“What’s Worth Watching” posts
Into the Deep is a completely forgettable shark-thriller on Prime … except for Richard Dreyfuss.
The only (and most interesting) thing about it is the inexplicable appearance of Richard Dreyfuss – in a shark movie, ffs. Yes, that Richard Dreyfuss. I’ve lost count of the number of ‘maritime women in jeopardy’ movies I’ve seen over the years (the first, I think,...
Gogglebox: UK TV at its … finest?
Here's an idea that should never have worked. Yet it's one of the most popular shows in the UK ... Choose about a dozen absolutely normal people out there – couples or families, married folks or siblings or best friends – and you don’t bring them into the studio, and...
Kennie JD: One of the Best Things About YouTube
YouTube has become too huge to truly comprehend, and most of the 'tubers that built their base from YT have either moved on, retreated, or sunk into scandal. But once in a while you stumble overcome with long-form content that is charming and insightful about its...
Maggie Moore(s) is Jon Hamm at his best …and there’s more where that came from
Jon Hamm has been doing some very cool stuff for the last couple of years --- and the smart, sweet, funny Maggie Moore(s) is a perfect example. This tight, quiet, smart little mystery/comedy/thriller has been knocking around for a few months, but it’s just been added...
The Great Pottery Throw Down isn’t a competition. Not really.
You know … competition is a whole different thing in Great Britain. I mean, sports, yes – your soccer, your rugby, your Olympic events – in sports, the British are so competitive they’re downright dangerous. But when it comes to … what would you call it? Recreational...
Why I Gave Up On Zack Snyder’s Rebel Moon After Only 40 Minutes
Rebel Moon was supposed to be Zack Snyder’s break away from superhero movies. But it took less than three-quarters of an hour to see that there is nothing new, innovative, or even remotely encouraging here. It’s yet another Snyder imitation of someone else’s work, served up (yet again) on lukewarm toast. This time, however, it’s not George Romero or Frank Miller of DC Comics; it’s an uncredited but undeniable knockoff of Star Wars.
Nathan Fielder’s The Curse is nothing like what you’d expect. But what is it?
You know, I really hadn’t planned on talking about The Curse … not until I saw the last episode and now, I … I have to… I mean … what the hell? You know, I’ve never been a big fan of the ‘comedy of discomfort,” all the way back to Andy Kaufman and for that matter Don...
Marvel’s Echo is a ground-level, culturally complex superhero story (sort of)
Marvel's Echo, available on Disney+ and Hulu, is a major re-telling of a B-List Daredevil character, in a disorganized, risky and ultimately admirable but not completely successful attempt at telling a ‘deeper’ story despite the superhero genre. It’s far from perfect,...
School Spirits is a spooky high school drama that’s surprisingly effective and ultimately frustrating
School Spirits, a supernatural teen-drama mini-series in nine parts on Netflix by way of Paramount Plus, tells an engaging story about a plucky, troubled high school senior who suddenly has to deal with the fact that she’s … well, dead. And worse than just dead:...
Revisiting Mike Flanagan’s Absentia
Sometimes it's worth looking back. I've been so impressed by Midnight Mass, and basically be everything Mike Flanagan has done so far, that I took a couple of hours on a quiet Friday afternoon and re-watched Absentia, his first (available) feature film made more than...
The Plague is a long-forgotten zombie (ish) post-apoc (sort of) movie from Clive Barker … and actually pretty good
I have no idea how I stumbled on this, but I recently found myself slightly stunned at just how interesting – far from perfect, but damned interesting – I found a forgotten TV movie from 2006 – yeah, fifteen years ago – unfortunately called The Plague, or...
Winchester is just … a waste
How could so much money and talent be wasted on such an utterly uninvolving, derivative, boring ‘haunted house’ movie? This shambling, unfeeling, tedious thing has beautiful production design, a large budget, a whole host of solid actors in lead and supporting roles. It has Helen Mirren in it. Friggin’ Helen Mirren, doing a remarkably bad American accent. It has a remarkably good premise at the center of it: a haunted house story about one of the best-known, if not ‘real,’ haunted houses in modern America. And yet there is not a single legitimate scare, not even a good jump, in the whole damn thing. It’s literally hard to get through in a single sitting.
The Stranger is pretty good, but Harlan Coben? Meh.
Harlan Coben's The Stranger is the firt indication than heis adaptations don't have to be kind of limp and half-baked.. Maybe there's hope. Coben makes a few jillion dollars a year on his suspense novels (though 'suspense' seems like a pretty strong word for his...
Why doesI Am Not Okay With This feel so incestuous?
I Am Not Okaiy With This is a Netflix YA horror series with some solid acting, but is so reminiscent of Stephen King’s IT it’s kind of painful
Making Funny Horror is Hard (but Snatchers did its damnedest)
One of the most interesting things about Snatchers is its wonderful history. It began as a web series created by a bunch of newbies (as far as I can tell), and ended up as a feature-length film. It's not going to change the course of mighty rivers, but it's kind'a...