Review – The Seventh Day

It’s the cop movie cliché where an older, world-weary investigator takes on a new, young, bright-eyed partner. Only instead of cops it’s exorcist priests. Guy Pearce phones in his performance as the senior member of the duo, and with a script this bad I don’t blame him for not putting his heart and soul into the role. See if desperate

Review – All of Me

How can a cast this good make a movie this terrible? The leads – Lily Tomlin and Steve Martin – are both talented actors capable of good performances (particularly when the latter sets aside his over-the-top-1970s-SNL schtick, as he does here). The premise transmigrates the soul of an unpleasant rich woman into the body of a hapless everyman. Hilarity should ensue, but instead we get a lot of maudlin moralizing mixed with a little mediocre slapstick. Even fans of mid-80s situation comedies will have trouble choking this one down. See if desperate

Book Review – The Plutonium Files

The Plutonium Files: America's Secret Medical Experiments in the Cold War by Eileen Welsome
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is an impressively thorough study of the US government’s experiments in which human subjects were dosed with radiation without their informed consent and often without regard for the danger to their health. Journalist Eileen Welsome follows multiple paths taken by the Manhattan Project, Department of Defense, Atomic Energy Commission and other agencies to figure out what happens when radioactive materials find their way into the human body. The author adds an important extra dimension to the study by including the personal backgrounds of many of the victims, transforming a disturbing history from statistics to tragedies. This is a must read for anyone interested in the functions of science in the absence of morality.

View all my reviews

Review – Masters of the Universe (2026)

This festival of meta inside jokes might have worked as a five minute show reel at Comic-Con, but there’s nowhere near enough story here for a two hour movie. For any of this to make much sense, you’ll need to be familiar with characters and tropes from the cartoon toy ads from the 1980s. But then if you’re a He Man fan from back in the day, you’ll also need to be prepared to accept the copious jokes at the original’s expense as good-natured jests rather than mean-spirited mockery. See if desperate

Review – Resident Evil: The Final Chapter

The “previously on Resident Evil” sequence at the beginning had more plot than the whole rest of the movie put together. So this series continues to have your best interests at heart if you prefer noisy video game violence and have no particular interest in why any of the characters would bother doing any of the things they do. And in keeping with that time-honored horror franchise tradition, there’s already been at least one more movie following this “final chapter.” See if desperate

Review – Him

A young, up-and-coming quarterback is slowly lured into a Faustian bargain that may make him the Greatest of All Time. So of course for a big chunk of the movie I’m thinking “Do not tell the demon you want to be the GOAT. I’ve seen enough monkey’s paw stories to know exactly how that’s going to turn out for you.” But then it became obvious that such a silly plot twist would be way too clever for this production. Instead what we get is slickly produced and beautifully designed but otherwise as dull as watching a 90-minute-long music video. The fit of anti-establishment pique at the end doesn’t do much to redeem it, either. See if desperate

Review – Do Not Enter (2026)

Because if you spend some money making this kind of movie, this is still what you end up with. A social media production crew breaks into an abandoned hotel, and the additions of a rival gang and a Descent-esque plot twist don’t contribute anything interesting to the story. Some of the production design is surprisingly good, but otherwise this could have been made by a guy with a camcorder. See if desperate

Book Review – How Comics Are Made

How Comics Are Made: A Visual History from the Drawing Board to the Printed Page by Glenn Fleishman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Glenn Fleishman possesses an impressive amount of knowledge about the historical relationship between printing and cartoon creation, a subject I find fascinating. And yet I found myself disappointed by this book. It’s poorly written, with far too much time and space devoted to points that have already been made or points he hasn’t gotten to yet. But more surprisingly, the layout is also awful. The main flow of the text is chopped to bits by side bars, pull quotes that look like sidebars, illustrations that don’t appear on the same page with their descriptions, and interruptions that hit in the middle of paragraphs and sometimes go on for pages before the narrative resumes. The book is also plagued by technical glitches including shifting font sizes and words that run together. The author has plenty of interesting facts and important insights to share, so it’s a real shame that the bad design work gets so thoroughly in the way.

View all my reviews

Book Review – The Knights Templar

The Knights Templar: A History Strange and True by Dorsey Armstrong
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m in an awkward spot with the media here. “Audible Audio” was the only format option for this title on Goodreads. However, I actually watched the Great Courses video series and read the companion book. Regardless of delivery method, Dorsey Armstrong’s excellent expertise and witty delivery are the main appeals. She runs the gamut on the Templars, from historical context to rise and fall to cultural impact (including some fun and some not-so-fun conspiracy theory stuff). If you’ve any interest in the subject, this series is worth your attention.

View all my reviews