Archive for the ‘ Reviews ’ Category

The Expendables – Pow, Stab, Bang, BOOM!

The Expendables may have the most pressure on it of any movie ever, just look at the cast list

Sylvester Stallone, Jason Statham, Jet Li, Dolph Lundgren, Randy Couture, Terry Crewes, Mickey Rourke, Stone Cold Steve Austin and cameo’s by Bruce Willis and Arnold Schwarzenegger.  It’s cast are all legends and almost all of them are used to headlining  their own movies.

Question:How can you possibly live up to that?

Answer: With some  good fights, lethal knife usage for brutal kills, lots of guns and a ludicrous amount of explosions.  The only thing Expendable about this is the plot which is vintage 80s storytelling (i.e. the story is more of an excuse than an actual plot and you know that’s deliberate here).  Oh and Charisma Carpenter has a small role in it and is still hotter than all of the explosions in the film combined.

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Glass Maiden

Kurestaru Burazu logoThere are some things that take you by surprise, Glass Maiden aka Crystal Blaze in Japan is definitely one of those series that does that.  Ordinarily I get annoyed when an anime is so shameless in showing it’s influences, and in copying much from my favourite series City Hunter I’d expect to be scathing but they pulled it off spectacularly.  Thanks to the joys of Crunchyroll and the auto next episode I watched all 12 episodes in a row, on a week night and felt the need to blog about it same night! If that isn’t the mark of a good series I don’t know what is.
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An A-Team but not THE A-Team

A-Team Movie PosterI never wanted the A-Team movie to be made, you could not better the TV series cast, each and everyone one of them nailed their character to perfection.  With that said, this may suprise you, I really enjoyed the new A-Team movie.  It was a fun no-brainer popcorn film, and even with my love of the original clouding my opinion, I was still able to enjoy it and want to give some credit where it’s due.  Of course there are plenty of things I disagree with and I’ll get to those later but the film gets a fair amount of things right too and everyone should give it a watch.

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Saber Rider & the Star Sheriffs

Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs logo

Back on the crusade to bring more giant robots to the site and my choice this time is another blast from the past.  Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs was along with Macron-1 and Robotech, a staple of my early morning viewing when I was a child.

The show is your basic futuristic western. The Star Sheriffs protect the New Frontier from Outriders, vapour beings from another dimension.  Because they turn into a puddle of vapour when shot, there’s a lot of killing of bad guys which wasn’t something you’d see in many other shows of the time.  Their boss Nemesis even goes as far as getting his forces to kidnap all the Wilderbeasts (think buffalo) just because he thought it would amuse him.  How can you not love a bad guy with so much power he invades another dimension and kidnaps an entire species just for fun (oh and he’s voice by Peter G1 Optimus Prime Cullen).

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Akira changed my life

akira5 It is no exaggeration to say the film “Akira” changed me. It must have been about the end of 1993 and Nikobe brought it round my house on VHS tape (we really did have them).

Now I was not totally new to Manga, I had seen some before but never really knew it was a specific genre all its own. Things like “Battle of the Planet” and others had been on TV and I had always loved that Japanese style. But don’t forget this was before the Internet, there was no way of finding out any of this stuff. Looking back at it now I wonder how I ever managed… but you had what you had, and I was luckier than most.

As it turns out I had seen the Studio Ghibli classic “Castle in the Sky” year before and loved it. But with no way of ever really finding out anything about it, other than its name and the fact I loved that style. If I had seen “Totoro” or “Spirited Away” at that age I would have been forced to find out more about these amazing films.

But I digress, just looking at the cover I knew I had to watch it!

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Iron Man 2

iron-man-2 After what seems like a very long wait Iron Man 2 is finally out. I was very surprised with the first film. If there are two things I have never really got they are Robert Downey Jr and Iron Man.

I don’t know what it is that has never really worked for Downey, but is has certainly re-established himself since Iron Man came out. He can carry off the narcissistic Tony Stark like no one else, and is definitely fun to watch.

The concept of Iron Man itself is one of those comics that passed me by. Of course I know of Iron Man, and a basic understanding of the story but beyond that I really don’t know how Iron Man fits into the Marvel universe. Some of that history is coming out in this film, along with references to other films in production. I counted three, but I might have missed something.

So how does this one stand-up? In short it has its moments, but overall it does not have the same feel or impact of the first.

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White Knight Chronicles

White Knight Chronicles Box artNormally I research new games before buying them, be it reviews or wait for friends to try them. I didn’t actually pay attention to the words of the previews or reviews of White Knight Chronicles, any game with good looking anime-style graphics where you can transform into a giant knight to hack up giant trolls and ogres is going to be my kind of game. If there’s one thing I’d like to do in Dragon Age Origins, it would be exactly that (turning into a bear or spider doesn’t count – not big enough and doesn’t use a sword). For the record using the white knight is fun, not using it and getting trampled on sucks. Transforming, to a cry of VERTO (Latin for Transform because English isn’t cool enough) you turn the tide of a battle in an instant, give passive buffs to your team, crush man sized scorpions with a single strike then go toe-to-toe with whatever golem or dragon was giving you grief – marvellous.

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Dragon Age: Origins

It’s funny how some things work out. I was battered into buying Dragon Age Origins by multiple friends telling me I’d love it. Turns out my friends know me too well. I’ve spent longer playing it than most of them and only Disgaea 3 has cost me more of my life (well apart from when I was young and games didn’t track how long you played them).

Anyway, the first thing about Dragon age: Origins is the choices available. You have the usual choice between 3 races, humans, elves and Dwarves and 3 classes, Warriors, Rogues and Mages (unless you’re a Dwarf) and there’s plenty of customization to be done once you pick.

Initially you play through one of 6 different origins stories depending on your race and class.  From here on the real choices that affect the whole Dragon Age world begin.

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Cloudy with a chance of meatballs review

Its raining meat!Computer animation must be a very hard field to be in. There is one company that dominates it and everything you do will be held up in comparison and rejected as not being good enough. Not because your work is bad, it is probably amazing. But compared to what Pixar do, it’s worthless.

Out now is “Cloudy with a chance of meatballs”, the latest home release from Dreamworks Sony/Columbia. Their work keeps getting better and better, the last film (Monsters vs Aliens) is probably the best they have done. But there very best just does not compare to the standard set. Gaff-tastic: My fault! I even laughed out loud when they showed the classic Columbia title screen that has brought me so much joy over the years, should have remembered that.

Cloudy is a great film, we all laughed out loud at various bits. The voice acting is top notch, the story is a lot of fun, the animation is excellent. But somehow its missing something… Read more

Day of the Triffids Is Back

The day of the Triffids makes its return

Some time ago I wrote about one of my favourite Sci-Fi TV Series “Day of the Triffids“. Made in 1981, much like “Blakes 7” it is a little known British gem of a show that never really seemed to get the regard it should have got. Over Christmas the BBC have finally shown the new version. With some excellent actors, and a more grown up feel it is an excellent addition to the growing catalogue of remakes of this classic story.

I have to confess I have not read the book, and now I am starting to think I should. Every remake of this story has something new, while the core story still remains as chilling as ever.
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My game of the year 2009

Up until two weeks ago my favourite game of 2009 was definitely, and without doubt Batman: Arkham Asylum. This is the Batman game I have been waiting twenty years to play. It has absolutely everything you can want in a Batman game and the best production of a game you can hope for. All of the artistic elements are there that make Batman a thoughtful super hero, as well as some of the best voice acting I have ever heard in a game. All that before we even get onto the game play and story.

All of these things should make this the best games? Until two weeks ago you were right and I was ready to fight to preserve it as the best game I played all year. But all that has changed. While it is still the high point for me in terms of stealth/action/super hero games there is now one game that does all of that, but only much better. Read more

Macron-1

One of the first robot anime I ever saw was Macron 1, shown rediculously early (5am) on the Super Channel back in the 80s. Of course I didn’t know it was an anime then.Macron1 To me it was a cartoon with fighter jets that combined into a robot or more often, just docked into the legs and chest of an even larger super robot MacStar (GoShogun) that fired beams from its eyes, had a Photon Battle Axe, and Sword and a gigantic Bazooka that fired a huge energy beam, not to mention it’s trademark lazer bombardment (GoFlasher).

Accompanying the awesomeness of being one of the first super robot shows I saw, it was given a soundtrack comprised of covers of then contemporary music. To this day I still hear the voices of Kathy and Jason as they shoot robotic skeleton warriors whenever I hear “Hit me with your best shot”. Other 80s songs covered included Beat It, The Reflex, Electric Avenue and more.

Click to view Macron 1 European Intro

A Bit of History

At this point I will admit that Goshogun isn’t particularly well loved in Japan but they had had Mazinger Z and countless other super robot shows. Us UK cable TV viewers had Transformers, Voltron, Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, Macron-1 and Robotech and I’m not sure that some of those weren’t after Macron-1 (my memory sucked when I was 7 too).  Anyway, I loved and still love robot shows and being one of so few I saw in my highly impressionable youth definitely helped make this all the more memorable.

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District 9 Review Lite

For Humans Only

For Humans Only

Over the weekend I got the chance to see “District 9” but what I can’t tell you is whether I enjoyed it?

This is technically a very good film, the CG work is outstanding and the plot is good. The film is shot like a documentary at the start, talking about various events like the arrival of the ship 20 years earlier, and how once we eventually got inside they found it filled with aliens. A camp is created, and the aliens are basically left there. Coming back to the present the camp is almost a prison, squalid and over run with crime.

Various groups are exploiting the aliens for their own ends and we are introduced to Wikus, a mostly useless middle manager for the company in charge of looking after the aliens. The style continues as we follow him around the camp doing the dirty work of the corporation.

Thoughts

This is a very good film, I would recommend you go and see it. Did I really enjoy it.. I don’t know, it was not bad. I can see how it could become an important film in this genre. It did manage the most important thing which is to make you think, and discuss what you have seen.

I will see it again, but I don’t feel the need to to go the cinema to do it.

Shin Mazinger Shōgeki! Z-Hen

Shin Mazinger Shōgeki! Z-Hen - A lot of awesome needs a lot of nameIf there is one anime I want to be released on blu-ray that won’t be in the UK or US for a long time if ever, it is 2008′s Macross Frontier, my next choice would be the 2009 remake of Mazinger Z.

Mazinger Z is the original, big giant robot piloted by a human. A world without Mazinger Z is unimaginable. And now, the king of big giant robots is back in this hi-def re-telling and it is seriously awesome. From the adrenalin pumping intro you know you are in for a treat and it does not disappoint in the action stakes.

Most Insane Begining Ever!

The first episode blew me away, it dumps you straight in the middle of the fight to end all fights.  I have to admit, I haven’t seen all of the original Mazinger Z and while I marked out like mad as everyone I recognized appeared in the first episode, I still didn’t know everyone and was left thinking there is no way anyone could just pick this up.  Then the episode ended, without finishing the epic battle and without telling us how we got to this point.  I was hooked, I wanted more, much more. Read more

The ballard of G.I. Joe

On Sideswipes recommendation, and to celebrate nikobe’s birthday we saw G.I. Joe. We all agreed Sideswipe was right, as long as you don’t think too hard its a great action-fest that is definitely worth checking out.

But if there is one thing better than that, its the Ballard of G.I. Joe

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

The official poster does the job but I'd have had Baroness and Scarlett much more prominent

The official poster for G.I. Joe does the job but I'd have had Baroness and Scarlett much more prominent...

G.I. Joe, or Action Force and then G.I. Joe the Action Force as it was known in the UK back in the day has it’s first film out and it’s suffered a lot of negative press and I have to set the record straight here.

It is an excellent popcorn film

You read that right. This film is not without its faults and I’ll get on to those later but first and foremost, this is a fun film.  Well paced action that really deserves to have a sequel (which is cleverly set up at the end).  Seriously, that Transformers Revenge of the Fallen is one of the top 10 movies of all time and this has been somewhat a failure is a mystery of the highest level.

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Watching the Watchmen

A treat of a film that you have to see

A treat of a film that you have to see

Just out (in the UK at least) is Watchmen on Blu-Ray. It is shameful to admit but I have never read the comic and I missed the film at the cinema (double shame.. I’m sorry) but I have been waiting for the release on Blu-Ray and I can tell you my wait was not in vein.

I’m not going to review the film, there are plenty of other sites out there who have done a great job. They know the story a lot better than me, so I will let them do it. All I will say is this is a great film, subtle and nuanced, that is more to do with the source than it is the quality of the production, but that is not a let down either. All in all a great film, very well done.

I wanted to look at the technical side of the release. What is included and how does the disk stack up in our new HD world. Read more

Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li

Street Fighter: The Legend of Fail, I mean Chun Li

Street Fighter: The Legend of Fail, I mean Chun Li

The second official live action film based on the Street Fighter video games is possibly the most mediocre action film  I have ever seen.

That said, I will buy it on blu-ray just for the awesomeness of Balrog.

There’s an awful lot wrong with this film from a Street Fighter fan’s point of view but as a stand alone film it’s not bad, just average, from the competant but not great fights to the glory of Balrog and an RPG which really sums up a lot about this film, it shouldn’t really have been called Street Fighter at all really.

Of course there’s also the question, how does it compare to the original live action film?

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Transformers – Revenge of the Fallen

Due to friends with good contacts and one of the best Transformer websites  http://www.transformertoys.co.uk I was privileged to see Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen at a special FDA screening at the Odeon cinema in Leicester Square on Friday 12th June. I would have reviewed it sooner but this was an invite only screening and there was a blackout on mentioning it in public until today.

The film was more of the same, the stuff that made the first film awesome is all here and the weak points from the first film are all still here. I’m not going to go into much detail here but there will be some mild spoilers but nothing you probably couldn’t have guessed but don’t read on if you really don’t wanna know.

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Zombies

Does exactly what it says on the box

Does exactly what it says on the box

That is the simple title of this board game. I saw that and thought that’s enough for me and bought it. Anything to do with Zombies, or fills my need to be Bruce Campbell is a sure fire winner. The concept is simple, like every zombie apocalypse you have ever seen you are a survivor, and if you want to stay that way you need to get out of the city before it is completely overrun.

So every turn you have to evade the on coming zombie horde, plan your escape, and thwart the other survivors. What more could you want? Read more

Bret Hart Hitman

BretHartI finished reading Bret Hitman Hart’s autobiography today.  As expected of The Excellence of Execution, it was excellent.  This book is full of so many great little stories that seem crazy but somehow all too believable. I’m probably too biased in favour of Bret to know if it’s him hyping himself when he talks of other wrestlers congratulating him on his work as a wrestler but from what I saw in my youth and in his DVD boxset, I can’t see why they wouldn’t.  I really recommend it to anyone interested in what life at the bottom and at the top of Wrestling used to be like.  His tours of all over the world make for excellent reading in a similar way to Chris Jericho’s book which may be more entertaining than this but lacked the amazing drama that went on during Bret’s career (no offense Chris, you are still my favourite wrestler of this generation and wrote a great book).  Anyway, you should know that this book is Highly recommended for anyone that grew up watching wrestling in the 80s or 90s.

As a child of the 80s, it was an amazing read for me as Bret was always one of my favourites. Read more

Transporter 3 Blu-Ray

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I have been a fan of Luc Besson for a long time now, ever since I first saw “Léon” so many years a go. He is also responsible for the best value I have ever had at the cinema, watching “The Fifth Element” for just £1 can not be beaten in my view (as well as it being one of my favorite Sci-Fi films).

Unfortunately I have managed to miss all three “Transporter” films at the cinema, but I have certainly enjoyed them at home. I was initially sceptical about Jason Statham in this role having only previously seen him in “Lock, Stock, and two smoking barrels”. But how wrong can you be? he has proved himself again and again (especially in “Crank” that I have only just seen, but will be seeing the next one when its released). He combines excellent skill, with humor and fantastic acting. Making him always a joy to watch. So the stage is set. You have some great cast, a great writer/director team, and an established character that is quiet flexible in what can be done. Does he manage to pull it off?

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Red Dwarf Disappointment

What can I say about the genesis of “Red Dwarf”?

In a strange way I am not at all surprised. I did not have very high hopes for this “series” and in a way they managed to hit the nail exactly where I thought they would. That is not to say there were not things to like.

It is just unfortunate that it fell so flat after so much hype. In case you have not seen it I wrote an article on my expectations for the new show a while back that caused some discussion.

If you intend to see the series please stop reading now. Go and watch it and make up your own mind. There might be spoilers in here, and I would not like you to hear it from me before you have seen it for yourself.

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Dragonball Evolution – the new definition of disastrously bad

If you don’t know me, I am a huge Dragonball fan, I have an army of Goku toys (stopped keeping a count around the 50 mark) and have watched all of Dragonball/Dragonball Z and even GT numerous times. I am a biased hard-core fan I freely admit it. I went into this movie expecting it to be a terrible adaptation but was hoping it would at least be an entertaining action film. Sadly my low hopes were shattered…

Not so detailed spoiler – It is crap

Now I am going to go into detail so you don’t have to watch it. Don’t read on if you don’t want spoilers but if you go you’re in for the ultimate spoil. Your precious time and money. Really you shouldn’t pay to see this. It’s nonsensical crap.

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Apple makes a play

shuffleThis week the tinterweb has been alight with news of the new Shuffle from Apple. You have to hand it to Apple, they certainly think outside of the box. The new shuffle is tiny, but its much more notable for its lack of controls. They have been moved onto the headphone cable, so they are always in easy reach.

But all is not as it appears, this is not about giving there customers a new way to interact with the player. This is about making a grab for the after sales headphone market. I think Apple are setting a dangerous precedent, and should not be allowed to muscle in on a market where there obvious intention is to drive up prices and exclude competitors they don’t happen to like. Read more