My Review of Superman And Lois 4x10: "It Went By So Fast"

 

Written by Brent Fletcher And Todd Helbing

Directed by Gregory Smith

Clark: "What do you think Superman and Lois Lane will be remembered for?"

Lois: "I'd like to think truth, justice."

Clark: "And a better tomorrow."

When it comes to the Arrowverse (and yes, I consider this show to be a part of it), we've had some hit and miss and unintended series finales. This one on the other hand was on another level of sheer brilliance.

Last week, it looked like we getting Superman killed by Doomsday yet again and I said this episode would subvert that overdone story. I was right and it did. Doomsday didn't kill Superman, even though he came pretty damn close to it during the episode.

Instead we got a rather poignant sacrifice from the character in space with Superman watching his end. I felt bad for poor Doomsday but he got a rather poignant exit. Easily the best handling of the character since the eighth season of Smallville.

As for Lex Luthor, that guy burned every bridge and then some. He got his ass handed to him by Lois, a public downfall courtesy of Amanda, another ass whooping by Superman and oh, once back in prison, he had to contend with Bruno Mannheim being in charge. Should've just left the Kents alone when everybody told you to, Lex.

All of that happened within the first half of this series finale. The second half was for family and community. We had Lana and John tying the knot and Kyle and Chrissy enjoying the parents of boys. There's a rather lovely exchange between Lana and Kyle as well as Jordan and Sarah. 

Of course, there's also Clark and Lois themselves. They talked about their legacies and we got to see them grow old together, use their influence to save so many lives, see both Jordan and Jonathan become adults, get wives and have many children. Then there was the gut wrenching final five minutes.

I bawled my eyes out when Lois died for real and then Clark living a bit longer without her, getting his own dog named Krypto and then there was his death too. This season was leading to it all along but it still floored me. The final shot especially was one of the most beautiful moments from the show. If you don't well up during those last few moments, you've got a heart of stone.

- Isn't it fitting that the WB/CW DC era (2001-2024) began and ended with Superman?

- I was right about David Giuntoli appearing in this episode but I thought he was going to be Batman. Instead he played an older Jonathan.

- Did Lois see her father before dying? It's a pity we didn't get Dylan Walsh back for one scene.

- Lois in the red dress, she looked stunning. Thematically, it made sense that's how Clark would see her in the afterlife.

- I loved the shot of Superman, the Super Sons, Steel and Starlight working together.

- Chronology: 32 years passed as we got towards the end of this episode.

It Went By So Fast certainly was an apt title for this episode. Four seasons, 53 episodes and some of the best storytelling in the Superman mythos ever. This was an incredible series finale and both Tyler Hoechlin and Elizabeth Tulloch gave us the best modern version of these characters to date. I couldn't be more happier with this episode, even though it made me cry.

Rating: 10 out of 10 

My Review of Emily (2022)

 

Written And Directed by Frances O'Connor

Charlotte: "You deserve for someone to see."

Emily: "Someone did! Someone did see them! You!"

Ah, a Gothic tale about one of the most influential literary icons and a tiny bit of creative licencing from a first time writer/director but long time actor? Colour me intrigued. This movie certainly made for an unsettling affair.

The Brontë sisters are icons and that's not hyperbole, they genuinely are. This movie however was pivoted around the strange one also known as Emily Brontë (Emma Mackey) and it began with a death. The death being Emily's of course.

From there onwards, the movie delved back into the past. Emily was the odd out in her family, often at odds with both her father, Patrick (Adrian Dunbar) and sisters, Charlotte (Alexandra Dowling) and Anne (Amelia Gething) as well as her aunt (Gemma Jones). None of them seemed to get Emily and her peculiar ways.

Emily did however managed to have had a better relationship with her similarly creative brother, Bramwell (Fionn Whitehead) and the two certainly got into mischief. However Branwell's fondness for married women became his own downfall and the two siblings eventually grew more distant as the movie progressed.

Of course the most prominent relationship explored in this movie was the one that Emily had with new curate, William Weightman (Oliver Jackson-Cohen). Their relationship went through the gamut of pure antagonism towards one another, a tempestuous love affair, an even worse break up and of course, death for both parties.

Despite being historically inaccurate, Emily and William's love/hate relationship really drove the narrative of this movie and the best scenes were usually the two sparring with each other. However, it's a doomed love story with a very gloomy ending in a movie that's not exactly a barrel of laughs throughout.

- Originally both Joe Alwyn and Emily Beecham were cast but left before filming began. I'm assuming the former was originally set to play William.

- The scene where Emily used a mask to impersonate her dead mother really veered into pure horror territory. I hope that's a genre Frances O'Connor delves into with her next movie.

- Standout music: Nocturne No. 2 in C Minor, H. 25, performed by Elizabeth Joy Roe.

- Chronology: Going by Emily's death, the movie began and ended in 1848.

Emily takes some creative liberties with the Wuthering Heights scribe but it's an impressive debut from writer/director and Emma Mackey gave an absolutely superb performance as Emily Brontë. It's not an easy watch but it's definitely a worthwhile one.

Rating: 8 out of 10 

My Review of Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation (1990)

 

Written by Brian Yuzna And Arthur H. Gorson And S.J. Smith

Directed by Brian Yuzna

Kim: "Lonnie, it's all over now."

Oftentimes in a horror franchise, you get an entry like no other to the point where you wonder why it's even a part of the franchise in question. Fans of Halloween know what I'm talking about. That also seems to be applicable here too.

Moving away from the killer Santas that dominated the first three movies, this one took a far wilder turn and I don't know how to feel about that. On paper, the shake up was desperately needed and delving into something witchcraft related will always be a plus for me. I'm just not sure about the execution of it.

Anyways our protagonist for this change in direction was a journalist named Kim Levitt (Neith Hunter). She's somewhat passed over for the good jobs at work by her inconsiderate boss, Eli (Reggie Bannister) and her boyfriend, Hank (Tommy Hinkley) isn't much better either. Then again neither are Hank's family that don't take kindly to Kim being Jewish.

Of course, between work hassles and bad boyfriends, Kim's life took more of a crazier turn when she found herself being terrorised by the mysterious Ricky Baker (Clint Howard). Ricky's pursuit of Kim also coincided with the fact that she had been initiated into a cult that also wanted Kim to kill Lonnie (Conan Yuzna) to complete her initiation.

I'll give points to the point for upping the gore and body horror factor as Kim certainly went through a lot of Hell trying to get away from the cult and to break the curse they had put upon her. Some of the scenes are genuinely rough to sit through and the use of larva in some parts was definitely disgusting as well.

- There's a rather OTT performance from cult leader Fima, played by Maud Adams.

- The coven were worshippers of Lilith with Kim being framed as an analogy for the biblical figure.

- Some of the ideas behind this movie were rejected from the previous one.

- Chronology: Christmas 1990 but with no references to the previous movies. 

Silent Night, Deadly Night 4: Initiation really could've been it's own thing without any connection to this franchise. I applaud it for trying something different but it's execution was horrible, so it's really not worth the effort to watch every again.

Rating: 4 out of 10 

My Review of Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out! (1989)

 

Written by Carlos Laszlo And Monte Hellman And Arthur Gorson

Directed by Monte Hellman 

Laura: "Merry Christmas."

Ricky: "And a Happy New Year."

Last year, I embarked on watching this Christmas horror series but only reviewed the first two movies. To amend things, this month will kick off with reviews for both this and the fourth movies. I'll likely save the next two for next year to tie in with the upcoming remake.

The second movie had focused on Eric Freeman's s younger brother, Ricky Caldwell (Bill Moseley) as the axe wielding Sanra Claus Hanks this one also had him as the main antagonist of the piece. Last time we saw Ricky he got gunned down by police. Time has passed since then.

Yup, for Ricky, he's now got a transparent dome on his head to repair his damaged skull. On top of that, he's also got two new protagonists to go up against as his bloodlust remained rather high. The guy's more unhinged than Eric ever was. 

The first protagonist would be his therapist, Dr. Newbury (Richard Beymer). It's a typical role where Newbury tried to assess the triggers to Ricky's violent impulses while Ricky himself killed a Santa impersonator and escaped the hospital. Oh and it didn't end well for Dr Newbury either as his attempts to fix Ricky came to a horrible ending for him.

Then there was blind clairvoyant girl Laura Anderson (Samantha Scully). Along with her brother Chris (Eric Da Re) and his girlfriend, Jerri (Laura Harring), their trip to spend Christmas with Granny Anderson (Elizabeth Hoffman) put them right into Ricky's crosshairs.

As you can guess, pretty everyone who wasn't Laura got taken out by Ricky and in the usual horror ways too. The final scene with a surviving Laura and a bit of fourth wall breaking does end the movie on an okay note.

- There's some uncredited rewrites by Steven Gaydos for this movie.

- There's also archive footage of the first two movies to bring you up to speed with things here.

- This movie was very much rushed into production with the revised script written within a week.

- Chronology: Six years since the events of the second movie.

Silent Night, Deadly Night 3: Better Watch Out! did feel like a natural conclusion to a messy trilogy of Christmas slasher movies. It's not particularly great but a tiny bit fascinating in its dynamic between Ricky and Laura. 

Rating: 5 out of 10