Freedom Writers is a non-fiction movie about a teacher who inspires her at-risk students to greatness. The Netflix jacket has a little bit more information on it but that is all that you need to know now.
Starring Hilary Swank as Erin Gruwell this movie is set in the inner city. Gruwell is a new teacher full of hopes and dreams about teaching who, after the first day on the job, begins to wonder just what she has gotten herself into. Faced with a multi-ethnic gang ridden class and a host of unsupportive teachers and staff members she tries the best she can to teach.
See, it turns out that many on staff are angry about the forced integration that has come to their school. One faculty member laments that 75% of their top students have chosen to go to other schools after the inner city kids were bussed in. Gruwell refuses to give up hope.
In fact after being rebuffed in her attempts to get books and supplies for her kids she takes on part time jobs so that she can afford to buy materials for her kids herself. At one point she buys every kid in her class a new paperback book for them to read. the kids are impressed and you can hear them muttering about how they were given new books and not the usual crappy books they typically receive.
However, as Gruwell's school life improves her home life deteriorates. After only one and a half years as a teacher her husband leaves her. He can't take being the 'wife' in the marriage and tells her so. At the same time her father finally comes around and tells her how much he respects the work she is doing.
I did not grow up in the streets. in fact I grew up in mostly white bread suburban areas south of Boston. The most inner city I ever lived through while growing up was where the turf battles were between kids whose hair colors ranged from blonde to red. It was not until I joined the military that I came to have a good number of friends who did not already look like me.
Erin Gruwell put a lot on the line to make her kids care about learning and graduating from high school. She treated her kids with respect and they, over time, returned that respect.
Freedom Writers is not a short movie, it clocks in at over 2 hours in length. It is, however, a very good movie. it portrays the life of a teenager in a very realistic manner. Most of the film takes place in the classroom but what happens in that classroom is very moving.
I tend to look at older games with a bit of nostalgia, although there are some that simply make me nauseous at the very thought of them. Waterworks is one of those games; it has brought joy to many – but never to me, and I got rid of the game long ago. When I first read the rules to Bulp! (Giochix.it, 2007 - Michele Quondam), I was immediately reminded of the older game. The designer has stated that they haven't played Waterworks, but I'll tell you it's an awfully coincidental design!
Which simply means that I don't like Bulp! It's a game with too much luck and very little fun. The idea of water flowing through pipes is a good one, but it simply falls flat in play. I found that some kids enjoyed the blocking of other players, and the short length keeps the game from dragging too much. But I can't really see any strategies other than the obvious, and the game continually reminded me of another tunnel building game – Saboteur – that used a similar system but in a much better way. Bulp just feels uncreative and lackluster – there's almost zero excitement in a game that has blocking and pipe twisting.
Each player places a town card an equal distance from a central spring. A deck of pipeline cards is shuffled, and six are dealt to each player. On a player's turn, they simply draw the top card, then place one card on the table that connects to any player's pipeline. Cards must all follow the same orientation and must connect to the pipes shown on the cards.
- Some cards show a single pipe, or a curved pipe, or even a pipe that splits up in a "T" or "X" shape.
- Other cards show a "break" (with water pouring out) on them and can only be played on top of another unbroken pipe of the same shape. A player can "fix" a break by playing a solid pipe on top of the break even if another arm of the pipe is added (a "T" can be played on top of a broken straight pipe.)
On a player's turn, they may also discard a card to place a "cap" on any open outlet of their own pipeline. This capped pipe may have no more cards played on it. Either way, play passes clockwise until one player manages to touch his village card with an outlet from the pipeline. There can be no broken parts of this pipe or uncapped outlets breaking away from it to work. The game also ends when the draw pile is depleted.
At this point, players score - scoring one point for each card that they would need to play to finish their pipeline, plus one point for each broken or uncapped section of their pipe. The player with the fewest points (ties broken by cards in hand) is the winner!
Some comments on the game...
1.) Components: If anything, Giochix knows the best way to package a card game - with two small decks of cards fitting into a plastic insert that slides into the game box nicely. The pipe caps are simply blue plastic chips that fit in a small plastic bag, which aren't as thematic as the metal wrenches from the original Waterworks game. The cards themselves are nicely done, showing large pipes with workers and animals cavorting around them; and everything fits together to make a nicely designed pipe layout. I wonder why they didn't use square cards, so as to make it easier to figure out the starting distance; but I can't complain with how the game looks.
2.) Rules: The rules are printed in several languages on a long, folded piece of paper; the English rules are oddly wrapped around one end. They are easy to understand with pictorial diagrams on just how to place the pipe and an alternate scoring method (also known as "too convoluted to care scoring"). The game is VERY easy to teach; even young kids were able to pick up the game in a flash.
3.) Fun Factor: Some players will enjoy the fact of forming a pipe layout; and I think that I can safely say if you enjoyed Waterworks, you'll probably like this game for the same reason. There is a decent amount of interaction, as players who ignore others will quickly find themselves losing; and an unchecked player will end the game in a minute or two.
4.) What's not fun: The game is completely immersed in luck; so much so that I simply cannot see how players will enjoy it. Most of the game is spent either fixing broken pipes on your own line or thwarting an opponent. Eventually there will come a point at which one player will finally complete their pipeline; not because they used tremendous strategy, but because finally no one had the cards to stop them. There is very little variety in the game - players will simply build a pipeline straight to their town with a little maneuvering due to other players messing with them. Why do anything different?
I can't recommend Bulp!, if only for the fact that the game Waterworks is more readily available and has virtually identical game play with a few minor differences. But even beyond that, Bulp!, despite decent components, just offers no strategic or fun returns after each playing. Bulp! may work as a kid's game, since it offers enough minor choices and interaction to be enjoyable for the younger folk. It's also short and simple to setup and play. But all of that just fails miserably for me in the long run, because I found myself simply not caring if I ever finished my pipeline or not; since I had little control over the outcome. Bulp! is Waterworks without the fun. And that's if you considered Waterworks to have fun included, which I don't.
When this movie came in the mail (Netflix.com) I had no idea what to expect. All I knew was that it was over two hours long. My wife picked it out in part because of the big name actors (Robert De Niro and Michelle Pfeiffer) in the cast. tonight we watched it.
Deep in the countryside of England there lies a small town named Wall. It gets its name from a mysterious (and magical) wall that borders the village. On the other side of this wall is the magical kingdom of Stormhold. It is by order of the town council that none are allowed to pass over the one breach in the wall. A guard is forever stationed at the breach to insure none cross over.
One evening Dunstan Thorn takes it upon himself to trick the guard and pass over the breach in the wall. Thinking nothing special lies on the other side of the wall he is amazed to discover a magical land, and a girl. After a fun night young Dunstan returns to his side of the wall with naught but memories.
Nine months later a small package is left at the wall for him. It is a basket with young Tristan Thorn inside. It seems his mother is unable to keep and raise him on account of her being the slave of a witch. Dunstan takes it upon himself to raise his son, alone.
Flash forward 18 years and we find young Tristan on the verge of becoming a man. He pines for the love of the village beauty Victoria (Sienna Miller). Being but a lowly shop boy he knows he has little chance with her. A chance made even smaller by the appearance of her prime suitor Humphrey (Henry Cavill). Determined to win her hand in marriage (if not her heart) he takes her out for a secret dinner 10 days before her birthday. While they talk a shooting star falls and he tells her that he will find the fallen star and give it to her in exchange for her hand in marriage. If he fails she will marry Humphrey, who is off to Ipswich to buy her a ring.
Unbeknownst to Tristan the star has fallen because the previous king (Peter O'Toole) of Stormhold has died and set in motion a series of events that will both determine the new ruler of Stormhold and make Tristan into a man, or have him die trying.
The funny thing about the royal family of Stormhold is that only one male heir can become king so all of the male heirs take it in turn to kill off all of their male siblings. In fact, Just before the king dies Septimus (Mark Strong) pushed one of his brothers off a balcony to his death. Once dead the ghosts of the brothers sort of hang out together until the next king is crowned. These apparitions act as a sort of peanut gallery trough out the movie as they can neither be seen nor heard by the living. Let me say right now that the lines the ghosts are given are classic. At times I find them saying aloud thoughts that are in my head.
What the king has done is set the ruby of Stormhold out into the stars. The next king of Stormhold will be the one who returns the ruby to it's normal form, a task that only a male member of the royal bloodline can do. Somehow the king has also managed to bring a star to Earth who lands in a crater alongside the ruby. Somewhat bewildered she picks it up and wears it.
It is at this time that we also find out about the witches, the head witch, Lamia (Michelle Pfeiffer), and her two sisters plan to kill the star and eat her heart to attain youth and power once more. They did this 400 years ago when the last star fell to Earth. After drawing straws (so to speak) Lamia is warded the task of bringing the star home and is rewarded with the last bit of the last star. A morsel that rejuvenates her frail old body. Using magic has its own price as it ages her rapidly. There is one very humorous scene where she attempts some magic to fix her aging appearance and the end result is that her youthful breasts suddenly droop.
Now we have three people looking for the star or the ruby she wears. Tristan wants the star to prove his love to Victoria. Septimus and his brothers want the ruby so that they may become king. The witches want the heart of the star to regain their lost power.
The movie is an amazing ride and a joy to watch. I do not wish to spoil anything but I will tell you this. Tristan's mother is the long lost royal daughter. It's not much of a spoiler as it comes out early in the movie.
In one way this movie reminded me of The Princess Bride. The dialogue is excellent and the acting superb. On the other hand the cinematics and computer animation reminded me of the Lord of the Rings movies. Either way this movie is worth a rental.
In my search for Power and Weakness (JKLM Games and FRED, 2007 – Andreas Steding), I noticed that it's the only game with the word "weakness" in the title. Yes, that's not an interesting fact, but really – the game gave off this air of incredible boredom that resonated from the medieval artwork to the pasty colors. The fact that it was a two-player area control game was intriguing (something fairly difficult to achieve), but it also looked immensely abstract.
Power & Weakness is exactly what it looks like - an abstracted two-player area control game. It manages to feel like two distinct games being played at the same time, with some fairly detailed rules (the poorly written rulebook doesn't help much). I enjoyed the game; but I think the audience will be small, as it is a game that appeals to mostly die-hard gamers and is more difficult to grasp than most games of this genre. The theme is a bit bland (read: non-existent), yet it is very unique, and luck plays a very small role.
The board is a map of England in the fifth century, divided up into different regions. A colored disk (red, yellow, blue, and green) is randomly placed face up in each region. Piles of markers in each players' colors (orange and white) are placed in a central stock (cubes for knights and disks for magicians). Players take three of each into their reserves, and the first round is ready to begin. Rounds alternate between a magic cycle and sword cycle. During each cycle, one of the types of units is considered the "active" unit (knights during the sword cycle, magicians during the magic cycle), and the other is the "passive' unit.
At the start of each round, each player receives two active pieces. A time token is turned over (from "4" to "8"), and that many gray cubes are placed on a sundial picture. Action tiles are turned over (the same number as that of gray cubes, plus three) face up near the top of the board. The player who currently has the fewest victory points go first (ties are determined randomly).
A few years ago someone finally made a Dungeons and Dragons movie. It was bad. A little while later someone made a sequel to that movie. It was so bad only one actor returned. I knew those movies would be bad but I hoped they would be bad in a good way. When I heard the man behind the first movie talking about how dwarves live in garbage pits and are dirty and stinky I knew there was no reason to see the movie in theatres.
It is now several years later (I did buy the Dungeons and Dragons movie on DVD for the bonus content) and while cruising Netflix I found that the long talked about Dragonlance movie was finally released. Because they managed to land Keifer Sutherland (Raistlin) and Lucy Lawless (Goldmoon) I had some high hopes for the movie. Yeah, they were dashed on the rocks of my bittersweet memories of this series.
Back when I was in high school I read all of the Dragonlance books. I even read some of the fluff ones that were not written by Tracy or Laura Hickman. I even bought some of the hardcover versions of the books. These are not Lord of the Rings quality but, too a high school gamer, these were far more accessible and easy to read and follow. I have since read the books again (I have a lot of down time at work) and I have to admit that the core books do hold up well, the side books do not.
At any rate, a few days ago the DVD arrived in the mail (Netflix again) and I eagerly put it in my DVD player while my wife looked on, wondering what sort of torture I was going to put her through for the next 90 minutes.
The opening credits were pure fan service. A CGI dragon was flying around only to be pierced by a dragonlance. Then it went to 2D animation and it all went to hell.
The story opens with the friends meeting up at the Inn of the Last Home in Solace where we find the town overrun by goblins. It is at this point that I turned to my wife and said, "this is going to be bad." I admitted it up front because looking at the horrible animation (it reminded me of the animation from the movie Heavy Metal but in a bad way). The animation only got worse because some of the creatures were animated via CGI and just dropped on top of the drawn animation.
Outside of town we have our first fight scene as Tanis and Flint are attacked by some goblins. They win but the battle animation was terrible and it seemed as if the artists were not sure whether they wanted to show blood or not. One minute a goblin collapses into a pool of blood and the next minute Tanis is removing his sword from a dead goblin to find it perfectly clean. There was no blood shed during the battle only pools of it after creatures died.
Once we finally get to the inn we have a few minutes of fan service but the worst thing has to be that when the movie would introduce a new female character they would zoom in on the character's breasts and then pan up to her face. When Tiki was introduced we get a couple seconds of her breasts bouncing their way towards us before we see her face. This was followed by a close up of her ass jiggling as she walked away. Yeah, I was feeling a bit embarrassed at this point.
As the movie trudges on it hops, skips and jumps over the journey and only focuses on the destinations. The journey through Darken Wood and the way to Xak Tsaroth are all glossed over. One minute they are in Solace and a few minutes later they have arrived at their destination. We never learn anything about the characters (yes, this movie was written strictly for existing fans and not to draw in new fans) nor do we even care about the characters.
Eventually I got used to the bad animation but the butchering of the book was just too much for me to deal with. By the end of the movie I was happy to see it end.
At work, when something goes wrong we often have the "how could this accident have been avoided" talk. This is my "How could this accident have been avoided" list for this movie.
How could this accident have been avoided
Include an opening monologue that not only tells us what happened in the past but also a little bit about the characters and recent events.
Drop the "look, it's [insert female character's name]'s breasts" pan shots.
Not mix 2D and 3D animation.
Include the journey in the movie. If the Lord of the Rings movies only showed us the destination they would have been able to fit the whole movie in two hours.
Not give away that Fizban = Paladine so early in the movie.
If you are a fan of the Dragonlance books DO NOT see this movie. It is bad. It is real bad. If you do decide to rent it, watch it in private. DO NOT invite your friends over to watch it as they will wonder what the hell you are doing.
If you want to have a fun night rent it and watch it strictly with your gaming buddies. Spend the evening taking shots whenever there is a close-up of a female character's breasts or ass and see who gets drunk first.
I was out shopping with my daughter today and I ran into this in the toy store. The Han Solo Torture set?
What the heck is Hasbro thinking these days? Putting the poor guy in carbonite (that was a whole play set) was bad enough but now this?
Look at his face, it looks like he is smiling! What kind of torture device makes a guy smile? My only guess is that Hasbro was not able to take the time to make a Han Solo figure with pain on his face so they just re-purposed an earlier model. Kind of like when they took the muscle-bound Han and Luke figures and put them in those over-sized mech outfits.
You know what the little kids will do with this thing once they get their hands on it? They will remove Han Solo and put that annoying Anakin figure in there.
Let me take you to a little boy's bedroom, in a house nearby. I can hear the dialogue now...
Kid "Why did you have to be such a girly-man?" Anakin "It was Lucas, he made me this way!" Kid "I can't believe you become Vader, you don't even sound like him." Anakin "That was just a voice actor, a big white guy was inside the suit." Kid "Now you will pay for ruining the Star Wars movies..." Anakin "AAAAIIIIGGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!"
The 501st Legion’s Garrison will be making an appearance for Friendly’s Fun Night, February 4th in Plainville , CT. This year, tips and proceeds from the event will benefit TEAM MORGAN & EASTER SEALS.
Dinner, ice cream, and THE GALACTIC EMPIRE! Come join the fun!
FRIENDLY’S FUN NIGHT
Date: 2/4/08
Time: 5:00 - 8:00
Place: Friendly’s of Plainville
230 New Britain Ave
Plainville, CT
books DO NOT see this movie. It is bad. It is real bad. If you do decide to rent it, watch it in private. DO NOT invite your friends over to watch it as they will wonder what the hell you are doing. 
