As ever, Harley Quinn stole the entire show. There was about ten minutes in the middle where we might have been enjoying it, but then there was always something to ruin it - bad characters, graphic violence, and my god that starfish at the end was ridiculous. And so much to do with eyes. Bleurgh.

When I want something a bit more relaxing to watch, I dip into Dawson’s Creek on Netflix. Maybe relaxing isn’t the right word, all those hyperbolic teenagers making a drama out of a molehill, but it’s a comforting treat regardless. The only problem with it is, up until this past week, the theme tune was Run Like Mad rather than the correct I Don’t Want to Wait by Paula Cole. Never has the Skip Intro button been more appropriate.

I really don’t know anything about the Beastie Boys except how well regarded they are in the music industry and of course specifically the hip-hop genre. One of the first, apparently, to make the kind of music they did. So, it was about time I gave it a listen, and broadly speaking I liked it. It’s one of those albums that is a lot for me to listen to in one go - a bit of a headache by the end. But for the most part, I liked it. Some of the lyrics and general vibes are a bit outdated but it’s inventive and catchy and powerful, so I can see why they get the respect they do.

Yay, loved this! If I’m honest there haven’t been a lot of stellar albums this year but this latest from CHVRCHES is going straight on the list. Great songs, great length, it sweeps you in and envelopes you in their synth-electro-pop fun. One notable thing was how much stronger Lauren’s accent was compared to the previous album - not sure if that was intentional or not, but I really liked it.

And so it was over. The pacing of this movie felt weird because obviously they wrapped up the dragon cliffhanger from the previous movie in the first ten minutes, and then got on with the finale. And by the end, rather than dragging on and on and on as we did in part three of LotR, it just ended with quite a lot of questions left unanswered. So weird.

This was a step up from the previous film, a lot more entertaining, and mercifully, the movies are just getting shorter as we move through this trilogy. I was very surprised at the return of Legolas, because he certainly wasn’t mentioned by name in the source material, but I think he and the new character of Tauriel added a lot to the chemistry of the characters.

Wow, this was a really boring film, arguably the worst of the lot so far. I always knew there would be some stretching out of plot, given we’re milking three films out of one slim-line book. But this was beyond a joke. It was a full 45 minutes before they even started walking, and walking is usually the worst bit… this time I was happy they’d finally got out of Bag End. For a moment, when they were chatting on about the party at the beginning, I was worried we were just going to watch the whole Lord of the Rings trilogy again just from a different perspective.

I actually thought this film was really good, probably the best of the three, until the ending when it was so drawn out, I really just needed it to be over. In fact, from start to finish, there’s probably a really good two and a half hour movie in here, it’s just elongated in the worst way to drag on over three hours.

This was a bit of a rollercoaster of a movie, the second part of a trilogy so not really a film with a beginning, middle and end. This was all middle. And there were highs (Legolas sliding down stairs on a shield, Gimli being the comic relief, the continuing breakdown of Smeagol) and there were some real lows (I detest endless battle scenes, I’ve never felt the lack of women so deeply, the tree scenes: fun but SO SLOW).

I sort of assumed Kim Wilde was a one hit wonder, Kids in America being a pop anthem but what else? Turns out she’s had a few albums but this was the first. If you like Kids in America, you’ll like the rest of the album because it’s all pretty much the same. It’s good pop but it really does all sound like riffs on the one successful song. There’s a bit of reggae thrown in for good measure, but mostly, it’s much of a muchness.

Another fantastic OneRepublic album, I’ve been looking forward to it for ages. Some of the songs stand out and stick in the mind, Run and Didn’t I are the top two for me. But the whole album works as a whole really well, the usual great anthems and enthusiastic pop that you get from Ryan Tedder and his crew. Top work!

I’ve seen this trilogy before, actually in the days when I used to go to the cinema, and I remember really liking them… although I think that was driven quite a lot by the enthusiasm of the friend I went with. It’s been a long time, though, and I wasn’t sure it would live up to that nostalgia - and I was right, it didn’t. But I did still enjoy it and for a lengthy film with two more to come, it didn’t feel too boring.

Generally speaking, this is actually an okay movie - there are some interesting themes in there, and it’s a different take on the normal superhero, secret identity, saving the world stuff. But it does have problems. The biggest is clearly the tone - what film is it trying to be? It lulls you into thinking it’s a kids movie but then has someone thrown out of a skyscraper window and a monster bite someone’s head off. Then there’s some larking about and school bullying shenanigans and back to kid’s movie, and then they start swearing. It’s jarring and not in a good way.

Once again, my expectations were low for this. Jason Mamoa didn’t have that much to do in Justice League although what we did see was kinda fun. And in the words of Raj Koothrappali ‘Aquaman sucks.’ But actually, in his own, standalone adventure, he didn’t suck. It wasn’t a great film overall - there were far too many legends, quite a few plot holes, and that awful ten minutes of pointless CGI towards the end.

I recently finished watching the second series of Home Before Dark, an Apple TV+ show that is a mystery adventure following a family in a small town. When you try and describe this show in any more detail than that, it starts to sound a bit odd: Well, there’s a ten year old girl who thinks she’s a reporter and digs into a cold case when her family moves back to the small town her father grew up in. Yep, she’s just a kid and she talks to sources and riles up the local police and gets into all sorts of mischief and gets to the bottom of the mystery.

I’ve always been a big fan of Michael Crichton, and I think I must have read this before but I didn’t remember a lot about it as I revisited it via audiobook. The interesting concept of communicating with animals takes centre stage here, alongside a bigger plot regarding a race to the exotic minerals in the middle of the jungle. It’s the traditional Crichton fare, intricate and highly researched details hanging on a thriller of a story. I don’t know that it will take its place as one of my favourite of his books, but it reads well and keeps you guessing, and that’s good enough for me.

I don’t know why it’s taken so long for me to read this, it’s an absolute classic, and for good reason. How beautiful this book is, obviously steeped in the tragedy of the author, and with that mystical aura that surrounds a book published so close to the writer’s death. But beyond that, it’s a gorgeous reminder of celebrating life while you can, seeing the light and the dark in various situations, and written so vividly you feel like you’re almost in the room. A wonderful book.

My expectations going into this one were quite low because, well, because we have watched other DC movies. But of course also because Zack Snyder was so unsatisfied with the job JW did that he had to make a four version instead. But you know what? I thought it was okay. It’s not a patch on any of the Marvel movies but actually as a collection of DC heroes fighting a big bad, it was alright!

I’ve been working my way through Michael Palin’s back catalogue of travel adventures, and if I’m honest, this is the one I was least interested in reading. I don’t know anything about Hemingway or why he’s so important, so a lot of it went over my head. However, I do think it’s a nice idea to follow in someone’s footsteps and dig into the things that made them tick. And Palin is so brilliant, that it doesn’t really matter where he goes, it’s always interesting to read his impressions of the sights, smells and sounds that he stumbles across along the way.

This was better than I thought it was going to be but it took a really long time to get going. The first half hour or so introducing far too many characters was kinda dull but also a lot to process at the same time. And doubly annoying when it seemed like we were only supposed to care about two of the characters anyway. The movie picked up once the action did, and the interactions between Quinn (Margot Robbie absolutely stealing the whole movie, no wonder she got her own spin-off) and Deadshot were good.

Okay, I’ll put my hands up and admit that we couldn’t even get to the twenty minute rule with this movie. There were seven minutes of credits. SEVEN. It’s only a short film as it is, and 7% of it was taken up with opening credits. If you’re doing long credits, they need to serve a purpose: being entertaining, filling in back story, or just dazzling with creativity. This was I think supposed to be a bit of backstory but it felt like an endlessly boring Powerpoint presentation.

I didn’t know anything, if I’m honest, about Van Morrison going into this - other than vaguely knowing some of the bigger hits. none of them are on this album, and boy, does VM go off-piste here. It’s like a kind of rocky jazz, where he doesn’t stick to any of the known rules of music. I didn’t really like it, although I did manage to get through it twice without too much pain.

It took a minute to adjust to the chill Lorde that is on display in this album, I was secretly hoping for another anthem like Green Light and there is none of that on here. But what is included in the album is great, on the second listen I was really into it. Great lyrics and a nice flow, you really do have to be in a relaxed mood but once you’re on board it washes over you in a glorious summer-time style.

Another audiobook that I found in my Audible library and I have no idea why. Did I buy it? Was it a freebie at some point? Nevertheless, I gave it a quick listen and rocketed through it quickly. It’s good, a nice way to encourage kids to get out from under the stresses of daily life and stretch their imaginations a bit. A magical little story, that I think I would have loved as a kid.

At first, I thought this movie might be okay, it wasn’t really making a heap of sense but it was really well shot and good to look at, and there seemed to be some proper moral debates at work. But it soon descended into nonsense and there is no better way of describing it than The Guardian’s review: ‘Batman v Superman is 153 minutes of a grown man whacking two dolls together.’

I thought this was going to be a book about the highs and lows of living on a canal boat, and of course it was partly that, but there was a lot more to it than just navigating locks and finding a spot to stop for the night. This is more about the author’s search to find herself, someone a bit lost and looking for the way forward, having survived some personal traumas. It was good not just to hear the romantic side about life on the water, there were plenty of negatives too. The book wasn’t quite what I had expected, but it was well written and detailed an interesting journey.

What I liked about this book was how natural and unassuming the writing is, it’s as if you’re sitting in the pub having a chat with the author, rather than reading the first in a series of books about his walks with his son. It’s breezy and startlingly honest in places, detailing the trip from inception to completion, and all the mis-steps along the way (getting lost, shouting at each other, coming to terms with one half being stronger than the other). A really good, relaxing book to read, and more to follow - I can’t wait to see what the pair get up to next.

After a particularly bad day, all I wanted was some trashy pictures to watch on TV and where better to look for some trashy popcorn movie than Netflix? This popped up as recommended for me and so there was no excuse but to dive right in. The first ten or fifteen minutes weren’t promising, although the friend was quite a lot of fun. Nothing about it was unpredictable or surprising (except how amazing Christina Milian looks?) and it came to a hugely expected and clichéd ending.

This was an interesting experience. First up, as a musical, it was so-so. I’m not a huge fan of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s hip-hop style, it feels like words thrown together in the hopes it might work whereas I like a bit more structure to it. But that’s fine, it was way better than Hamilton, anyway.

I’ve previously watched all the James Bond movies to date, pending Time to Die, in a big journey from the opening credits of Dr. No to the closing sequence of Spectre. It was a heck of a ride full of highs and lows and good action sequences and questionable moments, and I loved it. So having completed the movies, tick, tick, tick, what next? I decided I wanted to read the books - a series of 12 novels and 2 collections of short stories published between 1953 and 1966. In my research on the books, I found that Audible had the full series of audiobooks read by an outstanding selection of authors. I mean, just get a look at these names:

I listened to this primarily because it was the key song in CODA, but of course I’m also aware of Joni Mitchell and Both Sides Now in particular for the heartbreaking Emma Thompson in Love Actually. So it’s pretty wedged into my brain culturally. I was expecting the rest of the album to be similar, wistful, in all honesty a bit depressing. There certainly was a lot of that on there, but also more upbeat numbers too - Chelsea Morning was a nice early surprise. Where I had maybe been a bit nervous of dipping a toe in the Joni Mitchell waters, now I’m curious to hear more.

The first listen through took a bit of an adjustment, I was expecting all-out bombastic Killers anthems, but this is not that. It’s a superbly introspective, self-indulgent look at the town Flowers grew up in. There are snippets of audio from inhabitants, giving their insight into what it’s like living there. They were fine the first couple of listens, I wonder if they would get annoying in the long-term.

Another fabulous Jacqueline Wilson book, I couldn’t really remember the first of this series very well, but it doesn’t matter, it doesn’t have a lot to do with it. The three friends this time are dealing with looks, appearance, modelling, food, and of course, self-esteem. It was quite obvious from the start where this story was going, but I thought it was so well done - the steps towards an eating disorder were taken so gradually that you felt the same as the protagonist all the way through. It surely wasn’t a big deal to do this, and she still had the common sense and it was all fine. Wasn’t it? Very well done.

I was totally expecting this to just be out there action sequences hung over a thin plot, but somehow it was even worse than I could have imagined. The action sequences were good but they MADE NO SENSE. The technology and science behind some of the tricks just seemed impossible and was glossed over rather than explained. A car in space, sure. A magnet that seems only to suck up what you want it to. Okay!

The title of this book absolutely spoke to me, I’m not at all maternal and keen to do my bit for the planet by having zero children, so to read of someone who thought their kid was a mistake and was honest enough to talk about? Brilliant. Of course, it’s not quite that brutal.

The terrorist attack at Manchester Arena shocked the country and had a huge impact on many lives, so it was interesting to read the memoir of one of the young victims of the attack. Freya was there with her friend and was close to the bomber when the atrocity was undertaken.

I really liked the first OMD album I listened to, unfortunately this one didn’t quite live up to my expectations but it wasn’t too bad. There was one song I didn’t like, another of those that feels a bit too much like Ross playing with his sound effect packs, but then it was made up by Joan of Arc and the Maid of Orleans. Not sure this is one I’ll revisit a lot but it was fun to listen to.

This surprised me: it’s a short, sharp burst of angry pop and I loved it! There are particularly highlights, the first song and the one where Avril Lavigne pops up stand out but the rest of it doesn’t pale in comparison, it holds its own. What’s weird is I think I only know Willow from whipping her hair back and forth, so this was a whole new sound and her voice has matured greatly. Loved it.

Given our recent strike rate with John Hughes movies, I was worried about this one, but it was okay. It was old and it was weird, it hasn’t aged particularly well, and it was such a John Hughes movie it hurt, but it was okay. The music was good, and halfway through I thought this could be something really good, but then when the robbers arrived, it took a bit of an odd turn that I wasn’t really expecting or looking for. But hey, we got to the end!

Incredible film. Great story, great acting, great singing. Coming-of-age tale with plenty of layers to unpick: family drama, surviving at school, following your dreams, working with a great teacher, falling in love. And on top of that dealing with being the only hearing person in your family. There were tears at several points, particularly at the end, where it ended on such a hopeful note. Lovely.

Apple TV+ has a great strike rate so far when it comes to their TV original releases. We’ve watched a really good percentage of them and enjoyed almost all with just a couple of near misses along the way. That means we try and give everything come up a go because the chances are more than good that it’ll be worth watching. Thus, we watched Physical, a series staring Rose Byrne as a budding home video workout star trying to break through in the 1980s, whilst also supporting a family and a husband who has his own political ambitions. It sounds like an odd premise and actually the more you dig into it, the weirder it gets.

I read fewer books about running than I used to, now that I no longer participate in the activity myself, but I can’t help but indulge every now and then. This is from the long-running sports broadcaster, most notably known for his stint alongside Chris Evans on Radio 2, and details his own foray into running - from the very tentative early steps to try and improve health, to a huge ultra-running challenge.

There are a few books that detail the author’s escape from the brutal regime in North Korea, and although it’s a similar story, the details of each story are so different. I hadn’t realised that people ended up going to North Korea voluntarily, on the false promise of a better life that ended up being so much worse than they could have imagined.

This felt like the most random of the James Bond books, like a sweeping together of previously unpublished stories following Fleming’s death. Of course it’s fine to do that, but it just makes it hang together a little oddly. As with the previous couple of books, Bond’s growing antipathy to his work shows here too - being reluctant to shoot a female assassin, and letting someone decide their own fate rather than arresting or killing them himself. The last story wasn’t really a story at all, but more of a search by Bond for good eggs in the city of New York. Odd, but still quite fun.

It’s not ideal, is it, having to host an Olympic Games during an enduring worldwide pandemic. Tokyo 2020 delayed their games by a year and still it didn’t feel like it was really the right time to go ahead with it. But when would be the right time? That’s the difficult question. Many, many precautions were put in place and still athletes were having to self-isolate after catching or being pinged about a potential exposure to Covid.

Having watched Cruella, and previously seen the movies, I figured it was worth having a look at the source material, so read through this one quite quickly. It’s a bit weird, from the dog’s point of view, but once you get into it, it flows well. I quite liked it. Going through many adventures to get there and back, I can see why this book captured a lot of imaginations. What I don’t understand is how the Cruella from the origin story movie becomes this fur-hungry monster, but hey, things evolve!

Another Amazon Original short story from Deaver, and I really liked this one. It’s compact and neat but full of the traditional twists and turns. I quite liked that it was from a different point of view than normal - not the detectives, or the protagonist, but instead from an old school reporter, steeped in the traditional ways of making the news, juxtaposed with the new generation of reporters. It was a great old vs new story, and in the end, how both worked really well together. Good stuff.

Goldie Hawn and Steve Martin are a pretty much golden couple of the 1990s comedy genre, so this held a lot of promise right from the get-go! Initially, it felt just like a remake of Planes, Trains and Automobiles rather than its original outing in 1970, but then they actually get to their New York destination so then it becomes a bit more of a destination rather than a travel comedy.

I mentioned yesterday in my post about Riviera that I wasn’t a huge art fan, and that’s true but it made me wonder if it’s because I don’t know enough about the subject matter. A solution to that quickly leapt to my attention - the DailyArt app. The title says it all really, the app presents you with a new piece of art every single day with a bit of background and a story behind the piece. Giving art context really helps to appreciate it and there’s a good mix of modern and classic pieces. Plus if you don’t like something one day, there’ll be a brand new piece along the next day!

This album was fine, which is the only word I can use to describe and I know is more of a diss than it really sounds. But that’s what it was. Good enough music, and I liked listening to it, but it was firmly background music and once it was over I wasn’t left with any impressions either way. It’s just fine!