All reviews - Movies (25) - TV Shows (1) - Books (1) - Games (4)

Pan's Labyrinth review

Posted : 5 days, 5 hours ago on 11 May 2012 02:21 (A review of Pan's Labyrinth)

Director Guillermo del Toro shows us what he has been working on for over a decade in this highly imaginative and visually stunning film, and it does not disappoint. Ofelia’s mother is pregnant but very ill, so they pack up and move to live with her new husband—a brutal Spanish Nazi commander. Things are not going well at the post. They are being attacked by rebels and there is a sense that the Nazi’s promised victory will not be realized. On top of this danger, Ofelia’s new step-father does not like her, and treats her as he would a bastard. This is no place for a child, so when Ofelia is alone, her imagination goes wild. She would much rather spend time in her fantasy because she is important there, and her actions are necessary to cure her mother. It is sometimes hard to watch the hardships she puts herself through, even in her fantasies, but they reveal every human’s need for some sort of control, some sort of cause and effect that they have a hand in. This is not a movie for children. It is tragic, but beautifully so. Del Toro has an eye for the fanciful and is careful not to overdo the CG effects, which is wise. But he is also a great storyteller, and this story is helped immensely by Ivana Baquero who plays Ofelia. You can’t help but put yourself in her perspective, root for her and hope that everything she imagines is real.

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The Five Obstructions review

Posted : 1 week, 6 days ago on 3 May 2012 04:45 (A review of The Five Obstructions)

Lars von Trier invites his friend and mentor, Jorgen Leth, to participate in a series of exercizes—or Obstructions—in which Leth must re-shoot his best known film, The Perfect Man. With each re-shooting, von Trier introduces a list of rules that Leth must follow, intent on analyzing not the film, but the director behind it. Von Trier sees Leth as The Perfect Man—cool, calm, in control—and he wants to upset that. He wants desperately to get Leth to peer inside himself and see the imperfections, and the weakness that one feels against such nihilistic obstructions (one of which being no shot can be longer than 12 frames). Leth, however, is clearly a gifted director, and he manages to take every painful obstruction and make it work beautifully for his own purposes. He has an insatiable creative drive that is constantly searching for new solutions, new perspectives, and when he comes back from his shoot time after time with a successful film, von Trier starts to realize that Leth is unbreakable. In his nihilistic attempts to force another to view themselves as insignificant, he discovered his own sense of elitism and pettiness, and is humbled once again by his mentor. Any fan of film analysis and production will love this powerful and acutely insightful movie.

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The Thief and the Cobbler review

Posted : 2 weeks, 5 days ago on 27 April 2012 01:38 (A review of The Thief and the Cobbler)

I just re-discovered this lost classic (kudos), and what a wonderful reminiscent trip it was. Each frame was animated by hand with painstaking attention paid to every detail. The style is very distinct, feeling like a mix between modern animations and ancient Persian illustrations. This lends a sort of mature vibe to the whole film, which was Richard Williams’ intent. The Cobbler, who is the main hero in the film, says only three words throughout, and the Thief says not one, yet we can understand them and what they are thinking through their motions, eye movements, and expressions. However, ZigZag, who serves as the main villain, became my favorite character the moment he stepped onto the screen. He is simply unforgettable, thanks to the superb voice acting of Vincent Price—rhyming each and every line with a sinister smirk (Ay, Phido?). Richard Williams spent over two decades working on this masterpiece, only to lose creative control over it a year before it was released. Warner Brothers decided it needed some Disney-esque songs and voiceover narrations before they heavily edited it, and then Miramax took a turn with yet another re-edit and even more voiceovers—dubbing their film “Arabian Knight.” Do yourself a favor and watch the Uncobbled Cut. This is a monument to the achievements of the Golden Age of animators, and it will surely stand the test of time.

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Heavy Rain review

Posted : 3 weeks, 4 days ago on 21 April 2012 02:44 (A review of Heavy Rain)

Unbelievably complex while at the same time being completely human and nuanced, one can’t help but be immersed in Heavy Rain. Brought to being by the creators of the almost-amazing Indigo Prophecy (worth a playthrough), they have truly shown the power of storytelling through video games. By putting the player in control of the five principal characters, the story inadvertently follows them and it feels more natural, not to mention more visceral when action scenes come. While previous games rely on a simple on-a-rail type storytelling which limits the player in obvious ways, Heavy Rain innovates. It mimics the feel of a game in which there is only one ending, but your actions directly affect the direction that the story goes in—often tragically so. But in order for those tragic events to actually feel like they matter, Quantic Dream had to make you care somehow. This was pulled off in subtle but key scenes, where you strive to make your child laugh, or make eggs for someone, but it was also helped greatly by having very realistic facial renderings and lip-synching technology. The way you had to move the joysticks or press and hold buttons may seem arcade-y, but I thought they were effective in their difficulty and awesomeness in those rare cases that you do it flawlessly. There is some really great voice acting by some key actors, however sometimes I heard native accents that seemed out-of-character. Also, in times of stress, simply navigating to another side of a room is made incredibly difficult by the clunky navigation controls. Those points aside, I still loved every scene and look forward to playing through again with this compelling power I have to shape the story in a way that might be completely different now that I know who the Origami Killer is.

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Jeff, Who Lives at Home review

Posted : 1 month ago on 11 April 2012 03:54 (A review of Jeff, Who Lives at Home)

The Duplass Brothers have created a wonderful thing in this moving and earnest film, which on its surface pretends to be a lighthearted comedy about a slacker and his aggressive brother, but becomes something much deeper and even cosmic. Jeff is obsessed with his destiny, frustrated with being stuck in his life and is constantly on the lookout for any signs or paths that may lead to something greater. Others pretend not to understand Jeff, or may not even realize how real their masks of indifference have become to them. But they’ve all got their own goals and their hopes and dreams for something far greater, and they’re putting in effort in order to get there in their own sometimes very strange ways. There are five main actors and actresses—each part they play seems perfectly cast for their strengths, and they all give tremendous performances. Without saying much, I will say the ending is earned and it is the reason I love this picture, as Jeff’s destiny becomes his own.

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Dead End review

Posted : 1 month, 1 week ago on 5 April 2012 04:58 (A review of Dead End)

This film is more of a stylized melodrama about wealth inequality on the whole, but the entire project is elevated by Humphrey Bogart’s bravura performance. He creates a tragically menacing figure as the character of Baby Face Martin, tragic in that you can see his rough childhood on his now menacing visage. On the run from the law and bitter from the wrongs that society has done to him, he feels a need to harden the boys around his old stomping grounds and becomes the corrupting influence that drives them to crime. All the while, his childhood friend Dave (Joel McCrea) tries to teach them to be kind, forgiving, pillars of the community to help unite the poor and the rich and forge a better life for all—though, Dave realizes, such bitterness is hard to quell.

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Fallout 3 review

Posted : 1 month, 1 week ago on 4 April 2012 02:41 (A review of Fallout 3)

Brilliant. Simply brilliant. It took a long time for Deus Ex to be knocked off of the #1 spot of my favorites list, but it was worth the wait. Bethesda has crafted a satirical masterpiece, a post-apocalyptic look into a world scorched by nuclear warfare and a world where survival of the fittest is pushed to its very limits.

Liam Neeson, the familiar voice of your father, immediately draws you in and welcomes you into a semi-recognizable future, locked in a steel underground bunker with a semi-functioning society—and then leaves. So begins your quest to leave the safety of this familiar setting and out into the real world, with all of its dangers.

To me, the most interesting thing to see was not the way groups of people managed to stick together and organize themselves in order to survive, but the bureaucracy that formed around them. The federal government still clings to control via robots patrolling the surface, though no one has seen a the president nor a functioning government for many months forcing a majority of people to fend for themselves. One town may have a sheriff, another run by slavers. One may secede from the US to form their own Republic, another may secede from humanity and live off human flesh. The kinds of details Bethesda reveals about these settlements makes these outlandish ideas seem eerily plausible.

This immersion grants going out and doing quests much more gravity. You actually want to protect this defenseless town from certain death once you learn they are all sixteen-year-olds expelled from another town by some other bureaucracy. And the pleasures of the V.A.T.S. combat system become all the greater. I love the ease of use and the satisfaction of using V.A.T.S. It’s simple, efficient, balanced, and a great way to improve your strategy by pausing and letting you think about what your next best move will be.

While the main storyline is merely adequate overall, it’s bad that they make the game end by completing it. This game is about exploring and doing what you want. Art imitates life, and Fallout 3 is a masterful example. You—not the designers—you prioritize what you want to do.

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Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy review

Posted : 1 month, 3 weeks ago on 22 March 2012 04:36 (A review of Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy)

A deliberate, steadily-paced film that gives you just enough time to figure out the last clue before revealing yet another in George Smiley’s (Oldman) maddening search for a mole within MI5. Tomas Alfredson’s paranoid spy drama is soaked in lingo, leaving you puzzled as Smiley must have been. The gift here, alongside the already stellar ensemble cast, is the fine actor of Gary Oldman, who silently communicates with us, helping us piece it all together. He comes off as a brilliant man, thorough and subtle—completely committed to his profession of finding truth through the lies. You may want to come prepared, but I enjoyed having to work a little bit to figure out who the mole was alongside Oldman—it certainly helped gain a closer perspective of how it must feel to be in such situations with literally no one to trust and other people’s lives at stake. If you’ve got any envy for that, you may lose it after seeing this film.

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Down by Law review

Posted : 2 months ago on 15 March 2012 05:17 (A review of Down by Law)

Jim Jarmusch directs this indie gem in gorgeous black and white, and we feel his passion for his work: this is one of those wonderful films where the characters are tailor-made for the actors portraying them. And what fine actors they are—Tom Waits, John Lurie, and Roberto Benigni pour their essence into these three unfortunate men, and it is a treat to watch their personalities clash. But there is more beneath the surface. Each has their own story, their own reasons for innocence while in prison. It’s not their fault, they all say. And we can relate to them because, while flawed, they each have a spirit, a plan for the future if the world would get out of their way. We see them clash, but are they clashing? Or are they seeing their own flaws in each other and feel forced to grow? As they escape, we root for them not because we believe they will go back to their old lives of pimping, drinking, or cheating. We root for them because we want to leave our own flaws behind.

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One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest review

Posted : 2 months, 1 week ago on 8 March 2012 12:37 (A review of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest)

R.P. MacMurphy is sent to an asylum. He isn't crazy. Watch what happens. One of only three movies to have won "The Big Five" Academy Awards for Best Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, and Screenplay--yet this film is the only one that deserved them all. It is hilarious and often times frustrating to see MacMurphy struggle to connect with the patients in the ward. They are all just so used to droning away with their daily routine. MacMurphy (Nicholson) cannot and will not adhere to this and tries desperately to shake them free of it. He tries to teach them to take risks and stop being so afraid. Though at every turn, Head Nurse Ratched is there to reintroduce her brand of "therapy," pacifying any sense of defiance MacMurphy instills. This film delivers in every scene and has one of the most memorable endings ever.

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