I’m always down for checking out family friendly films, especially those featuring animals going on crazy misadventures like the recent Paddington in Peru I reviewed. When I first learned about Night of the Zoopocalypse last year, it grabbed my attention right away when the creators said it was like Madagascar meets The Walking Dead.…

If you're looking to shake up your life with an exhilarating experience, it's hard to beat a little bit of travel! The world's a big place and there's no shortage of amazing things to see and do out there. If the real world isn't enough for you, the world of gaming has plenty to offer as well! Capcom's Monster Hunter games really drive this home wi…

When it comes to visual novels, there are few publishers I trust more than PQube. While they definitely have their misses (looking at you, Celestia: Chain of Fate) they’ve put out some great titles like Bustafellows and Arcade Spirits.By popzara

As noted in my review for the volume one of The Liminal Zone, first published in English back in 2022, fans of Junji Ito can expect two types of collections these days: freshly translated work from his seemingly bottomless well of content, and brand-new stories. It was firmly in the latter camp, created exclusively for the LINE manga app (which is …

The strange journey of Hudson Soft’s Ninja Five-O (or Ninja Cop, as it’s known in some areas) from obscurity to cult status is a strange one, but it makes sense when you look at the game in content. Originally released in 2003 for the Gameboy Advance, it was a game that already looked, sounded, and played like an ancient throwback even at the time.…

One of the nice things about living in the modern age, at least if you're a video game fan, is that practically everything gets localized. Anything that isn't localized probably gets a fan translation.By popzara

It’s Popzara’s Movie Time! Podcast…for the year of 2024! And what a year, especially when it comes to the movies we loved, liked, and loathed. Regular hosts Ethan Brehm and Nate Evans are joined by editors Susana Bojorquez and (making his podcast debut) Brian Kwayi in a spectacular, extra-long episode overstuffed and ready to explode with everythin…

Countless authors have written about death, even their own, but few have been able to document their almost deaths as publicly as Salmon Rushdie, who in August 2022 survived an assassination attempt at New York's Chautauqua Institution (ironically, just as he was about to deliver a speech about the creation of safe spaces for writers in America fro…

Time flies, doesn’t it? As SEGA’s acclaimed Virtua Fighter series celebrates its 30th anniversary, it’s almost hard to believe that nearly 2/3 of that time has been tied to the fifth iteration back when it originally hit the arcades in 2006. At that time, Virtua Fighter 5 was lauded as a next-gen marvel and served as a glimpse of what gaming hardwa…

I remember some time ago back in the early 90s when I rented a book from the library about classic monster films, and seeing the famed Nosferatu creature from the 1922 movie that creeped me out and still does. We now come to the latest take on this classic tale with Robert Eggers version of Nosferatu that’s filled with an amazing and eerie atmosphe…

Fans of classic shooters (or shmups, if you’re cool like that) were spoiled for choice in the late 80s and early 90s, though not equally. For US and Japanese gamers consoles ruled the roost, though in Europe the popularity of cheaper home computers helped created a world where Japanese-led productions weren’t the only game in town (pun certainly in…

Growing up with the British Paddington shorts from the early 80s, I’ve always been a big fan of the character and his many (and often comedic) adventures. Needless to say I absolutely loved the 2014 film as it captured what fans love about the famous bear perfectly.By popzara

Orcs Must Die! is one of those unusual franchises that's stuck around for long enough to have run into multiple industry-spanning trends and survived to tell the tale. The first two games, Orcs Must Die! and its sequel, were hybrid tower-defense and third-person shooters at a time when tower defense was the thing to be.…

It won’t take long, maybe a few pages, before ardent Haruki Murakami fans experience a sense of deja vu reading The City and Its Uncertain Walls, as if they’ve visited this place before. Which should be expected as his latest novel reworks not just 1985’s ‘Hard-Boiled Wonderland and the End of the World’, but also ‘The Town and Its Uncertain Wall’,…

Ninja Gaiden 2 Black is the type of game where you’ll destroy a floating air fortress loaded with missile-launching robo-ninjas after sparring with your demonic arch-nemesis, then escape to safety with a scantily dressed rocket launcher-toting femme fatale while piloting a motorcycle onto a snowy tundra where you’ll face off against a gigantic mete…

We've seen this story before, and plenty of us love it: ancient China has entered into an age of conflict. War rages across the land, laying low peasant and noble alike, and three kingdoms vie for supremacy over the nation.By popzara

Dreo is one of those companies where I’m always looking forward to what they’re coming out with next, as they continue to make awesome products even better year after year. A perfect example is their Solaris Max Heater they sent over back in 2022 that was already a great device, then the OH310 Radiator Heater last year that was even better.…

Radiation gets a bad rap. Sure, it causes cellular damage, hair loss and weird mutations, but.By popzara

The Consumer Electronics Show for 2025 is behind us, yet the memories of tomorrow’s tech remain. On deck for this CES recap are Popzara’s Senior Tech Editor Herman Exum and techie noob Nate Evans to take listeners through this year’s bits and bytes of what the future possibly holds for us. Sadly, while our favorite tech guest, Computer America’s Be…

Remakes and remasters are interesting and quirky things. Many hope to capitalize on the desire for nostalgia.By popzara

Whenever analyzing a musical film, I stop to think if the movie would be good — though not necessarily as good — without the music at all. Musical numbers should certainly enhance the filmgoing experience but they should never be the only reason why we enjoy it.By popzara

Got a spaceship in need of a quick fix? Just drop by Uncle Chop's Rocket Shop! It's the premier* repair station that'll help your ship get back to being literally ship-shape. You'll play the role of Wilbur, a new employee of Uncle Chop's doing his best to fix up ships and make R.By popzara

The market for desktop GPUs has changed considerably over the last few years, though not always in the best interests for consumers. In a market dominated by two companies, AMD and Nvidia, Intel has been called a much-needed alternative to the entrenched duopoly with the introduction of their Arc graphics cards.…

Remaking a beloved classic is always risky, but remaking a cornerstone of horror like Nosferatu is especially challenging. Horror remakes often fail to honor the source material while offering little new.By popzara

Oba Electroplating Factory is the fourth collection of Yoshiharu Tsuge’s manga to be handsomely collected (and painstakingly researched and translated by Ryan Holmberg) by Drawn & Quarterly, but it’s more than just another anthology of comics from one of the most consequential pioneers of Japan’s post-war underground comics scene. Few artists from …

I’m probably one of the biggest fans of the original 1994 The Lion King, as I knew it was going to be one of the best films Disney ever made after seeing the trailer. Like most fans, I wasn’t too thrilled or impressed with the 2019 live-action version, nor was I looking forward to the unnecessary prequel, Mufasa: The Lion King.…

I’ll admit that I’ll always be a kid at heart, and so it goes without saying that anytime I get a chance to review toys and the like, I’m always down to do so. One of the latest and coolest items to come my way is NSI’s Siren Blink Foam Dart Blaster, which outpowers and out shoots any rapid fire dart blaster you’ve played with by a string of long s…

I’ll admit that I’ll always be a kid at heart, and so it goes without saying that anytime I get a chance to review toys and the like, I’m always down to do so. One of the latest and coolest items to come my way is NSI’s Siren Maulr Foam Dart Blaster, which outpowers and out shoots any dart blaster gun you’ve played with by a long shot (sorry, I cou…

Once again, the release of a newly translated book from Keigo Higashino, perhaps the most popular living writer in Japan, is released within the same window as the most celebrated Japanese writer outside of Japan, Haruki Murakami. I’m not implying a rivalry between the two, but Invisible Helix, the latest in Higashino’s Detective Galileo series, ar…

What happens when the way we see ourselves doesn’t align with how others see us? Aaron Schimberg's A Different Man explores this, questioning whether dramatically changing your appearance could ever truly change your perception of yourself. In a world obsessed with outward appearances, the film probes whether becoming the version of yourself you im…

Indie soft rock is a genre I'm not afraid to admit I’ve had little experience or knowledge in, especially regarding Grenada’s indie rock scene during the 90s. However, that makes it all the more intriguing that a story about the trials and tribulations of an indie rock band on the cusp of stardom so accurately ensconced me away into this cigarette …

We now come to The Calvin and Hobbes Portable Compendium Set 3, practically the halfway point of seven planned sets from Andrews McMeel aiming to reprint the entire run of Bill Watterson’s iconic comic strip, albeit in miniature form. Once again, I’d recommend going back in time and reading (or re-reading?) my review of the first set, if only becau…

It’s taken a little longer than expected, but fans of Japanese developer Taito’s legacy of classic games have reason to celebrate with Taito Milestones 3, a third helping of emulated arcade blasts from the past. I hope you like big, sweaty muscles and gameplay dripping with machismo and doused in testosterone, because that’s exactly what you’ll be …

Paronomasiacs, rejoice! Pearls Gets Put in the Pokey is the 14th Treasury of Pearls Before Swine comic strips, collecting both daily and Sunday funnies originally published in newspapers and online between October 11, 2021 through April 9, 2023. How can I say this with such chronological specificity? Because a helpful note says just that in the ope…

It’s been over two decades since Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000) burst onto the screen, delivering a gripping tale of revenge, honor, and sacrifice that defined the modern historical epic. The original not only entertained but left audiences pondering its timeless themes of power and redemption.By popzara

Crabbily Ever After, the 29th collection of Jim Toomey’s Sherman’s Lagoon comic strips, proves there’s plenty of aquatic antics left for his anthropomorphic undersea troupe of fish, sharks, and crustaceans, at least in print. For a strip now well into its 30th (!) decade, few cartoonists have made success look as effortlessly as Toomey, or comics s…

I suppose we should expect to get a few real stinkers every year, especially around the holidays, but that doesn’t take the sting of having to suffer through them. After years of solo efforts (some successful, others not so much) the Farrelly Brothers reunite for Dear Santa, a comedy of errors about a dyslexic boy who accidentally addresses a lette…

There was a time, not long ago, that Apple’s Mac mini desktop computer was the cheapest way to gain entry into the world of MacOS, one that didn’t sacrifice power or the company’s iconic chic appeal. It also seemed that Apple, and its users, seemed to enjoy their secondary status as the platform for serious creators and artistic types, loyal enthus…

​After only two feature films, writer-director Megan Park already displays some unique hallmarks with her projects. Both her 2022 debut The Fallout and her latest effort My Old Ass follow Gen-Z teenagers who must wrangle their own self-absorption in order to find some level of fulfillment by the end.…

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, …

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 mytholo…

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.By popzara

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 jug…

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 Sl…

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 …

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 …

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.…

Once again, Amazon has waited a full three years to update their flagship Kindle Paperwhite e-Reader with a host of improvements that improve the experience over the still-incredible 2021 model. I’m sure even the most diehard book enthusiasts would be amazed at just how competitive - and innovative! - the world of E Ink e-Readers has become in rece…