Year: 2017

Comic Book Review – Justice Society of America (1992)

Justice Society of America (1992-93)
Written by Len Strazewski
Art by Mike Parobeck & Mike Machlan

jsaComics about youth are very popular at the moment. There are your old standards like Teen Titans and newer titles like Runaways, Generation X, Champions, and more. As a kid, I felt myself drawn more to the past titles and characters. I loved the books that introduced me characters that have been around for decades but never got the spotlight. It was no surprise that when I saw issue 2 of this short run on the racks at Kroger, I snatched it up without a second thought. Not until now have I been able to go back and re-read the all 10 issues of the run and fall back in love with these classic characters.

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Twin Peaks: The Return – Episode 9 Breakdown, Thoughts, and Analysis

Part 9
Written by Mark Frost & David Lynch
Directed by David Lynch

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After Part 8, it was hard to know where we would be going next in Twin Peaks: The Return. We are seemingly transitioning right back into the story, but I find myself wondering what elements of Part 8 will reverberate through the second half of the series. This episode opens on the Doppelganger Cooper stumbling down a country road somewhere in South Dakota. He stops to take a red handkerchief waiting for him on a fencepost, a signal.

On the jet headed back to Philadelphia, Gordon Cole receives a call from Colonel Davis from the Pentagon. Davis informs Cole briefly about the murder in Buckhorn and how this falls into the purview of Cole’s Blue Rose cases.

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Movie Review – Spider-Man: Homecoming

Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Written by Jonathan Goldstein & John Francis Daley, Jon Watts & Christopher Ford, and Chris McKenna & Erik Sommers
Directed by Jon Watts

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Peter Parker is riding the high from helping out Iron Man during the events of Captain America: Civil War. With his new Stark designed Spidey suit, he patrols Queens every afternoon after school and awaits the call for his next mission with the Avengers. However, he quickly learns that the primary focus of Tony Stark is for Peter to continue with his education and stay safe. Meanwhile, former salvage worker Adrian Toomes and his crew have had their livelihood taken from them by the newly formed Department of Damage Control, feds who come in and take over the recovery of tech from Avengers-related battles. Seeing that they are living in a new world, Toomes leads his men to steal and harvest this tech as weapons for ordinary criminals. Toomes himself wears a pair of vulture wings that allow him to swoop in and hijack shipments of technology. Peter and Toomes’ paths begin crossing, and our teenage hero has balance life as a high school student with the impending danger of these new weapons.

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Movie Review – The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift

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The Fast & The Furious: Tokyo Drift (2006)
Written by Chris Morgan
Directed by Justin Lin

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Sean Boswell is a kid who just can’t stay in one place for too long. His penchant for getting into trouble at school, particularly through illegal racing, leaves him getting sent by his mother from Los Angeles to live with his father in Tokyo. Sean quickly befriends military brat Twinkie who introduces his new friend to the drift racing scene. After a disastrous first race against the obvious villain, DK, Sean is taken under the wing of Han, an associate of DK’s. Han teaches Sean how to adapt to a new style of racing while DK is pressured by his uncle in the Yakuza to flex his muscle. Like all these films, it wraps up with a high-speed race where…surprise! The protagonist wins!

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TV Review – American Gods

American Gods Season 1 (Starz)
Based on the novel by Neil Gaiman
Written by Bryan Fuller, Neil Gaiman, Michael Green, Maria Melnik, Bekah Brunstetter, Seamus Kevin Fahey, and David Graziano
Directed by David Slade, Adam Kane, Vincenzo Natali, Floria Sigismondi, and Craig Zobel

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Shadow Moon is a convict about to be released from prison following a failed robbery. He finds himself in the midst of personal tragedy as soon as he re-enters the outside world. However, a strange man named Mr. Wednesday crosses paths with Shadow and offers him a job to drive him around the country. Shadow beings to learn about the growing tensions between the transplanted gods of the Old World and the increasingly powerful new American Gods. With each stop, Shadow’s fundamental understanding of the universe begins to change.

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Movie Review – The Belko Experiment

The Belko Experiment (2017)
Written by James Gunn
Directed by Greg McLean

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The employees of Belko Industries’ Bogota, Columbia office, are off to another day of work. The company is a non-profit specializing in getting Americans jobs in other countries around the world, so a very high-end staffing agency. Mike Milch is put off by the newly hired and overly aggressive new security outside the building but shrugs it off. As the day begins, everything goes south, when an external presence takes over the building, locking it down in every way possible. The P.A. system is used to inform the employees that they have to kill two of their co-workers or there will be consequences. Of course, the employees call the voice’s bluff, and an example is made by detonating what they thought were innocuous tracking chips used in the case of kidnapping. Now human nature begins to reveal its true face when it becomes every man and woman for themselves.

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Movie Review – Better Luck Tomorrow

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Better Luck Tomorrow (2002)
Written Ernesto Foronda, Justin Lin, and Fabian Marquez
Directed by Justin Lin

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Ben and Virgil are two Asian-American high school students following the stereotypical honor roll/high achiever path. They participate in extracurricular clubs and sports to pad their applications for college, but there is a hidden side to their lives. At night they pull dumb childish pranks and make petty cash on a computer equipment scam with Virgil’s cousin Han. This changes when the trio become involved with Daric Loo, the golden boy of their high school who pushes them to get involved in drugs and larger scale crime. During this Ben has a major crush on Stephanie, his lab partner. However, Stephanie has a boyfriend, Steve (John Cho). Ben’s activities lead to a violent end and a cell phone ringing from underneath the sod laid across Virgil’s back yard

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Origins 2017: Scythe

Scythe (Stonemaier Games)
Designed by Jamey Stegmaier
Art by Jakub Rozalski

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In an alternate history, the continent of Europa is recovering from the effects of the Great War. The Factory once provided the armies of this land with powerful mechs but has now shut down, hiding its advanced technology behind its doors. The nations of Europa want this tech and begin a campaign against each other to become the most prosperous of nations in the world. To do this, they will need to gather resources to unlock greater and greater achievements, always taking note of their military might and popularity amongst the people.

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Movie Review – 2 Fast 2 Furious

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2 Fast 2 Furious (2003)
Written by Michael Brandt & Derek Haas
Directed by John Singleton

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Former LAPD Brian O’Conner is on the run since he let Dominic Toretto escape at the conclusion of the first film. He’s living in Miami (using his given name instead of an alias bizarrely) and makes a living participating in illegal street racing. Tej Parker (Chris ‘Ludacris’ Bridges) is the local organizer of all things racing and has a relationship in good standing with Brian. Brian’s life on the run comes to a quick end when the FBI brings him and offers a deal: they will drop all charges against the rogue cop if he helps them take down Argentine drug lord Carter Verone. Brian agrees, but on one condition, he gets to bring in his childhood friend Roman Pearce (Tyrese Gibson). The two are paired with undercover agent Monica Fuentes (Eva Mendes) and begin their mission to take down Verone.

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Movie Review – Baby Driver

Baby Driver
Written & Directed by Edgar Wright

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In the Southern metropolis of Atlanta lives Baby, the best wheelman your heist could hire. He’s under the thumb of Doc (Kevin Spacey), a man who makes the jobs happen. The rest of the crews may change, but Baby is the one constant, Doc’s lucky charm. What makes Baby different than all the rest is that he’s always cranking the tunes, using the rhythm of his music to drive the car, life his life, and fall in love. Everything changes when Baby meets Deborah (Lily James), a waitress who wants to leave town and just drive while the radio blares on the speakers. Baby struggles to extricate himself from the mire of crime he’s drowning in, surrounded by lowlifes and sociopaths (Jamie Foxx, Jon Hamm, etc.). Will he get free and ride into the sunset with Deborah or will this be the day the music dies?

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