Stuff I Watched Last Month

 Probably not that much, but maybe not...

The Creator:  In the pre-streaming, pre-Covid world I probably would have watched this in a movie theater because it looked pretty interesting.  And it was good, though not really as good as I wanted to be.  Like Pacific Rim it kinda starts with two prologues, though they aren't quite as long.  The first reveals that AI blew up a nuke in LA and so the US and most of the world banned AI.  But "New Asia" or the "Far East" as it used to be called didn't and so America leads a war against them.  In the second prologue we meet Josh (John David Washington) who is undercover in Thailand but falls in love with Maya, a scientist.  American soldiers attack the night Maya reveals she's pregnant.  Josh thinks she dies and is taken back to America for debriefing.

Five years later, Josh is told Maya is alive and the link to "Nimrata" or the creator of advanced AI systems.  Nimrata is developing a weapon and so they need him to guide a team into the hidden lab to destroy it.  The weapon turns out to be an AI girl with a mostly-human body called "Alphie" who is basically a living universal remote--if your universal remote could turn off just about anything electrical. 

The problem for me was I could already figure out who Nimrata was and what was going on with "Alphie."  I spent the next hour or so then just waiting for Josh to figure it out.  That's always kinda annoying when watching a movie.  But otherwise it was a good movie.  It borrows a little from Star Wars, Aliens, Avatar, I Robot, Chappie, and probably some other things.  Still it never really feels like a ripoff of anything.  The visuals are really good and the acting competent enough.  Besides Washington there's Allison Janney as the hard-as-nails American military commander and Ken Watanabe as an AI soldier protecting Nimrata.  Overall if you like sci-fi this is one you don't want to miss even if it probably won't replace your favorites. (3/5) (Fun Facts:  A lot of movie was shot in Thailand and in the credits it seemed every Thai crewperson had a nickname like "Something 'Bo' Something."  I don't think I'd ever seen that many nicknames in credits before.  When they show the giant US Army tank thing I kept hoping it would transform into a robot or something.  Speaking of robots, the Americans don't use AI but they employ robots that look like R2D2 with arms and longer legs and chests filled with explosives.  Kamikaze bots like that probably would have been more effective for the Trade Federation during the Clone Wars.)

Prospect:  A year before The Mandalorian and a few years before The Last of Us, Pedro Pascal was Pedro Pascaling in this indie sci-fi movie.  A teenage girl and her father (Jay Duplass of indie directing team the Duplass Brothers) go to "Green Moon" to find a stash of rare gems.  Their ship lands off-course and so they have to hike.  But along the way they're ambushed by Pascal and another dude.  The father and other dude are killed, so Pascal and the girl have to team up to find the stash and get off the planet alive.  Along the way, despite that Pascal killed her dad, they start to bond.  For a low-budget movie it is really good and well-made.  Like I said, this was basically a warm-up for Pedro Pascal to his more popular "gruff guy protecting a child" roles.  The rest of the actors are good as well.  I just wonder though how much better a movie like this could be if it had the budget of The Creator or Avatar 2. If you haven't seen it (and you probably haven't) this reminded me a lot of Settlers (2021) that I watched last year.  Both are worth watching if you like sci-fi.  (4/5) (Fun Facts:  If you have a weak stomach, you might want to turn away during the amputation scene.  I hadn't even heard of this movie until I read a review on this site.  That's why you should actually read reviews like these instead of just skimming one or two; you might actually see something that sounds interesting.)

Robots (2023):  Another good indie sci-fi movie, only one I found myself on Hulu. Like I said on Facebook, if you want a rom-com for Valentine's Day with a little sci-fi and light R-rated humor then this is a good pick.  The movie takes place about 10 years from now when "Tesla Corporation" has replaced illegal aliens with robots.  The robots wear weird rubber mannequin faces so they're easy to tell apart.  Making robots look like actual people is forbidden and if you're caught, you can go to jail.

But a rich douche named Charlie does it anyway.  He uses "C2" to work at his dad's company and pick up women.  After a few chaste dates, a hookup for sex will be arranged and the real Charlie will move in and then dump the girl.  Seems a little unnecessary but whatever.

There's also a woman named Emily who does sort of the opposite.  She goes out with rich guys to get stuff and then uses her robot "E2" to actually have sex with the guys so that way she's not really a hooker; it's the robot taking one for the team.

Then C2 meets Emily, but on the night they're supposed to hook up, things get mixed-up and C2 and E2 end up together and fall in love.  They run away and the real Charlie and Emily have to track them down before the cops find out.  And guess what happens while they're doing that?  There is a happy ending for everyone though.

It is a lightweight comedy with some R-rated edge, but it's pretty fun and only about 90 minutes.  Like I said it'd be good for a Valentine's Day watch or a date night or something like that.  The actors and effects and everything are decent for a small-budget movie.  Also, to put on my pig nose for a moment, I didn't realize the girl from those Divergent movies had such nice boobs.  Oink.  Oink.  (3.5/5)

The Holdovers:  Alexander Payne reunites with his Sideways star Paul Giamatti for this "holiday" movie that really isn't a holiday movie.  As you'd expect from a Payne movie, it's not really heartwarming and jolly and doesn't really end Happily Ever After.  It's more sad because in the end no one is really better off.  Are they maybe wiser for the experience?  Possibly.

It's the end of 1970 at the Barton School for Boys.  Giamatti is a crusty teacher put in charge of five boys.  There's also a cook who lost her son in Vietnam.  But then 4 of the boys get a place to go leaving only one.  He, Giamatti, and the cook are left to their own devices and Giamatti and the boy start to bond.  They even take a trip into Boston for a "field trip."

There are some funny parts and some poignant moments.  Have the tissues handy if you're susceptible to that because the end is pretty sad.  It is really a lot like a movie version of a lot of literary fiction novels.  Or like Scent of a Woman without the Pacino yelling and some of the wackier bits.  A big courtroom-type scene at the end probably would have made for a happier ending but this was more believable. Overall while I wouldn't put this in my holiday rotation, it was a great movie. (4/5)

Indiana Jones & the Dial of Destiny:  Taking place over 10 years after the horrid Crystal Skull, this is a little less wacky, but seems more tired and paint-by-number.  It tries to hit all the notes of a classic Indiana Jones movie, but it's obvious how much feebler Harrison Ford is.  After an opening at the end of World War II with a deepfaked Ford, it moves to 1969, a month after the moon landing.  A Nazi scientist working for NASA and the daughter of an old friend of Indy's are both looking for the "Dial of Archimedes" that could predict fissures in time.  In action movie (and GI Joe cartoon) fashion the dial has been split in half so two pieces need found.  The last act gets a little wacky; in some ways even wackier than Crystal Skull.  And in the end I'm at a loss as to why we needed this.  It wasn't a huge step up over Crystal Skull and leaves Indy/Marion in a worse place than that did.  And while fans didn't like Shia LaBeouf's Mutt, killing him off-screen doesn't really give that or Indy/Marion's grief much heft.  Mads Mikkelsen matches Ford's low energy as the villain, which again is not really an improvement over Cate Blanchett's Soviet villain in the previous movie.  In the end while James Mangold and various writers deliver a well-crafted movie, it was pretty unnecessary and doesn't really let Indy go out in glory like Mangold did for Hugh Jackman's Wolverine in Logan.  (2.5/5) (Fun Fact:  This is the third time Harrison Ford has revived a classic character with a new director after Episode VII and Blade Runner 2049.)

Loki, Season 2:  Speaking of something involving time and also failing to justify its existence in the first place.  I liked season 1 that had a variant of Loki created during Endgame taken to the "Time Variance Authority" and escape destruction by agreeing to help them find another Loki, who turned out to be a female called Sylvie.  Loki and Sylvie developed a thing for each other and found "He Who Remains," aka Kang.  Sylvie kicked Loki out a time door and then presumably killed Kang.  The season ended with Loki returning to the TVA to find statues of Kang and no one recognizing him.

Season 2 picks up with Loki being chased and jumping back-and-forth through time.  Then he meets Ouroboros or OB (the guy from Goonies and Everything Everywhere All At Once) and they try to get him stuck back in time but the "time loom" is overloading and so they have to hurry.  Episode 2 picks up with them looking for Sylvie and even though the problem with Loki being unstuck in time didn't really seem solved, I guess it was?  From there we have a lot of McDonald's product placement and another Kang Variant called Victor Timely (Fun Fact:  Timely was the original name of Marvel) and blather about time looms and doors and controlling the TVA and then the destruction of the TVA and I just could not give a shit about any of that.

This is that lame kind of sequel that just throws more stuff at you at the expense of doing anything interesting with the characters.  Maybe because it was "weird" they pretty much abandon the Loki-Sylvie thing.  Mobius (Owen Wilson) is just around to blather about pie and jet skis.  OB and Timely are just the same almost-autistic nerd who's good with machines and less good with people; OB is more child-like and Timely more con artisty but still mostly the same stock character.  Tom Hiddleston's Loki is pretty well wasted until the last couple of episodes.  Most of the time he lacks even the wit and charm that made people like him in the first place!  Who really wants to see Loki pining for his "friends" he's known for about five minutes?  If you're going to pine for someone, pine for the people you knew for thousands of years like your brother, father, Lady Sif, etc.  He should be trying to bring Asgard back, but I guess that would be more expensive.  Like "Brad" tells him, "You're a villain!  Just be that!"  Own it, dude.  But I guess that was always the problem with Disney trying to make a show about a bad guy.  Like Book of Boba Fett they had to take a perfectly good villain and make him a whiny bitch in some lame quest for "redemption."  Yuck.

The first season wasn't the greatest but at least it had more Loki being Loki and the fun Loki variants.  Plus the Loki-Sylvie thing that maybe was "weird" but it made sense.  I mean, who understands you better than you?  Especially when you're both "Variants" being hunted and threatened with execution.  This season just steps back from all that made the first season worth watching.

The last episode tries to put a cherry on this turd sundae but doesn't really do it.  Loki sacrificing himself for the greater good?  Meh.  Like that's what we wanted. Like seasons of Picard, Titans, Doom Patrol, etc, most of the characters are useless in the end, thus there's no real reason we needed to spend time learning about any of them.  Sylvie is especially underused and really contributed nothing to most of the show.  Why'd they even bother bringing her back?  Why'd they bother with about all of it?  This could easily have been slimmed down into a less-than-two-hour movie.  (2/5) (Fun Facts:  The "Time Tree" or whatever you want to call it that he creates is shown in the last episode of What If...? that I'll get to a little later.  There's a mention that "Universe 616" took care of a Kang, which is a reference to Ant-Man 3 as the 616 universe is the MCU.)

Echo:  Another failed attempt to "redeem" a villain.  When they announced this series I didn't really care since I barely remembered the character from Hawkeye.  Basically she's a deaf Native American girl with one leg named Maya who was raised by the Kingpin as a killer.  But when she found out he killed her father, she shot him and left.  This picks up five months later as she returns home to Oklahoma.  Then sends a bomb to the Kingpin in a vain attempt to take over his operation before he shows up and tries to recruit her and then kill her.

I would almost guarantee there was studio interference with this.  I mean from Hawkeye and initial reports this was going to be violent, bloody, and R-rated like Moon Knight, you'd think it would be a gritty crime thriller.  But by the end it seems someone handed down the edict to make her a Native American Ms. Marvel.  So in the last episode (that is a paltry 35 minutes) she gets a native costume and somehow has superpowers that she somehow knows how to use to basically do to the Kingpin like Sybok does to people in Star Trek V.  And also she can give her underused former best friend and grandma superpowers...cuz why not?  The problem is Maya is not adorkable like Ms. Marvel and with only 5 episodes (some pretty short) they didn't really set up the family and powers so it really doesn't work.  If they hadn't shifted the premise halfway through from her trying to take over the Kingpin's empire to becoming a protector of the Choctaw (or something) it would have been a lot better.  (2/5) (Fun Facts:  Daredevil has a cameo in the first episode during a flashback.  In the final cookie scene, the Kingpin gets the idea to run for mayor, which happened in the comics.)

Rick & Morty, Season 6:  This is not the most current season but the penultimate season.  It was...OK.  Not bad but not really great.  Competent and with some funny parts, but not really a lot of memorable bits.  Stuff happens.  Beth falls in love with her cyborg clone--and vice-versa.  Rick and Morty have to battle meta "heroes."  The family battles their nighttime selves.  Rick has to save Morty in a Sims-type video game while Summer "does a Die Hard" against some alien terrorists in an arcade.  Morty becomes king of the Sun.   Jerry becomes some kind of Green Lantern/Iron Man dude. Rick goes to therapy.  The latter two were part of the very special episode where Rick pretends to be the low-rent villain "Pissmaster" after the original kills himself. (Call 988 if you need help!)  The final episode asks the question:  what happens if you drop a lightsaber perfectly vertical?  Nothing good.  Probably should have had a safeguard that it turns off after a certain amount of time.  Also, not to nerd it up too much but a lightsaber can't instantly cut through everything so it would take a lot of time to make its way through the surface of Earth.  Anyway, if you like the show you'd like this but not love it.  If you haven't watched it this won't really make you a fan. (3/5) (Fun Fact:  This was the final season with co-creator Justin Roiland as Rick/Morty as he got canceled like Jonathan Majors did recently.  But apparently Roiland had pretty much only been doing voices for years.)

Rick & Morty, Season 7:  This dropped on MAX just days before my subscription was up so I binged through it.  This first season without co-creator Justin Roiland (still listed as an Executive Producer and still with a production card at the end of the credits but no longer doing the voices of Rick & Morty) is not that good.  The first episode was really annoying.  It focuses on Rick and some buddies going on a bender with "Mr. Poopybritches" whose wife is cheating on him.  It's one of those episodes that really takes for granted that people give a shit about the show enough to remember who the fuck Mr. PB and "Squatch" and "Birdperson" actually are.  And, yeah, that's not me.  The second episode has Rick and Jerry mixed up so there are two people who are part-Rick and part-Jerry instead of a clean body swap.  The third episode has the president fall in love with Rick's therapist while an old flame of Rick's visits and inadvertently creates a hive mind that threatens the Earth.  The fourth one was pretty stupid as there's some planet where if someone dies from suicide they create spaghetti inside of them and Rick has been harvesting that for the family, until Morty screws the whole deal.  WTF?!  I think it was supposed to be a nod to Soylent Green and supply chain issues from the pandemic or some dumb thing.  Whatever.  (Again, call 988 if you need help.)  The fifth episode is another of those where if you give a shit about previous seasons it would be a lot more interesting.  "Evil Morty" is forced to help Rick find "Rick Prime," and there's a brutal scene where Rick literally beats his other self to death for killing his wife.  And then, well, he should have read some comics or Count of Monte Cristo to realize that revenge is a hollow pursuit.  

The sixth episode is a clip show without real clips when Rick and Morty call up an Observer (like an almost-flat geode) to audit whether a list of "adventures" are adventures but when they insult the Observer they're arrested.  Some of the clips were funny but not great overall.  The seventh episode barely features Rick as Summer and Morty become fused like the mutant in the original Total Recall who had a Kuatu in his chest.  Morty is the Kuatu and then it becomes like Taken as he's kidnapped.  I guess if you really like those movies it'd be funnier.  The eighth episode is purely awful.  It reminded me of the South Park April Fool's episode where the whole thing was a Terence and Phillip movie.  Like with that, I wondered the first 5-10 minutes if this was an opening, but slowly it dawned on me it was the actual episode.  The whole episode is some weird thing about numbers and letters fighting each other, featuring Ice-T as the leader of the letters.  Rick isn't even in this episode, just Morty and his math teacher.  The only cool thing was that the look and overall story were based loosely on Transformers The Movie from 1986.  The ninth episode finally features Rick as he has Bigfoot kill him to infiltrate Valhalla to steal energy or something.  But the Pope steals the energy instead and in Edge of Tomorrow fashion they have to fight him several times before they get it right.  The season goes out with a whimper in the final episode.  Morty jumps down a "fear hole" in a Denny's and then it's like one of those mental Star Trek episodes or an attempted Twilight Zone episode where the hole keeps feeding on Morty's fear and he has no idea what's real and what's not.  

Overall while they downplayed Roiland's contributions to the series, this first season without him was pretty rocky.  It's like they gave in to all their worst impulses.  A few fun bits but nothing really good.  If you've never watched the series, definitely don't start with this.  (2/5)  (Fun Facts:  In that awful 8th episode, the title card of the fake movie uses the Transformers movie font.  In a later cookie scene that sets up a sequel I hope doesn't happen they show a title card using the Gobots movie font.  Adult Swim played it close to the vest about who the new voices of Rick and Morty are.  And they are...no one you'd have heard of.  One nobody does Rick's voice and another does Morty's now.  Unless you're really listening there's not a huge difference.)

Archer: Into the Cold:  After the final season that was pretty meh comes essentially a movie to close things out.  While originally billed as a 3-episode finale, on Hulu it streams all as one thing.  Basically while the UN is planning to ban private spy agencies, Archer and company have to unravel a plot to start a new Cold War.  This was a step-up over season 14 as it brings in some guest stars including Archer's cyborg ex-fiancée Katya, her former lover/Archer's former nemesis Barry, the former CIA operative Slater (Christian Slater), Rip the seaplane-flying Manhunter (Patrick Warburton), and even Milton the mobile office toaster.  The plot gets a little messy trying to work everyone into a winner-take-all scenario but for a final episode it was pretty decent.  It was nice some mention was made of Archer's father (though of course we'll never know who he was) and Archer and Lana's daughter makes an appearance at the end.  Maybe not everything fans were hoping for, but better than making the whole show (or even the last 6 years) a coma fantasy or something.  It just feels like a lot of cards were left in the draw pile though. (3/5) (Fun Fact:  In the bottom of the elevator shaft part of the old ISIS logo is visible.  I always think you can largely blame the terrorist group for this show going downhill as trying to replace the name of the spy agency--or if it even was a spy agency anymore--became a recurring distraction.)

Marvel's What If...? Season 2:  Season 1 was kind of a mixed bag of potential universes.  This second season is not really an improvement on that front.  Some stories are really good and some are less so.

Episode 1 has sort of a Blade Runner vibe to it.  In this universe Nebula becomes part of the Nova Corps just as the planet they're on is being invaded by Ronan the Destroyer or whatever, who bumped Thanos off.  "Nova Prime" uses a planetary shield to keep him out--and everyone trapped.  Years later, things on the planet are looking grim and when Yondu is killed, Nebula has to solve the mystery, which in Watchmen fashion becomes a world-changing event.  Overall it's a minor story with no great Marvel characters but pretty well done. (3/5) (Fun Fact:  Seth Green voices Howard the Duck, who has become a casino owner/crime lord.)

Episode 2 throws it back to the 80s.  When Peter Quill is taken to Ego by Yondu, he gains his Celestial powers.  After he returns to Earth in 1988 and starts blowing up stuff in New York, a team is put together to stop him.  Peggy Carter and Howard Stark kind of share the Nick Fury role, Hank Pym is Ant-Man, Bill Foster is Goliath, T'Chaka is Black Panther, Bucky Barnes is the Winter Soldier, Wendy Fowler (I guess from the Captain Marvel movie?) is a Kree warrior/pilot, and Thor is Thor.  While the team struggles to stop Peter and then Ego it's Hank's daughter Hope who connects with Peter to save the day.  One of the things with some of these stories is how it can make you realize connections you wouldn't have thought of, like that Hope van Dyne and Peter Quill are roughly the same age and both at this point in time had lost their mothers, so it really makes sense they would bond.  It's good for the 80s Avengers that like a lot of comic book villains Ego uses his Celestial power in pretty linear, basic ways like creating rock monsters with his face on them.  You know, instead of just vaporizing them or something.  The end leaves room for a sequel and I am here for it. (4/5) (Sad Fact:  The animators are pretty careful not to show the World Trade Center in the New York scenes.)

Episode 3 is a holiday special patterned on Die Hard.  After the battle in Avengers, Happy Hogan is organizing the Christmas party in Stark Tower when terrorists led by Justin Hammer take over the building.  Happy, Black Widow, and Darcy (Natalie Portman's assistant) have to take on the bad guys and get help.  In the process, Happy accidentally gets dosed with Hulk blood to make him Hulk Hogan!  (Not the wrestler.)  This episode was hilarious and just absolutely brilliant for fans of Marvel and Die Hard.  It also really made me miss the first Avengers team.  We didn't know how good we had it! (5/5)

Episode 4 is the missing episode from season 1.  When the Watcher was putting together his team, there was a Gamora from a world where she and Tony Stark teamed up after meeting on Sekarra or whatever it's called from Thor Ragnarok.  For whatever reason that episode wasn't done in time so now they get to it.  Basically after throwing the nuclear missile into space during Avengers, Tony winds up on Sekarra instead of Earth.  Gamora turns up there to kill him for Thanos.  The episode reminds me of all the things I hate about Thor Ragnarok along with a lengthy race that gave me flashbacks to the podrace in Phantom Menace.  Jeff Goldblum manages to be even more annoying as the Grandmaster and the race is so interminable that it really sucks the air out of the episode.  A little more focus on Tony Stark and his struggle being light years from home would have been nice but there was so much that needed done there simply wasn't time. (2/5)

Episode 5 is a sequel to the first episode of the series where Peggy Carter became Captain Carter and Steve Rogers, who didn't get the super soldier serum, instead received a sorta Iron Man suit from Howard Stark called the Hydra Stomper.  This sequel combines The Winter Soldier with Black Widow movies.  Years after the Battle of New York, Peggy finds the Hydra Stomper with Steve inside, but he's being used by the "Red Room" as their assassin.  Peggy and Black Widow are lured to a creepy fake American town in Sokovia where they face off with the Hydra Stomper and an army of Widows led by Black Widow's fake mom--voiced by Rachel Weisz.  It's a good episode if you liked those movies mentioned above.  I really liked the former and the latter was pretty good too so I mostly enjoyed it.  Really they should make this a series, but they probably wouldn't.  The end has Peggy taken to 1602 for another episode. (3.5/5)

Episode 6 is a departure from the rest of the series.  While the other episodes are based off something from the MCU, this one creates something new.  A Mohawk girl named Kahhori finds the Tesseract and is transported to another world.  She gains basically Scarlet Witch powers and uses them to take down the Spanish attacking her village.  Did the Spanish ever actually interact with the Mohawk tribe?  I thought they mostly were down in Florida and in the southwest while the Mohawks were up in the New York state area.  Looking at someone asking about this on Reddit the popular answer is, "Bruh it's a cartoon."  Um, yeah, so?  I agree with someone who wondered why they didn't use the French.  It's basically Marvel making Disney's mistakes in Pocahontas.  Anyway, I hope you like reading subtitles because pretty much the whole episode is in Mohawk language and Spanish.  And what exactly is the distinction between her using her power to destroy the Spanish, even to force their queen to surrender, and Scarlet Witch using her power to create a family or destroy worlds trying to save them?  They don't really answer the question. (2/5) (Mini-Rant:  It kind of annoyed me they list the title as "What if Kahhori...something something?"  Like I was supposed to already know who Kahhori is when in actuality she never existed before this episode.  They should have made the title like, "What if the Tesseract Landed in Early America?" or something like that instead of making me feel stupid for not knowing who this character you just made up is.  Typical Marvel arrogance.)

Episode 7 is kind of funny because after the Mohawk episode pandering to Native Americans they decide to use cultural appropriation and a literal white savior.  This combines Thor Ragnarok (again, sigh) and Shang-Chi when Hela the Goddess of Death is stripped of her powers by Odin and lands in ancient China, where she meets Wenwu, who has the 10 rings.  Then there's this whole Kung-Fu thing where she learns from a master before having to team with Wenwu against Odin.  It was OK but I wasn't a Hela fan and while I liked Shang-Chi I'm not intimately familiar with it so it didn't do a lot to me. (2.5/5) (Fun Fact:  At the end, when she changes her ways, Hela's armor turns white like Darth Vader's in a Star Wars Infinities book--their version of What If...?)

Episode 8 is a riff on Neil Gaiman's Elseworlds tale Marvel 1602.  That featured Nick Fury as an agent of Queen Elizabeth, Stephen Strange as a court magician, a non-Spider Peter Parker, and other Marvel characters, including Steve Rogers as an "Indian" or something.  I don't remember it really well since I read it almost 10 years ago.

Anyway, this is sort of the same only it uses MCU characters like Thor, Loki, Hela, Scarlet Witch, Nick Fury, and then Captain Carter is called there to help, though she's unsuccessful as a rift in the sky periodically makes off with people.  When Hela is taken, Thor blames Carter and she takes refuge with Steve Rogers and his Merry men including Bucky Barnes and Scott Lang.  Appropriately then there's a heist to steal a stone that can find out who is the "Forerunner" or first person from somewhere in time who's inadvertently causing the rift. 

It's a pretty fun episode fitting a lot of the MCU into Elizabethan times.  The end is pretty poignant too.  Definitely a step up from the previous couple. (3.5/5)  (Fun Fact:  When Happy Hogan gets angry during the big fight at the end, he turns into the Hulk Hogan--still not the wrestler--from Episode 3.)

Episode 9 begins with the Dr. Strange from the previous season bringing Peggy Carter to his Sanctum, where he's imprisoned multiverse threats--and others.  Kahhori shows up to tell Peggy that Strange is trying to bring back his world that died in the first season.  (She speaks English now--pretty modern English too--so no subtitles.)  So then there's a big fight that brings in zombie Scarlet Witch, Killmonger with the Infinity Stones from last year, Hela, Surtur, the 10 rings, and more!  The fight goes on for a while and I'm sure you can guess who wins.

It's a pretty good ending, but not as good as the previous season.  Like the previous season they really needed to set up the Big Bad from the beginning and make it more of a recurring thing. (3/5)

There is of course plenty of room for sequels if they get the green light.  Most of this season was good and for me the best episodes are the ones involving the characters we know and love (or like at least) from the MCU.  I'm sure there's still plenty they could do with that.  This season featured only T'Chaka Black Panther for of course the sad reason that Chadwick Boseman was dead and I guess they didn't want to recast the animated voice either, even though they did for Tony Stark, Steve Rogers, and Black Widow.  Maybe because of Jeremy Renner's accident Hawkeye also doesn't really appear except in a couple of backgrounds.  This also didn't feature any Spider-Man; I'm not sure if that had something to do with their alliance with Sony or they just didn't feel like developing any stories with him.  With his long history and rogue's gallery they could really do a whole season just for Spider-Man stories.  There also wasn't any Captain Marvel, Star-Lord, Shuri, Vision, War Machine, Sam Wilson, (Captain America or Falcon), and only a glimpse of Rocket Raccoon.  Also none of the newer MCU characters like the Eternals, Ms. Marvel, Monica Rambeau, She-Hulk, Shang-Chi, or Ironheart.  And still none of the Defenders:  Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, or Iron Fist.  Or the Punisher.  So that's a lot of stuff they could work into another season.

The Watcher doesn't really get as involved as he did in the first season; he does have one funny line at the end of Episode 5 where he's like, "I'm the Watcher, I see all, I know...what the hell?!"  But it seems like he and Captain Carter kinda have a thing for each other.  Which makes you wonder what the Watcher has under his robe and what would happen if he made a baby with Captain Carter?  That would be an interesting What If...? episode or even story arc as their baby could be a rogue Watcher who threatens the universe and they have to put him/her down.

Tallying it up, the final score is 28.5/45 which makes for about 3.17/5, so a smidge over 3.  I'd say then it was decent, though a few episodes less so.

Invincible "Season 2":  After making people wait about 2 years, Amazon/Skybound give viewers 4 new episodes.  Hooray?  There are a lot of plot threads but obviously no resolution on anything.  

Previously:  After Mark (Steven Yuen) finds out he has superpowers because his father is "Omni-Man" (JK Simmons) he becomes the superhero "Invincible" who is pretty vincible.  When Omni-Man revealed his true plan was to take over Earth for the evil race the Viltrumites, he turned on Earth and his own son.  But he couldn't kill his son and flew away.

Some time later, Mark has recovered from his injuries and tries to work for the government though he still winds up making a mess of things.  Meanwhile his mother is trying to move on from finding out her husband is an evil alien who considered her a pet.  Atom Eve finds out that unilaterally using her powers, even with good intentions, is not a good idea.  Mark goes into space and finds out where his dad went until the Viltrumites show up for him.

Besides the Viltrumites there's a guy who was trying to bring together all the multiverse versions of himself to create a superbrain but Mark's interference turns him into a freaky supervillain who's going to...do something...maybe.  Mark is also going to college until he leaves for space.  The Guardians have a lot of inter-team hook-ups.  And a Martian decides to join the Guardians as a shapeshifting "hero" and despite that he in no way seems like a real human everyone just accepts him as human.

Some of it is good but it obviously is too short to really go anywhere.  Like the first season there are some funny parts and sweet parts and also some extreme violence and gore so there are some big tonal shifts. And plenty of gratuitous butt shots because I guess the animators like butts.  The second part of the second season is supposed to start in mid-March; I'm not sure how much I'll be able to watch before my Prime expires. (3/5) (Fun Fact:  the legendary Peter Cullen--Optimus Prime himself!--voices an alien leader who might be a turncoat.)

Reacher, Season 1:  Offutt mentioned he was blogging about this so since I had nothing else to watch, I watched the first 4 episodes and liked it.  What people complained about with the movies is Tom Cruise is nothing like the book Jack Reacher.  So this time they cast Alan Ritchson, who is huge and swole.  This Reacher is like if you could put Sherlock Holmes's brain in Steve Rogers Captain America's body.

Reacher goes to a little town in Georgia only to be arrested for the murder of a stranger that turns out to be his brother.  With the help of a black detective and a female regular cop, he starts unraveling a massive counterfeiting conspiracy.  My only criticism of this first season is it probably didn't need to be 8 45-55 minute episodes.  Six episodes or even a 2 1/2 hour movie probably could have gotten it done.  It doesn't really feel long or boring, but maybe they didn't need all of the plot twists and such.  The book is I guess 530 pages so they probably did do most of that, but I haven't read any of the Reacher books.  Anyway, it was fun to watch Reacher beat people up and make his deadpan, insightful comments. The supporting characters do a good job as well. (4/5) (Fun Fact:  Before this Ritchson was the douchebag linebacker Thad on Spike's Blue Mountain State and also Aquaman on Smallville.  Kristin Kreuk was Lana Lang on Smallville and plays a banker's wife who has to go on the run with her kids.)

Reacher, Season 2:  Season 2 ramps things up as Reacher goes to New York to hook up with others from his old Army unit.  A corrupt company is planning to sell missiles to terrorists and when a couple of Reacher's old buddies find out, they're killed by being thrown out of a helicopter.  Reacher and those who are left have to track down the bad guys led by Robert Patrick of Terminator 2.  There are also flashbacks to Reacher's unit's first--and last--case.  Most of it was good but the end is pretty disappointing.  I mean we follow this "AM" guy's whole journey from LA or wherever to New York and then there's no throwdown with Reacher?  The rest is wrapped up so easily that literally half the episode is just an epilogue.  Like the previous season it probably could have been 6 episodes or even fewer.  Still it was pretty fun. (3/5) (Fun Facts:  One of the company execs who unwittingly becomes part of the scheme is played by Christina Cox who was in Due South and Street Law back in the mid-90s and Max Havoc 2 in the 2000s.  While season 1 was based on the first book, this season is taken from book 11, which from the description is set on the West Coast instead of New York.)

The Retirement Plan:  A movie that could have been good with more of a budget and more talent behind the camera.  There was plenty in front of the camera with Nic Cage (looking like Nick Nolte's mug shot), Ron Perlman, Jackie Earle Haley, and Ernie Hudson.  You have a bunch of old guys who've been in better things slumming in a movie that can't decide if it should be a comedy or action but winds up not doing either well.  

There are a lot of action movie cliches:  there's a McGuffin (a thumb drive) that's stolen and given to Nic Cage's granddaughter; who's sent to the grandpa in the Caymans (where Krusty the Clown and other rich people do their illegal banking); the bad guys follow but Nic Cage is a former government guy with a particular set of skills.  Then blah blah blah, fight scenes, people taken hostage, double/triple/quadruple-crosses.  It starts out not that bad but loses its way to just become bland and dull.  A lot of the camera work and overall quality of the production looks little better than Rifftrax fodder like Birdemic or Jurassic Shark.  Or maybe Max Havoc Curse of the Dragon with a slightly better cast in a slightly different tropical setting.  (2/5)

Mob Land:  To tell you how uninterested I was in it:  I paused this after lunch to shovel snow.  Then I paused it again later to watch football.  How I thought of this is basically a cheap cosplay of No Country for Old Man, Hell or High Water, or another similar gritty thriller story.

A lot of cheap action movie favorites are here:  Kevin Dillon as a guy who plans to rip off a couple of Oxy pushers, Steven Dorff as the wanna-be Javier Bardem, and John Travolta as the sorta-fat fake Southern sheriff.  The main character is some dude named Shelby who has a wife and little girl with really hairy arms.  (Seriously, the kid's arms look hairier than mine.)  Shelby is down on his luck so he agrees to help Kevin Dillon but then shit goes wrong and Steven Dorff forces him to help clean things up for no real reason.  Travolta sorta looks into things while apparently having cancer or something.

It's really long and boring and like the previous one there are a bunch of cheap action movie clichés.  Maybe I'm just getting bored with these.  Or maybe they're just out of ways to make them interesting. (1/5)

97 Minutes:  Let's start with a Fun Fact:  this is only 94 minutes.  It's a really cheap and poorly-written and poorly-staged airplane hostage movie.  Really makes me miss the quiet dignity of stuff I watched with Rifftrax like Hijacked Flight 285 and Money Plane.  There's almost no attempt made to establish any of the characters ahead of time and then we have little idea who the hijackers are (even they don't seem to know each other) or who the passengers are or anything.  The "command center" is an obvious green screen set that's so sparse it looks more ridiculous than the fake sets in James Nguyen's Replica.  I'm pretty sure Alec Baldwin is only in this to help pay legal fees for what happened on the Rust set.  At this point maybe only something this bad and low budget would be willing to risk employing him.  Other than Baldwin there's Jonathan Rhys Meyers of The Tudors as the "good guy" and some lady who's a doctor and...some other people, including the writer of the film as one of the lead terrorists...I guess.  This also features some of the worst air combat scenes since McBain.  An F-22 launches a Sidewinder missile at the airliner and the good guy makes the plane jerk to the right or left.  Which since a Sidewinder is heat-seeking would not really throw it off much and as long as it has fuel it could probably circle back.  That's why planes like F-22s have flares to throw off heat-seeking missiles.  An airliner wouldn't have that though except for Air Force One like in that Harrison Ford movie.  Anyway, this was another pretty bad cheap action movie. (1/5)

Bait (2019):  I read a review of this on a blog and it sounded interesting.  It is a fairly odd film.  It's shot in grainy black-and-white so that it looks like a low-budget movie from the 40s or 50s.  Or sort of like Clerks.  There are a lot of close-ups and flashes to stuff that might be flashbacks or flashforwards.

Mostly it's about a guy named Martin whose family have been fishermen in southwestern England for a long time, but now his brother has turned their fishing boat into a tourist boat.  Their family home has been bought by yuppies and turned into a vacation home/Airbnb for other yuppies.  There's a whole gentrification thing going on that Martin and others don't like while others just shrug and go along with.  To get by, Martin strings a fishing net on the beach to catch fish washed in by the tide.  He sells the fish to the local bar to make money to get his own boat.

Eventually there's conflict with the yuppies and someone dies--I think.  This probably could have been told in a more coherent style and might have been more meaningful.  I didn't find it bad as much as a little odd and confusing.  But at least it's shorter than other rich vs poor movies like Parasite, Triangle of Sadness, and Saltburn.  So there's that. (3/5)