This movie didn’t need to be three hours long. Normally I’m all for slow pacing and atmosphere, but this should’ve been a lean, mean action film. That being said, I really liked Robert Pattinson’s super-emo Batman.
My Cultural Diet
Completely bonkers Bollywood action film that makes the Mission: Impossible movies look like made-for-TV movies. Come for the crazy stunts and increasingly improbable twists, stay because you find it impossible to resist Hrithik Roshan’s smoldering looks.
Funny, trippy, wildly creative, and over-the-top in every way possible, but also surprisingly emotional at times.
I enjoy the idea of this kind of spy thriller, which emphasizes mood and atmosphere over action. But All the Old Knives wasn’t very thrilling, not even when the final twists began revealing themselves.
I saw this once described as “The Matrix, if made by Studio Ghibli,” which isn’t too far-fetched. Filled with interesting ideas and concepts but gets pretty convoluted near the end. Wouldn’t mind watching it again to try and make better sense of it.
I didn’t enjoy this nearly as much as Agents of Dreamland. Lots of interesting ideas and striking prose, but the disjointed and meandering narrative made it a slog.
An excellent Lovecraft-inspired novella. Reads like the trippiest X-Files episode never made.
Packard has more fun toying with the “Choose Your Own Adventure” format, though Inside UFO 54 – 40 isn’t as trippy as Hyperspace.
Not sure if this gave me a lot of new insight into Kon’s films, but it was neat to see how respected he was by other filmmakers. We lost someone truly special when he died.
My least favorite Expanse novel to date. But even a “bad” Expanse novel is still pretty good.
Direct-to-video martial arts action comedies from the mid-to-late ’90s don’t get much better than this.
Read this in under 24 hours. Hurwitz knows how to write a pageturner, but it’s 100% style over substance. I appreciated the effort to make more nuanced and thoughtful bad guys, but I would’ve liked more mindless action and less existential philosophizing re. marriage, parenting, etc.
Didn’t like this as much as season one. Some promising new story ideas were introduced but none of them were developed in a satisfying way. This season felt rushed and truncated, which wasn’t helped by the fact that it only had seven episodes compared to the first season’s ten.
Their mango chicken on jasmine rice is solid, but the skillet shrimp appetizer is where it’s at.
For a “Choose Your Own Adventure” book geared towards grade schoolers, Hyperspace is pretty trippy and meta.
Loved the Cold War, 007-esque espionage angle on this one.