Category Archives: Films & Television

How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014)

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We caught this in the cinema due to my wife’s insistence. I quite liked the first movie. It was standard cartoon action fare but had excellent world-building and some of the best flight sequences ever put on screen. It also helped that the plot, while being yet another retelling of the hero’s journey, is tightly focused and easy to become immersed in.

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Her (2013)

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There were two great science-fiction films in 2013. One was Gravity. Her is the other. Of the two, Gravity is immediately spectacular and impressive, wowing audiences with visuals the likes of which we’ve never seen before. But it will be Her that sticks in your mind and that you will talk about with your friends long after the credits have stopped rolling. With some luck, it could also be a film that reshapes how AI is perceived in the public mind for decades to come.

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True Detective (2014)

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With the prevalence of cop shows on television, it takes something special to get us to watch one. This one was chosen upon the recommendation of our cinephile friend and because due to its first-class Hollywood acting talent, it’s clearly something outside of the norm. What we especially liked about it was it purported to tell a completely self-contained story in eight episodes. No need to commit to watching future seasons to find out what happened. No need to worry if quality will be maintained beyond the first season.

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X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014)

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As a big fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, I’m one of those who would love to see all of the Marvel properties revert back to Marvel because they have proven themselves to be such better stewards of them. The most egregious offenders are of course Spiderman and the Fantastic Four, but given the existence of such turds as X-Men: The Last Stand and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, this includes the Marvel stable of mutant characters as well.

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