Alvin's Adventures in Pop Culture

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,…

Star Wars: The Last Jedi – Movie Review

I rewatched The Force Awakens on Netflix before going to see Star Wars: The Last Jedi, and so I went into the theatre pumped for some storm trooper firefights, some lightsabre clashes, some new alien creatures (both cute and gruesome) and some answers to the many questions left behind by the first movie. Some answers…

Coco – Movie Review

I know that there have been a lot of animated films lately, and anyone with kids has already gone to see Coco and moved on, but I just saw it and still want to say how great I thought the movie was. Pixar’s track record has slipped a bit from the flawless hit-factory that it…

The Shape of Water – Movie Review

Writer/director Guillermo del Toro is known for his creepy creativity and imaginatively dark and gothic style, which I recently got to peek into at the “At Home With Monsters” exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario. His movies have ranged from character tales about individuals who are haunted (both emotionally by past tragedies, and actually…

Thor: Raganarok – Movie Review

After Wonder Woman and Spider-man Homecoming, Thor: Ragnarok seems to prove that we’ve hit a good patch of superhero movies at the moment. Starting out with a tongue-in-cheek, fourth-wall-breaking monologue fakeout, I was having a good time with the charming humour right from the start — which didn’t let up all the way to the…

Fall TV 2017 – Returning Shows

If you’ve read any of my recent posts, you’ll know that I’m a big fan of TV comedy. So, it also won’t be a surprise that most of the shows that I watch regularly are sitcoms as well. With that in mind, I’m going to talk about the dramas first, to get it out of…

Fall TV 2017 – New Shows

After a pretty unexciting summer movie season, it would have been nice to come home to some exciting new shows this fall. Alas, so far some aren’t too promising despite a strong pedigree, and others are downright terrible. Good thing there are still a number of returning shows to keep us satisfied (I’ll get to those…