Shaft (1971)

Shaft (1971)

starring Richard Roundtree

directed by Gordon Parks

100 minutes

Private Investigator John Shaft (Richard Roundtree) searches for the daughter of Harlem kingpin Bumpy Jonas after she goes missing. 

Thoughts

This was my first time watching Shaft, although I have seen the 2000 film of the same name. 

The movie is part spectacle and part action thriller.

Batman: Caped Crusader 1.07

Moving Target

Someone orders a hit a on Commissioner Gordon. The first hit man who comes after the commissioner is stopped by Corrigan, but more hit men follow. Commissioner Gordon doesn't want to change his routine even though his daughter Barbara and Renee Montoya try to talk him into laying low for a while. They finally get him to concede when they point out that he's putting his neighbors in danger by staying put.

Batman investigates the case and finds out that a prisoner named Muller at Blackgate Prison is the one who ordered the hit. Batman passes along what he knows to Barbara Gordon.

Schitt's Creek 3.12

Friends and Family

Moira recovers a very large portrait of the family. It isn't long before she regrets bringing it back into their lives.

Alexis and Ted share a spontaneous kiss after she learns that she passed her high school exams. They try to rationalize it after the fact.

David opens Rose Apothecary. He wants it to be a soft opening but word spreads and it turns into a big opening day.

Thoughts

This was a pretty good episode. I really enjoyed all three storylines.

Arabesque (1966)

Arabesque (1966)

starring Gregory Peck, Sophia Loren

directed by Stanley Donen

105 minutes

Professor David Pollock (Gregory Peck) meets Yasmin Azir (Sophia Loren) while he is in the process of doing a favor for the prime minister of an unnamed Middle Eastern country. Both find themselves targeted for death by at least two different factions as they attempt to decrypt a coded message written in hieroglyphics.

Thoughts

The dialogue sounded very much like it was dubbed in. I think that this wasn't uncommon in this era but it was jarring to my ears.

This movie was more style than substance. I didn't care for most of the stylistic choices. It was very hard to make sense of it all or even the majority of it. This was very much a hard pass for me. I don't feel as if I got much of anything worthwhile by watching this movie.

Doctor Who (1963) 12.02.03

The Ark in Space - Part Three

Noah reaches out to Vira from the control room. He instructs her to accelerate the revivification process. He struggles to maintain control as the alien part of his body starts to assert control. Vira is ready to follow the orders but the Doctor says, no. They won't have enough time to wake everybody up.

Harry takes over where Vira left off and wakes up the two remaining Med Techs, Rogin and Lycett. The Doctor and Harry dissect part of the dead alien that lurched out of the closet at Harry. The Doctor gets a piece of its brain and hooks it up to a video monitor. Nothing happens when they turn on the power.

The Doctor hooks himself up to the video monitor and the piece to alien brain. This time it shows them part of what happened to the dead alien, a Wirrn. A live Wirrn pupa starts to break in to the room where everyone, other than Noah, is located. Lycett is killed by the Wirrin that is still in pupa stage.

Neon Genesis Evangelion 1.13

Angel Infiltration

Nerv is in the process of running some tests when an angel infiltrates Nerv HQ. It comes in through the computer system like a virus. It spreads and spreads. Everything they attempt seems to have no effect on it but in the end they figure out what needs to be done.

Thoughts

I found this episode to be hard to follow. It felt very technical. I understood the basic idea of what was happening but there were lots of descriptions and terms that went right over my head. Accordingly, I wasn't crazy about this episode. I fail to see how it expands the world in which this story takes place.

This might be a good place to pause my viewing of this series. I haven't decided yet.

The Tick (2016) 2.10

Choose Love!

Agent Doctor Hobbes is appointed Acting Director of AEGIS. He orders Arthur and the Tick to find Dot. They agree to but Arthur tells the Tick, after leaving Hobbes' office. that he has reason to believe that Hobbes is hiding something from them. 

Arthur and the Tick get some help from Sage who takes them back to Danger Boat. Overkill calls Danger Boat and talks to Athur, Dot, and the Tick. He tells them that he's going to kill himself so that Hobbes can't force him to do anything else. He asks them not to come looking for him, but they do.

Lobstercules is forced by Hobbes to attack the Tick. Overkill, also still controlled by Hobbes, attempts to kill Dot and Arthur from a distance with his sniper rifle. Dot distracts him. Arthur destroys the remote control, thus freeing Lobstercules and Overkill from Hobbes control.