Timewasters: Movies that don't suck:

"If you're going to waste time, waste it with some discernment!"

~Me, just now

These movies all get A+

The Cohen brothers movies are a genre all to themselves. No Country For Old Men is another A+

 

This War of Mine: A- Timewaster. Not for the feint of Heart.

"In a modern war.... you will die like a dog for no good reason."

Ernest Hemmingway

This War of Mine is a brutal lesson in survival, very tough choices and hope in the face of hopelessness. This game is actually one of the most punishing games I've ever played. You only have to survive around 42 - 45 days in a Baltic like city besieged by modern war. Think Croatia or the Ukraine. You and maybe a few other survivors must learn to adapt to changing conditions along the front lines of a modern city and every day you are forced to make tough choices you'd rather not ever have to make.

But it is brutal. Give it a try - it's NOT for everyone.

Brutal.

But then, one group of your survivors makes it through to the ceasefire.

Timewaster grade: A- 

Go pick it up if you dare...

A+ Timewaster: Landman S1 DVD

 Great storytelling. Although it does have some soap opera vibes at times, the style of this show is very much that that of the old Friday Night Lights TV show. Overall, a good pick!

EDIT: THIS is why those two shows seem very similar:

Casting Connections: Billy Bob Thornton, who starred as Coach Gary Gaines in the 2004 Friday Night Lights movie, leads Landman as Tommy Norris, while actress Louanne Stephens appears in both as a grandmother figure (Saracen in FNL and a retirement home resident in Landman).

Creative Team Overlap: Much of Landman is directed by Stephen Kay, a veteran of Friday Night Lights, and the show's intro sequence and dramatic ambiance are widely recognized as direct homages to the NBC series. 

Bloodborne bosses are falling. There is so much blood....

I am still in the Bloodborne dream. A hellish place indeed.

Only took 4 attempts on this guy. The last attempt, I did not have any fire paper, so this one was all brutality.

Vicar Amelia went down today. Took 5 tries, but after breaking her left arm, if you stay in close, you can attack her while she is trying to heal. Got a visceral hit and just stayed in close the whole time.

Found the workshop door in the... tower of whatchacallit. 

Timewasters: They Live! (DVD), 1988 Grade A+

If you haven't seen this movie - get it. Watch it. Learn it. 

Fun fact: The fight scene between 'Rowdy' Roddy Piper and Keith David is the longest fight scene in movie history. 

 

[UPDATE]***A new waste of time: Bloodborne. Into the Old City of Yharnam - at least for a little while....

Maaaaaaan, I JUST realized that I selected Milquetoast for my profession instead of Military Veteran...  pardon me while I grab a hanky...

We'll see how this goes. The frustration barrier may be too high to scale, and the beasts that inhabit this Nightmare may be too fell to overcome. 

"All the treasures are blood."

-Me- just now

Thought this shot was fitting for my quote! This is just after killing the Cleric Beast.

Here's the game: You take your Diablo character and throw it into a Mordheim map. And then try and fight the most ridiculously overpowered creatures in any game ever. And when you die... you have to start all over again. Pure psychological torture disguised as a 'game.' 

There is hardly any ROI for playing this. May be done with it. 

Only 43 percent of everyone that's played on PS4 have defeated the first boss. That's how hard this game is. FromSoftware has a sado-masochistic bent that makes their games much harder at the beginning of the game then the end. Elden Ring is like that too. I probably fought Magrit 50 times and grinded to level 54 before I realized that I couldn't kill him because I couldn't summon a second fighter due to not paying the subscription fees for PS Plus. I knew I killed that guy!

I got really lucky with Father Gascoigne... 

I'm into... someplace else. It took me three tries to get this creep off the Cathedral roof with his machine gun...asshole. I ended up just running past all the monsters and climbing straight up the side of the building to get to him and shooting him off the roof. He deserved it, but I don't think I can recover whatever McGuffin he drops.

Until next next time, Hunters.

Timewasters Lit 201: The Great and Secret Show

 Re-examining this one in light of the current geopolitical climate and the release of the Epstein Files. Great read. A+ timewaster!

If you don't know who Clive Barker is, he wrote The Books of Blood. The first Hellraiser movie is based on the first book, but the rest of the movies are complete Hollywood garbage. In the books, 'Pinhead' is a Cenobite priest fighting Satan for control of Hell. 

Barker tends to write very visceral and dark stories.

"Obscurum per obscurus, ignotum per ignotius"

Obscure by obscure, unknown by unknown.

Ghost Recon Wildlands Timewasters Grade: Solid B-

 The game is fun and boring all at the same time. You play as part of a team of SpecOps that are in Bolivia to take down a cocaine cartel. So you're effectively 'Pete Hegsething' some narco-terrorists. Cool. 

The boredom comes from the game becoming stale very fast. For having such a large map, the mission variety gets old really quick, so be ready for the fights to become tedious about as fast as one of those drug smuggling cigar boats Pete keeps blowing up in the Caribbean.

Solid fare. B- Timewaster

Timewaster Lit. 101: The Catcher in the Rye.

 

1953 first print. Let's see what all the hubbub is about, bub.

Pixar's UP! A masterclass in storytelling

 This a wonderful movie and is truly a master class in storytelling. The first 20 minutes of this movie should be studied by anyone even remotely interested in the visual art of story telling. Highly recommended. 

Timewasters Grade: A+

Timewasters: The Last of Us Remastered Grade: Flat C+

Roll credits

 Kinda boring and short for a survival horror game. Not open world. Linear all the way. Only about 40 percent completion overall for this one. I went ahead and finished it out. It wastes time. That's about it. Every undead/apocalypse/outbreak trope rolled into the story here, and very shallow attempts at emotionally investing the player. Doesn't work. 

Witcher 3 Wild Hunt: Timewaster grade: a solid B-

 Finally, finally, finally got this one completed and the credits rolled. Some of my pics along the way seem to have gone missing, but no biggie.

Roll credits.

This is Gerald of Detroit in his assless chaps with his tighty whities hanging out...? Don't ask me why.

When you finally, finally finish this long ass game. 132 hours to completion.

The Wild Hunt are basically large armored up Dark Elves. This is their Spelljammer to move between worlds.

This is their Spelljammer on fire.

This is their dead King. 

I gave this game an extra '+' grade because all of the women in the game are extra hot white girls. i had to take it back because of the sheer length of the game. Very good Timewaster, but wastes too much time!

Not a Timewaster: Killer Angels by Michael Shaara

I took an entire history class in college centered around this book. Well worth your time. 

 

Timewasters B+ movie fare: Iron Man

 This is just a well made action movie before the glut of MCU junk hit the screen. A solid B+ and a great introduction to the character. This is one of the few superhero movies I'll give this high of a grade for. I haven't watched many of the Marvel or even DC movies in some years. No need to. Chris Nolans' Dark Knight and a few others like this one are all you need. Deadpool is on this list as well.

Timewasters - Epic Level Madness: Joker

 This movie is a deep dive into madness. A+ level timewaster and a psychological ride down a long, dark road. Travel at your peril. 

Joaquin Phoenix has a knack for these types of parts, and creates a Joker here that's on par with Heath Ledger's portrayal. A much more disturbing villain on a personal level though. By personal. I mean that this Joker has personal vendettas that he needs to take care of before his madness sweeps the city (see the last picture).

Joker is a howling descent into the mind of a serial killer and a pathology that isn't defined in the SAGE Encyclopedia of Abnormal and Clinical Psychology. A very unique madness you might say, but one that you will sink into along with "Jack Oswald White." His real name and origin is undefined data at this point. There is only speculation. In this iteration, he is known as Arthur Fleck.

And the alter-ego is realized...

And becomes the only ego.

This timewaster is a study in a psychopathy so far removed from reality, that the Joker persona finally drags the man down into his universe and doesn't let him go. 

Timewaster grade: A-

I gave it the minus for parts of the scene in his television debut on the long-running Murray Franklin Show. I felt that the writer and director toned down the character to appease marketing and sales people, making a watered down reaction at the beginning of the scene. But they make up for it - remember: "You get what you f**king deserve!" 

That's all for this edition of Timewasters. But remember - always keep your head on a swivel. 

Let's talk Monster Hunter World on PS4

 It's.... for other people than me. Pigs with bumble Bee costumes on and little furries running around the place all of the time coupled with the absolute juvenile story and dialog... its a very... woke world. There are too many bright colors and rainbows for me to take this seriously at all! It's meant for certain types of peoples to gather together to share... exciting stories of... mediocre crap in a super-technocolor happy world. 

I think of it as a Twilight type movie of games. If you're into the YA stuff - then it's for you. Definitely not me.

Timewaster grade: C-