Ken and Robin Consume Media: Fight or Flight, Queen of Chess, Rental Family
April 21st, 2026 | Robin
Ken and Robin Consume Media is brought to you by the discriminating and good-looking backers of the Ken and Robin Talk About Stuff Patreon. Each week we provide capsule reviews of the books, movies, TV seasons and more we cram into our hyper-analytical sensoriums. Join the Patreon to help pick the items we’ll talk about in greater depth on a little podcast segment we like to call Tell Me More.
Recommended
Fight or Flight (Film, US, James Madigan, 2024) Booze-soaked, cashiered Secret Service agent (Josh Hartnett) is reactivated to apprehend a prolific hacktivist (Charithra Chandran) on a plane of assassins seeking to kill her. Yep, it’s 2022’s Bullet Train on a plane, with superb fight choreography and Hartnett fully morphed into his rumpled charmer Pokémon form.—RDL
Rental Family (Film, Japan/US, Hikari, 2025) Isolated expat actor living in Tokyo (Brendan Fraser) reluctantly accepts a gig at an agency that supplies performers to insert themselves into client’s personal lives. Fraser brings his reservoir of sadness to a reassuring, well-judged drama based on a heightened version of an actual Japanese phenomenon.—RDL
Queen of Chess (Film, US, Rory Kennedy, 2026) Trailblazing chess great Judit Polgár, raised alongside her sisters by a dad determined to mold them into champions, doggedly battles over many years to best nemesis-turned-mentor Garry Kasparov. Documentary profile invests its game recreations with energy and suspense.—RDL
Okay
Tee Yai: Born to be Bad (Film, Thailand, Nonzee Nimibutr, 2025) A notorious armed robber with reputed supernatural powers (Apo Nattawin Wattanagitiphat) stays a step ahead of the cops as his running buddy (Wisarut Himmarat) falls for an abused sex worker (Supassra Thanachat). Thailand’s answer to John Dillinger gets a down-the-middle treatment in a crime docudrama that flirts with heroic bloodshed themes but never releases the doves.—RDL
Ken was on the road this week.
