Nerd Legion

Time Bandits from 1981 is Terry Gilliam's first film after his efforts with Monty Python, announcing the arrival of a wildly creative director striking out in his own direction. While slow and clunky at times, the film retains much of Monty Python's deadpan and surreal humor while offering highly memorable scenes and an utterly unforgettable concept. Monte discusses his nostalgia for Time Bandits while DoA watches with fresh eyes, providing a unique breakdown of this cult classic.

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The Boys Season 4 is finished and, unfortunately, hasn't gotten much better since Monte & DoA discussed the first three episodes. The whole season feels like unnecessary filler, particularly with the re-introduction of Soldier Boy in the final moments of the season finale. Hughie's plot armor somehow only gets thicker the longer the show goes on and this season is completely crammed with pointless plotlines from Frenchie to Neuman. The Boys fails to present compelling or funny satire, reaching instead for the low-hanging fruit of modern politics without offering a compelling twist or interesting interpretation.

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Star Wars' The Acolyte finishes its first - and hopefully only - season on Disney+ and, unfortunately, ends as badly as it begun. DoA and MonteCristo conduct their final review of the first season, including a live watch along with episode 8. Our hosts are appalled with the recycling of Star Wars tropes within the series, the reliance on deus ex machina to advance plot points, the lack of ability to care about any of the characters, and more. They finish off the episode with some cross over ideas, including cures for Cortosis and a pitch for a new kids comedy movie: The Jedi Trap.

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Sony's latest disastrous attempt at a superhero film, 2024's Madame Web, is almost unbelievably bad, boring, and poorly acted. Perhaps undermined by significant re-writes and changes in post-production, it's possible that the original vision of the movie may have been of passable quality. MonteCristo and DoA discuss just how awful the film is and debate whether it successfully moves from regular bad to comedically bad and its potential as a cult classic. Nerd Legion debuts a new, segment-based format this week, so let us know what you think!

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While many laud the first five seasons of Game of Thrones, can House of the Dragon be held to the same lofty standard at the start of the second season? This show refines its predecessor and provides a sharp and focused narrative on feudal politics and a believable succession crisis within the Targaryen family. Monte and DoA discuss the first season of House of the Dragon and the start of the second, focusing on the intricately-wrought intrigue, the wonderful acting, and the depth of the world of Westeros.

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Amazon Prime has released the fourth season of The Boys, which was very quick to un-do almost everything that occurred in the previous season. While the stellar acting, particularly by Antony Starr as Homelander, remains, much of the plot revolves around copy/pasting modern politics into the show without the artfulness or cleverness of satire. While Monte and DoA still enjoy some of the plotlines, particularly around Vought and Neumann, the new story arcs seem lifted from soap operas, such as Frenchie's love affair and Ryan's plight with his father. The result is an uneven series forced to forget almost all the events of Soldier Boy and Temp V in the third season, which makes it an unsatisfying continuation.

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Star Wars is back with The Acolyte and the franchise may have finally hit rock bottom. The new show on Disney+ is a nonsensical mess that backfires in its thematic choices and leaves viewers bored and with virtually no characters or plotlines to care about. Monte and DoA break down this televised catastrophe and wonder how Disney managed to collect such a unique combination of terrible writers, actors, and producers to waste $180 million.

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Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga debuted to critical acclaim, but weak box office sales. Monte and DoA discuss George Miller's latest effort and whether it lives up to the Mad Max legacy. With compelling performances from Chris Hemsworth and Anya Taylor-Joy, Furiosa continues in the vein of Fury Road with epic chase sequences and further world-building around the Citadel of the film. The question remains: did anyone actually want this prequel or would it have been better to continue where Fury Road left off?

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Disney+ has revived the late '90's X-Men animated series with a sequel set in the same era, X-Men '97. Resurrected by pop-culture necromancer Beau Demayo, this series may appeal to millennials desperate for any form of nostaligia, but for the uninitiated it may be jammed with too many subplots and other distractions. While many reviewers are raving about this show, DoA and Monte found the core storypoints and faithfulness to the X-Men universe compelling, but lacked the same enthusiasm for the series as other critics.

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40 years after its release, Nerd Legion revisits David Lynch's version of Dune from 1984, which stars Kyle MacLachlan as Paul Atreides. DoA and Monte discuss the differences between this first attempt to put Dune on film with the recent Denis Villeneuve epic, both appreciating and laughing at some of the decisions made in this interpretation. While perhaps the source material was too challenging for the technological limits of the era, Lynch's Dune still contains some impressive visuals, performance, and an intriguing exploration into the expansion of consciousness.

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