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! ! ! Now Available As A Team Deathmatch ! ! ! Nearly 10 years after creating the LTS, I've replicated this in all its Glory as a TDM. Link to bookmark is in the OP.

What I Watched This Week #168 (Mar 17-23) Sisu dir. Jalmari Helander/2022/1h31m Sisu is a Finnish action film set during the latter stages of WWII in the Finnish countryside where a grizzled old gold-miner, Aatami (Jorma Tommila), has just struck the motherlode. Unfortunately he runs into a group of n*zis led by SS officer Bruno (Askel Hennie) who are retreating out of the country and they steal his stash. What they don't know is that he is a legendary badass soldier who then proceeds to go on a bloody rampage to get his gold back. There are few things more satisfying to see in a movie than n*zis getting absolutely brutalised (Hitler getting his face machine-gunned into Swiss cheese in Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds is a personal fav) and this delivers that by the blood and guts full bucket load. If you want to see a n*zi get exploded by having a landmine f*cking thrown directly at his face then this is the film for you. Tommila gives a great performance in the lead, even though his character doesn't have a single word of dialogue. This is a man who speaks with his actions. Plus he just looks like a badass, I can totally believe that he could take on an entire troop of n*zis and win. Hennie is also good, but his character is very one dimensional, but his presence is more symbolic here of how evil the n*zis were as a whole. If you want a straight forward and thrilling action film then you should check this out. 8/10 Breaking dir. Abi Damaris Corbin/2022/1h43m Based on a true story, Breaking stars John Boyega as Brian Brown-Easley, a former Marine suffering from severe PTSD who has had his VA benefits taken away, straight out of his bank account. Desperate and seeing no other option he holds up the bank with a bomb, taking two hostages. What follows is a tense standoff involving the police, the media and Brian, with Boyega's performance really carrying what is a pretty generic film. The way the public and media sympathy is on Brian's side as he's able to explain his situation put me in mind of Dog Day Afternoon - also based on a true story of another bank robbery gone wrong - but that just makes this film feel even blander. Now this isn't a bad film by any stretch of the imagination, it does its job well, but apart from Boyega's performance there isn't anything that really stands out. It did make me sympathise with the real Brian Brown-Easley as this is a tragic story from every angle, and it does a good job of showing who he was as a person with flashbacks showing him spending time with his young daughter and not just focusing on that day. 6.5/10 Furious 7 dir. James Wan/2015/2h17m Jason Statham enters the Fast and Furious series - after a post-credit teaser in the last film - as the brother of the baddie from the last film and he wants revenge (it's about family). Djimon Hounsou is also here as a totally underwritten bad guy who is totally forgettable and unnecessary and I don't know why he was there because Statham is already the bad guy. I can't even remember what relevance he had to the plot, if he had any at all. But I like Djimon Hounsou so it was nice just to see him I guess. I did have fun with this one, the less grounded the plots the more enjoyable they're becoming, especially since everyone is acting so seriously, particularly Vin Diesel. One aspect where this actually works is where they keep going on about family, their sincerity really makes me believe they care about each other, and that made the tribute to Paul Walker at the end of the film genuinely touching. 6/10 Le Corbeau dir. Henri-Georges Clouzot/1943/1h32m In this French mystery/thriller Pierre Fresnay plays Remy Germain, a doctor in a small village who is the victim of poison pen letters accusing him of having an affair with the wife of another doctor and performing illegal abortions. Soon other villagers start getting letters, all of them signed Le Corbeau - The Raven. As everyone's secrets start getting exposed, desperation to find The Raven grows. This is a very dark film made during a dark time in France's history, and the way the film shows how easily people can be turned against one another speaks to what was going on at the time. The actual mystery is well written, with the audience left guessing right up to the shocking finale, and it's all shot in a film-noir style that really sets the tone perfectly. It's a little slow at the start, but the third act really ramps up the pace as we start eliminating possible suspects, leading to what I think is a satisfying reveal. The performances are all good, especially that of the person eventually revealed as The Raven, but this is more about the atmosphere. 8/10 The Electric State dir. Joe Russo, Anthony Russo/2025/2h5m The Electric State is the latest film from the Russo brothers, directors of Avengers Infinity War and Endgame, and apparently cost Netflix 320 million dollars to make. It looks alright, and by that I mean the effects look alright, the actual art and production design is bland and derivative nostalgia bait, but it doesn't look like 320 million dollars. The actual plot, adapted from a graphic novel, sees Millie Bobby Brown play an orphaned teenager living in an alternate history 90's after some war with robots or something. She has to find her brother, who she thought was dead, but has been kidnapped by an evil tech guy played by Stanley Tucci and is now in a coma with his consciousness in a robot based on an old cartoon character and is the power source for his new VR tech I think. Also Chris Pratt is there doing the same character he's been doing for the last decade. There are some things I liked about this. Stanley Tucci is always good and is almost able to give his character some depth. Brian Cox voices a baseball robot, that was fun. I'm struggling now. Millie Bobby Brown's American accent is passable. I guess it's not the worst film I've seen this year, that would be Borderlands. This is slightly less obnoxious. 3/10 Cars 2 dir. John Lasseter/2011/1h46m The first non Toy Story sequel for Pixar kicked off an era of sequels where out of their next ten films only four were original. But at least the plot here is very different from the original, which was all about slowing down and enjoying the smaller pleasures of life. Cars 2 is a spy thriller where Mater the Tow Truck (Larry the Cable Guy) is mistaken for a secret agent by superspy Finn McMissile (Michael Caine). He is caught up in a plot involving eco-friendly oil invented by billionaire Miles Axelrod (Eddie Izzard), who is also hosting a worldwide grand prix in which Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) is competing. There's a lot going on, but I do like how they've decided to go in such a mad direction after the relatively grounded first film. My biggest problem with this film is the same one I had with the first, and that's how much I f*cking hate Larry the Cable Guy and his stupid f*cking voice. And now he's basically the lead character, with more time given to his plot than McQueen's. 5/10 Across 110th Street dir. Barry Shear/1972/1h42m This film opens with two nobody crooks stealing a few hundred grand from a Mafia deal in Harlem, killing them and a couple of cops in the process. This threatens to incite a race riot if the two detectives assigned to the case can't find who did it. They are the gruff, no nonsense, racist Italian Captain Mattelli (Anthony Quinn), and the Black liberal Lt. Pope (Yaphet Kotto). A gritty crime film that's a perfect time capsule of the era, this is both very real feeling and stylised at the same time. There's a brilliant use of location shooting and handheld camera that give it a raw, almost documentary like feel. Quinn and Kotto are excellent as the diametrically opposed duo, butting heads while still trying to pull in the right direction. Their relationship is symbolic of the film as a whole, a powder keg just waiting to go up, and that level of tension is sustained throughout the film. The cherry on top is the brilliant soundtrack, which includes the legendary title song by Bobby Womack. 9/10 Lime's Film of the Week!

Done

What I Watched This Week #167 (Mar 10-16) Toy Story 3 dir. Lee Unkrich/2010/1h43m Over a decade since the last entry in the series, we have aged in real time with these films so that Andy (John Morris) is now heading off to college, having to leave his childhood toys behind. A misunderstanding leads to them being sent as donations to a day-care centre where a huggable stuffed bear who smells like strawberries, Lotso (Ned Beatty), rules the roost. It's remarkable how watching this film feels like going home, back to your own childhood (if you were a child when the first two came out, as I was, this feeling is even stronger), with Pixar not forgetting how to write these characters over ten years later. Catching up with Woody (Tom Hanks), Buzz (Tim Allen) and the gang feels like meeting up with an old friend and picking up right where you left off, the intervening years melting away with ease. There are also some memorable new characters alongside Lotso, with my favourite being the Ken doll, played perfectly by Michael Keaton. Then there is the pitch perfect ending where Andy hands his toys over to the new generation where new stories can be told. Because that's what toys are, tools for children to create stories and try to make some sense of a strange world. And when it comes to Toy Stories, nobody does it like Pixar. 9/10 Total Balalaika Show dir. Aki Kaurismaki/1994/57m Total Balalaika Show is a concert film shot in Helsinki featuring the cult band Leningrad Cowboys performing with the Alexandrov Red Army Choir a mixture of American songs and traditional Russian numbers. Like The Monkees and Spinal Tap, the Leningrad Cowboys started life as a fictional band created by the director Aki Kaurismaki for his 1989 film Leningrad Cowboys Go America. Like those other bands, they soon became bigger than the film, especially in their home country of Finland, and actually became a real band, performing concerts in their trademark oversized pompadour hairstyles and long, pointy shoes (it reminds me of something Vic Reeves would have dressed up like in the early 90's). The real kicker is that, also like those other bands, they're actually really f*cking good. They have a real punk energy to them, the lead singer growling out the lyrics to classic rock songs like the surreal offspring of Johnny Rotten while the band plays at max tempo. This works really well in juxtaposition with the very formal Choir, all kitted out in military uniform. Maybe I'm biased because I'm a fan of Kaurismaki, so I'd like to get the opinion of someone unfamiliar with his work, but I think this is a blast. I just wish it were a bit longer. 8.5/10 The Witcher: Sirens of the Deep dir. Kang Hei Chul/2025/1h32m Sirens of the Deep is the second Netflix anime film set in the world of The Witcher, this time focusing on the lead character of the books and game series, Geralt of Rivia (Doug Cockle, who also voices him in the games), a monster hunter for hire in a dark and gritty magical medieval world. This more familiar character makes it easier to step into this world over the previous film, which focused on a character who has only a supporting role in the games. This is also a simpler storyline than that film, though there is still plenty of political intrigue. That comes in the fact that a prince has fallen in love with a mermaid when his father wants him to marry a human and continue the royal bloodline. But The Little Mermaid this is not. This is a bloody and brutal film with some excellent fight scenes, particularly the climactic battle against a giant kraken (is there any other kind?). Geralt is a brilliant character, both in the games and here (I can't speak on the books), morally grey, he says he only cares about coin, but you know he'll always do the right thing and then complain about it. Cockle's voice is the perfect match for this character, gravelly and rough but with a warmth to it. The animation is a bit too clean, and it does feel cheap at times with very little movement at times, but it does capture the atmosphere of the world well enough. 7/10 His Musical Career dir. Charlie Chaplin/1914/13m This early Keystone film from Charlie Chaplin sees him play an inept removal man who, along with his partner Mack Swain - also a big star at the time - is tasked with repossessing a piano from a poor man and delivering one to a rich man. You can probably see where this is going. Every conceivable gag you can think of involving a piano is pulled off here with Chaplin's perfect sense of comedic timing and physicality. There are a few scenes with a donkey that pulls his delivery cart that you couldn't get away with now, and I didn't find them particularly funny, but apart from that this is a strong early film for Chaplin, though we'd have to wait a few more years to see him develop his character into something more enduring and three dimensional like in The Immigrant from 1917. 6/10 Moana 2 dir. David D. Derrick Jr., Jason Hand, Dana Ledoux Miller/2024/1h39m The latest Disney Animation Studios film returns to ancient Polynesia where Moana (Auli'i Cravalho) gets a vision that tells her to go on a quest to find the legendary island of Motufetu, which was sunk by storm god Nalo (Tofiga Fepulea'i), and connect all the people scattered around the islands. Meanwhile, demi god Maui (The Rock) is searching for Motufetu for his own reasons. This started life as a now cancelled TV series, and that is obvious in the underwritten side characters like Moana's crew when she goes out sailing. They're just there in the film, where I'm sure that in the series they would have been introduced properly. I did enjoy the grumpy farmer Kele (David Fane), bought along to handle the food supplies, but he's literally the only supporting character that I remember. I'm pretty over The Rock as an actor at this point, but here he's actually having some fun and not trying to be a cool badass all the time, which is nice because he's actually really good at comedy and more light-hearted roles. The music is as forgettable as the side characters, with them sounding like a cheap copy of Lin-Manuel Miranda's style, who did the songs for the first film but was busy working on a different film so couldn't return here. Visually it's gorgeous, with some beautiful oceanic seascapes, but that's to be expected at this point. 7/10 Mustang dir. Deniz Gamze Erguven/2015/1h37m This Turkish coming of age drama focuses on five orphaned sisters living with their grandmother and uncle. When they play an innocent game with some boys from their school it is misinterpreted as something s*xual and they are then removed from school and basically put under house arrest, their uncle barring up all the doors and windows while their grandmother prepares them for marriage. Told from the perspective of the youngest sister Lale (Gunes Nezihe Sensoy) this is a beautiful story of defiance against a harsh patriarchy that they don't even understand, because they are never even told what they're supposed to have done wrong. This is an understated yet powerful film that doesn't need to resort to melodramatics or shock tactics to show us how repressive and abusive this world is for these young girls, with most of the adults being hypocrites or worse. The performances of the five sisters are naturalistic and feel so real that I could believe they are actually sisters. Their bond is what gives them strength and it's in full force in scenes like the one where they sneak out to a football game, only women being allowed to attend after men were banned for rioting (something that actually happened in Turky). This gives them a glimpse of what life could be like under different circumstances, making the harsh light of reality even more stark. Thankfully, this film ends on a note of hope for our young protagonist which, like the rest of the film, is understated but powerful. 9/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Rebel Ridge dir. Jeremy Saulnier/2024/2h12m From the director of brilliantly taut thrillers Blue Ruin and Green Room, Rebel Ridge stars Aaron Pierre as Terry Richmond, a former Marine who is in a small town to post bail for his cousin. However, he soon runs into the local police force, led by Chief Sandy Burnne (Don Johnson), which is riddled with corruption and institutional racism. But Chief Burnne soon finds out that Terry is a man you can push only so far. This is my first time seeing Pierre and he is incredible. There's a real quiet intensity to him that builds up as he faces injustice after injustice. At first he's compliant, just wanting to make things easy, but his frustration is palpable, as is the feeling that this is a man capable of real damage. In many ways this is a modern version of First Blood, with Pierre in the Stallone role of a vet who just wants a quiet life coming up against a police force full of *ssholes. Johnson is also great as a real sh*theel of a police chief. The initial encounters between him and Pierre are some of the best in the film, the two playing off each other perfectly. Where this film falls short for me is that it's somewhat bloated and overlong. Saulnier's other films are much tighter, giving the situations more intensity. Not that this film isn't intense, but at times it's left to stew for a beat too long. That said, this is a great film that's worth watching for the lead performance alone. 8.5/10

Maybe a simple treasure hunt instead. Place AA-trailers and Ron-gas-tank-trailers on the map as capture objects. And spawn everyone in a fast helicopter och unarmed Jet. Have everyone fly around looking for NPC-vehicles that can tow the capture trailers. Might include a occational kamikaze move as well. …funny how this now feels like the greatest idea ever. 😂

TDM, 30 players, 2 teams, 5 min rounds. One team with shotguns in the circle. One team in RC cars. Two shotgun blasts and the RC blows up (free-aim). Two proper hits from the RC and the pedestrian dies. If the RC goes up the ramp and lands on its roof, it blows up and take everyone nearby with him. No points lost for blowing yourself up like that. https://socialclub.rockstargames.com/job/gtav/W7SH5pK_vUuwHN7wGqaiUw Thank you Elias for all the testing!

Frida (2002) dir Julie Taymor Biopic of Mexican artist Frida Kahlo, played by Salma Hayek. Alfred Molina plays her husband and fellow artist Diego Rivera. This is a film that I could easily have gone to see at the cinema when it was released but just never got round to and then never thought about much since. But I saw it was on Netflix at the moment so decided to finally watch it. I knew virtually nothing about Kahlo prior to watching this. It's a good film, but did not quite have as much drama and tension as I thought it would have – which I assume is simply being true to the facts. It could easily have had far more of those things. Kahlo agreed to an open marriage with Rivera, and they both slept with numerous other people. Rivera's ex wife Lupe (Valeria Golino) lived in the apartment above them to begin with. Later they had a home built with completely separate sections for husband and wife. Rivera was a prominent member of Mexico's Communist party and his friend Leon Trotsky (Geoffrey Rush) stays with them when he flees Stalin's purges in the 1930s. Rivera was quite a pragmatist and happy to take a commission from Nelson Rockefeller (Edward Norten) to paint a mural in the lobby of his New York HQ. There are few other famous faces in small roles, most noticeably Antonio Banderas just in a single scene – and he was well established when this made, so I guess he just really wanted to be in a film about Frida Kahlo. All the acting was good and Hayek got an Oscar nomination. It also had some technical nominations. The one it was maybe most unlucky to miss out on the win for was Art Direction. I really liked the way her art was incorporated into some scenes, with some of her paintings coming to life or her subjects morphing into their portraits. Some of her work was quiet surreal and they have some scenes from her vivid imagination too, including one in which Rivera becomes King Kong climbing the Empire State building. The one weak point for me was it lacked a proper sense of time. It starts in the 1920s and ends in the 1950s. But Hayek barely seems to age. Molina does but only with quite a big jump in appearance where he goes from looking pretty much the same as he did from the start to being an old grey haired man. 7 / 10

If we can start a hour later than last week i can host. That would be regular time for those still on vinter-time. 21:00 UTC

There are now two versions of this. The original Random Vehicle version, and now a version to choose between Open Wheel, Go Cart, or a limited range of Motorcycles. They're separate jobs with links to each in the OP.

Two Bros in need of a substitute host this weekend. 🙂 Will be back next week.

Found a problem with this tonight. I crashed the Cargobob trying to hook up the Packer, (which I found really difficult, more so than with the old type of Cargobob). We respawned next to the Packer, but clearly you cannot just drive that away. How do you get back to wherever the Cargobob re-spawns?

Runaway Jury (2003) dir Gary Fleder For obvious reasons, this week I decided to watch a Gene Hackman film that I had not seen before. This is A thriller based on a John Grisham novel. Following a mass shooting at a New Orleans office, the widow of one of the victims sues the company who made the killer's gun. As the title implies the story focusses on the jury, how they are selected, their interactions with each other and the various parties trying to influence them. Both side's lawyers try to ensure only jurors sympathetic to them get selected, something that can be done in US courts, unlike the UK where juries are completely randomly selected. There are obviously characters with strong opinions on both sides of the gun control debate, but that is not what this is about. The gun company are clearly the bad guys in this, having knowingly allowed their products to be sold illegally to people, such as the killer, who would not have been able to pass whatever background checks were supposed to be in place. Also they employ a team of lawyers, high-tech surveillance experts and thugs, lead by Gene Hackman's character, to blackmail, intimidate or bribe jurors into supporting their side and persuade witnesses to not testify. John Cussack is I guess the lead character as one of the jurors, but the main roles are fairly evenly balanced between those two, Rachel Weisz as his girlfriend and Dustin Hoffman as the widow's lawyer. They all do a good job, as does Bruce McGill as the judge and Gerry Bamman as the jury foreman. It's obviously got a twist in the tail that I won't reveal, but it's not just the two legal teams trying influence what the jury decide. That twist did seem a little predictable to me. The way the plot panned out it was hard to see how there could realistically be any other ending to the film. But it was definitely a decent and enjoyable watch. 7 / 10

What I Watched This Week #166 (March 3-9) Sing Sing dir. Greg Kwedar/2023/1h47m This prison drama, set in the titular correctional facility in New York, stars Colman Domingo as inmate Divine G who is innocent of the crime he's locked up for and finds solace and escape in organising and performing plays for the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program. You'd think that his fight for freedom would be the driving plot here, but this is a film more concerned with the relationships between the men in the program, particularly the one between Divine G and a brash and aggressive newcomer to the group, Divine Eye (Clarence 'Divine Eye' Maclin). There's a real strong emphasis placed on the fact that men being emotionally open with each other isn't a sign of weakness and it's done in a very real, touching and also funny way. I also like how there isn't a villain here like the evil prison warden in The Shawshank Redemption - here the bad guy is the system itself, one that doesn't care if you have been genuinely rehabilitated and are deserving of a second chance, or even totally innocent. Domingo is amazing in the lead, having a real quiet strength to him, yet there's always that frustration and anger just under the surface. Paul Raci is also excellent as the supportive program leader Brent, but the revelation is Maclin as Divine Eye, there is just a raw and genuine honesty to his performance that I didn't understand until the end credits rolled. Not only is the program in Sing Sing real, but apart from Domingo, Raci, and one other, all of the supporting roles are performed by actual inmates playing themselves, something I didn't know going in to this. When I saw the words "as himself" come up time and time again at the end I was an emotional wreck. An incredible film. 10/10 Lime's Film of the Week! Two films from Ikko Ohno The Flying Luna Clipper 1987/55m Yellow Marine Meteorological Observatory 1988/15m Ikko Ohno was an artist who worked for MSX Magazine designing the covers using the MSX computer. With little filmmaking knowledge he would use that computer to animate these films, which are both wonderfully bizarre. The Flying Luna Clipper follows the voyage of the titular plane as it travels around various Pacific islands with most of the passengers being anthropomorphic fruits and vegetables. The second film sees a father and son travel around in a Beatles inspired submarine in search of a legendary golden whale (I had to rely on YouTube's auto-generated subtitles for this one so it was a bit hard to follow). There's really no way to review these as films because they're more of an experience, a collection of ideas thrown together with no concern for logic or narrative. It's surreal and playful and experimental, and if you want to watch them I recommend being a lil bit high, trust me. I slightly preferred The Flying Luna Clipper and will give them a combined score of 7.5/10 Odds Against Tomorrow dir. Robert Wise/1959/1h36m From the director of West Side Story and The Sound of Music, this is a crime thriller starring Ed Begly as Dave Burke, an old con planning a big heist for which he needs two accomplices who don't know each other and are desperate for some quick cash. First is Robert Ryan as the gruff Earle Slater, second is Harry Belafonte as a cool jazz band xylophone player Johnny Ingram. Things would go smoothly, but mistrust and paranoia threaten to ruin everything, and there's one reason for it - Earle doesn't like the fact that Johnny is Black. This is a really stylish noir film with an excellent jazz score that feels like it becomes more chaotic and improvisational as the plan goes more and more astray. The social commentary is pretty heavy handed and simplistic at times, but it must have seemed very progressive for the late 50's. The actual heist takes up very little time at the end of the film, with the meat of the piece being about the setup and how Earle's racism just keeps getting in the way, but it does lead up to a very dark and bitterly ironic ending as - and there are spoilers here - the two men are burnt to a crisp and a firefighter can't tell which is which. 8/10 Blow Up My Town dir. Chantal Akerman/1968/13m This early short from Chantal Akerman - made when she was just seventeen - sees her play a young woman who locks herself in her flat, at first seemingly normal but becoming more and more manic as time passes, humming to herself and trashing the place until she has nothing left to do but gas herself to death with her oven. A comment on the typically expected roles for women at the time - if a woman's place is in the kitchen then I'll use the oven to kill myself she seems to say - this is a really assured piece of work for someone so young. Clearly influenced by the French New Wave stylistically, this has the playfulness of Agnes Varda mixed with the feminist anarchy of Vera Chytilova. I also like how it feels so different from everything else I've seen from her - Jeanne Dielman, News From Home, Golden Eighties - showcasing her versatility. 8/10 Fast & Furious 6 dir. Justin Lin/2013/2h11m The sixth film in the hi-octane franchise, and also Paul Walkers last before his death, sees the gang reform after their successful heist in the last film in order to take down a gang of mercenaries led by ex-SAS operative Owen Shaw (Luke Evans) at the behest of The Rock (The Rock). Also, Dom's (Vin Diesel) girlfriend Letty (Michelle Rodriguez), who died a couple of films ago, is back but with amnesia. Total nonsense but there are enough fun action set-pieces and sincere "family" (imagine Vin Diesel saying it) moments to keep me mostly entertained. It may be some sort of Stockholm Syndrome but I've become somewhat attached to these characters after spending several hours with them and it will be sad to go forward without Walker. 5.5/10 Go West dir. Buster Keaton/1925/1h9m This silent comedy from "The Great Stone Face" sees him play a New York city boy who heads out west where he becomes a ranch hand, falls in love with a cow (Brown Eyes, playing herself), and inadvertently leads a thousand strong herd of cattle back through the streets of New York City in a grand finale of perfectly executed comedic escalation. This is a really sweet film, with Keaton's relationship with Brown Eyes going straight into my human/animal best friend duo top ten. It's also rather relaxed with the pacing, with Keaton showing restraint and saving the big gags for the ending, relying on his presence and personality to do a lot of the heavy lifting early on. That's not to say there aren't any gags during this part, I loved all of the stuff with his tiny gun and giant holster combo. This kept me smiling for the entire hour and change, and is almost up there with his masterpieces Sherlock Jr. and Steamboat Bill Jr. 9/10 It Happened One Night dir. Frank Capra/1934/1h45m It Happened One Night stars Claudette Colbert as Ellie, an heiress who has run away from home after her father objected to her marriage to a dashing aviator, and Clark Gable as Peter, a reporter with a nose for a story. The two meet by chance on a bus and end up travelling together, with Peter seeing it as a chance to scoop the story of the year. This feels like it's the blueprint for every romcom where they start off enemies before falling madly in love, and I bet that every cliché of the genre comes from here. There's even a scene where, after Gable has failed to flag down a ride, Colbert does it immediately by flashing a bit of leg. I'd put money on this being the first instance of that on film. Gable and Colbert have amazing chemistry together as a romantic couple, but they also work really well when they're arguing, with them both having a good sense for comedy. This isn't quite a screwball comedy like His Girl Friday or Bringing Up Baby, but something more gentle and sweet. 9/10

What I Watched This Week #165 (Feb 24-March 2) Fast Five dir. Justin Lin/2011/2h10m Vin Diesel and the boys are back again, this time pulling off a huge heist in Rio after Dom gets busted out of prison. All the while they are being pursued by government bounty hunter The Rock (I forget his characters name, but it doesn't matter, he's The Rock). This feels like a watershed moment for the series as it seems to really let go of the fairly grounded in reality first film (where their big crime was stealing DVD players) to the utterly nonsensical action packed spectacle that it's now known as. I actually had a lot of fun with this one. The sunny, exotic location made it feel fresh - as it did in Tokyo Drift, honestly, LA is such an ugly and sh*tty city - and there are some inventive set pieces, like the scene where a giant bank vault is dragged through the streets by Dom and Brian (Paul Walker). None of the performances really stand out, but they are all sincere and I actually believe that these people care about one another, as two dimensional as they are. I think this is my favourite one so far. 6/10 Borderlands dir. Eli Roth/2024/1h41m Adapted from the popular video game series, Borderlands the film is sh*t. I will not waste any time or energy elaborating further, just trust me, even Cate Blanchett can't save this bucket of dog vomit. 1/10 Assault on Precinct 13 dir. John Carpenter/1976/1h31m This early film from John Carpenter - only his second - tells the story of a heavily armed gang laying siege to a decommissioned police station with a skeleton staff and a couple of prisoners left to transport out as revenge for a SWAT team ambush that killed several of their members. Austin Stoker is Ethan Bishop, the patrolman who takes lead in the situation alongside criminal Napoleon Wilson (Darwin Jostin), the two making for a pretty good duo. This has the feel of a cheap b-movie or exploitation film from the era, but is elevated by Carpenter's skill in ramping up the tension through his direction. Like he would later in Halloween, here he uses shots of empty rooms and hallways to great effect, suggesting that danger could be hiding anywhere just out of sight. 7/10 Up dir. Pete Docter/2009/1h36m Ed Asner plays Carl Fredrickson who, at 78, feels that he has missed out on the adventures that he and his late wife Ellie dreamed of going on but life always got in the way. Now that he is being forced to leave their home of decades to go into care he decides to take action and attaches thousands of balloons to his house so that he can fly it to South America, inadvertently bringing along a stowaway in young boy scout Russell (Jordan Nagai). This is a very good film but it peaks with the opening montage of Karl and Ellie growing up together, where we witness the joys and heartbreaks of their lives without need for dialogue. Pixar usually get me all teary eyed by the end of their films, but this is the first time they got me in the opening, it really is extraordinarily beautiful. Honestly, after that the rest of the film kind of feels like filler. Really good filler, but filler nonetheless. I find Russell to be rather annoying as a side character, but it is funny to see Karl's frustration at him, something I could relate to. It never regains the emotional highs of the first five minutes but this is still a fun watch. 8/10 The Rounders dir. Charlie Chaplin/1914/13m This early Chaplin sees him star alongside another famous comedian of the time, Rosco 'Fatty' Arbuckle (it's funny that a man who was considered so fat that his nickname was Fatty in 1914 wouldn't even turn heads today), as two drunken toffs staying at a hotel with their wives. They argue with their wives, sneak off, and get even more drunk, and that's about it. Very basic but Chaplin plays a very good drunk - see his later film One AM, which is a masterclass in physical comedy - so it's always funny to see his fall on his *ss. This is like all of his other film from this early, they would be forgettable without Chaplin but he's the magic ingredient. 5/10 The Witcher: Nightmare of the Wolf dir. Han Kwang-il/2021/1h23m Set in the same fantasy world as The Witcher videogames - all derived from a series of Polish fantasy novels - this animated film tells the story of Vesemir (Theo James), a Witcher - monster hunter. The film tells the story of his youth and a plot to do something about a king and to be honest I found it very convoluted and confusing. This feels like several books worth of plot stuffed into one film. The animation is nice and crisp, but at times that's to its detriment as this is a dark, dirty and dangerous world so something more ragged and raw would have been a better fit. There's some great creature design here, and some things I actually recognised from playing the games, but this feels like a film made for experts on this world. 6/10 All We Imagine as Light dir. Payal Kapadia/2024/1h58m The debut film from Payal Kapadia, this Mumbai set drama focuses on the life of nurse Prabha (Kani Kusruti) who is forced to re-evaluate her life after receiving a gift - a rice cooker - from her estranged husband working in Germany who she hasn't even spoken to in over a year. This relationship - an arranged marriage - is contrasted to that of her young housemate and fellow nurse Anu (Divya Prabha) who is in a relationship with a Muslim so she has to keep it hidden. Where Prabha was forced into a loveless relationship, Anu is forced out of a loving one. With the plot taking a backseat this is a film all about character, and the incredible performance from Kusruti had me hooked throughout. This is also a beautifully shot film, amazing since it's Kapadia's first, with a real soft texture to the light that bathes these women, especially in the beach set finale. This was named Sight and Sound's best film of 2024, a year with some really good films, but after watching it it's hard to argue with that. 9.5/10 Lime's Film of the Week!

Woman of the Hour (2023) dir Anna Kendrick. Based on real life events from the 1970s, Anna Kendrick directs and stars as would-be actress Sheryl. Unable to get any decent acting work her agent gets her on TV game show “The Dating Game” (aka “Blind Date” in the UK), where she will choose a man to go on a date with by asking 3 of them questions they answer from behind a screen. One of the would-be suitors, Rodney Alcala (Daniel Zovatto), is a serial r*pist and murderer. We know this because apart from the film's promotional material telling us, it makes clear what he is very early on, before we even meet Sheryl. About half of the story takes place during the live broadcasting of the show, but this is intercut with scenes of some of Rodney's crimes, some from years in the past and some maybe yet to happen. It deliberately does not say where in the timeline Sheryl's story occurs. All we know for sure is that at least some of Rodney's crimes have already been committed. I really liked the aspect of how it's not a linear story. You are left not knowing if Sheryl's is going to go on a date with Rodney and if she does what will happen to her. Is she his last victim? Is she the one who gets him arrested? Are there many more crimes to come? I see on IMDB there are a lot of haters who criticise it's “historical inaccuracy”. But it's not a history documentary. It's a film based on a true story. And I think it is done in a very powerful way. As well as Sheryl we meet other victims. We also meet Laura (Nicolette Robinson), the friend of one of those victims trying to get the police to take listen to her. I found it very harrowing at times. There is no really graphic violence, but you are left in no doubt as to what sort of things this monster did to his victims and the pain and terror they experienced. The acting it very good, especially Zovatto and Autumn Best as another of his victims. I'm really glad I chose to watch this, because I had seen it promoted on Netflix a number of times and based on how they described not realised what it was. I don't really know why but I had got the impression it was a sort of dark comedy. It's definitely dark, but absolutely no comedy. And I certainly did not know it was based on a true story. 9 / 10

What I Watched This Week #164 (Feb 17-23) The Artist dir. Michel Hazanavicius/2011/1h40m Jean Dujardin plays silent film star Georg Valentin, whose career hits the skids with the introduction of talkies. At the same time Peppy Miller's (Berenice Bejo) star is rising, with the two having a flirtatiously antagonistic relationship. What makes this film unique is that it is a modern day silent, filmed in the style of classic Hollywood films of the 20s. For the most part this works really well, with some nice physical comedy and a sparing use of intertitles so we don't spend half of the film reading. This is a very light and breezy film that's full of charm if rather forgettable (it had totally slipped my mind that this actually won the Best Picture Oscar). Dujardin and Bejo make for a great pairing, with the entire cast having a lot of fun acting in this style. The star of the show however is Uggie the dog, Valentin's faithful companion on screen and off. 8/10 The Masquerader dir. Charlie Chaplin/1914/12m This early Chaplin short sees him get kicked off of a film set before coming back disguised in drag, causing all his usual mayhem. This gives a look behind the scenes of the actual Keystone studios, so if you're interested in film history you'll get a bit more out of this. Chaplin makes for a pretty convincing woman and it's funny seeing the director trying to flirt with him, before realising who it really is. Nothing special, but it's always a delight seeing Chaplin at work. 5/10 Broken Rage dir. Takeshi Kitano/2024/1h6m The latest from Takeshi Kitano leans into his two trademarks - violent crime action and deadpan comedy - in a very distinct way and is also a brisk watch at just over an hour long. The story concerns an unassuming old hitman known as Mouse (played by Kitano) who is caught by the police and must go undercover in a drug ring in exchange for his freedom. What makes this film brilliant is that he tells this story twice. The first time it is a brutal crime thriller. The second time it's a slapstick comedy. Instead of combining the two as he usually does, here he's separated them, highlighting how different the same story can be if told in different ways. Kitano's performance is excellent. Just like the rest of the film he's split in two parts. For the first half an hour he's an intimidating presence who you know is capable of extreme violence at any moment. For the second half hour he's a total buffoon who can barely walk in a straight line without tripping over. Imagine if Mr. Bean was an assassin. It's a mad concept but it works. 9/10 Paddington in Peru dir. Dougal Wilson/2024/1h46m The third and final Paddington film sees the beloved bear travel to Peru to visit his Aunt Lucy at the home for retired bears. But when he gets there he finds that she has gone missing, so he and the Brown family head out into the jungle to find her. The first two Paddington films are near perfect, so it's a credit to the new director that this almost lives up to them. The character of Paddington is so adorable and pure, and I'm glad these films didn't try to make him cool by using modern slang or stuff like that. Ben Whishaw's performance as Paddington is pitch perfect. There's also some fun support from Antonio Banderas as a dashing riverboat captain and Olivia Colman as the nun in charge of the retirement home. This is honestly, unironically, one of the best trilogies ever made. 8/10 Daybreak dir. Marcel Carne/1939/1h33m This French proto-noir opens with Francois (Jean Gabin) shooting a man in his apartment before barricading himself inside. As the police arrive and lay siege we learn through flashbacks why he pulled the trigger. A fantastically constructed thriller, this is also full of some eye catching compositions that feel ahead of their time. I like how we are constantly bought back to the conversations of his neighbours as they gossip about what's happening, making us feel like we're there with them. Gabin gives a really good performance as we see his character change through the flashbacks, all thanks to the woman he fell in love with, Francoise (Jacqueline Laurent). I also really like the performance of Jules Berry as Monsieur Valentin, the man killed at the start of the film. He's a perfectly contemptable slimeball who, we come to realise, got everything he deserved. 9/10 Grand Theft Hamlet dir. Sam Crane, Pinny Grylls/2024/1h31m This is a documentary about two theatre actors, Sam Crane and Mark Oosterveen, who find themselves out of work due to the COVID lockdowns in the UK at the time. Out of a need to do something, anything, they come up with the unique idea of staging a production of Hamlet entirely withing the world of Grand Theft Auto Online (you guys may be familiar with the game). Not only is the production of Hamlet in the world of GTA, so is the documentary. Every frame of this film was captured in game, the interviews, the auditions, the location scouting, the rehearsals, everything. Pretty quickly you get used to the gimmick and are soon invested in the very human story of these people looking for a connection during a difficult time. As something of an expert in GTA it was also fun seeing people new to it discover what you're able to do, and also what you're not. This is also a really funny film with the general situation being inherently absurd, but also due to the chaotic nature of randoms in an open lobby. A remarkable film that you should all check out (it's on MUBI at the moment). 10/10 Lime's Film of the Week! The Magnificent Seven dir. John Sturges/1960/2h7m A remake of Akira Kurosawa's Seven Samurai (which was itself inspired by Hollywood westerns of the 40s), this stars Yul Brynner as Chris Adams, expert gunslinger, who must assemble a team to protect a small Mexican village from the ruthless bandit Clavera (Eli Wallach). Among his posse are the likes of Steve McQueen, James Coburn, Robert Vaughn and Charles Bronson. Gorgeous widescreen vistas and a rousing, iconic theme make this feel like the quintessential western. It's also interesting in how it handles masculinity, with none of the seven really feeling like a John Wayne type, these are more complex characters. There's an amazing speech late in the film where Bronson's character tells some kids in the village how he's not brave because he carries a gun, how their fathers are the brave ones for carrying the responsibility of family and their land. 8.5/10

During last nights 2B.

Ran (1985) dir Akira Kurosawa This is the last of Kurosawa's films based / inspired by Shakespeare plays. This one is based on King Lear. The story is set in 16th Century Japan, a time of Warlords and Samurai. The title translates as Chaos. Tatsuta Nakadai stars as the elderly Lord Hidetora who has decided to abdicate, passing his title to his children. In this those are his sons, rather than the daughters Leer has. So in this and other respects much is changed from the original, but it is still unmistakeably the same basic story as King Leer. Hidetora intention is that his sons will work together to protect and further the family lands. But it all starts to the fall apart immediately, descending into the chaos the title implies, as the elder sons double cross their father and each other. Hidetora starts to lose his mind, is made an outcast, and wanders around the lands he used to rule accompanied by two loyal men, his fool and a warrior (Tango). In this respect it is very much following the original. It is, of course, very well made. There is some stunning cinematography, particularly some of the castle interiors. The acting is good, especially Pita as the Fool and Mieko Harada as Lady Kaede (wife of the eldest son). The battle scenes are good, and one in particular has a long period with no dialogue, because it doesn't need it. Some small aspects are a little dated, the fake blood in the battle scenes is particularly unrealistic. In some ways for me it doesn't look quite as good as Throne of Blood (based on Macbeth), but I think that is because that is in black and white whilst this is in colour and I think that can make it look dated faster. However colour is very well used for those castle interiors and other scenes. 9 / 10

Thanks for the feedback @Skorpion I will add more vegetation and see if maybe 3 is a good amout to start with. I was pleased to see both sides win.

Alien Romulus (2024) dir Fede Alvarez Another film in the Alien franchise. More of the same reasonably high quality sci-fi horror, quite gory at times with dark, atmospheric, industrial looking sets. A cast of relatively unknown actors do a good job playing a group of young off-worlders, including an android, who see a way to escape their dreary mining colony planet by boarding an abandoned space craft to use it's resources to get their ship to another planet. But this craft is research station, with all human crew dead, because, of course, it had an alien on board. It then becomes the familiar last-woman-standing as one by one they meet the usual face-hugging / chest-bursting or other death by xenomorph. There is a lot that refers to one of more of the original films, including an appearance by an Android “played” by an AI version of Ian Holm (Ash in the Aliens). It is essentially a sequel to Alien that could be happening before, after or even about the same time as Aliens. So it fits into the original films rather than the newer ones from the 2010s. Although I like some of the references to the original films the problem with this for me is it has very little that we have not already seen in those originals. It does not bring much that is new to the franchise, unlike Prometheus and Covenant. Whilst I would have seen it as quite a good film if it was the 2nd or 3rd film in the franchise, I really don't see it adds anything more to the story. So it's fine if you just want more of the same, but for me if you are going to keep adding to a franchise the films needs to bring something original, some aspect of the overall plot not explored before, and this does not do that. I was actually getting slightly bored towards the end and would have been quite happy with it finishing maybe 20 minutes earlier. 6 / 10

Changed this to even teams after playing it last night. I also added some jumps that will make it easier to land on your roof. I found that rather hard *n the loop-jumps.

You can not get back to get a new one without the big airplane. So if any of the steps fail you have to restart from the last available vehicle, in this case the plane. I also noticed it was hard to hook the truck, and maybe the whole idea is not suited as a casual easy going fun job in a playlist.

1.03 Max. Players: 30 Default Laps: 5 Est. Lap Time: 55s Time of Day: Morning Weather: Clear Traffic: Off Published: 15 March 2025 Last Updated: - DESCRIPTION RANDOM = Massacro, Massacro Racecar , 9F Cabrio, Seven-70, Sultan RS, Banshee 900R, Vagrant, Nightblade GP = Open Wheel, Go Cart, Motorcycle (Hakuchou Drag, Powersurge, Shinobi, Shotaro) OVERVIEW A short and simple race. Available as a Random Vehicle race that includes vehicles all within one second of each other according to gtacars.net, or as a GP race with options of Open Wheel, Go Cart, or a limited range of Motorcycles. Bookmark Random Vehicle Race Bookmark GP Race _ See more of my creations _

These are the vehicles that can tow the AA-trailer. A risky move would be to go all in finding one of these first, in order to haul the AA-trailer to the drop-off and use it to take out any of the others team vehicles as they approach.

You simply need vehicle 1 to get vehicle 2, and you need vehicle 2 to get vehicle 3, and you need vehicle 3 to get vehicle 4. And those 4 are all capture vehicles to deliver. In order to get the 5th vehicle (AA-trailer) you need to find a npc-vehicle that can haul it.

Seems both confusing but also really interesting lol. Im looking forward to giving this a few tries.

LTS - The Reptiles needs to clear the drain of Proximity mines as they make their way towards revenge. The Cowboys need to hide as many mines as possible in the clogged drain to kill the monsters before the reach them. Reptiles have 10 Shotgun shells, and 2 pipe bombs to clear mines and any cowboy falling behind. Cowboys have limited amount of Proximity mines, but can pick up more as they move along. https://socialclub.rockstargames.com/job/gtav/QQ9_jJqi8E-94OZsXUg7nA The Cowboys have 2 proxies each, and can pick up one extra on each side for each ”cell” down the drain. These do respawn, but after 30 sec. The Cowboys can not go back, only forward down the drain. Lingering behind is risky as the Reptiles do have 2 pipebombs each, that can reach them.

My first impression from the "Cowboy" side was that it's too hard to aim throwing proxies and if you're behind other "Cowboys" then you'll likely spend your time with no proxies due to pick ups taking too long to reset. This seemed to balance out though towards the end. Perhaps starting with 2-3 rather than 1, but keeping the pick up rate the same could help. From the "Reptile" side, it seemed quite easy to spot the proxies in the water. As they land the splash is obvious, but even the red light flashing is obvious. Being stuck on the wall above seemed to work well though as the focus seems to be on the water. Perhaps some more cover from props in the water to make it harder to spot the proxies. Maybe even some taller props in the middle of the drain to stick proxies to along the way. I certainly like the idea of the job and look forward to giving it another try.