Organized Remains

Abraham Lincoln, Vampire Hunter Review

2011-11-04T00:00:00.000-04:00

image from Amazon

Written by the same mastermind behind Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Seth Grahame-Smith tackled in this historical horror the secret life of the sixteenth president of the United States of America. The story is told by Abe himself through a long chronicles of journalism, starting when he was eleven years old. It's your typical revenge-premise of fallen family members spurring unmitigated rage that only festers over the years. But from that average and ordinary plot evolves a lot of twists, turns, politics and cameos. For example, how does his passion for vampire hunting fit into the Civil War? How does it fit into his presidency?

As you can probably expect from the title, this piece is driven by it's entertainment value more than anything else. The book had it's faults such as dry personalities, lack of character development, and a poorly thrown together ending, but the fight scenes and horror scenes not only guide you through to the next chapter, they make you want to read the next chapter.

Overall, I rate this book 3 3/4 *'s out of 5, or 7 1/2 *'s out of 10. There may be better fiction out there, but I certainly don't regret my time reading this book and would recommend it to anyone interested in the premise.

3DS Ambassador Program

2011-11-02T07:23:00.003-04:00

On September 1st 3DS owners that were a part of the Ambassador Program received 10 NES games. We were also promised 10 GameBoy Advance games by the end of the year. I know it's not the end of the year yet, but there hasn't been one mention of the Ambassador Program since September. It's now November, and still no sign of a date. I hope Nintendo still goes through with their promise... they have to... right?

AWOLNATION's "Megalithic Symphony" Review

2011-10-31T00:00:00.001-04:00

image from Amazon

Artist: AWOLNATION
Album: Megalithic Symphony
Release Date: March 29, 2011
Tracks: 14
Runtime: 52:44 minutes

Track Rundown:
(All ratings out of 5 *'s)

1) "Megalithic Symphony" - An really cool intro-song. I don't rate intro-songs, cuz no one is going out of their way to play them back, but as far as intros go, this one is excellent.

2) "Some Sort of Creature" - A sketch, or a soundbite, whatever you want to call it. Pretty weird and not worth rating since no one is going to go back and make and effort to listen to it.

3) "Soul Wars" - Fun, upbeat, peppy, but missing the "it factor". I think what this song needed was more of a point or message rather than being just a dance song to play at clubs. Still, 4 *'s.

4) "People" - Strikes a chord with me like an electro-version of Baba O'Riley. Great lyrics, great beat, great matching tone. Someone needs to make a high budget music video set to this song, because it evokes a lot of visuals in my mind. 5 *'s.

5) "Jump on My Shoulders" - A well-produced song, but comes off as really silly. I don't think it's meant to, or that it should for the effect it has on the flow of the album. A generous 3 *'s.

6) "Burn It Down" - One of the singles on this album but not one of my favorites. It's got the "It Factor" but it just doesn't connect with me. I think it might be the lyrics and lack of focus. 4 *'s.

7) "Guilty Filthy Soul" - An alright song. Nothing special to me. I like the chorus but everything else falls flat, and the entire production of the vocals comes off as a little too "recorded inside a fish bowl" sound. 2 1/2 *'s.

8) "Kill Your Heroes" - As soon as I saw the title of this track I had high expectations, and for the most part, this track lived up to them. I was looking for something bit more gritty and somber, like "Sail", but this was still a pretty decent song. 4 1/2 *'s.

9) "My Nightmare's Dream" - Soundbite. No rating. Pales in comparison to the intro though.

10) "Sail" - Yes. This was the track that caused me to get the album. So good that everyone should hear it. I love the music, the lyrics, the vocals, the message, it's all good. 5 *'s.

11) "Wake Up" - A decent song. The tone and beat really make the song, as the lyrics and vocals don't do this track any favors. A run of the mill, easily skippable 3 *'s.

12) "Not Your Fault" - Just the opposite of "Wake Up", "Not Your Fault" is driven by it's lyrics and vocal work but the music is really misguided or missing it's mark all together. Unfortunately, while a great beat can salvage a poorly sung song, the opposite is much harder to pull off. 2 *'s.

13) "All I Need" - A great song with a Billy Joel vibe. It's slow, melodic, and has great lyrics giving a great message. 5*'s.

14) "Knights of Shame" - I'm not sure why AWOLNATION made this one song fifteen minutes long, as it could have easily been broken up into different songs given it's lack of chorus and frequent change of tone. This could have even been used to replace the soundbites if it were multiple tracks. All of those tracks would have even been stand-alone awesome. So this track, albeit long, is a definite 5* track for me.

My Highlights:
"People", "Sail", "All I Need", and the excessively long but still awesome "Knights of Shame".

Overall Rating:
Averaging all of these tracks together, this album gets 4 *'s out of 5, but given how many hits this album has, I'm going to add just a small 1/4 * big-picture brownie-point-addition to it, to make the final score 4 1/4 *'s out of 5, or 8 1/2 *'s out of 10. A great album that everyone should give a chance, but hopefully will be viewed by AWOLNATION as good practice, as there was still some let downs about this album.

X-Men: First Class Review

2011-10-28T00:00:00.000-04:00

image from Amazon

Premise:
Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) is a brilliant young telepath who thinks he's the only one different in the world until he meets the shapeshifting Raven Darkholmes [later known as Mystique] (Jennifer Lawrence). The pair get picked up by the military to track down The Hellfire Club, a gang of mutants lead by former Nazi scientist, Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon) and his own personal telepath/girlfriend(?) Emma Frost (Janurary Jones). Having a common enemy, Xavier and Raven team up with a former concentration-camp imprisoned mutant, Erik Lensherr, later known as Magneto (Michael Fassbender) who wants Shaw's head. Soon after, the trio expand into an entire team known as the X-Men, all on a mission to hunt down Shaw.

Standouts:
I didn't see the need for the character Moira MacTaggert (Rose Byrne) which was forced down our throat. I get the importance of having a protagonist lost in the woods so that the viewing audience both feels grounded to the terms of the understandable and rational in this fictional world, and so that we find out things as they find out, but MacTaggert added nothing to the film. She was a powerless, non-mutant, without an interesting thing about her other than another character's jealousy. I also thought that the ending scene dragged on and could have been condensed into a much more powerful moment.

My Highlights:
Finding Wolverine, Beast in Beast-mode, and Magneto dawning the helmet.

Overall Rating:
A great superhero film, but not one I was as engrossed in as much as Spider-Man 1, 2, Iron-Man, or The Dark Knight. Those were near-perfect films for their genre, and this is just a really great film. I award this film a strong 4 1/4 *'s out of 5, or 8 1/2 *'s out of 10.

When You Should See It:
If you're a fan of action films, sci-fi films, or comic book films, definitely see this right away. Otherwise, just see it when it comes to cable. I'm sure FX Network or something will pick up on it within the next year or two.

Bridesmaids Review

2011-10-27T03:30:00.001-04:00

image from Amazon

Premise:
Annie (Kristen Wiig)'s best friend Lillian (Maya Rudolph) is getting married, and as the maid of honor, she has to help make all the arrangements for the wedding. Problems start stacking up for Annie however, as she's hopelessly single, followed by bad luck at every turn, and in intense competition with one of the bridesmaids, a rich housewife named Helen (Rose Byrne).

Standouts:
I was late to catch this movie and had heard for a long time that it was the best female-casted comedy ever created, and on par with The Hangover in both comedy and in plot comparisons. This probably raised my expectations to unreasonable levels, because as I was watching it, scenes and characters that missed it's potential stood out the most to me. What could have been a well-traveled plot like The Hangover stayed primarily in the same town the entire film. We get promised Vegas and Paris in the film, and see neither. We also got just the tip of the iceberg of some really interesting characters in the rest of the Bridesmaids, but were left with just that. It also stands out that while Kristen Wiig steals the movie with her acting and comedic timing, the character of Annie is bland and one-dimensional. In her times of empathy she comes off similar to another of Judd Apatow's characters Alison Scott in Knocked Up, played by Katherine Heigl.

My Highlights:
Plane ride drunkenness, wedding dress shopping, police speed trap with Officer Nathan Rhodes (Chris O'Dowd), and the final jewelry store scene.

Overall Rating:
While the film is definitely funny, it doesn't have very many memorable moments that will stay with you long after you've watched it. It also didn't live up to the crazy hype it got due to both unfleshed character subplots and unexplored setting expansion. Still a great film and deserving of a solid 4 *'s out of 5, or 8 *'s out of 10.

When You Should See It:
When you're on a date. I tried several times to watch this with my girlfriend but something always came up to interrupt those plans, so I had to watch it solo. It's definitely a film that both genders will enjoy equally despite the one-sided casting.

Terra Nova Review

2011-10-04T04:48:00.000-04:00

image from Wikipedia

Terra Nova is a new high budget sci-fi TV show on the Fox Network produced by Steven Spielberg. It starts in the dystopian future of 2149 where the Earth has been ruined by pollution and overpopulation. Slowly, groups of citizens who hold high qualifications (doctors, soldiers, agricultural scientists, etc.) are being shipped through a one-way portal to the past on a pilgrimage to the Cretaceous period to live on a settlement surrounded by dinosaurs. While Elisabeth Shannon (Shelley Conn), a trauma surgeon has been selected to move with her husband and two children to Terra Nova, trouble erupts when the government finds out she has three children. In what may or may not have resulted in a high fine, Elisabeth's hot-headed cop-husband Jim Shannon (Jason O'Mara) flips out and starts swinging on soldiers, getting himself arrested and the third child taken away. The same hotheadedness gets Jim and his youngest daughter Zoe through the portal illegally where his transgressions are looked past by Terra Nova leader, Commander Nathaniel Taylor (Stephen Lang). There's too much danger, curiosity, exploration, and drive to survive on Terra Nova to worry about laws thousands of years in the future.

Production-wise, this show is outstanding. Much like how some people saw Avatar (another great Stephen Lang starring piece) for the visuals more than the story, Terra Nova is going to be a bar raiser for audiences. I was initially worried about two things relating to this show. The first was how long the first episode was - 90 minutes, a feat that very few shows get in their pilot, and often a condition that drives me away from a show when I'm looking for quick thrills, chills, or laughs. Thankfully time just flew by watching it, because there didn't feel like any filler at all. It didn't feel like a movie, but it did feel like I was watching three back-to-back half hour episodes of a really awesome show. The second thing that worried me was for some reason, I got a Lost-vibe from things. I'm speaking of Lost, because it's a show known for it's ridiculous twists for the sake of twists and adding mystery regardless of resolution. In this first episode of Terra Nova I watched, I saw A LOT of different subplots and mysteries and had my fingers crossed that they weren't being too overzealous.

Acting-wise, I have no complaints. The most inexperienced actors and actresses had their weaknesses masked and their strengths emphasized. Naturally, Stephen Lang and Jason O'Mara were excellent in their roles. Character-wise, there was something left to be desired. Some characters like Commander Nathaniel Taylor (Stephen Lang) and a teen heartthrob named Skye (Allison Miller) were like onions with different layers you could peel with ease without shattering them completely. I was particularly put off by Jim Shannon and his oldest daughter Maddy (Naomi Scott) because they came off as shallow archetypes that the writers didn't know what to do with. There's still plenty of time to work out the cogs however, so this wasn't such a detractor to put me off from watching again.

Final Say: I think everyone should give this show a shot. If you're open to the 90 minute pilot, definitely check it out. If you're too busy to invest that kind of time, give a future episode a chance since they'll be about half an hour shorter (maybe only 45 minutes if you take out commercials). This is definitely a show that is going to have everyone talking, and you don't want to be the only one not knowing what's going on. Though it feels early to slap a rating on the show, I was impressed enough to award a 4 1/2 *'s out of 5, or 9 *'s out of 10.

Dylan Dog: Dead of Night Review

2011-10-03T00:00:00.000-04:00

image from Amazon

Premise:
Dylan Dog (Brandon Routh) is a private eye in New Orleans, specializing in digging up dirt on cheating spouses with his sidekick, Marcus Deckler (Sam Huntington). Little does Marcus know that before Dylan was a private eye, he was a peacekeeper between all that goes bump in the night - vampires, zombies, werewolves, etc. That part of Dylan's life is dragged back up from the grave when he's forced to come out of retirement for one last case involving the murder of a wealthy importer.

Standouts:
Dire acting by most, Sam Huntington came off sounding like Shia Lebeouf only about ten times better, and some of the ideas implemented in the film were really great. Especially liked all of the twists in the plot, keeping things interesting.

My Highlights:
Each time you find out it wasn't a suspect, narrowing down who the actual bad guy is, as well as the scene from the body shop.

Overall Rating:
This movie is what it is. It's not for everyone. It's a modern day B-Movie with horror and comedy elements to it, and a ton of action and mystery. Some parts are terrible, but some parts are really enjoyable. I found myself enjoying it, and give it 3 3/4 *'s out of 5, or 7 1/2 *'s out of 10.

When You Should See It:
Only if you're a fan of B-movies. It's not a film that will cater to the mass audience. Don't go in with high expectations.

Conan O'Brien Can't Stop Review

2011-09-29T01:32:00.000-04:00

image from Amazon

Premise:
A documentary following Conan on his Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour, filmed between the time Conan was fired from The Tonight Show on NBC and when he was picked up for his new show Conan on TBS.

Standouts:
What really stood out to me about this film is how stressful show business is. We see Conan have fun, laugh, make others laugh, and have a good time, but we also see him on the verge of a mental breakdown at times and other times lashing out at people and vent his frustrations. A big part of the stress comes from unwritten rules of autograph etiquette. At one point in this movie (minor spoiler alert), Conan prides himself as always having time for his fans, but there are other times where he really needs his alone time and is constantly interrupted.

My Highlights:
Discussion of anti-antisemitism, Jack McBrayer, and the chemistry between Conan and his assistant (particularly on the plane ride).

Overall Rating:
While it's really eye opening how the stress of a tour and the entertainment business comes off on an everyman (which is how I've always seen and connected to Conan), I felt like there could have been just a little bit something more to make this story interesting. Maybe if we had seen contract negotiations in process to get Conan back on TV, or more Jack White, or maybe if they drove their tour bus over an opening bridge to escape the police during a shoot-out, this film would have been more engrossing. Still a really great film though and very interesting. 4 1/4 *'s out of 5, or 8 1/2 *'s out of 10.

When You Should See It:
If you're a huge fan of Coco, you'll want to see this film as soon as possible. There's a ton of guest stars and you'll really get a feel of who he is at his best and worst, as well as how the creative process goes behind his comedy. You can currently catch this film like I did on Netflix Instant Watch (sad that I'll soon be referring to this as just Netflix given the Qwikster spin-off).

Free: The Oregon Trail

2011-09-27T15:20:00.003-04:00

The Oregon Trail game app is free for a couple of days. It's a pretty fun game, and I recommend it to everyone. So get it while it's free!

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/the-oregon-trail/id307519882?mt=8

Paul Review

2011-09-22T07:56:00.000-04:00

image from Amazon

Premise:
Graeme Willy (Simon Pegg) and Clive Gollings (Nick Frost) are two nerdy English dudes traveling across America to visit Comic-Con and sight-see alien tourism spots. Lucky for them, they pick up a hitchhiker named Paul who is an actual alien (Seth Rogen). But like all alien films, this one is being hunted down by the government.

Standouts:
Two things really stood out to me about this film. The first thing was that I thought I was going to be really let down by the appearance of Paul and not be able to believe he was anything other than a CGI creation. They really worked wonders in this film though and made him look like he had tactile skin. The second thing was I thought this film was going to be non-stop joke after joke after joke with just a bunch of silliness in-between as filler. Instead there were meaningful connections, great character revelations and growth, and even though new characters were continually added throughout the film, each one served a distinct and useful purpose without coming off as two-dimensional. Some attempts at this however did fall a little flat. There were scenes that felt like they were meant to be touching and sentimental, but were really just loaded with sentimentality and had a weird out of place tone to it.

My Highlights:
Ruth's (Kristen Wiig) religious spiel, O'Reilly (Joe Lo Truglio) in the comic shop, Ruth's breakdown to Graeme, and O'Reilly's art suggestion.

Overall Rating:
I really enjoyed this movie, felt it was a great use of my time, and was almost inspired in terms of writing characters and character connections. Though I wasn't busting a gut laughing at too many scenes, there were enough comedic scenes, enough mind-opening scenes, and enough emotional scenes for a rating of 4 1/4 *'s out of 5, or 8 1/2 *'s out of 10. The only reason this rating wasn't higher was for the few flat scenes.

When You Should See It:
If you've ever seen a Sci-Fi film or just enjoyed Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead.

BloodRayne: Betrayal Video Review

2011-09-20T00:00:00.000-04:00

Kirby's Return To DreamLand - Trailer

2011-09-18T23:01:00.000-04:00

Your Highness Review

2011-09-14T00:00:00.000-04:00

image from Amazon

Premise:
Thadeus(Danny McBride) is the lazy, jealous, arrogant brother of the adventurous, daring and noble Fabious (James Franco). The pair of princes must set out on a quest together in this medieval sword-and-sorcery parody to re-rescue a breath-taking virgin woman (Zooey Deschanel) from the evil warlock (Justin Theroux) who had originally held her captive.

Standouts:
It's incredibly low-brow with it's jokes, but anyone whose seen the trailer, or probably even just the poster could guess that. I was drawn in by it's classic format of a hero lost in a strange land unfamiliar to him, as well as a strong feminist butt-kicker character. While there was plenty of rehashed monsters from all the other sword-and-sorcery mythology, there were a few interesting new characters and details to this story that set it apart. What stood out the most however was the tendency to break from old-timey English of most medieval films to just use modern day curse words and phrases. I actually appreciated this artistic direction, because anyone who's really studied the language and fiction of that time era knows that there were plenty of low-brow insults and cursing going on; it's just more subtle to today's uneducated reader.

My Highlights:
Thadeus offering to relinquish his servant Courtney's services, the campfire talk between Thadeus and Isabel, Leezar's debates with Belladonna, and the final fight scene.

Overall Rating:
It wasn't the best comedy ever written, or the smartest, but it was very funny for what it was. There was a lot of rehash of old inventions without much parody to it, but I found myself enjoying this film quite a bit. 4 *'s out of 5, or 8 *'s out of 10.

When You Should See It:
If you liked Pineapple Express, or have seen the original Clash of the Titans, you should definitely see this movie immediately. Otherwise it may not be a necessity to put at the top of your list, but should still be on it somewhere.

How To Improve Any Movie

2011-09-13T03:20:00.000-04:00

The website Cineweekly has created a simple video-guide on how to improve any classic film. The next time one of your favorite films of yesteryear gets a re-release date for a new video-format, contact the producers and demand they edit this simplistic feature in!

George Lucas is proving to be an innovator once again by kicking this trend off right - including the Episode III quote into the Episode VI Vader-turnaround.

2010 Movies

2011-09-09T05:36:00.000-04:00

Rio Review

2011-09-08T00:00:00.000-04:00

image from Amazon

Premise:
A rare blue Macaw is captured from the Brazilian rain forest and smuggled to Minnesota where he's expected to sell, but like any good cartoon, he falls off the truck and adopted by a sweet girl who raises him. Unfortunately since he's grown up in captivity, he doesn't know how to fly. Things get interesting when some ten or fifteen years later an ornithologist receives word of his location and convinces the girl who owns him to fly down to Brazil where he can mate with potentially the last female blue Macaw and repopulate the dying species.

Standouts:
I know I'm going to sound cliche, but animated musical numbers were much better in the 90's. Thankfully they kept this to a minimum, but the film still paled in comparison to just about any of Pixar's stuff. Blue Sky Studios produced this animated feature, and it's very evident when watching it. There's just something about the use of physical comedy and odd-use of sexuality that didn't feel like a Dreamworks or Pixar feature.

My Highlights:
Any scene with Tracy Morgan's character, anytime the male blue Macaw tries to put his moves on the female, the toucans, and the monkey tourist trap.

Overall Rating:
I thought everyone did a great job in this film, though at times I thought Jesse Eisenberg could have been a little more impactful in his delivery. Apparently he was voice-acting for this film whenever he wasn't live-action acting for The Social Network, so it's not surprising he might have been a little burned out or tired when doing this. The animation was another really huge upside to this film, because everything looked beautiful and could do a lot of good business for Brazil. Plot, inventiveness, and suitability-wise, I was a little disappointed in Rio. It felt like it was just missing it's potential by a little bit in so many scenes. I give this film a respectable 3 1/2 *'s out of 5, or 7 *'s out of 10.

When You Should See It:
If you / your kids really liked Ice Age or Horton Hears A Who, check it out. If you're not the type to go out and rent animated films unless they're getting amazing hype, you can skip this one with a clear conscience.

American Ninja Warrior

2011-09-07T00:00:00.000-04:00

Reality T.V. is a guilty pleasure for most people. Sure, some people love to announce how much they love Jersey Shore, and that Kardashians show. For people like myself, we like to tell everyone how much we hate these shows. That's until we're sick one day and find that the only thing on T.V. is an 8 hour marathon of The Real World.

Well I just wanted to say how much I'm enjoying American Ninja Warrior. I'm not ashamed or afraid of the response it might bring. It has just the right amount of competition and team work. There's a money prize, but that's only the second thing on theses competitors' minds. The first thing is to beat Ninja Warrior. No Americans have been able to do it, and each year ten Americans go to Japan and try.

I really wish this was more popular. Check it out if you haven't. I know G4TV is on a lot of people's bad side, but I still think you should give it a shot. G4TV will probably show a marathon of American Ninja Warrior every weekend til next summer, so it won't be hard to find.

Call Of Duty Web Series

2011-09-05T00:00:00.000-04:00

image from Amazon

According to Deadline, the brotherly combo of Ridley Scott (Blade Runner, Gladiator, American Gangster) and Tony Scott (Taking of Pelham 123, Deja Vu, True Romance, Top Gun) will be teaming up to tackle a Call of Duty web series. The show will be titled Friday Night Fights and will bring real life rivals together to battle multiplayer on Call of Duty. Sounds riveting. And definitely at the top of the Scott-family priority list, given that they have a lineup of movies they're both working on in the meantime. This web series sounds like something to keep an ear out for just to see who they might bring together as real life rivals. Maybe if they get Slash and Axl Rose to pick up the controllers, they'll see some hits but otherwise it just sounds dull.

NES 3DS Games

2011-09-02T00:00:00.000-04:00

The games for the 3DS are now available. They are as listed:

-Balloon Fight

-Donkey Kong Jr.

-Ice Climber

-Metroid

-NES Open Tournament Golf

-Super Mario Bros.

-The Legend of Zelda

-Wrecking Crew

-Yoshi

-Zelda II The Adventure of Link

They are in your download history on your 3DS. Go into the shop, and go under options.

Ip Man Review

2011-09-01T05:36:00.000-04:00

image from Amazon

Premise:
In the 1930's, Foshan, China was like a Martial Arts capitol of the world, or at least the country, with just as many dojos as Starbucks today. The greatest martial artist in the greatest city of martial arts is Ip Man, who carries with him celebrity status. Unfortunately the entire world gets flipped upside down in 1937 by Japanese invasion and the town is ravaged. But while everyone is starving and there are no more celebrities, Japanese General Miura fancies martial arts and holds tournaments for the Chinese to compete in for bags of rice. Little does he know he's opened the doors to Ip Man's world.

Standouts:
The fight choreography in this film is amazing and I totally bought Donnie Yen (Ip Man) as the biggest action star under America's radar. Along with Tony Jaa (star of the Ong-Bak series), Donnie Yen is now one of martial artists that can really revive and revolutionize Hollywood's action market if brought over to the West. What bothered me about this film however was how perfect they made Ip Man feel. There's a brief point in the film where he seems like a three dimensional human being with flaws, but either Donnie Yen didn't have the empathetic range as an actor to get through his character defect, or director Wilson Yip (who otherwise did a phenomenal job) just didn't put enough emphasis on it. It especially bothered me that what they portrayed as a character flaw at the beginning, they turned around at the end to say Ip Man was right all along.

My Highlights:
Ip Man's first fight in the tournament, Ip Man with a gun put in his face for the first time, and the final fight (even though it had its flaws).

Overall Rating:
At some points where you would expect emotional investment I was disappointing, but in moments I didn't expect to feel anything I was really sucked in. Add to that the action was outstanding and the story was tremendous, I give this film 4 1/2 *'s out of 5, or 9 *'s out of 10.

When You Should See It:
If you don't mind reading a few subtitles (the dialog isn't even that important or extensive) then you need to see this film right away. Anyone who's ever liked martial arts on TV or film will love this film.

Review: Serious Sam Double D

2011-08-31T09:46:00.001-04:00

I have started writing reviews for the website Ultra Mega Cyborg. My first review is of Serious Sam Double D. Check it out!

Quantum Conundrum

2011-08-29T08:11:00.001-04:00

A look at a new game from the co-creator of Portal. Looks great!

Brad Pitt Saves Woman's Life On Film Set

2011-08-28T00:00:00.000-04:00

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Brad Pitt doesn't just play a hero in his movies, he lives the gimmick! On the set of upcoming horror film World War Z, Pitt was filming a scene where a mob of roughly 700 extras and himself are running through town to escape zombies. One woman stumbled and fell, and rather than let her get trampled to death or serious injury, Pitt hoisted her up and carried her to safety. Then like any superhero-civilian relationship, they went their separate ways, never to speak to each other again. The woman was said to be very grateful for the help however, as many of the other extras in the film have been injured in one form or another.

I kind of wish that this scene makes it into the movie, or at least a DVD/Blu-Ray extra. Possibly with Enrique Iglesias' "Hero" dubbed over. Or that they write in this scene later in the film but it turns out she fell because she's been previously bitten and the transformation is starting to take over, so when he tries to help she tries to bite him! Which reminds me, the number one rule of living in a zombie apocalypse:

Limitless Review

2011-08-26T00:00:00.001-04:00

image from Amazon

Premise:
Underachieving slacker Eddie Morra (Bradley Cooper) is down on his luck, slowly losing everything, and decides to experiment with a new drug his ex-wife's brother hooks him up with. Unknown to Eddie, the drug unlocks his full potential and makes the possibilities for his life limitless.

My Highlights:
Subway fight scene, apartment break-in scene (Andrew Howard as Gennedy was a fantastic villain), the scenes devoted to Eddie Morra's uprise in life, and the end scene with Carl Van Loon (Robert De Niro).

Overall Rating:
Man this movie felt long. 105 minutes = 1 hour and 45 minutes. The film features great acting, great suspense, really draws you in, and gets you emotionally invested in the characters, but there are some things that probably could have been done differently. I think if you really need the fifteen minutes that separate this from a solid and compact 90 minute film, more time could have been devoted building up to big moments because they kind of felt lacking. Still a fantastic movie, one of the best I've seen this year and deserves all the praise it got from others who have seen it. 4 3/4 *'s out of 5, or 9 1/2 *'s out of 10

When You Should See It:
Immediately. This film has something for everyone. Sex appeal, blood, intellect, fun, excitement, romance. Put this at the top of your queue!

Portal: No Escape (Live Action Short Film)

2011-08-25T00:21:00.001-04:00

I know it's been making it's rounds in the internet and is on everybody's front page, but man does this deserve front page attention. Such a great job done and reminds me of the live action short film of the Mortal Kombat: Rebirth. Hope everyone enjoys it as much as I did