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adam.raptureburgers.com
Adam
@adam.raptureburgers.com
A NEW LIFE AWAITS YOU IN THE OFF-WORLD COLONIES
Waiting for Guffman 📽 (1996) A - There's a moment within the first five minutes that made me laugh so hard I had to pause it. It's the funniest movie I've seen in so, so long.

Small town earnestness mixed with big city ambitions. A dry tone and pitch perfect cast. Just an immensely winning formula.
February 17, 2026 at 5:17 AM
Night at the Museum 📽 (2006) B- - A childlike fantasy brought to life. It's charming, silly and vaguely, um, educational. The actors are clearly having a good time, with Robin Williams's sincerity anchoring the chaos.

Effects hold up fairly well. Better than some jokes. Rooney's still got it tho.
February 17, 2026 at 4:46 AM
The Night Manager S:2 📺 (2026) B- - As a second act, this flatter, less elegant season enjoys some benefit of the doubt. There's a dearth of glamorous globetrotting or steamy tension, and all the best elements are carryovers from season one.

That climax was ballsy though. And unfortunately, timely.
February 16, 2026 at 9:40 PM
Bringing Out the Dead 📽 (1999) B+ - A raw character study and gritty portrait of a barely held together world that appeals directly to the antisocial weirdo inside me. Grim, but also hilarious and outrageous.

Both content and craft create an interesting time capsule. Cool place to visit, but...
February 9, 2026 at 4:42 PM
The Night Manager S:1 📺 (2016) B+ - The classic spy thriller cocktail: classy, sophisticated, bleak, and horny. An engrossing exploit shot with immaculate style and grace.

Altogether brilliant casting, but the eternally winsome Hugh Laurie as a black-hearted villain is a stroke of genius.
February 4, 2026 at 3:05 PM
The Lowdown 📺 (2025) B - Hawk is fantastic, music is phenomenal, and Tulsa is portrayed richly and lovingly.

Plotted with a Coen Bros. flair, somewhat meandering, often idiosyncratic, but still yearning for the black satire underneath. Nothing wrong with a lighter touch though. Breezy and likeable.
January 29, 2026 at 4:14 PM
The Rip 📽 (2026) C- - This feels like a product of inked contracts and baseline ambitions. It's like they took a midrange episode of The Shield and rewrote it for the dumbest, glass-eyed, most slack-jacked yokle imaginable.

Performances are solid though. Very good chemistry on camera. So, yeah.
January 28, 2026 at 7:23 PM
Paris, Texas 📽 (1984) A - Poetic and soulful with a permeating ache of regret. A somber and introspective journey that thankfully never loses hope.

Photography really sings here. The use of colors and natural settings, wide landscapes and intimate portraits, gives the film a heightened reality.
January 26, 2026 at 3:04 PM
It's a Wonderful Life 📽 (1946) B+ - Stewart truly is amazing as George Bailey: a lovable, tragic, relatable figure (even moreso as I age), and his story of hope is as important and beautiful as it is maudlin and unsubtle. Sharp, striking b&w photography. High in the echelon of morality play pop art.
January 25, 2026 at 5:45 PM
Stranger Things S:5 📺 (2025) B - The Duffers don't handle big action setpieces well, but they do excel at emotional beats and, in that respect, satisfying payoffs. And they handle actors well, coaxing blunt but depthful performances. I think with time, this ending will actually grow in appreciation.
January 21, 2026 at 3:09 PM
Metroid Prime 4: Beyond 🎮 (2025) C - After a vaguely intriguing setup, the story becomes a cliche-ridden obligation. Gameplay feels smooth, combat is fun, cool to explore, but all are marred by hand-holdy mechanics and poorly implemented tedium. Despite the wait, this seems bafflingly incomplete.
January 16, 2026 at 5:19 PM
Labyrinth 📽 (1986) B+ - Whimsical and hugely imaginative. A perilous fairytale adventure story embellished with the sort of magical, tangible sense of fun that only the Henson co. can capture. Vivid memories are made, new fears are unlocked, and earworms are stuck in your head for weeks afterwards.
January 16, 2026 at 4:57 PM
Tron: Ares 📽 (2025) C - What little substance this has is hilariously tonedeaf. Visual stunning, but at this budget, that's a layup. Story, dialogue and action are all completely lifeless.

Soundtrack rips, though. It's kind of worth it just for that, honestly. Also, thank God, it's only 2 hours.
January 8, 2026 at 7:37 PM
Perfect Blue 📽 (1997) A- - De Palma-slash-Lynchian vibes abound, but it also fully embodies and is elevated by its medium. Colorful, soft, playful animation beling an unsettling existential nightmare of surrealistic visions and queasy realities.

Fan culture themes that never stop being relevant.
January 8, 2026 at 7:25 PM
Caught Stealing 📽 (2025) B- - Satisfying crime caper that clips along with verve and agility. Ominous sweeping shots and tight interiors make NYC feel like an escape room.

Butler is good but not believable as the All-American Boy. The film is overall unchallenging and lacking a strong perspective.
January 4, 2026 at 1:19 PM
The Sadness 📽 (2021) C+ - The id runs wild. It's a visceral, enduring experience watching this as nearly every act of violence is truly unhinged. At its core, though, is more violence, and some crude observations about human nature. It's difficult to take seriously and weird to observe casually.
December 30, 2025 at 7:01 PM
Zootopia 2 📽 (2025) A- - Disarmingly loveable and bursting with personality. Fast paced and quick witted, bright and adorable. Broadly, the story is serviceable, but the individual characters have specific qualities and quirks that really elevate the whole endeavor. Genuinely good and funny.
December 22, 2025 at 3:40 PM
It: Welcome to Derry 📺 (2025) B - The horror hits, and they do not pull punches. The theater, the fire, the line of floating kids, Pennywise in a pool of blood - amazing, unforgettable stuff.

Not a smart show. Character motivations are often difficult to justify. Maybe the military is that dumb?
December 22, 2025 at 3:05 PM
Akira 🗨️ (1982-1990) A - A sprawling epic that remains tightly plotted throughout. It reads like a cinematic experience, filled of funny, intimate character moments and a breathless deluge of bombastic action-heavy set pieces and enthralling sci-fi chaos, rendered beautifully in stunning detail.
December 15, 2025 at 2:40 PM
The Chair Company 📺 (2025) B+ - Ingenious parody of mystery box "binge-worthy" shows where the goal is to create WTF hype moments. Often compelling, consistently laugh out loud hilarious, never not absolute unhinged madness.

How sustainable all this is remains to be seen, but, man, what a ride.
December 12, 2025 at 7:31 PM
Ballerina 📽 (2025) B+ - There's a part where she has a flamethrower, and the bad guy has a flamethrower, and they have a flamethrower shootout. The plot is fine, the filmmaking is solid, but who cares? She kills a guy using ice skates like a they're nunchucks. She tosses like 30 grenades. Fuck yeah.
December 9, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Nichijou: My Ordinary Life 🇯🇵 (2011) A- - Slice-of-life comedy sketch show skillfully shifting from manic to serene, surreal to contemplative, mischievous to sentimental. The grand scope of adolescence through a small lense, bolstered by weird, experimental animation and a classic orchestrated score.
December 9, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Nobody 2 📽 (2025) C- - Odd combination of semi-realistic hyperviolence and the corniest "dad movie" shit imaginable.

Like, RZA cuts a guy's head in half, but also, the ending scene is them sitting around viewing family vacation photos on a projector. In 2025 A.D. Sure, movie, if you say so.
December 7, 2025 at 5:57 PM
Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair 📽 (2006) A - A myriad and decades of genre films honored and transformed by Q & U into this exhilarating, sprawling, sensitive masterpiece. Constantly engaging. Every single scene is a good scene.

Blue Leaves fight in WBA is dope as hell. Great theater watch.
December 5, 2025 at 2:57 PM
The Beast in Me 📺 (2025) C - This has the production of prestige TV. It's a nice facade for what is ultimately a pulpy, hackneyed trifle elevating lame, obvious storylines while giving rote lip service to any of the actually interesting aspects of its thesis. Empty calories, this.
December 4, 2025 at 4:25 PM