Priestly

I've never been a fan of vampire movies, so when this movie started in on them, I was initially 'meh'.

In this movie the Church finally becomes the ultimate plutocracy it's always wanted to be. To question the Church is to be out of line and, thus, wrong. So when they say there are no vampires, they really mean it. Okay. Don't question them. Their militant super powered ass-kickers, known as Priests, killed them all. So when the lover of the niece of one of them comes to say that the family have been killed by vampires, and the niece has been taken, then clearly the Priest is not to go chasing after her. Right. Right?

It took me about half the film to actually start enjoying it. Which sounds bad, but when the movie is less than 90 minutes, not too much. And it wasn't like I was actively disliking it, just didn't care that much. But it did get a lot better.

Paul Bettany and Karl Urban both play their Priests in the same way, ie with action stunts and extremely low and gravelly voices. You'd think their voices had been treated in post production to get them that deep. Maggie Q doesn't do that, at least. No gravel there, just pitched really low. I mean, seriously? What? Cam Gigandet plays the closest this movie gets to a comedy sidekick (in that he doesn't get the best action stunts) and no low voice, so I am wondering just how over the top these people think they are supposed to be. Still, they can all act with well crafted digital vampires, so it's all for the best.

Very light on religious themes (more about authority that religion) and then there's the set up for the sequel, but a better movie that I originally thought.

[END]

Read more!

Trialing Trailing - Of Cthulhu

Joined in a playtest of a mod from Trail of Cthulhu. It's a varient of Cthulhu which has a different mechanic behind it, but tries to capture the feel of Cthulhu. The mod we did had some very interesting aspects to it... although we didn't manage to get to those, faffing about too much in the beginning (but having fun!).

This is The Brick Kiln (from Unspeakable Oath 19), and we discuss the reveals at the end of the recording, so if you don't want to be spoiled on that...

Can listen to what we got through from Rapidshare or Hotfile.

[END]

Read more!

Of Steam, Steel and Murder

We launch new and exciting plans! We pick up the doctor from the airport, wow! We watch someone get driven around, shock! We drive through traffic, keep an eye out for the police, gasp!

Well, we try to launch plans. Note to selves: make sure the people who are rolling have chips to spend on bad rolls. Oops.

Check out Game 37. Rapidshare. Hotfile.

[END]

Read more!

Team Xero #009

Silver Skull comes up with a cunning plan that takes advantage of the popular love of the Olympics...



A note on the voices. There are basically three adult male voices (one American, two English) and five adult female voices (two American, three English) available before I need to start dealing with making things sound sensible in other accents (which isn't to say that I don't have enough problems with English). So voices are assigned on what I need, not who should sound like they did last time...

[END]

Read more!

The Socialist Network

Very interesting movie about how America is moving to a new system of goods distribution that will give everyone what they need... or maybe I'm thinking of something else.

So, anyone, some douche invents a way for people to wave at each other and makes millions. And then, like seemingly every other computer-related company which is driven by someone who is either brilliant or a psychopath, or both, people get screwed over, and then there's lots of bitching about who gets all the money. The buckets and wheelbarrows and dumpster trucks of money... sigh wish I had that kind of money...

Anyway, I was surprised by just how watchable this movie was. I went in expecting not to even lasting ten minutes, but I just got so caught up by what was happening that I just had to find out what happened next [I've been catching up with a few movies, and many of them didn't hold my interest that long]. So credit to Aaron Sorkin for crafting a fantastic script (not surprising he won an award!). That said, I'm not sure how 100% accurate it is, although it does seem to be closer than some 'based on real life' stories.

Also thumbs up to Jesse Eisenburg for great acting as Mark Zuckerberg. And Armie Hammer as the Winklevii was hilarious! Andrew Garfield gave good Eduardo Saverin, and Timberlake was tolerable.

Now, all this praise is conditional on how much you like the topic being discussed. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who don't care about Facebook, and have no interest in this movie. However, I like me some computer-history so definitely if you like that, you'll like this.

[END]

Read more!

Those Classy Men d'X

Hey, another superhero movie! They are becoming more common. Now it's just a question of quality.

In this one, Charles Xavier and Erik Lehnsherr team up to become the wackiest cops this side of Danson and Highsmith! Hijinks ensue when Erik cripples Charles with ten minutes of hilarious beatings with a baseball bat, and then Charles makes Erik do the chicken dance!

Well, something like that. There are rounding up of some mutants to be on the side of 'good', and some bad guys, and there are big fights and January Jones (Emma Frost) spends a lot of time in lingerie (although not much in acting). And Jennifer Lawrence (Raven/Mystique) just gets in various different weird relationships with everyone...

James McAvoy and Michael Fassbender do great work as Charles and Erik. Kevin Bacon is playing Kevin Bacon. Rose Byrne does a fine job as Moira, but since she's human, she doesn't fare well in the movie. And everyone else turns up for various roles or amusing cameos.

Decent movie, worth the watching.

[END]

Read more!

DW: Hunter's Moon

Third book in the current set is Hunter's Moon by Paul Finch.

Hey, an actual story not on Earth! For the most part at least. There's a hunt going on, and guess who's on the running block? If you said 'random humans', you'd be correct. And it's up to the Doctor, Rory and Amy to stop them from dying. You know, after Rory joins them to run away from the hunters, and Amy is captured, and the Doctor is threatening to shoot them all... same old, same old.

While the basic concept isn't that original, Paul Finch does do a lot of work setting up a new civilisation and creates a decent atmosphere, and has a lot of action set pieces, so thumbs up for that. However, there is one disastrous things he does. Ahem...

Krauzzen, Krelbin, Konzalar...
Xaaael, Xorax, Xelos...
Zarbotan, Zubedai, Zalu...

Yep, all the alien names begin with K, X or Z. Which makes keeping track of who's whom near impossible. Certainly there were many times I didn't know which random collection of letters was talking. Now, we can recognise and differentiate English names, but even so having a Chester, Charles and Chuckie is just begging for trouble. Make 'em weird, but make 'em unique!

Aside from that, it's a decent enough book, that I rate higher than Dead of Winter, and lower than The Way Through The Woods.

[END]

Read more!