Game Review – Mass Effect 3

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‘Mass Effect 3 plunges you into an all-out galactic war to take Earth back from a nearly unstoppable foe – and how you fight that war is entirely up to you.‘

Mass Effect 3

Around 7 years ago I remember talking to a friend in the industry about the possibility of a Knights of the Old Republic 3 from Bioware; continuing the fantastic franchise and making up for the terrible ending of KotOR 2. ‘Not going to happen,’ he said. ‘They’re working on their own sci-fi IP instead.‘ We talked for a while about what a stupid idea this was. Why start something completely new when you have such a fantastic established universe to play with? In 2007, we learned why. Continue reading →

Film Review – Wing Commander

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‘In the mid-27th century, the Terran Confederation is at war with the felinoid Kilrathi Empire. After destroying a Terran base, the Kilrathi have seized a NAVCOM unit with the hyperspace jump coordinates to Earth. With Terran reinforcements scheduled to arrive two hours after the Kilrathi hit Earth, it falls upon the starfighter carrier TCS Tiger Claw to keep the Kilrathi busy.‘

Wing Commander

Year: 1999

Writer/Director: Chris Roberts

Writer: Kevin Dromey

Starring: Freddie Michelle Gellar…oh, sorry, Freddy Prinze Jr., Saffron Burrows, Matthew Lillard…were they serious?

When a sci-fi movie made in 1999 clearly intended for a broad youth market (given the casting of the two guys who would go into the dizzying heights of…the Scooby Doo movies) is measured against a PC game made in 1994 and comes off as wanting in the story, characters, costumes and visual effects department it’s time for Hollywood to think hard about their standards. Oh, wait… Continue reading →

TV Review – Comic Book Men – Zombies

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‘AMC’s new unscripted one hour series, Comic Book Men, dives deep into fanboy culture by following the antics in and around master fanboy Kevin Smith’s New Jersey comic shop, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash.‘

Year: 2012

Starring: Kevin Smith, Walt Flanagan, Bryan Johnson, Ming Chen, David Zapcic & Jason Mewes

Network: AMC

I think maybe we’ve run our course with this one.

I’ll maintain what I’ve been saying for the past couple of weeks: this isn’t a bad show; it just sort of exists. It tickles the funny bone a little; appeals to the inner geek a little – but it hardly has any deep essence that makes it sustainable. I’ll hang in there until episode 6, but I don’t have the interest in collecting necessary to sustain much interest. Continue reading →

Film Review – Zombieland

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‘A shy student trying to reach his family in Ohio, and a gun-toting tough guy trying to find the Last Twinkie and a pair of sisters trying to get to an amusement park join forces to travel across a zombie-filled America.‘

Zombieland

Year: 2009

Director: Ruben Fleischer

Writers: Rhett Reese, Paul Werrick

Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Woody Harrelson, Emma Stone, Abigail Breslin

I’m sure there’s some kind of research devoted to understanding why, when an idea hits a creative medium, it must then be milked until its dry and desiccated husk crumbles and is blown to the four winds. Does the onus lie with the creative types, or with the audience who laps it up? This is no dig at creators in a field of work – if they are a professional then they can create whatever the hell they please. But surely most of us can admit it when there is overexposure of an idea. George Romero made zombies cool once upon a time with Night of the Living Dead, but this was back in the days when making movies was really, really hard work. If someone saw that film, and then wanted to make an homage or a spoof or anything involving the prefix “re”, it would cost them thousands of dollars and years of their life. Nowadays, Edgar Wright makes zombies modernly cool with Shaun of the Dead, and subsequently the shelves at Blockbuster are filled with insanely titled diversions like All You Need is Brains, Bong of the Dead, Zombie Strippers and Zombie Honeymoon. Continue reading →

TV Review – Comic Book Men – Commercial

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‘AMC’s new unscripted one hour series, Comic Book Men, dives deep into fanboy culture by following the antics in and around master fanboy Kevin Smith’s New Jersey comic shop, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash.‘

Year: 2012

Starring: Kevin Smith, Walt Flanagan, Bryan Johnson, Ming Chen, David Zapcic.

Network: AMC

I’m not going to suggest that the show’s turned any kind of creative corner, being that this week is more of the same; I do think, however, that everyone’s really comfortable with what they’re doing at this point, and that makes for some relaxed viewing. I don’t know how you can distinguish that these guys aren’t trying so hard now but… well, maybe Bryan Johnson still is. Continue reading →

Comic Book Men – Life After Clerks Review

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‘AMC’s new unscripted one hour series, Comic Book Men, dives deep into fanboy culture by following the antics in and around master fanboy Kevin Smith’s New Jersey comic shop, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash.‘

Year: 2012

Starring: Kevin Smith, Walt Flanagan, Bryan Johnson, Ming Chen, David Zapcic & Jason Mewes

Network: AMC

After but one episode the amount of vitriol spewed forth against Messer’s Smith, Flanagan, Johnson, Chen and Zapcic rather astounded me. It seems that there is no sense of proportion when examining certain aspects of pop culture. Comic Book Men is apparently not simply bad television, it is the worst kind of insult to true comic fans everywhere; further evidence that Kevin Smith has always, in fact, been worthless; exposes his previous filmmaking efforts to be crap; and is proof that Jesus died in vain. Continue reading →

District 9

District 9 Review

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‘An extraterrestrial race forced to live in slum-like conditions on Earth suddenly finds a kindred spirit in a government agent who is exposed to their biotechnology.‘

Year: 2009

Director: Neil Blomkamp

Writers: Neil Blomkamp, Teri Tatchell

Starring: Sharlto Copely, Jason Cope, Nathalie Boltt

Transformers and the likes of Skyline or Battle: Los Angeles thunder into cinemas with all the force of…well, an alien invasion. These flicks wage a publicity assault of such magnitude that there’s no chance the movie-going public can avoid the countless posters, billboards and repeated trailers everywhere we go. Obviously this is how movies like this make their money, by over-saturating the mind so much that people can’t stand to let the movie pass them by. I, for one, am very glad of this; I’m glad Independence Day hit it so big in its time; I’m glad Cloverfield and Super 8 pull in the crowds they do; I’m even glad that Michael Bay get’s to keep cranking out Transformers over and over to a public that eats that business right up.

Because that’s how we get gold…like this: Continue reading →

Comic Book Men – Junk Review

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‘AMC’s new unscripted one hour series, Comic Book Men, dives deep into fanboy culture by following the antics in and around master fanboy Kevin Smith’s New Jersey comic shop, Jay and Silent Bob’s Secret Stash.‘

Year: 2012

Starring: Kevin Smith, Walter Flanagan, Bryan Johnson, Ming Chen & Mike Zapcic

Network: AMC

Fair warning: About four of you are going to enjoy this show.

The latest offering from geek-made-director Kevin Smith is an unscripted, junk drawer style discussion about the life that surrounds his own slice of fandom (or possible tax shelter) “Jay & Silent Bob’s Secret Stash”, in Red Bank, New Jersey. Considering that only one episode has aired, I’m not sure that the format is set for the entire six-episode series, but since it’s all I have to complain about (since I’m a geek with an online forum) then I guess that will have to do. Continue reading →

Cash Cows – Blade

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‘He has sworn to defend humanity yet he is not entirely human. He possesses the superhuman strength of vampires yet he fights for their annihilation. He is Blade, an immortal warrior born with powers greater than any man or vampire – and he has just one mission: to destroy an army of vampires preying on the human race.‘

Years: 1998-2004

Directors: Stephen Norrington, Guillermo del Toro, David S. Goyer

Writer: David S. Goyer, Marv Wolfman, Gene Colan

Starring: Wesley Snipes, Kris Kristofferson, Stephen Dorff, Luke Goss, Dominic Purcell, N’Bushe Wright, Leonor Varela, Jessica Biel, Ryan Reynolds, Norman Reedus, Parker Posey (really?), Arly Jover and RON PERLMAN BABY!

Ok, so it’s been a little while since I did one of these…here goes. Continue reading →

Spartacus: Vengeance – A Place In This World Review

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‘Under Spartacus’ leadership a villa is liberated. Oenomaus, however, decides to throw himself into the brutal pits.Despite his wife’s protests Glaber decides to support Lucretia’s prophecies.‘

While the opening of the second (Gods of the Arena was a prequel) season of Spartacus felt like it was trying to play catch up, A Place In This World seems to be laying the ground for things to come. There were some fantastic moments in this episode, but the pacing of the show is suffering from needing to cover too many characters. One of the strengths of the previous series’ was the focus on a very small group of characters that audiences grew to love (or hate) with a passion. Continue reading →