Well, turns out M. Night is still capable of making an entertaining movie. This was a humble thriller about three girls kidnapped by a man with split personalities. While it may spend a bit too much time dishing out exposition as to how split personalities are real and can cause supernatural-like abilities, the main plot gradually builds the tension and doesn’t pull punches. And a sorta/kinda twist that’s a genuine surprise.
Outside of Helter Skelter, I have not read much true crime literature. I picked this one mainly because is was co-written by John Bloom (and it’s super cheap on Kindle). It details the story of a brutal axe murder that took place is suburban Dallas in the early eighties. The book is written in a narrative style that makes it feel more like a novel than a journalistic undertaking. That said, this was meticulously researched and based on interviews with most of the primary players (except, of course, the deceased Betty Gore). It’s not so much a mystery who-done-it (the killer is revealed in the first chapters) as it is a why-done-it.
A small, slow moving horror movie about boarding school girls and the devil. There’s lots of hard to hear dialogue and very little visible “horror” stuff going on, but it builds to a mildly bloody ending.
Apparently this is a very important movie and a touchstone of Italian cinema. All I know it’s severely lacking in the Italian knife-wielding maniac department. Still, as far as artsy dramas go, this wasn’t half bad. Basically, a guy gets his bike stolen and spends the rest of the movie trying to find it. There’s probably some brainy sub-text about life and finding meaning in a cold, uncaring world but I was too stupid to pick up on that.
This is a sequel in name only to the excellent Black Magic. It’s still about an evil voodoo magician, but in this case he is purely evil and not just doing the bidding of others. So evil in fact that he pounds nails into corpses’ heads, drinks breast milk, impregnates women with meat blobs, and raises the bodies of dead go-go dancers. This movie is just non-stop crazy and thoroughly entertaining.
This is crime thriller from 1955 that is unique in that it was shot on location in post-war Japan and it is filmed in glorious, super-widescreen Cinemascope. Every frame is full of color and wonderfully composed. Every frame is also filled with ugly American style treatment of the locals. Lots of gangsters raising their voices and demanding, “Hey pal, ya speak English!” This is also the movie where Robert Stack does his, “Who the boss? The head man? …” bit that was parodied in Airplane. Overall this was mediocre yet entertaining plot that’s bolstered by stunning visuals.
In recent years there have been several attempts at making fake 80s shows, games or movies. The best of this would be something like Stranger Things and the worst is Kung Fury. Turbo Kid is somewhere in the middle. It isn’t fully fueled on nostalgia and has likable characters. But there is a tinge of that weird interpretation of 80s culture that millennials often produce. The ever present neon landscape title grid is there. I don’t recall seeing that ever in the 80s unless it’s a play on the Night Flight logo? Stan Bush sings the title track. Seriously, he recorded one song for one movie! Just because you were six and highly influencable when Transformers the Movie came out doesn’t mean that Stan Bush was the soundtrack voice of the decade. Anyhow, it’s a fun movie with lots of bad gore effects and people on dirt bikes.
Ubisoft only knows how to make these open world games with paper-thin story lines and lots of side challenges that don’t amount to much. I had already played the sequel (which I got for free) before I had played Watch Dogs (which I also got for free). Apparently, if you wait long enough, all Ubisoft games will eventually be free. I knew what to expect going into this: lots of “hacking” which consists of vaguely Pipe Dreams style puzzles or, more often, just holding down the “Q” key. My main reason for not passing on this was the prospect of exploring a virtual Chicago. Turns out in Montreal they think Chicago is surrounded by rolling hills and filled with exploding steam pipes.
The game does what it does well enough. I suppose I could have spent hours and hours finishing side missions, but the fact of the matter is that much of the tasks are just not very interesting. Taking down gang hideouts is fun and a few of the racing challenges are okay, but that’s about it. Some of the more hacker-ish things are just about looking for the correct camera or following glowing wires until you reach a box with a “Hack” icon above it. Watch Dogs 2 is superior in most respects. In that game you get drones and other tools to exploit. There is far more variety and fun to be had in virtual San Francisco, so skip this one and play the sequel.
This the second book in The Expanse series. It felt like a bit of a retread but with less interesting characters. The T.V. show is better.
I remember watching my housemate play this game quite a bit back when we were in college. I don’t think he had the CD-ROM version—which included voice acting from the original cast. Luckily this GOG.com version has all the recorded elements (and none of the weird DOS set up problems). Yup, there’s nothing like hearing an aged, breathy-voiced DeForest Kelley read mediocre video game dialogue!
The past few months I have been in a Star Trek state of mind as I have been streaming episodes of The Next Generation. This game really seems to capture the essence of the shows. This is despite the opening space battle which, to me, really doesn’t feel very Trekish. Space combat pops up a few more times, but, for the most part, the game is about beaming down to worlds, exploring and solving problems. It’s broken up into nice short episodes, each with their own flavor and challenges.
As for the adventure gaming, it is pretty good but there are a couple annoying moments about halfway through the game. The Harry Mudd episode is funny but lacks purpose. The “Feathered Serpent” episode has a couple of puzzles that rely on you having taken notes early on and having a knowledge of base-3 numbers. And the final episode has a game stopping bug that will leave you wandering around with nothing to do until you are finally killed when time runs out. I can’t imagine how infuriating this game was before the age of internet walk-throughs and hints.
Just like the original show, the plots leave nothing for Sulu, Chekov, Mr. Scott or Uhura to do but sit on the bridge and mope around. It was also severely lacking in Kirk mountain-punching. Seriously, what’s TOS without some Ponfarr ritual battles?
