Today, Explained by the American news company Vox is an opinion podcast that talks about current affairs around the world. It often discusses controversial issues and explains them to the layman. The episodes are about 25 minutes long and new episodes are usually released daily. This podcast is great for exploring politics and hearing from experts and learning the most important takeaways from the debate/happening of interest. Even if you’re not too keen on politics, this is a quick and educational way to condense today’s wide range of news sources into one package.
Developed by Hazelight under the EA Originals label, It Takes Two has captured lightning in a bottle for co-op video games.
Unhappy couple Cody and May are planning to get a divorce, in spite of their daughter Rose’s pleas that they don’t separate. In a last-ditch effort, Rose tries to repair their relationship by playing with handmade doll versions of them in their backyard shed, telling the dolls to reconcile. Afterward, unbeknownst to Rose, Cody and May find themselves magically trapped inside of the dolls, and their relationship therapy book transforms into the anthropomorphic “Dr. Hakim”. Cody and May embark on a fantastical adventure guided by the mischievous Dr. Hakim to save not only themselves but their entire family, on a journey of heartfelt self-discovery.
It Takes Two is nothing short of a masterwork. It knows exactly what makes a game fun: it’s filled with expertly-made puzzles for two that are consistently challenging yet never frustrating. It Takes Two’s fluid platforming takes center stage, but the gameplay is constantly spiced up with hilarious offshoots to fighting game, dungeon crawler, and even Dark Souls references. Further, while the writing itself is amusing, virtually everything about the game is designed to create comedy. Frivolous minigames are abundant, bound to bring out the hyper-competitive side in both players as you both, for example, race to chuck the most snowballs at one another. Yet despite its outwardly lighthearted nature, It Takes Two is impressively mature, tacitly dealing with the darker themes of relationship dissatisfaction, partner incompetence, sacrifice, and letting go of things you love. The visuals, too, are no lightweight: for what seems in most respects to be a children/family game, It Takes Two boasts some of the most gorgeous video game stages in recent memory, clearly crafted with meticulous detail. This split-screen experience is singularly designed for two (probably significant others) players presumably sitting on the same couch; I myself enjoyed it with my brother. I wasn’t surprised to see dozens of glowing reviews online explaining how It Takes Two strengthened their relationship, some of which even claiming the game was responsible for saving it. As the magic of earlier local co-op games gradually falls to the dominant modern dichotomy of either single-player or online multiplayer, It Takes Two stands as a commendable beacon of old-school couch play. It’s excellent, through and through.
The Elements: A Visual Exploration of Every Know Atom in the Universe by Theodore Gray
This is a chemistry-filled book that displays the 118 elements in detail. It is a vibrant and fun book that features data about the element, such as its emission spectrum, and lighthearted descriptions that make it fun and engaging to read. It includes photographs of the element and the real-life applications of it, and Gray’s passion for his collection of elements shines through. The Elements is a great visual guide to anyone interested in learning about the periodic table and the fundamentals of chemistry.
Directed by Chad Stalhenski, and starring Keanu Reeves and Halle Berry, John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum is a classy, ultraviolent spectacle.
Immediately following the events of the second film, John Wick is on the run in a rain-soaked Manhattan. Having gained a $14 million bounty on his head after becoming “excommunicado”, John is forced to seek help from his clandestine past which he abandoned, all while defending himself from numerous assailants looking to cash in on John’s life.
John Wick 3 knows exactly what it excels at glorious gun fu destruction within luxurious setpieces. With this clearly in mind, Stalhenski all but relegates the dramatic plot which drove the events of the first two series, replacing it instead with John causing chaos in stylish location after location; the high-society backdrop and Keanu Reeves’ emotionless one-liners tell much of the story. (It just doesn’t matter that there is virtually no plot… when the action is this good.) New to the series, however, are its most melee-intensive action sequences yet. While martial arts like aikido and judo were iconically utilized by John himself in the previous two films, John Wick 3 has the boogeyman toe-to-toe with masters of Pencak silat and kenjutsu – without his signature firearms at all. These make for some of the most intense combat scenes to grace the screen in recent years, as neither John nor his opponents prove to be pushovers. Interesting characters and absurd moments of professionalism between the assassins also lend John Wick 3 an endearing sense of humor despite its exorbitant violence. Ultimately, John Wick’s dogged determination to survive, combined with brilliant and impressively creative choreography proves to be an unbeatable formula once again. He’s certainly back.
Divergent is a dystopian science fiction novel by Veronica Roth which is set in a post-apocalyptic Chicago. The story revolves around a society that categorizes its citizens by their personality into 5 factions. The 5 factions are Dauntless (the brave), Amity (the kind), Erudite (the intelligent), Candor (the honest), and Abnegation (the selfless). Citizens under 16 are brought up in their parents’ factions. As soon as a citizen turns 16, they take a test, that determines which faction they belong to, but are still allowed to choose which faction they want to be a part of at the “choosing ceremony”. If citizens do not finish “initiation” (Which is a physical and mental test given after the choosing ceremony) they are marked “factionless” and are forced to live in complete poverty. The protagonist is Beatrice Prior, nicknamed “Tris”. During Tris’s test, she is marked as divergent which means she has qualities from all of the factions. Her test administrator warns her not to tell anyone because the government will have her killed if they find out that she is divergent. During the choosing ceremony, Tris leaves her parents’ faction Abnegation and switches to Dauntless. The rest of the book is about Tris’s struggles during the Dauntless initiation and living as a divergent. Divergent is one of my all-time favorite books because it is entirely written in the first person, and shows you Tris’s raw thoughts without any filter. Tris is not afraid to admit her flaws and that is what makes this book so good. We can see all of the awkward situations through her eyes, and share all of Tris’s emotions. We also get a glimpse of the other characters’ emotions through Tris’s observations Divergent is very similar to The Hunger Games and Maze Runner, with a dystopian, so if you liked those books you will definitely like this one. Divergent is definitely a must-read and I highly recommend this book if you like Science fiction books with a touch of romance.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness (2022)
Directed by Sam Raimi and starring Benedict Cumberbatch, Elizabeth Olsen, and Benedict Wong, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness embraces the outlandish in one of the MCU’s most unconventional entries, largely thanks to Raimi’s distinctive directorial style.
Ridden with nightmares of unsuccessfully protecting a young girl from cosmic threats, Dr. Stephen Strange leaps into action when he sees her in real life being chased through the streets of New York by a Lovecraftian monster. It turns out her name is America Chavez; she’s being sought for her unique ability to traverse the multiverse. The pursuer is none other than the corrupted Scarlet Witch, who now scavenges reality for a specific version in which she can be with her imaginary children, regardless of the destruction she may leave in her wake. Dr. Strange & co. embark on a mind-bending adventure to stop the Witch, both joining forces and being confronted by many “new” faces along the way.
Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness is frustrating. Sam Raimi at the helm, combined with the intellectual properties of the MCU, should have been nothing short of the explosive piece needed to launch the franchise into a much-needed creative and thematic reboot. And to a very limited extent, it does deliver: the film has brilliant moments which quite literally show a multiverse of possibilities. For a post-Endgame MCU striving to maintain a passionate audience, the multiverse would certainly prove a fascinating, largely unexplored canvas to pique our interest. Exciting glimpses into parallel universes as seen in successful Marvel media like Into the Spider-Verse, No Way Home, and even What If…? should have been the major focus of Multiverse of Madness. These creative highs end up being few and far between in a movie that literally has “Multiverse” in its name; even when the film gets to shine in its Raimi-ian craziness, it’s curiously restrained, with all of its most intriguing aspects settling for criminally small amounts of screentime. Instead, it prefers, for no good reason, to repeatedly backtrack onto its ridiculously weak and trope-y plot points involving Strange and Wanda.
This is not to say that Multiverse of Madness wasn’t entertaining. Cumberbatch is still compelling as the powerful but principled Doctor, and it was great to see Wong finally have a larger role. The special effects are once again on point, albeit some parts of the film do devolve into a CGI Strange throwing CGI at even bigger CGI while CGI all around them crumbles – as CGI does. Raimi’s signature style is also eminent throughout the film, offering a unique horror quality unprecedented for this franchise. Ultimately, the MCU’s hesitancy to do too much with Multiverse of Madness is somewhat understandable, given increasing criticism about franchise incoherence, and interconnectedness with multiple TV shows unavailable to large parts of the audience. Very nearly a creative spectacle but evidently bogged down by the interests of an increasingly risk-averse MCU, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness ends up being crushed by the weight of its own possibility.
Magic Tiles 3 is a fun, musical, and often frustrating game when you don’t click the right tile on time. It is definitely a game where your hand-to-eye coordination will come in handy. You are able to pick whatever song you want from what you have unlocked and try your best to click the tiles as fast as you can as the speeds change a total of 4 times. It can be quite difficult at times since to get 3 stars, you must complete all the speeds of the songs. One thing to not look forward to in this game is the variety of songs in the catalogs. Though there are many genres of songs to choose from such as Pop, Jazz, RnB, Classical, Hip Hop, and EDM, the amount of songs that most people would know is very few and even though you are able to search for songs you want to listen to using the search bar provided, I was not able to find the songs I wanted to play. But all in all, this is a great game to kill off some time in and for music lovers.
Directed by Barry Levinson, and starring Al Pacino and Danny Huston, You Don’t Know Jack is the harshly candid biopic of polarizing euthanasia proponent Jack Kevorkian – or as lovingly referred to in the media, Dr. Death.
Highly methodical, no-nonsense physician Dr. Jack Kevorkian develops a crude euthanasia device out of scrap parts he calls the “Mercitron” after contemplating the prolonged suffering of quadriplegics and begins staunchly advocating for its usage with terminally ill patients. As Kevorkian’s cases of assisted suicide are publicized, he is embroiled in controversy. The nation soon becomes enveloped in an intense debate over the “right to die”, with voices surfacing on both sides. Yet as Kevorkian comes to prominence as a leading American public figure, within his private life, his withdrawn and increasingly stubborn attitude pushes those closest to him away – leaving Kevorkian completely alone as he faces his most demanding challenge yet.
You Don’t Know Jack is a film just as calculated as the man it depicts, filled with meaningful performances from a brilliant cast, and well-paced drama. Al Pacino is perfect as Dr. Kevorkian. He looks exactly like the doctor and replicates Kevorkian’s down-to-earth Michigan accent, and quirky, pensive mannerisms flawlessly. Despite dealing with such a heavy subject matter, the characters’ gallows humor keeps the movie bearably lighthearted. Yet the most laudable aspect of You Don’t Know Jack is its repeated refusal to be partial towards its own star, who (in the film and the real world withal) has been called everything from a murderer to an “Angel of Mercy”. Kevorkian’s headstrong, oftentimes selfish actions are carefully counteracted by his charming, witty nature, leaving him only a begrudgingly likable leading man to root for. Further, the prosaic color palette used throughout paints a powerful picture of Kevorkian’s own unfaltering nihilism. Ultimately, however, the stark gloom cast over the You Don’t Know Jack makes even more important the questions it asks, compelling the audience to consider their perspectives on life and death itself. For anyone interested in medical ethics, You Don’t Know Jack is a must-see.
