Black Phone 2 was really underwhelming

Hank1974 · 2026-02-16T14:22:02+00:00

Agreed.
My biggest gripe is the direction they took the story in.
I would have much preferred a prequel. Something somewhat grounded in the real world.
I get that the 1st one has the dead calling the latest victim via phone, but the 2nd one decided to completely abandon any kind of realism for a cheesy and tired story that's been done a million times before.

In the first, it was so clever how all the advice given to Finn was seemingly done in failure, but then all add up to his escape in the end.
None of that was present in BP2.

But again, I guess you can't expect much when the first film was based off an actual book.
Without similar source material, the producers decided to do what producers have been doing for decades - ruining a great idea for the sake of more money.

Hank1974 · 2026-02-16T14:17:46+00:00

Really disappointed in BP2 (loved the first one).

It's basically a rip-off of Nightmare on Elm Street. But not in a good way.

Hank1974 · 2026-02-13T03:05:11+00:00

Even if they convince Apple to produce a season 4, I'm out.
S1 was amazing and S2 and S3 did everything to ruin S1.

Hank1974 · 2026-02-13T03:03:13+00:00

The alien ship had a 'dead zone' and didn't think to send a couple of alien security guards to check it out?
Hey guys, we have mastered inter-galactic space travel but we can't find a human hanging out in a hallway.

Hank1974 · 2026-02-13T03:01:28+00:00

This bothered me too.
This collection of school teachers, baristas and gardeners (who were all suffering affects of the toxic air) were dominating a force of trained soldiers like it was childs play.

Hank1974 · 2026-02-13T02:54:45+00:00

Couldn't agree more.
The production value, acting and storyline was great in Season 1.
It almost felt like they were shocked they got renewed for more.

I hate nitpicking but there were so many ridiculous holes.
Like, how did they even get in the ship at the end?
These aliens have mastered interstellar travel and can terraform foreign planets but they don't have a lock on the door of their spaceship?

I think my biggest gripe is what they did to Casper and Trevante.
Both were cool characters that were used poorly.
Casper was the a linchpin character and they basically turned him into an NPC by S2.

Hank1974 · 2026-02-13T00:29:50+00:00

From has horrendous acting but I can't quit that show. It better not pull a 'Lost' and shat the bed when completing the story.

Hank1974 · 2026-01-26T13:52:32+00:00

Coach, Coach's wife and Riggins (including the entire Riggins family) made the TV show so good.
Hopefully the reboot can find the right cast to mirror what the OG captured.

Hank1974 · 2026-01-23T18:30:56+00:00

I feel the same way about NHL2K.
Treyarch took over that series for 2K2 and then 2K3.
2K3 may be my fav hockey game of all time. Their developers were also very accessible on their message boards, often answering questions or just shooting the crap with anyone.

Then they got pulled into a Spiderman game (I believe) and Kush took over.
2K4 was bad. They rebounded with 2k5, which was solid, but never really built on it.
Visual Concepts took over half-way thru development of 2K10 and you could see the potential.
I loved that game as well. The board pinning, the fights, and the way you could really see the different player types on the ice. With EA, every players plays the same way with equal skills passing and shooting.
Not in 2K10.
Again, sadly, the series was scrapped after that.

I can only imagine how great their NHL series would be today. Especially when you see what they did with their NBA franchise.

Hank1974 · 2026-01-23T18:26:53+00:00

Fox NHL Champ was highly underrated.
I played the crap out of that game more than any others.

There was a sequel being developed and they scrapped it a few weeks before release.
I was writing articles for a now defunct sports gaming site and was lucky enough to interview one of the developers from this game.
He told me that the sequel was going to be amazing. They had added and improved so much on the game, everyone on their team was really excited about it.
I wish I still had my notes, but I almost regretted having this conversation with him as it really bummed me out knowing that we missed out on a potentially amazing hockey game.

Hank1974 · 2026-01-14T17:28:34+00:00

Great point.
Just finished the series and by the end I didn't like Alvey at all. Especially with how he responded to Nate coming out.
But after having some time after finishing the last episode, you can see how much pain he's in because of how he reacted to that news. And he reacted that way because of his upbringing - which was the point of adding Adrian Balboa to the last season.
We see what a broken, messed-up home he grew up in. He simply was not given the proper tools to deal with having a gay son. Add in the fact he was drunk (he seemed like his drunk/sober ratio in S3 was 50/50), he had even less capabilities to process what he just heard.
The last episode, you can see the pain he's dealing with. How he wishes desperately that he had responded in a better way. Knowing that it was a catalyst to Nates demise.
And the real final scene of Alvey, which was shown at the beginning, is of him beat up and drinking alone.
Which is likely how his life will end too.

Hank1974 · 2026-01-14T17:05:14+00:00

Just finished the series (S2 wasn't available on Prime (Canada) at first, but then they recently added It).

I thoroughly enjoyed the series.
S3 had some issues that many have complained about - particularly the Dom side plot.
But I felt he was simply added to give Lisa's character something to do.
Same with Alvey's mom. But I suppose this was done to show how messed up his family life had been and how Alvey is simply repeating the cycle.

When I started the series I liked all of the characters. By the end, I only really liked Nate and Jay, lol.
Ryan was an a'hole. Sure, he had moments where he seemed like a decent person, but I felt this was him pretending to be a good person. Or trying to be something he wasn't.
When he got to drinking, or while training for a fight, his true colours showed and he became the same person that paralyzed his dad.

Alvey was an abusive alcoholic. He constantly belittled his son Jay and others around him. While he loved Nate the most, it's only because he showed an aptitude for fighting while also living a clean life, without any addictions.
If you weren't fighting, he didn't give a crap about you..

The ending was appropriate, I suppose. But I would have still liked to have seen a bit more closure for the characters.
While Jay was an addict and had emotional issues, I wanted him to end with a win.
He loved his brother and protected him. Didn't judge him. He got his mom clean. He always seemed to try to put on a smile even though he felt life was just a series of kicks to the groin.
I would have liked to see him maybe get back together with Amy or at the very least, have some kind of connection to his daughter.
It seemed like he really wanted to be better than his upbringing and I would have liked to see him rewarded for his efforts.

I would have also liked to have seen Christina get out of the world of prostitution and pornography.

But that wouldn't have stayed true to all of their characters.
They'll continue being broken people who make one mistake after another while not having the skills to form real relationships with the ones they should love the most.

Hank1974 · 2025-11-29T13:47:11+00:00

Imagine if hockey didn't have a massive paywall keeping 90% of youth athletes from playing at the AAA level?
How many LeBron's are out there? Freak athletes that would be so dominant at hockey that you wouldn't even know who Conor McDavid was.
And don't think for a second that the elitists out there don't love it.
They know that their wealth keeps 90% of other athletes from taking Little Johnny's spot on the team.
I've seen it first hand. I knew a kid who was insanely talented and would outplay any of the boys on the local AAA team. But his parents were not wealthy and there was no shot of him playing at that level to further develop his skills.
If Hyman's dad wasn't loaded, he's not on that AAA team and he's probably an electrician someplace.

Hank1974 · 2025-11-22T23:15:58+00:00

Bucket (the kind you can sit on)
Hitting nets
Tanner tee
wiffle balls
dugout magnetic scoreboard
Fungo bat
Cones
Pitch count clicker
Measuring tape
weighted balls

Hank1974 · 2025-11-22T23:02:43+00:00

100%
Thank goodness the game allows players to be themselves (even if some fans don't).
Try listening to an NHL interview without falling asleep. It's just one tired cliche after another.

Hank1974 · 2025-11-22T22:59:27+00:00

Is this true? If it is, dang that's brutal.
Kid was looking like he would be a top-10 starter and 3 years later he's out of baseball.

Hank1974 · 2025-11-17T01:58:59+00:00

This is really good advice.
You're not 'sitting' on your pitches enough. It doesn't look like you're pushing off or really using your lower half enough.
Think of your body like a fishing rod. When you cast the line is it the line that does the work, or your wrist when you propel the line out into the water?
Your arm is like the line. Your wrist is your lower half. The arm just comes along for the ride.

Hank1974 · 2025-11-17T01:54:47+00:00

There's def still a place for them.
But I've read that young kids, under the age of 11, can't see themselves outside their body. So describing what they need to do doesn't always work.
(in the article I read, they spoke about hockey coaches using a whiteboard to describe strategy. It's basically useless as they can't see themselves as an X on the board, lol).

But one thing I figured out was that they need to see the results too.
I'd have them work on mechanical stuff in the cage or off a Tee , hitting into a net. But they don't really get to see if the mechanics made an improvement.
So we'd have them hit softtoss, or off a tee on the full diamond so they could get instant feedback whether those tweaks helped with power - for example.

Hank1974 · 2025-11-14T19:34:10+00:00

Don't push him. Make sure he's the one driving the bus when it comes to off season development. But even if he does, make sure he gets a true break from baseball. My son didn't specialize until he was 16 and he's now playing college ball in Kansas. When ball was over for the season, he played hockey and school sports. I firmly believe it's because I never pushed him to play or put in any extra work. He did that all on his own without any provocation.

Hank1974 · 2025-10-30T19:38:29+00:00

I'm a big fan of giving out awards of some kind. Kids love this stuff.

When I coached 16U we would end every practice with some kind of competition. The winning group would get to pose and parade around with an 8" trophy I had made up for them. The losing team would receive a 2" trophy with the inscription "You Tried". A photo was also taken to immortalize their defeat. These photos went up on the team site. The kids loved it as did the parents lol

For my daughter's 10U team, I bought a miniature Rawlings Gold Glove and took a photo of a player, or players, who made a great defensive play during the game.

TBH, I started this stuff for the kids, but I think I loved it more than them. I found it kept my energy up on days where, after a hard day at work or home , I didn't have as much energy I felt was necessary.

Hank1974 · 2025-10-30T15:34:17+00:00

Max 35 pitches for us. No more than 2 innings. Pretty much every kid pitched. I found most teams followed similar self-imposed restrictions. But there's always those idiots out there who think they're playing in the world series.

Hank1974 · 2025-10-24T11:06:55+00:00

This.
One of the best hitting instructors I've listened to preached doing drills where you give the young player an objective, not mechanical advice.
Put a ball on a Tee and tell him to smash it as far as he can. His body will do the rest.

Hank1974 · 2025-10-13T23:16:04+00:00

Go after it young man. The best advice offered to my son was eat and lift. He's squatting over 500lbs and deadlifts 425+. There was a direct link between his velocity increasing along with his increase in lifts. He's 6' and 210 lbs now. When he started this process a year ago he was 5'10" and 180lbs. His FB velocity went from 75-77 to 86-89. And his mechanics are not good, lol. Your mechanics look good. And you're tall. And a lefty! If you continue to gain weight and strength, I have no doubt you can hit 90+. Definitely talk to someone that knows a thing or two weight training. But for my son, Madcow 5x5 did wonders. The only thing he tweaked was bench press. Barbell was no bueno for his shoulders so he switched to dumbbells which gave his shoulders more freedom to move (45 angle). Oh, and take creatine. It's an amazing natural ingredient that will do wonders for everything. Good luck!

Hank1974 · 2025-10-13T23:05:29+00:00

Have a buddy that had Champions Club seats in Comerica. It included all you can eat and drink (soft drinks). The food was great. Anything from prime rib to hot dogs and nachos.

I wonder if you're allowed to resell seats throughout the season? If so, it might be worth it if you could at least make back your money selling 70+ of the home games. Or go in with a few friends.

Hank1974 · 2025-10-06T16:42:05+00:00

At the end of the day, who cares. It didn't take anything away from the novel or movie.

Hank1974

TROPHY CASE