Creative control of the James Bond film franchise is to become an all-American affair after long-time rights holders Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson announced they were stepping down and handing the reins to Amazon MGM Studios.
I think this is bad news, despite them remaining ‘co-owners’ of the franchise.
It always seemed that ‘Bond’ as a franchise and all it represents was largely held together by the dedication of Barbara Broccoli and Michael Wilson – they were more than mere rights holders. They understood Bond, and I’m sure stopped many attempts to ‘modernise’ it.
I’m unsure how Amazonian MGM is. But after the dull Rings of Power, I don’t trust Amazon Studios to make the next Bond instalment(s) any good. I hope I’m wrong.
[Broccoli] was said to be relaxed about casting a person of colour or a gay actor, but less comfortable with a female or non-British Bond.
I wouldn’t say there’s loads of pressure for the next Bond to be non-white, American, gay or a woman1 – mostly it just seems to be the media writing about it because they know it stirs the pot. But I trusted Broccoli and co. to not cave into any pressure if it wasn’t right for Bond. Whereas Amazon MGM might want to mix things up a bit too much with a strange choice for Bond or by changing the feel of the films.
I’m not silly enough to think that just because Amazon makes the punch-y Reacher and geopolitically charged Jack Ryan that their Bond will be an awful mix of the two – I’m sure they’re not that clueless. But whatever their Bond’s ‘feel’ is, I expect it to be mediocre.
Though you never know, maybe they’ll improve it.2 I loved the Daniel Craig films and he’s my favourite Bond. But I would like a bit more fun and suavity injected back into it. Maybe Prime will deliver.
For my part, I think Bond can’t be a woman. But he can be non-white, or played by a non-British, non-heterosexual actor. ↩︎
For all my concerns about the quality of future Bond films, there’s been plenty of clangers down the years. The films are beloved, but not always good. ↩︎
Raising a glass of Wild Turkey to Hunter S. Thompson, who died 20 years ago today. The father of Gonzo journalism, he was a rebel, trailblazer, and master of chaos. (1937-2005) 🦇
The towers are gone now, reduced to bloody rubble, along with all hopes for Peace in Our Time, in the United States or any other country. Make no mistake about it: We are At War now – with somebody – and we will stay At War with that mysterious Enemy for the rest of our lives.
It will be a Religious War, a sort of Christian Jihad, fueled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides. It will be guerilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines and no identifiable enemy.
[…] We are going to punish somebody for this attack, but just who or what will be blown to smithereens for it is hard to say. Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or Iraq, or possibly all three at once.
Hi all 👋 Hope you had a good week. Here’s what I’ve been up to.
📘 General notes
I had a cold
I picked up a cold two weeks ago and it took me 10 days just to feel vaguely normal. It really did beat me up.
It also made me oddly sad/depressed, which I haven’t experienced before via a cold. Very odd.
One thing I hate about being unwell is how my brain doesn’t work and I can’t read. It’s a shame, because I was throrougly enjoying “The Posthumous Papers of the Manuscripts Club” by Christopher de Hamel.
I did that typical thing of being unwell and thinking about life before being unwell and how wonderful it was and how when I felt better I was going to not take it for granted and look after myself better. And then I also did that thing of just carrying on as normal.
Step bet
In 2025 I have a wager going with me and two of my friends. Whoever does the least average steps per day has to pay for a feast of food and drink at a restaurant in London at Christmas.
And sadly being ill has put me out of the habit of hitting my daily step goal. I’m aiming for 7,800 per day, as I once watched a video that said the benefits of steps start to plateau at around that point. And 7,800 per day should be enough to beat my friends.
Buying a property
The biggest news of my week (and probably year) is that me and my girlfriend are buying a property! (It’s still all to be finalised, but barring a disaster, it’s happening). It has plenty of nice features. But the one I love above all else: its garden backs onto a huge field.
I’ve always dreamed of living right by woods and greenery, but I didn’t think for a second that it would be possible with my first property. I was hoping to just live within a short drive of one. So having easy access to one is fantastic. And it’s big too, not just a small park for dog walkers. I’m yet to walk around it to confirm, but it’s probably a 60 minute walk to loop all around it.
And of course a side benefit of this is that my step count will go up massively. Fingers crossed the purchase doesn’t all fall through.
Flannel
My body runs cold these days. A t-shirt and jacket doesn’t cut it anymore. So I’ve started wearing a flannel shirt over my t-shirt. I like it.
It keeps me warmer both outside and at home.
It’s smarter than a t-shirt.
There’s breast pockets for my Field Notes and pen.
I don’t have to wash the shirt often as my t-shirt takes the brunt of my sweat.
I have a few flannel shirts – by Uniqlo and Abercrombie & Fitch. But I’m currently fatter than normal, so most don’t fit me with a t-shirt underneath. So I used that as a good excuse to try and find a high-quality one to add to my Christmas list.
I considered L.L.Bean. But I remembered the character of Joel in The Last of Us TV show (absolutely fantastic show by the way) wore a gorgeous green one. So I looked it up, and you can buy it. It’s the Fjällglim shirt in laurel green by Fjallraven and I’m now the proud owner of one.
📝 Other notes
Most of my weekend has been spent microdosing liquorice.
It’s sad that if I see someone in the street jumping for joy, dancing or singing I assume that they’re either mentally ill or on drugs. Loudly and openly expressed joy is taboo (Especially in Britain. We look down on that sort of thing).
🎬 Film
Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga
I like the previous Tom Hardy / Charlize Theron one a lot – it’s a lot of fun. And I’ve rewatched it many times. But I didn’t have too much interest in a sequel. So it’s taken me a while to watch this.
It takes a little while for the film to ‘warm up’, with the first 40 minutes or so not grabbing much of my attention. But once it finds its feet this becomes a nice addition to the world of Mad Max. And there’s a war rig sequence in the middle that is especially good.
Like the previous one this is a visual feast – though the stylised and juddery CGI takes some getting used to.
Chris Hemsworth is fun. But the problem is that he’s too silly to be an evil villain, and he’s one of the weaker parts of the film.
The sound design is incredible. Volume wise it’s perfect, becoming loud only when it needs to (I didn’t have to constantly have the remote in my hand).
It’s not quite as good as the first one. Especially plot/story wise. But as a spectacle it’s still great fun.
Though every year I think maybe I’ll skip the annual rewatch and give it a break (I’m always scared of watching something I love too often and getting sick of it). But most years I simply can’t resist it. And the same is true in 2025.
I did miss a few episodes this time, as I fell asleep most nights with it on in the background. And I never watch the final few episodes after they ‘return’.
There’s plenty of TV shows I feel nostalgic towards. But Only Fools is in a whole other league. I think because I first watched it young, and because it looks so old now. It feels from a whole other era. And I love it.
I wouldn’t recommend most people to watch it though. Non-English shouldn’t watch it, because the jokes are quite UK-specific. And younger people shouldn’t watch it because it does feel quite dated. Don’t get me wrong though, if you like the look of it, give it a go!
One thing you learn about me is that I like routines and traditions. And for quite a few years my routine when I would get drunk was to fall asleep whilst watching I’m Alan Partridge.
I don’t drink much these days (between the ages of 22-29 I would get drunk probably once a week. For the past several years I only get drunk 3-4 times a year), and when I do I don’t watch this show anymore. So it’s been a long time since I’ve seen it. Too long, considering it’s one of my favourite shows ever.
If you don’t know, Alan Partridge is a comedy character created by Steve Coogan and Armando Iannucci. He’s a failed TV presenter turned local radio DJ in Norwich, characterised by his social awkwardness, inflated sense of self-importance, and constant failed attempts to revive his TV career. He represents a particular type of desperate, middle-aged British media personality who can’t accept that his best days are behind him. And he makes hilarious viewing.
Explore our hand-picked collection of 10,046 out-of-copyright works, free for all to browse, download, and reuse. This is a living database with new images added every week.
My instinct is to ramble when I write. And whilst my final ruthlessly edited drafts are fairly compact, could I go further, into minimalist territory?
As a blogger, what style and length should your writing be? Short and punchy? Or longer and more in-depth, with plenty of details and examples?
I have a “Essays & Long-form” folder in my RSS reader, full of great writers. Yet most days I don’t even look in there. It’s rare for me to have the motivation to read 2000 words on medieval side hustles, for example. And when I do look in there and see a long post I like I’ll save it in my ‘read later’ app. Where the article will likely remain, unread.
I never have that problem with concise writers. Derek Sivers’ writing is compact in the extreme.1 I’ll always read it right away.
And yet, when I look at some of my favourite ever articles they’re nearly always detailed, long-form and verbose. My life has never been changed by a 250 word article. In fact, I often forget I ever read them.
Take Shortform, a service that summarises books so you don’t have to bother reading the book. It’s a nice idea. I was subscribed for a month or two. But I can’t remember much about the books I ‘read’ on there.
Concepts themselves are often easy enough to understand. It’s the nuances, the multiple examples, the drawn-out explanations that actually make them stick. And it’s tough for a reader to emotionally connect with a summary.
As a blogger, you should default to succinctness. People often read in ‘in between’ moments and there’s always fierce competition for a blog readers attention. But it’s vital to find a balance between making your writing concise enough to respect readers’ time, but long enough to let your ideas breathe.
The ultimate aim is to make it short enough to finish, long enough to matter.
It’s time I face facts: these traits aren’t vanishing. They’re part of me.
I’m learning that ADHD is about balance. Accepting some things, fighting others. Setting realistic expectations.
Frozen meals five nights a week? That’s okay. It beats fast food and sweets when I’m knackered and hungry. I’ll focus on adding fruit and veg instead.
Forget minute-by-minute routines. They’re a recipe for failure. I’ll nail the essentials: teeth, shower, tidy up. Make reading, walks and meditation optional. No more ‘ruined’ days when I skip them.
At work, I’ll be upfront: “I process information better in writing. Mind if I share my screen to take notes? You can correct any mistakes.”
Living with ADHD means working with my brain, not against it. It’s about finding strategies that actually work, not expecting myself to fit into the neurotypical mould.
The list has things like toiletries, tupperware, towels, kitchen gadgets, clothing and shoes. All things that I spend a lot of time organising when I should probably be minimising.
My ADHD complicates and makes things worse. Every item has an oversized effect. The burden of storing it, cleaning it, and organising it is immense.
ADHD folk should live simply and minimally. But instead we impulse buy and pick up a new hobby every month.
So we end up with unneeded things haunting us for years. We stuff it into the back of cupboards and closets, when we should just admit defeat and throw it away.
We cling to clutter for silly reasons:
“I’ll sell it someday.” (No, we won’t.)
“I’ll restart that two-week hobby.” (No, we won’t.)
“It’s too big for the bin and requires a tip run.” (So, just do it.)
“I can’t be bothered right now.” (So, just do it.)
We only eventually throw it away when we have an overstimulated panic about it.
I’m known in my family for ‘squirrelling’ things away – pilling things up in closets instead of organising or chucking them. And when I do that one of two things happen:
I totally forget about the item until I stumble upon it again in 6 months.
I think about the item daily. It’s difficult to explain, but it takes up space in my brain. Whilst it’s unorganised in a closet my brain is constantly ‘aware’ of it and it somehow uses up my limited brain power.
So I should just throw things away. And I will. At some point anyway.
In Parks and Recreation’s third season there’s a moment that perfectly captures the introvert’s dilemma.
Ron, a man who guards his privacy and peace fiercely, dreads Leslie’s notorious penchant for over-the-top celebrations. As the day approaches, his anxiety builds. But when the moment arrives, he’s met with an unexpected gift - solitude. Leslie has arranged for him to enjoy a steak, whisky, and “The Bridge on the River Kwai” in peaceful isolation.
I see my own struggles mirrored perfectly in this scene. Like Ron, I approach birthdays with trepidation.
The obligatory dinner out fills me with unease. I spend the evening on edge, anticipating the dreaded moment when waitstaff emerge with a cake, subjecting me to the half-hearted “happy birthday to you” singing of strangers.
Gift-opening becomes a performative ordeal, with anticipating gazes fixed upon me. My struggle to express enthusiasm has disappointed gift givers more than once.
The same is true of reading cards. You can feel their expectant eyes burning into you as you read their kind words, unsure how to react or what to say. Do I go and hug them or just say thanks? I never know.
You don’t want to complain about any of this of course. People’s hearts are in the right place and they’re just trying to be kind.
Though, there are those few who take a perverse pleasure in purposefully doing things they know you’ll hate. Seeing you distressed and uncomfortable seems to bring them joy.
It’s ironic that on the one day meant to celebrate me, I too often feel like I’m conforming to others’ expectations. It feels less about my happiness, and more about fulfilling social conventions.
This birthday conundrum exemplifies a broader issue: our extrovert-centric world often overlooks the needs of introverts.
So the idea of a Ron Swanson-style birthday - one tailored to my own quiet, simple preferences - sounds like bliss. And I’m sure it does for other introverts too.
Research psychologist Robert Epstein argues that our understanding of the human brain is being held back by the persuasive ’the brain is like a computer’ metaphor.
I especially like this passage showing that our knowledge of ourselves has always been influenced by the technology of the time. We’re just too complicated, so we shoehorn in mechanical parallels:
In his book In Our Own Image (2015), the artificial intelligence expert George Zarkadakis describes six different metaphors people have employed over the past 2,000 years to try to explain human intelligence.
In the earliest one, eventually preserved in the Bible, humans were formed from clay or dirt, which an intelligent god then infused with its spirit…
The invention of hydraulic engineering in the 3rd century BCE led to the popularity of a hydraulic model of human intelligence, the idea that the flow of different fluids in the body – the ‘humours’ – accounted for both our physical and mental functioning. The hydraulic metaphor persisted for more than 1,600 years, handicapping medical practice all the while.
By the 1500s, automata powered by springs and gears had been devised, eventually inspiring leading thinkers such as René Descartes to assert that humans are complex machines. In the 1600s, the British philosopher Thomas Hobbes suggested that thinking arose from small mechanical motions in the brain. By the 1700s, discoveries about electricity and chemistry led to new theories of human intelligence – again, largely metaphorical in nature…
The mathematician John von Neumann stated flatly that the function of the human nervous system is ‘prima facie digital’, drawing parallel after parallel between the components of the computing machines of the day and the components of the human brain
Each metaphor reflected the most advanced thinking of the era that spawned it. Predictably, just a few years after the dawn of computer technology in the 1940s, the brain was said to operate like a computer, with the role of physical hardware played by the brain itself and our thoughts serving as software…
What about digitising a brain?:
Even if we had the ability to take a snapshot of all of the brain’s 86 billion neurons and then to simulate the state of those neurons in a computer, that vast pattern would mean nothing outside the body of the brain that produced it.
I’m currently reading “English Food: A People’s History” by Diane Purkiss. I thought this passage on Virginia Woolf’s depression treatment interesting:
Virginia Woolf, on the other hand, was in the 1920s treated, if that is the right word, by the then recommended regime of complete rest – not even books were allowed, lest they excite the brain – milk, weight gain, fresh air and early nights. One of her doctors, Sir George Savage, was especially keen to treat neurasthenic women by excessive feeding and complete rest. Woolf was given four or five pints of milk every day, half a pint every two hours. After five days of milk on this scale, she was allowed to add a cutlet, malt extract, cod liver oil and beef tea. The rather brainless thinking behind the regime was that since patients like Woolf stopped eating and lost weight when depressed, they could be forced back into wellness by being made to gain weight.
Imagine having depression and your ‘treatment’ is being forced to do nothing and drink loads of milk.
Side note. I like this picture of her. She looks so very human:
There’s a section on the hardships of people during the Great Depression. And after a sad, brief mention of a woman named Annie Weaving who died aged 37° potentially due to not being able to feed both herself and her family there’s a reference to something called “protective foods”.
I’d never heard the term. I thought they might be “protected” as in having their price controlled by the government. But it’s actually the precursor to the food pyramid idea.
One poster I found promoting it suggests this:
PINT MILK, 1 EGG, 1 POTATO AND TWO OTHER VEGETABLES (ONE OF THESE A GREEN LEAFY ONE), 2 SERVINGS OF FRUIT (AT LEAST ONE RAW), 1 SERVING OF MEAT OR FISH, 1 OZ. BUTTER.
And I think it still holds up. Could it be improved? Probably. But it’s simple and realistic. I like it.
People often overthink diet. So I like simplicity. It reminds me of Michael Pollan’s mantra:
Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants.
Some info on the history of the food pyramid here°.
One of the things I don’t like about certain religious groups and people is their love of round numbers. Or more specifically round years. Every new century, half-century or decade they claim something miraculous and/or terrible is going to happen1
To me it’s just lazy, easy prophesying. And I find it rather silly. If religion is fantasy then these predictions are high fantasy. They’re always the same. The non-believers will burn. And the believers will live in a utopia or be taken to heaven. There’s never any subtlety or precision.
And it’s been happening for centuries. In the book I’m currently reading – “Conquerors: How Portugal Forged the First Global Empire" by Roger Crowley – it talks about how as the year 1500 approached Christian’s in Europe were expecting a huge event, as always. And of course nothing happened, as always.
Researching this phenomenon I’ve discovered there’s a name for it: Millenarianism. I’m sure it’s a phenomenon that won’t end any time soon.
Though 2012 wasn’t very round. I’ll give them that one. ↩︎
The Romans knew of the Canary Islands, a smattering of rocks off the coast of Morocco, which they called the Fortunate Islands and from which they measured longitude.
After some research, I discovered that while Ptolemy used the Canary Islands as a theoretical reference point for longitude, the Romans did not actually use this method for navigation.
The second passage:
[In China] in 1500 it became a capital offence to build a ship with more than two masts; fifty years later it was a crime even to put to sea in one.
While there were indeed strict rules on shipbuilding in China during this period, it was never a capital offence unless it was associated with piracy or treason.
The importance of citing sources
It’s possible that the author had access to sources I’m unaware of, and I could be mistaken. However, this experience reinforces my wariness of books that don’t cite their sources.
I still enjoy reading non-fiction books that are free of citations, and I do my best to trust the information they provide. However, I often assume that around 25% of the content is inaccurate. This doesn’t even take into account the potential inaccuracies, omissions, or biases in the historical sources themselves – a topic for another post.
This a lesson in how useful, but worrying, it can be to try and find sources for what you read.
[I acknowledge the irony of not citing sources in this post!]
Staying up late harms mental health regardless of one’s natural sleep preference. Surveying nearly 75,000 adults, researchers discovered that both morning and night types who stayed up late had higher rates of mental disorders. Surprisingly, aligning with one’s chronotype didn’t matter—early bedtimes benefited everyone. The study suggests lights out by 1 a.m. for better mental health.
[…] “The worst-case scenario is definitely the late-night people staying up late,” Zeitzer said. Night owls being true to their chronotype were 20% to 40% more likely to have been diagnosed with a mental health disorder, compared with night owls following an early or intermediate sleep schedule.
[…] They also tested the possibility that it was poor mental health causing people to stay up late, not the other way around. They tracked a subset of participants who had no previous diagnosis of a mental disorder for the next eight years.
During that time, night owls who slept late were the most likely to develop a mental health disorder.
I’ve noticed this – anecdotally. I’m a natural night owl, but I feel at my worst when I go to bed late.
I feel happier and healthier when in an earlier pattern. But I find it tough to remain in that pattern. My body and brain is constantly asking me to stay up later. And once or twice a week I’ll really struggle to get to sleep.
One thing that study didn’t look into is wether the increase of mental health issues is caused by what people do late at night, rather than just being awake late:
There may be many explanations for sleep timing’s link to mental well-being, but [the studies author] thinks it likely comes down to the poor decisions that people make in the wee hours of the morning.
Many harmful behaviors are more common at night, including suicidal thinking, violent crimes, alcohol and drug use, and overeating.
[…] His team plans to examine whether particular late-night behaviors, rather than timing per se, are linked to poor mental health.
In my case the bad outcomes seem to be caused by the staying up late, not what I do in those late hours.
Last week the clothing company Asket removed all images for their products.
I would be curious to know how much their sales dropped during that week.
Well, I’m guessing they dropped. Who knows, maybe the publicity outweighed the loss of sales. Hey, I’m talking about it. So the marketing has worked.
Aside: I always mix up Asket and Arket. They have similar names and they both sell slightly expensive minimal clothing. Maybe Cos should rebrand to Atket.
Want to be known as dependable and great at your job? Focus on the big and the small tasks.
People notice when that critical project is struggling. They also notice when you promise a small favour but take forever to deliver.
It’s tempting to tackle the medium tasks first. The small ones can wait until later. But suddenly it’s the end of the day and they’re not done.
And the big projects feel overwhelming, so you wait for the perfect time to start. Which never arrives.
So you spend most of your time on those hour-long tasks, neglecting the day-long ones and the 10 minute favours.
I’ve fallen into this trap. But I’ve learned that to be seen as reliable and effective, you need to prioritise the big and the small and get them done first.
Break up that big, daunting project into a bunch of different tasks and treat them as totally separate pieces of work.
When someone asks for a quick favour, do it quickly. So create time in your calendar. Choose one of the below:
5-10 minutes every hour.
A good cadence if you like a ‘break’ every so often and can pick up right where you left off after the 5-10 minutes are over.
10-20 minutes 3 times a day.
11:00, after you’ve finished your 09:00-11:00 focus period.
13:30, after lunch when your energy is low.
16:45, right before the end of the day. Your desire to be done for the day will mean you will do those tasks fast.
45-60 minutes once a day.
Do it in the post-lunch crash.
The medium tasks won’t make or break your reputation. But nailing the big projects and small details? That’s how you become the go-to person at work.
One of the biggest changes in my personality with middle age is that I no longer really enjoy travel beyond local weekend getaways. Almost no destination has a pain/novelty ratio that makes it worth it… Even though travel has gotten way more convenient overall (smartphones, eSIM cards, cashless payments, Uber, Google Translate — though at the expense of phone-loss anxiety), my tolerance for discomfort has plummeted. I don’t like shitty hotels/hostels, awkward couchsurfing, wrangling luggage, driving unfamiliar cars, figuring out transit systems… I especially don’t like wading through lots of options figuring out food options. The net effect is that I’ve gradually gone sessile.
I used to think I was supposed to love travel. Everyone else seems to. But I’ve realised it’s just not my thing.
I like the idea. Seeing the world, trying new things. And I love travel shows – Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown is a favourite. But the reality doesn’t live up to the hype for me.
Unknown places? No thanks. Spending tons of money? Pass. Flying? Hate it.
Every trip I feel a sense of dread and regret for booking it. Even visiting somewhere great, like my upcoming Seville trip, I’m just not that excited.
I don’t hate travel. But the joy I get doesn’t outweigh the things I don’t like.
And I feel embarrassed admitting this. People judge you as boring, lacking passion. There’s so much pressure to love travel.
Maybe when I’m old I’ll regret not traveling more. It’s a common deathbed regret.
But for now, I’m owning it: Travel? Meh. Just not for me.
I love discovering a wonderful new homepage or blog. Especially on the weekend when I have time to gently sip away at its content. This time it’s Arun and their website arun.is.
It’s a technology-focused blog that’s simply, but sensationally, designed. There’s quite the archive, so I haven’t read all their stuff, but here’s some of my favourites:
I’m a big fan of Guy Ritchie’s films. His first two, “Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels” and “Snatch”, are the business. Even as he’s gone more Hollywood over the years, his work always maintains that unique Ritchie touch – the clever dialogue, the inventive filming style. His Sherlock Holmes felt fresh and modern, despite the period setting. And “The Man from U.N.C.L.E.” was a blast. Even when he slightly misses the mark, like with “King Arthur: Legend of the Sword” or “Wrath of Man” (a poor man’s “Heat”), there’s still enough Ritchie magic to make them worth a watch. His “Aladdin” was okayish too. Really, “Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre” is his only true dud (even the title is bad).
So, I was excited for “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare”. The premise is great, revolving around a secret British commando unit formed during World War II to carry out covert operations against the Nazis. And the first hour was exactly what I wanted from a lazy Sunday flick. It was quintessentially English, almost to the point of parody, and it moved at a cracking pace. I love a good mercenary team-up film, and this one delivered.
Well for the first hour or so. As the second half of the film doesn’t quite stick the landing. The villain feels underutilised and not quite menacing enough. The fight scenes, which initially impressed with their stylish effortlessness, start to feel a bit repetitive and lack any real tension. You never doubt that our heroes will come out on top, which saps the stakes from the numerous altercations and the final big fight. The last hour just drags a bit, and I found my attention wandering.
Despite these issues, “The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare” is still a really solid film. It’s a fun, old-fashioned adventure that feels like a throwback in the best way. It reminded me of a combination of “Raiders of the Lost Ark”, “Operation Mincemeat” and “The Wild Geese”.
