The journey of someone just like you, on a journey just like you

Category: Movies (Page 1 of 4)

Oppenheimer’s Most Poignant Scene Isn’t About Science

Trigger warning for mental health/suicide, and moderate spoilers.

Nolan is one of my favourite directors and he didn’t pull any punches on a complex issue. Here’s why Oppenheimer’s most poignant scene has nothing to do with science.

Oppenheimer's most poignant scene - nothing to do with science
Source: Universal Pictures

I recently wrote in my big “Oh Hai Everyone I Back From Paternity Leave And New Youngun Crazy Times” post last week that I was fortunate to get some time recently to go see Christopher Nolan’s newest movie, Oppenheimer. Ideally would have loved to do the Barbenheimer duo that most Americans were raving about for weeks, but I’m sure I’ll get to see the other side of the big movie day coin soon.

Continue reading

My Attempt At Ranking The Star Wars Movies and Series

I have a bad feeling about this, but you underestimate my power. Here’s my attempt at ranking the Star Wars movies and series.

My attempt at ranking the Star Wars movies and series

One of my favourite franchises is no doubt the world of Star Wars. I absolutely love it. Recently my wife and I finished playing through Jedi: Survivor and not quite 100%-ing the game but probably 90-something%. It was really great, and fortunately they did an amazing job of the ending compared to the original.

Now I should probably qualify what a huge fan I am – I’ve been a huge fan of almost all the games – all the games set in The Old Republic (besides the MMO, I’ve tried my hardest), Force Unleashed games, even older ones like Empire At War or TIE Fighter or Dark Forces. I havent really read a lot of the books besides a bunch of the old Legends books about Luke’s Jedi Order and a bit of Thrawn adventures back in the 90s. And I’ve rewatched all the movies and series several times.

Continue reading

7 Great Shows For Toddlers That I’m Grateful For As A Parent

It’s an amazing time to be a parent, but with so much content it can be hard to find the good ones. Here are 7 great shows for toddlers that I’m grateful for.

7 Great Shows For Toddlers That I'm Grateful For As A Parent
Source: Nickelodeon

It’s a whole new age of entertainment. Where once research groups, school bodies and concerned parents could definitely have been seen to be right in thinking that too much TV would rot a child’s brain, we live in a bold new world.

For one thing, all our media is now available via Over The Top (OTT) delivery means, which in short means we don’t have to sit through a billion ads while someone else controls the programming for us. We have full control over absolutely everything coming through our TV and into the minds of our children.

Continue reading

Elden Ring is Brilliantly Awful (Or Is It Awfully Brilliant?)

Elden Ring is brilliantly awful. It’s the best worst game, and the worst best game, I’ve ever played. Here’s my spoiler free review of the biggest game of the year.

Elden Ring is brilliantly awful, or is that awfully brilliant?
My super awesome Confessor and that giant tree

Like many people, I saw all the ads for Elden Ring. Every game and technology store had a huge poster out the front. Game sites were going nuts about it. People playing the closed beta/network test loved it. And it launched on Steam to absolutely ridiculous success, having the sixth highest number of players.

I’ve never really enjoyed any of the Souls’ series of games, and I’m not huge on open world games besides a few (more on that later), so I didn’t think too much of it.

And then the game hit YouTube. And every second video was Elden Ring Elden Ring Elden Ring. And after watching a few, I realised it was a game I would thoroughly enjoy. Plus after recently replaying Final Fantasy VI Pixel Remaster, I needed to put something on our TV that my wife would still enjoy watching when she’s around.

And then the amazing Ming-Na Wen was in a trailer for it, and I realised I would be buying it.

Continue reading

The Stupidest Thing I Did During the Pandemic (Reading Too Much Media)

I’ve done some stupid things, but this is one of the stupidest. Like many people, I found myself consuming and reading too much media.

The stupidest thing I did during the COVID pandemic was reading too much media
Photo by Karolina Grabowska from Pexels

The COVID pandemic has been one of the generation defining events of our time (although the Russia-Ukranian invasion is definitely up there). Millions of people died, international travel stopped, domestic travel was restricted, people were sealed in their houses, vaccines were mandatory, and the impact on world economies is still not yet known.

At the time of writing, the CEO of Moderna has indicated the belief that 2022 is the year for COVID to become endemic, if it hasn’t already in some parts of the world.

This has made me reflect on the stupidest thing I did during the COVID pandemic. I did already write about 7 Good Things To Come Out Of COVID Season (For Real), but I thought what’s something that I didn’t do very well? And I worked it out.

Like most people, I ended up reading too much media.

Well, we had to, right? In my country, like in many Western countries especially, we had daily updates at 10am on case numbers, changes to restrictions, places we could or couldn’t travel, and every other update under the sun. And like many people, I found myself tuning into not just the state premier’s announcement, but the health minister’s update, the Prime Minister’s update, and other federal updates.

In Australia, they would sometimes give you as short as 6 hours notice to head back home otherwise you could be locked out of your state or even your city for two weeks, so we were all tuning in constantly for over a year. In general, I’ve always kept my ear pretty close to the ground on current affairs and always want to know what’s happening.

But then something happened. It wasn’t enough for me to just read the government updates. I needed the media commentary. I needed the explatory studies being raised to the surface. I needed the pros and cons of vaccination from the news sources I usually trusted. Which then turned into the pros and cons from the news sources I don’t usually check (NB. I’m pro-vax). And their contempories.

And then, maybe worst of all – what the comments sections had to say on all the issues. It started as finding out that sometimes the comment sections would list a restriction change or a venue closure that hadn’t been publicised elsewhere at that point in time.

And then my mood started to change. I needed to check the video update as soon as it was available. I needed to see people I didn’t know fight about the benefits and disadvantages of certain virus management strategies. I needed to read all the things people were saying about the government. And sometimes I would get so into the debates that I would find myself getting physically angry, anxious, or upset.

And then I realised – I had been reading too much media.

In reflecting on this discovery that I was reading too much media, I had a few big thoughts coming out of that. Here they are.

Outrage capitalism has (almost) replaced “sex sells”

We all know sex sells. It always has, and it always will. I’ve written about that reality and the impacts of that several times.

But I’ll always remember my friend Aaron describing what was happening in a single phrase – the media was no longer using clickbait, it was now outrage-bait.

There are a variety of sources on this information but a conservative estimate puts video and media consumption up at least 60% due to the pandemic. Nielsen puts it up between 52 and 215% depending on your country. That’s staggering.

And he was right.

Media companies and advertising agencies now even advise their media clients on the power of using shock or outrage marketing.

You don’t even have to look very far to see it happen. Headlines are set up to deliberately trigger people, especially outlets like The Guardian and The Daily Mail which REGULARLY use CAPTIAL LETTERS on ALMOST EVERY post. Headlines are designed to start fights, with most of them even deliberately using words “outrage”, “backlash”, “controversy”. Even though they’re the ones who want you to be outraged or to fight about it!

Then there are media outlets like BuzzFeed, Vox, MTV, and other pop culture oriented sights which intentionally start fights, from vaccines to religion to sexuality to Black Lives Matter and racial tensions.

You and I are the product, my friend. Just look how heated the comments sections get on posts about any of these topics. I know everyone jokingly posts that Michael Jackson popcorn meme as they’re just there for the comments, but the reality is that’s how companies are now making big money.

They’ll even try to manufacture outrage – I’m calling out specifically the Murdoch brand of media such as 9 News Australia or Courier Mail or news.com.au, which have regularly featured articles which are just people going through Twitter for controversial opinions and posting it as if it’s news.

Or think about how many times you see a post about Flat Earthers. They want you to debate the views of a small minority simply because they’ll get you fired up and drive their engagements up too.

This is what news has turned into, people.

And guess what else happens? Those comment sections drive clicks and shares, which means the media companies make more money.

Which in turn, means they keep making more posts like that. In reading too much media, I found that I was buying into this outrage capitalism.

Don’t kid yourself: social engineering is real

Of course, there is a more insidious side to media. Not only does reading too much media influence and incite outrage and us vs. them violence and conflicts, but it also controls and directs cultural and behavioural trends.

We live in a world that no longer relies on conservative philosophies or religious documents in the way it once did – but don’t be kidding yourself that nothing took their place. I would strongly argue the media is now filling the void of priests and books and churches and directing people’s thinking, and they’re succeeding.

I always remember hearing a quote from the vice president, Robert Pittman, of Warner speaking of MTV on how he viewed the platform. As far back as 1982, he said of MTV, “At MTV, we don’t shoot for the 14-year-olds — we own them. We will reach 90 percent of them in any given household.”

Did you catch that? The head of programming said he believed he owned teenagers. MTV continues today and has significantly broadened its content offering, mainly known nowadays as another BuzzFeed. More topics like manspreading, racial tension, and sexual diversity are the topics of the day.

All the while you are consuming this content, keep in mind the owners of this company believes he owns you. And based on the behaviour of media outlets in general, this is not a viewpoint exclusive to MTV or Warner companies.

The impact of media on group think is measurable. The New York Times even did a significant feature measuring the shift in views on government, family, and relationships that the Murdoch empire has absolutely shifted.

I remember when I was in university that a fully free newspaper was being given out to everyone called MX. It was a cutdown version of the Courier Mail essentially from the same people. Everyone would read it, and it was pretty good for a while.

But then around that time (2006ish), there was a dramatic shift in news in general. We used to have a “news” section and an “opinion” section in our news, with the news section presenting the exact facts without (much) bias, and the opinion section providing commentary. However around this time and even now, these sections are now completely joined – and many outlets no longer even hide fact this is going on.

I hadn’t questioned the idea of a free newspaper that a company was spending millions of dollars in creating, printing, distributing en masse and marketing, but I probably should have.

If a government did this, we would call it propaganda and an insult to democracy. But when a company does it, we lap it up.

As a parent, I have been particularly interested on what the current drive of media is doing to our young people. Here are some standout facts I’ve discovered about Generation Z – the generation who has grown up during this media shift:

  • Gender theory and fluidity is one of the most topics regularly covered by news outlets. Recent Gallup studies from 2022 have shown the impacts of this with 25% of Generation Z identifying as non-binary. This has been on an upward trend, and as conservative commentator Matt Walsh stated, if these numbers are even half true, this represents a dramatic sexual revolution unlike anything previously observed in history. Even Alfred Kinsey put his famously optimistic estimate at 10% of a generation, and more thorough studies used to put this at about 4.2% even just a few years ago. Social commentators on both the left and the right credit media and societal factors in this shift.
  • Pride has always been a big deal, but even left-leaning LGBTIQ+ activists cite their frustrations with Rainbow Capitalism. This is the tendency for many big organisations (think Body Shop, Levis, Bonds, as well as these media outlets) to heavily push their support of Pride any chance they can get with the agenda of getting more consumers – Generation Z identified as the prime target, and all of these brands doing very well at these times of year.
  • Generation Z was not born during the times of slavery or apartheid, but the media’s constant stoking of racial tensions for clicks and views is increasing the perception and experience of race issues around the world. Some university studies have highlighted that only one racial narrative is being perpetuated throughout media currently and affecting Gen Z’s own experiences, and even more concerning, is that media is intentionally inciting conflict between Black and Asian-American experiences. I personally recall seeing how quickly any post about race would turn into Black Lives Matter vs. All Lives Matter vs. Blue Lives Matter vs. Asian Lives Matter vs. Black Wives Matter, and the numbers of comments and engagement were through the roof.
  • Generation Z is now cited as the most depressed and anxious generation. Research showed they were the least interested in COVID but the most anxious and concerned about it. 90% of Gen Z’ers report high stress levels (wow). I read a powerful piece on Psychology Today highlighting the real factors involved in this increased anxiety and they put it on a few perspectives pushed on them by the media – “You are fragile”, “If you feel it, it must be true”, and “Life is about us vs. them”. Such perspectives create a generation dependent on the very information that is also poisoning it.

I’ve known a few people in advertising and marketing over the years, and they had regularly highlighted to me the practice of social engineering. This is also an increased push in the research on marketing in not just targeting the insecurities of the audience, but pushing to adjust societal beliefs for corporate objectives. News sites and their social media teams are all over this in even which comments and viewpoints they promote or remove.

Media and marketing corporations are undoubtedly fighting for your what you should believe. If like me you were or are reading too much media, you might want to stop and think about where your current belief systems have come from.

Who are you letting speak into your life?

I recently wrote about the question of who are we allowing to teach us about sex. It seems there are so many views about it nowadays, no wonder it’s hard for people to work out what they should be doing in their own relationships.

But beyond sex, it raises a real question about who we are allowing to speak into our lives about anything in general. I know I found myself being affected by reading too much media especially in mood and thinking. It reminded me of how important it is not just to think about what I believe, but where I got a belief from.

Don’t get me wrong, I think it’s important for all of us to be aware of what’s going on in our world. I think it’s way worse to live in a bubble or under a rock and not know the very real issues people are facing.

But with companies paying bllions of dollars for their right and ability to influence the way we think and behave, we’ve gotta wonder who is winning the war for our minds.

I think truth is something that can be found. But unfortunately many people get all their truth now from incredibly biased, unbalanced, corporate sources. Balanced too far one way to the expense of all perspectives on an issue, or even replacing truth about who they are with opinions from companies with an agenda.

Let’s make sure we’re building our house upon the rock and not on the shifting sand of commercialism.

And more than that, I would encourage you to think about how you are contributing to this culture of outrage. I previously did a deepdive on a reality I continue to observe, that Our Obsession With Outrage and Being Triggered is Destroying Society. Are we more known for what we are for, or what we are against? We should be people who are demonstrating an exemplery and a copyable lifestyle, not just living lives constantly tearing down without displaying an alternative.


How about you? Were you reading too much media during COVID? Or before or after? How much should we allow the media to drive our thinking and behaviour?

My Top 10 Favourite Movies Ever (Revisited)

Everyone has their favourite movies, here are most of mine – these are my top 10 favourite movies ever.

My Top 10 Favourite Movies Ever... for now
Source: New Line Cinema

Now here’s a topic I haven’t revisited in over 5 years. On Sunday night, a bunch of friends and I were running through a lot of our favourite movies. Some people cited the old classics, whilst others favour modern films. It reminded me that it’s high time to revisit that list and see how things have changed over the years.

Continue reading

Recommending Dragon Ball GT: The Adventure Too Many Fans Missed

Bit by bit you’ll be falling under its spell – my attempt at recommending Dragon Ball GT to the fans who may have missed one of the best parts of the series.

Recommending Dragon Ball GT
Source: Toei Animation

In a bit of a break from the serious topics such as handling marriage challenges, vaccines, great baby products as a new-ish dad, and difficulties in friendships, I should remind you that I’m a total nerd. I have First Class Honours in Games Technology, I have 15 games consoles, and I also love a lot of different types of sci fi shows.

In addition, I have a lot of animes that I enjoy. As per my list Amazing Shows From Japan: 15 of the Best Anime… Ever, my favourite anime is still Gundam SEED/SEED Destiny. What an epic adventure and a great story through and through.

However, Dragon Ball would be an absolutely firm number two. I have watched it all, from Dragon Ball to Z to Super to Heroes to some of the random fan projects.

Continue reading

10 Realistic Movies About Love (Well, Realistic-Ish)

Hollywood romances are super popular, but not always truthful depictions of what really happens in love. Here are 10 realistic movies about love… well, as realistic as Hollywood can be anyway.

10 Realistic Movies About Love (Realistic-ish)
Source: Warner Bros

Love can be such a complicated and layered topic at times. Even moreso when it’s your own love life you’re looking at. It can be much easier to critique or explore the issues of love when you’re looking at someone else’s life.

And even if it’s not a real life, but a fictional one – watching someone else’s drama can be an escape from your own. Or perhaps more healthily, it can be used as an opportunity to evaluate and explore your own experiences.

Now you might have read this title and gone, “Matt you’ve gone insane, Hollywood romance isn’t realistic at all”. And I would concede your point, slightly. There are a ton of terrible depictions of love out there, my least favourite being the “hey I just met you and this is crazy but here’s my number so marry me in 10 minutes after meeting me” type.

Continue reading

10 Christmas Movies That Are Actually Great

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas, but a lot of holiday movies deserve a lump of coal. Here are 10 Christmas movies that are actually great.

10 Christmas movies that are actually great
Source: Universal Pictures

We watched the new Lego Star Wars Holiday Special last night and it was a decently amusing love letter to Star Wars. Of course, it’s also 3000 times better than the original Star Wars Holiday Special which even George Lucas may or may not have said he would take a hammer and destroy every last copy of it. That said, the original did actually give us Boba Fett and result in the events leading to the creation of the currently brilliant The Mandalorian, so good job, Star Wars Holiday Special. You get a Baby Yoda toy for Christmas this year.

Continue reading

Amazing Shows From Japan: 15 of the Best Anime… Ever

The world of anime has brought us some bizarre, over-the-top, and absolutely awesome entertainment. Here are 15 amazing shows from Japan.

15 Amazing Shows From Japan
Source: Toho Animation

Growing up in Australia there was an old show called CheezTV. If you were under 15 anywhere in the country, you were probably up in the mornings before school getting introduced to this whole new world of TV from The Land Of The Rising Sun thanks to this show. And then something amazing happened – Cartoon Network launched Toonami, their bold venture in exposing the Western world to a lot of the animation that no one else had seen before, and our worlds were never the same.

Continue reading
« Older posts