VIDEO GAME: Isles of Sea and Sky (2024)

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Isles of Sea and SkyYear: 2024Rating: E10+Time Played: 16.6 hours Isles of Sea and Sky is another one of those games that Game Maker's Tool Kit (GMTK) introduced me to. I always appreciate when a game tries to be a spiritual successor to a retro game series in a way that makes it feel like the game could have easily come out in the late '90s. For Isles of Sea and Sky, the gameplay felt like the little dungeon puzzles in the early Game Boy Zelda titles like Link's Awakening, Oracle of Ages, and Oracle of Seasons. Ultimately, it scratched that itch and more. One of the nice gimmicks with this game was its open-world Metroidvania style of exploration. You need to collect stars to open locked areas (akin to the locked areas in Super Mario 64) but you don't need to collect all the stars to continue the plot. This means there are lots of little puzzles to solve, and the...
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MOVIE: Moana 2 (2024)

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Moana 2Year: 2024Rating: PGLength: 100 minutes / 1.67 hours There’s a trend in quite a few sequels that follow “coming-of-age” stories where the main character must then step into a leadership position now that they’ve figured out who they are. How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014) did this, and Moana 2 (2024) also followed this formula. While the first movie usually does a great job of having the main character overcome an obstacle to achieve their goal, leadership is often much more complicated to convey and requires more moving pieces. While rounding out the group dynamic for these kinds of movies is fine for providing a wider range of talents to pull from, with Moana 2, most of these characters felt one-dimensional because they had almost no presence in the previous film to establish their core abilities. The only one that had any previous background was the foe-to-friend Kakamora. And while Moana (Auli’I Cravalho) learned her lesson that she doesn’t have to...
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BOOK: Mississippi on Ice (2024)

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Mississippi on Ice Year: 2024 Author: Joseph D. Slater Length: 268 pages Did you know Antarctica used to have bartenders? Before I read Mississippi on Ice, I hadn’t considered that the research stations on the bottom of the world would need more than just scientists to keep these outposts running. This blue-collar take on one of the harshest environments on Earth is one of the most interesting stories I have read lately. And while some of the trauma the main character must put up with is a bit intense at times (and takes a long time to recover from), seeing that there are common people who can make Antarctica work for them is an inspiration. The undercurrent in Mississippi on Ice definitely leans into the toxic traits men can have and how hard it is to escape them even at the end of the world. Most guys just want to live their lives, but when the patriarch of a family is abusive, it’s all the...
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MOVIE: Saturday Night (2024)

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Saturday NightYear: 2024Rating: RLength: 109 minutes / 1.82 hours Say what you will about whatever era of Saturday Night Live you want to pick on, but the fact that this show has been on the air for 50 years is astonishing. Even more so when you realize how close it came to not airing on that first night at all. All the iconic moments that have become part of pop culture over its five-decade run should be placed in the context of what Lorne Michaels was trying to do with this ragtag group of comedians. Saturday Night (2024) is a look into that last hour before the very first episode aired in 1975. I appreciated the ticking-clock aspect that director Jason Reitman brought to this film to emphasize how much still had to come together to make the show work. That everything is moving in real time shows just how frenzied these last-minute preparations were for everyone. There were quite a few...
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MOVIE: Megalopolis (2024)

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MegalopolisYear: 2024Rating: RLength: 138 minutes / 2.30 hours As a lover of cinema, I immediately recognize Francis Ford Coppola's name. He put out such great and timeless films as The Godfather (1972) and Apocalypse Now! (1979)—iconic to this very day. Since I was too young to see any of his films in theaters, I jumped at the opportunity to go in blind to see Megalopolis (2024). Once I got out of the theater, I had to double-check. Turns out, he has made dozens of movies, but there are only a handful worth mentioning that are any good. Megalopolis suffers from some of the same problems that I feel plagued movies like Once Upon a Time...in Hollywood (2019) and Babylon (2022). These directors, like Quentin Tarantino and Damien Chazelle, have made such a name for themselves that they received a blank check to do the movie they wanted to do. These movies then end up being too long and meandering, as if the...
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MOVIE: The Wild Robot (2024)

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The Wild RobotYear: 2024Rating: PGLength: 102 minutes / 1.70 hours Having grown up with both Pixar and DreamWorks movies, the level of quality has usually been on the side of Pixar. Whether in their visuals or their storytelling, Pixar had a special magic that seemed to outdo whatever DreamWorks was putting out. In recent years, this has flipped. There's been less heart in Pixar films, but DreamWorks has knocked it out of the park with original and heartfelt ideas. That DreamWorks has also leaned into their more "stylized" animation styles has made it stand above and apart. The Wild Robot (2024) is probably the best recent example of how DreamWorks has created a timeless story that resonates on several levels. The juxtaposition of natural and mechanical is front and center, but deeper down the themes delve into parenthood and the ability for machines to feel human emotions. As a parent, this movie hit hard with its ability to show how nurturing also...
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MOVIE: Transformers One (2024)

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Transformers OneYear: 2024Rating: PGLength: 104 minutes / 1.73 hours For a series that originally appealed to children, it felt like the Transformers movie franchise took a long time to focus on its original demographic again. Sure, the nostalgia bait of the early Michael Bay films led to its continued popularity. But focusing on smaller, origin-based stories like Bumblebee (2018) has brought some life back into the flashy, CGI-heavy explosion fests that these movies had become. That's why I was pleased to find Transformers One (2024) reaching back to the roots of its original audience and focusing on the medium that kicked everything off: animation. Compared to the busy, almost incomprehensible action sequences of the previous live-action movies in the franchise, Transformers One has focused and well-designed set pieces that lean into the fact that animation can often do more than any live-action/CGI hybrid could. There was almost a beauty to the simplicity of the character designs instead of the eye-watering detail that...
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VIDEO GAME: Balatro (2024)

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BalatroYear: 2024Rating: E10+Time Played: ~20 hours Sometimes the simplest games can be the most complex. Take Balatro, for example. The goal is to hit a certain score by making poker hands. Scored cards add chips, and a multiplier is used based on the poker hand played. As the game progresses, the required score grows and requires the use of special attributes on the cards, as well as a group of Jokers that apply different modifications to the cards, chips, or multiplier. That there are so many combinations means every run can be unique. As with other card games (and Roguelikes), Balatro relies somewhat on the luck of the draw. There are tons of choices that can make or break a round. Do you buy a booster pack for the chance at a rare Joker? Which vouchers are worth it? Do you prioritize flushes over straights? Depending on how you like to play, finding these new synergies is part of the fun of...
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MOVIE: Trap (2024)

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TrapYear: 2024Rating: PG-13Length: 105 minutes / 1.75 hours In recent years, I feel like M. Night Shyamalan has regained some of his talent as a director. This may be because I go into a Shyamalan movie expecting there will be some logical plot hole that would collapse the entire concept in an instant, but that there are enough logical "yeah, that makes sense" twists that it's an entertaining ride. Much like Old (2021), Trap (2024) is the latest of these kinds of films that feel like classic Shyamalan. As a father of a young daughter, I can only imagine which pop star my child will become obsessed with and want to see in concert. I probably relate to this movie because I know such an event is in my future. Simply put, though, Josh Hartnett does an excellent job of showing how a smile and a bit of confidence can get you anywhere. Well, that and being a straight white male...but that's...
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BOOK: Chimera (2024)

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Chimera Year: 2024 Author: Lena M. Johnson Length: 98 pages ***THIS BOOK WAS RECEIVED FROM THE AUTHOR*** It's interesting how the "shifter" genre seems to use the same animals repeatedly. If you're looking for something different, look no further than Lena M. Johnson's Chimera. This novella was originally part of the Forgotten Shifter Files anthology, but now has its own release as a standalone novella. I appreciate how Johnson took the shifter prompt in the sci fi direction, as it feels easier to explain (and more feasible) in that context than in the way shifter stories usually go. I'll admit that there were a lot of characters presented at the beginning of Chimera that I had trouble keeping track of. I wasn't sure who was going to be the lead character until about a third of the way through, and there were sparse details to let me distinguish between the different individuals. Even with this cast of characters, there were a lot of interesting backstories and...
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MOVIE: Deadpool & Wolverine (2024)

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Deadpool & WolverineYear: 2024Rating: RLength: 128 minutes / 2.13 hours Ever since the early success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) proved how Marvel could successfully adapt their comics to the big screen, there was always this itch that couldn't be scratched. This was because certain properties like X-Men and Spider-Man were "trapped" at other studios like 20th Century Fox and Sony, respectively. Through mergers and other agreements, some of these franchises came back under the Marvel umbrella (via Disney), allowing Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) to scratch that crossover itch—finally. While this isn't the first time that 20th Century characters have appeared in a mainline MCU entry (with WandaVision and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022) having those distinctions), Deadpool & Wolverine felt like the proper send-off for these 20th Century characters. After all, it's likely we wouldn't even have an MCU if it weren't for the superhero films like X-Men (2000) that came before Iron Man (2008). In a...
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MOVIE: Fly Me to the Moon (2024)

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Fly Me to the MoonYear: 2024Rating: PG-13Length: 132 minutes / 2.20 hours NASA's Gemini and Apollo programs remain the pinnacle of human achievement. Plenty of movies have told these stories of success and tragedy. The Right Stuff (1983), Apollo 13 (1995), Hidden Figures (2016), and First Man (2018) all tried to get somewhat close to what really happened while still being entertaining. Fly Me to the Moon (2024), however, may have leaned too much into the entertainment while being light on the facts. What's worse, in an era of misinformation, this movie could be seen as enforcing conspiracy theories surrounding the event. Considering this movie is a comedy, it shouldn't be taken seriously. If you watch it and have a few laughs while considering a "what if" scenario, then it's harmless fun. In thinking through the "why," though, Fly Me to the Moon provides some chilling Cold War guesses as to the motive behind a conspiracy like this—some of which may be...
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MOVIE: Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024)

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Kung Fu Panda 4Year: 2024Rating: PGLength: 94 minutes / 1.57 hours Where movies like Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) are the exception to the "fourth movie after a contained trilogy" rule, Kung Fu Panda 4 (2024) is the unnecessary sequel that's still just trying to cash in on a franchise. While I think the first Kung Fu Panda (2008) was the best of the first three movies, their story of Po's (Jack Black) journey to becoming a kung fu master felt complete by the end of the third film. That this movie barely had any of the characters from the previous movies should give you an idea of how the actors saw it. The problem Kung Fu Panda 4 falls into is the same one that I think plagued Cars 3 (2017). When the main character of the franchise is now set to be the mentor of the next generation, it usually means the writers are out of ideas....
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MOVIE: Lisa Frankenstein (2024)

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Lisa FrankensteinYear: 2024Rating: PG-13Length: 101 minutes / 1.68 hours I can appreciate when movies try to do something a little different. Like how Warm Bodies (2013) made Romeo & Juliet into a zombie movie. Often, there's some element of the public domain involved, but a good remix doesn't negate the source material. Lisa Frankenstein (2024) takes its obvious inspiration from Mary Shelley, but with a 1980s John Hughes teen comedy slant similar to Sixteen Candles (1984) or Pretty in Pink (1986). The combo somehow works, even if its plot seems to paint itself into a corner. Kathryn Newton kills it (har har) as the titular Lisa, giving those loner vibes that all girl protagonists from the 1980s seemed to exude before "finding themselves" and having a big glow-up. The entire premise that she's trying to build a boyfriend with pieces of other people is grotesque, but played for laughs due to the PG-13 rating. I don't say this often, but I think...
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MOVIE: Ghostbusters – Frozen Empire (2024)

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Ghostbusters: Frozen EmpireYear: 2024Rating: PG-13Length: 115 minutes / 1.92 hours After the delightful reboot that was Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021), I was excited to see that they would make a sequel with Ghosbusters: Frozen Empire (2024). Since Afterlife had taken the content more seriously than previous iterations of the franchise, I wanted to see if they'd continue that path in a meaningful way. Not that relying on comedy was a bad thing, but it felt like there was more to explore with these new characters. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a compromise of the old and the new in Frozen Empire. 80s nostalgia is huge in Hollywood right now, but I'd rather it stay as cameo appearances like in Afterlife than in bigger sub-plots like it was in this movie. There were almost too many character arcs in this film, most of which moved at a glacial pace for its almost 2-hour runtime. The ones that were interesting (and focused on the newer...
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MOVIE: Inside Out 2 (2024)

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Inside Out 2Year: 2024Rating: PGLength: 96 minutes / 1.60 hours Inside Out 2 (2024) is one of those rare sequels that build upon the first movie in new ways that expand the narrative of the world. There were already hints of a puberty subplot at the end of the first Inside Out (2015), but adding new emotions to the mix really helped round out that teenager experience. As a parent, I loved how the first film made it easy to talk to my kids about emotions, but now there's a whole extra level of parenting I can unlock by using this movie as well. Most of my gripes about Inside Out 2 are minor—partly because the first movie had these issues as well. For a head full of emotions, there really is only room for a story about one or two of them. That there were four new characters added in this movie felt a bit much, especially when most of the...
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MOVIE: A Quiet Place – Day One (2024)

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A Quiet Place: Day OneYear: 2024Rating: PG-13Length: 99 minutes / 1.65 hours It's wild to think that it's been six years since A Quiet Place (2018) released. The concept was unique and fresh and lent itself to plenty of suspenseful moments. And while I thought both it and its 2021 sequel could have been trimmed down to a single, albeit somewhat long movie, I still loved the idea of a modern "silent film" that relies on its imagery as much as its lack of verbal dialogue. But did this really need a prequel? One of the great parts of the original Quiet Place was that it didn't explain how things came to be this way, it just dealt with surviving in this new reality. In A Quiet Place: Day One (2024), humanity first faces the threat of these aliens who attack any noise that might catch their attention. It's still unknown why these aliens came to Earth or what their goal is,...
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MOVIE: Thelma (2024)

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ThelmaYear: 2024Rating: PG-13Length: 98 minutes / 1.63 hours Thelma (2024) is one of those rare movies that I knew little about, but saw the trailer a few times and saw it on a whim. I was glad I did, because it's definitely my favorite film of this year. With so many action movies, it's nice to see one like this that makes fun of the tropes in the best way possible. And to top it all off, the message it gives is as heartwarming as it is important. The premise of Thelma is that the titular character (played by June Squibb) got scammed out of $10,000. After taking the normal steps one would after realizing the mistake, she realizes she can take matters into her own hands and retrieve her stolen money with some help from her elderly friends. It's part heist, part chase, and way funnier than it has any right to be. This is partly due to how the common...
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MOVIE: Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)

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Kingdom of the Planet of the ApesYear: 2024Rating: PG-13Length: 145 minutes / 2.42 hours With how difficult it is to pull of a trilogy that doesn't have any significantly bad entries, it's almost impossible to make a successful movie that sits as the fourth entry outside that trilogy. Plenty of "fourth" films never hit the mark their predecessor trilogy did. This was why I had to roll my eyes when Hollywood added another movie on top of the already well-done Planet of the Apes prequel trilogy. Well, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) proved me wrong. By giving itself enough distance from the Caesar story arc, Kingdom threads that needle that connects the lead-up events to the very first film in the franchise. Even if most of the fundamental concepts have already been covered in this franchise, there are still enough surprising moments here to make it an excellent entry—which is also what made the original 1968 movie so memorable....
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MOVIE: The Fall Guy (2024)

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The Fall GuyYear: 2024Rating: PG-13Length: 126 minutes / 2.10 hours I have a bit of a soft spot for movies that focus on the creative act of making movies. Most of the time, these "behind the scenes" films focus on the more managerial aspects of movies. In The Fall Guy (2024), there's a fun meta that ties together stunts for the movie being made and stunts in the "real world" that may bring down the entire production. As a pseudo-heist movie, The Fall Guy is a fun action romp that I found entertaining and educational. Anyone who has seen Ryan Gosling in Barbie (2023) knows that he has the comedic chops to hold up his side of a film. Honestly, he was the main reason I wanted to see this film, as I was expecting "Ken" levels of machismo, but with maybe a little more intelligence. Gosling definitely delivers, and this is a great film to watch for fans of his work....
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MOVIE: Furiosa – A Mad Max Saga (2024)

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Fuirosa: A Mad Max SagaYear: 2024Rating: RLength: 148 minutes / 2.46 hours Having seen most of the original Mad Max films, Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) was such a shocking visual smorgasbord that it only made sense to capitalize on its success. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) attempts to give us more of the setting, characters, and aesthetic from Fury Road, but with less of the tight octane-fueled pacing of its predecessor. It's not bad by itself, but its premise certainly rides on Fury Road's coattails for much of its runtime. While it's crazy that it's almost been a decade since Fury Road came out, I can accept that Anya Taylor-Joy was a passable version of a younger Charlize Theron. The real surprise was how much Chris Hemsworth stole the show, leaning heavily into his Australian roots to give some amazingly authentic craziness to Dementus. That there were so many common elements to Fury Road here meant that it was entertaining...
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MOVIE: The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024)

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The Ministry of Ungentlemanly WarfareYear: 2024Rating: RLength: 122 minutes / 2.03 hours It feels like I've been waiting for a Guy Ritchie film that is a return to form. I loved his earlier works, but have found his latest projects mostly disappointing. The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare (2024) Feels like one of those early Ritchie films, which I truly appreciated. However, despite being based on actual events, it felt a bit like a watered down Inglorious Basterds (2009). The cast and action were great, but the stakes somehow felt shallow and forgettable. I truly enjoyed the parts of the film that held onto Ritchie's original style. The ridiculous action sequences and the machismo of the main cast (Henry Cavill, especially) are the kinds of things that I enjoyed in Ritchie's earlier works. That any of this was even close to what really happened makes it an impressive event that should inspire people to learn more about the history. Including the brief reference...
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MOVIE: Civil War (2024)

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Civil WarYear: 2024Rating: RLength: 109 minutes / 1.82 hours With Alex Garland's latest film, Civil War (2024), I still maintain my belief that his films use the medium of movies to ask, "What makes us human?" In his previous sci-fi works like Ex Machina (2014) and Annihilation (2018), the genre did most of the heavy lifting with that question. For Civil War, the current heated political climate is the backdrop that shines a harsh mirror on humanity during armed conflict. The framing, however, is truly what makes this film stand out—and it's not about politics at all. As a photographer, I understand what it takes to capture a moment without being part of the moment. You need to be present, but neutral. Civil War pushes this concept to its limits within the context of war photography. How does the press capture these atrocious moments while standing by to let them happen? Is documenting the war more important than stopping it? On top...
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MOVIE: Boy Kills World (2024)

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Boy Kills WorldYear: 2024Rating: RLength: 111 minutes / 1.85 hours Video game movies are gaining some respect after the disastrous jump to the silver screen in the 1990s. It's interesting, then, that Boy Kills World (2024) takes all the cliches of the beat-'em-up and hack-and-slash video games from the arcades and makes a movie out of a game that doesn't exist. The problem is this movie also adheres to a lot of the tropes that made the video game movies of the 1990s sub-par to the ones that exist today. Don't get me wrong here. Boy Kills World is fun if you just turn off your brain and enjoy the ridiculous ride. Bill Skarsgard is great as the "silent protagonist"—made even better by H. Jon Benjamin's narration of the character's internal thoughts. The action is intense and there are a few set pieces that play to the strengths of the more interesting characters. And as a video game movie, its structure of...
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MOVIE: Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)

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Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire Year: 2024 Rating: PG-13 Length: 115 minutes / 1.92 hours Having never seen the original Japanese series of Godzilla movies, I only have a loose sense of their progression from serious to silly. I've seen random clips that I couldn't take seriously, but I also know some of the first films in the franchise were a grim analogy of nuclear war. While Godzilla Minus One (2023) nailed the serious side of Godzilla, the Monsterverse movies have steadily been drifting toward unhinged territory. Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024) is merely the latest proof. There were so many things going on in this movie, it felt like a shotgun approach to see if anything would stick. It was a bit frustrating that the headliner, Godzilla, barely appeared until the third act. The humans were even more caricature-like than previous entries, and I hardly cared about their stories or struggles. When the universe can support any random thing happening, the...
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MOVIE: Dune – Part Two (2024)

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Dune: Part TwoYear: 2024Rating: PG-13Length: 166 minutes / 2.77 hours Years ago, when I first read Dune, I struggled to get through the first half of the book. There was so much exposition and world building I had to get through that when the action finally began, I devoured the rest of the story. While I understand the need to split this epic novel into two movies, it meant I was eagerly anticipating Dune: Part Two (2024) after the excellent job Denis Villeneueve did adapting the first half in 2021. I appreciate that movies have multiple chances to become the iconic versions that their source material deserves. The original Dune (1984) has its own cult status among its fans (many of which are merely David Lynch fans). But the wide audience appeal of an epic story that stands the test of time is the high standard most filmmakers strive for. Few have been able to pull it off, but I think time...
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