important if any of the two will get piss off because the other was lying, I bet will be Duncan who gets piss when Egg gets him in some kind of trouble with royal family for having him as his squire. At the end of the episode Duncan still doesnt have a vouch to compete and the whole thing could fall apart before it even starts, but at least he has Egg now and that counts for something in a world where most people are alone and struggling just to make it through the day.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #knight, #duncan, #egg, #tournament, #asheford, #westeros, #targaryen, #hedge, #baratheon, #lionel, #arlan, #squire, #horses, #armor, #jousting, #dondarrion, #fossoway, #pennytree, #pavilion, #medieval, #hbo, #recap, #episode, #series, #fantasy

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Episode 8 of Pluribus was probably the most important one of the season so far when it comes to understanding what the hell the hive mind actually wants and where this whole thing is going, like this episode gave us so much information that we been waiting for since the beginning but at the same time it made everything more complicated because Carol is now in this weird position where she is falling for Zosa but also trying to save the world from the hive. The whole thing between Carol and Zosa in this episode was wild because you got Carol pretending to be all friendly and nice so she can gather intel about the hive, making her little whiteboard notes like some kind of detective and then you got Zosa and the hive doing the exact same thing back to her by overwhelming her with kindness and nostalgia so she stops trying to reverse the joining. Its like watching two people play chess but both of them think they winning when really they both just manipulating each other and the craziest part is Carol knows whats happening but she still ends up sleeping with Zosa at the end witch was definitely not something I expected to happen this fast but here we are, btw the sleeping part doesnt mean sex, but spending the night.

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

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The episode opens up with Manusos waking up in the hospital after getting rescued from that Darien Gap situation where he fell into that tree with all the thorns and the dude is still being stubborn as hell refusing to accept any help from the hive even though they literally saved his life and patched him up. He threatens them with a scalpel just so he can leave the hospital and he even asks for an itemized bill for all the medical expenses because hes so stuck in his moral code that he cant just accept help without paying for it, witch is hilarious and also sad at the same time because this guy is willing to die rather than owe the hive anything. The hive members just stand there smiling while he does this witch is creepy as fuck, like they not even mad or upset they just happy to let him go because they know he gonna keep doing what he wants anyway. Manusos takes an ambulance and continues driving towards New Mexico to find Carol, and by the end of the episode hes only 31 kilometers away from crossing the border into the United States witch means hes gonna show up next episode and find out that Carol has been getting real cozy with the hive, thats gonna be an awkward conversation for sure. Back in New Mexico Carol is playing her own game with Zosa by acting all nice and friendly so she can ask questions about how the hive works without them getting suspicious, she even makes Zosa pink lemonade and offers to play board games with her witch is funny because Carol is the last person you would expect to be playing cards and acting all domestic, she really sells the part she have feelings for Zosa and I think she does. They play this game called Spit that Carol used to play with her cousins and the whole time Carol is asking questions about where the hive sleeps and how they communicate and what there plan is for the future and Zosa just answers everything honestly because the hive cant lie or at least thats what they want us to believe. The a very weird thing happens that its very logical from the science stand point, the hive sleeps together in giant rooms like stadiums and event centers because its more efficient to heat and cool one big space than a bunch of small ones, witch makes sense but also sounds like a bit creepy if it would be a bunch of strangers but lets remember they all the same mind, been already there Zosa insist Carol to stay over one night to see what its like and she wakes up in the middle of the night with her arm on Zosa witch freaks her out a little because she realizes that the whole world knows she did that, like there is no privacy anymore when your sleeping next to someone whos connected to 7 billion other people.

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The biggest reveals in this episode come when Carol and Zosa go on a hike and Carol starts asking deeper questions about how the hive communicate and where the joining came from and Zosa explains that they use some kind of electromagnetic field in there body that acts like a natural electric charge that connects them all together unconsciously like breathing. Carol has this same field in her body but its just not being used witch is interesting because it makes you wonder if Carol could somehow disrupt that signal or interfere with it to weaken the hive, that could be important later on when she tries to reverse the joining and I dont know if this is just a lucky guess but I think thats what Manusos has been trying to research some how, remember how he was going through radio signals back at home, I think has something to do with it. Then Zosa takes Carol to look at the stars and shows her the planet Kepler 22b witch is 600 light years away and is where the original signal came from that started the joining, well the signal that on the first episode the scientist got through the big antenas, its not so clear if someone got posses by the signal or it was just an accident them trying to recreate the formula and accidentally lab rat injected with the formula bit that woman, but apparently the hive wants to build a giant antenna using all the electricity on Earth to send a signal back out into space so they can spread the joining to other planets witch is terrifying when you think about it, this is almost the Thanos way. The hive is basically a virus that wants to reproduce itself across the entire universe and infect every planet with life and there calling it paying it forward like its some kind of gift when really its just taking over everything and destroying individuality on a cosmic scale, not only that but also starve to death every single living thing they infect.

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The most emotional part of the episode happens when Zosa takes Carol to her favorite diner from when she was younger, the place where she first started writing her Wicaro books and Carol is super happy and nostalgic about it until she realizes the diner actually burned down years ago and the hive rebuilt it from scratch just to make her feel good. They even flew in the old waitress Bri from Miami where she was living her new life just to play act this whole scenario, to me this shows how stupid the Hive Mind can be and not measuring they were too obvious and going too far with the act, thats when Carol snaps and realizes how manipulative the whole thing is because the hive is literally using her memories against her to distract her from trying to save the world. She drives off and goes home and Zosa follows her and they have this big fight where Carol calls out the hive for being manipulative and says someone has to put the world right even if it means being alone forever, but then Zosa kisses her and Carol kisses back and they end up sleeping together witch was definitely a turning point for both of them. You can tell Carol is torn between wanting to save the world and wanting to be with Zosa because she been alone for 60 days now and she misses human connection and the hive knows this and is using it against her but at the same time Carol is also using Zosa to get more information so its hard to say whos really winning this game. The next morning Carol wakes up and starts writing her new Wicaro book and makes the character Rabbon a woman instead of a man witch is her way of finally embracing her sexuality through her art I guess, this is the thing I dont like when content takes such a strong genre position, a problem Im starting to have with this series but I hope this is the only episode they go hard with it and just start to tame it down and go back to the important stuff, stop the joining.

The episode ends with Zosa freezing mid conversation and telling Carol shes about to have a visitor and then it cuts to Manusos driving towards the US border witch means hes about to show up and find Carol living with the hive and writing books and sleeping with Zosa. This is gonna create some serious tension because Manusos has no idea that Carol has gotten this close to the hive and he is probably gonna think she betrayed him or gave up on saving the world when really shes still gathering information and trying to figure out how to reverse the joining. The whole situation is messy and with one episode to end this season its going to be interesting how big of a contrast is Carol to Manusos personality. The finale is going to be interesting because you got Carol trying to play both sides, Manusos showing up ready to fight the hive and Zosa caught in the middle of all this just trying to make Carol happy. This episode was probably an 7.5 out of 10 for me because it had so much important information and character development but it also felt a little slow at times with all the board games and hiking scenes, but the ending made up for it and now I am hyped as hell for the finale.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #pluribus, #recap, #episode, #carol, #zosa, #hive, #manusos, #manipulation, #kepler, #joining, #antenna, #signal, #alien, #whiteboard, #diner, #nostalgia, #kiss, #relationship, #electromagnetic, #communication, #starving, #reversal, #finale, #betrayal, #tension

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So this third Now You See Me movie is exactly what happens when a studio decides to milk a franchise way past its expiration date and look I get it they made decent money with the first two so why not go for round three right, well that doesnt work that easy specially when the its just the same joke and it becomes old really fast. This one has Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco and Isla Fisher all coming back to do their magic Robin Hood thing but now they got some younger blood mixed in there with Justice Smith, Dominic Sessa and Ariana Greenblatt who are supposed to be the next generation taking over. The whole setup is still the same tired concept of magicians pulling off heists using illusions to steal from rich assholes and then give the money back to regular people, this time is the way they execute it here is so damn preachy that you want to roll your eyes every five seconds. They are going after this diamond company that launders money for arms dealers and criminals, basically every villain that Hollywood thinks is safe to attack without getting any backlash and it all feels so simplistic like they are trying to teach a lesson instead of just entertaining you for two hours. Rosamund Pike shows up as the bad guy Veronika Vanderberg whose family has been using their diamond business to launder money for criminals because of course they do, and while Pike goes full ham trying to make her character fun to watch even she cannot save this thing from being a total bore. The biggest issue is how dated everything feels, like they wrote this script five years ago and just now got around to filming it, all the social commentary about wealth redistribution and taking down evil corporations feels tired and overdone at this point.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4712810/
• Platform: AppleTV+

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The new crew they bring in is probably the worst part of the whole movie because nobody asked for a younger version of these characters and they are all just generic copies of what came before. Justice Smith plays Charlie who is this behind the scenes mastermind type who spends most of the movie looking stressed and whining about how dangerous everything is, Ariana Greenblatt plays June who does parkour for absolutely no reason other than to show off that she can do flips and Dominic Sessa plays Bosco who is this arrogant pick pocket that never becomes likeable no matter how hard the movie tries. The movie really try hard for you to care about this passing the torch moment where the old magicians teach the young ones how to be better criminals but the problem is we never really cared about the original four in the first place so why would we care about their replacements, in my opinion this has always been a very generic movie because magic wont change the fact that this feels like a cheap version of Oceans 11. There is this forced tension between the two generations where Jesse Eisenbergs character Atlas is being all egotistical about being the best and then the new trio challenges him saying the old ways do not work anymore and its just eye rolling melodrama that adds nothing to the story except wasted screen time. The worst part is that Morgan Freeman ends up dying in the stupidest way possible, he gets shot while trying to escape from this mansion in France and then nobody even mourns him properly at the end which feels disrespectful to both the character and Freeman himself who deserved way better than this lazy sendoff.

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The villain story with Rosamund Pike is so over complicated and boring that I could barely follow what was happening half the time and I do not think that was intentional either, after the first 20min of the movie I turn on my second screen and was side watching the movie as when I dont care much about it. Veronika Vanderberg runs this money laundering operation for arms dealers using diamonds from her family company so naturally the magicians decide they need to take her down by stealing the Heart Diamond in some elaborate heist. The actual theft sequence is probably the only decent part of the whole movie where they pull off some clever switches but then everything falls apart because the whole thing turns out to be a setup by Charlie who faked being contacted by the Eye organization to get all the Horsemen involved in his personal revenge scheme. Turns out Charlie is actually a Vanderberg himself, his mom was Veronikas housekeeper and he was the result of an affair with her father and Veronika killed his mother by cutting the brakes on her car which makes this whole thing a family drama instead of an actual heist movie. The final showdown happens at some Formula One party in Abu Dhabi where they expose Veronika for her crimes, Charlie reveals he is alive after she thought he died as a kid, and the whole thing feels like a soap opera rather than an actual action sequence.

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Mark Ruffalo shows up at the very end in a post credits scene revealing he was never actually in prison and was working for the Eye organization the whole time, then he welcomes the three new magicians into the group like nothing bad happened even though their plan got Morgan Freeman killed which like TF its fkn Freeman why he got that crappy character?. The movie wants this to be some big twist moment where you realize Dylan was orchestrating everything from behind the scenes but it just makes everyone look stupid because apparently nobody noticed he was not actually locked up this whole time, like how does that even work. The ending tries to set up a fourth movie by showing all of them standing together as the new expanded Horsemen including Lizzy Caplan who comes back as Lula May and Dave Francos character has some forced romance with her that does not work or feel earned in any way shape or form. Everything wraps up way too neatly with no real consequences for anyone except Morgan Freeman who is dead and forgotten about two scenes later, Veronika gets arrested and loses everything I guess, the magicians become even more famous and powerful than before, the whole message seems to be that if you have magic powers or whatever they call it you can do whatever you want and nobody will stop you which is pretty fucked up this already looks so so so F&F but I have to admin seems the audience love it on online rating platforms and I bet this movie is going to do well on streaming but that doesnt change its such a hollow empty ending that makes you wonder why you spent two hours watching this when nothing that happened actually mattered, like they could have cut an hour out and nothing would change because most of it is just filler and people standing around talking about how great they are at magic tricks.

The whole movie just feels like a waste of everyones time, everyone involved seems bored out of there minds and just collecting a paycheck rather than actually trying to make something worth watching. The magic tricks are not impressive at all because you know its all CGI and camera tricks doing the heavy lifting, theres no real magic happening just a bunch of green screen work that looks fake most of the time, the heist stuff is generic and you can see everything coming from a mile away, the new characters are super annoying and add absolutely nothing of value to this tired franchise, even the returning cast members seem like they would rather be doing literally anything else with there careers at this point. Jesse Eisenbergs character Atlas is somehow even more insufferable than he was in the first two movies which I did not think was possible, playing this egotistical narcissist who thinks he is smarter than everyone else and the movie never calls him out on his crap, he just keeps being an asshole and everyone treats him like he is some kind of genius leader when really he is just annoying. The movie tries so hard to be relevant with all its commentary about diamond companies and money laundering but it all comes across as surface level garbage that was clearly written by people who do not actually understand any of these topics beyond reading a headline on Twitter somewhere, its embarassing to watch. I would give this thing maybe a 6.5 out of 10 and that is me being generous because at least Rosamund Pike tried to have some fun with her role and went completly over the top which was entertaining for like five minutes, otherwise this would be way lower like a 4 out of 10 because there is just nothing here worth your time, just skip it entirely and go watch the first Ocean movie again or even the first Now You See Me if you really want magic heists because at least that one had some energy to it even if it was dumb, this third one is just tired and lazy and feels like it should have never been made in the first place.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #magic, #heist, #sequel, #magicians, #illusions, #eisenberg, #freeman, #pike, #franchise, #tricks, #villains, #nazis, #diamonds, #crypto, #robbery, #justice, #greenblatt, #ruffalo, #harelson, #franco, #boring, #preachy, #pointless, #disappointing, #waste

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Bugonia is one of those movies that sounds absolutely nuts when you try explaining it to someone but then you sit down and watch it and realize Yorgos Lanthimos really knows what the hell he is doing with this weird ass concept, so for a weird movie a weird blog post cover image. Turns out this is a remake of a 2003 South Korean movie called Save the Green Planet and you would think somebody like him would avoid remakes entirely but I found it very entertaining and even kinda hard to rate personally so I gave it a 7.5/10. Emma Stone plays Michelle Fuller, this CEO of a pharmaceutical company who gets kidnapped by Jesse Plemons character Teddy who thinks she is an alien from Andromeda trying to destroy humanity so he shaves her head to stop her from communicating with the mothership which is just hilariously crazy but somehow works, its just ridiculous, the whole movie is basically these two going back and forth in this basement testing each other and you cannot figure out if Teddy is completely insane or if there is actually something going on with Michelle being an alien the script keeps you guessing the entire time and I was sitting there thinking wait is this a thriller or a comedy or science fiction or what the fuck is this movie, the fact that they cut her hair was genius for the topic at hand to relate her more with a bald alien. I know Lanthimos did Poor Things which I loved and also Kinds of Kindness which I enjoy but wasnt a movie I would watch more than twice so I was not sure what to expect going in but damn this movie surprised me.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12300742/
• Platform: AppleTV+

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Emma Stone is doing double duty here because she is saying one thing but thinking another and you can see both sides of her mind going at once, there is this early scene where she is talking to her assistant about leaving work at 5:30 but also not really leaving at 5:30 if you got work to do and the way she handles that conversation shows you everything about her character without spelling it out. She comes off kind of smug and a kinda villain too right from the start which makes you think she is the bad guy here but then things get more complicated as the story goes on. Jesse Plemons might be giving his best performance ever and that is saying something because the dude has been great in everything he does, he keeps you wondering if Teddy is willing to torture someone because he is crazy or because he might actually be right about the whole alien invasion thing, turns out this guy works in a warehouse packing boxes for the same company Michelle runs and his mom signed up for some experimental opioid treatment that went wrong and now she is in a coma so you start thinking okay this man had a psychotic break from all the trauma and loss. The kidnapping scene itself is pretty funny because when you first meet Teddy and his cousin Don they do not look like they are in fighting shape at all, they seem kinda pathetic and weak but Michelle still puts up a good fight until they take her down with some drug, then they drag her back to their house along with her G Wagon and lock her in the basement where the real fun begins. Aidan Delbis plays Don and this is his debut role and the kid is really good in it, he comes across like just a little simple at first but you realize later he is actually pretty smart just very easily manipulated by his cousin who is the only person that means anything to him in the world, Teddy even convinces Don to undergo a chemical castration by taking some hormone injection because he thinks Michelle will try to seduce them and they need to protect themselves which is so messed up.

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Teddy has this whole theory about Andromedons which is what he calls these aliens and he is so into it that he crafted a model of their spaceship on his own laptop, he knows their entire hierarchy and thinks that on the lunar eclipse in like four days Michelle is gonna try to communicate with the mothership so he shaves all her hair off because he believes hair is how they talk to each other which is absolutely insane, there is a lot into this movie that is a first time for me. The movie makes ordinary shit look important because if Teddy is right then world ending events are happening in this rundown house, they really committed to making everything feel claustrophobic and small. There is also this creepy sheriff character played by Stavros Halkias who shows up and you find out he used to babysit Teddy when he was a kid and the movie heavily implies he molested him, he keeps trying to apologize in this really awkward way saying stuff like can I come over sometime I am worried about you and the things that happened, it is more than implied it is pretty damn clear what went down and it adds this vibe of tragedy to the whole situation. The middle part where Michelle is trapped in the basement trying to convince Teddy to see things differently is where the movie really shines because you get these long conversations between them that feel like verbal combat, she tells him he is in an echo chamber and his reaction is like yeah I do not agree with that opinion at all but I mean to each their own then he proceeds to electrocute her which was probably the most uncomfortable scene in the entire thing, she is screaming and Don reacts in ways that make it even more intense because you can tell he does not want to be part of this but he goes along with it anyway.

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Teddy freaks out when he realizes the electrocution readings are off the charts because he thinks oh shit she is not just a regular Andromedon she is like the queen so he apologizes profusely and unshackles her then takes her upstairs and puts her in a cute little outfit and chains her to the dining room table, the spaghetti dinner scene is really good because at first Michelle is trying to play it cool and diplomatic like she has been doing but then she mentions his mom and things get very heated to the point where they have to drag her back downstairs. The sheriff shows up at an inopportune moment giving you misery vibes and while Don is holding Michelle at gunpoint in the basement trying to keep her quiet the sheriff is upstairs talking to Teddy about this missing CEO, they share a slice of Pepperidge Farm cake from the freezer aisle and Teddy has the good sense to ask the sheriff if he wants to see his bees because Teddy is an amateur beekeeper which gives him an excuse to get outside, then everything goes to hell when Don shoots himself in the head after asking Michelle if she will take him away from here if she really is an alien which made me emotional since it look like Don could not handle being caught between two impossible realities and saw no future for himself if Teddy gets arrested, it is one of the most tragic moments in the movie because Don was the only innocent person trying to stay human throughout all the madness. Teddy hears the gunshot and runs back to find his cousin dead so he releases the bees on the sheriff then blast his head in with extreme violence. After all that craziness Michelle convinces Teddy she can save his mom if he goes to her car and gets this antidote from the trunk that is labeled antifreeze, she says it is just disguised so people do not know what it really is, its just one thing after another that makes the movie ridiculous and unbelievable but at the same time hilarious, the this dumb bastard actually believes her so he rides his bike down to the nursing home breaks into his room and injects antifreeze into her IV bag then watches his mother slowly die right in front of him which is not funny but it is so crazy you almost have to laugh at how far he fell for her manipulation, its just insane.

Meanwhile back at the house Michelle escapes and finds this secret room where Teddy has been experimenting on humans, he has got heads and body parts in jars and all this research about aliens so when he gets back she is waiting for his ass and she tells him I am an alien then goes into this long explanation about how humans came from Andromedons and they have been watching us destroy our planet so they sent some of their people down to try and help us do better, the whole thing is very like they have been studying the humans for decades and crazy as the movie doesnt wants you to believe her but be wary and suspicious like it really wants you to keep guessing wtf is going on without landing on any of the two sides of the truth. I really enjoyed this thing way more than I thought I would because Lanthimos knows how to balance dark comedy with tension and the performances from Stone and Plemons are incredible, they carry the entire movie on their backs and you believe every second of their weird ass dynamic even when the situation gets completely absurd. The movie does not give you easy answers about who is right or who is wrong or what is real and what is not, it just puts these two people in a room together and lets them tear each other apart psychologically while also making you laugh at how ridiculous the whole thing is, one person view towards nihilism or optimism might decide their takeaway and I think that is spot on because depending on how you see the world you will either think Michelle is a master manipulator or actually an alien trying to help humanity. The movie as a whole does a great job adapting the South Korean original into something that feels very much like a Lanthimos movie while still respecting or at least representing the source material, even though it has some logical holes and the ending might frustrate people who want everything explained it is still a wild ride that kept me guessing the whole way through and made me think about it for days after.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #bugonia, #yorgos, #lanthimos, #emmastone, #jesseplemons, #thriller, #scifi, #comedy, #aliens, #kidnapping, #remake, #korean, #venice, #basement, #ceo, #conspiracy, #torture, #bees, #manipulation, #mindbender, #2025, #moviereview, #andremedons, #psychological, #dark

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This one I had for some time in my bucket list and yesterday on my way home decided to spin it up, Wake Up Dead Man A Knives Out Mystery came out on Netflix in mid December after been in theaters for like two seconds; Netflix stuff, I gotta say Netflix really screwed the pooch on this release strategy, they gave Glass Onion way more theater time a few years back and people showed up but now they throwing this one in way fewer places witch makes zero damn sense when everyone clearly wants these movies on big screens. The whole vibe of this franchise works so much better with a crowd specially all the comedy bits and Rian Johnson physical humor stuff that lands way harder when your sitting with other people who are laughing too, I get Netflix wants eyeballs on there platform but come on man let people experience this properly first. Daniel Craig is back doing his Benoit Blanc thing and I cannot get enough of how weird this dude is with that thick southern accent that should absolutely not work at all but somehow Craig just owns it and makes you believe it, this time he is investigating a murder at this church up in upstate New York where the leader Monsignor Jefferson Wicks gets killed in what looks like an impossible locked room situation. The cast is absolutely stacked too you got Glenn Close doing her thing, Jeremy Renner shows up, Andrew Scott brings his energy, Kerry Washington plays a lawyer and there is a bunch of other solid actors filling out the ensemble, Josh OConnor really stood out to me tho because he plays this young priest Father Jud who becomes the main suspect and goes thru this whole crisis about his faith and you can actually feel how exhausted and worn down he gets as the movie keeps going, it feels heavy and real without been all preachy about religion witch I appreciated a lot.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14364480/
• Platform: NETFLIX

Rottentomatoes Rating Source The murder mystery itself kept me guessing the whole way thru because I was able to figure out like maybe one or two pieces of it but when the final solution came together it still surprised me and I was not expecting it to be so drastically, everything clicks into place in a way that makes you wanna immediately rewatch and catch all the little clues you definitely missed on the first viewing, thats how I felt but I didnt have time for a full rewatch so just look online to understand what I probably miss. I think this one is actually better than Glass Onion which felt way too silly at times almost like it was tryin too hard to be funny, this one has real weight behind it while still keeping all the humor and fun detective work that makes these Knives Out movies so enjoyable to sit thru for two plus hours. The whole religion angle adds this extra layer that Glass Onion just did not have, your watching Blanc do his detective thing but there is also all this stuff about faith and forgiveness and what it means to believe in something when the people around you are complete hypocrites, its heavier material than what we got before but Johnson handles it pretty well even if it gets a little heavy handed at times. Josh Brolin absolutely chews up every scene he is in as Monsignor Wicks this charismatic but domineering church leader who used to be kinda famous and still got that control over everyone just below the surface, Glenn Close plays this church lady Martha who knows everyone secrets and filed away every dirty detail for like decades, Jeremy Renner is a drunk doctor trying to win back his wife and failing miserably at it. All these characters got there own motivations for maybe killing this priest and the movie does a good job keeping you confused about who actually did it until the very end, altho I will say some of the twists are so convoluted that it almost becomes too much like Johnson just kept adding more layers when maybe he should have stopped.

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Source The first thirty minutes or so dragged a bit for me because Blanc does not even show up until way later in the movie and your just following Josh OConnors priest character who is fine but becomes way more interesting once he turns into the main suspect, once Craig finally arrives tho the whole thing picks up and becomes way more fun to watch. His Blanc is just such a breath of fresh air with his weird mannerisms and that absurd accent and the way he pieces together clues that nobody else is seeing, Craig clearly loves playing this role and it shows in every single scene he is in, you can tell he is having a blast being this eccentric genius detective. The religious symbolism is all over this movie sometimes in ways that work really well and sometimes in ways that feel kinda forced, there is this whole thing about a missing fortune that the founder of the church hid somewhere and everyones trying to find it, they call it Eves Apple and its actually this eighty million dollar diamond that Wicks grandfather Prentice swallowed before he died to hide it from his daughter Grace, which is insane when you think about it. It ties into the themes about temptation and greed and all that biblical stuff and works better than it probably should because Johnson commits to it fully instead of just throwing in some surface level religious imagery and calling it a day, he actually engages with questions about why people believe what they believe and whether faith can survive when the people representing it are total pieces of shit, it does get a little on the nose at times like there is this moment where the camera goes from dark to light as someone explains why the church exists and your like okay I get it although its not subtle but I guess murder mysteries are not really supposed to be subtle anyway.

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Source The actual murder and how it gets solved involves so many twists and turns that by the end I was almost losing track of what was real and what was fake, there is locked room mystery elements where they gotta figure out how someone got stabbed in a closet that nobody could get into, there is secret recordings and hidden motives and people lying about where they were and what they saw. Some of it stretches how much you could believe on their version by far like there is a point where your supposed to accept that someone staged this elaborate thing with demon heads and remote controls and I was just like alright sure why not at this point, but even when its getting ridiculous its still entertaining to watch unfold. The big speech at the end where Blanc explains everything is classic murder mystery stuff and Johnson plays with your expectations by having Blanc say he does not know what happened only to reveal later that he knew the whole time and was just waiting for the killer to confess, its a nice touch that ties into the forgiveness theme during the whole movie. Glenn Close character Martha ends up being the one who masterminded it all along with help from Jeremy Renners doctor Nat Sharp who actually did the killing and when she confesses she poisons herself at the same time so she dies after finally confessing her sins, its played as this redemptive moment but I dunno if it fully lands because we have not spent enough time with her character to really care that much. The diamond fortune ends up hidden inside the crypt at the end which is such an obvious place when you think about it, there is also this whole thing with the groundskeeper Samson who gets killed too and it just keeps getting more complicated as it goes.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #netflix, #knivesout, #wakeupdeadman, #danielcraig, #benoitblanc, #ryanjohnson, #joshbrolin, #glennclose, #joshoconnor, #jeremyrenner, #mystery, #murder, #detective, #priest, #church, #religion, #thriller, #sequel, #movie, #review, #faith, #confession, #ensemble, #twist, #cinema

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The Rip, A Dark Night of Temptation and Choices

I had already seen a few scenes from The Rip before watching it, and I was very excited to find out that the movie was available at Netflix so without any ado, I watched it yesterday. The idea of enjoying two of my favorite actors, Ben Affleck and Matt Damon together, was something I was totally looking forward to.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt32642706/

Storyline The murder of a captain has remained unsolved for six weeks, mired in bureaucratic delays, leaving the officers of Miami's Tactical Narcotics Team restless and eager for justice. Seeking an outlet for their frustration and perhaps a chance to secure something for themselves the team acts on a tip about a potential cartel stash. What they uncover is far more than they anticipated. [...] As news of the massive seizure spreads, outside forces close in, and everything comes into question-loyalties, motives, and even who they can truly trust.

The genre is: suspense mystery, true crime, whodunnit (remember, we had discussed about this, who has dun it ;), action, drug crime and cop drama

The movie opens in a very mysterious way. A female police officer is murdered while on her way to help someone. Some of her dear ones, who are also police officers, are devastated. While trying to process their loss, they are forced to carry on with their duties, searching not only for answers but also for something much more dangerous: illegal money.\

After receiving an anonymous tip, they set out to find a hidden stash of cash. The biggest part of the film revolves around this single night, the night they go looking for the money, and everything that happens between them.

You will get to see tension, temptation, moral boundaries, loyalty, and the personal differences that surface when greed and pressure come into play.

While The Rip is categorized as an action/crime film, there are moments where the pace slows down. There is more dialogue than one might expect from this genre, and this also justifies the 'thriller' that was written in the Netflix genre. Despite the talking, I didn’t really mind. I have absolutely no issue watching Matt Damon and Ben Affleck discuss (or even fight), I do wonder, though, if viewers expecting something louder and more action-packed

One element that adds extra weight to the story is the fact that the movie is based on true events. Knowing this gives the film a more serious and grounded feel, especially as Matt Damon portrays a real person connected to these events.

Matt Damon portrays Lieutenant Dane Dumars, a role inspired by Miami Police Department Captain Chris Casiano, who was involved in the real investigation that led to the film.

Overall, The Rip is a solid production. I’d give it a 6.5 out of 10, mostly because of its lead actors. Ben Affleck and Matt Damon carry the film, and their presence makes it worth watching. If it weren’t for them, I’m honestly not sure I would have watched this to the end.

Some reviews that you may want to read before

Trailer:

Let me know your thoughts!

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Hijack Season 2 Episode 1 came out and this thing really surprised me with how they flipped the whole setup on its head, like seriously after watching season one where Sam Nelson was the hero saving everyone on that plane I was not expecting him to be the one taking over the train this time but I bet there is something else considering that cliffhanger at the end. The episode drops us two years after the Kingdom Flight 29 situation and Sam is in Berlin which is kinda random but whatever, everyone speaking English even though they supposed to be German locals is hilarious but I can live with that for the sake of understanding whats going on, I appreciate there is not much subtitle action. What really got me thinking was how the show builds up this entire tension filled hour making you believe one thing is happening when really Sam had been planning something completely different the whole time, you got this conductor Otto who looks like he about to puke every five seconds and clearly does not want any part of whatever mess he got himself into, then theres Marco this other guy changing train tracks in the tunnels who seems very much involved in the hijacking plan. The twist at the very end when Sam straight up tells Otto he is hijacking the train was wild as hell, I kinda saw it coming the moment he pulled out those master keys to unlock the engine room door but it still hit different actually hearing him say it out loud like that. What I cannot wrap my head around yet is whether Sam turned into the actual bad guy this time or if he trying to stop something way worse from going down, because the show makes it look like he went rogue and became a criminal but I am not buying that at all based on everything we know about his character from the first season.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt19854762/
• Platform: PEACOCK

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The opening scene sets up Berlin as this cold snowy place where Sam walks into the central station looking intense as hell, just carrying one small briefcase and waiting for the train to Hanover but you can tell something off about him from the start. He keeps ignoring calls from this woman named Olivia who works at the British embassy and she keeps leaving voicemails about some meeting he supposed to attend with a German officer from the Federal Office of Justice named Arnold Goth, apparently Sam been sending reports to the embassy about some guy he thinks was behind the plane hijacking from season one and this dude recently entered Germany through Hamburg. Meanwhile the Berlin police tactical unit raids an apartment after getting a tip about someone making bombs for a terrorist attack but when they break in the place is empty except for evidence that someone definitely was making explosives there, they find a fake ID card for a railway maintenance worker which connects to Marco who we see walking through subway tunnels messing with the tracks. Back on the train Sam notices this guy with a red backpack acting super suspicious and starts following him around thinking he involved in whatever about to happen, the guy keeps moving from coach to coach and getting off then back on the train right before the doors close which makes him look guilty as fck. Sam gets the two transit police officers involved and they end up dragging the backpack guy off at one of the stations to question him, turns out he just an asylum seeker who overstayed his visa and had his passport in the bag which is why he freaking out so hard about anyone checking it. The whole thing was basically a distraction that Sam used to get the cops off the train which I did not realize until the very end when everything clicks into place, pretty smart move if you ask me but also kinda messed up racially profiling the poor dude like that just to clear the train of police presence and how the hell did Sam knew? I mean does he wakes up in the morning and says, ok lets put things in hands of destiny!!.

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Otto the train driver is where things get really interesting because this guy clearly under some kind of pressure or threat to go through with the hijacking plan, he supposed to be suspended from work so the fact he even driving the train raises red flags with his coworkers and the station authorities. During the ride he takes an emergency bathroom break and tries calling Marco to cancel everything because he cannot handle the stress anymore but Marco does not pick up since he down in the noisy tunnels working on the track switch, when Otto gets back in the engine room he told by the dispatcher that they replacing him at the next station with a different driver which sends him into full panic mode. Instead of stopping he just goes for it and starts driving the train at crazy high speeds while ignoring all communication from the control center, he blows past multiple stations without slowing down and eventually takes the train onto some abandoned branch track that not even on the railway network map anymore. The passengers start freaking out when they realize the doors not opening at stations and the train just keeps going faster and faster, some kid pulls the emergency brake but nothing happens which makes everyone lose their shit completely. Truth is that there is literally nothing happening so far other than speculation, at this point I know some people might find it boring and even drama and suspense lovers would find it just over extended but its when Sam tries getting into the engine room when things start making sense and its like the waiting was worth but it was just too little of the dopamine window, Sam uses his master key to force it open and physically pulls the brake lever to stop the train, this is when Otto finally admits something going on and asks for the transit police except Sam already got rid of them earlier.

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The side plot with Sams wife Marsha is really depressing and gives me clues that something terrible happened between season one and now, she living alone in this cabin out in the middle of some forest looking absolutely miserable and a neighbor brings her flowers that got delivered to the wrong house, I suspect their son was murder and Sam got obsessed with the case that was not there for them, just the classic cliche story lines. Marsha mentions its an anniversary which makes you wonder what kind of anniversary but then again obvious their son death, Im sure its something dark like the death of their son Kai who completely missing from the cast list this season and does not appear at all in the episode. My theory is that Kai got killed by whoever was really behind the plane hijacking and thats what driving Sam to do all this crazy investigative work and take matters into his own hands, Marsha probably hiding out in the woods because Sam told her to stay away from the city while he deals with this dangerous situation. Her boyfriend from season one is nowhere to be seen either which adds to the mystery of whats really going on with her, she looks like shes been crying for weeks and the whole vibe of her scenes is just sad as hell. Back at the embassy Olivia hands over photos to Arnold Goth showing the suspect Sam been tracking and Goth looks shocked as fck at whatever he seeing in those pictures, this confirms that Sam definitely onto something real and not just being paranoid about the whole thing. The fact that the British government finally taking his claims seriously enough to set up a meeting means whatever Sam found out is probably a legit threat to national security, except Sam never shows up to the meeting because he already on the train executing his own plan instead.

The annoying intern character May who keeps following Sam around the entire episode turns out she worked with him years ago on some deal in Singapore and now shes trying to network her way into a job, at first I thought she might be involved in the hijacking because she will not leave Sam alone no matter how many times he tries to ditch her but it seems like she just really desperate for employment. She follows him from one wagon to the other even when he clearly wants nothing to do with her and eventually he tells her to email him her resume just to shut her up, was fkn hilarious. The show puts alot of focus on May which makes me think she gonna play a bigger role later on even if shes not directly involved in the terrorist plot. Otto and Marco definitely connected somehow maybe even related because Otto keeps trying to call Marco when he panics in the bathroom and Marco the one who changed the tracks to divert the train onto that abandoned route where it dissapears from the control centers radar completely. The whole operation feels like it was planned by someone way smarter than just these two guys, theres gotta be a bigger organization behind this whole thing that connects back to the plane hijacking from season one. Sam using a master key throughout the episode to open the machine room proves he been preparing for this hijack for a long time, he knew exactly what he needed to do and when to do it which means he either working with the hijackers or trying to stop them by taking control of the situation himself. I am leaning towards the second option because Sam does not strike me as someone who would put innocent people in danger unless he trying to save them from something even worse, maybe theres a bomb on the train or maybe the person behind the plane hijacking is one of the passengers and Sam needs to trap them. The episode does a great job keeping you guessing about what Sam really up to and why he willing to throw away his reputation and probably go to jail just to hijack this random train in Berlin, whatever his reasons are they gotta be pretty damn important to risk everything like this. Overall I thought this was an OK premiere that sets up a lot of interesting questions for the rest of the season, the tension stays high from start but then drags a bit with May and the other students in the train and thats where the episode feels over extend, but Idris Elba kills it as always playing Sam with that nervous energy that makes you uncomfortable the whole time. The production looks really good too with all the close up shots of buttons and doors that make you feel claustrophobic just like the passengers, they definitely upped their game compared to season one visually. My only real complaint is that some of the setup feels a bit convenient like how easy it was for Sam to manipulate situations and get people off the train, but I am willing to overlook that because the payoff was worth it. I am giving this episode a solid 7 out of 10 because it hooked me right away and left me wanting to know what happens next, if they can keep this momentum going for the whole season it could end up being even better than the first one.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #hijack, #season, #episode, #train, #berlin, #sam, #nelson, #twist, #otto, #marco, #conductor, #embassy, #marsha, #kai, #passenger, #police, #backpack, #asylum, #hanover, #underground, #idris, #elba, #thriller, #suspect, #tunnel

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Last night I took the time to re watch IT Chapter Two and after it finish it click and I can probably understand why Skarsgard didnt want to return to the character for the TV series, because chapter two is not bad but its nothing like the 2017 movie, so he probably though this sounds like money grabbing after a "not so successful" return. Chapter two is one of those movies that should have been way better than it ended up being and I cannot lie after how damn good the first one was you would think they could keep that momentum going but nope they totally dropped the ball on this sequel. The biggest issue here is that the adult Losers Club just does not work at all, like yeah they did a solid job casting actors who look like older versions of the kids but nobody has chemistry together and the script gives them basically nothing interesting to do except walk around looking sad and scared for three hours straight, Jessica Chastain is sleepwalking through her entire performance and James McAvoy is trying way too hard to make up for the fact that his character has zero development, Bill Hader is probably the only one who feels somewhat real and brings actual energy to the screen but even he cannot save this mess from being a total disappointment.

• IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7349950/
• Platform: AppleTV+

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What really pisses me off is how they completly wasted Pennywise in this movie, the dude was barely in it and when he does show up it feels rushed or just not scary at all except for maybe that one scene with the creepy old lady in Bevs apartment, that I remember was in the damn trailer so they just shoot themself in the foot by spoiling your own best moment, the ending is complete garbage with this terrible CGI version of Pennywise that looks like a video game boss and the way they kill him off is so lame, they kill Pennywise by telling him he is just a clown? wtf is that?. The movie keeps jumping back and forth between the kids and the adults and every single time we go back to the kids you remember just how much better the first movie was, witch only makes this one feel worse by comparison because your constantly being reminded of what worked before, they tried real hard to recreate that heart and friendship vibe from the first one but it just doesnt work at all, everything feels fake and forced like they are going through the motions without any real passion behind it. The runtime is a huge problem because this thing is almost three hours long, the movie is just one character after another going off alone to face their childhood fears in these repetitive sequences that all follow the exact same formula, Ben goes to one place and gets scared, Beverly goes somewhere else and gets scared, Bill does the same thing and its like wash rinse repeat for fourty five minutes straight. The CGI in this movie is also way worse than the first one, they clearly had a bigger budget but decided to spend it all on computer effects that look fake instead of using practical effects that would have been way more scary and effective, theres this one scene where Pennywise turns into a giant spider creature with his face attached and it looks absolutely ridiculous. Every time Pennywise does that weird CGI run thing or his face morphs into some digital effect it completely takes you out of the movie and ruins any tension that might have been building, you cannot be scared of something that obviously does not exist in the same space as the actors.

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Source The characters make some of the dumbest decisions I have ever seen in a horror movie, Bill becomes obsessed with this random kid he just met and follows him around like a creep to the point where even the kid is asking why this strange man keeps stalking him everywhere, Eddie is even more annoying as an adult than he was as a kid because he just screams and complains the entire time, they gave him the same fears he already overcame in the first movie so his whole character development feels complexly pointless and repetitive. He gets stabbed in the face with a knife and then just walks it off with some gauze like it was no big deal when realistically that injury would have put him to the ER for the amount of blood he is loosing, the romance between Ben and Beverly is also terrible because they have zero chemistry throughout the entire movie, Ben just stands in corners looking depressed while Beverly makes googly eyes at Bill and then suddenly at the end they are in love because of some poem he wrote when they were kids, it does not feel earned at all because you never see them actually connect or have any meaningful moments together so when they ride off into the sunset you just dont care. Henry Bowers shows up again as the bully from the first movie except now he is an escaped mental patient who tries to kill the Losers and he serves absolutely no purpose in the story, he stabs Eddie in one scene and then Mike kills him like ten minutes later and thats it, you could cut his entire character out of this movie and nothing would change at all.

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Source Speaking of things that dont work they used this weird deaging CGI on some of the child actors because they filmed this movie like two years after the first one and the kids had grown up a bit, Finn Wolfhard as young Richie looks especially weird with this googly eyed effect on his glasses that makes his face look all distorted and fake, it would have been way less distracting if they just filmed the kids normally instead of slapping CGI all over their faces. These flashback scenes are actually some of the best parts of the movie because the child actors still have that charm and chemistry from the first one, every time we cut back to them as kids you remember why you loved that movie and then we jump back to the boring adults and you get disappointed all over again witch is not a good sign for your sequel. The way they defeat Pennywise at the end is completely embarrassing and makes no sense, they basically just bully him by calling him names and saying he is small and weak until he shrinks down into this pathetic little thing and dies, thats it, thats the big climax after almost three hours of buildup, they just tell him he sucks and he gives up like some kind of weird therapy session instead of an actual battle witch is suppose to be this epic showdown we have been waiting for. The movie also kills off Eddie during the final fight and while his death scene should be emotional it just falls flat because we have not spent enough time with these adult characters to really care about them, Richie has this big dramatic reaction and Bill Hader does try his best in that scene but it feels forced because the movie never properly developed their friendship as adults, it just relies on our memories of the first movie to do all the heavy lifting witch is lazy writing.

I wanted to like this movie so much because the first one had its problems but overall was pretty enjoyable and set up a lot of potential for the second half of the story, instead we got this overlong boring mess that wastes a talented cast and completely fumbles one of Stephen Kings most iconic villains, Pennywise deserved so much better than what we got here and Bill Skarsgard is doing his best with the material but the movie gives him nothing to work with and buries him under layers of bad CGI. This sequel proves that bigger budgets do not always make better movies, sometimes less is more and they should have focused on making Pennywise actually frighting instead of just throwing money at computer effects that look like garbage, if your a fan of the first movie I would say maybe check this out just to see how the story ends but go in with very low expectations because this is not the satisfying conclusion anyone was hoping for. I am giving this movie a 7 out of 10 and thats being very very generous, Bill Hader is great and some of the kid flashbacks are good but everything else ranges from mediocre to bad, all this been said THANK GOD we now have "IT Welcome To Derry (2025)" Tv series making justice and giving Skarsgard the proper script and screentime Pennywise deserved.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #horror, #pennywise, #sequel, #stephenking, #clown, #scary, #disappointment, #cgi, #runtime, #boring, #adults, #kids, #flashbacks, #chemistry, #cast, #billhader, #jessicachastain, #jamesmcavoy, #childhood, #fears, #movie, #review, #theater, #budget, #waste

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It was a nightmare to see this mess.

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Episode 7 of Pluribus really gave me what I wanted from this series for a while now and that is watching Carol deal with her loneliness when the hive mind decides to leave her alone completely, this whole episode was slower than what we got used to but damn it worked so well because watching Carol have fun at first playing golf with these huge animals just walking around the course or hitting balls from the top of buildings felt like exactly what anyone would do if they had the world to themselves, but then seeing her go from having that kind of freedom and fun to being so bored and miserable that she literally points a firework at herself, that was heavy and felt very depressing to me, I think Vince Gilligan really nailed it with this episode showing us how fast things can go from exciting to feeling like prison without anyone around because there is only so much you can do alone before you start loosing it. The Manuso stuff was interesting too watching him travel all the way from Paraguay trying to learn English and hiking through the wilderness just to get to Carol but Im not going to say it felt rush it was too much to fit in that short time and production did what they could, even though he ends up getting hurt and needing the hive to save him anyway witch is kind of ironic, I thought they were going to end the episode with him finally reaching Carol but instead we got Zosa coming back, I was so focused on Manuso the whole time hhmmm. I am glad Zosa is back though because her and Carol have great chemistry and these last few episodes without her really felt empty but this smells fishy already, so now I am very curious to see where this goes with Carol realizing she cannot be alone and Manuso still trying to avoid the hive at all costs, this episode made me think a lot about what I would do in that situation and I probably would not last much longer than Carol did either.

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

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The episode opens up with Carol driving around in her cop car humming Its the End of the World as We Know It and right away you can tell something has changed in her, she pulls into a gas station and calls the helpline to get pump one turned on and the whole vibe is different from before because she seems relaxed, she even does a scratch off while waiting and wins but when her Gatorade shows up it aint ice cold like she asked and she actually complains about it to the hive telling them to do better next time, it like she is accepting to live inside a bubble. This is Carol at the start of her accepting the situation and trying to enjoy the perks of being the only person left who the hive has to serve, she loads up her car with fireworks from the gas station and heads home singing and you can see she is in this weird honeymoon phase with her isolation, but we all know that shit aint gonna last long because humans are not meant to be alone for extended periods no matter how much freedom you think you got. The way the episode shows her progression through these 48 days is pretty damn good, at first she is living it up changing her cop car for a Rolls Royce that still has just married written on the back window, going to hot springs and singing Nelly while taking her cloths off, playing golf on empty courses with bison walking around, even going to Georgia OKeefe museum and taking an original painting home with her because why the hell not. She sets up this fancy dinner at the restaurant where her and Helen celebrated there anniversary and has the hive make all these dishes based on memorys from her relationship, its like does feel too good to be true even if you are all alone with all this people as servants, best part is you might not feel guilty because they are not humans anymore??, she even plays music on the self playing piano and for a moment it seems like Carol has figured out how to make peace with this new reality, but you can already feel the cracks starting to show because even with all this luxury and freedom she is completely alone and no amount of expensive cars or gourmet food can fix that emptiness.

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The big turning point comes around a few days latter, Carol still doing her routine but everything feels flat now, she is hitting golf balls into buildings from a parking garage instead of on a actual course and she is falling into this Anarchy tipe of behavior and there is a limit how far and strange things she can do until there is nothing more, she is sitting down while lighting fireworks instead of standing up and howling at wolves like she did earlier, you can see that the fun is gone and all thats left is this crushing loneliness that she cant escape no matter what she does. Then comes the moment that really got many of us Im sure, when one of the fireworks tips over and points directly at her face and she just sits there, she dosent move or try to get out of the way, she just turns her chair towards it and closes her eyes like she is ready to let it end her right there, the firework goes off just inches from her and sets her neihbors garage on fire but Carol survives and has to put it out like its just another boring chore. That scene was hilarious and hard because it shows how far she has fallen in just a few weeks, from enjoying her freedom to literally being suicidal because she cant handle being alone anymore, the isolation has completely broken her down and she finaly realizes that she needs the hive back in her life even if it means accepting Zosa and all the complicated feelings that come with that. The next morning Carol goes to a home improvement store and gets white paint, she comes home and paints come back in huge letters on her roundabout so the drones can see it from above, its her white flag moment where she admits defeat and asks them to return because she cant do this alone anymore.

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Mean while on the other side of the world we got Manuso making his way from Paraguay all the way to New Mexico to meet Carol and this dudes journey is absolutely insane, he is learning English by repeating phrases over and over while driving through these beautiful landscapes, he siphons gas from abandoned cars and leaves money on the windshields because he beleives things will go back to normal eventually and people will come back to claim there stuff. Every time the hive offers him help whether its a ride or water or a place to rest he refuses because he hates them so fkn much its like a rage, you can see it in his face whenever he interacts with them that he thinks they are thiefs who stole everything and dont belong on this planet at all, when he gets to the Darien Gap witch is this roadles expanse between Colombia and Panama where he burns his own car rather than let the hive take it and walks into the jungle alone even after they warn him about all the dangers. The hive tells him about extreme weather, lack of clean water, deadly plants and animals but Manuso treats every warning like a lie and pushes forward anyway, after all he is a real hard head, he is crossing rivers and climbing mountains while repeating "my name is Manuso I am not one of them I wish to save the world" like to keep him going or something. The whole sequence feels like a mini survival movie and the cinematografy is really good showing off all these landscapes but if you know some of the places then you know there is a good part of it is CGI specially the Darien felt like cheap CGI, but then things go bad when he almost steps on a Chunga palm witch is a black palm tree with needle like bacteria coated spines, he slips and falls backwards onto the tree and lets out this agonizing scream as the spines pierce his back, just to remmeber the image feels terrible. He pulls himself free and the pain just keeps getting worse, by night he has to cauterize the wound with a heated machete witch is one of the most brutal scenes this season, by morning the infection has spread to his face and he collapses whispering Carols name before passing out, a helicopter shows up and the hive rescues him even though he never asked for there help and probably would have rather died than be saved by them.

The contrast between Carol and Manuso could not be more clear, Carol spent 48 days trying to enjoy her isolation but ultimately cracked and needed human conection even if it comes from the hive, Manuso spent his entire journey refusing any help from the hive and trying to do everything himself even when it almost killed him, they both want to save the world but there approaches are completely different and I think thats gonna cause problems when they finaly meet. When Zosa shows up at Carols house at the end Carol just waddles down the driveway and hugs her so tight while crying and gasping for air, you can feel how desperate she is for any kind of human contact even if Zosa is just part of the hive mind and not really a individual person anymore, Carol has accepted the hive back into her life because the alternative is dying alone witch is somehow worse than living with them, its almost like the hive finally fool Carol at least for the moment. The episode title The Gap makes sense because there is this gap between Carol and Manusos approaches to dealing with the hive and the gap between loneliness and connection that Carol try to get over but she couldnt be alone for ever, the whole episode is about how humans are not built for solitude no matter how much freedom and luxury you have because without other people to share it with everything becomes meaningless. I love how this episode made me think about loneliness and isolation, watching Carol slowly break down and watching Manuso push himself to the absolute limit just to avoid the hive was intense, this show keeps finding new ways to surprise me and I am very excited to see what happens when these two finally meet because there personalities and methods are so different that I cant see them working together easily, overall this was a fantastic episode that slowed things down to focus on character development and it paid off big time.

#skiptvads, #inleo, #hive, #pluribus, #carol, #manuso, #loneliness, #isolation, #hive, #zosa, #survival, #episode, #recap, #gap, #paraguay, #fireworks, #breakdown, #jungle, #helicopter, #connection, #freedom, #luxury, #alone, #hiking, #burned, #rescued, #depression, #humanity

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This is a cross post of @gwajnberg/a-fun-horror-movie-but by @gwajnberg.

Another horror movie that I watched not long ago