Resident Evil

I don't think there's such a thing as a Resident Evil movie. Full stop. Resident Evil is a video game and its identity is rooted in its mechanics as a video game. Not all games are like that, either. Like Last of Us is a very cinematic, story-oriented game so its adaptation is pretty damn good. Not a lot is lost in the way of mechanics, at least not as much as Resident Evil. There's no cinematic replacement for rushing to a typewriter, desperately moving items around in your inventory, or most of all -- the feeling of a replay that allows you to strategize ahead. This is why games are games. That said. There is no such thing as a Resident Evil movie, at least not as a loyal, 1:1 adaptation. I think the desire for something like that is a little unfair. There's a lot of things about Resident Evil that doesn't even sound like it would be palatable as a movie. Lucky for me, Zach Cregger agrees. And the agreements don't stop there. Cregger's approach to the IP values the same things about RE that I do. Yes, it's campy. Yes, it's cheesy. Yes, it's goofy and funny and ridiculous and action-packed. Yes, it's a lot of jump scares. I think Resident Evil as a franchise has as much in common with the Fast and the Furious franchise as it does Terminator. That's the Resident Evil i want to see and that's the Resident Evil I fucking got. Those of us who think Leon Kennedy is a dad joke slinging himbo rather than some badass action hero truly won the day. Those of us who live for lines like "Bingo?" and "Forget your makeup or something?" won the day. Code Veronica fans? I can keep going. It's obvious Zach played the same game I did, so of course I had a great time. I won. 4 stars.

Lanterns

There's a lot to unpack here. Mainly the fact that I have always wanted Nathan Fillion to play Hal, but don't hate the choice that was made here. It feels like salt in the wound that he is involved, but as another character. It's like they knew that would upset me. Idk, I do like the dimension that was added to Jon's backstory. It's a great example of how a person's story can be altered, modernized, and made relevant without changing the character themselves. In fact, it made Jon make more sense than ever for me. Some good choices were made here. I thought the last episode was more interesting than the rest of the season, which is a bummer. The last episode has enough moving pieces to have been spread out across more episodes, replacing the longer and less interesting arc that precedes it. The last episode was very redeeming for the entire season, I wouldn't know what to say if it weren't for the ending. It is nice to be able to say the show goes on an upward swing and gets better as it goes, ending at its highest point. I'm also impressed that we can even make a Lanterns show in a time where cop stories can be very uncomfortable. Lanterns not only tackles that, but uses that to its advantage, and subverts some of the expectation here by creating complex characters with complex feelings about the whole Lantern idea. Thank god for that, i think it saves the show entirely. I do worry that if you're not a Lantern fan before this show that this whole thing barely makes sense. Oa and the guardians are not what they are in the comics, really. Or not yet. And that, I feel, takes a lot of the context out of what a Lantern is and what's going on. I feel like the show assumes we know a lot more than we might. I think they're trying to say it's not important, which I respect, but some people will be actually lost and if season 2 DOES show Oa and the Guardians, that's going to be a shock to some people because that whole thing doesn't look like anything else we've seen on screen, really. Three stars for a week starting arc and for stuffing the best part of the show into the last hour.

Silent Hill: Townfall

I will say I made it further in this game than Silent Hill f. That's it, that's all I got. I was somewhat intrigued by the story, but it's taking a little too long to find anything out that feels real. It's been 6 or so hours and I don't know who is on the phone and I don't feel like I'm any closer to finding out. This stuff between Simon and the nurse is getting a little old. Gimme more characters or something. It takes hours to finish a level to get 30 seconds of information that is kind of the information I already knew. Every cut scene is some sort of cliffhanger or stinger and that too is getting old. The puzzles are not very difficult and neither is the combat. The stealth can be kinda challenging but it feels like passive rather than active gameplay. The radio thing can be a little too helpful. It would be kinda cool to play the whole run without it at all and maybe I will. Doesn't make me any more interested to continue right now, though. That's too bad. It would make for a good 6 episode thing on netflix but as a game it's really whatever.

Shockface

I can't explain it. This game has a really strange charm to it. It's a little scufffed; the models don't have facial expressions, nor do their mouths move. the voice acting is pretty bad. everything's just a little off, but in this awesome, incredibly human way. i can't get over the fact that the plot is set into motion by lasagna. that's all i'll say. it's weirdly charming. some of the writing is strangely more human than most games i've played. but some of the writing doesn't resemble this human life at all. that's my favorite kind of game. i loved this. it's really short and at present, i am not even sure if it's done. but i loved what i did see. hope there's more in the future.

Resident Evil 2

Everyone crying about the movie got me fucked up to the point of a full replay of RE2:Remake. This game refuses to get old. If anything, it reinforced how much I like the movie and the movie reinforced how much I like these games. Mission accomplished.

Dino Crisis

(In progress) Really enjoying this so far, it's a surprisingly beautiful game. It's dark all the time, but the colors are really rich. The game feels very alive. It's got everything i want and expect, down to bad voice acting. The camera feels really intentional, which is something I forgot was a thing due to modern gaming. I get it now more than ever. I know fixed camera is so cool or whatever but seeing it outside of Resident Evil is really nice somehow. It's like finding out you like a singer's voice a lot when they sing a song you don't know rather than being focused on how much you like the song if that makes sense. Will keep chipping away at this one for October, I don't imagine it'll take too long.

Silent Hill

I forgot how good this game is. The last time I played it, I was really really young and didn't even know how to evaluate what was happening in terms of the story. Now that I'm older and paying more attention, this game is even more beautiful and wonderful than I remember. I love and miss everything about this. I miss the way the items appear when you inspect them. I miss the fucking fonts. I love the dusty purple color throughout this game. It's so damn stylish. Polygonal enemies are somehow 100000x scarier than the highly detailed enemies I just dealt with in SH Townfall. Hate to say it. Townfall made me boot this up to remember who I really am and I remember now. I am all about the optimism of continuing franchises and seeing Silent Hill as a concept and not a place, but man this game has so much going for it, even in comparison to SH 2.

This Mirror Weighs a Ton

I did not expect an Interpol album to be this good in 2026. Hell yeah. It doesn't really sound like they ever went away. It's very them in every good way possible. There's a lot of people imitating early 2000s indie right now, but Mirror really proves you had to be there. The reverb and swing in Wings on Fire makes it absolutely infectious, which has always been Interpol's magic. Hypnotic, addicting, and unforgettable with the sudden psychedelic moment that pulls you right back into the punchy melody they're known for. This song alone sounds like it came off of Turn off the Bright Lights and that's a good thing. It doesn't sound like they're trying to revive some forgotten version of themselves at all to me. It sounds like a continuation, an honesty, a "we never left" type thing. Triumphant, given how these albums can go. Recommended.

Hotel Usona

Protomartyr is so far into their discography and manages to get better and better somehow for me. I'm probably a minority in that thought, but they get noisier, jazzier, and more topical every single album. The songs are then supported by some amazing music videos that tie the whole hotel theme together. I try not to talk about videos in an album review, but these aren't to be missed. Protomartyr's humor and absurdism against these surreal soundscapes is a feast for both the eyes and ears. They're somehow getting better and better. I don't know how they do it, but I hope they keep doing it.

You Can See Everything

Uh. Holy shit. When this movie ended and the lights came on, everyone just stared at each other helplessly. All of us strangers looked at each other and could only laugh nervously about what just happened over the last three or so hours. START SPOILERS This movie is about a greedy and manipulative tech entrepreneur and not in the way I expected at fucking all. I can't believe that's somehow the movie's twist, but it is. Nathan's choice to mix in reenactments with real footage is done in a way that is so layered, nuanced, and a little trippy. I love it. I love how it's done and more importantly, why it's done that way. I love Amanda becoming emotionally invested and how Nathan thought of the opportunity as a redemption arc for her. You Can See also raises questions about neurodivergence worth talking about. Elizabeth has moments that remind me of my own struggles with humor, emotional intelligence, and human nuances. I have similarly struggled to communicate and often been misinterpreted in ways that have spiraled into trouble too. It's not explicitly stated that she's a neurodivergent, but it does raise those questions. It's worth talking about. Towards the end of the movie, when Amanda says "It's complicated" after perhaps suggesting that Nathan has an emotional attachment to Elizabeth, I wonder if she saw what I saw, in which Nathan felt like he met someone who struggles to communicate like him and sees a bit of himself in her, which then makes him sympathetic to her in ways he might not realize. END SPOILERS As much as this movie has to say about greed, tech, the health industry, and a bunch of other buzz words, You Can See Everything is an unexpectedly great feminist film. It becomes a matter of a woman's agency over her story, her body, and herself. It becomes a matter of a bunch of different people telling her story or thinking they can or have the right to. This inevitably becomes Nathan's challenge and problem too. Every person involved is an entire arc, even Nathan. This one person at the center has this domino effect on all these people and becomes this sort of catalyst of the humanity of every other person in the film when she is not on screen, which is incredible. This movie will follow you long after you see it. I promise you that. 5/5.