The Strange Review: The Many Saints Of Newark

Prequels are a strange animal...for starters prequels are very rarely necessary and are often pointless and at worst story breaking. Prequels have to walk a fine of being their own story while not piggybacking on the story that came before. For these reasons, alone prequels are for me a no-go because something somewhere gets contradicted and essentially ruins it for me. The most infamous prequel is of course The Star Wars Prequels (which are now enjoying life as memes), but since then the term "prequel" has been a dirty word. For something as massive as "Star Wars" and to watch their prequels tank and tank hard, I could only imagine what would happen with one of the greatest TV shows ever written (yes it is, fight me). David Chase originally conceived "The Sopranos" as a movie as film was his main medium of choice, he had no interest in doing a TV show, and now we have a Soprano film: "The Many Saints Of Newark".

"The Many Saints Of Newark," tells the story of "Gentlemen Dickie" Richard Moltisanti, the father of Tony's cousin and dog-sitter-oner Christopher Moltisanti. However, before we talk about the movie proper (and this is not a spoiler since he's in the trailer) let's talk about the hairpiece in the room and what's basically keeping me from enjoying this movie entirely and that my paisans is Silvio Dante. By all accounts, Silvio Dante should not be in this movie, or rather he shouldn't in the mafia. If memory serves correctly (and it does) in the infamous Card Game story, Ralphie stated that THEY (Himself, Jackie, Silvio and Tony) were a small crew, selling pot and making small scores UNTIL Jackie decided that they'd rob Michelle "Feech" LaManna's card game. After the robbery, Richie Aprile stood up for the group and brokered a sit-down in which some of the right people got their money back. After that Tony and the others were rising stars and had to be respected and were on the fast track to being made with the exception of Ralphie who unfortunately caught the clap from some hippie.

Citation: Season 03 Episode 12: Amour Fou

Now, one could accuse Ralphie of lying BUT Feech confirms this story later on with Silvio stating that Feech isn't interested in telling that story. This story is VERY important and basically breaks "The Many Saints Of Newark" because Tony is a child and Silvio is somewhere in his early 20s (he wouldn't be a teenager) and he's already a member of the mafia. According to Ralphie's story, however, he and the others were "non-existent" according to the mafia, they were nobodies. How exactly is Silvio already in the mafia if it was the card game robbery he did with Tony that put him on the map? Did he do the robbery with Tony when he was a baby? I'm being silly, but seriously, Silvio being in this movie MAKES NO SENSE AT ALL! Furthermore, the actor playing Silvio was the worst thing in this movie, guy was trying way too hard. Billy Magnussen does a great job as Young Paulie, showing a more dapper side to Paulie before he's older and set in his ways. Young Pussy was great, had the swagger, and even sounded like him too. But Young Silvio, he sounded like Joe Pesci inhaled some helium.

Citation Season 05 Episode 04: All Happy Families

Anyway, getting back on point, if Silvio is already in the mafia when Tony is a child then that means that Silvio fell out of favor with the mafia and then got in league with Tony, Jackie, and Ralph, however, why would a grown man (Silvio's in at least his 20s at the start of the movie) fall in with a group of people who would barely be 20? I always operated under the assumption that Silvio and Tony grew up together and were roughly the same age (give or take a year or two) but if Tony is 8 years old (how old he was at the start of the film) and Silvio is at least in his 20s, that means at the start of the series Silvio would be 52, but he's not! According to Sopranos history, Silvio is 42 at the start of the series thus making him 2 years older than Tony. So as a writer and a "Sopranos" aficionado I cannot accept Silvio's presence in the film simply because this would make "The Sopranos" a time travel show and well...while there are minute mystical moments in "The Sopranos", it never goes that far. Far easier to simply reject something added years after the fact, EVEN IF this is canon (written by the creator himself) it openly contradicts established canon, and therefore on these grounds I reject this movie. That being said, let's talk about the movie proper. Was the movie good? Well, aside from the MASSIVE continuity error that is Silvio Dante (The Human Paradox), the film did what I believe all good prequels should do, and that's basically add flavor text to established material, something that can be viewed but ignored that doesn't disrupt the established order. In those terms, it's fine, it captures "The Sopranos" flavor while still being its own thing, it doesn't lean on nostalgia (although there are some disappointments which we'll get into in the spoiler section). 

All in all the movie is fine but it will raise some eyebrows and in classic "Sopranos" fashion the ending "subverts expectations" and we all know that's code for some people will love it, some will hate it. I personally don't like the ending for reasons that I'll get into via the spoiler section. Without Silvio and the ending, the film is simply fine, it feels like an extended episode of "The Sopranos" but with so much ignoring of Sopranos continuity, I can't help but feel "Eh." about the film. I say it's fine because Dickie carries the film and you feel like he is a separated character from Christopher but you can see how and why he's so revered by Tony and if that's what the film set out to accomplish, then yes, it's fine. Final verdict, would I recommend "The Many Saints Of Newark"? Not really. If you're a "Sopranos" fan you wouldn't be able to ignore Silvio's presence and that'll torpedo the whole film for you. I will say the acting is great, everyone (except for Silvio) hits their marks as being who they're supposed to be while adding their own flavor to the character. Let's get into spoilers.

The Strange Review SPECIAL: Death Note

I've never expressed just how near (pun intended) and dear "Death Note" is to me. "Death Note" essentially showed me what anime could be if it wasn't trapped in it's need to be anime, if that makes any sense. "Death Note" at it's core is a detective story, pure and simple, the fantastical element of a notebook that kills anyone should their name be written in it is just icing on the cake. Light & L are characters that transcend themselves as they're archetypes of the perfect rivals, equally smart, equally driven and equally enthralled with each other and under different circumstances could have been friends. "Hannibal" was live action's answer to "Death Note", "Hannibal" being a show that showed me (a writer) that I had yet to realize what good writing was and it was going to show me.

My wife got me into watching "Death Note", she didn't know that as I watched it secretly behind her back and I surprised her by asking her if she knew Shinigami's liked apples. I adore "Death Note". And now here we are in a place we probably didn't know was coming but has nevertheless arrived. America has made their own live action version of "Death Note", the day is April. 7th (the day I began writing this opening paragraph) and a teaser trailer has dropped for "Death Note" to pretty much scathing reviews with profanity such as "Dragonball Evolution" being thrown about. I'll admit the teaser raised more eyebrows and questions for me as I've yet to get a solid handle on just how this will go but I am nonetheless thrilled to finally see it. Maybe thrilled is too strong of a word, more like anxious. Now that we have some images we can start to put this thing together and see what's what.

"Death Note" is NOT an easy property to adapt, let alone adapt to an American audience, let alone adapt for movie length running time. My wife has already expressed annoyance at the project and I don't blame here, L is one of her favorite characters and seeing as how he's not ANYTHING AT ALL like he is in the series is already eyebrow raising and for myself, annoying (as it raised issues of what I call "Blackmasking" and the fact that people are allowed to complain about Light being played by a White guy but you can't say anything about L being Black because racism..., right). But as it stands now, I'm remaining optimistic and eager to see how this story will go and if it'll hit all the story beats it needs to. Will this be it's own unique story or will they attempt to cram the full breadth of "Death Note" in a bite sized piece for us? Well, I guess we'll find out, so join me and my bag of potato chips and while I watch this movie, I'll take a potato chip and eat it...

The Strange Review: A Cure For Wellness

This is one of those movies that I was looking forward to when I saw the previews. Wellness Spas doubling as a mental asylum? Hidden secrets? Ulterior motives?!  Dane DeHaan?! Sign me up! This appeared to be one of those "plot twist" movies...much like "Shutter Island" where you think one thing is going on only to discover another thing is going on. However, "Shutter Island" was great, "A Cure For Wellness" though...was not. For a non-spoiler review, I can say that the movie is shot well, well acted, looks amazing and that's about all there is though. While I give the film credit for being original, sadly, it's originality didn't do much to make it better.

"A Cure For Wellness" tells the story of Lockhart, an up and coming accounting firm guy who is blackmailed by his bosses to go to Switzerland to retrieve another member of the firm to take the fall for their mistake. While at this spa, Lockhart gets diagnosed with the same strange illness that plagues everyone at the wellness center. That's the basic story but there s a lot more to it than just that. Guys, I was incredibly disappointed by this movie and it's overall skippable in my opinion. If you want to know why and don't care about spoilers click after the break!

The Strange Review: Power Rangers

This was one of those movies that once announced was immediately polarizing. Ever since the fan-made "Power/Rangers" that was polarizing and showed a gritty, rated R version of the Power Rangers, a "Power Rangers" movie has been on the books for awhile. Initial buzz was minimal just speculating on whether or not this would be it's own original story or a reboot. Over time it was announced that it would be a full on reboot with Jason, Billy, Trini, Kimberly & Zack once again becoming the Power Rangers. Casting was announced with long time Power Rangers alumni Bryan Cranston (who voiced many Power Ranger villains) taking on the role of Zordon, Bill Hader as Alpha 5 and costume/make up queen Elizabeth Banks as Rita Repulsa. With a good cast and a decent trailer, how was this new fully American take on the Power Rangers?

This movie was much better than it had any business being. I'm a huge "Power Rangers" mark so my initial reaction to the trailer and images were tentatively positive. As I said before this could either be really good or really bad and shockingly enough it was quite good, once again better than it had any business being. But I shouldn't have been surprised, Dean Israelite has handled stuff like this before in "Project Almanac" so having him at the helm gave me some confidence and it was well earned. So for a none spoiler review of this film, I give it a B, the characters were likable, and while everything moved pretty quickly, it wasn't so fast that it gave you whiplash. The acting was good, even scenery chewing Elizabeth Banks was perfect as Rita (and honestly with a name like Rita Repulsa it's almost expected). I had a good time with this movie albiet a few problems. That's a non-spoiler review, for a spoiler review go ahead and click after the break!

The Strange Review: Suicide Squad

Okay, okay, okay, as mentioned hither too, I am currently watching "Suicide Squad". Why? Because a friend of mine informed me that it wasn't as bad as I believed it was. Now, granted, I've been saying the very prospect of a Suicide Squad movie was unearned, ridiculous and reeked of absolute desperation, but to be completely fair, I did give "Twilight" a shot and how awful would I be if I didn't at the VERY LEAST give an unearned, stupid looking DC property the same chance I'd give "Twilight", pretty freakin' awful.  So I conceded and decided to watch "Suicide Squad". To start off my current reservations with the movie are simple. For starters the Suicide Squad in and of it's self as a concept that ONLY works in comic books and BARELY (if, that).

It's just a team of anti-heroes (more or less) who got some shine and notoriety for being slightly interesting enough to put in a group to help save the world in order to get their sentenced reduced. Hence the rotating door of members we've seen in recent years. Second, I hate Floyd Lawton. I hate Floyd Lawton with a passion. Ever since I've seen him in "Villains United" I've always hated that douche. He's just over all unlikable and I saw nothing redeeming about him (and please bare in mind that this is a group that featured a random Parademon as a member and yet Floyd was the most loathsome one of the bunch...dwell on that for a spell) by the time the book ended I was hoping he'd be revealed as a traitor so Catman or Deathstroke could put two (bullets) in his noggin and make him go the way of Uncle Ben (mixing companies, I know).

Third and my biggest issue with the movie is that this will unfortunately be the 1st live action Harley Quinn and it's not even Harley Quinn. This is not a slight on Margot Robbie, I've never seen her work, I know nothing about her, she's pretty but ultimately that's all I know, Harley Quinn is a character I do know, EXTREMELY well. Well enough to know that whoever the f*ck this is:

is not Harley Quinn. Sadly, this is the Harley Quinn from The (misbegotten) New 52...a DC Reboot which turned the vast majority of all their characters into diet Batman versions of their original selves. Everyone got darker and grittier updates and costumes, Starfire become a whore, Beastboy turned red, Huntress & The Flash somehow become Black, Superman boned Wonder Woman, good times...(I'm being PAINFULLY sarcastic) and then along came this new Harley Quinn (whom I've dubbed Whorely Quinn) and this took the piss right out of me.

Harley was a fun character, she was cute, genuinely funny and while yeah, she's completely and utterly psychotic and a criminal, she's also extremely nice and easy going. Not given to rage and even willing to look on the bright side of things. This is a chick who took baby presents to Black Canary when she found out she was pregnant, who shared an apartment with Holly Robinson at the end of (that godawful series that was) Countdown during the time where she tried to turn her life around, who dropped a dime on The New Scarface's crime ONLY because the original Scarface (Arnold Wesker) was actually kind to her in Arkham. Whorely Quinn is a slut who pleases truckers for 2 dollars while they eat their cheese burger. Harley Quinn was never a hardcore murderer. Even Batman realizes that Harley isn't a serious threat and can more or less reason with her (which he has, often!)

Long winded story aside, I find Whorely Quinn to be completely distasteful and an EXTREMELY poor representation of the character and unfortunately THIS will be the character that people will remember as mainstream and that sickens me. With all of that preamble out of the way, I decided to make this a real time review in order to avoid ranting posts on Facebook. So if you do watch the "Suicide Squad", you'll be able to following along and see how I feel about this movie every step of the way. And with all that being said, let's dive in

THE FOLLOWING REVIEW TAKES PLACES BETWEEN 4:00PM & 5:00PM, POSTS OCCUR IN REAL TIME

The Strange Review: The Gift

Good Gravy was this a damn good movie! I happened on this little gem when I caught the trailer when trying to watch a video on Youtube and two things stuck out to me: 1) Jason Bateman was FINALLY in a serious drama and I've ALWAYS said Jason Bateman would be AWESOME in a serious drama (Newsflash, he kicks ALL kinds of ass in this) and 2) From what I gleamed from the trailer this was gonna be one of those REAL thrillers, a real slow burn that when it gets there IT F*CKIN' GETS THERE! Well, this movie F*CKIN' GETS THERE and it gets there HARD! Quick summary, Jason Bateman and Rebecca Hall plays Simon & Robyn Callum, a couple who just moved to Los Angeles to start over and because of Simon's new job. While out buying stuff for the house, Simon runs into Gordon a.k.a Gordo played by the film's writer and director Joel Edgerton.

Upon meeting Gordo, Simon has no clue who he is, but starts to remember, with some coaxing that Gordo is someone Simon knew back in high school. Gordo is a kind of social awkward guy and he starts bringing gifts over to Simon's house and showing up uninvited. After awhile, it becomes clear that there's more to the story than just a few gifts. That's ALL I can say without spoiling anything! Honestly, this is the kind of movie I adore! Once again another CHARACTER driven story that doesn't require big budgets and CGI, NOPE, just great characters and a good story. Everyone brings their A Game here and it shows.  Jason Bateman, who normally plays the social awkward guy is AMAZING here. This whole movie is GREAT from start to finish. Honestly, if you like slow burning thrillers that don't turn into sh*t by the 3rd act, you'll LOVE this. Can't recommend it enough! Okay, on to some spoilers!

The Strange Review: Coherence

The term "indie movie" gets thrown around a lot, but no one can quite explain what exactly constitutes an "indie movie". After all, many a movie with small budgets and unknown actors manage to break into the mainstream: "The Blair Witch Project", "Paranormal Activity", "The Babadook", "It Follows" the list goes on and on, and while those films may have gotten where they are by excellent word of mouth, a realistic mystique or an endorsement from an established Hollywood mucky-muck, this film has none of that going for it. You'd think that'd hurt it but "Coherence", at least to me captures the full essence of what people mean when they say "indie movie". No, it's not dealing with themes of sexuality, no it's not a coming of age story like so many indie movies are and no, it's not a horror movie.

"Coherence" is a down-to-earth sci-fi/mystery film that manages to do SO much with so VERY little. The driving force of this movie isn't action sequences or well known actors (bare in mind the only "well known" actor in this film is Nicholas Brendon, and if you didn't have to Google him, then understand that you're in the minority) the driving force of this film is the characters. I came across "Coherence" completely by accident on IMDB of all places. I can't exactly explain how I came across it, but I did and just from a brief synopsis of the plot "Friends at a dinner party endure strange occurrences during a meteor shower", I knew I had to learn more. I went into this movie as cold as I possibly could and enjoyed every minute it. If you haven't seen "Coherence" I REALLY suggest you check it out, it's slow burning but it's all for a reason and you won't be disappointed if you're looking for a good sci-fi/mystery that doesn't get bogged down in science jargon that it can't tell a good story. To say more would be to give spoilers so I won't, go see "Coherence" now! After the break I WILL be talking spoilers!

The Strange Review: It Follows

So a few weeks ago, my wife and I had the pleasure to sit down and watch the much ballyhooed new cult classic "It Follows". I've heard Chris Stuckman and Jeremy Jahns review this film and they both claimed that despite not being scared, they enjoyed it. There's something to be said when a reviewers declare a movie to be the "Scariest film ever!" and other hyperbolic things like that. I'm gonna come right out and say it, much like "The Babadook", "It Follows" didn't scare me AT ALL, not in the slightest bit. That's not me being macho or putting on a facade, the film just wasn't scary and declaring this to be a scary movie in my humble opinion is mismarketing, it's actually a Thriller.

For those of you who don't know, "It Follows" tells the story of Jamie (or Jay, as she's called in the film) who is cursed to be followed by "It". "It" can take the shape of anyone and will do anything It needs to get close to It's victims. "It Follows" Jay as she tries to escape this curse.

This paragraph will be no spoiler as there is no way to talk about the film in depth without spoiling it. "It Follows" gets some brownie points for being filmed in my home town of Detroit, Michigan and actually making a reference to it in the film, but ultimately, it's not scary and my overall thoughts on the film is "It's not bad." and that's not entirely good. Saying "It's not bad." for me is like going to a restaurant, ordering a turkey sandwich and getting ham sandwich instead; Sure, the ham sandwich will do the same thing as the turkey sandwich, but it ain't what you ordered. This isn't to be entirely negative either, parts of the film worked, just the parts that REALLY needed to work unfortunately didn't. So if you're interested in an interesting movie that won't exactly scare you but entertain you for awhile, "It Follows" is entertaining, but nothing else really. And now for the REAL meat and potatoes...

The Strange Review: The Babadook

I wanted to do a video, and in all honesty, I did a video but the footage was crappy (last time I use a low light filter) so unfortunately I won't be posting videos. That begin said, my wife and I recently watched this movie and I wanted to discuss it because this is one of those "Take The Time" kinda movies. Movies that require a 1st, 2nd & 3rd viewing to really "get it". "The Babadook" is a movie about a woman named Amelia and her son Samuel. Amelia lost her husband in a tragic car accident seven years ago on the day Samuel was born. Samuel is an EXTREMELY hyper active child who is obsessed with monsters and sees them everywhere they go. When Samuel chooses a story for his mom to read to him at night, Samuel selects a book she's never seen before "Mister Babadook", a book about a boogeyman type creature that later goes on to terrorize them at every opportunity. So in case you haven't seen it, I encourage you to check it out as this review will contain spoilers.So let's dive into "The Babadook".

The Strange Review: Gone Girl

This is going to be a spoiler filled reviewed, so if you haven't seen "Gone Girl", GO WATCH IT, it's good! Since this is a spoiler review I'm going to talk about "Gone Girl" under the assumption that you've already seen it, so I won't rehash plot points, just discuss them. The reason I'm writing this is because there are a lot of reviews out there and I have to say one review in particular made me go "Seriously?". While I won't be writing in response to that review, I will be writing my thoughts on "Gone Girl" as a movie and it's overall themes. Please keep in mind that this is a review of the movie, NOT THE BOOK! But considering the screenwriter is the author, I think it's safe to say I'm looking at a pretty reliable adaptation. LAST CHANCE!! And now, "Gone Girl".