RV Movie Review

We were all very sad to hear that Robin Williams had died earlier this week. I grew up in the 1970s and saw Mork & Mindy first hand and then later watched so many movies and comedy specials with Mr. Williams. He has always been a favorite for my wife as well, with his frantic energy and quick-talking banter. Therefore we were all on-board for re-watching one of our favorite Robin Williams' movies, RV, as a way of remembering the laughs he brought us over the years.

RV, is the typical family road-trip movie where the husband, wife and two kids are thrown together in a rolling house ostensibly to spend time together. In the background, of course, Robin Williams' character of Bob Munro is trying to keep his boss happy while keeping his family happy. As anyone who has ever tried to do both without cluing their wife and family into what they are going through, it never goes smoothly.

RV is not the best movie or even best performance Mr. Williams has ever been in/given. What sets it apart and keeps it as a favorite at our house is the family in-jokes, the struggles of sharing a confined space while traveling across the country and the unique people they meet on the trip. As a family that has driven cross the United States twice together, you get into a lot of interesting situations out there on the road. Imagine doing that in a huge rented vehicle that you have no idea how to truly operate. That should give you some insight into what you are going to run into with RV.

The characters around the Munros (Williams' family) are quirky and funny. The awkward interactions of the family with those around them will amuse. Plus there are some laugh out loud moments. My wife is sore today from laughing and this is at least the third time she's seen the movie. RV gets 4 Mick Happies in our household. It is one of the movies we have on DVD and periodically revisit and it is fun every time. Lucky for any fans of Robin Williams we will have a few more films coming out to enjoy.

Dystopian Future Movie Reviews

Lately, when not reading Honor Harrington books by David Weber (just finishing number 3), I have been catching up on dystopian future or apocalypse films. I find that I am morbidly interested in people's views on how the world will be after some cataclysm or other. Probably because I think one will come some day though it is more likely going to be socio-economic rather than environmental in nature. That leads us to today's quick reviews.

Goodbye World - this is one of a number of apocalyptic near-future movies that have come out in the last year or so (and most of them are starting to be available on-demand through Netflix). In Goodbye World, we are given a glimpse of a family living off the grid in Northern California and their "friends" who converge on their home when disaster strikes. The movie stars Adrian Grenier (Entourage), Gaby Hoffman and Ben McKenzie. The basic premise is a virus takes down the power grid and cell phone network, etc. and riots ensue and society breaks down. Meanwhile we get to witness the narcissistic friends who have come to James' (Grenier) home. There are also neighbors to deal with and things generally getting worse. What really was annoying about the movie was the sense of entitlement by some characters that those who stockpiled supplies/medicines should just give them up with no say. When did personal ownership go out the window? When was your lack of planning my problem? I was also annoyed by the opportunistic price gouging and taking advantage of those weaker than you. It was probably so irksome because I can imagine that all of these things will be exactly how many people will act with the crap really hits the fan. A sometimes slow, frustrating thought experiment of what people would be like during an apocalypse - Goodbye World gets 2.5 Mick Happies.

Divergent - This is the first film based on the Divergent Series by Veronica Roth. Divergent is the latest in a group of dystopian future young adult series like Hunger Games that have taken over the post-Harry Potter reading world. In this case, we have future Chicago surviving behind a wall and everyone distributed into 5 factions based on their defining character traits: intelligence, selfless, brave, honest and peaceful. The main character, Beatrice (Tris - played by Shailene Woodley), was born into the selfless faction but at 16 chooses to join the brave team. Thing is that she actually is divergent, having 3 key character traits. This makes her a threat to the status quo in the society where faction boundaries are important to keeping people in line and things running smoothly. Of course there is a broader story going on in the background. Joining the brave group, Tris is put through training, which is often brutal both physically and mentally. What caught my eye in the movie and is probably based on the young adult nature of the source material is that most people focused on in the movie are under 25. Yes there are parents and some older people but most of the leaders are not shown and the story focuses on those in the 16 - 20 age range. Why do future societies put so many of their children into danger (a la Hunger Games) and when did 16 become an age where readers/viewers are so angst ridden that they would choose to leave everything they know to join another group? Is that a thing and I have just missed it? With all the things I know the story is trying to pull off, Divergent isn't bad at all. I thought the casting was a little odd (I don't buy Shailene, who is a fine actress, as a bad-ass) but okay. The movie and setting are compelling if far-fetched (I can't imagine a society being setup like this) and so I give Divergent 3 Mick Happies. It is okay but not as visually compelling as the Hunger Games films (which I have issues with many due to the violence to and by children).

So there you have it. The two dystopian films I have seen recently. I hope that the world won't devolve into jerks and society broken down based on single characteristics. I would like to think we would do better than that, but I think I know we won't really. Seeing these types of movies always kicks off thoughts of moving to a spread in Idaho or Wyoming and living off the land. Not sure if the family would buy into that, but on days when my internet service is giving me fits or I am sitting in traffic for 40 minutes to go 5 miles and I hear about another company laying off 5,000 people while their stock price shoots up on the "news" - I wonder if I might not be better off out there milking a cow.

Guardians of the Galaxy Movie Review

Ever since the Guardians of the Galaxy movie was announced, I have been interested in finding out more about it. I had never heard of the Marvel comics that the movie is based on, but a story about a ragtag bunch of ne'er-do-wells helping save the universe sounded pretty good to me. Fast forward to the trailers coming out with "Hooked on a Feeling" blaring in the background and I knew I wanted to see it as soon as I could. Each subsequent trailer has increased my interest. Yes, I know you can be burned by good trailers being made from bad movies, but luckily Marvel has a built up a bit of credibility via their string of solo superhero and Avengers movies.

I can rip the band-aid off right now, Guardians of the Galaxy, co-written and directed by James Gunn, is as good as the trailers led me to believe. It is a lot of fun, visually stunning and has a little bit of a plot thrown into the mix. All good things. The start of the story is Peter Quill, aka Star-Lord, (played by Chris Pratt) a human abducted from Earth in 1988 is seen in the future recovering an artifact from ruins on a desolate planet. From there we have lots of people trying to get hold of the artifact. Along the way, Peter gets involved with a colorful cast of characters including a sentient plant, Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel), an angry bio-engineered raccoon, Rocket (Bradley Cooper), a muscle-bound inmate, Drax the Destroyer (Dave Bautista), and an assassin, Gamora (Zoe Saldana). Action, mayhem, destruction and fun ensues. To say anymore would ruin the experience of watching the movie for yourself.

Rocket and Groot

What Guardians does well is mixing completely out of place in space 1980s pop-culture references, 1970s music and more than a bit of humor in with action and spaceship battles. The special effects are top notch and the story is more than serviceable at introducing the various characters without being slow and boring. Each of the main characters are distinct visually and emotionally that you can easily keep up even if you have no background in the Guardians of the Galaxy universe from the comic books. Plus you get a number of stunning locations in the film, oh and some space ships and space battles too. Having just re-watched 1984's The Last Starfighter last night before seeing Guardians of the Galaxy it is amazing how far film-making and special effects have come.

I am glad that the movie is doing so well at the box office so that we will get to see more Guardians in the future. Unlike other comic book inspired movies, this feels more space opera and fun than the current run of gritty violent films we typically get. If you like science fiction movies, or generally like action-comedies then jump on over to the theatre and watch this one, you'll be happy you did. Or be like my family and wait for the DVD (which is fine with me 'cause I will get to see it again). Guardians of the Galaxy gets 5 Mick Happies. In my mind Rocket is basically what I think my chihuahua would be like if he had been engineered to talk and hold weapons…lots of fun. As always, stay until the very end of the credits to get a little extra snippet.

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie

Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie  has received several awards and great acclaim since its release in October 2013. Having won the Nebula Award, Arthur C. Clarke Award and tied for the BSFA award, the Sword & Laser Podcast were pretty glowing in their praise of the novel when I first heard of it from on their show. It was then a pleasant surprise that iTunes was offering the book for $1.99 and made it really easy to pick up a copy and I am glad I did.

Ancillary Justice is the first book in the Imperial Radch trilogy. The book opens with the main character Breq coming across a body in the snow on some planet on the fringe of the galaxy. It turns out Breq knows the person (who turns out only to be injured) and decides to help Seivarden even though it may compromise Breq's mission. From there we are taken on a journey that jumps from Breq's present to the past where we are given insight into the Radch empire by following the story of Lieutenant  Awn and her troops during the annexation (occupation) of a planet 19 years ago.

Through the story in the past we learn of the ship Justice of Toren and the empire's use of ancillaries as part of their military. Ancillaries being the humans from conquered planets that have been put into cryogenic storage until thawed and connected to the ship's AI when they become a "segment" of the ship's ancillary groups with no part of their original personality remaining. The whole practice is both intriguing and repulsive at the same time given that these people, rather than being killed during an occupation by the empire are instead essentially killed and used as host bodies for the ship's AI.

What Ann Leckie does well in this story is give us the viewpoint of the ancillaries and help the reader have some understanding of what it might be like to think and be 20 people at once (or more). Through this viewpoint, Ann Leckie also raises questions of what it means to have free will and what makes a person unique. Overall, Ancillary Justice is a political thriller and quest novel rolled into one with a unique setting and great world building. Luckily there are two more books coming since we only get to scratch the surface of the setting.

One aspect of the book that will be a little jarring is the lack of gender specificity in the characters. The empire doesn't distinguish between men and women and thus the reader can be left guessing the gender of the characters we meet. The interesting thing is that ultimately it doesn't matter to the story. Well done. Ancillary Justice is good science fiction space opera-y stuff and gets 4 Mick Happies. Probably the best compliment I can give it is that it has made me focus my reading on Sci-Fi books as I don't want to leave the vastness of space that was introduced in the story (so now I am reading more Honor Harrington books by David Weber to pass the time until Ancillary Sword is released in October).

Transformers: Age of Extinction

Last weekend the whole family went to see Transformers: Age of Extinction. This is a big deal since I can't pay the wife or kid to go to an actual theatre and I really don't blame them. We went to the luxury theatre nearby and paid $21.50 a person then a boatload more for popcorn and Icees. Then there is the uncomfortable seats (compared to home) and the inability to pause the film when you have to go, etc., etc., etc. We thought it would be worth it to see some Transformers action as we have enjoyed (most) of the previous films and I am of an age where I remember watching Optimus Prime and crew growing up.

Transformers: Age of Extinction (T:AoE) is the latest installment in Michael Bay's big screen franchise based on the classic cartoon, Transformers. I won't bother explaining the backstory since most people who are reading this have likely already seen or heard of the previous movies. T:AoE picks up 5 years after Transformers: Dark of the Moon and finds all Transformers on the run and in hiding. They are being hunted down by a covert operations team run by the CIA with the goal of ending alien activity (and protecting the country/world). Needless to say they aren't discriminate between Autobots and Decepticons and many of the robot characters from the previous films are dead. The CIA team is also working with others for specific goals that are directly related to the plot (so I won't spoil them).

Okay, so this isn't a great film. It is long, repetitive and tries to pack too much into one story. T:AoE runs about 2 hours and 45 minutes (more if you count the 20 minutes of commercials and trailers we had to sit through). There are several points in the movie where they could have stopped and it would have been a tight, compact story. Instead you get a bloated action fest that leaves you tired, physically tired, when it is done. At times it seems that fight scenes were just going on to provide an opportunity to throw more visual effects at you.

On the plus side, there are Transformers and we get to meet some new ones who are interesting - like Hound (voiced by John Goodman). There are also some nice comedic moments in the film that are laugh out loud and meant to be. Stanley Tucci is pretty good in his role and Mark Wahlberg was better than Shia LeBeouf is the last film or two in the franchise. Though I do miss MoJo.

Oh yeah, Dinobots.

I think my major problem with the Transformers films is that they all end up being about saving the world or stopping some major bad event from occurring. If I could do one thing with the franchise - assuming we want more Transformers - I would reboot the whole thing. I would keep most of the first film but rather than having the aliens come for the Allspark, the Decepticons would come to take over Earth because their planet was used up or have them come because the Autobots are here hiding. Then have the whole movie just be about the fight between the Autobots and Decepticons with humans trying to help the Autobots. Would be a much more interesting than wasting time with all the chasing around for an Allspark or a Matrix of Leadership or Seed or whatever.

Anyway, Transformers: Age of Extinction gets 2 MickHappies. Too long, repetitive plot, too much trying to shove new shiny things in and not enough clever. Watch at your risk. Or watch if you just really like watching robots fighting robots.

Hollow World Review

A year ago or so I read The Riyria Revelations by Michael J. Sullivan and enjoyed them quite a bit. Recently I had a chance to pick up a copy of his latest novel, Hollow World, as an e-book on Amazon for next to nothing, so I jumped at the chance. Hollow World, for those who didn't hear about it before via its successful Kickstarter campaign or other means, is a recent past/far-future time travel tale - think H.G. Wells' The Time Machine but without quite so bleak a future.

In Hollow World we are introduced to Ellis Rogers, a married man who is going to die and has little to hold him to his current life. Lucky for him, he has built a time machine and if he is willing to roll the dice, he may be able to find a cure in the future to save himself. we are given a very interesting view of the future indeed. That's as far as I will go into the plot as this story holds suspense and mystery and asks a number of social questions and I don't want to ruin it for you.

Anyone who has been reading my recent posts knows I like time travel or stories when people from our world go to a new one. This fish-out-of-water scenario is always interesting when it involves the future and we get to see the author's speculation of what the future might hold for mankind. Mr. Sullivan's take on the future in Hollow World is interesting and thought-provoking and will force the reader to question what the purpose of life is and how do sexuality and religion play a part in it. Luckily it doesn't beat those topics over your head, after all there is still an interesting story going on in there as well.

One thing I did find with Hollow World is that a few of the big reveals were possibly too heavily foreshadowed meaning they didn't have quite the impact that they could have. On the other hand, it was nice to actually guess a few events in the story rather than just go along for the ride. Either way, it doesn't detract from Hollow World being a good book and rating 4 Mick Happies for me. I recommend you give it a shot and if you buy it in print form you can get a free e-book copy from the author. Additionally, the e-book comes with two versions of the book, the explicit language one and the clean version. See you in the future.

Enigma Express Game Review

Hidden object and free-to-play games are not usually high on my list of interesting. However, hidden object games are something that my wife seems to enjoy so when I saw that Relentless Software released Enigma Express for iOS devices and it was free, I decided to give it a test drive. Enigma Express is set in the same world as Relentless Software's other mystery puzzle game, Murder Files. You are a junior detective trying to help Hannah Dakota of the Blue Toad Agency figure out why mysterious objects have been stolen from the bank deposit box of a notorious criminal.

The game is played out by finding hidden objects at various locations. Press on the object hidden on the screen to earn points. The higher points total you have when time runs out, the better. Points help unlock clues that are then used to unlock the next location in the game. A total of 5 clues can be earned at each location - earning additional clues also gives you more time to find objects the next time you play through that location. Some locations have you searching for up to 4 objects at once, adding a new object to find for each one you have already found. Other locations have different variations where you are looking for a single object at time and have to find it before being given another object. There is also a hint system that is on a timer, so you won't be able to use it more than once or twice a try. In the background you have the cut scene (somewhat) interactive story bits that tell you the underlying story of Enigma Express. 

Those are the nuts and bolts of the game, but then you run into the free-to-play elements. Each time you go to a location, you use 20 energy to begin the object search mini-game. Energy is replenished over time with 1 energy coming back every few minutes. If you need a quicker influx of energy, you can always buy some with coins. You earn coins periodically through the game or can buy them with actual $$. When you use clues to unlock a new location, there is a timer while train tracks are being laid to get you there (typically a few minutes) or if you don't want to wait, you can use coins to finish the track instantly. 

What works well with this game is the quirky story, art and voice acting. There is a lot of polish to this game and finding the objects within the 1 - 2 minutes you get for a level can be a challenge at times. This certainly could have been a premium game on the App Store and no one would have blinked an eye. They also have allowed the ability to login into Facebook and have leaderboards with your Facebook friends. 

Where things breakdown for me is in the Facebook integration, loading issues and free-to-play elements. I would much rather have paid a few dollars to have the game without the timers than to be kept from playing the game every 10 minutes or so when I run out of energy. I also don't like that I am asked to connect to Facebook after I finish any hidden-object mini game try - I don't have a Facebook account and don't need to see that pop-up every couple of minutes. It would be nice if there was an option to turn off all of those pop-ups. It would also be nice to be able to pay to remove the timers and coins so that the game can just be played and the story enjoyed. Probably the hardest thing to get over is how long it takes for the game to load up when you first open the app. Sometimes it seems to hang and you have to clear it from memory and re-open the app to get to play. This may just be due to the capabilities of my gen 1 iPad mini being on the weak side for the game, but it is compatible back to iOS 4.3, so there may be a lot of older devices trying to run it. 

You may see this for a while.

I think all the elements for a fun little game are here, but the timers and pop-ups and loading times are killing it for me. Hopefully some of these items will be addressed in updates down the road. For all the quirky polish that goes into the Murder Files games, I would like to see them succeed. I give Enigma Express 3 Mick Happies as a free-to-play hidden object game, just know what your in for before spending too much time with it. Now I need to go spend some time with all of the other games I just bought during the Steam Summer Sale.