This was lauded as a technical triumph over a quarter century ago; to my eyes the art design stood out, with the colour-coded programs battling on grids of light. However aside from the novel concept (going into a computer), the arcade game themes, the aforementioned design, and the dated special effects, the dialogue wasn't great and movie didn't ( Read more... )

I had heard bad things about this second installment; I found it indulgent, too long, and inconclusive, but as a rental it's okay. The monster designs are great, and the curtailed game of Liar's Dice was a fun cameo. Depp's Jack Sparrow is wearing a bit thin, especially in the more ridiculous situations (eg with the pygmies). I was surprised and ( Read more... )

It's very brief, but the famous review Tom Chick describes the narrative that a game of Race for the Galaxy created.

I read several of the original source manga years ago in University; apparently they were hugely popular post-war penny dreadfuls. The pulp nature of the work comes through in this first movie, made almost 40 years ago in 1972, with plenty of action, gore, sex and nudity. The first thing I noticed was that the hero was rather chubby, and then ( Read more... )

So now I'm learning the ancient game of Go - not how to play (the rules are really simple) but how to play at a decent standard (okay, I'll come back to that). It's an unexpected turn of events because I left Chess and other two-player "combinatorial abstracts" behind a long time ago - in my mind they were too long, serious, competitive, and ( Read more... )

"Hit and Run" is a low-budget horror film that put my horror-addict friend to sleep. Moreso than in many such movies, the main character is really dumb and the story full of holes ( Read more... )

Scott Nicholson gives lectures on games in libraries and the publication of board games. He has some very interesting professional and historical insight into both areas, and I learned several new things (for example about libraries' selective role in developing collections).

I really enjoyed Kazuo Ishiguro's "An Artist of a Floating World" because of the subtle and understated way he dealt with issues, and how accurately he expressed Japanese voice in English. Never Let Me Go is another low-key novel that contains careful characterisation and extremely realistic depiction of human interaction, as well as a slowly ( Read more... )

Perhaps it was the rave reviews that made me skeptical of this third installment. Fortunately I had nothing to fear: watching the scene where the panorama of Sunnyside is revealed to the toys, I realised that Pixar knew what they were doing and I was in for a great ride ( Read more... )

This was a psychological suspense/horror film about an ambiguously dead girl being prepared for her funeral. It's very heavy on symbolism, and uses disgusting imagery in apparently pointless ways. There was no clever payoff or strong resolution to the film; I most enjoyed it for the sight of Christina Ricci lounging around naked and speaking very