Category: Culture watch

November 21, 2022

Black Adam: Triumphantly Average

by Ted Giese Black Adam is a DC film that tells the story of a modern-day return of a virtually indestructible champion Teth-Adam (Dwayne Johnson). Teth-Adam had been entombed for five thousand years following an ancient conflict with a tyrannical king, Anh-Kot, over the control…

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August 23, 2022

Top Gun still flying high

by Ted Giese Capt. Pete ‘Maverick’ Mitchell, portrayed by Tom Cruise, is sent to the United States Navy’s Strike Fighter Tactics Instructor program (SFTI, otherwise known as “Top Gun”) to train a team of the Navy’s best pilots for a clandestine mission. With only weeks…

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July 5, 2022

Stranger and Stranger: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness

by Ted Giese Sam Raimi’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is the follow-up to Scott Derrickson’s 2016 film, Doctor Strange, which introduced neurosurgeon Dr. Stephen Strange into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  A lot has happened to the character between the first film and…

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June 6, 2022

In Review – Spider-Man: No Way Home

NOTE: Spoilers follow. by Ted Giese At the end of 2019’s Spider-Man: Far from Home the villain Mysterio revealed to the world Spider-Man’s secret identity. Spider-Man: No Way Home begins with Peter Parker dealing with the pressures of suddenly being known publicly as Spider-Man, and…

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June 6, 2022

The Batman: A darker caped crusader

by Ted Giese When Mayor Don Mitchell, Jr. is murdered, Lt. James Gordon brings Gotham City’s cowled vigilante into the homicide investigation, because a card addressed to “The Batman” is found at the crime scene. The card contains a cipher and a riddle which leads…

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March 29, 2022

Don’t Look Up: Last laugh or last gasp?

by Ted Giese In Don’t Look Up, director Adam McKay uses the fictional threat of an impending Earth-bound comet impact and reaction to this news as an allegory for climate change. Written prior to the COVID-19 pandemic but with filming starting in 2020, the movie…

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