reviews

Film Review – The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022)

films, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

I know that nearly everyone is obsessed with Pedro Pascal right but I am obsessed with Pedro Pascal right now. Everything I hear about him or watch him in just makes me love him more. He even made me consider going back to give the game The Last of Us another chance. Recently I’ve seen that clip of him and Nicolas Cage so many times on TikTok and Instagram. It feels like it was a sign to actually watch it. I love both actors and it looked like fun. More than enough opportunity for Cage to poke fun at himself and his nouveau shamanism method of acting. I don’t know what stopped me from watching it earlier but I guess I was worried it was too good to be true. It was finally time to find out for sure.

Continue reading →

Book Review – Rivers of London by Ben Aaronovitch

books, reviews

Rating: 3 out of 5.

One of the biggest problems with buying so many books in a year is that I tend to forget about them. I put them on my shelf with every intention of reading them later but, inevitably, they get lost amongst the rest. In some cases, I end up buying the book again but, thankfully, that’s a rarity. Mostly they just sit there gathering dust. In order to get my every increasing TBR down, I’ve taken to buying or borrowing the audiobook version as well. I’ve grown to really enjoy listening to an audiobook at work, so it means I can cross a few off in a particularly good week. In the case of this book, I ended up listening to it by accident. I knew that I’d bought a book a few years ago that had “of London” in the title. Turns out, that book was The Ashes of London instead. Ah well, I borrowed this one and might as well give it a listen. It’s one of those books that I see everywhere but didn’t know much about. Maybe it would be a new series for me?

READ MORE

Book Review – The Accident on the A35 by Graeme Macrae Burnet

books, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Between the publication of Graeme Macrae Burnet’s first Georges Gorski novel and the second, he had become a Booker-shortlisted author. The Disappearance of Adèle Bedeau didn’t get a great deal of attention when it was published. I’m not saying that the second book got loads but it certainly benefited from being the writer’s follow-up to His Bloody Project. I first read Adèle Bedeau last year and enjoyed it. When I stumbled across the audiobook of the sequel at the library, I decided it was time to get through book 2. There’s a third one on the way at some point, so at least it would leave me in a position to read that at some point.

READ MORE

Book Review – The Wolf Den by Elodie Harper

books, reviews

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

I’m pretty sure that I bought a copy of this on my first holiday after Covid. I picked it up on a whim when I was in Waterstones. Mostly so we could take advantage of their special offer. It wasn’t something that I knew a lot about before I walked into the shop. It was just one that they happened to be recommended. I don’t even think I properly looked at the cover before I bought it. I just went in blind. It’s definitely the kind of book that appeals to me though, so no doubt I would have picked it up anyway. As ever, it sat on my shelves for ages without being read. Somewhere along the way, I also bought an audiobook copy of it. No doubt it was part of an Audible daily deal or something. One of the many reasons that I’m glad I don’t have a subscription anymore. As I’m trying to reduce the number of unread books on my Audible account, I decided to listen to it last week. As the book is about a Roman brothel, it probably wasn’t the most appropriate choice for work but never mind.

READ MORE

Bookish Post – Daisy Jones & the Six

films, reviews

Rating: 3 out of 5.

When I first heard about Daisy Jones & the Six, it was after Resse Witherspoon had included it in her book club. Of course, this also put me off a bit because I wasn’t sure it would be the right book for me. I had some issues with it but, ultimately, I think it was a really fun read. A lot of that had to do with the format and how original it was. So, I was interested when it was announced that it would be adapted into a show for Prime. It certainly had a lot of potential to be a really good series. However, I’ve also just read and not enjoyed Carrie Soto Is Back, which made me a little nervous to watch it. Could the show ever live up to my expectations? I took the plunge and watched it this weekend. There are still a couple of episodes to go but I wanted to get some thoughts out.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

Book Review – A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

books, reviews

Rating: 4 out of 5.

2023 is turning out to be the year of Greek myths and their different retellings. I hadn’t meant for this to happen but I’ve just found myself in a bit of a cycle that I’m not intent on breaking. Thankfully there are so many recent books that I can read. Publishers are relishing the resurgence of mythology and it feels like every week we get a feminist rewriting of one of the most famous myths. Natalie Haynes is one of the most celebrated, so I felt that it was only fair that I give this book a chance. I guess it also helped that I’ve already refamiliarised myself with the events of the Trojan War thanks to Stephen Fry. Plus, it just happened to be available on my library app. Why not listen to it as I was working? Hearing the plight of all those women might make me feel better about my dull job.

READ MORE

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →