GoodPointJoe's 2024 In Review - Games

Games are a little tougher to judge, because frankly I play a lot of games that I don't finish, but often I don't finish them like, at all. And not finishing a game is sometimes part of how you assess it, right? If the game didn't draw me in enough to get me to play it through, that says something about the game. Or it could, at least.

Anyways, I did put together a list of games that I think is pretty representative of the new gaming experiences I had this year. Obviously I also played a ton of tried and true games as well, Rocket League, Recettear, Raft... probably some games that don't start with the letter R as well. And I'm withholding judgment on a few games that I dabbled in, but don't have a full opinion on yet. So if you saw me playing Escape Academy for 12 minutes with Chip that one night, sit tight, we're not settled on that game yet.

This year's games list is right below, with a #1 I would've never guessed!

1. Resident Evil - I've given it a full review previously, but suffice it to say, the Resident Evil experience was a delightful one. Hopefully this year I actually follow through on my claims to want to play more of them.
2. Hades - A great recommendation by my brother, Hades was competitive for the top slot. I still haven't come close to finishing the game, but one of the great things about Hades is that you can play as much or as little as you want at a time. It's always there for you to dip in for 5 minutes or luxuriate for 5 hours.
3. Dead Rising Deluxe Remaster - If it were the first time I went through the game, it'd probably be #1 on the list. But it's mostly just a freshened up version of the original, with updated graphics and some (admittedly crucial) quality-of-life upgrades. Another great time, and I'm glad to say that the top three games were all streaming experiences.
4. Helldivers 2 - I would've liked for Helldivers 2 to be even higher on the list, but at this stage in my gaming life (and regular life), I have a bit of trouble trying to rally a full squad to even purchase the game, let alone play it together. It's still an amazingly good time, it just didn't crest into that upper echelon.
5. Half-Life: Opposing Force - My favorite of the three Half-Life games I played this year. There were a lot of cool stretches in the game, like an underground monster-riddled labyrinth, a point-to-point tactical advancement through a storage facility, or the final boss battle, where I totally realized right away that those lasers were important, and not just decorative.
6. The Break-In - This is almost an incomplete rating, because I'm sort of hoping (against my better judgment) that the game will continue to get updates. Right now it's fun and quirky, kind of a mix between Payday and Phasmophobia, except less serious than either of those games. But it seems like it's got a lot of as-yet-undeveloped design space, and I'm hoping it's not another of those early access games that never actually gets fully completed.
7. Half-Life: Blue Shift - It's a quick final foray into the Half-Life realm, in an adventure that feels human and self-contained. I liked it a lot.
8. Papers Please - I only had one real sit-down session with this game, but after about two hours I do think I have a sense of what the game has to offer. It's a fun, interesting experience, but I'm not sure that it's something I'd be willing to put in the time it would take for my brain to pick up on all the necessary details to execute the game well enough to 'win.'
9. Football Manager 2024 - I was delighted to get the game for free, as Chip and I have been fiending for another "GM in the same sporting world" opportunity. We used to do the same in playing older versions of FIFA and NCAA College Football and Madden, and the hope was to rekindle some of that magic. It's fun, but it's incredibly complex. And for a guy who isn't exactly deeply-versed in soccer parlance (since, you know, I call it soccer), the game is pretty heavy. Still, I've enjoyed it, and will likely keep playing.
10. Half-Life - The premise of Half-Life is really cool, and the way it tells a story through active gameplay is really innovative. There are only a handful of moments where you lose control of your character. But, it still suffers from some old-school control difficulties, an issue exacerbated by some obnoxious jumping puzzles, especially in the alien world segments of the game. Plus the final boss was just a pill. It was good, and I'm glad I played it, but the expansions were better.
11. Secret of Mana (2018) - This game has been an interesting playthrough so far (I haven't quite beaten it yet). There are quirks about it that I had forgotten, like some of the slow travel nuisances in the mid-game, and the relative uselessness of magic unless you grind like crazy. But the story is still really fun, the music is great, and it's fun just how many bosses there are to fight. Now that I think about it, not a bad idea for some D&D inspiration.
12. Zen Chess: Mate In One - This is one of those games that just is what it says it is. After watching Queen's Gambit, I dove into my Steam library to see what sort of chess-related games I had, and this is a simple puzzle game where (predictably) you try to find a mate in one move. It's uncomplicated, but a good time.
13. N++ - The newest iteration of the classic "N" flash game, it's basically just another round of puzzles for your stick figure ninja to traverse. It's perfectly fine, but there's not a lot of space left to explore with this premise.
14. Train Valley 2 - A lighter version of the original, but still not the relaxing train-management experience I was hoping for. Still, as far as puzzle games go, it was alright.
15. Train Valley - The simpler and less forgiving original, but not a bad little puzzle game.
16. Barro - An utterly simplistic racing game. It's fine that it exists, but it seems more like a proof of concept than an actual completed product.

And that's our list! Thanks to everybody who hung out during streams, who helped direct my gaming experiences, and who partnered up for some quality multiplayer. I look forward to another year of collaborative gaming goodness. See you soon!

GoodPointJoe's 2024 In Review - Shows

Although my focus was primarily on movies, 2024 was a really solid year for shows as well. There were indubitably some real duds as well, but by the end of the year, Marvel and Star Wars seemed to be on better tracks.

Please note: I'm only considering shows whose seasons I finished in 2024. So while I've enjoyed Skeleton Crew so far, it won't get a culminating rating until I watch the finale, which means it'll be one of the first shows of 2025.

Now, without further pomp or circumstance, our 2024 shows, ranked!

1. Arcane (seasons 1 and 2) - Arcane was an absolute monster. I don't normally go for animated shows, and it's been like a decade since I played League of Legends with any kind of regularity, but this show managed to overcome those hurdles and completely rock my world. The first season is stronger, with some of the most devastating and engrossing emotional beats I've seen in any show. The seconds season seems a little rushed, but the quality is still top-notch. I'm looking forward to more shows by this team.
2. Twisted Metal - An amazing balance of action, humor, moderate gore, and the occasional mind-bender. I'll say this though: I would've liked to hear Samoa Joe's portrayal of Sweettooth. Will Arnett is a great actor with a great voice, but don't sleep on Samoa Joe (the physical actor in the show).
3. The Queen's Gambit - Incredibly entertaining from start to finish. There's a certain formula to making a 'rags to riches' story, and this show nails it.
4. Gen V - While The Boys gets less and less compelling, they managed to create an exceptional spin-off with more interesting characters. The helicopter assault scene is absolute prestige television. I can't spoil it, but you'll know it when you see it.
5. The Penguin - There's a group of shows here that are all around the same quality in my mind, and breaking the tie was tough. The Penguin gets the nod for having the most rewarding finale, one that was both shocking and completely within the scope of the show. At the end, I was shaken, and eager for more of this world.
6. Harley Quinn (Seasons 1-4) - If I were only considering the first season, Harley Quinn would be right there with Arcane at the top of my list. It's got an awesome combination of familiar characters in new stories, and the dynamic between Harley and Poison Ivy is amazing. Buuuuut, the show seems to get kind of unsure of itself after a couple seasons, and at this point while I'll watch subsequent seasons, I'm not exactly jonesin' for 'em.
7. Bonding (season 2) - Not quite as good as the first season, but it's still a great show with some awesome humor, as well as confronting some more serious ideas. By the end of the show, I was totally out on Pete, but still very in on Tiff.
8. Fallout - Fallout was a show that had some incredible highs, some great moments with a couple of our national treasures... err, wait Ella Purnell is British. Whatever, her and Walton Goggins were tremendous, and the story is really interesting overall. I think the show moves a little too slowly sometimes, and I feel like there's a little too much unresolved going into next season. But, overall, very good.
9. Agatha All Along - While #9 might not seem very high, I really enjoyed Agatha as well. The finale seemed a liiiiiiittle slapdash, but other than that the characters were all expertly written and executed. And I'm very, very excited for the third part of this series, when we hopefully get Vision fully back in the MCU.
10. Brooklyn Nine-Nine (seasons 7-8) - A very good sitcom, a well done culmination. Rest in peace Andre Braugher, underappreciated in our time.
11. House of the Dragon (season 2) - In what's basically the opposite of The Penguin, House of the Dragon had a tremendous season leading up to the finale, but the finale was... just another episode? It was very much the deep breath before the plunge, and the last shots were really cool, with all the armies moving across Westeros. But I'm ready now, I don't want to wait!
12. X-Men '97 - I did not expect to like this show much at all really. I tried watching the original series, and just wasn't drawn in at all. But for whatever reason, this new series caught me after the second or third episode, and I had a good, Saturday morning cartoon time. Also, I'm not sure if the original series was like this, but this show had some dark ass themes. Freakin' X-Men.
13. Cowboy Bebop (Netflix live action) - It started with so much potential, but by the end of the show, I get why it wasn't renewed. The characters fall out in kind of a distasteful way, to where you don't really want them to get back together, and the "twists" at the end are just kind of... fine. But it was so fun at the beginning!
14. Blue-Eyed Samurai - I still don't like when a show downplays the importance of getting stabbed by having their protagonist survive it all the time. Am I supposed to believe that everyone our protagonist stabbed died from every stabbing, but that their enemies couldn't nick the right artery one time? Anyways, the show is decent lol.
15. The Acolyte - Unfortunately we won't get a second season of this show. While it wasn't perfect, there were a lot of compelling pieces to this show, and a couple of absolutely banger lightsaber fights. Maybe Manny Jacinto's character can work into some other show or movie or video game.
16. Battlestar Galactica (seasons 3-4) - Speaking of disappointing after a promising beginning. While there's still good content in here, the show feels artificially extended towards the end, with not enough fresh juice to keep things rolling. The characters are strong, and the premise is great, but the 3rd and 4th seasons kind of drag, and the end of the story is disappointingly mystical.
17. 3 Body Problem - This is a show that has some good acting and the beginnings of an interesting story, but god, it feels like we've gotten like 3% of the mystery revealed after an entire season. I can deal with some slow-developing stories, but there's a limit, dammit.
18. The Boys (season 4) - It seems like The Boys' writers are ready for the show to be over, which is convenient, because so am I. I'm hopeful that the last season will ramp back up the fun and excitement, and then they can focus on telling new stories with new characters, like Gen V.
19. What If (season 2) - One of the first shows I watched in 2024, thankfully it wasn't a sign of things to come. What If just doesn't have whatever it is that I like about mainstream Marvel content *or* the animated series towards the top of this list. I don't think there was a show that I fell asleep watching more often than What If.
20. Echo - I really did not get into Echo. It stays out of the bottom slot because of the return of a more brutal Kingpin, and an awesome cameo by Charlie Cox as Daredevil. By the way, the confrontation between Echo and Daredevil was good enough that I would be game to see more of that. But for me, the character of Echo didn't have the gravitas to carry a whole show.
21. Invincible (season 2, part 2) - Part of the reason this is at the bottom is because of a drastically ill-advised splitting of the season, stretching the emotional beats beyond their breaking points. And then on top of that, it was just... not that good television. The storylines felt only casually connected to each other, which isn't necessarily a disaster (see Game of Thrones), but none of them was good enough to keep me in on the show. It sounds like they've learned from the splitting mistake; we'll see if the show improves upon its actual content as well.

Last up: games of 2024!

GoodPointJoe's 2024 Year In Review - Movies

We're making progress!

I've got kind of a reputation for being way behind on movies and shows, a reputation well-earned. Even with this year's prolific performance, I still haven't seen Titanic or Avatar (despite having no personal beef with James Cameron). But I do like movies. A really good movie can stick in your mind for days and weeks, and as a sometimes D&D GM, I love taking a movie idea and using it as a premise for an adventure. I ran a game set in the cursed mansion of the characters from Beauty and the Beast a couple years ago, and I loved it.

This year, I watched several highly-recommended movies (as well as several that were appropriately not recommended, but I had to know!). And I've started to learn more about my personal movie tastes as well. Historically I haven't been much of a horror film fan, this year's #1 film and a handful of other enjoyable experiences drew from that genre. I'm still not big on jump scares, but I've discovered that I can enjoy a psychological thriller or a slasher as much as anybody.

So, as is my wish, all the time, I've put together a list of every movie I saw for the first time in 2024. I've included blurbs as well, especially for movies that didn't end up getting an individual blog post.

Away we go!

1. Get Out - Five stars. Tremendous.
2. The Fall Guy - Action, romance, comedy, I found myself delighted in all three spheres. Such a fun watch, and such a Joe movie.
3. Dune: Part Two - I thought this movie really hummed, even better than the original. Though, I haven't started watching Dune: Prophecy yet, so maybe when I say I want to spend more time in the world, I'm all talk.
4. Knives Out - Clue, but less cheesy.
5. Clue - Clue.
6. Renfield - Not exactly a horror film, but I mean, Dracula is Dracula. The action/comedy was on point here, I had an amazing time watching this movie.
7. Interstellar - Really cool movie, like if 2001: A Space Odyssey wanted to not be a piece of trash, it would be this movie.
8. Dredd - Is there anything Karl Urban can't do? No, I mean, obviously there's lots of stuff he can't do. But damn does he kill it (and everybody) in this movie.
9. Deadpool & Wolverine - The plot is kind of a mess, but the movie is so fun that you forget about that...mostly.
10. Safe House - I watched a bunch of Denzel movies this year. This was the cream of the crop for my money, where Denzel was at his most Denzelness. Goddamn that man is an actor.
11. Free Guy - Three straight Ryan Reynolds movies? Jeez Joe, get a room. But seriously, kind of a more cheesy version of The Fall Guy, focusing more on the laughs than the romance. Basically the swapping of Ryans has the effect you would expect.
12. Conclave - This was a movie that, if I told you what it was about (picking a new pope), it probably wouldn't seem particularly interesting. But it was riveting. I feel like that's how you know a movie was well-acted.
13. Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull - After more than a decade of hearing people talk down about this movie, I finally sat down and watched it. And I gotta tell you, it's just an Indiana Jones movie. The ending is a little wonky, but it's good, it's fun.
14. A Nightmare on Elm Street - I'm only just scratching the surface of the 'classic slasher' list, but so far, so good.
15. Captain Phillips - I've finally seen where the meme comes from. The dramatic tension of this movie was really good, Tom Hanks is and has always been one of the great American actors.
16. Annihilation - This was a really interesting watch. I don't normally get up for the more dramatic, intense, dare I say artsy type films. But this one felt like a sci fi mystery, and I really enjoyed it.
17. Network - One of those classic movies that I finally got around to watching. It's interesting to compare dialogue back then (which felt very stagey but was performed well) to dialogue now (usually more natural language, but rigid and scripted). Most importantly, I now know firsthand where the beginning of the Unleash the Fury video comes from.
18. Everything Everywhere All at Once - I can understand why other people like this movie so much; it's good. There's quirky, high-octane action and there are emotional beats. But I'll always have trouble finding empathy for villains, no matter how relatable their struggles are. Took me like ten years to give Loki a chance.
19. Murder on the Orient Express (2017) - I think I liked the idea of this movie more than the movie itself. It was still solid, just wasn't the riveting mystery masterpiece that I was hoping for. The original is in my queue!
20. Mad Max: Fury Road - The action was great, but I had a hard time getting into the story. You'd think any sort of post-apocalyptic wasteland would be plenty for me, but apparently I'm more picky than that.
21. The Big Short - Another Ryan Gosling film, though it's an ensemble cast here. It's a decent film, but I kept kind of waiting for it to hit another gear, and it just didn't.
22. Sleepy Hollow - Johnny Depp is always eminently watchable, and he did a good job in this role. I was sort of hoping that the story would end up not being supernatural, but it was still pretty fun.
23. Philadelphia - And here we are with another Denzel Washington movie. He was great, and I enjoyed the courtroom scenes. My only qualm really is that it felt like it was a movie that really really wanted to win awards, instead of having a story it wanted to tell.
24. 300 - I finally watched the infamous Zack Snyder film. It was entertaining, but I had a hard time empathizing with the Spartans. The whole, "raise child soldiers and throw them in the wild and hope they survive" thing just isn't a Joey vibe.
25. The Flash - This movie had some of the worst CGI I've ever seen. The fact that it's here in the middle of this list is a testament to some pretty solid story-telling and entertaining acting. But holy god, the CGI, terrible.
26. Pitch Perfect 2 - Look, the movie doesn't break any new ground. But it's entertaining in most of the same ways that the original was, and, hey, I'm a red-blooded man. Throwing a bunch of pretty girls on screen isn't the worst way to grab my attention.
27. The Iron Claw - I would love for there to be more wrestling-focused movies. I think there are a ton of interesting stories about wrestlers, promoters, events, etc., with all sorts of angles. This particular one is tragic... no, that doesn't capture it. This is like the saddest movie I've ever seen. It's pain and tragedy all the way down. It's good, but holy shit it's a tough watch.
28. Barbie - It was kind of all over the place, and I still don't really get why everybody was so head-over-heels for Gosling in this movie. But Margot Robbie looked amazing, and there were enough effective jokes that I enjoyed myself.
29. Oppenheimer - Kind of like Philadelphia, it felt like a movie that was supposed to be big, and executed that well. But I didn't feel much in watching it. And the fact that Robert Downey Jr. got an Oscar for sitting in a room and chatting with an assistant is mind-boggling.
30. The Equalizer - More Denzel! This one was good too, though for some reason this Taken clone didn't resonate for me. Spoiler alert for 2025 though: I've watched The Equalizer 2, and it was even better.
31. Escape from New York - Totally cheesy 80s action movie, but it was fun. One of the all-time scenes when Snake first arrives and finds the homeless guy saying, "I'm the president!"
32. Ready Player One - I wanted to like this movie more than I did. Anything gaming-related I try to be open to, because that's sort of "my realm," and like wrestling, I'd like for more movies delving into that world. It was fun enough, but the protagonist sort of fell flat for me.
33. Civil War - I was expecting something more like Jericho, a story about a town or a group in a war-torn United States. This was okay, the whole photojournalism angle, but left me wanting for an emotional connection.
34. Glengarry Glen Ross - A movie you could tell was adapted from a stage play, both from the limited settings and the style of dialogue. It was fine, Al Pacino was great in it though. Earned a whole extra half-star all on his own, as a secondary character.
35. Invictus - I don't know enough about rugby to appreciate the nuances of whether or not the rugby is done well in this movie. And the Mandela side of things, while well-acted, seems insufficiently fleshed out.
36. Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street - While Johnny Depp is very watchable, I found this movie kind of wanting. I don't normally seek out musicals, and this one did nothing to make me reconsider that point of view.
37. The Shining - A 'classic' horror movie, but one about which I still have questions. Allegedly this sequel Doctor Sleep will shed some light on things, so that's in my 2025 queue.
38. Looper - I'm not normally wild about time travel as a movie premise. After watching this movie... I remain not wild about time travel as a movie premise.
39. Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore - I enjoy the Harry Potter world, and I liked the original series of movies (and especially books) quite a bit. The first Fantastic Beasts movie was good, but these other two, phew, kind of a mess. This one at least had some cool big monsters.
40. Death on the Nile (2022) - Another Hercule Poirot remake with Kenneth Branagh, this one really just never got moving for me. It seems like in these movies the second-biggest actor is the murder victim, which is fine, except you're losing some starpower and screen presence for the second half of the film.
41. John Wick 2 - I liked the original John Wick well enough. It was a sort of mindless action movie, lots of guns and fights and what not. John Wick 2 was just mindless.
42. Darkman - Liam Neeson doing a quasi-superhero movie with a unique premise? My interest was piqued. But the execution is really shaky, particularly the dialogue. I can abide outdated set pieces, but without riveting conversation, a movie is just a photograph.
43. Unbreakable - It was a cool idea, and when it actually moved, there was some compelling content in there. But it was so slow, and so flat. Bruce Willis looked like he got told that his character doesn't care about anything, and to play that up.
44. Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindlewald - There were some interesting scenes, but overall this movie was the worst of the Fantastic Beasts series, which is already not that great a series. I think I rate it lower because I was starkly disappointed.
45. Public Enemies - The story was surprisingly dull to me; I loved Goodfellas, but this was a gangster movie without any sort of heart or soul. Also, I really grated against some of the video choices they made, specifically the egregious use of sepia filters. What is this, every photograph I've ever taken?
46. Gremlins - You can see some of the glimmers of movie-making talent in the film, but for the most part it's not compelling or interesting, the effects are really low-end, and the dialogue is abysmal. Apparently Gremlins 2 is much better, but I'm in no rush to find out.
47. Anaconda - All time, epically bad. The only redeeming factor about this movie was that Kari Wuhrer was in it, and she's dreamy.

And that's it for 2024! My goal for 2025 is 50+ movies, which shouldn't be too hard, that's one movie per week. And there are three or four Marvel movies coming out in 2025, so we should be well on our way.

If you'd like to keep up with my movie-watching on a more regular basis, I use Letterboxd to track my watchlist, rate movies, write little reviews, etc. You can see my profile here.

Stay tuned for my 2024 in shows and games!

One Good Point (Movie) - The Shining, and "What is a horror movie?"

The Shining is another of those "classic" movies that I had never seen, but we finally got around to it this year. I watched it while I was in Halloween mode, further tilting the door open for me when it comes to scary movies. But in talking about this movie with some friends, I encountered people who said The Shining wasn't a true horror movie, but was more of a "thriller." And we spent a bit of time investigating what the actual difference was.

Thrillers are defined by "thrilling," unsurprisingly haha, with lots of twists and turns, and often an antagonist's elaborate scheme or intricate network of danger. Spy movies are a good example of conventional thriller movies.

Horrors, meanwhile, are intended to frighten or disgust, with shocking imagery, and often with a supernatural antagonistic presence: a monster, a ghost, a possessed doll, etc. The Bourne Identity is not a horror movie, but is a thriller. And, by these definitions, The Shining is definitely a horror.

So how was it? It was alright. It was good to finally see the context of some of those classic scenes: the hedge maze, the elevators, the creepy hallway girls, and Jack Nicholson peeking through the door and shouting, "Here's Johnny!" And it was stark but probably frustratingly realistic to watch a man's wife put up with a lot of bullshit from him. I spend a lot of time on /r/AmIOverreacting, and it's wild to see some of these stories.

Overall it was not the most compelling horror I've seen, but it was rewarding to watch. And my cousin says Dr. Sleep answers a lot of the questions you have coming out of this film, so, add it to the list!

Looking to kick it old school and watch The Shining? Click here to find out where you can stream it today on JustWatch!

One Good Point (Show) - Agatha All Along

Agatha All Along was a show I really didn't think I needed. I liked Kathryn Hahn in WandaVision, but didn't necessarily feel like her character needed her own standalone story. And the preview trailers looked fine, but I don't usually pursue a lot of witchy content. But I watch pretty much all Marvel content, so I was always gonna give it a shot.

The first episode was fantastic. It set the tone right away as a mystery, urging you to look for clues right away, a prompt that pays off in absolute spades by the end of the season. By the end of the second episode, you've got an eclectic coven of witches starting on a supernatural path, each with their own secrets, their own questions to answer, their own mysteries to unravel. And the main characters, Agatha and "Teen," have even more to reveal.

The show kind of reminds me of Loki, with a lot of really strong dialogue and meaningful character progression, characters who are absolutely on an arc. And it's got enough of a tie to compelling previous content that you care about what happens in it. 

And I cannot stress enough how well-crafted the payoffs are. There are like four different big reveals over the course of the season, with the earliest one happening in episode 5, and each of them is very rewarding. I'm doing my best not to spoil any of them, because they're really, really good.

One tiny ding is that the show does very occasionally suffer from "modern TV syndrome," where characters say explicitly what's in their minds, or they offer a somewhat unnatural line of dialogue to work some exposition or narrative information into the show. And they go a little slow-mo heavy in episode 8, which isn't the end of the world, but it just made me antsy for the show to get to the next beat.

Altogether though, the show was a rousing return to form for me. I'm eagerly anticipating the continuation (culmination?) of this story, and between this and Deadpool & Wolverine, I think Marvel is headed in the right direction. There's a TON of content dropping next year that has my interest piqued, like Daredevil: Born Again, Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts*, and The Fantastic Four. If it picks up with the same strength that Agatha All Along sported, we just might be back in business, folks.

Feeling witchy? Click here to visit JustWatch and find out where you can feed that urge and watch Agatha All Along today!

One Good Point (Movie) - A Nightmare on Elm Street

Finally!

For something like thirty years I've been interested in watching this movie, despite my general resistance to horror films. The first time my interest was piqued was way back when I saw the associated Nintendo game mentioned in an issue of Nintendo Power. But that pre-dated my ventures into R-rated movies, and vastly pre-dated my ventures into horror movies. Now that I've finally opened myself up to the occasional fright night, it was well past time to check out A Nightmare on Elm Street.

And I liked it!

The premise is fairly cheesy, but that didn't bother me really. I think actually when it comes to horror movies, a cheesy premise is a bit of a comfort. The more realistic a horror film is, the more worried I get that it could possibly happen for real. Saw, for example, was a really discomforting experience.

But I also liked that the movie wasn't solely in the "scary realm" so to speak. I find that when an entire movie is portrayed as dangerous, it dampens the impact of the experience for me. It becomes just an anxiety-inducing movie, and not an interesting journey. This movie spent enough time in the daytime, at school, and interacting with people "outside" the danger to create a compelling balance for me.

The ending... well I'm not entirely sure what happened at the end. But I'm kind of okay with that. It's a horror movie with six million sequels; maybe there are more answers in future films. For now, I'm calling this a rousing success.

Feeling like a classic fright night yourself? Click here to go to JustWatch and find out where you can stream this nightmare today!

One Good Point (Movie) - Get Out

IT'S HORROR WEEK!

Historically I haven't been much of a horror movie kind of guy. It's a little bit of an oddity, because Jurassic Park and Jaws definitely draw on horror elements, and they're two of my all-time favorite movies. But then I watched The Ring at some point, and I was like, why on earth would someone choose to do this to themselves?

For a while it was just monster movies, like Cloverfield (good) or Deep Blue Sea (decent). And then earlier this year I gave a shot to Anaconda (so, so bad). But Get Out has been a movie that seemed to cross into the mainstream to such an extent that it demanded being watched. Granted, some might say the same about the movie IT, but I'm in no rush to see that film. "Underground ghost clown" isn't the basis for anything fun I want to see.

My cousin Nick has been recommending it for years, and I finally caved in and watched it. And it's just fantastic. The main character feels so incredibly realistic, especially his relationship with his friend, fleshed out almost exclusively via phone calls. And look, I'm by no means an expert on the topic. But this feels genuinely like a movie written by Black writers, with Black characters in mind. So often you find Black characters in movies or shows that feel aggressively neutral, or painted as downright caricatures. By contrast, this movie felt so purely human and realistic.

The reveal is great, the characters are great, and the culmination is great. There's one cheesy line towards the end, which I won't spoil, in case you haven't seen the movie. But the rest of it is just an absolute treasure, and has got me ready to watch more Jordan Peele films ASAP.

If you haven't watched Get Out, you've got to click here ASAP and find out where you can stream it, and watch it. Now.

One Good Point (Movie) - Unbreakable

No, not Kimmy Schmidt. This is the M. Night Shyamalan film from 2000 starring Bruce Willis (hey, like I promised!) and Samuel L. Jackson. It's the first of a three-part "trilogy" that includes two more movies on my horizon: Split and Glass.

So how was the first entry in this saga? Well, let's just say that if I hadn't received such inspirational reviews of the second and third films, this might have been where my journey stopped.

The beginning of the movie is actually really well done. It introduces us to Willis' character, David Dunn, showing us that he's got some charm, that he's having marital trouble, and then sets off the story by putting him in a catastrophic train wreck as the sole survivor. But after that, Dunn becomes almost completely uninteresting and uncharismatic. Willis plays the role very similar to his role in The Sixth Sense, but that character was supposed to be a man literally haunted by the events of his life. This character should have some kind of personality. And I say that as someone who loves Captain America, admittedly one of the less flamboyant heroes. You gotta give me something.

Jackson's portrayal of Elijah Price is much more interesting, but that's how it goes with antagonists, right? That's how you knew he was the bad guy: he was eminently more watchable and compelling than Willis.

I think ultimately this movie suffered from the success of The Sixth Sense. It seems like Shyamalan "learned" too much from that movie, and employed character work and cinematography that wasn't quite right for this movie. But I trust the recommendations I've received enough that I'll give Split and Glass a shot.

One last thing. Just before the end credits, the movie does a freeze-frame and text-based post-script. "David Dunn led authorities to... Elijah Price is now..." etc. In a fictional, serious movie, this feels completely out of place. It makes sense in Remember The Titans, because you want to know the real world "whatever happened to..." about a number of characters. And it makes sense in like Animal House, because Animal House is an unserious movie. In this film, a serious dramatic but fictional story, it just feels strange. One more oddity in a movie full of less-than-exceptional quirks.

Wondering if I'm way off base? You can check out Unbreakable on your own! Click here to check out where you can stream it today on JustWatch.

One Good Point (Movie) - Looper

I'm generally a Bruce Willis fan. Die Hard was one of the first R-rated action movies I ever saw, and Die Hard: With a Vengeance was the first R-rated movie I ever saw in theaters. And there'll be another Bruce Willis movie in this feed shortly, so stay tuned!

Willis isn't quite the protagonist in this movie, though; that distinction goes to Joseph Gordon-Levitt, who plays the younger version of Willis' character. The two characters are dealing with the consequences of a life of crime and time travel, and naturally are both cooperative and combative at different points in the movie. They both do a great job of acting, while some of the supporting roles (Emily Blunt and Jeff Daniels specifically) are a bit less impressive.

The story is fairly straightforward, which is a positive in a time-travel movie; that shit can get weird in a hurry. That said, the story just didn't grab me the way I hoped that it would. It's a fine little suspense film, with a rewarding enough ending, but lacking in any of the big dramatic moments that makes a movie really sing for me. It kind of feels like the movie had a premise they liked, and they sort of tried to jam a full-sized story on top of it, and the fit is a little imperfect. Not bad, just not great... which feels like the story behind many of the films I've watched this year, but hey, that's how it goes, right? Most stuff is okay, some stuff is great, some stuff is terrible.

You're welcome, I just explained life.

If you'd like to watch Looper yourself but aren't sure what timeline you're in, I can't help you. But if you just need to know where it's streaming, click here to check out its entry on JustWatch!

One Good Point (Movie) - Sleepy Hollow

So for those of you who know me, you know I don't have a big horror background. I'm not into jump-scares at all; that's a sensation I'm perfectly happy to leave behind. But there are thrilling movies that appeal to me; Jurassic Park and Jaws are two of my all-time favorite films, and thrill and danger are core to both of those movies.

Sleepy Hollow offers some of the same sorts of vibes, albeit with a supernatural bend. You've got a strong cast of skilled actors playing lots of interesting characters, almost all of whom have secrets to hide. Johnny Depp is very entertaining, as always, and he plays the role of a skittish-yet-overconfident investigator to perfection. And though I'm generally not into supernatural horror, I enjoyed how they stretched it as long as they could to keep you unsure if it was truly a ghost story.

Overall it was a fun watch, one I'll definitely be happy to revisit from time to time, when I'm in a spooky mood but don't want to watch something new. Sleepy Hollow gets my Halloween seal of approval!

If you'd like to watch Sleepy Hollow but you don't know where you can stream it, have I got a deal for you! Click here to check out JustWatch, and they'll tell you what streaming/rental services have this movie!

One Good Point (Show) - Fallout, Season 1

It's kind of remarkable what happened in the span of a year. Last year, Bethesda released the long-awaited title Starfield, a new world by the creators of Morrowind, Skyrim, and (of most relevance here) Fallout. Just recently, the Borderlands movie came out, and was by all accounts a colossal failure (I haven't seen it yet).

And yet in between, a show about a video game world, an expansion of the lore from a Bethesda product came out, and it was fantastic.

I've only played the very beginning of the very first Fallout game, the old tactical isometric game from a million years ago, and then about an hour of Fallout 3 at my friend's house. Other than that, my exposure to Fallout has been exclusively through internet videos and memes, but even with that limited awareness, the show absolutely popped.

The characters are robust and dynamic, and the world is full of personality, danger, and excitement. Walton Goggins is tremendous as always, but maybe the strongest performance is by Ella Purnell, our optimistic and adventurous protagonist; we meet most of the surface world through her point of view, learning as we go along. The third protagonist is played by Aaron Moten, and he took the longest time for me to come around to. But by the end, he's as entertaining as any of them. Adding in some secondary characters played by Chris Parnell, Michael Emerson, Michael Rapaport, and many others, there's really entertainment around every turn.

The season of television asked a lot of questions, gave a lot of answers, and left enough unresolved that you absolutely must have a second season. And it will! Amazon announced that the show will be renewed for at least one more season, and I'm looking forward to more.

Fallout is an Amazon show, but just in case you might have other options down the line, here's a direct link to the show's entry on JustWatch!

One Good Point (Show) - Invincible, Season 2 Part 2

If you were worried that Invincible didn't have enough characters and storylines going on, don't worry. The delayed second half of season two offered even more complexity, with even more characters getting into even more hijinks. Was it good?

It was... okay.

I would say there are too many characters and happenings for my taste; the wide spread of content means that you might go a full episode or longer between story beats for a particular character. The finale's focus on Angstrom Levy, a character we'd seen for maybe 4 minutes all season, is the most glaring example of this. If you boiled the show down to the Viltrumites (who get shortchanged this season for the most part), two or three secondary characters, and a "monster of the week," I think you'd have a stronger show.

The other side of my frustration with this show comes from the delay. Season 1 debuted in March of 2021. Season two didn't release until the summer of 2023, and only the first four episodes were released; the last four didn't come down until March of 2024. That is simply too long a delay to preserve excitement, and especially frustrating to have such a delay inside the season. The show lost all momentum from Part 1 to Part 2.

Hopefully future seasons don't have such a delay, and are not split. The show suffered a lot because of it.

To find out where you can watch Invincible (all at the same time), click here to check its entry on JustWatch!

One Good Point (Show) - Echo, Season 1

Echo was a show I didn't really think we needed before I watched it, and then I watched it, and I still feel the same way. Story-wise, it serves to tie a little bit of content together between the old Daredevil show (which was phenomenal) and the upcoming series Daredevil: Born Again. I say that without knowing what the new show will be about, but it'll be about Kingpin, and that's the most interesting part of Echo.

But the action is often drawn out and also unbelievable, and the characters just aren't that compelling. Even Kingpin's character feels a little bit restrained. But we do get a glimpse of what might be to come in his future MCU presence, and that's reason for optimism.

My biggest frustration with Echo is that compelling. But when a show isn't very good and it's got a female or minority lead (or both, in this case), the conversation gets skewed by people's reactions to that fact. Sexist folks will say, "Marvel's focus on wokeness is ruining the MCU!" Anti-sexist people will praise the show for its wokeness, without acknowledging its flaws. And the public at large is left with a not-that-great show that people care way too much about.

Echo wasn't that great. It's not the end of the MCU, and it's not because it focused on a girl. Agatha All Along's success is hopefully proving the latter point.

I wouldn't exactly recommend it, but if you want to watch Echo on a streaming service, you can click here to go to JustWatch and find out where you can do that.

One Good Point (Show) - What If?, Season 2

The first time I watched through the first season of What If?, I was not impressed. I was still in my post-Endgame haze when it came to Marvel content, and I wanted stuff to contribute to the "story at large." What If? didn't do that.

But, the second time I watched through, I found a lot of it entertaining. I think having a bit of distance and separation, knowing it wasn't going to be part of the greater story (not really, at least), I was able to just sit and have fun with the show. I also think that mentality has helped me to enjoy X-Men '97 and the amount we've seen thus far from Agatha All Along.

Season two of What If? benefits from the same adjustment of expectations, but it doesn't have quite the same level of charm as the first season. I found myself nodding off as the pace of the episodes felt designed to stretch a fairly small story into something longer, but not necessarily greater. It's not the worst watch in the world, and there are some highlights (the first episode basically puts Nebula into Blade Runner and it's fucking brilliant). Just do like I did, and temper your expectations.

What If? is a Marvel television show, and is probably available on Disney+. But just in case, you can click here to check JustWatch and see where it's streamable.

One Good Point (Movie) - Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street

Okay, in case you're one of the four people who hasn't already teased me for not being 100% certain that this movie was a musical, get your yuks out now, sunshine. Yes, I saw the episode of The Office that features a Sweeney Todd performance. Yes, that's the only real exposure I've had to the content. Sue me.

Err, wait. Don't, don't sue me.

The film was alright, although this particular musical didn't resonate with me, though that's not necessarily uncommon when it comes to musicals. I'm sure for some people it's perfect. For me, it feels like a little too much time is spent inside these characters' heads, and not enough time is spent actually interacting with the other characters.

That said, Johnny Depp is great, Helena Bonham Carter is great, and it's always nice to find Alan Rickman again. And you can tell objectively that it's a good movie. It's well-executed and sharp, the music and settings give it a true sense of being a stage play brought to life on the big screen. Overall an enjoyable experience, if not an transcendent one.

PS: I'm trying to tighten up these posts, they had gotten a little out of hand there for a while. The whole premise was "one good point," as in, a quick blurb and then we're out. So, shorter posts forthcoming... we hope lol.

If you'd like to watch Sweeney Todd today but aren't sure where you can stream it, click here to go to JustWatch and find out!

One Good Point (Show) - Bonding, Season 2

I mentioned previously that I had watched Season 1 of Bonding last year, and enjoyed it thoroughly. The humor was sharp and clever, and the protagonists (Tiff and Pete) were a lot of fun, both individually and in tandem.

During season 2, the Pete storyline and character feel less relatable, and I found myself either not rooting for him, or actively rooting against him. His point of view and outlook came across a lot less sympathetic, and a lot more entitled. I have to admit though, it's entirely possible that my "straightness" is part of what hinders my ability to appreciate Pete's story. I'm sure there are people who found his experiences a lot more relatable, and felt more empathy for how he interacted with the world. 

But the rest of the season was just as good as the first. The humor stays pretty strong throughout, in a way that Harley Quinn had a bit of trouble with. Tiff is an interesting and complex character, and the whole BDSM scene is given a more substantial presence in the second season of the show. There's more variance in the types of D/s relationships that are portrayed, and Tiff especially has a few different forays into exploring improved sexual health. The second season felt like it was maybe a little more responsible and interested in engaging with human sexuality, and that felt like a logical pivot for this show.

I still love the format of 15-20 minute episodes, and although I kind of wish I had another 20 minutes per episode with these characters and ideas, you'd almost always rather have a show be too tight than too loose. Bonding feels like a show that has a thing it wants to say in each episode, it says that thing, and it immediately gets out upon saying it. I'd be happy to see more of it, but Netflix elected to cancel the series after the second season. And in truth, the ending of the second season felt crisp and complete. As the saying goes, part of the story is the end.

Want to watch Netflix's Bonding, but not sure where to find it? We'll set aside your inability to connect ideas in your mind, and offer you this direct link to the show on JustWatch, where you can see where to stream the show today!

One Good Point (Movie) - Darkman

I remember seeing commercials for Darkman ages ago, except I think they were commercials for the associated Nintendo game. I never played the game, nor did I watch the movie, until now!

Ehh.

Look, you can abide a certain amount of cheesiness or inconsistency from older movies (although Jaws is fucking tight). The film-making world of today offers different sensibilities, different styles, and obviously vastly improved CGI and effects options. Some movies age better than others, and that's understandable. But Darkman has a few other issues to go along with that.

First, the good. As Peyton Westlake, Liam Neeson does a good job, when given lines that sound like something a person might ever say. And I thought Frances McDormand was quite good as the love interest. I also liked the premise of the movie in general: a "superhero" but one who mostly follows the same laws of physics as everybody else, and a protagonist whose first instincts upon getting powers are A) check on the love of my life, and B) fuck up the people who fucked me up.

But the actual execution of the movie just doesn't land for me. Part of it is that I think I just don't like what Sam Raimi puts on the movie screen. I've watched a fair amount of his work, the best of which (according to other people) includes Evil Dead, Army of Darkness, Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2, and I just don't get it. I'm aware that other people like this content, but I just cannot get behind the dialogue in any of these films. It feels so janky and unnatural.

Watch this opening scene from Darkman. It's got five minutes of the most non-human conversation I've ever seen in my life. It's as if the script was written by aliens who are trying to approximate a human conversation, with all the believability of a goo monster writing lines.

The effects are old, and look old, but that's fine, that happens. And in the end, the actual beats of the story are satisfying, and the action is decent. I'm not explicitly upset that I watched the movie, which is a low bar, but hey, it's better than Anaconda.

Anaconda was so bad.

If you'd like to watch Darkman right now, and prove to yourself that Sam Raimi is a genius and Joe doesn't know what he's talking about, click here to check JustWatch and find out where you can stream it today!

One Good Point (Show) - 3 Body Problem, Season 1

Unlike a lot of people, I knew nothing about 3 Body Problem until it came down the pike. I saw it advertised on Netflix once it had been released, and I said oh okay, maybe I'll check this thing out... but probably not. Then I started to hear people talk about it like it's the next Game of Thrones (sometimes using that exact literal comparison), so I felt a bit more compelled to investigate.

One season in, it's a decent show. Game of Thrones, it ain't.

It's a nice little sci-fi show that becomes a massive sci-fi show, as it takes on an interesting idea about how we might encounter beings from another planet. I don't want to go too much into detail about the specifics of the show, because there are a lot of little (and sometimes very big) reveals that you don't want to have spoiled for you. There are some surprising deaths, and some pretty foreseeable deaths, and a couple of massive set pieces that are a spectacle to see.

The characters are... okay? So far I haven't been inspired by any of them, not really. I find that the overall premise is more interesting than the individual character arcs so far, which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it puts a lot more pressure on the story. And the story is good, not great.

I will give it this, though. The first season ends with a lot of big moments and a lot of big questions, and it does a good job of piquing interest for future seasons. It's also got two actors who played two of my favorite side characters in the past decade: Liam Cunningham, who played Davos Seaworth in Game of Thrones, and Benedict Wong, who played Wong in Doctor Strange (and subsequent MCU properties).

I'll watch more 3 Body Problem when there's more 3 Body Problem to watch. I'm interested to see where the story goes, particularly the Wallfacer idea. And I'm always interested to see where an alien story ends.

3 Body Problem is a Netflix series, so it's going to be on Netflix. But just in case you live in a weird land where up is down and Netflix is Paramount, click here to check JustWatch and find out for sure!

One Good Point (Movie) - Interstellar

I've heard for years about how good Interstellar was, from people whose movie opinions I respect. Not only that, these people told me that while yes it was an objectively good movie, I would like it specifically. That's a tall order, but from the right people, that's a recommendation you take to the bank (see Justified) (but NOT Justified: City Primeval).

So I finally watched the movie, and for the most part, I'd say their recommendations were...right on!

The movie gives us a near future with humanity on the brink of extinction, due to massive and permanent crop failures. Our story follows Matthew McConaughey's "Cooper" as a widowed father and an exceptional pilot who is called upon to attempt to find a suitable destination planet to which Earth's inhabitants can be transported to start anew. The bulk of the story follows Cooper and the rest of the crew as they explore, facing off against time, space, and inevitably, each other, in the pursuit of the ultimate goal of saving the human race.

The space adventure is excellent, probably the best non-combat space adventure I've seen since Apollo 13, one of my all-time favorite movies. The additional layer of Cooper's family relevance is what sets this movie apart, though. Cooper's relationship with his daughter Murph in particular is something that resonates throughout the film, despite their fairly limited in-person interactions. Every decision Cooper makes is colored by his desire to save the world for Murph, but also to get home to see Murph again. It's an emotional rollercoaster, and one that I wasn't totally prepared for, but was happy to experience.

One striking resemblance for this movie is to a movie that I actually did not enjoy very much at all: 2001: A Space Odyssey. But where 2001 dragged (for example, with a long orchestral sequence simply showing a variety of planetary bodies), Interstellar is able to offer exceptional visual effects while not feeling like you're stuck in a terrible sixth-grade music video project.

Finally, and perhaps completely predictably if you know my love of droids, I absolutely loved the robot characters in the movie. Both TARS and CASE offered interesting logistical considerations as well as the occasional lightness of humor to cut some of the tension. I would watch a whole movie of just Cooper and TARS yukking it up in the great unknown.

Want to watch Interstellar today? Click here to go to JustWatch and find out where you can stream it right now!

One Good Point (Movie) - Dredd (2012)

I've always been a pretty big Karl Urban fan, as much as one can be a Karl Urban fan. I loved Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers, and Eomer was a big part of that. My fantasy baseball team was named the Riders of Rohan for like, fifteen years.

So it's a bit surprising that it took this long for me to get around to watching this movie. It's a fairly straightforward action movie, where the no-nonsense Judge Dredd takes a rookie (Judge Anderson) under his wing for assessment. Things go sideways (of course; it's a movie), and Dredd and Anderson have to fight their way through wave after wave of murderous psychopaths. Lena Headey plays the primary criminal antagonist in the movie, and Wood Harris (another all-time favorite actor of mine) serves in a supporting role.

I enjoyed the movie a lot! I think one of the things I appreciated is that, while the setting is very interesting and potentially offers a robust world to explore, this movie knows what its mission is: to deliver big time action and highlight the titular character. Urban plays Dredd extremely well, as a by-the-book enforcer who also (at least to some extent) understands the complexities of enforcing law and dispensing justice in a near-futuristic dilapidated quasi-war zone. He's not sympathetic to those who break the law exactly, but takes a fairly pragmatic approach to dealing with nonviolent criminals.

I found the story believable enough, in a John Wick sort of way. The violence was great, the gore was appropriate, and Dredd's rapport with Anderson was humorous and endearing in a mentor/mentee sort of way. I never saw the original Judge Dredd with Sylvester Stallone, and apparently according to reviews across society, that's okay. This might be a situation where I don't go back and try to fill the gap in my movie-going history. I'm not saying that I for sure won't do it; you never know what might drop on TNT sometime when I'm stuck without internet. But I'm much more interested in a potential future Dredd project than going backward to the widely panned original.

I watched this movie on Prime Video. Where can you watch it today? Click here to go to JustWatch and find out!