The Lady Vanishes Review

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It’s time to look at a very old school thriller mystery. It certainly goes down a few unexpected paths and makes for a pretty enjoyable experience. As with all movies where someone vanishes you do have to suspend a little disbelief with how this would have worked out at all. That said, the movie makes a better attempt to hide this than most do. At least we do have a few characters who saw things and for their own selfish reasons are just pretending that they didn’t. That’s more of a plot point that I can get behind.

The movie starts with some train delays so Iris and a lot of other people are forced to spend the night at a hotel. Iris is with two of her friends so it’s a nice enough stay but their upstairs neighbor is making a lot of noise. Iris complains and the guy (Gilbert) retaliates by breaking into her room and making a mess of things. Iris is pretty happy to leave but on the way to the train she is nearly murdered by a falling rock that was seemingly aimed at an old lady by the name of Ms. Froy. Froy is also taking the train to she gets on with Iris. Unfortunately after Iris takes a nap Froy is gone and everyone claims she was never there. Iris needs to find some proof and fast because this could all be a part of some kind of conspiracy.

Iris and Froy didn’t do a whole lot after they got on the train but enough where you’d expect a good amount of witnesses. They went to the cabin to have some tea and even had a brief polite spat with Charters and Caldicott so I’m sure some people would have noticed this. Again, we do have at least 4 characters who saw them but have motives for not saying. For reasons involving the twist we can’t count everyone in the car so it’s a limited pool. That’s why, while I don’t 100% buy this, the film put in a great effort compared to most. I can definitely respect the hustle there.

Speaking of twists, the film also did good by not letting you know who the true main character was for a while. In Act 1 Charters and Caldicott gets much more screen time than Iris. They’re too comedic characters who just want to know what’s going on with the cricket matches but nobody is able to assist them. It’s definitely not the most popular sport out there although I know a few big fans. As a result you expect these guys to be in the thick of it but when the situation comes to them, surprisingly they lie their way out of it. I was pretty shocked since that seemed primed to be their big moment where they jump in and take center stage. That was a solid flip the script kind of moment if I’ve ever seen one.

As the actual main character, Iris does a pretty good job of holding the movie pretty well. She’s a nice character and definitely a determined one as she doesn’t buy into the deceptions that Froy was never really there. I’m pretty glad about that because I always thought it was rather weak to believe the opposite of what you saw with your own eyes. Let’s bee real about this, if you see something then you shouldn’t be convinced otherwise. That’s one of those things I always have to shake my head at when it happens. Iris was also quick to get with the program when the climax occurs.

Some characters were not quite so lucky with this. When people are actually shooting at you then the time for talking is certainly past. You have to fire back and a few of the characters here were definitely super naive. That said, the climax was definitely a lot of fun. It was pretty high energy throughout and a lot was happening at any given time. The whole conspiracy was a bit bigger than I had suspected. The film was pretty low key for most of its run but I’ll never turn down a sequence of solid action scenes.

The main guy is a bit on the iffy side. Gilbert is pretty petty with breaking into Iris’ room the way that he did. It may have ended up turning out all right but it’s the kind of thing that would definitely not fly over very well if it actually happened. This leads us to a pretty rushed romance plot. Keep in mind that Iris already has a fiance so that’s pretty hard to buy into. She basically dumps him for no real reason. We barely even got to meet the guy which is pretty crazy. They could have just as easily written the film so that he didn’t exist and nothing would change. The romance is definitely not the best here but fortunately that plays a very small role.

I’d consider the writing in the film to generally be pretty solid. It has good pacing throughout and a nice set of characters. The film plays itself out a bit as an ensemble kind of movie with each character having his own plot and story to get back to. They all end up mixing together by the end of the experience so all of the characters feel pretty real. The movie doesn’t drag on and actually manages to capture quite a lot of story within the runtime. Mix that together with the explosive climax and you’ve got yourself a very satisfying ending.

Overall, The Lady Vanishes is a pretty solid movie. I’d definitely recommend it as this is a mystery film which has aged really well over the years.Some of the twists are still a bit unexpected which goes into how smooth the execution is. Gilbert does have a terrible final scene though as he ends up slipping on the most important assignment he was given. It’s one of those things that you just don’t do. You’ve got to at least make sure you get that right. Fortunately the real hero was ready to help as things could have gone badly otherwise.

Overall 7/10

Need For Speed ProStreet Review

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It’s time to look at a recent Need for Speed title I completed. Unfortunately this may end up being the weakest title in the series. It’s hard to get into this one and there’s not even much of a story. I don’t know about you but I always need a compelling story to really throw the Need For Speed games into the next level. Not having one just doesn’t feel right because the whole time you’re waiting for something to happen and it just doesn’t. Additionally there are some other gimmicks that didn’t work well but more on that later.

The general premise is that you want to become the number one racer in town. To do that you will have to win a lot of races and tournaments. After clearing a bunch of tournaments you get to a showdown level where you get to beat a boss. Then rinse and repeat until you beat all of the showdowns which will earn you a match against one of the legendary Kings. Beat him and the game is over but after that you can take down the rest of the kings in the post game to become the grand king. At that point you are the best there ever was so what else would you really want to do?

There’s a lot of content here so I’ll certainly grant the game that. The campaign itself is incredibly long due to the sheer volume of races and tournaments here. I don’t see you completing the game in under 10 hours and it’ll probably take more like 15. Aside from that it’ll take a lot of time and money to unlock all of the cars or to break enough records to take on all of the kings. Earning money takes a lot of time in this game and that’s unfortunate because you need money to get the better cars. Your starter just won’t cut it. I’m cool with upgrading, but this game tries to go a little too realistic with that. There are some cars where even if you max them out they will never be fast enough to win the race. You also have to compete in “Wheelie” competitions near the end of the game and none of my cars could pull it off. Had to get a brand new one which was a colossal waste of money since it was just good for that and the drag races.

Ultimately I made it to the King at the end and took him down in the first 4 races, but the 5th one stumped me. I really only beat the first race because he ended up crashing so I crawled to the end. His car was simply worlds ahead of mine so no matter how well I raced through the level there was no way I was going to win. I needed a completely different car if I wanted to deal any damage and going all the way back didn’t seem like a great option. So that’s where my journey ended. I really don’t think the idea of having to get new cars all the time is a good one. I like just having one good car that you can upgrade. Make the courses tougher but don’t mess with the cars.

Maybe this wouldn’t have felt quite so bad if the game had a real story. This just didn’t really even feel like a Need For Speed. There is no free roam in the game which is absolutely crazy. That’s basically the core of the NFS franchise. Gone are the underground races and trying to zip away with your car intact. It’s admirable that the game was going for something new but if you ask me it just didn’t work. The core gameplay is still good of course so I’m happy about that but that’s really all I can say about this game. There are several different kinds of racing modes, but the classic Circuit is the best one. I suppose my second favorite would be Speed since the whole idea behind that mode is going full throttle from the start in 1 long lap. One mistake will mean the end for you here so you can’t afford to slip up.

The graphics aren’t bad. They’re pretty standard as far as the series goes. I wouldn’t really say that it’s improved much at all since the last one. As long as I can see the track I’m good though. The soundtrack’s pretty limited, I can’t recall any good tunes. One element that further holds the game back is the announcer. He talks constantly as you’re going through the menus so you feel like you have to hurry and make your selections. His lines aren’t witty, they’re just annoying and super loud. Additionally the game throws in a lot more fanservice than these games typically have. You’re also forced to experience this before every single race. You know how some of these levels are so difficult you have to retry them over and over again? Well, get ready for these unskippable intros before the race because they really eat up a lot of time by the time they’re all over.

Overall, Need For Speed ProStreet really fell pretty hard compared to most of the Need for Speed games. This one barely even feels like it’s a part of the same series as the others. It only shares the name with the rest of the games but otherwise may as well be a completely different title. The gameplay is good, but that’s not really enough to save the game. If I at least got my free roaming mode I’d be okay but without that this game just couldn’t work. If you’re going to get into the Need For Speed series then I recommend starting out with just about any other game compared to this one. ProStreet just does a disservice to the series.

Overall 5/10

Absorbing Man vs Abomination

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Suggested by Sonic The Abomination is incredibly powerful, but the question is, can he damage the Absorbing Man in his strongest form? The Absorbing Man has absorbed Mjolnir in the past after all which makes him virtually indestructible. As powerful as the Abomination is, I wonder if he would really be able to deal a lot of damage that way. Ultimately I think he’ll fall because the beast has no real long range options this time. The pounding will take its toll. Absorbing Man wins.

Sephiria vs Serah

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Suggested by Sonic Sephiria is a pretty solid swordswoman and her speed is what will really help her in this fight. Having regeneration doesn’t hurt either. What this will boil down to though is whether or not she can overwhelm Serah’s plethora of spells and her grand summon. I’m just not sure Sephiria will be able to do it. The deck is stacked against her here. It’s why they say no matter how well tuned your skill is, you’ll want to have more abilities at the ready when you get into a fight. She’s just not ready to take Serah down this time. She won’t be put into a position to really use her sword skills. Serah wins.

Super Skrull vs Zangief

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Suggested by Sonic Zangief is pretty strong among the Street Fighter characters. Unfortunately for him he has not gotten a whole lot from the spinoff games which will hurt him. Unlike Ryu and Akuma, Zangief just hasn’t shown anything beyond the realm of the mortals. Super Skrull has the powers of the Fantastic Four which means that he is faster and stronger than Zangief. There’s really no way this grappler will be able to effectively get in close to end this. I’m afraid he’s out of luck here. Super Skrull wins.

Catseye (DC) vs Krypto

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Suggested by Sonic Catseye has pretty sharp claws and a good amount of agility. That’ll definitely allow him to keep some opponents off their game and get some punishing blows in. That said, there’s nothing he could really do against Krypto. While Krypto isn’t exactly Superman, he does have the same kind of abilities. With his speed he could absolutely wreck Catseye and the heat vision will also work if Krypto wants to win from afar. No matter how he plays it, Catseye will lose this fight. Krypto wins.

Superman Prime vs Brainiac

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Suggested by Sonic Brainiac is one of Superman’s deadliest foes. While he isn’t really known as a physical fighter, he’s shown that he can go up against just about anyone in close quarters combat. Superman Prime is not one of those opponents though. Even in Brainiac’s golden mode I don’t see him lasting long here. Prime’s abilities are even greater than that of Superman’s which is already at a high level. Brainiac will be completely overwhelmed in speed and power. Superman Prime wins.

Jirass vs Goomba

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Suggested by Destroyer Goomba is probably one of the most well known minions of all time. This is not a villain to be taken lightly in the slightest. That said, it won’t take Jirass very long to take him down for the count. Goomba just isn’t in the same league as Jirass and that much will be clear from the opening shot. Goomba has no way to defend himself against such a move and will ultimately go down. Jirass won’t even need the patented energy blast here. Jirass wins.

Jirass vs Turkey

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Suggested by Destroyer Turkeys are fun little creatures. They have a mean bite and aren’t afraid to get mixed in with the action. That being said, Jirass will still win this match with great ease. What can a bird hope to do against a powerful Kaiju like this? Jirass is on a completely different level and that’s not even counting the energy blast. When you factor that in then the match is really over since you just can’t hope to really do anything against that level of power. It’s all over now. Jirass wins.

Jirass vs Moby Dick

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Suggested by Destroyer Moby Dick has returned, but this isn’t a fight that he can win. Jirass is on a completely different level. A single energy blast could quickly turn the tides in an instant. Jirass doesn’t even need to aim properly since the range is so large. Moby Dick also isn’t the fastest character out there so no matter what he tries it’s not like he’ll be able to get out of range quick enough either. This is just a battle that can’t be won. Jirass wins.