Our thoughts and feelings about the things we have thoughts and feelings about.
I’ve been told that New Star Wars will finally wake up on December 18th. To be honest I actually had to ask Awesome Friday’s Matt when it comes out because I have Star Wars blindness. I’ve been muting commercials, and dead-eye scrolling through twitter feeds for months now.
I don’t like Star Wars. I’ve never liked Star Wars. And now that it has become inescapable, I downright loathe it.
But… Am I the only one? Continue reading “Star Wars: The Force-Feeding Continues”
In 1992, seven years after *Back To The Future* came out, I bought a guitar and a skateboard, and it was directly responsible for both. One of those lasted no more than a few weeks, gravity and gravel disrupting my dreams of hitching through Peterfield’s sleepy streets. The other, though, took hold quickly and has been a defining part of who I am ever since.
Marty McFly has *a lot* to answer for.
And praise be to the Suspend/Resume function.
Childbirth is a miracle. I’ve seen a tiny human being come out of another human being twice – the first emerging like a stone skimming over water, the second grumpily being pulled out after refusing to budge, both heralded by the battlecry of a woman adding a +1 to the world with thunderous determination – and it’s really something. And by really something I mean completely changing your view of yourself and the Universe, but it’s a more relatable summary.
Having kids reframes your world in the best, most exhausting ways possible, but one of the biggest hits comes to gaming time. The nightly hours playing TimeSplitters are a memory so ancient they might as well be from another dimension. Even finishing a game becomes a novelty, and up until recently there was no solution to the frequent sudden instances where the game has to go off now. Thankfully, Sony has solved this with a firmware addition that should be renamed Every Dad’s Best Friend – the glory and brilliance of PS4’s Sleep and Suspend mode.
It’s been a while since I made one of these lists! There have been two new Marvel films since [last time](https://awesomefriday.ca/2014/08/the-films-of-the-marvel-cinematic-universe-ranked-guardians-of-the-galaxy-edition/) so it’s time to see where they fit into the mix. I rewatched all the Marvel films in the lead up to _Avengers: Age of Ultron_ so the films are still pretty fresh in the mind.
While the movies here are ranked from worst to best, I’m also grouping them into three categories: The ok ones, the good ones, and the great ones. If you’re wondering why there’s no “bad” category it’s both because I still enjoy the “ok” ones and because I can still appreciate the bad ones for the development of characters, story, and themes that run through the entire MCU (even if they’re pretty thin at times). Also also, it’s an exercise in being less negative.
Anyway, let’s get on with this.
Continue reading “The Films of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Ranked, Ant-Man Edition”
There’s a new *Ghostbusters* movie incoming, one that fills the boots of the titular paranormal exterminators with female ankles and has *Bridesmaids* and *Spy* director Paul Feig using his comedy experience to bring it all together. None of this is a problem, of course – anyone who declares that a female-led *Ghostbusters* won’t work is an idiot – but there could be a tonal issue with the reboot’s approach. The first cast picture from set shows Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig, Kate McKinnon and Leslie Jones in uniform, lined up, looking *bored*.
And that could be a problem.
Pictured above is the look of The Joker as he’ll appear in _Suicide Squad_ and the rest of the DC Movie Universe. He’s played by Jared Leto, who I actually rather like, and he looks… different.
I always knew I would watch Remedy. I didn’t know I would love it.
With the epidemic of hyperbole filling every last gap of the internet it would be easy to blow off that statement. Content is being created on so many platforms I feel like every other day someone is telling me about the “best show ever”. Binge-watching has become an accepted term and celebrated practice. Emotions and descriptors have gone off the rails.
This isn’t that. Continue reading “Remedy. It’s the Family You Choose That Matters Most.”
How the franchise’s return has got its outlook completely wrong.
Continue reading “Crowdpleasing: The Problem With Guitar Hero’s New Perspective”
It’s just about time for the Oscars so here are a few predictions, just so they’re on record before the show starts.
It’s been a slow start to 2015 for all of us. That changes today. Here comes the 2015 Oscars or, as Matt so eloquently refers to it, rich people giving their friends golden statues. And we’ll be there every step of the way.
The main show starts at 5:30pm PT, and we’ll start wittering away from twenty minutes or so beforehand on the site liveblog. As you can image from [Matt’s reaction to the nominations](https://awesomefriday.ca/2015/01/the-2015-oscar-nominations-or-the-year-i-fall-out-of-love-with-the-oscars/), it’s likely to be a rather sarcastic affair that is sure to reference the absence of *The Lego Movie* roughly 2,428 times. Join us and join in!
Kat’s going to be giving her own spin on the event on [her Twitter](https://twitter.com/katarnett), and Matt and I will more than likely be posting to the [Awesome Friday Twitter](https://twitter.com/AwesomeFridayCa) too, so you have many options for your Oscars viewing pleasure.
See you soon!
Love is in the air everywhere you look around. You’ve got the best of my love. I just can’t get enough of your love, babe. I don’t care who you are, where you’re from, what you did, as long as you love me. I don’t care what they say I’m in love with you. All you need is love. Might as well face it you’re addicted to love. Come and get your love. Can you feel the love tonight?
You can’t?
Don’t worry, you’re not alone. And there’s nothing wrong with that even if all the giant displays of red hearts and fluffy things and greeting cards and hand holding couples all over the mall are trying to tell you otherwise. There’s a lot of love in the world that doesn’t fit into cardboard boxes or perfectly co-ordinate with an arbitrary date in February.
Contrary to the current array of movies playing on television (AMC is playing Titanic back-to-back for 18 hours straight. The boat sank in 3.) there are also a lot of love stories in film. If you’re looking for something to watch tonight but don’t feel like crying alone while watching the Notebook (the tired stereotype of single women on this day), let me recommend some alternatives.
Best of lists are hard. Choosing the films I liked best isn’t hard, but keeping it to a reasonable number and ranking them is. One thing that’s not so much hard as it is annoying: coming up with something to say other than "I loved this and you should watch it".
I saw a lot of films this year but there are plenty I missed. I didn’t see Birdman, Whiplash, or Mommy, all of which are on many other best-of lists for the year (and in the case of Whiplash I can guess it would have made mine) but I also did see Boyhood, Gone Girl, 22 Jump Street, and a host of others that didn’t make my list.
All in all, I saw over 75 movies released in 2014. Not a huge percentage when you think about it but certainly more than the average person.
So with all that in mind here are my favourite dozen movies from 2014.
2014! I had another baby and as such my Best Of The Year list is maybe not as exhaustive as Matt’s, but I could tell you anything you need to know about *Go, Diego, Go!*. And how 3am feels.
Here’s my best movies and games of the year.
Continue reading “Simon’s 2014: A Lego Surprise And Nintendo Fights Back”
There is an annoying tendency for over-explanation at the beginning of games.
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