Review #1329 – Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective Volume II (Sega CD)

The game is (once again) afoot, as we return to the days when solving mysteries was elementary and Sherlock Holmes was not played by Brent Spiner.

Truth be told, I almost didn’t bother with this one since it’s more or less the same game as the first one (which you can watch here), but the physical package – even in its beat-up state – made the whole thing worthwhile in my eyes. So yes, you get to suffer through more Peter Farley as Sherlock Holmes and a bunch of actors being snobby for your entertainment.

Not that I minded.

On a slightly unrelated note, this video has become the 6,500th published blog post on this new unified blog thing… which is mind-boggling to say the least. That number is going to continue going upwards as new (old) shit as well as new (new) shit gets added at a snail’s pace. The video front is going to get touched on when the eventual Rip hits in a couple weeks.

Trust me when I say there is more to come. A lot more.

Stargate To Stay Closed.

Source: https://bleedingcool.com/tv/stargate-mallozzi-wright-on-cancellation-news-praise-geros-vision/

Amazon deciding not to do a new Stargate show months after they teased a new Stargate show is somehow not a surprise. How many other things will they announce and then cancel? I’m surprised Spider-Noir got out of the woodworks at this rate.

By the way, that’s a good show. More thoughts on that later down the road.

Is She Or Isn’t She?

A while back, while gathering emails and questions for a previous edition of the DTM Mailbag, someone had inquired about my thoughts on the whole Doctor Boo/Billie Piper conundrum that the BBC placed themselves in. I thought about giving a quick answer before moving on, but as I was conducting my answer, I found out that I actually had some thoughts that expanded beyond the brief period I would dedicate. Eventually, I found myself compelled (for whatever reason) to turn this answer into a more detailed write up and offer some thoughts on the matter.

I wanted to hold this off until the end of the month so that I’d have something to post during that last week, but apparently, Marble Mouth Davies suggests that the BBC might be putting some sort of word regarding the future of who at some point next week or so. So I’m going to share some quick thoughts – based almost purely on speculation – and should BBC offer something substantial (or at least remotely forward moving) in terms of their future plans with the proverbial TARDIS, I’ll probably do a follow up. If not, this is my words on the matter, for better or worse.

Continue reading “Is She Or Isn’t She?”

All 2016 Game Reviews Now ModernTubed

For those who want to revisit some old shames, I’ve successfully uploaded all the 2016 game reviews onto Youtube with fancy new numbered title cards and some of them might have a couple edits here and there for niceness sake. The only exception is #500, because that already had the number and also it’s fine as is. The only relic I’ll keep around because it’s the milestone review.

Everything below the belt, however? That’s slowly, but surely gone… or soon to be.

By all means, check those vids out. 2016 is when some of this stuff actually gets to be somewhat decent (for once.)

Slow News Year

So we begin excluding discussion about a certain genre of entertainment for the month of June. The idea being to give that a rest… except how much that affect this blog when there hasn’t been much of it beyond the weekly Wednesday project that concluded?

I’ll be honest with you. There hasn’t been much to talk about in other fronts. Most of you following this blog know that I rarely touch on the current gen console scene. Price hikes due to prevailing circumstances and morons in office is not something that inspires long essays or anything like that. It sucks and it’s going to suck more when certain tariffs are removed and the prices stay up because we gotta make some profits.

Meanwhile, over at the classic gaming scene… new toys to play with, sure. Almost all of it overly expensive and, save for maybe one or two things, almost all of it is a flex. Things you don’t need, but would be nice to have. I’ve got a lot of vintage machines; some of these still work. Not quite the ideal “classic” experience, but they serve me well. And if all else fails, there’s always classic compilations on Switch or PC. And of course, the other avenue that needs not be mentioned because… well, you know… yarrrr.

Over at the comic front, there’s new event comics coming up that leave me uninspired. Movies and TV shows… none of which pique my interest. Honestly, I find myself watching old shit on either Prime Video or Youtube or whatever physical media I have at my disposal. Most of the stuff I have is infinitely rewatchable. Every so often, I can pull that out, give it a watch, have fun, put it back in the dock, and then a few months or so later, I might get a scratch to rewatch it. The quality of good media is not its resale value; it’s the replay. How much are you itching for another go?

I suppose I could on a series of posts dissecting why certain things that I used to take pleasaure and/or joy in no longer provide such things, but that would be too dreary a series at best and at worst, too cut and dry – some things, I lost interest in. Other things, a little more. I’ll try to be a bit more upbeat in my future writings, but as trends on the interwebs have proven time and time again, people love absolute misery and despair… and so does the global algorithms of the universe, it seems.

Thank goodness I don’t care for such things.

Oh wait…

And Then, There Was… Lightning Jack (1994)

I think it’s safe to say that Lightning Jack was where the Paul Hogan train started to stutter a bit. Sure, the guy hadn’t been in a whole bunch of movies and most people probably mostly know him for his two (at the time) Crocodile Dundee outings, but after Lightning Jack failed in the box office, the only other thing of note that he did before going back to the Croc 3 well is Flipper… you know, the dolphin? They made a bunch of stuff about that dolphin.

Please do not remake Flipper. Not because I have a soft spot for the fella. But because you’re just not any good at it.

For those who have not seen Lightning Jack – if you say you have, you’re probably lying – Paul Hogan stars as Lightning Jack, an outlaw from the outback who has a mute partner in Cuba Downing Jr. and they get into some shenanigans because neither outlaw is good at the whole outlaw thing. This leads to things like mute Ben (Downing) shooting himself in the foot and other hijinks. There’s bits of humor to be found here, Paul Hogan is once again a charming performer that makes Jack a likeable enough bloke that you want to see him succeed in being wanted. Downing did a fine job as the mute Ben with his mannerisms and expressions. And shit, their interactions and mishaps gave me laughs. I don’t care. Misery can be very funny in the right moments.

Here’s the thing with Lightning Jack that hurts the movie – it feels like a knockoff version of Crocodile Dundee. Doesn’t help matters that ol’ Jack Kane is only a few steps away from being another take on Mick Dundee, even if he is supposed to be another character entirely… one that’s on the opposite of the moral compass if you will. He looks too much like Mick Dundee except for those moments where you’re reminded that, “Oh wait, this isn’t Mick Dundee. It’s Lightning Jack.”

And yes, let’s get it out of the way. Lightning Jack’s plot is barebones and thin. There’s no substance to it, but then again, you’re not watching something like this for the plot; you’re mostly watching it for the mild comedy bits and action sequences. In the case of the former, the movie has its moments. In the case of the latter, it’s serviceable enough fare, but nothing too outlandish even within the realm of western parody.

It’s not the worst movie that I’ve ever seen, certainly nowhere near as bad as some critics would have you believe. There were a few laughs here and there, there’s more of that Paul Hogan charm, and the action bits, while not spectacular, were still fun bits, but Lightning Jack feels like a lesser version of Croc Dundee and probably explains why we didn’t get another Croc Dundee until two other guys wrote the thing. Neither good nor bad, it’s just okay.