If you dug HBO Max’s “Peacemaker,” add this to your must-watch list. The screenplay is stuffed with laugh-out-loud moments and the animation is often quite stunning. A rogue’s gallery of rude, often drunken anti-heroes transform into de-facto protectors of the magical world of Exandria where dragons and other diabolical creatures/humans conspire to take over. The nugget-sized episodes (each runs about 20-30 minutes) are fun and feisty, rocketing the story and the character development along rather than have them fester in stretched-out episodes.
SLAPFACE AND FACECHAT SERIES
“The Legend of Vox Machina”: The reality that Amazon Prime’s compulsively watchable adult animated fantasy series is based on the role-playing game “Critical Role” might turn off those who say there are way too many bad game-to-film adaptations. 11 at the Roxie in San Francisco and also available via Roxie’s streaming platform. It’s powerful, important and ideal viewing for Black History Month. Myers’ film doesn’t shy away from addressing challenging subject matter, chipping away at the ridiculous claim that “race” doesn’t matter in contemporary America. Myers stars as a nameless Black man in Los Angeles who’s navigating a slumbering life with a white girlfriend and a job and a boss that enslaves him. “The Sleeping Negro”: The spirit of the great James Baldwin inhabits Skinner Myers’ thought-provoking experimental feature, a low-budget, high-impact drama that expounds on potent themes about racism and what it means to be a Black man in today’s world. To its credit, “Blacklight” is watchable, and unintentionally laughable, but it could have been a lot better. journalist (Emmy Raver-Lampman) snoops around to extract explosive intel from a rogue operative (Taylor John Smith).
Screenwriters Nick May and Mark Williams set the table for a meaty, of-the-moment meal as a progressive politician dies in a hit-and-run, but then “Blacklight” degrades into just another poorly plotted and frankly obvious political thriller as a D.C. Then it all but loses its nerve, just after the ready-to-retire operative Travis Block (Neeson) storms a trailer park infested with fascists to retrieve another operative, a good action scene that doesn’t really have much to do with anything else.
“Blacklight”: In its first 10 minutes, this latest derivative action pic starring Liam Neeson promises to find the veteran actor kicking butt on Proud Boys types. The simple setup allows Soderbergh to cram into “KIMI” references to countless other genre classics, including “Blow Out” and “Blow-Up.” The result is a satisfying thriller that serves as a missive on the benefits and the pitfalls of our device-dominated world. Now stuck in her loft apartment, Angela needs to venture outside to shake down the truth and collar the bad guys. While surveying glitches in the system she faintly hears an ominous, alarming conversation. Zoe Kravitz stars as agoraphobic tech worker Angela, a shut-in whose job is to correct errors in order to create a better user experience connected to a voice-activated AI system dubbed KIMI. While the Oscar-winning filmmaker’s latest isn’t his finest, it serves up a comforting dish for genre fans. “KIMI”: Steven Soderbergh essentially takes Hitchcock’s “Rear Window” into the Apple Store for a tune-up, setting that voyeuristic thriller in the tech age. There’s all that and a binge-worthy animated Amazon Prime series along with a provocative drama that’s essential viewing during Black History Month. Kenneth Branagh returns as Agatha Christie’s star sleuth Hercule Poriot in a remake of “Death on the Nile.” Meanwhile, Steven Soderbergh pulls off a “Rear Window 3.0” with “KIMI,” while Liam Neeson returns to take on more baddies in “Blacklight.”
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