Subscribe & listen on your favourite podcasting app:
A Complete Listing of where you can listen to the Awesome Friday Podcast
Marvel’s Eyes of Wakanda is Fun, Thoughtful, Gorgeous, and Too Short
Marvel is, according to most, at a bit of a crossroads. We spent a few years saturated in their stories post-Avengers: Endgame, and that time has left most of us a bit jaded thanks to what felt like a focus on quantity over quality. In 2025, they’ve promised to get back to a focus on telling the right stories the right way, and they’ve mostly succeeded. Daredevil: Born Again is good, Your Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man is great, and two of the three movies they’ve released so far have been met with critical acclaim, if not the kind of runaway box office success they previously enjoyed.
In short, it feels like Marvel has turned a bit of a corner toward being good again. Their next project, the animated series Eyes of Wakanda, bears this out. In fact, it’s so good, the only real question to ask about it is “why didn’t they make more?”
Continue reading “Marvel’s Eyes of Wakanda is Fun, Thoughtful, Gorgeous, and Too Short”‘The Naked Gun’ Recaptures the Magic of Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker
Spoof comedy is incredibly hard to get right in large part because one must be incredibly smart to write it. It sounds counterintuitive, but some of the dumbest jokes you can think of require razor-sharp instincts and wit, and those things don’t grow on trees. It’s not just that fart jokes require excellent timing; Wordplay needs to be clever but feel organic. Sight gags take a ton of planning, and need someone who is willing to deliver all of that and look ridiculous doing it.
Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker were the undisputed masters of this form. In the 1980s, they made three spoof masterpieces: Airplane!, Top Secret! And The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! They combined the lowest common denominator with stunning wordplay, clever sight gags, and a love of exclaimation points. They had recurring jokes that could make you laugh each time, even when repeated nearly verbatim, and this balance is so well maintained that these movies remain incredibly funny (if a little dated) to this day. They also cast dramatic actors to deliver ridiculous lines completely deadpan, and changed the direction of Leslie Nielsen’s career entirely. Â
With legacy sequels and existing IP being so popular today, it was only a matter of time before someone tried to recapture that magic. Luckily for us, after three decades of pale imitations, producer Seth McFarlane and director Akiva Schaffer have delivered the goods with The Naked Gun, a ridiculous spoof comedy that is as smart as it is dumb, and stars a dramatic actor to deliver ridiculous lines completely deadpan. This new The Naked Gun isn’t just a good spoof comedy, it’s a great one.Â
Continue reading “‘The Naked Gun’ Recaptures the Magic of Zucker, Abrahams, and Zucker”‘Oh, Hi!’ Goes Both Too Far and Not Far Enough
Handcuffing someone to a bed might be fun, but if you don’t let them go, it becomes a crime, a civil matter, or both. In either case, this is the centre of the story of Oh, Hi!, the new comedy from director Sophie Brooks, co-written and starring Molly Gordon.
In the film, Gordon plays Iris, a young woman on her first couples trip with her boyfriend Isaac (Logan Lerman). They are quite obviously infatuated with one another, laughing and singing, lovemaking, cooking, reading, drinking, and generally having a great time at a farmhouse in the country. It’s the kind of romantic getaway that can solidify, or indeed even define, a relationship. In a bedroom closet, they find restraints, and after an evening of drinking and desire, they decide to use them. Iris chains Isaac to the bed, and they make spectacular love. Soon, while basking in the afterglow, it’s revealed that while Iris has been under the impression that they are in a committed and deepening relationship, Isaac has not.
Continue reading “‘Oh, Hi!’ Goes Both Too Far and Not Far Enough”Fantasia 2025 Starts This Week!
Good news, everyone! The Fantasia Film Festival is back for another year. One of Canada’s premier film festivals, and one of the biggest genre film festivals on the continent. This year’s lineup looks great, but here are five films I’m looking forward to.
Continue reading “Fantasia 2025 Starts This Week!”Review: Jurassic World Rebirth
Extinct.
It shouldn’t be this hard to make these movies good.
Let’s cut to the chase: this is not a good film. The most frustrating thing is that in the seventh Jurassic film’s few flashes of originality and humour, when Gareth Edwards gets a tiny chance to do something that hasn’t been rigorously organised on a flashcard board for six months by a committee of test audience clipboard-holding film execs, it’s *very* good. But there’s no metaphorical amber here to defy the laws of narrative physics to preserve it, and suddenly it’s gone, red-lit smoke in the darkness, disappearing back into the forest.
And onto the next flash card.
Continue reading “Review: Jurassic World Rebirth”Film Review: KPop Demon Hunters
Tuning Red.
Many will point out the influence of Into the Spidey-Verse on KPop Demon Hunters, Netflix’s new film about a group of girls carrying a generational weapon of demon-slaying vocal chords. They’d be right, of course; not only because this is from the same animation studio, but also because it has much of the style and swagger of a film that has repeatedly proven to be one of the most influential titles in recent years.
However, it’s impossible to watch KPop Demon Hunters without thinking constantly about how much it loves 2022’s Turning Red, and also how much more it could have taken from it.
Continue reading “Film Review: KPop Demon Hunters”Game Review: Suit For Hire
Flow in game movement really is the secret sauce. From linking tricks in Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 3, to chaining specials in SSW Tricky, to slo-mo diving over boxes in Stranglehold, getting movement just right can elevate a mediocre game into something special (hello, Wanted: Dead).
It can also turn a great game into an all-timer (hello, Suit For Hire).
Continue reading “Game Review: Suit For Hire”Predator: Killer of Killers Gets the Formula Right
The Predator franchise is the platonic ideal of an action horror franchise. There are highly skilled people in the world, and there’s a whole race of monsters that hunts those people for sport. The setup is simple, allowing it to serve as a framework for various kinds of stories. At their worst, films in the franchise are dumb-but-fun action movies; at their best, they’re character-focused stories that illuminate deeper truths about humanity. The latest entry in the franchise, Predator: Killer of Killers, is an animated anthology that lands somewhere in the middle of that.
Continue reading “Predator: Killer of Killers Gets the Formula Right”Home Video: The 2025 Canadian Screen Award Nominees and Where to Buy, Rent, or Stream them
The 13th Canadian Screen Award Nominees are here! This years main ceremony will take place on June 1st with comedian Lisa Gilroy hosting.
Some stand outs among the nominees include Matthew Rankin’s Universal Language which scored a towering thirteen nominations and David Cronenberg’s The Shrounds with nine. Be sure to check out the Best Motion Picture nominees at least, The Apprentice, Darkest Miriam, Gamma Rays, Village Keeper and Who Do I Belong To.
There are a ton of great Canadian films to watch this year –and reminder, this is just a small subset of the total!– and the awards are coming up soon, so without further ado, here are the 41 narrative film nominees for the 13th Canadian Screen Awards, and where you can buy, rent, or stream them.
Continue reading “Home Video: The 2025 Canadian Screen Award Nominees and Where to Buy, Rent, or Stream them”Review: Andor Season Two is Among the Best of Star Wars and the Year
Sequels and prequels are individually difficult. The former have to carry on story threads and push characters into new places in satisfying ways, the latter have to thread the needle of being their own entity while directly leading into the events that viewers have already witnessed. Andor season two then faces the difficulty of being both a sequel to its incredible first season and a prequel to the much-loved Rogue One: A Star Wars Story.
It’s no mean feat, and while there is a lot to say about this season of television and this review will be as spoiler-free as possible, here is the main thing you need to know: if you liked season one, you are going to like season two. Season two is very much the same show as season one, with some structural differences, but the same compelling characters, excellent production value, and overt political allegory to our current world.
Continue reading “Review: Andor Season Two is Among the Best of Star Wars and the Year”Podcast: Megalopolis & Saturday Night
Greetings programs! Welcome back to our two-episode extravaganza! In this episode we review and discuss Francis Ford Coppola’s biggest swing in decades, Megalopolis and Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night, a close look at the 90s minutes preceding the first-ever broadcast of Saturday Night. We have a ton to say about each so join us!
One note before you do though, that on the heels of our impromptu hiatus, we’re headed into an actual hiatus until the new year. We hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season, and we’ll see you in the new year!
In the meantime join us for reviews and discussions of Megalopolis and Saturday Night!
Continue reading “Podcast: Megalopolis & Saturday Night”Podcast: Joker: Folie a Deux & The Substance
Greetings Programs! We’re back after an impromptu hiatus with two new episodes, of which this is one! Join us for a conversation about Joker: Folie à Deux by Todd Phillips and The Substance by Coralie Fargeat. These are both divisive, singular works of filmmaking, but do they both work? Listen to find out!
One note before you do though, that on the heels of our impromptu hiatus, we’re headed into an actual hiatus until the new year. We hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday season, and we’ll see you in the new year!
In the meantime join us for reviews and discussion of the films Joker: Folie a Deux & The Substance!
Continue reading “Podcast: Joker: Folie a Deux & The Substance”Podcast: Woman of the Hour & Don’t Move
Greetings programs! Â This week on the show we are reviewing Anna Kendrick’s directorial debut Woman of the Hour, a based-on-real-life thriller about the time a serial killer went on The Dating Game, and then a new Netflix thriller called Don’t Move. Â We have a lot to say about each and we hope you join us!
Continue reading “Podcast: Woman of the Hour & Don’t Move”Podcast: Speak No Evil & The Wild Robot
Greetings programs! This week on the show, we’re talking about two new-to-home video releases. First up, Speak No Evil is a remake of a 2022 Danish film starring James McAvoy. Then we dive into the world of The Wild Robot, a lovely new film from Dreamworks Animation starring the vocal talents of Lupita Nyong’o, Pedro Pascal, and more!
Join us!
Continue reading “Podcast: Speak No Evil & The Wild Robot”AFTech Review: Lenovo Legion Go
Big ideas shackled by gremlins galore
Lenovo’s big swing into the growing handheld PC space is exactly that: a huge, chunky multi-tool with a gorgeous screen that’s one keyboard away from being a workable laptop. The Switch-like (Switch-esque? Switch-ish?) controllers detach from the sides and reveal themselves to be a collection of programmable buttons and integrated scroll wheels. And one becomes an ergonomic mouse? You have to admire the absolute lunatic who pitched this to the top brass at Lenovo, wide-eyed in a manic haze, muttering promises of what what going to be stuffed into this handheld. 8.8 inch screen! 1600p resolution! At 144Hz?! With a full-fat Windows 11 install, 16GB RAM, and a Z1 Extreme processor that can rock up to 5GHz??!
Well, it turns out all this is true, and it’s a remarkable feat of engineering. Inside the rather functional design is an absolute beast of a system. Technically. The problems arise, though, when you actually try to use it, and the shortcomings reveal themselves all too readily.
Continue reading “AFTech Review: Lenovo Legion Go”
You must be logged in to post a comment.