January 2026 movie/music/etc recap
what do you mean we're already at the second month of the year wha-
AGDQ 2026
As always, it was a really nice event! And like last time, I picked some runs I really like, between funny runs and more serious, technical runs.
Fun runs:
- American Truck Simulator Point to point race by Anarchy and Lazlo, which was cursed from the beginning and one of the funniest "runs" I've ever watched
- That's A Cow 40 Levels by Tomomodachi
- Monster In My Pocket Any% Co-op by Starwin and giygasblues
Tech runs:
- Doom Eternal 100% (nightmare, restricted) by KovaaK - yes, THE KovaaK that made the aim trainer of the same name; the dude is a beast at FPS and his run was incredible
- Amnesia: The Bunker Glitchless (Shellshock Difficulty) by BloodThunder - I've always been a fan of his runs, and this one was really interesting given the randomness of the game and his great commenting.
- Richard Burns Rally (Rally Season) by JohanVonVorst, not a speedrun per say but a highly skilled run anyway, backed up with a great couch who loves rally racing
Shoutout to the Super Mario 64 70 star relay run too! Having a 70 people relay for each star was such a good idea, and it was great to watch!
Movie
Hundreds of Beavers (2022)
I decided to start the new year with a banger, and it did not disappoint!
This is a great movie, especially if you like black and white movies or old cartoons humor. There's always a joke on screen and never any kind of idle moment, and it's masterfully crafted to a way that is never overwhelming.
The actors are great, especially the protagonist who plays so well and is super expressive ; the costumed animals were great too! There's no speech in this, except for one particular instance and it was perfect.
This is a movie I can't recommend enough!
The Thursday Murder Club (2025)
Despite the murders/death, this is a cozy sunday morning movie, and I enjoyed it alright. The cast was packed though! There were some lovely british landscape shots, too.
The morality of the story is a bit ??? at times but it's still a lovely movie, and I found myself laughing easily at most of the group's shenanigans. (Justice for Bogdan tho)
Yeah I don't have much to say about it, as I said, sunday morning, I watched it while eating breakfast and taking care of our pets so I didn't take notes.
Casino Royale (2006)
Judi dench still the goat
I know this was an origin story, but I like Daniel Craig's bond "just" alright so far, hoping to see if he grows on me. Mads Mikkelsen was cool but he always is, his death sucked and I'm a bit heh about that one.
Onto my pet peeve of the movie tho, I did not care about the romance side of things, which was so superficial even for a bond movie (with the oh no! the chick has some teeth and criticizes Bond in her first scene? M did it better in Goldeneye) it bored me quite a lot, which definitely diminished the rest of the movie. I didn't really care about Eva Green either which definitely didn't help. Oh well.
But still a pretty good Bond with a good scenario.
Quantum of Solace (2008)
Spoiler Daniel Craig definitely grew on me, I like his Bond a lot!
Not much to say about this movie, action scenes bored me quite a lot, I don't know why but I saw myself checking out almost every time stuff happened on screen. It was still of okay quality for a movie ; the plot wasn't great (I did enjoy the lack of romance in this one tho!) but most scenes (except for the aforementioned action ones) were pretty nice. Loved the composition when Bond and Camille are in a sinkhole, the white/black contrast was great!
Mathis made for an interesting character in the end, really liked that one.
Skyfall (2012)
That opening sequence was nuts! Also I have to say that I really enjoyed the opening credit sequences with Daniel Craig! They were all pretty nice to watch.
The cast was very well picked! Ben Whishaw as Q is pretty good and makes a nice difference in comparison to Llewelyn. The actress playing Severine was really good too, especially when she shows how much scared she actually was. Naomie Harris and Ralph Fiennes were great too, and I won't even tergiverse at how great of a villain Javier Bardem was, it was just chef's kiss
The story was great, the locations were awesome (Shanghai had some really stunning shots) and overall I really enjoyed how much a retour à la source this movie was, and what a send off it was for Judi Dench, too.
A++ movie that went up right into my top 3 Bond!
Music
The habitual list of albums I liked from 1001 Albums this month:
- 1984 by Van Halen
- At San Quentin by Johnny Cash
- Done By The Forces Of Nature by Jungle Brothers
- Music Has The Right To Children by Boards of Canada
Youtube
If you like watching someone make mostly cute little clay/shrink plastic magnets/keychains/etc, then gazoo studio is definitely for you! I love how much creative this channel is. There is also some painting processes here and there.
As a huge fan of SSX3 back in the PS2 era, I really enjoyed watching SSX was a product by Leon Massey. Really interesting to see more of the financial side and overall context of a franchise that was just really cool for me when I was a teenager and didn't care much about anything beyond a good game. Damn I need to play SSX3 again.