Archive for Mar, 2013

27 Mar

Movie Review: Oz the Great and Powerful

Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: , , , , , , .

Man, there is a lot to say about this one. I saw it two days ago, though it’s been in Aussie cinemas for a couple of weeks already.

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Starring: James Franco, Michelle Williams, Mila Kunis
Director: Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead, Spider-Man)
Rating: PG
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Expectation is a funny and powerful thing when it comes to movies. When I first saw the trailer for Oz the Great and Powerful, I was quick to dismiss it as a stylistic rip-off of Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland. Considering that film got precisely two things right (Johnny Depp‘s performance and Danny Elfman‘s score) I wasn’t optimistic and didn’t make any plans to see Oz at all. A couple of intriguing reviews later, though, and I was ready to give it a chance. What I got was something quite unexpected and something that arguably does Alice better than Alice.

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25 Mar

Top 5 Tomb Raider Moments

Posted by vagrantesque in Games, Lists, PC, PS3, Xbox 360. Tagged: , , , , , .

Ooooh

I am quite fond of Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics’ latest effort, the rebooted Tomb Raider (You can read about just how fond of it I am in my review here). While playing through the game I came across quite a few memorable moments worth mentioning and thought they deserved their own post. If you haven’t played the game yet, I recommend that instead of reading this, you go and play it right now.

Spoilers

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21 Mar

Game Review: Tomb Raider

Posted by vagrantesque in Games, Xbox 360. Tagged: , , , , , , , .

I actually finished this game around two weeks ago, but I’ve been so busy I couldn’t even capture screenshots, let alone write it up, until now. It released officially on March 5th.

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Platform: PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Developer: Crystal Dynamics
Rating: MA15+
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Inacave...

It’s a hard knock life.

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Brutalised.

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It’s barely fifteen seconds after you select “New Game” in the new Tomb Raider that our heroine Lara Croft receives her first injury. After fifteen minutes she’s been burned, impaled through the side and has had disagreements with countless hard, jagged surfaces. An hour in, it’s a wonder she’s still alive. But she is, and this is the important thing, because Square Enix and Crystal Dynamics have re-imagined the decades-old gaming icon as a desperate survivalist in a much grittier setting than the old version ever had to contend with.

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21 Mar

Despicable Timing

Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: , , , .

So I feel the overwhelming need to post this new trailer for Despicable Me 2, which just debuted a matter of hours ago, because it has relevance.

In my anticipated 2013 movies list that went up only this week, I had only a teaser to link to. Now there is this. Suffice to say I am even more keen for this movie now!

Props for the use of a decade-old Eminem song.

“Bottom.”

19 Mar

Ahead: 2013

Posted by vagrantesque in Games, Lists, Movies. Tagged: , , .

Here are two more lists for you to disagree with at your leisure.

So just over a year ago year I got all excited about the pile of new movies and games that were coming out in 2012 and posted a pair of top ten lists to order my anticipation. As it turned out, I didn’t even end up watching some of the movies on the list and an embarrassing amount of the games I wrote about didn’t even come out in 2012. Here’s hoping I’ll be a little more accurate with this year’s equivalent.

For the sake of neatness, I’ll only count movies/games that are coming out after the month of March has run its course.

MOVIES

10. jOBS (Teaser)
I’m curious, OK? I don’t actually think Ashton Kutcher is the worst guy in the world and, even if his turn as the late great Steve Jobs sucks, this movie is still going to be talked about quite a bit and I want in on that conversation.

9. World War Z (Trailer)
Zombie movies can be great, they can be decent, or they can be so bad they’re good. In my lifetime I have never come across one that is just bad, and so I will happily watch the eerie World War Z when it hits.

8. The Great Gatsby (Trailer)
Baz Luhramann’s latest pulls out so many Moulin Rouge stops in its trailers that it kinda demands to be watched on style factor alone. Which I suppose is Luhrmann’s deal in the first place. Leo DiCaprio and Michelle Williams sweeten the deal.

7. Pacific Rim (Trailer)
On face value I can’t really believe that this movie is actually happening. It looks like Battleship meets Real Steel, and while the latter movie was surprisingly decent, the former, well, it kinda sucked. Everything changes, of course, when you realise that Guillermo del Toro is directing. Colour me hyped.

6. Despicable Me 2 (Teaser)
If there was ever a non-Disney, non-Dreamworks animated feature that surprised me enough for me to rate it among my favourite animated movies of all time, it’s the hilarious and heartfelt Despicable Me from Illumination Entertainment. Now a sequel is well on the way and while it will struggle to top the first one, you can bet I’ll be at the cinemas in week one to make that call for myself.

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