As I promised a while back, I enjoyed Shadow Tactics so much that I decided then and there that I would play the Western-themed but similar genre game by the same developer. It took a while but here we are. This title pretty much offers the exact same type of gameplay and I unfortunately discovered that I don’t really like the Western-theme much after this being the second such game I’ve played this month. The guns do indeed make this more action-oriented if you want but it still feels more satisfying to be stealthy so this felt like more of the same for me. Eventually I warmed up to it enough to be just as engrossed by the more complex levels but I still prefer the earlier game more and I had no desire to replay levels for the sake of grinding stars and achievements.
This series may consist of only three episodes but the total running time adds up to over eight hours. Even if it’s The Beatles, it gets boring watching four guys muck about the studio just doing their own thing. I’m not a particular fan of the group but I persevered anyway, treating it as a kind of inside look on the creative processes of genius musicians as well as their group dynamics. Plus of course it’s fun to listen to their performances as they experiment with different variations and even do covers of other people’s music to warm up or relax.
I added this onto my watchlist more out of sense of obligation than anything else as it was one of the big winners at last year’s Oscars. For a while this film fell on the wrong side of being too sickly sweet for me but it did eventually win me over when it focused on how the main character’s ability to hear is making her deaf family too dependent on her. I note that this is a remake of a French film but the original wasn’t notable enough to register on my radar. Out of curiosity, I sought out its trailer to take a look and yeah, it’s so similar down to the sex jokes that there’s no point in watching it. This not being a very consequential film anyway, I’m actually kind of glad that I watched this American version as its production values are visibly better.
After being so disappointed by No Time to Die, it’s reasonable to ask if it’s even possible to make decent action movies set in the modern era. This film from the Philippines makes for a great counterexample as it limits the scope of its action to reasonable levels. Despite its limited budget, its cinematography is fantastic and it doesn’t compromise on its plot and character development either. This is admittedly a very dark film but that this what it means to treat the subject of violence and killings seriously. It seems that I was way late in hearing about this and this was successful enough that an American remake is in the planning.
This is a science-fiction book that everyone will have heard of if only because of the vast number of adaptations inspired by it. I similarly have never read the book itself before this, thinking that I already knew all there was to know from the adaptations. Watching a discussion of the top science-fiction novels however made me realize that there still is a lot of value in revisiting the old classics because they are classics for good reasons. As such I’ll be adding some science-fiction classics into my reading rotation beginning with this one by H.G. Wells.
This film wowed critics as a real-time look into how an upmarket restaurant in London works behind the scenes in one long, continuous shot. Despite its modest scope, the film impressed enough people that it’s already been made into a full series. I loved all of the details and how each character, including the customers of the restaurants, all have their own little stories. But I do note that the way it ramps all of the restaurant’s myriad problems into an explosive climax kind of makes it feel like a reality show. It’s just so dense with drama and it makes a lot of sense why this might better be expanded into a television series.
This film was compiled from old Soviet footage of the funeral of Joseph Stalin in 1953 by Sergey Loznitsa, a Ukrainian director of Belarusian origin and predates the ongoing invasion. With no added commentary except for an afterword, its surreal quality naturally lends it added resonance this year as it makes for a powerful indictment of the cult of personality built around the supreme leader of the USSR. At a little over two hours long, it’s a bit of a chore to get through as it consists only of the expected pageantry and ceremonies of a huge funeral repeated again and again. Yet I would argue that it’s worth it for the look into the USSR of the period and what such a national cult is like from the inside.
