Spot Reviews 09/19/25
Sep 19 2025
The Instigators (2024) [+] Apple TV+ heist movie. Rory (Matt Damon) and Cobby (Casey Affleck) are part of an inept trio doing a heist — steal a bunch of bribe money during Boston election night party of Mayor Miccelli (Ron Perlman). When the heist goes wrong and their leader is killed the two become wanted men: their employer wants them killed so they don't incriminate him and Mayor Micccelli wants his bracelet back — the bracelet that has the long combination to his huge office safe where he keeps all his bribe money. On the run Rory turns to his psychiatrist Dr Donna Rivera (Hong Chau) for help and she agrees to go along with them if they hold her hostage… Turned out to be a fairly humorous movie in the kind of humor I like: normal situations that turn out humorous because of irony or how the characters are reacting. Good dialog and acting and some fairly expensive looking set pieces. Also has Ving Rhames as a Special Operations Unit tough guy who everyone fears; Alfred Molina as the "main" criminal's second in command slash deli shop manager; and Toby Jones as Mayor Miccelli's hapless lawyer/flunkie.
Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 (1987) [/] A 45-minute mecha OVA. A prototype mech ends up in the garage where teen mechanic Kouji Sugimoto works. He accidentally activates it which sends out a signal and soon the army is after him, led by elite tank driver First Lt Kilgore who is obsessed with defeating MADOX because it beat him during a trial run. Also involved is Eriko Kusumoto who designed MADOX's software and test piloted it — she is in a second mecha prototype. Lastly is minor character Shiori Nagura, Sugimoto's girlfriend who is breaking up with him but is willing to meet him one last time and he's not going to miss it even if he trashes a lot of Tokyo piloting MADOX to meet her (oh, he can't get out of MADOX and this is before cell phones so of course he has to go himself in a mecha suit he doesn't know how to pilot)… Mecha animation is really good for 1987 with lots of little camera shots showing the details of the mecha and of the mecha v tank and mecha v mecha fights. The story though is quite bad.
Osmos+ (2023) [+] Apple Arcade version of Osmos. I reviewed the Mac version 14 years ago and after playing a few hours it's the same excellent game. Since the game has a minimal UI it works perfectly well on an iPad.
Human: Fall Flat+ (2023) [/] Physics-based puzzle game where you control a featureless white "human" that is barely controllable. With a controller you use one joystick to move forwards, back, or side to side; a second joystick to look and turn; two buttons one for jump and one for sit/fall; two triggers to punch/grab with left and right arm (use look to "aim"). I assume the puzzles aren't that complicated as the challenge is in moving your guy and manipulating the environment. I've seen other games like this (e.g. Octodad was really popular for a while) but I don't particularly like this mechanic. Also I played Human Fall Flat for 15 minutes and I was getting nauseous already — maybe it's the low detail graphics.
Dave’s Hot Chicken, Santa Clara [-] Went here for group dinner. Hot Box (10 tenders for $55), Box of Fries $12. 5 bucks per tender is a lot though these are huge tenders. Still I guess that means less fried outer goodness. We probably got no heat and without sauce it tasted as you’d expect — rather bland. With thousand isle sauce it was ok and with cheese sauce it was ok. Comparatively the frozen Tyson chicken tenders are better.
Metal Skin Panic MADOX-01 (1987) [/] A 45-minute mecha OVA. A prototype mech ends up in the garage where teen mechanic Kouji Sugimoto works. He accidentally activates it which sends out a signal and soon the army is after him, led by elite tank driver First Lt Kilgore who is obsessed with defeating MADOX because it beat him during a trial run. Also involved is Eriko Kusumoto who designed MADOX's software and test piloted it — she is in a second mecha prototype. Lastly is minor character Shiori Nagura, Sugimoto's girlfriend who is breaking up with him but is willing to meet him one last time and he's not going to miss it even if he trashes a lot of Tokyo piloting MADOX to meet her (oh, he can't get out of MADOX and this is before cell phones so of course he has to go himself in a mecha suit he doesn't know how to pilot)… Mecha animation is really good for 1987 with lots of little camera shots showing the details of the mecha and of the mecha v tank and mecha v mecha fights. The story though is quite bad.
Osmos+ (2023) [+] Apple Arcade version of Osmos. I reviewed the Mac version 14 years ago and after playing a few hours it's the same excellent game. Since the game has a minimal UI it works perfectly well on an iPad.
Human: Fall Flat+ (2023) [/] Physics-based puzzle game where you control a featureless white "human" that is barely controllable. With a controller you use one joystick to move forwards, back, or side to side; a second joystick to look and turn; two buttons one for jump and one for sit/fall; two triggers to punch/grab with left and right arm (use look to "aim"). I assume the puzzles aren't that complicated as the challenge is in moving your guy and manipulating the environment. I've seen other games like this (e.g. Octodad was really popular for a while) but I don't particularly like this mechanic. Also I played Human Fall Flat for 15 minutes and I was getting nauseous already — maybe it's the low detail graphics.
Dave’s Hot Chicken, Santa Clara [-] Went here for group dinner. Hot Box (10 tenders for $55), Box of Fries $12. 5 bucks per tender is a lot though these are huge tenders. Still I guess that means less fried outer goodness. We probably got no heat and without sauce it tasted as you’d expect — rather bland. With thousand isle sauce it was ok and with cheese sauce it was ok. Comparatively the frozen Tyson chicken tenders are better.