The Buzz Media

Dark Shadows Movie Review

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Wed, 16 May 2012 10:32:39 +0000

Visually stunning and narratively messy, Dark Shadows is not a terrible movie but it falls far short of how good it could have been. Based on the 1966-1971 soap opera of the same name, Dark Shadows follows Barnabas Collins (Johnny Depp), a wealthy heir to a Maine fishing fortune who is turned into a vampire [...]

The Avengers Movie Review

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Wed, 09 May 2012 20:36:58 +0000

The Avengers is the best comic book movie ever made. Sure, that sounds like hyperbole up there but I mean it. That isn’t to say it is the best movie ever made based on a comic book but in terms of having the feel of a comic and staying true to the spirit of the [...]

The Raid: Redemption Movie Review

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Sat, 21 Apr 2012 21:48:08 +0000

Heavy on action and violence and very light on plot, The Raid: Redemption is not a film for everyone but if you are into non-stop martial arts, gun fights and melee weapon fights then you have most definitely come to the right place. The story, such as it is, follows 20 elite SWAT team members carrying [...]

Cabin in the Woods Movie Review

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Sun, 15 Apr 2012 19:36:55 +0000

There is no way to write this review properly without revealing too much about the movie than you should know going in. For that reason I am just going to tell you to go see it, it is incredible, give my score and then, if you want to know my thoughts about it, you can [...]

Patrick’s 10 Most Anticipated Summer Movies 2012

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Fri, 13 Apr 2012 10:19:15 +0000

It is that time again when we knock on the doorstep of the summer and see if the fun event movies can come out and play. Not generally awards season favorites, summer films promise spectacle and excitement like an amusement park ride complete with junk food and maybe some vomiting depending on how much shaky [...]

The Hunger Games Movie Review

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 19:12:25 +0000

Surely polarizing to fans of the book, The Hunger Games does a respectable job at adapting the source material despite several missteps that keep it from being truly great. Based on the massively popular book of the same name by Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games gives us a horrifying future in which the country is divided into Districts which are forced [...]

Wrath of the Titans Movie Review

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 18:06:24 +0000

While never achieving anything that approaches great, Wrath of the Titans deftly surpasses the previous film and delivers the film the first one should have been. Taking place 1o years after the awful remake Clash of the Titans, Wrath of the Titans finds that demi-god hero Perseus (Sam Worthington) has returned to the fisherman life [...]

American Reunion Movie Review

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Sat, 07 Apr 2012 18:01:04 +0000

Despite some genuinely funny and true to form moments, American Reunion fails to recapture the magic of previous installments while managing to eat itself by falling prey to the very lesson it is attempting to teach. It has been awhile since we have caught up with the gang from American Pie, a film that went a [...]

Mass Effect 3 (XBox 360) Review

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Sat, 31 Mar 2012 21:35:41 +0000

Summary [ 9.5 out of 10]: Mass Effect 3 is the final chapter in the series and opens as Commander Shepard is in the midst of a hearing for his actions after being grounded following the events of Mass Effect 2′s Arrival downloadable content when the Reapers attack Earth. Shepard escapes to the Normandy and [...]

21 Jump Street Movie Review

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 19:06:24 +0000

Absolutely hilarious from beginning to end, 21 Jump Street not only delivers the gold standard for remakes but also one of the best comedies in years. Based on the hour long 1987 Fox series of the same name that introduced the world to now obscure and barely remember actor Johnny Depp, 21 Jump Street tells [...]

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance Movie Review

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 17:53:45 +0000

Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance is very much like finding a piece of shit with a roll of quarters inside: sure there is some value in there but it really isn’t worth what you have to go through to get it. Directed by Crank directors Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor, they bring that same bizarre energy [...]

The Woman in Black Movie Review

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 05:40:00 +0000

Tense and genuinely creepy, the Woman in Black delivers pretty much everything as promised from solid performances, understated but spot on effects and expert direction to make this the most satisfying filmed ghost story I have seen in years. The Woman in Black tells the story of a young lawyer, Arthur Kipps (Daniel Radcliffe), a [...]

Haywire Movie Review

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 10:12:06 +0000

If you are going to have an action film with almost no story then you need to deliver wall to wall action to make up for it. Haywire does not do this. Haywire follows Mallory (Gina Carano), a spy for hire who is burned by the agency she works for and framed for a murder [...]

Patrick’s 10 Most Anticipated Movies of 2012

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 19:58:12 +0000

2012 has started out pretty rocky for films. The cineplexes are currently clogged with the dreck of the year just like every January/February, months which are widely held as the dumping ground for films not up to par. With this in mind, I look a head to better times to come in the year with [...]

Contraband Movie Review

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 14:52:41 +0000

Contraband is a forgettable middle of the road crime thriller heavy on the crime and light on the thrills. Following a plot rehashed from dozens of other crime movies, most notably Gone in 60 Seconds with a sprinkling of Kiss of Death, Contraband tells the story of Chris Farraday (Mark Wahlberg) a reformed smuggler who [...]

imgscalr 4.2 Released

Riyad Kalla — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 00:37:56 +0000

Quick heads up to the Java developers out there using the imgscalr Image Processing Library, version 4.2 was just released! There is 1 new feature in this release and 1 bugfix: New Feature: New ULTRA_QUALITY scaling Method provides the nicest looking scaling result typically better than GIMP’s highest quality scaling method (Lanczos3)! Bug Fix: When [...]

Uncharted 3 (PS3) Review

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 22:26:58 +0000

Summary [7.5 out of 10]: Uncharted 3 is the disappointing third game in an otherwise incredible series. I love Uncharted. I bought my PS3 with the express purpose of playing the first game and I thought the second game was one of the best ever made. I expected this same level of quality from the [...]

Patrick’s 10 Least Favorite Movies of 2011

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 10:09:00 +0000

Okay here we go. Same deal as the list of my favorite movies. This are not the objective worst films of the year but rather the ones that I liked least. In some cases, I outright hated them. If you want to comment or debate then do so in the comment section below but please [...]

Patrick’s 10 Favorite Movies of 2011

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:58:57 +0000

Alright, it is that time of year again when I look back on the year and pick out my 10 favorites put them in a vaguely arbitrary order and post them for the enjoyment of several people who will attack me and my sexual preference and history because they don’t agree with me about movies. [...]

The Adventures of Tintin Movie Review

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Mon, 02 Jan 2012 01:12:22 +0000

A rollicking adventure with great animation, 3D and the most badass terrier ever, the Adventures of Tin Tin provides a nice distraction from heavy awards season pictures and abysmal overly sentimental dreck. Based on the Belgian comic series of the same name, The Adventures of Tin Tin follows the eponymous hero (Jamie Bell), an intrepid [...]

Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn part 1 Movie Review

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 20:07:31 +0000

Generally, despite their failure to approach real quality, the Twilight movies have tended to get better with each installment owing mostly to better directors taking the helm. Sadly, with Breaking Dawn part 1, the trend is thrown into reverse and we are handed easily the worst of the series, and for those of you keeping [...]

The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2011) Movie Review

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 22:38:44 +0000

Intense, visceral and well drawn the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo nails the feel and tone of the book. Based on the novel by the late Stieg Larsson, the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo tells the complicated tale of disgraced journalist Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) who is hired to investigate a decades old murder in the [...]

Detailed Look at the Brilliantly Simple CouchDB File Format

Riyad Kalla — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 20:35:43 +0000

I’ve been researching CouchDB’s file format for the last week along side a few other efforts to understand resilient storage that is optimized for SSD or flash-based performance metrics. As it turns out, log-based file formats (and file systems) are optimal when working with flash memory like SSDs. CouchDB uses an append-only, copy-on-write approach to [...]

Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows

J Patrick Ohlde, Reviews Editor — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 22:34:32 +0000

Mining the same paydirt as the first outing, the second Sherlock Holmes film struggles to find gold but still manages to be worth the effort. Game of Shadows picks up through lines hinted in the first film and brings Holmes (Robert Downey Jr) into direct conflict with the character’s greatest adversary, Professor Moriarty (Jared Harris), [...]