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February ’25 Movie Roundup · Pick Up and Deliver

• 0:00
  Welcome to Pick Up and Deliver, the podcast where I pick up my audio recorder as I step
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  off the train and deliver an episode to you while I walk home.
• 0:10
  I'm Brendan Riley.
• 0:12
  Well, good afternoon listeners.
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  It's a lovely day here in suburban Chicago.
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  The sun is out, the sky is very lightly covered with drifting clouds, but generally nice
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  and clear.
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  The weather is in the mid-60s, which is perfect.
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  No jacket, long sleeve shirt, and I'm enjoying my walk home.
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  I'm excited to talk to you about some games and enjoy the weather together.
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  Well, I figure out, because I'm not going to talk about games, or at least not mostly,
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  because it's the end of April, which means it's time for me to look back a couple months
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  and talk about some movies.
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  That's right, it's time for the February 2025 movie Roundup.
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  If this is a new segment for you every month or a couple months, I look back at the recent
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  viewings and I talk about what I've watched, what I thought of those films, and how they
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  connect to gaming.
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  Either a thematic connection, if you're going to watch this movie, here's a game
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  you can play with it, or some other observation about the hobby related to the film.
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  That's my plan.
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  If you're not interested in talking about movies, maybe this isn't the episode for you,
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  but I hope you'll stick around with us.
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  Anyway, because I feel like I have something to say.
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  All right, the first movie I want to talk about is "Saturday Night".
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  This came out in 2024, so that's a pretty new movie.
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  This is a... I don't know what you'd call it, it's not a biopic, because it's not about
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  a specific person.
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  I guess in the fall under the category of "Inspired by True Events", it is a movie about
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  the first season of "Saturday Night Live".
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  For narrative convenience and dramatic purpose, what they've done is they took the first season
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  of "Saturday Night Live" and compressed it all into a single night.
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  So the idea is, all of a bunch of different things that happened on the first season of
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  "Saturday Night Live" are depicted.
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  They're all depicted as happening in one night.
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  And the idea of "Saturday Night Live" at its core as being approved by the network because
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  it was a bargaining tactic with Johnny Carson is part of the overall gambit.
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  Loren Michaels, the famed producer of "Saturday Night Live" is depicted as the main character,
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  but really what we're doing is we're following this large ensemble of people trying to figure
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  out what this show is supposed to be and how it's going to work.
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  A bunch of different characters have a lot of different kinds of motivation and because
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  it's a huge cast, each one gets just a little bit of nuance.
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  The heart of the film is a kind of conflict between the old and the new, between the way of
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  doing things that was the standard for studio series at the time and the out of improv
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  in line with youth culture mode that Loren Michaels was chasing as the way he constructed
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  the show.
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  A lot of the things that became part of the lore of the show are there.
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  The idea of them trying to figure out what sketches they're going to do right up until the
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  last minute.
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  The idea that sketches are being written or rewritten or revised and so on all throughout is
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  part of it.
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  The idea that the sets are being worked on here and there at a moment's notice.
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  There's a bunch of stuff that is really entertaining.
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  There's a plot line with a scene that's supposed to have where there's supposed to be a
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  floor that has a brick surface and the people who brought the bricks in are teamsters.
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  So they're there to move bricks but they're not mason's.
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  So, their union prohibits them from working on the brickwork.
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  They don't have a union mason on site and so there isn't someone who can within union
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  rules do the mason work and so they have a staffer who is doing the mason work.
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  And he's struggling to get it done by the time the show comes on the air.
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  There are the issue of John Belushi kind of disappearing because he feels like he is
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  a legitimate, strong, comedic presence and he doesn't want to play the Bumblebee character
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  but the Bumblebee is what they have set up for him to play so he's kind of having a tantrum
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  about that.
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  There's an ongoing plot with Chevy Chase being kind of a jerk to everybody but then Milton
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  Burle's showing up and being an even bigger jerk to Chevy Chase.
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  There's a whole bunch of stuff that makes the film a really compelling chaotic mess about
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  a compelling chaotic mess.
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  I like the movie a lot.
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  I think it's worth watching.
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  My guess is if you don't care at all about Saturday and at live it's probably less compelling
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  but I think it is an ensemble story about a bunch of people trying to do a thing that's
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  hard to do.
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  It's a pretty entertaining yarn.
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  So that is Saturday night.
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  I think the closest game play experience I can think of that comes near to that is
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  Roll Camera! which is a game about making movies.
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  In that game you have a whole bunch of different stuff that's going on.
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  You're trying to coordinate a variety of different effects and ideas, a variety of different
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  people trying to participate in the process of making the movie.
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  And of course there's a undercurrent in the film of not being able to solve problems without
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  working together.
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  So I guess if I were going to suggest a game to go with this you could play Roll Camera.
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  There are also a number of Saturday Night live themed games.
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  I don't know anything about them.
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  That would be another option if you wanted to.
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  Next up is Paddington 2.
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  Paddington 2 is a lovely movie about our title character Paddington trying to find more
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  about his history and understand his play from the universe and particularly in his world.
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  Better.
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  It's also about characters looking for their past.
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  And of course there's a villainous con man.
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  It's a very cute movie with a heartwarming message.
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  I like the overall flow of it.
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  I don't have a lot more to say in terms of a meditation on anything.
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  It is a nice lesson about how we all have an impact on people around us.
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  I think very early on there's this idea that Paddington is an important figure in his
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  neighborhood.
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  But then we also see how when he finds himself in a new community he's able to influence
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  that community positively by just being himself and being engaged with the world.
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  In a lot of ways Paddington is sort of a Ted Lasso figure, ruthlessly positive, relentlessly
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  upbeat and earnest and holding people to account.
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  It's a good movie.
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  If you haven't seen it you definitely should watch it.
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  I had the impression it was going to be life changing.
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  I didn't really think it was life changing but I think it's very very good.
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  It's hard to find a game that has a similar weight to it.
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  I haven't played it yet but the pursuit of happiness might be one.
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  But I know that game is competitive like you're trying to have a better life than other people.
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  So some sort of cooperative game probably is a better situation there.
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  In terms of being engaging for children, the game stuffed fables is probably meant to be
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  more in line with what you would have in Paddington too.
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  But ultimately I don't have a good fit for that one.
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  Next up I rewatched Watchmen.
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  I'm not really sure why.
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  I guess I just felt like it.
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  It's fine but I think it's too slavish to the comic book and it doesn't feel like it has
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  a lot of soul.
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  I also irritated that they changed the ending.
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  It didn't change the ending much.
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  It still has the same purpose but I like the comic book ending and the movie is so outrageous
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  in terms of being slavish to the rest of the imagery and ideas in the book in the comic
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  book.
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  I don't know why they couldn't stick to that part as well.
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  But whatever they didn't.
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  If you're going to play a game to go with that, I think probably heroes wanted would be my
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  pick.
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  You could also do Sentinels of the multiverse.
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  Although I didn't enjoy that game as much.
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  Heroes wanted has more of the wry, failed superhero feel to it.
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  That you are these sort of weird ridiculous superheroes trying to make a name for yourself.
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  Much closer to like the mystery men or something.
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  Which Watchmen isn't funny that way.
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  Or maybe that's not serious enough.
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  But I think that's kind of the idea.
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  That's Watchmen from 2009.
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  Next up we have Love Hurts.
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  This is a movie starring Ke Huy Quan of who is in Goonies and Indiana Jones when he was
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  a kid and more recently in everything everywhere all at once.
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  And now end in Marvel Loki show which was pretty good.
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  In this one he plays a sort of very upbeat silly real estate salesman who is very very good
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  at being a real estate of salesman.
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  And then one day his past shows up and turns out people are after him and they're out for
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  blood and blah blah blah.
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  It reminds me a bit of the movie Nobody or the movie A History of Violence.
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  This idea of these characters who secretly have a brutal dark side that they have tried
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  to leave behind and can't.
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  It's meant to be funny in there are parts of it that are funny.
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  Also Ke Huy Quan's experience as a martial artist and his stature is a short man of Asian
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  descent.
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  And the decision they made to have him do sort of comic fighting style where he's improvising
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  with objects around him.
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  Like it really hard not to compare this film with something like Rumble and the Bronx or
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  the Drunken Master, right?
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  The early Jackie Chan films where he is improvising with a lot of material around him.
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  And obviously it's hard to stand up to that scrutiny.
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  I would also say the plot in this movie wasn't as well developed the story that they established
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  for this character.
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  There are parts of it that were really good.
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  My favorite bit was one of the assassins who comes after him is played by this very tall guy
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  with a really mesmerizing deep voice who then recites poetry and that character is super
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  compelling and I would like to see more of them.
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  But otherwise it was pretty pedestrian in terms of the plot.
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  And there's a lot of loopholes in terms of understanding what the story is about or in
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  terms of having the story make a lot sense.
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  And worst for me, there's a romance between Ke Huy Quan who is over 50 and the main character
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  who is like early 30s or the main female lead.
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  I don't know why you can't have women female characters, women in films.
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  I don't know why you can't have women in films who are somewhat near the age of the male
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  leads they're supposed to be romancing.
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  It bugs me.
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  And it's annoying.
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  Lover it's fine, not great.
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  I would wait for video for sure.
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  Even then I'm not sure I would pay to watch it.
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  If it comes on a streaming service that you already have you can check it out if you like
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  some dumb kung fu.
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  In terms of games, I don't know what game would go with it maybe kick ass but I don't have
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  a lot of games about like brawling or revenge.
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  So vengeance I guess would be another one that I haven't played but seems like it would
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  fit.
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  So we have the menu.
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  I didn't know much about the menu at all.
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  I just knew it was a sort of dark thriller and it was about an exclusive restaurant.
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  Boy I really like this movie.
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  Rafe finds plays a high high end chef and several of the characters play people going to this
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  extremely exclusive restaurant where things start to go terribly, terribly wrong.
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  The style of the movie is very precise.
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  It's beautifully shot.
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  It feels very deliberate.
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  The casting is impeccable.
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  Lots of really smart and interesting people on screen.
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  Really compelling narrative choices throughout.
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  I don't want to tell you too much about it because if you haven't seen it you should watch
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  it without knowing too much more.
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  But it's a dark thriller set at a fancy fans restaurant.
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  That's the menu.
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  Boy I don't know what game would go with that.
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  Probably fiasco maybe or dread.
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  It might be a good one.
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  It would be kind of a weird adventure but you could play a dread game sort of themed around
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  the menu or the menu and I think that would work pretty well.
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  The last movie I watched in February was another repeat like Watchmen.
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  I watched again the imitation game.
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  I really like movies about people solving complicated problems and lately I'm sure you can figure
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  out why.
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  I really enjoyed stories about people besting the Nazis.
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  Reminding us that the Nazis are terrible and pointing to how hope and ingenuity and collaboration
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  can allow us to defeat them.
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  Which is something I love to see.
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  So I know the movie is a little bit complicated in terms of the way that Alan Turing is depicted
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  and the idea about the way that his romantic life particularly happened.
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  But overall I think the imitation game is a really compelling story about how the British
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  forces collaborated to crack the enigma machine and probably one of the main factors in the
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  allies winning the war.
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  So if you haven't seen enigma or the imitation game you should.
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  Obviously the game would go with that would be Turing machine.
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  A game with deductive reasoning and punch cards.
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  So get on that.
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  Well that's about it for me today.
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  I hope that you've seen some of those movies and enjoyed them.
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  I'd love to hear which ones.
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  You can share that knowledge over on boardgame geek and guild 3269.
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  I would love to hear what you think of those movies.
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  Well thanks for joining me on my walk today.
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  I hope you're next walk as a supposant as mine was.
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  Bye bye.
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  [MUSIC]
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  [BLANK_AUDIO]