jonandshellie

Episodic comedy television had become so mundane as of late that it had gotten difficult to discern one show from another. Cookie cutter scripts and shallow, lifeless characters have become the norm and I was beginning to feel like it might be the end of the line for it. Enter Ted Lasso. An unassuming show about a football coach who infects the viewer with his eternal optimism. When you say it out loud, it doesn't churn up visions of an amazing show, but from the first scene of episode 1 you begin to really like Ted and his strange jovial ways. His disarming personality begins to win over everyone on the show and the viewers alike rendering Ted Lasso into must watch TV. I can say in all honesty that it has been a pleasure to watch and I look forward to each week's new show with jovial enthusiasm.

Mothman Prophecies is one of those movies that, despite its shortcomings in story or pacing, make up for it with atmosphere and the hair standing up on the back of your neck eeriness. There is just something so moody, foreboding, and genuinely unsettling about this film. Its not scary or a horror film in the traditional sense, but watch it alone in the dark and try not to get uneasy in parts. The acting in the film is superb, with an all star cast including Richard Gere, the amazing Laura Linney, and vastly underrated Will Patton among others. Their acting sells this movie. I found myself drawn to their characters regardless of the blandness of the script itself. Credit must also be given to Mark Pellington, the director, for taking a so-so script and crafting a truly creepy and underrated gem from it. I find myself watching this again and again if it happens to be on TV, and it has become one of those guilty pleasure movies for me that I watch just about anytime I see it on along with The Green Mile, Signs, The Shawshank Redemption, and O' Brother, Where Art Thou?. Definitely worth a look, but be forewarned, don't watch it alone in the dark.

Universal Studios The Wolf Man is a film that has stood the test of time and has influenced every lycanthropy film that has followed it. George Waggner directs the script by Curt Siodmak to perfection. Lon Chaney Jr's casting and performance as the doomed Larry Talbot was brilliant. He projected a lot of his real life pain and sadness into the part and what we were left with was cinematic gold. I'd venture to say that outside of The Bride of Frankenstein, this may have been the finest film of the golden age of Universal Horror. The cast was superb, the set design immaculate, and the music both moving and unsettling at times. Add into that the amazing special effects makeup wizardry of Jack Pierce and you have a movie for the ages. As I'm writing this, we are only months away from the 80th anniversary of the release of this movie and it is still a screen gem and is still a massive influence on the horror genre to this day.