Goose

Retro arch looks lovely but man, what a pain to set up. I think I’ll stick with Coinops and hope they add psx and Dreamcast emulation to it.

Hunt for the Wilderpeople (2016) A troubled foster boy and his 'uncle' become the subject of a man hunt after disappearing in the bush. No idea why I'd not seen this before now, but it was well worth the wait. Julian Dennison and Sam Neill have a wonderful chemistry together and the dialogue and situations really crackle. For much of the film it's just the two of them yet it never becomes stale, and as the pair's relationship builds, there's a real sense of caring between them - even if it's not always shown or spoken. The opening is both funny and sad, and that feeling continues to run through the heart of the story. The touching, difficult moments are handled with pitch perfect humour that balances with what is happening near perfectly. Julian Dennison is incredibly good as Ricky. He could have easily been a one-track annoying creation but there's so much more to the character. Matching him barb for barb, Sam Neill gave a wonderful performance as the grizzled Hector, a man too gruff to be bonding with a kid he didn't even want to be stuck with. However, the relationship works and the two soon come to depend on each other. Yet, it never loses that cynical edge, nor does it become too saccharine. This is thanks in large part to the steady hand of director Taiki Waititi, who also has a brilliant cameo as a vicar. Similar to the director's earlier feature, Boy, the meshing of a difficult situation with humour and thoughtfulness is just right. The supporting cast are great too, with note to Rachel House as the obsessed welfare worker and Tioreore Ngatai-Melbourne as the girl who befriends Ricky (her father is also very funny). Rima Te Wiata was lovely as Aunt Bella. This was such a good movie, with some genuine laugh out loud moments. It also had a cracking soundtrack and once again, was a superb advert for the New Zealand tourist board. The scenery looked astonishing. Well worth a watch or two. Another triumph from Waititi. ----- And not including the Harry Potter short, Origins of the Heir, this marks the 365th film I've seen this year.

Completely flopped in the US, making just $7M for the weekend.

I watched this just tonight and it was great. Funny, inventive and moving.

Has anyone seen Lars Von Trier's The House That Jack Built? I think it got a one day cinema release then went straight to VOD.

Blood Sucking Freaks (1976) aka The Incredible Torture Show A man, Sardu, runs a theatre torture show, but unbeknown to his audience, the girls are tortured and killed for real. Years ago I knew a guy called Salty, an absolute horror film fan who tracked down anything he could. He put ads in magazines requesting horror movies, met guys in pubs to buy copies of the likes of Nekromantik 2, and even made his own gore compilation - 2 hours of carefully edited and curated snippets from Cannibal Ferox, Zombie Flesh Eaters and The Beyond (amongst many others). He also had a line in cinema release pirated movie and back at that time, I would trade films with him (not horror, mainstream releases). For the life of me, I can't recall what I swapped with him but I ended up with something that ran around 1 hour and 25 minutes long. I know this because when I'd watched whatever it was, the film cut off to what was previously on the tape and I was greeted with the last minute of Blood Sucking Freaks. This is awful enough as it is, but seeing that ending out of context - that stayed with me for years. Blood Sucking Freaks became something of a minor cult picture when it was released years ago. Its horrific treatment of women led to some protests and notoriety. This was raised further by the deaths of its two stars some time later. Today I finally watched it to see what the fuss was about. This is a truly awful film, with terrible acting, ridiculous violence, insane situations and more nudity than an adult movie. Almost every woman in the film is nude or partially nude and is there to be tortured, killed or both. There's very little plot - Sardu and his dwarf servant Ralphus kidnap girls as part of a white slavery chain. He keeps a few for himself so they become part of his theatre show. The crowd think it's all fake, but we know it isn't. He has a run in with a critic, who he ends up kidnapping, along with a ballet dancer. He plans to use them both in a brand new extravaganza.This basically means that for the next hour we get to see people tortured in all kinds of brutal and inventive (not in a good way) methods. I won't detail this for you, but there's some shocking stuff here. While the effects are easily held up as fake, the context and methods behind many of them are disturbing. At the same time, Sardu is this camp, somewhat charismatic character, and feels like he belongs in a completely different film. Things veer from the blackest comedy to blood filled beheadings and dismemberment (and much worse). It sets out to shock with some ridiculous ideas and comments, and by the half way point it was nauseating. It's not scary or even that gory but there's stuff here that's fairly awful to sit through. The music is truly odd, channelling what appear to be tracks from a music hall collection. Like the critic in the movie, I don't really want to say how bad this film is, because I'd hate to be responsible for people seeing it. It tries to emulate the likes of Herschell Gordon Lewis while throwing in sadomasochism, nudity and just about anything it can to try and shock or offend. Maybe some people would love this kind of thing, and find the relationship between Sardu and Ralphus as a bit of a laugh. I thought it was exploitative, nasty, with a truly vicious streak against women running right through it. Not at all recommended (and that isn't a recommendation either).

Just grabbed v3 of Coinops. Just over 10gb and it’s a pretty good cross section. No consoles at all from what I can see but they are covered in other versions.

Jumanji - Welcome to the Jungle (2017) Four teenagers in detention get pulled into the world of Jumanji after playing a video game I don't think there's much I can add about this that hasn't already been said. I liked the original, though seeing it last year I was surprised at how long it takes to get going and how dark it is at times. Prior to release, I was expecting this to be a mess with all the best jokes in the trailer. However, as I read the reviews I was impressed with how well received it was. The story this time around is that four kids get pulled into a videogame after the Jumanji board game somehow infects an old console. The kids are your usual Breakfast Club bunch without Judd Nelson's rebel. Once they're in the game the real fun starts and the picture doesn't disappoint on the whole. The Rock was great as Bravestone, and managed to get his timing down perfectly. His actions and reactions were excellent and you really got the feeling that it was Spencer in this body. The same awkwardness worked well with the gorgeous Karen Gillian, as Ruby Roundhouse. Her flirting scene was brilliant, and the action was well handled too. I felt Kevin Hart was probably the weakest of the bunch, he seemed to be playing himself for the most part. However, the highlight was Jack Black, who really went all out with the mannerisms and actions for Bethany. His reaction to so many things was perfect, but his surprise at the gender change was superbly done. A shame for Nick Jonas coming so late in the picture, he didn't really get much to work with. The story moved at a good pace and they explained and introduced a lot of stuff that on paper probably wouldn't have sounded that good but was effectively implemented into the plot. I very much liked the three lives idea and the different character abilities. This was a really enjoyable movie, with some good action sequences, strong performances and decent enough effects. They kept things moving and fairly fresh, while adding in a few life lessons along the way. It had a couple of issues but none that were deal breakers. I thought the very ending was a bit weak, Bobby Cannavale was a non-villain and it might have benefited from being 5-10 minutes shorter. All that aside, this was cracking entertainment and far better than it had any right to be.

Bubble Bobble or Rainbow Islands

Law Abiding Citizen (2009) After a man's wife and daughter are killed during a home invasion, he is angered by the plea deal his lawyer makes. Gerard Butler stars as Clyde Shelton, whose wife and daughter are killed during a home invasion. His lawyer, Jamie Foxx, doesn't want to risk his great conviction rate so takes a plea deal which sees one criminal on death row and the other set free. Angered and broken by this, Shelton begins a long game of extracting vengeance from all involved in the case. The film then jumps ten years as we see how life has moved on for everyone, and then, during the execution, things go horribly wrong. Along with Butler and Foxx is solid support from Colm Meaney and Bruce McGill. This was a fairly interesting but flawed picture, that couldn't help make things too far fetched. The opening invasion was short and brutal, and the initial revenge was as nasty as you can imagine it would be. But when it turned into a game, with Butler making demands or (somehow) organising the bizarre killing of people involved in the case, it got silly and kept piling it on. The scene when they talk to the guy who used to work with Butler's character was borderline ridiculous, as were the increasingly inventive methods of death. The character of Shelton started off quite sympathetic, as the picture went on it became harder and harder to root for him. Similar, I never really got the feeling that Foxx's character was at any point a decent guy. When he tries to do the right thing it generally seemed to be in his own interest. This in turn pushed your support to Butler, yet he was equally (if not more) of a difficult character to support. Both Meaney and McGIll are very good, and the film could have done with more of their moral fibre. The kills are generally well done, even if they do become more cartoonish (but no less bloody). It was entertaining enough yet by and large forgettable, overly complicated and asking a little too much of your suspension of disbelief.

Anyone got this? https://www.amazon.com/Die-Hard-Ultimate-Visual-History/dp/1608879739

Sandra Locke, Clint Eastwood's ex and co-star in the likes of Every Which You Can. https://radaronline.com/exclusives/2018/12/sondra-locke-dead-clint-eastwood/

Did mine and it had Star Wars Battlefront at number 1 with 130 hours. I don't think I've played the game for more than 2 hours in total. I wonder if upgrading the HDD messes with it in some way. Then again, the Bloodborne figure seemed pretty accurate.

Captive State is directed by Rupert Wyatt and features John Goodman as a government official. Ten years ago aliens came to earth and began to 'help' calm down the anarchy that was reigning across the world. Now it seems they have an agenda of their own.

The Most Dangerous Game (1932) A shipwrecked man washes up on a seemingly abandoned island. In terms of 'man hunting man for sport' movies, this is where it all began. After a brief and quite violent introduction, a man noted for his writings on hunting, washes up on shore of an island. He finds a building that's finely furnished and decorated, and meets the owner, Count Zaroff. He's also introduced to a brother and sister, who too were shipwrecked, and talk of two missing sailors. Before long Zaroff lays his cards on the table and the hunter becomes the hunted. This story has been made a few times in the intervening years, notably John Woo's Hard Target and Ernest Dickerson's Surviving The Game. This is a brief picture at just over an hour that does take a little time to set up its players. I was quite surprised at the opening, for the time, as we see people killed by a combination of fire and steam, explosions and a shark attack. Joel McCrea plays the everyman hunter, a upstanding kind of guy who gets to realise what his normal prey feels like when the tables are turned, so to speak. The caddish Leslie Banks is Lord Zaroff, a man trying his best to hide his true intentions, while being hospitable to his next victims. Rounding out the cast was the lovely Fay Wray, who ends up tagging along with McCrea when the game begins. I recognised parts of the set from somewhere and as it turns out, this was shot on the King Kong stages during the night. This was quite a good thriller, with a few darker moments and a great final twenty minutes. Again, I was quite surprised that we got to see the aforementioned opening as well as a wall-mounted severed head and another in formaldehyde later in the picture. It's a shame for such a short movie that it ties up its cast for ten minutes while we watch Wray's brother become more drunk and make a fool of himself, while Zaroff wonders around, plays the piano and rolls his eyes. However, once the game is afoot, there's a solid third act in which McCrea tries to outsmart Zaroff, falling back on his hunting and survival skills. There's a couple of tense moments as we wait to see if the hunter will notice traps and snares that have been set up by the hunted. There's also a decent scrap at the end, and while the reveal can be seen a mile off, it still played out well. Not as much fun as Hard Target, but still fine entertainment, especially for the time.