daily stream: meet the most extreme tourists on Earth
2020’s Stalking Chernobyl is streaming free worldwide on YouTube.
Aliens
loaded question: what movie characters’ bad experiences make you feel better about your own life?
Inspired by TV writer JP Larocque noting that from Ripley’s perspective, Alien, Aliens, and Alien 3 took place over about six weeks.
classic film virgin: Top Gun (1986)
Cold War propaganda that is weirdly apolitical. Sunny, breezy homoeroticism that is surely unintentional. What a hoot this is! Mostly not in a good way, but its impact on pop culture cannot be denied.
Alita: Battle Angel movie review: ‘Rollerblade Runner’ with a Strong Female Character(TM)
Devoid of personality and soul, this hellish Frankenstein monster of processed entertainment product wallows in a stew of borrowed ideas and imagery and does absolutely nothing fresh with them.
Maze Runner: The Death Cure movie review: cute boys at the end of the world
The Auto-Tuned boy-band version of the apocalypse. You will forgive that every plot point that isn’t a cliché is in fact a plot hole because the hero is so dreamy and impossibly perfect, right?
Alien: Covenant movie review: game over, man
A rote disappointment. There is nothing shocking or even mildly unexpected here. But there is an ironic weakening of the power of the xenomorphs to terrify.
The Great Wall movie review: not to be torn down
Plain pure fun. At its best, it’s Lord of the Rings meets Aliens, with incredible imaginative grandeur and genuinely breathtaking 3D depth.
Doctor Who blogging: “Under the Lake”
I don’t recognize this show anymore.
Black Sea movie review: pirates of the Crimea
An underwater heist of Nazi loot? Awesome. Submarine movies don’t get much better than this intensely suspenseful popcorn adventure.
Doctor Who thing: “The Last Day” minisode
I’m getting a Robocop-on-Gallifrey vibe. No, wait, Colonial Marines on Gallifrey.
