Nonnas (2025)
Put on Nonnas today and found it cute but overall nothing amazing. It's a feel good Vince Vaughn movie with a few notable faces and some delicious sounding and looking Italian food.
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Fountain of Youth (2025)
The movie is not amazing. It's the latest in the lineage of Indiana Jones, the Librarian, and National Treasure. But, it is not an amazing movie. I hope it does well enough they get to do another one and perhaps find their groove.
Also, I legit can't remember much of the soundtrack at all, but there is a Thai version of 'Bang Bang' at the start of the movie which is a banger:
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Chef (2014)
Still a fantastic movie. Makes me realize I really need to get a panini press.
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Mission Impossible (1996)
Crazy to think this movie is 29 years old. I remember seeing it when it came and even then thinking it was kind of hokey. I was also pissed off they killed Emilio Estevez.
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Sinners (2025) - 4.5/5 Cigarettes
I went and saw Sinners yesterday and ended up really enjoying it. The story was really really good and it kept me engaged the entire way through. What surprised me was how amazing the soundtrack was, including this song. But even more than the song was the cinematography in the movie during this song.
This movie also reminded Katie and I how much we like Blues music, so I added a bunch of blues music to our audio library. B. B. King, Robert Johnson, Albert King, Buddy Guy, and others. So much good stuff.
After seeing the movie and posting about it, my feed on TikTok and YouTube has since been inundated with content about the behind-the-scenes for the film, and interviews with Coogler and Michael B. Jordan. And, I'm not mad. This is a really good movie and I'm so thankful we're seeing it succeed.
As I said on my Bluesky post yesterday, I feel that calling Sinners a horror film is a disservice to it as it turns a number of people off from watching it. Myself included. Had it not been Coogler + Jordan in the movie, I likely would have let it pass. But I am a fan of both of them and so I did some further research and determined that it was within a sphere that I was likely comfortable with. I would call it a Suspense / Action movie.
To me, horror is the sphere of movies which are the SAW franchise, or "Final Destination" etc. (none of which I've seen.) And this is more of a supernatural action + suspense.
None of the jump scares were gratuitous just to generate a reaction from the audience. None of the gore was over-the-top. There was no drawn out grown sense of fear hammered into the viewer.
This led me to consider using radar charts for showing what a movie's horror is. Giving a better sense of how gory it is, or how much it's about the audience fear rather than the story on screen. I know a big part of horror movies is surprise and not knowing what's coming, but I don't think hardcore horror lovers gain much from a chart like what I'm talking about.
I haven't made any charts, and as someone who avoids horror films, I definitely don't know enough about the genre to even know how to adequately encompass the genre. But, it feels like an interesting idea.
This idea then jumped to the idea of using a radar chart for straight movie rating. And thus, this evening, after doing a quick bit of mowing part of my backyard until the mower's battery died, and after making dinner, I have come up with a function that can be used to generate movie rating radars.
I'll write more about it, the method, etc. But I really like this idea for how to rate movies. I can go back and start rating movies like this, and then even pull two movies and compare how their ratings are drawn. I'm still deciding on the scoring axes, though I feel pretty good about these ones.
However I'm going to start sharing it with friends and we'll see what feedback people smarter than me have!
Footnote:
[1] - Cigarettes are bad. Don't do them. They're used for this rating thematically based on the film.
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The Pitt (2025) - 5/5 ER Nurses
My current favorite show on television. ER's successor and a truly fantastic first season. I missed shows like this and can't wait for season 2.
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The Bondsman (2025) - 2.5/5 Demons
Kevin Bacon is entertaining enough to keep me watching, but the show is quite middling.
One thing that struck out to me was a plot of episode 3, 'Maphos':
To which an online acquaintance gave me the answer I was looking for:
The plots are similar on the surface, but in truth quite different. The Adventure Zone episode plot takes place at a waterpark, not a swimming pool like on the show. The Bondsman episode refers to the demon as a 'marphos,' which isn't a real demon in history or fiction; but I would bet that both drew from similar sources in history and mythology.
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G20 (2025) - 3/5 Australian Accents
I love Viola Davis and will watch her in anything. Overall, this movie was fine and entertaining, but I doubt I'll ever watch it again.
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Zero Day (2025) - 4 of 5 Hackers
A painfully on the nose mini-series of a the current political era mystery/thriller. I didn't love it all, but I found it entertaining. And I liked the ending.
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The Residence (2025) - 5 of 5 Purple Grackle
Quite enjoyed the show, it was sold to me as 'Knives Out' at the Whitehouse. And it's definitely in the same branch of the tree, but it's not the same show. I would definitely like to see a few more seasons of Detective Cupp.
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Ardent Violet and the Infinite Eye (2024) - 4.5/5 Space Mechs
I've got to share how much I enjoy the second book in the Starmetal Symphony series by my friend Alex White. It's a great follow up in the series, filled with twists and turns, as well as dramatic and touching moments. Just a fun and enjoyable ride filled with memorable characters.
Just wait until you meet Scent of Rot. 🦀
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Paradise, Season 1 (2025) - 4 of 5 wristbands
Very good. I didn't know what to expect and it kept me enthralled for the entire season. Will be curious to see where season 2 goes.
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Watson (2025) - 1 out of 5 Mysteries
Watched two episodes and was very disappointed. It's Sherlock + House + weird near future scifi, and still disappointing. I am far from a genius but there were multiple stated logical fallacies, where Watson proclaimed two cousins couldn't both have the same disease as it was hereditary and since they have different parents, they couldn't have it. It isn't impossible, it's incredibly highly improbable.
The only saving grace I'm holding out for is seeing Randall Park as Moriarty. None of the rest of this show has me wanting to come back for more.
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The Gorge (2025) - 2 out of 5 stars
This was... fine? Left me relatively unsatisfied. The ending felt rushed.
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Love Hurts (2025) - 2.5 of 5 Valentine's Day Cards
I posted on Bluesky yesterday after seeing the movie that it reminded me of Bullet Train. Not as good, but in the same vein as an action movie with absurdist humor interspersed.
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Australian Survivor (Season 3) - 4 of 5 Stars
I'm a lifelong Survivor fan, having watched its earliest seasons on TV with my family. Katie and I now enjoy watching it together, and we're finally taking the plunge into Australian Survivor seasons. While we say it is Season 3, it's basically a complete reboot after the first two seasons that were over a decade before it.
It's very much the same base formula as American Survivor, but that isn't ultimately a bad thing.
We finished the season and quite enjoyed it. No spoilers.
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Will and Harper (2024) - 5 of 5 Diamond Earrings
This has been on our list to watch since it came out. We finally got to it, and it was even better than I hoped it would be. What a touching look at friendship and stark look at being transgender.
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"The Ministry of Time" (2024) - 3.5 of 5 little cats
From the book listing:
A BOY MEETS A GIRL.
THE PAST MEETS THE FUTURE.
A FINGER MEETS A TRIGGER.
THE BEGINNING MEETS THE END.
ENGLAND IS FOREVER.
ENGLAND MUST FALL.
There are several ways to tell a story.
I finally finished this book, taking my sweet time doing so (I blame Balatro for that at least some, but not entirely.) Truth is that the story did not grab me until the final act. There, it swept me in, and I quickly tore through the final pages.
Looking back, I had found a handful of turns of phrase which I highlighted. Most are spoiler-laden so I won't share them here, but here are a few choices ones.
In a discussion about religion:
Belief has very little to do with rationale. Why demand a map for uncharted territory?
Next is a line that I thought this was an interesting social observation.
Most friendship quartets don't function in squares but in lines
And lastly this line:
Most things don't happen. Mostly the universe is parking space
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Inside Out 2 (2024) - 5 of 5
As I've documented before, Inside Out represents a genre I deeply enjoy, and this sequel is no exception. I greatly enjoyed the movie and look forward to watching it again.
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Fly Me To The Moon (2024) - 3 of 5 Atlas Rockets
I heard the hook of this movie and put off watching it, but I'm glad I did. It was cute and well done. Reminded me of a mixture of The Right Stuff and Wag The Dog.
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The Bookshop: A History of the American Bookstore (2024) - DNF Review
I made it roughly halfway through the book before calling it quits. I found the general segments interesting, but I found it tiresome for the continual jumping around which is necessary for the sweeping history of the bookstore and publishing industry in America.
There was a lot of interesting insights in the book, interspersed with snippets about independent bookstores which sometimes played a part in larger historical narratives the author tells. But there is not chronology to fall back upon as the book often jumps forward and backwards through time between chapters.
I think a lot of people will enjoy the book, but I just ran out of steam on it and am ready to move onto a new book.
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In & Out (1997) - 3 out of 5 Teacher of the Year Awards
I saw this movie back when it first came out with my dad and sister. He didn't, I don't think, do much research and we went because it was a comedy starring Kevin Klein and Joan Cusack. Little did he know what it was.
It's a cute movie and though it definitely feels dated in its portrayal and handling of homosexuality in a small midwest town, it still made me laugh a number of times.
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A Man on the Inside (2024) - 2.5 / 5 Bridges
The wife and I just finished bingeing the new series, and as I expected - Ted Danson is charming as all heck still. But if you're coming for the mystery, I don't recommend it. The central conceit is weak and more annoying than the surface plot.
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