Review Day

There are no major spoilers in these reviews.

Meet the Patels (PG):
This is a harmless documentary-style movie about an American-born Indian trying to meet his future wife through traditional means. The ending is telegraphed pretty far in advance, but it had moments of humour and didn't overstay its welcome. Free on Netflix.

Final Grade: B

Inside Out:
The latest Pixar movie is thematically challenging, with anthropomorphized emotions controlling the brain of a pre-teen girl. The setting is inventive and well-done and the voice actors are perfectly paired with the emotions they play (Lewis Black as Anger, for example). It drags a bit in the middle with Back to the Future II syndrome, where continuous roadblocks pop up just to prevent the plot from reaching its conclusion, and is probably better for older kids than the younger set.

Final Grade: B

Mozart in the Jungle, Season Two:
The first season of this show was lightweight fun, and deserving of its awards. The second season goes nowhere, treading plot water with minimal structure. We watched about half of the season, including a useless episode where everyone gets high and has weird dreams without resolution, and then gave up. If I wanted to watch musicians get high around me, I would just go back to grad school. Free on Amazon Prime.

Final Grade: D

Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void:
This is the third and final chapter of the Starcraft II video game, whose first part came out back in 2010. I liked the first act, but the load times in the second act drove me up the wall. The last act was released with so little fanfare that I didn't even notice it for a couple months. The whole affair is technically flawless but uninteresting, with too many polished cutscenes telling a story I don't care about and boring missions with too many unnecessary constraints trying to conceal the age of the genre. Given my history with the series, it almost sounds sacreligious to say that playing Starcraft bored me, but this game triggered that emotion. Farewell, college memories.

Final Grade: C-