The Walking Dead Season 1 Episode 6: TS-19

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When I first saw the previews to this episode, I was kind of at a loss. I didn’t know if I was angry or excited, but one thing was for sure: the producers ensured audiences that this series would only take what it needed from the comics and carve its own path. If at any point the show lost a portion of their audience, this episode would be the one that pulled them out.

It’s still a controversial episode, even with the producers jumping back in to the comics in recent episodes. “TS-19” is not a bad episode it’s just not a very necessary one. It’s both a season and series finale that leaves the characters on the road to an uncertain path; just in case AMC didn’t pull in enough ratings to justify a second season, or simply couldn’t afford another season.

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Serena: An Adult Fairytale (1979) (DVD)

At a little over an hour long, “Serena” really is a listless twist on “Cinderella.” This time, we meet Cindy, a slave for her stepmother, who beds men every night, while Cindy watches in corners masturbating and trying to get in on the action. There’s not much of an explanation for anything in the movie, as “Serena” seems to excel on being baffling and weird in many instances. Plus, I’m fairly certain most of the cast were high during the filming.
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The Walking Dead Season 1 Episode 4: Wildfire

One thing I love about “Wildfire” is there’s just so much exhaustion and emotional stress, coupled with the heat that you can just feel the characters are on the verge of cracking. It’s bad enough no one has had time to sleep, but now they’ve lost the Atlanta camp after the vicious zombie raid in “Vatos.” You can sense that all real logic and common sense has been depleted in a hail of shock, as the general mind set is summed up through Andrea and her refusal to leave the body of her sister Amy.

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The Walking Dead Season 1 Episode 5: Wildfire

One thing I love about “Wildfire” is there’s just so much exhaustion and emotional stress, coupled with the heat that you can just feel the characters are on the verge of cracking. It’s bad enough no one has had time to sleep, but now they’ve lost the Atlanta camp after the vicious zombie raid in “Vatos.” You can sense that all real logic and common sense has been depleted in a hail of shock, as the general mind set is summed up through Andrea and her refusal to leave the body of her sister Amy.

While his methods aren’t the most likable, Daryl Dixon is the only person in the group who seems to be working with some sense of reality on his side. Despite losing Merle, he understands that the bodies of Amy, and their fallen friends could jump start another walker uprising destroying the rest of the survivors. “Wildfire” is a lot of the characters walking around and processing the events of the night before, with occasional moments of real compelling drama.

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Top 5 Baffling Aspects Of “TMNT: We Wish You a Turtle Christmas”

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There are no weapons, there’s no fighting, no Shredder, no April, no Casey, and no foot clan. And those aren’t the worst crimes this monstrosity commits. This is the definition of a quick cash grab. I am quick to believe someone raided a storage closet from a party entertainers’ warehouse, and decided to release their own Christmas themed Ninja Turtles video. Even at eleven years old, I would have shut it off after the first few minutes. “We Wish You a Turtle Christmas” doesn’t even last longer than twenty five minutes in length, and still feels long as hell.

The plot to this anomaly is that the turtles are trying to find a present for Master Splinter. So they prepare for Christmas, and go looking for a perfect present. Cue the mind numbingly terrible cash grab that is “We Wish You a Turtle Christmas.” Here are five of the more head scratching aspects of the twenty minute “special.
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Lord of Illusions (1995): Collector’s Edition [Blu-Ray]

I appreciate what Clive Barker set out to do with “Lord of Illusions” by introducing us to Harry D’Amour, a reluctant private eye who’d be thrown in to horrifying situations that far outstretched mobsters and cheating wives. In “Lord of Illusions,” Scream Factor gives Barker the chance to present audiences with the director’s cut. This new cut is longer, re-edited, and given a heavier emphasis on the neo-noir crime investigation by D’Amour that leads him to the front door of a satanic wizard that intends to destroy the world, and everything in it. I really wish I could have seen what D’Amour would get in to in future cases. Perhaps the cenobites? Something Lovecraftian?

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Annabelle (2014)

I don’t think we really needed to know the story of “Annabelle” nor did we need a movie about her. And if we had to have one, wouldn’t it have been better to expand on the events from the prologue of “The Conjuring”? What’s sad is that the first five minutes of “The Conjuring” involving Annabelle is more terrifying than the ninety minute bore that is “Annabelle.” It seems like often times the movie can reach the heights of pure terror if it wants to, but pulls back for some odd reason. Either director John R. Leonetti doesn’t know how to hit those highs that “The Conjuring” did, or just didn’t want to, for the sake of a sequel. “Annabelle” sets up the prologue by staging the first five minutes from “The Conjuring” to let audiences know this is a direct sequel, and spin off, and prequel. It’s all three.

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