Lately I've been playing Sniper Elite 5, a stealth shooter set late in World War II that gives players the goal of essentially killing as many Nazis as you can before they kill you. It's extremely cathartic.

I've played the previous entries in the series, and this is the first one to give you the option of sneaking up to humanely "pacify" an unaware enemy soldier by putting it to sleep. You're not materially rewarded for this, so why is it in here? To save me some ammunition? That's why the game gives me a knife!

Don't get me wrong. I certainly see the value in mercy and nonviolence, even in role-playing wartime video games. But I thought the point of setting your shooter against the Axis in WWII was that you could murder all the Nazis you wanted. Dead Nazis are the original guilt-free snack.

There aren't any noncoms or children, so what am I to make of this mechanic? Is the game trying to remind me that digital NPC Nazis are people too? I don't want that thought floating around my head while I'm trying to liberate virtual France; war isn't possible without dehumanization. I have noticed that the Nazi AI never chooses the "pacify" option when confronting me. Perhaps that's the moral here: He who hesitates to kill a computer-generated Nazi is lost.

Of course, it's also entirely possible that I'm overthinking this. Whether fighting Nazis, zombies, criminals, demons, or mutated Objectivists, sometimes a video game mechanic is just a video game mechanic. Pull the trigger, stupid.

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If you don't watch TCM because you don't care for "old" movies, you're watching during the wrong hours. I saw most of these during the wee hours of Monday mornings in April during the TCM Imports programming.

59. (1713.) Lone Wolf and Cub: Sword of Vengeance (1972)
Based on the critically acclaimed manga comics, I found the live action adventures to actually be better than the source material. Beware that there's a completely gratuitous semi-consensual rape scene (oddly used to demonstrate how honorable the protagonist is), but if that's the strangest thing you've ever seen in Japanese cinema, this might be your first Japanese movie.

62. (1716.) Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart at the River Styx (1972)
Gotta love that title. The first movie is the origin story, but this one sets up the formula that the others will follow: wandering, wronged protagonist (and his infant son, Daigoro!) takes up odd jobs as stepping stones on the path to vengeance. The highlight here is the the establishment of the cub as an independent character worth cheering for.

64. (1718.) Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart to Hades (1972)
The climactic fight at the end of this episode is so over the top ridiculous that it rivals anything you might see in bigger budget American action blockbuster fare. "A rip-roaring good time!"

66. (1720.) Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in Peril (1973)
Did I mention the gratuitous nudity earlier? They finally worked it into the story in this tale of a disgraced sword-mistress who uses her feminine charms (read: tits) to distract her opponents.

73. (1727.) Lone Wolf and Cub: Baby Cart in the Land of Demons (1973)
Maybe my favorite of the bunch. For one thing, it's beautiful. For another, the themes of honor and responsibility at the core of the series resonate strongly in separate tales for both father and son.

79. (1733.) Lone Wolf and Cub: White Heaven in Hell (1974)
If the James Bond influence was notable back in Baby Cart to Hades, it's written on the surface of this one as the baby cart becomes a Q Branch snowmobile to fight zombies. Not that this is all exactly bad, it just doesn't live up to the bar set by its immediate predecessor.

All six of these were very watchable, and I'd recommend without hesitation to fans of action movies or Tarantino films.

More to come.

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"I haven't been very good about updating the 'work' section of this site lately (so much of what I've done in the recent past is app coding, which doesn't show off very well)" is what I wrote in 2013 as introduction to a post promoting the first postcard design I'd made to promote a local Halloween event.

Well, I've still got that job.

As you can see, zombies are taking a bit of a back seat to super heroes these days. As well they should.

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Finishing movies watched (by me) in April, here's the final eight:

78. (1307.) Good Neighbor Sam (1964)
Romy Schneider was beguiling, but I watched this film primarily for the 60s fashion, home decor, and rampant product placement. If you watch it, don't expect an ending. There isn't one. None of the plots are resolved. Very irritating.

79. (1308.) Pride and Prejudice and Zombies (2016)
As much as I love Jane Austen novels (Emma is the best), I didn't really want to see them mashed up with horror tropes. But for the most part, this film managed to be surprisingly loyal to Austen's original characters and plot. If this introduces audiences to classics of English lit they would otherwise turn their nose up at, it's not a waste of film.

80. (1309.) Mystery of the Wax Museum (1933)
The villain here isn't Vincent Price, but it might as well be. Price's later House of Wax is a very similar plot with similar effects. This falls more into the "plucky newspaper reporter solves a mystery" category than horror, and I liked that.

81. (1310.) Super-Sleuth (1937)
The title is ironic. An egomaniac Hollywood actor believes he's the detective character he plays in movies. He's not. There's not even much mystery here, as the audience is shown the murderer's identity from the beginning. Not RKO's best.

82. (1311.) Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Hey, it's 2002's Spider-Man all over again! I watched it imagining Micheal Keaton's Vulture as the real hero. It's better that way. (By the way, this is the second movie this month I watched with Zendaya in it. In both, I asked myself "what is her character doing here?" In both, there is no good answer to that question.)

83. (1312.) Lady Godiva Rides Again (1951)
This British comedy/drama lampoons the mid-century British equivalent of Hollywood. It has its moments. (TCM informed me that this film's American title was Bikini Baby. Don't expect to see many bikinis here. There's only one in one scene. But there wasn't an Internet in 1951, so I guess you ogled what you could get.)

84. (1313.) Hollow Triumph (1948)
Film noir in which a man finds his lookalike and, you know, kills him. (By the way, IMDB credits this as Jack Webb's first movie. Sunset Boulevard would come much later. That's what everyone knows Jack Webb from, right?)

85. (1314.) Alfie (1966)
The movie that made Michael Caine! I didn't love it. The character, Alfie, is a horrible person. I know that's kind of the point (the fact that he calls all women "it" is intentionally insulting, even for the era), but I never like spending time with horrible people, even if they're charming and fictional. Call it a character flaw.

That finished April (21 movies in all!). More to come.

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June movies watched by me, take two:

108. (855.) Agatha (1979)
Did you know that there was a movie in which Dustin Hoffman fell in love with Agatha Christie? To the movie's credit, there is also a mystery at play as you watch Agatha plan a crime (or is she researching a book?). Not bad. Not bad at all.

109. (856.) Things to Come (1936)
How do you make an H.G. Wells story boring? Watch this and find out. There's a lot of great special effects, but everyone spends so much time giving lectures. Then at the climax, the movie just kind of ends without paying off the drama. One minute there is an angry mob of Luddites storming a rocket launch, and the next minute the audience is getting another lecture. Yawn.

110. (857.) Airport (1970)
I've often heard this movie cited as the inspiration for Airplane!, but that honor more accurately belongs to Zero Hour!. Still, this is a very well-made disaster movie with relatively mundane stakes compared to modern films in which global warming or earthquakes are destroying the known world. Personally, I think that Airport's smaller, human scale makes it easier to relate to, and therefore more engaging.

111. (858.) Deathdream (1974)
TCM's guide promoted this as a vampire movie, but it's really about zombies. Or maybe it's an anti-Vietnam War movie. Hard to tell. I gave up on it when they killed the dog just to demonstrate what a monster the monster was. It was downhill from there.

112. (859.) Man of the West (1958)
I had to look this title up again just now to remind me what it was. It's another Gary Cooper western where he romances a girl far too young for him. Seriously, they all start to blend together after a while.

113. (860.) Journey into Fear (1943)
I really don't think Orson Welles could make a bad movie. This is a noir thriller (starring the usual Mercury Theatre gang, especially Joseph Cotton) about an engineer on the run from political enemies not of his making. Even the cliched hotel ledge finale (with fat Orson playing a James Bondish action hero) was exciting.

More to come.

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I haven't been very good about updating the "work" section of this site lately (so much of what I've done in the recent past is app coding, which doesn't show off very well), but here's something that I just finished that I think turned out well.

For the record, yes, I enjoyed this project despite thinking that zombies are stupid and never having seen a single episode of The Walking Dead. Sweet, sweet irony.

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92. (399.) Night of the Comet (1984)
Shame on me for not having seen this film earlier. Catherine Mary Stewart (better known, I suspect, as the love interest in The Last Starfighter) and Robert Beltran (beter known, I'm sure, as Chakotay from Star Trek: Voyager) fight zombies and the government in post-apocalyptic Los Angeles!

I should point out that the zombies in this film are decaying humans with an expiration date, not the supernatural, brain-eating Romero zombies that I typically find so intolerable. This movie is more sci-fi than fantasy, but it really is better classified as a horror/comedy. If you can't laugh at the end of the world, what can you laugh at?

I should also point out that the final scene of this movie takes place outside 333 Hope Street, Los Angeles. If that address sounds even vaguely familiar, it's because I have commented on it before. Here's a hint: it's big and orange and convenient for Hollywood to use as a backdrop.

Yep, once again, it's "Four Arches" by Alexander Calder in the background of a movie. I've now spotted "Four Arches" in movies filmed in the 80s, 90s, and 10s. The piece was installed in 1974, so I'm only missing two decades to complete my viewing collection. Fortunately, Wikipedia has a list for me to start working on.

While that's all very noteworthy, what motivated me to post about this movie here today is a prominent and amusing Superman reference in the movie's first 10 minutes. See for yourself:

Hot chicks who know all about Superman? Yes, please! Of course, if Superman were in this movie, the comet would never have endangered the lives of everyone on Earth. Superman may not be able to save everyone from every tornado or random shooting, but he's got these world-ending kinds of emergencies covered.

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Since we're over halfway through the month, I might as well post the films I watched in the first half of November so that I don't get backed up posting them all at the beginning of December (as happened for October/November).

262. Kraken: Tentacles of the Deep (2006)
Film in a nutshell: a giant squid protects an ancient artifact. Seriously, the whole thing was created as an excuse to fill some empty time slot on SyFy's schedule.

263. Dance Flick (2009)
The Wayans never really stopped making In Living Color. The family just took their parody spoofs into movie theaters and weaved a loose narrative around them.

264. Win a Date with Tad Hamilton! (2004)
I remember wanting to see this when it came out. Sure, it was sappy and predictable, but I was still entertained.

265. M (1931)
Now this film is art! The cinematography is amazing, especially given the film's age.

266. Super Shark (2011)
Poor John Schneider. Last time I saw him, he was playing a man crusading against evil corporations releasing super killer sharks. Here he plays the head of an evil corporation that releases super killer sharks. At least he's not typecast.

I don't want to oversell it, but the highlight of the film takes place shortly before a very, very slow walking tank was employed to attack a very, very slow crawling shark on a beach. A scientist, a colonel, and a boat captain watch a giant shark jump out of the ocean and eat a jet plane:

Scientist: "It flies!"
Colonel: "That's bad!"
Captain: "I need a drink!"

267. Journey to the Center of the Earth (2008)
Greg Evigan steals scenes from The Core while a bunch of actresses I've never seen before reenact scenes from Jurassic Park with a touch of chest-bursting Alien thrown in for good measure. You know, just like the Jules Verne novel.

268. Princess of Mars (2009)
In another knockoff of a big budget film, Traci Lords plays the titular character. (Giggle.)

269. Goon (2011)
This film was released to Video on Demand before it hit theaters in the US, usually a sign of a terrible film. But damn, this was genuinely entertaining and funny. It tries really hard to be a 21st-century Slap Shot and doesn't fall too short.

270. The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948)
I loved this truly great character piece. There is not typically a lot of suspense in John Huston films because justice is always ultimately served. However, the way this film briefly toys with defining the protagonist as a nice twist.

271. Dear John (2010)
The "happy" ending seemed completely out of place, something that a quick internet search confirmed as a last minute studio response to negative preview audience reactions. Where do they find these preview audiences? This movie went on to make a bunch of money, so what do I know.

272. Poseidon (2006)
Everything about remake of The Poseidon Adventure is absurd, but I was always more partial to its sequel, Beyond the Poseidon Adventure, anyway.

273. The Last Man on Earth (1964)
The "vampires" in this movie sure act suspiciously like the zombies in Night of the Living Dead. I'm sure that's no coincidence. (I should also point out that this film has our hero kill his newly befriended miniature poodle just to demonstrate how difficult and lonely it is to be the Last Man on Earth. This is the second movie I've seen this year that "Kicks the Dog" by killing a miniature poodle. To be fair, at least this time it was a vampire miniature poodle.)

274. Tower Heist (2011)
Eddie Murphy is always at his best playing a supporting character, but how did Alan Alda, Matthew Broderick, and Judd Hirsch also all end up in this silly caper flick?

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Concluding the race to 150 movies in 2012:

147. The Courtship of Eddie's Father (1963)
Yeah, Glenn Ford is pretty good, but he's no Bill Bixby.

148. Death Warmed Over (1984)
This low-budget 1980's sci-fi film from New Zealand would have been far better if a) any character's motivation had made any sense or b) I could have seen some more skin. Sure, a little side-boob is a good thing, but I'm going to need a lot more -- probably some full frontal -- to keep me distracted enough not to notice that the well-intentioned but evil scientist turned everyone into undead zombies just because the plot -- what little there was of it -- required it. (Yes, I know I said no more zombie movies back in February because they are all dumb as shit. What can I say? I'm a masochist.)

149. The Big Chance (1933)
More Mickey Rooney, this time as a little boy looking up to a crooked boxer who is struggling to go straight for his newfound love interest. Sure, it's a cliche, but after the vapid Death Warmed Over, it was nice to know what was going on.

150. Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel (2009)
Trey has been saying that I've become too discerning in my movie choices. This one's for you, bro! The best thing I can say about this movie is that I have seen it.

Now that I've conquered 150, I'm going to just keep going. How many films can I see before Baby 2013 pushes Father 2012 out the door? We'll find out together!

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AMC's The Walking Dead is filming at my old high school today. According to Newnan's The Times-Herald, the television show's location manager notified the city council that "neighbors might expect to hear live gunfire at the high school... until around 4 a.m." So if anyone hears live gunfire after 5 AM, remember to call the police.

Back when I was attending Newnan High School, scenes for Pet Sematary Two were filmed on campus while classes were still in session. I recall staring numbly out the window of one of the second-floor classrooms as crews toted light equipment across the front lawn. I heard a rumor that Edward Furlong was on campus at some point, but I never saw him. It was all very unexciting, but watching some roadies in vinyl jackets emblazoned "Pet Sematary II: Raise Some Hell" spread spiderwebs of power cables over the sidewalk was still far preferable to Introductory French lessons.

Like The Walking Dead, Pet Sematary Two is principally concerned with zombies. You may recall that less than two years ago, Zombieland shot scenes in downtown, no more than three city blocks away from the high school. Someone in Hollywood must have taken note: Newnan High School is a good place for producing zombies. As a former student, I can't say that I disagree.

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