Escape Room Reviews: Black & White

Company: Escape Room Cleveland
Room: Black & White
Date Played: 12/27/17
Player Count: 3
Success:  Success!

Premise: You’re trapped in an escape room where everything is black and white.

Immersion: This escape room looked just like an escape room. Except that there was no ceiling. Escape Room Cleveland feels a little like a science fair, booths set up in a gymnasium. You can hear people talking (or frantically yelling) in the other rooms, although once we got down to business, it wasn’t much of a distraction. 

Highlights: This is a very puzzle-y room. ERC’s hardest, according to one employee. I was happy that an object I thought was useless decoration turned out to have a valuable purpose. 

Lowlights: Very little in the way of wonder or delight. This is a workmanlike room focused on a series of tasks. A few too many of those tasks are pen-and-paper, activity book types of puzzles. One prop was broken and we didn’t interact with it correctly until prompted by the GM. The big uncomfortable futon actually is useless decoration.

And Finally:  If you’re into some heavy puzzling (like we are), this room will scratch that itch. I think I’d have a hard time recommending it to non-enthusiasts though. I want to be clear that I didn’t -dislike- this room, just that there are better games out there, so out of 41 games played, I’m ranking this one at #29

How to book this room yourself: Visit https://www.escaperoomclev.com/black-and-white-2/

Kickstarter Monday: Failure Edition

You know what’s a good way to start a new year? By reflecting on failure! I’m not going to tell you I always bet on the winning horse. This month, let’s check out some of the Kickstarter projects I wanted to back, but not enough to make 'em happen.

It’s a Month Giant Calendar - It’s just a big wall calendar. I don’t really like those, but this one appealed to me and almost 200 other people. Maybe $26k was too big of an ask. 

The Lost Skeleton Walks Among Us - Larry Blamire is the writer, director, and co-star of a series of wonderful pastiche comedies in the style of 50s b-movies. I’d love for him to be able to make more. Maybe $410k was too big of an ask.

Mutant League Football - a silly football game for the Sega Genesis was up for a remake a couple of years ago. I probably backed out of nostalgia. Maybe $750k was too big of an ask. 
(I think they ended up making the game anyway, but I haven’t played it.)

That’s Not Funny - This was a documentary about comedy. I have no idea why I would have backed it. Looking at the page now, I see that some people I know were interviewed. Maybe they filmed a little bit at an open mic I used to go to or something. All I really know about it now is that a) they sent out so much email and b) $50k was definitely too big of an ask. So they did that really suspicious thing where they restart the project for a tiny fraction of the original budget. Having only raised $30k, the second project set a goal of $15k instead of 50k. And it raised...$15k.

This is the third scummiest move you can do in crowdfunding, after faking a disease or having anything to do with indiegogo.

Escape Room Reviews: Prison

Company: Maze Rooms LA
Room: Prison
Date Played: 11/26/17
Player Count: 5, which was plenty
Success:  Success!

Premise: You’re in jail. Nobody likes being in jail. Get out of jail!

Immersion: This didn’t feel much like jail. Maybe it’s like being in the jail of a minor league stadium, or a contentious corporate headquarters. 

Highlights: The best thing about this game for our group was the contrast it had next to 60Out’s Dracula, which we played earlier the same day. This game was much more to do with physical locks and mechanical interactions than Dracula’s emphasis on magical objects. It did a good job of showing our new players the range of styles out there. Also, I liked their map.

Lowlights: Some of the items and devices in this room are pretty nonsensical for a prison theme. 

And Finally:   This room might as well be called ‘office break room.’ We started out in jail cells, but truly, must not have been stuck in them for more than 90 seconds. I suspect this must be one of the earliest games in the Maze Rooms collection, and admittedly, we chose it by seeing what was open that we could use a discount code on about an hour in advance. Although LA has some premium games that are pushing ticket prices higher, I think companies with a wide gamut of games should start pricing the old ones down a few bucks to keep them full. Out of 40 games played, this one is getting a rank of #33.

How to book this room yourself: Visit https://la.mazerooms.com/quest/prison/

#2,413: The Last Jedi

The Dinner - ★☆☆☆☆
For a movie with so much going on, not much happens. It’s weird how they landed such good actors for a few roles, then cast the rest with friends of the crew and raffle winners What’s worse, not enough dinner. Fans of The Trip will be expecting to see Steve Coogan pontificating over an absurdly luxurious meal, and in this installment, we barely learn about the line-caught trout.

Table 19 - ★★☆☆☆
Moving along in our tour of disappointing dining (we were hoping to watch a hole week of movies with people eating dinner), this movie is what you might call: not great. Review is one of my very favorite shows in recent memory, and this is directed by one of the creators and director of Review. Andy Daly even has a nice little cameo. Alas, Table 19 has a dearth of acts and a wealth of endings scattered all throughout. It gets better once they escape the horrible wedding, but not by enough.

Star Wars: The Last Jedi - ★★★★☆
Wow! Well, this movie is certainly less ‘fun’ than 7. I think that’s fine. 8 both advances the story and checks a dozen boxes of picky complaints people have had about 7 or earlier movies. I once spent a weekend hanging out with Rian Johnson and we talked so much about Brazil – I was so happy for him at all of the nods in this. I mean, it’s practically sacrilege that someone gets a throwaway line and doesn’t use one of the Star Wars Numbers, it’s 27B-6! And the magnifier in the throne room! My biggest disappointment was that the audience in my sold out screening was so quiet. This movie has big surprises!

(Second biggest is I caught on to a thing at the end really early. I bet it's more fun if it blows you away.) sure I’ll be back to see it again next week sometime. Can’t wait!

#2,410: Lady Bird

Bad Genius - ★★★★☆
Mostly great high school heist. The last act drags a little.

The test taking scenes are so much more engaging and suspenseful than anything I’ve seen lately. This would be a great double feature with Justice League for people who are always shouting about the importance of Stakes.

Coco - ★★★½☆
Certainly it fits into my top 50% of Pixar movies. Very glad it wasn’t another sequel. Outstanding third act. Interesting choice to just kill the dog.

FWIW, I saw the version that didn’t have Frozen on Ice at the beginning. Shame that a Pixar short didn’t get made instead.

Lady Bird - ★★★☆☆
In much the same way that a lot of things in the current cultural moment are not about me, I am happy that this exists but I didn't connect with it as well as I did with some other recent high school movies. This isn't how I happened to grow up. Still, I sure liked some of Lady Bird's decisions and definitely disliked others, and I could probably say the same about my high school aged self.

I do feel like I probably need a rewatch to pick up everything Lady Bird was putting down, but also that I'm probably not going to give it one very soon. Alas.

However, this was the best movie I saw this year that was directed by a woman. Of the 90-ish films I’ve logged so far this year, not limited to 2017 releases, I’ve seen 7 directed by women. and 4 of those were documentaries.