Search
Search results
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Murder on the Orient Express (2017) in Movies
Sep 29, 2021
You’ll never guess who dunnit…
There’s a big problem with Kenneth Branagh’s 2017 filming of the Hercule Poirot-based murder mystery…. and that’s the 1974 Sidney Lumet classic featuring Albert Finney in the starring role. For that film was so memorable – at least, the “who” of the “whodunnit” (no spoilers here) was so memorable – that any remake is likely to be tarnished by that knowledge. If you go into this film blissfully unaware of the plot, you are a lucky man/woman. For this is a classic Agatha Christie yarn.
The irascible, borderline OCD, but undeniably great Belgian detective, Poirot, is dragged around the world by grateful police forces to help solve unsolvable crimes. After solving a case in Jerusalem, Poirot is called back to the UK with his mode of transport being the famous Orient Express. Trapped in the mountains by an avalanche, a murder is committed and with multiple suspects and a plethora of clues it is up to Poirot to solve the case.
Branagh enjoys himself enormously as Poirot, sporting the most distractingly magnificent facial hair since Daniel Day-Lewis in “The Gangs of New York”. The moustache must have had its own trailer and make-up team!
Above all, the film is glorious to look at, featuring a rich and exotic colour palette that is reminiscent of the early colour films of the 40’s. Cinematography was by Haris Zambarloukos (“Mamma Mia” and who also collaborated with Branagh on “Thor) with lots of innovative “ceiling down” shots and artful point-of-view takes that might be annoying to some but which I consider as deserving of Oscar/BAFTA nominations.
The pictures are accompanied by a lush score by Patrick Doyle (who also scored Branagh’s “Thor”). Hats off also to the special effects crew, who made the alpine bridge scenes look decidedly more alpine than where they were actually filmed (on a specially made bridge in the Surrey Hills!).
All these technical elements combine to make the film’s early stages look and feel truly epic.
And the cast… what a cast! Dame Judi Dench (“Victoria and Abdul“); Olivia Coleman (“The Lobster“); Johnny Depp (“Black Mass“); Daisy Ridley (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens“); Penélope Cruz (“Zoolander 2“); Josh Gad (Olaf!); Derek Jacobi (“I, Claudius”); Willem Dafoe (“The Great Wall“) and Michelle Pfeiffer (“mother!“). A real case again of an “oh, it’s you” film again at the cinema – when’s the last time we saw that?
It’s also great to see young Lucy Boynton, so magnificent in last year’s excellent “Sing Street“, getting an A-list role as the twitchy and disturbed countess.
With all these ingredients in the pot, it should be great, right? Unfortunately, in my view, no, not quite. The film’s opening momentum is really not maintained by the screenplay by Michael Green (“Blade Runner 2049“; “Logan“). At heart, it’s a fairly static and “stagey” piece at best, set as it is on the rather claustrophobic train (just three carriages… on the Orient Express… really?). But the tale is made even more static by the train’s derailment in the snow. Branagh and Green try to sex up the action where they can, but there are lengthy passages of fairly repetitive dialogue. One encounter in particular between Branagh and Depp seems to last interminably: you wonder if the problem was that the director wasn’t always looking on to yell “Cut”!
All this leads to the “revelation” of the murderer as being a bit of an anticlimactic “thank heavens for that” rather than the gasping denouement it should have been. (Perhaps this would be different if you didn’t know the twist).
However, these reservations aside, it’s an enjoyable night out at the flicks, although a bit of a disappointment from the level of expectation I had for it. I can’t be too grumpy about it, given it’s a return to good old-fashioned yarn-spinning at the cinema, with great visuals and an epic cast. And that has to be good news.
For sure, Branagh does make for an amusing and engaging Poirot, even if his dialogue did need some ‘tuning in’ to. There was a suggestion at the end of the film that we might be seeing his return in “Death on the Nile” – the most lush and decorous of Peter Ustinov’s outings – which I would certainly welcome. He will have to find another 10 A-list stars though to decorate the boat, which will be a challenge for casting!
The irascible, borderline OCD, but undeniably great Belgian detective, Poirot, is dragged around the world by grateful police forces to help solve unsolvable crimes. After solving a case in Jerusalem, Poirot is called back to the UK with his mode of transport being the famous Orient Express. Trapped in the mountains by an avalanche, a murder is committed and with multiple suspects and a plethora of clues it is up to Poirot to solve the case.
Branagh enjoys himself enormously as Poirot, sporting the most distractingly magnificent facial hair since Daniel Day-Lewis in “The Gangs of New York”. The moustache must have had its own trailer and make-up team!
Above all, the film is glorious to look at, featuring a rich and exotic colour palette that is reminiscent of the early colour films of the 40’s. Cinematography was by Haris Zambarloukos (“Mamma Mia” and who also collaborated with Branagh on “Thor) with lots of innovative “ceiling down” shots and artful point-of-view takes that might be annoying to some but which I consider as deserving of Oscar/BAFTA nominations.
The pictures are accompanied by a lush score by Patrick Doyle (who also scored Branagh’s “Thor”). Hats off also to the special effects crew, who made the alpine bridge scenes look decidedly more alpine than where they were actually filmed (on a specially made bridge in the Surrey Hills!).
All these technical elements combine to make the film’s early stages look and feel truly epic.
And the cast… what a cast! Dame Judi Dench (“Victoria and Abdul“); Olivia Coleman (“The Lobster“); Johnny Depp (“Black Mass“); Daisy Ridley (“Star Wars: The Force Awakens“); Penélope Cruz (“Zoolander 2“); Josh Gad (Olaf!); Derek Jacobi (“I, Claudius”); Willem Dafoe (“The Great Wall“) and Michelle Pfeiffer (“mother!“). A real case again of an “oh, it’s you” film again at the cinema – when’s the last time we saw that?
It’s also great to see young Lucy Boynton, so magnificent in last year’s excellent “Sing Street“, getting an A-list role as the twitchy and disturbed countess.
With all these ingredients in the pot, it should be great, right? Unfortunately, in my view, no, not quite. The film’s opening momentum is really not maintained by the screenplay by Michael Green (“Blade Runner 2049“; “Logan“). At heart, it’s a fairly static and “stagey” piece at best, set as it is on the rather claustrophobic train (just three carriages… on the Orient Express… really?). But the tale is made even more static by the train’s derailment in the snow. Branagh and Green try to sex up the action where they can, but there are lengthy passages of fairly repetitive dialogue. One encounter in particular between Branagh and Depp seems to last interminably: you wonder if the problem was that the director wasn’t always looking on to yell “Cut”!
All this leads to the “revelation” of the murderer as being a bit of an anticlimactic “thank heavens for that” rather than the gasping denouement it should have been. (Perhaps this would be different if you didn’t know the twist).
However, these reservations aside, it’s an enjoyable night out at the flicks, although a bit of a disappointment from the level of expectation I had for it. I can’t be too grumpy about it, given it’s a return to good old-fashioned yarn-spinning at the cinema, with great visuals and an epic cast. And that has to be good news.
For sure, Branagh does make for an amusing and engaging Poirot, even if his dialogue did need some ‘tuning in’ to. There was a suggestion at the end of the film that we might be seeing his return in “Death on the Nile” – the most lush and decorous of Peter Ustinov’s outings – which I would certainly welcome. He will have to find another 10 A-list stars though to decorate the boat, which will be a challenge for casting!
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated Spider-Man 3 (2007) in Movies
Aug 14, 2019
The most anticipated film of the summer, Spider-Man 3 has arrived to the delight of moviegoers the world over. It has been roughly a little more than a year since Spider-Man (Tobey Maguire), defeated Dr. Octopus and saved the city from certain doom.
During this time, Spider-man has become New York City’s celebrated hero, and his day to day alter ego, Peter Parker, delights in his fame, while dating the love of his life, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst).
As the film opens, Peter has decided to ask Mary Jane to be his wife, and plans to surprise her with a ring during dinner at a fancy restaurant. Mary Jane is starring in a Broadway play, and despite harsh reviews, she is living her dream and madly in love with Peter.
Things take an unexpected twist for Peter when he is attacked one night by his best friend Harry (James Franco), who blames him for the death of his father at the conclusion of the first film. Enhanced by his father’s Goblin serum, Harry is a deadly adversary for Peter who is able to fend off the attack eventually, and put into motion a series of events that will forever change his life.
When a career criminal named Flint Marko (Thomas Hayden Church), is accidentally caught in an experiment while fleeing the authorities, he becomes a living mass of sand, which enables him to start a string of robberies as “The Sandman”, and provides Spider-man with his most unusual opponent yet.
As if this was not enough, Peter must contend with a new hotshot photographer named Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), who is after a staff position at the Daily Bugle. The fact that Peter has more seniority at the paper is of little interest to Eddie, and he will stop at nothing to get the better of Peter.
At this point one would think that Peter has more than enough on his plate, but fate is about to drop an unexpected player into his life, a space based symbiote that bonds
with Peter’s costume and creates a dark black look for Spider-Man as well as an increase in his powers.
Peter becomes obsessed with his new powers, and there is a dramatic change in his persona, which does not sit well with Mary Jane. When new information is given to Peter about the death of his Uncle Ben, Peter is more than willing to use his new found abilities to exact the revenge that he craves.
Peter also has another area of interest as Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard), the daughter of the local Chief of Police has caught his eye, much to the chagrin of both Mary Jane and Gwen’s current boyfriend Eddie Brock.
This tangled web of characters soon forces Peter to take stock of his life and the choices he makes, in order to determine what truly matters to him, the love and respect of his friends, or giving into his darker side and pursing power and unending praise and adulation.
The film starts out well, and the early conflict between Peter and Harry is a brilliantly staged spectacle of sight, sound, and motion. There are also some great moments between the lead characters and Church, Howard and Grace do well with their characters, yet something about Spider-Man 3 did not click for me the way the previous two films in the series have.
Having the luxury of time from the press screener to the opening, I was able to look back at the film the past week and a half to try to determine what did not work for me, and I kept coming back to the same conclusions.
First, the film wants very much to be much darker and edgier than the other films, yet just when you think you are going to see Peter fully cross the line, the film pulls back into campy mode, and we are given scenes of Peter hamming it up as a ladies’ man, and I kid you not, doing an impromptu dance number.
While this works for comedic effect, I am supposed to believe that the darker side of Peter’s soul is being exposed, and I had a hard time thinking that his inner demons include “Saturday Night Fever” style strut down the sidewalk, and a floor show.
The second thing that bothered me was the villains, as aside from Harry as the New Goblin, both the Sandman and Venom were sadly lacking. Neither The Sandman nor Venom had over the top plots to rule the world, kill or enslave the masses, or endanger huge parts of the city as was the case with the original Green Goblin and Dr Octopus.
Rather we have one who is content to steal to fund a noble cause, and wishes only to complete this cause and have Spider-Man out of his way. The second simply wants revenge for being slighted, and does not elude the menace nor danger that the character warrants.
effects wise the film is solid and there are some great moments in the film, but to many times I thought I had seen the same sand effects years early in the “Mummy” series which lead to many cases of “been there, seen that” for me. With a budget that many claim to be the most expensive film ever made when based on current dollar values, I had expected more from the film, especially given the talented and dynamic cast, and the ample backing of the studio.
Director and series Guru Sam Raimi seems to be coasting here as one has to wonder if he used up many of his great ideas in the last two films, and was trying so hard not to repeat himself, that he lost that magic spark that made the last two films such classics.
As it stands, “Spider-Man 3” is a good film, but you can’t help but feel it could have been a better one.
During this time, Spider-man has become New York City’s celebrated hero, and his day to day alter ego, Peter Parker, delights in his fame, while dating the love of his life, Mary Jane Watson (Kirsten Dunst).
As the film opens, Peter has decided to ask Mary Jane to be his wife, and plans to surprise her with a ring during dinner at a fancy restaurant. Mary Jane is starring in a Broadway play, and despite harsh reviews, she is living her dream and madly in love with Peter.
Things take an unexpected twist for Peter when he is attacked one night by his best friend Harry (James Franco), who blames him for the death of his father at the conclusion of the first film. Enhanced by his father’s Goblin serum, Harry is a deadly adversary for Peter who is able to fend off the attack eventually, and put into motion a series of events that will forever change his life.
When a career criminal named Flint Marko (Thomas Hayden Church), is accidentally caught in an experiment while fleeing the authorities, he becomes a living mass of sand, which enables him to start a string of robberies as “The Sandman”, and provides Spider-man with his most unusual opponent yet.
As if this was not enough, Peter must contend with a new hotshot photographer named Eddie Brock (Topher Grace), who is after a staff position at the Daily Bugle. The fact that Peter has more seniority at the paper is of little interest to Eddie, and he will stop at nothing to get the better of Peter.
At this point one would think that Peter has more than enough on his plate, but fate is about to drop an unexpected player into his life, a space based symbiote that bonds
with Peter’s costume and creates a dark black look for Spider-Man as well as an increase in his powers.
Peter becomes obsessed with his new powers, and there is a dramatic change in his persona, which does not sit well with Mary Jane. When new information is given to Peter about the death of his Uncle Ben, Peter is more than willing to use his new found abilities to exact the revenge that he craves.
Peter also has another area of interest as Gwen Stacy (Bryce Dallas Howard), the daughter of the local Chief of Police has caught his eye, much to the chagrin of both Mary Jane and Gwen’s current boyfriend Eddie Brock.
This tangled web of characters soon forces Peter to take stock of his life and the choices he makes, in order to determine what truly matters to him, the love and respect of his friends, or giving into his darker side and pursing power and unending praise and adulation.
The film starts out well, and the early conflict between Peter and Harry is a brilliantly staged spectacle of sight, sound, and motion. There are also some great moments between the lead characters and Church, Howard and Grace do well with their characters, yet something about Spider-Man 3 did not click for me the way the previous two films in the series have.
Having the luxury of time from the press screener to the opening, I was able to look back at the film the past week and a half to try to determine what did not work for me, and I kept coming back to the same conclusions.
First, the film wants very much to be much darker and edgier than the other films, yet just when you think you are going to see Peter fully cross the line, the film pulls back into campy mode, and we are given scenes of Peter hamming it up as a ladies’ man, and I kid you not, doing an impromptu dance number.
While this works for comedic effect, I am supposed to believe that the darker side of Peter’s soul is being exposed, and I had a hard time thinking that his inner demons include “Saturday Night Fever” style strut down the sidewalk, and a floor show.
The second thing that bothered me was the villains, as aside from Harry as the New Goblin, both the Sandman and Venom were sadly lacking. Neither The Sandman nor Venom had over the top plots to rule the world, kill or enslave the masses, or endanger huge parts of the city as was the case with the original Green Goblin and Dr Octopus.
Rather we have one who is content to steal to fund a noble cause, and wishes only to complete this cause and have Spider-Man out of his way. The second simply wants revenge for being slighted, and does not elude the menace nor danger that the character warrants.
effects wise the film is solid and there are some great moments in the film, but to many times I thought I had seen the same sand effects years early in the “Mummy” series which lead to many cases of “been there, seen that” for me. With a budget that many claim to be the most expensive film ever made when based on current dollar values, I had expected more from the film, especially given the talented and dynamic cast, and the ample backing of the studio.
Director and series Guru Sam Raimi seems to be coasting here as one has to wonder if he used up many of his great ideas in the last two films, and was trying so hard not to repeat himself, that he lost that magic spark that made the last two films such classics.
As it stands, “Spider-Man 3” is a good film, but you can’t help but feel it could have been a better one.
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Fantastic Beasts: Crimes of Grindelwald (2018) in Movies
Sep 28, 2021
Lestranger than fiction.
I must be one of the last people to watch this in the cinema, thanks to an irritating bout of sickness and – well – frankly total bloody apathy! For me this is the franchise that nobody asked for and nobody wanted. (Well, “nobody” is probably overstating the case, since there is probably a bunch of Potterheads out there who are shouting at me right now). But judging from the opinion of my daughter-in-law, who could win “Mastermind” with her knowledge of the original Potter series as her specialist subject, I am certainly not alone in my lack of enthusiasm.
The Plot
I’d really love to tell you about the plot. I really would! But I would struggle to pull all the multitude of strands together from J.K. Rowling’s story and coherently explain them to anyone. If Rowling had put ten thousand monkeys (not a million – it’s no bloody Shakespeare) into a room with typewriters and locked the door I wouldn’t be surprised.
Let me try at a high level….. The arch-criminal wizard Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) is being tortured in ‘Trump Tower’, but manages to escape and flees to Paris in pursuit of a mysterious circus performer called Credence (Ezra Miller) and his bewitched companion Nagini (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) played fetchingly by Claudia Kim. Someone needs to stop him, and all eyes are on Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law). But he is unable to do so, since he and Grindelwald are “closer than brothers” (nudge, nudge, wink, wink). So a reluctant and UK-grounded Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) is smuggled into the danger zone… which suits him just fine since his love Tina (Katherine Waterston) is working for the ministry there, and the couple are currently estranged due to a (topical) bout of ‘Fake News’.
Throw in a potential love triangle between Newt, his brother Theseus (Callum Turner) and old Hogwart’s schoolmate Leta Lestrange (Zoë Kravitz) and about a half dozen other sub-plots and you have… well… a complete bugger’s muggle – – sorry – – muddle.
A plot that’s all at sea
Above all, I really can’t explain the crux of the plot. A venerable diarrhoea of exposition in a crypt, during an inexplicably quiet fifteen minutes (given ‘im-who-can-be-named is next door with about a thousand other people!) left me completely bewildered. A bizarre event at sea (no spoilers) would seem to make absolutely NO SENSE when considered with another reveal at the end of the film. I thought I must have clearly missed something… or I’d just not been intelligent enough to process the information…. or…. it was actually completely bonkers! Actually, I think it’s the latter: in desperation I went on a fan site that tried to explain the plot. While it was explained there, the explanation aligned with what I thought had happened: but it made no mention of the ridiculousness of the random coincidence involved!
The turns
The film’s a mess. Which is a shame since everyone involved tries really hard. Depp oozes evil very effectively (he proves that nicely on arriving in Paris, and doubles-down about 5 minutes later: #veryverydark). Redmayne replays his Newt-act effectively but once again (and I see I made the same comments in my “Fantastic Beasts” review) his character mumbles again so much that many of his lines are unintelligible.
I also complained last time that the excellent actress Katherine Waterston was criminally underused as the tentative love interest Tina. this trend unfortunately continues unabated in this film…. you’ll struggle afterwards to write down what she actually did in this film.
Jacob (Dan Fogler) and Queenie (Alison Sudol, looking for all the world in some scenes like Rachel Weisz) reprise their roles in a sub-plot that goes nowhere in particular.
Of the newcomers, Jude Law as Dumbledore is a class-act but has very little screen time: hopefully he will get more to do next time around. Zoë Kravitz impresses as Leta.
Wizards of the screen
As you would expect from a David Yates / David Heyman Potter collaboration, the product design, costume design and special effects are all excellent. Some scenes are truly impressive – an ‘explosion’ in a Parisian garret is particularly spectacular.
But special effects alone do not a great film make. Many reviews I’ve seen complain that this was a ‘filler’ film… a set-up film for the rest of the series. And I can understand that view. If you analyse the film overall, virtually NOTHING of importance actually happens: it’s like the “Order of the Phoenix” of the prequels.
Final Thoughts
I dragged myself along to see this one because “I thought I should”. The third in the series will really need to sparkle to make me want to see it. If J.K. Rowling were to take me advice (she won’t – she NEVER returns my calls!) then she would sculpt the story-arc but leave the screenwriting to someone better. The blame for this one, I’m afraid, lies at Rowling’s door alone.
The Plot
I’d really love to tell you about the plot. I really would! But I would struggle to pull all the multitude of strands together from J.K. Rowling’s story and coherently explain them to anyone. If Rowling had put ten thousand monkeys (not a million – it’s no bloody Shakespeare) into a room with typewriters and locked the door I wouldn’t be surprised.
Let me try at a high level….. The arch-criminal wizard Grindelwald (Johnny Depp) is being tortured in ‘Trump Tower’, but manages to escape and flees to Paris in pursuit of a mysterious circus performer called Credence (Ezra Miller) and his bewitched companion Nagini (nudge, nudge, wink, wink) played fetchingly by Claudia Kim. Someone needs to stop him, and all eyes are on Albus Dumbledore (Jude Law). But he is unable to do so, since he and Grindelwald are “closer than brothers” (nudge, nudge, wink, wink). So a reluctant and UK-grounded Newt Scamander (Eddie Redmayne) is smuggled into the danger zone… which suits him just fine since his love Tina (Katherine Waterston) is working for the ministry there, and the couple are currently estranged due to a (topical) bout of ‘Fake News’.
Throw in a potential love triangle between Newt, his brother Theseus (Callum Turner) and old Hogwart’s schoolmate Leta Lestrange (Zoë Kravitz) and about a half dozen other sub-plots and you have… well… a complete bugger’s muggle – – sorry – – muddle.
A plot that’s all at sea
Above all, I really can’t explain the crux of the plot. A venerable diarrhoea of exposition in a crypt, during an inexplicably quiet fifteen minutes (given ‘im-who-can-be-named is next door with about a thousand other people!) left me completely bewildered. A bizarre event at sea (no spoilers) would seem to make absolutely NO SENSE when considered with another reveal at the end of the film. I thought I must have clearly missed something… or I’d just not been intelligent enough to process the information…. or…. it was actually completely bonkers! Actually, I think it’s the latter: in desperation I went on a fan site that tried to explain the plot. While it was explained there, the explanation aligned with what I thought had happened: but it made no mention of the ridiculousness of the random coincidence involved!
The turns
The film’s a mess. Which is a shame since everyone involved tries really hard. Depp oozes evil very effectively (he proves that nicely on arriving in Paris, and doubles-down about 5 minutes later: #veryverydark). Redmayne replays his Newt-act effectively but once again (and I see I made the same comments in my “Fantastic Beasts” review) his character mumbles again so much that many of his lines are unintelligible.
I also complained last time that the excellent actress Katherine Waterston was criminally underused as the tentative love interest Tina. this trend unfortunately continues unabated in this film…. you’ll struggle afterwards to write down what she actually did in this film.
Jacob (Dan Fogler) and Queenie (Alison Sudol, looking for all the world in some scenes like Rachel Weisz) reprise their roles in a sub-plot that goes nowhere in particular.
Of the newcomers, Jude Law as Dumbledore is a class-act but has very little screen time: hopefully he will get more to do next time around. Zoë Kravitz impresses as Leta.
Wizards of the screen
As you would expect from a David Yates / David Heyman Potter collaboration, the product design, costume design and special effects are all excellent. Some scenes are truly impressive – an ‘explosion’ in a Parisian garret is particularly spectacular.
But special effects alone do not a great film make. Many reviews I’ve seen complain that this was a ‘filler’ film… a set-up film for the rest of the series. And I can understand that view. If you analyse the film overall, virtually NOTHING of importance actually happens: it’s like the “Order of the Phoenix” of the prequels.
Final Thoughts
I dragged myself along to see this one because “I thought I should”. The third in the series will really need to sparkle to make me want to see it. If J.K. Rowling were to take me advice (she won’t – she NEVER returns my calls!) then she would sculpt the story-arc but leave the screenwriting to someone better. The blame for this one, I’m afraid, lies at Rowling’s door alone.
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated The Girl in the Spider's Web (2018) in Movies
Jul 2, 2019
There has definitely been a shift in the characters that women are portraying in the movies. No longer happy to be relegated to the damsel in distress who is looking for their Prince Charming to rescue them, they become bad-ass avengers who aren’t afraid to kick-butt and take names. There is no better example of this than Lisbeth Salander, everyone’s favorite goth super-hacker and vigilante. In The Girl in the Spider’s Web, based on the best-selling novel of the same name, we see Lisbeth at her finest and it is an action packed, butt kicking good time.
Lisbeth (Claire Foy) leads a life as a vigilante who targets men that abuse woman ensuring they pay for their evil deeds. She’s not afraid to play hardball and threaten their very existence to ensure that justice is served. In the middle of punishing all the right people, Lisbeth receives a hacking opportunity that she can’t refuse, involving an application where simply logging in allows you to take over the world’s nuclear weapons. This super application was originally created and sold to the NSA in Washington and Lisbeth is tasked with stealing it back and returning it to the original creator so that it can be properly destroyed. Lisbeth successfully steals the application but that then makes her the target of not only the NSA whom she had stolen it from originally, but also another secretive group who has their own nefarious plans.
The film quickly goes from Lisbeth and her “simple” vigilante ways to becoming a global thriller that spans multiple countries and agencies. Not only does the plot change quickly but Lisbeth’s character also morph’s from being a Black Canary type vigilante to becoming a female version of Mission Impossible’s Ethan Hunt. Even though playing a female Ethan Hunt is different from Lisbeth’s usual trope her skills fit nicely into her new role. Her ability to hack into any computer system comes in handy quite a few times and lets us have a tie to the Lisbeth we know and love, but we also get to see her flex her wits and general bad-assery a bit deeper during her “impossible mission”. The film was definitely not what I expected but I was still pleasantly surprised.
The Swedish setting where the movie takes place was gorgeous and varies from desolate abandoned buildings to chases in the middle of sprawling cities. It utilizes the snow-covered landscape and decrepit buildings to create a sense of isolation, even when the streets themselves are packed with cars. Along with the isolation from the setting we also see the use of both old and new technology, which gives a low-tech feel to what is an otherwise a high stakes mission. Both the setting and the technology allows us to see that Lisbeth is a force to be reckoned with no matter what type of adversity she faces.
Which brings me to the one of the best parts of the movie and that is Claire Foy’s absolutely amazing portrayal of Lisbeth. We already knew she did a great job playing a royal in The Crown and as the wife of astronaut Neil Armstrong in First Man but relinquishing her usual elegant and classy portrayals to spectacularly play one of the biggest, baddest female characters around shows the true depth of her talent. She is definitely the star of the show and now I am an even bigger fan of hers than I already was. I was also impressed with the other main characters, including investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason), who plays less of role than in the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but does a great job nonetheless, and the young boy, August Balder (Christopher Convery) that holds the key to the entire mission excellently played by Christopher Convery. The trio make an unusual team, but how the characters (and actors) play on each other’s strengths and weaknesses to complement each other brings heart to a movie that could have easily been 100% an action adventure.
The one aspect I feel could (and should) have been fleshed out more, was Lisbeth’s character as a battered woman’s vigilante. The movie started off with a very strong vigilante scene, but the vigilante theme is quickly forgotten until the very end of the film where we find out it was the sole catalyst of the main adversary. This oversight sadly turned what could have been a woman’s justice vigilante movie into a more run-of-the-mill super spy movie. That’s not necessarily bad, it is still action packed and full of twists and turns, but it’s definitely a missed opportunity to show more of who Lisbeth is.
The Girl in the Spider’s Web is filled with action, gadgets, and car chases though beautiful scenery and it is an excellent movie to see if you are looking for something different than green grinches and Nazi zombies. It’s not the movie I went in expecting to see, but I’m not complaining as it is still a solid film. Even though it diverts away from the more artistic The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo it is a very good action-packed thriller that would stack up nicely next to the Mission Impossible movies it is reminiscent of. It’s definitely a movie I recommend to action movie fans everywhere.
Lisbeth (Claire Foy) leads a life as a vigilante who targets men that abuse woman ensuring they pay for their evil deeds. She’s not afraid to play hardball and threaten their very existence to ensure that justice is served. In the middle of punishing all the right people, Lisbeth receives a hacking opportunity that she can’t refuse, involving an application where simply logging in allows you to take over the world’s nuclear weapons. This super application was originally created and sold to the NSA in Washington and Lisbeth is tasked with stealing it back and returning it to the original creator so that it can be properly destroyed. Lisbeth successfully steals the application but that then makes her the target of not only the NSA whom she had stolen it from originally, but also another secretive group who has their own nefarious plans.
The film quickly goes from Lisbeth and her “simple” vigilante ways to becoming a global thriller that spans multiple countries and agencies. Not only does the plot change quickly but Lisbeth’s character also morph’s from being a Black Canary type vigilante to becoming a female version of Mission Impossible’s Ethan Hunt. Even though playing a female Ethan Hunt is different from Lisbeth’s usual trope her skills fit nicely into her new role. Her ability to hack into any computer system comes in handy quite a few times and lets us have a tie to the Lisbeth we know and love, but we also get to see her flex her wits and general bad-assery a bit deeper during her “impossible mission”. The film was definitely not what I expected but I was still pleasantly surprised.
The Swedish setting where the movie takes place was gorgeous and varies from desolate abandoned buildings to chases in the middle of sprawling cities. It utilizes the snow-covered landscape and decrepit buildings to create a sense of isolation, even when the streets themselves are packed with cars. Along with the isolation from the setting we also see the use of both old and new technology, which gives a low-tech feel to what is an otherwise a high stakes mission. Both the setting and the technology allows us to see that Lisbeth is a force to be reckoned with no matter what type of adversity she faces.
Which brings me to the one of the best parts of the movie and that is Claire Foy’s absolutely amazing portrayal of Lisbeth. We already knew she did a great job playing a royal in The Crown and as the wife of astronaut Neil Armstrong in First Man but relinquishing her usual elegant and classy portrayals to spectacularly play one of the biggest, baddest female characters around shows the true depth of her talent. She is definitely the star of the show and now I am an even bigger fan of hers than I already was. I was also impressed with the other main characters, including investigative journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Sverrir Gudnason), who plays less of role than in the original The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo but does a great job nonetheless, and the young boy, August Balder (Christopher Convery) that holds the key to the entire mission excellently played by Christopher Convery. The trio make an unusual team, but how the characters (and actors) play on each other’s strengths and weaknesses to complement each other brings heart to a movie that could have easily been 100% an action adventure.
The one aspect I feel could (and should) have been fleshed out more, was Lisbeth’s character as a battered woman’s vigilante. The movie started off with a very strong vigilante scene, but the vigilante theme is quickly forgotten until the very end of the film where we find out it was the sole catalyst of the main adversary. This oversight sadly turned what could have been a woman’s justice vigilante movie into a more run-of-the-mill super spy movie. That’s not necessarily bad, it is still action packed and full of twists and turns, but it’s definitely a missed opportunity to show more of who Lisbeth is.
The Girl in the Spider’s Web is filled with action, gadgets, and car chases though beautiful scenery and it is an excellent movie to see if you are looking for something different than green grinches and Nazi zombies. It’s not the movie I went in expecting to see, but I’m not complaining as it is still a solid film. Even though it diverts away from the more artistic The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo it is a very good action-packed thriller that would stack up nicely next to the Mission Impossible movies it is reminiscent of. It’s definitely a movie I recommend to action movie fans everywhere.
Bob Mann (459 KP) rated Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga (2020) in Movies
Jun 27, 2020
Rachel McAdams and Dan Stevens steal most of the scenes (1 more)
A real feelgood movie that spoofs the unspoofable pretty well
My lovely farce
Will Ferrell's output over the last few years has been decidedly patchy. I have to go back to "Get Hard" to find one of his movies that really got to my funny bone. But this latest Netflix offering hits the spot for me.
We start with the song recently voted the number one Eurovision song of all time by UK viewers: "Waterloo" by Abba. Young Lars Erickssong (LOL) (Alfie Melia) is transfixed watching the 1974 Eurovision winner with his recently bereaved father and local Lothario Erick (Pierce Brosnan). (Mental note to women: never marry Brosnan on screen... he gets through wives faster than you can murder "S.O.S."). Also present are his friends and young Sigrit ("probably not by sister") Ericksdottir (Sophia-Grace Donnelly). Lars vows to one day stand on that stage and make his father and his remote Icelandic fishing village proud.
Now all grown up, Lars (now Will Ferrell) and Sigrit (now Rachel McAdams) are still pursuing their dream of representing Iceland in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest. They are, of course, dreadful - - so they should fit right in! But their way is blocked by the immensely talented Katiana (Demi Lovato) and all seems hopeless. Will Sigrit's faith in the power of the Elves see them through?
There's an obvious problem here. The Eurovision Song Contest is in itself so bat-s**t bonkers that it is almost impossible to spoof. (If anyone is not on this wavelength, checkout the genuine Russian entry in this year's (cancelled) contest on Youtube). But the team here (writers Will Ferrell and Andrew Steele and director David "The Judge" Dobkin) do a really great job. I'd love to know what a US audience - who I guess will mostly be unfamiliar with Eurovision - make of this. Since Australia are now honorary Europeans in the contest.... wouldn't it be great if there was a Mexican mariachi band attending and a country and western act from the States? (Brits would love the US to be involved.... as spoofed in the film, there's only one country European's hate more than the UK.... be nice to have someone else to join us in the "nul points" club!)
Wherever you may be on the "Ferrell-funny-or-not-ometer", there's one thing I hope we can all agree on here, and that is that Rachel McAdams continues to shine as a comic lead. She was fantastic in "Game Night" - one of my favourite comedies of recent years - and here she is both gorgeous and hilarious. She knocks it out of the park playing the elf-loving Icelandic pixie with the golden voice. (McAdams "sings" but is significantly "helped" in the mix by Swedish pop star Molly Sandén (aka My Marianne)).
Here she even gets to almost reprise her wonderful "YEESSSSS! Oh no, he died!" line from "Game Night".
Almost matching her in the scene-stealing stakes though is Downton's Dan Stevens as Lemtov: a Russian 'Tom Jones'-like contestant singing "Lion of Love" ("Let's get together; I'm a lion lover; And I hunt for love!"). He's DEFINITELY not gay ("There are no gays in Russia") but are his multi-millions enough to turn Sigrit's head?
For those who love their annual Eurovision parties, there are also an impressive array of nice cameos that will delight.
But where the film-makers really score (no pun intended) is making the music so fitting. Some of the tracks make you think "Yeah, if this was the real content, this might have got my vote". Director Dobkin is quoted as saying "It's okay if it's funny, but it has to be really good music. It has to still be great and just kitschy enough to be Eurovision, because that's part of what's fun about Eurovision" (Source: Vulture). Very true. This success is down to the involvement of pop writer/producer Savan Kotecha on the project: the man behind hits by Katy Petty, Ariana Grande and Ellie Goulding.
A comedy needs to make me laugh, and this one really did - numerous times. It's not just the dialogue. Some of the cut-away scenes are priceless and perfectly executed: jumping whales; a collapsing glacier; a small slamming door!
Sure, it borrows from a number of other sources in its plot: most notably THAT episode of "Father Ted" and the rap-battle scenes from "Pitch Perfect". And sure, some of the outRAGEOUS Icelandic accents sometimes swerve into an alarming mix of Indian, Welsh and Caribbean dialects! But above all, this is movie with real heart. The plot is pretty well signposted, but the finale still packs a (surprisingly) hefty emotional punch, and it leaves you with a really nice afterglow.
As we struggle out of Covid lockdown, it may not be a vaccine, but it is a pretty good medicine for the side-effects. Did I love this? Jaja Ding Dong!
(For the full graphical review, please check out One Mann's Movies here - https://bob-the-movie-man.com/2020/06/27/one-manns-movies-film-review-eurovision-song-contest-the-story-of-fire-saga-2020/ ).
We start with the song recently voted the number one Eurovision song of all time by UK viewers: "Waterloo" by Abba. Young Lars Erickssong (LOL) (Alfie Melia) is transfixed watching the 1974 Eurovision winner with his recently bereaved father and local Lothario Erick (Pierce Brosnan). (Mental note to women: never marry Brosnan on screen... he gets through wives faster than you can murder "S.O.S."). Also present are his friends and young Sigrit ("probably not by sister") Ericksdottir (Sophia-Grace Donnelly). Lars vows to one day stand on that stage and make his father and his remote Icelandic fishing village proud.
Now all grown up, Lars (now Will Ferrell) and Sigrit (now Rachel McAdams) are still pursuing their dream of representing Iceland in the upcoming Eurovision Song Contest. They are, of course, dreadful - - so they should fit right in! But their way is blocked by the immensely talented Katiana (Demi Lovato) and all seems hopeless. Will Sigrit's faith in the power of the Elves see them through?
There's an obvious problem here. The Eurovision Song Contest is in itself so bat-s**t bonkers that it is almost impossible to spoof. (If anyone is not on this wavelength, checkout the genuine Russian entry in this year's (cancelled) contest on Youtube). But the team here (writers Will Ferrell and Andrew Steele and director David "The Judge" Dobkin) do a really great job. I'd love to know what a US audience - who I guess will mostly be unfamiliar with Eurovision - make of this. Since Australia are now honorary Europeans in the contest.... wouldn't it be great if there was a Mexican mariachi band attending and a country and western act from the States? (Brits would love the US to be involved.... as spoofed in the film, there's only one country European's hate more than the UK.... be nice to have someone else to join us in the "nul points" club!)
Wherever you may be on the "Ferrell-funny-or-not-ometer", there's one thing I hope we can all agree on here, and that is that Rachel McAdams continues to shine as a comic lead. She was fantastic in "Game Night" - one of my favourite comedies of recent years - and here she is both gorgeous and hilarious. She knocks it out of the park playing the elf-loving Icelandic pixie with the golden voice. (McAdams "sings" but is significantly "helped" in the mix by Swedish pop star Molly Sandén (aka My Marianne)).
Here she even gets to almost reprise her wonderful "YEESSSSS! Oh no, he died!" line from "Game Night".
Almost matching her in the scene-stealing stakes though is Downton's Dan Stevens as Lemtov: a Russian 'Tom Jones'-like contestant singing "Lion of Love" ("Let's get together; I'm a lion lover; And I hunt for love!"). He's DEFINITELY not gay ("There are no gays in Russia") but are his multi-millions enough to turn Sigrit's head?
For those who love their annual Eurovision parties, there are also an impressive array of nice cameos that will delight.
But where the film-makers really score (no pun intended) is making the music so fitting. Some of the tracks make you think "Yeah, if this was the real content, this might have got my vote". Director Dobkin is quoted as saying "It's okay if it's funny, but it has to be really good music. It has to still be great and just kitschy enough to be Eurovision, because that's part of what's fun about Eurovision" (Source: Vulture). Very true. This success is down to the involvement of pop writer/producer Savan Kotecha on the project: the man behind hits by Katy Petty, Ariana Grande and Ellie Goulding.
A comedy needs to make me laugh, and this one really did - numerous times. It's not just the dialogue. Some of the cut-away scenes are priceless and perfectly executed: jumping whales; a collapsing glacier; a small slamming door!
Sure, it borrows from a number of other sources in its plot: most notably THAT episode of "Father Ted" and the rap-battle scenes from "Pitch Perfect". And sure, some of the outRAGEOUS Icelandic accents sometimes swerve into an alarming mix of Indian, Welsh and Caribbean dialects! But above all, this is movie with real heart. The plot is pretty well signposted, but the finale still packs a (surprisingly) hefty emotional punch, and it leaves you with a really nice afterglow.
As we struggle out of Covid lockdown, it may not be a vaccine, but it is a pretty good medicine for the side-effects. Did I love this? Jaja Ding Dong!
(For the full graphical review, please check out One Mann's Movies here - https://bob-the-movie-man.com/2020/06/27/one-manns-movies-film-review-eurovision-song-contest-the-story-of-fire-saga-2020/ ).
Gareth von Kallenbach (980 KP) rated the PlayStation 3 version of Deadpool in Video Games
Jun 19, 2019
Marvel comics classic antihero Deadpool has made a jump to the big leagues as the star of his own videogame by high Moon Studios. For those unfamiliar with the character, Deadpool is a mentally unstable mercenary who is deadly efficient with all manner of weaponry and takes delightful glee and dispensing violence. As the game opens, dead pool breaks down the fourth wall and openly speaks to the players often chiding them for their performance as well as cracking several raunchy one-liners and quips in the process. In his rundown apartment, we learn the dead pool has coursed through the use of high explosives the creation of a videogame written by and starring himself.
At numerous times throughout the game Deadpool will open the script to offer his creative input and decide to go off script and make some very creative and often bloody changes to the storyline which often causes the unseen but often heard studio exec complain about the budget of the game being surpassed.
While this is a very interesting set up and does add a lot of unique new wrinkles to a game of this type, at its heart Deadpool is simply an action adventure game in a style that we have seen many times before often in better games.
In pursuit of a contract, Deadpool graphically dispatches waves of enemies using his signature swords and guns which allow him to do all manner of complicated and impressive combat moves. As enemies are dispatched, players can earn the ability to purchase and equip new weapons such as shotguns, bear traps, grenades, dual machine guns, and more as well as have the ability to upgrade some of Dead pools abilities such as his healing speed. Like fellow mutant Wolverine, who briefly shows up the game, Deadpool is capable of regenerating health, so when combat becomes too intense it is often advisable for players to retreat to heal before wading back into the never-ending siege of enemy opponents.
Deadpool can also do some very creative stealth kills such as coming up behind an opponent and decapitating them or dispatching them with a quick shot to the head. This does have its own risks as excessive noise tends to attract large mobs of enemies and even as good as Deadpool is there comes a point where discretion is the better part of valor. Thankfully Deadpool has the ability to teleport away from danger and this comes exceptionally handy during the games numerous and at times frustrating jump sequences when a jump goes wrong.
There are elements of the game that are frustratingly hard but then there are moments that are absolute delight for fans of action games as well as, book heroes. The bawdy and over-the-top humor was excessive at times but was also entertaining and the character animations were true delight especially when Deadpool became a spinning dervish of death and dismemberment courtesy of his bladed weapons and guns.
Many of the enemies though became highly redundant and some did require a considerable amount of effort to dispatch so it is important that players conserve their ammunition as much as possible as running dry often required a hasty retreat rather than staying and finishing the job.
There were several clever cameos in game which I do not want to spoil and it was really nice to step into the bizarre and mayhem filled world in which the title character lives. My biggest issues with the game were that the gameplay became very repetitive after a while and the timed jumps and certain fights became extremely frustrating. If I want to do precision jumps from platform to platform to accomplish a goal, I will fire up the Wii U and play a game of Mario brothers.
I also had issues with some glitches in the game such as weapons animations disappearing and one extremely annoying sequence where the control systems on the PC version of the game went haywire and the character started to move on his own without any input from the controls. There were also some problems with the camera angles which in the heat of pitched battles became highly frustrating as I found myself boxed in and unable to see which way to go.
The graphics and sound in the game were solid but to control systems did have an element of frustration to them. While you are able to customize the controls on the PC version of the game, I did have to wonder how much easier the game would be on a console as it seems as if this wasn’t the intended platform of choice as it is a button mashers dream which is very conducive to a game control but not as friendly to a keyboard and mouse combination.
If you can look past the frustrations of the game, there is a lot to like here. Specifically the character, the action, and the ability to play as a truly demented individual who writes his own rules and does not care what anyone else has to say.
In the end the game is entertaining though nothing spectacular and while it may appeal mainly to hard-core fans of the character, I cannot help but think that the game could’ve been so much more.
http://sknr.net/2013/06/28/deadpool/
At numerous times throughout the game Deadpool will open the script to offer his creative input and decide to go off script and make some very creative and often bloody changes to the storyline which often causes the unseen but often heard studio exec complain about the budget of the game being surpassed.
While this is a very interesting set up and does add a lot of unique new wrinkles to a game of this type, at its heart Deadpool is simply an action adventure game in a style that we have seen many times before often in better games.
In pursuit of a contract, Deadpool graphically dispatches waves of enemies using his signature swords and guns which allow him to do all manner of complicated and impressive combat moves. As enemies are dispatched, players can earn the ability to purchase and equip new weapons such as shotguns, bear traps, grenades, dual machine guns, and more as well as have the ability to upgrade some of Dead pools abilities such as his healing speed. Like fellow mutant Wolverine, who briefly shows up the game, Deadpool is capable of regenerating health, so when combat becomes too intense it is often advisable for players to retreat to heal before wading back into the never-ending siege of enemy opponents.
Deadpool can also do some very creative stealth kills such as coming up behind an opponent and decapitating them or dispatching them with a quick shot to the head. This does have its own risks as excessive noise tends to attract large mobs of enemies and even as good as Deadpool is there comes a point where discretion is the better part of valor. Thankfully Deadpool has the ability to teleport away from danger and this comes exceptionally handy during the games numerous and at times frustrating jump sequences when a jump goes wrong.
There are elements of the game that are frustratingly hard but then there are moments that are absolute delight for fans of action games as well as, book heroes. The bawdy and over-the-top humor was excessive at times but was also entertaining and the character animations were true delight especially when Deadpool became a spinning dervish of death and dismemberment courtesy of his bladed weapons and guns.
Many of the enemies though became highly redundant and some did require a considerable amount of effort to dispatch so it is important that players conserve their ammunition as much as possible as running dry often required a hasty retreat rather than staying and finishing the job.
There were several clever cameos in game which I do not want to spoil and it was really nice to step into the bizarre and mayhem filled world in which the title character lives. My biggest issues with the game were that the gameplay became very repetitive after a while and the timed jumps and certain fights became extremely frustrating. If I want to do precision jumps from platform to platform to accomplish a goal, I will fire up the Wii U and play a game of Mario brothers.
I also had issues with some glitches in the game such as weapons animations disappearing and one extremely annoying sequence where the control systems on the PC version of the game went haywire and the character started to move on his own without any input from the controls. There were also some problems with the camera angles which in the heat of pitched battles became highly frustrating as I found myself boxed in and unable to see which way to go.
The graphics and sound in the game were solid but to control systems did have an element of frustration to them. While you are able to customize the controls on the PC version of the game, I did have to wonder how much easier the game would be on a console as it seems as if this wasn’t the intended platform of choice as it is a button mashers dream which is very conducive to a game control but not as friendly to a keyboard and mouse combination.
If you can look past the frustrations of the game, there is a lot to like here. Specifically the character, the action, and the ability to play as a truly demented individual who writes his own rules and does not care what anyone else has to say.
In the end the game is entertaining though nothing spectacular and while it may appeal mainly to hard-core fans of the character, I cannot help but think that the game could’ve been so much more.
http://sknr.net/2013/06/28/deadpool/
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Tidal Blades; Heroes of the Reef in Tabletop Games
Apr 20, 2021
Tidal Blades: Heroes of the Reef (which I shall just call Tidal Blades from here on) is a very successful Kickstarter that funded in 45 minutes and raised over $780,000 with the campaign. I was lucky enough to be able to back this one when it went live, and the hype was REAL. The box is large and in charge, and setup and tear down takes about 14 years, but did I like this one? Dude. YES. We don’t rate Solo Chronicles, but this is a STRONG 6 from me.
DISCLAIMER: As this game is a giant and many reviewers are starting to tackle it using multiplayer rules, I decided I would talk about the differences between multiplayer and solo rules. This review is using the included Solo Mode rules.
Setup for the Solo Mode uses most of the setup rules for the multiplayer game with a few exceptions. In the Solo Mode the player will have one character to control and one Rival to beat. The Rival will need their player board and standee or mini (I have the Deluxe Edition, so it’s minis in my case). In addition, the player will also choose two other characters to be Allies, utilizing their ability cards and minis. The Allies and Rival will be placed on the Champion board ahead of the player to begin the game. The player wins by having more points than the Rival at the end of the game.
Quickly, here is Tidal Blades in a nutshell. Players are attempting to gather the greatest standing on the Champion board (like a VP track) and VP from Challenge cards gained. The players earn these cards by using Actions to move to islands, gather resources, fight monsters, perform boating maneuvers and tricks, and can increase the potential for each of these by upgrading their central board dials. Shells and Fruit are common resources, and each player starts with two Actions per turn. The game lasts four total Days (or phases with several turns in each), and players earn more Action discs on Day two and four. Every time the dice are rolled to complete Challenges a Danger Die is also rolled and can wound the player by forcing a discard of dice. Each Day players can refresh and upgrade used dice to better their skill and concentrate their abilities. After Day four the game ends and players count up points to declare a victor!
Here is how gameplay is slightly different from the multiplayer experience. The Rival always goes first. They will also have one more Action disc to use on their turn (unfair, right?). When they begin their turn, a Challenge card is drawn. Whichever Island is featured on the card is to where the Rival will travel. Once arrived, the amount of VP awarded on the card is how many spaces from the top of the Island the Rival will be placed. Depending upon which Island the Rival ends the Challenge card will then be placed under the Solo Mode mat and a special action taken. The special actions could be revealing and resolving a Plot card in Droska Ring (special to Solo Mode), removing Monster hits from the Fold in the Chronosseum, or moving the boat in Lamara Stadium. The Judge location also plays a role in special actions should the Rival land on the same Island as they are. Other special goodies await, but I will leave you to discover those.
On the player’s turn, if the player is tied with or ahead of their Allies on the Champion board, the player will be able to use the Allies on their turn. This is handled similar to having an extra Action disc on the player’s turn. Send the Ally to a location and reap the rewards. Otherwise, for the player, turns are the same.
Components. Let me tell you: if you have the extra money to splurge for the Deluxe Edition, DO IT. The minis are amazing, the plastic shells are awesome, and those squishy fruit are so perfect! Obviously the game is perfectly playable and enjoyable with the basic components, but the improved bits are really something special. The cardboard everything is great, the GameTrayz inserts are incredible, and the art and colors are simply magical. I cannot say enough excellent things about what comes in this massive box. Druid City Games and Skybound Tabletop got everything right with this one.
It should be no surprise that I am in love with this game. Yes, it’s a Solo Chronicles, and I played by myself. I get that. Eventually I will be able to play this with others and by then I will be so engrossed in the lore that I will have no problems hyping up my playmates. Tidal Blades is an absolutely gorgeous game with so much going on that I don’t think I will ever tire of it. The game lasts four days but I wish it were a month because I just want to keep playing! The decisions to be made are all wonderfully delicious and there always seems to be too few on your turn. Yes, I know that sounds like all worker placement games, but it is especially true here. Almost every spot on the board gives immediate benefits that can be used, so even when a location is occupied, there will always be another of equal importance to your character. It’s so good.
Like I said before, I love the art and colors used. This is a stunner of a game on the table. It does take up quite a bit of room, especially if you use the arena dice tray (which I didn’t because I play at night when the kids are asleep and a hard plastic dice tray wakes up children). I count myself lucky to have the Deluxe Edition as well because those upgraded bits really make the game feel deluxe and fancy.
The Solo Mode is very good, and at least for me, very difficult to win. The combination I used for this review was playing as Axl against my Rival Caiman. Obviously switching out characters and using different Allies will change up the feel a bit, and I really cannot wait to try out all the permutations. When a game begs you to play it as often as you can and you look at it lovingly on your shelf, you know you have a Top 10 game, and a treasure in your collection.
DISCLAIMER: As this game is a giant and many reviewers are starting to tackle it using multiplayer rules, I decided I would talk about the differences between multiplayer and solo rules. This review is using the included Solo Mode rules.
Setup for the Solo Mode uses most of the setup rules for the multiplayer game with a few exceptions. In the Solo Mode the player will have one character to control and one Rival to beat. The Rival will need their player board and standee or mini (I have the Deluxe Edition, so it’s minis in my case). In addition, the player will also choose two other characters to be Allies, utilizing their ability cards and minis. The Allies and Rival will be placed on the Champion board ahead of the player to begin the game. The player wins by having more points than the Rival at the end of the game.
Quickly, here is Tidal Blades in a nutshell. Players are attempting to gather the greatest standing on the Champion board (like a VP track) and VP from Challenge cards gained. The players earn these cards by using Actions to move to islands, gather resources, fight monsters, perform boating maneuvers and tricks, and can increase the potential for each of these by upgrading their central board dials. Shells and Fruit are common resources, and each player starts with two Actions per turn. The game lasts four total Days (or phases with several turns in each), and players earn more Action discs on Day two and four. Every time the dice are rolled to complete Challenges a Danger Die is also rolled and can wound the player by forcing a discard of dice. Each Day players can refresh and upgrade used dice to better their skill and concentrate their abilities. After Day four the game ends and players count up points to declare a victor!
Here is how gameplay is slightly different from the multiplayer experience. The Rival always goes first. They will also have one more Action disc to use on their turn (unfair, right?). When they begin their turn, a Challenge card is drawn. Whichever Island is featured on the card is to where the Rival will travel. Once arrived, the amount of VP awarded on the card is how many spaces from the top of the Island the Rival will be placed. Depending upon which Island the Rival ends the Challenge card will then be placed under the Solo Mode mat and a special action taken. The special actions could be revealing and resolving a Plot card in Droska Ring (special to Solo Mode), removing Monster hits from the Fold in the Chronosseum, or moving the boat in Lamara Stadium. The Judge location also plays a role in special actions should the Rival land on the same Island as they are. Other special goodies await, but I will leave you to discover those.
On the player’s turn, if the player is tied with or ahead of their Allies on the Champion board, the player will be able to use the Allies on their turn. This is handled similar to having an extra Action disc on the player’s turn. Send the Ally to a location and reap the rewards. Otherwise, for the player, turns are the same.
Components. Let me tell you: if you have the extra money to splurge for the Deluxe Edition, DO IT. The minis are amazing, the plastic shells are awesome, and those squishy fruit are so perfect! Obviously the game is perfectly playable and enjoyable with the basic components, but the improved bits are really something special. The cardboard everything is great, the GameTrayz inserts are incredible, and the art and colors are simply magical. I cannot say enough excellent things about what comes in this massive box. Druid City Games and Skybound Tabletop got everything right with this one.
It should be no surprise that I am in love with this game. Yes, it’s a Solo Chronicles, and I played by myself. I get that. Eventually I will be able to play this with others and by then I will be so engrossed in the lore that I will have no problems hyping up my playmates. Tidal Blades is an absolutely gorgeous game with so much going on that I don’t think I will ever tire of it. The game lasts four days but I wish it were a month because I just want to keep playing! The decisions to be made are all wonderfully delicious and there always seems to be too few on your turn. Yes, I know that sounds like all worker placement games, but it is especially true here. Almost every spot on the board gives immediate benefits that can be used, so even when a location is occupied, there will always be another of equal importance to your character. It’s so good.
Like I said before, I love the art and colors used. This is a stunner of a game on the table. It does take up quite a bit of room, especially if you use the arena dice tray (which I didn’t because I play at night when the kids are asleep and a hard plastic dice tray wakes up children). I count myself lucky to have the Deluxe Edition as well because those upgraded bits really make the game feel deluxe and fancy.
The Solo Mode is very good, and at least for me, very difficult to win. The combination I used for this review was playing as Axl against my Rival Caiman. Obviously switching out characters and using different Allies will change up the feel a bit, and I really cannot wait to try out all the permutations. When a game begs you to play it as often as you can and you look at it lovingly on your shelf, you know you have a Top 10 game, and a treasure in your collection.
Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) rated From Bad to Cursed (Bad Girls Don't Die #2) in Books
Jun 7, 2018
(This review can also be found on my blog: <a href="http://themisadventuresofatwentysomething.blogspot.co.uk">The (Mis)Adventures of a Twenty-Something Year Old Girl</a>).
After reading the first book in this series, Bad Girls Don't Die, I knew I had to read From Bad to Cursed. I must admit that I was a bit wary of reading the next book as usually sequels aren't as good as the first book. However, all my worrying was in vain. This book turned out to be amazing just like the first.
Alexis and her little sister are back in this second book in the Bad Girls Don't Die series. Alexis is still worried about Kasey who has been in home for the mentally unstable. Kasey has come back home, and Alexis will do anything to keep Kasey safe. So when Kasey starts becoming more beautiful and starts making tons of new friends, including her sword enemy, Alexis gets suspicious. Alexis learns that Kasey is involved in a club called the Sunshine Club. However, the club isn't as nice as the name suggests. Alexis joins this club to find out what Kasey has gotten herself into this time. However, it soon becomes apparent that Alexis is in way over her head.
From Bad to Cursed is a good title for this book. In the story, things definitely go from bad to cursed so I can see why the author chose this title.
The cover of From Bad to Cursed looks incredibly creepy, not as much as the first book in the series, but still creepy. I'm not sure who's supposed to be on the cover. I thought it might be Kasey, but Alexis is more dominant in this story, so he could possible be Alexis. However, it still could be any member of the Sunshine Club. I do love the cover of this book, but just like Bad Girls Don't Die, I don't feel that it really gives much away about the story.
Again, Katie Alender is spot on with the world building! She makes you feel like you are experiencing everything that Alexis is. Alender makes you feel as if you're part of the Sunshine Club for this story. Everything just feels so realistic which is fantastic!
This is another book where I enjoyed the pacing very much. It was hard for me to put this book down to do anything else. Reluctantly, I did have to put this book down for some time, but as soon as I had free time, I was reading it again. This is such a fast paced story that you will not even notice the minutes flying by.
The wording in From Bad to Cursed is fantastic. It is easy to understand, and I also appreciate the fact that the teenagers speak like teenagers and not like the teens out of Dawson's Creek. I didn't notice any swear words, so fear not. The dialogue flows quite nicely.
All the characters in this book are all well developed with their each individual personalities. Alexis is a fantastic main character. I think everyone can relate to her in some way. I love Kasey!! I love how vulnerable she comes across as. She also comes across as being a bit more strong in this book. I love how she's grown. We also get to learn a bit more about Lydia in this story which I appreciated. However, Carter isn't mentioned too much in this story although he's still in it.
The whole plot in this book was well executed. It's a fantastic idea for a book. This book has me looking forward to the next book in the series, As Dead As It Gets. In fact, I ended up buying it today before I had even finished From Bad to Cursed. That's how much I love this whole series.
I'd recommend this book to everyone aged 13+. It is amazing!
From Bad to Cursed (Bad Girls Don't Die #2) by Katie Alender gets a 5 out of 5 from me.
After reading the first book in this series, Bad Girls Don't Die, I knew I had to read From Bad to Cursed. I must admit that I was a bit wary of reading the next book as usually sequels aren't as good as the first book. However, all my worrying was in vain. This book turned out to be amazing just like the first.
Alexis and her little sister are back in this second book in the Bad Girls Don't Die series. Alexis is still worried about Kasey who has been in home for the mentally unstable. Kasey has come back home, and Alexis will do anything to keep Kasey safe. So when Kasey starts becoming more beautiful and starts making tons of new friends, including her sword enemy, Alexis gets suspicious. Alexis learns that Kasey is involved in a club called the Sunshine Club. However, the club isn't as nice as the name suggests. Alexis joins this club to find out what Kasey has gotten herself into this time. However, it soon becomes apparent that Alexis is in way over her head.
From Bad to Cursed is a good title for this book. In the story, things definitely go from bad to cursed so I can see why the author chose this title.
The cover of From Bad to Cursed looks incredibly creepy, not as much as the first book in the series, but still creepy. I'm not sure who's supposed to be on the cover. I thought it might be Kasey, but Alexis is more dominant in this story, so he could possible be Alexis. However, it still could be any member of the Sunshine Club. I do love the cover of this book, but just like Bad Girls Don't Die, I don't feel that it really gives much away about the story.
Again, Katie Alender is spot on with the world building! She makes you feel like you are experiencing everything that Alexis is. Alender makes you feel as if you're part of the Sunshine Club for this story. Everything just feels so realistic which is fantastic!
This is another book where I enjoyed the pacing very much. It was hard for me to put this book down to do anything else. Reluctantly, I did have to put this book down for some time, but as soon as I had free time, I was reading it again. This is such a fast paced story that you will not even notice the minutes flying by.
The wording in From Bad to Cursed is fantastic. It is easy to understand, and I also appreciate the fact that the teenagers speak like teenagers and not like the teens out of Dawson's Creek. I didn't notice any swear words, so fear not. The dialogue flows quite nicely.
All the characters in this book are all well developed with their each individual personalities. Alexis is a fantastic main character. I think everyone can relate to her in some way. I love Kasey!! I love how vulnerable she comes across as. She also comes across as being a bit more strong in this book. I love how she's grown. We also get to learn a bit more about Lydia in this story which I appreciated. However, Carter isn't mentioned too much in this story although he's still in it.
The whole plot in this book was well executed. It's a fantastic idea for a book. This book has me looking forward to the next book in the series, As Dead As It Gets. In fact, I ended up buying it today before I had even finished From Bad to Cursed. That's how much I love this whole series.
I'd recommend this book to everyone aged 13+. It is amazing!
From Bad to Cursed (Bad Girls Don't Die #2) by Katie Alender gets a 5 out of 5 from me.
Matthew Krueger (10051 KP) rated A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors (1987) in Movies
Jul 3, 2020 (Updated Jul 3, 2020)
The introduction of funny Freddy (2 more)
Welcome to primetime, bitch!
Death Scene's
Welcome to primetime, bitch!
Contains spoilers, click to show
A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors- is a excellent movie, coming off the disappointed Freedy's Revenge, Dream Warriors goes back to the oringal formula, Scary, twisted, dramatic and excellent deaths. Dream Warriors adds more like taking place psychiatric ward, a excellent line that was on the spot, "Welcome to primetime, bitch!". Also Heather Langenkamp and John Saxton return. Also you new charcters that will return in later sequels like Kristen, Kincaid and Joey. A great cast of charcters, a great story and also introduces Freddy's mom and her back story and adds more to Freddy's back story.
Lets talk more: production and deaths.
Production:
Craven's very first concept for the film was to have Freddy Krueger invade the real world: Krueger would haunt the actors filming a new Nightmare on Elm Street sequel. New Line Cinema rejected the metacinematic idea, but years later, Craven's concept was brought to the screen in Wes Craven's New Nightmare.
Before it was decided what script would be used for the film's story, both John Saxon and Robert Englund wrote their own scripts for a third Nightmare film; in Saxon's script called How the Nightmare on Elm Street All Began, which would have been a prequel story, Freddy would ultimately turn out to have been innocent, or at least set up for the murders by Charles Manson, who along with his followers would have been the main culprit of the murders; Freddy would be forced by the mob of angry parents to make a confession of the crimes, which would enrage them further. After they lynch Freddy, he comes back to avenge his wrongful death by targeting the parent's children.
In Englund's treatment called Freddy's Funhouse, the protagonist would have been Tina Gray's older sister, who would have been in college by the time Tina was murdered, and ends up coming back to Springwood to investigate how she died. In the script, Freddy had claimed the 1428 Elm Street house for his own in the dreamworld, setting up booby traps like Nancy did against him.
The death scenes: I love the death scene's in this film. Their are both memorable and excellent and probley my favorite out of all the franchise. You have Phillip's death: Veins pulled out/manipulated into falling off high ledge by Krueger, Jennifer's death: Head smashed into TV screen, Taryn death: Leg slashed with bladed glove, massive amounts of heroin injected into veins and Freddy saying "let's get high", William's death: Lifted, chest impaled with bladed glove and Freddy saying " Sorry kid, but I don't believe in fairy tales", Donald's death: Thrown/impaled through back on car's tail fin by a skeleton verison of krueger and Nancy's death: Stomach impaled twice/gutted with bladed glove/bled out, in dream world cause she sees her dad but its krueger. Also you have the Freddy worm that attacks Kristen.
The plot: During a hallucinatory incident, young Kristen Parker (Patricia Arquette) has her wrists slashed by dream-stalking monster Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). Her mother, mistaking the wounds for a suicide attempt, sends Kristen to a psychiatric ward, where she joins a group of similarly troubled teens. One of the doctors there is Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp), who had battled Freddy some years before. Nancy senses a potential in Kristen to rid the world of Freddy once and for all.
Dream Warriors: is a return to the oringal formula, and adds more. Adds memorable lines, better deaths, intoduction of comedy side of Freddy and above all a excellent movie.
The ending is sad cause Nancy and John doe die by freedy but it ends their story for now and starts a new story with Kristen, Kincaid and Joey. Its a percent, but sad ending. Ending the oringal maim charcters arc/story, while senting up a new trio of charcters.
Also you can't forget about that excellent theme song, "Dream Warrors" by Dokken.
Lets talk more: production and deaths.
Production:
Craven's very first concept for the film was to have Freddy Krueger invade the real world: Krueger would haunt the actors filming a new Nightmare on Elm Street sequel. New Line Cinema rejected the metacinematic idea, but years later, Craven's concept was brought to the screen in Wes Craven's New Nightmare.
Before it was decided what script would be used for the film's story, both John Saxon and Robert Englund wrote their own scripts for a third Nightmare film; in Saxon's script called How the Nightmare on Elm Street All Began, which would have been a prequel story, Freddy would ultimately turn out to have been innocent, or at least set up for the murders by Charles Manson, who along with his followers would have been the main culprit of the murders; Freddy would be forced by the mob of angry parents to make a confession of the crimes, which would enrage them further. After they lynch Freddy, he comes back to avenge his wrongful death by targeting the parent's children.
In Englund's treatment called Freddy's Funhouse, the protagonist would have been Tina Gray's older sister, who would have been in college by the time Tina was murdered, and ends up coming back to Springwood to investigate how she died. In the script, Freddy had claimed the 1428 Elm Street house for his own in the dreamworld, setting up booby traps like Nancy did against him.
The death scenes: I love the death scene's in this film. Their are both memorable and excellent and probley my favorite out of all the franchise. You have Phillip's death: Veins pulled out/manipulated into falling off high ledge by Krueger, Jennifer's death: Head smashed into TV screen, Taryn death: Leg slashed with bladed glove, massive amounts of heroin injected into veins and Freddy saying "let's get high", William's death: Lifted, chest impaled with bladed glove and Freddy saying " Sorry kid, but I don't believe in fairy tales", Donald's death: Thrown/impaled through back on car's tail fin by a skeleton verison of krueger and Nancy's death: Stomach impaled twice/gutted with bladed glove/bled out, in dream world cause she sees her dad but its krueger. Also you have the Freddy worm that attacks Kristen.
The plot: During a hallucinatory incident, young Kristen Parker (Patricia Arquette) has her wrists slashed by dream-stalking monster Freddy Krueger (Robert Englund). Her mother, mistaking the wounds for a suicide attempt, sends Kristen to a psychiatric ward, where she joins a group of similarly troubled teens. One of the doctors there is Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp), who had battled Freddy some years before. Nancy senses a potential in Kristen to rid the world of Freddy once and for all.
Dream Warriors: is a return to the oringal formula, and adds more. Adds memorable lines, better deaths, intoduction of comedy side of Freddy and above all a excellent movie.
The ending is sad cause Nancy and John doe die by freedy but it ends their story for now and starts a new story with Kristen, Kincaid and Joey. Its a percent, but sad ending. Ending the oringal maim charcters arc/story, while senting up a new trio of charcters.
Also you can't forget about that excellent theme song, "Dream Warrors" by Dokken.
Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Tiger Stripes in Tabletop Games
Nov 25, 2021
So it was one of those days when I was checking my email and noticed something odd. I had a random tracking number sitting in my inbox for a game arriving soon. I didn’t recall requesting this game, so why was I having one shipped? A mystery still to this day. However, I recognized the designer’s last name, but could she be related to the designer in mind that I particularly enjoy? And would this game be any good? I was cautiously hopeful.
Tiger Stripes is a set collection, hand management, drafting game for two to four players. In it, players are young tiger cubs just earning their stripes (a fact I did not know prior to playing: that tiger cubs aren’t born with stripes). Each cub will earn their stripes by drafting the best available cards and utilizing them to the fullest in order to collect sets of prey.
Oh fact check: tigers are born with stripes already, so this game is not based fully on facts.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game (I think), so what you see in these photos is probably 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, each player will choose their tiger avatar cards and also receive seven Stripe tokens. The card deck is shuffled, and each player is dealt two cards for the starting hand. The remainder of the deck is placed on the table as a draw deck, but five cards are dealt to the table as an offer row. The youngest player goes first, and the stripes are ready to be earned, like Boy Scout badges… but for ferocious tiger cubs.
Turns are taken in three steps. The player must make a choice of one action for the first step of their turn: Draw a card, Take a tiger card, or Capture Prey. A player may choose to blindly draw a card from the top of the deck and add it to their hand as their action. Alternately, the player may instead choose to take a tiger card from the offer row and add it to their hand. Both of these are self-explanatory.
The third action that can be taken is to Capture Prey. A tiger may capture prey from the offer row by discarding cards from their hand with matching symbols to their target cards they wish to capture. Each card in Tiger Stripes has one or more symbols printed in the upper left hand corner. By discarding cards from hand to the discard pile, a player may use all the symbols provided by these cards to match with cards’ symbols from the offer row. For example, a player may discard two tiger cards and a snake card, noting the symbols now provided. By using the purchasing power of these symbols, the player may then draft cards from the offer row by paying their cost in symbols. It is entirely possible for a player to be able to draft cards from hand in order to purchase all available cards in the offer row to be added to their hand. An explanation of the significance of this is coming.
The second step of a turn is mandatory only if the prerequisites are met: every set of three like cards in hand are discarded in return for Stripe Tokens. So, for every set of three matching monkey, snake, deer, and boar, the player will receive one, two, three, or four Stripe Tokens to be added to their avatar card, respectively, with any tiger cards discarded to be treated as wild cards to complete a set. Therefore, a player may wish to purchase all cards from the offer row in an attempt to score multiple sets during this second step to earn as many stripes as possible.
Finally, the third step of the turn is to Replenish the Jungle (the offer row). For any cards drafted in the turn, the player will replace with cards from the draw deck to setup the next player’s turn.
Play continues in this fashion of grabbing cards, discarding cards, and scoring sets for stripes until one player has earned their seventh stripe and won the game!
Components. This game is a deck of cards and a bunch of Stripe Tokens. The cards are all nice quality, with linen finish, but are a bit on the thinner side as far as flimsiness is concerned. I think if players are all somewhat careful this will not pose problems. If so, consider sleeving your copy. The Stripe Tokens are oblong octagons with stripey art. Speaking of the art, throughout the game the art is very cute and cuddly… except for the boar. He is crotchety. I do enjoy finding the stalking tiger somewhat hidden on each card’s art. A great nod to the noble tiger’s hunting ability.
Now, as I was typing the rules breakdown I felt like I was typing quite a lot for as light as the game actually is. In fact, though it says on the box that it is intended for ages 7+ I just couldn’t leave out my little 5-year-old gamer son. He grasped the rules really well, and though he hasn’t developed the best strategy-focused brain skills yet, he is still able to play and enjoy Tiger Stripes. In actuality, he and I had a blast playing through this several times. Yes, it is a resource optimization card drafting game, but to him, it was more like procuring a veritable zoo of cute animals that then offered his tiger the stripes needed to win. And win he did. Several times. This certainly isn’t a game of high strategy and multiple-minute turns, but rather a quick and easy card game with a great little theme.
Is the designer, Isabel duBarry, a relative of the great Philip duBarry? Perhaps. And that is a great thing, because one of our favorite games across the board is Revolution! Perchance game design just runs in the family. I am not sure, so maybe someone can chime in on this here.
When my son adds a game to his rotation, that is a sign of a great little game for us. He has added Tiger Stripes to this rotation and we will be playing the mess out of it here over the next several weeks/months. While this is by no means a gamer’s game, it is absolutely perfect for a game day with kids. My child loves it, and I quite enjoy playing as a tiny tiger out on the prowl for their stripes. If you have littles at home, parents who haven’t quite converted fully into game partners, or newbies you are inviting into the hobby, Tiger Stripes is a good little game to get the party started. It’s quick, easy, features great art and theme, and introduces simple mechanics to hook people on gaming. Go grab a copy and just keep it in your back pocket for those times you need something like this for that one special group in front of you.
Tiger Stripes is a set collection, hand management, drafting game for two to four players. In it, players are young tiger cubs just earning their stripes (a fact I did not know prior to playing: that tiger cubs aren’t born with stripes). Each cub will earn their stripes by drafting the best available cards and utilizing them to the fullest in order to collect sets of prey.
Oh fact check: tigers are born with stripes already, so this game is not based fully on facts.
DISCLAIMER: We were provided a copy of this game for the purposes of this review. This is a retail copy of the game (I think), so what you see in these photos is probably 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, each player will choose their tiger avatar cards and also receive seven Stripe tokens. The card deck is shuffled, and each player is dealt two cards for the starting hand. The remainder of the deck is placed on the table as a draw deck, but five cards are dealt to the table as an offer row. The youngest player goes first, and the stripes are ready to be earned, like Boy Scout badges… but for ferocious tiger cubs.
Turns are taken in three steps. The player must make a choice of one action for the first step of their turn: Draw a card, Take a tiger card, or Capture Prey. A player may choose to blindly draw a card from the top of the deck and add it to their hand as their action. Alternately, the player may instead choose to take a tiger card from the offer row and add it to their hand. Both of these are self-explanatory.
The third action that can be taken is to Capture Prey. A tiger may capture prey from the offer row by discarding cards from their hand with matching symbols to their target cards they wish to capture. Each card in Tiger Stripes has one or more symbols printed in the upper left hand corner. By discarding cards from hand to the discard pile, a player may use all the symbols provided by these cards to match with cards’ symbols from the offer row. For example, a player may discard two tiger cards and a snake card, noting the symbols now provided. By using the purchasing power of these symbols, the player may then draft cards from the offer row by paying their cost in symbols. It is entirely possible for a player to be able to draft cards from hand in order to purchase all available cards in the offer row to be added to their hand. An explanation of the significance of this is coming.
The second step of a turn is mandatory only if the prerequisites are met: every set of three like cards in hand are discarded in return for Stripe Tokens. So, for every set of three matching monkey, snake, deer, and boar, the player will receive one, two, three, or four Stripe Tokens to be added to their avatar card, respectively, with any tiger cards discarded to be treated as wild cards to complete a set. Therefore, a player may wish to purchase all cards from the offer row in an attempt to score multiple sets during this second step to earn as many stripes as possible.
Finally, the third step of the turn is to Replenish the Jungle (the offer row). For any cards drafted in the turn, the player will replace with cards from the draw deck to setup the next player’s turn.
Play continues in this fashion of grabbing cards, discarding cards, and scoring sets for stripes until one player has earned their seventh stripe and won the game!
Components. This game is a deck of cards and a bunch of Stripe Tokens. The cards are all nice quality, with linen finish, but are a bit on the thinner side as far as flimsiness is concerned. I think if players are all somewhat careful this will not pose problems. If so, consider sleeving your copy. The Stripe Tokens are oblong octagons with stripey art. Speaking of the art, throughout the game the art is very cute and cuddly… except for the boar. He is crotchety. I do enjoy finding the stalking tiger somewhat hidden on each card’s art. A great nod to the noble tiger’s hunting ability.
Now, as I was typing the rules breakdown I felt like I was typing quite a lot for as light as the game actually is. In fact, though it says on the box that it is intended for ages 7+ I just couldn’t leave out my little 5-year-old gamer son. He grasped the rules really well, and though he hasn’t developed the best strategy-focused brain skills yet, he is still able to play and enjoy Tiger Stripes. In actuality, he and I had a blast playing through this several times. Yes, it is a resource optimization card drafting game, but to him, it was more like procuring a veritable zoo of cute animals that then offered his tiger the stripes needed to win. And win he did. Several times. This certainly isn’t a game of high strategy and multiple-minute turns, but rather a quick and easy card game with a great little theme.
Is the designer, Isabel duBarry, a relative of the great Philip duBarry? Perhaps. And that is a great thing, because one of our favorite games across the board is Revolution! Perchance game design just runs in the family. I am not sure, so maybe someone can chime in on this here.
When my son adds a game to his rotation, that is a sign of a great little game for us. He has added Tiger Stripes to this rotation and we will be playing the mess out of it here over the next several weeks/months. While this is by no means a gamer’s game, it is absolutely perfect for a game day with kids. My child loves it, and I quite enjoy playing as a tiny tiger out on the prowl for their stripes. If you have littles at home, parents who haven’t quite converted fully into game partners, or newbies you are inviting into the hobby, Tiger Stripes is a good little game to get the party started. It’s quick, easy, features great art and theme, and introduces simple mechanics to hook people on gaming. Go grab a copy and just keep it in your back pocket for those times you need something like this for that one special group in front of you.
