Movie Time!

We went to see Kick Ass last night at the local cinema.

I know, I know, part of that sentence was unnecessary. Of course we went to the local cinema. Where else would we go? We're not rich and famous reviewers who get preview copies (although we could be!) and, we're not gonna hop a plane to go see it somewhere else, so local it has to be.

Anyway, before I was interrupted, I was saying: We went to see Kick Ass. Short review: See it. Longer review to follow.

Kick Ass is set in a world very much like our own. There are no costumed crime fighters, Jedi, living cartoons, demonic fetishists or living robots to be seen. It's a gritty, and somewhat mundane world. It's very home-like.

Into this world comes an average guy. He lost his mom to health problems, he lives with his dad, who has a regular hourly job. He's nerdy and loves his comic books.

Folks, we have our hero.

This simple guy decides one day that the world is shitty, the bad guys have taken over, and he's going to turn the tide. He starts training, and somehow acquires a striped wetsuit (Amazon has everything!) and a couple of batons.

He goes out to fight some crime, turning on some thugs breaking into a car. Things do not go well.

After his release from the hospital, he finds he has a much higher tolerence for pain. He patrols the neighborhood, looking for lost cats and doing general good deeds,, until he steps in to defend a guy being beat up by three thugs. The video of this fight is put on YouTube, and suddenly everyone wants Kick Ass to do something for them. Life is good.

Meanwhile, the local drug lord is losing manpower, product and money to...someone or something. There are rumors that a costumed vigilante is the one ruining his business. Logically, his attention falls on our hero: Kick Ass must die.

(It's at this point that I should tell you the rest of the plot, spoilers and all. If you're interested in the movie at all, or have read the comic, you most likely already know them. If you don't know, you probably don't care, or it's not on your radar. It wasn't on Film Hippie's until I mentioned that Nic Cage is in it. That made the decision to see it instead of How to Train your Dragon possible.)

I'm not going to spoil the rest of the movie. Instead, I'm going to talk a little bit about the movie. It is brutally violent, full of explicit language, blood and gore. There is at least one sex scene, and a little partial nudity. Don't be like the moron behind me and take your kid, please. Just because it's based on a comic book doesn't mean it's a great fit your little one.

I'm no one to rate the camera work or anything, but it looked gritty and real. The costumes were realistic, even when that meant a little ridiculous.

We both enjoyed it quite a bit. It is on our definite buy list. I am sure that film Hippie will talk about it on her blog later.

It was a great night out.

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Murdering a Doctor for Fun and Profit

We played Kill Dr. Lucky the other night. If you are not familiar with this fine game, it is something of a prequel to the time-honored Clue. Instead of acting as detectives looking for the killer of an unfortunate victim (Dr. Lucky in this game, Mr. Boddy in Clue), you're ganking the sumbitch. Or, at least, you are trying.

Much of the game deals with the failures of such attempts. When a player announces an attempt on the life of the good doctor, the other players can (and will) play failure cards to thwart the attempt. Failure takes many forms, from slipping on a banana peel to hearing cryptic music, each of the cards has a little flavor text, making failure interesting.

But, Menty, are there weapons? I don't think I could kill an old man with my bare hands! Of course there are weapons, don't be foolish. There's a spoon and a cannon, a duck decoy, and a bunch of other lethal goodies.

We played the old Cheapass version. I Haven't plunked down the coin for the fancy one from Paizo, but I am considering it. 

It took about an hour to play. Of course, it was the first time for all of us, and I kind of got lucky when I won (almost by accident!)

It's a fun game, a good counterpoint to Clue. Buy it.

In my life news...

I got a new job! More accurately, I was moved from one position to another (labor-intensive to not-so-much) today, with an option to apply for management.

I'm happy, tired, and have to go to sleep for an early morning tomorrow.

See you laters.

This one is late.

My fiancee is trying to convince me that being late can happen from time to time and is ok. I'm not buying it yet.

We went to marriage class tonight. It was informative, without the messiness of being overly interesting. I'm positive I'm losing IQ points when the discussion portion comes around.

But, we had fun before and after class. Before was sandwiches and nachos; After was a walk around Wal-Mart, followed by an impromptu game night. The name of the game we played escapes me, but it was fun. It was a dice thing, trying to get the number of the round 21 times in a round. Time-intensive, but fun.

If anyone is out there, what edition of Dungeons and Dragons is your favorite? More specifically, which one would you choose to teach 20-something ladies new to the game? It looks like I may get a gaming group up, if I can learn a game...