Rumble in Hong Kong
An old Cantonese crime movie which is only noteworthy because Jackie Chan plays a thug with a giant black mole on his cheek. Streaming service thumbnails will make you think he’s the star, but, alas, he is not.
Author: Robert Gomez
The Menu
A horror/comedy about an exclusive restaurant and the patrons who are trapped there. It leans heavily into satire mocking both foodie culture and class divisions. It was good eats.
Neues Vom Hexer
The sequel to Der Hexer is more goofy than the original and is not really a good as a mystery/thriller. The point of the movie is mostly to show off all the sneaky ways in which the Hexer outsmarts the villains and cops. And there is a completely bonkers scene is which a one-armed teenage boy tries to ride actual tigers.
The Baby
A swinging 70s family has a baby who’s a grown man. He babbles, cries and crawls around and no one seems disturbed by this. A social worker takes a little too much interest in Baby’s case and the family doesn’t approve. This movie tip-toes close to being a John Waters style perversion story without ever really crossing that line. It’s weird, silly and thoroughly entertaining.
Strange Darling
Excellent neo-noir that feels like a lot of the post-Pulp Fiction indies that came out in the 90s. Tense and thrilling with a cut-and-paste structure that only kinda/sorta feels like a gimmick.
Appointment with Death
The final Ustinov Poirot film is a Cannon film production but there is no karate in it. It’s cheap looking and has quite a few bad young actors mixed in with the aging golden era celebrities. Still, it’s an Agatha Christie mystery and you kinda know what you’re going to be getting.
Inception
This Nolan guy might actually be a good director. I really liked the movie, but, because the movie immediately lets you in on the conceit that dreams can exist with dreams, I was a little less invested in the goings-on because I was constantly looking for the “and this reality is also a dream” twist. Also didn’t help that I watched it on a twelve inch computer screen.
Oblivion
I appreciate big-budget sci-fi, but the story felt a bit too predictable and the expensive CGI setting was just kinda dull. I’d rather be watching Edge of Tomorrow than this.
Red Desert
Another artsy Antonioni film, this time in color! This one seems to be all about desolation in a bleak, industrialized world. Every frame is composed like a masterful painting. The characters traverse factories, docks and beat up fishing shacks without any sort of plot to keep us interested. It has its moments, but it’s a bit too hoity toity for my tastes.
QBob Progress Report #4
As January comes to a close, I am pleased to report that most of the new character sprites are in place. The player character was by far the most challenging character to animate, and technically I am still not done. I still need animations for using the paint gun and throwing grenades (two elements from the original game that I was hesitant to bring in to the new version). I also spent a good deal of time honing the final boss and his level’s unique game-play. I have to say the final level is looking pretty good, but it’s still seems too easy for me. That may just be a result of me having had to play it hundreds of times whilst in development.
There are still many many background elements that need to be created and animated, but I’m getting close to the next phase. Here is a brief preview of where the game it at now:
I might be going a little overboard with the particle effects, but right now I think they look great.