Southland Tales starts with an incoherent and mumbling ten minute narration sequence voiced by pop singer Justin Timberlake.  He tells us of the world after a nuclear explosion run by right wing crazies dressed like Twin Peaks extras while mumbling “this is how the world ends” over and over.  I figured that at that point the film had nowhere to go but up, but I was sorely mistaken.  Southland Tales is one of the worst films ever made.  A muddled political satire mixed with pretentious and numbing speeches and a “plot” that goes nowhere slowly.  This thing moves like molasses …

Continue reading →

With HD DVD getting its ass kicked by Blu-Ray, some stores are having fire sales. One store in particular is Hollywood Video, selling their HD DVD’s for about $10 a piece or if you have a coupon 2/$15. So I went on an HD DVD binge and bought 6 movies, even ones I didn’t really like at the theatre. Yes, addiction is bad for you. Here we go:

1) Harry Potter and the Order of The Phoenix

Movie Rating: B +
This was the first time I saw it. Didn’t care much for the previous four but enjoyed this one. We …

Continue reading →

 

Doomsday is something of a misunderstood gem.  It had a decent advertising budget (judging from the amount of television spots I’ve seen) but it didn’t have much help from the indifferent studio, who seemed resigned to its failure at the US box office.  That’s really a shame because people are missing a nasty, gory, and ultra-violent throwback to past B-movies, delivered with breakneck pacing and lots of style by director Neil Marshall, rightly celebrated for his previous two films, Dog Soldiers and The Descent.  Doomsday is assembled from parts of other films, a dash of 28 Days Later and Resident …

Continue reading →

Remember that memorable scene in Syriana when Clooney’s character is tortured and his nails are removed by pliers? Well that happened to me last night but only it happened to my left toe. I was training and grappled/wrestled for a good 20 minutes. Besides the normal pain from neck cranks and leglocks, everything was good. Then about 3 hours later, I look at my feet and noticed that one of my toes looked weird. I looked at it closely and the nail was pretty much hanging from my toe. It took me a good 5 minutes to remove it. At first, …

Continue reading →

Bring Down the Sky. 

This is the first Downloadable content to come out for Mass Effect by Bioware.  It takes place on an asteroid that is headed for impact on a nearby colonial planet.  The evil Batarians, the new alien race, are the ones behind this.  This content when finished gives you 50 Achievement points.  Bioware mentions that this download content would take around an hour to an hour and a half to finish. 

Anything that can get me back in the world of Mass Effect would be a plus but this downloadable content was kind of a letdown.  The new …

Continue reading →

Into the Wild is a good (but flawed) film written and directed by Sean Penn and based on real events. The acting, cinematography, and writing are all first-rate. The film is gorgeous to look at and, despite some pacing problems, becomes a genuine film that deeply affects viewers. It can be looked at simply as a film about the harshness and nature through the eyes of a bright young man coming of age. His motivations remain up for debate, but his journey is both inspiring and dangerous, a harsh reminder of how little we truly understand about nature.

Into the Wild …

Continue reading →

My rant of the week is on politics, and specifically the treatment of Hillary Clinton. I know that I usually write about movies but I am a fan of politics and self-described liberal do-gooder. There’s a sinister trend going on involving Mrs. Clinton that I am going to expose.

I’m no fan of Hillary Clinton but I’m growing tired of the rampant misogyny and woman-bashing from mostly male white commentators. If you watch cable news, MSNBC is in the tank for Obama……most of the men on their should just have sex with him and get it over with. Chris Matthews is …

Continue reading →

 

Lately, Sony has been on a good running streak.  With the biggest news coming from the death of HD DVD (the Blu-ray camp is doing back flips), to the NPD Groups January Game Sales showing the PS3 catching up with Wii and the Xbox 360 in last place.

Later this year, the highly anticipated game Metal Gear Solid 4 will be available on the PS3 exclusively.  An MGS4 bundle will also be released that comes with the game, the 80 gig PS3 console, and a DualShock 3 (rumble finally!!).

Can the PS3 triumph over the Wii and truly be this years …

Continue reading →