Original of Oevil

I saw the first, so now to see what happened before.

As I said, it was largely going to be the story we already got, and indeed we do. A mother and two daughters are running a seance scam, but due to a Ouija board, they find out the younger daughter is able to contact actual spirits. Creepy! And, of course, there is nothing wrong that can go with that!

Well... this isn't really any different to any other current horror house movie. Spooky things start happening, and kids are creepy. Shock! The only reason it needs to be set back then is that they can use the scam setting a lot easier. But otherwise, this could be any time.

And I didn't really feel like it fed into the other movie that well. There were several elements that needed to be set up, and it wasn't until the last twenty (if that) minutes that it tried to suddenly put the pieces in place, regardless of them fitting the current story or really set up the later/earlier story properly. One example, in the first movie we get that the sisters are actually together, but here they aren't, until the final moment when they have to be to set up the next/previous movie.

Really, it is about as superfluous as you'd expect.

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Unmechanical

This is one of them puzzle games. It feels a little like Machenarium, etc., in which you are doing puzzles with a small robot.

You get grabbed underground and… have to do things. I never got the sense of a goal, and then I thought we were trying to fix some big machine, but then it turned out all we were trying to do was escape. The puzzles weren’t that incredibly hard, although there were one or two where I just didn't understand what was going on, but managed to luck my way past.

There is also DLC, which is a completely separate story, in which you are sucked underground with a companion (that you are immediately separated from), and then you need to get them back and escape. This does lead to a few sequences which are basically cut scenes while you watch the other character do puzzles that you could be doing.

The controls take some getting used to. You fly with WASD or arrow keys and activate your tractor beam with space or mouse button. I kept thinking the tractor beam was a 'switch of, switch off' thing, and not a 'while button is pressed' deal. And there was also a form of inertia that kept making me go silly places. Fortunately, you can’t die and can’t, or at least I didn’t, screw yourself up enough to not ever solve it.

Nice game, but again not one I'll probably go back to again, even for the achievements.

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Chef: He Likes Killing Flies

One more chef based movie, this one about the eatery Shopsins.

Kenny Shopsin is a "character", and chef of the eatery he runs with his family. It's definitely a matter of his way or not at all, and even insists of not seating parties of five people. We get to spend a lot of time with him and... he gets taken to run a bigger restaurant, with still his style of cooking. While a good thing, you can tell he's going to bitch the entire way.

If you don't like Kenny, you aren't going to like this movie. Me... I can tolerate him in a way that says 'he's definitely a character', but I'm glad I don't have to deal with him. On the other hand, I'm sad that I won't get to eat there with his weird take on basics.

Definitely more chef movies to see, but this isn't a bad way to finish.

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TP 1.2

This follows directly on from the first story, but this is The Medusa Strain.

It's the 26th Century and a ship captures Jedikiah, the android that's been floating around for 500 years. Fortunately, they have time travel, but only telepaths can operate the engine. Now they do have Peter, a rather underage boy that wears very a open flimsy top, so oo-er, and he is tricked to go back and grab a Tomorrow Person, Carol. The others will try to find them, but completely fail for the rest of the story. Eventually, Peter and Carol manage to save themselves, so hurrah! And we'll never see Jedikiah again...

One point to note here... David Prowse! "Coffin will help." With silver covered nipples. And the effects... are not great. The commentary points out some particular worthy moments, such as the spaceship that has a disposable drink cup in it, and that there are four cages, so there must be four people who get put them in (this is something I now notice, there are X many items, and they were built, so they will be used!).

But now this feels just overlong without anything really happening. This could be half as long, but maybe stretch to three episodes? Either way, we don't need four.

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Stoneadoes

Amazingly this isn't The Asylum, but it was on Syfy, so that tells you everything you need to know right there.

For reasons tornadoes are popping up, grabbing stones, and then dropping them on people. Because that’s what weather does. There is a scientist type guy who isn’t treated well by authority, whose kids are in danger, and comes up with a weird idea to solve everything. (Actually, I wrote that before I finished watching, but feel no need to change anything.)

Yes, another terrible disaster movie. And the tornadoes are the cheapest looking CGI effects I've ever seen. Like whenever they cut away to the tornado, I just can't believe how fake looking it is. Is it possible to put negative effort into something?

Still, at least they have William B Davis in this. Otherwise, there's no reason to watch this.

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The Sleep Rooming

This is one of those movies that will make you say "well, that was convenient".

Our lead is a call girl, and she attends a new client who can’t quite get it up. However, they spend the time together, and he shows her his old-timey viewing machine. And one of the women in that looks just like her. She comes back, and gets more creeped out as we find out the place has a history of a creepy guy that lived there, filmed his own sex acts and killed people (with no bodies found - you know what is going to turn up). Eventually, there’s a confrontation, and the lead gets away, but then she dies except she doesn't...

I'm not sure about that ending. It could be the 'it was all a dream' ending, but it feels more like they had two different endings, couldn't decide which to go for, and put both in. Either way, it was just a nothing ending on top of a nothing film. It couldn’t decide how scary to be, so a lot of the scares just aren't trying that hard. And the creepiness fails to evoke any feeling at all.

The best thing I can say for it is: it is short.

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Easy Riders, Raging Bulls

It's the story of the independent movie movement of the 1960s, 1970s. This is Easy Riders, Raging Bulls.

This covers a lot of what is considered to be the classic movies, including Easy Rider and Raging Bull. This has to cover a lot of material, and it manages to do it well. Although, I have to admit... I haven't seen these movies. There are a lot of talking heads from big names about their time at the time, and now I do want to see some of them.

While this is nearly two hours, the time slips by easily. The movie is well made and draws you in, and I definitely wanted to know what happens next. Possibly because of the time since, it feels like the people are a lot more honest than usual, although no doubt some parts are covered lightly, but this is a good example of how to do a decent documentary.

Now I've seen it, and not to say that you can't see if if you want to.

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