Alan Wake: Review

October 18, 2013 — Leave a comment

Alan Wake is a action horror game that does everything solid. The graphics are pretty good for a game that came out in 2010. The vegetation and environments are what really shine in this game. The cut-scenes graphics were actually worse than the in-game graphics for some reason. Which was odd but perhaps it is because I’m playing it on the PC and it was ported. Though the game could become repetitive at times, it kept you on suspense because of the scarcity of ammo and the way light was incorporated into the game with so much importance. The core of the game was staying out of the dark. The subtle things of this game is what i really enjoyed.

I recall one time when I was exploring a cabin looking for ammo and collectibles when I saw a dark figure scurry past the window. My thought were that this would be a common occurrence but nothing like that ever happened again. The game remained fresh in it’s scares. The enemies actually try to sneak up on you. I came to this realization when i turned around once in the game and saw a dark figure weaving through cars that disappeared once i looked at him. That kept me doing 360 turns for a while in paranoia. The way Alan Wake monologues his thoughts into the game make for a more interesting narrative and draws similarities to Remedy Studios earlier works with Max Payne. Overall the game was really enjoyable but my one griping is the ending. I’m not usually the guy who gripes on endings because I like it when writers make endings a little ambiguous so people can have their own interpretations. Alan Wake ending left me a little bit too perplexed to a point that actually takes off a few points to my review .

8/10

Beyond: Two Souls | Review- PS3’s Last Good Exclusive?

October 18, 2013 — 1 Comment

Beyond: Two souls was a very engaging game. What the the blockbuster story brings to the table makes up for the lack of game-play. This may be a turn off for many players that were expecting to have more control in some game-play aspects. The game gave you many options in decision making but overall the game was pretty linear. The story is not told in chronological order so that may be confusing for some people. I personally liked the way it was told because it covered times in Jodie Holme’s(Protagonist) life in a flashback style that brought meaning to her character and her decisions. At times the romance seemed force but you were given the decision for the most part. The game keeps you on your feet with countless twist and turns.

In addition to a fun single player experience This game make a great co-op experience. I played it with my brother and thoroughly enjoyed it. I actually believed this game is made for the duo experience.

The motion capture that was used to create the animations of the game play and character emotions was top notch. This game has some of the best graphics that I have seen to date on Consoles. The character models done by Quantum Dream were excellent. The likeness of characters and photo realism of this game makes me wonder what’s in store for us for the upcoming generation. Hans Zimmer and Lorne Balfe Score for this game was very moving and compelling. The voice acting done by Willem Dafoe, Ellen Page, and the cast of Beyond was top-notch.

Many game developers are now moving to make video games a richer story telling medium. I believe this is evident when you look at how much more interactive stories in video games have become over the years.

Just to name a few that are fresh in my mind which are good Examples: Tell Tales- The Walking Dead, Star War: The Old Republic,With Controversy- Mass Effect, Deux Ex Human Revolution, and David Cage’s works.

I often think of a recent game By The FullBright Company called Gone Home; that is a interactive exploration game where the story is told by reading journals and listening to tapes. It gives me hope when games like Gone Home can receive critical acclaim but at the same time it doesn’t bother me when games like this receive mixed reviews. Just in the fact that games like these are being played and talked about is a sign that our ideas of what a video game is are really being questioned.

Beyond: Two Souls. Beyond: Two Souls is a interactive experience that delves into the Supernatural and also questions ideas about life and death. If you are looking for a game that is quite not like anything you are used to than I would suggest you to check out Beyond.

Freaks and Geeks: Review

August 25, 2013 — Leave a comment

Freaks and Geeks is a show that had so much potential but it’s full potential was stunted when NBC cancelled the fan favorite. The show was too realistic and dark for primetime television in an era where shows like Dawson Creek and 7th Heaven reigned. The shows had an ensemble cast which consisted of many young actors who moved on to do big things. Some of the shows noticeable cast members included Linda Cardellini, James Franco, Seth Rogen, Jason Segal, and more.

The show follows the story arc of two siblings in high school; Lindsay Weir and her little brother Sam Weir . Lindsay who up to this point in school has been the model honor roll student has begun to question her purpose in life and deviate from her expected role. She finds herself hanging out and relating with the “Freaks” of the school. While her brother Sam deals with the label of being known as a geek and trying to overcome the label.

The show captures the angst of being a teenager. It captures the “glory days” of self-discovery. It did a good job of redefining ideas of love and romance that young people dealt with. It also covered the theme of homosexuality.

It’s a shame the show went off the air. I didn’t know what to do with myself after I marathoned the whole season in the time span of about 4 days. I found myself trying to test out other TV shows that Judd Apotow was a part of but nothing came near to the feeling of Freaks and Geeks. It remains a timeless classic and I highly recommend it to you if you haven’t watched it yet.

The Rainmaker: Netflix Movie Nights

August 25, 2013 — 2 Comments

I hold the belief that the late 90s was the golden age of cinema. I often find myself going back to find hidden gems of the past. It’s hard to argue with notable movies such as Pulp Fiction, The Shawshank Redemption, American Beauty, LA Confidential, American History X, The Matrix, and the list goes on.

This weekend I opened up Netflix and saw a recommendation for The Rainmaker and saw that it had pretty good user reviews. I asked myself how bad could it be? It came from the 90s. I was not not disappointed with the movie.

The story of the Rainmaker followed the life an aspiring lawyer, Rudy Baylor (Matt Damon)who has yet to to pass the bar exam and finds himself unemployed and finds work under a crooked law firm boss : who is played by Mickey Rourke. The story’s main theme is that of moral ethics and the problem with trying to disconnect yourself from your clients by not becoming emotionally attached.

That becomes impossible for Rudy Baylor because his first clients include a dying leukemia patient who is denied insurance and a beautiful young Claire Danes who plays Kelly Rike a victim of reoccurring and gradually worsening domestic abuse.

My final thoughts are The Rainmaker is an excellent Netflix movie you should watch on the weekend. I enjoyed it very much. It’s all about the 90s baby.

Stoker: Review

July 14, 2013 — Leave a comment

The story of Stoker starts off relatively simple. Following the death of her father, India’s( Mia Wasikowska) uncle moves into their home and India senses something is quite not right about him. I’m a big fan of Park Chan-Wook and his vengeance trilogy- especially a big fan of Oldboy. I expected some debatable ethics and controversy that usually follow viewing some of his films.

Unfortunately, I’m afraid Park Chan’s vision of this movie didn’t quite translate well into a U.S screenplay. The acting performance by Mia Wasikowska was brilliant and Matthew Goode was very note-worthy. That was still not enough to cover the character flaws. It’s basically impossible to sympathize for characters who make seemingly erratic decisions with no explanation in the movie.

This leads to a very convoluted plot. A film that has a lot of potential to be a emotionally stimulating movie, falls through in the end. You ultimately just finish the movie thinking “WTH did I just watch”.Overall it was a disturbing and dark film that kept me watching but it’s biggest downfall is that it is a forcibly artsy film that tries to push the bounds just a bit too far.

Kudos to Mia Wasikowska for a great performance. Looking to see more from her. The movie isn’t all that bad. If you are going to watch it, I would not recommend watching this movie with your friends. They will probably think you are a weirdo.

Man of Steel: Review

June 17, 2013 — Leave a comment

Knowing that this movie was being produced by Zack Snyder, I had to go out and see this baby. I’m a big fan of his work with “The Watchmen” so I was looking forward to a more cynical and dark approach to superman. The movie tells the back story of Superman, in the beginning of the film, which was nice. I assumed they were just going to start off on earth.

The fighting scenes in this movie were top notch. I really like the villains in this movie. There were some things in hindsight that I realized about the film. One of those things were the 3D, the 3d didn’t seem to pop for me. I actually found myself taking my glasses off to make sure that it was 3d, in the beginning of the movie. Another thing was I felt the romance in this movie was a bit rushed.

Besides those gripes, Man of Steel still has enough action and story with more emotional depth than most Superhero movies to deserve a watch at theaters. I would watch it in 2D though to save some money.

Crysis 1: Retro Review

June 10, 2013 — Leave a comment

Crysis being heralded as one of the most game changing games for the PC, I couldn’t help but delve into the PS3 version and see what all the talk was about. The story for the game is pretty good. The story starts off with the United States sending in a special forces team to recover scientist that were taken hostage. After figuring out that North Korea are trying to harness the power of the alien technology, United states invades North Korea.

Story: The story starts off slow but picks up and becomes more interesting during later missions as you uncover more about the North Koreans plans.

Graphics: The visuals of Crysis on the PS3, although not as good as PC-still stack up with current console games that just released. My most noticeable gripe is draw distance issues with textures popping.

Game-play: This is where the game shined. The game-play was fun and that’s all that matters. I really enjoyed the customization you could do with you weapons on the fly. Your suit’s powers played a unique part during combat which made most battles more enjoyable.

I would recommend you to play this game on the PS3/360, if you don’t have the PC for it. It’s a fun game.

8.7/10

After Earth: Review

June 9, 2013 — 2 Comments

Originally, I didn’t know how I will feel about watching a movie where Will Smith and his son are in the same movie. It sort of felt like self-promoting on Will Smith’s part to try and get his family name out there. After watching it, It wasn’t that bad I suppose. It had some decent cg but some of the green screening looked weird. Example- When Will Smith was saluting the guy in the floating wheelchair. The background looked really fake. Besides the visuals, the movie was mostly about Jaden. Will Smith didn’t play a major role. The ending wasn’t climatic as I thought it would be. Besides that it was a solid movie with decent acting by Jaden but I would wait for this movie to come out on bluray/dvd. It’s a good movie if you have a family but nothing you would want to watch alone. Me personally, I can’t watch movies with child actors and take it serious.

‘Safety Not Guaranteed’ Review

December 10, 2012 — Leave a comment

Safety Not Guaranteed tells the story of three employees of a magazine who go on a journey to write an extraordinary story. The story is about a man by the name of Kenneth Calloway(Mark Duplass), who claims he needs a partner for time travel in a classified ad. The story starts off in the offices of a Seattle magazine company. The magazine is running out of interesting ideas for pieces to write for their publication . Darius Britt(Audrey Plaza), an intern for the magazine, finds herself tagging along on this trip . Her boss, Jeff Schwensen(Jake Johnson), pitches his idea to write the story when he comes across a classified ad. The classified ad reads:

WANTED: Someone to go back in time with me. This is not a joke. You’ll get paid when we get back. Must bring your own weapons. Safety not guaranteed. I have only done this once before.

Jeff Schwensen volunteers the help of his two interns, Darius Britt and Arnou(Karan Soni). What initially starts off as a work trip turns into a trip of self-discovery.

Coming from her comedic role as a jaded public official in CBS’s Parks and Recreation, Audrey Plaza fits the role well as a cynical intern . This movie doesn’t really have much comedic relief but the few funny parts involving her were fun to watch. It was intriguing to see her character’s cynical side made into a believer. She has a quirky personality type that works well with Mark Dupluss’s. Mark Duplass’s portrayal of a man who thinks he can travel in time is interesting. His paranoid antics are hilarious on screen. He plays a really likable character. Even if he’s possibly crazy, it’s hard not to want to root for him.

A character that I didn’t like that much in this movie was Arnou. His character follows a formula that’s pretty cliche in Hollywood. We see this theme occuring repeatedly in comedies. They add in a story about an socially inept person who somehow manages to get the girl . His role in the movie would have been a little more passable if there was more character development for him. To top it off, the viewers aren’t told much about his past at all. He did help in character development in some regards. The purpose he did serve was as a good insight into Jeff Schwensen’s character. Jeff’s feelings of nostalgia made him want to help Arnou embrace his youth. Though, I don’t think he does it for Arnou but rather for himself.

Jake Johnson is currently starring in Fox’s comedy,The New Girl. He plays a more serious role in this film as Jeff than he’s best known for. On this road trip, Jeff battles with the harsh realities of his mortality. He realizes he’s not getting any younger and his past perceptions of love perhaps need to be reevaluated. His portrayal of a man living in the past was heartening and relatable; especially towards the end of the film as he started to come to terms with himself.

Coming from the people that made Little Miss Sunshine, Safety Not Guaranteed manages to takes some notes but doesn’t quite live up to expectations. Where Little Miss Sunshine succeeded was obvious ‘in your face’ humor whereas Safety Not Guaranteed dabbled in a more dry subtle humor. Because of this, It struggles to be a good blend of comedy and drama. Regardless of it’s faults, Safety Not Guaranteed turns out be an unexpectedly decent movie.

Review Score 6.8/10

The Walking Dead ‘Made to Suffer’ Review

December 4, 2012 — 1 Comment

The Walking Dead is arguably one of the best shows on basic cable. Justifiably so, the mid-season finale of The Walking Dead is proof of this with more than 10.5 million people turning in to watch. Everything we could expect for a season finale, we received from shocking character returns, new character arrivals, reunions, and action that rivals blockbuster movies.

On last week’s episode of the Walking Dead, Michonne teamed up with Rick to help the group get back Glenn and Maggie. Milton and Andrea carried out a research experiment to try and understand a walker’s unconscious mind(the results are disappointing).Glenn and Maggie fail to hold out against the interrogations and intimidation of The Governor and Merle. They tell The Governor the location of the group’s camp and it’s members.

This revelation forces The Governor to keep secret; his torture of Glen and Maggie. The question is how long can he lie behind Andrea’s back? His vested romantic interest with Andrea lies on the verge of destruction. Rick and the group are planning on infiltrating the town and if Andrea finds out it’s most likely all but over for their relationship.

Spoiler Warning:

Rick and the group manage to sneak into the town but quickly, the town’s people start getting suspicious. A man walks into where they are hiding. They silence him and render him unconscious before he can alert the town. This leaves them no closer to finding Glen and Maggie. Thankfully, just when they are out of ideas, a shot rings out revealing the way for them. The shot has come from Maggie and Glen’s failed attempt at trying to escape. Maggie manages to take out one of Merle’s men and gets a weapon off him but she is blindsided by another gunman behind her.

They follow the source of the gunshot and find that Glen and Maggie are being held captive. They proceed to pop flash and smoke grenades and retrieve Maggie and Glen from the Merle and his stunned men. A shootout ensues as they escape from the building. Glen is hurt badly but straggles along the best he can with the group. Andrea, not wanting to take the sidelines in an attack, volunteers herself. The Governor turns her down and tries to pawn her off on a petty job of going house to house and calming down town residents.

Glenn and Maggie tell Daryl that Merle is alive and responsible for torturing them. Regardless, Daryl makes a stand on seeing his brother. Afterall, they are blood and he hasn’t seen him in ages. Daryl thought he was as good as dead when they left him on the roof. Rick convinces him that the group is too weak to get back on their own. He tells Daryl that he can come back at a later time. Daryl agrees for the time being.

They take the fight back to the street. Andrea ignores The Governor’s orders and helps the town defend themselves She shoots at Oscar not knowing who he is . She is convinced by The Governor that they are just escaped prisoners. The longer they stay there; the worse their odds become of getting out successfully. In the midst of the firefight, Rick sees a familiar figure appear from the smoke. It’s Shane! Before Rick can take it all in, Shane shoots and kills Oscar. Rick shoots Shane in the head and goes to check the body. It turns out to be just a hallucination.

I hope that Rick isn’t reverting back to his unstable self. Rick’s sanity might be questionable at this point. After the death of Lori, nothing has been the same for him. Many viewers can only think back on the episode where he had a conversation with Lori on the phone. Thankfully, Rick had the baby to help him through that hard time.

Back at the prison, Carl hears screams in the halls. It’s coming from a new group of survivors who escaped from the the forest. They didn’t escape unscathed though. One of them was bitten. They are led by a hammer-wielding man by the name of Tyrese. When Carl comes upon them, they are fighting off a group of zombies. They seem surprised to see a little boy come to their rescue. He leads them back to the safety of their cell block. He than decides to separate them from the group for the time being by locking them in a section of their cell block.

Around the same time, Michonne discovers The Governor’s daughter. She soon figures out that she isn’t human anymore and is ready to kill her. The Governor catches her in the act and pleads for her to spare his daughter. Michonne is hesitant but her strong stance against walkers leads to her killing his daughter. All the time invested in research that he and Milton went through was for nothing. He could never bring back his daughter now. I felt sorry for him despite his shortcomings. Michonne and him, get in a physical fight where Michonne barely escapes. She is confronted by Andrea in a standoff but Andrea let’s her go despite her anger.

Michonne meets back up with the group. They lost Daryl during the escape. They don’t like the fact that she snuck off on them but they need her if they stand a chance getting back Daryl and getting back home. Daryl’s not in a good place right now. In his anger , The Governor has gathered the townspeople and has turned his back on Merle; Blaming him for bringing the outsiders to the town. He places Daryl and Merle, in the gladiator pit to decide their fate. It’s not quite the reunion that either of them were expecting.

Review Score: 9.7/10 (Television At It’s Finest)

Extra Rant: Little Carl has sure have matured since the first season of The Walking Dead. What’s not to like about the little bastard who not only is a good shot but has a good head on his shoulders. He picked up the responsibility of leading in the absence of his father. My favorite little man is doing big things.

MovieAndTVBuff

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Author: movieandtvbuff