IT (2017), IT: Chapter 2 (2019) and IT: Welcome to Derry (Season 1)

Where Bill Skarsgard puts on a wonderful perfomance as an evil clown.

IT (2017)

The town of Derry in Maine USA has a problem, and no it's not a killer clown. It's that people there are stupid and/or cruel, and everyone enjoys splitting up and doing ridiculously stupid things like... reaching into a sewer where there's a freaking creepy clown talking to you? Yep, the standard horror stupidity-fare then. That aside, we've got a bunch of kids, bonded together from being bullied by the same bullies, who decide to go up against this evil (because adults don't care enough I guess [or are complicit, but the film failed to that clearly]), and this unlikely quest is pretty freaking cool and gross at the same time. Other than people passing the idiot ball around I did quite like this flick. Thumbs up!

IT: Chapter 2 (2019)

The surviving heroes from last time are now all grown up and are called back to Derry to face the killer clown once again, only this time most of them forgot what happened last time and its kinda frustrating to see them make the same damn mistakes over the course of this film. Still good effects and evil clownliness, but it feels like they toned the horror down here and added comedy instead. A segment in the middle which adds a lot of runtime possibly could have been handled better and yeah, I'm feeling the first movie was much stronger than this one. Nice of them to get the kid versions of the heroes back in here though.

IT: Welcome to Derry (Season 1)

Set years before the first movie, we get to learn more about the town with a different group of heroes. I must admit the first episode had me doubting that it would be as good as the movies, until I got to the end of the episode that is. Then it just dials up and up and actually becomes on par if not better than the first flick! With gore and a decently high death count this gets a big thumbs up from me here, and I can't wait to see the next season. 

The Mandalorian and Grogu and Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc

Movies for fans of the series. 

Mandalorian and Grogu

This movie continues the story from The Mandalorian, and has everyone's favorite bounty hunter "dad" continue to teach, protect and nurture his charge Grogu, while doing some kick ass bounty hunting stuff. While the story is just ok, on par with the series, the action is definitely amped up with more fighting sequences. The two title characters also take turns taking the lead which is pretty cool but makes for a long run time. Not that I'm complaining! If you liked the series, you'll definitely enjoy this.

Chainsaw Man: Reze Arc

This movie continuation of the animated series follows our protagonist Denji thinking with his wrong head again, spending at least the first half of the movie trying to get lucky with a girl (which tracks). While the art is always top notch, the animation really kicks in at the second half which holds all the destructive fighting. Slow start but it turned out to be ok. Worth a watch if you've enjoyed the series. If you haven't seen the series, try that first and see if its for you (you'll know in a the first episode). 

Brightburn and Boy Kills World

Movies about a boy killing the world?

Brightburn

A husband and wife praying for a child have their wishes granted when one falls from the sky in an alien spacecraft. They raise the kid as best as they can but going with nature always wins over nurture, once the kid hits puberty he starts getting violent and powerful. So yeah, this horror movie basically answers "what happens if superman was bad and somewhat sadistic"? It's goes just about as you'd expect which is not great. Predictable movies are predictable.

Boy Kills World

This action comedy movie takes predictable and throws it out the window. With a mute protagonist who is always voiced over and wants to revenge on the woman who controls everything through violence, the action scenes are great but totally unbelievable given the amount of bullets that miss our hero. It's funny with some really wacky parts (drugs!) but also gory which makes it a hard one to know who their target audience is. Me? So yes, the main plot is good but getting from point A to B is very convoluted, ridiculous and sometimes hilarious while the violence, especially the martial arts violence is well done. Worth putting on while you're doing something else if only to pay attention when the fight scenes start up.

Stranger Things and Boardwalk Empire

Two five season shows that are really good!

Stranger Things

Despite having reviewed Stranger Things adjacent stuff, I'm only now reviewing the TV series which has just finished at five seasons. Set in Hawkins USA in the 1980s it is the time of crazy hair, Dungeons and Dragons, and scary extra planar creatures who like abducting people. The story focuses on a group of kids who set out to find their missing friend and end up embroiled with the illegal and supernatural. 

Though the story does wax and wane through some seasons good acting and excellent set designs and monsters make for an exciting tale, and the nostalgia factor for those of us who lived that era and played/are still playing D&D will most likely get into it. For that really specific target group (and for horror fans), its a must watch if you haven't already. For other generations, its still a good show but your enjoyment of it might be more subdued.

Boardwalk Empire

This series is set in Atlantic City during the 1920's where Enoch Thompson (marvelously played by Steve Buscemi) set about making a fortune bootlegging during America's prohibition period all while rubbing shoulders with some notorious and violent gangsters from all over. Given the subject matter, there is a bit of nudity and a decent death count in this show. 

Excellent production, story, acting, cinematography and I was most impressed by the live musical numbers that dot the series throughout. If you like gangsters, you'll like this. If you don't like gangsters, you'll still like this. It's really that good. Highly recommended.

Cleaner and Nobody 2

Two movies where the hero gets loads of plot armor.

Cleaner

Joanna "Joey" (played by Daisy Ridley) has always liked climbing, as depicted in the opening of this flick where she is climbing around some super strong furniture. Fast forward and she's working as a window cleaner for some high rise building when a bunch of murderous eco-terrorists (who are incredibly slow with their trigger fingers) show up to take some corporate suits hostage. Too bad for them they didn't count on the ex-military cleaner chick hanging outside the window... and her autistic brother. It's... not great. I actually think G20, which has a very similar plot, is a better film (by just a little).

Nobody 2

Hutch (Bob Odenkirk) is back and needs to take his family on vacation but his "work", which involves gratuitous and hilarious violence, continues to follow him everywhere. The action and the humor are about the same from the first movie with just a different set decoration this time around, with some minor plot progression in tow - just like a holiday special right? If you liked the first movie, you'll enjoy this one too.

Genocyber and Takopi's Original Sin

Animes with unstable females.

Genocyber (1994)

In a future where scientists weaponize unstable little girls, they are hilariously surprised when the psybernetic (that's not a typo) weapon goes on a rampage and over the course of a handful of episodes quickly obliterates most of the planet. The old style anime art is well done and the stories are interesting enough but it would have been great if they gelled together a bit better instead of seemingly having time skip cold opens a few times. 

Takopi's Original Sin

A goofy alien that looks like a happy squid lands on Earth with the mission to make people happy and pairs up with an abused and suicidal teen. The animation of this one is really smooth with a violently depressing story (though I found some dark parts quite funny). I have a feeling that because the beatings depicted are more grounded to reality it actually hurts more than say the flurry of blows in Dragonball Z. Very different from my normal viewing, and very dark.  

Dexter: Resurrection and Superman (2025)

They're back!

Dexter: Resurrection

As good as the first Dexter show was, it did feel that the quality was dropping a little bit towards the end of its run and stayed or only slightly improved in Dexter: New Blood. This series is an excellent return to form of the early seasons with cameos aplenty from familiar faces and some serious acting talent with star Michael C. Hall especially in top form. The first season is amazing, highly recommended, and I hope the trend continues in season two! It goes without saying that you'll get more out of this if you've seen the previous shows first. :)

Superman (2025)

This latest version of Superman stars David Corenswet as he somehow gets his ass kicked by (Nicholas Hoult) Luthor's machinations throughout most of the movie, which does a good job being an origin story without being an origin story. Good thing there are other superheroes to back him up in this quirky tale that features some good action and decent CGI. Not bad, and the dog adds a lot. Probably won't be the preferred Superman to any who have seen any of the previous ones (so adjust expectations accordingly), but this one is fine as he is. 

Adolesence and Twilight of the Gods

Two Netflix series about killing!

Adolesence

This four episode British series starts off with the arrest of a 13 year old boy for murder and goes from there. It's a pretty heavy story in terms of content but also features excellent cinematography and acting, the primary reason for which is that each of the one hour episodes is all shot in a single take with no cuts. This is excellent TV and is high on my recommended list.

Twilight of the Gods (Season 1)

This Norse themed animated series has a high content of violence, gore, nudity and sex - definitely not for younger audiences! It follows a vengeful bride to be who goes after Thor with the help of Loki and more than a few other Norse mythological beings. I like the art style and the flowing animation but it suffers from characters passing the idiot ball which makes the tale far less epic than it's trying to be. I'll watch season 2 if they make it but am not so fussed if it never happens either.

The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep and Bogota: City of the Lost

Movies with ... colons in the title?

The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep

This animated film follows everyone's favorite Witcher, Geralt as he gets embroiled in basically a much darker version of the Little Mermaid. Sorry, the parallels are just too obvious! That said it has a good deal of violence, adult themes and an important Witcher spin on the whole thing that keeps it interesting. While the animation is ok, too much spinning can be found in Geralt's depicted combat style. Not bad but I'd recommend this only to Witcher fans, especially the game version of the Witcher since its the same voice actor.

Bogota: City of the Lost

En route to the USA, a Korean family is robbed of their money and travel documents in Bogota and they are forced to live there. Wishing for a better life the son decides to get involved with petty smuggling and working his way up the crime chain because this is one of those movies where crime pays. Outside the interesting Colombian environment this is a pretty stock standard and mostly predictable crime flick with backstabbing aplenty. Not terrible but not great either.

12 Strong and Changing Lanes (2002)

Movies of conflict - on the opposite ends of the scale! Wait... all movies have conflict...

12 Strong

After the 9/11 attacks, Captain Mitch Nelson (played by Chris Hemsworth) is eager to take on the Taliban on their home turf and is deployed covertly with a small squad (its in the name) to do just that. It does help that he has some significant air support though! Inspired by real events, most of this film is gun play - almost too much of it actually, because outside plenty war action bits there's not really much happening story wise (outside the, "we gotta go kill those guys"). Perfect if you just want to see people shooting each other and getting blown up though.    

Changing Lanes

Rushing to get to court a lawyer (played by Ben Affleck) has a minor collision with a recovering alcoholic (played by Samuel L. Jackson) which screws up both their respective cases: the alcoholic loses his custodial parenting rights while the lawyer loses an important document collected by the other man. So ensues a feud of escalation between the two parties which is the main focus for this film and while this two thirds of the movie is decently interesting, the first third where it just sets up the two characters is very slow. Watch it if there's nothing else on, but feel free to multi-task until that initial collision scene which is where the movie should have started.

Lioness and Landman

Taylor Sheridan continues to create entertaining stuff.

Lioness

This so far two season show stars Zoe Saldana as a CIA case officer who likes to yell that is in charge of the special "Lioness" task force / kill squad which involves her hiring / training up women to then infiltrate friends and family of the target followed by ultimately killing said target. There's a fair bit of action each episode with a strong tendency towards torture violence and nudity, which combined with explosions is one of my favorite combos! Obviously I'm enjoying this one even though the operators don't move as cleanly as those in Seal Team (TV). If you like easy on the brain violence then you might enjoy this one too.

Landman

The oil business is what keeps the world turning and this show focuses on one of the people that makes that happen: the "Landman" (played by Billy Bob Thornton) who buys up leases and manages them. If that sounds boring then you're in for a heck of a surprising first episode as a drug cartel happens to be one of those leases he needs to balance. It also gives a nice peek into how the oil industry runs and all that heavy/dirty stuff is off set by the ridiculous hi jinks of his family and friends. Recommended, and it will probably be more palpable than Lioness to more viewers.

Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion's Revenge and Battle of the Realms

"FIGHT!"

Scorpion's Revenge

This ultra violent animated martial arts film is based on the Mortal Kombat game franchise and somehow fits in a ton of characters, a decent story that has a decent script and character growth along side great and bloody action sequences which is a surprise coming from the Warner Brothers Animation studio. Highly entertaining an excellent film to occupy you for 80 minutes even if you know nothing of Mortal Kombat. Recommended!

Battle of the Realms

This sequel film continues with the ultra violent animation but loses a bit of ground in the plot department as there are a few things happening at the same time, which tries to mash together the tournament, a side quest involving robot ninjas, demons and a kaiju style fight for the finale. Yeah, they did this to include even more named characters but the result is the story isn't as tight - and as ridiculous as some of the Mortal Kombat stuff is to begin with, there are bits here that are really hilarious like: jumping off to certain death counting on a random gust of air to save you and "oh, this magic door needs a key to open so lets spend the whole movie getting the key to get in. How to get out? Easy, just shoot a hole in the ceiling and fly out! So... why didn't we do that to get in? ..."

Still, if you enjoyed the first one you'll most likely enjoy this not quite as good sequel. Still recommended. :)

Hazbin Hotel and Helluva Boss

Cartoons in Hell!

Hazbin Hotel (Season 1)

This violent animated musical about Lucifer's daughter trying to setup a hotel to redeem souls in hell is full of swearing and adult themes but also has some good musical numbers. As Juris pointed out, the best part about each song is that they actually advance the story in some way and the animation, while definitely on the cartoony side, is quite decent. Definitely NOT for kids and you'll need to watch the pilot episode on youtube but it still gets a thumbs up from me. Looking forward to season two!

Helluva Boss (2 Seasons so far)

Set in the same universe/hell as Hazbin Hotel this show (fully available on youtube) focuses on a corporation of lowly imps who act as assassins for hire. At least, that's what the first season hook is and when they get into fights it is gloriously bloody with smooth animation.

It also has musical numbers but less plot advance-y as Hazbin, and the focus switches to the characters early on, sometimes to characters not even in the main group, which kinda fizzles the interest for me. While this and Hazbin both fly the pride flag with very few straight characters, it's more in your face here because apparently that is where the main story lies (and not in the murdering business. Sad face). Still ok, and Stolas is a scene stealer, but Hazbin is better with its more solid plot (currently).

Lastly, because the focus for Helluva Boss is on the personal relationships and not a "plot" per se I think its main problem is the pacing, as suddenly all the other episodes are basically "filler". Cut out the excess and it will make the whole thing better. Currently I suggest: Pilot / (S1E6) Truth Seekers / (S2E4) Western Energy / (S2E8) The Full Moon. (S2 hasn't finished yet as of this post but I think S2E9 is also filler).

Callisto Protocol

Locked in with the monsters!

This single player sci-fi survival horror sees you imprisoned on what turns out to be the worst planet to be incarcerated as soon after the facility is overrun by humanoid monsters who are out to make you die in very violent and gory ways. It's especially cool since the graphics are really detailed! The voice actors and story are decent too!

While this is very reminiscent of Dead Space complete with an LED health tracker on your back (just ... why?) its not so much horror apart from the gore and jump scares for one simple reason: outside of a few set instances that you can sneak and stealth kill, you will be forced to hand to hand these things A LOT and win (or die in very specific and detailed ways).

Combat is pretty simple too, and these things drop currency that you need to create or upgrade tools, weapons and ammo so... the "horror" part really leaves the building when you are intentionally hunting the monsters down for loot. It's still a fun ride though and one I can recommend.

Vikings: Valhalla and The Fall of House Usher

TV shows with blood and killing!

Vikings: Valhalla

This three season show is a sequel to the Vikings TV show but set enough years forward that none of the original cast are around anymore and only get name dropped on occassion. Acting wise the new cast aren't any worse and the story still involves a number of decent fight scenes and court intrigue, though this time it also spans much greater distances. While the ending certainly feels like they "ran out of time" its still an entertaining enough watch - especially if you liked the original. That sword cuts both ways though, because if you didn't like the original series you're better off staying away as this is pretty much more of the same.

The Fall of House Usher

This modern single season horror series based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe follows the rise and, as per the title, catastrophic fall of the Usher family who are both criminally wealthy and very much on borrowed time. Nice cinematography and there's a good amount of blood and gore, but the early part of the story relies more on disturbing jump scares for its injection of horror which (apart from one excellent one) isn't really useful, because the audience is told from the get go who is dead, how they died and that there's a character "seeing things". The nature of the antagonist is what kept me watching though, and the writers really dangle that hook out there with each passing episode. If you like horror then you might enjoy this one, but you need to stick with it as it gets stronger the more episodes in you get.

Jujutsu Kaisen (Seasons 1-2) and 0 (movie)

It feels like Naruto, but better and bloodier.

This anime features some of the best combat animation I've seen for awhile. Where other series have slow story episodes so that the animators can make some epic fight scenes later on, this one throws that formula out the window with some crazy combat happening almost every single episode! The flip side of course is that the story does dip into silly territory often, to the point that it might be two minor characters you don't actually care about but they're having an epic animated fight. :P

The main premise of the show is a nice one though - our high school protagonist joins a secret group of sorcerer / martial artists to try kill an ultra powerful curse who he happens to be the host for. Thumbs up so far, though on my first watch I did not actually get that the main character is being possessed by the main villain. There are also awkward humor bits (Naruto does this better), and it did take me longer to warm up to the character roster here despite them even making the bad guys have silly and funny moments.

But the best part of this show is that it isn't afraid to kill its characters left, right and center. Things always pick up when that happens and this, along with the aforementioned animation, earns two thumbs up from me. Recommended, and I'm looking forward to season three!

Atlas, Industria and Ninja Kamui (Season 1)

Where future tech makes plot holes!

Atlas

In a world where AI had advanced so much they look a lot like people, then warred against their human creators and fled the planet, a random lead falls into the hands of the world government who call in a specialist scientist who hates robots (played by Jennifer Lopez) to team up with a force of humans riding robots to go fight the bad robots on bad robot planet. The opening narration kinda sounds as tacky as my sentence there, but this turned out to be an enjoyable but predictable film.

While the CGI is ok and the main plot points are decent, I feel the creators added things that they thought would be "cool" which puts many devils in the details. How exactly does an oxygen -mask- necklace provide air? THROUGH SCIENCE! How does this character achieve with almost zero training what the legion of trained extras failed to do? SCIENCE!? Control two extra arms made from 10 minutes of scrap metal bending? SCIENCE!!!! Seriously though, you need to like or at least not hate Jennifer Lopez if you watch this as she carries 3/4ths of the movie. I don't mind her acting so it's fine with me, but if for any reason you don't like her then definitely give this a skip.

Industria

This is a decent, albeit short first person shooter about messing with technology and getting transported to another world full or hostile machine men and machine dogs. Easy controls and simple enemies won't really challenge an experienced gamer but it is still good nonetheless thanks to the voice acting, the atmospheric maps, and the plot - which has some very strange bits that make no sense at all and leaving many questions unanswered - possibly to hook you in for the sequel. Thumbs up for this one.

Ninja Kamui (Season 1)

It is the future and the way of the ninja has gone global but due to a rift based on their code the loyalists brutally hunt down their rebel bretheren which leads to a John Wick scenario if John Wick was a futuristic ninja. Yes, the protagonist is pretty flat here as is the plot but the smooth and violent action scenes coupled with a decent sound track almost make up for it. I say almost because apparently since this is the future, ninjas eventually get mecha type armor suits then it becomes a bunch of robots fighting each other with martial arts. While that's ok-ish it really breaks the excellent combat streak that this show started with making season one finish with a "meh". If there's going to be a season two then this will really need to up its game.

Attack on Titan and Megalobox 2: Nomad

Start with despair and go from there.

Attack on Titan

I've mentioned this anime in passing many times through the years and now that its finally done I can review it properly! Featuring excellent art, awesome music and some pretty nice action scenes this show focuses on people who live in a walled city, trapped but safe(ish) from the ever hungry giants lurking outside who they refer to as Titans. It has one of the strongest openings of any story, and this momentum carries forward through the first few seasons but alas - peters out as the stranger events are given not-so-strong explanations and titans seemingly become less and less dangerous (because the protagonists are improving right? Like in the Walking Dead, season 1 a single zombie is like OMG, season 11 its "oh another zombie horde, whatever"). While I do still recommend it, I don't like the way the story went at the end so no perfect score from me here.

Megalobox 2: Nomad

We catch up with our protagonist Joe, five years after the events of Megalobox and he is not in a good place. The questions of "why?" and "what happened?" are what kept us around, despite the first part of the season having him serve only as a side character (which is weird but makes sense if you stick to it). While the first Megalobox was all about an underdog trying to clinch every win, this season is all about loss and is framed very differently. I made a comment about the original where everyone but Joe gets character development - well here he develops in spades. Recommended only if you liked the first season. If you can put up with the episodes at the start where he doesn't do much, it does improve and finishes pretty strong.

Echo and Solo Leveling (Season 1)

Weak protagonists gaining ridiculous powers.

Echo (Season 1)

This five episode series focuses on Maya, the titular Echo, who is a pretty disabled gangster (being deaf and missing a leg) previously working for Kingpin as was last seen in the Hawkeye series. Probably a good series to practice your sign language knowledge on as there is a LOT of it, but the story is very average and the action scenes and budget are subpar for a Marvel show (maybe just one fight near the start is good). I do enjoy that the protagonist is naturally very easy to sneak up on, and I hope that remains to be the case despite gaining some ancestral super powers, because its a superhero show and apparently because she's not good enough without powers? Mmm, what's your message here Disney? Lol. Only for die hard Marvel fans; everyone else can give this a miss.

Solo Leveling (Season 1)

The setting for this Korean anime is a strange one: present day but with fantasy monsters occasionally warping in from dungeon dimensions and modern equipment has no effect on them. Lucky there are people born as "hunters" who can fight and defeat these to protect the world. Yes, a hunter with a tiny dagger is more effective than a tank or Gatling gun versus a goblin. Just don't think about it.

Further more, hunters are ranked by strength and this never changes or fluctuates. A strong guy will always be that strong, never weaker / never stronger. Except for our protagonist who is the weakest hunter of all. For plot device reasons "the game" decides that he in fact CAN level up, and boy does he make use of it. While the plot isn't very deep the animation quality and fights of which there are PLENTY are very good. It also helps that there's a good amount of blood and gore thrown in there too. Quite entertaining if you just want an action anime. Recommended!

Doom Eternal

Doomguy exalted.

This FPS follows on from all the previous Doom titles and like those continues the trend of you fighting horrible demons in violent encounters while exploring a map for secret passages and power ups. As you are able to climb and swing off things there is an added jumping puzzle element here but that's very minor. The biggest difference is in the combat, as based on what you do to your enemies you might be generating ammo (chainsaw), health (melee gory kill), or armor (set them on fire then hurt them) or all the above.

As most major combats take place in arenas now you need to get really good at doing all the above (which by default means you can't be too far away) while under pressure. Enemies have their own weak spots too: the shoulder launchers for revenants, arm cannons of mancubi, tail for pinkies etc - just to keep you on your toes as you fight a more and more mixed bag of enemies with your ridiculously large arsenal of weapons, most of which have two modes of fire which you can switch mid battle as well as upgrade! All up a very solid entry to the Doom franchise.