Sunday, June 23, 2013

Movie Review: This is the End

Two movie nights in a row? Preposterous! I was invited out to the theatre to see another movie tonight. Movie of choice? This is the End, directed by Evan Goldberg and Seth Rogan. When you take a look at the cast, you can tell right off the bat exactly what kind of movie we're dealing with, here. This review may contain spoilers, but nothing so major as to ruin the ending.


Two of my friends went to see the movie the previous day, and claimed to like it so much, they really didn't mind seeing it again. I asked, "Who stars in this movie?" More like, "Who doesn't star in this movie?" You have Seth Rogan, James Franco, Jay Baruchel, Danny McBride, Craig Robinson, Michael Cera, Emma Watson (!?), Rihanna... And that's just to name a few. Every celebrity plays themself in this flick.

The movie starts with Seth Rogan and Jay Baruchel-- who, no surprise, are great friends in real life-- meeting up at Seth's sweet new home. They get higher than kites while watching TV in the living room (it's a Seth Rogan movie, can't say you didn't see it coming) and Seth tries to convince Jay to join him at his good friend James's house for a killer party. Jay boldly states he does not want to go; he just wants sit back and catch up Seth. After some of Seth's coaxing, Jay finally caves and they're on their merry way to James Franco's party.
 A couple drinks / joints later, Seth and Jay are welcomed by James Franco and Jonah Hill. Seth couldn't be happier to see them, but Jay is passive-aggressive the entire time he's there. Jonah is an extremely nice fellow who tries to see the good in everyone. James is an extremely popular man with a house full of expensive art collections. Jay just wants to go home. He asks Seth to go with him to pick up a pack of smokes, and they excuse themselves from the party.

While debating what to buy, Seth observes a shrewd gas station clerk tell a little girl and her father they can't use the restroom without buying something. Just as Jay is about to check out, a giant car crashes through the window and smashes the attendant like a tomato. Outside, people are running and screaming, vehicles are crashing and swerving in a manner similar to that of Chicago's everyday traffic, and giant blue rays of light are abducting people and sucking them into the sky. Seth and Jay run back to James's house and the party is still going; no one is aware of the havoc that lies outside. When Seth and Jay try to explain what they saw, everyone dismisses them as being too doped-out to think straight. However, an earthquake sends everyone running for their life, and Michael Cera is the first to die (yup), courtesy of a falling telephone pole impaling him through the stomach. He is then sucked into a giant hole in the ground that leads to the molten depths of hell. Everyone in the party is sucked into it, minus our four main characters.


From here on out, the story revolves around Jay Jonas, Seth Rogan, James Franco, Jonah Hill, and Craig Robinson, as they try to survive in James's house. Food and water quickly becomes sparse, Jay's reluctancy to cooperate rises as he didn't want to even go to the party in the first place, and something large and menacing (we're talking T-Rex sized or maybe even larger) is running rampant outside. Celebrity casts come and go as the four learn they aren't the only ones from the party to survive. Danny McBride joins the cast for a majority of the rest, but he is "voted off the island", to put it in his own words just before he leaves. The entire theatre was filled with joyful cheers upon Emma Watson busting her way through the window with a firefighter axe. A misunderstanding quickly makes her break Seth Rogan's nose with the end of the axe, steal all the booze in the house, and run outside, never to be seen again.

Emma Watson swinging her axe around like nobody's business.
I enjoyed seeing this pure-comedy film. It was controversial and daring and not modest in the slightest, and maybe that's why I liked it so much. You can tell the actors really enjoyed it. In a way, it was like watching a movie a group of friends put together, because that's exactly what it was. I wouldn't be surprised if Seth Rogan woke up one morning, phoned a friend about this whack idea he had for a movie, and the message just spread and spread until everyone, from Rihanna to all of the Backstreet Boys, had a role in this movie.

I'm not kidding! They really did get together for this shoot.

 Would I recommend it?
Yes. But I would be very selective about to whom I'd suggest see it. I wouldn't recommend seeing it if drug references really bother you, as this movie is filled with them. Also, the movie has some raunchy bits in it that are definitely... stranger... than most films. In spite of that, the movie has a really enjoyable mashup of a cast and they compliment each other very well.

Would I see it again?
I felt like it was one of those movies you'd be satisfied with seeing just once. It's not that I didn't like it-- quite the opposite-- but I feel content.

Movie Review: World War Z



I've been skeptical of the zombie craze that's caught on within the past few years, especially after society was just seeming to recover from the vampire / werewolf scene. Zombie this, zombie that. Not being much of a Brad Pitt nor zombie fan, I nonetheless decided to go see World War Z with some friends. And I did not regret it.

Despite catching the latest showing, beginning at nearly 8:55PM, the theatre was absolutely packed. The six of us had to split up and sit in different sections because there weren't enough seats. After a few pretty awesome-looking previews (add Machete, The Wolverine, and Insidious 2 to the list of movies I need to watch) the movie started.


The movie's opening credits begin with a bunch of tactically filtered, somewhat gory TV documentaries of animals preying on other animals, insects skittering around, making your skin itch, and eating more dead animals, and random clips of news broadcasts informing you about a sudden outbreak of rabies in the human population. The movie then picks up and we find our hero in the form of Brad Pitt and his fictional family in a traffic jam in the middle of a busy city. Everything is neat and dandy until people start panicking and no one will stop screaming long enough to give Brad Pitt a straight answer as to why a police motorcycle just zoomed past and chipped off his car mirror, or why a truck just got thrown across the intersection. Or better yet, why the hell a semi is being catapulted towards the general vicinity of his traffic lane.

I'm not about to spoil the movie, but all in all, it had me at the edge of my seat. The entire theatre would echo in laughter when a zombie would repeatedly smash its face against a wall, and gasp when a zombie came out when you least expect it. Or when the zombies ever so casually form a tidal-wave of a mosh pit to scale over the hundred-something foot wall Israel built to keep them out.

Your typical Justin Bieber concert
My only complaint is hardly a complaint at all; for someone with impaired eyesight such as myself, the shifty camera views made it hard to see what was really going on-- which may have been the intent-- but in one particular scene it was enough for me to be a little bothered by it.

Would I recommend World War Z to someone?
Yes.

Would I watch it again?
Totally. Maybe even buy it when it comes out to own.

Am I going to actually read the book?
We'll see.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

Pregnant with a PS4. Five more months until delivery!

Reading more and more about the capabilities is making me impatient. There are so many new features. Some of them I find completely unnecessary, yet convenient, like the nifty new feature that makes the multiplayer switch sides when players sit on different sides of each other.

I heard lots of things concerning old games for the PS1-3. I just hope if anything, it has PS2 or 3 disc playing capabilities, or at least a cloud to repurchase games from.  I think an iTunes Library style PS4 cloud would be really neat. Buy the game once on your account, play it anywhere you log in! Rent games you don't feel like putting down the full price for.

As I preordered, a poster proudly announced Dynasty warriors 8 is being released in English sometime within the next month or so... For the PS3. It'd be rather pointless to release a great, finally-becoming-popular game on a soon-to-be outdated console, wouldn't it?

Other than these concerns, I can't help but notice that Sony completely pulled a Kanye West on XBox One. Seems I'm not the only one who thinks so:

Monday, June 17, 2013

Lu Xun Will Never Have a Girlfriend

Oh, Lu Xun.


Dynasty Warriors / 戦国無双

Am I really going to have to preorder a PS4 after all? I haven't played Dynasty Warriors in years-- four years, to be exact-- but I'm being sucked right back in thanks to all the uproar about Shin Sangoku Musou 8 (Dynasty Warriors) being released in Japan. Since Dynasty Warriors 5, the character designs are becoming more and more elaborate and seem to be catering to RPG fans. I don't know exactly when, but somewhere between 5 and 8, KOEI injected the characters with their own personalities, deeming qualities, and grievances. Whereas I used to view each character simply as a different set of stats and fighting rotations, I can honestly say they have become fleshed-out characters. Heck, I even get a little upset when some of them die in the storyline except Xu Zhu.
Who the fuck is this? Nice hat, dweeb
Oh, it's Lu Xun, six games later.
I am really disappointed to see that Sun Shang Xiang has turned into a moeblob fairy and is still referred to as a tomboy. I think she's too similar to Xiaoqiao (whose name is now apparently one word), and I find her English voice to be hard on the ears. I miss the days when her method of madness was to kick ass using two trash can lids chakrams.

On the left and right, Sun Shang Xiang's better original designs. In the middle, her absolutely ridiculous new design.
 All in all, the big picture still looks great and I truly believe I may buy a PS4 just to see some of these characters in action! I really would like to play as the new characters I've missed since DW5. I can't believe I never got the chance to play as the most popular character!

Wang Yuanji, DW7 (Downloadable Content Outfit)