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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Matt's LiveJournal:
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| Monday, May 28th, 2012 | | 1:49 pm |
DO MORE THINGS.
Productive day yesterday. Let's two-peat! (Jesus, did I really just say that? Coffee, I think, is the answer.)
- Finish cleaning kids' rooms.
Do write-up from last night's Geist game, and if I get really ambitious, last week's curse the darkness game.
Finish mowing the lawn.
Work on Hunters Hunted 2 redlines. (Not done, but worked on 'em.)
Shoot video for curse the darkness.
- Assemble stuff for Origins' games.
Play some L.A. Noire.
- Make a character.
Figure out stats/mechanics for mementos for Geist characters, which I forgot to do after the last game.
- Watch Dead Man with Michelle.
That was yesterday. Didn't get to watch the movie because Cael wouldn't go to bed and Michelle had to read the system for today's chargen session ( Game of Thrones), but that's fine, maybe we do it tomorrow. Today:
Make spiced peach jelly.
- Finish handout for curse the darkness demos for Michelle & Sarah.
- Go over finances for Origins, crying optional.
- Go to grocery store.
- Work more on redlines (gotta be done by Wednesday, 'cause my deadline is Friday and I ain't working over Origins!).
- Assemble stuff for Origins.
- Finish video for curse the darkness.
So that's where we are. Peach jelly: I bought a bunch of peaches at the market the other day, so they're nice and ripe now. I peeled 'em (god, that's a chore), pureed 'em, and boiled 'em with pectin, cinnamon, crystallized ginger and a spice bag with some mulling spices, and then added a shitload of sugar. The jelly is currently cooling; I'm excited to see how it tastes. This entry was originally posted at http://innocent-man.dreamwidth.org/591598.html. Please comment there using OpenID. | | Sunday, May 27th, 2012 | | 11:57 am |
Game posts, and maybe mechanical stuff.
OK, so. ( Last night. )Actually, looking at the character sheets now, I don't actually have to do anything for the Mementos that folks have, so I'll just rejigger Sarah's power sheet and call it a day. Oh, also cooked last night:
Beef brisket, artichokes, plums, pigeon peas, goat cheddar.( What would you do? )
- Finish cleaning kids' rooms.
Do write-up from last night's Geist game, and if I get really ambitious, last week's curse the darkness game.
Finish mowing the lawn.
Work on Hunters Hunted 2 redlines. (Not done, but worked on 'em.)
- Shoot video for curse the darkness.
- Assemble stuff for Origins' games.
- Play some L.A. Noire.
- Make a character.
Figure out stats/mechanics for mementos for Geist characters, which I forgot to do after the last game.
- Watch Dead Man with Michelle.
This entry was originally posted at http://innocent-man.dreamwidth.org/591142.html. Please comment there using OpenID. | | 10:14 am |
Stuff I'm Doing Today!
I'm so productive today, you'd think I had a hundred hands! Seriously. I woke up at 7AM. I have no idea why. I didn't want to go back to sleep, so I went upstairs and moved my son's bed back into his room (he's been sleeping in Teagan's room while we painted in his, and then we got busy/lazy and hadn't moved his bed back). I came back downstairs, did dishes, cleaned the kitchen, cleared stuff off the table, fed the dogs, and then Michelle woke up and I made breakfast. Other things I need to (or would like to) do today:
- Finish cleaning kids' rooms.
- Do write-up from last night's Geist game, and if I get really ambitious, last week's curse the darkness game.
- Finish mowing the lawn.
- Work on Hunters Hunted 2 redlines.
- Shoot video for curse the darkness.
- Assemble stuff for Origins' games.
- Play some L.A. Noire.
- Make a character.
- Figure out stats/mechanics for mementos for Geist characters, which I forgot to do after the last game.
- Watch Dead Man with Michelle.
Shit, that's a lot to do, yeah? Better get started! Just so we're not totally devoid of content here, my puppy has a pet. There are little brown hop-toads living under my porch steps, and Si found one yesterday, sniffed it, and then bowed like he wanted to play. Now when he goes outside, he scampers over and sniffs where he last saw the toad. This entry was originally posted at http://innocent-man.dreamwidth.org/591056.html. Please comment there using OpenID. | | Saturday, May 26th, 2012 | | 3:52 pm |
| | Monday, May 21st, 2012 | | 9:51 pm |
Movie #108: Day of the Dead
Day of the Dead was the last in Romero's "Dead" series for a long time (like, 20 years or so) until Land of the Dead came out (we'll get to the L's eventually). Zombies have taken over the world, and a few people - soldiers, scientists, a helicopter pilot and an electronics dude - are in a bunker in the Everglades, working on how to fix things. Well, that's the plan. Really what's happening is that they're falling apart. The soldiers are getting restless and scared and they're led by a psycho (Joseph Pilato, in easily the best performance in the movie, with the possible exception of Bub the zombie). The scientists are at odds about what they should be working on (one is trying to train the zombies, which is an interesting idea but impractical when they outnumber you 400,000 to one), and the pilot has officially run out of fucks to give. There are some good, overwrought performances here. The lead is a woman (played by soap actress Lori Cardille), and she manages to be hardassed and professional while still being obviously stressed all to hell. Terry Alexander is the pilot, and is my favorite character, but he's kind of a Magical Negro, which is maybe a bit troubling (especially considering that he's the only black dude down there). Sherman Howard plays Bub, the zombie, who remembers enough of his life to open a book and "shave," and - hey - shoot a gun. His performance is really good, very physical, and he makes Bub sympathetic and sad and funny. The movie is very threatening and unpleasant, with regards to dialog. The soldiers pretty much openly threaten to rape Sarah, they make racist remarks about her boyfriend (a soldier, but of Hispanic descent) and the pilot, and everyone is two seconds from shooting each other. And then there are the zombies, still around, being experimented on, and just waiting for the final scene when they eat all of the soldiers in the most memorable dismemberments of the Dead series. I like this movie, though some of the aspects make me uncomfortable. I like the character of John, Magical Negro and all, and I think he was well cast. I think that this movie could stand a reimagining in the style of Dawn of the Dead (I know it got one; I mean a good one). And with that, we're done with "of the Dead" movies for a while. My grade: B+ Rewatch value: Medium-low Next up: Dead Man This entry was originally posted at http://innocent-man.dreamwidth.org/590403.html. Please comment there using OpenID. | | Sunday, May 20th, 2012 | | 9:39 am |
Movie #107: Dawn of the Dead
Dawn of the Dead is a reimagining (it's not really accurate to say "remake," and I'll explain why) of the 1978 movie of the same name directed by George Romero. This version, directed by Zack Snyder, has 80% less slo-mo than his other movies, and while it has more action sequences than the original, it still feels like a zombie horror film rather than an action film. For a Snyder movie, this is a big deal. So: Anna (Sarah Polley) gets off of a 13-hour shift as a nurse, goes home, snuggles up with her husband (naked, in the shower, so they miss the news report and don't know what's going on) and are awakened by the zombified version of the little girl next door popping into their room. The girl kills Anna's husband, who rises, chases Anna out, and she winds up driving through the wreckage of her neighborhood as cars crash and shit explodes. As she drives into Milwaukee, we cut to the opening titles, which, as is often true of Snyder films, are awesome and set to a strangely appropriate song (in this case "The Man Comes Around," Johnny Cash), and then we hook back up with Anna. She meets Kenneth (Ving Rhames) and then a small group of other folks, and they wind up at a mall. Yes, the original had people going to a mall and holing up against the zombies, but that's basically where the similarity ends. The folks in the original were a pre-existing group of a couple, their friend, and his friend. This is a rag-tag group of survivors. Plus, the original only had four...though interestingly, we learned very little about them. Seriously, watch Dawn of the Dead (1978) and tell me about the characters. We know that Peter's of Trinidadian descent and his grandad was a voodoo priest, we knows that Roger is impulsive and grew up in a truck, and that's really it. Whereas in this movie, the characters talk about themselves a little more. Yes, there are characters, some even major characters (Terry, the one security guard who isn't a total ass at the start; also Nicole, the girl he winds up snogging) that we know nothing about, not even in the director's cut. Kenneth reveals a little about himself, and Andre (Mekhi Phifer) has some backstory he shares, but his girlfriend Luda (Inna Korobkinka) doesn't. We only know she's Russian. That's all we get to hear about her. The advantage to larger casts in horror movies is you can kill more people before you have to end the movie. The disadvantage is that they start to feel disposable if you don't take the time to establish them. So points off for Snyder and Gunn for not doing that, especially with the female characters (the movie does pass the Bechdel, for what it's worth). Anyway, the characters make the decision to leave the mall and get on a boat, which is a decision that kills most of them. They eventually do get to the marina, get on Steve's (Ty Burrell) boat, and sail off into the credits...where they are apparently devoured by zombies on Dead Island. The movie is bleaker than the original, but it doesn't carry the anti-consumerism slant, the zombies are different (one thing I noticed was how, in the beginning, you couldn't always tell a zombie from a living person since zombies can and do run), and zombism is pretty explicitly a fast-acting disease. These may seem like details only, but they change the movie pretty significantly, especially in terms of where the horror comes from. I enjoy this movie, and I think it's actually more watchable than the original, which gets draggy in the middle. My Grade: B+. Would be an A if they'd scripted the female characters better. Rewatch value: High Next up: Day of the Dead This entry was originally posted at http://innocent-man.dreamwidth.org/590139.html. Please comment there using OpenID. | | Thursday, May 17th, 2012 | | 11:57 am |
You're going to do this now, player. You figure out why.
I am, generally speaking, a big fan of player agency in RPGs (by which, just for clarification, I mean real RPGs that you play around a table or [sigh] standing up wearing costumes, not the kind that require screens). I like it when players decide what their characters do, and if that fucks the plotline I've cooked up, that's cool with me. The plotline is mutable, but I want folks to have fun and, more to the point, feel like their character decisions matter. That said, I have determined that fucking with group integrity is a slightly bigger deal. My Promethean game is off to a somewhat rocky start in that regard, not because people aren't having fun (because unless I'm misreading my group, they're really digging their characters and based on in-character discussion, they're also digging into the moral questions and issues I'm putting forward), but there are some pretty serious clashes of morality and regard for human life, here. Basically, two of the characters are perfectly willing to kill people. One is hesitant, but ultimately is willing to let "kill the fuckers" be an option. One is not thrilled by the idea of killing, but it's really more about not being forced into killing. And the other two just aren't keen on the idea of taking human life. Which is all fine, I like these kinds of conflicts. The issue is that the characters need to be able to hang out together and go traveling, and for that to happen there needs to be some established trust. My mistake, I think, we not making the group an established throng before introducing a plot that required a bunch of people to die. I was going for a surreal kind of "what happens in the dust storm doesn't really count" thing, but we didn't quite get there. And unfortunately, NWoD is a traditional RPG where you roll to hit your opponent this time and see how much damage you do, rather than a game where we set stakes and "winning" means "you keep narrative control." It worked out, but at one point I told a player, "get your character back to the house. You figure out why." I normally don't do that shit, but it was late, I was tired, and more to the point, I've been gaming with said player for enough years that I trusted him with that. It wasn't so much that I was trying to dictate what his characters should do, it was more "I need help keeping this story on track, and I know you're good for it, so help me wrap this up." Like I said, I think it worked, and I think the throng has a tense, but workable, dynamic. They all have milestones relating to the throng as a whole, but in the last story, only one of those milestones was realized - Feather's to "leave the throng to help a person." That says something, I think. Next story is going to be very different in tone. I won't say lighter, because y'know, NWoD isn't a light game, but more supernatural and less involving killing people. That said, I do want to examine the conflicts that the Created really deal with - Wasteland and Disquiet - because this story happened so fast that we kinda glossed over that part. But anyway, I think that telling a player what the character does and having the player decide the character's thought process is an interesting thought exercise for the player, but it's not one I'd want to use much. And definitely a matter of trust between GM and player. This entry was originally posted at http://innocent-man.dreamwidth.org/589931.html. Please comment there using OpenID. | | Wednesday, May 16th, 2012 | | 11:18 pm |
Developments, Prometheans, and Poo
So, what's new? Well! Michelle has finished her MA. Now begins the long slow to getting herself a PhD (though you could argue that actually started when she started Case). But mostly I think she's just thrilled to be done with classwork for a short while. The Kickstarter continues to kick ass. We've got the rest of the artwork back, and it's amazing (a new piece should be going in an update on the Kickstarter sometime soon, I hope). We've still got a few weeks, so I figure we should be able to hit $10K and do the curse the darkness companion, but honestly even if we ended today, we've done pretty damned well for ourselves. In unrelated news, I had a job interview last week for my local school district. I really hope I get the position, and it's causing me a little bit of angst. I love my job. I love my kids. This district is driving me crazy. My caseload is too big, the bureaucracy is too stupid, and Ohio doesn't give a shit about poor people so they don't give a shit about the people who teach poor people's kids (that'd be me). I can afford to keep making what I make, for a little while. I cannot afford a pay cut, and that's what the district wants. I can't do it. I need to get somewhere that I'm not expected to make less every year, and it's bothering me, because I feel like I'm quitting on my kids. But it's an untenable situation, and I have my family to consider. Dammit. Anyway, something else. Umm. Oh, right, poo. See, here's the thing. I run this Clay-o-Rama game every year (most years) at Origins and/or GenCon. Clay-o-Rama is awesome; you make a monster out of Play-Doh and the monsters fight. I occasionally get a guy playing at Origins who wants to make a big piece of poo for his monster. And he's, like 40+. And there are kids playing. He should know better, but he apparently doesn't. I'm not willing to just sign his ticket and tell him to piss off. I could, apparently, under Origins rules, since a GM can kick anyone out of a game for any reason (which I fully support). But I work with people who are emotionally stunted or behaviorally challenged, and the other thing is, I've never talked to him about it (last time because it just caught me off guard). This year, I'll make the rules clear up front - no scatological humor. And if he can't handle that, I'll excuse him (and anyone else that can't play by the rules), but I can't just jump directly to "go away." Shit, when did I become patient? ( Anyway, Promethean. )This entry was originally posted at http://innocent-man.dreamwidth.org/589801.html. Please comment there using OpenID. | | Monday, May 14th, 2012 | | 7:03 am |
| | 7:03 am |
Movie #106: Dawn of the Dead
Dawn of the Dead is the second in Romero's "of the dead" series, taking place sometime after the events of Night of the Living Dead. The zombie problem has been spreading, and the cities are getting worse, largely because of conflict between people who don't see these things as dead bodies, but are unwilling to let go of the notion that the zombies are still their loved ones. The disease spreads, and our four protagonists (Stephen, a helicopter pilot; Fran, his girlfriend; Roger, their National Guardsmen friend; and Peter, another guardsmen that saves Roger's life during a raid). The four of them land on a shopping mall and figure that if they can block zombies from getting in, they can live comfortably. The proceed to do that, though Roger is bitten and turns in the process. This leaves Fran (who is pregnant), Peter and Stephen to grow complacent and lonely in their little corner of autonomy - until Tom Savini and a bunch of bikers show up, kick in the doors, kill Stephen and drive Fran and Peter away. While the remake of Dawn of the Dead (which is next on the list) is kind of watered down as far as social commentary goes, this version is all about consumerism. The characters point out again and again that the zombies don't need to be here, they're just following some instinct. "This was an important place in their lives," Stephen says gravely. And when the bikers show up, they don't take food. They take clothes, jewels (seriously, they hold a zombie down to steal her rings) and TVs...though there's nothing to watch (and no DVDs, this being 1978). And a bunch of them get eaten in the process. But Stephen gets shot and zombified, not because the bikers are looking for him, but because he shoots at them - defending the mall. As a point of interest, though Fran and Peter live at the end, the original script called for Peter to shoot himself (his gun is at his head in the final scenes) and Fran to behead herself in the helicopter rotors, the thinking here being that the world is cursed and these characters don't want to live in it anymore. While I see that, I also think that would have been really sodding bleak (especially since Fran is something like seven months pregnant at that point, based on her belly), so I like them flying away in the copter. The Captain America music when Peter decides to live rather than die, though, is a bit much. The effects have held up fairly well - the zombies are kind of blue (the effects get gorier and generally better in Day of the Dead), but the movie does a good job of taking the to scary to comical and back to scary again. And, of course, we have this movie to thank for Dead Rising and large parts of Left 4 Dead, so that's cool. My Grade: A- Rewatch value: Medium. It's long through the middle. Next up: Dawn of the Dead (2004) This entry was originally posted at http://innocent-man.dreamwidth.org/589096.html. Please comment there using OpenID. | | Saturday, May 12th, 2012 | | 10:52 pm |
Movie #105: Dave
Dave is a light-hearted comedy directed by Ivan Reitman and starring one of my favorite actors, Kevin Kline. Kline plays the president, a stern, evil Republican type named Bill Mitchel who reminds me a little of Bush the First, and also Dave, a nice, normal fella who runs a temp agency and looked just like the president. Dave is tapped to impersonate the president so that said president can go bang his secretary, but Mitchell has a massive stroke and Dave continues the charade at the request of the chief of staff (Frank Langella) and the communications officer (Kevin Dunn). It's a nice enough plan (get rid of the VP, get Dave to nominate the Chief of Staff as the new one, then get rid of Dave), but it doesn't account for Dave actually being kinda good at the job. No, he's not a politician, but he's charismatic and he gets the country fired up. And then he figures out a way to save a homeless shelter funding bill (rather, the portion of a bill "he" just vetoed that was earmarked for homeless shelters), befriends the First Lady, and suddenly, holy shit, he's the president, because no one who knows can admit it without going to prison. It's a fun movie. The premise is silly (there are some plot holes, not least is the fact that far too many people knew the truth for someone not to want to get rich telling the story), but we all kind of have this fantasy that being the president can't be that hard, right? If we got into that office, why, we'd just [whatever], and that would be simple, because [like a balloon, and something bad happens]. This kind of thinking is, of course, bullshit, and in fairness, when confronted with the budget Dave calls his friend the accountant (Charles Grodin). Dave has ideas about what to improve and is willing to push them, but the movie neatly dodges giving us any details. The fun part is watching Kline enjoy himself and Langella being an absolute jerk. And, of course, all the D.C. cameos we get. I do think it's a little dated. I mean, the "scandal" that just about sinks Dave's "presidency" has to do with influencing Federal election laws. Meanwhile, Bush the Second stole the election in plain sight, and the Supreme Court backed him. We've made lost some ground since 1993? My grade: B+ Rewatch Value: Medium-high Next up: Dawn of the Dead This entry was originally posted at http://innocent-man.dreamwidth.org/588991.html. Please comment there using OpenID. | | Friday, May 11th, 2012 | | 3:26 pm |
Want to write me a story?
We've hit our second stretch goal, which means that we're doing a fiction anthology. Here's the plan for that: The anthology will include nine stories. Three of them will be set "pre-apocalypse," three "mid-apocalypse", three "post-apocalypse." In brief: Pre-Apocalypse: The game takes place in the months before Jerusalem. The characters know that something strange is going on, but not what or why. Openers haven’t been discovered yet, nor has the Between, meaning that in fiction, these elements can appear but aren't commonplace or well understood (discovering them could be a thrust for a story). These stories might focus on investigating what is happening, perhaps by searching for people who disappeared in His initial attacks or by examining the wreckage. As the damage intensifies, characters can become involved with riots, food shortages, clashes between police and protesters and other dramatic situations. In this setting, the Between is a lair. They are here, visible as characters enter, and They approach interlopers threateningly but do not attack. In fact, They look as though something is holding Them back. Mid-Apocalypse: These stories, probably the most brutal option for curse the darkness, take place within the first 10 years after Jerusalem. Stories in mid-apocalypse games would involve coming to terms with the new reality of the world, learning about the Between and Them, and attempting to save and protect the people the characters care about. This is the part of the setting where absent-mindedly crossing oneself can get you killed. In this setting, the Between is a beehive. They swarm everywhere, crawling over, under and around anyone who enters. Violence against visitors and travelers is common. Post-apocalypse: The war might not be over, but He seems to have done what He wanted to. He doesn’t take as active an interest in the world anymore but still sends Them to kill people on occasion. Opportunistic looters and loyalists make up the opposition, but the resistance is global and working toward understanding what happened, why, and, more importantly, what options there are to fix the world. In this setting, the Between is a ghost town. The topography is barren, flat and empty. They sometimes wander through the wastes, but travelers are just as likely to see other human travelers. They do not attack people without strong provocation (or orders from Him). Obviously, you'll need a copy of curse the darkness for this to make sense. You can download the playtest packet here, and the game itself will be available in August (you could go pledge to the Kickstarter, if you haven't, which would get you a copy faster, since backers will get the pdf before it goes live on DTRPG). The playtest packet should be enough to get you started, and there are assorted fiction bits in this blog that should also help. And, of course, I'm available to answer questions. If you want to submit a story, here's what you need to know:
- Stories must be at least 2500 words and no longer than 4000 words.
- Play Attention Games is paying 3 cents a word for these stories.
- Stories must be received by Saturday, September 1st, 2012 (target date for publication is 12/1/12).
- Stories must sent via email to playattentiongames AT gmail dotcom (except, you know, formatted properly). Please put "Anthology Submission - XXX-Apocalypse", where the "XXX" is either pre-, mid-, or post- depending on when your story is set in the subject line.
- Stories may not reveal the identity of Him or define the nature of the Between, Them or any of the other mysterious elements of curse the darkness. You may feel free, though, to have characters speculate about these things.
- You should hear from us within four weeks of receipt of the submission deadline.
- Please feel free to share this link, the link to the Kickstarter, and any delicious cookies you may have.
This entry was originally posted at http://innocent-man.dreamwidth.org/588684.html. Please comment there using OpenID.
| | Thursday, May 10th, 2012 | | 11:43 am |
Movie #104: Darkman
Darkman is a 1990 superhero movie starring Liam Neeson, in a role he'd probably rather forget. Sam Raimi wanted to direct a comic book movie, but he couldn't get the rights to The Shadow or Batman, so he made up his own. Which is awesome, except...well. OK, so Neeson is Petyon Westlake, a scientist looking to create a synthetic skin that can immediately graft itself onto tissue and replace damaged skin. Trick is - it breaks down after 99 minutes. Turns out that's because it's photosensitive (it only breaks down after 99 minutes of exposure to light), but before Neeson has a chance to play with that notion, Larry Drake and a band of thugs (including Ted Raimi in his obligatory cameo) burst in to find a document that Neeson's attorney girlfriend (Frances McDormand, in a role she'd probably rather forget) left in his lab. So they kill his assistant, beat him to shit, and blow the place up. He winds up in a hospital that apparently experiments on homeless people, and due to an experimental procedure (severs nerves mumble mumble science something adrenaline), he's got augmented strength, can't feel pain, and is more emo than a teenager in a factory that produces Joy Division CDs and razor blades. He goes after the dudes who blew him up, killing them one by one, impersonating them using his lab that he reassembled and raw materials that he apparently made from garbage. Oh, and he can impersonate voices, because he practices. Although he has no lips. You know, the opening scene has Drake and his buddies pulling guns from nowhere after they'd been searched. Sarah commented on this, and I told her it was literally the least absurd thing in the movie. You could fly the SHIELD Helicarrier through the plot holes in this movie, right down to "how does he produce bilabial sounds with no fucking lips?" For what it is (a lousy action movie), it's OK to watch. You can kinda see hints of the actors that Neeson and McDormand really are, but they don't have much to work with (best line Neeson: "Take the fucking elephant!" Best line McDormand: "If you're not going to kill me, I have things to do."). Larry Drake (whom you know from the "Shindig" episode of Firefly; he's wearing a red sash) is actually the best thing about the movie. His ruthless, vicious mobster Robert Durant is also gay as the day is long, and I never realized it before, but last night it was so obvious. He's obviously having a thing with Ted Raimi (seriously, watch them together), he's crisp and well-groomed, and he deliberately butches up in front of his boss. It's actually a really well-considered performance, and it's totally too subtle for this movie. My grade: D Rewatch value: Medium. Fun to yell at the screen. Next up: Dave This entry was originally posted at http://innocent-man.dreamwidth.org/588404.html. Please comment there using OpenID. | | Wednesday, May 9th, 2012 | | 9:04 pm |
I should do this write up.
We played Spirit of the Century on Monday, and yes, I'm just now getting around to doing the write-up. Turns out that I need 8 hours of sleep to be at peak functionality. Seven is OK, but less than that, especially for two nights in a row, and I get crashy and unfocused. Game nights tend to keep me up late (because even if I end the game on time, my brain is generally too stimulated to go right to bed), which means that two game nights in a row really cook me. All of which just means I need to keep a better eye on that. In other news: $7332 on the Kickstarter this morning. That's $168 until the fiction anthology, which doesn't seem at all insurmountable. If you push us over, I'll read your submission first. :) ( So anyway. )This entry was originally posted at http://innocent-man.dreamwidth.org/588281.html. Please comment there using OpenID. | | Monday, May 7th, 2012 | | 2:59 pm |
Movie #103: The Dark Knight
The Dark Knight is the sequel to Batman Begins, and probably the grimmest superhero movie ever. Keeping the same gritty-realistic feel as its predecessor, it adds in a truly terrifying Oscar-winning performance by Heath Ledger as the Joker, and tells a complex and kind of sad story about the rise and fall of Harvey Dent (Aaron Eckhart, in an Oscar-worthy performance, IMO). Christian Bale returns as Bruce Wayne, but really, he's overshadowed by the other characters. That isn't a knock on his performance, really, because he does fine with it, it's just that everyone else - Jim Gordon (Gary Oldman), the Joker, Dent, Rachel Dawes (Maggie Gyllenhaal, taking over for Katie Holmes after she sold her soul to Scientology), Alfred (Michael Caine) - is just more interesting. Batman is trying to figure out whether or not his nightly antics are helping or hurting. The question of escalation, raised at the end of Batman Begins, is a central conflict here. Honestly, this movie strips out a lot of the comic-booky nonsense from the first movie (the League of Shadows' grand plan was, let's be honest, pretty absurd). Yes, Batman perpetrates some rendition on a Chinese national, but it's not hard to imagine American troops doing the same thing. Yes, the villain wears makeup, but he's clearly off his rocker. The thing that's hard to accept is how carefully the Joker sets it all up and how he seems to be one step ahead of everyone, but it's still not completely unbelievable, mostly because you get the sense that if anything had gone screwy with his plans, if the police had made him, then he was always ready to say "fuck it" and go out guns blazing. But the into the mix is Dent, trying to introduce a little order and winding up a raving nutbar after Dawes dies. I love the way Eckhart telegraphs that Dent was always just a little unhinged, even before the disfigurement. It doesn't seem out of nowhere when he puts on the suit and starts deciding life or death with the flip of a coin, and by making Two-Face a short-term villain, that whole "realism" thing just gets underlined. Dent is out for 24 hours of revenge. He never expected to survive the night, and that's a much more effective portrayal than making him a crime boss obsessed with duality. I feel a little uncomfortable about using Dawes as a plot device, but I also feel like it was a pretty effective use of character death. And let's be honest - it isn't like Batman finds her in the fridge. She dies because Joker lied about where she was, and she dies thinking that Batman chose to save Dent over her. That kind of betrayal is pretty heart-wrenching, and again, pretty fucking dark for a movie about a dude who dresses up as a bat. I'm very much looking forward to The Dark Knight Rises. I'm also looking forward to the inevitable reboot of the Batman franchise, not because I think this one didn't work (it did, obviously), but because I want to see a different, potentially more over-the-top, take on the character. We've seen badly-done grim (Burton), badly-done camp (Schumacher) and now extremely well-done grim (Nolan). Show me Batman in the larger context of the DC Universe. Marvel threw down the gauntlet, DC. Pick that shit up. My grade: A Rewatch value: Medium-low. It's long and intense. Next up: Darkman This entry was originally posted at http://innocent-man.dreamwidth.org/587534.html. Please comment there using OpenID. | | Sunday, May 6th, 2012 | | 9:33 pm |
| | Tuesday, May 1st, 2012 | | 3:19 pm |
| | 3:13 pm |
Changeling and Promethean notes
Maybe not in that order. Oh, and someone wanna pledge $599 and put us up to $6K so I can get working on the ghosts expansion? C'mon, you've all got money to burn, right? (More seriously, if you could put the link to the Kickstarter somewhere conspicuous, I'd love you forever.) So, dinner last night!
Chicken breasts, potatoes, carrots, jarlsburg, tomato crackers.Made a hash from the potatoes, including some salt, garlic salt, pepper, crumbled up crackers. Pounded the breasts flat, rolled them up with some of the cheese and ground crackers, baked 'em. Yum. Sauteed the carrots with salt and honey. Very simple, very tasty. Anyway, ( Promethean. )OK, well, how about we do the Snowblind write-up while I'm thinking about it? ( That's Changeling, remember. )And then last night, ( Promethean. )This entry was originally posted at http://innocent-man.dreamwidth.org/587001.html. Please comment there using OpenID. | | Friday, April 27th, 2012 | | 9:08 pm |
Geist: More notes - Johnny's Banjo
Been meaning to do this all week. Haven't. Hang on. OK. Last night we play our first session of Geist. I'd been meaning to pull out my copy of the book and the character sheets and take some notes, but I just hadn't had time, and then it was game time! Shit. I had vague stirrings of inspiration from this song: But only just. And then I grabbed my copy of Eureka!, and flipped it open, and there it was. My plot. Bang-ba-doo-bang. Oh, before we get started: Our Kickstarter is, as of a couple of seconds ago, at $4739. We are $301 away from our funding goal, so I'm pretty sure we'll make that in the next 39 days, but wouldn't it be awesome to get to $6000 and have rules for ghosts in curse the darkness or to $7500 and have a fiction anthology, well, then pledge and help us boost the signal! (Some of you already have, and you're awesome.) Oh, and!
Steak, ramps, beer, eggplant, rainbow carrots. Salted/peppered the steaks, cooked 'em in the skillet, flipped 'em, added a gratin made of manchego, bread crumbs and garlic salt. Into oven to melt and finished. Carrots: Sauteed to a light sear in the pan with some olive oil and salt. Ramps: Used the bulbs to make the sauce, sauteed the greens. Beer: Made a sauce with the ramp bulbs, beef stock, manchego, mozzarella, Parmesan. Eggplant: Sliced thin and boiled, used as a kind of a base. Verdict: Steak was awesome, sauce was awesome, carrots were awesome. Eggplant was kinda boring; should've grilled it but I didn't have a spare burner. ( Ok, then, game. )Players, don't read this next bit. ( This bit. )This entry was originally posted at http://innocent-man.dreamwidth.org/586588.html. Please comment there using OpenID. | | Thursday, April 26th, 2012 | | 12:55 am |
Movie #102: Daredevil
Daredevil is a superhero flick from the early naughties starring ol' Hornhead himself. It's pretty much an exercise in missed opportunities and how not to make a good superhero flick. Let's talk about the good stuff, first. Mugging aside, I enjoy Colin Farrel as Bullseye. I think he could do it better now (he's got "predatory and creepy" down pat for Fright Night, but I like his portrayal of the unbalanced, completely skilled and self-obsessed assassin. I like Michael Clarke Duncan as Kingpin. Yes, he's white in the comics, I DON'T CARE. His whiteness is not intrinsic to the character, and Duncan seems to have fun as a villain. I love Joey Pantalionanononno as Ben Ulrich, and Jon Favreau is good as Foggy Nelson. Also, they got Daredevil's movement right. The way he fights and the way he jumps across buildings, those were good representations, I feel, of the comic. And then there are the starts. Ben Affleck and Jennifer Garner, Daredevil and Elektra. OK. Not how I'd have cast the movie, but it's not because they suck. Both of them are capable of acting, and even acting well. It's just that they mostly don't. In this movie, they seem like they're not quite sure how to sell these roles, and some of that is the script. It's things like this: The "fight" between Matt and Elektra in the park. After they fight, and then he's doing things like telling her that a car ran a light and that he can fight like that (like a fucking acrobat) because he grew up blind in Hell's Kitchen...come on. Elektra is portrayed as being smart and not really amenable to people pushing their way into her life (though it works, which also bothers me, but one thing at a time). Why in the world would her conclusion be "wow, this blind guy is awesome!" rather than "wow, this creep is fucking pretending to be blind to hit on chicks!" A little skepticism, and a little attention to at least trying to maintain a secret identity from Matt, would have been nice. And then there's little things like at the end, when Matt finds the necklace, touches it, and says "Braille." Seriously? OK, sure, not everyone knows that the little bumpy things are Braille. But if you don't know that, you're not going to grok it from that moment, and if it needs to be explained, there are a billion better places to do it in the movie. Offhand: Have that exposition when Matt's a kid. Not like we'd mind a little more exposition, since they lazily did the voiceover infodump for his whole origin story. And then maybe tell us what the necklace meant in Braille? I did like that the main thrust of the story isn't the origin story...except then they had to go and fuck it up by making Kingpin the dude that killed Matt's father. That's lazy, on the level of "make Joker the guy who killed Bruce Wayne's parents" in Tim Burton's Batman. The whole point of the superhero is that, while his motives may be personal, he does this shit because he can and he feels he must, not that he's looking for revenge. And if the quest for revenge is intrinsic to the hero's struggle (as it is with Batman, and arguably this portrayal of Daredevil), then the movie utterly fails to make anything of it. There are flashes of thematic brilliance here. Daredevil kicks a thug's ass in front of his son, and then breathlessly tells the kid "I'm not the bad guy." We don't see that doubt extend for longer than a second, though. The romance with Elektra feels utterly tacked on to support her murder by Bullseye having an emotional impact, but we don't have enough invested in her or their relationship to care. And, if Kingpin is a crimelord who worked his way up from street-level legbreaker, let's see some of that smarts and ruthlessness. "Send the guards home?" Really? It's all business, but I'm gonna let a crazed vigilante into my building with no backup because...I'm from the Bronx? ARRRRRGH. See, after Batman Begins, X2, Spider-Man, et al, you can't get away with this shit anymore. It's not enough to make the superhero movie and let that be the novelty. You have to do it well if you want the franchise. If the last few lines and images had set the tone for the whole movie, that would have been awesome and way more interesting. But anyway. It wasn't as bad as Elektra. Hey, Hollywood. Reboot this. With a better director this time. My Grade: C- Rewatch Value: Low-medium Next up: The Dark Knight This entry was originally posted at http://innocent-man.dreamwidth.org/586427.html. Please comment there using OpenID. |
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