Posts Tagged ‘Review’
24
Oct
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: Liam Neeson, Movie, Review, Taken, Taken 2. Leave a comment
I caught this unexpected sequel in the cinemas last night. Man, I am fighting an uphill battle to see 100 movies by the end of 2012…
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Starring: Liam Neeson, Famke Janssen, Maggie Grace
Director: Olivier Megaton (Transporter 3, Colombiana)
Rating: M
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I absolutely loved Taken. It became one of my favourite action movies after I saw it two years ago and I wasn’t alone in my opinion. But it wasn’t the kind of film I expected to spawn a sequel. So when I saw the trailer for Taken 2 earlier this year, I was initially intrigued – until I heard its star Liam Neeson utter that title-dropping line. The stakes had apparently been raised; now instead of just his daughter being taken, Neeson‘s character had to deal with his wife’s abduction – alongside his own no less. That’s when a feeling of dread swept over me not unlike the one I felt when I saw the trailer for The Hangover 2. You know the one: “They expect us to believe that the exact same thing would happen again?” That feeling. So needless to say I became a bit less keen to watch the film.
But watch it I did.
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20
Sep
Posted by vagrantesque in Music. Tagged: Brian Yale, Kyle Cook, Matchbox Twenty, North, Paul Doucette, Review, Rob Thomas. 2 comments
I’ve waited a long time for this one… It came out on the last day of August.
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Released: August 2012
Label: Atlantic
Genre: Rock
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Their first album cover showing their whole faces
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TRACK LISTING
1. Parade
2. She’s So Mean
3. Overjoyed
4. Put Your Hands Up
5. Our Song
6. I Will
7. English Town
8. How Long
9. Radio
10. The Way
11. Like Sugar
12. Sleeping at the Wheel
13. I Believe in Everything (Deluxe edition only)
14. Straight For This Life (Deluxe edition only)
15. Waiting on a Train (Deluxe edition only)
A decade. That’s how long it has been since my one-time favourite band last released a full album. That album, 2002’s More Than You Think You Are, happens to rank firmly amongst my all-time top five. The band’s two prior works, released during the height of their popularity, certainly aren’t too shabby either. 2007’s singles compilation Exile on Mainstream packed six new tracks, and lead singer Rob Thomas has released two solo albums in the last ten years, but a full band release is certainly something of an event to Matchbox Twenty fans like myself.
The thing is, a lot changes in ten years. The pop and rock music landscapes are very different now from what they were all that time ago, when great tracks like Disease, Unwell and Bright Lights were able to get extended airplay on mainstream radio stations. So in 2012 Matchbox Twenty face the same question all other ageing bands have to eventually confront: how to stay true to what made them who they are while mixing things up enough to keep them “relevant”. With one glaring exception, they have achieved a more than admirable balance that positions North as a very worthy addition to Matchbox Twenty’s discography.
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19
Sep
Posted by vagrantesque in Games, Xbox 360. Tagged: Review, Sleeping Dogs, Square Enix, United Front. Leave a comment
Well we are now mere hours away from the Australian launch of Borderlands 2, which I can reasonably expect to try to take up as much of my free time as it can. So I rushed to finish this surprising gem to get it out of the way. I finished it yesterday, about a month after its August 16 release.
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Platform: PS3, Xbox 360, PC
Developer: United Front
Rating: MA15+
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Just let them lie.
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Been to Hong Kong?
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The last time I was there I was seven years old. Just about the only memories I have of it are a lot of glaring lights and a bout of food poisoning, but now, after playing Sleeping Dogs, I can say that my feelings towards it are a bit more favourable. I’ll be honest; I only picked the game up out of sheer curiosity, but it ended up keeping me away from my beloved portable consoles for the better part of a month, and that says something.
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5
Sep
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: Chuck Norris, Movie, Review, Schwarzenegger, Stallone, The Expendables 2, Willis. Leave a comment
I hadn’t seen either Expendables movie two nights ago, but now I’ve seen them both. It’s certainly quite a lot to take in over 48 hours. The Expendables 2 came out in Australia last Thursday.
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Starring: Sylvester Stallone, Chuck Norris, Arnold Schwarzenegger
Director: Simon West (Con Air, The Mechanic)
Rating: MA15+
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Wow. No matter how you look at it, the fact that The Expendables 2 is even a movie at all is pretty cool. Sylvester Stallone, who directed the first movie, deserves some fairly raucous applause for bringing together all those action heroes the first time around, crafting a rather enjoyable, if openly cheesy, movie in which to fit them. But his achievement as producer of the sequel is arguably greater. The Expendables 2 streamlines the action formula from the first film, cutting out the unnecessary and packing in more of the ridiculous. The result is a movie that knows just how stupid it looks and runs with this self-awareness in a startlingly effective way. Continue reading →
30
Aug
Posted by vagrantesque in 3DS, Games. Tagged: 3DS, Bros, Mario, New Super Mario Bros 2, Review. Leave a comment
The latest adventure of everyone’s favourite plumber has arrived just in time for the 3DS XL’s launch. It unleashed its gold-fever madness on Australia on the 18th of August.
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Platform: 3DS
Developer: Nintendo
Rating: G
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My favourite video game cover of the year so far.
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So. Many. Coins.
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So very, very many coins. Just, coins, everywhere.
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30
Aug
Posted by vagrantesque in 3DS, Console, Games. Tagged: 3DS, Console, Handheld, nintendo, Review, XL. 2 comments
New console number two out of three for the year!
After a relatively short build-up, Nintendo’s new 3DS XL was released in Australia last Thursday. It retails for $250, which is technically the same RRP as the regular 3DS (although many retailers sell the original model for less). That was the first pleasant surprise it provided me with. The second was how good it felt to hold and play. The third was how good its stereoscopic 3D looked. The fourth was how easily I could recommend it, to anyone, as a system superior to its smaller cousin in almost every way.
It’s just a nice-looking piece of tech, really.
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27
Jul
Posted by vagrantesque in Music. Tagged: Album, Maroon 5, Overexposed, Review. 1 comment
The remnants of a truly fantastic June keep trickling through. This time I’m dealing with the latest studio album release from glamour band Maroon 5. I reviewed the Deluxe Edition, which features three extra tracks.
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Released: June 2012
Label: A&M/Octone
Genre: Pop Rock
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Now looks terrible on 3rd gen iPad!
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TRACK LISTING
1. One More Night
2. Payphone
3. Daylight
4. Lucky Strike
5. The Man Who Never Lied
6. Love Somebody
7. Ladykiller
8. Fortune Teller
9. Sad
10. Tickets
11. Doin’ Dirt
12. Beautiful Goodbye
13. Wipe Your Eyes (Deluxe edition only)
14. Wasted Years (Deluxe edition only)
15. Kiss (Deluxe edition only)
The measure of a band’s quality does not, and should never, stop at the lead singer. It sounds obvious, but a band isn’t a band without a gaggle of musicians behind the person with the best-tuned vocal chords. They deserve to be heard just as much as their frontman/woman. Maroon 5 seem to have forgotten this basic fact for their latest effort, the aptly title Overexposed. For all the varied beats contained within its run time, it could quite easily have been released as an Adam Levine solo album. I mean, for crying out loud, the group is called Maroon 5.
This isn’t to say the album is complete rubbish, or anything else of the sort. It features some catchy tunes quite ably holding up the “pop” half of the band’s chosen genre, but there just isn’t enough flying the “rock” flag. Continue reading →
26
Jul
Posted by vagrantesque in Movies. Tagged: Dark, Knight, Movie, Nolan, Review, Rises. Leave a comment
It’s here. What almost certainly amounts to the most anticipated film of the year has finally hit screens worldwide. I’ve seen it twice and I will admit that the second viewing made me change the score I was going to give it.
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Starring: Christian Bale, Tom Hardy, Anne Hathaway
Director: Christopher Nolan (Memento, Inception)
Rating: M
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It is finished. The most critically lauded superhero trilogy of all time is done and dusted, wrapped up with considerable skill by visionary director Christopher Nolan, who rebooted the Batman film license back in 2005 with Batman Begins. The Dark Knight Rises is a visual, audio and psychological tour de force that demands to be seen by any self-respecting film fan. While it doesn’t quite reach the heights of the second film in said trilogy, 2008’s The Dark Knight, it comes incredibly close and won’t hurt Nolan‘s already very impressive resume. Continue reading →
10
Jul
Posted by vagrantesque in 3DS, Games. Tagged: 3DS, Final Fantasy, Review, Theatrhythm. Leave a comment
Taking on a 3DS review now. This charming musical title came out on July 2nd and I’ve been tapping along to it ever since.
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Platform: 3DS
Developer: Square Enix
Rating: G
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Complete with slick pre-order bonus stylus. Aww yeah.
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Twenty-five years.
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That’s how long it has been since the first Final Fantasy graced the Famicom System in Japan, launching a franchise that would become a beloved worldwide phenomenon. Developer Square Enix has decided to honour the quarter-century landmark by releasing a quirky rhythm game celebrating the series’ incredible musical pedigree. This is Theatrhythm Final Fantasy.
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4
Jul
Posted by vagrantesque in DS, Games. Tagged: Conquest, DS, Pokemon, Review. 2 comments
Here’s the other game I was talking about in that June article. I’ve been playing this since it launched down under on the 21st, alongside Gravity Rush.
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Platform: DS
Developer: Tecmo Koei
Rating: G
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Just… I mean, where did this come from?
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Uh, what?
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That just might be your response to seeing Pokemon Conquest on store shelves, just as it was mine to finding out that it was getting a western release. The portable curiosity combines the money-printing worldwide popularity of the Pokemon series with the previously Japan-exclusive turn-based strategy franchise Nobunaga’s Ambition. The result of this unlikely marriage isn’t for everyone, but it represents a pretty bright future for crossover games of this kind.
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Vagrant Rant 