I need your grace to remind me to find my own
I had a good weekend, although it was too short.
Friday night I went over and grabbed some dinner with dippy423, then went back to her place and played Risk, or rather Lord of the Rings Risk (trilogy edition). It was geeky but very good times. I was foolishly allowed to start the game with complete control of Eriador and near-total control of Gondor, both of which I held for much of the evening. Eventually however I was routed, partially due to the fact that dippy423 exploited the frankly insane combat-by-sea rules in that game. I went fairly kamikaze after that because I was slap-happy tired, much to Brendan's apparent dismay. The game ended with the One Ring destroyed, but by then the forces of evil pretty much dominated the board. Which is kind of accurate to the books, in a way, if not to the movies. The general consensus among the players was that the game was fun although ultimately inferior to good old-fashioned Risk.
Saturday I was generally lazy, although I did get out and see:
The Good Shepherd -- 3 stars -- I had heard this film was hard to follow, and was pleasantly surprised that this was not the case for me. I had also heard it had a dynamite cast, but it wasn't until I actually saw them in action that I realized how dynamite. There's nothing like having a cast so strong that you can use the likes of Joe Pesci, Alec Baldwin and Billy Crudup with as much of a light touch as you want and still not have anyone complaining they're underutilized. I was actually really impressed with Alec Baldwin, much to my surprise. And my esteem for Matt Damon continues to increase; it can be hard for an actor to express emotion when playing an excessively stoic character, but he managed just fine. All in all a cool film that packs a lot in; a story about secrets and lies, but also about fathers and sons, about honor among thieves, about love and sacrifice. I liked it.
Sunday I was also lazy (noticing a pattern here?), but in the evening I went out with sleetfall and tried out Sagra, the latest restaurant to move into the cursed 400 Highland location. I have not treated myself to a really nice meal in a long time and this certainly fit the bill. I ordered conservatively and still ended up enjoying the Hell out of the food. Then sleetfall ordered a desert for no other reason than because it was based around Nutella and we ended up barely leaving the place in time to make the movie we were planning to see. This created some confusion with dippy423 and Jessica, who we were meant to be meeting at my place, but in the end we found them, and I finally saw:
Pan's Labyrinth -- 4 stars -- I went into this film with my expectations fairly built up and was still surprised by it's effectiveness. The storytelling was simple yet elegant. The fantasy visuals were every bit as stunning as I had been led to believe, but the starkly real scenes were no less rich for it, just all the more heartless and sometimes surprisingly hard to watch. I don't usually squick too badly where violence is concerned; I cringe and shudder with the best of them but it doesn't usually skeeve me out (with the noteworthy exception of self-mutilation.) This film managed to skeeve me out a couple of times based solely on the director's refusal to flinch or cut away; its not gorey but it is exceptionally brutal.
After the lights came up I ran into Robert, who I know from Story Games Boston, sitting one row ahead of us in the theater. It was a happy coincidence, though I was immediately faced with that situation wherein I had two groups of people who don't know each other at all. I think Robert would like those people and they him, given a chance, but I also knew full well that some of the people I came with were eager to get home and watch TiVo'd Battlestar Galactica, so I did a bit of hasty excusing myself and dashing off. No big deal.
Friday night I went over and grabbed some dinner with dippy423, then went back to her place and played Risk, or rather Lord of the Rings Risk (trilogy edition). It was geeky but very good times. I was foolishly allowed to start the game with complete control of Eriador and near-total control of Gondor, both of which I held for much of the evening. Eventually however I was routed, partially due to the fact that dippy423 exploited the frankly insane combat-by-sea rules in that game. I went fairly kamikaze after that because I was slap-happy tired, much to Brendan's apparent dismay. The game ended with the One Ring destroyed, but by then the forces of evil pretty much dominated the board. Which is kind of accurate to the books, in a way, if not to the movies. The general consensus among the players was that the game was fun although ultimately inferior to good old-fashioned Risk.
Saturday I was generally lazy, although I did get out and see:
The Good Shepherd -- 3 stars -- I had heard this film was hard to follow, and was pleasantly surprised that this was not the case for me. I had also heard it had a dynamite cast, but it wasn't until I actually saw them in action that I realized how dynamite. There's nothing like having a cast so strong that you can use the likes of Joe Pesci, Alec Baldwin and Billy Crudup with as much of a light touch as you want and still not have anyone complaining they're underutilized. I was actually really impressed with Alec Baldwin, much to my surprise. And my esteem for Matt Damon continues to increase; it can be hard for an actor to express emotion when playing an excessively stoic character, but he managed just fine. All in all a cool film that packs a lot in; a story about secrets and lies, but also about fathers and sons, about honor among thieves, about love and sacrifice. I liked it.
Sunday I was also lazy (noticing a pattern here?), but in the evening I went out with sleetfall and tried out Sagra, the latest restaurant to move into the cursed 400 Highland location. I have not treated myself to a really nice meal in a long time and this certainly fit the bill. I ordered conservatively and still ended up enjoying the Hell out of the food. Then sleetfall ordered a desert for no other reason than because it was based around Nutella and we ended up barely leaving the place in time to make the movie we were planning to see. This created some confusion with dippy423 and Jessica, who we were meant to be meeting at my place, but in the end we found them, and I finally saw:
Pan's Labyrinth -- 4 stars -- I went into this film with my expectations fairly built up and was still surprised by it's effectiveness. The storytelling was simple yet elegant. The fantasy visuals were every bit as stunning as I had been led to believe, but the starkly real scenes were no less rich for it, just all the more heartless and sometimes surprisingly hard to watch. I don't usually squick too badly where violence is concerned; I cringe and shudder with the best of them but it doesn't usually skeeve me out (with the noteworthy exception of self-mutilation.) This film managed to skeeve me out a couple of times based solely on the director's refusal to flinch or cut away; its not gorey but it is exceptionally brutal.
After the lights came up I ran into Robert, who I know from Story Games Boston, sitting one row ahead of us in the theater. It was a happy coincidence, though I was immediately faced with that situation wherein I had two groups of people who don't know each other at all. I think Robert would like those people and they him, given a chance, but I also knew full well that some of the people I came with were eager to get home and watch TiVo'd Battlestar Galactica, so I did a bit of hasty excusing myself and dashing off. No big deal.