Share: While 2023 opened with the mixed experience that was season three of “The Mandalorian,” the Star Wars saga is once again back, this time swinging for the stars with their latest show “Ahsoka.” Although this show isn’t without its flaws, its open and infectious love for both “Star Wars: The Clone Wars” and “Star Wars Rebels” can just about make me look past its flaws. At its simplest, “Ahsoka” is a follow-up to “Rebels” an animated show that ran from 2014 to 2018 on …
‘Dumb Money’ is actually quite smart
Share: Following in similar footsteps to films such as “The Social Network,” and “The Big Short,” “Dumb Money” tells a tale of a very contemporary event that disrupted the entire industry it was a part of. Directed by Craig Gillespie and starring Paul Dano, Shailene Woodley, America Ferrera, Seth Rogen, and Pete Davidson among others, it is yet another example of why historical dramas should not be relegated to purely telling stories the majority of the audience wasn’t even around for. “Dumb Money” is the …
GAME OVER! ‘Saw X’ humanizes inhuman killer, and it somehow works
Share: Where 2021’s “Spiral: From the Book of Saw” set out to imitate the feeling of a classic “Saw” movie, “Saw X” jumps up to properly give fans of the gruesome franchise just what they’ve been asking for. This one delivers a proper, bloody disgusting, and compelling entry in the long-running series. “Saw X” launches the audience back to the early ’00s, between “Saw” and “Saw II,” when cellphones still flipped up and down and search engines were in their infancy. Tobin Bell returns as …
Did ‘GUTS’ beat the sophomore slump?
Share: I tried to keep this review as light as a feather and as stiff as a board, but after rocking out to Olivia Rodrigo’s sophomore studio album for the fifth time, I knew I couldn’t keep this professional. Following her triple grammy winning album “Sour,” Rodrigo took two years to release any kind of new music. On June 30, 2023, she released “vampire,” the lead single off of her new album, “GUTS.” “vampire” cut straight to the core, singing a song of realization at …
‘Mortal Kombat 1’ refines fighting but leaves everything else fatally unfinished
Share: The latest installment of Netherrealm Studios’ “Mortal Kombat” franchise is out a mere four years after “Mortal Kombat 11” was released, rebooting the series yet again by literally taking matters back to square one. As is typical with a new “Mortal Kombat” game, fan expectations were high when the development team announced the title only four months before its release, with many unanswered questions over what would be so different from 2011’s “Mortal Kombat” reboot. Now that the game is out, the supposed fresh …
‘Talk to Me’ will grab you and won’t let go
Share: “Talk to Me” is Australian twin brothers’ Danny and Michael Philippou’s first feature film. The brothers have a Youtube channel, RackaRacka, where they revealed that their movie premiered at the Sundance Film Festival and A24 picked up their film for distribution. Filled with plenty of disturbing scenes that’ll leave you uneasy the whole way through, “Talk to Me” provides a new take on the overused Ouija board cliche with the main characters instead using a haunted hand to get in touch with the other …
‘One Piece’ sets sail for success in vast seas of live-action TV
Share: The long-awaited live-action adaptation of the world’s top-selling manga, “One Piece,” has hit Netflix as of last week (August 31). But as with any adaptation, it begs the question of whether or not this is any good, or if it’s a waste of time like many attempts at live-action anime adaptations. The eight-episode season put out by Netflix squashes the negative expectations held by fans of the series and/or other anime consumers. At the moment, it is ranked 3rd in this week’s Netflix TV …
Review: Day Trip kicks off summer rave season and it was epic
Share: We made it, friends! Summer is finally here and the sun has been shining extra bright over Los Angeles. To celebrate, I rang in the first weekend of the season the right way, at Day Trip Festival. Insomniac’s Day Trip Festival returned to Long Beach, CA right at The Queen Mary’s waterfront on June 24-45, showcasing some of EDM’s hottest house music artists as well as rising house artists. Despite Day Trip selling out of tickets all year long, this highly anticipated festival strictly …
As vampire stories go, ‘Renfield’ kinda sucks
Share: Chris Mckay’s modern day Dracula horror-comedy is one to be remembered, if not for the wonderful talent of the people in front of and behind the camera, then for its lackluster plot. What began as a wonderfully delightful movie filled with equal parts comedy and drama, ended in a less than satisfying way, leaving the audience wanting more from such a spectacular cast. Nicolas Cage delivers us a Dracula that far exceeded all expectations, a terrifying yet hilarious performance that undoubtedly became one of …
Ghostface revitalizes the slasher sub-genre in ‘Scream VI’
Share: Despite being far and away from the sleepy California town of Woodsboro, the Ghostface killer is back in action in “Scream VI”, and this time, he isn’t playing around. To put it simply, this movie kicks ass. It has something for everyone from the die-hard “Scream” fans to the people just trying to see a sweet horror flick. From the character work to the setting and the kills, everything is put together masterfully. This film picks up, timely, a year after the events of …