Film of the
Week
Absolutely Anything
Another comedy gem from the minds of Gavin Scott and Terry Jones
and staring the incredibly talented Simon Pegg. This film focuses on four aliens
(voiced by the Monty Python team) who, as an experiment, gives an ordinary
human, Neil, the power to absolutely anything he wants to see if the human race
is up to the aliens standards. If they are, then they will be accepted as their
friend, but if they aren’t, then they are obliterated. Even though you want
Neil to prove that he is capable of using the powers of good, you know that the
aliens are going to obliterate the planet anyway, even if he does, and when
brought up on how many planets they have experimented on and didn’t see fit to
be their friends, they said they have ‘high standards’. At first, Neil didn’t
know that he had absolute power, and a few accidents happen, but the moment he
realises that he can do anything he wants, hilarity ensues. He is able to impress
the woman next door, Catherine (Kate Beckinsale), make the headmaster of the
school he works at be nice to him, make the worst class in the school behave
properly, and even make his dog, Dennis (Robin Williams) talk. As the film goes
on, we learn about how Catherine is being stalked by someone who is completely
obsessed with believing that they are destined to be together, but even though
Neil saves the day, he is forced to re-think the usefulness of his powers. In the
end, Dennis the Dog, being a rational thinking creature, puts together a fool
proof plan and puts an end to all the mayhem.
I didn’t just pick this film because I like it, I picked this film
because of two factors that comes with it. It’s the last time the entire Monty
Python team will appear in a film together – the last was The Meaning of Life
(1983) – and, unfortunately, the last film of the late, great Robin Williams as
well. This film was released on the one year anniversary of his sudden and
tragic death. His performance throughout the film is superb. Touching the
hearts of everyone one last time, he will always be remembered as one of the all-time
greats in comedy, if not the greatest. He most defiantly gave everything he had
to make this film the best it could possibly be.
You might be wondering why I didn't choose Star Wars: The Force Awakens, but that's because I'm going to wait until I've seen it to give a proper review.
Here’s the link to the film of the IMDB page:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1727770/?ref_=nv_sr_1
TV Program
of the Week
Supergirl – Season 1 – Episode 8: Hostile Takeover
The mid-season finale of Supergirl proved to be a climatic one to
say the least. I have to admit that there were a few elements that were a
little predictable, but that doesn’t matter when everything else that isn’t
surrounds it. The fight scene between Kara and her Aunt is amazing from beginning
to end. The main focus was when Katco gets hacked by an unknown hacker and releases
many a confidential information out into the public that gets published by none
other than the Daily Planet itself. Kara and her team are instructed to find
and put a stop to the hacker before any more and potentially career-ending
information is leaked. In the end, Kat decides that to ensure that a certain
piece of personal document isn’t outed, she makes the incredibly hard decision
to step down as CEO of Katco.
Throughout the series, Kat Grant has been labelled as someone who
doesn’t care as long as she gets what she wants. But, over the last few
episodes, and especially this one, we were allowed to see the humanity within
her. Her making that kind of decision to save someone she loves proves that she
is just like any other hard working individual that wants to make their life
successful and meaningful, and that’s a huge character shift to go out with
before it comes back next year. Luckily, the problem was fixed at the last
minute and kat was able to stay as CEO.
Not only do we get a fundamental character change, but we also get
to see something that I truly wasn’t expecting. Like every superhero, it’s hard
to keep your secret identity safe, and Kara is still getting used to not coming
up with suitable excuses when enthusiastic, and so she accidentally let slip
that she overheard someone talking who was too far away to be heard normally.
She did manage to come up with a suitable excuse, but the damage was already
done. Kat puts all the pieces together and worked out that Kara was indeed
Supergirl.
If you are thinking that I have accidentally given away the entire
plot of this episode so that you don’t have to watch the episode now, then you are
wrong for you will be missing out on a lot more revelations and superb acting from
everyone, especially Melissa Benoist who threw everything she had into her
performance, making us feel sorry for her character.
Here’s the link to the episode on the IMDB page:
Game of the
Week
The Simpsons: Hit and Run
Last week, I covered my favourite PS2 game, the Incredible Hulk:
Ultimate Destruction, and so it’s only reasonable that I don’t do a PS2 game
this week to keep things varied. But then I remembered the unending joy I had
playing the Simpsons: Hit and Run, and I just couldn’t really think of another
game that I wanted to talk about other than this, and so I gave in did a bit of
research on it just so that I didn’t have to struggle to write a review based
purely on my memories of it as that could mean getting some facts wrong. Long
story short (even though I’ve pretty much already told you the entire story) I
found a loophole: This game was also released for Microsoft Windows. How could I
have forgotten? So, although this game was released on the PS2, I’m going to be
recommending the computer version of this game instead. Yay to loopholes making
things varied.
To sum up this game in a few words, I, and every other person who
grew up playing this game, would say that this is a parody of the popular game GTA 3 (Grant Theft
Auto 3). Some would say that this game was even better purely because of the
added humour, the light-hearted tones throughout, and because of just how fun
it is to play.
The game
consists of seven levels, each with their own unique missions and sub-plot. On
each level, you get to play as one of the members of the Simpson’s family, and
Apu, who set about saving the town of Springfield from a series of strange occurrences
that all part of a larger alien plan. Homer and Bart are the only characters that
you get to play twice, but the main area where the Simpson’s house is located
is on Levels 1, 4, and 7.
Each level gets increasingly difficult as the game
goes on, until you get to that infamously difficult last mission of Level 7.
Back in the day, once you have lost to that mission so many times, over and
over and over again, it comes as a great victory to eventually succeed and
complete the game. I did play this game after a couple of year’s gap and,
usually when a game is hard when you were younger, it becomes very easy when
you’re older... This game is still the same level of difficulty as it was before.
I actually like how that last mission is as difficult as it is for it gives you
something to actually work for, and once you’ve completed it, that level of
accomplishment is very rarely seen in games nowadays.
If you
like to take a ride and have a laugh with one of the most loveable cartoon
families, then this is the game for you.
Here are link to the game on Amazon:
PS2:
PC:
Video of the
Week
Historic Rocket Landing
On November 23 2015, history was made. A cool rhythmic guitar
soundtrack accompanies Blue Origin’s New Shepard space vehicle as it takes off,
reaching a dizzying 329,839 feet before accomplishing an incredible landing
that put it and the team who worked non-stop to make this work into the history
books. The enormous amount of calculations the on board computer had to do in a
single second to pull off such a manoeuvre is headache inducing, but all of
that is essential to make sure that the rocket lands safely so that it would be
able to repeat the ride many times over, and that’s astonishing. I’ve watched
this video so many times already for the way that the rocket pulls off the
smooth landing feels as if I’m actually watching some science-fiction film.
Not only does it mark a new landmark in what we are now capable of
achieving, but is also allows us to step through the door to new opportunities.
It might still be a few years down the world, but now we know that the
possibility of us civilians taking a trip to space has now become plausible reality,
which is a staggering leap forwards from what we thought was an impossibility.
And now we can develop the technology that was used on the rocket to create
bigger and better and more groundbreaking opportunities such as us going to the
moon for a holiday, living there. Just how far can we go now that we’ve got our
foot through the door, if not our entire selves through the doorway?
I can’t imagine what would have been going through the people’s
heads when they were watching it launch and come back down, but I do know one
thing for sure and that is them crossing their fingers as tight as possible.
The tension amongst themselves was so thick, it became infectious and soon I was
crossing my fingers as well, even though I knew that it would be all OK because
they entitled the video, ‘Historic Rocket Landing’, and if that doesn’t say I
should be relaxed and enjoy the video, then I don’t know what will.
Congratulations to everyone who were a part of the team behind
this amazing feat. Here’s to the next adventure.
Now, who wants to go to space?
Here’s the link to the video on Youtube:
Thanks for reading
Antony Hudson
(TonyHadNouns)
My book, Sector 22: Zoey, now available on Amazon and E-bay:
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