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Film Focus Online

'The Death of Robin Hood' Review: A Cold, Edgy and Try-hard Deconstruction of the Legend - Film Focus Online

Michael Sarnoski's Robin Hood film stars Hugh Jackman as a remorseless mass murderer attempting a revisionist deconstruction of the legend, opening with extreme gore before settling into a tedious meditation on regret and atonement. The film is technically accomplished in its cinematography and practical violence but collapses under its self-serious grimness, accidentally veering into comedy with lines like "I've killed so many children, I've lost count," while stripping away any traditional pleasures of the Robin Hood story in favor of inaccessible artiness. Despite strong craft and a capable cast, the film fails to generate either entertainment value or genuine profundity, landing instead as a joyless, audience-hostile exercise in self-indulgence.

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Gear Patrol

AV Club

The Dog Stars bites

Ridley Scott's adaptation of Peter Heller's post-apocalyptic novel follows a pilot named Hig who embarks on a cross-country journey after losing his dog, grappling with fundamental questions about whether to help strangers or prioritize survival through isolation. The film explores this moral tension through its characters—Hig advocates for human connection and community while his companions embrace self-preservation and suspicion—but undermines its own themes through uneven execution, cheap special effects, and a truncated final act. Scott's direction feels disengaged, Jacob Elordi's performance is flat and emotionally withdrawn, and the film lapses into troubling stereotypes when depicting marauders, making it one of Scott's most disappointing misfires.

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www.slashgear.com

I'll Never Use Chrome Again: These 5 Browsers Are Worth The Switch

This roundup profiles five Chrome alternatives for readers frustrated by resource hogging and privacy concerns, matching each to a different user type: Vivaldi for power users who want granular customization, Opera for mainstream users wanting an easy, feature-packed AI-friendly option, Firefox for its efficiency and continued uBlock Origin support post-Manifest V3, Orion for Mac users wanting Safari's efficiency without its feature gaps, and SigmaOS for those craving a reimagined, visually distinctive browsing experience. The piece leans on benchmarks (RAM/energy use) and specific feature comparisons rather than generic praise, making it a practical reference for actually switching rather than just complaining about Chrome.

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www.npr.org

'Raising questions' isn't enough. The best films of the year took a stance

This essay surveys 2025 films that tried to grapple with the current political climate, arguing that success depends on commitment rather than neutrality, nostalgia, or deliberate ambiguity. It sorts its examples into those that failed through vagueness or smug defeatism (Ella McCay, Eddington, Bugonia, Good Fortune) and those that succeeded through clear stances and emotional honesty (Sinners, The Secret Agent, It Was Just an Accident). Its closing claim is that art now need not change the world but must help audiences make sense of it.

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www.nytimes.com

Clear Ice Is Better Than Cloudy Ice. Here’s Why.

Clear ice keeps carbonated drinks fizzy longer than cloudy ice because it lacks air pockets that cause excessive foaming and premature flatness. The author tested two practical methods for making clear ice at home: buying an expensive dedicated ice maker ($230) that uses slow-freezing with running water, or using a cheaper directional-freezing tray ($50) that takes 18-20 hours but produces only four large cubes at a time, and debunked the popular myth that boiling water before freezing creates clarity.

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www.nytimes.com

Five Action Movies to Stream Now

"Dhamaka" is a Mumbai-set action thriller starring Kartik Aaryan as a washed-up radio newscaster who receives a bomb threat targeting the city's major bridge and sees it as his chance to reclaim fame. Directed by Ram Madhvani and adapted from the South Korean film "The Terror Live," the movie functions as a morality tale examining how Arjun's ambition leads him to exploit a genuine crisis for career advancement, while his cutthroat boss exploits it for ratings. The film maintains relentless pacing despite character depth, delivering the bomb-threat intensity of "Speed" filtered through the media-ethics critique of "Network."

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www.mentalfloss.com

The 30 Greatest Action Movies of All Time

This article traces the evolution of action cinema from its roots in early silent films to the present day, arguing that action emerged as its own standalone genre rather than merely serving as set dressing for Westerns, spy thrillers, and sci-fi adventures. The piece presents thirty essential action films spanning from 1953 to 2018, organized chronologically, with the caveat that it focuses primarily on movies made after 1970 when action truly crystallized as a primary genre, while briefly acknowledging influential precursors like *The Wages of Fear* and *Seven Samurai*. Each entry describes how the film either pioneered specific action techniques, influenced subsequent filmmakers, or achieved a perfect balance between visceral spectacle and emotional or character-driven storytelling that defines great action cinema.

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www.gearpatrol.com

Bose QuietComfort Ultra Headphones Review: Spatial Audio Joins the Party

Bose's new QuietComfort Ultra over-ear headphones offer incremental improvements rather than major innovations, excelling in comfort, noise cancellation, and battery life while introducing a spatial audio feature called "Immersive Audio" that enhances the listening experience without being transformative. The review concludes that they're a solid choice for anyone needing new noise-canceling headphones, though existing Bose users won't find compelling reasons to upgrade, and competitors like Sony's WH-1000XM5 offer similarly compelling alternatives at lower prices.

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www.gearpatrol.com

Hai’s New Smart Showerhead Brings Spa-Level Water Pressure Home

Hai's new smart showerhead with aromatherapy infusions promises spa-like luxury for under $300, featuring improved water pressure, water usage tracking via a Bluetooth app, and dissolvable scent tablets in three varieties. While the showerhead itself performs excellently with strong pressure and a useful mist setting, the infusion tablets dissolve too quickly to deliver a meaningful scent experience and cost nearly $2 each, making them an expensive add-on that the reviewer suggests skipping in favor of the showerhead alone.

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www.gearpatrol.com

The Complete Guide to All of Pro-Ject’s Excellent Turntables

Pro-Ject, an Austrian company founded in 1991, manufactures turntables ranging from budget-friendly entry-level models ($300–$500) to ultra-premium audiophile systems (over $16,000), all designed around the founder's goal of making high-quality vinyl playback accessible across price points. The company achieves competitive pricing by producing most components in-house across facilities in Austria, Czech Republic, and Slovakia, and integrating its own phono stages, DACs, and amplifiers directly into turntables. The guide walks through Pro-Ject's major product lines—from the E1 and Primary series for beginners, through mid-range options like the T Series and Debut line, to high-end alternatives like the RPM Carbon and X Series, concluding with premium offerings like the Signature series for discerning audiophiles.

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www.gearpatrol.com

Did Hoka Accidentally Make the Perfect Camping Shoe?

Hoka's Ora Primo EXT reimagines the recovery clog as a Birkenstock-Crocs hybrid, pairing a dual-layer EVA midsole and massaging insole dimples with reinforced sidewalls, a rubber toecap, and a suede upper for outdoor durability. Its standout detail is a G-hook closure that doubles as a pack strap, letting it clip onto a backpack like a Crocs carabiner setup, making it a stylish contender for camp footwear. It launches overseas at 145 CHF (~$180) with US availability expected in early November.

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collider.com

All 29 Ridley Scott Movies, Ranked From Worst to Best

Collider's Jeremy Urquhart ranks all 29 (or so) of Ridley Scott's feature films from worst to best, tracing a nearly 50-year career defined by remarkable genre-hopping and wildly inconsistent quality. The lower tier covered here includes acknowledged misfires like "Exodus: Gods and Kings," "Robin Hood," and "Hannibal," alongside more obscure or underrated entries such as "White Squall" and "Someone to Watch Over Me," with the piece weighing each film's reputation, box office fate, and rewatchability. It's a useful reference for gauging where Scott's lesser-known or maligned work actually falls before the list presumably climbs toward his acclaimed classics.

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Wirecutter: Reviews for the Real World

The Best Smart Home Sensors for Alexa, HomeKit, and SmartThings

This guide reviews and compares smart home sensors across four categories—motion, temperature/humidity, and door/window sensors—testing models from brands like TP-Link Tapo, Philips Hue, and Aqara. The sensors can trigger automations (like turning on lights when motion is detected), send smartphone alerts for security monitoring, and support integration with major platforms like Alexa and Google Home, though most require a compatible hub to function. The guide highlights top picks in each category based on factors like alert speed, app usability, price, design, battery life, and automation reliability.

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SPIN

The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985-2014) | SPIN

SPIN's milestone 30th-anniversary ranking of the 300 best albums from the past three decades draws on input from over a dozen contributors to identify works deemed masterpieces, enduring pleasures, and new favorites, though the list enforces the constraint that no single artist can appear more than three times. The editors included studio albums, EPs, live records, and select compilations, with each entry accompanied by a brief critical summary explaining why the album merits its position rather than relying on plot descriptions or historical context alone.

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