clunky

Unconvincing, unfunny and bafflingly heavy-handed, this shrill non-comedy fails to say anything entertaining or historically insightful about the true story of the Littlehampton poison-pen scandal of 1923. It’s a terrible waste of a stellar cast, headed by Olivia Colman, although the simple aggregation of everyone’s acting talent does raise the film a bit.Colman plays Edith Swan, a prim-and-proper spinster in the curtain-twitching world of 1920s Littlehampton, always congratulating herself on her Christian rectitude; she…

The cable box appears to be going the way of the VCR.On the heels of Spectrum’s decision late last year to phase out traditional cable boxes in favor of a streaming device, Comcast is accelerating its plans to do the same.And the big winner in this is a four-inch device from a little-known company called Xumo that will be powering both of the cable giants.Spectrum, through its parent company Charter Communications, first announced plans to phase out the ubiquitous box in October, replacing it with the Xumo device for new…

 When a Twitter account for Utah business coach Spencer Taggart began posting about hot-button political issues in 2020, it garnered widespread attention. Tweets about an endemic cultural divide in the US and support for Black Lives Matter were shared by two Chinese embassy officials. But Taggart didn't write the tweets and hasn't been on the social media platform, now called X, in five years. Rather, his identity had been hijacked by a massive pro-China propaganda network, according to the social media analysis firm…

It's difficult to translate the complexities of cricket into the cadence of a video game. Where the moment-to-moment dynamism of football and basketball lends itself naturally to arcade-style sports games like FIFA and NBA 2K, cricket's languid delights don't quite fit the formula. The usual sports sim approach, which is based on a 12-minute exercise in instant gratification, cannot capture the experience of a sport where a large chunk of a match is spent standing around. That's where Big Ant Studios' Cricket series takes…

When I first saw Exoprimal, I groaned because it looked like yet another game in which an interesting premise (fighting dinosaurs!) would be swallowed by the soul-sucking banality of being a third-person live-service multiplayer game in an era that sees such games released for a hot six months before they’re shut down. But word of mouth from friends and colleagues I trust was enough to get me to try it, and from the first handful of moments — none of which had anything to do with dinosaurs — I was all in. At the very…

It's no surprise that as the novel All Elite Wrestling grew in popularity, a video game based on it was brewing somewhere out on the horizon. As a viable alternative to mainstream pro wrestling — which the WWE dominates — the franchise managed to cement its legacy by bringing in talent already well-known within the community and a steep production value that rivalled any other competition. THQ Nordic's AEW: Fight Forever finds itself in the same position, banking on a roster full of established legends, as developer…

Star Trek has an up and down history with video games moreso than most storied franchises. It’s rare for a singular game to properly capture Star Trek as an experience when, at its best, Star Trek debate, diplomacy, and scientific investigation don’t quite line up with gaming hallmarks. But the adventure game genre is one where Trek has succeeded in the past—and for the most part, Star Trek: Resurgence adds to that history... with some significant caveats.Playing Raffi Throughout Star Trek: PicardOut this week, Star Trek:…

Dir: Michael Grandage. Starring: Emma Corrin, Harry Styles, David Dawson, Gina McKee, Rupert Everett, Linus Roache. 15, 113 minutes.In My Policeman, Harry Styles plays an officer of the law in 1950s Brighton – which is ironic, because his acting is criminally bad. He does not have to say anything, but anything he does say will be delivered as though he read it on a piece of paper five minutes previously. After diplomatically average reviews for his performance in Don’t Worry Darling, it’s clear that the lead role in…

Some robot experts watching saw a project that appeared to be quickly getting up to speed. “There’s nothing fundamentally groundbreaking, but they are doing cool stuff,” says Stefanie Tellex, an assistant professor at Brown University.Henrik Christensen, who researches robotics and AI at UC Davis, calls Tesla’s homegrown humanoid “a good initial design,” but adds that the company hasn’t shown evidence it can perform basic navigation, grasping, or manipulation. Jessy Grizzle, a professor at the University of Michigan’s…

via SK Film The historical action-packed epic has never managed to recapture the popularity it enjoyed in the early-to-mid 2000s, but that hasn’t stopped plenty of big budget disappointments from emerging anyway. One of the most curious is comfortably 2015’s Dragon Blade, if only for its trio of unlikely stars. While Jackie Chan headlining a $65 million Chinese blockbuster as a warrior leading the fight against invading forces in 50 BC makes sense given that he’s a major local star with plenty of box office…