Andrea's Emporium of Movies and TV (and comics, and video games and books)

The title menu of the game Cruelty Squad Warning: Mild Spoilers for Cruelty Squad Cruelty Squad is probably one of the best games I’ve played in a long time, and probably one of the most original and unconventional things that I feel like more video games should be like this. Simply put, this is one of those rare games that feels so precise and where it tests the absolute boundaries of what can really be done with a game. People often get the impression from the screenshots that it’s just not a good game, that its reception just feels like part of an elaborate joke, just with all these garish and unpleasant visuals – like the initial presentation and the visuals of it is of something that no good game designer would ever think of making, but the whole game really feels like some sort of strange vortex, the type of thing where you find yourself lost in a trance and you just keep playing it for whatever reason. The visual design itself is actually incredibly inventive, often very parti...

  Author's Note: Another long form pieces of writing that I felt really proud of. This is of two segments, the first of which was published on June 22nd 2020, and the other one was published on July 23rd 2021. Liked what I wrote here, probably one of the pieces I'm most proud of in terms of how much I captured the sense of alienation this movie attempts to communicate.   Part 1 - June 22nd 2020 Trust centres around the intersecting lives of a high school dropout named Maria who is kicked out of the house because of her increasingly abrasive attitude as well as a surprise pregnancy where the shock of the incident kills her father, and a young man who is very skilled at fixing electronic devices and is shacked up with various jobs from his domineering and abusive father – but his obsessive behaviour as well as his distrust for authorities and an attachment towards producing the best quality work means that he can’t really find a job anywhere, because so many of the businesse...

Author's Note: Originally written June 2nd, 2020. Wanted to write some really long form thing about this movie, and just showing that it's way more than how people present it like a "random movie" - connecting it to childhood fears and so forth. Probably one of the pieces I'm most proud of, but there are definitely with structural issues with this review, as well as a slight verbosity to it. House centres around a schoolgirl named Oshare or Gorgeous/Angel who  decides to spend her summer vacation down at her aunt’s house with six of her classmates, who lives alone after her husband was killed during World War II. But, as it turns out that the house is haunted and their aunt subsequently disappears like a ghostly apparition, and it turns out that the house is actually out to physically consume each of the girls until none of them are left – so the girls try to find a way to escape the house, and find an explanation for all of the bizarre occurrences that are happ...

The Simpsons - Five Important Episodes about our Homer Homer Simpson is a complicated character, probably more so than would be assume by obvious traits such as his love of donuts, beer and his slobbish and arrogant, often rage-induced behaviour. Those are definitely key components to Homer – but there’s also a whole lot more about his paranoia, well-meaning but often exacerbating behaviour, impulsiveness and so much more which make him a really unique character in his own right. From, I felt like detailing five key episodes which reveal deeper insights into Homer Simpson as a character - which are as follows: 5. Homer’s Enemy Homer’s Enemy is credited as being an episode about how a “realistic person would react to the insanity of someone like Homer Simpson” – but I find it’s way more about the feelings of discovering that a person you’ve either been nice to or is otherwise just a stranger to you, who for some inexplicable reason, hates you and everything you represent. This is prob...