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The Sandman Netflix Review

I am going to get a few things out of the way before I even start. I am not a reader of the Sandman comics. I have read Lucifer (comes from Sandman) so that is the only character I will mention any accuracy on. (Spoiler alert, the guy that wrote the character and helped with the show did great)

Another thing I will not get involved with is “woke politics” if you have read Neil Gaimans work you knew what you were getting into. This was his stuff before being “woke” was a thing.

Also it’s Constantine as in TINE/ WINE not Teen. Him and his comics said so.

Ok now that we have that out of the way,on with the show. It all starts out pretty trippy as you would expect with a series about an entity known as an Endless, Sandman (also called Morpheus) and his family exist to rule over certain things, Death,Desire etc. Sandman attempts to find an escaped nightmare and Magus who is upset over the loss of his favorite son casts a spell to trap Death and instead catches Sandman.

This is actually only the first episode and encompasses about 100 years of his imprisonment where is mostly stripped of his tools and powers. The rest are locked away with him inside of a magical seal which he can’t really escape.

This does an excellent job setting up future episodes, done as chapters, by letting us know the Endless are all extremely powerful but are not gods. They make mistakes,they change and grow as living things and most importantly you should not piss them off.

The show can’t go on without his escape which does eventually happen much to the regret of his captors. This will bring us on a journey to gather his tools back which includes sand, a mask and a sort of amulet. This brings me to my first issue.

Going into this we saw all sorts of previews and posters discussing Lucifer ( Gwendolin Christie) and Johanna Constantine ( Jenna Coleman) both only appear in a very limited capacity. (In fact Jenna technically only appears once as 2 different characters with the same name) and this really seems almost like a bait and switch. Clearly the show is about Sandman ( Tom Sturridge) but to make them seem like costars only to have them barely be guest appearances at best seems a little dishonest.

That aside, every character is played amazingly. At first I was a bit worried about John Constantine being done away with completely but him being gone may actually be an improvement. ( The John Constantine character could not be used for legal reasons so he was replaced with Johanna,another character in his family from the comics)

Before I get more off track however, finding his tools is how he meets Johanna and later Lucifer.Johanna happens to now own his sand which she happily returns, if by happily we can say as happy as anyone would like to visit an ex-girlfriend that left without any notice or phone call. And Lucifer, well Lucifer is the devil. Her and Sandman basically kick the crap out of each other and he gets his mask back as Lucifer swears to see him later.

I won’t go further into the story because I don’t want to ruin it, but for something that is only 10 episodes I was hooked from start to finish. It is absolutely worth checking out, just don’t go into this expecting anything other than a dark (and I mean morbid) story. Morpheus is not a hero, or even a villain. He simply exists as a force of nature in control of a realm. He isn’t Batman or the Joker or anything in between. He is just there to do a job,and sometimes people get in the way, other times he can help. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

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IT Chapter Two (Review)

This one is hard for me to review. Any long-time followers know I loved the first chapter. It was one of my favorite movies of 2017. Which is why it pains me to say Chapter 2 is a huge disappointment to me. There was no reason this thing should have been almost three hours long.

It started out so strong is the worst part. One of the biggest things I disliked about the original was how long it took to introduce everyone as adults. This time around they got it right, it took much less time an got us right to the point. The group regathers and we get down to business.

This is at least what you would think. This is when we spend what feels like hours in flashbacks as they collect tokens for the ritual they will use to defeat this evil entity. It doesn’t stop there, unlike most of the scares in the first one, this is almost all jump scares, and mostly not even good ones. You could see them coming a mile away, even the woman next to me that screamed easily at first was laughing halfway through the movie. Yes, the movie was more funny than scary for many of us in the theater.

There was also like a 5 second musical part that was really out of place. Seriously, a monster spews black stuff into a guys face, pop music kicks in, stops and that is the end of it.

The movie wasn’t all bad by the way, the laughs were good and I enjoyed the special effects. The casting was also possibly the best I have seen in a movie in years. The adults were damn near perfect for each of the children and they even really come across as old friends coming back together.

The biggest issue tho is the pacing is all off, it never should have been so long. A ton of the movie was unnecessary. I won’t mention the ending because I don’t want to spoil that, but I hated that as well. This is one you should wait for Netflix or Redbox, Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Bill Burr Paper Tiger

Bill Burr Paper Tiger is going to piss off a ton of people. Seriously, he makes fun of everything. From a discussion on racism with someone, his experience with being sexually assaulted at a show to first ladies and robots. He does this all in his usual brash and abrasive way. It is also hilarious. I spent the entire time laughing.

He even took a shot at Stephen Hawking for thinking he was too good to stand up and make his point. I know sounds offensive, watch the stand-up tho and you will still be offended but you will be laughing.

Truthfully his style hasn’t changed, Bill is just Bill. He is simply telling the truth about a lot of things, and others he is clearly just going for a cheap laugh. I love comedies like this because he knows someone is going to hate him after, and he isn’t saying anything inherently wrong but like twelve people are going to overreact and be pissed off more than they should be. So go, enjoy the show and laugh at those twelve people. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Spider-Man Into The Spider-Verse

Now I know I am supposed to love this movie and think it is one of the all-time best Spider-Man movies if not the best. The truth is while I enjoyed it, I don’t think it was one of the best at all. It was simply an average movie that spent way to much time explaining how every Spider-man (and Spider-Gwen and pig) thought they were the only one.

The story of cross dimensions due to a collider while done well has also been done pretty much to death at this point within comics and science fiction, and it wasn’t even done in some new or inventive way. Everything about this movie is as basic and cliche as it could ever be.

The saving grace in all this, however, is that the animation is without a doubt top notch, and at no point was it a chore to watch. The characters are well written and funny, and Miles Morales is a great character in his own right and I am happy to see he isn’t just an attempt at continuing Peter Parker. He has his own abilities and powers along with his own issues and faults to contend with.

The different iterations of Spider-Man from the other dimensions were also fun to see such as Spider-Man Noir being essentially a black and white comic book character that loves a Rubix cube he found and is determined to understand it despite not knowing what the colors even are. Spider-Ham is basically a Looney Tunes character in a suit which was quite hilarious and Peni Parker is a futuristic Japanese girl with a psychic connection to the spider that lives in a sort of mech suit. I feel she doesn’t get the love she deserves by the way.

The movie is good, and if you have Netflix it deserves to be experienced. It is however far from being an all-time great movie. There isn’t anything original about the story and the only thing that makes it interesting is the characters themselves, and they could have been placed in any story with the same results. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ken Jeong: You Complete Me, Ho

Ken Jeong, or as most people know him as the guy from The Hangover. In what I believe is his first Netflix special and his return to stand-up he covers all sorts of topics from his decision to leave medicine and get into movies, what it was like being a doctor and even some stories from the road such as meeting Presidents.

The stand up is pretty funny but honestly, it is for a specific type of humor. For example, if you aren’t a fan of the self-deprecating and insult style you probably shouldn’t watch this one. It also is not for kids in any capacity, there is plenty of languages that they really shouldn’t hear. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Knights of Pen and Paper 2 Deluxe Edition (PS4)

Full disclosure here I never played the first Knights of Pen and Paper tho there is a bundle that gets you both of these games. I walked into this having no idea what to expect, but I bought it anyway because it looked like D&D as a pixel RPG. To be 100% honest, that is what this is. See that guy sitting at the table? He is the dungeon master. Those people are your characters. Essentially unless you buy a new table, which is something you can actually do, they all have some sort of effect, you will sit here and go about your adventure.

As you travel the background will change and the enemies will appear behind the dungeon master as he tells the story and you go on the quest and travel the world. The battle system is typical turn-based and each time you level up you will get points to put into skills of the characters you created.

The characters you create are more or less based on what you chose, you can choose a dwarf, human or elf and give them certain personalities such as being a cheerleader or such. The whole thing is pretty interesting.

The story isn’t bad but is actually quite silly, the tutorial even gets interrupted when someone realizes that 2nd edition and 1st edition characters can’t mix. This is a recurring theme and the humor is the selling point of the game. For D&D fans and old-school RPG fans, this one is worth the buy. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Mo Amer: The Vagabond

As some of you may have noticed I have been back on my stand-up kick lately, so today I was checking out Mo Amer. I hadn’t seen him before or even really heard of him beyond seeing him as I scrolled pass on Netflix. The good news is, I am happy I decided to watch this. This Arab American Muslim uses his experiences to make people laugh in unexpected ways. Admittedly in today’s world, many people would see some of his jokes as inappropriate, for example, he talks about how his brother Omar decided to become a pilot or that he has a nephew named Osama and he can’t really use his name at Walmart and has to use fake names. Which he finds it unfair because all the terrorist attacks from white people haven’t forced people named Timothy to change their name.

Again obviously with context, these jokes make more sense, but if reading about this strikes a nerve with you, maybe you shouldn’t watch him. However, I enjoyed it including his story of going back to Kuwait, the country his family fled when he was 9 to do a comedy show for the troops. For me, it was a pretty cool perspective from a comedian. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Chris D’elia: Man on Fire

Chris D’elia, from now on known as Chris because honestly, I don’t know how to say his last name. I also didn’t really know who he was but he seemed pretty funny. Not like your typical comedian funny but more like Georgie Carlin style where he simply comments on life. This mostly was the case tho he did tell a few stories about his personal life, such as his friend buying him pants that fit for his birthday. This will probably piss a few people off honestly but I thought it was quite hilarious.

He also goes on about how people, in general, aren’t special nor are you the main character in movies like you think you are. He is obviously much funnier but he has a valid point as well. The standup does have quite a bit of swearing and offensive language, which for me is no big deal but do not watch this with kids or if you work out a lot and don’t like having your balls busted about it. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Trevor Noah: Son of Patricia

Trevor Noah: Son of Patricia is the new stand-up from Trevor Noah, and it is a bit different than usual. That isn’t to say it is bad, it is quite humorous. He will discuss topics such as his vacation to Bali and why he shouldn’t have let his friend plan it all, his first experience with tacos and the difference between racism in American and his homeland. The runtime is around one hour, so it isn’t a long watch but honestly, this one isn’t for everyone and certainly is not for children. The portion on racism will be uncomfortable for many people simply because of the language he usees. It is interesting and quite funny, but for some, he may use certain words more than you would like.

As a whole however this isn’t the typical stand-up I expect from him and while I enjoyed it the special is different than usual, but give it a shot. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Ron White:If You Quit Listening I’ll Shut Up (2018)

Ron White is back with his 2018 stand up,and honestly i wasn’t expecting much. Not that I don’t love his work it has just been a few years and he is now over 60 years old and how long can a guy make jokes about being a raging alcoholic? Turns out at least one more show. Ron is as funny as ever covering such topics as the death of his ex wife’s divorce attorney, gay marriage, and building a new house.

The show starts off with a quick flash back to his past shows which is a nice trip down memory lane. He also makes a few reverences to the past in the show, but happily this isn’t a nostalgia act. It isn’t his best show, but it is interesting and you will laugh. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.