Love, Death & Robots - Cultural references

For those who don't know, Netflix series is a re-imagining of 1981 animated cult classic Heavy Metal (inspired by fantasy comic of same name).

From the eighteen available, I've decided to scrutinise six.

Three Robots

Xbot 4000 recreates the iconic opening sequence of Terminator 2: Judgment Day.

Lovely stuff.

Check this out.

Post-apocalyptic future has a giant boat jammed inside skyscraper.

How the fuck did it get there?

Unofficial guess is the aftermath of a tsunami.

Anyway.

Same thing is seen in ultra violent anime Fist of the North Star.

Coincidence?

Black Robot's voice box (if you like), bears a striking resemblance to HAL 9000 from Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Don't be fooled by my icy cool calmness, because I'm one evil fucker.

T-800 scanning in progress.

K-VRC vs Briareos Hecatonchires (Appleseed)

Ears seal it for me.

Maybe I'm drunk with excitement, but here fucking goes.

Black Robot steals a red and white cap from corpse and decides to wear it.

Ignoring 'Jesus Saves', Terry Bogard anybody?

For character portrait at least, cap first displayed Fatal Fury in The King of Fighters '96.

A few more.

Fatal Fury: Wild Ambition

In Fatal Fury 3: Road to the Final Victory, King of (we presume Fighters) is displayed.

And.

Geezer went for the op and became a 'Fatal Cutie' in SNK Heroines Tag Team Frenzy.

Suits

Hank vs Barry Burton (Resident Evil 1996)

Beth vs Vasquez (Aliens)

More generic is this.

Mechs vs Avatar?

Aside from obvious comparisons to xenomorph, DeeBee shares its name with enemy from Gears of War 4.

DeeBee Queen (kind of) vs Alien Queen (Aliens)

Also, alien bug beastie rings loud bells of Starship Troopers.

Pickings are extremely skinny in The Dump, but...

Junk monster reforms after being shot, as per the T-1000.

Even camera shot is identical.

Helping Hand

Yes it's Gravity, but with extra weight.

Alexandria vs Ripley

Or even.

Amanda Ripley (Alien: Isolation)

Space debris appears to resemble the end of creature's spiked tail.

Satellite LV426.
Planetoid was first mentioned in Aliens.

How astronaut removes arm is different in principle, but smacks of 127 Hours.

Fish Night

One my favourite shorts takes heavy inspiration from Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Upon seeing ghosts of prehistoric marine life, Young Man exclaims 'It's beautiful!'
Just before the wrath of God is unleashed, Paul Freeman's Belloq says the same thing.

Moray eel passes through body.

Pretty much like celestial spirits playing with and subsequently killing Nazi gathering.

Now tact radically changes.

Shark vs Deep Blue Sea?

(Shrugs shoulders).

Alternate Histories

Penultimate (and extremely silly effort) sees Hitler die in various ways.

What's this?

The Creation of Adam - Michelangelo

 Parody start.

I want more, so let's hope Season 2 is given thumbs-up.

John Wick: Chapter 3 - Parabellum - The scoop and digest

The Boogeyman is back, badder and bloodier than ever.

Keanu Reeves - John Wick
Halle Berry - Sofia
Ian McShane - Winston
Laurence Fishburne - Bowery King
Mark Dacascos - Zero
Asia Kate Dillon - The Adjudicator
Lance Reddick - Charon
Anjelica Huston - The Director

Summary

Picking up half an hour or so after the events of Chapter 2, time is running out for 'excommunicado' bound John Wick.

To avenge the death of High Table member Santino, the Adjudicator gets the best in town to take down super assassin.

Si vis pacem para bellum.

(If you want peace, prepare for war).

Scintillating

Turn off your brain, sit back and enjoy 2 hours of mindless entertainment.

Stylistically, expect nothing new, but Chad Stahelski raises the brutal bar.

While The Raid 2 remains untouchable, this undeniably kicks serious ass.

There is no bigger Keanu Reeves critic than I, but he was born to play John Wick.

Once fuse is lit (which predictably doesn't take long), action doesn't fizzle out until credits roll.

Yes there's a story, but as usual, takes a back seat.

Dialogue is purposely restrictive, but McShane and more surprisingly Dacascos, intermittently emit humour drier than most martinis.

When Wick meets Halle Berry's Sofia in Morocco, even dogs deliver the wow factor.

Fisticuffs may have too many 'delays', but choreography still leaves us purring.

Ahead of climatic gun fu sequence, Adjudicator deconsecrates the Continental.

Cue amazing sequence of heavily armoured henchmen, glass containers and two epic fights.

Before inevitable showdown with Zero himself, Wick takes on, and ultimately defeats his students, who incidentally are The Raid's Yayan Ruhian and sequel's Cecep Arif Rahman.

Splendid.

During the events of Chapter 2, Santino opened a $7m contract on Wick's head.

Therefore I find it rather difficult to believe that forty or so minutes later, bounty doubled off-screen to $14m.

I smell a bad continuity error.

After Winston seemingly betrays Wick, final scene teases another.

Shot to fuck assassin is delivered to the Bowery King, who asks if he's pissed (at the High Table).

'Yeah!'

Just as Adjudicator recruits Zero and co in Chinatown, the eagle eyed will observe a place called McLeod's.

This isn't for shits and giggles, as director will reboot Highlander.

TV series or film?

At time of writing - unknown.

Jaws - Great White Goofs

For all its superlatives, Spielberg's blockbuster is littered with a gargantuan amount of bullshit.

With that said, I've cherry picked the most interesting ones.

Chrissie's remains are found the following morning.

However.

Brody's report states she died on 1 July 1974 at 11:50PM.
Fine. But more importantly, deceased was discovered on 2 July at 10:20 PM.
WHAT?
Also, why is there no space after 11:50?

Shit was removed to (Address) Corners Office.
Not Coroner's Office?
Damn. Punctuation also took a back seat.

Down on Amity beach...

Ahead of Brucie feasting on Alex Kintner, Brody keeps a careful eye on proceedings.
Please note wristwatch. 

In the next shot.

Timepiece has vanished.

Maybe Chief was robbed.

Reward notice states Alex was killed before Chrissie on June 29.
I find that remarkable, because she was eaten on 1 July.
Upon meeting Brody, Hooper even states the best thing for him to do is to see the remains of the first victim 'the girl on the beach'.
To compound matters further, June 29 in 1974 fell on a Saturday, not Sunday.

Shortly after, all and sundry have a board meeting.

Blackboard is clean.

While everybody's bickering.

Quint magically appears ninja-like and shark now occupies blackboard.

Given situation in real-time.

IMPOSSIBLE!

Licence plate retrieved from tiger shark displays sportmen's paradise.
Spelling should be sportman's paradise. 

When estuary victim is forced into taking a dip, dude is barefoot.

But when leg sinks, it's wearing a shoe.

Continuity really kicks off at sea.

When taking aim, Quint's harpoon is at shoulder height.

But in the next shot, weapon is on hip.

For this next slice, it's necessary to turn back time.

Orca stored five barrels.

Some time later, Quint sticks third into Bruce.

5 minus 3 leaves 2, right?

Of course it does.

But in this long shot, there's three left.

Same thing here.

But...

We're back with two, which is obviously correct.

WTF?

More harpoon hi-jinks.

Shoulder height (again).

And yeah.

Yep, a second later, it's on hip (again).

Resultant projectile finds lower jaw.

Stands to reason it would stay remain there.

But when attacking Hooper's cage, it's gone.

What is this sorcery?

Is that a tow cable attached to dorsal fin?
Yes.

Also, where have barrels gone?

As Bruce prepares to devour Quint, he's not wearing a bandanna. 

Now he is.

Whilst been thrashed about, head accessory is lost.

But.

In subsequent close-up, he's managed to put it back on.

What a man.

While Brody is stabbing monster's head with spear thing, solid steel amusingly bends.

Weapon is jammed inside mouth.

Guess what?

(Gasps).
Yep, it's disappeared.

Okay, I get baddie is exaggerated to be pretty much invincible, but giving it the ability to make shit vanish off-screen is beyond hilarious.

Long Shot - The scoop and digest

Jonathan Levine previously directed Seth Rogen in the touching 50/50.

Now comedic hat is thrown into the world of politics.

Charlize Theron - Charlotte Field
Seth Rogen - Fred Flarsky
June Diane Raphael - Maggie
O'Shea Jackson Jr. - Lance
Ravi Patel - Tom
Bob Odenkirk - President Chambers
Andy Serkis - Parker Wembly

Summary

After President Chambers announces he won't be seeking re-election to pursue a movie career, Secretary of State Charlotte Field launches 'Global Rehabilitation Initiative', and by the end of environmental campaign, aims to have at least 100 countries in her corner.

But presidential hopeful needs somebody to write her speeches.

Enter out of work journalist Fred Flarsky (whom she used to babysit).

During globe-trotting adventure, a romance blossoms.

Triumph

I haven't enjoyed a comedy this much in aeons.

From Roxette's It Must Have Been Love to subtly recreating certain scenes, parallels to Pretty Woman are very clever.

Chemistry sizzles between Rogen and Theron and while some deserve more and/or less screen time than others, Serkis, Raphael, Patel and Jackson Jr. are strong in support.

This type of performance is bread and butter for Rogen, but it's the ultra sexy Theron who steals the show.

Screenplay from Dan Sterling and Liz Hannah is razor sharp and sequences deliver genuine hilarity.

At the request of Charlotte, she and Fred get super fucked up on drugs.

Looking a little worse for wear, Secretary of State addresses the media and successfully persuades terrorist leader to free hostages via telephone conversation.

During which, Fred fails to understand the body language of Charlotte's employee Maggie and admits on several occasions he's high off his ass.

Believe me, it's really funny.

Clearly inspired by There's Something About Mary, Ben jerks off to one of Charlotte's speeches and blows load on impressive beard.

Sleazy billionaire Wembly blackmails Charlotte and video goes viral, with geezer dubbed the 'Cum Guy'.

Ha ha ha!

Peace motherfuckers.

The Curse of La Llorona - The scoop and digest

Sixth instalment in The Conjuring Universe is produced under James Wan's Atomic Monster banner and directed by Michael Chaves.

Linda Cardellini - Anna
Roman Christou - Chris
Jaynee-Lynne Kinchman - Samantha
Raymond Cruz - Rafael
Patricia Velásquez - Patricia
Marisol Ramirez - La Llorona
Tony Amendola - Father Perez

Summary

Mexico, 1673.

While playing in a field with his family, a boy briefly closes his eyes and the next thing he knows they're gone.

Wee lad witnesses mummy bear drowning his brother in a river and soon after, presumably does the same to him off-screen.

Los Angeles, 1973.

After social worker Anna 'rescues' children from suspected abusive mother Patricia, said kids are troubled by a woman in a white dress.

Both are found drowned in a nearby river and Patricia blames Anna for their deaths.

'La Llorona' she screams hysterically.

Malevolent spirit turns its attentions to Anna's offspring Chris and Samantha.

Lazy

Performances from Cardellini, youngsters Christou and Kinchman are good, but we've seen it all before.

Remote location in Mexico hosting creepy folk tale would have made for a far better film.

(Probably).

But tight bastards took the easy option.

Here's some tidbits.

In flashback, Father Perez recalls his experience with plaited pigtails in 1967, confirming connection with universe.

Also, Samantha's raggedy doll is surely a nod to the real Annabelle.

A classic Scooby Doo episode is shown.

Leading lady portrayed Velma in both live action outings.

Back to bitching.

Shortly after watching a 'smudging' ritual (apparently ridding individual of any negativity during times of great stress), Anna opens her heart to Perez.

Cue gratuitous exposition on Weeping Woman.

(Shakes head).

Relentless jump scares use every tired, ineffective cliché in the book.

Similarities to The Nun are truly disturbing...

Oh, you can't have a shitty horror film without a creaky door opening by itself.

Climax admittedly fares better, with some mildly interesting ideas, but rubbish baddie 'dying' by getting stabbed with fire tree made crucifix absolutely sucked.

I have a question.

WHY the fuck did ghost wait 300 years to terrorise a random family in LA?

How stupid.