The Twilight Zone (2019) -- Season 1 Episode 8 (Point of Origin)

You see, the government thinks that Eve is an undocumented immigrant of a different kind.  She and a “caravan” of others have come from a parallel dimension, seeking a better way of life.  Eve pleads ignorance to no avail.  She eventually escapes, but the episode ends with her being brought back into custody.  Even her own family rejects her.

I’m not entirely certain what the episode is hoping to do.  I get that an immigrant can look like anyone.  We all came from somewhere.  It’s just a question of how and when.  I find it odd that Eve can’t remember immigrating.  It might be to show the plight of people brought by their parents.

People who came to the country as children often run into their own problems, as they may think they were born here, as is the case with Eve.  I don’t think the episode really did enough with Eve to make any sort of point.  She just has her life upended.  Anna, on the other hand, does know that kind of fear.  She’s not really used that well in this episode.  In fact, her only role seems to be putting Eve in her place.

In the end, the episode really doesn’t give me anything to think about.  It doesn’t shock you into realizing what it might be like for someone in that position.  It doesn’t do much to explore different angles or degrees of immigration.  There are plenty of people who come here legally and are still harassed and still fear legal action.  Even people who were actually born here face discrimination.

The issue of immigration seems like a backdrop for Eve’s horror.  It’s not something that’s used to make a point.  Having watched all ten episodes at this point, I’d say this one was the weakest.  It’s way too simplistic.

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Cold Pursuit (2019)

I think that, at this point, Hollywood should just get it over with and release a film called Not Another Liam Neeson Movie.  Actually, this movie would have been a good candidate for that name.  Here, Neeson plays Nelson Coxman.  He’s told that his son, Kyle, died of a drug overdose.  Like most parents, Nelson and his wife, Grace, never saw any signs of addiction or use.

The funny thing is that Kyle wasn’t a user.  Nelson eventually finds someone involved with Kyle’s death.  This leads to two things happening:  Nelson kills the person and gets another name.  This leads to Nelson finding and killing the rest of the people involved, leaving Trevor 'Viking' Calcote.  Viking is the nearly untouchable leader of the local drug cartel.  Of course, that means that Viking will meet an untimely end and that Nelson will somehow be involved.

The movie is a remake directed by Hans Petter Moland, who also directed the original.  You might be forgiven for thinking that it was directed by the Coen brothers, though.  It’s not quite a comedy, but it’s not serious enough that you can take it seriously.  Every time someone dies, for instance, a title card pops up announcing it.  Add to this that many of the bad guys have nicknames like Speedo and The Eskimo.

I also noticed that Nelson murders quite a number of people, yet never gets a drop of blood on his clothing.  He gets blood on the wall of a bridal shop, but never on his clothing.  For that matter, it would seem to be very easy to get away with murder where he is.  We don’t even get one of those scenes where someone walks in on him or he’s pulled over by the police and the officer almost opens the trunk of the car.  He’s in a bridal shop and yet no one walks in on the act.  He fires several shots and no one turns a head.

There are several things I would tell a potential audience member.  First, don’t bring the kids.  I think that should be obvious by now.  Second, don’t expect too much of it.  It’s a straight-up revenge movie.  It doesn’t seem like the script tried to deviate too much from that.  Nelson only wants to kill those who killed his son.  Grace is the one to show any sign of emotion over the loss of Kyle.

I can see people liking it and I can see people not liking it.  The movie wasn’t exactly what I expected, but I was able to see it with AMC’s A-List.  I think had it not been for that, I would have waited for it to come out on DVD.

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