'KPOP DEMON HUNTERS'......EVEN TAYLOR SWIFT CAN'T SLICE 'N DICE DEMONS FOR SOLD OUT STADIUM CROWDS......

 KPop Demon Hunters (Netflix 2025)

     And once again, BQ proudly declares that we'll boldly review any and all TV shows and films, no matter how far apart we find ourselves from the show or film's target audiences. 

       We could hardly ignore this film, given its popularity (or notoriety?) as the anointed 'next big thing' to hit the pop culture sweet spot. 

       Bottom line:  We had a pretty good time overall, even as we waded through the story's excess of fanciful mythology.

        Mega girl group K-Pop stars Rumi, Mira and Zoey sell out stadiums with bouncy, basher earworm songs and kick-ass choreography......but wait! There's more to these babes than music. 'Huntrix', as they're called collectively in showbiz, come from a long line of warriors who can whip out glowy samurai swords and obliterate demons faster than Taylor Swift discards ex-boyfriends. 

         (A tough gig for Rumi, since secretly she's half-human, half demon..)

        But wait!  Demon boss Gwi Ma, a body-less entity who parks himself in a permanent unholy bonfire, sends out dynamic (and demonic) boy group the Saja Boys, led by tortured soul Juni, whom like his counterpart Rumi, is cursed with demon DNA. The Boys have been tasked with out-shining Huntrix in popularity and fans, thereby weakening the Honmoon, an eternal barrier created eons ago to....uh....well...makes things tougher for demons than Trump's wall does for illegal border crossers. 

        (Everybody get all that? Feel free to roll your eyes as we did.....)

        So the Battle of the Bands is on, with conflicted and tormented Rumi and Juni sharing the agony of their mixed human-demon heritage as they belt out show stoppin' chart toppers.....

        We freely admit, we bopped along with those impossible-to-resist songs as we watched the film along with BD (Beloved Daughter). And the animation deployed to bring all this crazy stuff to life is brilliant and colorfully rendered.

         And where else can you absorb a cinematic blend of Korean mythology, eye-popping visuals and up-to-the-minute K-Pop? 

         No sense is calling out a Fanboys and Fangirls alert.....chances are, they've already all watched this movie multiple times. 

         BQ's not sorry we joined in to check it out....3 & 1/2 stars (***1/2).

'REMAIN'.....SPARKS AND SHYAMALAN JOIN FORCES.....AND A HAUNTING THEY WILL GO.........

 Remain by Nicholas Sparks with M. Night Shyamalan (2025)

     Although I purchased this book as a Christmas gift for a much cherished family member who loves a good ugly cry, how could I, as a book blogger, resist a read myself? 

     (Not to worry I got through 'Remain' without bending the pages or staining them with tears before the book hit the wrapping paper....)

      This isn't, by the way, Nicholas Sparks' first plunge into the supernatural or paranormal.....we seem to remember he tossed in a surprise little 'Twilight Zone' twist at the end of a previous novel....(and we'll not say which one so as not to spoil the surprise for anyone who's freshly exploring the Sparks-iverse.)

         'Remain' also signifies a major switch in location, moving from the author's favored North Carolina shores to Cape Cod. It's on that island where emotionally shattered architect Tate Donovan is tasked with designing a sumptuous new home for his friend Oscar.

         Tate spent months recovering from depression and grief over the cancer death of his beloved sister Sylvia. After a stay in psychiatric care, he's tentatively ready to face the world again. And, as they say in romantic conversation......he's met someone. 

          Not just any someone. He discovers he's not alone in the historic old house he thought he was the sole resident of while planning Oscar's new home. He finds a beautiful vivacious young woman named Wren living there as well.  In true Sparks fashion he's entranced by her at first and then slowly but surely falling hard, consumed with overpowering affection for her. 

        But there's way, way more to Wren than meets the eye, including her toxic, blighted relationships with three previous men in her life...a cheating business partner, an ex-husband and a prominent town figure who took to obsessively stalking her. 

        Here's where I seal my lips about any more plot details. But this much you should know.....you will find in 'Remain' the best of both worlds of novelist Sparks and filmmaker Shyamalan, renowned for his blending of the fantastic and scary with grounded, relatable drama and characters whose struggles and plights resonate with you.

      From Sparks, you'll experience all the familiar themes.....the aching joy of first love and its power to triumph over any threat that would try to thwart it.....even death. 

     M. Night delivers the shocks and thrills and Nicholas Sparks, as always, conspires to make you reach for a tissue box as your eyes start brimming.

      So all in all, a 4 star (****) holiday treat to put under the tree for your favorite avid reader.....or any other time of the year. 

        

MONDAY MADNESS WRAP-UP......RAMPAGING KILLERS, ROB REINER'S MURDER AND THE ENDLESS 'HOW LOW CAN TRUMP GO' METER

      We prepared a film review for today....

    We weren't expecting such a weekend from Hell, that we'd be forced to post a Monday Madness Wrap-up....

      The Brown University shooter....

      The Australian Beach shooters....

      The murders of gifted, beloved film director and actor Rob Reiner and his wife......at the hands of their son.....

      And finally....the icing on this shitcake of a weekend.....Donald Trump once again proving he's a bottomless pit of excrement.....and there's no limit to how low he can sink.....

R.I.P. Rob Reiner (1947-2025)  A brilliant, gifted filmmaker, creator of some of the most beloved, oft quoted movies in cinema history. And a fearless champion of progressive causes and unafraid to warn us all about the horrors of Donald Trump. 

Trump posts a lowest of the low, repulsive Truth Social chunk of verbal vomit blaming Rob Reiner's death on his 'Trump Derangement Syndrome'......sinking to an all new low that plummets downward into infinity.....with no bottom. 

Yes, Rob Reiner suffered Trump Derangement Syndrome as do millions of us in the U.S. and around the world.....

 But it's his derangement.....not ours.  

    

WEEKEND MADNESS WRAP-UP....SPECIAL 'ONE PICTURE SAYS MORE THAN A THOUSAND WORDS' EDITION......

 Ladies and Gentlemen.....we give you.....the President of the United States of America......on Epstein island.........

To BQ visitors:  Joyous weekend to you....see you next week with reviews including 'One Battle After Another' and, believe it or not, "KPop Demon Hunters" !!! Brace yourselves.....

To Trump voters: You put him office because you didn't like the price of eggs....but now your dear leader told you affordability is nothing but a Democrat hoax.....

       Check your latest grocery bills.....sound like a hoax to you?

'SWING SHIFT'.....GOLDIE AS ROSIE THE RIVETER....AND THE PERILS OF ACTOR VS. DIRECTOR

 Swing Shift (1984)

     Entirely watchable, but considering all the lost opportunities here, a terrible waste of creative talent.

     'Too many cooks' became the operative phase for this film's production - too many writers taking whacks at the storyline and too many opposing points of view between the star, Goldie Hawn and the director, Jonathon Demme ("Silence of the Lambs", "Philadelphia")

     The film's fascinating premise came loaded with potential - the story of women recruited to work in armaments factories as their husbands, fiances and boyfriends went into the military and off to war in 1941, the start of America's entry into World War 2.

      Director Demme no doubt wanted an expansive view of this particular time and place, when women found themselves given newly acquired skills, strength, independence.....and paychecks. 

       Goldie Hawn, by then firmly established as an A-list movie star, wanted a film designed, as movie stars often did,  as a vehicle to showcase her own abilities as a dramatic actress. Hence her preference for script re-writes that centered around her up and down romantic relationship with a factory co-worker played by Kurt Russell.  An especially tumultuous affair this was,  considering Hawn's character had a husband (Ed Harris) who'd enlisted in the Navy as soon as Pearl Harbor erupted....and immediately shipped out to combat. 

       Hawn and Demme repeatedly clashed and films plagued with actor-director battles over competing visions usually end up with a neither fish-nor-fowl final product. 

       And to nobody's satisfaction or surprise, so it was with "Swing Shift". 

        There are some remarkable sequences in the first half of the film, detailing the whole new workforce world of factory life that women plunged into.....grueling, sometimes dangerous work conditions and the patronizing misogynistic attitudes and behavior of their male supervisors. But there's optimism too, as the women prove they're as able and driven in their jobs as men....and more than ready to assume leadership positions. 

       To its detriment and to Hawn's dictates, the bulk of the film centers around the angst-y romantic complications between Hawn, Russell and Hawn's neighbor, co-worker and new best friend, ably played by Christine Lahti. And at best, it's dreary, uninteresting soap opera level stuff. 

       All of the actors here acquit themselves well enough, but the film's most powerful and memorable scene has nothing to do with them. It arrives toward the end of the story.....the war ends and the factory bosses assemble the women to dismiss them from their now unneeded jobs. The bosses expect cheers but all they receive are cold stares; they've no idea they fostered a new workforce of fiercely self-reliant, take-charge employees who won't be so easily tossed aside. 

      Jonathon Demme took his 'A Film by.....' credit off 'Swing Shift' after entire sections of it were re-written, re-shot and re-edited without his participation. What remains is a weak, watered down and thoroughly mundane period drama, a pale shadow of what it could have been. 

      2 stars (**).

'WICKED: FOR GOOD'......DOUBLE DOUBLE THE TOIL AND TROUBLE....ANY WITCH WAY THEY CAN......

Wicked: For Good (2025) 

        We freely admit to this.....that we were predisposed to hate this movie when it was first announced that Act 2 of 'Wicked' (generally viewed as problematic) would become its own separate production. 

      To us, this smelled to high heaven like the usual Hollywood studio greed......treating an Intellectual Property as a cash cow to be squeezed and milked to its last nickel.......even if it means making unnecessary extra chapters that nobody wanted or asked for.  (As evidence, we present the 'Harry Potter' and 'Hunger Games' franchises).

      So rather than attempt to refurbish and repair 'Wicked's slow, dark, gloomy doomy second act, Universal and the filmmakers decided to extend and inflate it into its own separate bloated film......a 2 hour and 18 minute slog through bizarre, depressing plot twists, taking place mostly in darkly lit sets befitting its mood. 

        Basically, the Wicked crew said to moviegoers, "You gave you your jollies with the first one.....now it's time to take your bitter medicine and revel in it anyway because 'Wicked' worship is mandatory...."

         And that's why the film did fulfill our every low expectation for it......it's a like-watching-paint-dry misery to sit through.

         Not much music either. Two new songs by the show's composer Stephen Schwartz, both instantly forgettable. Stars Ariana Grande and Cynthis Erivo do randomly warble chunks of songs, until they at long last perform their heartwrenching final duet, 'For Good'. But we can't help asking......was waiting for that one song really worth assembling a lengthy movie to precede it?  Just askin'.......

         Don't even get us started on the coy and weird inclusion of  the original 'Wizard of Oz' quartet...(Dorothy, Tin Man, Scarecrow and Lion, with Dorothy portrayed only in shots of body parts, much like the way 1950's Biblical movies used to solemnly display Jesus.) The scenes of Tin Man and Scarecrow's tortuous transformations wouldn't be out of place in a horror movie. But don't worry about scaring any kids you bring......chances are they'd be fast asleep by that time anyway.

        And let us now address the state of Oz itself,  converted, like a Donald Trump dream come true, into a fascist Patriarchy, complete with talking animals treated the way Trump wants to deal with every immigrant who isn't from Norway or Sweden or isn't as blonde as Ivanka and his press secretary.....

      A clever enough metaphor for sure but let's get a grip.......the 'Wicked' movies are so steeped in their own self celebration and Broadway pizzazz, their imitations of current events probably sailed right past the millions who've flooded into the multiplexes to enjoy the films.  

        One amusing byproduct came out of the films.....this year, Grande and Erivo's promotional tour turned especially bizarre, with the Nosferatu-nailed Erivo seeming to claim Grande as her very own Barbie doll.  Maybe they should pair up again in a streaming remake of 'Laverne and Shirley'......or an all girl version of '50 Shades of Gray'......

        As for 'Wicked: For Good'......hopefully we bid it goodbye for good.....2 stars (**).

         

         

          

         

'THE KEEPER'.....THE RESCUER OF TRAFFICKING VICTIMS ON A NEW MISSION.....WHILE STRICKEN WITH GRIEF....

  The Keeper (Murphy Shepherd # 4) by Charles Martin (2025)

     This is the fourth book in a series that chronicles the perilous and heartrending adventures of Murphy Shepherd, a mysterious man with combat, violence and tragedy in his checkered past. 

      Murphy has taken it upon himself to become the rescuer and avenging angel for countless, worldwide victims of modern day slavery and sex trafficking of women and and young boys and girls.

      Shepherd does way more than just use ruthless commando efficiency to destroy the leaders and minions of trafficking networks. Also a man of compassionate faith, he provides the shelter, love, empathy and Christian kindness that these broken victims desperately need to rebuild their shattered lives. 

       In this series, author Charles Martin has crafted a one-of-a-kind blend of genres that sounds like an impossible mixture that you wouldn't think could exist.....thrillers that read as suspenseful and action packed as any James Patterson or Tom Clancy novel combined with the tearful gut wrenching emotion and faith-based optimism of anything by Colleen Hoover or Nicholas Sparks.

       I was late coming to the world of Murphy Shepherd, but once I'd experienced the first book, I immediately binged my way through the next  two in a matter of days. You can still start this fourth entry as a stand alone, but it will leave you wanting to go right back to the beginning (with "The Water Keeper", "The Letter Keeper" and "The Record Keeper").

        "The Keeper" finds Shepherd at a low ebb, mourning the death of his beloved friend and mentor Bones, who perished as he and Shepherd  put an end to Bones' evil brother Frank, the head of a vast trafficking network. 

         But Frank's organization still has nest of vipers, second-in-command 'generals' positioned around the world.....and somehow one or more of them has engineered the brutal kidnapping of the three young daughters of Vice President Aron Ashley, Shepherd's longtime friend and ally, and a Presidential hopeful himself in the upcoming election. 

         Shepherd assembles his team to hunt down the traffickers and save the girls. But precious time's running out and still convulsed with grief over Bones' death, both he and his team wonder if Shepherd can maintain the sharp edge he'll need as they head into harm's way.

        As in the previous books in the series, everything you'd expect from a top-notch, keep-you-up-all-night thriller, you'll find here. Shepherd's painstaking hunt begins to yield leads......and it's possible that the malignant kidnapping plot might have its origins in the very halls of government power. 

         But what you'll also find here is what makes this series distinctly unique - almost overwhelming, overpowering amounts of so many deeply felt emotions....enduring love, loyalty, friendship, the struggle to heal from the most heinous of hurts. 

        Be prepared to being unable to stay dry-eyed through many scenes in this book.....yes, it's the kind of storytelling that'll put you, along with the characters, through a non stop barrage of poignant, impassioned moments. 

         Does all of this sound like the highest recommendation yet?   How about a 5 star rating (*****).  Send this one right to the top of your TBR list.