It's that time of year folks, break out those stockings and christmas carol books and spend some time with your loved ones this christmastime, and who's more loved than those 2 loveable stoners, Harold and Kumar, who decided to take you along on their wintery hijinks this year.
A Very Harold And Kumar 3D Christmas takes place roughly 6 years after the duo's Guantanamo Bay adventure and my how things have changed since then, Kumar is about the same, still living in the same apartment (albeit with a new roomate) and still smoking pot at every opportunity. Harold on the other hand has transformed himself into a successful (non-high) businessman with a wife, who's trying to start a family.
Upon receiving a mysterious package adressed to Harold, despite Kumar and him not exchanging any sort of communication since Harold moved out 2 years prior, he decides to drop the package off at his new place on his way to a party his new roomate Adrian is attending so he can take the virginity of a girl he's been chatting up on the internet. Once they arrive at Harold's, Kumar drops the package on the front step and starts to leave, Harold however spots him and invites him in where he opens the package and in the box contains a huge joint. Kumar lights it and then Harold throws it out the window because they don't smoke in the house, but wind blows it back in and it burns down the christmas tree that Harold's wife, Maria's father (played by the always frightening and imposing Danny Trejo) brought all the way from Mexico because he grew it, and he loves christmas so everything must be perfect.
Harold insists on handling the tree situation himself and calls his new friend Todd to help him out, Todd reserves the last tree in the state, and everything seems to be fine until Kumar drives past the tree farm and sees the tree that was reserved and offers triple for the tree, so he can give it to his buddy Harold. Unfortunetly that gets wrecked too after they crash and the tree kinda blows up. Have no fear however as this is a Harold and Kumar movie afterall, there is adventure to be had. So they end up making it to the party where Adrian's internet girlfriend, Mary, turns out to be the daughter of a mobster, and a very angry mobster at that when he walks in while Mary is trying to get Harold undressed.
So of course now they must find a tree, all the while being chased by a russion mobster and his lackeys. Have no fear, they have friends to help them, Rosenberg, Goldstein and of course NPH all make appearances and do whatever they can to help their buddies.
Now full disclosure here, I did not see this movie in 3D, in fact I don't watch any movies in 3D anymore because I feel that fad has ran it's course, I'm pretty sure Resident Evil 4 was the last movie I had seen in 3D. However while watching the film you can tell there isn't much to be offered by the 3D, in fact it seems they make fun of 3D movies more than anything, so really what you're paying extra for is to see how ridiculous it is to pay an extra $3.00 for the 3D experience.
While we're being honest here, I wasn't a huge fan of the first 2 movies in the franchise. I thought the first one was good for what it was a random stoner comedy, good for a watch every couple years or so. The second one I didn't enjoy at all, it was what all the other stoner comedies were but on a lower level. This one, I'm not sure if it's the christmas spirit, but I think this was the best one of the 3. I felt like in this one we see a softer side to both characters, Kumar struggling with the loss of his best friend and the break-up/pregnancy of Vanessa and Harold trying to balance family life and a social life, all the while keeping everything safe. It's because of this that the whole movie seems a little more, dare I say, "deeper."
It's been a few years since we've been graced with a good christmas movie, so unless you hate puppies and unicorns, you really have no reason not to see this movie. Oh and while we're on the subject of Christmas I've decided you can all pitch in and get me a waffle bot. Thanks in advance. - Conscious
I've finally found time to dust those DVD's off that have been sitting on the shelf for a couple weeks, I opted to start off with a little bit of Canadian grindhouse cinema...
Hobo With A Shotgun came to be after Robert Rodriguez and SXSW started a contest to make a "fake" Grindhouse movie trailer and they would make a legit movie out of the best one, similar to the "fake" Machete trailer at the beginning of Tarantino and Rodriguez Grindhouse double bill project that became a Hollywood film. In the end this trailer was enough to get a movie made after being crowned the winner of the contest.
The premise for this film is simple, you see there is this hobo (played by Rutger Hauer) and he gets a hold of this shotgun... Okay I suppose it's a little more complex than that, but barely so. The hobo arrives in town and notices it's occupied by pimps, prostitutes, coke addicted bum fight entrepreneurs and Santa Claus impersinating child molesters. This doesn't sit well with our homeless hero and after window shopping for a lawnmower (so he can start a grass cutting company to make something of himself, of course) he witness's 3 robbers try to strong arm rob the store by threatning beautiful and innocent shoppers, thus forcing the hobo to act, with a vengeance, grabbing a shotgun and shooting the 3 robbers.
No one really cares too much about the death of the robbers, however latter on that night when he saves a prostitute (who claims to be a teacher) from a dirty cop who was trying to get a bj by using force and not paying.the nightwalker for her services. So safe to say the hobo feels it necessary to introduce him to his shotgun, and I can assure you together they had a blast. So after saving the girl, they begin an unlikely friendship together. Someone however is not a fan of the hobo and his friend and that's Drake, the clean cut evil crime boss that runs the town along with his 2 sons, Slick and Ivan. Drake makes it his business to have the hobo brought down offering up rewards of cash, coke and girls for his head.
After all is said and done, Hobo With A Shotgun is a rather fun romp through Scum City. It's espescially fun if you're a Canadian, everywhere you look, you see a Candian icon; even Strombo shows his face! Being a grindhouse movie however if you aren't a fan of gore and buckets and buckets and even more buckets of blood this movie might not be for you. As far as the story goes, well I've touched on this already, it's not terribly smart, but it doesn't have to be. The title of the film is a joke, which tells you, the viewer, to not look too far into this.
It's a gleeful, gory mess of a movie, and providing you don't have a weak stomach, you should be able to enjoy this film, as far as Grindhouse fare goes this is on the upside of them, if not near the top. However as far as exploitation thrillers (they are not the same thing FYI!) this is middle of the pack, so if this sounds like your type of movie fare then by all means do yourself a favour and watch it. If you're on the fence, watch it anyway so at least you can make an opinion one way or the otherand when you do, let me know, I love hearing your thoughts.
This one is a little late coming but I’ve been swamped with college, work, blogging, drinking, and obvious new playthroughs. So here it is Resistance 3.
So as many of you will know the Resistance series has been around since the beginning of time, well since the PS3 was released at least. From the start we were immersed in the heroic story of a lone American soldier fighting alone against a horde of alien mutants hell bent of terraforming the earth and converting all its populace. I won’t bore you with the details but the first two games were really quite something, Resistance Fall of Man (1) was renowned in my home for being the first choice for split screen play on my new system, in fact I think I racked up enough hours in that game to contest my time on Modern Warfare. The second resistance game took the franchise a little further, bringing back the protagonist Nathan Hale, but this time he is part of an elite team of Chimera virus immunes like Hale, called the Sentinels. Resistance 2 took us across the United States on a crash course for trouble all the while Hale’s condition worsened and the team were slowly killed off, until at the very end of the game (SPOILER ALERT) Hale finally loses his humanity and is put down execution style by his last remaining teammate Joseph Capelli. Now Joe is the last person I thought would end up starring in their own game as he was a complete douche throughout the campaign, but being the only one still alive I guess Insomniac didn’t have that many options.
Anywho Joe Capelli, having slowed the chimera invasion and killed
humanities savior attempts to live a normal live after the events of the second
game. He settles down, gets married, has a kid, and lives in a small town
called Haven. The game starts up with us in the tunnels under the ruins of
Haven, we are called to a makeshift war room were battle plans are being drawn,
see a Chimeran patrol has stumbled onto their little home and Joe is sent
(after picking up his starter weapons) to check it out and reinforce the
garrison. So we sneak through the tunnels and eventually up into the old
bowling alley, from there someone’s head gets ripped off and shit gets real,
after that things get a little hazy. Something about some new breed of chimera
with new and improved weak spots, glowing yellow for your shooting pleasure and
a terraforming floating island ship thingy heading towards the town. Anywho dr.
Malikov from the first two games shows up and crashes the alien burning party
taking Joe away from his family and on a reckless hike across the country to
New York city where a large chimeran tower is apparently opening a wormhole to
the Chimeran home world…
That’s more than enough story to keep us going, the plot is a little
thicker than I portray it but overall I was pleased with how they bridged the
series, although I was kind of depressed after Malikov gets killed in a very
brutal fashion. Speaking of brutal this game seems to add a bit more gore to
it, attempting to spice things up with a little blood, and a few exploding
skulls. Also the character they chose to replace him is a little lack luster
and disappears halfway through the game only to be heard from again in hidden
journals and audio diaries. Yes like all games the resistance series has always
had collectables, being mostly dossiers on weapons and characters, audio
diaries kept by survivors living their last moments, and the odd hidden easter
egg. Although if you are the type of
person who cares not for exploring the levels for these hidden gems, they
really don’t do much for the story and aren’t required for any missions, they
just enhance the story and provide you with a little more information in case
you are the inquisitive type who can’t take the time to read the wiki or the
books.
So, gameplay, I was happy they brought back the health bar, although
there is still a red screen when you get hurt. Like all games there are
directional properties to the raspberry jam that spreads across your screen,
and most of the time the direction that it displays isn’t where the enemies are
and more than once I found myself turning away and exposing myself to a fanged
monstrosity sitting just outside my vision laughing at the whimsical control
settings. Speaking of settings I was perturbed by the motion blur at high
sensitivity levels, and even though I had the X and Y levels set to the highest
possible speed I was still turning like an asthmatic green horn. That being
said the controls are intuitive, and comfortingly common, mimicking that of
most modern shooters. Also making a comeback is the weapon carry system of the
first game, where every weapon you pick up stays with you throughout the game
so you will always be prepared for any situation. The second game annoyed most
old school players by allowing you a certain amount of space in your
character’s pack to carry weapons, and the first game although allowing you to
carry them all included so many weapons you barely had time to try them out
before something new and useless came along. But I digress the weapon system is
back and that makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside and its not just the whiskey.
Weapons, it’s a good topic for this series, throughout the first two
games there were more weapons than I could hope to remember but here there a
few classic guns with maybe five or so new ones, that really the franchise
could’ve done without. New to the game is the ammo counting system, a series of
bars at the bottom of the screen decreasing in size until you can no longer
fire your weapon, I was impressed by the addition of ammo counters inside many
of the games scopes, being mostly the sniper and auger, but also the addition
of a sort of holographic sight with many of the weapons that always had a sort
of lack luster iron sight. Also new to single player is the ability to earn XP
with weapons and unlock upgrades based on your experience, this adds a whole
new level of gameplay, encouraging you to move past your normal weapon set and
try the new guns, also if you’re a trophy whore like myself you’ll need to get
your entire inventory to level three to see that shiny award.
So game mechanics and such, overall impressed besides the aforementioned
motion blur/sensitivity problem, although in a couple cases the game did glitch
up and I’m not entirely sure why. The graphics are as much as I could ask for,
nothing new but a little prettier in place. Particle physics don’t really come
into play here as the game seems almost devoid of weather or other
distractions. Low points I noticed would definitely be the ladder climbing
animations, very clunky and often hindered by having to wait for a certain old
man to work his way up one level. Also decreasing the reading level of this
game is the addition of the over used critical location system that seems so
important these days. No longer do we just pour bullets and laser fire into an
enemy we can barely see the top of, no now there are armor plates that glow
orange and yellow that tell you where to shoot. Chock that up as the dumbing
down of mainstream video games.
The game itself is very linear, but not to the point of being a dungeon
crawler, you have no options as to where to go until later in the game when you
may have an option of going into a tunnel or being the target of multiple
snipers and a dropship armed to the exhaust ports. The objectives are usually
very simple but can get frustrating if you don’t pay attention to every vent
and power conduit you pass. Other annoyances include the exception of a mini
map and objective markers, half the time I played I spent walking around
looking for a marker on my screen telling me which giant robot I had to kill to
progress the storyline.
The multiplayer is a step up from the first’s death match and on par
with the campaign style of the second. But its split screen where the game
loses some points, the second player is dubbed “John” Joe’s brother that has no
dialogue and isn’t mentioned in the story at all. Both players have the same
weapons being as how as soon as one picks it up the other magically finds it in
his hands, also if you are the lone wolf type good luck finding your own path
as you will be teleported to your wandering companions location as soon as the
game decides it wants to shit on you.
Long time followers of the franchise will be happy with the inclusion of
classic enemies and guns, but may also feel let down by the dumbing down of the
gameplay and exclusion of what seemed like franchise defining weapons,
mechanics, and characters. Overall this game was good, with split screen
capabilities and a multiplayer to rival that of the second game. Those just
picking up a Resistance game for the first time will quickly be brought up to
scratch and have no trouble, as the game plays like many other FPS’ of today.
That being said the game is nothing special, simply another squeeze on the
udders of Insomniac’s cash cow. But damn that milk is tasty.
At this writing this little blog of ours is sitting at 235 views, so I figured I'd do an entry to push us past 250. So if you're reading this, thank you for caring about us and what we write, if you aren't reading this, you must be a wizard, on to the review...
Rabbit Hole tells the story of a young couple whose lives start unravelling after they lose their 4 year old son Danny. In the film Nicole Kidman and Aaron Eckhart play the aforementioned couple in this gripping drama about life, death and how to deal with both, based upon the Pulitzer winning play of the same name.
The film begins with the couple mourning the death of their 4 year old son who was killed after being struck by a car driven by a teenager after running out into traffic chasing after his dog. Each parent takes a very different stance when it comes to mourning however which leads to troubles in their relationship, not only with others, but with each other.
Eckhart's character chooses to hold on to the memory of their son by keeping old clothes and belongings of him, as well as his room the exact same way it was, all the while trying to get his wife to agree to trying for another child.
Kidman's character on the ther hand is not so submissive with the suggestions of her husband, especially the notion of having sex. She also wants to get rid of all her son's clothes, and gets presented with the perfect opportunity to do so that when she discovers her younger sister Izzy is expecting her first child. Her family tells Kidman that it's innapropriate and Izzy even let's her sister know that if she has a boy she doesn't want to see him running around in Danny's old clothes because it'll bring back too many painful memories.
The couple also start going to a group for parents that have lost their children, Kidman resents everything about it whereas Eckhart finds it helpful. After a while Kidman decides to stop going leaving Eckhart flying solo where instead of going to the group he starts hanging out with a friend from group (played by Sandra Oh) acting childish together whether it's going to the arcade or smoking pot in the car. Kidman however isn't acting much better however as she starts meeting secretly with the driver of the car that struck her son and flipping out on her mother for comparing her loss to that of her mother when she lost her then 30 year old son.
This movie was all I could have hoped for and more. I expected a story that wouldn't be all that spectacular with great acting considering all the press Kidman got and given Eckhart's terrific track record. The acting did not dissapoint as the dialogue between the characters was always fiery and passionate which made it a pleasure to see. The story was the surprise as I expected a more downer story given the plot but some of the scenes were rather pleasent especially the ones revolving around Nicole Kidman and the comic book "Rabbit Hole"
I would highly recommend this movie to be watched. It can be seen at anytime, movie night with your family (providing the family is all 13+), date night or relaxing alone on a sunday night at home. The acting was as advertised with the story keeping you entertained enough to bridge the gaps between the scenes of beauty mined from self-depressive behaviour from the two leads just trying to move on from tragedy without forgetting their pain of the life they can't leave behind.
Once again I realize I've been slacking off with the reviews but to my credit, I've actually watched movies during this time. I just haven't been able to get to a computer to write about them... As evidence by my 15 unread e-mails stemming from Friday I haven't had time for and deemed unimportant. So before I e-mail complaints, and financial departments on with a review...
It's almost Halloween! And you know what that means!?! My yearly movie that I deem to be my "Halloween movie". Now to be my Halloween movie it doesn't have to be a horror movie or really even scary, it just has to have some sort of element that seems Halloween-ish, it can be zombies, kids trick-or-treating or a crazy alien that devours you and then replicates your cells. Enter The Thing.
The Thing, is a prequel to John Carpenter's 1982 classic that goes by the same title. Which itself is a remake of a 1951 film entitled "The Thing From Another World" often referred to, however, as "The Thing".
This prequel centers in on the alien specimen before it gets to Kurt Russell, hence the tagline "It's not human. Yet." Aside from being grammatically incorrect, it's about all you need to know about this film. It takes place during winter 1982 at a scientific research station in Antartica. After a group of Norwegian scientists discover an alien creature and what appears to be a ship deep in the bowels of the Antartic ice. After the discovery they contact Dr. Sander Halverson a so-called "expert" who travels to Antartica to see the discovery but not before his research assistant Adam Goodman, invites a friend, Dr. Kate Lloyd, an american paleontologist invited to help identify the possible alien specimen.
Upon arrival they discover the creature frozen in a block of ice that they elect to remove from the ice as they assume it had died 100,000 years ago when it's believed the alien aircraft originally crashed on earth. So after cutting the ice around it they transport the block of ice back and place it in the research station where Dr. Halverson decides to take a tissue sample from the creature much to the shagrin of Dr. Kate Lloyd and we see the first real friction between the characters. After a couple of hours of thawing the creature busts out of the ice and he does so with a vengeance, where he begins to pick off and copy the research station residents. Will it ever be stopped?
Now "The Thing" is classified as a horror film, although it's not your usual slash-and-gore kind of horror that you generally see in Hollywood's makeover of classic horror films no matter where they fall on the R.P.S. scale (Remake, Prequel, Sequel) as it generally erred more so to the Thriller side, perhaps by fiscal constraints considering it's relatively small 38 million budget, for comparisons sake the recently released Dream House, a horror movie that takes place almost entirely in one space had a 50 million dollar budget. So 38 isn't a whole lot to go around for slash and gore when you need to make an alien aircraft, and all those ice vehicles and helicopters they used.
They spent next to no time on character development outside of Dr. Lloyd, with the other characters, you had just enough information on them to either feel bad when they died, feel good that they did die or loved watching them handle those flamethrowers. It's espescially hard to make a horror movie nowadays in a frigid climate considering we're so used to seeing half naked girls getting killed mid-orgasm that it's odd not to see, but in this film it's good that you don't because that just wouldn't work in Antartica. So kudos to the director for not slutting up the characters, including my future wife Ramona Flowers (Still the best movie of 2010 FYI). The visuals were passable at best, probably a mistake for not filming in digital when there's so much CGI in the film to make it look more even, however when no CGI was on the screen it was absolutely stunning as I have long been a fan of movies filmed with a good ol' 35MM, and thus made the mountainous scenes all that much more better.
Overall, this movie isn't spectacular, in fact it's barely even memorable. But it's a lot of fun to watch about once every year or so (maybe even on Halloween) and if you're a fan of the recent R.P.S.'s then you should be more than happy with this film, regardless of critics thinking every classic shouldn't be touched with a 20 foot pole.
Welcome to the beautiful Banoi Island Resort, grab a drink and head on over to the beach or grab some friends and take a canoe trip down one of our picturesque jungle rivers. We’re glad you chose us please help yourself to a complimentary zombie... or an island full.
First off lets an objective look at the characters. There are four playable characters and more NPC’s than you can fit in a meat grinder. Before you get your hopes up I meant it when I said there are only four playable characters, just four, no customization regarding name, facial features, classes, gender, anything, in fact all you get to choose is where you place skill points when you level up. It seemed they also cut some corners with the NPC’s, all they had the time to edit it seems is the facial features, remember Oblivion where even the old ladies had the body of a twenty year old model? You’ll get a lot of that here. There are a couple NPC's that they spend a little more render time on, most importantly the leaders of the survivor groups, one of which saved you in the prologue and a survivor who will later follow you through the game acting as a portable storage unit. The backstories for your characters are pretty bleak and useless as they are nothing more than a two minute narrated sob story, and create next to no connection with the player and influence barely anything in the game. While we’re on characters lets take a little more in depth look, theres the blunt weapon specialist; who just happens to be black and a failing freestyle rapper, the ranged damage dealer; who happens to be an ex cop with a daddy complex, the throwing weapon specialist; a white football player who can’t hold his liquor; and last but certainly least is the sharp weapon specialist an undercover Asian investigator , anyone want sushi with your racial stereotypes?
So if you read that you now know there are roughly three types of weapons, blunt, sharp, and ranged. Blunt weapons are the easiest to find and in fact your first weapon is a great example, a wooden paddle (thank you sir may I have another?), I would say that blunt weapons are the easiest to find as every broomstick and piece of wood flooring you feel like ripping out of a zombie classifies as blunt. Its what I call the Dead Island complex: the state of mind where you think that anything heavier than a dust pan is a weapon. Sharp weapons range from the lowly kitchen knife to the high horse katana that will elude your inventory for the majority of the game. Ranged weapons encompass every weapon, as you can throw everything you find at a zombie, but along the way there are a few specialized types. Grenades play a prominent role as nearly every survivor shanty you stumble upon has a pyro waiting to make molotovs, actual grenades will appear later in the game and cause all kinds of explosive fun. If you’re lucky you’ll find a gun early in the story line, if not then wait till act two and three consecutively and you’ll have your pick of pistols, assault rifles, and shotguns, but be wary ammunition is priceless and more often than not you’ll find your magazines dry and become a brain buffet. One thing I was definitely a fan of was the modding, every now and then you’ll be rewarded with a weapon mod blueprint and from there you skip over to a repair table and strap some random (so it seems) items onto your weapons for various effects. Effects range from additional force to an elemental chance ranging from electric to toxic and incendiary.
The combat in this game can make or break the experience, I mean sure the graphics are pretty and you may find you have multiple zombie hotties following you around but when they forget your money and you have to show them who’s boss you need to be able to survive. There are two types of combat controls, digital and analog, digital being your standard FPS hack and slash and all that shiny stuff, analog is a more immersive style and requires you to violently swing your analog sticks until you smash your controller on the wall. So now we’ve gotten past my broken controller I can explain how I think the combat works. Every weapon has attributes that deal numerical damage to the enemies, taken as hit points and displayed onscreen, thats all fine and dandy but you still need to factor in weapon condition as the more you use the weapon it will degrade and eventually become useless. Any mods also factor into the math and weapons also have a “force” attribute, that basically means your sledgehammer is going to knock a zombie on its ass faster than your kitchen knife. Obviously thats not all I mean thats a weak equation to all us geeks, so weapons also have a critical chance and most enemies have a critical hit location that may or may not be easy to spot.
Tying into combat are the health and stamina systems and their various upgrades. Stamina is obviously how much you are fatigued by exercise such as sprinting and swinging a sledgehammer, every blow reduces your stamina bar which is only shown when being depleted. When your stamina bar is depleted you can no longer fight effectively, causing you to stop sprinting or stumble around, and when your stamina bar is completely gone zombies can also get in a few very effective cheap shots and send you flying. The health system is refreshingly old school, being a series of blocks arrayed at the top left of the screen portraying how much health your character retains. Health can be replenished by eating, drinking, and leveling up, although food choices are very sparse. Along the way you will find snack bars available in standard and extra format, fruit, and energy drinks, thats it, thats pretty much it in the way of interactive health products. I should also mention the "Fury" meter, essentially beat enough zombies and you can fly into a character specific rage. Whether it be a personal side arm, or an infinite stash of throwing knives, your fury will get you out of many a sticky situation.
The enemies are pretty basic for zombie games. Theres your standard Max Brook’s zombie, called a “walker”, that does just that, theres the fast plague zombies called “infected”, the “thug” or giant asshole as you will soon call him, the floater which might as well be a boomer from L4D, the “suicide” which is just a Dead Island version of a Creeper, the “Ram”, a slavering mental patient (pro tip: let him run past then head on in the back door), the “butcher” who has no hands so stabs you with the bones of his arms (pro tip: use an axe for added MLG score), and a guest appearance by the very much over used Jason Voorhees. The basic walker can be upgraded with weapons or a miasmic cloud of flies or for your gaming pleasure, set on fire; cause the only thing worse than a zombie is a flaming zombie. All enemies are introduced with a cut scene the first time you meet them and throughout the game you’ll acquire the ability to choose your path through the levels by what sounds you hear coming from certain paths. All enemies respond to you by your threat level and theres a strategy for all of them, most of which involve a machete enema or shoving a car down their throats, but do experiment.
Now that I’ve talked about everything out of order lets hit the plot. Essentially (based on what character you choose) you are sent to Banoi Island a beautiful resort, from there shit goes bad and you wake up in your bed to an emergency broadcast urging you to leave the hotel. Along the way you are guided by a man from the radio who (spoiler alert) eventually fucks you over and gets his ass beat, but I digress. From the first act you’ll be meeting and helping every bleeding heart survivor you should have fed to the horde, you’ll be collecting car parts and pharmaceuticals from the resort to the heart of the jungle and everyone has a weapon or new mod they will be willing to trade for services rendered. Long story short your merry band of immune survivors make it off the island via helicopter piloted by an “innocent” ex con. So military scandal and dead scientists aside the plot is simple but effective and still manages to provide a twist and turn hear or there.
Multiplayer is just the campaign with four players, theres no difference in number of enemies or plot and everything can be accomplished by one person, aside from fast travel and main quests you rarely have to be a group player.
Overall I was satisfied with the plot, the graphics are beautiful and I rarely encountered bugs until later in the game when I stumbled across enemies glitching into walls and had problems loading textures on start up. The combat can either be the most fun you’ve ever had while shoving a wrench into your girlfriends mouth or become the most frustrating thing you’ve ever attempted, it even says in the loading screen tips “some areas have a high threat level, it may be harder to play on your own”. One great thing that will make up for these bugs is the fact all the game data is stored on the disk, it even says on the case that it only needs 51mb of hard drive space which is uber small for such a huge and beautiful game, I recently picked up RAGE and right at the desk they warned me it would take an hour to install as it takes up 8gigs of hard drive space... So Dead Island, its a beautiful immersive world of zombies and other assorted a-holes, with a small number of glitches and racially styled characters, but its damn fun and with the chance to bring your weapons over to the next play through and start up from every chapter, its worth coming back but try it on your own before you get too attached to your brains....
*Just as an end note don't let my assorted pessimism and cynicism dissuade you from trying this game, I absolutely loved it and lost a lot of sleep from the insane amount of tension it builds, and in my defense its my job to find the bad in everything that is good. Let me also say this game did better than anyone thought it would, when I went to buy it three days after it was released I went to four different stores and they all told me it had sold out at least four times already, it makes me wish I had preordered it instead of Resistance 3, but I digress, get this game, get some friends and let the good times roll.
Next up on this movie review docket is 50/50 starring Joseph-Gordon Levitt, Seth Rogen and Anna Kendrick in a coming of age tale about a young man struggling to deal with life after he finds out he developed cancer.
In 50/50 Joseph-Gordon Levitt plays a 27 year old, hardworking radio producer living in rural Seattle named Adam. Adam's life is turned upside down after he goes to the doctor complaining of back pain and leaves finding out he has cancer in his spine. As if Adam doesn't have enough enough on his plate he has to deal with an over-emotional mother (played by Anjelica Huston), a girlfriend who's cheating on him (played by Bryce Dallas Howard), a best friend who wants to use his cancer to get him laid (played by Seth Rogen), and a psychiatrist, who isn't even a real doctor and is younger than he is (played by Anna Kendrick).
SPOILER ALERT: Bring tissues to this movie.
The movie starts out with us seeing Adam's everyday life; he wakes up, hangs out with his girlfriend before meeting up with his best friend Kyle to go to work at a local Seattle radio station, where they both act as producers. After Adam gets diagnosed with cancer, his life begins to spiral out of control as we see him struggle with everyday things. And poor Adam, everytime he seems to begin to cope with one aspect of his cancer (or it's treatment), something happens that makes him rethink everything and you as the viewer can't help but feel for this 27 year old going to 4 hour chemo treatments and to leave the hospital just to find he has no ride, since his girlfriend stood him up and doesn't arrive until hours later.
Now although this movie seems like a tragedy, or a drama it's really quite lighthearted and funny a lot of the time. The title 50/50 comes from Adam's cancer survival rate (50%) but it might as well be the percentages for how serious this movie is (50% of the time). Now making a movie about cancer is not easy.... Making a funny movie about cancer is damn near impossible! However director Jonathan Levine pulls it off in a way only a great director with a great script can, by surrounding themselves with great actors who don't only care about the movie but believe in the director's vision. This is exactly what 50/50 does, this is a bunch of indie kids banning together to make a mainstream indie film, might I suggest Jonathan Levine's "The Wackness" JGL's "Brick" and "The Lookout" and lest we forget Anna Kendrick's small but awesome role in "Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World".
The one thing that surprised me the most about this film was the absence of Seth Rogen's character throughtout the film. In my opinion this movie was marketed as a buddy film about cancer so I was definitely surprised to see that Rogen wasn't on screen anymore than Anna Kendrick or even Bryce Dallas Howard. However it worked well in that regard because Rogen played his usual pot-headed, sex loving self that seems to pop up in most films starring him.
Kendrick's character is probably the most memorable, aided by her strong performance in the role, even when her character of psychiatrist in training Katie McKay you keep thinking back to her and think to yourself what would she say if she seen this? What would she do if Adam does this? And so on.
So overall this movie is a feel good story that pulls at your heartstrings just enough to not make it sappy. Just funny enough to not make you question if you should be laughing this much at cancer, so in short it's funny and sentimental but doesn't beat you over the head with either emotions. You admire the whole cast from JGL going from breakdown to breakdown as depression sets in, to Rogen proving he has a softer side as he struggles with his best friends possible impending death and Kendrick's inexperience in therapy which makes her and her techniques more forgivable in the end and because of that she makes us happy she graced us with her presence in every scene she's in, including an impromptu car cleaning at the side of the road.
In closing, you should see this movie, probably in theatres because you shouldn't wait, but if you're the emotional type stay home, close the windows and lock the doors, grab a box of kleenex and just watch until the credits begin to roll. At this point I'd like you to count how many tissues you used when you cried and how many you used when you laughed so hard you cried and see what side of the 50/50 ratio you came out on.
I've been excited to review this movie, I cannot tell a lie. Those who know me, know that I love baseball. So I've obviously read Michael Lewis' book to which this film is based. Don't fret however, I'm not one of those people that can't seperate the book from the movie, I won't sit here and complain that the film doesn't even mention the draft which is what most of the book focuses on or that the Ray Durham and Cliff Floyd deals weren't mentioned even in the slightest. No that's not my thing the book is a book and the film is a film related only by the title they both hold.
Moneyball, tells the true story of the 2002 Oakland Athletics team, and their controversial GM (at the time anyway) Billy Beane (played by Brad Pitt). After a 2001 season that saw the A's lose in the postseason to the New York Yankees, 3 of their best players leave for free agency in leadoff man and stolen base threat Johnny Damon, Power bat with a .477 OBP Jason Giambi and closer Jason Isringhausen. So Beane has to find a way to replace them, working within a constricted budget, the A's spent 41 million that season, 7 of which went to Jermaine Dye.
Moneyball was directed by Capote director Bennett Miller and stars the previously mentioned Brad Pitt as well as Phillip Seymour Hoffman as A's manager Art Howe and Jonah Hill as Peter Brand, a fictionalized composite of Beane's assistants, mostly based upon Paul DePodesta, Beane's assistant GM. In the film Brand is the one that brings the Moneyball strategy to Beane's attention after the youngster impresses the A's GM when he goes into a meeting with Mark Shapiro, GM of the Cleveland Indians, and Brand's then employer, and single handedly talks Shapiro out of a trade. Shortly thereafter Brand is hired by the A's and moneyball takes over.
Quick side note about moneyball. It's a baseball strategy that values wins and runs above the players themselves, it was always about the player's statistics and not what they brought to the team. This allowed the A's to field a competitive team despite a low payroll because everyone undervalued these players thus allowing the A's to grab them at a low price.
So after Beane and Brand carry on with the moneyball strategy they decide they can not replace a player like Giambi so they take the collective on-base-percentage of their 3 departing free agents and replace them with 3 new players, in this case Scott Hatteberg, the catcher turned 1st baseman; David Justice, aging slugger whose best days are behind him; and Randy Verlade, an underacheiving 3rd baseman.
After a rough start to the season by the A's, Beane is definitely feeling the pressure. All the old school baseball scouts on the A's staff shun Beane and his ideals, the owner is peeved at his inability to put a winning team on the field and the manager, angry about his own contract situation, doesn't field the team Beane wants (including not having Scottie H. at first). Prompting Beane to clean house and hope that his team can turn it around, somehow, someway.
At this point in his career you know what you're going to get with Brad Pitt, he's charasmatic and definitely the best choice of all the big name celebs to play the role of the unorthodox and unpredictable role of Billy Beane. I didn't expect much from Jonah Hill given what I've seen of his forays into the serious roles. He was okay, but unspectacular and the whole movie is kind of centralized on him, so it's hard to overlook, but you still manage to do so thanks to Aaron Sorkin's brilliant scripting.
The baseball scenes looked realistic, which is generally hard to pull off in sports movies, let alone baseball, the most fundamentally sound sport in the athletic stratosphere (*Bias). Mind you that's thank to the casting of ex-MLB players in the less prominant roles. Thus the baseball looks real without having the movie dragged down by terrible acting. The only real problem I had with this movie was the character of Art Howe, being Hoffman's character I expected him to be the scene stealer but really he just stood there most of the time. I've grown to expect better from an actor of his caliber but it's as if his Capote cohort begged him to be in the movie because the other guy the got dropped out at the last minute.
So apart from some minor flaws this movie turns out to be a good time, it's got enough baseball in it to attract those who are fans of the game but the movie doesn't overly focus on statistics that the casual fan or people new to the sport will get lost in. Bonus points given out to any of you that can succesfully explain WAR, UZR and DIPS. Never in the last 20 years has there been a baseball movie with so much emotion and depth that Moneyball brings to the sport. It's clear the days of Major League, Bull Durham and Eight Men Out are long gone but one can only hope the success of Moneyball brings back the trend and allows more baseball movies to be greenlit by studios. The success only hinge's on a couple Oscar noms for a well deserved crew behind the camera headlined by the adapted screenplay Sorkin has wowed us with, and the sharp wit Brad Pitt lends to Billy Beane's character.
What a crazy weekend we've put together for you here on The Melancholy Club, I hope you haven't fallen too far behind with the film reviews, so for those of you who haven't let's keep the train rolling with my review of Fair Game...
Fair Game is a biographical film based on the true story of Joe Wilson and Valerie Plame Wilson as outlined in the latter's book "Fair Game: My Life as a Spy, My Betrayal by the White House"
Valerie Plame (played by Naomi Watts) is an undercover operative for the Central Intelligence Agency married to a former US diplomat, who most recently served as an ambassador to African nation Gabon. He also has ties to the nation of Niger, and this is where the story really takes flight.
Plame and her CIA cohorts, as it were, are investigating the alledged WMD (that's weapons of mass destruction for our friends that are globally unaware of everything) manufacturing that is believed to be happening by Iraq. The only problem is, the United States Government has absolutely no proof of this other than the fact that Iraq had purchased some aluminum tubes that could possibly be used for nuclear weapon fabrication, but most likely will be used for rocket powered artillary. But the american people are still feeling uneasy about the transaction so they opt (after some convincing to Plame) to hire her husband Joe Wilson (played by Sean Penn) to go to Niger and investigate a possible yellowcake uranium purchase by Iraq from Niger since Wilson has ties to the Niger government from his time there.
After his investigation Wilson notes that there is no possible way that Niger can sell the amount of uranium required to Iraq without some sort of paper trail cropping up (They'd need 40% more uranium than Niger is used to mining.) To his surprise however, mear months after his journey to Niger the president brings up the very opposite at the State Of The Union adress, stating that Niger is selling large amounts of uranium to Iraq. After some digging and investigating by Wilson, he finds out that they have no new evidence of a uranium sale since his trip to Niger. So he takes matters into his own hands by writing an article in the New York Times stating the president is lying to everyone and there is no uranium. Now this doesn't sit well with the heads of state, so they begin to look for a way to discredit Wilson.
Now the tactic they use, isn't what we would call "legal" as the government writes an article of their own saying Wilson was never on a mission by the CIA, but rather a vacation paid for by the CIA thanks to his wife's work as a spy. Now this revelation doesn't sit well with Wilson and Plame, Wilson for being discredited as a liar and Plame because well her life as she knows it is over as she is under constant surveillance, she's removed from her position at the CIA, receives daily death threats and has a strain placed on her personal relationships (especially with her husband.)
Now this movie is good, not amazing, not even super good, but it's worth a watch. There is just enough thrills to keep you entertained, while at the same time not being overly political to lose the audience that is less than savvy when it comes to politics. The acting is stellar, as the supporting cast is your usual white house cast of characters, and those who know me know that I hardly ever have a bad thing to say about Naomi Watts, even in her bad movies, she's the best of a bad situation and that makes her one of my favorite actress's. Sean Penn's character comes off as a whiny bitch most of the time, which is odd, it's not until near the end of the film that we see some diverse emotions coming from him. That's not to say that Penn's acting is bad, because Sean Penn is such a good character actor that I'm pretty sure he can pull almost anything off.
The end result however, comes down to Doug Liman's directing. As far as I'm concerned he is one of the most underrated directors in the business as he continues to be able to direct all different types of films (The Bourne Identity, Swingers and Jumper) although he's very likely to never replicate the awesomeness that was Go. Overall you should watch this movie, it's old enough that you can likely find it on the cheap at your local video store, or you can download it or watch it online somewhere I'm sure (Legal warning: I do not condone movie piracy... So long as no one knows...)
Following my recent trend I thought I would continue to watch graphic novel based vampire movies and today I worked up the courage to watch 30 Days Of Night...
30 Days Of Night is as I understand it is a survival horror based of a mini-series of comic books written by Steve Niles and Ben Templesmith. Again I only had time to read the first comic before I watched the movie, but it appears that the movie at least attempts to follow the story line.
Lets jump straight to the plot, this is a franchise thick with backstory and imagination. Our story starts in Barrow, Alaska, the town "at the top of the world", just as the townspeople are preparing for a month long night, 30 days of night. The town population drops by about four hundred people as most of the residents leave for other cities. The few that stay behind are greeted by a stranger (Ben Foster) that wandered into town covered in dirt and grime, strangely after all the sled dogs were murdered. As soon as the stranger asks for a bowl of raw hamburger meat things start going downhill. Small things at first, vandalism, a couple violent deaths, a head on a stick or two, then the power goes out, and the town is plunged into total darkness. The local sheriff (Josh Hartnett) discovers the first body, or lack there of, and urges the townsfolk into their homes and to prepare their weapons, it does them little good of course as the town soon erupts into an orgie of blood and fire, you see a band of vampires has followed the stranger into town.
This franchise completely redesigned the classic vampire. Gone are the suave, romantic bloodsuckers, these vampires are the ultimate apex predator, six times faster and stronger than a human, with a mouth full of razor sharp fangs and claws sharp enough to punch through a skull. This I believe is the closest a vampire can get to reality. These vampires led by Marlow (Danny Huston) are more than a match for a town of a hundred and fifty humans, and now that the sun has set the town is theirs for 30 days. All survivors have to risk it all just to last the month.
As I sit here stirring coffee and cream into my sugar I realize that the movie isn't about the vampires, its about human nature, about sacrifices and the lengths of which we will go to protect those we love. Throughout the movie the characters are forced to put aside their lives and push themselves to the limit just to survive, when their friends and family are dead or undead is when they find their strength. It takes a bit to see past the darkness and find the moral of the story, but the darkness is what makes the movie.
Darkness, yes, as the title states the sun has set, turning the town into a veritable hell, the dark sky and pure white snow are often contrasted beautifully by the stunning red of blood and fire, brightening what is otherwise a bland colour palette. The acting is refreshingly believable and for I never quite figured out if the film was completely CGI or if the picture was just that sharp even on my horribly old SD TV.
My final judgement is that the acting was near top notch, the characters were believable, the vampires were fresh and the plot was thick enough to create a beautifully complex story, so pick it up but make sure you leave the lights on...
I would like to thank all you readers first and foremost for pushing this blog past the 100 view mark (Triple digits what!?!) So to thank you I'll be reviewing a movie that isn't even in theatres yet. Now I know what you're thinking... Conscious you must pirate movies! No, kind readers I do not. I just simply am lucky enough to live in close proximity to Toronto and have a nice enough sister to take me to TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival). So how new is this movie? It doesn't even have a trailer yet so here's a clip and let's get on with the review of Killer Joe.
Killer Joe is the story of a gambling obsessed man that gets in a little too deep with a bookie and all of a sudden has to come up with 5000 dollars or he'll be killed. So he does what any desperate man would do... He gets a bank loan, I'm totally kidding that wouldn't make for a very good movie, he does the more sensible thing, hires a hitman to kill his mother to collect her insurance money.
Now here's what I want you to do before you go into the theatre to watch this movie, I want you to imagine your favorite Cohen Brothers movie (Fargo, Raising Arizona and Burn After Reading are all solid choices) and multiply everything by 10. This is how much fun this movie is. It's bloody, it's brilliant. It's bloody brilliant.
So this dude with a gambling debt (played by Emile Hirsch, Into The Wild and Alpha Dog) needs cash and gets the brilliant idea to hire a hitman to kill his mother in order to collect the insurance, which is in his little sister Dottie's (played brilliantly by Juno Temple) name, to pay off his bookie.
Now Emile Hirsch's character, Chris, isn't very bright, this much is apparent neither is his father, Ansel (played by Thomas Haden Church, Spiderman 3) or his step-mother Sharla. They're your sterotypical white trash southern family, sharing everything (and I mean EVERYTHING) if there was a movie about Dunnville folk, this would be it (Zing!) As the movie goes on you realize however that Dottie is not stupid by any means despite her childish actions, but I'm getting ahead of myself...
So after the family decides to kill their mother/wife and split the rest of the insurance money between them, after the hitman's deductible, they make a call to a Dallas Marshall named Joe Cooper (the aforementioned "Killer Joe" played by Matthew McConaughey). Now Joe has killed before and he has a set of rules that he needs to follow, no exceptions made. So when he finds out the family can't pay him his money in advance he decides to walk out on the job, except he took a liking to Dottie and decides to use her as a retainer for his services rendered, he gets access to Dottie (very full access) until a point in time comes where he gets paid. The family reluctantly agree, but start to decide it's not such a good idea.
Now the acting in this film was outstanding, partly because of the script they had was so strong to begin with, also partly because they clearly trusted their director and just went with the flow. But the story went so far and above my expectations. This movie was hilarious, surprisingly so, and it was very gory which worked so well for what they were aiming for. McConaughey's character was by far the most stale, however being a hitman and not having the southern charm of the other characters, it's not all that surprising and kinda works for the movie.
So this film has action, comedy, thrills, chills and nudity (A little too much, but whose complaining?) which makes for an unpredictable, and fun movie going experience that had everyone in the 4000 person theatre howling with laughter, gasping with fear, and tilting on the edge of their seats.
I'm not sure if this is the best movie released in 2011 that I've seen so far this year, but if it isn't it's pretty damn close.
In a post-apocalyptic world, a savage war between man and vampire has raged for centuries. A warrior priest receives word of fresh attacks, but now its personal; his niece has been kidnapped by a new hive of merciless vampires. To save her, he must break his vow of peace and hunt down the hive before its too late. Based on the acclaimed graphic novel and packed with bloodthirsty action, this full throttle crusade takes you on the hunt for a deadly new breed of killer.
Priest, like all movies based off of graphic novels, it does so loosely, which may be disappointing to some viewers but it allows for unbiased opinions of both the film and series of novels. Rather than get in depth with the differences between them lets just say you don't have to see one before the other but rather see/read both of them if you have the time.
Those of you with two brain cells to rub together have figured out that I enjoyed the movie, I didn't see it in theaters and truthfully have only read the first volume of the series, but that doesn't mean it is without flaws...
So Priest, a movie directed by Scott Stewart, is based (loosely as stated) on a Korean comic series of the same name. The plot is as follows; since the beginning of time, or shortly there after, humanity has waged a war with vampires. Not your run of the mill vampires, I would say somewhat a middle ground between the Underworld vampire and the 30 Days of Night vampire. "The eyes are the window to the soul" as some say and due to the fact that vampires are born without eyes they are said to have no soul, so they are hunted. I guess you could almost say that this is a retelling of our own history when we ran the native Americans to near extinction and put them in reserves, well the same thing has been done to vampires, but only with the help of the priests. The Priests are a sect of chosen warriors trained by the church in the deadly arts and raised with a healthy hatred for all things fangey, the are the sole reason humanity won the war but after the war they were disbanded and sworn to peace. The Priests were ordered to return to human ways and sought employment but had no skills for anything but warfare, thus they got low level jobs and fade into history. Oh yes did I mention that the war between races has destroyed the very earth? Well yeah, the cities of the past stand as grim reminders of humanities folly in a never-ending desert of pain and sacrifice, while the majority of the world has hidden behind the walls surrounding church governed cities.
So vampires, rise from the reserves and kill (SPOILER ALERT) Paul Bettany's character's brother and his wife, before kidnapping their daughter and galavanting away on a train full of an army of vampires and assorted cutlery. I was actually quite surprised when the movie turned out to have a couple plot twists, I was expecting a straight forward hack and slash adventure that would sit on my DVD shelf and collect dust and hatred. It turns out that before he was inducted into the Priests, the main character actually had time to have a child, whom he had to sacrifice along with his lover to a life of warfare and servitude. It creates a small amount of sympathy towards the protagonist and builds a more complex plot line, and I think Paul Bettany pulled it off rather well. The other characters however were a whole other story, some lines seemed false even forced, I mean it was obvious acting, I wouldn't have been surprising if they had been reading the script off of cue cards.
Actors aside, lets hit the visuals. I was satisfied with the camera angles and CGI, but there were quite a few slow motion shots that left me wondering why they even bothered wasting the money. Sure slow it down so we can see how he guts the hive guardian, but trying to create emotion with a two second slow motion shot when the daughter and sheriff kiss didn't work. Another criticism, the characters rarely had actual names, the protagonist and antagonist seemed just labels, I mean Priest and Black Hat? Thats not even worth hiring writers for, its like they just used the short forms off the script and ran with it. Also it seemed they stole a little bit of everything with this movie, Black Hat was an exact copy of Jericho cross from Deathwatch, as well as the trains, they even stole the scene when the damsel in distress hides the table knife in her sleeve.
All in all Priest had an interesting back story, tasty action sequences, a palatable score, and one thing I love, a post apocalyptic earth. Although it was hard not to miss the overused slo-mo, questionable acting, and trademark violations. This is at most a buy at least a download, Cory Goodman next time focus on reading not writing. If you enjoyed this for its post apocalyptic setting and bible toting then check out the Book of Eli, if you loved the vampire action then watch the Underworld Series and if you were left completely disappointing than maybe the comics will redeem the franchise.
