Things of note for the week ending Sunday August 14th, 2016.
1. GROUNDHOG DAY: THE MUSICAL
You’ve just read the headline of this ‘thing’ and you’ve thought one of two things:
1: WHAT? NO. UGH. IS NOTHING SACRED?
2: IT’S OUT ALREADY?! YES! CAN’T WAIT!
Unless you have a third option, which is mine, and it goes like this I’VE SEEN IT AND IT’S GREAT AND YOU SHOULD ALL SEE IT AT ONCE.
To the doubters, I’d say give it get over it.
I went in with a small amount of concern (and why not, Groundhog Day is arguably one of the best comedies/romantic-comedies/Bill Murray films ever made – of course you might be anxious) BUT the fact that it came from the geniuses (genii?) behind the MATILDA musical meant I had a good chunk of reassurance.
I went. I saw. I laughed a LOT.
You should go too.
It’s on at the Old Vic London until September 17th and if you can go, then GO.
It’s wonderful
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2. WHITE HOUSE BOT
This week in BOT NEWS – you can now send a message direct to The White House (read: ‘President Obama’) via Facebook Messenger.
AND IT ACTUALLY WORKS.
LOOK!
I have to admit, it took me a good few minutes (and a couple of rewrites after that) to work out exactly what I wanted to say.
…
Neato.
Via Fast Company.
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3. EVER BEEN IN A CORPSE CUPBOARD?
Aka: what happens when you die on a plane?
There are two ways to find out. One involves dying. Here’s the other one.
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4. LOOK AROUND YOU
Next year – 2017 – this satellite going to be launched into orbit around the Earth.
What makes this satellite so special? Well, this satellite will be carrying the world’s first VR CAMERA FOR SPACE.
SpaceX have confirmed it: it is happening. In 2017, we’ll be able to strap on a helmet and look around in actual space in real time.
Just let that sink in for a minute.
Amazing.
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5. SUICIDE SQUAD
…is a terrible movie.
I wrote a [fair] few thoughts on Teh Twitterz after I saw the movie last weekend but in case you missed that, here are a select quotes from a number of reviews:
Suicide Squad is bad. Not fun bad. Not redeemable bad. Not the kind of bad that is the unfortunate result of artists honorably striving for something ambitious and falling short. Suicide Squad is just bad. It’s ugly and boring, a toxic combination that means the film’s highly fetishized violence doesn’t even have the exciting tingle of the wicked or the taboo. (Oh, how the movie wants to be both of those things.) It’s simply a dull chore steeped in flaccid machismo, a shapeless, poorly edited trudge that adds some mildly appalling sexism and even a soupçon of racism to its abundant, hideously timed gun worship. But, perhaps worst of all, Suicide Squad is ultimately too shoddy and forgettable to even register as revolting. At least revolting would have been something.
Even if Suicide Squad was a competent movie and not merely a series of disconnected scenes, it would still have one major problem: The way it handles race and nationality. Suicide Squad is so blatantly, outrageously, almost comically offensive, with stereotypes galore and cellophane-thin characterization, you’d think it was doing it on purpose to be subversive — only, it isn’t smart enough to.
I suspect the disjointed nature of this movie owes to the fact that it is two separate stories director David Ayer is doing a very half-assed job of trying to present as one. The first is a romance between the Joker and Harley Quinn. This element seems like the result of Jared Leto wanting to make a music video about how badass the Joker is, and Warner Brothers deciding they should build a movie around it using another film they were already shooting, a divorce and morality tale surrounding Will Smith, who must fight powerful monsters with his friends.
There are a ton more I could link you to but they’re all fairly depressing.
In short: don’t see this movie. Suicide Squad is a terribly dull movie and it really isn’t worth your time or your money.
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6. TRUMP TWEETS
Which ones does he write? Which ones do his team write? Someone looked at the data and guess which one they found to be angrier of the two?
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7. SUMMER DESSERT PLANS
Yes. That is exactly what you think it is.
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Bonuses this week are all gaming related:
- FIREWATCH (PS4 & Steam) is probably the best example of story-telling-as-gameplay I’ve seen since the highly commended/awarded LAST OF US. And, without doubt, is the best game I’ve played this year. Here’s a short video interview with the creators that give you a small insight into exactly how they did it.
- I’ve gone all in on NO MAN’S SKY and I am LOVING IT. I linked to this piece, from The New Yorker, back in May when I first started talking about it [NMS] so if you missed it then, read it now. If you have no idea what the fuss is about, it will tell you all you need to know.
- Spotify launched Spotify Gaming – playlists for gamers. An intriguing concept given that there are many who enjoy in-game choons but hey, I’ll give it a shot. Will you?
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And I’m done.
Until next time…
Whatley out.