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What I Watched This Week #58 (Feb 5 – 11) The Mirror Crack'd dir. Guy Hamilton/1980/1h45m This is another Agatha Christie murder mystery, but instead of Poirot this time we're following her other great detective, the elderly, gossip-loving busybody, Miss Marple, played here by the fabulous Angela Lansbury. The plot sees a film crew descend on her sleepy village to make a movie, but when the star, Marina (Elizabeth Taylor), becomes the target of an unknown killer and the bodies start piling up Miss Marple is the only one who can crack the mystery. This is a very well crafted mystery, as expected from the greatest mystery writer of all time, with some great performances from both Lansbury and Taylor as well as Kim Novak who plays Marina's rival, with the two having some great b*tchy exchanges. Rock Hudson, Tony Curtis and Geraldine Chaplin round out a fantastic cast. My big problem with this film is that Miss Marple is side-lined pretty early on with a leg injury and for the middle third of the film it's up to her nephew and Scotland Yard inspector Dermot Craddock (Edward Fox) to do the leg work before she swoops in at the end to tie it all together. I love me some Angela Lansbury, so when I sit down to watch a Miss Marple movie starring Angela Lansbury as Miss Marple I expect to get my fill of Angela Lansbury, and I just didn't. That aside this is still a well made and engaging film. 7.5/10 Bedknobs and Broomsticks dir. Robert Stevenson/1971/1h57m Disappointed as I was with the distinct lack of Angela Lansbury in the previous film I decided to watch an old childhood favourite, and something in which she's in just about every scene, Bedknobs and Broomsticks. Set during World War II, she plays apprentice witch Eglantine Price who takes in three orphans who were evacuated from London. With their help, and that of snake oil salesman Emilius Browne (David Tomlinson), she travels to the cartoon island of Naboombo and learns the magic of substitutionary locomotion, with which she animates a museum full of medieval armour in order to f*ck up the invading n*zi forces. It's a pretty wild ride. I love everything about this. Lansbury and Tomlinson have amazing chemistry together, the songs all slap and the final fight between the armour and the n*zis is genuinely metal as f*ck. This is my favourite live action Disney film and even though I've seen it about fifty times it's still as enchanting now as it was when I was six. 10/10 Lime's Film of the Week! White Noise dir. Noah Baumbach/2022/2h16m White Noise stars Adam Driver as the professor of Hitler studies at a college in Ohio, and he shares a profound fear of death with his wife Babette (Greta Gerwig), who is secretly taking part in trials for an experimental drug. Their fears are tested when a train carrying toxic chemicals derails near their home and they have to evacuate. This is a very strange movie that doesn't really know what it is, so it doesn't try to be anything. The performances are all very good, with great support from Don Cheadle as a professor of Elvis studies. This is also a well directed film, with bone dry humour, which I love. It's just that the story meanders so much that it loses any momentum that it builds up pretty much instantly. A very idiosyncratic film that totally won't be for everyone, but I think is pretty decent, and I really dug the supermarket set ending. 7/10 I Saw the Devil dir. Kim Jee-woon/2010/2h24m Kim Soo-hyun (Lee Byung-hun) is an agent in South Korea's intelligence service who seeks revenge on serial killer Jang Kyung-chul (Choi Min-sik) after he brutally murders his girlfriend. But when Soo-hyun catches him, instead of killing or arresting Kyang-chul he plants a tracker inside him so that he can follow and listen to him and further torment and torture him. This is an excellent example of the intense revenge thrillers that Korea does so well – like Oldboy, which also stars Choi Min-sik – and is well worth watching if that's your jam. The direction is gorgeous, with some really interesting camera movements and framing, and all of the performances are fantastic. Lee is amazing as the lawman who becomes twisted into that which he hates, his cruel obsession making him more of a threat than the actual serial killer and Choi is totally his equal as the cold and uncaring – until the last scene that is – killer. Brutal, bloody and brilliant. 9/10 Big Trouble in Little China dir. John Carpenter/1986/1h39m Big Trouble in Little China is John Carpenter's comedy-action-fantasy film starring Kurt Russell as idiotic, egotistical trucker Jack Burton who gets caught up in a mystical fight between the forces of good and evil when he helps out his friend w*ng Chi (Dennis Dun), whose girlfriend was kidnapped by ancient sorcerer Lo Pan (James Hong). This is totally over the top and tongue in cheek with a lot of stuff I like, but I found the whole to be quite uneven and incohesive. I like the idea of Jack Burton, someone who thinks they're the hero but is actually the bumbling sidekick who's so inept that he knocks himself out just before the climactic fight, but his character is just so unlikeable that I wish he knocked himself out at the start of more scenes. Even the almighty charisma of Russell isn't quite enough to redeem it, but he does make it more bearable. It's a shame because Lo Pan is a fantastic villain, with a brilliant performance from Hong, who deserves someone better to go up against. I also really liked the design of the film. Not a bad film but Carpenter has done much better. 6/10 Alice in Wonderland dir. Hamilton Luske, Wildred Jackson, Clyde Geronimi/1951/1h15m Disney's version of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass is a wonderfully surreal film full of memorable characters and iconic imagery that even Tim Burton's turd of a remake can't tarnish it. Tumbling down a rabbit hole following a White Rabbit (Bill Thompson) who's late for a very important date, young Alice (Kathryn Beaumont) finds herself in a nonsensical world where nothing is what it seems. The animators at Disney were having fun with this film with every scene bursting with colour and full of imagination when it comes to characters like the Cheshire Cat and Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee. This is also quite dark, particularly the story of the Walrus and the Carpenter. A wonderful animation that revels in the freedoms of the form. 9/10 The Titfield Thunderbolt dir. Charles Crichton/1953/1h24m The Titfield Thunderbolt is a British comedy from the famed Ealing Studios. The plot concerns the community of a small village banding together to buy and run their local train line after it is threatened with closure. When they attempt to get their operating licence they face sabotage from the local bus company. What I like about this whole thing is that it is being bankrolled by wealthy local Walter Valentine (Stanley Holloway) who only has an interest in trains because you can serve alcohol on them as early as you like. This is a quaint and charming film that epitomises the Ealing films of the time, while also being quite strange. I'm not quite sure why, but at one point there is a game of chicken between the train and a steamroller being driven by Carry On regular Sid James. While never coming close to the greatness of The Ladykillers or The Lavender Hill Mob, this is still a fun film that I thoroughly enjoyed. 7.5/10

Drums Rock is a music rhythm game in much the same style as Guitar Hero. Demons of different colours advance towards you and you have to hit the corresponding drum. Simple, but very addictive. There are only a few recognisable songs, with the rest of the soundtrack made up of original songs meant to sound like specific bands, but most of them are pretty good, with a couple of straight out bangers amongst them. On harder difficulties it gets pretty intense, but it's very well designed and you're always able to see what you're supposed to be doing, even if you're not quick enough to do it. There's also a bunch of unlockables in the form of different hands, drums and drumsticks. All in all it's a very good game and surprisingly one of my favourites in the launch line up of the PSVR2. If you get a headset there's a demo you can download and try, and you'd be foolish not to because this is a blast. Here's a video of me playing Black Betty on the hardest difficulty, and as you can see at the start of the video I have the sixth best score for this song in the world!

Benedetta (2021) dir Paul Verhoeven Apparently inspired by a true story. In 17th century Italy Benedetta becomes a nun as a child after her devout parents give her to a convent to thank God for her surviving an illness. She soon escapes unharmed from a what could have been a fatal accident and as the years go by starts to have visions of Jesus. As an adult she is involved in another miraculous event and the town's priest senses a chance to cash in by playing up the miracle. The mother superior, played by an excellent Charlotte Rampling, is very sceptical and thinks Benedetta is tricking them. This leads to an inevitable showdown with accusations and counter-accusations of blasphemy and heresy. The local Bishop gets involved, bringing an inquisitor to sort matters out. There's a fair bit of s*x and nudity in this; Benedetta and another nun are lovers, but to me nothing was gratuitous. Nothing that gruesome happens to anyone on screen. It's good film, well acted with some nice settings. It's quite different to any other Paul Verhoeven films that I have seen (well apart from the s*x and nudity that some of his are famous for). 7/10 Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) dir Daniel Kwan & Daniel Scheinert. A very good, Oscar worthy film, although maybe not best picture for me personally. I would imagine most people already know about this and at least vaguely what it is about. But for those who don't, it's a bizzare, sci-fi comedy. Michelle Yeoh and Key Hu Quan play Chinese-American laundry owners Evelyn and Waymond w*ng. During a visit to tax inspector Diedre Beaubeirdre (Jamie Lee Curtis), Evelyn is contacted by another version of Waymond, from an alternative reality. He tells her there are many, many alternate universes, each differing due to one person there having made a different decision at some key point in their life. He is from the original, Alpha, universe and there Evelyn discovered how to move from one universe to another and to pick up abilities that your other-selves have in those universes. But Alpha-Evelyn has been killed and all the universes are under threat from an entity known as Jobu Tupaki. She, our universe's Evelyn, is the only one who might have the power to save them. It is very cleverly made, really well shot and edited. The acting is top notch. The special effects just the sort I like, good without being the main attraction. The only thing that lets it down a little is I think it is a bit too confusing at times. Whilst it remains very, very watchable, there are things I did not understand. It does have some great scenes though; how can you top a kung-fu fight using d*ldos as weapons!? 9/10

Boi got rhythm!

GTAVI will release one day. I will keep this text short, hoping more people will read it. TLDR; lets start thinking about future adjustment to this site for GTAVI. We know almost nothing about GTAVI. Things like playlists and crews, much of what our activities in GTAV has evolved around, might not even exist. Yet we could plan considering all possibilities. We can focus on the site and how we can maintain and grow activity here on the site, creating a basic structure and organization that will keep shaping things as we get more info over time. Examples of some areas that we could cover, no matter what the game offers. · Site admin (keep things online) · Site members (site users) · Game events (small and big) · Site events (non-game related activities) · Specific game-related areas on site (should be plenty) · Site and event marketing (to keep us alive) Is this worth start thinking about already? What would you like to see or do? Is there anything we can actually do already?