Showing posts with label REVIEW. Show all posts
Showing posts with label REVIEW. Show all posts
Sunday, May 17, 2009
An Ode To Giant Feet and H-Bombs
Lost: The IncidentSeason 5, Episode 16&17
Wow. Well, there you go. The fifth season of Lost, arguably the series' most consistent outing, goes out literally with a bang. But enough with potential spoilers...for now at least. I know I've been slacking my duties as the That's a Wrap! Lost reviewer, but I've just been too enamored with this season to want to really dissect it for criticism. So what I'd like to do today is not really break down everything that happened in the finale, but rather just mull over where Lost is, has been and seems to be going.I've given the producers of the show a lot of shit in the past for being obnoxious about getting to the Goddamn point. It's not that I have a problem with a show being full of mysteries. Of course, I don't have a problem with a show being all mysterious-like. I was an avid fan of The X-Files for ALL nine years, so trust me I can handle cock-tease television. What I can't handle is BORING cock-tease television. I loathed the season one Lost finale because it pretty much boiled down to "people launch and sail a boat/other people blow up the hatch that we've been dicking around with for TWELVE Goddamn episodes." Sure, Waaaaaaaaalt got kidnapped, but that wasn't even the season cliffhanger! No, instead we get to see people looking down the hatch.
Seriously? Yeah. It's a HATCH! We could reasonably assume that there was a DUDE inside the damned thing...why leave THAT for the season opener? Now, I still contend that the best that Lost has EVER been was the first eight episodes. Back before JJ Abrams left to pursue other endeavors(like ruining Star Trek), the show was good on both "freaky shit" and "jungle surviving" accounts. It had so much potential that it was electric watching the show weekly. But then it just started to lose it. Part of that is just my fault. I was thinking about Lost constantly. I lurked on Lost message boards. Hell, I dreamed about the show(Let's just say my "Alien ship on the island" dream thankfully hasn't come true just yet)! I was obsessed with the show. Understandably it would be hard to come up with something that I, and all the other fans, would appreciate and no be disappointed with.
In some ways, the series has never, and can never overcome the sheer expectations that the fans have.
I say this(and mention the first season finale) because in a lot of ways it felt like the first season finale. Let's be honest, most of the finale was people trying to get to the Swan Station site. Shit, they were trying to blow up the fucking hatch...AGAIN...only thirty years earlier. Yeah...so, why wasn't I disappointed? Well, part of me was. I had two major gripes with the finale and I'd like to get them out of the way right now:
1. Juliet's flip-flop back and forth over Jack's plan. It payed off in the end with Juliet and Sawyer sharing a final scene together that literally had me on the verge of tears(those two were so good with each other that I feel like punching Cuse and Lindelof for "killing" Juliet), but every time Juliet changed her mind on whether or not they should blow up the island or not, I cringed.
2. Just as I suspected(I attempted to temper my co-worker's excitement over the finale by telling them to expect this) the episode ended with the bomb going off and presumably the time-traveling castaways causing the incident.
That's it. Those are my only two genuine gripes. So how come I liked this finale when it so closely mirrors the season one finale? Well, things happened...that's one reason. In this case, Cuse and Lindelof were able to balance the mythological happenings with the dramatic character moments and in some cases tie them into one another. See: Hurley's introduction to Jacob.
A lot of things happened in this episode, and I feel that just listing them out would be a disservice to the great season. I want to say that I am overall elated with the season, it was the first season that felt like it knew where it was going from start to finish. This was the strongest group of episodes that Lost has produced back to back. Maybe not the greatest episodes, but in tandem the strongest.
I was upset to see Sayid(easily one of the best and under-utilized characters on the show) gut shot in a Dharma bus and I hated seeing Juliet laying at the bottom of the hatch banging on an H-bomb. Both of their fates seem written, but I'm holding out hope at least for Juliet. It stands to reason that exploding the bomb is what causes "the incident." And if the incident sends the Lostaways back to 2007, I don't see why Juliet can't go back as well. Sure, she was right next to the bomb when it exploded, but Sawyer, Jack, Kate and the rest were only a good hundred yards above ground when the Jughead detonated. If THEY don't die(and there wouldn't be much of a sixth season without our cast) can we really assume that Juliet died? I suspect that she will be missing for most of the final season, but I do feel strongly that she will return.
I hesitate to speculate too much on the 2007 shenanigans, but I was elated to finally get a clear villain for the show. Nameless-guy-posing-as-Locke-who-may-or-may-not-be-the-smoke-monster certainly does seem like a total prick(not many people can totally CON BEN LINUS like he/it did), kicking poor defenseless tapestry-weaving Jacob into a fire pit was a downright despicable thing to do, even if I don't know if Jacob is a good guy or not...
Of course, the first time we meet Jacob he's wearing white and his angry possibly-fake-Locke buddy is wearing black. Possibly-fake-Locke says something about the cycle repeating itself on the island that sounded just a BIT too much like Battlestar Galactica's, "This has all happened before..." mantra. I swear to Christ, I'll scream if Jacob and fake-Locke end up being angels or God and the devil.
I was worried that the final season of this show wouldn't have any surprises for us, aside from tying up loose myth threads. I am not worried about that now. Hell, I'm even glad that they waiting almost four years to show us the significance of the four-toed statue. Can we assume that Jacob and the real Locke are dead? What does this mean for the island? Many questions. The most pressing question among them:
Is it January yet?
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Wednesday, March 18, 2009
Billy's Favorite (SCI FI) Retro Game! (Part 9 of 200)
Battlestar Week marches forward towards it's inevitable conclusion: the end of Battlestar Galactica. I had promised to do a "favorite SCI FI retro game" to fill a scheduling gap in our week, but then I though about the absurdity of doing something of that sort. Not because it is hard to do, quite the opposite, it's far too easy! A vast majority of video games are based on a science fiction theme. Despite the field being wide open to pick a sci-fi game, I was wracked with a dilemma of which to do! I looked back to see if there were any BSG games created and decided that it would be too difficult to hunt down a copy of the Battlestar Xbox game.Stuck at an impasse I decided to jump ahead to the Super Nintendo era and speak of a very special game. Literally one of my top five favorite games. One that is inarguably rooted in science fiction and while it focuses on time travel as a main theme, it still has killer robots(!) and the entire destruction of mankind. So, what is this game? If you have not already guessed it's the seminal RPG favorite: Chrono Trigger!
Chrono Trigger is the brainchild of Dragonball creator Akira Toriyama and Final Fantasy papa Hinorobu Sakaguchi. It tells the story of Crono, a lively(and mute!) young fella who is caught up in a time-spanning adventure when his new friend Marle is shot back in time 400 years while using an invention created by his friend Lucca.
Crono, being the honorable lad that he is, jumps in right behind Marle. Thinking of only saving the girl(and maybe getting a little sumthin' sumthin' after) he lands in the year 600 AD ready to step all over every goddamn butterfly he finds.
Along the way Crono, Marle and Lucca run into a knightly frog named Frog and a badass robot named Robo. Yeah, not much imagination in that bunch. Robo hails from the year 2300 AD, where the world has been destroyed by Lavos. Lavos emerged from the ground one day in 1999 and pretty much wiped out the human race(just like the Cylons did to the colonists! eh, eh? oh...forget it). Crono and company make it their goal to decipher where and when Lavos first appeared on the planet and stop him from wrecking the place.
One of the great things about Chrono Trigger is that you can beat the game at several points along the way. Depending on when you beat the game you can actually see different endings. Some of the endings only have small changes, some are huge(beat the game at a early point of prehistoria and the present will be filled with anthropomorphic dinosaurs!). One of the hardest and most interesting endings is achieved if you beat the game as soon as you gain the ability to use Lucca's machine. It's actually a developers room where you can chat with people based on the creators of the game.
It's pretty sweet to be able to jump forward and backward in time, do something at one time period and actually see the results in another. Many of the side quests involved doing just that and it was a great incentive to do them. Usually I ignore the side quests but with the time travel component I readily searched out every single last one.
I would be remiss in my duties as a video game geek if I didn't GUSH about the music in this game. Composed by Nobuo Uematsu, the composer behind most of the Final Fantasy music, the music is simply fantastic. Classic themes that I could listen to forever. Despite being in midi format these songs are spectacular. Check these out:
Robo's Theme
Frog's Theme
I honestly could ramble forever about this game. But I won't. I will say this, it's out on Nintendo DS...right now. Buy it!
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Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Killin' Time With 24
24: 5:00P.M.-6:00P.M.Season 7, Episode 10
Welcome to "Killin' Time With 24." A weekly morning-after 24 discussion hosted by your faithful That's A Wrap editors, Billy and Jim.Every Tuesday morning we get together to discuss the previous evening's episode of 24. What we liked, disliked and where we would like to see the series go while avoiding any real work. It's like a virtual coffee break.
Sit back and let us do the complaining for you.
10:27:24) Jim: 24: The Greatest Hits Continues
(10:53:32) Billy: Indeed.
(10:53:41) Jim: how great they just happen to find the tiny microchip
(10:53:54) Jim: how great chloe backs it up
(10:53:56) Billy: Seventh verse. Same as the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and first.
(10:54:44) Billy: I couldn't believe Jack just let that thing go with a random cop to FBI headquarters
(10:55:05) Jim: i gotta say the guy from Entourage had just about the stupidest escape plan ever... a gut shot, that she could spend hours or days dying from, is his cover... seriously?
(10:55:14) Billy: it worked out in the end, but damn, seriously? The government is compromised and you just hand the thing away.
(10:55:28) Billy: Not only a gut shot
(10:55:39) Billy: but her fingerprints weren't even on the gun!
(10:55:51) Jim: well, i justify that if the government is compromised, it might make sense for some random cop to be trustworthy
(10:56:07) Jim: it would be pretty damn coincidental if one random cop was in on it
(10:56:50) Billy: Right
(10:56:53) Jim: nor did she actually fire a bullet. i mean come on you nail her center mass, and use her hand to pull the trigger to put one in your arm
(10:57:11) Billy: But just 60 minutes earlier Entourage guy made the cops pull Jack over
(10:57:16) Jim: and do a decent acting job when they come for you... he was painstakingly obvious
(10:57:23) Billy: if he could do that, then he could have gotten the chip from the cops
(10:57:54) Jim: I'm just thankful he didn't walk into chloe's workspace with a handheld magnet
(10:58:04) Billy: I thought for a good couple of minutes that Chloe was pulling a con on them
(10:58:13) Billy: and I sort of wish she was
(10:58:17) Jim: by the way, lucky that the chip isn't at all electrically damaged by ramming a guy with paddles
(10:58:50) Billy: It would certainly have been more plausible than, "Moss, I randomly fixed the thing that I said was un-fixable."
(10:59:15) Jim: and it coincidentally could only be downloaded once... i mean come on... yeah it should have been a chloe fake out
(10:59:35) Jim: would make more sense and give a well-liked character a cool and understandable thing to do
(10:59:58) Billy: Seriously, the chip is fried
(11:00:02) Billy: they lose the information
(11:00:11) Jim: as opposed to, "Shit! It's all over. We're done............................ Oh, nevermind, it's cool."
(11:00:28) Billy: Chloe realizes that Entourage guy is lying, even if Moss can't because they are buddies.
(11:00:49) Jim: a fakeout would let you milk all the same tension, but comes off as more plausible and scientifically accurate
(11:00:56) Billy: She lies, telling Moss that she fixed it, and has guards watch him make his break.
(11:01:28) Billy: Boom, they know he's lying. Plus Moss gets to understand Bauer a bit more.
(11:01:45) Jim: looks like no Jack-Renee action for you for awhile, my friend. For a second there I thought they'd have angry sex... but it was not to be
(11:01:47) Billy: Because now HE has to interrogate a friend who has betrayed him.
(11:02:16) Billy: That whole scene between Jack and Renee illustrates one of the reason's I don't like this season
(11:02:34) Billy: Jack is a good guy. WE know he has feelings.
(11:02:43) Billy: Why is he acting like a total ass.
(11:02:59) Jim: But he's towing the line of, THIS IS NECESSARY for the writers this year.
(11:03:13) Billy: That's all it would take is Jack to say, "It's never easy." THEN walk away.
(11:03:16) Jim: and the point is, the good thing about Jack is that he know's it's wrong.
(11:03:45) Jim: that emotional guilt is one of his defining characteristice... I mean he ran away to India and Africa to escape what he had done
(11:03:59) Billy: I know eventually Jack is going to break down to Renee, I can just feel it. But until that happens, he's kind of an asshat.
(11:04:16) Jim: yeah, kind of hard to root for the guy this year
(11:04:57) Jim: I mean it was only going to be so long before Jack always doing his own thing because he is always right would grow old. eventually, he should be wrong once in awhile.
(11:05:20) Billy: As a bleeding heart liberal
(11:05:30) Billy: I am appalled by the torture on this show.
(11:05:40) Billy: but it's escapist entertainment
(11:05:48) Jim: i mean in seven years, none of his actions, often based on the slimest of lead or clues has EVER failed to pan out perfectly
(11:05:53) Billy: and I begrudge it that much.
(11:05:54) Jim: that's too much
(11:06:38) Billy: But Jack at some point has to show that he has remorse for this shit.
(11:06:44) Jim: agreed
(11:07:01) Billy: Crying at the end of season 3 is not enough
(11:07:52) Jim: the idea since season two that he was a good man that realized he sometimes had to do bad things. they haven't stayed on course with that defining characteristic. Turning him from an inhumane human to the equivalent of a robot
(11:08:16) Jim: they've made it too easy and convenient for him to head down darker paths
(11:08:39) Billy: Season five handled it well, with Audrey and Paul seeing first hand what Jack had to do to get the job done.
(11:09:23) Billy: But since then, it's been bull headed Jack, know s exactly the right thing to do: the wrong thing.
(11:09:52) Billy: And I feel it now, the Senator is going to let Jack go.
(11:11:09) Billy: Because of the non-twist twist ending, of Senator Red Foreman's chief of staff being aligned with L.A. police chief---er I mean, worfs brother---er, candyman---no, wait General Juma!
(11:11:23) Jim: It keeps the show going, but in the wrong direction... I've said it about Heroes a bunch, but it's true here as well. Actions need to have consequences. Jack can't keep going back to the "I know I'm doing wrong and will accept whatever consequences there are after the job is done.", if the consequences never come
(11:11:57) Billy: In a show like 24 it's hard to show consequences before the end of the season
(11:12:02) Jim: Except by the Chinese, he has broken tons of American and international laws and NEVER called to task for it
(11:12:10) Billy: Jack did do a two year turn in a Chinese prison.
(11:12:40) Billy: He is on trial for his crimes by the U.S. govt now.
(11:13:02) Jim: But that was out of revenge for a death he did not directly cause. It has never been acknowledged that Jack is doing bad things and there is a cost.
(11:13:24) Billy: The problem is, if you show realistic consequences then Jack Bauer should be in police custody for 12 hours of the season.
(11:13:54) Billy: It doesn't exactly make for an exciting show.
(11:15:01) Jim: I know there have been consequences... but all of them have been for actions where we see Jack in the right, the Chinese abduct an American citizen and smuggle him out of the country, the President orders his execution forcing him to go on the run. It just all reinforces that the bad things are the result of other people's actions and Jack is ALWAY IN THE RIGHT.
(11:15:03) Billy: I do think that the "cost" is going to be Jack's life in the final episode of the series. Be it by a terrorist. Or friend/family. Or by his own hand.
(11:15:39) Jim: as much as I like the guy, you can see how that would be fitting
(11:15:59) Billy: How flippin' wonderful would it be if Kim Bauer eventually kills her old man.
(11:16:24) Jim: they would NEVER do that
(11:16:27) Billy: I mean, with proper build up, of course
(11:16:44) Billy: She's been so messed up by her father, hooked on smack
(11:16:57) Jim: i mean come on, you might as well say he gets exiled to Candytop Mountain
(11:16:59) Billy: the only way to be free is for Jack to die.
(11:17:06) Billy: Ha ha
(11:17:21) Billy: It's my dream of how to handle Kim's return.
(11:17:25) Billy: I know that it
(11:17:31) Billy: will not be as cool as that.
(11:19:54) Billy: Kim will not be hooked on smack. She'll just act like a smug little bitch, and I will wish that someone will just outright smack her. Nothing will change, because for a show all about time, 24 has a pretty awful recollection of the past.
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Saturday, February 14, 2009
Like A Pair Of Old Socks
I have a theory. Something I've been formulating for more than a decade. In the Friday the 13th movies psycho killer Jason Voorhees stalks the woods surrounding Camp Crystal Lake(and sometimes Manhattan if you want to get technical) and picks off any pesky youngsters who wander near. Of course, the horror movie laws dictate that anyone caught performing an illegal or morally corrupt act will die. Look, I don't have to explain this to you. I'm sure you've seen Scream. It's such a well known idea that it's a damned cliche.
Anyways, my theory is that Jason Voorhees is actually a fundamentalist christian gone insane from isolation. Think about it! Seriously, he only kills people who have either A.)done recreational drugs or had intent to sell illegal substances, B.)have had pre-marital sex, C.)were dicks or D.)all of the above. The innocent ones might be attacked, but rarely die. Because Jason realizes that they are really good and let's them live, until the sequel at least.
The recently release Friday The 13th rebirth not only reaffirms my theory but takes it to absurd heights.
Michael Bay's Platinum Dunes horror movie label is usually a kiss of remake death. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and The Amityville Horror have gotten the Michael Bay touch earlier this decade and I was fairly strong in my hatred of those two movies.
I didn't have much faith in Platinum Dunes and when I heard that they were doing a remake of Friday the 13th I was at first skeptical. But then I realized something, aside from the first movie in the series(a genuinely scary thriller) all the other Friday films were fun but in no way good. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the Friday movies, but in much the same way that Owen Wilson's mother probably loves her son. Let me be brutally honest, there isn't much that can be done hurt the series any further. I mean, they've already taken Jason into space!
So with that being said, this Friday the 13th is an admirable entry into the series that corrects some of the missteps that the later films made while missing some of the charm that the earlier films contained.
This film is being marketed as a remake/reboot of the series but in the opening flashback teaser(a retelling of the original film's ending with Star Trek Deep Space Nine's Nana Visitor playing Mrs. Voorhees) it is clear that it's NOT a remake but actually could reside within continuity. It's much the same way that Bryan Singer's Superman Returns is a sequel the first two Supes films while ignoring the latter two. This Friday could conceivably exist after Part 2(Jason even begins the film wearing his hillbilly bag from Part 2!).
This is important for one big reason, it allows the filmmakers to dial back the supernatural elements that became so prevalent in the later films and make this just a back-to-basics scary slasher film. It's done well enough that Jason could be shucked from the narrative and replaced with a random crazy killer and the film would have still worked fairly well.
Which probably answers your big question. Is the new Friday the 13th a good movie. Yes and no. If you like slasher horror films then undoubtedly,yes, you will like this movie. It's got some very interesting kills, some very funny lines and most importantly it doesn't shit on the source material. There's a fairly well done dramatic plot with Clay Miller (Jared Padalecki best know from TV's Supernatural) looking for his sister after she disappears near Crystal Lake.
But, if you don't like movies of the horror variety then you probably won't find much here to like. The direction is competent if bland. The only real attempt at a stylistic direction is the shaky cam. Yes, the hand-held camera shakiness that destroyed the Texas Chainsaw Massacre remake is back in this. Thankfully it's kept to a minimum here, but still rears it's ugly head now and again. When it happens it's very distracting. Director Marcus Nispel is responsible for both films, so I'm glad that he at least had some restraint in this one.
The acting is pretty bad. Aside from Padalecki, Amanda Righetti(CBS's The Mentalist) does a fairly good job slumming it in this as Clay's sister. Other than these two the rest of the cast is forgettable(unless you notice some random actors from other productions, like Dick Cassablancas from Veronica Mars or the Faux Alan York from 24).
Most of the "scares" come from music cues that are fairly predictable and from people turning around to find Jason standing behind them, so it's not a very frightening movie. But, come on, it's a slasher horror flick, it's not supposed to be SCARY!
And, of course, it's an EXTREMELY cliched movie. It uses every horror movie trope. It's both a boon and a curse. It's like slipping on your favorite pair of socks. They are so damn comfortable until you notice the giant hole that your toe sticks through. You can still wear them, but that hole is going to be nagging you all day long.
So this one is for the fans(Jim, Garrett, sorry!) only. If you love slasher horror films or just the old Friday movies, then rest assured you will probably like this. If those descriptions don't fit you then this is certainly not the movie for you.
2.5 snowcaps out of 5!
'Till next time!
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Wednesday, February 4, 2009
Just Try To Find The Special Weapon To Beat This 'Final Boss'
It takes a rare breed of man who can write rap lyrics that range from references to Ralph Macchio to Star Wars convention golden showers and while I certainly don't want to be privy to the details that spawned these songs, I can't help but listen when MC Frontalot starts singing about them.Front's latest album, 'Final Boss'(released November 2008) follows the titular singles placement during the closing credits of Penny Arcade Adventures Episode One. Despite being hyped by it's involvement in the Penny Arcade game, this album(aside from a few small quibbles) hits all the right notes.
Let's get the bad stuff out of the way, two of the albums twelve musical tracks are remixes of older Frontalot songs. 'A Very Unlikely Occurance' and 'Listen Close' make their return here. It's hard not to feel like the original cuts of these songs were catchier and just generally better. One can presume that these new remixes were included perhaps to document the songs without the use of licensed sample music, but nonetheless it's hard not to feel cheated by their inclusion here.
With that out of the way, let me say that 'Final Boss' is an absolute blast of nerdy goodness. From the opening song 'Wallflowers'(about a new dance called the Margaret Thatcher) to the actual 'Final Boss' track the album takes very few missteps. The weakest track, 'Black Box', is an attempt to broach a political topic in this case the fallacy of computerized voting machines. The song's message is that voting doesn't work, so don't do it. It seems childish and petulant in it's complaints about voting and government, which is a shame because Front's last major attempt at a political song 'Special Delivery' worked fairly well.
Even 'Black Box' can be forgiven when it is preceded by the sublime 'Scare Goat' a song about the internet viral videos of fainting goats. With lyrics like:
Go back in time, find Scully and Mulder.
Don't ask, just grab their zoology folder,
then bring it back to me now, if I'm still around;
I might be mingling with mole people underground
or up in the sky on a hippogryph,
flying through this abyss (it's in my syllabus).
It's a great song, probably the strongest on the album. It is also accompanied by a spoken skit that sets up the improbability of people denying the existence of the scare goat. Both skit and song are well done and very funny.
Near the end of the album there is a mostly spoken skit starring Star Trek: The Next Generation's Wil Wheaton. At the risk of spoiling the joke, let me just say there is rapping. Just let that sink in for a moment.
In addition to Wheaton, Front is joined by other guests for assistance on these tracks, most notably to me is indie geek-rock sensation Jonathan Coulton famed for his songs Re: Your Brains, Flickr and Still Alive(which lit the video gaming world on fire with it's inclusion in Valve Software's Portal). His work on the song 'Diseases of Yore' moves the song into a hip hop/acoustic rock mash up that works surprisingly well.
All in all 'Final Boss' is an impressive effort that should be in any nerd's musical collection regardless of whether you normally enjoy hip hop or not.
'Final Boss' is currently available from Frontalot.com in both physical and digital formats.
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