Review: Elizabeth the Golden Age

Summary: Confusing and disjointed script, but superb acting and beautifully shot and produced.

I saw Elizabeth: The Golden Age last night for want of proper timing. It wasn't my first choice, but it was the only movie that started at 9:30, which is when we could get to the theater.

I didn't see the first movie, Elizabeth, which was the first part of the story. Aside from a general gist of the situation, scenes and characters in this movie are often introduced with little explanation. That includes after the scene is done, so that even at the end of the movie you're not entirely sure what a remark meant or who a character was.

I assume that those who saw the first movie will have a better idea about some of these characters.

Nevertheless, the movie does stand alone. Essentially, Elizabeth rules over a divided Protestant/Catholic England. She is Protestant and tolerant of all her countrymen, while the Catholics, both in England and the rest of the world, want to remove her and restore Catholicism to the throne along with the deposed and imprisoned Mary Queen of Scots, the queen's cousin.

Mary is conspiring with King Philip of Spain, an apparent religious effeminate, and they eventually launch their famous Spanish armada to conquer England with well-known results.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth is a "virgin" dedicated to her country only. She therefore sends the only person she fancies, Sir Walter Raleigh, to her handmaiden's bed.

The movie is well acted, but the only main character is Elizabeth, beautifully played by Cate Blanchett. Other characters have personalities, but they are only tangentially depicted. The closest to another main personality was the handmaiden, Beth. If just given just a bit more focus in the movie it might have given us an additional character to connect to. Sir Walter Raleigh is given screen time and is ahistorically depicted as dashing, but that's about all he is given to play: dashing.

Instead, the director spends his time pounding us with loud music pregnant with prescient disaster, lots of scene shifting, and incredibly beautiful costumes and shots.

This is all very nice, but one can't but believe that this is yet another movie in the 2000's movie style of overproduction, too fast paced script, and wide and expansive production in the style of The Lord of the Rings. It's an engaging style, but it's an easy prey to fall trap to style over story, and that kind of happens here. It's not a failure, by any means. There's story, but more story and more characters in focus would have been nice.

There are a number of historical problems, which I discovered after the movie and you can ignore if you want. Elizabeth was already 55 when the Spanish armada invaded, therefore the subtext about her producing an heir would kind of been mute by that point. A little chronological play.

There are also a number of things that happened in the first movie which, had I known them, would have made this movie more enjoyable, like who her adviser is and how the Mary/Elizabeth relationship is a parallel to the previous Mary (Mary's mother)/Elizabeth relationship before she became queen. Would have been nice to know about that, as it sets up some important dramatic points that are simply invisible otherwise.

Anyway, some rich cinematography, nice acting, possibly an Oscar-nomination for Cate Blanchett, but otherwise I was a tad disappointed at the lack of coherence.

Yehuda

Shabbat in Toronto

At the Village Shul, at which the Rabbi is so friendly he's downright obsequious. He kept telling everyone in the shul to make themselves comfortable, and there are designated shmoozing areas. No one said hello to me at kiddush, however.

For lunch, we had a couple with two kids. I only had the games which I am trading away, but that included China Moon, so we played. They enjoyed it. It's a pretty good kids game. I just noticed that one box corner is torn.

Took a walk in the ravine in the afternoon. No plans for tonight or tomorrow, as of yet.

Yehuda

Drug Smuggling in Board Games

A stash of drugs was found inside two board games at the Atalanta airport. The games were Worst-Case Scenario: Game of Surviving Life and Monopoly.

Airport officials seized the dangerous and destructive relics of a mind-destroying leisure activity, and also took the drugs.

Yehuda

October Gaming at the JSGC

The following games were played at the Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club during October.

Blokus Trigon - I didn't play this, but I now have a copy. I understand that it's at least as good as the original, and also plays well with three.

Bridge x 3 - Our group seems to be growing ever fonder of this game as time goes on.

Cleopatra and the Society of Architects - This standard game with weird plastic pieces was good enough on first playing.

Colossal Arena - We tried this one out again and with the correct rules this time. While not bad, it doesn't really thrill us.

Havoc - Not played too often, it's still a nice filler card game which is better than it has a right to be.

It's Alive x 2 - Another filler played often enough.

Magic: the Gathering x 3 - Still a great game. David and I like to Rochester drat from random cards whenever we can.

Pirate's Cove x 2 - I didn't play either time. I hear that it's a fun game, even if it has too much dice rolling.

Power Grid x 2 - Seems to be the game of choice played nearly every week. New maps are just going to bring it back tot he table even more often. Very mathematical.

Power Grid: France and Italy - Our group's first play on a new map was fun.

Princes of Florence - Another classic.

Puerto Rico - The Game.

San Juan x 2 - Used as a filler game while waiting for others to show up. Not taken too seriously, though.

Yehuda

Session Report: Gaming at TABS

I found my way to Dueling Grounds, one of the sites of the Toronto Board Game club. I arrive at 5:30 and there were only two others there. People began streaming in, however. Especially, a horde of Magic players eventually arrived for a weekly tourney of some sort. There were eventually around 40 people in the mid-sized basement, about half of whom were only playing Magic. Two distinct groups, really.

I nabbed the fourth and fifth person to arrive to play It's Alive with me, including my Toronto contact, Steve Xombe from BGG. Steve was nice and friendly.

I taught the rules and we were off without any difficulties. Both Villagers and Coffins didn't make much of an appearance until we were halfway through the deck, at which point they began to appear with regularity. The three 10 Coffins came out one after the other, and each of us picked up one at decreasing cost.

Steve eventually completed his game, but even with his bonus, I was slightly ahead in points owing to a strong board. The other player only managed to collect four parts, and most of his excess cash was wasted.

Next up was Bohnanza, owing in part to a lack of games brought to game night, strangely enough. We played 4 players, and the other three players were all named Steve. I didn't think I was dong too well, as my RHO was doing dandy. In the end, however, I wasn't too shy. RHO had 21, OO 17, me 16, LHO 14 or something like that.

Steve Xombe drifted to another table and two other guys (Rob and Kevin) sat down to play Princes of Florence with us. Unlike my group, we didn't play with any fix for the extra Profession card. Not surprisingly, second player won - and that was Kevin, the guy who said that we didn't need the fix because it all evens out. :-)

I thought I was doing just dandy in the game, but I was paying quite a bit more for my items than anyone else was, for some reason. Kevin got a Recruiter in the first round for 200 (!!!) while I pad 1100 for my Jester. Then Jesters sold for less money, while I paid 700 for my recruiter. That's just the way the ball rolls.

I came in third behind Kevin and my RHO, while my LHO was only a point behind me. Rob never played more than 3 works, and was trying to build his way to success. He even saved the last work for the last round and best bonus, but it wasn't nearly enough; he ended up 10 points behind fourth place.

Meanwhile I had been trying to negotiate with Dueling Grounds to sell me bulk Magic commons at a reasonable rate, but the most they would do for me was 10 cents a common, which I thought wasn't low enough for me. As I suspected te Magic players were more than happy to simply give away their common cards or sell them to me at much lower rates that that. I picked up a whole bunch of the newest commons with weird new abilities.

I even played one guy using one of his decks against him. Despite having to read the cards each turn and learn the new abilities, I managed a win with some nasty trample and extra elves, despite what looked like a nearly unblockable wall he had set up.

Anyhoo, looking forward to next week's game session.

Yehuda

http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/233443

What Happened to Good Old Fashioned Razor Blades in My Candy?

After a rather frustrating day of working in a room, rather than exploring the city I've traveled to, I went out in the evening to see my wife's brother+ and father+.

I haven't been around Halloween for around 17 years. I remember going trick-or-treating until I was around 7. It was then that the teachers in my school told me that Halloween is a pagan holiday in origin and therefore Jewish kids shouldn't celebrate it.

Not that there's any real pagan ritual left in it, any more than there is in St Valentine's day. Anyhow, we could always get our dressing up and candy kicks from Purim, although on Purim we exchange candy, rather than simply beg for it (or threaten for it).

My mom was a bit of an alarmist, and there were fears circulating when I was young about razor blades or poison given out in the candy by sick people who got their jollies in hurting kids. While it pays to be a bit cautious, it turned out that these stories were based on a anecdotes, rather than an actual trend. No one was ever poisoned to death by Halloween candy from a stranger, and the majority of the very few cases of needles or razors in candy were mostly pranks by kids who were aware of the legend. Still, the fears and knowledge of the razor blades in your candy reverberates to this day.

Anyhoo, Rachel went off with my nephews while I toured her brother's palatial new house. Rachel's brother has been making a living buying expensive houses, fixing them up with expensive renovations, and then selling them for much more than the cost of house plus reno. When the new owners buy the house, the first thing they do is rip out all of the renovations and redo them.

It's a lucrative line of work, but they may finally, with their oldest kid now 10 years old, be tired of moving every year or two.

They do have incredibly good taste, and their house is beautiful and really big. Among the more unusual items they have is this chair:



Yes, it's made from hockey sticks.

When the kids came back from trick-or-treating, this was one of the items in their bags, among the chips and candy:





Game news

SimplyFun announced a voluntary recall of 1500 games of Ribbit fearing possible lead contamination.

Little Frumhouse on the Prairie points us to this amusing little video on Jewing up your board games.

Gialmere points out on BGG that Wikipedia is actually an excellent source for learning about board gaming, while BGG is more an intermediate and expert site.

Redbook Magazine is giving away 45 copies of Cranium in a sweepstakes.

The Spokane Valley board game company Chum Chum violated state law by raising at least $354,000 from investors without offering necessary information about the company's finances, sales projections or risks.

Games Magazine's games of the year include Pillars of the Earth, Easter Island, Khronos, If Wishes Were Fishes, Bull in a China Shop, Shear Panic, GiftTrap, Unspeakable Words, and Ran.

Wired Magazine also doesn't think much of Eye of Judgment. I think most people won't once the novelty of the camera tricks wears off. Although I haven't played it, so take my advice with a bucket of salt.

Darf creates board games that you can play with your dog.

Yehuda

Session Report Up

The latest Jerusalem Strategy Gaming Club session report is up. Games played: San Juan, Pirate's Cove, It's Alive.

This was the first of three sessions where I'm in Canada.