Your Highness (2011) Review

Your Highness (2011)

Dir: David Gordon Green

Ever since I saw the trailers I’ve been interested in this film, they looked really funny and it had a great cast to boot; besides I really liked the Pineapple Express and this looked like a great follow up of sorts. Also Zooey Deschanel.

The concept of this film is actually pretty original and as far as I know hasn’t been done before: taking an R-rated stoner comedy to a medieval fantasy land, a concept which the writers never really take full advantage of, becoming a mostly tedious collection of “suck my dick” jokes.

That’s not to say there aren’t any funny bits in the movie, most of them brought by Danny McBride who once again plays an unlikable asshole who turns out to be useful in the end (which has sort of become his on-screen persona) and Justin Theroux. The problem is that most of the jokes are dated and have been done before in better, funnier movies. They also never use the setting to their advantage, this movie might as well have taken place in New York or something like that, and the difference wouldn’t have been noticeable.

The biggest fault however is that it’s not focused, the movie throws many subplots that come out of nowhere and feel unnecessary and most of them are not funny. One in particular is when the heroes are kidnapped and put into a gladiatorial battle against some hand-shaped monster and the result is not only unfunny but also stupid, (hahaha they cut every head but the middle one, it’s like it’s giving the middle finger, get it? ”. Scenes like these feel like they’re catering to 5-graders instead of a mature audience.

The actors all do a good job for the most part, the only notable exception being Natalie Portman who seemed to be taking it way too seriously, even in the scenes that are supposed to be funny; maybe she just thought she was in a different movie? Justin Theroux is the only one who excels in his villain role, providing a great balance between ridiculous and evil to work. The biggest disappointment from the cast however, comes from Zooey Deschanel, who despite doing a good job and being funny enough in her damsel in distress role is not given nearly enough screen time as she deserves .

To make matters worse, the movie isn’t even technically competent, the special effects are crappy, and there are really bad audio synch issues and worst of all some really noticeable and unforgivable continuity problems. All of this detracts from the experience.

To be fair the movie does have quite a bit of funny moments and is recommendable for anyone who enjoys the Apatow brand of comedy. However, it underutilizes both its concept and its cast and it never quite fulfills the promise that the first half-hour establishes, after that it just veers into the realms of predictability and stupidity. And that’s why it’s such a big disappointment.

Best and Worst movies of 2010

There’s not a moment in this excruciatingly painful, cliché-filled ridiculously tedious excuse for a film that is not horrible. A star-filled orgy that does not work for either the romance or comedy. Just…terrible.

Lewis Caroll’s Alice in Wonderland and Tim Burton seem like a match made in heaven so such a great combination seemed, at first, like a brilliant idea. But the execution? A total borefest that might look pretty but turned into what’s probably Burton’s worst film, even worse than the mediocre Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

And Burton’s direction wasn’t the only disappointing thing. The performances? Uninspired, the music? Derivative, the script (the third act in particular)? Terrible. In the end the only amazing thing about this movie is just how Tim Burton managed to screw it up so royally.

Remember Me is not a good movie because of its lead actors, who are terrible and lack any real chemistry. But everything surrounding them is actually pretty great. The story is surprisingly captivating and shocking and the performances by Chris Cooper and Pierce Brosnan are absolutely sublime. It’s not a great movie, it could’ve been so much better with better leads, but for what I was expecting, it turned out pretty good.

With competition such as Natalie Portman in Black Swan, Jeremy Renner in The Town and Stephen Dorff in Somewhere, it wasn’t easy to pick a “best” performance of the year. But my favorite and the most surprisingly amazing of them all is Jesse Eisenberg who has come a lot way since being “Michael Cera 2.0”. His Mark Zucerkberg is cold, manipulative, calculating and mesmerizing. He has proven to be one of the finest young actors and I hope we see more of this in the future.

Cliché as the choice might be, Inception is still the best movie of the year. There’s not a dull moment through the movie, and the whole film is a constant climax. Few directors are as good in combining exciting and well made action pieces with a well-crafted and interesting story as Christopher Nolan is. Not only that but every performance is incredible and the soundtrack is among the best of all time. Inception is proof that originality in blockbuster movies isn’t dead yet.

Runner-ups:

Black Swan started as one thing and ended as something completely different. It’s so well made that it works as a psychological drama, a thriller and even a horror movie and it’s all thanks to Darren Aronofsky’s bold direction and Natalie Portman’s incredible performance. Masterfully shot, visually compelling and superbly acted.

More than a movie, Enter the Void is an experience. It doesn’t bother with trivial things such as a plot, or dialogue, or even music. It’s all about showing death from another perspective. It’s an interesting way to see the afterlife and it won’t leave the viewer’s mind even after they finish watching it.

The ghost Writer is such a tight and well-crafted movie that is hard to leave it out the list. Roman Polanski (who I’ve always considered overrated) does a great job at setting up tension and gets the performance of a lifetime out of Pierce Brosnan.

The Kids Are Allright is a heartwarming story that takes us deep into the psyche of what to many might seem like an uncommon family. It’s beautifully told thanks to the great direction, fantastic script and emotionally charged performances by Annette Benning, Julianne Moore and Mark Ruffalo.

Funny, action-packed, wonderfully edited and infinitely quotable. Scott Pilgrim vs. The World is perfect in almost every imaginable way, from the casting to the music to the translation of the comics. It’s definitely the best video game movie, and it’s not even based on a videogame!

The Social Network is a lot like its main character: smart, funny, dark, sometimes cold, exciting and always unpredictable. A very well directed work with surprisingly fantastic performances by its three leads . Definitely one of the most memorable of the year.

The first 30 or so minutes of Somewhere are all about setting a mood, showing us the lonely, sometimes boring life of a big Hollywood star (played amazingly by Stephen Dorff). If this had been done by any other director it would’ve been just plain boring, but under the hands of Sofia Coppola it’s just great. She is a master at creating great characters who the viewer can relate to, and the story itself is a roller coaster of emotions. It’s not quite as awe-inspiring as Lost in Translation was, but this is an absolute masterpiece.

Going back some 4 years ago when I first watched Armageddon, one thing I couldn’t get off my mind besides “man, this movie sucks” was “Ben Affleck is a pretty terrible actor” and I confirmed this after watching Daredevil and Surviving Christmas. Who would’ve thought that only a few years later he would not only deliver an amazing performance, but also co-write and direct one of my favorite movies of the year? The Town owes a lot to Heat and though it’s not as great as that movie it feels more human. My only real criticism: Jon Hamm.

Probably the darkest, most complex and haunting movie of 2010 and Jennifer Lawrence’s star making performance is something that proves to be hard to forget, even month’s after watching it for the first time.

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Special thanks to Adriana Gómez for the designs.

Just Dance 2 review

Just Dance 2 had me from the moment I started playing the first song, which if I remember correctly was A-Punk by Vampire Weekend, one of my favorites. And that’s a lot to say considering I was expecting this to be complete garbage and something I got to keep my girlfriend and friends entertained during parties with its gimmicks. Who would’ve thought this would be one of the most fun rhythm games I’ve played and a must for parties.

The whole point of Just Dance 2 is to lose your inhibitions; it’s all about looking silly while recreating the moves seen on the screen. The Wiimote is held in the right hand and used to perform the moves. Why isn’t the balance board used is beyond me but that’s not a big deal considering I don’t have one and the motion controls are pretty accurate even without motion plus.

The most surprising thing of all is that performing the moves with just the remote doesn’t feel random at all, there’s always some level of technique required to nail the moves. Screwing up will result in no points and waving the control around randomly isn’t going to cut it, you have to do the exact moves or you’re just going to flat out fail. Another interesting thing is that real life dancing skills will translate into the game, for example I have a friend who is a pretty great dancer and was able to pretty much nail every move and perform from head to toe almost exactly like the dancers on the screen, the difference in the score was notable.

The song list is also fantastic and diverse. There are many genres and styles covered in this 40 song list. From 80s classics such as The Bangles’ Walk Like an Egyptian and Wham’s Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go , international tunes from India and Africa, old school classics like Elvis Presley’s Viva Las Vegas and Harry Belafonte’s Jump in the Line and more recent hits such as Outkast’s Hey Yah and Rihanna’s S.O.S. The variety of songs is impressive and while there are a few turn-offs, for the most part there are more hits than misses.

Graphically, Just Dance 2 is a great looking game. The neon-looking dancers and song specific outfits and backgrounds all look fantastic. It’s a nice touch that both the choreography and background match the style of the song, for example there’s a desert and pyramids in the Walk like an Egyptian stage, the dancers have mullets and short shorts in Wake Me up Before You Go-Go and Kris Kross’ Jump has a ghetto-looking background and the lyrics will appear in graffiti during the song. Though it’s lacking a bit on the menu presentation and design, Just Dance 2 is an overall great looking game.

The choreography is also excellent and more often than not, hilarious to perform and see your friend performs. Duets, which feature two dancers to follow, are probably the funniest part as both dancers have unique choreography and more often than not will have you striking hilarious poses. The only downside to the choreography is that it requires plenty of space to perform, especially duets as spins and crossovers are usually part of the routine.

The game itself lacks depth but that’s not really important and the lack of a single player career mode doesn’t hurt Just Dance 2 because playing alone is not the point of the game, it’s all about playing with friends and it works wonderfully well at providing a fun, accessible and hilarious experience. As far as “casual” Wii games go, Just Dance 2 is one of the best.

GoldenEye 007 Wii Review

The 007 videogame series has had a rough time since it hit its peak with Everything or Nothing back in 2004: GoldenEye: Rogue Agent was at best a mediocre FPS and at worst a tedious exercise in frustration, From Russia With Love was decent enough to play all the way through but utterly forgettable, Quantum of Solace was a step in the right direction but it was held back by glitches and a frustrating campaign and Blood Stone… well, Blood Stone just downright sucked. Thankfully, Activision has hit the jackpot with this remake of the classic N64 game, which comes closest to provide a superb 007 experience.

Now, let’s be honest for a second. Goldeneye 007 has aged poorly. Most people hold it in high regard because of nostalgia, but considering the advancements in the genre over the years, it stands as a nearly unplayable first person shooter today. That’s not to say it’s a terrible game. When it came out I was among those who went batshit over it. But truth is, nowadays it stands as nothing but a piece of videogame history.

The great thing about Activision’s Goldeneye remake for the Wii is that it doesn’t rely on nostalgia. It improves on absolutely every aspect of the original and it’s a fantastic game on its own right. In fact, it would’ve been just as good without the Goldeneye name backing it up.

The story pits Bond against the Janus organization, which has taken over the Goldeneye satellite and plans to use it to steal all the money from the bank of England. While this sounds awfully similar to the original game’s (and movie) storyline, the locations, characters and several scenes have been reworked to fit Daniel Craig’s version of Bond so it feels grittier and modern, which is a welcomed addition.

The single player portion provides an exciting globe-trotting experience and features a strong variety of gameplay elements and enemy types. While most of it consists of shooting levels, there are also vehicle and stealth missions, Quick-time Events and boss battles. The gameplay is pretty refined and borrows a lot from Infinity Ward’s and Trechyard’s Call of Duty series, especially from Trechyard’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Reflex as the controls are for the most part the same, but tweaked to make them more fluid. While there’s a variety of control option including Gamecube and Classic Control support, I always felt at ease with the Wiimote + Nunchuck combo as they’re very fluid and consistently accurate. I’d go as far as saying that they are only second to Metroid Prime Trilogy as the best fps controls on the Wii.

One of the best things about the campaign is that it’s challenging. I died… a lot. Now that might have been because I suck at fps and videogames in general but it was mostly because the game’s difficulty is very balanced, it’s never too hard, but it’s never easy. The enemy AI in particular is really well made, they are smart and react accordingly to your actions, taking cover and running from place to place to find the best spot to take you down, among other things. The best thing about it is that the gameplay is so well designed that I can only remember a couple of occasions where I felt that my dead was the game’s fault and not because of a poor decision I made.

The multiplayer aspect was what people remember most fondly about the original Goldeneye and for the remake it comes back with all the gameplay refinements present in the single player campaign, as well as new modes, weapons and characters. While the offline is rather disappointing in that it doesn’t feature AI bots, it still is enjoyable. The online is among the best the Wii has to offer, there’s a highly competitive community so it’s never difficult to find a match in any of the modes and none of the games I’ve played so far suffered from any lag so it’s pretty smooth as far as I’m concerned. The variety of modes is also nice; Golden Gun mode in particular is amazingly fun. And the XP progression and unlockables make it really addictive too.

Graphically, Goldeneye stands shoulder to shoulder with first party Nintendo games as an excellent looking game. The levels are rich in detail and the character design and animation is also excellent. The game is also really colorful, which is a nice contrast to the grey-looking style of the Call of Duty series and most modern FPS. The voice acting, which sees Craig and Judi Dench reprising their roles from the movies, is also well done.

Goldeneye is not without its flaws. The frame rate tends to drop quite a bit when things get hectic, it suffers from long loading times and the original music is forgettable. But for everything it does wrong, it does twice as much right. Eurocom has made an excellent job at updating the venerable shooter and making this remake not only one of the best for the Wii, but also of this generation.

The Godfather: Blackhand Edition - Wii review Revisited

I'm revisiting some of my old game reviews from back in my Gamespot and Giantbomb days and reposting them here. Some of them are over 3 years old so the games are not very current. I do plan on reviewing Donkey Kong Country returns and Goldeneye 007 for Wii sometime soon, so there's that.

The first one to respost is going to be The Godfather: Blackhand Edition for Wii, an excellent game from 2007 that i'm replaying now. So without further adeu here it is:

THE GODFATHER: BLACKHAND EDITION
WII
2007

The Good: Great gameplay – Superb voice acting and soundtrack – Plenty of mission variety – Huge city to explore, without loading times – stays true to the spirit of the film

The Bad: Outdated graphics – Manual aim is not very good – No Al Pacino

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Based on the 1972 classic film "The Godfather", EA brings The Godfather: Blackhand edition to the Wii with surprisingly good results that stay true to the spirit of the film.

The story is basically the same as the film, but there are new parts specifically designed for your character. These don't change the core story too much and stay true to the film and book for the most part. You'll play as your created character, who didn't appear on the movie but played a key role in the story. Your father was killed by Barzini when you were a kid and now your mother wants you to work with Don Vito Corleone who sends you with Luca Brassi and you start as an enforcer for the family, but by the end of the game you'll be the Don of 1940's New York City. It's a shame though that one important part of the story (Michael's exile in Sicily) is nowhere to be found in this game.

Needless to say, you'll use both the Wiimote and Nunchuck combo to play this game. Throw punches by swinging the remote forward (like in Wii Sport's Boxing), move with the analog stick, get your gun out with C, lock on with Z, fire your weapon with B, run by holding A which can also be used to interact with the different objects and move the camera with the D pad. Also you'll get to do different executions by doing specific gestures and many of them are very, very cool to watch (throwing a bad guy out of a window, breaking his neck or shooting him to death for example).

The Gameplay is, for the most part, great.

Some of the early objectives include taking over business for the family, dont think the owner will give you his business just like that though, you'll have to intimidate them; which means punching their faces until they give you what you want, if done right he (or she) will pay you weekly. It's really fun to take over business, though it gets old after sometime. Don't think that's all there is to the gameplay though; there are a lot, and I mean a lot of mission variety to be found: you kill drugdealers, destroy enemy compounds, scort the members of the family to safety, do favors and kill enemy mob leaders. It's really fun because there's a lot of variety in there plus you'll get to recreate some of the most memorable scenes from the movie such as the baptism and Sonny's ambush scenes and it does a great job at that.

The Game's version of New York city is massive and you're going to have some really great times exploring it during your time with this game. During playtime you'll visit Little Italy, Brooklyn, New Jersey, Midtown and Hell's Kitchen; each belongs to a family (Corleone, Tattaglia, Cuneo, Barzini and Stracci). The city is very detailed and it's just plain fun explore it. There are many buildings in the game where you can walk in and make yours and and there's a nice variety of places to see (bakeries, barbershops, banks, hotels) and also many buildings taken directly from the movie such as the Corleone compound.

You will use several cars to do travel through the city and also meet a lot of pedestrians which you can kill (much like the GTA series) this will increase your heat, which will make the police go after you and kill you, this however can be avoided by bribing the policewhich means they'll also fight in your side. Other gameplay elements include: Hiring your own crew to blast your way through the game, and after every mission you'll get respect points which will be use to buy new skills such as being able to plant a bomb in the car or increase the ones you already have like health, its a nice touch that gives it a small RPG feel. There are also tokens hidden in the city which are used to get new clips from the movie.

Shooting is not the only way to kill the enemies

The graphics are good, but not as good as they should've been on the wii, the fire and weather effects look nice but most of the buildings and car models look blocky and sometimes just plain ugly, it's not the worst looking wii game, but it is certainly not the best. The characters models however look just like their movie counterparts. The sound is great too and it blends old music with new one making you feel like you're actually part of the game; the voice acting is also phenomenal, many people from the original cast lend their voice to the game including: James Caan, Robert Duvall and there are even some parts where you'll hear Marlon Brando before he died, the only disappointing thing is that Al Pacino is nowhere to be found.

Overall this game is great, there are a lot of missions and it's strangely addictive. This game grabs you by the balls and doesn't let you go until you're done with absolutely everything. It doesn't hurt that there's barely any competition on the Wii. But this one is great in its own right and it's a must for every action fan who owns a Wii.