u/screen_stack

One of the things I really realized during this watch through was the very nature of The Hubble Women. I paused to think about their night in the woods, hanging out by Mile Marker 8, terrified for their own lives, terrified about whether or not Roscoe was dead, convinced that their husband and father was dead.

They came out of the woods, tired, some of them injured, probably on the razor's edge. It's likely I'm reading too much into the scene, but that's how it hit me this time around. Kristin's always been a good actress, and while her role is pretty minimal here, her scenes in this episode were solid.

Beyond that?

The big reveals in this one are pretttty damn big. Damn near Reacher-sized in nature, and from here to the end, it gets real.

Blue Steel (1990)

Rating: 7.5/10

Watched: August 14, 2026

I have super-vague memories of seeing this one on late night cable, probably Cinemax, from way back in the day.

First off, it's got two of my favorite male actors, Ron Silver and Clancy Brown. Clancy Brown's barely in it but damn do I love the man and here, he seems like he's barely 25 years old.

That out of the way, I want to talk about Ron Silver for a minute. He's been a favorite of mine ever since I saw The Entity and that's because there's just somethin' about him. I knew he played the antagonist in this movie, but at no point did I recall how absolutely batshit crazy insane he goes.

I can't (won't) tell you all the nitty gritty details of Eugene's descent into complete and total madness, but I stand by my 'absolutely batshit crazy insane' statement. From the moment he sees Megan (Jamie Lee Curtis) shoot Tom Sizemore dead in a supermarket, he's on a downhill slope.

And what a slope it is. Silver gets the chance to chew on some scenery every now and again, which is just great, but it's those moments where he's pretending to be a totally normal guy that's more chilling, especially as the movie continues.

And as for Jamie Lee Curtis? Well. It's just really nice to see her in something other than a horror movie. As far as cop thrillers go, JLC plays Megan very well, showing a young female cop fresh out of the academy who's already dealing with a boatload of grief from her parents and pretty much anyone who finds out that she's a cop.

Having Eugene tossed into the mix like a live spree killer hand grenade is just the icing on the cake.

Blue Steel's pretty gritty and it's got a lot of neo-noir heart to it, but I DO have to admit that it falls into the realm of the slightly unbelievable in the last half hour, but that doesn't wreck it. Just makes it a bit over-the-top.

Gotta say, Blue Steel's a movie I don't see talked about a lot, and while every single person on the Internet uses the term 'underrated' to mean everything from 'this movie is terrible' to 'I just saw this extremely popular movie from 2000 and no one's talking about it 26 years later so it must not have been popular at all', I really do think it's an underrated movie.

You should check it out. I was pleasantly surprised and maybe you will be too.

They Live (1988)

Rating: 10/10 (PERSONAL FAVORITE)

Watched: August 12, 2026

Like most every teen in North America in the 80s, I was AN ENORMOUS fan of WWF (now WWE). Rowdy Roddy Piper was an instant favorite of mine because of his boisterous, give no shits, say WTF-ever attitude and just the sheer amount of fun that he seemed to be having all the damn time.

Well, I fell out of love with wrestling when Ricky "The Dragon" Steamboat miraculously healed from a crushed throat. No joke. I remember being legitimately worried about Ricky, and when he was fine the next week, I was done with wrestling, but my love of Roddy Piper never, ever waned.

At the time, They Live was your standard(ish) John Carpenter thinkpiece about government and corporate overreach, control of the masses, and all the ways they kept us, the people, down. Tossing Roddy and Keith David into the mix was sheer brilliance.

They both worked so well together and they equally managed to give off the vibe that these two very different men had been struggling in the damaged world they inhabited. As ya gotta, I absolutely loved the fight between Nada and Frank, with Nada trying to slap them sunglasses on Frank at every turn.

How could you not? It's one of the most realistic fights out there. There's no fancy moves. There's no tricks. Just two guys whalin' away on each other non-stop, one because he wants the other to wear a pair of sunglasses and the other doesn't want shit to do with shinola.

I won't bore you with the big, overarching picture because if you've seen it, you know what's going on. If you haven't, you have to trust me:

They Live's message is stronger now than ever before. Corporations control the world and it's all bread and circuses out there, man. If you want to see a movie that shows you the straight truth, this one's it.

Now on to something cool that I ONLY noticed because I'm watching a LOT of John Carpenter's movies this month.

In the very beginning of the movie, an old man in the homeless camp says the following line: "Shooting people, robbing banks. A whole lot of people going crazy over some nutty dream they just had. The truth is, this kind of shit happens at the end of every century. It's just people afraid to face the future."

If you catch the reference, awesome. If not, let me fill you in.

That's in reference to Carpenter's movie the year before, Prince of Darkness.

Yes. That's right. They Live exists in the same universe as Prince of Darkness, so even though things shake out the way they do in They Live, everyone on that planet is living on borrowed time ANYWAYS.

Here's to you, JC, for making another badass movie, and leaving Easter Eggs for me to find nearly 40 years later.

An okay episode as far as backflash-isodes go, though after having seen Arrow, anything involving Ollie in Smallville is a bit difficult to enjoy. It's a bias, and I get that other people might not feel that way.

As far as the story, it was also only okay. It felt a little contrived and narratively weak for what it was, but it did keep me watching more often than not.

The only thing of real interest in this episode for me is Chloe's growing problem. She's not Fine, if you take my meaning.

This was also a pretty quiet episode, but it was not without it's fun bits and pieces. We see a lot of more of Reacher's brutal pragmatism (as well as his butt), and it's refreshing to see a guy like our murderhobo in action.

Why? Because he IS pragmatic. So many times in so many other shows and movies the 'good guy' leaves the 'bad guy' alive, only for that to blow up in their faces down the road. Is killing every bad guy you meet messy? Sure is, I reckon, but at the same time, a dead body now means no dead body later.

We ALSO see a lot more (!!!!) of Roscoe, and that's sayin' a lot. She's a great counterpart for Reacher. She weighs maybe as much as his left bicep, but our homegrown ladycop isn't about take any shit OR chivalry from ANYONE, and that's just plain old cool.

Finlay continues to be a source of cool. Episode 1, he was so straight you could've built a house using his moral compass as a guide. By episode 4, all he's really doing is sass-talking a corrupt Mayoriff (that's a portmanteau of Mayor/Sheriff!) and counting the number of bodies that Reacher drops on the regular.

And lastly, we get introduced to Neagley. I liked her then, I like her now, I'm looking forward to her spin-off.

Reacherwatch 2026 continues, full steam ahead.

Near Dark (1987)

Rating: 7/10 (SOLID WATCH)

Watched: August 9, 2026

Near Dark is an odd movie.

It's odd because right from the start it fully subverts your expectations. Are vampires real? Sure are, and that's not a spoiler. You wouldn't be looking at a movie like Near Dark unless you already knew it was a vampire movie, but here's the thing.

These aren't your ordinary vampires. And here, by ordinary, I mean with the long pointy teeth, the alabaster skin, the inhuman strength or hell, even a life of wealth and indulgence.

Everything about the vampires in Near Dark is gritty, callous and coarse. They have none of the things you'd expect in a movie about people who feed on the blood of others and it is great. They're bottom feeders moving through the backside of America in stolen cars, feeding on bottom feeders, with barely two coins to rub together most of the time.

They're also not terrifically smart, which is something almost all vampires we see in other movies ARE. They're brilliant. They're witty and they're charismatic and they'll woo you with their honeyed words before drinking your blood.

Not Bigelow's vampires. Hell, they don't even use the word once throughout the entire movie. The vamps pick fights, particularly Severen (the amazing Bill Paxton), and kill everyone involved. It's gruesome and it's great.

The movie itself qualifies as a slice of life moment for these greasy hillbilly vampires because everything that happens to them is because a local yokel named Caleb wanted to get in a girl's pants. No overarching plot. No twists or turns.

Just a dude lookin' to get lucky, a girl who wanted a friend, and an awful lot of dead folk.

Smallville | S08E02 "Plastique"

Rating: 8.0/10

Another pretty good episode, though if I'm being honest ... something's missing from the storytelling. I can't quite put my finger on it yet, but there's a 'glossy feel' to how things are being done now that I'm not sure I like.

Anyways, on to the show. A few things I liked: Lois introducing Clark to the concept of getting changed in a phone booth. It's a cute little detail that just makes things a bit more fun. As always, the top notch banter between the two of them is always great, as is the pretty blatant simmering attraction.

Loved the intro to Sam Witwer. He's super handsome and a talented actor, and since I remember precisely nothing about this season at all, I am looking forward to seeing what the actual is going on with him. Now remember, I've seen a lot of TV, so the introduction of anyone recognizable is an instant giveaway to me. Anyone I can recognize is either going to be the murderer, a new addition, or a plot complication. It's a game anyone can play.

I remain on the fence about Evil Minion. I'm fairly confident she has a name, but every time I look at her, my brain goes EVIL MINION and that's about the extent of it. I don't understand why anyone would remain loyal to Lex, especially since he was proven batcrap crazy last season. I'm sure she has her own motivations for doing things, so I'll be looking forward to seeing what those are.

Sadly, I hope things change, because if we're going back to Meteor Freaks of the Week territory, I am going to be very, very bummed. Season arcs are the wave of the future, and going backwards at season 8 is a mistake. If THAT happens, well ... I'm already this deep into the show so it's unlikely I'll abandon my watch-through unless things get REALLY ridiculous.

Like I said though, I enjoyed the episode, so let's hope the momentum remains!