As the awards season is coming up one movie that is on a lot of people's lists is Milk. Milk is the story of Harvey Milk who was the first openly gay man to be elected to a major public office in the United States. In 1977 he was elected to the Board of Supervisors in San Francisco. During which time he fought tirelessly for gay rights in California.
The movie stars Sean Penn in the title role and also stars Emile Hirsch (Into the Wild, Speed Racer), Josh Brolin, and James Franco (Spider-Man). All of them do a great job but Sean Penn is the standout performance of the movie. He has already been nominated for several awards and I am sure that he will get an Oscar nomination. Josh Brolin was also very good and he is nominated for the SAG and could possibly see an Oscar nod.
The movie is directed by Gus Van Sant (Elephant, Paranoid Park) and the movie is very well put together. There is a lot of great camera work but the thing that makes it unique is how he used old TV footage. While you are watching the movie you will see footage from local and national newscasts showing what was happening at the time. It doesn't take you out of the movie and does a very good job of emphasizing what is happening.
At the time the singer Anita Bryant was on a crusade to take away the rights of gay people all over the country. This started with a repeal of gay rights in Florida and the attempt to pass Proposition 6 in California which would have fired any openly gay teacher and anybody who supports them. It's funny because now he just had Proposition 8 passed in California which bans gay marriage.
Usually in the case of a movie telling a person's story they cover their entire life. In this case they decided to just focus on his political years. I think this was smart because then either the movie would run long or you'd have to rush the childhood segments. So by just focusing on his attempts to be elected to public office then that becomes the story of the movie rather than the story of his entire life.
Overall this is a very good film. Unfortunately it is not one that will see very wide theatrical release unless they decide to relaunch it after the Oscar nominations come out. If you get a chance I say definetly see this movie. It really open your eyes to an incredible man that did a lot for a group in this country that still have very little rights. If there were more people like Harvey Milk in this world then maybe gay people would be treated as equels instead of inferior citizens or degenerates.
My score: 8.0/10
Sunday, December 28, 2008
Monday, December 22, 2008
Movie review: Appaloosa
Appaloosa is a new western starring Ed Harris and Viggo Mortensen. They play two law men for hire. They are brought into the town of Appaloosa to help bring in a man named Bragg, played by Jeremy Irons. Bragg murdered the Town Marshall and two of his deputies but the people of the town are too afraid to try and do anything about it.
The love interest of the movie is played by Renee Zelwegger. There isn't much romance to speak of as Ed Harris and Renee seem to fall for each other pretty quick. But the love story isn't the main focus of the movie.
As for the performances they are pretty good all around. This is the best I've seen from Ed Harris in a while and Viggo is his usual good self. It is very good to see Jeremy Irons in a good role since he has done so much crap lately. As far as Zelwegger I've seen a lot better from her in the past. One thing that she does a lot is if you watch her she scrunches up her face. In some of her movies she doesn't do this a lot but she does this so much in this movie after a while you get tired of it.
One thing you come to expect from a western is a lot of shooting. This movie really isn't a gun fight type of western. This is more of a character movie and the shooting is pretty limited. But the characters are interesting enough that you don't really mind the lack of violence. It's kind of funny that the big gun fight in the movie is over pretty quickly.
Now the movie does seem to jump around a little bit. It's not that it gets confusing or anything but the events in the movie go by pretty quickly. I think this could be from the fact that the movie is directed by Ed Harris and he doesn't have a lot of experience behind the camera. But I will say for a first movie he did a pretty good job.
It has a good western feel and the costumes and locations look very authentic. I don't this movie will go down in history as the best western ever made but it's still a good western in its own right.
My score: 7.5/10
The love interest of the movie is played by Renee Zelwegger. There isn't much romance to speak of as Ed Harris and Renee seem to fall for each other pretty quick. But the love story isn't the main focus of the movie.
As for the performances they are pretty good all around. This is the best I've seen from Ed Harris in a while and Viggo is his usual good self. It is very good to see Jeremy Irons in a good role since he has done so much crap lately. As far as Zelwegger I've seen a lot better from her in the past. One thing that she does a lot is if you watch her she scrunches up her face. In some of her movies she doesn't do this a lot but she does this so much in this movie after a while you get tired of it.
One thing you come to expect from a western is a lot of shooting. This movie really isn't a gun fight type of western. This is more of a character movie and the shooting is pretty limited. But the characters are interesting enough that you don't really mind the lack of violence. It's kind of funny that the big gun fight in the movie is over pretty quickly.
Now the movie does seem to jump around a little bit. It's not that it gets confusing or anything but the events in the movie go by pretty quickly. I think this could be from the fact that the movie is directed by Ed Harris and he doesn't have a lot of experience behind the camera. But I will say for a first movie he did a pretty good job.
It has a good western feel and the costumes and locations look very authentic. I don't this movie will go down in history as the best western ever made but it's still a good western in its own right.
My score: 7.5/10
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
Movie review: The Day The Earth Stood Still
I will say that I had a lot of reluctance about seeing this movie. When I first heard they were remaking The Day The Earth Stood still I felt myself shudder a bit. The original is a classic and one of the best sci-fi movies ever made. I also had the same fear that it would wind up like Spielberg's War of the Worlds. In some ways I was right but not totally.
When you go into this movie do not expect something that is as good as the original because you aren't going to get it. Also don't expect it to be that close to the original either. In the first movie an alien named Klaatu comes to Earth to warn us to stop our violent ways. As a warning he stops everything on Earth for an entire day. He is accompanied by his robot named Gort who's job it is to protect him.
This movie seems to have strayed away from the violence theme and gone into the them of global warming. So the alien is here to stop us from killing the Earth. It does make sense to update that a bit even though war is still a big thing in this world.
This time around the alien is played by Keanu Reeves. I wondered about this choice at first but after seeing the movie I think they made the right one. The character of Klaatu shows no emotion so who better to play him than an actor with the emotional depth of a kiddy pool? The female lead is played by Jennifer Connely and she does a good job given the source material. The person who did a better job was Jaden Smith (youngest son of Will Smith). After his performance in The Pursuit of Happyness people started to expect a lot out of him. This wasn't an Earth shattering performance but I think it shows that he's got potential and good emotional range for a child actor. Even though most of his dialogue was spent being angry at his step-mom for his Dad not being alive. It was the typical "if my Dad were here he'd do this" lines.
There are also a few other notable people such as Kathy Bates, John Cleese, Robert Knepper (T-Bag from Prison Break), and Kyle Chandler (Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights). Of those 4 I think Kathy Bates did the best job as her character came off the way it was supposed to as a typical government bureaucrat.
One big thing in the movie this time are the special effects. When the first one was made they were limited with what they could do. Everything had to be done with models or elaborate costumes. This time the movie is loaded with CG. First off instead of coming down in a space ship Klaatu arrives in a giant blue sphere. Next his robot Gort is about 50 feet tall and shoots lasers. The big payoff comes at the end of the movie when things start to get destroyed. If you've seen the previews you've seen the truck disintegrating as well as the stadium being turned to dust. These effects do look cool and a good amount of detail was put into making them look good.
When it comes to the pacing of the movie overall it's a bit slow. Most of the movie is spent building up to the climax. I know movies have to do this but you need to make the parts in between as interesting as possible. There were some parts where it tended to drag a bit. So when the climax did come you were glad because the movie had kept you waiting for it for a while.
But I personally think if you look at this movie it feels like they didn't have to put the name The Day The Earth Stood still on it. They could have easily just have changed a few things around and given it another name. It's OK if Hollywood wants to make an end of the world movie but they don't need to remake classic ones.
I say if you are going to remake movies your best bet is to go with something not many people have heard of. When I first saw Gone In 60 Seconds I did not know it was a remake and so did a lot of other people. But now I hear they are remaking Friday the 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street and if the Halloween and Prom Night remakes shows us anything it's that it's a bad idea.
So should you see this movie? Well right now there isn't too much to contend with and it's an entertaining way to spend an hour and a half. But if you don't want to spend the money I'd wait until you can find it on DVD. But if you are expecting an amazing remake of a classic sci-fi movie you will be sadly mistaken.
My score: 6.5/10
When you go into this movie do not expect something that is as good as the original because you aren't going to get it. Also don't expect it to be that close to the original either. In the first movie an alien named Klaatu comes to Earth to warn us to stop our violent ways. As a warning he stops everything on Earth for an entire day. He is accompanied by his robot named Gort who's job it is to protect him.
This movie seems to have strayed away from the violence theme and gone into the them of global warming. So the alien is here to stop us from killing the Earth. It does make sense to update that a bit even though war is still a big thing in this world.
This time around the alien is played by Keanu Reeves. I wondered about this choice at first but after seeing the movie I think they made the right one. The character of Klaatu shows no emotion so who better to play him than an actor with the emotional depth of a kiddy pool? The female lead is played by Jennifer Connely and she does a good job given the source material. The person who did a better job was Jaden Smith (youngest son of Will Smith). After his performance in The Pursuit of Happyness people started to expect a lot out of him. This wasn't an Earth shattering performance but I think it shows that he's got potential and good emotional range for a child actor. Even though most of his dialogue was spent being angry at his step-mom for his Dad not being alive. It was the typical "if my Dad were here he'd do this" lines.
There are also a few other notable people such as Kathy Bates, John Cleese, Robert Knepper (T-Bag from Prison Break), and Kyle Chandler (Coach Taylor from Friday Night Lights). Of those 4 I think Kathy Bates did the best job as her character came off the way it was supposed to as a typical government bureaucrat.
One big thing in the movie this time are the special effects. When the first one was made they were limited with what they could do. Everything had to be done with models or elaborate costumes. This time the movie is loaded with CG. First off instead of coming down in a space ship Klaatu arrives in a giant blue sphere. Next his robot Gort is about 50 feet tall and shoots lasers. The big payoff comes at the end of the movie when things start to get destroyed. If you've seen the previews you've seen the truck disintegrating as well as the stadium being turned to dust. These effects do look cool and a good amount of detail was put into making them look good.
When it comes to the pacing of the movie overall it's a bit slow. Most of the movie is spent building up to the climax. I know movies have to do this but you need to make the parts in between as interesting as possible. There were some parts where it tended to drag a bit. So when the climax did come you were glad because the movie had kept you waiting for it for a while.
But I personally think if you look at this movie it feels like they didn't have to put the name The Day The Earth Stood still on it. They could have easily just have changed a few things around and given it another name. It's OK if Hollywood wants to make an end of the world movie but they don't need to remake classic ones.
I say if you are going to remake movies your best bet is to go with something not many people have heard of. When I first saw Gone In 60 Seconds I did not know it was a remake and so did a lot of other people. But now I hear they are remaking Friday the 13th and A Nightmare On Elm Street and if the Halloween and Prom Night remakes shows us anything it's that it's a bad idea.
So should you see this movie? Well right now there isn't too much to contend with and it's an entertaining way to spend an hour and a half. But if you don't want to spend the money I'd wait until you can find it on DVD. But if you are expecting an amazing remake of a classic sci-fi movie you will be sadly mistaken.
My score: 6.5/10
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Game review: Resident Evil 5 (Demo)
One of the more anticipated games right now is Resident Evil 5. After how well the last Resident Evil game did it's no surprise that the next one has a lot of hype around it. Not only was Resident Evil 4 one of the best games of the series it's one of the better games made in recent memory. So now the demo for the game is here.
Well to say it's here is not the most accurate thing to say. Right now the demo is only available in Japan. Some people had figured out a way of using a Japanese Hotmail account and some free Xbox Live time to trick the system into thinking you are in Japan so you can download the demo. Well Capcom and Microsoft figured this out and blocked anyone from downloading it that isn't using a Japanese 360. But thanks to many people there is still a way to play this demo.
All you need to do is go on a torrent site like The Pirate Bay and download the demo, it should run about 420mb. Then you follow the instructions and burn it to a DVD or a CD. Then you just pop that disc in your system and play the demo. The only thing you need to make sure of is to not be signed onto Xbox Live because it won't work otherwise.
Now you might ask why go through all this just to play the demo? Well first off it's the demo of the newest Resident Evil game, need I say more? Plus the US demo won't hit until sometime around March 13. So you can either download it now or wait 3 months to play it otherwise.
When you load up this version you will find that you can't play the co-op online. But you do have the option to play single or co-op on the same system.
This Resident Evil game will be different than the previous ones because there is the option of doing co-op. There are two characters in the game, first there is Chris Redfield who you would know from the first Resident Evil game and Resident Evil: Code Veronica. The other one is a new character named Sheva Alomar who will accompany you as you shoot up hoards of the undead.
The demo gives you two levels to play in. The first one throws you in right as a demonstration and public execution is going on. It's not long before you are being swarmed by hordes of psycho zombies. These zombies are similar to the ones found in RE4 as they are fairly intelligent and fast moving. They will throw things at you, flank you and dodge your shots if they see your gun's laser sight. Thankfully they aren't like the ones in the early games where it took two entire clips to take them down but it still takes 5 or so shots if you aren't pulling off headshots.
Basically the goal of the first level is to just stay alive. You get a message from a helicopter pilot that he's on his way and he'll help you out. So you just need to go around staying alive and avoiding the zombies as long as you can. This is easier said than done especially when this huge guy with a bloody axe comes after you. Granted he is pretty slow but he takes a lot of punishment and can do a lot of damage with his weapon. But as soon as you survive long enough the pilot shows up and blows open the gate so you can continue and that's the end of that level.
The other level is in a shanty town. You start off and your goal is to get to the end through a locked gate. In this level you get to do an interesting section where your partner separates from you and you have to help her out with the aid of your sniper rifle. The end of the level is where it gets tough. If you remember in Resident Evil 4 some of the toughest enemies were the guys with chainsaws. They take a ton of damage and can easily kill you if you get too close. Well you have to take one of these guys out to complete the level. There are a good amount of exploding barrels around the level and you will have to use these to your advantage if you are going to take him out. But once you do the level is pretty much over.
Now this game does quite a few things different. First the inventory system is split up between your two characters. At least in the demo you have 8 item slots that each of you can use. You hit the Y button to bring up the inventory and this is done in the fly and doesn't pause the game. But you can either give items to your partner or request things from them like guns, health and ammo. Like in the second level I found that I was better off getting the machine gun from her and giving her the sniper rifle to take on the chainsaw guy. Now at first I was a little annoyed that I couldn't pause the action to access the inventory and that meant that switching weapons in a fight was tough. But each of the four compass points in the inventory matches up with a button on the D-pad. So you can assign a weapon to say the up button and hitting that button on the D-pad will switch. I will say that when it comes to giving ammo be careful because I had 40 rounds for the handgun and it gave her 30.
Another thing that is different are the co-op moves you can do. Like in the 2nd level you will reach a gap between two buildings. You will then see a prompt on the screen for assist jump. You hit the B button and Chris launches his partner over to the other building. In the co-op mode the other person has to walk up to you and hit the B button to make the action happen. These are nice and they don't take you out of the game when they happen.
Now like many other games in the series there is the typical get you out of danger moments. Like if a zombie grabs onto you then you have to move the left stick back and forth to escape them. Either that or your partner can come up to you and shoot them or knock them away to help you out. One of the more interesting thing the game did was to add that your character can enter a state where they are dying. If you take enough damage and get into the red it will say on the screen you are dying and you can't shoot or jump and your character limps around. At this point your partner has to come up to you and hit a button and they will give you a shot and this will keep you alive but if they don't get to you in time you will fall over dead.
I did get a chance to play some local co-op and it handled pretty well. In most games the screen is either split vertically or horizontally. In this case it looks almost like a dual screen thing you'd see on TV. Where each person has a box on the screen and they are arranged so they are diagonal of each other which means there are parts of the screen that are empty. I like this because it helps you more with keep your eyes on your part of the screen but you don't miss out on the action.
The guns handle pretty well. Each one does about as much damage as you'd expect. One complaint I did have was so many times I'd be moving my character around and hit down on the stick that controls the camera and then have to pull out my gun. At this point I find I'm pointing it at the ground so I have to move it up to get a shot on my enemy. This didn't happen too much but when it did it was annoying. Now the knife in this game is a bit better as Chris has a machete so it has a better reach but it doesn't do any more damage the it has in the past. Also if you stun an enemy you can walk up to them and hit a button to punch them. With smaller enemies this can kill them and with the bigger ones it knocks them back. You can also stomp on enemies on the ground to finish them off. I did like how depending on where you are standing you will either do it in the gut or do the head popping it like a watermelon.
As with most games in the series this one does not appear that it's going to be easy. There are lots of enemies and not as much ammo as you'd like. Sure you'll find tons of money but when you really need handgun ammo it'll be nowhere to be found. So you get that sense of urgency where you're running from enemies desperately trying to find some ammo before they rip you apart.
I think the last thing I need to talk about is the graphics. This game looks really good. The environments are a bit drab but that's what you come to expect from some unnamed African village. But where the game shines are the characters. There is a lot of detail on Chris and Sheva and the zombies look great. I don't think it ranks up there with like Gears of War but I think it will probably be in the top 10 for the best looking games on the 360.
I do have to mention the controversy surrounding this game. As I said before the game takes place in Africa. So pretty much all of the enemies you'll face are black. Some people have said this game is racist since you have a white character shooting black people. But what I have to say is he's not shooting them because they are black he's doing it because they are zombies trying to kill him. Also people tend to overlook the fact that your character is African. From what I have seen this game is not racist and people are just picking at one small aspect of the game.
So I would say if you are a fan of Resident Evil and don't want to wait until March to play this then give it a download. You don't need a modified system to play it so you don't have to worry there. But if you don't want to go through the hassle you can wait until March. Now when it does come out I will download it and give my opinion of the online co-op. But this one is definitely worth a play.
My score: 9.0/10
Well to say it's here is not the most accurate thing to say. Right now the demo is only available in Japan. Some people had figured out a way of using a Japanese Hotmail account and some free Xbox Live time to trick the system into thinking you are in Japan so you can download the demo. Well Capcom and Microsoft figured this out and blocked anyone from downloading it that isn't using a Japanese 360. But thanks to many people there is still a way to play this demo.
All you need to do is go on a torrent site like The Pirate Bay and download the demo, it should run about 420mb. Then you follow the instructions and burn it to a DVD or a CD. Then you just pop that disc in your system and play the demo. The only thing you need to make sure of is to not be signed onto Xbox Live because it won't work otherwise.
Now you might ask why go through all this just to play the demo? Well first off it's the demo of the newest Resident Evil game, need I say more? Plus the US demo won't hit until sometime around March 13. So you can either download it now or wait 3 months to play it otherwise.
When you load up this version you will find that you can't play the co-op online. But you do have the option to play single or co-op on the same system.
This Resident Evil game will be different than the previous ones because there is the option of doing co-op. There are two characters in the game, first there is Chris Redfield who you would know from the first Resident Evil game and Resident Evil: Code Veronica. The other one is a new character named Sheva Alomar who will accompany you as you shoot up hoards of the undead.
The demo gives you two levels to play in. The first one throws you in right as a demonstration and public execution is going on. It's not long before you are being swarmed by hordes of psycho zombies. These zombies are similar to the ones found in RE4 as they are fairly intelligent and fast moving. They will throw things at you, flank you and dodge your shots if they see your gun's laser sight. Thankfully they aren't like the ones in the early games where it took two entire clips to take them down but it still takes 5 or so shots if you aren't pulling off headshots.
Basically the goal of the first level is to just stay alive. You get a message from a helicopter pilot that he's on his way and he'll help you out. So you just need to go around staying alive and avoiding the zombies as long as you can. This is easier said than done especially when this huge guy with a bloody axe comes after you. Granted he is pretty slow but he takes a lot of punishment and can do a lot of damage with his weapon. But as soon as you survive long enough the pilot shows up and blows open the gate so you can continue and that's the end of that level.
The other level is in a shanty town. You start off and your goal is to get to the end through a locked gate. In this level you get to do an interesting section where your partner separates from you and you have to help her out with the aid of your sniper rifle. The end of the level is where it gets tough. If you remember in Resident Evil 4 some of the toughest enemies were the guys with chainsaws. They take a ton of damage and can easily kill you if you get too close. Well you have to take one of these guys out to complete the level. There are a good amount of exploding barrels around the level and you will have to use these to your advantage if you are going to take him out. But once you do the level is pretty much over.
Now this game does quite a few things different. First the inventory system is split up between your two characters. At least in the demo you have 8 item slots that each of you can use. You hit the Y button to bring up the inventory and this is done in the fly and doesn't pause the game. But you can either give items to your partner or request things from them like guns, health and ammo. Like in the second level I found that I was better off getting the machine gun from her and giving her the sniper rifle to take on the chainsaw guy. Now at first I was a little annoyed that I couldn't pause the action to access the inventory and that meant that switching weapons in a fight was tough. But each of the four compass points in the inventory matches up with a button on the D-pad. So you can assign a weapon to say the up button and hitting that button on the D-pad will switch. I will say that when it comes to giving ammo be careful because I had 40 rounds for the handgun and it gave her 30.
Another thing that is different are the co-op moves you can do. Like in the 2nd level you will reach a gap between two buildings. You will then see a prompt on the screen for assist jump. You hit the B button and Chris launches his partner over to the other building. In the co-op mode the other person has to walk up to you and hit the B button to make the action happen. These are nice and they don't take you out of the game when they happen.
Now like many other games in the series there is the typical get you out of danger moments. Like if a zombie grabs onto you then you have to move the left stick back and forth to escape them. Either that or your partner can come up to you and shoot them or knock them away to help you out. One of the more interesting thing the game did was to add that your character can enter a state where they are dying. If you take enough damage and get into the red it will say on the screen you are dying and you can't shoot or jump and your character limps around. At this point your partner has to come up to you and hit a button and they will give you a shot and this will keep you alive but if they don't get to you in time you will fall over dead.
I did get a chance to play some local co-op and it handled pretty well. In most games the screen is either split vertically or horizontally. In this case it looks almost like a dual screen thing you'd see on TV. Where each person has a box on the screen and they are arranged so they are diagonal of each other which means there are parts of the screen that are empty. I like this because it helps you more with keep your eyes on your part of the screen but you don't miss out on the action.
The guns handle pretty well. Each one does about as much damage as you'd expect. One complaint I did have was so many times I'd be moving my character around and hit down on the stick that controls the camera and then have to pull out my gun. At this point I find I'm pointing it at the ground so I have to move it up to get a shot on my enemy. This didn't happen too much but when it did it was annoying. Now the knife in this game is a bit better as Chris has a machete so it has a better reach but it doesn't do any more damage the it has in the past. Also if you stun an enemy you can walk up to them and hit a button to punch them. With smaller enemies this can kill them and with the bigger ones it knocks them back. You can also stomp on enemies on the ground to finish them off. I did like how depending on where you are standing you will either do it in the gut or do the head popping it like a watermelon.
As with most games in the series this one does not appear that it's going to be easy. There are lots of enemies and not as much ammo as you'd like. Sure you'll find tons of money but when you really need handgun ammo it'll be nowhere to be found. So you get that sense of urgency where you're running from enemies desperately trying to find some ammo before they rip you apart.
I think the last thing I need to talk about is the graphics. This game looks really good. The environments are a bit drab but that's what you come to expect from some unnamed African village. But where the game shines are the characters. There is a lot of detail on Chris and Sheva and the zombies look great. I don't think it ranks up there with like Gears of War but I think it will probably be in the top 10 for the best looking games on the 360.
I do have to mention the controversy surrounding this game. As I said before the game takes place in Africa. So pretty much all of the enemies you'll face are black. Some people have said this game is racist since you have a white character shooting black people. But what I have to say is he's not shooting them because they are black he's doing it because they are zombies trying to kill him. Also people tend to overlook the fact that your character is African. From what I have seen this game is not racist and people are just picking at one small aspect of the game.
So I would say if you are a fan of Resident Evil and don't want to wait until March to play this then give it a download. You don't need a modified system to play it so you don't have to worry there. But if you don't want to go through the hassle you can wait until March. Now when it does come out I will download it and give my opinion of the online co-op. But this one is definitely worth a play.
My score: 9.0/10
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Movie review: Resident Evil: Degeneration
A lot of people probably haven't heard of this movie. In fact it's not even out in this country yet. Resident Evil: Degeneration is a CG movie set in the Resident Evil universe. It originally came out in Japan and is due to come out on DVD and Blu-Ray on December 27.
The story is set after the events of Resident Evil 4. The city of Raccoon City has been nuked and the Umbrella Corporation has gone under. But there is a new player in the bio industry and that is WilPharma. Apparently no one learned their lesson and they continue to conduct research on the viruses that turn people into zombies. Now these viruses have wound up in the hands of terrorists and the new trend in the world is bio-terrorism.
Resident Evil fans will recognize the two main characters. First there is Claire Redfield (from the games Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil: Code Veronica as well as the movie Resident Evil: Extinction) and Leon Kennedy (from Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4). Claire is at the airport in the city of Harvardville when suddenly the good old zombies show up. Leon is sent in the take care of the situation. He is sent in with two cops, the first is a woman who is your typical cop who likes to play things by the numbers and can't believe or comprehend what is going on. The second is a man who is your typical gung-ho macho type who's just content to unload as much ammunition as possible.
One good thing is for the voices of Claire and Leon they got the previously used voice actors. The same one has always been used for Claire but for Leon they got the actor that played him in Resident Evil 4. All around the voice acting is pretty good but Claire's niece comes off as a little annoying sometimes. Now the movie was originally made in Japanese and you can tell for the most part. It's not as bad as old Godzilla movies but in close-up shots you can tell the voice doesn't quite match the mouth movements.
As for the CG it is quite good. It is done in a style similar to movies like Final Fantasy: Advent Children. There is quite a bit of detail on the characters, even though they do move a little stiffly. In some of the darker scenes you forget you are watching a CG movie. But get used to those dark scenes because most of the movie happens at night so if your room is too bright you might miss out on some things. The zombies look like the ones you've become familiar with in the series. They don't show the same level or gore as something like the Dawn of the Dead remake but it's always cool to see a zombie walking around with half their face missing.
When it comes to the plot there isn't too much of one to speak of. It's the typical Resident Evil one where someone wants to control the virus but things get out of hand. If anything this movie was setting up for the events that will happen in Resident Evil 5.
The zombies in this movie are an interesting thing because they are absent for quite a bit of it. Usually when you think Resident Evil you think zombies. They appear at the beginning and then are gone until close to the end of the movie and there they only make a brief appearance. More time was spent on the monster that Leon fights at the end of the movie. The monster is quite a bit like a boss you could fight at the end of one of the games and even looked like a composite of a few.
But what you really watch a movie like this for is the action. There are some good action scenes and even a plane crash. They are pretty fast paced and they keep you interested and have the usual moments of suspense. There are plenty of guns going off and enough explosions to go around.
If you are a fan of the Resident Evil series then I say definitely see this movie. If you like zombie movies you might like it but might be turned off by how little they are used.
My score: 7.0/10
The story is set after the events of Resident Evil 4. The city of Raccoon City has been nuked and the Umbrella Corporation has gone under. But there is a new player in the bio industry and that is WilPharma. Apparently no one learned their lesson and they continue to conduct research on the viruses that turn people into zombies. Now these viruses have wound up in the hands of terrorists and the new trend in the world is bio-terrorism.
Resident Evil fans will recognize the two main characters. First there is Claire Redfield (from the games Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil: Code Veronica as well as the movie Resident Evil: Extinction) and Leon Kennedy (from Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 4). Claire is at the airport in the city of Harvardville when suddenly the good old zombies show up. Leon is sent in the take care of the situation. He is sent in with two cops, the first is a woman who is your typical cop who likes to play things by the numbers and can't believe or comprehend what is going on. The second is a man who is your typical gung-ho macho type who's just content to unload as much ammunition as possible.
One good thing is for the voices of Claire and Leon they got the previously used voice actors. The same one has always been used for Claire but for Leon they got the actor that played him in Resident Evil 4. All around the voice acting is pretty good but Claire's niece comes off as a little annoying sometimes. Now the movie was originally made in Japanese and you can tell for the most part. It's not as bad as old Godzilla movies but in close-up shots you can tell the voice doesn't quite match the mouth movements.
As for the CG it is quite good. It is done in a style similar to movies like Final Fantasy: Advent Children. There is quite a bit of detail on the characters, even though they do move a little stiffly. In some of the darker scenes you forget you are watching a CG movie. But get used to those dark scenes because most of the movie happens at night so if your room is too bright you might miss out on some things. The zombies look like the ones you've become familiar with in the series. They don't show the same level or gore as something like the Dawn of the Dead remake but it's always cool to see a zombie walking around with half their face missing.
When it comes to the plot there isn't too much of one to speak of. It's the typical Resident Evil one where someone wants to control the virus but things get out of hand. If anything this movie was setting up for the events that will happen in Resident Evil 5.
The zombies in this movie are an interesting thing because they are absent for quite a bit of it. Usually when you think Resident Evil you think zombies. They appear at the beginning and then are gone until close to the end of the movie and there they only make a brief appearance. More time was spent on the monster that Leon fights at the end of the movie. The monster is quite a bit like a boss you could fight at the end of one of the games and even looked like a composite of a few.
But what you really watch a movie like this for is the action. There are some good action scenes and even a plane crash. They are pretty fast paced and they keep you interested and have the usual moments of suspense. There are plenty of guns going off and enough explosions to go around.
If you are a fan of the Resident Evil series then I say definitely see this movie. If you like zombie movies you might like it but might be turned off by how little they are used.
My score: 7.0/10
Twilight (follow-up)
I was talking to a friend of mine and it seems that some of the complaints I had about Twilight weren't the fault of the film makers. First off what I said about it jumping from the characters being only slightly interested to madly in love was also that way in the book and apparently has a purpose in the grand scheme of things.
Also I complained about the lack of vampire things in the movie but given the fact that Edward and his family don't attack people you have to expect this. But you still got to see him run really fast and jump high and climb trees with amazing speed.
I will say that the action scenes at the end of the movie were good. But I still say that about the first half of the movie was a bit boring and some things did seem rushed. But again this isn't the fault of the people who made the movie. This won't change my score any but it's good to know that they didn't butcher the book and some things should be explained later.
Also I complained about the lack of vampire things in the movie but given the fact that Edward and his family don't attack people you have to expect this. But you still got to see him run really fast and jump high and climb trees with amazing speed.
I will say that the action scenes at the end of the movie were good. But I still say that about the first half of the movie was a bit boring and some things did seem rushed. But again this isn't the fault of the people who made the movie. This won't change my score any but it's good to know that they didn't butcher the book and some things should be explained later.
Monday, December 8, 2008
Game review: Rock Band and Rock Band 2
Since these games are so similar I figured I'd roll both reviews into one. Anyone who is familiar with video games knows that growing popularity of music games lately. This started with Guitar Hero and now it has extended to Rock Band.
Rock Band was the first to jump into the arena of having instruments other than the guitar. The game came out of a split that caused the developers of Guitar Hero and Rock Band to separate. So now instead of being from the same company they are going against each other. For right now I believe Rock Band is winning the battle.
If you don't know about these games they are pretty simple. You are given a song, sometimes a cover sometimes the original, and you either hit the buttons on the guitar controller to match the ones on the screen or you hit the drum pads or sing along. All 3 of these are a lot of fun and can occupy you for hours.
Let's talk about the instruments themselves. First off there is the guitar that comes with the game. For the 360 version it is a wired version. It is modeled after the Fender Stratocaster and looks the part. On top of the neck are the fret buttons then at the bottom of the neck there is another set of buttons. These can be used during solo sections to play the notes without hitting the strum bar. On the base of the guitar is the standard buttons as well as a switch to add effects to the songs. Personally I did not like this controller at all. The buttons felt sticky and the strum bar was a little more stiff than it needed to be. Also when you transfer down to the lower buttons you'll find yourself messing up when it's time to go back to the higher set. So right now I play with the Xplorer controller that I got with Guitar Hero II.
Now comes the drums. A lot of people have complained about them but I haven't noticed anything wrong with them. Either people get the pads not working or the foot pedal breaks. The only thing I've noticed is you have to hit the pads as close to center as possible to get the best response. The red pad seems to be the most guilty of this and even has a sweet spot for the faster notes. The pedal itself feels pretty good but on harder songs the response just isn't as fast as it should be. Now there are quite a few mods that you can buy to change out the pedal or the pads and if you are an expert level player this is probably the way to go. Also avoid the drumsticks that come with the game unless you like the lighter feel.
The mic is pretty simple and is just your standard USB microphone. When you sing a song it's not about getting the lyrics right and it's all about pitch. So lots of times you'll find yourself singing monotone or really high or really low. And on some songs where there is no pitch all you have to do is get the pacing right.
When it comes to the gameplay both games are put together pretty well. I won't go too deep into the track lists but they are both pretty solid. The only complaint I have is that there are about as many emo and alternative rock songs as there are classic rock songs. I like stuff like Jimmy Eat World and Fall Out Boy but these should be set aside to give us more classic songs. Of course in the future there is the promise of a lot more downloadable content. Also if you have both games Rock Band offers you the chance to transfer all but a few of the songs to your hard drive to be played on Rock Band 2 and all your downloaded songs can be played on both games.
A lot of people have said that this game is easier than Guitar Hero and they are right. The first Rock Band even on expert most songs won't give you too difficult of a challenge on the guitar. But there are a few that will really test your skills. Now Rock Band 2 they caught onto this and put in more songs that give a bigger challenge. Another thing people complained about was the simple bass lines and playing bass was boring but like the guitar they addressed this in Rock Band 2. But if you are someone who can fly through Raining Blood on expert then these songs won't give you much trouble. As far as the drum difficulty that has been stepped up a bit too.
In the game you create a character and a band to go along with them. In Rock Band there is a solo career where you just go through a list of songs of increasing difficulty. Unfortunately you have to create a different character for each instrument. In Rock Band 2 the one character you create can play every instrument. Now when it comes to creating the character they give you quite a few clothing, instrument, and hair options. You can even deck your rocker out in lots of tattoos and face paint.
The meat of the game is the Band World Tour mode. In Rock Band this mode was multiplayer only. But in Rock Band 2 you are given the option to play it solo on any instrument. In Rock Band 2 they also added challenges. These are a set of songs you have to beat with a specific instrument and they increase in difficulty as you go. The other thing is the Battle of the Bands. This is where you are given a task and a set of songs and you try to post the best score you can. This is fun but I have found it always matches me up against someone with a really low score so I blow them out of the water. Also in some cases unless you are running a full band you don't have much of a chance of cracking the top level of scores. But the game tries to keep these fresh as they are rotating new battles in every few days.
In the Band World Tour mode you take your band to venues all over the world and play songs. Your score earns you more fans and money and the eventual chance to become a rock legend. The ultimate test is the Endless Setlist. This consists of every song that comes with the game played back to back. Now in Rock Band the game will instruct you at a certain point to increase your difficulty to earn more fans so if you are playing on hard you will earn 0 fans unless you go up to expert. In Rock Band 2 you still earn fans but there is a cap around 179,000 so even if you play the 80 songs in the Endless Setlist you will only earn 179,000 fans but if you do expert you will earn somewhere around 25,000,000.
One thing that is nice about these games is being able to watch your band in the background. In the Guitar Hero games all the characters seemed a bit stiff but in the Rock Band games they strut around and a look a lot more realistic.
A lot of people said this is the type of game that is most fun when played with other people. I will admit that but I disagree with people that say it isn't fun alone. I personally have enjoyed many hours playing the game by myself.
As for where the series will go from here I really don't have any idea. Guitar Hero is going the way of releasing artist specific games, such as Guitar Hero: Aerosmith that was released earlier this year. There is also the promise of Guitar Hero: Metallica and Guitar Hero: Kiss. The only thing on the horizon for Rock Band is Rock Band: Japan but that probably won't be released in the states. But I personally think so long as they can keep putting out good downloadable songs the game is as good as it's going to get.
My score (Rock Band): 8.5/10
My score (Rock Band 2): 9.0/10
Rock Band was the first to jump into the arena of having instruments other than the guitar. The game came out of a split that caused the developers of Guitar Hero and Rock Band to separate. So now instead of being from the same company they are going against each other. For right now I believe Rock Band is winning the battle.
If you don't know about these games they are pretty simple. You are given a song, sometimes a cover sometimes the original, and you either hit the buttons on the guitar controller to match the ones on the screen or you hit the drum pads or sing along. All 3 of these are a lot of fun and can occupy you for hours.
Let's talk about the instruments themselves. First off there is the guitar that comes with the game. For the 360 version it is a wired version. It is modeled after the Fender Stratocaster and looks the part. On top of the neck are the fret buttons then at the bottom of the neck there is another set of buttons. These can be used during solo sections to play the notes without hitting the strum bar. On the base of the guitar is the standard buttons as well as a switch to add effects to the songs. Personally I did not like this controller at all. The buttons felt sticky and the strum bar was a little more stiff than it needed to be. Also when you transfer down to the lower buttons you'll find yourself messing up when it's time to go back to the higher set. So right now I play with the Xplorer controller that I got with Guitar Hero II.
Now comes the drums. A lot of people have complained about them but I haven't noticed anything wrong with them. Either people get the pads not working or the foot pedal breaks. The only thing I've noticed is you have to hit the pads as close to center as possible to get the best response. The red pad seems to be the most guilty of this and even has a sweet spot for the faster notes. The pedal itself feels pretty good but on harder songs the response just isn't as fast as it should be. Now there are quite a few mods that you can buy to change out the pedal or the pads and if you are an expert level player this is probably the way to go. Also avoid the drumsticks that come with the game unless you like the lighter feel.
The mic is pretty simple and is just your standard USB microphone. When you sing a song it's not about getting the lyrics right and it's all about pitch. So lots of times you'll find yourself singing monotone or really high or really low. And on some songs where there is no pitch all you have to do is get the pacing right.
When it comes to the gameplay both games are put together pretty well. I won't go too deep into the track lists but they are both pretty solid. The only complaint I have is that there are about as many emo and alternative rock songs as there are classic rock songs. I like stuff like Jimmy Eat World and Fall Out Boy but these should be set aside to give us more classic songs. Of course in the future there is the promise of a lot more downloadable content. Also if you have both games Rock Band offers you the chance to transfer all but a few of the songs to your hard drive to be played on Rock Band 2 and all your downloaded songs can be played on both games.
A lot of people have said that this game is easier than Guitar Hero and they are right. The first Rock Band even on expert most songs won't give you too difficult of a challenge on the guitar. But there are a few that will really test your skills. Now Rock Band 2 they caught onto this and put in more songs that give a bigger challenge. Another thing people complained about was the simple bass lines and playing bass was boring but like the guitar they addressed this in Rock Band 2. But if you are someone who can fly through Raining Blood on expert then these songs won't give you much trouble. As far as the drum difficulty that has been stepped up a bit too.
In the game you create a character and a band to go along with them. In Rock Band there is a solo career where you just go through a list of songs of increasing difficulty. Unfortunately you have to create a different character for each instrument. In Rock Band 2 the one character you create can play every instrument. Now when it comes to creating the character they give you quite a few clothing, instrument, and hair options. You can even deck your rocker out in lots of tattoos and face paint.
The meat of the game is the Band World Tour mode. In Rock Band this mode was multiplayer only. But in Rock Band 2 you are given the option to play it solo on any instrument. In Rock Band 2 they also added challenges. These are a set of songs you have to beat with a specific instrument and they increase in difficulty as you go. The other thing is the Battle of the Bands. This is where you are given a task and a set of songs and you try to post the best score you can. This is fun but I have found it always matches me up against someone with a really low score so I blow them out of the water. Also in some cases unless you are running a full band you don't have much of a chance of cracking the top level of scores. But the game tries to keep these fresh as they are rotating new battles in every few days.
In the Band World Tour mode you take your band to venues all over the world and play songs. Your score earns you more fans and money and the eventual chance to become a rock legend. The ultimate test is the Endless Setlist. This consists of every song that comes with the game played back to back. Now in Rock Band the game will instruct you at a certain point to increase your difficulty to earn more fans so if you are playing on hard you will earn 0 fans unless you go up to expert. In Rock Band 2 you still earn fans but there is a cap around 179,000 so even if you play the 80 songs in the Endless Setlist you will only earn 179,000 fans but if you do expert you will earn somewhere around 25,000,000.
One thing that is nice about these games is being able to watch your band in the background. In the Guitar Hero games all the characters seemed a bit stiff but in the Rock Band games they strut around and a look a lot more realistic.
A lot of people said this is the type of game that is most fun when played with other people. I will admit that but I disagree with people that say it isn't fun alone. I personally have enjoyed many hours playing the game by myself.
As for where the series will go from here I really don't have any idea. Guitar Hero is going the way of releasing artist specific games, such as Guitar Hero: Aerosmith that was released earlier this year. There is also the promise of Guitar Hero: Metallica and Guitar Hero: Kiss. The only thing on the horizon for Rock Band is Rock Band: Japan but that probably won't be released in the states. But I personally think so long as they can keep putting out good downloadable songs the game is as good as it's going to get.
My score (Rock Band): 8.5/10
My score (Rock Band 2): 9.0/10
Friday, December 5, 2008
Album review: Guns N' Roses - Chinese Democracy
Well the new album from Guns N' Roses has finally arrived. After many delays and a millions of dollars it's finally here. For those of you that don't know this is officially the most expensive album ever produced. At last count the total production cost was a little over $13 million. For a while it was being called the most expensive album never made.
This is the first album of new material from the band in 17 years. Their last releases were the dual albums of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II both released in 1991. Then in 1993 they released The Spaghetti Incident but that was all cover songs. Shortly after that the band broke up and most people thought that was the end. But Axl Rose continued to try and carry on the Guns N' Roses name and said that an album of new material would be coming. Officially this album has been in the works since 1994 because at the time Axl and Slash had begun to write and record some new material. Whether or not that material is in this album probably won't be known.
A lot of people were hoping that Axl and Slash could bury the hatchet and get the band back together but Axl is very stubborn and Slash had moved onto other projects. The band continued to tour but eventually all of the founding members except Axl were gone. Well he wasn't one to let things die so he just replaced everyone and kept using the name Guns N' Roses.
They released a version of the Rolling Stones song Sympathy for the Devil to go along with the movie Interview With the Vampire. This was the first sign to people that maybe they would be releasing some new material. Then in 1999 a new song came out called Oh My God. People thought this might go on their new album but it wound up on the soundtrack for the movie End of Days. Then in 2002 they made a surprise appearance at the end of the MTV Video Music awards. They performed older material as well as a new song called Madagascar. This again sparked interest in the album and it wasn't too long after that the name Chinese Democracy was released. But we'd have to wait another 6 years before the album would actually come out.
For those of you that don't know the band was formed from two other bands the LA Guns and Hollywood Rose, hence the name Guns N' Roses. But with Axl the only one left that doesn't really apply anymore. I believe, like other people, that he should have either changed the name of the band or just released it as Axl Rose instead of Guns N' Roses. Hell there's more members of Guns N' Roses in Velvet Revolver now than any other band.
Now one interesting thing is if you look at the credits inside the CD jacket you will see that they are about the longest of any other album. With close to 13 years of production and more studios and musicians than most people can name it's no wonder it looks more like the credits of a movie than a CD.
A funny thing that happened was in 2007 Dr. Pepper said they were going to give a free 20 ounce bottle to everyone in America when the new GNR album was released. Well they made good on their offer and on the day the album was released you could go to their website to get your coupon. Of course due to high demand the website wouldn't load. They added an extra day but it still wouldn't load then either.
So the question remains, is the album any good? Well my answer is, yes. This is one of those albums that could have easily disappointed everybody. Being the most anticipated album of all time gives it a lot to live up to. But this just shows that Axl can still make good music.
Now the album starts off pretty fast. The first two songs, Chinese Democracy and Shackler's Revenge, are pretty heavy and are somewhat reminiscent of the old GNR sound. However in both of those songs Axl's voice has been given the industrial treatment. It's been what I like to call Britneyized. This is where they use a program like Pro Tools to alter the voice to make it sound any way they like. This effect isn't a bad thing but the first time I heard Shackler's Revenge it took me a bit before I remembered it's Guns N' Roses.
What's interesting is there seem to be more slow songs on this album than harder songs. This isn't really a bad thing but when you think of Guns N' Roses usually you think of the harder songs like Welcome To the Jungle. But the slower songs are good and Street of Dreams is a power ballad that reminds you a bit of songs like November Rain. What is unfortunate with the slower songs is the albums starts off with a really fast pace but then it loses momentum and never gets it back.
Listening to it you can obviously tell that Slash is missing from the equation. The guitar work is good but it's lacking his signature style that really made the band sound good. I believe that Slash was the heart of the band and when he left it probably should have just died. Now there is still some insane guitar work, especially on Shackler's Revenge. The guitar work in that song is done by the guitarist known as Buckethead who had a brief tenure with the band and even performed with them at the VMAs.
If you are one of the older hardcore fans of the band then it's hard to say whether or not you will like this album. I personally am not a huge fan and while I miss Slash I don't think that's going to make the new band suck. So I say take it for what it's worth. It's a good rock album. Nothing more nothing less.
My score: 8.0/10
This is the first album of new material from the band in 17 years. Their last releases were the dual albums of Use Your Illusion I and Use Your Illusion II both released in 1991. Then in 1993 they released The Spaghetti Incident but that was all cover songs. Shortly after that the band broke up and most people thought that was the end. But Axl Rose continued to try and carry on the Guns N' Roses name and said that an album of new material would be coming. Officially this album has been in the works since 1994 because at the time Axl and Slash had begun to write and record some new material. Whether or not that material is in this album probably won't be known.
A lot of people were hoping that Axl and Slash could bury the hatchet and get the band back together but Axl is very stubborn and Slash had moved onto other projects. The band continued to tour but eventually all of the founding members except Axl were gone. Well he wasn't one to let things die so he just replaced everyone and kept using the name Guns N' Roses.
They released a version of the Rolling Stones song Sympathy for the Devil to go along with the movie Interview With the Vampire. This was the first sign to people that maybe they would be releasing some new material. Then in 1999 a new song came out called Oh My God. People thought this might go on their new album but it wound up on the soundtrack for the movie End of Days. Then in 2002 they made a surprise appearance at the end of the MTV Video Music awards. They performed older material as well as a new song called Madagascar. This again sparked interest in the album and it wasn't too long after that the name Chinese Democracy was released. But we'd have to wait another 6 years before the album would actually come out.
For those of you that don't know the band was formed from two other bands the LA Guns and Hollywood Rose, hence the name Guns N' Roses. But with Axl the only one left that doesn't really apply anymore. I believe, like other people, that he should have either changed the name of the band or just released it as Axl Rose instead of Guns N' Roses. Hell there's more members of Guns N' Roses in Velvet Revolver now than any other band.
Now one interesting thing is if you look at the credits inside the CD jacket you will see that they are about the longest of any other album. With close to 13 years of production and more studios and musicians than most people can name it's no wonder it looks more like the credits of a movie than a CD.
A funny thing that happened was in 2007 Dr. Pepper said they were going to give a free 20 ounce bottle to everyone in America when the new GNR album was released. Well they made good on their offer and on the day the album was released you could go to their website to get your coupon. Of course due to high demand the website wouldn't load. They added an extra day but it still wouldn't load then either.
So the question remains, is the album any good? Well my answer is, yes. This is one of those albums that could have easily disappointed everybody. Being the most anticipated album of all time gives it a lot to live up to. But this just shows that Axl can still make good music.
Now the album starts off pretty fast. The first two songs, Chinese Democracy and Shackler's Revenge, are pretty heavy and are somewhat reminiscent of the old GNR sound. However in both of those songs Axl's voice has been given the industrial treatment. It's been what I like to call Britneyized. This is where they use a program like Pro Tools to alter the voice to make it sound any way they like. This effect isn't a bad thing but the first time I heard Shackler's Revenge it took me a bit before I remembered it's Guns N' Roses.
What's interesting is there seem to be more slow songs on this album than harder songs. This isn't really a bad thing but when you think of Guns N' Roses usually you think of the harder songs like Welcome To the Jungle. But the slower songs are good and Street of Dreams is a power ballad that reminds you a bit of songs like November Rain. What is unfortunate with the slower songs is the albums starts off with a really fast pace but then it loses momentum and never gets it back.
Listening to it you can obviously tell that Slash is missing from the equation. The guitar work is good but it's lacking his signature style that really made the band sound good. I believe that Slash was the heart of the band and when he left it probably should have just died. Now there is still some insane guitar work, especially on Shackler's Revenge. The guitar work in that song is done by the guitarist known as Buckethead who had a brief tenure with the band and even performed with them at the VMAs.
If you are one of the older hardcore fans of the band then it's hard to say whether or not you will like this album. I personally am not a huge fan and while I miss Slash I don't think that's going to make the new band suck. So I say take it for what it's worth. It's a good rock album. Nothing more nothing less.
My score: 8.0/10
Thursday, December 4, 2008
Movie review: Transporter 3
If you are a fan of Jason Statham or action movies then I'm sure you are familiar with the Transporter series. In this series Statham plays Frank Martin. He is a man who's job it is to transport whatever you need no questions asked. The staples of the series are fast driving, impossible car stunts and over-the-top fight scenes. Statham is a pretty good martial arts background so he does all of his own stunts.
In this particular movie Frank is forced into transporting a package and a girl across Europe. But the catch here is if he moves more than 75 feet away from the car a bracelet he's wearing will explode. Of course this means that he will always be close to his car and it leads to some pretty interesting scenes where he's forced to stay within that 75 feet. But this wasn't used that much which is a good thing and a bad thing. It's good because it wasn't overdone but it's bad because it wasn't really used to its full potential.
Of course in a movie like this the plot isn't really that important. It's just an excuse for Frank to beat people up and drive his car really fast and crash it into stuff. I won't go into the details of the plot because again they aren't that important.
The main villain is played by Robert Knepper who some of you might know as T-Bag from Prison Break. He does a pretty good job as the villain and thankfully the character isn't a clone of his character from Prison Break.
You can't talk about a movie like this without talking about the action scenes. All in all they were pretty good. But none of them can hold a candle to the oil slick fight scene from the first movie or the flip jump from the second movie. What is good is that he uses the environment as well as his clothes to help him win fights against a small gang of bad guys.
This is just one of those movies that's fun to watch. You don't go into it expecting a great plot or great acting. You go to be entertained for 90 minutes and this movie accomplishes that. So sit back and enjoy and hope that Statham's next project Crank 2: High Voltage lives up to the standards of his previous work in the action genre.
My score: 7.5/10
In this particular movie Frank is forced into transporting a package and a girl across Europe. But the catch here is if he moves more than 75 feet away from the car a bracelet he's wearing will explode. Of course this means that he will always be close to his car and it leads to some pretty interesting scenes where he's forced to stay within that 75 feet. But this wasn't used that much which is a good thing and a bad thing. It's good because it wasn't overdone but it's bad because it wasn't really used to its full potential.
Of course in a movie like this the plot isn't really that important. It's just an excuse for Frank to beat people up and drive his car really fast and crash it into stuff. I won't go into the details of the plot because again they aren't that important.
The main villain is played by Robert Knepper who some of you might know as T-Bag from Prison Break. He does a pretty good job as the villain and thankfully the character isn't a clone of his character from Prison Break.
You can't talk about a movie like this without talking about the action scenes. All in all they were pretty good. But none of them can hold a candle to the oil slick fight scene from the first movie or the flip jump from the second movie. What is good is that he uses the environment as well as his clothes to help him win fights against a small gang of bad guys.
This is just one of those movies that's fun to watch. You don't go into it expecting a great plot or great acting. You go to be entertained for 90 minutes and this movie accomplishes that. So sit back and enjoy and hope that Statham's next project Crank 2: High Voltage lives up to the standards of his previous work in the action genre.
My score: 7.5/10
Wednesday, December 3, 2008
Movie review: Twilight
Have you ever wondered what an emo vampire would be like? If so then Twilight is your chance to find out. Twilight is based on the first book of a popular new series. Now keep in mind when reading this that I have not read the books so I can't make any comparisons. I am just taking this movie as it is.
The movie follows a young girl named Bella who moves into upstate Washington to live with her Dad. While going to school she noticed a boy named Edward and develops an infatuation with him. But she notices that there is something different about him and his family. When he saves her life by pushing aside a van with his hand she starts to investigate. It doesn't take long before she figures out he's a vampire and confronts him with it.
Edward acts like a lot of emo kids. He's quiet and reserved and seems to shy away from society. But at the same time he looks a bit like a goth without the weird clothes and heavy makeup. But one thing I couldn't help but notice about him, and this was pointed out by a friend, were his huge eyebrows. It looks like he's got a caterpillar above each eye and at times it was a bit distracting. Is it too much to ask for them to pluck them or wax them before filming?
Of course every movie has to have a villain. In this case it's some other vampires that show up and want to hunt Bella. Now Edward and his family are all what they call vegetarians because they don't feed on people, just animals. But these other vampires are not so two of them decide to track Bella while her and Edward run away. As you'd expect this leads to a dramatic fight scene and the prerequisite "is the main character going to die?" part.
You could tell that this is just the first part of a series and they are establishing characters and getting things ready for the sequels that are bound to come. My big problem with this movie was it was nothing I really hadn't seen before. The girl falling in love with a vampire thing has been ton a of times before, the TV show Moonlight for example. But everything felt like it was something I had seen before.
There was a cool scene where the vampires were playing baseball but it didn't last as long as it should have. There are a lot of great things they could have done with that scene but I think it only lasted about 2 minutes before it stopped. Now another scene I think I have to mention is when Edward goes out into the sun. When he does his skin shines like one of Liberace's suits. This is done to explain why he's never around in the daytime but it's weird and I was expecting Elton John to walk out and start playing a song.
As for the acting all around it was just OK. Bella and Edward are relative newcomers and I'm sure as the series goes on their skills will improve. But early in the film it seemed like people were trying to be like the average small town people but it was obvious they were faking. Also some of the teenagers were trying just a little bit too hard to be typical teenagers. Thankfully it didn't degrade to cliché or all the girls acting like valley girls. But they were just a little too atypical to seem real. At times the whole thing seemed a bit boring which should not happen in a movie about vampires. I kept asking myself when it was going to get good and people were going to going to get eaten.
Also I felt parts of the movie felt a bit rushed. It's like Bella falls in love with Edward right away before she even knows him. I understand the whole love at first sight thing but it's like he went from wanting to avoid her at all costs to being madly in love with her overnight.
One thing vampire movies seem to do a lot is change what exactly a vampire is. In this movie they can go out during the day, are super strong, super fast and fire is the best way to kill them.
Overall I'd say this was an OK vampire movie. Although it is hard to classify it as a vampire movie because very little blood was drank during the course of the film. I'd be more inclined to call this a teenage romance movie with vampires in it.
My score: 6.5/10
The movie follows a young girl named Bella who moves into upstate Washington to live with her Dad. While going to school she noticed a boy named Edward and develops an infatuation with him. But she notices that there is something different about him and his family. When he saves her life by pushing aside a van with his hand she starts to investigate. It doesn't take long before she figures out he's a vampire and confronts him with it.
Edward acts like a lot of emo kids. He's quiet and reserved and seems to shy away from society. But at the same time he looks a bit like a goth without the weird clothes and heavy makeup. But one thing I couldn't help but notice about him, and this was pointed out by a friend, were his huge eyebrows. It looks like he's got a caterpillar above each eye and at times it was a bit distracting. Is it too much to ask for them to pluck them or wax them before filming?
Of course every movie has to have a villain. In this case it's some other vampires that show up and want to hunt Bella. Now Edward and his family are all what they call vegetarians because they don't feed on people, just animals. But these other vampires are not so two of them decide to track Bella while her and Edward run away. As you'd expect this leads to a dramatic fight scene and the prerequisite "is the main character going to die?" part.
You could tell that this is just the first part of a series and they are establishing characters and getting things ready for the sequels that are bound to come. My big problem with this movie was it was nothing I really hadn't seen before. The girl falling in love with a vampire thing has been ton a of times before, the TV show Moonlight for example. But everything felt like it was something I had seen before.
There was a cool scene where the vampires were playing baseball but it didn't last as long as it should have. There are a lot of great things they could have done with that scene but I think it only lasted about 2 minutes before it stopped. Now another scene I think I have to mention is when Edward goes out into the sun. When he does his skin shines like one of Liberace's suits. This is done to explain why he's never around in the daytime but it's weird and I was expecting Elton John to walk out and start playing a song.
As for the acting all around it was just OK. Bella and Edward are relative newcomers and I'm sure as the series goes on their skills will improve. But early in the film it seemed like people were trying to be like the average small town people but it was obvious they were faking. Also some of the teenagers were trying just a little bit too hard to be typical teenagers. Thankfully it didn't degrade to cliché or all the girls acting like valley girls. But they were just a little too atypical to seem real. At times the whole thing seemed a bit boring which should not happen in a movie about vampires. I kept asking myself when it was going to get good and people were going to going to get eaten.
Also I felt parts of the movie felt a bit rushed. It's like Bella falls in love with Edward right away before she even knows him. I understand the whole love at first sight thing but it's like he went from wanting to avoid her at all costs to being madly in love with her overnight.
One thing vampire movies seem to do a lot is change what exactly a vampire is. In this movie they can go out during the day, are super strong, super fast and fire is the best way to kill them.
Overall I'd say this was an OK vampire movie. Although it is hard to classify it as a vampire movie because very little blood was drank during the course of the film. I'd be more inclined to call this a teenage romance movie with vampires in it.
My score: 6.5/10
Tuesday, December 2, 2008
Album review: AC/DC - Black Ice
Black Ice is the first studio album from AC/DC in 8 years. Thankfully this one doesn't disappoint. If you are a fan of AC/DC then it will appeal to you right away. All the tracks of that typical AC/DC sound with the rough sounding vocals from Brian Johnson and the great guitar work from Angus Young.
The album does a good job of keeping up the pacing. It starts off pretty fast with Rock N' Roll Train and it only real slows down a few times. But the slower songs are still good and have that distinct sound that AC/DC is known for. One thing I did notice is the song Decibel seemed like they borrowed a bit from the sound of ZZ Top especially the song Waiting for the Bus.
An interesting thing is how some things in the album repeat. I'm not saying all the songs sound alike but for example at least 4 of the songs start off with the right channel only and then the left is added in later. Also with the song titles the term Rock N' Roll shows up a few times but more than that just "N" shows up a few times more.
As far as the songs go my favorite is Rock N' Roll Train but the other highlights are Spoilin' for a Fight and the title track Black Ice.
If you are a fan of AC/DC then I don't think I need to recommend this album. If you aren't a fan then I don't think this album will change your mind. If you aren't familiar with them this could be a good place to start but I'd recommend Back In Black as a better choice. But all in all this is another good album from a classic rock band.
My score: 8.0/10
The album does a good job of keeping up the pacing. It starts off pretty fast with Rock N' Roll Train and it only real slows down a few times. But the slower songs are still good and have that distinct sound that AC/DC is known for. One thing I did notice is the song Decibel seemed like they borrowed a bit from the sound of ZZ Top especially the song Waiting for the Bus.
An interesting thing is how some things in the album repeat. I'm not saying all the songs sound alike but for example at least 4 of the songs start off with the right channel only and then the left is added in later. Also with the song titles the term Rock N' Roll shows up a few times but more than that just "N" shows up a few times more.
As far as the songs go my favorite is Rock N' Roll Train but the other highlights are Spoilin' for a Fight and the title track Black Ice.
If you are a fan of AC/DC then I don't think I need to recommend this album. If you aren't a fan then I don't think this album will change your mind. If you aren't familiar with them this could be a good place to start but I'd recommend Back In Black as a better choice. But all in all this is another good album from a classic rock band.
My score: 8.0/10
Monday, December 1, 2008
Movie review: Bolt
For as long as I can remember I've been a fan of animated movies and Disney's latest didn't disappoint. Ever since Pixar and Disney split a few years back Disney decided to start making their own CG movies. Now even though Pixar and Disney are back together Disney has continued to make their own. Their latest is called Bolt.
The story is about a dog named Bolt who is the star of a hit TV show. But what he doesn't know is that he is the star of a TV show. The producers go to great lengths to make him think that it is real to get a more genuine reaction. Well one day after shooting Bolt manages to get shipped off to New York City. There he meets up with 3 pigeons who lead him to a snarky alley cat named Mittens voice by Susie Essman who some people might know from Curb Your Enthusiasm. They then set off on a cross-country road trip to get back to Bolt's owner Penny, voiced by Miley Cyrus. What follows is your typical buddy road movie. They become really good friends, argue and have some escapes and adventures. Also along the way they meet up with a super-fan hamster named Rhino who travels around in a clear hamster ball.
The movie has some genuinely funny moments (including a reference to Finding Nemo) and some ones that are pretty touching. One way this movie differs from other Disney movies of this type is there really isn't an all around villain. There is a man that Bolt blames for everything but he is a character on the TV show. The only person that comes close is Penny's agent/manager but he is more a leech than anything else. it would have been nice to have a bit more conflict. Something that was hindering the character's progress but if it was done wrong it could have become very cliché.
The movie looks really good. It is not really up to par with movies like Finding Nemo or Wall-E but for a non-Pixar movie it looks pretty good. You can tell that most of the effort was put into Bolt, Mittens and other animals so the humans have that Toy Story like look to them. The environments do look really good even if they don't stay in one place for too long.
When it comes to the voice acting I thought it was solid all around. John Travolta did a good job as the main character and after a while you forget that he's the one doing the voice. Susie Essman did a good job too and not having watched Curb Your Enthusiasm I didn't recognize her voice but she gave the character a real distinctive personality. The comic relief of the movie came from Rhino voiced by Mark Walton who is an artist for Disney as well as a veteran voice-actor.
I would say if you have kids than you should definitely take them to see this movie. But as a parent you won't be disappointed as there is enough there to keep both kids and adults entertained. Yes the story is a bit predictable and doesn't really do anything new with the buddy movie idea but the concept and characters help you get around that. But if you don't have kids are just a fan of Disney movies or animated movies in general I say check this one out. Hopefully it can tide everyone over until the next Pixar movie comes out.
My score: 7.5/10
The story is about a dog named Bolt who is the star of a hit TV show. But what he doesn't know is that he is the star of a TV show. The producers go to great lengths to make him think that it is real to get a more genuine reaction. Well one day after shooting Bolt manages to get shipped off to New York City. There he meets up with 3 pigeons who lead him to a snarky alley cat named Mittens voice by Susie Essman who some people might know from Curb Your Enthusiasm. They then set off on a cross-country road trip to get back to Bolt's owner Penny, voiced by Miley Cyrus. What follows is your typical buddy road movie. They become really good friends, argue and have some escapes and adventures. Also along the way they meet up with a super-fan hamster named Rhino who travels around in a clear hamster ball.
The movie has some genuinely funny moments (including a reference to Finding Nemo) and some ones that are pretty touching. One way this movie differs from other Disney movies of this type is there really isn't an all around villain. There is a man that Bolt blames for everything but he is a character on the TV show. The only person that comes close is Penny's agent/manager but he is more a leech than anything else. it would have been nice to have a bit more conflict. Something that was hindering the character's progress but if it was done wrong it could have become very cliché.
The movie looks really good. It is not really up to par with movies like Finding Nemo or Wall-E but for a non-Pixar movie it looks pretty good. You can tell that most of the effort was put into Bolt, Mittens and other animals so the humans have that Toy Story like look to them. The environments do look really good even if they don't stay in one place for too long.
When it comes to the voice acting I thought it was solid all around. John Travolta did a good job as the main character and after a while you forget that he's the one doing the voice. Susie Essman did a good job too and not having watched Curb Your Enthusiasm I didn't recognize her voice but she gave the character a real distinctive personality. The comic relief of the movie came from Rhino voiced by Mark Walton who is an artist for Disney as well as a veteran voice-actor.
I would say if you have kids than you should definitely take them to see this movie. But as a parent you won't be disappointed as there is enough there to keep both kids and adults entertained. Yes the story is a bit predictable and doesn't really do anything new with the buddy movie idea but the concept and characters help you get around that. But if you don't have kids are just a fan of Disney movies or animated movies in general I say check this one out. Hopefully it can tide everyone over until the next Pixar movie comes out.
My score: 7.5/10
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Game review: World of Goo
World of Goo is one of those little known games that becomes a darling to the critics. This will most likely be the game to pick up those Best Game No One Played awards. It's one of those games with a simple premise but it takes it in a lot of different directions. It was developed by an independent game developer and became a darling at E3 and it took attention away from some bigger games in the show.
First off the game is a puzzle game. You play God in a world made up of Goo Balls. These are little round blobs with eyes and spend all their time moving back and forth like Lemmings. Just like Lemmings if you aren't careful you can send them to their doom. In each level you are given a simple objective. Make a structure out of the Goo Balls to get them to a pipe where they will get sucked up. Of course each level is going to have a different number that need to make it for you to complete it.
Where the difficulty lies is in the physics system. If you build a structure that leans too far to the right then before you know it it will come crashing down on you. Or if you are trying to make one over some deadly spikes you have to make sure it doesn't dip too far down or that will be the end of your little Goo Balls.
You are collecting them for the World of Goo Corporation. The only person helping you along the way is a mysterious person known only as The Sign Painter. In each level there will be at least one sign you can click on that will give you a general idea of how to complete the level and what the different Goo Balls do.
In regards to that there are many different kinds of Goo Balls. There are ones that are one-time use, there are ones that can be grabbed and used as many times as you want, there are some that behaving like balloons, and many others.
There are a total of 48 levels in the game and they range from really easy to frustratingly difficult. Each level has a minimal goal but it also has a harder goal they dub as OCD (Obsessive Completion Distinction). As of this review I have not completed every level and I probably won't be able to any time soon.
The game has a definite charm. The graphics are very colorful and unique. When you grab onto the Goo Balls they much a fun little "wheee" sound and when you place them they say a word in their little Goo Ball language. The music in the game is also done very well. It fits with the charm of the rest of the game and doesn't distract you from your playing.
Now the biggest downside of this game are the controls. If you are playing on the PC you use the mouse to move your cursor and to click on and move the Goo Balls. If you are playing on the Wii you point your Wii Remote at the screen just like you would the mouse. Now I have only played the PC version so I can't speak for the Wii's controls. But what I can say is in some levels you are required to be very fast. The cursor doesn't respond as fast as it should and sometimes with tons of things on the screen it's hard to get it to lock onto what you need. Sometimes you'll find you've clicked on the wrong thing and the next thing you know half of your remaining Goo Balls are dead or your structure has collapsed. This did make me want to bang my head against the wall a few times but thankfully you usually have a choice of a few different levels you can play and you can go back to the tough ones and try them later.
The game also tries to have a bit of a community feature. For each level you complete you earn Goo Balls that go into your stash. You can then use those to build your own Tower of Goo. The only objective here is to build it as high as possible and make it so it will stay standing. Then you are shown clouds floating through the sky with the names and countries of other players and how tall their towers are. It is fun when you build yours up and see that Sven from Norway is 2 meters shorter than you. But one wrong move and your whole tower will come crashing to Earth and you can almost hear Sven laughing at you all the way from Norway.
So do yourself a favor and pick up this game if you are at all interested in puzzle games or just want something cute to help the hours tick away. For $20 you can't go wrong.
My score: 8.0/10
First off the game is a puzzle game. You play God in a world made up of Goo Balls. These are little round blobs with eyes and spend all their time moving back and forth like Lemmings. Just like Lemmings if you aren't careful you can send them to their doom. In each level you are given a simple objective. Make a structure out of the Goo Balls to get them to a pipe where they will get sucked up. Of course each level is going to have a different number that need to make it for you to complete it.
Where the difficulty lies is in the physics system. If you build a structure that leans too far to the right then before you know it it will come crashing down on you. Or if you are trying to make one over some deadly spikes you have to make sure it doesn't dip too far down or that will be the end of your little Goo Balls.
You are collecting them for the World of Goo Corporation. The only person helping you along the way is a mysterious person known only as The Sign Painter. In each level there will be at least one sign you can click on that will give you a general idea of how to complete the level and what the different Goo Balls do.
In regards to that there are many different kinds of Goo Balls. There are ones that are one-time use, there are ones that can be grabbed and used as many times as you want, there are some that behaving like balloons, and many others.
There are a total of 48 levels in the game and they range from really easy to frustratingly difficult. Each level has a minimal goal but it also has a harder goal they dub as OCD (Obsessive Completion Distinction). As of this review I have not completed every level and I probably won't be able to any time soon.
The game has a definite charm. The graphics are very colorful and unique. When you grab onto the Goo Balls they much a fun little "wheee" sound and when you place them they say a word in their little Goo Ball language. The music in the game is also done very well. It fits with the charm of the rest of the game and doesn't distract you from your playing.
Now the biggest downside of this game are the controls. If you are playing on the PC you use the mouse to move your cursor and to click on and move the Goo Balls. If you are playing on the Wii you point your Wii Remote at the screen just like you would the mouse. Now I have only played the PC version so I can't speak for the Wii's controls. But what I can say is in some levels you are required to be very fast. The cursor doesn't respond as fast as it should and sometimes with tons of things on the screen it's hard to get it to lock onto what you need. Sometimes you'll find you've clicked on the wrong thing and the next thing you know half of your remaining Goo Balls are dead or your structure has collapsed. This did make me want to bang my head against the wall a few times but thankfully you usually have a choice of a few different levels you can play and you can go back to the tough ones and try them later.
The game also tries to have a bit of a community feature. For each level you complete you earn Goo Balls that go into your stash. You can then use those to build your own Tower of Goo. The only objective here is to build it as high as possible and make it so it will stay standing. Then you are shown clouds floating through the sky with the names and countries of other players and how tall their towers are. It is fun when you build yours up and see that Sven from Norway is 2 meters shorter than you. But one wrong move and your whole tower will come crashing to Earth and you can almost hear Sven laughing at you all the way from Norway.
So do yourself a favor and pick up this game if you are at all interested in puzzle games or just want something cute to help the hours tick away. For $20 you can't go wrong.
My score: 8.0/10
Wednesday, November 26, 2008
Movie review: Quantum of Solace
First off let me say that I am a James Bond fan. I own and have seen every one of the movies. So as you can imagine I've been waiting a while for the new Bond movie.
This one didn't quite live up to the hype though. I will say that it has some great action scenes and some good fights. There is a scene where Bond and one of the bad guys crash through a glass ceiling and land on scaffold and continue to fight from there. Also the movie starts out with a pretty good chase in which his Aston Martin gets pretty messed up.
Onto the movie itself. It starts out not long after the events of Casino Royale so Bond is still feeling the weight of his girlfriend's betrayal and death. He decides to go after the people that she worked with and at the same time try to get the people responsible for her death. But of course his higher ups don't think this is a good idea. So Bond goes rogue and decides to take matters into his own hands.
I won't get too much into the plot but there is a man who runs a large corporation and he wants to install a dictator in a country so he can control the oil. The problem I had with this villain is he wasn't as menacing as previous ones in the series. Even when the movies started to get a bit corny you still felt like the villain was a real threat. In this case he just seemed like some guy Bond was chasing after for 2 hours.
Now no Bond movie would be complete without the girl. As usual they picked a girl who is very beautiful. But since Bond hasn't completely gotten over his old flame their relationship never really goes as far as in previous movies. Let's hope by the next movie they can bring him back to his usual womanizing self.
If you are a fan of the Bond series then I say you should definitely see this. But it's not going to rank up there with the best of the best. I will say it was interesting when at one point they killed a character in a way that was a very obvious homage to Goldfinger. I still think Daniel Craig has the potential to be one of the best Bonds but he needs to make sure he doesn't suffer from what happened to Brosnan where a good Bond is hurt by not so good movies.
Lastly I'd like to leave with my list of the Bond actors from favorite to least favorite:
1. Sean Connery
2. Daniel Craig
3. Pierce Brosnan
4. Roger Moore
5. Timothy Dalton
6. George Lazenby
And my top 5 Bond movies (in no particular order):
1. Goldeneye
2. Casino Royale
3. You Only Live Twice
4. The Man With the Golden Gun
5. Goldfinger
My score is 7.5/10.
This one didn't quite live up to the hype though. I will say that it has some great action scenes and some good fights. There is a scene where Bond and one of the bad guys crash through a glass ceiling and land on scaffold and continue to fight from there. Also the movie starts out with a pretty good chase in which his Aston Martin gets pretty messed up.
Onto the movie itself. It starts out not long after the events of Casino Royale so Bond is still feeling the weight of his girlfriend's betrayal and death. He decides to go after the people that she worked with and at the same time try to get the people responsible for her death. But of course his higher ups don't think this is a good idea. So Bond goes rogue and decides to take matters into his own hands.
I won't get too much into the plot but there is a man who runs a large corporation and he wants to install a dictator in a country so he can control the oil. The problem I had with this villain is he wasn't as menacing as previous ones in the series. Even when the movies started to get a bit corny you still felt like the villain was a real threat. In this case he just seemed like some guy Bond was chasing after for 2 hours.
Now no Bond movie would be complete without the girl. As usual they picked a girl who is very beautiful. But since Bond hasn't completely gotten over his old flame their relationship never really goes as far as in previous movies. Let's hope by the next movie they can bring him back to his usual womanizing self.
If you are a fan of the Bond series then I say you should definitely see this. But it's not going to rank up there with the best of the best. I will say it was interesting when at one point they killed a character in a way that was a very obvious homage to Goldfinger. I still think Daniel Craig has the potential to be one of the best Bonds but he needs to make sure he doesn't suffer from what happened to Brosnan where a good Bond is hurt by not so good movies.
Lastly I'd like to leave with my list of the Bond actors from favorite to least favorite:
1. Sean Connery
2. Daniel Craig
3. Pierce Brosnan
4. Roger Moore
5. Timothy Dalton
6. George Lazenby
And my top 5 Bond movies (in no particular order):
1. Goldeneye
2. Casino Royale
3. You Only Live Twice
4. The Man With the Golden Gun
5. Goldfinger
My score is 7.5/10.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Game review: GTA IV
I have talked about one big game so I might as well talk about another. One of the biggest games this year and one that is sure to win a lot of awards come next year is Grand Theft Auto IV. Now even thought this is Grand Theft Auto IV it is actually the 11th game in the series if you count everything else including the expansion packs. But Rockstar seems to subscribe to the theory that numbering systems don't really matter. But since the is the next game in the series after GTA III to be set in Liberty City it's logical that it be the next number.
You play as Niko Bellic who just came into this country illegally after fleeing from his past in Eastern Europe. You meet up with your cousin Roman who has filled your head with tales of the American dream. He talks about his beautiful big titted girlfriend and the huge house that he lives in. You come to find out that he is barely hanging onto his girlfriend and he actually lives in a rundown apartment. As is the usual style in Grand Theft Auto games you need to get money so Roman offers you a job driving his cab. So you spend the first part of the game driving people around while the game gives you some tutorials. In fact this game has a lot of tutorials. There are so many gameplay elements here like driving, shooting, taking cover, flying, boating and the various mini games that it takes a while to get through all of them.
But after a bit you get into the business that GTA is best known for and that's killing a lot of people. GTA IV does this really well. One problem I had with the previous games is how damn hard they are. Like in San Andreas it was very hard to go into a gunfight without being hit from every direction. Even with a full load of health and body armor you could only take this for so long. I actually found myself cheating to get through the game. I had the same problem with GTA III and Vice City. Thankfully GTA IV has helped this problem with the cover system. You just go up to an object like a car, box or wall and press the button and your character hides behind. Then you just need to lock onto your enemy and hit the right button and you'll pop out and take a few shots. Now this doesn't make the shooting parts easy by any means. It just means that they won't get the point of being next to impossible. Just imagine if you'd had that option in San Andreas when you were asked to take over new territory from rival gangs. The guns in the game are pretty good and don't deviate too much from the norm. Of course it is always nice to pick of an enemy's head or arm with a sniper rifle or to climb on a roof and play clock tower sniper on the masses below.
Talking about the game’s graphics the game is great to look at. The character models are done well and they have a good amount of expression in their faces. The cars also look great and show very realistic levels of damage. The buildings look good too but there is a bit lack of color expect in the Times Square type area. But even that looks kind of dark and dreary at times. But don't let that detract you because overall the game looks great and outside the draw distances are really good. The only problem I found was texture pop-in. Where you'd walk into a room and suddenly objects and textures would suddenly come into view. But this wasn't enough to distract from the rest of the game. Now I have been told that the PS3 version didn't suffer from this as much but on my 360 it happened quite a bit.
Let's talk about the story. The game's story is quite good and there are even some branching options. While the early ones don't affect gameplay too much at the end of the game you are given a big choice which will affect how the game ends. At this point I've only seen one of the endings but if you save in the right place seeing the other ending is too hard. It will probably take you about 20 hours or so to get through the story if you don't do too many of the side quests but I say don't pass those up because they are quite a bit of fun in themselves.
Now one thing that has turned a lot of people away from this game is the driving. In the old GTA games the cars handled a bit like the tires were covered in grease. It would only take the slightest movement to send them sliding back and forth and then wind up slamming into another car and into a wall. Now the cars handle much more like real cars and are a bit more stiff. I personally like this because once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy to brake at just the right time to take a turn at high speed. Also at high speeds your car still handles about the same so if you get pretty adept you can weave in and out of traffic like a pro. But just be careful because if you hit another car or stationary object too fast you'll find yourself sailing through the window like a lawn dart shot out of a cannon.
Every Grand Theft Auto game would not be complete without the police. Some people could say that there aren't that many cops in the city but I say they are kept to a realistic level. In some previous GTA games they were almost as numerous as taxi cabs. Now they will ignore your driving for the most part unless you slam into them, slam into another car at a high enough speed or run people over. This will trigger the always beloved police chase. In previous games it would sometimes be quite a task to evade the police and when you did you'd feel very satisfied. In this case they dumb it down quite a bit. On your map will be shown your location as well as the locations of any cops in the area. Also on the map will be a large flashing circle. This indicates where they are patrolling. All you have to do is drive outside that circle without being seen and park your car for 10 or 15 seconds the chase ends. Now this can be complicated if there is a helicopter after you but those can be lost by going into tunnels or narrow streets or alleys. So most of the time when you do evade the police you don't get that same sense of satisfaction as you did in previous games.
When it comes to the missions they are pretty standard GTA fare. There are the ones where you are sent somewhere to kill this guy or that guy, or you have to drive this person somewhere, or you have to pick up a package and deliver it to someone. There is enough variety to them that you don't really notice you are doing the same ones over and over again.
There are a few more things I need to nitpick a little bit. First there is your cell phone. It is a neat concept and works for the most part. The biggest problem is when you are speeding down the road at breakneck speed and you get a text message. If you try to read it you are going to crash. So you'll either have to skip it or stop the car. Also even though my eyes are pretty decent I sometimes had a tough time reading the text on the phone so I'd read what I could and close the message. The other thing is the map that appears at the bottom of the screen. You can use a waypoint system that will give you turn-by-turn directions to your destination. But the only way to tell is with the map. Normally this wouldn't be a bad thing but they make the line for it a dark green and it winds up blending in with the rest of the map. Now in missions they make this line yellow. So my thought was why not make it another bright color instead of dark green?
One of the biggest things with this game is the addition of multiplayer. There are quite a few modes of play including your standard deathmatch and team deathmatch. Then if you get tired of killing people there are races but you can compete in GTA races which allow you to use guns. There are quite a few other multiplayer game types but I'm not going to name them all so I'd shoot over to Wikipedia and look them up if you are interested. Now they do break up the standard multiplayer formula a bit. In games like Halo 3 the guy with the most kills wins. In this game that isn't always true. When you kill someone they drop money and you have to pick it up to increase your score. So the person that wins is the person with the most money. So the fun comes in running up and stealing it from someone's fresh kill. Now you can compete on either small sections of the map or the entire map. Now I didn't ever find anyone playing on the whole map because even with a full lobby of players it would take forever to find each other.
The multiplayer runs pretty smoothly and I didn't notice any lag. The problem I did have early on was actually connecting to it. I bought the game right when it came out and I either couldn't get into a game or I'd constantly get booted. But after a few weeks this problem seemed to correct itself as all those retarded monkeys that had been playing before were replaced by real people.
So lastly I say if you like the Grand Theft Auto games then at this point this game is a no brainer. If you are new to the series this is a good place to start and if you like the open world style gameplay then you can't go wrong with the series that really invented the concept.
My score is 9.5/10
You play as Niko Bellic who just came into this country illegally after fleeing from his past in Eastern Europe. You meet up with your cousin Roman who has filled your head with tales of the American dream. He talks about his beautiful big titted girlfriend and the huge house that he lives in. You come to find out that he is barely hanging onto his girlfriend and he actually lives in a rundown apartment. As is the usual style in Grand Theft Auto games you need to get money so Roman offers you a job driving his cab. So you spend the first part of the game driving people around while the game gives you some tutorials. In fact this game has a lot of tutorials. There are so many gameplay elements here like driving, shooting, taking cover, flying, boating and the various mini games that it takes a while to get through all of them.
But after a bit you get into the business that GTA is best known for and that's killing a lot of people. GTA IV does this really well. One problem I had with the previous games is how damn hard they are. Like in San Andreas it was very hard to go into a gunfight without being hit from every direction. Even with a full load of health and body armor you could only take this for so long. I actually found myself cheating to get through the game. I had the same problem with GTA III and Vice City. Thankfully GTA IV has helped this problem with the cover system. You just go up to an object like a car, box or wall and press the button and your character hides behind. Then you just need to lock onto your enemy and hit the right button and you'll pop out and take a few shots. Now this doesn't make the shooting parts easy by any means. It just means that they won't get the point of being next to impossible. Just imagine if you'd had that option in San Andreas when you were asked to take over new territory from rival gangs. The guns in the game are pretty good and don't deviate too much from the norm. Of course it is always nice to pick of an enemy's head or arm with a sniper rifle or to climb on a roof and play clock tower sniper on the masses below.
Talking about the game’s graphics the game is great to look at. The character models are done well and they have a good amount of expression in their faces. The cars also look great and show very realistic levels of damage. The buildings look good too but there is a bit lack of color expect in the Times Square type area. But even that looks kind of dark and dreary at times. But don't let that detract you because overall the game looks great and outside the draw distances are really good. The only problem I found was texture pop-in. Where you'd walk into a room and suddenly objects and textures would suddenly come into view. But this wasn't enough to distract from the rest of the game. Now I have been told that the PS3 version didn't suffer from this as much but on my 360 it happened quite a bit.
Let's talk about the story. The game's story is quite good and there are even some branching options. While the early ones don't affect gameplay too much at the end of the game you are given a big choice which will affect how the game ends. At this point I've only seen one of the endings but if you save in the right place seeing the other ending is too hard. It will probably take you about 20 hours or so to get through the story if you don't do too many of the side quests but I say don't pass those up because they are quite a bit of fun in themselves.
Now one thing that has turned a lot of people away from this game is the driving. In the old GTA games the cars handled a bit like the tires were covered in grease. It would only take the slightest movement to send them sliding back and forth and then wind up slamming into another car and into a wall. Now the cars handle much more like real cars and are a bit more stiff. I personally like this because once you get the hang of it it's pretty easy to brake at just the right time to take a turn at high speed. Also at high speeds your car still handles about the same so if you get pretty adept you can weave in and out of traffic like a pro. But just be careful because if you hit another car or stationary object too fast you'll find yourself sailing through the window like a lawn dart shot out of a cannon.
Every Grand Theft Auto game would not be complete without the police. Some people could say that there aren't that many cops in the city but I say they are kept to a realistic level. In some previous GTA games they were almost as numerous as taxi cabs. Now they will ignore your driving for the most part unless you slam into them, slam into another car at a high enough speed or run people over. This will trigger the always beloved police chase. In previous games it would sometimes be quite a task to evade the police and when you did you'd feel very satisfied. In this case they dumb it down quite a bit. On your map will be shown your location as well as the locations of any cops in the area. Also on the map will be a large flashing circle. This indicates where they are patrolling. All you have to do is drive outside that circle without being seen and park your car for 10 or 15 seconds the chase ends. Now this can be complicated if there is a helicopter after you but those can be lost by going into tunnels or narrow streets or alleys. So most of the time when you do evade the police you don't get that same sense of satisfaction as you did in previous games.
When it comes to the missions they are pretty standard GTA fare. There are the ones where you are sent somewhere to kill this guy or that guy, or you have to drive this person somewhere, or you have to pick up a package and deliver it to someone. There is enough variety to them that you don't really notice you are doing the same ones over and over again.
There are a few more things I need to nitpick a little bit. First there is your cell phone. It is a neat concept and works for the most part. The biggest problem is when you are speeding down the road at breakneck speed and you get a text message. If you try to read it you are going to crash. So you'll either have to skip it or stop the car. Also even though my eyes are pretty decent I sometimes had a tough time reading the text on the phone so I'd read what I could and close the message. The other thing is the map that appears at the bottom of the screen. You can use a waypoint system that will give you turn-by-turn directions to your destination. But the only way to tell is with the map. Normally this wouldn't be a bad thing but they make the line for it a dark green and it winds up blending in with the rest of the map. Now in missions they make this line yellow. So my thought was why not make it another bright color instead of dark green?
One of the biggest things with this game is the addition of multiplayer. There are quite a few modes of play including your standard deathmatch and team deathmatch. Then if you get tired of killing people there are races but you can compete in GTA races which allow you to use guns. There are quite a few other multiplayer game types but I'm not going to name them all so I'd shoot over to Wikipedia and look them up if you are interested. Now they do break up the standard multiplayer formula a bit. In games like Halo 3 the guy with the most kills wins. In this game that isn't always true. When you kill someone they drop money and you have to pick it up to increase your score. So the person that wins is the person with the most money. So the fun comes in running up and stealing it from someone's fresh kill. Now you can compete on either small sections of the map or the entire map. Now I didn't ever find anyone playing on the whole map because even with a full lobby of players it would take forever to find each other.
The multiplayer runs pretty smoothly and I didn't notice any lag. The problem I did have early on was actually connecting to it. I bought the game right when it came out and I either couldn't get into a game or I'd constantly get booted. But after a few weeks this problem seemed to correct itself as all those retarded monkeys that had been playing before were replaced by real people.
So lastly I say if you like the Grand Theft Auto games then at this point this game is a no brainer. If you are new to the series this is a good place to start and if you like the open world style gameplay then you can't go wrong with the series that really invented the concept.
My score is 9.5/10
Friday, November 21, 2008
First movie review: Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa
First off I have to say that I really enjoyed the first Madagascar movie. Lately the two giants when it comes to computer animated movies have been Pixar and Dreamworks. Now it's hard to say which of them makes better movies because they all have their merits. Like I thought Wall-E was a masterpiece and the first Shrek was great and the other two didn't quite live up to the first but were still good.
Now to Madagascar. The movie starts with some back story on Alex and how he wound up in the Central Park Zoo. Then the movie uses some footage from the first movie to fill you on what happened just in case you didn't see the first one or a coma or neuralizer erased your memory of the first movie. Then you see everybody getting on a plane piloted by Tony Soprano's pet penguins. They take off but wind up crashing in Africa which shouldn't be a surprise because the title tells you that's where they are going. Now the rest of the movie is interesting because it follows multiple plots. Alex runs into some other lions and tries to fit in, Mary runs into other Zebras who are exactly like him (they are all even voiced by Chris Rock), Melman finds out that all the giraffes in Africa are just as big hypochondriacs as he is so he becomes a doctor, Gloria goes looking for love and winds up meeting another hippo named Moto Moto voice by Will.I.Am, King Julien just wanders around a bit being his usual weird self (but when you are voice by Sacha Baron Cohen is there really any other choice?), the penguins attempt to fix the plane, and the old lady who beat Alex with her purse in the first movie returns and wanders around with a group of tourists trying to survive the wilds of Africa.
Now if your head isn't already spinning from the plethora of plots I just described to you then it might be when you watch the movie. This isn't saying the movie is bad it's just that with so many things going on at once it becomes a bit episodic. At times it's like they wanted to involve each of the characters as much as possible so they all had to have their own story lines but that makes the movie jump around a lot.
But the movie is funny. At times I found myself laughing harder than I remember doing in the first movie. But the problem lies in the jokes being spaced pretty far apart. Now some people have said that most of the good jokes come from the penguins and yes they do provide many of the good lines I found that the other characters were just as good.
I think this movie will appeal to kids and to adults. If you liked the first Madagascar then there is a very good chance you'll like this one too. Now if you haven't seen the first one I would say go rent it before you see this one. Not that you really need to but it's best to get to know the characters and see where it all began.
My score is 7.0/10.
Now to Madagascar. The movie starts with some back story on Alex and how he wound up in the Central Park Zoo. Then the movie uses some footage from the first movie to fill you on what happened just in case you didn't see the first one or a coma or neuralizer erased your memory of the first movie. Then you see everybody getting on a plane piloted by Tony Soprano's pet penguins. They take off but wind up crashing in Africa which shouldn't be a surprise because the title tells you that's where they are going. Now the rest of the movie is interesting because it follows multiple plots. Alex runs into some other lions and tries to fit in, Mary runs into other Zebras who are exactly like him (they are all even voiced by Chris Rock), Melman finds out that all the giraffes in Africa are just as big hypochondriacs as he is so he becomes a doctor, Gloria goes looking for love and winds up meeting another hippo named Moto Moto voice by Will.I.Am, King Julien just wanders around a bit being his usual weird self (but when you are voice by Sacha Baron Cohen is there really any other choice?), the penguins attempt to fix the plane, and the old lady who beat Alex with her purse in the first movie returns and wanders around with a group of tourists trying to survive the wilds of Africa.
Now if your head isn't already spinning from the plethora of plots I just described to you then it might be when you watch the movie. This isn't saying the movie is bad it's just that with so many things going on at once it becomes a bit episodic. At times it's like they wanted to involve each of the characters as much as possible so they all had to have their own story lines but that makes the movie jump around a lot.
But the movie is funny. At times I found myself laughing harder than I remember doing in the first movie. But the problem lies in the jokes being spaced pretty far apart. Now some people have said that most of the good jokes come from the penguins and yes they do provide many of the good lines I found that the other characters were just as good.
I think this movie will appeal to kids and to adults. If you liked the first Madagascar then there is a very good chance you'll like this one too. Now if you haven't seen the first one I would say go rent it before you see this one. Not that you really need to but it's best to get to know the characters and see where it all began.
My score is 7.0/10.
First review: Bioshock
It is time for my first review and I have chosen Bioshock. Now I know this game has been out for quite a while and everybody and their brother has reviewed it, but like I said I will be looking at games that are a bit older.
Now first off the game is amazing to look at. Now I am playing the 360 version because there is no way in holy hell my computer would actually be able to run this beast. But I have been told that if you own God's computer the game looks really good. Also the PS3 version only came out recently but I've been told it looks just as good as the other two versions.To say this game is atmospheric is an understatement. The game oozes it at every turn. It is really easy to get lost in it and really feel like you are actually in the city. If you don't know the game is set in the underwater city of Rapture. The entire place is done in an Art Deco style and is very 1950s including the music. Everything has a very dark feel to it and is pretty creepy at times. Although I wouldn't recommend playing this game during the day unless you either have no windows or own blackout curtains. Because if you have even the tiniest bit of glare on your screen you won't be able to see a damn thing.
Now to talk about the plot. You are an unnamed character that is on a plane and for some reason it crashes in the middle of the ocean. When you manage to come to land you wind up taking an elevator down to the city. When you get down there you find out there before you arrived everything went to shit. Apparently the scientists started messing around with gene manipulation and most people went completely insane. There are two substances in the world Adam and Eve (Biblical reference anyone). The first, Adam, can be found in these little girls called Little Sisters who have a very Children of the Corn feel to them. They are very valuable so they are guarded by these big hulking things called Big Daddys. But once you kill one of them you can grab the girl and take her Adam. You are given two choices, kill her and take more Adam, or rescue her and not get as much but have a good chance at getting a reward. The other substance Eve powers these things called Plasmids. These are specialized gene manipulations that give you everything from the ability to throw fire, freeze people, throw electricity and throw insects at people.
The whole city is run by a man named Andrew Ryan who first appears to be a good guy but you later find out is a power hungry douche who only cares about himself. So you are then tasked to go through the city and help another guy who promises you the moon and at the same time take down the evil dictator. Without giving anything away I will say that the story does take some interesting twists.
One of the big things that the developers talked about before the game came out was a morals system. This is only done by whether or not you kill the children. You either get a good ending where you come out as the saviour and all the fluffy bunnies come out to hug and kiss you. Or you get the bad ending where you are Hitler's evil twin who eats babies and votes for George W. Bush.
Now to the gameplay. It is hard to say whether this game is easy or hard. First off it is hard in the fact that you will die a lot. By a lot I mean you will die just about as many times as Eminem says fuck in any of his albums. But don't worry because death is more of an annoyance than anything else. When you die you are transported to a tube that sends you back a bit but restores your health and Eve about halfway. So all you need to do is charge back into to battle and attempt to kill your enemies and probably die a few more times in the process. Now some people have said that ammo and health are easily found in this game but I found the opposite. I found this being a very Resident Evil like experience where you'll find yourself with 2 bullets and then having to take down a Big Daddy with your wrench while you die 15 times before he does.
I should talk about the guns. The guns in this game are pretty much your standard fare. There's a pistol, shotgun, machine gun, wrench, grenade/rocket launcher, crossbow (with a scope), flame/ice thrower and a camera. Now before you ask the camera doesn't kill anything but the game tries to reward you for taking pictures of certain enemies kind of like in Dead Rising but in this case you sometimes feel compelled to do it for a reason other than novelty. The guns feel pretty good but the problem is the enemies are just too strong. Granted most of the time the weaker ones will be taken down by one or two shotgun blasts but there are some that jump around like Andy Dick on speed and can take an entire machine gun clip to take down.
Another big facet of this game is hacking. There are many mechanical devices in this game such as turrets (gun and rocket), flying security bots, vending machines and safes. All of these can be hacked via a mini game. It goes with the water theme where you have to play something similar to Pipe Dream to line up the pipes to make the water go from one end to the other. But you are doing all of this in a time limit and if you fail you will take damage. But if you succeed which you will do 85% of the time the machine either comes under your control and attacks your enemies or in the case of vending machines give you a slight discount.
The game doesn't have multiplayer but the game is long enough that you are willing to forgive that. Even if it did it wouldn't play much different than any other multiplayer game and would have been easily overshadowed by Halo 3. Now when it comes to the enemies you won't see much variety in them and will see the same ones over and over again. But the AI of these enemies is pretty good. Now most of them will just run at you screaming and eat a face full of lead but some will jump around to avoid you and go for cover and flank you. Some other nice things are if you set an enemy on fire they will, if possible, run for the nearest water source to put themselves out. This can work your advantage sometimes though because if you know water is near you just set them on fire and wait for them to go into it and then hit the water with electricity.
But this game is fun to play don't get me wrong. It has a good length, good voice acting, a good story and tons of atmoshere. In fact I found myself sometimes stopping to look around and look out the windows to admire how much detail went into this game. It also made me wish at times I had a surround sound system because I can only imagine what it would be like to hear the sound of a whale behind you or to hear a Big Daddy stomping around near you. What I can really say is I wish the game wasn't so annoying at times. I found I couldn't play this game for more than an hour or so at a time because of how frustrated I would get with dying over and over. Now in most games this would be a good thing because it encourages you to get better. But this game barely punishes you so you only try to avoid death to avoid having to walk back through the same areas trying to avoid security.
People try to call this an action/RPG but the RPG elements are very light. Yes you get to customize your character but you can swap these out often enough you just do it to fit whatever you are going to come across next. So at heart this game is a first-person shooter. But I say if you have 360, PS3 or a powerful PC you should pick this up. Now is it worth more than one play through? I would say only if you were really into it or want a tougher challenge on a different difficutly. But all that increasing the difficutly will do is increase the amount of times that you die and that would have made me feel like a hamster in a blender.
My score 8.5/10.
The Beginning
I know there are a lot of people out there doing video game reviews and movie reviews. I figured I'd join them since I'm just an average gamer. I'm not the type of person who hates every game I play and I'm also not the type that loves every game I play.
But just a fair bit of warning. There will be reviews posted of games that have been out a while. There's a lot I've wanted to say about these games but never go around to it when they first came out. So forgive me if I'm a bit behind the times. Also I am not one of those rich gamer boys who can afford to buy every new game the day it comes out so some really popular ones might go unreviewed or I might not get to them until I can pick them up used or from a bargain bin at my local GameStop.
As for movies those I can see a little easier so I will try to review as many of the newer ones as I can.
But all in all I hope you like my reviews. I also welcome you to submit your opinions and also to suggest games that I can review. I do not own a PS3 so please don't ask me to review anything from that and also my computer is a bit behind the times so I won't be able to review games like Crysis because I can't run them. But enough about this I guess I can just get to the reviews. I hope you enjoy them and I hope you keep coming back.
Best wishes,
Smithy
But just a fair bit of warning. There will be reviews posted of games that have been out a while. There's a lot I've wanted to say about these games but never go around to it when they first came out. So forgive me if I'm a bit behind the times. Also I am not one of those rich gamer boys who can afford to buy every new game the day it comes out so some really popular ones might go unreviewed or I might not get to them until I can pick them up used or from a bargain bin at my local GameStop.
As for movies those I can see a little easier so I will try to review as many of the newer ones as I can.
But all in all I hope you like my reviews. I also welcome you to submit your opinions and also to suggest games that I can review. I do not own a PS3 so please don't ask me to review anything from that and also my computer is a bit behind the times so I won't be able to review games like Crysis because I can't run them. But enough about this I guess I can just get to the reviews. I hope you enjoy them and I hope you keep coming back.
Best wishes,
Smithy
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