Derek Malcolm has been covering the worlds of tech and entertainment for more than two decades.
Before coming to How-To Geek in 2025, Derek was a contributing editor and writer for the A/V and Home Theater section at Digital Trends, where he wrangled and wrote everything from what to watch on Netflix to reviews, explainers, and guides on the latest Bluetooth speakers, turntables, projectors, and other A/V gear.
Based in Toronto, Derek graduated from Humber College's Journalism program in 1999, after which he started covering the worlds of music, movies, TV, and celebrity for publications such as TV Guide, Hello! magazine, and Inside Entertainment. He then got the bug for covering tech and gadgets in 2006, when he served as editor-in-chief of Canadian tech magazine Connected for more than a decade.
An avid skier, when all the snow's gone Derek can be found at home spinning vinyl with his daughter or cheering on his favorite F1 team, McLaren.
Luckily, it hasn’t been too long since Prime re-upped its library with new movies for August, and I’ve got some for your movie nights this week—the oldest turns 39 this year, the newest (and my top pick) is a fun animated biography that hit theaters barely two years ago, and the others include an Oscar-nominated comedy and one with Florence Pugh before she was an assassin.
Worth it just for the classic movie quotes ("I'll buy that for a dollar!" and, "Dead or alive, you're coming with me") and satirical ads (a game of Nukem, anyone?). Directed by Paul Verhoeven (Starship Troopers), RoboCop is classic '80s sci-fi that defined a genre, bringing adult ultra-violence and satire back to mainstream cinema.
Set in a dystopian, corporately controlled futuristic Detroit, police officer Alex Murphy (Peter Weller) is killed by notorious gangster Clarence Boddicker (That '70s Show's Kurtwood Smith), only to be brought back to life, his memory completely wiped, as the perfect cyborg crime fighter, RoboCop, who gets to work cleaning up the streets. But as RoboCop works to bring down Omni Consumer Products corporation, they send their own competing police droid to put an end to him, just as he starts to remember who he really is. RoboCop is a classic that spawned two sequels (both also available on Prime Video) and several other reboots and spinoffs.
I recently saw Spider-Man: Brand New Day, and was reminded of how much I like Florence Pugh. The versatile actor is good in virtually everything she does, whether it’s high drama like Little Women or twisted horror like Midsommar, which, coincidentally, both came out the same year as this critically-acclaimed gem, Fighting with My Family.
From royal courts to secret agents — how well do you know Florence Pugh's
best roles?
What is the name of Florence Pugh's traumatized protagonist in the 2019 folk horror
film Midsommar?
In the 2019 Greta Gerwig adaptation of Little Women, which of the four March sisters
does Florence Pugh play?
Florence Pugh's Yelena Belova is the adoptive sister of which other Marvel
character?
Fighting with My Family is based on the true story of which real-life WWE wrestler,
played by Florence Pugh?
In which Disney+ Marvel series did Yelena Belova make a chilling appearance as she
hunted down Hawkeye?
In Dune: Part Two, Florence Pugh plays Princess Irulan, who is the daughter of which
galactic emperor?
In Thunderbolts*, Yelena Belova leads a team of morally grey Marvel antiheroes.
Which of the following characters is NOT part of that team?
In Midsommar, which Scandinavian country does Dani travel to for the film's
unsettling midsummer festival?
Call it pre-training for Yelena, as the story (written and directed by Extras and The Office’s Stephen Merchant) follows Saraya (Pugh), a member of a family of semi-pro wrestlers in Norwich, England. When the WWE comes calling, and Saraya heads to America to train, jealousy and resentment unravels her brother back home, sending ripples through her family. The critically-acclaimed movie also stars Vince Vaughn, Dwayne Johnson, and Lena Heady, and has an excellent 93% on RT.
