Posted on by Alexander Case

Movie Review – Superman (1978)

Get Superman from Amazon.com
Get Superman from Amazon.com

Being a comic book fan, and being a bit more of a DC fan at the moment than a Marvel Fan, you would think I would have seen this movie already. Lord knows everyone else has. Well, I hadn’t until recently. So, what do I think of the Man of Steel’s most famous big screen escapade?

Note – there will be some slight spoilers, but I’ll try to keep them under the cut.

The Premise: Jor-El of Krypton sends his only son, Kal-El, to Earth to escape his world’s impending destruction. Our yellow sun gives him super strength, speed, along with X-Ray and Heat vision, and the ability to fly. His upbringing in the Midwest of the US (where he lands and is adopted by Martha & Jonathan Kent gives him moral character and a sense of justice, and the crystal recordings left by his father educate him further. He then moves to Metropolis and becomes Earth’s Greatest Protector – Superman (and also becomes, as Clark Kent, a mild-mannered reporter for the Daily Planet).

And unless you’re currently living under a rock, you know all this already. Read more

Posted on by Alexander Case

Movie Review – Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix

Get Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix on DVD or Blu-Ray from Amazon.com
Get Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix on DVD or Blu-Ray from Amazon.com

Well, my film reviews now move on to the most recent Harry Potter movie to be released on DVD/Blu-Ray, Harry Potter & The Order of the Phoenix. Now, I haven’t read the novel of this one yet (though it’s entirely possible that I’ll have read it once this review goes up – I’m writing this on July 13th). So, anyway, I’m watching this in preparation for watching Half-Blood Prince when it comes out (and hopefully doing a round-table podcast with Bureau42, which will be up by the time this review goes out). So, it’s time to see what I think of this movie.

The Premise: Following the events of Harry Potter & The Goblet of Fire, and the revival of Voldemort and the death of Cedric Diggory, Harry has been traumatized to say the least, and returning to the Durstleys isn’t helping things, and neither is the smear campaign being done by the Ministry of Magic against Harry & Dumbledore, one that would impress even William Randoph Hurst. In the midst of all this, Dementors attack Harry & Dudley, forcing Harry to leave home for the safety of his family and hole up in the Black estate, the current base of the Order of the Phoenix, the group working to take down Voldemort once again. Further, when Harry goes to Hogwarts, he faces a new Defense Against The Dark Arts instructor, Dolores Umbridge, who is working to take control of Hogwarts – and then there are those disturbing dreams Harry’s got. Read more

Posted on by Alexander Case

Movie Review – Good Night and Good Luck

Get "Good Night and Good Luck" from Amazon.com
Get "Good Night and Good Luck" from Amazon.com

I’ve always looked favorable on some of the icons of journalism. While I’ve often expressed a fondness for Hunter S. Thompson, who if he wasn’t the godfather of Gonzo Journalism, he was one of its leading advocates. However, I’ve also often spoken highly of Edward R. Morrow, and I’ve often stated that the field of video game journalism needs someone like Murrow, who would be unafraid to say that, for example, Activision was heavily in the wrong on a particular topic, and then enumerate the reasons to support his argument, and ultimately shut them down. Probably the closest person to filling this role is Dan “Shoe” Hsu, formerly of Electronic Gaming Monthly. Anyway, when Good Night & Good Luck came out, it became a title on my must watch list. And there it remained until, finally, I got around to watching it. Now, what do I think about it?

The Premise: The film documents a series of influential shows done by Edward R. Morrow taking on Sen. Joseph McCarthy, and his Commission on American Activities, done in a docu-drama style. Read more

Posted on by Alexander Case

Movie Review: Pink Floyd – The Wall

Get the movie adaptation of Pink Floyds The Wall from Amazon.com
Get the movie adaptation of Pink Floyd's "The Wall" from Amazon.com

Well, you all know that I like Pink Floyd. I’ve reviewed their famous concert at Pompeii, as well as a documentary on the band’s history. Well, in the early 80s, The Floyd put togeather a film based on their hit album The Wall, to try and bring the pagentry and imagery from the show to audiences who wouldn’t have had an opportunity to see it. Now, the execution of the concept changed over time, but it stuck with the album’s plot. The question is: did it work?

The Premise: Rock musician Pink (played by Bob Geldof, making his film debut), is undergoing a nervous breakdown in his hotel room. As he goes mad, he looks back on his life, and at the circumstances that brought him to this point, starting from the death of his father in the second world war.

The Good: Gerald Scarfe’s animated sequences are excellent. One of the things about the Live in Berlin concert that didn’t quite work with me was the fact that we didn’t particularly get to see many of Scarfe’s animated sequences. We got a good look at “Goodbye Blue Sky”, and “The Empty Spaces”, but that’s it. Here we finally get to appreciate them in their full glory. Read more

Posted on by Alexander Case

Film Review – Assault on Precinct 13 (Original)

Get Assault on Precinct 13 from Amazon.com
Get Assault on Precinct 13 from Amazon.com

When I was in middle school, I saw a movie called Big Trouble in Little China, by a directer I’d never heard of before by the name of John Carpenter. This movie kind of opened up my mind a bit. I’d seen martial arts films, before, stuff along the lines of old Bruce Lee films, as well as some of Jackie Chan’s movies, but I’d never seen Wuxia before. Seeing martial arts done in a modern setting, combined with the magic and mysticism that was used in Wuxia films basically blew my mind. That movie got me into watching a lot of martial arts film (though I have difficulty watching some of the films I probably wouldn’t have had problems with before – I couldn’t even get started with High Risk/Meltdown, due to the bad plot and the blatant cheap shots at Jackie Chan – which I found in poor taste).

Anyway, the film also got me interested in seeing some of John Carpenter’s other films, and I later would seek out The Thing, which was my first HD-DVD purchase (yeah, I backed the wrong side in the format war), and Escape From New York, as well as Halloween. I would later see the remake of Assault on Precinct 13, which I checked out from the Library and enjoyed (though it was critically panned), but the library didn’t have the original, and I wanted to seek it out and see it for myself.

Well, we come to now. I am now an adult with my own source of income, a Netflix account, and PS3. I finally rented John Carpenter’s first traditionally made motion picture (he’d previously made the science fiction film Dark Star, which was his true first film, but it wasn’t made in the traditional fashion – with the film being made in fits and starts over several years as money permitted), and the question is now, how is it for a true first film? No major spoilers this time around, just one for a quick, plot insignificant one-off gag. Read more

Posted on by Alexander Case

Film Review – Max Payne

Get Max Payne from Amazon.com
Get Max Payne from Amazon.com

Video game-to-movie adaptations tend to be, as a general rule, hit or miss. It all depends on the type of game being chosen, and how the screenwriter and director work with the source material. The whole mess becomes even more tricky when you’re dealing with a game that borrows a lot from film, and multiple genres of film. Such is the case with the film adaptation of Max Payne, starring Mark Walberg, adapted from the game. There will be spoilers below the cut, after I get past The Premise.

The Premise:

Max Payne is a cop with the NYPD. When his wife and baby are murdered by drug addicts, Max throws himself into the pursuit of their murderers, to the point of going to the Cold Case squad when the trail runs cold, so he can continue working on the case. When he finds a lead 3 years after the murders, the trail it will take him on will leave him wondering who he can trust, and if he’ll ever be able to return to the force again. Read more

Posted on by Alexander Case

Movie Review – Quantum of Solace

Get Quantum of Solace from Amazon.com
Get Quantum of Solace from Amazon.com

So, at Bureau42, we’ve already reviewed the latest Bond film, Quantum of Solace, and I’ve played the game (though I hadn’t seen the movie and the time), and reviewed that for Bureau42. However, until recently, I haven’t seen the movie. Thanks to the wonders of Netflix, though, I’ve finally rectified that, and so now it’s time to give my thoughts. I liked Casino Royale, and thought the game was decent. How does the movie hold up?

The Premise:

Picking up a few minutes after the end of Casino Royale, 007 has taken Mr. White (the representative of “The Organization” from the previous film) to a MI6 safe house, only for M and Bond to soon find out that White’s Organization has a deeper penetration than they suspect, not only in MI6, but in other intelligence organizations as well. Bond ends up on the trail of White’s organization, in an attempt to find out their aims and who is in charge of the thing.

(I am, of course, refraining from using spoilers in the Premise – as it is above the cut).

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Posted on by Alexander Case

Movie Review – Star Trek (2009)

I’m not the guy writing the review for Bureau42 – which means that my thoughts on the movie go up here. So, it all comes down to this simple question – it’s technically an odd numbered Trek movie, whether you consider it number 11 or number 1. After all the hype, after seeing the re-designed ship, seeing the cast list, learning whose directing it, and reading the prequel comic. There is only one question that needs to be answered – is it good?

Note: I’m going to try to avoid spoilers – I may not succeed.  So, for those viewing this on the site, I’ve got the meat of the review below the cut. If you’re reading this through the RSS – be warned. I may include some material from the Star Trek: Countdown comic as being “not-spoilers.”

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Posted on by Alexander Case

Film Review – Das Boot: Director’s Cut

Das Boot Directors Cut Movie Poster
Das Boot Director's Cut Movie Poster

This time around I’ve got a review for you for what is widely considered to be one of the best submarine films of all time – Das Boot. Specifically, I’m reviewing the Director’s Cut, being that’s the director’s definitive vision, rather than the longer “Uncut” version that has the added footage done for European TV around the same time.

I’m going to tweak my formatting a little bit this time, by putting the plot summary above the cut. Oh, and I’m putting a movie poster on the right to make things look more perdy – and I’ll be putting my Amazon Affiliate links there too. Make things a little more “elegant”.

The Premise:

In 1941, the third year of the war, Lt. Werner, a war correspondant, comes aboard U-Boat U-96 to cover the crew and their efforts. What he gets is sheer unmitigated boredom, with occasional breaks of absolute terror. The ship goes through gigantic Atlantic storms, a massive lice infestation, depth charges after more depth charges, and occasionally they get to attack something.

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Posted on by Alexander Case

Movie Review – Out For Justice

A lot of Steven Segal’s movies are getting released on Blu-Ray. Now, I like martial arts movies, I recognize that Segal is crap. However, I do also recognize that, like Chuck Norris and Jean-Claude Van Damme, there was a time where Segal was not a joke, and his movies were coming out in theaters rather than coming out directly to video. So, I’m giving those movies a shot.  I’ve reviewed Under Siege elsewhere, so I won’t be reviewing it again here. However, what I will be going with is Segal’s 1991 “classic”, Out For Justice.

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Posted on by Alexander Case

Review of “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang” and other Notes

Before I get into the movie review, I just want to mention that I have gotten approved for a press pass to cover Kumoricon in Oregon for Bureau42.com. So, if any of you reading the blog will be attending Kumoricon, I will be there. Now, I just need to finish getting Linux installed on my notebook and getting it up and running with my Wireless card so I can more easily live blog during the convention. Anyway, on with the review.

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Posted on by Alexander Case

How Blu-Ray is dropping the ball w/ Special Features

I’d like to take a moment to rant a little bit. Recently, I took advantage of the clearance sales at Circuit City to pick up some Blu-Ray movies – specifically, upgrading some of the titles in my collection – Patton, A Bridge Too Far, and Black Hawk Down. Of these movies, only Patton matches the special features of it’s DVD release. The DVD release of Bridge Too Far has commentary by World War II Veterans who participated in Operation Market Garden, as well as documentary material. The Blu-Ray release has the theatrical trailer. That’s it. The Blu-Ray release of Black Hawk down has all of the commentaries from the Special Edition release of the movie (director’s commentary, writer’s commentary, and commentary of people who actually participated in the events depicted in the movie) but none of the other special features exclusive for that release (an episode of Frontline and History Channel documentary on the events as well).

The big selling point of Blu-Ray is that there is more storage on the disks, so you can have more information on the disks, so that which once took two disks now takes only one (for example, Batman Begins Blu-Ray release). So, why the fuck can’t you take all the special features that were on the special edition DVD release of a movie, and put those on the Blu-Ray disk, so we can leave those imbecilic shenanagans behind us! You do that, so that the special features of the Blu-Ray release are equal to or superior to the DVD release, while retaining picture quality, and you will get more people to adopt the format. If people feel that they’re getting more with the existing format, then they won’t switch.

So, stop ripping me and other customers off by scrimping on bonus features!

Posted on by Alexander Case

Adaptations I’d like to see made.

My last couple articles, on the opera Doctor Atomic, and on Wired’s recent article about Max Butler’s hacking scheme got me thinking about adaptations, and stories that I’d like to see adapted from fiction or non-fiction to another medium, be it film, television, or even the stage. This is a topic I’ve thought about in the past on other forums, from “Movie’s you’d most like to see re-made” threads to “Novels you’d most like to see turned into movies” to “Anime adaptations you’d most like to see.” However, with all of these threads, they’ve been generally been tied to some sort of video media – anime, film, TV series. I’m expanding this list to address materials that aren’t video – the stage. My list of projects is below the cut.

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Posted on by Alexander Case

Thoughts on Justice League: New Frontier

This isn’t going to be my standard review, in part because I’m planning on re-thinking how I do movie reviews on the site. This, instead is going to be my general overall review of the film. I’ll be working off the Blu-Ray version of the movie here for all of my criticisms, and there may be spoilers here, so be warned.

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Posted on by Alexander Case

Movie Review – Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Yeah, I did a Dracula review yesterday. However, I watched that movie about a week ago and I was late writing the review – plus I watched another Dracula movie today, so I’m reviewing that one today. Think of it, sort of, as a compare and contrast.

This time, I’m reviewing Francis Ford Coppela’s take on the story, “Bram Stoker’s Dracula.” The author’s name is included in the title for, in part, rights reasons. However, the inclusion is significent in that this really is Bram Stoker’s story. There are some changes to the story, but with one exception they expand upon material that was covered in Stoker’s original book, rather then excising material from the story, as with most of the prior film versions (notably Universal’s version with Bela Legosi, and Hammer’s version which I reviewed in my last update).

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Posted on by Alexander Case

Movie Review – Horror of Dracula

Well, we’re getting to October, and Halloween, so, it’s time to watch some horror movies, and of course, to review them. So, we might as well semi-start things with the classic Hammer Horror film “Horror of Dracula” starring Christopher Lee as the titular vampire and Peter Cushing as Abraham Van Helsing.

The film starts in the right place, with Johnathan Harker on the way to the castle of the mysterious Count Dracula – only it changes things up quickly by having Harker being there fully aware of the Count’s nature, and actually being an assassin there to kill him. This, and all of Harker’s scenes in the castle really summarize the movie in a nutshell, in terms of it’s high points and low points.

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Posted on by Alexander Case

Movie Review – Ghost in the Shell

 

Normally, when I write a review of a movie, I do it right after I actually watch the film. This allows me to strike while the proverbial iron is hot. Ghost in the Shell is different. Here, I really had to think about what I was going to say. I think about what I’m going to say anyway, but this is different, because Ghost in the Shell itself is different. To explain why, and to explain why I think the way I do about the film, I have to give some background, not necessarily about the film, but about me.

Ghost in the Shell is one of those anime films that everybody needs to see once. Every “anime fan” or “otaku” or “geek” or even “film buffs” in general. Everybody needs to see it at least once. If they don’t like it, they never have to watch it again, but they need that first time. This was my first time, sort of. I had seen bits and pieces before, back when I had satellite TV, and when we had Starz. I’d heard big things about the movie before, and the manga. However, I’d never seen or read either. What I saw of the anime intregued me, but because there was nudity and violence, and because I was just getting into High School, I couldn’t see a way to watch it without my parents knowing. So, I read the manga, written by Masamune Shirow instead. It intrigued me, having a mixture of humor, action, and sexy characters, with a deep story in both the political and philosophical arenas.

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Posted on by Alexander Case

Review – War (aka Rogue Assassin)

Well, I finished watching another movie, so I might as well write about it. This time it’s War – which those of you who are outside the US might know as Rogue Assassin. It’s a Jet Li – Jason Statham vehicle that’s pretty interesting, but it has some room for improvement.

Before I get started writing the review though, a quick rundown on my review scores and what they mean. I score on a 1-to-10 integer scale (no fractions of a point). 1 is the worst, 10 is the best. 2-3 is crap, but with one or two redeeming factors. 5 is meh or generally mediocre. 7 is good, but not fantastic.

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Posted on by Alexander Case

Review – Enron: The Smartest Guys In the Room

The collapse of Enron is one of those incidents in business history that is certainly going to end up in the history books. The death of what appeared to be on of the strongest companies on the market changed the way the goverment, and the public, looks at business even more then the Dot Com Collapse did. The key here is, though, why? Why did Enron, which by all appearances was one of the strongest corporations on the stock market, collapse like a house of cards? That is the question that this documentary aims to answer.

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