Boo!

No one has died but the game I'm most looking forward to has been delayed, only by a week or so but it's enough goddamnit.

I managed to get into the Beta which was very fun. It looks on the surface to be a pretty straight forward 2D platformer. Which is pretty much is. But the imagination and the craft in the game is immense and really draws you in.

The main character, Sackboy, should conquer the world. When you controlling him, if you press Up on the D-pad he'll smile, press it again and he'll smile more. Press it a third time and he does a huge goofy grin and his tongue flops out. I only mention this becuase it made my 4 year old son laugh hysterically when he saw it. Now he loves Sackboy.

Thank God you can get these in time for Christmas.

I got into the Beta quite late so I didn't get too deep in the level creator. This is absurdly powerful, enabling you to create pretty much anything in the game. One particular user created level I played was a Ninja Warrior level. I love Ninja Warrior.

But this doesn't matter as the Beta has finished and the game has been delayed so I can't play it anymore which makes me sad.

Boo!

It's all going off!

Normally around this time of the year it's football players being sacked, now it seems to be celebrities divorcing.

Place your bets on who is going to be next. I reckon it's going to be Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston next.

What?

To be expected

I didn't think Rocknrolla was that bad. Bit harsh.

That's probably why she wore those shoes, so she could finish him off afterwards.

Legendary

The film I am now most looking forward to see?

Oh yes.

Intersting

A nice little reason to get the Blu-Ray.

Busy couple of weeks

Why? Been to Weymouth, not been to the cinema at all and got into the LittleBigPlanet Beta.

So not busy in a real sense, just not been at a computer. Even though the Haven holiday park I was at had Wi-Fi over the whole park.

£5 an hour though. Hence why I didn't use it.

This is why Japan is the greatest country ever

And no arguments.

Film review: Tropic Thunder

Tropic Thunder @ IMDB

It's kinda weird to think how long Ben Stiller has been around now. It must be at least 10 years since There's Something About Mary and still he's around. As he's come up he's been followed by the Frat Pack, people like Will Ferrell, Jack Black, Owen Wilson and arguably the Judd Apatow stable.

He's also a director, the last film being Zoolander. Now, Zoolander was alright. I liked it but quite a few people I know didn't. It was fun.

His next film in the Director's chair is this, Tropic Thunder. And it's all kinds of good and no-one has argued with me yet.

The film is a (sort of) mocumentary following the filming of Tropic Thunder, a Vietnam film starring a has been action here (Stiller himself), an award winning actor (Robert Downey Jr) and a low brow comedian looking to broaden his range (Jack Black). Soon the filming falls apart and the Director decides to dump the actors in the jungle and secretly film them to enhance the realism. But isn't that a real gang of armed drug dealers about to cross their path? Uh-oh!

Satire wise, it's not that biting and only goes for easy targets. It nails those targets but they're still easy. Plot, whatever. The main point is this: is it funny?

Yes.

Downey Jr, as an Australian method actor who undergoes 'pigmentation alteration' in order to play a black character, is immense. He very nearly gets all the best lines and turns the normal lines into good lines. He casts a shadow over the other roles which does mean that some others get pushed to one side, mainly Jack Black's character. There is, however, someone who can stand up to Downey Jr in this film. His name?

Tom Cruise.

No matter what The Cruiser has done before, no matter what Scientology nonsensehe spouts, I will now always forgive him because of this film.

I have no problems with this film whatsoever: the pace is good, the jokes are funny and it has the best end credits ever. Seriously, best end credits ever. Just try to argue with me. You can't. Best ever.

In a word? Thunderous.

Woah

That's a bit harsh, isn't it? I mean, iTunes is one of those things that really saved Apple and brought them back to relevance in a PC dominated world. Or is this a way for Apple to get out now while they're still making money before competition for digital music gets too fierce?

Either way, those new iPod Nanos look well sweet.

Film review: Bee Movie

Bee Movie @ IMDB

You can see why the big name Actors and what not have been crawling over themselves to do voices for animated films. It's a few weeks work, keeps the kids happy and if you can get a slice of the merchandising pretty lucrative.

You don't get many creating their own animated CG kids film, which is what we have here from Jerry Seinfeld.

Seinfeld, of course, was the star of his eponymous sitcom. This was a huge success blah blah blah and after it finished he could have done anything. And he did this.

What we have is the tale of a Bee suing the human race for stealing honey from all the bees. How quirky.

Is it in the watered down style of a Seinfeld episode? Yes. It's not quite a film about nothing but the influences on the style of the film are obvious. It looks great, as most animated CG films do these days.

The problem, really, is Seinfeld.

Whilst you do get some nice jokes* I'm not sure if most of it is pitched at the right audience. It's also not as engaging as other kids films, the characters all have the same kind of smug tone to their dialogue that comes off as annoying.

The worst culprit is Seinfeld as you can't take anything he says seriously. He's supposed to be the emotional centre of the film. But he hasn't the range to really make you believe in his character, he's essentially the sitcom character dressed as a bee. The jokes don't flow either, everything seems self conscious.

Perhaps I'm being harsh.

Whilst not the greatest story ever, it is better than most kids films. It doesn't take any risks like Surf's Up but it does the job that it's trying to do.

In a word? Smug.




* Generally in animated CG kids films there is always a rollercoaster type sequence. This is the main character flying through some ludicrously complex series of roads or waterways or whatever. There's one in Surf's Up, Happy Feet, Robots, Ice Age, even Finding Nemo. And also Bee Movie. But when you get to the end of the sequence in Bee Movie one of the characters says something like "Isn't it great they combined our roads with the amusement parks" which was a great little reference.