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Ctrl Alt Critique – Cats (2019)

This week, for reasons yet to be fully understood, Amber, Ad, and Bailey are tackling Tom Hooper’s 2019 remake of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats. Regular contributor Sammie joins them once again to offer her unique perspective on this peculiar feature. Prepare for a discussion covering everything from Taylor Swift to Tom Hooper’s directorial choices, the ethics of portraying pets in a shameful light,…

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Ctrl Alt Critique – Signs (2002)

Amber and Bailey revisit the weird and wonderful world of extraterrestrials, covering the 2002 M. Night Shyamalan’s invasion flick, Signs. Prepare for a wild ride as Bailey attempts to apply a geopolitical lens to these water-fearing beasties. Amber, meanwhile, tries to utilise her QHSE Officer expertise, providing these aliens with a spot of homework before reattempting a second invasion. So…

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Ctrl Alt Critique – Aliens (1986)

This week, Ad, Amber and Bailey are reviewing James Cameron’s 1986 sequel to the Ridley Scott sci-fi hit, Aliens. Join Bailey and Ad, as they dish up a compelling defense case for Carter J. Burke’s actions, inviting the jury (well…listeners) to contemplate whether Ellen Ripley may well have been the real villain all along. Meanwhile, I decide to bring some of my Occupational Health and Safety…

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Ctrl Alt Critique – Nosferatu (2024)

This week, Amber, Ad, and Bailey dive into Robert Eggers’ remake of the classic 1922 German expressionist masterpiece, Nosferatu. Join the trio as they discuss their favorite vampire films of all time, the director’s cuts that excite them most, and their imaginative strategies for vanquishing pesky vampires. Is Amber a uniquely skilled vampire slayer, or just the strange, toxic ex girlfriend…

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A Roll of the Dice

New years are peculiar. I suspect that’s the case for a lot of people. Of course there is no real significance to a new year. It’s just the transition from one day to the next. It’s nothing more than a shift in digits. Yet being the species that we are, we’ve applied more meaning to this particular transition in numbers. A random day suddenly becomes an annual appraisal for our lives. An…

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Ctrl Alt Critique – The Conjuring 2 (2016)

Episode 18 is now live! Easily the most fun I’ve had recording a show to date. It feels nice to be back to recording our standard review episodes, which is why I think there was so much enthusiasm when making this one. This time around, we’re looking at James Wan’s 2016 sequel, The Conjuring 2. During the show, we break down the plot, share some of our absent co-hosts thoughts on the plot logic,…

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Writer’s Journal – The Fable Forms

It transpires that this daft little writing journal I’ve set up for myself might well be paying off. At least for now, that is. After my last entry, I found myself with a burst of inspiration. All that talk about channeling my inner motivation genuinely inspired me. The moment I published my piece on struggling to motivate myself, I found myself with an overwhelming urge to dive into my novel.…

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Writer's Journal - The Stories We Tell Ourselves

My motivation is at an all-time low. Oh, alright, that’s probably a slight exaggeration. The year in which I sat around and watched YouTube videos non-stop was probably less impactful on the overall progression of my life than the situation I’m in right now. Plus, as much as I don’t feel as though I’ve been doing much, a quick step back to assess my workflow suggests otherwise. I’m still…

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Ctrl Alt Critique – UFOs

We have a new episode out! It’s been out for a few days, as a matter of fact. I just did my usual thing of forgetting to hit Publish on the post I’d drafted in prep for it. Due to our co-host, Ad, being quite poorly in recent weeks, we have had to shake up the format of this episode. Instead of doing our usual film/tv/game review of the week, we instead decided to pick a topic and spend the hour…

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Writer's Journal - The Weekend Word Drought

I managed to get very minimal writing done this weekend. When I say minimal, I mean none. This wasn’t part of the plan, of course. Sunday was intended to be my day of nonstop typing. After a couple of slow days, I figured I’d make it up to myself and finish another chapter of my novel. I had the affair all mapped out in my head. I was going to wake up early, get the gym out the way before the sun…

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Ctrl Alt Critique – Final Fantasy XVI, The Terminator, New Moon

I’m a little behind when it comes to posting about our latest episodes. My instinct was to come up with a thousand and one excuses as to how busy I’ve been. Truth be told, I’ve just not been very organized when it comes to promoting the show in recent weeks. It’s for this reason, I’m now playing a spot of catch-up. I figured instead of spamming the site with three subsequent posts, I’d advertise…

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The Road to E.T: Chapter One - 'Dreaming of a Night Sky'

Despite a difficult production – largely in part to Columbia Pictures’ financial troubles at the time of its development – Close Encounters of the Third Kind went on to be a roaring success for the then 30-year-old Steven Spielberg. The film cost $19.4 million dollars to make, yet upon its release in 1977, it brought home a worldwide box office grossing £306.9 million. Columbia Pictures…

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'A Beast from the Third Degree' - The Terminator

These days, James Cameron is perhaps most known as a pioneer within the art of digital filmmaking. Beyond a new release, his films serve as technological demonstrations for the foreseeable future of the medium. None of which is to say his latest movies are bad; they just carry an additional facet that a lot of releases are unburdened with. Yet this wasn’t always the case. There was a brief…

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Ctrl Alt Critique - Streets of Rage 4

Slightly later than intended post. I was meant to post this last week, however time has not been on my side as of recent. We’ve dropped two podcast episodes since my last post. Here is the first of these uploads. Bailey, Ad and I cover the 2020 beat-em-up smash, Streets of Rage 4.

Me being me, I ended up going off on a massive tangent, spending a heft chunk of the episode talking about the…

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Ctrl Alt Critique - Alien: Romulus (2024)

Our latest episode is out! Very proud of this one. We put a lot of work and thought into it. Hopefully that shows in the final edit! We talk all things Alien: Romulus in this one. I dive headfirst into analysing the script. Bailey dishes out some production details and trivia. Ad breaks down some of his issues with the film’s logic, as well as dishing up some of his own tasty trivia in a fine new…

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Ctrl Alt Critique - The Waffly One

This week, we’ve decided to shake things up a touch. Instead of our usual deep dives into films, TV shows, and games, Bailey, Ad, and I pressed the pause button to do something a little different; a Q&A session straight from our Discord community. Expect a rollercoaster of giggles, nonsense, and plenty of unexpectedly profound answers. Recording this episode was an absolute blast; a refreshing…

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'Did Originality Drop Sharply While I was Away?' - Alien: Romulus

Perhaps the most notable aspect to mention about Alien: Romulus is how gorgeous the film looks. From the opening shots of a Wayland-Yutani vessel investigating the wreckage of the Nostromo, to the shots of the alien hive infesting the Romulus vessel, this is a movie that glistens and wows at every turn. Fede Álvarez’s use of puppeteering, lighting and framing makes for perhaps one of the…