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The Beatles: Get Back, a review by Antares

The Beatles: Get Back (2021) 60/100"White Album", amply illustrates what the world lost when the four went their separate ways after Abbey Road. The real beneficiary of the breakup was George, who was always my favorite Beatle, as he went into the studio and recorded , the album that released Harrison from the chains of bondage that the Lennon-McCartney partnership had forged. Neither John Lennon, nor Paul McCartney ever released an album post-breakup that reached anywhere near the strata of this seminal work from the "get back Jojo...Go home!". There's a moment early in the first episode where Lennon hasn't arrived at Twickenham and Paul is just piddling around on his bass and you see the framework for the song being hatched in Paul's brain. Throughout the first and second episodes, you see Lennon & McCartney adding new lines to the song. There's no malevolence towards Ono in this part of their creative process for the song. The things Lennon conjured up in his head for that interview never happened and probably was due to his discouragement at how his career was turning at that point. I've never blamed Ono for breaking up the Beatles. I think the Lennon we all saw in the mid to late seventies was her doing, but not when he was still in the band. In fact, I've seen other video of Linda Eastman adding her two cents in where it wasn't probably needed. She could be seen as "Yoko"ing Paul with her opinions too. The Beatles broke up because George was tired of only getting his allotted two songs on an album. There's another moment in the documentary where he bemoans the fact to John that he has enough songs to fulfill his part of the next 10 Beatles albums. You can sense his frustration at this fact and the result would be "All Things Must Pass". And he's right, the first two albums in that three album release are all quality songs that would have made his statement prophetic.

(From The Beatles: Get Back (2021) on December 28th, 2021)

The Creature From the Black Lagoon, a review by Danae Cassandra

The Creature From the Black Lagoon
Year of Release: 1954
Directed By: Jack Arnold
Starring: Richard Carlson, Julia Adams, Richard Denning
Genre: Horror, Science-Fiction

Overview:
Who knows what undiscovered life forms inhabit the bodies of water on our planet? When scientists exploring the Amazon River stumble on a "missing link" connecting humans and fish, they plan to capture it for later study. But the creature has plans of its own, inspired by the lead scientist's (Richard Carlson) beautiful fianceé, Kay (Julie Adams). This classic thriller is a genuine tribute to imaginative storytelling and an exceptional showcase for the legendary makeup artistry of Bud Westmore.

My Thoughts:
If the hallmark of a great creature feature is when you root for the creature, than this is surely one of the greatest.  Here we have the gill-man, a survivor of an ancient race, whose home is invaded by scientists who wish to capture, or kill him, in the name of furthering human knowledge.  Yet he recognizes that they are more like himself than the other creatures around him, and have a female with them - perhaps the only female that he has encountered close to himself.  It's easy to root for him - especially when the scientists are mostly so arrogant. 

The makeup and prosthetics work is impressive.  The Creature is perhaps the most impressive looking of Universal's classic monsters.  There is so much detail and work that went into him, that the film gets a star simply for the design of The Creature.  Add in the good script, good cinematography, great location shooting, and well done acting, even if the only female character is incredibly one note (the absolute classic damsel in distress), this is a film I would heartily recommend to any lover of monster movies. 

Bechdel Test: Fail

Overall: 3.75/5

(From Danae's 2013 Horror Marathon on October 25th, 2013)

Veronica Mars Marathon, a review by addicted2dvd

Episode 17: Kanes and Abel's
Why would Abel Koontz confess to a murder Veronica believes he didn't commit? Perhaps for a huge payoff to his daughter. Someone's trying to make sure the school valedictorian doesn't win the Kane Scholarship.

My Thoughts:
This was a good episode... not so much for the weekly mystery.... more so for how far we got on the season long mystery. I didn't find the weekly mystery all that entertaining this time.


Episode 18: Weapons of Class Destruction
Bomb scare: A new student is under suspicion when bomb threats lead to school evacuations. Bombshell: Veronica and Wallace cope with unexpected news from their parents.

My Thoughts:
This one was a really good episode... it touched on the season long mystery a little... but was mainly about the single episode mystery. Trying to find out who is sending bomb threats to the school... Veronica gets herself into the middle of things as always. One thing I really enjoyed was seeing a familiar face guest starring in this episode... it had Jonathan Taylor Thomas (Randy on Home Improvement) on this episode.

Episode 19: Hot Dogs
Veronica Mars: pet detective. Her search for a missing terrier leads to darker secrets. Aaron confronts his daughter's batterer and Weevil is arrested after breaking into Lilly's room.

My Thoughts:
This was another good episode... I enjoyed both the single episode mystery as well as the side story with Logan's sister (Allyson Hannigan)... shall we say having boyfriend problems... and I just love the way the boyfriend problems was handled! :-)


Episode 20: M.A.D.
Blackmailing the blackmailer. Veronica plots to stop a friend's vengeful ex-boyfriend from posting a salacious video. The Kanes offer a $50,000 reward to get their runaway son back home.

My Thoughts:
This was a good episode... not the greatest... but good. Towards the end I would have liked to see the girl make the other decision... but what can you do? I did like how it all finally ended up though.

(From Veronica Mars Marathon on August 26th, 2007)