DVD/Blu-Ray Pick for 2/26 - 3/5

Ran by Akira Kurosawa.

I did enjoy the Oscars earlier this week. I thanked the heavens that Slumdog won Best picture, Best Director, and a slew of other awards instead of what I felt were inferior films that in a better year wouldn't even be nominated. And it was cool to see the Japanese win again for best foreign picture. It's been quite some time since they've been up on that podium. To celebrate Japan's return I am recommending one of Kurosawa's last pictures, which also won an Oscar, and it's one of the last great epic movies including a cast of over 1400 extras which had 1400 suits of armor fabricated for some of the sequences. It's amazing to see that many soldiers on camera and know that they are actual people instead of computer images. Kurosawa was Japan's greatest directors of all time and people have been stealing his stuff for over 50 years now from westerns to Star Wars. If you think I'm joking, go watch Hidden Fortress. He loved Shakespeare (like myself) and adapted a couple of his plays into movies. Throne of Blood was Macbeth re-imagined, and Ran as the story of King Leir set in feudal Japan. There is an outstanding performance from Mieko Harada who plays Lady Kage and she brings back memories of the parts Kurosawa used to have Mifune play in several of his earlier works before they had a falling out. Spielberg and Frances Ford Copula helped get this movie made,1 because they knew it would be great and and outstanding work of art, and 2 because they owed him from stealing so much from him when they were first starting out as directors. It's well worth your time so I highly recommend you enjoy it one night.

Where U Been At??? Pt II

So eventually I will break myself away from playing SF4 to actually review it. The game is simply amazing and it's a blast to play with friends on-line. Ranked battles are still sort of on the crappy side as far as on-line play for fighting games go. There are 1124324242 Ken and Sagat players, and most of them have no real skill and spam dragon punches/tiger knees and throws. I did encounter 1 Ken that knew how to play, focus cancel attacks, and keep the pressure on me and I lost several games to him with my Honda. I'd have a slightly better win record if not for the online not being good for charge characters, but I'm happy with being able to put a stop to the broken Kens of the world.

DVD/Blu-Ray Pick for 2/19 - 2/26

Before the Devil Knows Your Dead by Sidney Lumet is my pick for this week. It stars Philip Seymour Hoffman, Ethan Hawke, Marisa Tomei, and Albert Finney. It is the story of two brothers one in financial trouble, the other in marital desperation and a botched robbery attempt that leads to the death of a loved one. The event single shatters the lives of every member of the family and takes the principle members of the family past their breaking points to places they never thought they'd go. The script is amazing and one of the best stories I've ever seen on film. The acting is superb and everything you'd expect and more from the cast and the director. It was on my short list of the best movies of 2007 and you should definitely check it out.

I saw a lot of people getting killed last week from Donkey Punches, to machetes, to gunshots, and even bow & arrows, but not wood chippers (if you get the reference). Someone gets killed in this movie too, but death actually means something here. It has actual weight and does something more than just make you jump, or laugh, or feel the adrenaline.

He's Done It All Before

Friday the 13th:

I am going to spoil this movie. If it's even possible to spoil a remake, and I use that term loosely seeing as how the original Friday the 13th's killer was not Jason, but his mother and this movie has Jason doing the killings so if it is a remake it would be of one of the sequels to the original... where was I... oh, if it's even possible to spoil a movie that involves a bunch of young college age kids (college aged so the girls are old enough to take their tops off and be in sex scenes) tread someplace they shouldn't have gone to party, drink the liquor, and smoke the dope only to be picked off one by one by a psycho killer wearing a ski mask armed with a machete. If by some chance you didn't know what was going to happen in the film, surely you did by the the time you told the attendant at the ticket counter what movie you wanted admission for.

Anyway kids go to the infamous "Camp Crystal Lake" this time looking for some marijuana plants to pick and sell and get slaughtered. The the brother of one from that group returns to the town his sister went missing in looking for her only to find another group of kids who you know are about to die because they are: the stereotypical jock douchebag, the stereotypical jock douchebag's friend who's slightly more stupid, their stereotypical girlfriends with nice racks you know you'll see later, the innocent girl who's rack you know you won't see, and the stereotypical black and Asian guys who's purpose is to die horrible deaths that make members of either race facepalm themselves every second they're on screen until they die and thus can no longer be stereotypes.

If you can't tell by now, I have problems with this movie from the fact that it's being called a remake to the cast of the film. And to top it off there's not even any cool deaths, which brings us to my biggest disappointment, SPOILER (highlight to read): the movie sets up a giant mechanical wood chipper in the beginning of the film, so as any watcher of movies knows, it'll come back again later in the film and since this movie is supposed to involve cool deaths I figured at least I know somebody's going in that wood chipper. And I am saddened to report that nobody goes in the wood chipper because. Isn't is sad that I'm spoiling the movie by telling you that the only cool death in the film isn't actually in the film? You should avoid this movie. If you want to see a Jason movie with decent deaths go watch the original, or if you need something cheesier watch Jason X. Granted the series was always stupid and cheesy, it can still be entertaining. D-/3.0/27.

So What's In It For the Girl?

Donkey Punch Review:

A few months ago a friend e-mailed my e-mail stream a link to a movie called Donkey Punch. Knowing what a DP is (I'll leave it to you all to look it up for yourselves if you don't) I couldn't help but investigate and not only found and IMDB listing for it, but also a trailer on Youtube and found out it was an English movie just making a run at the theaters in the UK. I never thought it would make it to US shores aside from a straight to DVD release, so when I checked my local listings I had to go and see this movie.

Three twenty-something girls from Leeds go on a trip to Spain to help one of the girls get over a break up and encounter a group of guys who have control of a yacht for the weekend. They become fast friends and agree to join them on the sea vessel and go on a quick cruise. After some drugs and alcohol, things get a little more raunchy and one of the guys causes the death of his sexual partner and panic ensues.

First I just want to say, the way the act of performing the DP is slightly different and less "dirty" than the way the act is actually performed, yet vastly more dangerous. That aside, the film is a good tension builder. It's well acted and does manage to pull you in and keep you interested after said act is performed, yet characters do act in a sort of illogical manner that happens in a lot of thrillers and it does become rather predictable. Still there are and will be several worse thrillers out there that you can spend your time and money seeing and none of them has a title that has the same effect as Donkey Punch. And in fact the movie being titled that actually helps it out a little because it is so well done. The first act of the film doesn't bore you with waiting for the moment to happen, and when it does you sort of have a giggle and remind yourself "well it is called Donkey Punch." In fact the first act is done so well that it actually makes the entire situation believable up until that point. It manages to not completely go to pieces in the second half solely due to the actors in the film as the actions of certain characters does go off the deep end a little. It's hard to recommend this movie as I admittedly only saw it for the name, but it did turn out to be entertaining. I have a feeling anyone who wants to see it will see it regardless of its reviews anyway, but I truthfully did find some fun with this movie. C+/6.5/60

Where U Been At???

http://www.1up.com/do/reviewPage?cId=3172832&p=37&sec=REVIEWS

It's been 20 years since Street Fight II came out in arcades. I've been playing it and its successors for 20 years. I was one of the few fans lucky enough to have not one but two SF4 arcade machines near me, and one within walking distance from where I live, and I've been playing it quite a bit for the past couple of weekends. This past Sunday Jason Cole, former SF2 world champion, showed up at my local Gameworks and gave us all a proper ass whoppin' in the game as well. I played him twice and had a match against his Bison that went to the 5th round against my Ryu, but in the end I was no match, and he slaughtered me with his Dhalsim (who is the character he became champion with) the second and final time I played him before he left.

Still this is no excuse for not keeping the blog up to date and I have 3 movie reviews to write, so keep an eye on the site and I promise I will have them up by Friday.

DVD/Blu-Ray Pick for 2/12 - 2/19

OK I know I've messed with the date of DVD picks before, and a swear this will be the last time. Having it on Thursday morning will give folks a chance to Netlik it and get it by Friday or Saturday, so for picks will go up on Thursday now and that will be the last time I mess with the date.

This week's pick: Halloween by Rob Zombie.

There's a big horror movie remake coming out tomorrow (Friday the 13th) from the team that brought you the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake, and it's sure to be bad. Rob Zombie's remake of John Carpenter's original isn't all that bad. It's actually quite good and entertaining. Rob is a fan of the old 70's style horror movies which he really showed us in The Devil's Rejects which put a lot of people off, but was ultimately a brilliant return to form of the way horror/slasher films used to be made. Halloween stays true to the old days. Mike Myers is evil because he's just evil. The acting is better in this movie than any movie of the genre in the last 10+ years, and there are really only two stupid deaths that could have been avoided. Zombie does a good job of building tension when Myers is on screen and you will find yourself leaning in and bracing for impact with what will happen next. I'd actually recommend you take a gander at both this movie and Rejects if you have time to be both frightened and freaked out this weekend.

Let the Kids Be Scared Already

Coraline reminds me of every fairy tale I remember as a kid where the children in the story never appreciated their parents and set out on their own only to find themselves in dire circumstances and wishing boring old mom and dad were there to give them a hug. Coraline and her parents move to a house far away from the city and her friends. She finds the other boy living in the same complex annoying, and her parents completely ignore her. Then one day she finds a key to a magical world with different versions of her parents and the residents of the apartment that are way more fun. Every night she is tucked in by her "other mother" and every morning she is saddened to find herself awake back in the real world. What she doesn't know is that she is in terrible danger and that her horribly boring life isn't as bad as she thought it was.

As I said before it reminds me of a bunch of childhood fairy tales. Eventually I learned what the original endings of those stories were and I felt a little robbed. Hansel and Gretel were baked by the witch, Snow White and Cinderella didn't live happily ever after. Many of the children met with violent ends, but people won't pay to see those movies and they sure as hell won't take their kids to see them especially in this day in age where parents freak out over any little thing. And that's sort of where this movie failed me.

Aside from the opening credits, and the very end, there are no real "creepy" moments or anything remotely perilous. The voice acting is great, the animation is excellent. The stop motion animation does add a lot to the feel and tone they were trying for. It in fact looks better than the CG animation nearly every studio is churning out trying to rope the kiddies in. I saw it in 3-D and it was a good use of the medium. There were no cheap tricks and it was used more to put you in her world than try to shock you. Unfortunately I think it is wasted on this audience. I saw it in a sold out theatre full of parents, kids, and some "grown ups" who were interested in it, and it sort of missed with all of us. I heard one kid toward the movie ask "is it over yet?" to her parents and many of us smirked and laughed to ourselves.

I think the movie would have done much better if they amped up the creepiness and gone for a PG-13 rating. The overall story would have been aided much more if it were able to take off the kid gloves. And quite frankly, I think it's good for kids to get completely freaked out by a movie every now and then. It was years before I could watch Gremlins all the way through, and I have fond memories of my Uncle and I watching scary movies late night on HBO and scaring each other. I doubt any of the kids who were in the audience or who's parents wouldn't let them see the film will have this on their lists of movies to watch again when they are older and less likely to be scared. I can only recommend seeing this if you are a fan of stop motion, 3-D movies, or a Neil Gaiman fan. Otherwise it's really not worth the price of admission. C+/6.5/62

DVD/Blu-Ray Pick for 2/6 - 2/13

Making a movie pick on a Sunday really makes no sense to me now that I think about it so I'm moving it up to Fridays maybe even Thursdays to give Netflix people time. My pick this week is:

The Constant Gardner by Fernando Meirelles (City of God) starring Ralph Fiennes and Rachel Weisz. Ralph Fiennes plays a British diplomat stationed in Africa who has just received word that his wife, Weisz, has been brutally murdered out in the desart. It is made to appear she had another lover that is responsible for the event, but as her husband begins to investigate her life and death he uncovers far more than many powerful people would like.

Resistance 2 Has Issues

I finally got around to popping in it tonight in an attempt to knock it out by the end of this weekend before F.E.A.R. 2 and Killzone 2 drop later this month. The game looks much better than its predecessor, and runs smoothly, but it's got some serious issues in the single player campaign from what I've played so far. 1, the bosses aren't actually bosses. They are set pieces for you to shoot at once and then move on. On the prelude mission there's a giant creature you're supposed to take down with a rocket launcher. You walk to where the weapon is, pick it up, shoot, then the creature pretty much goes about its business killing your men and you if you stop to wonder why the hell they just didn't give you 3 more rockets to finish the job then and there. And the game let's you know very well you need to do it 3 more times because it has 3 more exhaust tanks on its back. I would have preferred the challenge of having to take down 3-4 of these creatures under fire at different locations throughout the level than basically walk up, shoot and move on. It takes the satisfaction of accomplishing a difficult task right out of the game. But the game doesn't just gimp your satisfaction that way, it makes you question if you're winning or not. Case in point the first official "boss battle" I had facing a giant squid creature on a platform in the middle of a sea of water had me firing a pulse cannon at it that took about 10 seconds to reload after every shot. Then it attacked the platform directly and I shot it dead in its mouth. The cross hairs was red and everything and the screen blacked out. I thought "Oh I must have beat it." Then the game reloaded from the beginning of the battle. I did the exact same thing again, and shot it in the mouth again, and the screen blacked out again. This time I thought "what do I have to do to kill this thing?" Then a cutscene followed and I realized "I guess I won that time." The following mission left me pinned down by gunfire from a squad of enemies and running toward a ship one or two shots away from death. I still had about 5 meters to travel when the screen blacked out and I didn't know whether I survived or not.

No game should have you questioning whether or not you've done the right thing or not and I've been through 2 1/2 levels of this thing so far and I question everything. Another plague is the slew of enemies that can only be killed by certain weapons where the only way to advance is to dodge one hit kills while trying to find the rocket launcher in the room. And while I'm venting, I've never liked it when you get the good weapons you like using in a game only to have them taken away from you when you start a new level, but I understand. It makes absolutely no sense when I go from one area to the next that I have my weapons replaced with stock ones when all I've actually done is walked through a door.

I'll press on some more and try to give it a proper review when I complete it, but there are issues-a-plenty in the single player campaign. I have not tried the co-op yet. At this point all Killzone 2 has to do is not piss me off and it's guaranteed a better score that what R2 will get. Right now it's got a lot to make up for.

DVD/Blu-Ray Pick for 2/1 - 2/7

So I'm going to start doing movie picks of stuff that's out you can see right now on DVD, Blu-Ray, Netflix, or any other home video viewing method. Some stuff may be old and obscure, some may be new releases, but they will all be something that I consider good and interesting.

This weeks pick is Sunshine directed by Danny Boyle who brought is Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, and the Golden Globing winning and Oscar nominated Slumdog Millionaire. Nearly two Aprils ago I was in London visiting some family and I remember seeing adds for it on double deckers, red buses, and all over the underground. A couple days ago my cousin informed me that my new baby cousin will be christened this coming April and I'll be making a trip back to London for the event so I'll be throwing in Sunshine to remind me of that trip.

Sunshine is a sci-fi movie about a group of scientists on a mission to fly to the sun and reignite it to save a dying Earth. They are the 2nd crew to partake in this mission and on the flight they receive a transmission from the first crew. It stars Cillian Murphy, Chris Evans, and Michelle Yeoh.

So disappointed

So I finally got around to checking out Oscar.com and viewing the nominations. I saw a lot of movies last year, some great - some not. After looking what the Academy had to think were the best offerings I am thoroughly disappointed. Of the five nominees (Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, The Reader, Milk, and Slumdog Millionaire) only Slumdog was able to captivate me for the entire length of the movie with strong performances throughout and a great story. Not that the other films didn't have elements making them great movies but nothing was able to grab me, the audience I saw the picture with, and several audiences across this and other countries as well as Slumdog was. And yes it's all subjective and an opinion but comparing the films of this year to previous Oscar years and they do seem rather lacking. And were is The Wrestler? A movie about nothing but heart and one of the movies that I can point to as a reason that I still love movies and see several every month. Another tidbit worth pointing out is the lack of The Dark Knight being on the list as well. Blockbuster movies always get panned and under normal circumstances I would never point to box office results but the movie was great. Heath Ledger knocked the ball out of the park in his performance. Christopher Nolan gave the franchise its fangs and claws back without compromising anything. And it has grossed over $1 billion dollars worldwide. Of all the movies I saw last year, I paid to see it twice (once regular once IMAX) and bought the Blu-Ray disc with digital copy to play on portable devices. It will be watched by me and several million other people countless times throughout the years. 10 years from now we will still be talking about it. Doesn't a movie like that deserve a best picture nomination? So Oscar, I think you screwed up this year, but I still believe in you. I hope next year you'll return to form.

Side note: I am really looking forward to seeing AR Rahman perform Jai Ho and O... Saya with M.I.A. That is more than reason enough for me to watch.

Holocaust movie = Oscar

Forgive my humor but I like many was a fan of Ricky Gervais's show Extras and I recall the first season featuring Kate Winslet desperately wanting an Oscar and staring in a Holocaust movie to try to get the attention of the Academy. And later this year after she starred in a real one, the subject of this review, at the Golden Globe awards Ricky reminded me and I'm sure several other millions of fans so I couldn't resist the temptation.

The Reader is another film set in WWII Germany. It seems like there have been as many WWII movies as there have been video games that cover the time period. Ralph Fiennes and David Kross play the character of Michael Berg at different ages. As a boy of 15 Michael has an affair with an older woman, Hanna, played by Kate Winslet. He falls in love with her over one summer but like all affairs of this nature it's over all too soon. Hanna suddenly leaves without a trace and heartbroken Michael moves on. She appears later in his life in his college years and the position she is in is a heart wrenching one for him. He truly does hold her future in his hands. Ray Fiennes carries the last arch of the story in the aftermath of his decision.

The movie is mainly about weighty decisions and guilt and fear. In the beginning Hanna has all the power. It transfers between the two throughout the picture. Kate Winslet is splendid in this movie. She wears everything the character is going through on her face. You see her struggling, and thinking, and feeling. The rest of the movie does not have the same power as her performance though. It is a little slow in the beginning. Ralph Fiennes doesn't quite keep up the pace the middle act had after much build up. In the end there is one spectacular performance and two great moments. I recommend seeing it. B+/8.0/79.

A Particular Set of Skills

I am normally an advocate of not reading too much into movie previews. For one they are rarely made by the actual people who made the movie, they're often misleading, and many times better than what the movie actually is. It is rarity that a movie actually delivers everything the preview promises. Taken, is one such movie. Liam Neeson plays Bob, a retired CIA agent, who's daughter is kidnapped in a Paris hotel. He hears the entire event take place over the phone. When one of the kidnappers picks up the phone he makes his case that it is in their best interest to just let his daughter go as he has a very particular set of skills that when put to use will not be good for them. The man on the other end only says "good luck" and when the line is disconnected the game is on. After talking to an ex-teammate of his he is told he has approximately 96 hours before he never sees his daughter again. With that he boards a plane and proceeds to put that very particular set of skills to use.

Taken is from acclaimed French action movie writer/director/producer Luc Benson (Leon, La Femme Nikita, The Transporter series). He didn't direct the movie but did help pen it as well as produce as well. This movie is a return to form for him as most of his later works are either critical failures or don't see the light of day in the American market. Taken is a smart action movie. Bob is a calculating in every action he takes. You see him make the connections and follow the trail in the most logical sense. There are no over the top explosions, no elaborate fight sequences, and not much gore either. In fact the movie is rated PG-13. It is a movie without fat. Everything that the movie needs is present and all the unnecessary bits have been trimmed. People will be making comparisons with this movie and the Bourne series, so let me get mine out of the way. If The Bourne Identity has a degree in how to be a smart action movie, Taken has a doctorate. It's more than worth seeking out. A/9.5/97.