Review

Lucifer Season 2 (2015-?)

lucifer-season-2-maze-charlotte

Lucifer Season 2 (2015-?)

Network:

Fox

Creator:

Tom Kapinos

Starring:

Tom Ellis

Lauren German

Kevin Alejandro

D.B. Woodside

Lesley-Ann Brandt

Tricia Helfer

Rachael Harris

Plot:

Lucifer Morningstar has decided he’s had enough of being the dutiful servant in Hell and decides to spend some time on Earth to better understand humanity. He settles in Los Angeles – the City of Angels.

Review:

I watched the first season of Lucifer as it aired, enjoyed it, then promptly forgot about it. Not sure what happened there, but while killing TV time before fall premiers started I was able to binge the second season.

Lucifer, Tom Ellis, ends up revealing to his therapist, Rachael Harris, that he’s really, and truly, the devil. He shows her his true form and seeing her reactions was one of my favorite parts of the season. She reacted like any normal person would and seeing her learn everything about Heaven and Hell and Lucifer’s family was great.

The big thing with this season was that Lucifer’s mother, Tricia Helfer, showed up. She isn’t a fan of humans, but wants to have a good relationship with her sons. I had a hard time believing that as her motivation and Lucifer did too. Nothing really came of that, though. She ended up escaping to another universe or dimension or world. Some place where she could create what she wanted. And I assume, that is that, with her.

We learned some about Chloe and there was some movement on a relationship between her and Lucifer, though, I really don’t know how I feel about that.

What I enjoy most with this show is the mythology. Well, the mythology and Mazikeen, Lesley-Ann Brandt. She’s my favorite by so much. She’s a badass, and a demon, and she’s growing as a person. She says wildly inappropriate things and I love her.

Season 3 has already aired, but it’s not available on any of the streaming services I have, so I’m not sure when I’ll get to watch it. I’m going to try and not forget about the show though because it really is entertaining.

3.5/5

I Feel Bad (2018-?)

I Feel Bad

I Feel Bad (2018-?)

Network:

NBC

Creator:

Aseem Batra

Starring:

Sarayu Blue

Paul Adelstein

Madhur Jaffrey

Plot:

Emet, the perfect mom, boss, wife, friend and daughter, is learning to be okay with being imperfect.

Review:

I love network comedies because they are usually pleasant background noise. I can tune in and out and be entertained. ‘I Feel Bad’ works perfect for that, and I found myself tuning in way more frequently that I normally would.

I enjoyed that this is about a working mom that’s in a good marriage has a close relationship to her parents and is also a person of color.

I do foresee some issues with her job. She is an artist for a video game company, if it’s depicted realistically it could end up being too real. Of course, if it doesn’t at least mention the issues facing that industry right now I’d be even more disappointed. We’ll see what happens.

The supporting cast were entertaining and I enjoyed the two episodes I’ve watched. We’ll see if it ends up being more like Blackish or if it fizzles and burns.

3.5/5

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)


Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018)

Director:

J.A. Bayona

Starring:

Bryce Dallas Howard

Chris Pratt

Danielle Pineda

Rafe Spall

Plot:

When the island’s dormant volcano begins roaring to life, Owen and Claire mount a campaign to rescue the remaining dinosaurs from this extinction-level event.

Review:

Fallen Kingdom started off strong. Immediate dinosaur action, then some story explaining that Bryce Dallas Howard had changed from a corporate exec to a bleeding heart, dinosaur loving, activist. Meanwhile, Chris Pratt is building a cabin in the middle of nowhere.

Then back to the dinosaur action. Throw in some exploding volcano and the first half of this movie is just perfect. It hits all the notes you want from a Jurassic Park movie, though, my husband was a bit peeved that the T-Rex was once again a hero.

Things started to slow down for the last third. Well, not really slow down, but I just didn’t care much about it. I didn’t like the introduction of the clone child. It could have been fine, but she was just sort of there in the background and then BOOM saving them. It was eh.

That last third just felt weaker and I can’t really put my finger on why. I didn’t like the kid, but I thought the cloning side of things was interesting, but it kind of expands past what I want from a Jurassic Park movie. Money as a motive was normal, but I didn’t like how easily Bryce was drawn in by the bad guy. She was so smart and capable in the previous movie and she was conned so easily. She didn’t question at all. She was still a badass, though, so I liked that. Chris Pratt helped the IT dude because he knew she could take care of herself.

I love Blue, but the whole Chris Pratt blue backstory was kind of eh. I like seeing a softer side, but it just seemed kind of odd. I feel like they tried to change the characters or make them deeper and not everything worked for me because it went against what I’d already built in my head. Bryce Dallas Howard is a badass corporate chick, while Chris Pratt is an animal trainer that can run.

Great movie. Beautifully shot, felt very much like a Stephen Spielberg movie, so kudos to J.A. Bayona. Music was spot on too. Looking forward to the next.

4/5

Oceans 8 (2018)


Oceans 8 (2018)

Director:

Gary Ross

Starring:

Sandra Bullock

Cate Blanchett

Anne Hathaway

Helena Bonham Carter

Mindy Kaling

Rihanna

Awkwafina

Sarah Paulson

Plot:

Debbie Ocean gathers an all-female crew to attempt an impossible heist at New York City’s yearly Met Gala.

Review:

I’m a fan of the Ocean’s movies, and all the women in this movie, so I was really excited when it came out. After finally getting to see it I’m very happy with how it turned out.

Sandra Bullock is finally out of prison and she has learned all the wrong lessons. Or maybe the right ones, depending on who you are. She knows exactly what she needs to do to pull off the perfect jewel heist and maybe get some revenge in the process.

In true Ocean’s movie style, everyone is beautiful, the setting it ostentatious, and there’s a twist at the end. I loved it, more please.

I would have loved a bit more background on the characters. They were all so interesting. Sadly, I’m not sure if we’re going to get a sequel, which is a huge bummer. Seriously, Hollywood why would you not want to put all these women in another movie together?

4/5

Tag (2018)

Tag (2018)

Director:

Jeff Tomsic

Starring:

Jeremy Renner

Ed Helms

Jake Johnson

Jon Hamm

Hannibal Buress

Isla Fisher

Plot:

A small group of former classmates organize an elaborate, annual game of tag that requires some to travel all over the country.

Review:

This movie would have been better if it hadn’t been based on a true story. It was wild and crazy until the end where I assume it took a real world turn and then it became depressing and negated all of the fun from the first two thirds.

So five friends have held on to their childhood by setting aside the entire month of May to keep playing a game of tag. They live in separate parts of the country and are adults so they never know when someone is going to show up and tag them. This is definitely something that only works unless you all live in the same town or are wealthy enough to do a lot of traveling. If you were poor you would basically always be excluded or always be it. Which is why it would have been more fun if this wasn’t real world.

Anyway, one of their friends has never been it. I kept waiting for it to be revealed that he was a secret agent, but apparently he’s just that good. You actually never learn what he is so maybe he is a spy.

Hijinks ensue as the friends fight to finally catch him until we discover that one of the friends has cancer and is probably going to die. The movie ends without letting you know if he lives which probably means that he’s dead, which is the worst note to end what was otherwise an entertaining comedy. A comedy that involved lots of outlandish disguises, a fake pregnancy, and a ruined wedding. Seriously, why did they have to include the cancer? Why couldn’t they have kept it all up with the outlandishness?

2/5