Pac-Man is Adventure Kid. Pong is, for reasons that are obvious but unexplainable, Sad Dad (and so is Arkanoid, by extension). Civilization is Adventure Kid despite being a staple of sad dads. The Sims is Sad Dad.
It is just fascinating, in a franchise of this stature, to see scenes where Bond jumps through a window, moving right, and in the next scene he is rolling left, or where two combatants switch sides of the screen without switching physical positions. This is Intro to Film Studies stuff, people.
Daniel Craig and Gemma Arterton in "Quantum of Solace" (2008).
Film #82 for 2026 is Quantum of Solace (2008), a rewatch. When it's character-focused, it's pretty watchable, but when the shooting starts it all goes to shit. Marc Forster is stunningly incompetent at directing stuntwork, constantly jumping the line of action for no clear reason. Bafflingly bad.
Nina Hoss as Eileen Lovborg in "Hedda" (2025).
Film #81 for 2026 is Hedda (2025). Nia DaCosta's queer reinvention of Hedda Gabler is woozy and claustrophobic. Tessa Thompson, venomously thirsty, swings through scenes like a wrecking ball, destroying happiness in every arc, with Nina Hoss as a talented foil / enabler. It was good.
The "recent activity" section of a Letterboxd profile, showing four films: "Find Me Guilty" (4.5 stars, liked); "The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel" (1.5 stars); "Good Boy" (3 stars); and "Sullivan's Travels" (3 stars).
#lastfourwatched #letterboxdfriday #letterboxd #filmsky #films #movies
(It's Saturday here in Australia, but whatever.)
Alfred (not dead): "I see you finished the chicken sandwich, sir."
Batman (distracted): "Did I? Oh yes."
Alfred (pointedly): "The Wendy's spicy chicken sandwich, sir. With what I consider to be a rather bold marinade."
Batman (already moving on): "Alfred, is the Batmobile fuelled and ready?"
QTP with a video game that transports you back to your childhood.
Vin Diesel and Peter Dinklage in "Find Me Guilty" (2006).
Film #80 for 2026 is Find Me Guilty (2006), Sidney Lumet's criminally-overlooked courtroom dramedy based on a true story, with Vin Diesel delivering a career-best performance as a gangster who self-represents against racketeering charges in America's longest court case. Highly recommended.
Maggie Smith and Dev Patel in The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015).
Film #79 for 2026 is The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel (2015). I couldn't finish it. It's dire. Everyone gets their relatively happy endings from the original ruined in favour of depressing plotlines about jealousy and miscommunication and generous helpings of tedious cringe comedy.
"From Michael Bay, the producer of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre" is certainly a string of words that a person could choose to put on a poster.
Doing my part to resist fascism by trying to pretend I have ever remotely enjoyed Bruce Springsteen's music.
Just now learning that the Gyllenhaals (including Jake, Maggie and Stephen) are Swedish nobility and they have a coat of arms.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyllenh...
Absolutely fuck everyone involved. Consuming his music? Sure, they're bangers, and he's dead, he's not going to use the money to molest more kids. Glorifying the man himself? Get in the bin.
Financial precariousness is strongly inflated (for me) by a perception that the surrounding environment generally is moving in wrong directions, re: fascism, puritanism, oppression of minorities that include basically everyone I know, war.
I could be literally regulated out of business at any time.
Indy the Dog in "Good Boy" (2025), the only one of at least three 2025 films with that name to be chiefly about an actual dog.
Film #78 for 2026 is Good Boy (2025) - the one with an actual dog, not the other ones. A ghost story from the point of view of the dog is a good gimmick, and it's entertaining enough, but it never rises above the gimmick. And is it unfair to say that I never really bought Indy the Dog's acting?
A black-and-white reprint of Defenders #94 to #99 - the Six-Fingered Hand Saga - without any context leading up to it, and without the conclusion. It was the most awesome thing ever.
I'm loving the growth of Australian horror cinema. I want us to get to the point where you can set a thing in Victoria and people are like, "Oh, it's horror then", in the same way as if you set it in New England.
Obviously Eye of the Beholder does not have the *most* gorgeous art, but if you make a game that looks sufficiently like the EOB interface, my fingers will immediately start reaching for my credit card.
Did one of these things, although it's a nonsense to look through the 1100+ games I've played and pick "bests". Mostly just "first that came to mind".
Drop some BATHTUBS 🛁🖤🛀
I've always loved the What Lies Beneath poster because a combination of factors make you think you know roughly what you're looking at and what it implies, and then when it actually happens in the film it flips the script.
Image from the game Gilt with a "review" quote that reads: "Gilt is look so darn cool, y'all. - Dave Gilbert", and an award-style wreath that reads "COOL SO LOOK - OFFICIAL OPINION".
I really enjoyed the Manhattan history in Old Skies!
The early third-party "official" D&D material - like Hoard of the Dragon Queen - wasn't playtested and was riddled with obvious errors. On the other hand, the current first-party D&D material isn't playtested and is riddled with obvious errors.
The movie doesn't really start until Lake appears, and once she does she steals every scene that she's in. It's worth watching just for her.
But, aged 19 and concealing a six-month-pregnancy, Lake is visibly still just a kid, and McCrea is old enough to be her father. More than a little creepy.
Veronica Lake and Joel McCrea in "Sullivan's Travels" (1941).
Film #77 for 2026 is Sullivan's Travels (1941), in which a director plays prince-and-the-pauper to learn how the other half live. When it indulges in rapid-fire comedic dialogue, it shines; when it devolves into broad slapstick it immediately outstays its welcome. But the real gem is Veronica Lake.
So Battlestar Galactica but with Vulcans? (And possibly also with a "without compromising Starfleet principles" limitation that BSG never worried too much about.)
It was a pretty solid fighting game that could have been fun if it were decoupled from its absolutely soul-destroying monetisation model and just sold for e.g. a one time purchase plus some DLC packs.
Charlie Chaplin prepares to a bop an unsuspecting cabaret customer with an oversized mallet in "Caught in a Cabaret" (1914).
Film #76 for 2026 is Caught in a Cabaret (1914). Mabel Normand writes and directs an early Charlie Chaplin outing. Chaplin is in fine form, and some of the jokes are great ("Baron Doobugle, Prime Minister of Greenland", and the oversized mallet) but at other times it struggles to keep momentum.
FWIW if any of my 250-whatever followers are in the very specific position of being able to cast voice actors for games, I would like to hear Sally Beaumont in more videogames, please and thankyou.
This is almost literally the *difference* between law and software. Misplacing a comma will very rarely have those consequences, because the law isn't read like machine code, it's read with a human eye towards the obvious and ordinary meaning.