I just binged “Challenger: The Final Flight” on Netflix. I wanted to start with the first and see the rest in the course of a few days, but I just couldn’t stop. Even when you know the story, it’s just harrowing to see there were so many opportunities to prevent this tragedy, and the ones who tried were powerless to do it…

As one review said, an actual miniseries (i.e. with actors rather than a doco) would make for an excellent counterpoint to HBO’s “Chernobyl”. A combination of cutting edge technology and hubris, and smart investigators who smell through the BS to nail the real culprits behind the disaster…

I liked that it really explored the general political context at the time, not just NASA’s internal management, and that it went in depth into who each of the crew was, instead of focusing on McAuliffe. I found it to be pretty good, and very emotional at times.

Earlier this month, I watched Zardoz – The 1974 “Sean Connery in red diapers with suspenders, a pornstache and a gun” flick – And you know what? I was very pleasantly surprised, in fact. Without going so far as to call it good, it’s certainly not the turd it’s often ridiculed as, dealing with themes that resonate a lot today, world collapse, class division, exploitation, false beliefs… even if all this is VERY muddled by the fact Boorman was clearly high as a kite when he wrote and directed it. It’s not a movie that leaves you indifferent, for sure, and I would say it’s one of these movies that would probably benefit from a proper remake, of all things. And I’m not a fan of today’s trend of useless remakes. So yeah, I do recommend it to anyone with an interest in sci-fi, it’s totally worth checking out.

Over the past week, I’ve (re)watched quite a few other gems.

Blue Thunder – 1983 action thriller with Roy Scheider and Malcolm McDowell, one of my favourite movies when I was younger. I’m a sucker for good air-to-air action and the helicopter sequences in this one are perfect. It also still resonates today, what with the entire “big brother surveillance is bad” theme. Can’t get tired of it, still a great flick.

Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw – Yeah I went there! It’s got The Rock, Jason Statham, Idris Elba and Vanessa Kirby, and I’ll watch anything with the last two. It’s stupid, it’s unrealistic, and it’s ludicrous fun. I had a very good time, and I’m glad I went, because a few hours later I watched…

The Room – The infamous Tommy Wiseau assemblage he called a movie. A lot’s been said about this. Watching this one was hard. HARD. It’s impossible to really explain in human terms how utterly bizarre and abysmally bad this movie is, it’s fascinating. The nadir of movies. I know it’s got a cult following, but I for one am pretty sure I’ll never, ever watch this thing again.

The Pumaman – 1980 superhero movie. Think Iron Man. Think Avengers: Endgame. Flip that around and imagine their complete opposite. Whatever you imagine, multiply that by about 1,000, and you may get how utterly, hilariously bad L’Uomo Puma is. Surfing on the Superman craze, it’s got atrocious special effects, actors that can’t act their way out of a paper bag, and Donald Pleasence, who probably needed the check to refit his kitchen or something.

The Matrix, The Animatrix, The Matrix Reloaded & The Matrix Revolutions – Need no introduction. I’ve been wanting to revisit the Matrix universe for a while, especially after the sisters came out, and boy this is fascinating. Of course, there’s the whole messianic Jesus parallel that’s obvious, but it’s very interesting to see all the discourse again about living two lives and killing one to become the other through the trans lens, right from the first movie, and that obsession with mirrors and reflections that don’t always show what they seem. The end of the subway scene, when paralleled with Lana’s personal struggle, is probably the most powerful trans affirmation statement in cinema. I totally have a newfound respect for this movie, it’s so subtly layered it blew my mind again, twenty years after…

Animatrix being a compilation is a different beast, but it’s interesting that Program has two characters called “Cis” and “Duo” battling each other, and I wonder if that’s intentional. My favourite remains A Detective Story, I just love the noir aesthetic and the Alice in Wonderland references that call back to the first movie.

I cannot not take Reloaded and Revolutions separately as they’re so clearly two halves of the same movie, and they pretty much abandon the whole identity angle to focus on the themes of choice vs determinism, without daring to go all the way. It’s very frustrating. I still absolutely love the Merovingian, can’t help it but this pompous fuck is a goddamn gem, sadly underutilized in the third. Great themes, lots of questions but in the end they pull a Lost and barely answer anything…

Interestingly, I didn’t dislike the sequels as much this time around, though I wouldn’t go so far as calling them good. They’re certainly very flawed, and Revs is much more linear and shallow. Maybe because this time I knew what I was getting into, I don’t know. They’re a missed opportunity for sure.

Speed Racer – That was a fun, but so fucking confusing at times… I knew it was a SFX fest but I didn’t expect two full hours in the Acid-Trip Dimension, holy shit. The small kid and the monkey were obnoxiously annoying but once I settled with the fact that it was pretty much a live cartoon, I let all expectations of realism fly out the window and overall I didn’t have a bad time. Glad I watched it.