Spot Reviews 12/15/23
Dec 15 2023
Tetris (2023) [+] Movie on Apple TV+ based on how Tetris came to the Nintendo Gameboy. Hank Rogers (Taron Egerton) is the owner of a struggling Japanese software company who sees Tetris at an expo and falls in love. He ends up going to communist Russia in order to get the worldwide rights for Tetris for game consoles meanwhile the people who had the rights for computer Tetris wanted the console rights too. There is a bunch of intrigue and suspense as the other guys have a Russian bureaucrat in their pocket while Rogers has optimism, personality and honesty… It’s an entertaining film. Fictional though based on history.
Gamera Rebirth #1.1-#1.2 (2023) [/] A six-episode anime series (each episode is about 40 minutes so more like a 12-episode series). A group of teens are caught up in events when giant Kaiju attack their city. It’s only the appearance of another Kaiju, Gamera the giant flying turtle, that saves them and may be the city’s only hope… This is really a story about the kids with the big monster battles being more of a backdrop. Not sure if that’s how Gamera movies go but I didn’t really sign up for watching teens doing stupid teen things. Good animation though.
Anne of Green Gables Audiobook (2016) [+] The 9-1/2 hour Audible version of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s book is read by Rachel McAdams. Set in the late 1800’s on Prince Edward Island. Anne is a 13-year old orphan accidentally adopted by the Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert (they wanted a boy). But her energy and overactive imagination an sense of drama win over the couple. The book is a lot of short chapters chronicling Anne’s experiences growing up in that environment — going to school, making friends, making enemies — and ends as she graduates from teaching school and gets the job as the teacher at her old school… McAdams did a good job bringing the characters to life. I didn’t think the story would be that interesting and yet it was.
Wellington: The Years of the Sword (1969) [-] Elizabeth Longford wrote two books on Wellington’s life. Book one is his birth through Waterloo and book two is his later life as a politician. Lots of details with footnotes and good research but I only got through 20 pages or so. Way too much detail. Too many little things and lots of names and places an it doesn’t help that Brits can have a birth name and a titled name. I guess as a second or third book this would be good but as a first book on Wellington it’s just too much.
Gamera Rebirth #1.1-#1.2 (2023) [/] A six-episode anime series (each episode is about 40 minutes so more like a 12-episode series). A group of teens are caught up in events when giant Kaiju attack their city. It’s only the appearance of another Kaiju, Gamera the giant flying turtle, that saves them and may be the city’s only hope… This is really a story about the kids with the big monster battles being more of a backdrop. Not sure if that’s how Gamera movies go but I didn’t really sign up for watching teens doing stupid teen things. Good animation though.
Anne of Green Gables Audiobook (2016) [+] The 9-1/2 hour Audible version of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s book is read by Rachel McAdams. Set in the late 1800’s on Prince Edward Island. Anne is a 13-year old orphan accidentally adopted by the Marilla and Matthew Cuthbert (they wanted a boy). But her energy and overactive imagination an sense of drama win over the couple. The book is a lot of short chapters chronicling Anne’s experiences growing up in that environment — going to school, making friends, making enemies — and ends as she graduates from teaching school and gets the job as the teacher at her old school… McAdams did a good job bringing the characters to life. I didn’t think the story would be that interesting and yet it was.
Wellington: The Years of the Sword (1969) [-] Elizabeth Longford wrote two books on Wellington’s life. Book one is his birth through Waterloo and book two is his later life as a politician. Lots of details with footnotes and good research but I only got through 20 pages or so. Way too much detail. Too many little things and lots of names and places an it doesn’t help that Brits can have a birth name and a titled name. I guess as a second or third book this would be good but as a first book on Wellington it’s just too much.