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[Solid State Society]

Also really enjoyed Girl With All The Gifts and Game Night! Game Night in particular was way funnier than I expected.

Closed out my big rewatch of GiTS SAC with the Solid State Society film, have already seen it a bunch and it's great. It was always a film (rather than a heavily trimmed season) so obviously works better than the Laughing Man and Individual Eleven movies, and was good to see it again.

[Rogue Trooper Redux]

Finished off Rogue Trooper Redux in the early hours after getting sucked back in this week. I've lost track of how many systems I've bought RT for and how many times I've played through it, but I always enjoy another trip to Nu Earth. The remaster isn't particularly extensive so it'd probably feel dated to someone coming to it for the first time, but as a 2000AD fan it still holds up for me. They did such a good job of capturing the comics and it's easily for me the best toothy game we've ever had. Find myself humming the theme tune often.

[The Individual Eleven]

Watched the second Ghost In The Shell SAC film edit thingy, The Individual Eleven. I thought in terms of the pacing and structure this season worked better than the first in this format, but was quite taken aback by just how ruthless the cuts are to get it to the required 2hrs40m this time! Entire episodes of backstory and relationships excised, but the trade-off is that it rattles along at a great pace and builds to an epic climax. Still not as great as watching the episodes, but made for a good film watching experience none the less.

Also watched Now You See Me, which was good silly inventive fun. For some reason I think I expected something more self-serious or more of a gritty heist movie but it's just an all-out daft romp and I had a blast.

The Prestige is my favourite too, I love most of his films but for some reason that's the one to beat for me. Haven't done a full rewatch of Inception for a while but caught the last half hour on TV the other night and was reminded just how incredible that soundtrack is. It gets pigeonholed as the bombastic BWAAAAAARM score but the themes are absolutely beautiful and so perfectly suited to the dreamy visuals. I find the piece that plays that plays over the whole last sequence [spoiler]where he wakes on the plane etc.[/spoiler] incredibly moving, there's such an aching yearning sound to it that it really seems to grab something in me and squeeze all the feels out.

[Ghost In The Shell SAC: The Laughing Man]

I do think on subsequent watches though that'll become easier, and that the puzzle aspect is part of the appeal. I just have to hold my hands up (slightly ashamed) and say that as someone who doesn't usually have a struggle following films that are supposedly painfully complicated, I did find this one confusing to watch. I did have to go to the loo midway through and am certain I missed the explanation of why exactly a particular element was incredibly important so that won't have helped.

I'm happy to hear people liking the puzzle aspect of the film. Figuring it out. Had alot of fun discussions at work about the ins and outs of it.

Watching it the second time it almost felt like I had "trained" my brain into better make sense of it changing between moving forward and backwards.

Totally, I was chatting to a gamer friend about it and I described it as feeling like I've done the tutorial level now so when I go back to it things will really flow a lot better! Which is probably a good thing for cinemas, there isn't much in the way of releases just now so they're probably glad they've re-opened with a film that compels people to come back for more.

I just watched Ghost In The Shell SAC: The Laughing Man, I've watched and rewatched the show a bunch over the years but never saw this film version. It came with the most recent box set so gave it a go. It's basically the first season of the show edited down to movie length (well, 2hrs40mins so the length of a long movie) mainly by removing any elements or storylines that aren't part of the overarching plot. I guess it works pretty well and would be an efficient way of just digesting that storyline in one chunk, but it did make me realize how much I particularly like the standalone episodes and stories in that show so doesn't feel the ideal way to watch SAC. There's a film cut of the second season included too so will give that a watch at some point too.

[Tenet]

Just saw Tenet, I'd been pretty nervous about going back to the cinema as didn't know how comfortable I'd feel but the distancing was good (despite everyone but me taking their masks off as soon as the film started) and I only felt a bit anxious about whether the yappers a few rows behind me were going to shut up (spoiler: they didn't).

As far as the film though, I thought it was pretty good and has the potential to be way more enjoyable on another watch. I found the first half surprisingly dull though. After introducing its reverse-time concept it seems to wait an age to do anything very interesting with it, and the first hour feels more like a fairly generic Bond film rather than the Nolan mindbender I was hoping for.

When it does start doing interesting things with its idea though, it does some very interesting things with it indeed, and it makes for some very unusual set-pieces and action scenes that really don't look like anything else out there. I think the thing that impressed me most was mainly that, that he's found another way (after Inception's nested realities and logic-defying hallways) to make action scenes that look unique.

I do think that while the idea itself is if anything probably simpler than something like Inception, it possibly doesn't do as good a job of depicting it in a way that's as readable in the moment to moment action. By which I mean I never really hit that point where the visual language of the concept became second nature and I stopped thinking about it enough to get lost in the excitement of the action if that makes sense. Other (smarter!) folks may fare better in that regard but I found my brain was constantly having to decode the why and how of things in a way that was a bit distracting.

I do think on subsequent watches though that'll become easier, and that the puzzle aspect is part of the appeal. I just have to hold my hands up (slightly ashamed) and say that as someone who doesn't usually have a struggle following films that are supposedly painfully complicated, I did find this one confusing to watch. I did have to go to the loo midway through and am certain I missed the explanation of why exactly a particular element was incredibly important so that won't have helped.

Looking forward to another go, although I have to say that after getting used to watching at home being the norm, the experience didn't do much to convince me that cinema (and chattering patrons) enhances the film experience significantly enough for me to start going frequently again so given the option I'll still be watching at home when I can.

A fitting end to Bill and Ted. It wasn't as good as the first two but I wasn't expecting it to be. Still fun and the focus was centred on our heroes yet still made it relevant to new viewers. The girls playing Bill and Ted's daughters are outstanding.

I've not seen Face The Music yet but after seeing The Babysitter and Mayhem I think Samara Weaving should be in everything, she's great fun so her casting in this was one of the things that made me think it might actually work.

[Host]

Watched Host last night on Shudder, I had misunderstood a couple of review quotes I'd seen along the lines of it being 'smart' and 'witty' to mean that it was horror in the tongue in cheek played for laughs vein and I sold it as such to my other half. She's rarely in the mood for horror but the promise of it being a bit of a jape (plus the short running time of 1hr) really helped sell it.

It is not that at all and it was surprisingly creepy and actually scared the heck out of me in that way that only a good haunting or found footage movie seems to. It's a very smart and very current spin on the found footage thing though, and really quite an impressively staged and put together accomplishment (it's a horror film made during lockdown and set entirely in a Zoom conference call), and I was well impressed. It was giving me serious Ghostwatch vibes at times, but at least this time around I knew I was watching a film and not a live TV documentary (thanks for the childhood nightmares BBC)!

My wife kept telling me I was an idiot afterwards though for not knowing what I was getting into, which is fair. She clocked immediately the kind of film that was being set up and says she kept her eyes closed for most of the second half so she didn't see the scary bits, and I'm not sure a film has done that to her since [REC]. I wouldn't say it's up there with that film but it's definitely one of the better horror films I've seen of late so would heartily recommend.

[True History of The Kelly Gang]

True History of The Kelly Gang just appeared on Amazon, it was one I'd been very keen to see in the cinema before things went bonkers so glad to get the chance to watch it now.

Is that based on Peter Casey's book? Good book if so and I might need to check this out.

It is, I hadn't heard of the book before watching but bought a kindle copy immediately, looking forward to reading it now.

[True History of The Kelly Gang]

True History of The Kelly Gang just appeared on Amazon, it was one I'd been very keen to see in the cinema before things went bonkers so glad to get the chance to watch it now.

Still reeling from it a bit, it has a very intense mood and atmosphere that I know will be sticking with me for a while. Visually and musically it's very powerful, a real experience and a fantastic bit of film-making.

The Crazies

Caught this on Amazon Prime. It's was directed by Romero, and this was a kind of zombie apocalypse film without actual zombies. In this case they're people who have become homicidally insane due to a virus infecting their water supply.

Interestingly the 'crazies' are different from the infected from 28 Days Later despite the similar premise. I.e. the infected in that film run around in a mindless rage, while the 'crazies' in this film show a degree of cunning, although they become more manic as the virus progresses.
It was pretty good.

Hard to believe given how awful horror remakes tend to be, but I actually really liked the remake of The Crazies and thought it was a worthwhile watch in its own right. The Olyphant factor probably helped a great deal (I could probably watch him in just about anything) but as far as modern US horror movies go it's easily one of the better ones kicking about.

[Free Solo]

Me again, Free Solo. I didn't realize how tense I was until the film finished and I noticed my palms were literally dripping with sweat and a bit tired from clenching. Some very NO WAY WHAT THE HELL shots in that film, especially for someone like me who gets dizzy up a small ladder.

[Star Trek: Into Darkness]

I like Heathers, and think of it every time I hear the Mogwai track 'I Love You, I'm Going To Blow Up Your School' because I imagine that title must have come from a Heathers viewing.

Was time to rewatch Star Trek: Into Darkness, and I honestly still really enjoyed it. It does get messier and noisier as it goes on, but just about holds it together and as far as sci-fi action thrills go it's a real blast in places. I totally see why people aren't keen but while I can see the cracks I can't say they bother me that much. Pending a rewatch of Beyond to see how that holds up I do agree that Into Darkness is easily the weakest of the three mind you, I just still find plenty to enjoy with it.

[Carrion]

Carrion on Game Pass, loved it! My brother described as 'what if someone had made a game for the Amiga where you play as The Thing' and that turned out to be pretty accurate. You control an amorphous meaty blob of tendrils that can increase and shed mass and there's a lot of puzzling focussed on switching size to use different abilities to deal with different situations. You evolve and unlock different powers as it goes on and can eventually control humans and all sorts and The Thing comparisons get even more apt.

The puzzling is decent and even when there isn't a puzzle to solve it just feels great to tear through rooms absorbing the lab staff and freaking them out. I can't really think of another 'reverse horror' game where you play as the monster like this, and controlling it could have been incredibly unwieldy but they've really nailed the game feel of moving that big meat lump around.

I did get lost a couple of times because it allows backtracking to old levels Metroidvania-style but isn't always clear enough about where the path forwards is (I had to check a YouTube video once just to find where to go after the last main level because I couldn't figure out how to then finish the game) but that's a small gripe in a game that I largely loved for its 5hrs or so.

Yeah the casting really is terrific all round, and watching it so close after the original cast movies has made me really appreciate what a good job Karl Urban does of Bones in particular. I've only seen Beyond the once but remember really enjoying it so looking forward to seeing it again. Definitely sad that they stopped making them, I know Pegg has been quoted as saying he can't see it happening because a 4th film wouldn't bring in the kind of bank it would need to for the budget to happen. Bit gutted about that, they were really onto something good with them.