There are things that can change a man. Staying awake for 36+ hours is one of them. After waking at around 3:30 I rolled in my bed for a while. Knowing that Don would be here to pick me up at around 6 I just got up and faced it. The rest of Tuesday was spent driving to St. Louis, flying, waiting in airports, getting delayed, and flying again. On plane across the Atlantic, it was difficult to sleep instead, I watched four episodes of True Detective season 3.
Arrival in Ireland was fine, everyone got their luggage and Euros (not gyros). We got on a bus with our tour guide for the day and made it to Trinity College. Mind you, this was about 11 a.m. on Wednesday and some of us had been awake for over 24 hours at this point. After dragging our suitcases across cobblestone (twice) we ate lunch in a shopping center (centre?) in Dublin. I bought a power adapter and we made it back to Trinity.
At around 3 we mercifully made to our rooms. The suites are nice, the beds and sheets leave something to be desired but I was so happy to see a bed. We went to a restaurant called the Temple Bar and ate dinner. This was a touristy place that had cool bathrooms, I didn’t take a picture, which some did (it was a bathroom, so use your imagination). I had a pint of Guinness which was lovely and finally slept for a while.
This morning we did a hop on hop off bus tour and saw the entire city of Dublin. After this, we had lunch and looked at the Book of Kels. This was really cool and could have been cooler if there hadn’t been stacks on stacks of people. It smelt like old paper, wood and leather, imagine that. After this, we chilled for a while, got back on the bus and ate dinner. I had fish and chips twice this day, that was fun.
Thank God, I may not have known what kind of building I was in.
As you can imagine, Sam has been very tired the last few days and hasn’t felt like posting to his blog. As I sleep some more I’ll post more often. Hopefully seeing an old jail tomorrow will be fun.
I don’t know if you heard about this, but I am going to Ireland tomorrow. That’s right folks, I will be in Ireland for the next three weeks. I’m pretty excited about this trip. I along with nine other students will be studying PR and Journalism for three weeks as well as doing some other fun stuff along the way. I’ll be there to do work and earn some credit hours, but I hope it’ll be a fun and informative experience after what was a very stressful semester.
This is not the first time I have been out of the country, I went on a Carribean cruise when I was about ten years old. We went to Mexico and some other countries in the Carribean. That was fun, but I was ten and also on beaches the whole time, so it wasn’t super legit.
Now, with any international travel, there are going to be some complications. I discovered earlier this evening that the power adapter that I have will fry my laptop. It’s a 1600 watt converter and the internet says not to use it. So, looks like ‘ya boy’ will be buying a generic power adapter when he gets into Ireland. This should little more than a minor setback.
Tomorrow will be a very stressful 18 hours since I’m crossing six time zones. I’m not looking forward to the three hours layover in Newark, nor the six-hour flight across the Atlantic Ocean. However, this part of the journey will come and go and I will be happy to be in a new world
The Wind Rises was a good movie. There’s a real depth to it that sinks in after you’ve had some time to think about it. After watching it initially I was slightly confused by the moment to moment beats of the film. However, after some time I’ve come to appreciate it very much.
Technically this film is a biopic however, I imagine that it is heavily fictionalized. It’s based on Jiro Horikoshi, who designed the Mitsubishi fighter planes that were used by Japan in WWII. As I’ve said before, it wouldn’t be Miyazaki if there weren’t some light aircraft featured.
The film starts with Jiro as a boy dreaming about airplanes. He wears very large glasses and is upset because he can’t fly planes as a result of his vision. One night he falls asleep and dreams of his hero Giovanni Caproni, a famous Italian aircraft designer. Caproni tells Jiro that despite his working with aircraft his whole life he has never flown a plane. He wakes from his dream and declares that he is going to be an aeronautical engineer.
Jiro, dreaming of flying
The film skips forward to Jiro in college. On the train to university, he meets a girl named Naoko Satomi. While on the train Jiro is caught in the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 and saves Naoko and her maid after she breaks her leg. He departs after giving the girl to her family and arrives at Tokyo Imperial University which is on fire due to the earthquake. There he sees his friend Kiro Hanjo.
Now would be a good time to mention the voice acting. Jiro is voiced by Joseph Gordon Levitt, Hanjo is voiced John Krasinski, Naoko is voiced by Emily Blunt. All these actors do a very good job in the film, however, sometimes I have a problem with famous actors in animated movies. When I watch Princess Mononoke I don’t hear Billy Crudup talking to Minnie Driver, I hear Ashitaka talking to Lady Eboshi. In The Wind Rises, though, all I hear is the guy from Looper talking to Jim Halpert. This becomes a distraction when all you can hear is the actors rather than the character. And yes, I know I could just watch it in Japanese, but I started this blog watching in English and I need to be consistent.
After some scenes of Jiro and Hanjo in school, they both graduate and get hired as designers at Mitsubishi. They work together to design a new aircraft that breaks apart during testing and the army rejects it. Hanjo becomes increasingly upset during this sequence and goes off about how backward Japan is. They get sent to Germany to observe their engineering practices. Japan makes planes out of wood while Germany makes them out of metal. The planes designed by Jiro and Hanjo must be carried by oxen to the airstrip while the Germans have one right outside the design facility. If you’re looking for some commentary from Jim Halpert about the shortcomings of the post-WWI Japanese industrial complex then this is the movie for you.
Jiro and Hanjo
While in Germany the two men are shown German planes and take design cues. The Germans are very hostile to them but Jiro defuses the situation by speaking some German. Studying German, as I do, sure does help while watching WWII movies. At night Jiro and Hanjo go for a walk. During the walk, they witness the Gestapo attacking and imprisoning a group of Jews. Jiro is disturbed by this and that night dreams again of Caproni. Caproni tells him that aircraft add beauty to the world even if men use them for terrible purposes.
This is where the film makes the distinction between Jiro and the true villains of WWII. As an American, it’s difficult to root for a character who works for the Japanese army in WWII. It was easy in Grave of the Fireflies since Seita and Setsuko were kids and were helpless against the bombings. However, Jiro is designing machines of war. I think Miyazaki does a great job of showing Jiro as a boy with a dream, whose dream is tragically used in the slaughter of war. Putting Jiro actions next to the actions of those who committed greater crimes. The real-life Jiro Horikoshi had this to say in his personal diary:
“When we awoke on the morning of December 8, 1941, we found ourselves — without any foreknowledge — to be embroiled in war… Since then, the majority of us who had truly understood the awesome industrial strength of the United States never really believed that Japan would win this war. We were convinced that surely our government had in mind some diplomatic measures which would bring the conflict to a halt before the situation became catastrophic for Japan. But now, bereft of any strong government move to seek a diplomatic way out, we are being driven to doom. Japan is being destroyed. I cannot do [anything] other but to blame the military hierarchy and the blind politicians in power for dragging Japan into this hellish cauldron of defeat.”
Back in Japan, Jiro goes back to work for Mitsubishi and gets promoted to chief design engineer for a new plane sponsored by the navy. He completes the plane but it fails during testing and is ultimately rejected. Disappointed by this failure, he goes on holiday to a summer resort in Japan where he runs into Naoko after all these years. They flirt and do other cute things together highlight by Jiro throwing paper airplanes up to her balcony. Jiro meets a German spy named Castorp (Catsup?) who is secretly critical of the Nazis or as he calls it “Mr. Hitler’s government”. After one of their clandestine meetings Castorp disappears like Batman and Jiro eats dinner with Naoko and her father. Jiro and Naoko say that they love each other and get engaged. Naoko reveals that she has tuberculosis and refuses to marry until she is better.
You could land a plane on that nose.
Jiro goes back to Japan and is forced to live at his supervisor’s house because the secret police is after him in connection with Castorp. Naoko goes to recover at an alpine sanatorium, but her TB does not improve. Jiro begins work on a new plane, the Mitsubishi A5M, and Naoko returns to marry Jiro. At this point, they know that her days are numbered and they spend as much time together before she dies. There’s a scene where Naoko is in bed and Jiro is working but she wants him to hold her hand. Jiro says, “In the contest for one-handed slide ruler users I’d take first prize for sure.” Tim laughed at this greatly and said that the line rivals, “No-Face where did you learn how to spin thread, you’re excellent.”
Anyway, Jiro finishes the plane and on that day Naoko leaves home to go back to the sanitorium. She leaves notes for her friends and family explaining that she wants them to remember her for how she was, knowing she will die soon. That day at the airstrip during the test Jiro’s plane is a success but is distracted by a gust of wind. As he looks out onto the field he realizes that Naoko has died.
After the war, Jiro dreams of himself walking across a torn and burning battlefield. At the top of the hill, he sees Caproni. Jiro laments the fact that none of his aircraft ever returned. A group of planes fly above Jiro and they salute him. Caproni tells Jiro that despite his planes were used for war, his dream to design aircraft was fulfilled. Naoko appears and encourages Jiro to live his life to the fullest.
Jiro and Caproni in the final scene.
For much of the film, I was confused about why Jiro was where he was and what he was doing. I didn’t realize that when he was at the resort that he was just chilling, I didn’t understand why the police were after him. The film also lacks focus. Miyazaki did not choose what this movie was about. It needs to either be about designing planes or about Jiro’s personal life. Instead, the film tries to do both and it feels jumbled because of it. I think this movie could have used a co-writer or another draft. Or at the very least some notes. I understand that Miyazaki is the man, but sometimes even great artists need some help.
From what I can tell the scenes with Caproni and Naoko are fictitious. Jiro Horikoshi did have a wife who died from TB, but their love story is based on a manga written by Miyazaki. The film attracted some controversy from those who felt that portraying a wartime engineer as a hero was wrong. I understand these feelings, but I think the film shows how things that are beautiful as airplanes can be used for the ugliness of killing and that the dream of a boy can be exploited for war. This is a pretty bold artistic statement by Miyazaki.
Rating: 4/5
Tim’s Best Comment: “Heil Hitler,” he said while Jiro was in Germany.
I’m a fan of Taika Waititi. I like what he did with Thor: Ragnarok and Hunt for the Wilderpeople is probably one of my favorite films of the last few years. I also like Jermaine Clement. Flight of the Concords is pretty great along with his being in Legion. Despite this, I had never seen What We Do in the Shadows which is co-written and directed by the two New Zealanders. I watched it for the first time when I was in Chicago with Ingrid, Ally and their friend Max.
This was indeed a very good movie. The documentary style is done brilliantly and done even better is the bad documentary style. Ingrid pointed out a moment when they intentionally (probably) put the boom mic in the shot. Obviously, a mockumentary about vampires is going to be a very funny film. It’s not laugh-out-loud funny for 90 minutes, it’s more a film that’s just amusing throughout. You’re constantly smiling and chuckling to yourself about the situations and the world that they’re in. It’s a world where vampires and werewolves just sort of exist and everyone kind of accepts it. I was surprised at several moments in which characters are introduced who seemed like throw-aways but become the main thrust of the plot.
This is going to seem like an odd comparison, but it kind of reminded me of Strange Brew. Strange Brew is very Canadian, is written and directed by the comedians it stars, is based upon something that was previously created and is generally amusing. What We Do in the Shadows is very New Zealand(y?), is written and directed by the comedians it stars, is based upon something that was previously created and, again, is generally amusing. As long as you’re not offended by blood, which there is quite a bit of here, it’s an easy recommend as it is very funny and comes in at a cool 87 minutes.
Max’s Best Comment: “This is a great example of documentary ethics. They let people die, Stu comes back and they don’t say anything, they just let it happen.”
Rating: 4/5
Celeste
Celeste is a 2D platformer that I played this month on PS4. It was developed by Matt Makes Games Inc. and won Best Indie Game this year at the game awards. It’s a great game and was worth every penny of the $20.
The first thing that needs to be said about Celeste is that it is very difficult. However, the game is forgiving as it gives you a fair amount of checkpoints. When you move from one screen to the next the game will only put you back to the start of the screen. This being said it’s still a very real possibility that you die 100 times on the same screen. A lot of indie games are very difficult simply because if they weren’t they would be over in 2 hours. Each level is very well designed and I really felt that I had accomplished something with each level and indeed, with each screen.
The game’s story is extremely well told. You play as a young woman named Madeline (you can change her name if you want, I played as Sam) as she attempts to climb Celeste mountain. She has no experience climbing and the people she meets along the way laugh at her for trying. Madeline suffers from extreme anxiety and depression, climbing a mountain is ultimately a metaphor for mental illness. The character of Theo, who you meet along the way, has great interactions with Madeline. He is also climbing the mountain and constantly takes pictures for his IntaPix account. Madeline’s depression and Theo’s desire for internet notoriety manifest themselves brilliantly on the mountain. Ultimately, the game is about accepting yourself for who you are.
There are 7 levels to the game and I imagine a skilled player could beat these levels in under 8 hours. It took me about 10. However, there is a great deal of side content for you $20. The most obvious is the 180 strawberries scattered around the levels. Some of them are really tough, some of them are, “How the fuck was I supposed to figure that out?”, some of them are, “Seriously, that’s a strawberry?”. There are also cassette tapes to collect which unlock super-hard versions of the levels in which you find them called B-sides. Usually, I ask for about 1 hour of enjoyment for every dollar I spend on a game and I’m sure you can get 20 hours out of Celeste. The game is not for the faint of heart though because of its difficulty. So, n00bs stay away.
Tim’s Best Comment: “You’re doing a B-side? Guess I need to find something else to do for 2 and a half hours.”
Rating: 4.5/5
Carmen Sandiego
I used to watch Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego? back in the day so, I was really excited when this new show was announced. Of course, I wasn’t expecting this to be anything like the old show, which was a weird meta-educational game show based on a video game that featured very little in-universe content. Carmen Sandiego is a great character and deserves a fully in-universe show.
The first two episodes are kind of slow. They explore Carmen’s backstory which is ok, by the end of it it’s pretty interesting, but you kind of have to get through the first two. After that, it picks up pretty well and most of the episodes are very well done. They pretty much ditch the educational format. There’s a little segment in each episode where Mike from Stranger Things Carmen say facts about the place they’re going but I usually just skipped those.
I got some major Sly Cooper vibes while watching. The cell-shaded art style along with the whole thief thing was enough but the characters are exactly the same. Carmen is Sly, Mike from Stranger Things is Bently, the two kids from Boston are Muray and Agent Devineaux is Carmelita Fox.
The story takes some twists and turns that I wasn’t expecting. That is saying something considering the fact that this is a cartoon but by the end of the season, I was surprised by where the story had gone. The show does have some really cheesy stuff that happens. If you watch you’ll know what I’m talking about.
In an era where entertainment is all about inclusion, Carmen Sandiego seems like the most obvious thing you could ever do. A show where a female Indiana Jones goes all over the world and meets different people and cultures is something that I’m sure people who care about that kind of thing will hold up as a triumph. However, it never dwells on this. Where some shows try to prove to you that they’re on the right side of the issues, (*cough* Doctor Who *cough*) Carmen Sandiego exposes kids to different people and cultures without seeming like it’s pushing an agenda.
Tim’s Best Comment: *referring to Agent Devineaux* “How many times is this guy gonna say Carmen Sandiego?”
Doctor Who is probably the only TV show I watch that’s on actual TV and I enjoy enough to stay mostly up to date with. I started watching around the time of the 50th anniversary and since then I’ve seen every episode of “New Who”. I’ve seen enough good and bad from the classic series to appreciate the show it is today. My enthusiasm for the show has waned over the years but nothing has contributed to that more than this last run of 10 episodes.
Let me start off this review by saying that I enjoyed Peter Capaldi as The Doctor. I think it started out rough but by the end, his character actually had a compelling arc. The 12th Doctor started out as a very serious and joyless character to an eccentric dad. This may have been course correction on the part of Steven Moffat but looking back it’s a completed arc. Nothing shows this more than Capaldi’s hair during his run. Compare his hair in his first episode to his last episode. In the words of my mother, “That boy needs a haircut.”
Speaking of Steven Moffat, I don’t think he is a bad writer necessarily. Sherlock is a great show even if it did start out better than it finished. The problem is that Moffat had about 5 or 6 really good ideas for episodes of Doctor Who and just kept repeating them. I don’t think he ever should have been hired as showrunner, but that being said Matt Smith and Peter Capaldi were both successes as The Doctor. Season 10 was a step in the right direction in most aspects, but it was the end of an era and everyone got replaced. And that’s when my expectations were lowered.
First, it was Chris Chibnall getting hired as showrunner. The ideal Doctor Who showrunner is someone who has written good episodes of Who in the past and had a successful show outside of Who. Chibnall had not written a single good episode of Who and has the distinction of being responsible for the nadir of Doctor Who writing with the Torchwood episode Cyber-Woman. I will give him credit for Broadchurch though. Season 1 of Broadchurch is excellent. Season 2 is pretty good and season 3 falls on its face for the most part.
Chibnall was just one of the worst possible choices in a world where people have better things to do. Of course in a perfect world, Edgar Wright would be the showrunner and Idris Elba would be The Doctor. I don’t know anything about BBC contracts, but I do know of some better choices. Toby Whithouse, writer of Who episode School Reunion and creator of Being Human. Neil Cross, writer of Who episode Hide and creator of Luther. Jamie Mathieson, writer of Who episode Flatline and has worked on about 100 science fiction TV shows.
Then, it was announced that Jodie Whitaker would be the 13th Doctor. I did not like this choice. Firstly, I don’t think she’s that good of an actor. Secondly, she does not have a distinct appearance. I think it’s very important that The Doctor should be a distinct looking person, Jodie Whitaker just looks like pretty actress lady. Now, we could get into a philosophical and political debate about the character of The Doctor.
Some people, when talking about Doctor Who and other series in general, use terms like “Third Wave Feminism” and “Identity Politics” and quite frankly, I don’t care. All I ask for are good actors and good directors working in the service of good scripts. If you still think I’m just mad because she’s a woman I just have to say that I wanted The Doctor to be Richard Ayoade. So, at least that would be diversity.
Finally, it was announced that there would be three companions. Hey Chris, the early ’80s called they want their Doctor Who format back.
Ok, so after all that preamble let’s actually talk about the episodes themselves.
Episode 1
“The Woman Who Fell to Earth” is a good episode. They started out with the character stuff and established Graham, Ryan, and Yaz before jumping into the plot. Then, when The Doctor did show up it was exciting rather than business as usual. Then the rest of the episode plays out and it turns into Doctor Who vs Predator and that was a pretty good concept. Ryan’s grandma dies, but that’s a shot that I correctly called. Anyway, the episode ends and I was slightly optimistic about the rest of the season.
Episode 2
“The Ghost Monument” was fine. It was Who. There’s not much to say about it. The guy goes on a rant about his mom letting him fall out of a tree. Reminded me of this
Episode 3
“Rosa” is where my disappointment began. This is an episode where they go back in time to meet Rosa Parks on the eve of her arrest. They run into some cartoon characters disguised as people from Alabama, some sets that look so cheap they belong in Silver Dollar City, and a space racist. Now the Rosa Parks situation is a very complex and nuanced situation. If you think that she was the first person to refuse to give up her seat you should read some history because it’s actually very interesting. To take such a complex and important historical moment and boil it down to “Space-Racist-wants-to stop-Rosa-Parks-because-of-racism” is something that someone who didn’t do their research would do. *cough cough*
Episodes 4 and 5
“Arachnids in the UK” and “The Tsuranga Conundrum”. They feature a Donald Trump stand-in and a small blue monster that can’t be killed respectively. These are some of the worst Doctor Who episodes I have ever seen, and I’ve seen the episode featuring eye crusty monsters. I will admit the pregnant man in episode 5 is better than it sounds and is actually one of the only well-done emotional moments of the season. I was frustrated because I kept waiting for a really good episode because every season of Who has one or more. I went from legitimately watching to half-way paying attention and laughing at the show.
Episode 6
“Demons of the Punjab” was fine but is plagued by the same one-dimensional political messages that haunt this season. The monsters turn out not to be monsters. Instead, they are observers. Hey Chris, if you can’t find an excuse to put monsters in an episode you can just leave them out.
Episode 7
“Kerblam” is slightly better. People think it’s really good and I’m here to say, “No?”. It was poorly structured and the ultimate thesis statement was, “Big corporations are the good guys and small-time employees are bad.” Huh? It was better than some but this would be Matt Smith’s worst episode. Literally, 6.5 on IMDb is the rating of “Kerblam”. No episode featuring Matt Smith has a worse rating. Nine out of eleven episodes in season 11 would be Matt Smith’s worst episode if he were in them. If you think I’m being unfair with the Smith comparison, just remember, they asked for it when they pulled out a fez.
Episode 8
“The Witchfinders” is crap. The only good thing is Alan Cumming hamming it up as King James. I suspect he is acting sarcastically throughout most of the episode. Most of the episode is spent wandering around the woods like a terrible B-movie. The Doctor just continues to let Ryan, Graham, and Yaz interfere. The plot is resolved because they figure out that the bad lady chopped down a tree because it “spoiled her view of the hill“. Then some really stupid bullshit happens with the sonic screwdriver and the day is saved. I hate it when that happens.
Episode 9
“It Takes You Away” is an episode that ends with a talking frog. Somehow, it’s even dumber than it sounds. There are two things that I was reminded of here. 1) There’s a set that reminded me of the 5th Doctor’s episode “The Caves of Androzanni” which is my favorite Who story of all time. 2) There’s a moment where a blind girl realizes her mom is an imposter and shouts, “You’re not my mom” this reminded me of the children’s book, Are You My Mother?.
Episode 10
“The Battle of Ranskoor Av Kolos” (stupid name) is the blandest finale ever. Tim Shaw comes back and Graham and the Doctor have this exchange:
Graham: I’m gonna kill him if I get the chance. The Doctor: Don’t do it. Go back to the Tardis. Graham: Fuck you, I do what I want, lol.
They steal an idea from Douglas Adams, which I found extremely offensive and they all live and don’t kill Tim Shaw. Graham at some point in this episode says, “Yippie ki yay, robots.” Probably the best line Chibnall wrote all season and in earnest his career.
And with that, the worst season of Doctor Who since the late ’80s comes to an end. It’s a sad day when you’re asking your favorite TV show to rise to the level of mediocrity. Jodie Whitaker is in contention with the 6th Doctor for worst Who of all time. This is a shame since it only gives ammo to those who cry foul simply of the fact the Doctor is a woman. I blame Chris Chibnal for most of this. He made two fatal decisions during pre-production that trickled down into the final show.
I’ll briefly mention the New Year’s special. Daleks suck, but at least Chibnall wants it to feel like Who. The whole thing with Ryan’s dad was ok, but they just took turns with him because Chibnall decided to add more characters.
The first was the decision to have four leads watered down every character. The reason why they had three companions back in the ’80s was that Doctor Who stories were 4-6 episodes long and they needed more characters to pad out the episodes. When you try to juggle four main characters in the context of a 50-minute show and have a weekly plot some characters (Yaz) get left at the wayside.
The second decision was to hire inexperienced writers. Many of the writers had very little experience working in TV and none of them had written Who before. Some of them were political playwrights, and I would like to say that Doctor Who is not a political play. Doctor Who is a science-fiction program, not a political statement.
This leads me into my final thought. Mike Stoklasa once said about George Lucas, “I’m not sure if Star Wars is an actual vision he wants to commit to film or if he just wants to sell plastic Jar-Jar Binks dolls.” I ask a similar question to Chris Chibnall. Chris, is this an actual vision you want to commit to TV or do you want to use this to show everyone that you’re on the right side of politics?
Chris Chibnall in happier times
I will not stop watching Who. The next season is not slated to come out until early 2020. I will watch the first episode of season 12 and reevaluate.
Rating: 2/5 (Because they tried?)
Dad’s Best Comment: “I think I’m gonna have to reevaluate my opinion on Capaldi.”
I spent a few days in Chicago with Ingrid over Christmas Break. It was a good time, I played a lot of Breath of the Wild. One of the nights I was there we watched Lupin III for this very blog. I know some of you are going to say, “Hey Sam, don’t you know that it isn’t technically a Ghibli film since it was released before Ghibli’s founding?”. Yes, I do know that and if you remember I also did Nausicaa on this blog. This is Hayao Miyazaki’s first film so I think it counts, also it’s on Netflix, so convenience for the win.
Lupin III (or Wolf as he’s known in English) is a long-running and well-known manga character. He has had many anime series and manga iterations. From watching the movie you can tell that this is a well-known character, at least in Japan. The movie starts with Wolf and his sidekick, Jigen, running out of a casino they’ve just robbed. No introduction, no nothing, we’re just supposed to know who these characters are.
They make off in their Fiat 500 and discover that their cartoonish pile of money is counterfeit. Wolf determines that the money was printed in the small country of Cagliostro. They go there and run into a girl in a wedding dress being chased by armed men. A very cartoonish chase ensues and I had to adjust what the rules of this movie were. This is a cartoon in every sense, imagine Scooby Doo meets Cowboy Beepop.
The girl gets captured and the two heroes start their investigation which leads them to the titular Castle of Cagliostro. Wolf explains that he has seen the girl before as we cut to the villain of the film, Count Cagliostro, rides into the castle in his autogyro because it wouldn’t be Miyazaki if there weren’t some weird planes. From here on the plot gets really complex. Basically, the Count is trying to consolidate his power by marrying the princess and is running a counterfeiting scheme under his castle. Wolf along with an investigator from the UN are trying to stop him separately. There is also a Carmen Sandiego-esqe lady who is disguised as a librarian. I think we were supposed to know who she was before the reveal, but there are two reveals, so I was confused for a while. Apparently, she’s some kind of former lover to Wolf.
The film is very much a product of its time, aka it’s dated. Like I said, there are some very Scooby Doo-ish, moments in this coupled by some classic lines such as, “The motion detectors activate the laser guns,” and “I should warn you, my sword is very thirsty tonight.” These one-liners made Tim laugh out of context when I showed them to him later.
Anyway, the movie continues as the Count proceeds to literally twirl his mustache when Wolf breaks in to save the princess. A bunch of ninjas that walk like Bigfoot shows up and wolf falls down a comically long tunnel into the sewer. There he finds the inspector form the UN who he agrees to work with. They evade some guards by putting their clothes on some skeletons and ambushing them. I feel like that wasn’t really necessary but whatever. They learn that the Count only wants to marry the Princess because she has a ring that will open up some ancient treasure.
So with that, we’ve got counterfeiting, arranged marriages, the United Nations, ancient treasure and dress up with skeletons all in this pseudo-Scooby Doo movie from 1979. After some more tomfoolery Wolf gets shot and falls from a clock tower. The UN guy’s investigation gets called off and the Carmen Sandiego lady Han Solos her way out of the film. This is what they call a second act low point, kids.
Wolf wakes up and realizes that he has to stop the wedding. He has healed from his bullet wound by eating a bunch of food and is ready to go. The wedding commences with Carmen Sandiego filming and giving play-by-play. There’s some really weird satan imagery as the two walk up the aisle. They are also being escorted by a bunch of guys in black hood holding swords like they’re the Knights of Columbus. During the ceremony, Wolf interrupts and reveals himself disguised as the priest. All hell breaks loose as all the guards go to capture Wolf, leaving the printing presses where the money is wide open. Carmen and the UN guy go down there and film the evidence in what can only be described as one of the most sarcastic scenes ever put to film.
Wolf and company flee with the princess chased by the count and company. They fight atop a clocktower and eventually, Wolf prevails. He uses the rings to open a locking mechanism. Now, I want you to imagine what this ancient treasure might be. Bunch of gold? Some gems? Oil? An ancient Roman city that’s been underneath a lake that drained after Wolf put the ring in the clock tower? If you guessed #4 then you’d be right. I think we all said, ‘what’ collectively at this moment. The most out of left field thing you could ever imagine is about what happened.
Anyway, all the characters part ways and say good-bye to each other. Carmen Sandiego runs off with the counterfeiting plates and Wolf tries to bargain with her. How about this wolf? If you wanted counterfeit money you could have kept and avoided this whole caper. Also, they unironically say the word ‘caper’ about 5 times in this movie.
I think this movie was good, not great. You can see a lot of Miyazaki in it and the filmmaker he has become, even though every woman in this movie looks like Nausicaa. Despite that, this is a very dated movie, so much so that it’s hard to get passed. The one-liners, musical cues, and Scooby-Doo style editing just don’t work in 2019. Also, 102 minutes is way too long of runtime for a movie of this type. There were a couple of plot points that could have been cut that would have brought it down to a cool 85 minutes.
Ali’s Best Comment: “The real treasure was the ancient Roman city we found along the way.”
Yeah I know, I haven’t posted in like a month. But folks, I had shit to do. However, now the class that I was writing this for is over I can pretty much do whatever I want. I’ll stick with the Ghibli stuff while also doing a monthly movie roundup. I call it a roundup but really it’s just me talking about the movies I saw this month. I’m not going to talk about every single thing I saw, I’ll try to keep it to 2 or 3 films.
Welcome to Marwen
I saw this at the beginning of Christmas break with my mom and my sister Greta. I was kind of excited to see it until I saw the bad reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. My mom wanted to see this, so since I’m a good son I went. I really don’t know how to describe how baffling this film is. My dad didn’t want to see it because he felt like the whole movie was in the trailer. He was both right and wrong, right for not wanting to see it, but wrong for thinking the trailer accurately portrayed the movie.
Steve Carell plays a man, named Mark, who survived a brutal attack and uses art and friends to heal. His art takes the form of a scale village populated with doll versions of himself and women he knows in his life. He tells stories by taking pictures of these dolls. The problem is that the film does not show him getting attacked and discovering this form of art. Instead, the film opens with Mark already doing his art in his backyard and getting prepared to go to the sentencing of the men who beat him.
It doesn’t show him struggle through physical therapy or discover his art. When the film opens all the interesting stuff has already happened. There’s a stupid love plot with Leslie Mann that doesn’t go anywhere. There are animated segments that take place in his fictional town of Marwen. These are probably the best part of the movie which isn’t saying much because they overstay welcome after about the first half. When I saw the trailer I thought this was going to be real stop motion, like Isle of Dogs. It’s not though, it’s either motion capture or just regular ass 3-D animation. That was disappointing.
The trailer is very misleading, it acts like it’s a different film than it is. Janelle Monae is in the trailer and what you see in the trailer is her only appearance in the movie. Gwendoline Christie literally has more screen time in The Last Jedi than she does in this movie and that’s saying a lot.
As it stands the movie is confusing and baffling. It tries to have depth and heart but shows us no connection between the characters and their surroundings.
Greta’s Best Comment: “Steve Carell was really creepy in that.”
Mom’s Best Comment: “You don’t just throw your opiates down the sink and then get up and go to court the next day when you’ve been taking them for the last 3 years.”
Rating: 2/5
Minding the Gap
This is a documentary that my sister Ingrid is credited on. Naturally, since she was home for the holidays my family and I sat down to watch it. This film follows the director and his two friends growing up and skateboarding in Rockford, Illinois.
It’s directed by a guy named Bing Liu. He’s a cinematographer for a lot of the Chicago TV shows. His direction and cinematography is by far the highlight of the film. According to Ingrid he ran alongside his friends skating with a steady cam and was drenched with sweat after the shoots. I don’t really have a point about this I just think it’s a fun tidbit.
The film explores how the three young men use skating to overcome the tragedy in their lives. This is a story as old as time itself. People who have tragedy find someway to fill the whole. Whether it’s drugs, alcohol or skating people need something to distract themselves from their real lives. It’s well told in Minding the Gap though.
The three friends are Bing, Zach, and Kiere. They play off of each other brilliantly. This is obvious since they have been friends for their entire lives. This is where the aspect that I enjoyed the most comes in. Zach has a son, Bing has a full-time job as a cinematographer, Kiere works as a dishwasher.
All three are entering the world of adult responsibility. This is especially interesting for me as a college student. However, the film thinks it is a lot more impactful than it actually is. It’s a well-made documentary but it did not have as much depth as it could have.
Ingrid’s Best Comment: “It’s ok if you say ‘Won’t You be my Neighbor’ is a better movie than Minding the Gap.”
Rating: 4/5
Trans-Siberian Orchestra
This isn’t a movie, but I’m gonna go ahead and tell you about how bad it was. I went to the Sprint Center to see Trans-Siberian Orchestra the day after Christmas. I was expecting something a lot different than what I actually saw. I only know TSO from their Christmas music and I thought it was going to be a Christmas show. How foolish I was.
I didn’t realize that the Orchestra part of TSO was five guys sitting at the back of the stage. I was under the impression that it was mainly an orchestra with a few guys playing guitars. It was not that. It was an 80’s hairband who played Christmas songs for the first 45 minutes and their failed metal band songs for 30 years ago for the next 2 hours. It was painful.
Even my uncle, Tom, who likes that kind of music saw right through what they were doing. At some point, all the songs started sounding the same and there were fire and dragons and demons. They abandoned any idea of this being a ‘Christmas show’. During the Christmas stuff, there was the big black guy who was narrating this odd Christmas story about a girl running away from home. When he was done narrating he would go back behind the stage except for one time when he just sat down on stage. All the musicians were playing music and he was just sitting there awkwardly. I thought to myself, “Is someone gonna give that guy a washboard or tambourine that he can play.”
The whole thing felt like a bunch of guys who could play much better than they were trying to relive their hairband days from 30 years ago. It was boring, arduous and was somehow worse than Marwen.
Tom’s Best Comment: “I’m going to need another drink to get through this.”
Rating: 1/5
Into the Spiderverse
Spoilers, spoilers folks. It’s been a long time since I walked out of a movie as excited as I was after Into the Spider-Verse. This is truly one of the best superhero films I have ever seen. It is also by a slim margin the best movie I have seen this year. This is going to sound pretentious, but seeing how well it’s doing both at the box office and critically gives me hope for the future of cinema. It is stylish, funny, heartfelt, and refreshing.
Into the Spider-Verse is written by Phil Lord, and for me, that’s enough. The dialogue and story are sharp as a tack. There were moments and jokes in the film that had me laughing long after the moment was over. Lord is half of the Lord and Miller directing team and everything they touch is gold. I so want to see what their Solo movie would have looked like.
The film features multiple versions of the hero Spider-man. Miles Morales is one, Peter Parker of course, and Peter Porker is in there too. The main character is Miles Morales who gets bitten by a radioactive spider. The next night he runs into Peter Parker fighting some bad guys. They meet and Parker promises to show Miles ‘the ropes’. Then Peter Parker gets killed. Let me say that again, within the first 20 minutes of a Spider-man movie Peter Parker gets murdered. What follows is a very well done emotional sequence in which New York City mourns over Spidey’s loss. It wouldn’t a Spider-man movie if there weren’t a funeral.
Anyway, the film carries on and Miles begins to meet a number of Spider-Men from alternate universes. The highlight of whom is Peter B. Parker, an old, jaded, fat, divorced Spider-man voiced by Jake Johnson. The other Spider-men are very good as well, but the film is really centered around Miles and Peter B Parker.
The style of animation is amazing. It looks like a comic book without being annoying. Each Spider-man is given their own style of animation. The highlight of this is the anime Spider-Girl. The backgrounds are blurry but come into focus as the camera moves toward them. This a brilliant device as the characters on screen pop against the blurry backgrounds, just like a comic book.
Into the Spider-Verse is, however, not a masterpiece. Some elements are very predictable and cliched. The bad guy’s motivation is the same as every movie. It is revealed that Miles’ uncle is a bad guy and then dies because it wouldn’t be a Spider-man movie without the death of an uncle. Also, the ending of the film is a bit confusing and long.
Despite these few negatives Into the Spider-Verse is a triumph and I am so happy that Sony has finally gotten one right. Even though they’re trying to copyright the animation they used.
My Best Comment: “I’m so glad I can drink beer in this theater.”
I was in Chicago for Thanksgiving this week. It was a nightmare of an Amtrak ride getting up there but eventually, I made it. On Wednesday night I watched The Cat Returns with my sister Ingrid and her fiance Ali.
The Cat Returns is one of the stranger movies that I’ve watched. Not just for this blog but just in general. Originally this was going to be a 20 minute short for a theme park but eventually, the park fell through and it turned into a feature film. I use the word feature lightly since it’s only 75 minutes long which is the minimum for a feature film. I’m glad they didn’t scrap it after the theme park canceled, though.
The film opens on Haru, a shy schoolgirl who struggles to get out of bed in the morning, which I can relate to. While talking with a friend after school they see a cat holding a small box crossing the road. Haru darts across the street to save the cat from being hit by a car and flings him to safety with a lacrosse stick. It’s kind of odd that she’s just carrying a lacrosse stick even though we never see her actually play lacrosse.
On the other side of the street, Haru sees the cat stand up on two legs and dust himself off. The cat thanks her and continues on his business. Haru is shocked that a cat just spoke to her and asks her mom about it at home. Her mom reports that she asked her that once before when she was a little. We see a flashback of Haru as a little girl giving some snacks and talking to a dirty white kitten on the street.
Later that night a parade of cats assemble outside Haru’s house. She walks outside and the King of Cats thanks her for saving the prince of his kingdom. There are a bunch of cats meowing during this scene and Ingrid and Ali’s cats were very confused. The King is voiced by Tim Curry, and he always refers to Haru as a babe and it’s just the best. Haru wakes up the next morning and dismisses her night as a dream. At school the next day she receives a number of gifts from the cats including catnip, mice, and lacrosse sticks.
Obviously, Haru doesn’t want any of these things and when she comes across a cat after school she tries to tell him that. Instead, the cat informs Haru that the King wants her to take the prince’s hand (paw?) in marriage. Haru’s response to this is mixed but the cat takes it as a yes.
Haru does not want to get married to a cat and receives help in the form of a disembodied voice that tells her to find a cat named Muta. She finds said cat and he leads her to a place called The Cat Bureau. There she meets with the Baron, the same one from Whisper of the Heart, and a bird named Toto. They begin to hatch a plan to save Haru, but before long she and Muta are kidnapped and taken to the Cat Kingdom. There they meet a cat named Yuki who serves in the palace.
In the palace, Haru slowly begins to turn into a cat. Her hands turn into paws, she is much smaller and grows whiskers. She is treated to a feast and entertainment by the King. A masked cat dances with Haru and reveals himself to be The Baron. A character played by Cary Elwes dramatically takes off a mask in this movie too. Anyway, with the help of Yuki showing them a secret passage Haru, Muta and The Baron escape the ballroom.
Outside they must navigate a maze to reach a tower that leads to a portal to the human realm. The King attempts to stop them by moving the walls of the maze but they see through this ruse quickly and make to the tower. The King and his guards catch up with them and stop them from reaching the portal. Before long the prince shows up and informs everyone that he has no intention of marrying Haru and instead wants to marry Yuki. Yuki reveals herself as the dirty kitten from before who Haru shared her snacks with and as the disembodied voice that told her where to go.
After all this, the three heroes escape the cat kingdom with the help of Toto along with some other birds. The Baron tells Haru that the doors of the Cat Bureau are always open to her and she returns to her normal life. The next day she wakes up early in the morning with new confidence and self-esteem.
There’s not much to say about The Cat Returns other than the fact that it’s a really fun time. All the actors are giving good performances especially Anne Hathaway, Cary Elwes, and the always great Tim Curry. It’s well written, especially the dialogue between The Baron, Muta, and Toto. I really don’t have any complaints.
I kind of wonder why they decided to give The Baron his own movie. He’s not even that big a part of Whisper of the Heart and I don’t think anyone was asking for this. I know it’s based on a graphic novel, but I’m not sure why that manga exists. They certainly make The Baron a much more interesting character in this movie than he was in Whisper of the Heart.
In watching this film I can tell that this was intended to be a short. Like I said, it’s only 75 minutes and the story is pretty straightforward. It doesn’t reach the depth that other Ghibli films have but it’s a fun romp. It also has a very distinct look. This is probably due to the fact that it is directed by neither Miyazaki nor Takahata. The movie is very cute not only in the depiction of cats but also in the dialogue and the situations. It’s a lot of fun to see a great big Haru try to crawl through the door of the cat-sized Cat Bureau.
Some think that this movie is crap and others think that it belongs at the top of the heap with Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away. I don’t belong in either of these groups, but I do think it’s pretty good.
Ingrid’s Best Comment: “I like how he takes off his coat and neatly folds it before getting into a sword fight.”
Ali’s Best Comment: “Considers marriage with cat because he is reported to be cool.”
I’m not really sure what the point of this movie was. I was a pretty straight forward romance story until it wasn’t anymore. And then it just kind of ended. This movie was pretty forgettable and I’m honestly having to look it up on Wikipedia to remember any of the character’s names.
It opens on some panning shots of a big city as a choir sings Country Roads by John Denver. Get ready to hear that song a lot if you watch this movie. Anyway, we meet the protagonist, Shizuku, a 14-year-old girl who spends most of her time reading books from the library and writing cheesy song lyrics. One night she takes a look at the cards in her library books (remember card catalogs?) and discovers that all the books she read were checked out by a boy named Seiji Amasawa. Be prepared to hear that name a million times if you watch this movie.
Anyway, Shizuku runs into a boy over the next few days who really gets on her nerves. I wonder who that could be. One day while running some errands she stumbles upon an antique shop run by a kindly old man named Nishi. While there she is entranced by a statue of a cat dressed in a suit. Nishi tells her that his name is the Baron and there is a female cat statue that goes along with it that he has been looking for for many years.
She goes back to the shop several times over the next few days and discovers that the “stupid jerk” that she keeps running into works at the shop and is Nishi’s grandson. Nishi’s full name is Shiro Nishi. She then concludes that this boy cannot be Seiji Amasawa because his grandfather’s last name is Nishi. This is very logical since we all know it is impossible to have a different last name from your grandfather.
They meet in the basement of the antique shop while the boy makes a violin which he reveals as his passion. The two of them play Country Roads together accompanied by Nishi and friends. At the end of the song, the boy reveals himself to be Seiji Amasawa. Woah!!!!! Didn’t see that one coming. She’s upset about this but soon enough he decides that he is going to leave for Italy to learn how to make violins. He says that he’s waiting on a passport to do this but just leaves a few days later.
This is my big problem with the movie. Nothing makes sense. Within the span of 2 or 3 scenes they meet and then Seiji is just off to Italy. It takes like 6 weeks to get a passport and he talks about it like it’s a decision he just made but he’s gone in like a day. I know this sounds like nitpicking, but there are many examples of logic and time and common sense just being thrown out the window for the sake of the script continuing. This is just really amateur writing and considering the fact that Miyazaki wrote this, it’s really disappointing. He can do better than this.
He leaves for two months and Shizuku decides that she needs to follow her dream just like Seiji. So she starts writing a story about the Baron searching for his lost love. She spends pretty much every minute of every day writing that story and her school work begins to suffer. She sits down with her parents and they tell her that she needs to work harder at school but they tell her she can finish this first if it really means that much to her.
It’s supposed to be a fantasy story about her and the Baron going on an adventure to find his lost love. Outside of that, it’s really unclear what is going on in these fantasy scenes that show the two of them. It’s well animated and it looks cool but there’s just nothing behind it and it confused me more than anything. Anyway, she finishes the story and gives it to Nishi to read. He says it is good but needs some more work. Shizuku is relieved that the stress of the last two months is over. Nishi tells her the story of how he bought the Baron. When he was young he studied in Germany with his love Louise. They found the Baron and wanted to buy but couldn’t find the other half. Louise said she would stay in Germany and look for it but after the war broke they never found each other again.
After this Shizuku decides she is going to continue her schooling to learn more about writing. The next morning Seiji is standing outside her window. They ride his bike to the top of a hill and watch the sunrise over the city. Seiji, in what can only be described as a Ted Mosby move, asks Shizuku if she thinks they could get married someday. She says yes happily as a Japanese rendition of Country Roads plays over the credits.
As the credits rolled Tim and I could do nothing but laugh at this ridiculous marriage comment. That kind of sums up the whole movie. Nothing made sense, I didn’t really understand what was going on. It just wasn’t that good. The music was probably the best and most unique part. I couldn’t find much of it online so here’s a rendition of country roads that’s pretty good.
I will say that there is a decent attempt here. I can see a lot of places where they went right and that’s a shame for two reasons. Firstly, it could have a lot better movie. Secondly, the director, Yoshifumi Kondo, passed away a few years later. It’s too bad that he never got another chance and there’s actually some controversy surrounding his death. He died from an aneurysm which was apparently brought on from working himself too hard. It’s said he was working like that because of pressure from Isao Takahata. Anyway, that’s why Miyazaki retired the first time around and started working more leisurely when he came back.
Ultimately this movie is a worse version of From Up on Poppy Hill. I know I complained about the whole incest thing in that movie, but at least I remembered that. Whisper of the Heart is not very memorable.
Tim’s Best Comment: He sang Country Roads to himself for the entirety of the movie.
I went to Columbia this weekend to visit my sister, Greta. She’s a grad student at Mizzou and we had a good time together. Howl’s Moving Castle is one of her favorite Ghibli movies from when we were kids, so we watched it on Saturday night. I was surprised how little I remembered from this one and there’s a lot of things I didn’t pick up on as a kid.
The movie starts off in a town that looks a heck of a lot like mid 20th century Europe. Sophie is a young woman who works in her parent’s hat shop. She goes out to fetch some supplies and gets accosted by two soldiers in an ally. A wizard swoops down and uses magic to make them go away. They fly up into the sky and he takes Sophie where she wants to go. Some of her friends ask her if that was the wizard Howl, she says no saying that he is only rumored to be interested in beautiful girls. Obviously, Sophie has some self-confidence problems.
A bit later a witch comes into her hat shop after it closes. She is rude to Sophie and Sophie asks her to leave. The witch places a curse on Sophie which turns her into an old woman and prevents her from speaking about it. She wakes up the next day and tells everyone she has a cold and can’t come out of her room. Soon Sophie realizes that she can’t stay in her room forever and leaves her home and the city. In the wilderness, she comes across a scarecrow that has a spell on him that allows him to move around. The scarecrow has a turnip for a head and so she calls him Turniphead. He leads her to Howl’s Moving Castle and she goes inside.
In the castle, she meets a sentient fire named Calcifer and a boy named Markl. Calcifer is the most memorable character here, mostly due to the fact he’s voiced by Billy Crystal. When Calcifer first showed up Greta remarked on how good Crystal is in the movie. Markl is voiced by early 2000’s favorite child actor Josh Hutcherson. Howl is voiced by Christian Bale who in one scene does his gravelly Batman voice. It’s very odd to see a scene featuring Batman and Mike Wazowski.
Anyway, that night Sophie and Calcifer talk about their respective curses. Calcifer agrees to help Sophie if she helps him. The next day Howl comes back and hires Sophie as a cleaning lady. She spends the next several days cleaning up the castle. The door to the castle is more of a portal than a door. We see Markl go up to the door, turn a knob and answer it at that location. Then someone else knocks but Markl turns the knob again and answers the door at a different location. These doors are in two countries that are at war. Both kings summoned Howl to report to fight in the war.
Howl sends Sophie to report as his mother and tell the king he is too lazy to show up. Along the way, Sophie runs into the witch who placed the curse on her. They climb the stairs to the palace and meet with the King’s sorceress. She trained Howl and explains that he never finished his training. Sophie realizes this is a trap as the witch has her powers taken away. Howl shows up and rescues everyone, but gets hurt in the escape. Howl can turn into this weird bid creature too, did I mention that?
They make it back to the castle but soon enough the war reaches them. Howl goes off to keep everyone safe but the bombing reaches them and Sophie tries to get everyone out of the castle. She realizes that if she removes Calcifer, who controls the castle it will collapse. She does anyway and it collapses. They go back into the castle and get it moving again but the witch grabs Calcifer and Sophie douses them with water. The castle splits in two and Sophie falls down one side of the chasm. She is transported into a portal and see how Calcifer and Howl met. She realizes that Calcifer is Howl’s heart and that she must reunite them.
Anyway, she gets back to the others and reunites Calcifer and Howl saving them both. Turniphead shows up again and gets turned back into the missing prince from the enemy kingdom. He goes home and the war ends shortly after. The movie ends with the whole gang in their new flying castle.
The main theme of the movie is that growing old isn’t such a bad thing. Sophie is a very shy young woman because she doesn’t think she’s beautiful. When Sophie gets old, however, she doesn’t care anymore and is more able to speak her mind. She gains confidence as an old woman and as the third act progresses she gradually changes from her old self to her young self. This is a very unique concept for a film as aging is rarely shown as positive in society.
The plot of the film is Sophie trying to break her curse and become young again and by the end, she is able to do this by believing in herself. Greta remarked that this was a bit cheesy, but I think the movie hints at this early on. When she gives a stirring speech about the pointlessness of war she slowly fades from old to young. This shows that the key to breaking the curse is self-esteem.
I talked a little bit about the voice cast in this movie earlier. There are two actors who voice Sophie: Emily Mortimer when she’s young and Jean Simmons when she’s old (not Gene Simmons, Jean Simmons). They do a really good job of having similar but different voices. There are some moments when they mix the two’s voices and it’s great. Billy Crystal is Billy Crystal, what more do you want? And Christian Bale pulls out his Batman, “Where are the other drugs going?” voice a few times and it’s great. This is interesting.
I’ve noticed in these movies that Miyazaki sure has a thing for planes. Between Nausicaa, this and Porco Rosso he certainly likes to animate flying things. He also likes to make statements on man’s interference with nature. This is now like the fourth Ghibli movie that has had that theme. This is all to say that when you watch a bunch of films from the same studio they might have the same themes.
Greta’s Best Comment: “This guy looks straight out of Dragon Ball Z.” Referring to Howl.
Celeste is a 2D platformer that I played this month on PS4. It was developed by Matt Makes Games Inc. and won Best Indie Game this year at the game awards. It’s a great game and was worth every penny of the $20.
Doctor Who is probably the only TV show I watch that’s on actual TV and I enjoy enough to stay mostly up to date with. I started watching around the time of the 50th anniversary and since then I’ve seen every episode of “New Who”. I’ve seen enough good and bad from the classic series to appreciate the show it is today. My enthusiasm for the show has waned over the years but nothing has contributed to that more than this last run of 10 episodes.
I saw this at the beginning of Christmas break with my mom and my sister Greta. I was kind of excited to see it until I saw the bad reviews on Rotten Tomatoes. My mom wanted to see this, so since I’m a good son I went. I really don’t know how to describe how baffling this film is. My dad didn’t want to see it because he felt like the whole movie was in the trailer. He was both right and wrong, right for not wanting to see it, but wrong for thinking the trailer accurately portrayed the movie.
Sam's Movie Blog 