Vivre Theatre's production of A Gentlemen's Guide to Love & Murder, playing at the Florissant Civic Center Theatre January 24 - February 1, 2020, features some of the best veteran and upcoming theatre talent in St. Louis. It also suffered from some technical issues which hopefully will be ironed out by their final weekend.

Me: RIVERDALE couldn't possibly get any darker or more bizarre.

Roberto Aguirre-Sacasa: Hold my beer.

Alright, so let's get the larger plot points out of the way.

Archie (KJ APA) is trying hard to give a second chance to his long lost uncle, Frank (RYAN ROBBINS) by giving him a job at Andrews Consruction. But he doesn't just give him any job -- he makes him foreman, replacing Tom Keller (MARTIN CUMMINS) who, as Riverdale's former sheriff, has intimate knowledge of Frank's sullied history. The crew is further demoralized when they don't get their annual Christmas bonuses, something Frank sets out to rectify but in the worst possible way. This one is a train wreck waiting to happen, not a redemption story, and everyone can see it being broadcast, except Archie.

20 years after the groundbreaking anime, FLCK, Adult Swim and the legendary anime studio Production 16 team up to bring you FLCL: Progressive and FLCL: Alternative.

All twelve episodes of these two series are included on this Blu-ray release, which includes special features that introduce you to the creators, and other bonuses.

Be sure to check our rules and regulations before proceeding. And good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

So here's the gist of the TERMINATOR franchise: In the future, an artificial intelligence called Skynet decides humanity needs to be purged, and creates killer robots called Terminators. But John Connor would mount a successful resistance, forcing Skynet to invent time travel so it could send a robot into the past to prevent him from growing up. It fails, and only succeeds in ensuring John Connor is born. His mother Sarah Connor then fights Terminators who keep coming back trying to kill him, so that the future would be changed.

Only we see in the beginning of TERMINATOR: DARK FATE that a Terminator arrives and does successfully shoot the young John Connor in the head, leaving a grieving and embittered Sarah Connor behind to mourn.

So Skynet's future is assured, right?

Wrong.

The fallout from METAL continues as the evolutionarily perfected Lex Luthor serves as a John the Baptist for the goddess Perpetua, paving the way for her conquest of everything. Only one person stands in his path -- The Batman Who Laughs, the evil Joker-fied Batman from the Dark Multiverse. TBWL has spread the dark infection to six heroes, five of whom attack Luthor at his safehouse -- which turns out to be one of his employee's apartments he long ago modified without her knowledge.

Lex is not only outnumbered, but he's up against the powers of Kara Zor-El (Supergirl), King Shazam (Shazam), Deathbringer (Donna Troy), Sky Tyrant (Hawkman), and Scarab (Blue Beetle). Anyone else would give up, but Luthor -- who was already the smartest man alive before his augmentation -- has already defeated all five of them while they were posturing. It's all over except for the actual doing of it, which proves to be simplicity itself.

Meet the Park family, the picture of aspirational wealth. And the Kim family, rich in street smarts but not much else. Be it chance or fate, these two houses are brought together and the Kims sense a golden opportunity. Masterminded by college-aged Ki-woo, the Kim children expediently install themselves as tutor and art therapist to the Parks. Soon, a symbiotic relationship forms between the two families. The Kims provide "indispensable" luxury services while the Parks obliviously bankroll their entire household. When a parasitic interloper threatens the Kims' newfound comfort, a savage, underhanded battle for dominance breaks out, threatening to destroy the fragile ecosystem between the Kims and the Parks. By turns darkly hilarious and heart-wrenching, Parasite showcases a modern master at the top of his game.

Throughout its freshmen season, I have defended BATWOMAN as being a good series in the face of all the criticisms that it existed only for the purpose of establishing identity politics over storytelling and plot.

This week, I was rewarded by the Batwoman writers through their decision to establish identity politics over storytelling and plot.

Batwoman has a secret identity. (Psst. Don't tell anyone. It's Kate Kane, played by RUBY ROSE.) Not that secret identities last in the CW Arrowverse. Star City was told countless times that Oliver Queen was a vigilante, and kept forgetting, and so many people know Barry Allen is The Flash that one wonders why he even bothers with a mask unless it's to avoid windburn.

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be more intelligent, read them more fairy tales.”

So said Albert Einstein. Yet fairy tales are as much for adults, with written tales originally targeted to an adult audience to teach all of us how to navigate life with strength and resilience. Many of these tales feature love and romance, which makes them a perfect theme for a Valentine’s Day gift. Here are some other ideas, and whilst some gift experiences are not on Valentine’s Day, it is still a chance for you to spread the love throughout the year.

The holidays are finally over. 2019 is in the history books. For some people, probably more than you might expect, the winter months can be pretty tough to bear. After putting so much energy into the holidays you're now facing several months of cold weather, seasonal colds, bare trees, the tedium of getting back to five-day work weeks, and no real social holidays until the weather starts to warm up, Depressing, isn't it? What can you do about it? 

Bettie Page has seen her share of aliens, both from this dimension and from others.

Now she finds herself up against the Praesepods -- a race of giant wasps looking to take over the Earth (not to be confused with the Vyzpzz, a race of giant wasps looking to take over the Earth in another book). One has taken over the identity of her friend, Agent McKnight, and another has taken on the form of Bettie herself.

It's WILL SMITH vs WILL SMITH when the classic "nature versus nurture" debate gets tested in the world of highly-skilled assassins.

Smith plays Henry, a superior marksman with a number of kills to his credit all of whom were bad guys looking to do harm to America. Until this last job. When he misses his kill shot by a few inches (still killing the man), he decides it's time to hang it up and retire. After all, an inch in the wrong direction can mean the difference between a righteous kill and an innocent victim.

However, Henry's last target wasn't what Henry was led to believe: he was the loose end in a secret government program called "Gemini." And now the last dangling thread is Henry himself. He manages to fight off an attack of several men, picking up a partner in Agent Dani Zakarweski (BIRDS OF PREY's MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD) by accident. And when the men behind his kill order realize Henry escaped, they send in their best man.

Junior.

Whether you’re an avid gamer or an enthusiastic rookie, MARS wants you to have fun. So they've built a truly immersive lightgun gaming experience that you’ll love to play over and over again.

It feels like it's been forever in the offing, but BATMAN #86 is a breath of fresh air after the prolonged storyline that bogged down the title for the past few years.

With his longtime confidante and manservant, Alfred Pennyworth, having been laid to rest, Bruce Wayne decides to take on a new mission to honor his friend, a mission presented to him on many past occasions and always turned down: a Gotham that didn't need Batman. To that end, Bruce has dusted of his plans for a revamp of the city and fast-tracked them through all the zoning commissions. With construction already underway, however, there are forces out there that want to see their own plans for Gotham come to light.

It's been a while since I've poked my head inside the Superman universe of books, and with the news surrounding the impending release of Superman's self-reveal, I thought it might be a good idea to check in on the latest installment of the Man of Steel, by way of ACTION COMICS 1018.

To say the issue was a disappointment is to do a disservice to language.

Let's start with the cover. Advertising a guest appearance by the Justice League pretty much means that, in the background, you see their bodies strewn about as they have been clobbered. But that cover blurb is perhaps the best drawn part of the book's frontispiece. The rest of it is a sketchy mess, featuring Superman front and center and some hastily doodled Justice League members in the background -- plus what looks to be a frozen or electrocuted Starman in the lower left.

That should have been my first warning to back away, slowly, and put my wallet back in my pocket.

Enter to win all three BEVERLY HILLS COP moveis in this newly remastered release from Paramount Home Video.

The heat is on in this fast-paced collection of action-packed comedies starring Eddie Murphy as Axel Foley, the street-smart cop from Detroit. Tracking down his best friend's killer in BEVERLY HILLS COP, Axel smashes through the local barriers in a hilarious, high-speed pursuit of justice. In BEVERLY HILLS COP II, he's deep undercover, investigating a gang of international munitions smugglers. The third installment finds Axel at the center of a roller coaster thrill ride at the wonderful amusement park! Watch all three and get hooked for the whole ride.

For your chance to win this Blu-ray collection use the form below and select one or more options of entry. Be sure to check our rules and regulations page first.

Over the last few years, the foundation of STAR WARS fandom has been a little shaky. We've seen one writer ignominiously ousted from the extended universe, several directors fired from the sequels and ancillary films, and controversy among the fandom over the way the final trilogy was handled from start to finish. Basically, if you're handed the reigns to do something with STAR WARS these days, you stand a good chance of slitting your own throat.

Holy cow, is it 2020 already? 2019 seems to have gone by in a blur, with so much happening in the world of movies, television, and comics. It's hard to believe we've reached the point where we now have the unenviable task of deciding which was the best in every category to recognize the producers of entertainment for their efforts.

So below you will find the voting form, featuring our nominations for the best film, film actor, television series (which includes streaming until we come up with a word to replace television), series actor, comic book storyline, comics writer, comics artist, and -- last but certainly not least -- the selection of our Critical Blast Bombshell of the Year from the list of 2019's Bombshell of the Month candidates.

Every month the staff at Critical Blast combs the cosplay community for up-and-coming cosplayers who deserve to have a broader audience for their work, taking into account not only costuming skills and spirit, but also how they use that ability in service to others. Through this, we've not only met some talented cosplayers, but also some fine human beings. And we could not think of a better exemplar of the spirit of cosplay than this talented fellow from Argentina, who kicks off our new year of cosplay greatness.

It's a brand new year, and Critical Blast is going to fill it with bombshells! So let's get started.

Ladies and gentlemen, it is our great pleasure to introduce you to the...

GRETA GERWIG's directorial rewrite of Louisa May Alcott's American classic is a sprawling mess of a period piece that meanders about, hopping backward and forward in time to finally get to its quiet and unsatisfactory conclusion.

An optimistic scout elf is ready to bring Christmas joy and magic to the family that has adopted him. But upon his arrival he finds a single mom with her hands full with two rambunctious boys and a sullen teenaged daughter who misses her father. When the grandfather comes to visit for the Christmas holidays, bringing the Elf on the Shelf with him to start a new family tradition, his plans never seem to hit all the right notes with the kids.

It's up to Tatertot the scout elf to instill Christmas magic into this family once again. But that could be impossible, especially when he finds himself in a situation where is own magic is suddenly diminished after a roughhousing incident with the boys!