As part of a top-secret mission, a trio of astronauts named Anderson, Walker, and Grey are sent to the moon. Apparently, this is a world in which NASA can shoot people into space and nobody will notice the giant flame-spewing rocket taking off from the Kennedy Space Center. Apollo 18 is carrying some motion-sensitive camera equipment to set up some kind of eye-in-the-sky to watch the surface of the moon and keep an eye on the pesky Soviets....
It’s almost hard to believe that we’re now fifty episodes into Arrow. Did anyone ever think that we’d get fifty episodes of a Green Arrow TV series, let alone one that would get such acclaim by comic book fans? It’s remarkable that we’ve come this far, and I look forward to this show every week, and miss it when it’s gone. Which makes it all the more unfortunate that “The Magician” isn’t the highlight that it should have been....
1.11 Trust But Verify After last week’s slightly disappointing return for Arrow, Trust But Verify gets us back to the morally troubling and action-packed aspects of Oliver’s mission. This week he clashes with Diggle when an old army comrade pops up in Starling City and just happens to be on his father’s list. Obviously, our resident sidekick/partner isn’t so happy with this twist in the tale, and we’re treated to the couple’s first big spat....
2.7 State Vs. Queen There were two major things going on in this episode – Moira’s trial and the escape of Count Vertigo – and, unfortunately, Oliver had to find a way to deal with both at the same time. The first, turning Arrow into a campy courtroom drama for an hour, was basically a long drawn-out character assassination of Moira Queen. As is often the way with these kinds of television shows, Laurel suddenly becomes the only lawyer in Starling City who can get anything done and, despite making a compelling case for her conviction of conspiracy and mass murder, the jury somehow come down on her side....
And to be fair, there is a story here. It’s about Thanos collecting the Infinity Stones and our heroes, in all their shapes and sizes, attempting to stop him. If that sounds thin, it’s because it sort of is: this is the first Marvel film that isn’t at all about character in any material way. In the past, the studio’s philosophy has been to put the journey at the heart of all they do, with varying degrees of success....
This review contains spoilers. After two very solid and interesting weeks of Awake, Ricky’s Tacos unfortunately pulls the show back a few paces. Like the first few weeks, things are exactly the same for Britten at the end of the episode as they were at its start, and we’re left wondering, what was the point of spending the hour in his dual worlds? The truth is, however intriguing Awake‘s central conceit is, there’s no excuse for treading water....
4.1 Something Out Of The Bible Chief among them, and no doubt the big talking point of this final season’s premiere, the ignominious demise of Rebecca Bowman. While Banshee has never been shy about dispatching popular characters, Rebecca always seemed like one who would be around until the bitter end, Proctor’s niece/protégé/lover whose transformation from Amish rebel to powerful crime lord would surely be part of the show’s ultimate endgame....
So said Sean Connery’s ageing beat cop in Brian De Palma’s classic thriller The Untouchables, and it’s an aggressive way of thinking which could apply to director Zack Snyder’s Batman V Superman: Dawn Of Justice. Even compared to the Sturm und Drang of Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, this latest entry in the DC movie universe is intense, bleak and relentlessly kinetic. Convinced that Superman is the equivalent of a weapon of mass destruction – that is, capable of going off and killing millions in the blink of an eye – Batman resolves to fight the super-being and stop him at all costs....
Indeed, Before I Wake embraces its smaller budget to make an intimate portrait of not only the terror felt by children after the night light has been turned off, but in the wonder and dread of the parents who are tasked with keeping those babes safe—and shaping the fancies that dance in their heads. With a focus on characterization and the blurring line between dreams and reality that has become such a staple in thrillers over the years, Before I Wake conjures some breathtaking images that can rise above the film’s other more conventional daytime foilibles....
4.8 Rewind, Rewind In this week’s episode of Being Human… every ending has a beginning. I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about the fact that it’s been revealed that these are the final six episodes of Being Human. I hope I’ll be writing some sort of end-of-series retrospective after it’s all said and done, but for now, the show is doing a pretty good job of that itself. As we come to the end of the series, we face one of the biggest questions of all: on a show about the supernatural, does fate exist?...
This episode was a marked improvement on the last, with three main plot threads, all of which were fairly engaging. In part, this may be because none of them focused on the lead character, who is still utterly bland (though we did find out he likes apples in this episode, so that’s something). Abrecan’s story gives his character a little more depth by demonstrating his drive and determinism, along with the fact that he really does care about the people of Bregan, even if he is dragging them into an unnecessary war....
The action took a step up in this episode, as the stakes have started to become more personal for our heroes, resulting in a more tense and dramatic hour than we’ve seen so far. The addition of Spiral’s Grégory Fitoussi as a charismatic ‘mud-born’ leader also kicks things up a gear, starting to bring the various disparate groups of ‘mud-born’ together, allowing them to present a real threat to Herot....
1.7 The Punch Of the dozens of people on set during filming of Billions, why didn’t anyone ask the question: “this headhunter character, Chase… is he supposed to look like he needs a shower and ten coffees?” I don’t know, man, roll with it.” During The Punch, I realized about halfway through that I had written down the qualifier “obnoxious” for at least three different characters. There is “obnoxious drunk driver dad (Bruce Laynor)”, “obnoxious SEC guy (Ari Spyros)....
Scrolled across the front of every one of Marcus’ weapon vendor machines in Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel is the phrase “Guns – In Space!” These are words that speak volumes. For as much fun as the title pokes at today’s overabundance of sequels crowding the gaming landscape, Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel very much feels like it falls under the “not really necessary” category, as it adds little to the gun-collecting, RPG-lite, colorful, nihilistically humorous world that Gearbox created with Borderlands 1 and 2....
4.11 Crawl Space It’s a real privilege being able to write these Breaking Bad reviews each week – a series of this quality doesn’t come along very often, after all, so it’s great to be covering it and experiencing it all with the rest of you. There is a bit of a problem, though, in that it’s hard to maintain any critical faculties or any sense of objectivity when you invariably find yourself at the end of each episode with your heart racing and your hair clutched in your hands, while you pace around your living room hyperventilating....
I’ll start by saying that Bridesmaids is not one of those movies. There’s barely a groom in sight, much less one to be mooned over. I realise that, by rights, you should all hunt me down and shoot me for typing these words, but Bridesmaids isn’t a wedding flick. It’s a ho-mance. A wedding does feature, of course, but the preparations aren’t all quite as civilised as those glossy magazines make out....
Much like Levon outgrowing his public exposure phase—which we learn about in Californication’s latest episode “Like Father Like Son”— there’s an awkward phase you need to get over when introducing so many new storylines in unison. After three episodes, Kapinos found a way to smooth the transition faster than we’ve seen in past seasons. The result of Californication’s most promising ensemble cast is a new feel to the show. Even when the bottom drops out on Hank and Karen’s relationship, you get the impression that Hank’s uphill battle won’t be too steep....
What makes a good relationship? There is no smile on Karen’s face these days, at least when Hank drops by. There is nothing to smile about because their relationship is broken. They’re drifting away without a paddle. Karen seems fine with it. Hank led us to believe can’t swim so he’s clutching onto the raft for dear life. By the end of the episode, and for the first time in the show’s history, I really thought that there is a chance that the series doesn’t end with Hank and Karen together in wedlock....
The pair’s reunion, in Calvary, finds neither looking to retread old ground. Whilst not short of sprinkles of wit, this is a darker piece of work, but no less well told. Gleeson this time takes the role of a priest, Father James Lavelle, who we discover is a heart of good in a society of troubled people. In fact, one of them, right at the start of the film, reveals that he’s going to kill Father Lavelle during confession....
