Movies I Have Seen Lately

[The Baron]

Saw a Takashi Miike picture called The Great Yokai War. "Yokai" is a Japanese term for monsters from folklore, as opposed to the more familiar kaiju. It's a kids' picture, about a young boy from Tokyo sent out to live in the countryside with his older sister and his intermittently senile grandfather. When a vengeful spirit appears, the boy gets caught up in a war between warring groups of yokai and must find his courage to become the "Kirin Rider", the hero who will set everything to rights. It's not a bad picture - nothing deep, but an amusing story. Some of the yokai are really trippy, Japanese folklore can get pretty "out there", apparently.

[Captain Comics]

I haven't seen the latest Captain America movie, but found myself nodding along anyway.

• Carl Lumbly's Isaiah Bradley is a treasure. As a metaphor, the character represents America's sins. But Lumbly's performance is what grounds it. and staves off pretension. Yes, more Isaiah, please. (Although the actor is no spring chicken, so he may have been in jail to avoid scenes making that obvious.)
• Sam needs more quiet moments, as we need more time in Sam's head. 
• I would have been happy if Hulk had been left in the memory hole. But I guess those toys were too tempting to resist. 

 

[Richard Willis]

TIMELESS (2016–2018) aired on NBC. Two time-traveling factions. One preserving the past and one changing it. Like many good shows, it was cancelled twice. Two official seasons followed by a two episode finale. Unfortunately, the finale is not easily accessible (until now). The free streaming service Tubi is now showing the entire run including the finale.