Spot Reviews 09/22/23
Sep 22 2023
Apple Arcade - The Collage Atlas (2020) [/] A black and white hand drawn FPS relaxing adventure. You kind of wander around picking up poem fragments and listen to soothing background music. If you want excitement or puzzles this is not it.
Book - The World Cup: The Complete History (2006) [/] Terry Crouch. More of a data book. For each World Cup we get the qualification teams and results; then the group stage groups, narrated capsules for each game, and the raw/sports score results; then for each elimination stage we get narrated capsules for each game and the sports score results up and through the finals. Sometimes there is a bit of the background and behind the scenes drama but it's mostly terse game descriptions and though Crouch tries to live it up he kind of fails to make it interesting. First edition had the 2002 World Cup and this edition includes the run-up to the 2006 World Cup but final draft ends before World Cup group stage started (mind you this is the 2010 printing so I guess he's not going to update it with 2006 results)... I found the book interesting at first but got boring quickly. I guess it's more for people who are familiar with the World Cups and the teams and players but for a newbie like me just too much stuff left out that I'm supposed to know.
Kevin's Natural Foods - Korean BBQ-Style Beef [/] These are Sous-Vide prepared so already cooked but you're supposed to fry them for a couple of minutes on each side then cover them with the sauce and let it simmer for a bit. The beef is tender but it doesn't come out as good as restaurant. The sauce is perfectly fine and definitely better than the Lemongrass Chicken I've had.
2024-07-16: had this again and it's worse than I remember. So if reviewed today I'd change rating to [-].
Documentary - Love Notes to Newton (2018) [/] This is a documentary about Apple's Newton mostly told through interviews done for this documentary. Interview clips intermingle and they have Newton enthusiasts as well as some of the original team and even former Apple CEO John Scully. Fairly well done and somewhat interesting even though I was never into the Newton (I'm a Mac guy and Newton did not have good integration to any computer).
Movie - Hanna (2011) [/] 15 year-old Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) has been trained by her father (Eric Bana) to be a killer and their plan is get her captured and in the same room with CIA officer Marissa (Cate Blanchett) whom she intends to brutally murder. Most of the movie is about how Hanna escapes the CIA then tries to return to her father while being pursued... I watched the DVD 11 years ago and really like the movie. Rewatched it again now that female-protagonist action films are more common and I'm not as impressed with the combination of drama and action and it still feels a bit surreal at times.
Book - The World Cup: The Complete History (2006) [/] Terry Crouch. More of a data book. For each World Cup we get the qualification teams and results; then the group stage groups, narrated capsules for each game, and the raw/sports score results; then for each elimination stage we get narrated capsules for each game and the sports score results up and through the finals. Sometimes there is a bit of the background and behind the scenes drama but it's mostly terse game descriptions and though Crouch tries to live it up he kind of fails to make it interesting. First edition had the 2002 World Cup and this edition includes the run-up to the 2006 World Cup but final draft ends before World Cup group stage started (mind you this is the 2010 printing so I guess he's not going to update it with 2006 results)... I found the book interesting at first but got boring quickly. I guess it's more for people who are familiar with the World Cups and the teams and players but for a newbie like me just too much stuff left out that I'm supposed to know.
Kevin's Natural Foods - Korean BBQ-Style Beef [/] These are Sous-Vide prepared so already cooked but you're supposed to fry them for a couple of minutes on each side then cover them with the sauce and let it simmer for a bit. The beef is tender but it doesn't come out as good as restaurant. The sauce is perfectly fine and definitely better than the Lemongrass Chicken I've had.
2024-07-16: had this again and it's worse than I remember. So if reviewed today I'd change rating to [-].
Documentary - Love Notes to Newton (2018) [/] This is a documentary about Apple's Newton mostly told through interviews done for this documentary. Interview clips intermingle and they have Newton enthusiasts as well as some of the original team and even former Apple CEO John Scully. Fairly well done and somewhat interesting even though I was never into the Newton (I'm a Mac guy and Newton did not have good integration to any computer).
Movie - Hanna (2011) [/] 15 year-old Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) has been trained by her father (Eric Bana) to be a killer and their plan is get her captured and in the same room with CIA officer Marissa (Cate Blanchett) whom she intends to brutally murder. Most of the movie is about how Hanna escapes the CIA then tries to return to her father while being pursued... I watched the DVD 11 years ago and really like the movie. Rewatched it again now that female-protagonist action films are more common and I'm not as impressed with the combination of drama and action and it still feels a bit surreal at times.