Best Detectives Ever!

Logan likes to run modules based on tv series, and I've seen the Mentalist, so when I finally worked that out, I was on a No Brainer, where I could help with questioning and ideas and such. I also afterwards remembered some things about the episode that really annoyed me at the time too, so I do clearly remember it, if not in the moment.

There is also a lot of technical issues with Emily's connection, which I'm sure didn't help.

The name kinda speaks for itself. We really should have worked it out. Emily even says "it's probably this person" and we ignore that! (This was a line of reasoning another group used to success.)

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Darksiders

I played this game many years ago. I got to one point where I just hit a brick wall (where you are with Ulthane). Either hit a bug or a mental block or something that just meant I was unable to progress. So I gave up. But it seemed interested, so I did always want to go back to it.

And recently I did! And I even completed the game! Despite the controls, the camera, and the bosses not doing what they are supposed to, I did it! (Although the game also failed to give me all the achievements I earned.)

There were many parts where I just felt like giving up again. It was not at all clear what the game wanted me to do (I eventually had to look up how to defeat some of the bosses). That said, other times when I could grok the game, I did the big battles easily. (And yes, I was on Easy mode. It was annoying enough as it was.)

But this game feels far longer than the 20-30 hours. There are lots of mini-missions, and when you complete one set... hey, guess what, we got another set for you! And, of course, with a lot of games... but the time you finish powering up (such as getting the full bonus armor set), you don't really need it at that point.

So, a full game, and one I played... but I'm not entirely sure it was one I enjoyed?

Now the next question is... do I go on to play Darksiders 2 soon? (Which I have.)

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Scweam

I went into this already spoiled as to the killer's identity, but that doesn't really matter a lot to these movies really.

The Ghostface killer reappears and starts ghostface killing, so the old band and the next generation come together to try to survive. Not so much find out what is going on, but just to get through without more murder, so that's something at least. Whodunnit? Doesn't matter. Just get out of town, which is the only sensible course of action.

Which doesn't work, of course, because then we wouldn't have a movie. Want to know how I would do a Scream movie? Start with the opening girl beating up the Ghostface killer... cut to years later, that person is out, then random murders start happening (as in they have no connection with the previous victims/killers, it is totally random), and that's the mystery they have to unravel, but they all think it is connected.

But no, we go with so many connections that... I'm not sure what this movie is trying to do. Rehash the first? Try to outdo it? What? There is sort of commentary in how the killer tries to justify their actions, but it doesn't feel connected. Because this movie is just about the stabbing and reasons are very much lower on the order of what matters.

A mess of a movie, we can hope there isn't another... but hey, if there's still money in it...

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Defth of the Neil

There was Death. There was a Nile. Can't fault the move on the title.

Do I need to go into the story? Like this is an issue. This is a well known story (hence why it was chosen as the second movie), but this is standard Agatha Christie. So much so that I can't remember if I remember the story or not (I read all her books many years ago if not before or after then), but I was able to stop the big plot and who was at fault pretty much straight away more or less, so was largely spotting clues as we went through. But... are people expected to go in blind to this? Many people won't be, so does this work for them?

From a film viewpoint, this is a very well done movie. Great casting, great acting, great sets... although I will give a critique that the director overly liked his EXTREME FACE CLOSE UP! Back of camera, I don't need to be that close! So it's definitely an enjoyable movie (and I now want to go back to watch the train movie), so you'll certainly like the movie well enough as a movie.

But from the view of being surprised by the plot and being ahead of the detective... I'm not sure. I could tell who was to blame, so someone else will have to comment on not having any ideas...

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Naghtmare Allay

Hey, it's GDT so it must be good!

A drifter connects with the circus and while he's just helping out, he starts learning from a local mentalist act (with certain side benefits). However, he has bigger ideas, and him and his new girl take off for the big city. He has to up his game, and goes for big plays, but this is the city and it has its own ideas.

Okay, great actors here, you'll spend a lot of time going "hey, where do I know them from?" Well shot, good atmosphere, but...

Is this Guillermo del Toro? Like, I'm not a director snob, but having seen other movies of his... this didn't feel like anything special. It was a good movie, well done, but nothing spectacular. And considering this is two and a half hours, I was wanting a bit more than a movie we could have gotten from any competent director.

No doubt this will receive high praise just because of the director, and if you want a good movie, you'll get one, but nothing amazing.

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Moonsnooze

The moon is coming for the earth! How exciting can you get??

Something moved the moon out of its orbit and now the earth has to get its revenge in first. And of course there are the kids that need to be saved and people being idiots and... in some ways this reminded me of Don't Look Up, in that this is what competent people might do. But is also reminded me of Armageddon, in that physics gets taken out and beaten up in the name of the movie.

This movie is over two hours, and you know what... would you believe that Roland "Disaster Porn" Emmerich made something that is very slow and boring? 'Cos he did. Everything felt slow in this, the disaster taking over people in specific scenes as well as the whole movie, no-one moving particular fast, just taking their time to casually go places (whether another town or the moon). If I watch this gain at 2x, I'm wondering if I might have to go ever faster to actually notice any action.

Given that... I'm not going to complain about the physics (one time there are earthquakes, but never again, one time the moon pulls things towards it, but hey, only if you feel like that should matter), the acting not being amazing, or that characters suddenly know things they already declared they can't know...

Overall... Meh,

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Meh 355...

It's that female "spy" thriller. And by "spy", I mean "lots of shootouts in busy public spaces". What's up with that?

A macguffin turns up that is really powerful, and the CIA decides they want it. However, their picking it up goes wrong when other agencies get involve, and everything starts falling apart until the female agents of those agencies decide they have to work together to get the device. And... repeat that again with slightly more people involve.

This movie is very generic. One big thing about this movie is the plot point that the action leads are women... but nothing really is done with that. There is nothing here that is particularly gendered in any direction, so this easily could have been men, women, neither, mix... It's so irrelevant. At least Ocean's Eight made the nod of "women don't get noticed".

But this movie title is referring to Agent 355, THE female Washington spy of the Culper Ring... and there is lip service to this.. but again, nothing is really done with that. At no point do the female agents go "hey, we're female agents, we should be female agents together" that would link them together in a group that could be a thing. They come together by accident, and, as I said, could be any collection of peoples.

So with that, this movie isn't doing anything outstanding. It tries with its name, but doesn't rise about generic action movie.

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