One of the joys of the TV off-season is the opportunity to catch up on movies. Recently, I spent five evenings binge-watching the works of new Japanese master animator, Mamoru Hosoda. When it comes to Japanese animated films, most people think of Studio Ghibli, founded by master animator Hayao Miyazaki. Their kinds of movies are…
Category: Sci-fi
Avengers: Endgame – Movie Review
It’s no doubt a sign of the hype behind this film that I feel slow for watching it on the second weekend. Man, it has been tough to avoid spoilers! Everyone is very sensitive, asking first if you’ve seen the movie before blurting out plot details, and most internet posts contain the appropriate warnings. Nevertheless,…
Captain Marvel – Movie Review
As excited as I was to get more heroes in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it was more “Guardians of the Galaxy”-style cosmic adventures that I was really anticipating. Captain Marvel’s debut movie started out by dropping us into the middle of her day as a Starforce operative on the Kree homeworld of Hala (very far…
Winter TV 2019 – February Shows
January was a big month for TV shows, but amazingly Netflix and other channels just brought even more to the table in February. Maybe the cold weather is keeping us indoors, but all these exciting shows are a good reason to stay in. One Day at a Time Returning for its third season on Netflix,…
Winter TV 2019 – Sci-Fi & Fantasy Drama
Finally, on to my favourite categories of TV: sci-fi/fantasy dramas. I love how shows can really build a world and a universe; and really open up the experience of these kinds of imaginative characters and adventures in a way that movies just cannot do. I also love how streaming TV has given a channel for…
Winter TV 2019 – Kids/Animated
With all the comedies, movies, and prestige dramas coming to streaming TV, many people may not realize (unless they have kids) that it’s also a channel with a growing number of animated series and kid-oriented shows. Knowing that often their target audiences are the kids of parents who grew up with “Saturday morning cartoons”, reboots…
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse – Movie Review
After having seen so many super-hero movies (especially Spider-Man movies) already, I did not expect to be impressed (never mind blown-away) by this movie. It not only needed to bring something fresh to the well-trodden Spider-Man story, but in order to be visually impressive, it also has to compete with Pixar’s animation benchmark and other…
Fall TV 2018 – part 2
The flood of premieres slowed down a bit over the last couple of weeks, but there were still some interesting premieres with a few surprises. Doctor Who Hugely anticipated was the arrival of Jodie Whittaker as the latest incarnation of the reincarnating Doctor — first time as a woman. In the premiere episode, everything…
Fall TV 2018 – part 1
Have I really not written about TV since last fall’s premieres? I get more response from movie reviews, but I really should be posting more about TV — my first love — especially when there is so much more to watch these days! Anyway … after years of gradually spreading out the fall premiere period,…
Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture 