Alan & Jono's Watching/Reading List: January 2024

Alan:

Hello Heroes!

January! It’s cold and snowy outside! Perfect weather to read and watch and stay inside. So I went outside and went snowboarding.

What I’m reading!

• Jurassic Park: The Official Script Book by David Kiel (Script by David Koepp). This book is the script to Jurassic Park, with tons of annotations addressing various versions of the script, pre-production drawings, storyboards, and backstory. It was a really interesting read into the history of a movie I know like the back of my hand. Well worth your time for super-fans. Interesting if you like the filmmaking process.
• Harlem Hellfighters by Max Brooks. One of my favorite authors wrote a graphic novel about the nearly unknown WWI Black unit that fought under the command of the French in 1918. Unsurprisingly, if you’ve read American History, when you give Black folks the opportunity to serve, or fight, or create or whatever, they excel. It’s a great read, though pretty graphic (I mean, WWI wasn’t known for being a kind and gentle war).
• Devolution by Max Brooks. The author of my favorite Zombie book (and one of my favorite books of all time), World War Z, wrote a book about Bigfoot? I’ve never cared about Bigfoot/Yeti/Great Ape cryptozoology. But (unsurprisingly) this one slapped! Scary, believable, hilarious, and just… something about the way Brooks writes burrows into my subconscious. Nightmare fuel, in the best way. If you like getting scared, I can’t recommend this highly enough.

What I’m watching!

• Percy Jackson & The Olympians on Disney+. This is the new show, not the bad (and badly miscast) movies from a decade ago. And you know what? My kids love it, and I’m bored. I think I just missed the sweet spot for those books. I don’t love them. And I don’t love the show. Weirdly, the cast is very mediocre, in my opinion. I was really excited to see what Walker Scobell (young Ryan Reynolds from The Adam Project) was going to do with this! And it turns out, what he’s doing is… kinda moping. It’s not a great script, and the direction is kinda ho-hum. I dunno. It’s not working for me. But my kids love it. 🤷🏼‍♂️
• Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again. Apple TV+ has quietly turned into the new HBO. Not every show they make is for everyone, but nearly every show they make is excellent for what it’s trying to be. Monarch is connected to the American Godzilla+Kong universe of films, which I would argue is the best “cinematic universe” outside of the MCU. The show is lots of fun, has a great mystery at its core, and has Kurt Russell and Wyatt Russell (his son) playing old and young versions of the same character. It’s a lot of fun!
• The Iron Claw. What a tragic story about a weird sport in a strange place (Texas is super-weird, y’all). The performances were good. The script and direction kept me from feeling antsy, even though it was a fairly slow-paced movie. Impressive work from a lot of people, but particularly Zac Efron, Holt McCallany, and Lily James. Zac Efron had to play quiet and kinda small, and still held the screen. Holt McCallany had to play a horrible, borderline abusive guy, and still seem human, and he (and Maura Tierney) did great work making their horrible parents believably human. And Lily James could have easily been “concerned wife on phone” in this, but elevated the slightly lacking character. Not a movie I’ll likely watch again, but you could spend an evening a lot of worse ways.

What I’m playing!

• Still working on Spider-Man 2. It’s still so much fun. I don’t know when I’m ever going to get sick of this formula, but three games in to this Spider-Verse, and I’m nowhere close yet.
• Earth of Oryn. I backed a Kickstarter for this game a little over a year ago, and the Kickstarter closed Beta just opened up. It’s a civ-like medieval-feeling sim game. And it’s being developed on Mac. I’m digging it so far, even though, in early beta, it’s pretty buggy.

Watch Movies! (And television, and read books, and play video games)

Jono:

Hi all! This month I've been enjoying the hell out of my first run at Gilmore Girls, as well as Star Wars Rebels with my kids! GREAT shows. We're also making another pass at Avatar: The Last Airbender just for giggles and inspiration.

Movies I've enjoyed this month include a rewatch of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny (it improved for me on second viewing) as well as catching Godzilla Minus One in theaters another time, because I loved it that much!

As far as what I'm reading, I'm taking a break from heavy clinical books and diving into Fablehaven with my son. So far, pretty damn great! That Brandon Mull guy knows how to write a good family-friendly fantasy.

Also, not something I'm watching or reading, but I just bought a digital Star Wars pinball machine, and it's a great stress reliever!

What about you all? What have you been watching and reading this month?