Argo the Review

Movies

I don’t have much to say about Argo. It’s so good that it stands fine on it’s own. The Hollywood-ized telling of the 1980 secret joint CIA and Canadian rescue mission of six American fugitives in Iran. Six US diplomats manage to get out of the US Embassy during a riot (the others were taken hostage for over a year) and take cover with the Canadians. With time running out, a wild plan about a fake movie (Argo) being filmed in Iran is hatched. Send one “Canadian” guy in with the front of scouting for a sci-fi movie and return with his “Canadian” crew. It’s a crazy, brilliant idea.

Argo is an award winner for a reason. It’s a top notch, super engaging movie. Every bit of it is great, casting to production, top to bottom. Really well shot, excellently paced, just a terrific movie. Highly recommended.

Star Trek: Into Darkness

Movies

I’m really not the best person to judge anything Star Trek because I’m pretty apathetic to the whole franchise. Then again that might be of some help.

I enjoyed the 2009 reboot. Fun little sci-fi picture. Looked good (ode to the lens flare), great cast, good story and acting with enough nods to the franchise past to keep everyone smiling. Now the sequel comes along and I find it to have all of the same qualities. Into Darkness has a much better villain with Mr. Benedict Cumberbatch devouring each scene he is in. Since it’s a sequel everything is kicked up a notch. More at stake, grander action set pieces. It all works well, I really like the set design in particular and the SFX are top notch.

A lot of hate from the Trek purist comes from an apparent “that’s not homage, that’s a rip off” on the writers part. I know very little about Star Trek lore so I’m left out in the dark in this regard (which probably helps me like the movie more). But, I gotta say there seemed to be a lot more impersonations in this one. The first movie, the actors played their characters with a certain understanding of what was done before them, but also made it their own. Here, things got out of hand (I’m looking at you Karl Urban). There is a lot of lazy writing going on in this flick actually. The good guys get a lot of convenient ways out of trouble. Things just seem to fall just right into place in almost every single encounter. There’s some goofy editing too. For example, someone says “we have 3 minutes to do this or we’re dead!” and a lot more than 3 minutes go by. Later, a ship is careening into Earth and if they don’t get control quickly, they’ll be burned alive by the Earth’s atmosphere. They get power back and hit the breaks about 200 feet above the clouds. Yeah, sorry, you didn’t make it. How did that get through the common sense department? On a more goofy note, we get a glimpse of the always enjoyable Alice Eve in her underwear and it looks exactly like what’s sold today. We figure out space travel but no advancements in undergarment tech in the next 300 years (at least they are consistent, Uhura was rocking underwire in the last movie)?

Good start to Summer 2013 movies.

Xbox One: Climbing out of a hole

Games

It really makes you wonder how Microsoft decides on it’s PR message (and they people they hire for it). The day before the Xbox One reveal. they let it out that the event was going to be an hour long introduction, the “future of entertainment” and that they’re going to talk about a lot of games at E3 about 3 weeks later. It makes sense to hold off information for the biggest industry event in the world (give or take) but why not just hold everything off for E3 at this point? Especially with how this event was handled.

True, it was an introduction. They showed the hardware, talked a bit about what it can do and the improvements to what they’ve been building for the passed 10 years. Now this whole adventure was started with a gaming machine and they barely talked about games. The games they did talk about, were obvious franchises that were of no surprise so they didn’t swing much weight with them. One new game was shown, but that was more of a teaser announcement.

So all the fans who got the Xbox platform to where it is today, were shown no reason to be into this next machine. In fact, they were so vague this whole reveal has turned into a PR nightmare for MS. Instead of laying everything out there, they held back information on the really big issues. How does this thing work? What’s being locked down with this “games must be installed to the HD and authorized by our servers.” You can say stuff like that, raise every console gamers eyebrows and hope for the best. I understand they are trying to do something new with TV integration, a full set top box experience with a ton of stuff that can be switched on the fly. But the focus you are trying to change, the way games are bought and sold and used is some scary thoughts to a lot of people. Valve did this on the PC about 10 years ago with Steam to great success. But they finessed it. They eased into it and laid out how Steam was set up. The message from this Xbox One event confused the hell out of people, making them asks questions…which were answered by multiple people through the rest of the day, long after the event was over. Plus, the answers were all different, so that just made the rumors worse by freaking everyone out. Will I be able to lend a game to a friend to play? If I have a family is the game I bought only going to work on my “console” and not the one in my kids room? How family friendly is this thing?

The Xbox One has turned into what sounds like a money pit to own and MS is holding the shovel with a blank stare. I can’t believe they didn’t think this out at all. They had to be super clear and this shady talk from the side of the mouth about key issues just makes people mad. There was so much not said in the presentation that came up after, questions and deeper looks on the things people actually wanted to know. The rumor for weeks has been that the NextBox would need to be connected to the internet at all times in order to pretty much do anything (like play single player games which is a deal killer for just about everyone). The event pretty much alluded to this and when asked they go, eeehhh, it’s just gotta talk to the servers once every 24 hours. What’s the difference (steam checks every 2 weeks I think)? Did I not buy this freaking game? This goofy thing needs to check my credentials every single day? Games have to be installed to the HDD to play, it won’t run of the disc. There’s a FEE if you want to put it on another machine. I can’t let a friend borrow a game like since the dawn of home consoles? The HDD is 500 gigs and if I’m putting 15Gig game installs in there how long is that going to last? I have to delete and reinstall disc based games as I go (that’s something that could happen and it sounds like they prepared for it by having the game playable as it installs). So many questions.

The new Kinect comes with every box and it is required to be hooked up for the xbox one to work? I think? That’s what it sounds like. It makes sense that it comes with every One so developers know that it’s a standard feature and they can be assured anyone can use it with whatever they come up with. The tech is greatly improved which is great! But even that bothers everyone because it listens to you when the machine is off (you can turn it on with a voice command). That’s some future tech there, but it doesn’t make people feel good thinking that MS could listen and record anything said near this machine. The UI looks amazingly fast, which is a huge plus. The media center aspect of it (which they talked a lot about) lets you switch from game, music, tv, internet, phone (skype!) instantly. The 360 is crazy slow on switching between areas so this is neat. Getting this all up and running is another question mark. The One has 8 gigs of RAM, but 3 of that is reserved for the OS (partly explains how it switches so fast and keeps multiple apps open at once) but does that mean games will only have 5 gigs of RAM to work with? 3 gigs is a lot to lose in that regard.

They say nothing is locked down yet and that’s pretty clear with every contradictory answer. It’s stupid that the company making this thing don’t really know how it’s going to work yet. So now MS is neck deep in a PR hole that has got to have a lot of people over there concerned about their jobs. If they don’t pull of some magic at E3, this thing could turn into the next 3DO. I giant box that pretty much collects dust on a store shelf.

They got some serious long hours to look forward to over in Seattle until E3. I’m talking all hands on deck to get this thing making sense. People are literally afraid of buying an Xbox One right now. A pariah of plastic! A controversy is sitting in their lap and they have to work to win just about everyone back. That means: make sure this thing is consumer friendly, the penny pinching of this thing sound ludicrous. And show the games. Show A LOT of games people haven’t seen before. Show why it has the Xbox name on it and not the MS Media Center Deluxe Duke. They have to clear up the message they’ve drooled out. Odds are accounts will work just like Steam, PSN and Live. Sign into your account and you’ll have full access to your content. This mess can’t be as dire as it looks now, there is too much at stake. I hope they have some incredible games and game features (why should I pay for XBL Gold?) to show because Sony and Nintendo (!) are licking their chops waiting to steal away Xbox users. They’ve said they were holding on to games for E3 and not to panic about it, I really hope they meant it.

The Next Xbox

Games, Tech

In 2 days the next xbox will be shown to the world. It’ll be 8 years between generations and there is a lot of expectations for Microsoft to meet. Sony has already tipped their hand giving a look at the PS4 and Nintendo is off skipping stones in their own world. Here are my thoughts.

I’m surprised they’ve been able to keep quite for so long on the next xbox. It’s good and bad. The hype and hope is at an all time high, but so are the rumors. If you cruise the message boards, many people are convinced that the roles between MS and Sony have switched. Sony is set to make all the right moves for gamers and MS’s hubris will bring them crashing down into the dirt.

Here are the a few things I think we will definitely see on Tuesday. The actual console. They’ll show the physical box, controller, name the system and a “holiday 2013” release date. The next version of the kinect will also be talked about and it’s going to come with every xbox. The kinect has sold well and is a defining feature for MS, they put a lot of time and money into the tech and I think they’ve been able to greatly improve it in the last 3 years.

With E3 so close, they can’t show everything. They’re going to save some stuff for that press conference, which I think will be many 3rd party games and a real release date with launch titles.

That said, MS needs to be really careful how they approach this. The xbox started as a video game console and has been morphing into a set top box. Those set top box features will continue to grow, but at this point I think they really need to focus on the games portion of the machine. Talk about the guts, how it’s going to make games better. Show and talk about all first party stuff they are working on. Exclusives have fallen by the wayside for the xbox in the passed 2 years or so and MS really needs to drum up that kind of support and dedication to the machine. Give more reasons to get an xbox because the competition has closed all the gaps.

Xbox Live isn’t the draw the used to be. Sony has made some great moves and has improved year over year. MS has raised prices and added things that are available on many other products. Making people pay for stuff that you can get for free elsewhere isn’t a feature. The xbox platform has cemented itself as FPS juggernaut. The Call of Duty fan base is absolutely massive on xbox and pulls all those players in year after year with no effort. People pick up that game on xbox because all their friends play it on xbox. The early start, the much better Live service grabbed those guys in early and kept them there. There was no need for a person to drop hundreds of dollars to switch systems (look at how COD did on the WiiU, the online lobbies are basically a ghost town). That could change during this hardware switch. Then need to get people to stick with Live as their premiere online gaming experience by raising the quality and usefulness of the service in every way.

Xbox Live needs much bigger incentives to stay relevant. The friends list limit will definitely be raised to a huge amount. Paying for multiplayer is beyond lame, you can’t push netflix as something special any more. PS+ is a brilliant idea on Sony’s part. Reward your fans for a higher level of service and loyalty with great incentives. MS has a great thing with Xbox Music, but it’s completely worthless on the xbox. There is so much competition in the streaming music space that it’s hard to tear anyone away from the ecosystem they already use. Without paying for Gold AND a Xbox Music sub, you can’t use the Music service. It’s just empty, useless windows sitting in front of you. That service works on very little, it’s an incentive for Windows 8 and it needs to be an incentive on Xbox. It’s a cool and useful service that no one even thinks about because it’s behind so many walls. You get Gold, you should get full access to Music. Spotify is perfectly usable for free on PC for crying out loud. They should get it to stream music through the machine regardless of what you are doing on the box, don’t confine people to having just the Music app open, think multitasking. It makes it much more useful. MS has to bring Live to another level. Give big discounts, prizes, exclusives to your paying fan base. They love it and will feed into your eco system.

They also better learn from the RROD fiasco. Don’t build a piece of junk. I know that regardless of what they put out, I ain’t touching one for at least 6 months to make sure it’s not another faulty machine. They took a beating in the press, loss billions in repairs, they cannot afford to get through another piece of junk scenario. Make sure that thing is reliable before it goes out! Stress test the hell out of it and FIX what is wrong from the start!

I don’t expect to see much difference in the controller and I think they’d be wise to hold back on the “extra” feature talk for E3. Talk about a lot of games, it’s social features and a few apps like Skype and stuff that makes it a complete ecosystem. Be VERY clear about what does and doesn’t need a internet connection to work. I don’t think it’s going to be as doom and gloom as many thing because the internet infrastructure around the country, let alone around the world, varies greatly. It’s just not reliable or equal just a few towns apart. They’d lose a huge potential userbase if everything has to be online to work. I expect some sort of cable TV integration like google TV, but I don’t know how many people are look for or looking forward to that. Leave those big details for E3, win over your core video gamers first.

Head returns!

Music

Last year Brian “Head” Welch played on stage with Korn for the first time since 2005. It was a sign that their relationship was returning. Then a few months ago, it was announced that Head would be playing a few summer festival dates with Korn in Europe (with his band Love and Death in tow). Then came the US tour dates, which kick off their entire summer tour (I’m going May 22nd, couldn’t pass up seeing a show with Head back).

Now it’s official, Head has rejoined Korn! He’s been recording new material with them since January! The sample in the video above makes me happy beyond words. It is so beautiful, I can hardly believe it. 10 years since he was on an album and 8 since he left the band. There have been little bread crumbs sprinkled about for a return. I was happy to hear that he had reconnected with Fieldy around 2010 and slowly began mending bridges with JD and Munk. The guys I had listened to and loved since high school were becoming friends again. Head playing a song on stage, then a video from producer Ross Robinson saying exciting things were happening for Korn. Now this teaser video of the sounds that are to come? I had high hopes for the album before, with Don Gilmore producing and the early word that it was going to be a return to a more guitar focus sound over Path of Totality’s experimental dubstep fusion. Now with Head back in the lab with Munky? My two favorite guitarists creating together again? This album could knock me right out of my moon boots!

Oblivion the Review

Movies

Tom Cruise and sci-fi mix really well. Check out TC’s resume and you will probably agree. I went into Oblivion pretty much on faith that Cruise picks neat sci fi movies to be in. The idea is cool, it looked neat, so why not go for it.

Around 2077 aliens come a knocking and give humanity quite the beating. Our moon in destroyed which puts the Earth’s environment into chaos; earthquakes and tsunamis ravage the land. Then they land for a more hands invasion. Humanity manages to fight back, using what seems to be every nuke we have to win. But the Earth is devastated, it’s inhospitable for man, so those that make it through alive settle on Titan, one of the moons that circle Saturn. Jack and Victoria are stationed on Earth, taking care of the drones that protect the huge machines that sit in the ocean to generate power for humanity on Titan. In time, the Earth will heal and man will be able to come home.

Jack and Victoria have been stationed on Earth for a number of years in contact with Mission control, who help monitor and protect the assets on Earth. They are a few days away from being retired from their shift. Jack (Tom Cruise) is a technician, he can fix the drones that zoom about, so he gets to leave the platform in a cool flying craft that he and Victoria live in and operate out of (Victoria never leaves). When a human craft from decades ago crashes nearby, everything Jack and Victoria know is thrown into question.

Oblivion is a well made movie. Super high production; the future tech looks cool and real, there’s been a lot of thought and care put into this dystopian world. Acting is solid, music is great, the whole package. It’s a cool story too! It’s just that it’s been done before. This is just a more expensive Moon which came out a few years ago (my review). That’s the biggest downfall for me. I’ve seen this movie before, just with less action. While it’s not the exact same movie as there are a number of significant differences, but it’s easy to predict where Oblivion is going even if you haven’t seen Moon (and you should). It follows sci-fi tropes practically paint-by- number.

It’s actually a better movie if you haven’t seen Moon. I say rent it since it really is a good movie, I was just let down since it didn’t do anything new.

Trance the Review

Movies

I’m a big fan of Danny Boyle, I think he’s one of the best directors working today. He spans a wide variety of genres, takes an interesting spin on what’s been done before and has a really creative eye with a camera. Trance fits the psychological thriller mold which is one of my favorites, so I was onboard when I found out about this flick. It let me down though and I’m not sure why.

Simon is an art auctioneer who makes the daring move to steal a multi-million dollar painting. He’s set up the heist with 4 other people and when he takes a bump to the head, he wakes up with them breathing down his neck because the painting is gone. Simon was going for the double cross but can’t remember what he did with the painting. With the help of a hypnotherapist, they try to get Simon to remember.

I really like the idea! It’s cool, offers a lot of possibilities and there is some real crazy stuff in this flick. The cast is great (I really like James McAvoy and Rosario Dawson), solid acting all around, some wild production a cool twist or two…everything I like. But it never really clicked with me. I’m at a loss as to why too. It’s well paced and I was never bored. It feels a little hollow to me, maybe I was expecting more? I’m really at a loss for words, so I’ll just say it’s worth a rental. This one snuck in and out of theatres, not many people saw it and I think more people should. It’s fun to talk about and it’s a unique movie which is always welcome.

Legit and Archer

TV

Archer- Solid season from start to finish. Probably the most consistent animated show on right now despite some lulls in the season (even then it’s a good show, usually the comedy doesn’t quite hit the mark). There were a lot of great moments this year, more references than you can count or catch on a first viewing. The messed with the formula a few times (the reality cooking show and the road/train trip with Archer and Ron) to great affect. The characters are working better and better with each other. Ron Cadillac is a great third wheel to Malory’s insanity, Archer and Lana have their own great dynamic (great reveal with the pregnancy, should be interesting for Lana). Pam and Cheryl might be the funniest duo ever, the dialog they get between each other is almost always a riot. Cyril and Ray are trapped together battling Archers ego and insanity. Poor Ray too, I hope he gets his bionic legs back. Such a fun show, there’s nothing else like it on TV. To season 5!

Legit had a great first season. I’m really happy Jim Jefferies got to make such a show, it pulls a few episodes directly from his act but expands on them. There’s some really funny stuff in there, I don’t think there was a single episode I didn’t like. They managed to make some great characters to work with Jim. It makes the show more of an ensemble that really works. Jim may be a obnoxious person with offending remarks and actions but he is a good and loyal friend. The finale brought back the main event of the premiere, giving a time line to the show and filling out the universe of the show. It made for a very complete, funny and touching ending. Great idea casting DJ Qualls as Billy, he often steals the show and really gets to show off what a great actor to. Jim ain’t half bad either! He defiantly got more comfortable as the show went on. I’m happy to hear the show got picked up for another season, I just hope that people follow it to FX’s spin off channel FXX. I question the need for another channel, FX doesn’t need to dilute itself. Along with AMC, FX has turned themselves into one of the premiere cable channels. They have a growing stable of fantastic shows that allow them to have great programming year round.

The Showtime Triple Header

TV

This weekend saw the season finales of 3 SHO series! That leaves a drought until Dexter starts it’s last season at the end of June.

Shameless- Season 3 was a good season, but not a spectacular one. There was something missing that 1 and 2 had, but that makes it sound like I’m complaining. Still enjoyed it all and the season finale was brilliant. There were a lot of complete story arcs for many characters this year and the strings of each came together for episode 13. Potentially, we have the set up for quite a few characters leaving the show…for good or a return later is anyone’s guess. I find all of them to well thought out and plausible, something the UK version stumbles a lot on when jettisoning cast member after cast member.

“Survival of the Fittest” is an apt title for the finale. Major life events for everyone. Fiona is making strides to keep her family afloat by using Jimmy’s disappearance the best she could. The ultimate thorn in the side of the knowledge that the viewer knows way more about him leaving then she does. In fact, we really don’t know his real fate. Ian is also in a major transition, putting Mickey in his rear view by pulling the trigger on his military commitment. Considering he’s lying about his age to do so, it’s a question of how long he can go before he’s caught. No one in the family knows he’s gone so that’s another kick in the pants.

Lip is in on another plane of existence too. Done with high school, he has no idea what to do now. Thanks to his crazy (ex?) GF he has the huge opportunity of going to MIT on a full ride, he bonds with Frank with a horrible outcome. Karen is now gone with Jodi to Arizona for rehab leaving an empty nest for Sheila to handle…we’re left with a glimmer of hope for her, but there’s no telling how she’s going to cope. Carl and Debbie are growing up fast, they’re pushing more and more to be treated as adults and considering the stuff they’ve done this season, they have handled some pretty heady stuff. Kev and Veronica have a kid on the way, their circus working in the end. That should be a big component of next season.

Last but not least is Frank! Will death at his door lead to him changing his ways? “What if I don’t want to?” Is he capable of changing? He wouldn’t be Frank if he did. The scene with Carl going to the hospital at night to shave Frank’s head was brilliant from start to finish. A great call back, a great expression of love, one that seems to have touched Frank.

The writing was outstanding for the finale, just brilliant TV. Can’t wait for season 4.

House of Lies had a great ending too. There was a big build up towards Marty going out on his own and to bring the gang with him. His dealings whipped up quite a storm, how well he weathers it remains to be seen. It’s going to be a trying time for him after burning so many bridges.

Californication: The treadmill under Hank keeps moving at the same speed and inclination. Some stuff happens through the season but it always comes back to Karen. The one that he had, the one that keeps getting away, the one he can never really have again. Time to wrap this up fellas.

Okay summer

Life

It was in the mid 70′ yesterday, 80 today and it looks like high 70’s tomorrow with t-storms. It’s amazing. I’ve kept the windows open all day, it’s a joy to go outside without a coat. Everyone is stoked about it, you can feel the amount of positive vibes in the air. It’s going to get to more normal spring temps on Thursday, but still very pleasant if the rain isn’t too bad.

The first wave has hit the beach…

TV

This passed week has seen a few of my favorite shows come to a close for the season. With many more coming within the next 2 weeks. Time for a run down.

Justified has ended it’s 5th fantastic season. It really is one of the best and most consistent shows that airs today; the writers keep coming up with new, inventive scenarios for Raylan Givens and match it with brilliant dialog. So many great characters continue to flourish (if they make it through to the end) like Boyd and Ava Crowder who I was really pulling for at the end of the season. A lot of big events went down this season setting up another promising journey for fans next year.

FX as a whole is just doing really awesome work. Archer is having a great season as is Legit. The Americans is one of my favorite new shows, love the cast and the story on that one.

FaceOff had a quality season. Coming into it, I thought the whole cast looked super strong but there were a lot of stinkers in there. Half of them were just not up to par, at times they could have done a few double eliminations to get rid of the dead weight. I had a good idea of who the final 3 were going to be and really any of the last 5 had a really good chance to win it all. There was some great designs this year, one of my absolute favorite of the whole series was from House who made this killer candy clown with a huge mouth on her stomach. The next season kicks off at the end of August, I’m looking forward to it!

The Following continues to walk the fine line of entertainment and cheese. There’s a lot of wacky stuffy going down that can be hard to swallow, namely the reach of the cult. But when you read about actual cults, the stuff they do is downright bewildering so it does make the show seem plausible. Hannibal just started and I have yet to watch it, but I’ve heard good things.

Spartacus has 2 episodes left and in typical form the show really took off at the half way point (episode 4 for me, but that’s close enough to half way for me). The last episode was a rough one, some major losses to the rebel side and the pressure on the Roman dogs has never been higher. The end seems very clear, it’s just the path and the quality of the resolution(s) that I’m anxious about.

Grimm has been a fun watch too! I came into this show late last season, but it’s quickly become one of my favorites as well as a welcome replacement for my Fringe timeslot.

Picked up on the new BBC show Orphan Black and the gears are just starting to spin on that one. The promos have given away much more than the the premiere so far, but it’s about a woman who’s made some crummy choices coming out of hiding. She witnesses a girl who looks just like her commit suicide at a subway station and decides that it’s the perfect chance to run a quick identity con for some quick and serious cash. Nothing can go wrong with that idea.

Showtime’s Sunday block ends this weekend with Shameless, House of Lies and Californication. I’ll write about those after they close, but I will say I’ve enjoyed all of them so far.

The Walking Dead finished up season 3 with record high ratings. Thankfully the stupidity has been greatly reduced over last season which gave the show it’s best season so far. There were major deaths with major character arcs that have changed people forever (looking at you, Carl). I was left disappointed at the final credit roll, expecting an epic war and got more of a quick battle. Thinking about it aftwards, it was a strong finale. A lot made sense, the prison team used the home advantage to it’s greatest advantage and came out on top as a result. They weren’t stupid, they made a strong plan to avoid brute force and it paid off. Andrea’s roll has turned into one of my favorites, she got a lot of great moments this year. Just 6 months till it starts back up again, I hope they can continue to make the show better and better.

With the Dead shuffling off, Mad Men returns this weekend! Exciting stuff, it’ll be great to get back into the 60’s.