Greetings from Newcastle.
Welcome to the Sunday Shuffle.
🎬 No Country for Old Men - Netflix: Can’t tell you how many times I’ve watched this film. I love it.
🎬 Alien: Romulus - Disney+: an improvement on the last couple of instalments in the franchise. Some really tense moments, but they love to shoehorn the black goo from Prometheus into it all. At least here, it just gets a mention in a way that kinda makes sense… and hopefully means we can move on from it. Third-act weirdness doesn’t completely spoil it for me… Cool to see the lives of people on the colonies. Not so cool to see them try to (silently) sneak in the idea that maybe Ripley had an adventure between Alien and Aliens that she just decided never to mention again… If you didn’t spot this in the movie, look it up. I rolled my eyes so hard, they made a sound.
🎬 Captain America: Brave New World - Disney+: It’s been a while since I’ve enjoyed watching a Marvel movie with the kids. We all enjoyed this one. Anthony Mackie’s great as usual - no longer Falcon, he’s fully carrying the Captain America mantle now, following the events of Avengers: Endgame and the TV show The Falcon and The Winter Soldier. Harrison Ford did a good job as the late William Hurt’s replacement former General, now President Thaddeus ‘Thunderbolt’ Ross. Great to see all the references back to The Incredible Hulk, and some of those loops being closed… over 15 years later! I put it on expecting nothing, and was pleasantly surprised.
📺 The Bear season 4 - Disney+: This was an improvement on season 3, which was at times a bit all over the place. Great character work, great performances… sometimes I just want things to move along a bit, though. Wish we’d had a bit more action in the restaurant this time instead of all the side quests, but at the same time, those side quests let other performers and characters take the spotlight and really shine in it. Then again, who cares? I still think it’s excellent.
🎾 Wimbledon 2025 - BBC: over the last few years I’ve become increasingly interested in the Wimbledon tennis championships. Last year it was reinforced by watching the tennis in the Paris Olympics at Roland Garros. This year, I’ve watched so many matches in the men’s and women’s singles competitions, and enjoyed the ride much more than I’d expected. From watching Alcaraz-Fognini on Day 1 of the tournament, I was hooked. I planned my work day and social events around being able to see particular matches. Seeing these athletes in peak condition, absolutely excelling at their sport is a real treat. Seeing younger players rise, as others who dominated the sport over the years meet the frustration that comes with age… and sometimes seeing older players give one last fuck it all, wild, all-out blast as they bow out of their professional career, is astonishingly entertaining.
📺 Currently Re-Watching: True Detective season 1 - NowTV.
📺 Currently Watching: 1925 season 1 - Netflix.
📖 Currently Reading: Imperial Bedrooms by Brett Easton Ellis. Weird… I’m not sure I’m enjoying it, but I’ll be damned if I can put it down.
🎮 Currently Playing: Red Dead Redemption 2 - Xbox Series S. Just not very often…
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Best wishes and bad dreams,
Jack
All platforms mentioned above are the UK version, unless indicated otherwise.
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