Tag Archive for 'Fun'

Review: Kick Ass

Published on May 16, 2010 in Review. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , , , .

Not only seeing this movie, but finding the time to write this review has been a difficult task. It took almost two weeks for us to actually get to go see Kick Ass, but once we had our pet hedgehog managed to escape. No one, nowhere had pre-informed us that hedgehogs are escape artists, had we known we would have probably kept with the original idea for his name of Harry, instead we have Henry, apparently Houdini reincarnate.

We also had a fun visit from my wife’s cousin, and spent this weekend attending another one of her cousins weddings, all amongst a regular schedule that doesn’t usually include time for review writing. We also saw the Nightmare on Elm Street during this time, which will be receiving a dutifully short review (for better or worse), and I will be keeping this review as succinct as possible. Anyway, onto the movie.

What I liked:

Well pretty much everything. Matthew Vaughn is one of my favorite directors and despite a very short directing list, I’m anticipating his future works (another by the writer of the Kick Ass and Wanted comics). He has a great ability to make scripts Hollywood-acceptable, without making the content Hollywood. An eleven-year-old girl kills, maims and dismembers people and people showed greater concern over her characters potty mouth.

I’m sorry, I’d have more problem with my children being mass murderers before hitting pubity than hearing them use ‘cunt’ in an insult. Perhaps my moral values are off from society, but I generally rate vulgarity below violence on the ranking of character vices to avoid. I would have thought the religious right would be with me on this, Blasphemy is not as big a sin as Murder, and vulgarity isn’t explicitly a sin in and of itself. It’s also worth noting the 3rd commandment isn’t a proclivity against swearing as in vulgarity, but against oath swearing under the name of the lord.

The action scenes were awesome, especially Hit Girl’s main scene. The choreography was great, and the first-person view through her night-vision goggles is possibly the only fan-play to FPS gamers that was executed in a good way, usually any first-person perspective in a film is horrific even when it’s not done artistically as fan-play.

What I disliked:

Was honestly virtually nothing. I would have preferred Mark Millar’s ending to the story, however that ending isn’t well suited to film. I can understand why Vaughn would use a more commercial ending, after all he does need to earn a living and he’s selling to an American market, not the British market where unfortunate endings are more accepted.

My other problem with it was that the flow of the film died a little bit with the sequel setup, which I know was in the original material, but could have really been cut out for the film. Although, story wise, I can understand the inclusion because it’s an illustrating point that’s often discussed in comic works that the existence of Super Heroes/Villains will cause need for the rise of the other.

Overall: 9/10

This is one of the greatest movies I’ll see all year, and I don’t even need to know what else is coming out to claim this. However, it certainly isn’t going to be the greatest movie I’ll see this decade, although I don’t preclude Vaughn taking that title.

Judgement: Buy it, rent it, watch it in theaters, whichever you choose, it’ll be worth it.

Review: Alice in Wonderland

Published on March 19, 2010 in Review. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

My greatest fear for this movie was the huge threat of no originality that frequently plagues remakes of classics. However for better, or some might argue worse, Burton didn’t stick to the books like they were a religious text.

What I liked:

The story was excellent, it was a merger between Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass, with new material. One of my biggest problems with the books, and thus the faithful recreations in movies, is that they were written to be easily red to children. The divisions in the story are so alarmingly strong that you could cut the spine of the book between certain chapters and never know the two belonged together, quite frankly it’s a book of short stories. However what Burton achieves is a contiguous and seamless work, there’s no concrete divisions. It’s fluid, and it’s elegant, which allows the story to be gripping.

Despite many complaints that the movie is lacking emotion (it’s based on a Victorian Era book, are you serious? Lack of emotion? Who’s a moron? Lots of incompetent reviewers working for prestigious newspapers that can’t be bothered to research a movies source material even though 99% of them will have read the book and likely noticed its lack of emotion) I found it to have ample amounts for its source material. Also, I believe some people really need to look up what really falls under the category of ‘emotion’. The movie had great optimism to it, while also providing the overwhelming feel of pessimism in the face of daunting odds. Burton’s Red Queen is the deepest I’ve seen of any Alice creation, she’s consumed by jealousy but reveals she’s actually got good in her but her life and upbringing have guided her away from being good.

Acting was top notch, but then every actor has a credit list the length of my arm so that’s expected. The art and direction were amazing, better even than Burton’s previous works, which is a commendation itself.

What I disliked:

There were a few lines that were hard to understand, this wasn’t a real problem for me (fast spoken lines in a Scottish accent don’t fool me easily, I had to deal with a Scottish substitute teacher in a French lesson in highschool, since then I’ve never had a problem understanding the Scots) as I’m English and have first hand experience with the accents. I know my wife had difficulty with many of the lines, as I was acting as translator. So I can only imagine the trouble some people had. However, as a Brit I’ve had to learn American accents, so I can hardly criticise a movie for making Americans learn accents from Briton. If you expect to sell your culture globally, you should damn well be open to getting some back.

Beyond a few lines people may find inaudible, I can’t criticise the movie on much. Anne Hathaway played the White Queen well, she just looked exceptionally gaunt beyond her usual… gauntness. Something about her bugged me, I’ve still not put my finger on it. It just feels like something’s not right about her as the White Queen. I believe a bit more attention to the make up could have likely resolved it to my satisfaction.

Overall: 9/10

This is the best Alice in Wonderland I’ve seen or read, basically because it feels like an adult story. Even when I originally read Alice in Wonderland, I believe I had surpassed the stories age target. I’ve got about a decade and a half on my original reading of the story, and I doubt a faithful reproduction would have held my attention beyond the first twenty minutes. This kept my attention locked until the finish.

Judgement: Buy it! (see it in theatres if you can)

Olympic Gold

Published on March 1, 2010 in News. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

Sometimes in life, it sucks to be an American hockey fan . . . I’m glad I’m not. The US did an admiral job tying up the game in the final 30 seconds, however their luck didn’t last during the sudden death overtime. Too bad boys, better luck in Russia 2014.

I’ve not liked the medal ranking being used by the NA media, I much prefer the IOC ranking of the most gold medals (the system used by the BBC). Although out of fairness, I believe a weighted system should be used (gold = 3, silver = 2, bronze = 1), which would still have the top teams in the same positions, but gives a lot more credit to the teams in the lower ranks. It also places Korea in its rightful place, many of them did simply amazing and shouldn’t be placed behind Austria and Russia who weren’t fielding nearly as many of the worlds’ best athletes.

However, no matter how you rank it, the UK flat out sucked like an old prostitute. When you never see snow it’s hard to learn how to play in it. I’m hoping for better in the London summer games, but even being a non-religious man I know it’ll take more than every Brit praying for a miracle to get us anywhere near winning the most golds. Maybe Briton will win by the 2186 games . . . just being realistic.

Valentines Long Weekend

Published on February 13, 2010 in Personal. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

We’re currently headed into the Valentines Day Long Weekend here in Ontario, with Family Day landing on the Monday, there’s extra time off to be had. The highways were noticeably very busy on Friday, so hopefully people are actually planning on spending this Valentines Day with their loved ones somewhere special, or somewhere unspecial even. I know I am.

Review: District 9

Published on February 10, 2010 in Review. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , .

This was another sort of sci-fi movie. With a severe lack of clichés and filled with new and original ideas, it was extremely difficult to dislike this movie. It was action packed, it had a great story and, quite necessarily, had great animation.

Here’s what I liked:

The interviews in the beginning provided immense amounts of story, while only being a minor drain on the initial pacing. Midway through the interviews we start getting a lot of action and hints at the story. When the interviews end, the action really begins.

There was an unexpected third party in this movie that added immense amounts of action; the gangs. As the story goes Nigerian gangs moved into District 9 to get protection from the police, it became a sort of free-zone as only MNU could enter and by the time the movie happens the gangs were powerful. However they’ve spent much of their time acquiring alien weaponry, which is biologically encrypted to the aliens (like the Ancient technology in the Stargate series). So we don’t venture into spoiler land, we’ll end that there. Simply put, the story was great.

Special effects were simply amazing, but then for a mix of Peter Jackson, and Neill Blomkamp who worked for almost a decade in 3D effects (including Stargate and Smallville), this isn’t really surprising. The ‘prawns’ were perfectly made, but what really sold them was the uniqueness of everyone we saw.

As a credit to Neill Blomkamp, I wasn’t expecting to feel empathy and sympathy for the aliens from the beginning, but he sure managed it. I can’t say much without spoiling, however the ending was quite touching and made a great setup for a sequel.

What I disliked:

Not much honestly, the worst part in the whole movie was the slow opening. However, it was necessary. This movie wouldn’t have worked in the ‘Alien Invasion’ that didn’t happen when over a million starving aliens were transported to District 9. The fast-forwarded story given during the interviews was everything essential to the story that made this $30 million piece one of the best movies of last year.

Overall: 9/10

I would genuinely recommend this movie to anyone. It would have been nice to see a bit better pacing in the first 15-minutes, but virtually every Hollywood movie can butcher the first half-hour with boredom, so I’d say Blomkamp ended up ahead of the curve on that front.

This seriously isn’t a movie for pre-teens, but the R-rating given by the US is wholly laughable. It holds important messages in it that 13-16 year olds should be getting exposed to. However when the MPAA rated Billy Elliot (about a boy doing ballet) an R, I hope most American parents started ignoring the ratings and judged the films by their own criteria for their children.

With greatness across the board from the acting to the visuals, this is one everyone should watch. With an anti-apartheid message behind it that isn’t thrown in your face, it’s a good movie for a family with teens.

Judgement: Buy it.

Game Review: Borderlands

Published on January 26, 2010 in Review. 0 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

I have hard feelings on this game, because I personally liked it very much, however despite being a great game and fun to play, it pissed me off beyond acceptability.

Here’s what I liked:

The game was fun to play. The graphics had a cartoonized edge that helped with the humour in the game. The non-serious environment really made it a delight to play the game, despite its flaws.

However, this is a game exclusively about its weapons. Most FPS games have, possibly, a dozen weapons, maybe you’ll get a thirty or so and a handful of mods thrown in if you’re lucky. The last I heard, Borderlands has over 17 million unique weapons, and likely counting with DLC. My favourite pistol in the game, for instance, managed a quad-shot. It may sound somewhat pointless to some that the game features so many weapons, or why people would care. However, it’s sort of like Pokemon, where the last iteration I played (Diamond) had almost five-hundred.

Now what I disliked:

I’m a man who when he says no, he means no. Borderlands however has no ability to understand the ‘no’ button included in its mission selection menus. When you get prompted with a new story mission, you have the option of choosing to take it or refusing, however if you refuse it you’re given the mission anyway. Not only is this frustrating, but it also introduces all the mission orientated bad guys to the level, most of which are way overpowered.

The games inability to recognize no only enhances another problem, which is that every boss is wholly overpowered. By the time side missions are introduced you’re fighting tooth and nail to win a fight. One mission I had to climb a rock where the enemy couldn’t reach me, jump up and down so their snipers couldn’t target me and pick them off. I was a sniper-orientated character, with the best sniper available and a damage bonus and I had to hit my opponents with several head shots to kill.

This wouldn’t have been such a problem if you could say no to the story and take some of the side missions. However you can’t, you have the choice of superpowered story bad guys running amok, or story bad guys and side-mission bad guys.

It seriously hurts the games experience when you can’t beat a single mission without retrying it a half-dozen times to whittle down the enemies, because thankfully most of your opponents don’t respawn. Most.

Overall: 7/10

This game had major potential, and as an avid gamer I can play it. However, most people won’t be able to play this game past the 10th mission without hitting the frustration wall. I’m a Strategy and RPG fan, the frustration wall is usually so far behind me when playing a game that I’ve ceased noticing it. However, I can’t in all good faith recommend a game that’s bat-shit crazy and takes no’s as yes’ so it can pit you against demonic bosses with ridiculous health, shields and a superior weapon. It also seriously doesn’t help that the grenades aren’t particularly useful compared to other games.

The good can outweigh the bad, however when you have so many noticeable flaws it might be worth reconsidering some parts. I’m unsure if Borderlands had some publisher pressure to release or what, but someone dropped the ball and released a game with great potential marred by so many flaws.

Judgement: Rent it, if you must.

© 2010 Nik Gregory All Rights Reserved