film blogger

Sunday Rundown: That’s What She Read

books, films, rundown

Sunday Rundown

What have you been reading this week?

Well, after feeling like I’m finally getting back on track with my reading, I’ve had a bumpy week. My main read is non-fiction, which always takes me longer to get through. Then I’m not entirely engaged with the book I’ve been listening to at work. I think it has a lot of potential but it’s a slow burner. Too slow for what I’m looking for. I’ll definitely finish them both but it might take a bit of time. I guess it’s also been a pretty busy week which hasn’t helped. I’ve not really felt like reading on an evening and have just been super tired. I’ve got just two weeks until my next time off work, so I’m going to be counting down the days for a while.

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Film Review – Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

films, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Last weekend was the Oscars and a lot of people have a lot of thoughts about it. Mostly about how much film and cast of Everything Everywhere All At Once deserved/didn’t deserve their various awards. It’s not something I really want to get into right now because it is inevitably linked to the Asian American experience and things will get heavy quickly. What I will say is that I don’t understand anyone who says it’s a Best Picture winner that nobody will still be watching in 5 years. I couldn’t disagree more. Considering the Best Picture winners of the past decade, EEAAO surely has one of the highest potentials for rewatching. I mean fucking Green Book? Who the hell is watching that in 5 years time? The Daniels managed do something very few films have ever done and that is be massively entertaining and Oscar worthy. Something that the latest Top Gun movie also did. Tom Cruise might not have bothered to attend the awards show but I felt it only fair to finally watch the sequel to one of the greatest films of the 80s. And y greatest, I mean silliest and most homoerotic. Hopefully, we’d get more of the same in the sequel.

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Sunday Rundown: That’s What She Read

books, films, rundown

Sunday Rundown

What have you been reading this week?

I feel like I’ve been ill for ages at this point. I started feeling sniffly on Monday and then woke up feeling like death on Wednesday. Add to that the issues with the weather and it’s been a long and tiring week. The kind of week that needed an extra long weekend to get over. Unfortunately, we’re almost back to Monday and another week of the same. Thankfully, I’ve managed to finish 2 books this week, so I do feel as though I’ve achieved something. I don’t know what’s happened but I’m feeling particularly inspired at the moment. Let’s hope I can keep it up for the rest of the year.

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Film Review – Shotgun Wedding (2022)

films, reviews

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

I was honestly planning on watching something decent this week. Maybe even something especially for awards season. It was all meant to be so good and easy. Then I woke up feeling like death and I couldn’t bring myself to watch a film longer than 90 minutes long. Thankfully, there’d been a film I’d been eyeing up for a while that I knew wouldn’t be too long or too taxing. A film that appeared on the side of every bus that drove past my work for the first part of 2023. I never expected it to be any good but I certainly thought it would be fun. Or, at the very least, a distraction from the sorry state I was in. Watching Jennifer Lopez running around and shooting people wearing a wedding dress? It sounded exactly what I was looking for.

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Sunday Rundown: That’s What She Read

books, films, rundown

Sunday Rundown

What have you been reading this week?

What a week. Not only I am going through a slight crisis because I’m turning 35 today but I feel as though I’ve been working for ages. It’s only March so Christmas was really only a few weeks ago. It doesn’t stop me from looking ahead to my next holiday. I’ve got a few days off over Easter and I intend to use them wisely. By that, I mean, doing nothing but reading and sleeping. Possibly eating chocolate eggs but we’ll see. I’m just a little bitter because I wanted to book a day off this week so I could have a long weekend for my birthday. Unfortunately, someone got there first. I wasn’t planning on doing anything but it would have given me one extra day. Still, today should be fun. We’re having a family get-together to celebrate the big day.

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Film Review – Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2022)

films, reviews

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

The first Black Panther film was a runaway success that breathed new life into the MCU. It gave more depth to the fantastic character first introduced in Civil War and gave Chadwick Boseman a chance to really make an impression in the Marvel franchise. T’Challa was set to become one of the strongest and most loved characters that these films have produced. You can see how much he meant to people by the reaction to his death in 2020. Marvel film fans mourned his passing to colon cancer. As it was Hollywood, talk quickly turned to what would happen with Black Panther in the future. Some suggested that they could simply recast. There was also talk of digitally recreating Boseman. The most obvious choice was to move Shuri, T’Challa’s sister into the spotlight as she did in the comics. But would this film ever get beyond the sadness of losing its lead actor? I had to find out.

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Sunday Rundown: That’s What She Read

books, films, rundown

Sunday Rundown

What have you been reading this week?

I feel as though I’ve finally made a bit of progress this week. I’ve finished a few books which feels good. Okay, I was mainly doing it because I needed something to write a review about but that’s something. It means that I’ll have a few more books on my monthly wrap-up. I just need to try and finish my current read before the end of the month. I don’t want to still be reading it into March. Plus, I’ve plenty of other books that I want to get through next month.

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Film Review – Brian and Charles (2022)

films, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

It was the BAFTAs last weekend and there was a lot to take away from the ceremony. For one thing, all of the winners were white which seems ridiculous given the diversity among the nominees. For another, Colin Farrell didn’t win Best Actor for his role in The Banshees of Inisherin. One of the few things that we can say that BAFTA got right was nominating Brian and Charles for Outstanding British Film. It wasn’t exactly going to win because it was up against some stiff competition. However, I was happy to see it getting recognised. Even though I hadn’t actually seen it at that point. It was a film that I had been eyeing up for ages because it just sounded like my kind of thing. A quirky British film about a lonely weirdo. I loved the idea of it. The award ceremony on Sunday gave me the perfect excuse to finally watch it.

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Sunday Rundown: That’s What She Read

books, films, rundown

Sunday Rundown

What have you been reading this week?

It’s been a busy week and a busy weekend. Not much time for reading, which is becoming a bit of a theme lately. I’m sure I’ll turn it around soon. Although, I’m not too bothered as this year wasn’t supposed to be about quantity but about getting through my TBR. I’ve been reading longer books so my numbers are obviously going to go down a bit. February won’t be my best month ever but I’ve managed to cross a few off my list. Some of them have been there for a while.

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Film Review – Strange World (2022)

films, reviews

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Do you remember how Disney finally released an animated film with an openly gay character? You might not because there was basically no marketing campaign for it. Did Strange World purposefully get buried? Did they do it so they could prove that nobody wants “wokeness” in their family films? Probably. The film was quickly labelled a box office bomb and had one of the lowest Disney openings in recent years. I didn’t really know anything about the film when I came to watch it this week because I barely knew it existed. I honestly don’t remember seeing anything about this film and I don’t understand why. I mean, it boasts a cast including the voices of Jake Gyllenhaal, Dennis Quaid and Lucy Lui. You’d think they’d want to make more noise about it. So, were they really hiding it because of the LGBTQ+ representation or is the film just not that good?

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