Author Archives: Felix Vasquez

The Walking Dead Season 5 Episode 5: Self Help

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“Self Help” belongs to Abraham Ford, and it’s a good thing too. Michael Cudlitz is a ridiculously underrated character actor, and his performance as Ford has been stellar. We didn’t just need someone who looked the role, but portrayed the immense charge of the militant character, and Cudlitz brings his A game for this episode in particular. Another great episode in a (so far) fantastic season, we meet Abraham’s group, now on the road only hours after the confrontation at the church. Everyone is still rattled from the vicious slaughter. Eugene in particular is grief stricken about Gabriel and how his cowardice really wasn’t that much of a sin, all things considered.

For fans of the comics, this episode was a long time coming.

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Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014)

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The worst crime that “Shadow Recruit” is guilty of is that it’s mediocre. At no point was I worried for the characters because, I just didn’t care. We know Ryan fights another day, so why fear for his life? The studios can’t quite seem to decide if they want to turn Jack Ryan in to Jason Bourne, or just a geek chic techie, so in “Shadow Recruit” he’s both. One minute he’s zooming through New York in a motorcycle trying to chase down a fake police car intent on blowing up Wall Street, and the next he can barely finish a covert operation without the help of Kevin Costner’s guardian Thomas watching and re-assuring him from afar. At this point, it’s about time to really give up on the Jack Ryan character.

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Heatstroke (2013)

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It’s unusual that Stephen Dorff gets top billing in “Heatstroke” when his character is really only there to supply exposition and die. He’s really only a minor plot device meant to emphasize the attitude and anger of Maisie Williams’ character Josie and how she hates her divorced dad’s new girlfriend. Dorff gives a solid performance all things considered, but “Heatstroke” mainly belongs to stars Maisie Williams and Svetlana Metkina. I’d only suggest watching “Heatstroke” if you’re a big “Game of Thrones” fan and want to see Williams out of her medieval element and in to something more contemporary. I say that since “Heatstroke” is only a mediocre thriller with barely anything above middling basic stalk and chase fodder to really keep audiences invested.

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The Simpsons: Simpsorama

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simpsorama“Futurama” deserves so much better than to become a sight gag in future episodes of “The Simpsons,” but hey, at least “Simpsorama” is a hilarious meta-crossover. Not to mention it’s kind of a closer to the “Futurama” series that gets the official goodbye by Matt Groening’s first really popular show. It’s a respectful and dignified farewell to what was a great companion to “The Simpsons.” Not to mention, an animation crossover I actually give two craps about. At least “Futurama” deserved this crossover.

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Alien (1979)

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As its successors, carbon copies, and wannabes have shown, “Alien” is a film that easily could have taken its premise and diluted it in to exploitation or just another stock monster movie. There’s something eerie and absolutely unnerving about “Alien” from the moment it begins. Director Ridley Scott, paired with the brilliance of H.R. Giger and Dan O’Bannon, spawns a truly creepy tale of a phallic alien hatching in the belly of an old ship that begins wreaking havoc on its surrogate caretakers. It takes a powerful woman to conquer the male manifestation with a protruding orifice, one who defies all kinds of gender stereotypes and tropes.

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The Wonder Years: The Complete Series Set (DVD)

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‘In memory, everything seems to happen to music.’ – Tennessee Williams

It’s the mark of a quality television series, when it’s set in a specific period of history and still has massive appeal to just about any audience. “The Wonder Years” wasn’t just a TV drama for adults in the eighties that still hadn’t gotten over the sixties. “The Wonder Years” surpassed simple nostalgia and approached its narrative from two angles. It was a family dramedy set in the sixties that took off from “A Christmas Story” chronicling the pitfalls and highs of growing up through a young boy. It also examined the decade that much of the eighties and early nineties were still trying to come to grips with.

This included the Vietnam War, Watergate, The Draft, The Civil Rights Movement, and just the general changing social climate that jarred many folks coming out of the great depression and World War II. “The Wonder Years” chronicles the youth of Kevin Arnold, a normal suburban boy who is watching the world around him change for the better and for the worse.

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Jersey Boys (2014) [Blu-ray/DVD/Digital]

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Director Clint Eastwood has to work with one of the most popular stage musicals in a long time and really has no vision for bringing it to the big screen. I love Frank Valli and his music, and on film his work is still stunning. But “Jersey Boys” is only a mediocre adaptation of the stage musical. Eastwood doesn’t seem to want to give the movie a wider scale at any point, and then in the closing credits just tacks on a final number that recreates the musical. For all intents and purposes, “Jersey Boys” gives Frankie Valli a much deserved nod to his fans and legendary music, but director Clint Eastwood simply has no idea how to work it in to a dynamic biographical drama with its own unique flavor.

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