All reviews - Movies (26) - TV Shows (3) - DVDs (4) - Books (2) - Music (7) - Games (10)

Good zombie/vampire movie

Posted : 5 months ago on 26 March 2008 03:35 (A review of I Am Legend)

Knowing that readers of the original book and viewer of the other films that was based on the book, The Last Man on Earth and Omega Man, I think this version of I Am Legend is worth watching.
The movie starts with a news section that reports that cancer has been cured. The only draw back is found a couple months later that 9% of the people that took the cure turned into vampire/zombies that ended up killing most of the 91% that was left and now only one man is left. And Will Smith's character Robert Neville is that man.
Thinking he is the last man not infected by the virus, Neville and his only companion a dog Sam, goes day and night in New York trying to survive and also tries to find a cure to the virus. The movie some times switches between flashbacks to when the outbreak started with his family trying to get out of New York which slowly is revealed what happens to them.
Acting of part of Will Smith was pretty good compared to the rest of his films and is on par to his role in iRobot.
The only draw back to this movie is toward the end when someone else is brought in and really brings down the feel of the movie.
Now I don't care what Prelude says, it didn't feel like it was pushing ads in my face and I found I Am Legend a good film and really enjoyable.

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A parody movie before the sucky parodies

Posted : 5 months ago on 26 March 2008 03:11 (A review of Hot Shots!)

Older parody movies were great in taking blockbuster hits and making fun of them without most of the jokes being over the top sex jokes, adding drugs, or cussing all the time. And Hot Shots! is one of those great older parody movies.
Taking a lot from Top Gun, Hot Shots! has Charlie Sheen playing a hot shot fighter pilot, Topper Harley, who's father was a fighter pilot and was rumored to have caused his co-pilots death 20 years earlier and Harley freaks out every time his father is mentioned.
He has left the Navy and is convinced to return for a up coming mission. When he reaches the base, Harley's attempts to woo his therapist Ramada which happens to be Kent Gregory, Harley's rival because Gregory's father was Harley's father's co-pilot.
All while that is going on a aerospace company bribes Harley's fighter commander to sabotage the up coming mission so that a company can convince the Navy to use their new fighter.
And of course all the while hilarity ensues with crazy references, physical comedy, and weird situations.
The writing for this movie is great, bringing lots of jokes and laughs that are genuinely funny.
Hot Shots! has a top notch cast with Cary Elwes playing the rival pilot, Valeria Golino playing the love interest, Lloyd Bridges playing the absent minded air base leader, and a bunch of supporting cast members adding characters that bring wonderful laughs all around.
I find today's parodies that have come out recently to be really, really, really out of taste and watching a parody like Hot Shots! makes really wish that people would stop watching today's parodies and demand more of these.

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Progressive metal done right

Posted : 5 months ago on 25 March 2008 04:24 (A review of Terminate Damnation)

I first heard of BTA a couple weeks before going to their concert and after I went I was really excited for their album to come out and I wasn't disappointed.
Now I haven't been in the metal scene for that long but I know that Terminate Damnation took a direction that most metal albums ever take, and that is with not so metal instrumentals.
The album starts with March of the Death which sounds like funeral song and the next song, Into Oblivion, kicks in really fast and powerful.
A couple songs later is Elegy a eleven minute epic song that has a classical music ABA flow as the first part is big and powerful with vocals, the second part slows down and becomes a acoustic guitar and piano piece and the last part goes back to the first part just without the vocals.
The next song, Night's Sorrow, is another instrumentals and is a really cool nocturne.
And the rest of the album has songs full of power songs with a couple more instrumentals that break up the album into a great flowing album and should be heard all the way through at least once.
If your a Christian and/or metal fan, this album is a must buy and experience.

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Good ending to a story arc

Posted : 5 months ago on 25 March 2008 03:49 (A review of Stargate: The Ark of Truth)

The original Stargate movie was a real cult sci-fi classic and it sparked the creation of the TV show Stargate SG1 and went for ten seasons and this is the movie to end the Ori story arc. And it's a good ending.
Not going in to far the story arc, the Ori are ascended beings that unlike the Ancient's, who stay out of the lower planes of existence, the Ori force the people of their galaxy to worship them so that they can gain power. At the end of season 10, the SG1 team went and created a device that a old Ancient was making to destroy the Ori and sent the device through to their galaxy to destroy them. And it worked and the rest of the movie is to destroy the last Ori that had ascended on Earth and stop her from taking over the universe.
Acting isn't the best for a big budget movie but since this was made for DVD movie and fan like me know who the characters are the acting is spot on.
Music is much of the same for the show and feels like a warm blanket to fans.
Special FX in the show were great even with their lower budget and in the movie the FX are still great.
The DVD features are pretty standard including a Q&A panel at Comic-Con 2007, summary of the Ori storyline, and behind-the-scenes featurette.
Overall I wouldn't recommend the movie to non fans of the show because watchers would feel left out of the loop not knowing the back story. But if your a fan of SG1 and followed the show all the way through The Ark of Truth is a good ending to the Ori arc and shouldn't be missed.

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Good ending to a story arc

Posted : 5 months ago on 25 March 2008 03:40 (A review of Stargate: The Ark of Truth)

The original Stargate movie was a real cult sci-fi classic and it sparked the creation of the TV show Stargate SG1 and went for ten seasons and this is the movie to end the Ori story arc. And it's a good ending.
Not going in to far the story arc, the Ori are ascended beings that unlike the Ancient's, who stay out of the lower planes of existence, the Ori force the people of their galaxy to worship them so that they can gain power. At the end of season 10, the SG1 team went and created a device that a old Ancient was making to destroy the Ori and sent the device through to their galaxy to destroy them. And it worked and the rest of the movie is to destroy the last Ori that had ascended on Earth and stop her from taking over the universe.
Acting isn't the best for a big budget movie but since this was made for DVD movie and fan like me know who the characters are the acting is spot on.
Music is much of the same for the show and feels like a warm blanket to fans.
Special FX in the show were great even with their lower budget and in the movie the FX are still great.
Overall I wouldn't recommend the movie to non fans of the show because watchers would feel left out of the loop not knowing the back story. But if your a fan of SG1 and followed the show all the way through The Ark of Truth is a good ending to the Ori arc and shouldn't be missed.

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Zombies without the horror

Posted : 5 months, 1 week ago on 23 March 2008 09:30 (A review of Cemetery Man)

I'm not much of a horror film kind of guy but I've watched some and Cemetery Man is the latest.
Rupert Everett plays Francesco Dellamorte the caretaker of the Buffalora, Italy cemetery where the dead rise within seven days of their deaths.
One day Francesco falls in love with a beautiful widow and while making love on her husbands grave he comes back to life and bites her but she misdiagnosed as dead and Francesco puts her is the ossuary and she wakes up but Francesco thinks she is a zombie and really kills her. And the rest of the movie Francesco goes into a downward spiral seeing other women looking like the widow and causing him to kill people for no reason while trying to contemplate life, death, and love.
Personally I found the story really dumb and uninteresting, the acting in the movie was mediocre, and was the music was also uninspiring even though the reoccurring cords were interesting and catchy.
The only thing that I found interesting was the gory death scenes were quite funny and entertaining since they were pretty good for early 90's special FX.
Really I was wanting a normal horror zombie film but really just got some unscary zombies, 90's style gore, and a little comedy that made the movie fairly boring.

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Perfect

Posted : 5 months, 1 week ago on 20 March 2008 03:16 (A review of The Shawshank Redemption (Two-Disc Special Edition))

What can be said about this movie that has already been said before?
Shawshank is based on the novella by Stephen King and is about Andy Dufresne, a banker wrongly put in prison for murdering his wife and her lover, and how he handles life inside Shawshank State Prison.
Acting by every person in this movie are all Oscar worthy in my book, from Tim Robbins portraying Andy is perfect at showing Andy's intelligent and calm nature, Morgan Freeman as 'Red', a fellow prisoner that befriends Andy and tries to understand Andy's thinking, and even Bob Gunton who plays the warden bringing his the warden's hypocrisy to life.
Music in the movie is awesome fitting in perfectly for each scene and never kills the mood but enhances it.
Visually the cinematographic is spot on showing emotions perfectly and the bleakness of prison while still showing hope through Andy's eyes.
The Shawshank Redemption is a absolutely wonderful film filled with hope in a place normally with no room for it and if you have not seen it I say do your self a favor and see this movie because I personally guarantee that you will not be disappointed.

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Another WWII FPS with a twist

Posted : 5 months, 1 week ago on 18 March 2008 12:56 (A review of Brothers in Arms: Road To Hill 30)

Oh no, another WWII based shooter!
Well this game isn't bad and should be played.

Based on a true story, set during the famous airdrop before the invasion at Normandy, where Sgt. Matt Baker and his squad of 101st Airborne Paratroopers are scattered over the French countryside.
There are 20 chapters to play through and with the action and story, you'll really want to know whats going to happen next.

Controls are easy enough for anyone who has played FPS on PC but it does have a little bit a getting used to. Why? Because player not only controlling Baker, but the squad thats with him. Player control two fire teams and can place one team to place covering and suppressing fire while Baker and the other team flanks the enemies. The game does have a tutorial build in so that player can learn to lead their brothers to victory.

Music in game is the pretty standard fare of orchestral but the sound FX of the gun fire and squad members yelling at the player were so life like and is really immersive.

The game just looks great as every house, plant and character are all textured wonderfully and bring the game a gritty realistic feel.

The only draw back is that the team AI isn't smart enough sometimes and continually says that they can't see or shoot a target and don't move to get a better shot and sometimes gets shot and dies so the strategy part is mandatory most of the time.

Really the game is fast, furious and a blast to play and the story is compelling to continue to the end.

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I don't need coffee to have fun

Posted : 5 months, 1 week ago on 18 March 2008 12:26 (A review of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (Special Edition))

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the 6th game in the series and one of the best.

The player takes the role of Carl Johnson, an ex-gang member that just heard that his mother was killed and comes back for home for answers. He is almost instantly brought back into his old gang and for the rest of the game he goes on trying to take over his neighborhood and later that whole state.

Players that have played GTA3 or GTA: Vice City know what the game is like; killing, shooting, racing, and just running a muck. And nothing really has changed since the previous games other then a couple little things like the player is able to swim and not die instantly, flying is easier and parachutes are added, lock on isn't perfect but better then before, and the game adds a fat-fitness part where the player has to watch what Carl eats and exercises so that he isn't too fat and slow or too skinny and weak.

One major thing over previous installments is the shear size of the state of San Andreas which it is about 2 to 3 times as big as Vice City's layout and is full of things to do.

The music is a mixed bag for me as most of the soundtrack is full of rap/hip-hop and the only stations I would listen to was the talk and rock stations and sometimes those got boring so I was glad I could mute the game and listen to my iPod.

The voice acting in San Andreas is awesome as all the characters from Carl to Officer Tenpenny all sound like they are real people in this faux world.

Now unless someone was living under a rock for the past couple years, San Andreas came under fire for having a "hidden" sex game but was only unlockable if the player owns a cheat device or has the PC version and unofficially patched the game so really the game got a little more heat than it should have. And in this edition that part of the code has been removed totally so players wanting to see the "hot coffee" are out of luck.

Added into the special edition is The Introduction which chronicles the events leading up where the game starts.

In whole the game is a blast to play and if you own a PS2 you shouldn't be caught dead with out it.

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I don't need coffee to have fun

Posted : 5 months, 1 week ago on 18 March 2008 12:25 (A review of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas)

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the 6th game in the series and one of the best.

The player takes the role of Carl Johnson, an ex-gang member that just heard that his mother was killed and comes back for home for answers. He is almost instantly brought back into his old gang and for the rest of the game he goes on trying to take over his neighborhood and later that whole state.

Players that have played GTA3 or GTA: Vice City know what the game is like; killing, shooting, racing, and just running a muck. And nothing really has changed since the previous games other then a couple little things like the player is able to swim and not die instantly, flying is easier and parachutes are added, lock on isn't perfect but better then before, and the game adds a fat-fitness part where the player has to watch what Carl eats and exercises so that he isn't too fat and slow or too skinny and weak.

One major thing over previous installments is the shear size of the state of San Andreas which it is about 2 to 3 times as big as Vice City's layout and is full of things to do.

The music is a mixed bag for me as most of the soundtrack is full of rap/hip-hop and the only stations I would listen to was the talk and rock stations and sometimes those got boring so I was glad I could mute the game and listen to my iPod.

The voice acting in San Andreas is awesome as all the characters from Carl to Officer Tenpenny all sound like they are real people in this faux world.

Now unless someone was living under a rock for the past couple years, San Andreas came under fire for having a "hidden" sex game but was only unlockable if the player owns a cheat device or has the PC version and unofficially patched the game so really the game got a little more heat than it should have. And in this edition that part of the code has been removed totally so players wanting to see the "hot coffee" are out of luck.

In whole the game is a blast to play and if you own a PS2 you shouldn't be caught dead with out it.

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