Our Whole Family Is Normal | House of Ninjas Season 1 (2024) on Netflix

The Netflix series House of Ninjas is a fun throwback to the ninja-sploitation craze of the video rental era, when most Blockbuster and Hollywood Video stores had an entire section devoted to sword-wielding, kung-fu assassins who skulk around at night wearing footie pajamas and masks. Thankfully, in doing so, the show maintains a generally light… Read More Our Whole Family Is Normal | House of Ninjas Season 1 (2024) on Netflix

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A Scumbag for the Right Side | Deep Cover (1992) Criterion Collection Blu-ray

Deep Cover (1992)

Released in early 1992, advertising for the crime thriller Deep Cover played up star Laurence Fishburne’s involvement in the previous summer’s breakout hit Boyz n the Hood and generally tried to connect the film to the run of other so-called ‘hood movies that had made waves during that period. Although it scored positive reviews from… Read More A Scumbag for the Right Side | Deep Cover (1992) Criterion Collection Blu-ray

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Going Primal | Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023) 4K Ultra HD

Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023)

If not quite as satisfying (to old-school Generation 1 fans like myself, at least) as the 2018 Bumblebee prequel movie, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts works well enough in broad terms to prove that the franchise remains better off without Michael Bay at the helm. Sadly, the film continued the series’ downward trajectory at the… Read More Going Primal | Transformers: Rise of the Beasts (2023) 4K Ultra HD

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Rack ’em Up and Knock ’em Down | Masters of the Air (2024) Apple TV+ Series Premiere

Masters of the Air (2024)

Nearly twenty-three years after their seminal HBO miniseries Band of Brothers, and thirteen since its follow-up The Pacific, producers Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks return once more to the battlegrounds of World War II to deliver the (presumed) finale to what turns out to be a very prolonged trilogy. Produced this time for Apple TV+… Read More Rack ’em Up and Knock ’em Down | Masters of the Air (2024) Apple TV+ Series Premiere

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Death to Realism | eXistenZ (1999) Vinegar Syndrome 4K Ultra HD

eXistenz (1999)

After more than a decade exploring other subjects and genres that interested him, filmmaker David Cronenberg returned to the so-called “body horror” cycle of his early career with the 1999 thriller eXistenZ. While the director himself has argued that this particular movie was more science-fiction than horror, the connective tissue (in multiple senses) with his… Read More Death to Realism | eXistenZ (1999) Vinegar Syndrome 4K Ultra HD

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Couple Goals | Role Play (2024) on Amazon Prime Video

Role Play (2024)

Looking at it clinically, the Amazon Prime film Role Play is essentially another made-for-TV knockoff of James Cameron’s 1994 blockbuster True Lies – as if we hadn’t already seen enough of those over the past year, both official and unofficial. Thankfully, this one has just enough of its own twists to be an enjoyable and… Read More Couple Goals | Role Play (2024) on Amazon Prime Video

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Relive the Adventure | The Art of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (2023) Book Review

The Art of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero Omnibus Hardcover (2023)

The summer of 2023 may have belonged to Barbie, but the year also closed out with a very lovely tribute to her longtime rival from toy store shelves. Arriving in book form rather than a movie, The Art of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero is a gorgeous and exhaustively comprehensive chronicle of one of… Read More Relive the Adventure | The Art of G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero (2023) Book Review

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Seven Space Samurai | Rebel Moon: Part One (2023) on Netflix

Rebel Moon: Part One (2023)

Denied the opportunity to make an official Star Wars movie, director Zack Snyder tossed together his own knockoff space epic, complete with a remarkably similar story about a farmboyfarmgirl from a distant world who joins a rebel alliance to take down an evil galactic empire. In addition to other direct plot lifts and familiar recycled… Read More Seven Space Samurai | Rebel Moon: Part One (2023) on Netflix

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Yesterday Belongs to Us | Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) 4K Ultra HD

Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023)

Nostalgia is a trap that Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny both comments upon and falls victim to. The fifth entry in the venerable franchise arrives fifteen years after the last one, which was itself already nineteen years after everybody already assumed that the Indiana Jones Trilogy had satisfactorily concluded. Coming so late, the… Read More Yesterday Belongs to Us | Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (2023) 4K Ultra HD

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A Happy Chicken Is a Tasty Chicken | Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023) on Netflix

Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023)

How long does a chicken live, anyway? According to Google, five to ten years. Yet here we are more than two decades since Aardman Animations released Chicken Run to theaters in 2000 and along comes a belated direct-to-Netflix sequel featuring almost all the original characters, if not all the original cast. Does this old bird… Read More A Happy Chicken Is a Tasty Chicken | Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget (2023) on Netflix

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