Here's what I watched and read last week...
MOVIES
Spider-Man: Brand New Day (2026), dir. Destin Daniel Cretton. This might be my favorite of the four films made with Tom Holland as Spider-Man. Cretton does a great job of balancing action and drama. The CGI effects blend well with the live action footage. I also loved the film’s incorporation of martial arts. The friendship between Frank and Peter works well. And the setup from the last film, with Doctor Strange wiping MJ’s and Neds’ memories, keeps the story stakes high.
Bad Influence (1990), dir. Curtis Hanson, is a good thriller, with a touch of horror. It took me a moment to accept Rob Lowe as a sociopath, but he pulls it off. There are a lot of great suspenseful scenes. I especially love the look of the film and all the locations shot in and around Los Angeles. The film is streaming on Criterion and worth checking out. Be sure to watch Siskel and Ebert’s review of the film - they get into a pretty good argument.
The NeverEnding Story (1984), dir. Wolfgang Petersen. In honor of Stranger Things, and because I’d never seen the film, I wanted to check out this classic from the 1980s. I am surprised I’d never seen it, given that I was 13 when the film came out! I very much enjoyed it, especially the ending. I did not expect it to get philosophical. The special effects are not the greatest, but there is something charming and real about them.
TV
Strange New Worlds, “The Griffin Incident” is a pretty good episode. It is a haunted house story that focuses on Spock, La’an, and Kirk as they discover the USS Griffin, which had been presumed lost. There’s some good atmospheric horror, along with graphic images that were a little disturbing, something I thought I’d never see on Star Trek.
The Imagineering Story (2019) is a great six-part series about Disney’s Imagineers. I’ve been to both Disneyland and Disney World, and it was really cool to see how they created the rides and attractions, particularly the Haunted Mansion, which is one of my favorites. The series is streaming on Disney+.
We finished the fifth season of Stranger Things. Watching it for the second time, I think it’s the weakest season of the series. I thought the plotting could have been better. I did not find that the abduction of Holly Wheeler gave the story enough stakes. I think it would have worked better if they had just focused on getting Max out of Henry’s memories. With that being said, I think there are a lot of wonderful moments in the series. Episodes four and eight were the standouts for me. Overall, I had a great time revisiting the series this summer, especially season four.
BOOKS
I am rereading Stephen King and Peter Straub’s The Black House in preparation for Other Worlds Than These, the third book of the Talisman trilogy. In the first section, King and Straub take their time setting up the world and introducing us to the characters in French Landing. I love how they use a bird’s eye perspective to achieve this. Once you get through the first part, the story starts to pick up. The connections to the Dark Tower are very intriguing. I can’t wait to read the next adventure with Jack Sawyer.
