Now in our fifth calendar year
Pirates of the Spanish Main With the first release there is a choice of three factions to choose from; English, Spanish, and (surprise) Pirates. The object is build your plastic ships (no glue required), set your islands, and place your gold on the islands. Then set sail from your home island, collect treasure from other islands and return back to your island. Where's the strategy you may ask? Well, first of all you can only carry what the capacity of the ship is and, you might have to fight another player's ships in order to get away with all the "booty."
POTSM is a fun game that is inexpensive to get into. After a while, though, you want to control larger fleets to make gameplay more interesting. The only thing I don't like is that the winner gets to keep the gold he collects (even if it's yours). Now that's Piracy!!!
I, Robot The Village The story concerns a village in the middle of a great woods that is haunted by these mysterious beasts which keep the population from venturing beyond the town's borders. When somebody is badly injured a small group is sent forth into the mysterious woods to go to a neighboring town for some medicines that can help save the injured person's life. That's it. The rest you'll have to see for yourself. M. Knight Shyamalan has done it again and the surprise ending added a nice touch (even though [my daughter] Ashley figured most of it out within twenty minutes). Many people hated this movie but others (myself and Ashley included) liked "The Village" and thought it well done. I give it a full Three Screams on the Creature Scale.
Fay Wray Well, that's it for this week. Next week I have some Killer Komic News and, as promised, Part 1 of my trip to South Florida.
Have a Great Week. C-Ya!!!
Ah, that was fun. Anyway, a whole ton of stuff has been going on over the last 4-5 weeks that I don't even know where to start. First of all since we're speaking of water elementals (oh, we weren't) and one-eyed pirates, I might as well tell you that a new game from those masterminds at Wizkids games has hit the shops. It's name; "Pirates of the Spanish Mange," the game everyone is itching to play. Actually the name is "Pirates of the Spanish Main" and it looks to be a great game. In fact, it was a sellout everywhere within a week of its release. WOW!! For those of you who don't know Wizkids (as if I haven't talked about them several times already), they are the gaming miniatures company that is the driving force of three of some of the most popular miniatures games around; Mage Knight, Heroclix, and Mech Warrior. These games are very popular and the figures make great collectible pieces. Anyway POTSM (Ships as we affectionately call it) is a neat little game and inexpensive to get into. Everything a player needs to get in is located in one four-dollar pack. You get one or two ships, an island piece, a crew or captain card, instructions, and, most important of all, treasure. AAAARRRR!!! Now that be a good deal Matey! OI!
Let's see, what's next? Ah, one of my favorite subjects (actually, I have lots of them), movies. Probably my favorite of the last month was, "I, Robot." I really liked it. The movie far exceeded my expectations. It had a good look, a nice, realistic blend between the CGI and the live-action shots (thanks to Weta Digital and Digital Domain) and Will Smith actually put on a very solid performance as Detective Del Spooner. To top it off, "Sonny" the robot was phenomonal. The mix between drama and action was well paced so as not to leave the viewer any time for distraction. Director Alex Proyas put it all together cleanly and without missing a beat. A great movie, one you should not miss. I give it a full Four Screams on the Creature Scale.
Next up is "The Village." I saw it last weekend and really liked it. Wow, that's two in a row. I can't really talk about this one because to talk about one of M.'s movies is to surely give it away. This movie has a star-studded cast including; William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, Joaquin Phoenix, and Adrian Brody.
Finally, I was saddened to hear of the passing of Fay Wray. She was the original "Scream Queen" and love interest to a great huggable hunk of fur
known as "Kong," The Eighth Wonder Of The World. Thanks for introducing many of us to the fascinating world of Monster Movies.
The "Creature" 
"Creature's Corner" is ©2004 by John Lewis. Webpage design and all graphics herein are creations of Nolan B. Canova. All contents of Nolan's Pop Culture Review are ©2004 by Nolan B. Canova.