#2,315: Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

99 Homes - ★★★☆☆
I'm perpetually at my most delighted when I see a movie I've never heard of before it starts. This is a classic first-half movie: digging into the world and characters is fun, but when The Plot comes smashing down, the wheels start to come off.

Cop Car - ★★★★☆
Watched this out of Spider-hype as much as anything. The kids were younger than I was expecting. The movie was better than I was expecting. Somehow, the setting makes it feel like a solid double feature with 99 Homes. Good work, everybody!

Nocturnal Animals - ★☆☆☆☆
As the French would say, "pretentious nonsense." Marvel at the symbolism! Thrill to the incredible reading montage!

Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them - ★★☆☆☆
It seems like Potter fans found it pretty satisfying, which is probably the most important thing, but it's kind of a weird movie. It's not that nothing happens so much as that the characters might not be relevant to the plot.

Escape Room Reviews: The Pirate's Den

Company: MagIQ
Room: Pirate’s Den
Date Played: 1/5/17
Player Count: 2. We could have easily had one or two more.
Success:  Success!

Premise: Treasure is inherently desirable. Pirates have treasure.

Immersion: Some props were a little well-worn, but the pirate ship looked great! It's fun to be able to look through the portholes and see 'outside.' This room is low tech and lock-based.

Highlights: This room had a fun variety of things to do. Although some puzzle types are repeated, they are accompanied by some fun objects that look like they belong on board the ship. The end game was exciting and felt urgent, even though we didn't know how much time was left on the clock.

Lowlights: Succeeding in this room requires a lot of Spot Hidden checks, which is an area where we sometimes come up short when playing as a duo. More eyes means finding more secrets faster!  One of the locks, even though we knew what we were looking for, we never found it and I forgot to ask the GM after. (We spun the last dial of the lock.)  Another puzzle was so well-worn that clues were no longer necessary. 

And Finally:   Thanks to a groupon we didn't want to expire, this room made for a fun date night. I had the prejudice that it was perhaps meant for kids (the room can be adjusted to suit birthday parties and such), and even that the *IQ locations around town were somehow 'less than' other companies, but that's all stuff and nonsense. It kept us busy for most of an hour, had some depth we weren't expecting, and it was fun. Out of 16 rooms played, this room takes the #7 spot away from last week's review.

How to book this room yourself: Visit https://magiqescaperoom.com/los-angeles/pirates

#2,311: Arrival

To Be - ★★½☆☆
I was talking with a friend who remembered this existentially terrifying (and of course Canadian) cartoon he'd seen as a kid, and tracked it down for myself. It's a little bit long.

Special Delivery - ★★½☆☆
Another from the same animator as To Be, John Weldon. This one won the Oscar™ for best animated short. I don't love it, but it does seem like a more interesting time for the short film Oscars™. It's on YouTube.com here. 

Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy - ★★★½☆
I'm pretty sure this was a rewatch, but I had no memory of what actually happens in this movie. It's like a puzzle box I can enjoy anew from start to finish each time I come back to it.

Arrival - ★★★★★
Great! I know we're just getting into the season*, but I wonder if this isn't my best picture pick. It's a nominee, at least, since sci-fi won't win it. As a generalization, I love it when a movie that is not a romance doesn't have a romance, and it's kind of clever how they get to have it both ways here. All the linguistic stuff really (ahem) speaks to me too. Fake etymology is one of my favorites of the fake sciences. Or, the fake humanities, I guess. I'm looking forward to having had seen it again some time. 

*Sorry, that must seem a little bit insane. The capsule reviews are usually done sort of close to when I saw the movie, but they print each week here four at a time. If I get too far ahead you end up seeing me speculate about awards season after it's over.  I can see how it would make more sense to publish in a timely fashion, or to post a new blog every time I rack up four movies, but... that's not what this is right now.

Also, like all movie reviewers, my star ratings are arbitrary and meaningless, and totally bendable by payola, if anyone's got some to spare.

Escape Room Reviews: Murder in the Old Manor House

Company: Escape Hunt Experience Cleveland
Room: Murder in the Old Manor House
Date Played: 12/27/16
Player Count: 3. One or two more would have been okay. 
Success:  Success!

Premise: There had been, at a stately manor home, what law enforcement professionals might refer to as "A Murder," and as those professionals, it is incumbent upon you to crack the case!

Immersion: Escape Hunt is a franchise, in this case built into a former big box appliance and electronics store, and as such their lobby and rooms feel very professional, but more in the 'game show' side of production design than 'actual spooky manor.' There is a scene that takes place 'outside,' which we don't see too often. Some of the puzzles are beyond belief as things that might 'really be there,' but don't feel out of place or wrong for a nice game.

Highlights: There is a lot to do in this game, and a variety of puzzles. A few clichés, (black light: ✓) but also some mechanisms I'd never seen before. As an introduction to this kind of puzzle gaming experience, it went over great with the first-timer in our group, who put together a bunch of solves. I don't recall ever being at a loss for what to work on next.

Lowlights: Because of a lousy previous experience where I refused to work a cypher, I put extra effort into taking one for the team and puzzling one out in this game. This wasn't super fun or super helpful. I don't have any particular complaints about the game itself.

And Finally:  I think a room like this one is a very solid baseline for what an escape game should be. I would recommend it to anyone looking to try this sort of thing out, or more experienced players looking for a solid fix of puzzling. The only reason I don't rate it higher is that while this game checks all the boxes, newer and fancier games are inventing new boxes and checking them. That is, innovating and elevating the form on the shoulders of games like this one. Out of 15 games played, I'm ranking this one #7.

Also, I'm not sure we really did much in the way of catching the killer... 

How to book this room yourself: Visit http://cleveland.escapehunt.com

#2,308: Dr. Strange

Hush - ★★★★☆
Solid! The characters make mistakes you can criticize them for, but let's see you do better. It's really fun that Maddy's deafness is always a kind of weapon against her tormentor - she can always ignore him.

The backstory of a ma-and-pop indie production is neat too.

Piper - ★★★☆☆
Of course it's pretty. 

Denial - ★★★★☆
I liked this a lot. All that high flying lawyering! There's just something great about watching people who are excellent at their jobs using their skills effectively in a struggle, instead of the skills themselves being the subject of the struggle. I guess I'm advocating for 'Man v. Man' over 'Man v. Self,' but it's why I like this movie better than last year's version, Woman in Gold.

Doctor Strange - ★★★½☆
Certainly a movie that deserves to be seen on the big screen. Really terrific VFX work in this. I'm also happy with how this movie both advanced the plot of the overarching MCU and stood almost entirely alone from the other films. It's an origin story, fine, whatever, but it's not about a man bumbling, because this Strange's real power isn't magic, it's his ambition to learn. Being good at learning, optimizing, is a terrific skill all on its own. Here's hoping the sequel isn't just going to be about losing all of that to a well-placed punch.