Gaming in the Shortest Month

I did not dip my toe into gaming much this month. Hoping next month will be different. I picked up Isonzo on sale in anticipation for Gallipoli to see if I want to get that one for my Steam Deck. This just happened so we'll see what happens in March!

After starting Dungeon Crawler Carl I got a bit of an urge for a RPG to play. I'm tired of fantasy ones and didn't want to get lost in Cyberpunk 2077 so I went for Outer Worlds 1, as I got it for a good price. I've just started it but already it's scratching the itch. Not sure that I'll finish the story on it, but there's no pressure here and it was cheap so I'm ok with that.

The game that truly caught me this month is Ball Pit. I don't play it much but once I start it, there's always, just one more round to play. It's perfect for short spurts, but also has addictive gameplay/base building mechanics. I will keep this one going for a while I feel.

February Reads. Yeah I said Feb-Rue-Airy in my head writing that.

 It was nowhere as productive a reading month as January, but it sure was a varied one!

That's a Great Question, I'd Love to Tell You by Elyse Myers: 

If you're familiar with Elyse from her reels/shorts/tiktoks/whatever, you know what you're getting here. It's her fantastic and earnest storytelling combining with a sweet origin love story between Elyse and her husband. There are illustrations, changes in fonts and positions, and it all combines to make fore an enjoyable memoir style read. Honestly I got this from the library and I will probably pick it up at some point.

8/10

Close Your Eyes and Count to Ten by Lisa Unger:

One of two that the wife and I listened to this month. The first 2/3rds were engrossing and compelling to only be finished off with a convoluted and unsatisfying ending. After reading Darcy Coates How Bad Can Things Get and Ruth Ware's One Perfect Couple, I'm thinking I need to give this reality show on an island goes wrong genre will never meet up to my expectations. None of them are bad, but each has it's own flaws. 

5/10

Chlorine by Jade Song:

I am not the target audience for this one, I don't like body horror, there are specific triggers for me that I would avoid as it's a little too close to one of my kiddos (not in the story but in the overall similarities of the main character). I would not have picked to read this book it was part of a book club and I would have DNF'ed it if it wasn't. It wasn't a bad book by any means, it just his too many of my no thank you's for a book in general. 

5.5/10

Miss Winter in the Library with a Knife by Martin Edwards:

A "you can solve the puzzles too" British Christmas mystery book that seems to be a thing lately. I listened to this one so solving the puzzles was neigh improbable. Would have been much easier if I had the physical copy with me. Not an awful story here but a few too many leaps in logic for me. It's the old style British mystery with a focus on the what more than the characters, so it might be difficult for people to connect with characters and thereby be taken in by the book.

6/10

Witness 8 by Steve Cavanagh:

The other book the wife and I listened to together. A decent enough Eddie Flynn story. It's interesting and we enjoy the legal thrillers that aren't so law enforcement focused. The worst part about these Eddie Flynn Books is that there are 2 that you can't get audiobooks for in English (publishing rights dumbness) and that now we've finished them all until the end of March and who knows how long after that one before the next comes out. Fun Lincoln Lawyeresque stories.

7/10

I'm in the middle of Dungeon Crawler Carl and need to finish it before Wednesday but that will be March so you'll have to return next month to see how I feel on that!

Good Luck, Have Fun, Same Rockwell Should Never Die

 We got a special deal on tickets and took the Fam Bam to Good Luck, Have Fun, Don't Die this past weekend. It was awesome! 

The writer, Matthew Robinson, also wrote Love and Monsters, and the ideal of movies, Dora and the Lost City of Gold, so I'm already biased to love this one. Gore Verbinski is at his Pirates of the Caribbean: Curse of the Black Pearl and A Cure for Wellness best here.

Sam Rockwell is exactly as you expect, the best part of the movie. Its tougher to say that about this film than others, but that's not because he's not as amazing as always, it's because everyone else is phenomenal.

Juno Temple, who I only know from Ted Lasso, and what a job she does in that, is even more amazing in this movie. She has amazing range and you just feel so much from her.

Haley Lu Richardson is in the new PONIES show, but I haven't seen that, I know her from The Bronze and I really liked her in that one. She's even better here. 

Michael Pena is great as always, I don't know that I've seen him in anything and been disappointed.

Zazie Beetz is good, but I really just want to see her in They Will Kill You, so her solid performance was a bit overshadowed by my most anticipated movie of the year.

Asim Chaundhry I remember from a season of Taskmaster and it's cool to see him in this after just being himself.

Okie, Spoiler time. A brief comparison then I get into the deets, as the kids at some point might have said.

This is an entertaining, exciting, sad and funny mix of The Terminator, The Mitchells vs. the Machines, and Everything  Everywhere All at Once.

Trigger Warning: Suicide, School Shootings, violence on kids

This movie brings Sam as the unnamed man from the future to a diner that has a mix of people that will have the skills to stop the singularity and eventual downfall of mankind. He's done this 117 (I think) times before and through the movie we see some flashbacks of that. He selects some new people this time and it's a unique combination this time, so, of course we're going to see the successful combination, right?

There are hijinks and deaths, flashbacks to a few key characters backstories, and fun.

We travel with this group, bonding with most of them, enjoying the trip. 

We see the group triumph, with casualties, over obstacles and get to the final showdown with the AI. I won't spoil this, but it doesn't go as planned. But the very end gives us hope that the next time, or 50, will eventually go our way.

I don't know if this movie needs a sequel, and I'm not sure how excited I would be for one, but I know that I would be amongst the first in line to see it!

9/10 Is this the best movie of the year? We shall see.

An Ideal Host

I was in the mood for a dinner party thriller. Think The Invitation or The Perfect Host. So I went to An Ideal Host, which has been on my Tubi watchlist for a while. It's not what I expected. This was in the horror genre so I figured I picked exactly what I was looking for. The first half I was 100% right.

It takes place in an Australian country house. A couple invites several friends over to see their new house/farm and to surprisingly announce their engagement. The friends are a mix of people that they knew mostly from high school. One estranged friend crashes the party and increases the drama and tension. It's a fun insight to an OCD female lead, Liz, and her pleasant enough, but also red flag inducing less than helpful, fiancé. 

Liz is really the focus of the movie and Nadia Collins is perfect in this role. I actually don't understand how she hasn't had more work. She's annoying at the start and you love her by the end. Think Ripley in Alien. 

The party crasher, Daisy, seems to be self-centered and narcissistic, but as the story moves on there more to her than meets the eye. The other highlight of the film is the spur of the moment plus 1, Jon. He's someone that everyone, hilariously even his date, are learning about as the story progresses.

There's the set up. Stop now for entering spoiler territory.

The movie now turns into The World's End/Evil Dead. And it works!

There's an alien invasion going on. With weird liquidy spider/octopus-like things infesting and taking over their trapped inside human hosts. Great job on the title guys. Their goal is to take over this remote town and see if it will be easy enough so then they can expand to WORLD DOMINATION!

Unfortunately for them, Liz stand in their way. The slow corruption of the guests leads to a dwindling group to fight back against the aliens, but honestly, we don't need them. Liz is a bad @$$ Ash in disguise and takes these guys down. The level of gore was surprising to me as I was expecting a different kind of movie and the first half had no hints that it was going to be that kind of movie. The gore was well done and effective, just shocking in how quickly it went that way and how realistic it was in many ways. 

Poor Jon, who was my favorite personality of the movie until Liz really comes into her own by the end, has the worst and most torturous death. It's sad and a bit gross. Liz is a fighter and does what she needs to do to not only survive, but ultimately become a hero for the world.

If you like slow tension movies with some realistic characters, that will take a From Dusk To Dawn sudden genre shift into something new and different give yourself a treat and watch this one!

9/10 - I'm not saying this is better than Send Help, it's not, but I always boost little independent film ratings because they need the support and exposure as much as they can.

Send Help - or how my family stopped worrying about being scared and laugh at horror

*I will attempt to leave this spoiler free(

 We did it! We went to Send Help as a family and it changed my kids in a few ways! My oldest now calls this one of their favorite movies and is excited to dive deeper into horror comedy (Ready or Not, They will Kill You) and psychological horror (Silence of the Lambs). My youngest loved this movie as well and the strength of Linda. My wife mostly liked it and only screamed once! I looked at the family a couple times during the movie. My oldest had his jaw dropped several times. My youngest hugged her knees and peeked out through her fingers. My wife mostly watched the film or buried her head into my shoulder. 

We all laughed, we all gasped, some of us screamed, all of us shuddered, but best of all, we all came away from the movie raving about it to each other. Even several days later, I can only talk about how well done of a movie it was. It wasn't perfect, but if you just want to "enjoy" a film, there's not much better than this one. 

Rachel McAdams and Dylan O'Brien were fantastic, and as they were the only people on screen for a majority of the movie it lived and died by their skills. They are both perfect in this movie, I could not imaging anyone better  in this story.

Do yourself a favor, and watch this one.

8/10

New Tattoo Ideas

 So I have 3 tattoos currently and I'm itching to get my next one. I don't have a concrete idea yet, I'm working with my boy to design one though. I want an American Traditional style of the USS Cerritos from Star Trek Lower Decks. 

Eventually, when the kids are old enough we're all talking about getting a tattoo similar to the one below, but with individualize pictures where the flowers are. So we're all ourselves, but we're family too. 

We'll see what happens!

Samara Weaving has the best scream in movies

 I don't know much. But one thing I do know is that Samara Weaving has one of the most distinctive screams. The warble that it has and the anguish/anger/fear it's able to portray are all unreal. I haven't seen all of her movies/shows but those I have seen are enjoyable. Here's my quick review of those I've seen.

Bad Girl: Awesome little movie that she cuts her teeth on and shows her ability to play heartwarming an psychotic. 6/10

Monster Trucks: I don't even remember her in this, but it was an underrated movie. Fun popcorn action flick for the whole family. 5/10

Mayhem: Samara and Steven Yeun commit massive acts of violence in an office setting, not as good as The Belko Experiment, but better actors. 6/10

The Babysitter: A young adult horror noir and it rocks! 8/10

Ready or Not: The movie that proved she was ready for prime time! Fantastic horror comedy and I'm excited for the next one! 9/10

Guns Akimbo: Samara and Daniel Radcliff commit massive acts of violence in a near future urban dystopia. Lots of action and fun in this one. 7/10

Last Moment of Clarity: The first movie with her that's not action on this list. It's a thriller and while streaches believability somewhat, it's a decent enough one. 5/10

Bill & Ted Face the Music: It's Bill and Ted and Samara's in it as Bill's daughter. It's good. Just could have used some Rufus. RIP George Carlin. 7/10

The Babysitter: Killer Queen: A cheesy sequel with T2 vibes. Not as good as the first but enjoyable enough. 6/10

Snake Eyes: Samara as Scarlett was not something I expected, but it works. Enjoyable enough popcorn flick but nothing special. 5/10

Scream IV: *spoiler* She gets her Drew Barrymore moment and it pays off. Good use of a scream queen for the first kill. A good continuation of the series. 7/10

Azrael: A dystopian world with cult like control. Samara rocks it but this is not one for everyone. 6/10

Borderline: Ray Nicholson (Jack's son) puts on his psychotic face and terrorizes Samara. Weirdly kind of a reversal of Bad Girl in some spiritual ways. 6/10

Take Ready or Not out and there's not really a do not miss movie here, but every single one is entertaining and is elevated by Samara. I actively seek out her films as they are usually ones that entertain. 

Still need to watch Mystery Road though. That's probably coming soon

Family (2018) and Metal Lords (2022) or how I learned to stop worrying and love Metal Facepaint

So I just watched Family after seeing a some major Rizz at work in a short. I will say that short of Baby Joker flirting with Maddie, might be the most wholesome and heartwarming scene of someone hitting on another in a movie ever. 

Kate is a self-centered career focused woman who has put everything in her life to the side to fulfill herself with work success. It has made her, pardon my french, a raging bitch. She doesn't help anyone, is an outsider in the office, has no filter and insults everyone in the office, whether she means to or not. Her brother's mother-in-law is dying and he needs to accompany his wife to help with things, this means he needs to ask his sister Kate to watch his daughter Maddie. In many ways a very Uncle Buck situation.

Maddie is a bit of an "odd" child (personally I love her) who struggles at middle school and skips out of ballet classes to learn karate. She practice fights trees and howls at the moon and is generally a wonderful kid.

Kate doesn't know what to do. She ignores Maddie's food allergies, to be fair Maddie does too, and lets her eat chicken parm every meal, do what she wants, and encourages her to stand up for herself. This results in Maddie kicking a bully in the chest with an awesome side kick, getting suspended and Kate and the unofficial karate teacher getting called into the school to deal with the issue and getting suspended. Maddie, feels seen by Kate and the freedom and encouragement she receives, while Kate is trying to complete a big deal at work but ends up too focused on her niece to do it justice.

Maddie make a friend with a Gas Station Clerk, Baby Joker, who is a Juggalo, and makes a true friend for maybe the first time in her life. 

What follow is hijinks on both sides and Maddie running away to a ICP festival, while her parents return and everyone freaking out. so Kate steps up and of course, everyone learns a valuable lesson. Kate starts to be nicer to everyone, Maddie becomes more confident, her parents allow her to find interests and friends. 

A fun movie with some awesome parts, and anyone who doesn't hate ICP too much.

7/10

Family reminded me of Metal Lords. A fantastic movie on Netflix where you learn the power of friendship through METAL!!!

This movie is about two outsiders who connect through their "love" of Metal and making a band. Hunter is obsessed with metal to the exclusion of everything else in his life. Kevin struggles to connect with anyone but Hunter. So he bows down to what Hunter wants and learns to play drums in a metal way, there's a great War Pigs learning montage in here. 

Kevin then meets Emily, who struggles with anger issues, and is enamored and starts to somewhat distance from Hunter. It causes chaos on all fronts as all three of them learn how to deal with each other and themselves. 

There are some of my favorite little scenes of all time in this movie, and some great cameos from some great metal musicians as well. 

Probably one of the best movies about being a teen I've seen.

9/10

 

In The Lost Lands or Toned in Sepia and You'll Like It

 Thank you YouTube Shorts for putting the first scene of this movie into my feed and making me watch it a few times until I finally gave in and watched the full film!

The Good: 

There ain't much here. Batista is underrated as an actor and honestly the best part of this film.

The Middling:

Milla Jovanovich is her consistent and entertaining self in this, but there's nothing new here.

The Witch hunter villain is cool because you hate her sooooo much, but SPOILER her death is apt if unsatisfying.

The plot is ok. Predictable, nothing much new, story skips beats and doesn't spell it out like most Paul WS Anderson films, but this world needed a bit more worldbuilding. It was as if this was a sequel that we were supposed to understand the world already. 

The Bad:

Why is there witches and werewolves suddenly? And only a couple of them? The demon guys I kinda get as they were corrupted by the nuclear reactor (?) maybe? But you only have a couple of supernatural people and the "Church" in charge doesn't control them at all? The story just ain't storying.

If you can't tell already I make fun of the washed out colors. It's bad. Because 99% of this is shot on a green screen, it's already not looking great, so adding in the washed out palate just makes distance shots tough to decipher and figure out what the hell is actually going on.

Overall there are worse movies out there to watch (still thinking of you right now Greenland 2: Migration), but there are a hell of a lot better too. Leave this one be unless you're a fan of the actors, the director, or wasting time.

3/10

Shelter (2026)

 So the whole family went to a movie this weekend! I was pushing for Send Help, but the wife was nervous and said she'd feel more comfortable watching it at home instead. The youngest also was freaked out, and said she didn't want to see it... until we were walking away from the concessions going to our seats and mentioned that she changed her mind and would have rather seen Send Help. 🤦

So we saw Shelter! It's a popcorn action flick, the kind that the wife and I enjoy going to. Turn off brains, and just watch some mayhem, COOL! This time the kids were behind it too so it was a fun family outing.

The Good: 

Bodhi Rae Brathnach - She was really good in this movie. Truly the heart of the film and did a lot with what she was given. You really connected with her and she was the best part of the movie (and the doggo of course).

The fights - What you expect from a Statham movie. Decent action scenes

The Middling:

The plot - It tried to have more meaning and soul than other Statham action flicks (I'm looking at you Beekeeper), but it was in some way a rehash of The Bourne Identity, and not as good as any in that series. It left you wishing it had more to it.

Jason - I like him, he's good at what he does, but there's nothing special here. No jump starting a heart before a frantic fight, or getting all lubed up in oil before using bike pedals to get traction and kick guys asses. Nothing bad, just nothing new.

Bill Nighy - I mean it's Billy Mack! He's great in everything. Even kinda phoning it in in this movie, he adds to it not taking away from it. He's in middling purely because his pants waistline was Ed Grimley style. It's unpurposefully ridiculous.

The Bad:

The car chases - It's boring and cut way too much and there was nothing special here. I miss car chases like Ronin, the Bourne movies, hell even The Tranporter movies.

SPOILER The Dog SPOILER - It dies. My youngest was crying. It was sad. He was the best boy and didn't deserve that.

Overall a decent enough film bu there is truly nothing special here. Better than Greeland 2 though!!!

5/10