New month, new movie review! Ohhh, it's CYBERSpace Jam! In it, LeBron James' son wants to be a game dev and has already created a basketball video game, which is centerstage for a decent chunk of the film; so this counts for my video game movie reviews. #movie #review #looneytunes #basketball

Hmmmm... am I gonna have to extend the Free Guy review to 5 parts... ...Honestly, I am tempted. I think it might end up running long no matter how hard I try to contain it to 4. I'll see in editing what I have to do.

FINALLY! BLACK DECK GOLD STAKE! God damn, this specific challenge of Balatro is more fristrating than fun, it's only because I'm so damn stubborn that I kept going through anyway. Almost tempted to make a full article with my added experience, to fill out what I said in my original quick review.

Alright, I've raged at Balatro's Black Deck Gold Stake enough, time to do some more writing. ...Holy crap do I love the 2-minute Oner that opens Free Guy. Such a great way to set the stage, show the video game world, and display just how insane it already is. Love me a good Oner, seriously.

hey remember when I got shit on for years for trying to warn people that GamerGate was just Nazis and not just about harassing women and not just about some “consumer revolt”

I have now begun redaction of my next review. I'm feeling the creative juices! I've got ideas! Now, all I need is to put them on the page! I love to feel that.

Reminder that I finished my review of Jumanji: The Next Level last Friday. It was a fun one to do. The review that will start publication this coming Friday is covering Space Jam: A New Legacy, and hoooo boy am I gonna have a lot to say.

What the Hell happened with YouTube, why is the recommendations sidebar so damn big now, it's damn near bigger than the actual video!

So sick of living in a fucking South Park episode, I swear.

Random observation about me working on my blog: Sometimes when picking screenshots out of a movie, when I think I got a good one for a paragraph... and then, a little later, an even better shot comes up to illustrate my point. It happens! Kinda fun when it does, even if it means more work.

Trying to get progress done on my articles, while at the same time trying to avoid getting crushed by *GESTURES AT EVERYTHING*. Gotta focus on something else gotta avoid the existential dread gotta avoid the doomscoll gotta avoid the AAAAAAAAAA gotta avoid the godfuckingdammit just review some shit

So, I'm probably not gonna find a space to mention such a small bit of trivia in my published review of Space Jam: A New Legacy, so I'm gonna post it here instead. You know, that Rick & Morty cameo in the film? The only Cartoon Network/Adult Swim representative? They deliver Taz to the Tunes?

ICE 👉 Dossier Municipales à Bordeaux : l'écolo au galop 👉 Procès Marine Le Pen : c'est la faute à l'Europe ! 👉 Festival d'Angoulême : Charlie débat avec d'anciens Grand Prix En vente mercredi !

Final part of the Jumanji: The Next Level review - every player has been reshuffled into the role they're best for, Bethany and Alex have arrived... Time to storm the- what? Grandpa Milo and his friend Eddie have been kidnapped? Okay, time to storm the stronghold AND rescue them.

Finishing the publication of this review of Jumanji: The Next Level tomorrow! Feel free to catch up if you've missed it!

Currently adding images to my review of Space Jam: A New Legacy. One detail of the film is that LeBron's son wants to attend a game design camp held by E3. And that E3 would shut down in 2023, literally two years after that movie came out. It feels like an unintentional period piece now.

I got to add Dan Olson's "cringe" gif in an article today. For some reason, it makes me very happy, because I had been keeping that gif on the side, keeping that idea in the back of my head for the moment where I'd see something cringeworthy enough to deserve that gif. Mission accomplished!

One of my favorite lines from the review I'm working on: "Any similarities of this scenario with crackpot takes from idiotic YouTube reviewers are purely coincidental."

I got work today, and for the rest of the week as well of course, but I'm spending my time at home (including the mornings before I head out) spellchecking/editing the review after the Jumanji one. This is gonna be a fun one, I can tell - and I have noticed I could trim them quite a bit.

Part 2 of my review of Jumanji: The Next Level. Let's see what happens (read: What goes wrong) when an elderly hothead is put in the body of a wrestler-shaped action hero. I don't think this team is gonna go far unless they do some serious reshuffling; good thing Jumanji will allow it!

I am looking forward to the Balatro update and its rumored "create your own Challenges" mode, because I would love a "Jokerless practice" mode with 1+ Hand and Discard. It would be perfect. Gotta keep my mind occupied gotta keep my mind occupied gotta keep my mind occupied gotta ignore the dread aa

Desperately trying to change my mind from THE EVERYTHING with some Balatro...

Wanna chill from my week, but also I wanna write, but also, gaming is so tempting... aaaaaaaa what to do... ...On a different note, huge props to everyone who showed up in Minneapolis. The fight isn't lost. Make it clear that yes, there are people fighting this battle, more than we think.

It's time for the VGFlicks reviews of the year, and I'm opening with Jumanji: The Next Level! I already reviewed Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle in 2019, before this one came out, and a new one's allegedly coming out in December, so I'm doing this one now!

Wow, Part 2 of my next review is almost finished! I love when I know my topic and actually have a pretty good idea what to discuss in every article. I do mean, for the review after the one I'll begin publishing on Friday, that is.

For what it's worth, I can happily say that I finished writing Part 1 of my Space Jam: A New Legacy review tonight. If I can keep a pace of a part every 2-3 days, this could be done before the previous, 3-part review is all published.

While writing about Space Jam: A New Legacy, I ended up on a rat about gen-AI, how shitty it is, and casually emntioning some of the, ahem, worst news regarding the tech that we've had this year. In 2026. When January isn't even over. Because the villain's original "idea" feels like gen-AI.

How much of a commentary on current LLMs and Gen-AI should I imbue into my review of Space Jam: A New Legacy? ...The kind of questions I ask myself when writing my articles, I swear...

I saw this take on TikTok a few days ago and wanted to share it here. I had to truncate it because it's a bit longer than 3 minutes. Her central argument is the US govt has a problem in that decades of stochastic terrorism from gun culture has made us less scared of guns.

Finished the Jumanji: The Next Level review! Written, edited/spellchecked, added images. Took longer than expected, but it's done and publication will start this Friday! On to the next movie and... Hoo boy, I'll have a lot to say. It's Space Jam: A New Legacy. It features video games, it counts!

I wrote about my experiences being sexually exploited as a child, and what we need to do to make sure AI doesn’t make that a reality for millions of children. www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Repost again, timeline cleanse - I'm still in love with this damn pic I got from Zazz last year. Possibly one of the best commissions I ever receivd, period.

Important shit that I’m still trying to learn.

It's funny how much of my hobby, when reviewing movies, also boils down to pausing at just the right time to get the best screenshot for what I'm describing. Not particularly easy work, but the fun of it can help a lot!

Like I said, no article tomorrow - I prefer to have all the articles ready first, and then start posting them, so Friday next week is when I'll start the movie reviews. However, I remembered that I have the board game version of Jumanji in the closet! Good prop for a title card there!

There's no age to enjoy video games. Also I totally imagine my generation will speak just like that woman when we reach elder age. I hope my generation will be exactly this fun talking to the younger generations, bonding over games both old and new. This woman is a treasure.

I was hoping to start publishing my Jumanj: The Next Level review on Friday, but I think I'll delay that by a week. It's absolutely not possible for me to finish writing the final part, do all the editing/spellchecking of the three parts, add images to Part 1, and make the titlecard in time.

Hey every other company ever, check out how easy this was blog.bandcamp.com/2026/01/13/k...

plannedallalong.blogspot.com/2026/01/need... As promised - a short companion piece where I list albums from artists on @needlejuice.bsky.social that I haven't covered yet in a dedicated article, or albums that aren't on the label.

Reminder that last Friday, I posted once again about @needlejuice.bsky.social , this time focusing on the band fronted by one of its founders. It's a good time to discover new music!

I can't believe I'm posting this video - but we actually have to have a conversation about the real world implications of America going to war over Greenland. Let me walk you through it. It doesn't turn out well for us.

Please please please, with all the shit going on with X right freaking now, it would only make sense to ban the entire goddamned website. Also, yes, Elon would totally deserve all the of the fucking prison time for enabling CSAM through genAI.

"Check out my new controller, Fred!" "Aw Barn, don't tell me you got suckered into one of those cheap little Sabertooth Tigerz controllers, those thing barely even work! You gotta get a REAL Claystation controller!"

For what it's worth, Part 2 of the first VGFlicks mvoie review of the year is almost finished. I think I've found a steady rhythm, splitting the movie equally and covering about 40 minutes per part. I could still trim in places (brevity is an art that escapes me), but progress is being made.

At which point do we start hitting gen-AI apologists with "so, you're cool with the stuff Musk is having Grok produce lately, then"?

plannedallalong.blogspot.com/2026/01/need... Articles about Needlejuice Records have become a yearly tradition for me, because I love the music I've heard from the label's artists. Today, I'm focusing on the band that started my journey through this label: @nuclearbubblewrap.bsky.social !

A lot of replies here (obviously from people not already aware of The Discourse on this point) were genuinely confused variants on "But why, they're right, that's a valid concern." Let me leave a short thread for future readers explaining why that stuff is always unwelcome on here. (1/n)

Tonight, it genuinely feels like writing for my blog is the last thing keeping me sane. I'm trying my freaking best to stay off from the BlueSky doomscrolling, because it becomes just... too much. I'm so fucking terrified. I'll take whatever can help me. And if I can help anyone else as well...

Spent the last two days not working on my movie reviews, worked on game reviews instead. Time to get some progress done tonight on the movies. But tomorrow, I'.ll be talking music. It will be time for the Needlejuice article, with a focus on one of its founders' band, Nuclear Bubble Wrap.