Ever Rest

One of the worst years on the mountain, captured in film.

Adventure Consultants was one of many groups in 1996 who went up Everest, and we follow their journey. We meet the climbers, and some of the other teams, and slowly we make the way up. (With a few hints as to what the Sherpas were up to.) Eventually we get there and it's a great moment. But then comes what we were expecting.

Do we have helicopters yet that can function in that thin an air? They got good shots of the mountain somehow... but I don't fully believe they got all the actors up there. (There are a few scenes when I thought 'that was probably done in a studio'.) But it's a well made production, and 3D might actually be worth it.

Decent performances, although I don't quite buy Jason Clarke's NZ accent. And they actually got Sherpas to play the Sherpas, nice!

Well done film, and glad I caught it at the theatre.

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The Extraordinary Voyage

Let's go for a Voyage to the Moon on The Extraordinary Voyage!

This is a documentary about the making of the famous George Melies short movie, one of the first of the kind. We start with the slow progression of film in France, and how George made trick movies (with, to our eyes, very obvious tricks), and then made a film about a dream of a trip to the Moon. And then other people in America made bank off pirated versions of his film. But that wasn't the only films he made, and indeed he did make others, and here's the thing... back in the early 1900s... he, and others, made films in colour! (Hand painted afterwards.) An old colour print was found, and the end of documentary is about restoring that film and recreating missing moments, and coming up with a complete film.

Which we then saw. With a live accompaniment of electronica music. I'm not sure it needed to be in colour, but it was nice to see, and the film still works.

It's a fun movie, and the documentary definitely reflects that concept.

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Doctor Who 9.02

Okay, I will give there were a few moments that got to me... but by and large, it continued to drag on from last time.

Oh look, Davros plays on the Doctor's emotions, and executes his grand plan... but the Doctor was a step ahead of him the entire time! That almost never always happens! And Davros opens his eyes? What? I admit that I thought it was because I thought he didn't have eyes / lost his eyes, not that he replaced them but still had functional orbs. Just makes him seem like any other human monster with lots of make up on.

And the Missy/Clara show goes on. To the surprise of absolutely no-one (certainly not Richard, see the comment on episode one), Missy and Clara are still alive. And Missy continues to be a bitch to Clara. The Master would have been far more charming in how he used the Doctor's companions, so this just felt like it was there for superficial characterisation. And Missy is left with the Daleks, so I'm sure she dead this time!

Oh... and sonic specs? No. Just no.

Next time: Back to generic running from monsters?

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Pickzels

Oh dear gods. No, no, no, no, no.

Aliens got a hold of old video game footage, and decided that that was a declaration of war, and sent back the various video game creatures to kill us. Fortunately, a collection of video game weenies are ready and happen to be friends of the president, so they get involved and slowly start to turn the tide for the humans. And stamp over every memory you ever had of anything good in the past video games ever.

I just felt sick watching this. What the hell? Nothing here is good. Not the characters, not the references, and certainly not the treatment of women. One is a literal trophy, and the other one is just the love interest to eventually give in and be arm candy.

Just… no.

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Roocky III

Okay, now I’m starting to wonder who keeps asking for these? Stallone is still writing them, so that’s good, but because he wants to tell a story or because a company wants it?

Rocky is the champ, so let’s reverse the first movie, and have another fighter come up against him. When the fight starts before halfway through the movie, you know how it’s going to go, and boom, down goes Rocky. Then Creed steps in, but it’s not until again Adrian gives some inspiring words that we get the montage and final fight. Although the final freeze frame takes a little longer to get to this time.

Ah, Mr T, full of bas ass ness… and he looks the part! And Hulk Hogan, back when he was allowed to be in wrestling. That was an amusing fight (as it was supposed to be). But again, I’m feeling like this is the first movie again, with slight role reversal.

It’s a good movie, but we need to step it up.

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Mind Games

Another series based on using psychology on people. It's a lot more light hearted than most series... and it stars Christian Slater, so of course it only lasted one season. Man, that guy is death to series.

Clark is a rather unhinged psychology professor, who studied psychology to learn what was wrong with him. His brother, Ross, is a con artist who wants what's best for his brother... going to rather underhanded techniques to get the job done. Together, with their team, they help people change other people's minds. (Because free will? Who gets to decide that doing this is a good thing? In the format of the show, it turns out all right, but the end few episodes do touch on how it could go wrong.) While there is a 'case of the week', there's an ongoing arc about the lies Ross told to Clark, and Clark's relationship with Beth, and Ross' relationships to everyone else, and it progresses every episode.

The arc feels new, because I've seen so many other 'X of the week' shows... and it isn't done that often. (Dexter comes to mind, but other than that...) The through line helps keep things changing, with never being quite sure who will be in the episodes from week to week. And the acting is decent, and Slater is likeable (okay, I didn't only pick this because he was in it, but that was a large factor), so that helps keep me watching.

But yeah, no second season, so we never got to see if that final relationship ever got resolved... hey ho, fanfic time!

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Anathem

Was that a novel I read (listened to), or an essay?

This guy lives in a monastery dedicated to science. We learn a lot about the place, and about the sort of philosophy they learn about. Then he leaves the monastery, and we learn more about the world. Then after an event, we learn even more about philosophy.

Really, we learn a lot about philosophy. For a while, I thought this book was a travelogue, but if it is, it's a travel through philosophy and scientific ideas. With HUGE slabs of exposition. Seriously, there is far too much exposition. Oh, and there might be a plot, but I wouldn't count on it taking up page count.

Still, some spoilers about something that annoyed me: The aliens couldn't eat the local food, because their bodies didn't react to it... but they were capable of processing the air. And no mention is made of water, but that's just air in another form. So why would food be that hard to eventually process? Does that mean the dead bodies were inviolate and didn't succumb to decay? (At least, no more than their own inherent bacteria?) It's an interesting idea, but I feel it doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

Overall... just too damn long.

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