The Ray Pletcher Blog

  It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. A hundred years ago life was exciting and full of romance but it was also a time of horrors. And so from the mind of Taylor Sheridan comes the prequel to the critically acclaimed Kevin Costner drama Yellowstone (a show which I still haven’t seen) entitled 1923 . The series stars Harrison Ford and Helen Mirren and follows them as they lead the Dutton family through a time of hardships including Western Expansion, Prohibition, and the Great Depression, in the vast beautiful yet harsh landscape of Montana. Billed as a two-season only show with each season set to consist of eight episodes, the series premiere or pilot as you call it recently debuted and it didn’t disappoint in the least.      The novelty of having Harrison Ford as the lead star of a TV show is not lost on me. In recent years we have continually seen the lines between film and TV blurred so much that there is practically no line. So the only explanati...

  Avatar: The Way of Water is a beautifully shot and breathtaking Titanic-sized epic that at its core is a family drama. That and a story about the environment. Director James Cameron ( True Lies , Titanic ) saw to that from the lush green forest environments to the depths of the awe-inspiring oceans of Pandora. All of that however is threatened by the formidable Stephen Lang who reprises his role as a U.S. Marine that commands his forces into battle against the Na’vi race with his old nemesis at the top of that kill list: Jake Sully.    Sam Worthington excels here, reprising the role of Sully from the original Avatar alongside Zoe Saldana as his wife Neyitiri as they raise a family on Pandora. At first I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be all that invested in watching mostly “blue people” for an entire three plus hour movie but I quickly found myself engaged by the performers and the dynamics between the Sully family were fun and very relatable to watch play out. And when t...