Popzara Podcast

Jackie Chan has long since passed the precipice of a worldwide icon, and the obligatory movie in which famous actors play themselves was bound to come along eventually. But where films like Being John Malkovich (1999)  and The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent (2022) used this meta-plot narrative to tell reflective and, in the case of the former, groundbreaking additions to the medium, the movie where Jackie Chan adopts a poorly CGI-ed panda is far from either of these things.

How do you tell a 90-minute mess in just 90 minutes? Jason Reitman’s Saturday Night tells the tale of SNL’s infamous debut tape night, when it was still a giant question mark in the programming lineup, only to be a game-time decision by executive David Tebet. The evening was filled with mythology, inhabited by personalities that are just as mythological — Gilda Radner, John Belushi, Jim Henson, and Andy Kaufman, just to name a few (these four in particular are treated with a welcomed level of reverence in this film over most of the others being depicted).

Who is Emilia Pérez? I honestly couldn’t tell you. Despite being the supposed heart of Jacques Audiard's film, her character is buried beneath a mountain of half-baked ideas and a nonsensical narrative.

Tetris has long been called “the perfect game” by many, a designation I wouldn’t argue against, and there’s no denying its staying power. Since first being developed in communist Russia on the evening of the collapse of the Soviet Union (some say the game helped end the Cold War, right up there with Rocky IV) we’ve seen Tetris become a cultural juggernaut with endless iterations, spin-offs, reimaginings, books, more books, and chicken nuggets.

With the holidays right around the corner, it’s always good to have tech to make cooking easier for yourself and any family and friends you have over. The latest to come our way is the Midea Dual Zone Air Fryer Oven, which gives you not one, but two spaces to cook in to help get those multi course meals out with ease.

It’s The State of Gaming Podcast, Popzara’s in-depth look at what’s shaking up the gaming landscape delivered on a monthly basis. Listen as hosts Cory Galliher and Nate Evans guide you through the best, worst, and everything else making headlines and headway in the world of interactive entertainment.

The biggest games of the month include: Metal Slug Tactics, Tetris Forever, Taiko no Tatsujin: Rhythm Festival, Mario and Luigi: Brothership, Slitterhead, Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake, Lego Horizon Adventures, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2024, and Stalker 2: Heart of Chornobyl.

Other notables include: Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection (Physical), Genshin Impact (Xbox)Irem Collection Vol 2, and Nine Sols.

But there’s more! Nintendo updates their Nintendo Music app! Did you get your Alarmo clock yet? Nintendo also confirms the highly-anticipated (and still unnamed) Switch 2 will be fully backwards-compatible with its predecessor! Speaking of Nintendo, fans of their Super Nintendo World amusement park can look forward to Donkey Kong Country additions in the near future! Valve announces a special edition Steam Deck OLED: White! Halo 2 turns 20! Sony’s PlayStation 5 is here! Apple’s Mac Mini (2024) is also here!

Retro collections are all the rage these days, and it’s not hard to see why. With so many huge budget blockbusters failing to grab the zeitgeist, micro-transactions galore, and an shocking lack of memorable new franchises being created it’s no wonder many gamers - including many who never stepped foot in a real arcade - would be turning to classic games from a bygone era.

When watching musicals, you have to buy into a certain level of delusion on screen, otherwise you’ll just be scratching your head for two hours. Likewise, if musicals were absolutely literal, it would be preposterous for any sane character to sit there without questioning why everyone around them knows the words and dance moves to a brand new song that’s never been heard before.

My earliest awareness of Pharrell Williams’ music came circa 2004, but in the most obscure way possible. Despite producing some of my favorite tracks from the likes of Usher, Jay-Z, Justin Timberlake, and No Doubt, Pharrell, along with his production team The Neptunes, wasn’t the name I had attached to these zeitgeisty songs.

I’ve been a fan of The Smurfs ever since I saw The Smurfs and the Magic Flute as a kid in the early 1980s. While there’s been plenty of Smurfs games released on all sorts of platforms, most of them have been duds until recently with hits such as Smurfs Kart and even last year’s The Smurfs 2: The Prisoner of the Green Stone.