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Showing posts from May, 2020

HBO Max: Full Breakdown (Plus Five Recommendations You Can Stream Right Now)

At launch, HBO Max, the brand new streaming service from WarnerMedia, is offering 10,000 hours of content. That's an eye-catching number, even if it's not a third of what Netflix offers. But unlike the steady stream of total junk that Netflix spits out every week, HBO Max has many shows and movies that are actually worth watching.  From popular recent movies to a vast classic film library, from Friends to every show regular old HBO has produced ( Sex and the City, the Sopranos, Game of Thrones, Succession , etc.), the number of options is kind of staggering. If you aren't already signed up (if you have HBO, you probably have this too), definitely check it out.  The website's infrastructure has been largely carried over from HBO Now, HBO's existing standalone streaming service, so it's pretty smooth and easy to use. The organization of all the content is solid, if not spectacular. Emphasized are what are called "HBO Max Hubs," which are dedicated pages...

Scoob! Review: Scooby Doo's Big Screen Reboot is a Dud

I'll cut to the chase:  Scoob ! is a boring and unfocused mess, too busy selling toys and setting up sequels to bother with being entertaining. The new film, premiering in people's homes because movie theaters are closed, is an attempt to launch a new shared cinematic universe based on old Hanna-Barbera cartoons. The result is characters from other old shows getting awkardly interpolated in the story of the Mystery Inc gang. Dynomutt and the Blue Falcon ( Dynomutt, Dog Wonder ) show up, as does DeeDee ( Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, whatever that is). The main villain is Dick Dastardly ( Wacky Races), who comes complete with some Minions ripoff robot sidekicks and a plan that involves opening a portal to the underworld or something. It's all very incongruous with the classic Scooby formula, in which the supernatural was almost always revealed to be smoke and mirrors.  The humor is aggressively topical, referencing smartphones and Tinder and Hemsworths. None of it i...