We are entering week 2 of some of the coldest temps I have ever experienced down here in the deep south of Canada. How cold? We hit -10 F last weekend. It hasn't improved very much, and will remain cold into early February at the least. We were supposed to dodge the major storm that hit the US and Toronto really hard. When the forecast got updated we were in the 1" to 3" of new snow. When it got updated again we were in the 3" to 6" category. We ended up getting about 4" of snow on Sunday, and I spent Monday taking the shoveling in small stages. It is so cold out that even being outside for a short time fully dressed for weather is unpleasant. At least the shoveling keeps the body heat coming. I burned some serious calories today!
Charles Herold is a man who used to write PC game reviews for the New York Times. Before he landed that job he and I had met on-line somewhere to discuss and argue about games. Though we agreed on many game-related topics, we also disagreed on several fronts. I remember really liking the PC game RAMA, for example, while he found it a waste of time. Anyway, I found him on FB and we have reconnected, already having some decent discussions about games. He really did not like Syberia, and though I wasn't crazy about the 2nd and 3rd games in that series, the newest one is terrific. I also really liked the first one. Latest topics are adventure game frustrations, which are legion in many games. Good to hear from you again, Charles!
We are replaying MYST III at the moment, and I've been going through my vast adventure game collection. I have an enormous CD/DVD collection of games, as well as a whole slew stored on Steam and more on Humble Bundle. Though we have continued to play PC games over the years, my interest seems to be peaking once again. It seems to be the golden age of PC adventure games, with some absolutely stunning video games coming out recently.
In TV and movie news we are now watching Season 2 of Foundation. It seems to be stuck in a rut, and is tending towards Star Wars and Star Trek more and more often. We shall see. It doesn't seem to bear a lot of resemblance to anything Asimov wrote.
A Traveler's Needs is a 2024 film from South Korea directed by Hong Sang-Soo and starring Isabel Huppert. Much of the film is painfully bad cinema, as a woman from France with apparently no reason to be in Korea is taken in by a sympathetic student to share his small flat. She has two women who wish to learn French and she sets out to teach them. With no idea how to teach, or any pedagogical basis for what she is doing, she hungrily takes their cash and gives them ridiculously bad lessons. When the young man's mother visits him and discovers he is sheltering a strange older woman from France, she freaks out. This is probably the best part of the film, the confrontation between her and her son. The film drags on with a second student, as the woman and her husband extend warm hospitality to her and show her some sights around Seoul. A movie to avoid.
Next came two shlocky feautures from our DVD collection. Welcome To Blood City is a 1977 SF/Western film, a collaboration between Canada and the UK. It stars Jack Palance in one of his standard heavy breathing bad guy roles, Keir Dullea, Samantha Eggar and Barry Morse. A psychological experiment is taking place, and Dullea has been inserted into a deadly role to see if he can stand the heat and solve problems on his feet. A futuristic man is needed to help get the world out of trouble, and the search for such a leader is on-going. Mostly the film is a western, filmed in Ontario near Kleinburg. There are lots of men hanging around with nothing to do. The saloon is always packed. There is plenty of killing, lots of saloon girls, slaves who aren't citizens yet, and any number of bullies just asking for it. Eggar plays a female scientist who inserts herself into the scenario to influence the outcome. Tiresome and often jaw-dropping in its badness, this one must have gone straight to the video shelves on stores.
Future Hunters (1988) was another direct to video release. The spear that pierced Jesus is sought by many people, including a scientist. One of his female students and her boyfriend get caught up in a frenzy of travel and action. Though filmed mostly in the Philipines, setting include the US, Hong Kong (some location shots were taken here) and Manila and surrounding jungle. There are so many many "Huh?" moments in this film, including a sudden transition during a car chase from night to broad daylight. The heroine, a slender California blonde, manages to run through the jungle in high heels, fight and defeat a much stronger Amazon warrior, and most impressive of all she manages to mostly keep her sole white dress on through much of the film. It is a bit tattered by the end. There are some good scenes in Hong Kong with Bruce Li kicking some kung fu butt, but overall this is an empty imitation of Mad Max at the beginning, and Indiana Jones throughout. Why does the evil bad guy always laugh at everything? The film is from our 50 DVD collection called Sci-fi Invasion.
Mapman Mike
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