Twisted Metal: WLUDRV – TV Review

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TL;DR – This episode works very well as a vibe check because you probably will have a fair assumption about whether this is your bag for the rest of the season by the time the credits roll.

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Stan service that viewed this series.

A vulture on the roof.

Twisted Metal Review –

There are some video games that you know from the iconography alone. One of those is Twisted Metal. I never played the game myself, but some aspects are instantly recognisable. But can the show take those elements and turn them into a story? Well, that is what we are finding out today.   

So to set the scene, 20 years ago, the world fell apart as a virus destroyed the world’s computers. This apocalyptic event split the world in two. Some walled themselves up inside cities, and those who got booted outside. It is a lawless void, but people must still take supplies between the cities. Insert the milkmen, of which there is no better than John Doe (Anthony Mackie). But it might be worth driving into the unknown when he is given an opportunity to find a home. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.  

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Under the Cloak of War – TV Review

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TL;DR – This episode brought a smile to my face from the moment it started till the second those end credits rolled.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ streaming service that viewed this episode. 

USS Kelcie Mae

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Review –

Well, this week, we get the incredible joy of having not one but two episodes of Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. However, they could not be more different as we jump from the joyful romp of Those Old Scientists to a deep exploration of grief and loss and the wounds of war are laid bare.

So to set the scene, the USS Enterprise has rendezvous with the USS Kelcie Mae to collect the Federation ambassador Dak’Rah (Robert Wisdom) from the Prospero System. An ambassador who is a Klingon who defected during the War. This is difficult for many of the crew who fought during the Federation-Klingon War, for example, Chapple (Jess Bush) and M’Benga (Babs Olusanmokun), who were posted on the Moon of J’gal. How do you break bread with a man soaked in the blood of innocents? Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.  

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Secret Invasion: Home and Full Season – TV Review

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TL;DR – This was a series that felt like it could be something spectacular, but it never came together, leaving a frustrating mess.

Rating: 2.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Disney+ service that viewed this film.

Nick Fury.

Secret Invasion Review –

I know many people that have struggled with the MCU post-Endgame, and I can see where they are coming from. I have pretty much liked or at least found fine everything bar the miss that was Ant-Man, but as I sat down to watch Secret Invasion, I had concerns, which turned out to be justified. In today’s review, we will first look at the series finale and then a broader look at the season as a whole.

So to set the scene, Gravik (Kingsley Ben-Adir) continues to push the world’s nations into all-out war, wanting it as a prelude to the extermination of the Human Race. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) is on the run with very few pieces he can play, but one of them is the one thing Gravik wants, the Harvest. Here is the DNA of all the superhuman/alien/Norse gods etc., in one place, the thing needed for the Super-Skrull technology. But can Nick Fury stop Gravik before he starts his war with a replaced Rhodes (Don Cheadle) whispering in the president’s (Dermot Mulroney) ear. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode and season as a whole, so there will be some [SPOILERS] ahead.  

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Mapping Mission: Impossible 2023 Update – Map-It

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TL;DR – We map all the locations Ethan Hunt and his team have visited.  

Ethan Hunt/Tom Cruise running.

Mapping the Impossible –

All the way back in the before times of 2018, one of the first maps we constructed for our Map-It series was of the Mission: Impossible franchise. It was an old-style map, and parts of it have not aged all that well. But with Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One jumping back onto our screens galivanting across the planet, now felt like the perfect time for an update.

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Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning – Movie Review

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TL;DR – While the individual set piece moments are as good as ever, the connecting tissue feels a bit flat this time.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid to see this film

Ethan Hunt/Tom Cruise running.

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One Review –

When I think back to the Mission: Impossible franchise, the first thing that comes to mind is solid consistency. You can know what to expect from the film before you walk in the door, and they nearly always deliver, yes, even M: I 2. I was delighted to see the next entry, even when a ‘Part One’ moniker is often a bit of a red flag and while those solid aspects are still there, some elements were lacking.

So to set the scene, we are under the Bearing Sea with the Russian submarine Sevastopol as it tests its new AI stealth drive. This drive has allowed it to approach the navies of every world power without being detected. However, when they are heading back to port, something odd happens when an American submarine suddenly sees them but disappears from their monitors after they fire torpedoes. But destruction soon follows. Two keys lead to the sub’s heart, and one ends up in the hands of Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) in the Yemeni Desert. Eugene Kittridge (Henry Czerny) tasks Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) to obtain the key that every nation in the world wants because, with it, they can control the AI that is currently destroying every intelligence apparatus they have.    

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Star Trek: Strange New Worlds – Those Old Scientists – TV Review

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TL;DR – This episode brought a smile to my face from the moment it started till the second those end credits rolled.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Paramount+ streaming service that viewed this episode. 

The Strange New Worlds title sequence done in the style of Lower Decks.

Star Trek: Strange New Worlds Review –

A cross-over episode used to be the mainstay of network television, with some franchises building their worlds upon it. But for every Brooklyn Nine-Nine/ The New Girl moment that is so perfectly placed that it lives on in memes. You have a sea of awkward messes that fail to elevate either side. Star Trek saw this and went, you know what, let’s take this issue of trying to get two different shows with different vibes to work and add the extra difficulty of both shows being a different medium. But does it work? Oh, yes, it does.   

So to set the scene, it is 2381, and the USS Cerritos has arrived at Krulmuth-B to take a regular scan of the portal on the surface. It has not been active since the time of Pike, but you always need to make sure. Ensigns Boimler (Jack Quaid), Mariner (Tawny Newsome), Tendi (Noël Wells), and Rutherford (Eugene Cordero) beam down to the planet to make sure. It was all going well until the portal is accidentally activated when Boimler is posing for a photo and is sucked in before Mariner can grab him. Waking up after being jettisoned, Boimler looks up to see himself in the sickbay of an old Constitution Class ship to see the one and only Captain Pike (Anson Mount) staring down, and well, he ain’t in Kansas anymore. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.  

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They Cloned Tyrone – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A weird and fascinating film, full of style and an ending that does not hold back.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene.

Disclosure – I paid for the Netflix service that viewed this film.

losing lotto card.

They Cloned Tyrone Review –

Blaxploitation films are a genre I am familiar with but not nearly as versed with as I should be. It is a world, a vibe, a style of filmmaking, and a world that I need to know more about. There is no better time than the present; if it stars one of the current generation’s best actors, that is just gravy.

So to set the scene, Fontaine (John Boyega) runs a drug empire in the local neighbourhood, but one constantly under threat by people moving into his territory. It is a dangerous world, and one day as he tries to get money owed to him by Slick Charles (Jamie Foxx), danger catches up to him as he gets gunned down in his car. Fontaine is dead, dead-dead, making it all the more interesting when he wakes up in bed the next day.  

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Foundation: A Glimpse of Darkness – TV Review

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TL;DR – This week, we continue to see the outworking of NJ Demerath III’s adage that “politics and religion are like a moth to a flame.”

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

Disclosure – I paid for the Apple TV+ service that viewed this episode.

A sun sets over a ring world.

Foundation Review –

It is no shock that I love me some Science Fiction. Indeed, I will take it in just about any form I can get it. But deep down, I think my favourite must be a good Space Opera with all its pontifications on show. It is a universe full of pomp and circumstance, and I am here for it.

So to set the scene, things are fraying all across the Empire, and no one is immune to its changes. On a water planet now home to a dead civilization, Hari Seldon (Jared Harris), Gaal Dornick (Lou Llobell), and Salvor Hardin (Leah Harvey) confront each other as old wounds are laid bare. As the Empire retreats from the outer rim, the Foundation starts to slip out, coming as magicians and priests to those planets that have lost everything. But not everyone is happy with a potential new master after just getting rid of the last one. Now from here, we will be looking at the episode as a whole, so there will be [SPOILERS] ahead.     

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Oppenheimer – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A visual spectacle and a masterclass in dissecting a complicated life.

Rating: 4.5 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Warning – Contains a scene that may cause distress.

Exploding Flames.

Oppenheimer Review –

Every now and again, my old life and new life collide in interesting ways. All those years of teaching and exploring Arms Control and Disarmament finally became relevant in my current career. The story of the Manhattan Project is fascinating, as was the life of J. Robert Oppenheimer, whose scope I doubt even three hours can completely cover. But given my general love of Christopher Nolan’s work [see Inception and Dunkirk], I knew I could not miss this one.

So to set the scene, the world is at war as Germany marches across Europe and Japan across the Pacific. This is already a dangerous predicament, but the world of theoretical physics has been running leaps and bounds forward, and everyone can see the endpoint, a bomb, a bomb of devastating potential. What happens if the Nazis get a bomb that can destroy cities? As the world scrambles, only one person in America can lead the Manhattan Project, J. Robert Oppenheimer (Cillian Murphy). However, his past might contain more problems than the government can handle.

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Barbie – Movie Review

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TL;DR – A deeply sincere film, swinging for the fences. Not everything lands, but you can’t dismiss the passion.

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene.

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Barbie and Ken.

Barbie Review –


If you had asked me which film would have captured everyone’s attention in 2023, I honestly would not have expected it to be Barbie. That is just my biases being shown in full light for all to see. But with every set photo, every casting announcement, and every trailer, you could feel this surge of excitement, and it shows just how good the marketing team behind the movie is and the building excitement to see what a live-action Barbie film could look like. Well, today, that wait is over, and we can dive into a world full of pink where life might still be plastic, but it’s fantastic.

So to set the scene, in Barbie Land, we have a world where a day is not a day without a blowout party with a bespoke song and extensive choreography. In this serene world with pink buildings and gleaming coast lives Barbie (Margot Robbie). Things are looking good. Well, when you have a waterslide from your bedroom to the pool, that is a certain wondrous luxury. But in this wonderous world, Barbie starts to have an existential crisis that manifests itself in different ways, like flat feet. Trying to find a purpose, Barbie decides, after some pushing from Weird Barbie (Kate McKinnon), to visit the real world to find the truth about the universe, oh and Ken (Ryan Gosling) stowaways for the ride as well.  

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