blueneurosis

Mother III (That's right, the remake/update of Mother 3 for the Switch).

...that's all I got. We get a Mr. Saturn on stage and they just linger awkwardly for the rest of the stream.

Death Duel

A top swordsman decides to fake his own death rather than live in a state of constant dueling and assassination attempts, but in the process finds himself running into the problems a nameless nobody would face. It's bizarre in a good sense, all soundstage and astroturfed faux exteriors with excessive twists of fate...but the core of it is sound, and lends itself to some striking moments. If you're in the mood for Shaw Brothers wuxia, a pretty decent version is currently on Amazon Prime.

You're just lucky it's not all Creeper Cam all the time.

Short Night of Glass Dolls 3/5 - I'm a sucker for a good plot hook and a bigger chump for tone. This film has both in spades, as it's about a reporter found dead in a Prague park...only he's not quite dead. Paralyzed and by almost all medical signs dead, he's still aware of his surroundings and desperately trying to remember how he ended up this way before his body winds up dissected in the morgue. It doesn't quite manage to deliver on promise of this premise, but between the Prague setting and Ennio Morricone's score, it generates a metric ton of dread and unease. Stumbled across it via Amazon Prime.

Mom & Dad - Almost nails it, a comedy that's happy to throw another corpse on the pile for a laugh, but never quite maintains the highs it hits (there's a third act point where it feels like you're watching an R rated Looney Tunes). While Cage gets a lot of props for finally finding a small project that gets his giga-acting, I think Selma Blair does a real thankless job at complimenting his bonkers blitzkrieg with a way more grounded mania, and totally selling that these two people love each other, even while chasing their kids around the house.

Come for the macing, hopefully stay for the recommended video of a 16.5 minute compilation of Homer strangling Bart.

Watch Dogs 2 - I've enjoyed how open they've designed this thing to be, allowing the player to do whatever they want with a minimum of forced guidance. I managed to burn through the ScoutX/landmarks as well as the Key Research data, because I liked tooling around this SF.

I haven't seen Prisoners, but of everything else of Villeneuve's, I'd probably put it on top, if only for the additional Oh Thank God He Didn't Mess That Up bonus points it earns.

Story: 4 It takes the long road to get where it's going, but in doing so, it allows itself to really soak itself in Futuriffic tone. The group of friends I saw it with also enjoyed where it decides to go, but in a quieter moment, one of my friends wondered if it even needed to be a sequel to Blade Runner. A few gentle nips and tucks and it would still be a pretty great sci fi standalone film. The material between the two films is worthwhile, at least to me. Usually my inner editor gets restless when films drag on, and I'm already wishing to cut scenes out, but even as it nears three hours, it never triggered that for me.

Sound Design: 5 I work with a lot of crude sound mixing tangentially in post production, so a smooth, deeply atmospheric mix is always appreciated. I'm never sure if that will translate over from the theatrical sound mix to whatever your home setup is, but at the very least, if you don't have a good sound system, maybe see if you can use headphones.

Setting: 5 Someone did a really deep dive into the original Blade Runner, into the real minutiae like the fonts used for magazines no one really sees up close (if I can find the link, I'll post it). It was a wonderful summary to the amount of detail that the sets needed to feel like a lived-in space. I'm happy to say that 2049 continues this with all kinds of new detail that I'd imagine might jump out to you on rewatches. Oh, also, without spoiling anything, there's more variety in the environments that you might not expect.

Characters: 3 If anything, this is where I feel is the film's weakest area. I can't really blame the actors, as some of their roles are intentionally cipher-like. We're not supposed to see the rich inner lives, if any, of replicants, only hints, etchings, of something deeper going on with them.

D2A: 5 talkies to 1 Shooties? I guess? This is a weird thing to rate. Yes, there's probably more talking than foightin', but I'd posit that even in the most basic of scenes, like a return home to a cooked dinner, the audience is getting both barrels of The Future at point blank, engaging us even if it is just a normal post-shift moment. It didn't feel dull. We do get a pretty good breakdown on all the various hazards there are for blade running, as well as some sudden reminders that a few of these characters are built just for doin' dirt.

So yeah, I really liked it. And thinking about it, I ought to try and track down that Making Of book that came out.

Neon Chrome, Rainbow Moon, RONIN, and Undertale for a cool $20.46. I've been meaning to check them out for a while via Steam, but find myself without a functional PC this year, so that price point is hard to pass up.

So far, RONIN has been well worth it, a tasty blend of puzzle mechanics with some smooth sneaking action. I'm glad Vinny brought it up a while ago.