"Everything, Everywhere, All At Once"

Evelyn Wang (Michelle Yeoh) is a stressed out owner of a dry cleaner's, determined to stay afloat during the impending audit by battleaxe IRS employee Deirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis), a visit from her distant father (the always wonderful James Hong), her daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu) bringing her girlfriend round and hoping to be accepted, and her cinammon roll of a husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan) has a secret... At the IRS building, something strange happens...

This movie is spectacular, there is no other word for it. A sumptuous banquet of creativity, wonder, imagination, insanity and unhinged wonder - Daniels have shown us what cinema is supposed to be about. The ideas are "mad", yes, but only because we're not used to such freedom of creativity on screen, because all too often there is a tight stanglehold on the sort of things that are, you know, good. The directors keep a tight reign on the madness (leaping onto dildos, in a sequence which had me crying with laughter, luchadore cock battles, eating chapstick to gain superpowers, James Hong in a home-made mech suit) with a touching, and genuinely sweet introspective examination of nihilism and existentialism, as well as the relationship between Evelyn and her family. Nothing matters, so embrace things you love. After all, what do you have to lose?
The film is gorgeous to behold, has editing which dreams are made of (I'm in awe that the makers created an entire marble bust of Michelle Yeoh's head for a split second editing gag, same with an animated sequence) in moments which flicker by with genuine talent and skill. It's slick and smooth as butter.
And in a movie where James Hong Tokyo-Drifting his wheelchair at a luchadore at super speed is only, like the 8th weirdest thing to happen in those ten minutes, there is a lot to love.
Every person is going to have a favourite part, or moment, or thing they love. Personally, it's the little things: I loved that the shots of Evelyn and Waymond in the "successful" world looked like something from "In the Mood for Love", and a sequence involving rocks. The aforementioned dildo sequence is a highlight too, I was crying with laughter, and "Raccoon" gag pays off wonderfully.
Each and every scene is packed with something new, some other detail you may have missed, and I reccommend this movie whole-heartedly

"Firestarter" - Review

Charlie McGee (Ryan Kiera Armstrong) has a dangerous powerful gift. Her father Andy (Zac Efron) has the power to "Push" people into doing things. On the run from sinister government agency "The Shop", headed by Captain Hollister (Gloria Reubens, bizarre but not unwelcome casting) and their sinister agent John Rainbird (Michael Greyeyes) - Andy must decide if he wants Charlie to control her increasingly dangerous powers...

The original "Firestarter" film has a fair few problems, so I'm not opposed to a remake in principle. The book is an underrated one in King's ouevre.
This film is perfectly acceptable.
That's it.
It has a phenomenal soundtrack, truly brilliant, done by John Carpenter. It's perfect for the tone of the book, and for this film it's the definite highlight. Ryan Kiera Armstrong nails Charlie, capturing the character very well in this slightly aged up version. Efron's alright too, he plays Andy McGee with the "dying inside" mentality we need from the protective father. Kurtwood Smith shows up as Dr Wanless, and there are some nice little nods to the book: he's found at the Pynchon Centre, we're introduced to Rainbird next to racks and racks of boots, and Irv Manders (John Beasely) gets the "$100 Bill" trick.
But the film just feels safe,, it never truly ignites. There is some gorgeous cinematography, and some spectacular neon drenched shots towards the end. It wants to feel like Mike Flanagan's "Doctor Sleep" (side note: PLEASE WATCH DOCTOR SLEEP) in parts, particularly at the scene involving a cat; the battle at the Manders Farm is underwhelming at best; and Captain Hollister (whilst an appearence of a "Timecop" alumnus is always welcome) is less a benign evil bureaucrat and more a generic evil mastermind ruler. The biggest change comes to Rainbird. Greyeyes does an admirable job in the part, but whilst parts of the changes should work on paper, it makes the movie muddled.
And the biggest disgrace is that there is STILL no O.J in this adaptation.

"The Northman" - Review

In the year 895, the warrior king Aruvandil War Raven (Ethan Hawke) returns from a successful raid, and raises his son Amleth to follow in his footsteps. But when Aruvandil's bastard brother Fjolnir (Claes Bang) slays Aruvandil and sezies Queen Gudrun (Nicole Kidman) for himself; Aruvandil's son Amleth (Alexander Skarsgard) goes on the run and vows to avenge his death.

Gorgeous, brutal, violent, and created with a primal, feral ferocity: the film is at its best when embracing the psychedelic madness of classic Norse myths: a drug trip with Aruvandil, Amleth and his fool (Willem Dafoe), or the life tree beneath the Northern Lights. Director Robert Eggers has sought to simply recreate a Norse myth and absolutely nails it. His folk horror influences are on full display, recreating the "greatest hits" of Viking culture and not shying away from cruelty and brutality; and the themes of feral beasthood and animalistic fury weave themselves through this tale of revenge with clarity and frankness. There are frequently gorgeous shots belonging in a painting, and the production design is top tier stuff. This has been a labour of love for all involved: it rises above the slurry of product and profiteering shittiness of the movie industry, that even when personally not clicking with the film (I'm just not big on Viking stuff, personal preference) I adored that it was made, the technical craft on display, and how much of a visceral experience the film was. There's a purity to its film making.
Ethan Hawke, despite brief screentime, embraces the Shakespearean dialogue at the start, Sarsgard seems to have been chomping at the bit to play a Viking all his life and does so with a furious intensity; Anya Taylor Joy is always a delight; and Bjork steals the show in her single scene as an intoxicating witch threading Amleth into the tapestry of destiny.
Defintely not for everybody, this nevertheless needs to be watched by anybody who enjoys cinema, just for how original it is in the sea of artless swill.

"Live a Live" Hype Train

"Live a Live", the obscure and never-before-translated or released-in-the-West RPG, is finally getting a release!

And you kow what that means!
In this post and more, I'm going to go through "Live a Live", the best game me and a couple of people on TV Tropes with access to an awesome fan translation and emulator have played!

It's best described as a grid-based JRPG: you walk around in the world following the story, and then when you get into a combat encounter, you fight the enemies by moving about on a grid and using your moves, hoping not to die.

Think Chess but with gunslingers and kung fu masters.
The twist (and something I've not really seen done outside of "Romancing SaGa" and the openings of Wild Arms games; side note: PLEASE PLAY WILD ARMS 3) comes in the execution and delivery.
The player is asked to pick from 7 stories in various points in time, each with a different protagonist, genre, twist on the formula and (unfortunately) also different in quality. This allows the game to mix and match and effectively be a blender in ways very few other games or even films are able to do so, and there'll definitely be a genre here for everyone. The saga stretches across time and has one or two recurring fragments (a very clear one in each chapter, but also little threads here and there which come together sweetly), and in a clever little bit of creativity has a different art director for each chapter, though the music is all done by the bloody excellent Yoko Shimamura. Her music ties it all together: she does some fantastic Morricone-esque Wild West scoring one moment, some tribal drum based cavemen music the next, to wild fancy funky electronica for the future, and a creepy, Gothic baroque organ-based theme which... I'm not going to spoil for you here. Oh, and this is the boss theme for every chapter, it fucking rules and I am going to leave it here without further comment.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6rf8Dj7PRAI

Now that that beauty is playing in your head, and making you feel like to are actually kicking insane amounts of ass, I'm going to go through each chapter in chronological order. Many guides I have read don't recommend playing them cronologically, but I do: you start strong, end stronger, and sandwich the worst chapter between two of the best. Plus the whole thing then feels like an epic time travel adventure it was meant to be.
I'll be reviewing each of them on their own merits, and with little nods to how they start to come together, likely over several parts and posts, because despite the differing length of each chapter this game manages to weave a truly sprawling and epic narrative, with one of the best twists in gaming history. Without further ado: Here we go!
Chapter 1: Contact The caveman chapter. You play as Pogo: a brash, loud, crude but ultimately endearing little cave boy with green hair and a monkey best friend.

(Art by Gengoro Akemori on DeviantArt: https://www.deviantart.com/gengoro-akemori/art/LIVE-A-LIVE-Pogo-464813902)
This one is, at its core: a simple love story, and one of the easiest chapters to grasp. You follow Pogo as he falls for a mysterious girl named Bel, about to be sacrificed by an evil rival tribe (led by an evil chieftain, who is father to Zaki: a sexy redheaded man who only wears a lizard. Roll with it) to the great dinosaur god O-D-O! Pogo, smitten and a bit of an idiot, rescues her, is exiled, and must find a way back home. Zaki, the aforementioned son of the rial chieftain, is hot on his trail to come and retrieve the girl so that they may all be spared from the wrath of this great demonic lizard. As Pogo and Bel travel the hostile, unknown, primitive lands mankind is taking its first tentative steps to, they discover not only each other but perhaps a chance to prevent this crude, primitive world from being destroyed before it has a chance to blossom...
This one is sweet, cute, and all too charming: your most powerfully broken attack is your monkey friend Gori (because he's a gorilla...) throwing poo at the enemy. It's that sort of chapter. Your special "gimmick" here is to sniff and search for enemies to fight, and becomes the closest to a traditional JRPG with grinding and levelling mechanics, but doesn't really outstay its welcome: it's short and sweet, and you embark on a journy of romance and early communication, a love story pretty much told without words and done solely through actions, like a mime play, it's fun! In a cool bit of narrative integration: Bel gets a healing spell at level 7, representing her growing love form Pogo manifested as a song. I like that, it's integrating the narrative into the gameplay.
The biggest gripe is that there is absolutely no way to know how to get crafting materials (it has a crafting mini game, but do cut them some slack: it was 1994, before crafting became a fucking scourge we know and hate today) and the gear you need without a walkthrough. I found out how to do it by looking at a rather excellent walkthrough (RPG shrine has a rather EXCELLENT write up on the game in general, and a walkthrough here: provided for your pleasure http://shrines.rpgclassics.com/snes/lal/walkthrough.shtml). I shall let you read about how to get the gear, give it a moment.
Yeah, that's some GRADE A bullshit right there!

How the hell was a rational person with a human brain supposed to comprehend this nonsence?! That's the sort of riddle a talking monkey on meth would pose to the concept of colour.
Here's some of Shimamura's work on this chapter, a funky and quirky little number called "Kiss of Jealousy":
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJgCo7e0EpQ

This chapter is good. A good, solid start. Pogo, Bel and Gori make for a cute throuple, you save a tribe of pink gorillas, you fight dinosaurs, and the whole thing ends with Pogo redeeming himself in the eyes of his tribe by teaming up with Zaki to do battle with the great evil dinosaur O-D-O itself, refusing to sacrifice people to it and instead carving humanity's own path. And then they live happily ever after!