Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom

7/10

Asterix & Obelix: The Middle Kingdom (original French title: Asterix & Obelix: L'Empire du Milieu), now on Netflix, is the fifth of the live-action films based on the popular and long-running Asterix the Gaul comics (known for their combination of slapstick and satirical humor) and the first of said films (not counting the animated ones) not based on one of the original stories. This stars Gauls (the ancestors of the French and Belgians) Asterix (played by Guillaume Canet) and his friend Obelix (Gilles Lellouche) who live in the only village that hasn't been occupied by the Roman Empire thanks to a magical potion the druid Getafix (English)/Panoramix (French) (Pierre Richard) brews that gives people super strength. In this installment, the friends travel to China in order to help Princess Fu Yi (Julie Chen) regain control of China from the forces of the prince Deng Tsin Qin (Bun Hay Mean) and Julius Cesar (Vincent Cassel).

It's nice to finally get an Asterix movie on Netflix in America, and one which is prominently displayed no less. There's a ton of these films but since Asterix isn't big the way he is in France and other countries he doesn't get much love stateside. Some of the movies are completely unavailable and the others often require Internet research to determine the various streaming platforms they're all on. 

'Course there's ultimately the question of whether this movie's good or not regardless of the fact that America's finally giving the franchise a chance. The Asterix films can be inconsistent. I've seen the first 3 live-action ones and the first is okay, the second is pretty good, and the third was a disappointment. My final verdict on this one: It's not perfect, but it's funny.

There are jokes in this that either don't work (there's a weird visual gag involving a box that the writers had an undeserved confidence in) or the French sensibility or topical humor doesn't cross the cultural divide, but a lot of the jokes do land, including one laugh-out-loud moment for me. A lot of the stuff in this film that works is based on the fact that it's an adaptation of a children's humorous comic. The whole thing is just plain silly humor and a lot of jokes juxtaposing modern cultural references with ancient times, and it sounds like the latter could get old but it never really does.

What helps make the comedy work is that the entire cast knows what kind of movie they're making and go all in on the silliness. The guys playing the villains especially seem to be having fun mugging for the camera. There's like six of them and yet their scenes never feel overstuffed, and each one has a distinct personality.

Surprisingly, one of the weaker parts of this are the two leads. The writing for Asterix and Obelix feels a little off. Asterix especially doesn't feel quite like himself. He's always been a a positive fellow who likes his lot in life. Here he comes off a little selfish and is questioning stuff that has been staples of his characters. The first ten minutes of the film don't make a great impression due to his personality alone. (The movie does take a little time to really get going. If you watch, I suggest you give this at least 30-45 min. before you decide to give up.)

The sets are all really nice and colorful. The movie's filmed in France, but the production crew seemed to be doing their best to make the setting is somewhere else.

Since this is French, expect this movie to be a bit more liberal with content. Parents should understand that though this is considered a family film, there are sexual references including a brief usage of the word "orgies." I can't quite put a finger on anything specific, but anyone who's actually Chinese or of Chinese ancestry may not be thrilled with how fast and loose the movie makers play with Chinese culture.

This is one of those movies that are hard to recommend or not. Some will find this definitely funny and a nice lighthearted affair. Others may be frustrated with the parts that don't work or just don't get the film as a whole. This is probably a better recommendation for kids (provided their parents are okay with the content) as I think they'll probably be less picky and like the goofiness of it all. If you're curious about the Asterix franchise, I don't know if I can say this is the perfect entry point. I'd recommend either Asterix and the Vikings, if it ever comes back to streaming in the U.S., which is the one that feels the most like a traditional American kids' film, and the animation is pretty good, too, or The Twelve Tasks of Asterix, the best in my opinion and currently for rent on a few streaming platforms, helmed by the original creators, and has this unique feel to it you could only get in the 70's. (Admittedly, there is one brief scene in the movie that is unarguably racist.)

Digman- Season 1

 

8/10

In this new animated comedy on Comedy Central, once famous but now disgraced archaeologist Rip Digman (voiced by SNL/Brooklyn Nine-Nine's Andy Samberg, who's also the co-creator) tries to revive his career with his new assistant Saltine (Three Busy Debra's Mitra Jouhari).

Andy Samberg doing a boisterous impersonation of Nicholas Cage's voice is something I never knew I needed; I never get tired of it. Samberg brings such an enthusiasm to the character. Rip can be stubborn and at times a little selfish, but it's not like he's full Archer or Dr. Venture. The character is more like a big kid than a jerk. 

Credit should also be given to Jouhari who is also pretty good at the optimistic Saltine's delivery. Though I think he has the least entertaining character, I liked SNL veteran Tim Meadows' delivery as mysterious billionaire Quail Eegan. The guy is often cast as people who are ineffectual or in ineffectual positions. Here he's sort of an antagonist and a powerful and very confident guy. It's nice seeing him showing his range.

As a whole, Digman is very funny. It has that silly, gonzo go-for-broke style Samberg is known for. When the writers go in on a joke, they all go all in. If one line doesn't work for you, don't worry, they're rapid fire here.

It's another adult cartoon that goes for a simplified look, but the character designs have this specific sketchbook-style looseness to them that works. Given that a lot of these shows go for a compact look, it's nice seeing longer-looking characters.

Highly recommended. This is one of the funniest shows I've seen this year. Unfortunately, like most animated shows following South Park, it'll probably suffer the short run curse (at least a second season is already confirmed). I hope for at least three seasons.

Muppets Mayhem

9/10

This Muppets limited series(?) on Disney+, has aspiring music executive Nora Singh (played by Youtube personality Lilly Singh) overseeing Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem recording their first album.  

I have to admit that I was surprised that they were creating a show specifically about the band from The Muppets Show and other projects (without even other Muppets characters like Kermit, Fozzie, Gonzo, etc.) Don't get me wrong, we all like Animal (performed by Eric Jacobson), but the band as a whole were mostly background characters that were good for a few jokes but never had strong characterization. (Quick, how many of you remember what Lips (Peter Linz) the guy who plays the trumpet looks like. How many of you even remember there was a guy who plays the trumpet?) Plus, it doesn't help that their groovy rocker attitudes make most of them, except again for Animal, too similar. It's like if you made a Peanuts show that only featured Franklin, Pigpen, and Frieda, the girl who boasted about her naturally curly hair, had their own show. There just isn't enough about their personalities to make one feel confident they could flourish on their own.

I was so pleased to see how wrong I was. First of all, the creators were smart enough to put all the weight on the Mayhem. Like The Muppets Christmal Carol was really Michael Caine's Scrooge's story with the Muppets, this show makes the wise choice to make this Nora's story with the Mayhem. She brings the story and they bring the comedy.

This is weirdly like Ted Lasso. Having possibly learned from the recent The Muppets and Muppets Now which felt more mean-spirited and jaded than classic Muppets (it's like they asked themselves, "Hey, what if we made Miss Piggy more toxic?! Surely there can never be a cap on that?!) this one is fully positive with supporting messages for the children. The humans are surprisingly fleshed out by Muppets standards. The band members are more simple, naturally but more characterization have been given to the them than ever. They may've made Sgt. Floyd Pepper (Matt Vogel), the one with the big red moustache, become a contender for Fozzie and Beaker's positions as the Muppet most likely to evoke an empathetic response.

Doesn't hurt that the show is pretty funny. It kinda feels like earlier Muppets films where some of the jokes did feel they were aimed at both adults and children in what is a family friendly affair. The show manages to make drug jokes and jabs at similar content without ever being specifically about drugs and such. (However, there are two movie references that I'm surprised Disney+ plus greenlighted. Parents, be prepared for your kids asking what that R-rated movie the Muppets mentioned was.) It is possible adults may get more out of this than children. Some kids, especially younger could get bored by the more dialogue-heavy pacing.

Though I'm mostly unfamiliar with Lilly Singh, I thought she was pretty good for someone without a lot of acting experience. She makes for a fine straight man having to deal with the unintentional antics caused by the band. Saara Chaudrey also entertains as Hannah, Lilly's social media influencer sister. There are also a lot of celebrity cameos, some of which you may be pleasantly surprised by.

Props should be given to the Muppets performers. Dr. Teeth (Bill Barretta) and Lips particularly have this liveliness to them. Needless to say, Animal, oh he of simple words, is the most entertaining of the characters. All the band members are entertaining, but there is one flaw to Janice's voice. As the hippiesh one, she's always been fun, but her voice has always been a man trying to sound like a hippie or valley girl, which works fine but when there's a lot more of it, the voice kinda ingratiates. We also get a new Muppet in this (there are surprisingly few Muppets other than The Mayhem; maybe it was to keep the focus on the band or maybe they were trying to save money) that I won't spoil, but is a fun design and character.

Highly recommended. This is honestly one of the strongest Muppets products out there.

Ghosts- Season 2

8/10

In season 2 of this comedy, Samantha Arondekar (played by iZombie's Rose McIver), who can see ghosts after she hit her head, and her husband Jay (Utkarsh Ambudkar) finally open up the country house Samantha inherited as a bread and breakfast.

This season's much like the last: a good mix of solid jokes and distinct, enjoyable characters. The majority of the cast remains great. I don't have time to go into them all, but I think the one who shines the most is Jay. Ambudkar has such great comic delivery, and his character steals the show with his nerdy enthusiasm toward the ghost world and the way he reacts to all the chaos around him.

There are a couple things that are wearing a bit thin: 1) Jay and Samantha doing a poor job of covering for themselves when Samantha is hearing the ghosts or the ghosts have put the two into a situation is repeated way too often. You'd think the couple would've learned to how to do a better job of posturing. 2) The ghosts being selfish and constantly pushing Samantha into doing stuff. Sure, they usually feel bad or see the consequences of their actions when things go too far, but it's so repetitive. You want Samantha to just say no once or a while (admittedly we wouldn't have much of a story there).

Overall, the show's still pretty funny. Recommended.

American Auto- Season 2

8.5/10

In season 2 of this NBC comedy about a bunch of dysfunctional higher ups at Payne Motors, CEO Katherine Hastings (played by SNL alumni Ana Gasteyer) and her team must get the stock up to a certain number within the year or they'll all lose their jobs. 

If you're familiar with the show, this is from Superstore creator Justin Spitzer, and American Auto is sort of its opposite. Whereas Superstore was a positive ode to the people working at the bottom, this is a cynical, but silly critique of those at the top, looking at how people don't intend to be unethical or uncaring and such but how it just happens. And man does the show do it so well. This is one of the two funniest series I'm watching right now (the other being Rick and Morty). It's such a delightfully pointed jab at the corporate world, and the jokes work so well. I highly recommend the episode The Letter, funniest and best written one of the season, a savage take on outrage culture. 

Though most of the cast is self-serving, this season does makes more of an effort have the characters be three-dimensional. You may not sympathize with their choices, but you get where they're coming from and see them as actual people. I especially appreciate that the show cut down a bit on Katherine messing up public interviews and announcements. Given that she was a CEO of a pharmaceutical company for a while, it's a little hard to swallow that she has absolutely no experience handling these things.

Cast remains great. Wesley Payne (Superstore's Jon Barinholtz), the last remaining member of the Payne family working at the company, is definitely the MVP. He's kinda the most likeable because he's kinda the most honest in his goals in that he truly wants his family legacy to survive. He's like a big child that wants approval. Gasteyer, Michael Benjamin Washington as snarky and completely pragmatic and self-serving Chief Product Designer Cyrus Knight, and Harriet Dyer as CCO Katherine Hastings, one of the saner voices that has to deal with everyone else, all give excellent performances. (Gasteyer, I apologize for thinking back in the day that Cheri Oteri would be the one that would go on to other stuff and that you'd be the one who'd vanish. I've shamed myself.)

Highly recommended. The show is hilarious. Unfortunately this may be the last season as its viewership numbers are even less than last season's which wasn't great. Too bad, I really felt this was one of the best comedies out right now.

Sisu

10/10

Sisu, a new Finnish movie mostly in English (I'm not sure if it was recorded in both English and Finnish or just English, research was inconclusive; definitely not dubbed, I'll tell you that, the lips matched perfectly), Aatami, a gold miner during the Lapland War (which was part of World War II but also kinda its own separate campaign, look it up), strikes the motherload and determinedly takes his haul across the war torn landscape. He come across a bunch of Nazis who become determined to take the gold for themselves, but Aatami's not going let go of it without a fight.

This is basically Mad Max: Fury Road meets John Wick combined with a war movie and a smidge of Tarantino. There is nothing groundbreaking about the story, really it's all been done before, but it's done so spectacularly.

This is one of those movies where action takes precedence over everything else. This is an action fan's Valhalla. Yeah, a lot of it can be downright cartoonish but man is it entertaining. The movie can get creative including one of the most insanely unique survival techniques I've ever seen in film. In case you haven't guessed, this gets really gory; great if you love that and definitely a red flag if you don't. (There is also reference to sexual violence if you're squeamish about that. Nothing onscreen though.) There's one scene that's rather impressive in its intensity. 

Probably, the best part of this is its cinematography (worthy of an Oscar nomination but probably won't due to it not being a prestige film), the whole thing looks great and was clearly planned down to the details. The Lapland landscape looks gorgeous (including one of the most beautifully shot scenes of its type (I'm deliberately keeping it vague as to avoid spoiling it) I've seen). It gives the film a natural feel but the lack of any plants that aren't small growth also gives off a desolate nature. (The setting can also work against Aatami as he has to deal with limited hiding places.)   

This is that rare film that's light on dialogue. It's not like no one ever talks, but there are stretches that are completely reliant on the action, visuals, and physical acting. I rather like the less-is-more approach. 

Good casting in this. Though the Nazis are there to be mowed down, I give credit to director/writer Jalmari Helander (the same guy behind the dark Christmas film Rare Exports and the Samuel Jackson flick The Big Game) for giving actual personality to the villains. I mean they're all awful, but you clearly get each of them, some bit parts, merely by minor actions and expressions. They also play the villains smart. Yeah, they're all overconfident, but they are realistic of the danger of the man they're pursuing and react appropriately to the their adversary.

Highly recommended, unless you're not a gore fan. This is one of those films that are pure cinema and nail the execution.

The Mandalorian- Season 3

 

9/10

In the third season of The Mandalorian, Din Djarin/The Mandalorian/Mando (voiced by Pedro Pascal) and his ward Grogu go on a quest to the abandoned world of Mandalore.

I like this as much as the last two seasons. though the show is still fairly episodic, there's more of a connecting plotline this time around. After spreading tidbits of the fall of Mandalore and how the Mandalorian people are scattered, this season puts them at the center. Though maybe more time could've been put into adding a little more detail of the Mandalorian history and culture, it's rather interesting to watch a bunch of space warriors with a code, but they have different factions with differing ways of interpreting those codes.

We get to see a lot more of Bo-Katan Kryze (played by Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff), former leader of Mandalore. The character has excellent chemistry with Din as two fellow warriors who respect each other. Sackhoff gives a great performance, there's just something about her delivery. Bo-Katan is a character originally from the computer animated shows Star Wars: The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels. It'd probably help to know about her if you watched this shows, but The Mandalorian provides easy access for the unfamiliar, throwing Bo-Katan in there and making her feel natural without going too heavy on her backstory.

You don't see a lot of Carl Weathers' Greef Karga, now the governor of a planet, but it's always great to see Weathers in anything.

The show feels like it's doing a lot more world building for the general universe of Star Wars this time around. I admit, I was getting tired of a lot of Star Wars taking place in deserts and other desolate areas. Finally, the show remembers that SW has populated cities. We finally visit places that look fancy, and they all look impressive (a lot of money obviously went into this.) 

We also see building blocks of how the first order from the current film trilogy rose from the ashes of the original Empire. I felt the show did a valid job of showing how the New Republic dropped the ball in wiping out the Empire's influence.

Again, the action, effects, and design are all exquisite. The finale may the best and most action packed of them all. 

One episode does have a plot point that may frustrate many as it's far too cartoonish and implausible for its own good. You know the parts of The Book of Boba Fett that felt goofy? it's like that. It especially doesn't compare well to the plotting of the recent and far more serious and grounded Andor, making the two shows kinda feel like they're taking place in different realities.

A lot of fans didn't like Chapter 22: Guns for Hire. I'm not seeing it. I thought it was a fun little diversion and again a decent world builder.

Highly recommended, The Mandalorian continues to be a pretty impressive space adventure.