Ant-Man & The Wasp

Alright movie, you got me.

I was severely confused why exactly this movie came after Infinity War, for like 99% of the movie I was thinking how better it would have worked if it came before or after Black Panther but nope they tie it in. And to be perfectly honest, I did like this movie better than the first Ant-Man. So Scott has been placed on house arrest after aiding Captain America in Civil War but quickly slides back into things as he helps Hank and Hope try to bring back the most important woman in the world to them, while a new enemy known as the Ghost is hell bent on stealing Hank's work to benefit her own needs. I honestly thought Hope was going to be Ghost, she goes subatomic trying to find her mom, her mind snaps like a Kit-Kat, and she just goes on a rampage able to phase through walls, but they didn't and while it might have made for a more interesting story I actually didn't mind. There's no real villain, even the people set up as villains are just normal people who want things done their way. Except for Walton Goggins, he's pretty much always a villain and I really wanted more of him in this movie, ever since seeing him in Justified and Vice Principals it's almost harboring on a man crush for this guy, he's just awesome. I feel this actually is a case where the sequel is superior to the first movie, every element has been improved. The effects are better and they get to do more fun stuff with shrinking and growing, I mean I was kinda joking about the Honey I Shrunk series but it really does seem like those movies. Though yeah....the physics and dynamics of the suit size is still off, I'm pretty sure if I stood 20 feet away from an 80 foot tall giant who started to speak I'd go deaf. Granted not all of it is bad and is physically sound but there's other things where you just scratch your head and go, how? I know, I know, it's comic books, are we really bringing logic into it? Well the correct answer is yes, because while slightly sci-fi it can still be possible to achieve this, and it has to make sense in our world. But the comedy while mostly still not getting much from me was toned back and did get a good laugh out of me from time to time, I even liked Michael Pena a lot in this movie. I don't know, the story and character motivations really hit me harder than in the first movie. When Hank sees his wife in 30 years, I fully 120% believed his reaction, he doesn't even speak a word he just emotionally breaks down, that's a f***ing good scene, boy howdy let me tell ya. I felt a stronger connection between Scott and his daughter even though that was one aspect of the first that was still quite good, every action Scott does is because of his daughter and it's a driving force an awful lot of people can identify with. I quite liked this movie, nothing great but still good, has some hokey science in it, has some decent characters, all in all it's a fun little movie and I can see people really digging it so knock yourself out.  2.5 stars, 6.5/10, Brie Larson, let's dance.

Vice Principals: Season 2

I'd love for just once in my life to watch a show and once seeing it's ending scene, to not be bummed out and having an existential fit cause I don't know what to watch next.

Every damn time. Even with a comedy series! Bastards. Anyway, onto the review. Vice Principals wraps up simultaneously in a very nice and happy way but also with an undercurrent of just depression. And I don't think that's just me. After a pretty spectacular finale with the last season, Gamby has finally recovered from being shot and is returning to North Jackson now playing second fiddle to Russell. Now me personally, if Walton Goggins was my boss I wouldn't give a shit but Gamby wants to stick to the original plan they created. So the season actually follows more on the personal family side of these guys than their actual school shenanigans, which I quite honestly loved more than I thought I would. Once again giving equal time to both characters, Russell has marriage problems leading to a pretty crushing ending to one episode while Gamby is trying to spend more time with his daughter while simultaneously conducting his own investigation into his shooting. It's still very compelling but in a different way. Yes Gamby is a dick but you still nevertheless want him to find out who did it, and yes Russell is a very egotistical fella but you don't want to see his marriage go to hell in a handbasket. If they genuinely tried these story elements in the first season, I don't think it would have worked even half as good as it does here because you've spent so much time with them on one front where you do fully see who they really and truly are. Without that, it would kinda seem to be an average and run of the mill show. But both seasons are great and it does come down to personal preference as to which is superior, I loved the first season more but the love is undoubtedly here for season two. I was testing my own detective skills in this season and while the show sort of strings along a few suspects if you think logically on just pure observations of characters you can easily decipher who did it. It certainly doesn't take a damn thing away from the finale though, it's a wild and just shocking end to it all before you get the resolution. I couldn't believe a few instances and this show always had my full attention but I was hanging on every word at the last episode. Again the entire supporting cast returns, and any dang excuse to see my total cutie pie Ashley Spillers is fffffricking good enough for me! Now the big question is if this season is objectively better than the first but with a mini-series, whether split in half or not, is incredibly hard to rate as a whole. The second season gets a 9/10. But the whole show as one single entity gets 4 stars, 9/10, a high recommendation and tons of love and appreciation from me. And I think it's highway robbery that you can buy the whole series for like, I don't even think $15 in stores, everytime I saw it the price was about 13 or 14 bucks. That's a steal for the story and fun in this show! So by all means check it out, I'm sorry it was only two reviews this week but circumstances have arisen and it will be tricky to get back to a full schedule. It's nothing bad, just...bear with me for a bit. Until next time!

Vice Principals: Season 1

Is this our first mini-series on this show? I don't know, it's a miracle I remember my own anniversary on this show.

Vice Principals is a show that I did actually watch while it was new...kinda. More specifically, I occasionally missed some episodes while watching it on HBO a few years back cause I had more of a life. Insert joke here. And I got a free trial just to see what HBO Max had to offer and I decided to check this series out again, and here we are. It's pretty good! I will flat out tell you the reason I watched this series was because of Walton Goggins as one of the main leads, I caught him on Justified now and then and easily could tell he was a trip so I was ready and willing to see what he brought to a primarily comedic show. The story revolves around two vice principals, Neal and Lee, of a high school who after seeing principal Bill Murray retire (yes he has a name but stop lying to yourself, you will call him Bill Murray) start to vie for power but quickly get brushed over when the new principal is elected and what follows is nothing short of an education in dark side 101. I'm serious, my geeky ass brain was just screaming this is how the Sith operate, not through feats of power but manipulation, underhanded moves, subterfuge, and carefully calculated destruction. It's both hilariously outrageous and yet undoubtedly disturbing to see how far two people will go for a position that really don't mean that much in the grand scheme of things. Neal Gamby is a complete raging cock and honestly a bit of a tool, and there isn't a shadow of a doubt in my mind that Danny McBride wasn't the one in mind when they wrote the part. I've seen bits of him in Eastbound And Down and he seems to play the exact same character, a very full of himself, socially inept, and complete braying jackass but hey the man can play the part and props must be given. While Walton Goggins plays Lee Russell, simultaneously a sycophant in public but a dastardly and cunniving almost mastermind in private, but holy great balls of fire is this guy hysterical. I just look at him with his bow tie, wild hair, and questionable attire, and I am just rolling on the floor. He delivers every ounce of the performance I wanted from him and more, it's nothing less than astounding. But even the supporting cast is great, able to pull of the show's humor but to add just a dash of the real world elements. It's such an interesting take on a show, because you essentially are following and may be possibly rooting for the bad guys! They're not completely horrible, again they have elements where they fit in the real world, they are just people who have families and lives outside of their shared plan. It's not afraid to have a serious moment when the time calls for it, and again I appreciate that. I think this is a terrific show, and you can knock out the first season in about 4 and a half hours, it's not that long and the second season is the same length so if you're dedicated enough you can watch the whole thing in a day and still have time to do other stuff and I do believe it's worth the time. It really only has one aspect which I just think does not work, which is the romance. Neal gets a crush on one of the teachers and while I have seen more awkward conversations, the romance angle the show is trying to work falls flat on it's face. Hard. I never bought it for a second. But it's very much a side story and while it has time dedicated to it never once did it ruin my enjoyment of the show. So I still award 4 stars, I give it a 8.5/10, this is a great show and really some shows deserve more fans. Season 2 coming next time.

Django Unchained

Yeah boy.

Full disclosure, I've seen parts of this movie on television before, mostly towards the tail end of it so this has been my first full watch through, and I thought the last 25 minutes was wild! Boy howdy lemme tell you something now, this is a great movie! I've come to know what to expect from seeing several of Quentin Tarantino's films, and yet he does something similar but still unique to each of his films. The man was born to make grindhouse-esque movies, you can tell real quick from just the opening credits but then you get the absurd zooms that never failed to make me laugh because it's that over the top, and the ridiculous amounts of blood. I've seen gory films in my time, I've seen bloody shootouts in my day, but not quite like this. And the story hardly took any time before I was fully invested, it being centered around a slave named Django who is quickly teamed up with a Dr. Schultz and collects bounties with him before the true meat of the story comes about when Django sets out to save his wife from a plantation. It's a movie where they ain't afraid to use the ugliest word in the human language, it makes almost 3 hours go by like 90 minutes, and every racist person gets a bullet in them. I am on board with that last part. They don't pull any punches, they keep it real to the times, they tell it how it is and do something with it. I heard that Jamie Foxx wasn't the first initial choice for Django, but honest to God I can't imagine the movie without him. His prescence, his wit, his physicality, it's pretty damn perfect in my eyes. But you really can't talk about one main character without talking about the other, and Christoph Waltz is giving his best performance to my knowledge (still haven't seen Inglorious Basterds just yet), and what a powerful duo these two are on screen. It is a joy to see them converse, blast fools, and have a really good friendship dynamic. And the supporting cast is just as strong, with Kerry Washington who is just a lovely lady and I'd pump people full of lead too to make sure she's safe and well, Leo is f***ing out there as usual and always fun to watch, Sam Jackson made me feel bad making me laugh so much at such blatant racism I mean sweet Jesus when the man starts calling people motherfrakkers you got to laugh. I just, I ain't mad at Tarantino for even a second for the dialogue, it's how they talked back then, but damn I still felt bad. But in reality, if you feel bad about seeing people be talked to that way and treated that way then you're not the problem, you got the better sense to know it's wrong. Even he said he despised Leo's character because he was such a hateful sack of shit (my words not his), so I ain't gonna give the man good grief for that. There isn't much action beyond the climax, they treat the gunplay seriously and with restraint mostly, but every damn time someone gets shot it's like if they had a overfilled blood bag under their clothes, it's ridiculous how much blood goes gushing after a gunshot. I guess high blood pressure will do that. It's a pretty spectacular movie, I was having a party during it and got big reactions out of me, I loved the cast, I loved the story, I wouldn't honestly complain if we got a sequel, it's just a great time at the movies. 4 stars, 8/10! I'm gonna buy it, watch it time and time again, and never get tired of seeing asshats get dead, D-E-D, dead! We'll shift gears a bit tomorrow which will lead into next week's reviews, and I'll give you a dollar if you can guess what it is.

Tomb Raider (2018)

Well what do you know, a good video game movie!

Tomb Raider is very, very good. It is one of the rarest forms of media, a really good video game movie. I especially love that they adapted the story from the excellent reboot to the series and it is a really engaging and good story. Basically an origin story for Lara, played by Alicia Vikander who does a really dang good job potraying Lara as a young, no nonsense, adventurous woman who goes through some stuff to say the least and she was great. My only problem with her character was she falls in the trope of, although I come from a family of great wealth I'm gonna rebel and do things from scratch. It just bugged me. But anyway, Lara is on the hunt for her dad which leads her to a very Arrow-ish island, where a band of mercenaries led by Walton Goggins who is gloriously off his rocker like always is trying to break into the tomb of a former Lady Emperor claimed to be basically Death incarnate. Which of course Lara is all, "No way man, you're nuttier than a PayDay bar. I'm stopping you." and Walter Goggins is like, "Bring it baby girl, I'm leaving here either with a corpse or as a corpse." and thus we got ourselves a movie. Oh and they totally pulled a Last Crusade with that tomb, every test was almost exactly like the ones Indy had to do except in reverse. So the leap of faith first, the puzzle involving the floor second, and the giant bladed traps last. Caught you! But regardless, this is a good movie that is worth your time should you choose to see it, and it's great that Lara finally gets a sure fire hit in the movie department. A very good way to end the week, but next week we have a bit of unfinished buisness to attend to, a return to a good superhero movies, and another dive into the awesome weirdness that is Wes Anderson. See you then!