A little bit of quick background. I’m a recording artist with eight albums under my belt, so I likely approached this film a little differently than most folks. I wasn’t really all that enthused about seeing the film. You see, I tend to hate when songwriters write songs about writing songs. I think it’s pretentious. So what have I done? Written at least a handful of songs about writing songs, so I don’t do a lot of practicing what I preach. That’s the mindset I had going into the screening. It turned out maybe I do like songs about songwriting and just haven’t had the guts to admit it. There aren’t any maybes about one thing. I can tell you for certain that Power Ballad turned out to be one of the best films I’ve seen in the first half of 2026. Who knew? I think that director/writer John Carney knew. It’s possible that Paul Rudd and Nick Jonas did. Now I know, and in a minute, so will you.

“It’s what a good song can do. Mean many different things to different people.”

Paul Rudd plays Rick. He’s a frustrated songwriter who wants to play his original songs instead of covers, but they are a wedding band, and covers are what they want. It causes friction both in the band and at home. His luck appears to change when the band does a wedding and a close friend of the bride’s happens to be Danny Wilson. Nick Jonas is practically playing himself. Danny was once a boy band sensation, but his career is in the dumps. His manager threatens to dump him, and he’s not getting a lot of love from his record label. But he was once a star. and the bride asks the band to let Danny sing a song. At first it frustrates Rick. but Danny invites him to sing along, and they appear to bond on the stage. After the show they stay up all night together drinking and playing songs for each other. One of the songs Rick shares is a song he wrote for his daughter Aja (Fallon) called How To Write A Song. It’s actually a pretty good song, and when Danny gets more pressure from his manager and label, he presents the song as his own. You can likely predict that the song becomes a monster hit, and Danny doesn’t credit Rick, who insists that it’s his song. No one believes him, and the frustration even turns a bit violent. His attempts to reach out to Danny are ignored, and he plans to confront the star with his complaint. The problem is he can’t prove it. None of the demos on his computer have it, and he never played it live, so even his bandmates and family never heard it before. How it all ends up isn’t really the point of the film.

It’s truly every songwriter’s nightmare. Someone steals maybe the best thing you ever wrote. Most of us spend the insane money on copyrights, and today you video all of your performances so there’s a living and breathing record about what you’ve done. We spend money both at the studio and elsewhere to have digital tags embedded in the recordings.  Sometimes you end up trusting a fellow musician because you want to test drive it before you protect it. We’ve all taken that chance, and so I could really relate to Paul Rudd’s character here.

I’m sure this was intentional. There was a film staring Frank Sinatra as, what else, a singer, called Meet Danny Wilson. That was Sinatra’s character. In the 90’s there was a band who had one semi-hit, and they called themselves Danny Wilson. Coincidentally I actually also know a musician named Danny Wilson. So I figure there an homage in there somewhere. During a bar scene if you listen for it you’ll hear the juke playing Mary’s Prayer, which was the hit Meet Danny Wilson had in the 90’s. It’s a nice little Easter egg for fans of the song. It’s been on my mp3 playlists for decades.

The entire film rises or falls on Paul Rudd’s performance. He balances the line from comedic frustration and lashing out enough so that we still feel like we can root for him. That’s not an easy task, and it was a tightrope for sure. Credit Carney for getting out of the way and letting the performance be as organic and natural as it is. So we root for Rick no matter how close to that line he ever gets. Of course, Jonas is good here too because he’s a bit of a likeable villain. Jonas allows his own pangs of guilt to show through, and we keep hoping that he comes clean. I won’t tell you if he does, but the nuance doesn’t go unrewarded here.

Then there’s the song everyone is going crazy about. It’s tough in a film when you try to present a song as a smash hit. If any of us knew exactly what that was, we’d be writing them all day, every day. Often these presentations fall flat on me, and remember I write them as well. So it’s got to pass the nose test, and this one actually does. I like the song … a lot … and that’s key, because if the song doesn’t have the kind of appeal it’s supposed to have, the entire premise is gone and these great performances don’t mean squat. Now you do hear it maybe more than is good for the song. I think Carney tended to overplay the song a bit, but that’s authentic as well. I recall summers in the 70’s when I would like a song I hear on the radio, but by the time summer ends, I’m feeling more “make it stop”. Carney crosses that line just a smidge here. In fact, the film itself is a bit overlong by about 10 minutes.

You might hate the song by the time you leave, and that might have been true a little for me. But it’s a good song, and a couple of days later I was really liking it again. I think it was brave of Nick Jonas to take the part. He’s done this for real, and it must be truly hard to play a guy who would steal another guy’s song like this. No matter how much his conscience might bother him, it’s a bad look for a musician, and it was brave for Jonas to take that leap. What about you? Should you take the leap and give up a couple hours of your life on the film? “Of course you should.”

We are 72 hours from D-Day which currently is scheduled for Monday June 5th, 1944. If that date sounds just a little off to you be patient. Andrew Scott plays Lt. James Stagg. He’s a British expert on meteorology. His wife is pregnant with their first child but he has been called away on a very secret meeting with Dwight Eisenhower who is The Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces. What he’s about to discover is that the Allies are just three days from embarking on the greatest expeditionary force in history… The invasion of Nazi-occupied France. Brendan Fraser plays Eisenhower. He has relied on his own meteorologist Irving Krick (Messina) throughout the war. Captain Krick’s forecasts have been reliable and have led him to many victories particularly in North Africa. But the British claim Stagg is the best there is and so Eisenhower puts him in charge of the team that have the responsibility of delivering a go/no go forecast for the offensive. The two instantly butt heads when Krick gives a clear skies go forecast while Stagg believes there is a strong front moving through the area that will bring the mother of all storms. As the film advances each of these men are engaged in a conflict that complicates the invasion and causing a bit of hostility within the ranks.

The title Pressure is an apt one and a complicated one. The word fairly describes the pressure of delivering this important forecast and the pressure on all of the moving pieces to make it work. Of course, it also describes the atmospheric pressure that is a vital tool in these forecasts. Stagg is under a ton of pressure to give the go order and Krick is applying more pressure with his own opinions. I don’t think I need to provide a spoiler alert to tell you which man is correct. We all know that D-Day didn’t happen on that Monday. When the storms do arrive Stagg is proven correct but he must now find a way to work with Krick and the rest of the team to determine if there is a small window before moonlight conditions and other factors make the invasion impossible for another two weeks. By then the Nazis will have seen through the clever misdirection’s and the element of surprise will be lost. The heart of the film happens to be not in the invasion but in the relationship between these men and their wish to proceed.

Brendan Fraser is a true surprise here. He’s lost under the performance and pulls off a stunningly powerful performance of a man who literally had the weight of the world on his shoulders. He does this without going over the top and trying to bravado his way through the role. He’s helped considerably in this task with Kerry Condon’s exceptional performance as Eisenhower’s trusted aid Kay Summersby. She has learned how to harness and focus Eisenhower’s strengths and weaknesses. She’s also instrumental as the person who finds ways to relieve some of the pressure from all of those around her. Damian Lewis plays Field Marshall Bernard “Monty” Montogomery. It’s his job to make sure the troops are ready for what is about to happen and provides more than a little of his own pressure on Stagg to give the go order. Of course, it goes down to the wire. I don’t know the facts enough to know for sure just how down to the wire it all went but trust Lewis to make it real, real or not. I loved him in Billions and he’s likely an underused resource here.

as for Stagg and Krick? You will find the two performances compelling. I happen to be a bit of a student of the weather. We had a boat on in Jersey when I was a kid and my father became quite an amateur meteorologist himself. He recorded barometric pressure and wind speeds and used his charts to figure out if the 2-hour trip to our boat was going to be a go or not each Summer weekend. I keep some records myself these days so it didn’t take much to pull me in here. But for the average person I think that Andrew Scott and Chris Messina will keep you engaged even if the data they talk about doesn’t… but it should. Scott delivers a wonderful monologue about the weather when someone notes that she finds weatherman boring. If the weather is your gig you need to get a copy of that quote and put it up in your office.

I’m no longer a child watching his father create his own little forecasts. But I live in Florida where we learn to keep a careful eye on the weather because failing to do so could be catastrophic. Here weather folks can be quite alarmists and fear sells more than facts. I’m going to put in a little pitch for one of our local weathermen. I follow local meteorologist Paul Dellegatto who I assume is a fellow paesano. He’s remarkably educational and delivers not only the most accurate forecasts but never plays up the barker angle. I suspect he’ll be checking out this film as well. So should you. I guess as a film critic I look at my job in the same way as the best weathermen. My motto has always been…”Get me the data. That’s what counts”.

I know what you might be thinking. It was going through my mind as well. It sounds a little bit like “Save the cheerleader. Save the world.” Admit it, that’s exactly where you were going with this thing. Even at its best … or worst, Heroes was never as intense or dark as the video game television series adaptation of Fallout on Prime. With all respect to Zachary Quinto and his portrayal of Syler, Syler would be running home cryin’ to mama if he ever came across Walton Goggins as The Ghoul in Fallout. Don’t believe me? Now’s your chance to find out, because Alliance and Prime have teamed up to bring the second season of Fallout to home video. And they aren’t messing around here. It’s the ultimate television series release, because you can grab it on UHD Blu-ray in the full glory of 4K and Dolby Vision. One caveat before we move on. If you haven’t seen or bought the first season yet, you’re going to have to run, don’t walk, to wherever you get your home theater goodies and pick up Season 1 first. You’ll be lost without it. That’s the danger I was facing. I fixed that right quick.

“There’s a lot of earning potential with the end of the world.”

… And don’t I know it. When Fallout‘s second season arrived at my doorstep, I was excited but on the horns of what I considered a significant dilemma. I have never played a single version of any of the games in the franchise that goes all the way back to October of 1997. Not only have I never played the games, but I had also missed seeing the first season of the series. I had to take steps to fix the situation. There wasn’t enough time for me to jump into the video game franchise, so I asked a lot of questions of gamer friends who are huge fans of the games. I know one guy who claims to have played them all on various game platforms. So now I knew the general idea of the franchise, which is this: It’s hundreds of years after the bombs fall, and you are there trying to survive either on the surface wasteland which is more like the old frontier West or in one of a vast collection of underground vaults that were set up by a mega-corporation called Vault-Tec. The games are quite famous for how open-ended they are. They each take place in vast open worlds where there are likely hundreds if not thousands of side missions or paths of discovery you can travel. It makes the franchise high on the re-playability list because you likely have not done all there is to do or seen all there is to see. I’m looking forward to trying my hand at the franchise while I wait along with all of you for the third season. Dilemma one covered.

The second thing I did was to immediately head over to Amazon and buy the UHD-Blu-ray release of the first season. Yes, I could have streamed all of it on Prime, but I’m telling you buying the discs was the best possible choice, and we’ll be exploring why. Here’s what I learned in the first season that is important for the second.

“I got a little show-biz secret for you. A good bad guy doesn’t see himself as a bad guy.”

The largest advantage to catching the first season is that you’ll get introduced to the characters, and I’ll pretty much limit myself here to those who play a significant part in the second season. Fallout has a huge cast of very talented actors and some great characters, but we’ll be here all day if we talk about them all. There are a handful of characters you really, really have to know, and the first season does a wonderful job of introducing them to us. The number one attraction is Walton Goggins. If you love quality television shows, you know the name. He was the awesome good guy/bad guy Shane in The Shield. Michael Chiklis was the show’s star, but burning just as bright was Goggins, who had the most nuanced and detailed character on the series. From there I followed him to Justified. There he played another larger-than-life villain as Boyd Crowder. Again he wasn’t the “star”; that job fell to another wonderful performer, Timothy Oliphant, but there was Goggins burning up whatever screen time he had. Just in case the world might have just considered him a one-trick pony who could play a great villain, he appeared in two comedy shows: Vice Principals and The Righteous Gemstones. Again he was great. But it had to happen. It was time for Goggins to become the kind of character he was born to play. Here he plays the 200-year old Ghoul. Now, there are hundreds of other ghouls in this world. but trust me when I tell you he plays The Ghoul. Radiation has allowed him to survive over 200 years, but it has mutated his look so that he now looks as terrifying as he really is. But, and here’s the compelling nuance again, he wants to do what’s right in his heart. He’s looking for his wife and child who are stored somewhere in cryochambers, and he’s had to grow as tough a skin internally as he has on the outside. We also get to see Goggins as pre-apocalypse Cooper “Coop” Howard. He was a cowboy movie star, and his past turns out to play a huge part in how all of this nuked world happened in the first place. I could stop right here, because Goggins alone is worth the price of admission. But we have other great actors/characters.

British actress Ella Purnell plays Lucy. Her life has been the direct opposite of The Ghoul. She has grown up in the protected and naive world of Vault 33. Her father (MacLachlan) was once the vault’s overseer. That’s the name given to the leaders of these vault communities. The first season began on her wedding day, where she was matched with a guy from vault 32. The idea is to offer some genetic diversity. Incest is actually a casual thing here, but survival dictates some diversity. The wedding turns into a disaster when it was merely the distraction for an invasion by surface dwellers. Lucy’s father is kidnapped, and she ends up sneaking out of the vault to find him. But she is very unprepared for the law-of-the-jungle existence on the surface, which is called the Wasteland for good reason. The Wasteland is a place right out of Mad Max or a hundred dystopian future worlds. They use bottle caps for currency, and usually people don’t bother with the “caps”; they just take what they want through sheer brutality. This is the world of The Ghoul. The two encounter each other as Lucy’s belief in being a “nice person” is about to get her killed. The first season was about a quest to find her father and deliver an artifact. Things went pear-shaped, and this season finds Lucy and The Ghoul on a mission to find her dad, who she now knows is one of the truly bad, bad men. The Ghoul tags along because he sees an opportunity to find his family.

“Plans are hard. Chaos is easy.”

There are factions on the surface working for their version of good. One of them is the Brotherhood Of Steel. They are a somewhat religious-zealot group that believe themselves to be the saviors of the future world. The character we want to follow here is Maximus, who is played by Aaron Moten, and he’s kind of the balance between Lucy and The Ghoul. He wants very much to be a knight and “earns” this distinction by letting the knight to whom he was squire get killed and stealing the armor. The armor are these super-soldier suits that are completely mechanized and armed to the teeth … literally. He goes through moments of doubt. He wants to be a good guy but often allows his own baggage to get in the way of this. He’s worked his way into a position of strength but ends up betraying the Brotherhood. He also encounters Lucy, and she has brought out the bravery and good that he possesses.

The season has a theme of civil war as many of the surviving factions are starting to fight each other for control with splits even within those factions including the Brotherhood. There’s the Legion, who have fashioned themselves on the Roman Empire and are led by a Caesar, played by of all actors Home Alone’s Macaulay Culkin. Where is Joe Pesci when you need him? It’s a great departure for the guy, and he’s a brute.

The season is very closely based on a recent release of the game Fallout: New Vegas which turns out to be where all of these factions are meeting up for a confrontation that sets the table for the next season. Through The Ghoul’s flashbacks as Coop, we learn how this corporate world manipulated things to bring about the nuclear destruction. Coop has to deal with the fact that his wife might be one of the manufacturers of this nightmare world. I have to say Goggins does not share great chemistry with Frances Turner, who plays his wife. She’s an awkward character, and I suspect much of that is intentional. It still makes those scenes hard for me to watch even though very key pieces of the puzzle are being revealed here. Both Goggins and Moten share wonderful chemistry with Ella Purnell. These scenes are compelling and truly drive the narrative forward no matter how important the other stuff might be.

The series also deals with various dramas playing out in the vaults, but honestly the series always slows down when we are there. The relationships don’t really work for me, and every minute we spend there is another minute I want to head back to the Wasteland. And why not?

“I saw the same thing up on the surface. People fighting over the most petty things, like bottle caps. Is that what you saw when you were there? But, you know, some things just never change. People just wanna kill each other, don’t they? I think that’s the only way for people to feel safe. It’s ironic. To feel safe, we have to hurt people, even kill them.”

The Wasteland is another star of the series. The visuals are breathtaking. The attention to detail should not be a surprise when you consider that Jonathan Nolan is in charge here. He’s not the showrunner or the creator, but his fingerprints are all over the crime scene, and you’ll find shades of Westworld here, and in the extras he pretty much represents the production team here. He’s a self-confessed fan of the games, and his passion for the show is off the charts compared to any of the others. He’s delivered a spectacular world here, and it’s worth exploring. The production value is one of the best I’ve ever found in a television show and even most films. The games might have been created by other folks and he might not be the guy in charge, but he’s why this thing looks as good as it does. If you’ve only seen the show through streaming, trust me when I tell you that as good as you think it looks, it’s better on these discs. I’m told that vintage songs are a big part of the games, and that’s also very true here, so we have a terrific audio presentation to go with these visuals. I know I’ll be revisiting these episodes again and again.

What about monsters? Throughout the first season we’ve seen some cool creatures like rad-roaches, but nothing compares to the deathclaws. These guys are amazing monsters, and we get to see a ton of them throughout the season. Watching Maximus go up against them in his battle armor is again some of the best production I’ve ever encountered. These creatures dominate their Wasteland world.

Finally, I can’t tell you about all of the great cast members, but one of the remaining stand-outs is Kyle MacLachlan. He’s a character that was really a background player when all of the evil plans were being made, but he’s out of his mind and manages to sleep his way to the future where he is obsessed with these chips that take over the brains of their subjects. Watching him zoom around in his golf cart trying to perfect his technology is some fantastic dark humor. The expressions this guy delivers are priceless. His insanity is compelling. You’ve got to see it to believe it. There is one flaw associated with his character, and it’s a rare complaint with the show, but the de-aging CGI for his younger self is pretty bad. MacLachlan’s performance more than makes up for it.

You get all eight episodes on three discs. There are a ton of extras, but they’re all under three minutes. They are obviously promo pieces played on Prime, because they all end with “Watch on Prime”. Don’t do it. You gotta get the discs. There’s so much to unpack here I feel like I’ve only scratched the surface of these eight episodes, and it’s going to be a year or more before we see the next batch. My final plea: even if you avoid physical media, make this an exception. If you are watching this on a 3-inch cell phone screen, “That’s just madness.”

Lucy played the character she had already perfected on radio and on the stage. Desi played her husband, a Cuban bandleader who headlined at the Tropicana. Lucy was always trying to find a way to get into Ricky’s act. She had no talent, but that never stopped her, usually embarrassing Ricky along the way. The couple lived in an apartment owned by the Mertzes, Fred (Frawley) and Ethel (Vance). They were not only the Ricardos’ landlords but also their closest friends. Ethel would often find herself talked into one of Lucy’s crazy schemes. The show also found comedy fodder in Ricky’s thick Cuban accent. Sometimes his mispronunciations caused hilarious misunderstandings. William Frawley as Fred had the job of playing straight man most of the time. It was a thankless job, to be sure, but he was perfect at it. He didn’t talk as much as the others, but he had some golden moments over the show’s very successful six-year run. It was a shame that Frawley and Vance absolutely hated each other. Both were slated to return to Lucy’s second series The Lucy Show, but Vance refused to work with Frawley again, and he was written out of the second show, as Vance and Ball were very close in real life as well. During that time the series never once fell below number three for the entire year in ratings.

I Love Lucy changed the fledgling television industry in the 1950’s. This was a time when network television was less than a decade old. Most folks had never heard of television just 15 years earlier. I Love Lucy defined the concept of a sitcom. The show was driven by the very strong personalities of the cast. Desi Arnaz was considered a charismatic Latin lover by American women. Lucy played the perfect foil and found a mountain of gold to mine in strong physical comedy. So many modern shows owe their roots to this classic that it would be impossible to mention them all here.

Even if you are not a particular fan of the show, it would be a mistake to dismiss the impact the series had both on the situation comedy and the television industry itself. The show’s pioneering use of the three-camera format and shooting on film allows the material to be in a position to be restored at all. That setup has remained a staple of the television comedy since that time. Desi was also a marketing genius who was the first to take advantage of the promotional value of putting the show’s name on everything from lunchboxes to sleepwear. It’s an innovation that is exaggerated in a Red Skelton skit provided in the extras here. Desi changed the way television crew did their jobs and created the modern production methods still used today.

Lucille Ball passed away in 1989. She was the last survivor of the quartet that formed the nucleus of I Love Lucy, and her passing brought about a wave of nostalgia for the series. By 1990 CBS was still looking for ways to capitalize on the resurgence of popularity. That’s where the idea of a Christmas special was first brought up. The concept evolved into colorizing the show’s own Christmas episode and offering it up as a 1990 Christmas program. The ratings were huge, and before long the network found a way to make it an annual television tradition by adding more colorized material each year. Eventually we had 16 full episodes colorized using original props, costumes, and photographs as reference points to make the colors as authentic as possible. Still, these early attempts at colorization were crude. In the years to follow that technology improved, and using the new techniques in concert with the restored 35mm film negatives we now have relatively pristine copies of these episodes, and they were brought together in one DVD package.

Here it’s all in the original black & white, but you’ll smile to find some episodes that have gone on to be somewhat immortal. Lucy and Ethel working in a candy factory is one of the highest rated television episodes on pretty much anyone’s list. George Reeves would appear as both himself and Superman less than two years before his controversial suicide. Robert Stack played an Elliott Ness-like character, and remember that Desilu produced The Untouchables, so the episode looks and sounds like an episode. Desilu would later produce Mission Impossible and Star Trek. The show made early television history with the birth of Ricky, Jr. It was the most watched episode of television until the M*A*S*H final episode almost 30 years later. The show was times to account for Ball’s actual pregnancy with Desi Arnaz, Jr. but he never actually appeared as little Ricky on the series.

For the first three years most of the show took place in their apartment. In the fourth season Ricky gets a chance at Hollywood, and the cast go to California for several seasons. This was the very first time a television series used continuing story elements across several episodes, and it was a ratings hit that allowed Lucy to interact with many stars of the day like Montgomery Clift, John Wayne, and Harpo Marx, among others. The idea went over so well that the following season the cast went on a whirlwind tour of Europe, where Lucy’s grape-stomping bit became another classic moment. In the final year the cast visited Florida and finally Cuba where both Arnaz and Ricky were born.

The show also scored one of the best film cinematographers in the movie business to shoot the show. Karl Freund is known to anyone who grew up with the Universal monsters. He was the cinematographer on many including Karloff’s The Mummy and Lugosi’s Dracula. He worked with Fritz Lang on one of the most notable films of the silent era: Metropolis. He was instrumental in securing the shoot on 35mm or the series would likely be mostly lost today. He also made Arnaz’s idea of a three-camera system work by developing a unique lighting system that gave each of the cameras the same lighting tone so that edits between them were invisible. He was reluctant to do television, and it was only through the couple’s personal pleas and a healthy paycheck that he agreed, and it was one of the best decisions the couple made. It’s the only reason you can now see the show in such good condition on a release like this.

Extras include pieces of Ball’s radio show along with a limited number of deleted scenes and flubs. You get every episode including the unaired pilot with some casting changes. The image is quite good, and the series would look equally as good on your video shelf.

Everyone has their favorite moments and episodes. No word on if there’ll be more colorized episodes in the future. There haven’t been for some years now. You could wait for an eventually larger set, but “you shouldn’t cross your bridges before they’re hatched.”

Ultraman is a huge part of Japanese culture and pretty much has been since the original live-action show in 1966. Perhaps Godzilla started the ball rolling, but Ultraman brought us these monsters on a regular basis. In Japan, Ultraman is like our Superman. He’s an iconic hero and a huge part of the pop culture. Since the 60’s he has appeared in many forms, most of them animated. But it is this 1966 series that made a ton of us kids fall in love with him and an entire genre. Yes, there were many from the era: Space Giants featured a giant fighting robot who fought monsters and sometimes converted into a spaceship (yes, before transformers were ever thought of); Johnny Socko had his giant robot; and the list goes on. But it was Ultraman who started it. Eiji Tsuburaya, who created the original Godzilla, formed a new company outside of Toho Pictures. Ultraman was pretty much the first thing out of the new shop.

It started with a series called Ultra Q. It was a popular series in Japan. There was no Ultraman here, but some of the elements of what would be the Science Patrol started there. When it was finished, the staff was approached to create a new show, and fast. But this one needed more action and also something that could be sold to the American markets. That was Ultraman.  In some form or another, the character has been around for over 60 years and is still plugging.

Ultraman was a space being who was chasing an escaped monster. When his spacecraft collided with that of Science Patrol Officer Hayata, he inadvertently killed the young man. To make up for his mistake and also offer Earth a way to fight the endless row of monsters unleashed, he merged his life with Hayata. Now, whenever a monster threatens, Hayata uses his “beta capsule” and morphs into Ultraman. Complete with martial arts moves and an array of ray weapons, Ultraman fights these creatures in hand-to-hand combat. The downside is that Ultraman’s solar energy diminishes rapidly in Earth’s atmosphere. As he weakens, a light on his chest flashes. A narrator reminds us each time that if it stops, Ultraman will die.

For the last couple of years we have been covering the many recent and more modern versions of Ultraman as Mill Creek and Alliance have partnered to get these shows out on Blu-ray for the fans young and old. This time they’ve reached back in the archives about halfway between then and now for two shows featuring the popular hero.  Ultraman: Towards The Future and Ultraman: Ultimate Hero. Both of these shows go back to the 1990’s and the production values are going to drop a bit from the recent releases but that’s no problem because if you’re a fan you want this in your collection. These are also the first attempts to produce the show outside of Japan and market them more solidly toward a Western audience. They are natively in English with many non-Japanese actors. Both shows clock in at just 13 episodes.

Ultraman: Toward The Future (1990-1992)

This was the first time Ultraman was produced outside of Japan. The show was filmed in Australia and featured many Aussie cast and crew which included a young David Prowse as director. Prowse would go on to become a part of a huge sci-fi series produced Downunder. Of course, I’m talking about Farscape and you can already see the seeds of such a thing developing here.

The first men to land on Mars encounter a giant monster. Soon they encounter a giant silver and red man fighting the creature trying to give the humans a chance to escape and go home. Ultraman is too late to save one of the men who dies when his ship is destroyed. Jack Shindo (Kraus) will be stranded. Ultraman communes with Shindo and helps him return to Earth by combining forms with him. They get back to Earth just as a sentient virus also travels to Earth causing creatures to mutate into monsters. Instead of the earlier Science Patrol we now have UMA lead by Arthur Grant (Cotterill) who appears to have financed the advanced weapons and technology. There’s Jean Echo, played by Gia Carides who is the actor to be the best known later for movies like My Big Fat Greek Wedding and shows like Big Little Lies and Without A Trace. She was Shindo’s love interest and she’s shaken at his apparent loss but becomes close to him once he’s returned. She’ll eventually figure out he’s Ultraman. Charles Morgan is a civilian and the requisite wise guy. He’s played by Lloyd Morris. Lloyd Wilder (Adams) is the muscle man on the show. The score sounds a lot like John Williams memorable score on the 1978 Superman.

Unfortunately, the show was shot on video and the production values here are pretty bad. It’s a shame because having the show in the Outback gives it its own unique spin and a rather fresh look at the character. The show also gets quite heavy-handed with environmental messages. Almost every creature is really just upset that the environment is getting messed up and while a fine message the show leans to the point of being a bit of a bully.

Ultraman: Ultimate Hero (1993)

This series was produced in The United States and has quite a good production design particularly for its day. The image is clear and the f/x work appears decades ahead of the previous show instead of just a year. Unfortunately, the series relied on remaking episodes from the 1966 show and while it’s endearing to revisit the early monsters and villains it would have been nice to have a more original arc.

This time it’s Kane Kosugi as Kenishi Kai who becomes Superman and the beta capsule is back. This time it’s an American organization called WINR, pronounced Winner that fights the monsters along with Ultraman. The Baltans, complete with that echo laugh are back and leading the monster parade against Earth. They even have the old Science Patrol pin from the 1966 series. The best part of this show is that it had production design ahead of its time.  The suits were a bit inferior to other shows. This was also true on the previous series. There isn’t as much grappling with the monsters because the suits were coming apart and could not hold up to a lot of contact between Ultraman and the creatures.

While the series was made in the United States it could not find a distribution partner and would never be seen on American television. It ended up being a home video launch and the quality of those tapes were pretty bad. Now you get the series in HD where you will be able to appreciate the image presentation like you’ve never had the chance before.

You get both shows on two Blu-ray discs each. Again there just aren’t any features but this is intended for the collector, really. Ultraman would return many times and with modern technology but he would always remain the man in the suit. So far they have resisted the urge to use CGI to create monsters and hero. I hope that stays that way for a long time. “The future of humanity might just depend on it”.

So, it goes without saying the success or failure of this movie rested solely on Karl Urban’s portrayal of Johnny Cage. Johnny Cage is among the most popular characters in the video game franchise. Not to mention, he was my favorite character back in my Sega days. For me, while I still enjoyed the first film, his absence was felt. I was thrilled when I heard that he was going to be featured in the second film. I will admit when I heard that Urban would be playing the role, I was mildly skeptical. While I know Urban to be a fantastic actor and hilarious, the physicality of the role, I initially thought would be too much for him. Luckily, it proved me wrong. It’s been five years since the reboot, and yet for the most part, the sequel feels like no time has passed at all. Especially given that everyone member of the cast from the reboot returned for the sequel, including a few that I wasn’t expecting. This of course includes some new additions as well as a bit of Chilling Adventures of Sabrina reunion.

Tati Gabrielle and Adeline Rudolph are the film’s new additions playing Jade and Kitana respectively. Their characters share a very close bond, which shows through their comfortability with one another on screen. This comfortability comes as no surprise given that the two sisters once played on a Netflix series following the life of Sabrina Spellman. In addition to their chemistry, the two provide decent individual performance, Rudolph more so as her character was more central to the film’s overall plot. I would have liked to have seen more Gabrielle and the inner turmoil that her character faces about where her allegiances lie, but timing didn’t permit that. Regardless, Gabrielle makes the best of the time she has.

Now to the new addition, that we all care most about: Karl Urban’s Johnny Cage. As I said, his portrayal would ultimately make or break the film. For the sequel, Johnny Cage has become the film’s central character, taking that position away from Cole Young, the original character introduced in the reboot, played by Lewis Tan. This effectively downgraded Tan’s role a bit, which was unfortunate but was also necessary. The film adjusted Cage’s backstory a bit; in the games, Cage is a martial artist and actor who is tricked by the sorcerer Shang Tsung into entering the latter’s Mortal Kombat tournament to prove that he does not rely on special effects in his films and improve his marketability. However, for this film, the story leans into the idea that Cage is a former action star, whose glory days are behind him when he is chosen as one of Earthrealm’s champions. Being conscripted rather than volunteering for Mortal Kombat, added tension for the character as it forced him to live up to his destiny. It is a well-known and usually overutilized troupe; however, thanks to Urban, it works, especially as the other champions make their big pitch for him to band with them to save the word, and Urban delivers a hilarious deadpan answer.

As it was in the video games, the sequel relied heavily on Cage serving as a comic foil. Fortunately, this was a task that Urban was up to and excelled at. These comedic moments, particularly when his mouth writes a check his behind almost couldn’t cash with a certain spike shooting character, provide a much-needed levity to the otherwise serious circumstance of the film. Speaking of levity, there is one returning character that I wasn’t expecting, but that I was so glad to see again because his role in the reboot was a big part of that film’s success in my opinion. Josh Lawson’s return as Kano, the corrupt and self-serving mercenary, kept me in stitches, just as he did with the reboot. While I give credit to everyone slipping back into their characters with relative ease, there was no better example of that than with Lawson’s portrayal of Kano. He fit like a glove. Every time his character came on screen, you were guaranteed a laugh.

As I mentioned previously, I was somewhat disappointed with the downgrading of some of the characters, such as Tan’s character. I recognized it couldn’t be helped, but it still would have been nice to seen more from the group as an ensemble. As it was great, but when it comes down to it, the film has more individual storylines that are weaved together than an ensemble collective. Additionally, the tournament somewhat plays second fiddle to these individual storylines. I’m not complaining but given that this was intended to be Earth’s final chance to prevent world domination, it probably should have had more priority. Again, not complaining, but I have to admit that this was a film of side quests rather than the main storyline.

There is still much story left to be explored, and the film’s ending suggests that it is exactly what we will get. Hopefully, it won’t take another five years for another sequel. Elements that are still left to explore in my opinion are the relationship between central characters Johnny Cage and Sonya Blade; their connection is touched on in this film but has yet to be explored and Sonya actress Jessica McNamee has already expressed an interest in exploring their relationship. Greg Russo, who co-wrote the reboot, has stated that he intended these films to be a trilogy, with the third film exploring post-tournament, so the opportunity is there. It also doesn’t hurt that Joe Taslim, who plays Bi-Han is signed on for four sequels.

I can still remember the It miniseries from a few decades ago. I thought Gary Oldman was just wonderful as Pennywise the clown at the center of Stephen King’s novel of the same name. What I really never took into account was that being wonderful really wasn’t the point of the character at all. With much love to Oldman and the many characters he’s brought to life over the years, I never realized until 2017 was who Pennywise the clown was truly meant to be. Andy Muschietti and his sister Barbara went to work on a two-film attempt to bring It back to life, this time on the big screen. Like most people I was pretty skeptical of the whole thing, and a lifetime of failed Stephen King films that never lived up to his written word was the evidence I cited. Can’t be done, I said. They’ll only run it into the ground to be resurrected badly as if it had been buried in King’s Pet Semetary. But I was wrong. While Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption might still be some of the best adaptations of King’s work, I think the 2017 It and It: Chapter Two are the best one-two punch in the frightening world of Stephen King. What I didn’t know was this wasn’t a two-film deal at all. It was intended to be three films, with the third being a prequel. Something happened along the way, and the project finally got greenlit, and the Muschietti family brought along all of their scary friends including Bill Skarsgard, who taught me who Pennywise really was, and the lesson has been unforgettable. Now Warner Brothers is releasing the first eight episodes that make up the first season of It: Welcome To Derry, and it’s available on UHD Blu-ray in 4K. Snatch it up before Pennywise snatches you.

“You know what they say about Derry, don’t you? Once you leave, you forget.”

That won’t be the case after seeing the first season of this little horrorfest. The films and the novel tell the story of a group of kids known as The Losers Club in two parts, first as children and then as adults, because It has a kind of cycle where it sleeps for around 27 years between bloodbaths. The series uses that as a way to get us back into the story, because obviously there were many of these cycles before the films. This time we go back to the early 1960’s when another Pennywise cycle is played out. I dare you to forget Derry after this.

“If you tell me that you’ve seen something impossible, then I believe you”.

You might recall a character named Hanlon in the films. Here we learn just how his family ended up in Derry.  Leroy Hanlon (Adepo) is an Air Force officer who has been transferred to the base in Derry, Maine. He brings his wife Charlotte (Paige) and young son Will (James). What he doesn’t know is that there is a secret in Derry. It’s one the audience already knows, but we’re not the only ones. Hanlon was brought here because he has a rather odd genetic attribute. He doesn’t feel fear. He’s being teamed up with another airman with a special attribute. You knew him in The Shining through Scatman Crothers; that’s Dick Halloran (Chalk). What you might know is that before he became a watchman for a certain haunted hotel he used his abilities to sense things, what that story called The Shine for another horrible event. General Francis Shaw (Remar) is who brought all of them together. Because of a drug trial he was a part of, he remembered his time as a child in Derry. Now he’s a powerful general, and he wants to find It and use it as a weapon to stop the flood of Communism. Nobody said it was a bright plan. But he comes to Derry to use Halloran’s ability to track the thing and Hanlon’s inability to feel fear to let it loose in the world. The idea is folks will be so scared that they’ll be drawn back to old fashioned values and morality. Again, not the greatest of plans, but here we go.

Of course Will ends up finding friends who have had a connection to It and have decided to take it on themselves. Marge Truman (Lawler) was once part of the popular girls called Patty Cakes after their shallow leader Patty. When she sees some of the injustice around her, she gets pursued by It. Then there is Lily Bainbridge (Stack), who was witness to a massacre in a movie theater. She’s spent time in Juniper Hill, a place King fans know to be an insane asylum. She caves to pressure and helps blame a theater worker and Blackman for the murders to avoid getting sent back. So she reaches out to help his daughter Rhonda (Storey) to clear his name and try to destroy It. They form the core of a group that makes it their mission to stop it.

The series doesn’t just tell another Pennywise story, and that’s where it finds its strength. We get flashbacks, and we learn more about this creature and how it came to be. In the 30’s we see how it took the form of Pennywise because It noticed how children were drawn to the image. We also learn that It arrived 400 years ago on a meteor, and it was the native population who first had to deal with It. They discovered It had a weakness. Pieces of the meteor that brought it here had power over It. It’s very much a Superman kryptonite story. They used pieces of it to create a boundary it could not cross. Unfortunately, that cage became Derry, and a lot of folks got killed over the next 400 years. Now Hanlon wants to use that substance to put him back in his cage before Shaw’s men set him free on an unprepared world. The completeness of the story in just eight episodes is uncanny.

The series throws a lot of Stephen King Easter Eggs at us, and if you are paying attention, you’ll see plenty of characters, items, and places from the King universe. That seems particularly true of The Shining. There’s a very complete world built here, and they don’t pull punches for a series. Each episode has the production values and intensity of the two films. While Skarsgard is back, you don’t see him full-on Pennywise until the fifth episode. They make you wait, and the wait is worth it. The film’s atmosphere with the resolution and textures of UHD/4K make this pretty much an 8-hour movie. A lot of shows will tell you how they’re making a movie with each episode, but here that’s absolutely true. I dare you to match this to both films and not feel a complete connection to it all. Stephen King wasn’t a part of this production in any way, so I’m not sure what his feelings on the project are, but I have to believe he’s delighted. They ran with his idea and completely hit it out of the park.

There are a few bonus features. Each episode has a behind-the-scenes feature, and there are a couple of short features in addition. The best is a profile on Pennywise where we get to see all of the stages of creating Pennywise from Bill Skarsgard. The next season jumps to the next cycle and will take place in the 1980’s. Meanwhile maybe we’ll catch up with Halloran taking his new gig at a resort hotel. “I mean, how much trouble can a hotel be?”

Die My Love is the latest film by director Lynne Ramsay whose best film is still We Need To Talk About Kevin. I say still is because Die My Love doesn’t live up to the reputation. Ramsay was never quite a linear storyteller and this film is no exception. She loves to dabble in the subtle madness of a situation and here she does much more than dabble and while there are certainly attempts to be nuanced the film rages as out of control as her main character played by Jennifer Lawrence who takes a huge swing and a big chance here. It was the right idea but maybe not quite the right vehicle. Lawrence has been trying to distance herself from the Hunger Games franchise not because that wasn’t good work but she appears to be trying not to get too pigeonholed in her career. as I said, it’s the right call. the problem is that Die My Love is too messy of a film to show much of anything, and trust me anything worth watching about this film lands entirely on the performance of Jennifer Lawrence.

Grace (Lawrence) is a writer, at least that’s what we’re told. I say this because there’s never any real writing going on with Grace. She has just had her first baby with husband Jackson, played by Robert Pattison who knows a little bit about getting out of a typecasting nightmare himself. Of course, this depends on what part of the story is real and when we actually are. I say this because the film moves often through time in what don’t feel as much like flashbacks as they should. By the end of the film I’m not completely sure where in time we actually are. I suspect that’s at least somewhat intended. All we know for sure is that she’s suffering from post-Partum Depression, which is a little like PSTD for new moms.

Lawrence is absolutely captivating in her performance but the problem is it stands out so much that there’s no chemistry here between her and husband Jackson and perhaps that is also intentional. Purposeful or not it doesn’t’ make this a very easy film to watch. I feel almost as if the audience might need some counseling when they have finished watching the film. It’s brutal and Ramsay doesn’t pull any punches and perhaps the best decision she’s made here is staying out of Lawrence’s way. Unfortunately that also appears to be true of the supporting cast. I feel for Pattison here because his only job is to express greater and greater frustration about his wife and her actions. There’s also a pretty good performance from Nick Nolte as Jackson’s father and Sissy Spacek as an aunt who carries around a rifle her hubby used to kill himself by shooting himself in the butt. By the way that’s how Grace and Jackson luck into this rundown rural hillbilly house which might be contributing to the madness here.

There’s no formal storytelling here and I must, once again mention that is likely what was intended. But without a narrative to drive this great performance it just feels like brunt force trauma to me and the audience. I’m not sure what we did to Ramsay to deserve such treatment but she appears determined to bring out some kind of primordial rage. The lack of story does include a couple of threads we might be able to piece together but the film is told from the point of view of an unreliable narrator. Grace might or might not be imagining some or all of what we see here. There’s a mysterious motorcycle rider who appears from time to time who stops to stare at her. Except for one encounter he’s pretty much a phantom and the narrative suggests strongly that he’s not really there. If that’s true what is there for me to believe?

Video

Die My Love is presented in its original aspect ratio of 1.331.fullframe. I think the choice is to make the film more intimate but I’m not sure that really worked out so well. The ultra-high-definition 2160p  image is arrived at by an HEVC codec with a sweet average bitrate of 85 mbps. It also helps that this was shot on actual 35mm film which is not only native 4K but also provides a nice organic look to the film through the film’s grain and texture. The movie almost looks like it was shot in the 1970’s with an attempt to recreate that kind of vintage film stock. Colors are often either oversaturated or at times nearly monochromatic. The shift helps to create the various moods and emotional beats of the movie. There are a lot of uncomfortable close-ups that reveal more of that filmic texture and detail. The cinematography might be the best thing about this movie and it is reproduced faithfully here.

Audio

The DTS-HD- Master Audio presentation isn’t very aggressive nor is it designed to be such. The dialog and source music is what is being served here and the audio presentation does an average job of delivering that to us here. The subs are quite muted and all of this along with the aspect ratio are intended to be rather close and intimate. That it certainly is.

Special Features

There are no extras but there is a Blu-ray copy of the film included.

Final Thoughts:

There’s no question this is an art film with both stars also being producers. Martin Scorsese is also onboard as a producer and it’s actually a bit evident in some close-up scenes of Lawrence looking at herself in a mirror. It can’t help but provide shades of DeNiro’s character in Taxi Driver.  There’s not much else to report beyond the sheer brutal and visceral nature of the material. If there had been just a little meat to go with those potatoes , “Maybe I’d write something…maybe”.

The quote above really sets the tone of The History of Sound (2025). It is a charming movie, a cinematographically soft motion picture, subtle and intimate in execution. It was directed by Oliver Hermanus and written by Ben Shattuck, premiering at the Cannes Film Festival on May 21, 2025. The movie has since won three awards and been nominated nine times. After watching it, I can see why, and I immediately knew I wanted to write an affectionate review for such an affectionate film. That said, I could write what the movie was about, and I could write what the movie was really about. The nuance in interpretation may sound minute, but worth exploring to understand in depth. The film is a soft gay romance, showing how two men fall in love. It centers around these two men, Lionel (Paul Mescal) and David (Josh O’Connor), although the story is essentially told from Lionel’s point of view. It is set at the brink of World War I in 1917 when David is drafted into the military. Just before being drafted, David and Lionel meet in a bar when Lionel noticed David playing an old folksong from his home in Kentucky. It sparked an instant connection sealed by their shared love of music. They were both gifted in music, with Lionel described as having synesthesia, seeing colors in sound, and David having a photographic memory with sound, being able to play or sing to music he’s only heard once. Upon David’s return from being stationed in Europe, the two instantly reconnect and set upon a field research journey to collect and archive regional folk music, hence the name The History of Sound. In their quest, their love is allowed to blossom, and all is well until David decides to part ways after they finish their quest.

The movie’s tone then changes, and while Lionel continues about his life, having even dated a woman, his heart is empty. Lionel returns to his hometown, and eventually begins to search for David, only to be surprised by what he finds. It is set in a time when such a circumstance was unspeakable and must be kept secret. It was different from a lot of gay romances in that it didn’t center on sex, but rather their mutual connection. As a matter of fact, the sex scenes (both straight and gay) were tasteful and not lewd, which contributed to the soft atmosphere. The movie suggests that the heart wants what the heart wants, and it is up to us to decide whether to follow the heart’s desire and truly live, or to follow what is expected of us and suffer. I liked that the taboo was subliminal, not overtly spoken about, requiring a historical assumption that homosexuality was, and is, viewed as a shameful practice. It was like they knew their fate was already set in stone. The weight of the social fabric dictating gender roles and social norms was already ingrained without even needing the language to say it out loud. Despite the movie being about two men falling in love, it isn’t a “gay” movie inasmuch “straight” people should really watch it to see the beauty in love is love. In the end, it shows why love must be honored.

The movie made me feel a wide range of emotions, oscillating from bliss, grief, anger, to love. I’ll admit that I became enthralled with its tragic beauty. I enjoyed seeing love unfolding in a way that felt natural. The director’s choices truly made it feel intimate, as if you’re getting a peek into a tale that was real and recited by old memories. The grief is striking, with multiple layers of it built into the story that adds to its humanity. Honestly, it reminded me of a gothic romance in how the story unfolded. The dialog was elegant, yet simple, avoiding superfluousness often seen in historical romances. Hailing from Appalachia myself, it was heartwarming to see a depiction of how my ancestors lived back in the early 1900’s, where the movie is partially set. Lionel reminded me of myself with his simple roots in a small town yet connected to the world in his quest for a meaningful life. I don’t believe I connected to this film because I am also a gay man. I connected to this film because I’ve felt the love that was being depicted, as a human being. I ended up watching the movie on Blu-ray late at night with my partner, and even though he fell asleep towards the end, the ending made me look at him with love and appreciation. It prompted me to imagine how lost I’d be without him in my life.

Really, there were a myriad of things about the movie I loved; it was extremely well-executed. I will mention some particular aspects that stood out for me personally. As a published researcher myself, the research aspect of the film was brilliant. Romance aside, it was so lovely to see a depiction of field-collecting data that isn’t often seen. The movie literally shows the entire process of data collection, participant recruitment, and ethical considerations (or lack thereof, but noted). It was also nice seeing a “rural country boy” from Kentucky becoming world-renowned and recognized for his gift in music. Perhaps not a rags-to-riches trope, but he surely went from nothing to something. It is not often folks from Appalachia travel outside their own counties, much less the country. It was truly inspiring to see him take advantage of his gift and it was a meaningful part of the story. That said, it also wasn’t a perfect film, although perfection is hard to define outside of subjectivity in movies. The story was a bit drawn out and could’ve been made much shorter with how it was depicted. At times, it felt like the director was beating a dead horse, or more accurately, twisting the knife used to stab my heart. It required an emotional investment to enjoy in full capacity, which may not appeal to average viewers, LGBT aside. I also would note that the tragedy would’ve landed much better had there been more emphasis on David’s internal struggles/pain. I think the movie would be near perfection had it switched perspective midway to tell David’s point of view.

I’m not going to lie; the movie made me cry. I believe that if you have a heart, have felt love/loss, or are able to step in the shoes of others, you’ll at least shed a tear. The film moves you in ways art is supposed to. I suppose I should’ve expected the ending, but I also didn’t want to believe it. This is a film I would recommend anyone to watch, whether they are LGBT or not. It is a story about our humanity, our capacity for love, and the weight of grief on who we are as people. The cinematography, storytelling, and music all come together beautifully to tell a tale that anyone can relate to. The portrayal of Appalachian America was tasteful and accurate, same as with the treatment of queerness in historical contexts. The minor details mentioned earlier keep this movie from being 4 or even 5 stars, truly remarkable for a standalone independent film.

For a little over two hours Michael Jackson has risen from his grave. It’s not a miracle. It’s a little bit of movie magic and a performance by an actor with a little bit more at stake than the usual paycheck or quest for awards and accolades. When he decided to direct a bio-pic about Michael Jackson, Antoine Fuqua made a couple of smart choices. He hired John Logan to write the script. Logan is likely best known for Gladiator but he has a pretty impressive resume to call upon. But the wisest choice was to hire Jaafar Jackson to play the title character. And while Jackson was required to audition for the part like any other actor might be required to do, he had an edge both in getting the role and in turning it into something a little bit special. He is Michael Jackson’s nephew and the son of Jackson Five member Jermaine Jackson. So there’s certainly a lot of Jackson power in the film, and it’s all put together to pull in a whole lot of a different kind of Jacksons at the box office. So hold on tight, because this story is going to be a whirlwind.

Rock music has delivered a few bio-pic movies of late. The best of them all, in my opinion happens to be Bohemian Rhapsody, following the exploits of Queen and more particularly their late front man Freddie Mercury. Elton John has had Rocket Man. More recently a fair shot on the life of Elvis, and there’s a huge collection of films coming for each of the members of The Beatles. They all have taken different turns at the genre. I love Bohemian Rhapsody because it tells the story with a fair amount of detail and wasn’t afraid to include some of the dirt. That makes it feel so much more real to me. Rocket Man was pretty much Elton John’s fantasy version of his own life, while Elvis might have hurt itself by trying to tell the story too much through the character of Elvis’s infamous manager, The Colonel. Michael has taken a different track, and that’s going to vary your experience a little.

The film begins with Michael Jackson as the 8-year-old boy whose amazing voice lifted the family’s musical act from small county fair circuits to some of the biggest venues in the country. The film focuses on the abusive forcefulness that Michael experienced from his rather greedy father, Joseph Jackson. Casting Colman Domingo as the overbearing father was perhaps a better choice than even casting Michael’s nephew. Domingo literally steals the show, and when you have a character as big as life as Michael Jackson certainly is, that’s one hell of a performance. He’s one of the best heavies I’ve encountered in at least a few years and is already on my next year’s award watch. His brutality drives the narrative as much as the music itself. For better or worse, it’s clear that this abusive figure likely had as much to do with who Michael Jackson was as his music.

And there is where the film will either win you over or lose you a bit. The concert footage grows throughout until we’re watching full song performances. There’s a ton of energy in those performances, and I think they will have Jackson fans standing in the aisles, because this is as close as you’re ever going to get to attending a Michael Jackson concert again. Jaafar knows his uncle, and he delivers the same kind of manic energy that fans have experienced for decades from his uncle. He’s got the moves, and the audience goes wild when he starts doing his uncle’s signature moonwalk among other moves. It’s all great, but for me it’s too much. At some points the film almost becomes a concert film, but that’s not what I was most interested in seeing. It has to be a huge part of it all, no argument. But too often it dominates, and we do get cheated out of too much of Michael’s story. The film continues to beat us with his father’s abusiveness, but there are so many other aspects of this complex man’s life that are both interesting and of note. Sadly all of that is skipped over. The film ends at a huge concert in the late 80’s, and that’s as far as the film goes. It almost feels like a Part One. But there isn’t a good way to follow up, because there is human drama in those last years that is just as compelling but not quite so complimentary of Michael himself. He was a human being with great talent, but like all the rest of us human beings, he had his flaws and he had his demons. Bohemian Rhapsody wasn’t afraid to air that dirty laundry, but Michael is, and I think it suffers greatly as a result.

There are some very strong supporting performances here. Nia Long brings the film the necessary balance from Domingo’s cruelty by playing the loving mother. She carries that sadness more with her eyes than through her dialog, and she is an important counterpoint to the film’s focus. KeiLyn Durrel Jones is Bill Bray, who joins the family early as Michael’s bodyguard who becomes an important friend and a better father figure than his own father. Kendrick Sampson plays Quincy Jones, one of the truly greatest writers, producers, and musicians in the history of the industry. Jones was a huge musical influence on Jackson, and I was very pleased that this relationship was given the time and respect it deserved. No Quincy Jones? Maybe no Michael Jackson. Jackson learned at the foot of the best. Miles Teller plays John Branca, who was Michael’s legal guide over the years and also another faithful member of his inner circle.

While we get hints at what will become the future Neverland, the film refuses to actually go there. Michael’s near obsession with Peter Pan to escape his abuse gives us a glimpse of how important Neverland will become, and the animal collection starts to grow pretty early. My big issue with the films is that it plants so many seeds that we never see grow into something important. We know what those things are. Everyone does, but the film flinches, and that’s what makes this a very good film and not a great one. Many will pass the comments off as a critic who wants to throw shade on Michael Jackson. That’s not it at all. None of our stories are complete without the flaws. I’m certainly not perfect. In fact there are moments in my life where…”I’m bad”.