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Pengy has a dream. A dream of traveling. Traveling as those boastful birds with wings do. A dream of...
LeftSideCut (3776 KP) rated Lara Croft - Tomb Raider (2001) in Movies
Aug 11, 2019 (Updated Aug 14, 2019)
I remember very clearly going to see this in the cinema when it came out (I was but a starry eyed 11 year old full of hopes and dreams back then), and I absolutely loved it. It was loud, obnoxious, and it had Lara Croft in it (again - I was an 11 year old boy...)
I also grew up playing the original Tomb Raider trilogy, so this was an exciting event in my pre adolescent life.
As as I've gotten older, it has become apparent that I don't have a lot of love for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider after all. It's just another shoddy video game adaption that doesn't have a lot of meat to it.
It's a film firmly stuck in the early 00s, with leather jackets, shades, and cringey breakbeat dance music in the background (thanks a lot Matrix).
One thing that is a huge positive, and why it still deserves at least 4/10 from me is Angelina Jolie. The script is just awful, but she is the embodiment of the original Lara Croft. It's honestly like watching the original game hero come to life.
The rest of the cast are pretty so-so. An early appearance from Daniel Craig (with a super dodgy American accent) is largely forgettable.
Iain Glen plays a pretty vanilla villain (although I really find it hard to dislike good old Iain), and Lara's assistants (played by Noah Taylor and Chris Barrie) are mostly enjoyable comic relief.
The action scenes aren't too bad (apart from the aforementioned music choices), and it's good to see some actual Tomb Raiding, but unfortunately Jolie alone isn't enough to elevate Tomb Raider above the ever growing pile of underwhelming video game movies.
I would like to finish this review with an apology to my girlfriend (who is also on Smashbomb and who will read this) who absolutely f***ing loves these movies - please don't hate me!
I also grew up playing the original Tomb Raider trilogy, so this was an exciting event in my pre adolescent life.
As as I've gotten older, it has become apparent that I don't have a lot of love for Lara Croft: Tomb Raider after all. It's just another shoddy video game adaption that doesn't have a lot of meat to it.
It's a film firmly stuck in the early 00s, with leather jackets, shades, and cringey breakbeat dance music in the background (thanks a lot Matrix).
One thing that is a huge positive, and why it still deserves at least 4/10 from me is Angelina Jolie. The script is just awful, but she is the embodiment of the original Lara Croft. It's honestly like watching the original game hero come to life.
The rest of the cast are pretty so-so. An early appearance from Daniel Craig (with a super dodgy American accent) is largely forgettable.
Iain Glen plays a pretty vanilla villain (although I really find it hard to dislike good old Iain), and Lara's assistants (played by Noah Taylor and Chris Barrie) are mostly enjoyable comic relief.
The action scenes aren't too bad (apart from the aforementioned music choices), and it's good to see some actual Tomb Raiding, but unfortunately Jolie alone isn't enough to elevate Tomb Raider above the ever growing pile of underwhelming video game movies.
I would like to finish this review with an apology to my girlfriend (who is also on Smashbomb and who will read this) who absolutely f***ing loves these movies - please don't hate me!
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising in Tabletop Games
Dec 3, 2020
Have you read our review of Thanos Rising: Avengers Infinity War? If you have not, please do. I’ll wait. The reason I ask is because this Harry Potter version is a reimplementation of Thanos Rising with a few new twists. Great twists. In fact, I’ll spoil it for you and let you know that I now prefer the Harry Potter version even though I enjoy Marvel-related things in my life much more. But why is it good or better than its predecessor?
Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising is a game utilizing the Rising system of games (which also includes Batman, Star Wars, and SpongeBob Squarepants as of now) for two to four players. It is a cooperative game where players will take charge of one of the three factions: Dumbledore’s Army, Hogwarts, or Order of the Phoenix in order to defeat Voldemort and his Death Eater cronies. Though Voldemort will be menacing players throughout the game, the players will not be able to attack him directly until about half way through the game. Can you survive long enough to battle the big bad?
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
To setup, follow the instructions in the rulebook, but generally the central board will have the large painted Voldemort “mini(?)” and three areas that hold Place cards: Hogwarts, Ministry of Magic, and Diagon Alley. Players will be given one Leader card in their chosen faction (obviously Order of the Phoenix is best) to begin the game. Set aside the damage counters, corruption gem tokens, and Spell tokens in their own piles. Shuffle the main deck of character cards, reveal and place three per Place and then insert the Voldemort card somewhere near half-way into the shuffled deck. The game may now begin.
On a player’s turn they must complete the following steps: 1. Travel to a Location, 2. Roll Voldemort Die and resolve actions, 3. Roll, assign, and resolve Wizard dice, and 4. End Turn. After taking these actions it will be the next player’s turn.
To Travel to a Location, the active player will place their faction-matching Mission token upon one of the Places on the board. This is the Place that the active player may now be able to recruit Wizards from and also attack enemies.
Once at a Location, the active player will Roll Voldemort Die and resolve actions thenceforth. The game affords players a large green Voldemort Die to be rolled. Upon the faces are sides that instruct players to turn the Voldemort mini Left or Right one Place and attack all Wizards there (including all Wizards on a player’s team if Voldemort is now in their Location). Two faces will also show the Dark Mark. When this face is rolled Voldemort does not move, but will attack all Wizards at his current Place (by placing damage counters on the card) as well as activating ALL Death Eater Dark Mark abilities. Not all Death Eaters will have Dark Mark abilities, but when they activate, they can be deadly.
Now that Voldemort has had his fun, the active player will Roll, assign, and resolve Wizard dice. Players will have in front of them faction cards that indicate how many and of which color dice to be rolled on a turn. These dice may be added to or otherwise altered as a result of recruited Wizards’ special abilities as well. Once a player takes the appropriate dice to be rolled, they must roll them and begin assigning faces to Wizards for recruitment, Death Eaters for damage, or other abilities on team cards. Recruiting more Wizards to a player’s team or damaging Death Eaters is how the game progresses because each time a card is recruited or defeated it is removed from the main board and a new card replaces it. As long as at least one die is removed from the player’s pool each time the dice are rolled the player may continue rolling to match symbols needed.
To End Turn, the active player will add any recruited Wizards to their team, discard any defeated Death Eaters, Wizards, or Places, and retrieve their Mission token to be used on the next turn.
Play continues in this fashion of taking turns through the four steps until the Voldemort card is drawn. He then comes into play as an enemy that may be attacked like normal. Players win when they defeat enough Death Eaters and Voldemort, but can lose if the players allow a Place to be completely corrupted (usually by Death Eater card abilities), allowing four Places to be corrupted, if too many Wizards have been defeated per number of players, or any player has all their Wizards defeated from their team.
Components. This game includes a lot of components of varying style and materials. The cards are all very glossy (meh) and feature headshots of the characters mostly. The board is three pieces fit together like a pizza and is great. The damage counters are little translucent red cubes, and the corruption gem tokens are also translucent gems but gray in color. The best components in the game are by far the Voldemort, well, statue and all the dice. The Voldemort piece is incredible, and pre-painted. The stance he is taking is formidable and somewhat intimidating when he’s pointing his wand right at you. The dice have been upgraded to a matte finish (as opposed to yucky polished finish) and feature some great inking. The one negative I have to say is also about the dice: I believe that the faces sometimes can be confusing because the icons are more detailed than is necessary. While some would argue that detailed dice are better than merely serviceable dice, I would much rather see a sword on a face and know it’s a sword than to look at a die face and wonder what I am looking at exactly. In any case, that’s my opinion and yours may be different. Let’s still be friends.
So overall this is a big upgrade over the Thanos version of a Rising game for several key reasons. In Thanos I always felt like every turn could lose the game for us, and Thanos seemed to gain the Infinity Stones too quickly for my taste. In this version, you know you have half a deck before you are able to even fight Voldemort, so being able to tackle his minions until then seems more surmountable. The dice have been upgraded, and the Voldemort die is wonderful and easy to read. That was an issue I had with Thanos: his die was hard to read and the colors were not distinct enough. Not a factor in this version at all. I also feel that this version has much more faction-dependency and interplay. What I mean is that an Order of the Phoenix card may require a player to also have a Dumbledore’s Army card on the team in order to unlock access to their special ability. I like that. I like a well-balanced team, though my first game saw me recruit eight Order of the Phoenix cards and one Dumbledore’s Army card. We won, but I felt bad.
So it’s no surprise that I love this game. I find it better and easier to learn/play than the Thanos version. I like the components a whole lot more. I like the interplay between the factions more. I am sad that I prefer Marvel to Harry Potter, but I do not dislike Harry Potter, let it be known. And I do enjoy this version much more. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a triumphant 10 / 12. My wife and I truly love it and can’t wait to play it again very soon. If you are looking for a good Rising game, I certainly recommend you look at Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising. It’s a guaranteed hit if you or a loved one is a Harry Potter fan. For sure. It’s brilliant.
Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising is a game utilizing the Rising system of games (which also includes Batman, Star Wars, and SpongeBob Squarepants as of now) for two to four players. It is a cooperative game where players will take charge of one of the three factions: Dumbledore’s Army, Hogwarts, or Order of the Phoenix in order to defeat Voldemort and his Death Eater cronies. Though Voldemort will be menacing players throughout the game, the players will not be able to attack him directly until about half way through the game. Can you survive long enough to battle the big bad?
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game, so what you see in these photos is exactly what would be received in your box. I do not intend to cover every single rule included in the rulebook, but will describe the overall game flow and major rule set so that our readers may get a sense of how the game plays. For more in depth rules, you may purchase a copy online or from your FLGS. -T
To setup, follow the instructions in the rulebook, but generally the central board will have the large painted Voldemort “mini(?)” and three areas that hold Place cards: Hogwarts, Ministry of Magic, and Diagon Alley. Players will be given one Leader card in their chosen faction (obviously Order of the Phoenix is best) to begin the game. Set aside the damage counters, corruption gem tokens, and Spell tokens in their own piles. Shuffle the main deck of character cards, reveal and place three per Place and then insert the Voldemort card somewhere near half-way into the shuffled deck. The game may now begin.
On a player’s turn they must complete the following steps: 1. Travel to a Location, 2. Roll Voldemort Die and resolve actions, 3. Roll, assign, and resolve Wizard dice, and 4. End Turn. After taking these actions it will be the next player’s turn.
To Travel to a Location, the active player will place their faction-matching Mission token upon one of the Places on the board. This is the Place that the active player may now be able to recruit Wizards from and also attack enemies.
Once at a Location, the active player will Roll Voldemort Die and resolve actions thenceforth. The game affords players a large green Voldemort Die to be rolled. Upon the faces are sides that instruct players to turn the Voldemort mini Left or Right one Place and attack all Wizards there (including all Wizards on a player’s team if Voldemort is now in their Location). Two faces will also show the Dark Mark. When this face is rolled Voldemort does not move, but will attack all Wizards at his current Place (by placing damage counters on the card) as well as activating ALL Death Eater Dark Mark abilities. Not all Death Eaters will have Dark Mark abilities, but when they activate, they can be deadly.
Now that Voldemort has had his fun, the active player will Roll, assign, and resolve Wizard dice. Players will have in front of them faction cards that indicate how many and of which color dice to be rolled on a turn. These dice may be added to or otherwise altered as a result of recruited Wizards’ special abilities as well. Once a player takes the appropriate dice to be rolled, they must roll them and begin assigning faces to Wizards for recruitment, Death Eaters for damage, or other abilities on team cards. Recruiting more Wizards to a player’s team or damaging Death Eaters is how the game progresses because each time a card is recruited or defeated it is removed from the main board and a new card replaces it. As long as at least one die is removed from the player’s pool each time the dice are rolled the player may continue rolling to match symbols needed.
To End Turn, the active player will add any recruited Wizards to their team, discard any defeated Death Eaters, Wizards, or Places, and retrieve their Mission token to be used on the next turn.
Play continues in this fashion of taking turns through the four steps until the Voldemort card is drawn. He then comes into play as an enemy that may be attacked like normal. Players win when they defeat enough Death Eaters and Voldemort, but can lose if the players allow a Place to be completely corrupted (usually by Death Eater card abilities), allowing four Places to be corrupted, if too many Wizards have been defeated per number of players, or any player has all their Wizards defeated from their team.
Components. This game includes a lot of components of varying style and materials. The cards are all very glossy (meh) and feature headshots of the characters mostly. The board is three pieces fit together like a pizza and is great. The damage counters are little translucent red cubes, and the corruption gem tokens are also translucent gems but gray in color. The best components in the game are by far the Voldemort, well, statue and all the dice. The Voldemort piece is incredible, and pre-painted. The stance he is taking is formidable and somewhat intimidating when he’s pointing his wand right at you. The dice have been upgraded to a matte finish (as opposed to yucky polished finish) and feature some great inking. The one negative I have to say is also about the dice: I believe that the faces sometimes can be confusing because the icons are more detailed than is necessary. While some would argue that detailed dice are better than merely serviceable dice, I would much rather see a sword on a face and know it’s a sword than to look at a die face and wonder what I am looking at exactly. In any case, that’s my opinion and yours may be different. Let’s still be friends.
So overall this is a big upgrade over the Thanos version of a Rising game for several key reasons. In Thanos I always felt like every turn could lose the game for us, and Thanos seemed to gain the Infinity Stones too quickly for my taste. In this version, you know you have half a deck before you are able to even fight Voldemort, so being able to tackle his minions until then seems more surmountable. The dice have been upgraded, and the Voldemort die is wonderful and easy to read. That was an issue I had with Thanos: his die was hard to read and the colors were not distinct enough. Not a factor in this version at all. I also feel that this version has much more faction-dependency and interplay. What I mean is that an Order of the Phoenix card may require a player to also have a Dumbledore’s Army card on the team in order to unlock access to their special ability. I like that. I like a well-balanced team, though my first game saw me recruit eight Order of the Phoenix cards and one Dumbledore’s Army card. We won, but I felt bad.
So it’s no surprise that I love this game. I find it better and easier to learn/play than the Thanos version. I like the components a whole lot more. I like the interplay between the factions more. I am sad that I prefer Marvel to Harry Potter, but I do not dislike Harry Potter, let it be known. And I do enjoy this version much more. Purple Phoenix Games gives this one a triumphant 10 / 12. My wife and I truly love it and can’t wait to play it again very soon. If you are looking for a good Rising game, I certainly recommend you look at Harry Potter: Death Eaters Rising. It’s a guaranteed hit if you or a loved one is a Harry Potter fan. For sure. It’s brilliant.
David McK (3562 KP) rated The Imitation Game (2014) in Movies
Feb 26, 2022
Drama based on the life and times of Alan Turing, the so-called father of modern computing, who worked in Bletchley Park during World War 2 to break the hitherto-believed-unbreakable enigma machine that the German high command were using to send radio messages to their fleets.
This flits back and forth between three timelines: the 1950s (just before Turing committed society, after being found guilty of Homosexual behaviour, which was outlawed at the time), the late 30s/early 40s (his work at Bletchley) and the 1920s (his childhood at a public boarding school, where he was bullied).
Cumberbatch manages to bring a different aura to his portrayal of Turing than he did previously to Sherlock - even though both are geniuses who struggle with a low EQ (Emotional Quotient) - while Kiera Knightley does her period piece acting as his fellow (perhaps even smarter) codebreaker Joan, who has to also put up with the misogynistic attitudes of the time.
And yes, the Imitation Game of the title is a real philosophical conundrum (which is described during the movie itself).
This flits back and forth between three timelines: the 1950s (just before Turing committed society, after being found guilty of Homosexual behaviour, which was outlawed at the time), the late 30s/early 40s (his work at Bletchley) and the 1920s (his childhood at a public boarding school, where he was bullied).
Cumberbatch manages to bring a different aura to his portrayal of Turing than he did previously to Sherlock - even though both are geniuses who struggle with a low EQ (Emotional Quotient) - while Kiera Knightley does her period piece acting as his fellow (perhaps even smarter) codebreaker Joan, who has to also put up with the misogynistic attitudes of the time.
And yes, the Imitation Game of the title is a real philosophical conundrum (which is described during the movie itself).
Terry Crews recommended Do the Right Thing (1989) in Movies (curated)
Reader, I Married Him
Audrey Niffenegger, Francine Prose, Tracy Chevalier, Tessa Hadley, Patricia Park, Joanna Briscoe and Nadifa Mohamed
8.0
Rate It
Book
'This collection is stormy, romantic, strong - the Full Bronte' The Times A collection of short...
Lyndsey Gollogly (2893 KP) rated Legendary: Caraval Book 2 in Books
Jun 17, 2020
104 of 200
Book
Legendary ( Caraval book 2)
By Stephanie Garber
A heart to protect. A debt to repay. A game to win.
After being swept up in the magical world of Caraval, Donatella Dragna has finally escaped her father and saved her sister Scarlett from a disastrous arranged marriage. The girls should be celebrating, but Tella isn’t yet free. She made a desperate bargain with a mysterious criminal, and what Tella owes him no one has ever been able to deliver: Caraval Master Legend’s true name.
The only chance of uncovering Legend’s identity is to win Caraval, so Tella throws herself into the legendary competition once more—and into the path of the murderous heir to the throne, a doomed love story, and a web of secrets…including her sister's. Caraval has always demanded bravery, cunning, and sacrifice. But now the game is asking for more. If Tella can’t fulfill her bargain and deliver Legend’s name, she’ll lose everything she cares about—maybe even her life. But if she wins, Legend and Caraval will be destroyed forever.
Welcome, welcome to Caraval...the games have only just begun.
Another great book from Stephanie Garber! This time game became real and it brought with it so much more than the first one. Think most people would have guessed who legend was half way through the book. We are also playing from Tella’s perspective instead of Scarlets. The fates are so intriguing I love their stories and can’t wait to see them and legend develop! Also how with their mother be after being stuck in a card for so long.
Book
Legendary ( Caraval book 2)
By Stephanie Garber
A heart to protect. A debt to repay. A game to win.
After being swept up in the magical world of Caraval, Donatella Dragna has finally escaped her father and saved her sister Scarlett from a disastrous arranged marriage. The girls should be celebrating, but Tella isn’t yet free. She made a desperate bargain with a mysterious criminal, and what Tella owes him no one has ever been able to deliver: Caraval Master Legend’s true name.
The only chance of uncovering Legend’s identity is to win Caraval, so Tella throws herself into the legendary competition once more—and into the path of the murderous heir to the throne, a doomed love story, and a web of secrets…including her sister's. Caraval has always demanded bravery, cunning, and sacrifice. But now the game is asking for more. If Tella can’t fulfill her bargain and deliver Legend’s name, she’ll lose everything she cares about—maybe even her life. But if she wins, Legend and Caraval will be destroyed forever.
Welcome, welcome to Caraval...the games have only just begun.
Another great book from Stephanie Garber! This time game became real and it brought with it so much more than the first one. Think most people would have guessed who legend was half way through the book. We are also playing from Tella’s perspective instead of Scarlets. The fates are so intriguing I love their stories and can’t wait to see them and legend develop! Also how with their mother be after being stuck in a card for so long.
The Many Lives of Miss K: Toto Koopman - Model, Muse, Spy
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James Vanderboom's life drastically changes when he plants a special seed in the garden of the house...
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