28 Years Later and the Bone Temple

Sequels to 28 Weeks Later.

28 Years Later

This movie focuses on a kid named Spike (played by Alfie Williams) who lives on the outer edge of the rage virus zone, and reintroduces us to the new and improved (mostly just more full-frontal naked) infected as he makes forays to the dangerous mainland. I'm not keen on the editing which keeps cutting to old tv shows to depict to the audience how this group of survivors learned to do things, and while Spike is put in a hard spot all throughout he keeps making bad choices which doesn't make him very likable. There are plenty of homages to the previous films and decent enough scares and action bits but really it just serves as an intro movie.

28 Years Later: the Bone Temple

The journey of Spike continues as he runs into... parkouring Satanists? That took a really strange turn! I am glad they stopped the strange cutting edits from the previous movie and there's actually a better story in this one which actually advances the "28" franchise a bit. Very good acting from the Bone Temple "residents" helps with this, and seeing a familiar face at the very end gives my high hopes for the third, upcoming 28 years movie. Recommended, though its probably better to get through the first 28 Year movie (above) before hoping right into this one.

Mobland and This City is Ours

First season TV shows about protagonists who are crime family adjacent.

Mobland

Harry (played by Tom Hardy) is a fixer for the Harrigan crime family who has his work cut out for him as he needs to clean up messes created by the entitled youngsters and/or crazy elders of the family while attempting to keep the peace with their rivals and trying to keep his wife happy. It's nice how he's portrayed as a really soft spoken, calm bloke regardless of the situation but can "shift gear to six" when things need to happen but you'll also be face palming at all the idiotics everyone else gets up to. Worth a watch. 

This City is Ours

Michael (played by James Nelson-Joyce) is the right hand man to the Phelans crime family patriarch but when things go awry (what with the patriarch played by the walking spoiler Sean Bean :P) he soon finds himself on the outside of the family circle despite actually owning half the business. You'd think that what follows would just be a tale of guns blazing but no... the story makes it a bit more complicated than that. It's not bad, but it does feel that all the characters are lacking the cajones to actually see things through personally. Hopefully they get more drive in season two or this is just going to go nowhere. 

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. 

Vampyr

"This is... despicable..."

It is 1918 and a new epidemic is spreading in London. As a doctor recently turned vampire it is up to you to save the city, or hurry it along to meet its demise. It's an interesting setup and exploring the map is great especially once you can unlock shortcut gates ala Dark Souls.

As to be expected the map is also peppered with enemies: other denizens of the night and a literal army of vampire hunters. Most importantly, if you play as a "good" doctor, they will constantly out level you. This is because combat nets you around 5xp per kill and doing little side quests gives you a few hundred while drinking a civilian can give you anywhere from 2000 to 6000 XP.  

Let me inspect your cold in that dark alley madam. Trust me, I'm a doctor.

Being out leveled is mainly a problem just at the start though, when you are a weak little vamp. Once you start improving your stamina (expect to dodge a lot) and get the blood shield skill (tip: improve stamina and get blood shield anyway) you can last longer in fights. Improve your weapons and you can start winning quicker.

Combat is a bit clunky and you probably never want to use the lock on feature but it is serviceable. You also will probably forget to use guns as I did, up until almost the end where they are super handy ("C" to toggle off hand) but  ultimately even finishing the game at level 26, I felt like an unstoppable powered up super vamp without killing a single innocent. Erm I mean civilian.

One of my favorite parts about the game is it goes out of the way to show you all the good and bad parts of many of the civilians. Do you actually slay the serial killer? The gang boss? The mother who abuses her daughter? The guy trying to kill himself?

Not killing any means you are "good" somehow which suffers a severe disconnect to the number of armed hunters and monsters I actually killed in the course of the game. I wasn't a fan of the violin music either and while the story is decent there are problems with it too. Still a fun game though and one I'd recommend to those interested in the subject matter of vampires.

White House (X) has Fallen

Saving the president in four action movies!

White House Down

When terrorists attack the White House, rejected bodyguard hopeful (Channing Tatum) somehow becomes the only one capable of saving the President... but he has to save his own daughter too! Much less serious than the next few movies (below) with mostly bloodless deaths and tons of humor, this action flick is very entertaining for what it is. Even the bad guys have quirky personalities which make it all the more enjoyable. Recommended if you need a light, fun, no-brainer flick for the evening. Two and a half "cool" President's carrying rocket launchers out of five.

Olympus has Fallen

When terrorists attack the White House, disgraced agent Mike Banning (Gerard Butler) somehow becomes the only one capable of saving the President... as violently as possible! The body count and violence in this film almost makes White House Down look child friendly - and at the same time makes this even more epic as Agent Banning methodically takes down the bad guys at a good pace. It does portray the President as a bit of an idiot though. Three and a half broken protocols out of five.

I wonder if he's friends with Jack Bauer...

London has Fallen

A state funeral in London is the perfect place for angry terrorists to murder many leaders of the world. Luckily Agent Banning (Gerard Butler) is still on duty to protect the President against this threat as he continues to add to his kill count while flaunting heavy plot-armor. Seriously, if you have superior numbers shooting down a narrow alleyway and you fail to repel the enemy force - you deserve what's coming to you. Two and a half drone strikes out of five.

Angel has Fallen

An attack on the President frames Agent Banning (Gerard Butler) as the guilty party. Now on the run, he has to both kill the bad guys, prove his innocence, AND continue to save the President with his epic fugitive time management skills. No surprises plot wise but still a nice flick where the dumb bad guys get what's coming to them. Three awesome acting babies out of five.

The Irregulars

Diversity just because!

This high budget, one season show is set in the Sherlock Holmes era of London where crimes have taken a dark and supernatural twist. Sounds promising right? Let me dispel that for you now: Sherlock Holmes isn't the main character. It's a gang of lowly street kids who get to solve these horrible crimes because the police can't be bothered?

You know why the cops don't hire them? Because they suck.

In addition, one of the kids has psychic powers and can literally read minds with a mere touch. Despite this, they are hands down the worst detectives in history thanks to some horrible writing. The fact that the gang is strangely racially diverse is a minor point next to this. Sure, you can have an Asian girl and her white sister who likes the black kid and also make John Watson black and gay but only if your writing earns it, not just "because"!

It's a stupid show and every time something cool might happen, the writers somehow manage to make it more stupid. Not recommended at all. One zombie moaning "circle" out of five.

Penny Dreadful and the League of the Extraordinary

Dreadfully Extraordinary.

Penny Dreadful

All sad people like poetry. Happy people like songs.

Veteran hunter and explorer Sir Malcolm Murray (Timothy Dalton) assembles a formidable team of talented people to face the forces of the dark. One of these people is Vanessa Ives (Eva Green) whose fate is intertwined to the survival of the world... or at least, of London.

Kinda wish they made more of this.

This dark and wonderfully cinematographic three season series has some cool fight scenes, more than a few scary sections, a truckload of good acting and some great use of poetry. Alas the plot is not as tightly knit as I'd like with some characters idling on the sidelines for far too long but it still makes for entertaining viewing. Definitely a show I recommend, I give it 3.5 scorpions out of 5.

Fans should also view the pretty decent prequel comic which you can find online that I think is worth a look. Apparently there's also a graphic novel that continues the story after the series as well, but I've not been able to get my hands on that yet.   

The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen

I was hoping I'd get to nail you one more time.

Veteran hunter and explorer Alan Quartermain (Sean Connery) is tasked to lead a formidable team of talented people to face the forces of the dark a mysterious warmonger. While it certainly feels similar to Penny Dreadful, character and setting wise, it's far more light hearted and has many silly moments.

Lol at the forced American in the story.

However, it also has plenty of good action scenes and a decent pace to the story that makes it highly entertaining. Definitely more for action buffs rather than intellectuals, I give this three old tigers out of five and would easily watch it again.

Penny Dreadful: City of Angels

What a weak spin off.

A time and world away from the original series, this one features Natalie Dormer as a supernatural entity bent on making man war upon himself... only she's not really too powerful at all, requiring whispered suggestions (that sometimes fail) and multiple shapeshifting roles (which is great for the actress, not so great for the character).

Humanizing your supernatural elements is a mistake.

Indeed the Nazis, who are on the rise at this time, are doing a better job than she is but even then they get maybe 35% of the story time. The rest focuses on the Latins and their mistreatment from the whites. I do quite enjoy all those dancing scenes though. There's a surprising amount of it here and perhaps the highlight of the entire show for me. One solo tap routine even greatly improved my liking of one character!

Shame that the writers messed up the plot in this one, or at least failed to make it interesting. Not even Rory Kinnear's reappearance here (as another character) could save it. Cancelled after season one, I can't really recommend this one at all. I give it one and a half loud arguments that go no where out of five.

London Dread

Interesting design is not necessarily good design.

A great evil with the touch of the occult is afoot in London, and it is up to a team of up to four players to cooperatively solve the mysteries and vanquish the evil doers before the city falls fully into the hands of despair. This is done in stages and the first, which is timed (12 mins on normal - you need your own timer), is the most fascinating. Firstly, dread cards are flipped face up in hopes of finding the randomly seeded "plot" locations. Then every player has a "clock" and a set of numbers and arrow directions to program what their movements are for the day.

Only complicated to start with.

Being in the same place at the same time lets people party up to take on harder challenges but at the same time you want to remove as many dread cards from the map as possible too. Missing an event card during the right period also results in an instant game over so it is a crazy and hectic section of the game. Once the timer expires, the next stage begins of seeing how everyones pre-programed movements transpire and what they manage to do in the city.

The last part is where this all really falls down - the end game. Not only does player elimination begin here, so does your realization that it's near impossible to beat this game. In it, you must gather enough dice to challenge the "dread counter" up the top of the board. Every 5 dreads requires one success (33% per dice). Should dread max out, it's automatically game over. For us it was common to require 10 or so successes and only have 7 or so dice to roll. Ultimately, even if you have a perfect game and say only require 1 or 2 successes out of 10 dice you can still fail. Without enough mitigation here this game unfortunately falls to one of the worst in my collection and I along with the rest of my game group don't want it to grace our table any longer.

Not recommended, I give London Dread 1 time clock out of 5.

Insight: Remember no dice are rolled for regular dread cards.