Stacy's Blog Has Got It Going On

 "He'll come for me." -Lucas Weaver Julia Meadows (Keri Russell), a teacher in small-town Oregon, becomes concerned that one of her students, Lucas (Jeremy T. Thomas), is being abused.  As she and others look into the situation, it becomes apparent that Lucas is hiding a much darker secret that anyone could have expected. What Works: This is a dark movie.  Unapologetically dark.  From the trailer, I figured that would be the case, but Antlers doesn't pull any punches.  Abuse is a major theme of the movie and no one is safe from being killed or even eaten in some cases.  I really respect movies that shy away from the darkness and Antlers is certainly one of those. To continue with how horrific this movie is, there is some really awesome gore here.  Like I mentioned above, people get eaten in this movie and there is enough left over to be found by our characters...and it's always nasty.  Anyone who is a big gore-hound, like myself, will definitely e...

 "I think he got the point." -James Bond A NATO jet bomber is hijacked by SPECTRE and they get their hands on two atomic bombs.  SPECTRE demands 100 million dollars or they will destroy a major city in Britain or the United States.  On a hunch, James Bond (Sean Connery) travels to the Bahamas to search for the bombs and finds himself locked in a battle with SPECTRE's second in command, Emilio Largo (Adolfo Celi). What Works: The pre-credits action sequence is really fun.  We get Bond facing off against SPECTRE member, Colonel Bouvar (Bob Simmons), but Bouvar is disguised as a woman.  It's a solid and brutal fight, made all the better because Bouvar is wearing a dress and high heels the entire time.  Plus we get Bond's iconic jetpack and the return of the Aston Martin DB5. My favorite part of the movie is the character of Fiona Volpe, played expertly by Luciana Paluzzi.  Volpe is a classic femme fatale and the movie sets her up to be a character that Bo...

 "Shocking.  Positively shocking." -James Bond James Bond (Sean Connery) is assigned to investigate wealthy industrialist Auric Goldfinger (Gert Fröbe), who is suspected of being a gold smuggler.  As Bond gets closer to Goldfinger, he soon finds himself in over his head and that Goldfinger is up to something much more sinister than smuggling gold. What Works: This is the Bond movie that really established the franchise.  It gives us a ton of staples of the series to come and it's easily the most important film in the franchise.  Just for starters, we get the formation of the relationship between Bond and Q (Desmond Llewelyn).  While Q was in both of the previous film, he doesn't really interact much with Bond.  The two have a wonderfully antagonistic relationship throughout the series and that begins here. We also get the first Bond car; the Aston Martin DB5, fully equipped with gadgets galore, and the coolest car ever made.  We get two awesome ca...

 "I consider myself to be a mermaid." -Sydney Segal After the amazing episode last week, Survivor is back up to its old tricks in episode 5.  I hate the Knowledge is Power Advantage with a burning passion.  I liked most of the rest of the episode just fine, but this overpowered and stupid Advantage left a terrible taste in my mouth that brought the episode down.   Survivor really needs to cool it with these advantages.  Was anyone asking for this?  If they were, they shouldn't have been.  Someone get Mike White to give Jeff a call and put a stop to this madness.  Either way, we still have to figure out who played well and who sucked, so let's take a closer look! Who Played Well: Let's start on the Luvu tribe, where I only have one person, and that is Naseer.  He found the Beware Advantage and ended up with an fully powered Idol by the Immunity Challenge.  He had no idea that he would lose his vote by taking it, so I don't hold that again...

 "Baaa!" Spoiler alert for Lamb !  Spoilers below this paragraph!  Before you read any farther, I'll go ahead and say I loved this movie, but I know it won't be for everyone.  See if for yourself.  You may love it, you may hate it, but you certainly won't forget it,  Again, SPOILERS BELOW!  You've been warned. Farmers María (Noomi Rapace) and Ingvar (Hilmir Snær Guðnason) raise sheep in rural Iceland.  One day, when helping one of their sheep give birth, they are shocked to discover that the baby is mostly human, with one arm and its head being that of a lamb.  María and Ingvar quickly become attached to the lamb, name it Ada, and raise it as their child.  Unfortunately, not everyone is happy about this new family. What Works: First off, this concept is absolutely bonkers and I love it.  I'm always interested in movies that tackle a truly unique story that defies all mainstream films.  I'm not always a fan of the end product, b...

 "Evil dies tonight!" -Tommy Doyle Picking up just after the previous movie left off, Michael Myers (James Jude Courtney) survives the fiery trap Laurie Strode (Jamie Lee Curtis) left him in and he continues his onslaught across Haddonfield.  Another survivor of the original massacre, Tommy Doyle (Anthony Michael Hall), forms a hunting party to track down and kill Michael once and for all.   There will be spoilers below so proceed with caution.  In short Halloween Kills is a fun sequel, but has extremely stupid characters and precious little logic.  Lower your expectations from the previous movie and you'll have a good time. What Works: Halloween Kills does something that none of the other movies have managed to do.  We've had angry mobs getting together to hunt down Michael before, but they've always been a minor part of the story if they are there at all.  That isn't the case this time.  This really is Micael Myers vs. Haddonfield.  Th...

 "I am like the threat of threats." -Sydney Segal Hot damn, what an episode.  This was hands down the best episode of the season so far and an elite episode of Survivor overall.  This was so fun and entertaining and almost none of it was spent talking about advantages.  It was about the characters, wackadoo strategy, and one hell of a Tribal Council.  I loved this episode so much and I can't wait to figure out who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: Let's start over on the Luvu tribe.  Naseer was an absolute tank in the challenge.  Not only did he manage to pretty much single-handedly win the challenge, but he had to contend with Danny and Deshawn actively trying to throw it.  Him winning was one of the greatest things I've seen on Survivor in a while. While Sydney had a minor meltdown when she wasn't able to make fire, which caused Erika to want to target her, I think it speaks to her social game that Deshawn and Danny were so gung-ho to...

 "Can I borrow a match?" MI6 receives a message from Tatiana Romanova (Daniela Bianchi), a clerk at the Soviet consulate in Istanbul, saying she has fallen in love with James Bond (Sean Connery).  She is willing to defect and hand over a Soviet Lektor coding machine if Bond comes to Istanbul to escort her to England.  It's obviously a trap, but Bond accepts the mission anyway.  As Bond tries to get the machine back to England, he has to contend with Soviet spies as well as SPECTRE while trying to figure out who Tatiana is truly loyal to. What Works: Out of all the Bond movies, this one is more of an espionage film than any other.  This is a game of spies and it makes the movie really memorable.  It's a subtler movie, especially in the first half, and deals with people following one another around and code phrases.  This is the stuff that makes From Russia with Love so fun, and it's one thing I'm sad we've lost in the later Bond films. Sean Connery cont...

 "That's a Smith & Wesson, and you've had your six." -James Bond When a British agent goes missing in Jamaica, agent 007, James Bond (Sean Connery), is sent to investigate.  With danger around every corner, Bond quickly finds himself locked in a deadly battle with the nefarious Dr. No (Joseph Wiseman). What Works: This is the first Bond movie and you would think that Dr. No might struggle to find itself, and while it is a little unpolished, it's remarkable how many Bond tropes appear in this movie.  It gets so many things right out the gate that it's pretty remarkable. Sean Connery will always be my favorite Bond.  I love the characterization he shows us from the get-go.  Bond is a charming womanizer and a gentleman spy, as we all know, but he is a cold bastard as well.  It's not as prevalent as it is in the Dalton and Craig films, but it's here.  Connery seduces an enemy combatant and has her arrested immediately afterwards and shoots an unarmed m...

 "We have all the time in the world." -James Bond Ok, stop what you are doing and go see No Time to Die .  This is going to be a spoiler heavy review once you get past this paragraph.  This is a really good movie, even if it doesn't hit the heights of Casino Royale and Skyfall , it's a blast.  If you have any interest at all, go and see it.  Spoilers below!  You've been warned. James Bond (Daniel Craig) has gotten out of the spy business and looks forward to a long and loving life with Madeleine Swann (Léa Seydoux), but it doesn't take long for SPECTRE to rear it's ugly tentacles and a mysterious figure from Madeleine's past makes things more complicated.  Unable to tell who to trust, James is back in the game one last time. What Works: As per usual in this series, the action is top notch.  We get a wide variety of action sequences and all of them are a lot of fun, especially the shootout in Cuba.  Craig and the supporting cast all get plenty...

"I like what you said about broccoli." -Xander Hastings Okay, I've got to say it...there are too many advantages in  Survivor.   I've kept an open mind up until now and I still enjoyed the episode, but I would enjoy it more if there was more time spent getting to know these people and see them interact rather than watching reactions to all of the advantages.  It's too much!  Either way, we still have to figure out who played well and who sucked, so let's take a closer look. Who Played Well: We'll start over on the unstoppable Luvu tribe, where I only have one person to talk about and that is Deshawn.  The man is a beast in these challenges and he continues to be physically impressive. Moving over to Yase, again, I only have one person to talk about.  I loved how Xander was able to drop in his line about butterflies just being dead relatives saying hi, by basically making fun of himself for saying it last time.  I also liked how he was able to connect w...

 "Let there be Carnage!" -Carnage Eddie Brock (Tom Hardy) has the opportunity to interview infamous serial killer Cletus Kasady (Woody Harrelson).  After Cletus bites Eddie, a small bit of Venom (Tom Hardy) attaches itself to Cletus and becomes Carnage (Woody Harrelson).  When Carnage breaks loose and starts killing anyone who gets in their way, it's up to a bickering Eddie and Brock to come together and end the slaughter. There will be some spoilers below.  There's too much to talk about without giving stuff away.  This ended up being a fun movie.  Not a great movie, but a fun one, and it's far superior to the first.  SPOILERS BELOW!!! What Works: Probably the best part of the first movie was the relationship between Eddie and Venom and that continues to be the case here.  The two are basically a sitcom at this point and the crux of the movie is about the two of them breaking up and getting back together.  It's a very strange love story, but...

 "Are they from the future too?" -Ellie "Jughead" kicks off with a flashback to the day when Penny (Sonya Walger) gave birth to her and Desmond's (Henry Ian Cusick) son, Charlie (Marvin DeFreitas).  It then cuts forward to the Hume family arriving in England.  Desmond heads to Oxford, but discovers there is no record of Daniel Faraday (Jeremy Davis) or his mother ever having worked there.  Desmond discovers Oxford covered everything involving Faraday up because one of his experiments went wrong and mentally incapacitated a woman named Theresa Spencer (Sarah Farooqui). It turns out Charles Widmore (Alan Dale) was funding all of Faraday's research.  Desmond gets Faraday's mother address in Los Angeles from Widmore, but decides to quit his quest to focus on his family.  Penny refuses to allow this and they set sail for Los Angeles. On the Island, the remaining background survivors of Oceanic 815 are killed by land mines and Daniel, Charlotte (Rebecca Mader)...