First impressions: Hatoful Boyfriend

I expected a branching, stereotypical romance story with some humour inserted, but there's actually a lot more to Hatoful Boyfriend than it seems at first. I really enjoyed the murder mystery and the hints to a larger meta-plot you slowly gather by playing the different romances. The fantasy sub-plot I ended up on by accident was also quite unique. It seems you can beat "the evil tree" by being stupid but fit..

Also, the Doctor romance really demands that you ignore all the signs and keep going down a path you know will end badly, and fully recognizes it. I was so happy to be told I was an idiot for following that path.
(And I ended up doing both the teacher romance plots first, even though I don't normally like student/teacher romance stories, heh)


Addendum 8.9.2015 - Having finished this game this first impression is really doing a disservice to the full game. I really should write a proper review of Hatoful Boyfriend and its BL story.

Bit-size impressions: Cat. 8

The "category" series (it's not a series at all, just 3 disaster mini-series all based around "category" disaster warnings) have gotten progressively higher budget, better actors and more unrealistic. Cat. 8 was a straight up spaghetti sci-fi, with a villainy defense Secretary and one of the smartest presidents I've seen (after they killed the president in a really stupid accident and upgraded the vice-president).


I preferred Category 6. Its bad acting and insane dialogue was at least funny. This one just annoyed me with its "science".

(and yes, I do on purpose watch all the (bad) sci-fi and disaster b-movies on Netflix, so I do know what I'm getting myself into)

This is why I don't do poetry

On the last episode of Top Chef they had to make dishes based on famous New-England writers. One contestant chose Poe - the Raven and described it as a sad and mournful love story about a man who’d lost his beloved, and I seriously went “the Raven is a love story? Since when? I’ve got to reread the Raven”. 

I see the mentions of Lenore when rereading it, but it’s not what I would have focused on in an analysis. 
For me the Raven has always been about a lonely, old man’s decent into depression and paranoia/madness, being haunted by the very thing providing him a semblance of the companionship he seeks. 
The Raven both driving him further into paranoia and madness, while at the same time jolting him out of it by providing a constant presence, and taunting him with the idea that he’ll never have companionship again. (while the Raven in itself is a sign that he’s lost his grasp of reality) 

After all, Lenore is gone, it’s a love lost, it’s more a tragedy than a love story, and I’ve always thought the loneliness he’s experiencing is the focus, not the lost love in itself. 
Also, I seem to be reading the poem a bit more severely than other people. 

It’s just realizing again that I’ve been missing a huge, obvious part of the poem, which is part of the “standard” analysis of it, and would’ve caused me to score badly if I ever were to write about it on a test. 
Bah.

The Elf who didn't Believe

Wow, "the elf who didn't believe".. Shoe string budget, director, writer and most actors from soft core films and the most annoying score I've ever heard. 
There was a semblance of a good story in there, but it wasn't developed, and the actors that did a good job seemed to just be acting in their own little world. 

Still amusing enough because of the over the top evil "Mr. Slick" and the incredibly sarcastic butler "Whitlock". 
Also, the slapstick elements at the end were surprisingly good.

Bit-size impressions: Make Mine Music

Rewatching for the nth time for Johnnie Fedora and Alice Bluebonnet with the Andrew Sisters and The Whale who wanted to sing at the Met with the amazing Nelson Eddy. 
I'll never get tired of these gems.

Bit-size impressions: Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2

No likey. Stupid food puns. No plot. :(

Bit-size impressions: The Hunters

Some glimts of good acting in this B youth movie. Keenan Tracey does a great job! 

Sort of a teenage Warehouse 13/Spy kids movie.

Care Bears: Oopsy Does it!

I expected a very simple, 2-dimensional story and characters for little children, and it was, but with one of the best realized villains I've seen in a long time (in animation). Yes, he was cliché, but he did it so well! 

Didn't expect anything from the movie, so an awesome villain was way better than I thought, and was what made me keep watching.

Bit-size impressions: A Monster in Paris

The script is very easy, and the object design is really poor, but the songs are great and the world design is amazing. It's worth watching just for the overview designs. 

I just wish I could see it with the original voices, the dubbing ruins so many of the characters.

Bit-size impressions: Space Chimps

Argh, bad animation, stereotypical characters, horrible, horrible script. 
Might end up making my 'worst animation movies' list unless this story picks up.

(In a rather damning indictment, I can't remember if it did)

Bit-size impressions: Flood

David Suchet, sneaky, murderous waves, intricate family connections and really stupid Americans (horrible accent!)
Aah, British version of these catastrophy B mini-series.

The Mutant Chronicles - Why? Just... why.

Argh, this movie had such potential! The animation and digital effects/backgrounds are great (For their budget), the main actors are all capable, and still it ended up as this horrible train wreck. 
And poor Perlman's talent was wasted up until the last 10 mins, where his mask play was the best thing in the whole movie! 

The plot, the effects, over the top violence and the script all seemed to lend itself to an over the top, spark-in-the-eye sort of film, but instead we got a very serious, trying to be epic, slow-shot, philosophical discussions mixed with splatter action scenes type film. 

It's not even a good, funny train wreck, it's just sad, because you keep seeing what it could have been.  

Bah!

Bit-size impressions: Hellboy II: The Golden Army

Del Toro always has some plot issues, but his art direction and creature designs are second to none.
And I love Perlman's Hellboy and Jones' Abe.

Bit-size impressions: Cat. 7: The End of the World

Well, this went from a catastrophy movie grounded in science with too many characters and weak script (cat 6) to a pure sci-fi mess with Horror shooting. 
Stop with the fancy editing!

Bit-size impressions: Inkheart

This genre is one of my guilty pleasures. I will always watch children's fantasy movies. 
It has some balancing issues, and Brendan Fraser is weak, but the overall story is good.