Abe Pralle

tv

Motherland: Fort Salem (B+,B+,D)

The first two seasons of Motherland: Fort Salem are taut, gritty, and compelling. The show has high stakes, a serious tone, and welcome emotional depth as we follow the lives of the three main-character cadets and watch as their initial hang-ups and interpersonal conflicts give way to the esprit de

Alice in Borderland: C+

(No major spoilers) Season 1: B+ A group of friends are in modern-day Tokyo when almost the entire population suddenly vanishes. Either the people have disappeared or the friends have been transported to some kind of alternate reality. The friends share the empty city with a small number of other

Warriors of Future: C+

This oddly-named Netflix movie looks gorgeous but it doesn't have much bite. The well-worn premise is that in the future, environmental pollution has created the perfect breeding ground for an alien kudzu monster to start growing out of control. A team of power-suited soldiers must deliver a bomb

Glass Onion: C+

[No spoilers] In 2017 director Rian Johnson subverted our expectations by making a terrible Star Wars movie (The Last Jedi). Then in 2019 he subverted them again by making the superb whodunnit Knives Out. Now he subverts our expectations several more times over the course of this follow-up mystery, Glass

Inside Man (Netflix 2022): DNF

Our story begins with a young punk boarding a moderately crowded train. He puts his crotch near a young woman's face and makes lewd comments. Everyone studiously ignores the situation except for another young woman who films the guy's actions on her phone. The punk notices

1899: DNF

"DNF" means "Did Not Finish". A term which I will be using liberally from now on. I start watching many more shows than I finish. I'll typically give a show a 10-minute test (or longer): if it's boring, trite, overly woke, or

The Flight Attendant (Season 2): D

Well that deescalated quickly! I had just finished watching Season 1 and loved it: The Flight Attendant (Season 1): ACassie (Kaley Cuoco, Big Bang Theory) spends a wild night in Thailand with a guy she just met, gets blackout drunk, and then wakes up in the morning beside his body

tv

The Flight Attendant (Season 1): A

Cassie (Kaley Cuoco, Big Bang Theory) spends a wild night in Thailand with a guy she just met, gets blackout drunk, and then wakes up in the morning beside his body - he's been murdered. Fearing wrongful incarceration in a foreign country, she makes the terrible choice of

movies

The Batman: B-

A solid reboot of the Batman franchise, The Batman breaks new ground in several ways. It eschews the "Marvel-style" glossy, fun thrill ride in favor of a gritty noir style - it's firmly (and unrelentingly) dark, serious, and bleak. And Goth AF. It thankfully skips committing

movies

Moonfall: B

Roland Emmerich movies are almost always ridiculous extravaganzas. Most of them are ludicrous enough and/or dumb enough to break my suspension of disbelief right away, so I'm not a fan in general. 2012 is an outlier for me: it's definitely ridiculous but it's

tv

My Name: A

This blandly-named Korean show is a hidden gem on Netflix. A young woman fixated on revenge first joins the mafia underground and then the police force as a mole and double agent. My Name is a fresh, gritty, and compelling mix of action and drama. The woman, Jiwoo, must walk

Nobody: C-

This movie called Nobody stars Bob Odekirk (Better Call Saul) and was more or less recommended by The Critical Drinker [https://youtu.be/BireP8dKHVU]. I love Odekirk and I respect the Drinker but the Drinker maybe had one too many shots this time. Nobody is a shoot-em-up gunfight movie that

Scream (2022): B+

The original Scream movie (1996) was a breath of fresh air in a market saturated with formulaic slashers. It was clever and well-written. It reinvigorated the genre by playing with established tropes and providing unexpected twists while still delivering a satisfying story. For over 20 years it was the highest-grossing

All of Us Are Dead: B+

Guest Starring Kingdom: A There's nothing better than a good zombie show - and there's nothing worse than most zombie shows. South Korea is way ahead of the curve with two excellent zombie shows: first Kingdom and now All of Us Are Dead, both on Netflix

Hush (2016): D

A swing and a miss on this latest installment of my Mike Flanagan watchathon. Hush pits a deaf-mute woman against a psycho killer who has her trapped in her rural house. Besides being an 80-minute advertisement for gun ownership, especially for single young disabled women living on their own in

movies

Gerald's Game: B+

I've enjoyed many shows and movies by Mike Flanagan over the past few years. I didn't know him by name after watching The Haunting of Hill House or Doctor Sleep although I loved both of those shows, but after watching Midnight Mass Mike Flanagan was solidified

movies

Colony: B+

This new Netflix post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie runs a tight ship. Things get going immediately with a handful of space colonists landing on Earth hundreds of years after they left it. The first act is pure action: fast, furious, and compelling. The second act transitions into interesting drama as we learn

Matrix Resurrections: C (No Spoilers)

Two words: Jessica Henwick. When I saw the first trailer for Matrix 4 I was like: eh, blue-haired chick. Cool cool, whatevs. Then she started to look familiar, and then I realized: that's Jessica Henwick! Not ringing a bell? Here's another photo of her from the

Looking Up Adverse Reactions by Batch Number

100% of C19 vxx deaths have been caused by only 5% of the batches. Here's how to look up adverse events using a specific batch or lot number.

plandemic

We Are the 33%

What the CIA found is that if a powerful medical official orders people to do something wrong, ... 67% of the people will be hypnotized by fear into obeying a position of authority, a figure of authority. But 33% of the people will not obey. And you are the 33%.

metaphysical

No Fate but What We Make

There is no situation so dire that we cannot recover from it and thrive.

Top 12 Reasons to Skip the Jab

As the Biden Administration gears up to vaccinate 28,000,000 children between the ages of 5 and 11, I feel it's a good time to review the reasons why you should absolutely not vaccinate yourself or anyone.

movies

Near Dark (1987)

I joined the trial version of "AMC+", a streaming service, just so I could watch Near Dark, a 1987 dark "neo-western" vampire movie that I've been wanting to watch but never had. Notable elements: * It was released a year after Aliens and stars three

games

The Long Dark (Game)

After finally getting my Windows game box set up again, I played The Long Dark for a while last night. Semi-realistic wilderness survival. I'd last played back in 2015 or something when it was just a sandbox (or snowbox) and I couldn't figure out what to

Alone (Sep 2020): B-

I have to qualify "September 2020" because there's a different Alone that came out in January 2020, WTH. Alone is the simple and straightforward story of a woman who is stalked by a predatory man and must ultimately fight to survive. That's all I&