Category: Uncategorized
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Down Cemetery Road (2025) s01e05 “Slow Dying” D: Sam Donovan. S: Emma Thompson, Ruth Wilson, Darren Boyd, Adeel Akhtar, Adam Godley, Nathan Stewart-Jarrett, Sinead Matthews. Sometimes bewildering (the quirky walking theme amid disintegrating flesh and child murder), sometimes bad (Wilson’s maybe, maybe not trigger warning backstory somehow equivalent to actual years of torture). Thompson’s great.…
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Ben-Hur (1959) D: William Wyler. S: Charlton Heston, Stephen Boyd, Hugh Griffith, Jack Hawkins, Haya Harareet, Martha Scott, Cathy O’Donnell. Most of the three and a half hours is an excellent historical adventure epic about Judean Heston trying to avenge himself upon former best friend Boyd, now a Roman thug. Along the way, there’s shoehorned…
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All Creatures Great & Small (2020) s06e05 “Fixes” [2025] D: Andy Hay. S: Nicholas Ralph, Samuel West, Anna Madeley, Callum Woodhouse. Excellent episode for Woodhouse, West, and Ralph. Madeley gets a couple good scenes but the spotlight is on the boys. Particularly since the show didn’t follow Rachel Shenton and Imogen Clawson to London. Instead,…
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Appointment with Murder (1948) D: Jack Bernhard. S: John Calvert, Catherine Craig, Jack Reitzen, Lyle Talbot, Peter Brocco, Ben Welden, Robert Conte. Better than last time “FALCON” entry has Calvert (sans cute dog and magic tricks) trying to unravel an art fraud deal gone wrong. Luckily for the film, director (and producer) Bernhard’s inventive on…
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All Creatures Great & Small (2020) s06e03 “Captain Farnon?” [2025] D: Stewart Svaasand. S: Nicholas Ralph, Samuel West, Anna Madeley, Rachel Shenton. The show feels comfortable enough after the season jump ahead–with Shenton finally getting down to the village for a bit–it’s a surprise when the episode slows down in real time. Ralph’s got the…
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Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) D: George Roy Hill. S: Paul Newman, Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, Strother Martin, Henry Jones, Jeff Corey, George Furth. Superlative Western about outlaws Newman and Redford’s luck running out as the world’s changing and they aren’t. Spectacular filmmaking–Hill’s direction, Conrad L. Hall’s photography, John C. Howard and Richard…
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Alien: Earth (2025) s01e07 “Emergence” D: Dana Gonzales. S: Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, Adarsh Gourav, Erana James. Lawther once again fails to deliver, dragging an already wobbly episode down at the finish. Everything is full red alert, moving pieces in place for the season finale. Ceesay also stumbles, while…
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Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale (2025) D: Simon Curtis. S: Michelle Dockery, Elizabeth McGovern, Laura Carmichael, Paul Giamatti, Hugh Bonneville, Alessandro Nivola, Phyllis Logan. Dockery’s divorce sends shock waves through London society and even follows her back to DOWNTON. Meanwhile, Giamatti’s over from the States with some bad news for McGovern. And Bonneville doesn’t want…
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Alien: Earth (2025) s01e04 “Observation” D: Ugla Hauksdóttir. S: Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, Adarsh Gourav, Timothy Olyphant. Strong comeback kicks off the science, espionage, manipulation, deceit, and danger arcs, all entwined and engaging. It also reveals it doesn’t matter if Lawther can’t deliver: Chandler, Olyphant, and Davis are giving…
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Alien: Earth (2025) s01e01 “Neverland” D: Noah Hawley. S: Sydney Chandler, Alex Lawther, Essie Davis, Samuel Blenkin, Babou Ceesay, Adarsh Gourav, Timothy Olyphant. The ALIEN franchise gets a Disney-fied horror, action, sci-fi Prestige Format television show, set just before the first movie. Creator, teleplay writer, and showrunner and (this episode’s) director Hawley’s take is homage-heavy,…
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The Adventures of Hercules (1985) D: Luigi Cozzi. S: Lou Ferrigno, Milly Carlucci, Sonia Viviani, William Berger, Carla Ferrigno, Claudio Cassinelli, Maria Rosaria Omaggio. Weird but not in a good way sequel has Ferrigno trying to find Zeus’s missing thunderbolts. Despite truly bewildering set pieces and narrative decisions, it’s just too cheap, too poorly made,…
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) It’s an all-action strip, opening with a thug on the run from the Spirit, desperately clamoring to be let into the hideout. Moments later, the Spirit breaks through the door. The thugs have kidnapped Ebony in order to lure the Spirit away from…
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) It’s another political intrigue strip, with a European writer arriving in the U.S. after escaping growing fascism in his country. He’s immediately confronted by secret police from his country, who taunt him with the news they’ve captured his daughter and will execute her…
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) The Black Queen’s back again, this time fully in her supervillain period, wearing a skimpy outfit and a cape. Far cry from when she was a “notorious female mouthpiece.” But also a far cry from her scheming in the shadows to take over…
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Paul Levitz (assistant editor, script) Keith Giffen (layouts) Wally Wood (pencils, inks) Al Sirois (inks) Carl Gafford (colors) Ben Oda (letters) Joe Orlando (editor) Paul Levitz takes over the full writing gig, no longer only dialoguing from a plot, and… well, at least there’s not all the misogyny. Otherwise, there’s not much improvement. It’s definitely…
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) The splash page is Ellen Dolan with a black eye, reading The Manly Art of Self Defense. Given Ellen’s last appearance in the strip, it’s a sensational and not unconcerning opener. But it’ll all work out, with Self Defense possibly the best Spirit…
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) It’s a good thing Spirit cleared his name since he needs Dolan’s official recommendation this strip. FDR has just signed the Selective Training and Service Act—a peacetime draft—and, being a good jingoist, the Spirit wants to sign up. He’s got some conditions, however.…
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) It’s another slighter strip, with the Spirit rescuing a damsel in distress from her ex (the titular Ogre Goran), a psychopath who’s just escaped prison. The opening is the prison break and it’s relatively solid business. The line work is wanting this strip,…
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) The splash page for this strip is a newspaper article about the Daily Press declaring its mission to uncover the Spirit’s identity. The article gives a rundown of (some of) the strip so far, including the Spirit being wanted for murder. That murder…
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) The Spirit tries—very gently—a “whodunit,” with the reader getting as much information as Spirit or the cops; more, actually. The whodunit aspect seems half-baked, similar to the rest of the strip. While The Mastermind avoids any of Spirit’s problematic pitfalls, it’s also barely…
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Will Eisner (editor, script, pencils, inks) Joe Kubert (colors) Sam Rosen (letters) Despite the (already) ominous title, Oriental Agents’ main cringe-factor doesn’t involve the titular spies. Instead, wow, does The Spirit think very little of Ellen Dolan, and in general, the female of the species. The strip begins with Ellen dumping Homer Creep (née Creap)…
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The Gilded Age (2022) s03e02 “What the Papers Say” [2025] D: Deborah Kampmeier. S: Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector, Louisa Jacobson, Denée Benton, Taissa Farmiga, Cynthia Nixon, Christine Baranski. Thanks to some semi-twists, fantastic acting (Baranski gets to flex), and a killer cliffhanger, the episode distracts from the fast resolutions to outstanding plot threads. The continuing…
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Adventure in Sahara (1938) D: D. Ross Lederman. S: Paul Kelly, C. Henry Gordon, Lorna Gray, Robert Fiske, Marc Lawrence, Dick Curtis, Stanley Brown. Solid enough quickie about American Kelly who up joins the French Legion. Abusive captain Gordon is terrorizing his troops–sometimes worse–and Kelly’s kid brother’s in his crosshairs. Nice production values, even if…
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The Gilded Age (2022) s03e01 “Who Is in Charge Here?” [2025] D: Michael Engler. S: Carrie Coon, Morgan Spector, Louisa Jacobson, Denée Benton, Taissa Farmiga, Cynthia Nixon, Christine Baranski. Reliably excellent season opener focuses on changes since last season for Nixon and Baranski, as Nixon’s now the one with the money. Meanwhile, Coon keeps trying…
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Gilda (1946) D: Charles Vidor. S: Rita Hayworth, Glenn Ford, George Macready, Joseph Calleia, Steven Geray, Joe Sawyer, Gerald Mohr. Too long, impressively moody noir does well on an obviously limited budget. Ford’s a gambler down on his luck in Argentina, Macready’s a megalomaniac looking for a pal, Hayworth’s the dame who drives them both…
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Doctor Who (2024) s02e06 “The Interstellar Song Contest” [2025] D: Ben A. Williams. S: Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu, Anita Dobson, Freddie Fox, Miriam-Teak Lee, Kadiff Kirwan, Charlie Condou. Excellent, Eurovision almost tie-in (Gatwa was going to host for BBC but didn’t) has an unrecognizable Fox taking over the intergalactic version of the concert. Good thing…
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Doctor Who (2024) s02e04 “Lucky Day” [2025] D: Peter Hoar. S: Ncuti Gatwa, Varada Sethu, Millie Gibson. On hiatus companion Gibson returns for a feature, all about her romance with alien enthusiast podcaster Jonah Hauer-King. Gatwa and Sethu get a little (Sethu less), and if it weren’t for the many big twists, it might feel…
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Faster (2010) D: George Tillman Jr.. S: Dwayne Johnson, Billy Bob Thornton, Oliver Jackson-Cohen, Maggie Grace, Carla Gugino, Tom Berenger, Matt Gerald. Depressingly (because director Tillman just cannot hack it) bad car action picture about the Rock hunting down those who wronged him before he went to prison. Thornton is the cop on his trail,…
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Daredevil: Born Again (2025) s01e09 “Straight to Hell” D: Aaron Moorhead. S: Charlie Cox, Vincent D’Onofrio, Michael Gandolfini, Ayelet Zurer, Wilson Bethel, Deborah Ann Woll, Jon Bernthal. Smart, savvy season finale brings Woll back–presumably to be a regular–to give Cox a pal since he may be surrounded by (problematically?) female Judases. Most of the episode’s…
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Anora (2024) D: Sean Baker. S: Mikey Madison, Mark Eydelshteyn, Yura Borisov, Karren Karagulian, Vache Tovmasyan, Luna Sofía Miranda, Lindsey Normington. Good but overlong story of stripper Madison and son-of-a-Russian-oligarch Eydelshteyn going from a professional arrangement to a quickie wedding. Except then his family finds out. The “courtship”’s way too long (with shockingly little character…
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