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M3GAN (2022)
Had Potential For So Much More
When I first saw the trailer for this, I thought it would be an absolute train wreck. A minor miracle happened and this movie is actually pretty good.
The problem it it devolves into a run of the mill slasher flick. Take M3GHAN and sub in any killer after it starts its rampage and it becomes formulaic.
There are other issues never explained in movies like this... is How and why are these things so superhumanly strong and coordinated? Its catching hammers thrown at it like a Major League First Baseman and slinging up poor victims with data cables like a Professional Rodeo guy.
Another absolutely ridiculous kill in the movie is the annoying neighbor being done in with what looks like the most powerful $50 pressure washer the world has ever seen. Its comical. You know the plastic ones that look like a water gun? It gets sprayed at the victim and she flies across the room as if hit by a truck and peels her skin off like its a firehose.
These laughable points aside what's here is a pretty good horror flick. I have seen people whine about the PG-13 violence and whine about there isn't enough blood... these people need to seek psychiatric help. If your chief complaint is "There weren't enough kills and they weren't bloody enough." Just go watch some crap like Halloween Kills or some other mindless piece of trash.
This actually is relevant with AI being everywhere now. What happens when you give AI a body and let it walk around? Is there any safe way to do that? It explores this question before going on its inevitable murder rampage.
There was a great horror movie in there somewhere. Maybe the inevitable sequel will be just that.
The Walking Dead: Here's Negan (2021)
One Of the Best Episodes of any Show Ever
Out of all of the decisions made about The vast world of The Walking Dead, one of the best ones was to wait until nearly the end of the show's run to do a Negan back story. It gave the episode an additional emotional weight that it just would have not had if they did it during the Negan-villain phase of the show.
The only negative if there is one is that the episode isn't longer.
Hillarie Burton and Jeffery Dean Morgan's chemistry together is undeniable and its obvious they have a true connection. Outstanding Emmy worthy acting from the two leads, outstanding writing and packs an emotional punch.
This also gives the character of Negan reasons for the way he is when we first meet him and its easy to see how he grew into the person he was.
This is a must watch.
The Walking Dead: Here's Not Here (2015)
Spectacular in Every Way
Morgan Jones is one of my favorite characters not just in The Walking Dead shows but in any show period. I had wanted to see Morgan's story of how he wound up on the rebound from where he was when Rick found him in that building.
Eastman is maybe the best one off character in The Walking Dead Universe of shows. Killing him off I still believe to be one of the biggest mistakes they made in killing a character off but I understand why they did it.
Eastman is a man who is recovering from his own personal trauma and found a modicum of peace in trying to help others, his story is as tragic as Morgan's.
The performance from the two leads in the episode are Emmy worthy. Just spectacular acting. People like to whine about not getting a resolution to the Glenn storyline from the previous episode and I have to admit at first annoyed me, within 10 minutes of this episode's run time I completely forgot about Glenn's storyline and settled into watching this.
Just outstanding acting and writing. An absolute must watch for any fan of this franchise.
Squid Game: The Challenge (2023)
Excellent Game Show - Very Well Done.
Not sure what people writing negative reviews were expecting. Maybe season 2 of the drama series this is based on? Maybe these people wanted the contestants to actually get killed?
Its hard to understand unless the Negative Nancie's were expecting something other than a game show. The only negative I saw, were the contestants "fake dying" when eliminated which I am sure was the producers telling them to do so.
Either way, this is a very entertaining game show/reality series and something I would love to personally try out for.
The sets were awesome. The drama is real and gets real emotion out of the people playing the game. There are people to root for and people to root against. Swerves, backstabbing and shock eliminations are all present. It was just an enjoyable show. Hope they do it again, although I am not sure people knowing what to expect would bring the same drama.
Knock at the Cabin (2023)
A Welcome Surprise. This one Sticks With You
I always say the best horror movies are the ones that keep you guessing until the third act, where they should answer your questions in a way that doesn't take you outside the story they laid out in the first two acts.
The worst horror movies are the ones who's third act in order to resolve issues within the movie, they completely blow the story by introducing elements that are not in the first two-thirds.
This one doesn't do that. This one tells a very simple story. A family is presented with an impossible choice. Sacrifice one of them, or the world ends. Anyone would laugh this off as "these people are insane" like the characters do. At first.
The 4 people presenting this as fact, absolutely believe what they are saying and they look like they're in agony having to deliver this news to the family of three. They just have to.
Why they have to? That's something you just don't get in movies and the why is better left vague. They just have to.
The story is effective in this regard. The acting is top notch. Big Dave Bautista is outstanding in this role. To me its by far and away his best acting job and I loved him as Drax the Destroyer in the Marvel franchise. Here he speaks gently. Never acts like a 270 pound muscular behemoth who could break anyone else in the movie in half. He states his purpose plainly with a nervous calm like someone who is has to do an unspeakable thing but just doesn't want to hurt anyone.
Is what he and the others saying true? Will the family make the choice or wont they? These are the questions that the viewer needs to decide and I wont spoil them here.
All in all it is very well acted and Big Dave's star will continue to rise.
They don't give you the typical M. Night super twist... its a more simple story with regular people forced to make an impossible choice or not to make the choice. Its riveting and will stick with you.
This Is 40 (2012)
This is Crap
I don't know how the same people made this and made Knocked Up. It's not funny at all, the only thing that's believable at all is some of
the negativity between the lead actors.
The conversations are stupid and not believable because this isn't how people act or talk to each other. Which is why Knocked Up worked where this fails horribly. They even ruined the stoner girl from Knocked Up. She is just annoying now.
Even the great comedian Albert Brooks is turned into an annoying character who you can't wait until his scene stops.
The great Jon Lithgow is also wasted in a pointless role where he does nothing and says nothing of consequence.
If there is a line bright spot? It's Megan Fox believe it or not.
The movie is a failure for Apatow.
Black Mirror: Beyond the Sea (2023)
Ending for Shock Value Alone
The Episode was fantastic, until the end.
Getting past the inevitable question of why the hell if you could make robots that advanced and "avatar" them to a person would you send the human into space and not the replica?
Getting past that one, I get David is cracked. I get it. That being said the ending choice here was done for shock value alone. Great episode with a horrible ending. He says well I can't see her. Let me murder a woman and a child.
How does this make any sense? He's got years left with Cliff on the ship. The whole "he's not thinking straight" argument is ludicrous. People can try and justify it all they want. It just doesn't work.
Another issue is the predictability of the plotline once Cliff allows David to use his avatar. Oh she sees something in him blah blah. I was hoping for more originality.
Obi-Wan Kenobi (2022)
So obvious the negative reviews are fake
The negative reviews are actually getting sad now. They're all the same copy paste anti Star Wars/Disney, tired, pointless things we've seen for all of the Star Wars projects since the original trilogy.
There's no way anyone can watch the show and rate it so low. I don't know why IMDB can't filter out the bots but it's just a way of life now.
Any Star Wars fan will love the show. It's everything we ever could have wanted in an Obi Wan show. Great work by all involved.
Don't Look Up (2021)
Almost as Dumb as the Reactions To It
This movie is not good. It's not bad. It just is.
The funniest thing about it are the reviews on here about it. If you're a Republican you'll rate it a 1 and talk about how insulting and stupid it is. If you're a Democrat, you'll rate it a 10 and talk about how brilliant it is.
This is the reason people in this country are so divided over politics. This is nothing but standard Hollywood "this is how dumb you all are" entertainment. It is funny at times, boring at other times and laughable (not for the good reasons) at other times.
It's low brow political humor. That is all.
People watching this and are actually scared something like this can happen? I am laughing in your face.
People watching this and blow it off like there's no truth in anything you just watched? I am laughing in your face too.
It amazes me just how idiotic people can be. No not the fact I think the contents of the movie is plausible... its because people watch it and take it even the least bit seriously.
F9 (2021)
Its Asinine. If that's Your Chief Complaint? Watch Something Else
I skim through the user reviews on here and see so many self important wanna be movie reviewers who talk about how ridiculous this franchise has become.
I'm sorry... HAS become? It has been asinine since they started jumping a race car between skyscrapers in Dubai. If that is all you took out of this movie? Watch something else grounded in reality so you don't have your "intelligence" insulted.
Its funny how many people watch this and just miss the whole point. The ridiculousness is a part of the franchise's charm and one of the main reasons why people still flock to the theater to see it.
This franchise is the head of the table when it comes to "turn of your brain", get a bucket of popcorn and just shut up and have a good time for a couple of hours.
For people too self important to understand this? Don't worry. Reality will be waiting for you after the credits roll.
Halloween Kills (2021)
What a Let Down. Bears Zero Resemblance to Halloween
The movie opens so promising with a well done flashback to that fateful night in 1978. There is even a reasonable facsimile of the great Donald Pleasance with a small cameo "returning" as Dr. Loomis.
Then the movie picks up right where Halloween (2018) left off and everyone in the movie acts in the most absurd, asinine dumb manner possible.
Then firemen of course walk through walls of flames to go into the interior of a house that is fully engulfed in flames, something they would never do.
Then one of them falls through the floor. Of course Michael is alive which the unfortunate fireman who fell through the floor soon finds out as he is quickly dispatched.
Then another fireman is going to reach down into a hole on a floor one of his partners fell through. You know where this goes. Michael "thanks" him by killing him and taking his halligan. Then Michael walks out of the wall of flames to confront the other 5 firemen who are standing around.
They all see Michael, and.... wait for it..
Line up like lambs to the slaughter, axes, halligans, and A ROTARY SAW to do bloody battle with the nefarious Michael Myers. They are all quickly dispatched as well.
Then the story.... oh excuse me, what passes for a story starts. Michael essentially brutally murdering every single person he comes across because like the firemen at the beginning? They are the stupidest idiots on the planet. The only time anyone bans together in a group is when they mistake a guy with no hair, no clothes, about a foot and a half shorter and a hospital gown on as Michael fricking Myers and chase him until he kills himself while chanting "evil dies tonight".
Just when you can't think people in this movie can't get any stupider? The gay couple who currently reside in the Myers house who by the way are the only people in the whole damn movie you will even care about find out that there is someone in the house ON HALLOWEEN NIGHT and they live in THE MYERS HOUSE
? Yeah, they don't call 911, they don't leave the house to get help.. no.... one of them grabs the smallest knife in the world to go investigate. Guess what? Once he is easily dispatched his partner just stands there waiting to be killed when he could have easily escaped.
Let's not even talk about Michael killing the elderly couple walking passed at least 50 better weapons to GRAB THE FLUORESCENT LIGHT BULB OUT OF A FIXTURE and use that to stab someone.
Then there is Laurie's granddaughter, who is in the running with stupidest person in the movie with the woman dressed as a nurse who gets killed by Bruce Lee.. Sorry Michael Myers when he kicks a car door so perfectly he makes her shoot herself in the face.. oh yeah back to Laurie's granddaughter who in the face of a guy who has plowed through at least 50 people by now thinks she can take him down with her 135 pound boyfriend who also cannot shoot a gun at a near stationary target from 3 feet away.
The movie is brutal in every sense of the word. The killings are super gory, brutal and over the top stupid. There is no story to speak of and worst of it all? It isn't scary in the slightest.
The original wasn't awesome because Michael stabbed an old man through the back into a kitchen butcher block with 17 knives. It was awesome because people watching it were crapping their pants because of the atmosphere Carpenter created with his amazing score coupled with tension as to where Michael would pop in and our of frames like an entity.
This time he is omnipresent, everywhere all the time. There is nothing scary about this movie at all. Not one scene will make you feel like you're in the same world Carpenter created in 1978 other than the Shatner mask.
Someone gets introduced? Dead. Someone from the past gets brought back? Dead. Dead Dead Dead and in the most over the top kill scenes that will either disgust you or make you laugh at the absurd nature of it all.
Positives? The opening scene, and the score. Everything else is absolute trash. This isn't Friday the 13th. This is supposed to be Halloween. Someone obviously forgot that along the way.
The Many Saints of Newark (2021)
Ignore the Negative Nancies
Its good, sometimes very good. Expertly acted the cast is spectacular.
In reading the other reviews here you have to laugh. Its the same crap a certain vocal "hate minority" say about everything because they need to feel important somehow.
I was not the biggest fan of The Sopranos. I liked it, sometimes loved it but I always thought it was a tad over rated with people calling it "The best show ever". It wasn't. Just like that over statement, calling this a 1-5 out of 10 is a gross overstatement the other way.
Maybe some people can't stand seeing black people get screen time in something that's got the "Sopranos" name on it. Maybe some people just love to crap on pop culture because they hate themselves and can't express their own emotions.
I don't have that answer. The only answer I have is this is a well made movie, expertly acted and after reading about Chase's new HBO deal? There is more to come as there is a lot more to the story of the rise of Tony Soprano.
Major League II (1994)
Awful Follow Up
It isn't just the fact that it took 5 years to make this never should have been made sequel and everyone looks so much older even thought it was supposed to be the very next year. All of these things happened in one off season, which is FIVE MONTHS.
They planned and built an entire baseball stadium in light speed.
Pedro Cerrano converted to Buddhism and changed his entire personality.
Willie Mays Hayes auditioned for and filmed A MOVIE, then decided he was a power hitter.
The owner of the team sold it to Roger Dorn??
Ricky Vaughn grew 1 years length of hair, developed 5 new pitches, named them all, hired an image consultant and changed his entire personality and started driving around in limousines. All after one year in the major leagues making the league minimum.
How the hell is everyone so different in one off-season?
Let's not mention the ridiculously over the top Japanese player, who of course does every single Japanese stereotype under the sun.
Its insulting and horrible in just about every way.
Stargate Universe (2009)
Quality Television Again From the Stargate Franchise
Stargate Universe is a very good show which is more original than the other two entries in the TV universe of shows. I am a fan of all three, but this one is dialed back as far as action and had better acting for the most part than its two predecessors.
The only negative is that it ends on a major league cliff-hanger due to being canceled without a 3rd season.
Army of the Dead (2021)
Again, Snyder Let's a Horrid Ending Ruin a Zombie Movie
I am not much for smart, running zombies that can do things as a zombie that they could never do as a person. The beginning suggests that the zombie was created through some sort of alien/government/conspiracy program? Who knows. Who cares. It follows the zombie cliche of "not knowing is all you'll know" about how things get started.
Why They would ship something like that across the country is anyone's guess. Again, asking questions is pointless.
Half way through this movie I was surprisingly enjoying the ride. Big Dave did a great job carrying the movie and showed gravitas in a leading role. The supporting cast is very strong in support but mostly serve as "red shirts" in people that you know are not going to make it through to the end. All that is a standard thing in zombie movies and the entire horror genre.
All that is forgivable.
The movie absolutely should have ended with Scott being ended by his daughter after turning. I thought to myself.. ok the main hero died, but that is a good ending.
Then Vanderohe climbs out of a the vault after they nuke Vegas.
OK.
He carries three big bags of money walking out of a city that was literally just nuked.
OK.
Then he rents a private jet with cash and no ID, looking like he just walked out of a city that was nuked.
OK.
Then he feels sick.
OK. You see where this is going.
THEN he realizes he is bitten just as the plane is landing in Mexico. So he didn't check that pain in his arm for the seemingly hours he was shielded from the nuclear blast in the vault? He didn't realize he was bitten while he carried the three huge sacks of cash?
Are you effing kidding me?
I don't know what it is with Snyder, making a good zombie movie and then just taking a dump on it with a horrible, ill thought out ending that essentially ruins the movie before it. Just another example of the "I didn't know I was bit" gag. Dumb Dumb Dumb.
What a disappointment.
Terminator: Dark Fate (2019)
Its Decent but repeats the same exact formula we have seen so many times.
This movie ignores the latter three Terminator movies, Salvation, Genishyt, and Rise of the Machines to give us, the same formula over again.
I have said it many times. Why, if you're going to make a Terminator movie do you use the same formula over and over and over again that has not really worked well since Terminator 2?
Super advanced and now deadlier machine comes back from the future intent on killing someone. The Resistance, whatever that is, sends a protector to save the day and mayhem ensues, there is a ton of collateral damage, wrecked vehicles, dead bodies, crashed planes, helicopters all that the authorities never seem to notice.
Its a formula that FIVE of the six Terminator movies have followed. Some better than others.
People crapped all over Salvation. Fine. The only thing is at least they had the wherewithal to try something different delving into the machine war and getting into The Resistance a little bit and how it was all put together.
This movie is fine. I question the decision to kill off John Connor in the manner he was I think its was absolutely silly and just a plot device to get Arnold into this movie. How the hell would the T-800 find them hiding in Mexico? Who knows.. its never stated. If Cyberdyne systems was destroyed and the August 29, 1997 Judgement Day was stopped, why would there still be a T-800 at all? All of this is brushed over.
There is a new evil machine computer company that did what Cyberdyne Systems was going to do and its called Legion and THEY now carry out Judgement Day. Which is still called Judgement Day. They have some new kinds of Terminators, which will remind you of the TX from Rise of the Machines except this one has the ability to split itself into two pieces, a liquid like the T-1000, and an exoskeleton, which actually is kind of cool.
It was great seeing Linda Hamilton back as Sarah Connor and oince you get passed the John Connor killing, it was great to see what a Terminator does when it completes its mission. What do they do? Shut down? We all know they cant self terminate and despite this T-800 being one of the most wanted fugitives on the planet has managed to carve out a nice little life for itself. That was awesome to see and really should have been fleshed out more. I would have loved a 2 hour movie just on the Terminator living its life after its mission.
The movie is fine. Its a well made action movie. The biggest flaw is we have seen it all before, no matter how many new abilities they give the killer machine or the protector.
The problem is they should have tried something new with the franchise. There are endless possibilities from this world than just to simply recycle the same thing that's been done so many times before.
The Jesus Rolls (2019)
Some decent Moments but Ultimately disappointing. Here is why
Most everyone loves The Big Lebowski. Everyone who watches The Jesus Rolls was expecting a story about Jesus Quintana. What we got was a remake of a 70's movie with Jesus dropped into it.
Its got a great cast and good acting. Turturro, always a joy to watch got the Coen's to let him use the character to make a movie, and all he did was remake a movie and drop Jesus into it. I would have much rather seen an original story. The first 20 minutes or so is good. After that the wheels fall off. Jesus and each companion they have or meet is not very likeable. They do nothing redeeming at all its one calamity after another that make little sense and make you feel nothing but disdain for people you're supposed to be rooting for?
No thanks. I almost bailed 40 minutes in, stuck with it to the end and that's that. Moving on.
Brightburn (2019)
Disappointing
If you thought this would be different from every single other slasher movie you've ever seen in your life? You were wrong. If you thought this would be a good take on an evil superboy movie? You were wrong.
It's essentially superboy as a mass murderer. End of move.
Forrest Gump (1994)
Over-rated & Jenny is the Villain
People get mad when I say this movie is over rated. Its good. Its filmed beautifully. Its use of music in adapted and original form is spectacular.
That being said there are things that bother me. If you did not know Bubba was going to wind up dead in a horrible way, you've never seen a movie before. Certain things were so cliche. Like the funny best friend dying. Forrest walking, stumbling and tripping through history as if he had no control over his own destiny.
Then there is Jenny. The true villain of this movie. She, even with her terrible upbringing does the same kind of abuse to Forrest, who's diminished mental capacity never allows him to realize just how horrible she is to him. She uses him. She abuses him. She abandons him. She is no better than her father, until she contracts AIDS, then all of a sudden she calls a millionaire Forrest back so he can take care of her and marry her when she had nothing else.
On top of all of that, she kept his son a secret from him. He did not even know his own father until he was 6 years old. Absolutely deplorable behavior. Imagine someone like Jenny doing that to you. She is the villain of this movie and one of the most sinister. Someone who doesn't even know she is a villain. Jenny is a terrible person.
What saves the movie and makes it what it is is Robert Zemeckis' direction, the score and cinematography. Its a beautiful movie in this way and Hanks is always the best actor in any room he walks into. Also, Gary Sinise is amazing in his portrayal as Lt. Dan. All in all. Jenny ruins the movie because of her constant and lifetime abuse of Forrest. Just a horrible character.
The Haunting of Hill House (2018)
Expertly Made. Wonderfully Acted. Not Predictable
I wont go so far as to say this show is perfect. There are very few perfect shows at least that I have ever seen. What takes this show which in lesser hands could have devolved into a muddled incomprehensible mess into a gripping, scary must watch show is the expert writing and direction it takes to keep track of multiple characters over two time periods. After you learn who the characters are, and it does not take long you never will wonder which younger version of the character depicted is corresponds to the older which is something that plagues similar works.
Credit to the casting director who really found the perfect people to play the same character at different points in their lives.
The only negative of the show is they went way too far with the gratuitous graphic depictions of the preparation of a deceased person for a funeral. We all know what goes on. To see it on screen so graphically was not necessary and took me out of the show. The good thing is it was only temporary.
What got me back was the excellent performances across the board from everyone on the cast. The tight writing and directing of the show, the suspenseful scenes that catch you completely off guard. They did a great job of avoiding the usual ghost story tropes of the "false scare" cat jumping out at night type gimmick. There are no gimmicks here. Just a great story, directing and acting.
Very well done Mike Flanagan.
Day of the Dead (1985)
Nostalgia only gets you so far. This is VERY disapointing.
Where to begin. Romero made two classics in Night and Dawn. Then it seemed like he just forgot how to make a good movie and fell in love with over the top gore and gross out humor.
It begins with a scene so stupid it amazes me how some people think its good. You're in a zombie apocalypse and in a helicopter looking for survivors. Good idea right? Sure... Then Hey. Let's land in the middle of the city and use a mega phone to repeatedly yell out for survivors.
How does that make any sense at all?
Then these 4 absolute morons act all surprised when the horde shows up seemingly out of no where. "listen.. what is that" "oh my god"
Right there you lost me. Being a fan of the genre you continue to watch and wait for the goodness to start that you saw in the classic "Night" and "Dawn" movies. It never comes. There is a great idea of the underground bunker. instead of doing the smart thing and having the scientists trying to figure out how to exterminate the zombies that have taken over the country (oh.. more satire from King Romero) They have one absolute moron with a zombie chained up trying to teach him tricks like a dog. This is where the movie totally loses any chance it had to be something good. "Hey Bub, sit in the dark and think about it" It is just insulting to anyone that has intelligence. Romero completely lost it here. It is something The Walking Dead has done over 10 seasons so much better than anything else and resisted the Romero failing of making zombies something other than exactly what they are and that is undead killing machines that anyone can become. That is what makes them scary, not the fact Romero wants to retrain them to be the heroes.
Its another mistake he made in the awful Land of the Dead with "Big Daddy" rallying the zombie troops to take up arms against the evil living humans who have the nerve to want to stay alive and not be eaten. It is so stupid and insulting.
The people that laud this movie are not fans of the genre they are fans of gore and there is plenty of that. Buckets and buckets of pig intestines and animal parts covered in blood blood and more blood.
When the "villain" of the movie makes the most sense and you side with him? You know something is wrong. What is the end goal for domesticated zombies? Are you going to teach them to not rot and stink and show them how to dress? Give me a break.
The Studio offered Romero 7 million to make the movie if he came through with an "R" rating. Nope. He refused and had the budget slashed in half because he wanted to have gore gore and more gore. Dumb move. Very dumb. Gore hounds love the movie. People that like good movies hate it.
I thank Romero for bringing this genre into the mainstream. Without it we would not have The Walking Dead universe. That being said? This movie is trash. Romero claims this is the favorite of all of his "Dead" movies. That should tell you all you need to know about it.
Star Wars: Episode IX - The Rise of Skywalker (2019)
Ignore any review under 5 stars.
People here hate things that are popular. Anyone who rates the movie less than 5 is here with an agenda.
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie (2019)
Perfect Epilogue
The movie is a perfect epilogue to the Breaking Bad TV series. It isn't perfect and it drags at times but so did the show in the middle seasons. Go watch it. You won't be disappointed.
Fyre (2019)
A Great Look Behind the Scenes of an Epic Scam
The thing about the Fyre Festival disaster was that there was nobody (or so we thought) that really got hurt in the whole mess.
This was rich entitled a-holes scamming rich entitled a-holes. No big deal as Ja Rule said no one was injured or killed so no harm no foul right? Wrong.
Then you look deeper and see the real victims. The people who were used to try and pass this scam of a festival and that is the people of The Bahamas. The business owners, the contractors, the labor force and the people who physically built the festival grounds in the months leading up to the ill fated festival. None of them got paid. One business owner had to pay her employees out of her own pocket wiping out all of her savings.
Despicable. McFarland should be in a hole for what he did to these people.
Cobra Kai (2018)
They have done what I thought was impossible.
Johnny Lawrence was the epitome of the rich, arrogant bully in the 80's.
This series has taken that script and made "Mr. Lawrence" a deep, complex character looking for redemption in ways that I never thought were possible.
Ignoring the obvious.. that in today's world kids constantly kicking each others asses & karate teachers smacking students around would bring law suits to shut down multi million dollar corporations but this is the world of The Karate Kid. Where teenage karate tournaments are held with no head protection or gloves and kids can be karate masters in a couple of months of training pulling off spin and jump kicks and performing parkour attacks like its no big deal.
Forget all that. This is the world of The Karate Kid, where all of that is possible.
Once you get passed that? This is an amazing show that accomplishes something inconceivable to a kid who grew up with this franchise absolutely hating Cobra Kai and everyone in it and the living breathing representation of everything I feared as a kid in Johnny Lawrence.
It makes you root for him. It makes you pull for him. It make you want to see him win. All of that would not be possible for the shocking acting chops of William Zabka who make no mistake is the hero of this show. Daniel is just there, trying and failing to be Mr. Miyagi because he has become the rich, successful country club guy who at face value you want to see punched in the face.
Ralph Macchio does what he does. He still can't act well but this is his role and he plays it well.
This story would not work if it was just nostalgia. It has a story. a very good one and make no mistake. Zabka is the star showing just how good of an actor he is.