F1 and Small Things Like These

Two movies that turned out to be snooze fests.

F1 

Brad Pitt plays a semi-retired but still super active race car driver who is roped in by a friend to help his F1 team win. Slick cars, a decent story and pretty cool trades craft (showing the rules then bending them) made it a little more interesting for us but alas, car racing is just not our thing so even after editing down a full race (50+ laps) with skips to just show... three laps maybe per race... it is ultimately still just cars going in a circle at the end of the day. I know some people love that. For us its like watching paint dry.  

Small Things Like These

Cillian Murphy plays an ordinary Irish coal supplier who is very quiet and introspective, especially when his usual delivery rounds lead to the discover of abusive nuns at the local convent. There are flashbacks a plenty in this glacially paced film and the ending payoff is super weak. It might have actually picked up if it went on for a few minutes but with the threat of something exciting happening the makers decided to end it just short of that. Not worth watching at all.

Bullet Train (Movie) and Snowpiercer (TV Series)

All aboard for murderville!

Bullet Train

Brad Pitt stars in this action comedy which involves numerous, highly skilled assassins all boarding the same bullet train in Japan. While the story is rather ridiculous, the action scenes and cinematography are very well done resulting in a very entertaining flick. Recommended for those who are ok to not just suspend their disbelief, but kick it out the window entirely for the duration of this film.

Snowpiercer (TV)

In the new ice age one of the last sanctuaries for mankind is the Snowpiercer, a perpetual motion engine train that keeps people warm and fed as it races all across the world on tracks that just continually worsen. Sounds like an engineering nightmare? That's what the show thought too, and so it instead focuses on the class differences on board - with the rich people who bought tickets up in first class and the stowaways in the tail forced to work as manual labor.

While the movie version of this is primary focused on the action of a violent revolt, this three (or four if it ever gets released) season drama is more of a slow burn as "tailee" and ex-detective Andre (Daveed Diggs) is tasked with finding a murderer on board. A job excellent at introducing all sorts of people up and down the train with a few interesting twists to boot. Alas, there is some character idiocy and plot contrivance present but it is still interesting enough to warrant a watch. Try out one episode, if it's too slow for you but you like the concept - watch the movie instead.

World War Z (Game)

No one gets to be Brad Pitt.

A strange virus has quickly spread around the world causing the infected to become feral, hungry monsters with a penchant for building human/zombie triangles in large scales. You get to play as one of four survivors who must find a way past the horde and the occasional special type of zombie with special abilities. If one of those pin you down, only a team mate can save you. If this is starting to sound familiar, then you are right on the money. It is indeed similar to Left 4 Dead, but with better graphics and more zombies.

This disease reads a lot like covid...

There is an element of grinding added though as players gain XP and gold to level up their chosen class and weaponry. It's quite fun, especially played co-op, but it does suffer from a lack of maps. It is up to the players to make things more difficult during the match setup to keep things entertaining. Definitely one I can recommend but don't expect it to have a long shelf life. I give it 3 bulls out of 5.

Insight: Just because you upgrade weapons in higher tiers doesn't mean you start with them! With that in mind, you should probably focus on your starting weapons first.

Fury

Angry men in a tank take their anger out on Nazis in a most violently entertaining fashion.

This movie follows an American tank crew during World War 2, and depicts how dirty and evil war can be - but at the same time I was so entertained by the copious amounts of violence and gore present in this movie. In fact, the one quiet part they added which involved an awkward dining scene I found to be a detraction and unnecessary to the rest of the story. That part aside, the rest of the movie is great!

We have a tank and you want us to do a "quiet" scene?

Fury, the name of the main tank, is also an apt name as to the feelings of Brad Pitt's squad towards all the Nazis, especially the SS which I fit well with the theme. The tanks are awesome, the cast is good, and all the battle scenes are fantastic. Indeed only the hill billy character had me slightly worried as it was hard to understand some of his lines but that wasn't really an issue for me. I give Fury three out of five explosions and would definitely watch it again, though probably using that silly dining scene as a toilet break. :P