DCU Blog - March 2023 Edition: Lady Gaga's Harley Revealed, Penguin Films, Titans Returns And More

Another month for the DCU and it's been very busy month with filming in New York with separate franchise as well as hints for the DCU itself.

Filming outdoors for Joker: Folie A Deux has revealed Lady Gaga's look for Harley Quinn or as she'll be mostly known as Harleen Quinzel. This version of the character may also be a patient at Arkham State Hospital.

A trailer for Blue Beetle will be released next week.The film is due in theatres from August 18th.

Shazam! Fury Of The Gods has made over $100 million so far in theatres. Sadly, it's the lowest grossing DCEU movie so far. 

Take with a pinch of salt but there's rumours of another Justice League movie, possibly based on The New Frontier comics.

Rumours have circulated that Clayface will be a villain for The Batman - Part II, though it has yet to be confirmed by Matt Reeves.

Casting for the title role for Superman: Legacy has not been decided yet, though certain scoopers are trying to get it out of James Gunn.

Ben Affleck has confirmed that he won't be directing any movies for the DCU but he did confirm that Gal Gadot's Wonder Woman will be in The Flash. 

Thanks to toy releases, Dark Flash has been confirmed as the actual villain of The Flash movie.

Filming for The Penguin series has revealed Clancy Brown as Salvatore Maroni and Michael Zegen as Alberto Falcone.

Tickets have sold out for SnyderCon. The event will take place between April 28th-30th and will include screenings for Man Of Steel, Batman V. Superman and Zack Snyder's Justice League.

Sweet Tooth's second season will be released on Netflix from April 27th.

Casting for Creature Commandos is imminent. Frank Grillo has been rumoured to be part of the casting for the show.

The second half of Titans fourth season will be released on HBO Max from April 13th. Jay Lycurgo will be suiting up as Robin and there will be an appearance from Stargirl in an episode.

My Adventures With Superman will premiere on Adult Swim later this year.

Batman: Caped Crusader has received a two season order and will stream on Netflix. More details to follow soon.

The series finale of The Flash will air on the CW from May 24th.

And that's it for the month. I wonder will get revealed next month as we edge closer to the DCU kicking off.

My Review of Superman And Lois 3x03: "In Cold Blood"

 

Written by Jai Jamison

Directed by Gregory Smith

Clark: "Who's blood was it?"

Lois: "Yours."

Well, guess we should've seen that one coming. Mannheim had yo be using something to get the likes of Henry Miller boosted and the blood of Superman seemed to be doing the trick of sorts. We can thank Chrissy and a rather reckless Lois for finding it as well as Sam for relaying the information to Lois. Unfortunately for Henry Miller, his time might be running out.

If we're going by that scene with Mannheim's right hand man and that creepy doctor, a new test subject could be due very soon. Maybe that guy at the warehouse with the Kryptonite rays giving a serious Metallo vibe. I cannot be the only person who thought that during his fight with Superman and he was blown up, but something tells me that won't be an obstacle here.

While Mannheim sat this episode out, Lois's determination to investigate him got extremely reckless this week. Twice she purposely missed chemo appointments and despite both Clark and Chrissy stressing the importance of not  missing her appointments, Lois fixated on taking Bruno down to the point where she put both herself and Chrissy in danger.

Now I do sympathize with Lois and I get why she was scared to go through with her chemo but she was reckless in this episode, even if the last scene was her actually going to her third on with Clark in the pick up truck. We know this show won't kill Lois off but yeah, I hope this will be the last time she misses appointments.

As for the rest of the episode, things really escalated between Lana and Sarah to the point where the latter got slapped by her mother for that one particular comment. I got to be honest, I don't think either Sarah or Lana came across as sympathetic here with both really being testing throughout the episode. It's also a bit hypocritical of Kyle being potentially jealous of Lana and John when he's getting closer to Chrissy as well.

Last but not least I liked the team up with Jonathan, Jordan and Natalie in order to get Jonathan's jeep back which was stolen by Candice's father. I had slightly forgotten about Candice's father but he's not a character I'm in a rush to see more of. It also seem like the show might be building towards a break up between Jonathan and Candice.

- We heard Lucy on the phone but she didn't make a physical appearance in the show. I assume we'll see her later in the season.

- Kyle told Chrissy about his father having cancer and it seemed kike she had her own story too, given the way she was with Lois during this episode.

- The watch Natalie gave to Lois was a lovely gesture. Lana's also aware that John was married to a different universe's Lois now too.

- Chronology: A few days since the events of the previous episode. 

In Cold Blood, though not as strong as the first two episodes definitely had it's moments. From the nightmares of Superman being unable to save Lois, getting around the issue of Kryptonian tech not being able to help and various character conversations, the season has hit it's stride pretty well. Personal stuff aside, I'm intrigued to see where this blood plot will also go with the right candidate.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of The Hunt (2020)

 

Written by Nick Cuse And Damon Lindelof

Directed by Craig Zobel

Crystal (to Athena): "Now you done fucked up, lady. See, there's two Crystals back home where I live. In fact, I get her mail sometimes."

One of the first films to fall victim to COVID as well as a previous ban due to real life incidents, this biting satire had one goal in mind - punish the ignorant. A goal that's taken to a lot of extremes if we're being honest.

Rich bitch Athena (Hilary Swank) and her co-workers had a chain text message of wanting to round up and hunt people whose opinions they didn't like politically. This test chain got leaked online and one by one, Athena and her co-workers all lost their jobs. Athena ans her friends didn't like that one bit so they decided to take what was intended as a joke and make it into a reality.

As the movie began, eleven people found themselves drugged, gagged and let in field with weapons in order to defend themselves from death. To state the obvious, it didn't take long for these people to get impaled, poisoned, grassed or blown up. It also meant not getting attached to actors like Emma Roberts, Justin Hartley and Ike Barinholtz as they were there to make up the body count and were given nicknames such as Yoga Pants, Trucker and Staten Island.

However while nearly all these victims are cannon fodder, at least one protagonist emerged from the pile. The protagonist being former military lady, Crystal Anne Creasey (Betty Gilpin) who managed to be one step ahead of everyone and proved to be the only threat to Athena's entire plan coming to a rather bloody conclusion.

As a character, Crystal wouldn't feel out of place in a Quentin Tarantino movie as she takes out every obstacle in a rather violent way as she makes her way to Athena's house (don't call it a manor, Athena won't like that). Their smackdown did remind me a lot of the opening fight scene in Kill Bill Volume 1 with both women trading ideological barbs and deadly blows before only one of them emerged as the rue victor of the scheme.

Athena's downfall however wasn't just underestimating Crystal but she did worse and kidnapped the wrong Crystal (same name problems) which she had to die knowing that was also part of her failure. As for Crystal herself, at least she got to survive the crazed game and go home in style while learning a little more about the rich and elite.

- There was an adorable pig named Orwelle that didn't make it while Crystal got the name of Snowball, which went against the assumption that Athena had for her.

- Animal Farm basically made up the motivation of this movie.

- Originally was meant to be released in September 2019 but was delayed til March 2020, due to the Dayton and El Paso mass shootings.

- Chronology: Somewhere post 2016, given how critical Athena was of a certain president at the time.

The Hunt was definitely something of a mixed bag as a movie. The political satire doesn't quite land as well as it should and too many of the characters are blank slates to care about. Saying that though, the fight scenes are excellent and both Betty Gilpin and Hilary Swank carry the movie.

Rating: 7 out of 10

My Review of Superman And Lois 3x02: "Uncontrollable Forces"

 

Written by Katie Aldrin

Directed by Elizabeth Henstridge

Lois (to Judge Reagan): "I know what that feels like. Facing something uncontrollable. Not knowing there's anything you can do that will ultimately even made a difference. I understand that fear."

Holy shit, I genuinely didn't expect this one. I know the CW doesn't have the best reputation for mature storytelling at times but this show has definitely tried to be a bit more grown up in that regard while also reminding everyone that it's still a show about Superman and Lois, especially the second part there.

Elizabeth Tulloch has really cemented herself as one of the best iterations of Lois Lane since Margot Kidder and Erica Durance and this plotline will definitely give her some of her best work to come on the show. Lois having breast cancer wasn't on my bingo card of things that I thought would happen after the pregnancy that wasn't. To say she knocked it out of the park throughout would be underselling it.

Lois found out earlier in the episode about her diagnosis but it wasn't until the third act of the episode that she revealed it to Judge Reagan (Karen Holness) in a poignant scene where she was trying to convince the latter not to kill herself while Superman had to hear it himself at the same time. That scene also had some wonderfully understated acting from Tyler Hoechlin to boot.

The final scene with Lois and Clark telling both Jonathan and Jordan about the former's cancer gave the episode a downbeat ending but amidst, Lois's storyline, there was also more stuff with Bruno Mannheim to boot. He was clearly behind Judge Reagan nearly killing herself in order not to blab about Henry Miller and then there was Mannheim's scenes with Superman to boot.

Mannheim isn't a character I greatly care about as a villain in general and I'd be surprised if he were on any Superman fan's Top 10 list of villains but Chad L. Coleman in this episode alone has given a fair whack of dimension to the character. His scene with Superman and general stance towards how the latter solves problems along with his own resentment of the likes of Lex Luthor and Morgan Edge certainly informed on him to boot.

However I'm beginning to think that maybe he's not the main villain here. It seems that Onomatopoeia is the one driving the story line along with Mannheim deferring to her. We saw Onomatopoeia killing the former Mayor Dean, nearly killing both Lana and John and even pointing out to Mannheim that his experiments on Miller aren't working that well either. Yup, maybe Mannheim isn't totally the baddie here but he's definitely lying about his links to Intergang.

As for the side plot of the week, we had Jonathan, Jordan, Sarah and Natalie head to Metropolis for a party where Jonathan's ex-girlfriend wanted to get back with him, Natalie connected with Matteo (Spence Moore II) and Sarah and Jordan beat an annoying rich kid at beer pong. As a side plot went, this one was surprisingly decent and helped to break up the heavier scenes in the episode.

- Going by their one interaction in this episode, there's a bit of an age gap between Kyle and Chrissy. There's also a noticeable spark between Lana and John too.

- I honestly thought Mannheim was going to use Kryptonite on Superman during their scene together though it was Bruno who called Superman to him, not the other way round. 

- Onomatopoeia is the second main antagonist the show has gender swapped

- Chronology: Not long from where the previous episode left off.

Uncontrollable Forces truly delivered as an episode. The Lois storyline does highlight the nature storytelling the show's capable of pulling off while both Mannheim and Onomatopoeia are shaping up to be very interesting villains. I liked this more than the premiere episode.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of Shazam! Fury Of The Gods (2023)

 

Written by Henry Gayden And Chris Morgan

Directed by David F. Sandberg

Shazam: "You think I know how to fix this dude, but I really don't."

The Wizard: "Billy, anyone can be worthy if given a chance. Now go fight for your family. Go fight for the world."

With 2023 marking the end of the DC Extended Universe, there's been an argument as to whether or not there's a point to watch the remaining movies but that's something of a sad mentality to have. Simply put if you enjoyed the 2019 movie, that alone should be enough of an incentive to watch this sequel. I'm certainly glad I did.

Years have passed since Billy Batson (Asher Angel/Zachary Levi) gave his family the power of the Wizard to become heroes in Philadelphia and things have definitely started to change for everyone. With Billy about to age out of the system as Mary (Grace Caroline Curry) did, he worries about losing the family he's made. The family in question are forging their own paths too.

With Mary heading to college, Eugene (Ian Chen/Ross Butler) and Darla (Faithe Herman/Meagan Good) finding their own amusements, Pedro (Jovan Armand/DJ Cotrona) embracing his true self, the focus of this movie also took something of a shift towards Freddy Freeman (Jack Dylan Grazer/Adam Brody). Freddy wanted out from under Billy's shadow and even took to fighting crime solo. Oh and a romance too.

The romance in question being with new girl, Anne (Rachel Zegler), only for it to be quickly revealed that her real name was Anthea and instead of being a high school student, she's actually a 6000 year old goddess and one of three daughters of Atlas. The daughters of course include sisters, Hespera (Helen Mirren) and Kalypso (Lucy Liu) and they have a bone to pick with the Champions of Philadelphia.

Not being villains in the comics and likely more suited as antagonists for a certain Amazon (who Billy's crush on gets mentioned a lot in this movie), the Daughters are determined to get their father's power back and restore their own realm and have no problem in using both Freddy and a not so dead Wizard (Djimon Hounsou) in order to achieve that. Well, mostly Kalypso, who was the only one of the sisters to actually embrace the villain part of the whole movie.

With Anthea genuinely in love with Freddy and Hespera realising that Kalypso had gone too far, it was up to Billy to make the ultimate sacrifice in order to save his city. Given that his family had their powers removed, Kalypso's planting of a golden apple resulted in a lot of Greek mythology monsters terrorising the city and of course, that impressive wooden dragon under Kalypso's command, Billy really did have to step up big time but not before his emotional heart to heart with foster parents Victor (Cooper Andrews) and Rosa (Marta Milans) played out. 

Billy making the ultimate sacrifice certainly felt reminiscent of another DCEU movie but of course, the actual arrival of Wonder Woman (Gal Gadot) meant that he lived to fight another day. I've seen some fans not pleased with Gadot's appearance here but unlike another big player's cameo in a previous film, at least Diana's brief scene actually served a purpose here. I was definitely happy to see her again.

- Mid credit scene had Harcourt (Jennifer Holland) and Economos (Steve Agee) try to recruit Billy for the Justice Society. He wasn't impressed.

- Post credit scene had Mister Mind (David F. Sandberg) visit Dr Sivana (Mark Strong) in prison. His plan is nearly complete but will we get to see it come to fruition? I'm not so sure.

- Original Shazam actor Michael Gray made a brief appearance in the movie. We got to hear Billy referred to being Captain Marvel.

- I like Skittles much as the next person but it felt like Darla had taken a side gig being a sponsor for them. I did like how they were used to calm down unicorns though. Oh and I loved Steve the pen.

- Standout music: I Need A Hero and A Little Less Conversation. 

- Chronology: At least three years since the events of the first movie. Billy's five months from turning 18 while Freddy is a month younger than Billy.

I thought at worst, Shazam! Fury Of The Gods wouldn't be as good as this first movie but I was wrong. This was every bit as good as the first movie and while it might have been wiser to have picked other antagonists, I thought the Daughters of Atlas were strong baddies. The family dynamics were fantastic, there were some genuinely funny scenes and lovely bits of horror and action to boot. Easily one of the best sequels we've had in the DCEU. 

Rating: 9 out of 10

Doctor Who - Series 14 Updates, Potential Spin-Off And More

I've been holding off on doing blogs for Doctor Who because I wanted to make sure there was some tantalising stuff to talk about and in the last few weeks, more things have come to light.

Remember a few years ago when the show ventured into a multi platform concept with telling a story over a variety of different media, including Big Finish? Well, clearly the BBC liked the idea so much with Time Lord Victorious that for the 60th anniversary they're doing again with a multimedia event titled, Doom's Day.

Focusing on an intergalactic assassin named Doom, played by Sooz Kempner, the event plays around with the character of Doom having twenty four hours to find the Doctor while also bumping into other characters along the way. Given that this will be a multi platform event, I think it's a safe assumption that Doom will likely appear in the main series itself too for good measure.

Meanwhile filming for the main series has continued to film with both Ncuti Gatwa and Millie Gibson having recently filmed the upcoming Christmas special that will debut the 15th Doctor and Ruby Sunday respectively. Filming for the Christmas special also revealed a new look for Gatwa's Doctor and I think it might be his best look so far for the series.

In terms of filming blocks, the first block consisted of the fourth and fifth episodes of Series 14 and were directed by Dylan Holmes Williams with Russell T. Davies confirmed to have written the fourth episode. The second block was the Christmas special, directed by Mark Tonderai. Julie Ann Robinson will direct the third block while Ben Chessell will direct the fourth block. 

As for David Tennant, we might be a few months away from his brief return as the 14th Doctor but we did get to see Lenny Henry regenerate into him for a scene during Red Nose Day last Friday, which was rather amusing along with a Dalek trying out for Eurovision. 

In terms of more casting news for the upcoming series, Jack-Forsyth Noble will play a character named Will while Lois Drage will played a Finetime character. Anita Dobson has confirmed her character will be called Mrs Flood. Meanwhile there are rumours that former showrunner Steven Moffat might be writing an episode for the new series but outside of Russell T. Davies, no other writers have been confirmed for Series 14 yet.

Elsewhere while spin-offs have been rumoured for a while now with the new era of the show well underway, last week the tabloids and even some US publications were reporting that Jemma Redgrave's Kate Stewart will leading a UNIT based. Redgrave, who is currently doing this through Big Finish is poised to return in Series 14 (and possibly the 60th anniversary) and while the BBC have yet to confirm either way, this feels plausible enough to report on. I'm down for a UNIT spin off.

Last but not least, a second series of audio series Doctor Who: Redacted has been commissioned with James Goss taking over from Ella Watts. 

Doctor Who continues to film and will air on BBC1 and stream on Disney+ from November. 

My Review of Firebird (2021)

 

Written by Peeter Rebane And Tom Prior

Directed by Peeter Rebane

Roman: "Who would've thought it? Actors and pilots getting along so well."

Sergey: "I can't imagine it any other way."

I was going to leave this movie until Pride month but something just told me to finally sit down and watch it, which I did this afternoon and I'm really glad I did. A love story under a military backstory and forbidden passion between two men and it's beautifully handled.

Based on the memoir, The Story Of Roman by Sergey Fetisov, British actor Tom Prior put on his best accent to play Sergey Serebrennikov. In this movie, Sergey was a young private in the last few weeks of his military service for the Soviet Air Force. Sergey also had aspirations to be an actor but before he could leave the Air Force, a certain someone came into his life.

The certain someone in question being his superior officer,  Roman Matvejev (Oleg Zagorodnni) and it's not long before both Sergey and Roman find a common ground in photography, theatre and a mutual attraction towards one another, initiated by Roman himself and as quickly reciprocated by Sergey. The two of them fall madly in love with one another, but their relationship became fraught with risk of imprisonment for Roman, due to an overzealous commanding officer desperate to out the couple.

As the movie progressed, Sergey had left the Air Force and had gone to Moscow to try his hand at acting while Roman had married base secretary Luisa (Diana Pozharskaya) and fathered a child with her. However despite trying to distance himself from Sergey, Roman found himself heading to Moscow in order to reignite their relationship.

It's from here where things had gotten far more complicated with the pair.At first, Sergey wasn't keen on getting back with Roman but when they did reunite, we saw them effectively living as a couple with vacations. On top of that, we also Sergey revealing a dark secret about a childhood friend of his that certainly provided some context to earlier scenes in the movie.

Sergey also wanted more than Roman was willing to give and a party soon saw the pair's relationship being outed by a former friend of Sergey. This resulted in Roman's marriage to Luisa predictably falling apart with the former also heading on a mission to Afghanistan with tragic results.

The fallout of Roman's death saw both Sergey and Luisa forced to confront the truth about the man they both loved and lost with an equal amount of sympathy being given to both of them for their loss. The final scene with Sergey at a production of The Firebird ended the movie on something of a bittersweet but heartfelt note.

- Tom Prior who played Sergey, co-wrote and co-produced the movie with director Peeter Rabane. The director also has a brief appearance onscreen at the end of the movie.

- We see Sergey in a production of Hamlet after he left the Air Force. He referenced Shakespeare a bit. 

- Standout music: Boney M's Rasputin as well as Kino's Bezdel'nik number 1 and The Seasons by Tchaikovsky.

-  Chronology: From 1977 into the 1980s for this movie. 

Firebird is a beautiful love story, loving brought to life by director Peeter Rabane, as well as both Tom Prior and Oleg Zagorodnni, both of whom give compelling performances as Sergey and Roman alike, with excellent chemistry and some lovely romantic scenes together. The story might take a tragic turn but this was definitely a worthwhile film to watch. Highly recommended.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of Superman And Lois 3x01: "Closer"

 

Written by Todd Helbing And Brent Fletcher

Directed by Tom Cavanagh

Mannheim (to the doctor): "Just as I told you, we're getting closer."

With the CW's DC universe drawing closer to it's final days, it's hard to know how to approach this season. Will it be the show's last one in spite of comments from James Gunn alluding to it's future or will it make the jump to Nexstar? The latter of which are going to keep at least four shows for next season, while moving away from scripted content altogether.

As for opening episode, we're back in the new Fortress with a brand new Jonathan Kent with Michael Bishop taking over from Jordan Elsass and the main focus of this premiere episode was of course the 16th birthday party for both Jonathan and Jordan. The former who managed to pass his driving test while the latter was told not to jump into saving people by Superman while also struggling to stay in the friends zone with Sarah.

The birthday stuff was nicely done with both Clark and Lois at their most proud as parents and then there was the possibility of a family expansion. Lois went undercover to talk to the dead John Henry Irons sister, only to think she was pregnant, only to then find that she wasn't. So what is going on with Lois and will it link up with the main threat of the season? Undoubtedly yes to that second bit.

The main threat of the season being Bruno Mannheim (Chad L. Coleman), whose presence was felt in the episode but himself didn't appear until the very end. Bruno's working with a doctor who can bring back the dead and poor Atom-Man/Henry Miller seems to be working for Mannheim against his will, while at the same time bringing Metropolis (and it's suicide slums) back into the show's radar for good measure. Coleman gave a quietly intimidating performance as Mannheim in his very brief scene so the potential is there for him to be an effective Big Bad this season.

With Mannheim posing a looming threat, it's interesting to see Lois in pursuit of answers surrounding John's doppelganger death, the reintroduction of the latter's sister and even Sam's clunky attempt of getting Natalie into a D.O.D. special school. The attempt failed, Sam got rightly called out and then made amends with Natalie. Saying that, she probably will end up in that school though.

As for the rest of the episode, there's mold in the school and Lana took money out of the budget which angered the former mayor. He also warned her of the consequences of that, which she ignored, so I'm sure those consequences will materalise fairly soon too. Not to mention she finally signed the divorce papers with Kyle and the latter also had sex with Chrissy. Let's be honest, Kyle and Chrissy are probably the two most expendable characters on the show, so I have no problem with those two hooking up.

- Lex Luthor was mentioned here and Michael Cudlitz will be playing the character much later in the season. 

- Jonathan's former coach was his driving instructor and Chrissy's alarm clock presents for the boys was one of those lighter scenes that didn't really land. Jordan also tried to save the day in Malaysia during one scene.

- Nice home videos with the boys during the birthday party. Sarah and Chrissy also have different hairstyles this season.

- Chronology: It's been 27 days since the events of the previous season finale.

Closer felt a little light on action but when we did get the latter, it really delivered. Again, this show's budget is impressive because the action scenes always look so good and they excelled themselves again here. The family dynamics again continue to anchor the series and the Mannheim threat has gotten off to a great start as well.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Red Death Zips By And More

You know the drill, it's been a while since I've done one of these and here's a brief snippet of the things I've been watching for the last month.

Mayfair Witches: There's no denying that this series doesn't have the same southern charm that Interview With The Vampire has but the final few episodes did somewhat try to up the ante. By the end of the series, Rowan seemingly fell into Lasher's influence, gave birth to a son and put Courtland in his place. All of which has the potential for a hopefully better paced second season. Again, it's a decent show but it does a bit more of a spark to it.

Pennyworth: Even though the show was cancelled last month, I decided to actually bother to watch the final season and I genuinely think I made the right decision. While this show was lucky to get past a first season and was built on a premise that didn't really feel sustainable for an ongoing series, this final season certainly raised the stakes. Alfred dealt with past mistakes and got married to Sandra while even his mother got a new boyfriend and Dave Boy a posh girlfriend. Thomas and Martha dealt with the former being a conditioned assassin, the latter's risky job and being parents to Samantha while Bet got a kid, some new abilities and tied up previous season loose ends. All in all, this was a solid end to the series, minus a never to be resolved cliff hanger.

So Help Me Todd: I kinda picked up this show by accident but a happy one. I'm also a few episodes behind but this amusing dramedy from CBS has Skyler Astin as a struck off private detective now working for his mother's law firm, the latter brilliantly played by Marcia Gay Harden. The show follows a pretty basic 'case of the week' format, married with some nice family dynamics and workplace shenanigans for good measure. There's also an unrequited love story with one ex and a bad girl ex to add to the format but overall, it's a rather light and fun series.

The Flash: Five episodes into this show's final season and things kicked off to a decent enough start with the Red Death, allowing Javicia Leslie some fun as the main threat against Grant Gustin's Flash while also getting to briefly reprise her role as Batwoman too. Add in some rehabilitated former Rogues, a whole batch of new Rogues (such as the Owen Mercer Boomerang and Murmur), a speedy pregnancy for Iris, Joe's exit and the arrival of Khione and it's a moderate improvement on previous seasons. It's still not the show at it's height but it's better than the lows of previous years.

The Last Of Us: The show's first season came to something of an impressive ending for both Joel and Ellie and overall, between giraffes, flashbacks, some truly horrible characters like Kathleen, David and James, game shoutouts ahoy and a lovely backstory episode for Ellie and Riley, this show has set the bar high for HBO this year. Not having played the games and not reading too far ahead meant that most of the events were a genuine surprise for me. I'll definitely be watching the second season.

• Jensen Ackles reprised his role as Dean Winchester for the first season finale of The Winchesters. It's yet to be confirmed for a second season.
• The events of the second game for The Last Of Us will be spread out over more than one season.
• HBO have confirmed the upcoming seasons of both Succession and Barry will be their last seasons.
• ABC have confirmed the tenth season of The Goldbergs will be it's last.
• Rebecca Mader has joined the second season of Fire Country.
• American Horror Story's twelfth season will go into production from May and will be written by one writer, according to Ryan Murphy.
• AppleTV have renewed Shrinking for a second season.
• Amazon have cancelled Three Pines.
• The Bear's second season will be ten episodes.
• Tom Hiddleston's The Night Manager has been renewed for a second season. 

My Review of Scream VI (2023)

 

Written by James Vanderbilt And Guy Busick

Directed by Matt Bettinelli-Olpin And Tyler Gillett

Ghostface (to Jason): "Who gives a fuck about movies?"

Well, considering this specific franchise, I would say a lot of people give a fuck about the movies. After a solid start with the whole requel affair, can this requel sequel well and truly deliver? The answer might surprise you. Then again, maybe not.

If the opening sequel movie subverted expectations by actually having Tara Carpenter (Jenna Ortega), then this one also subverted some too in that regard. Blackmore college professor Laura Crane (Samara Weaving) found herself on a Tinder date from hell when Ghostface showed up, lured her into an alley and killed her in rapid succession.

However what was surprising about this scene was the quick reveal of Ghostface being film student Jason Carvey (Tony Revolori), whose aim was to finish the movie that Richie Kirsch (Jack Quaid) had previously started, only for him to then be quickly taunted and killed off by a different Ghostface altogether, thus giving us two of a few firsts in this movie overall.

The other first would of course be taking our Core Four out of Woodsboro and dropping them into New York to attend college - Tara along with twins Chad (Mason Gooding) and Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown) while Samantha Carpenter attended therapy with Dr Stone (Henry Czerny) while annoying Tara by being so overprotective and having a secret romance with neighbour Danny Brackett (Josh Segarra). Oh and did I mention the bit where Sam is public enemy number one because that's also essential to this movie?

There's no hero narrative for Samantha here. The public are convinced that she framed both Richie and Amber for the previous kills and she's almost used to be accosted in the street too but that's the least of her worries as she quickly realised that the new murders are Ghostface related and Detective Bailey (Dermot Mulroney) only confirmed her paranoia to boot.

Then there's a mixture of both older and newer faces. The Core Four's new friendship group included Mindy's girlfriend, Anika (Devyn Nekoda), shy dork Ethan (Jack Champion) and sex positive Quinn (Liana Liberato), all of whom are counted as suspects, cannon fodder and generally make a better impression than some of the supporting characters from the previous movie. Of course there may also be a killer or two among the new lot but that's for you to figure out along the way.

As for some of the older characters, both Gale Weathers (Courtney Cox) and Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere) are used rather interestingly in this movie. The former does somewhat revert to older form but stepped up when making the gang privy to the Ghostface shrine while the latter, now an FBI agent also bared her own scars, had a wonderful geek off with Mindy but ultimately served as a bridge between the generations of characters here. Not to mention that both Gale and Kirby came very close to death, and in the former's case more so than she ever had before.

As for the Ghostface reveal, having three of them with a shared but relatable motive was another improvement on this movie compared to the last one. The final fight with the killers was certainly one of the most brutal we've had and this segment also tapped into Sam's darker side that bit more, only for Tara to anchor her back into reality. As for the lack of Sidney, I have to admit that this movie didn't suffer from her absence one bit. Perhaps this franchise can survive without her after all.

- The movie nicely set up a romance between Tara and Chad with Mindy being supportive of it. The other Core Four members weren't phased by Sam sleeping with Danny.

- Gale did write another book but the movie rights were blocked, while every previous killer was referenced throughout the movie. 

- Both Richie and Billy Loomis (Skeet Ulrich) appeared in this movie. The de-aging still need some work though.

- We get a post credit scene where Mindy pointed out that not every movie needed one. 

- Standout music: Demi Lovato's Still Alive and Mike Shinoda's In My Head. 

- Chronology: Halloween 2023 and a year since the events of the previous movie.

Scream VI took this franchise to new heights. Moving to New York, putting the Core Four front and centre while also giving us Gale and Kirby enough to do. There was plenty to enjoy here, plenty to show that the franchise can continue to surprise and it also felt like the most scary movie since perhaps even the first one. All in all, this was a triumph.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of Spoiler Alert (2022)

 

Written by David Marshall Grant And Dan Savage 

Directed by Michael Showalter

Michael (re Kit): "I wanted our story to be a picture perfect happy ending love story but what we got was a real love story."

Love stories and television shows I suppose could go hand in hand and here, it's almost like the perfect marriage of both. You have a love story between television journalist Michael Ausiello (Jim Parsons) and photographer Christopher 'Kit' Cowan (Ben Aldridge) and it's a relationship that we get to see unfold in this movie.

Based on Ausiello's own book, Spoiler Alert: The Hero Dies, we open with Michael during Kit's last few moments in the hospital where he died to a trip down memory lane as Michael showed a bit of his past and close relationship with his mother, Mrs. Ausiello (Tara Summers). Therr's a few moments in this move where Michael's childhood was looked at through the prism of a sitcom and it's pretty effective.

Of course the main story here does involve his relationship with Kit and their first meeting definitely wouldn't feel out of place of a romcom with a charming meet cute at a bar with the both of them. A meeting becomes a date and soon enough they're actually dating. If a Smurf collection cannot pull the pair apart, then nothing can. Except of course, the big C itself.

Kit's diagnosis happened within the second half of the movie during a time where him and Michael had been together for over a decade but had been living apart due to issues on both sides. We saw Michael do everything in his power to help Kit fight his cancer to little avail while also getting time to know both of Kit's parents, Marilyn (Sally Field) and Bob (Bill Irwin), both of whom were a massive support to the couple.

I'm not gonna lie. I do follow Ausiello on Twitter, due to him being a television journalist and vaguely knew about his relationship with Kit and the book this movie adapted. Their relationship onscreen was presented as two people, fairly different to one another who fell in love and had thirteen years together. It's a relationship that like many had it's ups and downs but one where two people were clearly in love with the other.

I think both Jim Parsons and Ben Aldridge had a task on them to get this right and both of them absolutely rose to the challenge here. They had believable chemistry with one another and the moment where Kit died was absolutely heartbreaking to watch with both actors giving it their all. Then there was Michael's eulogy itself, adding to the poignancy of his love for Kit.

This movie might be a condensed version of a relationship spanning the length it did but I do feel like it did a great job of telling everything it needed to do. Seeing both Michael and Kit fall in love with each other, go through the odds they went through. I don't class myself as a romantic person but this was definitely a beautiful but very human love story to watch and I may have shed a tear too.

- Smurfs aside, Michael had a thing for both Gilmore Girls and Felicity while both him and Kit were fans of Rupaul's Drag Race. Kit was also a fan of magic as a kid.

- Kit did have an affair with a co-worker named Sebastian, played by Queer Eye's Antoni Porowski. Michael likening him to Tom Daley was amusing.

- Standout music: Kylie's Can't Get You Out Of My Head and Robyn's Dancing On My Own.

- Chronology: Aside from scenes from Michael's childhood, the movie itself spans from 2001 to 2015. Christmas factored a lot in this movie.

Spoiler Alert really was a perfect depiction of Michael and Kit's relationship, fantastically brought to life by the script and direction, but especially the knockout performances from both Jim Parsons and Ben Aldridge as well as the always wonderful to watch Sally Field. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Rating: 9 out of 10

My Review of Rain Man (1988)

 

Written by Barry Morrow And Ronald Bass

Directed by Barry Levinson

Charlie (re Raymond): "What you have to understand is, four days ago he was only my brother in name and this morning we had pancakes."

This year alone, I want to try and review more classic movies, either after watching them or catching through more old fashioned methods. Last night BBC4 aired this particular movie and it's been a long time since I've watched this particular one. It still holds up.

Tom Cruise has had a good few career defining roles, even more so in recent years and with this movie, he delivered one of his best performances in his lengthy career. The role of a rather selfish wheeler dealer named Charlie Babbitt, whose father died and with that, a large fortune instead of going to Charlie went to a brother who, he didn't know even existed until now.

The brother in question, Raymond (Dustin Hoffman), an autistic savant was quite the surprise for Charlie, who upon learning about his brother's existence decided to take him out of the institution he had been living in. This was also while realising that his brother's unique way at looking at things and penchant for counting cards and complex calculations could work to his advantage and be something of a means to clear off some debts.

Needless to say the way Charlie initially treated his older brother and the dismissive attitude he had towards Raymond's various routines (bed by 11pm, no travelling during the rain, etc) did alienate Charlie from his own girlfriend, Susanna (Valeria Golino), although the latter would resurface towards the end of the movie, just around the same time Charlie would develop a real bond with Raymond. It's a bond that's gradually shown as the movie progressed.

There's a natural brotherly chemistry between both Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman as Charlie did seem to be resentful over Raymond over inheriting their father's fortune while the more time passed between the siblings, the more Charlie realised that he just wanted to have his brother in his life. 

The film's ending was more of a bittersweet one though. Raymond was still unable to decide for himself and returned to the institution but a much improved Charlie wanted to continue to get to know his brother and turned down money to stay away from him. To see Charlie chose his brother over money definitely highlighted the progression he had made during the events of the movie.

- The film was somewhat inspired by Barry Morrow's real life knowing of savant Kim Peek as well as his friendship with Bill Sackter, the subject of the 1981 film, Bill. 

- Director Barry Levinson also had a role as a doctor in this movie as well.

- Standout music: This movie was one if Hans Zimmer's earliest and he does a modest score for it here.

- Chronology: I'm assuming it's set in 1988 and this film was the highest grossing movie of that year.

Rain Man undoubtedly has earned it's legacy as a classic movie. A brilliant script, an affecting look at a relationship between two brothers just getting to know each and career defining performances from both Tom Cruise and Dustin Hoffman. As I said earlier on, it still holds up.

Rating: 9 out of 10