chris-j-chuba

The writers did a bad rehash of older episodes, and depended too much on character stereotypes to carry the episode. It was all snarky interactions between the family with no story.

The A plot: Jerry is an idiot, his family doesn't respect him, Rick & Morty must bail him out.

The B plot: Summer is a party girl. Send her to Spring break (that was the big laugh)

They then added a trope about Easter is a fake holiday that was started by two warring alien groups. You will groan when you see them.

I like irreverent humor, but this was bad. 'Story Train' was amusing because they demonstrated how introducing bible stories drains the life out of a show.

------------------------------------------- The poor quality of this episode is surprising since the R&M comics have so much new material to offer the writers. This looks like the writers are running out of ideas.

For movies like this, the villain must sell it, and Ray Liotta delivers. He is a policeman struggling to keep his life from falling apart due to job stress. He develops an obsession with Kurt Russel's wife after responding to a call. He creates this fantasy that he can finally have a normal life, and he pursued it with rigor. (BTW never underestimate what a cop can do if you get on his bad side)

I bought his motivation, especially after watching a very inferior movie, 'Blue Steel' with Jaime Lee Curtis and Ron Silver. It had a similar theme but was a dud.

I liked that they avoided the plot device of having the actors act dumb to keep the movie going. Their actions were reasonable given the circumstances.

Kurt Russel, Ray Liotta, and Madeleine Stowe played off each other extremely well.

All teen, 'coming of age', comedies have their cringe moments, but this one delivered enough humor to overcome it.

I only watched this because of Michelle Trachtenberg. I wanted to see a post BTVS performance and she hit it out of the park. She showed that she could do comedy as well as a downbeat character. Her career should have taken off after these performances.

Of the 4 main characters, the protagonist had the best comedic moments. He showed teenage fears in a way that was funny. Imagine going to your high school graduation party ast he band plays a song designed to humiliate you. Definitely not a cringe moment; it was done so well ... 'Scotty doesn't know ...'.

The chemistry between the 4 main characters was perfect. There were enough good scenes to overcome the cringe.