Pop Culture Double Date Pop Culture Double Date

Let's face it: we all felt a little burnt by the way "Game of Thrones" ended, so when HBO announced that it had greenlit a prequel show about House Targaryen, we were mightily sceptical. But little by little, we were sucked in, to the point where we now can't avoid the conversation about "House of the Dragon" – the time jumps, the casting changes, the incest, and funnily enough, the merits or demerits of one Viserys I.

Here's the thing about Tom Cruise: not since Napoleon has a man this short come so close to world domination. And yet there's no denying that as the world emerges from a prolonged pandemic lockdown, Thomas Cruise Mapother IV is being hailed as the saviour of cinema, the man who has given us all a reason to to go back the movie theatre otherwise than to watch the latest Marvel extravaganza. So how does "Top Gun: Maverick" hold up? And does the world owe Tom Cruise for showing us once again that nothing compares to practical effects projected onto a big screen? We ponder this and more in the latest Pop Culture Double Date.

The Caped Crusader has returned in solo live-action feature for the first time in a decade, folks, and this time we're spending time with his dark side, which, by the looks of things, may be his only side. In this episode, we ponder whether "The Batman" has taken more than its fair share of thematic inspiration from the The Dark Knight Trilogy, whether it was possible to shave precious minutes off the film's gargantuan running time, whether this movie really needed Catwoman and whether Robert Pattinson is a worthy wearer of the cowl.

The year's most anticipated film has finally landed in Australia, and it's a big one – a film adaptation of a supposedly "unfilmable" novel, a novel so vast that the last time it was brought to the silver screen, no less formidable a director than David Lynch disavowed the final product. We ask ourselves whether this movie is too beautiful for its own good, whether the characters are swamped the landscape and soundscape that Denis Villeneuve conjures, whether Paul Atreides is a cipher and whether his journey towards his messianic fate is handled in a way that does no justice to his character in the novel.

After 15 years and 5 movies, Daniel Craig has finally hung up his Walther PPK in favour of doing his rather impressive Foghorn Leghorn impersonation as Benoit Blanc for years to come. But even as we say goodbye to the Craig incarnation of James Bond, we have to ask: Is this final outing any good? Where does it rank among the Craig films? Does it redeem the franchise after the dumpster fire that was "Spectre"? Does it hint at interesting new directions for this granddaddy of film franchises? And who could possibly step into the tux now that Craig has left the building?

As large parts of Australia came out of lockdown, we went back into the cinema, this time to watch the latest big screen offering from Marvel Studios about a month later than the rest of the world. The big questions this week include the following: Is Simu Liu completely overshadowed by Tony Leung? Despite the big spectacle on offer, does this movie say something about families, particularly Asian families, that we weren't expecting? And is the third act of the movie a problem?