Tag Archives: review

This Week in Review

Lots of amusements these past few days. I guess this is what happens when tax season is over. Much to my surprise, Eclipse keeps coming back to the table. Amara and Jessica can’t seem to overcome my leads. If only they’d agree to team up against me…but they’re too nice for that (thankfully). Jess brought her friend Matt over on Thursday, and through my trademark wheeling and dealing, I managed to handily beat everyone, partially by bottlenecking Matt and getting him to attack his former ally. The Planta are a blast to play, but probably only if they win. I think my favorite part was turning allies on each other. I was laughing well into the next morning.

Strictly Ballroom

The first picture uploaded to the site. I couldn’t find a more appropriate picture for this milestone if I tried.

Mara and I watched two movies this week on Netflix: Strictly Ballroom (pictured above) on Tuesday, and The Hunger Games on Wednesday/Thursday. Strictly Ballroom was aaaaaawesome. Apparently directed by the same guy who did Moulin Rouge, which I also enjoyed. Only this time, there were 500% more Australians, and songs that now play on the easy listening radio station. Hunger Games was all around bad. The acting was the only not-horrible part about it. Watching Woody Harrelson is always a joy. At least Amara was there to give me some context from the book that the movie managed to somehow gloss over, despite being over two hours long. Movies have covered a lot more than what the Hunger Games covered, and in shorter time.

Also got to play some Dominion: Intrigue and Boggle last night when Jin came over. And some more Eclipse, Dominion, and Boggle tonight with just Amara.

Oh what a life.

Oz, The Great And Powerful, or How The F Do These People Become Screenwriters

Movies like this make me mad. $200 million budget, and they can’t get anywhere near a decent script?

Worst action scene: when Oz and Glinda were running away from who knows what, they crested a hill, screaming like it was a giant cliff they were falling over. The camera catches up to them, and it turns out they were just running down the other side of the hill.

Worst line: “Okay, we’ll avoid the poppy fields. Or not.”

Line that had the most potential but they fucked it up anyways: Wicked Witch: “Where’s your bubbles now, Glinda?” Glinda: “They’re just for show.” And then they fly up and battle. They could’ve made Oz say that line elsewhere in the movie. It would have been a great callback. Did they? No. It was as if each scene was created in a vacuum, oblivious to everything else.

Worst reference: The Wicked Witch’s laugh. Did she think something was funny? Why all the laughter? She was supposed to be love stricken, not finding joy in her wicked ways. I don’t get why they could use the laugh from the original movie, but not the mole or the skin color. Stupid laws.

Things that didn’t make sense: The baboon chase in the beginning of the movie. Aforementioned witch laugh. Oz trusting Glinda out of nowhere. Glinda living in a cemetery. The protective bubble that prevents evil from breaking through being broken by evil. The wizard faking his death to the chimp and munchkin, who were let in on the plan immediately after said death. I could go on.

Also, I’d like to mention a special “Fuck you” to the wizard for interrupting the munchkins’ song and dance. Your character up to this point had been inconsistent, uncharismatic, and just a giant waste of space. Let the munchkins do their thing. You weren’t going to be any more entertaining.

The ending was okay. But screw this movie.

Speculation

Speculation by Edmund Jorgensen. Pass. It’s like the poor man’s da Vinci Code. At least I finished the book, so it’s not exactly the worst. I have no idea why Amara recommended this to me. It was all right as a light read, but overall I felt like I wasted my time.

And now I feel bad. It was the guy’s first novel 🙁

Adaptation

Hilarious! A movie that excels at being a movie. Not a bad way to waste a couple of hours. I’ve read a lot of good things about Adaptation, so I’m glad I got a chance to watch it. Nicolas Cage really excelled.

If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler – Italo Calvino

I finished If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler a few weeks ago. It’s an excellent short-story-type novel that kept me in wonder. This is one of those times that going into a book blind paid off; I had no idea what to expect and laughed at least throughout. Highly entertaining, and a light read. It reminded me of The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell: the idea that one hidden story persists through all stories the world over.