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Showing posts from April, 2025

The Snubby Awards: 1996 Oscars

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It's that time again: The Snubby Awards!  For those of you who don't know, the Snubby Awards take a look at all of the Best Picture nominees from a given year and determine if the best film won or if another was snubbed.  If that's the case, they win the coveted Snubby Award! This time we'll be taking a look at the 1996 Oscars, which was a mixed bag of movies.  I loved three of them and really didn't care for the other two, but I recognize I probably wasn't the target market for either of them.  The nominees were: Apollo 13, Babe, Il Postino: The Postman, & Sense and Sensibility  with the winner being  Braveheart.   Did  Braveheart  deserve to win or did another movie get snubbed?  Let's find out! #5. Il Postino: The Postman When I was preparing for this incarnation of the Snubby Awards, I looked ahead at the nominated movies to read a basic synopsis.  Once I read the one for Il Postino , I felt only dread for what was to c...

Community: Season 2, Episode 2 "Accounting for Lawyers" Review

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 "My whole brain is crying!" -Troy Barnes "Accounting for Lawyers" picks up with the Dean (Jim Rash) announcing the "Pop and Locktober Fest" dance competition.  Most of the study group wants to compete, but an annoyed Jeff (Joel McHale) has no interest and leaves.  He ends up running into Alan Connor (Rob Corddry), a lawyer from his old law firm.  Jeff is embarrassed to be seen at Greendale, but Alan doesn't judge as he's at Greendale attending a Narcotics Anonymous meeting.  Jeff and Alan go out for a drink and soon Jeff starts spending more time with Alan than the study group and starts to fall back to his old, morally ambiguous ways. Chang (Ken Jeong) additions for a spot on the study group's dance team and when Jeff tells them he won't be on the team, the others agree to let Chang join.  He demands that if they win the competition, he gets to join the study group. Annie (Alison Brie) realizes she knows Alan from Narcotics Anonymous and ...

Until Dawn (2025) Review

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 "Please...I can't die again." -Melanie One year after the disappearance of her sister, Melanie (Maia Mitchell), Clover (Ella Rubin) and her friends take a road trip to see Melanie's last known location.  They end up discovering a clue to her whereabouts, which takes them to the Glore Valley visitor center, where they are all quickly slain by a masked killer.  They find themselves revived to earlier in the night and have to find a way to survive until dawn before they run out of lives.  What Works: This movie takes very little from the game it's based on, which is disappointing in some ways, but the premise they decide to go with is very cool.  It's a bit like Happy Death Day , but each reset brings in some new element of horror to make each night scarier than the last.  That's a fun premise, which adds a puzzle to a standard survival-horror story and assures us lots of creative and gory kills.  I wish I had thought this one up because I just love this...

Survivor 48, Episode 9 "Welcome to the Party" Gameplay Analysis

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 "Let's party." -Shauhin Davari Man, I loved watching Kyle and David square off in this episode.  It kinda reminded me of "Spy vs. Spy" watching them scheme against one another.  I also loved the editing of the Immunity Challenge.  It felt like watching a movie as Joe's ball clicked closer and closer to falling out, but managing to hold on for the win.  Cinematic.  Anyway, let's get into who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: I think Eva made the right calls on her quest to get an advantage.  Given her position in the game, I like that she went for the Safety Without Power, but didn't go for the Idol.  She did get caught sneaking out of camp by Shauhin, but she inadvertently did damage control by telling him, Joe, and Kyle about it.  All that said, I don't like voting out David for her.  I think she would have been better off sticking with David and Mary.  David is loyal and beatable in the end, which is the best kind of a...

Community: Season 2 Premiere "Anthropology 101" Review

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 "Ha!  Gaaaayyyyy!" -Ben Chang Season 2 of Community picks up on the first day of school, with most of the study group being excited for the new semester.  The exception is Britta (Gillian Jacobs), who is dreading showing her face after the embarrassment of professing her love to Jeff (Joel McHale) at the Transfer Dance.  When she arrives at campus, she hides in the study room from most of the students who are staring at her and whispering.  When the group arrives, Britta apologizes to Jeff and says she just got wrapped up in a competition with Professor Slater (Lauren Stamile). The group later learns that most of the women on campus see Britta as a hero and that she was brave and admirable for professing her love to Jeff.  This worries Jeff, as does the fact that Annie (Alison Brie) is having a hard time hiding that she's enamored with Jeff.  Due to the age difference, Jeff is nervous about anyone finding out he and Annie kissed. Meanwhile, Troy (Dona...

Survivor 48, Episode 8 "A Rift Between All of Us" Gameplay Analysis

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 "Maybe it'll bite off your wart." -Mary Zheng Well, David went from someone I thought had a solid chance of winning to this game to no chance really quickly.  I'm pretty shocked at how quickly he fell apart.  That wasn't great, but what was great was the Journey Challenge.  I got so excited when I realized that it's just the Honeycomb Havoc minigame from Mario Party 2 , just without the bees.  Did anyone else get excited about that or just me?  Anyway, let's get into who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: Getting rid of Chrissy was a questionable move for a lot of people, but not for Eva, Joe, and Shauhin.  Chrissy was rallying hard against them and getting rid of her allows them to hold onto their power.  Plus Eva won Immunity and got a clue to an Advantage. I loved the way Kamilla and Mitch managed to silently work together on the Journey.  They made sure to have Mitch set Kamilla up to make Star lose her vote.  It was aweso...

Community: Season 1 Finale "Pascal's Triangle Revisited" Review

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 "I hope he transfers to hell." -Troy Barnes "Pascal's Triangle Revisited" picks up on the last day of the school year at Greendale.  Troy (Donald Glover) reveals that his dad is forcing him to move out of the house.  He hints that he'd like to move into Abed's (Danny Pudi) dorm room with him, but Abed ignores Troy's hints, which hurts Troy. The end of year Transfer Dance is also approaching and Britta (Gillian Jacobs) is stunned to learn she has been nominated for Queen.  She's not interested, but Professor Duncan (John Oliver) encourages her to compete to help herself get over some issues she has from her past.  As Britta leaves her final therapy sessions with Duncan, Chang (Ken Jeong) arrives to ask Duncan for help cheating his way through all of his classes.  Duncan refuses and simply laughs at Chang's misfortune. Professor Slater (Lauren Stamile) approaches Jeff (Joel McHale) and says she made a mistake breaking up with him and asks him ...

Survivor 48, Episode 7 "Survivor Smack Talk" Gameplay Analysis

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 "I look good in everything, Jeff." -Kyle Fraser This was one of the funnier Immunity Challenges in recent memory.  All of the smack talk was great, but then we got Shauhin getting edited into the music of the montage sequence and Jeff giving an impromptu plug to apply to the show.  It was all hilarious.  Plus Sai finally got voted out, which was a huge relief.  I was nervous she might end up being a Final 3 goat that we'd have to put up with all season.  In short, I really enjoyed this episode, so let's get into who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: Mitch was in a really rough spot after the Charity vote, but he did a good job of regrouping.  I liked how he worked on his social connections with Sai, Shauhin, and Joe.  It's possible that the connection he made with Joe helped save him.  He managed to survive the vote and used his Vote Blocker in a smart way.  He may have taken the target off of his back a little bit going forw...

Community: Season 1, Episode 24 "English as a Second Language" Review

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 "Did the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants poison each other's food so they were too sick to leave!?  No!  I've never seen it, but I'm pretty sure they mailed each other pants! -Jeff Winger "English as a Second Language" picks up with Greendale entering Finals Week.  As the group prepares to figure out their study schedule, Annie (Alison Brie) suggests the group all take Spanish 3 the following semester, but Jeff (Joel McHale) refuses as Spanish 2 fufills his language credit and he doesn't want to add any unnecessary classes.  The rest of the group wants to stay together as a study group until they learn Spanish 3 is five days a week at 6 in the morning.  Annie suggests the group could all take Anthropology instead, but Jeff won't commit and believes they will all stay friends if they have a class together or not. SeƱor Chang (Ken Jeong) kicks everyone but Jeff out of class and reveals to him that he also faked having a teaching degree and asks Jeff ...

Survivor 48, Episode 6 "Doing the Damn Thing" Gameplay Analysis

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 "You drink a lot of milk?" -David Kinne I'm just going to call this the merge.  Everyone was living on the same beach, one person won Immunity, everyone went to Tribal Council, and one person was voted out.  This was a merge.  We don't need to do this silly thing with earning the merge buff.  This is a merge with extra steps.  Apart from that nonsense, this was a fun episode of Survivor as we raced to the bottom with voting out either Charity or Sai.  I enjoyed watching the other castaways just dunk on these two as they decided who to vote out.  Let's get into who played well and who sucked. Who Played Well: We got a new alliance this week, which doesn't have a name yet, so I'll call it the Honesty Alliance for now.  It's a good fit for Joe, Eva, Shauhin, David, and Kyle.  They could do really well in this game, but I think this helps Kyle the most.  He seems to be the most strategic of the bunch and he and Kamilla are playing it s...