Wallace & Gromit's Grand Adventures: The Bogey Man

The final chapter of Wallace and Gromit's newest adventures wraps up the series nicely, whether this was a one time thing or something they plan to do again. It was the most enjoyable of the games to me since the first, as the puzzle premises were as interesting as they've ever been. After the opening conundrum which I thought was actually the least intuitive of the episode, the meat of the story is Wallace as a detective, hunting down clues and solving riddles to save the local country club from being closed down. Getting the hints is the easy part, the fun is really figuring out what they mean and how to follow their directions. This is classic adventure gaming stuff, right here. I also just loved being in the setting of the club, it has all the friendly homeliness you love to see from this clay-animated little world. After the inventive next leg of the journey, the final portion is another success, making a standard sliding tile puzzle tolerable with inventive circumstances and has a climax that's just as frantic and exciting as you can do in the genre, although I could have done without all the sound clips of people screaming. The ending wraps up all the lingering subplots of the series, bringing the game to a satisfying conclusion. The whole thing was really a lot of fun.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

The Chronicles of Narnia is sort of the more child friendly, overbearingly Christian cousin of The Lord of the Rings, and after the success of the latter as a film franchise, there's little surprise that someone would follow suit with the former. The first movie, The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe was pretty decent to my memory. It's less of a war movie in places and more of a kid's fairy tale, but it had some interesting ideas.

I liked Prince Caspian more though, as it seems more focused on telling a complete story and is just more confident with everything. There's no Mr. Tumnus prancing around or Turkish Delight being eaten, just the story of a war for the future of the land. The action scenes are actually pretty darn good for a PG movie, from a clandestine assault on a castle by moonlight to a deadly show of single combat on the field of battle. They make a point of showing how hundreds of years have passed since the last time the kids appeared in Narnia, with most of the mystical creatures sequestered into the forest and the rest reverted into wild animals. A human empire has taken over the land, and the battle between them and the natives is a nice contrast with the first movie which had their loyalties divided between a magical lady and a magical Jesus cat.

Um... yeah. Movies. A lot of the humor is kind of obvious and cheesy, but there are a couple chuckles to be had. Eddie Izzard plays a talking mouse, and his lines all kind of suck but it's still cool because he's Eddie Izzard. The kids are uniformly less annoying than the first movie, which is good. If there's one thing sequels have over initial installments it's not having to waste time establishing familiarity with setting and characters and all that. The uh... the special effects are pretty good. The battles are nice but the ending was fairly Deus Ex Machina. I'm willing to watch more of these movies, especially since the next one has such a bad ass title. Go look it up. Seriously, bad ass.

Doctor Who - Season 3

This was my favorite season so far of the revived series. Martha Jones isn't too different a character from Rose besides being a little smarter and hotter, but that's enough to make her more likable to me. I mean, I understand Billie Piper is famous in Britain for things besides Who, but does she need to be brought up in every episode even though she's gone? She kind of looks like a monkey. Meanwhile, Freema Agyeman has one of the best asses to ever fill a pair of jeans. Anyway, it's pretty much the same show, the standard of the stories just seems a bit higher. From the Christmas special featuring an angry yet strangely tolerable bride to be and ancient giant arachnids to the finale that just might be the most epic yet, I enjoyed it nearly fairly a lot.

I have a theory why the show doesn't totally work for me. There's nothing wrong with the show in concept. I mean, a clever, somewhat nerdy guy accompanied by a hot girl travel all through time and space touching on every science fiction staple imaginable from alien invasions to dying space stations to alternate history to mad scientists and everything in between. There's just something wrong with the execution, and it feels like the pacing. The conflict of the show seems to be introduced too quickly, and they spend too much time fighting against whatever the villain is and it gets a bit boring before it finishes. There's no sense of rising action, climax, and falling action like a normal story, it's just the same baseline of excitement the entire time until the last five minutes when things finally resolve. If it spent a bit more time establishing things and just having the characters interact I'd probably like it more. Not that what it is is bad, it just isn't quite right. An example of an episode that I thought was perfectly paced is "Blink", which is one of the best quirky time travel stories I've ever seen or read. Doctor Who doesn't have to be perfect though, it's enjoyable enough to keep watching.

Ronin

Yet another film I've seen a lot of before. For what it attempts to do, Ronin is pretty much a perfect action movie. Screw the gigantic CGI-fests of this decade, I'd rather watch this or a Bourne movie any day of the week. The plot is intelligent, the cast is strong, tension rises effectively before violent things start to go down, and the action itself is as exciting as anything. The shootouts aren't terribly elaborate, and despite Robert De Niro's endless talents as an actor he can't help but close his eyes with every shot he fires. But those gun fights are just a warm up for the real thrill of the movie - its car chases.

There are only two real chases in the film, but they're both excellent. Director John Frankenheimer had done them in the past, but I would bet this is the culmination of his talents in that area, if not any others. It's hard to say what makes a chase a success. There's some combination of speed, quick turns, danger, and the right editing that can make all the difference between a truly exciting scene and something that falls flat. Whatever the formula for a good chase, I could watch scenes that make the grade until the end of time. Not continually, though. I mean, a guy's gotta do stuff besides watch movies.

The rest of the movie besides just the chases is good, too. Everyone from the Irish gangsters behind the job to Sean Bean as the bumbling criminal who gets kicked out before he has a chance to really do anything manages to bring something to the table. De Niro and Jean Reno are the key protagonists through the whole thing, and they have a nice international friendship as they battle through betrayals from every direction and fight to get the case that everyone wants. Everything from the planning phase in the beginning through to the relatively downplayed but still interesting finale just works well. Good movie.