Sherlockian Shadow Game

The "bromance" continues. (Seriously, there were moments where it could have been entirely in that moment for them to kiss.)

In this movie, it has to be Sherlock vs Moriarty, so there is some contrived plot about some gypsy woman who is the key to the world going to war... or something. It wasn't really that clear, as it was all just a backdrop to, as I said, Sherlock vs Moriarty. Because of this, we get Sherlock in drag, Mycroft being cheeky and lots of big guns being fired. There are more moments of Sherlock-vision, and I think we were supposed to care about some extras so when they die we feel bad, but...

One problem was that this movie was in sepia vision, everything seemed to be brown toned. This make it hard to work out who was who, and when we were told about twins, I went "there were twins in this?".

Robert Downey Jr and Jude Law are the main reason to watch this, of course. I kept thinking Jared Harris was modelling himself on Mark Gatiss. The rest of them didn't impress me. (In some ways, I'm thinking I'm becoming too impatient for anything taking longer than an hour to get through...)

Not the fantastic movie we were hoping for. Perhaps too rushed into existence?

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The Innkeepers

This was one of a few (okay, quite a few) films I didn't see at the festival. The Innkeepers is a slow-build ghost story.

This is the last few days of the Yankee Pedlar, and the two innkeepers are ghost hunters, here to try to find evidence that the haunting here is real. And run a hotel, badly (towels keep disappearing). This is, as I say, a slow build movie. Don't expect ghosts up front... or in the middle. There are a few moments, but this movie concentrates more on atmosphere than scares. Which is good, the better movies do this (eg PA1, as opposed to PA2 and PA3).

However... this makes the third Act 'excitement' really come out of nowhere. Why now? And what exactly is going on? A lot is left unsaid (for example, are the towels related to the haunting... or just bad hotel management?), and... it's a bit unsatisfying that it does go so strange without explanation. Fine, not everything needs to be explained to the audience, but random scares work better when you understand what is going on.

A decent try at a ghost movie, could do with more grounding in coherence.

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Drove

It's the film that isn't Transporter, while still making everything think it is. I noted that it had pink opening titles, reminiscent of Dirty Dancing, and it wasn't until the soundtrack kicked in that I worked out why. This is a film that was made in the 80s. 80s car, 80s music, 80s characters. With current day gore and splatter effects (of which there are a few).

The film starts with us meeting this guy. We follow him around for a while, while he talks to his neighbour. Then after an hour, something nearly happens, but then nothing does.

Really. This film takes a while to get going, but then doesn't go anywhere. I continued to watch it because I was doing something else at the time, and I hoped something might happen, as this is supposed to be something of a semi-action story. And yet... even when the action happened, there was still nothing happening.

Ryan Gosling is the nothing main lead. Carey Mulligan looks like she's about to cry in every scene. And a bunch of other people fill up the roles of other people in the movie.

People may rate this is a low budget indie pic, or something. I dunno. End of the day, it just wasn't very good.

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Episode 2

I did return to Half-Life 2: Episode 2, and reloaded an old game... and found out that I did indeed go the wrong way. (Then Valve shouldn't have let me go that way... it's all their fault.)

Continuing on, I got up to the last boss fight... and paused. I could tell it was the last boss fight, and didn't feel like completing it then. Nor indeed, was I in any hurry to go back to it...

Unlike all the other boss fights (all three of them), this one... annoyed me. I could see what they were doing, instead of a one-on-one, they would have what was basically a running gun battle. However, I just wasn't that keen. It didn't really fit with the style of fight they had had up to that point. Before they were mostly contained fights, you had ammo stashed nearby, and it was pretty much just you. Now there were lots of people around (who didn't help that much) and it was ranging over a wide area, and ammo was not exactly plentiful. By the time I completed it, I was nearly out of ammo on all guns (and, of course, I was on easy mode). It felt like a drag.

And the new mechanic of how to defeat the Striders didn't help either. They should have been able to be used against the Hunters as well. And it made it a more complicated process to kill the Striders. And... then basically became 'kill the Hunters, then the Striders... and repeat'. Basically, it just wasn't that enjoyable.

Odd for Valve, considering that they test games extensively, and revise to help players. Maybe just an unusual experience that only I had?

Anyway, around again for commentary, and only got half the achievements... but I'm not rushing back to it...

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Of Steam, Steel and Murder

Metapol is sitting outside the war, it seems. Not a lot of it happening here. (It seems to have quietened down over in Europe too.) That doesn't explain why British agent Leonard Maltin is being watched. Nor why a German watchmaker has been taken. We find spies, but they are not like us. [They are competent!]

Yeah, nothing worse than competent NPCs and Bert has lots of them. I'm not sure if the two events above are connected or not. I can see why they would take the watchmaker, not sure what Maltin is going to give them. But already they look to be outclassing us. Guess we'll have to Bull in a China Shop it as usual...

Take a listen to Game 48. Rapidshare. Hotfile. [There was a connection problem after 3 hours, see if you can spot it!]

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Challenged by Winnie the Pooh!

Recently I picked up a PlayStation 2. (Yes, a PS2. I am aware that there is the PS3, there was a particular game I wanted to play (which is available for the PS3) which was PS2, and that, plus the PS2, plus a bunch of other games, was far cheaper than a PS3, thus...)

Anyway, since this was my first ever controller based game station, I went for the nice and easy Winnie the Pooh's Rumbly Tumbly Adventure.


Considering that this is more aimed at kids, there is quite a bit of story to it (five different adventures, and they take a while). Lots of wandering around, things to collect, and you get to meet various characters (including Gopher... surely everyone remembers Gopher, best character ever... ???).

But they also have enemies, the Huffalumps and Wozzles, and so there is a fight mechanic. Which proved a problem in two ways. First, while running around, if you change direction by more than 45 degrees, you do this scampering motion before moving, loosing time. And, if you play as Piglet, you have a Quick Time Event. Yes, QTEs even in this. And consider this was the first time I was using the damn controller, I'm not used to where things are, so 'Square Triangle Circle' took me a while to get used to. And there were also timed puzzles which were more luck than skill to complete. Basically, could have been some more game design thought there. [Worse of all, when you are Tigger... you aren't bouncing! The whole point of being Tigger is to bounce, dammit!]

Anyway, plenty of more games to play yet, as I have another source of distraction. While I did complete this game, I clearly have a long way to go before I become proficient... or even competent...

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I've Been Watching...

Should be watching this in April (I guess), but since it was only four episodes, I sat through The Sun Makers.

Do you get that this story is a take on the tax system? Did you? Huh? Huh? Did you get that? I know, it's subtle, but if you pay attention, and look carefully, it's there... And rather superfluous. It's more background colour, giving context to why the Doctor is helping the rebels overthrow the government, and allows for certain tax-based humour, but this is still a generic 'help the revels overthrow those in power' story otherwise. And can be enjoyed as such. Kids, I'm sure, failed to get certain obscure references, yet, hey, bad guys, good guys (because the Doctor says so / sides with them), so yay for that!

Which helps if, like me, you aren't that invested in knowing the ins and outs of the tax system. Although given that the bad guys just want your money, and the good guys are threatening to kill you if you don't help them (and throw people off roofs), you really will have to take the story's word for it that the planet is better off with this happening as it did.

The extras on this are a little odd. Yes, it's an outtake from a scene in the story, but it's not that funny, especially the third and fourth time! And as for the Dudley Simpson bit... yes, he did do the music for this story, but he doesn't even talk about the Sun Makers during the segment! The commentary is more rambly than usual, and even the info-text is having trouble finding things to talk about.

This story means more to Robert Holmes to the main audience, and beyond that, it's fairly generic.

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