Stacy's Blog Has Got It Going On

 "Don't mind us.  Just robbing the place." -Mr. Wolf When one of their heists goes horribly wrong, Mr. Wolf (Sam Rockwell) and his gang of thieves have one shot to avoid prison.  Professor Marmalade (Richard Ayoade) accepts a challenge to try and get these bad guys back on the straight and narrow path.  Can they make any real progress, or is all of their good behavior a con to get out of prison? What Works: I love the style of animation of The Bad Guys .  I did some reading about this film and saw that the filmmakers were very inspired by Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse and wanted to change up their animation style for this movie.  I think it works incredibly well.  It's not as insane as Spider-Verse , but it's certainly stylish, especially in the 3rd act. I love the opening sequence of the film.  It starts off with some major Pulp Fiction vibes.  I wasn't really expecting that from a kids movie.  It's a fun sequence that sets the tone and introduces to

 "I hope they freeze." -Rocksroy Bailey Well that took an unexpected turn for the heavy.  That 2nd Tribal Council was utterly fascinating to watch.  There was a lot more here to talk about than just good and bad gameplay, which I am not equipped nor qualified to talk about, so let's take a look at who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: Let's start with Drea.  Major props to her for trusting her gut that something was wrong and using her Idol to defend herself.  She and Maryanne were fantastic at Tribal Council and I think playing their Idols will really take the targets off their backs for awhile. I also want to give credit to Lindsay for surviving that vote.  She clearly has a good enough social game with at least Jonathan and Maryanne that while there was technically a 50% chance of her going, she was never in any danger except from a potential Shot in the Dark. Finally, Romeo was fantastic returning from Tribal Council.  He played it cool and tried to bla

 " Paddington 2 is incredible." -Nicolas Cage Nicolas Cage is passed over for a role he really wanted.  In lots of debt, Cage agrees to make an appearance at the birthday party of a billionaire, Javi Gutierrez (Pedro Pascal), and they quickly become close friends.  Cage is approached by CIA agents who tell him that Javi is actually an arms dealer and behind a recent kidnapping.  They convince Cage to help find the kidnapped girl and act his way through this incredibly dangerous situation. What Works: I love Nicolas Cage and always enjoy his performances no matter how good or bad the rest of the film around him is.  I'm definitely a person who enjoys the memes and the legend surrounding Cage.  When I first heard about this movie, I was beyond excited and when I saw the trailer, I was even more excited.  This movie lives up to that hype.  It is a celebration of Nicolas Cage, all of of Nicolas Cage, and if you're into that, you will love this movie. As always, Nicolas Ca

 "That ain't your family, Drea." -Drea Wheeler Another episode of Survivor 42 marred by a terrible game mechanic.  I don't know anyone who is excited about the return of the Knowledge is Power Advantage.  Once again, Jeff Probst learns nothing.  Apart from that, this was a fairly average episode of Survivor though I did love the red paint part of the Beware Advantage.  Anyway, let's get into who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well:  Let's start with Tori, who won Immunity, potentially saving herself, figured out that Drea found something by noticing the red paint, and for joining the majority in knocking Chanelle out of the game.  If there's nothing else to be done, might as well be on the right side of the vote.  I really don't like Tori, but I have to give credit where credit is due.  She had a very strong epsisode. The bottom feeders of the merge all believe that Omar is also on the bottom.  I really like how he has gone undercover to collec

 "I'm predictable." -Rocksroy Bailey It's good to see that Jeff Probst learned absolutely nothing from the Hourglass Advantage last season and once again screwed up a perfectly good episode of Survivor.  This episode pissed me off and I couldn't even enjoy the good parts.  I just feel so bad for everyone who got screwed by the twist.  Whatever.  Hopefully we never see the Hourglass again.  Let's take a look at who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: When it comes to merge episodes, they are usually pretty chaotic, so I am of the mindset that the players just need to get through it.  It doesn't really matter who goes home, as long as it isn't you.  Once things settle down, then you can be more picky about who goes home.  So props to everyone who made it through, even if this isn't technically a merge episode.  It's actually even more chaotic than a merge episode.  Even Hai and Mike, who turned on a close ally, I won't give much grie

 "Promise not to rob the place." -Officer Zach When his wife needs experimental surgery that insurance will not cover, military veteran Will Sharp (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II) goes to his criminal brother, Danny (Jake Gyllenhaal), for a loan, but all of Danny's money is invested in a heist.  Will joins Danny's bank robbing crew, but when the job goes wrong, they steal an ambulance with a paramedic and an injured cop inside and try to make their escape. What Works: I am not a Michael Bay fan, I'll admit to that off the top.  I only like two of his movies, The Rock and The Island .  However, when I saw the premise for this film, I was intrigued.  One long chase movie that mostly takes place inside an ambulance.  I love chase movies, so I was willing to give this one a go.  Credit where credit is due, Bay pulls off the chase movie very well and the film was pretty much exactly what I hoped it would be. This movie has incredible pacing.  There is barely a moment to catch y

 "Step one: light taunting.  Step two: I have no idea." -Sonic the Hedgehog With Tom (James Marsden) and Maddie (Tika Sumpter) out of town at a wedding, Sonic the Hedgehog (Ben Schwartz) has the house all to himself.  Unfortunately, Dr. Robotnik (Jim Carrey) returns for vengeance with help from Knuckles the Echidna (Idris Elba).  With the fate of the world at stake, it's up to Sonic and his new friend, Tails (Colleen O'Shaughnessey), to stop the dangerous duo.   What Works: The best part of the movie is Idris Elba as Knuckles.  I've never been a big fan of the character in the video games and Elba gives us the best version of him.  He reminds me a lot of Drax from  Guardians of the Galaxy .  He's a warrior who has only ever known the life of a warrior.  So every line of dialogue from Knuckles ends up being hilarious.  He steals the show whenever he is on screen. Jim Carrey is the only person that could play Dr. Robotnik.  He was great in the first movie and ge

 "As long as the dead guy says there's a reason, well, then I guess everything's gonna be just peachy." -Frank Lapidus The flashbacks for "Dead is Dead" focus on the relationship between Ben (Michael Emerson) and Charles Widmore (Alan Dale).  They first meet just after young Ben (Sterling Beaumon) is brought to the Temple to be healed.  Years later, Widmore orders Ben to kill Danielle Rousseau (Melissa Farman), but when he discovers she has a baby, he can't go through with it and takes the baby.  Ben confronts Widmore about this, refuses to kill the baby, and tells Widmore to do it himself, but he also refuses. Widmore is eventually banished from the Island when it's revealed he had a daughter with a woman from the outside world.  Ben takes charge of the Others.  Just before boarding Ajira 316, Ben calls Widmore and tells him he is about to kill Penny (Sonya Walter).  He shoots Desmond (Henry Ian Cusick), but before he can shoot Penny, he sees her so

 "I'm arrogant and I know that I'm the best." -Maryanne Oketch Well, I had a feeling it was coming, but it's never fun to see your winner pick go out, especially in the premerge.  Apart from that, this was a pretty solid episode.  I love that each tribe has lost two people and it's even going into the merge/not-really-the-merge.  It's very exciting, but before we can get to that, we have to look at this episode and figure out who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: Starting on the Ika tribe, I was shocked by how good of an episode Rocksroy had.  He handled coming back from Tribal Council extremely well and is handling being left out of the vote like a wake-up call.  He didn't give away anything to Lydia on their trek and Protected His Vote.  That was the right move with the information he had. I also like that Tori played nice after Tribal and pretended that Rocksroy voting for her was no big deal even though she plans on taking him out. Romeo

 "It's a curse." -Dr. Michael Morbius Dr. Michael Morbius (Jared Leto) has suffered from a blood illness his entire life, which threatens to finally kill him.  Morbius develops a cure, which accidentally turns him into a vampire as well.  Though he has taken an oath to do no harm, Morbius soon discovers that without human blood to drink, he will not survive. What Works: Easily the best part of the movie is Matt Smith's performance.  He plays the film's villain and while the character isn't interesting, Smith is giving it his all.  He seems to be the only actor to recognize they were in a bad movie, so Smith dials his performance up to 11 with lots of ham and cheese.  Every moment that didn't have Smith on screen was a waste of film. Finally, there were a few moments here and there that were so bad they were hilarious.  I laughed a lot watching Morbius and had a good time watching it.  The only problem is it isn't a comedy.  But I do award points for un