A Chinese Ghost Story III
The final film of the trilogy introduces a new main character and brings back some old ones. Again, this doesn’t rise to the levels of the original story wise, but has plenty of monster effects and wild fights.
Author: Robert Gomez
A Chinese Ghost Story II
I think Tsui Hark should stop killing off likable characters in his movies so he doesn’t have to come up with silly narrative tricks to bring them back in the sequels. Part II in this series doesn’t nail the doomed spiritual romance of the first film but makes up for it in over the top battles and effects. It’s light, goofy, and entertaining.
The School for Good Mothers
I guess this is borderline chick-lit, right? It’s all about the anxieties and fears facing parents, but more specifically mothers. It’s told as the story of a middle-aged mom who gets caught leaving her infant child alone for a couple of hours and is subsequently ordered by the courts to go to motherhood training for a year. The school is a dystopian institution where the students must care for nearly-human robotic dolls during all sorts of extreme conditions. I was hoping that the sci-fi premise would pay off in a Twilight Zone style twist but it never does. Everyone seems to accept the robot dolls and then move on. The ending is fine and it serves the broader point but I would suggest Chan spend a few weeks at The School for Corny Genre Writers if she wants to stay in my good graces.
Evil that Men Do
Charles Bronson heads down to Central American to assassinate a master of torture known as “The Doctor.” This feels like just about every of Bronson movie from this era I’ve seen but it looks more like a T.V. movie despite the violence and adult themes. At one point he kills a man who he awkwardly lures into him and his wife’s hotel room with the prospect of a gay fling. There are a couple of good scenes, but the film is mostly just boring.
Dusk on PC
This is yet another 90s throwback shooter that certainly captures the low poly look of Quake. It also has the Demonic/Lovecraftian theming of Doom. But something about it just didn’t work for me. I think it’s a combination of the same-y design from level to level, and the way all the weapons don’t feel like they have any “oompf.” I know that’s not a terribly specific criticism but it all comes down to feel. I think the older shooters that I am nostalgic for were from before Quake or after Half-Life. Dusk occupies that awkward “we’re just starting to figure out 3-D graphics” phase of FPS development that was sandwiched between those two landmark games.
A Better Tomorrow III: Love & Death in Saigon
John Woo is no longer at the helm in this the third Better Tomorrow installment and it shows. We still get Chow Yun Fat, but the aura of “cool” is absent. This is a prequel, so perhaps he hadn’t learned how to be cool yet, What we do get is a corny love triangle that develops against the backdrop of the fall of Saigon. It’s not a bad movie per se, but it definitely is not what one would expect from A Better Tomorrow. Woo’s gun-fu was never exactly realistic but its fantastical violence was musical and romanticized. Hark’s action is just plain goofy. Still fun to watch, but goofy and really should have been its own thing.
Scavengers - Wood Engraving
My final engraving of 2025 had me once again thinking about A.I. and where our idea emerge from. I have given up and attempting to transfer a drawing to my engraving block and decided to go old school and just draw on the block. It worked out pretty well, but I do prefer when I tone the block with black ink rather than red Sharpie™.
Process Video and Images
I made a point to document most of the steps in the creation of this print. Here is the result.
Click the thumbnails to zoom in.
Deus Ex: Mankind Divided on PC
I spent most of this game sneaking around trying to play the entire thing without killing anyone. In the process I think I missed out on much of the customization mechanics that the series is known for. There are entire branches of the augmentation tech tree that I never even thought to turn on. I focused most of my skill points on hacking and seeing enemies through walls and that seemed to be enough to knock-out every enemy on the map. I don’t know. Even though I enjoyed it, it feels kind of broken.
There’s a another convoluted Deus Ex plot that tries to push the idea that augmented humans are the victims of racism. It doesn’t really make sense because every bad thing that happens in the plot is perpetrated by an augmented human. This tends to justify the whole, “we think augs are evil” ideology you are supposed to be fighting against.
The game feels a lot bigger than it actually is. The graphics are lovely and the city of Prague is filled with details. Unfortunately, there isn’t much to do outside of the main missions and maybe half-a-dozen side quests.
A Homansu
A silent motorcycle riding man with amnesia is recruited by the local crime boss to mope and leer in the darkness. This should be an action-packed Yakuza crime thriller, but not much of anything happens. That is until the out-of-nowhere twist is revealed at the end (okay, I have to spoil this so stop reading in 3… 2… 1… he’s a robot!). It makes absolutely no sense especially when the rest of the movie looks and sounds like an arty character study. It’s not like The Sixth Sense where you can rewatch and see everything in a new context.
Solomon’s Vineyard
The unique twist that this hard-boiled private eye story brings is that it is centered around a religious cult that has linked itself to bootlegging and crime in a small Midwestern town. The main plot involves rescuing a girl from the cult but that, like many of the sub-plots (like the murder of a partner, jealous crime boss, etc.), tends to take a backseat to the S&M “Princess” who manipulates our hero. I especially like the various, ridiculous descriptions of meals that were ordered that usually involve something like: a bottle of bourbon, three pork chops, six hamburgers, and a dozen raw eggs.