#Philip chung

[takunwilliams]

AEON FLUX 2022

[mary-maud]

Alexa Chung

[kevinsreviewcatalogue]

Review Double Feature: Twister (1996) and Twisters (2024)

Making this another double feature. This weekend, I went back and rewatched the original Twister, an old nostalgic favorite of mine, just in time for the release of its years-later nostalgic sequel Twisters. Does the original hold up, and does the sequel live up to it?

Twister (1996)

Rated PG-13 for intense depiction of very bad weather

<Originally posted at https://kevinsreviewcatalogue.blogspot.com/2024/07/review-twister-1996.html>

Score: 4 out of 5

One of the films that, together with Independence Day a couple of months later, helped revive the disaster movie genre after it had seemingly died with disco at the end of the '70s, Twister is as wild a movie as the namesake weather phenomena it's named for and which serve as the centerpieces of its action. It's a movie that, while not science fiction, has the thumbprints of Michael Crichton, the sci-fi writer who co-wrote it with his wife Anne-Marie Martin and produced it, all over it in its depiction of scientists as heroic working men and women in a way that I, somebody who's had his fair share of experience with what scientific and medical work are actually like, readily appreciated. (Even if Crichton, over the course of his career, had a fairly mixed track record when it came to how his novels and screenplays presented scientific subjects, but that's another matter entirely.) It may have had problems when it came to telling a coherent story, especially when it came to Cary Elwes' character, but it was easy enough to place those problems in the back of my mind when the movie was busy thrilling me with intense, well-shot action and an interesting cast of characters that together dropped me right into the thick of it with them. There's a reason why, even long after the second wave of disaster movies in the Y2K era burned out, people of my generation still fondly remember Twister as a gem of that time.

The film revolves around a group of stormchasers in Oklahoma, led by Jo Harding, a scientist who entered meteorology after watching her father die during a tornado when she was a little girl. They do exactly what their name sounds like, chasing tornadoes in order to track and research them for scientific purposes, specifically with the intention of designing more effective early warning systems that might give people more of a chance to survive when these wicked storms touch down. Our viewpoint characters are Jo's estranged husband Bill Harding, a former stormchaser turned TV weatherman who's come back in order to get her signature on their divorce papers and formally end their marriage, and his new fiancé Melissa Reeves, a therapist from the city who's completely out of her depth in the wild world of stormchasers.

Right away, I fell in love with most of this cast, filled with a who's who of talented actors like Helen Hunt, Bill Paxton, Jami Gertz, and Philip Seymour Hoffman giving it their all. It's a highly glamorized depiction of meteorology that makes it look like a career that combines the advanced scientific work of crunching data with the gritty, hands-on work of actually collecting that data, depicting Jo and her team of scientists as operating highly advanced equipment, at least some of which (most notably the "Dorothy" units they're trying to send into the storms to measure them up close) they designed themselves, out of the backs of trucks, vans, and station wagons covered in dirt and mud. It makes for a very funny contrast with Melissa, the film's comic relief character and audience stand-in who's trying to take calls from her patients even as she's being dragged head-first into the path of a tornado. They may not have been the deepest characters, with Jo's history with tornadoes and her, Bill, and Melissa's rom-com love triangle being just about the only development they get, but I loved them anyway. If I had to pick favorites, they'd probably be Hoffman as Dusty Davies, the very hammy and excitable dude on Jo's team who explains a lot of weather-related concepts, and Lois Smith as Jo's aunt Meg, a little old lady who seemingly can't be put down even after a tornado trashes her house and leaves her injured. Above all else, this is a movie that knows how to make scientists look good, and I'm not surprised that there were a lot of people in the late '90s who got very interested in meteorology after this came out.

And if the cast and the writing did the work in crafting a great cast of characters for me to root for, then Jan de Bont's direction did the work in throwing them into peril and dragging me right along with them. The film takes the opposite tack of Independence Day when it comes to showing large-scale destruction on screen, focusing less on the grand spectacle of seeing cities and monuments get blown up and more on the people running for cover as the houses, farms, tractor-trailers, and drive-in theaters around them get shredded by wicked winds. It's a very ground-level perspective on a disaster flick that still makes it stand out today, when epic-scale scenes of destruction have become the norm for Hollywood blockbusters, much like how Cloverfield used a similar perspective to make a giant monster movie scary. A few shots may not hold up so well today (especially that early shot of a weather satellite that looks like a prerendered cutscene from an early '00s video game), but on the whole, its mix of practical effects work and CGI still looks amazing when it comes time to showing buildings getting torn apart and cars getting tossed around.

Watching and, more importantly, hearing the storms on screen also made me realize how underappreciated sound design is in so many modern movies. All too often, we've seen a trend in action movies especially that I like to call "Nolanization" after one of the filmmakers who helped popularize it, an emphasis on making sound mixing more "realistic" for the sake of realism that, in effect, winds up causing it to turn into a wash where you can barely understand what the characters are saying or where the explosions and gunfire are coming from. If you've ever wondered why you have to turn on the subtitles to make out the dialogue in a lot of movies made in the last ten years, especially movies that were made for streaming, this is why. I had no such complaints here, with the sound of the twisters, often compared in real life to freight trains and jet engines, embellished for effect here but very much drilling into me exactly the mix of awe and terror that the film wanted me to experience. It's repeated throughout the film that tornadoes are not to be trifled with, and as I watched, I very much felt that in my bones. The score by Mark Mancina also injected a ton of energy into the film, especially with its guitars blending almost seamlessly with the rock and country songs on the soundtrack, livening up the film's downtime when the characters are planning or heading out but then falling back during the action scenes and letting the roaring winds take center stage.

The plot of the movie is pretty paper-thin, more or less following a couple of very exciting days in the lives of a team of stormchasers. I liked these characters more because they were played by great actors and had a lot of very cool, funny, and entertaining chemistry and dialogue together, not because they really had any depth. Had the film just been about them, I probably wouldn't have minded. The problem came with Cary Elwes' character Jonah Miller, a guy leading a rival team of stormchasers who we're told are the bad guys because they have corporate backing and are only in it for the money, not the science. When it came to fleshing out its human villain, the film's thin writing and plotting hurt it, not least of all because, despite Elwes doing everything he can to make Jonah into a despicable jackass, the writing never really gives me a sense that he's a bad guy as opposed to just a foil to Jo and Bill. There are ways this movie could've gone about to make me hate Jonah as a proper villain, such as having him not just rip off the design of Jo's Dorothy units but actively sabotage her career for his own gain, having him be the reason Bill left stormchasing and wound up estranged from Jo, or fleshing out the other members of his own team (especially Jake Busey as his sidekick) and having him put them in harm's way because he's a dumbass and a glory hound. The film leans in those directions, but it never really fleshes them out, instead just having Jonah recur throughout the film as a guy who annoys the protagonists only to vanish again. It really needed more Cary Elwes, is what I'm saying.

The Bottom Line

Twister isn't exactly known as a movie with a great story, but there's a reason why a key part of its enduring legacy was an attraction at Universal Studios Orlando that lasted until 2015. This is a two-hour thrill ride that still holds up watching it again nearly thirty years later, and one I'd firmly recommend to anyone who wants to watch a pure, straightforward disaster movie.

----------

And now, for the sequel...

Twisters (2024)

Rated PG-13 for intense action and peril, some language and injury images

Score: 4 out of 5

While Twisters has been billed as a sequel to Twister, what it really feels like is more of a remake in all but name, which is what they were by all accounts originally planning to make. It features no returning characters and only a few minor continuity nods to remind you that the two films are set in the same universe, otherwise following a brand new cast that loosely fits into the archetypes of the first movie but does its own thing with them. More than that, however, it's a movie that recognizes how and why the original still works as well as it does. Like its predecessor, it's a more up-close-and-personal take on the disaster movie that demonstrates how to make this genre work in 2024, in a world where scenes of epic, spectacle-filled destruction enabled with the latest and greatest in special effects have become routine: focus on the people, be they those caught in harm's way or the ones running into it for either science or glory. It's a movie whose real heart and soul underneath the awe-inspiring action set pieces is its cast of characters, played by a host of rising stars who I can see riding this movie to much greater heights of fame and fortune, enough to make up for the fact that it doesn't quite fix the biggest problem I had with the original. There really isn't much to say here other than that it's about as good as the original and the kind of film that's made to be seen on a big screen, one that I'd firmly recommend.

Just like last time, we're back in Oklahoma following two rival teams of stormchasers. Our protagonist Kate Carter, who had been chasing storms when she was a college student, left that way of life behind five years ago and took a job with NOAA in New York City (where a little EF1 tornado that hit Brooklyn recently was considered big news) after a bad judgment call she made got most of her team killed. Her friend Javier "Javi" Rivera, the one other surviving member of her team, convinces her to come back to Oklahoma and work with his new team Storm-Par, a corporate outfit that's employing advanced radar technology that Javi worked with in his time in the military to track storms more accurately than before. While they're down there, Kate and Javi cross paths with Tyler Owens, a stormchaser and YouTuber who's become a minor celebrity as the "Tornado Wrangler" filming himself and his team performing death-defying stunts in and around tornadoes. While Tyler's initially presented as a fame-seeking gloryhound with more followers than sense, Kate eventually warms up to him as they cross paths and she realizes he's not the dumbass he comes off as at first glance, while she and Javi start to question Storm-Par's mission as they do some more digging on Marshall Riggs, the local real estate tycoon who's funding them.

Just as the first movie had a who's who of '90s stars at the top of their game, so too is this one filled with a bunch of modern-day rising stars who, if their performances here are any indication, are probably going places after this. Daisy Edgar-Jones does her best Helen Hunt impression as Kate and does it well, making for a likable heroine with her own tornado-related tragedy in her past for her to overcome, while Anthony Ramos' Javi made for a nice twist on Jonah from the first movie, a version of him who seems to realize what a jackass he's becoming and the kind of person he's working for but also knows that he needs Riggs' money to keep doing his work at the level he's doing it at. The real breakout star here, however, is undoubtedly going to be Glen Powell as Tyler Owens. A guy with a name like a country singer and a truck and wardrobe to match, Tyler is something like a cowboy MrBeast, a YouTuber who makes no bones about the fact that fame and fortune are perks of the job but also, as we see later in the film, seeks to use his platform to do good for the people whose lives are destroyed by the tornadoes he chases. He's initially presented in a fashion similar to Jonah from the first film, quite ironically given how the aesthetics of his team more resemble those of that film's scrappy protagonists, but the more we learn about him, the more Powell gets to lay on his rugged-yet-funny charm and get me to root for him. This is the kind of role that they would've cast Chris Pratt in ten years ago, and Powell brings a very similar energy to this part. Movie nerds have been waiting for Powell to get his big break after years of well-received roles in smaller movies and TV shows, and if this is any indication, he's almost certainly a star in the making.

The basic meat and potatoes of this movie isn't that different from the first. What made that movie work is still in play here, this being a film where, while the scenes of tornadoes ripping apart a highway, wind turbines, a rodeo ground, a motel, an oil refinery, and a small town Main Street are exciting, well-shot, and brought to life with outstanding special effects, they aren't the most intense scenes in it. I've seen other reviews, both positive and negative, call this a movie shot in close-up, with the focus placed less on the action and more on the characters running for their lives and hanging on for dear life as tornadoes roar around them. I've always felt that this is the way to do a disaster movie right nowadays, in a time when most viewers will look at even the biggest action spectacle and quote one of the musicians featured on this movie country-heavy soundtrack ("that don't impress me much!), and director Lee Isaac Chung proved my point by making the action feel about as intimate as you can get when there are tornadoes roaring right behind the main characters. The result was that, even when the camera wasn't focused squarely on the mayhem, it felt more impactful than a lot of comparable effects-driven blockbusters.

Unfortunately, it also has a very similar problem to the first movie: the script, and most notably the villains. Marshall Riggs is given a lot of attention as a background villain who's running Storm-Par as part of his scheme to buy up ruined homes in tornado country and then flip them for profit at the expense of the often desperate people who live in them, a scheme that drives a wedge between Kate and Javi and forces the latter to think about why he's doing this job. The problem is, as despicable as this guy's actions are, he's only in the movie for one scene early on and then completely vanishes, with Javi's co-worker Scott, himself a fairly minor character, serving as the main representative of his villainy. Once again, the film tries to shoehorn in a human villain, in this case a timely representative of gentrification and corporate greed, without really doing anything with him and giving him a real presence in the film. Like with the first movie, I would've either dropped this subplot entirely or made things personal between him and the protagonists. Maybe have Kate's mom, played in one scene by Maura Tierney, know some people who've lost their homes and farms to Riggs and may very well lose hers? Or have him cut costs on Storm-Par's equipment and training, putting them in harm's way? Or have him find out about Kate and Javi's plan to disrupt tornadoes and try to sabotage it because it would mean fewer distressed properties for him to buy up and redevelop? The least this movie could've done is give him a satisfying death, preferably one involving a tornado eating a rich douchebag's mansion or him trying to get the hell out of Dodge in a rhinestone-encrusted Cadillac only to get one of his own billboards dropped on his head. As it stands, it's the same pitfall that ensnared the first movie from a writing perspective, playing out a bit differently in the details but otherwise having more or less the same effect.

The Bottom Line

Twisters is a very well-made throwback to '90s disaster movies that, while suffering from many of the same problems as the original, is also blessed with many of the same things that made it so much fun to watch, especially in a crowded IMAX theater. If you're just looking for a good-time, empty-calorie popcorn blockbuster that hits the spot, this is your ticket.

[thenerdsofcolor]

A Los Angeles Theatre Review: 'Unbroken Blossoms'

There is a sense of tragedy to acknowledge that whenever there is progress made with any given historically underrepresented community in the United States, history always finds a way to repeat itself. Are we doomed to keep repeating that cycle? Such is the question presented in the East West Players production of Unbroken Blossoms, a world premiere play written by Philip W. Chung and directed by…

[randomrichards]

HARD BOILED:

Hot shot officer

Clash with conflicted gangster

Gun fu master piece

[olivierdemangeon]

HELIOS (2015) ★★✮☆☆

[whenmuldermetscully]

XF Rewatch - Milagro

FWIW: I am thoroughly convinced that the IVF, specifically implantation (all preliminaries done) occurred post-Milagro / The Unnatural ( I adhere to @randomfoggytiger ‘s timeline which is beautifully summed up *for reference*)

Philip Padgett and Jose Chung for XF Porn battle 2024

Scully’s in a running club? Girl you really feelin those 30s.. Did she put eyeliner on her lower lash line before stopping at Padgett’s?? Makeup team, I see you. And Padgett confirming that Scully spends more time at Mulder’s than her own place

Mulder is so fkn territorial. He went in to arrest Padgett but after seeing Scully in his bedroom, immediately turns into a brat. Throwing his papers, being all prickly in the jail cell…

The damn UST when Mulder tells her that Padgett writes she has sex with him and Mulder pointedly has to ask if that possibility is all fiction, but Scully’s got this sort of guilty admission on her face but ultimately says yes it’s not gonna happen… she can’t even look him in the eye MY GOD. And he’s just SEARCHING her face: ‘is this Jerse again? is Padgett getting somewhere? Am I missing something I should have been paying attention to?’ Like is this Diana all over again, is Mulder thinking: “am I being tested again? She wants me to trust her judgement right? A matter of trust right? Ok then I trust her…damnit trust her”

I know the focus is Scully but when Padgett says she’s already in love… i would have loved to see Mulder’s reaction just based on what I was picking up on this previous scene.

Padgett: “She’s only trying to get his attention but doesn’t know it” —- when in his room she asks why am I standing here? And he says motivation is sometimes revealed afterward.

[unscharf-an-den-raendern]

Relevante Infos aus Kika Live:

Noah dreht ein Interview mit Chung

Philip ist nächste Staffel nicht mehr dabei

[goosemixtapes]

max's june 2024 reads

fiction

Sooner or Later Everything Falls Into the Sea by Sarah Pinsker (review)

Whatever Happened to Interracial Love? by Kathleen Collins (reread)

Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier (review)

The Price of Knives by Ruoxi Chen (a perfectly normal and friendly mermaid story)

Fandom for Witches by Ruoxi Chen (best thing about fandom i have ever read)

Why We Eat Each Other by Yoon Chung (what if you were spiderman and it sucked, ft. cannibalism)

The Low, Low Woods by Carmen Maria Machado (review)

more of The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

started rereading Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities

literally just the waterloo section of Les Miserables because it was like a jungle i had to fight through

Spar by Kij Johnson ("In the tiny lifeboat, she and the alien fuck endlessly, relentlessly.")

innumerable beautiful and incredible and genius unpublished short stories from my critique group

nonfiction

Are You My Mother? by Alison Bechdel (reread)

finished Fat Talk by Virginia Sole-Smith (review)

Writing the Other by Nisi Shawl and Cynthia Ward (review)

the first half of The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel (yes, again)

misc

Recuerdo by Edna St. Vincent Millay

[thenerdparty]

Twisters film review

Written by Shawn Eastridge

Let’s get the important stuff out of the way first: between starring in Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some with Tyler Hoechlin and now with David Corenswet in Twisters, Glen Powell has worked with TWO Supermen in the past decade. A true honor and privilege, and one I hope he doesn’t take for granted.

Am I the only one who’s paying attention to these things? Does this mean I have a Superman problem? Yes and yes? Great. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, on to the review!

Twisters is the latest in a batch of sequels that arrives at least two decades later than it should have. (I’m looking at you, Top Gun: Maverick–and don’t think I’ve forgotten about you, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F.) Maybe I’m just out of the loop and the world has been clamoring for a sequel to the 1996 box office smash, but I have a sneaking suspicion that by the time we officially reached the 21st century, it wasn’t near the top of anyone’s cinematic wish list.

That said, when the Twisters trailer dropped during Super Bowl Sunday, I was more delighted than I’d ever expected to be. (I’m almost positive it had something to do with the added “s” at the end of its title.) That initial delight grew into genuine excitement when I learned the film was being helmed by Lee Isaac Chung, the writer and director of one of my favorite films from the past decade, Minari. (That 2020 release, nominated for six Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Director, was lost in the midst of the pandemic, and is well-worth seeking out if you missed it.) But how would Chung fair helming a multi-million dollar blockbuster sequel? Would his tendency towards low-key human drama be drowned out by the genre’s demands for rip-roaring special effects to appease the popcorn-munching masses? Would he truly put the “s” in “Twisters”??

If Top Gun: Maverick proved anything back in good ol’ 2022, it’s that you can have the best of both worlds: a sequel that not only goes above and beyond expectations but delivers an effort superior to its predecessor. Look, I get a kick from watching Twister as much as the next person. Its special effects still hold up, Bill Paxton and Helen Hunt are a charming duo, and it’s lovely to see a pre-Boogie Nights Philip Seymour Hoffman doing his best Bill and Ted impersonation. But it’s no masterpiece (disasterpiece?). There was always plenty of room for improvement and Twisters rises to the occasion with more thoughtful storytelling and better drawn characters and emotional conflicts. It’s not particularly nuanced, but its heart’s in the right place, and how often can you say that about your average modern day blockbuster? And while Twisters is no Top Gun: Maverick (for one, it doesn’t have the benefit of Tom Cruise insisting that they take on real tornadoes. Wait, how has no one pitched that movie?), when it comes to crowd-pleasing, heartfelt, pulse-pounder blockbusting, Chung and his amazing cast and crew manage to get the job done and then some. 

Sure, Twisters’ characters and their relationships with one another are relatively simple and straightforward. Its screenplay, written by Mark L. Smith (The Revenant), based on a story by Joseph Kosinski (director of the aforementioned Top Gun: Maverick), hits just about every plot beat you’d expect. In fact, I’d go so far as to say there might not be a single genuinely surprising moment in this entire story. It’s likely your average moviegoer (a.k.a. Mom and Dad) could call the film’s plot beat for beat from the get-go. But that’s okay! Mom and Dad are allowed to get one right every so often! Chung and Smith aren’t out to revolutionize the genre. Twisters is more of a refinement of the disaster movie formula, and it improves upon its predecessor in nearly every respect. 

Besides, whatever shortcomings are evident in the script are cushioned not only by Chung’s confident direction but a top-notch cast led by Daisy Edgar Jones (Normal People, Where the Crawdads Sing) and 2024’s go-to leading man Glen Powell (Top Gun: Maverick, Hit Man). These two are genuine superstars and manage to effortlessly carry this massive, multi-million dollar effort on their shoulders. Rounding them out is an excellent supporting cast, featuring Anthony Ramos (Hamilton, Transformers: Rise of the Beasts), Sasha Lane (American Honey), and Brandon Perea (Nope, The OA). There’s even what threatens to be a stock “along-for-the-ride” journalist character, whose portrayal by Harry Hadden-Paton (Downton Abbey, The Crown) is so sincere and genuine you end up loving him as much as the rest of the raucous crew. These performances are strong enough to elevate the material, grounding it in an emotional reality that might have collapsed in on itself in lesser hands. Kudos to Chung for never missing an opportunity to home in on these characters’ small emotions and character beats, humanizing the whole enterprise. 

But what would Twisters be without its tornadoes? And you’ll be pleased to know Twisters’ action delivers, providing solid thrills that end up being more involving than your standard blockbuster. Working with seasoned cinematographer Dan Mindel (Star Trek ‘09, The Force Awakens) and top notch sound and VFX departments, Chung does an expert job of dropping the audience right smack-dab in the middle of nature’s gargantuan terrors. The thrills are more visceral and hard-hitting than the original. And yes, while this might have something to do with the massive improvements in special effects in the nearly 30 years since Twister was released, it also has a lot to do with Chung’s documentary-esque approach to capturing these sequences. It’s a MOVIE THEATER movie in the “go for broke” way you want it to be.

FINAL VERDICT:

Despite its plot contrivances and simplistic characterizations, Twisters has thrills and heart to boot. It’s simultaneously a throwback to the days of simpler, straightforward cinematic thrill rides and an exciting, forward-looking venture that suggests more on the cloudy-skied horizon. As for me, I’d follow Daisy Edgar Jones and Glen Powell into any tornado and I can’t wait to see David Corenswet switch gears and save people from tornadoes in James Gunn’s Superman next year. (And you thought I was going to conclude this review without referencing Superman. Oh, how little you know me.) 

I award Twisters 3.5 flying cows out of 5.

[cooledtured]

REIGN: The Conqueror — Madhouse Studios’ Medieval Futurist Anime

Anime ahead of its time, REIGN: The Conqueror (アレクサンダー戦記 [Arekusandā Senki]) is a Madhouse Studios (One Punch Man, Death Note, Trigun) gem deep in its back catalog. Based on a novel by best-selling Japanese author 荒俣 宏 (Hiroshi Aramata), it’s the story of the rise and ensuing battle against Persia of the ancient world’s greatest emperor, Alexander the Great.

We’ve an engaging cast of characters which are all, at least in name and relation to him, accurate to ancient accounts. Onscreen are King Philip II of Macedon and his pagan queen Olympias, both rearing Alexander to one day assume the throne. Alexander finds adventure alongside many friends including Ptolemy I, his most trusted general of the fearsome and mighty Macedonian army. Carrying Alexander to victory is his famous black stallion war horse, Bucephalus, who takes down soldiers and assassins with golden armored mechanical muzzle and hooves. Also in this epic is Alexander’s personal tutor and famous ancient philosopher of the Western World, Aristotle, driving story subtext and plot. In fact, many memorable philosophers are there, such as the cynic-philosopher Diogenes “The Dog” and the ghost (or “essence”) of Plato.

One interesting dynamic to REIGN: The Conqueror is we never quite know if we’re watching the past or the future unfold. It subverts any familiar timeline, suspended in a surreal and timeless period where fantasy elements abound, such as shapeshifting spirit alchemist factions (like the Pythagorean Cult, bent on hopes to assassinate Alexander), cloud resident titans and elemental gods. While undercurrents of electricity and advanced technology are part of this world, battles are won by horse cavalries, swords, spears and shields. Landscapes are adorned with moving walkways and extreme architecture. Flying machines course the sky. This is medieval futurism at its best, and Madhouse Studios probably couldn’t have chosen a better art designer to create such hypnotizing and impossible juxtaposition. That animator’s name is Peter Chung, the very same Aeon Flux legend himself.

Perhaps none of the ethereal themes would have been so elegantly animated, or as moving and entertaining, without Peter Chung (IG: @peter_k_chung) at the helm of this multi-nation anime project. Chung’s animation is influential for many. Those less familiar with his work, you might be surprised to know his portfolio includes some of the best and most popular animation of the last 35 years. Notwithstanding his well-known MTV series, Aeon Flux, his animation and collaboration is responsible for the original Transformers TV show, the title opening sequence for Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and also co-designing Nickelodeon’s Rugrats. Chung’s art direction and contribution is part and parcel to the stunning visual imagery and magic you experience in REIGN: The Conqueror.

I could imagine this 13 part series landing perfectly among today’s anime and post-Game-of-Thrones era. But it aired on WOWOW and Adult Swim a little too ahead of its time in ’99 and ’03. REIGN: The Conqueror challenges watchers to sit back and enjoy the beauty of anime that’s packed with style and memorable story, makes you feel anime in a visceral way. It will surprise and intrigue you.

Enjoy the series on YouTube here!

JEFFREY WELLS | Writer

POP-COOLEDTURED SPECIALIST

818–394–0023 | cooledtured.com | info@cooledtured.com

[onenakedfarmer]

Current;y Playing

Dmitri Shostakovich LADY MACBETH OF MTSENSK, Op. 29

Maria Ewing

Aage Haugland, Sergej Larin, Philip Langridge, Anatoly Kotcherga, Heinz Zednik, Kurt Moll, Elena Zaremba

Myung-Whun Chung Orchestre et Chœurs De L'Opéra Bastille

[mary-maud]

Alexa Chung

[tapnhan]

Đọc Người máy có mơ về cừu điện ko trước mặt đôi 🐑 thiệt. Trong dòng văn Scifi thì Philip K.Dick đúng là 1 cây bút huyền thoại, viết truyện chuyên nghiệp từ tuổi 23, cho ra đời cả trăm câu chuyện từ dài đến ngắn vô cùng kinh điển. Riêng cuốn này của cụ đã được đạo diễn Ridley Scott và Denis Villeneuve chuyển thể 2 lần thành 2 bộ phim điện ảnh Blade runner và sequel sau là Blade Runner 2049 (bộ nào cũng vô cùng xuất sắc).

Vì cụ viết nhiều quá nên chỉ đọc được vài cuốn tiêu biểu nhưng các truyện của ông có 1 điểm chung là hay đề cập tới bản chất của thực tại, xoay quanh những câu hỏi triết lý liên quan đến nhận thức, bản chất con người rồi các yếu tố thần học... Toàn triết là triết nên về cơ bản rất khó để review nên để cái ảnh vậy thôy mọi người ở nhà nghỉ tết thì đọc truyện (sách do Nhã Nam phát hành thì phải) hay thôi xem film cũng được nhá.

[thuocvanminh1]

Đánh giá sự phát triển của IQOS: Tác động đến thói quen hút thuốc

Sự phát triển của IQOS đã có tác động rõ rệt đến thói quen hút thuốc của người tiêu dùng trong những năm gần đây. Kể từ khi ra mắt vào năm 2014, IQOS đã nhanh chóng trở thành lựa chọn phổ biến cho những người muốn tìm kiếm giải pháp thay thế thuốc lá truyền thống. Với công nghệ nung nóng, IQOS cung cấp trải nghiệm gần gũi với hương vị mà không sinh ra khói độc hại, điều này đã thu hút nhiều người chuyển từ thuốc lá sang sản phẩm này.

Nghiên cứu cho thấy, IQOS không chỉ giúp người dùng giảm bớt rủi ro sức khỏe mà còn thay đổi cách họ tiếp cận việc tiêu thụ nicotine. Nhiều người đã cho biết rằng họ cảm thấy hài lòng hơn với trải nghiệm của IQOS, từ đó dẫn đến việc giảm bớt mức tiêu thụ nicotine.

Sự phổ biến của IQOS cũng đã góp phần thay đổi cách nhìn nhận của xã hội về thuốc lá. Người tiêu dùng ngày càng nhận thức rõ hơn về các lựa chọn an toàn hơn, điều này thúc đẩy xu hướng tiêu dùng hướng tới sản phẩm ít độc hại. Bên cạnh đó, IQOS cũng khuyến khích việc giáo dục cộng đồng về sự an toàn và lợi ích của thuốc lá nung nóng.

Nhìn chung, IQOS không chỉ là một sản phẩm thay thế mà còn là một yếu tố quan trọng trong việc thay đổi thói quen hút thuốc. Sự phát triển của IQOS đã mở ra một chương mới cho ngành công nghiệp thuốc lá, tạo ra những lựa chọn mới cho người tiêu dùng và thúc đẩy sự chuyển mình tích cực trong cách thức tiêu thụ nicotine.

[greensparty]

Movie Review: Twisters

Released in Summer 1996, Twister, Jan de Bont's follow-up to Speed was a disaster event movie was to storm chasers what Jurassic Park was to paleontologists. Produced by Steven Spielberg, you felt his touch. The movie was better than it should've been, but in the end it was the action that carried it not the characters (although a case could be made that young Philip Seymour Hoffman could've gotten his own movie). The essence of the movie was really conveyed by Ben Stiller's parody at the 1996 MTV Movie Awards ("that was definitely an F4!"). It wasn't that great of a movie that it warranted a sequel, although there was talk for years about it. Now there's a standalone sequel 28 years later opening this week, Twisters.

movie poster

The film opens with college student Kate (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her group of classmates doing some storm chasing for an experiment. Avoiding spoilers here, but five years later Kate is now in NYC and her friend who was on that project Javi (Anthony Ramos) pays her a visit to see if she could join him on a new business venture where he has some new state of the art military equipment he wants to apply to storm chasing. Reluctant to return, she does and she joins his team in her native Oklahoma. Once there is an opposing group of storm chasers led by YouTube storm chasing host Tyler (Glen Powell). While in the area, Kate reunites with her mom (Maura Tierney). Oh and - Tyler and Kate seem to be very different but they have more in common than meets the eye.

Edgar-Jones, Powell and Chung on set

What got my attention about this more than anything was director Lee Isaac Chung. His last film Minari (read my review here) was my #1 Movie of 2020. The fact that he was directing this gave me a degree of hope. Sure it is the old school mentality for filmmakers of "one for them (the studio) and one for me", in which a director gets a chance to make a big studio event movie, proves himself and then gets to make their own passion project on a large scale. Much like the original Twister, the action and the scenes with tornadoes are great and the scenes without them feel like filler. The dialogue is extremely on the nose (there is actually a character saying "this isn't my first rodeo" at a rodeo. No joke.). But the one thing that truly shines beyond the action in this is Glen Powell. Talk about an actor lifting the sail of the whole entire film! At this point in his career after Top Gun: Maverick, Anyone But You and the recent Hit Man, he is truly a movie star who is oozing charisma. It's definitely something to see on the big screen more so than at home. In the end, this is a paycheck movie for Chung and the cast with some inspired moments, but Chung does get the chance to pull on the audiences heartstrings by showing the importance of community...but I just wish the story had more to it.

For info on Twisters

2.5 out of 5 stars