Another month, another round up. A decent range of video games, movies and TV. On we go.
Super Mario RPG
The fact that I finished the main story of this goober in less than five days doesn’t really speak well for its playtime or its difficulty. There isn’t a Hard Mode option, so I just went with the medium option, which was the highest difficulty you can choose. Despite not being overly challenging, it’s a fun little game with great visuals, and you definitely see how it went on to inspire Superstar Saga and the rest of the inspired Mario & Luigi games, even though the green-hatted gent doesn’t get a look in here.
The plot’s fairly standard Peach-gets-captured fare, but come on, Mario fans don’t come for the intriguing, layered plots, they come for the satisfying gameplay and majestic soundtrack. I have no experience of the original game, but apparently all the original tunes have been updated to a high degree. And Geno’s here. You know, that guy who all the Super Smash Bros stans are always simping for. He is pretty OP, so he’d probably be a good edition.
Also, in defence of the game’s lack of difficulty, there is one element which I have yet to conquer. And that’s the 100 Super Jumps shindig. The essential idea is that you have to do this move on an enemy 100 times, but the frame rate gets cheeky after about 13 tries and messes things up. People have said using pro controllers makes things easier, but I’m sitting here with my Switch Lite. Pro controllers ain’t an option, friendo. So for the sake of not sending too many of my blood cells to their deaths, I’m going to leave this challenge alone.
Napoleon
If you’ve heard about Napoleon, chances are you’ve heard about Ridley Scott’s angry responses to the film’s various inaccuracies. This man doesn’t care about the haters. Haters gonna hate hate hate hate hate, as the Swifties might say. French audiences certainly weren’t impressed. Scott then remarked that the French don’t even like themselves, so wondered why they’d like the movie. Nice one, Scott, a very measured thought process there. He ultimately told people to ‘Get over it’, apparently. Ok then, if you say so.
Bearing in mind the various scenes that take place which didn’t actually happen (Napoleon witnessing Mario Antoinette’s execution, Napoleon firing canons at the Pyramids etc), this ahistorical context allows plenty of room for deadpan comedy in between battle scenes, which are certainly outstanding, particularly one brutal sequence where Napoleon takes advantage of his enemies’ unsure footing on a huge sheet of ice. From the moment that Juaquin Phoenix appears to be catching some Zs while a commander updates him on the situation of the war, we can see that Scott can’t be taking his central character that seriously. When he searches for the sword of Josephine’s father to give back to her as a symbolic consolation, he stares at the wide array of weaponry and rhetorically questions: ‘Did no-one think to attach names to any of them?’ The way he sniffs Josephine’s invitation letter, as well as the comedically brief sex scenes all lend a knowingly unserious element to a man we know little about. When his voiceover declares that he has already conquered Italy, it sounds like the words of a child. If Scott intends the audience to view his film as a serious historical epic, he’s not doing so well.
By the time we get onto all of Napoleon’s food quotes, it’s hard not to think of Monty Python. When he dismisses one of his men with a guarantee of no dessert, I thought of John Cleese’s elderberries reprimand as he stands indignantly in his high tower. Mentions of succulent breakfasts brought to mind an entirely different YouTube clip known as ‘Succulent Chinese Meal’ involving a certain foul mouthed Australian guy, but that’s probably too niche to get into right now. Anyway, the film is full comedic touches which surely must be intentional. Napoleon lets off an f-bomb as he has a dramatic stair fall, a temper tantrum with the English over boats and a self-righteous gloat in the vein of There Will be Blood’s Daniel Plainview as he triumphantly announces that destiny is responsible for the lamp chop he is about to consume. Scott isn’t exactly a stranger to camp in his historical fare, particularly thinking of Ben Affleck’s performance in Scott’s previous epic, The Last Duel.
If you’re going into this looking for a compelling historical epic, you won’t get it. Two hours and forty minutes pass, but you won’t learn anything about the man in question despite the outstandingly choreographed battle scenes. If you’re looking for a black comedy, however, you’ll find plenty of metaphorical lamb chops on which to chew and chortle.
Kin (Season 1)
I wasn’t aware of this series until it popped up as a suggestion on IPlayer recently, but I’m glad I found it. Originally aired exclusively on RTE, it follows the Kinsellas as they become embroiled in gang warfare after members on each side are murdered. Stacked with a stylish synth soundtrack and an equally impressive cast, family tensions come to the fore as members attempt to deal with the fallout.
It’s hard to get too far into the plot without ruining things. It’s great to see a combination of acting aficionados and relatively new talent. Ciarán Hinds, who plays big bad Eamon Cunningham, is compelling whether he’s playing a rebel leader in Game of Thrones or quieter parts in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, and roles which essentially amount to cameos in films like In Bruges. He knows how to do a lot by doing very little, and if you’ve been following my blog for a bit, you know that’s the kind of acting style I really appreciate.
Aiden Gillan, another Thrones alumni, also makes a welcome appearance as Kingsler gang leader Frank, whose reign is threatened as his family start playing for the top position. Seeing Charlie Cox take the lead as the quiet but deadly Michael Kinsella, who comes home to the clan from prison after committing a mysterious crime, was a nice relief. Cox didn’t get the recognition he deserved after his breakout role in Stardust, although he’s already proved he can do a solid Irish accent in Boardwalk Empire, and is more than capable in the action department with his eponymous role in Daredevil, the best long-running Netflix (now Disney) Marvel superhero series by a long shot. He’s Kin’s beating heart for most of the series as he tries to reconnect with estranged daughter Anna amidst the carnage. Season two has already been released in full on RTE and BBC definitely has the rights, so hopefully I’ll be able to binge that soon as well.
Takeshi’s Castle, Episode 1 (2023)
Ah, heck. Takeshi’s Castle was a stone cold classic. Slapstick has always been a favourite comedy genre of mine, and Takeshi never disappointed. Watching people fail as they tried to scale muddy surfaces, step on every stepping stone or get yeeted out of a zumo ring (I don’t think the word ‘yeet’ existed back then, but never mind) by far superior adversaries was my comedic bread and butter, with Craig Charles’ manic commentary always contributing to the lols.
Admittedly, things are a bit different this time around. Charles is unfortunately gone, and the commentary banter from Romesh Ranganathan and Tom Davies doesn’t work quite as well, but it’s acceptable. The slapstick elements still make me laugh, although some parts of the show seem way too difficult (putting booby trapped stones in the stepping stones round? Wasn’t that challenge difficult enough already?). Equally, some parts of the show seem inappropriately nice (giving honourary fighter awards to some players in order to keep them in the game? That’s probably because you lost too many people in the stepping stones round because…that shiz is too difficult).
It’s still fun to watch as a spectacle, despite the fact that the digital head of Takeshi is somewhat disconcerting, and vaguely reminds me of the digital head in Dr Kawashima’s Brain Training on Nintendo DS (sadly I couldn’t keep manically clicking it to annoy the head though). Also, stopping the episode halfway through the challenges and finishing the rest of ‘em in the second episode? C’mon now, you should be able to edit events more efficiently into one episode. Anyway, entertaining enough.