MOVIE: Mank (2020)

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Mank Year: 2020 Rating: R Length: 131 minutes / 2.18 hours When I first saw the trailers for Mank (2020), the premise intrigued me. As a "behind the scenes" look at the screenwriter for Citizen Kane (1941), I was interested to see his process in penning one of the most famous screenplays of all time. On top of that, I've generally enjoyed David Fincher's work and wanted to see this movie based on this fact alone. However, despite all it had going for it, I was ultimately disappointed in what Mank had to offer. Perhaps the most jarring part of this movie was how it tried to emulate the style of the films from the 1940s while also using more modern cinematography techniques to tell its story. At times, this juxtaposition made me wonder if this was filmed in the '40s or if it was merely a black-and-white modern film. Additionally, there's a particular visual style for Fincher's films distinctly lacking here—which may have been...
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BOOK: Working with Difficult People (1990)

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Working with Difficult People Year: 1990 Author: Amy Cooper Hakim and Muriel Solomon Length: 475 minutes / 7.92 hours Occasionally, I come across a book that doesn’t really work as an audiobook. Working with Difficult People is certainly a must-have for any working-class bookshelf. Still, it was difficult to follow the thread of different difficult personalities when it was being read aloud. Sure, there were useful descriptions of the types of people you’ll encounter in the workforce, but there were at least a few of them where I wanted to slow down and read through those archetypes again to better understand the people who irk me in life. Of course, going in, I was hoping I could read this book and understand how to handle people who I find difficult to work with. Instead, I kept listening to these people's descriptions and finding individuals who nearly matched them in my life. This was my main qualm with the book: people are more complex than a single...
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MOVIE: Godzilla – King of the Monsters (2019)

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Godzilla: King of the Monsters Year: 2019 Rating: PG-13 Length: 132 minutes / 2.20 hours Despite the cult following of the original Godzilla films, the special effects were definitely limited at the time. While the American version of Godzilla (1999) had too many flaws to be noteworthy, the recent reboot of Godzilla (2014) into its own cinematic universe with King Kong is something I look forward to, if for no other reason than huge monsters dueling it out on the big screen. I’d be over the moon if it ever combined with the Pacific Rim (2013) franchise, but that’s probably asking for too much. As it stands, though, Godzilla: King of the Monsters (2019) is a great sequel that amps up the action. When I go to see a Godzilla movie, one thing I want to see is large monsters. King of the Monsters has these in spades. Even if you have a passing knowledge of Godzilla monsters, you’ll likely recognize names like Rodan, Ghidorah, and Mothra. While the plot is a little lacking in why these monsters are fighting, the result...
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VIDEO GAME: Oracle of Ages (2001)

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The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages Year: 2001 Rating: E Time Played: ~30 hours As the second half of the “Oracle” games in the Zelda franchise, Oracle of Ages takes more of its cues from the wildly popular Ocarina of Time than its sister game, Oracle of Seasons, did. While Oracle of Seasons had a fairly unique mechanic (albeit not fully realized), Oracle of Ages had the benefit of its Nintendo 64 predecessor to help craft some of the puzzle-solving that needed to happen throughout its gameplay. And even if I played through using a linked account, giving me quite a few advantages—Oracle of Ages still suffers from some of the Game Boy Zelda titles' limitations. Even if the story in Oracle of Ages isn’t that strong compared to the Nintendo 64 games, it’s at least more fleshed out in terms of characters and their motivations when compared to Oracle of Seasons. The end boss wasn’t nearly as difficult in this game, but at...
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MOVIE: Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016)

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Hunt for the Wilderpeople Year: 2016 Rating: PG-13 Length: 101 minutes / 1.68 hours After enjoying films like Thor: Ragnarok (2017) and Jojo Rabbit (2019), I decided to watch some of director Taika Waititi’s previous films. First up is Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016), a humorous outdoor adventure that doesn’t hide many of its influences, which ends up being a good thing. The plot and style are somewhat reminiscent of Moonrise Kingdom (2012) but takes advantage of New Zealand's wilderness to tell its own story. There is plenty of character development, and the two leads—played by Sam Neill and Julian Dennison—work well together to create a meaningful connection. Anyone who has seen other New Zealand comedies are likely to enjoy the specific cultural brand of humor here that feels like an evolved version of the classic British humor of the 1960s. Hunt for the Wilderpeople uses its minor characters to deliver its humor, with Rhys Darby carrying an exceptionally funny sequence. It’s this irreverent humor that hints at what Waititi’s future...
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BOOK: Good Omens (1990)

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Good Omens Year: 1990 Author: Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman Length: 753 minutes / 12.55 hours Perhaps I’m in the minority here, but I only thought Good Omens was just OK. You’d think that the combination of two of the best British writers would create an incredible story, but I felt it was mostly disjointed, un-climatic, and full of that British humor that tends to be more random than based in actual jokes. Granted, most books by Terry Pratchett or Neil Gaiman that I’ve read have been hit or miss, depending on how peculiarly random the subject might be. Sure, there are elements of a great story here; it just felt distracted from its main purpose half of the time. The core of Good Omens is split into two parts: following the actual Antichrist who is unaware of his theological significance/role in the end of the world and the journey of an angel and a demon who happened to lose said Antichrist. This idea's strength is enough...
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MOVIE: Hello, Dolly! (1969)

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Hello, Dolly! Year: 1969 Rating: G Length: 146 minutes / 2.43 hours In WALL-E (2008), the one surviving movie in this post-apocalyptic future was a VHS version of Hello, Dolly! (1969). Does this mean Hello, Dolly! is any good? Hardly. It’s merely the only movie to survive. If anything, Hello, Dolly! is your standard 1960s musical. There are many superior musicals from this decade, and it’s clear that this one is on the tailing end of the fad. Sure, it has its moments, but it’s so cookie-cutter in its plot that the only thing special about it is Barbra Streisand’s performance. It’s no surprise that the few musical numbers that made it into WALL-E were some of the better ones in this movie. “Put on Your Sunday Clothes” is endlessly catchy, even if “Love is Only Love” is your standard love song. Of course, the title song, “Hello, Dolly!” works and is a bit of a bookend to the musical's start with “Call on Dolly.” As I mentioned before, Streisand’s performance in...
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VIDEO GAME: Oracle of Seasons (2001)

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The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons Year: 2001 Rating: E Time Played: ~30 hours When video games started splitting off into “two-part” versions in the mid-90s, my brother and I would always split who got which game. As a result, I realized that I had never played The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons, as I had the Oracle of Ages version. After finishing Link’s Awakening DX, I decided to remedy this situation. While it was evident that this game used a lot of the same assets from Link’s Awakening, there was also ample evidence that the Zelda games on the Nintendo 64 influenced these handheld games. The base mechanic of Oracle of Seasons uses the four different seasons to solve a variety of puzzles in the over-world to progress to each of the eight dungeons. While this sticks to the core Zelda formula, this game's unfortunate aspect is how lackluster the story is. This was weird because of how the Nintendo 64 titles...
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MOVIE: Fantastic Four (2015)

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Fantastic Four Year: 2015 Rating: PG-13 Length: 100 minutes / 1.67 hours For a movie with "fantastic" in its title, it's anything but. It's difficult to make a movie that's worse than the original that was released a decade earlier, but here we are. I understand the need to reboot a franchise so the owners of the rights can continue to hold onto those rights, but this is just a sad excuse for a movie. I only hope—now that Disney owns this franchise—that the next reboot of the Fantastic Four doesn't spend any time on its origin story (which we've seen twice now). While the casting for the main characters was technically proficient, if not a little young, I was stunned to see such wooden and emotionless acting from absolutely every actor on the screen. If I didn't know any better, they replaced these actors with CGI robots who state their lines instead of, you know, acting. Additionally, there didn't seem to be any stakes...
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