Lately I have been a little short of ideas for things to post about. Part of it is because I have been reading something I can't talk about. It is really good, but since I am an alpha reader and can be killed if I saying anything - I have probably said too much. What it does mean is that books are out as I haven't any to discuss.
I have also found that I don't have much patience for movies or TV that just doesn't catch my interest very quickly. Recently I have turned off (without finishing) Cavemen starring Skylar Astin (Pitch Perfect) and Saving Mr. Banks. In the case of Cavemen it was because the story was just so predictable and there wasn't much that I found funny over all. Which is pretty sad since I typically will like a romantic comedy - yep I am sappy like that. As for Saving Mr. Banks, I remember Mary Poppins from the one time I read it and if I liked it more I would probably have pushed through. Unfortunately, they made Mrs. Travers (I don't want to be chastised for calling her P.L.) really annoying. There you have it, two movies I can't review because I didn't watch them.
So what can I review? How about some video games?
If you act quickly and have an Xbox Gold membership on your Xbox 360, you can still download Deadlight for free until April 30. Deadlight is a puzzle, action, platformer based in Seattle after some disaster has hit. Most of humanity has been turned into Shadows (Zombies) out to kill all the living. You are Wayne and trying to get back to your friends and family. The game has a lot in common with Shadow Complex (a great platformer on the 360). You will die a lot and there are some times when you have to hit the controls just right, but you do get a number of interesting puzzles along the way. Plus it is free right now (for 3 more days). Deadlight gets 4 Mick Happies.
I have also been playing a lot of Blizzard's Hearthstone on my first gen iPad mini. It runs great and the touch controls seem like they were how the game was intended to be played. I have found a couple times where my hand was in the way of the pop up details on a card (you press and hold on a minion to have the card details appear), but that may just be because I am too lazy to use my left hand to tap the minions. Hearthstone is free for iPad and is still 5 Mick Happies.
I also recently took a flight and was lucky enough that for the 5 hour Delta flight they had video screens in the back of every seat. This may have been a happy repayment for the delays I had on my last flights with Delta. Anyway, I was able to watch two movies on the flight, both of which I had seen before. I watch About a Boy starring Hugh Grant and Nicholas Hoult. I remembered liking the movie but honestly had forgotten the depression and attempted suicide that were part of the story. It was interesting to see the movie again since I have been watching the US TV adaptation "About a Boy" starring David Walton (Dr. Rick from Fired Up!). Both the movie and the TV show are based on the book of the same name by Nick Hornby. Anyway in the US TV show, the characters all have the same names and generally the same personalities but the Marcus' (the kid) mom, Fiona (played by Minnie Driver), is less depressed. I think I like the TV show better than I liked the movie this time around. About a Boy the movie gets 3 Mick Happies. About a Boy the TV show gets 3.5 Mick Happies.
The other movie I watched on the flight was Wimbledon. It is a romantic-comedy set in the world of tennis during the Wimbledon tournament. Where a nearly over-the-hill British journeyman tennis player (played by Paul Bettany) becomes entangled with a young American tennis star (Kirsten Dunst) while playing in his last tournament before retirement. It is the usual sappy fare for a rom-com, but the supporting characters are interesting and help elevate the movie about average. The brother who bets against Bettany during the tournament and the parents who are having their own issues are all great sub-plots. The parts in Bettany's head where he is hoping not to screw up when it is all on the line in his matches are also good. Plus there is a younger Nicolaj Coster-Waldau (Jaime Lannister from Game of Thrones) as Bettany's sparring partner. Wimbledon hits all the right beats as a rom-com and gets 4 Mick Happies.
That is pretty much everything I have seen or played in the last two weeks. The last thing I leave you with is this life achievement for my wife. See we have moved about 10 times over the course of our relationship and she is a fantastic organizer. Everything goes way more smoothly with her leading the charge than if I planned our moves. Since we are due out of the apartment we rent by the end of May, the packing has begun. Good thing she is fantastic at it - seriously should go professional.
And since we are packing, my wife found an Xbox game she had given me as a gift years ago but I had never opened. So today I cracked open Bladestorm: The Hundred Years' War (2007) and gave it a go. It is an action war game where you control small squads of units (swordsmen, horsemen or archers) to fight as mercenaries for the English or French in battlegrounds of the Hundred Years' War. The controls are a bit dodgy and I wasn't sure exactly how I was doing in my first mission. But after 30 minutes I had completed the mission and had 3 achievements for 150 gamerscore. Not sure how that happened…Bladestorm gets 2 Mick Happies. Maybe you'll see my copy at the local Goodwill store soon.
