28 Apr

Movie Review: The Avengers

Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: , , .

I saw this hugely anticipated film on Wednesday when it came out, leaving a couple of days to think it over before posting a review. Enjoy.

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Starring: Robert Downey Jr, Samuel L Jackson, Mark Ruffalo
Director: Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly)
Rating: M
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And so it is that the superhero project seven years in the making finally arrives on our screens, carrying with it the kind of hype that can only be generated by five prior films loaded with teasing elements. The Incredible Hulk, Iron Man, Iron Man 2, Thor and Captain America: The First Avenger have all come and gone. While some of these films were more obvious in their hype-generating efforts than others (*ahem* Iron Man 2) and suffered for it, such trivial matters are in the past. The reality is that Marvel Studios’ The Avengers is one of the most ambitious action films of our time, attempting to tread the unprecedented ground of adapting a much-adored comic book super-team concept into a movie that doesn’t fall to pieces.

The reason it succeeds, more than anything else, is because it avoids just that.

Continue reading

26 Apr

First World Problems

Posted by vagrantesque in Games, Lists.

This is serious business, people.

The life of someone who finds enjoyment in so many things, meaningless or otherwise, is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, it’s hard to get bored, ever. On the other, it’s so easy to get distracted by shiny new things when they come along that perfectly good forms of entertainment are often left in the cold after a laughably short amount of time. Sometimes it doesn’t even matter how “good” the product is; something in our capitalist-educated minds compels us to desire what is fresh. As time goes on and the “pile of shame” grows, it gets steadily harder to find the time to get to the things we leave at the bottom.

This can be a problem for just about anyone (though, let’s be honest, a fairly insignificant one in the scheme of things), but when you’re like me and you place value in your ability to form a complete and educated opinion on every material product you experience, it can get a tad frustrating.

Continue reading

25 Apr

…and back.

Posted by vagrantesque in Misc.

I emerge from the Easter holiday period refreshed and packing ideas aplenty. Though I remain thoroughly behind where I want to be with my 100 movies project and I haven’t touched my PS Vita since that post I put up almost a month ago, there is much to blog about. Before April is out you can expect to see a couple of blockbuster movie reviews and a wall of text as well!

How very exciting!

A thing of beauty.

Here's a picture of my favourite blogging mug. My favourite anything mug, actually.

4 Apr

64-Bit Memories…

Posted by vagrantesque in Games, Lists, N64. Tagged: , .

It has recently come to my attention that last month marked the 15th anniversary of the Nintendo 64’s release in Australia. Shame on me for letting that go unmarked. Here’s something to try and make up for that error.

On Christmas Day, 1999, a year and a half after migrating to the sunburnt country from South Africa, I received my first home gaming console. My life would never be the same again.

Under a generous amount of wrapping paper, the Nintendo 64 greeted me in a glorious swirl of black, grey and “atomic purple“. As a wide-eyed child I had sampled some of what the console had to offer at friend’s houses, but this one was mine. Plugging it into the largest CRT television in the house and then pushing that oversized switch on the console’s curved shell resulted in a singular moment of awe that seemed impossible to match. I had my ticket to the school playground war of words; I was lodged firmly in Nintendo’s corner.

The limited edition pack I received on December 25, 1999. Words cannot express the nostalgia.

The next three years, long as they seemed to a pre-pubescent boy, were filled to the brim with some of my fondest gaming memories ever. This is the list of my top eleven favourite Nintendo 64 games of all time.

Continue reading

30 Mar

Updated Vita Impressions

Posted by vagrantesque in Console, Games, PS Vita. Tagged: , .

To be honest, I just wanted an excuse to test the Vita’s in-built screenshot features. Many pictures coming up…

It has been just over a month since the worldwide launch of the Playstation Vita (You can see my first impressions of it here) and now that I’ve had some more time with the console, I can add a thing or two to my earlier article about it.

*Sigh* So green...

My main home screen, bubbles and all.

One of the things that has most impressed me in the last month about the Vita is its battery life. It’s a little refreshing to know that I have between four and a half to five hours to play around with on every charge (that’s while playing a Vita game with brightness and sound a decent way up) rather than the barely three hours the Nintendo 3DS yields at full stretch. Continue reading

25 Mar

Album Review: Born to Die – Lana Del Rey

Posted by vagrantesque in Music. Tagged: , , .

This girl seems to be everywhere at the moment, so I thought I’d throw in my 2c on her debut album.

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Released: January 2012
Label: Interscope, Polydor
Genre: Pop
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Blue n' White

She's deadly serious.

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TRACK LISTING

1. Born to Die
2. Off to the Races
3. Blue Jeans
4. Video Games
5. Diet Mountain Dew
6. National Anthem
7. Dark Paradise
8. Radio
9. Carmen
10. Million Dollar Man
11. Summertime Sadness
12. This is What Makes Us Girls

Amidst this refreshingly anti-Gaga pop music landscape where female vocalists can be successful by relying on their voices and their voices alone, and building on the success of the likes of Adele and her terrific efforts, New Yorker Lana Del Rey (not her real name) has emerged in a hurricane of hype. In no time flat she has amassed the sales success to back up this hype thanks to her first major label release Born to Die. After happening upon this album through a family member’s wallet, I have only two questions. Where on earth did this come from and how can I get more? Continue reading

24 Mar

Movie Review: The Hunger Games

Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: , , .

Yes, the wait is finally over. Whether or not you are a fan of Suzanne Collins’ insanely popular teen novel trilogy, you can now check out the “next Harry Potter/next Twilight” phenomenon in cinemas (it came out on Thursday and I’ve already seen it twice). I suggest you do, lest you become bitter from the hype and turn into a hater.

This could be a long one…

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Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth
Director: Gary Ross (Seabiscuit, Big)
Rating: M
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the-hunger-games-posterI do not read novels. Like, ever. Snails move faster than my eyes across a page and so I generally find my leisure time better spent with other forms of entertainment media. So when my brother recommended I read Suzanne Collins‘ post-apocalyptic thriller The Hunger Games in January of 2010, it was only out of desperate boredom that I complied. I was hooked within minutes on its insanely fast-paced first person narrative style and over the next several months I made my way through the entire trilogy. Little did I know that I had stumbled upon what would soon be hailed as “the next big thing” in book-to-film translation.

Yeah, I liked it while it was underground. What of it?

Fast-forward two years and after months of anticipation, I found myself before a screen watching what was once confined to my imagination take shape as a shining example of how to do justice to literary source material while creating a unique identity as a film. There is nothing in the world that quite feels the same as the relief of justified hype. Continue reading

14 Mar

Movie Review: John Carter

Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: , .

The movie reviews on Vagrant Rant finally get started today with John Carter, a film I saw last night in the cinema. It came out on March 8 and you should see it.

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Starring: Taylor Kitsch, Lynn Collins, Mark Strong
Director: Andrew Stanton (Finding Nemo, Wall-E)
Rating: M
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John Carter Poster
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It’s always interesting to see the results when a film director known almost exclusively for one type of work tries his/her hand at another. Filmgoers got a taste of this phenomenon earlier in the year with gangster movie extraordinaire Martin Scorsese‘s family film Hugo, which won several Oscars despite its director’s violent screen reputation. In a similar vein, Pixar veteran Andrew Stanton tried his hand at making a live action film recently and the result is John Carter, which was one of my most anticipated films of 2012. While it certainly isn’t Academy Award material, the big budget Disney blockbuster is an admirable first effort.

Continue reading

13 Mar

Hundreds of ’em

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

Generic Movie Pic

Over the last few years I have been undertaking to watch and review 100 movies for the first time every 365 days, in an effort to get “more cultured”. I started at the end of 2009 with a strained attempt to remember everything I had watched that year (only reaching 50), then began in earnest in 2010. I published the lists on Facebook and if you’re interested you can skim through them using the following links.

You can check out that half-hearted 2009 effort here, the fragmented 2010 project here and here, and the complete 2011 list here.

This year I’m only up to twelve movies and we are already in March. Best get a move on. My first proper film review for Vagrant Rant goes up tomorrow!

11 Mar

Album Review: Evanescence – Evanescence

Posted by vagrantesque in Music. Tagged: , .

What’s that? You didn’t realise that Evanescence released a new album last year?

Exactly.

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Released: October 2011
Label: Wind-up
Genre: Rock
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Ooooohh

That’s a lot of cool colours (Thank you, Year 4 art class)!

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TRACK LISTING (iTunes Deluxe Edition)

1. What You Want
2. Made of Stone
3. The Change
4. My Heart is Broken
5. The Other Side
6. Erase This
7. Lost in Paradise
8. Sick
9. End of the Dream
10. Oceans
11. Never Go Back
12. Swimming Home
13. New Way to Bleed (Deluxe Only)
14. Say You Will (Deluxe Only)
15. Disappear (Deluxe Only)
16. Secret Door (Deluxe Only)

One-time symphonic rock superstars Evanescence arguably peaked just as they were getting started. They won a Grammy in 2004 for Best New Artist after their wildly successful debut album Fallen hypnotised much of the Western world. It brought the niche subgenre of hybrid orchestral movements and snaring guitar riffs into the mainstream through powerful singles such as Bring Me to Life and My Immortal. But dynamite lead vocalist Amy Lee was the catalyst for internal trouble in the band which delayed the release of their next effort until 2007. The Open Door didn’t see the success of the first album but it managed to build well off the strength of Lee’s voice while employing a great deal of variety in melody and themes. Continue reading

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