Retro Game Challenge (2009 - DS)

Retro Game Challenge may appear to be a collection of mini-games, but it's actually a very lovingly-crafted tribute to the entire 8-bit gaming era and its culture. Some of the games on the collection are more primitive than others, but the crown jewels are Guadia Quest, a full (if somewhat short) RPG, and Haggle Man 3, a challenging (if also short) sidescroller.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977 - DVD)

Thoughout the years, Close Encounters has remained one of my all-time favorite movies. I don't consider myself a believer in the paranormal, but it is one of the best "What if Aliens were real and really visited Earth?" scenarios I've ever seen play out. Roy Neary (Richard Dreyfuss) is your average blue collar worker who experiences a "close encounter" with a UFO while out late one night on a job. After witnessing several unidentified craft fly down a nighttime road, he becomes obsessed with trying to figure out what he saw.

I'll admit that the first-time viewer might find the middle of the movie rather nonsensical. As Roy appears to go insane and starts building mountains out of mashed potatoes and throwing potted plants through his kitchen window, it almost takes on a comical tone. But then there are other times when the movie switches gears and it can get quite tense - specifically, when the aliens come for the little boy, Barry, and his terrified mother is helpless to stop them.

Then, the third act, with Roy and company finally figuring out what the visions of the mountain mean, becomes a whimsical adventure - as Roy says, "It's like Halloween for adults!" and then holy crap at what they find on the other side of said mountain. And then just when you think it's all over... holy, HOLY crap! That scene still gets me every time - don't worry, you'll know it when you get there.

The visuals in the movie are often quite breathtaking, and I'm not just talking about the flying saucers - the Gobi Desert scene made my jaw drop.
Rating: 4.5/5

Skyfall (2012 - Theater)

While I'm still far from being the world's biggest fan of James Bond (and I swear Daniel Craig looks like he's perpetually doing "Blue Steel" from Zoolander), Skyfall was a lot better than Quantum of Solace. The series seems to have finally gotten its sense of humor back, as well as some of the elements that make the Bond series what it is, like Q and his helpful array of gadgets. The plot is a fairly standard action/spy thriller movie plot, but at least I felt somewhat engaged by it because the villain had sympathetic motivations. Unlike Q of S where I was left thinking, "What? That's what this is all about?"

Despite the fact that this series keeps evolving with the times, and getting darker with each new installment, there's this eyebrow-twitching subtext about old people and their olden ways being superior to the young, computer-savvy generation, only - well, I think the movie wants us to agree with that, while simultaneously struggling, and not always succeeding, to not prove the opposite. The villain is also another one of those magical movie villains who seems to be able to make anything happen (see also Simon in Die Hard 3 or the Joker in The Dark Knight), in this case, just on account of him being a computer hacker with magical hacking powers.

And the last part of the movie, well, aside from becoming Home Alone with adults (not joking), gave me flashbacks to Resident Evil 4. It's like someone played the beginning of RE4 where you take a tunnel under a building to a rustic old church and thought that was so cool they wanted to put it in a movie. (Yeah, I know, go ahead and tell me it's only coincidence, but also remember that Leon S. Kennedy is a knife virtuoso when you come to the corresponding scene in Skyfall.)
Rating: 3.5/5

Disney's DuckTales, Volume 1 (1987 - DVD)

Since this is the first half of Season 1 (I watched the second half last year because I watched Volume 2 first), this really is more of the same good stuff, and I had to look at an episode list to remember which ones were in this set. Since what I said in last year's capsule reviews still applies, I'll just mention a few highlights:

There's an episode in here where Scrooge McDuck grapples with an invisible character. It would be really interesting to see that scene with the "ghost" drawn in.

DuckTales is curious in that fantastic things exist. Magic exists. Aliens exist. Time travel exists. But not ghosts. I've seen no less than four episodes in which a "ghost" has turned out to be a living character in disguise. It's almost like a better version of Scooby-Doo because the plots aren't nearly identical every time, but it does make me wonder why the show is so adamant about its spook skepticism when everything else is allowed.

The "Earth Quack" episode, where they meet a bunch of underground creatures who mobilize by rolling themselves into balls, is one of the most wonderfully screwed-up episodes of anything I've seen lately. And the mine cart sequence was beautifully animated.

Lupin the 3rd: The World's Most Wanted (1977 - DVD)

The World's Most Wanted is a DVD with the first six episodes of the original 1977 Lupin the 3rd TV series.* I have to confess that I didn't quite enjoy this as much as The Castle of Cagliostro. It's not that it's bad, I was just hoping it could've been a little more than what it is. The first episode is really nonsensical and the writing seems to assume that we are familiar with the villain. I guessed that this was because this may have been an episode from later in the series and I had missed something, but no - that's the actual first episode of the show! Which tells me that either that villain came from the comics or they were being intentionally esoteric.

Fortunately, things get better after that, and I will admit there is some allure to a show whose "heroes" are actually "villains" - Lupin and his crew are a gang of highly-skilled thieves. But after a few episodes, it's easy to notice a pattern to them: Lupin comes up with a plan for a heist. There's a screaming "villain of the day" (usually an old man, often a mad scientist). Lupin always just about gets away with his loot, but something goes wrong and he loses it all. And there's always Inspector Zenigata, who's constantly chasing after Lupin. I really wish they'd give that character a rest once in awhile if he's not directly related to the plot. While I wouldn't mind eventually seeing more of this series, Zenigata's the main reason I'm not in a hurry to.

* - The DVD contains the first six episodes, except they skipped one called "Hitler's Legacy" where Lupin attempts to locate a lost treasure that belonged to Hitler. Seriously, this disc is rated 13-Up. Did whoever make the decision to omit that episode think 13-year-olds don't know who Hitler was?
Rating: 2.5/5

A Pup Named Scooby-Doo: Complete 2nd, 3rd & 4th Seasons (1989 - DVD)

I have very mixed feelings about this show. Following in the "Muppet Babies" trend of the 80's Saturday Morning Cartoon era, this is essentially the same package as the original Scooby-Doo series, only the characters are now kids, there's a lot more Tex Avery-style visual humor, and Freddy is a whole lot dumber - which I'm okay with because I got a lot of laughs out of the jokes involving him. As you might know, Freddy always blames the caper on a bully character named Red Herring, even when it's glaringly obvious that it wasn't him. So, there's an episode where Freddy promises not to blame Red Herring, and yes, you can probably guess the ending, and yes, it's brilliant!

But on the other hand, most episodes are formulaic to a T. Not just the plots, themselves, but there are very specific things that happen in almost every one. And, I'm not kidding, I correctly guessed the villain every time.

So, that means the humor is the main reason to watch, and sometimes the visuals are funny, sometimes I don't know what to make of them, and other times they're downright disturbing. How disturbing? Imagine all five characters' heads blending into one giant screaming head. Or a "Doo Family Sniff", which apparently means the dogs' noses pop off and scatter in all directions on their own. And then there's Shaggy and Scooby constantly jumping out of their own skin.

Despite the formulaic nature of the show, it seemed that by the last season, the writers were at least trying to do things a little differently. I kept wishing that someone else besides Velma could solve the mystery once awhile, and yeah, Shaggy and Scooby eventually do solve the library episode. There are also a few episodes that break out of the normal mold towards the end, but because it ends right when they start appearing, it feels like there was some wasted potential here.

Considering that episode quality varies from "almost great" (that crazy Picasso lady and her awesomely hilarious painting) to "lackluster" (the half-assed Ghostbusters parody that ends the set), perhaps a score right down the middle is most appropriate.
Rating: 3/5