The Flash Review

 

Full dislcosure.... I did not see this movie in the movie thearte.  On Fathers Day weekend my present was to spend the day with my kids.  No phones, no friends, no going out- just them and me and watching movies and playing games. 

So in the process of looking for something to watch on the Firestick, I noticed there was a copy of the Flash movie.  Now those who have a Firestick know that even tho a movie is listed there and with a link, it does not always mean that movie is the ACTUAL movie that will load when you click that link.  As it was opening weekend for the Flash, I did not think it would be there.... and yet it was.  Not only that, it was a very clear digital copy AND even with closed captions. 

My cat enjoyed it more than me

So with all that being said.... its not a very good movie.  No matter what anyone tells you- whether its Tom Cruise of David Zaslov, its not a good movie and honestly, I am not sure if they could have made a good movie under the circumstances.  Between the delays, the switch in direction away from Snyder, but still Snyder adjacent, to the absolute crime spree the star of the movie went on, this movie was jinxed from the start.  And I think the studio knew it which is why they fell into a, " screw it! Let's try and do anything and everything and see what sticks."  And that is the movie you have, some parts cool, some parts so cringeworthy bad that- if I had been in the movie thearte, I woulda walked out.  Something we talk about alot at Brothascomics is fan service: good and bad.  This movie is bad fan service. Guest stars and cameos are substitted for plot and while that may make some fanboys happy, it does not make for a coherent movie.  

If you want me to summarize, Barry Allen is still hanuted by the unsolved death of his mother and in looking to fix it, he screws up the timeline by going back to the point before his mom is killed in an effor to fix it.  That creates all these multiverse scenarios with Michael Keaton Batman appearing, Supergirl appearing, and for some reason General Zod from Man of Steel but in the same universe as Batman V Superman?  The movie is a race against time and a race to the next guest star and still these tie ins back to the Snyderverse.  And for the life of me, I will never understand the fascination with that director and those movies and this movie should be (hopefully) the death knell of that universe.  Its been a crutch at best and an anchor at worst for all the movies since Justice League and for the Flash its a whole ass anchor.

Nightmare Fuel

The acting is fine enough.  If you enjoy Keaton as Batman, this is great nostalgia.  If you enjoy good visual effects, this is not a good movie for you.  If you want to just see cameos of some of your favorite DC characters fron long ago, this is a great movie for you but if you want any of it to make actual sense, this is not the movie for you.

Maybe I missed the largeness of the movie by not seeing it at the movies.  Maybe on the big screen the weight of the entire thing woulda seemed larger and made the stakes more relevant but for me- a casual Flash fan, this movie was just another disappointment in the long list of disapointments from DC.  They literally have some of the biggest IP's ever and cannot get their characters and movies right for the life of them.  Understandibly, the movie is a failure at the box office and its not only because the movie is bad, its because DC's has soured the fan base and no one trusts that they can make a good movie and the Flash- in Speed Force fashion proved it again.

The Producer

Cartoons and Cereal Part 3: Kidd Video

 

Our summer podcast series about Saturday morning cartoons is back
with episode 3 focusing on Kidd Video.  The Producer defends the show and why he watched it while Big Hutch and Multigrain Beavis cannot fully understand why he liked it... until he breaks out his pie chart!  Fun listen all around!!  Be sure to rate and subscribe!

RIP John Romita, Sr

 

One of the greatest artist of all time has passed... John Romita, Sr.  If you love Spider-Man, its probably because of his artwork which has been copied by so many artist since then.  RIP 

Reporting from CNN

https://www.cnn.com/style/article/john-romita-sr-marvel-death-scli-intl/index.html

What We Missed in Wrestling: Summer Slam 1990

 

We are back with our What we Missed in Wrestling podcast as we recap WCW and WWE/F PPV's in the time frame from when we stopped watching pro wrestling.  This week its Summer Slam 1990 and as far as WWF PPV's we have watched, this one is the least terrible.  Our double Main Event has Hulk Hogan in one and the Ultimate Warrior in the other.  They are both terrible and Vince McMahon is now on commentary and boy oh boy is he bad.  Fun listen all around

The Producer

We Watched it for you: Platonic

 

Platonic is a new series streaming on Apple TV and it looks to answer two age old questions: 1. Can women and men be friends without any sexual feelings between the two people and 2.  Do you think that Seth Rogen is funny.  I tend to fall into yes for the former and no for the latter and this show proves me correct on both ends.

Platonic brings Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne back together for the 3rd time.  The first two were Neighbors and Neighbors 2: Electric Boogaloo( JK). In each of those movies, they played a married couple terriorized by living next to college age students and all the drunken, high wakiness that ensues from that.  Again, those movies are fine.  Rogen and Byrne clearly have great chemistry together but it really comes down to if you find Rogen funny.  Because if you dont, this show and those movies are gonna be kinda a rough watch.

This show finds Byrne(Sylvia) and Rogen(Will) estranged from their long term friendship.  Rogen married someone that Byrne did not approve of and she told him and he got offeneded and they have not spoken in years.  Since then, Byrne has become a lawyer, gotten married, and has 3 kids.  Rogen has gotten divorced and has become a master brewer and is partnered with a brewery with another friend and an investor played completetly over the top by Andrew Lopez. 

Byrne and Rogen are brought back together as she looks to reconnect with him after hearing about the divorce and after some drinking, they attempt to fall back into their old patterns as friends but the lingering hurt from the, " I do not approve of your spouse" conversations rears its ugly head... for like 1 episode.  After that, they fall back into being friends.  Even though she has a husband and kids, she is out drinking and doing drugs with Rogen like she didn't have a husband and kids.  Rogen is essentially playing a version of EVERY CHARACTER he has ever played:  A man child whose actions and decisions are to be questioned continually.  And that can be funny at times but he and this character are 40 years old at this point.  Wisdom that comes with age are not on display here as decision after decision is just ridiculous to get us to the next ridiculous spot. At a point, you don't feel sorry for his character, you become angry at why this man cannot get his shit together.

And in that, the most important question of if men and women can be friends is lost in the sauce.  There is a subplot of Byrne's husband getting jealous and why Rogen doesn't tell Byrne that he's seeing someone but at no point is there any sexual tension or chmistry between the two.  They are just platonic friends.

Again, if you like Seth Rogen's stuff, you will like this show.  I am kinda whatever about his stuff so the show is whatever for me- even tho I love Rose Byrne.  I say it average but that is just me!  Episodes now streaming on Apple TV

The Producer

Cartoons and Cereal Part 2: GI Joe

 

Part 2 of Cartoons and Cereal is our look back at GI Joe. We talk the characters on the show, Brothers Beavis' love of the show, and how The Producer never really watched. Plus we talk healthy cereals now verus when we were kids! Grab a bowl of cereal and hit the watch along with us!

The Trailers Before Across the Spiderverse

 

Our review for Spiderverse is coming soon( BTW its great).  But check out the trailers than ran before the movie.  Not sure if I will see any of them but I'm definitely tempted on a a couple of them,

Blue Beetle

I don't know.  This looks fine enough and gives off a very phase 1 Marvel feel but I do not trust DC at all.  I have been hurt so many times and I am not sure if I can continue to do this.  Its not me, its you DC.  Hard Pass

Elementals

You know Pixar has kind of been on the backside since the Disney/Marvel/Star Wars merger.  They used to be the most consistent animation property.  Now, we are getting Toy Story 5.  But up next, the Elementals.  I have enjoyed all the trailers for this and I will see- on Disney Plus tho.  Hard Pass... in the movie theatre

Teenage Kraken

When this came up, I do not know if my eyes could have rolled back any further, but it was actually kinda funny and weird in a good way.  Another movie I will eventually see- just not in the movie thearter.

Transformer: Rise of the Beasts

I saw the two Transformer movies and the two jive talking robots did me in on that Michael Bay trash and I have not seen one since and this one aint gonna happen either.  The hardest pass.

The Flash

Look man.... This is a Batman movie featuring the Flash.  Its the only way to seel it since the star of the movie is a whole ass criminal.  All that being said, this trailer has made me reconsider seeing it- even tho DC continues to hurt me( see above Blue Beetle).  I still dont know if I can commit to this- even tho people I know and trust have said its good.  Its a pass but not a strong one.

The Producer

We Watched it for you: Shiny Happy People: Duggar Family Secrets

 

 

Let me start off by saying two things:  One, I have never watched a second of any of the Duggar shows or their spinoffs.  I had no interest in that and reality tv in general so the phenomenon of that show or that other show with the people who had a bunch of kids…. Kate Plus 8?  Or anything that was running on the so called Learning Channel.  Two, I would call myself a Christian and I came to know Jesus late in life( well into my 20’s) but I was not raised in church or would even think of calling myself a fundamentalist.  However, I know the basics tenets of the Bible and the history of Jesus.

 

Shiny Happy People is the story of the Duggar families rise and fall and how the corruption of the teachings of Jesus has led to hurt- physical, emotional, and finicial for those who grew up in that family as well as those who grew up in the faith that inspired them to have all them damn kids.  At the top of that is the patriarch- Jom Bob Duggar and his wife, Michelle.  These two parents, who were well into the ILBP( Institute of Basic Life Principles) and followed their tenets and their leader, Bill Gothard.  A story about a family with multiple kids, on the surface, seems to be just a whacky American story and it was filled with the "aw shucks" goodness but beneath the surface, the teachings of the church and how it was glossed over by The Learning Channel hid some terrible secrets of the church and the Duggars.

 

People are familiar with the Josh Duggar part- how he fell from grace in two big swoops.  First from admitting that he had molested his sisters and other young girls and then from being arrested, charged, and convicted of the possession of child pornography.  All damning stuff but this documentary looks into how the Duggars- right in the face of the people watching that show- were in a cult and presented that cult to the masses of their followers and fans and hid the abuse their son was committing, as well as the church that sponsored them.

 

The documentary has archival footage from all over the place but more importantly is has friends of Jim Bob Duggar and other family members, the most important of which is daughter Jill Duggar Dillard along with her husband Derek who give first hand account of what growing up in that environment and on televisions was like.  Since they were filming their lives for everyone to see for several years, there is so much video of their teachings that are and were suspect at the time but it was glossed over by mainstream media because: They were having another baby, or a special when one of the kids got married, etc.  Jill Dillard gives first hand account of all that and talks about how when she was molested by her brother, the family covered it up and made her and her sister go on Fox news( of course) to cover for their brother molesting them.  Its a sick story and abuse and manipulation under the guise of forgiveness and its heartbreaking.  This story, and others, are corroboated by family, cousins, police reports, and damning testimony from the Duggars themselves as to how they allowed Josh to molest these girls, get away with it legally, and be sent to Christian work camp as penace for it.

 

While Jim Bob and his wife are front and center, they are essentially usefel pawns of the ILBP and the cult leader Bill Gothard.  Countless witnesses come to speak about their growing up in that “church” and the abuses they received but also of how the church treated women and children as possessions that needed to be molded and trained into what Gothard believed women and children should be. Bibilical teachings were modified to fit their agenda which often lead to open abuse and feelings of guilty by those women and children who were lead to believe they somehow deserved this punichment for not being godly enough.  This “church” is not much different from other churches whose patriarchal stuctres often leads to abuse by the so-called men who are placed in positions of power.  And as almost always in these churches, there is a clear diversion away from Biblical teaching into the teachings of one man whose believes are not lined up with the Bible.  Gothards used these teachings and the Duggar’s to prostelize these beliefs to millions of people as they built their empire on the backs of their children.

 

As always, the root of these types of evil is money.  The Duggars continually pimped out their family for more and more money and The Learning Channel got their eager cut of the profits.  Once the money started to flow, the Duggars had more kids, married of their kids on TV for more money, and even the birth of their grandchildren for money- even when they kids did not want to do it.  Jim Bob signed his kids to one way contracts which prohibited them from earning money on their own outside of the Duggar umbrella and forced them into appearing on the show for fear of breaking their contract and being sued by their own father.

 

This is a 5 part documentary with each episode coming in under an hour.  I watched it in a day.  And while I loathe to see things like this, I do think its important for Christians to see this and to see how we wind up making idols out of so co called Christians and how doing so moves everyone involved further from God’s love and into a relationship with themselves and their love of money and power.

 

The Producer