TV

Dexter
4x05 Dirty Harry
This season of Dexter is certainly managing an above-average number of twists and surprises, what with the ending to the previous episode and now this one. (UK pace viewers can find out in about three and four weeks.)

Roger & Val Have Just Got In
1x03 The Dining Room Curtains
[Watch it (again) in HD on iPlayer.]

Films

Sister Act (1992)
[2nd or so watch]

Games

Tales of Monkey Island
Chapter 1 Launch of the Screaming Narwhal

The fifth Monkey Island game has been out for a long while now (over a year -- crikey, really?!), and I've even had the DVD version for a few weeks, so I'm not quite sure why it's taken me so long to get round to playing it. Expectation, I suppose -- I've loved the Monkey Island games for as long as I've been using computers; they're a part of my childhood, and my adolescence, and they're excellent -- who knew if this could live up to it?

I shouldn't have worried though, because it's brilliant. Not all of it -- the control method is frequently awkward (though as this isn't a fast-paced pixel-specific kind of game that's an irritant rather than major flaw), and there's a pair of sections that rival the Doctor Who Adventure Games for mind-numbing easily-failed repetitive boredom.

But by far the majority is entertaining, brain-taxing (in a very good way), and funny too. Hurrah! In fact, it was so good I played it all in one sitting -- which lasted about four hours (I'm sure it could be completed much faster, but I enjoy exploring everything and working through every dialogue tree that I can manage).

And there's four more episodes to go -- even better! Not to mention that it seems to have been a huge success. Dare we hope for a Monkey Island 6? I hope we don't have to wait as long (nine years!) next time.

this week on 100 Films

3 new reviews were posted to 100 Films in a Year this week, and they were...

Final Destination 3 (2006)

what of The Point: the deaths? Some are moderately inventive, and one or two even provoked a crumb of the intended amusement, but somehow it didn’t click as it was clearly intended to (i.e. more with the humour of the second than the fear of the first).

Inglourious Basterds (2009)

The whole film is a grab-bag of filmmaking styles, techniques and modes, thrown together with a gleeful abandon. Tarantino uses what he wants when he wants it, sometimes for no reason at all, and with no eye to creating a stylistic whole.

Matchstick Men (2003)

Matchstick Men ends with a twist. One of those great big changes-everything-you’ve-just-seen numbers that have a habit of making a film notorious. I’m almost loathe to mention it, because I’ve never read a review that mentions it. Maybe they’re playing along trying to keep the secret. But not me, because I bloody hated it. The twist, that is. The rest of the film is pretty good

More next Sunday.