Movieweek 5 - The House with Gunpowder Milkshake

Hopefully my real life has settled down a bit and I can get on with doing what I love which is watching movies and playing games.

The House (2020) - 6/10

This is an incredibly creepy stop-motion animated film comprising three short stories.  To be absolutely honest took me several attempts to get through the first story as it was so creepy.  The set dressing and animation style is perfect.  It's a blend of Coraline meets Fantastic Mr Fox and there is a good deal of "boil" (when a models hair or fur moves between shots and makes it look like their skin is boiling) which adds to the creepiness of the whole thing. 

The voice cast are a all great British talents, including Mark Heap, Paul Kaye, Stephanie Cole, Helena Bonham-Carter, Miranda Richardson and even Jarvis Cocker.  I'm a big fan of Mark Heap who just manages to deliver his officious lines as Mr.Thomas in a way that hints subtly at something dark, something with menacing undertones. 

I'm not a big fan of creepy movies in general, so I was glad that the second story was much more to my liking.  The central character is a struggling hobbyist property developer trying to renovate and sell the house as a recession begins to bite.  Anthroporphised animals doing human things is stock in trade for animated movies and this one pulls it off extremely well.  It leans hard into the weird rather than creepy and there is a moment that reminded me of the Whoopi Goldberg movie The Telephone which brought a wry smile.  

The third act was even better and definitely an homage to both Wes Anderson's animated work with shades of Studio Ghibli thrown in for good measure.  It was a great way to end what were three very different tales about this mysterious house and the people who live in it. 

There's a gem of an RPG plot in there as well.  It would be very interesting to play a game where the location stays the same but you play different descendents of your character throughout time.  Sort of how they reused the set of Nerva Beacon in the epic Dr Who stories Ark in Space / Revenge of the Cybermen story.   

If you can get past the first act then you will enjoy this.

Gunpowder Milkshake (2021)

Karen Gillan and Lena Heady team up in this brutal comic book style assassination story.  It feels like it was based on a comic book in the same way as Guns Akimbo or Polar, but this is an original story from the pens of Navot Papushado and Ehud Lavski.

Very stylishly shot, with heavy 50s come 80s pop culture palette this movie leans heavily into dramatic cinematography.  Paul Giamatti is seen once again as a menacing crime boss (I loved his role in Shoot'em Up) and I absolutely loved the Librarian characters played by Angela Bassett, Michelle Yeoh and Carla Gugino.  In fact I've been a massive fan of Angela Bassett since I first watched the dystopian sci-fi movie Strange Days which has to be one of the best cyberpunk movies of them all.  

This movie is popcorn fare of the highest order, a classic tale of the hitman who hits the wrong man and then gets thrown to the wolves.  Very enjoyable if you are a fan of violent gun movies like Hard Boiled, John Wick or Nobody.  Karen Gillan performs adequately but when she shares the screen with real acting talent she just doesn't dominate the screen.  Intensity is the name of the game here and she just doesn't burn as bright as her co-stars.  Ralph Inneson also does a good turn as Jim Mcalester.

Meanwhile in Mega City One - Prog 1: Rolling with the Rookies

Meanwhile in Mega City One is a roleplaying game which takes place every Friday Night at Dragons Keep Roleplay Club in Chislehurst, South East London.  Games Master is Tony

Cast

• Judge Cully - A no-nonsense female street judge with a penchant for heavy weapons - Kat
• Judge Krush - A hard as nails street judge who goes by the book - Steve
• Judge Swiss - A rookie street Judge - Alex
  
• Psi Judge Pike - A Psi Division rookie Judge - Connor
  

Rookie Patrol

Wednesday morning, like any other morning, starts with the 9am briefing.  Watch Commander Judge Belloch is a grizzled veteran of the streets which took one of his legs many years back.

He quickly assigns the new rookie judges, Swiss and Psi Judge Pike to the seasoned veterans Cully and Krush and continues his briefing...

"Don Ookie was released from the zoo yesterday and the jungle partied all night, it was bananas untill the early hours of this morning.  We don't expect those boys to be up to any monkey business for a few days whilst they sleep it off, but keep your eyes peeled.

Weather control claims they've fixed the system so expect a regulation rain shower at 11am.  

Fingers crossed this is going to be a quiet day but stay frosty and get out there and lay down the law"

Cully, Krush, Pike and Swiss head to the motor pool and pick up their bikes.  One of the Tek Judges tells the rookies

"We've given you 20 minuters a couple of old girls.  Nice and reliable but ready for retirement if you know what I mean.  Bring yourselves back in one piece and we'll give you some fresh metal tomorrow."

Outside Heavenly Havens

As the Judges cruise North along Duke Street they spot a couple of juves wearing Heavens Angel duds giving an umpty candy machine some percussive maintenance.  A Scrawlo-gon bot is busy cleaning some fresh script from a nearby wall whistling a cheery tune.

The patrol pulls their bikes over next to the juves and Swiss orders the shifty looking pair to stop right there.  Cully and Krush spot the older Juve with his hand around a bulge in his pocket.  Pike dismounts and approaches psychically probing the pair.  The older juve's mind is a mess of emotions, he doesn't want to go back to the cubes and he bolts for it.  Pike gives chase on foot shouting at him to stop.  The younger juve spots an opportunity for escape and runs across the road.

The Judges encounter some Juves up to no good outside Heavenly Havens

Cully guns her bike along the pedway ahead of the fleeing juve and slides her bike to a stop blocking the pavement.  The hapless punk careens into the Law Master and flips over the front wheel but rolls to his feet and continues to run.  Krush takes aim and shoots the perp in the back and calmly parks the front wheel of his bike on the perps leg.  

"You are going nowhere punk"

Swiss dismounts and tries to rugby tackle the fleeing juve but his leap is short and the punk slips through his fingers.

Cully chases him down on her bike and flips the trigger of her bike cannon.  

"Budda, Budda, Budda, Budda" booms the twin cannon and a hail of 20mm shells sparks off the tarmacrete roadway.  

A red ToyoFord sedan swerves to avoid the punk and careens onto the pavement narowly missing a fatty pedestrian and Judge Swiss.  It crashes into the wall of Heavenly Havens with a sickening crunch.

The Juve breaks down and drops to his knees.  Swiss picks him up and cuffs him to a nearby holding post.  Cully checks on the driver of the sedan but the seat is empty, the two young juves in school uniforms are bouncing excitedly on the rear seats.  "Again, Again" they shout.  Judge Cully pulls them out of the smoking wreck and gets their names.  Angus and Cliff Dimple were on their way to school and they give the Judge a crumbled emergency contact card.  Cully dials the number and an out of breath woman answers

What have they done now? Can't you see I'm busy! I'm in a yoga class for the next 30 minutes and slams down the phone.  She has no other option but to call child services and cuff them both to the holding post for their own safety.  

Krush rolls his tyre off the perp and Pike flips him over.  The GP round made a mess of his chest cavity.  "Call in a meat wagon Rookie"  

The observant Scrawlo-bot spots the potential biohazard and begins to cordon off the scene in hazard tape.

The fattie stands there absent mindedly munching on a muncebar when Swiss spots the small collection of wrappers at his feet.  

"That's six months in the cube for littering fatso!"  

Their radio crackles into life.  "All units.  Roadjackers on hover boards spotted on Meg 355 in the vicinity of Heavenly Havens and Duke Street."  The patrol answers the call and they head out.

Surfing Meg 355

As the patrol comes down the onramp they spot the perps.  5 sky surfers with an armed passenger each weaving among the traffic.

Sky Surfing Road Raiders try to hi-jack a CHOO2 Tanker

They swiftly intercept and manage to prevent them from getting to their target, a CHOO2 tanker.  Swiss boards the tanker and manages to see off two of the raiders whilst the others take on small arms fire.  The Judges execute their powers of arrest with extreme prejudice in order to prevent an even larger catastrophe occurring.

The raiders are thwarted but there are signifigant civilian casualties and collateral damage to several vehicles and the megway.

The patrol spends the rest of their day cleaning up the mess and informing next of kin before returning to the sector house. 

NEXT PROG ->

Boardgame Rescued - Battle Over Britain

A recent charity shop find saw me fixing up the box and sorting counters for this vintage 1983 SPI TSR copy of  Battle over Britain. 

These sorts of counter heavy wargames are not my bag but for some reason I couldn't let it just fade away.

Movieweek 4 - Norwegian Marital Murder , Bicycle Thieves and Revenge

A tough week in which I needed as much distraction as possible.  Thankfully I have a NETFLIX subscription.

The Trip (2021) - 7/10

Aksel Hennie has been one of my favourite Norwegian actors ever since I watched the amazing Max Manus and the stupendous Headhunters.  He is one of the countries bankable stars and crops up from time to time in Hollywood blockbusters like The Cloverfield Paradox or The Martian when there is a need for a scandanavian character.

In this dark comedy he is paired with the equally talented Noomi Rapace as a married couple who are unhappy with the way their marriage and careers have panned out.  Their answer is to kill each other for the insurance money during a planned trip to a cabin in the fjords.  There I said it fjords. 

If you like Cohen brothers style black comedies like Fargo you will like this movie.  It is well put together and pacing is great, there are very few moments when something isn't happening on screen and immediate flashbacks establish the motives and set up for what just happened when new protagonists enter the stage.

This is a Norwegian language film dubbed into English which I think is a mistake as the nuances of Rapace and Hennie's performances are lost in the dubbed dialogue.  I would recommend watching this with subtitles. 

All in all an entertaining 2 hours with stunning scenery and a fun tale of marital strife which would make a great Fiasco playset.    

Riders of Justice (2020) - 7/10

A Danish revenge saga starring Mads Mikkelsen (Fantastic Beasts 3, Casino Royale, Polar) who is always entertaining in his strong silent type roles.  If you haven't seen Polar or Arctic you need to check them out.

Mads is Markus, a hardened soldier who returns from operations in the desert when his wife is killed in a tragic train accident and he needs to look after his daughter Mathilde.  Fellow survivor Otto, a statistics expert, thinks this was deliberate and, after the police dismiss his claims, he assembles a team of hackers and goes full detective to find out who organised the assassination.

The cast are excellent and in particular Andrea Heick Gadeberg who has the difficult job of playing Mathilde, who despite being quite broken herself, is the glue that holds all these broken people together.

The story is double edged as you follow the emotional ups and downs of a bunch of very broken characters whilst they try to keep their covert operation a secret from Mathilde and the police.  Gradually we learn how these characters got to where they are, their bonds, what dark secrets they are witholding and ultimately how they start to begin to heal by living this strange new familial existence.

When they get close to their objective, the tension ramps up considerably.  The final 30 minutes are utterly gripping and you really don't know who is going to survive.  For me the initial 20 minutes were a bit slow, but once Otto and Markus meet for the first time, it really picked up and I was hooked.  Well worth the price of admission.

YouTube Gem - Fighting Fantasy Playthrough - Caverns of the Snow Witch

I never knew that playthroughs of old Fighting Fantasy books were a thing until I stumbled upon the excellent video below.  Enjoy...

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