Drink Moo Cow!

Okay, a little bit of backstory here. Back in season one, Logan has a "starter" area called Burlyington, a 1950s town where the day reset every day (and every day was Friday). Things happens, and it was taken over by the Blue Mage. This season, the PCs woke up in the sequel version, Burlyington 2.0, and because Logan had time to plan, there was a lot going on. Here, we do some investigating.

The name is pretty obvious, but I was the first one to get there!

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The Truffle Hunters

Time to hunt up some truffles!

This is a relaxed documentary where we follow some elderly truffle hunters. Like, they are quite old. But they are still spritely enough to trample around the forest with their dogs and dig up some truffles. Which are then passed on to someone else who then sells them on to other people. It's quite a thing.

While we do follow men with dogs, we also get their thoughts. People are just coming in rampantly to get truffles, and truffles in general are harder to find these days (doesn't surprise me as truffles get hunted to extinction). I can't say it seems to be a luxurious life they live, but they seem happy enough.

And there are a LOT of people who sniff truffles, and we see them sniffing them. I have no idea what they smell like, but that does seem to be the quality people go for the most. (Although we are in Italy, and people smoke a LOT, so I wonder how well they can smell them... or are they smelling truffles because that's the only thing with a powerful enough aroma to get through the lack of smell they have?)

It's a nice documentary, easy pace, and enjoyable fun watch.

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'Til Kingdom Come

Oh good, a documentary about the wonderful combination of religion and politics...

The Christians in small towns America gather together funds and send them to Jews in Israel... which sounds good? And hey, some of them need support. However, ask why: namely because Jews being in Jerusalem is a key feature of the return of Christ, which leads to Armageddon... which is a good thing (to them). Uh...

This movie shows that off pretty well. While the Christians are all "hey, Israel is important, let's give them support," the Jews are "hang on...". But the evangelicals hold a lot of power and sway with the government (this is filmed during the previous US president's term), and that government was more than willing to feed into it, especially willing to move the embassy and everything.

(Which isn't to say I'm expecting the current US president to be much better about this, he's just as Christian as the ones who did this.)

This is a creepy movie, and a lot of things make you go "are you hearing what you are saying?" But for them, it's a feature, not a bug!

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Cryptozoo

Animated movie time... but this definitely is not a kids cartoon.

After experiencing a Baku as a child Joan grew up with the idea of protecting the cryptids. We follow her and Phoebe as they track down the Baku, all for the Cryptozoo, a zoo where people can get to see cryptids and more than a little exploitative. However, Nicholas is also after them, as they make great weapons to sell to the military. Unfortunately, there's been an incident back at the zoo, and when they get back all heck has broken out...

Given that this has people having full on sex, yeah, this isn't for kids... that said, there's no real need for that, so it easily could not have had that if they wanted the movie a bit more available. And there are some big names associated with this, so easily could have gotten attention: Lake Bell, Michael Cera, and Peter Stomare.

Nor is the message ultimately that deep. Not that it's a bad message, and its certainly a colourful movie, but one that could have done better.

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I'm Your Man

It's time for one woman and her robot.

In a new experiment, people are partenered up with robots, and one woman reluctantly gets her own robot. However, she has trouble seeing it as anything other than a robot, which kinda impinges on connecting with him. The robot is designed to be everything she needs... although the thing she really needs is happiness.

You won't be shocked by the plot, this movie still works really well for all that. Maren Eggbert and Dan Stevens are great as leads. (Note, this is a German movie, and Dan Stevens is an English actor... although he speaks flawless German, although they do explain why he has an English accent despite being a robot.)

Just a basic story about being human and connecting, and it's great!

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The Emperor's Naked Army Marches On

Oh, a documentary from 1987 from Japan! Although not a fun one.

Kenzo Okuzaki is a 62-year-old WW2 veteran and one particular event during the war he is aware of is the death of two Japanese soldiers. However, that doesn't sit right with him, and his religious views, so although the crime doesn't hold up any long under law, God's law demands the people responsible face up to the truth, that of murder. And so we follow him as he tracks down people, trying to get some sort of justice.

This is a while ago (even from the point of view of the documentary at the time) so he is talking to people who at best vaguely remember, and most often pass the buck of "it wasn't me, I didn't know about it at the time, I only just got there, I was just following orders".

However, this documentary is two hours long, and it is too long. This may reflect my Western sensibilities in how long it takes to get things to happen, but it does feel like there is stuff that easily could be cut out. I was also surprised about how much people let cameras in to film them.

An interesting documentary, but could be revised for current viewing habits.

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Escape from Mogadishu

A Korean Film, with a definitely different take than what you'd get from an American film.

South Korea and North Korea both have embassies in Somalia... and then it's the 1990s and a war breaks out between the military and the civilians. They get caught up in it, and eventually make the move to get out. Unfortunately, North Koreans are having a bit of a problem and they end up at the South Korean embassy, but even they can't all last long there. But is there a way any of them can get out, let alone both?

Neither of them are having a good time, and when they are forced together, tensions are very high, and not just because of the war in the city. This is a great movie and the character actors do fantastic jobs. By the end, while the authorities of North Korea can jump in the deepest pits, you really are sided with them all to get out alive.

(Conversely, if this was an American movie, no doubt this would have been American Troops criss-crossing the city, shooting everyone, and no-one would be likeable as they bravely deign to acknowledge the city as they casually leave everyone else behind.)

But yeah, we get a more intimate movie with this (than America) and I enjoyed this a lot.

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