Movie Review: Upgrade

Stars: 2 out of 5

Pros: Interesting premise

Cons: Several overly violent scenes; ending doesn’t quite work

The Bottom Line:

Creative premise

Marred by violence, ending

So does not quite work

When Technology Seems Too Good to be True

I hadn’t heard of the movie Upgrade until a friend suggested it for a movie night.  It sounded intriguing from his description, so we gave it a try.  There was certainly an interest premise in the movie, but the execution didn’t quite work.

The movie is set is the near future and tells the story of Grey Trace (Logan Marshall-Green).  He’s happy with his life rebuilding classic cars while his wife, Asha (Melanie Vallejo) brings in the big bucks working for a tech company.  They are happy until one night when their self-driving car suddenly crashes in the bad part of town.  They are attacked after the accident.  Grey is left a quadriplegic, but Asha is killed.

Grey is offered a chance at a normal life from billionaire Eron Keen (Harrison Gilbertson).  Eron has a new technology that could help Grey walk again just like nothing had ever happened.  Grey is supposed to keep this a secret from everyone, however.  But when he returns home, Grey discovers that he has a few unexpected upgrades in his life.  Will they help him find the men who killed his wife?

This movie can’t quite decide what it wants to be.  It is part mystery/thriller.  As an avid mystery reader, I enjoyed that aspect of things.  It is part science fiction movie, with the near future setting and the upgraded technology.  And there are another couple of genres mixed in as well that I don’t want to get into so as not to spoil things.  It’s not that these parts can’t mix.  They just don’t quite seem to completely mix here.

I did like Grey.  The more he is pulled into his strange new life, the more I was pulled into the movie.  I couldn’t figure out where exactly it was going, which was a good thing.  The credit for this goes to Logan Marshall-Green.  He has to carry much of the movie on his shoulders, and he does a great job of it.  This isn’t to diminish the performances of the rest of the cast.  They just don’t have the same amount of screen time he does.

Despite the futuristic setting, there aren’t a ton of special effects.  What there are work well, however.  Likewise, the stunts are good.

There are two places where the movie falls apart.  One of the violence.  There are several pretty graphic scenes that weren’t needed.  They could have gotten the story points across with much less graphic images.

The second is the ending.  It many ways, it felt like the movie just stopped instead of ending.  Part of that comes from some late breaking twists that don’t wrap everything up and make us question why some of the earlier things that happened happened.

The premise for Upgrade was good, but there were some flaws in the execution that made me feel the writing needed an upgrade.

Movie Review: Avatar - The Way of Water

Stars: 2 out of 5

Pros: Visuals are cool

Cons: Movie is slow and relies too much of the cool visuals

The Bottom Line:

The old threat returns

Movie too long and plodding

Not a much watch film

Sequel Does Little to Change My Mind on the Franchise

I wasn’t one of those who feel under the spell of the original Avatar.  I didn’t watch it in theaters and waited until I could record it on TV.  I wasn’t planning to watch the first sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, but when I spotted in on TV, I changed my mind.  It did little to change my mind on the franchise, however.

For this movie, we are back on the planet Pandora.  Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) has fully embraced his new life living with the Na’vi.  He and his wife, Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) have several children, and he is happy. 

That is, until the old commanders return to the planet.  Earth is still trying to colonize it.  But the leader is a clone of Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), and he is out to personally get Jake.  So Jake takes his family and flees to the islands.  Will they make their new realm their home?  Or will the Sea People reject them?  What will happen when Miles tracks him down?

Now, I fully admit that part of my issue with the film was the fact that it had been five years since I saw the original.  I was hazy on the details of the characters and their relationships.  That backstory might have helped me connect with what happened here.

But that wasn’t the only issue.

Most of the characters are blue aliens brought to life by motion capture CGI.  It might just be me, but I have a hard time telling them all apart.  When you are spending much of the film going “Wait, is that…?” it makes caring about the outcome harder.

Not that I’m blaming the actors.  They do a good enough job of bringing their characters to life.

There is a lot of debate right now about villains.  Do they need backstory, especially something that shows how they became evil?  While I subscribe to the view that we don’t, I really felt like the villains in this film were very one dimensional.  I had to wonder why everyone was going along with some of what they were being told to do.  There just seemed so little point.  So, some backstory here would definitely have helped.

Visually, the movie looks good.  It’s a lot of CGI.  I’d say the movie is more animated than real.  Most of it looks great, including the fanciful sea creatures we meet along the way.  Yeah, my eye starts to get more critical the further I go, but even so, there are some shots that are just outstanding.

But here’s the biggest issue I have with the movie.  It’s long.  Too long.  The movie clocks in at over 3 hours, and I could easily get 30 minutes cut without too much effort.  There’s an entire sub-plot that could have been trimmed.  And, I’m sure some other cuts could have been made to tighten things.  Having said that, there is a lot going on here, story wise.  It is complex, so trimming things further might have meant a major rewrite.  It certainly does seem like we have one more storyline than we need, especially when things slow down in the middle.

Yes, I’ll probably wind up watching the third Avatar movie at some point.  But I don’t think I’ll be rushing out to watch it.  The Way of Water has too many flaws to make me want to jump right into more of the franchise.

TV Show Review: Quantum Leap Reboot - Season 2

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Great stories that all come together

Cons: Just a couple minor ones

The Bottom Line:

Leaping after gap

Mostly strong second season

Sadly, it’s the last

“Sounds Like an Adventure to Me.”

I really enjoyed the first season of the Quantum Leap reboot, but it was clear they had an initial story to tell involving why the new main character leapt.  Since they resolved that at the end of that season, I was very curious what they were going to do for season two.  While the initial set up was a little shaky for me, I wound up enjoying this season, too.

The first episode starts just like any other episode – Ben (Raymond Lee) leaps into a new situation.  In this case, he’s in a plane that is about to crash over 1978 Russia.  However, he’s not getting any assistance from anyone back at Quantum Leap headquarters.  Finally, Ian (Mason Alexander Park) shows up to help Ben.  But Ian also reveals that, while to Ben it’s just been a few minutes, to the rest of the team, he’s been missing in time for three years, and everyone thought that Ben was dead.

While Ian brings the team back together, Ben has to deal with the revelation, most noticeably that his fiancée, Addison (Caitlin Bassett) has moved on and is now dating Tom (Peter Gadiot).  Meanwhile, Ben keeps meeting up with a woman, Hannah (Eliza Taylor) in various leaps.  He is clearly starting to fall for her.  Why is he seeing her multiple times?

Of course, all this is happening while Ben keeps leaping through time trying to fix history.  He leaps into a bank teller about to be a victim in a bank robbery.  He becomes a government agent investigating extraterrestrial activity.  He finds himself accused of witchcraft in 1692 Salem.  And he becomes a news producer trying to help a reporter nail a comeback story.

I hate it when a show jumps forward in time and one character isn’t aware of the passage of time.  So when I realized that was what they were doing with this season, I wasn’t happy about it.  And I did roll my eyes at the usual tropes, like Ben being upset about Addison moving on, and Addison being torn between Ben and Tom.

But as the season went on, I began to appreciate the choices the writers made as a result of this time jump.  A couple of my assumptions about what they were planning to do with the characters proved to be wrong (thankfully).  I was actually blown away in the last couple of episodes with how they brought everything all the characters were facing together for a complete season long story.  Yes, this is an example of excellent writing.  They clearly had a plan in place for the season before they started, and they executed it wonderfully.

What they didn’t have a plan for was the cancellation of the series.  A couple of weeks after the finale aired, NBC announced that the series wouldn’t be back in the fall of 2024.  And we are left once again unmoored in time.  I don’t blame the writers since they didn’t know when this was written or filmed.

To be clear, the storyline for season two was wrapped up.  Instead, what we got was a teaser for what season three would have been as a cliffhanger.  That’s probably what makes it so mild for me.  Yes, I would have been back, and I really want to know what the producers would have done with the storyline.  But since the cliffhanger was more about setting up the story going forward, I don’t feel as if we were left hanging in the same sense that we would have been otherwise.  Make sense?

But back to the season we did get.  Like the first season, we split our time between the leap of the week, which usually got a majority of the run time, and what is going on back at headquarters.  I feel like the leaps also fed into what was going on in the ongoing storylines better this season, probably because Ben’s plot wasn’t about his missing memory and why he leapt.  The writers did a really good job of giving us real emotional stakes in the episodes where we could feel for all the characters.  There wasn’t a right or wrong, but people were still allowed to struggle with what they were feeling.  I really liked it.  And each episode also had very real complications that made it hard to see how Ben would accomplish his task to leap again.

I know I’ve been praising the writers so far this season, but equal praise goes to the cast, including the regulars I haven’t mentioned yet, Ernie Hudson and Nanrisa Lee.  Everyone brought their best to each episode, fully making us invested in what their characters were going through.  I enjoyed getting to see some of these characters popping up as Ben’s guide through his leap, which helped us get to know them better and see different sides of Ben.

There were thirteen episodes in season two.  One of them did get into preachy territory, but it wasn’t as bad as last season’s preachy episode.  But for the most part, we get a show with great stories and characters we can care about.

I am sad that season 2 is the end of Quantum Leap.  I know many fans of the original didn’t like it, but I found the show fun for a modern day reinvention of a classic show.

Ornament Review: N.S.E.A Protector - 2024 Hallmark Release

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: By Grabthar’s hammer, this is a great ornament!

Cons: Whoever lists any cons should die!

The Bottom Line:

Galaxy Quest fans

Will enjoy this ornament

Of the Protector

Never Give Up, Never Surrender…Until You Get This Ornament

While I do have quite a few Star Wars ornaments in my collection, it’s been a while since I added any new ones or paid any attention to Hallmark’s science fiction ornaments in general.  I happily made an exception this year to add the N.S.E.A. Protector to my collection.

If you aren’t familiar with this ship, you need to immediately go and watch the movie Galaxy Quest.  I’ll be here when you get back.

All good?

Now, you know why I wanted to add this movie to my collection.  I’ve loved that movie since I saw it in the theater, so a chance to add the ship to my ornaments was a no brainer.  And this ornament is great.  It looks just like the ship does in the film.  Okay, so it’s not necessarily that different from any other space ship, but the design is a little sleeker, at least in my mind.  I appreciated that, in addition to the paint identifying it as the Protector, it includes the National Space Exploration Administration logo.

And any fan of the movie will be thrilled.  While we are a loyal fan base, we don’t have a ton of merchandise, so it’s nice to get this ornament.  It makes me smile to look at it.

Being a space ship, this ornament isn’t that exciting if you just set it out.  I mean, it does sit okay, and it rests at a bit of a fun angle.  It looks like it is about to head up as it flies through space.  But it isn’t very tall, so it is easy to overlook.

Which is why you’ll want to hang this ornament even if you aren’t putting it on your tree.  It hangs straight, and it looks great – like it is ready to fly off into a new adventure.

Any fan of Galaxy Quest will be thrilled to add the N.S.E.A. Protector to their Christmas tree.  I know I am.

TV Show Review: The Acolyte - Season 1

Stars: 1 out of 5

Pros: Lightsaber battles are cool

Cons: The writing makes no sense

The Bottom Line:

Disastrous show

Missing good story telling

Avoid at all costs

Yes, It Really Is That Bad

I haven’t been a big fan of most of the Star Wars series on Disney+, but I decided to go ahead and watch The Acolyte.  Mainly, it was because it was on in the summer, and I don’t have much else to watch at the moment.  It quickly became apparent that it was bad, but I kept watching it anyway.

If you’ve heard all the controversy surrounding it, let me confirm, yes, it is as bad as you have heard.  For the record, I watched all eight episodes.  This is based completely on what we got in season one.  Not what I read elsewhere.  Not what I think after the first five minutes.  I watched the entire first season.

The story is set roughly 100 years before the prequels and revolves around Osha (Amandla Stenberg), a mechanic on the farthest reaches of space.  She gets into trouble when someone who looks exactly like her kills a Jedi master across the galaxy.  Despite the fact that she wasn’t anywhere near the murder, the Jedi bring her in to face the consequences.  Of course, it turns out that it wasn’t her, but her identical twin sister Mae (also Amandla Stenberg).  And it all ties into what happened to Osha and Mae when they were kids sixteen years ago.

And in case you are worried I just spoiled a big plot twist, rest assured.  What I just teased all is explained in the first episode.

Yes, that’s part of the problem.  The show sets itself up as a mystery.  But it reveals too much of the big twists early on.  If we’d spent episodes watching Osha jump from planet to planet before learning that Mae was behind things, it would have worked.  Instead, we get that pesky detail out of the way early on.

Then, in episode three, we get a flashback to what happened sixteen years ago.  So even the mystery of the past is given away early.  Well, most of it.  Episode seven gives us another perspective on what happened sixteen years ago and has a few revelations in it.  But not enough to justify its forty-minute run time.  We could have seen those five minutes of new information as a flashback in another episode as one character confesses to another what happened from their perspective.

The idea behind the show was apparently to introduce some gray into the world of Star Wars, which has always said the Jedi are good and the Sith are bad.  Honestly, I’m of two minds about this.  I love seeing something as more complex than we originally were told.  And, any organization is going to get corrupted, especially as it grows bureaucratic.  However, do we need that in Star Wars?  Couldn’t we have a new story/universe/creation of some kind where that happened?  Either way, this show wasn’t the show to do it.  What drives everything?  A misunderstanding.  Yes, the result is tragic, but what we see happen isn’t truly evil.  In fact, what happened is understandable given what the characters knew and didn’t know.  So the premise itself, Jedi are evil, doesn’t work.  To pull off something like this, we would need to see something truly evil done by the Jedi.  Instead, we see the Sith taking revenge for something they don’t fully understand, and going above and beyond the true call for justice.  In other words, they are still pure evil.

This is a plot driven show.  What do I mean by that?  The characters will say and do anything needed to move the plot forward even if it contradicts what they said two minutes ago.  This is a real conversation that was had in an episode.

Leader: I don’t think we should all go in because it will be seen as a threat.

Subordinate: I think it will be better if we all go in together.

Leader: Okay.

Seriously?  That’s the best you can come up with?  Characters change their motivation from moment to moment as well, based on what best works for the story at that particular time.  Nothing shows this better than the final few moments that left me scratching my head.  How does any of that flow from what we’ve seen before?  Oh wait, it doesn’t matter.  It’s all about getting to the ending the creator wanted to get to.  Never mind if it makes any sense.  And there was such an easy way to not have that ending that anyone could have seen.  I certainly did.

The episodes range from a little over 30 minutes to just under 50 minutes.  Even then, this should have been a movie instead of a show.  There is that little story to tell.  I mean, one episode spends a lot of time with characters walking through woods talking.

Not to mention we get suspense from the infamous “I have something important to tell you later” or the dramatic screen cut.

And let’s not forget characters that have awesome powers in one episode lose them by the next episode.  Or even five minutes later.  And the stone fortress that catches fire.

Mind you, I’ll gladly go along with almost anything when I’m reading or watching something.  So if I’m nitpicking the show this much, you know it has that many issues.

I’m not enough of a Star Wars fan that I would have caught the timeline issues if they hadn’t been blown up all over social media.  So I’ll just note that the Sith should have been extinct at this point according to The Phantom Menace among other inconsistencies with the established lore.  And no, that plot hole is never addressed, at least here.

I also found the moral of the story to be very ironic coming from the left leaning people who created the series.  The entire thing could have been avoided if Osha’s mothers were just willing to let her go and be trained as a Jedi (which we learn in episode 3).  Something Osha wants.  But that’s not what her mothers want, which leads to the misunderstandings.  And we are supposed to think the Jedi are bad for pushing for it and encouraging Osha.  Yet today, we have the government in the US, mostly left leaning people, who are saying that parents shouldn’t have any rights over their kids, and kids know what is best for them when they are really too young to know any better.  In other words, the exact opposite of what this show demonstrates. 

And yes, you read that right, Osha and Mae have two mothers.  Honestly, the “woke” elements are the least of this show’s issues.  Although the show’s attempts to insert pronouns into an episode give us a hilariously poorly written 5 seconds.  If only that were the only example of poor writing in the show.  There’s one scene I am impressed the ensemble was able to get through without cracking up.  Or cringing.

There are a couple of stand outs in the cast who do the best they have with the material they are given.  The rest of the cast is adequate at best.  Although I am wondering if one of the performances was done the way it was on purpose given what we learn near the end.  Even so, it was still hard to watch and was bad acting overall.

I will give the show this – the lightsaber battles are epic.  Go on a little too long at times and filmed so that they are hidden at other times.  But when we get a good action scene, they are fun to watch.  Sadly, there aren’t nearly enough of them to justify watching the show.

If you haven’t watched The Acolyte yet, don’t waste your time.  If you’ve started, no, it doesn’t get any better.  This show was a waste of time and money.  The ending of season one sets things up for another season.  If we are given more, I won’t be back to watch it.

TV Show Review: Quantum Leap - Season 5

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Some episodes are still fun to watch

Cons: Most of the changes the writers make don’t work well; ending

The Bottom Line:

Final leaps through time

Most of the changes don’t work

Uneven season

“People Don’t Just Jump Into Other People’s Lives.”  “Well, My Friend Does.”

When a show reaches season 5, the writers often try to shake things up.  That’s the case with the original Quantum Leap’s fifth season.  Unfortunately, not all of those attempts actually worked well for the show.

One of those changes was teased in the cliffhanger at the end of season four.  Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula), who is still leaping through time into people’s lives in an attempt to change things for the better, has leaped into Lee Harvey Oswald, the first time he’s become a real person.  We see exactly what happens next in the two-part season opener.  Sorry, but this shouldn’t have been more than one episode at most.  Sam keeps leaping into various points in the man’s life, but Oswald’s personality seems to be infiltrating Sam more and more.  The result wasn’t compelling drama but more an analysis of a man who committed unspeakable evil.  Maybe it was cathartic for the Baby Boom generation as they try to understand why he did what he did, but it certainly wasn’t for me.

Over the rest of the season, Sam jumps into two more famous people.  His leap into Dr. Ruth in the 80’s is as uncomfortable for him as it is for me.  On the other hand, his leap into Elvis is a pure delight as he has to help a woman without impacting The King’s career.

Another change is that we spend more time in the “future” of 1999, you know, the time that Sam leapt from.  This does give Al (Dean Stockwell) something different to do other than the hologram that is trying to guide Sam through each leap.  I enjoyed this is in the episode when the criminal that Sam had leapt into escaped and Al had to track him down and bring him back before Sam could leap.  On the other hand, most of the time, it didn’t add anything to the episode.  Fortunately, they only did this a few times.

Then there’s the trilogy.  Sam leaps into the life of Abigail as three different people at three different times in her life.  The storylines there got repetitive, and Sam’s obsession/”love” for her as an adult got to be a bit much.  Even the twist they tried to give it at the end rang hollow given the ending of the series.

Finally, we have the Evil Leaper episodes.  The first time she showed up, the authors clearly wrote themselves into a corner and out of time since everything got magically fixed, which bugged me.  Fortunately, I thought things worked better there when they brought those characters back for two more episodes later in the season.

Yes, the majority of episodes this season are still one offs.  Some cross the line into lectures more than some of the previous seasons have been, especially the episode about women’s rights.  That episode was especially harsh coming after it did after the episode where Sam leapt into a bigamist.  That was supposed to be a funny episode, but it wasn’t.  It was just cringe.  Then there’s the episode about the vampire, which was just strange.

There were episodes I enjoyed, like the previous mentioned Elvis episode.  I also really enjoyed it when Sam became his great-grandfather during the Civil War.  And the episode about alien sightings was fun.

Which brings us to the series finale.  I will be discussing what happened, so if you don’t know and don’t want to be spoiled, skip the rest of the paragraph.  I fully sympathize with the producers who were not informed the show was going to be cancelled for sure until after they had filmed the show.  Apparently, there were several endings filmed, and the one we got was the network’s decision.  So I will blame the network.  That episode was…interesting.  They often go for something different for the season finales.  I like that Al got a happy ending, although Al without his womanizing because he’s happily married doesn’t seem right.  And we can choose to believe that Sam chose to keep leaping to help people, which was kind of what they were hinting out in the episode.  Knowing what was coming as far as the ending of the series, it didn’t hit as hard as it would have when originally aired.  But still, I would have liked to see happy endings for both of them.

The choices that I struggled with this season are all on the writers.  The acting is still top notch, with Scott Bakula doing a great job carrying every single episode and Dean Stockwell providing the comic relief.  As far as guest stars, they were uniformly great.  We had quite a few before they were famous appearances this season and some familiar at the time names as well.  Among those I recognized were Willie Garson, Brooke Shields, Jennifer Aniston, Beverley Mitchell, Melora Hardin, Megyn Price, Robyn Lively, and Neil Patrick Harris.  The Brooke Shields episode was another fun one, and a bit of type casting, as she played someone marooned on an island.

Looking at the misses in season five, it’s obvious why this was the final season of Quantum Leap.  There are enough good episodes here that fans will want to watch them.  But it’s average overall.

Book Review: Warped on a Moon Trek by Diane Vallere (Sylvia Stryker #5)

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Great scenes for Sylvia, lots of fun

Cons: Plot warps the brain a bit too much

The Bottom Line:

Back on the space case

Sylvia jumping through time

Loved seeing her here

Sylvia Races Through Time to Save the Day

I always enjoy reading cozies with slightly different settings.  Or, in the case of the Sylvia Stryker series, a majorly different setting.  You see, Sylvia is part alien, and her adventures take place on cruise ships that are cruising between the planets.  And she’s back for a fifth adventure with Warped on a Moon Trek.

Sylvia and her mentor, Neptune, are on the latest Moon Trek ship, which is on a test cruise just going between the Earth and Moon.  The company wants to make sure everything is working right before having passengers.  It’s a good thing they are doing this test since some of the systems aren’t working quite right, and Neptune is quick to figure out that the problem is a fault with the chip.  The best way to fix it?  Go talk to the engineer that designed it originally and get her to fix it.

So Neptune sets out to do just that, leaving Sylvia with a couple of bombshells.  The scientist?  Someone in her family.  How does Neptune plan to contact the scientist?  Go back in time through a worm hole that has opened up near the ship.  When Sylvia figures out what he is up to, she goes after him to try to prevent him from altering history.  Will she be able to?  Or will she make things worse?

You’ll notice so far, I’ve teased a familiar science fiction plot line and not much about a mystery.  That’s because, to be honest, the mystery was probably the least important part of the book.  Yes, there is a murder that Sylvia gets involved in.  But it’s not the main focus.

And I was perfectly okay with that.  I was caught up in the story from the beginning, and, as things spin more and more out of control, I was even more concern with how Sylvia would be able to fix things.  Yes, the book does leave us with a plot hole or two, and if you are familiar with the type of stories being told here, you can probably guess what they are.  Or maybe my brain got too warped to see how things worked out.  But I was enjoying the story enough that I really didn’t mind.

Part of that was because this is the fifth book with Sylvia.  It may have been a few years, but I was quickly back in her world, reconnecting with her and her friends.  As this book unfolds, she really gets some opportunities for growth.  Those scenes are very touching, and I enjoyed them.

And we had some fun along the way as well.  The situations and Sylvia’s reactions to them lead to some great laughs.

If you’ve read Sylvia’s previous adventures, you’ll definitely be glad to see her back in action.  Just go wherever Warped on a Moon Trek takes you, and you’ll have fun.

Blast off with the rest of the Sylvia Stryker Mysteries.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.

Book Review: Calico by Lee Goldberg

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Good characters, a fun genre combination (once I wrapped me head around that)

Cons: The book is a little unfocused and suffers for it

The Bottom Line:

A strange accident

A genre twisting story

Tries to do too much

A Shock and Some Flaws

Lee Goldberg is pretty much an auto buy for me.  Typically, I enjoy his stories and the characters he creates.  So, when I spotted Calico, I added it to my TBR pile.  Sadly, it wasn’t as good as I expected.

Beth McDade is a former LAPD cop who has moved to Barstow, California, since it is the only place that will hire her after she lost her job in Los Angeles due to a scandal.  The large area and the lack of resources make her job tougher, and she is still trying to deal with what happened to her in LA.

One night, Beth is called to the scene of a horrific accident.  A couple in a motorhome have run over a transient.  However, the autopsy turns up some weird findings.  And no one seems to know who he is.  Can Beth figure out what is going on?

I was not aware going into the book that this is a genre mashup.  It’s part Police Procedural, part Science Fiction, and part Western.  When I first realized the Science Fiction part, I was initially upset, but I kept reading, and soon I was on board with that twist to the story.

We get the story in two timelines, one in the present day and one in the past.  For the most part, this worked and I found myself pulled into both stories.  I actually enjoyed seeing how the past was coming into play in the present.

This gave us two sets of characters, and, for the most part, that worked as well.  It did take me a little while to warm up to Beth, but I felt for some of the other characters right away.  It’s a hard balance with this many characters, and I appreciate the care that was spent to make sure we care about the story.

Unfortunately, I feel like there was too much story for the book.  There’s a subplot in the present day that never really goes anywhere (I kept expecting it to), and the storyline in the past sometimes gives us some vignettes that wrap up with exposition.  And the last story in the past seemed pointless.  The last couple of chapters feel like exposition that could have been summarized, ironically, to let things play out in other places.

Being a Lee Goldberg book, I was expecting a bit more language and sex than I would typically read.  Honestly, the first chapter was a bit raw, and it made it a little harder to get into the book for me.  As long as you know that going in, you should be okay.

A bit more focus on the story that he wanted to tell would have helped me truly enjoy Calico.  I appreciate the attempts to blend the genres, but the storytelling could have been better.

NOTE: I received an ARC of this book.

Movie Review: Haunted Mansion (2023)

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Good characters and nods to the attraction

Cons: Familiar story and mixed special effects

The Bottom Line:

A new ghost story

Based on classic attraction

It is just okay

“I’m Going to Light a Vanilla Candle and It Will be a Game Changer.”  “Will It, Though?”

I realize I’m the minority, but I actually enjoy Disney’s first stab at a Haunted Mansion movie.  I feel it hits just the right notes of comedy with spooky suspense and is perfect viewing for families for this season.  However, I know lots of people were hoping for a Haunted Mansion remake, and the rumors have been swirling pretty much since the first one came out that we’d see a new one.  Now the new one has come out, and I found it less fun than the original.

This movie takes us to Louisiana where single mother Gabbie (Rosario Dawson) has just moved into a mansion she’s bought for her and her son Travis (Chase W. Dillon).  However, something is wrong in the house.  In an effort to figure it out, she brings in a priest (Owen Wilson), a tour guide specializing in ghost walks (LaKeith Stanfield), a psychic (Tiffany Haddish), and a local historian (Danny DeVito).  Can they help her?

I’ve got to admit, part of my issue with the movie was the set up.  My teaser was what I was expecting to see when I sat down to watch the movie.  Instead, we spend a lot of time with LaKeith Stanfield’s Ben before the story really gets going.  That makes sense later on since this is really his story, but I was trying to figure out exactly how he was related to the mother and son I was expecting to see.

As you’d expect, there are plenty of nods to the popular attractions.  I also love the fact that, while the majority of the action takes place around a mansion that looks like the attraction at Disneyland, they do get a mansion that looks like the one at Walt Disney World incorporated at one point.  Those kind of details are fun.  However, I will say that the original did a better job of working in those details.  I feel like there were more cameos and nods than we got here.

I also appreciated the characters.  It really does take all the characters I mentioned to save the day here.  Some play a bigger part than others, but it was nice not to see one character dominated things.  And the growth that a few characters got was nice as well.  The actors all did a great job bringing those characters to life, too.

Having said that, I wasn’t that drawn into the story.  It felt like it was checking boxes.  Maybe that’s because, while it did offer a bit of a twist on the Haunted Mansion mythology we’ve gotten over the years, it wasn’t anything terribly original.

While the original is a fun movie that could be appropriate for kids (it can get intense a few times), this one is much spookier.  I know that’s one thing that adult fans of the attraction have been rooting for, but this isn’t a movie for kids.  Parents will want to take the PG-13 rating seriously.

And the special effects were a mixed bag.  Some of them, especially when there are only one or two on screen, look good.  But in the big group scenes, like the climax, they look cheap and obvious.  It amazes me in this day when that happens.

I was curious enough that I’m glad I watched the new Haunted Mansion.  But, from now on, I’ll be sticking with the original for my Halloween viewing.

TV Show Review: Ahsoka - Season 1

Stars: 2 out of 5

Pros: Good acting, pacing, and visuals

Cons: Story stops with no resolution

The Bottom Line:

New Star Wars story

Meeting characters went well

But then it just stops

“We Almost Died.”  “Multiple Times.”  “Ah, Yes.  Standard Operating Procedure.”

There are a lot of Star Wars shows I haven’t watched.  As a result, I wasn’t familiar with the characters of Ahsoka until she popped up in an episode of The Book of Boba Fett.  Without any of that background, I jumped into the Disney+ series.  Despite not having the background on the character, I mostly enjoyed it until the final episode.

The series is set during the time period of The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett.  Ahsoka is a Jedi Knight who had apprenticed under Anakin Skywalker before he turned to the dark side.  As this story starts, Ahsoka (Rosario Dawson) is searching for a hidden map.  She wants to find it since it could lead to the place where her friend Ezra has been stranded.  But it’s a race to find it since the map might also hold the key to finding where Grand Admiral Thrawn was banished.  That is, if rumors that he is still alive are to be believed.  Can she find the map?  Will it fall into the wrong hands?

I was actually excited that they were bring Thrawn into the shows since the few Star Wars novels I read revolved around him.  Granted, that was over twenty-five years ago, so I remember nothing about them, but I still found it very fun to have a character from the extended Star Wars universe pop up that I’d at least heard of.

Based on how some of the characters interacted, I’m guessing if I were more familiar with Ahsoka from her previous appearances, I’d probably know them.  Like her former apprentice Sabine Wren (Natasha Liu Bordizzo) or Hera Syndulla (Mary Elizabeth Winstead).  I’m definitely interested in their backstory, but I don’t feel like I missed too much not knowing it going in.

I’ve complained in the past that many Disney+ series have pacing issues.  I sat down for this show prepared for that.  However, that wasn’t the case.  Each episode moved the story forward in some way.  We had action to keep us entertained, too.  I never felt like we were just marking time.

However, I’m still scratching my head over the point of the series.  As of my typing this, they haven’t announced a season two or how these events might play into some of the other Star Wars shows.  Given that, the eight episodes we have just…ended.  While they didn’t actually say it, you could definitely feel the “To be continued…” on the final scene.

And until we know more about what is to come for the threads introduced here, it’s extremely unsatisfying.  In fact, I’m wondering what the point of these eight episodes was.  While the episodes were entertaining, what we had wasn’t a story.  It was a set up for something that ended extremely abruptly.  The writers blew it.

Which is a shame since I enjoyed the acting.  Everyone brought their characters to life perfectly.  In addition to those I’ve already mentioned, I have to give a shout out to David Tennant who voiced Ahsoka’s droid Huyang.

And the show looked spectacular.  The visuals were fantastic, which is something the Star Wars shows seem to have going for them.

I’ll reserve the right to revise my opinion of Ahsoka’s first season if we ever get more of the story.  For now, know that it will leave you hanging, and therefore, unsatisfied story wise.

TV Show Review: Quantum Leap - Season 4

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: Two leads and many fun episodes

Cons: A few episodes don’t work for me

The Bottom Line:

More leaping through time

A few episodes don’t work

But most entertain

“Oh, Boy.”  “You Can Say That Again.”

The cliffhanger at the end of season 3 of Quantum Leap got me.  I couldn’t wait to see how they would resolve things at the beginning of season 4.  Okay, so it still took me a few months to dust off the DVD set and dive in, but when I did, I found another fun season.

If you’ve missed the original incarnation of this series, it features Dr. Sam Beckett (Scott Bakula) who stepped into a time machine and vanished.  Now, he is bouncing around from time to time, into the body of some other person.  Sam is always there to help them or someone around them avoid a life altering catastrophe that is about to happen.  To help him figure out what is going on, he is visited by Al Calavicci (Dean Stockwell) who appears as a hologram that only Sam can see and hear.  Al is from the project headquarters, and he has access to databases that help them figure out what Sam needs to do.  Not that it is ever easy.

Of course, all this is turned on its head in the season opener.  As a result of what happened in the third season finale, Sam and Al have switched roles.  Al is the one who leapt into someone else, and Sam is the hologram from the future.  Not only is it fun to see them switch things up, but it allows us to follow Sam into the future.  I do have to say I found their vision of the future rather funny.  The episode originally aired in the fall of 1991, but the vision of the future looked like something from a low budget 80’s science fiction show with lots of neon and Tetris like blocks.

The only other thing I will say about this episode is that it definitely changed the dynamic of the show for me.  We learn some stuff about Sam that makes me wish he could get home all the more.  And I think it will impact my feelings about the series finale when I get there.  (Yes, I do know how it ends.)

Of course, by the end of the season premier, we are back to normal, with Sam being the one to leap and Al being the guide.

Over the course of this season, Sam finds himself leaping into the body of a sheriff trying to prepare for Hurricane Camille.  He even becomes a chimp in the early days of the space program.  He becomes a member of a chain gang trying to help prove that a fellow member is innocent.  In one leap, Sam crosses paths with someone who claims to be an angle.  And Sam becomes part of a comedic trio with an unfunny future.

Which brings us to the season finale.  I’m not going to get into specifics, but it is another wonderfully creative episode that twists things a little.  They seem to save the most personal leaps for the beginning and ending of the season, and that was the case here.  I loved what they did with it.

And, for the most part, I enjoyed the normal episodes along the way.  The writers use a lot of creativity in finding problems for Sam to deal with and complications along the way to keep him from getting there too easily.

There are some episodes that don’t quite work for me, however.  Usually, these seemed to be clumped together, too.  Unfortunately.  These fall into two camps.  The first is the one where Sam has to prevent something from happening, and none of the other characters listen to him at all.  Basically, we get an entire episode with Sam arguing with the characters, who keep doing what they were going to do until suddenly things change at the end.  We need some other developments along the way.

The second type of episodes are the preachy episodes.  There are only a few of those, and we’ve had them in earlier seasons.  In earlier seasons, I felt like they were handling the lessons in a more entertaining way.  Here, it is all preaching with stereotypical characters.

But either subset of these episodes aren’t enough to make me dislike the season.  Overall, the show continues to entertain me here.  And I love the fact that the episodes end happily.

Of course, this was a show from the late 80’s and early 90’s where very little if anything changed from week to week. 

My enjoyment is helped by the performances by the two leads.  They are always fantastic, and I watch because I enjoy seeing them interact.  The guest stars always step up and deliver great performances as well.  I always get a kick out of watching for names I recognize in the credits.  Among those I spotted this season were the likes of Neal McDonough, Glenn Morshower, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Anna Gunn, Sean O'Bryan, Tamlyn Tomita, Eriq La Salle, Carla Gugino, Dr. Laura Schlessinger (as herself), Frances Bay, Brian George, Amy Yasbeck, Bob Saget, and Terry Farrell.

The season consisted of 22 episodes, and I watched it via a DVD set released quite a few years ago.  The discs are double sided, so we get three of them.  The show is in its native full frame and stereo sound.  In the way of extras, we get a half hour show about TV from the 80’s, which is really an ad for other Universal shows that have been released on DVD.  And it worked because now I want to watch them. We also get a bonus episode from the middle of season 5.  Why that one was picked, I have no idea, mainly because I’m waiting to watch it when I watch season 5 in a few months.

If you are a fan of Quantum Leap, you’ll be happy to leap into season 4.

Movie Review: Rampage (2018)

Stars: 3 out of 5

Pros: Effects, laughs, nods to the video game

Cons: Thin characters and plot

The Bottom Line:

Giant animals

Causing lots of destruction

Forgettable film

“You Do Know There Are Other Ways of Dealing with People, Right?”  “That’s No Fun.”

I probably would have skipped Rampage except for two things.  First, it starred Dwanye Johnson, and I'm finding that I really enjoy his movies.  Second, I really enjoyed the video game the movie is based on (and I use the term loosely).  Okay, so I never played it much, and I was never that good at it, but it was still fun.  Granted, that still wasn't enough to get me to see the movie in the theater, so I checked it out on Blu-Ray.

The movie focuses on Davis Okoye (Dwayne Johnson), an expert on primates, who is currently working with the primates in San Diego.  He has a special bond with George, an albino gorilla, who he saved from poachers.

However, one day, he comes into work to find that something strange his happening to George.  He's escaped from his enclosure and attacked other animals.  And he's growing.  Dr. Kate Caldwell (Naomie Harris) might have the answer.  But even if she is right, is there a cure?  And what about the rumors of a wolf also growing?

Now, I will give the movie this, it had an extremely thin premise to build a full-length movie from.  (Then again, maybe that is a sign that it wouldn't work as a movie.)  While it ignored some things from the game, like the monsters being mutated humans, it kept many things, like the monsters’ names.  It even provided a plausible reason for the monsters to be in Chicago wreaking havoc.

But plausible doesn't translate to compelling for a movie.  Let's face it, this is just an excuse to provide some thrills from a monster movie and over the top action.  It's meant to be a mindless movie, and it pretty much succeeds at being mindless.  The problem is it is a little too mindless for me.  Yes, the action was fun, but I expect something compelling between the action to keep me invested.

The real flaw of the movie is the lack of character development.  They are all paper thin, just there to give us some dialogue so we can understand the monsters going on a rampage.  Having said that, I did love the twist they gave us with Harvey Russell, Jeffrey Dean Morgan's character.  Of course, that twist served the plot best.  And I'm not blaming the actors for any of this.  The monsters are the star; they are doing the best they can.

Since the monsters are the star, it is imperative that the effects be top notch, and they are.  That's not surprising these days, of course.

Everything I've said so far makes it sound like I hated it.  That's not completely true.  There are some fun moments, like the many winks to the video game.  As a fan, I enjoyed those.  Some of the lines will make you laugh, as well.  It's just that this film is instantly forgettable.  It's not good; it's not bad.  It just is.

I don't regret seeing the movie, but I also don't regret skipping it in the theater.  If you can catch it cheaply sometime, you might enjoy it, but there's no need to Rampage out to see it.

Movie Review: Babylon 5 - The Road Home

Stars: 4 out of 5

Pros: A new adventure in the universe of my favorite show

Cons: Translation from live action to animation isn’t perfect (and I fully realize I’m being a fanboy about it)

The Bottom Line:

A franchise returns

Animation transition

Will delight its fans

Sheridan is Once Again Unstuck in Time…and Space

Despite all the mysteries I read, my favorite TV show of all time is Babylon 5.  (Okay, so mysteries are a huge part of the show.)  I have watched the show numerous times since I was introduced to it during season 4 of its original run, and each time, I’m reminded why I love it so much.  So, when I learned that we were going to get an all-new animated movie, Babylon 5: The Road Home, to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the show’s original release, I was excited.

If you’ve missed the show (and given how long it’s been since it aired and the small but loyal fan base even then, it’s not a surprise), Babylon 5 is a space station deep in neutral territory.  Its mission is to help bring peace among the various alien races.  However, when an ancient enemy returns, it might serve as our last best hope for victory.

The show itself was designed as a five-year story with a beginning, middle, and end.  And, while the realities of the TV business caused a few hiccups to the story over the years, it works remarkably well.  And on rewatches, you can appreciate the foreshadowing and set up we get, sometimes years before we get the payoff.

All of this was the vision of creator J. Michael Straczynski, or JMS as he became known to us fans.  The first thing you need to know about this film is that JMS is back as the writer.  If he hadn’t been involved, I know I wouldn’t have been that excited.  Also back are the surviving cast members to voice their characters.  As fans know, we have lost too many of the cast along the way, but those characters involved in the story are brought to life by new voice actors who do a good job of bringing them back to life.  And we get a nice tribute to the actors who have passed (whether their character was in this movie or not) at the end.

The story itself starts at the end of season 5 as Interstellar Alliance President John Sheridan (still voices by Bruce Boxleitner) and his wife, Minbari Ambassador Delenn (voiced here by Rebecca Riedy taking over for the late Mira Furlan) are leaving Babylon 5 to go to the alliance’s new headquarters on the planet of Minbar.  They’ve had a couple of weeks to settle in when Sheridan is asked to speak at the opening of a new power facility.  However, when they start it up, Sheridan is upset to learn that this new plant is powered by tachyon power.  This is the same thing that caused issues when he tried some time travel in the original series, and it comes back to haunt him as he starts jumping through time and even into alternative timelines.  Can he figure out a way to get home?

I worried going into this how I would react to seeing characters I know and love animated instead of live action.  The trailer did nothing to help that.  I will say that I struggled at times.  This is stylized animation.  My mind kept telling me it wasn’t quite right.  This isn’t true for the backgrounds and ships, which are wonderfully animated and are immediately recognizable by any fan of the series.

The new actors stepping into the familiar characters were good.  Some were better than others, which isn’t a surprise.  I can’t fault them for their performances, especially since a couple of the returning cast didn’t sound quite right to me either.  And this is not to knock anyone in the cast.  I’m being a hypercritical fanboy here, and I know it.  They breathe life into these characters and make the script come alive.

And, taking a step back from hypercritical fanboy mode, this is the only way we could have ever gotten this story.  It’s been almost 30 years since we last saw these characters on a regular basis.  Even if everyone in the cast were still alive, there’s no way they would look like they did when the series ended.  Then factor in that so many characters had to be revoiced and it makes sense that the only way we’d get this story would be animation.  It doesn’t take away my issues, but it does help excuse them.  I would definitely rather have this story in animation form than to not get it at all.

The idea of a multiverse seems to be everywhere these days, but I was interested to see what would happen in a universe I know so well.  I wasn’t disappointed.  No, we don’t spend too long at any one stop, but it was enough to get a feel for what could have gone very wrong.  It also gives us a great chance to see characters we know again as Sheridan is always popping up next to friends.  And yes, some stops, especially at the beginning, are in our timeline.

The best part is, all of these stops make us feel something.  Yes, we get some big action and space battles, but we also get the heart the show always had.  And the philosophy.

And the humor.  I laughed multiple times at things that were either a call back to the show or new moments that were just perfect.  The cast is wonderful at bringing the humor with just their voice, leaving it for the animators to work out the rest, which they do admirably.

Obviously, this movie was created first for the fans.  As a fan, I truly do appreciate that.  But, as a fan, I don’t know how accessible it would be for someone who hasn’t watched the show before.  I think the story stands up well enough on its own, but you wouldn’t fully understand the implication of everything going on here.  But that’s what the series is for, and I highly recommend you check it out.

A word to other die-hard fans like me.  Yes, you heard my fanboy objections earlier.  However, overall, I really did enjoy it.  It was fantastic to be back in this universe seeing these characters again.  And if you need any more enticement – Zathras is in it.

The ending set things up for more adventures, and I’d be curious to see what would happen after the ending we saw.  And how that story could be told in any future animated movies.  (JMS has said if this sells well enough, that might be a possibility.)  I’d certainly be back to see where things go, but I’m just trying to imagine how the complex, rich story we already know could be adjusted to a multiple movie format.  Not that I’d expect an exact duplicate of the story.

In the way of extras, we get a featurette on the process that went into making this movie, including interviews with the voice cast and behind the scenes crew, including JMS.  There’s also a commentary with him, Bruce Boxleitner, and supervising producer Rick Morales.  You can tell how much love everyone involved put into this.

If you are a fan of Babylon 5, you owe it to yourself to watch The Road Home.  It was nice to revisit the characters again in a story that feels like it is part of that universe.  If you haven’t seen the show before, or only seen parts, this might just convince you it’s time to go back and watch the fabulous original show.

TV Show Review: Quantum Leap Reboot - Season 1

Stars: 5 out of 5

Pros: Fun update that entertains me each week

Cons: One weak preachy episode

The Bottom Line:

Time leaping again

It honors original

Modern mix of fun

“I Know, Ziggy’s Running Slow.  If I Ever Start a Band, That’s What I Am Going to Name It.”

I was leery when I heard about the Quantum Leap reboot.  We’ve been getting so many of them, and they are more miss than hit.  But I was curious enough to give the show a try, and I’m glad I did.

Really, this is more of a requel than a pure reboot.  Set 30 years after the original Quantum Leap TV series, a new team has started up the project again.  Days before they are planning to officially launch it, Dr. Ben Song (Raymond Lee) steps into the quantum accelerator and vanishes.  The problem is, he wasn’t the team member they were planning to send back in time.  It was his finacee, Dr. Addison Augustine (Caitlin Bassett).  Now, Addison is left to use holographic technology to guide Ben as he leaps from time to time on a mission to correct what went wrong.  The problem is, Ben has forgotten almost everything, including who Addison is and why he leapt early.  He mostly leaps within his own life time, leaping into San Francisco right after the 1989 earthquake or into the body of a bounty hunter.  However, he does leap outside of that upon occasion, like when he leaps into the old west of the 1870’s.

While Ben, with Addison’s help, attempts to survive each leap, the rest of the team, made up of Ian (Mason Alexander Park), Jenn (Nanrisa Lee), and Magic (Ernie Hudson) begin to suspect that there is something more to Ben’ leaps.  Can they figure out what it is in time to help?

I’ll admit, it took a couple of episodes to fully invest in the new characters and for the show to find its rhythm, but once everything clicked, I was hooked.  Yes, there is an ongoing mythology to the show, but it has what for me is the perfect mix.  The majority of each episode involves Ben’s leap and the challenge’s he’s facing.  But about a quarter to a third of each episode involve the rest of the team in the “present” trying to figure out why Ben leapt and trying to keep the fact that the project is running again a secret.  It’s a mix that works well for me.  It means that the twists in the story in the past come quick, and, while there is something to keep you coming back each week, there isn’t so much ongoing storyline that you get lost if you’ve forgotten something from week to week.

And make no mistake, the pace is fast.  I hadn’t realized how much I’d gotten used to the faster pace until I sat down to watch season 3 of the original and found it much slower than I remembered.

It’s obvious the team behind this show are fans of the original.  There are plenty of references to Sam (who is still leaping), and Susan Diol reprises her role as one of Al’s wives in a few episodes.  Meanwhile, Georgina Reilly recurs as Al’s daughter.  Sadly, Dean Stockwell, who played Al, has passed away, and Scott Bakula hasn’t agreed to come back as Sam.  Yet.  I’m still holding out hope.

Another reason I was nervous going into this show is that they touted the cast as having no straight white men in the main cast.  I was afraid we were in for a lecture show.  We weren’t.  In fact, an early episode where they could have gone for the lecture, they kept it to two lines, and those lines were understated.  The show is about entertaining.  Even when Ian’s personal life as a non-binary individual comes into play, it is presented as part of who they are.

Unfortunately, there is one notable exception to that.  “Let Them Play” takes on transgender athletes and the controversies surrounding them as Ben leaps into a coach of a girl’s high school basketball team and must deal with the fact that his trans daughter is on the team and not allowed to play.  And it falls into every single stereotype the left has on this issue.  I was rolling my eyes as the episode went along, including the magical ending.  Really, it had the weakest writing of the entire season.  I’d say skip it completely, except it does have some major advances in the season long storyline, so feel free to skip the parts in the past – just watch the contemporary storyline and you’ll be fine.

But that’s one episode out of eighteen.

I enjoy the cast each week as they work to bring these characters to life.  The wardrobe is great as Ben spends time in different time periods.  There are some special effects that work as well.

I know audiences seem to be split on this show, with plenty of fans of the original hating this one.  Obviously, I’ve been enjoying the new Quantum Leap.  If you are on the fence, I say give season 1 a shot and see what you think for yourself.