WeView

⭐ 8/10 Ah yes, Heat, the thinking man's crime thriller. I know a lot of people talk about this one as a classic, and it features possibly that generation's two best actors in opposing roles, so there is a lot going for it. I liked it a lot also. I thought it was smart and well acted, but I'm not as high on it as others I think.  One of the things I appreciated here was the cool noir vibes, much of this happening at night, lots of shots of our heroes looking at the skyline with dramatic music going. Pacino was pretty great as this hard-boiled cop who is addicted to his work, a he-man that doesn't flinch when he sees a mangled corpse. As he tells us in the movie, he keeps it all to himself so we can go on with our peaceful lives (I just took a drag from a cigarette as I wrote that). I love noir stuff and this did it well.  And yeah, the acting is superb. There's this great moment where Pacino and De Niro are talking to each other across a table, both deliv...

⭐ 9/10 Honestly, I wasn't expecting much from this movie. I know I liked the first one pretty well when it came out, but we started rewatching it last week and I felt very little (I guess the hard hitting stuff happens at the end, but yeah). I thought maybe I overrated it back then and this would be more of the same.  Well that's the beauty of low expectations, because this one really surprised me. After what I've felt were a series of duds from Pixar, this one reminded me of how wonderful and creative all the movies from that studio used to be. This is just a cool idea, almost similar to Ozzy and Drix in that personifying the inner workings of your body is always fun and interesting. You can't think about this one too hard or it falls apart, but in general I think it's a cool idea that works on a lot of levels to create jokes and drama.  So for the most part, it's a fun story about a girl growing up. There's been a lot of discourse recently abou...

⭐ 7.5/10 This was a fun little indie game that I enjoyed.  Any game of this style, where there is an empty map that you explore the edges of as you gain new powers of traversal, is fun for me.  I think story telling done through atmosphere and the world is awesome, and I don't need a plot or storyline to motivate me to explore every nook and cranny of worlds like this. I think a downside was that the world felt a bit repetitive at times.  Hollow Knight, which is one of my favourite game ever, is the perfect version of this, where the exploration and combat are perfect.  This game has almost no combat, and every region of the map was kind of similar.  It was hard to remember rooms I wanted to revisit because they all kind of blended into one, where as Hollow Knight had such distinct regions. I ended up using stamps all over the map, which helped, but the selection of possible stamps was not intuitive, I have no idea what each stamp was supposed to symbolize, but...

⭐ 9/10 The last book in this set, and easily my favourite, probably because the most happens. The previous 3 books have all been pretty slow without a huge payoff because they were leading up to this, and I found this conclusion very satisfying.  I wouldn't say there were any huge surprises, but as I say in every review of Hobb's work I love this world and the characters who occupy it. This was the book that had me thinking about how rewarding a re-read would be, since the lore is is deep now as characters discover past secrets that I'm sure early books would hint at, but maybe in 20 years. The fantasy themes in this series (and world) are pretty typical, but quite effective.  The interesting wrinkle in this series has been humans kind of realizing they are no longer the dominant species, and how different groups react to that. There is one character that is so obsessed with preserving the past, while younger characters barge forward into it with abandon, and I found the d...

⭐ 4.5/10 The worst movie I have seen in a while.  This is a movie about Jake Gyllenhaal being super jacked and being a bouncer for a bar.  But there is a conspiracy!  Why are so many thugs targeting this bar? Would you believe me if the local police were involved?  Or what if the love interest turned out to be the daughter of the police chief!  It's as bad as it sounds, and devolves into what I imagine Fast and the Furious movies are by the end. Honestly it felt even like a Marvel movie, incoherent CGI fight at the end where everyone should have died long ago. I was turned off in the first minute where Post Malone shows up in a fight, but it has this terrible CGI, where the second he throws a punch he is replaced with what looks like a video game fighter.  That's all we see of him, which is why I thought him having a dedicated poster was funny.  But ya, every moment of action in this film, which could have been well done, is just an absolute mess....

⭐8/10 This was a rewatch of a movie I saw years ago. I always think of it as one of these perfect action movies that looks great, has exciting sequences, and is unique enough to stand out.  It has the Groundhog Day idea which is always a very fun one to think about. It always breaks the brain in a good way, and I'm glad it got the action-movie treatment. This is used in a lot of cool ways, and has these practice montages that make you not know how much time has passed. I love the part where he talks about learning to fly a helicopter, and he's like, my takeoff is okay, but my landing still needs work. Kinda gives you an idea of how many days he must have reset and how he has to memorize every detail. (Also, side point, I think this would break his brain, never being able to sleep).  This movie also reminds me a lot of playing video games, restarting from the beginning, hoping you now know enough to beat the level. It's just a really cool idea that I think about ...

⭐8/10 This is a Coen Bros movie that I didn't really know existed because, despite featuring Brad Pitt and George Clooney, is from 2008 and only had so-so reviews.  It is totally classic Coen Bros stuff, actually very similar to Fargo (and also features Frances McDormand) in that regular people get mixed up in things way bigger than themselves. I love this formula, and it totally worked here. This features a cast of the very worst people in the world which was pretty funny, basically satirizing suburban life and the American government.  So yeah, not too many thoughts. Very solid movie, often going from hilarious to edge-of-your-seat tension. It's clever, exciting, dumb. It's also on Netflix and very worth the 90 minutes. 

⭐8/10 I'm not even HALF WAY done this show?? Does it ever end??  Not that I mind, because it's consistently solid. But holy crap, this show is long. It's not necessarily formulaic, but it does depends on a lot of the same tropes which are starting to wear on me just a touch. Going through the episode list, nothing really stood out. I guess the big one was supposed to be the wedding, and I don't usually like when funny shows try to get feel-good, but this was kinda cute. Speaking of which, I've really come to love Adam Devine's character, and I think the stuff with Hailey is actually kinda sweet (but I'm conflicted because I also like Dylan...).  Otherwise, ya, just consistently solid. 

9.5/10 This is the sequel to Fallen Order which I played a few years ago, and back then I gave that game a ten, being basically the only person in the galaxy to truly love that game. The sequel came out to good-not-great reviews, so I put it off, and wondered if maybe I overrated the first game.  No! I didn't! And I don't get people saying that these aren't masterpieces! I think they are phenomenal in several areas, and the absolute perfect games for me. To be fair, these games always release in an unfinished state, and that affects the reviews, so for me, always playing a year late, I have very few complaints in that regard after they are patched up. But still, I feel like these games are never appreciated as much as they deserve.  I said in my first review that it takes clear inspiration from Uncharted and the Souls games. In some ways, Survivor falls short of both, but in other ways, I actually prefer this one. Uncharted has those amazing sequences and beauti...

⭐7.5/10  This was actually a series of lectures from an Arthurian professor at Purdue. It outlines the history of the King Arthur legend, it's growth and change through the medieval era, and then how it's effected things after that. It is obviously not a story, but a perfect starting point for someone trying to understand the legend.  I thought this was pretty great. One thing I love about this professor is that she is clearly a huge Arthur nerd and loves this material. The lectures are super approachable for beginners (which is me) and starts at basically square one. I think my favorite lectures were the ones where she outlines the proof for a historical Arthur, which I've always hoped was true.  Otherwise I don't have too many notes. I'm not sure what I was hoping for, but I admit this didn't quite scratch the itch. I suppose it more prepared me to read new things, which I guess is all I wanted, and yet I can't help but I feel I wanted something a little d...