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Kevin Klemme
March 09, 2020
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Mycelia Board Game Review

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December 12, 2023
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December 07, 2023
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River Wild Board Game Review

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Outback Crossing Review

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What MOVIE(s) have you been....seeing? watching?

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09 Mar 2017 11:17 #245001 by Shellhead
Lord of Illusions was undercut by very cheap special effects and bit too much shouty exposition in the finale. Otherwise, I liked it.

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09 Mar 2017 15:15 - 09 Mar 2017 15:17 #245004 by Cranberries

Gary Sax wrote: I enjoyed Logan as well, but I don't like need to see it again. I think it all comes down to my ambivalence/boredom with the character of wolverine. I know he's by far and away the most popular xman but I think his arc is tired and one note in general, especially when compared to like Magneto vs. Charles or something like that. I thought all the strongest emotional content was generated by Prof x with Logan.

That said, I thought the action was great. One thing that the movie captured far better than the previous entries I've seen is that Logan's rage in battle is scary and brutal. He never loses control in this, the plot doesn't really revolve around it, but the movie is shot in such a way that you are really taken aback by his anger level and how nasty it makes him. It's something that even the comics have tried to capture but haven't done all that well in the few comics I've read.


It's even a little scary in rehearsal .
Last edit: 09 Mar 2017 15:17 by Cranberries.

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10 Mar 2017 10:28 - 10 Mar 2017 10:34 #245025 by Grudunza
Yeah, that Jackman sound recording thing is intense!

Kong: Skull Island is fun. Dumb dumb fun. But fun. Seemed for a while early on that it might be really amazing, but it kind of bogs down a bit into some typical action movie stuff and weak dialogue. Still, some shots and scenes are terrific and I love John C. Reilly’s character. Samuel L. Jackson is pretty great in his role, but again, after a strong start, it gets old. Brie Larson is totally wasted here... I can't think of one thing she added, other than being a shiny pretty thing to look at among a bunch of soldier guys. I think I prefer Peter Jackson’s King Kong to this, as that had better weight and character to it, overall (and is also dumb fun). But for having the same screenwriter as Jurassic World and 2014's Godzilla, this is a notch above both of those (which isn't a high bar).
Last edit: 10 Mar 2017 10:34 by Grudunza.
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10 Mar 2017 22:49 #245037 by Shellhead
There has been a dire shortage of fresh ideas in the movie industry for years now, which has been a great opportunity for superhero movies, because they have all these interesting old stories that can be adapted to the big screen. But this post is not really about superhero movies. I want to tell you all about a very different horror movie that I just watched: Housebound.

The basic concept of Housebond is simple. A bold young female criminal gets a sentence of eight months in her mother's home, complete with the ankle bracelet monitor, and the house is haunted. That's an okay idea, but what makes the movie really watching is all the surprising directions the movie goes from there. By the second half of the movie, I didn't know what would happen next, but I couldn't wait to see. At times, this is a tense, scary movie. At other times, it veers over into comedy, and yet maintains focus on a story that ultimately becomes clear and even makes sense. Aside from a slow section early on (meant to emphasize life under house arrest), I consistently found Housebound interesting and enjoyable. I could say a lot more, but I don't want to spoil the surprises.

I think the movie is set in New Zealand or Australia, and the lead character looks like she could be the daughter of Lucy Lawless. She may not be a great actress, but she had enough range to handle the shifting tone of the movie.

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11 Mar 2017 03:30 - 11 Mar 2017 15:43 #245038 by Grudunza
I Don't Feel at Home in this World Anymore is an indie film by Macon Blair, the guy who starred in Blue Ruin and had a smaller role in Green Room. It's on Netflix and it's amazing. A woman and her neighbor become vigilantes after her house is robbed and life otherwise shits on her. Very unique and fun characters, and situations that play out in some unexpected ways. As good as or better than Blue Ruin and Green Room (not the same filmmaker, but an obvious influence and similar feel), and also up there with some of the best dark comedy crime films by the Coens.
Last edit: 11 Mar 2017 15:43 by Grudunza.

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11 Mar 2017 14:05 - 11 Mar 2017 16:48 #245046 by Vlad
Kong is awesome. It reminded me of Fury Road for its energy, bombastic action, world-building, minimal exposition.
Also of Aliens for the great ensemble cast. You get minimal information on each character and little development, but they are easy to tell apart (so you're not confused about who gets gruesomely killed) and I found all of them to be likable - John Goodman and John C Reilly in particular - but even the basic grunts. And the greatest thing about it is that the humans are all supporting characters, so you have this feeling that anyone can die at any time and it will be fine, which ups the stakes and intensity. Kong himself is great, and I kind of wish there was more of him. He doesn't have a proper arc, and although I was not expecting anything deep or tragic (like Peter Jackson's Kong, for example), there just was not enough ape drama. On the other hand, Kong is conceptually a pure B-movie , so I don't really know if its shallowness is a flaw or a conscious decision.

Another plus, is that despite a lot of CGI, there's very little color saturation, the effects are pretty seamless and the cinematography is generally excellent. The soundtrack, too. Again, it is a B-movie that doesn't look or sound like a B-Movie.

I think it will likely end up in my top 3 of the year. And it deserves to be seen in a theater.
Last edit: 11 Mar 2017 16:48 by Vlad.
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12 Mar 2017 11:05 #245059 by Shellhead
I like the trailer for Guardians of the Galaxy 2, so I thought that I should probably watch Guardians of the Galaxy sometime before I see the sequel in the theater. So I did, and I was disappointed.

I was a fan of the original Guardians of the Galaxy back in the '70s. They kept showing up in various comics that I was reading, including Marvel Two-in-One, Defenders, Thor, and Avengers, and there was an actual storyline to follow in all these appearances, culminating in their own short-lived solo book. Those Guardians are not in this movie, except for Yondu, and yet I'm fine with that. There was a really terrible Guardians solo book in the '90s that kind of ruined those characters for me. And then the name got rebooted with different characters that I already knew from various Marvel cosmic titles. They weren't my Guardians of the Galaxy, but they were okay and I held no grudge. These are the Guardians in this movie. And also some other characters, including fairly obscure Marvel characters like Bereet and the Collector, though I knew them all.

The movie is an amusing mess. I don't care that the movie matches up to any comic book continuity, as long as it tells a good story. If we are really honest about it, Guardians of the Galaxy doesn't tell a good story. It tells a sloppy one that relies too heavily on getting these very incompatible characters to work together and somehow quickly bond into a team. There is plenty of action, and some smile-worthy humor, but it's all diminished by the weak yet frantic story. I assume the experience was even worse for a viewer that lacked familiarity with any of these characters. I could look at the Collector and know immediately his gimmick and his motivation, but some random moviegoer might be floundering in all the weirdness and miss out on why he is important.

I was even disappointed by the music selections. The '70s was an amazingly weird time in pop culture, but this movie skips over so many great songs in favor of several annoyingly bad ones. To be fair, some of the other song picks were fine and even used well in context, but I'm still glad that I missed hearing songs like Hooked on a Feeling with the loud movie sound experience.

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13 Mar 2017 10:01 #245074 by airmarkus
Anybody here ever seen Train to Busan? I've only seen a couple of zombie movies. I really enjoyed this one, it moved fast and had some really creative scenes and some great, memorable characters. It's a Korean movie, so I had to watch it with English subs, which I normally avoid, but I did better than I though I would reading the lines and following everything on screen. This may have been discussed earlier in this thread but I was too lazy to look. I think a lot of folks here would like this movie.

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13 Mar 2017 10:54 #245079 by Grudunza

airmarkus wrote: Anybody here ever seen Train to Busan? I've only seen a couple of zombie movies. I really enjoyed this one, it moved fast and had some really creative scenes and some great, memorable characters. It's a Korean movie, so I had to watch it with English subs, which I normally avoid, but I did better than I though I would reading the lines and following everything on screen. This may have been discussed earlier in this thread but I was too lazy to look. I think a lot of folks here would like this movie.


I think I mentioned it briefly a few weeks ago. Yeah, it's great! Kind of like World War Z and Snowpiercer had sex in Korea and this was born. It's not perfect, but there are a lot of cool moments, and I like the characters.
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13 Mar 2017 13:26 #245091 by Shellhead
Like most movie buffs, I have my favorite genres. But sometimes a genre movie can let me down, while a movie that isn't my favorite type can pleasantly surprise me. I put this to the test last weekend, when I happened upon a pair of movies near each other in the rack at the library: Adventureland and American Ultra. For me, the hook was the two stars of both movies, Jesse Eisenberg and Kristen Stewart. I've never seen movies featuring either of them, but Eisenberg is a respected actor while Stewart is apparently terrible.

I almost saw Adventureland back in the day, but it looked like an overly familiar story of young angst, and I somehow just knew that Stewart's character was going to cheat on Eisenberg. It turns out that I was right, and the marketing of it as a comedy was a stretch. There were times when I smiled at the humor, but it never rose to laughter. And yet, Adventureland was a surprisingly good movie. Set in 1987 or so, it features young and unhappy workers at an amusement park. Eisenberg is an idealistic intellectual who falls for Stewart. The cast is good, including Kristen Wiig, Ryan Reynolds, and Martin Starr. The characters have depth, and even Reynolds is too sympathetic to dislike for his actions. Though I only saw Caddyshack once, it reminded me of Adventureland, though Adventureland is less funny and much more thoughtful. This isn't my favorite kind of movie, but I am still thinking about it days later. For the record, Stewart turned in a decent performance.

Six years later, Eisenberg and Stewart are re-united as co-stars in American Ultra. The premise is okay, with Eisenberg as a small town loser who discovers that he is actually a CIA sleeper agent. The cast is potentially great, including Connie Britton, Walter Goggins, John Leguizamo, Topher Grace, and Bill Pullman. Unfortunately, the story is ludicrous but not quite funny, and the script is weak. There is plenty of action, so I didn't hate American Ultra. But I also didn't enjoy it much either. None of the cast was strong enough to overcome the weak story/script problem.

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14 Mar 2017 06:50 #245113 by Black Barney
Yeah I didn't mind Adventureland but mostly cuz of Stewart's scene in the pool (Jeb knows what's up). She's perfectly cast in that role considering her zero range.

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25 Mar 2017 14:04 #245604 by Black Barney
Debating on bringing Emily to either Beauty and the Beast or The Smurfs. I think Emma Watson will take this one

Logan next Friday, can't wait

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25 Mar 2017 14:23 #245607 by Space Ghost
I took my almost 5 year old girl to see Beauty and the Beast -- she loved it. I actually thought it was really well done; took my wife to see it a couple of nights later, she loved it too.
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25 Mar 2017 14:25 #245609 by Michael Barnes
We saw Beauty and The Beast last weekend- LOVED IT. Cried. Very well done adaptation with just a little expansion. It is pretty long (over 2 hours) but my 5 and 7 year olds were engaged throughout. My little girl wore the yellow Belle dress and pink cowboy boots.

Herminone Granger makes for a fine Belle, definitely a touch more contemporary. Bard of Laketown was actually pretty great as Gaston- he plays it pretty big and broad but...well, that's Gaston. The housewares and furniture was all great. Dan Stevens is a good Beast until we see his doofy human face, but that's how the animated film was too.

New Alan Menken songs were forgettable but decent- you're not getting another "Be Our Guest" out it...speaking of which, that was the blowout showstopper. It was awesome.

Didn't even notice this controversial "gay agenda" stuff that some people got pissy about- just saw normal people doing normal things, which included a man dancing with another man.
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25 Mar 2017 14:37 - 25 Mar 2017 14:37 #245613 by Black Barney
Yeah, I don't know what those people were expecting but a movie about a chick hooking up with a big monster isn't exactly going to be championing traditional marriage.
Last edit: 25 Mar 2017 14:37 by Black Barney.

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