I’ve probably seen Howard Hawks’ The Big Sleep about a dozen or so times over the years and I still can’t properly describe the plot of the film even after finally reading the Raymond Chandler novel it’s based on. That said, it’s always been a fun classic film to watch a few times because Humphrey Bogart plays his part so effortlessly and the other actors follow suit with some solid performances.
Yes, I know the film is all about private eye Philip Marlowe’s (Humphrey Bogart) somewhat interesting and somewhat laid back investigation process in a particularly confounding murder/extortion/sex/drugs case where a number of bodies drop before all is said and done. That said, the plot spills all over the place like a tipsy barmaid wearing roller skates trying to carry a tray of drinks onboard a capsizing ship. In the end, none of the plot bumps really hurt the movie because you’ll likely end up loving the end result for Howard Hawks’ directing and the cast doing their best with that loopy William Faulkner/Jules Furthman/Leigh Brackett script (which got a few other hands involved as well).
The film is also a great look at the real-life blossoming Bogart and Bacall relationship with the snappy chemistry between the pair (working together for the second time) getting the sparks going full on despite the Hays Code restrictions. In other words, a little innuendo goes a long way, folks. That said, rather than do a rote retelling of the plot (which would take a longer post, trust me), this bit of pillow fluff will take a detour into Philip Marlowe’s amusingly laid back approach to dealing with most of the film’s other actors.
Or else. I’d say you need to see it as well because you just might like the 80’s era flashback craziness it brings back in fine form. Just look at it (or else!):
Don’t tell Jackie, but I’ll very likely hold my breath for a disc release or hope it drops on cable at some point because streaming here blows despite a decent connection. But if you need to see this NOW, you can do so because it’s in Theaters, On Demand, on iTunes and Amazon as we speak. What do you mean we’re not speaking? JUST PRETEND WE ARE, okay?
Oh, dear. I found this “poem” on an old hard drive that I transferred some data from and well, it’s kind of Stilton stinky. I think I wrote this a long time back after a trip to France and before realizing that you just can’t get cheese made in the U.S. of A. with unpasteurized milk (because we’re so wimpy about food here unless it’s loaded with sugar, salt, fat with a big ad campaign touting how great it is). Well, you can make it yourself, but it’s a daunting process not for the weak-willed or those who don’t like great cheese, heh).
The funniest thing here is I’m currently playing the almost flawless game Moss on a friend’s PS4 (as he’s got a full PSVR setup and I don’t), so that tale about a cute adventuring mouse named Quill somehow fits (or apologizes for) my metered scribbling below. Well, let me get back to that because I certainly am not getting paid a dime to write verse so un-terse. Um, enjoy?
Real Brie
Ah, real Brie, it has a rind
That foiled stuff? ‘Tis so unkind!
And “flavor?” What? Don’t make me mad
That’s not the curd you want to have!
I’m sure it tastes fine to those chumps
with extra-wide Velveeta rumps
You toss that back, not down the hatch
and do the same with all that batch!
That cow who laughs may get irate
but that sort of “cheese” is just bear-bait
Good Camembert or Neufchâtel
Will send that plastic stuff to hell
Of course, for those who don’t know best
That “flavored” stuff will pass the test
Its fancy foil that fools the eye
the palate uninformed won’t cry
Once spread upon a Thin of Wheat
It soon becomes a favorite treat
Before you know, that poor soul’s hooked
and never knowing they’ve been so rooked
Just stick with actual Brie and more
Get cranky with your favorite store
And shop elsewhere if they still foist
That metal coated “cheese’ that’s moist!
As someone who loves quirky games. seeing Figment arrive on the Switch pleases me to no end. I mean just look at it:
As a new Switch owner (yeah,I know, FINALLY), it’s just 100% great to see well-crafted indie titles like this that poke at the imagination and reveal strange new worlds to explore and enjoy. That and hey, we all could use fun games that make us think as we try and solve the puzzles it lays out. Plus, it’s got great voice acting and music, which should make it a treat for the ears as well as eyes.
That lovely art is like Krazy Kat with a Tim Burton twist!
The game is also set to arrive on PS4 and Xbox One at some point, so you fine folks won’t be out of the loop on this gem. Keep an eye peeled and a grin ready, I say.
In case you didn’t realize, Amazon does do Sunday delivery. I got an email yesterday morning saying my Switch has shipped and in less than 24 hours, I hear the doorbell ring and almost ran into a door running to see who it was so early in the morning. Yep, it arrived and BONUS, so did the wired PS4 controller I ordered (in a separate package), which was SUPER important because the right stick on my Dual Shock 4 had finally given up the ghost as of much earlier this morning. Why a wired controller, some of you may ask? Well, you may need to wait for a review for that story, but it’s a good one (and so far, the new controller works like a charm after the firmware update).
Meanwhile, in new Switch owner world news, I haven’t set up the console yet for three reasons.
1. I have some articles to complete for a few people and I know they’ll never get done if I crack that box open.
2. I need to find somewhere to put the new baby and plug it in, so I guess that means the modded original Xbox gets stuck somewhere out of sight temporarily)
3. I could set up the console and create a profile (I gather my current one for the Wii U won’t do?), let it update and get it over with, but that will loop back to number 1 and that’s something that I don’t want to happen.
Well, let me shut up and get back to work here. I’m thrilled on one hand, but anxious on the other. Hell, I’m anxious about a lot of things (like quite a lot of folks these days), but I kind of like the more happy anxiety over the more crummy stuff that pollutes the online and real world atmosphere these days.
While I’ve been a bit (too) busy with some side projects but have done some (well a LOT of) gaming and yes, reviews are slowly but surely getting done. Oh, that’s 11 bit studios and Digital Sun’s really excellent Moonlighter above, which is one of the newer games on the playlist (reviews are embargoed until the 28th, but keep an eye peeled on this one). There are a bunch of other games I’ve played, but I’ll keep you all in suspense for a bit. Hokay, back to the stack of urgent stuff I need to complete over the weekend.
Soooo, so THAT’S What Death Stranding is about (that’s an in-joke, by the way).
Oh, now this is (not so) amusing. I wrote up about 2000 or so words on a few upcoming games shown at E3, but WordPress failed me in not saving my draft (I’m staring at the “! Saving of draft failed” note in the upper left of the screen as we speak, grrrr) so here we go again, but in shorter form because I’m a bit ticked off about needing to redo what was a pretty decent post and I’ve got a few other writing tasks to accomplish. Anyway, it’s really hard to enjoy gaming as much thanks to the real world madness creeping into the hobby side of things, but there are way too many interesting games on the way to avoid.
Yeah, death, DOOM, and gloom are all the RAGE 2, but it’s going to be a beautiful ballet of bullets and bombs bouncing all over. Bethesda’s presser was pretty amusing because Todd Howard knew how to balance self deprecating humor with the business side of things as the company poked fun at itself and some gamers who tend to either not have a clue about game development (it’s not an easy thing) or maybe think some franchises are a bit overworked. On the other hand, this is one of those always fascinating developer/publishers where sequels are eagerly anticipated each time one is revealed.
I have no clue what Fallout 76 will be about, but I’m going to guess it will feel like the Fallout Shelter (which just dropped onto the PS4 and Switch) but set in a world four times the size of Fallout 4 (which is pretty massive). As my laptop died, I eagerly downloaded it from PSN (it’s free) and ended up playing longer than I thought. Or: I ended up saving my game so I could take a nap. I woke up a bit later and accidentally clicked on the YouTube button on my Wii U and ended up catching the beginning of the PlayStation press event. I was very surprised that I liked pretty much all that was shown I’ll get to those in separate posts after the show), but Media Molecule’s Dreams stood out as a game I really need to try out. Well, that is if SCEA ever invites me back to a press event in NYC. They seem to have cleared out their press list and I don’t hear jack from them these days. Boo.
I didn’t watch Microsoft’s presser because I don’t own an Xbox One (too many awful experience with Xbox 360’s dying on me). But I did check out the plethora of game trailers and found they do look nice overall. I’m not much into the Halo games (although I own them up to ODST and have played bits of Halo 4 at a friends place), but that teaser for Halo 5 showed off a pretty impressive engine. As for the AAA developers (EA, Activision/Blizzard, Ubisoft, etc.) I’ll be looking at those trailers over the next week and maybe posting thoughts. A lot of AAA titles seems set in a certain reliable sector where you get what you expect (which is both good and bad based on your desire to pay for extra content, season passes and the like), but I tend to gravitate to single player games or those where playing with others is an option.
What else? Um… Namco Bandai, Sega, Xseed/Marvelous, Devolver Digital and a ton of indie devs have WAY TOO MANY GOOD GAMES COMING. To the point that it’s just daunting seeing what they’re doing and where everything is going. I need clones, stat. Capcom will make a bazillion dollars with that Resident Evil 2 remake (which means we’ll be getting RE 3: Nemesis at some point hopefully before the planet explodes. As for Nintendo? Yeah, yeah, I’ll get to them in a day or so. I know they tend to do things differently, so they’re going to get er, special treatment. The Switch is selling like hotcakes, third party and indie devs are filling the roster with excellent games and yes, the first party stuff is the mostly evergreen stuff they’re well known for. Back in a bit – I have a few demos to try out.
Boo. I was trying to buy a new laptop and a Switch, but my stupid bank (which has given me no trouble until now) seems to have thought trying to buy them too close together was some sort of bad thing to do with my own money. So, those purchases are pending (which is dumb and is keeping me from being productive) for at least a few days while I wait for whatever needs to happen to happen. The good thing is, I’ve another deposit to make in a few days, which should prove I’m not trying to scam myself (or whatever it is the bank seems to think is happening with my own money). Hey, if I were rich, I’d be spending like a decaf-sipping sailor. I only buy what I can afford these days (so as not to fall into credit card hell) or I’d be even more out of room than I am.
That said, I’ll likely be selling off some items from the collection at some point. Nope, no protos or review stuff, so don’t even ask (that’s for the six or seven people who drop emails in my inbox every so often). And before you ask that second question, I’m typing this post of on a crappy and slow XP monster that needs to be put down. At least it’s up to date in terms of virus protection and such so I can still get some work done. That said, I do need to get to some PC games in the backlog at some point.
So yeah, my backlog of games to get to is so huge that I’m finally getting around to playing Fallout 4. Actually, it was a few months back (okay, late last year!) when I picked up an inexpensive new/sealed copy and as you can see, the cover and insert are entirely in Spanish. The game and included poster are entirely in English and I believe the person I bought the game from sold it cheap because they thought the game wasn’t in a language they wanted to play it in.
Ah well, my gain on that front, but this made me realize that those ten years of Spanish lessons in school not being put to use have made me rusty as hell. Or, as the song says“I understand just a little – no comprende, it’s a riddle!” I should probably remedy that, as knowing another language is a great way to expand one’s horizons significantly. Yeah, I’ll probably look into getting the DLC at some point (I bought this something like a few weeks before the GOTY version with all the DLC went on sale, oops). but for now, this will do.
Of course, I’m still catching up with my actual reviews (11 to get done, but a few are in progress), so this will get put back into the play stack for the time being. I won’t even discuss Fallout 76, as I’m not ready for that one (and if it’s online only, I may take a pass or at least try it at my leisure as I can only play two or three online games maximum because they eat up so much time). Eh, we shall see.
I’ve probably seen Howard Hawks’ The Big Sleep about a dozen or so times over the years and I still can’t properly describe the plot of the film even after finally reading the Raymond Chandler novel it’s based on. That said, it’s always been a fun classic film to watch a few times because Humphrey Bogart plays his part so effortlessly and the other actors follow suit with some solid performances.
"DESTROY ALL FANBOYS!" 