Adam Selvidge's Website Blog
We Own the Night: Directed by James Gray. With Joaquin Phoenix, Eva Mendes, Danny Hoch, Alex Veadov. A New York City nightclub manager tries to save his brother and father from Russian Mafia hitmen. I watched this due to some gratuitous scenes with Eva Mendes that were floating around the cybersphere and while those scenes were great they really had no bearing at all on the rest of the movie and in hindsight really stick out as being out of place in a grungy look at a family of cops that have a member that’s too friendly with the wrong...
Atlas: Directed by Brad Peyton. With Jennifer Lopez, Simu Liu, Sterling K. Brown, Gregory James Cohan. In a bleak-sounding future, an A.I. soldier has determined that the only way to end war is to end humanity. I spent nearly a decade as a data analyst and not even once was I ever offered a mech suit, but other than that curious part of the plot, this is a pretty solid mech suit movie with a barely there plot driven largely by using familiar concepts of terrorist robots that want to protect humanity from itself by killing all of humanity, much...
How well do you know Star Trek? Lifelong science fiction fan, podcaster and author Tom Salinsky decided that the answer was “not well enough,” and so at the beginning of 2022, he embarked on a two-year mission to watch everything from the start of The Original Series to the end of Enterprise, at the Due to be released in just a few days on the 29th, this is a fantastic stroll through TOS, TAS, and TNG with well written and enjoyable looks at each episode. It’s a great trip down memory lane with insightful comments that cut deep into what...
I Saw the TV Glow: Directed by Jane Schoenbrun. With Justice Smith, Brigette Lundy-Paine, Ian Foreman, Helena Howard. Two teenagers bond over their love of a supernatural TV show, but it is mysteriously cancelled. A confusing and frankly confused movie that feels like a rare misstep by the powerhouse A24, the story builds to a climax that never happens and it’s only in the third act that I realized that both the main characters were extremely unreliable narrators and that nothing that’s given in the plot can actually be trusted. What’s the story that they’re trying to tell here, is...
Mad Max: Fury Road: Directed by George Miller. With Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Nicholas Hoult, Hugh Keays-Byrne. In a post-apocalyptic wasteland, a woman rebels against a tyrannical ruler in search for her homeland with the aid of a group of female prisoners, a psychotic worshiper and a drifter named Max. Watched again because there’s a prequel coming out this weekend that tells Furiosa’s origins and wanted to refresh my memory of this utterly fantastic film. Buy On Amazon!
Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens: Directed by J.J. Abrams. With Harrison Ford, Mark Hamill, Carrie Fisher, Adam Driver. As a new threat to the galaxy rises, Rey, a desert scavenger, and Finn, an ex-stormtrooper, must join Han Solo and Chewbacca to search for the one hope of restoring peace. I watched this again because I finally own it on 4k disk thanks to the Disney rewards program. My feelings on it have continued to soften in light of how poorly the following two films ended up being, and I’m constantly wondering what would have been the result...
Star Trek video games have been around almost as long as Star Trek itself. From humble beginnings as an unofficial text-based game playable on mainframe computers to modern multi-million dollar spectacles, Star Trek video games span the history of gaming itself.In Star Trek Video Games: An Unoff I’m not sure if it’s the “send to kindle” option from NetGalley or it’s an issue with the actual book, but I believe every page had formatting errors, missing spaces, extra paragraph returns, and curiously placed images. The content of the book itself is an easy and breezy read that feels like I’m...
Countdown: Directed by Justin Dec. With Elizabeth Lail, Jordan Calloway, Talitha Eliana Bateman, Peter Facinelli. When a nurse downloads an app that claims to predict the moment a person will die, it tells her she only has three days to live. With the clock ticking and a figure haunting her, she must find a way to save her life before time runs out. Other than some bad continuity with the shower curtain in one of the opening scenes, this is a pretty solid horror show that melds spiritual concepts with modern technology and our dependency on apps. Which are of...
Scavengers Reign: Created by Joe Bennett, Charles Huettner. With Sunita Mani, Wunmi Mosaku, Bob Stephenson, Alia Shawkat. The crew of a damaged deep space freighter strands on a beautiful but dangerous planet. The second of two shows that were recommended to me that I missed on their initial airing, this is the less grounded but just as interesting of the two, with the crew of a marooned ship finding their way through a fantastically alien environment with creatures that absolutely blew my mind in nearly every episode. Buy On Amazon!
