NEW YORK SLICE

Pizza and gaming go together constantly, so it's no surprise that someone made a game revolving around eating pizza.  New York Slice from Bezier Games lets 2-6 players compete in collecting and eating slices of pizza and gathering Specials to score the most points and win the game.

As one would expect, the main components are slices of pizza.  Each type of pizza has a point value on it that matches its toppings.  Some slices also have pepperoni (which can be eaten for points) and anchovies (which have a negative value).  There are also Today's Special cards, which give points for certain conditions -- and can even make anchovies valuable!

Each turn the Slicer selects eleven random slices of pizza, then divides them into a number of sections equal to the number of players; the Slicer also selects a Today's Special card and puts that with one section.  Starting with the player to the left of the Slicer and going clockwise, each player chooses all the slices in each section, plus the Today's Special card that's with a section.  After everyone's chosen their pizza, the next player clockwise becomes the new Slicer.

After all the pizza is gone, players add up their scores.  The player with the largest number of slices worth a certain point value get that many points; so having the most eight-point slices gets the player eight points.  If there's a tie, no one gets the points.  Players can eat slices with pepperoni, getting one point for each pepperoni on each slice -- but those slices can't be used for their point values.  And lots of Today's Specials give points (or cost other players points).  When all the points are added up, whoever has the most points wins.

New York Slice is simple and fun.  It's hard not getting hungry looking at the photograph-quality slices the players will be staring at, handling, and pretending to eat during the game.  Having the Slicer choose last adds an interesting strategy element, as everyone gets chance to collect the "good" combinations before the Slicer can get to them.  Specials add a random element that doesn't necessarily make or break the game, and it can be tricky to decide whether or not to chow down on the pepperoni slices or keep them for points.  New York Slice manages to make pizza even more of a game night.

Overall grade: B+
Reviewed by James Lynch

CHAMPIONS: AARON ALLSTON'S STRIKE FORCE

The late Aaron Allston ran a Champions role-playing game (RPG) campaign that lasted for 20 years.  Set in Earth AU, this campaign had humble beginnings (one hero had to steal a bus to get to the first adventure) and grew to encompass three superhero-teams, a technologically advanced world and some literal world-rebuilding.  Strike Force provides the history and statistics for much of this extensive adventure -- but the main value comes from providing valuable information for the game master (GM) on how to run a campaign.

Yes, Strike Force has the details for the main heroes of the Strike Force team, plus villains, other important characters, and a timeline for the campaign.  But Allston provided more by letting know other GMs know what went into the behind-the-scenes preparation and work to make the game succeed.  It starts with such elements as: discussing with players what they want to get out of the game; the game world's attitude towards superheroes; and what role killing plays with the characters.  Blue books were used, often extensively, for players to figure out what their characters were up to that didn't quite fit in with the adventures.  Allason provides a nice 10-part list of ways to ruin a campaign.  And there's emulation of Hollywood and comic books in creating the world, plus change to keep things fresh and interesting for both the players and GM.  And there's a breakdown of the assorted types of players and what will make them happy.

The result is that Strike Force works as a guide not just for superhero RPGs but also for any GM hoping to provide a great campaign (or individual game, though there's a long view taken through much of this) for the players.  The strength of this work isn't in using the characters here or copying the twists and turns, but in GMs getting insight from their players and tailoring their campaign to make everybody happy and coming back for more.  With that in mind, Strike Force is a very valuable tool for the GM.

Overall grade: A

Reviewed by James Lynch

Ann Wilson, IMMORTAL

Cover albums often have a common theme, and Ann Wilson (lead singer of Heart) has a common thread on her new album Immortal: performers who have passed away but who left a deep impact on the musical landscape.  Her voice and their music prove to be a strong combination.

Immortal is composed of mostly deep cuts (except for "You Don't Own Me" and "Baker Street"), from artists who have passed away fairly recently and left an impact on the musical landscape.  Songs vary from the poetic (Leonard Cohen's "A Thousand Kisses Deep") to the extremely suggestive (Cream's "Politician") to the inspirational (Lesley Gore's "You Don't Own Me").

Ann Wilson's vocals are powerful and subtle, adapting themselves to the soft rhythms of "Luna" or the tough commentary of "I'm Afraid of Americans."  The songs aim for originality rather than copying the originals, and while this doesn't always work, it's a mostly successful formula.  The result makes Immortal a very good listen -- and a nice tribute to some of those who have passed on.

Overall grade: A-
Reviewed by James Lynch

A STAR IS BORN

Fame has its ups and downs, its rewards and pitfalls, its appeals and stresses.  This is covered in A Star Is Born -- and the movie does very well, thanks to some impressive star power in its two leads.

Jackson Maine (Bradley Cooper, who co-wrote and directed the movie) is a famous classic rocker, someone everyone seems to know and want their picture with.  Looking for booze after a concert, he winds up at a drag club -- and is entranced by the performance of Ally (Lady Gaga), singing a French song.  She says her looks have kept her from being taken seriously as a professional singer.

Jackson is as entranced by Ally's singing, songwriting, and piano playing as his desire to get her into bed.  Soon he has her joining him on stage at the concerts, where she becomes a viral hit.  In almost no time at all, Allie is being represented as a singer and transformed into a famous pop star, losing the piano and gaining backup dancers.  Meanwhile, Jackson is haunted by either jealousy or disappointment with Allie's career; and his demons of liquor, drugs, and hearing problems come calling.

While the themes of A Star Is Born are familiar (and the movie is a remake), the two stars really make the movie shine.  Bradley Cooper shows both sides of Jackson: the charmer who's easy to like and the self-destructive artist for whom music isn't enough.  Lady Gaga is a revelation as Allie, making her both talented and vulnerable, someone ready to lose what she loved in music as fame seems more and more alluring.  Their musical numbers together are impressive, as is their chemistry.  The result is a beautiful, powerful movie.

Overall grade: A
Reviewed by James Lynch

THE DISASTER ARTIST

The movie The Room may be the worst modern movie ever made, becoming famous and infamous, inspiring a "so bad it's good" attitude and having midnight showings.  But what about Tommy Wiseau, the writer-director-star of the movie?  The Disaster Artist is a look at the man behind this movie -- and his best friend and co-star.

Greg (Dave Franco) is a struggling artist who meets Tommy (James Franco) at an acting class.  Greg is impressed with Tommy's uninhibited emotional acting, and the two quickly become good friends (despite Tommy being quite secretive about everything from his age to where he's from to his seemingly unlimited supply of money).  Tommy is quite volatile, rejecting every suggestion and overacting every chance he gets,

The two move to Los Angeles together, but acting gigs are scarce.  Greg gives Tommy the idea to make his own movie, which would become The Room.  Tommy spares no expense (and incurs many unnecessary ones) making the movie, and soon even Greg can't ignore the poor choices and terrible writing of the movie.  But Greg is in the movie too, worried about how it will affect his career and his friendship with Tommy.

The Disaster Artist is both entertaining and superficial.  James Franco does a dead-on impersonation of Tommy Wiseau, from his looks to his bizarre European accent.  But we never learn what really makes Wiseau tick (apart from his conviction that he must be the hero when acting) and the result in an amazing recreation of The Room and its star without getting into more about it.

Overall grade: B-
Reviewed by James Lynch

OPERATION FINALE

Based on true events, Operation Finale is about the discovery and capture of Adolph Eichmann, considered the architect of the Nazis' final solution and the highest-ranking Nazi to escape alive after World War Two.  The movie tells a compelling story, though with some forced elements.

The movie begins in 1960, when Israel's Mossad intelligence agency gets a lead that Eichmann (Ben Kingsley) is living in Buenos Aires, Argentina.  Unfortunately, Argentina has a strict anti-extradition policy; the country also has a large group of Nazi sympathizers.  So the Mossad hatch a plan: send a small team of operatives to Buenos Aires, identify Eichmann, then capture him and bring him back to Israel for trial.

Israel's team is headed by Peter Malkin (Oscar Isaac), a soldier who'd just as soon kill Eichmann as bring him home.  He leads the team in Eichmann's capture.  However, they need Eichmann to sign a paper authorizing his extradition to Israel to stand trial.  There's also a delay in the flight to get him home -- and the authorities and Nazis searching for the captures Nazi.

Operation Finale is good, with some flaws.  The story it tells is an important one, and it underscores the need for the trial and the horrors of the war: Malkin's flashbacks are of his sister, killed by the Nazis; Eichmann's are of his getting blue ink on white shirt cuffs.  But the movie also has some plot devices that are a bit clumsy: Malkin's ex romantic partner as a reluctant member of the team, clues left behind at the abduction, a seemingly minutes-close escape from an airport.  These feel heavy handed in a movie that already had plenty of drama in it.

Overall grade: B-
Reviewed by James Lynch

THE CAPTAIN IS DEAD

Cooperative games have the players working together towards a common goal -- while other events distract them and can cost them the game.  The Captain Is Dead from Alderac Entertainment Games uses this mechanic well, as 2-7 players encounter all sorts of obstacles on their spaceship while trying to win by repairing the Jump Drive.

Each player has a character, which has several traits: rank, which determines who goes first; number of actions to spend per round; often, skill discounts to use or repair the rooms aboard the ship; a hand size, for keeping skill cards, tools, and battle plans; and a special ability.  Characters roam the ship, collecting skills (Command, Engineering, Tactical, Science) from the Computers or Internal Sensors, using the Teleporter to beam from room to room (or walking when it's Offline or Destroyed), launching torpedoes at hovering alien ships, and spending lots of Engineering skills to fix the Jump Drive by one space.  The game's difficulty is based on how many spaces on the Jump Drive need to be repaired.

Unfortunately for the players, the end of each turn has an alert happening.  Yellow alerts are harmful: Systems can be knocked offline, making them inactive until repaired; aliens can board the ship, injuring any players in the room they beam into, and players can only do certain actions if injured or in the same room as aliens, and an injured player has to go to the Trauma Center to heal.  If an alien would need to be places on the ship and there are no available aliens, the players lose.  Systems can take damage, and the Shields also take 10% damage; if the Shields reach zero and then take more damage, the players lose.  Alien ships can appear on the side of your ship, doing more damage to the Shields.  And anomalies affect the whole crew until solved with several science skills.

Not surprisingly, further alerts are worse.  Orange alerts add more aliens to the invasions, do more damage to the Shields, have worse anomalies, and destroy systems so they need a lot more skills to repair.  And red alters are far more disastrous, doing everything from reducing the Shields by 50% to destroying the Jump Core, ending the game.  Players can skip an alert by spending three Command skills at the end of their turn.

The Captain Is Dead is a very fun game.  The characters are all familiar characters to anyone who enjoys science fiction, and they all have different uses in the game -- even the Janitor, who's great at repairing destroyed systems.  The more players take part, the more alerts hit them, and even at the easiest level (Coward) the game can seize defeat from the jaws of victory.  There's a nice angular feel to the artwork, and players have to balance fixing the Jump Core to win with dealing with the other assorted crises that keep popping up.  The result is very challenging and very enjoyable.

Overall grade: A-
Reviewed by James Lynch

RIFFTRAX LIVE: KRULL

The movie Krull is a mix of science fiction and sword and sorcery from 1983 that never really took off.  Looking back at it, there are plenty of reasons this was a commercial and critical flop.  However, that makes it perfect for riffing on, and Rifftrax Live: Krull does just that.

With this slightly long movie to take on, hosts Mike Nelson, Kevin Murphy and Bill Corbett skip their usual opening shorts or previews of upcoming shows to tackle the feature.  It's probably a warning that when Mike asks the audience who's seen Krull and lots of people cheer, he follows it up by asking if they remember it through nostalgia.

The movie itself features slow-moving Slayers, a big rocky teleporting castle, painful comedy from an inept wizard ("If he's the comic relief, why do I feel tense every time he shows up?") and the Glaive, a magical spinning five-bladed weapon descriped as "like Excalibur but with a far stupider name."  The movie's big claim to fame is having Liam Neeson and Robbie Coltrane in small roles as the bandits before they (the actors) became famous.

I liked seeing Rifftrax Live: Krull a lot. This is the first time I've seen the actual movie, and it was painful to endure.  But the comedy trip had a lot of fun with it -- from wondering who or what "Krull" actually is to the casual forgetting of the movie's early slaughter of the main characters' family and friends -- that brought the audience along for the ride.  More material would have been good, but Rifftrax Live: Krull was still very fun to watch.

Overall grade: B+
Reviewed by James Lynch

BlacKkKlansman

Loosely based on a bizarre true story, BlacKkKlansman is the latest Spike Lee movie.  This time around he's drawing heavy parallels between the past and present, to mixed results.

In 1972, Ron Stallworth (John David Washington) is the first black police officer in Colorado Springs.  Initially stuck in the records room, Ron soon finds himself doing undercover work.  A unique opportunity presents itself when Ron calls a number in the paper from the Ku Klux Klan and finds himself being recruited by them,

The police set up a task force to infiltrate the Klan, with officer Flip Zimmerman (Adam Driver) appearing in person as Ron while Ron keeps taking the phone calls.  The real Ron also winds up talking a lot with David Duke (Topher Grace), the grand wizard of the Klan who wants to put a respectable face on "the organization."  And there's a romantic subplot where Ron has a romantic relationship with Patrice Dumas (Laura Harrier), a college activist who thinks all cops are pigs -- and who wouldn't be happy to know that Ron was undercover to look at a black activist speaker she brought to the college.

BlacKkKlansman is an impressive film.  Spike Lee does a fine job of portraying the 1970s, from the celebration of black culture to the racism that's almost everywhere, from  the Klan's open activities to the institutional racism of the police.  Where the film may overreach is linking the racism of the past with Donald Trump now.  It's one thing to have Klansman talk about "making America great" and explaining how racist policies seem palatable if not mentioning race.  But the movie ends with numerous clips from today, making the point with the subtlety of a sledgehammer.  Despite that, this movie makes some important points and is definitely worth seeing.

Overall grade: A-
Reviewed by James Lynch

CAMEL UP

Lots of games involve racing, but Camel Up from Z-Man Games focuses on betting on different parts of the race to earn the most pounds and win the game.  It also has a goofy game mechanic that makes the race pretty unpredictable.

Accommodating between 2 and 8 players, Camel Up players (who start with three pounds each) are betting on a race among five camels (blue, yellow, green, orange, and white) on a sixteen-space course around a pyramid.  An interesting mechanic is how the camels interact: If a camel moves forward and ends its move on the same space as another camel, the moving camel goes on top of the camel that was there.  If a camel with other camels on top of it moves, it carries all camels on top of it with it when it moves.  And in terms of race ranking, the highest camel in a stack is in the lead, then the next-highest camel, and so on.

On each turn, players can take one of four actions.  They can place an Desert tile (Oasis or Mirage side) on the race track, an an empty space that isn't adjacent to another tile.  If a camel lands on an Oasis, the player who owns it gets a pound and the camel moves forward one space.  If a camel lands on a Mirage, the owning player gets a pound and the camel moves backwards; if the move back puts the camel on the same space as another camel, the moving camel goes on the bottom of the stack.

Players can bet on the Leg of the race (when all five dice have been rolled) or the race's ultimate winner or loser.  To bet on a Leg, a player takes the top available Leg betting tile from the board.  The highest tile gives five pounds if that colored camel comes in first on the Leg, one pound if it comes in second, and loses a pound if the camel comes in third or worse.  The next tile gives three pounds for winning, and the last one gives two pounds for victory.  Players can also use one of their five colored cards to bet on the winner or loser of the race.  These are placed face-down on the board and rewarded when the race ends. 

And since camels have to move, players can take one of the five pyramid tiles.  When this is selected,  the player takes the pyramid, shakes it, and releases one die (numbered from 1 to 3).  The camel matching the die color moves ahead that many spaces, and the die goes on the board.  When all five dice have been rolled, the Leg scoring round happens. Players get or lose pounds bases on their Leg betting tiles; players also earn a pound for each pyramid tile they had.  After these are all resolved, the Leg betting tiles are returned to the board and all the dice go back in the pyramid.

When a camel or stack of camels passes the finish line, two things happen.  There's a final Leg scoring round, then the bets for the overall winner and overall loser are resolved.  Awarded in the order of correct bets, the correct bets get eight, five, three, two, and one pounds, for both the first-place and last-place bets; incorrect bets lose the player a pound for each bet.  After that, the player with the most pounds is the victor!

Camel Up is a very simple, fun, and unpredictable game.  Since the camels all move between 1 and 3 spaces, it's rare for a camel to be so far ahead it can never be caught by the others; and it's easy for a camel in the lead to find itself on the bottom of a stack of camels, almost certainly ruining its chances for victory.  The betting system rewards those who bet first, but penalizes those whose bets are incorrect.  And earning pounds through the Desert or pyramid tiles are slow and steady, but not as rewarding as correct bets.  Plus who wouldn't like large piles of multi-colored camels standing on top of each other?  Camel Up is a whole lot of fun for pretty much all ages.

Overall grade: A-
Reviewed by James Lynch

SORRY TO BOTHER YOU

Nothing can be as annoying as telemarketers -- or as lucrative.  Sorry to Bother You is a comedic satire of the search for the American Dream, racism, and consumerism.

Cassius "Cash" Green (Lakeith Stanfield) is struggling.  While he ponders what his life means, he's unemployed and living in his uncle's garage.  His chance for change comes when he gets a job as a telemarketer, pushing a lifestyle called Worryfree that seems to offer people contracts for food and shelter -- as well as controversy that they're being used as slave labor for large companies.

When elderly co-worker Langston (Danny Glover) recommends that Cash use a relaxed, confident white person's voice (provided by David Cross), Cash is a huge success and promoted to power caller -- where he's pushing even more morally dubious, lucrative proposals to big businesses.  Meanwhile Cash's girlfriend Detroit (Tessa Thompson), a performance artist and sign spinner, also works as a telemarketer.  And Squeeze (Steven Yeun) is trying to get the telemarketers to unionize.  Oh, and the big boss Steve Lift (Armie Hammer) has a truly bizarre plan to make money -- one that directly involves Cash.

Sorry to Bother You is a strange, funny, and thoughtful satire of modern life.  The question of selling out to make money is nothing new, but the movie takes that to bizarre lengths.  There's a not-so-subtle theme of racism through the movie, from Cash's success once he starts sounding white to when he's forced to rap for an party of all-white people.  Lakeith Stanfield is solid as the hapless success, and the rest of the cast delivers as well.  Sorry to Bother You isn't a classic, but it is original and thoughtful.

Overall grade: A-
Reviewed by James Lynch

ANT-MAN AND THE WASP

While some Marvel movies can be pretty intense, the last Ant-Man movie was a lighter caper film.  Ant-Man and the Wasp continues that tradition, as assorted characters race and battle to get hold of the same item.

Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) is just a few days from finishing his house arrest, he's got a new security business going, and he's ready to stay out of trouble.  Unfortunately, his dreams about Janet Van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) lead Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and his daughter Hope (Evangeline Lilly) to conclude that Janet is still alive in the quantum realm -- and they need Scott's help to bring her back to this world.  So they break Scott out of his home, covering for him and telling him it'll be taken care of quickly.

Of course, it's not nearly that simple.  Hank and Hope's plan revolves around their lab, which is in a building that can br shrunk to the size of carry-on luggage.  This is hunted by Ghost (Hannah John-Kamen), a woman who can become intangible and needs the lab to cure herself by extracting the energy from Janet -- which could kill Janet.  The lab is also pursued by Sonny (Walter Goggins), a businessman who's promised to sell the lab to some disreputable people.  So soon Scott has become Ant-Man, Hope is the new Wasp, and they're shrinking and enlarging things while fighting the enemies and working together.

Ant-Man and the Wasp is fun.  The movie is more comedy than action, but the action sequences still work pretty well.  There's some nice romantic chemistry between Scott and Hope, and the Ghost is one of the more sympathetic villains of the Marvel universe.  This works well as summer escapism -- and fits in nicely with the Marvel universe.

Overall grade: B+
Reviewed by James Lynch

Rhett Miller, THE INTERPRETER

Rhett Miller, lead singer for the Old 97's, has a distinctive voice that would make me listen to him is he read names out of the phone book.  He's also a terrific guitarist who can shift from exciting riffs to melodic, emotional sounds from song to song.  The Interpreter has Rhett covering some of his favorite songs.

Recorded live at the Largo club in Florida before its closing, The Interpreter has a wide variety of songs done by Rhett and his guitar (with occasional piano support).  This near-acoustic approach fits in very well with songs like Simon and Garfunkel's "Homeward Bound" or Bob Dylan's "You're Gonna Make Me Lonesome when You Go."  But it also works for songs that are hardly folk-sounding, whether it's David Bowie ("Queen Bitch"), the Beatles ("I'll Cry Instead") or a Pixies-Ramones mash-up.

Rhett Miller's vocals are terrific through the album, and his guitar works keeps up with his voice perfectly.  The end result is that The Interpreter is an impressive and varied album.

Overall grade: A
Reviewed by James Lynch

R.I.P. Harlan Ellison 1934-2018

Harlan Ellison, one of the greats of speculative fiction ("Call me a 'science-fiction' writer and I'll come to your house and nail your pet's head to the table"), activism, columns, film criticism, and countless other areas of literature, cinema, television, and entertainment, passed away today.

Harlan Ellison may be best known for his writing.  He has written novels, short stories, and television scripts (including the original script for the Star Trek episode "City on the Edge of Forever") and has won countless awards for his work.  His short story "I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream" is one of the most-translated stories in English.  And he's responsible for innumerable great quotes; possibly his most famous is "The two most common elements in the universe are hydrogen and stupidity."

Ellison was also a passionate and prolific critic.  When he hated a work, he'd trash it endlessly.  When he loved a work (or person), his praise was limitless.  He was an outspoken activist as well, weighing in on all sorts of political and cultural issues.  He was also an advocate for the creative, and his "pay the writer!" rant is famous for standing up to those who see writers as less.  And he engaged in (and usually won) several lawsuits to protect his creations and intellectual property.

I was fortunate enough to have heard Harlan Ellison speak several times at the I-CON convention in Long Island, New York.  He was a brilliant, energetic, and thoroughly engaging speaker.  I also got to meet with him as well, and several books that he signed for me are among my most prized possessions.

Rest in peace, Harlan Ellison.  You will be missed.

James Lynch

LOGAN LUCKY

Steven Soderbergh directed the classic modern heist movie with the remake of Ocean's Eleven, so it's oddly appropriate that years he'd direct a heist movie with a redneck spin.  Logan Lucky takes the planned heist to a different level, appropriate for its West Virginia-Charlotte, NC setting.

The Logan family has infamously bad luck, and that's certainly true for Jimmy Logan (Channing Tatum).  He just got fired from a construction job for not revealing his limp.  His ex-wife Bobbie Jo (Katie Holmes) is considering moving out of West Virginia with their young daughter Sadie (Farrah Mackenzie).  And Sadie wants her dad to attend her performance at a child beauty pageant.  And it looks like Jimmy has no money.

What Jimmy does have is a plan.  At his last job he worked on fixing sinkholes at a North Carolina racetrack, he knows how the money is moved to the vault, and he puts together a crew to steal it.  There's Clyde Logan (Adam Driver), Jimmy's bartender brother who lost much of his left arm in the Gulf War.  There's Joe Bang (Daniel Craig), the explosives expert who's unfortunately incarcerated.  There are Joe's brothers Fish and Sam Bang (Jack Quaid, Brian Gleeson) who can provide computer support.  ("All the Twitters, I know 'em.")  And there's Mellie Logan (Riley Keough), Jimmy and Clyde's sister, who can provide speedy driving.  When the plan has to be moved up a week, the gang finds themselves working during a NASCAR race -- with far more security than normal.

Logan Lucky is both different and familiar at the same time.  The movie skips the usual Hollywood beauties and casual upper middle class wealth of most movies (and television shows, for that matter) for a look at a far more Southern lower-class lifestyle.  This is played for laughs sometimes, but there's also a bit of pride there: One of the most moving moments is a sing-along of Bob Denver's "Take Me Home, Country Roads."  Besides that, though, the heist itself is something we've seen numerous times before (including from Soderbergh), with perfect timing, incompetent authorities and security, and a good deal of suspension of disbelief.  The cast has fun, and the end result is enjoyable enough.

Overall grade: B-
Reviewed by James Lynch