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Riverdale: Chapter Fifty-One: Big Fun (2019)
Riverdale Masters Musical Tofu
Imagine thinking that a musical is the moment where Riverdale gets "too crazy" or "too not normal". Especially when in the past 2 Seasons we have had 3 cases of arson, two murderers, a mind controlling table top game that has a supernatural overseer, a principal who held students at gun point, a teenage fight club, a high schooler who owns a lavish speakeasy, and a flashback episode where the modern characters play their parents, and yet most think that the musical is where it became unrealistic.
As per tradition now Riverdale has given us yet another mediocre musical episode. The actual music itself ranges from "decent" to "bland". While no track stuck out as ear grating, most lack impact. From flaccid production to lifeless performances to some occasionally truly terrible arrangements, the entire thing feels like they had a few decent hooks and rushed the rest. The opening hook and "Seventeen" serve as the best hooks and by the end they are so drug into the ground that I wouldn't even want to listen to them outside of the episode itself due to overexposure.
The dances are lame, cinematography is by the numbers, and the writing is typical Riverdale inconsistent nonsense. Nearly at its conclusion Riverdale has not given us any concrete facts about "The Farm" and the fact that "The farm" has taken over both the Lodge Mayor plot and the G&G plot makes that fact even more frustrating. There is a fine line between giving the audience too little and giving them too much, and Riverdale has been stuck on its first step of what "The farm" is for so long that it ends up crossing that line on both sides, giving us no satisfactory answers or questions. There is also other fluff that is just incorporated in order to pad what is already a lengthy season. Why are Toni and Cheryl fighting? Not even they know, and it leads to unnecessary drama that borders on unwatchable. To be fair, most of the relationship drama in the season can be described similarly.
Riverdale continues to be consistently inconsistent, and this musical episode doesn't help anything. Much as is tradition with Season 3, Riverdale can't commit to one outlandish concept without falling back onto their old lame tricks to try and keep some sort of plot consistency, and that in of itself makes it feel half baked and lame.
The Angry Video Game Nerd: Super Hydlide and Virtual Hydlide (2018)
As the AVGN Shifts to Amazon, The Quality Returns
As a long time follower of the AVGN (Since around 2008) it goes without saying that there will be some duds. However in the post-movie era of the AVGN there have been more duds than wins. This shift in quality from the informative yet strangely grounded pre-movie episodes to the more overacted post-movie episodes has been most noticeable in the more recent seasons. This quality reached an all time low in Season 9 and Season 10 which both relied heavily on the same set-up which, ironically, has the Nerd rambling about how "how long must I do this" and "Its been so many years!" and "I should quit". While it was an interesting way to celebrate the impending 10 year celebration it never felt entirely genuine and only grew more groansome by the third season of the same set ups. And by the 5th time it happened in Season 12's opening episode I felt that this was going to be another batch of mediocre-forced AVGN episodes. However, once James started to release a few "pairs" of episodes on Amazon the quality began to once again return to a nice middle ground between the Pre-Movie informative Nerd and the special effects heavy Post-Movie nerd.
This sense of improvement is definitely evident in the two most recent episodes, "Resident Evil: Survivor" and "Super Hydlide and Virutal Hydlide". Both episodes have a good mixture of new and comical ways to deconstruct these awful video games while still including just enough special effect moments (The RE1 Opening scene in The Resident Evil episode) as to make the episode creatively satisfying. Both episodes even have enough content as to not feel too short which also helps the season feel the most cohesive in years. It's nice to actually have a good couple of laughs from AVGN instead of just a few mild winces. Hopefully this quality will continue to climb.
Psych: 100 Clues (2013)
Blech... Under-Cooked and Disappointing
As a big fan of the Clue movie (and of Psych, of course) this episode should be one of my favorites, most of the actors reprising their roles in the Psych universe for a special 100th episode with nothing but references should have been a match made in heaven... but I felt this episode was a tad off.
I won't lie, there are defiantly jokes that work and references that work, but it seems as though everything was just either poorly paced or just there for the sake of attempting to tie it all together. The first major blow was defiantly the fact that it takes a shocking 15- 20 minutes to even get to the murder (Which is half the episode). The reason why it takes 15-20 minutes is because they focused a bit too much on the pre-house segments. The opening flashback, while required for the plot defiantly, went on way too long and could have been quickly cut down to 1 minute or so instead of the nearly 3 minutes it takes. The first 20 minutes are very slow paced and some of the jokes just don't hit (The showtune while cute ended on a zinger that leaves me groaning more than laughing)
The second half moves way too fast though. As soon as the murder happens it is all go and no breaks which leads to a disjointed feeling. One moment they are interviewing the characters and the next they say that they got some info against all of them, but they never show any of it because it goes by too fast.
I feel as though with all of these characters they have to introduce and give motive they simply didn't have enough time or just didn't refine the script enough. Then we have the ending which, for a normal episode would come with about 6-7 minutes left with the last bit being a bit more of the characters explaining more about the culprit or something comedic happening, however in this episode directly after the culprit is caught we get 2 more zingers (both pretty funny and nice references) and then it just ends.
For the special 100th episode it was really messy and should have spent a bit more time cooking. Extending it past its 42 minute run time would have greatly helped, along with more cleaver jokes I feel...
House of Anubis (2011)
A Nice Surprise Even 5 Years Later...
When I first saw this saw back in the middle of my 6th grade year I didn't know what to expect. A story-driven comedy adventure airing on Nick? Surprisingly though it works really well. While there are some "childish" moments there is indeed a very interesting plot through each of the 3 seasons (I haven't finished the third season so I can't really say.. I stopped following after my 7th grade year with Season 2) Of the approximate 60 episodes per season each totaling at about 11 minutes per episode there is just enough to push each plot and to leave the viewer coming back the next day with even more questions.
Upon re-watching it, a few things I must mention to an older, 17+ audience: The characters, while starting a bit obnoxious, really come into their own as the series continues and the drama rises. The acting is... meh. Some are decent actors but a lot of them wear the British twang a bit too much (Patricia specifically) which leads to some borderline "Whine" like performances and line delivery.
The comedy is usually childish with some annoying noises and characters acting silly... but as the series goes on and you learn more about the characters the jokes go from slapstick "meh" fest to really funny character jabs. (One of my favorites is when the make fun of Victor in season 2)
The show really becomes second nature and I have many fond memories of Season 2's middle being EXCELLENT. The plot in the first two seasons are convoluted to a point where it becomes a Joy (pun not intended) to watch unfold and how many ties the different strings of the mysteries really have.
Overall, give this show a shot.. like what you see? (The sometimes corny-British heavy mystery serialized show) Then defiantly check out Season 2.
Pixels (2015)
Could have been a LOT worse.
Now I am going to just say that I am not a fan of Adam Sandler. While, I'm sure, a nice guy I just can not get behind his comedy style of poop and pee jokes with some sexual references. So when I heard that good ol' Adam and his regular crew of Kevin James (Paul Blart), Peter Dinklige (of Game of Thrones fame) and Josh Gad (Olaf from 'Frozen') were creating a Video Game based film I was suckered in to checking it out. The plot is Video Games take over, not going to make the 'Futurama' comparison. Of course though, unless you saw the trailer you probably wouldn't know WHY the aliens take over. Sadly they only have a few lines in the script that explain why they attack. Now this isn't really a problem if you saw the trailers, but if you are going into this blind viewers may be confused. As it goes on it just becomes a big pile of clichés that does make way for some interesting battles and references but really doesn't stick. I was surprised when I started laughing a bit. Not often (yes there is the obligatory Happy Madison touch with a few pee, poo and sex jokes) but enough to make myself happy. Something about Adam's cocky personality in this that really makes most of his character jabs something to laugh at. Good enough but could have been better. Now facts. They got a few video game facts wrong. Firstly, I won't spoil it here, but once you see it you will realize the problem especially since these are arcade games. Additionally according to the plot they sent the space thing in 1983 or so. Mario (8-bit NES sprite) didn't exist and in the background during one of the battles he is there. Also, Donkey Kong didn't have set stages like shown in the intro so that's wrong. And there are many other little errors but I won't waste your time here. And the Sony product placements? Don't get me started on that! Overall I am shocked at the rating. Even me, the Happy Madison Production hating self enjoyed this movie more then I thought. Will I watch it again? Maybe. Will I buy it on DVD? No. Do I regret watching it? No. You done good Adam Sandler. Just next time don't make Kevin James president and make yourself a hip gamer. Please.
Sonic Boom (2014)
A Show With a Serious Flaw
Sonic Boom, without mentioning the dreadful Wii U game, is a comedy- adventure TV Show that is currently airing early every Saturday on Cartoon Network. The show attempts to be funny, and while it can easily be really funny... it unfortunately falls to one major flaw. It repeats itself... constantly. Multiple episodes start with Eggman (the villain) doing something that he claims as a, "new leaf" and everyone falls for it... 8 minutes later surprise surprise Eggman had an evil plan all along. Now, for an episode or two it would be predictable... but not terrible, however it seems that they thought that this was such a good twist that they used it over 5 times. S1E2, S1E4, S1E6, and S1E18 as just a few examples. Now, there are some really great ideas.. like one episode a tribute to "Dude Where's My Car!?" and an episode about Eggman suing Sonic over a fake neck injury. But, most come down to the same surprise ending of Eggman getting beat with no variety. Additionally the English dub is obnoxious. Eggman's VA is great as always but Sonic, Sticks, and Knuckles come down to something that is ear grating. Overall I recommend checking out a few episodes, but not many.
Sex and the Teenage Mind (2002)
A Perfect Example on how NOT to do a Teen Comedy!
Luckily I was someone who caught this movie on Crackle instead of paying for it which was one of the only pros of this.. to stay nice... lackluster teenage comedy coming from what people call "The Golden- Age of Gross out Teenage Comedy", films like American Pie, Saving Silverman, Road Trip, among others. The idea of the title actually makes sense when looking at the premise, as most of the ideas that they come with to get laid are thought up and so like the title insane. The acting is pretty poor and the writing is dreadful. It seems as though they write the characters to be "the fat one who eats cause he is fat haha" instead of what American Pie did and put "The jock with a good pleasant heart" or "The good nerd who just wants to get laid", sure they still weren't "stellar" character traits but they sure had a bit of effort put into them. The ending was... bad. I am not going to spoil it but it was shocking, but really awful. It seemed as though they thought that their ending was too over the top so they decided to try again, and still failed. If you can watch this for free by legal means then I recommend watching it just as a showcase on how to NOT do a teen comedy. Otherwise Skip skip skip skip skip!
Napoleon Dynamite (2004)
That was... a movie?
After being told over and over that "Napoleon Dynamite is the king of all comedy!" I was pretty psyched to see it during class one day in school... boy did that revert my optimism to a large list of problems. Now don't get me wrong this film isn't the worst thing ever, it just tried too hard to be funny that it came off as a try-hard instead of a good comedy. They are literally given a set up that could lead to a hilarious slapstick or comedic timing joke but they ultimately don't take the lead and just zoom in on Napoleon's face because they think that a extreme close up is the funniest thing since sliced bread. Even when it ins't focusing on trying to be funny it is trying to tell a story that seems to be two TV episodes stuck together and extended to 90 minutes. (92 minutes technically.) The first half is about one thing, then the second half forgets everything that happened in the first half, doesn't help that some deus ex machina's are thrown around just to cover up plot points that the writers seem to want to remove from the film without coming up with a creative conclusion. It seems that they had an idea for a film, but then got distracted creating the finale (which I won't spoil, but it seems to have the most effort put into it, although you've probably had it shoved down your throat like I have.) I did have a chuckle at a few moments, but the awful dialogue that just seems to be awkward because that is what the writers think is funny really hurt my enjoyment of it. I wanted to love this film, the opening shot was fantastic and creative when using the foods to write the credits! Everything is just a mushy mixture of trying too hard and not trying enough to keep me invested into it for 92 minutes of my life. I would not recommend.