Month: March 2022

Super Recaps: The Twilight Zone (How Much Do You Love Your Kid?)

~ Matt Vetrano ~ 1 Comment

The Twilight Zone and all the images you see in this recap are owned by Warner Bros Television and based on the series created by Rod Serling

Episode directed by Allison L Brown

Welcome back everyone to the long-overdue return of my Twilight Zone recaps! It’s been almost two years since we last covered this series, and while I can give you a laundry list of excuses as to why this fell so far down the priority list, the truth is that I probably shouldn’t have let it go the way that I did given how far into the series I got. Well, that’s all gonna change as I am determined to finish this series once and for all, and what better episode to start with than what is arguably one of the best episodes of the entire series? It’s the kind of high concept and dismal portrayal of a future gone wrong that has led to some of the best speculative fiction like Brave New World and The Obsolete Man, but can it hope to compare to those classic stories, or is it straining to hold all of its big ideas together? Let’s find out!!

The episode begins with the idyllic middle-class life of Donna and Ted (Bonnie Somerville and Steve Bacic), though things have been less idyllic lately as Ted’s been out of work for some time and the bills are piling up. It’s far too early for the housing market crash, but maybe he was a victim of the Dot Com Bubble. Either way, he’s going for an interview this morning that will turn it all around and get their lives back on track. Donna is cautiously optimistic as she sends her son Wylie to school and enjoys some personal time at an affordable spa, but then things come crashing down in an instant when she gets one of the worst phone calls a parent could get; her son didn’t show up for school and is missing! Without missing a beat, she rushes to the police station to report her son’s disappearance only to be accosted by some dude named Nick Dart (Wayne Knight); the host of a reality show called How Much Do You Love Your Kid, and it looks like Donna is an unwitting participant in this game of theirs. Seems legit given how clearly we’ve demonstrated how little we care about the safety of children in the last few years.

“Isn’t it great to live in a country where you have the FREEDOM to save your kid from a certain death?” “HOW ABOUT YOU DON’T TAKE MY KID IN THE FIRST PLACE!?” “Wow, okay. Looks like someone here doesn’t believe in personal responsibility!”
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Super Recaps: Halo – Episode 1

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Halo the series is owned by Paramount Plus

Directed by Otto Bathurst

The first Halo game released all the way back in 2001 as an Xbox exclusive, and even back then everyone involved knew that this was going to be a big deal.  Still, despite all the critical acclaim, the dozens of novels based in this universe, and a clear desire to make something more of the franchise, the leap from Video Games to Hollywood just never worked out.  Some version of a Halo television series has been in development since at least 2015 with attempts to make a movie going as far back as 2005, and while we do have some straight to video stuff like Halo Legends and Forward Unto Dawn, a big budget adaptation for the masses had always eluded them. Still, it’s probably best that we didn’t get one of these during the dark ages of video game movies when Max Payne and Hitman were stinking up the multiplexes, and the era of streaming has been good for sci-shows the last few years. With all that said, and with twenty years of hype behind it, does this first episode manage to capture the spirit of the series and is a good sign of things to come, or will this get cancelled faster than a typical Netflix series? Let’s find out!!

The Story of Halo takes place in the 26th-century as humanity has traveled well beyond our own solar system and has colonized planets through the galaxy. For the most part, this has gone well as humanity has thrived and the resources from these colonies have only furthered our technological and societal advancement; maybe not Star Trek levels of utopia, but still pretty good! Of course, as humanity stretched itself further and further away from Earth, those furthest away started rebelling against them and the Earth’s military force known as the United Nations Space Command, or UNSC. This proves to be poor timing for humanity to start turning against itself as an intergalactic group of alien races known as the Covenant started showing up at these outer colonies and didn’t come bearing fruit baskets. Nope, full-on genocide and ethnic cleansing as they kill every human they come across with their far superior technology. This is the state of things as we start the first episode on one of the outer colonies and we follow Kwan Ha (Yerin Ha) who’s about to have a very bad day. Her colony is attacked and destroyed by the Covenant with the UNSC only showing up after everyone else is dead to clean up the mess. Those sent to do the mess cleaning by the way are Spartans; the greatest soldiers (and greatest propaganda tools) that the UNSC has, and while we’re still learning the truth about them in this series, there are rumors about genetic augmentation that strikes fear into the more rebellious members of the outer colonies. With Kwan Ha as the last survivor and the Spartans finding some alien artifact that the Covenant were digging for, the head Spartan known as Master Chief (Chief if you’re colleagues, John if you’re friends, and played by Pablo Schreiber) takes her and the artifact back to the UNSC central command on a planet called Reach. The trip is tumultuous however as the UNSC, as well as the head of the Spartan program Doctor Halsey (Natascha McElhone), are unsure of what to expect upon their return. After touching the artifact, Chief’s vitals have been off the charts and he’s been acting a little strangely, while Kwan Ha is proving not to be overly gracious to the UNSC after being “saved” by them. Tensions escalate on this small ship and the command back on Reach until they hit a boiling point and Chief has to decide what his ironclad sense of duty truly means and what it will force him to do.

“So how do you pee in that thing?”     “We Spartans have been genetically engineered to be as biologically efficient as possible, and so we do not produce pee to dispose of.”     “Are you joking?”    “Maybe. You could say I’m… taking the piss?”     “Aaah! I see what you did there!”
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Cinema Dispatch: Deep Water

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Deep Water and all the images you see in this review are owned by Hulu

Directed by Adrian Lyne

Movies may be returning to theaters, but the Pandemic has irrevocably muddied the waters between theatrical movies and straight to streaming. Pixar’s splitting the difference with one of their movies going to streaming while other is a theatrical exclusive, and all the major streaming services are sacrificing box office bucks in the hopes of roping in a few more views; Netflix being the most blatant as far as I’m concerned what with Knives Out 2 going straight to their service. It’s certainly been good for me as I’m already paying for these things so I might as well check out what’s on them, and one movie caught my eye this week. It’s a movie I never heard of until a few days before it was to come out, and yet it’s starring the former Batman and Agent Paloma from the last James Bond movie! How did something with such high-profile actors fly under my radar like this? Was Hulu hoping we won’t notice it as they sandwich it between Seth Macfarlane cartoons and whatever the heck Letter Kenny is, or is this just further evidence that I am out of touch and just barely managed to catch a great movie before it sailed right over my head? Let’s find out!!

Vic Van Allen and Melinda Van Allen (Ben Affleck Ana de Armas) are an upper-class married couple who have an… interesting relationship. It’s unclear how much of this is formalized or agreed upon, but it’s clear that Melinda is having sex with other men and that Vic is aware of it. For the most part, he just stands there and plasters a smile on his face while she does her thing, but it’s clear that this is eating him up inside and he starts getting more and more aggressive in his “handling” of this situation. Melinda seemingly has no compunction about this and presumably doesn’t care much for Vic’s feelings, but then Vic is no peach either and his need for control only gets more desperate and more uncomfortable. Just how far will Vic go to hold tight on what he believes is rightfully his, and how will Melinda react to these cages he wishes to put up? Is there something underneath all this contempt that they have for each other, and is it somehow darker than the animosity with which they deal with their problems already? See, back in my day they would just go on Springer and get it all out in the open, but nope! Just gonna bottle it up until someone writes a really inappropriate rant on Facebook!

“She’s so *#!@% that ^&^@#$!”     “Well, HE can’t even %$%#*!”     “JERRY! JERRY! JERRY!”
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Cinema Dispatch: Turning Red

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Turning Red and all the images you see in this review are owned by Pixar

Directed by Domee Shi

Pixar really hasn’t made anything that I thought was spectacular since Coco, which is a shame because it’s no secret that they’ve been the go-to studio for high-quality family entertainment. To see the studio focus more and more on sequels while their original work feels less inspired each year is just another reason why the world really did just come to an end in the last few years. That’s not even getting into the cowardice of Disney itself in the last few weeks, so there was certainly a lot of pessimism from me going into this one. With so much up against it, does this latest outing from Pixar manage to turn things around and make me appreciate them once more, or will I have to look to the Spider-Verse sequel if I want to see a great animated family film this year? Let’s find out!

Our story begins with Meilin “Mei” Lee (Rosalie Chiang) who has recently turned thirteen and is living her best life in the heart of Toronto in 2002. She gets good grades at school, she has three great friends named Miriam, Priya, and Abby (Ava Morse, Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, and Hyein Park), and she has a fantastic relationship with her mother (Sandra Oh)! They work together at their temple, they watch Chinese dramas on TV, and it seems like nothing can possibly tear them apart! That is until puberty hits and with it comes an ancient family gift/curse which turns the women of their family in red pandas whenever they feel excessive emotions. Naturally being a giant furry creature is not conducive to Mei’s life goals and so she needs to keep it under wraps while her family puts together a ritual to rid her of the panda once and for all! Sounds simple enough, but the teenage years being what they are mean that life gets in the way pretty quickly; especially when Mei and her friends’ favorite boy band 4 Town are coming to town before the ritual can take place. This newfound power as well as the other changes happening to her have given Mei a new sense of independence which may help her and her friends get to the concert but is putting a serious strain on her relationship to her mother. Can Mei thread the needle between a goody-two-shoes overachiever and a rambunctious bad-girl without losing sight of what’s really important? How has her own mother’s experience with this gift/curse affected her, and is it only growing the divide between her and her daughter? If Mei’s mother is worried now, wait until she finds out what the internet is!

“Our gender-swapped Mario cosplay is off the hook!!”    “WAAA!”
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Super Comics: Sonic Imposter Syndrome – #3

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Sonic: Imposter Syndrome, as well as Sonic the Hedgehog (the comic book series) and all the images you see in this recap, are owned by IDW and SEGA of America

This mini-series has been one of the best things we’ve gotten from the Sonic comics in quite some time as it has genuinely interesting characters with a sense of depth to them that leaves the rest of the cast looking like paper cutouts. I’m guessing at least some of that has to do with this series focusing entirely on original characters and not SEGA mascots, but whatever the reason is I’ve found myself looking forward to these issues more than anything in the main series; and that includes the Chaotix finally getting a story arc! Was that anticipation worth it for this third installment, or will I be rushing back to Sonic by the time we’re done? Let’s find out!!

Right off the bat, this issue gets dark as we watch a series of video diaries from Dr. Starline where we hear his unfiltered thoughts and see the depths of his cruelty. His rage at Eggman is uncomfortably apparent at the start only to be tamped down by his insistence on self-control which is probably good for his blood pressure but not so much for Kitsunami and Surge who are in fact watching these videos along with us. Whatever these two may have done or the toxicity of their relationship, you can’t help but feel for them as they watch the one person they know in this world calmly talk about them as pawns in a game they are forced to participate in.

See, this is why you don’t watch drama channels. You just get all worked up with nowhere to direct that negative energy!
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Super Comics: Sonic the Hedgehog (IDW) – #48

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Sonic the Hedgehog (the comic book series) and all the images you see in this recap are owned by IDW and SEGA of America

We’re back with another Sonic Adventure from the folks over at IDW! Only, it’s NOT a Sonic adventure, is it? For the second time in a row, it looks like the Blue Bomber is getting sidelined to flesh out some of the side characters, and while the camping trip arc fell pretty flat for me, I’m still pretty excited to see what they can do with a Chaotix storyline! Will this be the start of an engaging gumshoe detective story set in a world of cartoon critters and very lax child labor laws, or will we be burning our deerstalker caps in sheer frustration by the end of this? Let’s find out!!

The issue begins with Vector and Espio going to pick up Charmy the Bee from daycare. No wait, I read that wrong. He was dropped off at a radio station and seems to have enacted a hostile takeover. Seems like there are plenty of other places to leave the kid where he can’t cause that kind of damage, but then I’m not a professional detective agency.

“The things that boy said. I’m amazing no one called the cops on us.”    “Yeah, sorry about that. He’s going through an edgelord phase.”
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Cinema Dispatch: The Batman

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

The Batman and all the images you see in this review are owned by Warner Bros Pictures

Directed by Matt Reeves

I wasn’t sure what to think about them doing yet another Batman movie when this first got announced. Say what you will about the Marvel movies, they haven’t beaten characters into the ground as thoroughly as Warner Bros have done to Batman and his crew. Multiple continuities and actors playing the same characters within years of each other, and all of them pale in comparison to The LEGO Batman Movie! Still, despite this looking like the grimdark fantasies of a nineties teen, it has an immense amount of talent that I genuinely respect behind it; particularly Robert Pattinson who has swiftly become one of my favorite actors. Is this a refreshing change of pace and a genuinely excellent interpretation of the character, or is this a whole lot of effort and prestige going to waste? Let’s find out!!

In the heart of Gotham, there is a man wearing a very strange costume attacking criminals and striking fear into the worst that the city has to offer. Unfortunately, this is not Batman doing it and it’s not the costumed bad guys who are getting their heads caved in; rather it’s some guy calling himself The Riddler who is murdering the corrupt politicians and their enablers. He’s also leaving cryptic clues for the city’s other vigilante, the one that attacks the easier to ignore bad guys, and so it’s up to Batman (Robert Pattinson) to find out who this brat is and bring him to justice! His investigation leads him to some shady figures in the underworld including Oswald Cobblepot (Colin Farrell) and Carmine Falcone (John Turturro) who are connected to this Riddler fellow in some way, and he even stumbles across a cat burglar (Zoë Kravitz) who may know more about this case and the people involved than she’s letting on. Can Batman solve the clues and find the man responsible for these killings before he gets to his grand finale? How has being the Batman affected the man beneath the cowl, and will this latest mystery push him too far into the darkness? Seriously, fanboys; what’s your beef with Robert Pattinson? Is he somehow not broody enough for you!?

“I can scowl like this all day! Just try me!!”
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Super Wrestling: AEW – Revolution 2022

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

Revolution and all the images you see in this recap are owned by All Elite Wrestling, Tony Khan, and Shahid Khan

I may have my moments where I get tired of AEW and even fall behind in recapping the shows, but I always manage to come back around in time for the big Pay-Per-View shows! It definitely helps when the card is as stacked as this one is with all the biggest stars of the company getting a chance to shine, and how can you NOT be excited to see Keith Lee back in action of a show like this? Does the show live up to the hype and put yet another notch in AEW’s already impressive track record? Let’s find out!!

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Leyla Hirsch Vs. Kris Statlander

The AEW Buy-In isn’t necessarily where the lower tier matches go so that the best gets saved for the PPV, but in this case that is exactly what’s going on; a rather mediocre build that leads to a mediocre match at just the right spot where they can get away with it. Things start off well enough as Statlander’s size and strength give her an advantage and Hirsch uses underhanded tactics to target her arm, but aside from a few moves here and there like the Powerslam Statlander gives her and A Blue Thunder Bomb for a two count, there isn’t much excitement going on here and the drama doesn’t really connect due to the feud itself being so lackluster. The other issues are some botches as Hirsch fumbles on a Springboard early on and there’s this bit on the turnbuckle where Statlander has trouble getting Hirsch on her shoulders, so on top of being kind of stale, it’s a bit janky as well. Hirsch eventually rolls out of the ring to grab a weapon and bashes Statlander with it behind the ref’s back. She then goes up top to hit a Moonsault and gets the pin to win the match, so no top of everything else we get a screwjob finish. I’m probably a bit too harsh on this since the Buy-In matches don’t have to be PPV quality, but this was definitely the most disappointing fight of the night.

Continue reading “Super Wrestling: AEW – Revolution 2022” →

Super Wrestling: AEW Rampage (03-04-2022)

~ Matt Vetrano ~ Leave a comment

AEW Rampage is owned by All Elite Wrestling, Tony Khan, Shahid Khan, and TNT

Sure it’s the final episode of Rampage before the PPV, but you know what’s even BETTER about this? With this recap I’m fully caught up on AEW; just in time for Revolution! If nothing else, I feel VERY accomplished for pulling this off and hopefully, my efforts will be rewarded with a great PPV show! Does this final Rampage close up all the loose ends before Revolution, or should I not have even bothered trying to catch up and just jumped to the big show? Let’s find out!!

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Sammy Guevara Vs. Darby Allin Vs. Andrade El Ídolo– TNT Title Three-Way Match

So you’re telling me that after both of these guys lost their title shots, and while both Scorpio Sky and whoever wins the Face of the Revolution Ladder match are waiting for their shots, Darby and Andrade just get another chance to win the belt? Well in their defense, this IS a really good match and a great way to kick off Rampage! Since Sammy and Darby are teaming up on the PPV in a Trios match against Andrade, it’s clear who the odd one out is and he knows it so his strategy is to try and keep his distance while Darby and Sammy beat each other to heck and back. What’s wild though is that while Darby and Sammy are clearly aware of this and do team up from time to time to attack Andrade, the plan ultimately works because they spend much more time fighting each other and this allows Andrade to save his strength and strike when it is most effective. There’s an early spot where Sammy has Darby on the turnbuckle and picks him up for some sort of Avalanche Pile Driver move, but then Andrade runs in and slides under Sammy for a Powerbomb. Showing an incredible amount of strength and balance, Sammy manages to hold Darby upright while Andrade walks them away from the corner before slamming both down onto the mat! A very cool (if a little silly) spot and it gives Andrade a chance to get the heat on both of them during the commercial. Unfortunately, he still seems to be underestimating them because he goes for several pins while he is in control, but they keep getting broken up because he doesn’t toss the other one out of the ring while he’s trying to win the match. Sammy and Darby team up once again and have Andrade on the ropes, but then they make the same mistake and start going after each other before finishing off Andrade. Darby Shoves Sammy out of a Springboard move to the floor below and Andrade is right here to Scoop Slam him in the middle of the ring! Still, Darby has his second wind now and starts getting dealing some Damage to Andrade; eventually putting him in the Tree of Woe which allows Sammy to hit a Coast to Coast Dropkick. They continue to work over Andrade whose whole strategy is finally collapsing, but this also means that Darby and Sammy are getting in each other’s way. After trading pinfalls for a bit, Andrade tries one last-ditch effort to steal a pin which ends with him eating a Stunner from Darby and a GTH from Sammy.  As soon as Sammy hits his move though, Darby throws him out and goes for the pin which is broken up by a top rope splash from Sammy. Sammy then throws Darby off to get the pin, and with Darby feeling the effects of that Splash, Sammy is able to keep Andrade down for the three count to win the match and retain his title! A fantastic match that was definitely of PPV quality, but all is not well as Sammy tries to shake Darby’s hand and is simply blown off. Sammy has held onto his title and in the grand scheme of things that’s probably more important than the Trios match on Sunday, but it does not bode well for their chances. Frankly, I would have put this on the Sunday show and just forgotten about the Trios match, but I’m not gonna complain about having good wrestling!

Continue reading “Super Wrestling: AEW Rampage (03-04-2022)” →