Month: November 2024

Today, in the UK, we’ll find out if it’s OK for humans to continue to die in intolerable pain, the likes of which it would be illegal to inflict on an animal.

Watched Monster House (2006) by an author from letterboxd.com
Monsters under the bed are scary enough, but what happens when an entire house is out to get you? Three teens aim to find out when they go up against a decrepit neighboring home and unlock its frightening secrets.

As a “kid’s first horror”, it does the job but the explanation for the haunting is both bizarre and kind of naff.

★★★

My review

Read Microsoft starts boiling the Copilot frog: It's not a soup you want to drink at any price by Rupert Goodwins

I work with data in the UK public sector. For me, the accuracy of that data is paramount. I’ve certainly been in roles where the accuracy of the data was an unwelcome fact. While that’s not the case in my current role, I do have general concerns about the employment of AI in this area. This is along the lines of:

“We know it’s not completely accurate, but we also know no-one is really looking at it too closely, so what is the value of being accurate?”

Watched Source Code (2011) by an author from letterboxd.com
When decorated soldier Captain Colter Stevens wakes up in the body of an unknown man, he discovers he's part of a mission to find the bomber of a Chicago commuter train.

This review may contain spoilers.

I liked this more on previous viewings.

Now I can’t get passed the fact that Colter now lives as Shaun but knows nothing about him… how the heck is he going to live like that? Seems more like a nightmare than a happy ending.

Also, has Shaun just been erased from existence? Is poor Shaun still in there somewhere? Like, in the sunken place?

Can we have a Source Code 2 where Shaun tries to get out and it plays a bit like Moon Knight with time jumps?

★★★½ (contains spoilers)

My review

Watched Cloverfield (2008) by an author from letterboxd.com
Five young New Yorkers throw their friend a going-away party the night that a monster the size of a skyscraper descends upon the city. Told from the point of view of their video camera, the film is a document of their attempt to survive the most surreal, horrifying event of their lives.

I remember seeing this in the cinema and it was a stand-out experience. It was so loud and disorientating. Clearly watching it on the small screen doesn’t give you that but my previous colours any rewatch.

Since people have written some excellent reviews here talking about 9/11, I won’t rehash those. Although I still think the best post-9/11 film is The Dark Knight.

I’ll just talk about the monster. My wife says this movie is not “scary” once you see the monster. I completely disagree. All the tension comes from the struggle to survive, and the fear from a complete breakdown of security. In the latter parts of this movie, death is constantly a breath away and you have a real sense that survival is mostly blind luck.

In today’s world, I imagine that’s how it feels to live in places like Gaza or parts of Ukraine. And I think this demonstrates that the monster itself is pretty incidental. The monster is just the catalyst.

(I will just add that I love the monster, it’s great)

★★★★

My review