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Veronica Mars “Rashard and Wallace Go to White Castle”/ “Ain’t No Magic Mountain High Enough” Review (2×12/2×13)

EPISODE 12: “RASHARD AND WALLACE GO TO WHITE CASTLE”

This episode essentially sends Wallace and Weevil on opposite paths: the former begins the episode in a state of denial and uncertainty, but ends in a happier place, whereas the latter’s life seems to be going well until it all goes to hell at the end. For me, the biggest thing to come out of Wallace’s story is the fact that Jackie’s in on the Rashard plan, that she seems to be fine with Wallace dating the girl from a few episodes back; I haven’t been the biggest fan of her character thus far, but this episode makes her a bit more likable (which continues in the next episode).

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Categories Television-Classic, Veronica Mars

Veronica Mars “One Angry Veronica”/ “Donut Run” Review (2×10/2×11)

19 Aug

EPISODE 10: “One Angry Veronica”

This is the first time after watching an episode that I’ve thought: “Man, that was mediocre.” “One Angry Veronica” is extremely disappointing because it takes a dull plot and mashes it up with a few awful plot twists, all of which are straight out of Veronica Mars: What You Thought It Would Be Before You Watched the Show. First of all, Leo’s sister is conveniently pulled out of thin air in order to give him motivation for stealing the Kane/Echolls sex tapes, and second of all, Meg wakes up just in time to say “Please take care of my baby” (aka “I’m going to die later on in this episode, so I’ll go ahead and wake up from my coma to tell you this and make the whole situation more poignant”). Sure, there are nice moments to be found throughout–Dohring is once again excellent during the tape-watching scene–but this is all getting to be too much.

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Categories Television-Classic, Veronica Mars

Mr. Robot “eps2.5_h4ndshake.sme” Review (2×07)

17 Aug

“Where do you think you are right now?”

Here’s the thing about reveals: it retroactively makes you wonder about the logic of past storylines, and it becomes a problem if it’s viewed as some magical restart button that can be employed every so often. I’m going to give the show the benefit of the doubt here and try to be optimistic about the second half of the season, but the first half seems like the result of pretension catching up to Esmail a bit. Sure, I’m enjoying the season so far–and last week’s episode was a wonderful piece of entertainment in and of itself–but Malek can only do so much with a storyline that sometimes seems lost. Mind you, pretension is not inherently bad, but it can weaken and needlessly convolute this show.

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Categories Mr. Robot, Television

Suicide Squad Review

14 Aug

This crap is what results when you vomit a sludge of ideas onto the screen in lieu of trying to figure out what fits where. This is what happens when your set sounds like a worse place to work at than a sweatshop. This is what you get when the society you live in demands a new superhero movie every week, quality be damned. This is incompetent filmmaking, plain and simple, and it’s clear that the man who helmed the terrific End of Watch has plunged off a cliff to his fiery directing demise.

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Categories Film

Mr. Robot “eps2.4_m4ster-s1ave.aes” Review (2×06)

10 Aug

“I’m never going to leave you.”

First of all, I have to commend USA for letting Sam Esmail do whatever the hell he wants. Devoting the first ~20 minutes of a television episode to a sitcom version of a dark psychological drama is already outlandish enough, but add onto that the ’90s commercials and you have a wonderfully trippy experience. It’s a strange, enjoyable, and unsettling opening sequence, and it’s an example of just how fun this show can get. Sure, some might argue that it overstays its welcome a bit, but it’s so ridiculous that I’m willing to go with it for however long it might take.

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Categories Mr. Robot, Television

Mr. Robot “eps2.3_logic-b0mb.hc” Review (2×05)

4 Aug

“You’ve surrounded yourself with the constant reminder of mortality.”

Last week, a gorgeous montage set to Green Day’s “Basket Case” concluded with Elliot telling us that he wanted to fight for the world depicted, i.e. a world filled with people he cares about and spends time with. It’s a fantasy world, but it’s driven by meaningful connection and devoid of the cynicism that reigns supreme in real life. It’s something that seems so far away and so unrealistic, but it’s definitely worth fighting for.

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Categories Mr. Robot, Television

Jason Bourne Review

31 Jul

Very little about this movie is particularly original or interesting, and there’s a clear formula that Paul Greengrass breezes through here: Bourne walks away at an above average speed, the CIA picks him up in the crowd, someone catches up to him, they fight while the camera has a seizure, and Bourne gets away and is free to direct his stoic gaze upon the next scene. Add onto that a half-hearted attempt to insert a topical plot about surveillance, and you get a Bourne installment lacking the fresh, kinetic efficiency of the original trilogy (trilogy means three, people, so why the hell are we on number five?).

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Categories Film

Mr. Robot “eps2.2_init1.asec” Review (2×04)

27 Jul

This episode features the show’s characters playing chess games, trying to maneuver around others (or themselves) and find peace underneath all the muck. On the subplot side of things, we have Angela going up against Phillip Price and Joanna going up against Scott Knowles, and on main street, we have Elliot actually playing chess against Mr. Robot. It’s not just chess for chess’s sake, though; the episode is using this game to comment on its main character’s desire to unburden himself, to find peace by settling this once and for all. “I can’t hold this in any longer…it’s eating away at me,” Elliot expresses early on, and the rest of the episode is about him grappling with this inner turmoil.

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Categories Mr. Robot, Television

Mr. Robot “eps2.1_k3rnel-pan1c.ksd” Review (2×03)

20 Jul

“It doesn’t matter where you go or where you come from, as long as you keep stumbling. Maybe that’s all it takes. Maybe that’s as good as it gets.”

Instability. Panic. A lack of control. This week’s episode of Mr. Robot embraces itself in all its incoherent glory, eschewing an advancement of plot in favor of a deeply unsettling–yet fascinating–collection of scenes. It’s not perfect, but the style of the hour certainly fits with the themes the show is pushing at the moment. “eps2.1_k3rnel-pan1c.ksd” effectively builds up the tension and uncertainty, the “overwhelming fear” Elliot describes as “building, burrowing, and nesting”. It features an amazing montage of Elliot on Adderall, Rami Malek grinning his way into our nightmares as we, the audience, become as disoriented as the characters in the show. It showcases Malek’s talents yet again, both in that montage and in a later monologue about organized religion. It takes more risks in one hour than most of television does in an entire season.

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Categories Mr. Robot, Television

The Purge: Election Year Review

16 Jul

This movie has it all: awful dialogue, wooden characters, irritating stereotyping, and a concept that’s way more interesting than what we end up getting. And yet…there’s something quite enjoyable about a movie like this, one that takes its world to extremes and delivers its messages with a sledgehammer. It’s not trying to be scary or subtle, and going into it thinking it’ll be one or the other is a recipe for disappointment (this should not be classified as horror, by the way). Do I wish a better writer/director helped this concept realize its full potential? Yes. Do I wish we got an intelligent and nuanced political satire? Of course. However, if I have to accept this movie for what it is, then my biggest criticism is that it doesn’t go even more over-the-top. Take stuff like the church scene and constantly pump it with drugs for 100 minutes, and that’s a movie I’d be excited to see.

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Polar Bears Watch TV

Veronica Mars “Rashard and Wallace Go to White Castle”/ “Ain’t No Magic Mountain High Enough” Review (2×12/2×13)

Veronica Mars “One Angry Veronica”/ “Donut Run” Review (2×10/2×11)

Mr. Robot “eps2.5_h4ndshake.sme” Review (2×07)

Suicide Squad Review

Mr. Robot “eps2.4_m4ster-s1ave.aes” Review (2×06)

Mr. Robot “eps2.3_logic-b0mb.hc” Review (2×05)

Jason Bourne Review

Mr. Robot “eps2.2_init1.asec” Review (2×04)

Mr. Robot “eps2.1_k3rnel-pan1c.ksd” Review (2×03)

The Purge: Election Year Review

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