Game Time! The Addams Family: Find Uncle Fester! Card Game Review

The Addams Family: Find Uncle Fester! Card Game Review

Year: 1991

Ages: 8+

Players: 2-6 (For the purpose of this review, there was 2 players)

Set Up Time: < 1 minute

Playing Time: Took us 10 minutes.

Object: Be the first player to collect all seven Addams Family members.

Review:
+ Cards have pictures of the Addams Family members: Wednesday, Pugsley, Gomez, Morticia, Lurch, Thing, Uncle Fester and Tully (Which is the evil card that you must get rid of in order to be able to keep the Uncle Fester card).
+ Easy, simple instructions (example: a red card might say "Discard your Lurch card" or "Ask another player for a card you may need".)

- There is no Grandma card! Apparently she is not an important member of the family. 


Overall:
In the end, the simple instructions and the nice picture cards both helped to create a pretty good game. We played several times with 10 minutes being the longest playing time. I don't think the suggested age of 8+ is required to play this game and aside from there being no Grandma card, it was well thought out and fun to play. 

B+


**Stay tuned to my blog every Tuesday for more board game reviews and follow me on Twitter @popculturedlife for more**

About Alex Movie Review

About Alex Movie Review

After a friends attempted suicide, seven college friends reunite for a weekend together. I really love indie movies and this one has A LOT of already know actors. Jason Ritter (Parenthood), Max Greenfield (New Girl), Aubrey Plaza (Parks & Recreation), Jane Levy (Suburgatory), Maggie Grace (Californiation) and Max Minghella (Mindy Project). 

There are other movies these days that are all in this "college reunion" genre. I recently watched Beside Still Waters, which is very much like this movie. All these movies involve the same things; booze, sex, drugs, music, a relationship starting and a relationship ending. Secrets get revealed, feelings get hurt and revelations are made. 

My favorite part of this movie (and others like it) is how I feel while watching it. In this fast paced world it's so hard to slow down and really take a look at yourself without worrying about everything going on around you. All the characters, who are so busy and broken in their lives, come together to this remote place and learn that when they really take the time to connect with one another, they are able to find the missing pieces of themselves that they may not have even realized were missing. In a world so reliant on Facebook and Twitter to stay connected with people, it's hard to realize that they are actually disconnecting us from each other. 

The scene in which they are choosing which records to listen to and making fun of others is my favorite scene in the movie. Music plays such an important role in my life and I'm sure the lives of many others. Hearing a song can bring you back to a specific time and put you back in that memory, if only in your mind. Personally, I have many trigger songs. "As Long As You Love Me" by the Backstreet Boys brings me back to visiting family in Montreal, "S Club Party" by S Club 7 puts me back in my sixteen year old shoes again on a family road trip to Victoria and anything by Frank Sinatra brings me back to randomly having the same cab driver in Florida several days in a row. When those songs play, it's like I'm able to go back in time. I can recall where I was, what I was doing, what the weather was like, what I was wearing, everything. Music is such an effective way of bringing back memories forever captured in songs and this scene was a perfect example of that.

This movie has many morals written into it but the main message it drives home is that sometimes you really just need to disconnect with the world to be able to reconnect with each other and yourself.

A-

**Follow me on twitter @popculturedlife for more**

Empire: Episode 1- "Pilot" Review

Empire: Episode 1- "Pilot" Review

I wasn't sure about this series going into it, however, I enjoyed the opening musical numbers and am very glad that I continued on the rest of the episode.

The pilot episode was very strong and there are so many different aspects of this show that I enjoyed. Terrence Howard played the main character Lucious Lyon who is so incredibly unlikable but yet somehow seems surprised when people are disgruntled with him. We saw scenes with Lucious at the doctor where he was told that he has ALS and maybe three years to live. Once we are introduced to the mother character Cookie Lyon (Taraji P. Henson) who balances a fine line between likable and hate-able, it becomes very clear that both the parent characters are so similar. Life has hardened both of them with Cookie having spent seventeen years in prison for something both of them have done (though we've yet to find out all the details) and Lucious shrugging off his parental duties onto family members to spend more time growing the company. They are both very money hungry and puts more emphasis on their company than their children and even less emphasis on their children's happiness. 

I loved all the kid characters and felt so badly for them having to put up with so much crap from their parents. The eldest son Andre is educated and has the appetite for power that his parents do so you could just feel his heart break when Lucious announced that he was going to start grooming his next in line, which could be any of the three sons even though he is the only one with business sense and an education. Also Cookie doesn't approve of his marriage and constantly refers to his wife as "that white girl". Jamal, the middle child, is a gay song-writer who can't stand Lucious because he believes "sexuality is a choice". The song that Jamal wrote and performed in the club was amazing and you could just feel though the lyrics how broken his parents have made him. "I'll never be big enough to pay your dues" and "I just want to be good enough". The youngest son Hakeem is Lucious's favorite because he's a hip-hop star on his rise to fame, however Hakeem doesn't take the business very seriously and Lucious feels like he's "spoiled" because he's "never worked a day in his life".

Overall, the pilot episode was fantastic and left me wanting to know more. How did Cookie get arrested? Who will take over the company? Will Lucious tell anyone that he's sick? How will Andre and Cookie's plans of pitting the family against each other work out? Will anyone find out that Lucious shot Cookie's cousin?. I also hope we hear more original songs, as they were all very well written.

A-

**Follow me on twitter @popculturedlife for celebrity autographs, TV/Movie/Music/Board Game reviews and much more**

Galavant: Episode 1- "Pilot" Review

Galavant: Episode 1- "Pilot" Review

Going into this pilot episode I was expecting to like this series. I love musicals and I thought the concept of this looked interesting. After watching it however, I changed my opinion. I'm a fan of comedies but what I'm no longer a fan of is spoofs (I have Scary Movie 3-5 to thank for that), which is essentially what this is. It's not as much of a comedy as it is like a spoof... of itself. It doesn't take itself seriously at all and I have a big problem with that. If they don't take themselves at least a little serious, how can I? I also don't like the fact that it started out by dropping us in what felt like the middle of a story. Usually stories start at the beginning but this show started in the middle and than flashed "One year later" and a few minutes later "Two months earlier" which drives me insane. With Alan Menken as the executive producer I feel like they banked more on their music and less on the script. The writing in the script just isn't as strong as the original songs.

I think it's funny that they are airing all eight season one episodes in a "Four Week Comedy Extravaganza" instead of airing one a week like regular shows. I have a feeling that the network knows this isn't going to be their dark horse. Musicals and spoofs are both very specific genres and having it be a musical spoof will exclude a lot of the population. So when the ratings don't come back strong and they decide not to renew it for a second season they will claim that it was only supposed to be a four week run instead of admitting failure (which seems to be the "it" thing to do these days). 

In the end, if you find yourself a fan of both musicals and spoofs than check this show out. If not, it's not worth your time.

C-

**Follow me on twitter @popculturedlife for celebrity autographs, TV/Movie/Music/Board Game reviews and much more**