The Hood Trilogy (2006-16)

KiDULTHOOD (2006)

Dir. Menhaj Huda

A hard-hitting drama set in the suburbs of west London exploring what daily life is like for a small number of teenagers in mid-2000s era Britain, most of whom are approximately fifteen-years-old. Many folks, especially parents, will be offended or even outraged by the use of language, violence, drugs and sex in the film, but that doesn't mean it isn't an accurate reflection of what's actually happening on the streets outside their front door.

The activities and friends are spread out over a small area and a few short days, culminating in the kind of unsupervised teenage house-party that rarely goes off without a hitch.

For at least two of the youths it's a build-up and event that's nothing short of life-changing, in the most unforgettable ways.

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine: Season 6 (1997–98)

Star Trek: DS9: Season 6 (1997–98)

26 episodes, approx 44 minutes each.

Note: I do my best to avoid spoilers in my posts, but the following text will refer to events that happened in Season 5, so if you're as sensitive to spoilers as I am and haven’t watched all of Season 5 it would be advisable to not read beyond this sentence.

Anyone still reading will maybe know that the long-building Dominion War is finally underway and that the entry-point into the Alpha quadrant is guarded by Starfleet and its allies. But not everyone in the Alpha quadrant sees the aggressors as a threat; some see the invasion as an opportunity to (re)gain power, forcing Sisko and his team to fight a war on two sides. That situation is the basis of Season 6.

Furthermore, even though they're Federation allies, some races are enjoying the war (the Klingons, naturally) and are happy to see it take shape. But their presence on DS9 causes problems of its own.

Yakuza Kiwami (2016 / 2017)

Yakuza Kiwami (JP: 2016 / WW: 2017)

Genre: Action/Adventure | Players: 1 | Developer: Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio (SEGA)

Kiwami (meaning 'ultimate' or 'extreme') is an updated, overhauled and expanded PS4 remake of the very first Yakuza game, which was a PS2 exclusive title that received its western release in 2006, a year after its original Japanese release.

With it being the first game done over it'd be natural to assume that it's a perfect jumping on point for new players, but that's not quite the case. It does an okay job at being such, but there's a small number of sub-stories that follow on from occurrences in the previous year's Yakuza 0 (2015), a prequel game set in 1988, seventeen years before Kiwami. So if you want to be clued-in with regards every minor plot thread, you'll need to have played Yakuza 0 first.

The downside to that approach is that Yakuza 0, though set earlier in time, is a more accomplished and varied game. The devs did a tremendous job updating most parts of Kiwami, but lessons learned from and since the original game and its sequels, particularly regarding mission structure but also in storytelling and event timing, mean that for some players Kiwami's ageing game engine may feel dated and clunky by comparison.

The Sandman: Volume VII (1994)

Brief Lives (1994)

Author: Neil Gaiman | Illustrator: Jill Thompson | Page Count: 256

"You lived what anybody gets, Bernie. You got a lifetime. No more. No less."

Volume VII of X in the Sandman saga is a big one, nine chapters long. It uses the extra space to tell a different kind of story, to give the narrative room to breathe, and within that same space it gives characters room to grow.

The girl with the coloured hair wants to find her missing brother, who up until now has been mentioned many times but rarely seen. It's a road trip, both in essence and in actuality. What do all good road trip stories have on common? Character growth and change.

The concept of 'change' is Volume VII distilled to a single word. There's change for Dream; for the worlds he inhabits; and for the Endless, forever. If consequences are ripples, then they're potentially perpetual when the pond that the stone is cast into lacks boundaries.

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1979)

The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (1979)

Dir. Bill Meléndez

As a child I was never very fond of the first half of the animated version of C. S. Lewis' most famous work. Even now, as an adult, I feel the same.

And while the traditional static backgrounds are fine, the actual character animations atop them are very poorly done, especially the eyes.

The second half of the film, however, despite the same dodgy line work and the overpowering Christian allegory, I loved and even today I feel it's the best part. It's then that the story really picks up the pace and the Pevensie siblings, with their four different hair colours, are no longer required to be the main focus of the story, a task for which they aren't particularity well-suited.

The script is adapted from the revised US edition of the novel. If you're stuck with the Region 1 disc, then you have a different voice cast than the rest of the English speaking world - except for Aslan, the best of the bunch, who's voiced by British actor Stephen Thorne in both versions.

Tremors: Films (1990— )

Tremors: Films (1990 - 2018)

Waterworld (1995)

Waterworld (1995)

Dir. Kevin Reynolds

The quick and easy way to describe Waterworld is to liken it to the Mad Max films but on water instead of land. However, what many people neglect to say is that, while there are moments that are indeed reminiscent of the good Mad Max film, i.e. The Road Warrior (1981), sometimes Waterworld is more like the travesty that was Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome (1985), and the world doesn't need any more of that.

It's set during an undefined future date in which the polar ice caps have melted. The resultant elevated sea levels have left most of the world covered in undrinkable sea water.

The Mariner (Kevin Costner) is an inhabitant of that world. A drifter with a trimaran, he travels from place to place trading commodities (salvage, dirt, etc) with the small pockets of human civilisation that are scattered around. He's a guarded loner, avoiding human interaction as much as possible.