The Week In A Bad Education Towers #38

Hello you! We're in another Bank Holiday weekend and the shorts are out! Might have a BBQ tomorrow as well; keep seeing that trailer for The Flash on YouTube and think Keaton saying "Lets get nuts" has seeped in there a bit. Before that, lets get a newsletter done!

So went to see Sisu last night, another film in the "Bad Guys Mess With a Dude That They Shouldn't have Messed With" action sub-genre.

And it was good! Its set in Finland in the dying days of the Second Wold War; Finland have signed a treaty with Russia which requires them to boot any Nazis out of the country which said Nazis aren't 100% willing to comply with. Amongst this an old gold miner Aatami who, after finally striking the motherlode, runs across a German patrol who want his new found riches.

Carnage then ensues.

And good carnage it is as well, with the Nazis getting their comeuppance in various violent and gory ways. The film is broken up with title cards which give it a pulpy Western feel, maybe a bit too Tarantino but it works for the vibe of the film. The main actor as Aatami is essentially silent but holds the screen well as he wades through Nazis with a pickaxe. Its definitely a film for a certain audience but those in that audience should have a great time.

The only issue I have with the film is just how far it pushes how sisu the main character is, it stretches this almost to breaking point but just manages to keep itself from descending into parody. John Wick 4 was getting to this stage as well at points, and it can undercut any feelings of tension as these characters are shown as being essentially unbeatable.

Maybe its a bit of malaise setting on as we're quite far into the trend of "Bad Guys Mess With a Dude That They Shouldn't have Messed With". I guess this modern trend started with Taken but obviously goes back further (Stephen Segal was just a chef, remember) but what really helps these films is casting against type. Total Recall is a good example; at the start we're supposed to believe Arnie is a regular dude which is just a ridiculous suggestion. Its kind of the same with John Wick, having Keanu makes it easy to believe that he's a gun weirding death maniac because he's, well, Neo.

Because we don't really know the actor who plays Aatami (unless you know your Finnish cinema) we don't have any baggage or pre-existing expectations which is always good for these type of films.

So yeah, its great! But if you or anyone you're going with is a horse lover then just, you know, tread carefully, Just saying.

Rolf Harris died this week which is, as we'd all probably agree, a good thing. The man was a sexual predator who got away with his crimes for far too long.

But I can't forget the influence the man had on my childhood; his cartoon shows were a staple of my TV watching growing up and they were brilliant! Those shows exposed me to some diamonds of the golden age of animation. On there I saw Tex Avery cartoons and Tom and Jerry and the old black and white Popeye cartoons. I love all of those to this day, and have watched them with my old children.

But it came from Rolf, so all that gets stained with his actions. This isn't for the first time and probably won't be for the last but it doesn't make it easier to deal with. Whenever I look back on something in my childhood I need to audit it to check to see if I need to separate the art from the artist yet again.

It sucks.

Lets have a palate cleanser! Here's a great article about Mean Machines magazine, something that defined my early console fandom. I never had a console until about 1994 (I think) but still bought (or bugged my parents to buy me) Mean Machines in the early 90s. All those articles about this fancy console from Japan called the Super Famicom and all these games was mind blowing. This article details the work that went into the magagzine from a lot of the people who worked on it and is a great read.

So its kinda E3 time but thats dead so instead we get random drops of stuff from companies like Sony. I didn't catch this live so here's a good round up.

The main things that got my attention was about the new Spider-Man game, the old Metal Gear collection finally getting an updated release on modern consoles, and a new hand held.

Whilst I was a big PSP fan, I feel like I need a lot more info on that thing before even considering picking on up. Does it just stream? Can it play anything else? How much? Should I just get a Steam Deck? I should just get a Steam Deck.

Speaking of Mean Machines!

Not yet through to the new style vids but getting closer. Also this one has some PRO GAMER TIPS if you're trying to play it on an emulator. No, it really does!

This is the special 50th episode of The Conquistabores! Yep, we made 50 episodes which is an achievement even if it was probably several years later than it should have been. This is a watch along, so find a copy of No Holds Barred and queue it up alongside this for a whole heap of fun.

Also, remember we did a poll ages ago and you voted for a Random Movie Thoughts video? Actually got that filmed last week, and nearly edited to look forward to that coming up shortly. Ish.

And that'll do, as its time to go and buy stuff ready for tomorrow's proposed BBQ. Because ain't no chance we'll be able to pick anything up tomorrow!

Bye!