Stubs - The Devil Wears Prada

The Devil Wears Prada (2006) starring Meryl Streep, Anne Hathaway, Stanley Tucci, Emily Blunt, Simon Baker. Directed by David Frankel. Screenplay by Aline Brosh McKenna. Based on The Devil Wears Prada by Lauren Weisberger.  Produced by Wendy Finerman. Run time: 109 minutes. Color. USA. Comedy, Drama

Lauren Weisberger was 26 when she turned her experience as an assistant to Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour into a book. The best-selling novel, The Devil Wears Prada, spent six months on New York Times's bestseller list. Fox bought the rights to the novel even before it was finished. Carla Hacken, then the studio's executive vice president, had only seen the first hundred pages of the manuscript and an outline for the rest of the plot.

As is common practice in Hollywood, four screenwriters worked on the property. Peter Hedges wrote the first draft; another writer passed. Paul Rudnick did some work on Miranda's scenes, followed by a Don Roos rewrite. Aline Brosh McKenna produced a draft that struck a balance for Finerman and Frankel, whose notes were incorporated into a final version, rearranging the plot significantly, and focusing the story on the conflict between Andy and Miranda.

Meryl Streep was not the first choice for Miranda. She was initially not considered because no one knew she could be funny. Before her, Michelle Pfeiffer, Glenn Close, and Catherine Zeta-Jones were considered before her. Signing Streep allowed Fox to greenlight the project.

Second Look - Devil May Cry 2

Note: This review contains spoilers for Devil May Cry 2

Near the end of the production of the original Devil May Cry (DMC1), Capcom struck while the iron was hot and greenlit a sequel. Unfortunately, this sequel faced a very troubled production under its original director, who remains anonymous to this day. When Capcom assigned the second director, Hideaki Itsuno, to the project, he was shocked by the lack of any real progress, which amounted to almost nothing aside from the Stinger animation. With only a few months left, he built pretty much the entire rest of the game from scratch. The end result, Devil May Cry 2 (DMC2), released on the PS2 in 2003 to poor reviews, though it still established some series conventions and had high sales numbers. The game’s development disaster also motivated the team to improve their work, with most staying on for future entries. In fact, near the end of development, Itsuno successfully convinced Capcom to let him direct Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening from scratch because he didn’t want to be forever known as “the guy who directed DMC2.”

In the years since its release, DMC2 has gained a reputation as the worst game in the series, even more so than the controversial reboot, DmC: Devil May Cry (DmC). It really is. However, I’ve also felt unsatisfied with my coverage of the game in the past, both in my review of the original PS2 version and the other when talking about the Devil May Cry HD Collection as a whole. Since I re-reviewed DMC1 in the context of its origin as Resident Evil 4, I decided that even though DMC2 is certainly the worst game in the series, it deserved a better and more in-depth look. As with my re-review of DMC1, this re-review is based on DMC2 as presented in HD Collection.

Stubs - Le Ballet Mécanique

Le Ballet Mécanique (1924) Starring Alice Prin aka Kiki of Montparnasse. Directed by Fernand Léger, Dudley Murphy. Written by Fernand Léger. No Producer Credited. Run time: 19 minutes. Black and White/Color. France. Experimental, Silent, Short.

Filmmakers have been experimenting with celluloid almost as long as the technology has existed. One of the earlier examples is Le Ballet Mécanique (1924), a French film with American input released and mostly credited to Fernand Léger, although American Dudley Murphy was also involved in the filmmaking.

The film they made is, to quote The Silent Era review, a montage “of live action cinematography, shots of geometric shapes, colors, odd found items, commercial product photography, observations through a mirrored prism, image repetition, household items and machinery in movement, fairground attractions, and stop-motion animation.”

Mercy (2026)

Having a narrative unfold on screen in real time takes a lot of planning and coordination to pull off properly, which may be why it’s rare enough to be notable. Even more difficult is carrying that through an entire film or TV episode, with notable early examples being Alfred Hitchcock’s 1948 thriller Rope and Robert Wise’s 1949 boxing drama The Set-Up. When I first heard about the recent 2026 film named Mercy, the premise sounded vaguely interesting, but I wasn’t sure about seeing it until confirming that it unfolds in real time, which made me thinks of the aforementioned films that I had been exposed to when I was younger. Though I missed the theatrical window, it being an Amazon MGM distribution meant I was able to watch it for free on Amazon Prime Video (now with ads after the introduction of Prime Video Ultra). While I enjoyed it and thought critic reviews were a little harsh, I feel like I might have felt differently had I watched it outside of a streaming platform.

Exit 8 (Film)

When the independent Japanese game The Exit 8 (JP: 8番出口) by Kotake Create was released in 2023, it made a big splash on the indie game landscape, inspiring numerous other games to put their own spin on its unique anomaly hunting mechanics. This popularity would eventually lead to it getting a Japanese live-action film adaptation, titled Exit 8 (JP: 8番出口), directed by Genki Kawamura, in 2025. The existence of the film adaptation intrigued me even as someone who hadn’t played the game but knew about it, more so when distributor Neon gave it a limited (sub-only) US theatrical run earlier this week. Not knowing when I’d have another chance to see it, I managed to secure tickets for the most convenient screening within my area and found it to be well worth the effort.

God of War: Sons of Sparta

Note: The review contains spoilers for God of War: Sons of Sparta and God of War: Ghost of Sparta. 

The God of War series is no stranger to having canon installments developed by other studios outside of Santa Monica Studio, but not a full original console game. Such is the case with God of War: Sons of Sparta (Sons of Sparta), a PS5 exclusive co-developed by Mega Cat Studios, the studio behind Five Nights at Freddy’s: Into the Pit. Unusually for the series, let alone for its high profile, the game was shadow-dropped on the PlayStation Store during the February 2026 PlayStation State of Play. Although the release was sudden, I still got the game on release day, though it took a while to finish due to my own personal endurance. Upon completing it and reaching the post-game, I thought it was a worthy entry in the series, but not without some questionable design choices.

The Super Mario Galaxy Movie

Note: This review contains spoilers for The Super Mario Bros. Movie.

The success of 2023’s The Super Mario Bros. Movie, grossing over $1 billion on a $100 million budget, would naturally justify a sequel, announced one year later and released in 2026. Despite animation studio Illumination’s track record for the inconsistent quality of their output, I still enjoyed The Super Mario Bros. Movie (in spite of its flaws) and felt growing hype as the sequel, The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, drew closer, enough that I finally played the original game that it was based on, Super Mario Galaxy. Although some skepticism and negative critic reviews popped up during the lead-in to the film’s release, I felt that I should see first-hand how it shaped up compared to the original. Unfortunately, for every enjoyable element, there is something that holds it back from greatness.