Mar 062012
Feb 212012
Aug 102010
This summer has seen a few movie hits in North America. Blockbuster’s like Inception, Despicable Me, The Karate Kid and, Toy Story 3. Then we have our flops like, The Last Airbender, Knight and Day, The A-Team, Splice, Jonah Hex, The Girl Who Played With Fire…Phew…Lost my breath there. With all these movies tanking , can a film based off a French black comedy do well? Or is the gravy train going to run right through for Mr. Rudd and Mr. Carell?
Tim (Paul Rudd, I Love You, Man, Role Models) is a financial executive on sixth floor dreaming of making it to the promised land that is the floor above his own. He finally strikes gold when he impresses his boss Fender (Bruce Greenwood, Star Trek, Batman: Under The Red Hood) by attracting a very Rich Swede by the name of Mueller(David Williams, Little Britain USA). Now before Tim can move up in the corporate ladder he just needs to do one last thing. Attend a dinner with his follow co-workers. A simple supper, where they bring in “talented” and “intriguing” people. When all hope seems to be lost for Rudd’s character he meets (by meets I mean runs over) Barry (Steve Carell, The Office, Date Night) an IRS employee with the gift of scene re-enactment…with stuffed mice. Looks like Tim hit the jackpot.
The Good
New Kind Of Awkward Steve Carell is known for his goofy and incredibly oblivious characters but he shows that he can play any kind of fool with a snap of a finger, or in this case with the dye of a hair color. This lovable idiot feels like the friend we all have. You know the one that thinks what he does is normal and tries his best to help but still slips up somehow or someway.
Stellar Sub-Cast Move Over Rudd and Carell, because it’s time for the secondary characters time to shine. More specifically Jemaine Clement (Flight of the Conchords, Eagle vs. Shark) and Chris O’Dowd (IT Crowd, Frequently Asked Questions About Time Travel). Two actors who are not strangers to the acting scene but are only now getting more and more roles here in North America. They were a show stealer with how they portrayed their characters. If you would have given them more time in the light I think I would not have cared about the main plot of the film.
Kieran: A goat could eat itself; if it was driven to it…I’m just a goat who’s halfway through eating itself.
The Bad
Same Old, Same Old Don’t get me wrong here I love Paul Rudd. I think pretty much whatever he is part turns to gold. The only problem I have is that he doesn’t break out of the mold he seems to have created for himself. He always played that slightly frustrated over worked guy in the office who gets stuck with the worse type of people around him. Spread your wings Paul and soar before you act gets dull. It’s happened one too many times buuuuudddyyyyy.
Disturbance In The Force Though I did praise some of the actors who had secondary roles, others on the other hand just ruined the flow of things. It might not even be the actor himself/herself, just the role they played. Like Tim’s one night stand who has an obsessively and unhealthy interest with him. The over exaggerated facial expressions and reactions to events that take place really feels like it belongs in something more like Good Luck Chuck or Saving Silverman .
The Ugly
I Can’t Take It Anymore! Look Zach Galifianakis is a funny guy, his stand up is awesome and he has been in some pretty hilarious roles. But too much of a good thing is bad. It feels like his sense of humour and over the top sense of reality is just getting stale because he’s in every movie now. Don’t believe me? Check the list out right now; The Hangover, G-Force, Up In The Air, Youth in Revolt, Little Fish, Strange Pond. That’s in 2009 ALONE!! Take a break or something. Go back to the comedy clubs. Anything but the silver screen.
Final Verdict
True this isn’t the perfect comedy movie but it does have it’s charm. Go ahead and sit down with some friends or lady friend, and you’ll see how fast how its little faults don’t really seem to matter. Dinner For Schmucks is definitely a flick you want to catch in theatres.
Jul 142010
Racing games are one of those genres that never seems to run out of ideas. Every time you think the genre has hit a “development block” they come out with something new that even baffles me sometimes. Now I’m not saying everything works. Heavens no. I don’t think that can be said for any genre, but racing seems to be one of those types of games that can be mixed with any other genre. Activision’s newest racing game blur is one of those weird mixes, combining realistic racing with energy based weaponry. Does Blur actually make it to the finishing line or is this game just a burn out?
Blur is the newest racing game from Activision and Bizarre Creations, the same duo that brought you Project Gotham Racing. The game is an interesting mix of realistic driving, like they having the PGR series, and weaponry and abilities like those in Mario Kart.
What We Liked
I See The Light! Bur is all about the bright lights and heavy visuals. While this is normally a turn off in most games, the developers managed to pull it off. The flashing lights from power ups and weapon blasts seems more stylish than overbearing.
Fun For Everyone Multiplayer is an important part of every game. Not only should almost all games have online multiplayer (Up to 20 players per match), but a local option too (4 player splitscreen). Blur succeeds on both fronts while offering a plethora of gaming options.
Decisions, Decisions Blur offers a wide variety choices to every player. First off, the game features an abundance of vehicles ranging from levels of drift, vehicle type and even colour. The next thing is the modifications or mods. Mods are specialized enchancements to your racing, whether it be enabling special abilities or boosting existing ones.
What We Didn’t Like
I Hope My Insurance Covers That The cars in Blur handle very similar to those found in Project Gotham Racing. Normally this would be great, but when you’re dodging lightning bolts from the heavens and other assortments of ill-mannered attacks, sometimes it makes it difficult to evade or recover. I commonly found myself driving into the sides of the track after taking a bolt or shunt.
Final Verdict
Blur is a very enjoyable racing game that is suitable for everyone of all ages. It’s quite easy to lose quite a bit of time playing Blur with your friends or by yourself. This game was quite a surprise to the racing genre, and makes for an interesting multiplayer experience. You should definitely check out Blur, now available for Xbox 360 and Playstation 3. We give it a 8.5
Jul 082010
So look who’s at it again! Disney and Pixar has decided to dust off one of their most beloved franchises and bring it back to finally complete this story of toys…A Toy Story if you will. But I think the number one question on everyone’s mind is. Can this new instalment live up to its predecessor? Or should have these animation juggernauts kept this family classic in the attic.
More than ten years has passed since the last Toy Story and it shows. Andy is all grown up and hasn’t let the old crew out to play for quite some time. Add in the fact that he’s ready to head out to college and you can see where this is going. The now seventeen year old has to say goodbye to his collection of toys. He’s ready to stash them in the attic all but Woody voiced by Tom Hanks (Saving Private Ryan, Angels and Demons) but when there’s an accidental mix up Woody has to rescue the gang from their new home. The day from h e double hockey sticks. While Woody figures a way to help them out, Buzz voiced by Tim Allen (Galaxy Quest, Home Improvement) tries to hold down the fort and talk with their new “friends”
Watch out Antonio Banderas. Buzz is movin' on in
The Good
What’s not good about this movie? They have an awesome cast of voice actors that’s off the charts! Since they’ve been in the game together from the previous flicks their relationships on screen are spectacular.
This isn’t just for the kids. The guys from Pixar didn’t forget about you mom and dad. They pull some fantastic jokes from some classic films like The Godfather and Shawshank Redemption. Let’s not forget the slightly dark tones Pixar loves to whip out in their flicks. This one is no exception. The obvious one of having to deal with separation is nice and dandy but just wait near the end of the movie. It’ll blow the socks off you Power Rangers action figure.
The Bad
The only bad thing that can be said is the following…It’s not long enough. Woody just starts whipping out some crazy impulse escape manoeuvres that make you think you’re watching Prince Of Persia: The Sands of Time. Once the crew has their plan set up everything just feels slightly rushed through. Some of you may make the arguments that they are experts in these sorts of situations now but keeping the spirit of the first and second Toy Story there could have been a few more bumps on the road.
On a side note. The 3D was useless. Let’s not talk about it anymore than we should.
The Ugly
Wait. You seriously thought I would have something here. Just move it along to the final verdict.
Final Verdict
So I am assuming you all know what this is going to be. You need to go check this out. From one end to another this a near perfect film, fun for young and old. So why aren’t you watching it yet?
Jun 302010
Lately we’ve been seeing a lot of remakes and re-imagining of old movies and series. We’ve had remakes of Halloween, Nightmare on Elm Street, and even the Karate Kid to name only a few of these. Now, like any reasonable person, I get a little worried when someone in Hollywood decides to “re-imagine” something. More often than not it ends in tears and psychological damages. So, it’s not hard to explain that when I sat down to see the A-Team in theatres I was slightly worried and braced myself for the worse. So, does this movie cause more damage than good, or is it this a plan that really comes together?
New Beginnings
Now, this movie is, in a way, a prequel to the original television series. The first part of the movie is devoted to telling the story of how the team came together during a mission in Mexico. The movie then goes into the story of how the team is framed and dishonourably discharged. The team, Col. John “Hannibal” Smith (Liam Neeson), Lt. Templeton “Faceman” Peck (Bradley Cooper), Cpl. Bosco “B.A.” Baracus (Quinton Jackson), and Murdock (Sharlto Copley), is assigned to do a black ops mission into Baghdad to steal back US printing plates and the 1 billion dollars printed with it. However, upon the completion of the mission the money and plates are stolen and the team’s commander is assassinated. With no one to confirm the legitimacy of the team’s mission, they find themselves under arrest. Now, the story has changed with the times. The original story has this aspect of the story occurring of Vietnam, while this new movie has the story happening in the Middle East.
The Good
The movie starts off by kickin’ it old school. They use the original theme to the television show and continue using it throughout the movie. They also stick true to the characters original personalities while giving them a bit of a new school flare.
Next, this movie doesn’t lose sight it’s an action movie. While it develops the plot in some of the slower parts, it makes up for it some epic and badass scenes that quickly follow. Also, I was pleasantly surprised to see that I hadn’t see bits and pieces of them in trailers.
The Bad
It’s true that the original series was a little over the top at moments. There were even a few times were simple facts of physics were outright ignored. We, as viewers, accepted this. However, this movie found a way to take it one step further in over the top action scenes and outrageous plans. While visually they look nifty, they seem hard to fathom.
When re-makes are done, it’s quite common to see the original cast make an appearance or have some sort of role in the movie. The remaining members of the original A-Team were approached for cameos in the new movie. Both Dwight Schultz and Birk Benedict (Murdock and Peck respectively) accepted the cameo roles while Mr. T turned it down. After the length and popularity of the series, I had hoped that the cameo roles might have been a little larger, but they amount to blink-and-you’ll-miss-it appearances.
The Final Verdict
This movie makes a great summer block buster and is enjoyable all around. It’s nice to see that this new movie stuck close to its roots while giving it a new feel. All in all, it makes it easy to see through some of this film’s shortcomings. Go check out this film for a good time.
Apr 052010
Opinions are fun. Everyone has them (even though most of you are wrong). So why not assign simple numbers to a complicated thought process? It seems to work for Dragonball Z. Instead of justifying why someone is the best, they were just given an arbitrary number, and the higher it was the more badass they are. Simple enough. If it’s good enough for Dragonball, it’s good enough for me. That being said, I don’t conform to the stand zero to ten scale. It’s not deep enough, and besides, I didn’t c
ome up with it, so it certainly can’t be any good. No, my scale of 12 is substantially better. Here’s a quick rundown on how I judge everything and anything I see on a daily basis (note that numbers are in no particular order):
7: Sevens are average, or are have good ideas with crippling flaws. A seven can be a good score or a bad score. For example, despite extremely positive first impressions, Brutal Legend was demoted to a seven because it was missing about a third of the game. An example of a good seven would be Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. I know I didn’t care at all when it was coming out, but in a very rare occurrence of me being wrong, I enjoyed it quite a bit. Anything seven or above can be considered good. Off the top of my head, some other sevens: The Darkness (again, surprisingly good for a game I didn’t care about before release), Fable 2 (glitchy, laggy, unbalanced, short, ugly, yet so easy you have to play it), and any shooter made by id after Doom 3 (including Rage. I am right, you will see).
8: Eights are pretty good. An 8 is often a 7 with one quality that redeems it. You have fun when you play 8′s. You would consider playing them again but likely not follow through with that because of laziness or having better games. Any company that produces a game, or movie, or whatever, that earns an 8 should be proud but also work harder to make the next game better. Some recent-ish 8′s: Resistance, Mass Effect, MadWorld, Batman: Arkham Asylum.
9: Nines would be what most people would consider great. This is probably the part where this scale lines up with your average reviewers. A seven here would likely corresponding to an 8 point something to an average reviewer. You love playing nines. I love playing nines. Everyone loves nines! The fall of 2009 gave us many nines (irony?), here are some: Demon’s Souls, New Super Mario Bros. Wii, Assassin’s Creed 2, BlazBlue, Dragon Age: Origins.
6: I told you this was in no particular order. 6′s are almost good. You can play them, but you won’t have a lot of fun. They usually have crippling flaws that frustrate and/or annoy you. I’ve noticed I give out very few sixes, but here are some for your reading pleasure anyways: Prototype, 50: Cent Blood on the Sand (Hiiiilarious, if you’ve never played it.), Red Faction.
5: Seven is the first important division of the scale, 5 is the other. 5 is the lowest score you can give a playable game. 5′s suck pretty badly, but you can still play them because they are easy, give you achievements, have a redeeming story, or are just really funny. Any recent Tomb Raider games come to mind, Red Steel, the newest Banjo Kazooie game, and a bunch of other stuff I can’t see on my shelf from where I’m currently sitting.
10: Doubling our previous score, we reach the 10. Usually the pinnacle of most review scores, I determined after minutes of difficult studying that 10 wasn’t enough. 10′s are almost perfect and can best be described by generally meaningless words such as “awesome” or “excellent”. The most recent game I gave a 10 to was Mass Effect 2, which very nearly earned the score you will read about next, provided you haven’t got bored and stopped by now. Other 10′s: Fallout 3, Dead Space, Super Mario Galaxy, Call of Duty (any of the ones made by Infinity Ward, not their much less impressive odd numbered counterparts), Portal.
11: Eleven is the best anything has ever achieved. Even though I use this scale for absolutely everything, I have only encountered a handful of 11′s. I have certainly never seen a person who’s attractiveness I would rate an 11. Sticking with the video game theme of this article, the 3 11′s (like that band, anyone?) I have given out belong to The Legend Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Go ahead laugh at the cliché, I dare you), Okami, and Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I am ashamed/proud to say that I have the Symphony of the Night soundtrack on my ipod and can shred a few of the songs on guitar. Anyways, time to jump again.
1-4: Can be considered at best “a game”. Playing them is like work, or torture, and can only be excused for achievement grinding. Since I am too lazy to give examples of each individual number, here are some 2′s: Any Sonic game from the past decade, Lair, Haze, Anything called “Blank: the game” or “Blank: The Movie: The Game”
0: Zeroes are the garbage equivalent of 11. Impossible to actually consider a game, they almost transcend human imagination and inspire fear in the hearts of those who most play them. I’m sure everyone has games they would consider this bad. To avoid the usual clichés (Superman 64, anyone) I’ll just give one example: Trigger Man. My friend gave it to me for free and I overpaid. Maybe I’ll write a more in depth review of it some time. Anyways, time for the last unexplored number.
12: There will only ever be one 12, ever (maybe), across all mediums. I consider it completely theoretical because it is so perfect that the entire world stops to bathe in its glory. This is essentially God descending to the earth. This number exists solely because it is required to show that even the almighty 11′s aren’t perfect.
Anyways, that’s the scale. I give it a 10 on the scale. If you want to whine that there need to be decimal values, too bad. It’s staying as is. I suggest starting to use it to judge everything you come in contact with. Get other people to do it too. If their number is off by more than one either way compared to yours, they are wrong and must be set straight.
Apr 052010
Hey everyone Justin here, and you know what that means right? Review time. This week we’ll be looking at the Warner Brother’s new comedy Cop Out, starring Bruce Willis (Die Hard series) and Tracy Morgan (30 Rock). This is also director Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, Dogma, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, Clerks and Zack and Miri Make a Porno.) first time directing a script that was not his own. The story/script was written by the Cullen brothers Rob and Mark. This will be their first time at chance on the silver screen. Let’s see how they do.
Well, we can caption these things. I guess we oughta make this clever. In the future we will be more interesting.
Film Synopsis: Detectives Jimmy Monroe (Willis) and Paul Hodges (Morgan) are long time partners who stumble upon something much bigger than a routine drug bust. The two soon find themselves up creek and without a paddle.
Impressions: With director Kevin Smith at the helm you can always assume a the following: harsh language, a few Spielberg, Star Wars quotes, and a guest star or two from his friends list; in this case Jason Lee and Ernest O’Donnell (not going to say where and who they play so don’t start flaming me yet). The writing style of the Cullen brothers seem to match Smith’s which one can assume why he picked this flick as his first to direct. If no one were to tell you that the Rob and Mark wrote this I believe you would be hard press to find the average viewer would be able to tell the difference between Smith’s work the Cullen’s.
Now as for the movie, I went in there expecting a lot of dialogue, some sex jokes, and very crude language, and that was exactly what I got, and then some. Not only was it vulgar and funny in all the right places and from the right people there time where you get caught off guard from some of the secondary characters, Mix that with the actions, you have yourself quite the cheesy cop flick but in a good way.
The chemistry between Willis and Morgan was undeniable. The way they shot back at one another truly made me feel as if I was watching an old buddy cop sitcom/film that was pulled right from the eighties. The antagonist on the other hand played by Guillermo Diaz I am still in the middle if it was his performance or the character itself that seemed a little too over the top. Some may argue that the movie needed a villain that over the top. I say it’s hit or miss.
The audio from the flick sounded like it belonged in Beverly Hills Cop. That in turn kind of pushes the corniness too far at times. The score wasn’t what anyone could expect it to be but at the same time it didn’t seem to try to wow anyone. It was just there. At times it worked others… not so much.
Final thought: If you’re looking to go see a movie with a couple of friends or a on a date. This movie is perfect for you. The film knows that it isn’t the next great piece in cinema history and embraces it with open arms. It makes sure the audience knows it too. I enjoyed myself from beginning to end. That’s that I’m giving it a 7.0 out of 10. A must watch.