Hello guys and girls
After a hiatus of 6 months i'm back with some reviews etc.....lots to come i assure you.
Starting with the seasonal film fest of 4 movies i watched to get into the xmas spirit (see below for reviews)
I plan to update this as much as possible and all comments are welcome, i have changed the format of it all a little. There will no longer be star graded reviews just opinion, i will also be including music as well as the games and movies. As usual people are invited to guest review if you'd like, just comment here or if you see me face to face say and we'll sort something out.
Thanks and welcome back to Chunky Monkay Reviews
Tuesday, 22 December 2009
Review: Nothing Like The Holidays
The Info Bit
Genre: Comedy
Starring: John Leguizamo, Alfred Molina, Debra Messing, Freddy Rodriguez
Director: Alfredo De Villa
Run Time: 94 mins
Rating: PG
Year: 2008
Extras On DVD: Trailer
I started off my Christmas Seasonal Film fest with a film touted on the box (and on various sites I’ve since looked at) as a comedy, drama. This film is called Nothing Like The Holidays, and let me say I’m glad I started with it because this film was nothing like a comedy, drama. It was just……Nothing Special.
Harsh criticism you may think but I’m sorry to say true. Let me set the scene for you, the story revolves around a slightly dysfunctional Puerto Rican family getting together at Christmas, seems like a laugh doesn’t it? No?? Well you’d be right! I expected a middle of the road comedy here, what the film delivered was two chuckles (I counted them) a lot of confusion and at times just plain boredom. The characters were average, the sets and general setting was okay, the acting was average, the directing was functional but nothing special….and I could go on and on in the same vein. it’s a shame because it has got some great actors/actresses in it, two of which I absolutely adore (Alfred and John see above) but whether it was just a poor script , whether it was poor directing or both none of them really show us in this film what they can do.
I feel like I should give an example about why this film for me doesn’t work. (WARNING SPOILER ALERT) There is a scene not to far into the film where the mother (Elizabeth Pena) announces at the dinner table that she is divorcing the father (Alfred Molina). This causes a big argument and in succession everyone leaves the table in anger with each other. Quite the dramatic moment (well it should have been but I wasn’t feeling the drama), about 2 short scenes on they are all together laughing and joking as if this incident had never happened! I’m sorry but that’s just poor, I mean about an hour ago they were all yelling at each other now they’re in a bar all laughing and joking IT JUST DOESN’T HAPPEN! This theme continues throughout the film where we get a dramatic moment then a comedy moment so on so on, and for me its too disjointed. If I’m supposed to feel sad or shocked or amused then give me time to feel it before changing it around.
I could pick holes in this film until I’m blue in the face but to be honest there’s no point. It does what many ‘seasonal’ films do which is miss the mark completely. If it had just been a comedy and played just for laughs it could have been something better, likewise if it had been only a drama, but the hodgepodge of messages (everything from the war in Iraq, divorce , cancer and just plain wackiness that families have when they get together) it seems to contain just don’t work well and in the end that is why I think it’s a poor film.
For me one to avoid, enough said..
Review: Bad Santa
The Info Bit
Genre: Comedy
Starring: Billy Bob Thornton, Tony Cox, Lauren Graham
Director: Terry Zwighoff
Run Time: 1hr 28Mins
Rating: 15
Year: 2003
Extras On DVD: Outtakes, Featurette
Onto film two of the season and a film that is a rarity amongst ‘seasonal’ films in that it is a really, really good film especially for the ‘scrooges’ amongst us. The film I’m talking about is……(if you’ve read the title of this you’ll know)…..yes Bad Santa!
As usual a brief plot overview for you fine people, (assuming its not just me reading this of course), Billy Bob Thornton plays Willie a safe cracker who does all his work at Christmas posing as the shopping malls Santa with his sidekick Marcus (Tony Cox) as his ‘Elf’, this year they go to Phoenix and come under the watchful eye of the Mall security and manager, plus a kid thinks Willie is the real Santa all with hilarious consequences as Willie and Marcus plan their next score.
I was really impressed with this film it was brilliant, very funny and in its own unique way quite heart warming. Billy Bob as Willie is brilliant, he manages to help you hate this character (as well you should) but at the same time feel really sorry for him, all whilst making you laugh your (expletive deleted) off. Tony Cox (who a few of you may recognise from Me, Myself and Irene amongst other films) is great as Marcus who is the brains of the operation, so to speak, and plays very well off of Billy Bob Thornton.. To be fair almost everyone play their roles brilliantly in this film from the two above through Lauren Graham (Willies Girlfriend) all the way to John Ritter (Mall Manager) and Bernie Mac (Mall Security), which is what makes this so entertaining to watch, to see acting of this comedy quality is rare.
I really want to write something bad about the film now but to be honest I can’t find any major faults in it, I suppose it is a film geared a little to people who find Christmas pointless which could be considered a negative but to be fair I love Christmas and I still love this film so it really isn’t a problem. I’m sure someone will be ale to find a fault with it but I really like it that much, so I’m not going to pick at it.
Onto the direction aspect. All in all its pretty good, there’s a lot that could have gone wrong mostly in terms of shooting of the dramatic moments but I can’t find fault with it and I love the camera use during one moment of Willie passing out with booze (The clever amongst you will see which bit I mean). Terry Zwighoff obviously guided the actors well as I say above their performances were really good, so a thumbs up to him.
Well that about wraps up this little present (see what I did there!), Bad Santa is a brilliant comedy film, one of the best seasonal films you will see and I highly recommend it to anyone who likes a good laugh at Christmas, plus as an added bonus I picked it up for a mere five pounds a bargain. Enjoy everyone
Review: Home Alone
The Info Bit
Genre: Comedy
Starring: Macaulay Culkin, Joe Pesci, Daniel Stern
Director: Chris Columbus
Run Time: 99 Mins
Rating: PG
Year: 1990
Extras On DVD: Trailers
The third film in this seasonal fest of fun, is Home Alone and is my favourite Christmas movie of all time (everyone’s got one and this is mine!). I grew up with this film and I love it, I hate Culkin but I love this film.
Okay lets cover the story for anyone who’s been living under a rock (or is under the age of 20). Culkin plays Kevin an 8 year old brat who is accidentally left behind when his family go to Paris for Christmas, whilst at home he has lots of fun etc but becomes aware of some burglars (Joe Pesci and Daniel Stern) who are raiding the neighbourhood and decides to stop them from robbing his house. This is a John Hughes (RIP) written/produced film (God I hope I don’t have to tell people who John Hughes was!) and its right up there for me with many of his classics. (No I’m not going to list them because if you don’t know who he was and what a legend he was you don’t deserve my time!).
I only have two problems with this film now looking back on it, one unavoidable , the other a sign of the times. First the film looks very ‘dated’ (I hate that term but I can’t think of a better way to phrase it), the clothing and the terminology etc is just very late 80’s early 90’s, second the film is just very stereotypical with the end in that its all just very happy, bad guys get comeuppance, good guys get their rewards etc, which is just as I say a sign of the times in that these days if this film was made the ‘happy’ ending probably wouldn’t be so happy. These minor things aside we press onto why this film is wonderful.
Violence in entertainment is blamed for almost everything these days and it has to be said that with the amount of violence in this film there is no way it would ever be made now (well and get the PG rating anyway), some of my favourite examples of this are:
The nail through the bottom of Sterns foot
The red hot door handle to Pesci’s hand
The iron to Sterns face
And of course the classic paint cans to the face of both guys
The red hot door handle to Pesci’s hand
The iron to Sterns face
And of course the classic paint cans to the face of both guys
Its this violence however that makes this my favourite film, because its done in such a brilliantly slapstick way, I literally end up holding my sides with laughter almost every time I watch this film because of this. The story is a fun classic John Hughes style story that fans of his films will recognise straight off the bat and is quite heart-warming at many times and features some fun little cameo roles (mostly by people we will never see or care about again) but making it all the more fun, Culkin’s vocal exchange with the checkout girl being one such example.
So I leave you with these words about Home Alone, it is an awesomely funny slapstick Christmas movie and I love it, I will always love it and you should love it to. Thanks and goodnight.
Review: Fred Claus
The Info BitGenre: Comedy
Starring: Vince Vaughan, Paul Giamatti, Rachel Weisz, Kevin Spacey
Director: David Dobkin
Run Time: 111 Mins
Rating: PG
Year: 2007
Extras On DVD: Cut Scenes, Commentary
Film four and the final one of my Christmas Seasonal Film fest is Fred Claus, a ’seasonal’ comedy starring Vince Vaughan as Fred Claus the older brother of St Nick Claus aka Santa Claus. As comedies go this ones not to bad, and I must admt I actually enjoyed it.
Don‘t get me wrong this film has some flaws, namely the story is very predictable and I hate Rachel Weisz. I‘m sorry but I just do, she angers me especially in this one with her over inflated English accent, I know she is English but I swear she’s being more ‘English’ than an English person should be! Anyway back to basics…..the story here simply put is this. Fred Claus is the older brother of Nick Claus (Santa!) and is very jealous of him, Fred gives up on Christmas, gets in trouble, gets bailed out by Nick (Santa!) who lets him work at the toy factory where hilarity ensues (I use that term a little loosely, more on that later).
The film looks pretty from a cinematic perspective, The North Pole looks pretty and is shown off with some nice long camera pans over the bustling little town, the same applies with the ’workshop’. Okay so the reindeer flying is clearly CGI and there are a few other instances of similar problems but I don’t think it detracts from the films enjoyment to much. Where this film falls down is providing laughs when it should be, now there are quite a few funny bits (I laughed a lot when Vince Vaughan gets chased by thirty odd Santa’s, for example) but to often in the film the obvious setup for a joke is made but just fails to deliver. Its frustrating because with Vince Vaughan (some would say a staple in comedy movies), and Paul Giamatti (A brilliant actor and very funny when he gets the chance), in this picture you would expect there to be some brilliantly funny moments, but alas there are many moments when you’ll chuckle but very few where you’ll be laughing crazily.
Performances aren’t to bad in this film, Vince does his usual character, the overly talkative manipulative guy. Paul is good as Santa but does play him as a very sad and shy character (at least that’s the way I see it) and I was a tad disappointed with that aspect of the performance. Kevin Spacey is pretty damn cool as the ’bad’ guy in this piece but then I do love Kevin Spacey! Other than that there are some fun little cameos/smaller roles, Kathy Bates as Mother Claus, Trevor Peacock (Vicar of Dibley character ‘Jim’ fame) as Papa Claus and Elizabeth Banks as Charlene Santa’s Little Helper.
All in all I did find this film very good fun despite the odd flaw and although it will never be on a top ten list or win any awards its still a fun film to watch on a cold winter’s night with a bag of popcorn and a toasty fire, and that’s what a ’seasonal’ Christmas film should be all about. .
Thursday, 4 June 2009
Review: X-Men Origins: Wolverine Uncaged Edition
Review by Guest Reviewer: Matt “Shibby” Szybiak
The Info Bit
Genre: Slash ‘em up. Snikt!
Players: 1 Offline
Format Played: XB360
Available on: PC, PS3
Rating: BBFC 18
I debated for a week or so deciding whether or not to buy this, especially as it was tied to a movie with elements of which particularly annoyed me. However I ended up making the purchase as I had been continually playing the demo and thought I might as well give it a try.
Wolverine is no masterpiece when it comes to games and will not be hailed as being groundbreaking in any way. However it is rather fun to play, even though with it’s somewhat repetitive nature. Slashing and tearing people apart with Wolverines razor sharp Adamantium claws just doesn’t get old as quickly as you might think.
The story is expanded from the film and it is not a complete slave to the film either which is a nice touch making the game more on it’s own terms. Another point is the fact that the game is has BBFC 18 certificate, making it a more violent than the movie which had a lower certificate or a mere 12A. Some may feel the violence is gratuitous, but I feel it really shows the character of Wolverine well, as in many of the comics he seen to be violent and with his razor sharp claws can do a lot of damage.
It all seems a lot more real, rather than previous lower rated games. With Wolverine’s claws of death slicing off limbs, decapitating enemies and sometimes even slicing them clean in two. It fits the game and brings it to a level of maturity that some of this characters comic book adventures have been at for some time.
At times the game is a little achievement happy, but there are some you will have to work for giving the game some replay-ability. You will probably want to show friends some of the quick kills and how strong your character has become. There is a simply level up system, as when you start you are slightly more vulnerable. As you grow in levels you will become increasing more difficult to kill and can upgrade aspects such as attack damage, health, rage and rage attacks unlocked throughout the game.
Now I know this may be a sore point for some, we know that Wolverine is pretty much un-killable, but this would never work in a game. I think this has been done pretty well, you get a long regular health bar, when this is depleted you go down to a circle showing a heart when this is depleted you die. The idea from what I ahve read is that this circle is Logan’s vital organs being exposed to damage and therefore more lethal. The healing factor kicks in if you don’t get damaged for a short time and works well and as you grow in levels and upgrade Wolverine he does get harder to kill. There are also mutagens that can modify your healing factor, rage, experience gained from each kill and variety of others that can be utilised.
The story is average, nothing special but it expands on the source material, the fighting though repetitive takes some time to get really stale. The bosses and sub-bosses are generally simple, the best or at least most epic boss fight being a fight with a Sentinel.
There are some glitches, probably due to it being rushed out to coincide with the film, but they are mainly minor. They are things like floating enemy bodies’ occasional weird camera actions that normally sort themselves out pretty much instantly. The only main glitch that annoyed me was when fighting the Sentinel I destroyed the feet but could not destroy the final hand, I need the Sentinel to grab as it had earlier but it just didn’t seem to want to play ball so I restarted and made sure to destroy the hands first. This was the biggest most annoying problem I experienced while playing.
Another minor grip is there are some jumping puzzles that can be a little annoying and other puzzles that sometimes are a nice little break from the slaughter but at times can be a little irritating. Enemies occasionally just seem to stand still waiting to be engaged, but I didn’t expect amazing AI especially from many of the peons you face. There role is to be there, attack Wolverine and then be killed by Wolverine and so as cannon fodder they serve their purpose well.
I played the game quite a bit after completing the initial story, would say there is about 8-10 hours roughly long first play through. I replayed to get most of the left over achievements and still found it enjoyable.
The quick kills in the game can especially be entertaining and you will be doing them on many a foe, not just because as they say are “quick” but also to see the different ways Wolverine can quickly in a variety of ways dispatch each enemy.
I’d compared Wolverine to games like Stranglehold or God of War in some ways, though some may prefer the story of these others, they are of a similar nature.
I’d say it’s defiantly worth getting if you’re a fan of Wolverine; it is not only a pretty good movie based title but also the best Wolverine game there has ever been. It works well and is enjoyable despite being repetitive. The graphics are pretty good and the real time healing of Wolverine is cool to watch. There are some of the cast from the film, Hugh Jackman being the main one, but is still good to see some real collaboration between the two. When it comes down to it X-Men Origins Wolverine is really just big dumb fun, not over complicated plot or gameplay just pure carnage and enjoyment.
Stars out of Five: 3
Review: Zack and Miri Make a Porno
The Info Bit
Genre: Comedy
Starring: Seth Rogen, Elizabeth Banks, Jason Mewes, Traci Lords
Director: Kevin Smith
Run Time: 1hr 40mins
Rating: 18
Year: 2008
Production Company: The Weinstein Company
Let me start by saying, I love comedy films they are most certainly my top genre of film, let me also say I love Kevin Smith films, to me he always makes films that are funny and watchable, so when I put Zack and Miri into my DVD player I hoped he wasn’t going to let me down and he didn’t.
The story for this film is simple and stupid but that’s the point. Zack an Miri have been friends since High School, they now live together and can’t afford the rent and all the bills they have, so to get money they decide to get their friends together and make a porn movie to pay the rent.
The films funny throughout(with is sort of the point with comedies of course) but near the end its stops being your normal ‘teen/stoner’ type comedy and turns into a romantic comedy. This doesn’t hurt the film in my opinion, partly because you see it coming a mile off, but I can see some people getting annoyed at the random skew of into rom com land. I should also say that without giving to much away this film also contains the most disgusting moment I’ve ever seen in a comedy film, so brace yourselves people.
Performances are good, Seth Rogan plays Zack which is his ‘normal’ character a well meaning waste of space who finds himself in the end, Elizabeth Banks does a good job of mirroring Seth’s performance with what is essentially a female version of him. Jason Mewes (who stars in all of Kevin Smith’s films) appears as the porn ’stud’ and I reckon its probably his best part to date, Lastly Traci Lords who plays the crazy character of ‘Miss Bubbles’ a women with a special talent…..oh and for you guys (or girls I guess) who just watch films like this to see boobs, Katie Morgan stars as Stacey the Pole dancer/Porn star and covers the boob front pretty well. (Sorry about the phrasing of that last sentence but I couldn’t think of a better way to put it)
Kevin Smith in my eyes has added another great comedy to his repertoire here and his directing is as good as it always has been, bringing out exactly the right emotions for each scene.
Comedies can often be very average but yet again Kevin Smith has pulled a potential classic out of the bag again, so if you want to laugh for the best part of two hours I highly recommend this film, the comedy’s great, the story’s good and for some of you (most of the men probably), you get to see boobs as well, it’s a win win situation
Stars out of Five: 4 1/2
Review: Death Race
The Info Bit
Genre: Action
Starring: Jason Statham, Ian McShane, Natalie Martinez, Joan Allen
Director: Paul W.S. Anderson
Run Time: 1hr 45mins
Rating: 15
Year: 2008
Production Company: Universal Pictures
Jason Statham seems to be in every average action film under the sun these days and Death Race has added to the list.
First a brief plot overview, Jason Statham plays Jenson Ames a former race driver who is sent to jail for murdering his wife. The jail in question runs a competition called Death Race, basically ten inmates get souped up muscle cars with armour plating and guns and proceed to race said cars against each other with the winner of five successful races earning their freedom. Simple.
I have to say that despite its flaws (of which there are a few) this film is undeniable watchable. The race sequences, although occasionally to long for my liking, always have lots of great explosions, crashes and various stunts in them none more so than the first two races, and with a film like this it’s what we’re all after to be honest. The dialogue and plot at best throwaway but its not really something that I can say hampers the film much.
Onto performances, Jason Statham does what’s required of him in this role, he doesn’t talk a lot and has a permanent frown on his face but on a side note when he does talk he talks with his ‘put-on’ American accent which annoys the hell out of me! Ian McShane is good as the car mechanic/team leader but despite being one of the top stars on the billing he doesn’t actually feature that much in the film. The main female roles are played pretty well (for what they are), Joan Allen playing the head of the prison and race organiser does a pretty good job of playing the two faced liar with a ruthless heart and mind, to sum up she plays a bitch, but again its not really the dialogue that gives off that, its just the way she performs it. Finally the beauty of the film is Natalie Martinez (no I’ve not heard of her either and probably won’t again), she plays a female inmate and navigator for Jason and successfully pulls off what every attractive woman in these films is there to do, walk slow mo, look sexy and help the good guy with a bit of romantic sub plot.
To sum it up I quite like this film (even though you might not be able to tell with the amount of criticism above) but I like it for what it is, which is a film you can chill out and watch with a beer and some popcorn on a lazy evening.
Stars out of Five: 3 1/2
Wednesday, 3 June 2009
Review: Terminator - Salvation
The Info Bit
Genre: 3rd Person Shooter
Players: 1-2 Offline and Online (CO-OP only)
Format Played: XB360
Available on: PC, PS3
Rating: 16 +
With every big film release comes a ‘tie-in’ game, which is usually of very poor quality both in gameplay and graphics, this however doesn’t mean you should never buy any, (in fact most sell really well which I guess just compounds the problem of poor releases but there you go), every so often a few are really enjoyable to play despite the poor development, I believe Terminator - Salvation is one such game.
Graphics in this game are shall we say ‘functional’, they’re not great but nor are they bad, they serve the purpose well, the characters are a little ‘square faced’ and the scenery looks like a city ravaged by years of war but they aren’t as polished as they could be, I suspect it was rushed out for the launch of the film and as a result they didn’t get time to finish all the polishing. Gameplay is good (although I would like to add some people might find it repetitive), basically a level will be laid out a bit like this: cutscene continuing story, walk for a bit admiring the scenery, robots appear and attack, use cool cover system to flank said robots, kill them by shooting the weak spot , walk to next fight, repeat until final cutscene of level. On face value this seems a bad thing but I found this procedure made it quite tactical at times, especially when you face the T700’s with the chain guns because you have to move from cover to cover and use your team to help kill them or you will die.
The sound effects and musical score also aren’t amazing but serve the purposes well, and I deny anyone to not get a little excited when you first see a T700 and the Terminator ‘stalking’ music starts, and yes it is the official terminator soundtrack as well, not a dodgy new made up version, now onto the bad things.
If anyone cares the voices are not the people from the film (ie no Christian Bale) but that’s not really a big deal in my book, I wished the game was longer, with only nine levels and a couple of them being only twenty minutes long, it did feel a bit to quick to complete and there was a lack of variation in the weapon choices. My only other complaint, and to be honest my main one, is that the achievement points are way to easy to get. I finished the game on medium in about eight hours, which isn’t great for a game these days but what baffled me more than anything else is that for eight hours work I got 820 achievement points out of 1000, when will developers learn to make achievements a bit harder to get, because the only one I’ve not got left is to complete it on hard which I reckon I could do in another twelve hours or so assuming I die more. This is a major annoyance for me and its not just this game that’s done it and it won’t be the last but please developers give us something to aim at.
That rant over with I reckon most shooter fans out there will quite like Terminator - Salvation and if you can get it for about twenty pounds or so (which is what I got it for) then it is certainly worth the money for a few days entertainment, if you like the Terminator franchise you‘ll probably like this game to, especially the second to last level which I won‘t spoil for you. All in all I’ve not been disappointed with my ‘back-up’ purchase but I still would’ve liked Fuel instead and there are better shooters out there.
Stars out of Five: 2 1/2
Review: Underworld 3: Rise of the Lycans
The Info Bit
Genre: Action/Fantasy
Starring: Michael Sheen, Bill Nighy, Rhona Mitra
Director: Patrick Tatopoulos
Run Time: 1hr 30mins
Rating: 18
Year: 2009
Production Company: Lakeshore Entertainment
The Underworld films are a strange series of films, consistently condemned by much of the media but loved by many moviegoers (in fact I don’t think I know anyone who really hates the Underworld films). This, if you will, ‘cult’ status has now successfully spawned two sequels and it’s the third one I’ll be writing about now.
The film follows the story of a young boy called Lucian (played by Michael Sheen) who just happens to be a lycan (aka werewolf) who can control when he changes. Quite why he can do this is never properly explained for my liking but it doesn’t really detract from the films story so it’s a minor complaint. After seeing him grow up a bit we get into the story proper where you find he and all the lycans are slaves to the vampires ruled by Viktor (Bill Nighy’s character). Basically it’s a simple plot, werewolves not happy being slaves, they revolt, romantic subplot of werewolf loving vampire and the war starts.
As with many films like this CGI is pretty frequent, some good and some truly awful but it doesn’t make it any less watchable and there is enough action to keep the viewer going. If I’m honest they story, although interesting to a point, really doesn’t matter with a film like this and I just kept getting more interested in the fight sequences (which are well choreographed) than any of the story points.
The extras on the DVD are well, normal, you have the directors commentary (Although I will put this question out now…who actually cares with a film like this about the directors commentary???), two making of sections (which are from Script to Screen and Re-Creating the Dark Ages) and last but not least a music video.
There really isn’t a lot more to say about this film, if you like your fantasy vampire action flicks then you’ll enjoy it, if you like action in general you’ll probably like it and if you like films with a great moral message and lots of complex issues dealt with in the story then I have this advice….STAY AWAY FROM THIS FILM.
Stars out of Five: 3
Wednesday, 6 May 2009
Review: Guitar Hero: Metallica*
The Info Bit
Genre: Music/Rhythm Action
Players: 1-4 Online and Offline (with appropriate instruments)
Format Played: PS3
Also Available on: XB360, PS2, Wii
Rating: ?
Metallica, one of the most prominent metal bands of the past 15+ years, to many they are gods……but god hasn’t got his own computer game!
For those of you who haven’t played Guitar Hero in any of its previous forms, a brief history lesson. The year is 2005 and Guitar Hero first hits shelves worldwide, at first people don’t know what to make of a game which you play with a guitar shaped controller instead of their normal pad, but soon people are rocking away to all the classic hits of yesteryear in their front rooms. This inevitably meant a year later we would see a sequel and thus Guitar Hero 2 was born but its popularity only grew and so a third game was released the next year (2007 for those who can’t count).
Unfortunately in 2008 the makers went slightly mad and thought that instead of compiling a game with all sorts of wonderful classic (and by this point a bit of modern) rock and metal music they would base a game entirely on one band….unfortunately that band was AEROSMITH! If you’re an Aerosmith fan I apologise but frankly the game was (inset expletive here) and as a result didn’t sell very well, luckily the makers (one Red Octane Studios) had regained their sanity a few months later to release Guitar Hero World Tour, which instead of just a guitar playing mode now included singing and drum sections, with appropriate peripherals sold separately. This made it much more than ever a ‘party’ game that all the family/friends could play on those dull winter nights and so my dear friends that is the story of Guitar Hero, until now.
Due for release at the end of May is the next instalment of this wonderful franchise, which as you can probably imagine based on the headline is all about Metallica. Before I go on I’d just like to thank Karl (some of you know him, some of you don’t) for letting me play his copy of GH: Metallica because without that, this reviw obviously wouldn’t be possible.
I’ll admit when I first heard about another ‘single band’ version of Guitar Hero I was worried, not in the least because of how bad the Aerosmith one was, but more because the beauty of Guitar Hero has always been, that you play all sorts of songs across all sorts of genres of music and tying it in to just one act always seemed, to me to be going against what guitar hero was all about. I was however proven wrong in this instance as GH: Metallica embodies everything that makes guitar hero so fun, the crazy riffs and the mad drumming.
I would guess if you hate Metallica then you probably wouldn’t like this game, if only because you wouldn’t recognise most of the songs, which range from ‘Frantic’ off the ‘Saint Anger’ album to most of the ‘Master of Puppets’ album and everything in between. There are also some ‘cameo’ songs by other bands Metallica ‘like’ but these do fall short in that you’ll know the band name but many won’t know the song, these include Alice in Chains and Suicidal Tendencies amongst others.
My only other bugbear is that because of Rock Band (same game pretty much but made by another company) Guitar Hero is missing a couple of really good Metallica tracks most notably ‘Blackened’ and ‘…And Justice for All’ because Rock Band own the licenses to them currently, and there is only one track ('All Nighmare Long') from the Death Magnetic album which is a shame, although you can download them onto GH: World Tour and they should work with this version as well.
But enough about the bad stuff lets move onto the good, firstly all the songs are the proper versions (no covers here guys!) and appear to be motion captured with the band actually singing and playing so when your not playing and just watching it feels a little like your at the gig. If you’re a drummer you can (if your crazy) buy a second foot pedal for your drum kit and use it to play double bass drum on expert drumming but I didn’t have a another pedal and it just sounded to scary so I didn’t try that. It’s hard to describe in a review but the atmosphere of the game has improved, what I mean by that is you get immersed even more than you used to into playing the songs, maybe its because of the way most Metallica songs are I don’t know, but even when I was doing horribly on some of the really hard riffs I was still enjoying trying to be like Metallica and when I pulled off a solo it just felt like the crowd were cheering me on (its sad I know but take it as you will).
So that’s it, thank you Red Octane for not messing it up and proving that if you find the right band, you can have specific band based Guitar Hero games. If you have played the guitar hero games before and like them I highly recommend getting this one to add to your collection, if you’ve never played them before it might be an idea to start with World Tour or something before going headlong into Metallica but that’s your decision, either way anyone who likes Guitar Hero should own this game, even more so if you’re a Metallica fan as well.
Iron Maiden next? Who knows but it’ll be fun finding out and until then I‘m sure Metallica will keep us all amused, I’m off to sing along to For Whom the Bell Tolls and headbang myself into a coma, enjoy everyone, I know you will.
Stars out of Five: 4 ½
*Contrary to my statement on the blog this game is currently not out yet but is only about three weeks away (unless they delay it again) and the version I played was an American copy
Genre: Music/Rhythm Action
Players: 1-4 Online and Offline (with appropriate instruments)
Format Played: PS3
Also Available on: XB360, PS2, Wii
Rating: ?
Metallica, one of the most prominent metal bands of the past 15+ years, to many they are gods……but god hasn’t got his own computer game!
For those of you who haven’t played Guitar Hero in any of its previous forms, a brief history lesson. The year is 2005 and Guitar Hero first hits shelves worldwide, at first people don’t know what to make of a game which you play with a guitar shaped controller instead of their normal pad, but soon people are rocking away to all the classic hits of yesteryear in their front rooms. This inevitably meant a year later we would see a sequel and thus Guitar Hero 2 was born but its popularity only grew and so a third game was released the next year (2007 for those who can’t count).
Unfortunately in 2008 the makers went slightly mad and thought that instead of compiling a game with all sorts of wonderful classic (and by this point a bit of modern) rock and metal music they would base a game entirely on one band….unfortunately that band was AEROSMITH! If you’re an Aerosmith fan I apologise but frankly the game was (inset expletive here) and as a result didn’t sell very well, luckily the makers (one Red Octane Studios) had regained their sanity a few months later to release Guitar Hero World Tour, which instead of just a guitar playing mode now included singing and drum sections, with appropriate peripherals sold separately. This made it much more than ever a ‘party’ game that all the family/friends could play on those dull winter nights and so my dear friends that is the story of Guitar Hero, until now.
Due for release at the end of May is the next instalment of this wonderful franchise, which as you can probably imagine based on the headline is all about Metallica. Before I go on I’d just like to thank Karl (some of you know him, some of you don’t) for letting me play his copy of GH: Metallica because without that, this reviw obviously wouldn’t be possible.
I’ll admit when I first heard about another ‘single band’ version of Guitar Hero I was worried, not in the least because of how bad the Aerosmith one was, but more because the beauty of Guitar Hero has always been, that you play all sorts of songs across all sorts of genres of music and tying it in to just one act always seemed, to me to be going against what guitar hero was all about. I was however proven wrong in this instance as GH: Metallica embodies everything that makes guitar hero so fun, the crazy riffs and the mad drumming.
I would guess if you hate Metallica then you probably wouldn’t like this game, if only because you wouldn’t recognise most of the songs, which range from ‘Frantic’ off the ‘Saint Anger’ album to most of the ‘Master of Puppets’ album and everything in between. There are also some ‘cameo’ songs by other bands Metallica ‘like’ but these do fall short in that you’ll know the band name but many won’t know the song, these include Alice in Chains and Suicidal Tendencies amongst others.
My only other bugbear is that because of Rock Band (same game pretty much but made by another company) Guitar Hero is missing a couple of really good Metallica tracks most notably ‘Blackened’ and ‘…And Justice for All’ because Rock Band own the licenses to them currently, and there is only one track ('All Nighmare Long') from the Death Magnetic album which is a shame, although you can download them onto GH: World Tour and they should work with this version as well.
But enough about the bad stuff lets move onto the good, firstly all the songs are the proper versions (no covers here guys!) and appear to be motion captured with the band actually singing and playing so when your not playing and just watching it feels a little like your at the gig. If you’re a drummer you can (if your crazy) buy a second foot pedal for your drum kit and use it to play double bass drum on expert drumming but I didn’t have a another pedal and it just sounded to scary so I didn’t try that. It’s hard to describe in a review but the atmosphere of the game has improved, what I mean by that is you get immersed even more than you used to into playing the songs, maybe its because of the way most Metallica songs are I don’t know, but even when I was doing horribly on some of the really hard riffs I was still enjoying trying to be like Metallica and when I pulled off a solo it just felt like the crowd were cheering me on (its sad I know but take it as you will).
So that’s it, thank you Red Octane for not messing it up and proving that if you find the right band, you can have specific band based Guitar Hero games. If you have played the guitar hero games before and like them I highly recommend getting this one to add to your collection, if you’ve never played them before it might be an idea to start with World Tour or something before going headlong into Metallica but that’s your decision, either way anyone who likes Guitar Hero should own this game, even more so if you’re a Metallica fan as well.
Iron Maiden next? Who knows but it’ll be fun finding out and until then I‘m sure Metallica will keep us all amused, I’m off to sing along to For Whom the Bell Tolls and headbang myself into a coma, enjoy everyone, I know you will.
Stars out of Five: 4 ½
*Contrary to my statement on the blog this game is currently not out yet but is only about three weeks away (unless they delay it again) and the version I played was an American copy
Monday, 27 April 2009
Review: Fight Club
The Info Bit
Genre: Drama/Black Comedy/Thriller
Starring: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter
Director: David Fincher
Run Time: 2hrs 13min
Rating: 18
Year: 1999
Production Company: 20th Century Fox
Some films are seen in the viewing community as ‘modern classics’ (a phrase I hate by the way) and none more so, maybe, than Fight Club. David Fincher’s most recognised piece of work to date is ten years old this year and as a result I thought it might be time to dust off the DVD and give it the once over *.
The first thing I will say is this film is gripping!! From the start where the camera pulls out through Edward Norton’s brain travelling past synapses and past a gun all accompanied by a track of music with a lot of bass, all the way to the final scene again accompanied, in this writers opinion, by the perfect musical backing track (Kudos to the music coordinators The Dust Bro‘s), the film manages to keep you enthralled following the band of characters which include, apart from the main three stars, Meat Loaf and Jared Leto (Now of band 30 Seconds to Mars Fame). Edward Norton puts in the best performance in this film of any film I’ve seen him in, his workload is massive!! Not only is he in every scene in someway (which makes sense seeing as its his Insomniac Car Recall Coordinator’s character we’re following) but he also spends much of the film doing a ‘nourish’ narration of his life and the story. Brad Pitt is, for me, also putting in one of his best performances ever, playing the character Tyler Durden who is a soap salesman, who when he is introduced at about the 20 minute stage rarely spends any time away from Norton’s character and complements Norton’s noir voiceovers with intelligent and frank statements about the pointlessness of life and what people should do to survive in a world ruled by commercialism.
Somewhere in the mix appears the other title character a broken down waste of a women called Marla played by Helena Bonham Carter, she also puts in a brilliant performance making the character very believable. So as not to spoil the film I won’t go into the plot and character details anymore, partly because its much more fun to see it all revealed before you, but what I will say is pay careful attention during the first half hour or so to see if you can see the little hints of the things to come.
DVD extras on this one are pretty much what you’d expect Audio commentary by the director and cast, a little behind the scenes documentary, some cast and crew bios with photo galleries, some deleted scenes which probably aren’t going to be missed if ever added to the final product and a music video. I should at this juncture point out that I have watched the Special Edition 2 disc version of this film and there is now a definitive edition available. As far as I can tell there is no difference between these versions but I can’t guarantee that.
So basically this film is certainly David Fincher’s best to date, its gripping, its exciting and it holds messages about the drone like existence commercial dependence of our species that were relevant in 1999 and surely have only become more relevant ten years on. Almost the entire cast puts in the performances of their lives (Sorry Ed but you will never top this no matter how hard you try) and as a result it ’s a film you will want to watch at least a few times to discover all the little twists and turns and subtle nuances in the performance. Its not a perfect film because nothing in this world is but I reckon its about as close as anyone’s come………so far.
Stars out of Five: Five
* Thanks Les for the suggestion, check out the genius that is Les at http://afrofilmviewer.blogspot.com/
Genre: Drama/Black Comedy/Thriller
Starring: Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, Helena Bonham Carter
Director: David Fincher
Run Time: 2hrs 13min
Rating: 18
Year: 1999
Production Company: 20th Century Fox
Some films are seen in the viewing community as ‘modern classics’ (a phrase I hate by the way) and none more so, maybe, than Fight Club. David Fincher’s most recognised piece of work to date is ten years old this year and as a result I thought it might be time to dust off the DVD and give it the once over *.
The first thing I will say is this film is gripping!! From the start where the camera pulls out through Edward Norton’s brain travelling past synapses and past a gun all accompanied by a track of music with a lot of bass, all the way to the final scene again accompanied, in this writers opinion, by the perfect musical backing track (Kudos to the music coordinators The Dust Bro‘s), the film manages to keep you enthralled following the band of characters which include, apart from the main three stars, Meat Loaf and Jared Leto (Now of band 30 Seconds to Mars Fame). Edward Norton puts in the best performance in this film of any film I’ve seen him in, his workload is massive!! Not only is he in every scene in someway (which makes sense seeing as its his Insomniac Car Recall Coordinator’s character we’re following) but he also spends much of the film doing a ‘nourish’ narration of his life and the story. Brad Pitt is, for me, also putting in one of his best performances ever, playing the character Tyler Durden who is a soap salesman, who when he is introduced at about the 20 minute stage rarely spends any time away from Norton’s character and complements Norton’s noir voiceovers with intelligent and frank statements about the pointlessness of life and what people should do to survive in a world ruled by commercialism.
Somewhere in the mix appears the other title character a broken down waste of a women called Marla played by Helena Bonham Carter, she also puts in a brilliant performance making the character very believable. So as not to spoil the film I won’t go into the plot and character details anymore, partly because its much more fun to see it all revealed before you, but what I will say is pay careful attention during the first half hour or so to see if you can see the little hints of the things to come.
DVD extras on this one are pretty much what you’d expect Audio commentary by the director and cast, a little behind the scenes documentary, some cast and crew bios with photo galleries, some deleted scenes which probably aren’t going to be missed if ever added to the final product and a music video. I should at this juncture point out that I have watched the Special Edition 2 disc version of this film and there is now a definitive edition available. As far as I can tell there is no difference between these versions but I can’t guarantee that.
So basically this film is certainly David Fincher’s best to date, its gripping, its exciting and it holds messages about the drone like existence commercial dependence of our species that were relevant in 1999 and surely have only become more relevant ten years on. Almost the entire cast puts in the performances of their lives (Sorry Ed but you will never top this no matter how hard you try) and as a result it ’s a film you will want to watch at least a few times to discover all the little twists and turns and subtle nuances in the performance. Its not a perfect film because nothing in this world is but I reckon its about as close as anyone’s come………so far.
Stars out of Five: Five
* Thanks Les for the suggestion, check out the genius that is Les at http://afrofilmviewer.blogspot.com/
Monday, 20 April 2009
Cows and Violent Films!!
We all underestimate violence in movies and video games but i have found proof that it is effecting us all...How??
BY TURNING THE COWS AGAINST US!!!
Violent cows are ruining are lives (see stories below) and the only difference i can come up with is a much wider acceptance of violence in our entertainmnet industry than thta of many years ago......you have been warned people!!!
(Oh and thanks to Les 'Afro Film Blogger' (http://afrofilmviewer.blogspot.com/) for the suggestion of this post you are a special kind of guy lol)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/3911943.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/3049811.stm
BY TURNING THE COWS AGAINST US!!!
Violent cows are ruining are lives (see stories below) and the only difference i can come up with is a much wider acceptance of violence in our entertainmnet industry than thta of many years ago......you have been warned people!!!
(Oh and thanks to Les 'Afro Film Blogger' (http://afrofilmviewer.blogspot.com/) for the suggestion of this post you are a special kind of guy lol)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/3911943.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/cumbria/3049811.stm
Saturday, 18 April 2009
Review: Godfather 2 - The Game
Info Bit
Genre: Action Adventure
Players: 1 Offline, 2-16 Online
Format Played: Xbox 360
Rating: 18
The Review
First off let me say i love the Godfather movies and I loved the first Godfather game, (although both had their flaws but what doesn't these days), as such when i bought Godfather 2 - The Game i expected it to be much the same as the first one but with improvements.
Well it is and it isn't, the game sees you playin the role of Dominic a member of the Corleone family in New York in the 60's. Starting in Cuba in what you might call a flashback sequence you learn all the basic controls including the 'EA Blackhand' fighting controls (More on that later) and of course set up the story where you become the New York Family's new leader (i won't go into to much story detail so that those of you who want to play it don't get upset). As you might imagine the aim of the game is to become a Don big surprise there!!
The controls are logical for the 360 pad, whilst on foot the triggers aim and shoot, A sprints, Y is the action button etc etc, same locical setup is used for driving the triggers accelerate and brake, B is your handbrake and Y gets you in and out of cars. In short the basic controls are the same as every freeroaming 3rd person adventure game under the sun and thats not a bad thing, then we come the 'Blackhand' a fighting control loosley based on the Fight Night series of games (created by EA as well). Basically the left trigger punchs your left hand, right trigger punchs your right hand and if you press them together you will do a grab. The only problem with this that i found was that because you don't 'lock-on' when punching occasionally you would either punch thin air or hit the wrong person which wasn't nescessarily the end of the world ITS JUST DAMN ANNOYING!! (and to be honest it had the same problem in the first game).
A new addition (and a welcome one i think) is 'Don's View', basically you now have the ablity to pay guards to defend your propertys which on its own doesn't sound impressive but it highlights one of the main changes in the game play which is that rival famlies now try to take back their businesses, this doesn't sound like much but it was a major bugbear for me in the first game in that you would take their business and the rivals would never try to take it back or if they did you had to defend it on yur own.
Apart from that there are 2 new additions one is that you get to travel to 3 cities instead of just one which is ok except that the 3 cities combined only make up the same amount of space you had in the 1 city on the first game and you can now recruit new members to your family all with special skills that help you during the main game (ie Demolitions, Arsonist and Bruiser). The only other problem with the game is that ever so occasionally the camera angles are a bit rubbish and you can't see, but it happens rarely.
I enjoyed this game immensely (even if i did complete it in 8hrs) and if you never played the first one it might be even better for you than it was for me, more of the same please EA but for the love of god fix the bugs!
Stars out of Five: 4
Genre: Action Adventure
Players: 1 Offline, 2-16 Online
Format Played: Xbox 360
Rating: 18
The Review
First off let me say i love the Godfather movies and I loved the first Godfather game, (although both had their flaws but what doesn't these days), as such when i bought Godfather 2 - The Game i expected it to be much the same as the first one but with improvements.
Well it is and it isn't, the game sees you playin the role of Dominic a member of the Corleone family in New York in the 60's. Starting in Cuba in what you might call a flashback sequence you learn all the basic controls including the 'EA Blackhand' fighting controls (More on that later) and of course set up the story where you become the New York Family's new leader (i won't go into to much story detail so that those of you who want to play it don't get upset). As you might imagine the aim of the game is to become a Don big surprise there!!
The controls are logical for the 360 pad, whilst on foot the triggers aim and shoot, A sprints, Y is the action button etc etc, same locical setup is used for driving the triggers accelerate and brake, B is your handbrake and Y gets you in and out of cars. In short the basic controls are the same as every freeroaming 3rd person adventure game under the sun and thats not a bad thing, then we come the 'Blackhand' a fighting control loosley based on the Fight Night series of games (created by EA as well). Basically the left trigger punchs your left hand, right trigger punchs your right hand and if you press them together you will do a grab. The only problem with this that i found was that because you don't 'lock-on' when punching occasionally you would either punch thin air or hit the wrong person which wasn't nescessarily the end of the world ITS JUST DAMN ANNOYING!! (and to be honest it had the same problem in the first game).
A new addition (and a welcome one i think) is 'Don's View', basically you now have the ablity to pay guards to defend your propertys which on its own doesn't sound impressive but it highlights one of the main changes in the game play which is that rival famlies now try to take back their businesses, this doesn't sound like much but it was a major bugbear for me in the first game in that you would take their business and the rivals would never try to take it back or if they did you had to defend it on yur own.
Apart from that there are 2 new additions one is that you get to travel to 3 cities instead of just one which is ok except that the 3 cities combined only make up the same amount of space you had in the 1 city on the first game and you can now recruit new members to your family all with special skills that help you during the main game (ie Demolitions, Arsonist and Bruiser). The only other problem with the game is that ever so occasionally the camera angles are a bit rubbish and you can't see, but it happens rarely.
I enjoyed this game immensely (even if i did complete it in 8hrs) and if you never played the first one it might be even better for you than it was for me, more of the same please EA but for the love of god fix the bugs!
Stars out of Five: 4
Review: See No Evil
The Info Bit
Genre: Horror
Starring: Kane, Christina Vidal, Michael J Pagan
Run Time: 1hr 20mins
Rating: 18
Production Company: Lionsgate
The Review
I have to admit like many overgrown kids I have a special place in my heart for wrestling but I don’t think its to harsh to say that many films starring wrestlers are traditionally, by most peoples standards, poor films always having a current top star in the lead role to sell his face to the masses and always somewhere in the action putting in an ‘obligatory’ wrestling move just because they can (perfect example see John Cena in The Marine not an awful film but confirming everything I just said).
As a result I came into watching See No Evil with that on my mind and expected an average film that might occupy an hour or so with some celluloid violence with the odd scare and a weak plot. To be honest I got what I expected but with a few nice surprises.
Horror films it seems to me traditionally don’t have a particularly impressive back story/character development (do they need it?? I guess that a debate for another day) and this one is no different. The story sees our band of criminal ‘kids’ who as part of their punishment have to do some community service by repairing and cleaning an old and dilapidated hotel all arranged by a warden/ex cop who a few years before was involved in dealing with a psychopath. However whilst working on the building they are being watched but someone or something and obviously start disappearing or getting killed off in various increasingly gruesome ways. Unfortunately it takes (for me anyway) far to long to get to the ‘killing’ part which sounds a bit sadistic of me but to be honest it’s the reason we watch this sort of film, not to watch a bunch of teenagers talk about nothing for a half hour or so.
When the killing starts however the film does start to massively redeem itself, Kane does a fabulous job as a killer (not sure if that’s actually a good thing) but at over 6ft in height and weighing a good 300 pounds plus he is the perfect imposing figure that a movie like this needs. Kane’s performance, is for me, one of the better ‘horror figure’ performances I’ve seen lately, he oozes rage and frustration without speaking a word (limited mainly to grunts and snorts) and he is physically imposing, throwing people left right and centre without any problem (I’m not sure if he did all his stunts but I’d imagine he did the majority). I won’t spoil it by telling you the methods of death but there are a couple that really stick out for me as, if you will, ‘new horror deaths’ that haven’t been done before as far as I’m aware in any movie let alone horrors. Unfortunately as you approach the end things do go downhill a little with a pointless ‘plot twist’ and some obvious CGI but is slightly redeemed with the final few set pieces of action ending with a little irreverent humour to finish off a film that is definitely a mixed bag of tricks.
Extras on the DVD aren’t too bad, the usual director commentary can probably be missed unless you’re a massive fan of commentaries, the Cast and Crew interviews and Storyboard comparisons are pretty much what you would expect from the titles and the Making of Documentary with Kane: Journey into Darkness are ok for people learning a bit about the making of movies and character development from an acting perspective but aren’t really anything particularly new to the DVD extras world.
All in all if you fancy a moderately scary (I jumped about four times I think if that) and entertaining film without an impressive plot this would be right up there with Friday the 13th and The Hills Have Eyes in that department and is one of the better wrestler starring films out there.
Stars out of Five: 3 1/2
Genre: Horror
Starring: Kane, Christina Vidal, Michael J Pagan
Run Time: 1hr 20mins
Rating: 18
Production Company: Lionsgate
The Review
I have to admit like many overgrown kids I have a special place in my heart for wrestling but I don’t think its to harsh to say that many films starring wrestlers are traditionally, by most peoples standards, poor films always having a current top star in the lead role to sell his face to the masses and always somewhere in the action putting in an ‘obligatory’ wrestling move just because they can (perfect example see John Cena in The Marine not an awful film but confirming everything I just said).
As a result I came into watching See No Evil with that on my mind and expected an average film that might occupy an hour or so with some celluloid violence with the odd scare and a weak plot. To be honest I got what I expected but with a few nice surprises.
Horror films it seems to me traditionally don’t have a particularly impressive back story/character development (do they need it?? I guess that a debate for another day) and this one is no different. The story sees our band of criminal ‘kids’ who as part of their punishment have to do some community service by repairing and cleaning an old and dilapidated hotel all arranged by a warden/ex cop who a few years before was involved in dealing with a psychopath. However whilst working on the building they are being watched but someone or something and obviously start disappearing or getting killed off in various increasingly gruesome ways. Unfortunately it takes (for me anyway) far to long to get to the ‘killing’ part which sounds a bit sadistic of me but to be honest it’s the reason we watch this sort of film, not to watch a bunch of teenagers talk about nothing for a half hour or so.
When the killing starts however the film does start to massively redeem itself, Kane does a fabulous job as a killer (not sure if that’s actually a good thing) but at over 6ft in height and weighing a good 300 pounds plus he is the perfect imposing figure that a movie like this needs. Kane’s performance, is for me, one of the better ‘horror figure’ performances I’ve seen lately, he oozes rage and frustration without speaking a word (limited mainly to grunts and snorts) and he is physically imposing, throwing people left right and centre without any problem (I’m not sure if he did all his stunts but I’d imagine he did the majority). I won’t spoil it by telling you the methods of death but there are a couple that really stick out for me as, if you will, ‘new horror deaths’ that haven’t been done before as far as I’m aware in any movie let alone horrors. Unfortunately as you approach the end things do go downhill a little with a pointless ‘plot twist’ and some obvious CGI but is slightly redeemed with the final few set pieces of action ending with a little irreverent humour to finish off a film that is definitely a mixed bag of tricks.
Extras on the DVD aren’t too bad, the usual director commentary can probably be missed unless you’re a massive fan of commentaries, the Cast and Crew interviews and Storyboard comparisons are pretty much what you would expect from the titles and the Making of Documentary with Kane: Journey into Darkness are ok for people learning a bit about the making of movies and character development from an acting perspective but aren’t really anything particularly new to the DVD extras world.
All in all if you fancy a moderately scary (I jumped about four times I think if that) and entertaining film without an impressive plot this would be right up there with Friday the 13th and The Hills Have Eyes in that department and is one of the better wrestler starring films out there.
Stars out of Five: 3 1/2
Welcome All
Hello and welcome all to my blog Chunky Monkay Reviews (cue applause)
Here you will find me ranting, raving and occasionally praising movies, games and anything else entertainment related that I feel I wanna share with you good people out there in internet land, including sometimes (if i can convince them to tell me their opinions) guest reviewers.
Feel free to post any comments about anything I post (I might not agree with them but everyone has a right to an opinion so feel free to express it)
Thanks for your time and check back when you can for all the reviews and news, although bear with me intially as it'll take a while to get going :-)
Love and Peace
Jim 'Chunky Monkay'
Here you will find me ranting, raving and occasionally praising movies, games and anything else entertainment related that I feel I wanna share with you good people out there in internet land, including sometimes (if i can convince them to tell me their opinions) guest reviewers.
Feel free to post any comments about anything I post (I might not agree with them but everyone has a right to an opinion so feel free to express it)
Thanks for your time and check back when you can for all the reviews and news, although bear with me intially as it'll take a while to get going :-)
Love and Peace
Jim 'Chunky Monkay'
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