Ted Lasso S1 Ep 1

from Ready Steady Cut: https://readysteadycut.com/2020/08/14/recap-ted-lasso-season-1-episode-1-pilot-apple-tv-plus-series/

by Daniel Hart

The opening of Ted Lasso season 1, episode 1

New owner Rebecca Welton is at a football club putting some items up for auction. She invites the manager George into the office and fires him instantly for his misogynistic behaviour and poor team performances — she calls him a fat tw*t. On the way out, George mocks Rebecca for her divorce. What an opener — we know what we have in store now.

The new manager

We are then introduced to Ted Lasso who has become the new manager of Rebecca’s football club AFC Richmond — he’s from America and his profession usually involves managing American football not European football. Ted is doubting himself a little bit for taking on this challenge. When he arrives he is shown Tower Bridge and is amazed by it.
Ted Lasso season 1, episode 2 recap – what happened in “Biscuits”

Welcome to AFC Richmond

Ted Lasso and Coach Beard arrive at the stadium and he touches the grass which panics the kitman Nate. It’s noticeable straight away that Ted feels out of place for being America. They finally meet Rebecca and have an introductory meeting. She gives Ted a tour of the stadium and he asks her if she’s okay about the divorce. Probably not the best question to ask your boss in the first meeting.

The press conference

Ted is soon swept to a press conference unbeknown to him. He addresses the elephant in the room that he’s never coached football. It’s a hilarious scene as he doesn’t understand the usual lingo and terminology for football. Trent Crimm, a sports journalist, asks why he’s managing a Premier football club and wonders if this is a f*cking joke. The press conference turns into absolute chaos. Rebecca Welton walks in and calms the press down, stating the club has been under profound mediocrity. She calls the new way “The Lasso Way”.

An early twist

We are then shown the real intentions of Rebecca in Ted Lasso season 1, episode 1.

When Ted Lasso leaves the press conference that Rebecca reveals that she intends to burn the club to the ground and wants it to fail to get revenge on her husband who used to own it. She tells the Communication Director (Higgins) that he will be the new Football Director. He’s in on the burndown. A strange plot for a funny comedy so far.

A quick ending to a speech

Ted and Beard introduce themselves to the players. Suddenly, one of the footballer’s partners (Keeley) comes in which ends his speech early somewhat. He invites Roy into the office and compliments him — Roy thanks Ted and calls him Coach Ronald F*cking McDonald and walks out. Ted is all about optimism though, telling Beard he’s going to win Roy over.

The ending of Ted Lasso season 1, episode 1

Ted enters the changing room and covers a pair of breasts on one of the lockers. Keeley returns to the changing room and gives him advice to change elements of the changing room. Keeley tells Ted to avoid #Richmond on Twitter. Presumably, there are not nice tweets about him.

Ted returns to his hotel room and rings his family back at home. It’s evident that he’s having marital problems with his wife Michelle as they talk about giving each other space.

The premiere of Ted Lasso is genuinely funny and gives a promising premise.

Thor: Love and Thunder (2022)

from the New York Times: https://www.nytimes.com/2022/07/07/movies/thor-love-and-thunder-review.html


By Manohla Dargis
Published July 7, 2022Updated July 15, 2022

Every so often in “Thor: Love and Thunder,” the 92nd Marvel movie to hit theaters this year (OK, the third), the studio machinery hits pause, and the picture opens a portal to another dimension: Its star, Chris Hemsworth, embraces wholesale self-parody, a pair of giant screaming goats gallop along a rainbow highway and Russell Crowe flounces around in a flirty skirt and Shirley Temple curls. As the movie briefly slips into a parallel realm of play and pleasure, you can feel the director Taika Waititi having a good time — and it’s infectious.

This is the fourth “Thor” movie in 11 years and the second that Waititi has directed, following “Thor: Ragnarok” (2017). That movie was all over the place, but it was funny (enough) and had a lightness that proved liberating for the series and Hemsworth. “Love and Thunder” is sillier than any of its predecessors, and thinner. A lot happens in overstuffed Marvel Studios fashion. But because the series has jettisoned many of its earlier components — its Shakespearean pretensions, meddlesome relatives and, crucially, Thor’s godly grandeur — the new movie more or less plays like a rescue mission with jokes, tears and smackdowns.

It starts with a pasty, near-unrecognizable Christian Bale, who, having been relieved of his DC Dark Knight duties, has signed up with Marvel as a villain with the spoiler name of Gorr the God Butcher. Waititi quickly sketches in Gorr’s background, giving it a tragic cast. Believing himself betrayed by the god he once worshiped, Gorr is committed to destroying other deities. It’s potentially rich storytelling terrain, particularly given Thor’s stature and Marvel’s role as a contemporary mythmaker. But while Bale takes the role by the throat, as is his habit, investing the character with frictional intensity, Gorr proves disappointingly dull.

For the most part, Gorr simply gives Thor another chance to play the hero, which Hemsworth does with a stellar deadpan and appreciable suppleness. He’s always been fun to watch in the role and not just because, as the slavering camerawork likes to remind you, he looks awfully fine with or without clothes. Hemsworth knows how to move, which is surprising given his muscled bulk, and is at ease with his beauty. He’s also learned how to deploy — and puncture — Thor’s inborn pomposity, although by the time the final credits rolled in “Ragnarok” that haughtiness had turned into shtick. Thor is still a god, but also he’s now a great big goof.

To that end, Thor enters midfight on a battlefield washed in grayish red light, preening and posing and showboating alongside characters from Marvel’s “Guardians of the Galaxy.” With Guardians (Chris Pratt, the raccoon voiced by Bradley Cooper, etc.) on backup, Thor vanquishes the enemy with his customary hyperbole — he strikes the ground, reaches for the heavens, flips his hair — and a new hammer the size of a backhoe shovel. He also destroys a temple that looks right out of an airport gift shop. This synergistic foreplay isn’t pretty, and neither is the rest of the movie, but it announces Waititi’s sensibilities, his irreverence and taste for kitsch.

From the start, the “Thor” series has pushed and pulled at its title character, by turns enshrining and undercutting his supernatural identity, raising him up only to bring him crashing back down to Earth. The movies have, almost to a fault, emphasized Thor’s frailties: He has daddy issues, a sibling rivalry and romantic woes. Gods, they’re just like us! Thor’s love life humanized him for good and bad, though his romance with an astrophysicist — Natalie Portman’s Jane Foster — worked best as ballast for the he-man action. Jane wasn’t interesting, despite Portman’s febrile smiles, but, after sitting out the last movie, she’s back.

Why the encore? Well, mostly because Waititi, who wrote the script with Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, doesn’t seem to know what else he can do with Thor. By the end of “Ragnarok,” the character had been repeatedly cut down to size. He’d squabbled with his brother and wittiest foil (Tom Hiddleston as Loki). His long hair was chopped off and his kingdom annihilated, and gone too were the heavyweights who had helped fill the story’s holes with their magnetism and personality. Anthony Hopkins (Thor’s dad) exited, as did Cate Blanchett (sis). Thor fought, loved and lost, and then he packed on the pounds and went to hang with the Avengers.

“Love and Thunder” revs up the “Thor” franchise again with the usual quips and beats, programmatically timed blowouts, brand-extending details, a kidnapping and a welcome if underused Tessa Thompson. Her Valkyrie, alas, receives less screen time than Jane, who’s given a crisis as well as special powers, a blond blowout and muscles that inflate and deflate like party balloons. Jane’s new talents don’t do much for the story and read as a dutiful nod to women’s empowerment (thanks). Portman does what she can, yet she’s so tightly wound that she never syncs up with the loosey-goosey rhythms the way Thompson and Hemsworth do.

Waititi’s playfulness buoys “Love and Thunder,” but the insistence on Thor’s likability, his decency and dude-ness, has become a creative dead end. The movie has its attractions, notably Hemsworth, Thompson and Crowe, whose Zeus vamps through a sequence with a butt-naked Thor and fainting minions. It’s a delightful and cheerfully vulgar interlude, and critically, it reminds you of the sheer otherworldliness of these beings who — with their vanities, cruelties, deeds, mysteries and powers — turn reality into myth and stories into dreams. Like movie stars, gods aren’t like us, which of course is one reason we invented them.

Champions (2020) #6-10: Killer App

Champions (2020) #6

""KILLER APP"" STARTS HERE! The Champions tried fighting fair. Now it's time to fight dirty. A sinister corporation is cheating the system to try to keep Kamala's Law on the books, so the Champions infiltrate the company to take it down from the inside. But the company's wildly popular app is already turning public perception against teen super heroes. Can the Champions wage war on a trend? And how dirty will their hands get before it's over? Danny Lore (CAPTAIN AMERICA: KING IN BLACK, IRONHEART 2020) and Luciano Vecchio (IRONHEART) take the reins of a daring new era of Champions!

Champions (2020) #7

THE KAMALA CON! The Champions are playing dirty to beat Roxxon at their own game - including implanting two of their own as interns to take down the corporation from within. But in order to earn the trust of their cutthroat Roxxon supervisors, they'll have to deliver an unwilling spokesperson: Kamala Khan. Will Ms. Marvel agree to become the face of a company and a law that she hates, or is it too high a price to pay for victory?

Champions (2020) #8

A protest against Kamala’s Law goes south when Roxxon uses its app to lure the crowd into a trap. Can the Champions save the protestors without exposing the Champions’ moles within Roxxon? And can they figure out Roxxon’s true endgame in time to stop it, or is it already too late?

Champions (2020) #9

The Champions’ commitment to destroying Roxxon from within faces its ultimate test, as Kamala is asked to speak for the company in front of a global audience. How far will Ms. Marvel go to destroy the corporation that almost ruined her life? And what will it cost the rest of the Champions?

Champions (2020) #10

THE FINALE OF KILLER APP! The Champions win a major victory over Roxxon-only to discover a much deadlier threat waiting in the wings! Can they win against vicious machines engineered to predict their every move? Or is it the end of the line for our young heroes?

Yellowstone S1 Ep 7: A Monster Is Among Us

What did you miss? For a review of the last episode, click HERE

Yellowstone S1 Ep 7:
A Monster Is Among Us

from Showbiz Junkies: https://www.showbizjunkies.com/tv/yellowstone-season-1-episode-7-recap/



By Rebecca Murray
-August 8, 2018

The first season of Paramount Network’s Yellowstone continues with episode seven airing on August 8, 2018. The episode kicks off with John Dutton (Kevin Costner) spotting a busload of tourists out in a field, only a few dozen yards from a live bear. It’s most likely the bear that was about to attack Kayce in episode six. The tour guide won’t urge her group to leave, even when John informs them they’re all trespassing. The group argue John should be sharing his property and John finally has enough, sending them scattering by firing his rifle in the air.

As the tourists board the bus, John watches the bear paw at the earth.

The action moves to the operating table where, in graphic detail, we see the doctor cutting into Monica’s skull. Once the surgery’s complete, Kayce (Luke Grimes) is told Monica suffered an epidural hematoma. The doctor doesn’t sugarcoat the diagnosis, telling Kayce he doesn’t know if she’ll recover because it’s difficult to say with any certainty after brain surgery. The fact she survived the surgery and is young gives the doctor reason to hope there will be a positive outcome.

Kayce pays a quick visit to Monica (Kelsey Asbille), even though the doctor advises against it. A nurse watches over Tate (Brecken Merrill) who becomes agitated and screams that he wants to see his mom. Hospital personnel hold Tate down in the waiting room while he’s screaming and Kayce’s first instinct is to punch one when he sees his son in distress.

The doctor manages to calm the situation down a little but kicks Tate and Kayce out of the hospital until the situation settles down.

Elsewhere, John delivers a speech at the Stockman’s Dinner. He talks about his family’s history and how ranchers only want to break even and are dedicated to the land.

Back at his table, alone, John glances at the place cards bearing the names of his children who aren’t in attendance at the event.

Catching up with Jamie (Wes Bentley), he’s busy working with his new political aide, Christina (Katherine Cunningham), at his Attorney General campaign office. She warns him campaigning is going to be hell but that it’s worth it. He confesses he’s not an idealist and his goal is only obtaining more power. He just wants to protect his family and all of the families like his and stop the “hemorrhaging of Montana’s resources to people in other states.” She approves, and the sexual tension is pinging at hot.

At home, Kayce tries to cry quietly so as not to scare Tate.

Back at the ranch, John expresses his disappointment his children weren’t at the dinner. Jamie explains he’s preparing his campaign office, and John reminds him the people at the event are potential voters. John admits he felt a shift in the room and the Governor never bothered to talk to him.

Beth (Kelly Reilly) is otherwise occupied, bent over a grungy toilet smoking and having sex (not with Rip).

A flashback shows the family waiting for Beth so they can open their Christmas presents. John (played by Josh Lucas) warns the kids they can’t start until Beth shows up. Evelyn (Gretchen Mol) goes looking for her daughter and finds her crying in the bathroom. She’s upset because she started her period and is worried her mom will be angry. Evelyn runs a bath to help her with the cramps, and tells John to let the boys go ahead and start opening presents.

Beth soaks in the tub while her mom explains that boys will now be looking at her differently. She can expect to be treated like she’s weaker than them, but Evelyn reminds her she’s stronger than the boys who would never be able to handle the pain of childbirth. She tells her young daughter that from now on she’s going to hard on her, apologizing in advance that she’ll treat her roughly in order to make her into the “man” most men will never be. It’s the way Evelyn was treated and she’s passing it on to her daughter.

“I know my mother was right. It was the best gift she ever gave me. Now I have to give it to you,” says Evelyn.

Back to current events, and Beth is in an agitated state as she takes Kayce’s horse out and almost immediately falls off. She gets on him again and is once more thrown off. She’s given a lesson in how horses respond to tension, anger, and body language by the new ranch hand, Walker (Ryan Bingham). He explains the horse feels every emotion she puts out. Walker asks Beth to try again and this time let the horse know, with her body, that everything will be fine.

Beth actually listens and does as he suggests. It works, and Beth has a calm ride across the corral – without even using the reins.

John and Rip (Cole Hauser) watch from a distance, and John calls Walker a horse whisperer. John wants all the calves brought down from the pasture because of the bear.

Beth is overcome with emotion at the end of her ride.

Thomas Rainwater (Gil Birmingham), Dan Jenkins (Danny Huston), and their people attempt to hammer the details of the deal into place. They can’t come to an agreement over some of the financing issues and Thomas leaves, telling Dan to let him know when he’s ready to truly become a partner in taking down John Dutton.

After Thomas leaves, Dan works with his advisors to figure out how to make his percentage of the profit become a percentage of the ownership of the casino. He learns the licensing board won’t approve that and suggests he’ll own the hotel while Thomas owns the casino to get around that issue.

Catching up with John, he’s getting an MRI and seems worried. Afterward, his doctor wants another colonoscopy within the next month, but John’s blood work looks good.

As John leaves his doctor’s office, he spots Tate in the waiting room. (John is unaware what’s happening with Monica.)

At the ranch, Jamie spots a man looking in the window. He holds him at gunpoint, believing the man is there to do harm to his dad. It turns out he’s there to serve court papers which he tosses at Jamie.

Rip, Walker, and Jimmy (Jefferson White) head out to find the bear. They spot him and then realize none of them brought a gun. They’re forced into “hazing” it which is explained as running right at it. They do, and it’s a disaster. The bear not only doesn’t flee, it charges them and Jimmy is thrown from his horse. He climbs a tiny tree which the bear then tries to push down. Walker ropes the bear and rides off with him, leading him away.

Jimmy’s rescued but his horse has hightailed it out of there.

Monica is surrounded by her family, including John, as the doctor asks her to wiggle her toes. She’s awake and speaking normally, however, she can’t feel anything when the doctor touches the bottom of her left foot. She can wiggle her toes and feel the bottom of her right foot. The doctor wants her to eat but she’s just not hungry.

The doctor’s encouraged Monica can talk and is aware of what’s going on. He believes she’s through the worst of it. However, her lack of motor skills is worrisome.

Kayce agrees the best thing to do is have Tate go back to the ranch with John, even though Tate wants to stay by his mother’s side.

Rip is back out in the forest and this time he has a gun. He spots the bear and gives chase. Instead of finding the bear, he finds two people stranded off the side of a cliff. They’re in a precarious position balancing on a skinny piece of wood and Rip explains to the female that if she grabs the rope he tosses down and climbs up, her boyfriend will plummet to the ground. The boyfriend doesn’t speak English and has no idea what’s happening. The woman doesn’t want her boyfriend to die, so Rip says she can choose to let her boyfriend grab the rope meaning she’ll be the one falling to her death.

He tosses down the rope and she wants to put it around both of them. Unfortunately, it’s too short and she must make a choice. She protests and the boyfriend now understands what’s going on. As the woman cries and struggles to place the rope around both of them, she falls and dies upon impact.

Rip tells the man to grab the rope with both hands, but he refuses. He lets go and also falls to his death.

Rip doesn’t have time to react to the deaths before he hears the bear nearby. He grabs his gun as it charges and shoots it once in the head. The bear is dead, as are the two tourists.

The action shifts to Monica’s school where Thomas is told it’s possible the boy involved in the fight that caused her injury could be charged with manslaughter if she dies. Otherwise, it’s at the very least assault.

Thomas asks to speak with the boy who hit Monica off the record. The boy’s sorry and claims he didn’t mean to do it. Thomas warns him he’ll be charged if she dies.

After leaving the school, Thomas admits none of this is what he expected. He had big ideas but now isn’t sure he’ll make any difference at all.

John and Tate arrive back at the ranch and John’s moving slowly. Still, it’s obvious he loves being with his grandson. John’s in tremendous pain as he opens the refrigerator and asks Tate to stay at the table for a minute.

Beth’s also at the ranch speaking on the phone, commanding whoever she’s talking to to bring her all the information they can find on Paradise Valley Development Holdings. She wants the info, along with her computer, brought to the ranch. John walks in and asks about Jamie, but she doesn’t know where he is. He asks her to watch Tate, but Beth gives her usual snide, negative reply. John, in pain, growls that he’s not asking.

Beth finally figures out her dad’s not doing well as she watches him head to his room.

Beth introduces herself to Tate as his aunt and admits the only thing she can make him eat is a cheese plate. That doesn’t sound appealing, so they head out to see what the ranch hands are eating.

John, alone, gets sick in the bathroom, sweating and throwing up blood.

At the hospital, Monica asks about Tate and is told he’s at the ranch. Only Kayce and Monica’s grandfather are in attendance as she tries to eat more pudding. She can’t make the spoon go into the cup, constantly missing as she attempts to dish some up. She makes a joke and then asks where Tate is again. She doesn’t remember she’s just asked for him less than a minute prior.

Rip makes it back to the ranch and calls for the sheriff. No one’s answering his calls.

John is bent over in pain. He talks to God, telling him he’s not ready to die. There’s still too much to be done.

Monica’s grandfather leaves to get coffee and Kayce holds Monica’s hand. The smile leaves her face and she withdraws her hand. She looks lost and confused. Kayce attempts to hold himself together.

The episode ends with a scene of the cowboys eating, listening to music, and relaxing after a hard day. Beth seems to relax a little while Rip is stone-faced and then leaves the room as the group continues to unwind.

Peaky Blinders S6 Ep 3: Gold

What did you miss? For a review of the last episode, click HERE

Peaky Blinders S6 Ep 3: Gold

from Decider: https://decider.com/2022/06/12/peaky-blinders-season-6-episode-3-recap/
by Benjamin H. Smith 

Jun 12, 2022 at 2:30pm

Peaky Blinders Season 6 is off to a rousing start with plenty of old friends and enemies making their return for the show’s final run. Last episode saw the return of aspiring British fascist Sir Oswald Mosely and London Jewish gangster Alfie Solomons. Episode 3, titled “Gold,” sees the big return of gang leader Tommy Shelby’s greatest nemesis; GYPSY CURSES!

If you recall, the Shelby family are Gypsies in the traditional sense, members of the Romani people who arrived in Europe from Western Asia in the late middle ages, and also Irish Travellers, an itinerant group found throughout the British Isles. This means they’re “all witches and sorcerers who speak freely with the dead,” as new antagonist Jack Nelson says later in the episode. It should be noted, these are basically negative ethnic stereotypes and the term “Gypsy” is considered a racial epithet by many Roma but I haven’t heard any big outcry about it yet, so maybe it’s no big deal.

The episode starts with Tommy and Lizzie’s daughter being diagnosed with tuberculosis. Tommy thinks it’s his fault and punishment for his various misdeeds because, of course, everything is about him. Rather than stay at the hospital with his wife and child, he embarks on one of his periodic Gypsy vision quests to find Esme Shelby-Lee, his brother John’s widow, who he hopes will have some supernatural miracle cure.

Speaking of brothers, I don’t like to gossip, but uncouth and often unhinged older Shelby brother Arthur (Paul Anderson) has been getting high on his own supply and is now battling an opium addiction. This makes him more uncouth and more unhinged than usual. He’s dispatched to Liverpool to deal with dock worker Hayden Stagg, played by British actor Stephen Graham, who’s been selling the Shelby’s dope out the back door of their warehouse.

Graham was first rumored to be joining the cast after Season 4 when it was revealed the Shelbys were selling bootleg gin to Chicago Mafia boss Al Capone. Having played Capone on HBO’s Boardwalk Empire, fans hoped Graham would reprise the role on Peaky Blinders, but instead he’s playing Stagg, who avoids a beatdown by getting inside Arthur’s head and talking about his own opiate addiction. It’s completely unbelievable but a good monologue and gives Graham an opportunity to flex his native Scouse accent.

While Tommy’s off searching for Gypsie caravans, his sister Ada Thorne (Sophie Rundle) is left in charge of the family business. Among her duties is overseeing the introduction of Jack Nelson, Irish-American gangster businessman, to Mosley. Before that happens, Ada faces off with Mosley’s new squeeze, Lady Diana Mitford, for light flirting and condescension.

Mitford, played by Amber Anderson, tosses off one-liners like “I don’t read novels. I read only pornography and politics,” and, “You know I like to f**k women as well as men?” She then tells Ada that when “the great cleansing” happens she’ll argue that Gypsies should be spared, which is like, the WORST pickup line ever.


Nelson (James Frecheville) later shows up with his niece, Gina Gray, and delivers one of the creepiest smiles of all time before saying of Mitford, “It’s amazing what English upper class women can do with just skin, bone and arrogance.” OH SNAP! Gina is played by The Queen’s Gambit breakout star ​​Anya Taylor-Joy but, sadly, there’s not a lot for her to sink her teeth into. Gina is a pawn caught between powerful men, rather than as a power broker herself, such as Ada or the much-missed Aunt Polly.

Meanwhile, Tommy is “up in the mountains with f**king horse thieves and sorcerers,” as Lizzie put its. When he finally reaches the Gypsy heartland it looks not unlike the rocky cra where Tim the Enchanter lived in Monty Python and The Holy Grail (was he a Gypsy too?). Tommy finds Esme, who now looks like the bassist in a ‘90s grunge band, takes him to a Gypsy graveyard to learn the source of the curse afflicting his daughter.

OK, bear with me. Back in Season 3, Episode 2, Tommy unknowingly gave his wife Grace a cursed sapphire which she wore on the night of her murder. Tommy then went on ANOTHER GYPSY VISION QUEST in the next episode, pawning off the gem on Gypsy wise woman Bethany Boswell.

According to Esme, Bethany gave the sapphire to her sister who gave it to her 7-year-old daughter who quickly developed a cough and died. “I’m guessing it’s the girl’s mother that laid the curse,” Esme says, which is messed up because Tommy TOTALLY TOLD EVERYONE the jewel was cursed. Also, their last name is now Baswell. Maybe they were just mad he got their name wrong. At this point, Tommy looks at the little girl’s grave and asks Esme, “Do you have whiskey?“ Bye bye sobriety.

Not only does Esme not have whiskey, she doesn’t think there’s anything to do to lift the curse. She’s right. Tommy rushes back to the hospital only to learn that Ruby has just died. If history has taught us anything about the Shelbys, there’s going to be Hell to pay…

The Gray Man (2022)

from Mashable: https://mashable.com/article/the-gray-man-netflix-review

'The Gray Man' review: The Russo Brothers' action mixtape can't find the beat
Ryan Gosling, Chris Evans, Ana de Armas…And somehow this still stinks.

By Kristy Puchko on July 22, 2022

At a glance, The Gray Man has everything you'd crave in a high-octane action movie. Drive's glowering Ryan Gosling stars as the titular anti-hero, a hired assassin with a heart of gold. Knives Out's Ana de Armas and Chris Evans reunite for another showdown of wits and, this time, plenty of combat. MCU juggernauts Joe and Anthony Russo share directing duties, promising splashy stunts to take advantage of the ludicrous budgets Netflix drops for such star-studded projects. Despite all this, The Gray Man fails to be solidly fun. Instead, it feels like a mixtape, pulling bits from a bunch of much better, much more daring action movies, to create a medley that is mediocre at best.

Written by Joe Russo, Christopher Markus, and Stephen McFeely, The Gray Man is based on a novel of the same name by bestselling author Mark Greaney, but the movie's plot points seem nakedly stolen from a slew of memorable action films. Like Suicide Squad, Six (Gosling) is a "hardened criminal" who is let out of prison to go on top-secret assassination assignments for a shady government organization. Like The Bourne Identity, this highly trained assassin falls out of the organization's good graces when he botches a hit to save a child bystander. Like the Bourne franchise or Black Widow, he goes on the run to preserve his life and bring the shady organization down. Like John Wick, a huge bounty is put on his head, sending a swarm of killers on his tail. Like Léon: The Professional, he's trying to best the baddies while protecting a young orphan girl (Julia Butters) from harm. She was Taken by a mercurial mercenary (Evans), so Six and his "particular set of skills" are on a mission to get the girl, save the day, and limp off into the sunset, maybe with his pretty female colleague (de Armas). And along the way, he'll do his own (less impressive) version of the Oldboy hallway melee.

From its first scene, it's hard not to feel like you've seen The Gray Man before. To the Russos' credit, they try to dress up this ruthless retread with a globe-trekking journey that bounces between beautiful settings, like Bangkok, Berlin, Baku, and Monaco. Despite its title, which is meant to refer to the moral gray area that Six works in, the film is alive with color: neon-lit nightclubs, a bespoke suit in brilliant vermillion, sprays of yellow and red light in fireworks and gunfire, and teal backlighting that brings contrast to shadowy fight scenes. Hell, even the MacGuffin — a flash drive hidden in a medallion — is golden. Sadly, the frantic pacing and hasty edit of the film, which nonetheless clocks in at a grueling two hours and nine minutes, make The Gray Man an eyesore.

The Gray Man's action is a miss.

There are plenty of fight scenes, but the actual fight choreography is frequently uninspired hand-to-hand combat. The Russos seem to know these sequences fall flat; as if to distract us, the editing is especially frenetic, bounding from location to location without concern for visual flow or spatial geography. This turns several fight scenes, including a sprawling, city-smashing car chase, into an illogical blur. Even sequences with less moving parts suffer from the Russos' determination to overstimulate their audience. Gosling's numerous battles are often obscured by distractions: a flashlight's beam bopping about a dark room, smoke bombs billowing around the battlers, or actual fireworks exploding around warring rivals. His lunges are ramped up in the edit, so the punches and kicks should feel more forceful, but the feeble sound design deadens the impact. In The Gray Man, you'll see each punch, stab, and bullet biting into flesh, but without a sound design that squelches hard, these injuries seem minor, even when the characters are bleeding profusely. It's practically the exact opposite experience of watching (and hearing) Jordan Peele's Nope in terms of communicating carnage through sound rather than relying on graphic onscreen violence.

There are a few notable moments where the coverage and the edit actually click, and the fight scene that stands out the most is a simple affair involving a man, a woman, a table, and a cable. Without all the razzle-dazzle of sparks and swish pans, de Armas and her onscreen enemy deliver a brief but satisfying battle that actually thrills.

Chris Evans is wicked fun as a mustachioed villain.

Like his MCU bud Chris Hemsworth in Spiderhead, Chris Evans seems to relish the opportunity to slide into a baddie role. If you loved him as the lusciously sweatered, duplicitous douche in Knives Out, you'll appreciate his distinctive turn as Lloyd Hansen, a gleeful killer with the trash 'stache of a Boston cop and the casual wear of a Wall Street dirtbag. Evans sinks his teeth into every moment, whether Lloyd is torturing an asset, springing into a punching match, or chastising his victims for their highfalutin vocabulary. ("Don't say 'preternatural' to me. It's an asshole word.") Sadly, the dialogue repeatedly lets him and the rest of the cast down.

For every zippy line ("If you think I'm going to rat someone out for Bubbalicious…"), there are a dozen more in desperate need of a punch-up. ("These are unhonorable people.") While Evans' manic energy makes some of his rougher lines go down smooth enough, Gosling and de Armas stumble in their cool posturing, trying to find the fun in bickering over keyboard typing and gun-throwing etiquette. Their chemistry is likewise lackluster, making the will-they-won't-they of their edged flirtations more frustrating than fun. Even their occasional punchlines don't land, because the banter is at the same overactive speed as the action. There's no time for a joke to register before Six and company are spewing exposition lines or punching people again.

Gosling's slow-burn performance is smothered by all the smoke, explosions, flickering lights, and clamorous cutting. Where his cool-as-a-cucumber Six should play as a slick foil to Evans' volatile villain, the film is too caught up in its flashy visual confetti to dig into character. Anything below a big gesture is lost in the fray.

The Gray Man is mediocre.

Watching the Russos' latest, I was annoyed by the cherry-picking from far more entertaining action movies, all to slap together something so frenetic, with no lasting impact or sense of fun. The Gray Man is not the kind of movie that you need to see in theaters. (The Russos agree.) It's the kind of movie you can throw on while you're doing dishes or fiddling on your phone. In bursts, it's amusing. Overall, it's tiresome, lacking any emotional wallop, consistent wit, or the kind of verve that might actually make even its stolen bits sting.

In the end, all of this makes The Gray Man another miss for Netflix. Though the streaming studio has been praised by acclaimed filmmakers for offering them creative freedom and big budgets to boot, resulting in stunning films like The Irishman, The Power of the Dog, and Okja, it seems to be a license to coast for star-studded action flicks like Red Notice, Spiderhead, and now The Gray Man. If only everyone had brought the teeth-gritted drive to push the envelope that Evans had to this movie, then this Gray Man might have been more than meh.

Moon Knight S1 Ep 5: Asylum

What did you miss? For a review of the last episode, click HERE

Moon Knight S1 Ep 5: Asylum

from Den of Geek: https://www.denofgeek.com/tv/moon-knight-episode-5-review/
Moon Knight Episode 5 Review: Asylum

By Kirsten Howard|

April 27, 2022|

In Moon Knight episode 5, “Asylum”, we finally got to know Marc Spector, and the show was all the better for it. While the latest installment of the Marvel series didn’t fix all the tonal and structural issues it suffered with in its first four episodes, it did offer its audience an olive branch in the way of essential cohesion that was practically AWOL while we spent time watching Steven Grant’s bumbling realization that he was just one identity in a body that had been reformed to house at least two.

Some people might feel that the more messy, silly, fractured, or occasionally downright woeful elements of those episodes were deliberately constructed that way to reflect the nature of the central character, and I could understand that point of view, but that honestly feels like a pretty lazy way to look at it, especially since there’s already been a well-received Marvel TV show that explored a lot of the same themes as this one. Even when Legion was objectively flawed or problematic, it still found interesting ways to keep you invested.

After mulling it over, I think investment has been my core problem with Moon Knight. It’s a little hard to embrace half a character, and by predominantly focusing on Steven Grant up until now, that is what has been asked of me. It’s even harder to embrace a third of a character, and as the series has lightly sprinkled in its teases of that reveal still yet to come, it has increasingly felt like yet another puzzle piece has been missing. When puzzle pieces are missing from a plot, that can be exciting and mysterious. I sat through six seasons of Lost and didn’t even hate the finale, for crying out loud! But when so many key puzzle pieces are missing from a lead character I’m asked to root for, it’s a bit of a struggle for me to connect with them properly.

Consequently, “Asylum” felt like a long, cool glass of water after four weeks of stumbling through the desert. Getting to know Marc was like balancing my own scales of judgment on Moon Knight itself.

I can imagine that swinging between Marc’s therapy session, his buried memories, and his ongoing battle to save his soul might have been a wild ride for some viewers, but every moment we spent filling in Marc’s backstory earned a little more of my investment in seeing he and Steven make it through their visually stunning journey with Taweret. Right now, I feel hydrated. Moisturized. Happy. In My Lane. Focused. Flourishing. Admittedly, that’s a weird way of talking about witnessing a man’s past trauma, but it is what it is. Let’s just say there’s no time to unpack it, and move on.

Marc’s trauma in this series has been altered from the Marvel Comics version. In the books, it was his father who died, and his father’s funeral he ran away from. His father’s friend, a serial killer and Nazi deserter who had adopted the identity of a long-lost rabbi, was much more of the catalyst for Marc’s trauma, but that’s a bit too heavy to get into here.

Likely due to timeline issues, the cause of Marc’s trauma now stems from a tragic accident involving his younger brother, and his mother’s subsequent breakdown. Blaming Marc for his death, she punished him with emotional and physical abuse, and he created Steven as a way to cope with his distressing childhood. I found these memories to be deeply affecting, and also felt they bonded Steven and Marc in a way that screwball interactions in the midst of CG-laden adventure never could. Marc and Steven’s trip to the afterlife also felt genuinely perilous, which is a real achievement when true peril has so often been an issue in the MCU.

Last week, I was worried that any time we spent in the mental hospital and beyond might be distracting from the action in Egypt, but it wasn’t. As the episode built a case for Marc to survive the journey, I longed for he and Steven to connect, and the episode delivered that catharsis with a light enough touch to avoid feeling forced. Seeing Steven embrace his potential to save Marc was wonderful, and I was almost as upset as Marc to see him fall into the desert and be lost.

In “Asylum”, Oscar Isaac’s performance as both identities was genuinely spectacular. I think this episode finally proved to me without a doubt that he was the right choice for the role. I just wish that we could have been served some of this depth earlier on in the series. Maybe there was no way to make it work, but our time with Isaac’s versions of Marc and Steven in those first four episodes did leave something to be desired. Now that this thirst has been quenched, Moon Knight could be all set to give us a great finale. I hope it does.