#2,432: Tomb Raider

Thor: Ragnarok - ★★★½☆
Things I thought were weird:
- How we're making a big deal of All-New Thor, like the other movies had no jokes.
- How filmed improv is a drag on repeat viewings of pretty much any movie, even a superhero movie.
- How everyone is surprised to find out that the girl with Valkyrie tattoos on her face is a Valkyrie when they see the Valkyrie tattoo on her arm.
- That you can control a god with lightning powers with a fancy taser.
- How much this movie now reminds me of The Last Jedi.

Unsane - ★★★★☆
I like Soderbergh's experiments. The simple, horrible premise is super effective - it's a plausible threat! I thought the iPhone gimmick was a little distracting at first, but I got over it once the story picked up.

I did find myself surprised at how dark this movie was. Like, some parts were really dark. Like, hey, someone turn on a light in there.

Tomb Raider - ★★½☆☆
This would have blown everyone’s minds if it had come out twenty years ago instead of the Angelina Jolie version. There’s nothing particularly wrong with it, it’s a terrific 90s action movie, but it’s no longer the 90s. We’re now in the era of filmmakers who grew up in the 90s adopting, adapting, and improving on the films they loved as kids.

Seeing Dominic West kind of made me nostalgic for The Wire. Specifically, the season that doesn’t have McNulty in it.

#2,430: Legends of the Hidden Temple

Chris Rock: Tamborine - ★★★☆☆
I found myself getting more interested in hearing about Chris Rock's life than in the jokes.

Fred Armisen: Standup for Drummers - ★★☆☆☆
Anti-comedy you don't need to leave the house for!

Do you guys ever have that thing happen to you where you have an idea for a couple of youtube videos or maybe a podcast, but you're so famous that you end up making a special for Netflix or HBO?

Legends of the Hidden Temple - ★★★★☆
I was very surprised at how well done this is. I didn't really watch the game show, so it's sort of weird that I watched this, and I was probably a little bit surprised by times the script bent over backwards to set up a scenario from the show that a fan would have seen coming immediately. Even the VFX were pretty solid - I'm just really happy for whoever got to make this.

If it was something I or anyone else believed in, I would say this is firmly a movie for the New Sincerity movement.

#2,427: Black Panther

Justice League vs. Teen Titans - ★★☆☆☆
Movie contains:
• 40% - punching
• 25% - plot
• 20% - oogling Starfire
• 10% - DDR
• 5% - Justice League

Fruitvale Station - ★★★☆☆
I think I liked everything about this movie but the movie. I loved the look, the acting is great, everyone did a good job. And while it's totally not the point of this movie, I can't help but watch through my fingers as we see this guy having a nigh-saintly last day when we know what's coming for him and start wondering about the real circumstances of his life.

This feels tricky. Is the movie less compelling if he's not such a nice guy, or an outright creep? Or if it changes so many details that the film might as well not even use the name of the real person? A couple scenes lay it on so thick that it felt like the movie might be insecure about whether or not I cared about Oscar.

Black Panther - ★★★½☆
This movie reminds me a little bit of when short-lived TV shows of the '70s would package two episodes together into a movie. I wish we could have seen the whole series so that there would be time to dig into the fridge logic stuff of how life inside Wakanda makes sense.

Plus, everyone would be happy to get to spend more time with Killmonger! He's the Boba Fett of the MCU!

Escape Room Reviews: The Pharaoh's Curse

Company: The Hidden Passage
Room: The Pharaoh’s Curse
Date Played: 2/4/18
Player Count: 2, which is not enough.
Success:  Total failure!

Premise: Walking along one day you slip into some quicksand and find yourself in a spooky underground chamber! 

Immersion: A little bit of a mixed bag. The production design is fantastic. The rooms and walls and props look great, but there are a lot of digital keypads for ancient Egypt.

Highlights: A lot of care went into this room. The puzzles are pretty clever. The customer service was excellent.

Lowlights: The mix of ancient and modern set design. We skipped over some elements that seemed so off-theme that we didn’t initially think they were part of the game. I felt bad about accidentally opening a lock too soon and skipping over a couple of things. One other lowlight, of course, is losing by a lot. I felt new. (Except of course, our first few games when we were new were successes.)

And Finally:  Most of our group no-showed on us. Word on the street is that this room is large and has a lot to do, and is worth doing with a medium sized group. I'm sure this would have helped, and it's not Hidden Passage's fault (as far as I know). Playing as a duo, we weren’t even close to finishing. As we exited, I thought that maybe I had not seen enough of the room to give it a fair place on my list, but we succeed in rooms all the time as a couple, and I think the things that bugged me would still bug me if we won.  More than I regret losing, I regret squandering the opportunity to experience this game as it was meant to be played. Still, if I have to put a subjective number on it, I guess that out of 44 games played, I’d rank this at 35. 

How to book this room yourself: Visit https://www.thehiddenpassage.com

#2,424: The Cloverfield Paradox

Ingrid Goes West - ★★★★☆
This is the most realistic depiction of living in Los Angeles I've ever seen.

It Might Get Loud - ★★☆☆☆
I would like to see more documentaries with such a narrow interest, preferably on subjects that I care about.  It’s fun that Jack White thinks he’s into minimalism.

Dealt - ★★★☆☆
Richard Turner is a man who spent his life wanting to be known as a card sharp first and as a blind guy not-at-all. So it seems almost cruel that the documentary about him is a movie about a blind guy who is blind and developed fantastic skills with cards and also he's blind.

Still, I love seeing people with that bit for obsession flipped.

The Cloverfield Paradox - ★★★☆☆
The Cloverfield movies are so loosely connected to one another that if not for their titles it would just be a fun fan theory. Watch them in any order.

Appearing out of nowhere was a delightful trick. More than either of the others this movie is a mixed bag, but I still had a big smile on my face all through the first half. The B-plot is super thin. The effects are solid. Good actors smooth over some rough lines. It's better than a Syfy original or the typical Netflix sci-fi feature. This movie is like if one of those movies' uncle died and left it some real money.