Spot Reviews 01/24/25
Jan 24 2025
Pixel Perfect (2004) [/] Disney Channel movie. After their band is rejected by a music label — because their lead singer Samantha (Leah Pipes) is not charismatic enough — high schooler Roscoe (Ricky Ullman) uses his father's tech to create Loretta (Spencer Redford) a holographic singer. But as the band's success grows Roscoe and Samantha's friendship deteriorates while Loretta starts to yearn to be more than just someone who exists in the confined spaces of a stage. Also a corporation wants to buy Loretta's tech, and Loretta… It's an ok movie with some song numbers while not being a musical.
Goodbye Dear Wife (2012) [-] South Korean romance drama running 20 episodes. After three years of marriage Cha Seung-hyuk (Ryu Si-won) and his wife Kang Sun-ah (Hong Soo-hyun) have grown apart. He longs to find his first love Oh Hyang-gi (Park Ji-yoon) and when he does is determined to divorce Sun-ah though because she's a devout Catholic is going to be hard. But the more he tries the more realizes he loves her… My two big criticisms is that they never really establish why they fell in love in the first place (there are flashbacks that explain it but they're not convincing) nor why they love each other now. Also the ending is not great — it takes the shortcut of "let's not show the actual resolution and skip ahead 18 months". Overall although watchable it's a low quality story.
Oddmar+ (2019) [/] Oddmar is an Apple Arcade Viking-themed side-view platformer that works well with a controller. Collect triangles (you have a minimum to pass each level) and find three optional secrets. You have the standard move left and right, jump, jump on wall then jump again, axe slash, climb ropes, jump on switches. If you die you restart at the last checkpoint so I suppose eventually you can beat any level. It's kind of an average platformer so not much to recommend it specifically.
Yea Foods Mini Soupy Pork Bun with Crab Meat [/] Xiao Long Bao which are dumplings with soup. These come frozen and you need to steam them from frozen. I have a steamer thing from my old rice cooker and just used a regular pot to steam them (make sure to cover pot so it gets hot). They still came out only ok so it's harder to cook than it looks (and also a couple of years past expire date). Think I'll stick with something simpler like frozen potstickers.
Goodbye Dear Wife (2012) [-] South Korean romance drama running 20 episodes. After three years of marriage Cha Seung-hyuk (Ryu Si-won) and his wife Kang Sun-ah (Hong Soo-hyun) have grown apart. He longs to find his first love Oh Hyang-gi (Park Ji-yoon) and when he does is determined to divorce Sun-ah though because she's a devout Catholic is going to be hard. But the more he tries the more realizes he loves her… My two big criticisms is that they never really establish why they fell in love in the first place (there are flashbacks that explain it but they're not convincing) nor why they love each other now. Also the ending is not great — it takes the shortcut of "let's not show the actual resolution and skip ahead 18 months". Overall although watchable it's a low quality story.
Oddmar+ (2019) [/] Oddmar is an Apple Arcade Viking-themed side-view platformer that works well with a controller. Collect triangles (you have a minimum to pass each level) and find three optional secrets. You have the standard move left and right, jump, jump on wall then jump again, axe slash, climb ropes, jump on switches. If you die you restart at the last checkpoint so I suppose eventually you can beat any level. It's kind of an average platformer so not much to recommend it specifically.
Yea Foods Mini Soupy Pork Bun with Crab Meat [/] Xiao Long Bao which are dumplings with soup. These come frozen and you need to steam them from frozen. I have a steamer thing from my old rice cooker and just used a regular pot to steam them (make sure to cover pot so it gets hot). They still came out only ok so it's harder to cook than it looks (and also a couple of years past expire date). Think I'll stick with something simpler like frozen potstickers.