Search

Search only in certain items:

Ad Astra (2019)
Ad Astra (2019)
2019 | Adventure, Drama, Mystery
A Sci-Fi Film Grounded In Reality
Ad Astra is a 2019 sci-fi/adventure movie directed, produced, and co-written by James Gray. Ethan Gross was the co-writer and other producers on the film were Brad Pitt, Dede Gardner, Jeremy Kleiner, James Gray, Anthony Katagas, Rodrigo Teixeira and Arnon Milchan. The movie was produced by 20th Century Fox, Regency Enterprises, Bona Film Group, New Regency, Plan B Entertainment, RT Features, Keep Your Head Productions, MadRiver Pictures, TSG Entertainment and was distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures. The film stars Brad Pitt, Tommy Lee Jones, Ruth Negga, Liv Tyler and Donald Sutherland.


When all life on Earth is threatened by mysterious power surges, U.S. Space Command seeks out astronaut Major Roy McBride for a special mission. He is the son of famed astronaut H. Clifford McBride, who headed the "Lima Project" which purpose was to search the Solar System for intelligent life. Now, after sixteen years of silence and his father believed dead, they inform Roy that the surges have been traced back to the "Lima Project" and he must travel Mars to try and contact his father to save the Earth.


I was super excited about this movie before watching it in theaters. Even though I saw the trailers, I made sure not to read up on it or watch them too much because I didn't want for anything to spoil it for me. Honestly after watching it, I still have mixed feelings. In a lot of ways I liked the film but almost equally I didn't. There was a lot that I was kind of disappointed in but also a lot that happened different than what I thought was going to happen, especially when it came to the plot. This movie was very realistic for a science fiction space movie when I thought it was going to be more fantastical. I think that was the main reason for me not liking it as much as I thought I would, also the pacing threw me off because this movie was really long. I kept waiting for it to get good and it never really did. There were a couple of good scenes overall but I agree with some critics or reviewers who said that it either needed to be shorter or a lot longer and made into a mini-series. I thought Brad Pitt did an excellent job in his role as Major Roy McBride but I understand people who criticized his performance because his character is very unemotional. I also really liked Ruth Negga's performance and think she did a fantastic job. I was let down that Tommy Lee Jones didn't have as much screen time as I thought he was going to, double for Donald Sutherland as well. Not a lot more I can say without spoiling parts of the movie. I wound up giving this movie a 6/10. I would have given it a point lower but there's a lot that makes this film above normal.
  
Hey, That's My Fish!
Hey, That's My Fish!
2003 | Abstract Strategy, Animals
How do you like your games, reader? Heavy and themeless? Dark and themey? ZANY AND KOOKY?! Well, this game is a combination of several categories of game type. I consider it cute and cutthroat. There aren’t many games that can fall into those two categories simultaneously, and maybe that’s why we like this one. Spoilers, sweetie.

Hey, That’s My Fish! is a game of attempting to gather the most fish possible before climate change engulfs your little penguin minis. I mean, before the land sinks into the sea. To setup, place all the shuffled fish tiles in a grid of alternating 8 and 7-tile rows. Then, each player will, in turn, place their penguins on tiles showing one fish until their play pieces are on the board. That’s the setup. Quick and easy.


Like I said, the idea here is to gather the most fish to be crowned the winner. You can gather fish tiles by simply moving off them and onto another tile. Choose a direction to travel from your hex, and travel to any fish tile along a straight line – stopping before jumping over any penguin and not travelling over a blank space. Collect the fish tile from where you originally left and add it to your pile. Play continues in this fashion until all players are stalemated and can no longer make any further legal moves on the ever-shrinking board of fish snacks.

So here’s the rub with this one. It’s simple. Like, really simple. Pick up your penguieeple (sheesh) and move them to another hex tile in a straight line without jumping over any obstacle. Take the tile from which you left. Repeat. It sounds so stinking boring. But when you actually have your little peng… minis… and you are trying to get those elusive 3-fish tiles, but you have no way of getting there because your dang brother cut off your route so that only he and Josh can get them because they’re jerks – sorry. I got a bit carried away. But it really do be like that sometimes.
Components. This is an easy one. There are a bunch of cardboard hex tiles and some great little penguineeples. The penguins are brightly colored, and the hexes are very easy to understand and read. No issues here at all. Bonus: the pengeeples have such awesome little sassy poses hahahaha!

So what do I think? As a seasoned gamer and the most elder of our group, I absolutely adore it. It’s not the greatest game ever published, but sometimes you want to let off some steam and play a little cutthroat. So don’t let the cute penguins fool you – this is survival and you NEEEEED those little fishies! I have now owned this game twice (which my wife totally loves when she hears that), because I did miss having it available to me. So it is no surprise that we at Purple Phoenix Games give this little darling a fishy-fishy-bite-my-hook 18 / 24. Go on, grab a copy and destroy friendships!
  
    My Nikki

    My Nikki

    Lifestyle and Photo & Video

    (0 Ratings) Rate It

    App

    Everyone is using secretly, Simple easy and cute NO. 1 diary app "My Nikki" ◆ Thanks to 1.9...