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It's that time of year again. The annual rite of passage that taught me my entire life that football is indeed, bad. That's right, it's Georgia/Florida week, and we've got Justin from the Three Fifs Podcast back on the show to celebrate his birthday and for each of us to feel bad about our football teams. Plus, we catch up on the Tyler Skaggs story, the Jets going full Jets, and the return of the NBA. The sweet, sweet NBA.

Guest: Justin - @Ljay90

 

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It's been 8 seasons of Arrow and it's crazy to think about it, but China White has been a constant in the series. She first appeared in episode 2 of the series and here we are in season 8 and she pops back up. If this season of 8 is just taking us on a tour of previous locations and giving us a chance to see actors/characters that have been here since the beginning, we're here for it. 

Also the show confirms that Earth-2 was the Earth destroyed last week. So we're really erasing Earths out here. Which leads to an interesting question: Will Crisis end up with all of these shows finally end up in the same World? We'll see. 

Kriss and Dpalm record the Mailbag at the end of every month. If you want to send in your own questions and thoughts, email us: [email protected]

 

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Another week of the Flash and this time we’re getting blood zombies…because weird. Also, the legend of the Book of Ralph continues with a new addendum. It's too late to hop on the Ralph Hive train. It's been fun watching the characters on this show come into their own. Obviously Ralph is a great example of that but so have all the other characters. 

We like what they're doing with Dr. Rosso/Bloodwork so far. And we have our first Wells appearance of the season. But what is he after? 

Kriss and Dpalm record the Mailbag at the end of every month. If you want to send in your own questions and thoughts, email us: [email protected]

 

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Dolemite is My Name Introduces Dolemite not Rudy 

The fall film slate looks set to put stories inspired by true events or real people center stage; with an interesting twist. The biopics on the horizon all seem to focus on either a single defining event or such a short period of time it's hardly fair to saddle the project with the term. Netflix Original Dolemite is My Name takes it a step further. Its story's built around this fictional character created by Rudy Ray Moore and the impact it has on his life.

Kriss reviewed Dolemite during the TIFF focusing on how Rudy Ray Moore transformed himself into the now iconic blaxploitation character known as Dolemite. While both Brandon and Ro both agree Eddie Murphy and Da’Vine Joy Randolph stand out and bring depth and flair their roles and nicely anchor this ensemble cast, they feel this film is less a biopic and more of an introduction...and that's a good thing. 

Glimpses of the Man Behind the Caricature 

Dolemite is My Name showcases community, charisma and the value of satire and caricature. Eddie Murphy portrayal of Rudy Ray Moore solidly revolves around this man's belief that he's going to be a star. This is a man not embittered by previous failures rather embolden by his belief in himself and his desire to prove his detractors wrong. 

For all the seriousness stories centering a man desperately seeking fame, Dolemite (like its namesake) is irreverent, informative, and subtly insightful.  This smart offers insight to Rudy's life prior to creating Dolemite but never shifts its focus off its main character. It's refreshingly simple in in presentation and richly complex in perspective. It's easy to miss the under currents amidst the laughter and ridiculous but there's plenty here to make it worth a watch.  Then hit the Google because Rudy Ray Moore's life journey is pretty damn interesting. 

Listen to Ro and Brandon talk their likes, dislikes, high and low points in their spoiler-free audio review. 

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Man Blurred Lines indeed.  Everyone behaved like some big dummies in this episode.   Kara mistinterprets Jimmy's advice about friendship.  J'onn erases a whole ass person from everyone's memory, including his own.  Kelly stays in everyone's business and it almost gets her killed.  William Day is being super shady and we don't know what his endgame is.  Finally, Lena...baby what is you doing?  We also chat about the sale of Rise of the Skywalker tickets.   

 

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It's that time of the year as the Association tips off this coming Thursday! What better way to knock out a preview than to break down the projected win totals for all 32 teams? We also talk about the Astros walk off homer, who team doctors actually work for, and YOUR Columbia Lions stomping out UPenn.

Guest: Mike

 

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In Maleficent: Mistress of Evil returns to the tale of Sleeping Beauty five years later. Aurora is Queen and Maleficent still the protector of the Moors and the land is seemingly at peace. But rumors of the fairy-cursed child whisper across the land causing its human inhabitants to once, again view Maleficent as dangerously evil. It's at this point, Mistress of Evil begins its story (and Phenom's issues, Ro made it perhaps five minutes further into the mix before side-eyeing the screen...). 

Phenom and Ro both agree (pretty much the only time) that the look and tonal quality of Mistress of Evil more than serves to set the stage for a return to this fantastical realm and its magical (and mundane) inhabitants. But this beautifully rendered world is hardly an integral part of the story. It's a shame how little its explored this time around; a wasteful shame. That sentiment, unfortunately sums up the MTR crew's overall feelings about this film. 

Maleficent: Mistress of Evil Tries To Do Too Much 

What starts out a straightforward story about combining families through marriage (and joining/saving kingdoms because that's totally what princesses are for in Disney-land) turns into Guess Who's Coming to dinner (Michelle Pfeiffer is a perfect villainous Queen; her petty is just that good). 

Angelina Jolie is Maleficent, Sam Riley is Diaval, Jenn Murray is Gerda, Harris Dickinson is Prince Phillip, Elle Fanning is Aurora, Robert Lindsay is King John and Michelle Pfeiffer is Queen Ingrith in Disney’s live-action MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL.

 

 

 

 

This should've been Maleficent's story from beginning to end and not just because Chiwetel Ejiofor and Ed Skrein deserved more screen time. The story of the dark fairies is hands down the most interesting part of the plot. It offers the most opportunity for world-building, character exploration, and moving the myth of Maleficent, godmother and protector of the Moors, forward beyond its starting point. 

Chiwetel Ejiofor is Connal in Disney’s MALEFICENT: MISTRESS OF EVIL.

Instead, the story morphs into a war between humans and the Fae with a side Maleficent (and the dark fairies) origin story. Disney tried to shove an entire trilogy in a single film. It couldn't resist letting a Disney princess in need of a wedding ultimately hijack the narrative.  

Wasted Opportunities 

While the story narrative is cohesive, it focus is too often split across poorly developed characters and paper thin tension-building. Instead of building on the 2014 hit's story, Mistress of Evil presses the reset to default Disney settings and leaves Angelina Jolie performing in a film it's painfully obvious she's emoting too hard for. 

Mistress of Evil is more than merely watchable...barely. Just don't expect too much integrity in the narrative. But do expect disloyalty, betrayal, an inexplicable lack of communication, and genocidal warmongering. 

Once again, Kriss abandon Phenom and Ro in the land of well-meaning sequels by skipping Maleficent: Mistress of Evil any Kriss-slander is, entirely his own fault. He knows what happens if you leave Phenom unsupervised. 

Listen to Ro and Phenom try to pinpoint exactly what pulled them out of Disney's latest offering and find out exactly how much Ro is over damsels in distress.

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With all the great things that happened in Arrow S8E1 Starling City, it says something to me that one of the most satisfying things was watching Oliver put a knee to the face of Earth-2 Rene. Look, Rene is STILL a snitch and deserves beatdowns from Ollie any time there's an opportunity. Sorry not sorry.

Anyway, the final season of Arrow takes us all the way back to the beginning....sorta. We have more information on what Oliver is doing for The Monitor to prepare for the upcoming Crisis. We also get to witness first hand an Earth being erased. As we said on The Flash review, Crisis is inevitable. 

Please get Diggle a Power Ring and stop making him strap on this ridiculous helmetPhoto Credit: CW

Some things that stood out this episode:

It was great to see Moira again. Susanna Thompson has been missed. Also missed has been the chemistry she has with Stephen Amell. Say what you want about Amell's acting chops, his scenes with Thompson are always fantastic and seeing them reunited this episode (even briefly) was wonderful

Batman is clearly coming. Obviously we have the Batwoman TV show but there's been too many mentions of Bruce Wayne and the Dark Knight in the Arrowverse prior to that to ignore. And we get a direct mention of Bruce Wayne this episode

Adrian Chase as the Hood with Laurel training him. I love that no matter the Earth, Adrian and Oliver just don't like each other, even if they're on the same side. Also, it's nice to see Laurel stepping up and being the hero Oliver knew she could be. 

Speaking of Laurel and heroes, the future plot line is super interesting and is shaping up to be a great backdoor pilot for Canaries. With Laurel's Earth now seemingly destroyed, it makes sense she would come back and help form the Canaries to carry on the task of heroes

Oliver and Diggle. Brothers to the end. Also, give Diggle a Power Ring. Watching him strap on that bicycle helmet made it look even more ridiculous

Kriss and Dpalm record the Mailbag at the end of every month. If you want to send in your own questions and thoughts, email us: [email protected]

 

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If there's one thing to take away from the The Flash S6E2 A Flash of Lightning, it's that the coming Crisis is inevitable. Instead of trying to drag out the beginning half of this season with Barry and Iris trying to figure out a way to avoid his upcoming sacrifice, in two episodes we've come to a place of acceptance. Thanks to a great Black Fatherhood Moment from Joe, Barry seems to accept that in order to save billions on multiple worlds, he will have to make the ultimate sacrifice. Now, we don't believe he actually will but it feels good to not waste time. Barry is a hero and his costume is a uniform. This is the job and the duty and Barry is going to run towards the danger, not away from it.

The Flash -- "A Flash of the Lightning" -- Pictured (L-R): Grant Gustin as Barry Allen, John Wesley Shipp as Jay Garrick and Michelle Harrison as Joan Williams -- Photo: Robert Falconer/The CW -- © 2019 The CW Network, LLC. All rights reserved

 

Other things that stand out in this The Flash S6E2:

Cecile leaving the District Attorney's office to become a defense attorney and advocate for Metahumans is an excellent idea. It gives a lot more room for her character to grow and also will also put her more in the think of things. Not to mention, while Joe wasn't right (come on Joe, you can't say that to your wife who reads minds) he was right in that the advocacy that Cecile wants to do isn't best served as a prosecutor but as a defender

Ralph continues to impress. After the stumbles of Season 4, Ralph has become such a great character. He's helped his team both with getting through rough emotional times and as a detective and superhero. He's gone from being a liability and annoyance to one of the most dependable (and likable) characters on the show.

While Iris and Barry have reached the "acceptance" stage of grief, it's also important and makes sense that Iris is still struggling with this. Iris has gone through so much. She's lost her fiancé in season one (Sorry Eddie), she's just watched her daughter be erased from the timeline and she's watched Barry continue to sacrifice himself. This time is different though. Barry isn't just "disappearing" or making a last minute sacrifice. They know that Barry is slated to die and right now, it's the only choice. It makes sense that she's struggling with this even if she's accepted that it is something he must do.

We'll find out more next week but it seems that they'll be doing something interesting with Dr. Rosso/Bloodwork. There's very little to go on with source material so there's definitely room to improve and adjust.

Chester (Chunk) is still around!

Listen to our full review as we chat about The Flash S6E1 A Flash of Lightning.

Kriss and Dpalm record the Mailbag at the end of every month. If you want to send in your own questions and thoughts, email us: [email protected]

 

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We review the first two episodes of Season 5.  We agree the opening is strong, and it seems like we have the opportunity for three character arcs, with Hope/Skynet getting a body EDI style, J'onn's brother back to wreak havoc, and the mystery behind the sexy new Brit and Rojas at Catco.  Melissa acts her ass of in episode 1, channeling Grant Gustin's ability to make you cry when they are crying, as she struggles with coming clean with Lena.  Lena is deliciously jaded and we love it!  Nia and Brainy are the ship we've been waiting for, and The Doctor is worried that they are shaping Kelly up to be the magical negress on the show.  Take a listen!

 

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