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Reviews, page 5

  1. El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie ★★★★★

    2019 TV show

    Watched 11 October 2019

    I didn’t know how much I wanted this, just as much as I wasn’t expecting to cry in the end. Yet here we are.

    It doesn’t escape the TV-to-film curse of feeling incomplete and slightly outside its comfort zone and somehow wrong. But taken as the missing Breaking Bad episode that time forgot, it’s absolutely flawless.

    Yet I don’t think it would have worked had the show just included this back then as its final final episode. We needed the wait, and it was worth it.

  2. Card of Darkness ★★★★☆

    2019 video game

    Played 28 September – 9 October 2019 on Apple Arcade

    This game is awesome and what phone games should have evolved into all along. Loved it.

    Now I’m only missing the hidden achievement and I’m sure it’s got something to do with that fart card probably

  3. John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum ★★★☆☆

    2019 film

    Watched 26 August 2019

    It might be a case of too much of a good thing, but I was not as entranced by this one as I was with the others. It might have benefited from a bit more breathing room around the mayhem, more of an emotional connection to its origins, maybe even (dare I say it?) a little less violence. It is spectacular, but numbingly so.

  4. Return of the Obra Dinn ★★★★★

    2018 video game

    Played 16–18 August 2019 on Mac

    A man's skeleton lies on the deck of a large 19th century ship; it's seen from the first person view of someone holding a pocket watch bearing a skull design.

    A masterpiece of game design. An impossible combination of brilliant ideas and flawless execution that is so unlike any other game I’ve ever played, it’s hard to understand how it could even be conceived.

  6. Speed Racer ★★★★★

    2008 film

    Rewatched 2 August 2019

    Speed Racer's car spins around the racetrack as all of its colors vividly blend together like liquid.

    Our world doesn’t deserve the unbridled vibrancy and earnestness of Speed Racer. The climactic Grand Prix is so dazzling I had to watch it twice. This film gets better every time I watch it, and I suspect I’ll be doing it quite a few more times.

  8. Alita: Battle Angel ★★★★☆

    2019 film

    Watched 24 July 2019

    • There are many cool robots and body parts flying around.
    • Cristoph Waltz was terribly miscast and is the least believable character in the movie.
    • I wish the city itself had gotten more attention from the art department, but I guess the robots are what matters the most.
    • The robots are indeed very cool and they fight a lot, but not too much, which is perfect.

    A solid follow-up to the other two good anime-with-real-people movies, Speed Racer and Pacific Rim. More, please.

  9. The Haunted Island, a Frog Detective Game ★★★★☆

    2018 video game

    Played 15 July 2019 on Mac

    A charming little game that got me to smile a lot for the duration of a well-spent hour.

  10. Hollow Knight ★★★★★

    2017 video game

    Played 21 June – 1 July 2019 on Nintendo Switch

    The Knight visits the Grubfather, who is surrounded by his happy family of Grubs.

    I just knew that as soon as I booted this game for the first time, I would fall down the rabbit hole and be completely transfixed. And so it happened. One of the most rewarding exploration games I have ever played.

  11. Barry, Season 1 ★★★★☆

    2018 TV show

    Watched 29 June 2019

    I started off a bit disappointed, because this seemed like little more than a duller version of Patriot; the writing felt meandering, the humor more surface-level, never as witty or pithy. Turned out I was looking at it wrong: it’s more of a drama than I’d figured from the premise, with the comedy falling a bit further into the background than it does in Patriot. It’s its own thing, delicately balanced, and a few episodes in it really clicked.

  12. Game of Thrones, Season 8 ★★☆☆☆

    2019 TV show

    Watched 21 May 2019

    It is still mindblowing that this show could get made, but it’s a shame that it couldn’t quite fill its own shoes towards the end. Guess I’ll read the books, then.

  14. The Final Girls ★★★★☆

    2015 film

    Watched 25 April 2019

    I was pleasantly surprised by how genuinely funny and creatively consistent this movie is — and it’s clear that everyone was having fun while making it. Pretty great!

  15. The Hitman’s Bodyguard ★★★☆☆

    2017 film

    Watched 25 April 2019

    You can tell that they tried (most of the time), but it’s not as sharp as it clearly thinks it is. Also, they shouldn’t have let Ryan Reynolds pick all the songs.

  16. Escape Room ★★★☆☆

    2019 film

    Watched 22 April 2019

    Fun to watch and kinda cool in a sort of childish, cartoony way. I wish it had learned even further in that direction.