Click "READ MORE" below to see this month's looks, sounds, vibes & flavours...
LOOKS:
Ted: Season 2 - Seth MacFarlane's crude comedy prequel series returns for, seemingly, its final season (because of high production costs), which is a shame but, at the same time, how much longer could it have continued anyway? It's good that we got it in the first place and that it provided so many bursts of laughter.
The Indiana Jones 4-Movie Collection (Blu-Ray)
In Search of Darkness: 1995-1999 - there was such a vast amount of good horror movies in the 1980s that, by comparison, the entries for the 1990s can seem a little like scraping the barrel. Indeed, by the 1990s, horror was considered a very dirty word in the film industry, which was why The Silence of the Lambs was heavily marketed as a "thriller" instead, despite having very clear and strong horror elements throughout. There were still some excellent horror movies getting made, but there was also a lot of dreck coming out. I would still welcome an examination of the 2000s, though, despite the glut of remakes that flooded the market during those years to wildly varying success.
Scrubs (Reboot): Season 1 - the trend of resurrecting old popular shows that ended years ago continues with this reboot of Scrubs from Aseem Batra and Tim Hobert (the latter of whom left due to "creative differences"), featuring (most) of the surviving cast and a host of new interns. It's lacking some of the vitality that the original show had, as well as some of the kooky whimsy, and you can't help but feel it's a little deflated by comparison to the original run of the show. That said, it's certainly not bad, but is it really necessary?
Shogun: Season 1 - based on the novel by James Clavell, and created by Rachel Kondo and Justin Marks, it definitely requires one's attention and focus in order to keep track of who everyone is, what they're up to, and how everything relates and conflicts, but it definitely rewards patience. Could've done with a bit more action at times, but evidently that's not quite where the story goes ... it's more of a political drama that just so happens to be set in 1600 Japan. Anyway - very good!
Chad Powers: Season 1 - I know fuck all about American Football, and have no interest in it, but this comedy-drama co-created by Glen Powell (who also stars) and Michael Waldron, which follows a washed-up, egotistical, self-destructive ex-player who 'pulls a Mrs Doubtfire' to get a second chance in college football, proved to be surprisingly good. It's the characters that sucked me into this one, as well as plenty of giggles, and the tension that comes with all the schemes and lies he has to dream up (while being terrible at improvisation) in order to maintain his secret. Season 2 is filming now, so I'm quite looking forward to that!
The Boys: Season 5 - the final season of the mucky-mouthed, blood-drenched superhero satire returns, continuing it's run of subtlety that's equivalent to a concrete slab jammed on the accelerator of a monster truck blundering through an exploding nitroglycerin plant. There's a curious juxtaposition at play, being that the show is one of Prime's hits (with a multitude of spin-offs), meanwhile the same platform paid a suspiciously high price for a documentary puff-piece about the president's wife. Still, the fact that the end is nearing has re-injected a sense of purpose into the show.
Star Wars (The Prequel Trilogy) - I decided to give these another looksee after all these years. The Phantom Menace hasn't aged well. The CG effects were cutting edge stuff, so respect is certainly deserved, but the textures and some animations haven't stood the test of time at all. Jar Jar Binks is just relentless in this movie, too, with the attempt at Buster Keaton-esque slapstick always like a crunching gear change whenever it inserts itself into a scene, and all with the subtlety of a brick. It wasn't a wise choice on Lucas' part. However, the Pod Race is still thoroughly good and Darth Maul was always awesome.
Attack of the Clones is also pretty rough in many ways. The CG improved a fair bit, although the ceaseless reliance on blue screen is still quite evident, but the major stumbling block is the screenplay. Anakin's gradual slide towards the Dark Side is handled quite clumsily with some truly awful dialogue that makes Anakin come across as little more than an emo creep (goodness knows what Padme would've seen in him!) ... there was a lot of potential in the story, but it was botched.
Revenge of the Sith, on the other hand, is by far and away the best of the three prequel films. The effects look pretty good overall and the stripping away of super silly moments, as well as far better storytelling and dialogue, really help sell the final descent of Anakin as he becomes Darth Vader, with a palpable sense of tragedy attached to it all.
Star Wars (The Sequel Trilogy) - rewatching the prequels inspired me to rewatch the more recent films in the Skywalker Saga, too. When it comes to how these films look, and the lavish production, they're fantastic and can sometimes be truly breathtaking (e.g. Admiral Holdo's lightspeed moment). But there are still sore points littered throughout: never getting to see Han, Luke, and Leia on screen together was a beyond stupid idea, for instance. Chewie getting totally sidelined is another example. Another example would be the promise of Finn's story, which was squandered after The Force Awakens (the Canto Bight subplot in The Last Jedi was literally pointless), diminishing him into somewhat of a simp who just screams 'Rey!' constantly (it was very noticeable this time around).
It was always going to be a trilogy, so Kathleen Kennedy et al had no excuse for not properly laying out a roadmap for all three films, and Rian Johnson's extremely mixed handling of the franchise remains controversial. Indeed, his attitude of just throwing away pre-established elements feels like a bully stomping around in someone else's sandpit (e.g. Luke throwing away his lightsaber like it was nothing, the snuffing of Snoke).
The Rise of Skywalker, as a result, can't help but feel like it's trying to bring this battered ship in for a bumpy landing: suitably there are numerous scenes of crashing space craft! The final entry had the bad luck of Carrie Fisher's untimely death to deal with, but it also lumbered itself with an over-stuffed cast.
However, despite the scattered assortment of fumbles (there are many to choose from), I really quite enjoyed giving the sequel trilogy another spin. I might even give The Mandalorian another re-watch soon, as well (not season three, though ... that was fucking awful). Hopefully The Mandalorian & Grogu will be a good flick, eh?
Catch-22 - based on Joseph Heller's novel and developed by Luke Davies and David Michod, this six-episode mini-series from 2019 took me a couple of episodes to click with it, but once things slotted into place I really enjoyed it.
Stranger Things: Tales From '85 - animated spin-off series from Eric Robles and Jennifer Muro. Taking place between seasons 2 and 3 during the winter of January 1985, our intrepid gang of middle schoolers face off against another threat as a genetically modified upside down leftover spreads to cause havoc. The animation style was excellent, and a very welcome splash of colourful and fresh air considering just how much 'Cal Arts bean mouth' we've seen over the years. Each half hour episode bounces along quite friskily and it's all generally good fun, with Saturday morning cartoons like The Real Ghostbusters being the key touchstone.
There are some wobbles, however, including an occasionally relentless amount of dialogue (that awful habit Netflix has of insisting on verbalising everything for the sake of 'second screeners'), or some cringey 'current year' lines like "science the heck out of it" and "eat science!". There's also an over-reliance on the 'last second off-screen save', which usually involves Eleven using her powers to stop one of her chums getting munched ... not that there's any peril as we know they all survive just fine; that's the unavoidable problem with prequels.
Being that the main show earned advisory age ratings of typically 15 or even 18, the downgrade to PG is quite noticeable: "Oh, shoot!" or "Ah, heck!" and the directly-put emotional lessons to be learned.
Similarly, considering just how much chaos unfolds throughout the story, how are more adults in Hawkins not noticing all this happening (just the property damage alone!) and how come all their parents are so oblivious to where the hell their kids are? That latter point was particularly felt in the final season of the main show. These are the sort of areas where the internal logic gets stretched pretty damn far.
If there are to be more spin-off series like this, can we please explore beyond the main pack of kids? I've had my fill with them now, to be honest. It's like Star Wars getting too obsessed with the Jedi and Lightsabers. There's a range of characters that we could explore more deeply, or see their angle on certain events. Dr Kay (played by Linda Hamilton in Season 5 of Stranger Things) is one example of a decidedly under-explored character.
SOUNDS:
Rob Zombie "The Great Satan" (album)
Carpenter Brut "Leather Temple" (album)
Airbourne "Gutsy", "Aliver After Death (Last Plane Out)"
Foo Fighters "Caught In The Echo", "Of All People"
The Offspring "Americana" (album), "Conspiracy of One" (album)
The 69 Eyes "Cold Sweat", "Cheyenna"
Talking Heads "Once In A Lifetime"
AC/DC "For Those About To Rock" (album)
VIBES & FLAVOURS:
Mullet Madjack (Xbox Series S) - a retro-vibe first person shooter from Hammer95 Studios, gushing with hyper candy coloured splashes of madness as the player is encouraged to charge through the procedurally generated levels. I didn't get particularly far, as the gameplay doesn't quite suit my own sensibilities, but what I did play I enjoyed.
Indiana Jones and The Great Circle (Xbox Series S) - Machine Games have delivered an absolute blinder of a videogame with this one, faithfully recreating the look and feel of a 1980s era Indiana Jones film accompanied by incredible sound-alike voicing work from Troy Baker. There's a handful of puzzles or traversal moments that don't quite make sense in-the-moment, so occasionally you have to refer to the Internet for some guidance, but the vast majority of the game is such a pleasure to play with three main open world areas that reward exploration with enjoyable puzzles, pretty slick stealth mechanics, and plenty of chances for some crunchy fisticuffs and whipcracks.
Some of the more treacherous sequences in the game also get the palms sweating, such as navigating up the perilous heights of a hidden water-logged temple (while evading the clutches of a gigantic snake!). The best game I've played in quite some time, and one I'd most certainly want a sequel to!
Forza Motorsport (Xbox Series S)
"Mr Wilman's Motoring Adventure" by Andy Wilman
"Different Seasons" by Stephen King
Star Wars: Outlaws (Demo) (Xbox Series S) - this game got off to a bad start with a fumbled launch plagued by considerable bugs, glitches, and quality of life flaws, but there seems to have been some hefty improvements made. A friend had spoken of getting it recently and praising it, so I figured it was worth trying out the demo at least. At first I was a bit skeptical, especially as the demo kind of dumps you in at the deep end without the benefit of slowly introducing you to all the gameplay mechanics, but over the course of the three hour time limit I came to really enjoy it. I just missed out on the sale by the time I'd made up my mind to buy it, so now it's the waiting game ... and then I'll jump on it.
The Precinct (Xbox Series S) - many open world games position the player on the wrong side of the law, but this isometric view game puts you in the role of a police rookie, rewarding you for correctly following procedure strictly by-the-book. It's strange how much fun you can have determining what kind of traffic violation ticket you want to put on a car, for instance, before you go hunting down speeders or rogue criminals. The shooting mechanics are a touch messy, however, and tricky to get to grips with at first. That said, encountering a large shootout of rival drug gangs and getting into an action movie shootout (lead peppering the steel of your patrol vehicle, glass shattering, tyres popping), or chasing down a van load of crazed crims slinging hot lead as they attempt to escape always gives a thrill.
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