Tag: Review

Movie Review: The Help

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“The Help” on IMDB

Drama, 146 Minutes, 2011

Before getting into the movie let me say: I had no idea what this was.  My wife had read the book and demanded that we see it so… we did.  But I asked her, “what’s this about?”  She got a gleam in her eye and started, “Well, there’s this white woman that -” and I stopped her.  Basically there’s only a few kind of movies that can be described with that phrase (and my wife isn’t even remotely interested in several of them).  It’s like “This guy finds out he has a kid…” or “These kids find a map…”  Even if you can’t say exactly what’s going to happen you know basically what’s going to happen.

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Game Review: Batman: Arkham City (PS3)

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“Batman: Arkham City” at Amazon.com

Rated Mature, Reviewed on PS3

“Batman: Arkham Asylum” was a revelation.  It single-handedly redeemed the entire gaming industry for the multiple generations of terrible, hackneyed, money-grubbing excuses for Batman games that littered the landscape before.  Never before had the depth of the character and its history been explored so completely.  Fans truly couldn’t have asked for a better game.

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Movie Review: The Smurfs

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“The Smurfs” on IMDB

Comedy, 103 Minutes, 2011

You know how every once in a while a movie comes along that looks really bad – horribly, terribly bad – but somehow manages to end up really good?  How a movie can sometimes triumph over the shortcomings of its source material and become something special? Sometimes its writing that’s smarter than it needs to be; or an oddly perfect marriage of actor and role; or even just an infectious love of something that most people consider too silly to consider?

Well – this movie ain’t none of that.

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Movie Review: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

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“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” on IMDB

Sci-Fi, 105 Minutes, 2011

Not to spoil things by fawning overly in the first paragraph: but this is a prime example of how hollywood should proceed through its creative drought.  Comparing this to the well-produced but deeply flawed 2001 remake of the “Planet of the Apes” (IMDB) you’ll find some very educational contrasts.

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Game Review: Uncharted 3 (PS3)

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“Uncharted 3” at Amazon.com

Rated Teen; Reviewed on PS3

Uncharted 2 was perhaps as close to a perfect game as I’ve seen.  It had flaws (and a lousy final boss fight) but it improved on the first game in nearly every way.  Controls were streamlined, difficulty was smoothed and the scale of the story grew.  Most importantly new characters were introduced and the characters we had grown to love from the first game were allowed to grow.  The last conversation between Nate and Elena was one of the best endings to  game ever.

The gameplay in Uncharted 3 evolves slightly from the previous games but is still tight.  You can now shoot in pretty much any circumstance and toss grenades back at the bad guys (a great idea that unfortunately fails about as often as it succeeds).  The weapons and tactics from the earlier games were great and return with only slight tweaks.

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Movie Review: A Boy Called Dad

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“A Boy Called Dad” on IMDB

Drama, 80 Minutes, 2009

(Before we begin, a warning: this film may be very hard on the ears of Americans.  The accents are thick, deep and steeped in slang.  Even if you’re a fan of British media, as I am, you may find things hard to follow.)

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Movie Review: Conan the Barbarian

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“Conan the Barbarian” on IMDB

Action, 90 Minutes, 2011

Being a big fan of the Schwarzenegger version I was happily looking forward to this.  Swords, magic, monsters – you really can’t screw it up that much, right?  Well, it turns out that you can try pretty damn hard to screw it up but that no… you really can’t screw it up all that much.

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Movie Review: Our Idiot Brother

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“Our Idiot Brother” on IMDB

Comedy, 90 Minutes, 2011

This strikes me as the independent film equivalent of the summer popcorn blockbuster.  Take a movie like, say, “Pirates of the Caribbean.”  It can be dismissed creatively as committee-generated pulp while still earning millions upon millions of dollars and a rabid fan-base.  Here we have an independent movie that pushes all the right indie buttons – drama, humor and character – but simultaneously takes such a safe, predictable path that you’d swear it was pressed from a well-used mold.

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Movie Review: Black Death

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“Black Death” on IMDB

Drama/Horror, 102 Minutes, 2010

First, a warning: at first glance you’d be forgiven for thinking otherwise, but this is a straight historical thriller.  There’s no monsters, zombies, vampires or any other supernatural elements.  While the tag-line promises the “ultimate battle against evil” all we really ever get is some borderline atheism and a few scenes of 14th century torture.

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Movie Review: 30 Minutes or Less

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“30 Minutes or Less” on IMDB

Comedy, 83 Minutes, 2011

This was a really mixed bag.  There’s a lot of laughs but a lot of them are too easy and cheap as hell.  There are some fun performances and also some downright awful ones.  The story rolls well for most of the movie then plummets to one of the worst endings I’ve ever seen.

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