Category: Reviews

I’m just full of reviews today so I’ll keep on going. I mean to always review every piece of new media that gets into my hands but it’s surprising how much media that actually entails!

Last night, Mike and I felt like grabbing a movie so we headed over to Blockbuster and scanned the Previously-Viewed Movies section.

Here’s where I go on a tangent in saying that I rarely rent movies any longer, I go ahead and buy the previously viewed ones. Especially the ones under $9.99. For example, we bought 2 movies for $17 + tax which comes out to $19.55. Voila. Instead of renting a movie for…$5.75 (help me out here people…cannot recall how much a rental costs), I can go ahead and just purchase it for a few dollars more, which allows me to lend out the movie to my good friends (read: If you want The Island, come and get it.)

I haven’t bothered pawning off some of the lamer ones that I’ve bought on a whim, but I’m sure I could get at least $5 for a DVD.

Anyhow, back to my story about The Island.

Oh man, we loved this movie. It kicked serious ass. It had a sci-fi story within a mega action movie. I am a fan of the sci-fi but let me tell you that it isn’t hardcore sci-fi so don’t worry about that stuff…just watch it for a cool story and super, super action sequences. We’re talking “OH man, they didn’t just do that, oh, OH!” action sequences where a guy gets a freakin’ crowbar to the face and you’re thinking “Ouch.”

You know, sometimes I want to say a lot about a movie, but then I don’t want to ruin anything about it so I don’t bother saying anything. Just like now. The only thing I will leave you with is…best.movie.ever.

Ha ha, all kidding aside here, Scarlett Johanssen. *meow*

I give it three thumbs up. I really think this was the movie that got away from me in 2005. Why did I not know about this movie? It’s like no one has ever told me about it! I take that back…I can’t remember who (Eric?) mentioned it a few weeks ago, but they were the ones who planted the seed in my head to go check this movie out.

Dad, I know you’re reading this – make this your next movie to rent. Although, we know it’s the summer so no movie rentals will happen until the winter.

I forgot that before we watched Deliverance on Saturday, Mike, Eric and I watched a movie called Timecode as recommended by Benoit.

Timecode’s story revolves around a bunch of people working at a production studio and there’s a whole plot about people cheating on one another.

Storywise, not the most original or intriguing storyline, but that’s not the best part of the movie.

The movie is filmed in real time, with four different cameras. Your screen is divided up into four quadrants so that you can see each of the four cameras. At first, the story focusses on different people and different settings, but as the movie goes forward, some characters/scenes interact with the other, which basically gives you two, three, four different angles to one shot.

The movie was a little hard to follow in that they still have people talking in one scene while another is talking. They mix the audio so the one you should be paying attention to has higher volume but at some points I was thinking “Wait, who’s talking? What quadrant should I be watching?”

Plus, it didn’t help any when Salma Hayek starts having sex with one guy and then all of us kind of missed what was going on in the other three quadrants. 😉 Ha ha.

All in all, I would like to say that this movie is worth seeing just for the method they filmed it in. Supposedly the took 15 takes to get the final version – keep in mind that the film revolves around a very roughed in storyline – the rest of it involves the actors/actresses improvisationaling their roles…they even include Version 1 on the DVD so you can see how much was different.

If you don’t mind watching a movie with a ‘so-so’ storyline and are more interested in the concept behind it, I suggest you check out Timecode.

Also, a special ‘sorry’ goes out to Vero seeing as she wanted to watch it but we (I) went ahead and watched it without her. I’m sorry and that won’t happen again.

The year: 1972.
The movie: Deliverance.

I remember first hearing about Deliverance when my dad downloaded the theme song which is Dueling Banjos. I never thought about actually watching the movie since I was thinking it was a western.

This weekend Eric said he had bought the movie so we popped it in.

This movie was excelent, albeit a little freaky. It revolves around 4 men on a canoe trip (Burt Reynolds, Jon Voight, Ned Beatty, and Ronny Cox) and something awful, AWFUL happens to them on the canoe trip (I won’t spoil it for anyone. I wonder if I should since the movie is freakin’ old) and then the rest of movie shows how each man deals with the stress which comes from what happened. We’re not talking about someone losing their canoe or anything. Let’s just say you wouldn’t want your enemy to go through the same fate.

Anyhow, I enjoyed the movie, although I was freaked out in certain parts since I have this weird thing about lake water in which I always think I’m going to rub up against something in the water which shouldn’t be there…so the movie freaked me out in a few parts.

All in all, you should definitely spend the $10 and pick this up at your local Future Shop. Two thumbs up.

I enjoy the older movies where they were less about special effects and more about the story and character development/analysis. They got into the brains of individuals.

Check it out.

Oh boy, oh boy. A new Sam Roberts Band album.

You may not know me, but I’m a big Sam Roberts fan. I love their music, I love their live show even more. They get into those jams that take you to the other place.

Let’s be honest, I haven’t picked up the new album yet. I can’t review it entirely. I’m sitting here anxiously counting 7 hours to go until I can go pick it up.

There’s only one thing I hate about iPods. When I go to the record store, I can’t rip open the packaging and pop the CD into my iPod. I have to sit patiently on the bus ride home while staring at the album.

Anyhow, I have heard 5 tracks off of this album so far and they are stellar. They are different from one another so I am curious to see how the album holds up as one solid piece of musical art.

Will I be disappointed? Probably not. I constantly listen to the tracks I recorded off the radio the other night…

My review will come within 24 hours I suspect, unless I’m lost in the music.

On another note of interest – Jeff Martin (of Tea Party fame) has his solo album out today. Should be good! Back to the old Eastern-style influences I hear…

I finally got around to reading this book through all the other literatures that I needed to read in this past semester.

A Game of Thrones is a fantasy novel based in the Seven Kingdoms…somewhere far off where the dragons have left the lands and the king rules all along with his trusty sidekicks across the realm.

Alas, not all is well and the King’s right hand man is dead. So the King’s ever faithful friend Eddard Stark comes in to help as well as secretly look into the rumours that this may have been a murder.

This book is excellent. EXCELLENT! It’s quite long, but never boring. The chapters focus in a few characters stories spread out across the land and how they intertwine with one another’s.

I enjoyed the freshness from other fantasy novels and the intricate story that was laid out. I quickly went out to buy the next book in the series and did not balk at the 1000 pages that are spread out before me to read. Chances are, the new school semester will put a hold on reading this for awhile.

I would recommend this both to fantasy novel aficiandos and also those who just enjoy a good read.

What I thought about The Transporter: Awesome. Really good story. Really good action.

What I thought about The Transporter 2: Not so much.

I just realized that life is just a bunch of reviews. An event happens and you either like it or do not…hence, a review!

Last night Vero and I went to the Orleans Cultural Complex to catch some high school students duke it out in an improv(isational) match. Vero has been in improv for quite some time, although she is taking a hiatus this semester.

I’ve never been to an improv match, and once again, I must say that I didn’t catch some things they were saying (it was in French…slang French) but I found I understood more than I would have 4 months ago. Vero is rubbing off on me.

Anyhow, Improv Games are great fun…two teams duke it out against each other in make-up situations and the audience votes as to what team they liked better. Whose Line Is It Anyways? is improvisation if that rings a bell.

Great fun…it’s funny to see how everyone has a great time (audience jeering the referree), the musician in the background playing funny songs…supposedly the University level and Adult level are even funnier as they have crafted the art of improv so I will have to check that out someday soon.

I encourage all of you to go check out an improv match! You will not be disappointed! Yeah!

Now that school isn’t throwing a slew of books for me to read (wait until next month. YIKES!), I have time to go and read some of the literature I wish to read – namely The Chronicles of Narnia.

Hey, I jumped on the Narnia bandwagon just like every other person in the world jumped onto the Lord of the Rings bandwagon a few years back. There wouldn’t be one day where I wouldn’t see someone reading LOTR on the bus somewhere.

Actually, speaking about coincidence, last week I saw a guy reading Narnia at the same time I was AND I peeked over and noticed he was only a few chapters ahead of me! Strange!

Even stranger was the fact that this morning I started reading George R.R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones and sitting across from me was a gentleman reading the same novel! These coincidences are strange but they mean something. Never think coincidence is just coincidence folks!

Anyhow, back to the novel. Chronicles of Narnia assemble the 7 books in the series which all revolve around the mystical world we know as Narnia. Aslan (the lion) comes in and out of the novels helping as he may and there’s villains showing up in each novel…whether it be the White Witch in The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe or the Calormene in The Horse and His Boy. Only The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe and Prince Caspian revolve around the same human characters, hence most likely the reason that Disney has decided that the next Narnia film will be Prince Caspian.

What can I say about the novel? I enjoyed it. They were simple stories with deeper messages within them (ah…what novel doesn’t have that?) but it was interesting to see how a world with talking animals works. I enjoyed the fantastical element of it all and it was refreshing compared to other fantasy worlds such as Middle Earth since it is a more peaceful and happy place.

I recommend The Chronicles of Narnia to anyone who enjoys a light read and is into fantasy. I suppose I’ll now have to go catch the film version of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe! I hope it is just as good as the book!

Here’s a message to my friend Duncan who enjoys these types of films…go read the book! Read a chapter a night. Or 1/2 a chapter a night! The books are always better than the film!

Joe has constantly talked about Battlestar Gallactica and how I should start watching it. Being a sci-fi fan, I know that this is one of the essentials in sci-fi viewing.

I believe I’ve seen one episode from the 1978 series (which I just found out only lasted one season). It was decent. It was cheese. It was what old sci-fi is about.

Now that Smallville has come and gone (aka, Mike and I have finished the first four seasons and they are currently airing the fifth) we need something else to watch so Benoit lent me the first season of Battlestar Gallactica – a revamp of the original series. The first disc is the 3 hour mini-series which spearheaded the actual TV series currently playing…I enjoyed it. It had some good story elements to it and the characters are decent. I can’t say I’m head over heels for it yet, but I’ll give a few episodes in the series a try to see if I really enjoy it.

In other TV series news, now that I have the XBox Media Center hooked up, I have caught up in watching Season Five of Alias, and am currently catching up on Season 2 of Lost.

Alias…what can I say? I feel that Season 5 has hit an all time low and will only be redeemed with the cancellation of the series. I think if they ended on Season 4, it would have made a good story. Season 5 reminds me of when Mulder and Scully left X-Files – all new characters in the same setting. Boo.

As for Lost…what can I say? I think this is my fave show next to Prison Break (hey, when is this coming back on the air?) and Season 2 has blown Season 1 out of the water. I really enjoy how the show revolves around the mythology of the island and the insight into a character. An excellent way to tell a story. I have heard that J.J. Abrams (the genius behind these two shows) is creating a show which intertwine six people in New York who do not know each other. Should be interesting. He is the master.

Ever since C. Soul have created their own label, they are pumping out some great stuff other than their great albums.

Here we have their new live concert DVD – Home. Home has C.Soul playing along with the Atlanta Youth Orchestra for a bunch of tunes.

Mike and I popped this in last night and it started off…weak. We don’t know what to think of the new guitarist. AND, it turns out that they have a new drummer also who really got on my nerves because of the way he held his drumsticks. Then Ed Roland seemed full of himself while prancing around. It didn’t seem natural…it was like an act.

So…all whining aside, after awhile the show grew on the both of us. We realized like any rock show, sometimes it needs some time to gel. We became amazed at some of the songs with the orchestra attached as the fifth instrument of the band…very slick stuff. I was getting chills!

By the end of it, I gave the DVD two thumbs up. Very good show and I’m glad that C.Soul actually has some form of live album out now that I can listen to on the iPod.