This movie was essentially one continuous car chase, but, as terrible as that sounds, it works perfectly. Back when I was 13, I was just the right age when Beyond Thunderdome came out and I loved it. I was not soured on the Mad Max brand and waiting for some sequel to redeem the series. So, for me, Fury Road isn’t so much a return to form as it is just another ramping up in quality. What makes this movie so excellent is the unrelenting sense of danger. As I often paraphrase from Joe Bob Briggs: in this film, anyone can die at any moment. Add to that a ton of practical effects, a solid story, and incredible art direction and you have one of the best movies in recent years (decades even). Just don’t go in with a nitpicky sci-fi fan attitude. Nothing makes practical sense. Just go with it, nerd.
The story of a finely attired gringo mercenary who falls in with a group of banditos in a scheme to steal weapons and support the revolution. Definitely not the most exciting spaghetti western I have seen (what, no gun duels!). Klaus Kinsky is tragically underused and the leads are fairly wooden. It’s mostly a heavy-handed attempt at lefty political nonsense… rich Americans are evil. We get it.
This Tom Cruise action film is basically Groundhog’s Day meets Starship Troopers. Since Groundhog’s Day there must have been half-a-dozen rip-offs on various TV shows and made for Disney Channel movies (even the excellent Run Lola Run was essentially the same concept). It’s an idea that just works no matter how crappy the vehicle. Edge of Tomorrow does it better than most by constantly building on the characters and plot, and ramping up the stakes as the timeline resets itself. I found myself sucked into watching it again a few days later which is a rarity for me. The last quarter of the movie doesn’t quite live up to the build up, but the rest of the movie is surprisingly good.
Despite an exciting opening, the second book in this series is not as good as the first. The stakes aren’t as high and it feels like a lot of set up for the next book.
The Witcher is a flawed but ultimately satisfying role playing game that puts you in the role of monster killing mutant named Geralt. In some aspects the game is a bit more hardcore than other recent RPGs. You need to pay close attention to dialogue as clues are not spoon-fed to you and the almighty quest arrow is somewhat deceiving. The first half of the game feels more like an adventure game in which you are talking to NPCs and running back-and-forth across the map to advance. I eventually got the hang of the way quests worked and was able enjoy the game much more about one-third the way through.
While story and questing are complicated, fighting and building your character have been simplified. Combat involved a timing-based system of clicks and weapon swapping. You only have two real weapon choices and five magic spells. While others may scoff at this simple system, I rather enjoyed it. It’s not the mindless clicking of Diablo and not the thinky strategic multi-character battles of a Baldur’s Gate style game. Relaxed but engaging.
The big story arc is a basic one in which you are to recover a stolen goods, but, along the way, you get entangled in politics, romance and lending the occasional helping hand. The side quests eventually tie in nicely with the main story, although I never quite felt like the main baddies were that much of a menace. Oh, and as for the “romance” aspect, that consists of bedding anything with a pair of polygonal boobs in exchange for a racy trading card. Classy stuff.
Not much to say about this one other that it’s a joke game. The gag is that in order to gain required abilities you need to purchase downloadable content. These abilities include moving to the left (as seen in the above screen grab) and colored text. The game itself is a simple platformer where your real goal is to collect coins and eventually get to the final (and only) bad guy. The game can be finished in less than a half hour so if you can get it for less than a dollar, have some time to kill and a low threshold for what you think passes for humor, go nuts.
The Back from the Grave series seeks to uncover raw sixties garage rock that has a punk-rock sensibility. It’s been well over a decade since the last release and it definitely feels like the bottom of the barrel is being scraped here. There are no clear stand outs, although I tend to like the more novelty tinged tracks of earlier comps. That said, this is a solid, albeit forgettable, collection of garage rock that more than makes up for it with some great packaging recounting the stories of tracking down the records featured.
Brothers is a surprisingly excellent game that’s filled with beautiful visual storytelling and a unique game-play mechanic that has the player controlling two characters on screen at the same time. This game requires a dual-stick controller. Each stick independently controls the movements of each the two titular brothers while the L/R triggers serve as the interact/action buttons for boys. This sounds like it would be impossible to control, but it doesn’t take all that much getting used to. What it does is open up the game to all sorts of puzzle solving where the left side of your body needs to cooperate with the right to get everything working on screen.
Fortunately, this isn’t just another puzzle platformer. There is a simple and effective adventure story that leads the player from set piece to set piece. Each section of the game has its own little story to tell and interesting characters to meet. Although it is really linear, you are encouraged to take time and explore little nooks and corners of the levels to see how the two brothers react. The game is short (finish-able in 2–3 hours), but the length feels just about right for the limited amount of variety the unique control mechanic can offer.
I got this CD as a gift from my brother several years ago. I understand why he got it for me. It sits firmly in the land of “emo” music that he enjoys so much and it was considered a bit of a masterpiece of its kind. I’m not so big into the whole “emo” thing. It can tend to drift a little to close to James Taylor and teary-eyed singer/songwriter folk music that I despise. However, despite being peppered with a couple sappy bro-jamz, The Meadowlands has enough standout rockers to elevate it. “Happy” and “Hopeless” are the two big standouts and I tend to stop the CD once the latter finishes. I will sometimes stick around for “Faster Gun,” but that’s about all The Wrens I need.
A fantastic compilation 60’s girl-pop songs from Italy. The highlight of the CD is the opening track “Baluba Shake.” None of the other songs are quite as groovy as that opener but there’s plenty to love here if your a fan of pop in the vein of Leslie Gore or Nancy Sinatra. As per usual with Ace Records, there is a thick, detailed booklet filled with info and photos.
