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Purple Phoenix Games (2266 KP) rated Monkey Around in Tabletop Games

Jun 18, 2019 (Updated Dec 12, 2019)

Monkey Around

2018 | Action, Kids Game, Party Game

6.0

(2 Ratings)

Tabletop Game Rating

The Kids Table series from Purple Phoenix Games seeks to lightly explore games that are focused toward children and families. We will do our best to give some good insight, but not bog your down with the millions of rules…

Monkey Around is basically Kids’ Quelf. Never played Quelf? Meh, it’s okay if you are part of a silly group that will do anything asked of them. This game is similar in that you draw a circular card, and simply do what it asks you to do. As adults, some of the requests might be strange, but to a child, it’s all just silly fun. Many times you are asked to use the included stuffed banana in your tricks. Examples: lie on the floor with the banana on your belly button. Or: walk around the room while balancing the banana on your head. It’s silly.

I play this with my 3 year old boy and we have a great time with it. He is learning balance, improvisation, following instructions, motor skills, and interaction with others. It may make you feel silly but that’s what kids love, man. Just play this with your kids and have a really great time with zero pressure. Drop the banana? Oh well, try again with a different card. They will be cracking up and you will be strengthening that bond with your kids and fostering the love of board games early.

Kudos

David McK (3557 KP) rated Total Eclipse (Weather Warden, #9) in Books

Jan 30, 2019

Back in the late-to-mid 80s, the band R.E.M. sang

'That's great, it starts with an earthquake, birds and snakes ... It's the end of the world as we know it'

They might as well have been talking about this, the final book in Rachel Caine's <I>Weather Warden</I> series.

Again, picking up directly from the end of the last book, this has Joanne and David still on board the liner sailing home from their showdown with 'bad Bob', and with the 2 lead characters stripped of their powers. Not long before making landfall, however, the Earth starts to wake up and is not best pleased, instigating what basically amounts to Armageddon. The majority of the book deals with the Wardens attempts to placate the Earth and cancel this from happening, with Joanne and David regaining their powers in the process.

I was, I must admit, quite surprised at one point when one of the key characters of the series was called off (just over the 1/2 way mark): I hadn't really seen that coming. However, when they do (finally) make contact with Mother Earth, I found that portion of the plot to be resolved almost too easily, after what had went before.

The series, as a whole, had both it's peaks and troughs: while this entry may not (IMO) live up to some of the previous entries, nor was it the worst of them all.

Kudos

JT (287 KP) rated The Dinosaur Project (2012) in Movies

Mar 10, 2020

The Dinosaur Project (2012)

2012 | Action, Sci-Fi

5.0

(6 Ratings)

Movie Rating

More found footage, this time of the prehistoric persuasion, there really is nothing new here and nothing to get excited about in all honesty. The opening sees a boat pick up a backpack floating in the river which in contains tapes showcasing the efforts of a group of explorers who get a little more than they bargained for when they head into the Congo jungle.

Luke Marchant desperate to please and win over his intrepid father sneaks on board the plane taking the group to the jungle, once there they are guided to where it is believed dinosaurs once roamed. The footage is all shot from the POV of the film crew while Luke sets up mobile cameras in and around the camp site, even managing to attach one to a baby dinosaur giving us quite a unique view point.

The film moves through the gears, but at the end of the day it’s no Jurassic Park. There are some nice scenes and the CGI is pretty good, but that is as far as it goes. The cast of relative unknowns don’t do enough to make the film anywhere near as tense as it probably should be, and we’re better off waiting till a dinosaur appears on screen to get any real enjoyment out of it.

It certainly won’t be the worst film you’ll ever see, but you won’t miss anything should you choose to avoid it.