28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later

Movies about those infected... with rage!

28 Days Later 

Due to the actions of some eco-terrorists a lab grown and highly infectious "rage" virus is set loose. By the time comatose protagonist Jim (played by Cillian Murphy who also doubles as the eye candy for female viewers) wakes he finds a very different London waiting for him: one now home to zombies infected. It's funny that the start is very similar to The Walking Dead series but as the "monsters" here aren't undead the story can go in a different tangent. While this 2002 horror flick is showing its age, its still a decent watch that tells a complete story.

28 Weeks Later

The rage virus from the previous film has mostly subsided now and a US led NATO force (Jeremy Renner portrays one of their snipers) is resettling refugees into a heavily guarded safe zone. Of course, due to the total selfishness of two brats and the initial hesitation to use lethal force everything goes to hell when the virus re-emerges (and its up to a whole new cast to get through it). All up this is a much tighter film than the previous one and it also has a bigger budget, better effects, and more action pieces while continuing the theme of good intentions executed poorly always leads to someone dying. If you liked the first one or just enjoy zombie-esque type flicks in general, you'll like this one. 

Mad Max (1 2 3 and Fury Road)

Driving in the wasteland!

Mad Max (1979)

It's a grim future in the Australian outback, but hey at least there are still police around right? One said copper is Mad Max (Mel Gibson) who is decent at driving and gets at odds with a drugged out of their brains criminal bike gang. The story isn't great and its obviously dated badly. There are even shots where characters walk farther away and start to have to yell because there is no mic following them away! Really its just the physical stunt work that this has going for it as after watching it I was amazed that anyone would have green lit a sequel! Not recommended.

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)

The future from the first film just got a lot darker with a great war really screwing up the world. This time Mad Max (still Mel Gibson) is just looking for some fuel and instead comes across a convoy being harrassed by bandits. With a welcome guest star of scene stealer Bruce Spence, this is a huge step up from the first movie as not only do the amazing stunts persist here but the story is actually a very decent one. It's the best of Mel Gibson's Mad Max movies for a reason! Recommended!

Mad Max: Beyond the Thunderdome (1985)

After getting robbed Mad Max (Mel Gibson again) needs to trade his skills for gear in the huddled trading post of Bartertown where things just go from bad to worse. Not just for Mad Max, but for the audience too! The story seems to go off the rails and into Peter Pan land with a focus on child actors who are neither endearing or useful, especially when they intentionally speak "broken Australian"? At least there's an interesting finale and Tina Turner gets to flex her acting chops (she should have been in it more) but unfortunately, its not enough for me to recommend this to anyone.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

This film continues the trend of Mad Max (this time played by Tom Hardy) getting a shitty start, being enslaved by the War Boys as a blood bag before fate manages to get him behind the wheel of his own life again. A good (albeit simple) story backed with awesome stunts and an increased level of violence make this a very entertaining spectacle to behold. Easily the best of these four movies which should be no surprise given the amount of technological advancements film wise since the previous one. Recommended!

Surviving the Cat of Salem Islets too?

Catching up on some epic freebies.

Surviving the Aftermath

A post apocalyptic game that focuses on two different maps - the first is your home map where you construct your base which includes things like tents and outhouses for your dirty survivors and remember to actively tell them where to harvest things because by god, they morons. Your lumber camp might be sitting idle once they've deforested the nearby area and if you don't tell them to go find more trees "here" it simply will go unused. Once you build a gate you can send your specialists (hero characters who you occasionally can recruit - you start with two) to the world map to do quests, fight bandits, and salvage... science? Yes. That's a thing. With enough science you can pay for crowbars or something. Note that your home map can and will still be attacked by bandits, plagues and stink clouds regardless of what's happening beyond. Very management heavy and lost my interest after one session.

Cat Quest II

Is exactly like the first game, except now you can two player it (or play two characters) as a cat and dog adventurer. It's just as cute and just as grindy as the first so for the same reasons I've given up on it.

Islets

An action platforming game with some pretty decent art that tasks you with reconnecting a bunch of floating islands. Alas it features the same problem most of these types of games have for me which is if you leave a screen and come back, all the enemies respawn. When you add that backtracking is almost mandatory, that just gets an immediate thumbs down from me.

Town of Salem II

The worst of this lot for me. Basically a digital version of the Mafia or One Night Werewolf party games where a group of players are trying to reach their randomly given, secret winning conditions by eliminating other players through voting (or murder!). They could be townsfolk trying to execute the secret witch coven and vice versa or perhaps you're of the jester faction and you win if you can get yourself executed? Some odd design decisions here killed this one for me - the first is "go to youtube to see a tutorial". Really? But the second one really sucks and that is the "waiting to have fun". Not enough players? Guess you'll have to wait. Got killed early? Guess you have to wait. Or quit, join another game and wait for enough players. I hate idling. Still, I guess there's a market for these sort of games as this one even has the audacity to have a cash shop!

X-men: Apocalypse

The first mutant... was a Goa'uld! What do you mean no one knows what Star Gate is anymore?

Continuing on from X-men: First Class (which I haven't reviewed, doh!), this is the story of how "the first" mutant, the titular Apocalypse, reappears in the world and then goes about trying to make it a better place... for mutants. So pretty much like any previous X-men movie so far where Magneto is the villain.

They do try to tie it in to a few of the other movies too, with some expected cameos and a healthy dose of hand waving in some parts. All those guys missing from this movie? "We're the only ones left," makes for a nice, vague response.

There is a lot of eye candy and good effects as to be expected with Quicksilver getting the best pieces of the pie, but the plot has some serious holes - bigger than the one Apocalypse crawled out of at the start, and that's even without trying to join this movie to the rest of the franchise.

Alas, poor Yorick. I wish this movie made sense.

Ultimately this outing is an ok action movie, but there are better ones to choose from within the X-men franchise to watch. I give it 2 horsemen out of 5.