The Gorge (2025): Love story about two elite mercenary snipers stationed on either side of a gorge filled with monsters. Absolutely predictable, but it was actually pretty cute, and had some decent shootin' and such. I enjoyed it.

The Substance (2024): JWZ's review of this said: "This is a surreal masterpiece. It's the most terrifying body horror I've ever seen. It makes The Thing and Videodrome look like wee little babies." So... body horror isn't a thing I'm into per se, but I figured I'd try it anyway.

Yeah. It's a lot. Seriously, be prepared.

Dredd (2012): Exactly what you'd expect it to be, mindless, lots of shooting bad guys, thin plot and mostly irrelevant acting. So... good I guess? Also I went in cold and had no idea that was Karl Urban playing Dredd, he never takes off his helmet.

Godzilla Minus One (2023): Friends suggested I watch this one a few times, so I finally tried it, and went in cold, looked up nothing, never saw a trailer. Which made the style of it a bit of a surprise - the producers did a fantastic job of making it look like a classic Japanese monster movie - at one point, I had to actually make sure I was watching the right movie. Full dislcaimer though - this isn't my genre, I've never really watched any of the classics, so I really don't know what they're like. This one is way more focused on people just trying to live their lives than I'd expected - the monster just gets in the way, he kinda isn't the point. Which means it's actually a little slow, and maybe I wasn't in the right mood for it, but I got bored and stopped about 45 minutes in. Not sure if I'll get back to it.

Edge of Tomorrow (2014): No idea how I missed that this exists. It's sorta Groundhog Day, complete with a little bit of romance, where the protagonist (Tom Cruise being himself) has to kill some aliens. I mostly went in cold, but the plot was obvious a few minutes in. But that's ok - it's exactly what you want it to be.

The CGI for aliens was pretty nice.

Deadpool & Wolverine (2024): So, a disclaimer first. I've seen most of the MCU movies, and all of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. And I've enjoyed... well, most of them. Even Captain America: Civil War. And I really liked the first Deadpool - laughed my ass off.

But the thing I really hate in movies and shows, is when all the characters are horrible people, especially when they spend the whole movie bickering. Sooooo yeah. Didn't make it past 25 minutes.

I should write up a whole post about all of the movies and shows like this I've hated, most of them are well-liked.

Black Widow (2021): Speaking of superhero movies, I watched this one after seeing Thunderbolts and really enjoying it. It was okay - I liked the backstory and the adventure leading up to the final battle stuff. But that third act, kinda ridiculous and whatever. I mean, consistent with movies of this type, with great effects.

Sinners (2025): JWZ said, "Absolutely glorious vampiring. Perfect, no notes."

I went in with only that, and I have to agree with him. If this is your kind of thing, it's great.

Primer (2004): Yet another JWZ reccommendation, I put it on a list then forgot about it, so went in with just the note, "time travelers break the timeline." This was quite good! The plot was kinda confusing - apparently on purpose - and you're often wondering what's going on, but it sorta works itself out in the end.... you know, kinda. I might have to watch it again to be sure. One cool part about it is it was made with almost no money at all, by one guy and his friends, and it doesn't look that way, it looks like they intentionally made it look low budget and dated.

Tenet (2020): Time travel but not really, more like going backward a little... And therefore really confusing, I was a bit lost in the middle, And kinda missed a bit of just how much time passed... or didn't pass. It makes sense after, though I kept thinking the protagonist was either being stupid or just plain not paying attention. Some of the effects look decent, but make no sense at all - and they're not as consistent with them as they ought to have been. Overall though, it seemed kinda clever, and I didn't hate it.

Monarch: Legacy of Monsters (2023): Godzilla and such, so if you're not into that, ignore this. That said, it's still kinda crap. Character interactions often make no sense at all, and often they conveniently forget things for the sake of moving the plot forward.

Generally okay story, and I do really like the way they tell two stories, one in the past, and one in the present. Also Kurt and Wyatt Russell playing the same character at different ages is pretty great.

Epsiodes really vary in quality.

F1: The Movie (2025): I admit I didn't really have high hopes for this, maybe I'm jaded about movies like this or something, or maybe I've just seen a lot of crap. This was great! Like actually had a real plot, and some positive messages, and some side-characters with actual story arcs.

And some really great racing, of course.

Grand Prix (1966): Speaking of car racing movies, I'd been meaning to re-watch this one for a while, and since my partner really liked F1 also, it was time.

Obviously this is from 1966 and movies were just different back then. But honestly, it's a pretty good movie. If you're just looking for car racing, it's okay, but probably you should watch Le Mans instead. This movie is a slow build, and it's more about relationships and lives changing over time.

Also, if you're even remotely into cinematography, watch this - it's really good in this respect. Lots of great establishing shots, quite a lot of it is very artsy, and there's a bunch of clever use of new (in 1966) techniques with titles and split-screening.

Ok so that list of movies/shows with bickering horrible people goes something like this:

Deadpool & Wolverine: see above.

Captain America: Civil War: Starts ok then they just get angrier and angrier at each other for no reason I can fathom.

Breaking Bad: Yeah, I hate everyone on this show.

The Walking Dead: Wow, everyone here is an asshole.

Game of Thrones: Ok this one I knew from the books, but it still fits. I thought it wouldn't to be that bad... but the show kinda got uninteresting and so there wasn't much left to hold it up.