CLUJ, Romania–Academy Award-winning writer-director Michel Gondry shared his thoughts on the creative process and the lessons he’s learned across his celebrated and wide-ranging career during a masterclass Saturday at the Transilvania Intl. Film Festival. Gondry appeared in conversation with TIFF artistic director Mihai Chirilov, who introduced the French filmmaker by describing his own personal connection…
via Michel Gondry in Transilvania: ‘Experimentation is What Really Drives Me’ — Variety
When I was covering the classic Star Wars: Battlefront 2 , I crapped all over this game. After clocking in roughly 30+ hours, I can say much of what I originally said still stands. What’s overall offered in the EA game pales in comparison to what the original did almost 15 years, 2 console generations ago and I’m flat out recommending that now more than EA’s. However, now I was able to play the story mode as well dive into much of the other modes and pretty much this review won’t compare old and new past this point but squarely on it’s own merit…
Battlefront 2 (EA) has it’s own original story, set after the events of Return of the Jedi when the second Death Star fell. We primarily follow Inferno Squad, a badass special forces crew of the Imperial Army reigning revenge on the rebels, lead by Iden Versio. She was born and raised by her father, a high ranking Admiral in the Imperial Fleet, to believe the Empire were the good guys spreading law and justice throughout the lawlessness of space. Suddenly when Iden watches the cruelty of the Empire first hand against her loyal home-world, her and her comrade abandon the Empire and join the rebels to end the Empire once and for all…
The story itself is fine, not great or terrible but just kind of there. It’s best moments no doubt are when you are with the Empire and I think a better story could have done if the focus stayed on the Empire. The rebels don’t seem to really give that much of a shit that you essentially killed hundreds of there people simply because you said sorry and defected. The story is pretty short but an alright experience that has it’s moments.
The game’s focus is predominately multiplayer. The best mode in my opinion is Capitol Supremacy, which changes scenery and has some exciting pulls and feels like a real war. Heroes and Galactic Assault are solid but feel repetitive quick. Starfighter Assault would be my second favorite and I’m glad there bots mixed into the fray, making it feel more full. The horrendous system has been cut all around and Heroes are way more affordable but you can still find the pay-to-winners scattered throughout. The Heroes ain’t bad but feel clunky and require practice to get good with them. Gameplay overall is solid but I warn you there are some pretty hard bugs throughout the game. I’ve had games crash, I’ve fallen into the nothing void a few times, and a few times the environment just disappeared only to pop up and kill me. In the end, it’s an alright game on sale if you need a Star Wars fix but I wouldn’t pay anything over 20 for it. May the force be with you and the gaming gods bring you glory.
Every so often a friend will recommend I check out a show, this time a friend said dude check out Letterkenny. So he sent me a YouTube video that was basically just a bunch of female hockey players insulting each other. It was kinda funny tho so I hopped on Hulu and watched season one.
I was left wondering what in the fuck I just watched. There is no real overall story, it simply tells you there are 5000 residents of the town of Letterkenny and these are their problems. The majority off the show is just Wayne, who seems to be the main character, fighting people and just stoically walking around.
The odd thing is despite each episode more or less being independent of the others and it largely being based on one liners of Canadian humor, as the show is a Canadian show that takes place in a fictional town in Ontario, it is really enjoyable. The trailers don’t make it look very good, and they don’t really even explain the show, but give it a few episodes before you decide. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
I don’t often share personal still on this blog, and I know many of you come here for reviews and opinions on games and movies or some quick news. So by all means skip this post,I won’t be insulted at all. None of that will be found here. This is simply me talking about what happened 2 years ago today, and why the United States Marine Core Motto is here.
First, me and my dad were never all that close. I have been calling him Drew since I was about 12. For the most part we watched some movies together here and there and in the summer until I was a bit older we played baseball, aside from that he did his thing and I did mine. He was also did some time in Vietnam and was a corporal in the United States Marines, one of the few things I have ever known him to be proud of besides the 9 years he spent working on an ambulance.
Despite us not being close he did teach me some things, many of them I found out later from my girlfriend were quite odd. For example he taught me how to make some basic traps and explosives. I never really got a straight answer on why besides “why not, they taught me so i’m teaching you” which as a kid made as much sense as anything else but as an adult, really doesn’t. He taught me some basic emergency first aid, which again his answer to why was “Why not, I know so I am teaching you” which again as a kid made sense. This pattern repeats quite a bit honestly. He wasn’t perfect tho, he was quite abusive towards me and my brother yet never my mother. In fact I don’t even think he knew he was abusing us tho I can really understand why he would think punching a 10 year old in the face was ok.
Oddly this stopped when we swung back. Clearly it didn’t end very well for me or my brother at the time,hell we were kids and he was a Marine, but it was almost like the whole thing was his way of making sure we could take care of ourselves and when he knew we could he saw no point.
Another thing he taught me, tho he never knew it was that if you have the ability you should help those around you. It always bothered me as a kid that he would take off to help someone that wasn’t his family when they got hurt or sick. Once at about 3 in the morning a guy was harassing our neighbor and he went and beat the crap out of the guy. As an adult tho, I find myself doing similar things to the point my girlfriend and Ex wife have numerous times told me I have a hero complex and need to save everyone.
All of this story does have a point. A little over 2 years ago we found out Drew had cancer. He seemed to have known for awhile and never mentioned it. See we lost contact for about a decade and when his mom died he came home for the funeral and just kind of stayed. He was here for a couple years before he died getting to know his grand kids. He had a few, 4 granddaughters. The youngest is only 2, only a few months old when he kicked the bucket actually. He died June 1st 2017, and as I write this that morning I was talking to my mom and she said she didn’t think he would last much longer and offered to drive over to get me so I could say good bye. At the time she didn’t really understand why I said no, but I told her he probably would’y last until I got there. See it is about a 20 minute trip to my house and back and I didn’t want my mom to not there.
It was only about 10 minutes later I got a text, “he’s gone.” See I had visited the weekend before and had already had my time with him to say good bye. Neither me or Drew outright said it would be the last time we saw each other but we both knew. He just asked a bunch of questions he usually didn’t ask me, like ever. Truthfully I never told anyone this before, it was always just our moment, but I feel the need to share now. He asked how the kids were but not in the sense of that day. My oldest daughter Marissa is high functioning autistic and he wanted to know if I thought she would be ok in life and if I realized that if Kaitlin had a bit more confidence she would go further than any of us. He mentioned how cute Penny was and how he thought her and Aria (my niece) would probably be inseparable and he was right. Most importantly tho I remember going to leave that day and knowing he would say what he always does, “Be good Matt, see you later” as he had since I was a little kid. This time it never came tho. It was the moment I realized he truly was saying good bye in his own way. It hasn’t always been easy, nor have I always succeeded. In fact i am pretty sure I have failed more than I succeeded. But the last words I ever heard him say were “Have fun Matt, do good” So with that in mind old man Semper Fidelis, dad.
This goes out to my parents, Duke and Marsha, who watched this movie all the time when I was a kid amongst dozens of others. This stuck out to me for a variety of reasons I’ll get to at the very end.
Essentially we begin with an instance of man playing god, creating a strange series of lifeforms that could best be called “turtles”. These turtles are in fact giant, lumpy creatures that kill with long stinger-ed tentacles, liquefying the victim’s bones and fluid and sucking them dry ( think early Cell from DBZ). A pair of scientists are trying to track down the creatures origin while trying to survive the growing infestation…
For a early monster monster movie, it ain’t bad for it’s time. The acting is solid if not a bit too serious for a movie like this. The music ranges from solid to mildly corny. There are some decently creepy environments and atmosphere. What I will always remember about this movie are the “turtles”. They look goofy and are ludicrously slow; I laughed my ass every time they’d get someone because you know there would be no way in hell these things would kill anyone in real life. But, what I remember most, and I’m not exaggerating here, I’m pretty sure they bleed and gush raw Campell’s Chicken Noodle soup. Originally, if I’m correct this movie was in black and white where they may have been able to get away with it, but color it’s hilarious. In the end it’s not a bad old sci fi horror movie that cn worth some laughs. May the gaming gods bring you glory.
With Supernatural Ending After Season 15 and me finally catching up and finishing season 14 (Thanks Netflix) I have to say season 14 ended with one of the most exciting endings of them all, Sam, Dean, and Cass surrounded by the dead facing what seems like certain doom. But how we got there was also pretty amazing. We had a lot of ups and downs, we lost loved ones and got to see the return of Papa Winchester, at least briefly.
The real amazing thing here is less than halfway through the season is the loss of Jack, but nobody stays dead. With magic feeding off his soul which will become a huge thing later. We will also see the return of God, which will reveal something many of us have suspected for awhile now, and something our boys have been told for seasons but did not want to see.
I don’t want to spoil it for you, but I was not surprised but I was still a bit pissed about it. Not in a bad way, after all that is what good shows, books and games do. They invoke a response, they get you attached to characters that are real people that do real things and when they do you feel betrayed or happy or whatever just like if your friends had done them. Season 14 does this multiple times, and seeing the end of season 14 it is no surprise the show will end at season 15. While it will end at 15, and there is no way the ending will make a everyone happy, I can say for sure it will go out on top. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Rambo Last Blood finally has a trailer, and admittedly I have been pretty skeptical about this even being made, and I still don’t see why it even needs to exist. That being said the teaser tells a story of an older and retired John Rambo doing what he does best, kicking ass and blowing stuff up for a not quite disclosed reason that most people won’t care about anyway. I personally will probably check this out on the grounds of it truly looks like a classic 80’s action flick. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Every nerd has there favorite franchise that just sticks to them. Long time readers of the blog know Alien is mine; for Savior as well as our friend Autobot, Godzilla stirs them up. While I’m not the biggest Kaiju fan, I wanted to feel the hype my friends had and see some giant monsters kick the shit out of each other. I wasn’t disappointed…
Picking up 5 years after the first appearance of Godzilla, Monarch has been trying to keep tabs on these Titans that walk the Earth (Godzilla, Kong, the MUTOs, and 17 others) but the government is getting ready to shut them down. A scientist from Monarch has developed a device called the Orca, meant to communicate with them. But when the Orca falls into the wrong hands and starts awakening the sleeping giants, namely the “devil with 3 heads” called Ghidorah, can Godzilla restore balance against a foe not from this world that means to rule it? Long live the King…
I have to agree with Savior in his review of Godzilla King of Monsters (Savior) , this is basically what I wanted from this kind of movie. Unlike the 2014 movie, there is plenty of action and it’s plenty visible. The monsters look incredible and there are plenty of awesome fights. What I wasn’t expecting was the epic cinematography and musical score for each monster. The lore was surprisingly interesting. The characters weren’t bad and I actually felt for a couple of them but you definitely know they aren’t the main focus of the movie, as they shouldn’t be in a spectacle like this. In the end, Godzilla 2 is a epic summer movie I’d highly recommend in IMAX or XD and may the gaming gods bring you glory.
Last night was sort of a bucket list night for me. @torstenvblog , our friend Brandon and myself went to see this and while torsten can take or leave Godzilla me and Brandon are huge fans. Also as some of you know the birth of Savior Gaming came about a few years ago, in fact 3 years ago tomorrow, when my dad died and left me a few bucks with the stipulation that I could only use it for what I wanted, not what I thought I needed. It wasn’t a lot, nothing life changing, but enough to have a little fun with. The problem is I didn’t really want anything so I have it away to my girlfriend of 11 years, my kids and of course I bought torsten a few things. I also started this. I tell you this to add this fitting bit of trivia, me and my dad always wanted to see a Godzilla movie in theaters. Every year he would take a weeks vacation, and we would spend 1 night up watching old monster movies like this, and I would spend all day picking my favorites. So it is only fitting that I tell this story before I talk about this movie.
Godzilla at hits heart is everything you would want from a Godzilla movie. It tells the story of how mankind is attempting to find all these titans, 17 known, and debate as to whether they should be destroyed or studied or even controlled. Things of course go very wrong when Mothra’s containment grid goes down and the machine to control her works, and a Eco-terrorist group attacks and kidnaps the lead scientist, her daughter and the machine.
They later use the machine to wake up Monster Zero, the 3 headed dragon and Rodan. Godzilla is not a fan of this and fights Monster Zero only to lose, leaving Ghidorah in charge and to wake up all the other titans to wreck havoc on the work.
I won’t go further on the story here because it is a good one, but this time around they spend a lot of time focused on the monsters and their fighting which is a huge positive for any fans of this type of movie. It felt like the golden era of their time just watching these beast go back and forth, and to make things even better this movie may be the best fan service I have ever seen. It was all done in such a way that fans like me instantly notice the classic Godzilla reveal music in the back but it was spun into the music so new comers wouldn’t feel left out. Beloved songs were remastered or covered and snuck into the movie or credits masterfully such as the cover of Godzilla from Blue Oyster Cult and the Mothra theme, something fans would love but new people wouldn’t quite grasp the significance of. They are left out of the movie, but are in the end credits which for me was monumental.
The movie isn’t perfect, and if you aren’t a fan I can see why you may not have much interest. But if you are a fan of Godzilla, there is no reason to skip this movie. See it now, and long live the king.
Yearning for release will bypass apprehension. A revelation in our intermingling; when thrust and flutter peel back our intricacies and rip at the scabs of bitter romance until taste slips sour with the coupling of each kiss. A beard brushing amongst such soft skin would bring about welcomed abrasion until our cup runs over and, […]
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