Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture

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,…

Mission Impossible: Fallout – Movie Review

I know I’m late to the game, since most people have already seen Mission Impossible: Fallout and given their own great reviews of this movie. One of the best things about this movie is that it proves that a long-running action movie franchise can still impress in its sixth instalment. It’s not as if this…

Summer Movie Catch-Up 2018 part 2

Unfortunately I’m not making it through a lot of movies, but here’s the second batch of movies that I’ve watched as part of my summer catch-up exercise (including recent genre hits, and Studio Ghibli rewatch). Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales Going into this one I had no illusions that it was…

Summer Movie Catch-up 2018

Now that summer is in full-swing, it’s time to catch all the big-budget blockbusters making their way to the theatres, right? Well, I don’t know if every movie these days is worth its weight in ticket-sales. So, between movie-going, I’m going to take some time to catch up (in the comfort of my living room)…

Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom – Movie Review

As much as I have enjoyed the Jurassic Park franchise, each movie makes me wonder if they’ve exhausted all the premises for getting characters back to face the dinosaurs again. Each time they find a reason, but it’s never a very good one. The action sequences and the visual effects are typically enough to carry…

The Incredibles 2 – Movie Review

14 years ago, I remember loving The Incredibles so much that as I watched the end credits roll, I wanted to see the movie again — immediately. However, I wasn’t anticipating the sequel quite as much as you’d think. I was worried that there would be nowhere interesting for the story to go, or that…

Avengers: Infinity War – Movie Review

Now that I’ve finally seen it, I am happy to say that Avengers: Infinity War pays off as the climax to a decade of movies that have built up the Marvel Cinematic Universe. There’s been jokes made (by the actors themselves) about how bringing together so many stars and characters should render them each with…

Ready Player One – Movie Review

The paradox about watching the Ready Player One movie is that I would probably have enjoyed it a lot more if I hadn’t read the book, by Ernest Cline, a few years ago (and then again last month to get psyched for the movie). I had been very much anticipating this movie because the book…

Black Panther – Movie Review

I was never a fan of the Black Panther comics. His generic animal-based super-strength and agility didn’t really impress, and his background as a king of a technologically-advanced African nation was interesting, but less so in a comic book universe where technology can do anything a writer and artist wants to imagine. On screen, however,…