Posts Tagged ‘Review’

24 Nov

Movie Review: Argo

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

I have recently acquired a new full-time job and that impacts heavily on my free time and blah blah etc etc. My blog shall continue regardless! Anyway I saw this film a couple of weeks back.

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Starring: Ben Affleck, Alan Arkin, John Goodman
Director: Ben Affleck (Gone Baby Gone, The Town)
Rating: M
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If there is one director who has risen to the top tier of my favourites list faster than anyone else in recent times, it’s Ben Affleck. His 2010 effort The Town blew me away, particularly as it kept me interested in a plot I did not think I would particularly enjoy. After seeing it I went back and watched Affleck‘s directorial debut, Gone Baby Gone, and I enjoyed it just as much. It turns out I wasn’t alone in my opinions, as Rotten Tomatoes attested to. Being two from two with critics is one thing, but what makes Affleck‘s case all the more fascinating is that for most of the first decade of the 21st century, he was the laughing stock of Hollywood. Just watch Team America: World Police. He had an entire song dedicated to his acting and it wasn’t exactly glowing with praise.

But the role of Affleck‘s past in his current popularity is besides the point of this article. The point is that Affleck is now three from three behind the lens, with critics and with me. Argo, one of my most anticipated films of 2012, is fantastic.

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25 Oct

Movie Review: Looper

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

I saw this one a couple of weeks ago but it absolutely deserves to be talked about.

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Starring: Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Bruce Willis, Emily Blunt
Director: Rian Johnson (Brick, The Brothers Bloom)
Rating: MA15+
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Before I had so much as seen a trailer, Looper was one of my most anticipated movie releases of 2012. Joseph Gordon-Levitt is quickly turning into a guy whose movies I can just assume will be good, plus, I mean, Bruce Willis. Throw in one hell of an intriguing premise and I was pre-sold on this one. Thankfully, it turned out to be rather good, and not even in the way I was expecting.

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24 Oct

Movie Review: Taken 2

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

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

Album Review: North – Matchbox Twenty

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

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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Finally...

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

Game Review: Sleeping Dogs

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

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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Violence!

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

Movie Review: The Expendables 2

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

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

Game Review: New Super Mario Bros 2

Posted by vagrantesque in 3DS, Games. Tagged: , , , , .

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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Still golden!

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

Larger Than Life – 3DS XL Review

Posted by vagrantesque in 3DS, Console, Games. Tagged: , , , , , .

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.

Yes, that's a Pokemon sticker.

It’s just a nice-looking piece of tech, really.

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27 Jul

Album Review: Overexposed – Maroon 5

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

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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With white bars

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

Movie Review: The Dark Knight Rises

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

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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TDKR_Poster

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 →

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