Sheerluck Holmes

After going Under the Mountain, I hung around and caught the Iron Man Prequel. Robert Downey Jr is the epitome of the hard-nosed, tight-fisted, punchiest, kickiest, hittingest man of action evah! I mean, Sherlock Holmes.

Okay, not so much with the fighting, but a lot is made of how Holmes can easily glimpse a man, plan a series of moves to completely incapacitate him (which allows us to view the fight in slow motion), then do so (so we see the fight again), but this wonderful ability isn't really paid off. He only uses it to take out minor thugs, so I'm wondering if there was a deleted scene whereby he dispatched a greater villain... but I'm not sure who that could be.

Never mind, to the plot! There's a bad man afoot, and he is going to take down society through the use of MAGIC! Only if two men can combine their forces to smack their way through minor villains, and bring the girl onto their side, can they make the final boss fight. Now, fine, Holmes has been portrayed as various different types of personalities, and this one is more physical than others, but... there isn't that much made of his superior reasoning abilities to get from one set of clues to the next (there are two scenes, one which is a rip off from the books so everyone can follow along, the other being the only really proper Holmes thinking scene), and most of the time it's simply tracking down the obvious and/or being taken to the next person. The main character is called Holmes, and his compatriot Watson, but there are only superficial similarities to the characters of fame.

Which isn't to say this isn't a good movie. Good performances by the leads, fast paced direction by Guy Ritchie, and it roars along at a great pace. And what Holmesian patina there is is quite enjoyable.

So check it out, but don't expect to see a faithful reproduction of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's works.

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WFRP 3e In Cincinnati!

Because we were gamer lite, we did a go at the (presumed included demo) game of Warhammer Fantasy Role Playing Game 3rd Edition. Also known as an rpg layered on top of a board game.

Now, it was fun enough, but nearly lethal! If it had been one hit more to my character, I would be dead, instead of unconscious, in the first fight. The social "combat" afterward was more fun (although that might have been biased by the fact that a) I wasn't a combat character and b) I nearly died!).

The adventure itself was straight forward, but it was just getting things happening to demo out the system. However, there is a learning curve to the game, so it needs a few go arounds in order to sort out what abilities and talents and whatnot can be used in each round. I kept noticing that I could have done such and such after my turn finished. Oh well.

Wouldn't mind another game, but there is overhead in the cards to keep track of, and reading the specialty dice. Fun, but not something to be mastered quickly.

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Back Under that Mountain

While all was quite, I hit the cinema for the cheap movie of the week, which was the remake of the TV Series I had recently watched. (For those taking note, although I don't remember details, I think the TV series was the more faithful reproduction.)

From the story as it was, a lot had to be compressed. The Mr Jones stuff was slimmed down, and they just had to get to one mountain instead of two. The biggest change was in the twins themselves, they were older and the focus was on an emotional break between them and them coming together over that, rather than them trying to get to grips with the stones. A better character choice for the movie, I thought. Oh, and Ricky's character arc is also changed.

Effects wise, definitely a lot of money is on screen in the form of the Wilberforces, and they look good. In that they look bad. And I wouldn't be surprised to find out some Cthulhu inspiration behind the Gargantua. The fire effects... less well integrated.

Much is made of Sam Neill being in this, being the only really big name to help promote it, but not much is made of him in the movie (aside from amusing comments of him being a "dirty, old man"). The twins, Sophie McBride and Tom Cameron, are good. And keep an eye out for a cameo by Nathaniel Lees. Not to mention the original Rachel - Kirsty Wilkinson (which I have to admit I missed).

I wasn't overly enthused about seeing this, having just watched the TV series, but its different enough for me to recommend: go check out the local talent!

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No more Eta-ing

That's something to put you off eating their peanut butter. But before I get to that...

Why Eta Peanut Butter? Because they don't add extra salt. I'm not sure why all the others feel the need to add more salt in, but I guess I'll be finding out soon when I try an alternative product. Could end up being "one bite and no more" if it's too salty, but I'll give it a go...

Because... well, first of all, take a look at this video:

Yeah, I know. But, anyway, interesting that in one shot we see an ant in the peanut butter. Hmm... that's familiar... 'cos that's what happened to me! I had ants in my peanut butter. Hey, Chuck, I got life! (Oh wait, they have an easy out of "contamination", well that's convenient.) Oh yeah, that also makes me suspicious of home made anti-ant recipes that involve peanut butter.

Thing is, this is not the first time I've had this. Last time, it was white ants, this time black ants. However, I can't remember if it was Eta or not, and it was a very long time ago. But now I'm blogging this to record it for prosperity.

And yes, I could complain to Eta/Watties, but I'm cynical so doubt anything would come of it. And they'd just say the product got contaminated after I brought it (I have eaten half the peanut butter) so I can't defend against that other than to say there are no sign of ants elsewhere.

You ever come across this?

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DW: The End of Time

Slow... slow... slow... incrediablyfastending!

The hells was that about? From the introduction of the Master in a sequence more reminiscent of something out of Harry Potter, to him with superpowers, to the exciting sequence of hearing about Donna's tedious life, to finding out that a cyborg had cousins... frankly, none of that made any real sense, nor impact worth noting. In fact, nothing here really needed to be said, from the recapping sequence of the Ood to the thrilling moment of the Master eating chicken... take away pretty much all of that and see how much the story is impacted.

Because it's all set-up, and not just for the ending five minutes where there is a lot of running around in a pretense of excitement (which is still not present, see the scene where we have the Master basically exposit what's going on) before the big reveal of everyone is the Master, which I'm sure John Simm was enthused about filming (what happened to all the kids and babies? Did they suddenly grow bigger?).

No, it's really set-up for the next episode, which has the return of the Time Lords. With spittle problems it seems. I guess the Time War was an exceptionally important moment then, considering how it's been completely undercut now by the return of the Daleks and now the Time Lords. Seriously, what was the point of the past five years then? Oh, he's the Last of the Time Lords... until RTD gets to the end of his series, and then never mind that. The least we can hope for is that RTD clears it all away so Moffat can start with a clean slate.

Still, lovely as ever to see the lovely Bernard Cribbens. So important he gets into the title credits, yay! John Simm is still serving his Master with whole sty fills of pork, and David Tennant is ramping up his manic depressive disorder.

While this partnership of Tennant and RTD could continue on, it seems that RTD is trying to shoot it down as hard as he can.


Next Time: It doesn't look like it's getting any better...

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I believe the word is "Woot!"

I picked up a ton of mail yesterday, which reminds me that I need to put some more money on my credit card, but one thing in particular was a wonderful thing to receive.

Yay! Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space! I already had the pdfs, but now I have the physical copies! That's the (cardboard) box on the left and the player's guide on the right.

There's also a Gamemaster's book, a book of Adventures, a Quick Start guide, several characters, story point tokens and dice! (Like I needed more of those.)

One extra reason I'm happy is that... I was a playtester! Unfortunately, they don't list the playtesters, so I can't point to that to prove it, but I was! So there's a good chance I'll have more to say as I look over this and remember...

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Who are these people?

I've lived at my current place for... I lose track, three, four years? By myself. So there has been plenty of opportunities for other people to figure out that other people do not live here.

So why am I still getting mail for people who aren't me?

I've got a Christmas Card for "Joanne and Peter". Who? No last name given. No return address. Can't do anything about it.

And now I've got something for "Gloria ." Who? Return address is Santa's Workshop, so I'm guessing this is some kind of Christmas letter that was arranged for Gloria, but they got the address wrong.

How? It is specifically my address (I'm in the first flat so get given mail to this number). Someone things that these people are living in my flat. Somehow are here even though no-one but me has been around for three or more years...

Anyone know of a service to find out who's listed as living at my home?

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