Author: John Stark

Blogger. EIC of macthemovieguy.com. Contributor to mjsbigblog.com and houseofgeekery.com. Previously featured on starpulse.com.
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The Small Screen Diaries: 08/28/25

John Stark

TV Shows Watched: The Sandman: S2E12 (Netflix) with audio description, My Life With The Walter Boys: S1E1 (Netflix) with audio description, Sausage Party: Foodtopia: S2E3 (Amazon) with audio description, Upload: S4E1 (Amazon) with audio description, Mindhunter: S1E9 (Netflix) with audio description The Sandman- Now that I know, Episode 11 is actually the series finale, and this is just a one off bottle episode that uses this franchises version of Death… and lets her take a holiday. So, this is Death Takes A holiday, but in the way Neil Gaiman would do it. It was cute. Inconsequential, but cute. The audio … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 08/28/25

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The Small Screen Diaries: 08/27/25

John Stark

TV Shows Watched: Alien Earth: S1E4 (Hulu) with audio description, The Terminal List: Dark Wolf: S1E1 (Amazon) with audio description, The buccaneers: S2E6 (Apple Plus) with audio description, The Great north: S5E19 (Hulu) no audio description, All Of us Are Dead: S1E8 (Netflix) with audio description, Irish Blood: S1E5 (Acorn) no audio description Alien Earth- I love developing description. What I mean by that is description that continues to build the world, realizing there’s some element it could still mention, and perhaps didn’t earlier. Often this can come in letting us know a physical attribute we didn’t get in initial … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 08/27/25

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The Small Screen Diaries: 08/26/25

John Stark

TV Shows Watched: The institute: S1E7 (MGM Plus) with audio description, Twisted Metal: S1E5 (Peacock) with audio description, Dexter: Resurrection: S1E7 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, The Twisted Tale of Amanda Knox: S1E2 (Hulu) with audio description, Long Story Short: S1E2 (Netflix) with audio description The institute- You think you know what I’m about to say, but you’re like the guy who has the elephant by the tail. Or whatever that analogy was. The institute did just get a second season renewal at MGM Plus, so expect more mystery. The audio description is… well… fine? I mean, two people got … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 08/26/25

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The Small Screen Diaries: 08/25/25

John Stark

TV Shows Watched: Black mirror: S4E3 (Netflix) with audio description, Platonic: S2E4 (Apple Plus) with audio description, Butterfly: S1E4 (Amazon) with audio description, Ginny and Georgia: S2E9 (Netflix) with audio description, The Wonderfully Weird World of Gumball: S1E5 (Hulu) with audio description, and Hostage: S1E2 (Netflix) with audio description Black Mirror- A really solid episode about how decisions from our past come back to haunt us, because we all have a chip in our brain. So, one woman’s quest to protect her current family from the sins of her past leads her to some truly disturbing life choices, which all … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 08/25/25

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The Small Screen Diaries: 08/24/25

John Stark

TV Shows Watched: The Sandman: S2E11 (Netflix) with audio description, From: S2E2 (MGM Plus) with audio description, Chief Of War: S1E5 (Apple Plus) with audio description, Washington Black: S1E8 (Hulu) with audio description, South Park: S26E3 (Paramount Plus) no audio description, Breaking Bad: S2E10 (Netflix) with audio description The Sandman- A. Funeral for a dream. I don’t know what they possibly could be doing in the next episode that this one wasn’t the series finale, but this felt like everyone was saying goodbye, like you do in a finale. This episode was beautifully done, and I love how Fiddler’s Green … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 08/24/25

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Washington Black: Season 1

John Stark

Cast: Ernest Kingsley Jr., Eddie Karanja, Tom Ellis, Sterling K Brown, Rupert Graves, Billy Boyd, Ntare Guma Mbho Mwine, Charles Dance Streaming Service: Hulu Length: 8 episodes Audio Description Produced By: Credit Needed Written By: Credit Needed Narrated By: Credit Needed What is it?: The story of an aspiring inventor, from his days as a slave, to becoming an apprentice, who then became a pirate, and then got to see the world. But at what cost?! What Doesn’t Work: I usually like to lead with the positive, but I struggled with Washington Black, which seems to have been given infinite … Continue reading Washington Black: Season 1

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The Surfer

John Stark

Cast: Nicolas Cage, Julian McMahon, Finn Little Written By: Thomas Martin Directed By: Lorcan Finnegan Release Year: 2025 Audio Description Provided By: Deluxe Written By: Narrated By: William Michael Redman What is it?: Simplistically, a man (Cage) is at a beach in Australia with his son (Little), and would like to go surfing, but a gang of locals refuse to let him surf. So it becomes one mans quest to surf… even if it kills him. What Works: All the acting is great. Cage is finally used in a film that requires his talents, instead of some basic crap like … Continue reading The Surfer

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Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning

John Stark

Cast: Tom Cruise, Simon Pegg, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Esai Morales, Angela Bassett, Pom Klementieff, Henry Czerny, Holt McCallany, Nick Offerman, Janet McTeer, Hannah Waddingham, Tremmell Tillman, Shea Wiggham, Greg Tarzan Davis, Cary Elwes, Katie O’Brien Written By: Christopher McQuarrie and Erik Jenderesen, based on the TV series Mission: Impossible Directed By: Christopher McQuarrie Notable Producers: Tom Cruise, Christopher McQuarrie, David Ellison, Dana Goldberg Studio: Paramount pictures Release Year: 2025 Runtime: 169 minutes Audio Description Produced By: Icon Group Written By: Need Credit Narrated By: Anthony Hanson what is It?: It’s the final countdown. Your mission, should you choose to … Continue reading Mission Impossible: The Final Reckoning

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The Small Screen Diaries: 08/23/25

John Stark

TV Shows Watched: Outlander: Blood of My Blood: S1E4 (Starz) with audio description, The Hunting Wives: S1E5 (Netflix) with audio description, Foundationn: S3E7 (Apple Plus) with audio description, Hitmakers: S1E4 (Netflix) with audio description, Ballard: S1E9 (Amazon) with audio description, Pop Culture Jeopardy: IDK (Amazon) with audio description, The Rainmaker: S1E2 (Peacock) with audio description, and Hostage: S1E1 (Netflix) with audio description Outlander: Blood of My Blood- Yesterday, I got an email back from a rep, after saying I would love to screen and review their film, but if they had an English Audio Description track for the film, it … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 08/23/25

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Smoke: Season 1

John Stark

Cast: Taron Egerton, Jurnee Smollett, Greg Kinnear, John Leguizamo, Rafe Spall, Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine, Hannah Emily Anderson, Anna Chlumsky Series Created By: Dennis Lehane Streaming Service: Apple TV + Length: 9 episodes Audio Description Provided By: Written By: Narrated By: Roy Samuelson What Is it?: An arson investigator (Egerton) is stuck in a town that seems to have two arsonists he can’t catch. he gets help from a detective (Smollett), who has been sent downstream for personal reasons, relegated to arson. She has a past with arson herself, having survived one as a child. Together, they must figure out … Continue reading Smoke: Season 1

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Eenie Meanie

John Stark

Cast: Samara Weaving, Carl Glossman, Andy Garcia, Steve Zahn, Jermaine Fowler, Marshawn Lynch, Randall Park, Elle Graham Written And Directed By: Shawn Simmons Studio/Streamer: 20th Century Fox/Hulu Release Year: 2025 Audio Description provided By: Credit Needed Written By: credit Needed Narrated By: Credit Needed What is it?: A young woman (Weaving) is pulled back into the life she left, because her ex-boyfriend is a tool, and she’s just gotten some news from the doctor regarding her future. Refusing to let him be killed by a crime boss (Garcia), she jumps behind the wheel for a heist that should pay back … Continue reading Eenie Meanie

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The Small Screen Diaries: 08/22/25

John Stark

TV Shows Watched: Peacemaker: S2E1 (HBo MAX) with audio description, Sausage Party Foodtopia: S2E2 (Amazon) with audio description, Long Story Short: S1E1 (Netflix) with audio description, Dexter: S5E12 (Paramount Plus) with audio description, Invasion: S1E? (Apple plus) with audio description, Match Game: S6E6 (Hulu) with audio description, and who wants To Be A Millionaire: S4E6 (Hulu) with audio description Peacemaker- Really excited this is back.I would recommend, based on what I just watched, if you have the time to rewatch or binge season 1, please do. Not only has it been a while, which Chris (John Cena) tries to catch … Continue reading The Small Screen Diaries: 08/22/25

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Going In Blind: Locked

John Stark

Cast: Cast: Bill Skarsgard, Anthony Hopkins Written By: Michael Arlen Ross based on the film 4X4 Directed By: David Yarovosky Release Year: 2025 There Is no Known Audio Description In Existence For This Film What Is It?: A man (Skarsgard) breaks into a fancy new car that is far more high tech than he could have ever imagined, and becomes trapped in a torture chamber on wheels, as the car’s owner (Hopkins) is determined to teach him a lesson. What Works: Keeping in mind, I’m a blind film critic, and this film assumes I could follow the film just like … Continue reading Going In Blind: Locked

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Alma And The Wolf

John Stark

Cast: Ethan Embry, Li Jun Li, Jeremy Harris Written By: Abby Miller Directed By: Michael Patrick Jann Release Year: 2025 Audio Description produced By: Written By: Directed By: What Is it?: A somewhat functional cop (Embry) has a run in with Alma (Li), who mentions that they attacked her dog, and is covered in blood. He begins to investigate this reported wolf attack, only for things to get stranger, and his son goes missing. What Works: Not much. Ethan Ebry was an actor I grew up with, and really wanted Hollywood to do more with. Somehow, for some reason, Embry … Continue reading Alma And The Wolf

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Everything’s Going To Be Great

John Stark

Cast: Bryan Cranston, Allison Janney, Benjamin Evan Ainsworth, Jack Champion, Simon Rex, Chris Cooper, Laura Benanti Written By: Steven Roger’s Directed By: Jon S. Baird Release Year: 2025 Audio Description Produced By: Alpine Group Written By: Narrated By: Tansy Alexander What Is it: A teenager (Ainsworth) attempts to come of age, but isn’t quite sure in which direction. he’s disgusted by the word vagina, but also isn’t certain which way he leans. His troubles are exasperated somewhat by his absurdist upbringing as the youngest in a theatrically minded family, whose patriarch (Cranston) eats, sleeps, and breathes theatre, while his once … Continue reading Everything’s Going To Be Great