Merry Christmas 2017!
Greetings, in accordance with my annual traditions on my blog I would like to wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! I have one more blog update planned for 2017 in which I will round up my favourite works from various media including books, television shows, games and films I had experienced throughout the year. This is to be released, as always, on the 31st December. I believe we have had a very successful Write Wise challenge this year with some unique and interesting entries. All those who contributed had done a great job on their stories and I am looking forward to what you will all bring in 2018.
I don’t have anything planned for Write Wise in 2018 at the minute but I do have plenty of stories I would like to tell. An Odyssey of the Rogues sequel is certainly in the works and I would like to make a science fiction entry at some stage as I don’t believe this genre has been overly touched upon. Similar to Odyssey of the Rogues, I would have to build up and create a whole universe for it to take place in. As I have said for the last few years, I definitely want to return to the Guardians series and believe it will need some sort of revamp as it has been a long time since I last wrote one. Guardian is a little trickier to write than others as it has one long overarching plot to construct compared to other series which would have a more standalone feel to sequels or prequels. Have a Merry Christmas tomorrow!
Quote of the Day
Very good. Happy Christmas!
Lane Pryce
Mad Men
Baby Driver
Greetings, Baby Driver is a 2017 film written and directed by Edgar Wright of the Three Flavours Cornetto trilogy fame. It boasts an impressive cast with upcoming actor Ansel Elgort taking the primary role as Baby, Kevin Spacey who has an extensive filmography is also included as is Mad Men’s John Hamm and Jamie Foxx from Django Unchained. Lily James and Eiza González portray the two main female characters in the movie. The soundtrack to Baby Driver is a very important feature of the film as the actions of the characters are synchronized with the music. It is comprised of various songs from a diverse range of different genres and musicians which include Queen, Focus and Dave Brubeck.
The plot begins in Atlanta with Baby, a young and gifted getaway driver, successfully evading the police pursuing him after his team members commit a robbery. His fellow thieves, who all use nicknames to avoid identification, consist of the important characters of Buddy and Darling as well as the secondary character of Griff. Baby is under the employ of the mysterious criminal mastermind known only as Doc and it is soon revealed that Baby has no passion or desire for a life of crime. He provides his driving services in order to pay off the debt he owed to Doc after Baby attempted to steal from the kingpin at a young age. While Baby is not pulling a heist, he visits a local diner and becomes infatuated with a waitress by the name of Debora.
Baby is to undertake another robbery which he believes will be his last as it will pay off all his debt. He is assigned to drive a group of other criminals to their location and provide a speedy escape. Doc ensures that he circulates his crew of thieves and does not tend to use the same team for different heists. The current crew consists of the aggressive Bats, Eddie “No-Nose” and JD. This mission goes awry with a guard being killed in the chaotic scene and Baby, who witnessed the murder, has a strong adverse reaction to it. He is determined to leave his past crimes behind him and start a new life. After a successful getaway he is on a date with Deborah and believing that he is now free. This does not turn out to be the case as Baby is found by Doc in the restaurant. In a private conversation between the two, it is revealed that the kingpin has no intention of letting him go and that Deborah would be hurt if Baby stopped working for him. As a result, Baby starts to see that he can no longer stay in Atlanta if he wants his freedom and so he begins to plot a way out for himself with Deborah at his side.
I really enjoyed Baby Driver and believe that the actors and actresses involved gave great performances. It was a very stylistic and colourful film which I thought was a highlight of the cinematic experience. Another excellent aspect of Baby Driver was the vast range of music included in the final product as it suited their respective scenes perfectly. I also liked the use of music being incorporated into the origin story of Baby and thought the reasons provided for how he became such a compulsive listener was a rather interesting plot point or characterisation for him. Overall, this is a movie that I was thoroughly entertained by and would encourage you to watch it if you haven’t done so already.
Plot=8/10
Characters=9/10
Special Effects=8/10
Overall=9/10
Quote of the Day
I know what you're thinking: "Oh no, Thor's in a cage. What happened?" Well, it's a long story...
Thor
Thor: Ragnarok
The Quiz Part 9
Greetings, November is here once more and that means it is time for Falcon’s Annual Quiz. This is the 9th incarnation that has taken place on my blog with the first taking place on 24th August 2009. The second was held on the 9th April 2010 before I finally decided to make this an annual occasion set on a November date with the third quiz. As always, the test focuses mostly within the realm of entertainment but also contains a few general knowledge questions. Unfortunately, I can’t keep a tally of the score from the very beginning as the first two quizzes have incomplete records but I do have the previous year’s results. Joh was the winner of 2016’s quiz with eight points, Mark came in second with seven and Aaron narrowly behind with six. The answers can be found below as always. In other news, I intend to enter the 2017 Writing Challenge for Write Wise with a Christmas entry and a long awaited sequel to one of my previous stories from a few years ago. Best of luck and enjoy.
1. Who provided the voice of the journalist/narrator in Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of the War of the World’s from 1978?
2. Who said this? –“Here's Johnny!”
3. On what date last year did the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland vote in the EU referendum which resulted in the triggering of Brexit?
4. Which of the following is not a name used by Clint Eastwood’s the Man with No Name in the Dollars trilogy-Blondie, Manco or Angel Eyes?
5. What is the title of Mark’s first Write Wise entry?
6. Put the following Tolkien works in the chronological order they were published in-The Silmarillion, The Two Towers, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Hobbit and The Return of the King?
7. Name the Characters.
8. Unscramble the letters to reveal an actor- PCRHIOHTES ELE
9. The events of Stranger Things is set in the fictional town of Hawkins but in what US state is it located?
10. Donald Trump was inaugurated as the President of the United States earlier this year but how many men have held the office before him if Grover Cleveland’s two non-consecutive terms are counted as two different presidencies?
Spoilers!
1. Richard Burton
2. Jack Torrance
3. 23rd June 2016
4. Angel Eyes
5. Obsession
6. The Hobbit, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Two Towers, The Return of the King and the Silmarillion
7. Sebastian and Mia
8. Christopher Lee
9. Indiana
10. 44
Quote of the Day
Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the War Room!
President Merkin Muffley
Dr Strangelove
Alan Wake
Greetings, Alan Wake is a 2010 video game developed by Finnish developers Remedy Entertainment who are also known for their other titles of Max Payne and Quantum Break. Wake has an episodic format which is comprised of six episodes and two DLC specials that continue the plot after the main campaign is completed. The game has been described as a psychological thriller and makes several references to horror writer Stephen King, a main influencer of Wake’s tense atmosphere and dark storyline. The actors, while relatively unknown, deliver a great performance with Matthew Porretta as the titular lead and Fred Berman’s voice talents as the comedic Barry Wheeler in particular.
The plot begins with famed writer Alan Wake and his wife travelling to the small town of Bright Falls located in Washington. It is explained on the boat journey that Alan has been suffering for two years from writer’s block and so they decide to take a vacation in a remote, quaint town. In reality, the trip was constructed by his wife Alice and Agent Barry Wheeler as a means to overcome his issues. The couple had planned to have a relaxing stay in a lone cabin on an island surrounded by Cauldron Lake. On Alan’s first stop in Bright Falls, he enters a diner where he meets a waitress who happens to be a big fan of his and a strange hermitic woman who warns him cryptically about the darkness. Wake shrugs off her warnings and pays no heed to her advice. He then travels to his next destination to pick up the keys to the cabin from its owner Carl Stucky. Upon his arrival he encounters a woman who explains that Stucky was ill and therefore unable to make it as planned. She hands Alan the keys and Wake leaves. Stucky, who is revealed to be fine, tries to catch Alan as he departs and give him the real keys but he couldn’t reach Wake in time.
As Alan and Alice attempt to settle into the cabin, Wake notices a type writer on the table. Alice explains to her husband that she had planned this whole trip as a means to break the writer’s block and that she had booked a consultation for him to meet a local psychologist named Dr Hartman. This was unbeknownst to Alan and upon hearing it he became infuriated, storming out of the cabin. His walk out is cut short as he can hear Alice scream for help. Alan runs back inside to discover his wife being dragged into Cauldron Lake by a sinister and supernatural force. He jumps into the lake after her but blacks out in his rescue attempt. Alan recovers from the blackout a week later and discovers that he had been in a car accident but had no memories of the incident to recall. The writer, who was still in the crashed car, walks along a dark road back to civilization and begins his journey to discover what happened to his wife.
Overall, I enjoyed the game in the end even though it took me a while it to get into it after my initial dislike of Wake. I also liked the setting of Bright Falls with its small town feel and found it to be a very atmospheric location, full of bizarre characters, to set the thriller in. There is also another game in the Wake franchise. Alan Wake’s American was released two years later in 2012 and apparently changed the tone from disturbing isolation to a black comedy. This is a game that I would like to check out at some stage and would be interested in seeing how Remedy Entertainment handled the change of genre.
Plot=7/10
Characters=7/10
Graphics=7/10
Overall=7/10
Quote of the Day
An army of nightmares, huh? Let's get this party started.
Dana Polk
The Cabin in the Woods
The Sicilian
Greetings, the Sicilian is a novel by Mario Puzo which was published in 1984. It is considered a spinoff to Mario’s previous and most famous work, the Godfather, which was released in 1969. A few characters from the Godfather, most notably Michael Corleone, are present but otherwise it is a novel that focus on the exploits of real life bandit Salvatore Giuliano. For context, Giuliano was a Sicilian bandit who rose to power in Sicily during the Allied Invasion of Italy and the fall of Mussolini’s Fascist regime in the early 1940s. The novel was eventually adapted into a film a few years later in 1987 starring Christopher Lambert and Terrance Stamp. The movie omitted the Corleone family from the plot due to copyright issues and therefore it is not linked to the Godfather trilogy. The Sicilian film was not well received by critics and was panned by audiences for various faults.
The plot begins in 1950, during the final days of Michael Corleone’s self-imposed exile in Sicily after assassinating the gangster Virgil ‘The Turk’ Sollozzo and the corrupt cop McCluskey back in America. He is ordered by his father Don Vito Corleone to usher the infamous bandit Salvatore Guiliano out of Sicily and to provide safe passage for the outlaw to America. Salvatore, who had previously lived safely as a vagabond in the mountains with his private army of men, could no longer stay in Sicily after his crimes cause the authorities to bring down an overwhelming police presence on himself as well as having started a war with the existing criminal syndicates that now wished to kill him. Michael is also informed of the importance of Guiliano’s testament which is an insurance policy that the bandit will use in the worst case scenario. The testament is a collection of documents that reveal criminal activity and sinister ties that could bring about the downfall of many political elites in Italy if they came to light.
The storyline goes back further to the September of 1943 and focuses on Salvatore for the vast majority of its contents. The impoverished Guiliano as well as his cousin Gaspare “Aspanu” Pisciotta decided to steal food for his sister’s engagement party as it was scarce and was often sold on the black market rather than through legal channels. The two are caught by a police officer and this discovery leads to a gunfight in which the cop is killed. Salvatore was badly injured in the shootout and was brought by his cousin to a local monastery where he was healed by the monks that lived there. Aspanu was friendly with an abbot of the monastery and convinced the inhabitants to provide sanctuary for his cousin, allowing Guiliano to get back to his full strength. After Salvatore had recovered, he learned that the police were looking for him and Aspanu at their homes due to the murder. As such, the two tried to escape the authorities by living in the mountains and the complex caverns within. This is the first step in their path to criminality which will see the duo become legendary bandits akin to Robin Hood and heroes to the poor commoners of Sicily.
Overall, it was an interesting novel to read. It did seem to drag on at times but it definitely picked up towards the climactic end. It was also nice to read more of Michael Corleone’s exploits, filling in more of his past during his exile, even if he was more of a secondary character in the Sicilian. It should be noted Puzo altered the name of the fictionalized protagonist slightly from its real life inspiration by spelling it Guilianio instead of Giuliano. Mario Puzo had written several novels throughout his career, many of which are of the mobster genre. I intend to read the Last Don at some stage in the near future and as far as I am aware it is unrelated to either the Godfather or the Sicilian.
Plot=7/10
Characters=7/10
Wording=8/10
Overall=7/10
Quote of the Day
Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!
George Taylor
Planet of the Apes
South Park: The Stick of Truth
Greetings, South Park: The Stick of Truth is a 2014 video game from the minds of the adult cartoon show’s creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. It is a turn based role playing game in which fans of the show can explore the fictional town of South Park, accompanied by many of the main characters from the series as team mates, and interact with some secondary or tertiary characters during the campaign. Trey and Matt had a heavy hand in making the game by providing the voice talent for most of the characters and creating the unique, audacious humour that the series is well known and loved for. The player takes control of the New Kid as the protagonist, who also becomes known as Douchebag to his immature peers, and can select one of the archetypes to gain special abilities. Either the Fighter, the Thief, the Mage or the Jew can be chosen by the player as a type at the introduction. The player is also given the chance to customize the protagonists’ appearance. The OST was composed by Jamie Dunlap, who has been involved in many projects including films and television shows such as Lost and Friends.
The plot begins with the arrival of the New Kid into the small border town of South Park. The reason for the family’s relocation into their new home time is not explained initially but it is alluded to that a sinister motive caused their move. Urged by his parents to go outside and make new friends with the local residents the New Kid quickly runs into Butters. Butters, the well-mannered but frequently bullied kid, welcomes him to South Park and asks the protagonist to join the local children’s role playing fantasy game. The hero accepts and an elated Butters decides to bring him to the wizard and leader of Kupa Keep, Cartman. For those unaware of the series Cartman is an egotistical, anti-Semitic, obese child and one of the four leading characters of the show. Butters brings the New Kid to Kupa Keep which is in reality Cartman’s back garden. The keep acts as Cartman’s base in which he and other characters in his faction, including Kenny who decided to roleplay as a princess much to the bewilderment of the other boys, pretend to guard the Stick of Truth from their elven foes.
The stick which is imagined by the boys to grant the holder control over the universe, is fought over by the elvish led by Kyle and the wizard Cartman. Upon meeting Cartman, the wizard claims that an ancient prophesy foretold of the New Kid’s arrival and the great power he would yield. Once the New Kid was initiated into the Kupa faction he was given the name of Douchebag. It isn’t long before Kupa Keep is raided by the elves and the Stick is stolen by the elvish invaders. For failing to keep the Stick safe, the wizard singles out and banishes fellow Kuppa Keep member Clyde from their gang. Clyde becomes irritated at the ruling, mostly blaming the New Kid for ruining the fun, but decided to leave regardless. Cartman tasks Douchebag, with aid of the paladin Butters, to hunt down those who took the Stick of Truth and to return it to him.
I really enjoyed this game but I believe that potential players would enjoy the Stick of Truth more so if they were familiar with the material and setting of the show. This would ensure in-jokes or references would be better understood. For instance, the game uses songs that are contained in the 1999 musical film South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut or throws backs obscure references to older episodes. Many of the main characters such as Stan or Jimmy become sidekicks to the New Kid, aiding the player with their own special abilities or moves during combat. While I did think the game was too short and that some of the side missions handed out by residents of South Park were very easy to miss, I still enjoyed every minute I played of it. A sequel entitled the Fractured But Hole is to be released later this year. The fantasy element is not the theme for this instalment because the boys are donning their crime fighting costumes as they pretend to be superheroes.
Plot=8/10
Characters=9/10
Graphics=8/10
Overall=9/10
Quote of the Day
As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster. To me, being a gangster was better than being President of the United States. Even before I first wandered into the cabstand for an after-school job, I knew I wanted to be a part of them. It was there that I knew that I belonged. To me, it meant being somebody in a neighbourhood that was full of nobodies. They weren't like anybody else. I mean, they did whatever they wanted. They double-parked in front of a hydrant and nobody ever gave them a ticket. In the summer when they played cards all night, nobody ever called the cops.
Henry Hill
Goodfellas
